What's Wrong With People?

6 · Alcantar narrates a conversation with his elementary-age son about proving the existence of air despite its invisibility

Well, recently I was talking to one of my kids who's in early elementary school, and I was giving him kind of a hard time. Okay? This is the kind of dad I am. This is just a window into my parenting, and this is not a lesson or something you should imitate, but we're talking about— he was saying something about air, you know, that like water goes into the air when it evaporates, and I'm like, well, how do you know the air is there and what air is? And he's like, well, it's air. And I was like, yeah, but you can't see it. Where is it? And he was like, well, it's here. Here, you know? I'm like, well, I don't see it. Do you see it? And he's like, well, you can't see it. It's invisible. And then I'm like, well, how do you know that it's real? Real then? And he's like, well— and he starts to realize, like, it's so obvious he can't figure out how to argue with his dad. So he's like, well, you can blow it. See? And I'm like, well, that could be anything. I don't know if that's air. And he's like, well, you can see it. It moves. The wind moves the trees. Look right there, the trees, you know? And he's like, and you breathe it. You're breathing it in and out. That's air. And I'm like, I still don't see it. And I just kept poking him and poking him. And he— it was funny because you think like, well, it's obvious, but I actually don't know how to prove the existence of air to my father who suddenly doesn't believe in it.

7 · Alcantar applies his air illustration to Paul's argument in Romans 1:20, identifying the two attributes creation reveals: eternal power (the overwhelming scale of the cosmos) and divine nature (beauty and transcendence that evokes awe)

And Paul is saying that's exactly what it's like trying to prove the existence of God. Meaning that God is so clear and so obvious despite the invisibility that you've got to be a dumb dad who doesn't believe in air to not really receive it. And notice that the language he used, he points to that in created things, 2 things are clear: eternal power and divine nature. The eternal power of something beyond ourselves must be and is obvious to humanity. Everything else in existence, when we see it made, we ask, who made that? Nobody drives by a building and assumes that it has come together in the perfect combination of atoms to form a house in the middle of the desert. You think, I wonder who built that house in the middle of the desert, right? That, that is the eternal power that it took to to launch stars into existence, to hang the Milky Way galaxy. Paul says, when you encounter power infinitely greater than your own, it points you to, well, who made that? And divine nature, that there is a spark of something more than human in the world around us that is inexplicable just looking at it from a human perspective. Look, there's a lot of good apologetics sort of approaches, but I find myself the one that I use the most and the one that I think is perhaps most compelling isn't a detailed argument about thermodynamics, although that could be helpful, or there's other avenues. Often where I go with people is just beauty and awe. Why are there beautiful things? Like this morning I was driving in from the west side and I was driving through downtown and the sun was coming up and because we have all these clouds hanging in the air, the sunrise was hitting the clouds and they were glowing this beautiful golden color and the Union Station Depot, you know, by downtown, and those buildings were framed against this golden light. And as I'm driving, I'm just finding myself like sweeping from one side of the horizon to the other and trying to remember to keep my eyes on the road because I remember feeling wow. You guys ever felt that wow? That wow is what Paul is talking about, that divine, nature, that there must be someone who painted this moment. That is what Paul is saying.

8 · Direct pastoral address to skeptics in the congregation, particularly those with Christian background who claim uncertainty about God's existence

Now, look, if you are hedging your bets these days and going— maybe you've grown up in church and you're like, well, my parents believe. I just don't know. You know, maybe your sister or brother or parent drug you to church today and you're like, well, I'm just not sure if God exists or not. And my response to that is just this. You know. But I'm not sure. No, you know. Go argue with the sunset this afternoon. You know. First excuse knocked down. First excuse knocked down. But I didn't know.

9 · Alcantar introduces the second excuse Paul dismantles—'my reasoning is sound'—by exposing motivated reasoning

Second, but life makes sense to me. But it makes sense. The way that I'm living, the way that I'm thinking, it makes sense to me. Look at verse 21. For although they knew God, they did not honor Him. As God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking. And one of the things people will do when they're confronted with something they shouldn't be doing is create an argument for why they had to do it, right? We become experts at this from childhood. Has anybody ever been caught as a child doing something they weren't supposed to do? I'm sure none of you were, but I was at times. And immediately what happens? You have a, well, it's 'cause, well, it's 'cause, didn't I tell you you needed to clean the backyard before you played the Nintendo? Well, it's 'cause the thing and then that other thing and then you said this a week ago and then this other thing and then Jimmy's dad lets him play Nintendo before he does chores and then, you know, and so what are you doing? You're like, you're coming up with voluminous arguments as a 5-year-old in favor of, this makes sense to me. And yet, looking back, you're like, yeah, I was just making stuff up. Why do human beings do that? Because when we refuse to acknowledge the basic essential truth of the universe, which is that it was made by God and is ruled by God, when we refuse to acknowledge that, We need all kinds of crazy explanations to make anything in life make sense. It's like a scientist who refuses at the highest level to believe in air and is trying to figure out how diseases spread. I just don't understand how they get from here to here, the air. I don't believe in that, right? What is that? Way back in 1620, Francis Bacon, a scientist, was talking about why do we sometimes Why do scientists at times not believe the evidence in front of them? And it's the same reason human beings don't believe the evidence in front of them and come up with all kinds of excuses. He says this in 1620. He says, what a man had rather were true, he more readily believes. I'm gonna read that again. What a man had rather were true, he more readily believes. Meaning we can make it make sense to us, can't we? We can come up with some idea for why these pieces fit together. This is what some would call today motivated reasoning, meaning we got a motivation and so we're gonna give some reasons, right? And yet here is the tragedy. When we as human beings know that God is there, know that he rules the universe, but do not want to acknowledge it, where we do not wanna live in a universe ruled by God, when we don't wanna be dependent creatures, when we don't wanna acknowledge the reality that we are not ultimately in charge, we become highly motivated reasoners, don't we? We come up with all kinds of conceivable explanations for life and the universe and everything apart from God.

10 · Alcantar applies the motivated reasoning diagnosis to the congregation's daily life by referencing relationship decisions that seemed justified at the time but proved foolish in hindsight

So let me encourage you, friend. Human beings should have a healthy amount of skepticism and humility about even what makes sense to them. If for no other reason than, than there were times in your life that things made sense to you and you gave a lot of good reasons for it. And we don't need to get into that one ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend you had. When you were going out with them, people around you were like, I don't think they're good. And you're like, here's 3 reasons they are. And then the next month you came back to your friends and said, why didn't you warn me? Right? I'm sure nobody's ever done that. Motivated reasoning, friends. And apply that then to all of life. We don't see anything straight.

11 · Alcantar introduces the third excuse—'my heart demands this'—and identifies it as the dominant justification in contemporary culture

Third excuse: but my heart wants it. Third excuse for what we do: but I have to have it. I have to express myself in this way. Notice it says, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. No, this— okay, if you get this, this will change everything about the way you see our culture. Not only does turning from God warp your thinking, it warps your heart.

12 · Alcantar contrasts Enlightenment confidence in reason with contemporary confidence in feelings and desires

This is profoundly countercultural and offensive in a culture where our desires become our most sacred guide. Look, in the Enlightenment era, reason was usually seen as the highest trump card you could play, but in our modern culture, it's feelings. I feel this way. I must express myself. That the way to live is to find the deepest desire of your heart and don't let anybody hold you back and let it go and just embrace who you truly are and what you want and then you'll be happy. But Paul essentially says, What if your desire, your deepest inward longings, are warped too?

13 · Alcantar uses Woody Allen's infamous statement—'the heart wants what the heart wants'—as a case study in how following desire can lead to objectively immoral outcomes

Years ago, director Woody Allen did something objectively egregious. He had married a woman and while in the course of being married to her fell in love, he said, with the woman's daughter, his stepdaughter. And Alan left his wife in pursuit of this young adult stepdaughter. And when asked to give a justification for this action, he replied, the heart wants what the heart wants. Now, all of us are looking at Woody Allen going, well, if that's true, you got a warped heart, man. You got something wrong with you over there.

14 · Alcantar applies the Woody Allen illustration to the congregation by arguing they need the same skepticism about their own desires they instinctively apply to Allen's

But friends, Paul is saying the same thing is true of us. We need a healthy amount of skepticism even about our own sort of quote-unquote deepest desires. And let me just say this, haven't you Been utterly sure of something in your heart at one point in your life? Going back to the ex-girlfriend, boyfriend. Utterly sure of something in your life only to find later, what was I thinking? What was I feeling? Friends, it happens to us all the time. That's not an excuse.

15 · Alcantar introduces the fourth excuse—compartmentalization of religion as one domain among many

Now, 4th excuse then, but this is not a religious issue. Now, here's another thing that we do often in our culture. We like to section our lives off into boxes. Work box, physical health box, romance box. And we have, as Americans, we've graciously decided spirituality and religion should also have a box. We're not anti-religious. You can have a box, and you can put whatever you want in that box, as long as what's in that box does not try to take over everything else. And so, you see this expressed in various ways. Number one, one example that's recent in the news is over and over Over and over in polls, Catholics, people who identify as Catholics in their religious perspective, when asked, do not believe in any of their church's teachings on abortion, LGBT stuff, or euthanasia, or any host of a number of other things. And you think, well, how can that be? They're going to church and saying, this is what I believe, and then Monday they're like, yeah, I'm out. No, I don't believe in that. What's going on? The same thing then going on with the evangelicals, who over and over in polling will affirm a biblical view of marriage and sexuality, but then practice sex outside of marriage at near— at essentially, in polls, the same rate as non-evangelicals. Same thing they're doing. Saying, yep, I believe that, and coming on Sunday and then doing something else Monday night. Now, this is obvious in our culture that, that we believe religion can be sectioned off and held there. And Paul is saying, no, no, no, no, if you're doing that, you are fundamentally misunderstanding everything in life and and in human culture. Because Paul is going to argue that religion is not a slice of your life. It is all of your life. That underneath your reasoning, underneath your heart, is something else, which is your soul. And your soul worship is underneath it all. And it affects everything else.

16 · Alcantar expounds Romans 1:23-25's exchange language, using Tim Keller's definition of idolatry to show that contemporary Americans practice the same idol worship as ancient pagans, only with different objects

Now, notice the the ironic and perversely funny exchange in verse 23, that human beings thought they were wise and then they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Meaning that you've gone from, here's God, the God of the universe, and now I'm bowing down to a little idol of a rabbit or a caterpillar or whatever else you're doing, right? He's saying, do you see how insane this is? In verse 25, they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served, listen, the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever. Amen. Now, we might look back and claim to be wise and be fools ourselves for going, oh, Oh, how unsophisticated the old people were. In the olden days when people had idols. Tsk, tsk, tsk. We would never do such a thing. Well, Pastor Tim Keller, surveying the Bible's teaching on idolatry, defines idolatry this way. What is an idol? It is anything more important to you than God. Anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God. Anything you seek to give you what only God can give. An idol is whatever you look at and say in your heart of hearts, if I have that, then I'll feel my life has meaning. Then I'll know I have value. Then I'll feel significant and secure. And there are many ways, Keller says, to describe that kind of relationship to something, but perhaps the best one is worship. Think of it. We consider ourselves sophisticated because we don't have some god of fertility and pleasure that we're bowing to, but friends, do we not bow down to lust and sexuality in our culture? We may say, oh, I'm not gonna worship my family's household gods, but friends, do we not worry belonging? Do we not worship like children at times, parents at times, longing for a spouse at times? We worship comfort. We worship political ideology. We worship smartness. We worship hotness. We worship power. We worship materialism, right? We find a thing and we bow down to it and we say, I will give you worship and my life in exchange for what you can give me. And human beings, look, I think this is my hot take, okay? American culture is more polytheistic than even the Romans or Greeks were. Because they're like, well, everybody's got their own idols in Rome and Greece. Friends, everybody in America has their own individual collection of tiny idols. And we may not agree with what should be in the pantheon, but friends, we surely have a pantheon.

17 · Alcantar identifies the tragedy at the heart of idolatry by contrasting God's attributes (blessed, immortal, Creator, sovereign, good, non-exploitative) with idols' incapacity to reciprocate love

This is what Paul is saying. We've exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator. And notice the futility and tragedy of this. We trade— look at the words that it uses to describe God. We trade a God who is blessed and good. We trade a God who is immortal. We trade a God who is our Creator. We trade a God who is in charge and can hold the threads of the universe. We trade a good God who does not use up and abuse his creatures We trade that God for an idol who will never love us back. That's the tragedy of humanity. In our souls, underneath our reasoning, underneath our hearts, is a soul worshiping an idol who doesn't love them back. And that's, friends, that's where Paul says the real tragedy is.

18 · Alcantar signals a shift in pacing and focus, acknowledging that the remaining excuses will receive briefer treatment since the following week's sermon will address the sexuality passage in Romans 1:26-27 in depth

Now, I want to tick through a few here more rapidly because we're going to spend the next few weeks— not next few weeks, next week rather— diving in specifically to the area of sexuality that Paul raises here. But I want to give you a quick overview of some of the excuses, and then we'll sort of circle back next week to it.

19 · Alcantar introduces the fifth excuse—God's non-intervention as implicit approval

3 excuses here. But God hasn't stopped me is another excuse. You ever find that? One of the things people often say when God's Word pushes against something in their life and an ungodly relationship or living a secret life or cheating on their taxes or in their business, they will go, well, God hasn't stopped me yet. Right? God hasn't stopped me. You know, so, I mean, obviously, you know, it's like God's wrath is going to come if I'm doing this. But man, I've been doing this for years.

20 · Alcantar identifies the threefold repetition of 'God gave them up' in Romans 1:24, 26, 28 as Paul's answer to the 'God hasn't stopped me' excuse

Notice a phrase that occurs in verses 24, verses 26, and verses 28. Verse 26, for example, says, for this reason God gave them up. Verse 24, God gave them up. 26, God gave them up. Verse 28, God gave them up. What is God's response to human beings running after idols who do not love them back, that warp their hearts, warp their minds, warp their lives, and end in tragedy? What is God's response? He lets them. Now, there are some examples in Scripture of God's active wrath, like we think of as fire and brimstone in the Exodus, but this is an example of God's passive wrath. God lets us run after the idol that we desperately want and allows it to destroy us in the end. He simply doesn't stop us.

21 · Alcantar narrates a childhood Sunday School memory where a boastful child claimed to feel no guilt when sinning successfully

Now, years ago, I remember having, you know, one of those moments as a kid that sticks with you because something scares you. And it occurred right up there in that classroom when I was in kids ministry. And we were talking about sin, and we were talking about how when you sin, you know, if you're a Christian, your conscience feels that, and you, you know, you shouldn't go against your conscience. And there was a kid in my class that goes, well, I don't feel bad. And the teacher's like, what? He's like, yeah, I don't feel bad when I lie. Usually get, you know, I usually get away with it. It's like boasting to the class. And the teacher, you know, I remember just thinking the teacher should just kick him out. Instead, whoever you are, I don't remember which teacher this was, but you may still be here. We're grateful for you. The teacher kind of leaned in and said, oh, so you sin and you don't feel bad and sometimes you get what you want? He's like, yeah. And then she said, oh, that's the worst place to be. And then his eyes were like, what do you mean? And she basically explained this, that sometimes God will allow you to pursue something that you have chosen, and it will destroy and hurt you in the end. And it's God's removing his hand and allowing you to go there. And then the kid was a little shaken up. He was like, so, so what does that mean? You know, like, and he's basically like, how long do I have? You know, like, that's— Thankfully, the teacher pointed it back to the gospel, I think, but it goes along with this Oscar Wilde quote that he was, you know, notorious sinner in many ways, and he said this. He said, I'm gonna paraphrase him, but he said basically, when the gods want to punish you, they answer your prayers.

22 · Direct application of passive wrath doctrine to the congregation

Meaning, when you're like, I want this, I want this, I want this, and the Lord God Almighty says, go ahead, it's a form of punishment sometimes. Are you taking God's not stopping you as approval? Friend, be very careful.

23 · Alcantar briefly expounds Romans 1:26-27 while deferring extended treatment to the following week

And in the next section, we're going to spend more time on this next week, but notice it says— it gives an example of what this looks like in verses 26 and 27. For it says, the women There's that exchange word again. Natural, meaning in line with God's creative order. Exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature, meaning God's design. And the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another. Men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves themselves the due penalty for their error. Now, one of the reasons we're going to spend more time on this section next week is because I think the LGBT sort of constellation of issues deserve a longer treatment. But I just want you to see the way Paul is using it in his argument. He's basically saying, notice the nature, nature, natural, unnatural thing. He's using this as an example to say, when sin begins to warp your reason and warp your heart, you end up going after things against your nature that are fruitless and lead to tragedy. And one of the things you'll see just in the form of this argument is, is you end up, when you're given to lust or given to longing or given to anything else other than God, you can end up in a relationship where a close romantic sexual relationship is so contrary, so different than natural, God's natural design, that I'm going to refrain from being graphic here, but where you end up is so far that the parts don't even fit together anymore. And children can never be produced. So Paul is saying that, that's where you get. Maybe that's not an issue for you, and again, we'll spend more time there, but that's his example that you end up making sense of things that do not make sense.

24 · Alcantar introduces the sixth excuse—'I can stop whenever I want'—by comparing it to addict reasoning

And here's another one, but I can stop. God hasn't stopped me, but I can stop, right? That's what every addict says. I can stop, I just don't want to yet, right? Well, why don't you stop now? I could, but I don't want to, right? It's just— that's every addict talking. And Paul uses this snowball of sin basically to show that sin is never in isolation. You can't stop at one point and not get any of the further effects. It snowballs. Sin begets sin.

25 · Alcantar reads Paul's full catalog of sins in Romans 1:28-32 to demonstrate the inevitability of sin's progression

Look at verse 28. Since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up. To a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness and evil and covetousness and malice. They're full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. You see Paul's part— his point is you can't just go, well, I'm just gonna stop at covetousness. I'm just gonna hold the line there. I'm never gonna get to malice or inventors of evil. Not getting there. That's crazy. And Paul is saying, when that is operating in your heart, it always spirals. It always snowballs. Be very careful.

26 · Alcantar expounds Romans 1:32 as Paul's description of sin's final stage—not merely practicing evil but celebrating and encouraging it in others

And last, but others— last excuse— but others agree with me. Look at verse 32. Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. Humanity as a whole reaches a last stage in our sinful rebellion in which we are not content to confine the effects of sin to ourselves, but then begin to give approval to others destroying themselves. Right? It's this, it's this tragic end. This is you getting led to destruction, you getting what you want. It's going to destroy you. But on your way out, you're like, everybody, great job. Right? This is This is we're all going together. This is that I hope they serve beer in hell mentality. Right? That Paul is saying, friends, that is the last stage where you either are looking to the fact that others approve of these sins or your sin and say, well, others are doing it. Others approve. So they must be right. Friends, what if they are just as unreliable as you? What if the world outside of us is just as warped in reason and heart and worship As us, be very careful. Be very careful going, well, I guess it's legal. I guess society approves of it. I guess, you know, there's a message board I found that says I can do it. Friends, there's a message board saying you can do anything.

27 · Alcantar transitions from exposition to application by returning to his Chris Hansen folder image—Paul is confronting us with our own words and deeds

This is Paul walking the folder over to us. And let me just provide a couple words of application here. First of all, let me just give you a caution that we want to apply this to ourselves, but it's not just for ourselves. But we do need to apply this for ourselves because it's easy to go, wow, so that's what's wrong with those people. Yup, that's what I thought. They are messed up. Have you seen the people out there, especially the drivers out there on the highway in construction zones? They are— they need— this is— you see Romans 1? That's Romans 1 at work. Between the text dot cones is the Romans 1 zone.

28 · Alcantar completes the Chris Hansen illustration by revealing Hansen's own moral failure—caught in an affair after years of exposing others' sins

Well, let me tell you how Chris Hansen's stardom ended. Chris Hansen, after exposing many, many, many people with folders of what they said and did, himself was exposed a few years later, not for that crime, but he'd been carrying on an illicit affair and the paparazzi caught him with photographic evidence and he received a folder.

29 · First major application point: Alcantar urges the congregation to apply Romans 1's diagnosis to themselves rather than others, seeing their own need for Christ's righteousness

Friends, at the end of our lives there's gonna be a folder and you're gonna have to figure out how you're gonna reckon with that folder. The first thing I want us to do then is to see our need clearly. Nobody should be coming out of Romans 1 through 3 going, Whew, those people are crazy. We should all be going, Oh my goodness, I need the Lord. Paul, remember, is saying this not to be mean, not to just point out unkind things. He's saying this right after he's held out the righteous gift of God in Christ. He's saying all of this to help us see that we need Jesus' righteousness. He's helping us see that because as long as we think, I'm better than those people, or, I'm okay based on a grading on a curve, or, I'm not righteous, but I'm righteous-ish, right? As long as we think that in our minds, we'll never see our need for the Lord.

30 · Second major application point: Alcantar pivots from conviction to worship, urging the congregation to see Christ more clearly through the lens of their diagnosed need

But second application, we see our need clearly, but then we see Christ more clearly. Friends, this is what the Gospel has saved us from. This is what the Lord has done for us. Friends, apart— and we're going to get into this— apart from God's interrupting grace in our lives, we would simply be sailing toward what we wanted and what would end in our destruction. And so when Paul says, I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, we should read that and say, thank you, God. Thank you, Lord, that I, I was doing what I wanted in my, my mind and my heart and my soul were so bent out of shape and I was headed to destroying myself, and yet the power of God for salvation met me in the gospel. And the unrighteous me somehow was interrupted by the righteous God who sent his righteous Son to make unrighteous people like me righteous again. I mean, friends, do you not see the wonder of the gospel? Every time we see our unrighteousness, it's not meant to leave us there. It's meant to lift our chins to go, Lord, what a gift. That's why Paul's not ashamed. Say, I don't care that the world thinks I'm stupid or foolish or don't think right or don't feel right or don't worship right. I have Jesus.

31 · Third major application point: Alcantar moves from personal conviction and worship to missional burden

And then last, I just want to encourage you with this. This also, not only does it Does it highlight our own need for Jesus? Friends, I just am so burdened this morning. This wasn't even part of what I was planning to share this morning in detail, but I've been so burdened as I think about Romans 1 and think about the people around us and think about my own family members and my own neighbors and the near million souls in our corner of the frontera here? And how many do not think and do not know and do not feel as they should and who are, unless God stops them, going to get what they want and it will destroy them. And friends, I do think that this passage should burden us. It should burden us because you're not going, man, well, I got in because I thought about it right and I felt right. No, none of us got in that way. We all got in by grace. And so friend, the longing of our heart should be to see the grace of God extended to the people of God. And somebody at the end of this, at the first service said, man, how, how do we have hope though? Because it's like, man, they don't even— apart from Christ you can't think right, feel right. Your desires and life are all out of, of line. What hope do we have? Friends, it is in verse 16. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for It is the power of God for salvation. When you might think, man, I don't know what can break through. I don't know what can break through a stubborn heart, or a stubborn mind, or a stubborn soul. Yes you do. It's the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The power of God for salvation. And it is the very way you came to Christ. 2. So you know it works. And so friends, let us see the need of Christ in our communities and then let us cling all the more to the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the power of God for salvation. Amen. Friends, they need this. You have this. You're here for this. In the name of Jesus Christ.

32 · Closing prayer turns the sermon's teaching into congregational intercession

Would you stand and let's pray. Lord, in this moment, we just feel led to pray as a church. Lord, for whoever the Lord brings to mind in our hearts and minds right now that does not know Christ, or whether it's a child, a friend, a cousin, a neighbor, a coworker, Lord, there's absolutely nothing that separates us from anyone else other than the immense grace of Jesus and the power of the gospel in our lives. And Lord, I pray that I just— fueled by our 26 baptisms last week, I just pray as a member told me in between services, we just pray for one more. Pray for one more and one more and one more. Lord, would the power of the gospel break through where human reasoning and human longing cannot? Would you use us, use us and use our church in some small way to give hope and light and life from the gospel to the people around us who desperately, desperately need it? And Lord, I just pray that as long as this church exists, our doors would be open to the unrighteous that we might bring them to the righteous God who offers himself, the righteous, for the unrighteous. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.