Morning. How are we doing, guys? It's good to see you guys. If we haven't met yet. My name is Ian. I'm one of the pastors here. It's always a joy to be able to come and worship with you guys and to be able to open up the word. If you have your Bibles, go ahead and open up to acts nineteen. We are in the middle of our series going through Ephesians, which somehow got us in acts, right? Uh, but if you haven't been with us the last couple of weeks, what we have been doing is we started in Ephesians chapter one and two or verse one and two, and then we jump back to acts eighteen and nineteen, because we wanted to see how this church in Ephesus started. We wanted to see the culture and context that that Paul is actually writing the letter to the Ephesians in. We want to know more about the church that he's writing to. So think of the last three weeks, including this week, as kind of like a prologue. We're kind of getting an idea of what are we about to dive into when we jump back into Ephesians next week? And so that's kind of where we're going. And kind of a just to let you know what's happening in our text today. A spoiler alert, if you will, there's a riot. Okay. In our text, there's a riot, there's a big disturbance that goes on and it kind of gets you thinking a little bit. What are some of the things that have caused some disruptions in the world? What are some things that have caused some disruptions, maybe even in your own life, in your own lifetime? Like I think of a few of them. I think of Steve Jobs when he introduced the first iPhone, however many years ago, like that disrupted the technological landscape of our day. Right? I think of nine over eleven that disrupted our entire nation. You see moments all throughout history that disrupt whatever is going on. And maybe you think of even more personal ones to yourself. I think of when I was seven, my father losing his job, and then we had to move to Iowa, and when we moved to Iowa, that disrupted a lot. It disrupted my life. Like it's where I started going to a church that I loved. I came to have a greater love for the Lord there. A love for ministry ultimately led me to being a pastor. I think about the disruption of getting married. Getting married will disrupt a few things, won't it? Then I think of the disruption of having kids. You think getting married disrupts some things, add some little ones into the mix, and there's all these different sorts of disruptions that go on around us, maybe even in our own life. But then it also makes you pause and think, what kind of what? What would it take to cause a disruption here in Cedar Rapids? Like not just on an individual level, but on a societal level, on a city level, like what kind of disruption would cause Cedar Rapids landscape to change? And I bet if you're a flood. That is true. Uh, if you're like me, you start to thinking like, man, there's so many things we'd love to see changed. So many disruptions. We'd love to see that don't include road work, right? But there's so many things in our city that we would like to see changed that we'd like to see the gospel have an impact on. So what needs to happen for a city to be disrupted? What needs to happen for a city to be changed? Our text this morning in acts nineteen, it technically starts in verse twenty one. And so let's read the first part of that together. It said, now after these events, we'll we'll pause there after these events. What events is Luke talking about? Well, if you weren't here last week, let me fill you in a little bit. If you weren't here last week, you missed magic handkerchiefs. You missed a failed exorcism. Trash talking demons, a fight, public nudity and book burning, right? Like that. That's what you missed last week. You missed a lot. Go catch up. Go listen to the sermon from last week to kind of remember where we are today. Those are the events that Luke is wanting us to recall. But it's not just the events that Luke is wanting us to recall, but he really wants us to know what happened beneath those events and beneath those events is repentance. Beneath those events is a public repenting of God's people. They notice the duplicity in their life saying, I follow God. I believe in God, but I also practice witchcraft. And I realized that's not right. And so they bring all their witchcraft books, and they burn them as a public display of repentance. And so the first thing we're going to see, like, we're going to get to a riot here in a little bit, but before there can be a riot, before there can be a disturbance in a city, there needs to be repentance in the Christian. That's what we see from these events of last week that it starts with repentance, and we see that repentance is turning to God. That requires turning away from sin, and that repentance is costly. But that's where this disturbance really goes. All the way back to is those events, the repentance of God's people. And so what actually happens when God's people actually repent? What would happen if God's people here in Cedar Rapids actually repented, actually turned from their sin? Well, I think we'd start to see some disruption. And I use the phrasing like actually repent because I think a lot of times people treat repentance kind of like losing weight, you know what I mean? Like, hypothetically, if I were to tell you I need to change the way that I eat because I'm bloated, have indigestion, and my clothes don't fit, right? Like if I hypothetically told you that, you'd hypothetically agree, right? So we all hypothetically agree on that. But then let's say after I told you all that last week, hypothetically, again, if you were to come to our high school late night on Wednesday night last week, and you would have seen me eat an ungodly amount of Chinese fried sugar donuts, and then you would have been thinking, I don't think you actually want to lose weight. I don't think you actually want to turn away from your unhealthy eating habits. I don't think you actually want those things that you're saying, or maybe you actually want them, but you haven't actually turned away from what is making you not get there. And I think the problem is too many Christians treat repentance like we treat weight loss and something when we know that we want to do, but we just can't seem to do it. But what happens when God's people actually repent? What happens when God's people actually see the sin in their life as disgusting, as vile as going against a holy and perfect God? What happens when God's people see their sin, abandon their sin, turn back to God, and pursue a life devoted to him? That's where true disruption starts when God's people actually repent, when God's people actually repent from their sin and live a life devoted to him. That's the events that happened last week that were entering into this week. That's going to ultimately lead to a riot happening that before there's a disruption, there needs to be repentance before there's a disruption, there needs to be devotion before there's a disruption in our city. There needs to be a disruption in our own hearts, a disruption of turning away from sin and turning back to God. And so when that happens in the life of Christians, what impact does that have on a city in a community? Let's backtrack just one verse. Go into verse twenty. So this is after they had burned all the witchcraft, all the books and all that stuff measured out to fifty thousand pieces of silver. It says in verse twenty, so the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily. What happens when God's people repent of their sin and live devoted to him? The gospel prevails. God's word goes out and it goes out in power. We see that repentance is actually evangelistic, that repentance is attractive to non-believers, and it's not attractive to non-believers because of necessarily the life of wealth and prosperity that it builds. But it's attractive because the joy that it brings. There's a book called The Way of Repentance by Chris Brown, and his main argument in that book is that true repentance leads to true joy, that true repentance actually brings us to a place of true and lasting joy. And how does it do that? It does that because repentance is saying there is a loving, perfect, gracious father that you can return to. And that loving, perfect and gracious father has made a way for you to actually return to him. And when you realize that and you turn from your sin back to a holy, perfect, loving, gracious father that fills you with joy, and that kind of joy is contagious. That is the kind of joy that other people want to have. And so we see that as God's people are devoted to him, as they repent from their sins and they turn back to God, we see that the Word of God prevails, that it goes out in power and many are turning to him. So that's verse twenty. Let's keep going. It says, now after these events. So after the repentance and the word of the Lord continue to be continuing to increase and prevail mightily. After these events, Paul resolved in the spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem, saying, after I have been there, I must also see Rome. And having sent into Macedonia two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while. And so we see Luke kind of filling us in on Paul's travel plans, saying, hey, after I'm in Ephesus, I feel prompting from the spirit that I need to go through Macedonia, visit those churches there, and then I need to go back to Jerusalem. But for the time Paul sends people into Macedonia and he stays in Ephesus. And our story really starts to get good in verse twenty three. It says about that time. So after Paul had been prompted by the spirit to go back to Jerusalem at some point and has sent workers, he's staying in Asia for a minute longer. About that time there arose no little disturbance concerning the way. I want to pause there because we see that phrase the way. And if you were here a couple of weeks ago, you remember that the way is how people describe followers of Jesus back then, that they describe followers of Jesus that like that. Because if you remember from John fourteen six, Jesus says, what I am, the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. And so Jesus says, I am the way. And so his followers are naturally called followers of the way. They're saying, I follow Jesus the only way back to the father. So the way was a reference to who they followed. But it wasn't just a reference to who they followed, but how they followed him. That they followed him in a in a distinct way. They had distinct beliefs and distinct practices in their life that separated them from the rest of the world. And so when people looked at Christians, they said, oh, you're followers of the way. And I can tell because you lived differently than the rest of the world. Do you live differently than the rest of the people here? Hearing that should probably make us pause for a moment and consider, could people say the same thing about us? Could people say the same thing about me? That I have a way of living that is distinctly different than the world around me, than others around me? Can that be said about people in our church? That our church is filled with people who live a life that's different than the rest of the world because they follow Jesus. And so we see that these people are the followers of the way. And the way that they're living. Their life is distinct from the world around them. And when that happens, we see an issue start to come up. It says there arose no little disturbance. That means big, right? There arose a big disturbance. Concerning the way these people follow Jesus in such a way that it's going to cause a disruption. Sometimes following the way of Jesus creates a little bit of conflict. So let's see what that conflict looks like. It says, for a man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis brought no little business to the craftsmen. So I kind of want to set up this Demetrius fellow and what he's doing. He's a silver worker, and he makes shrines for the goddess Artemis. And the goddess Artemis. Was this well known, highly worshiped and regarded goddess back in these times. And her temple was in Ephesus. In Ephesus. At this point, it's a major hub of just there's a lot of commercial stuff happening there. There's a lot of commerce happening there. And there's this great big temple of Artemis, and all these people are flocking to Ephesus to worship Artemis. And Artemis is this goddess of fertility and childbirth. And so people are coming there to worship her. They're coming from all around the world, all around Asia, to go to Ephesus to worship this goddess. And what happens when people from all over come into one central location? There's opportunity for business, right? There's tourism, and tourism means money. And so these workers, these craftsmen, they made so much money from these people coming in to worship Artemis. And so what we see happening is that Demetrius, he's getting a little concerned. He's getting a little frustrated because he's starting to notice something. He's starting to notice that business is going down. He's starting to notice that the profit margins are getting a little bit slimmer. He's starting to notice that he has less business to give to other people. And that's starting to worry him a little bit. And so we see in verse twenty four that Demetrius is noticing a change to the economy in Ephesus, and he's not happy about it. And so we see it continue in verse twenty five. These he gathered, being the other craftsmen that he brought business to, these he gathered together with the workmen in similar trades and said, men, you know that from this business we have our wealth. And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia. This Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, saying that gods made with human hands are not gods. And there is danger that not only this trade of ours may come into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence. She whom all Asia and the world worship. So we start to see what the problem is. We start to see that Demetrius and these workers, they're going to start getting upset because not only is Paul persuading people that God, that these idols aren't real, but he's persuading them to not worship them. Like, this is the message that we see Paul give in first Corinthians chapter eight. He says, therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that an idol has no real existence. That there is no God but one. For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords. Yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom all are all things, and for whom we exist, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. That's the message Paul is proclaiming. And Demetrius is saying, Paul with this message, he's persuading all of Asia to stop worshiping these idols and only worship God. You start to see that causes a problem. One it causes a problem for someone who worships the goddess Artemis. We see that they're worried that her fame might not spread anymore, that her magnificence might dwindle, that she might be counted as nothing. But I think what they're more upset about is not just that people aren't worshipping Artemis anymore, but that people aren't buying their stuff anymore. You start to see what their real god is, what they really worship. And it's not necessarily Artemis, but it's their pocketbook. It's that they are so upset that they are that people are turning away from the idol worship because it's affecting their bottom line. Their God was their money. It's similar to what we see Jesus say, where he says, where your heart is, there your treasure is also. We see that their heart is in their wallet. They're upset that idols are being torn down. They're upset that people aren't paying as much money as they used to for the worship of this goddess. And ultimately, what we see is that when God's people are repentant and they're devoted to God, idol worship stops in their life, that idols are taken off of the throne, that idols are done being bowed down to. And as God's people repent, they turn from idol worship to true worship. They stop bowing to idols and bow to the King. I think we need to stop and consider are there idols in our life that we need to turn from? Like, are there idols in our life that we have started worshiping a little bit? And I know in America right now, like idol worship doesn't really seem like much of a thing. You don't see many people bowing down to statues that often, and the idea of offering repeated sacrifices to a statue at the same time, in the same place is just foolish. And we don't do that because that would just be silly, right? We just sacrificed eight hours every Saturday watching the same team, saying the same chants, getting upset when they inevitably lose again, especially if they're Iowa State, right? Sorry, but we don't we don't worship idols, do we? We just don't have money to tithe or give generously because we have to have certain brands of clothes, certain cars, certain kinds of houses, buy certain kinds of groceries so that we can fit in with certain kinds of people and earn certain people's approval. And that can only come if we offer money in these ways. But we don't really bow down to idols, do we? We just sacrifice every weekend of the year and pay thousands of dollars so that our kids can play a game that maybe they'll get a D3 scholarship to play, and we can live vicariously through them. But we don't have idols here in America, right? We just reorient our entire lives and our entire schedules around what our kids want and desire. But we don't have real idols, do we? Guys, we have to understand that adultery isn't just bowing down to silver statues. Idolatry is when you look for your joy and satisfaction and fulfillment and thriving in anything other than God. So are their idols in your life that you need to dismantle, that you need to take off the throne that you need to repent of. This week, some of our staff took a idol finding assessment And there are some questions in there that I just wanted to share with you guys that you can go home and you can ask yourself, where are some of the idols in my life? Here are some of the questions. What do I worry about the most? What makes me feel the most self-worth? What do I really want and expect out of life? What would make me the most happy? What's one thing that, if it happened, would make me feel the most satisfied or fulfilled? Maybe the most gut punching one. What would crush me if I lost it? When you start asking yourself those questions and answering those questions for yourself, your heart starts to be revealed into what idols you might actually be worshipping other than God. What things you're bowing your life down to. Maybe it's a career. Maybe it's your kids. Maybe it's status. Maybe it's the approval of others. Maybe it's your own comfort. But guys, if we're going to cause a disturbance in our city, we need to live devoted lives to God, which requires dismantling idols in our life. And so are their idols in your life that you need to get rid of, that you need to confess and repent of. The thing that is getting Demetrius in his crew so worked up is that people are worshiping God and they're not worshiping Artemis, and ultimately, they're not worshiping Artemis, and they're not giving him the money that he wants. He realizes that Jesus is threatening the thing that he treasures most. And that's what Jesus does, right? He either becomes your treasure or he threatens what you treasure. And we see that happening in Ephesus, that when God's people repent and live devoted lives to God. The word of the Lord goes out in power. People repent. People live devoted lives. Idols are taking off the throne. And as people of God do, that it causes some disruption. It causes things to be disturbed. Because your devotion to God doesn't just change who you worship, it changes how you live everyday life changes how you spend. It changes the businesses you give your money to. It changes the time that you give. Devotion to God isn't just read your Bible and pray, but it's reorienting your entire life around following Jesus. And here's what we see happen. That disruption to a community takes place because the people of God have had their life disrupted by the Word of God. And that's what's happening in Ephesus. The people of God are so disrupted by the Word of God themselves That's causing them to live devoted lives, and that's starting to cause some disruption in their city. And it's not just causing economic disruption, it actually causes a riot. Let's keep going. Verse twenty eight through thirty four. And when they had heard this, they were enraged and were crying out. Great is Artemis of the Ephesians. So the city was filled with confusion, and they rushed together into the theater, dragging with them Gaius and Aristocort Aristarchus, Macedonians, who were Paul's companions in travel. But when Paul wished to go in among the crowd, the disciples would not let him. I love Paul's attitude here. Like he's like, put me in coach. Like I'm not scared of a riot. They're like, hey, maybe you should chill out a little bit. Paul. And even some of the sailors who were friends of his sent to him and were urging him not to venture into the theater. Now, some cried out one thing, some another, for the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together. Some of the crowd prompted Alexander, whom the Jews had put forward, and Alexander, motioning with his hand, wanted to make a defense to the crowd, but when they recognized that he was a Jew. For about two hours they all cried out with one voice, great is Artemis of the Ephesians! And so here's the riot that we have taking place. The workers are upset that they're not getting money. They start a riot and they all go to the theater where the public assemblies were held. This theater would have held around twenty five thousand people. And so they all go to this theater and they're crying out one thing or another. There's confusion. Half the people don't even know why they're there, but mob mentality sinks in. And so they're there and they're angry about it. And a riot ensues. And it goes on for hours upon hours. See, the gospel disrupted Christian's life, and they lived, devoted lives to God, and riot breaks out. A fight breaks out because this isn't the first time that this has happened. We actually see that this is a pretty common occurrence when churches are planted by Paul. We see it in the church in Philippi. Uh, for sake of time, let's just look at the one in Thessalonica in acts seventeen, verses two through nine. Acts seventeen, starting in verse two, it says, And Paul went in, as was his custom. And on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you is the Christ. And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women. But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason. I think it's funny that there's just a random guy named Jason. I don't know why that's funny to me, but it is seeking to bring them out to the crowd. And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of his brothers before the city authorities shouting, these men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying, there is another king, Jesus, and the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things, and when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go. This is a common occurrence that when the gospel is preached and received and people start living lives devoted to Jesus, a fight breaks out. Riots ensue. But here's the thing about these fights, because I think some of us can get excited about fights, some of us can get excited about the idea of like, yes. Like, let's go out. Let's cause some problems. Let's cause a disturbance. Here's the thing I want you to see about these fights, though. Paul and his ministry gets blamed for them. It's never Paul that starts them. Paul is never the one who starts these. He simply proclaims the gospel, preaches the good news. People respond in faith. They change the way they live, and then people get upset about it. Paul isn't here to start fights and lead riots and cause public beatings. He just wants people to follow Jesus and his people, follow Jesus and change the way they live. It makes people mad. You see, riots aren't the goal of the Christian life. Devotion is. But it shouldn't be a surprise to us that our devotion can cause some disruption. That shouldn't be a surprise to us that you're living out. Your faith might cause people not to like you, not associate with you. Maybe even ridicule you like your co-workers might not like you as much if you don't go out to the bars with them on Friday. Your coach, like if you play sports, your coach might cut your playing time a little bit because you don't go to the games or practices on Sunday morning. Your teachers might dock your grade a bit because you defend your faith in your papers. Your family might get annoyed with you around the Thanksgiving table. Your friends or your neighbors might not invite you to barbecues anymore because they're tired of you talking about their faith. If that's the case, just invite me instead. I'll gladly come. Okay. Your devotion might lead to people not being so happy with you. It might lead to some disrupted relationships. But this isn't just on the individual level. This is on the church level, too. I think sometimes people think that the church needs to be beloved by the community that it's in, and that if the church isn't loved by everyone in the community, then the church is doing something wrong. Now, I hope that I hope the city does love us as a church at times, especially like you see them love us when we clean up trees after a derecho or house. Residents of Geneva Tower when it catches on fire. City loves us then. But we can't expect the city to love us when we stand up for truth. And we're devoted to God when it's devoted to ways of the world. And there's going to be times that our devotion to God and His Word causes people to make fun of us. People to write Gazette articles about us and make Reddit posts about us. And that's okay. That doesn't mean that we're a bad church. It means that we might be devoted to the right things and people not liking you because of your faith and the values you stand on. And your devotion to God doesn't make you a bad Christian. It just means that maybe you're devoted to the right stuff and they don't like it. We shouldn't be surprised when the world doesn't like Christians, when they act like Christians. I mean, Jesus even warns his followers of this in John fifteen. We see this in John fifteen, starting in verse eighteen. He says, if the world hates you, know that it has hated me before. It hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world. But I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept. If they kept my word, they would also keep yours. Jesus tells his disciples, expect persecution. Expect people not to like you when you follow me the way you ought to follow me. Church, we shouldn't look to be hated by the world, but we shouldn't be surprised when it happens. When we as Christians live devoted lives. The world doesn't like it that much. It causes disruption. You see, real disruption happens when God's people live devoted lives to God. So let's finish out. Let's see what happens as this riot continues. It says. And when the town clerk had quieted the crowd, he said, men of Ephesus, who is there who does not know that the city of Ephesus is temple keeper of the great Artemis, and of the sacred stone that fell from the sky. Seeing then that these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash, for you have brought these men here who are neither sacrilegious nor blasphemers of our goddess. If, therefore, Demetrius and the craftsmen with him have a complaint against anyone. The courts are open, and there are proconsuls. Let them bring charges against one another. But if you seek anything further, it should be settled in the regular assembly. For we really are in danger of being charged with rioting today. Since there is no cause that we can give to justify this commotion. And when he had said these things, he dismissed the assembly. This is kind of an anticlimactic ending to a giant riot, isn't it? It's like there's this huge hours long riot. There's confusion. People are chanting and yelling, and then a guy stands up and says, hey, guys, can we chill out a little bit? They haven't done anything wrong. It's not a big deal. Calm down. Go home. Men, I would advise you not to try that tactic with your wife in an argument. It has not worked out very well for me. Um. But that's what we see happen. They're told, calm down, go home. Not a big deal. We'll deal with this later. The crowd that was so worked up about their precious goddess not getting the worship she deserves just shuts up and goes home. Guys, the thing that's most striking to me about this account isn't how the riot ends. It's not even the fact that there was a massive riot and disruption in this great city of Ephesus. What strikes me is how it started. What strikes me is what caused it. It doesn't happen by policies being made. It doesn't happen by idol worship being outlawed. It doesn't happen by the Christians in Ephesus picketing and boycotting the temple of Artemis. In that way, and marching around it, I mean, the guy even says here that they didn't blaspheme or disparage the goddess at all. So it doesn't come from any of those things. The real change, the real disruption, the riot. It comes by Christians being convicted of sin, repenting of sin, and living devoted lives, of following Jesus. That's how this disruption takes place. That's what starts all of it. Christians living like Christians. Because success in ministry isn't measured by. If the city or community likes us as a church. It's measured by people turning from their idolatry and to the worship of God. Success in ministry is seeing people repent of their sins, live devoted lives to King Jesus. And as they do that, the Word of God going out in great power, affecting the lives of the people around you. That's what successful ministry looks like. Not policies necessarily being enacted or laws necessarily being made, but by people being changed and going out and living changed lives. That's how we see gospel change happen. And when Christians are devoted, it causes some disruption. You could say it like this that Christian devotion causes gospel disruption, that as Christians live devoted lives, the gospel disrupts the lives around them. I wonder what kind of disruptions need to happen here. What kind of disruptions do we want to see here in Cedar Rapids? What kind of disruptions could be caused by a bunch of Christians leaving this place devoted to God? Like what if strip clubs in Cedar Rapids had to close because people were devoted to God and living in purity instead of chasing that satisfaction somewhere else? What if the brand new casino down the road didn't succeed because Christians were devoted to God and good stewardship of their finances? Like, how crazy would that be? What if the Hindu temples in Islamic mosques stopped having services because people worship weren't worshiping those false gods anymore? What if divorce court was empty because people were devoted to God and their spouse? Like, what kind of disruptions do you want to see happening in our city? What kind of disruptions do you want to see happening in our community? And guys, it doesn't come by means of law and policy. It comes by people living devoted lives radically changed by the gospel and living a changed life. Guys, this isn't just a pipe dream. It's a possibility. Like we see it in Ephesus, that business went down. Worship of Artemis went down because Christians lived devoted lives. This isn't a pipe dream. It's a possibility because that's what happens when the gospel is received. It changes people and places. The gospel changes people. It makes dead hearts come alive. Blind eyes to see. It disrupts individuals. And when it disrupts individuals, it starts disrupting the people around them, and it starts disrupting the community that they live in. Because when real repentance happens and real devotion is lived in, real disruption is felt. Guys, I want to see some gospel disruption in this community. Don't you? No. Thank you. We want to see gospel disruption. We want to see real change happening because people are really following Jesus. And it's not going to come by laws, boycotting policy or anything like that. It comes by God's people living like God's people. And when a church of God's people lives like God's people together, we'll see real disruption in our community. I want to close by reading Matthew five, because in Matthew five, I think we see what this looks like when it's lived out This is verses thirteen through sixteen. It says, you are the salt of the earth. But if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand. And it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works, and give glory to your father who is in heaven. My heart is that we would be a church who is so devoted to God, so devoted to following Jesus, that we are salt and light in the world that we live in and the community that we live in, that we preserve this community. We would restore flavor to the community, that we'd be a light dispelling darkness, that darkness would flee as people see the light of Jesus Christ, behold him, and the Word of God would go out and be received in power, and that would create some disruption. That'd be pretty sweet to see, wouldn't it? Let's pray. Father, we want to see disruption in our city not caused by means of our own, but caused by your Holy Spirit, caused by your Holy Spirit changing lives through the power of the gospel. That people would come to see Jesus as the true King. That they would follow him as they see Him as King, as they follow him, that it would disrupt their own life. And as it disrupts their life, it would lead to disruption in the community around us. God, let us be a church fully devoted to you, God, and may we see impact of that going far beyond these walls. It's in Jesus name. Amen.