Leading with Integrity

You know one of the things I love about Twin Lakes Church is we have these things called TLC newcomers connections, and we do these things about once a month. We do them over in the visitor center by the flagpoles, and it's a chance for us to meet newcomers to the church, people who have only been here a couple of weeks. I love to meet new people, but you do get into some intriguing conversations.

For example, one time I'm greeting some of the new people over there, and one young man comes up to me. He's visibly nervous, and he looks at me and he says, "You know, I'm very nervous. In fact, I can't believe I'm standing right here in front of you." Of course, my ego understands this a certain way, and I say something like this: "Oh, Shaw, no need to be impressed with me, my good man. I have a mere human just like you." And he goes, "Oh, oh, you got the wrong impression. I'm not nervous because I'm impressed by you. I'm nervous because I hate you."

I kid you not, that's the way this conversation is going, and next I'm thinking, what do I do now? You know, awkward moment like security, we got an issue here. What do I say? So I say, "Really, you hate me?" And he goes, "Well, I don't mean to say I hate you personally." And I'm thinking, he goes, "I mean to say I hate all pastors and all priests and all elders of churches. I hate you all and what you represent and have for years." And I'm thinking perhaps I should recommend my, you know, getting to know people and winning friends class to this gentleman.

I don't know what to say next, so what I said was, "It sounds to me like there's a story behind that." And he goes, "Yeah, there is." He proceeds to tell me a pretty intense story of his previous church. I won't go into all the details, but it happened five years before he talked to me over here. As he put it, his church suddenly went bad. He said the elders of the church took control, the elders and the pastors. He says nobody could do anything. Mary changed jobs, moved without the express approval of the pastor and his elders. He says they found out later that they were even abusing some of the women in the church, and he said that whole experience made me so phobic about church that I haven't set foot in a church for five years. Frankly, it just made me hate your office and all that it stands for.

And I said, "Well, I am so glad that you were that transparent because you know what? You sadly are not the only one." He's not the only one, is he? I mean, why do so many people get turned off, burned out, disenchanted with church? A lot of times the reason has to do with the leadership, the pastor. Because pastors can get kooky. And no Amen's from my staff here, please. Pastors can get kooky, pastors can get cocky, pastors can turn into little tyrants, and it's no laughing matter.

I mean, we laugh when we see TV characters like, you know, the Reverend Lovejoy on The Simpsons. He's ambitious, he's manipulative, he's calloused, and he has some bad qualities too. But seriously, if you've ever been caught in a church with a pastor something like that in real life, you know it's no joke. Whether it's the Salem witch trials or the Crusades or Jim Jones, bad church leadership has caused so much suffering and has alienated so many people from the good things in the church.

I think that's why, of all the social issues of his day, of all the things that Jesus Christ could have preached against, you know what social issue Jesus Christ spent the most time critiquing? And I mean by far, abusive spiritual leadership. Think about it. Jesus doesn't call out the pagans or the Roman government or the so-called sinners or anyone else like he calls out the abusive religious leaders of his day. I mean, he looks at the priests and the teachers and the religious lawyers right in the eyes, and he calls them things like vipers and hypocrites and tractors and whitewashed tombs full of rotting dead men's bones. I mean, that's pretty intense.

That's the same Jesus who welcomed children and welcomed prostitutes and lepers, and yet he's so scathing in his rebuke of these people. It's serious stuff to Jesus, and it should be serious stuff to us too. So let's talk about it today. Grab your message notes as we continue our series Living Hope. We've been studying the book of 1 Peter verse by verse this summer. It's a book of the Bible, and today let's talk about living hope for leading with integrity. It's 1 Peter 5:1–7 that we're going to be looking at today. Turn there in your Bibles if you got them with you.

And in this section, Peter says pastors, elders, deacons, church authorities, listen, you gotta behave yourselves. Don't get all puffed up with pride. Now I want you to think about who is saying this. Peter, the guy who when he was younger was like the poster child for pride, right? He was the most bragging, ambitious kind of "I'll take it from here" kind of a hyper-authoritarian sort of a guy. But now, as an older man, he says, "Guys, take it from me. It doesn't work. It's not where it's at. It's not the way God wants you to lead. Please cool it."

And I want you to think not only of who wrote this but think of the context, right? We've been talking about this all summer long, so you probably know this by now. 1 Peter is a letter written by Peter to early Christians in the first century. But what was their context? What was happening to the Christians to whom Peter was writing? Somebody shouted out. They were being persecuted. Thank you. They were being persecuted by the Roman government authorities and by the society that was around them. They were being slandered. They were being called cannibals because they talked about taking communion and the body and the blood of Jesus Christ. They were being called atheists because they didn't believe in the Roman gods, and consequently, as insurrectionists, or as perceived as insurrectionists, they were being burned at the stake. They were being thrown to lions.

And what happens culturally, sociologically, to a group that's being persecuted like that? Well, they tend to cloister. They tend to get into a holy huddle, circle the wagons. And when you're in a cloistered sort of a fortress environment, fortresses have kings, and the pastors ended up being the leaders, and the leaders ended up being like the Lord. And pretty soon, when you're persecuted, you often have this cultic church culture, and Peter recognizes that. And that's exactly what he is warning against in these verses.

And again, not just Peter. You find warnings against this in the teachings of Christ, as I mentioned, also in James, also in the writings of John in the Bible, also the writings of Paul. Over and over, the New Testament warns against abusive, hyper-authoritarian church leaders, and it's some sort of a horrible negative reverse miracle that so much of this has happened to our shame in the history of Christianity when the Bible warns so much against this.

So I need to hear this for sure, right? Because I'm a pastor. Some of you are thinking, "Amen, René, preach it to yourself," right? But maybe you're going, "Why did I come today? Because I'm not a pastor or an elder. I don't need these verses today." Well, are you a leader? Because all these are principles for you too. If you're a leader, you say, "I don't know about that." Well, are you a father? Then you're a leader. Are you a mother? Then you're a leader. Are you a big brother or sister? Do you supervise anybody at work or in a volunteer capacity? Do you serve at church? Does anyone ever think of following your example at any time and in any way? Then you're a leader, and you need to hear this.

And by the way, this isn't even age-specific. You may be a student leader right now in the junior high, high school, college group. You're a leader. You may be on the student council at school. You're a leader. You may be elderly and you're serving on a committee at Dominican Oaks or you're serving on some sort of leadership committee at Santa Cruz Skilled Nursing Center. Right, then you're a leader, and you need to hear this. Young, old, in between, this is for you.

Let me put it another way: who doesn't want to make a positive impact on their world? In fact, raise your hand right now if you want to make some kind of a positive impact on the world with your life. Let me ask the reverse: how many of you actually want to make a negative impact on the world, right? We all want to make a positive impact on the world, of course. Well, a huge key to maintaining a positive impact on the world is leading with integrity.

So here's three keys to that that Peter covers in 1 Peter 5:1–7. This is so important, folks. We need to know this as a church. Why? So that you can hold me to account so that I don't turn into a toxic leader and so you don't turn into a toxic father or mother or big brother or home Bible study leader. This applies to every single one of us here today. So let's jot these down.

Number one, Peter says what you need to do if you want to be a leader is to start serving. Start serving. Now, I'm going to spend most of my time on this first point today because it's so countercultural. Peter says to the elders among you, "I appeal as what? The great and powerful Apostle Peter?" No, look at this: "As a fellow elder." He's practicing the humility that he's preaching here, a witness of Christ's sufferings and one who also will share in the glory to be revealed. Be shepherds of God's flock. Notice he doesn't say be butchers of God's herd. He doesn't say fleece God's sheep. He says be shepherds of God's flock. That is not under your thumb; that is under your care. He's saying be a loving servant.

Now, what's that look like? Reporters and city officials gathered at a Chicago train station one afternoon in 1953. They were there to meet the winner of the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize. So the train pulls in, and a giant of a man with bushy hair and a big mustache gets out. Cameras flash, the mayor steps out, hand outstretched, people rush up to him, reporters crowd around, and this Nobel Prize winner says, "Wait," looking over their shoulders. "Can I be excused for just a minute?" And this man walks through the crowd until he reaches an elderly African-American woman struggling with two suitcases. And he picks up both bags with a smile, walks her all the way to her train, helps her aboard, wishes her a pleasant journey, and then finally makes his way back to the waiting media crowd and says, "Sorry, I kept you waiting."

That is a true story. That man was Dr. Albert Schweitzer, the famous missionary doctor who spent his life helping the poor in Africa. One reporter that was there said, "That was the first time I ever saw a sermon walking." Peter says, "Let him see sermons walking." Now, do I agree with every aspect of Schweitzer's theology? No, but what an example of servanthood. Peter says be a servant. How? He talks about three ways. These are so important and so ignored that I put these sub points in your notes. I want you to jot these down.

First, choose devotion over duty. Still in verse 2: "Not because you must, but because you are willing as God wants you to be." Circle the phrase "not because you must." I want to give you four words that will never change the world. Ready? "If I have to." I mean, can you imagine 1969 summer Neil Armstrong, who just recently passed away? Can you imagine him getting ready to step out on the moon and calling back to mission control, "Oh, yeah, Houston, do I have to?" No! Can you imagine the Disney board telling Walt Disney, "Look, Walt, you need to design a theme park," and Walt saying, "I'll do it if I have to"? Can you imagine David and Goliath? "I'll kill the giant if I have to." No, he went charging in. "If I have to" changes nothing, because "I love to" changes the world.

Now, let's be honest. A lot of us are like the young guy sleeping soundly one morning as mom comes in and wakes him up. "Time for school, get up." I don't know how many parents are here, but you might have gone through this. He groans, "I don't want to go to school today. Give me three good reasons why I gotta go to school." And she says, "Okay, first, you gotta go because school is a place we learn many new things. Second, you gotta go because many of the boys and girls will be disappointed if you're not there today. And third, you gotta go because you're the principal, Frank." You know, a lot of pastors, a lot of leaders are like that, right? Serving mostly out of duty. "Do I have to?"

And do what you love, and you're going to have excitement, you're going to have charisma, you're going to have influence. Do it out of duty, and what happens? You become resentful of your duties, and pretty soon of the people connected to your duties, and those people sense this, and your leadership implodes. Listen, some of you are feeling very resentful like that right now because most of your life right now is duty. "I have to do this, I have to do that." Maybe you're a single parent, and everything in your life seems to be duty right now. There's no time for you, or maybe the pressure of keeping your business afloat has turned everything in your life into a duty. It's just wearing you down, or maybe your marriage has turned from love to duty.

And when it gets like that, a lot of times the only way out, it seems, to be a change in the circumstances. "Right, I got to get out of this business, out of this marriage to get joy back into my life somehow." Let me give you a different option. You can rescue devotion from the clutches of duty. You can want to love your kids again, to love your spouse again, to get into a love relationship with God again. You really can. How? My invitation to you is to pray, "God, I am willing to be made willing." Can you risk that prayer? Look to God and say, "God, I'm willing to be made willing," and ask for his help to change your heart. Because devotion is always preferable to duty. Now, you do the duty when you have to, but ask him to make your heart willing, like in Psalm 51 when David says, "God, grant me a willing spirit."

And the next in the box there under point one, choose giving over getting. Peter says to be not greedy for money, but eager to serve. And isn't greed for money one of the first things that turns people off to pastors? Peter says lead for a different motive. You know, there's a story I love so much, true story. A reporter spends a day with Mother Teresa, and at the end of the day, the reporter says, "You know, I wouldn't do what you do for all the money in the world." And she laughs and says, "Huh, neither would I." I love that answer because that wasn't her motive. The basic question is, what's your motive? And by the way, greed isn't about just money. Are you greedy for power? Greedy for attention? That's your motive. What's your motive for leading your children, for wanting them to get good grades, for leading in your marriage? What's your motive?

I have a friend who has taped to his desk these three words: "What's my motive?" Ask yourself that question many times a day. What's my motive? Is it compassion or cash? Is it attention or anonymity? What's your motive? Choose giving over getting. You know, there's not a single statue I've ever seen commemorating someone for getting rich. There are landmarks commemorating people who gave, gave their lives, gave their fortunes. And then third in that box, choose being an influence over being in control. Choose being an influence over being in control. I love this next verse. Peter says, "Not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock." And there's so much wisdom locked into this phrase. I love the turn of phrase "lording it over." Don't lord it over.

When I read this, it always reminds me of goats, and I will explain why. Many of you know I'm Swiss. I'm Swiss citizenship. Most of my family's over there, and when I was on sabbatical a while back, I spent time with one of my cousins. Her name is Damaris in Switzerland. This is not my cousin Damaris, but my cousin keeps goats. And goats are hilarious because they always want to lord it over all the other goats, right? Every goat wants to be standing on the highest thing in the farmyard, am I right? Anybody here have goats or ever raised goats in your life? Any 4H people, right? Am I right? This is what they're like. They always want to be standing on the highest thing. If there's a rock, a table, or wall, the goats want to be up on that, and they're a little fight each other to see who gets to be the highest creature in the farmyard, right? Well, Peter's saying, "Don't be a stupid goat."

I mean, how many of our human endeavors from God's perspective must look like goats trying to get higher than the other goats? Lording it over. Great example of this in modern times in your newspaper today, Dilbert's boss. I love this one. He says, "I've decided to use humor in the workplace. Experts say humor eases tension, which is important in times when the workforce is being trimmed. Knock, knock. Who's there? Not you anymore." By contrast to that, think of the example of Jesus Christ. Let me ask you a question: did Jesus ever lord it over his disciples? No. In fact, he washed their feet. In fact, he washed Peter's feet, who wrote this epistle. I think that this was one of those light bulb-over-the-head moments for Peter, right? When Peter's all about, "Who's going to be in charge here? I can do that. I got a sword." And then Jesus, at a time when everything's falling apart at that last supper, that last night, he puts a towel around his waist and he starts washing the disciples' feet, and he starts with Peter. And Peter says, "No, Lord, I should be washing your feet." And Jesus says, "But this is the way it's done." And I think Peter went, "That's leadership right there. I want to be that kind of a leader." That's not lording it over; that's influence.

Listen, you may be frustrated right now at work or in your home or in some other situation where you are not in a position of control. You know what? You may never be in a position of control. Technically, that's not in your power, whether or not you get that position. But listen carefully: you can always be an influence. And one of my favorite stories illustrating this is a woman named Barbara Glanz, spelled G-L-A-N-Z. She does customer service seminars for grocery store frontline service people, you know, like checkers and baggers and stockers. This is what she does as a job. She does motivational talks to give better customer service for grocery store frontline employees, the kind of stuff you hear all the time, like make the customers feel special, right?

Well, one time a few years ago, she was doing a customer service seminar for Safeway stores up here in Northern California, and everybody kind of gives her polite applause, but one man seems to particularly take this to heart. He's a 19-year-old bagger at Safeway with Down syndrome named Johnny. And Johnny comes up to her after the seminar and says, "I came up with a good idea to make my customers feel special." Barbara says, "Really, Johnny, what is that?" He says, "Well, I like to collect quotations that mean a lot to me. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to type them up and put a bunch of quotations on one sheet of paper and then make copies of those and cut them up so they're like fortune cookie sayings. And then I'm going to put one in the bags of everybody that I bag at the store." And she goes, "Oh, well, let me know how it goes."

The next day, when he finished bagging his customers' groceries, Johnny said, "I'm putting my quote for the day in your bag. I hope you like it," and did it for all his customers. Three weeks later, the manager writes Barbara and says, "Yeah, your seminar kind of created an issue in our store because now all the customers are always in Johnny's aisle." And when she tried to usher people into the other aisles, they wouldn't leave because they all wanted Johnny's quote of the day. True story. One of the customers told her, "I used to shop here once a week. Now, I stop by every day because I want Johnny's quote."

Now let me ask you a question: was Johnny in control? No way. Will he ever be in control at that store? Frankly, there's not a chance. Is he an influence? Absolutely. And not just on the customers. The manager wrote Barbara and said, "In fact, Johnny's influence has spread throughout our store. Every single employee now wants to be like Johnny." She said, "For example, in the floral department, instead of throwing away the older blooms, they're now finding a little girl or an elderly woman that they pin it on every day." In control? No. An influence? You bet. Was he leading those people? Was he leading them into a richer, better experience? Absolutely.

I mean, look at all three of these bullet points. There are examples of what Peter means when he says start serving. And I've spent like 85% of my time this morning on this first point. Why? Because it is so countercultural in American society. We all want to be the goat on top of the rock, right? That's what we're sort of trained to do, and service sounds like a prison sentence. But look at the next verse, verse 4: "And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive a crown of glory that will never fade away." Peter's saying you may not get the accolades of this world, but keep your eye on the real prize. There's a reward, as Mark talked about so well last week. It may not happen here on earth, but it will happen. God guarantees that you will be rewarded, so start serving.

Next two points very quickly. He says stay humble. Your notes say start there, but cross it out, turn it to stay. Stay humble. Very important. I was just at Disneyland with the kids, and they gave me as a birthday present a tour in Disneyland. I've never taken a Disney tour before, and our tour guide tells me a great story. She says there's a story that's absolutely true that's become a legend around Disneyland. She says Walt hired a guy to be an executive at the company from outside the company, didn't understand the company culture there at Disney. And he said, she said, "First thing this guy does is put a nameplate on his door that says Mr. So-and-so. Second thing he does is open up his window and yell at the gardener who's using a power mower outside in the gardens at Disney Studios and says, 'Hey, you blankety-blank swears of the guy, shut up. I'm trying to work here.'" Closes the window.

Less than 60 seconds later, Walt Disney's in this guy's office, and he goes, "Yeah, two things. He goes, first of all, I'm the only blankety-blank that works here. He goes, all the employees can call me that because I'm the boss, but you can't call anybody else that here because they work for you. I never want to hear that again, or you're gone." And he says, "Second thing," and he points to the guy's nameplate, "since I asked people to call me Walt, you're not Mr. Anybody." Introducing people to a culture of humility there at the company. Well, if a company can have that, certainly a church should have that, right? And that's what Peter says. He says, "Young men, in the same way, be submissive to those who are older." And you may be thinking, "Yeah, I'm not young. Guys need to hear this message about humility." Well, not just young guys, and since this next verse is addressed to all of us, let's all read it out loud together with conviction. Okay, let me hear you: "All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time."

You see, it's God who does the lifting. We've all been around people who try to puff themselves up, and it's unattractive, and it's exhausting to be around. I had a professor at San Jose State where I did my undergrad work, and he was legendary for doing this, even though I don't think he knew that we all talked about him behind his back. I would come up to him, and I'd say, "Mr. McKenzie," and he'd stop me and say, "That's Dr. McKenzie. You're Mr. Schlepper. I'm Dr. McKenzie. Now, what is it that you'd like?" Every single time. So what do you think I did for two years at San Jose State? Call him Mr. McKenzie every time. And so did everybody else. You see, when you lift yourself up, what happens is you're inviting other people to put you down, right? When you don't stay humble, everybody else is eager to make you humble.

And so instead, just stay humble. You know, just start there. And pastors and other leaders really need to watch this, man. I've seen it in other pastors. I've seen it in myself. We get a little bit of attention, and our heads swell till we're, you know, too big to get through the doors of the church. I'll tell a story on myself. Years ago, I got an envelope from Outstanding Young Men of America, and I'm like, "What is this?" And I open it up, and it says, "Quote, because of your leadership skills, you have been nominated." And I thought, "I guess I'm a pretty big deal," as they say, until I noticed I had misread the envelope. It was actually from Outstanding Young Women of America. They thought that I, René, was a girl, and it was just a form letter.

What I'm saying is the world will humble you anyway, so just stay humble. How many of you have learned, show of hands, that the world will humble you? Anybody learn this in life? Has anybody learned this from your family members right this morning, right? And finally, if you want to be a great leader, and this may surprise you, stop worrying. 1 Peter 5:7—great verse. Let's read this together. Let me hear you: "Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." Now, it's intriguing to me that this follows a section on leadership because maybe Peter's following a train of thought here. Maybe it's a separate thought on worry, but perhaps he's following a train of thought because worriers don't often make much of an impact on the world, right?

And again, I've had to learn this one the hard way. I tend to worry about this church, but I've had to learn that Jesus said to Peter, in fact, the first time, "I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it." We can relax because Jesus is ultimately in control. And when pastors and other leaders worry, they totally short-circuit their leadership. They're not confident anymore. They can't make decisions anymore, and people pick up on that lack of confidence. And the same thing happens to worrying moms and worrying dads and worrying CEOs and worrying managers and worrying salespeople and worrying student leaders. People pick up on your lack of confidence.

So if you want to make a positive, lasting impact, you cannot be a habitual worrier. So what do you do? Because everybody's got worries. Peter says, "Cast them on God." You can't just cast them out; that never works. You got to give them to somebody who can handle them. Give them to God. Let him carry the weight. It's one of his jobs, and he's great at it. Why? Because he cares for you. Listen carefully: the single most important thing that you can discover to get rid of your worries is this: he cares for you. You matter to God. Really, this is about grace again, isn't it? If you understand God's gracious nature, then you can be a gracious leader too.

The more you get to know God, the more you get to know Jesus, Jesus who suffered for you, who came to serve and save the lost. And the more you know you have his love, the less you need to squash other people to feel good about yourself because you know he cares for you lavishly. In fact, look back over your notes. Think of how the world's impression of the church would change if all Christians lived like this. Or imagine the impact on your relationships if you and I led like this.

Now some of you are looking at this list going, "Okay, that's great for pastors to be. I can imagine pastors leading like this, but in the real world, you can't do it this way." Well, let me close with a video so you can see how this applies to real life, not just to pastors. This is about a guy named Dion who is a police officer in LA, and without abdicating any of his leadership, he serves, he's humble, and he refuses to worry. I want you to watch the screen and see how this applies to you as well.

Well, just one block east of downtown Los Angeles is one of the most dangerous overlooked marginalized places in the United States of America. That's Skid Row. Skid Row is a place where horrible things happen all the time. Women and children are the most vulnerable to the crimes, but you also have gang members and drug dealers who sell drugs near rescue missions and hinder efforts to help people in the area. This is why I work. This is where God called me to be, and I believe that with my whole heart.

You know, the reality here is most people don't really like police officers. They're taught to hate us because they feel we're after them because of their social status or a race or whatever. It's really hard to meet somebody you really want to help and have them reject you. Some of them hate my guts, and I really truly honestly care about them. I try to look at people the way I think God looks at people, and in spite of all our mistakes, God still loves us. So in spite of all the mistakes that a lot of the people in Skid Row have made, I want to show them that I love them, and I want to help make their lives better.

You got to get out of your car sometimes, remove your judgmental idea about who people are and what a good person should be, and get out there and get to know these people because you'll find that even though some of them have a lot of problems, severe problems, mild problems, they're people. Let me feel it. There you go, that's it, that's the real deal right there. Look at Jerry Dion Joseph, call me Dion. They're told police hate you, but I destroy that theory when I get out in that street because those folks will test you. If you say you care, they're going to hold you up to it.

Okay, Joseph, you can't put me in some housing. The Dion? Yes, Dion. Yeah, if you're interested in some 90-day housing? Yes. Yes, okay. What I want you to do is Thursday go see my friend. She's a wonderful lady over time. The people see you for who you are, not what you are. They know I'm doing what I'm doing not to harass them, but because I'm for them. All right, we're both all right. Let's take care. Hey, how are you? You know you're starting. How you doing? Get to know people on an individual basis. I know their names. I know when they've been sober. I know when they're high.

People always ask me, "How can you work here? How could you sit here all this time?" My faith in God is what keeps me from packing up and leaving town. This is my assignment. It's like a driving force that keeps me having faith in this community. You know, it says, "Don't let him go yet, Dion. Don't let him go." Isn't that great? Yeah. Did you catch what he said? He said, "This is my assignment." And you know what? You got your assignment. You don't have that assignment. You don't have my assignment, but you got yours, and there's some leadership involved in your assignment. Whatever place God has put you, the bottom line is this: lead like Christ. Remember your identity is in him; your role model is him.

So lead like him. Lead like the one who came all the way from the throne of heaven to die on the cross for your sins and for mine, and that's the ultimate example of leadership, that the God of the universe, the Lord of all, didn't lord it over others, but instead came as the servant of all. How appropriate is it that on this weekend we remember Christ's death in communion? Because what an appropriate reminder of what servant leadership is all about. Let's thank God that he came not to condemn the world but to save the world as we prepare our hearts for the Lord's table. Right now, let's pray.

Lord, thank you that you came to this planet as a humble leader. Of all people, Jesus, you could have thrown your weight around, but you didn't. You came to serve and to save. So God, please help me and help this church to be known as a place of that kind of humility. And God, I want to pray for the people here today who need to turn to you because they're in a time of crisis. They came to church to find you, to find your comfort, to get your strength. And maybe for the first time they need to pray, "Jesus, I want to receive you." I pray that even as we remember the sacrifice of Christ now, they would simply pray, "Jesus, I receive you, your strength, your salvation." And it's in his name we pray. Amen.