This sermon emphasizes the importance of submission to God, highlighting the peace and blessings that come from submitting to His will. Through powerful testimonies of individuals finding peace and joy in submission, the message encourages listeners to reposition themselves in God's will, experience His peace, and minister to others in need.

And I'm talking tonight about hearing God's voice, and we're on part five in a series on hearing God's voice. And the title tonight is, do you have your pens handy? Hearing His voice through, there you go, there's a word up there, submission. I didn't want to put that word in there because some people would be running for cover and they'd head to the door and you know, you see it sometimes, they look at the bulletin and say, oh, I'll come next week then, and they head out. So I want to just sneak attack you on that one. Hearing God's voice through submission. And I like what K.P. Yohannan wrote in a book that I'm recommending entitled, Touching Godliness. He said, why is it our flesh hates submission and resists learning about it? Is it because submission requires brokenness, humbling ourselves, choosing to become a lamb and not a wolf? And I think he's right there. Submission is difficult. Most won't like this sermon because it goes against our very nature. We have a hard time submitting to God, let alone others. Right? Let's be honest, why do we cringe at this word? Why do we cringe at this word submission? Because a lot of times we link it with failure or retreat or I was wrong. And really it has nothing to do with any of those things. So let's talk about what it has to do with. But when we talk about this area of submission, we have to remember that God's principles are guardrails, not roadblocks. You've heard me talk about that before, right? God's principles are guardrails through the canyons of life. They're not roadblocks. So anytime we look at his principles, there's a reason behind that. And there's victory there, there's peace there. And if submission is so bad, just look at all the problems that rebellion is causing. Think about that. If submission is so bad, look at all the problems that rebellion is causing. From broken marriages to prodigals, to fights, to quarrels, to church splits, to you name it. A lot of it has to do with this area of submission. God's laws free us. And I think we forget about that because we think of God's laws or God's principles and oh, I can't do this. But they actually free us. God's principles free me from shame and guilt. They release me from addictions and fear and anxiety. His laws are protecting us. We have to remember that God's principles protect the Christian. They protect the believer. It's nothing to fear. They're actually something to cherish. And think about this as well. God's creation submits to the laws of the creator. God's entire creation submits to the laws of the creator. Try resisting gravity. You're not gonna get very far, right? The second law of thermodynamics and all these things that scientists are understanding. God has established certain laws that His creation must submit to. What about God's Son? He submitted to the will of the Father, right? It was the will of the Father to go to the cross. Lord, if there's any other way, God the Father, Father, can you imagine Him in the garden of Gethsemane praying? Lord, if there's any other way, any other way, now's the time to do it. Change the course of history, do whatever it takes as the Father. If there's any other way, and that's the prayer that God could not answer because there's no other way. And He submitted to the will of the Father. And then isn't it ironic that Jesus submitted to Caesar? Pay taxes? Didn't cause some big revolt there in the Roman Empire? And then did Christ submit to His parents when He was being raised? I mean, we can assume so, right? I don't think He rebelled. And there's this area of submission that we see throughout Scripture. And here's what happens. Submission brings order and it can lead to peace. And here's a famous Scripture from Philippians 2.8. And being found in the appearance of a man, Christ, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. See, if you just stop and you think about Christ coming down from heaven, humbling Himself, taking on sinful fallen flesh, it's like jumping in a septic tank and then getting out and walking around. How would that? That's what He took on, sinful flesh, and became obedient to the point of death. Not just any death, not a noble death, a death that was looked upon as an accursed thing to be hung upon a tree. The worst possible death you could imagine. So we see this complete act of submission from the Father's will onto submission, onto obedience, onto the cross. And so it's throughout history, this area of submission. So what is submission? Well, you're probably thinking in your mind, yeah, this or that, or husbands and wives and kids, and let's just define submission. Submission is, and this sermon is for me too, right? Not just, oh, are you guys out there? This is for me too. Submission is submitting to God's authority. I have to submit to God's authority. And then submitting to it and obeying it with a cheerful heart, those He has put over me. And I'd say, well, it's easy for you to preach, Pastor. You're the pastor of the church. Well, guess what? I just wrote this down. I have to submit to God in the morning. And then I submit to the needs of my family. And then I submit to the needs of those I'm serving. And then I have to submit to traffic laws in order to get there. And then I have to submit to flexible schedules, who my schedule seems to be really flexible nowadays. And then I have to submit to my plans being ruined. And then I need to go back and submit to the needs of the family, the needs of the church. And then I have to submit to the work of the Holy Spirit in my life, all in one day. We live a life of submission, whether you believe it or whether you realize it or not. And anytime we fail to submit to those things, what happens? That's where chaos comes in. That's where confusion, that's where anxiety and stress and fighting, fighting against God, fighting against the system. And you know, good old America, right? 1776, coming in with rebellion. Then you got the rebel Yale, the rebel Yale. Then you got the 1960s, let's rebel against authority. And now all the kids are rebelling against their parents. And we have this rebellion culture. That's why we don't like the word submission. But of course, I have to throw a disclaimer in there. There are isolated situations where those who are over us clearly disregard God's authority or where severe abuse is occurring. In those cases, we need to remove ourselves or disobey the authority. Because in order to obey them, I must disobey God. The funny thing is, this is an exception, not a rule. But people make it the rule and not the exception. Oh, I'm being abused at work. Well, welcome to the crowd. Welcome to the world. I remember one of the hardest jobs I've ever had was in 2001, 2002, 2003. I was hired from a local water district. I won't say which one. And I was hired to be their heavy equipment operator. It meant tearing up streets, crossing gas lines, Edison lines, Verizon, high voltage. It was a stressful job. And I had the taskmaster from hell above me. This guy had this complex and he was gonna boss everybody around, make them work certain hours. I mean, it was unbelievable. The words he would say, how he would treat people. But he never caused me to disobey God. He didn't say, we're gonna go pray at that temple on our lunch breaks, things like that. And God actually used that to break me. He used that heavy taskmaster. Oh, it's time to get off. Well, I need another hour of you guys. And he knew I was a Christian. And that was the hard part. Later, I was able to witness to him when I left there and different things. But that was a hard, very hard environment. You know how many times I honestly went home and was gonna quit? At least a dozen, at least a dozen. But you never quit when your emotions are high. When you leave a job, God usually opens another door or he'll give you peace or you'll be able to leave on good terms or the right way. So he used this unbearable situation to really break me more. What it showed me was how prideful I was. Because I go from running multiple fitness locations, making a lot of money, wearing a suit and tie, to now I'm digging ditches or the jigging bar down here trying to cross a gas main with this guy yelling at me. Man. But see, we don't understand. A lot of times, we can't humble ourselves. We think we can, but to really be humbled, God has to humble you. Because you'll pick and choose how you're humbled. But when God does it, the refiner's fire is intense. And it's there, I would go home and I would, I mean, I didn't even know, because once I rededicated my life cursing that used to be a, well, in construction, I mean, that's how you get by, you curse, you do that. Some of these words, like, Lord, they're coming back in my mind, I haven't said those words in three years. Why, what are you, and just through that, I remember one time I chewed out the guy and said, I'm gonna take you out right now and I just left in my truck, I can't stand this guy, I'm gonna beat him up. And so what did I have to do? Go home, apologize, come back to work, it's this process. So my whole point is that sometimes unbearable situations aren't necessarily to go and bail out of. Sometimes God's put us in that fire to let, refining that fire, he's chipping away certain things. But it wasn't abusive environment, he wasn't telling me to go pray to Allah and to go pray to this, and all these things that aren't, that are clear scriptural commands. And one of the big scriptures that we use in this area is Acts, I don't have time, but you can turn to Acts 4 and read the whole account that these people were ministering in Jesus' name in the Sanhedrin and said, what are we gonna do with these people? They're causing a whole uproar. And they said, well, well, here's what we'll do. We'll release you, but don't ever preach again in Jesus' name. And they said, well, hey, you take that to God, but as far as we're concerned, we listen to God and not you, we're going to have to preach in Jesus' name. But those verses you can't use on, well, I'm not gonna pay taxes, or I'm not gonna work for this hard person. You can't take scripture out of context. If somebody's doing, telling us to do something that clearly disregards God's word, then we have grounds. Look at this other, you see a lot of denominational splits happening right now, right? Presbyterian, Episcopalian, all these things now, the Methodists are going kind of in that direction. And they're wanting their denominate, everybody in the whole denomination to embrace gay marriage and ordain gay clergy. And see, that's, oh, can't do that. See, now I've gotta step away from that. Now I've gotta step away from, though you were my spiritual covering, and though I was submitted to your authority, now you're going in a direction that God clearly does not approve of, so now I've gotta go a different direction. So in order to obey God, I've gotta disobey you. But those are very isolated situations. They don't occur that often. The majority of the time, we just don't wanna submit to authority, right? This is the shooting straight time, 4 p.m. I can't shoot the 5.30 service straight. I can shoot you guys straight, though, right? Constant state of submitting. But when I rebel in these areas, submitting to God in the morning, and then submitting to the needs of my family, and then submitting to those in need, and then submitting, and the plans are being changed, and the traffic, you know, we're always submitting. And when I don't submit to those things, there's rebellion and there's chaos in my life, because I'm fighting against God's ordained structure of submission. Well, let's draw a distinction as well between a doormat and submission, because any time I talk about this individually, people are like, I can't just be a doormat. No, was Jesus Christ a doormat? Who in their right mind would say, yes, he was? Yeah, people walked all over him. Really, I've got a lot of scripture references I can point you to where he called people out as well, and he stood up, he was a lamb sled to the slaughter, but he opened not his mouth, but yet he had the power to wipe out that entire generation. That's strength under control, and that's what submission is. Here's the difference. We submit our strength and our will to the will of the Father. Submission. In other words, if somebody upsets me, I have the strength to probably beat them up, and I have the will to sin nature to do it, but I'm gonna submit to what God wants me to do. So it's strength under control. When I submit, I'm not saying I'm weak, I'm wrong, I'm this person, I'm so broken, I'm just this weak person. Submission is saying, I'm submitting. I could do something bad right now and say something wrong. I could do that, but don't say that, though, because then that just adds fuel to the fire. But in your mind, you're saying, I know I feel like this, but I'm submitting to what God wants me to do. And we submit that strength in a different direction. Does that make sense? That's submission. Because what's the whole word submission? Hupotasso in the Greek. Hupotasso, it's to arrange under in an orderly fashion. And the person submits on their own without God. Now, for you theological students out there, this whole word in the context of submission a lot of times is a middle voice, which means, it's an active verb, which means it's happening now. We submit. Hupotasso, I submit myself. I arrange myself in an orderly fashion. God doesn't have to force me. I do it on my own. And that's what submission is. And really, submission is a heart issue, and then obedience is the action. See, many people submit, and the heart's not right. Well, you're fooling yourself. That's not submission. That's, I'm going through the motions, and I think I'm fooling everybody except God. So all submission is is saying, I'm gonna do what God wants me to do. I don't like, I'm fighting the flesh, and I have to submit to the needs of others or even my own family. I have the strength and the sin nature to resist, but the Spirit of God within me wants me to submit. And if we're honest here tonight, this is where most quarrels, this is how most quarrels end up starting. Workplace, marriage, right here. The husband says, you won't submit to me. And the wife says, you're not a man I want to submit to. There we go, and guess what happens? We'll call it the merry-go-round. See that pink horse going around the merry-go-round? Guess what it does again? Oh, it just keeps going and around and around and around, and we just keep arguing. Somebody's gotta say, hey, I was wrong, and usually that's why I put the charge on the man. Lead by example. As Christ loved the church, I don't know too many women who won't want to submit to leadership that submits to Christ. I mean, maybe it's just the people I talk to. Ask my mom, ask the elders' wives, ask my wife. Women were created to want to help me and nurture and help somebody who's following Christ. And then as I'm following Christ and submitting to him, I'm also submitting to the needs of my family and to her. Whoever came up with the concept that men don't ever have to submit to anybody, we submit to God, and then as we submit to God, we submit to the needs of our family, and then our family follows that lead. So I encourage the man, listen, lead by example. You don't know what she needs. I'm not talking to her right now. I'm talking to you, to you. This is never gonna end. It's an endless cycle. Yeah, but I tried and she did it. No, no, it starts with us. It starts with, if the man's called to lead, then the man better lead in the area of submission and forgiveness. I've told you many times before, and I'll tell you again, but you can stop a lot of marriage problems if the man would say, listen, I was wrong, or I don't know how this got out of control. I don't want to go any further. Let's stop this and just pray, and love each other, and not fight, because you're not giving any kindle. You see a little fire going right there in your backyard? Go grab a can of gasoline, and what happens versus a can of water? You see the difference there. Are you fueling that fire or are you taking away from it? So that's what that, it's really the Greek word, hupotasso, is like a military term where they would come underneath an officer and they would line up and file. So what does it have to do with us? Well, here's what it has to do with us. There's three institutions that God has ordained. God has ordained the family. That's why we contend for marriage. God has ordained the church to be his voice, his conscience on the earth, and God has ordained the government. They are ordained by God, those three institutes. Now, let me unpack all that before I upset some people. Here's the dilemma. With these three institutions, I have dual citizenship. So do you. I'm a citizen of God's kingdom, but I'm also a citizen of the world, the church, the government, the family. And when it comes to this area of submission, most Christians apologize for God's word rather than see the wonderful dynamic that he has created. Have you ever noticed that before? Sometimes people apologize for God's word. I know it says this, but especially in this whole area of truth now, contending for certain things, it's almost like we come in apologizing for God's word, and I don't see that anywhere in scripture. You proclaim the truth, you don't apologize for it. Submission isn't the problem, sin is. Submission is a wonderful gift of God, but sin is a problem, and those in authority often abuse their position. So that's why this term has gained a lot of bad press, is because those in positions of authority have abused those underneath them. But the submission itself is very healthy. So let's not apologize for God's word. How's that sound? Let's just read it. First, the family. Ephesians 5, 21 through 28. Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife, as also Christ is the head of the church, and he is the savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her. So submission leads to peace in marriage. But here's the thing that many, many people are confused about. This is not the type of submission where you walk around with a rod of iron, saying you will submit to me. This is the picture here, think about, this is a picture of a husband submitting to Christ as the head of me. I'm submitting to Christ, I'm dying for my family, theoretically, spiritually, emotion, all these things. I'm submitting to the needs of my family. So as I submit to Christ, submit to the needs of my family, then the family says, oh, I wanna follow a man who does that. But as soon as you get outside of that and mess it all up, nobody wants to follow that. I mean, the moment a man has to say, I'm the man of this house, you will submit to me, you should have done. You're on the wrong, you're not even on the, we're not even reading the same book. That's forced submission. A person who's in authority really would never, have to say that. Think about, if I have to walk up here and go, listen, stop it right now, I'm the pastor of this church. Uh-oh, we're in trouble. You see how that works, though? So that's, when we talk about submission, because what happens when we talk about the submission of marriage, first the wife's going, oh, Lord, I don't have to submit to this clown. And the clown's saying, yes, she better submit to me. I mean, but I haven't met, I mean, sure you have, don't have to email me, but I haven't met too many women who wouldn't want to submit to a guy who sold out for Christ and submits his life for Christ and wants to lead his family in the fear and admonition of the Lord, and he has a heart of brokenness and humility. Why is he saying, I'm longing, I'm longing to follow a man like that. So you see, the Bible's not at fault. Who's at fault? Sinful, fallen man. However, I have seen on both sides, a husband whose wife is not a Christian makes it really hard to lead her, really hard to submit to her needs, because they're not biblical needs, the house is grumbling and complaining, but by his submission to her needs and by lovingly leading the house, and not this and not arguing, but she'll eventually, at some point, sometimes change. That's what the Bible says, stick with it. Or what about the flip side? The wife lovingly submits to the leadership of the husband and still honors God, as long as, again, back to not severe abuse, not causing them to do what God says not to do. Submission is very healthy, because you're not fighting against things, you're submitting to the will of God. And it's hard, isn't it? Submission is very hard. Why don't we want to do it? I'll tell you, I was going to read this later, but I'll just read it now. We are blinded by pride. Really, Shane? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Blinded, just blinded by pride. Me too. That's why I need the prayer closet in the morning in worship to just clear my eyes. Lord, humility. So we're blinded by pride. We despise submission. I don't even like red traffic lights. Just green is all the, oh, red again. Man, submitting, submitting. But guess what happens if I didn't submit? No more pastor. Submitting to those things. We desire control. Well, most men, right? We've got to desire control. We want things our way. We can't stand constructive criticism. We want what's best for us. We want the quickest and the easiest path, right? So what submission does is submission governs the flesh, and it controls the flesh. Do you ever remember back, maybe some of you remember older than me, they used to have, maybe they still have something on a vehicle you could put on a vehicle called a governor. It would govern the speed, and you couldn't go over a certain speed. I remember I had a 1975 Chevy Blazer. My mom might remember this. My dad would say, listen, if you don't control your speed, I will control it for you, and put a governor on that Chevy Blazer. No matter how far you push down that gas pedal, you're gonna stick at 55. How do you like those apples? Why did I need a governor? Because I want to see how fast that thing could go. That's what submission is, folks. Submission is the governor of the soul, the governor of the flesh. Submission helps me keep my flesh in control. As I submit to the needs of my wife and kids. Perfectly? Absolutely not. But ask Morgan. Sometimes we'll talk, she'll say, listen, Aubrey needs a date. Gracie hasn't seen you in a while. Let's take her out, Shane. I need some time. We need to get a babysitter. Let's get a, so okay, I'm submitting to those needs. See, it's not walking around, just I'm doing it. I'm like a CEO in a Fortune 500 company. You're running your house like that, you're in trouble. You will not win your family even to Christ. Remember when I quoted Josh McDowell a long time ago? How can we, young adults are saying, how can we embrace the Christ that we don't want the Christ that our parents have? We don't want Christ. We don't want the Christ that we see in our parents. A lot of it has to do with submission. They're not submitting to Christ and they don't see that loving, nurturing home. So that's why submission is so important. Something has to govern the flesh because I'll tell you right now, you're sure not gonna govern your own flesh, me neither. It's only the powerful work of the Holy Spirit in our lives that allows us to live the spirit-filled life. But how are you filled by the Holy Spirit if you're always rebelling? You're not. You might think you are, but the only way, one aspect of the Holy Spirit of God, gentleness, kindness, love, joy, peace, is submission. As I submit to God, I fill with the Spirit of God. And submission is just strength under control. Like sometimes I go somewhere, a little high schooler will be on my, you know, I told you, on my truck and he'll be wanting to ram the back of my truck because he's in a hurry. Well, let's pull over. Let's talk about this. Old school, right? That's not gonna be good. So I have to submit. Go around me, just see there's that strength. I could take him out, I could hurt him real bad, but I end up in jail. So I have to submit that strength to the submit to the right thing because the flesh wants to go get him. The flesh wants to get the last word in. I'd rather have peace in my house and not get the last word in. Right? I'm gonna work on that still. That's a hard one. That is a hard one. Not getting the last word in is a hard, you gotta almost just bite your lip. Oh, man, I want them to feel my pain and get that last word in. So that's why submission is so hard. So the four o'clock service was not a funny service. That was a serious one. So let's get back to seriousness. So the three institutions, family, God has ordained the family. That's why, why do you think the family's under attack so much? Think about it. They're going for the hearts and the mind of our children. They're going to break up the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman. They're going after God's ordained institution to raise and rear children, to love and nurture and support. It should be a holy sanctuary where we come out edified from the family. That's why he's going after it. And in this area of submission, West Side Christian Fellowship, in case you're interested in these big words, you're probably not, but we're considered to be complementarian versus egalitarian. The difference is egalitarian sees everything as equal. Everything. So women pastors, women senior pastors, women, everything, the same as me, everything's equal. Where we see it as complementary, where we're complementing different God-given roles. Neither is superior, but there's different roles. Morgan does things way better with the kids and other people that, you should thank God for her because she balances out my type A personality. You probably should send him a thank you card. You might want to remember it's this person's birthday. Remember, you know, all those things. She balances that out. So we complement each other. And then there's other things that I compliment. You see how that works? God says, here's the roles. Actually, God says, here's how I designed it. Here's how I created it. Live and be blessed. But we say, no, I'm gonna fight all that. So that's one area. It has to be in the family. And don't get me wrong. I know it's hard. I know it's hard to submit when the home is a volcano. It's hard to submit when you're getting cuss words thrown at you. Oh, I live in the real world, trust me. That doesn't happen to our house. I'm just saying, cuss words. But I know, I think it's been a while for that, actually. But I know that submission is not easy. So I'm not going, oh, come on, guys, just submit. I know there's different dynamics. I know it's hard. But I know when you take God at his, if you said, I'm in a hard situation, Lord, but I'm gonna submit. You're honoring God. See, and submission doesn't mean, all right, I'm wrong, you're right. Oh, geez. That's not submission. Submission says, I'm gonna please God and I'm gonna honor his word. I'm gonna show you my heart is good and right in this. I'm gonna submit myself. Hupotasso, willingly arranging my life in such a way that I submit to what God has ordained. You see how powerful that is? So that's the family. Now it goes into the church. The second institution that God has given us is the church. And it's very healthy. Let me make this statement up front. It's very healthy and very freeing to submit to a healthy Christ-centered church. There's safety there. There's safety there. But it's very unhealthy to submit to a church that's not Christ-honoring and doesn't look to the word of God. It's not humble and broken. And if you look at many cults, many different cults make this issue of submission huge, don't they? It's number one on their list. You have to come to our church, be baptized in our baptismal, give your money here. Actually, we're gonna look at your tax records and you have to submit. You can't date or you can't marry until we say. It's just close, sucks the life out of you. That's not the kind of submission we're talking about. This is the good God-given submission that he's given the church. And actually, leadership, the leadership in the church, we're led by elders in the church. I'm the lead elder. There's other elders too. But we submit to 1 Timothy 3. I have to submit to the 1 Timothy 3 guidelines of what I'm called to do. You know, all that you can go look at tonight, 1 Timothy 3, I submit to that. I also have to submit to the needs of the church. My whole day changed around 11 o'clock this morning. I'll explain why in a little bit because of the needs of the church. And we're submitting. And I have to submit actually to this building who we rent this church from. I have to submit to their needs and it's not always easy. I just don't say it sometimes. I remember our first year, we were here about a year. But I love this church. Pastor Sean's probably a good friend of mine and we joke about some of these things sometimes. But they came and they said, hey, Christmas Eve falls on a Saturday night. Chris, you'll probably remember this. Christmas Eve falls on a Saturday night. We're actually gonna have a Christmas Eve service. So you can either join our church or postpone church another week. You gotta be, remember, I went home, I was mad for a day. I was like, you gotta be, you can't just, you can't just tell a church to take a break for a week or just come be part of that service. We do things all differently. What, Lord, this is, well, what do you do? Submit or rebel? So am I gonna get on the phone and argue? But of course, no, they said, you can use it every Saturday as long as there's not something special coming up. So, you know, I kinda knew it. I just never thought it would happen. So we had about three weeks notice. We had about three weeks notice. We printed up all these postcards that said, Christmas Eve service, 4 p.m. That will be done by time, 5.30, they start at six. It was one of the highest attended services we've ever had. It was a message God just blessed. I mean, I felt just a strong anointing. People were saved. I mean, it was like, wow, they just submitted, submitted. But what I didn't know is people wanna go to early church service because they've got the whole night then ahead of them for Christmas Eve. So had I fought that the whole way, and just said, okay, we'll do a four o'clock. Jeez, who's gonna come at four o'clock? Man, and it's packed at four o'clock on Christmas Eve. So I'm just telling you that, but it wasn't easy. It was like, oh, that's a great idea. Let's just, you know, we'll just not have a church service that night. It's like, I can't believe they're doing this. But when I submitted to it, you look back, it was a beautiful thing, it's a wonderful thing. And also the timeframes now, four o'clock service is growing almost as much as a 5.30, and God's just doing a lot of things. Once you submit to things you don't wanna do. So he's given the church the spiritual authority. So see, we don't understand sometimes, like I like what Martin Luther King Jr. said. You know who he is, right? Hopefully. He said, the church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state. We are the conscience of the state. And if the church loses its prophetic zeal, she will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority. So in a nutshell, we are the conscience of the nation. We are the conscience of the people, not the government. The government needs to shut their mouth when it comes to religion. Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, establishment clause, nor preventing the free exercise thereof. Congress should not make any, get your hands out of the pot when it comes to religion. Leave us alone to do our job. We're the conscience of the nation. But the government is protecting, they're supposed to protect and defend, and I'm gonna get to that in a minute. So here's the role of the church, Matthew 16. I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church. Think about this. This is Jesus Christ saying this. You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it. Then he goes on to say, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. This, think about this. Sometimes we just gloss over scripture. Oh yeah, whatever. Jesus is saying, I'm gonna build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail. The real blood-bought church of Jesus Christ, I don't care what the media says. I don't care, Christianity's leaving America. I don't care what they say. The true blood-bought church of Jesus Christ on the planet will prevail because it's built on the glorious gospel of Christ himself. So because of that, Jesus is saying, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loose in heaven. Think how powerful this is. If there's somebody coming in who's possessed by a demon, and we pray, and we say, in Jesus' name, relieve that person of this. You have no power in this place. You are not welcome here by the name of Jesus Christ. We ask, no, we tell you, we command you, leave this place, and we loose that, and Christ honors that. If they honor that in heaven, whatever is loosed here and bound here, there's power in the name of Christ. There's power in prayer. That's why we want to encourage prayer. It's not just, oh, let's go back and say a few little things. You're binding, and you're loosing, you're releasing, you're setting free. You're conquering kingdoms in prayer. Christ gave us that ability, but it's time to step on some toes, because this is one of the key scriptures where Protestantism and Roman Catholics go this way. They say that the church is built on Peter. What? Christ said, and you can get into the Greek of petra, petro, stone, and rock, and all these things, but Peter is saying before this that you are the Christ, the son of the living God, and Jesus says, Peter, flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father has revealed this to you, and on this confession that I am the son of God, I'm gonna build my church, and the church, the gates of hell will not prevail against it, so it's not built on one man. The church isn't built on Peter. Think about that, but not Christ, so then what comes in is something called apostolic succession. The papacy, the popes, they're like Peter now, so they have the, oh, the church is built on the papacy. The popes have the final authority. See, that's heretical. They think I'm heretical. I know they are based on the scripture. You're building your church on Jesus Christ, the church universal, not a man dictates God's word. The church universal can release and bind the church, the church of Jesus Christ. The Bible calls us all saints. The Bible says that Christ is our mediator. Christ is our high priest, not somebody else. See how they just take everything away, and I don't wanna get off on some rabbit trail, but this is the primary scripture. Why so much power is given to the papacy, to the popes? Because the apostolic succession from Peter to, well, they probably lost, I think, for 300 years. They didn't know who Peter really was, the lineage there, and then it became the papacy, and this pope, and this pope, and this pope, so that's why they have great authority over the church, more than Christ, honestly. Whatever they say goes. Mary's co-redeemer. Pray to the saints. Not good. That's not good. But if I would've said these things 500 years ago, I would've been burned at the stake. And think about it, it breaks God's heart more than mine that power is vested in a structure that is drifted from him. It's not me. Think about it. Jesus saying, I will build my church on your confession, Peter, that I am the son of God, and on that confession, the gates of hell will not prevail. I mean, if church is gonna be built on anybody, why not Paul? I mean, it can't be built on a man because man fails. So this is a very important juncture here, and as much as we love, you know, I love when I talk to Roman Catholics, they're just really hung on this, that the pope took on that apostolic succession, the power of Peter has followed them, so that's why they're the final say. You see how you can kind of twist scripture to meet your own, you know, ends there? So God has given the church, the church at spiritual authority over the people and over the, if it's done right, you can, when the church is walking in the fear of the Lord and prayer and worship are powerful and they're looking to the word of God and we've got humble, broken men and women in here, wow, you can set the captives free, you can see salvation weekly, the power of God is operating in your life. That's why he created the institution. So we have to submit to that. I submit to the body, the body submits to leadership, we all submit together. So when somebody, you know, that's why quarrels come, someone wanna do this, wanna butt heads, instead of just submitting to how God has called us, and God has ordained that special place. And then the third thing, of course, that nobody wants to talk about right now, but God has ordained this institution and that institution is the government, wow. Think about this though, for those who want to complain, that would be me sometimes, think of the alternative, no authority, no police, no peace. Think of the alternative. Like I said earlier, first service, we'd have 14 bolt locks on our front door, right? We'd have a shotgun lean up against it, I have a 357 Magnum underneath the bed, I'd have some Glock nine millimeters in each of the bathrooms. I'd have the door locked with a little gun hidden there. I mean, that would be anarchy, it'd be crazy. And Romans 13, God says, listen, for this reason, let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there's no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted. And those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror to those who are doing right, but for those who are doing wrong, do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. For the one in authority is God's servant for good, but if you do wrong, be afraid. For rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God's servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on wrongdoers. What he's saying there is God instituted government to be a terror to those who do evil. That's the whole purpose of government. Paul's writing from Rome, no doubt he knows that Caesar is probably gonna read this, and reminding him, hey listen, the government, the whole point of government, the institution of government, if you go back to the Mosaic Law, even in the Old Testament, the government was to protect, to administer justice and defend the nation. That's it, that's the role. Not to do this or subsidize this or do this, all these different things, the whole role of government's not to do. So obviously we would submit to that authority, right? We submit to police, even firemen, and things that God has given us to submit to them, and there's protection there. And I'm reminded on this point, Philippians 2.14, do all things without grumbling and complaining. Next time we want to complain, do you realize that we live in the most blessed place on the planet? You live like a million, we live like millionaires. The cars we drive, the air conditioning, the seating in here, we have a dozen different options of food before you get home. I wouldn't recommend most of them. Right, you do. This is everywhere, we're so blessed that our blessing has become our curse. Now we sit like little school kids and we bicker and argue and complain about everything, everything. Gotta make $150,000 a year, they tax me too much. Well you make more than a whole city in Africa. I mean, where's this come from? We have to be careful here that we're not fighting against God in some of these things. And I know it's hard, being with the construction background, I got into a lot with the city and the county, right? Oh, the city, oh, the county. You know, just arguing, arguing. Last year we bought a home and it had a third car garage office in it, it wasn't, it was kind of done okay. But four days before we were supposed to close escrow, they came and said you have to remove that whole garage, or that whole office, and put it back, all the electrical back to the box, everything back to the way the garage is supposed to be. You think I was happy? Man, I think I drove down to the city and they were closed that day. I was like, oh, this is not good. But then finally submitting to that. So took all day, me and my brother, another guy, sled jammers, removed the whole walls, cut down all the bolts that were in the concrete floor, and just got rid of it and finally closed escrow. But then we came back, we saw our, the appraisal was actually higher than we thought, and we were able to build an office the right way with permits, and come to find out that actually increases the value of your home three times more than what was initially there. Or three times more than what you put into, because now you can count all that square footage. And it's a lot nicer, it's safer, and also, if I would've just submitted from the get-go, instead of trying to fight the city and county, it would've been well. Also, a couple months ago, I got a parking ticket. I drove up into my driveway, but not all the way. So my back four feet of my truck's blocking the sidewalk. Big deal, come on. Just gonna run into the house, get some things. So 45 minutes later, I come out, and there's this big ticket, $68. Wow, I'm driving around trying to find this little parking meter guy. I was, I'm so glad I didn't find him. So glad I didn't find him. But anyway, after you cool down a little bit, right, okay, okay, I'll just, I'm not even gonna get into it, I'm not even gonna fight it, what's there to fight? I mean, I was in the sidewalk. So I sent in the $68, and then, no joke, I think it was the last two weeks ago, I was riding bikes with my kids. And I was, man, they're going down the sidewalk, oh, and there's a car parked in the sidewalk. Who does that? Who does that? I'm glad they weren't out front, because my daughter almost hit your stupid car. Now she had to go out in the street around it. Who does that kind of stuff? So a light bulb went on, oh, man, God, you spanked me again. But isn't it interesting how we don't see these things? Blinded by pride, what's easy for me, what's convenient, I'm in a hurry. So looking back, thank God for some of these things. Because it does keep order. I mean, would you rather have anarchy? Nobody would, maybe some tough guys out there might say, yeah, bring it on. But most people, most people do not want anarchy. I mean, it's ridiculous. So God has put the family to raise and nurture children, and to be a holy sanctuary, to honor God, to be Christ-honoring, from that flows everything. That's where our foundation is. And then, the government, right? Workplace, the church, all these things are affected by this area of submission. And that's why there's a key here, hearing his voice. Hear God's voice when you submit. And I don't think we realize how big this is, because if we're walking around, and we're not submitting to the needs of our family, we're not submitting to the needs of the church, we're walking around in a rebellion, and rebellion is as a sin of witchcraft. And we wonder, why is things not going well? Why am I always depressed? Why am I upset? Why is this, why does life seem to be doing this? Well, sometimes, not all the time, sometimes it's this area of submission. Because when we begin to hear God, we begin to submit ourselves, we begin to hear his voice, and the blessings of God flow into and out of a submissive, humble heart. Can you show me a few, just after the service, one, couple scriptures where God blessed prideful, arrogant men. Oh, no, no, we can't throw one. Come on, just one or two. Where are they at? None, because we're fighting against God. See, sometimes I'd rather make less money and honor God and submit and have peace, than try to fight for my rights and submit in these areas. The blessings of God flow into and out of a submissive, humble heart. Listen to this, his will becomes clear. When I'm submitting, God's will is so much more clear. How? Because I'm submitting to what he wants me to do. Lord, what's the next thing you want me to do? What's the next thing you want me to do? I'm submitting, I'm trying at home, I'm trying. Lord, what's, and his will becomes clear, because I'm not fighting all the time against things, and resistance is minimized. Do you ever have resistance in your life? Feels like I'm up against a wall, everything's like this. Resistance, where's all this resistance coming from? Well, a lot of time, it's coming from within, and submission relieves that resistance, because submission is like, I'm getting out of the way, so there's no resistance. You see how that works? Submission is powerful. When we submit, his will becomes clear, resistance is minimized, and effort is eased, because we are flowing with God, versus fighting against him. Think about jumping into a nice river that's running. You just wanna jump into it and slow down with it. Isn't that nice and relaxing? That's what submission is. Lord, I'm gonna jump into your will, and just flow down with you. Is there still swimming? Yeah, is there still difficulty? Yeah, is there still maybe, you know, a snake in the water down there? Yeah, I mean, life's not a bowl of cherries. It's difficult, but you're going with God instead of resisting him. And you know right now, because if I know the Holy Spirit, he didn't just put this message together for no reason, and he's convicting people right now. Yeah, he's convicting me. Shut my mouth about the government. See, shutting your mouth doesn't mean you agree with. Submission doesn't mean I was wrong, you're right. It just means, Lord, I'm gonna obey scripture. I mean, how do you read, do all things without grumbling and complaining, yet we go out and grumble and complain all day? I'd love to know how you reconcile that. Please tell me, because I sure can't. It's one or the other. Yeah, but, no, don't get the yeah buts in there. The average American makes more than a small village in Africa. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people in the Sudan or different areas, all their income combined to the average American. I mean, we talked about toys, cars, houses, vehicles. Think about how blessed we are. Because when you start thinking about the blessings of God, it's hard to be critical. One or the other's gonna dwell up here. When I'm thanking God, I'm not a very critical person. But when I become critical, I don't wanna thank God. They fight against each other. And you know the famous scripture that people like to quote and excuse all kinds of odd behavior, is where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Right? I mean, I've seen weird stuff in church. I'm like, oh, goodness. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, brother, there's liberty, there's freedom. No, it's not. Read the whole scripture in context. There's talking about the atmosphere of freedom. He's saying where the Spirit of the Lord is, there's freedom. We want to serve, we're not forced. Submission fosters that environment. So where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. We can worship God, we can go out and serve, there's not this forcing on us, there's not this hard rigidness, there's this freedom there from being filled with the Spirit of God. So when the Spirit of the Lord manifests Himself in a church in the right way, there's freedom there, there's liberty. You're not feeling compelled and pushed because God, why? Because the Holy Spirit in you and the Holy Spirit in me and the Holy Spirit in them, there's freedom there. It fits, it's all going, flowing in the right direction. That's where that freedom comes from. I don't want to ignore this part even though I want to skip over on the first service, but most spiritual, physical, and mental problems, if you're going through something right now, I didn't say all, okay? I didn't say all. All spiritual, all physical, I'm saying most. Most spiritual, physical, and mental problems can be traced back to rebellion. If you show me a problem and I trace it back, often it leads to rebellion somewhere, somewhere. There's rebellion in there. Look at the spiritual. If there's a problem spiritually, it's often because we're not allowing humility and gentleness to truly guide us. We're not obeying God, but instead we're fighting Him. We're fighting His obedience. So now there's problems spiritually and I wonder why. Submission issue, many times. What about physically? I saw this in the health and fitness industry all the time. I know how to take care of my body, but I choose not to. I won't submit to the physical laws of like kinesiology, biochemistry, how God designed a person, how He designed you and me. If we rebel against that and we just treat the temple like junk, like the garage, you know, the dump down on Avenue I, if that's how you treat your body, there's going to be ramifications of that. We have to submit to how God has created us. I see this a lot. You see very healthy people aren't at the doctors very much. There's not a lot of physical problems all the time because they're taking care of the one gift God has given them to operate in, their entire life, their body. And a lot of our problems, if I talk to, especially, I used to talk to a lot of people on nutritional deficiencies or problems or this or diabetes, and you can trace it back to not taking care of what God has given them. Their body. I mean, that could be a whole sermon itself I'd love to do sometime because you'll begin to see how that plays, the body, soul, and spirit play a role. It's very hard to just grow spiritually on fire for God yet neglect the physical health of our body. Because when I'm amped up on donuts and caffeine, I'm not a fun guy to be around. And you're sure not going to hear this sermon very well. I'm going to be a hurry man, right? What about if I eat a big, stop an In-N-Out burger on my way here? I'd be like this. Oh, guys, just read your Bible next week. Let's just go into an hour and a half worship. That's how you take care of it, right? Or what about moving? Kinesiology, that's just kinetic energy. It's how the body moves. God designed us to move. Not sit on a computer for eight hours. And, oh, everything's breaking down. Move how God created, submitting to how God created us. If you don't have something to do, see us. We have plenty of ministry opportunities for you. Plenty. I mean, honestly, we get calls just a few weeks ago. Lady's bedridden, can't get out of her house. Her husband's ill. Do you have any guys that come clean trash around the yard and mow the lawn? No, no, nobody wants to serve. They're all too busy. I mean, just those little things. We can keep people busy. Remember the three homes that I told you about, the hospitals inside of homes. We're starting a long list, and we've got people that can go and serve there and help in those areas. There's tons of things that we can do if we want to. What about mental problems? Many people say, I might act submissive, but my mind is a raging volcano. Have you ever noticed that? Some people say, you don't have to be submissive, but inside their mind, it's a raging volcano. God says, let that go. Submit. See, submission is up here, too. You can just go to the state penitentiary tomorrow. You'll see a lot of people submitting, but their heart's not right. It's not happening up here. So submission is an issue of the heart that goes out into our actions. I've got tons of scriptures. You can go online and get the complete sermon notes online. It'll be underneath the video on everything I'm talking about here. I talked about James 4.7. If I had time, we could talk about that, where it says, submit to God. Submit to God. You want to get rid of some sin in your life? Submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. So submission leads to victory. 1 Peter, likewise, you younger people, submit yourself to the elders. Submission leads to God's grace and his blessing. Ephesians 5, let each one in particular so love his own wife and submit to her needs as himself. That would end half the marriage counseling appointments right there, right there. We need marriage counseling. Are you loving your wife as Christ loved the church and submitting to her needs as your own? Well, we need to talk. Well, no. First, are you doing this? See, everybody wants to go around scripture. Well, let's go around scripture, and let's not avoid those. It's like the elephant in the room. There's an elephant in the room nobody wants to talk about. Just give me some nuggets and this and that. No, what does scripture say? Listen, you would change people's perceptions. You would change your heart if you just love them like Christ loved the church. Well, it's not happening. No, it might take a few weeks or a few months. The Bible doesn't say do this, and then tomorrow you'll reap the rewards. But if you trust who God is, it will reap someday. We just want it to be today. And then what about Ephesians 6? Be obedient to those who are your masters in the workplace. So submission leads to peace in the workplace. Oh, man, have I seen that? The more we want to rebel against our authorities in the workplace, that's never a good thing. If they're not causing us to do something unbiblical or harassing, it leads to peace in the workplace. Ephesians 6, one through four. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with the promise that it may be well with you, and you may live long on earth. So submission can lead to longevity in the blessings of God. You see how this works throughout Scripture? But let me just close with a few things. We can once again put ourselves in the center of God's will and hear his voice. Because I know there's many people here going, Shane, I haven't been hearing God's voice. I have been rebelling in a lot of areas. What I often say, the one thing I love about God, well, there's many things, but you can reposition yourself right back into the center of his will. He doesn't say, well, you're gonna have to wait six months now, you're gonna have to do penance and go through some, you're gonna get some whippings. He says, just reposition yourself. Right now, reposition yourself in my will. Submit to me. Submit to the things you know you need to submit to. If you haven't done things right in the last 10 years, you know God's convicting your heart, go tonight, start. Submit to those things, and God will begin to rebuild your life. Like I said earlier, I'd rather hold my peace and have peace. Did you catch that? I'd rather hold my peace and have peace in my life. Do you know how many text messages or emails or words I stop? I say, well, that's not gonna go good. So I'd rather just hold my peace and submit and have peace. I'd rather make less money yet have more. I'd rather submit and obey than resist and fight. Did you hear that? I'd rather submit and obey than resist and fight. I'd rather not get the last word in and experience tremendous joy. Last one's a hard one, though, isn't it? But I'd rather not get the last word in. So hold me accountable on that one. But let me talk about this briefly. The greatest act of submission that we ever saw was Christ on the cross. Remember, taking you back, can you imagine God in heaven? Everything he had, coming down, submitting to the cross. The cross. This isn't some, well, inconvenient. This was horrific. He submitted to the cross, and from that, peace from submission. So from Christ submitting, that brought peace. So when you submit to God, it brings peace, especially if you don't know him. And I was reminded this week, if you submit now to God, or you submit later, but either way, you're gonna submit. Did you catch that? You submit now, or you submit later, but either way, you're gonna submit. And the Bible says, all about submission is it says, if you believe in the name, if you believe in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, if you believe, if you confess with your mouth and believe that he is who God said he is, you believe that he was resurrected, you believe he died for your sins, you will be saved. And from Christ's submission, that brings peace. You see how powerful that is? That's where true peace comes from. There's true peace in submission. Submitting to the will of the Father brings tremendous joy and comfort and peace. And I wanted to close a little bit differently tonight, like I did the earlier service, and just briefly give just a powerful testimony. Many of you know of the hospitals and the homes that we've been visiting for the past few weeks. Paul has set it up, and Tom, and Lisa, and Randy, and I mean, so many people have been instrumental. And Sierra, I think you're back there too. So many have been so instrumental. And actually, I went Wednesday last week, and I visited all three, took me about six hours. And it was one of the most fulfilling, yet draining days I've experienced in a long time. But one of the people I met at that facility is actually here tonight, Trilby. And I talked with her for an hour. And she couldn't tell, but I was wiping away some tears while we were talking. And she said, I was given permission to tell her testimony briefly. And I'm hoping I can get through this. It was kind of hard, the first service, and just thinking about it. But to see her have tremendous peace, she has more peace than a lot of people in this room. More peace, where does that come from? A couple years ago, she said she had a, I don't know if it was a .44 or what it was, a pistol, and pulled the trigger to take her life, and the bullet went, took out the teeth behind the nose and in the front of her skull. It was gone. And she woke up, and she said, oh, I wish I was dead. And she's not, and then she lost her sight eight months ago. She went blind eight months ago from an infection. And just talking with her in her room, and just ministered to me more than, so I just want to personally thank her again. She thanked us extensively for ministering to them, and I just want to thank her for ministering to us, ministering to me, and to go there and just to see lives radically changed by the power of the gospel, by people reaching out. But how does she have more peace than most people I know? Where does that come from? It comes from being in a right relationship with God and submitting to His peace. See, the only way to experience this peace is to submit to this peace. Now she says she wants to stay in this house and not move out of town because she loves the church so much and people have blessed her life, and she's been a blessing here as well. But I just saw that peace, I was just starting to, I mean, I wouldn't tell her, because I'm a tough guy, right? But, you know, just, oh, Lord, you're just killing me. You're killing me. I'm just leaving there weeping and just leaving there broken and leaving there. But we need to, you need to be exposed to that sometimes as far as hearing people, hear how God's changed your life and the peace of God. It was just amazing. And another story I want to share briefly, if Chris will put it up, this is where my plans changed this morning. Tom and Paula and Sierra, Lisa and Randy have been ministering to this house, this house over on East Lancaster. And this gentleman, John went in for a little surgery or something to remove scar tissue on his neck and then left the hospital through a course of some times. Now he's paralyzed from the neck down. So he just said, hey, can you read with me? Can you talk to me? And so I went in and talked with him and I picked up the Bible on Wednesday. I said, you want me to read the Bible to you? He said, absolutely. And well, as God would have it, Luke 13, the narrow way and the broad road that leads to destruction, how pride can blind us. And I could tell, you know, he was definitely listening and intent. And Tom and Paula, everybody's been ministering. I can't take any credit. I'm just doing what God's called me to do. And then we got the call. I think this morning I got a text this morning said he's ready to receive Christ and pray and trust in Christ. So I met Paula, I met Tom and Sierra over there and was able to just lead him through the prayer and just seeing the joy on his face. So the next time, I mean, he's from the neck down. And the best gift I saw his eyes light up, the church got him this headset he puts on. He can listen to the radio station, hear all the worship and hear all the, because I wanted to give him something. He's got all that soap operas and all that junk on TV just nagging you out, pulling you down, give him the spiritual life. And now he's asking, can you come read the Bible to me? Can we people talk? He's just staying in that bed. But how does he have more peace than many people, even in this room? You tell me, you tell me folks. How, where does that come from? The peace of God that surpasses all understanding. It will guard your heart, it will guard your mind, but you have to submit to that peace. How, Shane? Well, if you're not a believer, you repent of your sin. You ask God to come in and change your heart and to change your life. And Paula and Tom are doing such amazing things over there and the nurses are asking. This guy used to be angry and yelling at them. Now he's calm, what's going on? What's going on in your church? What's going on? The ripple effect of the peace of God moving in this place and in our lives. And if you do know him and there's no peace, then it begins with reestablishing that relationship, getting back in his will. You know exactly what areas that I'm talking about because God's been prompting you. Go back and make that relationship right with your this or your that or your spouse or your family, your friends. Go back and fix that relationship. Go back and mend it. I don't care if it's been 20 years. Go back and submit to the will of the Father. How long are you gonna keep fighting against God? How long? Because you will not win. You will not win. This is a loving father saying, stop. Stop, submit. Submit to what you know to be right. Submit to what I'm calling you to do. But also, I think Paula and Tom are gonna have sign-ups for if you wanna go and just minister at these homes. And you're gonna say, what in the world do I talk about? Guess what? They just wanna talk to you. Tell them about your story. Tell them about your testimony. It will change your life. That's real ministry. Christ said, when I was hungry, you fed me. When I was naked, you clothed me. When I was thirsty, you gave me water. When, Jesus, when? And as much as you did to the least of these, you did it to me. You don't have to pray about this type of ministry. You just need to go. And it's very, it was uncomfortable for me to go in all these rooms and see and just cry. And I just felt I wanted to do so much for these people. But God changed my heart as well. As we were able to minister to them, they'll minister to you. This is ministry 101. It doesn't get any more ministry than this. This is it. And I would just encourage you to sign up. We need more people to visit these homes, especially East Palmdale, West Palmdale. And actually, the owners of these homes are gonna open up more homes, and they want us to come in and do the same thing in these homes. So we just thank God at what God's doing, but we need the people. We need the people to go and do this and just share the love of Christ to them. It's all you have to do. You don't have to preach. I just read the Bible and said, here's what it means to me. That's all I did. I didn't get out the Greek and the Hebrew and bring it on this. Just minister to them in that way. So I just encourage you to sign up. Our goal is to have so many people that these places are just flooded with the love of Christ. But we wanna make sure you're a solid Christian. You've been attending here for a while. This is done under the banner of West Side Christian Fellowship. You're representing the church. So we're gonna have, we wanna know you. We wanna know you very well if you're gonna be ministering on behalf of West Side. So keep that in mind. No might be no right now until we get to know you better, because that's what we're, we're also given that responsibility of making sure that we're caring for the people that we're allowed to do this with. So I went on longer than I wanted to, but I think the point was made that we all need to submit in some form or fashion.