Thank you very much. It's good
to see such a nice crowd here on a late Wednesday night. It's
good to be back with you. I want you to turn your Bibles
to Luke's Gospel with me if you'd like to read my text along with
me. Luke's Gospel, Chapter 15. A very familiar passage. I told
someone, they asked me about what I was going to preach on.
It won't be anything new. Just what I preach at home all
the time. Don used to do this a lot, but I'm not Don. He used
to go off and preach a different message. I've seen him go to
the motel room and he'd preach a different message every night
that he hadn't preached before. That was amazing to me. I'm afraid
to do that. I'll preach what I preach at
home. Let me read these two verses
to you, a very familiar verse and beginning of the parables
of the lost sheep and the coin and the prodigal son. But let
me read these two verses to you. Then drew near unto him all the
publicans and sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees and
the scribes murmured, saying, this man receiveth sinners and
eateth with them. This has always been an amazing
passage to me. The Son of God came down from
heaven, holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. And sinners
drew near to hear Him. Publicans drew near to hear the
Son of God. I've often thought of this. I
preach, and one, every once in a while, will come to the Lord. But when the Lord Jesus Christ
preached Himself, they flocked to Him. All the publicans and
sinners came to hear Him. And sometimes it makes me want
to apologize to people, and even apologize to the Lord, that I
have never preached Jesus Christ as plainly and as freely as He
preached Himself. When He preached Himself, Republicans
and sinners flocked to hear Him. This is one of the most amazing
statements, I think, that I've ever read in all the New Testament. That Jesus Christ, the holy Son
of God, God incarnate, come down from heaven, and sinners drew
near to hear His Word. They weren't repulsed by Him.
Not even by His holiness. They drew near to hear Him. And
I don't think you and I should be so naive, brothers and sisters,
to think that these publicans were just bad sinners with good
hearts. These were some scoundrels. They
were thieves. They got rich on the back of
their poor Jewish brother. They always collected more taxes
than they should have. They had a lot of influence with
the Roman soldiers because they carried these papers And if somebody
didn't pay the taxes that they demanded, they would hand it
to a soldier, the soldier would arrest them. They'd have men
and women and children put in prison. They were mean men. They
weren't nice people at all. Tax collectors. And these sinners,
we're not told here, Luke doesn't tell who these sinners are, but
in other places we're told, One was a woman taken in adultery
in the very act. She was in adultery with another
woman's husband. I bet she didn't look too highly
on that, did she? She didn't think that was too
romantic. No telling how many women, how many families that
woman had separated and divided. She was an adulteress. She came
to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord saved her. Another had
seven devils. You imagine what kind of attitude
that woman must have had? What she said? What she did? You wouldn't want her to be in
your neighborhood, would you? She had several devils. She came
to Christ. She drew near to the Lord and
heard Him. All kinds of sinners came to
the Lord Jesus Christ. We read about thieves. We read
about adulterers. We read about drunks, blasphemers,
abusers of themselves with mankind. So it's an amazing statement
here, the Holy Ghost said, publicans and sinners drew near to Him. That's a great mystery to me.
The older I get, and when I see so few coming to the Savior. This is more amazing to me than
ever. And when you and I know that people will not come, and
people cannot come apart from the work and grace of the Holy
Spirit, this is an amazing statement. And something else is amazing
here too. These sinners drew near to the
Son of God, knowing that He would put a stop to their sinful lifestyle. There was a time when they loved
their sins. They love darkness rather than
light. Here, they're drawing near to
the very One they know that's so unlike them, that if they
listen to Him and hear Him, it will change their life. It will
put a stop to their sin. Isn't that amazing? That's amazing. We'll see an example in just
a minute how one tax collector repented of his tax collecting
and repaid half of his goods The Lord Jesus Christ changed
these men, and they knew He was different, and yet they approached
unto Him and heard His Word. Where did this begin? Luke records
several places about these publicans, and I want you to look at some
places. I think we can put our finger on where this desire began
for these publicans and sinners. to come and hear the Son of God,
to draw near to Him. Look the first place over in
Luke's Gospel, Chapter 5. Look back at this. Luke's Gospel,
Chapter 5. You remember Levi. Luke calls
him Levi. He was Matthew. He was a tax
collector. Look at it in verse 27. Matthew,
Chapter 5, in verse 27. And after these things, the Lord
went forth and saw a publican, a tax collector. His name was
Levi, Matthew. He was sitting at the receipt
of customs. He was doing his job. He was
there in his office. And the Lord Jesus said unto
him, Follow me. Now, can you imagine this? He was a poor Galilean. Had no place to lay his head.
Already he was being persecuted, especially of the religious crowd.
Here he comes by this rich man that had a wonderful job. And
he says, follow me. Now that would seem somewhat
ridiculous, wouldn't it? You got a good job, you're making
all kinds of money. Here comes a man that's poor.
And if you followed Him, you were sure to be persecuted, and
yet He tells you, follow Me. What's the chance of anybody
doing that? And yet, what did He do? He left all and rose up
and followed Him. That tells us something when
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, speaks. When He speaks on purpose. When He speaks with a purpose
of bringing one of His own to Himself. He's got power to do
it, doesn't He? All he says, follow me. And he
left everything. He left his money, he left his
job, left his authority. He left everything to follow
this poor man. Where the words of the king is,
there's power. Aren't you glad for that? When
he crossed your path one day, when he come to you sitting in
your darkness? Dead in your sins. And that's
what He said to you. He said something just like this.
I don't know what He may have spoken to you, but you got the
message, didn't you? Follow Me. Come to Me. Give yourself
up to Me. Believe in Me. And He won your
heart. And you've been following Him
ever since. What a miracle this was upon this public. And look in verse 29. This tells
us something about how rich this publican was. And Levi made him
a great feast in his own house. He had his own house. That was
unusual for men back in those days. You couldn't afford a house.
And he made a great feast. He could afford a feast. He must
have been a rich man. Had a great house. And there was gathered a great
company. A big house, a big company, he
must have been a rich man. And look at this. He had a great
company of publicans and of others that sat down with him. And here's where the scribes
get mad again. They begin to say in verse 30, And the scribes
and the Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do
you eat and drink with publicans and sinners? Here they got mad
at the Lord's disciples. In our text in chapter 15, they
got mad at Christ himself. Why do you eat with publicans? This is the first place that
these publicans are said to come and sit. And I just imagine they
were here today because of the dinner, don't you? I don't imagine
these publicans coming and saying, you know, there's this man over
there and Matthew's wanted us to come and listen to him. They
said, Matthew's having a dinner, let's go eat. That was their
motive, no doubt, for coming. But boy, the Lord Jesus said
something to these men that began to get home to their hearts.
They never heard a message like he began to preach to them. on
this very hour and this very day. Look what he said. When the Pharisees said, you
shouldn't eat with these publicans and sinners. And Jesus answering
said unto them, they that are whole need not a physician, but
they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. And Matthew adds this. Go learn
what that means. I will have mercy and not sacrifice. These publicans have never heard
a message like this before. Here's a man that was talking
about healing your wounded spirit. Here's a man that talked about
your need of mercy. His power to grant you repentance
from a sinful life. They never heard anything like
that before. They never heard about mercy. These Pharisees
preached to them and all they preached was do's and don'ts.
That's all they knew. Can you imagine what these Pharisees
were telling these publicans? Well, sure we can imagine. They
were telling them something like, you guys are having these big
feasts. Quit having these big feasts
and start fasting twice a week. You should quit spending so much
of your money and pay tithes of all that you possess. You
should start being holy people, separated people like us. You
should let people see you being holy. You should stop on the
streets and pray. When you give your money, have
somebody to go before you and sound their trumpet so they'll
know what you're doing. What you need to do is look holy
and act holy, dress holy. That's all they could tell these
publicans. And don't you imagine some of the publicans tried it?
Well, I'll try it. You know, I'll try it. They got
all religious. And they were trying to appear
good to people. Trying to appear like they were
holy people. But their conscience told them, no, you're not holy. You're still sinful. You're still
wretched. So they just gave up their holiness.
went back to their jobs and their sins. But here comes a man, and
he's a holy man. He don't pretend to be holy.
He is holy. He come down from heaven. And
he kept God's law. And he pleased God. And this
man is not talking about a pretended holiness. He's talking about
you need mercy. You men are sick, you're sin
sick, and I'm a physician, and I've come to heal your broken
hearts and your wounded spirits. They never heard anything like
that before. And so they went off and began
to think about this. This is different. This man is
different. I just can't hardly put my finger
on it, but he's told me my need. When I lay awake at night and
my conscience is afflicting me, I know then that I need repentance. I don't know how to get it. God's
holy. Here's a man telling me, I come
to grant you repentance. And my poor wounded conscience,
he's telling me that he come to heal my conscience, that he's
a physician, he's a doctor. They never heard anything like
this before. And can you imagine a conversation between a couple
of them? One of them comes up to another and he says, I don't
know what's going on inside me, inside my mind. But he said,
I'm not comfortable in my sins anymore. I'm not comfortable
with my lifestyle. I sure don't want to die as I
am and face God. And the other one said, I feel
the same way. Let's go hear this Jesus of Nazareth. Let's draw near to Him and see
what else He's got to say. He's talking about mercy. I'm
beginning to feel my need of it. See why they came here in
our text and they drew near to hear Him? They went to that dinner
to have a feast and the Savior spoke to their heart and said,
I've come to save men just like you right where I find you. I'm not looking at your outward
holiness, your pretended righteousness. I've come to save you. I've come
to heal your wounded heart, your broken heart. And boy, that got
to them. That got to them. When I was
growing up, my dad, bless his heart, he told me everything
he knew to tell me. But all he told me was about
hell. Son, you're going to hell. You're going to die with a gutful
of wrath. And I believed it. And I lived a tormenting life
all through my teenage years until I heard about mercy. till
I heard about someone healing the broken heart, pouring his
sweet oil into the conscience that had been beat up and afflicted
by the law and sin and Satan. That became so appealing to me. That's just what I need. I tried
to quit lying. I tried to keep promises. I tried
to be better to my mother. I tried to quit stealing. I tried
to quit cussing. And I come to the conclusion,
I need something that I don't have with me. And it was mercy. It was the healing of my soul,
giving me a new heart and a new spirit. And Jesus Christ became
very appealing to me, just like He did to these publicans. I
love that, don't you? Don't you think sometime maybe
it would be good to have a dinner, to have a supper, and invite
some publicans over to your house? And just sit down and turn the
conversation away from politics, turn the conversation away from
the weather and your job, and turn it on this physician that
came to show poor publicans mercy. And it may just be that if you
set Jesus Christ forth as freely and lovingly as He set Himself,
some publican may say, that's just the Savior I need. And he'll
draw near. The Lord, during our deaths,
He does something else. I'm sure this had to be so appealing
to these publicans. Because the Lord went on here
in our text in the 15th chapter and told them about the parables. Remember these parables that
followed our text here about the shepherd that lost one sheep? Just lost one. Everything was
singular. One sheep, one coin, and one prodigal. And probably
represents the whole family of God's elect. But when these Pharisees
said, why are you eating with these publicans? Why are you
receiving these publicans? And he basically said, they're
the very ones I've come to save. I'm not coming for you Pharisees. I've not come to call the righteous,
I've come to call sinners to repentance." And he said, there
was a shepherd that had one sheep and he lost that sheep and he
went and searched until he found that sheep. He laid it on his
shoulders and brought it home and called his family and said,
rejoice with me. I found my sheep which was lost.
Everybody was rejoicing in these parables. When the corn was found
by the woman, she rejoiced and called her friends. And when
the prodigal came home, the father was rejoicing, called the servants. They all rejoiced that a sinner
had been found. And the Pharisee said, You receive
sinners. And he said, Yes, I do. I tell
you a greater truth that has never been spoken of. Sometimes
the Lord's enemies can preach the gospel as clearly as anybody.
And they said, this man receives sinners. And Christ said, I'm
guilty. And I love to receive sinners.
I rejoice to receive sinners. And don't you know that was going
to these publicans' hearts? He loves to receive sinners.
He rejoices it's hard to receive the ungodly like we are. We've never made, I have never
made Jesus Christ. so appealing to the most ungodly
as he makes himself. I've never preached him like
he preached himself. He must have gone home to their
hearts in a way that I cannot. I cannot preach him as he preached
himself. Sometimes when I preach, I know
I repulse people. And I felt this shame going home
and saying how I made the Savior appealing to poor, needy sinners
like He did. And here were these men, ungodly
men, wretched, and they weren't repulsed by Jesus Christ. That's
amazing, isn't it? And they heard Him and came to
Him. Let me show you another place.
The third place, and over in chapter 18 of Luke, here's the
third place he mentions these publicans. And I love how Luke
does this. He begins with them coming to
the Lord Jesus there to supper. And then in the 15th chapter,
He mentions they drew near to Him, and here He mentions one
of them again, and I think He's just showing us, you know, they
start out desiring Him, they draw near to Him, and finally,
here's what happens. Look at it here in chapter 18,
and look at verse 9. Luke 18, 9, "...Expect this problem
to certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and
they despised others. Two men went up to the temple
to pray. The one was a Pharisee, and here that other one was one
of these publicans. And the Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself, God, I thank you, I am not like other men
are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast
twice a week, I give tithes of all that I possess, and the publican
standed aforeall, would not live so much as his eyes unto heaven,
but smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner."
Where had he heard of mercy? The very first time Jesus Christ
opened his mouth, that's what he said to him, wasn't it? I
will have mercy. And he smote upon his breast.
Lord, I've got a heart trouble. My sin, my nature is awfully
sinful among godly men. My heart! What did Christ just
say to them? I'm a physician. I come to heal
your broken hearts. I come to forgive your sins.
And boy, here we find this publican. He's here at the temple and he's
spouting up on his heart. He's broken. And he remembers
the words of Jesus. I've come to bind up the brokenhearted. I've come to heal your wounds.
And Christ was so appealing to this man, he went to him. He went to him, his broken heart,
seeking for mercy. And here's what he said to him
in verse 14. I tell you, this man went down
to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone
that exalts himself shall be abased, and he that humbles himself
shall be exalted. Ain't that amazing? This man
went down to his house justified. Not one sin that he had ever
committed would ever be charged against him again. Justified
before God. He came into this temple and
he was an ungodly, unforgiven man. He left this temple, he
was a justified man before he was baptized, before he paid
tithes or did anything else. He was justified from everything
that would have condemned him before the court of heaven. Went
down to his house, rather than the other. Not more than, the
other man wasn't justified at all. That Pharisee and all his
self-righteousness and all his human merits, all the works that
he was doing, he was guilty before God. And he went down to his
house condemned. But this sinner, this publican,
were told that he was justified. Ain't that quick? It don't take
the Lord long to justify a man, does it? One time he's an unbeliever,
he's condemned, and the very next second he's justified and
accepted in Christ without any condemnation. What this Pharisee
had been working for all of his life, he never attained it. And
what this publican had never sought after, he found it immediately. Salvation. Free, sovereign grace
of God brought him salvation, and it came so quickly. I'm not
telling people to go home and pray anymore. I'm not telling
people to go seek the Lord anymore. Right where you sit, look to
Jesus Christ, and you'll be saved the instant you do. I believe
that. That's how quick this happened to this man. He went down to
his house, in Christ, justified. That's what made these publicans
so mad, wasn't it? I've worked for this all my life,
and you're telling me this sorry publican found it, and you're
telling me I haven't found it and shall never find it the way
I'm seeking it. You're telling me I'm not even
saved. Can't you hear I'm saying that? This Nazarene telling me
I'm not even saved. Well, they weren't, were they?
And it made them so mad, it made them so mad, that these publicans
had free access to God through this Jesus of Nazareth. And they
were shut out, and it made them so mad. They thought if you got anything
from God, it had to be out of your merits. Out of your goodness. You had to earn it, you had to
work for it. And here Jesus of Nazareth was telling them, That
He came down from Heaven to do His Father's will. And His Father's
will was this, that He should receive sinners. And that's what He does. He's
still doing that today, isn't He? These are the deep things
of God. You can't get any deeper than
this. This man receiveth sinners. And every glorious truth, a more
glorious truth had been spoken than that. Look in one more place, look
in the 19th chapter. Here's the last time that these
publicans are mentioned. And I may ask you tonight, what
kind of person are you? Are you a publican? Are you a
Pharisee? Are you trying to earn your way
into God's presence? When you think of salvation,
do you think of your merit, your goodness, what you have to do,
what you have to quit doing? You say, well, I never think
about approaching God without something of my own. Is that
the way you think? You've surely gotten an opinion
about this. Everybody's gotten an opinion
about this. Are you a publican? Have you judged yourself to be
guilty before God? In and of yourself? You know.
You know. There's no doubt about it. You've
been convinced. If you don't find salvation outside
of yourself, you're going to perish. Are you a publican or
a Pharisee? That's all I'm asking. Are you
a convinced sinner or are you a sinner? Are you a self-righteous
person? That's a good question, isn't
it? That's a good question for all of us to think about. Because we're one or the other.
I remember when Todd, Brother Todd and I were talking years
and years ago, he said the reason they moved, one of the reasons
they moved downtown Lexington was they wanted to find some
real centers. And he said they got in the building
down there and it just full of red light places and winos. But he said, once they started
talking to some of them, you had this whore, but she wasn't
near as bad as the other whore. And you had this wino, but I'm
not as bad as that wino. It's infected the whole human
race, hasn't it? Sure, I'm a wino, but I'm not
as bad as the other one. So I've got some hope. Ain't it amazing how God has
to strip us? God has to shut us up, afflict
our conscience, break our hearts, bring us to the end of ourselves
before we turn lot, stock, and barrel to the one who comes to
save us so willingly and so lovingly. It's the last place these publicans
aren't mentioned, and I think somebody might say, Bruce, I
had a man tell me this one time. He said, if I preached what you
preached, he said I'd live like the devil. That's what he told
me. I'd live like the devil. I never
told him at that time. I was young. I just hadn't been
preaching long and didn't know what to say. But I tell him now,
how do you know how you live since you don't believe what
I'm preaching? How do you know how you would live? And when you preach Jesus Christ
so freely and so graciously and salvation so free, people start
thinking, well, that leads to antinomianism. You just live
like the devil. Well, here was a man, a publican
that came, and let's see how he affected his life when the
Lord received him. Look at it in chapter 19 in verse
1. And Jesus entered and passed
through Jericho. And behold, there was a man named
Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was
rich. And he sought to see Jesus, who
he was, and could not for the breast, because there was little
of statue. And he ran before and climbed
up in a sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass that
way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and saw him
and said, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down. For today I must
abide at your house." And what happened? He made haste and came
down. The first time that Christ spoke
to a publican, he said, follow me. He left everything and followed
him. The last publican he spoke for,
too, he said, come down. And he made haste and come down.
I'm telling you, brothers and sisters, when Jesus Christ calls
one of his own, it's affection. We talk about a general call,
and there's a general call in the Scripture. Many are called.
Most of them go on their way. But when Jesus Christ calls one
of His own, one of His loved ones, one that He's redeemed,
when He calls them, they come to Him. And they always come
down. Come down. And he received Him joyfully. Here we have this. It's always
reciprocal. When Christ receives a sinner,
the sinner receives Christ. When God loves a sinner, that
sinner is going to love Him back. And Christ received this man,
and this man turned right around and received Him back. And verse 7, when they saw it,
here they do it again. They all murmured saying that
he was going to be getting with a man that was a sinner. And
Zacchaeus stood and said, Lord, behold, half of my goods I give
to the poor. Now isn't that amazing? You say,
how would a man live if the Lord saved him so graciously? Here's
how this man lived. He said, Lord, I'm rich. And
I'm going to give half of it right off the top to poor people. You think this ain't generous?
That's how people are. The Lord saves them and He fills
them with His grace, and they become very generous. They have
freely received Christ and all His merits, and they become so
generous. Ain't you become that way? Nobody's
forcing you to give a dime, are they? But you give. You give
your money, you give your time, you give your effort. You're
a giver! I heard Mother Dawn say it in
this pulpit one time. She said, some are takers and
some are givers. The Lord's people are givers.
I give half of my goods to people. He's just like His Heavenly Father,
wasn't He? He's so loved that He gave. And He's just like the
Master. He loved me and gave Himself
for me. Heaven is always given, and Heaven's
people are givers. Half of my goods I give to the
poor. And if I have taken anything
but false accusation, Lord, I restore them fourfold. This day is salvation
come to your house. I tell you, this became one of
the most loving man. No doubt he was. He was a liar,
a cheat. And I look at him. How gracious
and how merciful he is. You wouldn't want this man as
your neighbor before, but I'd love to have him as a neighbor
now, wouldn't you? He'd never hurt you now. He'd never lie
on you now. Christ receiveth publicans. And boy, when He does, it's life-changing. It's life-changing. One more
place I want to show you, right quickly, and more or less just
read this, in Acts chapter 7. This is very significant when
we're talking about Christ receiving a sinner. It's not a one-time deal with
Him any more than it's a one-time deal with us. I receive Christ
all the time, don't you? I do. I receive His grace. I
receive His love. I receive the knowledge of Him.
I receive His Word. We're always receiving Him, aren't
we? And you know something? He's
always receiving us. And someday each of us are going
to lay our heads down on our dying pillows And the doctors
are going to shake their heads and say, nothing else we can
do. He's leaving this world. And you know something? Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, is going to be standing in that day to
receive you. How do we know that? Because
it happened right here in Acts chapter 7. Look at it. Stephen
in verse 55, chapter 7, a book of Acts. When they were stoning
him, Stephen being full of the Holy Ghost, looking up steadfast
into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus on the right
hand of God, and said, Behold, I see the heavens open, I see
the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. And they cried
out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him
with one according, cast him out of the city, and stoned him.
And the witnesses lay down their clothes at a young man's feet,
whose name was Saul. And they stoned Stephen, calling
upon God, and saying, Jesus, Lord Jesus, Receive my Spirit. Receive my Spirit. Boy, it's going to mean something
in that day, isn't it? How critical is this day going
to be? When that day comes that God
has ordained for us to leave this world, we're going to want
to be received then, aren't we? And Stephen recognized it. He
said, Lord, You received me when I was a sinner. You received
me. You were gracious to me. And
Lord, here I am ready to step off into eternity. Will you receive
me now? Lord, receive me now. And boy,
he knelt down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this
sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he
fell asleep. He fell asleep. Who do you think
he is today? The Lord received him. He's with
the Lord. And what happens, you remember,
I know you'll remember it, I'm preaching shortly to the choir,
but I know you'll remember this. In Romans chapter 8 verse 29,
those he justified, he also what? Glorified. He glorified. He justified this publican, here
he received his spirit up into heaven, and there's coming a
day when he's going to raise that body and glorify it. just like His own. So boy, this
text is far-reaching, isn't it? He finds them when they're ungodly.
He receives them and justifies them. They live for His honor
and glory. And when they leave this world,
He receives their spirit. And someday, He's going to receive
their body and make it new, just like His own, without any spot
or without any wrinkle or any such thing. And you and I that
know Him are going to spend eternity in His praises. And we're never
going to forget He received us. He received us. Father, thank
You. Oh, Father in Heaven, tender
and merciful and good and wise in all Your perfect and eternal
attributes. You're God alone. Thank You,
Father in Heaven, for sending us such a Savior, a Physician. Lord Jesus, You called Yourself
that, and You've gotten Yourself a great name as a Physician to
heal us. We're poor. We're sin sick. We're
dying of this awful disease of sin, and only You can heal us. Our hearts are often broken,
and we come to You again and again. Oh, heal us, our Savior. Heal our backslidings. Heal our
wounded conscience. Heal us, the oppression of Satan
that oppresses us. Heal us, our Lord Jesus. Be a
physician to us. Heal the broken hearts here tonight,
those hearts that have never been broken. Oh Lord, break those
hearts. Make publicans out of them in
their own eyes. Make them sinners. Cause them
to come to you, beating upon their chest. and say and be merciful,
be perpetuous to me, a sinner. Get yourself a great name. Bless
this dear people. Bless your work here. Revive
it. Send this dear congregation a pastor after your own heart. And Lord, they'll praise you
for it. That your work may prosper and continue in this place. Lord
Jesus, you're the head of the church. There is no other. And
we leave all of this in your will and in your care. In your
blessed name, we pray. Amen. Thank you, brothers and sisters.
It was so good to see you. Hope to see you again soon.