Longer 30 for 30 here at Nip Hill is it is 40 for 40 Facebook right now is scrambling to pull us down off of the internet because of the copyright infringement. Here's what we're doing. We're calling it 40 for 40. It's because I want to provide for you a 40 day journey.
I know people throw this stuff out there all the time, okay, I got the hokiness of it, but a 40 day journey that I think could be transformative for you. 40 for 40 because I want to give you a unique opportunity for spiritual and personal growth and I want to tie it to the Lent season, a season of 40 days where historically the church has focused on spiritually preparing our hearts for Easter the holiest day of the year. And I came across what I think to be a pretty unique resource I want to offer to all of you. Now a lot of our small groups are doing this.
You can still get in a small group, go to the Engaged tab on the website, go to Group Finder. You can see what the groups are studying. Several of them are doing a new study called the Good Book. Now they're studying a video curriculum.
What this is, is this is a 40 day devotional book and I'll pump books up here and we're selling it for the same price we got it for so we're not making money on this. But this is really interesting to me. Here's why. I understand that the Bible for folks that aren't familiar with it, for folks that are familiar with it, is intimidating.
I mean it's big. The words are old. The stories can be, if we're honest, confusing at best and troubling at worst. And so where do I start?
How do I understand? Maybe you said year after year. I mean how many of you said this is the year I'm going to go through the Bible in a year. And then you know by the time you get to now you're like, crud I died in Leviticus, you know.
If this is your faith journey then I think this Lent study could be for you. This book, this devotional called the Good Book, takes what the author is, Kyle Eilman is one of them who I like a lot. They believe that 40 most critical chapters in all of the Bible and they tie them together under what they believe to be the eight big ideas in the scripture. And put together this wonderful compendium of our faith story from creation to Jesus' return.
You get a bigger understanding of our faith. And I think in 40 days you'll have not just more knowledge about what it is you believe, but I think your hearts might be changed a little bit by it too. And so I would love for you to do this. If you're not a small group you can do this on your own.
We've got a few of these books out there. You can pick these up on Amazon. The digital copy is I think $9.99. I think these copies are $15 to $17 with $15.99.
It's a pretty nice book. 40 days you'll get a broad overview of the entire Christian faith. I think it's pretty unique. And I've read a lot of this.
It's very good. I'd encourage you to pick it up. Now with that said, there's also by the way a kid's version. So if you wanted to do something with your kids during Lent for the next 40 days, go through some of these stories with the kids.
Just a great opportunity. Now what I'm going to do every Sunday, for the next year we're going to do this for about four weeks. We're going to pause for Easter and then we're going to pick it up again and probably go another four weeks. So this will probably be eight weeks in total.
And what I'm going to do on Sunday is share with you what I think is the unique story of the week. And so that's where we're going to go. And that's where we're diving in. And if you want to go take a look at this or buy one, go to the Welcome Center on your way out.
Or pick one up on Amazon and they'll deliver it right to your house. Let's get started with week one. You've got by the way we got about 50 days to Easter. Lent is 40 days.
The book's 40 days. You've got about 10 days to decide. I'll just keep guilting you into this in the next 10 days. Here's the deal guys.
One of the important keys to understanding quote unquote the Bible because the Bible, some people are like, oh, who wrote it? The Bible's not really the Bible. In fact, that title didn't get put on all of these books until some time after these books were written. It's a collection of books written by many authors over several thousand years.
And so in order to understand the Bible, one of the things that you have to understand is when you get into each of the stories, that it wasn't written into a vacuum. The events, the writings were inspired by God, but they're written by humans who were living in and influenced by the world and culture around them. And in understanding the world and the culture which surrounds the stories, if they're where we gain context and understanding for sometimes things that are just so mind blowing that we just totally mess because we didn't understand the context into which it was written. So what I want to do this morning, and this sermon was a lot of work, but it's so fascinating to me and fun.
I want to look at one of those truths put into context today. I'm going to share with you a truth. It is in chapter one of Genesis. It is so mind blowing and complex, theologians, to this day are still wrestling with what it means.
And the world is still trying to figure out what its implications are. And so are you. The implications of this truth get played out in your life. I'm telling you, you will see this within an hour of leaving here today.
This truth will come back to you. You're going to have to figure out now what this means in relation to that. So here we go. Start in Genesis, chapter one, right?
In the first book, in what we know as the Bible, it's the first book in the Torah. It's the book of origins. It was written within a culture. And when you understand the culture to which it was written, it brings context.
Here's the culture. Israel was surrounded by other cultures. There was Mesopotamia. That was where you had the Sumerians and the Assyrians and the Babylonians.
There were Canaanites. There were Egyptians. And every country and culture around Israel had gods. Not just one God.
They had many gods. They all had religions. And they had this common hierarchical way of looking at life. Because in each of these cultures and each of these religions, and all of these religions were polytheistic.
What they believed was that whoever was reigning as king was and would often claim to be God himself. In ancient Mesopotamia culture, the king was treated as divine or semi-divine. Now this sounds kind of silly until you go and look at tyrants in the world today. Where in many of these cultures these same tyrants in countries all over the world today are still claiming that they are divine, that they are sent by God or indeed themselves are God.
And so the Bible is written at least in Genesis into a culture where there is polytheism everywhere. And the kings in all of these countries are claiming to be divine or semi-divine. The king was understood to have been made and existed. He was in a sense the essence or the image of the God who created him.
Now the Hebrew word for what the king claimed was a word called celam. The tea somewhat silent. You should suppose to say it a little bit, but I'm not good enough to do it. But essentially celam was the word for image.
And the king was thought to be made in the celam of God. This was the dividing point between the king and everybody else. The king was celam. Everybody else was something.
In fact, most people were just peasants and slaves. And peasants and slaves, not only were they not made in the image of God, it was thought in most of those religions that the peasants and slaves were the product of inferior gods. And so the king, because he was divine, the king in all of these religions becomes the mediator through which blessing of the gods flowed. It was the king who ruled with sovereignty.
It was the king who could tell people what to do, where to go, how to get there. It was the king who could decide for everyone else what was right and what was wrong. Now celam is also the word for idols or idol images. And all these regions and religions had these kings and these kings controlled what was the next hierarchical level down, the priests.
And so it was the king controlling the priests which permitted access to God. The only way to heaven, the only way to God was through the priest and through the king, who was thought to be made in the image of God. Actually, this even carries on to Jesus' day. They have found coins from Jesus' day where it says Caesar is Lord.
That's why the Christians started going, no, Caesar is Lord. Jesus is Lord. Caesar is divine. Jesus is divine.
But in the, into the culture in which Genesis was written, it was thought the king was the celam of God. Now if you're going to rule in an ancient world where there is no printing press, no books, no newspapers, no internet, no CNN, how is it that you remind people of who is king, of who is in charge? Well they did it in some fashion the same way we still do it today. In fact you see it in our, if I go, if you, if you've been to the post office lately, it's such a joy to go to the post office.
Every time I leave I'm just inspired by the way in which everything flows so seamlessly. But if you get an email about that too, if you go to the post office, you ever look over in the corner and there's pictures in the corner on the wall. Then we know the pictures are up. There's a picture of the president of the United States usually, the governor of the state and the postmaster.
Because they want to remind you who's in charge. Now if I was running that particular facility, I probably wouldn't want my picture associated with running the way things are going. But nevertheless, those things are placed up there. Why do we, you know, we name bridges all the time?
The same way we just renamed the Mario Cuomo bridge now and the tribal bridge became the RFK bridge. We still do the same thing. We create images and we place them all over the place because we want everybody to know who's in charge. That's what they did in the ancient world.
These statues of the rulers that were spread all over were the salam. They would do this just so everyone knew and remembered. This is the king. This is what the king looks like.
If you've seen some of these when archeologists have pulled them up, you never see a meek frail looking king. These guys are all ripped and jacked, right? Because you want the king, you don't know how powerful he is. How strong he is.
You're a peasant. You're a slave. He's the king. He's made in the image of God.
He married. You didn't. He had authority. You don't.
He has power. Look at you. You're weak. That out of nowhere, this had never been conceived before, especially in a polytheistic world, this creation account of Genesis shows up, which is different than any other creation account.
And it starts with mind-blowing earth-shattering news. Then God said, let us pause for a second. Isn't this fascinating? Genesis chapter 1, long before Jesus comes on the scene, just the hint already that God doesn't exist singularly, but exists in plural form.
The God had three in one, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Trinity. Chapter 1 of Genesis. Isn't that fascinating? Back to the story.
At least for me, it's interesting. Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness. So God created mankind, everybody, in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them. In fact, just a couple of chapters later, because this is such a new concept to all of mankind.
So unheard of, it's repeated again in Genesis chapter 5. When God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God. What's also interesting is how they continue to stress this. He created male and female and bless them.
Men are made in the image of God. And for centuries, we have been really good at making sure women understood that. Can I get an amen? But the truth is, men and women are created in the image of God.
There's a whole sermon there, I'm not going to get into it right now. The word for image in the Hebrew is that same word we talk about. Salim. In the image of God, God created all human beings.
I want to repeat that, because you've heard it, but you've never really paused to think about it. In the image of God, God created all human beings, not just the king. The statement by the writer of Genesis is the single most world-changing statement about human dignity, worth and equality that has ever been recorded. We all still live, whether someone thinks of himself as a believer or not, banking on the truth and the change that this statement made in the human race is understanding of itself.
Imagine what this did to the hearts of peasants and slaves to be told that it wasn't just the king, but they who were created in the Salim in the image of the one great God, male, female, slaves, free peasants. Everybody created in the image with the image of God. Now this is really interesting, at least I think it is an old nerd. I get that but.
Here's what church tradition holds. The Genesis creation stories were told around campfires for a long period of time, but eventually they were written down and recorded. Most people believe at least tradition is by Moses. Now Moses, if you know his story in the second book of the Bible, the book of Exodus, Moses has this encounter with God where God gives Moses the Ten Commandments.
And those were the laws that would govern the relationship between God and this new nation, Israel, this relationship that they would have. And here's the interesting thing about Israel. Unlike every other nation that surrounded it, Israel had no king. Interesting.
Everybody else has a king and that king is divine and made in the image of God. Israel has no king. Here's what's even more interesting. The same Moses that wrote the God told him, that wrote the truth that meant creating the image of God.
Moses goes up and gets the Ten Commandments from God. The second commandment says you're not to make any images of God's. Now why? Why was Israel told not to make any images of God?
Well, for one, it was the combat idolatry because we have a real parton, not trying to reduce God down to a created thing and worshiping it. But secondly, and I think this is just as important, maybe more important, God did not want Israel to create Selem. God did not need Israel to create Selem. God did not want them to spread images of him all over the world.
Do you know why? Because God had already made images of himself. You and I are the Selem of God. He doesn't need pictures in the post office.
Now, he's got me and oftentimes in the post office I'm not doing a good job of reflecting the glory of God. That's another story. See, our lives were to be in two of the images of the kings all over the ancient world did. We were supposed to be living, breathing reflections of what God looks like, what God acts like, how God rules.
What people see and experience us on root, alien traffic. They were supposed to understand how God reflects into traffic on root, alien. That was the original plan anyway. See theologians are still trying to argue this about what it means.
I know you never thought about it. I wrestled it for a week and it's still rolling around. What does it mean to be made in the image of God? Now, most of the time the argument focuses on what makes us different from everything else in creation.
Why? Since we're in the image of God and nothing else is in all creation is in the image of God. Why are we different than apes and monkeys and dogs and cats? And of course, when you teach this concept invariably somebody goes, well, if we have this dilemma, we're making the image of God and animals aren't.
What about my dog? Moose? Is moose going to be in heaven with me? To that, I would answer, of course, dogs are going to be in heaven.
That's pure right out of the Bible. There won't be any cats. But there will be lots of dogs running loose in heaven. And so, see, I think there's lots to be written about what it means to be made in the image of God.
Some religious sex, some Christian religious sex, have actually said it means that we physically resemble God. I know I've looked in the mirror once or twice and thought that to myself. Let's take a look at you, big boy. You remind me of God.
Clearly, taking one look at me, you're going, you're God, I hope not. Clearly, that is not what this means. God is not limited to the physical realm. He's so much bigger than that.
In John, a book of John, John's account of this time with Jesus, John records that God is spirit. He is not a physical being. And so, since most people understand that being made in the image of God doesn't mean we look like God. Most other people then debate the debate centers around what's called a substantive view.
Which means that we are, because we're in the image of God, we're spiritually or psychologically, we resemble God. And to do that, this argument takes the form of, well, we're different. We're made in the image of God and we're different than animals because we are rational, moral, creative, relational. We have the capacity for love and reflection and faith, reason.
We have a self-conscious. And I think those are interesting truths and I think there's something to it. But I don't think that contains all of it either. In Latin, the image of God is called the Amago Dei.
The Amago Dei, the image of God can't simply be related to those things. These things, sociologists sometimes call preferences. We have value because we have preferences. But in our youngest days and in our oldest days, these things might not actually be true of us.
We might not have some of those capacities. Yet, the Amago Dei exists from conception to death. We bear the image of God, so it also has to mean more than capacity. Let me give you two things.
I think this means. Here's the first. And these are incredibly practical. The first is that we are made in the image of God.
The writer of Genesis is saying that just as the king would place images of himself all around, so everybody know who the ruler was, what God looked, or what the king looked like, how the king acted. That is what we were to be. There's a pretty famously loach named NT Wright. And he puts it this way.
He says, God places his own image and human beings into the world, so the world can see who its ruler is. This is what it means to be made in the image of God. It's not about having this quality or that quality. It's not about whether you have reason or free will.
It's about your role, the role that God has for you in the cosmic scheme of things. You were made, listen, the image of God means that you're made to reign under God's character with God's power in God's stead for the benefit of all the earth. So that all of the earth can know who reigns it. You're made in the image of God.
God's plan is to graciously share his power by creating a community of loving people who exercise dominion through his strength, marked by his goodness. This is who you were meant to be. Now, he goes on. He describes this analogy, which is kind of a beautiful thing.
He describes understanding the image of God for us as though there was a mirror. Now, I wanted to have a really good prop for you guys this morning, so I was trying to take a mirror and I have daughters, and so if you have daughters, you have mirrors. And I went into my one daughters room and I went to grab the mirror out of her room. Well, the mirror was so big.
This is a true story. I couldn't get it into my car. I wrestled with it in a driveway this morning. It's now in the garage, so don't tell them.
I'll get it back into my room. I couldn't get it in my car. So I had to go get a mirror that was more to my liking, which is this. I try not to look at the five-time magnification because that's really insulting.
This is my mirror. And what Enzi Wright was saying is, I'll read it to you first. He said, God reigns over the earth through these little human creatures made in his image who bring the good rule and reign down to earth. And in turn, the glory, the joy, the gratitude, the goodness wells off in humans, give it words, and turn its praise over it back to God.
We are created to reflect God's rule down to the earth and reflect the earth's joy up to God. He gave an example of when he was a little boy, he was sick in his room, and his mother couldn't be with him constantly. She had to be in the kitchen. And so she fastened the mirror in the hallway so that, oh, look at the bellings.
So he could see his mom and his mom could see him. Well, being made in the image of God, essentially, what we're to be doing is reflecting in the mirror, seeing God's reign, reflecting it to people on earth, and then through the working out of all of that, that is all welling up into unity and praise and love, and then bringing that back and reflecting that back to God in worship. That was the concept of what it meant to be created in the image of God, to bear the image of God, to reflect the holy reign of God to earth, to care for its creation, particularly human beings, as God would want them cared for, and then to gather all that goodness and delight and offer it back to God. Your destiny was to contribute, to be creative, to be good to the earth, more better than you could possibly imagine, and then offer more joy and gratitude than you could contain back to God.
I'm seeing God, I'm reflecting God. The joy of the earth is being reflected back to God. You see it right in the Genesis account. You read this before.
I never caught it until this week. Check this out. God said, let us make mankind an arm image in our likeness. Here comes a purpose statement.
So that, why am I creating them in my image? So they're good looking? No. I'm creating them in my image so that they can rule.
Over the fish and the sea and the birds and the sky, we're alive, all the land, over all creatures that move. So crazy important that he says it again. So God created mankind in his own image. In the image of God, he created them.
Male and female, he created them. God bless them and said, be fruitful and crease the number. Fill the earth and subdue it. Rule.
I made you in my image so that you can rule with my authority and my power. Now, as you know, if you've ever driven on root 80 and tried to reflect the glory of God, it doesn't go that well many times. We were created to reflect him, but we chose to replace him. We've ruled as God would have intended, reflecting his will and love to all creation and returning the glory due.
While we're so made in his image that image has been marred. Sin has messed it all up. God's still here, but because I'm sinful. See, I don't, if I'm honest, the mirror was supposed to be like this, but I've kind of done this.
Hello. I don't really want to reflect the glory of God. I don't want to build his kingdom with his power. I'd like to build my kingdom with my power.
So I've turned the mirror back on myself. And now what I'm reflecting to the driver on root 80 that caught me off in traffic is me. I'm no longer reflecting God back. I'm reflecting me.
I'm spewing me all over creation. I build the kingdom of John. God hasn't given up though. This is so fascinating because you see this concept all through the Bible.
Sin marred the image of God. It gets us to refocus the mirror back on ourselves. So we're not reflecting God to the world. We're just reflecting ourselves.
God doesn't give up. Jesus comes. The Holy Spirit as a result is alive and well and dwells in believers. And the idea is that God is restoring in you and I the image of God that was distorted.
It helps us refocus the mirror back towards God so that we're reflecting him and not us. This is fascinating. Jesus comes on the scene. How is he described?
The Son is the image of the invisible God. The first born overall creation. The Son is the radiance of God's glory. Jesus is radiating.
God is radiating glory unto Jesus. Jesus is reflecting into all of creation. You see it right in the Genesis account. It's in Jesus where we see where we're meant to be, who we could be again.
He is the radiance of God's glory. Think about the moon. I thought about the moon. I thought about the moon.
I thought about the moon. I thought about the moon. I thought about the moon. You've been outside on a winter's night when the moon is at its brightest.
You know the moon has no energy source that's radiating. The moon only has one purpose, to reflect the radiance and the grandeur of the sun. That's what Jesus did. He reflects the radiance, the glory of the Father.
He shows everybody what the rule and reign of God was supposed to look like. Jesus reigns the way you and I were to reign. That's why he's washing feet. This is what God is up to.
All of this is in the first chapter of your Bible. All of it. Now this is really fascinating. Maybe just for geeks like me.
But this is really fascinating. All in chapter 1 of Genesis. Thousands of years later, a guy named John walks with Jesus and he finds himself exiled on an island called Patmos. And he writes the last book that's included in the Bible.
When he wrote it, he didn't know it was going to be in the Bible. Nor did he know where it would be placed in the Bible. But the last chapter, in the last book of your Bible, John gets a glimpse of what things are going to look like when Jesus returns. And the kingdom is restored to the way it is supposed to be.
Check this out. In that day, there will be no night there because there will be no need for lamps or sun. For the Lord will shine on them and they will reign forever and ever. There will never, ever, ever in the kingdom to come be images of God because his people will be what they were created to be.
Reflections of the King. Now what does this mean? Practically. Practically.
Here's what it means. It's the Holy Spirit works on you. If you become a person of faith, Jesus says that the Holy Spirit is going to be within you. It's going to be a readjustment of your mirror.
So every time you forgive, every time you reconcile, every time you pursue restoration, every time you include somebody who's been lonely, every time you encourage somebody who's down, every time you love somebody who's left out, you are reclaiming the image and reign of God. The reign of God is coming down to earth and the glory of God is raising back when we turn the mirror back. That's interesting. That's a purpose statement.
Let me give you a second reflection. This one will be quick, but it's really important. If you're living in the image of God, it has implications not just for your purpose, but more importantly for your worth. Hear me on this now.
This has profound implications on how we treat each other, and it has profound implications about how we treat ourselves, what we think of ourselves. This is why we're worth when you're dignity, when your sense of value is damage. It's so brutal. That's why the mistreatment of another human being is so serious to God.
Genesis, chapter 9. And for your life, blood, I will demand an accounting. I'm going to demand an accounting for the life of another human being. Whoever sheds human blood, by humans, shall their blood be shed.
Why is God going to demand an accounting from somebody who does something to you? Why? Because it's against the law? No.
Because you're made in the image of God, for the image of God has God made mankind. In the ancient world, kings matter. They're in the image of God, but God changes the game and levels the field. Who matters to God?
Understand this. Everyone. Everyone matters to God, because they've been endowed with the solemn, the immago day. They are made in the image of God.
This has to change how you live and think. You've never looked at another human being, no matter how ragged, poor, unkept, strong, out, diseased, desperate destitute, that they may appear. You have never seen a human being that was not created in the image of God designed to reign and reflect his glory. The guy on the G.W.B.
you passed last week on the way home with the sign? God's image. This is why Jesus, when he comes to earth, he spends so much of his time with all of those on the wrong side of the political and religious empire, prostitutes, tax collectors, drunks, because Jesus does not see the outside. He sees the immago day in everyone, even the people, society, culture, and religion doesn't like.
This concept that everybody is made in the image of God, that they have ordained value. This is why Christianity and the early church changed the world. We used to really believe this. This is why they fed the hungry and nursed and healed the sick.
It's why they educated the poor, provided for the widows, adopted the orphans. An understanding of the immago day underlined at all. This is why the church has cared over the years so much about abortion and infanticide and centicide, because everybody from conception to death has been, reflects the image of God. This is why the church has to care more about those who don't look like us, or vote like us.
Everyone, black, white, gay, straight, republican, democrat, liberal, conservative. Why? Because each and every one of them contains the immago day, the image of God. Jesus saw it.
He saw it to restore it. So should we. See the immago day underlies the all-for-peded teachings on how we're to treat one another. James was the brother of Jesus.
Here's what he wrote. He says, with a tongue, we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings who have been made in the image of God. He would go on to say, brothers and sisters, believers, and Jesus, you must not show favoritism. You must not show favoritism.
One of the great treaties of our faith is the book of Romans written by Paul. In Romans chapter 1 and Romans chapter 2 get quoted a lot. And there's a lot of sin laid out in there and things that we shouldn't do. But then there's also this concept in there of the grace of God that is available to all.
And that was very confusing to the people of the day who didn't think the grace of God was available to everybody. But at one point Paul just says this. He goes, look, God does not show favoritism. Why?
Because everyone is made in the image of God. Everyone is made in the image of God. See, as Lewis put it this way, there are no ordinary people. You've never talked to a mere mortal.
Nations and cultures, art civilizations, their mortal, their life is ours is the life of a gnat. But it's immortals who we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit immortal horrors, or everlasting splinters. Now this truth gives purpose to your life as you refocus the mirror and you begin to see my life is to be a reflection of the reigning rule of the good God. Let me make it, speaks to you of worth.
Let me make it very real for you. If you came in with somebody today, husband, wife, kid, look at the person next to you. I know you were fighting with him this morning over the hairdryer. Look at the person next to you.
That husband you came in with angry this morning. Hard to believe I know. Made in the image of God. I tell Jonas all the time.
The daughter you screamed at this week. This one was the one God talking to me about this week just as an FYI. That daughter that you screamed at this week made in the image of God and should have been treated that way. The boss that ticks you off, the one you can't stand anymore, guess what?
Image of God. Are you ready for me to rock your world? President Trump? Image of God.
Now those of you that are ticked, let me say this. President Obama? Image of God. See, you just read this stuff and you don't stop and pause and start to think about what's going on here.
Everybody was endowed with the image of God. They have purpose and beauty. As the band comes up with that in mind, let me ask you a question. What would it look like for you to return to re-angle the mirror off yourself and start to put it back to God reflecting his reign, his beautiful ruling glory to earth, and then reflecting back to God all the time.
What would it look like for you to do it and not just talk about it? Could we begin to see each other the way God does? Jesus describes people like lost coins that are of value that God wants found, prodigal sons that are of value that God wants found. He would do anything to get them back.
Let's just keep it where you want to get really, really? If you started to think that everybody was made in the Amago Day and my purpose was to reflect the reign and rule of God down to earth to show them what it looks like when God rules. Would it impact your Facebook post? Would it impact what you like?
How you vote? What do you think about? I picked the top up of the day. The Amago Day.
How you talk about the other kids in the cafeteria? What you're willing to forgive if you're willing to go and pursue again, give someone another chance. I mean, could it fuel you to understand how important that people who are far from God are to God? Maybe provide for you encouragement to invite them along on the journey?
Could it maybe help you to forgive yourself a little bit? You know, you're made in the image of God? I know you're Martin. I know what it says.
I know. But Jesus still sees the image of God in you. Maybe you need to start seeing it yourself. So I loathself a steamers will be.
Could it provide context for choosing a certain grace house guest in a couple of weeks, right? Or maybe going to Guano-Maw? First year I went to Guano-Maw. I was just so impacted by seeing what was happening.
I just, I don't know what this term is for, but I've never seen anything like this. People living in garbage. There was a guy on the street in front of my, went up to the guy on the street. I did what we'd do in America.
I went to Shake A Tan. I said, my name is John and I put my hand out. And he put his head down and he really pulled his hand away. And I thought I had offended him.
And I asked our host what happened. He said he doesn't feel worthy of shaking your hand. Because he was told he was garbage. See, our call is to change this.
Not just in Guano-Maw. Your families, with your wife, your husband, at your school, in your workplace, in our town. And I'll close with this. Could you imagine what it would be like to create a church plan?
Where you never, we never, ever, ever have to put up a statue or an image of God because the place is just shock-ful.