Well, good morning. If you turn your Bibles with me to 1 Kings chapter 19, 1 Kings 19 is where we will be this morning. 1 Kings 19 we’ll begin reading in verse 19. 1 Kings 19, 19 is where we will be and read on down to the end of the chapter there.
And as you’re turning there, it’s great to be with you all again. I think I was last with you the Sunday after Easter, and so it’s fun to be back again to preach the word to you. And I have the joy and privilege of serving the Mid Valley Baptist Association as the Director of Missions. And so our network, our family of churches, which I know your church has discussed and thought through possibly partnering with us, but our association exists to bring churches together for Christ’s kingdom.
And just a little update something that you could be praying about for us as you think about churches and all the part of Christ’s kingdom in the Central Valley. We have a couple of things coming up that I would just greatly appreciate prayer for. We have a revitalization conference coming up in July where we’re just trying to get churches together that just are in need of some mutual encouragement and also some help to have churches partnering together in greater ways to serve each other in the valley in July. And then also we have an evangelism conference which I will I can invite every single one of you to on August 2nd we have an evangelism conference we’re just trying to better equip our churches to engage the lost better in the in the Central Valley and that’s August 2nd and you can talk to your pastor about that as well or reach out to me and I can give you more information about those things but just be praying about as we think about what are some needs that our churches have here all across the Central Valley certainly is better reaching our our lost neighbors. And so those two conferences that we’re putting on, we are hoping will be just a sort of catalyst for us engaging the lost better in the Central Valley.
So it’s a great joy and privilege to be able to preach God’s word to you this morning. And so with those things in mind, let’s go ahead and let’s turn our attention to God’s word. And we’ll be looking at 1 Kings 19. And so what’s kind of happening in 1 Kings is there’s all sorts of turmoil going on. The nation of Israel, and Judah they have just continually turned their backs on the Lord. There’s been this downward spiral into sin and so God has raised up prophets to confront his people, to call them back to his covenant, to call them back to faithfulness to him. so Elijah has had this great height of confronting the prophets of Baal and he has called the people to repent. The people seem like they are about to repent but then the king and say, hey, we want to kill this guy because he is opposing all that we are seeking to do. And so that’s where we find ourselves at in First Kings chapter 19 verse 19. I’ll just ask if you are able to, would you please stand in order to honor the reading of the words of our God? First Kings 19, 19, God’s word to us this morning says this. So he departed from there and found Elisha, Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with 12 yoke of oxen in front of him and he was with the 12th. Elijah passed by him and cast his cloak upon him and he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, let me kiss my father and my mother and then I will follow you. And he said to him, go back again for what have I done to you? And he returned from following him and took the yoke of oxen and sacrificed them and boiled their flesh with the yokes of the oxen and gave it to the people and they ate. Then he arose and went after Elijah and assisted him. Thank you very much. You may be seated. Let’s pray.
Holy Father, we come before you now. God, we thank you for this day. We thank you that we can come here and be reminded through the voices of our brothers and sisters in Christ here of your greatness and your glory, of the great love that you have shown us through Christ. And Lord, we thank you that you have not left us in this world in darkness, alone, just wandering, trying to figure out what to do with our lives. But Lord, you have given us your word. You have revealed yourself to us in your word and you have called us to follow you. And so Father, may we be found faithful in answering the call to follow after you. Lord God, I ask your blessing upon the preaching of your word here so that every heart might confess that Christ is Lord. And I pray these things in Jesus’ name, amen.
What does it cost to follow the call? What does it cost to follow the call of the Lord Jesus Christ? In the New Testament, in Matthew 13, 44, Jesus tells, he gives a picture in a parable. He says, the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field which a man found and covered up. And then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and he buys that field saying it sells all and buys. You know friends if you were to be walking taking a stroll this afternoon and you were to find treasure in a field would you sell all and buy that land? Now I think most of us would just take the treasure especially with the cost of real estate here in California right? But what is it going to cost you? What is it going to cost you to follow Jesus? What is it going to cost you to follow the call of Jesus upon your life.
All throughout the Bible and in the New Testament especially, Jesus warns us upfront that following him is not easy, that it is costly. It requires not a partial commitment to him, but a full and total commitment in trusting in him. So friends, what will it cost you to follow his call upon your life this morning? For some of you, that will be comfort. For some of you, that might be your reputation. For some of you, it will cost you everything.
But are you willing to answer God’s call upon your life and follow him, even though it be costly? In our text this morning, we’re gonna see that God is the God who calls. And specifically, we’re gonna see his call to follow, and then we’re gonna see the cost it takes to follow.
The Call to Follow
So if you’re taking notes of the two major sections, the call to follow and the cost of following. Elijah here in this text in 1 Kings 19, he is called Elisha to follow him. And then we’re see the cost it is gonna take for Elisha to follow. And so as we look at this text this morning, we need to be asking ourselves, are we willing to follow the one true and living God, even if it is costly? Even if it costs you everything.
And so as I mentioned as we were turning to 1 Kings 19, the context here is that there is a whole bunch of evil happening in the land. The king and queen, Jezebel and Ahab, they are leading the people instead of leading them to God, they are leading the people away from God. And so in 1 Kings 18, Elijah, he confronted the prophets of Bel at Mount Carmel and there was this great display of God’s glory and greatness where they built this altar and God sends fire down and it seems like the people are going to repent and turn from their sins and follow the Lord, but that doesn’t happen. And instead Jezebel says I’m gonna kill, if Elijah isn’t dead by tomorrow, this land is gonna be continually in turmoil. And so what does Elijah do? He runs away. He enters into and you could read about his interaction with the Lord and first Kings 19 the beginning of it He enters into this incredibly dark time where he thinks his ministry is over He thinks he’s defeated and yet God came to him in the midst of the spiritual darkness that he found himself in there and God’s word came to Elijah and we can look at that in verses 15 and 16 of chapter 19 and God says look Elijah I still have a plan and a purpose for your life. I still have a call upon your life you have not fulfilled the call that I have given you and so God tells him that in verse 15 he said go return his way to the wilderness of Damascus and when you arrive you shall anoint has yelled to be king of Assyria and Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint to be king over Israel and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel Mahala you shall anoint to be prophet in your place in other words God was word goes and he meets Elijah in the midst of this darkness and he says look, ‘I still have a plan and a purpose for you and it is for you to prepare for the future.’ So he’s going to go out and he’s going to anoint three people. He’s supposed to anoint a king of Syria, a king of Israel and then anoint Elisha to be his prophetic replacement. And so he’s telling him, look Elijah, I need you to prepare for the future, to prepare the way for the future. And so Elijah, he was thinking he was done, but God met him where he was and he told him, I still have work for you to do and that’s to call up and to raise up the next generation of leaders in the land. And so that’s what is happening in verses 19 and 20 where we see this call to follow. So I ask you this morning will you answer the call to follow? Elisha’s call began all the way back in verse 16 as we said where God is showing Elijah that you shall go and anoint Elisha. Elijah was at Sinai he was discouraged. I mean we could even say he was depressed and you can read about what he asked God to do in verses 1 through 4. He basically says, I feel like I’m done just take my life. And so he’s thinking on the one hand, his ministry is over because he’s thinking, look, everybody has forsaken the Lord. He is thinking he is the only one left. And yet God graciously speaks to him. He restores him to ministry. He gives him a plan to prepare for the future. And that future begins with this call of Elisha. And so Elijah actually is going to go and call him to serve so that Elisha would learn from him. And so Elijah, goes and he did as God told him. He goes to Elisha, he finds him. And I want you to notice, let’s get back to verse 16 and notice where Elisha lives.
So I’ve butchered that word. It says he’s supposed to go to the son of Shafat of Abel Mahallah. I mean if you could pronounce it better than me, I’d like to hear you you try. But does anybody know where that is? That’s the Jordan Valley. And who rules the land of Jordan, the Jordan Valley? It is Ahab and his wonderful wife Jezebel, which if you don’t know anything about the Old Testament, she is sort of the paramount of wickedness that you can imagine a wicked queen being. This wife of Ahab, Jezebel, she had put a bounty out on Elijah’s head and God is saying, look, I’m going to protect you. I’m going to call you back into service. And the first place I’m going to send you is right back into the midst of that incredible darkness, right back into the land where it is incredibly dangerous, where actually there is a bounty on your head. And so God calls Elijah back into service. And what does he do? He goes willingly. He travels all the way from where he was in Sinai to back to the land where he is hated, where the most powerful figure in the kingdom wants him dead, but he went and he obeyed the call of God on his life. And as he arrives there in verse 19, he finds Elisha. And he goes and he calls Elisha to follow him. He finds Elisha, he passes by and what does he do? He casts his cloak upon him and then he just keeps going. It’s kind of an interesting way to call someone to follow you, right? You know, the Bible actually, doesn’t even say here that Elijah, it just says Elijah passed by him in verse 19 and cast his cloak upon him. The Bible doesn’t even say Elijah said anything to Elisha at that moment, right? It’s kind of an awkward thing for us. Like think about it, if you were out mowing your lawn today and someone comes up to you and they put a jacket on you, not only are you gonna be incredibly hot, but what are you gonna think, you’re gonna think what in the world is going on here? We don’t really understand all of the symbolism that is taking place here, but in their day, this was an incredibly symbolic action. And actually, Elisha understands exactly what’s going on here. This action is highly symbolic, and it’s where we get the expression of wearing someone’s mantle or taking up someone’s mantle. It comes from this action of Elijah calling Elisha here. Because what this is, it’s a symbolic action of saying, look, are going to be my successor. You’re gonna be the one who comes behind me and continues the ministry that God is calling us to do. And so God had a called Elisha to this ministry and now Elisha he must respond, which he does.
And so friends here this morning have you answered the call to follow the Lord? Now there are a number of ways that the Bible, the scriptures use the word call or calling all throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament. Just real briefly, I want to summarize three ways that we see call or calling in the scriptures.
First of all, there is a general call that God has, a general call of the gospel going out to everyone. Where we as believers, those who have confessed Christ as the Lord and Savior, we are to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. Right? That where we are to call people to hear the good news of Christ crucified and Christ resurrected the one who was dead and buried and yet on the third day raised we are called to call people to repent and believe in that good news. So there’s the general call of the gospel going forth to everybody.
And then also there is a specific call, or we could say an effective call that we see in the scriptures, a saving call. Whereas in Romans 8.30, Paul is talking about this and he says, those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified. So there is a call in which the gospel is received and responded to and we are saved by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Or Paul writes about this also in 2nd Thessalonians 2 verses 13 and 14 he says, saving call of the gospel in which God brings his people to saving faith. In other words, God’s call is effective in the lives of his people. hear his voice and they respond in faith.
Now friends, that saving call is actually being issued right now, where God is calling you right now to return to Him, to serve Him, to love Him with all of your heart, to leave your sins, to repent of your sins and to trust in Christ, the one who lived a perfect life, the one who died on the cross for our sins and the one who rose from the dead, conquering sin and death. That call is going forth right now. Have you responded to that call? If your answer is yes, I place my faith in Christ.
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If your answer is yes to that, that I have answered that call, then who are you placing your mantle upon? Who are you calling to serve the Lord? Who are you calling to repent and believe in the only news that can save in Jesus Christ? Who are you discipling? Who are you training? Who are you raising up to replace you? know, discipleship is not just for, you know, so-called experts in the church. It’s not just for the pastors, the elders, the deacons, no, discipling other people is for every single believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Every single one of us is called to that.
And then there’s a third way in which call or calling is used in the scriptures and it’s the sense of calling as in God has called us for a specific purpose. What is your calling in life? What is your purpose in life? As in God has called me to do this, to be a pastor, to be a father, to be a husband or for you, maybe calling you to be a missionary, maybe calling you to be a business owner, a doctor, a teacher, something along those lines in the of vocational work. So we think of it as the work or vocational calling that God is asking us and calling us to do. So here in 1 Kings, God is calling Elisha to this prophetic ministry. And in the big picture sense, God has called all of us to a specific vocation or job as well.
And you know, I think sometimes we’ve messed this up in the church, where we think calling only refers to pastors or to missionaries, to elders or to deacons. Yes, they are called to those roles, but we are all called to do the work of the ministry together. Whether your vocation that God has placed you in, whatever you do to pay the bills, you are called to be salt and light, whether that’s in the school system, in retail or in real estate or in God has called you to that vocation to be salt and light for him. Every single one of us is called to serve the Lord and to glorify him in the work of the ministry together.
You might be asking, what do I mean by all of us are called into the work of the ministry together? Well, Paul in his letter to the church in Ephesus in Ephesians 4 11 through 14, he’s unpacking for them that they all have specific gifts that are meant to build up the church. Listen to what Paul says in Ephesians 4 11. He says, and he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of the ministry for the building up of the body, verse 13, until we all attain the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood to the measure and stature of the fullness of Christ so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. In other words, Paul is saying, look, every single member of the church is called to do the work of the ministry together.
So you can’t be sitting here this morning and say God has no calling upon my life because that is not true. Every single one of you has a call to be doing the ministry of the church together to build up one another. But I also don’t want us to discount as well the fact that there is also, as we see from scripture, see from Elijah’s life, see from Elisha’s life, there are times where God does set people apart to serve in ministry full time. You think of Elijah and Elisha here, you think of the other prophets throughout the Old Testament, or you think of Paul and Barnabas and Antioch, how they were set aside, they were called to a specific ministry.
And so there is a situation which God does call people today. He sets them apart to serve the local church or maybe to go internationally and serve as missionaries. And so we need to be asking ourselves, what is God calling us to do? What is God calling you to do? Where is he calling you to be salt and light? Is it here? Is it somewhere else locally or is it internationally? You might be asking, well, how do I know if that is what God is calling me to do?
William Perkins, Puritan pastor in England in the 1500s, he put it this way. He said, how can you know for yourself whether God wants you to go into full-time ministry or not? He said, “You must ask both your own conscience and the church.” Your conscience must judge of your willingness and the church of your ability. So in other words, he’s saying there must be this internal call, this internal desire and aspiration that you have within yourself to serve the church, and the church must affirm that.
And maybe if that’s something that you’re wrestling with today and you’re wrestling, is God calling me to serve in the church in some vocational way? Or maybe God is calling me overseas to go and serve as a missionary? I mean, I know your pastors and your elders, they would love to talk with you about what that looks like and walk through that calling and that wrestling through whether or not that is what God is calling you to. I know they would love to talk with you about that.
The Cost of Following
But friends, whether God has called you to go or to stay, have you answered the call to follow him? Elisha did here. And so you need to consider and ask, is the Lord calling you to that? How does Elisha respond? Well, he responds in a very costly way. So we’re gonna see in verses 20 and 21 now, the cost of following the Lord. It says in verse 20, he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, let me kiss my father and my mother and then I will follow you.And he said to him, go back again for what have I done to you? And he returned from following him and took the yoke of oxen and sacrificed them and boiled their flesh with the yokes of the oxen and gave it to the people. they, then he arose and went after Elijah and assisted him. So Elisha recognizes this call and he follows it. And it is costly to him.
I’d be saying, why is it costly? Why is it so costly for Elisha to follow him? Well, look at what Elisha had. What does he have? What does the text say that he has? It says that he has 12 oxen. Look at how many oxen he has. He has 12. There he is. He’s plowing his fields. He has everything in his day that anybody could want, a bunch of oxen. No, but it’s much more symbolic than that. He has land. He has the ability to cultivate that land. In other words, he has power. has land. has wealth. 12 oxen means that he has wealth. His family was wealthy. He has everything that everybody in his day could want and desire. And then God calls him to respond. And it’s a costly calling because he’s going to leave behind that power. He’s going to leave behind that wealth to do what?
He’s become a servant of a prophet and he’s going to do that for 18 years. You know, you can almost picture Elisha’s parents a couple years down the line where his parents are talking with their neighbors or maybe their family members and they say to him, oh, I’m so proud of my son. My son’s become the best olive farmer in the Jordan Valley. Oh, hey, Shafat, what about your son Elisha? What’s he doing? Oh, he’s washing the prophet Elijah’s clothes in his hands. You know, I do wonder if Elijah’s parents tried to talk him out of that calling of God upon his life.
It seems that like that often happens today. Where many younger Christians, they express to their parents their desire maybe to serve overseas, go hard places with no gospel witness, or maybe to serve the least of these that Jesus talks about in the New Testament. And their families want to disown them or maybe even threaten them. Or parents try to talk them out of that calling.
Parents here this morning, would you rather have your children close to you and not serving the Lord? Or would you rather have them serving the Lord faithfully overseas? You let’s raise up a generation of young men and women who understand that it is costly to follow Jesus, but it is worth it. And so Elisha, responds.
In verse 20 he says, well, can I go back and kiss my father and my mother and then I will follow you. Now some maybe are questioning Elisha’s commitment at this time. They’re wondering, you know, is he really committed? Because think about a similar, a parallel story that happens in Luke 9 in Jesus’s life. Actually turn with me to Luke 9, 57. Turn with me to Luke 9, 57. And Jesus, he’s talking about what it costs to follow him. And there’s some people who go to Jesus and they’re saying, look, I wanna follow you. Luke 9.57, it says, as they were going along the road, someone said to him, I will follow you, Jesus, wherever you go.
Jesus said to him foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head And then verse 59 to another he said follow me But he said Lord let me first go and bury my father and Jesus said to him leave the dead to bury their own dead But as for you go and proclaim the kingdom of God. Yet another said, I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home. And Jesus said, no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.
Well there, in the Old Testament, in 1 Kings 19, Elisha says to Elijah, can I go back and kiss my parents and say goodbye to them? Well, what do you think? Is he wavering compared to what Jesus is saying here? What do you think? Is he wavering in his commitment? I don’t think so. Because Elisha goes back and the contrast to this, this Jesus is calling Luke, I think Jesus is alluding to this text here in Luke 9. What Jesus is doing there is he is showing that his call is so demanding that it demands immediate and absolute response in the moment. In words, I think we see a contrast here that following Jesus is the most important call in the world. Nothing is more important than the call to follow Jesus. And that’s the point that Jesus is making in Luke 9, that he is greater than all of the other Old Testament prophets. So don’t miss that. Jesus is greater than all of them. And his call demands immediate response and following in that very moment. And so that’s the point that Jesus is making there in Luke 9. But I also think Elijah probably knew where Elisha’s heart was.
Jesus definitely knew where those people’s heart was in Luke 9. He knew that that man was actually just reluctant in making an excuse of all of him. But we really see Elisha’s heart here in this text. If we go back to 1 Kings 19, because what does he do in his response? He slaughters the oxen, right? The man who met Jesus in Luke 9, He was bartering for more time. In other words, he was delaying his commitment to Christ. And maybe some of you are trying to do that this morning. You’re saying, I’ll just put off this call. I’ll put off responding to Jesus later in a couple of years. No, no, no. We must respond immediately to the Lord Jesus Christ.
But what does Elisha do? He’s not delaying his commitment, rather he goes back and what does he do? He severs all of his ties that he has there. Verse 21, it says, returned following and took with him the yoke of oxen and he sacrificed them and he boiled their flesh with the yokes of the oxen and gave it to the people and they ate. So Elisha, he goes back, he sacrifices his oxen and he throws a barbecue, right? You can almost smell the brisket or the triton. But why does he do this? Because it’s a symbolic act of total commitment. He has decided to follow Jesus and there’s no turning back. Elisha goes back and he burns the plow. He’s saying he’s willing to give up everything. He’s willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of following God’s call on his life.
So friends here this morning, what are you willing to leave behind? You’re willing to leave behind your home? Your families, your jobs, your possessions, your comfort? God may ask you to do that and go to the ends of the earth. Would you be willing to leave those things behind? Or maybe he’s asking you to do this and stay and serve him faithfully with total commitment and allegiance to him here in this place. A couple of times a year, the International Missions Board, one of the, our great missions partner in our network of churches. They have a sending celebration a couple times a year where we send out new missionaries. A week and a half ago I was in Dallas, Texas and we sent out 58 new missionaries.
And it just is incredible to hear the testimonies of what God has called them to do, what God has called them to leave behind, to go to places. And some of these missionaries, they have to stand behind a screen because we can’t see their faces. They’re going to such hard places and such dangerous places that even to see their faces would risk their security. And it just, it’s incredible to see their willingness to serve Jesus wherever God would call them to go. But what about, what about you? Are you willing to sacrifice? Are you willing to symbolically sacrifice your oxen? I’m not calling you to literally do that. But when was the last time you were inconvenienced for the sake of the gospel? Notice Elisha’s full and total commitment.
He sacrifices these oxen and he burns the plow. He is fully committed to this calling. He’s not saying, well, I’m gonna try this out and see if things work out for me. I’ll just keep the plow in my garage or in a cave in case I come back and this thing doesn’t work out. You know, he’s burning that plow as a sign of his full commitment that he is gonna follow the Lord no matter the cost.
And the same is true for us. When we follow Jesus, we cannot give him anything less than total allegiance. We can’t say, well, I’ll try this Jesus thing and see if it works out for me. No, no, no. That’s not faith. That’s not trust. That’s not reliance upon him. That’s not faith. That’s not commitment to him. You either are fully committed or you are not committed at all. You’re either fully committed, there’s no partial commitment in following Jesus. So have you burned the plow to follow Christ.
Friends, do you read the fine prints in contracts or in medication? When you get a new medication, do you ever read the fine print? You sign a document, do you read all the fine print? I’ll be honest with you, I don’t. I’ve often been caught by the fine print or you pick up a new medicine, right, and it says that all the side effects might actually be worse than the symptoms you’re actually having, or you see an ad on the TV and that man’s voice, you know, lists out all of the terrible things that could happen as a result of taking that medication. Or maybe you get a free rebate on something and then the fine print says that you’ll pay for shipping and actually the payment for shipping is more than what the product would even cost. It wipes out any savings. Do you read the fine print? How often the fine print gets us?
But Jesus boldly declares to us what his fine print is. Actually, he doesn’t even have any fine print. He says the cost of following him is great. It is full and total commitment and allegiance to him. Jesus doesn’t have a fine print when it comes to being his disciple. There is no fine print when it comes to Christianity. We have it all revealed here in his word. He is upfront from the very beginning. And don’t you see what Jesus is saying, what the Lord is saying to us in these scriptures? He saying it is going to be costly to follow him. It’s going to cost us everything to follow him. He’s upfront. He doesn’t let, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. It takes wholehearted devotion to follow Jesus.
So what is it going to cost you? J.C. Ryle, a pastor in 1800s he put it this way, it costs something to be a true Christian. Let that never be forgotten. To be a mere nominal Christian just to go to church and only do that, that is cheap and easy work. But to hear Christ’s voice and to follow Christ and believe in Christ and confess Christ, that requires much self-denial. It will cost us our sins. will cost us our self-righteousness. It will cost us our ease and our worldliness. All, all must be given up. We must fight an enemy who comes against us with 20,000 followers. We must build a tower in troubled times. Our Lord Jesus would have us thoroughly understand this and count the costs to follow him. Friends, Jesus’ own call to us is to count the costs. And that is not easy, but it’s worth it.
Think of the apostle Paul, what he wrote in Romans eight, verse 18. He says, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us, revealed to us. Why? Because we are called to serve the Lord who has defeated sin and death. And we will have eternity with him. An eternity that’s not marked by any kind of sin or brokenness, but it is marked by true and everlasting joy in Christ.
I love the hymn, When I survey the wondrous cross, it ends with the line, love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all. So friends, have you heard the call of Christ upon your life? Have you burned the plow and considered what it costs to follow him faithfully? Let’s pray. Father, as we look at a text like this, see that it is costly to follow you. But Lord, it is worth it. It is worth it to say no to our sinful desires, our sinful temptations, because you are far greater than anything this world has to offer. But I pray, if there are any here this morning who are just wavering in their commitment to you, that they’re maybe feeling the desire to go back to fulfill sinful desires. Seek to please themselves, Father, may they see that following you is worth it. It’s worth it because Jesus, your son hasn’t done anything that he’s not calling us to do, that he laid down his life for us. He gave everything for us. And so God, we are grateful for that. We’re thankful that he laid down his life and he took it up again so that we could have hope and that we can have eternal life in him. Father, pray there any here who do not know Christ that they wouldn’t walk through these doors without trusting in Jesus as their Lord and Savior. May they count the cost of following you. May they see that it is worth it because you can satisfy the deepest longings of their heart and of their soul. Father, I pray your blessing upon your church here that they would continue to be a faithful gospel witness and outpost in this community. We would pray for VBS that’s coming up, that those kids who would come through these doors to the call of the gospel in their lives and that they would repent and respond in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ and serve him faithfully, whether that be here or anywhere in this world. We thank you and praise you for the life that we have in Christ. It’s in his name we pray, amen.