If you will, let's turn in our Bibles to Revelation. Revelation chapter three. This morning, we're going to come to the sixth of the seven letters. We've been walking through these now for several weeks, and we are drawing near the conclusion of this particular study. We come now to the letter to the church at Philadelphia. Letter to the church at Philadelphia. Revelation three, we're going to be looking specifically at verses seven through 13 this morning. Revelation three, verses seven through 13. So we come to God's word this morning, we ask his blessing to help us to understand it. So let's read this passage, let's go to the Lord in prayer, and then we'll turn our attention to what he would teach us this morning. Revelation three, beginning in verse seven. And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write the words of the Holy One, the true one, one who has the key of David, who opens and no one shuts, who shuts and no one opens. I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door which no one is able to shut. I know that you have a little power and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and they're not, but lie. Behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet and they will learn that I have loved you. Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world to try those who dwell on the earth. I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have so that no one may seize your crown. The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it. And I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven and my own new name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word to us this morning. Lord, we come dependent on you. Knowing that the grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever. Knowing that all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. That your people, your servants, might be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Lord, we know that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Lord, we know that young people and old people alike keep their way pure by living according to your word. Lord, we know that we need you to speak to us this morning. Lord, if we're going to pursue faithfulness in all of life, we need your word to come alive to us this morning as we read and as we hear it preached. We need your word to penetrate our hearts, to separate joint and marrow. We need it to open up our eyes so that we can see. We need your spirit to open up our eyes so that we can behold wondrous things in your law. Lord, we need you. And we pray that you would work in such a way this morning that we would hear your voice and that what we hear would transform our lives so that we would be more and more faithful to Jesus. We ask these things in his name, amen. As we come into this text this morning, one of the things that strikes me in the heart of it, as we'll see, is the reality of true belonging. What does it mean to belong to Christ? What does it mean to belong to his people? When I was in college, you know, you come together and you throw a bunch of 18 to 22 year olds in one place. And that's always a risky thing to do. And you have them live together among each other in dorms. And one of the things you see as you get started in college is you see everybody searching for true belonging. And there are all kinds of different people, but there was a particular group of people at the college that we attended that we often affectionately called the hipsters. You ever heard of a hipster before? Anybody ever heard of that expression before? Here's what hipsters were, at least when we were in school. The definition may have changed. Hipsters were people that were always trying to be cool, but they never wanted to be like anybody else. They were people who were always on trend, or maybe even ahead of trends, and yet they wanted to be distinctly unconventional about how they did things. So that meant that even though they wanted to be cool and they wanted people to see them as kind of ahead of their time in the way that they do things, they stuck out. They dressed different, they talked different, they liked different music, they had different hobbies, they studied different majors. They were just kind of different from the rest of us. And when I first started as a freshman and I saw that, I thought, well, these are people that don't fit in with the rest of us, and they kind of come to college and they find each other, and they kind of form a community of people that like the same things. But then as I went through the four years that we were in undergraduate, one of the things that I began to realize is that a lot of the people that were coming didn't come as hipsters to find other hipsters. They didn't come because they were a little bit different, a little bit off the beaten path, and then discover, wow, there's a community of people here that are kind of like me. That's not how it went. A lot of them came to the school that we attended, and they were actually pretty normal, pretty homogenous, like high school students tend to be. And then as they got there, they began to change themselves, not because they were different, but to be different so they could fit in with the hipsters. In other words, they started to make themselves distinct and different, not because they were already that way, but because they wanted to belong to a community. And they saw that community, and they said, there's something about those people that makes me want to be one of them. And so they would progressively change the way that they dressed, and change the way that they talked, and change the things that they were interested in. And lo and behold, by the time we graduated, the people that were normal like us when we started, were now very cool, and very trendy, and very different. And we see this all over the place, don't we? Whether we're talking about college students and how they kind of adjust and adapt to their peers, or we talk about various other contexts in our lives, all of us want to feel a sense of belonging. You can look all over the place. In some ways, it's easier to belong today and harder to belong today to a particular group of people than it's ever been. I mean, think about the internet, right? If you're on the internet, you can join a Facebook group about any particular interest that you have. And oftentimes, there are multiple Facebook groups, and you can form relationships with people all around the world based on all these different interests that you have. You want to join a Facebook group about craft coffee? You can join a Facebook group about craft coffee and you can get more information than you ever want to have. You want to join a Facebook group about bow ties? There's one about bow ties. You want to join one about container gardening in urban areas? You can join one of those. I mean, any interest that you have, you can join them. We also look for belonging in our personal lives in all kinds of other ways. We look for political belonging. We feel that right now, right? Don't we, in an election season? Some of us maybe feel more involved and included than others, but we're all striving to feel a sense of belonging, and you feel that tug, right? Especially in our climate where we have two parties, you want to belong to one or the other. And you feel that tug to go into all of the depths of what that represents. We feel belonging in all kinds of different contexts. Some of us, especially in our area, it's all about family, right? Our extended family is our core network of where we feel like we belong. And so we pursue that and we cultivate those relationships. There's all kinds of places to belong. You can belong to a fan base, a subculture, a group of hobbyists. But I think at the heart of all of us is this desire to feel like we're not alone. and that we are accepted and welcomed somewhere by some group of people. But here's the thing, that desire is natural. I think God intended us to have it, but God did not create us to seek a sense of belonging first and foremost with people who share our hobbies or our politics or our family identity. God created us to seek a sense of belonging with him. God created us to seek a sense of belonging with him and within the context of this community that he was building when he created the first man and woman in his image and after his likeness, God intended that we would find true belonging with him. And that's what stands at the heart of what Jesus has to say to the church at Philadelphia as he's dealing with their situation and he's bringing words of comfort to them. He's speaking to the issue of belonging. So here's what I want to ask this morning as we begin to work through this text. What does it mean to belong in a very real meaningful sense to God? And flowing out of that, How does that actually work in real life? What does it mean to belong to God and what does true belonging actually look like in our experience of relationship with Jesus? I want you to see four things with me in our text this morning as we work through this together. Number one, notice with me, as we think about this issue of belonging and we think about our connection to God in it, notice that Jesus welcomes us. Jesus welcomes us. Verse 7, we read, and to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, the words of the Holy One, the true one. So pause here. Oftentimes in the Old Testament, God is referred to as the Holy One of Israel. When Jesus refers to himself as the Holy One, he's claiming to be God, bar none, Jesus is God, the true one. I mean, think about all the references to the truthfulness of God, how he is true in all that he says and all that he does. Jesus is again appealing to that, but then he says something interesting. The words of the Holy One, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens. This is an allusion to Isaiah 22, 22, where a steward in the household of David's family is responsible for opening and closing all of the different places within David's kingdom. And this is a prophetic word. It's called typology that's designed not just to speak about the immediate context, but to point to somebody greater. The picture here is that someone within the context of David's kingdom is going to one day possess a key that gives him exclusive rights to determine who is in and who is not in the kingdom. And Jesus is here saying that he is the one as the son of David who possesses the key of David who has the right to open so that no one can shut and to shut so that no one can open. And then the question comes, okay, what does that mean? Verse eight, I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. When Jesus speaks to the church at Philadelphia, much like he did to the church at Smyrna, he comes recognizing that this is a struggling people. As we'll see in a few moments in verse nine, it seems that like the Christians in Smyrna, Jesus is recognizing that the people in Philadelphia are experiencing real opposition. And this opposition is at the hands of the Jews in the community, and perhaps even the pagans that are around them. But basically what they're being told is, you don't belong here. It's likely that the primary initiators of this experience are the ones whom Jesus calls the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and they're not but lie. What Jesus is acknowledging here I think is that what was happening to the Christians at Philadelphia is they were seeking to be a part of the Jewish community. They were seeking to lay hold of God's promises to the Jewish people as Gentiles through faith in Jesus and they were being told by the Jews there actually you know what you don't belong. You're not allowed to come into the community of this people. Because you've embraced Jesus, because you've identified yourself with his name, that means that you cannot have a place in the midst of this people. And because of that, because they're being pushed out and kicked out and rejected, they're being told that they don't belong, Jesus has a word that speaks very specifically to their circumstances. Where they're being told, you have no place here, Jesus says, hey, guess what? The Jews in your city are not the ones who hold the kingdom's keys. They're not the ones who have the right to open and close the door. They're not the ones who get to tell you who gets to come in and who doesn't. Guess who holds the keys to hell and to heaven? Jesus does. And what Jesus says to these Christians is, I'm the one who sets before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. And Jesus is implicitly saying, I have, I am welcoming you into my presence and no one can kick you out. And this is wonderful news for us this morning, because so much of our lives as we seek to belong is constantly trying to measure up to people's standards. You ever think about kind of the way the world works. You look at world religion. Every single one of the world religions, except for Christianity, that I'm aware of, gives you a list of things that you need to achieve in order to be acceptable to God. But we live in a day when people aren't especially fond of religion in some settings. Think about the prevailing philosophies of our day. Think about what we often call, in our settings, wokeism, or think about critical theories of different kinds. One of the things that I see over and over and over again is that people, as they embrace all of these different approaches to understanding the world, whether we're talking about critical race theory or something else along those lines, feminist theory, queer theory, all these different things that you'll come across, One of the things that I've noticed over and over and over again is that these things are designed to give explanations for why the world is the way it is and to promise liberation to oppressed peoples. But what I see over and over and over again is that these things don't provide liberation, they provide further oppression. because they're constantly telling people you don't measure up, you aren't doing enough, you're not fighting hard enough, you're not becoming enough, you don't match enough of the subcategories within the culture that you need to have if you're going to be acceptable. And what we need to hear in our day is that where all of these other things are telling us you don't belong, you don't have a place here, you're not the right skin color, you're not the right gender, you don't have the right sexual orientation, whatever those things are, what Jesus says is, hey, I've got a door and it is open and you can enter in. You know what the world needs to hear from us so desperately? Everybody else tells you, you better be worthy. Only the Christian gospel recognizes that we are all unworthy and yet we are all welcome in. And so what we need to see is that Jesus welcomes us. Listen, one of the things that's so easy to do when we find ourselves in a minority in terms of faithful Bible-believing Christianity is to say, listen, we need to start compromising. And I know I've said this before, but I want to say it again. We need to start compromising, we need to let go of some things, and we need to try to reframe our message. But what I've found the longer I've served Jesus, both as a teenager, as a child, and all the way through into ministry, is that the gospel is just as true in all of its beauty, and it's just as relevant as it ever has been. It's just as needed as it ever has been. People need to understand that at the end of the day, everything else is telling them they don't measure up, that they don't belong. And Jesus says, I don't ask you to bring anything. I simply welcome you in. Now, the thing we have to recognize is that in order to enter in, we have to believe, right? We have to entrust ourselves to Jesus. But we also see all throughout Jesus's ministry, people that come into his kingdom that don't match the expectations that we have. I mean, the people that Jesus had the most trouble with were the religious leaders, the people that seemed like they had it all together because they were the ones that didn't realize that they were sick. They were the ones that thought they were well and Jesus would tell them things like, the well don't need a physician. But think about the kind of people that congregated around Jesus. In addition to just ordinary people like the fishermen that became among his disciples, think about Matthew, Levi, the tax collector, hated by everyone, excluded from every meaningful sort of community in the area around him, yet Jesus welcomes him in. Jesus calls him to be one of his disciples, and then he attends a party for tax collectors and sinners who are likewise welcomed in. Think about all the times that Jesus welcomes prostitutes. I mean, one of the most beautiful scenes in the Gospels is when a prostitute comes and she washes Jesus's feet with her tears and her hair, and she bathes him in costly ointment. And the Pharisee that's hosting the party where she shows up is absolutely aghast that Jesus would allow this to happen. And Jesus says she knows how much she's forgiven. Those who are forgiven much love much. She was welcomed in. Think about political revolutionaries. Simon the Zealot, one of the disciples, you know what a zealot was? He was a political revolutionary. He was trying to overthrow the Roman Empire and Jesus welcomed him in. Think about the thief on the cross as he was hanging there next to Jesus. As the other criminal was casting aspersions on Jesus, as he was mocking him and he was casting doubt on whether Jesus was who he claimed to be, whether the sign that was put above his head was actually true, this one rebuked the other and he said, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And in that moment, no matter what he'd done, all of it was wiped away because Jesus said, truly you'll be with me in paradise today. Listen, what you need to understand this morning is no matter who you are or what you've done, Jesus welcomes you. The gospel is for you. This is true of worship, it's true of all of the Christian life. A friend of mine that was in a prior church of ours that helped lead our music ministry in a period of transition, came and led a youth worship one night when I was absent. And the youth minister told me after that, as he stood before these students, he said, hey, I want you to know something. Worship is rated E for everyone. Every single one of you has the right to come in. Listen, Jesus is telling us this morning that the gospel is for everyone. He is the one who gets to control who belongs. And if you come to him in faith and repentance today, his word to you is you are welcomed and loved. Now, we all need to hear this too. Sometimes we think that sermons are for unbelievers and we're preaching to these people and we kind of look around and go, who's that for? But remember, I know coming into the service, and you do too, that the vast majority of people in the room are professing Christians. The gospel is not something we get over when we go on to deeper things. Some of you need to hear this morning that in all of the difficulties and struggles of your life, in all of your search for belonging, because you're continuing to struggle to feel like you belong with these groups of people or those groups of people, Jesus is telling you the same thing. Stop getting distracted by the things over there. Stop looking for real community and real belonging over here. Come to me. and find all that you need. Jesus welcomes us. Jesus welcomes you this morning. He invites you to enter in and He alone has the authority to do it. You can find real belonging in Him and He welcomes you. Number two, notice with me that Jesus vindicates us. Jesus vindicates us. Verse 9, Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie. Behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and they will learn that I have loved you. We've already acknowledged that there's a conflict happening in Philadelphia. We don't have a lot of historical records of a huge Jewish community there, But it's likely that there was this ongoing struggle for recognition in a predominantly pagan city for people like the Jews and people like Christians in the city. And it's apparent that yet again, the Jews are saying, you don't belong. You're not part of this thing. We don't want to have anything to do with you. And in fact, it's probable that they're going on to say that God doesn't want you. that God has no part of who you are as Christians. And Jesus has a very different message. He says, hey, they call themselves Jews, but because they reject me as their Messiah, they're showing that they're liars. In order to be a true Jew, you need to recognize the authority of Jesus as the Messiah and bow your knee to him and recognize that he is the one you've been waiting for, that he is God himself come to his people. And Jesus here says something remarkable. He says, And right through here is all kinds of mercy. The picture of the Jews coming and bowing down at Jesus's feet here or the Christians feet here is not a scary thing. Sometimes we think of bowing down and we think of like a forced submission. And I don't think this is what this is because what Jesus is doing is he's twisting Old Testament truths on their head. Old Testament prophecies on their head. If you read through the book of Isaiah you'll see over and over and over again this promise that the nations are going to come and they're going to bow down at the feet of the Israelites as God fulfills his kingdom purpose in the world. What Jesus is here saying is that the day is coming when the Jews will recognize that Jesus is the Messiah and they will come in droves and they will look at the Christians whom they have despised and rejected and they'll say, I realize now that you are not my enemy. I realize now that you are not opposed to the purposes of God. I realize now that the Messiah and the Lord has loved you and I love you too. There is hope then for all people. at the feet of Jesus. And at the same time there is hope for us, whether we're talking about Jews persecuting Christians, which isn't particularly common for us today in our context, or other people too. What is our natural inclination when people oppose us? What do we do when people are unkind to us? We ignore a lot of Bibles what we do. Turn the other cheek, and I'm gonna punch the other cheek. Why not do that? Love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you. We're over here like, man, you better pray for those who persecute me. We constantly struggle with this reality because we want to seek vengeance, don't we? But when God says, vengeance is mine, I will repay, he meant it. If you are looking for vindication, it comes not through retaliation, it comes through recognizing that the day is coming when Jesus is going to make all things new. And when he's going to show before all of the created order that you were one that was loved by God. that the God of the universe is on your side, and that nothing can separate you from his love. Jesus is here setting before us a promise that even if we feel like an insignificant minority, even if we feel as though the whole world is oriented against us, the day is coming when Christ's victory will be so thorough and complete that all peoples will fall before us and recognize that Christ has loved us. And that gives me hope. And it gives me peace. I don't have to fight. People, and maybe this is some of you, people who live in a constant state of desire to fight back are some of the most miserable people that I've ever known. Because they're so easily offended and they're so concerned about the possibility of other people's attacks. that there's no peace. I feel some of this, full confession. In the struggles that I have within my own mind, I feel this constant need to be equipped to fight back, to maintain control, to defend myself and to vindicate myself. And you know what gives me hope and peace when I think about a passage like this one? It's that God hasn't called me to prove my worth. God hasn't called me to show people that I'm worth something. God has not called me to avenge myself. God has not called me even in some senses to defend myself. God has called me to trust that the day is coming when he will do it for me. And when it will be indisputable that Christ has loved me. Jesus vindicates us. He shows that we belong to him and that he loves us. Listen, we may feel like we're losing, but we are not. Jesus has already won, and we need to put our trust in him. Notice with me a third thing. Not only does Jesus welcome us, not only does he vindicate us, but Jesus protects us. Jesus protects us. There's an interpretive issue that we'll need to talk about in a moment, but I just want to lead you through the next few verses. Verse 10, because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world to try those who dwell on the earth. I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have so that no one may seize your crown. Jesus is here acknowledging that a day is coming when the judgment of God sweeps across the entire earth. In fact, I think if you read the New Testament carefully, you see that this actually happens at various points all throughout history, and it reaches a crescendo prior to Christ's second coming. That God will bring judgment, and judgment, and judgment, and judgment as warnings, and then finally, there's going to be this intense experience of suffering that's going to precede Christ's second coming. And one of the difficulties here is when he says that this is coming, where there's going to be this hour of trial that's going to come on the whole world, and that he's going to keep people from it, one of the questions that people have asked is, is Jesus saying that he's going to pull Christians out of suffering altogether so that they don't actually experience it in the first place? Is this a description of a rapture event where people are lifted out of the world before the experience of tribulation? Or is this an experience of some kind of worldwide suffering that's happened in the past or may yet happen again, through which Christ is going to preserve and protect his people so that they won't be lost in the midst of it? Now, I want to say to you that whether you take one interpretation or the other doesn't matter much to me, because at the heart of this is the simple reality that Jesus keeps those who belong to him. He will keep you if you trust in him. He will protect you whether it's by taking you out of the world before a seven year tribulation or keeping you through years of tribulation on this earth. Jesus will protect you. I'm inclined to think because he's writing to real Christians and real history that this is a description of him actually keeping the church at Philadelphia through real suffering in their own life as they were obedient to Jesus. But regardless of how you take this, we need to recognize that Jesus is powerful to protect us. One of Jesus's own favorite illustrations for the judgment was the flood. He used it in his Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24 and 25. when he reminded people that God's judgment would sweep the earth. It would come down that some would be taken and others left. Now, if you look at the story of the flood, when the waters of God's judgment sweep the earth, who gets left and who gets taken? Noah and his family get left because they're in the ark. They're kept safe there by God in this floating box that's floating across the waters until the waters recede. Who gets swept away? Those who fall under judgment. Now what we need to understand is, regardless of how you interpret this, the day is coming when God will judge the earth. The question that we have to ask ourselves is, will we stand through the judgment? And what we need to understand is that the only safe place to be when the judgment of God comes upon the world is in the midst of God's perfect plan and will for us in obedience to him. We need to hide ourselves in the protection that God alone supplies. The Ark in the Old Testament, the midst of the people of Israel with their tabernacle as they went to the Red Sea, or we're talking about experiencing His spiritual protection and provision in this life. If we realize that judgment and suffering is coming, the only safe place to be is in His will. And what we need to see that, we need to say that more and more right now. I mean, look at the world around us. What is our temptation when things get bad? You ever go back and look at information about the Great Depression? What happened right as the stock market was crashing? Where did people go? A lot of them tried to rush to the bank to get their money out. That's an understandable thing to do. If there's another one of those, try to get your money out. I'm not saying you shouldn't. But what do we do when things start to go wrong? We take out insurance policies. We rush to try to accumulate our money and protect it and guard it and make sure it's in the right places. We go and we buy all the toilet paper that we can find, which is one of those weird things that we just keep doing. We rush to protect ourselves and be a good steward, protect yourself and your family, but what we need to understand is regardless of what's happening in the world, the only truly safe place to be is in the will of Christ. The only safe place to be, the ark that God gives us to protect us is Christ himself. And no matter what happens in the world, you can find safety and provision and protection in Jesus. But listen, if you don't belong to him, the day of God's wrath is coming and it will sweep you away. Now, we've already said, how do you get protected? You come to Jesus and Jesus says, hey, you're welcome. The door of the ark was open until God shut it. The door of the ark is open to you if you come in and he will protect you. Jesus protects us. And then one last thing I want to say quickly, Jesus honors us. Jesus honors us. Listen, the world rejects us. The world despises us. They despise the Philadelphian Christians, but Jesus tells us that we have a very different fate awaiting us. Verse 11, I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have so that no one may seize your crown. You're gonna be royalty. Verse 12, the one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. You will dwell in the presence of God forever. Never shall he go out of it. And I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven and my own new name. The city of Philadelphia experienced a really big earthquake in the early part of the first century. And the Roman emperor came in and rebuilt the city. And in order to recognize him, they gave their city a new name. They decided to stop being Philadelphia and they became New Caesar. New Caesarea. They became a city that identified themselves with the emperor because they wanted to express their gratefulness, their thankfulness for what he has done, because he had provided for them in the midst of their distress. They later changed their name to Flavius Philadelphia, trying to maintain that same thing. What Jesus tells us here, though, is that the city that you ultimately want to be accepted in and welcomed into, the city where you want to belong, is not any of the cities of this world. God has not created you even for a city as wonderful as Mantee. When Elisa and I came here, the search committee, when I came as associate pastor, they asked if we were ready to move into a small town like Mantee. And we said, man, we're doubling in population coming here. We love this community, we do. It's a great place to be. It's a great place to raise a family. And we're really glad to be here. But guess what? It's not the best place to be. Guess what? It's not the eternal city that God is building. But what Jesus tells us is that we get to be built into the very structure of God's eternal temple. He's gonna mark us. He's gonna write on us the name of his God and his new name. He's gonna write the name of the city of his God, the new Jerusalem. He is going to mark us as fit for his kingdom. He's gonna tell us that we belong. You ever seen Toy Story before? You may have seen Toy Story. You get the idea if I tell you anyway. Toy Story, one of the themes that shows up in the movies is that when Andy, the main character, gets a new toy that he particularly loves, he writes his name on the bottom of the toy's shoe so that he can always find him. That's how he indicates belonging. You may have done that with something you really care about. Some of you, when you bring a dish to church for a potluck supper, potluck lunch, you make sure that there is a label on your dish that says who it belongs to, because you want to get it back. We mark the things that belong to us. We mark them as belonging to us, and we want them back. And Jesus tells us that when we belong to him, he marks us as truly belonging. It doesn't matter what the world says. It doesn't matter if the world says, you have no place here. Jesus says, I will give you a place that no one can take away from you. And Jesus is telling you today, if you want to experience true belonging that lasts forever and that matters, you need to come to Him. Let Him write His name on you and say to you, you belong. It doesn't matter what you've done. It doesn't matter where you come from. It doesn't matter who you are. Jesus is saying to you today that you can belong with him. Now, two final points of application before we close. If you have never belonged to Jesus, come. We're going to sing a song of response. Come talk to me about what it means to follow Jesus, what it means to belong to him. It's going to be worth it. But on the other side, I have a question for us as a church. How much does this sense of belonging that Jesus is calling for and providing to us, how much is this reflected in our life? When people come to Mantee Baptist Church, when they come among the people who make up Mantee Baptist Church, do they find a community of true belonging? built on the foundation of the gospel of Jesus Christ, recognizing his glory and his sufficiency and his love, do they find a group of people who say, you are welcome in. My family has found a home in this place as long as the Lord gives us the grace to say we found a home here. And my prayer is that many, many people will find a home here where they get to taste what life in the New Jerusalem is actually like. And where they get to experience what it's like to belong to Jesus and to his people, not just now, but forever. So maybe you come this morning and you realize that you're not part of a church, you don't have a place in this earth that you belong. I would invite you to come talk to me about baptism and church membership because this is a great place to belong. It's the kind of place where people come back after years of ministry away because it's a good place to belong. Come talk to me about that. But for those of us who do already belong to this church, let's just ask ourselves, are we making this a place where it's belonging to? Or are we getting in the way of people experiencing what true belonging in Jesus actually feels like? I'm convinced that one of the greatest witnesses that we can have in the world, this is why we're talking about what we're talking about on Sunday nights, one of the greatest witnesses that we can have in the world is the way that we love each other and the way that people find a home here in our midst that gives them that foretaste of heavenly reality. Are we going to become this? Are people going to see Jesus in the midst of us and understand that he welcomes them as we do?