All right, take God's Word tonight, please. Open to the Old Testament book of Zechariah. As you know, we're doing a study in this book, and we're in chapter eight tonight. We're going to look at this chapter here and find some instruction for our soul. Zechariah chapter eight. And I want to talk tonight on blessed to be a blessing. Blessed to be a blessing. In the book of 2 Kings chapter 7, it records how Samaria was surrounded by the enemy army of King Ben-Hadad, a king of Aram. And they were besieging the city, and the people inside the city were having a very difficult time. They were starving basically on the inside of the city. And just outside the gate, there were four beggars. And, you know, it's hard to beg food when everybody else is starving right there in the city. But these four beggars, if you remember the story, concluded, they said, you know, if we stay here, we're going to die. We can go over to the enemy camp and ask them to give us food, and they may not. Either way, we die, or they may kill us, and then we're out of our misery either way. So let's go over to the enemy camp and see if they'll help us and give us some food. And so they went over to the enemy camp, and to their surprise, they discovered that the camp was deserted. God had struck the soldiers' hearts with fear, and they all left the camp quickly. They left all of their belongings and possessions behind. And so these beggars were suddenly rich. They ate the good food, they put on the nice clothes they found, they filled their pockets with all the gold and silver that they could hold from spoils throughout the camp that they found. But when they were doing all this, they were struck with fear, or excuse me, they were struck with guilt, I should say, and they said to one another, you know, we're not doing right. This is a day of good tidings. We should share this. We should not keep silent about what happened here." And so they went and they reported it in Samaria, and they shared all the blessings with others. Now, when you read that story, you know, I often think, you know, we're like those beggars. I know I'm like that beggar. I'm just a beggar trying to tell other beggars where to find bread, right? That's what salvation is all about. God has called us to himself. He's given us abundant blessings. But if we keep it to ourselves, we're not doing right. To bottle up the blessings of God for ourselves is to fall into rampant selfishness, which is the sin of this American culture, to be so very selfish. Sometimes I hear Christians when they're giving a testimony and they'll say something like, I don't know why God blessed me so much. Well, this chapter here in Zechariah will tell you why. The reason why God blessed you so much is because He wants you to be a blessing to others. God blesses us in order that we, in turn, might bless others. Now, this is the main message of Zechariah 8. In fact, the whole theme of the chapter can be summed up in verse 13, the last part of verse 13. If you look down there where it says in verse 13, so will I save you. and ye shall be a blessing." This is the theme of this whole chapter. God says, I will save you, and then in turn, you shall be a blessing. Again, God's people are blessed to bless others. God pours out His grace on us so that we will basically pour it out on others. It'll slop over out of us onto others, onto those that are without hope, onto the dying, onto those that are thirsty for the water of life. And so, this is what we want to look at here tonight in this chapter. Now, the text falls into two parts. And they're both kind of prefaced with the phrase, the word of the Lord of hosts came unto me saying, look at verse number one. We see that in verse one. Again, the word of the Lord of hosts came to me saying, and then we look down at verse 18. And again, this is kind of where it divides. In verse 18, we see the same thing. And the word of the Lord of hosts came unto me saying. Now the first word of the Lord to Zechariah from verses 1 on down to verse 17 basically breaks into two parts. In verses 1 to 8, this presents God's promise to restore his blessing on the nation of Israel after years of captivity. And then verses 9 to 17 apply this promise to the remnant of Zechariah's day, the ones that were there in the city of Jerusalem that were rebuilding the temple. And then the second word of the Lord, which picks up in verse 18 on down to verse 23, the end of the chapter, shows that God's blessed people are to become a blessing to all the nations of the earth. And that's really how this whole chapter unfolds. Verse 19 answers the question raised by the delegation. If you were here last week, you know, in chapter 7, a delegation from Bethel came and asked, should we continue to do these fasts that we've been doing for all these 70 years? You know, they're kind of going through the ritual of it. Well, verse 19 kind of answers that question by God saying, you know, I'm going to replace the fasting with feasting. I'm going to bless the nation of Israel. And so, this is part of the experience of God's gracious blessing and salvation that God is going to give to the nation. Now, I want us to apply this chapter to us as the church. But we need to keep in mind that this applies primarily to the nation of Israel. Now, many commentators, when they apply Chapter 8 here, they apply it spiritually to the church as if that is the final and ultimate fulfillment of Zechariah Chapter 8. While I do believe this does apply to us as believers in the church, the ultimate fulfillment is first to the nation of Israel, and we need to keep that in mind. Paul, you remember if you've been with us at 945 on Sunday morning, we've been talking a lot about this, but you remember Paul in Romans chapter 11 teaches that while God has partially hardened Israel in judgment, that will happen until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in. And so this partial blindness in Israel is not a permanent thing. It is a temporary thing. After God is finished with the times of the Gentiles, the Bible says that all Israel will be saved. And so there is a glorious future for Israel. When God will pour out on the house of David, this is Zechariah 1210, you just write it down or just look at it. He'll pour out on the house of David the spirit of grace and of supplication so that they will look on him whom they have pierced, that is the Lord Jesus Christ. When he comes back again, the Jewish people will recognize Jesus as their Messiah. And so God still has a future in mind for Israel. What's fascinating to me is men like Charles Simeon, you may not have heard that name, but he preached in the Victorian era of England. He died in 1836. And then also Charles Spurgeon, who preached in 1860s in England as well. Both of these men, when they studied Zechariah 8, argued that the Jews had to be restored to the land so that God can fulfill the promises that he made here in this chapter. Now, you have to remember that when they wrote that, that Israel had not become a nation. This was 100 years before Israel became a nation. But here they are, 100 years removed from that, earlier than that, preaching on this view that God had to regather Israel together again as a nation in order to fulfill all of these promises that God had made to Israel. So both of these men urged their congregations to evangelize Jewish people as a practical application to this text. In fact, Spurgeon, after kind of lamenting how the church throughout history has treated the Jewish people, said this, let me quote. He said, May the Lord in his infinite mercy first put it into his people's hearts to pray for Israel, and then to work in love and labor in faith. May he hasten in his own time the fulfillment of his promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And then shall the whole earth be covered with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. We may work and we may toil, but till Israel be gathered, God's glory cannot be universal, nor even widely spread." End quote. It's interesting. Again, many years before Israel was regathered as a nation, here's Spurgeon taking this view. So, really, the primary interpretation of this chapter relates to the nation of Israel and what God's going to do in the future with them. But there are many applications for us as well as the church, and I want us to see that. Really, just two principles tonight. Number one, the promise of God's blessings. And this is the first part of chapter eight. God promises blessings for his people. Look in verse three, where it says, I am returned unto Zion. I will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. God has a plan for Zion. In fact, if you back up to verse number two, where it says, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I was jealous or we could say zealous for Zion with great jealousy. I was jealous for her with great fury." In other words, this is a kind of a zeal and a love for His people Israel. And so God is going to turn again, and He is promising blessings. These are promised blessings in the future. And by the way, if you're a child of God, do you realize that God, because of his greatness and love to us, has promised blessings for us as well? Now, you may be saying, well, maybe God has promised blessings, but I'm not experiencing them. Instead of promises, all I seem to have in my life are problems. You might feel like the man who said, what I need are a few more blessings that are not in disguise. The people to whom Zachariah prophesied probably felt like that. They were weak. This is a weak remnant of about 50,000 people. They were in the city of Jerusalem, which was, again, kind of a devastated land and a heap of ruins, and they're trying to rebuild the city and rebuild the temple. Powerful enemies surrounded them. They were under Persian rule. They saw glimmers of hope of the promises of God, but these promises also seemed so far away to these people. But God gave Zachariah these words of promise about the future to encourage the people that were in the present. And God will sometimes do that. God will sometimes give us promises about the future that'll help us to get through the present. Knowing that we have future blessing waiting ahead will help us to persevere through the present time. Now, there are two truths concerning God's promised blessings. First of all, God's blessings depend on him, not us. And I'm glad for that. I'm glad that when God blesses, it's dependent on Him. These promises do not come from Zachariah's, you know, positive personality about things. The text over and over again emphasizes that God's promises are according to the sure word of God. Eleven times in this chapter, we read this phrase, thus saith the Lord of hosts. These promises are based upon God. And then we also see the name Lord, or Yahweh, the covenant-keeping name of God. That occurs 22 times in this chapter. Over and over, God says, I will, or I am. He's declaring the things that he's gonna do for his people. This is what I will do. And so all of these promises are based on God's faithful character. Let me ask you a question. Isn't God a faithful God to you? God's so faithful and he's there for his people. And when God determines to do something, when God sovereignly determines to do something, guess what? It's going to happen. There's nothing that can keep it from happening. You may be here at night, may be praying for someone to be saved. And you know what? Keep doing that. Because when God determines to save someone, guess what? They can't, there's nothing they can do. They can't resist it. Otherwise, why are you on your knees praying? What do you pray when you're on your knees praying for someone? You're saying, God, I want you to overcome all of their resistance, and I want you to save them. God's not up in heaven saying, well, Jerry, I'm trying to save them, but he's not cooperating. No, when God determines that he's gonna save someone, guess what? That person is going to get saved. And God knows how to overcome all the resistance to make sure, to secure their soul so that they will come to Jesus, right? That's how God saves people. What does the text say? Look at verse number seven, where it says this in verse seven. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, behold, I will save my people. That seems pretty clear to me, doesn't it? Any hesitation there on that? God doesn't say, I'm gonna try to do all I can to save them, but they're a tough bunch. And I'm not sure how they're gonna respond I'm gonna do the best I can. Is that what he says here? No, he says, I will save them. But, you know, God, they're pretty hard. Yeah, that's not a problem for God. When God determines to save someone, then they will be saved. That's why I have confidence when I get on my knees and I pray, I ask God for his sovereign mercy to intervene in a person's life. I know that you say, well, they're a hard case. Well, God specializes in hard case. Guess what? So were you. And so was I. We were all hard cases. And so here God says very clearly in verse seven, I will save my people. He's talking about Israel in the future. He's talking about those that have rejected the Messiah. God says, I'm going to save these people. And if you didn't get it in verse 7, there are more declarations like it. Notice verse number 8. Go to verse 8. And I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God in truth and in righteousness. Anything unclear about that? I mean, again, is God hesitating here? I want to kind of bring them to the land if they'll cooperate with me. No, God says, no, I'm going to bring them back to the land. Here's what I will do. Verse 12, I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all things. Look at verse 13, so will I save you and ye shall be a blessing. That is the latter part of verse 13 there. And then notice verses 14 and verse 15. What it says, for thus saith the Lord of hosts, as I thought to punish you when your fathers provoked me to wrath, saith the Lord of hosts, and I repented not, so again have I thought in these days to do well unto Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Fear ye not. Israel's salvation depends on God's purpose and might, not on Israel. And we could say the same. When God promises to do something, when God sets his heart to save someone, it's gonna be according to God, not according to them. God will do it. And so again, here's the whole point. When God determines to do something, there's nothing that can stop it. God will accomplish that. Listen to what Paul said in Philippians 1.6, being confident in this very thing, he that begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. You see, this is why I believe that you can't lose your salvation. When God begins a good work in you, he will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. God convicted you, he converted you, he is conforming you, and guess what? He will complete you. So God will do what he promises. Now there's two things in these verses that emphasize this. Number one, God's promises may seem impossible to us, but they are not difficult for him. You might have a situation that says, you know, this is an impossible situation from a human perspective. but it's not impossible for God. And God is anticipating their response. Look in verse number six. He's kind of anticipating what they may say. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, if it be marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these days, should it also be marvelous in mine eyes, saith the Lord of hosts. In other words, the people are saying, yeah, but I know God, you said you're gonna do this, but this is pretty hard, what you're saying. The population had been wiped out by the Babylonian invasion and captivity. The land was desolate and devastated. The idea seemed preposterous to Israel that God was gonna totally restore all these things and the land and the people and save them. It all seemed impossible. But God promised to these people that in the future, Jerusalem will be filled with elderly people. It'll be filled with little children. We see this in verses four and five. There shall be old men and old women dwelling in the streets of Jerusalem. Every man with his staff in his hand for his very age and in the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof. The people living at that time in that desolate land and devastated city, they couldn't imagine that. with their looking at their surroundings. And it all seems so impossible to them. And God kind of anticipates their faithless response in verse six. Twice God says, thus saith the Lord of hosts. Now, the word marvelous in verse six where it says, you know, if it be marvelous in their eyes, you know, we would actually, we can translate that word difficult. That's what the word marvelous, when we say the word marvelous now, you know, it doesn't come across the same way it was as the Hebrew is giving it here. Really, the better word I think for us would be difficult. So we can say it like this, if it is too difficult in the sight of the remnant of these people, will it also be too difficult in my sight, says the Lord? Just because you think it's difficult. Do you think this will be difficult for me, says the Lord? In other words, God His response to their, yes, but, I know, God, your promises, but, you know, this is pretty hard. God is saying, look, is there anything too hard for me? You want to doubt me when I say I'm going to do something here? Is this that hard for me? Have you ever responded to God's promises that way? I have, at times, to my own shame. Looking from a human perspective, saying, you know, this is just too hard. But that's my unbelief entering in, my doubt that sometimes enters in my prayers. And we have to remind ourself, look, when God determines to do something, it's not hard for Him to do. God can overcome any obstacle. there. But we often mistake, you know, judging by...instead of judging by God's ability, we make the mistake of judging by our own ability, and we shouldn't do that. You know, the Lord can do whatever He wants, and He can save by a multitude or He can save by a few. And God can take a little remnant and He can make it grow. God can take a desolate city and make it overpopulated. God can do whatever He needs to do or wants to do. And so the promise, God's promises are not dependent upon us, it's dependent upon Him. But here's the next thing, God's promises always work through a remnant. God always starts with just a small remnant to do what He wants to do. We see this in verse 6, we see it in verse 11, and we see it in verse 12. You say, where do we see it? Well, in the word remnant. And notice verse 6, the remnant of these people. And then drop down in verse number 11 where we see the word residue, but the word residue is the same Hebrew word for remnant. So we could say again in verse 11, but now I will not be unto the remnant of these people. And again, it's the same word. God's talking about a remnant. In verse 12, I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things. And so again, he's talking about just a small group, just a little handful of people, and God says, I'm gonna work through these people, I'm gonna cause this small remnant to possess all these things. Sometimes as a believer, you may feel like you're on the losing team. That, you know, you ever have the Elijah complex? Lord, I'm the only one. I'm the only one faithful. You know, I'm looking around, I don't see many people being faithful to the Lord, you know. And sometimes if we're not careful, we can despair by the lack of faithfulness on so many people. Or you can get discouraged in the Lord's work. And you may, if you're not careful at times, feel like giving up because of that. But just remember this, that God always works through a remnant. He always works through a small group of people. And God is doing more than you can possibly see in your own mind or in your own human reasoning. And so, God works through a remnant. Now, let me move on here. The next thing we need to remember is that God's blessings demand a response from us. We saw that God's blessings are determined by God. Remember, it's dependent on him and not us. And under that, you know, God promises. They may seem impossible, but they're not difficult for him. And also God works through a remnant. But then the next thing that we see here is that God's blessings demands a response from us. We see this in this chapter as well. Just because God promises to bless us doesn't mean we can sit back and say, okay, God, here I am, bless me, and just be passive and do nothing and wait for the blessings to flow. That's not what God expects. God's blessings require a response. And so what does God tell these people? First of all, be strong and build the house of the Lord. Look in verse number nine. Look in verse nine. He tells them, just keep doing what you're doing. Build the house of the Lord, thus saith the Lord of hosts. Let your hands be strong, ye that hear in these days these words by the mouth of the prophets, which were in the day that the foundation of the house of the Lord of hosts was laid, that the temple might be built. And then drop down to verse number 13. Notice what else he tells them. And it shall come to pass that as ye were a curse among the heathen of house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you and ye shall be a blessing. Notice the next phrase, fear not. And again, he says, but let your hands be strong. So twice he tells them not to fear. He tells them, excuse me, tells them twice to let your hands be strong. He tells them not to fear. And notice verse 15 as well, which says, So again have I thought in these days to do well unto Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Fear ye not. So again, he says twice to them to fear not. They were trying to rebuild the temple in the face of all of this fierce opposition. Jerusalem was still littered with rubble. They were still in a bad way, even though they were making progress. And God says, Look, I'm going to bless you, but that doesn't mean you sit back and just wait. No, you keep doing what you're doing. You build the house of the Lord and let your hands be strong. Don't be afraid. Now, if God tells them, let your hands be strong, what he means is get to work. So if he said that twice, what does that imply? They weren't working really hard. God said, get to work, let your hands be strong. If he tells them twice to fear not, what does that imply? That they're afraid, that they're wondering what's gonna happen. And so God says, look, get to work, don't be afraid. What you're doing is not futile. You ever feel at times that the work that you're doing in serving the Lord may be futile, that it's not worth the effort? Sometimes it seems like working to build Christ's church is not worth the effort. Again, I read that 1,500 pastors leave the ministry every month because they feel frustrated and discouraged. You know, you try to advance the cause of Christ and they get attacked. You know, people that they felt like they could count on, they can't count on. People leave the church easily over the least little thing, and many fall into sin. And so for a lot of pastors, the work of the Lord is very discouraging. And frankly, some of them just throw up their hands and say, what's the use? Sometimes I get calls from discouraged pastors about what they're going through. And for them, some of them, they just say, you know, it's easier just to find another line of work where they don't have to go through all these hassles and be dependent on other people that are so unfaithful. And so, but God says, what is the word of the Lord to that kind of mindset? Look, don't be afraid. Be strong. Be strong. Let your hands be strong. I will build my church, Jesus said, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Don't let the unfaithfulness of others discourage you. You continue to be faithful to the Lord. The sure promise requires that we know the Lord and by responding, by committing ourselves, by responding, by committing ourselves to build his house. But here's the second thing. Be holy in all our behavior. Because God can't use unholy vessels. If we're not living holy lives, then anything that we try to do for God will fail. God's people call themselves Christians, and if we call ourselves Christians, then we need to live like we're Christians, because the world makes a mockery at those who call themselves Christians and live just like they do. To them, it gives them a reason just to continue to live in their sin. But if you call yourself a Christian and you name the name of Christ, You need to live up to that name because God dwells among His people. And God demands that His people be known as people of truth and people of righteousness. Look again. We see this in verse 3. We see it in verse 8. Look at these verses with me. Look at verse 3. Notice at the end where it says, Jerusalem, you shall be called the city of truth. and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain. We see again in verse eight, and I will bring them and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. They shall be my people and I will be their God in truth and in righteousness. Again, in verse number 16, we see again, and these are the things that ye shall do. Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbor, execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates. And then verse 17, and let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbor, and love no false oath, for all these are things that I hate, saith the Lord." So notice the repeated emphasis on truth and righteousness. God makes clear that holiness is practical. He demands that we speak truth to one another. that we judge with truth, that we not devise evil in our hearts against others, and that we do not love lies or perjury. God says He hates these things. And as His people, we must not only love what God loves, we must hate what God hates. And since God is a God of truth, We need to hate false doctrine. We need to hate deception. We need to hate lies, hypocrisy, vague moral standards that drift with our godless culture. The enemy paints a negative picture of holiness. You know, the world thinks people who call themselves holy, they think very negatively about that. Elizabeth Elliot said this, Satan's strategy is simple, make sin look normal and make righteousness look weird. And that's what's happening today. You know, sin looks normal, righteousness looks weird, but yet God calls his people to be different. Sin leads to misery. Sin leads to a curse. And God emphasizes that as well here in this. Now, I need to hurry because I've only got point one and I got another point here. I got four minutes. So here's number two. All right. Not only the promise of God's blessings, But write down number two, the perpetuation of God's blessings. Again, if you look at verse 13, so will I save you and ye shall be a what? A blessing. God says, I'm going to do this for you, Israel, and you will be a blessing. And the same God says to his people here, the church. God says, I want to bless you. Those that know the Lord Jesus, I'm going to bless you so that you in turn can bless others. That's why God blesses us. First, how do we become a blessing? Blessing others includes showing them how to find God. That's how we bless others. We show them how to find God. Look down at verse number 20. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, it shall yet come to pass that there shall come people and the inhabitants of many cities, and the inhabitants of one city shall go to another saying, let us go speedily to pray before the Lord and to seek the Lord of hosts. I will go also. Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to pray before the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, In those days it shall come to pass that ten men shall take hold out of all the languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you. So if you look at these verses here, this refers to the Jewish people in a time of the millennial reign of Christ. Again, this is all future. during the millennial reign of Christ, God will use them as a light to the nations, to point people to Jesus Christ during the time of the millennium. But these verses, again, also apply to us now. And again, the context of this is out of the flow of what we just studied, that is, that we live holy lives, that we be people of truth, And when people observe our lives as godly people of truth and love and joy, they will want what we have. They'll grab hold of us and say, let us go with you for we have heard that God is with you. I want to go where you are, where you go. I've heard that God is with you. What does that tell us? Beauty has an attractive power to it, doesn't it? You know, that's why people every year go to see, you know, some of the natural wonders of the world like the Grand Canyon or Niagara Falls or so on. Why do people go and do those things? Well, they're attracted by this awesome beauty. And when our lives reflect the beauty of God's holiness and the beauty of God's truth and joy, people will say, I want what you have. I want what you've got. And God taught me this when I was a real young believer. And years ago, we had a bus route that went down to Baltimore City, and I was, you know, going there every Saturday, knocking on doors. I remember on one particular house that I would go to, I kind of dreaded going to the house because the father in that house was always so very mean, and he didn't like me. I could tell. When I'd knock on the door, he was always mean. What do you want? Are your kids going to be able to come to church tomorrow? Well, don't they always come? Well, yeah, I'm just making sure. And he would slam the door. But the kids were always ready. I'd go back the next week, knock on the door. There he was, same thing. Sometimes he even used profanity and slammed the door in my face. But I went back every week. I don't know why, I just love abuse, I guess. But I just kept going back and knocking on the door. And hey, you know who I am. And this went on for a long time. Years later, I was walking down the street in Baltimore, and here come this guy, and I'm like, oh, he's finally coming to beat me up. He was coming towards me, and I was like, uh-oh. But he had a smile on his face, he looked different. And when he got to me, he said, you know, I'm so grateful that God allowed me to bump into you. And I said, really? He said, yeah, he goes, I just want you to know something. He said, a few years ago, I went to a church, and I got saved. And he said, I went forward during the invitation, and when I knelt in front at the altar, he said, this is what I prayed. God, whatever that redheaded kid has, I want you to give it to me. That was his prayer. That's what he told me. Whatever that, I had red hair back then, but anyway, whatever that redheaded kid has, I want you to give that to me. And that was his prayer of salvation. By the way, there are better prayers for salvation than that. I don't recommend that. But he was a believer, and God had done something in his heart. And you know, when people see the beauty of Christ in a person, that is attractive, and God will use that. And so here, this is what God is saying, you know, you can be a blessing to others by pointing them to the Lord, by showing them how to find God. We all need to be involved in doing that, right? But here's the second thing, blessing others includes blessing those who are near and far. You say, you know, whom do we bless? Well, how do we bless? Well, we point them to the Savior. Who? Everyone near and far. Because in verse 23, who is included in verse 23? Well, it says, you know, out of all languages of the nations, It points that out. Again, also in verse 22, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem. And so this verse is kind of like a missionary motto to me. You ever hear the motto, across the sea and across the street? That's the way our missional goal should be or how we should focus on evangelizing. We evangelize, we try to reach out to our neighbors, the ones that are closest to us. But also, it's global. We want to grow across the seas. We want to go wherever the gospel is not preached, and we want to share the Word of God. Remember what Acts 1-8 says? In Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and then to what? Outermost parts of the earth. Our Jerusalem here is Catonsville and the surrounding Baltimore area. We're to be faithful to reach out. to those around us, but also we should be involved in getting the gospel out around the world. Around the world, we should be involved in that. It reminds me of one time when I was on a mission trip in Africa, I was teaching a pastor's conference, and I was going to Uganda, a place called Arua. I landed at Entebbe Airport, which is a pretty sizable airport, but the village I was going to was kind of small. So we got on a small airplane, and I sat right behind the pilot on this airplane. And when we took off there, you know, not long after we took off, a really fierce storm came in. And it was the kind of storm where the pilot felt like he had to land in the jungle. So he knew of a landing strip in the jungle and we landed on that mud landing strip in the jungle in Sudan and kind of waited out the storm for a while and then got back on the plane and we took off again. And this time, he said, I'm not going to fly high. I'm going to fly kind of low, just maybe 1,000 feet off the ground, which is kind of dangerous anyway. But it doesn't give you a lot of room for error. But anyway, he was a pilot. I didn't want to tell him how to do it. But anyway, I was just praying, Lord, I'm your servant. But anyway, it was an incredible trip because I could look out from that plane over the countryside. the hills and see thousands of grass huts with holes in the center and the smoke coming up, thousands of smokestacks and thousands of huts. And when I saw that, It reminded me of the words of the missionary David Livingston who said, quote, I have sometimes seen in the morning sun the smoke of a thousand villages where no one has ever heard the name of Christ. I thought about those words from David Livingston. And that was the thing that motivated him to be the great missionary that he was, to get the gospel to people that have never heard the gospel. And that's what God has called us to do as a church, as the people of God, to bless others. God has blessed us so that we can bless others. God has led us to Christ the living water so that we can offer that to others. We're blessed so that we can be a blessing. Let's bow for prayer together tonight. Father, thank you for this wonderful chapter that points forward to what you're going to do in the lives of the nation of Israel, the people of the nation of Israel. You've promised, Lord, that salvation will come. And Lord, we know that when you promise something, it will come to pass. And so, Lord, we know that salvation will take place. But, Lord, this also applies to us as the church. Lord, you have blessed us. The promised blessings that you have laid up in store for Israel and for also this remnant whom Zachariah wrote to to encourage them. Lord, may they encourage us. You've blessed us in so many ways. And, Father, the reason for that is so we, in turn, can continue that blessing to others. Lord, help us not to be selfish. Help us not, Lord, just to glory in what we have and then forget our neighbor, forget others around us. Lord, may we be committed to sharing the blessing that you have so richly placed upon us, and undeservingly so, Lord. We don't deserve your grace, and yet, Lord, you've given it to us. And so, Father, help us to fulfill the theme, the desire of Zachariah when he said, when he wrote these words, I will save you that you may be a blessing. Father, help us to remember that. We pray all this in Jesus name. Amen.