Power That Loses by Winning

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[0:00] Well, let's go to Matthew 11, 2 through 15. That's our sermon text for this morning. And this is week two in a three-part series on what is the kingdom of God. And so we're going to talk today a little bit about kingdoms in conflict. There's the kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world. Pardon me. And we're going to see how there actually is a challenge between these two things. Just a review. Last week, we talked about what is the kingdom of God, and we had several answers from Scripture and other places. I want to remind us of the confirmation curriculum that our youth use, and it's been in various forms. This next saying has been in various forms throughout the years in our denomination. But in our confirmation guidance, it says, the kingdom of God is the rule of God, breaking into history through Jesus Christ, working in the world and expressed in the hearts and lives of his people. And it quotes Mark 1, verse 15. As a quote, Mark 1, verse 15. And it's one Bible passage that backs up this view, which is where Jesus says, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news. So interesting that Jesus pairs the coming of the kingdom of God and repentance and faith

[1:15] in what the proclamation is. And last week, we also talked about the kingdom is geographic in the sense that it happens when and where we worship. So if all are ducks in a row this morning, which I hope they are, then the kingdom of God is present. But if any single one of you is a little bit off, it's not here. I'm kidding. No, it's here. It's here. The kingdom of God is here. He's present with us. We're worshiping God. And the Lutheran reformers and others also thought the kingdom is present where the gospel is preached in truth and the sacraments are administered rightly, as they would say. And the kingdom is a bit geographic because it follows a believer around. Wherever you go, the kingdom is present. But the simplest way of saying it is, and this is kind of a self-evident truth, is that the kingdom of God is present wherever God reigns. And so if He reigns in your heart, then He's present with you. And if He reigns in this church, then He's present in this church. And if He reigns in this world, then He's present all over the world. But we know that that part's not true because right now God doesn't reign in the entire world. The world is full of other gods that have dominion over the world. Not other gods.

[2:27] Not gods, but just idols, I would say, right? There's no real other gods. So the present kingdom is where Christ has reigned. And you may listen to that and say, well, what about the future kingdom? We talked about that a little bit last week. The future king is coming, and that is a bit different. And Victoria is going to talk about that next week. So that's next week's sermon is the difference between the current kingdom and the coming kingdom. She'll talk about that, and I'm looking forward to that. I want to give a couple of examples from Scripture, a little bit more about what, how the Bible talks about the kingdom of God. Luke 9 1 2 it says, 2 And he called the twelve together, and he gave them power and authority over all demons, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. So the kingdom of God has some power to it, some power over demonic forces, some power over illness. And it goes part and parcel with the preaching or a proclamation about the kingdom of God. the kingdom of God and healing. And then John 18.36, I read this last week, but this is relevant again today when Jesus is speaking with Pontius Pilate. And Pontius asked him, are you the king of the Jews? So then you are really a king. And Jesus is kind of trying to teach him something,

[3:44] and we don't know if it really worked. But Pilate says, so then you are a king. And Jesus answered, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting that I might not be delivered over to the Jews, but my kingdom is not from the world. And we're going to see a little bit more of that, that the kingdom is distinct from the world in a lot of important ways, and that these two kingdoms are actually in conflict. So let's go to our reading. It's from Matthew 11, and I'll start at verse 2 from the New Living Translation. John the Baptist, who was in prison, heard about all the things the Messiah was doing, so he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, are you the Messiah? We've been expecting? Or should we keep looking for someone else? Jesus told them, go back to John and tell him what you have heard and seen. The blind see, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the good news is being preached to the poor. And he added, God blesses those who do not fall away because of me. As John's disciples were leaving, Jesus began to say, I'm going to tell you what you have heard and seen. And he said, he said, he said

[5:27] Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, and he will prepare the way before you. I tell you the truth. Of all who have ever lived, none is greater than John the Baptist. Yet even the least person in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he is.

[5:49] And from the time John the Baptist began preaching until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and violent people are attacking it. For before John came, all the prophets and the law of Moses looked forward to this present time. And if you are willing to accept what I say, he is Elijah, the one the prophets said would come. Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand. Let's pray.

[6:18] Father, thank you for this word. We ask that you would add. We ask that you would add your blessing to it. In Jesus' name, amen. I want to make a little detour here and tell you about a person named Charles Colson. Craig, you know who this person is probably pretty well. For those of you who don't know, Charles Colson was the special counsel to President Richard Nixon. And before that, he had been in the Marines. I think he was a sergeant or a corporal in the Marines. He got his law degree when he got out of the Marine Corps. And he was what was known as Nixon's dirty tricks man. He was kind of, he kind of just did all the dirty, the dirty work.

[6:57] And so one opponent said, this is apocryphal. We don't know if this actually is true, but it's, it kind of has developed its own sort of truth to it. As one opponent said that Chuck Colson would run over his own grandmother to help win an election. And Chuck Colson said, correction, I would run over my own grandmother twice to win an election. So he relished this sort of bad boy. Image.

[7:25] And he famously compiled what was called the enemies list for Richard Nixon. He made a list of all the people that were out to get Nixon and they used that to kind of attack them. Now, as we know from the history of this country, none of that in the end worked. Richard Nixon had to resign in disgrace.

[7:43] And they were looking for someone to throw in prison for all of the things that happened. And in this case against Daniel Ellsberg, it's a little more history than you need to know. They said, let's go. Let's throw. Well, not let's throw. They tried to throw several people in prison. He didn't get a, he did not get a pardon like Gerald Ford gave to Richard Nixon. And so he was left out there and he went, he was convicted of various crimes and he went to prison for seven months.

[8:08] And you may say, well, that's very interesting. But what happens? Well, this was a person who was not living with God. Not at all. Really, I don't think he had any use for it. But when he was in prison or actually even before he went to prison, he had a conversion experience. Where? Really, like he actually kind of, the heavens opened for him in a really, kind of a really powerful way. And he wrote a book about this experience. It's called Born Again. It's really quite an interesting book about his life. And people made fun of him. They're like, this is a ploy. The dirty tricks man is just using religion.

[8:43] But when he was born again, he realized he wasn't going to fight so hard, this case against him. And so maybe if he had kept fighting, but he was like, you know, I actually did some stuff wrong. This is what the reformed soul does. It says, no, I actually did some wrong stuff. I guess I deserve to go to prison. And he went to prison for seven months. And what he found, even though he wasn't really in a maximum security prison, was that prison was a horrible place and probably had some real problems with it.

[9:13] And family members of prisoners were kind of cut out of a lot of things that would help them not be recidivist when they got out. And so when he got out of prison, he started something called Prison Fellowship, which still exists today. And it really advocates for prisoners, prisoners' families, for reforms of prison. And so here's a story of a person who really started off, you know, in all these interesting ways as kind of a negative person and had gotten in very close to power, I mean, very close to power, and had done some evil in the world, kind of being pulled by grace into a changed life. And he really, really was changed. And in time, he, after all that, even though he had a prison sort of was on his record, his permanent record, he slowly became sort of one of the more wise and thoughtful evangelical leaders of the last, he died in 2012, but so the last 30, 40 years.

[10:08] And I always, I only say that's a lot of preamble here, but he wrote another book a little bit later, and it's called, and this is why it's relevant today, he wrote a book called kingdoms in the world. And he wrote a book called kingdoms in the world. And he wrote a book called kingdoms in conflict, kingdoms in conflict. And he's talking about just what we're talking about today, that there's the kingdom of God and there's the kingdom of this world, and they actually are in conflict. And his view, he kind of had some strong words for people on what he thought of as the Christian right, that they shouldn't be grabbing so much power and thinking of the conflict and something that they could win with power, but that Christians need to choose wisely how they respond to the conflict that really is there, the conflict between the world, the kingdom of the world and the kingdom of God is real. Jesus said it, he said it in this reading that we had, he says in other places, he told his disciples, in this world you will have trouble and that was the understatement of the century, you know, like you will have a lot of trouble. And you think of the Gospel of Matthew, we understand it was written decades after Jesus died and was raised again and went up to heaven again,

[11:10] and so it was probably written in the time where there was conflict, there was persecution of the church, and there was persecution of the church, and there was persecution of the church, and And so all these words that Jesus was saying that there was going to be conflict and there was dangerous conflict were all very, like, to the people who first read Matthew were like, yeah, this is happening right now. I'm glad Jesus told us something about it.

[11:29] So today's message is about this conflict. And this sounds negative, but in the end, just hold on, you know, kind of bear with me because it's going to end up positive. But there's some negative things about conflict. I don't know if any of you relish conflict in your own personal relationships.

[11:43] There's conflict all around the world. It's generally not a fun thing. The interesting person is the one who relishes it, who gets energy from it. You should probably avoid those people, you know. But I don't know. I don't know. Some of them, I think, are just natural-born fighters. And if they ever fight for good, then that's a good thing. Perhaps that's what Chuck Colson became after he was born again. He's like, I'm going to fight for the prisoners. I'm going to fight. I'm not going to back down. So maybe something good can come of it. But let's look at our text. Let's go back and ask Andres to bring us back, perhaps, to the very, very beginning slide there. John the Baptist is in prison. As Victoria talked about, he's languishing there. He's been in prison for doing something right. And he doesn't like being in prison. And he's hoping to hear that Jesus has done more to sort of win the war that a lot of people thought Jesus was going to fight. What they didn't realize is Jesus wasn't going to fight it the way that they thought he would. So John's like, I'm in prison. When is Jesus going to overthrow the king? And get me out of here. I'm out of prison. When is he going to overthrow the emperor of Rome so that we can, you know, this massive, glorious kingdom of light will break forth into the world and defeat all of our enemies?

[12:54] And this is a common thing that people, even Jesus's disciples, ask. At one point they say, Lord, is now the time when you will restore the kingdom? Like, they say that to Jesus. Like, they've been walking around with him all this time, really not listening to him because he says, the son of man must be betrayed and crucified. And then raised again. Third day. And they're like, no, no, no, no. We're not interested in that part where you die. We're interested in the part where you destroy everything that we don't like.

[13:21] And everybody keeps thinking this. Probably even John the Baptist, too. And Jesus is like, you know what? John, there is power that's happened, but you're looking in the wrong places. But nonetheless, he praises John. Did you hear that? He says, Jesus, let's go forward one slide there, right?

[13:37] Jesus says he is the greatest of all time. The greatest prophet of all time in the spirit of Elijah. But now you're in the kingdom. You're in it right now. If you're a believer, you're in the kingdom because Christ reigns in your heart. Even the least person in the kingdom is greater than John.

[13:58] How do we wrap our heads around that? Does that mean that the kingdom is a place of great honor? Right? It does. It really does. And this is a really confusing, but I think hopefully comforting thing to say that membership in the kingdom is this vast. Honor that each of you have and that Jesus esteems you at a higher level than he esteems John the Baptist, who is one of the greatest or is the greatest of all prophets of all time, even in the spirit of Elijah, who was really the greatest. Or Moses, probably, right? Moses and Elijah both show up at the Transfiguration. So there's probably a sort of a competition between those. I don't know how I would settle that one. You know, like arm wrestling or I don't know.

[14:40] Staff holding upping. I don't know what they, I don't know who would win. Like who can hold it up longer? They're both great. John the Baptist is greater than both of them. And each and every one of you is greater than all of them.

[14:50] Go figure. That's the kingdom of God, though. Kingdom of God is this place of great honor because you belong to it and Christ reigns in you. I could stop right there and you really want me to. So I just go, okay. No. But there's more. There's more.

[15:07] So Jesus then goes on to speak about the kingdom and that there's always going to be conflict between the two. So let's. Let's look at verse 12 there, Andres, because we're going to spend a little time here. A special look at verse 12 where it says, and from the time John the Baptist began preaching until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing and violent people are attacking it. And this is the part I think especially where the people who first read Matthew were like, yes, we're experiencing this right now. We feel the attack. There was definitely persecution from the synagogue. There was definitely persecution. There was persecution from the Roman Empire. And the early Christian church did not have it easy at all. In fact, as you read the Acts of the Apostles, Peter and the rest were thrown in prison a few times. And obviously Paul was thrown in prison several times and beaten.

[16:00] So now you may be scratching your head a little bit because we have to work on this. It says that the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing. And maybe you go, really? Has it been forcefully advancing? And we're going to look at this because the Greek word here is, for those of you who love Greek, the Greek word here is biazomai. And it's a very rare word, but it has kind of a clear meaning where we can discern it. And it is to experience a violent attack, to be attacked with violence or to suffer from violent attacks. And so you might want to say, well, shouldn't it be reading the kingdom of heaven has been attacked violently instead of forcefully advancing? Do you see that one, the third line down, the first two words, it says forcefully advancing. But it could be translated has been violently attacked. How do we choose?

[16:54] It turns out because of some sort of quirks of Greek grammar, both those translations are accurate. Okay? They're both accurate possible translations of that sentence. So then we're left with the question, how do we translate it, right? How do we translate it? What do we think of the kingdom? Has the kingdom been forcefully advancing or has the kingdom been forcefully attacked or has it been violently attacked? Those are both reasonable readings of it, right?

[17:23] And it's also used a second time at the end of it. And violent people are attacking it, which is probably the correct way of saying it. So the question is, violent people are attacking it, but what is, because they're mad at it, but what is the experience of the kingdom of itself? Is it forcefully attacking the world or is it forcefully attacking the world? Right? Right?

[17:53] Right? Right? Baptist until now, the kingdom has suffered violence. Do you see the difference? Instead of forcefully advancing, it has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. If you look at the NIV, it resembles this one a lot. This is the New Living Translation. And then there's the ESV, which some of you have, and that resembles the NRSV. So we have four translations here. Two fall on one side of this question, two fall on the other side of this question. And it might have something to do that they're both okay choices in terms of translation. But it goes to show that translating is not easy work. It's not easy work. And when you read the Bible that you have, I always encourage you to find another translation and read that one as well and try to say, oh, well, why would this be different? So the question I think for us is, does the kingdom advance by force or does an external force oppose it? And the reason I would choose like the NRSV and the ESV version of it, where it says it suffers violence, is that that's more in line with the NIV. With how Jesus speaks. The other thing is that this word, biazomai, generally always has a connotation of not just force, but violence. And we don't ever really see Jesus advocating violence

[19:26] anywhere. Really, we don't. In fact, quite the opposite. It says, turn to the other cheek, right? And pray for our enemies and love your enemies, right? And so Jesus, I don't think, would say that the kingdom would advance through violence. He would say that the kingdom would advance through violence. And so he would probably more likely say the kingdom, and knowing his own future in this case, the kingdom will be attacked violently. And the violent will try to take it or try to enter into it by force is probably the best way to translate that. And you're like, boy, this is boring, Hans-Erik. Thank you for all that. No, listen, this is, we're past it. We're past it. But this is important. This is the distinction.

[20:03] This is the question for America right now. This is the question for us as Christians is, what kind of kingdom are we in? Is it the kingdom of God that's going forcefully into the world and using power to push things around?

[20:18] Or do we realize that the kingdom of this world is always attacking the kingdom of God? And how do we live into that reality that the kingdom is always being attacked and that there's violent and forceful opposition to it? So I want to take away again the main idea from our passage, which is that the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the world are in conflict. Chuck Colson was right. There is a conflict between kingdoms, and we have to be wise about what that conflict looks like. And that is really not surprising because the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of the world have totally different priorities, teachings, gods, values. They're so different. They're so different. Like when you're a Christian in this world, you actually are quite different than other people in the world. And hopefully in a good way, right? Hopefully not in a bad way, but you really are different. You really are different. You're like, I don't believe that I'm a good person. You know, most people say, I think I'm a pretty good person. When you really understand yourself as a Christian, you say, I'm a broken sinner redeemed by grace. That's a huge difference, right? And as a Christian, you think, I'm not going to make my way in this world by power or wealth or fame. God is going

[21:30] to take care of me. The Spirit's going to guide me. He's going to inspire me. He's going to take care of me, right? So we are very different. We have different practices. We try to take the Sabbath, right? We try to take the Sabbath. We try to take the Sabbath. We try to take the Sabbath. We try to do all these things. But there's always going to be conflict between the world, the kingdom of this world and the kingdom of God. And there's always going to be opposition to the kingdom of God because it calls us to repentance and discipleship. People don't like things like that. The problem comes when Christians think they need to counter the world the way the world counters them. We fight fire with fire. We don't want to fight fire with fire. The world that comes us with force, you know, we have to come back at them with force. It's like we can't bring, yeah, we can't bring this weak response to this forceful opposition to us. But actually, actually, the truth is we can, see? And it turns out, you may not be surprised, that violence was absolutely a tool of the church throughout the ages once it was in control of things. Early on when it didn't control anything, it experienced violence. Once it took over,

[22:32] like the Roman Empire starting about 325 AD and beyond, the church started using power in negative ways. We should be sad about that. We are sad about that. Did you know that the pope at various times had a standing army? He did. And he occupied pretty big parts of land and probably in Italy, Switzerland, France, right? So they used to, and you know, did you know that the pope still has an army?

[23:01] But it's not very, it's called the Swiss Guard and they kind of guard the Vatican. And I don't think anyone should really be afraid of them because if you've ever seen their costumes, they look more like the court jester than the soldier. They have these sort of flouncy pants that are kind of colorful and I just like, you're a soldier? Really? You know, like, what's the Swiss Guard? It's Switzerland, you know. Okay, is anyone Swiss? I'm sorry. They're neutral, you know, they're not out there to, you know, they're not out there to conquer anything. So I applaud the Vatican for having such clownishly sort of safe-looking soldiers. Good for them, you know, they've really learned their lesson. That's excellent, right?

[23:41] But we don't come with, we don't come with armies. We don't come with force. We don't, you know, we don't arm ourselves. That's not the way. What does Jesus say, right? What does Jesus say about all the things? Turn the other cheek, pray for your enemies. What else about the kingdom of God? Remember from last week? We can't enter the kingdom, it says at least twice, no one will enter the kingdom of God unless they enter it like a child. Does that sound like force?

[24:11] Sound like power? No. You have to become weaker and more vulnerable and more innocent to enter into the kingdom of God. And you have to stay that way, hopefully, right? So we, you know, here's the interesting thing. This is a real paradox, I think is a paradox, that nobody really pays attention to, is you don't actually win anything if you come with force and control and power. That's a sign that you've already lost. If you come with control and power and domination of other people, you won't actually win them over to anything. You'll just dominate them. But you'll have lost because of your winning, right? Jesus didn't die on the cross so we could win elections or invade other countries. The old Chuck Colson versus the new Chuck Colson, I would say. And there is really a whole topic, and we could talk about it some other time, on how to engage realistically with the world and to contribute in a way that honors our conscience. That's important. But if it comes from a need to control and have this coercion, coercive power over other people, then we have to reject that. That's not the way of Christ. It's got to look different somehow, right? It's got to look like servanthood. It's got to look like love. It doesn't mean you roll over all the time either. It just, it looks differently.

[25:24] Even turning the other cheek means you're not backing down. It's interesting. It doesn't say turn the other cheek and run away. It says turn the other cheek. Continue that encounter and say your violence is not going to overcome me, but I'm not going to fight back with violence. Some really powerful things going on in there.

[25:41] So I think there is temptation among Christians to sort of counter what they see as the conflict from the world, to counter it back in the way that it's coming from, and to try to take on either actual physical force and weaponry and things like that, or political coercion to fight back against the world. And I want us to remember two things, if we're ever tempted. I'm not sure anybody here is tempted, but in case you are, the first thing is that the kingdom grew when it was persecuted. The kingdom grew when it was persecuted. The kingdom grew when it was persecuted. Right? And it changed the world sort of in a soft way by loving the neighbor and sacrificing for others. It really was the lives of the early Christians who gave themselves for their neighbors in a really selfless way that turned people towards Christ, and it actually grew the kingdom. So the kingdom advanced not forcefully, but by service, by love, by living the way Jesus lived. That's what actually advanced the kingdom. It did not, once it started being forceful, it kind of advanced, but not in a way that was sustainable, not in a way that was honoring to God at all. You can't, you know, the King Olav, King Olav, he's the patron saint of Norway. King Olav is the patron saint of Norway,

[26:58] and the coat of arms for Norway is a cross, but then there's two axes on either side of it. That's the coat of arms for the King of, King Olav at least, and also I think the church of Norway. And so, you know, it's a lot of work, but it's a lot of work. And so, you know, King Olav probably was just like Constantine, Emperor Constantine. He was kind of a wily political guy, but he was also powerful. And he's like, you know, the Christians are going to win. Before long, all these pagans are going to turn into Christians. I better get in front of this. So he became a Christian. Now, was his conversion genuine? Eh, we'll know when we get to heaven. It's one of those things. But then he went around and he came to village to village that had pagan practices, and he brought the axes out. And he said, you have two roads here, the axe way or the cross way, you know. And I suggest you take the cross way, because otherwise you'll get the axe way. So that's how Norway was Christianized. Well, what a mess. I don't like that, you know. And I think you could say it kind of reflects itself now, because the conversion wasn't, in all cases, wasn't genuine. I can't even imagine people like, yeah, I'm a Christian,

[28:05] and they go back and they're like, back in their house, they're still doing their pagan stuff and praying to Wotan or Odin, or whoever you want. It's not genuine if you force somebody into it. That was a bit of a distraction there. But that's, it doesn't work. I mean, it works, but it doesn't work. It's mixed. Things are more complicated than we think. So, John was wondering if the kingdom was defeated because he felt defeated, right?

[28:31] Oh, I'm sorry, the first thing is that the kingdom grew when it was persecuted. The second thing is that we can remember that the kingdom actually is more powerful. Than the kingdom of the world. Did you know that? The kingdom of God is actually more powerful than the kingdom of the world, because the God who created the universe is in charge of it. So the kingdom of God won't fail, and it cannot fail, and it won't be defeated. It may look like it, but the kingdom of God will not be defeated, right? It's just going to take longer than we think. John was wondering if the kingdom was defeated because he felt defeated, right? He's like, I'm in prison.

[29:02] What signs of power have you done? What have you done to overthrow this unjust king and emperor, and get me out of here? Get me out of prison. That's what John wanted to know. What have you done, Jesus? And what was Jesus' answer?

[29:16] He said, I've done a lot of things that were powerful, but they look different than what you were expecting. You wanted political power. You wanted military power. What did I do, right? The lame walk. That takes power. The blind see. The lepers are cured. None of this is about crushing his opponents, and Jesus' and the good news is being preached. This is how the kingdom advances. Through healing, through service, through good news, through redemption, through repentance, right? So the kingdom is advancing, not just in the way that John can see. And that's what I would say to us. The kingdom advances when we preach the word in season and out, when we care for the vulnerable, when we gather in faith, and when we give up our power. Then God's power is made perfect in our weakness, isn't it? The kingdom has power when we give up our power. It's a paradox, I think. So for a time, maybe a long time, I think it will look like the kingdom of the world is winning. And you may turn on the TV today and go, the kingdom of the world is winning, and the Christians are losing their minds, okay? And it's going to look like that for a while. It might even look like the church in some places is being taken over by people who don't understand this very,

[30:26] I think it's a very simple concept, and they just don't understand it because they want to fight fire with fire. And the church may need to have a moment where it recommits to the message of Jesus and shatters some of its idols, and I want to be a part of that. Somehow I want the church to be reformed, and I don't know what that looks like yet, but I hope it happens.

[30:44] But I think the kingdom can advance, and I think the kingdom will advance. I trust God for that. And I think the world, the kingdom of the world, will not necessarily be defeated, but it will be redeemed. And that's a very different thing.

[31:04] I'll say that again. The kingdom of the world doesn't need to necessarily be defeated. Parts of it perhaps do. It needs to be redeemed. That's what God is aiming for. That's how the kingdom of God advances, not by crushing its enemies, but by pulling them into grace. That's the redemption that we hope for. So that we don't have enemies out there. Well, if we do, they may think there are enemies, but we don't have enemies. We have potential future brothers and sisters. That's how we think about the world. So I think the advice is hang in there. If you came here not worried about this, then stay not worried about it. If you came here, we're not worried about this. Hang in there. The good news is good. Remember, the good news is good. It's good news because it's good. And remember that. And the kingdom of God will prevail in the end. And I think we might be surprised by how that's going to happen. It's just like John the Baptist. It's not necessarily going to look like what we think it will look like, but God will do it in his way. And so we wait for that with hope. And that's what we have today is hope. Let's pray.

[32:02] Father, thank you again that the kingdom shall prevail. Father, help us to be your servants in that. And help us to love those who even think of us as enemies. And we ask it in Jesus' name.