Today, I'm really excited about what we're talking about because we're beginning a brand new series called In Relation 2. And what we're actually doing is we're going back to Ephesians. We spent most of our year last year going through the book of Ephesians, which, if you're unfamiliar, is a letter, I couldn't even say the word familiar. If you're unfamiliar, slow down, Justin, is a letter that Paul, who was a leader in the early church, wrote to not just one church in Ephesus. That's why it's called Ephesians, but really to all the churches. They would distribute these letters and take them around and read them together. And I've heard a lot of scholars say that Ephesians is probably like Paul's master sermon. Where if you could sit down and have lunch with Paul, this man that saw the Lord and really took the gospel, the message of Jesus, to more people and more places than anyone else ever did. If you could sit down and have lunch with Paul and say, hey, being a Jesus follower, just lay it out for me, you would get Ephesians. You get Ephesians. Because Paul does two things in Ephesians. It really has two parts. Part one is he just looks at Jesus and he's ranting and raving about how incredible Jesus is and what Jesus has done. The first half of Ephesians is kind of hard to follow because it's not a person methodically laying this out intellectually. It's a person filled with awe and wonder, just going like, oh my goodness. Look at Jesus, look at who he is, what he's done. Think about what it means that the God of the universe has come to live for us and loves us and has chosen us and will change us from the inside out and give us his Holy Spirit who will make us into completely different people. He's just going on and on. He's basically saying, look at Jesus. And if this doesn't fill you with awe, you need to check yourself. And then in the second half, there's a switch. And it's basically like he says, hey, in light of all this, in light of all that Jesus is and has done, now that you've looked at him and you've considered who he is and how he loves you, live in response to that. And he gets really practical. And he starts talking about how we should live, not in order to please God. We don't have to do that. We don't have to live to earn God's love, but we should live in such a way that we're responding to the love he's given. Elsewhere in the Bible, Paul wrote, and this is in 1 Colossians, it's the only Colossians, it's Colossians 1, 9 and 10. It technically is 1 Colossians. He says, We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. And that's kind of like the first part of Ephesians. Let's just understand who God is and what he's done. And then part two of Ephesians, you really get summed up in this verse. Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit, all the while you will grow as you learn to know God better and better. That's what we want to do. We want to understand our God, who he is, what he's done for us. We want to live in such a way that our lives are pleasing to him, and that they're productive and good and healthy, and that we're constantly growing closer and closer to God. So that's where we're at in Ephesians. Now, it'd be one thing for us to say, hey, we just have to learn how to live in relation to God. That's hard enough in our minds at least. We have to learn now how to live as people in relation to God, how to live in a way that pleases Him. But where Paul takes us right now, at the very end of Ephesians 5 and going into chapter 6, is actually how not just to live in relation to God, but how to live in relation to other people. And let's be honest, people are hard. I don't know how heaven works in the sense of like if there's a line to get in or not. I'm not sure if it's like a fast pass system like Disney World or whatever, you know, if you can make a reservation. I don't know. Um, but I know this if I'm if I'm in the line to get into heaven, let's just assume there's a line. Like they're really inefficient up there. They haven't figured out multiple lanes. I don't know. There's a line. And I'm I'm I'm a talker, so I'm probably gonna talk to whoever's in my line with me, you know? And if I talk to the guy in front of me and I'm like, hey, tell me your life story, and he says, Oh man, I gave my life to Jesus, and then I joined a monastery and I went out into the middle of nowhere, and I spent the rest of my life completely secluded from people, just praying and like serving the Lord. I'm gonna look at that person and go, cheater. You cheater. That's so much easier than living with people. You know what I mean? Like going and being alone and just you and God, like that's fine for a day or two, but no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Like get married to a person and live in the same house as them for like a year and have children and have small human beings that you're responsible for and have a job where you have to work for a jerk. Like, do that and then talk about life. Because the reality is one of the things that makes it hard for us to live in relation to God is that we have to live in relation to each other. You know, sometimes it's total strangers that test us. Yesterday I was the worst version of myself for like 15 minutes because we're doing this spring cleaning thing at the house and we're really gutting everything, and and uh we've just had a lot of stuff accumulate over the years with all the kids we've had and all that. And so I ordered a dumpster, simple enough, and I gave very specific instructions of where I wanted the dumpster put in our driveway for a reason. And guess what? They didn't put it there. I couldn't have been more clear. In fact, it was my wife, actually, my wife is the one who told them, so I know she was clear. She's very clear in her communication with me. And so Megan tells them where to put it. And we call them, and we're not mad. You know, it's kind of like, oh, we had someone coming over to help us move some stuff, we'll push that back, but we need you to move it where it needs to be. And so we call them, they were like, oh, well, you know, that's gonna cost $100 for us to come out and put it where it needs to be. And we're like, well, I mean, we told you where to put it, and so I feel like it shouldn't cost $100. And then this person on the other line begins to correct us in our in our usage of verbs and how what we said could have really been interpreted a few different ways. And uh, and I just I had a moment, you know, on the phone with this person, explaining what they were going to do and why. And it was it wasn't good. Like if some of you would have been in my neighborhood, you'd been like, is that our pastor on the phone? Because I was in the front uh driveway and and I didn't cuss, I didn't do anything like that, but I might as well have. And it was it was bad. I was the worst version of myself because this person was just testing me. I will say, and I'm just trying to maybe save some face or whatever, I I did apologize. It got to a point where I said, Look, hold on. I'm sorry. I'm really, I really am sorry for the way I've been talking to you. I'm kind of a stress monster right now. That is not your fault. Please move the dumpster. Please, please. And they agreed, and we're all good, right? But I had to pray this morning, like, Lord, that that wasn't good. A person tested me and I failed that test. And then there's the people that we actually know, that we have to interact with all the time. I think what happens oftentimes is we're so frustrated with them that it's the people that we we rarely interact with on the phone working for some company. We just take all of the frustration we have with these people out on this person. You know, it's like, hey, I'm in a really tough marriage and my children are driving me nuts, and I don't like my job, so you are gonna hear all about how I need a dumpster moved 10 feet. Right? If that lady would have said, it feels like there's more going on here than the dumpster, I'd have just gotten mad. But but that's that's life. We have to live in relation to one another, and it's hard. And what Paul does at the end of Ephesians 5 in the beginning of chapter 6 is he really looks at three relationships. And these won't apply to every single one of us, but almost all of us will definitely have something. We're either directly impacted or indirectly by all three of these. He looks at husbands and wives, children and parents, and employers and employees. Those three relationships that honestly touch our lives or will touch our lives at some point for virtually every single one of us, in some way, directly or indirectly. He says, hey, how can we live in relation to one another in such a way that pleases the Lord and helps us grow? So that's what we're gonna talk about for the weeks to come, how to live in relation to each other. God wants you to have healthy relationships, he wants you to enjoy the relationships in your life. And he also knows that some of the people you are in relationships with aren't gonna make it easy. They're not. But he loves you and he wants your relationships to reflect him. And that requires some things of us if we actually want that. Sometimes we say things like, I want that, and then we really don't. And I've said many times, I want to lose weight, and then I don't. Because I actually want to eat more than I want to lose weight. But if you really do want your relationships to be part of life that you enjoy, to be part of life that fills you with purpose and meaning, then God has something to teach you in that. And I'm so grateful that he gave Paul the words to share with us. And even though it's 2,000 years ago, totally different cultural, totally different time, the principles apply. Now, before we start examining specific relationships, that's in the weeks to come. Today we're gonna look at one word. One word that Paul gives us to define how all of our relationships should be. And it's a word I'm gonna refer to as the S-word. Now, usually when a word is referred to by its first letter, it's a bad word, right? Like years ago, my wife was teaching third graders, and I used to love it when she taught elementary school because she'd come home with the best stories. And there's this one story that I always look back on fondly, it's hysterical to me. This boy in her class who, just to be honest, was a little bit of a whiner, you know, just kind of a whiny kid, always, always the kid who was like, that kid's not doing what they're supposed to do, this isn't right, you know, and as a teacher, you're kind of grateful for that kid because they're like a snitch, and you need to, you need snitches. That's a part of so you need you need somebody to tell what's going on. But then also the snitches, there comes a certain point where you're like, please, I don't need to know everything that's happening at recess. I don't. And so one day this kid comes to Megan and says, Mrs. McTear, it's a third-grade kid, points to a boy in his class and says, He called me the D word. And Megan's like, I don't know what the D word is. But you're probably doing this right now, trying to think of what it could be. And if you do that for long, you'll discover what I discovered. There are a lot of bad words that begin with D. Like a bunch. I thought of 15 in 10 seconds. Then I had to pray about why was it so easy for me to think of 15 of those words? Lord. Like I was like, oh, it could be this word, and ooh, ooh, that, oh, that would be way worse than that word, and that one's even worse. And it was like pretty soon, I'm like, whoa, there's a lot of D words. I just don't know which D word it is. And so she tells this boy, I need you to tell me what the word that he said is. And the little boy's like, oh, I can't say that word. You know? And Megan is like, well, I promise you won't get in trouble, but if I don't know what the word, I don't know what the D word is. If I don't know what the word is, I can't do anything. And so the boy kind of looks down sheepishly at the ground and looks up at her for reassurance, and she's like, come on, you can do this. And he says, Okay. He called me a dimwit. And Megan's like, oh, thank God, okay, all right, not a big deal, you know? But then as we say, oh, I'm so sorry, you'll be okay. Um, I'll talk to him. And I don't know what the D word is, but dimwit is not the D word. Whatever it is, it's not that, you know? And so I know when I say we're gonna talk this morning about the S-word, there's probably one word coming to your minds. That's not the, that's not, that'd be a weird message if that was our theme. Um but we naturally think of something bad. What I will say though is this word that we're gonna examine, it is a word that is far more loaded than what the actual S-word is in our culture today. We find it in Ephesians chapter 5, verse 21. Again, this is like the thesis statement for Paul regarding all the relationships that he's going to examine. He says, and further submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. That's the S word. Submit. That's a bad word in my house. Now, how many of us, let's be honest, how many of us have a positive reaction to the word submit? You're like, I long to be a submissive person. Anyone here aspiring to be a submissive person? A couple hands, Nate's raising his hand, good man. No one? You're like, no, I want to be bold, I want to be strong, I want to be a leader. I don't I don't desire to be more submissive. When I think of the word submit, I think of this game that my older brother and sister played with me when I was a kid. I say game loosely. That's a loose term. It was a game to them, it wasn't to me. They called it the take a seat game. And what that was was if I was ever sitting on the couch watching a show, they would stand in front of me. And if I tried to sit up, they would push me back down and say, take a seat. And this could go on for hours. And the reality of the physics is that even if you're bigger than someone and they're standing above you, and you try to like lift yourself up, and they all it takes is a tiny push, and you're you can't do it. And if they are bigger than you, which both of them were and you're outnumbered, it's impossible. And so the take a seat game was me trying to get up, not being successful until I just relented. The only way for the game to be over was for me just to lay there and submit. Fine, I guess I'm just gonna be on the couch for a while. And they got a lot of joy out of that. And then when I had a little brother, I did the right thing and I passed that tradition along to him because that's what you do, you know? And that's like my mental picture of submission. Submission means you have failed, you have been dominated. We connect submission with oppression. But I want us to understand that that is not the kind of submission that Paul is talking about here. Paul is talking about a willing, decided posture of the heart. Where we we value others more than ourselves, and we look for opportunities to submit our will to the will of those around us and ultimately to the will of the Lord. It's not weakness, it's actually strength. This is something that Jesus, by the way, talks about a lot. So, for example, in Matthew chapter 20, he's talking to his disciples who have just been in an argument about which one is going to be greater than the other. He says, You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. Now, that was 2,000 years ago, and I don't have to ask for a show of hands of people who have ever had someone flaunt their authority over you. All of us have experienced what it's like to have someone who has some even menial amount of authority over us. Flaunt it, abuse it, remind us of it like on a on a regular basis. We all know what that feels like. And so Jesus is just describing this human dynamic. He says, But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant. Whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave. For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many. I love that phrase. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be a servant. It's one of the things we actually look for in leadership here at the church. We have a rule when it comes to this stage, for example, our worship team and anyone else who's gonna be here, that there's one thing we will not allow on this stage, and that is pride. Just won't allow it. Can't have it, can't have, you cannot shine a light and give a microphone to pride. That's a that's a bad thing. And so we've had people in the past who have have wanted to like be on this team or want to speak, but they won't they won't serve anywhere else. You know, like, hey, actually, our kids, our kids' area really needs someone to help teach. Like, I don't want to do that. Oh, you just want the you want the big stage. Yeah. All right, well, no. Because the leaders have to be servants. That's how God's kingdom works. Jesus says, whoever wants to be the greatest among you must must be last. And this isn't like a one-time teaching of Jesus. This is a constant, constant theme. Jesus uses this illustration in Luke chapter 14. He says, When you are invited to a wedding, don't sit in the seat of honor. What if someone who is more distinguished than you has also been invited? The host will come and say, Give this person your seat, and then you'll be embarrassed. You'll have to take whatever seat is left at the foot of the table. Instead, take the lowest place at the foot of the table. And then when your host sees you, he will come and say, Friend, we have a better place for you. Then you will be honored in front of all those other guests, for those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. It's submission that he's talking about. A willing decision to place yourself lower than other people, to be a servant, to sit not in the place of honor, but at the lowest place, and allow the Lord to lift you up if that's what needs to happen. And that's by the way, a promise that we see in Scripture over and over again that the Lord honors those who are humble. Submission and humility go hand in hand, and I just want you to know that there's few things God values more than humility. Very few. In fact, 1 Peter 5, 5 through 6, in the same way, you who are younger must accept the authority of the elders. And all of you, dress yourselves in humility as you relate to one another, for God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor. It's this promise, the same one that Jesus made. Those who exalt themselves, who live out of pride, they will be humbled. But those who humble themselves, God sees that, he honors that, he raises it up. Humility works, it matters to God. And if we don't have the ability to submit, if we can't be submissive in our relationships with one another, it means that we have a pride issue, and you don't want a pride issue because God does not like pride. It says he opposes it. Think about that for a second. Think about what it what it would actually be like to stand in opposition to God. Bad idea. Bad idea. You can read the Bible and you'll come away with a lot of takeaways, and there's a lot of intense stuff in it, and some of the stuff doesn't play well with culture today, and that's fine by me. I read scripture and I see a God who is loving, I see a God who is kind, I see a God who will do anything, anything to show people who he is and to help people out. I see a God who has more patience than we can possibly imagine. Sometimes when you read the Old Testament, which is what we usually connect with God's judgment, you'll see God give nations a warning, and then it's like 300 years later. They haven't listened. And he sent prophet after prophet and they haven't listened, and finally they get the judgment, and we look at that and go, He is really judgmental. He waited 300 years. 300 years. You know, you go to a restaurant and it takes you 10 extra minutes, and you're like, This is ridiculous. I am an important person. And you know what I mean? Like, he waited 300 years. None of us would do that. God is so patient, he's so kind. I see this loving, kind God who is unbelievably patient, but at the same time, I see a God who makes it clear that it's a really bad idea to oppose him. Because he just wins. That's why Satan has to be so frustrated. Because God wins. And it says that he opposes the proud. Now, when it comes to my relationships, I have to be honest and I have to look in the mirror and say, wow, how much of my relating to other people is rooted in pride? How often have I allowed pride to be at the core of how I relate to those around me? And there's some things you can use to check some boxes to see if pride is ever an issue. And to those who would say it is never an issue for me, that's called pride. Um, but you know, just saying. So for example, if you are a demanding person, if those around you in relationships with you, whether it's your your spouse, your children, maybe someone that you work with, work for, if they would describe you as a demanding person, that could very well be pride. If you are difficult to please, if you have a standard that other people just never seem to live up to, people just can't seem to figure out how to do it your way. That could very well be pride. If you are someone who's manipulative, meaning that you might act a certain way, but you're really just doing that so that you get a certain response, that's pride. That's just a really creative form of pride. If you're someone whose presence in a room makes everyone else feel small, if everyone has to walk on eggshells when you're around, that's probably pride. If you always have to have the last word, that's that's pride. Totally. No question. If you can't be wrong, you can't be wrong. If it's never your fault, if the way you acted, which was wrong, was just because the person near you acted wrong first. That's pride. If you cannot apologize for anything without that apology being being followed by the word but, right, you know, I'm sorry, but just so you know, that's not an apology. Or if you have to apologize for the way other people always interpret what you do. That's interesting, right? I am so sorry that everyone just seems to misinterpret my actions and what I say. It's the craziest thing in the world. I I say the right thing and everyone interprets it the wrong way. Can't be them or me. It has to be like that, you know what I'm saying? Can't be me, it must be them. That that's that might be pride. If you get more satisfaction out of being right than you get out of love, that's pride. I think about all those relationships that Paul describes marriage, parenting, children, employees, employees, and it's so easy for pride to come in and destroy those relationships. And when those relationships in our lives are destroyed, life just isn't enjoyable. If you hate your job and you can't stand working in the environment you work in, that's hard. And I feel for you. If you can't, if you're if your marriage is struggling, if your marriage feels dead, if your marriage is broken, I I feel I've been there. That's not a good place to live. If your relationship with your children is strained, If your relationship with your parents is a mess, that is a really hard place to be in and actually enjoy life. That is not what God has for you. But what I want you to know this morning, what God would want you to know is that humility can solve almost all of it. Humility is a really powerful thing. Because God sees it and he honors it. Anything that God values and honors becomes powerful. Humility is powerful because God looks at it and He He rewards it. He says, if you will humble yourselves, if you'll walk in humility, if you'll have a commitment to submit, I will raise you up. And so if your marriage is in trouble, I'm telling you, humility can go a long way to solving the problem. And if you want to see a relationship with your kids or your parents change, humility can go a long way to solving that problem. The same at work. If you're a boss and the people who work underneath you don't enjoy working underneath you, humility will solve that. And if you're an employee and you're highly coachable, which is humility, you will be raised up. You'll be given promotions because you won't have a lot of competition. Humility goes a long way because God promises to reward it. And when Jesus talks about this, guys, he's talking from experience. He's speaking purely from experience. We'll wrap up with this Philippians chapter 2, verses 5 through 11. And in the original language, it's a poem. We don't tend to read it poetically because it doesn't line up with our language here with English, but it's very poetic and it tells the story of Jesus very succinctly. Paul wrote, You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges. He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. And when he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on a cross. Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names. That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So it says that we have Jesus, who is God. We have God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, all equal, all God. But he left that behind. He didn't view equality with God the Father as something to cling to. Instead, he gave all that up, and he what? He humbled himself. And he was born as a person. He submitted himself to the creation that he created. Think about that for a second. Jesus, the Bible tells us, is the author of all creation. We're told in the book of John that Jesus is like the instrument that God used to create the world, that it was through Jesus that God created everything. That the Father created everything. And so you have Jesus, the creator, submitting himself to what he created. So he submitted himself to hunger, to needing food. He submitted himself to thirst. He submitted himself to needing to be tired, to exhaustion, to needing sleep to function. Jesus submitted himself to the people that he himself created. There's moments in his story where he's being judged by human beings that he created. And they are telling him where he stands. And he doesn't even fight it. If you want to sum up Jesus' life in one word, you could use the word submission and it would hold. Because at every turn, Jesus submitted himself, not just to his father in heaven, but he submitted himself to those around him. One of my favorite stories of Jesus is the story of him feeding over 5,000 people, and he's gone off to be alone with God. He's just experienced a tragedy, a death in his family. And he goes away to pray and be with God. And when he's alone trying to have his God time, 5,000 people show up because they want to hear what he has to say. And he could have easily said, I'm having God time. This is important. It's a bad time for me. You guys need to go. I'll be with you tomorrow. But he submits to their needs. He puts his own needs aside and he submits to them and he he teaches them for hours and hours and hours and he feeds them and he takes care of them. Jesus lived his life submitting himself to God, to those around him, to the very world that he created. And I have to look myself in the eyes, which requires a mirror, and say, if my God, like I believe Jesus is God. I know not everyone believes that. I believe he's God. I believe he will judge the entire world. And I can think of no better judge than him. But if I believe that my God has the humility to submit to the very creation that he created, why can't I submit to far, far bigger things than myself? Like if he could submit to something so much smaller than him, why is it that I struggle to submit to anything? Sometimes I just I stink at submission. I stink at it. But it's required to have healthy relationships. You know, often when we think of the word submission related to scripture, especially this section of Ephesians, we think it's about wives submitting to their husbands. And some husbands are like, yes, it is. And some wives are like, no, it is not. But but understand this Paul says, in fact, let's go back to Ephesians 5.21. Paul says, submit to one another. So it's mutual, it's two-way, it's not one-way submission. And by the way, he's not talking about wives or husbands here. He's talking about everybody. He's saying we should all submit to one another. And then all the relationships he defines out after that, wives and husbands, children, parents, employees, employers, he's saying submissions for all of you. So what does it look like for a wife to submit in marriage? What does it look like for a husband to submit in marriage? What does it look like for a child to submit to their parents? But what does it also look like for a parent to submit to their child, to place their child's needs above their own? What does it look like for an employee to submit to their employer? But what does it also look like for an employer to submit to the needs of their employees? That is what he's talking about. Submission is for all of us. And I'm just saying at the forefront of this series, if you want to live in relation to one another in a way that's that's good and healthy and brings peace and joy, you gotta get good at submission. Yay! Woo! Submit. So let's be the most submissive group of people in the world. Like, what if someone came to you and said, hey, what are you really good at? Submitting. I love to submit. Do you have anything you need me to do? Because I would love to submit to you and do that thing if it helps you. The Lord loves submission. Not out of domination, not out of weakness, but out of a heart to serve. So where do we start? Well, just submit to everyone this week. 100% of the time. Just submit everything. No, no. That's not where you start. You start by submitting to the Lord. It's really simple. In fact, we have a few people that are about to get baptized right now, and that's exactly what they're doing. Is they are submitting their lives to the Lord. And this is a powerful moment for them personally, but it's also a powerful moment for us to be reminded that every day we have an opportunity to do the same thing. To submit. If you're here this morning and you've given your life to Jesus, you're a Christian. Every single day you have an opportunity to submit your day to God. You can wake up tomorrow and say, God, my Monday, it's yours. Who do you want me to serve? What do you want me to do? Sunday's only halfway over. And so you can even say right now, Lord, the rest of my day, it belongs to you. I submit to you. So show me how to serve the people I'm around. Show me how to serve whoever I interact with today, because I want to live not for me, but for them. Show me how to submit as I live in relation to those around me. I know there are those of us here who haven't given our lives to Jesus yet. Maybe you're here for the first time, maybe you've been here for a while, you're just thinking about it, you're weighing it. I'm telling you, when you submit your life to Him, when you give it all to Him, you receive far more than you give away. Because if you haven't given your life to Jesus yet, here's what that means, and this isn't meant to offend, but it means that you're leading yourself. That you're trusting yourself to be God, essentially. And I learned this a long time ago, I still learn it often, that I'm a really bad God. Because I've led myself into some stupid moments in life. Like I have I have made the decisions, I have led myself into some moments I really regret. And it was not God leading me in those moments. It was me leading me. I'm bad at leading me, but God is really good at it. And I know that when I submit my life to the Lord, the very first time and every time after, when I submit to the Lord and I say, Jesus, you take it. You take my life, you take my day, my month, my year, you take everything and I give it to you. What do you want to do with it? What he has me do with it is far better than what I would have done myself. Because he fills me with hope and with purpose and with joy, because he follows through on that promise to lift me up as I humble myself. And so if you're here this morning and you haven't given your life to Jesus, what I'm what I'm asking you to consider is an act of total submission to God. To trade in your dreams for your life for his dreams for your life, to let him lead you. And if you want to make that decision today, all you do is you pray. It's in your heart. You just say, God, I believe in you, Jesus, I believe in you, I give my life to you, and then you go to the main lobby and you sign up to be baptized right away. That's the first step of obedience as you submit to God, is to be baptized. So do that. But for all of us, I hope you're looking forward to getting good at submission. Anybody? Anybody like, yeah, we're gonna do this. Let's get good at submitting. Cool. I just wish you would have said you should submit to your pastor, because he's not in there at that point. So I can't talk about that. Now, seriously, I'm I'm excited about this for my own life, for all of us. I think God wants us to live in relation to each other in a way that is so good. I love you guys. With that said, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna pray. We've got some people getting baptized. We're gonna celebrate with them. We're gonna cheer for them because this is a big moment. The Bible says all of heaven is celebrating, so let's join the party, and then as soon as that's done, we'll wrap up and head out, okay? So, Lord, thank you so much for this day. Thank you so much for this incredible, submissive group of people. And Lord, I do pray that you would totally reframe for us what that word even means. That we would forget about connecting this word to oppression and weakness, and we would understand, Lord, your heart for service, that you yourself, Jesus, you came, you submitted your whole self to this world. You gave your life for us, you submitted yourself to death. You allowed yourself to die so that we could know you and we could have a relationship with you, Lord. So help us follow your example. Help us relate to one another with service and submission in our hearts. We love you. Lord, we ask as these people who are getting baptized submit to you in this moment, that you would show them how pleased you are with them, and that we would commit as a church to come around them, to come alongside them at whatever season of life they're in to help them grow and mature in their relationship with you. We love you, Lord. It's in your name we pray. Amen.