Ephesians 4:1-3 - Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Ephesians 2:11-14 - Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “Uncircumcision” by the so-called “Circumcision,” which is performed in the flesh by human hands – remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall…
Ephesians 2:16 - …and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity.
Ephesians 3:1 - …for this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles…
Ephesians 3:6 - …to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of…
Ephesians 3:10-12 - …so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him.
Ephesians 4:3 - …being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
3 aspects of our new life in Christ that makes unity in the church more attainable
I. You Have a New Walk
A. Not in the futility of your own mind
Ephesians 4:17-18 - So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding…
B. Not apart from the life of God
Ephesians 4:18 - …excluded from the life of God…
Ephesians 2:1 - And you were dead in your trespasses and sins…
C. Not with a hardened heart
Ephesians 4:18-19 - …because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous...
Jeremiah 31:33 - …I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people…
1 Corinthians 11:25 - In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
D. Not with impurity or greed
Ephesians 4:19 - …and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.
II. You Have a New Source of Truth
A. You learned and heard of Christ
Ephesians 4:20-21 - But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him…
Hebrews 4:12 - For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Romans 11:36 - For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.
Acts 4:13 - Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.
B. You have been taught in Him
Ephesians 4:21 - …if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him…
John 14:6 - Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
C. You find your truth in Jesus
Ephesians 4:21 - …if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus…
"We may be exactly right about our particular issue, dangerously right, and driven insane in our rightness. Narrowed truth becomes unbalanced truth. It loses the ability to listen and be corrected. Narrowed truth becomes half-truth, and broadly false. Narrowed truth loses love and the redemptive modus operandi. As it does so, it becomes increasingly distorted, exaggerated, and deformed. It becomes a vehicle for interpersonal conflict and self-righteousness. Narrowed truth, shorn of balancing truths and charity, tends to become reactive error. Ephesians, after all, speaks a truth that calls us to live ‘with all humility and gentleness, with patience, forbearing one another in love… speaking the truth in love.’ That does not leave much room for the sour, self-righteous, and suspicious attitudes that fester in controversy. Controversy tends to make us forget Christ, causing us to become angry, messianic, despairing, or fearful. Ephesians presses us about such attitudes and the words they produce. Whether our words are spoken or written, they must never be inedible, rotten, hostile, and harmful. They must always be constructive. They must always be tailor-made to time, place, person, and circumstance. They must always give savory grace to those who hear or read." (Counsel Ephesians, The Journal of Biblical Counseling • Volume 17 • Number 2 • Winter 1999, pg. 10)
III. You Have a New Process of Change
A. Understand the primary difference between the “unsaved life” and the “saved life”
B. Understand the 3 steps to change and growth
- do you enjoy getting something new?...I think we all do…
- our family has been working on a project since last fall…
- we’re always looking for enjoyable things to do with the Bear…which is why his summer softball team is such a delight…or fishing out at Bethany Farms…or his on-line Yahtzee games with family members…plus the way he serves on the pizza-making team at our pastoral pizza pie events…so that’s all very good for sure…
- but part of the challenge is – and maybe this is true for all of us to some extent – we’re not always sure what he’s going to like until we try it…
- so last fall, we were at a grandparents day event with one of our grandsons…
- then we went to Cracker Barrel to eat, then to the bowling alley, and then to the arcade…
- bear likes the arcade, especially the games that make lots of sounds…he calls them “chumers…”
- so anyway, there’s a game there that has two motorcycles facing a screen and you get up on the motorcycle and race each other and all the other imaginary riders on the screen…
- so bear announces that he’d like to play that game…
- Kris and I looked at each other like – how in the world are we going to get him up on that motorcycle…
- but he was insistent that he wanted to try it…so we hoisted him up on it…I’m holding him from the back…our grandson is on the other cycle…and off they go…and he had a blast…
- so that got me thinking…would he like a sidecar motorcycle?...and do they even make such a thing anymore?...
- so I went down to the Harley Dealer – and they started by saying – well, Harley stopped making those 8 years ago…
- but then the guy was kind enough to do some additional research…and found a company named Royal Enfield…which used to be a British company but now is located in India…and they have a sister company that makes sidecars…
- so last fall we bought a Royal Enfield motorcycle…and Bear really liked this color – the company calls it Orange Crush…
- then we had to wait for the sidecar, which wasn’t a problem because we didn’t need it over the winter anyway…but then apparently there was some kind of election in India so the government ordered the company to stop making sidecars and instead manufacture something the government wanted prior to the election…[I’m just going to leave that topic alone]…
- then there were shipping problems because the various wars around the world have complicated shipping routes and schedules…
- then of course there was fumigation…did you know that was an issue?...
- apparently when something is being shipped here in a wooden crate, it has to be fumigated so there aren’t any bugs in the wood…and it actually has to be stamped and certified…
- when Bear’s sidecar crate came out of the shipping container, there was some dust under it so it had to be refumigated in Norfolk. VA…
- but it finally arrived in Lafayette a few weeks ago…
- the challenge then became…getting it installed and painted to match the motorcycle…we always knew it would be black but we really didn’t know what it would look like to this point…
- and the Harley guys told us that their painter was backed up for 2-3 months…
- then when I was in Mexico City a few weeks ago…it was just one of those sweet kindnesses of the Lord that I thought about Ken Klim who attends here and I remembered that he had a sign painting business but I also thought he might paint custom cars…
- I contacted him and he said he’d be happy to help…we took everything to his shop the day after I returned from Mexico…and we even asked him if he could paint a bear on it…
- he was happy to do so…and then I said – Ken, I’m almost embarrassed to ask this – but how long will this take?...he said, I’ll try to be done in a week…and sure enough he did a beautiful job…and we were just able to pick it up when I returned from teaching at Deaf School on Memorial Day weekend and we’ve been having a blast on the motorcycle sidecar
- the point is – it’s just fun to get something new…and btw, we’re thankful to serve at a church that compensates us so generously that we are able to do things like that…
- but the reason I told you that story is because that is true of each and every one of us…in Christ, we all have a series of provisions that are very, very new…
- and understanding and acting on that reality is an important aspect of our church family living together in unity…
- with that in mind, please open your Bible to Ephesians chapter 4…page 152 of the back section of the Bible under the chair in front of you…
- our church’s theme this year is Building on Our Heritage…as we celebrate our 60th anniversary together…
- and we are having a great time studying the book of Ephesians verse by verse together because there is so much truth here that helps us celebrate the past and make focused, principled plans for the future…
- even a cursory overview of the book shows that it falls into 2 very neat divisions…
- chapters 1-3, addressing the gospel indicatives (who we are in Christ)
- chapters 4-6 – the gospel imperatives (commands) the way we can and should live as a result of who our heavenly Father has made us, and is continuing to make us, in Christ
- when you cross over into chapter 4, it’s very important and interesting to note that a central theme is unity…
- Ephesians 4:1–3 - Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
- and that theme has been building throughout the book…
- Ephesians 2:11–14 - Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “Uncircumcision” by the so-called “Circumcision,” which is performed in the flesh by human hands—remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall,
- imagine the church having Jews and Gentiles and enjoying unity with one another…
- when we pause and consider what is occurring in the Middle East now and what has occurred there so often throughout history…the church being a place where various ethnicities can function in harmony together requires an act of God…
- and Paul wants that theme to grip us…
- so he says in verse 16 - Ephesians 2:16 - and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity.
- then he says in chapter 3 – I don’t mind being a prisoner for this…Ephesians 3:1 - for this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—
- the goal is that important…
- and if you allow your eyes to follow over the argument of chapter 3…that’s the mystery…truth that had not formerly been revealed…
- Ephesians 3:6 - to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel,
- then look at the purpose of all of this in verse 10…Ephesians 3:10–12 - so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him.
- friend, when you think back over the last 60 years – while we are far from perfect – our great God has given us a surprising amount of unity which has freed this church family up to accomplish a significant amount together…
- divided and divisive people cannot do that…all they can do is tear each other and tear everything down…
- and when we look toward the future…where we seek to Building on that Heritage…that is going to require what chapter 4:3 is commanding of us in a very focused way…Ephesians 4:3 - being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
- and if you say, in this divided world, a large group of people achieving that is highly unlikely…
- well, the verses before us this morning…taken in their proper context, give us reasons for great hope…
- because we’re like the Viars family and the new motorcycle sidecar…in Christ, we all have something very, very new…
- read Ephesians 4:17-24
- we’re talking this morning about How to Live in Unity
- and with the time we have remaining, let’s look for 3 aspects of our new life in Christ that makes unity in the church more attainable…
I. You Have a New Walk
- if we look at this assignment through the lens of our own resources or the tendencies of our world, we could become downhearted and discouraged pretty quickly about how achievable that really is in the future…
- but friends, that would simply be the wrong lens…Paul says that we are no longer walking…
A. Not in the futility of your own mind
Ephesians 4:17–18 - So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding…
- I would encourage you to especially circle in your mind or in your Bible the powerful words “no longer”…
- that’s liberation terminology right there…redemption terminology…hope terminology…
- this is essential for people who want to build on our heritage in a unified way…
- because when issues come up…and they invariably will…it’s not, how would we naturally think about that…
- it’s how would our gracious Lord and Savior want us to think about that…
- and the chasm between those two categories is often enormous…
- see the good news friends is, that we’re no longer walking in the futility of our own minds…we have a new way of thinking about the issues that might arise among us…
- it is also a new walk that is…
B. Not apart from the life of God
- Ephesians 4:18 - …excluded from the life of God…
- what a haunting phrase, huh?...
- and that takes us back to the way chapter 2 began…Ephesians 2:1 - And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,
- aren’t you glad for the word “were”…that goes along with the “no longer” of chapter 4 verse 17…
- unity in a church requires a group of people being connected to the power of God…
- the week before last, I was down at the Harvest Church and School for the Deaf
- I’ve been going there for years and have become very good friends with Pastor Reggie Rempel and his wife Kim…
- they have a small little Bible College for deaf persons who are going to go out as missionaries around the world to other persons who are deaf….and they want biblical counseling to be part of their training…
- that is an enormous task…because of the education and communication barriers…
- so for example, one of my students was from Laos…no one in his family knew sign language…so he learned what they call “family signing”…so a family just makes up signs to communicate with their deaf child or sibling…but there is no education…
- so this boy became the family hunter…his siblings went off to school…he went off to the jungle to hunt animals which helped feed the family…
- at some point he became a Christian and believed God wanted him to be a pastor and ended up at this little Bible college…
- but when he and others like him go to other countries as missionaries…they will first have to teach deaf persons language…and then literacy…and then the gospel…
- it’s an incredible task and calling when you stop and think about it…
- yet here’s this young man sitting in my class, asking great questions through an interpreter to try to understand what’s being taught…
- how do you explain that other than the life of God working in and through him?...
- by the way, thank you for being the kind of church that is willing to share pastoral resources with a group of people like this…
- anyway, over the years I have gotten to Pastor Rempel’s secretary Kristy who can hear and became a natural communication point for me/us…
- her husband Joey could also hear – and he had a secular job but volunteered in all sorts of ways at the church although he obviously had to learn sign language to do it…both he and Kristy were signed up to take my class…
- and so were Joey’s parents…his mother is the financial secretary and Joey’s dad just retired from Shaw Carpets and was also a volunteer at the church…
- ten days before I was to arrive, Joey…a 48 year old man, unexpectedly died of complications from Chron’s disease…
- this was just before Mother’s Day…so the church already had a wedding scheduled that Saturday…
- so they did the wedding Saturday morning, Joey’s viewing Saturday afternoon, Mother’s Day services Sunday morning, and then Joey’s funeral Sunday afternoon…
- I was already scheduled to speak at their church the following Sunday, teach all week and also speak at their prayer meeting Wednesday night…
- you can imagine how exhausted these dear people were…and again, thank you for being willing to share your pastoral resources because they really needed someone to help at that moment…
- but what amazed me was – Kristy and her parents went ahead and took the class…and Kristy and Joey’s 21 year old daughter sat in in Joey’s place…
- we had some incredible conversations…and then on Friday when I was getting ready to dismiss the class to start my trip home…Pastor Rempel asked Joey’s dad to conclude the class in prayer…
- I wish you could have been there…here’s a man who worked in a factory all his life, had just lost his son, retired so he decided to take a class on BC, praying and asking God to help him and everyone else in the class be compassionate and humble and effective in their future ministry opportunities…
- friends – what is that?...that’s a new walk…that’s the life of God working in and through a man’s heart and life…
- we can have hope as we consider the task of preserving the unity among us as we’re building on our heritage together because we all have something new…
- Paul goes on to say – it’s…
C. Not with a hardened heart
- Ephesians 4:18–19 - …because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous..
- this should take our minds back to one of the primary provisions of the New Covenant in Jeremiah where God says…Jeremiah 31:33 - …“I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people…”
- what is it that we say when we celebrate the Lord’s table together?...
- 1 Corinthians 11:25 - In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” …and…
D. Not with impurity or greed
- Ephesians 4:19 - and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.
- feeling-oriented people are inevitably divisive…
- greedy people are inevitably divisive…
- thank the Lord we have a new walk…
- btw, this assumes there has been a definite time in your life where you admitted your need and then placed your faith and trust in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ…
- if you’ve not yet done that…we’d love to talk with you…today would be a great day to be forgiven of your sin once and for all…to be redeemed…to be bought by the blood of the Lamb…
- and if you’re wondering – would I be welcome in the family?...
- that’s something else about new people…there’s always room for someone else who’s been made new…
II. You Have a New Source of Truth
- verses 20-21 give us a crucial part of this puzzle…
A. You learned and heard of Christ
- Ephesians 4:20–21 - But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him…
- it’s so important to note that Paul didn’t say…you’ve learned principles from a book…although that is certainly true…but it’s so much more than that…
- you learned a Person…we learned a Person…
- perhaps that’s why the writer of Hebrews explains that Hebrews 4:12 - For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
- how is that so?...perhaps because it all points to our living, risen Savior…
- that’s why we’re praying and hoping that our 60th anniversary is ultimately a celebration of Jesus, not a celebration of us…because we would all say that if we have accomplished anything together that is good or lasting…Romans 11:36 - For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.
- now, having said that…it’s also important that we give honor to whom honor is due…
- one of the ways that our church’s history could be told is through the lens of the lives and ministries of our deacons and their families…and the faithful ways they’ve served…many for decades…
- we have 44 deacons here…and this church has always taken the issues very seriously of training future deacons, and electing men who meet the biblical qualifications for the office…
- and I’ve had the privilege of being with them in lots of lots of meetings, and times of making crucial decisions, and having important discussions and deliberations and serving in all sorts of different ways…
- here’s one of the ways you could describe them…there’s something new about them…
- now, they’re not “yes men”…they have strong, principled opinions and they should
- but nor are they proud or divisive…
- you would say of them what was said of Peter and John…Acts 4:13 - Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.
- see, unity comes when everyone has a new source of truth, and that source ultimately is a Person…a risen, living Savior…
- Paul says…
B. You have been taught in Him
- Ephesians 4:21 - if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him…
- a number of you have asked me how things went when I spoke a few Sundays ago at the Universalist Unitarian Church in WL…
- if you’re not familiar with that, I have a friend who is a lesbian leader in our community named Gale…
- she and I have beliefs that are quite different as you can imagine but we have also been able to develop a delightful friendship…
- so when I was asked to give a talk at our BCTC in February about how to relate to members of the LGBTQ community, I asked Gale to sit down with me and shoot a video together, which she did…
- we showed the video at the conference and Gale came to the session and was warmly greeted by our conference guests afterwards…
- then she was scheduled to speak at a Sunday morning worship service at her church in April and she asked me if she could show some of the video, which she did…
- but then they asked me to come back and speak at an Adult Forum which is like an ABF and what was a bit odd was that I had been in Mexico City the previous week and since the preaching schedule was set before my flight schedule, I was free that particular morning so I went…
- it was very helpful to me to discuss that opportunity with Pastor David Henderson at Covenant Church in WL because I have a lot of respect for him and we’ve been good friends over the years…
- we’re quite different in a number of ways but I need people around me who think about things from a variety of perspectives…
- anyway, the morning started with Gale showing a bit more of the video we had made together, and then she said a bit more about our friendship and she then turned it over to me…
- and I started by giving my testimony of how I became a Christian…which many of you know occurred during a conversation I had with a pastor who, as I asked him questions, just continued to point me to different places in his dog-eared Bible…
- and Scripture was just burning in my heart that night…
- of course I quoted 1 John 5:13 – These things have I written to you…
- then I pivoted to our church’s 60th anniversary and talked about the dedication program of our very first building
- so I explained that we’ve been a Bible believing church for 60 years – that’s our chosen source of truth…[develop – not trying to impose it…]…
- so I tried to connect my personal testimony with our church’s history centered on our commitment to the Bible as our sole source of faith and practice…
- then they opened it up for questions…
- the very first woman said something like – I just have to tell you, many of us are not as civil as Gale…
- but I appreciated how Gale stood right next to me knowing that I was going to answers questions based on my interpretation of the Bible, though some of those interpretations are quite offensive to her…
- I also appreciated that, although they asked me some of the most controversial questions you can imagine, they listened respectfully as I answered from Scripture…
- one woman said at some point – these verses you’ve been quoting are fine, but “the Bible’s just not my gig”…
- that’s really what it comes down to, isn’t it?...because universalism is not taught in Scripture, is it?...the exclusivity of the gospel is…
- which is why Jesus Christ said…John 14:6 - Jesus *said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
- see, only people who have decided that the Bible is their gig will have been “taught in Him”…and that common commitment brings great unity…
C. You find your truth in Jesus
- Ephesians 4:21 - if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus,
- think about the way that impacts the way we address disagreements. A number of years ago David Powlison wrote…
"We may be exactly right about our particular issue, dangerously right, and driven insane in our rightness. Narrowed truth becomes unbalanced truth. It loses the ability to listen and be corrected. Narrowed truth becomes half-truth, and broadly false. Narrowed truth loses love and the redemptive modus operandi. As it does so, it becomes increasingly distorted, exaggerated, and deformed. It becomes a vehicle for interpersonal conflict and self-righteousness.
Narrowed truth, shorn of balancing truths and charity, tends to become reactive error. Ephesians, after all, speaks a truth that calls us to live “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, forbearing one another in love… speaking the truth in love.” That does not leave much room for the sour, self-righteous, and suspicious attitudes that fester in controversy. Controversy tends to make us forget Christ, causing us to become angry, messianic, despairing, or fearful. Ephesians presses us about such attitudes and the words they produce. Whether our words are spoken or written, they must never be inedible, rotten, hostile, and harmful. They must always be constructive. They must always be tailor-made to time, place, person, and circumstance. They must always give savory grace to those who hear or read." (pg. 10)
Counsel Ephesians, The Journal of Biblical Counseling • Volume 17 • Number 2 • Winter 1999
- we can have hope for this great experiment called “preserving unity in the church” because we have a new walk, and we have a new source of truth…and because…
III. You have a New Process of Change
- we’re going to develop this is much more detail next week, Lord willing…
- but there are 2 issues here that can help us both conclude today and be prepared for next week…
A. Understand the primary difference between the “unsaved life” and the “saved life.”
- there is a contrast between two approaches to living in this text…[develop]…
- people who live by their feelings will often cause problems in all sorts of areas, including Christ’s church…
- thank the Lord we’ve been given a new way of handling times of disagreement…
B. Understand the 3 steps to change and growth
- [develop the 3 steps, and “the quizzes”]
- how does that impact unity?...
- the world often says things like – you’ll just have to take me as I am…or you can’t teach an old dog new tricks…
- “new people” say that God has given us a process to continue to grow each and every day…
- and when our focus is there – it’s not on all the problems and issues that could divide us…
Conclusion – this is news worth sharing…
- VBS
- Gary Shiverdecker’s testimony
You are welcome. It has been an emotional subject to discuss, ever since I went on the Honor Flight several years ago. That brought special meaning to my time of service in the Army, to visit the monuments in Washington D.C. with others from the Lafayette area.There were over 100 of us on that flight, including Bob and Rusty Sagendorf, Doug Ransom and his daughter, myself and Joe Bell who was my chaperone/guardian.
I served in the Army from 1969 to early 1972. It was a very unpopular time to be a G.I. Most of my time was spent on the island of Okinawa and I loved it there. A very important highlight of being there was I came to know the Lord while on the island. I became close friends with a guy from North Carolina and he led me to the Lord. I have not seen him in over 40 years, but we plan on visiting with each other in July in Tennessee. I am looking forward to that.
Pastor, I considered it a privilege to have served my country. I consider it an honor that Josh asked me to pray during the Memorial Day service at Faith.
Gary
- Thank the Lord for this “guy from NC” who was excited enough about the potential of new life in Christ, that he shared it with an army friend in Okinawa…who trusted Christ and is now one of our faithful deacons…
- Let’s go find the next Gary…