RELATIONSHIP ROAD TRIP
FUEL FOR THE JOURNEY
DR. JIM DIXON
OCTOBER 21, 2007
MATTHEW 5:6
North of Santa Barbara, California there’s a place called Morning Star Farm. That farm is owned by a man whose name is Jim Ward. Jim Ward was one of my best friends when I was at Westmont College just south of Santa Barbara, California. There were seven of us who kind of hung out together, and all of us were involved in sports and athletics. Two of these guys, Jim and another guy named John Stanke, were really geniuses. They both had perfect 1600s on their SAT scores. Jim was a really good athlete, and he certainly was a genius.
Jim got his PhD in psychology at the University of California at Santa Barbara. I should say, he almost got his PhD at the University of California at Santa Barbara. What Jim did was this: after he did all of his course work, took all of his classes, and wrote his dissertation, he was riding on his motorcycle from Montecito on the south side of Santa Barbara to Galida on the north side. He put the dissertation that he was going to turn in into a kind of rack on the back of the motorcycle. Somehow, it all came undone and just flew everywhere, all over the intersection. Cars ran over pages. Everything was lost. Of course, this was prior to computers. Jim couldn’t just download another copy of his dissertation. Even though Jim was a genius, he wasn’t smart enough to make a copy of his dissertation. Jim just kind of marched to the beat of a different drummer. Guys said, “Hey, you could just write your dissertation again.” It truly would have been easy for him. He was that kind of guy, and he had that kind of a mind; but he just blew it off and went on with life. He didn’t care.
God has greatly blessed Jim. He has a wonderful wife. He has wonderful kids, and he loves the Lord. I remember in college Jim drove a VW. He had a yellow VW, one of those old VWs where you could flip a deal on the floor and go into an auxiliary tank. When you ran out of fuel, you had a little bit more in that reserve tank. Jim tells a story about that car that to this day is kind of hard to believe. Jim claims that he was down in San Diego, and he ran out of gas. That wasn’t hard to believe because Jim did that kind of thing a lot. He ran out of gas, he flipped the switch for the reserve tank, and he thought, “Boy I’d better go get gas.” Suddenly, he realized he had no money. So, he just pulled over to the side of the road and prayed. He asked God to get him home. Jim claims that he drove 225 miles back to Santa Barbara on that little reserve tank.
When you hear stories like that, what do you think? Well, certainly, God can do anything, right? God can multiply a boy’s lunch and feed 5,000 people. God could multiply a little fuel to get a car someplace He wants it to go. But I know this, and I’m sure you do too: normally, automobiles don’t go anywhere without gasoline. Normally, cars need fuel. What’s true of cars is true of us. As we’re on this road trip, as we’re on this journey of life, we need fuel or we’re not going anywhere. So, this morning, I have two teachings relating to fuel. The first teaching concerns Jesus and the soul. Jesus is fuel for the soul.
In Matthew 4:4, Jesus said, “Man does not live by bread alone.” What Jesus meant by that was this: we’re not just physical beings. If we were just physical beings, then all we would need to sustain us is bread. But Jesus is saying, “There’s more to man than that because we’re also spiritual beings.”
Scholars and theologians debate the nature of man. Some Bible scholars believe that mankind is dichotomous. That means “two-part.” So, we have “soma,” body, and then we have this second part which might be called “soul” or “spirit.” But it doesn’t matter because soul and spirit are synonymous and interchangeable. So, you have the physical part and the spiritual part, and you may call the spiritual part either soul or spirit. Other Bible scholars believe that mankind is trichotomous. We are body, soul, and spirit—”soma,” “psyche,” “pneuma”—and these three are separate and distinct.
It’s not my purpose this morning to discuss the nature of man. We’ve looked at some of these things before. What’s important to understand is that everybody agrees on this . . . the Bible is clear on this: we are not just physical. We also have this spiritual part of us that transcends and survives death.
In Matthew 4, Jesus goes on to say, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceeds from the mouth of God.” So, your soul, that spiritual side of you, needs to feed on the words which proceed from the mouth of God. When you think of the Word of God, you probably think of the Bible. Indeed, the Bible is the Word of God written, but the Bible also points to someone. The Bible points to Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is the Word of God living. So, you come to John’s Gospel, and you come to the first chapter, the first verse. It says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of man.”
John goes on to say, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Jesus is the Word of God. So, when Jesus said, “Man does not live by bread alone but by every word which proceeds from the mouth of God,” there’s a sense in which Jesus was actually speaking about Himself. He is the Word that proceeds from the mouth of God, and He’s what our souls need, what our spirits need. He feeds us spiritually, and Jesus tells us this again and again. So, you come to John’s Gospel, the sixth chapter; you look at verse 35. What does Jesus say? Jesus says, “I am the Bread of Life.” Then you go a little later in that chapter, and you look at verse 51. Jesus says, “I am the Living Bread that came down from heaven.”
What is Jesus talking about? “I am the Bread of Life? I am the Living Bread?” In the chapter, Jesus is talking in the context of manna, how God the Father gave manna to His people in the wilderness as they escaped oppression in Egypt on their quest to the Promised Land. God sent manna from heaven to feed their physical bodies. And now Jesus is saying, “I also have come down from heaven, and I am the Bread. I am Manna. I am Bread and I am Manna for your soul and spirit.”
In John 4:10-13, Jesus talks about being water. He’s not only bread, but He’s also water. He said, “I am the Living Water.” He’s the Living Bread, and He’s the Living Water. He says, “He who drinks of Me will never thirst again. That water will well up into eternal life.” So, Jesus is water and bread for the soul and spirit. He wanted us to understand this. For this He came into the world.
The Bible tells us that the world is in darkness. The Bible tells us that people are spiritually dead. Apart from God sending His Son into the world, this world would stay in darkness, and human beings would stay dead. When you come to Christ . . . it is promised in the gospel . . . when you come to Jesus and you accept His offer . . . and you come to the foot of the cross and you kneel there and you say, “Yes, I am a sinner. Yes, I am in darkness. Yes, I need a Savior . . . ” When you ask Jesus to forgive you of your sin and by His atoning sacrifice to wash you whiter than snow . . . and then, in that same moment, when you ask Jesus to be your Lord, to sit on the throne of your soul, so that from that day forth you might seek to live for Him . . . When that happens, the Bible says you’re regenerated, born anew, born from above, “anagennao.” You enter the family of God. You become a son or daughter of God, and you have life spiritually, not just life physically.
But here’s the problem. Even though those of us who are in Christ have been given spiritual life, we still have times when the tank gets empty, when we’re running on fumes. We have times when our souls feel sick and we need Jesus more than ever.
Nothing is more important than our immortal souls. Nothing is more important than your soul. Nothing is more important than my soul. That’s why Jesus said, “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?” That’s why Jesus said, “Do not fear those who can kill the body. Fear rather the one who can judge and destroy both body and soul.” Fear God. Nothing is more important than your soul.
Luke 19 tells the story of Zacchaeus. In his culture and time, he was about as close to a pirate as there was. Zacchaeus was a tax collector. He was a publican. He served the “publicanus.” He served the Roman treasury. But he wasn’t just any publican; he wasn’t just any tax collector. The Greek word that’s used in this passage in Luke 19 to describe Zacchaeus is the word “architelones.” This word, “architelones,” is found only there in Luke 19, nowhere else in the whole Bible. This was rare. He was a chief tax collector—”arche,” a “ruling tax collector.” So, he was a chief publican. He was a chief pirate. The people were taxed without mercy, and the money went into the coffers of men like this. Zacchaeus was very, very rich. He had made his money by selling out to Rome. The Jewish people hated guys like this who got rich by selling out to their enemies.
Zacchaeus was a man short of stature, the Bible tells us. He was a wee little man. Remember that song? “A wee little man was he.” Zacchaeus was a wee little man, but he was also a rich little man. He knew that Jesus was coming to town. Zacchaeus knew something was wrong in his heart, something was wrong in his soul, something was wrong in his immortal soul. He knew it. He was so wealthy that he went home every day to probably the largest house in the city. He had the finest food and everything money could buy, but he knew something was wrong with his immortal soul.
Now Jesus was coming to town, the alleged Messiah, the Son of God. Zacchaeus just had to see Him; but he was short, being a wee little man, and he could not see over the crowds as thousands of people lined the roadway. So, Zacchaeus did something kind of bold. He climbed up in a tree—the Bible says it was a Sycamore tree, and it is the Greek word from which we get the word, “Sycamore.” That word referred to a Mulberry or a Fig tree. Zacchaeus wanted to get a glimpse of the Son of God. He didn’t care if people ridiculed him. They hated him anyway. Grown men didn’t climb trees. Not then, not now; but he didn’t care. He was desperate. He wanted to see the Son of God, and he did see him.
Here’s the amazing thing: Jesus just looked up right into the face of Zacchaeus. He called him by name and knew him; He saw into his soul. Jesus could see there was hunger there. Jesus could see there was thirst there, and Jesus said, “Zacchaeus, come down. I will dine at your house today.”
The religious leaders hated this. If you look at Luke 19, you see how the religious leaders are enraged. They say of Jesus, “With a sinful man, He has entered to lodge.” This word “to lodge” in the Greek is “kataluo.” It’s very important, and it can change the whole meaning of the statement. “Kataluo” comes from “kata,” which means “down.” It’s in the intensive. “Luo” is a Greek word which can mean “to lose,” but it also means “to destroy.” It means “to demolish,” “to break in pieces.”
So, here’s the deal. There’s this word “kataluo” in Luke 19:7. It might mean “to lodge,” but it more likely means “to destroy.” Twice in the Bible, “kataluo” means “to lodge”; but 15 times in the Bible, “kataluo” means “to destroy utterly.” It’s possible that these religious leaders were saying of Jesus, “With a sinful man, He has gone in to be destroyed.” They might have been kind of playing on the dual meaning of the word and saying, “With a sinful man He has gone to lodge and be destroyed.” They were judging the Son of God in their self-righteousness.
You know, in the Bible, religious leaders don’t fare so well. That’s a little hard for guys like me who are pastors and work in churches. Religious leaders so often seem to be bankrupt in the soul. When Jesus closes the passage, He says, “The Son of Man came into this world.” Why? “To seek and to save the lost.” Zacchaeus knew, somehow, that he was lost; but those religious leaders didn’t think they were lost.
Here’s the deal. Everybody’s lost. The whole world is lost. The whole world is messed up. The whole world is spiritually dead; but, you see, religious leaders sometimes seem to be the last people to figure it out. They kind of think they’re better than anyone else. They kind of think that there’s nothing wrong with them. They’re self-righteous. Jesus came to seek the lost. Jesus went around looking for people who knew they were lost, people who knew they were messed up, people who hungered and thirsted for God. That’s what Jesus looks for.
So, we look at our passage of Scripture for today, Matthew 5:6. It says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness.” Is that true of you? Do you hunger and thirst for righteousness? Is that true of me? Do I hunger and thirst for righteousness? In the Greek, the word for “thirst” is “dipsos,” and the word for “hunger” is “peinao.” These words are in a special form which means, “to ardently hunger.” They’re intensified—“To ardently hunger and to ardently thirst.” They’re also in the holistic form. So, it means “to ardently hunger and ardently thirst for the whole of righteousness.” That’s what Jesus is saying. People like that will be blessed, and they will be satisfied if they ardently hunger and thirst for the whole of righteousness.
The word for “righteousness” is the word “dikaiosune.” Sometimes, it refers to social justice and compassion on the oppressed and the poor. Other times, righteousness, “dikaiosune,” refers to “moral purity.” Jesus is saying, “You’ve got to hunger for all of it. You’ve got to have an ardent thirst for all of it, moral purity and social justice, the whole deal. And blessed are you if you thirst for that.” In a sense, Jesus is saying, “Blessed are those who ardently, passionately thirst and hunger for God and for the things of God.” On this journey, this road trip called life, we need fuel. Jesus is God with us.
There’s a second teaching here. It concerns Jesus and soulmates. We’ve taken a little look at Jesus and the soul, how He gives life to the soul and feeds the soul. I want to take a little look at Jesus and soulmates. In this journey, this road trip, we need soulmates where Jesus is involved.
This last week, October 18, Barb had her 60th birthday. I know that’s almost impossible to believe. For me, every year Barb gets more beautiful. I can remember when I first met her 37 years ago on her birthday. On October 18, 1970, I met her. I had gone over to her apartment house. Barb was rooming with three other gals, two of whom had gone to Westmont College. I was just dropping by to see these girls that I had known. Barb was their new roommate. I met Barb that night. It just happened to be her birthday.
I remember talking to her for the first time. At the back of her apartment, there was this patio. I stood there, and I looked into Barb’s face. It was the strangest thing, but something . . . I mean, I could just feel something melt in my heart. We had never met or talked to each other before, but the thought actually came into my mind, “I’m going to marry her.” And I know it was God. I must confess that thought didn’t occur to Barb for a long, long time; but from the beginning, there was something that was very soulful about Barb. I could see that Barb had a hunger for God. I could see, at times, that she had almost a desperate hunger for God and a thirst for God. I think part of the reason that Barb was interested in me was that I was in seminary preparing for the ministry. It was a God deal, and it was part of her quest for God.
Through the years, I’ve seen Barb’s hunger and thirst for God. I love and appreciate it. When God called me into the ministry at Faith Presbyterian Church in Aurora and I worked with Sunday School and youth, Barb was my co-laborer. We were a team. That call that God gave me, God gave Barb. She did at least half of the work, as we worked with kids and youth. She did it with joy. Barb loves the ministry today. She has joy in serving this church and in serving you. It’s all part of hungering and thirsting for God and the things of God. So, Barb and I are soulmates. It’s all in Jesus.
I know some of you are married to someone, and you don’t feel like you’re soulmates. And maybe you’re not. Maybe you’re married to somebody who doesn’t love Jesus. Maybe you’re married to somebody who loves Jesus, but you don’t. Maybe you’re married to somebody, and they say they love Jesus, but they don’t seem to ever hunger or thirst for anything of God. Don’t think for a second that it is therefore okay for you to just leave that person. “Whom God hath joined together, let no one divide.” But there is hope.
Through the years, I’ve seen many husbands pray for their wives, that they would come to love Jesus. I’ve seen many wives pray for their husbands, that they would come to love Jesus and hunger and thirst for the things of God. I’ve seen prayers like that answered. Don’t give up. Persevere. Have patience. Have faith and hang in there because God is great.
It’s possible that you’re married to somebody, and you’re not soulmates. There might be things you both have in common. You might share a great love for each other, but when it comes to the spiritual, you’re not soulmates. I must say that everybody who loves Jesus, in a sense, is my soulmate. Everybody who hungers and thirsts after God is a soulmate.
I want to take a look briefly at God’s name. It was Moses who journeyed to Sinai or Mount Horeb and encountered God. God told Moses, “You shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Let My people go!”‘ God told Moses, “You will lead My people out of bondage in Egypt.” Moses said, “Who am I? Who am I, and who are You? If I say You have sent me, what shall I tell them is Your name? What do I call You?” God conveyed His name to Moses. Theologians call it the “Tetragrammaton,” which simply means “four letters,” because the name of God contains four letters. These four letters are all consonants because early Hebrew had no vowels. These four letters, when transliterated into English, become YHWH, normally pronounced “Yahweh.” They could also be translated into English as JHVH, so it would be more like “Jahvey.” Because the Jewish people of old were afraid to say the name of God, they took some of the vowels off “Adonai,” added them to the Tetragrammaton, and came up with “Jehovah,” which is a hybrid word.¬
For millennia and for centuries, people of God have wondered, “What does the name Yahweh mean?” We know it comes from the verb “to be,” and perhaps it means “I am that I am.” Perhaps it means, “I am He who is.” There are many possibilities. But many Jewish Hebrew scholars say the meaning of the word is not important. For them, the word connotes “breath.” While they are afraid to say the name of God—they do not say, “Yahweh”—they will say the letters: yod, heh, waw, heh. At least for some of the Hebrews, it’s like breathing. They associate these divine letters in the divine name with the breath of God. Yod, heh, waw, heh.
I cannot tell you whether God’s divine name is meant to connote breath and breathing, but I can tell you this: the breath of God is more important than anything. So, you look at creation and breath, and you see in Genesis chapter 2 how God breathed on man. “God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” It’s the breath of God imparting life. You have Adam and Eve with the breath of God upon them; and they became soulmates.
Then you come to regeneration and breath. In John 20:22, Jesus appears to the disciples in the upper room in the city of Jerusalem. Jesus was resurrected and alive. Then, a very strange thing happens. Jesus decides to breathe on them. John 20:22—He breathes on them, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” and they are regenerated. They are born anew. They, in some spiritual sense, enter the family of God. Most theologians think of John 22 as regeneration.
Then in Acts chapter 2, you have the 70. God sends His breath, the Spirit, and God breathes on all 70. They become soulmates with a common purpose, a common cause. Now, they’re brothers and sisters, regenerated children of God.
In the Hebrew, the word for “breath” is the word “ruah.” It also means “spirit.” In the Greek, the word for breath is “pneuma.” It also means “spirit.” So, we can think of the breath of God as the Spirit of God, His breath, His life. When you look at the Holy Scriptures, what are we told? Second Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is inspired of God.” The Greek word is “theopneustos,” “God-breathed.” All Scripture is “God-breathed.” The breath of God is on this book.
Theologians can debate the inspiration of Scripture. They can debate verbal and plenary inspiration. They can debate what it means to say that the Bible is infallible or inerrant. They can question whether inerrancy extends to science and history. All these things are so often debated, but remember this: the breath of God is on this book, and His breath gives life. Remember this: you need to be in this book every day and let God breathe on you every day. You can do it as a couple, as husband and wife. God can breathe on you together—soulmates. You can do it with friends, and God can breathe on you as a group of friends. It’s like soulmates because in your soul, there’s a bonding of Jesus. You want people in your life who can sing that song to you, “Breathe on me breath of God. Fill me with life anew.” Don’t you want people in your life who think like that?
Remember that we experience the breath of God differently. We’re not all the same. God has crafted us as individuals. You should never judge your wife because you don’t like the way she experiences God. You should never judge your husband because you don’t like the way he experiences God. For instance, Barbara loves music. I like music, but Barb really loves music. God breathes on Barb through music. So, Barb borrows my car. Of course, it’s our car. We have two cars. We call one Barb’s car and one my car. Barb’s car is a VW Passat, and it’s kind of a bottom crawler. I mean, it’s like your derrière is scraping the ground. So, I don’t like to get into that so much.
I have this Ford Expedition, which I’ve had for six years. I love it, but Barb sometimes likes to drive it too. When Barb drives my Expedition and then I get into it later that day or the next day, everything is wrong in there. The seat is wrong. It’s not in the right position. The mirrors are not in the right position. They don’t line up right, and the radio is really wrong. You push a button, and it goes right to Christian music. Part of me smiles when the radio comes on and goes right to Christian music. Part of me smiles. It’s precious because I know that God breathes on Barb through that music. Of course, I’m immediately returning the radio to sports talk.
God breathes on me through study. I just love to study the Bible. Barb likes to study. I love to study. I can spend hours every day, and I get joy out of studying God’s Word. God breathes on me through that. I know God breathes on us through prayer. We’re all crafted differently. Some people like to pray just briefly here and there throughout the day. Some people like to tarry in prayer, but God does breathe on us through prayer. God breathes on us through Christian friends and Christian fellowship. Isn’t that cool when you can hang out with some brothers and sisters in Christ, and you just know when you’ve left that God’s breathed on you? Maybe God breathes on you through His creation. You take a walk in the woods or look up at a starry night . . . the heavens declare His glory, and you feel the breath of God. We need to allow each other individuality and some freedom and diversity in terms of how we have God breathe on us.
I think, sometimes, God wants to breathe on us in silence. And this is a noisy world. This past week, Scott Grabendike (one of our staff) did a little devotional at our department-head meeting. He took us to 1 Kings 19. In I Kings 19, Elijah encounters God. So, Elijah’s at Mt. Horeb, Elijah is at Mt. Sinai and he’s depressed. He’s afraid for his life because the wicked Queen Jezebel wants to kill him; she’s sent her minions out to execute him. He feels like the whole nation of Israel has rejected God and everybody has turned against God. He’s depressed, and he wants to just quit and give up. Suddenly, God speaks to him.
As he’s journeyed to Sinai God says, “What are you doing here?” Elijah begins to whine a little bit about how tough everything is. God says, “Go up on the mountain, and I’ll meet you.” That’s more or less what God says in 1 Kings 19: “Go up on the mountain, and I’ll show up.” Elijah heads up on the mountain, and there’s this roaring wind that just shakes the mountain and starts moving stones . . . but God’s not in the wind. Then there’s this great earthquake, and Sinai shakes . . . but God is not in the earthquake. Then there’s this fire that just ravages the face of the mountain . . . but God is not in the fire. Finally, God shows up in 1 Kings 19 like “a gentle whisper.” The Hebrew word can literally mean “sounds of silence,” an oxymoron. Sounds of silence, kind of like Simon and Garfunkel’s famous song, “The Sound of Silence.”
There’s something beautiful about that. Sometimes, you’ve got to find a little silence to feel the breath of God. It’s a noisy world. According to the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), every day, 183,000,000 people are experiencing sounds loud enough to damage their hearing. Of course, we have CDs, DVDs, iPods, radios, and televisions. It’s a busy place. There are cell phones and email, but you’ve got to carve out a little silence in your days. If you hunger and you thirst for God . . . if you hunger and thirst ardently, God’s going to show up, and you’re going to have fuel for the journey, fuel for this road trip. He will fuel our relationships, not only with Him but with each other.
As we close, I want us to just look at one little passage of Scripture. In 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, starting with verse 6, the Apostle Paul writes to Christians in Thessalonica, “Now I command you, brothers and sisters, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to stay away from any brother or sister who’s living in idleness and not in accord with the traditions which you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us; we were not idle when we were with you, we did not eat anyone’s food without paying, but we toiled and labored day and night, that we might not burden any of you. It is not that we had not the right, but to give you in our conduct an example to imitate. For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: if anyone will not work, let him not eat. For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. Such persons we command in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to do your work quietly and to earn your own living. Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in well-doing. Do not be weary in good deeds. Now if anyone refuses to obey what we have written in this letter, note that person, and have nothing to do with them. Do not look upon them as an enemy, but warn them as a brother or a sister.”
Now, here’s a difficult passage of Scripture. It’s very controversial. In the aftermath of the Protestant Reformation, Protestant reformers used this passage in 2 Thessalonians to build the whole theology of the Protestant work ethic. In the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, many Christians used this passage as an “apologia,” a defense, for long hours working in factories—“No idleness for us Christians.” But Greek New Testament scholars examining this passage doubt that it has been rightly applied. Does the passage have to do with the work place?
When you look at it contextually, clearly the answer is no. It has to do with the worship place. It’s not about the work place; it’s about the worship place. When Paul says, “Too many people are idle,” he uses the word “ataktos,” which means “disorderly.” It refers to somebody not carrying their weight, someone who’s part of a community but not carrying their weight. They’re just kind of freeloading. When Paul said, “If anyone will not work, let him not eat,” Paul is not talking about government social welfare programs. When Paul says, “If anyone will not work, let him not eat,” Paul is talking about the church. He’s talking about “the agape,” the love feast which they had every week when they had their communal meals. “If someone’s just freeloading, don’t feed them.” He’s talking about the church.
This has always been true in the church for 2,000 years. Some people have a passion for God, the cause of God, and the things of God. Some people just don’t. At this church, we understand that they are seekers and they are searchers. You might need to freeload, and that’s okay. Don’t give. Don’t work. Just listen. Worship. Make a few friends. But if you’re part of the church, if you’ve made a commitment to Christ, you’ve got to have passion. You’ve got to ardently hunger and thirst. We’re called to serve the cause of heaven on earth, and we need to be mobilized together. So, there’s this warning. If we don’t hunger and we don’t thirst, we’re not passionate. We’re just freeloading. God would warn us.
On this journey, it is about relationships. We need fuel. We need fuel every day to fuel our relationships with God and with each other. We need fuel to give us passion for the cause. We’re called to be salt in the corruption, light in the darkness. Nothing is more important. We need Sunday School teachers. We need small group leaders. We need men and women who are willing to take the time to go into the inner city with us and tutor some poor kids. We need men and women who are willing to go overseas and do short-term missions. We need people who will do long-term missions. We need people because we’ve been called to serve eternal purposes. That’s what our journey is about. That’s what this road trip is about. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.