Video Transcript: Personal Mission

Well, we want to welcome you back to this course on personal and ministry assessment for  Christian leaders. I'm excited about this particular lesson on the personal mission. And so  what we're going to do here is, we're going to kind of tie up some loose ends, regarding our  previous lectures on divine design and kind of examining some of the sources of divine  design, and it will kind of want to tie kind of knot on all of this by by focusing on a personal  mission. You may be asking, Well, why is this the case? Why? Why are we focusing on  personal mission? You may say, Well, I'm used to discovering a organizational mission, but do  you mean to suggest that I have a personal mission that God has a personal mission for me?  Well, I believe he does. I believe God has a personal mission for for you. And the goal is for  you to take the previous lessons that we have gone over and dealing with your divine design,  and analyzing some of the sources through which you can gain deeper insight into your, your  divine design. And then now turn our attention to where does God want you to deploy? What  does God want you to, to implement or to live out those particular gifts, talents and abilities  as we as we think about Jesus, Jesus kind of encapsulates his, his mission statement with with these words of the Son of Man has come to seek and to say that which is lost. And Jesus  repeatedly throughout the Gospels, especially John's gospel, he constantly refer back to his  father's will only do those things. See my father do I always say those things that I hear my  father say, and it says, I'm only here to do the will of the Father. And so as you think about  again, your your gifts, talents and abilities, it is all about you, fulfilling God's call on your life.  And sometimes we call this call in your life, your mission, what has God commissioned you to  do with your life, particularly as relates to impact in the kingdom of God. And so, we want to  focus our attention in this lesson on understanding in a deeper way, about your personal  mission. And I just want you to know that during this lesson, I'm going to be drawing heavily  from the work of a Christian. His name is Richard Bolles. And Richard Bolles has written this  incredible book. Now, this book is called What Color is Your Parachute? We use this book a lot  in the context of my work with the the DeVos Leadership Initiative as we, again, remember,  we are an organization that helps equip urban youth workers around the nation. This  incredible book has been used by us for going on 20 years. And what's interesting about this  book is that when it was first, when it was first printed, it was first printed in 1970. Now, you  heard me correctly, I said 1970. And it gets reprinted and has been reprinted since 1970,  every year, even to this date. So from 1970 to 2018. I'll let you do the math to come to terms  with the reality of how long this book has been around. Now Richard Bolles is the he's now  deceased, the data and not too long ago at the ripe old age of a think about 93 years old. This book was his is probably the definitive book on on career planning, job hunting and things you need to do on becoming adept at getting a job. But But the interesting thing about this is that  Richard Bolles approached this from a distinctive Christian perspective. And he has this  incredible section that is now placed in the appendix of the book, where he talks about how  you you find your mission. And so again, I'm going to be drawing heavily from this work from  this book, and talking about how do you now in light of the gifts, talents and abilities, how do I put this into practice in real time in real life, and what is God's personal mission for my life?  And so I want to begin by asking the question for you How Have you? Have you ever written a personal mission statement? Now, if you're like most of the folks that come through the  program that I helped lead and have. I'm a part of the DeVos urban Leadership Initiative.  Again, if you're like most folks who come through our training program, they've never written  a personal mission statement. And to be honest, before I went through this program, I had  never written a personal mission statement, the concept was rather foreign to me. Now, when I came through the DeVos, urban Leadership Initiative, I was the executive director of No, I  take that I was, I haven't quite moved to the director's position yet, but I was the principal of  an urban Christian School in Birmingham, Alabama. And I had never written a personal  mission statement. Again, the idea was rather foreign to me. Of course, I've written and  participating in crafting a vision statement and a mission statement organizationally, and I'm  sure, you could perhaps say the same thing as well, if you've been a part of an organization  and a part of a church, almost every church has a mission statement, vision statement, every  nonprofit organization has a mission statement or vision statement, or both. And, and, and  without fail, almost every company, every major corporation has a mission statement that 

kind of grounds them that gives them a sense of direction, a sense of purpose, and it gives  them my sense of identity, this is who we are now, this this would never come, come Come  with me and and look at this. This, the computer on this table, as you can will see it was made by Apple, and was Steve Jobs and his partner created Apple, their original mission statement  had nothing to do with computers. Their original mission statement was change the world. Or  rebel really had nothing to do with the computer was incidental. And if you maybe you drive a BMW, you know that the mission statement, the tagline of the brand is that is the ultimate  driving machine. They're about creating driving experiences that are ultimate. And that has  that informs how they create cars, because they want you to have the ultimate driving  experience. It's their mission. So so all companies and organizations have mission statements, the question that I've asked you, have you ever written a mission statement? For your life?  Think about it. Maybe you have. So as we begin, again, to get you to reflect on a couple of  questions, the first question being why is it important for you to have the whole picture of  who you are? at your best? Why is it important? Just think about that? Why is it important for  you to have the whole picture of who you are at your best? If I could answer the question, I  think it's like BMW and others, it gives you a sense of, of who you are, it gives you the  capacity of knowing what to say yes, to what to say no to, and it provides you with clear, clear cut directions, what I what I see the whole picture of who I am at my best. I know what I'm  supposed to be doing. But also understand when I'm not supposed to be doing. So it gives me a sense of knowing what to say yes to and what to say no to. So. So it's important for us to  have the whole picture, have a big picture about who we are as individuals. Then here's  another reflection question what problems might be caused by having a confused or false  perception of who you are? Well, I alluded to it a second ago. Well, you have a false sense of  of who you are, you may end up doing things that really don't come in line with who you are.  You end up saying yes to the wrong things. You end up finding yourself being pulled here and  there. Because you you you because as we say in the south, you become the jack of all trades and the master of none. You have your hands in a lot of every different things but they but no, we'll send As a focus or purpose on any one thing, you find yourself doing this and then the  next month you're over here doing bad and, and just just lot of confusion. Those are some of  the problems when you have a false sense, a false perception of who you are. So so for me  and knowing who I am again, I know what to say yes to? And what to say no to. So it's real  important. So a couple of thoughts to ground this lesson. Number one, a personal mission  statement can help you understand your calling more clearly, and increase your confidece in it. Now, you may be wondering, well, what's your mission statement? Do you have one? Do  you have a clearer understanding of who you are? And have confidence in it? Yes, I do. I like  to pray my mission statement is the my mission in life is to help others to grow intellectually,  and spiritually. That's it. My goal is to provide opportunities for others to grow intellectually  and spiritually, which is one of the reasons why I'm standing behind this camera talking to  you right now. Because I am passionate about providing opportunities for you to grow  intellectually, and spiritually. Now, I do that in a lot of different spaces, to be sure, but I've  never confused about what I'm doing. And what I'm called to do, I have a good sense, this is  my mission. I understand my calling clearly. And again, it keeps me from getting distracted. It  also keeps me focused so that my energy doesn't get depleted. In areas where I'm not all that good. It allows me the liberty and the freedom. Think about this I have a fence in my  backyard. And before I had my fence up, whenever I would let my kids go outside and play, I  was either watching from the window, or I was sitting outside with him. But then I put a fence  up. And I could let my kids go in the backyard. And they will have the liberty to run around the entire yard. And I didn't have to worry about them going too far, straying too far. And getting  into the road and the possibility of getting hit by a car. What the fences provided, yes, they  provided boundaries, but they also provided liberty and freedom as well. So what a personal  mission statement does a personal mission statement also serves as a boundary marker. It  gives you a clear sense of where your freedoms are at their best. So I don't know about you  going across a bridge with railings is a blessing for me. You're not going to get me to drive  across a bridge, a body of water without any railings over it. I'm just not going to do apt is not going to trust you may be a lot more. You may be a lot more courageous than me but but for 

me, the railings provide the freedom to go across the body of water. So the mission statement again it's like the railings going across the bridge to provide me the freedom to get over to  the other side. So having a personal mission statement helps me to understand my calling  more clearly. And an increase my confidence in it. Those railings going across that bridge  again gives me confidence to go across it and to get over to the other side. Now in his book,  What Color is your Parachute, Richard Bolles unpacks missions in a three fold way. And I want  to show you these real quick and then we'll unpack them sequentially So first of all, as  Richard Bolles in his book talks about mission, the threefold mission that you and I all have.  The first mission being is to know God, to know God and to enjoy him forever and to see his  hand in all his work. That's the first mission. Second mission rituals talks about in his book is  that that you're not are to do what we can, moment by moment, day by day, step by step to  make this world a better place, following the leading and guidance of God's Spirit, within you  and around you. And then, thirdly, as as Richard Richard Bolles understands mission and how  it unfolds, he says, The third aspect of mission is to exercise the talent that you particularly  came to earth to use your greatest gift, which you most delight in using in the place, or  places, or settings that God has called to appeal to you the most. And for those purposes that  God most needs to have done in the world. Now, we're going to, we're going to unpack these  one by one. So if you're ready, let's let's get at it. Let's let's go back and, and examine these  sequentially. But But But as always, there's always something that I miss and forget that we  got to talk about. But before we do that, let's look at this bowl says that none of these three  missions are limited by circumstances, reflecting regularly on all three is essential, is  essential. To understand our calling will clearly and to increase our confidence. In other words, none of these are limited by our circumstances, it is important for us to periodically take time  out to reflect all these three missions, and it's vitally important for us to do that. So as we  launch into that, I just want to kind of add this caveat, is to pause and to say that, hey, we  need to reflect regularly, regularly on these callings that we have. And again, we'll unpack  these in more detail sequentially in just a second as we transition to this next slide. So so as  we think about now remember, Richard Bolles says that our first mission is to know God, to  enjoy him forever, and to see his hand at work in his hand in all his work. Well, it does beg the question, how does this happen? How do we come to know God? And as Richard Bolles  envision this, he says that this is a mission, that all humanity has in common, and that is to  know God. Ultimately, God desires to reveal himself. And the scriptures does say that God has has has the what we know God is in many ways. In creation, Psalm 119, says, The heavens  declare the glory of God. So so so there's a sense that we we have a sense that there's a God  exists and then Paul on packs that also in Romans chapter one. And then then Paul, also in his exposition in the book of Romans, as he brings the Gentiles and the Jews, a bring both groups, and makes it clear that all are in need of salvation, as no group has an advantage over  another. He says, we're all guilty before the foundation of God. So so how do we come to this  intimate knowledge of God? If we have some sense of God, in our conscious if we have a  sense of God in creation? And if we have a sense of, of God, and how he has ordered things?  Well, how do we come to know God? It's interesting, the word no, it is more of an intimate  word is not to become aware of God is to know God is not to know about God, which is what  we learned through creation. We learned about God. But we don't know God intimately. And in Christian theology, the way that happens is that in order for us to know God, and in order to  enjoy him forever, and to truly see his hand at report is that we have to play by faith in the  finished work of Christ. Truly knowing God, in a Biblical sense is coming to know Jesus Christ.  When we repent of our sins and place our faith, our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how  we come to know God, we moved, we transition from knowing about God to knowing God,  personally, because apart from Jesus Christ, apart from Jesus Christ, there's no way to know  God, Jesus Christ is God's ultimate self disclosure. God stepped out of heaven, took on the  form of a man came to this earth lived among us, suffered among us, died among us, rose  from the dead, send it back to heaven. And he's now seated at the right hand of the Father,  where He ever lives, according to Hebrews to make intercession on our behalf. So Richard  Bolles says that the goal of humanity is to come to know God, and the only way you do that  according to scripture is through the Lord Jesus Christ. And I trust it of you watching me that 

you have already come to this saving grace, full knowledge of God, through the person of  Jesus Christ. And it is also while we have a mandate in Scripture, to go into all the world, to  make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy  Spirit. So God desire is not only just we come to know him, but but but but what we call the  the great mandate, the great mandate of the Great Commission, to go out and share the  gospel is so that other men, women, boys and girls come to know God, this is the first mission that we have is knowing God, the second mission. And I really like what both says, your  second mission is to do what you can, you and me do what we can. And then implies that  there's something that you can do, there are certain things within your sphere of influence,  there are certain things that you can do. So you can't cop out and say, there's nothing that I  can do. But both says, there are some things that you can do, moment by moment, day by  day, step by step to do what to make this world a better place, following the leading and  guidance of God's Spirit within you, and around you. Bolles said that this is another aspect of  mission that is shared by by all humanity is that we, once we come to know, Christ, the same  goal applies is that we that God desires for us, moment by moment, to make this world a  better place. And what I don't want you to become overwhelmed is while I'm just one person,  how can I change the world? How can I make the world a better place? Moment by moment,  day by day? How can I do that? How can I make this weapon cause all problems around? What can move me do? What can one person do? The world is a big place. You absolutely right?  We'll just start where you are. Start with the world that is around you. Start with the world of  your home. Start with the world of your neighborhood, your community. Start with the world  or the relationships that God has placed around you begin influencing and impacting that  world. You may not ever become a quote unquote, world changer on a macro level. But you  certainly can become a world changer on a micro level. Level. You may not ever become Billy  Graham, or some of the other great evangelists that have have dotted the Earth does not  necessarily call you to be the Apostle Paul or the great missionary or the Billy Sunday's of the  world or, or some of the other great evangelists who may not be calling you become DL  Moody or against or some other great theological figure he may not be calling you to become  Martin Luther or John Calvin, or or any of the great reformers. Yes, those guys impact they  weren't trying to when they set out doing what they were trying to do, they were not really  trying to change the world on a macro level. When Martin Luther hammered those 95 Theses  on the of the castle in Wittenberg he wasn't trying to change the whole world. He didn't have  a reformation in mind. Just trying to change the little world that he is he was a theologian in  Germany and impacting the church where he was. It turned into a macro world impacting  thing that he did. But that's not what he was trying to do. So second mission to do what you  can. And as those expressed to you certainly can, day by day, bring more love, more  forgiveness, you can bring more gratitude, you can bring more peace, you can bring more  tranquility, when you're on the highway driving down that road, and you see someone needs  to cut in pieces you have a decision to make at that moment, you can either bring more  harmony or disharmony in the world by either backing off and letting that person get in front  of you. Or you can speed up and try to keep the person and potentially run the risk. In our  culture in America, I haven't incident a roll rate. You could, at that moment, choose your  mission, to bring more peace, to bring more tranquility into the world by simply making the  decision under the leading of God's Spirit, that I'm going to do what I can moment by moment to make this world a better place. You could bring more forgiveness into your home, more  love and peace into your home and your relationships with your children and with your your  your your spouse, or with the church community that you fellowship with and that the  neighborhood that you live, those that you interact with. That's what he's talking about here,  moment by moment, day by day, in your interactions with other people that you come in  contact with. Are you making it a better place? Are you being toxic? Or are you contributing to all of the the filth and the toxicity that fills the air both says that's our mission, God desires for you to make a difference that way. And it could be that your small macro, your macro way of  making the world a better place could turn into something on a macro level. But just start  where you are making a difference in the lives of people around you. And then thirdly, Bolles  says that we are to exercise the talent that you particularly came to earth to use your 

greatest gift which you delight in the most of us in the places and settings that God has called to appeal to you the most, and for the purposes that God most needs to have done in this  world. Now, here's where Bolles kind of transitions a little bit and say this is where you and I  are different than unique. In the first two missions, we share some commonalities in in  bringing greater peace, love joy and into the world and getting to know God. But then this  kind of harkens back to Psalm 139:14, that God says I'm created in the image of God and I  share that with all humanity. The first two missions we share with all humanity. But then David says I am uniquely created by you, which means that I've been marked out in some special  way that I have certain gifts, talents and abilities. And remember, David had specific gifts,  talents and abilities that allowed him to again, be a great administrator, a great musician, and a great warrior. He had those unique giftings and we are benefactors of that week, we read  the scriptures and we we are able to glean from David's life and learn from from what he was  able to do, to use an exercise the talent that you came to this earth to use, I think about again with the great reformers in the great minds of the gods like Luther, with all his foibles and all  his shortcomings. Even John Calvin, these great thinkers, these great minds of the Christian  faith of the Reformation, God like like Augustine, these giants of intellectual, these intellectual giants, these guys use their their minds the greatest talent and greatest abilities and then you have others who were great preachers great. exhorters Didn't you have Christians who were  like, like, like mud like, like Rich DeVos who the late Richard DeVos who who, who the  organization that that worked for, he had a gift for to making money and to use that gift to to  advance so he was different in the US. He was an evangelist in his own right but but his  passion his Quest was God used his ability To make money to he came to this earth and most  delighted using providing opportunities for people to, to have employment will provide  opportunities for people to grow and to develop. And he did that in the business sense. God  calls him that was an appeal for him, he always wanted to be in business is his story. Well, I've never really wanted to be in business that really doesn't appeal to me. I'm not an  entrepreneur, there are a lot of entrepreneurs out there. The reason why we have Apple  product is because guys like Bill Gates, and and I can't believe I'm forgetting the Apple guy  now. So Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs. Yeah, there it is. So Steve Jobs, these guys, even though  they may not have been given credit to God, their talents and abilities were used to create  and they were different, and they were unique. So I didn't want to challenge you to take the  talent and gives them abilities that you came to this earth with them. It doesn't matter where  you are, it doesn't matter what country you live in. It doesn't matter what resources you have  around you. I want to encourage you to use the talents, gifts and abilities, right where you  are, why where you are, and then what God moves, what God do something miraculous,  where you take the initiative to use the gifts, talents, and abilities that he has entrusted to  you, that he has bestowed upon you, to bring to bring blessings to other people. Now, one  thing to remember, as we talk about mission is that you can look toward in your  understanding of it, you can grow in your mission. And so as we revisit these three missions,  under the rubric of maturing them, I want to make some some key points about this is that to  know God and to enjoy him forever. That's our first mission, remember, and to see his hand at work, is to understand is the admission, what God has called us to do, doesn't change but our  understanding and growth, we do understand it. Because once you first come to faith in  Christ, your baby in Christ, and there's a lot you don't know. But as you become more mature  in Christ, as you become the walk with sanctification begins to live out in your life, you begin  to understand what God has called you. Because in many respects, when you first start out is  kind of trial and error. You're trying to figure things out you in this new relationship, you don't  know what things mean. It's kind of like being married, no. Marriage married 20 years now.  And trust me, my understanding of my wife and my relationship with her has my  understanding of it has grown and has deepened in the last 20 years, I'm way further down  the road in understanding about marriage and what it means to have a marriage and what  makes a marriage 29 years after the fact that I was when I first started 29 years ago, I was  green. And he I didn't know, but marriage had changed, my understanding of it has changed.  And the same thing applies to our missions. They don't they don't change. So my  understanding of who God is, have glows and enjoy him more now than I did when I first came

to faith in Christ. I know more about God now than obviously did when I first came to faith in  Christ. And again, that's why the Bible says that we go from faith to faith and from glory to  glory, so So you shouldn't be the same person spiritually. You were last year you should be  growing in your knowledge and understanding of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, in order to do  that, you have to, you have to, you have to have some spiritual disciplines in your life. And  you have to make some things, some priorities in your life. You got to you have to stop  spending so much time that will detract you from being and spending time with God. And let  those things go. Because there's no way you're going to go grow in your understanding of  who God is and his mission, and being able to enjoy Him and to see his hands at work in all  things. If your knowledge is the same as it was when you first became a believer. You got to  grow in your understanding that mission doesn't change. As our roles or settings change the  way we express our mission may stay the same. They may shift or expand. I've been in  different roles in my life, but button, but knowing more about God remains the same. I don't  care whether I've been a school teacher, I've been a shoe salesman, whether I have been a,  an executive director, or being a facilitator or workshop, or even standing in front of you right  now, in this unique role, that hadn't changed. The goal is to know God, I want to know him  more, I want to love Him more. So it doesn't matter. The setting the situation doesn't change.  The quest is to mature and my understanding of God. And then again, as a relates to the  second mission, as we mature, in our second mission, have a moment by moment making this world a better place. The thing to remember here is that our mission is a process. I've already  alluded to that more than one time that our mission is a process that is ongoing, this mission  of making the world a better place. Again, you you're constantly moving is a decision every  day, in order to fulfill this mission to do what you can as a process. You do this every day you  do a little everyday you do what you can, on a day to day basis, step by step, in order to  make this world a better place is a process. And then our mission becomes clearer over time  as we implement it. The more we put this into practice, the clearer it becomes Yes, is what  God is asking me to do. To make the world a better place. You think about the the benefit that  comes when you moment by moment. Moment by moment, day by day, seek to make the  world a better place, it becomes clearer to you, it becomes clearer. And as you put this into  practice. This also helps you to become sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit, you become more skilled and adept at hearing and following the leading of the Holy Spirit in your life,  when you understand this mission when you put these things in to practice, and then our  missions context is enhanced when we see it through different perspectives. And so when you think about understanding the different roles that God placed you in being able to see this  from different perspectives of walking day by day, making the world a better place, our  missions context is enhanced, it becomes more alive when we see it through different  perspectives. Now, finally, as we think about our third mission, again, of, of using our talents,  and I'm kind of paraphrasing here, you can see this on the board. But as we paraphrase, using our gifts, talents and abilities in specific places, and roles that God would have us and use and use those gifts that God expects us to do that, the more we begin to see ourselves as God  sees us, the more we know his role for us. And so the idea here is is seeing ourselves through  the eyes of God, what has God called me to do? What has God gifted me to do? So in order to  really have a tour, and understanding what my gifts, talents and abilities are, I need to see it  more and more through the lens of Scripture. That's what this is saying the more we begin to  see ourselves, the more we know his role for us and be more confident and assured of that  role. So now, what have we learn as we bring this lesson on? personal mission to summation.  Well, number one, understanding our personal mission gives meaning to life. And I can testify  to the fact that my personal mission, nor what my personal mission is, has definitely helped to enhance not only my understanding of life, but it has given me a greater sense of meaning to  life. I look forward to each day. Because I understand what my mission is, I have a greater  sense of purpose in life. And understanding my personal mission gives meaning to my life is  not aimless, life is just not, I don't just go through life without a sense of awareness of who I  am and what God has created and called me to be. So having a sense of mission. Having a  recognition that there's a that a mission or exists in that one day, I'm going to have to give an account to him. It certainly causes some trepidation as well because I know that I'm going to 

have to give an account to God one day and the same thing applies to you. You are going to  have to get in account to God. But when you understand what your mission is in life, your  personal mission, it helps to give meaning to life. You do know one of the one of the greatest  questions that that exists is why am I here? In fact, there are three big questions of life.  Where does that come from? Why am I here? And where am I going? Every human being  desires? No, they may articulate them in different ways. But those are the three grand  questions. Where did that come from? Origin? Why am I here? Purpose? Where am I going?  Destiny? Those are the three big questions. Well, when you understand what your purpose is,  it helps to do that. Now, thoroughly understanding our personal mission is like a compass. It's  like a true north. It provides direction in life. And as I said earlier, it allows you the capacity to  be able to say no to certain things, while being able to say yes, to certain things. So I know,  as I have matured in my mission, it has allowed me to be able to say yes, to things and to say no to things. And I just want to say that if you don't have a clear understanding of what your  mission is, someone else would try to accommodate you in telling you what that is. And so  I've been able to drown out all of the voices of people trying to tell me what I need to do in  life, because the people had their way. If people have their way, I would have been pastoring  a church years ago, and I would have since been out of ministry, because I will not only have  destroyed myself, I will have destroyed the flock that I would have been leading. And the  reason is, is that God has not called me to pastor a church, at least not at this stage in my  life. And nor did he call me the pastor one back then. But people assume that just because  they saw me with this gift of being able to stand before people when proclaim the Word of  God, that that that was next step for me that you're supposed to be a pastor. Well, the  kingdom of God is bigger than pastoring. And if you've never heard that before, I want to echo I want to put that into your hearing right now, the kingdom of God is bigger than just  pastoring. That it could be the God may be calling you to something else. And that may or  may not be passing. But the point that I wanted to make is that understanding your mission is like a compass. It provides you with direction in life, it gives you a sense of what you're  supposed to do, and where you are supposed to do it. Now. And then finally, ultimately, our  mission is not about us. If you don't remember anything else on this list, remember this one,  ultimately, our mission isn't not about us, we would not have a mission, if there was not a  missioner. God is the ultimate missioner. We have a mission because God exists. And God is  the one that gives us the mission. So our mission is not about us. That is made clear  throughout Scripture. The mission of God is what's most important, the mission of God, it  what is revealed from Genesis, all the way to Revelation, from the call of Abraham, all the way to the from, from the from the call of Abraham to the call of the nation of Israel. You name all  the way through the Bible, it is about the call of God, the mission of God, God is on mission.  And he allows us to participate in that mission. Don't ever forget that. God is the one with the  mission. He just allows us to participate in the mission. And now finally, I want to close our  time out on a personal mission. And I pray that this has been an enriching time for you. And I  really want to encourage you, again to dig into the additional readings. I've done this  periodically along the way with some of these lectures to really admonish you to really dig  into the supplemental readings for for these lessons so that you gain greater insight we can  only cover so much in a video lecture. And so I just want to admonish and to encourage you  to take time to spend additional time delving into the resources that are part of this particular  lesson. So lectures and we That's our pray for us now and bring this particular lesson to a  close. Father again, we thank you and we praise You for our time together. And Lord, help us  never to forget that you are the missioner we are those on mission. We are on mission, all  because you are the grand missioner and you allow us to participate in your grand plan of  salvation for humanity. Again, we thank you and again we praise you in Jesus name