Wednesday, October 30th | Simple Salvation

This episode of Clearview Today is brought to you by Le Bleu Ultra Pure Water.

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Fun fact, no. I have to make my own with McDonald's Sprite, and you guessed it, Texas Pete. I am genuinely horrified to hear that.

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Where's my Mountain Dew? You're listening to Clear View Today with Dr. Abidhan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Ryan Hill. I'm John Galantis. You can find us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com. Or if you have any questions for Dr. Shah or suggestions for new topics, send us a text to 252-582-5028, or you can email us at contact at ClearViewTodayShow.com.

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We're going to leave a couple of links right there in the description, so you can do just that. In the words of Nike, just do it. In the words of my son, daddy's going to jail. Huh? Daddy is going to jail. Oh. I do have to...

I regret to inform everybody that today is my last day here on The Clear View Today set. You are imminently incarcerated. I am going to jail. Have you ever seen those TikToks where people... Sometimes it actually happens where you're being sent to prison, but you have a month or so to go home and get ready and stuff like that.

No. There's a woman on TikTok who did that. She was sentenced to prison, but they gave her two months before she actually had to report to prison.

I've never heard of that. Yeah, yeah. She was making TikToks day 15 before I'm sent to prison.

She was vlogging, drinking coffee on her porch and stuff. It was crazy. That's weird.

Yeah, that is weird. Last week, I told the story about how when I was a teenager, I lit a fire that got out of control. This past weekend, I was helping Gavin... Well, I wasn't helping Gavin. Gavin was really out there with me while I was burning trash. We were burning bank documents, trash, stuff like that. I was teaching him, like, hey, you got to be careful.

You can throw the match in there, but you got to be careful because fire is very, very dangerous. I told him that story. I said, Daddy lit a fire when he was young and it got out of control. He was like, why is that bad? I was like, because it burned up a lot of stuff.

Daddy could have went to jail. Cut to yesterday at Awana. I'm sorry, last week at Awana. He goes to do prayer time and he's with Amanda. I remember this. He's with... Who's in Amanda's group?

I can't remember. Anyway, they're doing the prayer time and they say, Gavin, what would you want to pray for? He says, I want to pray that my daddy won't go to jail.

Amanda justifiably is like, huh? I'm sorry? He's like, I just don't want my daddy to go to jail.

Normally... Kids say all kinds of off-the-wall things that they want to pray for, but when it's persistent, you're like, wait a minute. Well, that's what I was going to say. One thing I like about Amanda is, I would have been like, okay, that's fine. Yeah, that's cute. She was like, what do you mean, Gavin? What do you mean?

Whatever could you mean? He was like, he was starting to clam up. He was like, I just don't want my daddy to go to jail. She was like, okay, we can pray for that. Then she either calls Ellie or finds Ellie in the hallway and is like, hey, Gavin said this in prayer time. I don't know what that means. Ellie, rather than remember our conversation, she was like, I don't know.

I don't know what he could possibly mean. Now there's this mystery where all the teachers are talking to each other. Then Ellie comes home and tells me, and I don't remember. I'm like, why would he say that?

Everybody's going up to Ellie and my condolences. So now it's becoming this church-wide mystery of like, why would Jon be in jail? What did he tell Gavin? And they're like, there's half the camp that's like, no, it's just kids saying silly stuff. And then he's like, I don't know, but he keeps saying that. What do you think that means? So I finally remembered. So I cleared it all up, but man, kids will say the darndest things.

They will. And they have no concept of time. So you said like, when I was younger, this happened and I could have gone to jail. And in Gavin's mind, that's like, there's a warrant. Their police are coming. Hey, you come out here. No, my daddy. Don't take my daddy to jail.

Gavin, poor Gavin. He's so big hearted too. His emotions are right on his sleeve. Have your kids ever said something that you said to them and they said it later, completely out of context? A hundred percent. Really? A hundred percent. Yeah. I mean, I can't think of a particular instance, but there have been several times that I've had to like, go back and like, no, no, that's not what daddy meant.

Let's clarify what daddy meant when he said that. Yeah. Oh, absolutely.

That's crazy, man. They'll, they'll call you out too. And they'll have people wonder.

And then you got to do that embarrassed thing where you're like, um, where you're like trying to struggle with like, no, no, no, no, no. What I meant was, what I meant was this, but it's already out there. Oh yeah. It's already out there.

With as many kids as I have too. Like it's an automatic rumor mill. So like one kid will start it.

And then by the time it gets to the fifth kid, it's blown way out of proportion. It's something that sort of was never originally. Yeah. The whole community knows. Yeah. Crazy. If your kids ever said something and you had to retract a statement or clarify your words, write it and let us know two five two five eight two five zero two eight.

Or you can visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com. Stay tuned. Oh, hold on. We got one more thing. Oh, that's right. The secret word. The secret word. Today's secret word is betwixt. It's a synonym for between that leads. This is my secret word for today.

A synonym for between that lends an old fashioned feel to both speech and writing. So I thought it was like when you were assaulted by a particular candy bar, like, ouch, I've been betwixt. No. So, so this is the secret word.

And what this means is this is a new segment we're doing every single day. We're going to take a word from Merriam Webster's dictionary app, the word of the day, and we're going to try to sneak it into our conversation. Shh. It's a secret word betwixt.

I think you could probably get betwixt because you said it before. We're, we're going to try to sneak it past Dr. Shah to make sure that he doesn't know we're using the secret word. It's just a little bit of word salad, a little funny mystery game. Stay tuned. We'll be back after this. Hey, Ryan. Hey, John. Hey, man. I'm having an awesome time doing the Clearview Today show with you.

Thanks, man. I hope people are having an awesome time listening to it. Well, listen, I think our listeners would actually be interested to know that Clearview Today is not the only podcast we produce. Oh, do go on.

Oh, well, go ahead and stop what you're doing right now. Mosey on over to your podcast app and subscribe to Sermons by Abaddon Shah, Ph.D. As many of you know, Dr. Shah is our lead pastor here at Clearview Church. And every single week he preaches expository messages that challenge and inspire us to live godly lives. One of our core values at Clearview Church is that we're a Bible believing church, which means that every single sermon is coming directly from the text. And it's great because whether you're driving, cleaning the house, working out, whatever you're doing, you're listening and receiving timeless biblical truth. And God works through every sermon differently, which means you're always going to get something new. Sometimes it'll be conviction.

Sometimes it'll be encouragement. That's right. You guys can check out Sermons by Abaddon Shah, Ph.D. on the Apple podcast app. You can find it on our website as well. That's ClearviewBC.org. You can even read the transcripts of every message on Dr. Shah's website. That's AbaddonShah.com. Love it. John, you ready to hop back in? Let's do it. Welcome back to Clearview Today with Dr. Abaddon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com or if you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text to 252-582-5028.

That's right. And we're here once again in the Clearview Today studio with Dr. Abaddon Shah, who's a Ph.D. in New Testament textual criticism. Dr. Shah, I got to let you know, there's been some people praying for me.

Okay. Praying for me in the sense that I won't go to jail, go to prison, particularly my son. You know, the story I told last week about lighting, playing with fire, and we got out of control and all that stuff. Well, I told that story to my son because we were burning trash in the yard and he came here to Clearview and prayed in Awana that I wouldn't go to jail.

Oh boy. And so some of the teachers were understandably concerned. There were some raised eyebrows and they were like, what does that mean, Gavin? And he was like, I just don't want my daddy to go to jail.

Is this a pressing concern? I don't know if he knew. So those teachers went to Ellie and was like, that's funny. I don't understand what he might be talking about. So Ellie came home and questioned Gavin, like, why would you say that in your Awana prayer?

I wasn't involved in any of this. He was like, I don't want daddy to go to jail. He started crying. He's like, I don't want daddy to go to jail. And she was like, why would daddy go to jail?

What do you talk about? She was like, because he lived the fire. And it was like, oh, no way.

If it had gotten out of control, I could go to, I could have gone to jail for that. So we called her, but it was Amanda Reed and some of the other, some of the other Sunday school teachers, other Awana teachers. And we're like, Hey, this is, this is not anything other than he has no, we should have kept our mouth shut. He has no sense of time of when things happen.

So to him, everything is right now. Have your kids, have you ever had a conversation with one of your kids? And then they said something out of context to somebody else that you were like, yeah, I shouldn't have said that.

Uh, not something immediately comes to mind, but yes, I'm sure they, One of the other things I told Ryan this in the intro is that, um, or I may have set it off Mike. I can't remember, but when Gavin was little, I didn't want him drinking soda. I still don't, there was no soda in the house because that's grownup drinks. And I said, do y'all drink soda? And I said, well, he asked, do y'all drink it? I said, yeah, me and mommy drink soda, but it's just grownup drinks. So then he started telling people that daddy drinks grownup drinks. And I remember Ellie was like, why wouldn't you just call it soda?

Why would you call it a grownup drink? And I was like, yeah, that's, it has a very different meaning. It's now when you hear it coming out of someone else's mouth, you're like, Oh, I shouldn't have said, it's just one of those things where kids repeat stuff and you're like, I didn't even consider it would be taking that.

But when I hear a kid say it, it's like, yeah, that was a mistake. Yep. A hundred percent. Your kids are smart. Oh yeah.

They're smart. The verse of the day today is coming to us from John chapter 10, verse 30. I and my father are one powerful words. It's, it's silly to me that people say, Jesus never claimed to be God.

This, this is, what do you call that? I know I say this, I sound like a broken record, but I had no clue the crazy doctrines that were out there until we started talking about it and doing this show. People believe some of the craziest things. There are Christians today who are like, I don't, Jesus isn't God and he never claimed to be. Did you know that this has been about a couple of years ago, a gentleman came to me after church and he's been going to church all his life. I mean, he is a churchman and he comes to me and he says, cause I was preaching on the Trinity. He says, I just want you to know, I'm struggling right now because I thought that God sometimes appears as father.

Sometimes he comes as a son and sometimes as a Holy Spirit. That's modalism, Patrick. I was like, no, that, that, that is not correct.

That is definitely not correct. He's like he's only ever one at a time. Yes. And he comes when he relates, wants to relate to us as a father. Then he does that when he's dying on the cross moment. That's when he becomes a son, but it's like living in our hearts and prompting us and convicting us and encouraging us. That's when he is more like the Holy Spirit.

But is he, I guess that's my thing is like when he's being the father to you, is he being, I need him to be the son for me. Right. Which is fine, which he can do because he can do different things for different people. Okay.

Okay. He's just not ever three in one. Right. Relationally, he is. You can't experience the father and son at the same time. But you could experience the father while I'm simultaneously experiencing the son. That's not a problem.

But the problem is, is he are all three one. And, and you wouldn't, I won't tell who it is. And, but if I told you, you'd be like, really? Can I, can I safely assume that that is straightened out now? Oh, yes.

Straightened out in the sense that this person now has a different attitude towards the preaching and teaching, but it's more of a learning spirit now because it's like, I didn't know that. And if I didn't know that, then I need to learn more. Yeah.

What else don't I know? Yeah. I love that.

And it, it, it was sort of a little bit, not frustrating, but it's more of a scary because I was like, well, am I saved? Good point. And I try to explain to people, it's not what you affirm as much as what you deny. Hmm. Yeah.

That's a great point. Yeah. I love, I love one of the things that we do here at Clearview is we put all of our beliefs, I mean, our, our core beliefs, our core doctrines on our website.

Right. And especially one of the things that I noticed, and I hadn't seen people, I think people do this now, but when I started coming here in 2010, I didn't see this happening a lot in a lot of churches is that you put who is God? What is it exactly we believe about God, which is such a basic thing that churches should, it seems so obvious because people are going to come in with all their preconceptions and all their misconceptions about who God is. So things like that happen where people come in and they're like, oh, of course God is only ever one at a time. And it's like, how did that, I don't want to say get through the cracks, but you know what I mean? Like, how did this happen here when none of us have ever believed that way? And it's very harmful to believe that way.

How did this happen? So I love that we put our beliefs on our website for people to come and actually see. That's right. Yeah.

Yeah. There are people, I know one person who came to the Lord through our new members class. This is years ago. This person had Jehovah's Witness beliefs and didn't know that. I didn't know that. I had never imagined this person would be, would have grown up Jehovah's Witness.

Wow. And I said in the class, so you know, we believe who is Jesus. Jesus is fully God, fully man. And he is God's son and he was always God's son and he will always be God's son. It does not mean that he is subordinate in his essence, but he's subordinate in his function.

Always has been, always will be. It means he always submitted to the father. He submitted to the father when he came and he will always submit to the father because the scripture talks about that. And this person was like, oh, I didn't, I thought God made his son. God made Jesus and sent him in this world to die for us. I was like, no, God did not make him. He was always there.

Well, I grew up hearing that he is a God because the father, God, the one, the true one made him like, no, that's not true. What kind of, what kind of church did you grow up in? Oh, kingdom hall, kingdom hall. What is a kingdom hall?

That's the Jehovah's Witness. Oh, okay. Okay. That's what it is.

That's what they call them. I got you. Okay. Oh, well, of course. Now it all makes sense.

Now I know why you said what you said, right? It's kind of funny because I think with the simplicity of salvation, the simplicity of like how, cause you were saved at four years old. So like how much could you have really truly known about the nature of God? Like, do you remember how your dad and even your mom, like how your parents explained who God was to you? Yes. I mean, they did the best they could, but at four years of age, my understanding was did I understand everything about the penal substitutionary atonement?

Probably not. What I did understand, dad was preaching on the old, on the, on the book of Revelation. He was talking about how Christ is coming back and that he's coming back to take us with him, right?

This is a very basic sermon and that those who know him will join him. And that I even had a dream. I had a dream when, that there was a chariot in front of our house and, and waiting for us to be taken. I told my mom and dad about that dream.

I had a dream about this and this. And then I had a conversation with my mom and I said, you know, is dad going to go to heaven when Jesus comes? And her answer was yes. Is brother going to go to heaven? Are you going to go to heaven? Yes. Can I go to heaven? Well, I don't know. You have to receive Jesus as your savior and you're in your, you know, the Lord in your life and then you can.

Okay with that, I want to. Now, if you tell me that you need to go back to Romans 10, that if you confess with your mouth, the Lord Jesus and believe in the heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. That is the formula.

Well, obviously I didn't do the formula, right? Right. I went more by, I don't want to be left behind when Jesus comes back. So whatever it takes from me to join him is what I want to do, right?

Cause now I'm not only going to be with him, but I'm also going to be with my family. That's, that was the motivation behind it. Right. Does that mean I was lost? Does that mean my faith was put in the wrong confession?

That's what a lot of people will say. Yeah, but I don't, I don't think so because you believed as a four-year-old, you believed that believing in Jesus was the key to doing that. And he himself said it, that's the key to eternal life. Right.

So I think you're, even as a four-year-old you're trusting that. But did I understand that he died on the cross for my sins, that he became my substitute? Right. No, I don't think I really had that concept in mind that he is dying for me. Right. And that his blood is shed.

I mean, that, that, that was not even a part of my vocabulary that his blood is shed for me. Yeah. You've been a pastor for, for 25, going on 30 years. And I know you work with kids and teenagers all the time.

Do you ever see parents gatekeeping their kids' salvation? A hundred percent. For real? Yeah, absolutely. Wow. Absolutely.

Yeah. Parents, I feel like there's this fear, like I don't want to say the wrong thing, or I don't want to lead them to believe that they're saved when they're not actually. So there's just kind of this like, you know, doubting that kids can actually understand the, the depth of scripture, doubting that they can understand what Christ did for them. So there's this, oh, you're not ready for that yet.

Oh, he's not ready for that yet. When your kid understands way more than you think they do, and know they're not going to understand the finer doctrines, like, like we've been talking about here, they're not going to understand penal substitutionary atonement. A lot of adults don't understand. Although I believe penal substitutionary atonement is the heart of Christianity.

Don't misunderstand that. Atonement. You know, people have tried to make atonement many things, like atonement could be a ransom for Satan. Atonement could be a friendship with God. Atonement could be a sense of relationship with Jesus Christ. No, I believe atonement is penal substitutionary that he took the penalty of God's wrath upon himself. That is what, that is the essence of the work of Jesus Christ. But does that mean that that child who's four years old or that adult who is 50 years old, does that mean that that person needs to understand that in order to be saved? No, no, no. That's where we get into trouble when we try to do that because of course they're not going to understand that. Yeah.

Yeah. It almost seems like the heart of the question is what is the minimal level that I need to know? Not even to have a relationship with Jesus, but just to get to heaven. You know what I mean? Like being saved. What is the base minimum? Right, right.

What's the least I have to pay or the least I have to believe to get in? And then I'll learn all that other stuff, which I guess is not that bad of a thing, but it's like at the same time, you know, that desire. And I think that's one of the things that I love to see about adults coming to know the Lord is that there is a desire to start learning and to dive in. Where like with Gavin, like with kids, we had that almost that same thing that you guys were talking about where we were talking to him and he said, you know, well, I go to heaven or I can't remember how he said, do I have Jesus in my heart? And I said, I don't know, buddy, do you, do you want him to be in your heart? And he was like, I do. And I was like, well, then he will be, he will be. And then you can go to heaven.

He was like, that's what I want. And there are people who've said, you know, this whole thing of having Jesus in your heart is this is all wrong. This is not how you do it. Do you not know the passages in the Bible about Jesus being in our heart? I mean, if y'all keep talking, I'll pull this one up here while you're pulling it up. That was one of the things where we, it was just a great conversation.

It wasn't like a, and it, it, even in my, in my heart, and I think in at least two, it started to get that way. Like we look at each other and it's like, does that count? Like, you know what I mean? What do we do?

You guys handle it. I mean, expertly you, you gauge the conversation with what Gavin can understand. And you, you, you asked, asked him questions, answered his questions and kind of let him through that conversation.

Did it arrive at him like kneeling down and praying the sinner's prayer? I don't know, but yeah, it's the beginning of that conversation for sure. Well, cause you, you want so, because you want, I mean, you do want that moment to like be special. It's almost like marked as that's, this is the other half of my life, if that makes sense. Not, not mathematically half, but you know what I'm saying? I was lost in the, so then there's a before and after. So then it's like, well, the little kid's like, well, can I consider you saved? Can I think about you saved now? And it's, it's just one of those things that it just kind of creeps in. You know what I mean? Yeah.

I agree. And you know, we talk about, do you have to ask Jesus into your heart? Do you have to use those words in the prayer? I mean, there's nothing magical about those words, but there should be a prayer. There should be a moment where you can say, Hey, you know, before this, I wasn't, wasn't sure. Now I know because I had a conversation with God or I invited God or took this action step towards God.

And how do you do that other than prayer? This is maybe, maybe this could be kind of cool, Dr. Shaw, because we, we are primarily, this is a, I mean, of course, this is a Christian talk show. We're on Christian radio, but let's just say for the sake of it, that there's someone listening right now. Who's never asked Jesus into their life for whatever reason, they just maybe landed here on the radio or they just checked out this podcast.

What would you say to them? How do you have eternal life? How do you become saved now?

It depends on what age group they are. I hope if it's a little kid, you know, just pray to ask Jesus in your heart. Now somebody may frown at that. I know books are written about it, but here's a verse about Jesus in the heart. Can I at least read that verse before I talk about the other things? All right. So this is Ephesians chapter three, verse 14.

For this reason, I bow my knees to the father of our Lord Jesus Christ from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. That's pretty clear. Yeah.

I thought you were making the point just from dwelling in the inner man, but then it actually says he dwells in your heart. Yeah. There it is.

So I'm like, when people say it's like, stop talking about Jesus coming in your heart. Where do you find that? Right there. He does dwell in your heart. There it is. I find it right there in the Bible.

That's why it says, man, I got the joy, joy, joy, joy. Down in my heart. Where? Down in my heart. Where?

Sorry. It's down in my heart. So what does it mean to be saved? Well, the gospel is given very clearly in 1 Corinthians where it talks about Jesus came and died on the cross for our sins, according to scriptures. He was buried, but he rose again on the third day, according to scriptures and something else there. And he was seen by many. That is the gospel. That is the essence of the gospel.

If you flesh it out, there are certain things begin to stand out. He died on the cross, according to scripture. Why did he die? Well, talk to the Ethiopian eunuch.

He'll tell you because Isaiah talks about that. Okay. So Jesus died on the cross for our sins. He became our substitute.

What do you mean by substitute? He took the penalty of God's wrath upon himself. Why does there need to be a penalty? Because God is holy. And the only way to satisfy God's holiness is through the shedding of the blood. It's kind of cool because all these doctrines start springing up the more you dig into it. Right. The more questions you ask, the more you dive in, then you have all these doctrines coming up.

That's right. So is the shedding of the blood. Without the shedding of the blood, there is no remission of sins.

That is an old principle. That is not something that the council of Nicaea or Constantinople put together. This is going back, right back to the Old Testament. And all the sacrificial system, everything was laid out to be a type of the coming sacrifice of God's son. And he was buried, but on the third day he rose again. And in the rising again, not only does he vindicate the fact that he was the son of God, not only does he prove all the promises and prophecies of scriptures about himself, but he also became a type, a first fruit of what will happen to us one day. We also will die physically. If Christ doesn't return, we will all die. But the promise that is given to us is not that immediately, but one day we will be resurrected. And we will have eternal life. Eternal life is not something that begins after resurrection. Eternal life begins now. That's why the album, Heaven Here and Now, available right now. Christ dwells in your heart now, heaven here now. So heaven has already begun in your heart, but it will become a reality, new heavens and new earth, a real physical new heavens, new earth that God has prepared for us. And that's where we will be with the Lord forever and ever, serving him, glorifying him, all those kinds of things. So that is the whole length and breadth of the gospel.

I mean, it's more than that. And then there are places in the Bible that talks about if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. It's talking to the Jewish people, but still the principle still applies. Right. It's the meta message. It's the meta message and all these other things in the Bible, all these doctrines, all these truths support that message.

Yeah. And repeatedly in scripture, you find whether it's in the Old or the New Testament, people coming to God and saying, God save me. And he saves them. So there's that prayer element that does that. So repent, believe, follow.

Repent is a change of mind. Believe is faith in Christ. Follow is that now everything that I am and I have belongs to Christ. It's a life of submitting to the kingship of Jesus in my heart. Why is he king? Because he is the Messiah.

He is God's anointed king. So how much of all this do you think a four-year-old would understand that I want Jesus in my heart? But if I can explain it to him, whether he's 40 or 14 one day, and he says, I don't believe that. I don't believe in submitting my life to Jesus. Then I have to go, wait. So I'm not sure, buddy, if you're really saved. Let's back up and handle that. Maybe we've been calling it something that it's actually not. Right.

And we need to fix that. So what does it mean to be saved? If at four years old, he says, I want Jesus in my heart, or if at 14, he says, I want Jesus to forgive me of my sins, or at 40, he says, I understand the penal substitution and atonement of Jesus for my sins.

Okay. At different stages. But it's the same gospel. That's right.

That's beautiful. Different stages, same gospel. And hey, if you're listening to the show today and you made that decision for the first time, or if you have questions about making that decision, we want to help you take those next steps in your brand new walk with Jesus. Text into the show and let us know that you've made the decision for Christ today.

2-5-2-5-8-2-5-0-2-8. We want to celebrate with you and point you in the right direction. You can also visit us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com. Don't forget, you can partner with us financially on that same show. Every gift that you get on that same website for that same show, every gift that you give goes not only to building up this radio show, but countless other ministries for the gospel of Jesus.

John, why do you want to plug as we close today? If you're listening today for the first time, Dr. Shaw and his wife, Nicole, have written a 30-day devotional. It's called 30 Days of Praying for America. It's the third in our 30-day series. You can get the entire series on Amazon, and it's available right now. But this one especially is important for the upcoming elections. You can get the entire series on Amazon right now, but this one is especially important with the upcoming elections. It's 30 Days of Praying for America, daily devotions to heal our nation. Also, us as Clearview Church, Clearview Worship have put out our debut album, Heaven Here Now. It's available on iTunes, Spotify, and anywhere you get digital music. We're working on, I said this in that last couple episodes, we're getting closer, working on getting them on CCLI, all those songs, so they can be good resources for you and for your worship ministry.

That's right. Lots of great content coming your way the rest of this week. Make sure you guys tune in. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Clearview Today. Thank you.