Well. Good morning. Morning. Oh, yes, good. When I said that at 830, I just got blank stares back at me. So glad to see that some of you are alive and with us today. So, you know, this is a special weekend. We get to come to church. It kicks off the summer. But also, tomorrow is the day that we remember those who gave their lives who gave their all for our freedom. And we don't need to take that lightly. It's a big deal. I know if I was to look through my family lineage, we had people in World War One, World War Two, and several other wars that gave their life. And I know many of you do. And so, we just need to say thank you. We need to remember those that paid the ultimate price. Don't know how many of you know, but our flagpole out this way near the front is there in honor of Jacob Dennis, who was one of our young men who served in the service and gave his life about 12 years ago. And so, we've got that up there to honor him. But we just need to thank God for those who have served in our military and who those who gave their all for us. So just, you know, just take time today, tomorrow, just to thank God for what they have done for us. And as we celebrate, you know, it is a holiday weekend and well, Pastor Matt's on vacation and Pastor Marty's on vacation and Pastor Carey's on vacation. And Pastor Chip's on vacation, so you get me. But since I couldn't go on vacation, I dressed like I was on vacation at the beach And so let's have fun today. Let's think about, hey, we may be here in the house of the Lord worshiping. They're out there in the world somewhere, not just joking. They're probably watching it online. But, you know, it's all about what we let in our minds and how we approach life. And, you know, life can be fun, but it is difficult. Well, we think of some of our military, but this is not just solely military. Is that we have a lot of people who deal with PTSD, post-traumatic stress syndrome. And it doesn't matter if it was military or whatever else it was. I'm sure there are numerous people in Texas this week who are really struggling with the PTSD and things like that. 

And so, I just want to speak to us today on stress. Stressors, anxiety, worries, doubts and things like that, you know. Most of you know me as the pastor over our missions here, but I also spend about 60% of my time doing counseling, meeting with folks, helping them walk through their struggles, anxiety, stress, whether that's relationships, whether that's job, no matter what it is. I get the opportunity to visit with a lot of you, and I'm thankful for that. But I want to kind of look at that idea today. And so, when I started thinking about stress and stress management and how do we manage it? So, I did, like many of us, I went to Mr. Google and said, Mr. Google, I'm looking for articles on stress management. You know how many showed up? 1.2 billion. That was stressful. I was looking for three or four. And there's one point to be and how do I know which one to read? How do I know which one is telling me the truth? And I'm just overloaded with dealing with it when I'm trying to figure it out. And I think part of our problem is we try to manage stress from a wrong perspective. Maybe it wasn't meant to be managed at all. 

Researching a little bit this week, 77% of people regularly experience stress Almost 80% of you. So, if we looked around the room, eight out of every ten of you sitting on your row are dealing with stress and anxiety and worry and fears and doubts and all the things that come our way. Matter of fact, 48% of you had a hard time sleeping last night. 48% have difficulty sleeping. In 2020, stress factors in people's lives. I don't know how they measure this but went up 67% We all are just surrounded by the stress. The. You know. And then this week we get hit with the atrocities in Texas. And our hearts break for that. And then those who kind of keep up with it. Some of the other national news, the Southern Baptist Convention puts out this report that there's been all kind of immorality and things going on in some of the leadership. And it started calling names. And that's become stressful, especially for those of us who are Southern Baptists and pastors in the Southern Baptist Convention. And you start stressing out over that and worries and fears. You know, matter of fact, when our read some of it this week, I thought, man, I just need to quit And then I realized God didn't call me to quit. He called me to stand in the midst of the storms. And we all have storms that come our way. Every day there's a stressor that comes our way. So, it's not really a matter of are you going to experience stress as you are experiencing stress. Stress was defined by one book this way, fearful concerns experienced. Fearful concerns experience when life's demands seem greater than my ability to meet them. Fearful concerns experienced when life's demands seem greater than my ability to meet them. And part of the problem with that is we can't keep the stressors from coming, but we try to manage them and handle them. And maybe, as I said before, we weren't meant to. Maybe our expectations are wrong. Sometimes we have these expectations, and then when life doesn't meet those expectations, it causes chaos and strife and struggles in our life, which gives route to just being stressed out and anxiety and worry and fears and doubts and things like that. 

And that's not what we're called to do. Matter of fact, in Ephesians chapter five, verse one, it says, Be Imitators of God, therefore is dearly loved children and live a life of love. Just as Christ loved us. He gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. So, we're called to be imitators of God. Imitators of Christ So I asked myself, and I'll ask you how many of you want to be like Jesus? And maybe you want to be like Jesus? OK. A lot of hands going up. Caution, maybe what you just said you want to be like is not what you really think. It's what you want to be like. See, because I'm convinced that most of us have this idea that if I'm being like, Jesus, everything is easy. Everything is calm. Stresses go away. Fears go away. No doubts. None of this stuff is happening. And we just cruise through life. So, if I ask the question, do you want to really be like, Jesus? Let me give you seven points, and then we'll ask the question again. 

Point number one, Do you want to spend 40 days in prayer and fasting? Because that's what Jesus did. He wouldn't spend 40 days. Most of us, we're good if we give you 5 minutes over the meal and driving to work or whatever And Jesus set aside huge blocks of time just to be with the Father. Tough stuff in a busy crazy world we live in. It's to set aside and get away. Do you really want to be like Jesus? Spent 40 days fasting and praying. Number two. Do you really want an agonizing Gethsemane experience? Because remember Jesus knew that he was about to die and he's in the garden of Gethsemane, and he's sweating blood. He's worried, he's fearful. He's doubtful. And he's crying out to God, God let this cup pass before me. I don't want to do this. And then he follows up. But let your will be done. Not mine. So, he surrendered to God. But man, he was so agonized and come over with grief and doubts and all these things that his whole body was affected and his mental capacity was affected even to the point where he was sweating blood. He was so overcome by the stresses and anxieties Number three, if you want to be like Jesus, are you willing to have a Judas in your life? Somebody that you hung out with. Your friends with, and they stab you in the back? Somebody you work with, a family member, a friend, a spouse, a kid, and they let you down and everything you've tried to teach them, they just let you down and stab you in the back and throw you under the bus. All those metaphors that we use because Jesus did. He spent three years with Judas and Jesus still didn't get it and turned him in and betrayed him Most of us don't sign up to have a betrayer in our life. Do you want a Doubting Thomas in your life? Somebody again, he hung out with and over and over, Thomas says, Yeah, but, well, what about this? Can you show me? And he's doubting everything. Jesus is telling him. But Thomas was just inquisitive. He needed more information sometimes, but I can understand it. You've probably been this way, too. When you think you've explained everything perfect, and that one person says Well, yeah, but. Well, what about. And they just start in on this stuff, and you're going ughhh. Did you not just hear what I said? It starts creating anxiety in us. Jesus had that with Thomas. Number five. Do you want a friend who he spent over three years with by your side to say, I never knew you? Because that's what Peter did after they have been through all of this stuff and they arrest Jesus and Peter goes off and he's standing there next to the fire, and the people in the city are talking and they say, you, you were with that man. You know him, not me. I know I've never met him. Do you want your friends to abandon you like that? That's what Jesus did. Number six, do you want God to dissolve your social life? Oh, hey, wait a minute. Now you're getting too close to home. But he dissolved his life, that Jesus was so on board with doing what God called him to do, that social life wasn't an issue. Matter of fact, people either wanted to consume all of his time or they wanted to throw rocks at him. In essence, he had no social life. He had no time for himself. Number seven, do you want no place to lay your head? Jesus didn't have a home. He just went about doing the father's business. And God provided for him with a place to rest his head. Something to wear, something to eat. So, do you really want to be like Jesus? 

You want all this stuff in your life? Because Jesus went through every part of humanity that we go through. So, we have this idea in our mind. Or we have a tendency to picture Jesus is that we look at it through a pre. I mean, through a post resurrection. In other words, once Jesus died, rose, we see Jesus in his divineness. Now that He was the Son of God, the disciples, even though Jesus was trying to tell him, saw Him as a real human being and as a real human being, He faced everything you and I face, everything they face, the stresses, the struggles, the strains of the world. We have a tendency nowadays because we know that he rose from the dead and he's going to sit by the father on our behalf. And prepare the place for it. We see him in this great divine place, but he had to be like us before he could go there so he could relate And so being like Jesus is, there for then, a life with a lot of stress and strain and troubles and we have this tendency to think that if those come up, I've done something wrong, something's going bad, I'm being punished, and all these things and actually it's an opportunity to be like, Jesus, and we struggle with these things, these stressors in life that come our way. And the world tells us to live this way. And God says, Live this way, and they collide and don't make any sense to us because they are complete opposites. 

Look, this is God's word. It's truth, every bit of it. Now we can sit here and have some classes on defending this and helping you understand why we believe this is the word of God without error. I don't have time to go through that today, but just going to assume that most of you, if not all of you, agree with me that this is the truth If it's the truth, then we are called to choose to believe it. If it's truth, then you believe it. If you choose to believe it, you are held responsible to your actions and your behavior in alignment with the truth and what you believe and then your feelings come into that afterwards. So, it's truth, believe, behavior feelings. If you ever hang out with me, you're going to hear me teach this all the time. It's ingrained into me that we're to live, know the truth, live by the truth, change our actions to it, and our feelings come around to it. Here's what the world and Satan, our adversary, says to do You feel it. You change your behavior to your feeling. You start believing it. And you call it truth. Feel it. Change your behavior. Start believing it and call it truth. That is direct opposition to God saying it's truth. You believe it. Your behavior. And then your feelings will come to it. So, we live in a world, and we do not know where else to live. But this this is made out of dirt, is going to return to dirt. And our enemy is shooting the arrows at us to get us to live off of our senses. Sight, sound, smell. And when we feel bad, when something hurts, our feeler becomes king. And we start living by our feelings. Now feelings are real. I'm not here to deny your feelings. They're real. But they are rarely truth. And they're real. But they're not truth. And when we start living by the feeler, instead of by the truth, then we give a place for these stressors in the stress and anxiety of the world to encompass us and just entrap us and hold us in bondage. And then when we get in this bondage, if things aren't going right, then we start blaming ourselves. I didn't do something right God hates me. I'm being punished. Are all these things that start just encompassing us and hold us in bondage which is based off of a lie that you should live by your feeler instead of living by the truth and your feeler will catch up to it. John 10:10 says it this way The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy. But I have come that you may have life and have it more abundantly. So, we all know that we have an enemy and an adversary out there trying to pull us down. We know it, but we forget it because our feeler gets touched and then we start working out of the feeler instead of the truth. And we easily are entrapped through the Proverbs 12:25 says An anxious heart weighs down a man. 

When we allow the fears and the anxieties of this world to start weighing us down, we start bogging down. And we start down the endless bottomless pit I'm going to give you this illustration. When you were not a follower of Jesus. Christ. You're on this path of life. The enemy is happy with you to be on this path of life. He just doesn't want you to know Jesus and change paths. But the Holy Spirit came to your life and prompted you that you needed a savior You needed to be saved. You needed to give your life to him. So, you say some kind of simple prayer. Lord, I'm a sinner. Please come into my life. I know you died on the cross for me. I choose from this day forward to live for you. And when you open your eyes from that prayer, you're now on this path of life. Like, wow. Who and you look down and there's this bright red, shiny wheelbarrow? God gave me a wheelbarrow for my new path. And so, you grab it, and you start down the path. And as you go down this path, people and the world and circumstances are going to throw their rocks and their bricks and their trash and their burdens into your wheelbarrow. And for some reason, you think it's your job to carry those. And so, you push, and you push, and this wheelbarrow, it gets loaded and loaded. And finally, you can't take it anymore. Oh, God, I can't take it anymore. Ahhhhh, OK. And you start down the path pushing this bright, shiny red wheelbarrow. And people and life and circumstances keep throwing things in it until you go, I can't take it anymore. And you start down the path again, and you keep going. And people and life and circumstances fill it up. And you just go through life over and over and over again, pushing this wheelbarrow until you realize that God did not give you a red wheelbarrow. The enemy put it there, hoping that you would pick it up and feel responsible and the burdens out of your feeler for everything that's going on. That is your job to carry it, fix it, and make it OK. And God never meant for us to be that. He is that. So, part of my word to you today is quit pushing the wheelbarrow Let it go. But that's not going to stop the stuff from being thrown in and around you. You just don't give it a place to light. Because you walk in it. 

Otherwise, when we give it a place to light like Proverbs 12:95 says, it weighs you down and that affects your physicalness It affects your psyche. I think it is somewhere around. I read this the other day, like 75% of all medical issues are more up here than they are in the physical. That speaks heavily to this world that tries to throw this stuff at us to get the Christians and the followers of Jesus to live in their feeler instead of in the freedom of Christ. Who says I have come that you might have life more abundantly? I have this picture that hangs in my office, and I brought it out here. I know big room like this doesn't really work that well, but we couldn't get a picture big enough to where we could blow it up on the screen. Well, so just bear with me. But I ask people all the time, what do you see in this picture? And even you, sitting near the back, you say, Well, it looks like there's a lighthouse and there's this huge wave about to hit the lighthouse. And that is true. And so, I went, and I researched this idea of how often the waves hit the shore and I got more answers from Mr. Google than I could grasp. And I got way more answers that were about physics and all this other stuff that I'm like, I don't completely get it. But in short, when the everything is calm, when the wind is calm, on average, there's about six waves a minute that hit a shore, six. One every ten seconds But when the storms pick up and the wind starts blowing. 

An interesting fact is we get less waves You get about four per minute when the storms are raging, but they're bigger and they're more destructive. And they're harder to fathom. And in between the waves is all that turbulent water. So, it feels like it's just one big, turbulent thing. But it's actually less waves. But they're bigger. But I don't care if we were sitting at the beach today, the wave is going to come in every 10 seconds. Can we stop it? No, it's coming. Stresses, anxieties are coming our way. It's what we do with them or how we respond to them. That then has an effect. So, here's this huge wave. It's hitting this lighthouse at least every four to six every four times to six times a minute. And that lighthouse isn't moving It's been there a long time. This is a picture of a lighthouse in the North Sea. And that lighthouse isn't moving. But these waves come crashing in over and over and over. Again. And the lighthouse doesn't move. Isn't Jesus supposed to be our lighthouse? God doesn't move the storms and things change around us. But he never moves. And if for those are the front, you might see it. But if you ever come up here, right here in the middle is a guy standing in the doorway, and he's got his hand in his pocket, and he's just casually looking up. And I want to say, don't you know you're about to get swamped He's not concerned about the wave. Even if he gets all wet. Why? Because he knows the lighthouse is proven not to move. It's a secure place. It is there. No matter how much the waves keep coming. The lighthouse isn't going to move. And he's secure in the lighthouse, even though he's about to get washed over by the wave. 

Isn't that like our lives, that there's all these waves coming in and God is calling us if we're going to be like Jesus, which we know Jesus did he spent enough time with Dad that he knew that the lighthouse wasn't going anywhere, and he could confidently stand there with his hand. In his pocket and go throw at me what you will. I'm in Jesus. Doesn't matter. I've got Jesus. And say, Well, we get our feelers all bent out of shape because we're living by that. We miss these things. So, a guy by the day, it says in the slides that this came from a guy named Randy Alcorn. I was mistaken. It's from a guy named Robert Morgan, but it's called the Red Sea Rules. They have a couple of copies in the media center of this little book called The Red Sea Rules about Morgan. And he looks at Exodus chapter 14 which is the whole chapter on when the Israelites are fleeing from the Egyptians. And Pharaoh's army is after them and they go all the way up to where they're at the Red Sea. There are mountains on the left, there's mountains on the right, and the enemy's coming down the valley to kill them. And they got nowhere to go. And so, this little book talks about that. It gives us some lessons to learn. It's called the Red Sea Rules. Great little book Well, I want to share with you those lessons, because I think they apply because, again, you got the anxieties and the worries and the stress of the world coming in that as we look to the left and right, we think we got nowhere to go. And there's a sea in front of us that we can't go through. I don't know if you realize that one of the verses of a song, we sang just a little while ago says that he would make a highway out of the sea. Pretty cool idea. Now, here's a rule number one from the red seas. Realize that God knows where you are. 

It is not a surprise that God knows right where you are right now. Not just sitting in church watching online. He knows every one of the arrows that are being shot at you. He knows every one of the stressors that are coming at you. And he is there for you. He knows what's coming on. It's not a surprise to him. Number two is to be more concerned for God's glory than your relief. Now, that's a hard one for me to even say to you. Be more concerned for God's glory than your relief, because, well, we got our eyes on it. We start crying out, God help me, save me. Take these things away. But if there's these are stressors that are helping you learn who you are and develop you as a believer, then you need those stressors to strengthen you. Be more concerned about God, get in the honor and glory and building you into a strong tower as opposed to God, take all these things away from me. Man, I'd like to say God, take them. I don't ever want to have any more stresses in my life, but that's not reality. Remember, Jesus went through all those learning to be like Jesus and stand in the strong tower of the relationship with Dad. With God is what gets us through. It doesn't mean it's fun, doesn't mean it's going to feel good. It means we will get through it. Number three, acknowledge your enemy, but keep your eye on God. Nothing wrong with knowing how the enemy is throwing at what fears and anxieties and people that you weren't aware, their family members that are throwing at you. But keep your eye on God. Because when we get distracted, we lose sight. I see my friend Jason out here, so I use him as a little example. If I had one of those Polaroid cameras, you might get one today. I don't know. But remember that old Polaroid cameras that when you snap the picture, it ejected the little piece of paper out the front, and then you take it, you had to blow on it or wave it to try to get it to dry off. And then once you did, the picture would develop. So, if I had one of these and I focused on my friend Jay set out there and I took it and it spits the piece of paper out, and then I ask Jason what do you think's going to develop on this piece of paper? And he's going to say, Well, me. I said, Well, why? Because you're focused on me. Yes. And the principle I put before you today are what you focus on in life is what develops in your life. If you focus on the wave and the stresses and stuff, you're just giving it more and more credence to just encompass you and blow you away to where you are now not able to function the way you need to. But if you walk and stand in the firmness of the confidence of who he is, that's what develops in you. 

So, know the enemy, but keep your eye on the Lord. Number five. Number four, pray Not rocket science, is it? Pray. Maybe we need to make sure that we take time and cry out to God with our agonies, our hurts, our worries, our doubts and fears, and at the same time somehow muster up the courage to really mean it, not my will Lord, yours. Let God's will be what gets the glory and works it out. And we become more like Christ in that. Number five stay calm and confident and give God time to work. When all the world seems crushing down. Remember you're on the lighthouse. It's not moving. Gods got you. He has surrounded you with who He is. And as long as we stay in the confidence of that he will work things out. Here's where it kicks in for us, though. We want it now. We want it on our timing. We want that anxiety, that stress, that worry, that fear, that doubt to go away now. And he's saying, I got it. Teaching us to walk by faith and trust in him to take care of things instead of us trying to take care of it. Because when we try to take care of it, most of the time, we miss it. And we don't learn the lesson we're supposed to learn. And it doesn't usually turn out the way we want it to. But that's also relying upon our strength instead of God's strength. Number six, When unsure, just take the next logical step of faith. We just have to keep stepping out. Now, I want to see the God instantly get me through this tunnel and back into the light. And he said, Just keep moving in the logical step. If we're running after God. We're following God. We just keep moving. And faith in him with that confidence. Number seven, envision God enveloping you in his presence. Imagine God taking his arms and just wrapping them around you and holding you like your grandpa, your dad, whoever it was that just held you and gave you that big old bear hug that you loved, and all just envelop, let God envelop you in his presence as we walk through this thing. Number eight, trust God to deliver in his own unique way. And that's hard sometimes because we want it to end now. So, we jump in, and we try to make it happen. And we got to trust God that in his timing and his unique way. And I can't tell you how many times I've tried to fix something, and it didn't work out very well. When I got out of the way and just in God, he starts putting the pieces together in ways I would have never thought he could do it, and he took care of it. Number nine, view your current crisis as a faith builder for the future. It's hard to do when our feeler is so stirred that we've got to deal with it now and we got to have the faith that what we're going through, God's using to make me more like him. And if I want to be like him, I'm going to go through the things not around him because he's going to be in it with me. 

And in that he's going to I'm going to gain more confidence in him. And I'm at the same time going to start looking and acting and smelling more like him. In the midst of all of that. And number ten, don't forget to praise him and all things praise him. Give him the praise, not just thanks praise him for how he's growing you and teaching you and all the. I'm not much of a singer, but if you wrote in the car with me, you'd think I was crazy because I can sing off the top of my lungs. Not very good, but I'll let it rip. What's even worse, there may not be a radio or CD or something on. I'm just singing his praises and stuff. And as I do that, in the midst of all that stress or whatever is going on, I can just, since his presence fill in the car and then just a few minutes, it's me and him having a good time driving down the road. Although there's all those stressors around you and road rage around you. You still got it right there in the midst of it. We've got to learn to trust in God in the midst of the storm. Instead of thinking I shouldn't have a storm. The misconception is that if we're like Jesus, there won't be storms. The reality is with Jesus, there's lots of storms, and he will walk with you through them. And as you walk through them and build your faith in him, you become more like him. Then you become an imitator of God and something other people go, Man. I don't know how you stayed so calm in that, but I need that. It comes from Jesus comes from spending time with him and letting him build you up through it all. 

Second, Corinthians 5:7 says, We live by faith, not by sight. We live by faith, not by sight. But we're made with two eyes, and we see, and we feel and all that. And we have a tendency to live by what we see and act that out. And Scripture says, live by the faith of the word, which is truth, not your feeler. And watch what God can do. First Corinthians 10:13 says No temptation has seized you but is common to everyone. Whatever you're going through. I promise you, there's somebody else in this room who's going through it or been through it. Nothing's unique. Even Jesus went through it. Says God is faithful, and he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you're able. The only way that you're able because it's not you alone. It's you and God that gets you through these things. And Philippians 2:5, it says that your attitude should be the same as Christ Jesus. Our attitude should be like Jesus. Well, how do you get an attitude like Jesus? Spend time with him. Start living the word out instead of living out your feeler. Your feeler entraps you, and the word sets you free. I've put for you in the media center, for those who would want this piece of paper, it's called In Christ I am. It's just a bunch of verses with a bunch of statements that the verse is who you are in Christ and why you can get through these storms in life. I would suggest getting this paper. You memorize this, read this out loud. Do a Bible study on these verses such as First John 1:12. I'm Gods child. John 15.:15. I'm Christ's friend. Romans 5:1. I have been justified. Romans 8:1-2. I am free forever from condemnation. Many of us were walking in condemnation and shame. Romans 8:28. I'm assured of all things, working together for the good. Romans 8:31-34. I am free from any condemnation charges against me. And this page just goes on and on with these verses that help us understand that as the stresses and the strains and the anxieties all around us, our faith in God is like a strong tower. And we can trust it. And what His Word says is truth. If it's truth and we enact it, then we become like Jesus. 

I strongly encourage you to get this. Romans 15:13 says May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. You want to overflow? You want to overflow with God? It's not because of something you do. It's because you live out the truth and the Holy Spirit. You can't do it alone. You cannot get through the worries and fears and anxieties of this world by yourself. You have to have Jesus. I know that sounds so cliche is church. Well, if you just trust Jesus, it'll all be OK. No, you trust Jesus. You will get through it. It won't necessarily feel good and be OK. But our misconception is that as a Christian, everything should just be OK. Therefore, I won't have the struggles. No. If you're going to be like Christ, you're going to have lots of struggles. He will walk with you, and you can trust him to be your strong tower in the midst of it. I wrote this. What distinguishes us as followers of Jesus isn't the absence of stressors in our lives. It's not the absence of pressure or strain or even danger or doubt. Instead, what distinguishes us in the is the unshakable presence of God's indescribable peace in the midst of all these things. His unshakable presence and his indescribable peace comes as we trust him in the tower and know that we are going to have tough times in this world. Trust in him. In the midst of all is being like Christ, not being taken out of them or away from them. 

Life's tough guys. Very difficult sometimes. My God stands with me in the midst of all of those. And He will for you as well. Some of us in the room just need to fall on our faces and say, God help me to trust you more. And walk by truth and not by feelings. Some of you need to ask Jesus into your heart for the very first time. Simple. Dear Lord Jesus, I know I'm a sinner. Please come in my life and save me. And I choose from this day forward to grow in you and learn to be like you. And all things Amen. Simple prayer like that. You move from this path to this path. Start growing and walking like Christ. You want to be like Christ? Walk in the truth. Not your feelings. If you've never asked Christ into your heart and want to be part of this family of God or accept Jesus, you can click on the QR code and go to next steps. And there are some ways that you can follow through that. And somebody will follow up with you as a new member or as a new believer. And we would love to have you as part of this body of Christ here as well. I know this is one of those necessarily feel-good messages, but I think it's a word that we all need to hear and how we get through the tough times in life because we all have them. 

Thank you, Lord, for speaking to us today through your word. And as we go from this place, may we go with the joy of the Lord in our hearts and may we walk in the truth of His Word. Amen. Amen.