The Attitude of Gratitude

MESSAGE TRANSCRIPTION: 

Morning. I believe that the future is brighter. I believe in its promise for me. I believe that he’s working, and he’s not done. The best. The best is yet to come. I know. He makes me anxious. Courageous. I know he makes the doubters believe. I know he won’t stop working because he’s not done the best. The best is yet to come. I’ve got this hope. So I know. I will leave with your life and be up to speed on the Master yet to come. Here we go. I believe that he gives second chances. I believe he works on banks for. I believe that he’s working and he’s not done the best. The best is yet to come. I’ve got this whole philosophy. I know you wanna go? With your life and I. We. Muscle. With your life with me. Speed on the back. Yet to come. Here we go. Hey. I’ve got my hopes high. You make my homes, right. I’ve got my whole time. You. I’ve got my. You make my home thrive. I’ve got my own. Oh, my friend. I’ve done my time. Oh, my. I know. We go down in life, and we. Thank you for letting me go. Oh, Lord. I mean, your life and me, I’ve just been on the best is yet to come. All right. All right. Good morning, son. How are you guys doing this morning? How are you guys doing this morning? How? Good job. My name is Chris Minter. I’m one of the volunteers around here. And we want to welcome you guys to this morning. We appreciate you guys wearing your mask. Thank you for keeping those on. That keeps our doors open their way. We can work like we need to work. All right.

If you’re new in attendance today, please text or call the number on the screen so that we can stay. Connect with you guys. We can join you guys into our family. All right. We have one big announcement this Wednesday at 630 that is going to be inspiring. John Inspire is a great top of worship and prayer, a great time for you to really get connected with what we’re doing around here. And he saw it and what God is trying to do in our lives so that it’s going to be awesome. I’ll tell you one thing else. We get inspired also. There will be childcare provided, but there will not be a meal. Of course, because you guys know cause of the COVID. One other thing, Virgil, the man, the myth, the legend is back today on the. He is going to be bringing the second week of a sermon series, which is called Double Blessing. So that is good. We’re excited to have Virgil back in the House today. We will also be doing communion. Communion, even if you’re here if you’re online, we’ll give you a chance to to to get ready for communion, and it’ll be exciting at the time you really get into worship and just kind of get in and connect with God. It’ll be good. We’re going to do Communion Day. Oh, what else do we have? Lastly, at the end of service, if you do not have kids, please exit stage left and right in an orderly fashion, and we’ll get you guys on your way. All right. Let me get us in prayer. Okay. Father, thank you for this beautiful day that you’ve made. Please, let’s rejoice and be glad in it. Thank you for those that have gathered together day two to just hear a little bit about your word, Lord, Father, and to be able to take today and change everything that they’re doing in our lives.

My father, we love you. We praise you. We just thank you for everything that you do. And we just give you all the ongoing the praises. In Jesus’ name, we pray, amen. Just continue to join us in worship this morning, and just know that we don’t have to have fear with God on our side

(Worship)

Well, good morning, everyone. How’s everybody doing today? Good. Couple of you. All right, well, great. Well, I’m so glad that you’re here. When? When I was a little kid, one of the fondest memories that I have of my dad was when he would come home from work, and we would have dinner together, and we would sit around the dinner table, and we would play this game.

And the game went something like this. My dad would say, I see something, and it is. And you fill in the blank. Do you see the green or red? This is my we never played that game. I mean, this is what you did before with video games, right? So we sit around, and we played this game, and you remember how the game worked is that you would begin to guess. And if you were going further away from the object that he had in his mind, he would say, What? You’re getting colder and colder. Then if we started moving in and toward the direction that he spotted of the object, he would say that you’re getting, what, warmer and warmer? And then, when you were right on top of the object that he had chosen, he would be saying, You’re getting hotter and hotter and hotter. Now, hold that thought just for a second. H.W. Tozer, a great theologian, said this. What comes to mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you. Now, let’s read that together out loud. What comes to mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you. And I think A.W. Tozer is correct. But here’s the challenge. Andrew is in the beginning. God created us in his image, right? And ever since then, we have been creating God in our image is that we have been creating God in our image. We’ve been taking our inclinations, our imperfections, our idiosyncrasies, and we’ve been casting them onto God. And what happens is, is that we end up with the God, a lowercase g that looks a lot like us, talks a lot like us, that thinks a lot like us, and acts a lot like us.

And what we end up with is a false god and false idol. So I ask you again, what comes to mind when you think about God? What is God’s posture towards you? What expression is God wearing on His face? What is the tone of his voice? And I believe that if you look at God and you see God with a frown on his face, then I would suggest to you that you’re getting colder and colder and colder. If you look up and you see God with his arms open wide, then you could be getting warmer or warmer. But if you look up to God and you see God as one of a blessing if you see that you’re the apple of his, are that you hear the love, joy, and pride in the tone of his voice when he says to you, You are my son and or endure my daughter, and I am well pleased with you, then I think that you’re getting hotter and hotter. And welcome to Isa Community Church. We’re in this sermon series called Double Blessing, and we’re talking about how to think that God’s posture towards you and toward me is that of blessing. And I want to pick up where we left off last week. Last week, we said.

Before Original Sin, there was an original blessing. 

. And all you have to do is go back and read Genesis chapter one. And in the beginning, God blessed us. And this is God’s most ancient instinct. It sets the tone. It sets the table. Now, we said last week that God is not blessing or pride, or laziness. He doesn’t do any of that. We have to put ourselves in a position to be blessed by God. But God wants to bless you and to bless me.

That is his most natural instinct. There is this pastor. He wants to bless us in ways that we cannot even conceive or imagine or ask or even think of. There’s categories that he wants to bless us in that we cannot even visualize or articulate. Now, if you have your Bible, turn with me the first Thessalonians chapter five. We will look at a couple of verses this morning, Paul, who started a church, and that’s a knock on his second missionary trip he loved. He wrote this letter. Paul First Thessalonians about 51 A.D. And the reason why he wrote this letter is because the church finds itself in challenging situations and challenging circumstances. And maybe you’re here this morning, and you find yourself in the middle of some challenges, some middle of some difficult circumstances. And I hope that this particular verse that we’re going to read. It’s going to be a source of encouragement. They’re short verses, but they’re powerful verses. First, this one is chapter five, beginning in verse 16 and reading through verse 18. Notice what Paul says in verse 16 Rejoice always. Verse 17 is prayed continually. And then verse 18, he says, Give thanks in all circumstances for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Now, here’s what I want you to do. I just want to play a little word association game with you. Okay. I want to say a phrase, and I want you to think, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Okay. Now, I just want to say this. Here’s the word association game that I want to play. The will of God. Now, immediately when I say the will of God. For most of you, you begin to think logistically. You begin to think about how, when, Where, what? You know why.

You begin to think about all the logistics. You begin to think about how you have to make a decision is a decision of the will, is that you have to make the right move in the right direction. And I believe that God prompts us, and I think we should listen to the promptings of his Holy Spirit. But with all of that being said, I will say this.

The will of God is a lot less circumstantial and a lot more attitudinal than we think or believe.

, my friends. See, folks, in fact, we already know the will of God, right? How do we know the will of God? We just read the will of God in first this erroneous chapter five, verse 16, 1718. What did it say? Rejoice. Always pray continually and give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God’s friends. This is what God says is His will. Now, when I was in my twenties, I was afraid of making a misstep. I was afraid that if I made one misstep, one miscue, that what would happen is the House of Cards would come. What? It would come tumbling down, it would come falling in, and I would blow the will of God from my life. Well, here’s what I’ve learned in my fifties. I just want to tell you this is that God wants you to get where God wants you to go more than you want to get where God wants you to go. And God is really good at giving us there. Now, that should take a lot of pressure off of us because the will of God is not so much about circumstances as it is about the character of Christ in us, preparing us for whatever we face in life.

Now, let me see if I can help you to understand the will of God a little bit deeper. Now there are these brothers named Chip and Dan Heath. They’ve written several great books. One of the books that they wrote was called Decisive. Now, in that book, they talk about the problems or the issues or the mistakes that we make when we are trying to make a decision. And one of those mistakes that they identified is called narrow framing, narrow framing. It’s defining the choices too narrowly. It’s as if we want to look at something as one or the other. And what they want to say is this is probably both than we think either-or scenario. They say it’s both in. Sometimes we look at trying to make a decision, and we think it is true or false. And what God does is give us multiple choices in the decisions that we need to make. And so they go on, and they quote a Catholic, a priest, and this Catholic priest is named Father Brian Brands Field. He’s the general secretary of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. And what Father Brands Field says is that when parishioners will come to him asking about the will of God in their lives, they take all the decisions, and they just narrow frame it down to the least common thing. So, for example, should I marry this person? Should I take this job in another city? Should I become a. Priest and? Father Brownsville said there’s this myth that there’s only one answer to all of those questions. Now think about that, folks. To marry this person, there’s only one answer, we believe. And so what happens is, is that we become so fearful of missing out on the will of God that we end up missing out on the will of God.

See, we missed the will of God because we’re afraid of missing the will of God. We miss out on the will of God because we are afraid that we’re going to mess up the will of God. And what happens is, is that we believe that there’s only one right answer to this problem that we’re facing or this decision that we’re making. And as a result, is, we believe that if we miss out on that one decision, we’ve messed up. And what Father Brasfield says in the Heath Brothers’ quote he says that there’s not just one decision. Think about this. There’s one decision, two, to this scenario that you’re facing, and God knows it, and you’ve got to figure it out. And if you don’t figure it out, he’s going to slap you in the hands. He’s the father. Princeville says this. There are probably 18 right choices that you can make for that one decision. And I just want to take the pressure off, and I just want you to take a deep breath. And we narrow frame God, we narrow frame God’s will. And the will of God is less circumstantial and more attitudinal. Now it’s a breath of fresh air for you and me. It should be. And so what I want to do this morning, I will talk to you about the attitude of gratitude. And the first thing I want you to fill in a write-down is whatever you don’t turn into, praise turns into pride. Now, would you say that with me? Whatever you don’t turn into praise. Turns into what? Pride. Now, look. What Jane. Chapter one, verse 17 says, Every good and perfect gift is from above. In other words, this is the beginning of gratitude.

The beginning of gratitude is to recognize that it’s all from God and it’s all for God. Folks, you need to understand that everything is from God, and everything is for God. And here’s the thing that we have to understand, and it’s just not our perception of reality. See, Andrew, here’s what happens. A lot of times, something comes our way, and we think immediately that it’s a blessing or immediately we think that it’s a curse. Now, folks who may ask your question, what gives you the right to think that you’re omnipresent and all-knowing and, you know, if something is a blessing or a curse from the very moment that it shows up in your life, a lot of times what shows up as a blessing? We started in the wrong way, and it ended up becoming a curse. And the thing that is a curse in our life. God uses it and takes everything and works it all out for our good so that we’re conformed to his image and see folks, what we have to understand is everything is from God, and it’s all for God. And we just have to let go of our perception. Now, I want to go old school with you at this moment. There is something called the Talmud the Talmud. It’s literally the Jewish commentary that they created. A bunch of Jews and rabbis got together, and they wrote out their opinion on what the Old Testament said. And so when you hear the word Talmud, it is the bunch of Jewish rabbis who have taken their thoughts, and they said, these are our thoughts, This is the collective I.Q., and this is how we interpret the Old Testament. And one of the things that the Talmud says is This is a man and vessel from God when he makes use of the world without uttering a blessing.

Is that we abused the things of God when we used the things of God, the things of this world, and we did not utter a blessing. In other words, if you enjoy something without thinking about God, it’s as if you’ve stolen it from him. Let me put it this way anything less than gratitude is grand larceny. Let me say that anything less than gratitude is grand larceny. And so what the priests in the Old Testament would do is that they had this habit of giving God thanks for everything. There is a rabbinic tradition that they would give 100 blessings to God every single day. They would thank God for everything before they would partake in a meal. They would stop and thank God for the food. And many of us, we do that. But what the priests would do. They would take it a step further. They would thank God for the different smell of the came from the food. They would thank the Lord for the different tastes that they had of the food they would think of for the different spices that they experienced. So they would take it a step further, and they would even go further than that. The observant Jewish priests would bless God for a new day, for new articles of clothing, for a new experience. One of my favorite blessings that comes out of the Talmud is zoology, which is that they would look at an elephant or they look at a long tel ape, and they would say, Blessed be he who makes strange creatures. Now, I don’t know why they would do that, but I just love the attitude that they have. Let me ask you this, my friends, where when was the last time you blessed God after having sex with your spouse? Well, did God create it? Didn’t God say it was right? Didn’t God say that it was good? Maybe we ought to bless him more.

And so the obvious question becomes, why? A hundred blessings a day? Because it was the belief. The tradition is that in the days of King David, there was a plague that broke out. And the plague was killing 100 Jews a day. And so the rabbinic priests got together, and they said, here’s the remedy for the 100 people who’s dying of this plague. During King David is that we’re going to pronounce a hundred blessings a day. And the tradition says after they pronounced the 100 blessings that in each day, the plague immediately stopped. Now, folks, I don’t know if that happened or not, but that’s what tradition says. But here’s the thing that I can tell you is that blessing God, giving God gratitude at Thanksgiving is an antidote to a lot of things in our lives. So whatever we don’t turn into praise turns into pride. The second thing, if you will, is that your focus determines your reality. Now, folks, your focus determines your reality. Many of you.

 The Attitude of Gratitude: 1. Whatever you don’t turn into PRAISE turns into PRIDE.2. Your FOCUS determines your REALITY. 

You’re looking for something to complain about. And here’s the deal, my friends. If you’re looking for something to complain about, you will always find it. If you’re looking for something to be grateful for, you will always find it. Look with me, if you will. The Philippians chapter four, verse eight. Here’s what Paul says. He says, Brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy. What does he say? Think about such things. Whatever you focus on will become your reality. Now, there was a study that was done, but this professor from Northwestern University. And what she did is that she studied Olympic medalist and what she determined from studying the Olympic medalist who went on to the platform.

She discovered that the bronze medal winners were way more happier than the silver medalist winners. Now, we think about that, and we go, well, how can that be true? Because silver is higher than bronze. And why was a bronze medalist be more content, more happier than a silver medalist? Well, here’s what she discovered is that the silver medalist would focus on how close they came to winning the gold. And because they were so close to winning the gold and they didn’t win the gold, they became frustrated and they became discontent with the silver medalist. Being a silver medalist but the bronze medalist, they would focus on how close they came to not even making the platform epic. And because they came this close to not making the platform, they had a heart of gratitude. Now, there’s a technical term for this. It’s called counterfactual, and counterfactual has two prongs. There’s the downward and the upward. The upward counterfactual talks about that. I was so close to winning the gold that I’m frustrated. I’m discontent with being the silver. But the downward factual is this is that the down downward counterfactual is this is that I was so close not winning that I did win. Therefore, I have feelings of happiness and joy. No, I came across this fictitious letter a couple of years ago that illustrates this ideal completely. And it’s from a college student. It says, Dear Mom and Dad, I have so much to tell you. Because of the failure in my dorm setup, my student writes, I experienced temporary lung damage and had to go to the hospital. While I was there. I fell in love with an orderly. We moved in together. I dropped out of school when I found out I was pregnant, and he got fired because of his drinking problem.

So we’re moving to Alaska, where we might get married after the birth of her baby. You’re a loving daughter. P.S. None of this really happened, but I did front my chemistry class and just wanted to keep things in perspective. Now that is kind of a downward, you know, counterfactual, right? That none of this happened. I’ll just keep it in perspective. Let me give you an upward counterfactual. So a couple of weeks ago, about a month ago, we had with a salary that was free. So, Rosanne, I wanted to go in, looks for some bedroom furniture for one of her guest rooms. The furniture we have we bought before we got married, we gave very little money for it, is falling apart, and so we wanted to buy some new bedroom furniture. And so we went to these furniture stores. And you know what? I became frustrated in going to these furniture stores because, you know, want it revealed all the things that I didn’t have, all the cool gadgets, all the cool couches, love seats, and sectionals. And I just became frustrated. But let me just kind of flip the script here is that for the last ten years, we, as a church we’ve been on like 20 different mission trips, probably more than that. And every time that we go on a mission trip this year, the primary beneficiary is it is me. Because why? When I go on a mission trip, I have a different perspective. I realize in a downward counterfactual that I am so blessed in so many ways, and the world problems that I have are not real-world problems because we’re going into countries where people live off $2 a day. They have no indoor plumbing, they have no heat, no cooling, no nothing.

And folks, listen to me. When you begin to see things for what it is, you’re focus become your reality. You’re filled with gratitude for the things that you do have. So, number one, if you’re taking notes, is this Whatever. You don’t turn into praise. You turn into pride. Number two, your focus determines your reality. But number three, I love point number three. Don’t let what’s wrong with you keep you from worshiping. What’s wrong? With God. I like that. I like that a whole lot. Don’t let what’s wrong with me and you keep us from worshiping. What’s wrong with God? Now, folks, here’s the reality. If we focus on what’s wrong with me and you, it’s game, set, match. We lose. Because why the devil is our accuser? He’s the accuser of the brother. He calls us into condemnation. You know what condemnation is, right? You know what it is? It is the feeling. Feeling guilt over confessed sin. Folks, we’ve confessed our sins, but we cannot forgive ourselves. And we cannot forget about what we’ve done. So we quit. We keep on blaming ourselves. Now, if you focus on what’s right with God, then it is game on. And the good news of the Bible is this. That you’re not defined by what you’ve done wrong. You’re not defined by the mistakes that you’ve made. It’s invoked because he who knew no sin became sin so that you and I may become the righteousness of God. You’re defined by what cross a compass on the cross invokes. Here’s the reality. When I’m frustrated, when I’m down and out, when I’m lonely, when I’m aggravated, when I’m full of anger, the thing that I do is I make a beeline to the cross and watch them. Make a beeline to the cross is because the cross reminds me that I was worth the cross for Jesus Cross.

And here’s what I want us to do this morning. I want to issue you an attitude of gratitude challenge. And the challenge is very simple. If my calculations is correct, we’re 63 days away from Easter Sunday. And so the very first thing I want to and challenge you to do is to go out and to buy a journal. The journal can be a 99-cent notebook. It can be a little bit fancier a thing like this. But I just want to challenge you to go out and buy a journal. And here’s the reason why I want you to buy a journal. Then I want you to take that journal and then I want you to write down three gratitude each day between now and Easter Sunday. Just write down three things that you’re grateful for. And then the third thing is, is that you cannot repeat any of the gratitude that to be different. Gratitude. And if you do that, if you go from 63 times three, you have almost 190 things that you’ve listed out of, things that you’re thankful for. Now, I know what some of you are thinking. Well, pastured was the ancient tradition to do 100 a day. Now, just think about this, my friends. If we go from 0 to 100, here’s what we’re going to pull. We’re going to pull a gratitude hamstring rut, and I wouldn’t even want to do that. But if we could do three a day for the next 63 days, we’re going to have over 180. Now, think about this. G.K. Chesterton, an author, once stated that his ultimate goal in life was to take nothing for granted. Not a sunrise, not a flower, not a laugh, nothing at all. The thing that keeps us from having gratitude is something that is called intentional blindness.

And intentional blindness are things right before us that we’re not able to see because we’re blinded. Let me give you an example of what I’m talking about right now. It feels like you’re sitting still. Let me ask you are you standing still right now at this very moment? No, you’re not sitting still because you know why? Because the earth this planted is spinning around on an axis and a thousand miles per day. It will make one full rotation today. And not only that, but we’re traveling at a speed of 66,000 miles per hour through the galaxy. By the end of this day, we will have traveled 1.3 million miles. And we didn’t have anything big at all planned for today. So here’s the question. When’s the last time that you have fallen on your knees and said to God, God, thank you for making one full rotation of the planet today? Thank you for sustaining the earth and the galaxy. As we’ve traveled 1.3 million miles, today was the last time we’ve ever done that. And the answer is that we’ve never done that. So there are these macroscopic things that we are just blinded to. But there are also some of these microscopic things that happen inside of us. And as I was reading Mark Patterson’s book, he talked about this thing of 37 sextillion chemical reactions happening in our body. So, Andrew, when he says 37 sextillion chemical reactions, I didn’t know what 6 trillion was. So I looked it up, and it’s a number with 21 zeros behind it. Now, what he says is there’s 37 6 trillion chemical reactions happening in my body and your body at this very moment. Now think about that, folks. That means there should be 37 sextillion thank you’s to God for what he’s doing in their lives at this very moment.

And see, folks, what happens is we get on autopilot. Look it on cruise control. We’re on the road of complaining about life, and we forget about gratitude. We forget about the things that God does force. And this attitude of gratitude challenge is a way to help us to remember that God is present in our lives. These at work, in our lives, as if this is the reason why we’re doing the Compassion Project. The Compassion Project is not so much about blessing other people and helping them financially, and providing financial assistance to them. The Compassion Project is about you coming to the understanding that God’s posture to you is nothing but a blessing, and God wants to bless you so that you can be a blessing to others. See, the Compassion Project is about what God must do in your heart and for you to trust and to believe in His posture; he’s looking upon you with a posture of blessing. If you believe that, then you go see God. Speak for your servant is listening. How do you want me to respond? What do you want me to give to the Compassion Project? See what you think the Compassion Project is for people in need now. The Compassion Project is about what God was doing in your life. It’s about you stepping into the fact that you’re blessed beyond measure. And here’s the question that I have. What keeps you? What myth? What? Lie? What? Half truth. Keeps you from stepping into the Compassion Project. See for some of you. For most of you, it’s for you to step into generosity. It’s for you to go online and become a part of our online giving team and set up a reoccurring giving. The amount doesn’t matter.

Once a month. Once a week. It doesn’t matter. I just want you to step in and generosity. But you know what? If you think that God is not a God of blessing and you don’t believe that God’s postures bless you in ways that you’ve never seen before, you’re not going to give. You’re not going to be generous. You’re not going to step in generosity because you believe that God is a stingy God. Here’s going to. I’ve asked the worship team. To sing a song of verse this morning. I want to invite them to come back out. And the song is called The Blessing. And I watched the video of Cody Carnes and Kari Jobe singing this at the church elevation. And when I watched the video, it was like an eight-minute video when I watched it. I, I believe that with everything. I mean, this is like five or six months ago. And so what? They’re going to start singing the song over us, and here’s one would encourage you today to listen very carefully. I don’t want no volunteers leaving. I don’t want no one moving around. I don’t want people. Leaving the worship center because this is holy ground. This is sacred ground that we’re on right now. And as they’re singing this song over us, here’s what I want you to do. I want you to take out your phone. Take out a piece of paper. I want you to get a head start on your gratitude journal right now. I just want you to just take out a journal, take out a piece of paper, a pen. Just. Just say, here’s what I did. January the 31st, I wrote down three things thus thankful for today. I just wrote those down.

And then I got February the first. Already written out that I’m ready to write my down my next three things. So just take a few moments and just write down those three things. Begin that journal right now before you leave this place. And then, after you do the journal. Do you remember what Jesus did with his disciples before they broke the bread and took the cup? Remember what Jesus did. He said he gave things, and often times we just run right past that God, that Jesus came things. So after you’ve done your gratitude journal, then what I want you to do is I want you just wherever you’re seated and at your own pace. Take the communion elements and own your own, or as a husband and wife or as a family, take the bread and take the cup and give thanks to Jesus for this posture blessing. If you’re new today, you’ve never maybe ever taken communion. If you received Jesus Christ as your personal savior, then we invite you to take communion with us. And then, after you’ve written out your gratitude after you’ve taken communion, then you may want to just stand in worship and sing with the worship team as they sing this song. The Blessing. Over us this morning, Amen.

(Worship)

You know, I know it gets really scary when Virgil starts talking about the next steps. Because you start thinking about it, and the next thing you know, Jesus is talking to you, and you’re like, I’m sorry. You want me to do what you said? You want me? Oh, I’m supposed to. Oh, okay. You know, when you started talking about the Compassion Project, I didn’t even need to hear him finish it. And I was like, I’m in. It took me just a few seconds. I just contacted Nicole, and I said, Nicole, I would like to increase my giving by X amount of dollars, and she’s in on a problem. Who’s that easy? And a lot of us look at why I can’t give that much. Being a no-gift is too big. But really, no gift is too small. Even if it’s $5 a week. That is your gift that you are giving through inside. You’re not giving it to inside. You are giving through inside. And, you know, I can honestly tell you that next steps are scary, and it’s always scary for me.

But that’s one step that you take closer to God is still makes you closer than you were had you said no. So, you know, as we conclude with the service, you know, just think about that. You know, just listen. Take that time and just listen to that whisper. Just a reminder, if you have children to pick up any kids, you can exit to the rear. If you do not have children to pick up today, you can exit through the sides. I’m going to pray it out, and then you guys can go. Our Heavenly Father. We just thank you so much for this day. We thank you for your blessings. And we thank you when you open up our eyes to those blessings. I pray that as we go throughout our week, no matter what we do, from getting out of bed to brushing our teeth to having a conversation with someone. That we are doing it all for your glory. I pray this, pray that we stay safe, and I pray this in your name, amen may go.