Well, guys, welcome Ken.

Awesome. Awesome. Wow. I gotta tell you, um, as Justin was sharing those days and those travels and those long rides and those late nights. I have three children and I remember those, and I am thankful I am not there right now. Um wow. Uh my boys instead now they're both right for one month, they're 16, the same age. They're 11 months apart. They sleep, they're up at the crack of noon, and uh that's so much better. Uh, but it's a different set of challenges. They're now up past my bedtime, so we're dealing with that right now. Life is just full of a process. When you lose one set of issues, you get another set of issues to deal with. And I love this theme that we're going into this year: changing lives, changing lives. This morning we're gonna look at how how lives change. How does my life change? And I gotta tell you, as a dad and a husband, a father, and a friend, I don't want to miss the opportunities that pop up. And I'm driven by those priorities. And thankfully, I think God is discerning, giving me discernment uh in those priorities, and and what I don't want to miss. Um, my daughter and I have this thing where we love movies together, and and my wife doesn't really go for a lot of the movies that she likes. And she's like, Oh, will you take it? I'm like, Yeah, I love this. And this time of year, we watch Elf at least like eight times because it's just we're quoting lines out of Elf. And my new favorite, we went to see it a couple weeks ago. How many of y'all have seen Big Hero Six? Anyone else? Yes. So our thing now, my wife doesn't get it. Kennedy will walk up and dad, let's do it. Ba-da-da-da-da. You know, and it's and if you haven't seen the movie, you have no idea what that means. And it's just awesome. So that's our thing right now, and I don't want to miss I don't want to miss the opportunities. Um, we did Thanksgiving down in Daytona, Daytona Beach. None of my family's from there, but it's kind of a meeting place for our family. My sister from South Florida, we're from it here, my brother from Savannah, so we met there, got a couple condos down there, and it was right on the beach, and it was awesome. It was it rained for a couple days, but it was in the 60s, so it was like, okay, it's better, but not great. And and then the last day we're there, the sun came out, so it's in the low 60s, and my my middle son, he's like, Dad, can we go boogie boarding? And I'm just like, now, if unless it's illegal or immoral, when my children go, Dad, can we? I try to say yes to anything that they say, dad, can we? So I'm like, boogie board, oh, okay. And so we ran a couple boogie boards, the good ones, the big ones, we go out there, and and the Atlantic Ocean this time of year. I came up and Heather's like, was the water cold? I'm like, no, it's like a jacuzzi out there. And she's like, Really? And I'm like, no, no. It's like in the 40s. And she goes, Wasn't it cold? I'm like, yes. I said, but you know, once your body goes numb and you hit hypothermia, you just you don't really care anymore. And so I literally we go out there, we were like an hour out in the surf, and I'm just kind of chattering and shaking, and we came back in, but I don't want to miss those moments. I love those moments, and even this the moment of deciding, okay, after dinner, Thanksgiving Day, we pack it up and we're gonna avoid the traffic because my wife is like, gosh, you know, I've missed Black Friday for the last five years because we've been on families over there. So we drive, I mean, eight hours. We get in around one in the morning, and we get up early on Black Friday, and and uh went shopping on Black Friday, and that was awesome, and I learned a lot. I learned a lot about it. Uh, I did get points. I got a lot of points for doing that. I don't understand to this day. I don't understand Black Friday. She goes, hey, I want to go to go to Belk first. So we pull into Belk. I'm like, awesome, there's not a crowd. She goes, Oh, bummer, there's not a crowd. I'm like, what do you mean? This is awesome. She goes, no, that means there's no good deals here. I'm like, so we gotta find the crowd. She's like, exactly. And I'm like, oh wow. So we go to the mall and we're kind of jammed in there, and I'm just like, oh, this is great. She goes, This is awesome. And I'm like, really? And and I gotta, I'll confess to you right now, I still to this day I don't get it. I'd rather pay $2.99 more and not deal with that, but it's the thrill of Black Friday. So we did Black Friday, and that was awesome. And you know what? I I gotta say, I I really got into it not because now I'm gonna love Black Friday, because I gotta do it with her. I just love being with her. And we went to Dunkin' Donuts, and then we go there and we do that, and we did lunch, and I'm like, this is awesome. She goes, You like it? And and when she said it, she was referring to Black Friday, but I was referring to us being together, and I'm like, yeah, I love it. And the truth is that's kind of the way God is in our lives, going, hey, I don't understand why you don't trust me more. I don't understand all that you're doing, but I just want to be with you. I just want to be with you. And the more God is with us, the more we are going to experience who He is. And this morning we got, I want to just point out two opportunities that I've I've begun to notice. I was sitting in church a couple weeks ago. I got to give you like a 15-second background. Last year, I had actually last year and a half, I helped this little church that was about to shut their doors. Uh, we brought in some leadership, taught, got it big enough now to where it's got its own pastor. And so it's really cool to get to be a part of that. So I go and I listen to this pastor at this little church and had a great time. And and what he was sharing was very true. He's sharing out of Romans how God has already given us his riches. It's not something we have to earn, it's something he just gives. Once we accept Christ, we have his riches, and we have his acceptance, and we have his love. In the fullest measure, we have it. And as I sat there and I listened, I just went, Lord, I know that's true. I I read your word, I know it's true, but sometimes I just don't feel it. So Lord, will you show me, will you show me how to experience your riches and acceptance and love? I I want to experience that so you can change me, change my life to where I can be experiencing not what I feel, but what your truth says. And so this morning, as I weave through, let me go ahead and warn you, uh, there's no rhyme or reason necessarily, other than the main experiences here, to how these verses fit together. But you're gonna see the themes as we go through them. And I don't want you to really realistically follow along to all of them, but here's what I would encourage you to do. When these verses come up and you hear them, the one that hits your heart of, oh yeah, oh yeah, mark that one down and let God wash over you this week through that one. Does that make sense? Uh, because we're gonna hit a bunch of different ones. But the first experience, the first opportunity to experience God's presence is in one word. And as I started to pray through this, your riches, your acceptance, your love, Lord, where do I experience that? This word kept coming up over and over and over. And I found this thread through the New Testament, through Scripture, and through the stories of the Old Testament, where God and people experience Him more clearly and more tangibly in the midst of perseverance. Perseverance. Now, in our society, we run away from anything that causes us pain or troubles or trials. We run away from it. Get rid of it. All the movies end in an hour and everything's perfect, everything's wonderful. And then if you've ever seen a romantic comedy, that's the way it worked. Oh, he's a jerk, he's horrible. Oh, he's changed, oh, we're in love. Can you believe that? If I hear that one more time, I go to these movies with my wife, and at the end it's always the same comedy. Can you believe it? He changed and he came and he loves her now. Can you believe that? Yes, it happens every time. But you haven't noticed there's never a sequel to a romantic comedy because he reverts back to the jerk he was three weeks later, and it just doesn't work out. But see, God is saying, hey, if we persevere in the midst of perseverance, that's where we experience God. And I started seeing this through scripture, and in Hebrews 12, 1, it says, let us cast off the sin and what so easily entangles us and run with perseverance, the race that's set before us. See, because whether we're a Christian or not, trials are gonna happen. Life is gonna happen, it's part of life. If you need the biblical proof of this, you can write down Matthew 5, 45, where he just says, When it rains, it rains on the righteous and the unrighteous, the just and the unjust. If it rains, it doesn't matter who you are, you walk outside, you get wet. That's the way it works. Trials are gonna happen no matter who we are. God is not throwing things at us so that we will have to endure them. It's just part of life. And what he's saying is, is in the midst of perseverance is where you experience me, our senses become heightened. Our desire to connect with God become exaggerated because we want God to be real, and he is, and we become more real. Let me share a couple other verses. In Romans 5, verses 3 and 4, it says, not only so, but we also glory in our suffering, because we know that suffering produces perseverance. Perseverance, character, and character, hope. True hope, peace, joy, all the good pieces of life come from God. Let me just get a little bit of reality check here right now. I don't care who you pull for politically. If your guy's in office or your party's in the majority and all that, let me just tell you this right now: the government will never provide hope. Ever. Doesn't matter if your guy's in or out or in or in about or a majority, it doesn't matter. The government does not provide hope. God and God alone provides hope. Lasting hope, meaningful hope, individual hope. Only God does that. And it comes through the process. Perseverance is a process. It's not just to get to the end, but if you're going through something right now, pick the area that you're frustrated or that you're overwhelmed or that you're just in misery or pain, and say, Okay, God, I'm just trying to get through this. That is the area where God says, I want to get real personal with you. This is where we experience God. In James chapter one, it says this consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. Joy comes out of perseverance. Joy, not circumstantial, okay, happy, but joy, meaningful joy that understands that I can get through anything. That comes out of that. So as I'm reading through this, and I'm finding this thread of perseverance, that it's a process, and I always looked at getting past it. But God is saying, I'm in the midst of it. If you want to experience me, then you're gonna understand and you're gonna connect with me better in the midst of perseverance, whatever it is, whenever it is, whatever area it is. And I started thinking, okay, joy, and and my son, my oldest son, he said, Dad, what are you speaking on Sunday? I said, you know what? God's really just, I think He's trying to teach me this concept of perseverance as part of the process. And I'm I'm really just kind of praying through that. And what does it mean to have joy in the midst of perseverance? And and he says, Oh man, you gotta watch the Apollo Hester clip. I'm like, who's Apollo Hester? Well, he's a high school student. I don't know if there's high school students in here right now, but let me just tell you, I've learned more from my son and this this high school student. He says, Apollo Hester. I love technology because I'm like, who's Apollo Hester? Oh, he's this football player out in Texas, he's a high school student here. Watch that. And that's all it takes. And so I'm looking at him like, get out of town. And this is the perfect. This interview, this less than two minutes interview, is probably one of the most pure examples of joy, perspective, and perseverance. Watch this interview.

I'm out here with Apollos Hester, wide receiver for the Patriots. You guys had one heck of a game tonight. Uh, how'd it go? I mean, it was going a little back and forth. You guys knew it was gonna be a tough dogfight out there, and it was. So, what were you guys able to do to come back and win this thing?

All right, well, at first we started slow, we started real slow. And you know, that's all right, that's okay, because sometimes in life you're gonna start slow. That's okay. We we we told ourselves, hey, we're gonna start slow, we're gonna keep going fast, we're gonna start slow, but we're always, always gonna finish fast. No matter what the score was, we're gonna finish hard, we're gonna finish fast. Yeah, they had us the first half, I'm not gonna lie. They had us. We weren't defeated, but they had us. But it took guts, it took an attitude. That's all it takes. That's all it takes to be successful, is an attitude. And that's what our coach told us. He said, he said, hey, it's gonna be tough. It's gonna be hard. You're gonna go out there, you're gonna battle, you're gonna fight, you're gonna do it for one, you're gonna do it for one another. Do it for each other, you're gonna do it for yourself, you're gonna do it for us, and you're gonna go out with this win. And we believe that. We truly did. And it's it's an awesome feeling. It's an awesome feeling when you truly believe that you're going to be successful, regardless of the situation, regardless of the scoreboard, you're going to be successful because you put in all the time, all the effort, all the hard work, and you know that it's going to pay off. And if it doesn't pay off, you continue to give God the glory. If you still lose the game, you continue to get each other's back. And that and that's what we realized. Regard when or lose, we realized that we were gonna be alright. It was gonna be okay. We're gonna we're gonna keep smiling. It was awesome. Awesome.

Paul's always got a smile on his face. Talk about attitudes. This guy's got attitude, if you guys can't tell. Uh, we met earlier this week, and uh this was the enthusiasm I saw.

Yes, ma'am. Hey, you can do anything you put your mind to. Never give up on your dreams. Keep smiling, no matter what you're going to, if you fall down, just get up. If you can't get up, your friends are there to help you up. Your mama's there, your daddy's there, God's there, and I'm there to help you up. You're there, man. It's gonna be alright. Just keep smiling.

You gotta go back and watch that clip on YouTube because right after that they kick you back to the studio, and there's these two anchors, and literally they're like. And one of them goes, Man, I I don't know if he's ever gonna make it a football, but I want to go run through a wall right now. Where's that? And what I love about this attitude is it wasn't about we won, thank you, Jesus, for letting us win. It was, it doesn't matter what happens. That I'm we're gonna persevere. And the joy that he just exudes of, you know what, it doesn't matter what the scoreboard says, it doesn't matter if we win or lose because we've got each other, and God's gonna help us get back up. There's a bigger purpose than this, and this is just what it's about is perseverance. It's part of the process, not an ending point. Now, I share that with us to see a visual of what that's like, but I'm not here to just make this a pep rally. It's not about going, okay, all right, I'm ready to go. Let's go run through a wall, let's do this. Because the point of this area, this opportunity of perseverance is to experience God in the midst. I want us to get very honest for a second, very honest with ourselves. What am I going through right now? What is my frustration? Am I overwhelmed, my trial, whatever it is. And if I'm honest with God to say, you know what? I know I need to persevere and I'm trying my best, but I'm worn out. And God, I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know what's there. I want you to listen to what Jesus says about in the midst of perseverance. In the midst of it, what he wants us to do in the midst of it. In Matthew chapter 11, verses 28 through 30. This is Jesus speaking. This is come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. See, it's our choice. He's saying, Choose me. And he says, Learn from me. I've got the answer for whatever you're going through. Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. And I would say this if you're going through it right now, if you would say, I am weary, I'm I'm burdened, then Jesus says, You qualify. You qualify. But you have a choice to make. I have a choice to make. Do you want to experience me in the midst of where you are right now? Do you want to experience me? Because I'm here, but it's your choice. Take my yoke upon me, upon you, learn from me. Because I've got the answers, I've got the wisdom for this. I'd shared uh last time I was here kind of the ABCs of dealing with sin, and it talks about sin and cast off the entanglements to us. And that ABC was elementary. It was simply admit, admit that it's sin. And for those of us who are believers that struggle, admit, I don't know, admit that it's sin, believe what Jesus did, that he died on a cross, he paid the price in full, and then cling to Jesus and God and the Holy Spirit, cling to him in the midst of that. Well, this is the advanced elementary version of that. If we will be so honest to take where we're struggling right now, and be honest too, admit the temptation, admit the frustration, admit the overwhelmingness. If we will admit that, and then the B is believe his power. Believe the power that raised Christ from the dead really does live in me once I've accepted Christ. I really do believe that that power is within me. When we take communion each week, that blood that was spilled, that blood is the power that raised Christ from the dead, lives in me, and then cling to that power. Cling to that power. Now, to get to that, I've got to give a very simple illustration here, real quickly, of what that really looks like and that means. Um, this ball is gonna represent you and me. We're this we're just a ball, all right? There's nothing special about it, we're just here. This is an inanimate object, and this is our soul's condition before we meet Christ. We're just here. If we're in a church, it doesn't make it a Christian ball. If I put it in my Bible and rub it, it doesn't make it a Christian ball. There has to be a decision that's made to have life. If we turn off the lights, and we will in a second, but if uh if we turn off the lights, I can hold this up. You couldn't see it because it's inanimate. There's nothing in this. But here's what God says, and I want you to read a couple verses, because this Jesus says, Truly or verily I tell you, if it is for your good that I'm going away, just as Jesus is about to ascend, he says, unless I go away, the advocate, the Holy Spirit, will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will prove to the world to be wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment. And to put it in a positive way, that as I've read through this, he says, I'm gonna show you what is sin, what's going to kill you and destroy you and ruin your life. I'm gonna show you what that is. That's what the Holy Spirit, God within me does. He says, I'm gonna show you what's righteousness and what's gonna be right and wrong, what's gonna allow you to have the best life possible. And I'm gonna show you judgment, I'm gonna give you wisdom to know how to discern every situation, but it's your choice to depend on that. Now, here's where the transformation takes place. When we get to the point where we say, Okay, God, I've heard about you, I've been around your people, I've been through your word, I've started to read and I see it. I believe you are who you say you are. We have a choice to make. In 1 John it says that he who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God, Jesus, does not have life. We're inanimate. He says, I write these things to you, believe in the name of the Son of God so that you can know that you have eternal life. In other words, his word saying, if you want that, here it is. In the book of John, chapter one, it says, To as many as receive him, those he gave the right to be called the children of God. Receive him, accept that. You'll see if you start reading through the New Testament, you'll see this phrase a lot. Repent and be baptized. Repent, be baptized. Repent simply means, okay, I'm inanimate. I understand I've been in control. God, I want to accept your love, accept your wisdom, accept all that's within me, and I want to accept your forgiveness. And baptize. You'll see it up here. If you come here more than once, you'll see that we have a little baptism over here. And here's what happens in baptism. We literally, we, it's a visual of dying to ourself and becoming something different. Becoming something different. Now that wasn't a magic trick, there's another ball in there, but it was. But this ball is different. This ball is different. Now, I've often thought, and I was literally, as I was praying through the perseverance part and all that, I'm like, God, I I get the overall idea, but there's God the Father, you'll hear God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit, and you hear them all mixed up. I'm like, God, I kind of get the idea, and this is what kind of God brought to my mind. If I were to say, in one word, describe what is this? This is a what? A light. It's a light. Well, then here's my question This beam that comes out, what is that? It's light, it's a manifestation. Manifestation of the light. Let me read a verse. I love this in Hebrews 1. It says, the sun is the radiance of God's glory, the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. In other words, this God the Creator, this Jesus the light. Okay? That's it. Now here's the cool part. I want you to, I'm gonna hold this ball up, and here's the deal. Okay, go ahead and turn the lights off. This is us, this ball here. Now, as it goes dim, you can turn the ones off up here too. Okay, can you see that? Okay, even if it's around it, there's it's just it's dead. But here's the cool part. Look at this one. There's a glow. There's something about that in there. Now, here's the cool part. What happens is God the Father shone his light, and when we receive Christ, what happens is that he begins to invade. And the more that we encounter the Holy Spirit within us, the more that we seek God, the more it illuminates what's already there, His Spirit within us. To where the more we're there, now look how bright that is. That is the Spirit within us. So go ahead and turn on the lights. I want to show something really, really cool. So the first is the idea of perseverance. Perseverance. There's another experiential way to experience God, another opportunity, if you will, to experience God. And that is through pause. The pause of honesty, the pause of obedience. And let me give some very specifics in that area. As a Christian, once we accept Christ, we become alive in Him. We become alive in Him. But then we have more choices. Do I want to experience, expose myself to God? The level I expose myself to God is the level that I experience His fullness. It's in there, but it's got to come out. I'll give you a couple examples. I sat back a couple weeks ago at another church and they talked about giving and tithing. And I've probably heard this verse a thousand times. But I'd never heard this particular word. It says, God is saying in, I think it's Malachi, where he says, Why do you, why do you steal from me? How are we stealing from you? He says, in tithes. And as believers, it's like, okay, what does that mean? And then he said this: he said, bring the whole tithe into the storehouse. And the pastor made the note. He says, when he says bring, we're not asking for a gift. It's not saying give a whole tithe. It says bring the tithe. It's already mine. It's all mine. But I want you to bring the tithe to acknowledge me as being in control of everything. And I was like, wow. And he made the differentiation, and it's something that's part of our culture here. We do not take, if you're here for the first time or the first few times, we don't take an offering. We don't. We receive an offering. We receive the tithe and offering at these different posts, those are the giving stations, and we receive that. And it's an issue between you and God if you're a believer to go, hey, am I bringing my tithe to God? And here's the deal: we struggle and we grapple and we go, God, I don't know if I can live off of that. And you heard this beautiful story today already. And that was, we didn't even know each other was going to go that way. And it was like, okay, we're going to bring this tithe and bring this. That's awesome. And that grapple, we're like, God, I don't know, no. I don't, it's per it's personal. And that's a Sabbath. God says there's another pause where he says, take a day off. And I've I grappled this for years, going, okay, God, what do I do here? I don't know if I can take a full day off, and I don't know what that looks like. And I grappled for a long time. But anytime I come and struggle with God, he's like, that's the point. It's not that we're perfect, it's that perseverance is a process. Pauses in the midst of that to where we go, God, help me. It's gathering together. It says, don't forsake the gathering together of yourselves. And we do that on a regular basis, whether it's a small group, and I love the trees out there, those are awesome. Great example of gathering together. Don't forsake that. Why? Because something happens that empowers us and enlightens us at that point that we become more and more energized. The spirit, the truth comes out in that. And I want to give one other one. And that is honesty. Be honest to God. Literally. Whatever areas that frustration, when we take the time to go, you know what? I'm going to be honest. I'm going to be honest with God and say, wait a minute. I Lord, I'm struggling here. I heard that sermon a couple weeks ago, and I'll use this in just a second. Of God's riches and his acceptance and his love, and I'm sitting there and I'm literally listening, going, Wow, I know it's true, but God, I gotta be honest. I struggle with the acceptance part because I know who I am and I know I screw up. And I don't get that. And when I talked about the opportunities, I'll tell you what was going on in my mind at that moment. It flashed to the day before. Friday night I had a show in Topeka, Kansas, and I was doing that. And when I landed, I called the host. I said, Hey, I'm on the ground in Ken in uh Kansas City. I'm driving over, and they said, Oh man, uh, glad you called. I don't know if you heard or not. It's gonna snow. I'm like, okay, or are you not gonna have the the dessert and the thing tonight? Oh no, we're having it. Just wanted to let you know because we know you're from Georgia and y'all don't do so great in snow. And I was just like, I'm like, really? And he goes, no, seriously. I'm like, okay, I think I'm gonna be all right. Do they clear the roads here? He goes, oh yeah, we clear. I'm like, okay, I'll be there. He says, but you know, sometimes that affects flights, and I'm like, okay. And instantly my mind went to the next day. And I got on my phone and I looked and I saw that it was gonna hit about nine o'clock the next morning. So I changed my hotel back to Kansas City so I'd be right by the airport. And I looked at my 10 o'clock flight, and I got on, I'm like, oh, I want to do this. So I got on a six o'clock flight because I wanted to get home. And as much as I love travel and airports, I do not like to spend entire days in airports. So I'm like, I do not want to be there when this hits. So I got the early flight. Why? Because. Because my middle son said, Dad, can we? Yes. Whatever it is, yes. And see, he has this little sideline business where he paints the lines for basketball courts. If you get a basketball court and you're like, oh, well, I wonder what the real true dimensions are and the three-point line, he does that. And he hires me to help him. And I mean, he pays like 10 bucks an hour. It's awesome. And so I knew he had one set up for that Saturday, and I'm like, I do not want to miss this. I really don't. I want to be with him. And I sat there in the back of the church. I thought about the day before that Saturday, and I thought, God, that's the greatest joy of my life is to get to do something like that with my son, where he gets to have a part-time job, and he's so, I mean, he just took the initiative, and I'm so proud of him, and I just love that. And as that's flooding through my mind, as I sat back in the back on the on the left, God just kind of whispered in my heart, Ken, do you really think you love your son more than I love you? And I had a moment of just gut level honesty. I'm like, God, honesty? Yeah. Sometimes I do. Sometimes I do. I know that you died for my sins, and I I love that, and I believe that. And I believe that you everything you said, but sometimes I feel like, yeah, I love him more than you love me. And you know what? I didn't feel condemned at that moment. And I can't explain it other than it was an experience, individual, intimate at that moment, where God just whispered in my heart, then I'm gonna show you. And I I can't tell you, I can't tell you all the details because you wouldn't understand. But for the next two weeks, I've experienced these little moments where I'm like, huh. God thanks for that. That was kind of cool. And it would make no sense to you, but it was an experience where I'm walking and I'm experiencing God's acceptance of me and his help for me and his power in me. See, because here's the deal. Go ahead and kill the lights one more time. Because I don't want us to miss this. This is really, really cool. When we get honest with God, he says, seek and you'll find. This is what that looks like. It's there. But every time we come, whether it's just having a quiet time for a few minutes and getting honest with God, and then we say, God, but yeah, I don't I do feel this way. God, I know your truth. And I honestly, I really do believe your truth over my feelings, but I want to be honest about my feelings. And God's not afraid of that. He says, seek and you'll find. And God, I want to be obedient, but Lord, this is the best I can do right now, but I want to be obedient and I don't understand it all, but I want to. And thank you for your patience. Thank you that perseverance is a process. And Lord, I I do, God, you know what, Lord, I did sleep in that one Sunday, and I'm not condemned. And you, you, you didn't condemn me, but Lord, every time I come back, you literally just you just continue to pour into me to where I become more and more and more experiencing your power. Because it's not this ball that has the power, it is the light that is in this ball absorbed to that. You can turn the lights on. My oldest son is a great example, and I don't know where the students are this morning, but just realize we learn from you on a regular basis. My son had kind of one of those pause perseverance moments. He came home after a rough day at school. How was school? Oh, it was hard. He says, Dad, but can I tell you what happened? I said, Yeah. He says, I came out of AP, advanced, whatever. It's one of those classes that when I was in school, I didn't even know where in the school they were. Okay. I was never invited to those classes. And he's taking this level that, you know, I get some kind of college credit and just and just this brainiac class. He says, Dad, I walked out and it was like a quiz, and I'm like, wow, that was hard. And he said, and one of my friends, who's a girl, she goes, Well, you look terrible. And he goes, I know, it's just really, really hard. She said, Well, maybe you bit off more than you could chew. And he says, Dad, I don't know where it came from. But I just looked at her and I went, hey, I would rather choke on greatness than nibble on mediocrity. Wow. I said, You said that? And he was like, I know, right? I said, I don't know where it came from. And I'm like, I do. I said, when we expose ourselves to something beyond ourselves, that God, in the moments where we need it the most, will give us this perspective that we need if we'll just continue to trust him. So here's my here's my challenge for us. If I really do want to be a life that's changing, a changing life, changing others, it's going to be my part. My part is to expose myself in the midst of perseverance. It's to pause in the midst of those areas where whether I, and you can add a million to those, but those are the ones where God says, hey, I'm here. And when you struggle, that's not a bad, that's a good. Because that means you're coming to my presence going, God, I don't understand. I don't know if I can. And he's like, I know, you can't. Stop trying to do it on your own. It's it's me in you, through you, that makes this happen. So I have two challenges. One, that if if whatever we're persevering through, or whatever we're struggling with, realize that is the opportunity to experience God to the full. And if you're here this morning and you're just thinking, man, you know what? I'm here in this. I've got some questions. Please ask me or Justin or somebody at one of the desks out there. We're here to answer questions, but maybe you're one that's like, you know what? I get it. I want to do that whole repent and baptize thing. I believe God is who He says. I want to, I feel like this. I feel like I've been around it, but I want that life within me. It is it is a simple prayer of going, God, please come into my life. I accept you, I receive you, and I want to be baptized. They do the, we do the baptisms over here about once a month now. There's as you go out on the left, there's a big screen that says baptism sign up. You can sign up. Be be sure to look at the clipboard though, because there's like baptism signups, and right next to it is crochet and and knitting or something. And it'd be really weird for you to be in that class going, I thought there was water involved. This is weird. Okay, so it's the baptism one. But um again, if you have don't don't stop seeking, get in the light and let God fill us up. Let's pray, and then I want these guys to just sing us, let us have a time to do that. Father, thank you. Thank you for your amazing word. But even more than that, Lord, you are the word become life. Thank you, God creator, that you made this place and you give us this opportunity. You you became flesh and became Jesus to live the perfect example. And then you sent us your being to live within us. And Lord, I pray that if there's somebody that doesn't know you, they would see just that's where life comes from. But Lord, for those of us who do, that we would realize if we're dim, it's because we're not engaging you with our struggles and the perseverance, and you want to give us a lighter burden. And you want to walk with us. Thank you and change us into who you made us to be in Christ's precious name. Amen. Thanks for letting me share. Um, dwell on that. See you next time.