Good morning. It is a good morning being together, being with God. It's a little chilly in here. I think uh Jeff said that uh we need God to set a fire in our hearts, and a small fire down here might be uh might be good as well. But it'll warm up about 1115, I am sure. So if it's your first time here, uh we're really glad you're here. Hope you can tell you can just uh relax and and be yourself. Uh this morning is the first morning that we've had uh the junior high group meet over in the student area. And so if you're in uh sixth through eighth grade and you'd like to join them, uh it's not too too late to run over there. Uh our great high school group uh gets back uh together starting this Wednesday. That's a uh that's a move from Thursday nights to Wednesday nights, and so uh seven o'clock here Wednesday night, they'll get uh kicked off for the year. Um in a week from Wednesday, I think February 1st, uh we're gonna um start Wednesday night at his hands. We got great groups and great uh classes planned for that night. It's gonna be every Wednesday in February and every Wednesday in March. It'll be nine weeks, and uh it's gonna be kind of like an event this time. Each week uh we have child care. Uh we're gonna have live music in the coffee shop from eight to nine each week, and and just great groups and classes. And they'll all go to about eight, maybe eight thirty uh for some of them at at the longest, and then uh if we want, we can all hang out in the in the uh coffee shop together and listen to uh music. Um remind you about giving, it's uh thank you for your generosity, and we're getting to do something together and and with God and making a big a big impact together. Uh the giving stations are in the back, you can give online, but there's also prayer request cards um along the back as well. And so if there's anything that you need prayed for, um please uh please write it down on the card and put it in the box. We got a whole team that prays for each of those requests every week, and we're seeing great answers to those uh requests. And every Sunday uh in the back, if you go outside these doors, just to the left is the prayer room. And every Sunday there's members of the prayer team in there that would love uh to pray with you afterwards as well. Um I want to let you know that we've got a uh new God story next week. Uh really excited to show it to you. You don't want to miss it. Um if you know anyone who is struggling and needs encouragement, please bring them next week. And uh especially if you know someone who is sick and needs uh God's help and his healing, um, invite them to be with you next week. It'll be it'll be a great Sunday. Let's pray. So, Father, we praise you. Thank you for being such a great God, adopting each of us as your own kids. We praise you for that. Holy Spirit, we just thank you for being our teacher and counselor. And so please just teach each of us something today. And Jesus, we just uh thank you for saving us, for being our friend and our brother. It's in your name we pray. Amen. Well, what if we could know? I mean, if we could know that 2012 is going to be a great year. And we pray for it, we hope it will be. Um, what if we could know? Susan and I were talking uh Friday night, and she told me something that she had shared with the worship team when they practiced on Thursday, and um, and something that God had put on her heart for the year. And what she told me was so right on and and uh and so much better than what I was planning to share, that uh I think I'm gonna paraphrase it uh best I can uh for us this thing, or for us this morning, that external things like the economy or political outcomes, or even more personal things like our health and our jobs won't dictate whether or not 2012 is a great year for each of us. We want to prosper in every way. But what is most important is that this year is a prosperous year for our souls. Now, soul sounds kind of like a churchy word. I guess it is kind of a churchy word. Um, but what what it is, it's it's our personality, it's the way we think about things, it's the way we feel about things, what our perspective is on things. You know, it's us inside as a person. So in like the song we sang Restless, okay, that's a soul song. You know, it it it's describing how we're feeling inside and asking God to, you know, I've got that on my iPhone, and when I've getting got too much going on and I'm feeling stressed out, then I'll listen to that song because I need help in my soul, you know, the way I'm feeling, the way I'm thinking, my perspective, the way I'm seeing things. And we can have a great life on the outside and feel like our life is awful if our soul's not healthy and prosperous. We can also have challenges on the outside and yet be happy and thankful if we're healthy and prosperous on the inside. So a great year for each of us is going to come internally, God's spirit inside of us. That's grown to be a little more like Jesus, us choosing to respond to things in certain ways, and we and Jesus can do that, and if that's what we decide, God will do the heavy lifting for us. If we depend on everything going well for us to be happy, we're in big trouble. We live in a jacked-up world, and we're gonna face hard things. I mean, Jesus told us, He says, I've told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world. So 2012 could end up being a mixed bag for us, but it can still be a great year as we prosper on the inside. I thought I was gonna be a little more tired uh this morning than I am, because I planned to stay up until at least midnight watching the end of the Broncos Patriots game. Um as it turned out by halftime I was uh could go to bed. But um I mean the reason I wanted to watch the game, like a lot of people, was to see how Tim Tebow played. Um we all may be a little tired of hearing about Tim, but uh to me it is really encouraging and says something about our country that a young man like him would be the most popular athlete in America. Um what has captured people is his faith, it's his humility, it's his love for other people, and it's also his relentlessly positive outlook on life. People don't know who who don't know Jesus are having a hard time getting their minds wrapped around what's going on, what's the deal with uh with him. They think that he is asking God to help him win football games. Um I've heard him say many times that he's never asked God to help him win a football game. It but it's his relationship with Jesus that gives him the courage and peace and confidence and leadership to win football games. You see, it's a different thing. It's it's it's his soul. It's his relationship with Jesus that makes him strong on the inside. He said, I don't have to live the roller coaster, other people live with my life. It's hard because people try to have an effect. I try to stay centered in my faith and my family and the close people around me. And so people criticize him. He's actually gotten criticized a lot. Somehow he finds a way to take it as a compliment. Um, there's a guy that used to be the quarterback of the Broncos. And he said, well, he might be a winner, but and he goes on this diatribe about his deficiencies and about uh how it annoys him. He's so forward with his faith and all this type of stuff. And so they asked him what he thought about that comment. He said, Man, for a guy like that to call me a winner, that's a huge compliment. Um and and he does that every single time. Um, win or lose, he has the same positive attitude. Last night, it's probably the biggest game of his life, the most watched NFL playoff game in history, they were saying. Um and he and he didn't play well. And uh at the post-game press conference, he said, it still was a good day because before the game I got to spend time with Zach McLeod and make him smile. Overall, when you get to do that, it's still a positive day and a good day. Sometimes it's just hard to see, but it depends what lens you're looking through. I choose to look through those lenses, and I got to make a kid's day, and anytime you do that, it's more important than winning the game. So I'm proud of that. See, what people see in him is a prosperous soul, a healthy soul. Our souls, us inside, can prosper, can be healthy no matter what our circumstances are. And Peter said, friends, when life gets real difficult, don't jump to the conclusion that God isn't on the job. Read that again. When life gets real difficult, because I know right now life's real difficult for some of us, when it gets real difficult, don't jump to the conclusion that God isn't on the job. Be glad that you're in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process with glory just around the corner. James, he was Jesus' younger brother. He said, Consider it a sheer gift, friends. When tests and challenges come at you from all sides, you know that under pressure your faith life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well developed and not deficient in any way. What makes for a good, joyful, fulfilling life is what God does with us on the inside. We all know people that live like that. I know many people here that do. If you knew them well, you'd be surprised at what's going on in their lives, the struggles they have, but you wouldn't know because they're just so positive and happy and giving all the time. I'm gonna give you two quick examples. Uh the first person is part of his hands in an extended sort of way because we read uh what he wrote, and that's Paul. And so he's gonna be an honorary part of his hands. But uh in 2 Corinthians, he describes his externals, his circumstances. He says, I've worked much harder, been jailed more often, beaten up more times than I can count, and at death's door, time after time. I've been flogged five times with the Jews, 39 lashes, beaten by Roman rods three times, pummeled with rocks once, I've been shipwrecked three times, immersed in the open sea for a night and a day, in hard traveling year in and year out. I've had to ford rivers, fend off robbers, struggle with friends, struggle with foes, I've been at risk in the city, at risk in the country, endangered by desert sun and sea storm, and betrayed by those I thought were my brothers. I've known drudgery and hard labor, many a long and lonely night without sleep, many a missed mill, blasted by cold, naked to the weather. And that's not half of it. When you throw in the daily pressures and anxieties of all the churches, when someone gets to the end of his rope, I feel the desperation in my bones. When someone is duped into sin, an angry fire burns in my gut. That's pretty rough. I mean, those were Paul's externals, those were his circumstances, but they weren't his life. Paul describes his life in Philippians 4. Actually, I don't have a sense of needing anything personally. I learned by now to be quite content, whatever my circumstance. I'm just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I've found the recipe I've found the recipe for being happy, whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the one who makes me who I am. Paul's got a prosperous soul. He's not the only one. Uh there are many people here today that are so encouraging. Uh one of them uh to me is Dan Bailey. Uh if you don't know Dan, you might have seen Phelps. Um Phelps is uh Dan's guide dog, and uh they're sitting right over here where they usually uh where they usually sit. Dan lost his sight as a young man. He also had a battle with a very serious life-threatening disease that God healed him from. He and his wife Angela have six children. They're about to add number seven. Their four most recent children are Aspen, who they adopted from China, Avalon, who they adopted from Vietnam, Anja, who they adopted from China, and I think they just found out yesterday they got traveling permission and they'll be going to China in three weeks to bring home their newest daughter, Aniston Hope. Um I want to show you the last few minutes of Dan's God story.

I am so blessed. I'm so blessed. I have a wonderful wife, a good, godly, brave woman who's been married to me for 26 years. Um we have uh six children and uh a wonderful home. I've got a great job. I'm so thankful for being gainfully employed, uh especially in the economy uh that we're in. And so it's kind of funny because I travel so much that, and of course, Phelps is a rock star everywhere we go. Everybody says, you know, wants to say hello to him or pet him, and of course ask about him, what's his name, and uh, how old is he, and how long have we been together. And uh that of course opens up the opportunity to talk uh with that person about Phelps, and then of course the easy segue is into who I am in my life and um how blessed I am, uh my wife Angela and our children, and and just what God has done in our lives in regards to adopting uh our precious daughter Aspen from China in June of 06, and our our uh full of life and energy daughter uh Avalon from Vietnam uh last April, and now we have the privilege of adopting uh Anya from China, uh, and we'll probably receive travel approval this October. I mean it just tickles me because these people seeing me, I I I imagine the folks in the airport as they walk, as they watch me walk down the hallway, you know, being led by Phelps, and I'm I'm trying to find the right gate and find my chair and get settled in. And I imagine I can I can hear them thinking, oh, the poor blind guy. And yet, if they could trade places with me, if they knew what my life was like and the blessings I experience on a daily basis, I guarantee you they would give up their sight. And and I know the way that sounds, I'm not saying that because of my sight loss, because of my visual impairment, I am who I am or where I am, it's only because of God and his grace. It's because of God's love and the path that he has laid out for me, and that if I just wake up in the morning and say, Father, I want to listen and I want to obey, lead me. Uh, and if I had to lose my sight to get to this place of dependence on him, then thank God for it.

So we we first showed that about I think a year and a half ago, and I I emailed Dan yesterday to let him know I wanted to show that snippet, and they were at Chuck E. Cheese, and so I figured if you can survive Chuck E. Cheese, you can make it through just about anything. But when we were uh taping that, I uh I asked Dan if he was looking forward to being able to see in heaven. And and I thought that the answer to that was uh was obvious. And what he said was no. That it really didn't matter to him either way, that he couldn't imagine being any happier or blessed than he is now. That is possible for all of us to have a life of joy, whatever the circumstance, to prosper on the inside. And there's three great examples a 24-year-old football player, Paul, and Dan. And I want to be like that. I know we all do, but how? How does that happen? How can we be so filled up internally that the externals don't always dictate our lives? Jesus gives us an idea in Matthew 6. He says, Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body's a dank cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have. Jesus is not talking about obviously our physical eyes letting light into our physical bodies. He's talking about what we focus on, how we see things lights up our whole being. If we're selfish and cynical, we shut down. If we see God and the good in life, we light up. That's exactly what Tebow was talking about when at the press conference last night, when he said you choose the lens that you look through, and through my lens, this was a really good day. Our eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. Paul tells us how he learned to be what he did, how he lived, to be content in all those rough circumstances. He says, celebrate God all day, every day. I mean revel in him. Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you're on their side, working with them, not against them. Help them see that the master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute. Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life. Summon it all up, summon it all up, friends. I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious, the best, not the worst, the beautiful, not the ugly. Things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw, and realized that. Do that. And God who makes everything work together will work you into his most excellent harmonies. Paul says, celebrate God every day. You know, if we choose to, we can see God everywhere. Even the Bible says that we don't need the Bible to believe in God. We can just look at his creation. We can look all around us. We can see we can see God in each other. We're created in his image. We can see God in art and music and nature. Paul says, let people know we are on their side. You know, my life experience has taught me that people that mistreat other people are the most miserable people I've ever known. You know, snap at a waiter or a waitress. Don't thank people when they help them. We have to choose to let people know they are valuable and that we are for them. Let them know about Jesus. You know, it's uh it's kind of scary to talk to somebody about Jesus, but there's a supernatural thing that happens. I mean, when we share Jesus with someone, the joy that brings is indescribable. It's an excitement and it's a joy that's good for our souls. Paul says when we start worrying, pray, because it will calm down, and that's absolutely true. I know that uh sometimes I don't think the prayer. Until I've exhausted all my other ideas, you know? And um and it might be something really serious, and I might be really uh stressed out about it. But when I stop and pray, I literally calm down, you know. I mean, physically even. Just okay, settle down. I know God's got this. I know this is gonna work out. Okay, okay. And Paul says, summing it up, be overwhelmingly positive. Look for the good in everything. In every situation and in every person, we have a choice to see the good. This isn't uh Tony Robbins, this isn't psychocyber goofinetics or anything like that. I mean, this is the word of God. Be overwhelmingly positive. And uh I'm gonna ask permission to step on some toes. You know, I think that for us to grow and for God to change us, it starts by being humble. And we all know that we all are in process and that God's working with us, all of us, on different types of things. Um but here is a tip-off if this is the area that God can help you grow in. It's if you consider yourself a realist. I'm very serious about this. If you describe yourself as a realist, because we all have a choice. We can look at people and we can look at situations and we can see the good and we can see the bad and we can analyze that and be a realist. Or we can look at people and we can look at situations and we can look for the good in the person. We can look for the good in the situation and we can be happy. That's the choice. Paul says, be overwhelmingly positive, always look for the good. It's good for our souls. You know, the best training ground with anything is always our families, you know, our spouses, our children, those closest to us. If I can just choose to see the good, find things to praise, appreciate how Susan is wired differently than me. Um, see the great things in her. Live an overwhelmingly positive life. Paul says then if we will do those things, we'll get in sync with God. You know, he'll get us into his harmonies. It's a struggle for most of us. But it's not just on us, it's a Holy Spirit thing. It's hard to explain, but it's so powerful. There's uh some verses that I share a lot. It's probably one of our favorites. But it comes right after God talking about uh, or Paul talking about how great God's love is, how it's even too great to understand, how he is not mad at you, how he has not given up on you, how he's not disappointed even in you, that he loves you. His love is so wide, so high, so deep. It's so great. And then he goes on to say, God can do anything, you know, far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams. And he does it not by pushing us around, but by working within us, his spirit deeply and gently within us. You know, our Father, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, they're so in alignment that they're described as one. And they do the hardest part. They'll work together to change us, to heal us, to grow us. And so if that's an area we're like, you know what, I just don't always see the good. We just ask God to help us, to change us, you know, open the windows a little bit, let in the light. But we have to choose. This is the thing, is we have to make that choice. We have to choose to celebrate God every day, to let people know that we're on their side, let them know about Jesus when we start worrying. Remember to pray and summon it all up, Paul said. Be overwhelmingly positive. Look for the good in everything and everyone. 3 John 1 says, I pray for good fortune in everything you do, and for your good health, that your everyday affairs prosper as well as your soul. See, we want to prosper in every way, don't we? I mean, we want this just to be a great year in every way. You know, with our health, with our jobs and our careers and our businesses. We're gonna pray for that and we're gonna ask for that. But no matter what, our souls can prosper. We can prosper in here. And 2012 will be a great year. So we're gonna stop there, and if the worship team will come up, let's stand, we'll get ready to sing one last song together, please. You know, connecting with Jesus is so life-changing and yet so simple. Um, it's just a matter of, in your own words, in your own way, crying out to him whatever's on your heart. You know, it might be help me, save me, it might be I'm sorry, it might be change me, it might be I've made a mess of my life. Could you clean me up? I mean, it could be anything that we just cry out to him and uh and ask him to come into our life. And then something inside happens. We're created with the spirit, it comes alive, it connects with God's spirit, and the process begins. Start changing from the inside out. And so this year, we don't have to live with too much worry about bad things happening. And we don't have to get too worked up like we do sometimes anticipating good things happening. We know that no matter what, we can prosper in here. So let's pray. Father, we praise you. Thank you again for being such a great father, for loving us and adopting us. Uh Holy Spirit, I just thank you. To ask you to stir up our hearts. Uh help us to be all those things that we talked about, to see life and people uh the way you do. And we ask that you would bless each of us. All of us have different things going on in our lives. We all have different needs. And I know you love each of us, so please just give us everything that we need, but especially a healthy soul and a close relationship with you. Jesus, it's in your name we pray. Amen.