From Lament To Laughter: Remembering God’s Goodness And Naming His Gifts

Laughter after longing is more than a mood; it’s a marker of grace. We open Psalm 126 and watch a people who sowed in tears come home with shouts of joy, then ask what it looks like to live that pattern now: thank what God has done, savor His gifts without suspicion, and share the story so others can see the Giver clearly. From there we get practical—remembrance as obedience, not nostalgia—drawing on Joshua’s stones to shape simple habits that keep our hearts soft and our witness strong.

I walk through the year’s living “stones”: hearts ignited by Scripture, a wave of baptisms spanning quiet lifelong faith to fresh conversions, and a growing culture of post‑service prayer that carries both burdens and celebrations. Among us, ordinary devotion has multiplied—kids learning to pray, students leading younger peers in the Word, and a foster and adoption ministry that mobilized meals, cars, and hands‑on care without fanfare. It’s the Acts 2 way: teaching, fellowship, shared meals, and prayer producing surprising fruit over time.

Beyond our walls, generosity helped encourage pastors abroad, deliver eye care alongside the gospel to tens of thousands, and fuel church planting across the U.S. and around the world. Not to boast in output, but to celebrate that God weaves ordinary faithfulness into extraordinary reach. The final turn lands close to home: after naming how God met our desires, we ask how we might give Him one of His. Prayer, presence, service, witness—choose one and build with us on this playground under construction until Christ returns.

If you want to learn more about the MidTree story or connect with us, go to our website HERE or text us at 812-MID-TREE.

Transcript

Reading Psalm 126

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Please turn in your Bibles to Psalm 126, which is on page 517, in the Pew Bibles, and follow along as I read God's Word. When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream, that our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongues with shouts of joy. Then they said among the nations, The Lord has done great things for them. The Lord has done great things for us, we are glad. Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like streams in the Negeb. Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy. He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him. This is the word of the Lord.

Post‑Christmas Energy Check And Setup

Thank, Savor, Share: The Psalm 126 Pattern

Celebration Without Suspicion Of Loss

Stones Of Remembrance And Obedience

Interactive Gratitude: Three Questions

Guarded From Pride, Fear, And Drift

What God Has Done In Us: Baptisms And Prayer

What God Has Done Among Us: Kids, Youth, Care

Ordinary Devotion, Extraordinary Fruit

Will Hawk 1:25

Amen. Thanks, Liz. If you guys have that text in front of you, just hold on to it for a minute. I know y'all are used to me uh throwing stuff on the screen. The reason is I'm I'm gonna ask you a question about that verse, and I want to see if anybody has a really good memory. But before we do, just a quick question. I'm only gonna give you two options. If you are neither of the two, that's okay. You don't have to vote at all. The Sunday prior to Christmas, when you're the guy up here, the Sunday prior to Christmas, everybody has a twinkle in their eye. Okay. I just need you to know that. Christmas Eve, the kids are here, pajamas. I don't know if you know this or not. Sometimes it's fun to look behind the curtain. The Sunday after Christmas, when you are writing that sermon, okay, there is this feeling where you're like, we need to put a little extra caffeine in the coffee. I hope everybody got an extra half of a donut because the pendulum swings one of two places. You are either so excited that Christmas has gone so very well, that your energy is high, or you are like, it's a good thing I didn't get a cushioned pew in the front portion because I would not honor Will this morning with my eyes closed and my mouth open. So out of curiosity, by show of hands, who are full of excitement, energy, and enthusiasm people right now? Let me just see you. I love you. I just need to know who to look at for the next 25 to 35 minutes. Okay. All right. And who is like out of obedience, hanging on by a thread, but it is a Sunday, and I am a believer and I am coming to church? I need to know who are those. What's up, everybody? Hey, I want you to know that honors the Lord. The fact that you could have easily woken up, made every excuse, uh, thought about whatever medication you've taken in the past three days, and given yourself the excuse, but you're not and you're here. And so praise God. I'm pumped about that. All right. So this morning, do you guys have uh my slides back there? Um maybe, maybe, nope, yep, perfect. All right, so this morning we're gonna be in Psalm 126. My question is did that opening verse seem at all familiar to you? Psalm 126. If anybody in the room can tell me when we read that verse, I will give you a book right now. Can anybody remember when we read Psalm 126? It was when we were in a particular book of the Bible. And if you get the book of the Bible correct, I will consider that a correct answer on a Sunday like this. It was not Joshua. Ha ha ha. I knew my wait, but I think I heard it. Yeah, yeah, but I heard it from a guy over here first. Who was it? Who said so? Who said Song of Songs? It was a guy over here. Okay, who said Song of Songs? Raise your hand if you got it right. Okay, you have two options. You have John Piper's Money, Sex, and Power, or Developing a Healthy Prayer Life. And you have to pick, you have to pick in front of everybody. Both good. What do you want? You didn't get it right, Lexi. You don't get to pick. Hayden got it right. Oh, Lexi, you got it right. Three things to get right in the Christian life. Way to go, Lexi. All right. When we looked at that verse, we were in the Song of Songs, one of my favorite series that we've ever done, to include my favorite breakout that we have ever done on a Wednesday night as a church. And when we looked at this verse at the beginning of the year, here is what God, here's kind of what I think the Holy Spirit wanted us as a congregation to realize. When God fills a longing, Christians should celebrate by doing three things. And as you read this, I don't want you thinking about romantic love. That's what we were looking at in this series. I just want you thinking over the past year. If that feels like too big of a breadth of a thing for your mind today, over the past month, over the past week, over the past few days, when God fills a longing that any believer has, there are three things that we should do. We should thank him for it, we should savor it, and we should share it. Now I just want you to see this right out of Psalm 126 as we think about this year. The very first thing that we see put on display is it is the Lord who did this. One of my favorite things about Psalm 126 is nobody has any idea what they're thanking God for. It's incredibly vague. When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dreamed. We have no clue. We have no clue if this was something like a Red Sea or a Jordan River being ripped open or walls falling down, victory in battle, health after sickness, hope after destruction. We have no idea. All we know is that Psalm 126, if you're still looking in your Bibles and you look up at the top, you'll see probably in italics a song of ascents. Does anybody see that? Okay, what that means is as God's people were during one of their annual celebrations climbing the hill toward his city, this would have been a song that they sang. Oh God, you have restored to us whatever this vague thing was so that God's people could grab a hold of it and say, when God fills a longing, the first thing that we want to do is we want to thank him for it. What has God done for you this year? And have you simply said thank you? Just so you know, I've intentionally built this Sunday to be fairly interactive. I'm gonna give you a handful of things to do. You're gonna notice some blank uh four by six index cards tucked around you for us to do a little activity as we go halfway through. But for now, this is where I want you. What have you not just simply closed your eyes and said, thanks, God, that you could in this very moment do? Because that is the very first thing that we see in this. The second thing, and Christians, I'll be honest, I think we do this poorly, especially in the streams of theology that many of us swim in. When God brings something good, many of us are waiting for it to go bad or to go away. Like God has given us a good thing just to take it so that we can, in some way, be more disciplined or more whatever. I I would just encourage you, notice the italics on this, if you would. When God did something good for them, they dreamed. They were filled with laughter, they shouted with joy, they were glad. Christian, when God does something good in your life, don't assume he's just doing it to take it away so you can be a more disciplined Christian. Yeah. For every parent in the room, you wanted your kids to run under that tree or whatever it was and be delighted. I can tell you what I bet none of you did. I bet none of you put a bicycle out. And then when your kid got it and went to ride it outside, you kicked the pedals off and said, Life is hard, kid. I just need you to understand, he thought you were pedaling. This is a pushbike now, because life ain't gonna treat you fair. All right. Why do we think that God wants to treat us that way? He loves to bless his children, to give them opportunities to dream and laugh and shout with joy and to be glad. One of the reasons, by the way, I had a full suit for about 15 minutes, and then I got so hot in this beautiful December weather that I had to lose the jacket. The reason I'm wearing this is there was a wedding yesterday that I got to be a part of from Matt and Emily. Thought I would show you. This is where I cue the Oz. Guys, they are the cutest couple, like so adorable. Uh, if you've ever been to Oak Hill Farms, I think I'm saying that correctly, for a wedding, a number of you have. It is the longest processional in Georgia. It's like a quarter mile walk from where the bride is hiding to the front. And like Matt and I are on this jaunt trying to get to the front, and he's up there, and it's time for Emily to come out. Except he can see her if he wants to before he's supposed to see her. Y'all know what I'm talking about at a wedding. You want that bum bum-bum, like that moment. And so he leans over and he says, Will, I know Emily's coming out. I'm just gonna look down for a while. Tell me when I'm supposed to look up. I mean, adorable, beautiful. I I put a little picture of a dove there, and I left our sort of uh our thematic background from Song of Solomon because they wrote their own vows, and part of his were taken from our time in Song of Solomon, and he called her his dove, which I thought was just so awesome. Let me tell you why I'm bringing this up. We spent all these hours in premarriage counseling. Do you know what was not the appropriate thing to do in this moment? Matt and Emily, I'm so glad you're here. Now let's talk about how hard this is going to be. We're gonna spend the next 20 minutes talking about everything that is wrong with you and broken with you. And are you sure you want to do this? This is a big commitment. All of that is real. That was a time to celebrate. Christians, Midry, we have a lot to celebrate this year. I don't want us to kick the pedals off the bike of what God has done for us. And the more a culture believes that God is holding out on them, the more that you believe God wants to knock the pedals off your bike, the more you're gonna miss out on. And so here's what I want to do this Sunday: two things. I want you to look in your own life and find a thankfulness to God that is an obedient issue, obedience issue in the life of a Christian. I want to help you be grateful to God today. And I want you to remember or realize what God has done around us and let's just be filled with joy and filled with gladness as we close the chapter on 2025. Does that sound okay for you guys? Good, because you don't have a choice. I get to write the sermons. All right. Question for you. I told you I was gonna make it interactive. Pull your phones out. Uh, if you're not a phone person, that's all right. That's not a big deal. Uh, if you don't know how a QR code works, ask a young person next to you. If you're about to take a picture of this, you're gonna date yourself. So I want you to begin interacting with this, and I'm gonna show your answers on the screen, and I only have one person scrubbing those answers, so don't you ruin it for everybody. I'm looking at you teenagers, not you Ford, you would never do that. All right. How have you seen the Lord give you one of the desires of your heart this year? Now, not only is this vague, not only does it call us to keep the pedals on the bike and enjoy God's good blessing to us, but I need you to notice what's in the middle of this verse because it is going to cascade us forward in our time this morning. Then they said among the nations, this is the kid who sees the bike and he goes to his neighbor's house and he says, Look how much my dad loves me. Look how much my mom loves me. He goes to school on January, whatever it's gonna be, and he says, My parents cared about me. They they knew what I wanted and they gave me the desires of my heart. They take these blessings and they turn the praise back to the giver of the gift. This is exactly what we see in God's own people. They said among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them, the Lord has done great things for us. We are glad, Christian. Your mouth needs to be filled with praises and encouragement for what it is that the Lord has done. But God's people were not just called to be a living testimony among the nations. By the way, they were a testimony when they sinned and God judged them for it, because it showed the world that God was serious about sin. They were a testimony when they struggled and God supported them because it was a testimony of God's faithfulness to them. They were a testimony to the nations when they succeeded and won because it put on display that it is the Lord who gives them the victory. But when we turn from Song of Solomon to the book of Joshua, one of the things that we learn is that God's people aren't just called to be a testimony to the nations, we're called to be a testimony to ourselves. When all the nation had finished passing over the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, this was God's plan. This is not something that man came. Where's my okay? This was not like Will's idea. Don't you take a picture of me? All right, I'll explain that in a minute. Thomas, the fact that you're here in services completely changes how things go. Yeah. The Lord said to Joshua, Take twelve men from the people from each tribe of man and command them, saying, Take twelve stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan, from the very place where the priest's feet stood firmly. Bring them over with you. And here's what he wanted them to do: put them in the place where you're going to lodge tonight. Now, these were not small stones. The Bible tells us that they had to carry them on their shoulder. So you're thinking about something like a small boulder. Well, why did they do this? Verse six tells us that this may be a sign among you, among God's people, not just to the nations, but a reminder on the inside. When your children ask in time to come, what do these stones mean to you? You shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. Hang on. When it passed over the Jordan, these waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel, to my own people, a memorial forever. And so that's what they did. The people of Israel did just as Joshua commanded. They took up twelve stones out of the midst of the Jordan, according to the number of tribes of the people of Israel, just as the Lord told Joshua. And look at what they did with them. And they carried them over with them to the place where they lodged, and they laid them down there. Now, some of you know what this is. I've explained it a couple of times, but before I go into depth, I need you to understand this reality of theology and God's word. Scripture treats remembrance as obedience, not nostalgia. When we remember a Christmas gone by, it's a nostalgic thing. It's a sentimental thing. For God's people, remembering who he is, remembering what he has done is an act of obedience and worship to him. This is why we see this all over, uh, all over Old Testament, all over the New Testament. Now, Thomas, the reason I just don't want you to have your phone out right now, because I'm constantly concerned that I'm gonna, this is why I can't do stuff like this. I'm afraid I'm gonna end up on like the Instagram page, pastors with props, or preachers with sneakers, because my wife follows one. I don't even know. Do you follow the pastors with props? Cringe level stuff, man. And like this was the most recent one that I saw where they're like pulling a classic car onto the state. I don't want to do that, but every now and then, if I can get Thomas not to take a picture, I'm gonna go back to this. I I want to point out to you that this is one of my favorite things that exists at our home. As I was pulling this out, um, it wasn't easy to do because my wife told me that we had packed it up for Christmas. So I went down to the basement, went through every Christmas box that we had, and it wasn't there. And because I'm a guy, I'm like, I usually miss everything the first time through, anyway. So I went through every box twice. And then this morning she was like, oh, it's off in the corner. I was wrong. And I was like, mm-hmm, Grace, Grace, grace, grace, grace, grace. I stubbed my toe, find it, trying to find it too. Anyway, whenever something big happens in the life of the hawk house, and we're about two behind, we realized it. We take a rock. There's there's nothing hyper-spiritual about this, there's no pixie dust of the Holy Spirit on it. And we just take it and we write on it things like a child coming to faith, things like the youngs moving in next door, and we put it in here because occasionally the kids will want to pull the rocks out. Occasionally, somebody will ask us, why does this exist? It exists because for Christians, remembering things is not sentimental. It's not just nostalgic, it is an act of obedience. Now, I can't, I thought about like having a rock for all of you and a sharpie for all of you, but honestly, I had Christmas this week too. So sorry. But here's what I did: I did get you a note card. And what I want to encourage you to do before we go any further is I want you to answer these three questions. I'm gonna put it up twice. The first one you've already done, and I can't leave this up for a real long time. So the way I would summarize it, if you just want to sketch quickly on that note card that I've left for you. By the way, this is what I would call a youth Sunday. This is how youth group works. You got to keep them moving, man. You got to take notes, Thomas. You got to keep it. The first question is what did you ask for and receive? The second question is, what did you receive you didn't even ask for? And the third question is, what have you asked for, but you have yet to receive? All right. If I were to just summarize it very quickly because I can't leave this up forever. I would like for you to begin this in your own life with a simple note card today. And then I would encourage you to put it so somewhere in your life that you can remember it. So I'll leave that up for just a moment, and then we're gonna see what y'all's answers were to number one. Uh Josiah, you in the room? Okay, he told me he was gonna check your answers. We'll see how that goes. None of us can preach forever. We all get canceled at some point. All right. Oh, good, I get to log in again. Were y'all able to put answers in? Okay, all right, good stuff. Okay, beautiful. There we go. I think I can maybe make it bigger. Let me see. This would be the people that you are sitting with, the stories you don't know, the faces that don't have names, even if they have a name tag under them right now. This would be some of the things that God has done. Great youth ministry. My kids look forward to going. Thomas got one in real early there. Graduation, new degree, work going well, beautiful new home. He's changed. My heart, restored my marriage, read through the Bible with my family. And God, I know everybody wants to look for theirs, but here's the do you do you realize how good God has been to us? And this took us all of about 60 seconds in so many ways, every day filling the desires of my heart. A car was donated, gave us granddaughters, seeing my daughter again, restoration kept my marriage together, growing in my faith. And on and on it goes 120 different responses long. Christians, we are built to be rememberers as an act of obedience. And so when you look at these three things, I just want you to go ahead and begin jotting those down. I'm gonna take this down now. If you need help with it later, I'll put it back up. When we remember that the Lord has done great things for us, it accomplishes something in your soul. It guards you from pride by reminding you that the greatest things in your life and about you you could never bring about. In addition to protecting us from pride, it protects us from fear. If God has done all of this, why would I doubt that he would have more good things in store for me in the future? It also prepares us for obedience. I have walked through a difficult season. It will not be my last one unless Jesus returns or calls me home. If I can be obedient, if God can be faithful, then I can be ready for tomorrow before it even comes. This is one of the gifts of remembering what God has done. And so I'd like for us to look around and do that. Now, I've helped you do that internally. Let me tell you what one man has seen over the past year, what the Lord has done in us, among us, and beyond us. We finish this here in the Gospel of Luke, and one of the last verses we read as a church together was the disciples not realizing they were walking with Jesus, but realizing after he spoke that their hearts were burning within us when he opened the scriptures to them. Have we seen hearts set on fire through God's word? You better believe it. We have seen more people get baptized this year than any year that mid-tree has ever been around. We have had more people with current. Oh, yeah, that's great. Go for it. Praise God. Maya, hi. Um, Daniel, you're about to have a double cameo. Sorry for that. Um, Maya, I just want you to know my wife is praying that you go into active labor right now. Yeah, right now. We have had more people be willing to share their testimonies. And I know y'all are looking at the stage, but give me your eyes for just one minute. I love the fact that you guys do not share vanilla little testimonies. Like you invite people who you do not even know into the dark corners of the closet of the reality of your history because you believe that God displays the light of his gospel most when we talk about our brokenness. Honestly, we have had all kinds of people share. This was the one I Logan, I'm sorry. I had to snap a picture of Logan today because the slide I had for Logan had Maya's picture on it. So Daniel is lovingly looking over Logan in this. And I had to just jot Addison's name in because she got baptized last week and I didn't have time to get the picture up. Why? Because our hearts burn when we read God's word, when Peter says to them, repent and be baptized, every one of you. Do you know that so many of the baptisms that we have at this church are folks whose stories sound like this? I thought I was a Christian, but do you know how hard it is to share that testimony? To look at Christians and say, You thought I was a Christian, I thought I was a Christian, but I need to sort of confess to you that I have only recently begun believing. That's a beautiful testimony. Many of the testimonies that we hear are rock bottom, addiction-riddled testimonies. And then others, like last week, I grew up in a Christian home, barely there's never been a day where I didn't know Jesus. And I was talking with Andrew Cowart a few weeks ago, and he said, Will, it's funny that Christians who go to church think that that testimony is not the good one. They want the drug addicted, strung out, having sex every weekend, testimony. He said, When I hang out with those people, they're more blown away that they've never done those things. He said, They can't believe that's a real testimony. And we've just seen God do incredible things because we believe that we are called to repent and be baptized, every one of us, because when we do it, we are showing that we are being buried in baptism in death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. That's what we have seen God do in us. We've seen that one of the hardest rocks that I have to push at this church, and it's getting easier, by the way, thank you for that, is getting people to pray at the end of service. Y'all probably noticed me ramping up my conversation about that and just saying, hey, nobody assumes if you come down for prayer that you're like caught in addiction or your marriage is ending. What we're assuming is you would like the benefits of praying with God's people for the good, the bad, the difficult, and the confusing. And if you have not been a part of what happens on the other side of this wall, you are missing out. It's a handful of folks who don't know each other well, gathering together and just sharing what God is doing, what they need from the Lord, and praying for one another. It's beautiful, but it's kind of hidden and tucked away. And we've seen more of that than we've ever had. One of my favorite things is the names I can't share. The names I can't share because sin was committed in a legitimate way. And the community came around those people. And they repented of their sin. And they turned away from addiction, they turned away from all kinds of things that would be life-altering, marriage-ending, family-destroying realities. And I can't even tell you those names, but there are more than you would realize. And they are sitting among you right now because God has been gracious. A theme that I've heard from so many people in conversation, not in the room, but around, is my soul has never been more hungry and more full all at the same time. Numerous people memorizing scripture throughout the year, children even sharing it on a Sunday morning, a willingness for people to be stretched and do things in front of a congregation that would be very difficult for us. Praise God for what he has done in us. But that is not all. He has done a lot among us, not just internally, but around us. And before I give you any of those stories, I want to remind you of how ordinary following Christ is to see extraordinarily amazing things happen. This is how the church has always been. So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about 3,000 souls. And they devoted themselves to four things: teaching, fellowship, food together, and prayer. Do you realize how simple that is? Isn't it amazing that there's nothing in here about a building? Isn't it amazing that there's nothing in here about an evangelistic exercise? There's nothing in this about projects. No. It is God's people doing what we have done for 2,000 years. We teach God's word, we meet together, we eat good food, and we pray to the one who knows us and loves us. And what does God do with that? Awe comes upon every soul. Many wonders and signs are done through the apostles. Do you see how ordinary those things are? I I would just take a moment. And I would tell those of you who are longing for God to do extraordinary, extraordinary things in your life to not overcook what God makes very simple. Just get these four things right. Get these four things right. If you need to write them down on the back of your card, write them down on the back of your card. These are the four things that you want to get right. And when we do, God does incredible things. Our church had our first VBS this year, and somehow we found a phone cannon, which to me is a highlight, but I'm supposed to be more spiritual than that. And so I'm grateful that before we opened registration, there were a couple hundred kids basically that were already signed up, and we had to cap it almost as soon as we opened it up. Volunteers showed up out of the woodwork. You know how crazy that is? We have churches call us and say, hey, send us your really good Christians because we're short on volunteers. Just so you know. Like that happens. Mid Tree gets phone calls because our members serve to the tune of 89% serving in a meaningful way. And when we kicked this off, kids filled it up. The gospel was shared. Volunteers were easy to come by. A couple of names I would share. The following people serve in our kids' ministry almost every single week. Carol Buster, Shannon Harrington, Adrian Bray, Jacques Lee, Amy Yeager, Debbie Despain, my wife, Brian and Anna Chrysal. Do you know how crazy that is that that many people are like every single Sunday, I'm gonna deal with a snotty face or a dirty behind? And all right, because I love Jesus in that kind of way. It's just amazing. One of the things I didn't realize, actually, there were two things I didn't realize about kids' ministry. One is that they have been teaching the children to pray over the past season. So that when we say, hey, does somebody want to pray in the kids' rooms? They don't say, I don't know how, or I don't know what to say, or God thank you for this day. Amen. Your children right now are systematically being taught how to be praying people as children. And then I learned this as well. Uh, out of curiosity, uh, were any of you guys here for service two when we did the kids telling of the Christmas story? Okay. Y'all really kind of stick to your service. Yeah, that's funny to me. Okay. So in both services, the innkeeper comes up with all of the like antagonism in the world. And his only line is, what do you want? Do y'all remember that? Okay. I think, I think it was uh okay, was it Bowen? Okay, Bowen walks up, Bowen Howard walks up, and he goes, What do you want? Well, first service gave such a good chuckle that second service, he let it loose. What do you want? Here's what I didn't know. That role in the Christmas play is a status symbol in kids' ministry. Did you know that? Did you know that kids like vie to get not now? We need to work on this because it's not Mary and it's not Joseph, and it's not everybody wants to be the innkeeper so that they can yell at the adults. What do you want? I didn't know that. But it's really cool for a church plant to begin developing a church culture, even little things like that. Youth ministry has, I think, been the lion's share of our baptisms this year. Kudos, Thomas. Great job to you and whoever's leading you and training you so well. Um, my favorite thing about youth ministry is the top right picture. That's a girls' Bible study that Thomas did not design or come up with, that high school girls on their own came to him and said, we want to be for the middle schoolers, what others were for us or what we desired. And they designed, wrote, facilitated a Bible study for the middle school girls. We've had more adults leaning in, and even though it took a little bit of work, came up with systems and times that worked well. I I don't have a picture for this one, but as Larry was talking about foster care, and by the way, we have like 27 ministries in the church. I can't. I would love to hang out, and I can tell y'all are still active, but I know that there's a pendulum of time on that. I can't go through all of them, but one more that I would just highlight as we talk about what God's doing among us. 127 adoption and foster care ministry is unbelievable what God has done. You guys have prepared hundreds of meals and hand-delivered them. I don't know if you know that you do that. You do. To families that are fostering or adoption, adopting to one-off needs. Do you know that as a congregation, you have provided three vehicles for people over the past year? That do you realize that that is something that you do? Uh one of the things I was talking with Amy, she said the the neatest thing is that most of it wasn't planned. Needs just come up and people step in. And the Women of Mid Tree Facebook page is a beast of getting stuff done. I'm not even allowed to be on it, I don't think. I just hear from my wife that it's like, hey, there's this huge need and we're not sure if, and it's like dun, dun, dun, dun. And unbelievable way to go, ladies. If I jumped into MCGs, we would be here all day. But I will tell you that one of our MCGs goes downtown and meets with a community and plays games with them and eats food with them with an underprivileged community in our area. I don't know if you realize this or not. Some uh there was a military guy in our church who, unbeknownst to the staff, has been helping military, when they PCS, find healthy churches around the globe. They just took that on themselves and started helping people find healthy churches. Uh a few months ago, we had about four or five military guys who were here for a month during a training thing. And I was talking with Asher, he was a part of us when we were at the farmhouse, and he said, Well, I'm sure you don't know this, but there's a small home church in Germany that follows mid-tree. And what you do, that is our Sunday service because we have not been able to find a healthy church in our area. I don't know if you know that, but praise God for what he has done among us. And finally, what has God done beyond us? Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. And he said to them, Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed. Every Sunday, it isn't always this passage, but every single Sunday we get to talk about what a great Savior we have. We get to talk about the fact that you're not just hearing testimonies, but you are living stories that God is actively writing. Even in this moment, there may be someone or some people who are seeing this for the first time and realizing that Christ suffered for their sins and then defeated it by rising from the dead, offering them not shame and not guilt and the things that we would walk in, but the forgiveness of sins, and that when that happens, it ought to be proclaimed, proclaimed inwardly among us and beyond us to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem, beginning from here and going on. And God's word calls us to be witnesses of these things. Over a hundred pastors were encouraged in Kenya, representing over a hundred churches, representing thousands of people, because you decided to send a team. 40,000 people received eye care. And if you have given one time to Midtree this year, you were a part of that. And those 40,000 people who received eye care also received the message of the gospel right along with it. By the way, that's my favorite picture of Stokes that has ever been taken. What has God done beyond us? This year, if you have given to Midtree at any point, you have been a part of 60 plus church plants in the United States and 70 church plants around the globe. Unbelievable. Look, I I know we want to plant a church. It is our goal, it is our desire. You are going to see a lot of things in the coming year, a pipeline for leadership so that we can actively begin doing this. But while we are, that would be my number three on my card, planting a church. I'm longing for this. God hasn't given it yet. While we are in the waiting, I just want you to realize in the last two years alone, our involvement with Acts 29, 19,000 people have come to faith. If you've given anything to the church, you're a part of those 19,000. There are 350 men actively equipped, ready to plant in the next year or two in places like Burundi, Costa Rica, Tanzania, and around the globe. This is what your impact has been. And by the way, this is in the past year, those new church plants that you see popping up. I tell you this because you probably don't know. You may not realize that not only are you supporting what's going on in Kenya, you're supporting the North American Mission Board, Clement Arts, Foster Care, the SIN Network, a church in Boston, Campus Crusade, numerous churches around our area. Asia Harvest, which takes care of pastors that are in very hard-to-reach places, Shepherd Staff and even Young Life right around the corner. And by the way, that's not to include any of the dozen or so missionaries that if you walk out those doors and look to the right, you will see pictures of. Now, I do not want this to be a toot your own horn Sunday. That's not the goal, that's not my heart, that's not the tone, that's not the scripture. We do not celebrate ourselves, but we will celebrate God's kindness to include us. And He does. It is a phenomenal reality that God does this. Now, I put these three questions up, and that's usually how I would end the sermon. Uh I would usually end by giving you a few things to reflect on. If you come to church here, you know that. Uh Stokes, he's usually playing the music at this point. And wherever you are, Stokes, you can go ahead and come on up. But I don't want to end that way this time. I kind of want to change things up. This was the question that I started us with. How have you seen the Lord give you one of the desires of your heart this year? I'd encourage you to flip your card over and I want to give you a different question. This is how I would like for you to reflect as we close our time together. Not how have you seen the Lord give you one of the desires of your heart this year, but how might you give to the Lord one of the desires of his heart this year? One of the realities, and I don't have this in my notes, but it's Psalm 103. Just pause there. Do you know that your soul can and is designed to bless God? A lot of times we think about it in the reverse. Lord, would you bless my soul? But what we find in this psalm, bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. When we remember the good things that God has done in us, around us, and beyond us, it is not about us. It is allowing our hearts to bless God's. And so I give you this question as a reflection. I would encourage you to answer it and reflect on it as this year closes and you think about the one to come. How might you give to the Lord one of the desires of his heart in this next year? One of my favorite things, and it was happening a moment ago while I was preaching. I love the little playground that we're building. Just in case you don't know, we have so many hidden intentionalities around this building. I think it's just the way I'm designed and the way uh the leadership is designed. Yes, we wanted a playground for the kids, but we wanted one big enough so that that entire wing could empty out at one time, and we wanted it to be self-play enough so that you didn't have to have 12 leaders watching the kids, and a few would do because they're doing self-play. One of my favorite things over the past couple of months has been preaching and watching kids play on a playground that's under construction. One, it reminds me of my childhood. I grew up playing at church. We would lose a football in the bushes of the front yard of the church I grew up in, and then the next Sunday we would dig through it hoping we could find it so that the game could continue on. That is just a little bit of how I grew up. But it also reminds me that until Jesus returns, the church is always going to be a playground under construction. That's what we are. I know we sit in a building that's finished and the AC runs, and some of us remember days without that. But until Christ returns, the church is always supposed to be a playground under construction. A place where we dream and build and enjoy and struggle together. A playground that we enjoy while God builds it up in us, around us, and beyond us. So I don't know what your pursuit of the Lord has looked like in 25. And I don't know what everyone's involvement at the church has been like, but I will tell you this. I'm really excited about the next chapter of this story. And I don't want any of us to miss out on whatever it is that the Lord would have for us. So, what is it that the Lord would have for you to give to his heart in this coming year? And Stokes, whenever you're ready, lead us in worship. If you want to receive prayer, you know we'll be on the other side of the wall.