SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, that's what we've come to do.
SPEAKER_01: We've come to worship your holy name, to make much of you, and to open up the Bible and see that you make much of yourself.
SPEAKER_01: And you invite us to do the same.
SPEAKER_01: You invite us to live lives that uh that demonstrate uh to the culture around us, to our neighbors and to our co-workers and to our classmates and to our friends and to our people that we meet for play dates, the sufficiency and the reality of God.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, we ask as we open up your word this morning, Holy Spirit, that you would illuminate the word and cause it to give light and understanding so that we can give expression to the truths of the gospel in our lives and in our lips and in the way we love and who we love in every part of our being, God.
SPEAKER_01: And we want to reflect the worth of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: So, Holy Spirit, brood over your people today and apply the word where necessary.
SPEAKER_01: Bring healing where healing is necessary, reconciliation where reconciliation is necessary, and repentance where repentance is required.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we just submit ourselves to you because you are over us.
SPEAKER_01: With your blood, you purchase men and women for God.
SPEAKER_01: And so you own us, and so you have the divine right to tell us what to do.
SPEAKER_01: And that is not oppressive, that's liberating.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, let us understand that simple truth today from your word and by your spirit.
SPEAKER_01: We pray this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And all God's people said, Now do me a favor, don't sit down yet.
SPEAKER_01: Uh if you know this is a come up, you're like, oh, you really uh uh this is a family worship day, which means we have some little people here among us.
SPEAKER_01: And so Pastor Neil uh littered the front of the stage with lollipops because it's easier to get soul candy sometimes if you have a little candy.
SPEAKER_01: So, boys and girls, if your mom says it's okay, you can slip out right now out of your seat and come get your little something, something off the edge of the stage, and then go right back to your seat.
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, are there others to bust us away?
SPEAKER_01: Get your old self out of here.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, come on, Lily, grab you some.
SPEAKER_01: Don't get your mom any chocolate, she doesn't need any.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, uh adults stay seated so they can slip.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, say standing so they can slip back in around you.
SPEAKER_01: We'll be okay.
SPEAKER_01: I'll get you out of here on time.
SPEAKER_01: Alright, boys and girls, be be earnest.
SPEAKER_01: Grab something and make your way back to your seat.
SPEAKER_01: There you go.
SPEAKER_01: Take as much as you want.
SPEAKER_01: There's not a limit.
SPEAKER_01: Your parents are gonna be up all night anyway.
SPEAKER_01: All right, how are we doing?
SPEAKER_01: There you go.
SPEAKER_01: Come back for some more.
SPEAKER_01: There you go.
SPEAKER_01: Here, here.
SPEAKER_01: Open your hands up.
SPEAKER_01: Take all that.
SPEAKER_01: Go.
SPEAKER_01: Man's trying to singly grab everything.
SPEAKER_01: Just just double, just two-fist it and have a good time.
SPEAKER_01: Uh now, by the way, today's a family worship day, which means that uh our kids are here with us, and it's a good thing because what we're gonna talk about, I want your kids to understand, and you can help them understand that.
SPEAKER_01: I want to talk to you this morning about a New Year's prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Uh my New Year's prayer for our church, and I'm gonna invite you to pray these things.
SPEAKER_01: And you say, What do you mean invite you to pray these things?
SPEAKER_01: Uh, there's seven points in the sermon today, one for each day of the week.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what I want us to do as a church.
SPEAKER_01: Men, if you're married, I'm talking to you.
SPEAKER_01: I want us in the new year to get better about praying with our wives.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll start with a confession.
SPEAKER_01: My wife is the hardest person for me to pray with.
SPEAKER_01: And because I think I pray all day.
SPEAKER_01: I've prayed for a living, so I'm gonna go home.
SPEAKER_01: It's not one of the things I naturally think about until my wife uh uh says something that makes me angry, and then I think I'm gonna pray for her.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, there's a class on Wednesday nights called, it starts this Wednesday night called Lord Changing My Attitude.
SPEAKER_01: I signed her up for that already.
SPEAKER_01: Uh just to say, is that passive aggressive?
SPEAKER_01: I never know.
SPEAKER_01: Uh anyway, uh and so what I want you to do is you listen, is I want you to think, hey, this is a great thing.
SPEAKER_01: On this day we can pray for these things, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And so if you got a Bible, I want you to open up to Ephesians chapter 4.
SPEAKER_01: Ephesians chapter 4.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't have a Bible with you, you forgot yours.
SPEAKER_01: I'm on page 977 on the Bible that's there on your row.
SPEAKER_01: And I just want to read the first 16 verses of Ephesians chapter 4.
SPEAKER_01: And this is my prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I this is my prayer I've been praying this past week for our church going to the new year, and it's our prayer, it's a prayer I'm gonna continue to pray as we get into the new year, and I invite you to pray this with me.
SPEAKER_01: This is what the the God's word says in Ephesians 4, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: Paul writes, I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace.
SPEAKER_01: And there's one body and one spirit, just as you were called to one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
SPEAKER_01: But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore it says, when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.
SPEAKER_01: In saying he ascended, what does it mean that he also descended into the lower regions, the earth?
SPEAKER_01: He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.
SPEAKER_01: And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, the teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry.
SPEAKER_01: We're building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may long no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes.
SPEAKER_01: Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
SPEAKER_01: This is my prayer, and this is my seven parts of my prayer that I've been praying.
SPEAKER_01: I'm inviting you today.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna preach this prayer because I invite you to join me in praying it for our church.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when I say our church, I don't mean the institution or the organization, I mean the people, because that's what the church is, okay?
SPEAKER_01: The first thing I'm praying is this is that we leverage everything against the gospel in the new year.
SPEAKER_01: We leverage everything against the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: It's the first three verses.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says, I therefore a prisoner for the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Paul is in prison as he writes the book of Ephesians, and so that's not just a figure of speech.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, when he says in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, that word calling in the Greek, one of the word picture definitions behind that is a feast.
SPEAKER_01: And so you're not called to a famine when God calls you to himself.
SPEAKER_01: It's not like, okay, you're done having fun.
SPEAKER_01: Now come be miserable and for a long time, then when you die, you get to go to heaven.
SPEAKER_01: That's not the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: That's not Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says you're called to a feast.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, I urge you to walk, to live in a manner that's in keeping with this feast that you've been called to experience as a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: So when I say leverage everything against the gospel, whether you're in prison, whether you're free, whether you're rich, whether you're struggling, whether you're happy, whether you're sad, whether you're fat, whether you're skinny, short, or tall, all that, you hold that up to the gospel and you leverage your behavior in all of those moments, all of those circumstances, all of those situations, you leverage the fulcrum upon which you leverage your life is the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: And you ask, we ask ourselves, how does the gospel inform the way I do this?
SPEAKER_01: How does the gospel inform the way I respond to this circumstance or this situation?
SPEAKER_01: Or more down to earth, how does the gospel inform the way I speak to this person?
SPEAKER_01: Is my speech full of grace and seasoned with salt?
SPEAKER_01: Because here's what he says.
SPEAKER_01: He says, after he says, Hey, I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness with patience, bearing with one another in love.
SPEAKER_01: The humility and the gentleness and the patience is not what we have that's not on the front end.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, hey, have humility and gentleness and patience, because the church for years has taken on itself the responsibility of trying to teach you, hey, here's three things I want you to do in the new year.
SPEAKER_01: Have humility and gentleness and patience.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm saying to you, and that more importantly, the Bible's saying to us, those things are the byproduct of having leveraged your life against the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the gospel produces in us.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel produces humility, it produces gentleness, it produces patience.
SPEAKER_01: So my first prayer for our church is that we would leverage everything against the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: You get in a situation at work that's frustrating, that you don't just act out of the flesh.
SPEAKER_01: But the first thing you say is, how does the gospel, the gospel being the good news of Christianity, all the way from Genesis 1.1 to the end of Revelation, where he says, even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly.
SPEAKER_01: How does the whole council of God's word inform and influence the way I respond in this situation?
SPEAKER_01: Can you just fathom a city that is experiencing a group of people who are leveraging the gospel in every facet of their life?
SPEAKER_01: The second prayer is simply this: be led by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Be led by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: He says this.
SPEAKER_01: He says, uh, bearing with one another in love.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 3, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
SPEAKER_01: Eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
SPEAKER_01: Notice that we don't have to create or establish something, we just have to maintain what the Spirit has already produced in us, and that's unity.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have to create or maintain uh anything.
SPEAKER_01: We just we we are create or establish.
SPEAKER_01: We just have to maintain, we have to just walk in what the spirit has already produced, and that's unity.
SPEAKER_01: That's where peace comes from.
SPEAKER_01: So basically, if you have a group of people that are leveraging everything in their life against the reality of the gospel, and these people are being led by the spirit, then just kind of imagine what kind of happens in a culture when this is happening.
SPEAKER_01: We'll get into this.
SPEAKER_01: Uh the more I study John, the longer we're going to be in John.
SPEAKER_01: Uh we've been John for four years.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but in John chapter 7, Jesus stands up and he says, uh, if any man thirst, let him come to me and drink, and out of his inmost being will flow rivers of living water.
SPEAKER_01: And by that he's referencing the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine what it would be like to live in a city where there's a group of people that are led by the Spirit?
SPEAKER_01: In other words, they have this reality flowing out of them like a river.
SPEAKER_01: Would that not begin to influence things in and around everybody else?
SPEAKER_01: Now, let me bring it down to where we live, since your children are here with you this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, let me just, by way of reminder, when your children are converted, they don't get a junior version of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: No, this should change your parenting, and I'm not kidding.
SPEAKER_01: Your kids don't get a junior version.
SPEAKER_01: They don't, if they're converted at like seven years old, they don't get a seven-year-old Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: They get the same Holy Spirit that adults get.
SPEAKER_01: And one of the priorities of parenting is to teach your kids what it means to be full of the Spirit and to walk in the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And Dad, mom, the way you, the way you teach them is about you being full of the Spirit and you walking in the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And Dad, you leading your family in a spiritual way, not just in a financial way.
SPEAKER_01: If the greatest thing you do is take your kids on great vacations and give them good stuff, your kids are gonna grow up, leave your home, and leave the faith because there's nothing alluring about it.
SPEAKER_01: But if they grow up with a mom and dad that are full of the spirit and are led by the spirit and say things to their kids like, hey, before we eat, we're gonna thank God for the food because we that that that's a given.
SPEAKER_01: But also, mom and dad are praying.
SPEAKER_01: We kind of sense God doing this.
SPEAKER_01: We want you as a family to be praying and speak out whatever you sense the Lord's kind of putting in you because we want to make this decision as a family.
SPEAKER_01: All of a sudden, your kids find that more compelling than Disney World.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when our girls were younger, uh, they're like five and a half years apart.
SPEAKER_01: One of them came to faith before the other one, and I would tell the older one, hey, your sister doesn't know Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So she's selfish because she's a sinner.
SPEAKER_01: You don't get that excuse.
SPEAKER_01: And she's well, that doesn't seem very fair.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, Well, that's just the reality.
SPEAKER_01: You got to demonstrate the fruit of the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And she looked at me when she was nine and she goes, Well, what's the fruit of the spirit?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, That's a great question, let me tell you.
SPEAKER_01: And I did not say you've got to be loving and peaceful and joyful and self-controlled and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: Because that's just behavior modification.
SPEAKER_01: Stop using the Bible to try to modify your kids' behavior so they don't embarrass you in public.
SPEAKER_01: No, I just said, Hey, this is the deal.
SPEAKER_01: And she was kind of like, huh?
SPEAKER_01: And I went in the kitchen and I said, Come here.
SPEAKER_01: Got a glass, put it on the counter, filled it with milk, got the Hershey's chocolate syrup and squeezed it in there.
SPEAKER_01: I said, This milk is your life.
SPEAKER_01: This syrup is the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: God comes to live inside of you.
SPEAKER_01: I stirred it up and I said, You want to drink this?
SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01: There's people in the world that want to know about the God you know when you live out this changed reality.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, you understand what the Holy Spirit is?
SPEAKER_01: God lives inside of you?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, and I want that.
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: That's the desired effect that the Spirit has upon people.
SPEAKER_01: And so I just want to say, uh, circle back and just kind of say, uh, mom and dad, and say to myself, our kids did not get a junior version of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: They just didn't.
SPEAKER_01: Teach them what it means to be full of spirit, to walk in the spirit, to be sensitive to the spirit's leading, and to know what it's like when they grieve the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we would say this to our children, and we still do to this day, but the older they get, the less we have to say it.
SPEAKER_01: But when they would do something wrong, we would say, that's not just wrong, that's sin.
SPEAKER_01: And they would say, I feel bad.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you feel bad because you've grieved the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: The spirit in the Spirit of God inside of you is not happy with what you did.
SPEAKER_01: Now, not to shame our children or whatever, but to teach them, hey, even when mom and dad aren't looking, you have a governing reality that lives inside of you, and it is the Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_01: You need to live in tune with that.
SPEAKER_01: Because here's the thing: if we taught our kids more about the Holy Spirit, you wouldn't have to worry about their morality so much.
SPEAKER_01: Now let that sink in for a minute.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, hey, my kids are four.
SPEAKER_01: I don't worry about that.
SPEAKER_01: Wait till they get to be 14.
SPEAKER_01: Wait till they get to be 17.
SPEAKER_01: Now let me say it again.
SPEAKER_01: If we taught our kids more about the spiritual realities of the Holy Spirit in the life of a Christian, you would not have to worry about their morality and about their behavior.
SPEAKER_01: When they get 16 and get a car and 19 and go off to college, like, uh, here's why.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says this in Galatians chapter 5: Walk in the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh.
SPEAKER_01: If you teach your kids about what it means to walk in the spirit, they find a really fascinating Jesus and a fascinating life that the Bible describes as Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: And guess what?
SPEAKER_01: Just as a byproduct of that, they don't want to sin anymore.
SPEAKER_01: They don't want to fulfill the desires of the flesh because that doesn't appeal to them the way it once did.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because they found a reality in the spirit that they don't find by walking in the flesh, and they want more of that.
SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense to anybody besides me?
SPEAKER_01: Hello.
SPEAKER_01: I know it's New Year's Eve.
SPEAKER_01: Please tell me you haven't started partying already.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all kind of like last week.
SPEAKER_01: It was Christmas Eve, and now it's New Year's Eve, and you're all like, oh.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Because I want us to go into this new year, just kind of being led by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Third thing I'm praying for our church is that we think rightly about God.
SPEAKER_01: Pick it up in verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: He says, There's one body and one spirit, just as you were called to one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
SPEAKER_01: To think rightly about God, go no further than those last three little phrases.
SPEAKER_01: Over all, through all, and in all.
SPEAKER_01: A part of parenting is to raise your children to think rightly about God, and you do that by demonstrating that you think rightly about God.
SPEAKER_01: You have a biblical orthodoxy and a Christology and an understanding of who God is.
SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, he's this sentimental, permissive grandpa that sets in a big recliner in heaven and winks at sin and excuses everybody.
SPEAKER_01: And yet, if you read the Bible, and that'd be nutty, the Bible talks of because here's my concern: that we're parenting our kids and we're teaching our kids about a God that doesn't exist in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Because when you read in the Bible and you see in Revelation 19 that Jesus is coming back and he's riding a white horse, and the armies of heaven are dressed in white and they're coming behind him, and he says that he treads the wine press and the wrath and the fury of God Almighty.
SPEAKER_01: That he means business and he is going to lay down business on all his enemies.
SPEAKER_01: Don't raise your kids to believe in this sentimental little glowy Jesus that walked around in a white speedo, just kind of giving away free stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Give them a fully orbed view of God.
SPEAKER_01: What do I mean?
SPEAKER_01: Those three phrases.
SPEAKER_01: Overall.
SPEAKER_01: Overall, what does it mean?
SPEAKER_01: God has authority over you if you're a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: Start there.
SPEAKER_01: God has authority over you.
SPEAKER_01: This will happen tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: Happens every year in my neighborhood.
SPEAKER_01: There's kids in my neighborhood.
SPEAKER_01: I like them.
SPEAKER_01: They're for the most part good kids, but they shoot off a billion dollars worth of fireworks, not like bottle rockets like we had, like big cannon things that make that noise, and about three seconds later, boom.
SPEAKER_01: And it goes on way past midnight.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, hey, New Year's is here.
SPEAKER_01: Go to bed.
SPEAKER_01: Come myself, don't text me tonight at midnight and wish me happy new year because you will wake me up and then I will have to get in your business, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm old.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care about Mariah Carey getting a second chance to sing in New York City.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not mad at the world.
SPEAKER_01: I just like to sleep and get up and go to work, okay?
SPEAKER_01: But I tell the kids, hey, y'all we're gonna shoot stuff out in the street.
SPEAKER_01: I said, get it out of people's yards and clean up your stuff out of the street.
SPEAKER_01: They never clean up the street.
SPEAKER_01: It looks like I mean it's carnage, paper tubes everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: So I just go over and ring a doorbell by 6:45 tomorrow morning.
SPEAKER_01: Ding dong.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, remember y'all say you're gonna clean your stuff up?
SPEAKER_01: We can't even drive down the street.
SPEAKER_01: See?
SPEAKER_01: That's them right there.
SPEAKER_01: They're already started.
SPEAKER_01: We can't even drive.
SPEAKER_01: What do y'all do?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, we forgot.
SPEAKER_01: You forgot.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, teach your kids common sense and common decency.
SPEAKER_01: It will go a long way.
SPEAKER_01: We have become a barbaric culture because parents have gotten lazy.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the thing: here's why we've gotten lazy is because in the American church, this is free.
SPEAKER_01: The American church has adopted a gospel of self-fulfillment, and that's what gets preached in most churches.
SPEAKER_01: It's just self-fulfillment.
SPEAKER_01: It's just you doing what makes you happy.
SPEAKER_01: And so the two relationships, here's where it manifests itself.
SPEAKER_01: Here's why you know that we've been sold a bill of goods, a gospel of self-fulfillment and self-worth.
SPEAKER_01: The two relationships that cost you the most, marriage and parenting, are deficient in America.
SPEAKER_01: Just look around at kids nowadays.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not indicting all kids.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying for the most part, no respect for authority.
SPEAKER_01: They think they can question everything.
SPEAKER_01: It's just kind of like, hey, who are you telling me what to do?
SPEAKER_01: I'm not your mom and dad.
SPEAKER_01: I'm the man that will whip you in the middle of Chick-fil-A.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: If you want to see it, just go to Chick-fil-A and watch a lazy Fort Bean County mom sit there and gossip while there's seven foot kids in the play area.
SPEAKER_01: Where it clearly says on the door, if you are this tall, you are not allowed in here.
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm the parent that will get your kid by the ear and drag him out.
SPEAKER_01: Whose kid is this?
SPEAKER_01: He's like, ah, that's my son.
SPEAKER_01: What are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: Hey, what I'm doing is parenting your kid.
SPEAKER_01: And what you're not doing, he is seven feet tall.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't belong in here.
SPEAKER_01: Well, he likes to be in there.
SPEAKER_01: So do pedophiles, but your kid ain't staying in here.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I said that right up here in the Chick-fil-A in Greatwood.
SPEAKER_01: So after that, when I would come in, them big kids would all scramble out.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, here he comes.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the lifeguard is in the pool now.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna drown some fools.
SPEAKER_01: Because you're not gonna be around my kids.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm not intimidated, I'm not impressed, I'm not a bully, I'm not a mean person, I'm not whatever.
SPEAKER_01: I believe in civility in the culture.
SPEAKER_01: And I believe because we've swallowed this thing of self-fulfillment and self-worth, the two relationships that require the most of us marriage and parenting.
SPEAKER_01: And not just parenting until they're 18, because you're not done parenting.
SPEAKER_01: That's when you gotta do some of your best parenting.
SPEAKER_01: Because here's the deal children by nature are inconvenient.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we're talking about you kids.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's not a complaint, that's just an admission of reality.
SPEAKER_01: If you didn't want to be inconvenienced, don't have them.
SPEAKER_01: I wish I could see y'all's faces.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all like, come on, man, it's New Year's Eve.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, man, let us up.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not mad at you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying, think rightly about God.
SPEAKER_01: See, here's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: When he says overall, when I say God has authority over you, if you're a Christian, and I say, start there, hey, it's easier for your kids to believe that God has authority over them, mom and dad, if you exercise authority over them.
SPEAKER_01: It's hard to believe in authority you can't see if you don't believe and respect authority you can see.
SPEAKER_01: Overall, secondly, through all.
SPEAKER_01: God's design and desire is to work through you.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: God's design and desire is to work through you.
SPEAKER_01: You say, Oh man, you don't know who I am.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_01: That's the way you were created.
SPEAKER_01: You're created in God's image to reflect God's glory in this world.
SPEAKER_01: His design and desire is to work through you.
SPEAKER_01: So overall, through all, and then in all.
SPEAKER_01: In all.
SPEAKER_01: God lives inside of you by his spirit.
SPEAKER_01: If you read the Bible, one thing you'll see is that most of the teaching about morality, about what we do with our body, is not about behavior and about morality versus immorality.
SPEAKER_01: It's about in the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you a simple example.
SPEAKER_01: This is from 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 18 to 20.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says, flee from sexual immorality.
SPEAKER_01: Every other sin a person commits is outside the body.
SPEAKER_01: But the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.
SPEAKER_01: Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?
SPEAKER_01: You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.
SPEAKER_01: So glorify God in your body.
SPEAKER_01: If you want to make a New Year's resolution, make that last sentence your resolution.
SPEAKER_01: I want to glorify God in my body.
SPEAKER_01: So glorify God in your body.
SPEAKER_01: Don't go home today and research the latest fat diet.
SPEAKER_01: Just say, I want to glorify God in my body.
SPEAKER_01: It really gets down to being that simple.
SPEAKER_01: Fourth thing I'm praying is this is that you would exercise your gift.
SPEAKER_01: You would exercise your gift.
SPEAKER_01: Look at where we left off in verse 6, verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.
SPEAKER_01: Now hear that.
SPEAKER_01: But grace was given to each one of us and according to the measure of Christ's gift.
SPEAKER_01: When we talk about Christ's gift, he's talking about you, you, every every Christian was given what's called a spiritual gift.
SPEAKER_01: It's this endowment and this capacity to do certain things.
SPEAKER_01: And they're listed in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And so you can read that on your own time if you say, Hey, I don't know what that is.
SPEAKER_01: Come to one of us.
SPEAKER_01: We'd love to show you that in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: But here's what I want you to understand.
SPEAKER_01: I say exercise your gift, you got this spiritual gift, and you've got a measure of grace that's proportional to your gift.
SPEAKER_01: Because to exercise your gift without grace is to be destructive and not instructive.
SPEAKER_01: Grace is always proportional to the gift.
SPEAKER_01: Like there's a couple ladies in our church.
SPEAKER_01: We had a funeral here on Friday, uh, and it's over the holidays, and so I emailed two ladies in our church that I know have the gift of hospitality.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Hey, are either one of you available to help with this?
SPEAKER_01: I'll do whatever I need to do to make it happen.
SPEAKER_01: Both of them wrote me back and said, We got this, Skippy.
SPEAKER_01: You do the funeral, we'll take care of this.
SPEAKER_01: We need nothing from you.
SPEAKER_01: A couple days later, I emailed them just to follow up and said, Do you need anything from me?
SPEAKER_01: And they both said, We need nothing from you.
SPEAKER_01: Stop asking us.
SPEAKER_01: Now, you may hear that and kind of go, dude, they're kind of snarky.
SPEAKER_01: No, they have the gift of hospitality.
SPEAKER_01: I do not have that gift, okay?
SPEAKER_01: My gift is prophecy, not hospitality.
SPEAKER_01: And so those women, because their gift is hospitality.
SPEAKER_01: I walked into the fellowship hall, it was just beautifully laid out.
SPEAKER_01: Food for 50 people.
SPEAKER_01: There were centerpieces, and they had pieces of wood and garland and candles.
SPEAKER_01: And one of them said, Yes, you eat first with your eyes.
SPEAKER_01: And I thought to myself, Nah, I've never thought that in my life.
SPEAKER_01: Because if I was in charge of that reception, it'd been some round tables and some chairs.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the food.
SPEAKER_01: Help yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Good God, good meat, good gravy, let's eat.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go.
SPEAKER_01: It was elegant.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you walked in, I kind of just found myself slowing down, like, oh, this is pretty.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because those women have the gift of hospitality.
SPEAKER_01: Not my gift.
SPEAKER_01: But when I say exercise your gift, the church becomes who we are capable of becoming when everyone exercises their gift.
SPEAKER_01: So, two questions today.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know what your spiritual gift is?
SPEAKER_01: And are you exercising that gift?
SPEAKER_01: Because remember, you have this spiritual gift, but also a measure of grace.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 7 again.
SPEAKER_01: Grace was given to each one of us, and according to according to the measure of Christ's gift.
SPEAKER_01: This happened at my favorite hangout.
SPEAKER_01: Chick-fil-A up here.
SPEAKER_01: I'm eating lunch.
SPEAKER_01: I go throw my stuff away, and I hear a kid over there disrespecting his mom with such foul language, I would not repeat it in public.
SPEAKER_01: And now my flesh was kind of like, are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: And so I wanted to have one response, but the spirit was like, because again, you have the gift.
SPEAKER_01: Now, prophecy is just forthelling.
SPEAKER_01: It's just black and white.
SPEAKER_01: It's just, hey man, really?
SPEAKER_01: What are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: Now, I got manners.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know that kid.
SPEAKER_01: It's none of my business.
SPEAKER_01: But I was also raised by my mom, a single parent.
SPEAKER_01: I know how hard it is.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't know that it's a single parent, but I do know it's wrong for you to disrespect your mom like that.
SPEAKER_01: And so my first thought was, I just wanted to go over and say, hey man, can you come out in the parking lot?
SPEAKER_01: Let's discuss this.
SPEAKER_01: But to exercise your gift without grace is destructive.
SPEAKER_01: And so the Holy Spirit was like, hey, let's be helpful.
SPEAKER_01: And I just said, hey man, excuse me, I don't know, y'all don't want to get in your business, but I promise you, you don't want to talk to your mom this way.
SPEAKER_01: There will come a day your mom won't be here and you won't be able to tell her how sorry you feel about this.
SPEAKER_01: And the mom was like, Uh, thank you, I think.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, who are you?
SPEAKER_01: Uh and the kid kind of looked at me because your flesh, listen to me, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Your flesh wants to rise up.
SPEAKER_01: Because the kid kind of looked at me, and part of me was like, stand up.
SPEAKER_01: Just just bow up right here.
SPEAKER_01: Mmm, please.
SPEAKER_01: And then I was like, Lord, I thought I killed my flesh over the bottom trash can, but it has resurrected itself now again.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Hey, I'm not trying to disrespect you, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I'm just telling you, I've been you before, and you ain't gonna like this.
SPEAKER_01: He's all I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_01: I said, I said, I'm not judging you, I'm not hating on you.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, what am I saying?
SPEAKER_01: I'm saying, with the gift comes proportional grace.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the fifth thing I'm praying for us: a high priority on scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 8.
SPEAKER_01: Are you still with me?
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 8.
SPEAKER_01: Uh what I mean, high priority on scripture, therefore it says, when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.
SPEAKER_01: In saying he ascended, what does it mean that he also descended into the lower regions, the earth?
SPEAKER_01: He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens that he might feel all things.
SPEAKER_01: Now, by the way, there has been gallons of ink spilled about the theological controversy we just read.
SPEAKER_01: Now you may think, oh, okay, yeah, I'm interested.
SPEAKER_01: What is the theological controversy?
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 8.
SPEAKER_01: It's the second word.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, it.
SPEAKER_01: It's the word it.
SPEAKER_01: Now, in theological circles, they say, well, if that's masculine, that's a reference to God.
SPEAKER_01: And if it's neutered, if it doesn't, then it's a reference to the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And is it God speaking or is it the Bible speaking?
SPEAKER_01: And finally they had a big get-together where they all tried to figure out and decide, is God speaking or is it the Bible speaking?
SPEAKER_01: And one guy that's read the Bible, stood in the back of the room, raised his hand and says, Hey folks, it doesn't matter if it's God.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I think it's a neutered, it the pronoun is neutered, it's a reference to the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the thing: the Bible speaks with the same authority as God speaks, so it doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_01: And so, what what am I saying?
SPEAKER_01: When I say a high priority on scripture, we already have that here at Grand Parkway, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And I just want us to continue to walk in that as we go into the new year.
SPEAKER_01: That's a high priority and a high value on God's word because it speaks with the same authority as God.
SPEAKER_01: It's an expression of God's nature, his intent, and his expectation of his people.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: The Bible speaks with the same authority as God.
SPEAKER_01: This is what I mean.
SPEAKER_01: It's called inspiration.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 16 and 17, the Bible says this all scripture is breathed out by God, and it's profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, that the woman of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
SPEAKER_01: Hear that first part.
SPEAKER_01: All scripture is breathed out by God.
SPEAKER_01: God used men to record the Bible, but but but but scripture has its origin in the nature of God.
SPEAKER_01: It's breathed out by God.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just a book written by men, it is divine revelation recorded by men.
SPEAKER_01: And so I want us to have a high priority on the scripture as we go into the new year.
SPEAKER_01: The sixth thing I'm praying is simply this: two words.
SPEAKER_01: Let's grow.
SPEAKER_01: Now, here's what I know just happened in this room, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Uh, some of you kind of rolled your eyes, like, oh, here we go, here comes a big building campaign.
SPEAKER_01: Uh-uh, uh-uh.
SPEAKER_01: Uh growing is not more people showing up.
SPEAKER_01: That is just getting fat.
SPEAKER_01: There's a difference in getting fat and growing.
SPEAKER_01: Let me show you what I mean.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 11.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says, and he gave the apostles and the prophets and the evangelists and the shepherds and the teachers.
SPEAKER_01: Or let me read it like this.
SPEAKER_01: And he gave Travis and Don and Jeff and Marcy and Jana and Krista and Clyde and the shepherds and the teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to mature womanhood, to be a measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I saw the movie The Shack.
SPEAKER_01: Did you see the shack?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that just made me that made me wonder about some things.
SPEAKER_01: Didn't make me wonder about anything.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't see it, I didn't read it.
SPEAKER_01: I don't disparage those that did.
SPEAKER_01: But but I don't get my cues about God from a movie.
SPEAKER_01: By human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes, rather speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head into Christ.
SPEAKER_01: When I say let's grow, notice I didn't say get bigger.
SPEAKER_01: Not at all.
SPEAKER_01: When I say let's grow, what do I mean?
SPEAKER_01: Things like in the unity of the faith.
SPEAKER_01: In the unity of the faith.
SPEAKER_01: Let's all come together and just kind of demonstrate a shared understanding about the basic essentials and fundamentals of our faith.
SPEAKER_01: Knowledge of the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: Let's grow.
SPEAKER_01: I want I want to be, I want to know God, not just not information, but more intimately in the coming year.
SPEAKER_01: How about just maturity?
SPEAKER_01: I want to be a more spiritually mature man at the end of next year than I am at the end of this year.
SPEAKER_01: The Apostle Paul wrote the book of Philippians when he was 63.
SPEAKER_01: And in that book he says, forgetting the things which lie behind, I press on.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not just content to rest on my laurels.
SPEAKER_01: I'm still going to be pressing on.
SPEAKER_01: So when I say let's grow, that's what I mean.
SPEAKER_01: Lastly, here's my prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Let's each do our part.
SPEAKER_01: It's verse 16.
SPEAKER_01: From whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just draw your attention to three little phrases.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, every joint.
SPEAKER_01: Every joint.
SPEAKER_01: You say, well, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Some of you may be thinking, hey man, I've been coming for a year.
SPEAKER_01: I don't, I'm not really that important.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not, I'm not like really a, I'm kind of trying to do better.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not doing great.
SPEAKER_01: I kind of set towards the back.
SPEAKER_01: I like it, but don't mm.
SPEAKER_01: I would just ask you this question because you'll dismiss yourself and say, hey, it's not really important that I'm a part of this.
SPEAKER_01: Come here, but hey, I don't need to do anything.
SPEAKER_01: I would ask you this simple question.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever broken your pinky toe?
SPEAKER_01: Hello?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Well, unless you've broken your pinky toe, you don't understand what I'm saying because some of you are like, I'm like the little pinky toe.
SPEAKER_01: I'm that little thing hanging on down there that nobody notices.
SPEAKER_01: Until you break, I broke my pinky toe once.
SPEAKER_01: Not good.
SPEAKER_01: Went to the doctor in case you wanted, they can't do anything.
SPEAKER_01: They're like, oh yeah, it's probably broke, but we can't cast it or set it or anything.
SPEAKER_01: It'll heal back.
SPEAKER_01: But then he goes, it'll be excruciating in the meantime.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, can you shoot it up with something?
SPEAKER_01: Because I feel like my I couldn't even put a shoe on.
SPEAKER_01: I was just like, oh.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, No, there's nothing we can do.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's broke.
SPEAKER_01: I can tell it's probably broke, but I can give you some pain pillars.
SPEAKER_01: Can I get some painkillers?
SPEAKER_01: Can I get like an economy size of those things?
SPEAKER_01: And a morphine pump or something?
SPEAKER_01: So$55 copay, writes me a prescription.
SPEAKER_01: Two nights later, in the middle of the night, I get up to go to the bathroom, and with my pinky toe, I kick the leg, I hooked the leg of a chair in the middle of the night in the dark.
SPEAKER_01: I just climb up to the ground and I cried.
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: Grown man.
SPEAKER_01: I got in the fetal position on the floor.
SPEAKER_01: I was in such a magic.
SPEAKER_01: I grabbed it with both hands and squeezed.
SPEAKER_01: Oh Jesus, come back my now.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm about to feel this.
SPEAKER_01: I'm rolling on my back, holding my tumble, and then it dawned on me.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it hurts because I'm squeezing my foot.
SPEAKER_01: So I let go of my foot and I'm laying there and I'm just like, oh, I almost blacked out.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not kidding.
SPEAKER_01: It was that painful.
SPEAKER_01: I was just like, and then I thought, if I took a knife and cut that thing off, I don't think it would hurt.
SPEAKER_01: Allah, Ronnie Lott.
SPEAKER_01: Him and remember Ronnie Lott, play safety for the San Francisco 49.
SPEAKER_01: Brother broke his pinky, the top digit on his pinky.
SPEAKER_01: He fractured that joint.
SPEAKER_01: And the doctor said, I can do surgery and you'll be out six weeks, or I can cut that thing off and you can play next week.
SPEAKER_01: You look at him, that thing is cut off.
SPEAKER_01: So I was I contemplated going Ronnie Lott.
SPEAKER_01: If I took a hacksaw in the garage and just now, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: What am I saying?
SPEAKER_01: I'm saying every joint.
SPEAKER_01: You can't sit out there and go, well, I'm just like the pinky toe.
SPEAKER_01: Clearly, you've never broken your pinky toe.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says this, when each part is working properly.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 16, for whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped when each part is working properly.
SPEAKER_01: When each part is working properly, are you working properly today?
SPEAKER_01: In other words, here's what the Bible's saying.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, your sin affects your church.
SPEAKER_01: You don't sin in a vacuum.
SPEAKER_01: Each part is working properly.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not just in relation to sin, it's in relation to, hey, am I doing what I could and should be doing for my church, in my church?
SPEAKER_01: Am I volunteering where I should?
SPEAKER_01: Am I exercising my gifts?
SPEAKER_01: I'll give you a great example, okay?
SPEAKER_01: This happened years ago.
SPEAKER_01: About right over there.
SPEAKER_01: A young man walked up to me and said, Hey, I should be helping out up there.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I could be helping out up there with the worship.
SPEAKER_01: At the time, there was a guy named Ross King, a friend of mine, was driving down from college station leading worship.
SPEAKER_01: And this guy walked up to me and he said, Yeah, I need to be, I mean, I need to be helping out with the worship.
SPEAKER_01: And I thought to myself, yeah, what are you?
SPEAKER_01: Some like struggling guitar player.
SPEAKER_01: I said, So instead of saying that, I just said, Hey, Ross is over that.
SPEAKER_01: You need to talk to Ross, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Because Ross, you can't play with Ross because I didn't know this guy.
SPEAKER_01: I was kind of like, who are you, dude?
SPEAKER_01: You're like, hey, I can play.
SPEAKER_01: Just because your grandma gave you a guitar doesn't mean you can lead worship.
SPEAKER_01: And so again, I didn't say that, I just put it off on Ross.
SPEAKER_01: Ross comes to me about a month later and he says, Hey, that Clyde guy that you sent to me?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's who it was.
SPEAKER_01: Sitting right there, Clyde Copeland, who's now our worship pastor.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Ross said, You don't need me anymore.
SPEAKER_01: That guy can lead this.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Are you sure?
SPEAKER_01: He goes, I promise he can.
SPEAKER_01: No, what am I saying?
SPEAKER_01: I'm saying that's what it looks like when each part is working properly.
SPEAKER_01: It's not working properly for Clyde Copeland to sit out there and watch other people lead worship.
SPEAKER_01: Last thing the Bible says, it makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
SPEAKER_01: It's right there in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not very original.
SPEAKER_01: I get all my ideas from the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: He said, makes the body grow so it builds itself up in love.
SPEAKER_01: Now, again, growing is not just more, not just numbers.
SPEAKER_01: That's getting fat.
SPEAKER_01: He said, it makes the body grow.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: So that it builds itself up in love.
SPEAKER_01: And so here's what I'm asking you to do.
SPEAKER_01: You got seven things.
SPEAKER_01: You can pray them all every you can play all seven things every day, or you can just take one and say, hey, today this is what we're praying for our church.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, today this is what we're praying for our church.
SPEAKER_01: Today, this is what we're praying for our church.
SPEAKER_01: I know, men, it's hard and sometimes awkward to get the conversation going with your wife.
SPEAKER_01: I've just given you a conversation starter.
SPEAKER_01: And so here's what I'm asking you.
SPEAKER_01: Would you be willing to join me in praying these realities for our church as we head into the new year?
SPEAKER_01: That was pathetic.
SPEAKER_01: Let me ask it again.
SPEAKER_01: Would you be willing to join me?
SPEAKER_01: I'm not asking you to sign a pledge card to pray every day because I'll probably forget some days.
SPEAKER_01: Would you be willing just to say, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: I want to pray those realities for my church headed into the new year.
SPEAKER_01: Would you be willing to do that, church?
SPEAKER_01: That's better.
SPEAKER_01: Don't let me get on to you on a Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: After all, it's New Year's Eve.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Just take a moment and ask yourself, hey, what stood out to you today?
SPEAKER_01: What do you feel like had had your name on it?
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, when the Holy Spirit points something out, it's not to beat you up.
SPEAKER_01: It's not to make you feel bad, it's to instruct you.
SPEAKER_01: So you don't have to fear anything that God identifies in your life that kind of needs some attention.
SPEAKER_01: That's love, that's not hate.
SPEAKER_01: Let's just take a moment and just kind of think over these things.
SPEAKER_01: And can you envision yourself beginning to pray these things?
SPEAKER_01: Let's just listen to God for just a moment.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, you tell us in your word that your house will be called a house of prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And God, as we enter and finish a year, you've been better to us than we deserve.
SPEAKER_01: And we look at starting a new year.
SPEAKER_01: God, we don't want to assume, we don't want to take for granted.
SPEAKER_01: We want to be like Moses and your people, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: If you, unless you go with us, we don't want to go up from here.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, it's your presence that makes all this possible.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, we just want to say to you that we're we are coming like that persistent widow.
SPEAKER_01: We're coming and we're just going to begin to knock on the door, and we're just going to ask as your sons and daughters.
SPEAKER_01: You tell us in Isaiah 62, you say, Hey, I invite you to give me no rest until I do what you're asking me.
SPEAKER_01: So we're going to take you up on that in the new year.
SPEAKER_01: God, we want to be a people of prayer because we're your people.
SPEAKER_01: And prayer is the place of revelation and transformation and intimacy and juicy goodness that we were created for.
SPEAKER_01: And so we don't want to cry, we don't want to pray out of just need.
SPEAKER_01: We want to pray out of desire and out of understanding, out of revelation.
SPEAKER_01: God, anything you reveal is always in keeping with your word.
SPEAKER_01: So, Lord, thank you for who you've been and how you've been to us this year.
SPEAKER_01: And Lord, we uh we we we can't even fathom how good it's gonna be in the new year.
SPEAKER_01: So we want to thank you in advance for that as well.
SPEAKER_01: We love you, God, and we trust you.
SPEAKER_01: We're honored and we're humbled at the privilege of being your people.
SPEAKER_01: So we say thank you in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a guest, let me say thanks for being part of our service.
SPEAKER_01: Uh you're always welcome here.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, if you have any questions, we'd love to answer those.
SPEAKER_01: We'll be available down front.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you are sitting around uh the church.
SPEAKER_01: When you hear Grand Parkway, don't think myself and Clyde and the people that stand up here.
SPEAKER_01: Think the people you're sitting around.
SPEAKER_01: Because these are some of the best people you'll ever meet.
SPEAKER_01: Avail yourself to them.
SPEAKER_01: Learn some people's names before you get out of here, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Stand to your feet, let me speak a blessing over you.
SPEAKER_01: Hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_01: Your father invites you to pray to him because he has some great and mighty things that you don't know, you've never experienced, and you can't even think about asking for.
SPEAKER_01: And this isn't like little kids getting candy.
SPEAKER_01: This is like God's kingdom coming down.
SPEAKER_01: Avail yourself to this in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Bless you, you're dismissed.