Faith Over Anxiety

Hello, Salt Church. Welcome. Good to see you again this Sunday. Hope you enjoyed the worship. And as always, let's get prepared for a great message straight from God.

Here's what I want you to do, as always. Let's connect, guys. Let's post things over in the section beside us here. Just type, Hallelujah, Amen, I'm here. Connect with somebody.

Hey, start a watch party. Get that watch party going. Share that with your community. Hit some emojis. Whatever you can do to share this.

This is an awesome opportunity to share the gospel with somebody. A very easy way to do it. So go ahead and connect with people. In fact, right there where you are right now, go ahead and stand up and stretch and just give somebody a high-five, give somebody a handshake, give somebody a hug. I know we can't do it publicly like we normally do, but go ahead and do that real quick.

Just tell somebody you love them and glad you're here today. So I'm just so thankful that we are all together. And I know for many of you this might be the only opportunity during the week where we get to connect. So this is vitally important that we're together. So I'm so glad that you're here and I hope you're blessed.

We started last week at the message series, a new message series called Faith Over Fear. Faith Over Fear. How we can handle fear by putting faith first. Placing our trust in God rather than the things that we're dealing with currently. Now, last week we talked about worry.

Worry. And we all worry, right? And we all have some kind of worry and we talked about different levels of worry. Some of us worry a lot. Some of us worry very little.

And then some of us are in between. A lot of us are in between. And this might have brought up some worry being in the current situation, current crisis. And we talked about how Jesus shows us how we can place faith over our worry. That He gives us a promise.

Our Heavenly Father takes care of the birds. Say, look at the birds, you know. How can we conquer our worry? Look at the birds. And when you look at the birds, you see that they are taken care of.

Won't your Heavenly Father take care of you as well? So you can go back and listen to that message. There's a lot of details in there. You can watch it right here on Facebook or you can... Or right on our website, www.

saltchurch.org, slash messages. And you can connect there and find out more, you know. So go back and listen to that message because I think it really sets us up for today. But I want to go a little deeper.

And not necessarily deeper, but I want to talk about anxiety. Because I think anxiety is the next level to worry. We worry, we all worry, but when the worry intensifies, we start becoming anxious. And just like worry, there's different levels of anxiety. There's mild anxiety, like the anxiety we feel when we're getting ready to take a test or the anxiety I probably felt before I had to stand in front of a camera, sit in front of a camera here.

You got those mild anxieties, right? And then you have these kind of other anxieties that step in, like a moderate type of anxiety. And that usually plays with our emotions a little bit. A lot of us are dealing with that right now, now that we have things that we have to think about, like our jobs and our kids and school and our finances and all these things. We start, it starts affecting our emotions and we're a little more sensitive and we're a little more excited about things.

I know this past week that this has been a tough week for me because, you know, we're kind of into this a little bit. And it seems like there's going to be no end. There's still uncertainty even up until this point. And I was a little bit on the edge this week, to be honest with you. And I probably said some things to my wife that I had to apologize for and said some things to my kids or haven't handled my kids like I normally would.

And that's, you know, because we're entering into a moderate type of anxiety. And then there's those of you that might be dealing with some severe anxiety. You don't even know why you're anxious. You're just anxious all the time and you can't figure it out. And for some people that might mean some medical help.

And that's okay, you know, if you need medical help. But I find it interesting that anxiety disorder, severe anxiety, runs pretty heavy. It's the most common mental illness in the U.S. And it affects close to 20% of people.

In fact, 40 million adults deal with anxiety. So anxiety is an issue. Anxiety is something we all deal with at some level. And anxiety was an issue that was dealt with way back 2,000 years ago. The Bible talks about anxiety.

They dealt with anxiety. Anxiety is nothing new. Just like worry last week, anxiety is nothing new. And Paul shares with us on the subject of anxiety. In fact, he wrote this really great letter to the Philippians church.

In a time where anxiety was really heavy. It was real. If you think you have things to worry about, Paul really had things to worry about. The church really had big things to worry about then. In fact, Paul wrote the letter to the Philippians while he was imprisoned.

He was in a Roman prison. And interestingly enough, Paul had always dreamed of going to Rome to share the gospel because it was the epicenter of everything. If you could share there, it would go forth everywhere because they were the centerpiece of everything. But little did he know that he would be sharing from a prison cell. He would be strapped to a Roman guard in house arrest.

And he begins to pin this gospel message about joy. It really is all about joy. This whole theme of Philippians is joy. And he had no reason to be joyful. I mean, he didn't know if he was getting out of there.

He didn't know what he faced next. He was uncertain about what would happen. But he had a joy in him. And it wasn't... See, here's the thing.

Let me just establish the difference between joy and happiness. Happiness, the pursuit of happiness, is based on happenstance. It's based on what happens. There's something special and something real about joy. Joy is stronger, it's pure, and it's deeper.

It goes beyond the things that actually happen to us. It doesn't matter what happens to us. We can experience joy. And Paul knew this joy. And I'm sure the church in that day was dealing with a lot of anxiety.

They weren't experiencing happiness at the time. They were faced with all kinds of issues. And they were writing letters to Paul and they were asking Paul, How do we deal with being Christians in this current time? We're under an emperor and he doesn't like Christianity too much. In fact, he uses Christianity to scare other people because he kills us and feeds us to lions and hangs us on crosses and does all kinds of things.

So there's a lot of anxiety going on during this time. I mean, just a lot more than we probably are facing today. But Paul tells the believers, Paul tells the church, the Philippian believers, that you can experience joy. It's something that runs much deeper. Because happiness depends on happenings, but joy depends on something greater and that's Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ. So the central theme of Philippians is based on this statement, this beautiful statement here. And a lot of you have probably heard this statement before. You've probably seen it on church. You've probably seen it on bumper stickers.

Even if you're not a Christian or you've never been a part of a church before and this is kind of your first experience, you probably have heard this scripture before. But I consider this and we... All as believers consider this the central theme of Philippians and Philippians 4, 4. It says, Rejoice in the Lord always. Always.

Rejoice in the Lord always. And then he emphasizes it by saying, and again I say rejoice. And let your gentleness be evident to all. What does he mean by that? He says, Rejoice, and then again I say rejoice.

And what's going to happen? You're going to be gentle even in the anxious times. You're going to see that you have peace and that your gentleness is evidence to all that the Lord is near. The Lord is near. He is near to us.

And the Lord is near to you today. And you can tap into something when you experience anxiety. So he goes on in chapter 4, verse 6. He says, Do not be anxious about anything. Do not be anxious about anything.

What does that mean? Don't be anxious about anything. Anything. Whether that's a big problem, whether that's a little problem. He says not to be anxious about anything.

Now, how many of you have disobeyed that recently? I have. I've been anxious about something. You've been anxious about something. Everybody has been anxious about something at some point in some time.

I mean, you can be the strongest Christian, the strongest believer. You can be Charles Spurgeon or Billy Graham or whoever your flavor of theology is. But we all have experienced anxiety at some point in our lives. And anxiety might look a little different for you than it did, you know, way back two months ago. You know, it feels like a long time ago, right?

I mean, for you, then it might have been, you know, you had a meeting with your boss the next day and you were kind of anxious about what that would look like. Or maybe you had a presentation or you had a test coming up or you had a, you know, math test in school that you were really worried about and it made you very anxious. Or for those of you who were graduating from high school or graduating from college, you were preparing for graduation and that was kind of an anxious thing for you. Am I got, have I got all my credits? Have I got everything lined up?

Have I ordered my cap and gown? Those of you poor high school students that don't get to experience your graduation, I'm so sorry that that's happening. I mean, just an unprecedented time. And, and, but, but then you were worried, right? You were, you were just worried about whether you were going to get the right dress for your prom and, and how that was going to look.

But now today it's, it's completely different because every time we look at the phone or we look at our pads or we, or we look at the news on TV, there's this polarization, polarization happening. People are all over the place about what's happening. There's numbers flashing up on the screen. We don't have any idea how long this is going to last. And then you have people on this side and people on that side.

All of a sudden everybody's professionals, right? They're, they're, they're, uh, professionals on health, on health and, and, and, uh, world health issues, you know, like we, and, and they're preaching at people, stay home, stay home. What do you think you're doing? And they're posting things. And then on this side, people become professional economists and they're telling you, well, we need to open back up our government.

This is not making sense and this and this and that, and then they're going back and forth. And we see this, this happening and the tension that's taken place. And so we can't go on social media without feeling anxiety. We can't put on the news without feeling anxiety. And, and it just seems to be no end.

And when we get anxious, when we are anxious, when we feel anxiety, we start doing things and saying things that we don't mean. We say things that don't represent what, how we really feel because we're allowing anxiety to creep in. So he says, be anxious for nothing or about anything and let your gentleness be evident to all for the Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything. And then he goes into, but in every situation.

So here's, here's where I want to really kind of get into this, but in every situation, he says, not anything, but in every situation, what, how many situations, a few situations and not others. No, every situation, whether big or small, whether great beyond your reach or something you can handle in every situation by prayer, underline that and petition with thanksgiving, underline that. So prayer and petition and with thanksgiving, every situation with what? Prayer with what? Thanksgiving.

What is that? Prayer. So what is he saying? Pray, pray, and pray. So prayer and petition.

And when we look at thanksgiving, when we think about thanksgiving, what is that? Praise. You know, prayer to God and lifting Him up is just praise. So he says, in every situation, by prayer and praise, present your request to God. So instead of being anxious, he gives us two things, prayer and praise, present your request to God and the peace of God.

God, and this is interesting, which transcends all understanding, which transcends all understanding, will guard, will guard your heart and your mind, your hearts and your mind in Christ Jesus. So what is he saying here? Prayer and praise bring peace. Prayer and praise bring peace. And peace is your guard.

So when anxiety strikes, peace is your guard. How do you reach peace? Prayer and praise. Because we are in a battle. Anxiety causes us to let down our guard.

Y'all know that statement, that phrase, don't let your guard down. Don't ever let your guard down. When you talk about fights and movies and whatever it is, maybe you've been in Taekwondo, maybe you've played basketball, maybe whatever sport you're a part of, you know that one of the most common statements is to not let your guard down. But what do we do? When we feel anxious, we let our guard down, right?

I remember when I was younger, I was a wrestler in high school and I was a little guy and I was, I was, you know, very anxious, obviously, just learning the ropes. And I went up against a state champion that was on my team and practiced one day. And I remember us wrestling and he was, he was just really, really fast and stuff. But I was hanging in there and I was kind of proud of myself. You know, I would slip out and slip in and slip out.

But then he, he started getting really aggressive and he started getting more intense. And what happened? I let my guard down. I just let my guard down and he took me down so fast, so fast. The state championship wrestler took me down so fast.

And he looked at me and he says, you never let your guard down. Don't ever let your guard down. We are not to let our guard down and our guard is peace. We are guarded by peace. Don't drop your guard.

Don't drop your guard. I had a pastor friend of mine. He's a, he's a pretty established pastor. Pastors of mega church and has a lot of ministries going on. He flies around a lot and does a lot of different things.

And he was sharing with me and a group of pastors about a time where he was in a plane flight. And it was just a crazy plane flight. It was all over the place, up and down, here and there, just all over the place. People were freaking out. They were scared.

They were pushing buttons. They were, ah, you know, just, just, oh, can you believe this? And he's just smiling. He's happy. He's peaceful.

He's just kind of doing his thing. He's looking over. He's waving at people, you know, when they're looking at them. And, and, and the lady beside her looks over at her and she says, what in the world is going on with you? You have this peace about you.

How can you be peaceful during this? And he told her, he just looked over at her and he says, I know I'm all right because God's got something for me on the other. He's carrying me somewhere because I got to do something and he's got a calling on my life and I know whose I am and I know the purpose he has put on me to go do this. But even if I don't make it here, I also know where I'm going so I'm secure and I'm at peace with that. Why was he at peace with that?

Because he understood whose he was and he was protected by peace. His heart and his mind, his mind and his heart knowing whose he was and the heart, the deepest part of him knew his calling and his purpose. And it was protected by this peace, by this peace. In fact, that's the battle, right? Because Satan has a plan to get to your mind and get to your heart.

1 Peter 5, 7 and 8 says, Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Okay? So he's looking. He's waiting for the opportunity.

And his goal is to get into your mind. Because if he can get to your mind, he can get to your heart. And the devil's strategy and the devil's weapon is to whisper lies because he is the father of lies. He is the prince of lies. He talks in lies and he tells you you're not good enough.

He tells you that God doesn't care about you. He tells you that you're not going to be taken care of. And many of you are facing anxiety for that reason because you don't believe you have any hope or certainty about what's going on. And the devil wants you to believe that. He wants you to think that you have no security.

You have no hope. The thing is just wasting away. And I imagine that those who don't know Christ, I can't even imagine what they're going through right now. If your hope is in the things of now, you're lost. But if your hope is in something greater, peace, right?

So he gets to our minds and he works our minds and this is his strategy to break us down. I was ministering to a guy a few years ago and he started a business and it was real successful. I mean, he was doing really well in this business, but he kept talking negatively about himself. It was as if he just didn't believe in himself. And I'm like, man, you're already successful.

Look what you're doing. Well, I just don't know when it's all going to fall apart. I mean, I don't deserve this. I don't know why this is happening. There's no rhyme or reason to it.

I said, it's just the blessings of God. Just accept it and just believe it and just go with it. Just enjoy the ride and just let the Lord continue to bless you. But he just kept on and on and on with these negative thoughts and eventually his business failed. And I don't believe his business failed because he wasn't capable of doing well with the business.

I believe those negative thoughts that Satan was planting in his mind and he was believing him kept him from being all that God wanted him to be. So that's what lies do. He lies about your marriage. You're not a good husband or you're not a good wife or you're not a good father or you're not a good mother or you're going to get sick in the middle of this and you don't have a future and everything's going to fall apart. Everything you've made and everything you have is going to leave you.

And you place your trust in those things and he lies about those things and tells you those are the most important things in your life. And you're believing that and he attacks us. For me as a pastor I know how that feels. Just recently when all this came about I was dealing with anxiety. I was letting my guard down when I was thinking about the church.

Just all the things that are happening. How are we going to do online services? And the biggest thing for someone, a pastor like me, I want to lead and I want to lead well and I want to do it with faith. And all of a sudden all this happens. We have some momentum coming into this season.

It was a great time and all of a sudden everything's off. And not that I didn't have a peace. At first I had this just wholesome peace. Just this peace that was over me. And then I let my guard down and I started thinking about you.

How can I keep up with all the people? Am I a good enough pastor? Am I really thinking about what am I doing right? What am I doing wrong? And I let my guard down.

And when I came into crisis, we made decisions at the beginning of the year about giving more. And all of a sudden this thing happens and churches and ministries are talking about giving is going to drop 40% to 50%. Just be prepared and this and that. Well, we made this pledge to give more this year. We want to give more.

So I'm trying to leverage things so that we can do more and give more and not hold back from doing what we promised. And sometimes the faith is taken away because of the anxiety. Anxiety over faith rather than faith over anxiety. So that's what happens. My thought process was being affected.

You're not a good enough pastor. You're not a good enough leader. How are you going to deal with this situation? And then it ultimately affects our hearts because the mind connects to our hearts. The heart is the deepest part of us, the deepest part of who we are.

And if we have an unhealthy heart, we have an unhealthy soul. Let's just call the heart the soul. If we have an unhealthy soul, we have a weak and unhealthy view of God. We don't see God the way we should see God because our soul is unhealthy and our heart is unhealthy. And our heart can be very deceived.

We have a deceptive heart. Follow your heart? No. Follow Christ as He makes your heart healthy. Connect your heart, connect your soul to Him.

Because if we don't do that, if we don't understand that God is near and God cares for us and God has this under control, we can feel devastated, forgotten, and lost. Here's what Psalm 73 says, beginning with verse 25. It says, Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail.

It does at times, right? But God is the strength of my heart. If I attach my worry, if I attach my anxiety to the things that I feel, you know, like my paycheck and, you know, whatever securities I have in life, if I attach my hope in those things, my heart goes that way, you know? But it says, God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. See, He's my portion.

He's my heart. He's my everything. He's my soul. I don't have to be afraid. He has my heart and He is my portion.

I don't have to be afraid. So our minds and our hearts. So peace protects our minds and our hearts. And our weapons are prayer and praise. Prayer and praise.

The avenue, the pathway to peace, the way we connect to peace is through prayer and praise. Prayer and praise. How do we get this peace? Prayer and praise. How do we get there?

How's the supernatural peace that comes over us? It says one that we can't understand is prayer and praise. So we protect our minds and our hearts by peace and then prayer and praise steps in. And that's how we get that peace. Let me just talk about that for a minute.

Some would say, you know, all we have left is prayer. All we have, as if it's the last resort, right? But prayer should be our first resort. In fact, prayer shouldn't be just these wimpy little prayers that we pray. I mean, it's okay.

God is great. God is good if you're training your kids. But man, we should have powerful prayers. But so many of us don't believe in powerful prayers. I'm talking about big, bold prayers.

Prayers that change things. This is what does it. God listens to those. But for so many of us, it's like we just don't believe in prayer. This is why we have prayer meetings and only about five people show up out of a thousand Remember church.

I mean because we really don't think prayer works and we don't think prayer is of the most importance but if you want to fight anxiety put your prayer up. I'm reminded of Elijah as he was up on Mount Carmel and 450 prophets of Baal, 450 and he challenges them. I mean this is super bold. Elijah says I'm gonna prove to all the people that Yahweh God is the only true God. So prophets of Baal, I want you to take a calf.

We're gonna put one here. I'm gonna put mine here and not only am I gonna do that I'm gonna douse mine three times with water. So water was just running down this altar and he says I want you to pray to your gods. And for hours and hours and hours they were praying until about lunchtime about noon and nothing was happening. They were cutting themselves and they were doing all kinds of things.

But Elijah says let me have my turn. That's enough. He mocked him a little bit, played with him during that happening. But he says I am going to prove that God is the true God. And he prays this prayer.

Listen to this. In 1 Kings 18 it's in verse 36. Lord the God the God of Abraham Isaac in Israel. Let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and I have done all these things at your command. Answer me Lord.

Answer me so these people will know that you are Lord, you are God and that you are turning their hearts back again. And what happens is God sends down a fire from heaven on his altar. Burns up the altar. Sucks up the water. Powerful, powerful, majestic things.

The power of God is demonstrated right there on that mountain because Elijah was bold and prayed that God would do something. And we can do the same thing. And we can do the same thing. Not small prayers but strong, deep prayers. Prayers that you would not pray in front of anybody else.

Prayers. He says you can pray to have a mountain moved in faith and that mountain will be cast into the sea. Those kind of prayers. In fact James says it like this. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

It's powerful. A righteous person, that's a Christian. That's a believer. The prayers of us are powerful. We pray powerful and effective prayer.

So my question for you is do you believe that prayer is powerful? That your prayers are powerful? Do you believe that your prayers are effective? I love how Mark Batterson puts it. He says if your prayers are impossible to you, then you're insulting God.

Wow. Prayer. We fight with prayer. If you have the faith of a mustard seed, you can tell that mountain to be moved. Pow.

We pray. We fight anxiety and we grab on to peace because we are prayer people. We pray. And then he says we praise. We give thanksgiving to God.

What is praise? It's simply prayer lifted to God. It's another form of prayer when we gather in worship and we demonstrate our love and that God is just this awesome, powerful God just beyond what we can think or imagine or comprehend. His very character when we lift him up and we praise him and thank him for all that he's done and what all he's doing and what he's done in the past and what he's doing in the future and just the magnificence. That's prayer.

It says from the rising of the sun to the setting of that same day, I will bless the Lord. We are praying people and we are praising people. Paul said rejoice in the Lord always, right? Going back to that. And again, I say rejoice.

He is just adamant. Here's what happens when we pray and praise. We tap into something because here's what Paul, here's Paul's perspective. When he begins to pray and praise and when he begins to pray, it does something. If you go back to the beginning of Philippians, we see that he's in chains, but he says I'm not in chains.

I get an opportunity to share the gospel with him. And because I'm in chains, some of you have began to share your faith more boldly. You've been more faithful with the gospel. And if that does something for you guys, then I'm not in chains. See, he had a joy despite that because he had this peace, this peace because he knew how to praise God.

He was in prayer and praise. He grabbed on to a peace. And when we begin to pray and praise, a supernatural peace begins to guard our heart. It guards our hearts. It guards your hearts.

So our hearts and minds are in a battle. Anxiety is the weapon of the enemy. But peace is our guard and prayer and praise are the weapons that can conquer fear. Faith over fear. So God has a plan for your life.

But the enemy has a plan for your life too. Did you know that? Be ready for both. Just know which one to battle and which one to embrace. Where does your faith lie is the question.

Does your faith lie in the things that you're worried about? Does your faith lie in the things that you're anxious about? Assess that. Or does your faith lie in the one who can take care of all those things anyway? See, anxiety can actually be a gift.

It can be a gift if it causes us to know God more and to lean in closer to God. Anxiety is a natural thing that happens inside of us in certain situations to help us focus. But sometimes anxiety can be a gift and it always is a gift if it causes us to lean closer to God, to know God more, to pray, to praise Him more, to lean into Him, to know Him more, to know who He is, to know who we're connected to and to grow closer to Him in a way that we can hear His voice. So my question for you today, where does your faith lie? Where does your faith lie?

Because you're going to be disappointed if your faith lies in your 401K, if your faith lies in whether you're getting a salary next month, if your faith lies on whether your kids will get in the right college. Your faith doesn't lie in those things because it will just fail you. But if your faith lies on Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, there's a peace that passes understanding and we can conquer all fear, fate over fear. So I ask you today, wherever you are on the spectrum, whether you've been a believer for many years or maybe you don't know Jesus at all, trust in Him. Put your hope in Him today.

Don't let anxiety win. And don't let the devil win because he's got plans and a great purpose for your life. And the next season is going to be greater than this if you place your trust in the right place. He's got awesome things in store for you. Let me just ask you this.

Let me ask you this. And I want to pray for those who are believers as well to help you through the anxiety. But more importantly, do you have a relationship with Jesus? Because this peace that passes understanding is not available to you if you don't know who Jesus is. And Romans shares with us that he who calls on the name of the Lord, meaning he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God, that he died on the cross for our sin, and that we can have a relationship with him.

He who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. He who calls on the name of the Lord can have a personal relationship with him, can connect with him in a way where we can discover this peace that passes understanding, that is faith that conquers all fear. We can know that today. And he will change your life from the inside out. And the Bible tells us he who believes in the word of Christ, and this is what he shares with us.

This is inspired by the Holy Spirit. This is God speaking to us, telling you, I want a relationship with you. I've done this for you because I thought about you long before you were even born. And I gave my son. God says, I gave my son for you so that you can have a relationship with me.

So you can pray this with me, all believers and those who are far from God. Let's just all pray it together. And I want you to, and there's nothing magical in the prayer. It's just a confession that Jesus is Lord, and he died on the cross, and he rose from the dead. And you can, he can come and live with you today.

Father, in the name of Jesus, I believe that you are the Son of God. I believe it. You are. I'm convinced. You've convinced me, Lord.

And not on my own doing, but you've just convinced me. I believe that you are the Son of God, and I believe that you died on the cross. God, you gave your Son to die for my sins. And I believe that, and I confess that I have done things that were far from you, but you, the reason you died is so that I could be brought close to you. So, God, I give my heart to you.

I surrender. I give my life to you. Come and change me from the inside. Transform me, Lord, from the inside out, and I walk with you from this day forth. Hallelujah.

And for those of you who are believers, God, I'm sorry that I haven't been that close to you lately, and I've been experiencing anxiety. So, today, I rededicate myself to you. I rededicate my life and my heart to you. And I'm walking with you, Lord. And I'm putting up prayer and praise, and I'm going to use it, and I'm claiming the peace that passes understanding over my life, Lord.

And I'm leaning into you. Just draw me closer to you, Lord. I'm yours for life. Amen. If you prayed that prayer, let me tell you.

I'm so excited for you. It says the angels in heaven are celebrating. You just don't know what that means. If you gave your life to Jesus today, if you're a new believer, hey, we want you to connect with us. Listen, you can go to our website.

Send us an email. You can drop something in our messages here on Facebook, our private message. If you need to private message us. You know, however you can connect with us during this season, we want to connect with you. The next step is to be baptized.

Really, the biggest thing you can do is be baptized. The very first step. And we're going to have a baptism when we get back together, probably at the beach. And we're going to plan that once we figure out when we're getting back together. But I want you to go ahead and let us know that you want to be baptized.

And even if you've been with us for a while or you want to be baptized, go ahead and let us know. And we'll start planning for that. We're super excited. And we also want you to get plugged in. Like plug in with us.

Connect with us. I'm here. If you send an email and ask for me, I'll be sure to follow up with you. We'd love to. Our connections coordinator would love to connect with you as well.

There's all kinds of opportunities here. I also want to mention for those of you who aren't in small groups or connecting, I realize that sometimes Sunday is the only way for you to connect. But there are opportunities to get connected during the week. So let us know. And we would love to get you in a group some of our Zoom meetings and things like that to continue to connect during the week.

We'd love to get you there. So thank you guys for being with us today. Next week, part three of our series. We would love to have you for that. But God bless you.

Have a great Sunday. And we'll see you next time. Hey, everybody. Thank you so much for your generosity. We've been able to do an incredible amount through your giving.

It's awesome to see what you're doing. We're engaging in some projects during the crisis. We're providing food for the elderly by dropping groceries off at their door. And we're able to do that through your giving. Also, remember that Elevate 2020 is still happening.

And we're giving 20% of that to cancer research for children and to help families in need. Also, we'll be providing a lot more information about some of the things that we're doing during this crisis. So your giving helps this happen. Continue to give. We love you so much.

God bless you.