Tree Of Life

Welcome to our fall kickoff. And this is our one-year anniversary, guys, of publicly launching as a church. Amen? We've made it a year.

There's been a lot of ups and downs and sideways and everything, but God has kept us here. And we've seen many people come to Christ this year so far, and we're excited where God's going to carry us next. Are y'all excited about where God's going to carry us? Amen? Do you believe that God's got big things for us?

He's already shown us over and over again His faithfulness, and He's going to carry us through even further. And we know that we're just going to be a big impact, a big footprint in Virginia Beach and beyond. And we're just super excited about where God's going to carry us next. And if you want to jump on board and become a part of this, come on. The ride's there.

Just hop on board. Let's do this together. Amen? Let's reach people for Jesus. This is what God's called us to do.

This is where Jesus left the church. Says, upon this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail. Amen? Amen? Amen.

So we're excited you're here with us today. We're starting a brand new series called Fresh Air. How many of you need a breath of fresh air? I know I need breaths of fresh air often. Before we get started, though, I did want to mention that this is our small group launch week.

We have a few groups that you can register for. If you'll check us out online, we'll have those listed for you. Also, we'll have some sign-up forms for you to sign up for small groups. This is an awesome time where we're able to meet during the week and pray for each other and learn together. So that begins this week.

And just to kind of push, we do our marriage small group at my house, and we launch that next Sunday night. So if you're interested in being a part of that, Thursday, we have the women's meet, men, meet, start meeting next Saturday. And we've got some more we're working on putting out there. And as we grow as a church, we want to offer more small groups. So if you're even interested in hosting or leading a small group, we sure would love to have as many possible ways to offer places for people to connect outside the church.

And it can be anything. It could be like guys meeting up or girls meeting up for basketball or yoga or whatever it is that you enjoy doing, just getting together and fellowshipping in community, working out together, whatever that might look like. So if you're interested in something like that, you certainly can talk to me about that. We can set you up and get you going for this fall semester of small groups. So Fresh Air is a book based, this isn't my original material.

This is a great book. And if you want to order this book, Fresh Air by Chris Hodges, you can look on Amazon and you can buy the book and you can read through it. And it has some great, great information. In fact, this is a book I come back to often. It's been written for about five years now.

And I've probably been through it three times already because I always have to come back to that. Because we all go through those times where we need to recharge. And sometimes I feel like, you know, we're going through the motions of life. And sometimes those times can be exciting and dynamic. But then there's other times where it just seems like we're going through the cycle, right?

And sometimes we can even not experience the joy we should be experiencing as Christians. So this series is meant to help us, to give us a breath of fresh air. And it starts with a scripture that Paul, where Paul speaks of this one gentleman, an obscure guy in the New Testament in 2 Timothy 1.16. His name was Omnissiphorus.

And he had this, he talked about this. He said, may the Lord bless Omnissiphorus and all his family because he visited me and encouraged me often. And his visit revived. Circle that word, revive. If you're following your notes, you got your little note card there.

You can follow the notes. And you circle that word, revived. He revived me like a breath of fresh air. He revived me like a breath of fresh air. The Greek word for revive revive is to put breath back in.

It literally means to recover your breath. It's almost like spiritual CPR. And, and, and, you know, when you're, you feel like you're dying or you're losing breath or you're suffocating, it's this, this, this guy. And obviously Paul felt this way when he talked about this family. He says, this, this man and his family have, have just breathed life back into me when I felt like I was dying.

And have you met those type of people in your life? Have you come across those type of people who actually speak life? I know I have. And then you have others that they try to speak life, but they don't really do it well. When I was first dreaming about Salt Church and in the visionary stage of starting a new kind of church, I had this guy that worked with me and, and he, I was just, you know, kind of like, how, how is this even going to happen?

How are we going to do this church? There's a, there's a strong chance it won't even happen. And he kind of looks at me. I know he was trying to be encouraging, but he went a little too theological with me because he was right about what he said, but it didn't really help a lot. He said, well, if God's in it, it'll work.

But if it's not God, then it won't work. I said, well, that doesn't help me at all, right? Right. It's right. You're right.

But it doesn't help me at all. But then there's, there's other people that I talked to that were just so encouraging. Leon, you, you, this is, God's got big things. God's got, you got great vision for, for, you know, a new church and, and God's going to take you and you're going to soar. And don't you worry about a thing.

God's got this. And it just breathed air into me, especially those times where I didn't even know if we would get past phase one of the visionary stage. And we all need people like that in our lives. We all need to hear words of, of, of refreshing words in our life. And, and that's the idea of this series is to try to help you.

Hopefully I can help you. This book can help you. And the series can help you gain a breath of fresh air. That's my hope for you. You today, so if you'll just track with me for the next four weeks, hopefully I can help you regain a breath of fresh air.

That's my hope for you. So there's this idea that the book starts out with called the doldrums. Stuck in the doldrums. And what's interesting, some of you may have heard the word doldrums. Maybe you've even used it a few times.

I feel like I'm in the doldrums. Basically, I feel stuck or I feel depressed, but there's this was actually a word that goes back. It's a scientific term, meaning it was a sailor term, actually, and near the equator, there's actually this this this area called the enter or the intratropical convergent zone. And what happens is you have the southern hemisphere meeting the northern hemisphere, and they're kind of swinging the same direction. And and then they cancel each other.

The wind cancels each other out. And back before there were motors and boats, you know, sailors would enter into this zone. And many times they would get stuck there and often die there because there was no way out. And all of us from time to time in our spiritual lives probably feel like we're caught in this zone in this doldrum state where we feel like we just can't get out. We do we work.

Maybe it's in your marriage. You feel like it started out great. And then you came to this place where you just can't stand each other anymore. You feel like you can't move forward or maybe it's in your job. You had that that's that when you first began your position in this job, you were so excited about it.

And now you're at the point where it doesn't feel that great anymore. And you just aggravated and tired. And we even do this from God with God from time to time. And even the greatest leaders and pastors and spiritual giants can feel this way from time to time. And the book talks a bit about how or how we get there and the journey to get there.

But it doesn't talk a lot about what we do when we're actually in it. Now, how does it work? And maybe you can relate. Here's the cycle we tend to take when we start to enter into the doldrum state. First of all, we start faking it.

You start faking it. If you're following your notes, you can write that in. You start faking it. We don't want anybody to see that we're going through a dry place or a dry stage. We put on a mask, right?

We don't. You know, for example, somebody asks you, Hey, how are you doing today? Oh, I'm doing great. Right? That's usually our response.

I'm doing really good. And we're really big about this in the South because we think it's bad to tell anybody that we're going through issues, right? So we just tell, we're just doing really good, you know. Honey and sweetie and all that stuff happens, you know, in the South. And we don't like to tell anybody.

And we're still Magnolias, right? We're beautiful on the outside and tough on the inside. And we get through these times. And but we fake it. We pretend like it's not happening.

And we don't even talk to our best friends about it. That's how serious it gets. And we allow it to just incubate in our hearts and in our souls. We fake it. Jeremiah 6.

14 says, They dress their womb of my people as though it were not serious. Peace, peace, they say, when there is no peace. He's actually talking to spiritual leaders. It's kind of like the church saying, I'll pray for you. But they never really pray for you, you know.

Or somebody, you know, be blessed, you know. But they never really mean it. And that's what was going on here. And so many times we fake it as even brothers and sisters in Christ. We fake that there's actually anything going on because we want to look good, you know.

We're believers. We're Christian people. We're going through this. And we fake it, right? We fake it.

And then we enter into the second stage when we fake it. And you start putting it off. You start putting it off. You don't try to handle it. You just assume that time is going to take care of what you're going through.

And you know the old saying, time fixes things? It really doesn't fix things. In fact, when we hide it, it forms a bitter root inside ourselves. And though it may not rise for months or years, when it does rise, it's a mess. And Scripture even tells us, the writer of Hebrews says, see to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.

So instead of leaning on God's grace, we try to let it heal on its own. Instead of trusting on other people that are believers and working together, we just hope that it really fixes itself. But the truth that it doesn't. And when we think it's gone after a period of time, it comes back again. We think it's gone, it comes back again.

And we think it's gone, it comes back again. And then we enter into the third stage, is we give up. We just give up. I'm tired. It's the same old, same old.

Nothing seems to be fixing it. I just, we just give up. And I've seen this happen. Not only with just people, but with spiritual leaders. I mean, I'm a part of accountability network with pastors.

And there's this one guy in our network. He's a great guy. He's got a great ministry. He loves people. But he was just done.

He said, man, I'm just frustrated. I'm tired. I don't want to do this anymore. I don't even like people anymore. I'm a pastor and I don't like people.

I'm just so tired. And I'm just ready to give up. And we prayed together. And he's going to get through it. He's going to be okay.

But we all go through these times where we just, we give up. We give up. And we don't ever want it to get to that stage. And this is a terrible place to be. In Job 17, 13, Job even felt this way.

He says, where then is my hope? Who can see any hope for me? Who can see any hope for me? And there's two responses or many responses we make. But the ones that kind of stand out, we get angry and we blame others, which may be true.

It may be others' fault. But we start to, we won't ask for help. And we'll just blame others. And we become depressed. We come terribly down and out.

And you think, who cares? Who cares anymore? I'm just going through this thing. You think, who cares if you're not? Thank you.

And it just seems like the same thing over and over again. Who cares? And we just, we just give up. And then we come to the fourth place, and this is where it gets really, really, really dark. You die.

You die. And I'm not talking about a literal death, although sometimes it can be a literal death. But you just check out. You're done. You're done.

You die. And you die mentally. You die morally. You die spiritually. You die physically at times.

And we've seen it even in our own community, people who have just checked out. They seem successful, have lots of friends on the outside, but they've checked out on the inside. And sometimes even, God forbid, take their own lives because you die. And if not, you go back to this immoral state that you once were because you just, you're stuck. You're stuck.

And you go and you drink it. You smoke it. You sleep with it. Or whatever it takes to try to kill the pain. And we try to kill it.

We try to, we don't deal with it. We just go back to that very same place that we were before we even knew what hope was. And this is a place I hope that you never get to, to that place. Paul even felt this way in 2 Corinthians 1, 8 and 9. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.

Indeed, in our hearts, we felt the sentence of death. You die. So what we really need is a breath of fresh air. We need the power of God, the intangible force that revives our soul. It gets us going again.

It revives us. It puts wind back in our cells. But the obvious question is, Pastor, how, how do I get my wind back in my cells? Well, it comes all down to this. It's a choice.

It's a choice we make. And this goes all the way back to the beginning of time. But here's the real problem. It's what people try to do that gets them off of track. They start to manufacture this artificial external energy, hoping that if I do more, if I work more, if I treat people better, if I give more, and if I do all these things, maybe my life would be worth something.

Maybe it would fix what's going on. And we always start with the external. And we do this with God, too. If we're believers in Jesus, we say, well, I'm not having a great time right now. I'm not enjoying my Christian walk.

So, you know what I'll do? I'll read my Bible more. I'll go to church more. I'll give more. And hope that that kind of fixes whatever's going on with me.

Because I can't figure it out. God, do I just pray more? And we always start with the external. And something, but here's the deal. Something has to first happen internally.

See, we always start with the external. And the gravitational pull is always towards the wrong thing. I'm going to fix my outside. I'm going to start doing the right stuff in order to earn my brownie points to get closer to God. When it actually is about something else.

It's an eternal thing. It's a heart thing. It's about a relationship. Not the external rules. And the things that we have to follow.

It really comes down to what's going on in here. And this goes back to the very beginning. There was a choice. There were two choices. And Satan himself in Genesis, symbolized as a snake in the garden, tries to manipulate the scene with Adam and Eve.

And here's what happens. God gives them a choice. A choice between the knowledge of good and evil or the choice of a relationship with God. Genesis 2, 9. In the middle of the garden there was a tree.

And the tree of knowledge of good. There was the tree of life. And the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And in Genesis 2, 16 and 17 it says, The Lord God commanded man, you are free to eat of any tree in the garden. But you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

For when you eat of it, you will surely, and there's that word again, die. He gave them two choices. And Satan shows up in the garden. He convinces them, hey, look. You know, God's kind of holding some things back from you.

Because if you eat of this tree of the knowledge of good and evil, You'll actually know and be like God. You'll understand good and evil. And really what it comes down to, why did they make that choice to take of that forbidden fruit? Because it's easier to measure and quantify the external rules. Human nature is always drawn to trying to figure out things by what you should do and what you shouldn't do.

The knowledge of good and evil. If I do this good enough, I must be into heaven. I must be able to get there. If I don't do enough of this, man, I'm in the bad side of the place, you know. And we're constantly dealing with that.

When all God wants, He says, I've got this other tree. This other tree. It's called the tree of life. And He's pulling us and He's urging us. He says, I don't care about what you've did, what you've done, and where you've gone.

I want you to partake of this fruit. Deuteronomy 30, 19 says this. This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you. That I have set before you life and death. Blessings and curses.

And He says this. Now choose life. Choose the tree of life. So, I want to give you a few examples of that today. Some choices that we can make.

The choices we tend to make and the choices that we can make. The first choice is we can either do more. We can do more. I always feel like we should have done more. Don't we?

We want to pray more. We want to read more. We want to give more. We want to serve more. Because we want to earn favor with God.

From there at globe. Of right. So, the God, even for this, the Jesus Oh God, and prove in basketball. The God, and oneander. We can do more, or we can receive what has been done for us.

We can receive what God has already done. John 5, 39-40 says, You diligently study the Scripture because you think by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life. We have all the knowledge of what we are to do and what we aren't to do, but life is right in front of us, and we fail to really enjoy who the person of Jesus is. We can know about the Bible, we can read the Bible all we want to, but if we don't know what the Bible is talking about, the person of Jesus Christ, who He is, then we're missing the point.

You can do, or you can receive what Christ has already done for you. Secondly, you can try to earn God's approval. You can try to earn God's approval. Many think God doesn't approve of them. Did you realize that?

A lot of people think that God is like this big bearded guy in the sky, sitting on a cloud, staring at you and watching your every movement. Anytime you make a mistake, throwing a lightning bolt down, you know, Oh, stop! Come here! Stay right there! You know, okay, you're doing good!

You're doing good! Oh, okay, hell bound, you know, and a lot of people see God as this kindergarten teacher with this map on His wall with the star chart. You know what I'm talking about? Where you have, like, you're good, and He says, okay, you get a gold star here, and then, oh, you get the red star, which is a step down, and maybe tomorrow, my son, and I know this because my son come home the other day, and he had a little step down on his chart, or whatever it is, and I said, Max, you lost a little bit of your color. Actually, the color was still good.

He just kind of dropped down one. He looked like he was scared to death. He's like, oh, oh, like I was going to get him, you know, and a lot of us see God that way, right? We think God is just keeping the star chart. Good behaviors, bad behaviors, maybe you'll make it into heaven.

If you're good enough each day, maybe I'll have a place for you. We want to earn God's approval. Can I tell you, God knows every sin that you've ever done and still likes you. Isn't that cool? So we can earn God's approval, or we can receive God's love for you.

He loves you. He wants you to receive his love. Romans 5.8 says, but God demonstrated his love for us in this while we were still sinners. Not that we had to earn the gold star on the chart, but while we were still down at the bottom of the chart, he died for us because he loves us regardless of where we are, where we were, where we will be.

And thirdly, I want to spend a little more time on this. We can either obey out of duty. When I grew up in church, when I was growing up in church, that's kind of how I felt God was. You know, we didn't miss church. I went to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night.

I was a preacher's kid. We always went to church. Everything we did had, you know, was church related, and we did church all the time. And every time we went, we heard about the things that we should do and we shouldn't do. Even our Sunday school curriculums were like, there was a list of things, you know, this is what we should do, and this is what we shouldn't do.

And that was my whole approach to God. Like, if I'm good enough this week, maybe God will have favor on me and smile upon me. And next week, you know, I'm out. I'm going to hell next week. So you're getting saved every week, you know.

You're raising your hand in church every week because you think that God's kind of keeping a list, right? And sometimes I even wondered if it was really worth it. If it was really worth it to follow God and to do all these things. In fact, even when I went to church, it was, you know, you'd hear teachings about not doing it well enough. Like, hey, you need to pray three hours a night.

And you'd go home and you'd get through 15 minutes and you'd look up and say, oh my, it's only been 15 minutes, you know, and I'm not praying enough. And you got to read your Bible through every year. And you're like, look, God, I'm on my day, you know, for my year plan. And you're just kind of going through the stuff and you're trying to earn his approval. And that's what we were taught.

And then you went to church and the people there weren't even happy. I mean, they're having a sour look on their face all the time and kind of looking at you because you're in a t-shirt that Sunday or something. I don't know. And I started to think that maybe the people are upset because they can't sin, you know. I mean, I have to live this way.

It's not, there's no joy, you know. And I thought, well, people weren't happy. Did you ever hear the story about the pastor that was witnessing in New Orleans during Mardi Gras? And this guy kind of walks out with his girlfriend. He's drunk and he's talking to him, you know.

They used to have these things called chick tracks. I don't know if y'all are familiar with chick tracks. There's little tracks that you would, you would hand out and, and, uh, uh, they, they would tell you, they'd share the gospel with people and things like that. And, uh, and he was handing out chick tracks and, and, and the guy's like, he's just drunk. And he looks at him, he says, uh, my daddy was a demon in the Baptist church.

And he says, sir, you mean, you mean deacon, right? His girlfriend looks at him, no, he means demon. And often people in the church seem that way, you know. They're sour and, and, and, and religion is, it becomes like a catch 22, you know. It was too hard, you know.

The religion, it's just too hard to follow all these things, rules. But I, you didn't really have an option because you were going to hell if you didn't do them, right? So you're kind of stuck in the middle trying to figure out how to live life and how to live a Christian life. So we can either obey that way through, through duty, through obligation, through whatever it is, or we can obey out of delight, out of delight. John 14, 15 says, if you love me, you will obey what I command.

Now I used to read that scripture like it was an obligation, like it was a duty, right? If you love me, then you better obey. Obey my commands, right? And I used to hear it taught like this, and I think I taught in my younger years, you know, on occasion, tried to ruffle some feathers. You better obey God.

If you love Him, because you don't love Him, but if you really read this in context, it's more out of delight. If we love Him, if we're in love with Him, it's easy to obey. It's easy to follow Him. And a lot of us, growing up in the church, if you grew up in the church like I did, some of you may understand this a little better than I did, but growing up in the church, you know, grace, you know, just was grace. You just understood it.

But anybody who was on the other side of grace, who came up without a church background, who came out in horrible situations that there was no end, there was no way out, and they discovered grace, they'll tell you, they'll tell you, you don't really know grace. My dad was sharing with me the other weekend a deacon in his church, or elder in his church. He's an Italian guy. Alfredo has the best restaurant in their town, and he is so good. He looks like Al Pacino, like a tall Al Pacino.

It's kind of scary, you know, when you walk into the restaurant. He's got this suit, but he's the nicest guy you'll ever meet. Boy, he's got it down as far as Italian food. And he was sharing in their class, and he's a great teacher. He teaches the Word and has a really big class that a lot of people go to in their church.

And he was talking, and he said, you don't, most of you in here, and he kind of pointed at everything, he said, most of you in here don't understand grace like I understand grace. Because most of you grew up in church, and grew up in an environment, and grew up in the Bible Belt, where you understood grace. But you don't understand grace like I understand grace. And if you knew his story, living in New York, in the Bronx, in a place where there seemed to be no way out. Where kids grew up to become gang members, or just dead in paths.

And when he found Jesus, he discovered something life-giving. He says, you can't understand grace. He even looked my dad in the eye at the preacher. He says, you don't understand grace like I understand grace. And so many of us don't understand grace.

The love of God. That God pursues us passionately. That he cares about us so deeply. That obeying him should be a delight for us. Because he loves us so much, and he cares for us so much.

And it's a choice we have to make. We can obey him out of duty. I have to. And live miserably. Trying to do and strive to be the best Christian, or the best Christ follower, or whatever.

Or we can learn to obey him in the light. Which brings me to principle number one. Each week I want to give you one principle. And this is principle number one this week. And before I give you this principle, well, he's already put it up on the screen.

Fall in love with Jesus. You need to fall in love with Jesus. I'm reminded of the Broadway show. The book actually illustrates this. The Broadway show, Fiddler on the Roof.

How many of you know about that show? Oh yeah, it's real popular. It's probably my wife's favorite outside of Music Man. But we went to see it together a few years back. And it was a great show.

Just kind of funny, Jovi. And it's about this Jewish man. And he has five daughters. And in the Jewish custom, it's the father, the parents actually pick out. The father specifically picks out the bride.

And his daughters decide they're going to go and find their own, you know. And what does he do? He says, no. Why? Tradition.

And they break out in the song. Tradition. Tradition. And they're talking about tradition. And somebody asks him, why?

Why? Why? Well, it's tradition. Well, you know, what's the reason behind it? He says, I don't know.

It's just tradition. You know? And then he starts, you know, this conflict's going on. He starts to look at his own wife. And he starts to ask her in song form.

He says, do you love me? Because she was picked out for him. Or he was picked out for her. He says, do you love me? And I don't know all the, I should get Miranda to come up here and sing it.

She'd sing it out for you. And now she responds, do I love you? For 25 years, I've washed your clothes, cooked your meals, cleaned your house, given you children, milked your cows. After 25 years, why you talk about love right now? You know?

I don't know if that's the exact way it goes. Thank you. Thank you. So he's asking this legitimate question. Do you love me?

Do you love me? He asked with an internal way of looking at it. And how did she respond? With an external response. Do you love me?

Well, I wash your clothes. Do you love me? Well, I cook your meals. Do you love me? I clean your house.

I've given you children. I've milked your cows. Do you? But do you love me? And so many times we do this with God.

We ask, do you love me? He says, do you love me? Do you love me? Well, well, I'm on today on my Bible app, God. You know, I'm reading my entire Bible through this year.

But do you love me? Well, I go to church every Sunday. See, I'm here in church, God. See, I'm right here. I'm here for you.

But do you love me? I pray to you, and I give, and I do all these things. But he's like, do you actually, but do you love me? Because I want you to love me. Because I love you.

And I want us to have a relationship. That's what life is all about. In fact, Matthew says this, writes this down. Jesus actually said this, says, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name?

Did we not... Did we not... Did we not... Drive out demons and perform miracles. Then I tell them plainly, I never knew you.

Why is that? Because he asked the question over and over and over again. Do you love me? Do? And in conclusion, I would ask the same thing.

Do you love him? It's not about all the things that you do. It starts, that's part of the process, but it really starts right here. Do you love me? Do you love me?

We can do all the right things on the outside, but remain empty and lifeless and breathless on the inside. And God doesn't care about where you've been, what you're doing, or what you even plan to do after you leave here today. All he cares about is right where you are right now. He says, do you love me? I've got a breath of fresh air for you.

I've got the tree of life waiting for you. The choice is yours. Bow your heads, Father, in the name of Jesus. There are many here today that may be dry and stagnant and just trying to figure out life, God. But you're calling out to them.

Do you love me? I pray for those here that you would begin to breathe breath back into them, not because of the things that they need to do, Lord, but because that you've already done those things through your Son, Jesus Christ. That you've made a way. Open up the window. Open up the door, Lord of heaven.

Fall fresh on us, Lord Jesus. Breathe fresh air into our lives, into our souls, God. That we would understand better how to live with joy. Walking with you should be joyful and life-giving. But so many of us walk the path of death, pride, stagnant, doldrum, lifestyle, Lord.

So we just ask that you speak to our hearts with some people here today, Lord. So if there's anybody here today that desires a relationship with Christ, perhaps you've heard this message and you're like, man, I'm not there. I need to know Jesus. I don't need to just do these things. I've been trying for a long time and I just can't get it right.

Maybe that's you today. I would ask you to pray this prayer with me. Jesus Christ, I desire to have a relationship with you. I believe that you are the Son of God. You died on the cross for my sin.

You put it all on the cross. Today I give my life and I give my heart to you. I give it all to you. I walk with you from this day forth, Lord, with a breath of fresh air. I'm eating from the tree of life.

Give me the tree of life, Lord. Give it all. It's all in. I'm all in. I'm with you now, Lord Jesus, to experience all the goodness that your life-giving gospel has for us, the good news that internally changes us and changes everything.

If you gave your heart to Christ today, if that was you, prayed that prayer with me, if you could just gently just slip up your hand. I just want to know so I can pray for you. And fill out the blue card. We've got more information at the table for you. Chris is going to end this out.

We've got some things afterwards here for you. God bless you. Thank you for being here today. Have a lovely day. I'll talk to you after the service.

Amen. Amen. Amen.