You’re a Bitter Grinch

Merry Christmas, everyone! We don’t have any Grinches in here, do we? No. Oh, we’ got one. So, this message is for you today.

Great, great. We’re so glad you’re here with us. And Tariq is in the house. My man had surgery. Had surgery a week ago.

I didn’ expect to see him in church today. Wow. Some people can take some notes, right? Some of you online. Take some notes, man.

My boy shows up to church a week after surgery. Nah, just playing with you. But great to have you guys today once again. And those of you who are online, go ahead and chat with us. Let us know you’re here.

If you have a prayer request or you want to connect with us, fill out that connection card at saltchurch.org slash card. And we would love to connect with you. Thank you for being with us today. And wonderful to always see your faces in the house.

When you guys are here. And I want to celebrate people who are here every week and just a part of our environment. And it’s just wonderful to be together. It’s just, it thrills me. I love a big party.

So, let’s have a big party, right? Amen. All right. Just a few announcements. Next week is Christmas celebration.

All right? Yeah. Bring families. Bring a lot of kids. We’ got a lot of kids stuff next week.

So, if you’ve got some neighbor kids and the parents just aren’t wanting to come to church, bring them. And we’ve got all kinds of things going on. We’'ll have our traditional cocoa bar. And we’'ll have gifts for the kids. They’'re going to do a presentation here in the room for you.

And we’ have two services, 8.30 and 10 o'clock. So, we’ can host as many people as possible. So, come on out. Great time of the year.

And more importantly, this is a time where somebody is going to make a decision for Jesus. It’s going to be the greatest gift ever. That’s why we do what we do. So that we can extend the kingdom and his love for all mankind. That’s why he came to this earth.

Amen? To show his kindness and love. That he sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world would live. That the world would live. And Christmas is a sign of that living hope that we have in Jesus Christ.

And also, the next week, the following week, that Saturday, Christmas Eve, we’'re going to have a 10 o'clock traditional candlelight service. Isn’ that cool? Yeah. Yeah. And she said it would feel like nighttime here.

I know it’s not in the evening. But, you know, there’s movies in here and stuff, so they won’t let us do evening. But come that morning. And some of you, you’ want to get it out of the way anyway. Some of you traditionalists, right?

You’ got a lot of stuff going on in the evening. So come on out. We’'re going to sing some traditional Christmas hymns and Christmas songs. And have communion together and do some of those elements. And it’s going to be a beautiful thing.

It’s going to be all kids, everybody in the same service, so they can participate as well. So I would love to see you here at 10 o'clock on the 24th as well. Also, today is Pitchers and Pastries, so if you want to get your picture taken the day after service, if you've prepared, came in, we've got some professional pictures we're going to offer for you in Theater 5. So there will be people to guide you over to Theater 5 as you leave the room, so make sure you get yourself a picture. And if you aren't even prepared for a picture, go on in and get yourself a picture anyway.

If it's just half your family, go in and get it with your kid or with your wife or whatever. Just get a picture taken. We have it there for you, and we'd love to offer you that opportunity today. So, Sierra was like, I didn't realize so much stuff goes on around Christmas. I don't want to miss any Sundays because every Sunday is something, right?

So, and one more thing, we still have some yard signs out there and some cards, and we will not be able to use those yard signs after this week. So grab as many as you want. Put them out. If the city picks them up, you know, we're not worried about that. Just, you know, you want to put them around your community or out in your crossroads area or whatever it is.

They're there, so we would love for you to use those. Okay, great, great, great. So we're prepared. Did I get all the stuff out of the way, Christina? I think I got it all out of the way so we can really focus.

Oh, wow, yeah, yeah. I'm having a good morning. All right, so we are in a series, Don't Be a Grinch. How many Grinches do we have in here? You don't have to raise your hand.

Well, some of you are very honest. Yeah, I'm a Grinch. I have a hard time with the holidays. I have a hard time with life in general. And as believers, honestly, a lot of us are Grinches.

We walk around life as if everything is bad and everything is wrong and we're predicting the future based on past circumstances. And that's how we live life. And we want to be people of hope. We want to be people of joy. We want to be people who are contrary to culture.

So we don't want to be Grinches. So we've been walking through some attitudes that we need to correct so that we can be what God has called us to be. To be light in a dark world. Amen. So week one, we talked about cynicism.

We talked about cynicism. We talked about this attitude of it's just going to turn out this way. I'm not even trying anymore. Life is horrible, yada, yada. It's this attitude.

And we learned that the antidote for that is hope and being a child again. Thinking, you know, maybe life isn't as bad as I think it is. And being curious about God and curious about things. In the future is the antidote for that, and last week we talked about pride. Pride seems to be in the center of everything, whether we're a narcissist or we are insecure, because insecurity is an obsession with self, right?

Because we want to be what we want others to think we are, and it's an obsession with self, and we learn that, you know, breaking those insecurities and knowing who we are in Christ is a great way to conquer those things. And then this week, I want to talk, I'll just go ahead and let it go and tell you what it is and not lead you up to it. It's bitterness. Bitterness. And a lot of these are closely, they sound a lot alike, but they're different, because they kind of work together.

You say, well, cynicism is bitterness. Yeah, but bitterness is cynicism. Yes. Yes, it is. But they work together.

You're an angry elf. How many of you know that one, right? How about you're a bitter grinch? You're a bitter grinch? Imagine an elf across the table telling you that.

How would that make you feel? Would you jump across the table and start at them? Maybe you're struggling with bitterness, and it seems to be a crazy world right now. Have you noticed that the world does seem to be madder and madder every year? I mean, we got people angry at government.

We got people, employers angry at employees. employees angry at employers, and we have like the highest rate of workforce. We have a very, very low workforce right now, and it just doesn't seem what's going on in the world. Customers are angry at corporations. I'm angry at Amazon because I haven't got my gift yet that I ordered three weeks ago that they said would be in in just a few days, and they tried to cancel my order, and we put in another order for it, and we wanted a Black Friday because we ordered it on Black Friday.

They were going to cancel and give me my money back, and I was like, no, I want the Black Friday special because I have to pay $30 more for the same gift, and I'm a little angry about that, right? So put me off. Put me off over and over again. You're Amazon. Come on.

You're supposed to help me here. We're in a mad world. People are angry at everybody, and if you look at the airlines, that's just a fine example. I mean, people are crowding in and crowding out, and they're angry about flights that are canceled and this and that, and I was looking at some statistics from the Federal Aviation Administration, and in 2019, there were about 146 initiated investigations of unruly conduct on airplanes. In 2021, there were over 1,000 initiated.

That's almost seven times what we had previously. Honestly, people are just nuts. People are crazy, and it's almost like we live in... In a different type of pandemic, it's the pandemic of bitterness, and anger, and hatefulness, and it's going on and on and on. And this is the Christmas season, and some of you can't even enjoy Christmas.

I mentioned the Christmas celebration next week, you're like, oh, we got one of those again. I don't want to, you know, I don't need a, I don't have a, and you're bitter about everything because the world is just such an interesting place right now. And we're not called to be that. How did we get here? What, what, what did that?

Why am I bitter? Why am I bitter? Well, I was looking at an article with the psychology today, and it said this, all bitterness starts out as hurt. Hmm. And your emotional pain may well relate to viewing whoever provoked this hurt as having malicious intent.

So we think, well, they're doing it on purpose. They're trying to hurt me, right? As committing a grave injustice towards you, as gratuitously wronging you and causing you grief. So according to this article, it says it all stems with hurt. And I believe there's a lot of truth to that.

Because what happens if we want to put everything together, we get hurt, we let that hurt fester, and immediately the reaction is anger, right? We get angry. That's like the immediate response. That's like the action that happens. And that lasts for, you know, maybe a few minutes or maybe a day or whatever that anger may set in.

And then it turns into resentment if the anger stays in. And then if we hold on to that anger and resentment long enough, it becomes bitterness. We become bitter about everything. You know, it's, it just, it's a prolonged, it's almost like an attitude. It's a mood that is, is, is in us as, as, as the action of anger is just the immediate action of, of, of what happened to us.

Bitterness is a mood. And then long-term bitterness turns into cynicism. You see how that works? And then pride, obviously, is the center point of all of it because it's all rooted in pride. And, and we're, we're angry and we're bitter.

And bitterness is a root. Bitterness is a root. Why do we think that bitterness is a root? Because the Bible tells us that bitterness is a root. In Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews is talking to a church that is suffering with all kinds of pain and hurt and heartache.

People are, that are, that are close to them are being persecuted. They're being persecuted. Culture has ostracized them. Everything seems to be going wrong in this season of their lives. They're trying to figure out how to follow Christ.

This new idea, this thing called the way didn't even have the title Christian on it or Christianity on it. It was just followers of Christ. And they're trying to work out their lives. They're trying to work out. They're trying to work out.

And that's a result. They're going to This new life they have, and though God is a good God, and He's a God of joy, and He came to this earth, and it's Christmas, we're celebrating the day, and we may all feel like that too, they were having a really hard time. They were ready to give up. And for some of them, they were beginning to go back to their old lives. They were starting to live unholy lives again, creep back into sin again, because they're like, God, if this is all you have, I don't think I can do it anymore.

And that's why you get the famous scripture of keeping your eyes on Jesus, the author, and perfecting the sin that so easily entangles us, and looking to those who are ahead of us. That's what you get in Hebrews, the Hall of Fame, where the writer of Hebrews is trying to encourage the people. And then he makes this statement here in verse 14, chapter 12, if you're following along with me, let me pull out your electronic notes, pull up the event, let's take notes together. And it says this, make every effort to live in peace with some people, no, with everyone. Make every effort to live in peace with everyone, not just the people that you like, not just with your close friends, not just with the neighbors that you like, that other neighbor, he's hateful, she's hateful, they're always causing problems and friction.

Make it with everyone. And specifically, he's focused on the church, because believers were splitting. Believers were angry. They were going back and forth, and many of them were falling into places that they shouldn't go. And that's why it says, and to be holy.

We need to be, are we making any efforts in our culture to be at peace? Think about that for a second. What are we doing? And it says, without holiness, no one sees the Lord. And holiness is so important.

Now, this doesn't mean perfection. It means that we're striving to be more like Christ. Going back to last week, we want and we desire and our aim is to be more like Christ. And we want to be more like Christ. We want to be holy like him.

So we allow the Holy Spirit to guide us and make us more like Jesus and not give up and not go back, not let the world back in, but put up precautions and put up signs, warning signs all around us of not going that direction but living the life that we should live. And it says, see to it that no one falls short of the grace of God. See to it that we don't fall short of God's grace, that beautiful grace that's been given to us, and that no bitter root grows. No bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. It's a root.

And what are the qualities of a root? What are the qualities of a bitter, bitter root? There's two things. Bitterness is a hidden destroyer. Bitterness is a hidden destroyer.

You can't see roots. They're in the ground. They take over the ground, right? I think about an oak tree for a minute. Probably one of the largest root systems of trees.

It's so strong, even a tornado can't take it down. That's the tree you want if you're putting up a tree house, right? If you're wanting nice wood furniture, that's strong wood, you know. Oak is just one of those things that you think of with a tree. It's a really strong tree.

But what we know about, or at least what I read about it, if you put roots of an oak tree together, it could go one linear mile. That's a lot of roots. But you don't see that. It's down in the ground. In other words, it is what you cannot see deep beneath the surface of what you're going through, the bitterness, that digs down deep and holds you, and it's robbing you of the life that God desires for you.

Bitterness robs you of the life that God desires for you. And you can't even, and for many of us, we can't even see it. We don't even see it's there. And it might be a hurt. It might be a disappointment.

It might be an offense. It might be a betrayal. Whatever that might be. And it could be a small thing. Here's an interesting thing about bitter roots that we can't see.

Is that it might just be a reaction to something that you do all the time. Maybe something's triggering you. Why am I triggered by that? When he said that, or she said that, or he did that, or she did that, why did I get so offended? Perhaps there's something down in there.

Maybe something small. Or for some of you, it's something really big, and you're very aware of it. You have a hurt in your past. You have a life-paralyzing situation that you have not been able to get past. I heard the statement one time, bitterness is like drinking poison waiting for the other person to die.

It's like drinking poison and saying, hey, how silly is that? I don't like you. You're my enemy. That's what bitterness is. An invisible root always yields visible fruit, and not the fruit that you want to see.

So we've got to look at the root of where we are in order to get past perhaps what we're feeling, this bitterness in our heart. Number two, bitterness poisons others, too. It doesn't just poison you because roots always go into other people's yards, right? In fact, going back to Hebrews 12, it says, see it to it that no one falls short of the grace of God, and no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. Defile, what that word defile means to stain, to pollute, to contaminate.

It can contaminate a whole group of people. It says, my life revolves around anger and resentment, and I am influenced by it. I'm forcing others to do the same. Join me in this thing. In fact, we live in a world that profits off of this.

News channels love this. Social media loves this. In fact, if there's no pain, what would social media do? If there was no anger, resentment, what would social media do? Stir it back up so I can get out there and make my...

Everybody has a platform in this season, and we think it's for the purpose of being angry and being bitter and giving our opinion, but our opinion is always sour, is always mean, and we live in a world that profits off of this. Platforms are profiting off of this. And without that, they're not making any money, so let's keep it stirred up. Let's do the best we can to keep bitterness in the lives of people. Jeff Bezos said it like this, people lose their kindness gene behind a keyboard.

It's so true. We lose our kindness. So hatred and holiness cannot coexist in the same heart. Hatred and holiness cannot coexist. If we're aiming for wholeness or wholeness, holiness, we cannot be filled with hate.

Where does light and darkness have association with each other, right? We talk about that with relationships, and that's absolutely true, but it's anything. Why do you have these things in your heart, in your life, and you're trying to live a godly life? How can you live this way? Bitterness is a mood that affects everyone around you.

When you walk in a room and you're bitter, it affects everyone around you. And as Christ followers, we are to put on the mind of Christ, right? Because what bitterness can do, it can hurt a lot of people. Bitterness can split a marriage. Bitterness can split families.

Just one person's bitterness. One person's bitterness can split, you know, a whole group of people, split a church. One person's bitterness can split a church. And that's exactly what was going on here. And he's saying, you know, you guys are splitting.

You guys are taking sides. You guys are going nuts right now. Culture's affecting you. Get back to where you need to be with Jesus. Keeping peace with everyone.

Keeping peace with each other. Get back. Let's redirect ourselves. So how do we kill bitterness? How do we kill bitterness?

Number one, you need to expose the object of your bitterness. You need to be honest with yourself and say, you know what? I've got some bitterness and I need to identify exactly what that is. That's what Ephesians 5, 11 says, have nothing to do with the fruitful deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. Fruitful deeds of darkness.

That's what he calls this kind of stuff. I mean, it's fruit, excuse me, fruitless deeds of darkness. It's fruitless. It's a fruitless deed of darkness. It's a fruitless deed of darkness.

Being honest. It’s very fruitless, but you’ want to be fruitful, so you need to expose these things. Have we actually gone to a place of calling out where we’re paralyzed, where we’re going? Perhaps you’re bitter with God because you lost a father or a mother too early or too soon. Maybe you’re resentful of a sibling in your family because they seem to always get petted and taken care of, and they’re always in the good, and you’re always the black sheep, and you’re always the one that’s not looked at or considered.

Maybe you’ have a coworker. I’ve had this happen. I’m sure you’ have that got promoted over you when you put the work in. You put the hard work in. They put on the mask and made it look good, you’ know.

They’ got the promotion and you’'re bitter. Perhaps you’re you’re you’re you’'re bitter about your boy’ your ex’boyfriend or ex’girlfriend, and they’re dating someone else, and you’ don’t like them, right? And they’ did nothing, right? You’re bitter. Maybe’ your spouse has never acknowledged you.

Whatever it might be, it could be any area of life. Maybe you’ were just super criticized when you’ were a child, and you’ just can’'t get through that. You’re trying to get past that. You’ got to expose that bitterness. I’ mean, I’ deal with it, too.

Over Thanksgiving dinner, I’ was a little bitter about some subject matter that we’ were talking about at the dinner table. You’ know, how those conversations get started about different things in life and how the world is and stuff. And I’'m like, I’ just don’ I don’ run. It’'s just going to be that way. And my mom looks at me and says, you’'re bitter.

I’'m like, no, I’'m not. I’'m just... No, you’'re bitter. You’'re bitter. And that set on my heart.

And I said, yeah, you’'re right. Gosh, I’ got an attitude. How can I even enjoy Christmas in the season if I’'m bitter about things? We’ got to identify the root. Because you’ cannot heal from what you’ are unwilling to admit.

You’ cannot heal from what you’ are unwilling to admit. So, you’ need to ask the question. I’ or answer this statement. I’ am rooted to this bitterness because of that. Blank.

That person. That thing. That abuse. Whatever it may be. With whom or what are you bitter about?

Identify it. Because we live in an upside-down kingdom. What’ interesting about Jesus is he’ always did things that are opposite to culture, right? If you’ are great, you’ must be a servant. If someone slaps you, turn the other cheek.

I mean, who wants to do that, right? And then he’ talks about killing bitterness with love. With love. There’'s the antidote. There’ isn’ good.

It's love. It's love. Because saat’ God ’, frig ME, lo- God loved us, although we denied Him. God loved us when we didn't want anything to do with Him, when we hurt Him, when we ran His name through the mud, or whatever we did, guess what He did? He didn't turn His back on us.

He loved us. When we were yet sinners, He gave His life for us. We didn't deserve it, but He gave it to us. That's what grace is all about. And for this reason, we get this next point, and that is, cancel your debts.

Cancel their debts. Because if God canceled your debts, you need to cancel their debts. In Matthew 18, we're all familiar with the story of the servant who was forgiven of this tremendous debt. He could never pay back. The master forgave him of this debt.

And then he went to his fellow person that owed him money, and he put them in prison. Because they could not pay him back just a little bit. And what does the master say? You wicked servant. He said, I canceled all the debt of yours because you begged me to.

And shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I'd had on you? In anger, his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured until he should pay back all he owed. And this is how, this is what Jesus says. This is Jesus' words. This was his story.

He says, this is how your heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brothers and your sisters from your heart. That's powerful. He took that very seriously. But they deserve it. They did that to me.

Let me encourage you about that one minute. Because some of you are like, I deserve to be angry about this. It's righteous anger, right? We do the righteous anger thing, right? Say, they deserve this.

And Jesus turned over the tables. He did that. Let me tell you this. Jesus turned over the tables just one time. In 1,277 other instances where he could have turned over tables, he gave peace to people.

He healed people. He made friends with foreigners. He forgave sinners. He canceled their debts. And you need to do it not just once.

If you're dealing with forgiving and giving grace to people, you need to give grace over and over and over and over and over again until that mindset changes. Amen. Give up your claim for revenge and your claim for justice and learn to forgive. And then thirdly, bless your offender. Pastor, this is getting really heavy.

Bless your offender. Bless your offender. Luke 6,27 says it like this. But to you who are listening, I say, love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you.

Bless you. Bless you. Bless you. Bless you. Curse you and pray for those who mistreat you.

You know what that word blessing means? It means to speak well of others. Bless those who hurt you and persecute you and do wrong things against you. Because here's what we do. Here's what we do.

We compare sin, don't we? Oh, they did such an outrageous thing, but mine was very, very small. And we compare sin. You know what sin means in the original Greek? It means missing the mark.

Missing the mark of a target. It's an archer term, missing a mark, right? And we say, well, my mark was about a millimeter off. So there's enough grace for that. But somebody who was a mile off, no, no.

They don't deserve forgiveness. But Jesus forgave everyone. No matter where you've gone, no matter what you've done, whether your sin was small, whatever, whenever your sin is, if it was far, it was long-fetched, guess what? The blood covers all of it. And if you do not receive the forgiveness of sin, that grace, that grace that the writer of Hebrews is telling us not to fall out of, if we do not receive that, then we all have no hope.

That's why Jesus came. That's why we have Christmas. That's why he came into this world is so that we could be forgiven. Forgiven. So that's the antidote.

If you need to look at where you've been or where you've come from and just say, you know, if you're like, oh, you know, I haven't done, I haven't murdered. I haven't done anything. Some of you are like, oh, I've done some awful things. But others of you, I haven't done much. Well, maybe you stole some candy as a kid or lied or maybe you cheated on the test.

Just do this. I was a liar, chief. I stole and I was a cheater. A liar, cheater, and a thief. I don't deserve heaven.

When you put it in that perspective, right, disobeyed the Ten Commandments, I'm pretty messed up. Can I not forgive someone else for what? If I've been forgiven of what I've done, that's Jesus. That's the mind of Christ. That's who we want to be as believers.

And imagine what that would do. Ephesians 4, 31 says, get rid of all bitterness, rage, and anger, brawling, and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind. Be compassionate to one another. Forgive each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Compassionate, kind. That sounds so contrary to anything we see. Because the world says, don't be a liar. Don't be compassionate to people that don't deserve it. Don't be kind to people who treat you wrong.

But what does Jesus say? You know, turn the other cheek aside. Love your enemy. Speak well of them. Bless them.

Imagine a world where we were all kind to each other. Imagine a church where we were all kind to each other. Because I can tell you, even in church, we struggle with this. And that's why the writer of Hebrews was hitting this so hard. You've got a lot of bitterness.

All of you are just angry. And you let that anger dwell inside of you until it became resentment and bitterness. And you got a lot of hurt because y'all been hurting each other. Let's live in peace. Let's live in peace.

And when you realize what God has already done for you, you don't have to muster up forgiveness. Forgiveness is second-hand. It comes natural. When you know what God has done for you, it just happens. It's second-hand.

And you're just passing along what God has already done. So be compassionate to one another. Forgive one another. Just as Christ, God, God through His Son Jesus Christ did. He came to this earth as a child.

God became human and died a criminal's death. Endured the cross so that you could have... There's the antidote right there. So this week, as you're heading into Christmas, consider what God did for you. If any time you're having bitterness or anger or resentment come into your life, stop for a minute and consider.

What did Jesus do for you? And it will change everything. When you think of where you've come and where you are now, that's the only time you're allowed to look at your past, okay? Is when you're angry and bitter. You can look at your past and say, you know what?

God, He's forgiven me. Let's pray together. Father, thank You. Thank You. Thank You for the cross.

Thank You for Christmas. Thank You that You came to this world. Thank You. You humbled Yourself, God. If You didn't humble Yourself, we would be hopeless.

We would be with sin. We would die in our sin, Lord. God, convict our hearts. Make us more like You. Change us and transform us into your image, Lord, because that's our aim and that's our desire, that's what we want.

That same spirit of worship, perhaps there's somebody else here who may not know Jesus. Maybe you've never experienced that forgiveness that really changes everything. Today you can give your life to Jesus. You can turn it over. Any sin that you've done, whether small, whether big, it can be forgiven today.

The cause of Christmas, it can be forgiven. You no longer have to live like a Grinch, lonely and hurt and bitter and in pain. You can be forgiven and experience the Holy Spirit's indwelling in your heart and lives in the middle of what seems to be death. If you'll pray this with me, Father, in the name of Jesus, I believe that you are the Son of God and that you died on the cross for our sins. Come into my life, come into my heart.

Make me a new creation. I believe that you are God come to earth and that you died and you were resurrected for that purpose so that I can have life. So I no longer live for myself, but I live for you. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise God. Just another quick thing to mention, we do have our giving and here's what I want to say about giving. We're coming to the end of the year and if you want to give or to count towards your financial statements for the coming year, tax write-offs and stuff, you want to give before January 31st.

But here's what I want to say, guys, and I won't spend too long on this. I kind of mentioned it last week. We have been down quite a bit since last year. We were about, as of the beginning of last week or the week before, before I spoke, we were about $70,000 off of where we were last year. Granted, it was a very, very, very good giving year.

We were blessed by God last year regardless of all the stuff we had been through, switching up places and stuff like that. But we have dreams for this place. We have dreams that God, that our children would come to a building and learn about Jesus and give Christmas pageants year after year after year, talking about the love of Jesus. And our teenagers would have a place where they could meet every week and that we have more and more opportunities to share the love of Jesus through this city. We only get there by our giving.

So I'm asking everyone to consider giving above and beyond to our building fund or offering of some type. Maybe it's a significant amount, maybe it's a small amount to help us get to where we need to be because God has so much. We're only allowed to go as far as your giving. So if you have an opportunity, we call this legacy giving, this giving that goes beyond you and beyond me and into the future of your church. And I say this for military people too because we have a lot of military here that are here for two or four years.

We have a lot of transition with that. Maybe you would consider, you know, even if you can give, you're given to a legacy too. You're leaving, your military is lost. You have a lot of hurting and dying people and we are here to minister to your people. So give us an opportunity to do that and perhaps God puts it on your heart to give to a military ministering church.

So thank you for your giving. It'll be up on the board and the band is going to lead us out in worship for one more song. If y'all want to stand with us as we worship just real quickly and we'll have your pictures ready as you transition out. Thank you. Thank you.

Have a great week Salt Church.