Well, good morning. I bring you greetings from John and Sam. We did, we text a little bit. Not too much. I'm sure he'll give you a full report next week. Uh I always tell people that John is like the new and improved version of me. So he's like the 2.0 reboot, you know. So uh I was kind of like the prototype where they made all the mistakes and then rough him out and beta test him and then you come back with John at two point. Oh, so you're getting a better version of it, which is good, right? So thank you all for being here today though. Um Life is a journey, right? I mean, we're, we're all responsible for the steps that we take and we're, we're responsible for the choices that we make. But I, I like how it says in, in Psalms that uh God's word is a lamp to our feet and a light into our past. So today I really want you to think about this kind of is like uh I'm, I'm turning on a flashlight and I'm gonna try and show you in this dark and fallen world. I, my, my goal today is to try and shine it on the right path for us all to take. So that's the goal and that's why I've entitled the message. How do I get better at doing what I'm supposed to do? How do I get better at doing what I'm supposed to do? And it's taken from uh the scripture passage. If we can get to the scriptures right away, we'll get to the opening. Uh uh Sorry, I know it's a little messed up from the first service, but we'll get it together here. OK. Colossians two verses six and seven. So then just as you receive Christ Jesus, as Lord continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught and overflowing with thankfulness. Thank you. Thank you Larkin for putting that up there. Um We have to answer the second half of the question first, what is it I'm supposed to be doing? And to do that, we have to jump into a time machine and go back in time. Now, if this was a movie, we would call this the part where we do a flashback. How many know what a flashback in a movie is, right? You go back and you look at the, the, the groundwork and it'll say something on the screen like 20 years earlier or 12 years earlier or five years ago or maybe even six months ago. It was the time in your life when you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and you became part of God's family. Now, I know that doesn't necessarily apply to everyone in the room today. And if you've not made that decision, decision yet, I would ask for your patience and your attention and maybe, maybe you'll be led to make that decision at the end. But most of you, I know a lot of you that you have accepted Jesus as the Christ. And when that happened, when you did that at that moment that you couldn't see your name was put into the Book of Life. Now is the Book of Life a big deal. Oh yeah, it's a really big deal because it's the Book of Life that then guarantees you a spot in heaven someday John talks about in revelations. In fact, it says in revelations 2015, it says if, if, if your name is not found in the Book of Life on Judgment Day, you're gonna be thrown into a lake of fire for all eternity, not good. So you want your name in that Book of Life? And the thing is when you accepted Jesus as your savior, it was written in permanent ink. This is the unexplainable part of God's grace. I think once saved, always saved. I think the Bible teaches that very clearly. And if you wanna renew your vows of accepting Christ as your savior, many times that's fine. But you only need to accept him once, a sincere acceptance of Christ as your savior and your name goes into the Book of Life and nothing can take it out. Satan can't take it out of there and nobody in this world has the power to take it out of there. And here's the most unexplainable part. Your own stupid, foolish decisions cannot even erase your name from the Book of Life. Thank goodness because Lord knows I make a bunch of them. So your name's there and it's permanent. And let me tell you, you have just received the greatest gift of all time. This is not just a gift among many good gifts. Oh, that was a great gift. Oh, that was a great gift. No, this is the gift of salvation and we, we just understood the value of it. I think we'd start to treat it a little more with a little more respect. The thing is when you look at the God's plan of salvation for me, I don't deserve this. There's not one day of my life where I was like boy. Yeah, I really earned my salvation today. No, I did not. Not one day can I claim in my, in my years where I deserve God's grace and mercy. And really, that's what it's about. It's grace and mercy. Let me try to explain it this way. Supposing you're in a court of law, you've all seen a Court of Law on television or in a movie. A few good men that comes to mind right away. That was a great courtroom scene. You might have actually appeared in a Court of law and we don't need to know the details of any of that. Maybe it's good. Maybe it's not, I don't know, Wendy. Just keep it to yourself. That's fine. It, it didn't make the papers. So you're fine. Ok. But you're standing in a court of law and you're the defendant, you're on trial and the judge is like, ok, the trial is now over. The verdict has been reached. Will the defendant please rise. So you stand up and you fold your hands and you're showing respect and you're nervous and the judge says, I find the defendant guilty of all criminal charges punishable by death. And right before he slams the gavel down to make it official. He does something remarkable. He lays the gavel down. He stands up, he takes off his judge's robe and he lays it aside and he walks down to where you are and he says I will take the punishment for this man's crime. I will die in this man's place. That is mercy. You are receiving the greatest gift of mercy. You're getting something you, you, you're not getting something that you do deserve. But then he doesn't stop there. He says, and I want the court to know this, I want this person to have everything I own. I want all my valuables, all my possessions, everything that is in my name, I want it transferred to this person right here. That is grace that is getting something you don't deserve where mercy is getting, not getting something you do deserve. And that's how great a gift this was thing about gift giving is there's a tendency in our human nature to respond and give a gift back. Somebody gives you a nice gift on your birthday. You're like, oh shoot. Now I gotta give them a nice gift on their birthday, right? You try to equal the value of their gift with your gift. We do this at Christmas with the gift exchange and sometimes the value is a little bit off. You know what I'm saying, let's say for purposes of example, that I love my son so much, I'm so proud of him and the work he's done that I'm going all out and I buy him a Mercedes Benz for Christmas and get an amen. Ok? I was gonna give an amen to anyone who said that, but no, it's too late as it. It's not just the Mercedes, it's the ev it's the electric vehicle which by the way, retail sticker price fully loaded $162,000. So if you wanna get that for me, for Christmas, I would fall over dead. I would be so shocked. I wouldn't know what to do. Well, let's say that. I get my son this Mercedes Benz for Christmas. And he's like, what? Dad? Wow. I got you a gift too. I got you a monthly subscription to the cheese of the month club. Every month you get, try out a new kind of cheese. That's pretty cool. Right. No, it's not. It pales in value to what I gave him. You see, sometimes the gap between the gifts is really huge. Well, that doesn't even begin to compare the gap between what God gave us in salvation and what we could give God back as a gift. We can't pay it back. I can't. There's no, there's no amount of time in my life where I could do 24 7 of service, good deeds, good deeds, good deeds. It wouldn't put a dent into the gift of salvation that God gave me. I can't pay it back, but I can honor the gift giver. You see, let's go back to that example. Let's say that I give my son this Mercedes Benz ev by the way and he mocks me for it like, oh a new car again. Another car. Oh, thanks a lot. And he takes the key and he says, hey, I wonder if the paint on this new car is scratch resistant and then he goes and scratches out. Thanks a lot. Yeah, my reaction too. Shock. Does that honor the gift giver? No, it's horrifying. You see giving God a gift back is impossible. But honoring God is possible. And our culture has a word we put into youths years ago. It's called Pay It Forward. It's a good word. It's a nice phrase. If you can't pay it back, pay it forward, that's what we can do. I'm gonna, I'm gonna go way back into the eighties now and pick out a movie called Saving Private Ryan. Anybody ever seen the movie Saving Private Ryan? I got a few hands. Thank you. It's a true story. It's a mother who had four sons who went and served in World War Two in Europe. Three of her sons have already been killed in battle when we pick up the beginning of the story. Very tragic and the general finds out that she's lost three of her four sons in World War Two. And he says there is no way we are gonna let her lose all four sons. And he says, where's her fourth son? And they go, well, we think he's missing but he's behind enemy lines in France and he commissions a group of troops and says you go find private Ryan and you get him and you bring him home to be with his mother. That is your, that is your charge. And so Tom Hanks who plays the lead as Captain Miller, he comes, he, he spends the whole movie getting finding Private Ryan and he finds him and he saves him. But at the cost of his own life and he gets shot in the final firefight and he's gonna die and he knows he's gonna die. So he grabs private Ryan's arm and you remember what he says to him at the end? He says, earn this, earn this. And private Ryan knows exactly what he's saying. He's saying, look, Tom Hanks is saying, look, I, I gave up my life so that you could have your life now go and live a life that means something, go and make your life count for something. Don't get this confused. We're not saying in the analogy that God is saying, earn this salvation. No, that gift is done. Your names in the book of Life. It's a gift, but God would love for us to pay him back with honor and service and make your life count for something you see, um That's what we are supposed to be doing. What am I supposed to do? We should honor God for this gift of salvation. Now, how do we do that? Let's talk a couple of points. First bullet point lead a life of thankfulness, lead a life of thankfulness. And as it said there in Colossians two again. So then just as you receive Christ Jesus continue to live your lives in Him, rooted and built up strengthened in the faith as you were taught and overflowing with thankfulness. My friends, Christians should be the most thankful people on the on the planet. It's not, it's not a question is the glass half empty. Is the glass half full. David says in Psalms, my cup overflows. If you understand the value of salvation, if you understand that your place is gonna be secured in heaven with God someday and that your life here is just a blip on the radar of time. I had it described to me this way one time somebody said, what if you, if you could take a pencil and draw a line around the entire earth, OK? Just picture this. Now your life in this earth would be one dot of that pencil. Your eternity with God would be the other 24,900 miles. You see, sometimes we forget, we think, oh, it's all about my life and my years here. And this is just the beginning of time with God. Most of us, most of our time. If you can't even describe it as time will be with Him in heaven someday. And again, Jesus guaranteed that spot. Jesus said, I will not let one sheep go. I will not allow one person be lost. Everyone who comes to me, everyone who comes to me, I guarantee will be with me in heaven someday. If we only understood the value, we would be the most thankful people on earth. I remember my cancer surgery in June of 2018. They took out a foot of my colon, but they didn't just take out that they took out lymph nodes around the colon because they wanted to see if the cancer had spread. And I remember that phone call about a week after I got home and you're a little, a little nervous, obviously. And he goes, Jim, I, we got the results back of your lymph nodes. And I said doc, is it good news? And he goes, no. Yeah, it's great news. I, I love a doc with a good sense of humor. I really do. We tested all 36 nodes around your colon. We didn't find one trace of cancer. And I said, are you serious? And he goes, Jim, I'm I'm glad to tell you you are officially cancer free. I know you can applaud that. That's all right. You should applaud it. I just had my seventh colonoscopy. Ok. How many? I am not making that up the price you pay me and the colonoscopy doctor are we should be golf buddies. Just come off the 18th and head into his operating room. You know, I know my words to doctor Thurman right out of my mouth was I can't thank you enough. You understand that kind of gratitude? Have you ever felt that kind of gratitude? I can't thank you enough. We should wake up every morning with that prayer on our lips. Dear heavenly Father. I can't thank you enough Christians. We need to live with an attitude of gratitude. We should be the most thankful people on the planet. Let's go to the scriptures and see a few examples of thankfulness. First Thessalonians 518. Give thanks in all circumstances. For this is God's will for you. In Christ, Jesus Ephesians 520. Always giving thanks to God, the Father for everything. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Philippians 46, do not be anxious about anything but in every situation by prayer and petition with Thanksgiving. Present your request to God again, God saying, I don't mind your petitions. I don't mind you coming to me and asking me but come to me with a heart of thankfulness. Understand first what I have done for you before you come to me and ask for something for me to do for you. You see the gift of salvation with Thanksgiving and then one more in Colossians 42. Since we're in Colossians, devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful, thankfulness and being thankful are listed in the, in the Bible over 100 times. Here's a couple from Psalms. They're not gonna be on the screen. I'm gonna jump through them real fast. They're from David, the psalmist. Psalm 100 enter his gates with Thanksgiving and his courts with praise Psalm 136. Give thanks to the God of heaven. His love endures forever. Psalm 118. Give thanks to the Lord for he is good and on and on and on and on. You want to honor God lead a life of thankfulness. Second lead a life that blesses others lead a life that blesses others. There's two kinds of people in the world. There's people who are good enough to marry one of my Children and there's people who are not good enough to marry one of my Children. Man. Can I get an A man? Come on, parents. You're with me on this. You want your child to marry someone who is kind and generous and loving and unselfish, right? You're not the bad father. That's like, oh, my daughter never paid attention to me. She was such a rebel. I hope she marries a complete jerk who makes her life miserable. Maybe you have a little fathering skills and a little work if you're singing that way. No, you want your child to marry someone who's kind and unselfish when my wife and I were dating and she's going, oh, here's a story about my wife. We were dating and she was getting to know my mom and my parents and I was around the corner. They didn't know I heard this but my mom was like, Julie, what's wrong? You seem a little, uh upset and she goes, Lonnie, her name is Lonnie. I'm not sure that I'm good enough to marry your son and my mom without, without a moment's hesitation. My mom goes, oh, honey, let me tell you my son's not good enough to marry you and she was right. I mean, I, I can't argue with her. But come on mom anyway. But, right. That's, that's what we want. Here's the question you ever heard this in grade school when you point your finger at someone that's really three fingers pointing back? You've heard this? Are you that person? Do people speak of you as kind and generous and loving and unselfish? I wanted a good definition of unselfish. So II, I made new friends. I have a new friend now, his name is Chad G BT. Anybody friends with Chat G BT. I'm getting to like him more and more. I'm sorry, it's getting scary. So I asked him, no, I asked her. No, I asked it right for a definition. I don't know what it is, but I said, give me a good definition of Celsius. This is what Chat G BT came up with. And I think it's pretty good. True greatness lies not in what we accumulate for ourselves, but in what we contribute to others. Being unselfish is the art of enriching the lives of those around us. Wow. Good job. Chat G BT. Being unselfish is the art of enriching the lives of those around us. Isn't that what Jesus did think about Jesus having at his disposal all the power of God right there. And what did he choose to do? Wash his disciples feet. It's, it's crazy how Jesus was unselfish. What a great example for us. I'm reminded of that little gospel tune, right? This little gospel light of mine. I'm gonna be very selfish and not tell anybody about it. You had to be Lutheran to learn that version. I think. You know, I'm joking. That's not the version you learned. This little guy's a little light of mine. I'm gonna be very selfish about it. No, I'm gonna let it. Thank you. That's what we need to be doing. We need to be shining Jesus out there. We should be the reflection of who Jesus is. It's hard. It's so, it's, it's so easier to say it's so hard to do because we're by nature. We're selfish. I mean, come on, the birthday cake comes on. I want the biggest slice of birthday cake or at least my size better be as big as everybody else's size or I'm gonna be speaking up here. I, I don't know if you guys ever followed Seinfeld, any Seinfeld followers you don't have to be. I'm fine if you're not. If I said this, if I said Seinfeld four, would you know what I'm talking about? Some of you would? OK. Good. Thank you, Dave. I knew you'd be with me on that. There's a great character in there. He's probably the most selfish character in television sitcom George Costanza. Completely selfish individual. Let me just give you one example of many. So he's at his girlfriend's nephew's birthday party. Do you remember this? And a and smoke comes out in the, in the living room where they're having a birthday party and George just freaks out. He yells fire far and he starts running through the room and pushing kids down on the floor. As he goes, he's just pushing these little kids down and just poop poop poop. And he finally gets to the door and he looks back and he sees the carnage of all these kids on the floor and he opens the door and he's like clearing a path. No, you're being selfish. It's, it's so true. It's so easy to do. Being unselfish is something we we need to work at. And here's the question. Let's say there's a needle here and it measures unselfish and selfish. Would your needle spend more time over here? Do people describe you more as unselfish? Or is your needle back over here under the selfish category? I learned a lot about unselfishness from one of my favorite students of all time. And again, this is, this is going back into the eighties when I was teaching at the Moody Bible Institute. I had a little student from Nairobi Kenya. Her name was Gertrude Rata and she was uh black as night. She was just a beautiful African American 4 ft 11 and about 4 ft wide. I'm not being cruel. She was just round, I mean, she was just a beautifully round person and she came into my classroom with terribly broken English and I thought, oh, this is gonna be a challenge. But I'm standing in front of you telling you, I learned more from Gertrude than she ever learned from me. She had the heart of unselfishness. It was amazing. So, one of the nice things we did at Moody, Moody's downtown Chicago and one of the advantages of that is they have these little mom and pop restaurants all over the place just, just on these little alleys and holes in the wall. I mean, you're talking authentic food, fucking Greeks with authentic Greek food where you order by the number and, and you say I have a number two and then they yell something in the back. It's like they're speaking in tongues. I don't know what they're doing and I apologize. That was the worst impression of a Greek talking, sorry, sorry, Larkin. She made me promise not to do it and I did it again. Uh They had Jewish restaurants or authentic Jewish food. They had Italian restaurants. That was my personal favorite. Mamma Mia. I mean, you're talking real Italians fixing you real Italian food. It was amazing. So I'm taking my students out for lunch and we come across this homeless guy on the street and he's got this old banged up guitar and he's just got a rusty old coffee can sitting there trying to get some change, trying to make a living and gertrude just stopped me and she goes, you, you go on if you have to, but I, I need to stay so okay. So we stay and watch and she goes over and she pulls out of her pocket a $5 bill now to Gertrude Roari from Nairobi Kenya, $5 was a lot of money and she puts it into his coffee can. And she says, brother, can you play me a Christian song? And he looks there like, yeah, he takes his guitar and he sets his guitar aside and he, he pulls out a harmonica and right there in Chicago Street, he starts, he starts to play and the crowd starts to form. People stop walking and start listening. And when it's over thunderous applause, people dropping money into his coffee can. He's so excited. And as the crowd disperses gertrude kneels down to him and says, no brother. Do you know what that song is really all about? And she leads him to the love of Jesus right there on the street. And later I'll jump to the end of the story. We help him. We set him up at a homeless shelter because there's some, there's one nearby where some of my students volunteered and as we're leaving the homeless shelter and I just look at Gertrude, I'm like, how, what, how did you know to do that? And she gets real shy and she goes, oh Mr Keele, she could never say my name, right. Oh Mr Kgo. Every morning I wake up with one prayer. I say, dear Lord make me a blessing. To someone today. Make me a blessing to someone today. I learned more from her than I think any other student I ever had. That was just one example, many examples from Gertrude. She was out there just spreading Jesus love everywhere. It was amazing to watch. Let's go to the scriptures and see what they say about unselfishness. Philippians two verse three says, do nothing out of selfishness, ambition or vain conceit, rather in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interest, but to each of you, to the interests of others. Matthew 2026 not so with you instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, whoever wants to be first must be your slave just as the son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom. For many, we could stop there. But I got two more Galatians, five, you, my brothers and sisters were called to be free, but do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh, rather serve one another humbly in love. And finally, first Corinthians 1024 no one should seek their own good but the good of others. What is it? I'm supposed to do lead a life of thankfulness, lead a life that blesses others honor the gift giver for this gift of sal salvation. And then our final main point for today, how do I do that? How do I get better at doing that lead a life where you stay attached, lead a life where you stay attached. We get this beautiful example. By the way, this is in John 15, we're not gonna take time to read it. I suggest you use it as part of your devotions this week because it's Jesus talking where he says I am the vine and you are the branches. Some of you are familiar with that. There's four th four things we can learn from this analogy where Jesus says, I'm the vine and you are the branches one, the vine is life. Jesus says, I'm the source of spiritual life. I'm the life giver for life and sustenance, the life giving force. They ought to make uh George Lucas should make a movie about that, right? The central element from which everything flows second, apart from Jesus, we can do nothing. Jesus emphasizes that apart from him, we can't please anyone of lasting value. We are entirely dependent on staying connected to the vine. It goes on to explain if you stop being connected to the vine, it'll be, you'll be dried up, thrown into the fire, just a waste. Third bearing fruit. Jesus emphasizes the purpose of being connected to the vine is to bear fruit. There's another place in Matthew where he says by their fruits, you will know them. We can't look into people's hearts, but we can see what people do and by their fruits, people know, mission growth is a bunch of Christians out there trying to help each other Galatians 522 and 23 you can read it later, but it lists all these qualities of bearing fruit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. Wouldn't you want that for the person that dates your child? Wouldn't you want that for your spouse? Wouldn't you want that to lead your own life? And then finally abiding in Christ, the crucial concept of the whole story is that we abide in Christ. That's not just a part time gig, but that it's a 24 7 thing. Bing Christ involves staying in his presence following his teachings, relying on his grace, submitting to his will. Who, what if I told you I love my wife, would you believe me? I don't know. Some of you would. Some of you were like, I don't know. Let's see. I don't know. Tell me more. Well, we get together a couple of hours on Sundays. Wonderful. We're best friends. It's awesome. What about Monday? No, I don't see her on Monday. Tuesday. Not too busy Wednesday. Now we both go our own way on Wednesday, Thursday. No, Friday. We talked about getting together. We never do. And then Saturday it's like why get together Saturday, we're gonna get together Sunday anyway, right? What, what you say you love your wife, but you only are with her for a couple hours on a Sunday morning? Doesn't that seem strange if you call this a loving relationship? You see where I'm going, right? Believers. You see where I'm going. You say you love Jesus? You say you want a relationship with Jesus? Doesn't it seem strange if you're only spending time with him on a Sunday morning? Here's the key word to abide in Christ. John 1510. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. Why would you even want to be apart from the vine? That would be just foolishness. And yet sometimes we try to detach ourselves from the vine and end up in whole sorts of trouble. I wanna give you a practical way as John always said, wanna land the plane here with four things that you can do to incorporate in your daily life. Even starting today, my childhood hero growing up was Billy Graham. I, I just, I got saved watching Billy Graham crusade on television when I was a young boy. And when I finally got the chance to possibly meet him, I just freaked out. It would be, it meant more to me than any other person I ever met in my life. It was at a convention in Washington DC. It was just by chance they brought him in at, at the last minute as a surprise guest and I saw Billy Graham in the room with me and I was like, it's Moses. That's how I felt. I felt like I'm seeing Moses and they said, uh, he'll be here for a couple of minutes if you want to come up and say hi. Oh, yeah. So I got in line and I was slow and I thought I'm gonna wait this out. I don't care if it takes a day. I'm gonna stand in line to meet Billy Graham. And I did, I waited and I waited and I waited and I finally got up there and I shook his head and I was so excited. I'll never forget these words. He said to me, he said, I'm sorry, I've got a car waiting for me. I got another appointment. But in my craziness for some reason, I'm gonna, I'm gonna credit the Holy Spirit. I said, well, do you mind if I walk with you to your car? And he said, sure, that'd be fine. So for like 30 40 seconds, I'm walking side by side down the hallway with the Moses of the 21st century. It was, it was one of the biggest thrills of my life as we get near his car. He says, well, did you have a question you wanted to ask? And I said, yeah, yes, please. I said, what's the one key? What's the one thing if you had to give one thing of how people can begin to do what you do so faithfully? And he got in his car and they were holding the door for him and he turned around and he smiled at me and he said personal devotions and then he went in the car and shut the door and drove away personal devotions people. I am sharing this from Billy Graham. Right. That's the first thing you need to do. Spend time every day in devotions. I've had the privilege of, of meeting really wonderful Christians in my life. Tall ones, short ones, old ones, young ones, male, female, white, black, different skin nations from the world. I've, I've met some wonderfully wonderfully God, fearing loving Christians. You know, the one thing they all share what I noticed when I got to spend some time with them, they all had a commitment to daily devotions. They all did every one of them. Wow. Fellowship of Christian athletes. Calls it quiet time. Find a time where it's just you and Jesus. You won't be disappointed. Second, get connected with other believers. We're not meant to live life alone. We're not. Relationships are important. Learn from each other, grow from each other. Cry together, laugh together, fellowship together. Mission Grove. That's one of their chief, foundational core values is that we, we, we really want you to get involved with other Christians. That's why we offer such wonderful things, Grove, kids. Tuesday night, women's Bible study, Thursday morning, wed Wednesday night bible study, Pastor Dan's Bible study on Saturday. Just go on the, on the get connect thing and you'll see something just strongly encourage you to get connected somehow to somebody in this church. You, you will not be disappointed. It will only make your life more blessed and more better. I promise you. Third music as a motivator. Here's a question for you. Will there be pickleball in heaven? Boy, I hope so. I'm hooked. I, I love it. I shouldn't play every day and I don't, but I, I wish, but I don't think it'll be in heaven. Too many mistakes come play with us. You'll know a lot of mistakes. But I know from the bible teaching there's gonna be something even more fun than pick a ball. Oh, can't wait for that. But I do know something that is gonna be in heaven. I'm 99.99%. Sure. And that's music you think? Oh, yeah, I think so too. In fact, if you're like me and I know I am, aren't there times when you're worshiping where you just feel like you got a taste of heaven in there where you're like, you're like, you're like that close to God. You're like, whoa, I'm right there. Music is so wonderful for the soul. Find the genre that fits you. I understand only the smartest people in the world think country music is the best I get that. I get that. I understand. I'm ok with that. But, you know, take it with you, put it on when you clean the house, put it on when you're in the car, wake up with it in the morning, get started in the morning with it. It is such a wonderful way to stay connected to the vine. And finally, number four, and I have to credit this to the age old philosopher David Letterman. Do you remember David Letterman? Anyway, still, I'm still around boy. He was a, he was a cultural phenomenon back in the nineties, eighties, nineties and he had the top 10 list. Do you remember that? How many remember the David Letterman? Top 10? Man? That was such a popular thing. We would not only watch the top 10 list, but then we would share it the next day at work with each other. I mean, it was that cool. I mean, they were funny, they were, they were things like top 10 things you never want to hear from your surgeon right before you go in for surgery. Number 10. Wow. I don't think we've ever tried this procedure before and I got this aha moment like 30 years ago. It's still with me today. And the Holy Spirit said, hey, do you have a top 10 list of Bible verses? Huh? So I started one and it's with me today. You don't have to number yours. Mine are numbered. You pick a number and I can throw it out there. Number three, the Lord is good a stronghold in the day of trouble. And he knows them. We trusted him. Name 17, number five, seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. All these things shall be added unto you. Matthew 633. Number one, the faithful, he was called you and he will make it to pass for Thessalonians. 524 I have a top 10. You could break into my house and wake me up at three o'clock in the morning and say give me the Bible passage. Seven boom. I just shouted back out at you. But please don't break into my house at three o'clock. Ok. All right. Start with five. Start with three. Come on, you gotta have three Bible passages. You like memorize them. The beauty about the memory is that you can take them with you and you can fight the schemes of the evil one throughout the day because you've got these scriptures with you and you can pull them out and use them and share them and say them out loud. My wife's great help for me. She says, hey, when I'm stressed because I shouldn't be stressed or worried because I shouldn't be worried. She said, say it out loud and we rec we recite scripture out loud. It's a great way to fend off the planes of doubt and worry that that want to land in your mind. Remember what Max Lao said, you're the air traffic controller. You get to decide who lands in your mind who doesn't scripture verses. Yeah. Come in for a landing, right? Friends as we close today. Let's go to Colossians chapter three. I think Christians today more than ever need to put on the armor of God. It's the believers that need to shine the light in this dark and falling world. The world's not gonna find their way. We have to shine the light and show them. Look at Colossians three. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. Amen. Since as members of one body, you were called to peace and be thankful. There it is. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom. Watch this now through psalms, hymns and songs from the spirit singing to God with gratitude in your hearts and whatever you do, whether it's in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God, the Father through Him. It behooves us to honor God for that awesome gift of salvation. For writing your name into the book of life. You have a spot guaranteed in heaven with Him some day earn this lead a life of thankfulness, lead a life that blesses others. And then please lead a life that stays attached. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father. We thank you for that unexplainable, unfathomable gift. Why you did it? I don't know. I will never know. I am so thankful. I can't thank you enough now. Lord, help me to honor you in word and indeed help my life to count for something that honors you and is a reflection of who you are. As Jesus, our savior in Jesus name, we pray man.