well, good morning everyone, if you have your bibles or smart um smart devices go ahead and open up to the book of James. As you just saw in that video, we're gonna spend the next several weeks walking through this book, verse by verse um, talking about just the very theme there of that book, which is that faith works. In other words. Faith is not some idea or an ideal that just looks nice on a plate or on instagram post or or something posted on the wall. But it's actually a transformational truth Christianity is made for reality and for day to day living. And if we understand the value of faith in our life that it can radically change the choices we make on a daily basis. Now this morning's messages entitled heads up seven up. Now some of you are smiling because you know why I named it that, it's after a game we used to play in elementary school just by show of hands. How many of you ever played that game? Heads up? Seven up, growing up. Okay, awesome. We're gonna play right now. Heads down. No, just kidding. We're not actually gonna do that. Um, for those not familiar Heads up, seven up is a game that teachers use to trick Children into being quiet and uh, and so what they would do is you would select several people, usually seven, it's if it's large enough and they would go up to the front of the class and then everybody else had to put their heads down and then those seven people would walk around and either they would tap the head, um or if the if the class was too aggressive that the teachers would have you put your hand out with your thumb up, okay? And then you have to tap this person's thumb or the person's head, and then without anybody else looking, and then you go back to the front of the class and you have to try to guess who came by and tap your hand or tap your head. And so heads up seven up. Now, um I found a secret to winning the game, and that was instead of putting your head down on the desk, what you would do or what I would do is I would put my head down on the edge of the desk and that was because then as people walked by, someone said it, you can see their shoes and so you'd see their shoes and then um and so when it comes to like sally, I know it's, you know, like how did you guess that every time? And so um here's the thing, we're gonna talk about the new Year. Everyone is talking about goals and New Year, new you. This is what we're striving after. I mean, and I love goals. I mean, I know one of my goals is to lose £15 this year, one weekend, £18 to go and, you know, we're we're working hard on goals, some of you are just getting that, that's okay. And and so um I love goals but the reality is is that life comes at you hard and comes at you fast. And so I'm actually gonna talk to you this morning about three guaranteed tests of your faith. In other words. These are three difficulties and challenges that are going to come your way now. In one sense that could be seen almost as the most depressing NEW Year's message. Like, Hey, welcome to 2019, here you go. But I want to think of it more like heads up seven up because if you can get at least a picture of the shoes walking by, like if you can get a heads up and know, hey, these are three challenges coming my way when they do actually face you, you can call it out for what it is and then you can have victory in that moment and move through that. And I truly believe that 2019 could end up being the best year ever for you. So in your bibles go ahead and open up to James if you're not there already. Um, but I want to give you a little bit of background of a little bit of background of the book as we're gonna be talking about for the next couple of weeks, but the background actually comes directly out of the first verse. So let's go ahead and read verse one here together. James Chapter 1: verse one. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes and dispersion greetings. Now a couple of things in this verse that gives us that background. First of all, when a lot of these people write letters, when apostles write letters, they identify themselves initially. And so I kind of think it like my mom who I love my mom, my mom, salt of the earth. Um when she texted me, she still like writes little letters and so like even though I know it's from her, she signs every text. Love Mom like in her text to me. And so, um, and so I love getting those texts and I love getting that identification even though I already know the number that's coming in. And um, and so, but in the same way in these letters here, that's what the author is doing. It's like James. Okay, well who is James? Well he is a servant of God And the Lord of jesus christ. Now if you're like me when I used to read the bible, I would skim over the first verse or two because it's a greeting. It's like that's not really exciting, but I don't want you to miss, let's go and put the verse on the screen. I don't want you to miss this James a servant of God and of the Lord jesus christ. That word Lord is crucial to this letter and the reason is the author of this letter is actually the half brother of jesus? No, it's been argued, well maybe there's a different James, there's like 12 different James mentioned in the new testament. Um Some people thought maybe it was James the son of everybody um who but the problem with that is that he's actually killed off in Acts chapter eight. And then the other Jameses has, this leads this council in Acts chapter 15 and you have, and this is the James we're talking about. So James, the half brother of jesus, who did not believe that jesus was God throughout his life. I mean, let's be real. How many of you would believe that your sibling was of God? Right? That's that's that's not possible. You're like no, I know they're not God, I know that the same thing you say about like a spouse, right, Well I know they're not God. Well um imagine also growing up with the brother of being, being the brother of jesus, how difficult that would be. You do something wrong and mary and just like why can't you be more like jesus? Right, and if something breaks something goes down and they come in and the two of them are standing there, who do you think was the one who broke it? Right or? Okay, James and jesus went to a wedding first miracle, jesus turned water into wine. Okay, what about the next wedding that James went to without jesus, they start running low, they start looking at James like hey you know what your brother did last time. Okay, so so James walked through his life and he did not believe that jesus was in fact God, so what changed? Well, we actually learned in Corinthians 15 that when, when James saw the resurrected Jesus when jesus died on the cross and then rose again and then appeared to James at that moment, his life completely changed and the least likely person to believe him as Lord and savior actually did and not only did so, but actually led the christian movement in the heart of the city of Jerusalem. So the center of religion, he led the church in the center of Jerusalem and actually he ended up dying preaching the gospel of jesus christ so not only did he believe it, he actually died believing it. Now, some traditions, stories have it, that he was actually pushed off the temple because they invited him up to the temple to say no we want you to to preach and proclaim and so they invited James, this is traditional stories here that James, this author was actually invited up to the top of the temple, started preaching, they pushed him off like we're talking, this is like tv like scandalous tv show reality here, but he didn't die actually when he fell and so he stood up or um or sat up and actually said Lord forgive them, they don't know what they're doing and then actually tradition has it that he was stoned for his faith. And so James a servant of God. And the Lord jesus christ is the half brother of jesus. He's leading the church in uh in Jerusalem, he writes this letter. This is actually seen as one of the oldest letters of the new testament probably written around the mid forties A. D. And he actually uses because he grew up with religion um in the jewish faith, um just not believing in jesus until the resurrection. And so he actually takes the teachings of jesus on the sermon on the mount in Matthew chapter five through seven and then he takes the book of proverbs and it kind of mixes them together and gives us one of the most practical books in the entire bible, I say that because there's 100 and eight verses in the book and over half of them are direct imperatives or commands to you and to me and I would say do this, don't do this, do this, don't do this. And so it's very practical. It's very personal and it and it demonstrates to us that faith works in the christian life and it can be applied each and every day for lives. And I like to say faith is a lot like buying paint at home depot. Okay, it's not gonna change anything in your life unless you go home and apply it Right. And so let's go ahead and apply this today and let's dive into it. He's right into it. 12 tribes dispersed throughout their facing persecution. It's kind of a generalized letter and saying, Okay, you're facing suffering, you're facing trials. And so let me share these things with you. And so we're gonna talk about three guaranteed test of your faith this morning. Let's uh well before we jump into that, let me just give you an overall premise that I'm gonna work from and then we'll, we'll we'll see how this premise works out in these verses, these 1st 18 verses of the chapter. And the premise is this, if you're taking notes, write this down, your outlook, impact your outcome, your outlook impacts your outcome. You might not be able to change the situation initially, but if you change how you view that situation, if you change your perspective, it ultimately changes the outcome. The problem your outlook impacts you're welcome. And so the first test we're gonna see in these first couple of verses, is this the first test of your faith is one of trials. Trials and trials are really the battle of doubt. When you face a trial, you're fighting the battle of doubt, but don't take my word for it. Let's, let's see what James has to say, Count it all joy, my brothers when you meet trials of various kinds for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness and let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing. Now I want to pause there for a second because again, this seems kind of counterintuitive. It's a new Year. We're excited. Woo. Best year ever. First thing he says, count it joy. All right. I like that when you face trials. Okay, that doesn't go together. Okay, that's, that's a paradox. There doesn't seem to fit its like jumbo shrimp. Okay. Um, it's two things that don't go together. Um, you know what I mean? It's um, you can think that I was gonna say, um, cowboys and super bowls so they don't go together normally, but I'm a bears fan. Okay, this is our year, say this is our year. Um, so count it joy and you face trials notice though. He's a couple of things. The word count is an active word. So one of consider or acknowledge. So in other words, you're not receiving joy, you're acknowledging joy or considering it joy? Not if you face a trial, but when you face a trial now I thought to myself, how in the world can you consider it joy? When you face trials then the other day it came to me. Um, in a form of illustration this way. Uh, one of the things I like to do, but I'll be honest, I don't do a ton of, but I'd like to do a little bit more as our kids get older and more active. Um, is hiking. Um you know, you don't do a ton of hiking in Ohio. Um and I mean there's some cool spots but not really where in Arizona there's actually a lot of cool hiking places, which is really awesome. Now when you want to hike in Arizona, what is one thing, especially if it gets hotter? What is one thing you cannot go hiking without water? Okay, so you have to pack water and if you've never, if you've gone hiking without water, you never forget that again, right, because you need it. And so you packed the water. Now question for you, when do you have the water before the journey begins? Now, when are you most appreciative of the water during And at the point when you were the most thirsty? Think about that for a second, you packed the water, you have the water with you before the journey begins. But then when you're at the hottest point in the middle of the desert where when you are most thirsty, that is when you become most grateful for the water that you already have. I think the same thing is true. When it comes to joy, You see we sing about Jesus coming joy to the world. See joy was brought to us and then in Galatians. Chapter five, Joy is described as the fruit of the Spirit. In other words, when you believe in jesus christ as your Lord and savior when you come to faith in him, he actually give you joy, he gives you and guess what he has described as the living water. It is an endless supply. And so you're given this endless supply of water, which means when you're going through a difficult time when you're going through a trial, when you are most spiritually and emotionally thirsty, that is when you're gonna be most grateful for the joy that you've taken with you on this journey. Some of us forget that we've taken water. Imagine how crazy it would be if you went hiking and you have the backpack, okay? You have the water there and you're just like, oh I'm so thirsty, I'm so thirsty and the person you're hiking with you, like you have water, right? Like I I sometimes lose stuff. Um I think that the weirdest one was when I was talking to my wife on the phone, I say that because I turned like I can't find my phone anywhere and then oh sometimes we do that with joy. We're going through a difficult time, a difficult circumstance and we forget that we've been holding it the whole time. See Joy is not a focus of where you are. Joy is focusing on whose you are, we're just saying that who God says we are until we take that joy with us. Now he says, when you meet trials of various kinds because he's not gonna go in listing the different types of trials you can face. So he's not going to talk about the conditions of trial, but rather the attitude and your response to that. And so that's what I'm going to focus in on today because there are all kinds of trials and they're very difficult and they're very strong, some relational, some financial, some physical, sometimes a combination of those things, we have to understand that this is a guy who was going through suffering himself facing persecution and ultimately died for his faith. So he understands going through difficult situations. And so he says, when you face those know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness in other words, perseverance, it creates, it molds it shapes and then it says, let that take full effect that you may be perfect or other translations use the wording may be mature and complete. So I did some research on that word and that word perfect or mature and complete actually means wholeness. Now think about this, we live in a fractured world, right? If you just turn on the news, you go through social media and you see that our society is fractured. And if we're honest with ourselves, we know that we are fractured, We say one thing and then we do the other, right? We want to do something. But then we do something else and we have this dual nature that we fight within ourselves already and it's difficult. Right? Well, in a fractured world, what James is saying pursue wholeness and that you go through trials so that God will shape you and make you whole, make you complete, make you stronger. So this is concept of counting your um trials as joy. Let's keep reading though, Verse five. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith with no doubting for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea and that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord, that he is a double minded man, unstable in all of his ways. Now it seems weird to tie wisdom with trials like you see, when you go through a difficult time, you want peace, you want healing, You want comfort. But what James says is what you really need more than anything right now is wisdom. And if you if you don't have it, just ask God gives generously. But he says ask and believe because again, it's a battle of faith. It's a battle of doubt. And and then I realized that doubt is what creeps in when we face a difficult situation, isn't it? Think about it, doubt is the main reason behind the question of why something happens to you. God, Why you start doubting his goodness, You start doubting if God's there, You start doubting his presence, you start doubting God's plan, you start doubting yourself worth, You start doubting humanity in general, right? It's a very common cycle. Somebody hurts you in the past, you vowed that's not gonna happen again. A new relationship enters your life and guess what happens, You're hesitant to trust them why? Because past pain equals present fear. And that's why doubt comes in. But he says ask for wisdom and ask by believing it without doubt because if you doubt your like the rolling waves moving, crashing back and forth of the winds and that's not an easy place to be Before starting this church. I served for 12 years as a youth pastor and one of my um, not so proud moments was when I took a group of students out of state and uh, we were at a water park and I love sports, but I have the world's worst balance. Like I can't skate, I can't ski, I can't rollerblade like anything under my feet. I just fall, I just like the bigger they are, the harder they fall. Yes, okay, I have no balance whatsoever. And so, um, we were in this indoor water park with students and they had those surfing machines, you know, with the waves like so you could surf and like all my students were doing it like, come on, come on, you can do it, come on, look, it's just standing there. And then I saw like a six year old kid do it and I'm like, okay, I got this. And so I saw a student student student to a six year old student, so I'm like, okay, I can do this, right, I'm a grown man, kind of and I can do this. And um and if I, you know, get scared of what myself, the water will cover it up. So, um, so I go and no joke. Um there is this Teenage worker, she probably was not even 14, 15, I felt so bad, she was tiny thing and I'm terrified, but I can't let her know. And so I, the water's going, I'm on the board and I'm like, I'm losing balance and I have a death grip on the shoulder of this little 15 year old girl and I'm struggling and and she's like, okay, you can go and I'm like, not yet. And like the students are all lined up watching me like, yeah, I'm like me and like I got it and so, so finally, for fear of just dragging her into the water, I let glow and I'm like, and it's going and I look at our students and like, I do this why, I don't know, I don't know, okay, you know what's coming? And I'm like, like this boom board goes back, I go forward and here's the problem, okay, the water is created to shoot as much water as possible so that you can simulate surfing. I'm a large person, so I got far enough out into the water, the board went that way I'm the water is too strong for me to fall forward, but I'm too big to push me backwards, so it started like a minute long tumble of me in the wave over and over and over again. And the only thing I'm thinking is don't lose my shorts, so I'm just like this and I'm flipping and flipping and out of control and finally the enough water shot me out backwards and I stood up and go now in that moment the water just washing the water, just washing me over and over, returning, turning, turning, flipping, flipping, flipping and seemingly I'm not going anywhere. That is the picture of doubt running in your life. We've all been there, we're like, I just don't know, I don't know, I don't know God, I think you called me here but I don't know is he the one, is she the one? I don't know. What am I supposed to do? What's what's the direction of my life? What am I supposed? What decision am I supposed to make? How am I supposed to respond? Why is this happening? And we just, we just bombard ourselves with questions questions questions and we doubt, he says don't ask for wisdom and God will give it to you. We have several people in here in this room actually that are commercial pilots excellent pilots have been flying for years and do an incredible job. But I find it interesting that no matter how much experience a pilot has, the pilot cannot land the plane without direction. From where control tower, you can see the control tower sees things that the pilot doesn't see in the same way God sees things that we can't see. And so when you are in a difficult circumstance, when you're facing a trials, ask for wisdom and for perspective, because if God's not going to change the circumstance, you can change your perspective of the circumstance and guess what? You've packed water already. So counted as joy and drink from the living water. That is the spirit of God. So we have these trials, but what do we do? Because there's so many trials, I can't list them all out. Well, I want you to think of like a Roomba familiar with the rem bas awesome little miniature of robot vacuum cleaners that are going to one day going up against this and rule the world Anyway. You know, these little circular discs just vacuum the house, you don't have to do anything and just turn it on and it goes And it also works as a ride for small animals and toddlers. We've found that it's literally walked out with Chloe standing on it, who already has better balance than me. I'm not jealous. Anyway, it's stand, I walked out to our two year old standing on the room. But I'm going like this, just going around the house. But I saw an interesting story of the Roomba the inventor. Um, and he said that you know, how did you create this invention? Because there's no way you could know the dynamics and the dimensions of every single house. And he said, well we didn't try to know the dimensions of every single house. We gave a simple set of rules that it adjusts so turn here, turn right, turn this, turn, left, turn here and it came up with a formula that if repeated, it's gonna cover the whole house. So rather than try to figure out every possible dimension of house, it gives us a a couple couple set of rules that follows that he knows that it's going to cover it In the same way instead of trying to cover every possible trial you could ever face. I want to give you a couple of rules that you can start, that you can apply and that you can use these whatever trial comes your way this year in 2019 let me give you four. First thing you wanna do. We just talked about is counted as joy. Remember you've packed water with you whatever trial you're facing. Find the joy in that secondly, you want to pursue wholeness. Um, I had a student one time who was going through a difficult situation and let's just say for the sake he was, he was up here and the situation brought him here. So it's up high and abroad, um loan and after talking with them I share with him. Look, your problem is you keep trying to get back to where you were and that's not possible. But the good news is instead of from going low to high, you can go to a new space and it's more complete, it's more whole and you're stronger for it and you're, you're better for it. And some of you have gone through a difficult situation. You went from high to low and you're like, I can't get back, I can't get back. I can't get back. I'm here to tell you you won't. But that's okay because while you can't get back to where you were, God wants to take you somewhere you haven't been yet. So counted as joy pursue holiness. The 3rd 1 is asked for wisdom. Ask for wisdom. Ask for perspective in this situation and say, God, what do you want me to learn in this situation? Don't waste your trial but not learning and growing stronger through it. And the last one not solely talked about in here, but we're gonna talk about it more throughout the rest of the book is a look to serve some of the best way to grow through your trial is to actually look for ways to serve others going through a similar situation when you get the focus off of yourself and on to helping others, it changes things. Okay, the first test you're gonna face is trials. But the second test, I promise you you're gonna face this year is the test of treasure, which is really a battle of comparison. It's a battle of comparison. Let's read verses nine through 11, let the Lowly Brother boast in his exaltation and the rich and it's humiliation because like a flower of the grass, he will pass away for the sun rises with its scorching heat. I feel like we understand that verse being in Arizona and withers, the grass, the flower falls and its beauty parishes. So will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits. So you have this concept of wealth. And the truth is is that jesus and through James here flips this concept and so in other words, if you're poor understand that your value is so much greater and you have access to a greater glory. If you're rich understand that that wealth is fleeting, but you have access to a greater story. You know, living in America automatically puts us in like the top 1% of the world riches wise. And so we have to understand that whether you're envious of what people have and you don't or you're prideful of what you have. Either way money becomes an idol and see we're gonna talk about money throughout our time here at Mission Grove as a church, not because God wants money out of your wallet, but because he wants the idol out of your heart. And so sticking with this idea of the Roomba here. Is that just three things if you're taking notes just to remember when it comes the money and I'm not going to spend a ton of time with this because it actually breaks it down a lot more later in the book. So we're gonna talk more about this later in the series. But Three things for right now, number one, remember that wealth is temporary. It doesn't matter how much you have. If you're not content in that moment, you're gonna want more, it's temporary. It doesn't last. It's like the grass in the fields, it just burns up when the sun gets hot. Second thing is remember that wealth is a tool, not a title. Money is a tool, not a title. It doesn't give you permission to do anything, but it gives you the ability to give and to serve and love maybe in a unique way. So it's temporary to tool. The third thing is to love all people, regardless of what they can give you, Especially going to jump into that in James Chapter two. So I'm gonna save that for a future sermon. But God calls us to love all people notice that he recognizes and identifies both sides. So like take David for example, David started out as a shepherd boy, but he ends up a king. The poorest of the poor, the richest of the rich that he was God's the whole time? Money is temporary. It's a tool and it's used to love others. Okay, then the last test you're going to face is it is the test of temptation? The test of temptation. Let's continue reading here in verse 12, blessed is the man who remains steadfast in their trial. For when it stood the test, he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then the desire, when it is conceived gives birth to sin and sin when it is fully grown, gives forth to death. Do not be deceived My brothers, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above coming down from the Father of Lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change of his own will. He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits and creatures. This is an important passage because it clarifies here. That sin comes from our own desire. That means we have to take responsibility for the battles we face. We can't play victim of a trial. Notice that temptation is closely connected to trial. I think it's fitting because a lot of times when you are going through a difficult time. What do people turn to drugs, alcohol addictions, hurting others. But see when you turn to those things that dead in reality, you try to numb the pain and you end up further away the next day. But when you turn to God, it actually deepens reality and you find forgiveness and purpose and joy and freedom. But here's the pattern of sin. Here's what happens. Here's what goes down. First, you have your inward desire. You can't blame that anybody else, we've fallen and and we we desire things that we shouldn't. Then typically we face some type of trigger, right? There's something, you see something, you hear something, you experience something, you have a conversation, something triggers you. Then you rationalize, well, that's okay, I can do that. Or there are people worse than me, or I mean, I've already gone there, so I'm not doing anything mad. We rationalize it, then we indulge. And then we always regret, right? Because sin ultimately leads to death. That's a one way path to death. Some may move slower than others, but there's no good ending there. And but he says there's an alternative because then he talks about who God is. And so the response is really three things one you think about God's judgment, he says, don't be deceived. This leads to death, but to you think about God's goodness. Oh God, there is more, there is better for you and then he says, you are the first fruits of creation. In other words of all creation, you are who God values most. And so when you were attempted, this is not the same thing as sin. When you were triggered, When you when you have the opportunity to sin instead of rationalizing it and indulging, think about God's judgment, God's goodness and then your own value that you deserve better. You can picture it when temptation knocks on the door, you have two people that can answer that door. You can have your flesh or you can have the spirit. So when temptation knocks on your door, it's whoever you send to the door to answer that is going to lead to the response that you have. Um Another way to picture temptation and sin is kind of like this way is that if you're familiar with diplomatic immunity, diplomatic immunity happens when someone from another country lives in a country that is not their own and therefore are not bound by the laws of that other country. So in other words, they cannot be prosecuted because they don't belong to that country, they belong to something else. In the same way when you have faith, you have spiritual diplomatic immunity, meaning that satan can't touch your identity, he can't, if God is for you who can be against you, you are a child of God, he can't touch that. So what he does, if he can't touch your identity, he attacks your activity. If you can't touch your identity, attacks your activity. And so what happens is that he waits for our own desires to put themselves out there and we willingly give handles to satan and says, oh you want to do that, Okay? And he grabs onto the handles that we give him and then tosses us around like that wave. I promise you you're gonna be tempted this year. But when temptation knocks on the door, who are you sending? Are you sending the spirit? Are you sending your flesh? Are you going to indulge and feel worse? Are you going to focus on the goodness of God? The judgment of God and your value of him. Because if you do that, you're gonna be made whole as we close. Um and bands going to come up on stage, um I want you just to understand this, that the goal of life is not simply to stop sinning right? The goal in life is not simply to stop sinning. The goal is to pursue God and have relationships. Right? Same thing a marriage. The goal of a marriage is not to not mess up. How's your marriage? We're not fighting. Okay? But that's not healthy. Right? Right? Parenting, raising a child. The goal of raising a child is not to have them not get in trouble. The goals relationship. And so if you really if you really want to win that battle of temptation in this case, the best defense is actually an amazing offense. In other words, here's where we get real practical. Okay, you want a strong marriage passionately pursue your spouse passionately pursue it. Do the things that you fell in love with, write notes, send texts, rub their feet if that's their thing, it's not mine. My wife loves her feet rubs again. Me and feet doesn't work. She tried to rub my feet. I almost kicked her in the face. Didn't work out. Okay. The gauge of my marriage is not well, I didn't mess up today. No, it's not once did I pursue her. In other words, the goal of Christianity is not simply to not sin, but running after God. Look, I love working out. And I also love dessert. Okay, but you know what you don't see is people in crossfit eating cake at the same time. Why? Because it's a lot easier to put aside the cake when you're going after something. Right? So go after your marriage this year in 2019 go after relationship with your kids, go after it in your workplace and pursue it with all that you have. And when you face trials, when you get tested, trust him, you're going to face trials. Treasure and temptation this year. What are you gonna do about it? Let's pray. The only father, I just thank you for there's seven got even the brother for Lord and Savior calls you Lord. God may we call you lord here in 2019 we have faith that works when we count it as joy. When you face trials of many kinds. When we seek your wisdom, God may we not put our identity and treasure and in comparison of what we don't have or what we do have? Because we know wealth is fleeting and God when we face temptation, I mean we send your spirit to the door to answer when we focus on your goodness and God as we take communion. Now as a church, as we pass these elements, God, we will remember the fact that we can have victory over life starts because you died for us. Mhm God as we pass these elements of the bread and the juice that symbolizes what you've done for us. God may we remember that you make all things new. That your mercies are new every morning and that your forgiveness and love is deeper still. As we go into 2019, may this be a new year a new us. But God, we praise you for being the same. And so God, we ask that you give us a new spirit, a fresh spirit to go after and to pursue relationships. To pursue dreams, to go after life this year with all that we have, trusting you with every test that come our way and counting everything is joy. We love you God, it's in your son's name, We pray. Amen."