Finding Peace: The Power of a Renewed Mind

And we're talking about how to have peace of mind. We're in Philippians chapter four.

And I just want to know today, like, how many of you, this has been a theme, right?

Last week we said, the scripture told us in our passage last week,

a few verses earlier, don't worry or be anxious about, right,

be anxious about nothing, but pray about what?

Everything. think. And so that's been our theme as we come here to the second

part of this passage in verses eight and nine.

And in fact, in Philippians chapter four, verse eight, Paul reaches actually

the climax, if you will, of his appeal here in this passage.

What does he say? He says, finally, brethren, finally, brethren.

And he writes directing this to all believers in Philippi.

I want y'all to see this. And to every believer in every place,

by the way. And that includes who?

Everybody. That's us. That's Eastwood Baptist Church, right?

That's whoever knows the Lord, right? He's writing to us here with these words.

And what follows is not merely for just some Christians.

It's not reserved only for those whose conscience is unusually sensitive or

those who are naturally emotional, right?

Instead, this is addressed to every believer, all who are born to God's family.

None of us, church, none of us are above this, and no one is excluded from this.

So here's the focus of our attention, the focus of your attention today.

Look at verse 8 again. Paul prioritizes the mind.

What does he say in verse 8? Dwell on these things.

Some of you may have consider or whatever, those type things.

I don't want translation, but dwell on these things. Think on these things, right?

Dwell on here. It does. It means to think about or to be focused upon mentally.

The Philippians must focus upon the things that are worthy of their thought.

And that word dwell, the Greek word, it comes from, is logizomai.

And it's common to the English language, basically as logarithms or logic, right?

It's a mathematical term, by the way, and it carries the idea of making a careful

calculation, requiring great concentration, right?

The word means to reckon. You probably remember this same Greek word used elsewhere

in the New Testament, logizomai, talking about considering ourselves dead to sin, right?

Dwelling upon that, realizing the logic, all that behind it,

and really thinking about it.

But this same thing here, he's telling us to do this with our mind.

The word means, again, to reckon, to evaluate, to consider, to take into account.

And it conveys the idea of thinking carefully about something.

And the Philippians here in this passage must mentally focus and intellectually

dwell, logizomai, upon certain things which are lawful and proper.

Dwell on is, if you have noticed already, it's in the present tense, right?

It means that they should always, in other words, be thinking on these things

that he's about to share. There's never a day off from this requirement to do

this. Let me just ask y'all something today.

How many of you have verified in your own life the things that you dwell on

and you think about, you end up doing? Come on.

As a man thinks in his heart, so is he, right?

In fact, here, it's also in the active voice that indicates that they have to

take action to dwell on these things.

And it's also an imperative, which means it's a command, right?

It's not a suggestion. It's a command. And so it's actually also an apostolic

command here issued with divine authority.

And he says, if we focus upon what is right, we will live rightly.

It reminds me that when we come to Christ, it talks about we renew our minds, right?

We renew our minds. And also, if we focus again on what is wrong, we live wrongly.

And there's an inseparable connection there, church, between what we think about and how we live.

Right thoughts, in other words, produce right living, just as wrong thoughts produce wrong living.

That's going to be the fruit of it. We can't focus our minds on what is wrong

and then live out what is right.

You and I can't fill our minds with garbage and expect to live a pure life.

That's the common tongue right there, right? And this is why Paul is challenging

here to think on these things, right? Consider it. Reckon it.

Calculate this carefully. Thankfully, we can't focus our minds on what is wrong, what is right.

The deposits that are being made into our minds are actually yielding a return

with interest in our lives.

Those math people here love that, right? The numbers people.

And in these next words, Paul will provide timeless truth right here,

principles, if you will, that stretch over centuries, that stretch over continents,

cultures. It doesn't matter. They're applicable.

They're relevant for every one of us sitting here today in Eastwood Baptist Church.

And with each one of these descriptions, he's putting a fence, if you will,

around that which we ought to be allowing into our minds and keeping out,

if you will, those things that we ought to be placing or having on the outside

of that boundary, right?

So let's talk about it a little bit this morning. What to dwell on.

What to dwell on. Here's the requirement for the peace that God establishes.

We're talking about the peace of mind, having true peace.

And where does true peace come from again? Help me out.

From God, the author of peace, he's the prince of peace, right?

You can't, we said this last week, you cannot have true peace without knowing God, right?

You can't have true peace. So whatever's true, look at verse eight.

Whatever's true, whatever's honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure,

whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence,

and if anything worthy of praise,

dwell on these things.

Consider reckon think carefully about it dwell on it right paul catalogs eight

godly objects upon which we as christians should concentrate and and so believers

we have to discipline being a disciple of christ right discipline our minds

to think upon these spiritual subjects,

what's the first one there whatever is true think about these as we go through

this list quickly this morning, like in our society today, in our culture today,

they don't care about what's truth.

The majority of people don't, right? They may say, what's my truth, your truth. We all know.

True is true for all people, for all times, for all places.

God himself said he is truth, right? Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, the light.

But whatever is true, Two, alethees in Greek means that which is reliable,

that which is faithful, distinguished from what is false and a lie.

True is true. There's a false and there's a true.

There's a right way to think, a true way to think about something,

about what God's word has revealed

about whether it's sin or whatever the issue is, that's the truth.

No matter how often we want to change it, take it out, squish it down,

you can't run from God's truth.

Their minds need to be fixed upon Whatever's real, genuine, and authentic I've

noticed today in our culture A lot of people like to pretend There's something they're not.

What is real, genuine, authentic? What has God made you to be?

What is true is found in or aligns with the word of God. It aligns with his word.

Whatever is true here we see, it's defined by the scripture.

It's not defined by society. You'll never find truth in listening to what society

or culture tells you is true.

God is the author of truth. He is the one who defines truth.

And so whatever the Bible, says something, it's real.

Focusing upon the true, as Paul commands us to do here, leads to true Christianity,

to truly following in the footsteps of Christ, being that little Christ that

we're called to be, right? Being an imitator of Christ.

And here, equally dwelling upon what is the opposite of truth produces false living.

You may have caught yourself into false living before. You probably look around

in our culture and see a lot of people who are living lies.

False living. So we got to think about, first of all, whatever is true,

where do we find the authority and the source of truth?

God himself, his word, right? And his word never changes. It's the same yesterday, today, and forever.

God never changes his mind as far as his word and his truth is concerned.

So we got to think about that, Paul said. We got to think about what is true.

That's our source of truth.

Everything else is a lie. Whatever is honorable, look at it here in this passage.

Semnos, it means that that which is noble, dignified, lofty,

elevated, it represents that which is of high and lofty morality.

That we got to set our thoughts on elevated things, in other words,

and that we should think about that which pulls us up and not which takes us down.

Think about those things that pull us above the muck and the mire of this world's

system and concentrate upon those things that are principled,

that are decent, that are upright.

In other words, Paul is saying here, get your mind off of the lowly and base things.

Get your mind out of the gutter. You've heard that one before, right?

Get your mind out of that. getting off of frivolous things. Focus on the honorable.

In fact, in a culture today, this is continuously more and more casual.

Focus on that which is honorable is truly a biblical virtue. Amen?

I mean, this is our challenge today. Do you want to have the peace of God?

Paul is laying out here how we have peace with God and how we have peace of

mind. and then what's next whatever is what right whatever's right.

Dikaios, that means that which is upright and holy, which conforms to the law of God.

In ancient times, this particular word was used of scales in the marketplace.

You can just imagine this, okay? Scales in the marketplace.

A standardized measure would be placed on one side of the scales,

and then an amount of grain of equal measure, supposedly, right,

would be poured onto the other side until the scales were balanced.

So you see, the right, the standard, the thing that was the standard of everything,

the truth, that would be God's Word.

That would be God Himself, right? And then all the things that were supposed

to weigh on the other side to see if they balanced and were right,

then it would line up. It would be balanced if it was right.

And at that point, they would be said to be right.

That's the idea here in this passage for this. On one side of the scales of

Christian living is the holiness of God.

And on the other side, on the other side of it, is what a believer focuses his mind upon.

Think about that. The holiness of God, what we think about.

What is our minds full of every day? What do you think about?

Some of you may say, I don't have any free time. I don't have time to think.

What do you think about when you have time? What do you think about just through your daily activities?

Whatever a believer thinks about needs to square with the absolute purity of

God. That's what Paul is saying.

His thoughts must be in conformity with God's Word. And then we come to whatever is pure.

Hognos. It comes from the root word for holy. Holiness, sanctification,

being set apart. This word actually refers to what's unmixed,

in other words, with moral impurities.

It's set apart to be ethically clean, if you will. It's pure.

In fact, it's unadulterated with moral corruption or filth, right?

The Philippians here, in other words, according to Paul here in this passage,

the Philippians should fill their minds with whatever is morally pure.

Y'all, got to get real here. That includes the books that we read, right?

Obviously, yes, hallelujah, we should be reading the Word of God.

But that includes the fiction books some of us like to read or any other book

or anything that we let enter into our thought life and our mind.

Y'all see how critical it is to live in a life and have a peace with God.

Sometimes why peace is so elusive of mind and of having that kind of peace that

We've been talking about the fact that all the things we let into our minds

that we dwell upon, that means filling it with lies, right? Filling it with garbage.

But think upon what is wholesome, virtuous, and unstained by corruption.

That should be the censorship, if you will, in every Christian mind.

If we're to live a pure life that's unstained, Christ-like life,

our minds have to dwell upon what is pure.

Dwell upon what is pure. Then what comes next? It starts with L. Whatever is lovely.

What a word. Whatever is lovely.

Prosphiles. It speaks of that which is pleasing, attractive,

beautiful, in other words, which reflects ethical beauty, by the way.

That word there refers to the beauty of holiness, in other words,

as opposed to the hideousness of sin.

Lovely, it really represents those things that are sweet, gracious, and generous here.

And the opposite of that, what's raw or crude or ugly, right?

Whatever is lovely is that which is beautiful in the eyes of who? God.

And spiritually attractive to those who are pure in heart.

That's the true beauty. That's the lovely here that we're talking about.

And that way, believers must direct their thoughts onto what the Bible says is pleasing to who?

To God. He defines, in other words, what is attractive, not us,

and certainly not the world.

The world very often hangs something unlovely on a bait marked lovely.

It may look that way from a distance, or it may be packaged that way.

So we have to make every effort to remain focused, church, upon that which is

truly lovely, Paul is saying, which is defined for us where again?

In the scripture, in the word of God.

Y'all see how important it is to have our minds saturated, our hearts saturated in God's holy word?

I mean, we carry around, whether it's a Bible in the physical form or whether

you have it digitally or whatever you have it,

we carry around the word of God and we say as Christians, it's so precious to

us. We have a Bible open right here.

But we have to ask ourselves and this is not a guilt trip thing this is like

do we love god's word do we spend time in his word do we go after god's word

like we went after that love letter that maybe our husband or wife wrote to

us when we were dating we just couldn't wait to read it,

to see what they were going to say how does have that kind of love for god's

word that we want to spend time, that's not a burden to spend time in God's

Word, but it's truly a joy.

Well, he goes on to say, whatever is of good repute, we don't hear that word

much today, do we? Good repute.

Ephemus, it means that which is well-spoken of or highly-regarding, okay?

It's the idea that basically to whatever is well-spoken of by God is what's

highly respectable in the eyes of God.

Again, y'all, don't use the culture as a way to say what is highly respectable.

You will go vastly wrong, okay?

Wrong road, right? Paul actually warns about the negative aspect of this in

his letter to the Ephesians, if you remember,

there must be no filthiness and silly talk or coarse jesting,

which are not fitting, but rather giving a thanks, he tells us in Ephesians 5, verse 4.

Ephesians 5:4

So these forbidden things are not fitting for any believer who's actually pursuing

holiness, pursuing that.

Instead, those with a high and holy calling upon their lives should be dwelling

upon what's morally respectable, as defined by God.

And then what does it say? Something interesting here. If there is any, what?

Yes, or excellence, right? Christians should dwell on this. If there is,

it starts a bottom line summary here.

Excellence just means mental virtue.

As Thomas was saying in his translation there, only that which reflects high

moral standards should dominate our thinking.

Whatever reflects the holiness of Almighty God, that which is morally excellent

and pleasing. Now, we all have to do an inventory today.

Again, what are you and I, what are we dwelling on?

What are we thinking about? What is our mind filled with? Is it filled with

worry? Is it filled with lack of peace?

Is it filled with what the culture says? Is it filled with lies?

Whatever reflects the holiness of Almighty God That which is morally excellent,

pleasing to God Should fill our minds,

occupy our thoughts, church If we dwell upon that which is excellent Paul is

telling us We're going to live a spiritually excellent life Our affection is

going to be consumed With His perfect and pleasing will,

That doesn't mean we'll never sin

It means the things we think on That our trajectory is going to be right,

that we are going to be heading towards that goal, right?

A righteous man may fall, but he gets up.

His thoughts, his thoughts are so important. What we dwell upon,

it all starts at the highest level with the mind.

With the mind. Anything worthy of praise.

There's one here. It encompasses whatever is or can be praised by God himself.

It means we should think about whatever can be applauded. Think about it this way.

Whatever can be applauded in the presence of God.

That's it. That's what we're talking about. Whatever's worthy of praise.

Because those things that are worthy of praise, God can applaud.

Is the life we're living, the thoughts that we're thinking, church,

can God say, that's worthy, prayerless.

Christians, we focus our thoughts upon whatever can be commended,

in other words, by God himself.

Put it another way, it's whatever can be extolled by the holiness of God.

I mean, let the minds of believers be set upon those things. It's the challenge.

Those eight marks actually define what should saturate, if you will, our thinking.

And ultimately, each of these virtues that he listed out here,

it's a description. I'm trying to get this today.

It's a description of what the Lord Jesus Christ is.

It's a description of him.

That's how he thought constantly and consistently in every circumstance and at every point.

And so whatever meets this mark is acceptable and pleasing to God,

but whatever falls short of that standard is unacceptable.

We must guard our minds, Eastwood, because we will soon become like that which upon we are thinking.

And then Paul comes to this. He's practicing what he's preached.

This is important, y'all. How do we put these things, these defining marks into

practice? How do we live them out, right? One way is by seeing them lived out

in the life of a more mature believer, right? Of a more mature believer, I should say.

You know, we talked about mentoring a few weeks back, having mentors,

spiritual mentors in our life.

And this is what Paul says next. Look at it here in Philippians 4 and 9.

He says, the things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me,

practice these things and the God of peace will be with you.

And, you know, Paul challenged them to, in other places in Scripture as well, to follow me as I what?

Follow Christ. In other words, only follow me in so much as I follow Christ, right?

Again, it's not about perfection. It's about direction.

It's a direct connection between what's required in verse 8 and what Paul urges

in verse 9 here. As the Philippians strive to dwell upon what is acceptable,

they should look to Paul and emulate him, or another word is imitate.

Imitate what he's doing. And in verse 9 here, Paul actually gives four ways

they should put into practice.

This is how they should do it, what Paul has prescribed in the previous verses, right?

The first thing, look at it. Things learned. Things learned.

Paul first urges them to imitate the things you have learned.

And that refers to what Paul had taught them, right? The teachings he had given

them, what he had preached to them while he was in Philippi.

The focus is upon truth that he expounded and the sound doctrine,

the sound teaching that they've earned.

And that really just magnifies the importance for every Christian to sit under

sound biblical teaching and preaching, just as the Philippians had.

It's important, y'all, what you fill your minds with. Let me just tell y'all,

not every Christian book out there is truly Christian.

You don't just grab a book off the shelf and say, hallelujah,

it's like the word of God. Come on. The Word of God is our standard.

In fact, there's a lot of Froot Loops, okay? A lot of crazy people out there.

And just because you have a television show or 25 or 30,000 people or two,

it doesn't matter. You can be a Froot Loop, right?

And he's simply letting them know, look, it's important to be under sound teaching, sound doctrine.

Fill your minds with people and with things that, If you're hearing a preacher

or hearing a study, looking through a book, going through a study,

a Bible study with somebody,

make sure that that lies with God's Word. That's your filter.

Because if you don't, you're going to be thinking bad things.

You're going to be thinking things that aren't true. Again, it might look nice.

It might look lovely on the outside.

But the content on the inside has falsehood in it.

Well, he says not only that, he says things received. Those same truths were

also taught to the Philippians in things they received. That refers basically

to what Paul wrote to them in this epistle. They received it, right? This letter.

It's the importance of the public reading of Scripture in church.

And Paul intended here, get this today, Paul intended that the written word

of God be read to the people of God in their corporate gatherings.

And the same can be said for studying its truth. And that demonstrates that

the necessity here of hearing and receiving the sanctifying truth,

right, of Scripture by reading.

And then what does he say? He says, things heard. There's also the things you have heard.

Philippians 4.9. That refers to what they heard from others about Paul.

It includes the reports of those who were with Paul and observed his life,

especially while he was in prison, right? You remember he was there right now as he writes this.

How was Paul responding here, in other words, to this Roman imprisonment which

he found himself in, right?

How was Paul reacting to the unjust suffering?

How was he leaving this matter, if you will, in the hands of Christ, in the hands of God?

Was he turning the other cheek? Was he responding with grace to those who would curse him?

Was Paul anxious? Was he worried, right?

Or was he filled with peace? The news actually spread, he's wood like wildfire.

It came all the way to Philippi.

The reports that they heard about Paul's Roman imprisonment.

And how he was living his life, it was a powerful teaching tool to them.

Powerful. And then, here we go, things seen.

You've probably heard someone say that the eyes are the window to your soul, right?

The things seen, the things that they looked upon, that they observed,

right? Paul said they should practice what they have seen in him.

And that points to those things that Paul, y'all, actually modeled when he was in their presence.

Here's what they directly observed in Paul's life. Now, I know y'all have heard this so many times.

Like, you've probably heard the little thing about, hey, if we were to put your,

this past week up on the screen, and how you lived your life and all the decisions

you made and all the times you chose to wonder from God's Word or whatever it

might be, or maybe you didn't this week, okay?

Whatever it happens to be on that screen for everybody to see every thought

you ever had this week, everything you thought about, everything you let into

your mind, it begs the question, right?

Would others be able to look at that kind of thing and be encouraged by it and

remember that they should imitate that life as it follows Christ.

That's a challenge to all of us. Now, I realize they couldn't look at Paul's heart.

They couldn't look into his private thoughts, but they could see what they could see.

They could see what he did, how he reacted in these circumstances.

They were to remember how he walked in the faith, how he handled himself,

how he acted, how he reacted in every situation. That was actually an aid for

them to live a godly life in Christ, to follow what they had seen.

And Paul allowed them to be imitations of him or be imitators of him. And ultimately of who?

Who's he following? Christ.

And Paul writes verse nine quickly, practice these things.

The word practice, it means to do, to execute, to perform, to practice it, right?

Again, is this a commander's suggestion?

It's a command. It's in the present tense. It indicates that it is to be an

ongoing pursuit in their lives.

Paul is saying, in other words, if you will, you need to live in a manner consistent

with my life and with my teaching.

Paul has modeled his own message. In other words, Eastwood, he's become a visible

example to the Philippians concerning how they should live in their pursuit of holiness.

And that's the principle, y'all, of discipleship.

Amen, Brother Thomas? That's discipleship, is it not?

And when we go deep in God's Word, we learn, but we are discipled in Christ.

Jesus taught that a pupil is not above his teacher, but everyone,

after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher.

In Luke 6, 40, in that manner, Paul urged, I exhort you, be imitators of me.

And that's Paul's command for these fluently believers and for us today.

The things that you've seen and learned from me, now go and do them in your life.

Is discipling easy?

I mean, just the word itself, disciple, a learner, discipline.

Who likes discipline? Raise your hand. Right?

Who likes it? Nobody likes it. You like it. Woo, yeah, let's get disciplined

today. I want to get it. Yeah.

I'm telling you, y'all, it's like, but being a disciple, it's not,

you know, there's pain involved.

The pain of looking at my own selfish desires and saying, that's not pleasing

to God. Lord, forgive me. Help me.

I need to obey you in this area, Lord. Or, in fact, I don't want to do this,

or I don't want to go to this person, or I don't want to speak to this person, whatever it might be.

Man, it's a discipline. It takes effort.

Effort. Well, the battle of the mind, this is it.

The battle of the mind. What is the result of efforts to dwell upon what's holy? Look at verse 9 again.

The God of what will be with you?

How many of you want peace? How many of you know peace, real peace?

I asked this question last week.

Think about it. Do you have peace today?

Real peace. Are you at peace today?

He says here, the God of peace will be with you. So purity of mind is essential for peace of heart.

You see, whenever we're constantly thinking or filling our minds and dwelling

upon things that are not falling in what Paul has shared with us here,

we can't have real peace.

There's always going to be that struggle in our heart and our mind,

and there's always going to be that lack of fellowship, right?

Verse 9 is inseparably connected to the verses that precede it.

In fact, peace here refers to that subjective peace of God, if you will,

and not the objective peace of God.

That comes through being justified by faith in Christ, okay?

We have peace with God because our sins are forgiven, right?

And we've been justified, but peace in the heart can only come from God.

It is part of the fruit of the Spirit. It actually says in Galatians 5.22 that Christ gives us.

God is with you, Paul writes, to give you his peace.

I don't know about you, but I need his peace. I want his peace.

I want to walk in his peace. You know, it's impossible to overestimate the importance,

church, of a pure mind that's kept undefiled by the impurities of this world.

Whenever a life is growing spiritually, there's always a pure mind.

Let me say it again. It's important, y'all. Whenever a life is growing spiritually,

there is always a pure mind.

An impure mind not only stunts Christian growth, but it's contrary to the will of God for our lives.

In fact, in many ways, the battle of the Christian life is a battle of the mind.

We're already told in Scripture that we don't wrestle against flesh and blood, do we?

No. And the victory in the battle is the experience of peace.

Prayer and purity. Think about it for a moment.

Prayer, we talked about prayer is the key to peace, right? It's the path to peace.

Prayer and purity are the two keys to the life of peace.

Prayer and purity. You will become in practice, church, what fills your mind and thought.

Godly thoughts will produce godly living. Holy thinking will lead to holy living.

And base thoughts or unpure thoughts are going to lead to base living.

So it's critical that we guard our minds from impurity. Christ actually says,

I will guard your hearts, right?

We looked at that last week. Dwelling upon him. We got to notice and censor

those thoughts that are not pure.

In other words, put up those boundaries, those borders in our lives ruthlessly

and not let those type of thoughts in.

And it's every believer's responsibility. It doesn't just happen without effort, does it?

It takes discipline. If we're to live in a distinctly pure way,

we got to intentionally center our minds on what is pure.

You can't follow the way of the world, amen?

You can't follow the way of the world and live a life that's pure.

You can't think right about things and follow the way of the word.

And like produces like in the battle for the mind, the mind of Christ.

So let me just say this. Be careful what you allow behind the steering wheel of your mind.

Because either it's going to take you where you do not intend to go or drive

you deeper into the peace of knowing and obeying Christ.

That type of thinking. That's why this is so important that Paul shared with them and us today.

You need to think on these things. You need to dwell on these things because

whatever you allow behind the steering wheel of your mind, it's going to take

you either where you don't want to go or it's going to take you into the peace

of knowing and enjoying Jesus.

Let me just say this. You can't put it on cruise control, buddy, right?

You got to let him take it. you got to let him drive it.

He's the one who steers it. He's the one who truly calls the shots.

That's where our mind is focused upon. That's where it should be, right?

You know, I would be remiss today if I didn't say, look, if you don't know this

kind of peace with God, today is your day.

You can actually come today and say, Lord, maybe even right where you're at

today, God's already dealing in your heart. Lord, I don't know this kind of peace.

I want to know the kind of peace that I need. I need to have peace with you, first of all.

Lord, forgive me, the sinner, in need of a Savior. And if that's you, I challenge you today.

Maybe you prayed that prayer, or maybe between you and God, and you just poured

out your heart, I challenge you today. Come, let us know about it.

We want to rejoice with you.

There may be others here today. Maybe God has other things that He wants you

to do. You do what He wants you to do. I challenge you, do it.

Let the peace of Christ reign in your hearts. Some of us here today,

maybe some Christians, might be realizing today, you know what?

Maybe I haven't been putting my mind where I need to. I've been letting falsehood into my mind.

I've been letting the ways of this world, the ways of the culture seep into

my thinking about things.

And I look at the word of God and I see how big a lie it really is.

And I've been believing it because it sounds good on the outside.

It's all doctored up. You know, it looks really good, but it's full of lies, right?

And maybe you just need to come today and repent and say, God,

forgive me, Lord, for thinking that way, Lord. Lord, I want to think on the

things that are, in your name, that are pure, lovely, just, honorable.

All those things. I invite you today, if you would, stand with us.

We're going to pray in just a moment.