Elisha: the Man, the Myth, the Legend - Week 1

Well, Happy New Year. Yeah, let's try that again. Happy

new hear so glad you're here today. And let me

tell you something. I know that God was faithful to

us in twenty twenty five, and I believe that God

is going to continue to work deeply in your lives

in twenty twenty six. I believe that God is going

to continue to grow you to stretch you, but also

that He has good things playing for you. Can you

pray with me as we jump into this new series, Elisha,

and let's prepare our hearts. God, we just give you

praise today that on the first Sunday of the year,

we come to you and we want to know you

in a deeper way. We asked that you challenge us today,

you stretch us today. Also, Father, I pray your hand

be upon your people, that you will love on them,

that you will encourage them that this year, God, that

you will bless them beyond even their own imagination. God,

that they will sense your presence day in and day out,

and that they will realize your goodness in deeper ways

in twenty twenty six. In Jesus' name Amen. In fifteen nineteen,

a war party gathered together under the guys of being

an expedition group. And they settled on their wooden ships

all the way across the Atlantic, and they had about

six hundred soldiers, and they had horses, and they had

armor and on armory and all these things, and they

headed towards the coast of modern day Mexico. And I'm

talking about the group that was led by a guy

named Ernon Fortes. Ernon Cortes was an explorer but also

a conqueror. And when he got there, the group had

a big job ahead of them. They were to establish

a community, they were to established relationships in Mexico. But

they had one problem, a little problem called the Aztec Empire. Now,

if you don't know anything about the Aztec Empire, they

were a site to be seen. Millions of people way

ahead of their time. These people they had systems, they

had alliances, they had government, they had policies. I mean,

you know, we can't even imagine. They were the big

people group of North America. And the Aztecs were some amazing,

amazing people. Well, these six hundred soldiers with Cortes start

questioning the mission because they're like, how are we going

to get a foothold here with the Aztecs. What are

we gonna do here? I mean, we don't have a

shot here. And then courtes knew that the men were

starting to worry, and the men were starting to wonder

how are they going to move forward? And so he

did something that is still hotly debated today, talked about

today as one of the most significant moments in war history.

He went and had the ships dismantled and took apart

so that they sunk in the ocean. Now, the historians

still argue about exactly how that happened. Did he just

dismantle and sink them? But this is where we get

the phrase from history burn the ships. Okay, we don't

know if he actually burned the ships, but this is

where we get the phrase burned the ships. Now, when

his soldiers found out that he had done this, they'veb

out flipped their lid, like you gotta be kidding us.

We can't go back to our families now. And so

Cortes pulled them all together and he says, listen, there's

no going back now. There's only one direction, and that

direction is forward. And so over time he built some

political alliances and relationships and with the help of a

little thing called diseases. Eventually they got a foothold, and

the Aztec Empire, as we know is no longer here.

But the Spanish came to rule through this movement by Cortes.

But the moment that's remembered in history is this famous

moment known as burning the ships. It was that moment

where the ships were sunk or whatever, dismantled or taking apart.

But it was that moment where from that point on,

the expedition no longer had two directions to go, only

one path forward. They weren't going back, and no longer

were they stuck between should we stay or should we go?

Speaking of being stuck, how many of you have not

moved forward in a while. You are stuck and some

of you just feel stuck. And I want to talk

to you, especially those of you who feel spiritually stuck

in your faith. Your faith hasn't moved forward. You've stalled

out spiritually. And here's the thing. You want more from God.

You want to grow closer to God. You want to

experience so much more, and you have these genuine desires

of growth, and you want to have that passion, and

you want to have that kingdom impact and you desire

these things, but you do know this right now in

your heart. You know that you are living below the

calling of God in your life for kingdom impact. You

know this to be true. And it's not that you

don't care. You really do care. You just don't know

how to move forward. You're spiritually stagnantly believed that this

series this month, if you will allow it, there's a

lot of you believe that's going to change your life forever.

Here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna study this Old

Testament prophet named Elisha, the guy who is in his

twenties and he's stuck plowing through life. Literally, that's his job.

He's plowing on a family farm every single day, same fields,

same dirt, same job, day after day. He's plowing through life.

But then God saw more that he could do through

this man, greater impact. And this ordinary guy, by the way,

ended up becoming one of the greatest prophets men of

God in history. And where did God find him? Stuck

behind a plow in a very similar way, So are

some of you today. You feel stuck right now spiritually

you feel stuck and you're behind that same old plow.

But yet God. Here's what the cool thing. God chose

an ordinary guy doing an ordinary job to do some

extraordinary things. And I want you to know this today,

that same God is calling some of you out of

the ordinary. Today. You have been stuck, you have been

spiritually stagnant, you have not been moving forward spiritually, and

you've settled into the excuses and you're okay with it.

Hopefully today's a day that God will shake that heart

of yours and you will once again want to pursue

Him for greater impact. So here's what we do. We're

going to come to one Kings nineteen. Now, by the way,

just a little contexts. Historically, the nation of Israel, they're

a mess. There are an absolute master in his time.

They're divided that people are very immoral. They're starting to

worship pagan idols. It's not going good. It's not a

good time for the nation. Now here's the interesting thing.

All throughout history, when times are critical, God does something.

God always raises up spiritual leaders. And so what did

God do. God raise up a guy named Elijah, not Elisha, Elijah. Hey,

God raised them up in Elijah became what was known

as a power prophet. Matter of fact, one day he

came up before these kings and these queens, and they

threatened to kill him, and he called fire down from

heaven and destroyed all the prophets of bell. He was

a power prophet, maybe the person who did more miracles

than anyone else besides Jesus. But he got old. And

when he got an old, God set his time for

you to hand off your ministry. And that's where we

come to Elisha. First Kings, nineteen nineteen. It says, so

Elijah went from there and found Elisha, son of Shaffat.

The Only thing I gotta say from this first part

here is, aren't you glad that your name is not

sha Fat? Could you imagine growing up going to school

being bullied because your name's shaf Fat. That's all I

have for that. All right, here we go. It says

that he was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen. Now

pay attention to that, okay, twelfth pair. Every detail matters,

and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Verse continue

on verse nineteen. Elijah went up to him and threw

his cloak around him. So Elijah comes up to Elisha

and throws his coat around him. Now, before we get

in any deeper. Let's talk about what do we know

about Elisha? Okay, And here's the thing. We don't know

much about him. We know that he lived in a

ninth century. The nation was divided. It was not a

good time spiritually. He did not attend the school of prophets.

He was not a son of a priest. He was

the son of a rancher named Shaffat. Okay. And if

you dig a little deeper, you're gonna figure out he

has some money, pretty wealthy family. One pair of oxen.

Your family could live pretty well, twelve pair of oxen.

You had the house on the hill. Okay, you had

the mansion. You were the rich people around. But here's

the thing. Elisha was not a spoiled brat. Okay. He

wasn't sitting in the house. He was in the field.

He was working behind the plow. And that tells us

something about day after day. He woke up early, day

after day, he went to us plow, day after day,

from morning till dusk. He walked the same ground, the

same field, the same scenery. He was faithful, he was steady,

he was predictable, he was secure. But also his life

was one repetition. He's out there in the middle of nowhere,

in the middle of ordinary, and God steps in and says,

I'm gonna do something extraordinary through your life. Now, some

of you are listening here thinking, okay, okay, you're describing

my life right now. Twenty twenty five was crazy. But

I don't see twenty twenty six getting easier. I still

got more tests to study for, I still got more

sales quotas to chase after. There's more meals to make

for my family, There's more diapers to change, there's more

doctor appointments to go to. And in the midst of

our routines and our repetitive lifestyle, we can get balled

down in our busyness and we lose our passion for Christ.

We lose our passion, we can lose that sense of

calling that since that God has called us to a

greater impact, a greater purpose, that you, because you are

a child of God, that God has set you apart

to do his work to bring him glory, to bring

him on him. He did not save you just so

you are saved. He saved you so that you can

also bring about glory to Him through your life. And

see this repetitive life that we're all living because we

got a pair of mortgage, we got our car payments,

we got our doctor bills. We have this crazy lifestyle

where our kids are involved in this and that we

get into this routine, and when we get to this routine,

passion just drips out of our body. We're left empty.

You can imagine Elisha twelfth Oxen. Day after day. He's

not the first team, he's not the second team. He

had to walk past the first team. He had to

walk past the second team every day, all the way

to the back of the line. Now why is he last?

I don't know. But here's the thing we do see.

There's a pattern in scripture. When Israel chose a king,

God chose the one in the back of line. Almost always,

here's the thing you need to know today. If you

feel overlooked, here's what you need to undersaying. God often

chooses the overlooked. That theme runs all throughout scripture. Jesus says,

all right, in the kingdom, things are flipped upside down.

So therefore the least in the eyes of everyone will

become the greatest in the kingdom God. Those who are

first in line in this world's size will become last.

If you feel like today you are one of the overlooked, undervalued,

are forgotten people. I want you to understand your God

sees you. He values you, and he loves you. And

God will use you. See, God doesn't choose people the

way the rest of the world chooses. The world looks

at the outside, what do you have? Goali for you?

But God looks at your heart. When everyone else looked

at Elisha, they just saw a rich kid behind the

plow working oxen all day all. But God saw more.

He saw the potential of a great prophet in the making.

Some of you right now, you probably feel stuck, alone

or discouraged. You know, the world might see a mom

who's changing diapers every single day, but God is looking

at a world changer who's raising up future leaders in

the kingdom. You might be a student and doing one

assignment after another, but God sees someone who's gonna be

on the board in the future, someone who's gonna be

influencing their company for the name of Jesus Christ. And

I want to remind us all today and remember this. Okay,

to all of you who say not me, I'm one

of the overlooked. I'm one of the forgotten people. Here's

what you need to understand. Check this out. God isn't

looking for ability as much as he's looking for availability.

Won't say that again. God isn't looking for ability as

much as he's looking for availability. Someone who will say, yes, God,

I'm willing, I'm ready. And at the end of verse nineteen,

something weird happens. Okay, Elijah throws this cloak over Elijah.

Can you imagine being in the field working with your oxen.

Some dude walks up with this really hairy coat and

he walks up and he flings it on you. This

is not a normal day that would weird you out.

And so what is does that mean? What does it

mean that he had this mantle, this cloak on him. Well,

the Hebrew word for cloak is at aarath, and it

is a hairy uh garment made out of animal hair.

But here's what it represents. It represents spiritual authority, it

represents annointing, it represents God's presence, it represents It's like

a symbolic transformational thing where God is saying, all right, publicly,

I'm exalting you, and now you have this calling. You

have this authority, you have this responsibility. In other words,

this throwing up the cloak on him meant that God

has chosen him. But here's what I want you to understand.

Today we read this like this was a thing that

only happened to Elijah. But when you come into a

relationship with Jesus Christ, he puts his Holy Spirit in you.

Every single one of you has his anointing, every single

one of you has his presence, every single one of

you has a calling. Every single one of you has

this ability that God has given you through the spiritual gifts.

God has place his coke of ministry on you, not

just Elisha. And by the way, this is an invitation,

not a promotion. It's an invitation to obedience, sacrifice, service.

Sometimes people think about, you know, if God can only,

you know, pour more of his spirit out on me,

and they get that confused with them getting more glory.

No no no no no no no no no no.

And the kingdom is the opposite. The servant. Jesus says,

I did not come to be served, I did not

come to be exalted. Jesus says, I came to serve,

and Jesus lowered himself to the point of death, so

therefore God exalted him. That's the upside down world. So

when God saves you, it's an invitation for more, but

it's an invitation to be used to him, to sacrifice,

to be in his service. Let's move on, So Elijah,

he walked into Elijah's workplace at the end of the line,

throws a mantle on him, and so God says, I

see you, I value you. Are Next. Now Elisha has

a decision to make. By the way, his future is secure.

He is the son of a wealthy father. He has

a big inheritance coming to him. So the question is simple.

Would he stay in the safe, predictable, comfortable life or

would he risk everything and pursue the call of God?

Was he willing to risk it all? You know, whenever

I was looking over this and praying over this message,

I couldn't help but think about Pastor Andrew, and when

I come across stories like this often think about Pastor Andrew. See,

when Andrew answered the call to ministry, he gave up

a lot of things. The world was offering him a lot.

By the way, he could have went to any college,

pursued any career. Why because he had resources and connections

like he would not believe. Okay, his grandfather real estate, mobile,

his father is a chief of surgery, his family was

in the oil. I'm talking resources, opportunities, connections. You know,

by all accounts, he could have done anything. Instead, he

moved to Pittsburgh, became an intern, shared a room with

another stafford, didn't even have his own room, lived off

his intern salary. Instead of having his mom and dad

send him any money, he lived off what the Lord

gave him and that was it. And so there was

times where he would get groceries and I'm like, that's

not enough, man. But he didn't go out and asked.

He didn't make phone calls, he didn't do nothing. He

lived with what the Lord gave him. And he could

have used any of these opportunities. He went all in.

And even in ministry, he's not taking advantage of his connections.

A lot of people don't know this, but Andrew's uncle

leads the largest church in our denomination, a church that

runs about eight to ten thousand people on the weekend.

And his uncle was maybe the most influential person in

our whole denomination at any time in Andrew's ministry. He

could have called him up and got introduced to anybody

to get the right position or the right job that

he would want. He's never done any of those things.

He has just simply said, Lord, whatever you give me,

I will be content, and I will do what you

called me to do. And so he, in the world's eyes,

risked a lot. And that's why I trust him as

executive pastor to share this pool, because I know his entigrity,

I know his character, and in the world's eyes, a

world going like you blew it. You could have done anything.

You have your whole life set up for you. All

you had to do is walk into this. But yet

you risk it all and you go into something where

you're not going to have a lot. The only thing

you're gonna have a lot of is trouble. You see.

I think all of us take risk every day. But

the problem is a lot of us take risk in

the wrong places. Some risk our integrity by cutting corners

at work, some risk our marriages through secret habits, are

hitting addictions. We all take risk, but the one area

that we should take big risk, and we tend to

be very conservative in when it comes to our faith

that's where we're supposed to take risk, but that seems

to be the place that we don't take risk. God

prompts you to give, but that feels risky, so you don't.

God prompts you to speak, to invite to step out,

but we hesitated. We move backwards.

See, we risk what we should protect, and we protect

what we should risk. We're willing to risk our career,

we're willing to risk our marriages, but we're not willing

to take that risk of faith. Verse twenty goes on

and says, Elisha then left his oxen, and then he

ran after Elijah.

So here's what I want you to see. Here he

did in stall. He didn't negotiate. He didn't say, you know,

let me pray about it for a week, or let

me finish plot on this field first. No, no, no,

he obeyed immediately. Here's what I want you to knowday,

simply this. If you are a disciple, here's a sign

of a disciple who is growing in Christ. One of

the greatest marks of spiritual maturity is a short time

span between God's command and our obedience. Okay, here's a

mark of maturity. One of the greatest marks is simply

this is there's a short time span between God's command

and our obedience. And here's the thing I know Alava's

been in church for decades. It's not how much scripture

you can quote. Okay, absolutely not. It's not how much

scripture you quote. It's how you respond when God prompts you.

It's not how much scripture, knows how quickly you obey it.

And if you're a believer, we know those moments where

we get that nudge to pray, to call someone, to give,

to step out. See, spiritual maturity is not just knowing

the word, it's living out the word. And again, one

of the clearest signs of spiritual maturity is obeying God's

prompts immediately. Now we have this amazing story, and then

the story just goes sideways for a moment. And this

is where you can tell that the Bible's true because

we have this beautiful story. But then also in the

middle of the story, Elijah and Elisha get into a

little tiff. Okay, they get into it, and let's look

at what happened here. Elisha wanted to honor and show

respect to his parents and as a parent, by the way,

I'm one hundred percent with Elisha here. But Elijah worries

that if he goes back and says goodbye to his parents,

he's not gonna come fulfill his calling. So let's look

at this. Elishah says, let me kiss my father and

mother goodbye, and then I'll come back to you. And

Elijah replied, go back, What have I done to you?

And so Elisha left him and went back. Elija's thinking, Ah, leave,

are are you going to come back? But Elisha goes back.

He honors his mom and dad, he kisses them. But

here's what we need to understand. It's not just honoring them,

but this was a true kiss goodbye. He was saying,

goodbye forever. I'm gone. I love you mam and dad,

thank you for all that you've given me. But now

I must follow the Lord. And so what do we

see happen next? We see five powerful words that can

change your life. Here we go verse twenty. Elijah waits,

Elisha comes back, and then Elisha says to him, I

will come with you. Some translations say I will go

with you. But here's what I want you to understand today.

If you want your life to change, if you want

your life to be different. You will start by saying

two words. Two words will change your life. I will,

I will confess my sin. I will open up to somebody.

I will trust you God. I will go wherever you

want God. I will serve wherever you want me to serve. God.

I will say I'm sorry when I've sined. I will

stop letting this thing come between you and me. God.

I will walk away from this relationship. I will, I will,

I will, I will. If you want your relationship to

change with God, it starts by two simple words. I will, Lord,

I will. I will see. When God prompts you, the

response of faith is simply, I will come with you. Now.

If you think Elisha's decisions a little crazy, remember he

woke up that morning plow on a field. Prophet shows up,

He throws his cloak on him, and as friends, of

course say were they had to be curious. They were

probably like, Hey, where are you going? And Elisha would say, uh,

what's your assignment? No idea? How are you going to

fund this? Ah? Do you even have the ability to

do this? I don't know yet. Elisha goes, and that

teaches us a critical principle. To day you don't have

to understand completely to obey immediately. You don't have to

understand completely to obey mely see, when God calls you,

he's not going to give you all the details up

front because we couldn't handle it. He simply asked for obedience.

I don't know about you, but I've been inspired watching

our children's pastor Jordan Davis step out in obedience as

he feels like God has called him to dedicate his

ministry of smoking pastor to feeding the poor, feeding those

who are underprivileged. And here's what he's doing. He's leaving

a secure job, he has a secure, predictable budget, He's

leaving a guaranteed ministry space, and he's embarking on this

faith journey of his life. Does he have facilities, No?

Does he have his fund secured No? But does he

have a call from God? Yes? Is he taking steps

of faith? Yes? And let me tell you something. When

you go out with him and you talk to him,

he is just so full of vision and he is

so excited and his life is so on fire because

he knows he's walking in faith, following the Lord. And

I can't wait to see how God surprises Jordan with facilities, equipment,

and funding. Jordan is so far out on the edge

of faith. I believe that God has to bless them.

See following Jesus will always cost you something. Jesus said,

if any may come after me, he must deny himself,

take up his cross and follow me daily. What's verse

twenty one say? What did he do? He took his

yoke of oxen, And then what he do? He slaughtered them.

He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat, and

he gave it to the people, and they ate. So

he goes back to his oxen, the very thing that

was his security, his future, his inheritance. He slaughtered them.

He took the plows, broke them up and burned them,

and then cooked them and had a barbecue and invited

all his friends. In other words, he burned his ships.

He literally burned his plows. Now why does that matter?

Elijah was saying. Whenever he slaughtered those animals and burned

his plows, he was simply saying, this got them all in.

Wherever you go, I will go whatever direction you point,

that's the direction I'll walk in. Whatever you want me

to go through, I will go through God. I will

follow you. And here's something I need everybody to understand today.

You cannot hold the plow and the mantle at the

same time. You cannot follow God while you're clinging to

this world. You cannot serve Jesus when you still have

one foot in sin and one foot and comfort and

foot and selfishness. You have to choose. And there's people

in our church today you're partially in, but you're not surrendered.

You got one foot in the church, but one foot

in the world, one foot in your calling, but one

foot and comfort. And God is asking you decide who

will you follow. So here's a question that we all

got to wrestle with. What plow do you need to

burn fully to follow Jesus fully? What needs to be

removed from your life so you could walk freely in

the calling of God. Earlier, I didn't know we were

going to sing the song today. We sung Blessed Assurance,

and that's a song and it goes this is my story,

this is my song. And my senior pastor when I

was growing up, Andy back that was his favorite song.

So we sung it a lot in church. And I

can't help but to recall when he presented the gods

to me, and my response to him was simply, this, Andy,

I'm having too much fun right now. There's no way

I want to give up what the world I did

not want to give up. I felt like every single

day I had a goal list of sins I wanted

to commit. And I'm a very gold oriented person and

a high achiever at some things, and that's what I

did with my life. I wanted everything the world had

to offer me. This went on for months and I

didn't even think about God anymore. But then one night,

when I was out at the pool hall of my

friends on the way home, out of nowhere, God spoke

to my spirit and said, give me your life, and

I'm going to do something with it. And let me

tell you, I loved my life so much. And for

the next two days all I could think about was

can I really give up this sin? Can I give

up this sin? Can I give it this sin? Can

I give it this? I love doing these things. But

then over two days God just melted my heart to

the point where I decided, you know what, I want

peace with God, and I want to pursue God more

than I want these things of this earth. And so

I made a decision on a Wednesday night at seventeen

years old. I burned my plows. I have never looked back.

God did not tell me where he was taking. You

think I had any idea I'd be here in Indianapolis. Oh,

But I do know this that He's walked with me

through dark times, through great times, through confusing times, through

painful times. But I burned my plows. No matter what came,

I wasn't going back. And my answer to him today

is still this. When he asked me to do anything,

it's I will, I will. A family heavily involved in church,

very dedicated throughout the whole school year, but then once

came they kind of disappeared from the church because they

had a really cool boat and they lived by a lake,

and the fourteen year old son asked the father, dad,

how come we don't love God during the summer. That

struck a nerve with the son orn the father, and

so the father sold the boat. It's a true story.

He burned his plow. A young woman who was leading

an influencer life decided to just not just delete the app,

but to delete her whole account because she decided that

she was not going to worry more about what people

thought about her than what God thought about her. So

she burned her plow. Another young man, talking to his pastor, said,

you know what, I keep struggling with this pornography and

I have all these things on my computer so that

I can't look at it, but on my smartphone, I

keep getting it. And the pastor said, well, what are

you going to do? And he says, I need to

get rid of my smartphone. Huh. So we went and

got rid of his smartphone, got an old flip phone.

He burned the plow. Church, some of you need to

get rid of your smartphone. You need to burn that

plow because you're never going to be able to become

what God has called you to become as long as

you keep looking back, you keep looking back. You know

what plow do you need to burn to fully follow Jesus?

And maybe it's a secret sin you've hid him for

a while. Confess it, because here's what scripture says. Scripter

says that you will receive mercy, you will receive grace,

and you will receive peace as a result. Maybe it's

time to burn that plow of pride and finacy. I

need help For others, it's you're in a relationship that's

not honoring God. It's time to get rid of that relationship.

For some of you, is what you consume, those shows,

those habits, those subst and after we consume all these things,

wants to do it dolls us spiritually where we don't

want to pursue God. Some of you, when you go

home today, you need to throw those pills away. Just

throw them away today. Is there something in your life

that you're trusting more than God? If there is, is

time to burn the plow. If you're spiritually stuck in

the same dirt, same struggle, same routine. Remember this, God

often chooses the one that's in the back of the line.

God sees the ordinary and he does something extraordinary. And

Jesus doesn't just want part of you, He wants all

of you. Let's look at how this story concludes a

total obedience. At the very end of the story, it says,

then he set out to follow Elijah and he became

his servant. The promotion was to serve, to go deeper

with God so you have greater impact. God is calling

you today it to greater impact. But here's my question

to you today, What plow do you need to burn

in your life? What sin do you need to let

go of so that God can fully use you? So

that God can do something extraordinary through your life in

twenty twenty six, what do you need to burn? Let's

go ahead and close their eyes and bow our head,

and let's have a moment to talk to the Lord.

And here's something extraordinary about God is that when we

ask him, he does answer us. So here's what I

want you to do, right where you're at, right now,

I want you to ask this simple question God, what

plow do I need to burn in my life? Ask

him that. Let's see what the Lord says. Now, I

want you to hand that plow over to the Lord,

and I want you to say I will follow you.

Hand that over hand, that relationship over hand, that sin

over hand, that habit, over whatever it is, that apathy,

hand it over to the Lord. Remember, the sign of

a spiritually mature person is how quickly we obey the

commands of the Lord. So now, in this prayer time,

will you hand that plow over and give it back

to the Lord and burn it down. Maybe today you

would like to come into a relationship with Christ and

you could begin that journey with Christ by repeating this

prayer with me and believe it in your heart. Jesus,

I ask you to save me. I ask you to

become my lord. I ask you to forgive me of

my sins. Jesus, I believe that you died on the

cross and three days later rose from the grave for

my sins. Holy Spirit, Come lead my life, Come fill me,

lead me, guide me, direct me. I give you my life. Father, God,

if you prayed that prayer, can you just lift up

your hand right now? See that hand, see that hand?

Who else? Who else? See that hand in the back,

see that hand over there, both those hands. God, we

just come to you today and we humble ourselves at

the beginning of twenty twenty six. And God, I know

that you got plans for every single person's room. You've

got kingdom impact for every single person's room. But before

we could go impact this world, we need to lay

down some things. And so God, I just pray to you,

will take these sacrifices today, these burnt offerings of obedience today,

and may you be pleased with this aroma. We give

you praise today for your mercy and your grace and

your goodness and your kindness. We will fall all you, father,

in Jesus' name. Amen,