I Have Anxiety | Pastor Brandon Beals | Venture Church

If I've never had the opportunity to meet you before.

I'm Brandon, I'm the lead pastor of the church. Thank

you for being here. I also want to welcome all

of you that are watching online that might be listening

to this podcast some other time. I don't know if

you're new, welcome. I love the opportunity to meet you.

If you're new today, I'll be hanging out in the

lobby after the service. Please come up introduce yourself to me.

I'd love the opportunity to meet you before I dive

in this morning. I do want to shout out our

women's director, Heather Lane and that amazing women's ministry team.

They put on a conference this weekend. Two hundred and

fifty women came to the conference. It was incredible. I

asked my wife afterwards, like, what did you think, because

she spoke at it, and she was like, that was

the most meticulously detailed, down to the smallest minute detail

of anything I've ever been to in my life. So

women did amazing. Let me tell you my favorite part.

When she started describing how the whole auditorium and every

room was changed for the women's ministry, I began to

panic for Sunday, and I came in and it looked

like church. So y'all did good, So I'm all for it. Also,

want to just shout out Pastor Johnny and our youth ministry.

I spoke at our youth service on Wednesday night. Look

at all the teenagers up here. They had so many

students after worship, they had to move them all in

here so I could preach. So really proud of our

youth ministry. Pastor Johnny, all right, everybody good talking about

anxiety today. Don't leave nothing worse than preaching a sermon

on anxiety when you're someone who struggles with anxiety. So

I've had anxiety all week leading up to this. We

are addressing mental health challenges over the over a three

week period of time on Sundays. Last week, Pastor Morgan

talked about stress. The week before, I kind of gave

a generic message on the entire topic. Next week, Pastor Connor,

we'll talk about worry. I'm excited for you to see

the ministry of Pastor Connor. He is our young adult pastor.

He is incredible. You guys are going to be really blessed.

And today I get the opportunity to talk about something

I know really well, anxiety. Throughout this series so far,

you guys have been great. Everybody's come up to both

Morgan and I have preached and told us how much

they appreciated the messages. That that does mean a lot.

This is a reminder that there's no way we can

cover these topics exhaustively. We are gonna say something that

we wished we didn't say. We are going to forget

to say something that you're gonna think was important and

we should have said. And here's what we're gonna do.

We're gonna live in grace. I'm gonna give you grace

for causing me anxiety. You're gonna give me grace for

causing you anxiety. So we're gonna give We're gonna live

in grace, knowing that we can't cover everything today. As

I talk about anxiety, my hope is that you are

gonna discover that this isn't new to God, that this

whole issue isn't something that's new. But the Bible actually

addresses this topic really clearly, and in fact, we're gonna

read about it here Philippians, Chapter four, verse six. I'm

not sure if this is gonna encourage you or not.

But these are the words of Paul from two thousand

years ago Philippians four, verse six. Paul said, don't be

anxious about anything, Thanks Paul. But in every situation, by

prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will

guard your hearts and your minds. In Christ Jesus, I

want to ask everyone to buy your heads, close your eyes.

I want to ask you to repeat this prayer after me.

Everyone say, Dear Jesus, speak to my heart, change my

life in Jesus' name. Amen. I'm not how I'm not

aware of how familiar you are with this story of

John F. Kennedy Junior and his wife Carolyn Besett how

they passed away. I was at the grocery store recently

and I saw it was on the cover of People magazine.

They were highlighting a new mini series that's coming out

called Love Story, that talks about their relationship and ultimately

their tragic death. John F. Kennedy Junior was an amateur pilot,

and he was flying his small Cessna with his wife

to Martha's vineyard because a cousin was getting married and

a surprise storm hit them in the middle of this flight.

They had zero visibility. There was rain, fog, thunder lightning.

They couldn't see anything in front of them. The instruments

and the gauges were saying, fly this direction and you'll

be safe. But John F. Kennedy Junior, by the way,

we know about all this from the black box recordings

that were found later. But John F. Kennedy Junior was

convinced his gauges were wrong, and every instinct inside of

him said fly this way at this altitude. His alarms

were going off in the plane, and the instrument says,

you're flying in the wrong direction. But every ounce of

gut instinct said I'm flying the right way. This is

the way I make it through the storm. Ignoring his instruments,

he crashed into the Atlantic Ocean and he and his

wife died. As someone who has struggled with anxiety, I

can tell you that anxiety is primarily triggered by fear

and distrust. What is anxiety? Anxiety is a feeling of worry, nervousness,

or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with

an uncertain outcome. Anxiety interferes with your ability to function.

Your heart begins to pound. Some of you it's pounding

right now. You have trouble focusing. Your your mind starts

going through a million different scenarios every minute. Anxiety will

cause you to react in a way that is oftentimes

out of proportion to the situation you're facing. In other words,

your anxiety will sometimes cause you to overreact to the

situation that you're facing. Anxiety can also cause you to

lose control in your response to a situation. It can

cause you a feeling of panic, fear, dread. It can

make you feel on edge, like don't push me, I'm

on edge. It can give you obsessive thoughts about something.

When your anxiety is triggered, you fixate and you obsess

about a thing, a person, an event, whatever it may be.

And oftentimes you have trouble concentrating. There are several types

of anxiety. This is a study from the Male Clinic

which I'm gonna refer to here anxiety. There is general

anxiety disorder or god. Many of you experience this periodically

throughout your life. This is when you worry, you have fear,

You have a constant feeling that you are overwhelmed by

what you're facing Another type of anxiety is agoraphobia. This

is a fear of being overwhelmed or unable to escape

or get help. This is a fear of new places,

unfamiliar situations, large crowds, outside of your control. My son's

here this morning. My son walked in. He normally goes

to Seattle, and he's already embarrassed, and I'm mentioning him publicly.

I guarantee it, and Judah goes. He looks around, he goes, WHOA,

there's a lot of people in this service. Some of

you you came for the first time, and you're like, WHOA.

There's a lot of people in this service. And that's

why a bunch of people go to the eight thirty service,

because it's not that way. Another type of anxiety is

a panic disorder. Maybe this has happened to you, or

you've been around someone that has an unexpected panic attack.

It's this attack that comes on them. Their heart starts

pounding and they kind of bend over and it happens suddenly.

Other types of anxiety come from specific phobias. A phobia

is a fear that is so severe that it can

overwhelm your life. Before I was able to conquer all

of my phobias. By the time I was thirty. This

is true what I'm telling you. By the time I

was thirty, I had documented seventeen different phobias that I had.

The biggest one being was acrophobia, which is a fear

of heights or a fear of falling. Now it's another

sermon for another day, but the Lord helped me overcome

all of those fears. That was part of my journey

in overcoming anxiety in my life. But specific phobias are

a real thing. Another type of anxiety is social anxiety disorder.

This happens when you're in a room that's unfamiliar. You

see people talking, you think they're talking about you, You

think they're judging you. You wonder what people are whispering

and what they're saying. Separation anxiety is another one. My

dog experiences this. Every time Die and I travel, the

dog punishes me unless Michelle Galliard is dog sitting him.

He prefers Michelle to us, But anybody other than Michelle,

this dog punishes us. When we're gone. He will go

into our closet, climb up on the shelves, and grab

my favorite pair of cowboy boots and eat them just

to get back at me for leaving. And then finally,

anxiety is also manifested in selective mudism. Seems weird, but

what does that mean. It means when you're in an

unfamiliar situation around unfamiliar people, you don't know what to say,

and you get tongue tied and you're worried if I

say the wrong thing, I'm going to be judged. So

you sit there quietly worrying what people might think. Anxiety

is triggered in many different ways for people. I want

to highlight a few health issues can trigger you with anxiety.

If the doctor says, hey, you have that test, I

need you to come back, your anxiety is triggered. Because

of the size of loan that we have for this building,

the board thought I needed a keyman policy. In fact,

our lender requires a keyman policy for me. So the

board suggest that I get a executive health assessment. It

was a series of tests in Arizona. I would go

to the mail clinic that would happen over a two

year period of time. Right around the time that they

asked me to do. This was right around the time

Dana White, the president of the UFC, tells the story

he went to an executive health assessment and found out

if he lived the way he was currently living, he

had a life expectancy of seven more years. So the

whole time, as I'm gearing up for this executive health assessment,

I'm like, I don't want to find out how many

more years I have to live. I did it. It

was great. I'm healthy as an ox. I don't know

how healthy an ox is, but it's the saying I'm good.

But health issues will trigger anxiety. Did you know there

are medications that will trigger anxiety. You can take a

medication to help you with this, but it triggers anxiety.

Here's one that you might not want to accept. But

this is from the male clinic. Argue with their study,

not me. Caffeine and marijuana use cause anxiety. We live

in a state where marijuana use is legal, and people think, no, no, no,

you should take marijuana to mellow you out. It's actually

causing you anxiety. And guess what else is causing you anxiety?

All the coffee you drank. Blame the mail clinic, not me.

Financial concerns will cause anxiety. We live in the Seattle area,

and what seemed like a bulletproof industry, the tech industry

is now doing layoffs every single week. I have people

in our church that are just relieved they didn't get

laid off this week. I say. One of the ways

that I have to handle anxiety is I need margin

in my life. Financially, I have to have margin. Last

one that I'll mention is sometimes anxiety is triggered by

social events parties. Like some people they just love parties,

some people they don't love parties. I always joke the

biggest difference between Pastor Sean and I is Sean loves

every party, every scenario where he gets to hobnob. Brandon

hates every party and every scenario where he has to

hobno hobnah, meaning I call it in church circles it's

the hey brother, hey sister, how you doing. I don't

love that. Sean eats it up. So here's some statistics

about anxiety. Twenty percent of people in the US struggle

with anxiety. Twice as many women struggle with anxiety as men.

Thirty percent of people in the US at some point

in their life have struggled with anxiety. Fifty percent of

those that struggle with anxiety are under the age of

twenty five. Forty three percent of those that have legitimate

anxiety actually get some sort of help, get therapy, counseling,

whatever it is. What does that mean. It means that

over half of the people half of you, that are

struggling with anxiety, you don't ever get anybody to help you.

This one scared me. Guess what are the top ten

states that struggle with anxiety? Number two Oregon can't stand

Oregon go Huskies. Number five, Washington. That's why all of

you were thinking, That's why I'm on to move to Idaho.

Ido's number seven. The Pacific Northwest is number one in

the nation for anxiety. They estimate that fifty one percent

over half of the people that live in the PNW

struggle with anxiety. Odds are that if you live here

and you are under the age of thirty, you or

someone that you are really close to has had anxiety

symptoms at some point. Odds are you're sitting here right

now and you're anxious, or you're sitting next to someone

who is pretty anxious. So what is the hope. The

Bible has a lot to say about this. Paul starts

off by telling us not to be anxious about anything.

So how do we deal with anxiety, which I've now

statistically proven is normal in a healthy, godly way that

honors Jesus. I believe anxiety stems primarily from two major

primary battles in your mind, fear and distrust. When you're

in a situation that strikes one of your phobias, feet,

your instruments are telling you do this. But our problem

in this anxiety induced state is we tend to not

trust other people. Other people that are trying to help

us give us advice, help us on the straight and narrow,

so we follow our gut instincts instead of our instruments.

There are verses. Every every week we're giving you verses

that we want you to memorize. We call these verses

that will give you staying power. So I have three

sets of verses that I want you to memorize this week,

and I tell you to memorize them because they're useless.

If you can't recall them when you need them, you

can't go back and think I'm struggling with anxiety. What

are those verses PB mentioned? You need to take time

this week memorize these verses because they're verses that will

give you staying power if you are a person who

struggles with anxiety. Uh. The first one is First Peter

five to seven. I love it because Paul says you

shouldn't be anxious about anything. Peter brings balance to that

by saying, cast all of your anxiety on him, because

he cares for you. What is Peter saying. He's saying,

you're here, you have marriage problems. You're here, you have

finance problems. Maybe you got a bad report from the doctor. Maybe, Uh,

you're just anxious. In settings like this, we have a

God who cares take your anxiety. Don't carry that weight yourself,

don't carry it inside. Cast your anxieties on him because

he cares for you. Two Timothy one seven. This is

the new living translation great verse. It's just for God

has not given us the spirit of fear. I had

to accept with my seventeen phobias that that wasn't from God,

that I actually wasn't made to be afraid of all

these things, that these were something that I could overcome,

because that was not a spirit that God gave me. Instead,

God gave us a spirit of power, love, self discipline,

so fear is something that you can overcome. Memorize those verses.

But the main passage that I want to challenge you

with this morning, that I want to challenge you to

memorize that, I'd like to challenge you to meditate on

and again. If you are someone or you know someone

that has challenges with anxiety, you have challenges with worry,

you have challenges with stress, you have challenges anything that

you face in your life, this is a great passage

for you to reflect, meditate on, memorize Psalm's twenty three.

I want you to go ahead and turn there. Interesting

thing about Psalm's twenty three is this a really familiar

passage for people. I've only preached on it once ever

in the twenty two year history of Venture, Psalm's twenty three.

If anxiety is connected to fear and distrust, we need

to change the way we think. If fear and distrust

aren't truth, we need to replace what is a lie

with what is true. So if my fear is not true,

I need to find out what the truth is. If

my ability to trust my instruments and my gauges or

my mentors are those outside of me. When I'm in

an anxiety induced state. If my ability to trust those

people is difficult and my distrust is a lie, I

need to have the truth inside of me. This is

the truth of God's word. Are you with me? Do

you still like me? Okay? You still like me? In

the balcony by the balcony. Balcony is packed today. I

love it Psalm twenty three, verse one. Seriously as I

read these verses, take them as prophetic over your life,

like if you're here, whatever you're facing, let these words

comfort you, Let these words bring you hope. Psalm twenty

three to one. The Lord is my shepherd. I lack nothing.

These are the words of David was known as Israel's shepherd,

so that's what he's referred to. He was a shepherd

as a child. When he became the king of Israel,

he led Israel like a shepherd would lead his sheep.

And the shepherd of Israel said, the Lord is my shepherd.

I lack nothing. I love it so much because of

how personal the words are. Did you know he is

your shepherd? Because God is your shepherd. You lack nothing.

He is my shepherd. I brandon lack nothing. This is

an expression of confidence in the protective care of God,

whom David expresses absolute dependence in It's radically a psalm

of trust. Interestingly, scholars have argued whether David wrote this

when he was young or when he was old. They've concluded,

after generations of studying this passage that David wrote this

towards the end of his life. In other words, David

looked back on his life and all of its challenges,

and he concluded, this God is my shepherd. I lack

nothing what he's saying through everything that I've gone through,

through everything that I've faced, through all of my challenges.

And David had messed up. I mean, David committed horrible

sins that he tried to cover up. David had someone murdered.

David had his kingdom turn against him, his staff turn

against him, his family turn against him. And David said,

when I look at everything I've experienced over my whole life,

the Lord is my shepherd. I lack nothing. Verse two.

He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads

me beside quiet waters. He refreshes my soul. He guides

me along the right paths for his namesake. You see

sheep commonly pasture in the wilderness. It is a shepherd's

job to guide them to find the pastures so that

they can rest and have peace in the middle of

this wilderness, It says, He makes me lie down in

green pastures. How many of you feel like sometimes life

is full of dry pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters.

I don't know about you, but the waters seem really

rocky at times. But he leads you beside green pasture,

calm waters. It's referring to he gives you peace. Peace

is an important part of overcoming anxiety. And let me

tell you the key with peace, David says, he refreshes

my soul. If you're somebody who has a lot of

skeletons in your closet, like you have a lot of

hidden sin, stuff that you won't admit, you won't confess,

you won't deal with, and you're someone who struggles with anxiety,

you're gonna be a wreck because there is nothing that

affects anxiety more negatively than being someone with hidden sin.

I always say that no matter what I'm dealing with,

no matter what I'm facing, the weight of my job,

the pressure of my job, the reality that to finish

the expansion with the Kids Ministry. We have to raise

three hundred thousand dollars. All these things our weight and

pressure and stir up the anxiety that I naturally struggle with.

But beyond anything, I need to be able to look

myself in the mirror and say, it is well with

my soul. I am right with Jesus, like I have

confessed my sin. I am good with him. He guides

me along the right paths for his namestake, He'll lead

you down the right path. Sometimes you have to trust

your spiritual instruments, not yourself. In anxious times. Verse four.

Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will

fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod

and your staff they comfort me, he says. Even though

I'm going through some of the most difficult circumstances, difficult times,

I know you're with me. You're rad What is the

rod symbolized? The rod symbolizes protection, defense, he says. I'm

comforted because your rod is with me. But also your staff.

What is the staff symbolize? It symbolizes guidance, support. Directly,

I can walk through the valley of the shadow of

death fear no evil because you are with me, Your

rod comforts me. You're gonna protect me. Your staff comforts me.

In those moments where I can't trust myself, I can

trust you. You're gonna guide me, You're gonna direct me.

Many people mistakenly assume that Psalm twenty three should only

be read at memorial services or funerals, that it has

something to do with death. Did you know it actually

has nothing to do with death, That Psalm twenty three

is actually a psalm about living. It puts all of

our daily activities like eating, drinking, safety in a radically

God centered perspective. Even though I walk through the valley

of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil,

for you are with me. Your Rod and your staff.

They comfort me. By the way, I'm gonna invite the

band to come up. Wherever the band is, I think

they're coming. If you guys are backstage, come out. Verse

five give my hand, all right, they go. Verse five

says you prepare a table before me in the presence

of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My

cup overflows. There is this promise in Psalm twenty three

that even though you and I at times will face

great opposition, God prepares the table before us in the

presence of our enemy. When it talks about you anoint

my head with oil, it's referring to the Holy speak.

It's referring to joy, it's referring to happiness. That in

the middle of these moments where it seems like opposition, pressure,

all of these things are too great, God prepares a

table before us. That God is our source, that He

is our joy. I assured this in the first service

that the nature of my job as God moves in

our church and our church gets larger and larger and larger.

The craziest thing about a large church is there's lots

of people that are dealing with lots of things, who

have lots of opinions. But that also means that we

have to have larger buildings that are more expensive and

take a more you know, organization to manage and oversee

and more money to run. And as all of the

in the larger staff and the weight and the pressure,

it grows and it grows and it grows. And I

always come back to the simplicity of this when we

talk about raising three hundred thousand dollars to put in

solar for a church and Dominican Republic and outfit our

kids ministry. When my cfo Alex, who is an amazing leader,

does a great job, meets with me and says, hey,

we're behind budget for the year. All of those things

add pressure. But I'm always reminded by Psalm twenty three

that I got to step back and say, God's got this.

God called me, He's in control. Here is the thing

that I repeat to myself more than anything I ever repeat.

You should try this, Try this with your kids. Did

you know that God loves this church more than I do?

For as much as Dian I love you, guys, God

loves you more than I do. God loves you more

shockingly than he and Die does. For as much as

you worry about your kids, did you know that He

loves your kids more than you do. He's got it,

He's got you, He's in control. Finally, verse six, I'm

going to speak this one over you no matter where

you're at. You might be here right now and your

marriage feels like it's on the rocks. You might be

here right now and you are dealing with health issues

that seem too big for you to even process at

this time. Maybe you're one of those people that just

recently got laid off from work. Maybe you're struggling with

your mental health. Whatever it is, I'm going to speak

these verses over you. Let this be a prophetic word

over you. I believe ultimate peace comes from knowing and

believing this. Are you ready? So I'm gonna speak this

over you. I'm gonna pray, and then our worship team

is gonna sing this song over you. So receive. Let

the Holy Spirit come into your life and heal your fears,

heal your anxiety, heal your stress, heal your worry. Let

his spirit consume you. Be the verse where it says

that he'll pour oil on your head. You'll overflow with joy. Surely,

goodness and.

Love will follow me all the days of my life,

and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Lord Jesus, I thank you for our church. Thank you

that we can be real, honest, and that's what we are.

We're just a bunch of people that have one thing

in common, that are just the right. Moment you crossed

our path and changed everything. But we're still people with

legitimate worries, brokenness. But you're putting us back together. And today, Lord,

I believe that This service is a step in putting

all of this brokenness for individuals back together. Lord, I

asked that you would speak to them, heal them, deliver them,

set them free. This morning in Jesus' name, Amen, receive

this wind shadows.

Mallay you gentz calls.

Miney through dogs nights. I will not fear for you,

my lord.

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restores my soul. You side the quiet streets and make

mass wear unique feels of grace.

With morci flows in love, feed mads.

Your present steals myous mine.

Then you sue rist.

Food the smash up I shall not want your peace

restores basle up beside the christ streams and bast.

You will walk with gay el You rot in staff,

will guide me no evil shall my heart the long

for I am sake with.

Your arms.

Be of every week you no see feels.

That I see.

Your presence hides the path that trip.

Murphy.

So you can desk so bad.

Your faith in love.

Face in every storm. Basha's wisper to fee they splashion Plasha.

No your pace restos maas u misid quiet.

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For of twelve your rebrace my see of less great

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any time.

Everybody can go ahead and stand up. We're going to

close the service today by taking a special offering and

this is over the next two weeks. We are trying

to raise three hundred thousand dollars so that we can

outfit our children's ministry. You've seen with the mock ups

are going to be. You get an idea of what

the entrance is going to be. And let me just

share really, really clearly, what my prayer is all along

is that we want a church kids would drag their

parents to. We want to make sure that on Sunday

mornings we have such a compelling children's ministry, youth ministry

that all even when you want to sleep in, your

kids are dragging you to church. And to do that,

we need a first class children's ministry. And I think

what they've decided to do it is literally going to

be that. So what we're going to do today, I'm

gonna have my two cohorts here. They're going to share

in just a moment, but I will conclude by having

Sean pray over the offering. You can scan the QR

codes back here. That's a way to give if you

came prepared to give in person. The ushers will be

standing at the door and back and as you exit,

you can just drop your offering in those buckets. But

we wanted to come up pretend Christian is here too,

Pastor Christian. He is actually speaking at our Spokane campus

this morning. But the four of us have one thing

in common. We all have adult children. We've all been

a part of the church for a long time, and

our kids will not experience this children's ministry. I thought

it was appropriate that we stood up in front of you,

the four of us. We talked and we looked at

each other and we said, are you going to seed

into this? And each one of us said yes, And

then we asked to each other how much are you

going to seed? And ironically, we all have the same amount.

And the reason that I'm pointing this out is we

believe in this so much that we are doing this

for your children, not for our kids, for your kids.

So since we are leading the way in seeding, we

want to challenge you to really seed for those of

you that have kids that are going to experience this

kid's ministry for years to come. Be generous. But for

those of you that are old, like Dave, this is

us seeding into the next generation. Be quick. But what

do you guys have to say. I'll start with you. Yeah, yeah,

my kids are grown.

I just believe that in seeding in your kids and

I'll add your grandchildren, that the Lord will honor that. Right.

This is called the light Bearers project.

So another way for you to give us on the

church app there's four Kingdom Builders drop downs and if

you'd do the light Bearers? How many believe that our

children are going to bear the light of Christ wherever

they go right?

And so we have an amazing.

Team of pastors that are training them up to be

light bearers. We are the light and the salt of

the world. So will you join us and help us

spread that light?

Mister Liam.

Check check.

My name is David.

I'm have the unique opportunity every Monday night to leave

the celebrated recovery here at Adventure Church.

And for the past twenty years, this has been our church,

this has been our community.

So many twenty years ago, when it was not a

good time for me, seeded into this ministry.

For the children.

And when we got together, I couldn't help a thing.

Somebody seeded into children's ministry when I was my family

was having a hard time. And now it's time to

bless this, this ministry. We are a community, no question,

and this is what you do for community.

So we want to challenge you be generous. Let's do this.

I just preached on anxiety. You want to help my anxiety.

Let's raise three hundred thousand dollars in the next two weeks.

We're actually dead serious.

We're gonna raise We're gonna raise that today. And here's

how you're gonna help us. Pastor Christian Dave Brandon and

I we have committed one percent of the three hundred thousand.

So we're each committing three thousand dollars. And I join you,

I join you, you're joining me, right, Uh think a

think along those lines, like maybe you can you can

be one percent. We have enough one percent ers here

that you could make this happen today. So three thousand dollars.

Man.

I've been to two fundraising auctions in the last like

two weeks, and these are these everybody rais yeah, yeah,

everybody's racing their hand everybody's right, you know. And and

these organizations raised millions of dollars in the course of

an evening, you know for something. You know they're you know,

they're putting new toilets in a wreck room or something.

I mean, we're doing something really meaningful here. So let's

think about that. So three thousand dollars, you can be

a one percent or three hundred dollars.

Uh, you know, thirty dollars.

Brandon doesn't want me to say three dollars, but you

you guys could give three bucks.

Wantbody to go three.

Three person, one person, one person.

That's right.

You know some of you guys spent thirty bucks on

the way in at Starbucks. Right, Let's do something meaningful together, Brandon,

are you ready for.

Me to pray?

Let's pray. When he says, amen, have a great Sunday,

you're dismissed.

Once he says amen, amen, churse pray with me, Oh,

I said a man, So see ye All right, that's

such a nerd.

All right, God, you are so good.

We are not going to be led by compulsion this morning.

We're not going to be manipulated by emotion. Your word

says that we're to be a cheerful giver. And Lord,

I just emulate what Dave said. It is a joy

to support your work. Lord, How thrilling is it going

to be to know that children in the Dominican Republic

are going to be able to worship and learn about you,

and in Mill Creek children are going to be reached

and excited to become a bearer of the light of Christ.

So Jesus, we.

Don't give out a compulsion.

We give out of joy.

So for every person, at every ability to give raise

us up.

We join with what you're doing.

It is our joy, Lord, to serve you and to

give in Jesus name already said Amen

By Church, we love you.