Faith Sounds Like: Respect

Wow, Happy Mother's Day. If you are wondering why we just sing that

song in church, it's because you are joining us for our faith. Sounds

like series where we take a genre of music, we pick a popular song

and we find the message in it, but we get to sing the song

too, and by we I don't sing, so well done to them.

Hopefully you were entertained by that. My name is Die and again, Happy

Mother's Day. All the moms in the house, mom figures grandmas, you

know, we're so glad you decided to join us today. I just have

to say before I launch into a message that the most true statement about a

mom that's ever been said is that nothing is truly lost unless mom cannot find

it right. How many times a day moms, so you get to ask

where something is and it's not just by your children. Hint, hint.

Okay, super glad you're here. That song respect actually has kind of a

cool little backstory to it that I'll use just kind of get us go in

here this morning. It was actually written in nineteen sixty five by Otis Redding.

Anyone know that that it was not actually okay, but this doesn't date

you at all. It just means you know music history. But Otis Redding

actually wrote that song in nineteen sixty five, and then when he performed it,

it had his version of the lyrics, and there are two different lyric

versions of the song. His version was very, let's just say, traditional

family like, honey, I'll go make money and I'll bring it home to

you. You should respect me kind of way. In fact, there's a

couple of quotes about his version of the song that are interesting. One is

by his biographer, a guy named Jonathan Gould. Jonathan Gould says the lyrics

to respect paint a starkly unromantic picture of domestic relations, revolving around a little

girl quote who is quote sweeter than honey, and a man who will reward

her with quote all my money. MPR took that a step further, and

there as saying that it reinforced the traditional family structure of the title, where

a man works all day, brings money home to wife and demands that in

return she respect him well. Aretha performed that song two years later, nineteen

sixty seven. She had to change it up just a little to fit a

female singing the song, and she did some things to it that she probably

never expected. She had some sisters singing behind her, and they are the

ones that actually added the spelling out of the word respect, and that became

the anthem. Actually, this song, her version of it, became the

anthem of that decade as well as a decade to follow. And the reason

why is because not only was the Vietnam War raging at that point in time,

so politics were big in the country, but also two movements, both

the civil rights movement and the women's movement, and her song really became a

demand for the respect for everybody, all genders, all races, all life.

As you know, it just became this hallmark song that has become iconic

now all the way to today. But this is a woman who is demanding

human dignity, dignity and declaring that rights for both genders and all races must

be respected. So if you're a mom out there today and you hear that

song and that version, which is Aretha's version, and you think, yeah,

that's right, respect me. We're gonna go a little broader than just

that view. So we're gonna go a little broader. We're gonna actually look

at what the Bible has to say about this topic of respect, and actually

the Bible has a lot to say about it. We're just gonna do just

a little scope on it. But if you will join me, let's launch

this in prayer. God, that idea of respect is not ours, it's

not Aretha's, it's not Otis Reddings, it's yours. And today you're going

to challenge us because that's what your word does. And so all across this

room, I'm going to ask that you would challenge us right in our faces

with your word. And I'm just asking that across this room and online,

every heart would be willing to be challenged and made uncomfortable. So as we

pay attention to what you have to say to us, God, would you

stretch us. We're asking in your name. Amen. All right, So

we're gonna go all the way back to the beginning to launch this. So

if you have your Bible, go ahead and open up to Genesis all the

way back chapter one. If you don't have your Bible, the words will

be on the screen. We're gonna zip through quite a bit of scripture today.

We're gonna start in Genesis chapter one, Versus twenty six and twenty seven,

and I'm going to read the New Living Translation. The New Living Translation

says that on the last day of creation, God said, let us make

human beings in our image to be like us. So God created human beings

in his own image. So after six days of creation, creating heaven and

earth, sky, land, sees seasons, stars in the sky, the

moon, the sun. After all of that creation and then creating every animal,

every bird, every fish, every plant, God concludes his creation work

with a very personal touch. He forms Adam man from dust, and then

he gives him life by breathing his own life into his nostrils. This creates

a very unique work in God's creation. So humans, i think you'll agree,

are different from every other created thing that God made. They are created,

we saw right there in scripture from the image, in the image of

God. So humans are in that way they have both a material body we

do and an immaterial part of us. So we have the part you can

touch and feel and see, and then we have the immaterial, the soul,

the thing that's inside of us. So having the image of God means

we were created to resemble God, to look like him, not in the

material way, not in the physical way, not in bodily form, but

in the immaterial way, to look like God in who we are on the

inside, in our soul. That's what sets us apart from all the rest

of creation. That spiritual part of us, the immaterial part of us,

was made to commune with our maker. That immaterial part of us was made

to have the ability to reason and to make choices good or bad, to

exercise free will. We were also given a conscience, this moral compass for

life. But in all of this, sin has damaged that part of us.

Right this, most of this is just review for you, but just

so that we're all on the same page, we're just kind of going back

to, like, what's the foundation here. So sin has damaged all those

parts of us. We have the ability to choose, but that means we

can choose good or bad. We can choose to follow God or we can

choose to rebel against him. We can choose to treat other people well or

we can choose to treat them poorly. We can even choose to do them

great harm, and we can choose to do that intentionally. But the fact

remains that every person on this earth, of which there are over eight billion

walking around, every single person, including every person in this room and every

person watching online was made in the image of God, with God's own breath

in your lungs. The person next to you, the person behind you,

let's go a little broader, the person you live next to, the people

you work next to, the people in your family, the people who aren't

in your family. Everybody made in the image of God. That means every

person is God's handiwork, deserving of being treated as if they are made in

the image of God. We get so far in this foundation great. Some

people are much easier to see this way, don't you agree. I mean,

for all the moms in the room, the first time you held a

baby that you delivered, you you can't help but want to give everything for

this child. That changes a little as they can, but and yet it's

still required of you. I mean, it's some people like an innocent baby,

even if it's not your own baby. Like of course, you can

see how an innocent baby is made in the image of God, a perfect

little miracle. Loved ones, the people that are the most dear in your

life. For some of you, that's family, not for all of you.

For some of you, if you are married, that could be the

person you spend your life with. It could be your dearest friends, it

could be a cousin. Whoever it is that when I say who do you

love most, you think of those are the people easiest for us to see

that person is made in the image of God. Imperfect, yes, but

made in the image of God. We could even extend that just a little.

Anyone innocent, oftentimes the poor, anyone who's vulnerable. Our minds can

imagine this person was made in the image of God. But it's a whole

different story when it's somebody that you don't like or don't love. It's a

whole different story when it's someone who hurts you or hurts someone you love and

they do it on purpose. But knowing that every person is made in the

image of God should change the way that we not only see people, but

also the way we treat them. So let's take this just a little bit

further. So we're gonna flip nowt to the New Testament, turned with me

to Romans chapter twelve. Romans chapter twelve again, the words will be on

the screen in just a moment. But just to paint the picture here,

we have Paul who's the author of Romans and he's describing specifically in this chapter,

how we worship God by offering ourselves as a living sacrifice to God.

Now, if you have not been around church much, that's a new phrase

for you. Maybe you've been around church and you've always wondered exactly what that

means. I used to hear a joke said when I was growing up,

like the problem with a living sacrifice It always wants to crawl off the altar.

But what is a living sacrifice? What does that actually mean? Yeah,

that joke will hit you in a minute or so. One of the

ways that we become a living sacrifice is that, And this is kind of

the broad definition, I guess, is that we stop seeking our way of

doing things and what we want from life, and we spend our life trying

to figure out what God wants for us to be close to him and to

follow and obey him. This chapter outlines what we do with the gifts He's

given us and how we use them to serve Him, but also how to

serve other people. It's basically about how do you put yourself aside? Which

I don't know, maybe that's just me, but that feels really hard.

How do you deny yourself a lot for other people. Again, easier to

do for people you love, harder for people you don't. So the Bible

this chapter specifically spells out how we should treat how we show respect for two

very general categories of people. It's funny because it's really just everybody. Spoiler.

The first category forgive me as I overcome a cold. The first category

is how do we treat believers? Okay, so if you're in this place

or watching online and you would say, yeah, I believe in Jesus,

I want to follow Jesus. I'm a Jesus follower. I'm a christ follower.

I'm a Christian. Paul's going to give us some instructions here for how

we treat other believers. So look with me at Rome chapter twelve, verses

nine and ten. This is the new Living Translation. Paul says, don't

just pretend to love others, really love them, love them with genuine affection,

and take delight in honoring each other. Okay, so that word honor

is interchangeable with the word respect. I love how different translations took different spins

on this, So let's just run through a couple of translations here. These

will be on the screen for you. The ESV translation of the Bible says,

out do one another in showing honor. Outdo one another. The CEB

says, be the best at showing honor to each other. The NIV says,

honor one another above yourselves. Again, I think that is so difficult.

CSB says, take the lead in honoring one another, take the lead

the one who leads the way. And the message says practice playing second fiddle,

which I just think is a fun expression way to say that. So,

Paul here, thank you so much. So Paul here is giving us

a short list of commands to those who follow Jesus. Okay, so if

you're in this room and you say I'm a Jesus follower, he's giving us

some instructions for how we should follow Jesus. And he describes that our love

must be sincere and real. We should really love each other. Here's how

you do that, authentically and genuinely, not hypocritically. It's a brotherly affection.

It's a brotherly type of love. And then he urges us to outdo

each other. And how we show that out do each other, and how

we honor and respect that kind of love that kind of commitment, that kind

of honor and respect are the attributes then, of a healthy family. Now

I realize in saying that you're context of family may not be a healthy family

context. Maybe your mind immediately goes back to, yeah, well, now

you're talking about the people that are hard to love. I grew up with

them, and it's not laughing matter at all. But the idea of a

healthy family is something that is we learn, and we are committed to learning.

We are then supposed to demonstrate to the world around us. We have

to learn how to love each other and work through conflict, and work through

difficulty, and work through disagreements. Will come back to disagreements a little bit

later, but this is what we're supposed to be modeling to the world.

Jesus himself said in John chapter thirteen. So now I'm giving you a new

commandment, love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the

world that you're my disciples. How are people going to know you follow me?

Jesus is saying it's going to be, And how you love other people

and how you treat other people. Now we aren't surprised by this. Nobody

in this room is surprised that the Bible says treat other believers well, treat

other Christians. Well, you're all Christians. You're all supposed to believe the

same thing, So treat each other good. Nobody's surprised by that, except

for do you remember twenty twenty because I do. And we had a hard

time treating each other well. As we started to disagree on things, the

way we treat each other declined. But Paul has something to say about respecting

unbelievers too. Now here's the thing. He's got these two general categories of

people that he's telling us how we need to love and respect, how we

need to treat them, how we need to show honor. And it's believers

and unbelievers. So who is that? Everybody? How do you? How

do you treat other Christians? And then how do you treat everybody else?

I don't know about you, but I did this, like what? Okay?

Verse fourteen is where Paul says Romans twelve, Verse fourteen, he says,

bless those who persecute you. Don't curse them, Pray that God will

bless them. Everyone with me say wait what wait? Yep? Good?

One more time? Bless those who persecute you, don't curse them, pray

that God will bless them. So now Paul is giving an additional mandate.

So I mean, like subtext here is like you thought it was hard to

love other people that believe the same things with you and have the same general

world view and values in their life. Now let me just make it harder

for all the people you don't agree with who even go out of their way

to treat you bad. Now you're just gonna up the auntie. You're not

just gonna hold your tongue. You're actually gonna pray blessing and speak blessing into

their life. Let me just I wrote this in the Diet translation, so

I read all those other translations. This is the d LT dive Living translation.

Ready. Wow, that was not that funny, you guys. I

am not that funny, Okay, DLT really love other believers. In fact,

make it your goal to be the best at honoring other believers. And

then even those who wrong and hurt you on purpose, don't get even with

them, don't curse them, don't even wish harm on them. Instead,

pray that God will bless them. What does this mean for how you treat

others. You treat everyone with respect. That's a tall, tall order.

I mean, this is where it gets it gets hard, right. I

feel like I have to give a couple of disclaimers in here. I did

this at some point in the last service too, and it wasn't planned.

It's not planned now, it's just fits. I don't this. This is

not me asking this of you. First of all, this is God's word.

Second of all, I don't know your context. I don't know the

pain. I don't know who has said what to you, and I don't

know how deep that is. I don't know the maybe abuse you've endured in

a room this size, plus watching online. I don't know the pain.

And I'm certainly not suggesting and that it just all goes away when we just

treat someone nice. This is not me giving this suggestion. In fact,

it's not a suggestion at all. It's a mandate from the Lord. It's

not it's not a responsibility to figure out where it goes once we bless.

That's on God. But our instructions are very clear to bless. It's not

an ask, it's a clear mandate, and it wasn't a new mandate because

Jesus himself gave this mandates, so let's just add a little bit of fuel

to this. Jesus said this in two places. In Matthew five forty four,

he said, love your enemies. Love your enemies, not people you

have conflict with, your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.

In Luke six, he said, love your enemies, do good to those

who hate you, hate, bless those who curse you, and pray for

the people who hurt you, hate and hurt. I mean, that's real

talk right there. And I don't know about you. I don't know what

is coming to your mind as I read these verses, if you're like me

at all. As I was studying this this week, I was trying not

to but couldn't help but review some of the meanest things people have done or

said to me, or to one of my kids, or to my husband,

or to my family. And I can't speak to every one of your

issues, and that's not my job to do that. But they're real things.

And when this mandate is given by Jesus himself, he also knows the

very real things that have been said to you and done to you. And

there isn't a disclaimer here of unless someone said this or unless they did this,

it's just a mandate. It doesn't mean it's easy. It doesn't mean

that it won't take work, and it certainly doesn't mean that it makes everything

okay. We don't. I mean, this works the same as forgiveness.

Right, So last week was a message on forgiveness, huge broad topic that

we can only just barely do justice too by just bringing you some context to

it. Same idea, this idea of respecting all human beings. I mean,

that's there's a lot underneath where you and I are concerned, and yet

the mandate is still there that we are to love and respect every image bearer

of God. And people are mean, and if we're honest, we're mean

too, or we can be. We have the ability, and we might

we might shroud it in like where I'm just really sarcastic, or I'm just

really quick witted, or I have a sharp tongue, or you know,

whatever whatever comes to your mind. But we can be very mean. I

was thinking about this, and I was thinking, I know you used to

hear this too, but I used to hear this all the time when social

media really became a big thing in our culture, and I used to hear

people say that the worst thing about social media is how fake it is,

how how indisingenuous the relationships are, how all your friends are not actually your

friends, and the number of friends you have is not an indicator of who's

actually your friend. They're all just fake relationships. And that's probably true.

And then then I heard for a long time that the worst thing about social

media is that we compare ourselves to somebody's highlight reel, like people boast their

best photos, having the most fun in the most adventurous things, and everything

looks great, and we're having a bad day and we're comparing our bad day

to their highlights, and that is also true. Why I would you like

to add my own two cents here? I think that the worst thing about

social media is it has given every person the ability to say whatever they want,

whenever they want to, in whatever tone, however bad. It might

nuke or destroy another human being and hide cowardly behind their computer screen while they

do it. And we're guilty too. Right now, in twenty twenty three,

we are a people, and I'm just lumping us in because we all

share some of this blame. Here in twenty twenty three. We are people

who believe, we genuinely believe we have the right to say whatever we want.

I mean, we have the opinion. Why can't we just say it.

I mean most of us are too cowardly to say it to someone's face,

but we'll say it somewhere. If it's not in a social media post,

it's in a Google review or a Yelp review or you know. It's

like you could go to a restaurant. You could go to the same restaurant

and be treated well sixteen times and never post a single thing, but the

minute somebody brings you your food a little bit too late, you just nuke

them on a Google review or something. Because that's our culture. We have

the right to say whatever we want. And yet here we have this mandate

from the Lord that we are to treat every image bearer of God, because

every person is made in the image of God, his own breath breathe into

their lungs, and we're to treat every person with respect, honor, and

love. I just was thinking, even this week, not to belabor this.

I know you're with me and you understand, but I was thinking how

much human nature it is to cheer when someone gets what's coming to them.

Isn't it like someone does something bad and then they have something bad happen,

and we're like karma or that's what you deserve or whatever, And how countercultural

it would be to not just celebrate the wrong but pray the blessing into their

life. It's just I mean, I could just walk off the stage right

now and let you all sit here for an hour and chew on that,

and it's gonna mess with us. But it almost goes without saying that we

will avoid doing good to a person that we don't like or who has hurt

us at all costs. And again, I am not making a suggestion we

subject ourselves to unnecessary abuse. There is healthy boundaries and all of that,

But I am pointing to God's word, and God's word says we don't get

to curse. How about if I say it again, we don't get the

curse. I don't mean metaphorically or spiritually like I hope you burn in hell

like that also, just I'm gonna throw in we don't just don't get to

say destructive words. If you can cuss like a drunken sailor and destroy somebody

verbally that you don't get to curse. You don't in fact, you don't

even get to just bite your tongue. You get to bless you and I

we get to pray blessing. Years ago I took up this practice. Some

of you have known me long enough to know I've challenged you to do this.

If you have been wronged by somebody in your life and you've been trying

to not think of them this whole time, but you've been wronged by somebody,

hurt by somebody, it's very natural to want to avoid ever seeing them

again. And I'm not saying you should put yourself in a place for abuse

again. I hope I've made that disclaimer clear. But there was a period

of time in my life, and you know, I don't want to like

drag out a story, because I have plenty of failure stories, but this

was the one time I feel like I think I got this one right.

And it was somebody who I had allowed into my life. And that's what

happens. Usually, the people that hurt us the most are the people who

have access to hurt us. But I let this young lady into my life

and at some point decided she hated me, and I honestly still to this

day don't know why. But she spent about twelve years hating me, and

I never to what I could think of. There was not like an actual

thing that I did. I just couldn't figure it out. But she did

a lot of damage. I've worked really hard to be somebody who lets things

roll off of my back. And that's good. I mean, I feel

like that's a good positive step. Sometimes that's the best thing you can do.

Like sometimes died. Just sometimes me not saying anything is the best I

can do. Great, take a step. So I just try to let

things roll off my back. But it was really hard for me with her

because she just had special access to cause me pain. And she talked really,

really, really terribly about me, and she talked to a lot of

people that I care a lot about really terribly about me, and it just,

man, it was so hard, and so I try and avoid her,

and I tried to work things out for a while and then I gave

up on that. Anyway, long story short, they came to a point

about twelve years in where I ran into her somewhere and she just was extra

cruel to me, and I left that place crying, which isn't very unlike

me. I don't usually let things get to me. And I drove home

and for the next couple of days I just was praying, like what do

I do with this? And I felt the Holy Spirit challenged me with two

things. Number one, I need to forgive her and I need to ask

her forgiveness. That was the first one. And you know, if you

don't even know what you did to somebody and you have to apologize, how

do you not make that a terrible apology like, oh, sorry, we're

really good at saying that, right, Sorry, your kids are good at

that. Sorry, that's genuine. Then you add in sorry, I don't

know what I did, but sorry like this. So I really wrestled.

I prayed over that. But then the Holy Spirit gave me this, this

this image in my heart that she was in a jail cell and I helped

the keys, and the message from the Lord was if you hold the keys,

wouldn't you unlock the door? And and if I add on to that,

really that idea was you can't make her leave the jail cell. I

mean, she she hated me. You can't make her leave the cell of

hate. But you could at least unlock the door. And that's so she

had a lot to apologize to me for. But I could at least start,

And I started without any expectation of anything in return. And I wrote

her a letter, and I mean clearly I had hurt this girl. I

wrote her a letter. I apologized, and I wish I could say like

and then everything was great, because it wasn't great. But a couple of

years later she actually reached out to me and asked she could take me to

lunch, which I did not want to do because I did not want to

get hurt more. But I went and she had no idea how much pain

she had caused me. And in there me working hard to speak blessing,

I looked her in the face and I said, I want you to know

I have never said a negative word about you. That was my pledge from

the beginning, is that never could I be quoted saying a single negative word

about her. Again. I could tell you lots of failure stories. This

is my one success story where I pledge I will not say a negative word

about her. Between me sending her a letter asking for forgiveness and that lunch

was about two or three years, and in there I just prayed blessing over

her. I just prayed blessing. Do you know how hard that is to

pray like that they'll get a promotion or that they'll be financially blessed, because

truly I want this person to suffer because they've wronged me, and instead I

prayed blessing. And as a result, our relationship is I mean, we

don't have a relationship right Like, there was so much damage done, but

there was forgiveness. I could stand before God and I can stand before you

and say I did not speak negatively about her, and we had some closure

and she actually ended up apologizing for how she had treated me, which I

didn't was not looking for, and did not ask for. They don't all

end up that way, guys. Not every time you pray blessing over someone

does it have that kind of an ending. However, that's not the point.

The point is that God says to bless those who persecute you, and

to pray for those who have intended to harm you and cause you pain.

And maybe you can take that more than you can take it on behalf of

your kids. Maybe it's just thinking about your kids and thinking, oh,

yeah, you can do whatever you want to me. But you harm one

of my kids, I'm going to scratch your eyes out. I mean,

we laugh about that, and yet the mandate is still here. Our responsibility

is to pray blessing. Do you know that if we behave this way as

Christians, we will stand out in any culture in the world. That kind

of behavior is otherworldly, it is counter cultural. Let me just bring this

home. Knowing that every human is made in the image of God should prompt

us to see value in other people. And Jesus has charged us with this.

In fact, he says it's the single factor by which people will know

if we follow him. Do you love Jesus? People will know that by

how you behave and treat other human beings. I mean, that's what he

says. Seeing the value in other humans is not the same. Let me

just say this as agreeing with them or affirming them, or being their best

friend. Just because you see the value in somebody does not mean you have

to agree with their choices, doesn't mean you have to agree with how they

operate, or how they speak about other people or treat other people. Our

world has confused this because our world thinks that to love someone, we must

also affirm them in all of their choices. And I would like to propose

to you that we can hold love and disagreement at the same time. Disagreement

does not equal discrimination. Disagreement and love can coexist. If you are a

parent in this place, please say amen. We can love and not affirm.

We can disagree and still show respect. We can disagree and still treat

the image bearers of God. Well, I'm gonna ask you to bow your

heads because I'm gonna give you two challenges to leave here. And we really

do want to send you out encouraged. If you're a mom here, we

want you to feel celebrated and encouraged. But also this is some deep truth

for us to wrestle with, and you may need to chew on this for

a while. But I'm going to give you two challenges, and I'm going

to ask you to respond to these challenges by raising your hand in just a

moment. Challenge number one is going to be are you in here and you

would say, God, I will take the opportunity to show respect to people

you put in my path this week, and really we hope it extends beyond

this week to next week and the week after we got we gotta build a

habit here. So number one is God, I will take the opportunity you

give me this week to show honor, to show respect to somebody you put

in my path. Number two is going to be harder. Number two is

going to be for those who have been hurt, which, by the way,

is every person in this room and every person watching online. Every one

of us has been hurt. Will you allow God to help you let go

of the hurt, the pain, the desire to retaliate, and would you

actually take the step to choose to pray blessing over someone who has hurt you.

So here we go, go ahead and buy your heads. If they're

not, I'm going to ask you to raise your hand. If number one

you say, yep, I'll take the opportunity to show respect to someone God

puts in my path this week. If that's you, would you just raise

your hand. I just want to pray over all of us. Great,

go ahead and put your hands down. And second, if you've been hurt

and you say, you know what, I'm gonna give up that whole retaliation

thing, even if it's just wishing that they suffer, I'm just gonna I'm

gonna choose to pray blessing over someone who's hurt me. If that's you,

would you raise your hand, it's awesome, Good job, guys. Great,

we stand your feet with me as I close and prayer. Let's even

take this one step further. Would you just put a hand over your heart

and ask ask God to really be treat your heart that your heart would be

soft? Would you pray with me? God? Right now? We take

your word which makes us on comfortable and also delivers truth, and we say

we want to act on it. And it's not going to be easy for

probably anyone here. And you give us opportunity after opportunity to deal with difficult

people, and most of them start in our own home. So we're saying,

first of all, God, would you help us to show respect to

whoever you put in our path this week? And that may be really difficult

people and maybe someone we don't like, maybe someone we don't share a biblical

world view with, or we don't share any kind of a worldview with,

or we don't agree with their decisions their life choices, but you're going to

put them in our path this week, and we get the opportunity to treat

them as your image bearers. And second, God, every one of us

with a hand over our heart. We've all been hurt, most of us

multiple times, and we know who the people are that have hurt us and

some of us. We're going to see those people maybe today, and we're

asking God that you would help us to let go of that desire to retaliate

and cause pain. In return, we're asking that you would help us to

let go of the anger, let go of the hurt. It doesn't mean

that there isn't consequences for what they've done. We're going to leave that to

you. Instead, we make a choice, and we're asking for your help

to turn our attitude towards praying blessing over them, Praying blessing, Praying that

you would promote them and move them up in life, Praying that you would

bless them financially, praying that you would bless their health and their relationships.

God, we're asking you would pour out blessing on some of the most difficult

people in our lives, and we're going to celebrate behind the scenes. It's

like it's like a You and us behind the scenes secret that we get to

pray blessing. We get to watch how you're moving and how you pour out

blessing, and we're going to celebrate how you pour out blessing. And because

of that, we understand people are going to recognize who we belong to because

of our attitudes, and we belong to you. So help us reflect you

while we're asking in your name. Amen,