What Would My Life Look Like If I Believed Nothing Can Thwart Gods Plans for My Life

Gathering at the mountains at five, five o'clock.

So if you'd like to come and gather, we'll have pizza and we'll break into smaller groups and have some discussion about something in God's word.

And it's good, it's rich, and it's lovely to hear what God is teaching other people and how other people see things in the scripture.

And anyway, God's word was by intention designed to be studied in community.

Just so you know, it was written with the purpose of being discussed in community.

And uh and so that's our attempt to do that, and it'll be tonight at 5 o'clock at the mountains.

If you don't know where they live, Justin's going to be sure that their address is online this afternoon, and you can go online and they don't live, you almost a professional baseball player can throw a rock and hit their house from here.

And so it's very close.

And um anyway, I hope you'll come and be a part of that at 5 o'clock.

This Thursday night, this Thursday night at 6 o'clock.

I hate that that it's two different times, but tonight at 5, this Thursday at 6, Shirley and I are going to start a new um uh Thursday night Bible study.

I don't know how to call it, but it'll be at our house, and our house again is just as close as the Bowdons.

And um you can go online and see where our where we live.

It's right over there across from where the Bracket Club used to be.

And uh it'll be at 6 o'clock.

And uh anyway, I hope you'll come and check us out and see what's what we're gonna do.

We're gonna do a couple of new things, and uh, we're gonna try to do that every Thursday night.

And I hope you'll come and participate in that.

Um let's see what else.

I think for today that's enough.

That's more than you wanted to hear anyway.

Uh, my bride, Shirley, you here yet?

No.

She's coming, so if you're in case you're wondering, she was invited to teach at another church in Midtown.

And um anyway, but she's headed this way, so she'll be here in just a few minutes.

Those of you that are guests, welcome.

I greet you and thank you for coming and checking out our church.

I hope you feel very loved and very welcomed.

Um, you might not know, but you are in a good place where you will feel loved and welcomed and where you can thrive and flourish.

So if you don't have a church home, um, come back and be with us and you just see.

Um, I sure would love for you to do that.

Those of you that are guests don't know, but I not very often, but every once in a while, remind everyone and encourage everyone to read through the Bible with me.

And uh I think that's the most important thing you will ever, that's the most important decision you'll ever make, is just to make the decision that I'm gonna read through God's Word on a daily basis, read the whole thing.

And it's amazing how it'll change your life.

And so I've done it every year for 46 years, I guess.

I think that's right.

And um it's been the best thing I've ever done.

And I hope that you will do it with me.

And if you have been doing, many of you read through the Bible with me, and if you are, then you know we just finished the first book of the Bible, uh, Genesis.

And as I read Genesis this year, we're now we're in Exodus, uh, but as I read Genesis this year, God really spoke to me in some pretty strong and clear ways and challenged me through the lives of the patriarchs.

And um I felt very, I don't know, just encouraged that I needed to learn from their lives and try to embrace these qualities, these principles that are so active and prominent in the lives of the patriarchs.

And a few weeks ago we looked at just the way it was worked in my life, it was just a question.

And the question was that we looked at, will I focus this year, this new year, on my life, my relationships, my needs, my problems, or am I going to make an intentional choice to try to focus more on other people's problems and needs and challenges, in particular on people that God is very focused on?

And if you read the life of Jesus and the four gospels, a blind man could very quickly recognize who Jesus focused the majority of his time and energy.

Am I going to focus on the people that Jesus focused on?

Or am I going to be so busy and so stressed out and so worn out focusing on me and mine that I don't have time for them?

That's one of the things that I learned from the patriarchs.

Another thing that I was challenged by, do I to think about, and that is just do I have an informational relationship with God?

Or do I have real intimacy with God?

Not just do I know about him, but do I know him like I know my wife or a friend or a coworker?

Do I know him?

Do I have a lot of biblical information?

Or do I have a relationship with him and am I on a journey with him?

And we we talked about that actually last Sunday.

Because I think there's a huge difference in knowing about God and knowing God, and I use that word hesitantly because it creates such images in every in different people, and uh, and I would say right out of the gate that it's a very dynamic, fluid thing to have a relationship with God, and there are days when it's so powerful I'm overwhelmed.

And there are days when it's not, and there's days when it's clear, and there's days when it's not, and there are days when it's life-changing, and there's days when it's not, and so I don't want to create some image that's not true, but I have a relationship with God.

I do.

And uh He knows me, and I know Him, and uh I'm on a journey with Him.

Good and bad, right and wrong, blessings and as my grandson would say, anti-blessings.

Um but I'm on a journey with him, and it's the best journey that I've ever been on.

Today I want to talk to you about something else I learned from the patriarchs.

And I'm on a I formed it as a question as well.

I wonder what my life would look like.

And you could say, I wonder what your life would look like, but I wonder what my life would look like if I was convinced that nothing could thwart God's plans for my life.

I wonder what my life would look like.

I wonder what Terry's life would look like.

I wonder what Alan's life would look like.

I wonder what our what Johann's life would look like.

If y'all's, if you were convinced that nothing could stop, nothing could thwart God's plans for your life.

I've been thinking, I appreciate August, what you, your call to worship and you saying that I've spent all week working on this.

I have.

I'm gonna tell you I have.

Um I told my my bride last night, I said, I came up with four pages of non-negotiable Mount Sinai, top of Mount Sinai.

It was literally my my materials were glowing.

They were so wonderful.

And I had to condense it down to one page.

And it was painful.

But I did the best I could do, and so here's what we're here's what we're gonna look at.

I wonder what my life would look like if I was convinced that nothing, because one of the things I noticed plans for my life.

Because one of the things I noticed in reading the life of Abraham, the life of Isaac, the life of Jacob, and in particular the life of Joseph, nothing could thwart the plans that God had for their lives.

None of them had lives that were mountaintop.

Well, Abraham did go up on a mountain one time, but if you looked at his whole life, they had tough lives.

But nothing could thwart the plans that God had for their lives.

God promised each one of them that I'm gonna be with you every step of your journey on the best days and on the worst, I will be with you.

I'm gonna bless you, I'm gonna make you a blessing to others, and I don't mean a handful.

I don't mean just a little group in your tent.

No, no, no, no, no.

That's what other false gods promise.

I'm gonna make you a blessing to the nations, to multitudes of people.

You won't ever imagine how many people I'm gonna make you a blessing.

And let me translate that for you or reword that.

I'm gonna make, I'm gonna give you a life that is glorious.

And that word glorious originally meant a life of weight, a life that matters, a life of impact, a life that is abundant and rich and full.

You're not just gonna get by.

You're gonna have a life that when you're that 4,000 years later, people are gonna still be in awe of your life.

That's glorious.

That's glorious.

Yes, you're gonna have problems, and you're gonna have a lot of failures, and yes, your life will be terribly impacted by other people's problems and failures.

But through it all, no one, big or small, powerful or not so, rich or not so, mean or not so, no one will thwart the plans that I have for your life.

Two quick examples, just so you know where we're what I'm saying.

God told the Israelites at the very beginning of their journey out of Egypt, I'm gonna bless you and protect you, I'm gonna smile upon you and be gracious to you, and I'm gonna show you my favor, and I'm gonna fill you with peace.

Let me translate that.

I'm gonna get you to the promised land.

The Israelites had problems, failures, opposition, needs.

But did they get there?

Yes.

Nothing could stop the way the Bible creates this image, it's as if they were already, when God said you'll get there, it's as if they already were.

What the writers of the Bible were doing when they did that, it does it throughout the Bible.

They'll make you a future promise, but they'll put it in past tense.

And what that's saying is, my promise is so certain, you're already there.

You're already there.

In the mind of God, in the eyes of God.

You're not there.

But in God's eyes, in God's economy, in God's time, which He doesn't have any, you're already there.

Another one, same exact thing.

Pick it up, I'll use the Israelites again.

In Jeremiah 29, everybody's got this on their bumper and their refrigerator and their wall, their grandmama cross stick.

But God says to the Israelites, now, when he says this to them, they're in Babylon.

They're slaves in Babylon.

And God says, that I know the plans that I have for you.

Plans not to harm you, but to prosper you and to give you a hope-filled future.

But when God said that to them, they're not in, they're not in.

Again, what God was saying with Bible words is, you're going back home.

My plan for you is to go back home.

Impossible.

And they did get back home.

What would my life look like if I was convinced that nothing can thwart the plans that God has for my life?

Now I want you to think with me real quickly about the life of Jacob.

See, this would make so much more sense to you, and you, it would mean so much more to you if you were reading, if you just the last couple of weeks read about Jacob and Joseph.

See how that works?

So just throw that out.

You know, I'm not even charging you for that.

But if you read the life of Jacob and you read the life of Joseph, father's son, right?

Joseph's one of the 12 sons of Jacob.

But if you read the life of Jacob and you read the life of Joseph, one of the things that you notice is their lives were incredibly similar.

They had lives that were a lot alike.

They went through the same things.

Both of them, very early, when they were children, actually when Jacob was a, was it still inside his mama, and then Joseph, when he was a little kid, both of them were given a promise from God.

I've got special plans for you.

I'm gonna bless you.

I'm gonna use you.

Your life is gonna matter, your life is gonna have impact.

Lots of people are gonna be impacted by your life.

When they were literal, like children or babies or whatever have you.

Both of them had lots of problems, lots of failures, lots of needs, lots of difficulty, lots of challenges.

They had terrible parents.

Those of us who would go, you know what, I got dealt a bad hand on the parents.

Mine weren't great.

I didn't have James Dobson as my dad and um, I don't even know who, Mrs.

Graham as a mom.

I got gypped on that deal.

Jacob and Joseph had terrible parents.

They had to go.

If they'd lived today, they'd still be in counseling.

They had total siblings.

You got a sibling that's a not wonderful?

They did.

I ain't gonna identify.

Man, mine are no.

I wish they could hear that.

Um they had terrible bosses.

Their work environments sucked.

They had terrible work environments, terrible bosses.

Their lives in general had lots and lots and lots of problems.

What I noticed, though, that made them different, what separated them was not that their lives were problem-filled and problem-free.

What separated them was their perspective on their lives.

They saw their problem-filled, not exclusive.

They had some great victories, some great blessings, some great joys, but they had lots of problems, both of them.

But what separated them was Jacob saw his life as cursed.

And Joseph saw his life as blessed.

But I know enough of you to know that there are people in this room.

If I said, How's everything going?

You'd go, man, I'm blessed.

Is everything perfect?

No.

But overall, I am walking in the blessings of God.

And there are other people in here, precious people, that I said, How's it going?

You wouldn't probably say it.

But I know.

You feel like your life is cursed.

Somebody did something that made karma mad.

Somebody did something that made God mad.

And you see your life as cursed.

Jacob never saw his life as glorious, even though God promised him that he would give him a glorious life.

He never saw it.

But Joseph did.

And if anything, Joseph had the, he drew the tougher hand, not the easier hand.

But Joseph saw his life problem-filled, but he saw his life as glorious.

Listen to what Jacob says about his life.

This life that he would describe as stress-filled, strife-filled, which resulted in him being.

He lived the life of a victim.

It was always somebody else's fault.

My dad didn't love me.

My brother's getting a better deal.

My boss is jipping me.

Lord, I got these four wives, and I don't know what I'm going to do about them.

My kids are duds.

Hello.

Because he saw his life through that lens.

He lived a life.

And if you some of you are going, I'm not sure I believe what you're saying.

Good.

I'm probably tricking you.

So why don't you go back this week and read the life of Jacob and see?

That'd be a good thing.

And you can call me up if I've told you something that's not right.

But if you read the life of Jacob, and because he never saw his life through the lens that I am blessed of God.

God is with me.

God is going to take care of me and meet my needs and fill my life with blessings.

God is going to make me a blessing, not to a few, but to a bunch in my life, by definition, is glorious, because he never saw that.

He lived life as if everything depended on him.

If he was going to make a dollar, he had to do it.

If he was going to get a wife, he had to do it.

If he was going to have a good marriage, he had to do it.

If he was going to have kids, he had to do it.

Crazy stuff.

I can't get into it right now because we don't have time.

But he did absurd, ridiculous things trying to make another dollar.

And it all depended on him.

At least that's the way he lived.

And his life was so full of stress and conflict and pressure.

Because everything, if he was going to have it, it depended on him to do it.

And so he lived a life of self-protection.

Always on his guard.

Always slept with one eye open.

He lived a life of deceit.

Because when you face problems and needs and battles, and it all depends on you, you're going to lie.

You're going to deceive.

Because if you don't, you'll be taken advantage of and wronged and not get the good.

You'll always get the short end of the stick unless you do it.

And that's the way he lived his life.

Listen to what Jacob said.

This is a now, he says these things that I'm about to read to you.

When he has literally been rescued from famine, he gets to see his son that he thought was dead.

Literally, he gets to see a son that has been raised from the dead.

And now he is in Egypt.

And Pharaoh says, Whatever you want in Egypt is yours.

Now, that's not a bad deal.

And here's what Jacob says about his life.

I've lost everything in life that matters, and everyone and everything is against me.

You might not word it that way, but that is exactly everybody in the school system is against me and my kids.

Everything in the financial world is against me.

My mates against me.

My mother-in-law's against me.

My city is against me.

Everything in life that matters is against me.

Therefore, I've got to roll up my sleeves and fight the good fight, because if I don't do it myself, I won't get it.

A couple of chapters later, he says this.

Pharaoh says, How's your life?

O you that I have promised to be with.

Yahweh says, I'm with you.

I will bless you.

I'll make you a blessing to many, to multitudes, and I will make your life glorious.

And God fulfilled every promise.

That was the life of Jacob.

And here's what Jacob, when Pharaoh says, How's your life been, Jacob?

Here's what he says.

My life's been short and filled with difficulty, not near as good as my forefathers had.

Boy, you're a regular Polly in, aren't you?

And he lived to be 147, cut off in the prime of life.

Do you see the lens?

He never was convinced that what God told him was true.

I will bless you.

I'll be with you.

I will take care of you.

I have plans for you that are glorious.

Let me unfold them.

He never could see it.

I'll make your life.

Your great-great-grandchildren will declare about you, my great-great-granddaddy.

His life was glorious.

Glorious.

But he couldn't get it.

Or he wouldn't get it.

In contrast, Joseph, read his life.

Joseph, he had a tough life.

Go see Coat of Many Colors if you doubt me.

But Joseph consistently lived a life where he was convinced that God was good, that God was sovereign, and that God had committed that goodness and sovereignty to him.

And because he lived that way when people wronged him, he forgave them.

He went around forgiving everybody.

First person that I'd have taken care of, if it had been me, once I got out of jail and was Pharaoh's right-hand man, Ms.

Potiphar and me would have some prayer and fellowship.

But you never see him.

The Bible is, I think the Bible is silent to say, he never goes back and punishes people.

He never goes back and takes revenge.

And he lived his life with this openness to be a blessing to everybody around him.

Wherever Joseph was, everybody in his little circle, they were blessed.

Joseph, don't you need to watch out for yourself?

Don't you need to set aside, you know, hey, you need some reserves for you.

What about you?

But that you never see Joseph doing that.

He lived his life just with this crazy forgiveness policy, and this even more crazy everywhere he was.

As a son, as a slave, as a prisoner, and as the vice president of the whole dead gum country, his life.

Don't worry, brothers.

Yes, you've wronged me, but God has used it for my good and the good of others.

What's he saying?

God's plans for me.

Y'all can't stop God's plans for me.

God told me when I was a little boy what he was going to do, and you not heads can't thwart it.

Later on, he says this again to his brothers.

Please don't fret.

What you meant for evil, God has used for good to bless and save countless others.

He lived a life, it's the only word that I can think of, glorious.

He lived a life of glory, of weight, of abundance.

And I'm not talking about dollars and nickels and pennies and shekels in the bank.

I'm talking about he lived a life of abundance, of impact, of worth.

His life mattered.

His life had fullness.

He went to his grave knowing the world is different and better because of God's plans for me.

And guess who fulfilled those plans?

My God.

Now, real quickly, I gotta quit.

Okay.

So what?

I asked myself the question: what would my life look like if I was convinced that God's plans for me no one could thwart.

They were unstoppable.

God's plans for me as a as a person, as a pastor, God's plans for me and my health, God's plans for me as a husband, as a as a dad, as a granddad, as a friend.

God's plan, whatever your life looks like, what would my life and what would your life look like if you and I were convinced that God's plans for us were unstoppable?

Let me give you just a couple of thoughts.

If I really believe that God's plans for me were unstoppable, I think that one of the things you would notice in my life is a lot more peace.

I would have a more peaceful life.

Not peace that comes from knowing all the answers.

Remember, I told you one week, I don't know when it was, but I said God's real short on wise, but he's real long on what now.

God doesn't give us a lot of answers.

And people that have got to have answers for everything, you have got a long road a hoe.

You better start early because you've got a long road to hoe.

God doesn't give us a lot of answers.

What God promises us is that I'm with you.

And I'm gonna bless you, and I'm gonna make you a blessing to countless others, and your life will be glorious.

It'll matter, it'll have impact, it'll have worth, it'll have abundance.

My life would have more peace if I could really believe that God's plans for me are good and they're unstoppable, that God knows me in my situation, and that he has committed his goodness to me.

1 Corinthians 2 says that no one has seen or heard or dreamed of all that God has in store for those who will wait on him and follow him.

Isaiah 64 says that no one has ever heard of a God like you who works on behalf of people who will wait on him.

I thought we were supposed to be working for God.

God needs you to work for him and serve him.

Because man, the kingdom of the kingdom is gonna fall apart unless we start working extra hard.

And if you really love him, you'll give some overtime.

But Isaiah says that the one that's working is God.

He's working for us.

I think something else you would notice in my life if I really believe God's plans for me are unstoppable.

I think you would see a lot more confidence and less fear.

From the realization that the success of God's plans in my life, they depend upon God, not me.

If I'm gonna be a great husband, God's gonna have to do it.

If I'm gonna be a great, if I'm gonna raise a great kid, God's gonna have to do it.

If I'm gonna be financially healthy, I want to use my words carefully, healthy, God's gonna have to do it.

If I'm gonna live a life of impact, a life that matters, a life that's glorious, God is gonna have to do it.

God's gonna have to accomplish it, not me.

Isaiah 14 says, What God has planned, no one can stop.

What God is doing, no one can turn back.

A little later in Isaiah, he says, My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all of my purposes.

And I found this verse, I never thought about this verse in Revelation chapter 3.

Revelation 3 · chapter mention

God says that I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut.

Therefore, listen to the Spirit of God.

Quit worrying about whether somebody's gonna slam the door.

Let them try.

My foot's there.

What you need to do is listen.

When you walk through it, what are you gonna do?

Listen to the Spirit of God.

A third quality that I think you would notice in my life is optimism.

You'll have to go home and think about this, but I believe this with all of my heart.

There is an optimism, at least I see it as optimistic.

When I come to the realization that God is, if I am a child of God, if I have accepted the sacrifice and the forgiveness of Jesus Christ, if I'm a part of his family, I'm only speaking, that's me.

And I'm speaking to you if that's true of you too, okay?

I'm not speaking to everybody in the world.

I'm speaking to those of us who have experienced the forgiveness and the adoption of the Son of God.

But if that's true of you, then this is true.

There is an optimism that comes from knowing that God will not judge me for the things that I do, good or bad.

Christ took that judgment.

God will not judge me for the things that I've done, good and bad, when I stand before him.

What God will judge me for is whether or not I accomplished his plans for my life.

I co-op.

I mean by accomplished, I participated, I cooperated, I discovered what God put me on this planet for.

And I said, if he loves me that much and he's that powerful and wise, I'm gonna embrace his plans for my life and I'm gonna participate and cooperate in what he is doing.

God will not judge his children for what they've done, good and bad.

Just so you know, he's also not gonna go, ooh, I'm so impressed that you made two million dollars, or you won a beauty contest, or you're a road scholar, or you've got the biggest house in town, or even the best kids in town.

God's not impressed, but he is impressed with whether or not I discovered what God's plans were for my life, and I embraced them, and I accomplished them.

I think of uh, remember the very end of John, the Gospel of John?

Jesus is about to go back to heaven, and he's got to have a little prayer and fellowship with Peter over the denial things that happened uh earlier.

And they get everything right, and Jesus says, Peter, you just follow me.

He says, Okay, Lord, I will.

They start walking along, and all of a sudden, Peter goes, Hey, what about John?

You didn't have any prayer and fellowship with him, you didn't talk to him about your plans for him.

You didn't, what about John?

And Jesus says one of the most, he didn't say it mean or angry, but it was pretty firm.

He said, Peter, you don't worry about John.

You focus on what I've told you to do.

And we'll be good.

And I think Peter said, doesn't say it like this, but I think Peter said, yes, sir.

See, what God's asking us to do is not focus on his plans for other people.

And that's what we spend so much time focused on.

We spend an extraordinary amount of time focused on God's plans for others.

And we really don't spend much time focused on God's plans for us.

I gotta say one thing about that.

Who get up that also applies to those of us in this room who get up in the morning and go through our day and go to bed exhausted, and we feel like no matter what we do, it's never enough.

God will never ask us.

He never gives job descriptions, he never gives assignments that are too much.

And when I'm doing too much, when I feel like I, no matter I can't work hard enough, I there's not enough hours in the day, I'm probably doing a lot that God never asked me to do.

Dude, you're you're putting those rocks in your backpack.

I'm not putting them in your backpack.

Why would you put those rocks in your backpack?

It just makes the journey more wearisome.

And that goes for other people too.

Some of us, we now my mom would say she wishes I did a little more, but some of us, we are still trying to please our mothers and our daddies.

We're still trying to please our kids, we're still trying to please our mates.

Do you not see what freedom there is in getting up in the morning and discovering and having a confidence?

This is what God's told me to do today.

And I'm going to do that.

And if it hair lips everybody else, they'll have to get over that.

But if my mom's not happy, my dad's not happy, my mates not happy, my kids are not happy, my friends are not, man, they have got, they need to go get some counseling.

Because I'm going to do what I believe God wants me to do, no more less, but no more.

If I could ever get to a place where I understood that God has a plan for my life.

No one can thwart it.

But I've got to discover it and embrace it and cooperate and participate.

But oh, that I would just get up in the morning and discover what God's wanting me to do for this day.

And walk in the confidence that God will take care of everything that I've got to deal with for this day and have an excitement, wonder what it's going to look like.

I can't wait to lay my head down tonight because I want to think about what God did today in the accomplishment of His plans for my life.

One of the things that my wife and my daughter would tell you, and this is not a compliment, but I've learned this from being around the two of them.

They would rather me do less with joy than more with anger.

Because I can get a lot more done with anger.

Man, I can double my productivity.

And my family goes, won't you do less and be a little happier?

We need to discover what God wants us to do with our lives.

And it's going to be unique and it'll change.

It's not one of these things where he gives you marching orders when you're 18, and that job description goes till you die.

That's not the way it works.

Every day is a new day.

Every day we need to get up and spend time in the presence of God and discover what God wants us to do.

But he promises in Psalm 25, God makes his plans known to all who will fear him.

And one of my favorite verses in the Bible is this in Psalm 32.

God will guide you.

I'm sorry, God says, God says, I will guide you with my eye.

You ever thought about that?

God says, I will guide you with my eye.

Do you know how close I've got to be to somebody?

For them to guide me through life just with their eye.

The direction of their eye.

Do you know how close I've got to be to somebody for them to guide me just with their eye?

Am I spending time on a daily basis getting that close to God?

So that when he looks and when he goes forward, I go forward.

And when he looks at, you see the point.

You know the 23rd Psalm, Lord's My Shepherd?

That makes me the sheep and God the shepherd, right?

What's the goal of that?

What's the goal?

What's the calling?

What's the plan of God for that sheep?

To dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

But that sheep's on a journey, right?

He's not in the lordy.

He's not in the house.

He's on a journey to the house.

Who's responsible for getting him to the house?

The sheep?

No.

The shepherd.

And lo and behold, the shepherd, the Bible says, loses none of his sheep.

Not Yahweh Shepherd.

Wonder what your life would look like.

Wonder what for my life a plan of blessing, of intimacy, of impact, and of glory, and nobody could stop it.

Wonder how my life would look.

Wonder how your life would look.

Wonder, wouldn't it be nice to live with somebody that lived life that way?

They're not angry and stressed and all upset and protecting themselves and deceiving and working 40 hours a day.

They just got up and did what they knew God wanted them to do.

That's the kind of person I want to live with.

And that's the kind of person the people I live with want to live with.

Wonder what our lives would look like if we were convinced that the plans of God for our lives were unstoppable.

We're going to celebrate the Lord's Supper.

Jim and Susan, would you come up here and help me?

Please.

Thank you.

There's one there and there's one right there.

I could get you to come this way in the inner aisles and depart back to your seat through the outer aisles.

That would be a blessing.

We're going to eat and we're going to drink that which represents and symbolizes the body and the blood of our Savior.

And today we're going to do that just as a way of declaring our thanks that God cares enough about us, that He has plans for us.

My little grandson's got an ant farm.

Danged the thing you ever saw in your life.

I don't care what those stinking ants do.

Makes me no difference.

God cares about the plans that He's got for our lives.

And they're good.

And they're unstoppable.

And that should make us thankful and optimistic.

And it should also humble us and make us cry out, God, help me.

Help me to seek to discover what your plans are.

Give me ears to hear.

Give me eyes to see.

Give me a heart that is receptive.

If that is your desire, then I invite you to come and to take bread and wine and these little cups and eat and drink and give thanks.

And take a moment to cry out to God and say, God, I want that.

But it scares the fire out of me, maybe.

But if you'll give me strength and grace, I'll seek to do that.

You come.

You come.