Father's Day

Well, good morning.

Happy Father's Day.

No matter if Father's Day is a really exciting and happy time, sometimes it can stir up tough emotions.

I think we can all agree that we have an amazing dad.

We have an amazing Heavenly Father that loves us so much.

I want to start this morning just by saying a big thank you for all the prayers and all the support for our high school trip that concluded last Thursday.

We got a big sea of orange over here right there.

They're high school kids.

These were our good luck getting away from us while we're away, t-shirts.

You know, like I see you 300 yards over there, bright orange.

Man, we had an amazing, amazing time.

We had 88 students that went with us and uh learned learned three things.

Very every year I learned something new, but but three things this year.

It was number one, God is good.

Um He is so good.

He's not only real, I mean God is real.

Sometimes we need a reminder that He's real, even if we've been following Him for years, but He's real, but He's good and He showed up in a powerful way.

Our students encountered Him.

We had 27 high school students get baptized on the trip.

It was awesome.

Second thing is that our our students here, we we are blessed.

We have such incredible young people, and the future of this church is in such incredible hands because they they get God, they know God, they love God, they love each other.

I mean that they're they're living like Jesus wants them to.

It's it's awesome to see.

So we have incredible young people.

And the third thing I learned is I'm not nearly as young as I used to be.

I'm just not.

I mean, there's no I came back with a wrist brace and a broken down voice, and I was just so tired.

Um but it was well worth it.

You guys are amazing.

Thank you for that that awesome trip.

So thanks, guys.

It was great.

Got a uh got a few quick announcements before we we get started this morning with with what we're gonna talk about.

Uh first things first, two weeks from this Sunday.

Two weeks from this Sunday, it's uh June 29th.

William Paul Young is gonna be speaking with us.

He's gonna be coming and bringing the message.

If you're not familiar with Mr.

Young, he wrote a book called The Jack a few years ago.

It was a massive bestseller.

We are so blessed to have him with us in a couple of weeks.

Really encourage you to uh spread the word.

Invite friends.

Uh he's part of a conference that's gonna be here called the Beyond an Angry God Conference.

It's Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Him speaking on Sunday is separate to that.

You don't have to purchase tickets or register or anything like that to be here on Sunday morning.

You'll be blessed to be part of it though.

So come.

We're gonna have great worship and great teaching from three different authors uh each night.

You can register uh at the Connect Desk, they'll give you information about how to do that.

But be here on the 29th, two weeks from now, just put that on your calendar, invite friends.

The book sold over 10 million copies, and so I'm sure someone you know has read it or has at least heard about it.

Um I want to really encourage everyone, don't do this very often, to please be here next Sunday as well.

If his hands is is your church, if this is a place you love to be and a place that's important to you, next Sunday we're just gonna be talking about what's next for us.

What's next for us as a church?

Where are we going next?

Where have we been?

We'll talk a little bit about that.

We'll talk a little bit about where we are, but the focus is gonna be where are we going?

Where is God taking us as a church?

And we're we're eight or nine years old, kind of going on nine years now, and uh and we started from scratch.

We weren't planted by anyone or anything, it was just it was it was God leading people, giving people a vision and people responding.

And we're getting to this point as a church where it's exciting and it's time to talk about what's next and what are some short-term things, what are some long-term things, where are we, what are we going to be in this community?

And so I'm really excited about that.

Please, please be here next week if you can.

I think it's important for all of us to be a part of that.

A couple other small things, well not small things, but just quick things at least.

Give a kid a chance.

Something we're always excited to be part of.

You can help us out by uh by going to the info desk, getting information, and bringing back a backpack full of school supplies for kids who who can't afford to take those uh supplies to school without your help.

So all the info is at the info desk for that.

Uh I'm trying to think if there's anything else.

I will say one other thing is just a big thank you to everyone who's helping us out financially.

You guys are so incredible and and we love you, and you're doing a great thing.

God's using it in incredible ways.

We're gonna talk a little bit about that next week, actually.

There's four columns at the back of the room that you can do that.

And I did just I did just remember there was one other thing.

Fourth of July.

How can I forget Fourth of July?

July 4th is coming up so soon.

Man, we're gonna have a blast.

Fireworks, food, fun, we're gonna have a ton of stuff for the kids inside, air conditioning, restrooms that aren't porno potties.

I mean, come on.

What more do you need, right?

Barbecue, you name it.

It's gonna be an incredible, incredible day to celebrate this country that God's blessed us to be part of.

Well, hey, let's pray, and then I'd love to introduce you to our teacher this morning, our speaker, Jesus.

Thank you so much for bringing us into your family.

For making sure that no matter our life experience, all of us can celebrate Father's Day.

And we all have an incredible, incredible Father.

God, Daddy, we love you.

Thank you so much for your love for us and for everything you do and everything you bless us with.

You're incredible.

And so we want you to feel blessed this Father's Day because you're you're a dad to all of us.

We just ask that you speak to us, that you teach us through your word this morning.

We ask all this in your name, Jesus.

Amen.

Well, this morning I'm really excited to uh to have my father-in-law, Lewis Richardson, to speak.

Um I love Lewis very much.

Obviously, I'm not just saying that because he's here.

Um But uh we were thinking about Father's Day and and who could who could share on Father's Day.

And it was it was an obvious choice to me.

I I wanted my my father-in-law Lewis to share.

I've known him for uh over ten years.

Started uh to get to know him as I was dating his daughter.

That's kind of how you generally start.

And my first emotion, my first emotion when I met Lewis was fear.

Um and as I walk past him and he walks up in a second, you see the difference in our statures, you'll understand why.

I'll have to raise his stand up a few more feet than what I need.

Um but that fear quickly turned into just absolute respect.

And I learned as much about being a dad from witnessing the way that he fathered his kids and the way that he loved his his wife, and just the joy and the peace and just the the God that existed in the family that I got to be part of.

It was amazing.

And so he he's been more than a father-in-law to me, he's he's a dad to me.

And I've learned so much about being a dad.

And this morning he's gonna share uh about about dads, about some things that his father has shown him, about some things that his heavenly father has shown him.

And I'm I'm so excited, you're gonna be really blessed.

Um, like I said, the first time I met him, it was fear.

He told me uh to have his daughter back by midnight.

And so uh so we're at a movie and we went as our first date, and I thought the movie started at nine.

It started at like nine fifty, right?

Those last two digits are important.

And so we get about halfway through the movie, and I look at the clock, I'm like, we gotta leave.

We gotta go.

I gotta get you home by midnight.

You know, and so we actually saw that movie our first two dates because we saw the first half, second half, but that's how that's how how scared I was.

But I could go on and on.

There's no reason to.

Um and so, Lewis, if you'll come out, thank you so much for being with us this morning.

It's my father-in-law Lewis.

Thanks, Justin.

I'm still watching you, okay?

I know you are.

I've never forgotten that, sir.

Yeah, no problem, sir.

Love your brother.

Love you too.

Well, one thing I appreciated last week was at the end of the message, Ken Kingdon gave a note about ordinary people and how God uses ordinary people.

Now, I wouldn't put Ken Kingd as the poster child of ordinary.

I don't know about you, but I think he's probably extraordinary.

I am the ordinary person.

When I was uh asked to do this, I thought, well, I have no credentials to do this.

Uh I mean I I have a father, which that would include everyone in the room, right?

And um I have a heavenly father, which hopefully most in the room have that.

Um, but I've had the privilege of having kids, and um, and now I have extra kids, kids like Justin, who I still consider a kid.

Uh definitely, and I think you'll see why, or you know why.

Um I I think that if you I think that if in fact he's living his life now through um Liam, who we get to spend a lot of time with, and I see Liam do things and I just look and I see Justin.

I know where his parents came from.

So anyway, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

I'm aware now in a in a room of this size, as we start talking about fathers, that there are probably some of us who have fathers who who may not have been the father we would like for them to be.

Maybe they were um not as as um loving or kind, or maybe they were even missing.

Uh but during the course of this morning, I want you to consider now.

Consider the father.

If you if you have a father that was missing, thank of the Heavenly Father.

If you have someone in your life, sometimes we have people like coaches or or neighbors or uncles or people who step into our lives that father us.

I want you to consider those people as we go through the morning.

And I'm also not going to dismiss the moms here today, okay?

Um you had your day a few uh a few weeks ago.

Um you know, I I look at the fathers and mothers and I think, okay, so you know, the the act of becoming a mother is quite extreme, right?

The act of becoming a father is a little less extreme.

Being a father is extreme.

But that's why I think, ladies, you get the jewelry and the flowers and so forth, and we get you know, coffee mugs and ties and socks.

It's all right.

Not that we don't enjoy the coffee mugs and ties, okay, folks?

Any of you gave those to your I love them, but just be aware.

All right, so I'd like to start off with just an introduction of my earthly father.

This is my my dad.

I chose this picture purposefully because you know he's outdoors.

He loved to be outdoors, he loves being outside.

Um uh, yes, that is a squirrel in his hands.

Um he's a compassionate soul.

Uh we we raise squirrels, we have squirrels as pets, we had raccoons, skunks, uh, all kinds of things growing up.

Uh he just loves things smaller than himself, which in most cases is a lot of things that are smaller than himself.

Um the flannel shirt, uh he's a woodworker.

He likes being outside.

He again, uh he was making things for us as a kid.

I can't remember a time when he wasn't building us something or doing something for us to be with him outside.

Um I was I'm a James Taylor fan.

I don't know how many people like James Taylor, but I'm a James Taylor fan.

Thank you.

He's by the way, he's coming in concert later on this this uh year.

Um he has a he has a line in one of his songs that that attracted me.

It says, he's talking about his dad or daddy figure, and he says, My daddy used to ride the rails.

Um in his case, he was talking about a transient on a hoboat.

My dad actually rode the rails.

He worked for the railroad and actually retired as an engineer on the railroad.

But the second part of that stanza was the part that really struck home to me.

He said, My daddy used to ride the rails, soft as smoke, tough as nails.

My daddy.

Now I looked at that and said, That's my dad, okay?

Compassionate soul, generous, to a fault, uh loving guy.

So that's that's the that's my dad.

I want to share a few things that my dad, both my earthly father and my heavenly father, have taught me.

And often it's the way my heavenly father has taught me through my father.

And I want to actually share through actually three special life lessons that he gave me, okay?

And these are lessons, by the way, I'll I'll as I was kind of um preparing for this and thinking about this, I wanted to make sure I got my facts straight.

And so a couple of these I went to my dad and asked him about, you know, did he and he didn't even remember these.

Okay?

It's not that I made them up, it's just that they were things that he just did naturally.

And a couple of me said, Yeah, I kind of remember that.

But it's interesting.

I want you, first of all, to understand that this isn't something that my father sat down, nor you, as fathers, will sit down and go, Life lessons I need to teach my children, and then look for the opportunity.

These are things that just kind of fell naturally.

And there's three of them I want to talk about.

The first one is something he gave me, and we give our kids a lot.

There's something special that he gave me.

This is a picture of myself and my dad and my son and my grandson.

You're looking at a picture of Lewis Richardson.

Okay.

The Lilis guy, the one the happy one there, um, he's uh he's affectionately known as I.

V.

All right.

You you can imagine at a family get together when they call Lewis, how many people turn their head.

Um, so anyway, this is this is my family.

My dad gave me his name.

And I, you know, as a as a kid, I wasn't too sure what that meant or what that actually did, but I'll tell you something that it brought on me.

Uh, we lived in Savannah, I grew up in Savannah.

My dad is very active in the church, he's active, he was he's a great tenor as well, active in barbershop quartet singing.

Um, so that was a group of people we met with, um, always looking for ways to help out, um, always uh going over to people's houses and helping them.

We raked leaves, we did all kinds of things for people.

My dad was well known.

So when I was introduced at any point, if I walked up to someone and said, Hi, I'm Lewis Richardson, they might say, Oh, you're Lewis Richardson's son.

Right?

And right there, there that brought that connected us.

Now there's a bit of pressure and a bit of privilege with that.

The pressure part was, oh, you know my dad?

Meaning, if I do anything wrong, it's gonna get back to him, right?

And there's some things of a pressure of, oh, my, you know, you know him, right?

The privilege part though, however, was one that I didn't recognize as much as a kid, but I recognize it now as an adult, was it immediately gave me credentials that I hadn't earned yet.

You know, oh, you're Lewis's kid.

I think immediately the bar was set.

You're gonna be respectful, you're gonna be kind, you're gonna work hard.

By the way, we had to work on the work hard one a bit, because growing up that was not a real feature of mine.

Things like, you know, you're gonna be you're gonna be kind, you're gonna be generous.

All those things were given to me, and then it was my job to kind of stand up to those things.

But you know, when you meet people for the first time, they try to figure you out.

Imagine they meet me, and automatically they think my father.

Again, what a pressure, what a little pressure, but a lot of privilege.

I want us to take a look at a verse.

Mark 9:14.

Mark 9:14

Christ tells us, I tell you the truth.

Anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name, because you belong to Christ, will certainly not lose his reward.

In Acts 9:15, but the Lord said to, and we've been studying Acts, but the Lord said to Nanias, Go, this man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel.

Acts 9:15

The name is a powerful thing.

And I'm not going to suggest that all of you go out and rush out and name your kids after yourself, but you're you're actually leaving a legacy, and you have a character that you're putting upon your children.

And often, if people know you, they know your children.

And as a result, that's a legacy.

We as dads, we need to think about that.

And this morning, by the way, I'm talking to dads, I'm talking to fathers.

I'm also talking to the men who maybe mentor other people that maybe not have kids of their own.

I'm talking to my young men over here in the corner who have not yet been married or have kids.

Think about the fact of the legacy that you're building and the fact of as you live, people will associate the family around you.

I'm so privileged to have a heavenly father that has a name that's understood.

And I want us to be aware that when we say his name and when we say, Hi, we're a Christian, or when we have I see the fish on the people back of people's cars and so forth, you're better you're basically saying, That's who I am.

And so be aware that as you carry your father's name, it's a privilege, a little bit of pressure, but it's also a privilege.

The second thing, the second lesson was something my dad said to me.

He's a relatively soft-spoken man.

Um I've I don't know that I've ever heard him raise his voice at me.

That's just something he had to do.

Um, this next picture, this is my dad and my mom not too long ago.

She's a loving soul, a uh dearest person.

Um, again, just as generous as he is, and just as loving as he is.

Um, interesting thing, she stands about five foot two, I guess.

And my dad's above six feet tall.

He's always been very respectful of women and taught us to be respectful of women.

There was a time I was about 12 years old, I guess.

Uh, and I can remember all of the incidents that happened, but I do remember some of it because it was one of those lessons he taught me.

Um we lived in a home where uh I was in the family room, looking through a doorway to the kitchen, and the kitchen had a uh sink and a window, and my mom, as I recall, was standing there at the window or in a kitchen sink, and we were having some kind of dialogue, and through whatever the dialogue was, I don't know if she was telling me to do something or reminding me or what I disrespected her.

I said something that was very disrespectful to her.

I said no, which you don't say to your parents.

I said something that was really out of character, really disrespectful.

I don't remember that much because what I do remember is that my dad, unbeknown to me, I think, was sitting at the kitchen table, and suddenly he appeared in the doorway.

He stood there between me and my mom, and he filled the doorway.

Okay, I could just see standing here.

Now I'm 12, I'm not the size I am today.

And there he is standing looking at me, and he said this son, you may not respect her or want to respect her at this point because she's your mother, but you're going to respect her because she's my wife.

Ah, right?

That hit home.

Uh, not that I would ever pick on my mother physically, because I could have, but I think she's pretty scrappy.

She might take me anyway.

But it may it may cross my mind.

It would have never crossed my mind to take my dad, to try to even take him.

And when he said that, I realized that when I talk to my mother, I'm talking to him.

And with the way I treat my mother, I'm treating him.

In fact, he's respectful of women to the point that I recall, after being married several years, we came up, we lived away from uh Savannah.

We came to Savannah, and one of the first questions he asked my wife, Ruth, was, Is he still opening the door for you?

Okay?

By the way, gentlemen, open the doors for your wives.

All right?

It shows a little bit of women, think it's not I'm not catering up to the women, okay, guys?

I'm just saying it just shows a bit of respect.

And that's one of his things that he thought, and he wanted me to know that I should respect my mom, even if even if it was just for the fact that it was his wife that was his chosen one.

The same happens with our Heavenly Father.

He's told us, for I was hung, for I was hungry and you gave me something to eat.

I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.

I was a stranger and you invited me in.

I needed clothes and you clothed me.

I was sick and you looked after me.

I was in prison and you came to visit me.

Then the righteous will answer him, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you something to drink?

When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?

When did we see you sick or in prison or go to visit you?

The king will reply, I tell you the truth.

Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.

Your words, what you say, carry a lot of weight.

Especially you dads.

I want you to know that the little ones and the ones that you are mentor and the and the people that are around you, they listen to you and they're listening for the words, they're listening to the tone, they're listening for what it is behind the words.

Um I love I love having Liam around because he's always asking why.

Okay, that's his favorite question, why?

Um, many of us might might dismiss that by just saying because or whatever.

But really, what he's doing is he's just trying to connect things.

He's trying to understand where are you at, what are you thinking of up, and what are you thinking about.

And so often when our when we as dads have the opportunity to have the attention of our kids, think clearly about how you project that, the words that you say, even the inflection and the tone of the words that you say.

It's reflective.

God has asked us to look at those people, look at others around us.

We see people that we think are unlovely.

God doesn't see them as unlovely.

We should speak to them in a loving way.

We see people that maybe aren't as friendly, or we see people that we think, well, gee, that they're there, they may be, and I'll excuse me for saying this, but they may be beneath us.

Is God beneath us?

He wants us to look at those people and say, those are not people that are beneath you.

Those that's me.

How are you going to treat me?

So again, another life lesson is by what we say and how we treat people is something that's important.

The last lesson is something he didn't say to me.

Um, this is a picture of my dad and myself working on a workshop.

He's a woodworker, and this we happen to have a time, this was a much younger time, as you can tell.

Um, but we're working on a workshop.

The reason I wanted to show this was because we work together, we're a family.

Um, this is another picture for anyone who wants to know.

That little one there with the broom is uh Megan McTear, my daughter.

Um, if you want to look for the for the person controlling the scene right now, it's her.

Um she did it from that age.

So any of you nursery workers and so forth, you know what I'm talking about, right?

In fact, I think she was fussing at us for sawdust.

You know, why are you putting sawdust all over this place we're building?

Okay.

The picture is is that we are a family and we work together, and it's just something that was acceptable.

Um, again, my I lived in an area where my grandmother, my maternal grandmother and grandfather were wise enough that they had a piece of land that they lived on, and as people got married, as their kids got married, they gave them a piece of land.

So we ended up living next to all of our aunts and uncles and everyone.

It was a natural thing that on a Saturday or whenever we'd go out to work and we'd go to rake leaves.

Well, we didn't stop at our yard, we'd go into our aunt's yard, or we'd go to our grandmother's yard, or we just worked that's just what we did.

We just worked.

My father, again, because he was a giving soul, would often do things above and beyond.

For instance, with the schooling situation, he worked two jobs.

My mom also worked, but he worked two jobs, and the second job he had.

Was pressure cleaning.

Now, those of you who know what pressure cleaning is, it's everywhere, right?

Well, back when we did it, he was the, I think he was the only person doing pressure cleaning north of Jacksonville, Florida.

Again, we lived in Savannah.

He found out this thing that people use down in Florida to wash people's homes and especially their roofs.

We brought that business into Savannah, and we worked all hours of the day and night and so forth doing pressure cleaning, cleaning people's roofs and so forth.

The reason I say that was because that's what I did to help him.

I worked with him.

Now, um I was it was just one of those accepted things.

You know, he went to a job, I went to a job.

Um, the pressure cleaning business, and I don't want to bore you with it, but the pressure cleaning business that we had required us to work on some of the colonial homes in Savannah, some of the two stories and so forth.

Uh things like removing the window screens from the home was a difficult thing because as you removed them, you had to keep them in order because in Savannah, when they built the window screens, they weren't standard.

They fit the windows.

So if you got them mixed up, you were in trouble.

Um a lot of hose work, a lot of ladder work, things that as a person, as a kid, I wasn't doing a lot of the work, but I was helping him.

I was there so he didn't have to come down off the ladder.

I could hand him things.

And so it meant a lot for my dad for me to do that.

So set the stage.

I think it was a Friday, either Friday at night or it was a summer night.

I forget which one it was, but he told me one night, he said, tomorrow morning we're gonna head uh up to a little town close to Savannah.

We've got a commercial job to do.

It's a fairly big job, and I'm really gonna need your help.

So we're gonna have to leave early in the morning to get there.

So when I come and wake you in the morning, please be ready, jump out of bed, let's go do this, right?

Um he said, it's good.

I know you're, you know, I know you're not gonna want to get up that early, but let's do this.

I remember him coming into my room and waking me up.

And when he did, I don't know what went through my head, but I ended up rolling back over and going back to sleep.

I woke about 9:30.

Daylight coming in my window, and the immediate thought of something's wrong.

Right?

So I went into the kitchen where my mom was and I said, Where's dad?

Because I was kind of frantic.

And she said, Oh, he left.

He left early.

Now I could picture my dad, I still can, working that day without me.

I don't know what I did that day, but I didn't enjoy any of it, I can tell you, okay?

Because I could picture him struggling and doing things and having to go back and forth.

And in my head, I was thinking, okay, every time he has to get off that ladder to go do something, he's thinking about me and the fact that I'm not there and that I disappointed him.

So you can imagine later on that afternoon, I'm sure it took him longer than expected, but later on that afternoon he drives up.

And I remember running out and seeing him, and he said nothing.

He wasn't disappointed, he acted as if nothing happened.

He could have easily said, son, I missed you today.

I really, you know, you really disappointed me this morning.

He could have come in that morning and pulled me out of bed and shouted at me or done anything he could have, which again he would have never shouted at me, but he could have pulled me out of bed and made me go with him.

And you know what?

I would have gone with him.

But instead, for whatever reason, life lesson.

Okay?

It was about being dependable.

It was about being a man of your word, it was about stepping up to your jobs and what you need to do.

It was through something they didn't say.

If we look at the scriptures, too, it's amazing.

Jesus answered Peter, he said, I tell you, before the rooster crows today, you'll deny me three times that you know me.

And then about an hour later, another asserted, Certainly this man, this fellow was with him, for he's a Galilean.

Peter replied, Man, I don't know what you're talking about.

Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed.

The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter.

Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him.

Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.

And he went outside and wept bitterly.

I didn't feel what Peter felt completely, but I did feel a little bit of it.

Dads and leaders, as you think about your kids, think about a quiet response.

Not that you have to show significant disappointment, but if you say words, Nathan opened up this morning talking about bring up a child and the way you will go.

Your kids know what's expected to you.

If you're not portraying that, be sure to let your kids know what's expected of them.

And when they don't do it, sometimes you need to correct them.

But sometimes you just need to just gently remind them.

Okay?

A look.

It's interesting what the look did for Peter here.

And imagine what Peter came to be as far as the church is concerned.

And I imagine a lot of it hinged off this event, this life lesson that Peter had.

So please, dads, it's not always about what you give your kids or what you say to your kids.

It's often about what you don't say to your kids and how you act and what you live.

So I'm blessed to have an earthly dad.

If you're not in the same position, again, just think of the people in your life that affect you.

If you are a dad, if you have the privilege of having kids, please understand that as you raise these children, that you have a responsibility and a privilege to teach them things, to tell them things, and to lead them in a way.

And if you don't have a dad that you can remember, your heavenly father is always there.

Okay?

And your heavenly father, and I love the fact that so often at this church, uh, he's just referred to as dad.

And I think that's so so comfortable and so blessing, blessed to just be able to call him dad.

So at this point, I'll let the worship team invite the worship team to come up as I finish up.

So his sons and his daughters, those of you in the in the in the church today, those of you who are Christians, you've been given his name.

Okay, he gave you his name.

And he wants you to use that name for both the privilege of being a Christian, you're a joint heir with Christ, you have a responsibility, and you carry that name.

So be aware that people who know you as a Christian are going to be watching you, they're gonna be looking at you, so there's a bit of pressure.

But there's also, if if people understand what Christ is like, and you introduce yourself as a Christian, I have the opportunity to travel around quite a bit.

And in locations, when I find people, sometimes they'll come to me and they'll say, I can tell you're someone of faith.

Now that can mean a lot of things.

And I usually just turn back around and say, Yeah, I'm a Christian.

And then they'll say, Well, I am too.

It's so wonderful to identify yourself with Christ, your Heavenly Father.

And secondly, you have the opportunity with God's help for your words, the things that you say, to cast light instead of casting shadows.

Think about your choices of words.

I know that we in a work environment, we often consider our words and what we say to our bosses and the people around us.

And sometimes we're less careful with our children.

I challenge you to be even more careful with your children.

Think about how you say things, what you say, and what that means to them.

And then lastly, um, about what you don't say.

I'm I'm a again, I'm raised in the South and I also enjoy a lot of Mark Twain's writings.

In one of his writings, he says, you know, thunder is good and thunder is impressive, but it's the lightning that does the work.

And I think sometimes about often how we will raise the volume on what we have to say when often maybe it's best just to let the lightning do the work and just be quiet, be still, and let God do the work within people's lives.

So again, as we go out today, again, challenge you.

Think about what you say, think about what you don't say, think about the acts you make, and again, be aware that God's in control.

And thank you.