Think 4:8

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Good morning.

Welcome everyone.

What a beautiful day today.

That song we just sang, Take All of Me, that's a big statement.

And it was one it took me years to even be able to say in a heartfelt way to God because it requires trust.

You know, that not only does he know best, but he wants what is uh what's best for us.

And if we think about that, what is all of us?

So much of that is really how we think and how we view things.

And so uh this morning we're gonna have an opportunity to give that, I think, to uh to Jesus and let him continue uh changing us from the inside out.

And uh Tommy Newberry is here with us this morning.

Uh Tommy wrote a uh book called The 4-8 Principle, and it was a huge uh New York Times bestseller, and it's uh based on Philippians 4.8.

That's the the 4-8 principle.

And Susan and I uh read that uh book back in July, and then uh he had the next book, which is 40 Days to a Joy-Filled Life, and uh that really impacted us, and Susan led a group through that 40 days together, and Lynn Walker was in that group, and then she led the women's group, this uh last go-round, and the worship team's gone through it, and uh and many of us, and it's just a it's a real um life changer, and uh it's something that's uh just meant a lot to us and really affected us.

And so we thought it'd be exciting if uh all of us as a family could do uh 40 days to a uh a joy-filled life uh together.

And it's like anytime we apply God's word to our life, it's uh it's gonna change us.

And this particular verse, Philippians 4.8, uh probably the greatest change is that it gives us so much more joy in our life.

Who who here has done the 40 days to a joy-filled life?

Clap or something if it really has made an impact in your life.

And uh actually I meant to bring a book, but it's like last time.

But it's uh um small and uh it's uh just really easy to go through.

And what what 40 days does really is helps us instill those print that principle into our lives in just an easy, simple, and um and fun way.

So we thought it'd be exciting if we could all do that together and and and really great for us as a church.

We thought it'd be really cool if perhaps um Tommy could come and kind of lead us through the the 40 days.

So he and I uh met about a month ago, and he's excited about it, and we're trying to figure out when we could do it, because his schedule's really uh busy, and so is ours, and so trying to find consecutive uh weeks.

And so we're looking out in October, and um so we're just kind of talking about different possibilities.

He said, Well, in your perfect world, what day would you start?

I said, Well, in my perfect world, it would be the Sunday after Easter.

And so he said, What date's that?

And it's April 7th.

And he gets this kind of funny look on his face, and um it's and he says, Wow, uh, I always thought it would be perfect to start the 40 days on April 8th because it's 4.8.

And um, and so even as I'm telling it, I can feel this, but it really was like a God moment, and we both knew that if there's any way we could do this, that we would start this Sunday.

And so he worked it out uh so he can, and he's here with us uh this Sunday.

He's uh back again next Sunday, and uh we're just gonna do the 40 days uh together, and then he'll be back again uh in a uh in a few weeks.

We've got uh a ton of books uh that that uh we have in the lobby.

Uh you'll be able to buy one if you want.

Uh Tommy got them from the publisher for us at cost, and it's just uh be an opportunity for us all to start tomorrow and uh do the 40 days together.

So that's the plan.

How's that sound?

Um Well, uh let's welcome Tommy Newberry.

Thank you.

Good morning.

Thank you very much.

I like to know a little bit about the people that I'm listening to, so I'll give you a little bit of a heads up of where a lot of my 4.8 material comes from.

It comes from three guys named Ty Mason and Brooks, which are my three sons, uh age 17, almost 15, be 15 next week as Mason, and then uh a seven-year-old uh to keep us uh limber and young.

Um so I'll tell a number of stories about them, but one that'll set the tone, I think, pretty positively is Ty.

He's now a junior, but uh when he was in eighth grade, he brought home a science test.

He normally does pretty good in science, and he had a sort of a funny look on his face, and he showed it to us, and it was a C.

And I said, Hey Ty, what's up with the C?

I didn't make a big deal out of it.

And he looked at me with all sincerity and said, Yeah, I don't know.

I I tried my hardest.

I said, Well, you didn't study.

Did you?

And he goes, Well, no, but uh once the test started, I tried my hardest.

Can anybody relate to that besides me?

With joy, which is a lot of what I want to focus on this week and next week, and then um in May, everybody really wants joy.

I've never run into somebody that sincerely said, you know, I've got too much.

Um how do I get rid of some of this?

How do I unload it?

Everybody wants joy, but not everybody gets ready for joy.

You know, uh everybody wants to win a football game on a Friday night, but do you want to win it on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday?

Do you want to win it the summer before, you know, during summer workouts and summer weightlifting?

Everybody wants to win when the lights are on and the uh crowd is cheering and the band is playing and that sort of thing, but do you want it enough to get ready for it?

Well, that's what Philippians 4.8 provides us, is it helps us get ready for joy.

You can't, if you are full of joy, you're either intentionally practicing the 4-8 principle, or you're very fortunate you grew up and had some good role models, and you sort of through osmosis started practicing the 4-8 principle, because you can't think unjoyful thoughts and be full of joy, as hard as we may try.

The good news is you can't think joyful thoughts and be stressed out and anxious.

So here's the message from the Apostle Paul.

Finally, brothers and sisters, this is from Philippians 4.8.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is lovely, pure, true, gracious, just, if there's any excellence, if there's anything worthy of praise, think on these things.

The version that you're looking at is from the message, which is, I think, my favorite.

If you glance at it, it's very compelling.

The best, not the worst, the beautiful, not the ugly, things to praise, not things to curse.

I mean, it's pretty much spelled out very clearly this important message.

Life is good and bad.

Our country is good and bad, our family life's good and bad, our kids are good and bad, our marriage is good and bad, our work is good and bad, our community is good and bad, everything is in fact good and bad, and we're never going to be at a place where it's all good.

Now that may sound like an unjoyful thought, but it's the truth.

If you emphasize the things that are working, the things you're grateful for, the things you're looking forward to, the things you're excited about, then your experience of life, which is all that matters, is going to be joy-filled.

Somebody, the most joyful person you know, does not have a perfect life.

The most joyful spouse you know does not have a perfect marriage.

And when you understand where Paul was when he spoke these words, it's pretty amazing.

He was in prison.

Okay, that's not normally a place to be joyful.

He was chained, so not only was he behind bars, he was chained, he was under guard.

They thought so much of him that they actually had a guard keeping an eye on him.

And according to some scholars, he was knee-deep or even waist deep in sewage.

And nonetheless, he said, in his words in Philippians 4 8, focus on the good stuff.

That's essentially what he said.

Focus on the good stuff, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, whatever is of good rapport, whatever's noble.

In some translations it says, think on these things, in some it says, focus on these things, in some it says meditate on these things.

The amplified version says, and I like this, this closing, I think the best.

The amplified version says, fix your mind on these things, which to me is just a strong vision of, you know, your mind can be all over the place like this.

You know, metaphorically, it can be looking down, looking up, looking down, looking up.

And so what Paul is saying is fix your mind on the good things.

Why?

Because the bad things are always going to be there, but by focusing on them, you embellish them, you cause them to be exaggerated.

So think of your worst day, and then think of standing in sewage behind bars with no end in sight.

So Paul spoke these words, and then in Philippians 4 9, he said, Do the things that I have done, copy me, essentially, think like I've thought, and the peace, this is the bonus, this is the promise of Philippians 4.8.

The peace that only God can give will be with you forever.

That's a powerful promise.

That would make you, you know, if you were trying to decide should I buy this verse or not?

You might want to go, well, what's in it for me?

And so when you see that not only is joy in it, Philippians is often known as the joy book of the Bible, but then there's peace in it, is pretty powerful.

Now, how many of you had heard Philippians 4.8 heard of it uh until recently?

Anybody heard of Philippians 4.8?

Okay, 12 of you.

Good.

Um, I don't think Philippians 4.8 gets very much good press, uh, which is one of the reasons that I wrote the book.

There's so many great verses in Philippians.

What do you think might be the most famous?

Could be 4, 6, and 7.

Um, you know, do not 4, 6, and 7, do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God, and the peace of God that surpasses all human understanding will be yours in Christ Jesus.

A lot of people have heard of that.

The one that all the athletes use.

413.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, or I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

And then there's another one, or there's many more, but one more that's very popular, people have heard of it is um I have learned to be content in all circumstances.

In all circumstances, in all conditions, I have learned to be content, which is a cool thought if you really look at it.

I have learned.

In other words, you're not born content.

It's not some people have it and some people don't.

Um there's not contentment inequality.

That's a joke.

The contentment is something that you have to learn.

You have to learn to be content.

This explains why some people, like we look at their life and we're going, how can they be so miserable?

How can they have that scowl on their face?

How can they always be complaining?

I've their life is fantastic.

And then we look at this person over here and we go, how does she have such joy?

I mean, think what she's gone through.

How does she how does she even get up in the morning?

So it has nothing to do with what's going on around you.

Joy and its cousin, contentment, contentment is not complacency.

Joy is about what's going on inside of you.

In fact, joy is an inward sign, meaning a sort of an internal gauge of external faith and the promises of God.

If you believe God's promises, then the side effect or the fruit is joy, which is a good motivator to me because if I'm not joyful, I sort of give myself the pride in thinking, well, then what does that say about my faith in God?

If I'm walking around down and defeated, then that's not just about me.

That's that's me saying, well, I guess I don't really trust God very much.

So the let me ask you this question.

Don't raise your hand or anything.

Do you believe that God has great plans for your future?

If you believe that God has great plans for your future, then wouldn't you walk around with joy?

I didn't say perfect plans.

I mean his plans are perfect, but they're not going to unfold on earth in a perfect way.

But he has great plans.

He always wants the best for you.

He wants something better for your future than you want for your future.

In fact, if, and I do this sometimes with my clients, we'll sit down and we'll spend a whole day, sometimes two or three days, working on designing their best life as they understand it.

We'll think it through and we'll get detailed and we'll get clear and we'll pray about it and we'll revisit it and come back to it and fine-tune it, and then we'll come up with something, this is a great plan for the rest of your life.

Even if you went to all that trouble, which only a small percentage of the population do, whatever you came up with with that much attention, would pale in comparison with the plans that God has.

So, you know, if you could put your plan right here and then download his plan right here, his plan is better.

No matter how great your plan is, his plan is better.

Of course, we want to try to figure out how to make the plans one and the same as best we can.

But a motivator for you in living with joy should be that when I live with joy, I draw other people to God.

When I live with joy, it's revealing more than any other thing, more than what I think or what I say or what I do.

When I live with joy and express joy and demonstrate joy, it's revealing that I have great faith in God, in the promises of God, despite what is going on around me or what may be going on around me at any given moment.

So three things that I want to touch on today, but you can sort of outline them in your head.

Each moment is a new beginning.

We feel what we dwell upon, and we've got to junk proof our minds.

Those three things.

So one of my favorite thoughts from the book is each moment's a new beginning.

In fact, as you sort of see the rays of sunshine behind me, the best image for each moment's a new beginning is a sunrise.

And God gave us a great blessing in that He gives us a sunrise, a fresh start, a new beginning every day.

Even if we can't see it, even if it's cloudy, we're still getting that new beginning.

One a day.

But even better than that, is in our thought life, where everything begins, in our thought life, we get a fresh start, a new beginning any time that we want it.

In other words, we can be down, discouraged, negative, resentful, bitter, angry, and so on and so on for 59 minutes.

59 seconds, and uh as the uh minute hand turns just a little bit, we can change.

We can be irritated and agitated for 30 minutes, and at 30 minutes and one second, we can change.

We can be losing our cool with our kids, our spouse, and any other person in our life.

We can be going that direction, going that direction, going that direction, and then we can change whenever we choose to change.

We can choose to let things go, we can choose to forgive, we can choose to ignore, we can choose joy rather than this, whatever the this is for you at that particular moment.

You can when you choose joy, by the way, that doesn't make somebody else right in your life.

That just means that for you, you've chosen joy.

You've chosen despite it all, in lieu of it all, you are choosing joy as your response to the circumstances of life.

And God rewards things, God rewards that kind of behavior when we're in difficulty, especially, whether it's significant difficulty or just the difficult grind of daily life and raising a family and trying to make ends meet and so forth, when we're justified to blow up and be defeated and discouraged, but nonetheless we act in a manner that demonstrates our faith, he rewards that.

Each moment is a new beginning.

Say that with me.

Each moment is a new beginning.

Say it again.

Each moment is a new beginning.

It almost has a rhythm to it.

You could paraphrase it.

Each moment's a fresh start.

Today is a fresh start.

This moment is a fresh start.

But here's what happens in our in our mindset.

We tend to minimize the great things that we have going on in our life.

This is because of our human nature.

You want to think of it, this has been going on a long time.

It started back in the garden, where we are not perfect, we won't be perfect, but we can create a great life with God's help.

And when you think about all the good things you have in your life, you've got blessings, you've got strengths, you've got victories, big and small, you've got your the people that you love in your life, the things you're looking forward to.

Uh, you have some successes, you have some uh vision for what you want your life to look like.

You have moments of progress, you have some etched memories with the people you love the most, some things that'll stand out forever in your life.

We all have these great things in our life.

Sometimes people package their blessings in such big containers that it looks like they have five blessings, but really you can unopen each container and see that you have many more.

You know, some people say, Well, I'm grateful for my family.

Well, when you start thinking of each person you're grateful for, why you're grateful for, the grateful memories you have, and maybe what life would be like if you didn't have these people, all of a sudden you start to sense this gratitude, which is a prerequisite, not only a prerequisite for joy, it's the fast route to joy.

So each moment is a new beginning, each moment is a mental sunrise for you.

We tend to have all these good things.

I'll give you the scientific term good stuff.

We have the good stuff, but we often don't give it much attention.

In fact, some people think of the 4-8 principle as the principle of attention.

In this lifetime, we have some resources to work with.

Two of the most important resources are one our pulse, and two, our attention.

If we have a pulse and we're healthy, we're living, then to a very large degree, where we put our attention, our mind share, what channel we put the TV on of our life is going to determine how much joy and fulfillment we get.

So two people can have exactly the same number of good good things, good stuff in their life.

One's miserable, and one is content, full of joy, and experiencing the peace that only God can get.

What's the difference between the two?

Well, for one, it's how they use their mind.

Do they focus on the things that are uplifting, the things that are beautiful, or do they focus on the things that are shallow and superficial and will pass very quickly?

Now, the flip side of any principle, all principles, one identifier of a principle is that principles work for good and bad.

So we tend to diminish, we tend to shrink those things that are great in our life, but we tend to embellish and exaggerate and it and distort the what?

The things that aren't so good.

There can be seven things that are great with my marriage and one thing that's off, and I can walk around all irritated because I'm thinking of the one thing that is not where I want it to be, and I'm at least temporarily forgetting the seven things are exactly how I'd want them to be, and that I wouldn't trade for anything.

It's a mind game to a very large degree.

Think about this.

Would you agree that all of us in this room today are better off than several other billion people on the planet?

And then there's several million people who are, quote, better off than we are.

Big deal, right?

You don't have to worry about them from this standpoint.

All you have to worry about, focus on, worry in a good way, right there, is thinking about how you can make yourself into the person that is capable of doing great things that God can work through, that you can fulfill your God-given potential.

So why is it that we tend to shrink our blessings and magnify our blunders and the things that we don't like?

It's where we put our attention.

And you are free to put your attention anywhere that you want it.

Um as a coach, I often see that people are their own worst enemy.

They will shoot themselves in the foot, they will do so by thinking about what they can't have, what they can't control, and what they can't do, to the exclusion of what they do have, what they can do, the opportunities that are in front of them, and the way that they can serve others with the rest of their life.

We have a uh a dog, a little dog, Gracie, and I write about it in 40 Days to a Joy-Filled Life.

You may have one like her.

She reacts to the neighbor's dog's barking or the creak of the stairs early in the morning when we're trying not to wake her up, and then she'll start barking.

But that's sort of how God made dogs.

You can train them a little bit better, a little bit worse, but they run on instinct.

God gave us a great gift in that in between the stimuli, somebody else barking at us over there, and our response over here, there's a gap.

We are not governed by our instincts alone.

We can actually reason, weigh the pros and cons, evaluate with logic how we should respond.

What's the wise way to respond?

In light of my past history, my current circumstances, and my future hopes and dreams, what's the wise thing to do in this particular moment?

Our dog Gracie, she has none of that.

The dog barks, her instinct is to bark back.

It's a sweet bark, but it's a bark.

And that's that's what she does.

We are at the next level.

God made us to imitate him.

We can be a creator of our future, and that begins with our thought life.

Point number two is we feel what we dwell upon.

We feel what we dwell upon.

If you feel rotten, what do you think that means?

Does that mean your life is rotten?

Not necessarily.

I guess it could mean that.

What it usually means, you've been meditating on, fixing your mind on, thinking on the things that are rotten about your life, of which you will always have some.

They may shift around from time to time.

We go back to a marriage example.

I believe that God created the 4.8 principle and had Paul write about Philippians 4.8 so that humanity would procreate.

The longer you think about it, the funnier it is.

I just happen to think that when we're dating, we naturally practice the 4-8 principle.

Otherwise, what?

Yeah, some people are thinking already.

Otherwise, you may never get married.

I'm half kidding and half serious in the sense that when you're dating, once you have made the decision, are you listening to this?

Once you have made the decision to love the other person or to get married to the other person, you filter out the information that's incompatible with that decision.

You focus on the good stuff.

Your sister may say, Well, do you know about Tommy?

I mean, have you seen how picky he is about this?

And or do you know about her?

And blah, blah, blah.

Are you sure you want to do that?

You can't see it.

You've either you've either experienced that or you've been the one telling somebody that have don't you see the warning signs?

They are not going to see it.

And then the big joke is we get married.

And then and God goes into the uh heavenly apps and clicks a little button and turns that activate 4.8 off, and he leaves He leaves it for us to turn back on.

Somehow, when we're thinking about getting married, we are arguing for why we should marry this person.

And then once we get married, if we let our guard down, we often focus on okay, we must have gotten married so I can fix him or her.

Now, we feel what we dwell upon, our emotions reveal our devotions.

I don't mean like devotion time with God in the morning.

I'm meaning whatever we give most of our mind share to is responsible for our emotional life.

So our emotions are determined by our devotions, the things that we're devoted to.

What holds our attention, what holds our attention, A-T-T-E-N-T-I-O-N, what holds our attention directs our intention, I-N-T-E-N-T-I-O-N.

So when we feel rotten, it's not a statement about the world around us, it's a statement about the world within us.

This is not something you're ever supposed to be perfect with.

This is an ideal.

Philippians 4.8.

Finally, brothers and sisters, finally, brethren, whatever's lovely, pure, true, gracious, just, if there's any excellent, and so on, that's an ideal, like the horizon.

You're never going to get there, you're never going to be able to touch the horizon or say, yeah, we're at the horizon, meet us there.

But you can use the horizon as a directional mechanism.

And on a scale of one to a million, we're all in here somewhere on that scale of moving toward that ideal of Philippians 4.8.

We may just do wonderful in our marriage, but not so good at work.

Wonderful with our kids, but not so good with our wife.

I mean, everybody's got some little blind spot.

And so there's two ways to approach working on mastering the 4.8 principle is to work a little bit on those weak areas and to work a little bit on those strong areas.

If you're already really good in your marriage of applying Philippians 4.8, that's a great place to start.

Get even better at it.

That'll give you confidence, that'll encourage you, but also address one of the areas where you might be shooting yourself in the foot by not uh by not focusing on all the good that is around you, in essence, by deleting it.

So we feel what we dwell upon.

So how do I use that on a day-in, day-out basis?

Well, in 2 Timothy, Scripture tells us God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

For God has not given us the emotion of fear, of which all other negative emotions are rooted in, by the way.

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a power and of love and of a sound mind.

A sound mind is the byproduct of what happens when you focus on the good stuff in your life.

Now, not everything in marriage is good.

And Philippians 4.8 does not mean stick your head in the sand and ignore it all.

It just means don't dwell on it.

Don't make it the vast majority of your marriage experience.

Not everything is good about parenting or with a particular eight-year-old or 18-year-old.

That doesn't mean you ignore things that are unacceptable.

It just means you don't make those things that are unacceptable dominate your mental life to the exclusion of all the things that you could be grateful for.

So it's not about ignoring problems, it's about where you put your mind share, sort of a marketing term, mind share.

You know, companies that want to grow want to get the mind share of their customers.

You want to make sure that the good God and the good stuff get your the vast majority of your mind share.

Sure, there may be two things that are out of whack in your marriage.

Almost everybody's marriage has at least two.

Sure, there's a couple of things that are screwy in your family life, but so is everybody else.

You know, with marriage, it's like sometimes you'll hear people go, I heard they're having problems.

That's like one of the stupidest comments I've ever heard.

There's two types of people that are married, those who have problems and those who are liars.

See, God uses marriage as a platform to work on us spiritually in ways that he can't when we're single.

The Bible says it's supposed to be hard.

You know, it's mainly about overcoming selfishness.

It's supposed to be hard.

You you marry a personality, but you have to live with a character.

And there's no better place to practice Philippians 4.8 than when you're in marriage.

All right.

So point number one was each moment is a disappointing.

Can y'all stay after?

Each moment is a new beginning or a fresh start.

Point number two is we feel what we dwell upon.

It's like a gauge on the dash check engine.

So when you feel rotten, it's like a warning light on your dash.

It means there might be something up, but there might not.

I have at least on three or four occasions taken my car in reluctantly and all the hassle that goes with it to find out, oh, it's a malfunction with a sensor.

As humans, we often, because of what we choose to dwell on, get too many warning lights.

And it causes us to overreact to what is really routine negativity.

Then when we overreact to routine negativity, we often create some legitimate negativity.

So point number one, each moment's a new beginning.

Point number two, we feel what we dwell upon.

And point number three, we've got to junk proof our mind.

So what is junk proofing your mind look like?

Junk proofing your mind is guarding, okay, the verse for this comes out of Proverbs, guard your heart or your mind, it's who you are at the core.

Guard your heart with all diligence, for out of it flow the issues of life.

Some translations say the fruit of life or the entirety of your life.

So think about it.

We protect our president, we protect our home, we protect our car, we protect our laptop, protect our kids.

We need to protect our minds.

If you're thinking about your life and you want to make sure you're living a life and you've got your priorities in order, and you think, well, you know, I've got my faith and I've got my work and I've got my marriage and I've got my kids and I've got my finances.

You need to add one more to it: my mental life.

No area of your life is untouched by your thoughts.

Every single area is influenced by the quality of thinker that you become.

So it needs to be, yeah, fitness, sure.

Family, yeah.

Finances, yeah.

How about your mental life?

How are you doing with your mental life?

So, a real easy framework, and we'll come back to this in the next two sessions, is one, what are you reading, watching, and listening to?

It's in the form of a question here.

What are you reading, watching, and listening to on a regular basis, and does that make it easier for you to live with joy or more difficult?

Did the phone conversation you had at 9.40 last night or whatever you were doing at 9.40, did that make it easier to live with joy or more difficult?

Are you watching TV programs, going to movies, reading books that are lovely, pure, true, gracious, just, excellent, and worthy of praise?

Are the people that you are investing most of your life with making it easy for you to live with joy or more difficult?

If they're making it more difficult, you've got to get better.

You, me.

We've got to get better.

I'm not pointing the finger at somebody else.

If you're living with somebody, working with somebody, love somebody who's difficult, which we all have at least one of those, that is a call not for them to improve and get better, but for us to get better at following the principle in Philippians 4.8.

We can't control them.

So our only option is to be miserable and frustrated, or to focus on what we can control, which is how we interpret the situation, the person, the relationship, the circumstances.

Because when our interpretations change, our life changes and our emotion changes.

So you've got to protect your heart.

So let me close up with this.

Point number one, each moment is a new beginning.

Point number two, we feel what we dwell upon.

Look at your emotions not as a command for action, but as a feedback mechanism.

Our emotions don't reveal the quality of our life, but the quality of our thinking at any particular moment.

And point number three, we've got to junk proof our mind.

The best way to do that is to get up early in the morning and do something joy-filled first thing in the morning.

I call it an EMJR, your early morning joy ritual.

Do something in 15 minutes a day.

How many of you plan to live at least 10 more years?

God willing, 10 more years.

I want you have one assignment to do.

I want you to add up, get out the calculator on your phone or find another one, 15 minutes a day, times a year, times the next 10 years of your life.

The cumulative value of putting your attention on God in whatever way works best for you.

I'll give you some more ideas next time, will accumulate into something that you can't put a price tag on it.

Let's close with prayer.

Heavenly Father.

Thank you for all the greatness and goodness that is around us.

That you would open our eyes so that we see it.

Help us to take care of our minds and our thought life.

Help us to be good stewards not only with our best relationships and our finances, but with the thoughts that we thank each day.

Give us a fresh dose of your spirit so that you can do in us what we cannot do for ourselves.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thank you.

I wanted to share a couple things with you.

We I mentioned that we've got um a bunch of books, enough uh for everyone.

I mentioned that Tommy got them uh direct from the publisher at cost, and um they're ten dollars each.

And I really, if you can, I'd love for every single person to have one.

It's not something you're gonna want to share uh with a spouse or a friend because there's gonna be questions and things um for you to do.

But I also want to make sure you know Tommy's not trying to sell books, nor are we.

What we're wanting to do is make it as easy as possible for us all start tomorrow uh doing this 40 days uh together.

Now, sometimes you know you may not we've got also we've got 15 stations set up, so none of us should have to wait too long um to get them.

You might want to uh think about families, friends, coworkers, invite them to do this with us, even if they can't be here on Sunday.

They can listen to the podcasts.

And um Tommy's going to have a thought or an encouragement a couple times every week for us that's gonna be on our app or Facebook page or or uh website.

And um if you don't have cash check, credit card today, uh just talk to Stephanie and take the books and bring it bring it uh next week.

Uh because I really want us all to have one.

If you're in a situation where you just can't afford a book for each of you, let Stephanie know that, and we'll we'll work that out um as well.

And uh Tommy's gonna be back next uh Sunday, and then I think the next uh three or four Sundays, I and I think one Sunday Justin's gonna share.

But we're really gonna try to share what Tommy would want us to share, and we're gonna we're collaborating on that, and uh and as we can just get guided through these 40 days to a uh joyful life.

Um Did anything?

Good.

All right, well, uh y'all want to party a little bit before we go?

Love you all.

Have a great week.