7? - Guest speaker Kenn Kington

And it's awesome to be in the presence of God's love this morning, right?

Yeah.

Well, I'm not Ken Kington, but he's here.

Uh actually, it's been a few months since Ken has been with us, about six or seven months, and God is doing really cool stuff in his life.

He is now one of the most played comedians on satellite radio, which is really awesome.

Yeah?

And he is uh he's also in the process of finishing uh filming a pilot for a television series called Stand Up Guys, which uh I'm I'm sure he's really excited about.

But Ken is, you know, he's really gifted.

God, God has really blessed him with just an awesome ability to share, you know, things in his life in a way that makes us laugh, but at the same time, really shows us um a really cool side of God.

And so uh just help me welcome Ken this morning as he comes up to share with us.

That was awesome.

Wow.

It is an honor to be back with you guys, uh Steve and I.

For those of you who may be new here, Steve Craig is the normal pastor, and for those of you who maybe been a couple times, goes, that doesn't really look like Steve.

He's he's younger but not nearly as handsome.

You know, that's it's because I'm not Steve.

But Steve and I I love filling in for Steve and allowing him to get a break, and uh and you're so gracious to have me back.

It's it's great.

It just feels so great to be here.

And they said it wasn't because of me, but anytime you open a service with a U2 song, I know it's for me.

And uh I just I love that particular song as well.

So it's great to be here with you guys.

If you want to follow, I want to encourage you this morning.

If you have a Bible with you, open a Matthew chapter six because you're gonna want to put some things in the margins.

And we're gonna close today with asking ourselves to ask God seven questions.

And I'm gonna lead into that in just a second.

But the truth be told, the last couple weeks, the last two weeks, I've been to two family reunions, one is my wife's and one's mine.

We've driven over a thousand miles, and in the midst of that, I had three different shows that I had to fly out and fly back for.

It's been a chaotic few weeks, but family just reminds me that this is the way God created us.

He could have created the world any way he wanted.

And yet he chose to create this concept of families.

And as I'm at a family reunion, I realize that I'm kind of all these different pieces.

I'm I'm a I'm a child.

I have parents, and they're my parents.

I'm fortunate they're still here, my parents, and so I'm a son, and I have that relationship, and I'm a husband, and I am a father, and I've got all these different dynamics.

And I firmly believe that God created it that way so that we could catch a glimpse of how we are to relate to him.

Not in a religious way, out of routine, but out of a relational way.

And Steve does a beautiful job of just making that completely clear in the foundation of what his hands is about, that it is a relationship.

This morning I want us to catch a glimpse of how to take that relationship to a level of more fullness and more enjoyment.

And for those of you who may not know God personally, to get a glimpse of what God really is and how we can experience the fullness of life through this relationship.

I've caught glimpses of this in my life.

And some of you still asked, and I love this.

June 29th, this past June, the 29th, was the one-year anniversary of my daughter, who will soon be seven years old.

She's six right now.

The one-year anniversary of her being completely off of chemo and being that, and that's a big her, yes.

Big time fun.

Last time she was here, she's here in the back there, but last time she was here, her hair was about my length, and now it's shoulder length, and there's very few uh physical signs of having gone through that.

It's just a blessing.

But I'll never forget, at one of the darkest, most difficult times of my life as a parent, have come some of the most amazing bonding times as well.

I would take her to clinic, which meant that she was gonna have a needle put into her port in her chest and do chemo and a spinal tap and all these very painful, very excruciating, both physically and emotionally situations, where I would do as much as I could do with her.

If she could not eat that morning because of the procedure, I would not eat.

And I would go with her through that.

And it was kind of our routine.

We'd go to clinic, and then afterwards, we'd go anywhere she wanted to eat, and one of her favorites is my favorite, which we'd go to Waffle House.

And she would tell all the nurses, we're going to Waffle's house.

And it was just such a great time that we would sit there and we would sit in our booth at our Waffle House, and we would order and we would eat and we would just look at each other and we'd shoot straw paper at each other and we would just have a blast.

It was just that time.

And in the midst of most pain, it was one of the greatest bondings.

And if you were going through a time right now, my hope is as we look at these questions that we're going to ask God, that he would show us that he is right there with us and he longs for that.

It is one of the most incredible opportunities for bonding.

And I love doing anything with my kids, and I love to usher them along and teach them as we go.

Because it's in that time together where we teach and learn these processes that several years ago, when my middle son Cody was about six or seven, he's now 11 and just the just a great-looking young man.

And but he would go with me to the store, and we'd go to the ATM, and I would have him put in the card and punch the numbers, and then put in the check, and punch the numbers, and put in another check.

And we went for a deposit one time, he put it in, and he and I said, Okay, now push that, and the card comes out.

He's like, I was like, what's wrong?

He's like, Where's the money?

And I was like, Well, no, this is a deposit.

It's a deposit.

We're just putting the money in, and no lie.

He goes, Mom always gets money.

And I was like, Yes.

Dad puts it in, mom takes it out.

That is the way it works.

And to be able to go along those lines and let them see life in its truest form, to learn these relational lessons, and it's through relationships that we learn how to experience the fullness of life.

And I also realize sometimes when I get frustrated, God will thump me in the head and realize, you know what, Ken?

I am ultimately patient, and I'm wanting to teach you through your children this type of patience.

I'll give you one quick example.

It seems that dads have a superpower that nobody else in the house has.

I'm going to show it to you.

Watch very closely.

That's it.

It's the dad's superpower because evidently we're the only ones capable of actually turning things off.

That drives me crazy at times.

And it's in those, even those frustrating moments where God says, Ken, I am so patient with you, and I just cringe, going, God, help, help me learn this lesson.

And it's through our relationships that we do that.

Well, if you have your Bibles open, I want you to look at Matthew chapter 6.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

I want to read a simple passage, verses 6 through 13, of how God reveals to us his relation and how we are to relate to him.

And then we're going to look at five different, I'm sorry, seven different ideas, and then we're going to ask these questions.

It says this starting in verse six.

When you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your father, who is unseen.

Then your father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they are heard because of their many words.

Do not be like them.

For you, for your father knows what you need before you ask him.

This then is how you should pray.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

In that simple passage, God gives us some relational concepts, some truths that really apply on every level.

If you're here today and you have parents, how many of you at some point in your life have had or currently have parents?

Raise your hands.

Okay.

I'm not really sure about the rest of you, but that's okay.

We'll get to that later.

We all have parents.

We relate in that way.

Some of us have children, and it's that relation.

So we were involved there.

But over all of that is how we relate to God in a relational, fatherly sense.

He opens the prayer.

When you pray, pray this, our Father.

In verse 6, he says, pray to your father, then your father.

It is a relational sense.

God created us to be in that relation.

The first concept, though, that he desires, and it's clear in these first couple verses, is time.

Time.

There is no substitute for time.

Relationally speaking, love is often spelled T-I-M-E, time.

And he shows us very clearly to go into your room in verse 6.

Go into your room and pray to your father who is unseen.

And then your father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

He wants that one-on-one personal time with us.

And I can say this as parents, our children want that.

But as children, let me just encourage you that one of the greatest gifts that you can give a parent is time.

One of my favorite Father's Day gifts of all was this past year.

I was at my office and I'm working, and my oldest son Graham called.

He says, Dad, can you be home by five o'clock?

And I'm like, Yeah.

My house is only about seven, ten minutes away.

I'm like, yeah.

I didn't ask why, I just came home and I said, Okay, yeah, I'll be there.

So I get there and I get there about right at five o'clock.

He's like, okay, are you ready?

And I'm like, ready for what?

It was the week before Father's Day, and it never dawned on me what was going to happen next because, Dad, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays are in town.

They're the first place team in the American League.

The Braves are the first place team in the National League, and I want to take you to the Braves game.

Yes.

And not only that, we stopped on our way down.

He's like, Dad, I know you love it and I love it.

Let's eat at the varsity, and I love the varsity.

And as we sat there and ate food that is just good, I didn't see any nutritional charts anywhere in the entire restaurant.

I'm thankful for that.

Personally, I believe everyone should eat at the varsity at least once a year to kind of cleanse the system, if you know what I mean.

And just so we're at the varsity and we're eating and we go down to the game and we're just, it was just good.

And you know what?

I don't know what we talked about.

We talked about nothing.

We talked about everything, but we sat there and we enjoyed the game together, and it's because of that time.

That time.

That time is what builds relationships, what we long for.

And what God is saying to you and I this morning is that's what he longs for, is just that time.

That time with us.

It can be structured, it can have reading the Bible, it can have praying and sharing our hearts, and that's important.

But sometimes I believe that God just wants time.

Maybe it's a walk in the woods where we're alone and quiet, where he says, be alone in your closet.

Get away with God and just be quiet.

And just spend time with him.

I did an event in Minneapolis, Minnesota earlier this year.

And it was one of the most unusual events I'd ever done, not because of the event, it was a dinner and it was a fundraiser for an organization.

That's normal.

I do about five to ten of those a year, but it was who it was for.

It was the NC Little House.

I didn't know anything about the NC Little House.

So I go online, I read a little bit about it, and I became just enthralled and amazed.

People have different passions.

This one particular group of people has a passion, a passion for people who are at the end of life, about to transition.

It's a hospice.

And their passion is to provide peace and dignity and to provide not only for the individual going through this process, but the families as well.

And I was blown away at the passion and the detail that these people sent.

And I so loved this.

It was not a depressing dinner at all, it was a rejoicing and a celebration of what was and what is.

And the story that hit me the most was a family.

I got to meet them afterwards.

The father was in the last days, and he was at this hospice.

And this place, they would do anything for anybody that's requested.

One other quick one.

This gentleman stood up.

He says, You know what?

We brought my wife home, and she was in the final day.

She was fighting cancer for the third time, and it was evident she was not going to make it.

We brought her home, but we realized quickly we don't have the resources to do what we need.

So we quickly looked and we walked into this place, and there was a not a hospital field, it was a house.

There's a huge fireplace and people smiling, and you could smell the dinner of the night, and we thought, this is the place.

And he said, I couldn't help but remember walking into her room one morning.

I would walk in and they would have my coffee and my breakfast ready every day when I walked in.

And then I would go up, and my wife loves pink, and there were these pink sheets on her bed, and the nurse came in, she said, What do you think?

And and he said, just flippantly, he goes, That's the best you can do.

And the nurse said, Game on.

The next day he walks in, and there are these bright pink polka dot sheets.

And his wife, who was at that point incapacitated physically but very conscious mentally, she said, Thanks a lot.

And that's the detail they go to.

But the one that hit me in the family I met, the father is in the final days.

He is wheelchair bound and he has days to live.

And one of the staff just asked him, they said, You seem a bit down.

Are you okay?

And he says, You know, I'm fine.

You guys are incredible.

They said, But something's on your mind.

What is on your mind?

And he said, Well, Easter.

This weekend is Easter.

And I and I can't tell you why.

I just, my kids are small, and I hate it that they're not going to have an Easter egg hunt.

And she smiled and she said, You know what?

Don't worry about that.

What do you want for Easter lunch?

And they, sure enough, Easter came and they fixed the lunch.

And at the end of the lunch, they said, Okay, are you ready for the surprise?

And he's expecting dessert.

And they take his wheelchair and they wheel him out into the garden in the midst of this place.

And he sits in the garden and they hand out baskets to each of his children.

And they have hidden over a hundred eggs.

And he got to sit and watch his children hunt Easter eggs one more time.

And they said, the peace on his face because of the time was amazing.

And the family told me afterwards, I got to meet his widow and his children who are now three or four years older, and they said, We'll never forget that day.

That time.

Those moments.

And God would say to you and I, I want that time on a regular basis.

That's what I long for with you.

Not just because God wants us, but because he longs in those moments to give us what we need.

Sometimes it's peace, sometimes it's strength, whatever it is, but those times.

There's another that I, as a dad, I think every dad in here, maybe moms, would really relate to.

In verse 7, there's a beautiful, beautiful wording.

It says, When you pray, do not keep on babbling.

No babbling.

I think every parent would say, Amen, hallelujah, whatever the religious term is.

No babbling.

As parents, we don't like babbling.

You ask us once, and we say, you know what?

And we go on through this process, especially for those of you who are students, we go through the process thinking of all the options and angles.

And when we give an answer, it is not flippant.

It is just it's what's best.

And do we make mistakes?

Yes, but it's what's best.

We don't want you to keep on babbling over and over and over and over and over.

You will not get it because of the many words.

Do not be deceived.

And I know your tricks because I used to play them.

I know when you hear no, you go to the other parent.

I get that.

But what we long for is no babbling.

What we long for is for to take this idea and say, you know what?

That talking back and the asking over and over, we need to realize that God is the same way.

Instead of going back over and over, I think what he would long for instead of babbling is the next word, and that is trust.

We see it in verse 8 and in verse 10.

It says, your father knows what you need before you ask.

But for us to, as he says in verse 10, when you pray, pray your will be done.

God, I don't understand why this didn't work out, but your will be done.

And Lord, you know what?

Instead of babbling, I'm going to confess, I trust you because I know you know what I need before I even ask.

And students and those of you who have and live in your parents' home, let me let me just encourage you.

You want to shock your parents.

The next time you ask something and they say, mmm, no.

You want to flip them out.

What you do at that point instead of, oh, come on, please, please, please, instead of doing that, go, Father, thank you for your consideration.

I trust your judgments.

Lead me where I should go.

That sense of trust.

And see, here's the amazing part for us who know God personally, realize that we will not always hear the answer we want.

And we will not always get that answer when we want it.

But would we be so bold to say that, God, I don't know why this is happening, I do not understand this, but I trust you.

I don't think it, I don't feel it, I just choose to trust you.

That is a radical statement.

That motivates a parent to go, well, let me explain why.

I want you to have this, I want you to have what you want, but this is not the best time, this is not the best balance, and we'll want to share with you why.

And see, God is not any less than we are as parents.

He is grander and greater and infinitely better to say, You're not gonna have it now, but I have something better.

You're not gonna get this now because it's gonna be best in another time if we'll choose to trust.

And then he shares a beautiful, beautiful concept in verse 11, the idea of contentment.

Where he says, When you pray, pray this.

Give us our day, give us this day our daily bread.

Give us something to eat.

This concept of contentment of going, you know what?

It's a reference back to the Old Testament where God provided bread every day and then they grumbled because they only had bread.

This idea of being content.

The question I have for you and I, because we live in a society that is not content, anything but content.

Everything blasts us from billboards to TV to magazines to say you should not be content.

But let me tell you, some of the people that I know that have the greatest abundance of life and joy and fulfillment are those who realize stuff just really doesn't matter.

If you've never seen the movie, I don't endorse a lot of them, but I would encourage you, and there's some scenes, so younger children shouldn't see it, but it's a movie called Cinderella Man.

And it's one of my favorite, it's in my top ten of all movies of all time.

And it's a story about Jim Braddock.

Jim Braddock was a fighter, and not just figuratively in life, but he was definitely that, but he was a prize fighter.

And and Jim had gone up and down, he had actually won a title, and then the depression hit, and he lost everything.

And he was waning in health and inability, but he lost it all in the depression, and he's sitting there with the house, and he has an opportunity.

His manager finds him one opportunity that leads to another and leads to another, and he finds himself working his way back from the relief lines of unemployment.

And there's a beautiful scene where he stands in those same unemployment lines and relief lines, but instead of to get, he's coming to pay back what he'd already gotten.

And he gets to the point where he actually gets a shot at the title.

But it's against a champion who is devastating.

He's actually killed a couple people in the ring.

That's how devastating he was.

And in the pre-fight interview with him, they said, Jim, I gotta ask the question, what happened?

What happened?

You've been fighting now for years, and let's be honest, you couldn't win a fight for love or money.

And now you got a shot of the title.

What happened?

How can you go down and be done with your career and then come back?

What happened?

And he gives a few minor well, you know what?

We were fighting hurt there for a while.

I'd broken my hand and just this and that.

He says, you know what?

The bottom line is now I know what I'm fighting for.

What's that, Jimmy?

Milk.

Milk.

See, he struggled to provide even the basic essentials for his family.

They live in a run-down apartment below in the basement where there was no heat.

And there were days where they didn't have enough to eat.

And now he knew what he was fighting for.

This concept of contentment, I can tell you this: if you and I would wake up every day and just contently thank God, God, thank you today.

Today, I am not consumed with, am I going to eat?

I am not consumed with, am I going to have shelter and a place to sleep?

God, thank you.

That contentment, not only is it a just a prime to God saying, you've got the right perspective now, it settles our heart, it gives us priority, it clarifies what really is important.

This idea of contentment.

And then he also says, when you pray in verse 9, he talks about appreciation.

Appreciation.

Hallowed be your name.

Hallowed be your name.

I tell you, one of the things I love most.

I don't know when they learned it.

I'm sure their mother taught it to them because I did not.

But that is my my kids have this sense of appreciation.

My middle son, he does it on a regular basis, not just for me, but when we're our grandparents or we're anywhere, he will walk up and just go, thank you so much.

Thank you so much for dinner.

Really?

Yeah, you're welcome.

There's just something about that appreciation.

Thankful for the little things that blows me away that I love.

And I want to have that attitude.

I want that attitude.

And I would even say, just for a minute, in a different category, if you're married here today and you are a spouse of a husband, that would make you a wife.

Let me tell you, there is nothing that motivates us more than appreciation.

We long for it.

We crave it.

We long for that validation on a regular basis, ongoing basis.

That idea that the one person that we cherish most appreciates us.

Everybody in the world can tell us we're something or nothing.

If they tell us we're something, it's still not good enough until you tell us that.

For those of you, if we can be beat down by the world and you speak into us, it means everything.

In my movie Cinderella Man, it's one of the greatest scenes in the movie.

Jim's wife has found out that this gentleman he will be fighting, Max Bear, has killed two people in the ring, and she is torn and she said, Don't do it.

I don't need a title, I need you.

Don't do this.

Don't get in that ring.

And he is torn.

He is torn because he knows that if he fights one more fight, if he if he wins, just shows up and gets the purse for fighting, then it will set them.

And his children will not have to worry about having something to eat.

And they will not have to worry about having the heat turned on anymore.

And he knows and he's torn as a provider and a dad, he's got to do this one more fight.

And yet to his wife saying, Don't do this.

We'll find a way.

And he's torn.

And reluctantly he kisses her and he goes to the fight.

And she, being a dutiful wife, goes to church to pray.

And as she walks in, she sees the pastor, the father of that parish, and and she looks, and the father says, Hi, what can I do for you?

And she goes, I'm I'm here to pray for Jim.

And he turns around and he points to a packed church and he said, So are they.

And she is just overwhelmed with the reality of what this means.

She prays, and then the next scene, my favorite scene in the movie.

I am a man's man, and every time I see this, I cannot help but just mist up.

She walks into a locker room where the manager is trying to pump up Jim and just saying, Who beat that guy?

Well, that would be Braddock.

Who beat this guy to get here?

That would be Jim Braddock.

And he's trying to pump him up, and there's this sullen look on his face, and he's trying to get up, but he just can't.

And she walks in the locker room.

And he's surprised.

And he walks over and she just speaks into him.

And you can see his countenance quietly but greatly change.

And she says, Jim Braddock, you are the bulldog of Bergen.

You are the hope of the people.

You are the hero to your children.

And you are the champion of my heart.

You fight, and then you come home.

And it's just every man longs to hear that appreciation, that speaking into our hearts.

And I would say to you and I today that as undeserving as we realize we are as fathers and husbands, God is ultimately deserving of us taking that time to just say, God, you are the healer, you are the creator, you are the one of all wisdom.

And just whatever comes to your heart and mind, sharing that with him.

Because not only does it give him the glory he deserves, it gives us the perspective we need.

If we'll do that.

Parents long for it in their children.

If you're a child, let me just encourage you.

We long for you to learn this concept of responsibility.

In verse 12, it says, forgive us our sins.

God knows that we are not perfect.

He knows that we need forgiveness.

What he longs for is for you and I to acknowledge that we need that forgiveness.

Take responsibility.

It's part of the process of that relationship, going, God, I confess I've sinned and I fall short.

He just wants us to own it.

Because that last beautiful song portrays the idea of my chains are gone.

Our chains are gone when we confess and we allow God to unlock us from those chains.

God, I am in chains.

I am not perfect.

I need help.

And that's when he unlocks it.

And that's when we experience that incredible grace.

That concept of, I need your forgiveness.

I take responsibility.

Relationally, both to our parents, to our children, taking responsibility.

Children, that's why parents have to say no sometime because we know there's greater responsibilities.

Relationally, those of you who are married or in a relationship to take that responsibility.

Three most difficult words for men to ever utter.

Actually, there's two sets.

I'll give you them both.

And the first one is, I don't know.

Incredibly difficult to say because we're men, we're supposed to know it all.

And the other one, probably even more difficult, I was wrong.

Painful to say those words.

And my wife and her grace will have a disagreement.

We have a few each year, and she came up one night and she just very humbly said, I just want you to know I was wrong, and I apologize.

And she named the specifics.

And then she was quiet, and I said, Well, thank you.

And then she said, and you.

And I honestly had a blank mind.

I said, I am so sorry for what it is I said.

What I didn't say, what I did, what I didn't do.

I think that covers it all.

But that that sense of going, you know what?

I'm taking responsibility.

Because once we do that, we realize God's grace.

We realize his grace, not only from him, but to give us the power to do that.

Forgive us our sins as we, as he says in verse 12, as we forgive our debtors.

That freedom to go, I forgive.

You know what?

I've made mistakes.

I give that preference as well.

And then finally, this idea of humility.

Humility.

In verse 13, it says, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us.

It is humbling ourselves in God's presence saying, God, I need you.

If I want to have the greatest relationship possible on every level, there has to be that point where I humble myself.

One of my favorites as a dad is when my children go with me.

Kennedy, my daughter, she's my youngest.

She's about to turn seven in August.

And what I love is that she is willing to say, Daddy, I'm I'm humble and I'll go with you.

She's my big helper.

She's my helper.

And I love her helping me.

I love doing it together.

Anything together.

She'll go with me to Home Depot and we'll just go around and she'll help pick up stuff.

I do want to share one other quick item because a very practical way of humility.

And I want to share it because it's going to happen here on August 20th, is the ultimate date night.

And I got to tell you about the event really quickly because it's one of those steps where in a relationship, there's times where we just need to be together and build each other up.

That step of humility is going, hey, I like to have fun and I know I need help.

That's it.

Next week they're going to start with the tickets and all that.

But this week I want to just encourage you to do this.

Let me describe the night real quick.

You're going to walk in, there's going to be tables, there's going to be desserts, and it's a lot of fun.

How many of you remember the old newlywed game?

Do you remember that?

Oh my goodness.

We don't bring you up on stage and embarrass you.

Everybody in the room plays at the same time.

And it is one of the funniest things to watch ever.

And then you're going to be around those and you're going to do the answers.

You're going to laugh a lot.

And then we're going to have another game that the entire table plays.

There's prizes, there's incredible desserts, and then I'm going to share some simple tools that make marriage instantly better.

And you will laugh hard.

We call it the funnest night since your honeymoon.

Because it will be.

And you will go, that was the greatest thing ever.

Here's what I want you to do on your way out today.

I want you to grab a couple of these cards, grab three or four, five of them.

They're at the info table.

And just carry them with you and ask a simple question.

God, when you bring somebody across my path, who do I need to give that to and say, hey, we're going to this?

It's going to be a blast.

It's going to be the funnest night since your honeymoon.

It's actually written on there, so it's got to be.

Take those with you.

And that act, especially for those of us who are husbands, let me encourage you, take the lead on that.

It will be a great date night.

It'll be a lot of fun.

Take the lead and say, you know what?

What other couples do we need to bring?

There's four couples at each table.

Get with another couple, get that together.

It will be a blast.

With this in mind, I want us to wrap up this step in a very practical way of humility this morning.

How do we relate to God?

And I want us individually to ask God one of seven questions.

I'm going to list them all.

Sometimes when I pray, I like to ponder with my eyes open and look out.

Sometimes I just close my eyes so I can really focus.

Whatever works for you, I want you to do that now.

And I want us to just pray and ask these questions.

And I want us to really grab one of them to walk out with today, one of these seven questions.

So however you pray, whether it's your eyes closed or eyes open, it doesn't matter, but I want you to pray and ask one of these questions.

God, am I setting aside time to just be with you alone on a regular basis?

Have I prayed, then stopped to listen to what you might want to say to me?

Or do I just babble and leave?

Have I stopped and declared I trust you no matter what happens?

With appreciation.

God, am I as eager to say thank you as I am to ask you?

God, am I showing contentment by saying thank you because I have food and a place to live?

Lord, do I daily take responsibility for where I fall short and thank you for your full and complete forgiveness?

And God, am I showing grace and respect by forgiving anyone and everyone?

Which question?

Father, I thank you.

I thank you that your Holy Spirit, you in reality, in our hearts, beyond our conscience, will speak to our hearts exactly what we need to be able to relate with you and each other and in all our relationships better.

Father, this morning I pray that we would not leave the same.

That we would walk away with one of these words and one of these questions in our minds and our hearts, and that you would be glorified.

That we would connect with you on a deeper, better, fuller, richer level.

Father, I specifically and especially pray for those who are here that don't know you on that level, that they would realize it's a simple humility of saying, God, I need your forgiveness.

I need your help, and I want to know you personally.

And Father, the other group, I pray for parents that we would realize that we need you.

We need your help.

So, Father, help us to model these words and live them out because we know more will be caught than we'll ever be taught.

And help us to relate with you so that you can empower us and guide us to live this in our lives and our families.

And it really is only through the perfect example of Christ that we pray and we thank you for him.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

I can't wait to be back next week.

We're gonna share a little bit more about parenting and a little bit more about how we can relate to God in that way.

Um, but we're gonna close in a word of uh not a word of prayer, we're gonna close in a song, and I want to encourage you, go buy the info, grab these cards, and um I just uh I look forward.

I'm gonna be hanging out in the back as well.

So God bless you guys.

Thanks for letting me share.

Take it away, guys.