May God our Father, and the, and the Lord Jesus Christ himself, give you grace and peace. Now, this is the way Paul starts one of his letters in the New Testament, and now he's gonna preach. Now he's gonna just give you the gospel. He says, in order to set us free from this present evil age, Christ himself gave himself for our sins. And he did this in obedience to the will of our God and Father. So there was this plan all along that Jesus was going to lay down his life and, and, and rescue us. And then he wraps it all up. This is Galatians one, in verse five. He says, to God, be the glory forever and ever. Now, normally when you do something like that and you read something like that, it's kind of in the old timey language. You'd call it a benediction. It's kinda like that's the last thing you give people before they leave, right? Well, who knows? That might be the last thing you hear today. But I wanted you to get a sense of what this was. To God be the glory. We're gonna give him all the credit we're, it's the end of November, y'all. Can you believe it? So let me just say hello to those of you who were, uh, joining us at Grants Trail and Fenton and Mid Rivers, and joining us all really across the world online. Uh, but if we're at the end of November, that means we are like, we're facing, we're staring down what? Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving was the word we were looking for. Thanksgiving. Are you guys at the sites? Okay, so Thanksgiving, like that's this week. Are you ready? Yeah. So, so, so here's the thing. Um, we're going to, we're we're gonna, we're gonna end things like we're, we're running headlong to it right now. I'm just telling you the last few minutes of this service, like four minutes and change is a gift for you to send you out into Thanksgiving week. Your soul needs this. We want to give this to you, but this is one of those spoiler alert moments where I'm just saying, Hey, y'all, uh, do your best to hang in there. Like I just, I, I know it's, oh, if I could just, but you want this. Now, if somebody leaves like near you, I mean this, don't, don't look sideways at 'em. This may be too much. And if it is, we're gonna honor that, right? But if you can, I, I hope that you can stay for this because we are going to, we're gonna talk about gratitude and how this can actually stir up in us. So, to get things started, would you just meet some folks around you? It won't be the first time you talk to 'em. And remember to invite people in if they're sitting next to you. Rate yourself on your gratitude level these days on the thank oh meter. Where are you? So, just so we're clear, one, one is really low. That's like you're a scary person, okay? Five is, you've got so much thanks. Like you might be a scary person where, and by the way, three means you just can't commit. So talk to each other, one through five. Where are you? Okay. Alright. You're gonna come back to this in just a second. Um, I think that the ability to say thank you, the ability to express gratitude is one of the fundamental markers of a healthy spiritual life. Like, I think the abundant life, the, the, the, the difference making life, the high impact life, the flourishing life, the generous life. It's a life that can express gratitude. And the thread running through it all is that God is with us. God is for us, and God is still up to something all around us. So we're gonna pray now and jump into this thing. And, uh, uh, let, let's see what God says to us. Father, we come before you we're, we are, uh, we're, we are, we are here from so many different perspectives and places, and some of us are just so looking forward to this week. Some of us, uh, this is a bit of a milestone or an anniversary or a, there may even be dread this week, God. And then there are many of us, like in different places from those two that are, uh, we, we just have questions about what does it mean to be grateful? What does it mean to be thankful in this world? Lord, as always, we're asking you to speak through your word to meet us now, do a mighty thing By the time we live here, may we together say it was good to be with each other, but more importantly, it was good to be with you. God, this is all for your glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So we are officially now putting p pushing pause on this peak experience, this thing that we've been in all fall and, uh, uh, what means new year? We'll pick it up in the New Testament, so it's gonna be fun. But the, it was a ride through the Old Testament, wasn't it? Just to catch people up a little bit. If you haven't been here, uh, there's an ancient kind of assumption. The ancient imagination would say that a mountain was a place where in, in some ways heaven and earth met. They it like they overlapped there. And God used this kind of thinking to speak real truth to people in his story. And, and so we just saw some really powerful things. By the way, uh, bonus points for anybody who remembers the Hebrew word for mountain. Anybody got that one? Ha The word is ha. Why don't you turn to each other and speak a little Hebrew? Just tell 'em ha ha, okay, yeah. Ha. Yeah. Yep, it happened again. I'm telling you, every time we do this, some of you guys go all pirate on it. Ha ha. No, that's not what I said. Ha ha. How do you spell that? HAR in, in English. That's how you would spell it. HAR. Uh, so here's the thing. Uh, it can mean a, a small hill, it can mean a high mountain, but we kind of covered some ground. I mean, just to look at the, let's just do a flyover, uh, like, you know, many places that we went, but we spent three weeks at Mount Sinai, uh, and, uh, in the Arabian Peninsula. But then as it begins to move north, what you will see off in the distance on the left is the Mediterranean Sea. But there's Mount Nepo. Mount Zion is actually where Jerusalem is. Mount Mariah is the hill that overlooks Jerusalem. Really strategic. And then a couple of weeks ago we were at Mount Carmel, and then in the New Testament, we're gonna be up around that Sea of Galilee. So there's some things that, that we're going to cover. But already we've run into people like, uh, like Abraham and Moses and David and Elijah. And one of the things we learned was on these mountaintops, uh, these are moments of decision. These are places of choice. Will I trust that God knows what he's talking about? Will I trust God? Will I surrender to God? Because if I do, this is a time of freedom. It's a time of victory. It's a time of worship or not. It's like a pivotal moment, these mountaintop experiences. And so today we're kind of officially done with, you know, part one, but we're still gonna be in the hills because I think this is gonna help prepare us for gratitude. Now, I don't know how you rated yourself on the thank oh meter, but if there's a part of you that's just wanting to kick it up, like maybe just a half notch, I think there are some thoughts here that can help us. But we're gonna start in Psalm 1 21. We'll just read the first couple of verses there. Some of this might actually sound familiar to you. Let me just read the first verse. I lift up my eyes to the hills one more time. What's that word in the Hebrew? Har har, I lift up my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from? Now, little background here. Uh, this is one of the psalms that are called, there are 15 of 'em, and they're called Psalms or Psalms of ascent to climb. This is, these are Psalms of ascent and what happened here, scholars believe that there, these 15 psalms that are clumped in this part of the book are the songs that people sang together as they made their way to Jerusalem three times a year. There were these festivals that you went to Jerusalem to celebrate, and you went to the temple up to the temple there on that hill overlooking Jerusalem, and you ascended into the hills and to the temple. And people would sing these songs. Think of the Psalms of ascent as, um, it's kinda like your road trip music. Maybe you put a playlist together, maybe you have something that you wanna listen to. But that's what they would do. They would sing these things together and somewhere along the way you'd have to make camp. You'd have to, depending on how far away you were, there might be wild animals. There might be those who would come out of the rocks there above you on the hills that would come down and, and take all of your stuff. I mean, that happened. But what the author here is saying is, I will lift up my eyes. We're making our way through the hills. I want to get to Jerusalem. I wanna get to the temple. I will lift up my eyes. Now, that doesn't just mean, hey, I'm gonna look up, it's a Hebrew way of saying I'm gonna pay attention. I'm gonna notice something. So maybe like the, the first thing that we could say here is, turn your eyes to him. You see, the question that I would, that I would, uh, that I would have us ask is like, where, where does my help come from? Like, where do I think my rescue, my my, my strength, my my guidance, my help comes from? I will tell you, a lot of times when we're in the thick of a challenge, the first reaction is to look here. Like I, okay, so I've, my experiences, my thoughts, my opinions, my, and, and, and if I'm not careful, the answer is I, I'll tell you where I look, I'll tell you where my help comes from. It comes from me. 'cause if, if I don't do this, then nobody will. And that's, that's not what he's saying. In fact, he answers his question immediately, where does my help come from? My help comes from the lord, the maker of heaven and earth. I mean, he just tells you straight up. Now let's go on ahead and say, was there danger in those hills? Oftentimes there was, uh, was he trying to make his way to Jerusalem and to the temple? Yes. Did that mean he was gonna have to take a step towards that? If he was gonna make progress on his journey, he was gonna have to take this step and then the one after that and the one after that. Yeah. That's the only way he's gonna get there. We have to own our own journey. We have to own the responsibility of what it means for me to take a step towards God. But what he's saying right here is, I can't do this alone. I don't wanna do this alone. Where's my help coming from? It's coming from God. Is there anybody here who can give a witness? I love the first song that we sang today. Is there anybody here who can give a witness to what happens when you admit I'm not God? You are. And I'm gonna let you 'cause you've got it. Is there anybody else here who knows the freedom of going, God, I need you and I don't wanna do this alone. 'cause that's what the first part of this is. And I'll even go ahead and tell you that that's what stirs up some gratitude. 'cause it's like, I don't have to do this alone, but now let's look at how God helps us. The second thing is, notice his care in this little psalm. You see all sorts of things that God will do for you. He'll protect you, he'll guide you. But there's a phrase that comes up again and again and again, and it's, he will watch over you. If you were here last week, you might remember that I was kind of riffing on the story of Elijah. It's not in the text, but in my mind, I'm, I'm wondering how relieved Elijah was. He's on the run. There's a price on his head. This queen wants him dead. And this angel wakes him up and gives him warm bread and cool water and then tells him to take another nap. You remember that? And, and what I asked was, I wonder how deeply he slept the next time knowing that there was an angel of God watching over him. Listen, y'all, I want you to understand these stories aren't just for runaway prophets in the Old Testament, this story is for you. God sent that angel and God does not slumber and God does not sleep. I need to slumber. I need to sleep. But what I do is I rest as best I can. I rest in the truth that I know, that I know that God watches over me. Here it is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and David and Elijah is my God. Yes, you can, you can live with that. You can hang on to that. But as soon as I say that, I want you to understand you're gonna have moments in this life that'll take your breath away. And I don't mean in a good way, the Bible tells us this. Yes, God will watch over you, but you and I live in a broken world. Yes. And in this broken world, we will be disappointed. So as soon as I start talking about God's care and God's watching over me, i i from my own experiences, I know that I hold it intention with that other truth, which is, uh, things are temporary and fragile in this world. Like jobs and houses and plans and bodies, friendships, people we love. That's the world we live in. So let's tell the truth about it. But then what do we do? How do we live in a not yet healed world? Well, first of all, that's the hope, isn't it? It's not yet healed. We believe God will have the last word. So what do we do? In the meantime? We clinging to the fact not only that he will heal this world, but that in these moments, God is with me. And God watches over me. There will be moments that God watches over me in such big and profound ways that I won't even be able to understand it for days, weeks, years to come. And then I'll look back and go, that's how you are guiding me. Some of these things will happen. So like in real time, such little ways. But I, my job is to lean in and to notice. And don't forget the verse from last week. God is close to the broken hearted. So this is how we live. This is what we do. So let that settle in. There's a gratitude that comes from that, even in the storm. But now let me give you a different one. We're shifting gears. Be generous. You are like, wait, what? Well, generosity doesn't just have to do with, with, with finances. I mean it does, but it's not just that. Be generous with your gratitude. If you read these psalms of ascent, you will see that, that there are many places in there where they are lamenting, where they're, they're, they're talking about the tough part of life. But then there are other places in there where they're just flat out praising God and they are generous with their praise. Be generous with your thank yous this week. Look around and say thank you. And could we just say this, like, when you're sitting at the table this week and you look around the table, don't let your first thought be, man, these people are a piece of work. 'cause I promise you they're thinking the same thing about you. No, let's not expect perfection from each other. Let's just look around the table and go, man, you are a gift to me. Golly, we don't agree on everything but you. I'm, I thank God for you and thank you, right? So let's do this. Uh, Psalm one 19, the psalmist says, let me live so that I might praise you. It's a completely different way to think about life. There's a, a really well-known, uh, uh, British author named GK Chesterton. Turns out he's also a devoted follower of Jesus. One night at the end of the day, he wrote these words, just look at this, here ends another day, during which I have had eyes, ears, hands, and the great world around me. Tomorrow begins another day. Why am I allowed to? Some of you know that life is a gift. Some of you even, and, and maybe even because of the pain or the struggle or the challenge that you're going through, you know, life is a gift. Some of you know that. It's a, it is a gift to be loved. It's a gift to be able to love others. Some of you. Uh, and it, it's a gift to be able to accomplish something at work. It's a gift to be able to finish the semester. It's a gift to hear the laughter of a child. It's a gift to do life with a friend. It's a gift to cry and hope and, and pray and listen and know that God is with you. It's a gift. And so let's be generous with our thank yous. I mean, I'm just telling you, you can actually get in the habit of doing this. And I'm gonna warn you when you do this, it's contagious. Like you doing. This will be contagious for others. There was a study that was just released and that's released that said, over half of the people this past year who made a charitable donation. So these are people who gave to an organization. Over half of them said part of the reason they did that was because there was a time in their life when they were, they, they were on the receiving end of, of, of extreme generosity. And what these researchers are saying is, we see what they're calling a virtuous cycle. So like when you receive kindness, when you receive gentleness, when you receive generosity, you're more likely to pass it on. I'm just saying, let's be a hub of generosity around here where we are giving and receiving in all sorts of ways. And the blessings are flying everywhere because God will bless something like that. Now you gotta hear me. That doesn't mean that you're going to be the winner of the billion dollar lottery. I'm not saying that, by the way. I think somebody beat you to that. Okay? But it's not that. But God will bless you, intangible and intangible ways. God loves watching his children love and bless each other. And he's like, Ooh, I wanna get in on that. And he has blessed you, hasn't he? Now I noticed here, maybe it was that same way at other sites, but I noticed here that it was a little like, I had to kind of interrupt you when you were talking about where you were on the, on the KO meter. So here's what I want us to do now. See if you can just at least give one specific thing for which you are thankful. Maybe something one way that you can go, you know, God bless me this way. Now, by the way, if you're going, I don't even know that I believe in God yet. It's okay for you to say that to your group. Maybe you could say something like, Hey, I'm grateful that it's okay for me to say that out loud 'cause I'm still on my way. But what I want you to do is to just talk to each other, something for which you are thankful. Two things, ones, don't be cynical, fives, dial it back. Just one notch for everybody. Okay? All right, go ahead. Talk to each other. What are you thankful for? All right. So maybe the question to ask is, how do we even begin to say thanks for all the things he's done for us? Well, let's take an offering. No, no, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Some of you stopped breathing for like a nanosecond there. No, we wouldn't do that. We're not doing that. Listen, I will tell you, this Bible does say that when God has blessed you and redeemed you, then you get to invest in his local church. And it really is something that's clear and it's there. And you get to be a part of a community of faith and all that. And if you have questions, come find me and we'll talk about that. That's not the question. How do we like, how do we say thanks collectively? I'll just give you a couple of quick things. One, just keep growing in your trust of him. I mean, if God is good, then he, your best interest is at heart. So then you learn what he's saying here, and you take another step towards him. You do what he's saying here. You pray big, bold prayers. God, I know that you love me. Can I, can I join you in this? Uh, you, you, here's one. You tell other people about what he's done for you. Can you even imagine like the contagion of goodness that would happen in this community if each of us told 1, 2, 5 people, Hey, this is what Jesus did for me. I believe that's the beginning of a revival. How about this, uh, you worship like openly? And then maybe one more. What if we loved outrageously, I mean loved outrageously. That takes us to Christmas. I know that you've already heard today a couple of times about advent conspiracy. We're not gonna, we're not gonna go do a deep dive on that now. Um, I'll just say that the word conspiracy, I know it's scary. I know it's freaky. We came up with this almost 20 years ago. Uh, the whole point here is let's, let's, let's push against what the world says and let's make sure that Jesus is at the center of Christmas. We're not grumpy about this, we're not angry about this. We just want Jesus to be at the center. But let me just talk about those two middle things. See, I I, I, one of the things we push against is when the world says, you know how you celebrate Christmas, you go into debt, you spend money for things that nobody wants and nobody needs. You make sure that the pile of presents around the tree is three feet high and then people are done with them. Like, you know, two days later that that's celebrating the birth of Jesus. We push against that. Now, again, we love gifts, but we're just saying there's a different way to do this. So, so, uh, so, so I know there are people who are right now trying to figure out how to spend less this year. I get it. Maybe, maybe this could help you. There are ways to actually have conversations with your kids. We have found this for years. It's meaningful. They get it. It's fun. There are ways for you to talk to your friends about this, but it's, it's connected to give more, give relationally. You give gifts that celebrate the relationship. And some of you're like, well, I don't even know what that means. Well, we've been doing this for a long time. It's wrapped around the world a couple of times. Younger generations continue to do this in younger churches around the world. We keep hearing from them. But I'll just say this, do what the rest of the world does and go to the website that was created right here at this little old church that is now serving the world. And just go there. And it's so deep, it's so rich. There's so much stuff there. There's theological explanations, there's fun videos, there's FAQs, there's a whole list of ideas about how you can give relationally. So I would say that's a way for us to kind of do this differently this Christmas. Here's one, going back to the idea of inviting. Invite your friends to the artisan market December 5th, Friday, December 5th. Now, we don't make any money off of that. In fact, we give money away. But it's a really cool way to serve local charities. It's a good way to serve local artisans. It's a really fun way to be involved with something. Live Christmas music, uh, s'mores around the fire pit, uh, food trucks. Uh, there's a Christmas movie for kids, uh, like bring blankets. It's just an amazing time. Your friends will go, well, thanks for that. They'll also thank you if you invite 'em to the services in December. You see your friends want something more. They don't want more stress. They don't want more, uh, expectations. They don't want more worry. They don't want more anxiety. They don't want more controversy, but they do want more answers about who God is. They do want more clarity. They want more peace, more hope, more joy. I say, let's be generous in the way that we invite people into the story. Let's be generous, yes, with our resources, but let's be generous with the way that we love and the way that we, the way that we thank others. Let's be generous with our thank yous. Now, if what I just said kind of threw you, because you're stuck on the word generous. Like if your heart is shrinking just a little bit, like maybe not two sizes too small, but you're, you know, you're, maybe you're on your way. I mean, it's just, let me help you with this. If you're just saying, great, I'm stuck when it comes to gratitude. 'cause I just, I don't, man, I don't like, it's not like it's not getting in. Try this. You ready? Here it is. Get yourself a musician. Okay? Nobody's writing this down. Elisha is the, uh, the protege and the, the guy who follows after Elijah. He's got his own stories. There's a little detail in one of his stories that nobody ever tells this story because it's confusing. It has a not satisfying ending to it. We're not even gonna go into this story. I'm just gonna tell you. There are three kings that are trying to attack this other guy, and they kind of get lost in their way. Then they realize, wait a minute, we didn't consult God on this. Oh, somebody go get the prophet. They bring Elisha. He lets him have it and says, uh, should have consulted with me first. Will you talk to God and tell us what to do? And he goes, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll talk to the Lord. And then these words, this is in two Kings, chapter three. He says, now bring me a musician. And when the musician played, the hand of the Lord came upon him. Isn't that cool? It's not like a formula where, oh, if I wanna hear from the Lord, I've gotta listen to music. I'm not saying that. But what if music was a way to like, set the, the table, the context for us to hear truth from God, to maybe kind of open our hearts up a little bit. Now, some of you're going, wait minute, Greg, like, all I listen to man is thrash metal. You know, that's my stuff. Or, or, or you're like, well no, mine's pop. Or, or K-pop or b pop or hip hop. Or, or, or, well, Greg, well you didn't mention country. Don't you like country? Ah, yes. Country. Country. What about classical music or opera or barbershop Quartet or John Phillips's marching band. I mean, you could go on, right? Whatever music you listen to, that's not the point. The point is, can music, do you ever let it kind of get like under the defenses a little bit to where it's like, okay, God, what are you saying to me? Or is that too soft? Is that too squishy? Is that too emotional? Is that too Jesusy? The apostle Paul said to, uh, a church in the New Testament, this is Colossians chapter three. But what he says here is that, um, he, he says that, that we can be taught and even admonished with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. Now, we've already done that today, haven't we? Like, we've, we've sung songs that actually kind of got us to this idea of gratitude, okay? Not by accident. You knew where we were going. We knew where we were going, and now you do. But like, are there songs like, do you have songs that it's like, yeah, when I hear that song, it's just like, uh, the defenses come down just a little bit. And I start thinking of how God has blessed me. I start, I, I'm a half step closer to gratitude. Like, we, we, we, he's playing one that we just sang earlier, that the gratitude song, uh, Brandon Lake song. It's, it's just to me, I love that, that bridge where you are singing to yourself, come on my soul. Don't you get shy on me. I love that because it's like, alright, God, I need help here. But, uh, come on, come on. I can do this. I love that. Anybody got a song that just works for you? We're not gonna do all these songs, but like, like anybody, anybody, do it again. Do it again. Yes ma'am. Counting your blessings. Counting my blessings. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. What's it? I can only imagine. Okay, so you see, now these are all, if you're a music historian, these are all different. These were written in different eras. Anybody else got one? I love that one. No, I, i give me one here. So will I. So will I. Oh yeah, okay. And I heard a couple here just, All right, jump ball you first. How great that worked. Again, older. And then you just Be held. Say it one more time. Just be held. Just be held. So these are all different songs, different eras. Um, yeah, he's playing one fact. Check me on it. I think 1769. Amazing Grace, right? We always go back to that. It's just a old standard. I will tell you my favorite verse in Amazing Grace is, uh, through many dangerous toils and snares, I have already come. It's his grace that brought me grace. It's his grace that brought me safe thus far. And Grace will leave me home. I love the truth of man. I've been through some storms and it was God's grace that brought me this far. And it's his grace that's gonna take me home. There's a song, an older song. Again, you see the different ages. There's an, uh, an older song, uh, that's kind of had a comeback. We're singing it in our church. I've heard it in other churches that I've been in recently. Uh, that's it. Give thanks, give thanks to the holy one, give thanks because he's given Jesus Christ, his son. I mean, these are all really good songs. When you get to the bridge theologically strong, you remember the bridge. And now let the weak say, I'm strong. Let the poor say I'm rich because of what the Lord has done for Us. See that the Bible tells us that, that the rich becomes strong, the poor become rich, not because of us. Our help is in the hills. We look to Jesus, the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. So that's it, right? Okay, so here's the rest of it. Just about every song post in the new era, let's just say that the can trace its influence back to one guy. He's called the father of modern gospel music. Uh, he worked with everybody from Elvis to Beyonce. He's the first guy really that took like church music and combined it with, uh, with pop and rock and funk and jazz. He was the first one that said, okay, no watch. We can do this in a way that everybody in our era will listen to it. And everybody since then has been looking back to a guy named Andre Crouch. Now he's, he's gone. He's gone. He's gone to be with the Lord. But if you want your music history, like whoever it is that you listen to, I'm telling you, it traces back to a guy that said, no, we can do this. And, and watch this. He's got a song. And, and, uh, it's again, it's an old song, but to God be the glory, there's that phrase again, to God be the glory for the things he has done With his blood. He has saved me with his power. He has raised me to God be the glory. So do you see how this music can actually soften and kind of, it can just prepare you to hear real truth, but you have to be intentional about it. So I don't know what it is for you, and you probably can't just say, bring me a musician and one appears. But we can help you with this. This is why we have this Spotify playlist that we curate every month. It's the worship stuff that we do. You can just, there it is. And if you use Spotify, then boom, you can do that. And you can start like learning some of these things. Now, I wanna give you just one more really big thought here, and I think this is one that all of us can do. Work on your memories, not your memory, your memories. Joshua four is a science writer, and he says that, uh, and others have verified this like, uh, a hundred million neurons that you have in your, uh, in your brain. These, these like branch like cells in your brain with hundreds of trillions of possible connections. It's unbelievable. He says that a memory is a pattern of connections that happens once you've experienced something. So you hear something, you see something, you taste something, and then all of a sudden your brain changes. And these neurons will connect and a pattern of those form a memory. In fact, by the end of this sentence, you will have a new memory that has formed. Your brain will have changed. Now, if you don't take care of that memory, then that connection fades and the memory goes away. And some of you're like, well, thanks for that professor. Trivial, what am what am I saying to you? Well, I'm saying first of all, that you're fearfully and wonderfully made. The scriptures are right, but I'm also saying the scriptures are right, that you don't have to be squeezed into the mold of the world. Paul says, you can be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Let's come back to that in January. But part of what that means is we allow good thoughts to be on, in our head and good words to be on our lips that are connected to the word of God. Here's an assignment. When you're together with your family this week, and you're almost about to have that awkward debate, that's just not gonna end well for anybody. It's just not. 'cause you're not gonna agree on something, right? How about you work on your family memories? How about, how about if you ask, ask the old timers like to tell you stories of, of God's faithfulness? How about you? Old timers leave enough room and time to ask the youngsters how they're standing up for God in their world. And together you start to celebrate his faithfulness and their courage. And then you're telling stories of answered prayer. And do you remember this? And look how God came through there. And what begins to happen is you are now working on those memories together. And gratitude is a real thing. We are a family here. I want to, as, as we kind of head for home, I want, I, I wanna I wanna just work on some memories for you. You see, we've, we've, uh, we've seen answered prayer in recent days. I mean, powerfully, like just straight up answers to bold prayers. I've had people that have pulled me to the side and said, do you remember we, we stood right here, right here. And we promised that God would get the glory. He needs to get the glory because the prayer was answered. Were you, were you here the week that we, that we, uh, we all got the, the slice of, of Aspen Tree and it reminded us, Hey, we're in this together. And then everybody got to do whatever they wanted to, to say, Hey, this is what I'm committing to. I will tell you, mine was to pray. And I wrote a prayer here. It's a bold prayer. It's about me, it's about you. And that's as much as I'm gonna give you on the particulars, but I will tell you I'm watching God answer it in front of my eyes. See, answer prayer is a thing. Let's let, let's keep telling those stories. We're in this peak experiences, uh, series that we're talking about. And, uh, I, I'll I'll just say this, the groups, uh, what a thing. Allison, I saw you somewhere where, yeah, so Allison Rottenberg oversees these groups and I said, just tell me some stories. And she said, people are jumping into these groups like never before. Like even in week eight, people are going, I know it's late, but I want be in a group. Some of you, the very first weekend you attended here, you then said, I wanna be in a group. We're seeing people that are forming relationships. There were these groups of 20 somethings that were young adults that were doing this. And they started off small. And as the series went on, more and more people, it grew. And then eventually they're all now going to this Friendsgiving event that we had last week here. And then they all go into the hub. All of these people, I'm telling you, the hub was full of 20 somethings who are in community with each other. That's a story for another day. But I'm telling you, stuff's happening. Youth crossing continues to break records. Listen to me. They had like, like some of these have been like all time highs, like historical, all time highs. They are 25% growth over last year. And this has been going for a while. We baptized more teenagers than ever before in the history. This church in June, something is going on. Our kids' ministry continues to invite children into their faith journey. And I keep hearing stories and I keep hearing how there are more and more families that are checking in. Something is going on. Our, uh, our, our outreach team continues to connect us, connect us to the community in selfless ways, like what we just recently did. The way that you are serving something is going on to God be the glory. Amen. So maybe you were here the weekend that I told the story of a, uh, a mom and a grandma who separately came up to us and said, uh, my, our son grandson is recently incarcerated and he wants to, he wants to attend the church online, but he can't. And you can imagine there's a whole thing that you gotta go through before you can get access to things, uh, online when you're in prison. And so we found out that there's a, you have to be on this app and it's all kind of, uh, it's, it's coordinated by a group called God Behind Bars. And we weren't on the app we are now. And so what we began to see happening was, it wasn't just the online services, it was, it was our a and q series, the, the, the pastors dozens and dozens and dozens of these short videos that answered deep questions. And we made that available. And I asked Daniel, who oversees that here for us? And, and, and Daniel said, uh, yeah, we have like 7,300 subscribers. This is just a couple of three months now. We've already got like 7,300 subscribers across the prison system in the US with we're, we're approaching now 200,000 downloads of our resources. And what I want you to know is that God is doing something when we get, uh, letters From people like those of you watching in prison. And I'm not gonna violate confidence. I just want you to know that these things, like letters like this, they go to our prayer team. 'cause we're gonna take this seriously. But when we get prayer requests for healings and for help and for when, when somebody says, I want my will to align with my abba's will, and I can pray for that. But over and over and over again, what we heard was, and again, just giving you general thoughts here, may God give me a chance somehow, someday to be reunited with my kids. May God give my family the grace to forgive me. God, could I please have a, you hear that over and over and over again. And I want those of you who are watching from a completely different place. I want you to know that that God's not finished with you. I've said this before to you, I'll say it again, but we're gonna pray for those miracles. And I'll just say one more word to those of you who might be in that situation. I get it that in every instance you give me your prisoner number because that's how it works in that system. And I understand that. I get it. I get it. I get it. I just want you to know that when you come to Jesus, your identity is way more than a number. You are a son or a daughter of the king. Y'all, you gotta hear me on this. The Holy Spirit wants people to come to Jesus more than we do. And that means we get to join with him and we get to dream, big dream. And we, we, we proclaim Jesus. So when, when, when Psalm 1 21, the first verse says, I will look to the hills. Where's my help come from? And then he says, I know where my help comes from. It comes from, from the Lord. We're saying that Jesus is Lord. We are going to exalt the name of Jesus and we're gonna keep inviting those people, you people and all of us to consider this Jesus. 'cause I'm telling you, that's where the healing happens. He is the hope of the world. That's what we do. Bring me a musician. No, seriously, bring me a musician. I know he's coming out here. Aaron, I'm so grateful for you. Um, I know you notice this, but like I'm just kind of talking whatever. And he's just sliding songs in and doing his thing. So we're blessed around here, right? So, so let me just say this to you now, last thing. Ask for his help. I dunno what you're facing. I dunno what you're going through. Ask for his help. You see, when, when this is a psalm of as scent, that means that they're going to Jerusalem and then they're going to go to that hill that is above Jerusalem. It's called Mount Mariah. It's where the temple was built. We studied that, but they're on their way. But this land is full of stories. You see, the temple was a place where God had been teaching the people. There will come a day when one sacrifice will be, that'll be the end of it, and we're in the mystery. But one sacrifice, and that'll make, that'll make the way back home. But way before the temple was built, a son and, and, and his father were walking up that hill. And Isaac asks Abraham, you remember, where's the lamb for the sacrifice? And Abraham says something that he didn't even fully understand at that point. But he said, the Lord will provide the lamb. And on that faithful day, he did. But then centuries later, not too far from Mount Mariah, 'cause that's where this took place, not too far from where the temple is built, not too far from where all of these stories happened. There was a heavy hearted father who watched his son die on a cross. And I'm telling you, it's been God's plan from the beginning way back when we started this series. And you guys know this part of the story well, but when, when, when everything fell apart, and our first parents said, thanks, but no thanks, I'll be the boss of me. And God said, now there's consequences. Now there's sin, now there's heartache. But even as they left the garden, God said, I will make a way for you to come back home. There will be one born of a woman who will crush the head of evil. We're about to celebrate him and his advent here in these next few weeks, like nobody's business. But all throughout the rest of the story that we've been studying, there were these hints. And there were these, these, these, these pointing toward the one that is coming, the promise that will be kept. And then Jesus, that day at Calvary paid the price. So here's the thing. Some of you have been thinking about this, talking about this, asking questions, checking this whole thing out, but it hasn't ever really been yours. It can be yours today. Like this. Can, you can make this personal. This doesn't have to be something you watch from a distance. So I'm gonna ask if we can for just a minute, if we could, could, could we just bow our heads? And all that does is it makes the room private. And for those of you that might be uncomfortable with that, or you're saying, no, I'm just not, I'm gonna go on ahead and take that as a sign that maybe you, you, you need me to pray for you. So I'll pray for you. So, Lord, there are people now who are trying to figure this out. Go find them. Go find them. If you're someone who is saying, man, I've never even prayed to God like this before. Let me walk alongside you. There's no magic, there's no formula. But let me just walk along beside you and maybe these words will help. Father, I've sinned. I'm a long way from you and I cannot make my way back. But you made a way for me. Your son, Jesus. I believe He is your son, made a way for me on the cross. Jesus, forgive me. Come in close. Jesus, I'm inviting you into my my life. Save me. Help me. Lead me. Amen. Again, I want you to understand, just praying that prayer is the beginning of something and we wanna celebrate with you. Let us celebrate with you Because this is the beginning of a journey. But now, as we all, um, and I mean all of us, uh, prepare for this week, this is the part where I'm gonna ask if you would to to, if you have questions about what it means to follow Jesus, then you come find me In just a few minutes, you come talk to one of our pastors, if you would like to celebrate and tell us, Hey, I've made that decision. What's the next step? Then come tell us. But right now, for each of us, this is the moment that I'm asking for you to consider giving us just four minutes and change. That's it. That's it. You see, my prayer is that you have a deep and rich thanksgiving, uh, that reminds you of God's goodness. I hope you laugh so hard. Your sides hurt. I hope that if the tears come that nobody's embarrassed and you just admit 'em, I hope that you pray bold prayers for each other in my family, we will be praying a, a prayer for flat out healing of someone. But I hope you're generous with your words. I hope you're generous with your gratitude. I hope you're generous with your thank yous. And may God begin to stir up a, a sense of how much he loves you, how good he is, and how present he is. Let's give him all the credit and all the glory I say the I He has, and He has May our God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now grant you peace and grace. Happy thanksgiving to God, be the glory forever and ever. Amen.