Happy To Rely On God | Jud Wilhite

All right, well, what an amazing time of worship. Real quick, we just wanna give a huge shout out to all of those that are watching in prison facilities with our partnership with God Behind Bar and the Pando app. Yeah, we're so glad that you're joining us for church this weekend. And in case you haven't downloaded our app yet, or maybe you just wanna know a little bit more about what's going on at Central, you can download that app. Also, if you're watching in person, you can just take your phone and tap that QR code or scan it on your seat. It'll open it up for you. But right now, we encourage you to open up the app, go to the teaching notes, and follow along as Pastor Judd gives us a message of hope. All right, all right, welcome, everybody. Great to have you here with us today. Big shout out, as always, to our Central family locations that are joining us, Central Kingman and Aliante, Central Sunrise and Summerland. We're grateful for you guys. Thank you for being here with us. Well, I don't know what you may have tuned into and watched over the last week and a half, but a lot of people were following the launch of Artemis II, it going around the moon and all of that,

and coming back and landing safely in the Pacific. Pretty wild. That's NASA's spaceship, by the way. And one of the things that is interesting is just before they went around the dark side of the moon for like 40 minutes, where there was gonna be radio silence, right before they went around that dark side, it was astronaut Victor Glover who reminded the world of the love of God. And he said this, as we continue to unlock the mysteries of the cosmos, I'd like to remind you of one of the most important mysteries there are on Earth, and that's love. Christ said in response to what was the greatest command, that it was to love God with all that you are. And he also, being a great teacher, said the second is equal to it, and that is to love your neighbor as yourself. Glover's a devout Christian. He has said in other places that people need Jesus and talked openly about his faith. And I think it just reminds us of the power of faith and the power of what God can do in our lives when we follow him. We're gonna be talking over the next several weeks in a teaching series called Surprised by Happiness. And just right out of the gate, I wanna encourage you. I don't believe happiness is necessarily found by seeking it.

I think happiness is found by speaking God and putting God first above all else, loving him with all your heart, loving your neighbor as yourself. And happiness is a byproduct of that commitment to love God and honor him in your life. Now, we live in a world full of YouTube influencers and TikTok influencers and TED Talks and all kinds of people that will tell you how you can reach all of your goals, right? Your financial goals, your personal goals, your business goals, your fitness goals. They can break it all down for you. They may have good advice. It may be terrible advice, but here's the thing. They're all kind of selling you a similar thing, which is this is how to be happy, right? Like if you do these things, you'll be happy, you'll be successful. So if I took a lot of the cultural influencers and just kind of mesh them into one person, I could boil down their message kind of like this. This would be my attempt at it, right? The first thing you need to do is you need to get it together. Get it together. Nobody's coming to save you. Nobody's coming to help you. You gotta pull yourself up by your bootstraps. You gotta get it together, bro.

And I can help you do that, especially if you buy my product, but that's a whole other thing, right? Follow my investment advice. Jump on my train, right? Like I'll help. You gotta get it together, right? Second thing an influencer will tell you today is hey, you need to get wealthy. You need to get wealthy. And most influencers will tell you I can help you do that, right? Follow my investment advice. Follow the way I live my life. You'll get wealthy. And that money's important because it allows you to do things and wealth is what so much of life is about. Third thing an influencer will tell you today is you need to get noticed. You gotta get noticed. You need to get credit for everything you do. People need to notice you. You are your own brand. And everywhere you go, you need to make a splash. And if you do these things, you get noticed and you get wealthy and you get it together, you'll be happy. You'll have success. You'll have joy.

Well, I wanna look at what another influencer says today and that influencer's name is Jesus. Now, listen, Jesus didn't have a YouTube channel. Jesus didn't tell people to hit that like button and subscribe, right? Jesus didn't do TikTok videos, but he did. I did sit on a hillside 2,000 years ago and unpack in a very profound way a message on what it was to discover joy and happiness and to live life before God. It's called the Sermon on the Mount. And actually, we're gonna be talking about the first part of it called the Beatitudes over the next several weeks, but throughout a couple different teaching series, we're gonna work our way through the majority of Matthew five, six, and seven, all the way up through the summer and look at Jesus' amazing teaching, the Sermon on the Mount. The reason I think this is so important, it's transformed people's lives. We're talking about hundreds and hundreds of millions of people over thousands of years who've been impacted and changed their perspective and I think gotten a dose of reality based on what Jesus is teaching and unpacking. And particularly, it's fascinating because Jesus begins his most famous extended message in Matthew chapter five by talking about happiness.

It's called the Beatitudes, but did you know that's a Latin word for bliss or happy? It's called that because nine different times, Jesus says, blessed are. And the word blessed can mean happy and filled with divine favor, right? And Jesus is saying, if you want happiness, divine favor, blessing in your life, these are the characteristics that you're gonna see. And as we look at it, it's very different than what our culture would tell you. Check it out, Matthew chapter five, we'll read all this and then I'll kind of work through it section by section here. But it says this, beginning of verse one, help me out when we get to the red word. It says, one day as he saw the crowds gathering, Jesus went up on the mountainside and sat down. By the way, that's why it's called the Sermon on the Mount, right? There you go. His disciples gathered around him and he began to what? To teach them. And he said, God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him. For the kingdom of heaven is theirs. God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted. God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth.

And basically Jesus comes out of the gate and he says, look, this is what the blessed life, this is what the happy life, this is what the God honoring life looks like. And it is very different than what you're gonna find on YouTube today. He's gonna challenge us to realize happiness doesn't come from seeking it, it comes as a byproduct of seeking God and putting him first. In fact, if I was to boil Jesus' teaching down, I think first you would say, not necessarily to get it together, I think Jesus would say, hey, we need to get real about our own need for God, our own dependence on God, our reliance on God. And then secondly, instead of getting wealthy, I think Jesus would say, we need to get honest about our sin and our failure and our losses. We need to mourn the things that we've been through so we can heal from them, so we can move forward on the other side. And instead of just getting noticed, Jesus is gonna tell us, hey, you gotta get humble. Your life isn't about you, it's about living for the glory of God and for the benefit and the blessing of others. And if you'll incorporate these perspectives in your life, you may be surprised that happiness can kind of sneak up on you.

And that happiness comes because you're seeking God and you're putting him first and you're seeking to honor him in your life. So let's break it down. First, this idea of getting real, getting real about our need for God. You know, this last week, I had a moment where I lost my phone and no matter where I looked, I could tell by the Find My Phone app that my phone was somewhere around my house, but I couldn't find it anywhere. You know, we just kept calling it, calling it, calling it, calling it. I go into every room, right, and try to listen and hear the buzz or hear the ring, nothing, you know? I looked in every place I knew to look like three or four times. I gave up for a little while. I'm like, it'll eventually show up. But here's the thing, when I didn't have my phone, man, there's a lot of things I can't do. Like I can't connect with people. They can't connect with me. I can't text people. They can't text me. I can't check the scores. I, you know, priorities. I can't check the weather.

I can't check social media. I can't, I don't, you know, like I just, you start going down the list of all the things you depend on your phone for. We look at our phone multiple times, usually every minute. It's crazy, right? I couldn't find it anywhere. And finally, you know, it dawned on me after forever, I thought, man, when I got out of my car, I took a bunch of trash and I threw the trash in the outside dumpster bin. And then I, you know, like the one they pick up, you know, the big plastic dumpster bin. And then I went in the house. I'm like, surely not, right? I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't throw. But finally, I didn't have anywhere else to look. So I went out there and I called my phone number. That trash can was nasty. And I hear a little buzzing down in there, you know, I had to dig out all the trash, get down in all the gunk and get my... And it was worth it, though, because when I got it, I was like, oh, my precious, you know, I've got, I'm back. I'm back online, people, I'm connected, right? I have my phone. And you know, I think part of what Jesus is gonna challenge us with is we need a dependence on God

that's greater and more intentional than the dependence we often have with our phones. We need a dependence on God that recognizes and realizes there's no happiness, there's no joy, there's no meaning ultimately in my life without God. God provides, God blesses, God gives, and I give thanks to Him each moment of the day. I'm relying on Him. In fact, listen, I think the strongest people in the room are the ones who rely on God the most. They depend on Him. Matthew chapter five, beginning in verse three. Help me out on the red word here. Let's go back to what Jesus says, the first beatitude. He says, God blesses those who are poor and what? Realize their need for Him, and the kingdom of heaven is theirs. They realize their need for Him. Now, I think that's an unfortunate translation the NLT does here, because the actual original language, it doesn't say God blesses those who are poor. It says God blesses those who are poor in spirit. And that's a very different meaning, right? If God just intended everybody to be poor, it would be challenging, because as you go on into Matthew six and seven, He talks about how you give to the poor and how you help the poor and how would you even be able to do that

if you were supposed to just be poor? I don't think the Bible's teaching that there's necessarily anything spiritually beneficial about your wealth status. I think the Bible is teaching that we need a spiritual poverty when it comes to our acknowledgement, that we can't in and of ourselves save ourselves. We can't ultimately accomplish all the things before us that God wants to accomplish without His divine intervention, without His help. In fact, the message translation puts it this way, translates this beatitude this way, you are blessed when you're at the end of your rope, because with less of you, there is more of God and His rule. Less of you, there is more of God. So if any of my Celebrate Recovery people are here, you're always gonna know you're gonna cheer when you mention Celebrate Recovery, or any AA people are here, you will know that this is really like the first two steps, right? Your acknowledgement that something is greater than you, that you depend on, maybe there's things in your life that you are powerless to defeat and you depend on God for that help. Powerlessness is the idea, I think, of the first beatitude, that by that surrender, by getting on your knees,

by opening your heart and your hand, that's actually the pathway to happiness and to joy. And it starts when you put God first and acknowledge Him in your life. And you know, social science kind of backs this up. The social science research on happiness points to the fact that it's like committed religious engagement and attendance of regular religious services that actually is one of the key markers in people having a greater sense of emotional joy and happiness in their life. I remember during COVID, you know, when everybody was struggling and there was a lockdown and people weren't able to really go out much and that whole first year, it was crazy. And they did a lot of research as the year went on about how many people were struggling in their mental health and pretty much every single person, no matter your money, no matter where you lived, everybody was down in the mental health category, right? There was only one group of people that actually was not only fine in their mental health category, they actually were a couple clicks up in their mental health category. And the group of people was those who attended regular religious services in their life. And I think what they're discovered is it's faith, it's God, it's dependence on Him,

it's reliance on Him that gets us through even the hardest of times. Now, you know, most of the happiness research would say that like happiness over our lives, they used to say it happens in a U-shape. Like you start off, if you have a decent childhood, you're junior, you might be happier when you're younger. And then as you get older, your happiness starts to decline like in a U-shape and you get down into your 20s and your 30s and it bottoms out in your 40s. Anybody in your 40s? All right, good luck. This too will pass, hang in there, okay? It bottoms out in your 40s, what the research says, because that's when the most pressure is on you, the most demands, not only from your kids, but then your parents' aging and everything else career-wise. And in the midst of all that pressure, that's the bottom of the U. And then, you know, when you get in your 50s, it supposedly swings back up. So some of you keep holding on, okay? Swing back up, you get into your 60s, you get into your 70s, it's supposed to get higher again. But you know what? Some of the latest research is showing that the you is looking a little more like a J, that like younger people now

are experiencing more mental health issues, more depression, more discouragement, more despair. And that you is starting to break down because they're wrestling with a lot of what researchers say is the result of social media and the result of that phone that's in your hand all the time that causes you to not only know everything that's going on in the world and hear every conspiracy about what may or may not be going on in the world, but also compare yourself to all the other people of the world and the challenge of that. And so can I just say an encouraging word to those of you who are parents today, your kids need you to be a fully devoted follower of God. They need you to be all in about your faith. They need you to live it. Not perfectly, but they're watching you. They need to see that it's real for you in your life. And parents, can I just remind you how important it is that we have our kids in church, that we make sure they come along, that it's not like a sideline thing. It's not like when we can't go on vacation and when we can't go on this and when we can't go on that, maybe we'll get faith slid in there, that it's a commitment we make.

No, this is part of who we are as a family. We honor God. We put him first in our lives. That's gonna help them sustain and maintain stronger mental health as they grow, especially if they begin to get their own relationship with God. But Jesus says, blessed are the poor in spirit. Historians will tell you that the people who were listening to the Sermon on the Mount first were everyday common people. In fact, I've been to that place in Israel where they believe that sermon was given. And it's amazing to kind of stand in that area and think about what it would have been like for Jesus to be sitting there and teaching and proclaiming to his disciples. Many of these people he was talking to, they had their shoulders slumped because they were carrying the weight of guilt and religious failure. Many of them felt out of energy and out of options, poor in spirit. And it's to them, Jesus says, there's hope for you. There's hope for you. Look, there's hope if you feel like you're barely hanging on. There is hope if you feel like you're not worthy and you'll never be good enough.

There's hope when you're so tired of spinning all the plates and trying to keep everything going. There's hope for everybody. There's hope for the rule breakers and the rebels. There's hope for the busy and the stressed and the distracted. There's hope for those who feel out of options and at their wits end. There's hope for those who know they can't do it all on their own. There's hope for those who realize they aren't the most talented or the best or the most successful. See, that realization of your need for God, that's actually like your superpower. That's the thing you should lean into. And look, with more of God, there's less of you. Rely on him, give it to God. Realize that God is available. He can work in your life and move in your life and carry you through the challenges in your life. That's part of what I think getting real means. You gotta get real about your need for God and your dependence on God. It was Jesus who said, apart from me, you can do nothing. Now we're all like, well, I could do things. But ultimately, spiritually, it's this recognition that I need God in my life, that I love him, that I surrender to him.

I got down on my knees today and I prayed a prayer. I prayed a million times just to open my hands, said, God, everything I have is yours. My life, my time, my friendships, my family, my money, my stuff, even my record collection. We go deep. Everything I love, God, my kids, I give it to you. I surrender it. And I believe in that act of surrender. That's where you find the strength to go and face all kinds of difficulties and challenges that you may be up against in your life. Happiness doesn't come from seeking it. It comes from seeking God and putting him first. Get real about your need for God. Second principle I see in the Beatitudes is this, get honest. Get honest about your past hurts and sins and failures. Get honest. How many of you remember your first broken heart? Anybody remember your first broken heart? Maybe it was elementary school. I know it was elementary school for me. I tried to ask this girl out on a date and I made the mistake of having a friend of mine like deliver the note to the girl and then get the answer back. And the reason that was a mistake is because she said no and that was heartbreaking. But then because I use an intermediary,

not only did I know she said no, but everybody knew she said no, right? Wouldn't it be great if we could just heal from broken hearts easily? Right, especially easily those heart heartbreaks that we had in elementary school if everything was sort of simple to get over like that But the truth is like a lot of us have been through some real brokenness in our lives pain loss hardship heartache broken homes broken lives we know what it is to face pain and brokenness and And I think sometimes the temptation in our lives is just to bury that Act like it isn't there and keep going But Jesus is gonna challenge us if you really want to get to happiness and joy and the blessed life You got to face that stuff and acknowledge it and grow through it Look at what he says Matthew chapter 5 verse 4 says God blesses those who what mourn for they will be comforted Can you imagine a YouTube influencer being like all right second principle to happiness? Mourning You know, like what is Jesus saying? It sounds backwards Happy are those who mourn and I think he's describing like a spiritual process First you realize your need for God and then you begin to deal with your past with your mistakes with your sin Honestly before God and sometimes that means tears Sometimes that means regret Sometimes that means going through the hard work of asking for forgiveness and trying to make things right But it's on the other side of that that you find peace and love and joy after you do that hard work You're blessed when you mourn because God himself Comforts you he forgives you he restores you he heals you and ultimately it's his Restoration that we need more than anything else In fact the idea of like healthy and proper mourning really applies to all of life I mean when you lose someone important to you It creates a wound by the way, the Greek word for wound we get our word trauma from that

You know, we go through our own traumas and when somebody betrays you or you are dealt a deep disappointment It creates a wound we want to typically we want to stuff that and just move on But I know you know what I think happens when we stuff it and move on is often our emotional development stops there It's like we get stunted right? It doesn't really move forward And I think this is why Jesus is linking happiness to mourning. It's the process that moves you from emotional Fragility to emotional resilience in your life a Little slow on the clap central family. It's a little like great excellent It's hard to go through stuff But it's harder to bury stuff and never go through it Right, then you just carry it for years and years and years in your life And we all have a tendency to do this I know years ago a friend of mine said man You got to promise me you're gonna see a counselor because I could tell like you you're jaded right now There's an edge right now in you and so I did I went saw a counselor and one of the things he helped me realize was I had like 20 years of Cuts and wounds and things that I had just never dealt with I just sort of buried it and keep going but eventually you start carrying all that stuff and so he had me work through a list of all the people that I felt that Hurt me in my life and people I needed to forgive and it was so powerful and healthy But you know what? I remember going through that process mourning asking for forgiveness Forgiving others letting things go what I remember is in the middle of the process. I started to get my joy back I started to get my compassion back I started to kind of feel things again, right? And I think this is part of what Jesus is getting at blessed are those who mourn mourn your losses So you don't get lost in your losses, right? Mourn them so you don't get lost in them And then I think another challenge Jesus has for us is to get humble not only get real get honest But get humble in our lives. Now if you think about the most like remarkable Successful incredible powerful person you might think of somebody like this guy right here Tony Stark, you know, like Tony Stark He the Iron Man Super smart cocky funny. He can invent all kinds of things, right?

You know, he's got a tremendous like people skills and all this he could just he's a jillionaire Tony Stark He can get things done. But you know, what's interesting is when you actually begin to research who are some of the greatest leaders In companies who are some of the greatest leaders in our culture you'll find that oftentimes you don't know their name It was Jim Collins who wrote a book called good to great years ago And one of the things I'll never forget in this book is he talked about looking at at the time What was the greatest companies in America? Not not not good ones the greatest companies and he said there was one Characteristic about the leaders of all the greatest companies companies that they researched. He said their leader was a level 5 leader. And the first characteristics of a level 5 leader was they were extreme humility, they were extremely humble, and they had amazing, intense will. In other words, when things went well, they gave the praise to everybody else. And when things went bad, they looked in the mirror and they took personal responsibility. That's a humble leader. And Jesus says this in Matthew chapter 5, beginning in verse 5, he says, God blesses those who are what? Humble, for they will inherit the whole earth. I think we can get stuck on this word humble. And we think like, oh man, to be humble means to be weak. But it doesn't mean to be weak. Sometimes the word humble is translated meek. So you could be humble, you could be meek, but that doesn't mean you're weak. In fact, it was Jesus who said, that doesn't mean you're weak. In fact, it was Jesus himself

who he described his heart once in all of his teaching. And he said, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, he said, because I, he says, because I, my heart, in my heart, I am humble and I am gentle. When Jesus described himself, he said, here's what you need to know about me. I'm humble and I'm gentle. So what does humble mean? Well, the actual word in the original language could be translated strength under control, right? It was used in a secular context to refer to a stallion that had been broken and brought under control. You think of this powerful, mighty stallion that's now fully under the control of the rider. It's not weak, right? It's not passive, but it is under the control of the rider. And I think this is part of what humble is getting at. When you're humble, you're brought under the control and the power of God. You're used as his instrument, as his tool. You're surrendered to him. It doesn't mean you're weak. It doesn't mean you're passive about everything. It just means you honor God and you realize your life is ultimately lived for him. It's part of what humility is. Listen, you could be humble and you could be strong. You could be humble and you could be gifted.

You could be humble and you could be influential. You could be humble and you could be smart and charming and effective and strategic. You could be experienced. And when you value God's will and God's call more than what he may have given you, that's a sign of humility. You don't pretend to be less than you are, but you love with the awareness that God is greater than all that you are, right? Humility, strength under control. So culture will tell you, hey, promote yourself. Put your own needs first. Take as much credit as you can get. There's no bad press. All eyes on you, right? But according to Jesus, if you wanna receive, humble yourself. And by the way, that's exactly what he did. Even though he was God, he humbled himself and went to death on a cross and now has been lifted up ultimately as the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Humble yourself. So maybe this week, rather than just serving your own ends, maybe you help somebody else meet their goals, their ends. Even if you don't get the credit. Or maybe you do a good deed and you don't post about it or you don't mention it. You just do it in secret and you know that God knows. Maybe you let somebody have the spotlight

in your circle for a bit. You don't always have to be in the spotlight, right? Maybe getting humble means acknowledging that God has actually gifted you and calls you to serve others, even though you may not have a high opinion of yourself. Listen, who are you to say that God can't use you? Who are you to say that God can't use you? Absolutely, he can use you. And part of humbling yourself realizes it's not about you, either your qualifications or your lack of qualifications. It's about God and his goodness and what he can do through you. So Jim Carrey is an actor. Some of you may remember from back in the day. He did movies like The Mask and Ace Ventura and The Grinch. Made a lot of money, won a lot of awards. He had bands worldwide. But in an interview, I heard him, he was talking about all the success that he had had. And he said it's ultimately left him with this question. Now what? You know, now what? And this is what Jim Carrey said. He said, I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything that they ever dreamed of so that they can see that it's not the answer. He basically had followed what every self-help guru says, every TikTok, YouTube influencer says. He went down the road, he made millions, he got noticed,

he got wealthy, he got all of the things, but he didn't get happiness. And that was a surprise. And I would just suggest that Jesus is reminding us. We don't need fame or wealth or pleasure or power or any other worldly thing to make us happy because God is the source of our joy. God is the source of our peace. God is the source of love. God is the one who gives glory and honor. God is the one who provides, who comforts, who gives purpose and joy. He's the one who forgives our past. He's the one who gives us a greater future. God gives us a purpose each day. He gives favor with people. He brings strength from within. He gives victory. The battle belongs to the Lord. He gives power to endure, to love others well, to seek to love others with the love that we have received. God is the one who blesses, and only in Him can we be truly happy. So get real. Realize your need for Him. And not only get real, get honest about your sin, your hurts, the things that hold you back. Let God heal you from that. And get humble. Realize life isn't about you.

It's about what God can do through you. It's about what God can do in you. It's about how He can work through you for the benefit of others and for His own glory. Happiness doesn't simply come from seeking it, comes from seeking God. And friends, may we as a church community remember our only hope of joy, our only hope of success, our only hope of happiness and peace as a church family comes from honoring God first above all else. It's not about getting noticed. It's not about bright lights and services. It's not about all the things we sometimes get confused about. It's about honoring God and putting Him first in our lives as a community in our church, seeking Him first above all else. That's where you'll experience joy. That's where we'll experience joy. The Bible calls it the joy of the Lord. And that's what I want. I want the joy of the Lord in my life. The joy of the Lord doesn't get washed away by difficulty. The joy of the Lord doesn't go away just because we face hard times, right? The joy of the Lord isn't completely dependent on the economy. The joy of the Lord isn't dependent on what government leaders do. The joy of the Lord is what He can give you

when you put Him first and acknowledge Him and follow Him. So Jesus sits down on that hillside and He says, all right, here's a talk for you. God blesses those who are poor in spirit. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. God blesses those who are humble. God blesses those who ultimately mourn. He comforts, He moves, He works in their lives. Put Him first and He can give you hope and meaning and purpose every single day. And so this week, look for opportunities to lift others up. Look for chances to put God first. Look for chances to bring glory to Him, to maybe do something in secret, to do something only God sees. And you get a sense of joy in your heart that you're living for Him, that you're putting Him first, that trust Him in your life. Maybe you're here today and maybe you've never crossed that line of faith. And I wanna give you that opportunity today just to reach out to God and to trust Him in your life. So would all of you bow your heads and close your eyes. And if you'd like to become a follower of Jesus today, you can begin that journey by repeating a simple prayer after me, either out loud or in your own heart and mind. Say, dear God, I thank you for loving me. Thank you for sending Jesus into the world.

I believe He died on the cross for my sins. I believe He rose again. Forgive me for my sins. Give me the gift of eternal life. And help me face the challenges that I'm up against. God, I surrender my life to you in Christ's name. Friends, with every head bowed and every eye closed, if that's your prayer today, if it's your commitment, I wanna ask you to just slip your hand in the air. If you're Summerlin or Sunrise Mountain, if you're at Aliante or Kingman, if you're watching online, just slip your hand in the air. If you're joining us in one of our locations inside prison facilities with God behind bars, slip your hand in the air. Acknowledge you're gonna follow Him and trust Him and put Him first in your life. And as you do, you could be surprised by happiness. God, we thank you that even in our failures, even in our mistakes, even in our sin, you love us. We thank you that you hear us. We thank you that you're available to us. And we're honored to just be able to reach out to you and pray to you today. And I pray for each person reaching out to you today, fill their lives with meaning and purpose and joy. And God, give us all the strength to follow you with our whole heart and to trust you with all that we are. We thank you for your goodness.

We ask these things in Christ's name, amen. Amen, let's put our hands together for those who made spiritual commitments in their life today. And hey, if you've made a spiritual commitment, I wanna tell you congratulations. We would love to connect with you right after our experience. Just swing out to the lobby area. Let them know there that you made a spiritual commitment. We've got some resources we'd love to put in your hands. And to all of you, would you please stand together with me? Let's put our hands together for our location pastors. They're gonna close out our different experiences. And here at Henderson.