More Money Won't Fix This | Branded: Part 1 | Pastor Alex Himaya

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) Well, good morning church. So good to be with you today and in honor of the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Three weeks in a row we're going Western, just in honor of the accomplishment that you guys made greatest accomplishment in the history of that football team. Pretty good for a high school football team actually. And what we discovered is that the Big Ten sucks. And Ohio State was terrible and Oregon was terrible and Oklahoma State put it on. I'm looking forward to seeing Tulsa in the top ten in the rankings this next week. And for those of you who are OU fans or Arkansas fans, God is faithful. When people on Earth let you down, God is faithful. And I do have a contract with the Razorbacks that when I die they will be the Paul Bearers at my funeral so they can let me down one final today as we get started. I want to make you aware of something before we jump in. About six months ago I really felt led to pray and ask the Lord what it would look like to take the next step in helping all people all ages all the time advancing their journey with Christ. I've again asked some of our team to pray with me and the thing that I really had in mind in that prayer was how we are translating our services into Spanish. And you may know that you may not know that but a few years ago we bought all the equipment and we have a team of volunteers at our campuses who literally while I'm preaching are translating into English live my message so that people can hear it in Spanish and that that has been increasing and a number of people using it is going up and so we're looking at what would that look like for us to do a whole service one day in Spanish and so we're gonna beta test it this fall and we're gonna do a couple of prayer and worship nights in Spanish the whole service in Spanish and if you go to one of our campuses and you speak Spanish then you're included okay just know that you're included I just signed you up and if you have a heart for that and are interested in that we're gonna do an initial interest meeting on Sunday evening August it's August October the 4th October the 4th at 5 30 here at the Broken Arrow campus and so come and be a part of that if you're interested in

that and we'll do an interest meeting and we'll go from there but sometime this fall we'll do a worship and prayer night in Spanish and we'd love for you to serve at that and help us welcome our neighbors who speak Spanish fluently and watch to see what the Lord will do let let's pray together as we jump in would you just lay your hands in your lap and would you ask the Holy Spirit to take the written word of God let it jump off the pages as the living word of God into your life and would you ask the Holy Spirit to speak a word to you today to challenge you to encourage you to refresh you and to remind you of who you are in him and Jesus name we pray and together we all say amen let me just begin today with a little confession that since I was a little boy watching Bonanza and the Lone Ranger I've always wanted to be a cowboy in fact as a child I collected the sheriff's badges from all 50 states and I can still smell the cap the smoke coming out of the caps and the guns that I wore anybody else confess that like that was your childhood and you were excited about it that never went away for me truth be told as a kid I grew up spending my almost all summer at my mother's side of the family's houses in North Carolina they're real cowboys with cows and horses and that's what I fell in love with all strange shepherds which have been the dogs in our home ever since and make no mistake about it those of you who know me know this to be true I'm not considering selling my house and buying a ranch where I can take care of cattle it's not really the job of ranching that intrigues me it's the life right and they call it the cowboy code and the life of a cowboy is all about working hard and living simple it's about saying what you mean and meaning what you say you finish what you start you never quit and who is in need, you helped him out. And one of the things, and all of the shows that I grew up watching and loved watching that caught my attention over and over and over again was the brand that these cowboys would use. And this flaming hot metal that they would take

and then shove it onto a cow hide and to leave the mark. Come on, somebody, that's pretty awesome. Anybody want to take a turn with that thing today, but that thing intrigued me all along. In fact, when Marshall Dillon was going after some cattle wrestlers, he always was looking for the brand. He was always trying to find the brand, that special marking that each cow had on them, and it showed everybody whose cow that was. And here's the important thing to remember, and maybe the theme of the whole series, a brand indicates ownership. And if we could identify our branding, we could see who or what it is that owns us. If I could see the brand on you, I could tell a lot about you because this is true, and you may want to write this down, who or what owns you will determine your destiny. And when we talk about brands today, you get a bit of a mixed response because most people think of clothing, right? The brand of clothing, from gap to Versace, you know, and wherever you fall in that. But that's a totally different mindset, right? Then some ranchers sitting around with a metal rod in the middle of the burning timbers and some nervous cattle, you know, in the peripheral of the picture. But when you think about it, it's sort of the same idea.

That a lot of people in the culture today are very interested in their brand in creating their brand. And it's not just clothes, it's really more about how the world sees them. It's all over social media. Last year or maybe two years ago, my youngest daughter, Lymly, came in with a phone and said, "Dad, let's do a fit check." I thought we were gonna, you know, like a stethoscope or something, like a fit check. I didn't know what that meant. How many of you know what a fit check is? Okay, some of you do, and you may find out you're wrong. But like, I thought I knew. Actually, I would have raised my hand a year ago on that question. It's where you take a video talking about the clothes that you're wearing. And so she pulls out her phone and starts recording and she says, "Dad, fit check." And I'm like, "Excuse me in." And she said, "Tell me about what you're wearing. "Where did you get it?" And I'm like, "My closet." And she said, "Well, no, no, no. "I'm talking about whose name is on your clothes." I said, "Alex." Like, they're mine. And we were speaking two different languages.

Same words, but two different languages, right? And we were thinking about different things. And there are a lot of things in the world that we find important. And there's an ebb and a flow to that. And sometimes in our lives, at different points in our lives, clothing may be one of the things that we care about. And it's funny how today, it's all about top-end names, like Tom Ford or Prada. When I was growing up, like the brand, what were rugby shirts with Coca-Cola on it? How many of you remember that? Like, that's brilliant of Coca-Cola. We were billboards for the world's most famous soft drink, but your brand tells the world who you are and whose you are. And we all have a brand. We just don't all know it. And here's the deal. If you are a believer, if you are a Christ follower, you have a brand. The Bible tells us that. Paul mentions it in Ephesians. Look at what he says. When you believe, say believed. When you believe, you were, say it, marked. You were marked or you were branded in him. Watch this with a seal. The promised Holy Spirit. And by the way, this Greek word for seal is spraggees. Spraggees, say spraggees.

Spraggees is kind of fun to say. Spraggees is a signet ring that lords or kings would wear. And when they would make a proclamation or deed land to someone or take claim of something, a document, an official document would be created. They would roll it up and then they would drip candle wax onto it and they would take that spraggees or that signet and mash it into that seal, making this symbol, saying that the one who breaks this will be punished, right? The seal was closed. If this is the picture that Paul is drawing on when he says you have been branded with a seal. When you accept God's free gift of salvation, you were marked or you were branded in him. And it is, look what it is, it is the Holy Spirit. In other words, he's laying claim to you, you have been branded. In another place, Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 1, he says that he has identified us as his own house by placing the Holy Spirit in and on our hearts. And so since it is sealed according to the Bible, no one can break that seal. And under the penalty of law, no one is allowed to break that seal. And so if you're a Christ follower, you are branded. Which means God owns you. He has put his name on you. But the best part of this is that the Holy Spirit leaves his mark on you, not by giving you a shirt to wear with his name on it,

but by changing your life so that you are completely different. Because when we are branded, we are different. A brand makes you different. How many of you are Android users? Raise your hand, okay? Or maybe PC users, right? How many of you are iPhone users or Mac users, right? And they're the same thing, right? They're phones or they're computers. But when you swap it and somebody hands you another one to use or to borrow or to make a call on or whatever, you're like, it's different. The brand is different. Why? Because a brand makes you different. And in this branded series, I could say that this series is gonna be a lot of things. I could say branded, a series on marriage. I could say branded, a series on parenting, branded, a series on how to live without worry, branded, a series on how to find God's will for your life. So many parts of our lives are different when we are branded by God. And any one of those topics would be a great series for this three weeks. But as I studied this idea of branded, one thing above almost every other thing that stands in the way of all those other things going well for us in life. And there's one thing that appears to be linked

to all the other things. And for some reason, if we get this one thing right, that then as it pertains to being branded, then all the other parts of our lives tend to fall into place more easily. And that one thing is this. It's what we do with our stuff. It's what we do with our things. It's what we do with our money because how we think about stuff and things and money says a lot about how we think about the God who gave us those things to begin with. And look, I know that talking about money and stuff in church can create emotion for you. And I'm not sorry about that. But what I wanna say to you is the emotions that it creates ranging from anger to frustration, to anxiety, to fear, here's what I want you to ponder. What if it's possible? And I believe it is. But what if it's possible for you to look at money from a different angle? As in the perspective originally intended for us by God Almighty. And what if our present negative emotions about money could be replaced? With joy and excitement and gratitude and peace and contentment and freedom. And I just want you to know that's my goal in the series. So stay with me over the next two weeks.

And let me do this today. I wanna start with a quick overview. I mentioned earlier the cowboy code, that code that every cowboy lives by. I wanna introduce you today to the branded code or the cowboy code of money. And I'm gonna use three guiding principles that we'll talk about in this series. One today, one next week and one, the following week. And the first principle is this. We are stewards not owners. Okay, and that's what we're gonna talk about today. Psalm 24 says it this way. All of the world is the Lord's. Amen? In other words, he owns it, right? We don't own it. And when you and I make the mistake of claiming ownership over our stuff, then our relationship with our stuff gets out of balance. Okay, and so we're gonna talk about that today. Number two is we give God our first and our best, right? We give God the first of everything. That's what the scripture teaches us. The first day of the week, the first minutes of the day, right? The first of our income. And we don't just give him our first. We give him our best. We don't give God our leftovers. We don't tip God and say good job.

We give him our best. And the Bible says that we are to love the Lord our God with all, say all. All of our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind, all of our strength, right? We love the Lord with all of our relationships, with all of our focus, with all of our ability, with all of our time, our talent and our treasure. And so we give God our best. me just declare this to you and toss Oklahoma. When we give around here, we do not give to get back. We don't. But God does give back. In fact, the Bible says that He gives it back, pressed down, shaken together, and running over. And no one can give back like God can give back. And here's the truth. No one can out give God. And that means that giving to God is the best investment you and I could ever make. In fact, Jesus said it this way. He said, store up treasure. Did you know that was a command that He said? He said, store up treasure in heaven. Lay it up in heaven. Store your treasure in heaven. So before we invest one dime in earthly things, we should be investing in heaven. And Jesus didn't stop there. He said, if we do that, all these other things that we mentioned earlier will be added unto you. The needs we have, our daily bread, answered prayers, restored relationships. This is what I'm talking about when I say that somehow, if we can crack the code on money, that the rest of our lives will be more likely to line up with what it is that God says. It's unbelievable how that works. And money is a big deal in the Bible because if we get it right, our lives have the potential according to God to be blessed. But if we get it wrong, it can actually mess everything else up. And we get stuck in a cycle of greed or jealousy or comparison. Do you know in the Bible, if you were to count up the verses on different subjects, that there are over 500 verses on faith. And there are 500 verses on prayer. Now faith and prayer, we would all agree these are pretty core subjects to the Bible, right? Faith and prayer, 500 on each of these subjects. Do you know that in the Bible there are over 2,000 verses on money? 2,000 of them. Verses on how to use it, how not to use it, how to be trapped by it and not be trapped by it. Almost half of Jesus' parables that Jesus

himself told were about money. And they were related to money. A whole bunch of the proverbs are about being wise or foolish with what God has given us. Here's what I'm trying to tell you today. Money is a big deal in the Bible. But because although money can't save you, misusing money can ruin you. And there's some testimonies in the room today, right? It can ruin you. And it all starts with having a right relationship with our resources. And that's why I want to start with this principle today that we are stewards, not owners. Say steward. We're stewards, not owners. Now what does that even mean? Because we said it at the very beginning that God has placed a claim on you, and if you are a believer, then God owns you. And if you are owned, you cannot logically be an owner. So what does that make us, right? Because don't we all have stuff? Well, of course, we do. But that does not make us owners. It makes us something else, according to the Bible. It makes us say it. Stewards. And this was God's original design, by the way. You go all the way back to creation and Genesis with Adam and Eve in the garden, he designed it for them to steward the garden. Let me show you what I mean. Verse 15, "The Lord God placed the man in the garden of Eden, circle these words in your Bible, to tend and to watch over it." Now, let me teach you these two Hebrew words because they're fun to say, actually. A bad is the Hebrew word. I said Greek, it's Hebrew. Hebrew word for "tend," it means to serve. And Samar is the Hebrew word for watch. It really means to protect, to serve and to protect. Sounds like the police motto, doesn't it? To serve and to protect. But this is the basis of stewardship. The command wasn't to manage. It wasn't to rule, as some have said, over the garden. It was to use the resources and enjoy them and take care of them and not waste them or hoard them. Hear me. Everything you have in life, it was given to you by God. And He gave it to you to do something with it, and that something is called stewardship. And we can either be good at it or we can be bad at it. In fact, Jesus illustrates this Himself, and He tells the story about this very thing in Matthew 25. He says, "The kingdom of heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. He called together His servants and entrusted His money to them while He was gone." Anybody remember this story? We've talked about it a few times. We did it back in the parable series and I'll just summarize it for you. And that guy made five more bags. He gave one guy two bags of silver,

and that guy went and dealt with it, and made two more bags of silver. And then he gave one guy one bag, and what did he do with it? Nothing, right? He buried it. And so the master comes back and says, "Hey, what did you do with it?" And he says, "I knew you were harsh. "I'm afraid of you, so I didn't do anything with it." And said, "I buried it." And the master in the story was not happy with him. Now let me ask you this question. Why did that servant find it hard to double the investment like the other two servants? Was it because he wasn't given as much? No, the guy who had two didn't have that problem, right? And two is a lot closer to one than it is. Five, right? Was it because he was not smart enough? I don't believe so. No, the master knew what he was doing when he entrusted them. And the reason the lazy servant found it difficult to double his investment was because he was trying to serve another master. Instead of serving his master who owned him, he was trying to serve the money master. And Jesus talked about that. And he said, "It's really, really hard to serve two masters."

He said, "It's very difficult to serve two masters." Does anybody believe that's what Jesus said? Do not raise your hand because that is not what Jesus said. He did not say it's difficult. And he didn't say it's really, really hard. Look at what Jesus said. No one can serve two masters. For you will hate the one and love the other. You'll be devoted to one and despise the other. Look at what he says and say it with me. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money. Look, this is why the Bible has so much to say about money because there is a spiritual element to our cash. You say, what are you talking about? There is a spirit on every dollar that ever passes through your hand. This word money is the Greek word mammon. Say mammon, mammon. Does anybody know what mammon is? Mammon is the name of the Syrian deity of wealth and greed. It is also the name given to one of the seven princes of hell. Meaning what? That Jesus decided to use the name of the demonic to describe an unbalanced relationship with money. Now we know elsewhere in scripture that it's not money that's evil. It's the love of money that is evil. In fact, that's 1 Timothy's chapter six and verse 10. And here's the point, you cannot serve money and God.

Let me just repeat that, okay, just in case you missed it. You cannot serve both money and God. Jesus did not say it's tough. Are you sure you want to try? It's hard. He said, you cannot serve two masters. It's impossible. It is a logical fallacy. It is a universal philosophical impossibility. It is not a philosophical conundrum. It is a real problem. You cannot put your faith in both God and money. And if you do, you will end up loving one and hating the other. Hear me, and the way that you and I speak about money, we're doing more than speaking about money. We're actually teaching our kids. And we're teaching our kids more than about finances. We're actually teaching them about a relationship with God. Why? Because when the rubber meets the road, all of our ranting and raving about finances and anxiety and fear about money, what's being conveyed is a lack of faith in God. When you and I say we don't have enough money, what we're actually saying is the only thing we trust to take care of us is money. Not God, but money. And when we don't trust God enough to give us enough and to care for our needs, there's a problem, right?

But when you see God as your owner, then he takes care of the rest, right? And you will experience financial peace. I say it all the time. God, you got a problem with your air conditioner today. (congregation laughing) Your car is not good, God. I say those kinds of things to him all the time. Why? Because they are his, right? I didn't say you would not need more money or you would have more money than you ever needed. What I'm saying is that you will be taken care of and you will have peace. But the first thing to get in this stewardship thing figured out is this principle. So let me give you three driving principles, all of these straight from scripture and I want you to write all three of them down. And by the way, if you get these things right, you can become a good steward and you don't have to worry. And here's the truth, some of us are naturally better with money than others, right? And we usually marry the opposite. But that's not what I'm talking about today. The big question is, am I using what I... That's a fair question, isn't it? And wouldn't you want to know the answer to that? I really do want to know the answer. None of us want to walk in here and go, don't talk to me about this.

I don't want to know the answer to that. Of course, you want to know the answer to that. And the driving principle, the first driving principle behind this thing called stewardship is this truth. Everything is owned by God. We said it earlier, right? Psalm 24 says that the earth is the Lord's and everything in it. Well, what about those things above the earth? Well, Deuteronomy 10 says the highest heavens and everything in it belong to the Lord. Haggai 28 tells us that God owns all the silver and all the gold and all of the earth, meaning he has unlimited resources because all of the resources are his. Nothing in the world that he does not own. And the first step to becoming a good steward is to recognize and embrace the theology behind this statement. That everything is owned by God. The second principle is this. Everything comes from God. James 1 17 says every, say every. Every good gift comes down from the Father above. If you have it, it's because of God. And you might get frustrated and say, well, pastor, I worked really hard for this. You did. And I'm not taking that away from you, but I would ask you, who gave you that job?

And who gave you the skills to do that job? And by giving you the opportunity and the ability, listen, God is the one who's given you what you have. And it's a freeing truth when we embrace this. The truth is that God desires to bless us. He wants to bless you. He blesses you every time he gives you something and you are blessed so that you can be a blessing to others. And financial generosity is the greatest indicator of a heart that belongs to Jesus Christ. And look, there's a direct correlation but between financial obedience with what we currently have and anything that God might entrust us with in the future. It's related and make no mistake about it. It is related. And we start with the idea that everything is owned by God. Everything comes from God. And then thirdly, everything is distributed by God. God is the one who decides how much you have. What are you talking about? God is the one who decides that. He's the only one who gets to decide that. God loves you enough to give you enough. And that's why I said when we say we don't have enough, it's a matter of not trusting God. Go back to the servants that we talked about a moment ago. The servant who got two bags of silver did not get five bags. And he did not get one bag. Can anyone answer the question as to why? The only answer is because the master chose it.

He chose to give him two bags. And ultimately in God's wisdom, he decides how much you and I will get. And that is not based on how much he loves us. And it is not based on how good we've been. But it is based on how and where he needs us to use his resources. Let me show you this little illustration. Over here on one side of the equation, you got everything. Okay, everything, all the resources, all of them. Say all, all the resources. And God by the way says they're all his, okay? And over here on this side of the equation, you got all the needs in the world. Okay, do you follow? Over here, all the resources over here, all the needs in the world. And God says, I want you to use or I want to use what I have over here to meet these needs over here. You follow? Now how is he gonna do that? With us. He's gonna put it in our hand and tell us what to do with it to meet the needs in the world. That's how he works. This is the plan from the very beginning. God owns everything and he makes you and me stewards of it. Why? Because there are needs in the world, right?

And you listen to this, listen to this and listen carefully. You or you and your family are best positioned to meet some of those needs. That's crazy truth when you think through that. That you and your family are best positioned to meet some of the needs in the world. You gotta remember guys, this is a global book. The Bible is not an American book. And when you measure wealth in America, it's different than in the rest of the world. And some of you live paycheck to paycheck. And I pray God helps you with that. And I pray that some of the resources we provide, some of the community groups and classes we have can help you move beyond that. But very few of you live meal to meal. If you make $30,000 a year, you're in the top 1% of the world's wealth. So the temptation is to think this message is for people who are wealthy by American standards. It's actually not. The point is that you are wealthy. And if you have been given wealth, then you are supposed to steward it. And you and your family are actually the best positioned people to meet some of the needs in the world. And here's what I'm trying to say. Your life should not be measured in terms of your bank account. It should not. It should not be measured by how much you accumulate. It should be measured by how many needs could you possibly meet? With what God puts in your hands.

And this isn't me saying this, this is Jesus saying this. Look at what he says in Luke, he says, "Beware, guard against every kind of greed." Why? Life is not measured by how much you own. Jesus knew this. He went on to say, "I did not come to be served, but to serve." And listen to what he said. "And give my life as a ransom for many." In other words, Jesus himself knew, understood implicitly why we would be given anything. Up to it, including life. But then he goes on and watch it what he says. He says, "A rich man had a fertile farm that produced fine crops." He said to himself, "What should I do? I don't have enough room for all of my crops." Then he said, "I know I'll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. Then I'll have room enough to store all of my wheat and my other goods." In other words, he thought the purpose of his wealth was to hold on to it, to keep it, to amass it, to hoard it. The guy saw himself as an owner. My stuff, my barns, my wealth, my enjoyment. He did not acknowledge God as the owner of every thing, that anything he has comes from God, and that God has a greater purpose in mind in distributing it to him. Jesus goes on to call this guy a fool. Why? Because he didn't realize he could die at any moment, and once he's gone, he has no use of any of his things. He missed the entire reason of his wealth. He thought it was to hold on to it, instead of allow it to pass through his hands, and a day is going to come. I assure you, where Jesus will say to you, "It's all my stuff.

It's always been all of my stuff." He'll look at you and say, "I put you in charge of some of my stuff. What did you do with my stuff?" And that includes all of the money that comes in and out of our hands in our lifetime. And so listen, this series is going to be about a lot of things. It's going to be about how and why we become generous. It's going to be about how to manage money, but it's going to be about all the good things we can do with money. But more than all of that, this series is mostly about who we are, who we are, when we see ourselves as owned and branded by God. This series is, first and foremost, a series about a relationship between you and God. Look at what Jesus goes on to say, "A person is a fool to store up earthly wealth and not have a rich relationship with God." I don't know where that hits you today. And maybe you're here and you don't have a rich relationship with God. Maybe you don't even have a relationship with God. Can I say to you, we're so glad that you're here today? And I'd love to pray over each of you. Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? Could I ask you across all of our campuses today? If you're here and you'd say, "Pastor, I have a rich relationship with God." He's my Lord and my Savior. He walks with me and He talks with me. I've got that settled. Every campus, would you just raise your hand if that's you? Thank you. You can put them down. Thousands of hands just went up. That means a man who died 2,000 years ago is still changing lives today, because he's not dead.

He beat death. He beat hell. He beat the grave. Some of you couldn't raise your hand and I want to thank you for being honest. I'd love to pray for you. Here's the most amazing thing about teaching on money over the last 23 years. Every time I teach on money, it becomes one of the most evangelistic services we've ever done. I don't understand it, but men and women and boys and girls come to saving knowledge in rich relationship with God. In fact I'm not even sure if I have a relationship with God but if you're going to pray would you include me in that prayer at every campus if that's you would you just raise your hand high and say pastor include me in that prayer okay okay okay okay okay all over the room hands are going up from the front of the room to the to the back of the room you can put them down. Father I pray right now for the men and women boys and girls under the side of my voice that need a relationship with you Jesus and that today salvation would spring up out of the ground into their lives and they could know that they know that they know that they have a relationship with God son Jesus Christ. I pray you'd meet them right where they are today and if you're here today and that's you you want to give your life to Jesus I want to lead you in a prayer. I'll pray at one phrase at a time so that you can repeat it after me. Out loud the Bible says confess with your mouth and believe in your heart so I'm going to ask you to pray just out loud with me if you want to give your life to Jesus. Would you pray and say dear God I know I'm a sinner but today I ask you to forgive me for all of my sin. Jesus coming to my life to be my Lord my Savior my forgiver in the best way that I know how. I turn my back on my sin and I trust you alone Jesus to save me. Thank you for saving me. Now before we look up before we say amen I just want to pray with those of you who already know the Lord. And when you hear that everything belongs to God and everything comes from God and everything is distributed by God can I pastor you and say to you today our first response to that should not be fear. It should not be what is God going to take from me. Our response should be gratitude. God would you look at everything you've already given me. Every good gift every answered prayer every open door every bit of strength every moment of grace

it's all come from your hand God a good and loving Father. And when we all look back over our lives what we discover is that God you have been faithful. There's never been a morning without your mercy a need that you didn't see a season where you let us go. And so churches you pray on your own would you just in your lap make two fists with your hands and you may just want to squeeze them tight and then I want you to ask God to help you think of blessings that he has already blessed you with. And when he brings something to your mind just begin to put one finger out of the time as if you're counting them on your fingers opening each of them up. And when you get to 10 your hands are going to be wide open. Take a minute and ask him to remind you of blessings he's already given you. Thank you for the breath that we breathe God for every heartbeat that we have the ability to think the ability to worship freely in this country. Blessing after blessing after blessing and with your hands open would you declare in your own words to your heavenly Father he is the owner of everything and ask him to make you a good steward of anything he puts in your open hands. Lord hear our prayer make us good stewards to your glory. In Jesus name we pray and together we all say amen and amen would you thank the Lord for meeting with us today.