Hey, let's give them a hand. I don't know if you realize the commitment it takes to make room in your home three times a month for a semester, and then roll into a new semester. And I'm so thankful for the people that have been willing to give up that time so that God can use them. And and I love it when we sing songs. I wish I had to come out right after that that song, you know, where it says I will make room for you, and and kind of ask you, are you doing that? Because if you don't make room for God, there are a lot of times, man, he won't use you. And I hate to say that, because, you know, God loves you, but he's not going to force you to let him use you. And and if you're too busy with all the things that are really good in your life, and that's most of us, right, then then you're gonna miss out on the very best thing.

So we're in a series called the way, and it's the way of Jesus. It's how the Christianity was described in the first century, as a way of life. And we said, hey, it's not just asking Christ to come into your heart. Okay, there's nowhere in the Bible where it says how you just as she's come into your heart. The reality is you place your faith in him, and by grace you're saved, and then you begin to walk in the way of Jesus where you are, where you live, where you work, where you play, you're, you're following Jesus. Jesus did say come and follow me, and one way you do that is by rhythms, about my getting the right rhythms in your life. Because if you're not careful, you'll start at the semester. And I got criticized, you're saying this earlier, but but I'm gonna do it again, I've been watching on Instagram and and Facebook and and TikTok and and whatever else there is. And I'm seeing so many college students, and their back now, and we miss you, we love you. House church will be salvation to you, if you'll find one and join one, because older people love you, will take care of you and feed you. But the reality is so many college students, see them starting off with a rhythm that cannot be sustained.

Like, I don't know if you've watched, like, all the different things with sororities and fraternities and rush and and, you know, they're just rolling, man, they're just running, they're just gunning, they're just just going like wide open, and you know, they're getting their bids, you know, and everything, and and they're making signs, you know, with people and their families and their grandmothers, they were well, you know, this and that, and and like, he's just crazy, and you want to say to them, hey, there's no way you can sustain that. Like, if you try to continue down this road, you're going to see cracks in your soul. And brokenness in your relationships, like, like, but worse, in you could ever imagine. See, your rhythm determines the quality and direction of your life. Now some of you right now you just need to write that down in your Bible. You know that, hey, this this is the thing about my life, the rhythm of my life determines the quality and direction of my life. And if I continue down this road of going and going and going and going and going and going, and occasionally when I have time I'll drop off the kids at church, and then I'm going and going and going and going and going, you're gonna be broken. Your marriage cannot withstand that kind of activity. Your kids cannot hold her up, hold up under that kind of pressure. And it's like a treadmill that you've kept amping up and amping up, and all of a sudden you want to slow down, and it kicks you off. It spins you out into brokenness.

I know that because people end up in my office. Okay, and it happens every single week, and I, I can't see everybody, and we refer people, and our other people help them, and and I'm always asking them about the rhythm of their life. Are you making any time for God to work in your life? And it's the last thing people think about. And so we said, if you want to have a great life, you begin every week, and that Sunday, by saying I'm gonna master the art of showing up. No matter what's going on in life, no matter what my kids are doing, we're going to start the week by having a rhythm of corporate worship. Because you're going to find that when you're with the people of God, okay, you said, but I saw some people aren't the people of God. Yeah, they're all kind of people here. I mean, they're all kind of people from all different walks in all different colors and all different backgrounds and all different places in their faith, but when you're together, God does something unique. He speaks. Okay, and all of a sudden, you know, all of a sudden you you think you're not listening, I was saying, God says something to you, and you obviously you're going down the right path. That's the way that works.

So you master the art of showing up, but we know we're going to be partying, you know, next Saturday night. Well, just, you know, make yourself get up and come in and get a lot of coffee. Okay, kind of help you with that hangover, we get you. We understand. Sometimes you get out of line, get kind of crazy, get kind of crunk. And so you just come on in, because you're gonna hear something that's gonna help you, because we love you no matter where you are. And if you're not careful, you get out the rhythm. And went to Alaska for two weeks, celebrate my anniversary, got sick, you know, for another week, then another week, and all of a sudden I had a new rhythm. Guess what that rhythm was. He wasn't going to church, he was eating. And I figured out now why you don't go to church every week. You sleep in and get up and go eat and beat it, you know, be every, even the Methodist to launching. And so, you know, you just rolling, you live in the dream, and all of a sudden you got a new routine, and that routine is killing you, you don't even realize it.

So we talked about rhythms last week, and today I want to talk about religion, and how you can move from just knowing about God and reading about God and thinking about God and going to church on occasions, and have a relationship with them. And it's so unique what you're going to learn today. If, if all the messages I've ever preached, if this is one day you would listen closely, and if you get offended, go, hey, he's just, you know, off track a little bit, and stay on with what I'm gonna show you about how you can grow spiritually. Because if you grow spiritual, now I want you, you're saying you to send this because you're preacher, no, I'm not just saying this because I'm a preacher, I'm telling you by experience, that if you grow spiritually, and if you understand the things I'm talking about, you will have a better marriage and better children and a better workplace. Because when there are people around you that are cray cray, and love you, you got bosses, they're crazy, I mean, they're insane, and you know that y'all talk about the water fountain all the time, but if you get closer to God, it's amazing what God will do in you and around you and in that person's life, to change your whole office.

So the table, we're going to look at a guy named Cornelius, and he was, was not a Jew, if you may not know this, but when Christianity first started, it started around Jerusalem, and all the Jews were getting saved. I mean, that makes sense. I mean, they're coming from the temple, and you know, they're in the temple courts, and and Peter's preaching, and the Holy Spirit falls, and they're going, what is this, and and the Jews started getting saved, but they also wanted to hold on to religion, and that funny, ain't it funny how you get saved, and you're set free, and you you're saved through faith by grace, and it's not of works, but you hold on to these things, I got to do this, I got to do that, I can't do this, I can't do that. And so that's where they were. Until God begins to reveal to Peter that God is also coming to the Gentiles, and guess who you are, your gentiles. Without this guy in the Bible, without this happening, you would not be saved. You would not be in the story of God. God is saying, hey, in the Old Testament it was the Jews, they were my people, they were my family, but now I am going out to the ends of the earth to say anyone who places their faith in Jesus alone can be saved and written into the story of God.

And so Acts chapter 10. I want you to see this, because because it is so powerful, and and but I've got to read some scripture, and I know for some of you, like, you're going, I may just tell me the story. No, I got to read this. Okay, so you get the whole story, because this is a change point, this is a pivot in the story of God, and how God uses people just like you, and he especially uses men. That just tell you, have a heart for men. I'm not saying I don't like women, I'm just saying, like, I have a heart for men, because when men get right, the church gets right, and when the church gets right, the families get right, and when the families get right, the communities get right, and with the communities get right, the states get right, and when the states get right, the nations get right, and when the nations get right, man, everybody's right. So hey, I'm sorry, that was just a little bonus. Don't put some time back on the clock. Okay.

Acts chapter 10 beginning verse 1 that says, Aria, there was a man named Cornelius. Now now says there is on the coast of Israel. If you go look at the map, and I'd love to go there, if you want to send me there for like some kind of holiday, so you're going all the time anyway, but, you know, he's right by Joplin, it's right there on the beach, and it's beautiful, and and he's over, he was over a hundred men. He's retired. This dude's rolling now. He was in the Italian regiment. He and all of his family were devouting God fearing, he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly. In one day about three in the afternoon, he had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God who came to him and said Cornelius. He stared him in fears of what is it Lord? He said your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God. Now send people to Joppa and bring back a man named Simon who's called Peter. He is staying with Simon the Tanner, whose house is by the sea. Is about a day and a half journey walking. When the Angelus spoke to him at Gunk, Cornelius immediately call to his servants at about soldier when he was at tenants, and told him everything that had happened. About the same time at noon the next day, this is how good God is, this is why I tell you God's got you, like, don't worry about these things that here, you can't control, you do what God has called you to do, because he's working all around you while he's doing this. And he sends them off, he comes it just the right time to Peter, in a different part of the story. It's like they went from from this angle of the story in a movie to this single real quick to this character, and he's working at the same time.

And he says about noon to following day is that we're on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray, and he became hungry. He wanted something to eating, while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance, and he saw heaven open, and something like a huge sheet being let down to the earth by the four corners. It contained all kinds of four footed animals as well as reptiles and birds, and the voice said Peter, get up and eat. He goes no, I'm not doing that, I've never eaten anything in pure and clean. The Jews could eat, like, things that were in pure, like barbecue, they can eat barbecue. I keep telling people, they're like, you know that don't eat barbecue, that don't believe in God, you're missing out here and there. My brother can't eat barbecue. I mean, really. And so he's sitting, and this happens three times, because Peter's into threes. I don't know why this is, like, like he says no Lord, no Lord, no Lord. He does it all the time. You can't say no and Lord in the same sentence, but he does this all the time. It's a, God has to tell Peter, how many of you like Peter, God us tell you three times. That has to tell you three times. Yeah, how many, how many you got kids, you got to tell them three times? Yeah, all of you. Okay, good. Okay good.

So he goes to Cornelius's house, and Cornelius invites him in, and his whole families there, in verse 34 began to speak, and I realized Peter has been with Jesus for three years. He's seen all the miracles. He's hurt all the stories, and he confesses something that makes me feel better. So if you've been a Christian your whole life, listen, there's more for you to learn. And if you've got somebody in your life that's a believer, you go look at them, they're, no, God is still working them, they don't know it all. I mean, Peter, here's Peter goes, he began to speak to Cornelius and his family. He says I'm now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism. Oh, really, you just not figuring that out? That God loves everyone. Oh, you just figuring that, I, how many of you, you not figure that out yet? They got loves everybody. He just love people that go to your school or live in your neighborhood, or or dress like you dress, or like what you like. God loves everybody. But he accepts them, every nation, the one who fears him and does what is right.

You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, he starts talking about the gospel, announcing the good news of grace through Jesus, who's the Lord of all, you know what has happened throughout the promise of Judea, beginning of Galilee after the baptism that John preached, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth the Holy Spirit and power, how we went around doing good and healing all the one under the power that devil, because God was with him. I'm having to race through this because it just so much there. But we're witnesses of everything he did in the country, the Jews in Jerusalem, they killed him by hanging around the cross. He's just talking about the gospel. But God raised him up on the third day and caused him to be seen. As he's preaching, people start getting saved. I mean, I'm giving invitation. I mean, it's the thing I love about the Bible, like, when we're sharing the gospel, and everybody's the Bible, that's the only thing we got, we got nothing else. And here's the cool thing, like, I'm preaching the gospel, and you may he be here in one thing, and somebody else is here in another thing, because God knows what you need to hear, and he's going right into your heart and telling you the things that you need to know. And Peter says surely no one can stand in the way of they're being baptized with water, because they've received the Holy Spirit just as we have. He ordered that they all be baptized in the name of Jesus, and they ask Peter stay with them a few days.

And you're like, what does all that mean? For things, four things that you need to understand so that you can grow spiritually, because God has a plan to use you. Listen to me, we're in the last days. These are the days of desolation, the desolute solution, where things are passing away. And the reality is a lot of people, because they've been so discouraged because of covid, because they've been so discouraged how things have worked out, they're falling away from the faith. And I don't want you to be that person. I don't want you to be in that crowd. Because God is raising up people, and I am seeing it, I am seeing God do a new working people, but it has nothing to do with religion. It won't happen through the programs and processes that we've had in the past. We've got to go all the way back to the first century and understand that God was doing, and is doing now, a great work in your home, in your neighborhood. And it begins with an invitation. It's the power of an invitation, where you're willing to invite a stranger into your home to hear the gospel.

Now now let me tell you, when it's so weird, we've held on to the Old Testament concept that God is only visiting us when we go to we can worship in the big big rooms. That's an Old Testament concept. Okay, where you, I got to go to the big, the reason they have these high roofs and they're so ornate is because the theology was God is in here. We need a big room because God's got a big head, you know, God, I mean, he can't get in if he's a little bitty room, you gotta have a big room so that he can get in there. And Jesus is saying no, you need to understand, it's no longer about going to a big room where the temple is, because when I died on the cross, that veil was rent from top to bottom, where the high priests went in, and now all of you are priests. It's the priesthood of the believer. It's not just me. It's you. He's moving away from the house of God, that term is only used like 80 times in the Bible. Okay, but you know how many times the word household is used? 2300 times. 43 times in the book of Acts, 11 times in chapter 10 and 11, he talks about the house. You know why? Because the church was born in a house. The very first church, the very first house church, was 120 people credit into a small home. And that's where church begin. That's where church is supposed to be.

He said, well, how do we have this building? So the house churches can come together. They met together in the temple courts and house to house, and they broke bread together, and they took care of each other's needs. They they worship with Gladys sincere hearts, and and daily they were added to the church, those were being saved. He's got a plan for you. It's not just a part of your life that you do occasionally on the weekend, man. This is who you are. It is the power of inviting people into your home. You say, well, I bet they had big houses in the first century. Let me show you one of them. This is just one, and and you have to keep in mind, it's about 800 square feet, as is the size of most churches, I mean, most houses in the first century, and and the reality is, man, they were stuffing people in there. Like, they were meeting together, there's no air conditioning. Oh, hello. No air conditioning. Okay. No, no cell phone usage. Dirt floors, that means there were no lights. And there were meeting together, and the church was growing, it was exploding, and it's the power of an invitation. Here is God saying, I want you to invite a guy you don't know into your house. Then he sends people to to Peter, and Peter says y'all come on into my friend's house and spend the night. I mean, it's crazy. Mr. Power of invitation.

And you're vulnerable, and it makes you nervous now, just be honest with you. You know, we've we've done house church now for the last two three years, and and sometimes it's difficult, but it's the power of an invitation. Let me give an example, how many of your college students raise your hand, wherever you are. Yeah, college students, college students, college students should be a college student for long, and yeah, anybody else? Yeah. Well, let me tell you what happened to the power of the invitation. I was walking across the campus one day, my name on business, and this girl walked across campus, and almost, I promise you, my heart stopped. Ain't lying, like she walks across campus, oh my goodness, I was talking to a girl that, you know, we were talking about going out to eat dinner or something. And I said what, what happened? And I kept then I kept seeing her, you know, at the back my basketball practice, I kept think who she here to say, man, cuz you don't have to me, I got, I'm driving like a station wagon, like, like I was so poor, I was cutting my own hair. I mean, like, I had a station wagon with wood panels on the side, and and I know she went there, they look like she could have anybody she wanted, she's but the most beautiful. And so I'm coming out of the of the practice in my station wagon, and I saw her with her, with a friend of hers. And so I rolled down my window.

Me take me explain that, this is a new language, back there were a long time ago, before cell phones you had to what they called roll down your window, and there was a little handle down here, and I would roll it down like this, and pull up by my smoking hot station wagon, and I looked down, and she was eating ice cream, and she hit some ice cream on her nose. And I said, in this a great pickup line, hey, you got something on your nose. And she started laughing. Oh, thank you. She goes, hi. Do you want to go study? I go, yes, I do. Horrible's, horrible night, went to study, all these guys were around her, but it's a power and invitation. Okay, like she realized, man, I wouldn't go do it, I'd have, I didn't have the guts to do it. Okay, and so she invites, so I'm in the library, and all these football players are standing or sitting around, or they, he's here and I'm here, they sit around with their back to me, and I'm thinking, well, she's not my girlfriend, and what am I gonna do about it? And so so I said, hey, I got to go. She goes, I go with you. So we go back to her dorm, we get to the dorm, and and, you know, I'm gonna say good night, and she gets him on the steps, she's already tall, and she puts out her hand and says give me five. So I said okay, so I went to your phone. She goes too late, and went inside. So I'll get down to the dorm room. And all the basketball players are in my room, bro, whatever, what happened, man, there's y'all make out, yo, what, Joe, do you kiss her, man? As you're not gonna believe this, man. They said she said give me five. They said she play in you, bro. She is playing you. It's, yeah, I know, man, that's all on something, man. You play me. She goes do you want to go to the Valentine's banquet at the church? I said yes, I do, I love Valentine's banquets. And at churches, I love churches, love everything. I don't remember who was speaking, but I remember looking at her the whole time, and I think wow. Wow, God, thank you God. You're such a good God. And and 40. I'm not playing, 41 years later, with 13 in our family and five campuses in an online campus, that invitation changed my life.

And I thought a lot of times about, how had she not invited me, I would have never had the courage to invite her. During the last 10 years, and you don't know this, but the last 10 years we've had some form of of a growth group, now house church, in our home. And for the last 10 years we've had over 450 different people in our home. And he said, well, I bet your wife doesn't work, you know, you preachers don't work, I bet your wife don't work either, and work to five o'clock, come flying in from Purvis, you know, grabbing, throwing stuff in closets, don't know, I'm not claws, they'll kill you, and and all these people coming in, and and and the relationships that have been built, not just in her home, but relationships with regard to other people as they've gone out of those different meetings in our church, have been incredible. But but it started with an invitation. It's the power of an invitation, because community requires closeness.

This is the thing I can't get across to people in church. Listen, you can't come and sit in a row and get close to God, because you're not known. And you can't grow where you're not known. You'll do a selfie, you'll do an Instagram, you'll do a tick tock about you go into sit in church with people that you never talk to and go home, that is not spiritual growth. You say why you yelling? Because, man, I have promoted this for years. I didn't know, I thought you were supposed to teach people like through programs and and and buy things from Nashville, from from LifeWay, and get people to go through a little booklet, and get the right people in the room, and make sure you had, you know, the people that had this deal where you're like, people attract like people, I did everything wrong. I didn't know you were supposed to be in spaces with other people unlike you. I didn't know that when you were around people that are different from you, it breaks down barriers. You see what kind of bears, like race? How many of you had been in the home and eating dinner and prayed with a person of color, would you raise your hand? You fiber amazing. Well, it's not gonna happen. What's that going to happen? You break down barriers of different rages.

Oh, I'm from pedal. I'm from the friendly city. I ain't crossing no river, go to Hattiesburg. Oh, I'm in Hattiesburg, I ain't crossing 59 to go to no Oak Grove. Now that's different with Alabama and Auburn, because God loves Alabama. That's different. But you, I'm sorry, I know, hang on, mama, I'm gonna get, listen, here's the thing, it breaks down rank. I mean, I know there's white color, blue color, no collar, but where else are you gonna know these people? Do you understand what the world has done to separate us? You get on any of your devices, some of you have an affair, you know what you're having a fair with, so just let that lie, there's some of you are having an affair with social media. Save some of you guys going like, oh my God, say called it. Yeah, that's what you do in church. So you come to church, and all of a sudden you feel a little pressure. A lot of times people run out of these services, it's not it's in the wrong direction. And but the reality is, man, those algorithms, they're showing you what you want to see, they're telling you what you want to hear, the enemy has divided us.

And Peter says now I know God doesn't show favoritism. He said before I got here, I thought you were unclean. He said I wouldn't eat with you, I wouldn't talk to you, man. And listen, there's all kind of reasons why why you say you don't want to be around people other than you, but the reality is the only place, now this is good, you listen, this is this the camera right here, the only place many of you can go and be around people different from you and have true biblical community is Venture. Because you're in control everywhere else you go. That's why you go where you go with regard to your school. That's where you go where you go with regard to your neighborhood. That's why you go where you go where you can be around the people you want to go out with. And the reality is God is calling us to community. Clean and unclean, black and white, Republican and Democrat. He said I want to worry about that, all Republicans, they're going to heaven. I know a bunch is gonna bust your wide open the other direction. Just trust me, I know a bunch of Republicans, they ain't right, they ain't going to heaven. I know a bunch of Democrats ain't going to have it. It ain't got nothing to do with you and your faith in Jesus. He said well, why do you keep yelling? Because healing happens in homes. Doesn't happen in church buildings. Ron and drop your kids off, run out. Cornice called all of his family, and called his relatives, everybody that kind of close to them, so they can hear the gospel. The gospel, they're saved, and they're healed in their, their brought closer together.

We were made for community. It's a common unity. So community means, it means where you have Jesus and I have Jesus, and we draw close together. I have more in common with an African who knows Jesus than a white neighbor who doesn't know Jesus. Its community. And house church is the only element I know where where you can be in a room, I looked across the room the other day, man, and I see every kind of person imagine, like, thank you God for the beautiful body of Christ that blend the rue. The beauty of the church is that God provides within the spiritual family what is it at times missing in the biological family. Oh, do you mean to tell me that that maybe house church, maybe church is to have people together, like, some people come from broken homes, I mean, they don't have a dad in their home, maybe they don't have a mom in their home, and they go to a house church. Let me show you one house church, I just want you to see this and get a picture of a house church. Can you imagine being a kid that doesn't have a daddy at home, and you got a daddy leading you with other children?

Do you know why we drop our kids off at church and go out to eat dinner? We don't like our kids. We don't like them. And we put up with him to the guy, we got to raise him right, but I mean, like, if you got a choice, like to be away from them or be with them, oh, these sushi. Hey, never forget one time we had a guy that came in, and out his boujee, I mean, it's just all fairness, you know, bougie people have a hard time with the cross, you know, it's kind of heavy, bloody, nasty. He said hey, man, you know, like, look, you know, everything could be good to you if I just had some hot sandwiches on Sunday morning. If we just had some hot sandwiches, man, I think you it'd be like, I can't stay here, maybe hot sandwiches. I thought, I thought it might, I'm gonna slap you. And then pray for your healing. I did, I thought, you slapping ministry, kind of get their attention, get, you know, get some blood flowing, and you know, but but I chose not to do that. I'd like to say hey, I'd love to come to Venture, but I miss Wednesday night chicken. I mean, how can you guys, we're not gonna have chicken. I just, if Jesus, if I hear that, I choose chicken. I choose chicken every single day. You know what that does to me? People ask, what's wrong with me, y'all, what's wrong with me, like, I kind of get it together, then y'all come in with something like that, and it makes me go crazy, because I can't whoop you because it's against the law. Okay, sorry. Mmm.

But we're going to learn. I'm almost done. Thank you. Where I learned that there's healing happening in homes. Was in the little church I grew up in, little country church, terrible preaching, terrible, terrible, terrible preaching. The guy would be preaching, and I would think, what are you saying? The only thing I remember, what time he was preaching, got really fired up, and his teeth came out, and he called him and put him back in, and I was like, that's when I almost got saved up, what? That was a miracle. That was a miracle. But but this true story, he did now. But here's the thing, but there was a family in our church, the Nixons, and and they had a son my age, but we weren't close, but they would invite me to their house every Sunday for lunch. And I was sit down at that table. And I'd look at those beautiful bowls of food. And and I'd watch, like I was starting to, like I was reaching, and you know, I was learning, you don't, you got to kind of calm down, you know, I just plenty. There's an abundance. I didn't know you could get abundance. And there was, there was order, and there was compassion, and and God began to speak to me through that, was 50 years ago, and God began to heal my heart. Since, yep, I got you. This is what's possible for you. You can relax now.

We'd get in the car, and we'd get in the back seat, that's back when you could lay up in the back of the thing. There was a time when you could lay in the back, you get in the trunk. I mean, like, nobody works seat belts, he drove 80 miles an hour, I mean, it was amazing, greatest time of my life. I still do that. And and I remember, they were the Nixons, Freeman and Janelle, would sit close together, my friend would go, oh, that's so embarrassing, I'm thinking, and the embarrassing to me, I, I'd like some of that. I think that's awesome. I think, I'd never seen that. Healing began to happen in my heart, because the first time in my life I got to see what it could be. Now every time those little kids come to my house, sit across the table, I think about Freeman and Janelle, freaking Nixon, and changed my life. Never taught me one Bible verse. But they taught me about the love of Jesus.

Listen to me, God has a plan for you. The church is not a cruise ship. Just got off a cruise, man, so awesome being on a cruise, everybody serving you, serve you please. I was sitting there, the guy put it like, put his hand in my lap, and it was, it was the napkin, I didn't know, I said hey, bro, we don't, we're not playing that now. And I took me a while to figure out, man, they were trying to serve me. And it don't do me like, hey, we're more like an aircraft carrier. I had more, I had more in common with people who worked on that ship than the people who were on the ship to be taken care of. And then about to miss, you think feel good about your cruise ship, guess what, you come into port, and there's a Princess cruise ship, it could eat yours. I mean, this way it is with church, you got, oh, this is pretty good, no, I bet they got better restaurant, oh, look at that, we're there, oh, that's a bigger ship, oh, let's go over there, man. You're not on the cruise ship, you you're part of the crew.

I made it quick. Let's buy his. Ain't no place to quit this one, just buy your heads and listen for a second, because I know I'm over, and I understand, and I'll do 10 minutes next time. God's got a plan for you. But if you don't make room for him, he'll use somebody else. I have made the mistake my whole ministry of thinking that people that really had the margin, and really had the money, and really had the time, God would use them. He never uses them. He uses tired, broken down people who say I'm willing to make room for God to work in my heart.

Father, I thank you, that God you have put amazing people in my life when I needed them. And got it wouldn't about me memorizing another scripture to get a necklace. He was about me seeing life done, about being loved and cared for. God teaches that, that true healing comes in homes. It required, yes, it's work. Yes, it's tiring. But so it's tailgating, so is Zeus, so is the Ladies Auxiliary, so is golfing, so is hunting. That help us to give ourselves to things that matter eternally. I pray this in Jesus name.