Good morning, good morning, good morning. Happy New Year! You guys over the, well, I guess we don't have the college football hangover yet because it's not all done yet, right? So, it's good to see you this morning. Good to see you this morning. Hey, this morning is our, is the fifth Sunday. If you're visiting with us this morning, you see that all the children are here this morning. It's because fifth Sundays are our family celebration. And we do, we do this, uh,

about four times a year. And I know we just, uh, it's a little bit of an abbreviated service because the children all stay in here. It gives our, our volunteers a break, uh, every fifth Sunday, but it also lets the children, it lets you, uh, worship as a family as well, too. And please, your children are not a distraction. Your children, I, I, I don't care if they make noise to the, they are not a distraction. We love your kids, okay? So, yeah, this is a time for us to gather as a family and to celebrate. If you need to pull out iPads, iPhone,

phones or whatever, we have some things to pull out one of the visitor cards and the chairs located in front of you. If, and, uh, let them color all over it. Okay. Let them fill in your whole life story and, uh, and put it in one of the little churches up here and we can pray over that way when we get finished. And maybe there was one in the back and that's also where we receive our financial offerings as you give to the Lord. And so as we want to encourage you to continue to be faithful in that, um, 2019 is right around the corner and we are getting ready to kick off our three-year ministry plan. Uh, vision

21. You've seen the brochures before that just reminding you again, we are, we are walking into a three-year ministry plan. Grab one. There's one in the information table back there. There's some on the little table back there as well, too. Let's, you know, everything that we're trying to do as a church, what God is calling us to do, where we're moving in the days ahead, the ministries that we're a part of and we're called to be a part of. And that only happens by your faithfulness. The things that God's calling us to do, uh, beyond these four walls right here. And again, that only happens through your faithfulness.

This morning, instead of, in lieu of me giving you a sermon, uh, I know, praise God for that. Um, uh, what we'll do this morning is I have three families. What we do in our fifth Sunday celebration, I have three families that are going to come this morning and stay within a five-minute window and just give you a, uh, a testimony of, of the Lord's, uh, goodness and how they got connected with Ramah and just, uh, where they're going in the days ahead and how you can learn how to serve and what they're doing.

I don't want to say too much cause it feels like I'm putting words in their mouth cause I'm really not, but I want you to hear from some of our people. And we try to do that on, on fifth Sundays and that'll help kind of just expedite some things as well too. And so, uh, want to remind you that next Saturday, we have a church work day at nine o'clock in the morning, nine o'clock to 12 o'clock. It's just three hours.

We have everything from sweeping to mopping, to painting, uh, to cleaning windows. And what else we got Lonnie? Woodwork. Okay. Um, and, uh, if we've got, we will have everything set up for you and lined out for you. It's just, uh, three hours. If you can give us three hours of your time, that would be great. Um, if you want to bring your, your kids, let them run in the field out back. We have five and a half acres out back there. We can tell them to pick up every, uh, every, uh, uh, rock that they see in the field and throw it out.

Throw it in the woods. There you go. That's what they could do for, for three hours. That'll keep them busy. Uh, there's a pond. There's a big pond back there. They can jump in the pond and find all the turtles and pull all the turtles. I'm kidding. They're not going to jump in the pond, but, but the next Saturday, next Saturday from, from nine until, until 12. Um, I think what I want to do this morning, what we're going to do next is I need to grab, I think I might need this chair right here.

I'm going to have all the children. We usually have pre-k through fifth grade before we have our families come and give a testimony. If all the kids, if you, if you want to come and participate, if you'll come and gather up right here, we've got a few minutes. Come on up here this morning. Have a seat right here on the floor and gather around. Show me how, show, have a seat right down here. Show me how nice and I need you to face me though. I need you to face me. There you go. I'm going to sit right here.

Yeah, sit right here on the floor, on the floor. Face me. Come on. Come on, come on, come on. And if you do come, you're going to get a special treat. So that maybe that brings a few more. Elena, that's not going to bring you. Okay. I'll still get, I'll bring a treat to you, sweetheart. I'll bring you. You look so adorable.

Okay. Come on up, come on up. Because I've got a lesson for you this morning. We're going to, we're going to, I'm going to sit on this chair so you can all see me. Can you all see me if I sit right here? Come on, gather around, gather around. Okay. In, in, in the worship center here, your moms and dads and, and our friends and family.

exciting book of the Bible, Genesis. Yeah. Genesis. Okay. And so we've been studying that and we're going to continue that next week. Okay. And so what we have done is in, as we're studying Genesis, can, can you guys tell me any one thing? It's one thing about Genesis that you know that happened in the book of Genesis? Whose father? Somebody was a father?

Father. And he falls on the water. And he falls on the water. Okay. That's, that's good. That's, can anyone tell me about the Abrahamic covenant? Just kidding. Ethan's like, that's funny. Anything about, anything about Genesis at all? Okay. Genesis begins with, in the beginning, God created what?

What? Yes. The heaven and the earth. The heaven and the earth. Very, very good. So God created the heavens and the earth. Now, how did he create the heavens and the earth? Yes. He was really strong and he had all the power. That's very good. Yes. He made it by saying something. Are you serious? Can you do that? Yes.

From what? From what? The waterfall. We're back to the waterfall, aren't we, Ethan? Something with the waterfall. That's awesome. Bobby's like, I don't know what, I didn't teach you that. Okay.

But, Alexis, say that again, though. He made what?

He made what? That's right. So he made, Alexis said that he made Adam and Eve out of mud. Can you believe that? So all of us, all of us, it says in Genesis, I want you to pay attention here. Okay. Watch me.

It says in Genesis that God created man and woman. Okay. So that means he created Adam and Eve. That means he created all of us, right? Eyes up front. Eyes up front. He created all of us. All right.

And it says that we are created in the image of God. Now, what does that mean if we're created in the image of God? Does that mean that Drake looks just like God?

Is that what God looks like? Is that what God looks like? You, Peyton? Nobody looks like him? Okay. But it says that we're created in his image. So what would that mean?

Does it have to do with the waterfall in again? See what now? Okay. Okay. Let's do this. I grabbed one of my favorite candies this morning. All right.

I'm going to pour some of them out here. All right. Let me get a few others out there.

All right. We're just going to, it's too many, but you know what? I could probably eat the rest, huh?

All right. So what I'm going to do, what I'm going to do is, all right. How many colors do you see in here?

Tell me. All right. Tell me one color. Stand back. Everybody get back. Get back.

Okay. I need to, everybody sit back down. Sit back down.

Okay. Somebody raise your hand and tell me a color. Yes. Blue. Blue. Okay. What color do you see, Jasper?

Orange. That's right. What color? You see blue. Okay. What do you see?

Black. Black. Okay.

You see green. All right. All right. So we got, we got orange, red, yellow, blue.

Blue. Whose disobedient child is that?

You want one? Yeah. Okay. Okay. In a minute. In a minute. Okay. We'll be waiting one minute. Okay.

All right. All right. Listen up. I'm going to take my, one of my Christmas gifts, my little pocket knife.

Don't do this at home, boys and girls. Okay. All right. Let's, let's just take this orange one.

All right. Have a seat so they can sit down. Yes. Ethan. Sorry.

All right. I'm going to take this orange one. Watch carefully. And I'm going to, I'm going

to cut it open. What do you think is going to be inside? Now, wait. It's, is it going

to be, what's inside? Is it going to be orange inside? But wait, it's, it's, have a seat. Have

a seat.

On the inside. Oh, wait. Yeah. Hold on, Caroline. We're going to get to do the red one. Okay. Let's do it. Cause the red one's going to have, sit back, sit back, sit back. You're too close to the pocket knife.

All right, here we go. The red one, the red one is going to have red inside, right?

So, you know what? You know what? Listen, listen, let me tell you something. Let me tell you something.

Boo. That's right. I, you know what? One more. Cause this one, what about, what about the brown one? Is it going to be brown on the inside?

It's a different, it's chocolate inside, isn't it? I think. Uh-huh. Yeah.

All right. Listen up. Listen, listen.

There you go. There you go. Say thank you.

Okay. You're welcome.

All right. Listen.

God, this is, this is just like Genesis is teaching us.

I need you to sit down. I need everybody to sit down.

Sit down. Sit down. Sit down. Sit down. Listen.

All right. Listen.

Listen. Genesis is teaching us.

Genesis is teaching us.

We are all created in God's image.

All right. Now, listen.

I want you to look at my friend Cedric.

Cedric, stand up and say hi to everybody.

Look at my friend Cedric over here.

Okay.

Now, I want you to look at my friend Steve right here.

Steve, stand up and say hi.

Yeah. Okay.

Now, let me see. Let's see.

Look at my friend Rob.

Rob, you stand up and say hi to everybody.

I know. Wait a minute.

Now, do all of us look the same on the outside?

No. No.

Do we all have, we all represent the red?

Sit down. Sit down, Ethan.

The red.

Okay.

The red, the yellow, the green, and the blue.

Listen.

But on the inside, shh, please sit down.

They can't see. They can't see.

I need you to sit down.

I can't see.

But listen.

You guys have done really well.

One more minute.

Listen.

Okay.

He's got it.

He's got it.

He's got it.

Listen.

On the inside, we're all the same.

We all...

Okay, baby.

Go see mommy.

We all may look different.

We all may look different on the outside.

We all may look different on the outside.

But listen.

On the inside, we're all the same.

So, although people may look different, different shapes and colors and sizes,

we're created in God's image.

It's all gone.

It's all gone.

I just lied in church, didn't I?

Yes.

Thank you.

Go see mommy.

All right.

So, this is turning into an epic fail.

I had it planned so well in my mind.

So, last thing is this.

Last thing.

If you guys will behave, sit back.

No, no, no.

Back.

Back down here.

Back down here.

Sit down.

Sit down.

Sit down.

Listen.

Listen.

Okay.

One second.

One second.

Listen.

Taylor's got us.

If you can behave for five more seconds, Taylor's got a surprise for you.

Because what I've got is this.

I want you to know that we're all the same on the inside.

That's why Jesus calls us to love one another.

Because we're all.

All of us are created in God's image.

All of us.

And this past few days ago, we celebrated what?

Christmas.

Jesus came.

Jesus came.

Why?

To be.

Because he's the savior of the world.

Right?

And because he loves us so much and we're all created in God's image.

Jesus is our savior.

So, what I'm going to do is.

Taylor over here has.

It's okay.

Taylor has some life savers for you.

And what I'm going to do is I'm going to give you two of them.

One is for you because Jesus is your life saver.

And the other is for you to give to a friend.

And because.

So much for organization. Grab two. Grab, go back to your seats. Grab two. Go back to your seats. I'm sorry. Then you can grab some M&Ms then over here. There you go. You got some more Taylor? I need some more. You can have two. Here you go. There's two. Right here, Taylor. Go on back to your seats.

All right. I'll clean all this up. Let's go back. You know, that really went well in my mind. I had it all planned out. And I hope that someone other than my daughter got the theology behind all of that. So, there you go.

At this time, I want to call up. Let's get Chris and Debbie Payne. Can you guys come on up here? Is this one still okay? Take a moment to introduce yourselves and introduce your families. And here we go.

You did a great job. Well, hallelujah.

Hallelujah. This is my family. God's blessed me with my wife, Debbie, Josh, Matthew, Christopher.

Goodness gracious. I just praise God. Let's pray for a minute. I have a friend that had his leg amputated a month ago and went and saw him yesterday. His name is Richard Milner. He has a small business. He's a small business owner.

And he needs some help because he hasn't worked for a month or more. And let's just lift him up. I know we have a family that's struggling here in the church.

For nine years. For nine years, I was a wild child. Thirty-some-odd years ago. And it was prayer. It was reaching out from our hearts to God, I think, that saved me.

And all the situations that I could say, I could have died there. I could have died there. I could have died there. So let's pray.

Lord, we just pray for Richard. And we pray for the children who are going out on their own that haven't chosen to follow you.

We thank you. We thank you for this church. We thank you for the different ministries that it represents and it's involved with.

We just lift up these lost children, Lord. We lift up these sick and recovering people.

We know that there is a place of safety and comfort and care that your word is spoken here in Rhema Church.

We pray that they would find a Rhema Church wherever they are at, Lord.

Your word is spoken in all areas of the earth, Lord.

No place is too far for you to go or be.

And we just thank you for answering this prayer in Jesus' name.

Hallelujah.

Well, Charles Stanley, I listen a lot to 88.3, and he's a great pastor.

And one of the things he says in one of his children's books is one of the greatest blessings in life is a friend who loves God and helps you love him more.

And I don't hear this guy on the radio, but I think he loves God and helps me love God more.

That's Curtis.

I sure appreciate you, Curtis.

Amen.

Hallelujah.

You know, the outreach ministries that we have here, they touch individuals' lives.

They touch families' lives.

We encourage each other with weekly meeting together.

There's men's ministry, women's ministry, all sorts of opportunities for us here.

But then also, as we've heard about this 21, we reach out beyond our borders and are touching people all over the world through this little church.

I like this.

We're up here to share why we decided to come and be members here.

We came on a family day, and we liked what we saw because it was comfortable, because people were friendly.

People were taking risks with us and being transparent about who they were, and we tried to be transparent about who we were.

I've always enjoyed going to a men's group that studies God's Word.

I've always enjoyed going to a men's group that studies God's Word.

Practice transparency, taking risks with those that are in the congregation before we go out there and take a chance in helping someone.

And we learn here inside the safety of the church, looking for godly influence in others.

And I like that when I came, what was it, April maybe last year.

Anyway, you know, I just love the men's breakfasts and events that our boys and I have been to together.

My brother, Joshua, has even been going to the men's group with me.

And as Matthew and Christopher get older, they're going to go too.

We love camping.

We've camped behind the church here a couple times already.

So anyway, we're glad to be here.

This is my wife, Debbie.

Thank you, Chris.

We've always attended church.

We came to the Golden Owls from Haiti in 2001.

And since we've been here, we had been married, I guess that was 2001.

Then in 2008, God moved in both of our hearts at the same time where he laid on our heart after 20 years of marriage with no children that we should pursue fostering and adoption.

And we did.

And nine months later, God blessed us with Josh, our two-week-old baby.

There's Josh.

And three years after that, God blessed us again with 10-month-old Matthew and 7-day-old Christopher.

And so God is awesome.

He's Jehovah Jireh, our provider.

And he is sufficient.

He meets all of our needs.

And we give him glory.

And as the boys start growing up, we were praying about finding a place where they could connect and be in an environment where they can see themselves in their environment and to have role models.

But also we were looking for a place where we can go ahead and have connection and fellowship with people.

When we came, it was April, I guess your last family day in the spring, my good friend Tina Carbo invited me to Rhema Church.

We've driven up and down the street lots of times and looked over here, but we didn't know to come.

And so I just want to put a word out there for you who may be here today to go ahead and reach out because that's how people get to know what happens inside these rooms, all the love that is here.

And we came, and it was amazing.

We found people like ourselves.

And we're sort of a little bit strange, like I said, you know, being married for 20 years and then entering, you know, myself, being biracial, my husband being adopted at birth.

Both of us, both of us, uh-oh, wait one minute.

Oh, there it is.

Okay.

Then we began our parenting journey after we were 50 years old.

Maybe I didn't want to say that, huh?

Okay.

And then we extended our multiracial family through adoption.

And on top of that, we decided to homeschool.

So we were really looking for some place where we can find ourselves.

And guess what, guys?

God is awesome.

Check, check, check, check.

We felt so at home and so invited because this is an environment where diversity and adoption and fostering is the norm.

It's not the dirty word.

And we have just been so blessed to be here and growing here.

Let's see.

Hold on one second.

Okay.

All right.

On our family day when we were here, we listened to the Foster's and the Walker's testimony.

And it really drew us in because we saw that this is the foundation is biblical, biblical teaching, biblical counseling, people in relationship, authentic relationship.

And we also looked around and saw that there is such diversity in age.

Okay.

Amen. The Holy of Holies with their worship. Amen and amen. And of course, Curtis is grounded preaching in the Bible. And I just wanted to see, Joshua, what do you like about Rhema?

The children's ministry is awesome and all my friends go there. And I think Mr. Taylor is awesome.

What do you love about Rhema? About my friends. Okay. And would you love Matt? My friend Jeremy.

Jeremy. Okay. Thank you so much. Amen. Fred. Amen.

Fred, can you introduce yourself? Yeah. Hello there. My name is Fred. My wife is Amanda, who could not be here this morning with severe sinuses and congestion.

On top of other issues. But that kept her from being here this morning. And she's normally the talker, not me. So we will stumble through this.

I started coming here and, you know, a couple of years ago. And when I did, I wanted to be, I knew I needed Jesus as a more prominent place in my life.

I knew I needed a, I needed, I knew I needed to focus on him. I knew I needed a change. So I started coming here because I knew Pastor Curtis.

I knew Josh and I knew Pastor Joe and they had invited me. So I came and, um, but I came in, said, Hey, and then dipped out because I didn't want any more connection.

I wanted just to be able to pop in and say hi, um, get a good, get a good sound teaching and then leave. And, um, I was pretty content at that point.

But then, um, Amanda and I started coming on Wednesday nights and, um, I don't want to say fell in love, but it was a flip was switched.

Yes. And it was getting to come in and connect with the pastor kind of one-on-one with elders, with the fellow prayer warriors that are in this church, um, is incredible to know that we can come together and to pray for one another, share each other's burdens and really get down to what church should be.

And that is that connection that is sharing each other's burdens, seeing each other's hearts, um, was a huge turning point.

And, um, you know, we're not in each other's businesses, but to know that somebody is praying for me, to know that I can come to that, um, it's just Wednesday nights is such an intimate time.

And it's, it's a time that's set apart. You know, um, the definition of holy is to be set apart. And that's what Wednesday night is.

I mean, it's a time that is set apart for an intimate gathering of worship, prayer, um, biblical teaching and conversation.

Um, and that really is what kind of turned, you know, kind of, kind of, kind of, kind of flipped the switch.

And then we got involved in home groups with Jim back there. He, um, his, his passion for hospitality, his passion for people, love for people, um, was a great opportunity to get, again, to get more connected.

Um, so we've been hanging out with him, eating his food, um, talking about Jesus for a year now, and it's, has transformed a man in my life.

Um, again, to see where we were a year ago, to see where other, other couples were a year ago, and to see where we are now, um, prayer works, gathering together works, unity.

We, you know, that's what, again, that is what the book of Acts is all about, and that is coming together in one accord, praying together.

Um, and that's what this church has given me, given all of us.

Um, if we take that, you know, take, if we take those steps.

Um, so yeah, I mean, it's, you know, Amanda loves working at the children's desk, um, seeing, you know, all the kids smiling faces.

That's not quite my passion, but that is hers, um, so she loves seeing, seeing all of y'all, and, um, coming through there, um, dropping off your kids.

And we just look forward to continuing to grow, because this church is going, this church is moving, this church is changing.

And we just look forward to continuing to grow, because this church is moving, this church is moving, this church is moving, this church is moving, this church is moving, this church is moving, this church is moving, this church is moving, this church is moving, this church is moving, this church is moving, this church is moving, this church is moving, this church is moving, this church is moving, this church is moving, this church is moving, this church is moving, this church is moving, this church is moving, this church is moving, this church is moving, this church is moving, this church is moving, this church is moving, this church is moving, this church is moving, this church is moving, this church is moving, this church is moving, this church is moving, this church is moving, this church is moving, this church is moving, this church is moving, this church is moving, this church is moving, this church is moving, this church is moving, this church is moving, this church is moving, this church is moving,

Thank you.

Thank you, brother. I love you. Amen. Amen. As Jim makes his way up here, and when Jim finishes, we'll have the worship team come up. I will say briefly, too, that I'm glad you mentioned something about Wednesday nights, Fred, as well, because in our time on Wednesday nights, here you go, Jim, that's one of the things that, for a while, we even wrestle with the worship team.

With his elder leadership, we were thinking that maybe the Lord was leading us to move away from Wednesday nights because it's a small crowd. I'll be really honest with you, a small crowd that comes on Wednesdays that is willing to just sacrifice and to pray and just have that conversation.

But we have seen so much fruit from Wednesday nights. It was one of those things that really the Lord had to deal with me on some things because I was willing to kind of shut it down and do something different.

But I miss it when we're not together on Wednesday nights. I miss it when we're not able to just share the burdens and to have those times of prayer.

There are some powerful things that God has done on Wednesday nights and prayers that he's answered that has just been amazing.

And so I'm not plugging it. I'm just saying if you're looking to do something on Wednesdays, we have something for your children on Wednesdays.

The youth are moving to Sunday nights, but let your students be in here and be part of what's going on on Wednesday nights as well, too.

But it's really exhilarating as well. It's a blessing. I'm sorry, Jim. Go ahead.

It looks like it's a plaid day for guys here. And yes, Fred and I are wearing the same shirt, if you didn't notice.

I wanted to talk a little bit just this morning. Curtis said seven to ten minutes, and then he just said a few minutes goes five minutes.

So I'll try to stick to five if I can.

No, if I say five, you'll go ten. That's how it works.

So I'll try to speak faster. But I wanted to talk about the importance of spending time in God's Word

and how important it has been for me this past actually almost a year and a half, two years, being involved here at Ramah Community Church,

being involved with the men's ministry, our men's Bible study Thursday mornings,

and especially this past year being involved with a home group, posting a home group this past year where we've studied Scripture.

We've gone through the book of Ephesians. Now we're going through the book of Acts.

It's just been wonderful to spend time studying the Scripture.

But before I jump into that, I wanted to mention, if you're not familiar in the area behind the church here,

Curtis, Lonnie, Fred, and some others a few weeks ago, a couple months ago, planted 45 citrus trees back here

that will eventually be used to share with the community some fresh fruit for the community.

One thing, and I'm really familiar with citrus trees. I've studied a lot about it.

One thing you may not be familiar with, but any citrus tree that you buy in a nursery,

and all the citrus trees back here, they're all grown on a root stock,

meaning the tree that you see has been grafted onto another tree, which isn't growing except for the roots.

So the part of the tree that you see that produces fruit is receiving all the nutrients, the water,

the energy for growth from that other root stock, the other tree.

And you can actually, if you look at the bottom of the tree, you'll see the stump kind of has a twist to it.

Anyway, I say all that to say it's a good opportunity.

Jesus says in John 15, 5,

I am the vine, you are the branches.

He who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit.

For apart from me you can do nothing.

He says in two verses earlier that he who abides in me and my words abide in him will bear much fruit.

He does a better job here with the vine than I'm doing with the citrus trees out here,

but I want you to see the similarities there.

Those trees are producing fruit from what it's receiving from the root stock.

And just as Jesus is saying, he desires for us to produce fruit in our life.

We can't do that on our own.

We can try, but we're going to fail miserably.

But when we abide in him, when his words abide in us,

His words abide in Christ? His words abide in Christ. His words abide in Christ. His words abide in Christ. His words abide in Christ. His words abide in Christ. His words abide in Christ. And I just thought, well, I need to spend more time. I need to spend time in God's word. If I'm not reading it, if I'm not thinking about it, if I'm not studying it, then how can God's word really soak into my life and be, how can I be transformed by his words if I'm not spending time in it? If I'm only coming for one hour a week to hear Curtis preach, no offense, Curtis, if that's all I'm getting for my whole

Christian walk during the whole Christian walk during the week, then I'm missing out. And that's what Christ is saying here, that he's the vine. So I made choices ten months ago. I said, you know what, I'm going to cut out some things in my life and I'm going to put priority where it needs to be.

So I cut out some TV. So I cut out some TV. For a few months, actually, I cut out social media, which was a good break for me, to really focus on God's word. And what happened was my love for his word grew like I've never seen before. I've always read his word, but I've always felt forced into it, like, oh, I need to read the Bible. Okay, I'm going to go read.

But now it was like, when I got home from work in the gym and ate, I wanted to spend time reading. I wanted to read the Bible. I wanted to read other Christian books to continue to grow in that. And the other part of that verse that I read, it says, he who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing.

I think in my life, I've always wondered, why am I not seeing fruit in my life? Why? And when I say fruit, I'm thinking, you know, other people coming to Christ and me sharing my faith. And I've always compared myself with other people that I thought were better at sharing their faith or evangelizing.

And this past 10 years, as I've been able to focus more on God's word and think more, opportunities have come to me with people I've, people that I work with, people that I come in contact with my work, guys at the gym in the afternoons.

Things have been said that if I had not been more spiritually attuned, I put, it probably would have gone right over my head. Two weeks ago, a guy at my gym said, you know, my dad keeps texting me these verses or texting me and it kind of bothers me. And I said, what's he texting you? He said, oh, he's texting me some verse in Romans.

So that kind of caught my attention. So I went deeper and I couldn't find out his dad had become a Christian recently and just his life is on fire. And so that led me to be able to talk, you know, verses in Romans led me to Christ and connect there and be able to have a really great conversation with this, this guy.

And, um, but anyway, I'm just say all that to say this, as you spend time in God's word, it's going to transform your, transform your mind. And, um, you're more interested in things that interest Christ. Um, people that may irritate you that you work with, or you come in contact with, you're going to have more, uh, empathy for them or, um, compassion for them and desire to share God's word with them.

Um, and I'll just leave you with this, that, um, it may take a year or two before we see those, uh, citrus trees get big and produce a lot of fruit.

But I hope that you'll, when you do see those fruit and you maybe pick some and eat some, that you'll be reminded that those, those fruits did not come of themselves.

They didn't just kind of magically appear, but they're growing from the strength that they received from that, the root stock that it was planted with.

And I hope that in your spiritual life, uh, we'll see similar fruits, uh, as well through Christ.

Amen.

Thank you.

Amen.

Thanks, brother.

Thank you, brother.

We love you.

Love you.

Um, I'm going to have the worship team come on up this morning as it close out.

And there's my, there's two microphones sitting right here.

I don't know whose is whose and what's, what's still working or, or not.

So, um, I'll let you guys discern all that out.

Sorry about that.

Um, thank you.

Thank you so much for just being here this morning.

I know it's a different field.

It's a different Sunday.

Um, I want to piggyback on a couple of things as the worship team gets ready.

And that is, uh, know that, uh,

we have some trees that are a little bit more mature and we'll have some obviously, obviously vegetables. You'll, you'll meet in a few weeks. We will have Beth Vanderbeck, a good friend of mine who's going to be coming. She's the CEO of Morningstar, uh, uh, out on 99. And, uh, Mo, Morningstar, uh, is a youth estate out there. And, um, they're, it's state funded. They don't have a lot of financial resources. And so the things that they normally skimp on are, are, are food. And so they don't eat healthy a lot.

And so we're going to be able to supply them with a lot of fruits and vegetables to be able to bless them out there and just sow into them. But she wants to come and just let you know about the ministry and to say thank you as well, too. So some of you don't even know how far our church is reaching beyond these walls. And that's the reason why we have family share testimonies.

So you understand where foster and adoption leads us to, you understand where abiding in the word leads us to, you understand we're taking a chance and, and, and, and, and being at being vulnerable in a setting leads you to.

And just as Jim was saying, it's one thing that I, I, I push at you all the time, this abiding in the word. It's, it's so important. And I won't give you a sermon, but you know, we know that the psalmist comes to that point.

And David says, he says, well, he says, blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked or stands in the way of the sinner or sits in the seat of the scoffer, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord.

That's the word of God. And he meditates on the law day and night. He is like a tree. He is like a tree planted by the waters, the streams of waters.

And it's, it's, it's, it's, it's leaves us not wither and it's, and it bears fruit in its time.

I just pray that for us that we would bear fruit for his glory, for his namesake.

And the time is, the time is now. The time is now. Thank you for just, uh, bringing your children today and just letting them go crazy.

Uh, uh, thank you for allowing my little girl to have extra M&Ms and all that stuff. So, yeah.

So.

Stand as we, uh, close it.

You've got praise this morning. Father, we thank you for the gift of children.

Thank you for the gift of life. Thank you, Father, that this is, uh, we've got 2019 around the corner.

And as we have a new year and new beginnings, maybe there's some, uh, new results that some of us need to make in our hearts and in our lives.

Pray we'll be sensitive to your Holy Spirit in that, Lord.

We give you thanks in grace. This name is Jesus' name. And all God's people say, Amen.