You see, God doesn't fix fools. God transforms fools. He changes a fool from being a fool to being a servant of His who then He implants His wisdom and truth in that they don't operate in a way of living in that folly because he's done something within them to change their nature before, no millstone. Simple like over at Siple's Mill there in Dekalb, but this millstone from years ago was used to, of course, grind meal. We say this before that foolishness is bound up in all our hearts. And the scripture says, even if you put a fool In a millstone, you can't get the foolishness out of them. You can grind them up to nothing, to powder. And what you're gonna have is powder still got foolishness in it. It's kind of like today. You know, a lot of these manufacturers out there, these growers out there, they put pesticides and all that stuff in this corn and this wheat and everything else that we eat. We know that, right? So even when they grind all that stuff and they put it through the mill, you can't get that stuff out of it. grinding it through the mill ain't gonna get it out. It's in it, why? Because it becomes a permanent factor in it. Well, the same thing with us is that apart from being transformed by the Lord, that folly, that wickedness, that foolishness is still bound in us. Even going through a millstone, you can't get rid of it, and that's the thing. You see, God doesn't fix fools. God transforms fools. I'm thinking about these little ones as they go back to the back right there, man, what a responsibility we have, amen? To shape these arrows, to nurture them, to grow them, to point them, to give them something, to give them something to see in this old world we live in that has been cultivated and nurtured by the Lord and that is growing us so that we're not neglecting what he is doing and wanting to do in our day, not only in our lives, but in their lives as well among each other. And I've been, we talked a little bit about it earlier with the group of men, but y'all notice this old church building over here is falling in, huh? That's just years of neglect is what it boils down to. You don't do anything to it, what happens? It just deteriorates and just falls and collapses. The roof has been for a little bit swaying and it just over time, those walls just couldn't handle the weight of that bow and bend in there. But when Pam was a little girl and when Greg was a little boy, and that takes us back 60 plus years, doesn't it Greg? So that church has probably been there for 80 more years or longer than that and was at one point in time a vibrant community of believers. that would gather in that building there. We know the church is not the building, just like this building is not the church. We're the church, we're the body of Christ, but they used to gather in there and celebrate and sing. Greg said they used to ride down there when they were boys and go listen to them on nights that they would gather together and they'd be singing and the songs would radiate out of that building and they could hear them and they'd just park their bikes down here and listen to them sing. At one point in time, it had life there, had life in it, but because it was not nurtured and because it wasn't cultivated, now you see the result. Now, the thing is, you have to then turn around and look at that in your own personal lives or in our life as individuals and people that we may Be connected to that we may care for and love that at one point in their time the songs of praises radiated out of their life and they Celebrated the goodness and the glory and the grace of God, but for whatever reason They let life and the circumstances of life Begin to take advantage of them and they didn't cultivate and nurture the right things but just neglected the journey of walking with the Lord And though they're not a building in itself, though this body, the Bible says, is a tent, we see that this dwelling, and many times as you watch them in life, it looks like it's collapsed. and just sunken within itself, and there's no more praise coming out. There's no more joy radiating out of it. No light displayed out of it. It's a picture of misery, a picture of despair, a picture of neglect. And what that does, if you're not careful, we have to be cautious of that. This is what Proverbs is helping us with, is that if we're not careful to do what is right before the eyes of the Lord. You know these little boys and girls? They're watching, aren't they? I mean, everything we do, and everything we say, and how we do it, and why we do it, and when we do it, and the way we operate, who we turn into, and why we turn to Him, and when we're not turning to Him. And if you're not careful, you got to be careful. You see it in our society today. If you just turn on the news a little bit, and look what's going on across the country, or hear what's going on on these college campuses and places like that, just because some of these kids were coddled for so long. You know, if you coddle a kid over a period of time and you keep doing that, you know what they're going to do? They're going to keep spitting up on you. They're going to keep messing on you. And they're going to keep crying on you because they're not getting what they want. And that's what you see in this country right now, right? In many, many cases, they've just been coddled. They've just been coddled by some mama, some daddy, some society, somebody has just coddled them for so long, and that's the product, what you get out of it. But we don't wanna see that in these little ones back here, amen? We don't wanna see that among us. We want God to do a work in us that we don't have to be spoon-fed. We don't have to be coddled. We don't have to be pampered and panted by those around us. Man, we know that, hey, we're gonna have to grapple with some things. We're gonna have to wrestle with some stuff, and we're gonna have to go through some good times and bad times and glorious things and ugly things, but God's got a solution for us, doesn't he? And that's why we're seeing it right now. They'll fight for what they think is their right, but won't fight to be right with God. Boy, that's a world of difference, isn't it? And it's not that they wanna hear the truth, they just want people to affirm the truth they think they believe is true. And we don't wanna be in that position. We wanna say, Lord, send forth your light and your truth and let them lead me to your altar. Because my truth ain't always lined up with God's truth and I wanna be lined up with his, amen. And that's what growing is all about. That's what we wanna do. And that's why we see that over and over and over again. Proverbs and if you've paid any attention whatsoever over the last five days and you'll see even into chapter 7 the first seven chapters is dealing directly with the issue of how important it is for men, boys to be taught. To be boys that grow up to be men. And you see it over and over and over. And it's helping us learn what to guard ourself from. Because every single person has to battle with these issues in this world we live in. And this is the value of these things. They just help us of how important it is to see that we have an ability. And our kids need to see that ability manifested out of our life. For an example, if you take the word responsibility. What is responsibility? It's the ability to respond properly to a thing, to know what to do in a situation. And what we see in these Proverbs is several things that is very, very important for me in my journey. I'm just going to give you a couple of them. We can lay them out today. just in these four things that we see have been unveiled about this ableness or this ability. And the first thing that we wanna know is how important it is to make ourselves available, available to the Lord, this availability to God, where we've been seeing it. Look in chapter four, in the first few verses there, look if you would. My children, hear my children, the instruction of a what? The instruction. How important is instruction? Instruction is foundational to everything we are and will ever do in God's kingdom work. I mean to grow as an individual. You have to be constantly instructed. And the idea of instruction here is the idea of being disciplined in instruction. That is, you're being corrected in it, you're being guided by it, you're receiving insight, that is, information and knowledge about things in this instruction. Look over in chapter six. Look in chapter six, verse 23. 623, I believe it is. Notice what he says. Well, let's just start in verse 20. Let's do that. 620. You'll be here, what, tomorrow? What is today? Today the 5th? So we're on Proverbs 5. I do have some sheets up here for you if you want to get you a sheet. But one way to remember This month, there's 31 days in May. There's 31 chapters in Proverbs. So whatever day of the month you're on will be the day you end that Proverb. That's what we'll read as far as our daily reading from there. But in verse 20, he says, my son, keep your father's command and do not forsake the law of your mother. bind them continually upon your heart and tie them around your neck. That is saying you're putting them on you so everywhere you go you're having something identifiable that you're gonna carry with you. Verse 22, when you roam, because you're gonna roam, you're gonna go about in life, They, this instruction, these guidance will lead you. When you sleep, they will keep you. And when you awake, they will speak with you. Verse 23, for the commandment, the commandment is a lamp. How many of y'all have lamps in your house? Now, they didn't have lamps like we have lamps today. They didn't have electrical power. That would be obvious in those days. So they would have to have an oil burning lamp. A candle, let's just say that. That's what they would use as a lamp. Now what can a candle do for us, or what does a lamp do? Does a lamp provide light for long distance? No, what does a lamp do? What does a candle do? It just gives us light for our immediate area. So if we had to search under something, I could use a candle and put it up under this pew in the dark and it would allow me at night to see what's under it. Can't see everything, but I could see enough for what's right around me. And the commandment, the things of God is used for our immediate life, meaning where we're walking. You've been out at night. Have you ever been somewhere in the pitch black dark and you didn't have a light? How was you normally walking through the dark? Pretty slow, right? Even in your own house, when the power goes out. Jimmy, how long you been living in your place? 20 plus years. Do you run through your house when the power's out at night? Jimmy don't run through his house when it's daylight, right? We understand. Thinking about rattlesnake. You said if he's gonna get you, he's gonna have to catch you, huh? Yeah, that's right. ran in the dark to the truck because of a rattlesnake. Well, you know, no matter how long you've been living in your house, when the power is out and it's pitch black in there, you move through the house slowly. You're still feeling for the walls. You know there's a wall there. You know there's a door there. You know there's a room there. You know your couch is right there. But none of us wants to stub your toe, right? Man, why does a stubbed toe hurt so bad? It just hurts, doesn't it? Man, and it don't take much. You ever realize even when you're kind of shuffling and you're just barely moving your feet and you still, Jacob, run into something with hardly, now Jimmy, running, barefooted, now he was in his boots. He wasn't gonna go out there barefooted. But imagine hitting a stump in full stride. You're breaking that toe. You're not just stubbing it. You're gonna stub it, but you're gonna break it. But we all do that. Why? We need light. Light is how we see. Somebody who can't see, somebody that's blind, they're blind because their eyes do not transfer light. They gotta have light to be able to see. Those of us in here that have good vision, everybody in here can see, and all God's people say it. Some can see a little bit better than others, but everybody in here, we don't have a single person in here that's in the dark. You can see, and the reason you can see is because your eyes have the ability to process light, and that light gives you the ability to see. Well, we need that in everyday life and that's what God's word does. It gives us light to know how to take steps in life because there's potholes in life. There's things that you will stumble over. In other places in the scripture, it says that God will give you feet like a deer. And what is feet like a deer or hinds or deer's feet? A deer is able to go places you and I can't go. and climb things we couldn't climb, like a goat, for an example. A mountain goat can get up on the side of a mountain and scale rocks that you and I would have trouble with. And that's what the psalmist, when he prays these things, or when other places in the scriptures, like Habakkuk says, God, would you do a work in my heart that you would give me feet like a deer, that I could overcome the obstacles that I have to face in life? We say you gotta be able to walk in that light, and that's what the commandment does. It gives you light. It gives you light for that immediate step of walking in faith with the Lord. And he takes it a step further, though, and he says, for the commandment of the Lord is a lamp, and the law of God, the principle way of the Lord, is a light for your path, that God has a standard, stable way to walk, and it illuminates The path that you're on. Where individual commandments help me with this issue, but God's standard of His principle way will give me stability for a long path that I can see out ahead of me. I can see what's coming, or it'll direct me back. For an example, you ever been in the woods? I can go back here on this piece of property behind us, and there's at times, depending upon where I'm at, I can see these lights. And if I got disoriented and didn't know if I was facing north, south, east, or west, I'll look around. If I'm close enough, I can catch a glimpse of these lights over here and it can guide me back to the house if I'm in the pitch dark and can't see anything and have no light to get back on. Say the moon's not shining, the stars are not out, it's a stormy night. and these lights are shining, it'll guide me back to it. Well, God's law, His principle way is like that. But notice, how does He use His commandment? How does He use His law? He says, reproofs, that would be correction of instruction, are the way of life, are the way of life. And what do they do? They keep us from who? They keep us from evil, the evil woman, from the spiritual adulteress. You could say that in a physical sense, that could be an immoral woman, but in the spiritual sense, that's the wrong way of living. And what the scriptures do, the commandment and the light of God corrects us, illuminates and gives us insight, but they're part of life, you gotta have them. No matter where you arrive and where you are today, if you're not cultivating it, we turn into that building down there. So you gotta have this reproof of instruction happening in your life, what? Daily. Daily. It's a daily thing. Because how many of you still got a wickedness in you? Come on now, don't lie to me. How many of y'all still got some stuff in you that wants to show up every once in a while? How many of y'all know you got a bad nature in there? Every one of us do. It don't take much to get it out, right? It don't take much. It don't take much to pull on you and pull you away. Well, the scriptures teach us the only way we will be able to push away at that bad part in us is that we look unto the Lord. hear from him, make ourselves available to him, we give ourselves to him, that availability to the Lord. And when we do that, what does God do? He's always correcting us, he's always guiding us, he's always shepherding us, and he'll keep us from the path of the destroyer. He'll keep us from what men do without God. And I don't know about y'all, but I need that in my everyday life. So he says, let's go back and look if you would, in chapter four in verse number one again. Hear my children the instruction of a father and give attention, give attention to no understanding. That word give attention, be attentive. That's that making yourself available, available. I think he says it again in chapter five. Look in chapter five in the first few verses. My son, pay what? Attention to my wisdom, lend your ear to my understanding. Pay attention, give yourself, make yourself available. You know one of the most fundamental things you and I can do for our kids and grandkids? They see us making ourselves available to the Lord day in and day out. Then I'm giving myself. in availability to the Lord, that he's given me the ability to make myself available. I give myself to him each and every morning as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto the Lord. So I'm not what, conformed by this world, but I am what? transformed by the renewing of my mind that I may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. That's Romans 12, one and two. That's that ableness to make yourself available to the Lord. The idea of giving attention and giving your ear to the Lord. You ever watch a dog when a dog hears something that it's trying to figure out what it heard? What will a dog do? Have you ever noticed what a dog, what will they do? his ear will draw up or he'll turn. You ever have a dog look at you like this? When you're messing with it, talking to it or something, they look at you and they'll turn that head or that ear pop up and they'll turn that way to you. You ever seen a deer? You ever seen a deer when you're deer hunting and you do something and make some kind of movement and have that old deer pop that head up and twitch those ears? The idea is sharpening or Pricking the ear is the example of that. And that's the same thing that it means to incline your ear to the Lord. You are turning your ear to hear this instruction that comes from Him. You're popping that ear up to hear. That's what? Availableness. You make yourself available to the Lord. Can we walk with Him without doing that? You're not. You can fool yourself. But we have to what, incline our ear, make ourselves available. Look in chapter three, I think chapter three, let's see. These first few proverbs have been helping us with this. Chapter three. My son, do not forget my law, but let your heart keep my commands for length of days and long life and peace they will add to you. Let not mercy and truth do what? Forsake thee, bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart, and so find favor and high esteem in the sight of God and man. Look in chapter two. What's two say? My son, if you receive my words and treasure my commands within you so that you what? Sharpen the ear, pricken the ear, incline your ear to what? to hear wisdom from the Lord, apply your heart to it. Look in 124, this would be, I believe, the negative side of this. 124 says, because I called unto you and you what? You refused, I stretched out my hand and no one what? Regarded, what does that mean? You gave no attention. You didn't make yourself available. So what do our little arrows in the back need to see? That man, Pawpaw, daddy, mama, I see them every day. I see them in the mornings. I hear them in the mornings. They're making themselves available to the Lord. Because what? We're shaping them, amen. We're shaping them. We're molding them. We want God to mold them, but we want to be an instrument that he's using, right? To help shape them. So we want to make ourselves available to the Lord. Do we have the ability to do it? Yes. So we are able to be available and we want to be available unto him. Why? so that we can hear his principle way. What does his principle way add to our life? It gives us the ability to be stable. The ability to be stable in an unstable world. This world is constantly changing, isn't it? Though it's changing, it's still exactly the same. What's the same of it? It's all missing the mark with God. It's all going its own way, but it's topsy-turvy in and out, up and down. It's constantly changing, and we don't want to try to keep up with all the changes. That's one of the advantages that he's teaching his son about the immoral woman. with the immoral woman, He says you can't know her way because her way is always changing. She's predictable, but her predictability is that she's unpredictable. She's going to be all over the place, and you're not going to be able to figure out, but that's going to be the Lord to bring you in. All she's going to do is trap you. You've got to learn. And that's what he's teaching his sons about what he's going to have to face in life. But what do we need? We need the law of your mother and the law of your father, which is a stable, sure, steadfast way that has been secured and solidified by God because it's God's way. And you and I need stable ground to stand on. Amen. We need stable ground. They need to see stability in our life. And that's going to be what? Making ourselves available so that God can build stability in each and every one of us. Why? We don't want to be like this church down here. That church is completely what? It ain't stable, is it? It's been unstable for a long time. It's just been a matter of time. How long have you been noticing that key? Keith, even what, attempt, did you try to buy it, Keith? Keith wanted to help restore it, do something to it before it collapsed. Couldn't get it. Just watched it, what? Just steady, get weaker and weaker and weaker simply because it was neglected and forsaken. And like this ground out here, if you neglect this ground, what's gonna grow out of this ground out here? What's gonna come out of these woods? What's gonna come out of this ground? What's gonna do it? Weeds and your thorns and your thistles are just gonna what take over want it So they keep it nice and cultivate it. What do you have to do? You got to work on it. You got to cultivate it You got to cut it. You got to trim it back. You got to keep it back. You know, that's the same way with us it has to constantly be disciplined and be corrected and instructed to have insight well, I'll make myself a You know what we've done? We've set aside resources, haven't we? What have we set aside resources for? For each month or each every two weeks that we will pay somebody to come out here and cut these grounds? It takes a while to cut these grounds. How many of you ever cut it? Greg, you ever cut it out here by yourself? How long did it take you? Several hours. Two guys at it wide open on these zero turn mowers takes them several hours to get it done. So when you start adding that up, imagine somebody out here, Danny. Danny would come cut it. I know you would, wouldn't you? Josh, you'd come cut it, wouldn't you? Now, would you have to give up a Saturday probably? Yeah. See, but what we've done instead is that we utilize resource, contract somebody else to come in here and take it while we go do something else. But if we didn't do that, what would happen to it? It'd just run wild and grow. We say, we've made those resources available so that we can keep this ground, what? Stable and not overtaken. Same way with Miss Pat. Miss Pat's a sweet lady, but if Miss Pat neglected her time with the Lord and praying and interceding and seeking the Lord and staying in His word, Miss Pat would become as mean as a snake. Wouldn't you, Miss Pat? It's in her nature. Old Jay Hayden is quiet and calm, but if he neglected doing what was right, Tammy'd have to put a board on his head, right? Pam and Keith the same way, Danny and Deborah. Hey, we're all that away. You have to spend some time with the Lord day by day. And more than anything in this world, these little ones need to see that happening in you. Not just telling them what they ought to do, right? Not just telling them. Because I tell you what, what's bound up in their hearts? What's the scripture say? Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child. And only the continual corrective instruction of discipline and guidance is the only thing that'll push it far from them. Push it far from them. Now, I was in Georgia yesterday. We brought the grandkids back. We back at an empty nest, praise God, amen. It's been about six weeks. We love them and praise God we could do what we could do with them. Glad to get back to a little stability of what we do. Wouldn't want it any other way than the way it worked out. But we went yesterday. Before we left, come home, Stephanie wanted to go to the art museum over there. So we stopped, and some extraordinary art in there. But one thing that I was paying attention to, an old millstone that they had pulled out of a mill. And very simple, like over at Siple's Mill there in DeKalb, but this millstone from years ago was used to, of course, grind meal. But you know, for an example like today, you've heard me say this before, that foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child. Foolishness is bound up in all our hearts. And the scripture says, even if you put a fool in a millstone, you can't get the foolishness out of him. You can grind them up to nothing, to powder. And what you're gonna have is powder still that we've got foolishness in it. It's kind of like today. You know, a lot of these manufacturers out there, these growers out there, they put pesticides and all that stuff in this corn and this wheat and everything else that we eat. We know that, right? So even when they grind all that stuff and they put it through the mill, you can't get that stuff out of it. grinding it through the mill ain't gonna get it out. It's in it, why? Because it becomes a permanent factor in it. Well, the same thing with us is that apart from being transformed by the Lord, that folly, that wickedness, that foolishness is still bound in us. Even going through a millstone, you can't get rid of it, and that's the thing. You see, God doesn't fix fools. God transforms fools. He changes a fool from being a fool to being a servant of His who then He implants His wisdom and truth in that they don't operate in a way of living in that folly because He's done something within them to change their nature before. Now, do we still have folly in us because our old flesh is still part of this world that we're not going to get it out of us? Are you with me? Can't get out of it. That's why this body won't inherit the kingdom of God. Flesh and blood won't. It's gonna have to be what? Totally transformed and made new. So these things that we're walking through in Proverbs are so important for us, just like everything else through the message of the word, that we recognize how important it is for us to be available, just to put ourself at the feet of the Lord and say, God, I need you to make me stable in this journey because there's too many eyes on me. There's too much going on in my life. I'll never do it right without you, and I need you, not only to give me your message, but I need you to be the means by which you work your life out of me. I need your spirit in me, leading me out. And I need, the third dynamic is I need God's mercy. Not only do I need mercy for myself, but I need to what? I need to show mercy to those around me. You know what that really is saying? I'm grateful that God is flexible in his mercies with me. Aren't you? If God was so rigid that he would not allow you to step out of his boundaries, how many of y'all he would have done had to annihilate you? But has he been merciful with you? Has he been kind to you? Has He been gracious to you? Now what we want to do is extend that kindness and that mercy to those around us that get off of that stable path. because you get off of it, I get off of it, everybody around us gets off of that stability at times and we get on shaky ground, but you know what, we need somebody that loves us enough to be flexible with us and show us that mercy so that we can, what, help them recover and get back on that stable way of walking with the Lord again. So I have the ability to be flexible because of God's mercy in my life. Man, will your kids stretch your mercy? Will your spouse? Will you? Yes. Will your co-workers? Your bosses? Your employees? Your neighbors? What about your old church members? Yes. We all need what? I need you to show me some flexibility, amen? Because I'm not always gonna say it right, do it right, act right, think right, and when I get off, I don't need you to write me off, what I need you to do is offer me some mercy. Some flexibility to help what? Get me back on stable ground again, amen? And you know how we do that? Number four, we do that with the truth. You know what the truth brings in our life? Credibility. to get back on the course of God's mercy and His grace again. We gotta have truth, amen? We gotta have truth. That's why you've never seen the word of God. You've seen it in the Psalms as we were reading through it. You've noticed it already in Proverbs. He always couples those three things together. The law, mercy, and truth. He hangs them together. They're like How do you say it, two peas in the pod? Well, let's just say there are three peas in the pod. They're always gonna be together. God's stable way, God's flexible mercy, and God's credible truth. We need it, and I have the ability to be credible as I trust and hang on to the truth of God. And what these little ones, what I need, I need to see it in you, you need to see it in me, that there must be credibility in our life. And the only way we can be credible with confidence is the truth of God. Gotta have it. And when I'm not, what do I need? Mercy, His flexibility. What's gonna make sure I'm walking in the standard? God's law, His principle way, His love at work in my life. How does it all come together? by us making ourselves available unto him. So do I have the ability? Is God a giver? Does he like giving? He likes giving. He's a giver. He's the best giver that has ever given anything. And look in chapter three as we close today. Just a couple of things he wants to give you and me. As we make ourselves available to him, look in verse number, let's see, look in verse number, 31 and we'll focus in on 32 and 33. That food smelling good back there. Me and brother Greg, what'd you say, Greg? It's smelling mighty good, ain't it? We was walking back there a minute ago. He says in verse 31, do not envy the oppressor and choose none of his ways. For the perverse person is an abomination to the Lord. And all God's people said. So I don't wanna be in that position. But on the other hand, his secret counsel is with who? So what does God give to the upright? His secret. How many of y'all wanna know y'all in a place where God can whisper to you? In the middle of the world you live in, surrounded by the enemy, God can prepare a table before you and feed you, can't he? Isn't that what Psalm 23 says? That he's our shepherd, he shepherds us, and he prepares the table for us before our... So in a hostile world that knows nothing of the Lord, don't want anything to do with him, in a hostile world, when he shepherds us to the green pastures and leads us to the still waters, there's always wolves watching, there's always lions lurking, but they don't come out because we've got a what? We've got a shepherd. And that shepherd, as long as we stay close to the shepherd, as long as we can hear the shepherd's voice, when he's whispering his voice and calling our name, he gives that secret counsel, but he says it right here. Who is it? Who is it? They want the upright. What does it mean to be upright? It means somebody who's righteous, that is, they trust God as a way of life, and to be upright means I'm walking by faith with him right now. I'm taking him at his word. He's shepherding me. Right now I'm living by faith right now. The only way to be righteous is through the Lord himself You can't be righteous any other way except through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ And when you are righteous you forever righteous, but you may not always walk up rightly with him That is you may not be walking by faith. But when you do walk by faith uprightly God promises he gives you his secret counsel. He speaks life into you that he's not speaking in to others, and man may speak, amen? May speak. What's the second thing? The curse of the Lord is on the house of the wicked, which simply means wrong, but he loves to give blessings to the home of who? The just. Isn't that a beautiful thought? Man, he loves to give his blessing upon the home of the just. Verse 34, surely God scorns the scornful, but he gives what? Grace to who? To the humble, to the humble. Those who make themselves available to him. Verse 35, the wise shall inherit what? But the shame of fools shall be the legacy of fools. Shame shall be the legacy of fools. So Ms. Pat, He loves to give what? Glory, beauty, grace, His secret counsel, and His blessings. That's a pretty good deal, huh, Brother Shannon? Can you think of much better than that? How many of y'all want God's blessings? How many of you want His favor upon your life? How many of you want to be hearing from Him? How many of you want Him giving you that which is beautiful in His sight? I mean, you want His grace. Man, He just told us, right? He gave us everything we need. Those who are what? Upright. Those who are righteous, just. Those who are humble. Those who are wise. And those who are wise are those that fear God. Amen? So those that fear Him, He blesses them with His glory. Man, ableness. So in here today, I want to be able to say I'm able because of Jesus to make myself available to the Lord. I'm here today and I can be stable because of the grace of the Lord Jesus and the stability he brings into my life through his way. I'm here today and I can make myself, I'm able to be flexible when Deborah gets out of line or when I get out of line. Or when Josh gets out of line. Or when Keith gets out. Man, when Stephanie gets out of line. Can y'all believe Stephanie gets out of line every once in a while? That's hard to believe, huh? You just gotta live with her, amen? But you wouldn't wanna live with me either. I know. Aren't you glad God makes somebody for you, amen? You ever just look at somebody and say, man, I don't know how anybody lives with that person. You ever done that before? Come on now, you know what I'm talking about, but God's made somebody for him, Jimmy, I'm telling you. Kate, you've done it before, I know you have. You sitting here like you all spiritual and stuff. Brother Shannon. Come on, Charles, you ever thought it? Charles said, I don't know how somebody live with me, amen. But see, flexibility, God's mercy and his grace, he sets people aside for us. Thinking, man, I'm glad God made Stedney for me, amen? And he made me for her, praise the Lord. But she needs flexibility. I need it, I need it, I need it. She needs it working with me. But you know how it all comes, the credibility of the word of God. Man, that is where we wanna stand with him. So are we able? Yeah, well, is he able? Is he able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we can think or imagine? Oh, he will press it down, won't he? Shaken together and running over, amen. As Psalm 23 would say, our cup, what? Runneth over. Well, he's able. And man, if he's able, he's able to make me able in him, amen. Father, we bless you, we thank you. Help us with this today. Help us. We don't wanna coddle these little ones where they become a problem for other people down the road. We don't wanna be a problem for other people. We don't wanna neglect the building that you've given us to walk in and walk out every day. We wanna cultivate what you've given us. So help us, Lord, make ourselves today, this day, As a dad, as a mom, as a brother and sister, we make ourselves available to you. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. And all God's people said? Amen and amen. Anybody have anything before we go to the back? Before we go? Good deal. Carolyn's going to school. We got plenty, plenty, plenty back there to eat on. We hope everybody can stay with us. If you can't, Completely understand that but we would love to have you sit down and break bread with us And there's plenty plenty back there, and it's all smelling and looking pretty good looking pretty good Okay, Sam Sam's good. If nobody else has anything we'll gather tonight at what time? Five o'clock Carolyn said five o'clock and we'll we'll go from there Well look if we don't get to see you again Y'all have a great week. Keep looking unto Jesus. Just know you're a missionary, living on a mission for Him. Wherever you are, wherever you go, and ask Him to use you, and I know He will. I know He will. Ask Him to bring people into your life, and ask Him to bring you to people, and I know He'll do that. He'll use you. Amen? He'll use you. Anybody else? He sure is. He sure is. All right, Keith, won't you close us? And if you would, ask God's blessing upon our time around the table and the food today.