Three Scriptures for UCG Ft. Lauderdale

Stay on guard. The theme of today's sermon is about the number three. Three! What do you think about it?

Three days and three nights. Three days and three nights. A tune, right? Of being three days to 18.

Don't think that. Don't think that. My tune. They already have ready. But three days and three nights. What else? About a big fish. I think he's got that up there, but I don't think that was a sign. Right?

Growing up in the 70s. Don't have anybody like him? You can get 70s and numbers. Remember a band called Three Dog Night? Yes! There are some! I don't feel so old. Mike, you know.

Three Dog Night. Does anybody remember where Three Dog Night got his name? Because it was cold. Cold nights and taking care of animals and they would like cheat in Australia, supposedly or wherever. And they would go out and they would take three dogs with them because the dogs would pile up and keep them warm. Three Dog Night. I've never had a Three Dog Night. Had one dog one time. That's about it. But then, of course, I grew up and got older and the things that I thought about, like when I was a teenager, I thought about three women. Remember those?

What was the status of a 16 to 17 year old kid to be thinking?

Oh, yeah. I thought I forgot something.

Thank you, so I didn't have to do it. But then before I grew up and started noticing the opposite sex, the three that came to my mind was who I get up mornings and watch early because nobody else wanted to watch it. Remember the three Stooges? Absolutely. Hey Molly, you're as I do. Yeah. What is it? Mo, Larry, and Kurt. Tim, and Hurley. Hurley was kind of my favorite. You remember that my parents said you told me one time I was watching so many that I was, you know, well let me see till the end of the show and come find out it was on for three hours and my dad goes you're not going to get any smarter to watch it. But I did have a chance to meet Larry Fine when I was in the first grade. He came and was giving out trees that are many trees. He gave everyone in my class one and I didn't even know the trees. When I was six years old in the house in Remington, Indiana, and I went back there the last time I was there and it was 50 foot tall. Amazing, that literally. So I'll never forget him beside his kinky hair and playing a violin. But then every time I'd watch the three studios they'd play this song. They'd play this music about three body months. Remember that? Well there's something else I'd like to look at today should be a surprise to our young married people. That you're still happily married? I know they've been happily married, yes, after a week? Two weeks? How long has it been? Yes. Two weeks! Okay, two weeks.

If you will, I'd like you to look at Ecclesiastes 4 and verse 12. You two know what I'm talking about. Are you better? Is that your way? Yes. Ecclesiastes is this incredible teacher.

Very smart man. Preacher. Set a chord of three strands is not quickly broken. So three is a pretty good number. As a matter of fact, that same man wrote, composed three different books of the Bible, didn't he? What were they? Anybody? Proverbs, Psalms of Solomon, and Ecclesiastes. Very good. Didn't have to help you at all. What kind of goes really well in this Bible?

Theema 3. I want to talk today, and I have the Bible in there, because there's a church in the New Testament that kind of resembles this church. There are similarities with that church in Fort Lauderdale, United Church of God. A lot in common. That church is a church of Thessalonica. Perhaps you've read it. You have. You're going to know some of the scriptures. Because this is to show all those that try to use 30, 40, and 50 scriptures in the sermon. You don't need that.

Now we have three scriptures. That's all we have today. Three scriptures, because there's so much in a scripture. It's so rich. And so, I like to look at this Thessalonica church, because there's three things with Thessalonica as a city and Fort Lauderdale as a city. And you've never thought about it.

So, I want to look at the three things we have in common. One, we're a seaport city, aren't we? We have cruise ships going in and out, boats going in and out. They had boats going in and out of their forts, carrying from all parts of the world, just like we did. And they were known as a city where people came to and visited and vacationed and had conducted business and everything like that.

And then Thessalonica was a city, had 200,000 people, which was a large city back then. Pretty good size. How many people are in Fort Lauderdale? Well, you know, everybody know the population of Fort Lauderdale? Ah, you're genius! A hundred and ninety-eight thousand people, is it right? And many people are saying, whoa, whoa, that can't be right. That's too small. But it is, because that's the size of Fort Lauderdale, in case you have not driven there, drive and look at all the buildings. Business students, not houses. Because Broward County, in which it's kind of the other, has 1.9 million people.

But Fort Lauderdale, as you see, almost 200,000 people, which that makes us similar in size. And then, alas, they have a sizable Jewish community. So do we, don't we? In case you don't know, travel different businesses, and you'll see that there is a large Jewish community here in Fort Lauderdale, and there was back at that time. So the cities had a lot in common.

But how about the churches? How about the churches? Well, I think there are three ways that the church in Thessalina and the United Church of God in Fort Lauderdale had a lot in common. They're growing. They were growing at the time that was written, and we happened to be growing here as numbers increase. And we get Jeff or somebody there to knock some walls out and make this room bigger. In some way, he is a building inspector, so maybe you could talk him into that.

But also, both churches are dedicated to the way. The way of what? The way of Christ. The way to the kingdom of God. I didn't kick that too much. So, there are ways in which we resemble. But I guess the greatest way we resemble is, neither church is perfect. That one wasn't, and we're not yet. We're working on it. And that also gives us something to have in common. Paul actually said it about the church of Thessalonica.

Your word of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope is being seen. And he said, you became an example to all of Macedonia. That was the church. Macedonia was a big area. Just like Broward is a big area. Guess what? People do see us. They see how we act. They see how we conduct ourselves. They see how we get along with people or don't get along with people. As a matter of fact, Timothy came back and told him, wow, their faith and love was off the charts.

They were known by their faith and their love. So, I want to look at, because if you read the scriptures and you take them apart, you kind of see that between Thessalonica and Philippi, they were kind of Paul's favorites. He didn't have a lot of problems out of those churches. As a matter of fact, he was very inspired, and his letters are even inspiring. Picking them up because they had achieved a different level than the other churches he had been to, and he planted a lot of churches.

So, as I was going through some of his writings, I was thinking so much of many of you. And like Thessalonica, we are a multicultural church. Because we live in a multicultural society. We have to speak different languages. We have different cultures.

But we don't get along, especially in this room. There's a love, the magape, that shines through. So, the title of today's message is Three Scriptures for the United Church of God. You're in for it. Very simple sermon, but it's not. Can indeed. Can indeed. So, those scriptures are 1 Thessalonians 5, verses 14, 15, and 16. Three scriptures, because of this theme of threes they're going through. I could have picked others here, but these really get on to me. And, I've realized over the years that you can give all kinds of scriptures, but unless you focus on them, how many people remember them next week?

Tomorrow. Tonight. I'll put Mary on the spot some times ago. So, what was my most prolific scripture to do? I'm going to go with she bannles off to three, so. But it makes you think. And so, today we're just going to look at three scriptures, and I hope we can tie them to us since we resemble that church almost 2,000 years ago. So, let's go there, if you will. Turn over in my Bible, the first Thessalonians. I'll be reading from the New King James Version. We'll go to verse 14 first. It says, now we exhort you. This is Paul's letter to them, encouraging them. Also, the complimentor, complimenting them, as he had in the first, he continues, but he said, I exhort you. Why? Why did he need to exhort, which means beseech you or plead with you? Even begging you to consider these things, because the church was spiritually strong. No doubt about it. Just read it very strongly. And the people were living God's way of life. Paul was trying to take them to perfection. He was trying to make them more like Jesus Christ, because as he went to his, I don't know how many churches, once thought there were 25 or 30 churches he planted. But he would realize that, well, this church isn't growing very much. Corinth's got their problems, Rome's got their problems, and all these various ones, Colossae. But wait a minute, we're seeing such incredible growth. That Timothy can't shut up about them. He says, wow, it's inspiring. And I've had people who visited us in the last few weeks, last month, they said, that is such a warm church. For a longer day, I have people so nice. That's great for Jesus Christ. And I love that example. So here, Paul is teaching them, but now, almost 2,000 years later, he's teaching us so that we can grow to the level of Christ, so we can be Christ-like. Because guess what? He's saying, you're halfway there or more. Isn't that encouraging? It should be. And so, we can take these words and go. And he says, I exhort you, brethren, warn those who are, uh-oh, is he being negative here? Unruly? Wait a minute, I thought I just said it was a good church, and I got unruly people. What's he saying? The Greek word, therefore unruly, is attackatus. Attackatus. A-T-A-K-T-O-S. Attackatus. And it actually means disorderly. Not having order. He's saying, well, this doesn't sound right. What is he doing? He's trying to pick people up. Because some people didn't have discipline in their lives. They lacked order. They may be great people and other things, but they're disorderly. He's trying to make sure that those who are weak are being picked up, are being encouraged. And just say, well, you might want to get your life a little bit better together. Get it together. And he says, warn those, or help those who just don't seem to be having their life together. They're having marital problems. They're having family problems. They're having issues, money problems. They're having this and that. Let's tell them there's a discipline, because prayer is a discipline, isn't it? Bible study is a discipline. And I definitely tell you, fasting's a discipline. I don't get up every morning and go, let me fast today. No. So it's a discipline you have to do. And this is what he's trying to make sure that this happens. And for those people. As a matter of fact, in the New Living Translation, anybody has that? It says, brothers and sisters, we urge you to warn those who are lazy. Lazy. As you know, when you are lazy, a lot of times it's not that you don't want to work. You may work, but your life is just in disarray. Or you haven't learned some things. It's a type of immaturity. I thought about that today. My mother's listening. She can go, amen.

Because I thought about it, and when I was living at home, even I've graduated high school, I was living at home for a year or two, a couple years, and I didn't know how to wash clothes. Didn't have to. My mother did it. Okay. Cook. I never had to cook. I got home. There was food on the table. I didn't have to do any of this. I was like, uh, clean the bathroom. What was that about? I realized, whoa, when I moved out and got my own place, I had to grow up. I had to mature. I had to have order in my life. And it made me a better person. It matured me, even though after ruining clothes the first time I washed, I finally went and had a bundle service done. I needed. I didn't have money for extra clothes. But then I had to learn how to cook, and I could make cereal like no other.

And macaroni cheese? I had it three times, four times a week.

And that's what made me realize. I didn't. I wasn't sure. I didn't go to my mother again. You know, I'm going to be moving out. Anything I need to know? And maybe that's why she didn't say anything to me. Just like, you'll find out, young man. And I did. Right, Mom? I'm sure she's at home going.

But this is what Paul, he's trying to mature the church to an even greater level, because he's never going to be satisfied till perfection, till he can see people becoming so much like Christ that he knows.

They've tasted the kingdom.

Now, let's go. Since we've touched on that, and he said, comfort the faint-hearted. Comfort the faint-hearted. Why would it? How many people would be faint-hearted? I looked it up, and the old King James actually used feeble-minded. Well, when I hear feeble-minded, I think of old people. Don't you? He's kind of feeble. He doesn't get around. Matter of fact, it's kind of depressing this week, because I looked, and this question was put out there of how old you are when you're considered old. And it was my age. It was 65. I turned 65 tomorrow. And it's like, I'm old. I'm feeble.

So, is that what he's really talking about? No. No, because in the New Living translation, it says, encourage the timid. And there are people who just don't voice their selves that much. But he said, encourage the timid because some people can be intimidated. Matter of fact, Paul understood this because he had to talk to timid Timothy and tell him not to be so timid. Don't look at your age as something that people look down on. He's also showing the people that, hey, there's a lot of value. There's a lot of worth in this church. That's why God called you, and you were seeing it. Amazing. Comfort the faint-hearted. Comfort. Encourage the timid. And I hope we will. Because a lot of us are strong in some areas, but we're not that strong in others. And by sharing things and having resources, people, brethren, members we can go to, it helps balance us all out.

Amazing, isn't it? That you would have this. That Paul is actually giving this instruction, not only to them but to us, because we should look around and go, well, I'm not timid. Well, maybe it's not about you. Maybe it's about the other people. Maybe it's those who we can help. There may be people in Scripture that they're not strong in this book, but they may be strong in other books. I've had many of you. That's why we have a lot of interactive messages and Bible studies and things like that, because of what I've learned from you guys. And I'm supposed to be the teacher.

But if you need a resource, do you want to have one person with 45 years of God's Holy Spirit, or do you want to have a resource with a thousand years as I'm looking here? That's what the body is all about. The arms, the legs, that he talks about in Ephesians. This is great, so that's what he's talking about here. And then he says, uphold the weak. Uphold the weak, just like what we've been talking about. We have some people going through things that did at different times. We've had people who lost their mates in this church. It's tough.

And it's been our job to try to be there for them. It was a lot of them are so strong, they didn't need much, but we were there when they needed us. Other people have other problems. This is what he's saying to build this church that is in the church. And I can picture Paul seeing it, seeing the church as he was talking to it, and realizing that these are the people that will be sitting at the marriage supper with Christ.

And I've got to make sure I'm there, as I think about many of you. I want to make sure I'm there. Appolve the week. A new living translation said, use tender care for the week. Tender care.

Do we?

It's not one of those, well, I've got this problem. Get over it. Right? Now, there are times when little tough loves needed. My mother never gave me a lot of tough love. My dad did, because he would say, grow up, toughen up. And sometimes I needed that. Isn't it amazing that for your pastor, I don't give many of those sermons? You know why I don't have to? Because I don't have to. Because I don't see any real issues. As a matter of fact, I didn't want to bring up. I got those cards that you had sent me, and starting February 3rd, probably February and March, I'm addressing every one of your suggestions for sermons and your questions. Every one of them I've covered, I will be covering in multiple times. So I appreciate you giving me that. But Paul is really trying to tell people to just be what? Kind. Kind. And I think they already were. But then he says in verse 14, to finish up verse 14, be patient with all.

Show patience with everyone. Are we? Are we patient? Now that's just not everybody in this room. So you only have to be patient one day out of the week. Wouldn't that be nice? Yeah. Like patient? No. No. Patient with all. That's everyone. But especially the household of faith, I would think you would show it because we're all battling the same spiritual battle, the same enemy that hits there.

But patience is something that comes with time, doesn't it? Patience is almost earned. You just don't have it. You don't wake up as a kid and go, I need my diaper changed. I think I'll wait another day. Right? No. I want my bottle. I'm hungry. Guess I'll just wait till tomorrow. That doesn't happen. And it doesn't happen with us as adults either. You know, they all say, I want patience. I want it now. No. It just, but it doesn't happen. We build it, don't we?

You people have children, grandchildren. You build patience. It doesn't naturally come. Some people are more patient than others. But isn't that amazing about grandparents, though? How much patience a grandparent has compared to your parents? I ran to my grandparents. I could tell them, I could get away with it. My parents were like, get over it. I told you shut up. Are you ever going to shut up? Now I'm paid to talk. So maybe it was they didn't know.

But think about it. How do, think in your life, because each one of us can take five seconds and go in your mind. How have you built patience? Some may be work, some may be school, some may be friends, some may be family members, some may be enemies. But we're all given the opportunity to grow in patience. And it's a virtue. It's a virtue. Can I have long suffering? Is Galatians 5.22 talks about? I need patience.

So here in one verse, Paul has addressed a lot of what we need. Just in this one verse. Because we need to be helping other people. We need to comfort. We need to uphold. We need patience, don't we?

Especially in the household of faith.

And if we show it, it is kind of like a muscle. You do build it. And you build it, and you build it, and you go to the patient's gym, and you start pumping patience. And guess what? Pretty soon people see it.

It's just like the guys at UFIT that I go and work out. Yeah, it may shock you, but I do work out. And I see these guys, and they just go work on their arms, and their arms, and they're just like, wow, they're just like, huh, of course they got skinny little legs, but they got these big arms, because that's what they work on. Well, guess what? If we work on patience, people are going to know, you know, that's a patient person. And don't we all want to know somebody who's patient? Especially if they live in our house, and they want to see somebody who has patience.

Let's go. Next verse. Verse 15. See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone.

I'm going to pay her back. I'm going to pay her back.

There's that old saying, paybacks like a female dog, you know.

We want to pay somebody back. They did this to us. We need to at least do something to them. You know, this world views that you're weak if you don't pay someone back. But he's saying, huh, see that no one renders evil for evil, because that's the easiest thing to do.

But Christ didn't do that, and He's trying to raise us to the gold standard, which is Jesus Christ. The godly mindset that is, Jesus Christ, who even in His last moments, a breathing air said, forgive them, Father, they don't know what they are doing.

I'm not there yet. I don't know about you.

But I'd kind of be, how many angels you got up there?

See, this is something that He wants us, He wants that church, and He wants us to kind of work on. Can we not be vindictive?

I hope so.

Because it's a natural part of us to take care of us. What's best for us? Did somebody disrespect me? Yes, they did. He took advantage of me. What they did. He's...

Everywhere you turn, it's about getting the best of someone, isn't it? Or... That car cut me off.

And okay, it cut me off, and it went on the left side, and now the policeman's over there, so now they're putting a turn signal, get in. Well, yeah, see if I let you in. I mean, I have to fight that.

And it's gotten worse since I've been in Florida. Then I have to look around and go, oh, that may be George Leos. I better not say anything. I might be a church member. I better let him in. No, it's this part of who we are, and building that to where we're not looking to get back at you. Isn't that what we always did in elementary school, junior high?

Are we celebrated when they got theirs? But see, that's not Jesus Christ's way. That's why the church is mature, so he's trying to continue to mature. And then he says, verse 15, to anyone, he says, don't render evil to anyone, which is hard because some people deserve it, don't they? No, they don't. I just said that because it's so easy, because sometimes we think they do. But then he said, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all. Always pursue what is good for you and them. Hmm, do we do that? That ties to the first part of this verse.

Do we look to make sure we don't take advantage of anyone? That, I know, guys, I know this is you may want to take my man card for this, but we don't have to win at sports at everything. Okay, I thought that's the only reason you played sports, was to win. I didn't want to play sports unless you kept score. Right? Because you want to win. He's saying, you don't have to win. Right, Alex? Yeah, yeah. Fatty, he goes, ah, ah, see, it's in us to win, but we don't always have to win. It's taken me a long time. I have to try to learn that one. I said, I'm trying to learn that one. I remember a young man I worked with. He was in his mid-late 20s, and we lived in a fairly small-sized town at that time. They had a local newspaper, and they would put ads in if somebody wanted to sell a car. I don't know if you even do that now. I don't think that's... But everybody kind of looked, and he saw this car for sale. And so, he came, Randall, he came, and one day he told me I saw this ad, and this paper, and I I'm going to look at this car, and he said, I can't believe the price. It must be a junk. And I said, well, you're good. So, what happened next day? He's driving the car in. And it was a nice car. And I said, well, how did you get the car? And he goes, it was this older lady, and her husband died, and she hadn't driven it for three or four years, and she didn't know what it was worth. And she told me, what do you think it's worth? He said, I told her $2,000, and she took it. He says, worth over $6,000. He said, did I not win? He said, was that not just that it was the greatest day?

See, I've never gotten that out of my head, because that's not what we're to do, to see if we can get the best of someone. And I know I shouldn't have had any pleasure when his car locked up about three weeks later, because he never went and changed the oil, and neither did she change the oil for six years, five years, and he had to have the motor rebuilt.

Where the guy that told him motor said, well, if you'd have driven it right in here and changed your oil, we'd have probably been okay.

That helped because we want a win-win situation all the time. We want for the other person to have a win-win. If it's not, God even says, you take the loss. Where to take the loss? Not them. When I go to, Mary and I usually go, and we have to have new fee sites here and there, and then the Caribbean, we start lining them up, and we have to go meet, and we then sit through a day or two of negotiations, and what we can do, and what they're going to do. It usually ends up with them wanting to cut their price less than I want them to cut their price, and so it's usually this little bit of standstill, and then sometimes they will just say, okay, we'll do it, and when they do, I always try to remember to say, well, here's the thing. If you can't make money at it, don't do it. If it's not a win-win situation for both of us, don't have us here, because I've seen it in the past, and what happens? Everybody gets there, and they cut the food quality, they do this, and they cut that as well. That's all we could do, because the price was so cheap. What does God want us to do? He wants us with people to not be thinking about what's best for us, but what's best for them. And Jesus Christ did it so many times. So many times. But is that a mindset? I think it is. I think it's a mindset that we're not looking to get. Or even in the same realm, do we like sometimes make somebody look foolish because we can? Because they're a loud mouth, they say things, and we know better, and we could just go, no, that's not really the truth. Or, no, that's not really it. My boss, one of my bosses here, has a story of going up to Gettysburg, and he's a history nut. He loves historic battlefields. He's been through everything, and he loves that. He could speak about it every day. And so he was there with a couple people, and somebody else came up and started lecturing about this battlefield or what went on. And he said, boy, I just wanted to, because he was making stuff up. He was telling part of the truth, and he said he was making the other stuff up just because people were listening, and he just wanted to keep them listening and pontificating, and he did that. So he just made his stuff up, and he said, oh, it was so tempting to just, well, that's not true. That happened over at this, and this happened on this ridge. But he said, I had, I realized that this individual, he didn't have much in his life. He really didn't. And all of a sudden, this was important to him. He felt important, and he said, who was I to take? Take what little happiness you may have in this life away, when it really wasn't that important. It was like he said, the people were going on the tour later, and they would find out, well, that wasn't really true. But here, we have a chance. Love covers a multitude of sins, doesn't it? Well, that also means love covers even when it's not sin, that we could help somebody along in their life. All right, let's go to the last verse. Huh. It's very short, isn't it?

Rejoice always. That's telling us we need to rejoice.

The New Living says, always be joyful. Same thing. But wait a minute. Rejoice always. It was Solomon who said there's a time to laugh and a time to cry, a time to live and a time to die. And so if I want to be mad, I get to be mad. If I don't want to rejoice, isn't that right?

Creed Solomon's writing, you'll see. There is a time.

A time. Not all the time. I've known people that stay mad all the time. Haven't you known those people? Now they may know all the time, but maybe it's me, because whenever they're around me, they're mad. You know, but I've seen that. So what do we do? Always rejoice. Really? I've got to be up all the time. Happy, happy joy, joy. I'll be singing my song. There is joy in my heart. No.

Can we find the joy in life? And to tell you the truth, with our sins forgiven, our destiny laid out for us, which we know. We know through the Holy Days how this world is going to come to an end. And we know the kingdom of God. We know even pass it. We know everything we need to know. And if we can't be joyful, who then can? We should be joyful. But don't we all get caught up in life?

But don't people really want to be around people who have joy? I do. Garrett's a barber. Okay? And as we used to say in the sales world, his job is belly to belly. You meet a person, and that's his client in front of you. He's a barber. You're going to cut the hair. Now, do you think people want to come to a disgusting, mean, ornery barber? No. You wouldn't have a business, right? But you come in, and there's a smile on your face. I've never even never cut my hair, but I can imagine because you wouldn't be in business. Because you can't. It's a part of life. People want to deal with people who at least have a smile on their face or just seem like they enjoy life. But I've known some people in the church that look like they despise life. I...why? This is what Paul's telling them. Rejoice always. That's not easy to do, but...

You want to give it a try? That's what God says. Because there are people in this world that are miserable, and the only time they're happy is when they make you miserable. Right? It's like Satan. The only joy Satan has is when he takes yours. He takes your joy away. Then he has joy. I think we should take his.

I don't want to give it. I mean happy, but being joyful. He doesn't get his. And he's picked on me enough.

I guess that's payback, though, isn't it? I shouldn't talk about that. But actually, have you ever had a smile on your face and then tried to be miserable? It's kind of hard. It's kind of hard. So can we control this? I think so. You've seen people that are just naturally joyful, and you kind of want to be around them. And then you've seen people who have no joy and you don't want to be around them. We were at a feast one time. We've been married a few years, and there was a couple and they were just negative.

You didn't want to be around them. And so, how do we, how do you individually, how do you have joy in your life? Sit and think about it for a minute. Does it naturally come?

One of the fruits of God's Spirit is what? See, love, agape. Oh, it's a second fruit. Do you think they're put there by order? I do. Love, joy, peace. Good. Uh-oh. So joy. Do you think God wants to spend eternity with somebody and go, yeah, but something's going to go wrong, God. I know it's a perfect world, but it's going to go wrong. I know Jesus is going to falter sooner or later. All right, yeah, well, he might. Who would want to do that? Certainly not God. And so, how can we pick each other up? I'd be joyful. Jessica always got a smile on her face. What an example Jessica is to me. Every time I walk in, she's got a smile on her face. That's empowering! What if everybody does? Now we want everybody walking around, look.

Not thinking it, but I mean, you know, there's been, there's different to happy and joy, but we can be happy and we can be joyful. And joy is something we may need to ask for.

Because, you know, it's so interesting. Last week when I gave the sermon on overcoming, to overcome means to conquer. Well, it's just like this one, and this is a follow-up even to that, is, is I found out that I can't overcome and I can't conquer like I need to unless I get help from Him. I can't have joy in my life without asking for it because I need more. I have some, but I need more. And when I do, when I get off of my knees, when I've asked for joy and everything else, it seems to feel different because He's alive and I know He's living. And He's living in me and He wants me to have joy. Look, look who wrote this! The man that got beat, beaten, multiple times, turned out to see, and perils of robbers and perils of whatever. Yes. And yet He's saying, read yours always. Why? Because He needed it too. He needed it too. Let me wrap this up now as I finish here. I've just given you three empowering scriptures. That's it. Just three. One book of the Bible. Three to help us grow. Three to help us, what? Live our lives and have those lives be more fulfilling to us and to others around us.

This church, God has put here to rejoice. Can we? One of the reasons we have this tonight is to rejoice. We're not all going to sit around and go, well, hear Bible boy, tell me what this means. No. We're going to play games. We're going to have fun. We're going to do these various things because God wants joyful people and wants us to be able to share things and we will share His joy. So interesting because our songbook, we have a song in number 173 that we sing, says, Rejoice, the Lord is King. And it says, Last, rejoice, I say what? You got it.