Monday Morning Prayers - 7-16-12

Abba Father,
I thank You that You made us in Your image
That You created us with a purpose, 

that we might dwell in Your presence
And bring you glory.
Lord, I know that even when I don't feel perfect, 

when so often I am far too aware of just how imperfect I am, 

that you see me and my actions through the blood of Jesus Christ.
Still...

mold me, form me, make me into the vessel that you can use, that you desire me to be.
Fill me with a love for You, Your word and Your purposes.
Teach me Your ways Lord. 

Blot out my desires that still remain from my times of separation and renew within me a love for You.
Lord, work in my life, it is clay in Your hands of Love,
Amen.

Monday Morning Prayer 7-2-12

Abba Father,

We lift this nation up to you, its leadership and those whom they serve.

Please Lord, to those who would seek Your face, 

Bless them with influence and hear their cries.

But for those who would pervert justice and miserly seek power, 

please remove them from the positions where they could do such things.

I am thankful that it is You who guide the paths of nations,

Raise up leaders from among Your church, 

granting them wisdom to follow your ways

and preserve the righteous.

Amen

Whetstone Wednesday

Tonight we'll be finishing up our series on Old Testament Christianity, our exploration of the commonalities between the old testament and new testament believers. I think its been a good and fruitful time, I hope God has shown you new things on these topics of faith, fearing God and tonight's topic: following God.

What do you think it means to follow God?


Who, either in the Bible or your own life, would you consider a role model for following God?


What is the difference between obeying the letter of the Law and obeying the spirit of the Law?

Sounds of Devotion: Love You Swore by John Mark McMillan

Honestly, how often do we feel exactly like this? Loving God but fearing what His attention might bring,
 or the sure knowledge that we are desperately in need of him, but even that knowledge ebbs and flows through the day. Sometimes we do fear Him, despite His desire to pull us out of the ashes of our former lives or protect us from the snares and destructive influences. Sometimes we are very aware that it is His power in our lives that gives us the strength to do "all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13)

And sometimes we are not.

Sometimes all we see is the storm whirling around us.

John Mark McMillan's song may not be the most readily understandable but it has a poetic honesty to it, and the truth is this. We can hang onto God's love, that He is the fortress that we can run to and His peace is found in the eye of the storm. He has sworn to do this for us, His beloved children.

Not just a promise or an agreement. Not just a nice idea or a hope.
God does not "hope" He can harbor us in the eye of the storm, He has made a solemn oath that cannot be broken, and He has sworn on the only thing an all-powerful creator God could swear upon.

He has sworn on Himself.

Hebrews 6:16-19
¹⁶ People swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument. ¹⁷ Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. ¹⁸ God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. ¹⁹ We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain,

Monday Morning Prayer: 6-25-12

Abba Father,

Thank you Lord for Micheal Ent, 

for his desire to make Your name great in this city.

Thank you for leading him here to Novato

and exciting his imagination with fresh new ideas of ministry.

Lord, thank you for this sports camp, we lift it up to You

Bless it Lord, with fullness and life, 

Gather in Your children,

Encourage your workers,

Let it be a place of blessing.

Amen.

Whetstone Wednesday

Welcome to Summer! To celebrate we're having Youth Group at Pioneer Park. Its a block and a half from the church and is a lovely location, so if you show up at the fellowship hall this evening and we're not there then come on down.

There will be snacks, fun worship, Super Bocci and we'll be talking about heroes.

Do you have any heroes? What do you admire about them?

How about any spiritual heroes from the Bible?
What do you want to see replicated from their life into yours?

Sorry!

No Sounds of Devotion yesterday. Sorry about that, I'll see if I can't get caught back up on Wednesday.

Until then, enjoy this:

Monday Morning Prayers 6-19-12

Abba Father,

Thank You Lord for the freedom to express our joy and our love for You, our Savior.

Not all nations enjoy such pleasures, and we lift up those believers in those countries

who live under the shadow of persecution and oppression. Strengthen their faith, Lord.

Give us the courage to make the most of this blessing of religious freedom to share our faith.

Bless us with insight into the lives of those around us, that we might better show them Your love.

Amen.

Sounds of Devotion: Grounded by OC Supertones

O.C. Supertones – Grounded

I know, I know. Ska is weird. You guys aren’t used to hearing it. Well it’s not about the horns, it’s about the heart; and I for one think the Supertones have their hearts in the right place.Here's the lyrics if you couldn't figure them out: http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Grounded-lyrics-The-O-C-Supertones/0425003ABF62BBA94825693A00313EB4

Grounded is all about one of the big themes in the Supertones songs: that of Christians being ready and prepared to defend what they believe. There are a ton of great lyrics in Grounded, but for now let us focus for a moment on the chorus.

“How will you stand if you don’t understand?”

It’s a good question. How will you stand against the constant onslaught of questioning and presumption that engulfs us at every turn? In our classes at  school, hanging out with friends, even at the movies, our faith and what we believe is right or wrong is always being questioned, either directly or just simply by those around us portraying the world as they chose to see it. Treating the commonly held belief as truth simply because it is commonly accepted.

“Fight like a man, scriptures in hand.”

The truth of the matter is this: At the heart of what we believe is the fact that the bible is more than just the book we Christians read. The bible is true, every single word of it. And that it is complete: there is no question that cannot be answered by turning to the word of God.

It’s a powerful thing to start treating the Bible like what it is: The inspired word of God, and I believe we should. Dive into your Bible this week, not just too passively read a few stories at random, but to understand the truth being presented there and how it applies to your life right now.

Whetstone Wednesday

Tonight we’re taking a break from our series to have an open time for you guys to share what’s on your heart. Your struggles, your times with God, whatever you feel comfortable talking about. There will be pizza as well, so come with a story and come ready to hear what God is doing in the lives of your friends and peers.

I believe it’s an important thing to share what God is showing us, to encourage those around us with stories of what you are learning about God. Do you agree? Or should God’s work in our lives stay a private and personal thing for each believer?

What other reasons are there for why it is important to share these things with each other?

Monday Morning Prayers: 6-11-12

Abba Father,

Thank You for Your promise to never leave us or forsake us.

Thank You that each moment of every day, each challenge or triumph, that You are with us; teaching us, guiding us, bringing us closer to You and the knowledge of Your glory.

I pray that today You would shine forth into the shadows of our souls.

Reveal to us how You are working in our lives even now to sanctify and complete us. Thank you Lord for that work and help us Lord, for we have not the strength to defeat these things in our lives that would separate ourselves from enjoying your presence. It is only through Your grace, but Your grace is abundant and overflowing.

Amen

Old Testament Christianity: Fear

Old Testament Christianity: The Fear of God


Psalms 111:10
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;
A good understanding have all those who do His commandments.
His praise endures forever.

The fear of the Lord. It’s the beginning of wisdom, and who here doesn’t want to be wise? Who wouldn’t want to be wise? There are other promises to those who fear God.

Psalms 34:9
Fear the Lord, you his holy people,
    for those who fear him lack nothing.

Psalms 34:19
How abundant are the good things
    that you have stored up for those who fear you,
that you bestow in the sight of all,
    on those who take refuge in you.

You will lack nothing; there will be abundant good things. Wisdom and understanding!
I think that perhaps this Fear God thing might be valuable to understand.

So what does it mean to fear God?

Now as we begin to examine this idea of "The Fear of the Lord" can I start with a question, that question being:
 "Is there a difference between The Fear of the Lord and Reverence?"

This is what I tried to figure out. And I started out with the first thing I could think of. I pulled down my concordance; I looked up the passage and checked to see what the word fear meant in the original Hebrew.

It means reverence… and fear. And I’m no Hebrew scholar, but as far as I could tell it didn’t mean either/or, it meant both.

So what does that mean for us?

Let’s start with the obvious: Define reverence for me.

Reverence is defined by thefreedictionary.com "A feeling of profound awe and respect and often love; veneration"

Now, define fear for me:
Miriam-Webster defines it as: an unpleasant often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger


You must understand that yes, reverence was a huge part of the culture of Israel. If you’ve ever attended a Passover Seder or studied the laws of ritual cleanliness that the priests had to hold themselves to you should understand that people did not approach God lightly. They couldn’t, not just because of all of this ritual surrounding them, constantly reminding them of God’s presence in their lives but if they forgot then the ground would open up and swallow whole families.

And not to discount the importance of approaching God with reverence but as I studied the Old Testament and the New I began to realize that the idea of Fearing God went deeper than simple reverence.

When God descended on Mt Sinai the Israelites did not think to themselves “Oh this is a holy moment. Please Lord let me see Your glory.”
They said “Oh. My. God. Moses, you have to go up there. I’m not going up there. I am hiding under my mattress and not coming out until its back to normal again.”

Normal for the Israelites was following a pillar of fire through the wilderness, eating manna that fell from heaven and drinking water that came pouring out of rocks on voice command so I don’t think their idea of normal was my idea of normal. But that’s off topic.

Now I think the thing that divides the fear of God from reverence is the realization that there are consequences for our actions. That God is holy and perfect and just and all-powerful and cannot stand in the presence of sin; that there is no place for rebellion in the kingdom of the creator of the universe.

And that should make us tremble even as we rejoice, because we as Christians know that when God looks at us he does not see David Harmon, or Jessica Whitcomb, or Lily Harmon, or Anna Ent. He sees Christ.

"Of course He's good. But He's not safe. He's not a tame lion!" – Narnia, about Aslan


Now here’s a question for you: Is any of this still relevant? I’ve spent a great deal of time talking about the Old Testament, the Israelites who were under the old covenant of the Law. We’re under the new testament of Jesus’s blood which tore the veil between us and God and allows us to enter into His presence without the need of blood sacrifice or well groomed human mediator. On one hand we have verses like this:

James 2:19 (NLT)
You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror.

Philippians 2:12
12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,

And the other contains these:

1 John 4:18
18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

Hebrew 4:16
16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Now is God dangerous? In a way, yes. Not like the ground is going to open up and swallow you dangerous but to any one of us that still has a portion of their lives devoted to the worship of themselves He’s going to want that gone. If there is any selfish part of you then He’ll want to remove that. We call Him healer but sometimes it seems like Surgeon is the more accurate title.
For He will cut out the dead and decaying parts of our souls and allow life to grow in its place, and He break bones again so that they can grow back stronger and in the right form.
So is God safe? No, not really. But He makes us beautiful. He makes us wise. He makes us courageous.
What does fear cause us to do? Well it triggers the fight or flight response, and as Christians we have a very unique fight or flight response. We can either flee from the presence of God or fight to draw nearer. In Exodus the Israelites hid in their tents while Moses went up to the mountain

Psalms 22:23
23 You who fear the Lord, praise him!
    All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!
    Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!

Psalms 5:7
7 But I, by your great love,
    can come into your house;
in reverence I bow down
    toward your holy temple.

Psalms 9:20
20 Strike them with terror, Lord;
    let the nations know they are only mortal.

Whetstone Wednesday

Tonight we’ll be talking about The Fear of God, a study that was personally quite illuminating. It’s a term that one doesn’t hear that often, most people use the term “reverence” instead, but is it the same thing?

 In the Old Testament it lays out the qualifications of a judge. They are simple: A man cannot be bribed and he must fear God. That’s it. No age limits, education requirements or voting. Just can’t be bribed and fears God. Obliviously this is important, so as you examine your own life do you see evidence of Fearing God?

What kinds of things do you think can be seen in the life of someone who fears the Lord?

Sounds of Devotion: If It Ends Today by Kutless

Man, this must be a fun song to hear in a concert. I can just imagine all the jumping and screaming and fist punching as Kutless sings “Raise your hands, if your with me, come on and say Hey, hey, I’m not afraid…”

But I think that beneath all that fist pumping and shouting is the reality that there are people that fear eternity; Christians who balk at the idea of everlasting. It’s so far outside our limited mindset, so far outside our sense of proper scale and proportion, this idea that something could go on forever. We fear boredom or we fear drudgery. We fear endless repetition or purposeless existence. We have many names for this secret fear (because honestly, how many Christians would openly admit that they fear heaven?) but it’s there. I know because I’ve been there, I’ve felt it.

 What I think we actually fear is eternal life on earth. We think of eternal worship before the throne of our Heavenly Father as an unending worship service at church, and while some days that sounds like great fun there is in the back of all of our heads the memory of that one night were we just couldn’t get into it. We were tired, distracted, in pain, whatever.

I don’t know what heavens going to be like, but I can make one thing perfectly clear.

That’s not what Heaven’s going to be like.

 Can I say this again? Heaven is not eternal earth.

Read Revelations, not necessarily the end-of-the-world predictions part (though that’s good too, just not the focus at the moment) but the parts were it talks about our experiences with heaven.

It will be without sin.
It will be without pain.
We will receive new bodies.
We will stand in the presence of God.
We will have tasks which we are perfectly suited for.
There is nothing to be afraid of. There will be no fear.

So raise your hands if you’re with me. Raise your hands and say Hey, I’m not afraid if it ends today. Revelations 21:4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

Monday Morning Prayers 5-4-12

Abba Father, 

How glorious it is that we can enter into your presence without need of sacrifice or ritual. 

That through Your sacrifice we can come and experience your holiness

 and see your power move through our lives. 

Thank you Lord, for even this small prayer would have once been considered to bold and to rash to speak without the assistance of a priest. I pray that as we come before You, as we enter Your presence

 that we would grow to know you better, to understand Your desires.

Help us to revere these times as holy moments stolen from a demanding world 

Let us treasure them,  Lord, for it is in them that we see You better.

Amen

Old Testament Christianity: Faith

Old Testament Christianity: Faith part one: foundational and practical Several weeks ago while we were neck deep in Crazy Love, Francis Chan challenged us to look to what we believe and really look and see if it lines up with scripture, not just take it at the face value of the person speaking. Because we get taught a lot of things when we were young and we believe them, and we build our lives on them, and we make decisions on them, and sometimes they are wrong. At the same time he was talking about conversion and accepting Jesus. And challenging us to look at the bible, look at the believers of the church in Acts and see if what their Christian life was like looked anything like what we generally accept the Christian life to look like today. So I thought to myself "Fine. I'll do that." So I began to think and study and look at the actions and motives of the believers, both in the new testament and the old testament, and I came up with three things that defined the Christian life, and they all started with the same letter. Which if you're any sort of teacher you should know that three alliterated points is golden. Its pretty much awesome. These three things were Fear (or reverence), Faith, and Following (or obedience) Tonight I want to dig into faith. Will someone define for me what faith means? Does anyone have a verse to get us started? Hebrews 11:1-2 NKJV - Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2 For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. NIV - Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for. Awesome. Now really, what does that mean? Its the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, but what does that mean for me right now, and tomorrow when I go to work and you guys go to school Faith is defined by dictionary.com as "Complete trust or confidence in someone or something." Faith is acting like something is going to happen. Faith is expecting something to happen. Water balloon example? Its funny were we place our trust. We place it in weather reports, in turn signals, in status updates. Hebrews 11:13 13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. What does this mean? Who were these? Well we're still in Hebrews 11 so these are the elders, or those who had come before them. What were the promises? The promises have always been the same. God has always promised to save His people, to never leave them nor forsake them (Dueteronomy 31:6) "I see the salvation of God coming, I believe its coming, I'm going to live like its going to happen." There are two phrases that come up if you talk to me for any length of time. They are my mantras, or mottos, for this time in my life. This is one of them: "If we believe this to be true it must change how we act." James 2:17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. If we believe that God loves us, it must change how we act. If we believe their is a hell, it must change how we act. If we believe that God has promised to provide for our every need, it must change how we act. If we believe that God has promised to protect us, it must change how we act. Ect ect ect Now really quickly I would like to hit three things I (possibly stop here) You know, I was looking up quotes about faith last night and I could easily pick out the believers from the non-believers. For those without faith in God the idea of faith was so abstract, while for the Christians it was very important that you understood that it was a way of life. Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark. Rabindranath Tagore - humanist poet Faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservation D. Elton Trueblood - Quaker chaplain “[To have Faith in Christ] means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you.” Part Two: Faith and the Supernatural Introduction and recap: George Mueller: From Wikipedia: The work of Müller and his wife with orphans began in 1836 with the preparation of their own home at 6 Wilson Street, Bristol for the accommodation of thirty girls. Soon after, three more houses in Wilson Street were furnished, growing the total of children cared for to 130. In 1845, as growth continued, Müller decided that a separate building designed to house 300 children was necessary, and in 1849, at Ashley Down, Bristol, that home opened. The architect commissioned to draw up the plans asked if he might do so gratuitously.[16] By 26 May 1870, 1,722 children were being accommodated in five homes, although there was room for 2,050 (No 1 House - 300, No 2 House - 400, Nos 3, 4 and 5 - 450 each). By the following year, there were 280 orphans in No 1 House, 356 in No 2, 450 in Nos 3 and 4, and 309 in No 5 House.[17] Through all this, Müller never made requests for financial support, nor did he go into debt, even though the five homes cost over £100,000 to build. Many times, he received unsolicited food donations only hours before they were needed to feed the children, further strengthening his faith in God. For example, on one well-documented occasion, they gave thanks for breakfast when all the children were sitting at the table, even though there was nothing to eat in the house. As they finished praying, the baker knocked on the door with sufficient fresh bread to feed everyone, and the milkman gave them plenty of fresh milk because his cart broke down in front of the orphanage.[18] In 1875, at the age of 70 and after the death of his first wife in 1870 and his marriage to Susannah Grace Sanger in 1871, Müller and Susannah began a 17 year period of missionary Comments on George Mueller: Transition into tonight's material: 1. God meets us at the level of our faith. Mark 5:22-24 22Then one of the synagogue rulers, named Jairus, came there. Seeing Jesus, he fell at his feet 23and pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” 24So Jesus went with him. Matthew 8:5-13 5 When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. 6 “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.” 7 Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?” 8 The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” Mark 5:27-29 27When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” 29Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. This is a beautiful and wonderful thing, and I really should tell this story backwards because I think it would highlight the important thing. All of these people came in faith, but was there some fundamental difference in the end conclusion? No, all the people they came to ask Jesus to heal were healed. It is very easy to fall into the trap of believing that Christianity is some sort of video game where we're trying to level ourselves up and unlock achievements. I remember a couple of weeks ago, I was hearing all about this other youth group and phrases were being thrown around like "The Holy Spirit descended" and someone was healed of something and all this great stuff and was going on and I was jealous. I was so jealous. Because I want more than anything that this would be a place were you guys come and meet with God in some way or another. So I was all like: God, why can't all that be happening at my youth group? And He's all: First of all David, its not your youth group. Second, are you really going to try and measure what I'm doing by what you think you can see me doing? Fuel conference and speaking in tongues. 2. Faith is built on what God has told us. Joni Erickson Tada - “Faith isn’t the ability to believe long and far into the misty future. It’s simply taking God at His Word and taking the next step.” There is also the very real world of prophecy. Things that God has spoken into our lives through various means to encourage us and give us hope that He is doing this specific thing in our lives. Prophecy is amazing, and confusing, and much of the time you really don't want to believe it. But its God talking to us and telling us things. So if someone prophecies over you, write it down. You will want to remember that. Now for the most part I'm guessing that most of you do not have a little journal of God's prophecies over you, but you do have a substantial book of God's promises. Romans 10:17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Flip open your bible. You can't read for longer than a couple pages without finding a promise from God. You can't get through a chapter without seeing God working or moving through the lives of those being talked about. God will... I will... You will... These are things that God has told us, these are promises of His. Realize that these are spoken to you just as much as the tribes of Israel or the early churches. Personalize them, because I think to often and too easily we slip into this belief that yes "God loves us, or God protects us" but thats true as a whole. He loves us all, and we rarely spend any time considering the weight of reality that God loves Jessica or that God protects Jaime or any of these things. It says in Galations Galations 3:14 14 He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. 3. Faith creates an environment for the supernatural to take place. Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.Saint Augustine - Catholic saint But the alternate is also true. Matthew 13:58 And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith I think I did a double take the first time I read this passage, because its honestly one of the most sobering verses I've read in recent memory. I don't even want to comment on it other than to say "This should sober you." Not worry you, but goad you into action and really buckling down to look at what you believe. Romans 3:3

An open letter from the youth leader to the church leadership

Or perhaps I should call this the state of the Sanctuary address...

Greetings from Sanctuary Youth Group!
What an incredible time it has been these last two months. The youth group is growing (we average 10 to 12 teens most Wednesdays), nearing completion of Francis Chan’s series “Crazy Love” and we’re gearing up for our annual trip to the Acquire the Fire conference. Also, Shana Rugani-Byrne has really stepped into the youth ministry and been an incredible blessing. Faithfully coming and leading one of the discussion groups every week and helping with just about everything else.
How is this for great things God is doing? Last year I stepped out in faith and preordered 18 tickets. I now have to consider purchasing more because as I write this we have 22 people signed up to go.

22 people! Who would have thought?

With this added blessing comes a greater call to prayer, please pray for:
1. We need another female leader. I’ve asked Rachel Harmon but I haven’t heard back from her yet.
2. We need another van. I’m asking various people (including the Tabernacle of David) but still, pray.
3. People to continue to bless us financially. I don’t want finances to stand in any youth’s way.
4. God’s incredible power to pour out on the 1000’s of youth attending Acquire the Fire. No one should leave this event untouched. I’d like to see minds blown that weekend.

The second big thing is that we are wrapping up the “Crazy Love” series. This series has been a great blessing and a call to action in my life and the youth, and coming out of it I feel like there needs to be some tweaks to how I go about “youth group”.
Because it is so easy to go through something like a dynamic series or a high energy conference but let it slip away I feel that it’s important to create within Sanctuary strong relationships that go beyond the superficial. How is this going to happen? I’m not sure, but there are two or three things I’m going to try to do:

1. Small groups: We started breaking into small groups during the “Crazy Love” series for discussion. I’d like to continue this, breaking into even smaller groups for prayer.
2. Testimony Nights: Either monthly or bimonthly, I want to try having a sort of “open mike night” when the youth can come and share what they are going through or what God is showing them.
3. “Spring Cleaning”: This may be the hardest one of all: I remember that some of my deepest friendships were forged not on road trips or at amusement parks but working side by side with them. I want the youth group to be out serving the community in tangible ways, starting with the members of the church and hopefully branching out from there. What this would look like on a practical level I’m not sure of, so I’d appreciate your prayer as God shows me what it will look like.

Further out into the horizon are even more exciting developments:

Open Door youth groups: Recently I was able to meet together with Jeff and Marissa Page, and Kevin Escher (youth pastors from Open Door San Rafael and Petaluma respectively) and we discovered a mutual desire to do things together. Once again, I have no idea what that will look like, besides prayer, encouragement, sharing of resources, and meetings and events where those three Open Door youth groups gather together.

Screen Printing: I recently received an unexpected financial blessing and after much pondering I’ve decided to invest it into something I hope will bless the youth ministry: Getting myself set up for small scale screen printing (t-shirt printing). I’m hoping this will be an opportunity to not only create some economical shirts for the youth group but be a possible fund raising opportunity for Sanctuary in the future. If nothing else it will be fun.

Please continue to PRAY for Me, Shana Byrne, Jeff and Marissa Page, Kevin Escher and everyone else involved in helping with the youth groups. PRAY for wisdom and grace as we attempt to follow the path that God has prepared for us. PRAY for Matt, Jesse-James and other members of the youth group that have slipped away. PRAY for all the youth that are coming faithfully each week that God would continue to draw them nearer to him.

Thank you,
With blessings:
David Harmon

Tidbits: Chapter 5

As I read Chapter 5 in Crazy Love I was struck by two things:

1. Oh my God, this is painful. Soul-wrenching. Convicting to the max.
2. Conviction is a good thing.

And so I was thinking about conviction and santification and the verse in Psalms 66 that tells us "For we have been refined as silver is refined."

Silver is refined by melting it down, silver melts at nearly 1800 degrees f.

There is something wonderful and beautiful that God is bringing us to through this study, but the refining process is not a painless thing.

An old poem that came to mind while thinking through tonight.
Its old and not very good, please forgive me. I still like it though after all these years.

When The Hammer Hits The String

When the hammer hits the string
Before the melody beings to ring
Before there was a song to sing
What pain lies in the hammer blow?

And see the silver of the crown
How many times was it melted down
And now its brilliance shines all around
What pain lies in the forger's flame?

What pain lies in the hammer blow
When all has been turned white as snow?
And would the silver want to show
The dirt and dross above it's glow?

So what pain lies before the throne above
What pain remembered within His love
And all the tears that would remind us of
What pain lies in the hands of God...

All gone amidst the beauty

Introduction to Crazy Love

I have a few things to say before we dive into tonights video, and I'll try to keep it brief because I'm super excited about what Francis Chan has written here. I really love it.

I love the topic of Gods love. Whenever I need to speak or teach or preach or whatever and I have no idea what to talk about I'll always go back to this: God's love.

And its funny, because I'll never exhaust the subject. There will always be more to say and more to learn.

Its incredible. Like a child asking God how much He loves him and God opens His arms and tells the child "I love you this much." And as the child grows older and begins to realize just how big God is he begins to realize just how far those arms stretch, how much God loves us.

But? Wait? What? Excuse me, David. Crazy Love talks about us loving God. What does that have to do with Gods love?

I'll come back to that.

When I read this book last year it really redefined how I looked at loving God and what God desired out of our relationship. What I had once considered to be basic Christianity and extreme Christianity got tweaked. All of a sudden the bar was so much higher. It was an incredible thing, it was wonderful.

I really want to warn you about something you may deal with while reading this book: a small quiet voice in the back of your head.
Tell you "You don't love God like that, you've never loved God like that, I don't even think you'll ever be able to love God like that. Don't even bother. You're a failure, you don't deserve to call yourself a child of God if this is how you've treated your father in the past."

That. Is. A. Lie.

That is not conviction, that is condemnation and it comes from Satan, Satan wants to kill you, you should not listen to him.

So this leads us back to the question that really should be asked before we start reading a book.

Why do we love God?

1 John 4:19

and again in John 3:16-17

and the answer to this question "why do we love God?" really shows how vile of a lie it is that really is.

because God did not wait for us to love Him before He started to love us.

He did not wait for us to consider Him valuable before He considered us precious.

He did not wait for us to understand the cost of our redemption before He payed blood for us.

So yes, be convicted. Come out of this desiring to love God with everything within you but don't be condemned.

conviction calls you higher, desires your best, shows you were you can improve.

This is God. And God is love.

Ebenezer: a symbol of God's provision

The old hymns are awesome. Some of them are really difficult to sing and seemed to be written before people started writing catchy tunes and are as slow as . Sure, some of them are as exciting to sing as watching paint dry but a lot of them are theology lessons set to music. Of course language has changed quite a in the last 250 years so sometimes I'm singing along and I come to a bit where I have no idea whatsoever what the

Here I raise mine Ebenezer;
hither by thy help I'm come;
and I hope, by thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God;
he, to rescue me from danger,
interposed his precious blood.

This one line made no sense to me whatsoever. Here I raise mine ebenezer? What? What does that even mean?

Does anyone know?

Well, I took a look. Did a little study. I liked what I found so I thought I'd share it with you as well. The answer can be found in Joshua 4.

Allow me to set the scene. Joshua is leading the nation of Israel out of the wilderness and into the promise land. In the next few chapters we will see the destruction of the city of Jericho. Now Jericho was kind of like the doorkeeper guarding the entrance of the promise land, or maybe the first level boss, but before the Israelites could even consider attacking Jericho that had one significant obstacle to overcome: The river Jordan.

Now, do not mistake the Jordan river for the creek that runs behind the church. This was a fast moving, large body of water about 45 feet wide. It would have been difficult to cross at the best of times, and some scholars believed that this was hardly the best of times. Some think that it would have been the flood season when Israel arrived at Jordan's banks. So, getting 40,000 soldiers and their families over this river would have been an impossible task for Joshua.

An impossible task that probably would have been doubly so once you start considering the tactical situation.
1. With a river like the Jordan there would have been only a few good places to try crossing it.
2. All of those places would have been known.
3. So, drop a couple hundred archers on the far bank and you'll turn someones river crossing into a blood bath. You think the people of Jericho didn't know this?

Also, much like how the Eygptians worshiped the Nile river so the people of caanan would have considered the Jordan a symbol of Baal's protection.

So when God simply stops the river in its track and allows the people of Israel to cross on dry land this is a wake up call to the people of Caanan. They've got 40,000 soldiers dropped on their doorstep, their "god" has proved to be absolutely powerless to protect them.
So its here that we pick up the story.

Joshua 4:1-4
1 When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua,
2 “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe,
3 and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from right where the priests are standing, and carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.”
4 So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe,
5 and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites,
6 to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’
7 tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”

Now, if anyone is thinking "so they made a pile of rocks, big deal, whose going to notice?" Remind yourself of this. Joshua sent a bunch of men, soldiers in fact, out into the river to get themselves a rock to honor God. Do you think they just wandered out and picked up any old rock or do you think they found themselves the biggest rock they could carry. It says that they carried these stones on their shoulders. You don't carry brick sized rocks on your shoulder. You don't even carry rocks the size of your head on your shoulder. You carry big rocks on your shoulder.

This was a pretty cool pile of rocks. This wasn't going to get accidently kicked over by some dude's passing donkey.

So....

Go, send a man from each tribe to get themselves a rock and make a tower so that, generations from now, your children and your children's children will ask you why that giant pile of rocks is there and you'll be able to tell them what I did for you. Tell them so what has happened today won't be forgotten.

Remember what I have done for you, and pass that on to your children. Remind yourself.

So that's an Ebenezer, a reminder of God's provision. Now, I've got a couple questions:

Can you think of any symbols like this in your daily life?

Anywhere else in the old testament? (just about everything)

At church? (crosses)

Did Jesus create? (communion)

Ones you're set up for yourself? (my sword)

The Widows Mite, or Loves Might

Mark 12:41-44
41 Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts.
42 But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.
43 Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.
44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”

Now several weeks ago at First Friday Pastor Zack at Calvary Chapel pointed out that Jesus is examining all these peoples gifts based not on what they had offered, but what they had left over afterwards.
Now a story from my own life. Several years ago, on my birthday, I recieved a small box from my sister Lily which contained in it a couple quarters, nickels and dimes totaling up to a dollar. Now, she was what, seven at the time. She didn't have a job, she didn't have an allowance. A gift from her was usually a picture or a poem or something she made, but this year she decided that for whatever reason that she would give me a dollar.

And I still have that box, with the money that she gave me all those years ago, and to this day I cannot think of that gift without tearing up. Not because of how big it was, but because it was, I suspect, everything she had. Every single cent she possessed in the world. And she gave it for no other reason that she loved me.
And it reminded me of this parable, because that's exactly what that widow was offering. Everything she had. Sure, it was pocket change but the number wasn't the important part, the important part was she gave everything she had.
And I promise you this isn't about money. Its never about money because money is only numbers. But I ask you how many other things in our lives do we hold back because we don't think we have enough to make a worthy offering.

I can't pray out loud, I don't know what to say.
I can't sing during worship, they have such a better voice, I don't know the song very well.
I can't help that person doing that thing, I'm not very strong.
I can't share in front of the group, I have stage fright.

And so often it seems that we hold off on trying something until we feel like we'll be able to do it well. Because hey, isn't it better to not do something than to do it wrong? Sure seems like it. But if that was true then we'd never do anything, and if that was the case I certainly wouldn't be trying to lead this youth group, because half the time I don't think I have any idea what I'm doing. And don't even get me started on leading worship. That's something I never thought I'd be able to do.

In Paul's first letter to his young protege Timothy he tells the youth man what has probably become the theme verse to half the youth groups in America:
1 Timothy 4:12
12 Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.
Don't be discouraged because of your inexperience, because of what you haven't done. Because God is not looking at what you give, but what you're holding back. And what you are supposed to do are not things that need two to three years experience.
Because you don't have to sing like Phil Wickham or David Crowder to worship and you don't need to speak in tongues to pray and you don't need a degree from bible college to preach and you certainly have to attend a seven week training course to love someone.
Because if we are willing just to let go and give it our all and trust God then He's going to make up the difference. He's going to make our worship beautiful, He's going to give us words to pray, He's going to show us things in His word that will blow our tiny little minds. He will love people through us.
So at this time, when we look forward with anticipation to a day we devote to remembering a time when God sent His son to earth to save us, and we celebrate that gift by exchanging gifts with those we love...

Remember this, that God gave everything He had to see us freed of the burdens and condemnation of sin that would have otherwise locked us into an endless cycle of laws and an endless search for unattainable perfection.
But He promised to make up the difference in our lives if we would just trust Him and throw ourselves into this whole Christian thing head first.
Remember that we should love Him enough to give our all, even when we think our all isn't even enough to be worth mentioning. And that He will make up the difference.
Let us pray.

Zechariah

I've now watched something like three different productions of the Nativey Story this year. My sisters school did a production from the viewpoint of the angels watching over the arrival of the Savior, a couple of other kids from that school that we know did a concert mixed with a living nativity, I watched the film The Nativity Story for the first time, and its a film thats been growing in the back of my head, I'm just loving it more and more with each passing day. But throughout all these productions I've found myself drawn more and more towards a small but important player, the priest Zechariah.

Luke 1:9-20
9 he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense.
10 And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.
11 Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense.
12 When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear.
13 But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John.
14 He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth,
15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born.
16 He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God.
17 And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous— to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
18 Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”
19 The angel said to him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news.
20 And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.”

Boom, how awesome is that? An angel of the Lord shows up in the temple and tells him that he is going to have a son. And when Zachariah voices his doubts on whether or not this is actually going to happen. Gabriel is all like "Who do you think is talking to you? You're going to doubt me? I stand in the very presence of God and He, the creator of the universe, has chosen me to deliever to you this message. You don't believe it? Fine, but you are not going to spoil this wonderous thing with your doubts. You can keep them to yourself."

And shazam! Zachariah is struck speechless until that which God told him was going to happen actually does happen.

And I was sitting there, watching the rather wonderful production of the youth at Lighthouse Christian church, listening to David Crowder music and thinking about Zechariah and I realized that when you can't talk about something, or in fact can't talk about anything you spend an awful lot of time watching everyone around you and thinking.
And how much time do you think Zechariah spent thinking about what was going on around him? How much time to do you think he spent in those nine months of silence considering the implications of what he was seeing unfold before him?

Zechariah, for all his moments of foolish doubt, was not a stupid man. He was a priest, he was educated, he knew what he was watching unfold.

He knew the Messiah was coming.

So lets look at what is happening right in front of him. Look at what God is doing in the space of these few chapters.

God is doing some incredible things, God is showing up in ways that hadn't even been dreamed of in 400 years. There are no less than four angelic visitations. God creates life from nothing to create a child unburdened by the curse of sin, the first time since the creation of the universe.
There are choirs of angels, it says in Luke that there are multitudes of heavenly beings.

Now, lets take a step back for a moment and ponder this: what do you think of when you think multitude? Because I know when I watch Christmas plays it means like, 15 tinsel covered little children.
But for a real view of what it means for a multitude imagine Acquire the Fire, or Winter Jam, or a baseball game, maybe the super bowl. Now imagine every one of those people are angels, beings that the sight of just one of them caused people to fall on their faces in pure unadulterated fear and wonder if they were dead.

Now imagine a stadium full of that, except their scattered across the sky and they are singing. No, not just singing, they are worshiping God with every fiber of their being.

Its a thing of beauty, precisely crafted by the creator God to welcome His son to earth.

So know this, that God did not want the birth of His son to be forgotten or ignored. In fact He made it pretty much impossible to miss. The biggest and best birthday party EVER. It was epic, it was awesome, it was God welcoming His son to earth.

Now there comes a time every year when I'm walking through the house, maybe to grab a snack or whatever. The lights are off, my families asleep but the Christmas lights on the tree have been left on and there it is: a glowing thing of beauty, with presents piled overflowing around the base of the tree and I just take a moment or three and sit there and stare at it. Sometimes I pray, sometimes I find a bible and read the story of Jesus's birth but most of the time I just sit and stare at this thing I'm constantly walking by and really barely noticing during the day.

And its great to take that time to really just think about the fact that its Christmas and everything that means to me.

It says in Luke 2 that after all the angels and the wise men and everything else that happened to mark the birth of the Savior that Mary did what?

Luke 2:19
19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.

So, I just want to encourage you. Grab your bible, take some time between now and Christmas, get away from everybody, or maybe do it with your sister or your brother or your parents and read through this story and ponder it, and take some time to wonder what it means to you personally.

11-22-11 Thankful People Give

Now, I was seriously considering, for irony's sake, talking tonight about fasting. But ultimately I decided that that was kind of a silly idea, considering that the point of Thanksgiving is, surprisingly enough, not the food or the football or the family, its the um, giving of thanks persay.

So lets get this show on the road and turn to Matthew 18, where we'll examine the parable of the servant with really bad spending habits.


Matt 18:23-35
23 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.
24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold[a] was brought to him.
25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
26 “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’
27 The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins.[b] He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.
29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’
30 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt.
31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.
32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to.
33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’
34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

On the surface this parable is about forgiveness, but I'd like to draw another image from it. That of giving.
Because when the servant is forgiven his debt there is an expectation there. That he will continue to do what has been done for him.
The king forgave the servant an unbelievably huge debt and he expects that servant to do the same to those that owe him a debt.
Because
Now, what does this parable have to do with thanksgiving?
Thankful people give.

Can you look at that servant and say: "Oh yeah, he was thankful for the gift he received." I mean, the King looked at the servants debt, a debt that I should note was for more money than you could probably ever spend, and said "You. Don't. Have. To. Pay. This. Back." and the servant just runs out and threatens to break his fellow servants legs if that other servant doesn't pay back the 20 bucks he owes him.

I mean, if you get given something and its awesome, its this amazing thing that you've always wanted and your sister or your brother or your parents get it for you, what is the first thing you do? You get on Facebook and you post a status update.

But no, seriously, if you are given something truly amazing then you want to share it with everyone around you.

Like I said, Thankful people give.

Paul is going to make this connection in 2 Corinthians.
Now lets look at 2 Corinthians as Paul talks to the people of Corinth about giving and the thankfulness it generates.


2 Corinthians 9:6-15
6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.
7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.
9 As it is written:
“They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor;
their righteousness endures forever.”[a]
10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.
11 You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
12 This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.
13 Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else.
14 And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you.
15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

So this is Paul talking to the people of Corinth about giving, specifically to another church in a different city that was in the midst of a time of poverty and persecution.
And there is a promise in there that God will provide for those that give to those in need.

God promises such wonderful words as "increase" and "enlarge" and enriched to a point where you can be generous at any time or place.

And "Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves,"
"Because of your actions which proved what you always said about yourself"
people will praise god.
Because apparently this is a confession of the gospel
Giving is a confession, a declaration of the gospel.
If you're one of those people who have a really hard time telling people about God and His saving grace, then this is it, this is your "shortcut":

Giving is a confession of the gospel.

And I don't think its a coincidence that Paul draws the peoples of Corinth's attention back to what they themselves should be thankful for themselves here.
I mean, it seems random but as I look at that first parable.
Thankful people give.
He's not just encouraging the people of Corinth to give, he's holding them accountable.

2 Corinthians 9:1-5
1 There is no need for me to write to you about this service to the Lord’s people.
2 For I know your eagerness to help, and I have been boasting about it to the Macedonians, telling them that since last year you in Achaia were ready to give; and your enthusiasm has stirred most of them to action.
3 But I am sending the brothers in order that our boasting about you in this matter should not prove hollow, but that you may be ready, as I said you would be.
4 For if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we—not to say anything about you—would be ashamed of having been so confident.
5 So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to visit you in advance and finish the arrangements for the generous gift you had promised. Then it will be ready as a generous gift, not as one grudgingly given.

Now I know, talking to a youth group, a small youth group in a small church, its difficult to talk about giving because everyone thinks that giving is all about money and I'll be completely honest. When I look around this room I don't see a whole lot of high rolling millionaires. But please don't simply wave away everything I've said because you think that the only thing you can give is money is just plain silly. Certainly it is important, and its certainly its the focus tonight but understand that money isn't the only thing you can give. If you can, great, that's awesome, but those of you who can't understand that some of the greatest things you can give is not money but time (honestly, there will always be more money, your time in finite), and encouragement and prayer.

Paul himself says in 2 Corinthians 8: 10-12 that the desire to give what one can is more important than any magical number.
10 And here is my judgment about what is best for you in this matter. Last year you were the first not only to give but also to have the desire to do so.
11 Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means.
12 For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have.

Now, there are a thousand different ways to give during the Christmas season.
Countless, to the point that I wish some of those ministries would celebrate Christmas in July.
I mean, I go to church and there's World Visions Christmas catalog, there's Operation: Christmas Child, there's our church's ministry to San Quinten, you throw a snowball and you hit someone asking you to give to their ministry and I'll be honest, its a bit overwhelming to get gifts for my own family, let alone someone I don't even know.

There is one though that I'd like to draw your attention to though:
Pretty much all of you were at Winter Jam last week, which means that pretty much all of you heard a them talk about the ministry of Holt International, who are a group of people who seek to get orphans in asia and africa adopted. So, I thought how wonderful it would be for the youth group to meet that need.

So meet Dilgeba. She's a child in Etheopia that needs someones help, and it might as well be us.
Now, I can't tell you how much more pure and undefiled religion you can get than sacrificing what you have to bless someone who not only desparately needs it but we most likely will never meet. Such things

And like it says in verse 6, God will provide for those who give.
For example: Winter Jam, God proved an opportunity to make back the money I spent before I even went to the event.

Now if you walk away from tonight thinking "Oh David wants our money." Then I'm sorry, I've completely failed tonight because I don't want you money.
Money is only valuable because of what you can do with it. After world war 2 geman money was worth so little that it would take a wheelbarrow full to buy a loaf of bread. Honestly, they would have been better off burning it to keep themselves warm than trying to spend it, it was worth so little. Pennies cost more to make than they are worth. I don't want your money, God doesn't want your money.

If it comes down to it I will support this little child myself because I know that God will provide for me just as he is providing for her through me.
But this is a wonderful opportunity. To know that you are causing people to give thanks to God.

What is it say in the Westminster catechism? The chief end, the main purpose of man is to too what? Bring glory to God (and enjoy him forever). .

And think about this thanksgiving not just what you are thankful for but how you can make someone else thankful for something.

Let us pray.