everyone in the room welcome and to those of you watching online welcome to you as well we love you we're so glad you're here my name is Montana and this is my mama my name is Ally um we intentionally had a motherdaughter Duo up here not just I see what you did there yes intentional the name of our sermon series yes and today's sermon is intentional parenting um so we're so glad you're here you're in for a treat today that's why we're together yeah cuz we're cuz I was your parents yes I guess I am your parent even though you're out of the house yeah you're still my mom how was your week my week was really good um trying to think of anything special happened it was pretty basic week how about you I sent my daughter back to Florida with my two grandkids which you know that wasn't great but we had an incredible conference yesterday for parents that was just I I'm literally a little bit speechless about it cuz it was so good the spirit was there moved we got to pray over parents and it was just really special yeah and today's sermon is so good we just attended 9:00 if you see some mascara smudges just mind your business okay yeah I had to go clean up the mascara under the eyes yeah yeah so if you don't have tissues with you now would be a good time to go grab some also grab your coffee because um listen you guys are going to have to sit in the middle because you know we had we lost an hour of sleep and so therefore before 9:00 was a little slim picking more than normal it was still pretty full there were a lot of holy people that showed up without that extra hour of sleep but get some coffee scoot into the middle of the row if you can because we're going to have a lot of people here this morning we're expecting to at least um but yeah it's going to be really good today's sermon again so good so you should be excited it's going to be a great day okay we have some announcements so D now is coming up March 21st and 22nd um if you don't know what D now is oh my gosh it's amazing it's a time where all of the students in our church and in our community come together and Worship the Lord and hear some incredible sermons I've never attended a d now and not seen lives changed and people come to know Jesus so it's just incredible um and how it works is um families in our church host students host host groups and um therefore we need drivers we need people to go to the host home pick up some students drive them to the conference and so if you are available March 21st and 22nd you don't have to sign up for the whole weekend you can sign up for an hour to be clear we need 60 drivers that's still a lot when this is a couple weeks away so if you're 25 yeah have a valid driver's license um have seat belts have you know extra seats in your car you don't have to have a big car any seats and you can drive one shift the first year we were here I got to drive sixth grade boys which if you know I'm a mother of all girls so I had no clue what sixth grade boys talk about and let me just tell you I couldn't keep up with the pingpong like all over the place conversation but it was amazing yes it's so fun so fun so please we're like if we could get down on our knees and you still see us we would we're begging you please help out please help out one Church um we you always show up so you will I know you will what else do we have going on Mom speaking of help help build hope is 2 weeks away 3 weeks away March 29th we want you to sign up this is a great opportunity for you to serve with your family if you've got kids five and older um they can pick up a hammer CU we're not using like big man tools we're using hammers okay there won't be any uh nail guns I said air air guns last time nail guns so it's super safe 5 years and older it's it really is a great opportunity to serve as a family if your kids get bored they're building bird houses for your backyard so yeah it's it's really fun this year we're actually building two houses and not one we'll put a frame of a house together for families in need so we would love for you to be a part of that you can sign up online um it's an incredible opportunity to get to know people in the church when do you get an opportunity as a family unit together to serve our community like you can serve in kids ministry you can serve but as a family all together with your kids showing up serving our community it's an opportunity you can't pass up and it's just fun it's just fun it really is fun and we provide you with some yummy foods in the process so can't say no to that it's going to be so fun make sure you show up to that it's going to be great one church we are about to head in for a time of worship and for an incredible sermon so those of you in the house go ahead and stand to your feet one church we love you let's worship together well good morning one church family my name is mar I'm so glad that you joined us in the house of the Lord today let's worship [Music] together have you some Blessed Assurance Blessed assurance Jesus Is Mine He's been my fourth men in the fire time after time born of his Spirit washed in his blood and what he did for me on Calvary is more than enough I trust in God our savior the world who will never fail he will never [Music] fail I trust in God save your lord who will never [Music] F we will never fa [Music] perfect submission all is out I know the author of Tomorrow this ordered my St so this is my story this is my song praising my Risen King and savior all the day long I trust in God my savior the one who will [Music] never you never I trust in God myor you will [Music] never [Music] never he didn't Fail Me In he [Music] won't I saw the Lord and he heard and he answered I saw the Lord and he heard and he answered I saw the Lord and he heard and he answered that's why I trust him that's why I trust him I saw the Lord and he heard and he answered I saw the Lord and he heard and he answered I saw the Lord and he heard and he answer that's why I trust him that's why I trust him I S the Lord and he heard and he answered I saw the Lord and he heard and he answered I saw the Lord and he heard and he answered that's why I trust that's why I trust him I the Lord and he heard and he answer I saw the Lord and he heard and he answer I saw the Lord and he heard then he answered that's why I trust him that's why I TR in God my saor one who will [Music] never you will never fa I trust in God my saor one who will never [Music] he will [Music] never I saw the Lord and he heard and he answered I saw the and he heard and he answered I saw the Lord and he heard and he answered that's why I trust him that's why I trust him my son the Lord and he heard and he answer I the Lord and he heard he I the Lord and he heard and he answer that's why I trust that's why I trust in God oh take you out your [Music] word thank you J thank you [Music] Jesus I trust in God my savior one who will never [Music] fail he will never [Music] fail I trust in God saor the one who will never [Music] fail he will never fail I trust in God Amen [Music] I'm ready for you to move I'm ready for you come Holy Spirit I'm open to what you do I'm open to you holy spirit so pour it out pour it out on [Music] me pour it out pour it out we're ready to see your power come through again and with Humble Hearts we turn away from our s so pour it pour it out pour it pour it out I'm ready for you to move I'm ready for you come Holy [Music] Spirit I'm open to where you to I'm open to you just come holy spirit so pour it out pour it out on me oh pour it out pour it out we're ready to see your power come through again and with Humble Hearts we turn away from my sin so pour it Pour It [Applause] Out w pour it pour it out oh like you did in the upper room Holy Spirit Come and move like you did in the empty tomb bring us back to life like you did in the upper room Holy Spirit Come and move like you did in the empty tomb bring us back to life like you did in the upper room Holy Spirit Come and move like you did in the empty Tom bring us back to life oh like you did in the room Holy Spirit Come and move like you dead in the empty tomb bring us back to life so pour it out pour it out on me pour it out pour it out ready to see your power come through again and with home Hearts we turn away from we're ready see your power come through again and with Humble Hearts we turn away from our sin so pour it pull it out oh just pour it out pour it pour it out oh like you did Jesus like you did in the upper room Holy Spirit Come and move like you dead in the empty tomb bring us back to life only you come like you did in the upper room Holy Spirit Come and move like you did in the empty tomb bring us back to life so pour it out pour it out on me pour it out pour it out we're ready to see your power come through again with Humble Hearts we turn away from our sin so pour it pour it out Holy Spirit Spirit pour it pour it out come on just repeat that just pour it pour it out we are hungry pour it Pour [Music] it Church aren't we thankful for a place where we can come and we can feel an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on a Sunday morning it is absolutely incredible hey as we are taking our seats and getting settled if you guys wouldn't mind scooting in a little bit we've got families coming in it is time change weekend so a lot of people that would usually come to 9:00 a.m. sleeping in a little bit keeping that hour asleep we would love for families to be able to sit together so make some friends get to know the people next to you that would be super super helpful if we haven't had the opportunity to meet you at my name is Luke and I have the privilege of serving as our student Pastor here at one church and I just want to say welcome we are so thankful that you braved the rain and you are here in the house of the Lord with us this morning one church family let's do something let's clap our hands and welcome anybody who might be here for the very first [Applause] time we are so thankful that you are here and you have chosen to worship with us this morning we hope that you feel right at home well Church there a lot of things that are happening in the spring season our construction is underway there are a lot of events and things happening we want to celebrate some things and we want to make you aware of a couple of other things yesterday uh we hosted our very first parenting conference and it was absolutely incredible how many in here were at the parenton conference can you wait yeah there were a couple wasn't it Incredible God moved and in powerful powerful ways and something that was stated yesterday and Phil you can correct me if the status wrong um was that it would take over 400 years of church services for your kid to get the same amount of time that they do in your house is that correct 423 421 something like that years of your kid in a church service to have the same amount of time that they do with you as parents and so we realize that we play a role but you play a much much bigger role and our church is committed to walking with you as parents and Grand grandparents and aunts and uncles that are raising kids as the primary discipl makers in your home and so what we have done is we've created on our website a resource page uh that is family discipleship resources and you'd say hey I would love to have a devotional with my kids I don't know where to start well we've got that there um hey how do I talk to my kid about inappropriate things that are on technology I don't know how to approach that conversation well hey we've got some resources for you so anything and everything that you might ask Hey What Can I how can I we would love to invite you go on there check out those resources um it would it is our hope and prayer to equip you as families to continue to lead your families in raising up Mighty Warriors for the kingdom of God and that's something that I am am so passionate about that's what I've devoted my life to is raising up passionate followers of Jesus forever starting in their teenage years uh and what is coming up in two weeks is our D now weekend and it is one of my favorites of the year and we have 132 teenagers from our church registered for D now with over a thousand teenagers in the county that are going to get together and worship and it is going to be an absolute blast and here's where I need your help you've heard it before I'll ask again if you're 25 and you have a car with 25 or older excuse me and have a car with seat belts that's the only other caveat uh we would like seat belts uh for students if you could help one shift drive them from their host home to the worship that they are at and then back or if you could drive them Sunday morning they're going to be coming from their host home to the 9:00 a.m. service uh we would love to have your help with that getting them around so that they can have encounters with a real God so you can register for that on our website B1 church.com events and the other thing that we do every year around this time of year is help build hope and that is coming up on Saturday March the 29th and what that is is right outside in our Square we are going to be building two houses for amilies that don't have a home right on our Square we'll be framing those up there'll be Crews it's a familyfriendly event and it is an absolute blast to come together and to bless people in our community and so we would love for you to register you can find all that information on our website B1 church.com events or check out the help build hope table that is out in the cafe area get registered bring your family it is a great way to give back and to serve our community we just sang A song uh that says Lord we're ready for you to move again with Humble Hearts we turn away from our sin and so every single week here at one church we want to be people who do that people who as 2 Chronicles chapter 7 says the Lord says if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and turn from their Wicked Ways then I will hear their prayer from Heaven I will forgive their sins and I will heal their land and that's a promise from God and so every week we want to be people who are called by God who humble ourselves and we turn away from our sin and we remember that it was our sin that put Jesus on the cross and so we do that through communion and as you walked in you may have grabbed some cups and if not that's okay all around the sanctuary you'll see some stations that have a double-sided cup one that has a piece of bread that represents the body of Jesus which was freely given so that you and I could be forgiven of our sins and receive eternal life the other has some juice that represents his blood that was poured out on our behalf and so this morning I want to encourage you I want to encourage me to do what God's word tells us to examine ourselves to Humble ourselves and to pray and say Lord this week I've sinned again I've fallen short of your glory again and I'm the reason you were on the cross Lord would you forgive me and would you help me to turn away from my sin and to turn back towards you and receive freely the gift that God has given you if for whatever reason you don't feel comfortable taking communion that is totally fine you are welcome to remain right in your seat and if you would say hey I'm not a member of One Church um but I am a believer and follower of Jesus well that doesn't matter we would love for you to come if you are a believer and a follower of Jesus you don't have to be a member of our church to receive communion but if Jesus is your lord and savior we would invite you to examine your heart talk to the Lord repent of your sins and then receive communion today let's pray together Jesus thank you thank you for being willing to leave heaven and come to Earth and live a perfect sinless life and die a brutal death that I deserve that we deserve thank thank you that you came to forgive us of our sins and to give us eternal life Lord right now we're examining our hearts May each of us repent of the areas where we've fallen short and may we turn from our Wicked Ways and turn back to you Jesus we love you and it's in your name we pray amen John Maxwell made this incredible quote he said change is inevitable but growth it's optional and I found that to be true in every area of our life and the only way to be able to overcome that is to be intentional and my heart is to help us find a way to be intentional in our growth with God intentional in our growth with our family intentional in our growth with our children intentional in our growth with our church and intentional with our relationship and intimacy with the word of God and all of our relationships in order to do that you have to realize I if I'm not growing I'm dying and so I I don't want anybody to die I want everybody to continue to grow and in order to do that you have to be intentional well how we doing one Church you guys doing all right yeah it's great to have you here my name is Blake and I'm the lead Pastor I just want to welcome all of you I'm so glad that you'd come and be a part of us today I I just want to say to you that um we we love seeing new faces and so many new people have been coming it's humbling when when you actually extend an invitation and and you say hey you should come and then they show up and you see kind of church through their eyes and I I know sometimes it's weird to come into a brand new place but it's just great that you showed up and we we do really want you to feel like family we we hope you already do and so let's do something really fast there's people that join us every week online will you guys let them know how much you love them it's great to have you wherever you are so today is a really special service we've had a a series where we've been talking about how to be intentional in our relationships because relationships are everything and so we we want to make sure that we have a great relationship with the church great relationship with God great relationship with our spouse and today is about specifically having a great relationship as parents and so we invited a Ministry that came from Oregon it's called intentional parenting and they they are amazing and yesterday as you've heard we had a phenomenal parenting matters conference that went really really well and so um I I just want to say to you that some of you might go oh great it's about parenting and you might feel already uneasy maybe you're on the back of your heels going a defensive I just want to say that there's there's no right wrong way to do parenting in fact some people are like the very best Christian parents in the world and their kids turn out to be the very worst and then there's some parents who are the very worst parents in the entire world and their kids turn out to be like an amazing missionary or Billy Graham you like these amazing Christians and so you just never know right and and sometimes when you're raising kids and you're in the middle of it it's just really hard it's one of the I think it's the most challenging thing on planet Earth is to raise up a kid to become like Christ and so I I'm super excited today to let you hear from who's some people that have become dear friends over this weekend and the the father his name is Phil and he has a son named John Mark Homer who has a phenomenal Nationwide Ministry if you know John Mark and and his son-in-law is actually going to speak with him and his son Law's name is Brooke and so I want you guys to do like you do one Church get a little bit Rowdy and welcome them to the stage let them know how much you love him come on ah thank you boss love you love you love you oh thank you for we haven't done anything yet please no clapping good morning one Church oh you're a lot more awake than that last one let me just tell you let me just tell you uh well I'm Brooke and believe it or not as was mentioned this is my father-in-law we actually enjoy each other I know that's not always the case for everyone but that is the case here uh we lead a Ministry called intentional which is all about spiritual formation in the family and uh I know you might be thinking two dudes doing this no we do this with our wives uh Elizabeth my wife and Diane I think we have a photo of the girls real quick so this is Elizabeth my wife on the left Diane on the right and uh these are our girls that we do this with and often time they'll speak with us but unfortunately they weren't able to make it to the this one but uh we get to do this together and we're a family um also want to just say we've had such a lovely weekend you have such an amazing crew Blake and Ally wonderful folks wonderful family thank you aren't they wonderful give me thinkk Blake and Aly for wonderful people wonderful family we're like sitting around their table last night eating pizza that's how real this weekend got all right so we had a great time yeah you know we love uh Pastor Blake and Ally and we just met him and we're in love with them Brooke is actually asked if he could join their family and move here so you're going to reject me and and become a Burg I mean you know I'm hurt but I'm excited so you know uh we get to travel and see a lot of different churches and there are a lot of pastors who are really good Bible teachers but they don't necessarily do a good job of loving the people you are a well-loved church yeah and you have a Shepherd a couple that loves you and the staff as well so um if you're visiting here you don't need to go anywhere else just stay here anyway we're we're very glad to be here you know speakers are supposed to say that great to be with you I heard it said one time this saying some people are a blessing wherever they go other people are a blessing whenever they go and we hope to be the former rather than the latter um and you know you are so friendly here like we landed at the Atlanta airport I I walked into the restroom and this guy with a big smile goes Hi how are you and I was like who are you on the west coast it's like I'm cool don't talk to me you know it's like and we lived in Portland for 30 years uh where we launched this intentional parents Ministry we planted a church like Blake and Elli of come here and we experienced a lot of great stuff but Portland is an interesting City you saw it during Co they like to burn buildings and um their motto is Keep Portland Weird uh Portland has more strip clubs per capita than any city in America has more dogs than people and um all I want to say is is good to be back here in America where people are yes kind nice and loving yeah all right a hand so uh we are family that is working together through family Dynamics in real time like I mentioned uh Elizabeth and I have been married for 18 years we have four kids 16 down to seven one boy three girls and this guy actually made it very hard to marry his daughter as The Story Goes I met my now wife and I I knew I had to ask his permission just to take her on a date let alone marry her right but to take her on a date and I will never forget the Monday night I mustered up the courage to like sneak into the garage he went out there for some reason to get something so I was like this is my chance and I follow him out to the garage and I say uh is it okay if if I take Elizabeth on a date and what did you say tell tell her friends what you said you really want me to tell this yes I do I do I don't know what I was doing in the garage like I can't fix anything Blake could build a house for you but like I don't know what I was out there but I knew Brooke you got to understand uh he was playing drums he's a drummer very good drummer I'm admiring your drum set I'm a drummer as well and so we had this drummer thing going and and Brooke was playing drums at our worship band already so what I said to him you know I mean when you have daughters you watch over them very carefully you don't just hand them over to anybody right so I said to him absolutely you can date her but you know you're a drummer so if you touch her inappropriately I will break your hands and you will never ever play the drums again and he looked at me like like is he serious I was serious but anyway yeah I said it with a smile I was very uncomfortable and I remember it today because it was a trauma moment for my story anyway you see even in seminormal healthy relationships there's tension even in the best of relationships and we know that we're not alone in our current time that we all are in relationships and you know this the very foundation of the family is being questioned and torn apart what are we to do as fathers or Mothers Daughters grandmothers grandfathers sons and to answer that we just want to actually stop and set our time in five verses that are very not only informative but helpful to help us understand this moment that we're in I want to read Psalm 127 if you have your Bible you can turn to Psalm 127 we're also going to put the scripture up on the screen this is from the New Living Translation I love the word of God because it's God breathe every time you read the Bible every time you hear it spoken God is speaking so let's just tune in to what he wants to say to us today Psalm 127 unless the Lord builds a house the work of the builders is wasted unless the Lord protects a city guarding it with centuries will do no good it is useless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night anxiously working for food to eat for God gives rest to his loved ones and here's my favorite phrase in this Psalm children are a gift from the Lord they are a reward from him children born to a young man are like Arrows In A Warrior's hands how joyful is the man whose quiver is full of of them he will not be put to shame when he confronts his accusers at the city Gates this verse simply says unless the Lord builds the house your fear parents and Friends cannot build the house parenting Styles cannot build the house really good sermons which you have here those can also not build the house uh recently I was spending time with Mark Batterson we were having lunch he's an author and a pastor and he's just a master of on liners and we were sitting at lunch and he simply said something over a conversation that I immediately started writing down I took out my phone and made this note because it was so impactful and he just simply said you know Brooke often we ask God to do Supernatural things we often all do but you have to remember it's God's job to do the super but it's our job to do the natural and that is the truth especially in our families we need God's super natural help if you're an amen church you can say Amen to that and we feel this most in my opinion in our parents parting and if you're here and you're not a parent today or you are in a different space what we're going to talk about today is really related to all relationships whether you are married with kids grandfather grandmother co-workers roommates we're going to talk about all that but I want to talk to the parents in the room for a second parents in the room have you asked the question or maybe thought about the question recently of why is parenting so hard have you thought about that let me just break this down for a quick moment you and I are raising kids in a very unique time in history and the cultural climate that we're in right now we have to understand absolutely affects how we are raising our kids and one of the reasons that it feels honestly extra hard right now more than ever before we have broken families we have confused identities we have information fatigue did you know that you can know so much that your brain hurts you can I saw a kid last service go yeah like that kid has too much internet access right we have compassion fatigue we have that idea that you hear about all the pain going around in the world and your soul was never meant to even know about all of it we're digitally addicted most of us If we're honest chronically distracted and we have a steady stream of what our culture now is defined as which is hyper individualistic or a hyper indiv hyper individualism and what hyper individualism is if you are unaware is just simply a hyper self- focus on your needs and your wants and this is really problematic in parenting because it can often leave us annoyed with our children's needs and development and often make parents feel that they have to pit their child's development against their own that idea that I can't give my kids what they need and also get what I need and I know like I said I'm in this with you right now I'm getting texts for my kids all day today saying all sorts of weird things this geny language is undoing me but for you parents in the room I'm going to give you one free tip we are not sponsored by any of these apps I'm about to tell you but there's an amazing app called skibbidy and all you need to do is download that put whatever text you normally send to your kids it translates it immediately into gen Z text you send it you are the most legit parent for that week until they figure you out and I'm telling you it works and it's very funny and they've learned a lot from me in that anyway so I'm I'm overwhelmed as well like there's a barrage of noise coming at me as well but let's recap really quick we have tension we have sorrow we're digitally addicted chronically distracted we're hyper self-focused and we're being given mixed messages by the world does that sound hopeful no it's really discouraging but if we're going to really answer the question why is parenting so hard we have to be honest about one more thing we have to be honest about ourselves you and I are actually a part of the problem now we're not of a part of the problem on purpose of course but we parent out of our own Brokenness and we have to be honest with ourselves and our stories see our stories and how you grew up and what happened in your life absolutely influences and shapes our parenting both subconsciously and also consciously and friends what we don't transform we transmit so what do we do about that how do we actually create spaces for God's grace as we heard about in that verse grace and mercy to build our homes our family relationships they are not for the faints of heart we've already talked about that and you're going to need a few things your family is going to need a lot from you you already know this by now so with our time today we simply just want to highlight four Essentials that we see that you need for a flourishing family of course there's more but these are four foundational truths and really again this is for your spouse and all human relationships so the four things we want to cover today are simply your work your attention oh sorry your forgiveness your attention and your blessing before we talk about your work how many of you have young children would you raise your hands wow how many of you have teenagers yeah may the Lord give you Grace right you know this church I I just got to tell you I I am so blessed this morning I'm glad you're all here but in this front row last gathering in this one are young people with notepads out taking notes and that is a tribute to your leadership yeah Luke and and you know if I had teenagers I'd want to raise him right here my wife and I were not Christians growing up we got saved in the Jesus movement and there were young people that were getting saved right and left and you'd come to a gathering like this and there were 40 Bibles on chairs and people were coming in the older people like who who sitting up here I well that's our students they're back in the back praying for this gathery and then they come out and they'd be taking notes like these people down here what a blessing okay so first of all I just want to know thank you you're making it really easy to preach you're looking like you're interested okay um first your work we aren't talking when we say your work about your literal work your job but rather your inner work the part that you play in your apprenticeship to Jesus as you seek to become more like him Philippians chapter 2 puts it this way work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who is at work in you both to Will and to work for his good pleasure notice it doesn't say work for your salvation Luke just led us to take the Lord's supper together he made it very clear that Jesus did the work he shed his sinless blood on the cross so that not some of your sin but all of your sin could be forgiven somebody say Amen to that on the cross he said it is finished and he gave up his life and he shed his blood that we might be forgiven and when you accept Jesus as Lord and Savior and you say you are now my master master I'm not going to try to be master of my own life I'm stepping into following you that's the beginning of a long journey where you're going to start doing work you're going to start partnering with God to work out this new life you're a new creation in Christ he's given you the Holy Spirit and now he's calling you to follow him and to love him and to love those around you and it's it's a it's it's a great adventure when you really sell everything out you say Lord I'm not going to only sort of follow you I'm going to follow you I'm going to give up my life because you give up your life life for me and this verse says that we're to do this with fear and trembling now we read that word fear like am I supposed to be scared of God it means reverence we should be in awe of God he made the world he made the Stars the moon he made you he already knew when you were in your mother's womb how many days you would live on this Earth and he he sent his son so you could live with him forever that God loves you and wants to work in your life and so why would we not want to say Lord you can have all of me I want you to work in my life this is an inner work that the Holy Spirit does in you but the the the more you cooperate with him the faster you will become transformed you will become like him a lot of us know Romans 8:28 God causes all things to work together for good to those who love him and are called according to his purpose we love to quote that especially when we're struggling okay Lord you're going to use this you work all things together for good you know what the next verse says For Those whom God loved he also so predestined to become conformed to the image of his son has anybody come up to you recently and said you know I've been watching you it's like you are exactly like Jesus if I'd like to meet you if if somebody said that to you they haven't said it to me either but I should be coming becoming more and more like him the longer I walk with him another version of the New Testament says though the outer man is decaying I read it as an older guy like you know I'm sorry the older you get you're not going to look better you're going to look worse all right uh you're not I think that's funny don't think that's funny it is funny like I could do whatever I could I could work out you know seven days a week I could do Botox I could do whatever I'm not going to look like him and you know he Brooke is 39 but I tell Brooke look the male body Peaks at 26 did you know that it's all downhill after that and the Bible says this the outer man is Decay because the body you have is not made for eternity you're going to get a new one Hallelujah somebody say Amen to that yeah but the verse doesn't end there the outer man is decaying yet the Inner Man the inner woman is being renewed day by day God is changing you I heard this said once I'm not what I used to be I'm not yet what I hope to be but I thank God that he is changing me and you know what those of you who are moms and dads your kids need to see God changing you you need to do the inner work it's a partnership I like to put it this way and I'm going to have you repeat this after me it's really simple without without him I can't without me he won't say that with me nice and Loud without him I can't without me he won't and what I mean by that is if you just decide you know what I'm just going to keep you know Jesus saved me but I'm just going to keep doing my thing and you expect God to cause your life to be a flourishing life God's not going to say well you don't want to really follow me but I'm just going to overpower you and make you into the image of my son anyway it's not going to happen that way it's a partnership I'm a father of four grown kids by God's grace like Blake and Ally our kids are following Jesus Brooke loves my wife my my daughter well he he loves my wife too he does love my wife I love his wife an appropriate mother-in-law way yes I think you love I think you love my that's a bad one that was please make sure we capture that that wasn't bad you do love my wife I do just you love her more than me and now you want to become a burstrom I'm highly off just go keep going it's going to get worse he loves my daughter he loves my daughter but I also have nine grandchildren now and they're looking to Diane and me yeah are we going to follow the Lord are we going to be becoming more and more like him are we we just going to drift into you know playing pickle ball until Jesus comes I mean no offense against pickle ball but I don't want to waste my life I don't know how long I'm going to live but I don't want to God said what did you do with the last five years I gave you man I played 2,385 games of pickle ball I won five it was awesome I want my life to count I want God to keep transforming me this transformation never ends until you see him cuz 1 John 3 says when we see him we shall be like him for we shall see him face to face and so this is the natural progression I pray that you will continue to do the inner work and let God transform you your kids need to see it your spouse needs to see it your family needs to see it and those around you need to see it and I would argue that doing the work is even more important for those of you that have had traumatic upbringings uh the Swiss psychologist Carl Yung said the greatest enemy to a child is the unlived life of the parent when we choose to ignore or sweep under the rug and run from our actual lives the lives we actually live it can become the greatest enemy to our children now it has to be stated that this concept of doing the work is actually all over the scriptures hidden in plain sight this is a thing that is actually talked about a lot and it has to be highlighted that you and I actually have a responsibility before the heavenly father to know what is going on inside of us so that idea of like it doesn't matter I don't really need to know actually yes you do 2 Corinthians 13:5 says test yourself see if you are in the faith literally two words there examine yourself like literally look internally Lamentations 3:40 let's take a good look at the way we're living and then reorder our lives under God and then lastly Galatians but each one must carefully scrutinize his or her own work and in the amplifi Bible it literally says examining your actions your attitudes and your behaviors how you move to the world how you impact your spouse or your friends or your roommate it absolutely matters and you have a responsibility to know what's going on now the truth is for me I I had a really challenging and traumatic upbringing one that I didn't really want which launched me into adulthood with some serious emotional wounds and Limbs and I know I'm not alone I didn't know how to be a good husband let alone an emotionally stable human anyone know what I'm talking about don't raise your hand it's uncomfortable if we raise our hands right I see you though I get it yeah you don't Point him out I saw it too I was trying to ignore it uh he's being honest yeah I love that I remember one day I was talking to my wife Elizabeth and I was recognizing this wasn't just going to change I wasn't just going to zap and one day get better the way that I processed the world and understood God and my relationships with people it had some serious fractures and I was getting a pretty consistent feedback loop that who I was was not the best version of myself so with a lot of fear and insecurity and honestly humiliation at first I started seeing a therapist and a therapist that knows Jesus and that's a really important detail friends that's a very important detail but I'll never forget my first session I literally walk in this room it's in Portland it's a brick room and it's dark it's a small room and there's just an old old chair and it looked like a million people had sat in this chair chair and I was like if I sit in this chair I'm going to get a disease but I was like I'm going to risk it so I sit down and my therapist skips all of the niceties and he just says so what's going on and I don't know what happened with that phrase of what's going on where I just felt safe to tell him everything that had ever happened in my entire life within 55 minutes I'm crying there's so many different emotions and right about 55 at 55 minutes he stops me because the hour is about to be up and he just kind of puts his hand out and I'm like okay yeah and I'm waiting for him to say something I just shared my whole life and I'm waiting for him for his response and he just kind of looks down and I was like oh no I broke my therapist like I it was bad I didn't know it was that bad and he just looks up with tears in his eyes and he says I can't believe you're standing I can't believe with all you've been through that you're here it was one of the most healing and Powerful moments for me and that was the beginning really the very start of a long journey that I'm still on for friends I am still on this journey and to this day we I still see this wonderful man and we joke in our family that he's like a mix of Jesus Mr Rogers and Yoda he he really is he's helped so many in our family he basically sees most of the family um because we're all broken none of us have this figured out and therapy was one of the things that I started doing with the Holy Spirit and again that's important in unraveling the knots in my soul of my story I could finally start to see my story in light of God's story and his plan potentially and really we can't move through the world until we can actually see what's actually happened or actually look at what's going on and we can't heal what we can't see we can't pray for a problem that we don't actually think that we have it's an important part and so how I move through the world has been changing and it's and it's hard and it can be scary but can you just take a second to think of the alternative with me just for one moment if you don't do the work you may never experience the freedom that Jesus offers you and that means you'll never be able to actually give that same gift to those people that you love the most so this week I'd love to just invite you into a very simple practice to help you understand or begin to uncover what might be going on in you we won't call this homework we'll call this a practice because homework has too much stigma right people in the front too much this is a practice which means you get to do it if you want to but if you get a moment a quiet place maybe it's a favorite chair a park bench wherever you're at sit down and just ask three questions I'll give them to you here and the first question is God what do you want me to know I think there's a lot of stuff God wants us to know but we often don't slow down enough to hear what do you want me to know about my wounds about my story about how I'm moving through the world let him respond second where am I reacting instead of responding to my kids my roommate my spouse my team where I just H all over the place let him speak to you and then lastly where am I parenting if you are a parent where am I parenting out of fear and not trusting you to build the house ask yourself these questions let the spirit speak as he comes have the scriptures open lastly when it comes to doing the work for you in the room I just want to highlight something that Frederick Douglas said he says it way better than I could and he simply said it is easier to raise strong children than to repair broken men men and women you are doing this work parents for your children's future doing the work makes it possible to be able to raise strong children so we must do the work and secondly all relationships all family relationships are going to need your forgiveness your kids need to understand of course that God is a God who forgives sin we celebrated that when we took communion together but then he turns around and asks you and and me to do the same toward others to be quick to forgive others and so this practice of learning what forgiveness is and living it out is so important in a church you know everything we're talking about about parenting the family it's applicable to the church as well because the church is a family if you're in this church for a while somebody's going to hurt your feelings or you know you wanted this to happen and it didn't and you're going to need to forgive and and you need to forgive because God was quick to forgive you of everything when we were raising our kids uh we were brand new Christians so uh everything was new to us and I just thank God it was in the culture of the Jesus movement it was verse by verse like Bible Bible Bible and not only were we reading the scriptures we were being challenged to memorize scripture so as a new Christian I I was playing in this band I wasn't even out of the band yet and this guy got up front he said you know what when you're sitting in a red light turn down your visor put a 3x5 card there with a scripture on it and memorize it so I was like you know addicted to music it was my drugs back then it was the radio you know that thing where you turn the dial like you know before Spotify and all that and it was like a discipline for me like I want to listen to music I should memorize the Bible and I flip it down and I just start reading these scriptures and after about six months I couldn't wait to memorize the Bible so when we had kids I thought we want to teach them to memorize the Bible too so I wanted to motivate them so I said okay I'm going to pay you money to memorize I had a guy that got a doctorate who teaches at Biola University said I don't know about that money to memorize I go whatever you can you know have a doctorate but it worked for me all right so one of the passages I paid a money to memorize was Ephesians 4: 25-32 one of the best passages in the New Testament on relationships there's another one in Colossians 2 so we we had to memorize the whole thing but the last two verses say this let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice malice is I want to hurt you and instead be kind to one another man doesn't our country need kindness right now be kind to one another tenderhearted here it is forgiving each other and here's how just as God in Christ also has forgiven you so our kids memorize this Elizabeth who married Brooke years later memorized it and she grew up in a home where we practiced this so you know kids get in arguments with each other all the time including Blake and alli's girls I found out like they would actually get into it with each other and Blake would just say go ahead kill each other bite each other no they they taught their kids how to work out conflict and we all need to do that and so I we would say to our kids hey hey hey what happened well she said this well okay how much of your sin did God forgive some of it or all of it they go all of it Dad okay well then what are you supposed to do I'm supposed to forgive her and so this was the practice in our home if you make this to practice in your home it'll be a beautiful thing you need to teach your kids how to apologize some of you grew up in a home where this never happened it was just you know maybe your dad would say tell them you're sorry and you go sorry when somebody says that you you go they're not sorry they just had to tell me that so let me just give you five things really quick you can take a picture of this if you want it's really simple I mean and you think about it if you're going to apologize if I say something rude to my wife which I do at times which I shouldn't because she is a daughter of God and Jesus loves her and he calls me as a husband to treat her as the treasure that she is but the Bible talks about the tongue we can bring death or life so if I bring death to her by saying something rude I can't just go sorry I need to say hey sweetheart I'm sorry that I was rude to you will you please forgive me so I have to apologize for the specific offense I have to accept responsibility instead of saying well it's because you did whatever that's why I said that that's just blaming the other person and then if you think about it all sin is against the holy GH God I need to ask God's forgiveness for not treating his daughter the way he wanted me to and then you know what if you're the one that does the hurting after you've asked forgiveness you need to be the one that does the restoring because you can you can maybe even do a decent job of forgiving but then the person is still hurting and wondering like do you really really care and it's up to you to to do what the Bible says deeds in keeping with repentance I really am sorry and I want to show you how much I I love you so if we practice this in our home what happens is Brooke and Elizabeth use the word ecosystem you create an ecosystem of forgiveness and it becomes hardwired into your home and when your kids grow up in this they're going to carry it on into their home if you don't a lack of forgiveness if that's woven into your family culture your family will drift further and further apart there'll be no deep or meaningful conversation because of all the years of unresolved conflict conflict so forgiveness is a huge huge thing and you have the privilege of saying God you forgave me and I want to be one who quickly forgives others there's a wonderful phrase um that therapist use but I think it's a very real phrase that helps capture what forgiveness does in a deep way and that is rupture and Repair actually leads to resilience and it's really interesting because I would think rupture and repair leads to tons of therapy but it actually doesn't and what we find is that there's going to be ruptures in our most deep imp personal relationships am I right anybody argue on the way in again don't raise your hand that's embarrassing right but like we have tension our kids they push back we have tension with our kids with our family but the most important part is the repair part it's saying I'm sorry it's doing what Phil just talked about and the reason is is because it doesn't actually lead to you know damage it actually leads to strength it does the opposite of what we would think it builds a resilience in those especially our kids and so as we move through the world we have to remember that apologizing and taking responsibility for what you've done is one of the most important things you can do let me be honest with you I apologize more than anything else as a parent and as a spouse that is what I do the most and it's one of the most healing I was talking to a guy the other day I was on a podcast with him and he was saying I he was a therapist and he just simply said uh you know I never sit down with people in my office and them say you know my parents came to me there was a lot of pain and hurt but they came to me they apologized they took responsibility and they they actually tried to repair he's like I never sit down with those people because those aren't the people that need it and that's the truth is that there's a healing that happens when we repair so let's do that together uh third third thing your family and all relationships are going to need to flourish is your attention French philosopher Simone ve said attention is the rarest and the purest form of generosity ironically that was written in the early 1900s in our current cultural climate not many things are rare and not many things are pure just by giving your child or your friend your attention you are actually giving them a massive leg up in their journey of Life a study recently on the effects of Early Childhood deprivation just simply found that kids that didn't get enough attention were more likely to have poor executive function self-regulation on the other hand kids that have their parents' attention actually were more secure in all of their relationships especially their relationship ship with adults and with God in a deep way children who have their parents' attention have more self-worth and confidence just by having boundaries with your phone you can give your relationships a massive leg up in their journey of life now it's no secret that we do have an attention crisis and yes if we're being honest most of us are very distracted but I want to give you some relief not permission but relief the relief is it's not all your fault it is not all of your fault in his book stolen focus a journalist named Johan Hari went on a very long quest to find out is this attention crisis real or is it kind of made up and he simply argues the fact that you're not just so easily distracted you are also being played on by outside forces that want to make a ton of money off of your attention we now have the attention economy as many of many of you know and the more time we spend distracted by whatever is in front of us those companies make more money and of of course those apps could be made less addictive but they're not because they can make a lot of money off of you and this has created this interesting subculture called productive Leisure and that's the idea that you go home this afternoon you're like I had lunch I'm just gonna I'm just going to lay on the couch I'm going to scroll my phone and what you think is Leisure and relaxing is actually you being distracted into Oblivion and making these companies very wealthy now we suffer as humans as adults especially from being distracted but our kids especially if your parents they do even more they pay the cost of our distraction in a deep way they need you to look into their eyes and give them your full attention and this is very biblical if you didn't know Psalm 1162 says literally because he bends down to listen that's that idea that God gives you his attention he looks into your story he looks into your life he gives you his attention and one of the greatest gifts we can give our kids especially if you are a parent is your focused attention Matthew 10:30 says it again he pays even greater attention to you down to the last detail even numbering the hairs on your head or for some of us the lack thereof where're are my bald buddies right I see you shining all around the room when it comes to paying attention your kids are going to be asking you three questions now these are not three questions that they'll come to you and ask but these are three questions that you need to answer for your kids as they are growing maybe on a weekly basis they are questions that they need answered in their life to thrive and to grow that first question is do you see me your kids need to know that you don't just physically see them but that you see who they are we're in a stage right now with our youngest one Sloan and she's doing cartwheels and that's really fun except for she gets hurt every time she does it because she doesn't know how to do one yet so she just flings her body over anybody know what that's like and we're in the dad watch me phase you guys in that phase dad watch me over here watch over here look over here Dad watch watch anyone yeah exhausting I dare I say annoying it's overwhelming I I'm like I can't keep looking so the other day she does a cartwheel and she's like watch Dad and I'm watching her do the cartwheel she does the cartwheel I see I'm like great job sweetheart it wasn't a great job but I wanted her to feel good and I wanted her to move on because I was like this is going to get bad but she's like Dad you weren't watching I was like sweetheart I was looking directly at you what are you talking about and so she's like let me do it again watch and so she does it again I'm watching her the whole time she does it she lands it and I was like good job honey she's like you're not watching me I was like sweetheart this is insane what are you talking about I'm looking directly at you and out of just sheer annoyance I put my hands on my eyes like binoculars I was like okay go ahead and I just do this she does the C with she's like thanks Dad thanks for watching I was like what what is going on this has gotten so out of hand that if even if she's in the other room and she's like Dad watch I just have to put my hands over my eyes even if I'm not looking her Direction She's like thanks Dad I'm like got it so please take that tool I don't know I don't know why fake pretend binoculars they don't even work you guys if you didn't know that uh I don't know why that made her feel seen but it did you have to let your kids know that you see them secondly your kids need to know and they need you to answer the question do you care that I'm here your kids need to know that you care who they that that they're around that they're yours you get to cherish them hey I'm so glad you're in my family that phrase is something some of you never heard and your kids right now today need to hear take it use it I'm so glad you're in our family last one am I enough for you or do you need me to be better in some way and this is that idea that we Delight in the kids who God gave us not the ones that we hoped we'd had we have a job to mold our kids but also unfold them there's a discovery process God gave you a gift but not just one that you get to say of how it lives their life out you actually get to unfold and discover who they are and your kids need to know that you don't only like love them but that you like them that who they are is a delight to you in some way not only are they asking do you see me they're also asking if we're listening to them you know listening is becoming a lost art I struggle with it personally you know we all know James be quick to hear the Bible says I heard this quote from David aug bur being heard is so close to being loved that for the average person they are almost indistinguishable and my son John Mark comr wrote this in one of his books I believe hurry and love are incompatible all my worst moments as a father a husband and a pastor even as a human being are when I'm in a hurry I know with my wife one of the best things I can do we've been married 46 years is slow down put my phone down look her in the eye and listen and lastly and briefly your family your friends they're going to need your blessing we have this saying or unintentional that your children will become who you tell them you see them becoming that's that idea that our words matter Proverbs says really clearly death and life are in the power of the what the tongue and the truth is your children will rise up to who you see them to be and who you speak life in them to be or they will be crushed under the weight of a parent who speaks death instead of life and if you don't believe me how many of you are carrying around wounds right now today in your 50s and your 60s and your 70s of one hurtful word that your parents said you can usually bring it to mind like that your words hold weight they matter but an obvious question comes to mind is what is a Biblical blessing like that sounds good we're at church you know you should bless your family well what does that even mean and what we want to communicate essentially in a blessing is the goodness of that person we want them to know that God God experiences pleasure in them and that who they are is a blessing and that as a person they are good to be unblessed friends and you know this is a deep pain but it is such a gift to have somebody truly delighted in so what I want to do is I just want to walk through a five-fold framework really quick of what it actually looks like to bless someone John Trent wrote about this in a book called The Blessing and I'm going to just say these five things things and then I'll give you a quick story so those five things of that would incorporate a Biblical blessing is appropriate touch spoken message attaching high value picturing a special future and then committing to fulfill the blessing I'm just going to share a story that will hopefully emphasize all five of those in one uh when I speak or when I leave to travel I often try to sit down with each one of my kids and just speak a blessing over them so what it looks like practically is I go up to my son who's now like 61 he's like a man now I put my hand on his shoulders and I have to look up he calls me a short King I don't like that I got to be honest uh he's like Dad you're tough I was like cool but stop calling me short King but whatever like this is my life so I put my hand on his shoulder so appropriate touch that's the first thing and I look in his eyes and I just say something along the lines of hey son I love you you belong in this family you are a true joy to be around you're my only son you're my favorite son and I love who you're becoming so I just speak a blessing hey I like you who you are is rad to me and I then in the next part I I try to attach then high value so I speak the blessing appropriate touch speak the blessing and then I try to attach high value and recently this kind of slipped out of my mouth when I was blessing him and so I wrote it down because it made me laugh and I said son I just love how you're a man of strength you're like this unique combination of Jesus and John Wick you're just not violent and I so appreciate that right he's like yeah Dad thanks thank you and I give him an example of something that's real that he could picture that he could see himself in like I respect him right I think he's a A rad guy the next part is is basically the prophetic part it's where we actually have the moment to look into our child's life and see who they are and who they can become in light of God's hand on their life in this part specifically I when I get to my daughter birdie James I say hey you have such a brilliant mind I could see God using your mind to help other people understand the depths of Jesus and I just tell her this story how I was on a Prayer walk and I really felt like the spirit was saying her mind is actually going to bless the world in a deep way now that might sound benign to you especially in church that's kind of a road idea like God gave me this word and it was powerful it was powerful and why that is actually really important is because at six months old birdie was diagnosed with something called infantile spasms which caused long-term permanent brain damage she now has special needs and is in a really tough spot at times and her mind is very broken and so for God to give me a word that her mind would be the thing that he would redeem so much that he would bless the world is a huge deal and the fact that he would give that to me to tell to her like sweetheart I know it's broken but I think God could use you in spite of you I get to do that as a dad you get to do that as a parent it's an important part it's us having a curiosity with the Holy Spirit of who they could become and then lastly we have to have an active commitment to fulfill the blessing that is the idea that you can't undermine yourself by not actually showing up if you tell your kid constantly you are such a great piano player but you don't provide a piano for that kid to practice on you're undermining your own blessing right you're undermining your own words it has to be backed up by a willingness to do everything possible to help the one that we are trying to bless so everyone take a quick breath we're almost done a question I know that many of you are asking or maybe better said feel in is what if no one ever blessed me like this I mean I wasn't blessed this way growing up at all we all need a blessing and I just want to say that you can take that five-fold framework and you can give that to your spouse your friends your roommate I mean what spouse would be like bummed if you took them out on a date and you're like hey uh I want to go through these five with you and I want to bless you and I want to do everything I can to take my energy my time my life to make yours full and Rich no spouse is going to hate that all right we're all going to love that and we all need it no exceptions and if you didn't receive that there is hope we can give that one church you can become a community that blesses like that and brings life in all of the words that you have what if we were placed and I I love humor right but what if we had pauses from the humor and we replace sarcasm with words of Rich Clarity and beauty of other people and called it out and said I love that about you one Church that' be a big deal and it would change the culture of what's Happening as we wrap up we just want to show you a short video clip and then we're going to stand and pray together you know there there are disadvantages and advantages to Growing older you know when you grow older you have less years ahead to live than the ones you've already lived and I'm in that stage right now what some people call the suns Sunset of your life but you also have a thing called perspective and you've seen God move and you've seen him do things and sometimes you can look back and say wow all the mess ups I made all the mistakes I made raising my kids but I really wanted them to follow Jesus and I did my best and you you see something that absolutely can be astounding is that if you bless your kids if you do the work if you give them the attention you create a culture of forgiveness and you give them your blessing they just might turn around one day and bless you and my wife and I got to experience that one day and it impacted us so much I want to share it with you not not to show off you know our wonderful son but to give those of you with young kids a hope this is why you're doing what you're doing this is why you're working so hard this is why yes you're exhausted but you so want your son or daughter to follow Jesus you're praying you're working and one day you might experience something like this our youngest son Matthew was getting ready to head off for his last year of college he's 21 years old we're cramming everything in his little car we get it in we're getting ready to hug him goodbye and he turns to us and he says Mom and Dad I need to talk to you now as a parent when your kid says that you go what did you do but he took us inside to the kitchen and if you met Matthew he has the biggest heart and he has a way a gift from the Holy Spirit of kind of speaking over people he gets a little kind of teary but he speaks exactly what Brooke is talking about words of blessing over people he has more friends than I can ever remember so he turns to Diane and he just starts thanking her for all she did in his life as a mom she's crying I'm crying then he turns to me and my wife had the presence of mind to grab her iPhone and hit record I don't know how to record on my iPhone I just asked him to do that stuff for me she recorded this it's a little scratchy because it was just recorded on iPhone but I want to play this for you and I pray that you will all have this experience later on with one or all of your kids when they turn around to bless you dad I just want to say how much I love you and that I appreciate you so much as a father and in the last year I realized so much how much you've done for me and how I haven't noticed that through high school um no I love you so much but you know it's hard to notice those things but now I just notice that I know how much you care for me and and I just I'm thankful so much for everything you've done for me and how you've raised me and how you've disciplined me and how you wanted me to be a good man and I know that sometimes you're tough on me but I I know that's good and I'm happy you were um and man I just want you to know how much I care about you and how much I respect you so much and now if you if you weren't the man you are I don't think I'd be walking with Jesus um but you've been Everything You Preach you do and I respect that and I and you're just a great friend you're one of my greatest friends and I love watching movies with you and hanging out and I'm just going to miss you so anyway yeah well Che I'm going to miss you more cheers you are a good man and you're going to be a great man MH and I'm very proud of you and I love you when you're a little boy I love you as a young man thanks Dad and I will love you as an older man if God lets me live he's going you I'm going to miss you but I'm happy for you I fully bless you [Music] going yeah nothing and no one will come back to bless you like the children God has given you as Psalm 127 which anchored our time today says their gifts from him when the day comes that you launch your kids out into the world all those years you spent pouring into them all the teaching all the praying all the training all the sacrifices all the sleepless nights you will say it was the best possible use of your time you look back and you will say it was all worth it yes amen amen amen let's stand together I'm going to pray for a closing prayer yeah if you are uh here with family or spouse or friends and if it's appropriate you know the person person feel free to put an arm around him just going to pray over the relationships in the room Holy Spirit we just invite you here to this moment father I thank you as we look around the room just these pockets of families I just see you smiling in a deep way I also see loads of pain in the room broken relationships fathers that feel the shame of not being able to be the man they wanted to be moms feeling like they're not enough spouse was feeling like I shouldn't have said that I shouldn't have done that God I pray that you would take the pain in the room and that you would give us perspective of that pain the perspective that you can heal and that you bring hope and the perspective that you bring life and that doesn't mean these things go away but it does mean you can heal and can transform so father in ways that I could never even understand or know I ask holy spirit that you begin to heal those who are just heavy and feeling the pain in the room I pray that today as people walk out those doors it would almost be like they are transcended with the Holy Spirit I pray that Holy Spirit you would just fall on people as they leave the doors and they would literally be empowered EMP powered by you to live this out in a deep way that they would be filled with strength and hope and joy and patience and love and all the fruits of the spirit that we need to live this out we cannot do this without your holy spirit so Holy Spirit we're desperate for you and so father as people uh leave in this moment after we sing and after we take moments to reflect we just ask that you would build the families of one church that you would build and sustain and strengthen God we pray for your joy for your your healing a phrase that comes to mind for some in the room is that you will restore the years that the locusts have eaten and we ask Jesus that you would do that for those in this room you'd restore those years you'd bring back wholeness better than new we pray this For Your Glory father and our good and everyone said amen amen can we thank thank Phil and Brooke for that incredible word and and blessing church this morning um if you are blessed by Brooke and Phil and you want to learn more about the ministry that they do and we've got a couple copies of their book left in the lobby $10 cheaper than you can get it on Amazon um we would invite you to grab that or check out their website they've got a podcast they do incredible incredible work and for some of us in the room this morning um holy spirit's working on our hearts and there are things that we need to work through and things we need to process and we need prayer for our family we need prayer for our marriages we need prayer for for things going on and so during this last song we're going to have a team down front that would be honored to pray with you and to pray over you and if you've never said yes to a relationship with Jesus it all starts there and you'd say hey it's time today is the day of salvation and I want to begin that start a relationship with Jesus there's a table at the back that you said yes it's lit up we would invite you to go back there we wouldd love to walk with you and process what that might look like so we're going to close in one song of blessing over you and your [Music] family let's sing this together as a blessing over our lives [Music] it's our prayer today sing this together Lord bless [Music] you Lord bless you and keep you make his face shine upon you be gracious to you Lord Lord turn his face toward you and give peace sing that [Music] again Lord bless you and keep you make his face shine upon you be gracious to you Lord turn his face toward you and give peace sing amen amen amen amen [Music] aen [Music] amen Lord bless and keep you Lord bless you and keep you make his face shine upon you be gracious to you Lord turn is this toward you and give you peace sing [Music] amen [Music] Amen Let It Be True a aen [Music] amen singen [Music] again amen amen amen [Music] amen [Music] amen is Lord Let It Be True in our [Music] life be upon you in Thousand Generations your family your children the children the children may is f be upon me in the Thousand Generations your your children the children the [Music] children before you and behind you and beside you all around you within you with you with you in the morning in the evening you're coming and you're going You're weep rejoicing is for you he's for [Applause] youen aen [Music] favor be upon you and thousand generations and youres and the children and the children and the children may be upon you and a thousand generations and and children and children and the children may presence go before you and behind you and beside you all around you and within you he is with you he with you in the morning in the evening in you coming and your glory and you weing and reing you he is for [Music] you amen [Music] [Music] [Music] ien [Music] [Music] amen amen amen [Music] and so father that's our prayer today as we leave this place because you have loved you love first Lord help us to love with a supernatural love our spouse our kids our friends our co-workers our neighbors holy Spirit would you love through us would you bless through us thank you for loving us thank you for choosing us Jesus thank you for dying for us for forgiving us thank you for your grace and your mercy your mercies are new Every [Music] Morning Jesus everything that we need is found in who you are Lord and we receive it today we love love you and we give you all praise and glory and honor and we pray in your name amen amen can we give him praise this morning so good so good Brooke and Phil thank you so much for leading us and teaching us today such an amazing day we're so grateful for the opportunity to worship together today hope you guys have a great week we'll see you next Sunday [Music] oh