And Pam, appreciate so much your help with the music tonight. Matthew chapter number six. Matthew chapter number six. I got a little help from the congregation that Pastor Pirate was the Mr. Slippy River Race. So thank you for that. And that was one of many Pastor Pirate CDs and tapes and early on records, vinyls, that I would listen to growing up and I learned so many good scriptural principles and good principles of good Christian music through Patch the Pirate and Majesty Music, and still to this day, they produce good conservative, good Christian music, and we use their music quite often. But Mr. Slippy River Race, yes, I remember that. There's good memories that come back to mind from that CD. Very good. Matthew chapter number six. We have spent some time already in the Sermon on the Mount. And we are gonna transition into chapter six, and Jesus is going to continue in this sermon, in this discourse, he's gonna continue to address the fact that we come short of keeping the whole law. And it's necessary, it's required, that for us to be truly righteous and to enter into heaven, into God's presence, that we be 100% completely without sin, holy in every way. And we all fall short. We are all sinners. We all, like sheep, have gone astray. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There is none righteous, no not one. And he has addressed that in this sermon quite clearly, and I'm gonna go back and repeat and review everything that we have looked at from chapter five as he dealt with the Beatitudes, and then as we worked our way through those six areas where there was a, I'm just gonna go right out and say it was a willing misunderstanding of scripture. It was a stubborn and selfish way of misinterpreting the scripture to try to elevate certain people into a self-righteousness so that they could then lord that over the people heaping upon the doctrines of God, the commandments of men in a legalism, in a self-righteousness that produced bondage but also was damning not just those blind leaders, the religious leaders, the hypocrites, the scribes, the Sadducees, the Pharisees, but also as they brought bondage upon the people would even cause them to be blinded to their sin. Now we know that the gospel breaks that blindness. And we know that even out of the Sanhedrin, we know of at least two Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea came to Christ in saving faith. So what man might seem or call impossible, God calls possible. But we transition to chapter number six, and he continues to deal again with self-righteousness and hypocrisy. in our shortcomings when it comes to keeping the whole law. And he says in verse one, take heed that ye do not your alms before men to be seen of them. Otherwise ye have no reward of your father, which is in heaven. Now he's gonna address three areas at the beginning of chapter number six. I've entitled the message tonight, Prayer and Humility. He's going to deal with alms, with giving, with righteous actions and activities. He's going to deal with prayer, and then he's going to deal with fasting, all in this opening section down through verse 18 of Matthew chapter number six. But tonight we're only going to look at almsgiving, righteous deeds, giving, serving, and those actions, as well as with The time that we have, Lord willing, we'll also look at prayer. We won't have time to get all the way into the Lord's Prayer and to break down the disciples' prayer, the Lord's Prayer. We'll save that for a future message. But we see that there is a warning about spiritual pride, a warning about spiritual pride. He says, take heed. This phrase simply means to beware. It is a call to warning. We are used to this in our driving. Jesse is learning how to drive. We're going through, for the fourth time, a driving lesson with our children. And they all have to, as they have learned how to drive. Now, Jesse's eventually going to do some professional drive times with a professional teacher, I'm not a professional teacher, I'm just daddy teacher and I do my best but you'll eventually go through like the older to go through a professional driving school and actually have a professional teacher go through things but of course for a driving test you have to study the manual and you learn signs and we understand that there are very important signs around on the roads. Four-way stops and various other warning signs that tell us that there is a speed bump up ahead. When we first moved to Lafayette, we learned that Greenbush has big speed bumps, gigantic speed bumps. And I had to learn real quick. Sheila, as we go there past your neighborhood and on down, Those are some gigantic speed bumps. And so in Kenya, when I was on a couple mission trips, there weren't a lot of speed traps with police cars. It was a lot of speed bumps to try to get you to slow down. And there are various warning signs, and it was nice the other day. Actually, it was yesterday. We were visiting family down in Indianapolis, and there was a four-way stop that had some fluorescent... I don't know spinners, I don't know what else to call them, but there were some fluorescent spinners on top of the stop signs and sometimes you'll see where the stop sign flashes. Take heed, beware, warning. There are accidents that happen, often fatal, when someone misses a stop sign and there's a collision. Danger ahead. What is Jesus saying? Take heed, beware, there's a warning about what? Doing your alms before men. Now alms, we think of in our modern vernacular, we think of giving a little something to a non-profit or to a charity in some sort of way. of donation, this is a word in the older English that speaks to righteous deeds, righteous acts. Yes, it can specifically refer to a monetary gift, but it is more than that. It is serving, it is worshiping, it is doing righteous deeds, righteous actions. So alms are acts of righteousness or good works. And he says, take heed, beware, there's a warning that we not do our righteous acts, our righteous deeds, our giving and our serving, with what motivation? To be seen of men, for man's glorification, for man's applause, for man's exaltation. What is the motivation to be? It is to glorify God. Our motivation must not be to be seen of men. It should instead be seen of God, to honor Him, to glorify Him, to draw attention to God, to His attributes, to what He has done in our lives. And it's only by His grace and for His glory that we have the gifts and the abilities and the opportunities and the responsibilities to serve. It is only by His grace. It's by His strength. But it's so easy for us to forget that. It's so easy for us to get caught up into doing our good deeds, our good works, our giving and our serving to be seen of men. And we've probably all met people or we have known people who have left the church or gotten upset because they felt like they had served for so long or in such and such a way and somebody didn't recognize them. And I have tried, I'm not perfect at it, I try to recognize people, I try to say thank you, I try to not go over and above, but we try in our ministry here to recognize people who serve. Many of you serve quietly. Many of you serve in the background. Many of you who serve even on the platform are not performing, trying to get man's applause and man's praise, and praise God for that. But we've all known people who have been maybe faithful in some area, or they've done something kind of over and above, and no one recognized them. And we live in an age where at Little League, you get a participation trophy, you get a ribbon just for showing up, You get a certificate just for being there. And we live in that kind of a culture and we live in such an age where now people grow up and they expect some sort of recognition for every little thing. I think sometimes there are awards that are just made up just because they don't want somebody to be left out. I've been in award ceremonies. I've dealt with it. I mean, again, I go back to school and I remember a dad who stormed out of our award ceremony at the end of the school year because his daughter didn't get a certain award. I had a parent of a senior on graduation night look me in the face and refuse to speak to me. I said hi to him and he would not speak to me because earlier in the year his daughter did not get a certain award and then she wasn't going to get recognized that night at graduation. And he would not even speak to me when I said hi to him. He just gave the evil glare. We get caught up in all of that recognition and it's in our selfish nature to want to be seen of men and for a pat on the back and for whatever kind of award or prize. Now it's important for us as parents. to not just criticize or not just say no, but also say yes and to praise and to recognize the good things that our kids do and not just the bad things. A kid who lives under constant criticism grows up to be cynical and bitter and rebellious. It's important that they also be praised, but we have to be careful. This is an area where there is great warning that our motives be right. So what does it mean to glorify God? It means to draw attention to him, to his character, to his attributes, to his work in our lives. But what about the motivation of an unsaved person? What is the driving motivation of an unsaved person? There's lots of things. There's lots of natural God in his grace and his kindness and creating us in his image has created within us certain natural motivations that many times are well and good. Motivations to work because we need money, we need to put food on the table so we can provide for our families. We could get into a thousand different motivations. But when I'm talking about spiritually, when I'm talking about a relationship with God, when I'm talking about a desire to go to heaven, what motivates an unsaved person? I'm open to feedback. I'm going to begin with an unsaved person, and then I'm going to get to saved person. What motivates an unsaved person in a spiritual sense? Bob? Okay, money. Okay, money is a big one. Yes, exactly. Yes, Connie? Elevate self. Okay, I think we're getting into the area. Yes, Sam? Prestige. Okay. I think I saw another hand. Yes, Bob? Earn your way to heaven. And then I think I saw a hand in the back. pride. An unsaved person, and again, I'm not trying to say that an unsaved person can't have a moralistic life. There are unsaved people who are very charitable, very giving, sometimes very nice, and they can win big prizes at work for customer service. They're incredible at what they do. I'm not saying that There is this judgmental condemnation from us because they're an unsaved person who is moral and is nice. But what does the Bible say regarding all of our righteousness? It's filthy rags. I know that that is not a pretty picture. I know that that is not a, a winning PR marketing statements. But no matter how moral an unsaved person is, no matter how kind and how nice, and sadly, we are seeing Christianity reduced down to, and this is part of Satan's deception for centuries, liberal, Protestant, doctrine, Karl Barth and a lot of those other neo-Orthodox teachers basically reduced Christianity down to just being nice. So I was watching on the news this afternoon as three Israeli hostages were released. Just telling Hamas, oh, you be nice. Hezbollah, oh, you be nice. Iran, North Korea, China, oh, just be nice. Is that a good foreign policy? How well does that work, to just say, oh, you be nice? Sometimes, nice isn't truth. Nice isn't right. Nice isn't the correct method. I don't mean that in the wrong way. I'm just saying, Is it just being nice that gets us to heaven? Is it just being moral? What do the unsaved do? The unsaved, again, there can be very moral people, very nice people, very caring people, good neighbors who do a lot of good things. I remember a preacher saying he went to India and he saw Mother Teresa. And she spent her life in abject poverty serving the poor in India. And this preacher questioned her about sin and salvation and the gospel. And it was all about the church and good deeds and good works. And she was making her very best effort in hopes that she would tip the scales in her favor. And most people would hold Mother Teresa. The Catholic Church gave her sainthood. But even someone as kind and as giving as that Without faith in Jesus Christ, without repentance of one's sins, those righteousnesses are filthy rags. That's something we have to keep in mind. As much as we love an unsaved person and are thankful for their kindness and their niceness and being good neighbors and good coworkers, they need the gospel. The unsaved, at their best motivation, ultimately are doing what? Trying to earn their way to heaven, trying to do enough good deeds. And sadly, there were Pharisees and Sadducees, scribes, religious leaders, who thought that they were doing good deeds. They thought they were doing enough good works. Paul himself, as Saul, before his conversion on the road to Damascus, Paul said what in Philippians 3? He said, if anybody could earn their way to heaven through their good works, it would be me. He said, if you looked up earning your, obviously I'm not saying exactly what Philippians 3 says, but he said, basically he's saying, if you looked up in the dictionary, someone who could earn their way to heaven, my picture would be there. He said, if anybody, Hebrew of the Hebrews, the stock of Benjamin, he went on and on about his spiritual pedigree. And Saul said, as Paul later, he's saying, if anybody could earn their way to heaven, if there was anybody who was righteous, even to the point that I was persecuting believers, true believers, Christians, true Christians, he said, if anybody deserved to go to heaven for their good works, it'd be me. And he called his righteousness filthy rags. He called them dung, excuse me. He basically called them sewage that goes out on the dung pile, the trash pile. That's what he called his good works. And there are Pharisees, religious leaders in the midst, as Jesus is preaching this sermon, who saw their self-righteousness as something to be bragging about, saw their service and their giving, saw their activities as righteous religious leaders, as something to be magnified by the people, to be applauded by the people, to be elevated among the people. And Jesus is rebuking that. So what should be our motive? What should be our motive? An unsaved person, until they come to Christ in saving faith, their righteousness is filthy rags. Our self-righteousness is dung, as Philippians 3 says. But once we get saved, once we turn from our sin and repentance and turn to Christ in saving faith and his finished work on the cross and his resurrection, what should then be our motive? Out of a love for God. Laurie? Exactly. Exactly. He paid a debt we could not pay. We owed a debt that we couldn't pay it. He paid that debt so it The motivation, in turn, should be out of a love for God, out of a debt of gratitude, of loving service for Him, to ultimately do what? To glorify God. Matthew 5 in verse 16, we looked at salt and lights. In Matthew 5 there in verse 16, just a page or two back, maybe in your Bibles. We know the verse well. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and do what? And glorify your Father which is in heaven. So after we get saved, what are our good works and our righteousness all about? Glorifying the Father, pointing to God who saved us as we live a life of love and gratitude back to Him as Sam even prayed in our giving, giving back a portion of what God has so freely given to us. 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 31, whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. If you've ever been to the Wild's Christian Camp, every meal starts as we stand there by our chairs and pray. Right before we pray, we say this verse, whether therefore you eat or drink, But whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. And I'm thankful for a camp like that, who makes that such a prominent theme throughout the whole week, or throughout the retreat, or whatever the campers are there for. But that's the theme of the Christian life. To whether we are doing the most basic things in life, eating and drinking, or whatever we do, we do all for God's glory. So in this section of scripture, there are three issues. There's the almsgiving, there's the prayers, and then there's the fasting. Again, as we have time, we'll hopefully be able to look at at least the first couple of ones as we work our way through this passage. But we have to be reminded of the corruption of our hearts, of our sin. Because if we're not careful, it's hard to believe But this is our depravity, this is our corruption, this is our old man that even as a believer, serving the Lord, exercising our gifts, if we're not careful, because of the corruption of sin, because of the old man, our worship, our serving can become selfish and sinful. Israel would be rebuked. God said, I don't want your sacrifices and your offerings anymore, and your giving anymore, because your heart is far from me. Even in our worship, even in our serving, it can become dutiful, mundane, not done out of a love for God. It can become selfish and sinful. We talk about in politics, about power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Well, I think in any kind of leadership position, there's the temptation to become prideful, to become selfish. Fame does this. Popularity can quickly turn into pride. It's a grave warning to me in the ministry as I see pastors all across the land and throughout the decades, just in my lifetime, I've seen far too many pastors abuse their authority, get lifted up in pride, become an exception to the very rules and the commands and the laws of God that they preach and commit immorality, abuse the people with power and the wrong use and view of authority, take advantage, manipulate, lord over the sheep, and many, many men in the ministry through the years, and even just in the last few months, I've seen far too many men in the ministry have to step down due to impropriety, due to some sort of scandal. But we all have to be warned, because our selfishness and our pride can creep in and take over if we're not careful. We live in a celebrity culture, don't we? It just seems like everything is about Celebrity, superstar, popularity. The social media world doesn't help this. It seems like everything is about clicks, clicks and likes and subscribers, follows and followers. How many Facebook friends do you have? I have more than you. No, I'm just joking, okay? But everything, it seems, in a social media world, I'm not saying we can't enjoy social media, but social media inherently does what? Exalt self. Now again, I'm not saying it's wrong to have an Instagram, a Facebook, or some other kind of social media, but we tend to always put what out onto the internet? What makes us look good? And I'm thankful for social media in a lot of ways, and being able to share memories and pictures and communications with family and various things, but we have to be so careful in the podcast world. It's often about what's one of the first things that's said within just a few minutes oftentimes. Click, ring the bell, click, like, subscribe. And before long, if we're not careful, it can become about who has the most followers, the most likes, and then sensational headlines. And I mentioned, I think, either Wednesday night or last Sunday, I mentioned that two podcasters that I enjoy following once in a while, now they're attacking each other. They are making podcasts about each other, criticizing each other. And accusing each other, I mean, it's like, and you can't hardly comment now on certain articles and podcasts and videos because you get ripped to shreds in the comment section because how dare you. you know, say something negative about my favorite person. In the football world, in the NFL playoffs, it's about this quarterback versus this quarterback. I thought there were at least 10 other players on the team out there on the field at the same time, right? On and on in the celebrity culture, there are celebrity preachers, there are entire ministries, churches, that hold a certain pastor up so high that they are more loyal to him, I feel like, than they are to the word of God. I remember a preacher boy in college who, there was a wonderful pastor down the road. He was one of the professors that I had, and I loved this man. Great preacher, and he did not in any way endear this. He did not encourage this. But I remember one particular preacher boy who would literally in pulpit speech class, tried to preach exactly like this preacher, with all his mannerisms, with his vocal inflections and everything. And I'm like, just be who you are. Don't try to be somebody that you're not. But we are so caught up so often in celebrity culture and trying to get man's applause. We have to be so, so careful. So as we talk about giving and serving, We have to look again at what this passage is saying. As Derek read a few moments ago in verses one through four, we see alms in verse one, verse two, therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. Christ forbids hypocritical giving. as illustrated by the Pharisees and the other religious leaders of that day. The word trumpets there, it's not in record that there was an actual trumpet that was blown, but it's the idea of trumpeting one's serving, giving, righteous doing. It's the idea of, hey everybody, look at me, I'm about ready to put coins in the treasury. I'm getting ready to give a big sum, I am, and they would wear long robes and fancy robes and stand on the street corners and pray loudly. It's the idea of trumpeting, drawing attention to oneself so that everybody can recognize the good deeds that I have done. We're tempted, whether it be up on the platform or whether it be serving in some other area of the church, we're tempted even just going and picking up a coin or something on the floor, a piece of trash, and then looking around and seeing if anybody knows, hey, I picked up a piece of trash, look at me. I'm a great servant. Aren't we all tempted in that way, in some way, shape, or form to do something and hope that we get recognized? And that's the danger, that's the selfish nature that we have. We have to be careful not to be trumpeting our good works to be seen of men. A coin or coins could be heard clanging loudly when put into the treasure chest there at the temple. So if you wanted to get noticed and you had a large sum of money, Mark 12 talks about the religious leaders and their giving and their long robes and all that. If they had a lot of coins to put into the treasure chest, what do you do? You put in just enough at a time. Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang, everybody's turn. Wow, they have a lot of money to put in. Right? The widow only had her two little mites, and as a matter of fact, there's record historical evidence of a private giving location where people could give without all the attention that they would get. And what does Jesus say about this kind of almsgiving? He says they have their reward. That's it, right there. They got noticed. Maybe somebody whispered, hey, look at them. That's it. There's an audience. There's some attention. But there's no reward from God, no treasure in heaven, and no spiritual effect. It's empty. It's empty. So we see that there is a real caution here about how we give, how we serve, how we do our righteous deeds. We see, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth. Verse number three. This is a colloquialism, a proverbial phrase. Okay, it doesn't necessarily mean that you tie one hand behind your back when the offering plate comes through or when you're at the offering box or when you're online. You tie one hand behind your back and don't let the left hand see what the right hand is doing, or the right hand see what the left, it's a proverbial phrase, it's a colloquialism, to express this idea of privacy, of doing this without show, without trumpeting, without showing off, without bringing unnecessary, undue attention, not done for attention, fame, or applause. Now this is not a contradiction between let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. There's a difference between our testimony versus hypocrisy or our witness versus boasting and self-glorification. So we are to not seek attention, fame, and applause in our serving, in our giving, in our worship. That's why For history, church has, for the most part, been simple. The pilgrims, the Puritans, they were very much a part, they very much resisted the ornate Catholic and Church of England type of worship. When they came to the United States, the pilgrims, often kept worship very simple because they were sick and tired of the ornate, extravagant, Catholic and Church of England kind of worship where it became about the elites and the priests and the hierarchy. Now, I understand Notre Dame, the cathedral that was recently remodeled, rebuilt after the fire, the idea was to for people to come in and to see the glory of God, that coming to church meant coming to a place that you worship God and God is high and lifted up. I get that. I understand that motivation for some of that. But one of the reasons the pilgrims, the Puritans resisted that was because it became about the architecture and the power and the hierarchy and the prestige of the church instead of about God and his word and truth. And you'll find that throughout church history, simple, I'm not saying that there can't be a bigger production, but are the people in China, in the underground church, in a small room, singing quietly to the Lord, and having a church service, are they worshiping God with less? Is their worship less acceptable than the big production at First World American Church with an LED screen and fog lights, or fog and spotlights? You know what I'm saying? There's this idea that worship, again, it doesn't mean that there can't be grand production, the temple, at the dedication of the temple, there was a multi-thousand voice choir, there was a wonderful concert, there's gonna be a concert in heaven. But you can see throughout church history, the emphasis has been upon simple, why? Because we get performance oriented. We get to desire too much attention. I've been in a church where just moving to a screen with words on it to a certain type of microphone and amplification was a little bit of a challenge because it tended to become about the person instead of about Christ and his word and the truth. There are things that we have to be careful about in church. that we don't want to detract from the word of God with bad grammar and bad language and me not combing my hair what's left of it. Again, I'm saying a lot of things here, but if I can turn on the NFL playoffs tonight when I get home from church and the professional standard for the NFL is a coat and tie, then surely I as a preacher can preach the word of God in a coat and tie. I'm not saying that a preacher always has to wear a coat and tie. There are settings and there are places. I'm not saying that that is the only way. I'm just saying if I can watch as a professional standard six people talk about football for three hours on a Sunday night, then surely I can talk about my God from his word for 45 minutes in a coat and tie when they do it. for television and money and for the NFL. I'm just saying we have to understand from this passage why churches throughout church history have kept worship simple and about the word and about Christ and the emphasis there. Because when we become performance oriented, It tends to be about self. It tends to detract from God's glory. And this passage has been one of the key passages that people have looked at for years. Do not your alms before men. Don't trumpet your good works. Don't look for man's applause. Right hand, left hand, shouldn't even know what they're doing. The idea of our alms, as it says in verse four, being done in secret, and thy father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. We know from other passages, cross-references, Proverbs 27 and verse two, let another man praise thee and not thine own mouth, a stranger and not thine own lips. Think about that. We are to allow God to work in somebody else's heart and mind that they are motivated to praise us, not try to draw it out of them by our self-seeking. Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth, a stranger, and not thine own lips. It doesn't mean, again, that we can't post something on a social media page. It doesn't mean that we can't say, yeah, I did that, volunteer that information. But it does warn us, doesn't it, about our selfish motivations to seek man's applause, to seek man's glory. Again, I don't mean to be too over the top when it comes to or too critical of certain preachers, but when I see some of these preachers making six-figure salaries and driving around fleets of cars and having private jets, I begin to wonder, who is this about? Is this about, and we see the prosperity gospel, don't we? We see where the prosperity gospel has taken ministries today. And the various names that we could probably recognize if I begin to say some of their names, where it's about, Hey, if you had enough faith like me and if you were righteous like me, you'd be able to wear a nice suit and drive a nice car and have a fleet and have a private jet. But you don't have as much faith as I do. But I'm going to set the example. I'm going to set the standard high. It gets to be about oftentimes not just that, but then it becomes about book sales. And it becomes about what I can get in book sales and in my merch. I'm just saying, we gotta be careful. We've gotta be so careful because it very quickly crosses the line to doing my alms before men, to trumpet myself, to get man's applause and to bring glory to myself instead of to God. And whatsoever ye do, Colossians 3 in verse 23, do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men. God will reward openly. Let God do the lifting up, as James talks about in James 4, 6 through 10. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up. Matthew 23, in verses 11 and 12. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant, and whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased, and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted. were to humble ourselves, not to be self-seeking and looking for man's applause. 1 Peter 5, 1 Peter 5, in verse number six. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. Sometimes God brings the honor and the blessing in the sight of men, this side of heaven. But isn't it so much greater better to hear well done thou good and faithful servant from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ at the judgment seat and to be rewarded openly at the judgment seat that then we can take those treasures laid in heaven and those crowns that we have only earned by his grace and by his strength and then cast them at his feet and praise and honor and glory to him and his holy name We close with James 4 in verse 10. We'll just get through almsgiving tonight. That's okay. I'll save the next section about prayer for another night. But we close with James 4 in verse 10. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. We want to do the heavy lifting of ourselves. And oftentimes, we can't do it. All we do is we collapse under the weight of our own selfish pride and lose the reward in cheating Rob God of his honor and his glory that he deserves. Instead, we should humble ourselves, broken and contrite before him and let him do the heavy lifting, the lifting up to his honor and to his glory. Let's close in prayer. Lord, thank you for your word. Lord, this is a challenging passage. Lord, it is a rebuke to us and our selfish, self-centered nature that, Lord, we want and seek glory many times in service and in righteous acts that are to be pointed to you, that should direct people to you. Lord, we try to steal and rob you of your glory. And Lord, may we not be guilty of that this week and throughout our life. Lord, may we seek you first, seek your kingdom. Lord, may we humble ourselves and Lord, let you do the lifting up as you see fit. We thank you, Lord, for our time together tonight. Pray for safety protection as we travel. Pray for a warm house, a warm place. Lord, thank you for a place that we can go to get away from the cold. But Lord, may you warm our hearts with the truth of your word and help us to live them out and apply these principles, these commands, these