All right, did everybody stretch and get something to drink, use the bathroom, all that fun stuff? This is the name of the book that I was telling you all about earlier that I just had a, my brain went blank. I couldn't think of it to save my life. But it's called Why Is She Smiling? Unexpected joy discovered by a most unlikely submissive wife. And Amy Williams, she's the author, and I've talked with her several times. She's so precious. She just shares her journey in a very humorous way, but it's very biblical. It's very solid. We actually have used this same material when Nick and I were supposed to teach a marriage retreat together for Miss Diane's, my brother's church. Some of y'all have met my brother when he came here and preached the revival not too long ago. And they actually, their church, bought a copy of this for every one of their ladies. After Miss Diane, I'd given her a copy and she read it. And it's just really good. And it's lighthearted and it's not very long. It's $7.99 from Amazon, but you can order it I don't know if that picture will... Why is she smiling? Unexpected joy discovered by an unlikely submissive wife. And that's what the title looks like. I mean, that's what the book looks like. And it's just, it's real thin. It's not hard to read. I read it in one sitting. And it was just, you just want to keep reading it. It's really sweet. And you know, even if this isn't, something that would pertain to you and your season right now. This is such a good tool to give. I'm going to give this now. It's going to be before my little standard gift when our girls get married in our church. They know they're going to get an apron. They know they're going to get, I make this pound cake that everybody at church likes, so they know they're going to get the bundt. It's a tube pan, it's not a bundt pan. And then I'm going to get a cute little spatula, little thing, you know, to match the apron. And I give them the recipe written down. And that's like my little gift. Well, now I'm adding this book to the standard gift because I just, I really think it's a gift to the kingdom of God. So I would encourage y'all to get it. It'll be a blessing to you. All right, now, this last thing before we wrap up. And y'all are such troopers. I'm telling y'all, I am just, I'm so proud of y'all. But this last thing I want to share with y'all before we go, we've already talked about just making our days count and then about flourishing, embracing instead of just enduring. All of those, these are all qualities and benefits and blessings of being in the body of Christ, being His. But even still, there's times where we struggle. There's a huge mountain. I mean, it's just really hard to climb. And then sometimes it's just the day-in, day-out stuff. It's not like we're having to climb a big mountain, but it's just never-ending. It just seems to never end. And so what I want to leave us with is just how we can be overcomers. Because the enemy wants to keep us defeated. His word says that he comes to steal, kill, and destroy. And He wants to keep us in a place where we are just, where we live in defeat and we have no joy. So I just want to leave our time together with just talking about what that means to be an overcomer. I looked it up in the dictionary, and this is what the dictionary says. An overcomer is, according to the dictionary, to get the better of in a struggle or conflict, to conquer, defeat, to overcome the enemy, to prevail over opposition, temptations, and to overcome one's weaknesses. So there's lots of different things. Sometimes it's ourselves that we have to overcome the weaknesses and temptations Sometimes it's the enemy, you know, sometimes there's a situation. But whatever it is, the Lord wants us to be overcomers. That's what He wants us to walk in. Now, also, there's another kind of dictionary that sometimes I'll turn to, and it's called the Urban Dictionary. Have you all ever looked up the Urban Dictionary? Well, this is the definition. Now, some of their definitions you know, I would not agree with. But this one, this particular one was right on. And I like what it says. The Urban Dictionary puts an overcomer like this, a warrior. Someone who battles no matter what task is ahead. And then it goes on to say someone that not only regains strength from his weaknesses, but also sees life in a way that no other can. Someone who has been through it all and did it with a smile on their face. I like that definition. I mean, I want that to be said of me. Man, she's been through some stuff, but she's always smiling. She's got joy. What is it about that person? There's something different. And that's what the Lord does in our life. And so I just want to talk a little bit about how we can be overcomers. Someone who's been through it all and we do it with a smile on our face. Not, not that fake smile that I talked about that we put on just to like endure a season and get through it. That's not the kind of smile I'm talking about. I'm talking about a genuine smile that just comes from the joy that Lord's given us. Even when the situation is still cruddy and it's, and it just, it's still yucky and we're still walking in the same thing, but yet we still can do it with a smile on our face. We can be overcomers. And I know y'all want to be that kind of woman too or y'all wouldn't be here giving up your Saturday morning to come and sit here like this. So do y'all have, I mean like that definition of being that person that's just been through so much but they always have a smile on her face. Can y'all think of someone in your own life that comes to mind? Or someone that just automatically you can think of someone? Anybody else? There was a lady, I don't know, did you ever meet Miss Eula in Tennessee? She is a warrior. She is an overcomer. She was a lady that Miss Diane, our mother-in-law, worked with that just, she had so little. And it just seemed like her kids were always, she was always trying to help her kids and her grandkids. She was an older lady and godly lady. She just loved the Lord. And it just seemed like one thing after another, stuff was happening. She just had the sweetest countenance about her, always smiling, always praising the Lord. I don't care what happens, she would praise the Lord. And I always think of Miss Eula when someone brings up something similar to this. I remember Miss Eula and just her joy, her contagious joy for the Lord when she had so little. You know, she just made me want what she had. And she didn't have anything worldly that I would desire, but she had something within her that I knew I wanted more of. So I'm so thankful for Miss Eula. And another person, as I was writing this, the Lord was giving it to me, that I look to as a warrior, the same type of person who, no matter what life has thrown at them, they've learned to overcome. And I'm so thankful, because it's my own mom. She's such a warrior. She's been through so many hardships in her own life. I mean, she lost like their first baby. Only lived a day. She was, I think, like seven and a half months pregnant. And then, you know, she lost my dad, her husband. She was only 39 when he died. He was only 43. She's lost a son. You know, my brother was 39. Just really, really hard things that she has had to walk through in this life just lots of tragedies but y'all she is if anybody knows my mom they they know that she is so joyful is she not joyful she's like the life of the party when when when she shows up she's just you can't help but smile she's so much fun and You know, I just, sometimes I take that for granted. The older she gets, I don't now. I'm like, I'm just so thankful. And I thank the Lord every day for that example that he's given me, because not everyone has that. And the more that he sends me out, you know, across this, even the world now, I meet women that want that so bad. They didn't have that with their own mom. And I'm so thankful for that. And we can't make anyone do anything. We can't change our past. But what I always try to incur the ladies that come to me with this is even if you didn't have that in your own life, you can be that to someone in your life. And so I'm so thankful that I did have that example of my mom. And so I've just seen her overcome all these situations. Now, sometimes she was brought very low. And, you know, it just hurt me that I couldn't help her, you know, get over some of these things as quickly as I wanted her to. She had to go through that grieving process, but she always came out and she always had joy, you know, through it and in the midst of it. And I'm so thankful for that. And she had a secret, you know, she has a secret in what she does. And I'm going to share that with you all today. She learned how to position herself. in order to live this life of being an overcomer, being a warrior. So I want y'all to turn to Psalm 16. That's where we're going to end today as we're, our time together and look at what it means to position ourself so that we can overcome when these difficult situations that we've been talking about this morning Come into our life because y'all they're they're going to happen We may not all experience tragedy like I just described, but we're going to have difficult things That's going to be Beyond our own strength bigger than what we can endure and we're not going to be able to get through it apart from some of these things that we're going to look at and in Psalm 16 I'm just going to go ahead and read the whole psalm it says preserve me O God for in thee I do I put my trust? O my soul, thou hast said unto me, unto the Lord, thou art my Lord. My goodness extendeth not to thee, but to the saints that are in the earth and to the excellent in whom is in all my delight. Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hastens after another God. Their drink offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names unto my lips. The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance, and of my cup thou maintainest my lot. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places, yea, I have a godly heritage. I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel. My rains also instruct me in the night seasons. And I have set the Lord always before me, because he is at my right hand. I shall not be moved. Therefore, my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth. My flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of life in the presence of fullness of joy at the right hand. There are pleasures forevermore. okay there was a lot so much that we could hunker down and sit on for days in that passage but we're just going to look at just a few things I want to I want to kind of settle in on verses 8 through 9 this is where part of the secret is of how we position ourself to be overcomers and it says I have I have set the Lord always before me We see that the psalmist, he wasn't running ahead of the Lord, you know, like just getting up, going about our day, not even going to the Lord with anything. That's how we run ahead of the Lord. You know, we get impatient. We think he's not, you know. He's not doing it. He's not fixing it in the amount of time that we want and we run ahead of the Lord. Well, this passage says, I have set the Lord always before me. So He's before me. He wasn't lagging behind. He's right there, right before me. Sometimes God is saying, come on now, I have this for you to do. I have this for you to walk in. And we're like over here, uh-uh, I'm not coming. You ever had a kid that doesn't want to come with you? And they just like plant their feet. And sometimes you have to spank him to get him to move. Well, the Lord will unfortunately do that to us too. And his spankings, they hurt way more than anything we can, you know, we would just like not lag behind, but go with him. So we see the psalmist is saying, you know, I've set the Lord before me. He's not running ahead and not lagging behind. He was intentional about setting the Lord always before him. We know in Isaiah 26, verse 3 says that He keeps us in perfect peace when we set our eyes on Him. And so that's one of the ways that we can do this to position ourselves. We don't wait until we find ourselves in a mess, or we find ourselves before a mountain, or in a situation that is bigger than us that we don't have the strength to deal with. we need to have already positioned ourself where we are walking daily. Every day we're setting the Lord always, not every now and then, not on Sunday mornings, not when we're around this person that inspires us or whatever, but always, every day, we're setting the Lord before us. We're putting ourself in position. So he's before us and it says, because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Well, one, I love the not going to be moved. We already talked about that. The New Testament principle out of Acts 20, Paul said that he's not going to be moved off course because he's not keeping his life dear to himself. So we don't want to be moved. And it says, because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. What does the right hand often symbolize in God's Word? strength strength authority So yes, so we see the psalmist. He's putting the Lord always before him and he's intentional He's got because it says because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved. So he's saying I have given him the rightful authority in my life. I've given him that place. He is in control of my life. I've surrendered my life, my ways to him. He's at my right hand. So therefore, you know, he's before me. He's at my right hand in position. They're in position so that when the storms come, and they will, then they're not going to be moved. They're not going to be moved off course. And because of this, he's not moved, and he's an overcomer, the psalmist. So we know what it does to be an overcomer. We know that we have to be in the right position. We have to have Him always before us. We have to surrender our life and our ways to Him. He's got to be at our right hand. But now I want to look at now why this is possible. You know, this is what we're supposed to do, but how is this possible? And that same psalm answers this. I love it. In verse three, it reveals the answer. It says, Oh Lord, you are the portion and the inheritance of my cup. You maintain my lot. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places and I have a good inheritance. So basically what the Lord, I mean what the psalmist is talking about with coming before the Lord, he understands God's character and he understands that God is a good God and that he has given an inheritance. And sometimes we don't like the things that the Lord wants to pour into our cup. We don't like the lines that he's drawn We don't like our, you know, our little slice of life and our little corner of the world that he has carved out for us to be an influence. Whatever it may be, for us to make an impact, for us to show his glory to the world through what he's allowing in our life. And we don't look at it as a good thing. And we don't want to hold our cup up to him and let him pour in our inheritance. And we know through God's Word what He has to say about some of these very things. I'm just going to kind of, you can write these down and go look these up later, but Ephesians 1 verses 18 talks about the riches of the glory of the inheritance of the saints, what we've been given in Christ, that this inheritance that we've been given, it's rich and it's all the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe. And then it goes on to say in Philippians 129, for you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ, but also the privilege of suffering for Him. We get to walk in this fullness of life, in this abundant life that He's called, that He came to give us. But in that life, there's going to be hard stuff. There's going to be sorrow. There's going to be adversity. There's going to be suffering. according to what God's Word says, that's a privilege for us as His children to get to suffer as Christ suffered. The world thinks that's crazy. That's like crazy talk. But in the midst of this, we can have this joy. We can be overcomers. We can position ourselves when we understand the character of God and that the things that He allows is for our good and for His glory, not because He's forgotten about us or He's left us out or He's given a double portion over there to that person and, you know, what about me over here? It's all for His purpose and all for His glory. And then it goes on to say in 1 Peter, in chapter 4, that when this does happen, we're not to think it's a strange thing, that adversity is going to happen to the life of a believer, and we're not to think that strange or weird. It's coming. It's part of being His. and it's part of the abundant life, which is just so strange, but it is. So then we go back to, and then it also says not only about not thinking it's strange, concern, this fiery trial, but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings. I mean, not only, just be prepared, because it's coming. Let me just go ahead and tell you then, don't think it's strange, but also you need to rejoice. Rejoice that you get to do this. Rejoice that I count you worthy enough to suffer for me. And those are sometimes bitter. It's sometimes bitter drink to swallow, but it's what the Lord says is part of this life of being an overcomer. So now back to Psalm 16, where we were just looking at, the psalmist is saying, whatever you choose, God, to pour in my cup is good. You give me a good inheritance. I'm trusting you that whatever you're pouring in my cup, it's good. In fact, you are my inheritance, Lord, and I am trusting you. A New Testament way to say this, it's found in 1 Peter. This was another one of those verses. Y'all have those like verses where depending on the season that you were in, like that one, Acts 20, 24 was huge for me. The Lord still brings it to my mind. Well, this was another verse during a situation in our ministry that was really hard to walk through. And the Lord gave me this that just was like life. to me in that situation, and I just go back to it all the time. But 1 Peter 4, 19, and y'all can, y'all can, you know, look this up, have this to go back and look later. It says, Therefore, let those who suffer according to the will of God, because remember, He chooses our inheritance, our lot. He draws the line. Let those who suffer according to the will of God Commit their souls to him in well in well-doing in doing good Let let us commit our souls to them because remember he is at our right side. He's the authority He's the one that's in control of our life Let them commit their souls to him in well-doing as to a faithful creator, and if we don't understand the character of God that he is a faithful creator and This will be hard for us to walk in. So we have to understand that about the Lord, that He's faithful and that He's a faithful creator. A faithful creator who Created all of our days. He knew everything that was going to take place in our life before we even formed the world Psalm 139 teaches us that says that that he thinks of us More than the sand along the seashore That's just like that. I can't even wrap my brain. Have y'all ever just picked up a handful of sand We were just at the beach not too long ago and just the sand that we brought home with us when we had to sweep it up you can't even count like if you tried to Just pick it up and just count. You can't. It's impossible. And God's Word tells us in Psalm 139 that He thinks about us more than the sand along all the seashores. I mean, that's just crazy. This faithful Creator, He knows our thoughts before we even speak of them. So if we want to be an overcomer, this warrior who smiles or has joy no matter what we're going through, then we have to position ourselves. We've got to position ourselves, like we just talked about, putting the Lord always before us. Every day, you know, He's there. giving him the rightful place at our right side of that authority in our life that he's in control. So how does that look like practically for us to do that? What are some things that we're to do that would help us? It's one thing to say that's what we need to do, that's what we should be doing. He needs to always be before us, but is that, are we gonna literally see the Lord and Walking like right behind him everywhere. He goes and him leading us. I mean he he did that for the children of Israel with the big pillar and the fire and all of that, but that's not how he operates for us now. It would be easier. It would clear a lot of things up, but that's not how he does it. So just some practical things for us when trouble comes that we're not thrown off course. I look at my mom as an example. One thing that she's done to position herself, I always know every day what she's doing between 6 and 7, Monday through Friday. I don't know what she does on the weekends, but Monday through Friday, 6 through 7, guess what she's doing? She's praying. She's in the word and she's praying. She'll tell me a few times I've called her before 7. Very few times because I'm very seldom not up before 7. But when I am and I'll call her, she's like, hey now, you're cutting into your time. You may not get, you or one of your grandkids or whatever may not get prayed for today. You're on the Lord's time right now, 6 to 7. I know that's what she's doing. And she's been intentional about it. she has prayed us through so many things and that is her strength every day to still go through to still get through some of the things that she has to deal with to be an overcomer. So she knows where to go and there's a biblical example that I love about a woman who knew how to position herself. It's one of my favorite Favorite examples in the word and we don't even know her name. We just know where she's from the Shunammite lady Y'all know who I'm talking about in the Bible she She was she was a woman that lived in Shunam and What scripture tells us about her and y'all I mean we'll turn to this I think and eventually but it's in 2nd Kings chapter 4 if y'all want to make your way back there in the Old Testament I think we're going to read something. We're not going to read the whole story out of there. But 2 Kings chapter 4. this woman that had a heart for, one, for hospitality, but she had a heart for what God was doing. Elisha was the prophet at that time and he would travel through this area and she would always open her home to let this man of God stay there. And so much to the point where she told her husband, I think we need to We need to build a room. We need to have a room just for the prophet. So when he comes through, he will have a place just for him to stay. So that's what they did. She built a room, had a place for him to stay, and Elisha would stay. And it touched him that she would do this. This was how she was serving the Lord. And so he tells his servant, look, we need to find out how we can bless this lady. you need to find out what what she needs and so they ask her if she wants land and she said no I'm taking care of my family you know is taking care of me and that's for one thing or another and she just says no I don't I don't need anything I don't want anything this is how she's you know serving the Lord well then Gehazi the servant tells Elisha well look her husband is old and they've never had kids And so they probably, you know, and in that day and age, that was really tough to be barren and not to have children. And so they bring her before Elisha, and Elisha says, this time next year, you're going to hold a son. And she's like, oh, don't tease me like that. Don't tell me that that's going to happen if it's not true. I mean, she didn't even want to go there. She had already settled that in her heart, that that was just not God's will for her. But Elisha tells her, you know, this time next year you're going to have a son. And sure enough, we know from scripture, she does have a son. And he grows up where he's old enough that he's out in the fields working with his daddy. And he's out there in the field and scripture says that he starts saying his head's hurting. And he doesn't say exactly what happened, but he starts hollering that his head's hurting, so they send him inside to his mama. And the mama picks him up, and she puts him on her lap. And her little boy, this little boy that she never dreamt that she would have, that she said, don't tease me, he dies. The worst thing that could possibly happen as a mom, her child dies in her lap. And this is how I know that I look to her as how an example that we can position ourselves for when things happen. You know, we respond in the right way. Her little boy just dies and what does she do? She brings him upstairs. She doesn't say a word. She doesn't fall apart. She brings him upstairs. She lays him on the prophet's bed. She lays him on Elisha's bed and then she goes and tells her husband, you know, I need a donkey. I'm going to see a man of God. And he's like, What's up? Is everything okay? And what does she say? It's well. It is well. Her son just died. Her son is laying upstairs dead. And she says it is well. So she takes the donkey. She makes way to go to the prophet. And he sees her coming. And the prophet Elisha is like, kind of confused himself because the Lord hasn't revealed why she's there and tells Gehazi to go on out and find out why she's coming. And he says, is everything okay with you? And she says, it is well. And then he says, is everything okay with your family, with your son? She responds the same way, it is well. Now how can she say it is well when her whole world has just changed and the worst possible thing has happened has happened, and yet she's saying it as well. So she goes to Elisha, and Elisha tells her, go on ahead, I'm going to send my servant. You know what she does? She's like, uh-uh. You are coming. I'm not leaving this place until you come with me. She persevered. She did not settle. She didn't give up. She's like, you are coming back with me. I'm not leaving this place. So Elisha comes back, and then we know the rest of the story. What happens? He breathes life over this boy, and he comes back to life. It was, I mean, a total miracle of the Lord, which is just amazing. But what amazes me the most of the story is not the fact the little boy came back to life, but it's how she responded in the midst of the worst possible storm that we could go through as a mom. She said, it is well. And I want to be that kind of woman. I want to be that kind of woman that when my world, everything that I know is just gone, it's just ripped out from under me and my heart is broken, that I can genuinely look to the Lord and say, it is well. And that only comes from positioning ourself. We can't, when that happens, had she not already known how to live her life, of going to the man of God. Back in that day, they didn't have the Holy Spirit like we have that dwells within us. We have access. Y'all, we have access any time we want to the throne of grace because of what God did on Calvary, what Jesus did for us. We don't have to do all that stuff that the people did in the Old Testament and the sacrifices. We have a copy of the heart of God at any time to open up. They didn't have that back then. So the closest they had was the man of God who would preach, who would share, who would tell what God was doing at that time on the earth. So that's where she went. That's where she went. She positioned herself. I'm going to the man of God. And she did not leave until he came back with her. And she persevered. Now, she lived her life that way. So when the worst possible thing happened, she knew what to do. she could say it as well. So if we want to be overcomers, we have to position ourselves. So when, because we know from what scripture tells us, and Peter, don't think it's strange when those fiery trials You know, come your way. Things are going to happen. If we want to respond in a way where we're not moved off course, we don't fall apart, we can smile in the midst of it when we can say it as well. I'm trusting you, God. Then we have to position ourselves. We can't wait until it happens and then then want to get in God's word, then want to go to him in prayer. We need to be living this kind of life right now, day in and day out. And God will honor that and he will bless that. She knew how to position herself. She held up her cup and she let God pour whatever he had for her. She let him pour it in to her life. And y'all, this is how we want to be overcomers too. There's no shortcuts. I've talked about that this morning. How many times have I said there's no shortcuts? I'm a shortcut person. I want you to tell me the quick way to do it. But in the body of Christ and in living the way that He calls us to live, there are no shortcuts. He gives us His Word. That's where we have to go. And if we want to live this life where we can be overcomers, we have to position ourselves. And that takes work. That's being intentional. We have to abide in Him. And when we abide, you got to stay and hang out. You got to live there. You don't just show up every now and then when things get rough or, you know, it's you live there, you abide there. And that's what he calls us to do, to abide. We have to submit to his authority. We have to put him at our right side. We have to submit to his authority. And I've already shared some of the things earlier about some of the things that the Lord brought me through in my own life. that were very difficult times that I had to go through when I wasn't flourishing and I had to look to the Lord. Sometimes I wasn't positioned. Sometimes I was positioned. The things that happened with Elizabeth and some of the other times, I was doing these things and it was still hard. I had to step out of my tent, learn how to step out of my tent. receive that grace, but that last time I wasn't in position when it was really my darkest time when I struggled with depression and just Everything all at once I quit reading the Bible. I mean I was a pastor's wife I taught Sunday school and y'all when we want to figure when we want to we can figure it out We can like find a way we can make an excuse to get out of things It's just in our nature to do that when we're not abiding in him. This is what happens and so I found myself in a place of not being positioned. I wasn't abiding in Him. I wasn't praying. I just stayed bitter. I just stayed the victim. I stayed angry at Him. I didn't like where we were at. I didn't like what was going on. I didn't like what my child was doing and how it was affecting our family. And I just let it just overwhelm me instead of receiving that grace. But the most important thing, where The worst, I mean like when you see this happening, this is a danger zone. When I quit spending time in God's Word, that's when everything went downhill. And that's when the slope got slippery and before you know it, you're just sliding down in this pit of mud that you just can't get out because we begin to believe a lie and we're not constantly renewing our mind and we're not replacing things with truth. I'm relying on feelings when, you know, at that season that I went through with, if y'all have ever had to deal with a wayward child, a prodigal, I mean, I'm praising the Lord that he's totally transformed her heart and life since then. But I had to live with, you know, her telling me how much she hated me. how much we've ruined her life, how she can't wait until she's old enough, she's going to be out of this place and we'll never see her again. And this would be like minutes before we're stepping out of the car for Nick to go preach a revival. You're the worst mom, you know, all of these things. And so when I quit spending time in God's Word and I was no longer positioning myself, I began to believe what she said. I'm like, I don't have any worth, I can't. I don't even need to, I mean, that's silly for me to go teach a Sunday school class. I mean, who am I to say anything to anybody? And I began to lead, and none of us, apart from God's grace, but I began to believe these lies instead of the truth of what I knew to be true according to God's word and what he says about us as his children. And so when we quit spending time in God's word, that's like the danger zone. It's coming. Things are coming. And that's so easy to do. And then all of a sudden we find ourselves way over here before we even realize it. And thinking, how did that happen? And so I love this quote. Y'all know I love quotes, but I like to read. Lisa Turker, she said, she said this and it's so true. She says, when we slip it living out the word of God, we slip it living in the will of God. When we slip it living out the word of God, we slip it living in the will of God. And that's exactly what happened to me. I was in such a dark place and began to live according to these feelings instead of God's truth. And so, but because of God's great love, you know, He still pursues us. And like I shared earlier, He, in His kindness, He leads us to repentance. And y'all, when we find ourselves out of position, what do we have to do? Repent and reposition ourself. It's not that it's simple. It's so simple. We don't beat ourself up We don't you know, none of those things we just get back on the horse We repent we realize we see ourself as God sees us and what we're doing and then we reposition ourself It's that simple. So that's what I did. I repositioned myself and The same thing for any of us here today. I don't know why you're here. I I don't know what brought you here. I don't know what's going on in y'all's lives personally. I don't know if you are just in the midst of the hardest storm that you've ever had to endure or if you just come through one or if you're about to enter into one that none of us in this room even knows. But if we want to be this type of woman, if we want to be a warrior, if we want to be an overcomer, if we want to be able to say, you know, Lord, I trust you. I'm holding up my cup. I want you to pour whatever it is that you, the inheritance that you give me. It's a good thing, Lord, because you are a faithful creator and I trust you. I submit to you. It is well. If we want to be able to say that, then we have to position ourself. We've got to put him always before us and we've got to give him the rightful authority in our life. So I just want to encourage y'all. I've given y'all a little cup. Everybody had a little cup. If y'all didn't know you had a little cup, I'm telling you now, you got a little cup sitting there on your pew. And what I want you to do right now is just take a little piece of paper, whatever you have something to write on, and I want you to take something that you are, that's bitter, maybe something that you're struggling with, something that you've been enduring, you're not embracing, you don't see it as good, maybe you're in sin like I was, and you've just, you quit spending time in God's Word, You know, you know the right things. You can fake it when you're around people, but you haven't been each day spending time with him, abiding in him to renew your mind with truth. And you know that you're at this place. You've just kind of slipped. And whatever it may be, for yourself personally, I just want you to write that on a little piece of paper. Maybe you're in the right position, but you are just so tired. I mean, it's just, it's been a long journey, and you're having a hard time, and you just need to be encouraged. And I want y'all to take y'all's cup, and I want y'all to stand up with me. And if you want to be an overcomer in whatever situation, only the Lord knows what's in your cup. We need to recognize that He's a faithful creator. He's a good God. He's allowed it for a purpose. This is our inheritance. This is what He has given us to reveal His glory through us to a world. The world is watching, y'all. Our kids are watching. Our grandkids are watching. however we handle it and we want to be that woman that says it is well and in order to do that we need to be able to hold up our cup and surrender it to him and give it to him that's what I want to encourage y'all to do right now I'm just gonna lead us in a prayer and we're gonna all close our eyes I just want you to hold your cup up and get to a place to add even if you're not there just ask the Lord for strength to help you to just hold up whatever it is that you have in your cup that you're ready to trust him, that you're ready to lay it down and to help you. So y'all just pray with me. Hold up your cup. Lord, we just come before you right now, and I'm just thankful, Lord, of your sovereignty. I'm thankful of your goodness, thankful for every woman that's in this room. Lord, you know every single situation. You know what was written on these little piece of papers and what was put in these cups. And Lord, I pray for these women. Lord, I pray that they would be able to not just physically hold this cup up right now, but Lord, in their heart, hold it up and trust you that you're a good God, that you give us good things. You draw the lines of our inheritance, and it's good, Lord, when we trust you. We want to be able to say it as well. So, Lord, I ask that you would help these women. Lord, help us. Help us to be women who are overcomers, who walk in your power, in your strength, Lord, not just getting by, but Lord, flourishing in the life that you have given to us, the inheritance that is ours because of you. So we hold these up. I surrender mine to you, Lord. These ladies surrender theirs to you. And we just pray, Lord, that you help us. You're faithful. We know that you will. And we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. All right, ladies. Well, now it's up to y'all to walk in some of the things that we have learned from God's words today. And I just thank y'all for the privilege of being able to come and just share some of my own journey that the Lord is still taking me on. And I just want to leave here as an overcomer and I'm willing to just trust the Lord in whatever it is that He's given each one of us. And I just thank y'all. Do you want to? Yeah, sure. I'll say the blessing then. Okay, Lord, we just we just thank you so much for how you provide each and everything. Lord, I thank you for the food that was prepared. I thank you for the men who prepared it, Lord, the leaders, the husbands, Lord, the dads who have given their time to come and to do this for us. We just thank you and ask that you bless them. Lord, help them to be the men and the leaders and the spiritual leaders, Lord, that you've called them to be. We thank you for this time. We ask that you help us now to fellowship around your table. And we just give you praise for today. Helped us to be equipped. Helped us to go forth as overcomers with a smile on our face, with joy in our hearts. And we praise you and thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, ladies. That's the first time that's ever happened, right at 12.