Today I'll be talking about a lot of my testimony as Brother Mac and Phillip asked me to do, and in that the subjects of learning and serving, spiritual disciplines of learning and serving. But the table of contents, just to give you a taste of what he covers in the book, he has the disciplines, the spiritual disciplines, Bible intake, prayer, worship, evangelism, serving, stewardship, fasting, silence and solitude, journaling, learning, and then he ends his book on a chapter on perseverance in the disciplines. But in each of them, you'll have the word, for example, prayer or worship or learning for the purpose of godliness. There is a purpose in this. It isn't an end in itself. It is a means to something in its godliness. And he has a good definition, which I like definitions, I like to define terms and define what I'm talking about. So his definition, snapshot definition of spiritual disciplines, and you'll see it in the book, is those practices found in scripture that promote spiritual growth among believers in the gospel of Jesus Christ. They are the habits of devotion and experiential Christianity that have been practiced by the people of God since biblical times." So, we have this word, practices, and we have a purpose, the purpose of godliness. And that makes me think, right off, we have to be focused on the main thing. The most important thing in all of our lives is knowing God, loving God, glorifying God. God himself is the primary most important thing in our lives. Quentin, he's the most important thing in your life. He is the most important person. His kingdom is by far exceeding infinitely beyond anything we can do in this life. the kingdom, and that takes discipline. And he's the main thing, everything else is either secondary, meaning it's not unimportant, it's real, like marriage, family, jobs, these are secondary things, they are not the main thing. And then you move on below to frivolous or vanity. So we cannot make the secondary things the main thing ever in our life, in the Christian It is knowing God. That is our goal. It is loving Him, glorifying Him. The chief end of man, as the catechists start off, is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. And they'll go on. They're like, well, who is God? Why do you have to glorify God? Why should you do this? And see, they'll carefully progress through in a disciplined way to help their children. And so I'm going to talk about a little bit serving, I'll start off with serving. And John Newton, the hymn writer who wrote Amazing Grace, he said this, and I thought this was a wonderful perspective for us. He said, if two angels were to receive at the same moment a commission from God, one to go down and rule Earth's grandest empire, and the other to go and to sweep the streets of the meanest city. He said, it would be a matter of entire indifference to each of the angels which service fell to his lot. The post of the ruler or the post of the scavenger, it doesn't matter. For the joy of the angels lies only in the obedience of God's will. It does not matter what you do. If you're in the will of God, it is important and we can have joy in it. And we can have purpose in it. And we can grow in discipline and strength. So don't be thinking ever, I got to get up to these higher things. God, if he's put you in this realm, he's given you these gifts and abilities, you need to walk in that with joy and gratitude. When I came to the church, 2000, I'm going to say 2000, 2001. That's kind of the monumental mark of my life and the calendar of my life. The turn of the millennium was the turning of Jeff Price's theological worldview and view of God entirely. But I had made the decision at one point where I got to meet Brother Mac and Philip and know them and just fell in love with them and all that they had been teaching me and knowing that they loved me and that these are pastors who are for me and as long as they are meeting, whether it's in this house or whether it's in this Good Samaritan retirement home, I'm with them and I'm going to stick with them and I'm going to be under them and with them and serve with them. And immediately, one very practical way of serving, I observed, was I showed up at this Good Samaritan little room, about this size I'd say, a little bit longer, stretched out, Red Sea Mack in there getting some chairs straight. I think, I can do that. And so I resolved next week, I'm going to beat him here. And I'm going to have these chairs set up so he didn't have to mess with it. And that was just something I observed and thought, I can do that. And so it turned out that next week I was there and it was set up. Well, now the pastor didn't have to mess with that. He can focus more on his sermon or prayer or me talking to people. And then that turned into weeks. That turned into months, and as we moved, I just kind of, it's like the Lord put that on me as a responsibility. And it would have been wrong to take it lightly at that point, to where this week, if Jeff doesn't show up, they're kind of counting on you, unless you communicate with them, that these things get done. And so that was on my heart, and that was just a way I could tangibly serve the body. And now these brothers do it so faithfully, too. And it turned into where we started meeting at Brother Phillip's house. And I would, Phillip's kind of alluded to it at times, but I would get up in the morning. I knew my children get up at 8 o'clock. By God's grace, we've disciplined them to stay in bed till 8. And so I'd get up at 6, I'd read for a while, and at 7, I'd get in the car and go to his house and lug 50 or 60 chairs up to his porch, get home by 8. You know, be with my wife to help with breakfast and children, which is serving. And then we would show up about 30 minutes before church, 11. We've always started at 11. I don't know why, but that's great. I'm fine with it. 11 o'clock's good. There's no problem with 11 o'clock. Right, Nick, Jake? Well, we have our morning class now, but I would show up at 1030 and then put the chairs inside. And it was just a practical way. It was a tangible way to serve and to help, and it kind of morphed into also recording sermons. Well, we want to get these recorded. And I guess I'm not a master technician, but I knew enough to know how to plug things in and hit some record buttons and finally get things going. And so I was just serving that way, and I felt joy in it. I felt purpose. I felt connected and part of the body. That's the way it is with us. That's the way it is with all of us. And it does take discipline. Serving is not a ho-hum, well, I may do it this week, I may help out that next week. I see a need, eh. Yeah, there's a need, but maybe someone, yeah. You know, it's not a passive thing. It is, it takes discipline. And it's something where we can tangibly minister to God's people. And I want to stress, too, it's all by the Lord's grace. entirely. I'm nothing special. I'm not any more special than any one of you individuals in this room. I can't move chairs any better than you. I can't help people any better than you. It was just on my heart, and it was a tangible way to get in there. So you may be asking yourselves, well, okay, that's kind of one thing to do. I see that, and I can help some there, but what are practical ways that I can serve more, what are ways I can get in and get involved? Well, one practical way is every week you probably see an email from one Brian Elsie, which in our midweek prayer meetings, we share needs, we share requests for prayer, we share tangible things. And you look through these, you may see something that says, I can help there, I can do something there. Besides just pray, I can actually take action here. Do that, make that a regular disciplined part. I need to do that better. But a disciplined part of finding ways, because it's like God's just laying it before you every week. Here's the saint's request. They've taken time out of the middle of their week to come and share these. And he's written them down, and you're reading it. Don't you think if you see something you can touch and impact and serve that you ought to take action and have some discipline in your life to help in that practical way? Absolutely. And there's other ways, and Don Whitney talks about a lot of these things, but there's maybe a married couple babysit you and your wife, or you help go babysit their children so they can go on a date. Brothers, that is serving the body. That is so practical, and that is so impactful. You have no idea how it blesses a husband and a wife. And it could be that you have disposable income and you say, you know, you all, you do so much. You all have such busy weeks, full weeks. Here's a gift card to Outback Thursday. We're going to come over to your house and watch your children. You know, do something like that. That's serving. That's taking care of the bride, too. When you're doing that to them, guess who you're ultimately doing it to? The Lord Jesus Christ. And you think you're going to lose your reward? You think he's going to be posse about that? Like, yeah, that was nice. No, it matters to him. Nothing matters to him more than the church. And the church should matter most to you than anything in this earth. And so let's serve her, take care of her, help her. If you're babysitting, taking meals to a family in flux, running errands for someone who's homebound. You can do that. We can do that. It's just a matter of discipline, you see. And I'm not saying every day. I'm saying when you see the need, be active and take action. You might give someone a ride. You give Brother Mac, you give someone a ride at the airport, they're flying to Maine. That's serving. That is serving needs that's helping the body. And maybe some home maintenance that needs to be done. These are practical, but it's unto the Lord's bride that you're doing that, and you're part of her, and you're serving and helping and nourishing, and that is meaningful. And we're displaying the servant's heart, which is the same as whose heart? Christ's heart. So when you're doing this, you are, what's the word? Emulating, personifying, living out an example of Christ in the earth. That's how he is with his bride, he serves. And it could be at home, you're helping your wife. Christ laid down his life for his wife. And that means more than just dying on a cross. It means he is taking out of his, and the husband laying down his life for the same way. Well, I'm not gonna die on a cross for Tommy, I don't think, that I can foresee at least, but I do, I am commanded to lay down my life for her. So how am I gonna do that? Well, it may be that you don't get to spend as much time doing this because she's priority over that. Helping her, loving her, providing lift in some way from the children so she can... It's laying down your time. It's going to work so that she can have food and she can buy food for her children. It's providing. That's laying down your life. You're serving. You're doing what you can. You're ministering words of grace. And that has impact for a husband, future husbands, your children. I remember one time distinctly, I mentioned it to him on a ride somewhere one time. I said one day, I think it was that morning, I got up at six early, well before the children get up. I went into my study, shut the door, turned on the lamp, had my hot coffee, sat down in my rocking chair there in the corner, Bible open, and I think I read a psalm or a proverb, probably a psalm, but the essence was, I want to do your will. I want to be in your will. And I just started praying that psalm. I was like, Lord. And it seemed like one of the most heartfelt prayers, where I was really focused and like, I want to do your will. I want to be in your will. Show me what it is you want me to do. And then I was just sitting there just kind of thinking, almost kind of like meditating. I was just thinking. And from around the corner in the next room, I heard a little four-year-old boy say, why, please? And I'm thinking. And then I felt like the Lord spoke to me there. OK, here's what I want you to do. I want you to go take care of that little boy and clean him up. I want you to lay down your life. I want you to serve your little boy, help him. You are a father and that matters to me. Take care of your children. I mean, the white police, yeah, I just sat down. I want to be in the scriptures. The last thing I want to do is, you know, get the pill off my lap, get up, you know, go in there and wipe a kid. And then come back in, and I might wake up three or four while I'm in there doing it. But I felt like the Lord said, you are a father. You take care of your children. And that has a deeper, broader principle in our lives. And that's my heart towards you. How many times will I wipe up your mess? You see? I mean, this has implications in serving. And this brother's Serving is not something that's going to lead to misery and bondage and torment, so to speak. In serving, it leads to freedom. When you're in the Lord's will, when your motivation to serve is from a heart of gladness and a heart of thanksgiving and gratitude and forgiveness, not guilt, not a sense of guilt, but God's forgiven me of everything I've done. How much more should I forgive others and serve and help others? And you're serving with that kind of prodding and moving. And you're realizing that it's all done for you, so you do for others. And live for others, not just yourself. Self has to die. I think that's one reason Jesus said, if you want to follow me, take up your cross and follow me. So, what does that imply? Taking up a cross doesn't mean you're going to go take that cross and do things with it. That cross has a purpose, and it's to kill self. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, you see? The sooner self dies, the sooner you will serve with freedom. and joy, and gladness, and the heart of Christ in you. When self-interest is first, self-purposes, all about selfishness, there is no freedom in that, and you're going to find really fast that that leads to the great thing you want to avoid, which is bondage, death, and torment, and misery. But when you die to self, when you do take up that cross, selfishness is going to perish. The old Jeffrey Price has to die, you see, so that the new life of Christ will be in you. So that command to take up your cross and follow me is not a... That is a beautiful, wonderful thing that you want to happen. You want the freedom and the joy of Christ. And God desires to be glorified. The psalm we're going to be reading at church this week, Psalm 105, which Matt touched on a little bit. Verse 4 says, Seek the Lord and His strength. Seek His presence continually. So we're not doing it even in our own strength, are we? We're doing it out of the bonds and constraints of love and out of the strength of God. We're moving in His strength in serving the body. And it is such freedom and such godly good purpose for us when we can realize that and form that as a discipline in our lives. We have two deacons in the church, and yeah, they are that. They are tangible servants in a public office to the church. But in a way, they need to be able to delegate off things to the others. They may see it and see it needs to be done and say, you know, so-and-so needs to have help moving an office desk from McKinney. Can you help with that? And that's what happens. I mean, they ought to be able to call anyone and say, hey, you got an hour tonight? See what I'm saying? We are all servants, even though they may hold that office. And it takes discipline, it takes this strength, this strengthening it talks about, it takes exercise. And then we've talked on the exercising these disciplines. And if you think about how you exercise the body, you do not go to the gym one day, and this is kind of a lame analogy, but you don't go to the gym one day and do 10 sets of squats, 10 sets of bench press, and a few curls, and go home and you're in shape, do you? In fact, it's probably just going to make you sore. It is the regularity. You show back up a couple days later, you continue. You continue exercising. You continue. It's week after week, month after month, year after year. And you look, the soreness wanes away and isn't regular. And you start noticing that the body's strengthened and helped. And that's the way it is. I think Paul, when he's talking to Timothy, saying how it's of little value, physical, but godliness in every way. But it's the exercise principle is you flex these muscles. You work them, you work them, you work them. And you don't go and just start working on your chest and your arms, because then your legs are going to be like this, and you're going to look ridiculous. You really do. You may think you look good, but you don't. You know what I'm saying? All this self interest and perception and I didn't mean to bring this up but incidentally the latest studies when they really start breaking down like what is the best way to get in shape it's these full body exercises that include all the muscles so if you can do these things for like 10 minutes a day if you can do these full body like like the push-up which works chest shoulders back core, it works your back muscles, it works your legs, it's working everything. You do those and these other kind of jumping jacks, they notice that it is immediate, like incredibly more effective. And you see how we talked, when we put that into a spiritual context of the church, all the body parts working properly, then the entire body's benefited and the entire body's strengthened. And so, this is a discipline of serving, and it's just the tip of the iceberg. Christ said, I did not come to be served, but to serve. Give my life as a ransom for many. So we want that attitude, we want that heart in us. Okay, everyone, let's make sure we got eyes open. I know it's almost lunchtime too, you have just been bed full. But now I'm going to move into the realm of learning a little bit. And it's not because I'm the most learned in this room that I've been giving this assignment. But it is a discipline of learning. Learning. When I met Brother Mac and Brother Phillip, I met Brother Mac through Brother Phillip, he immediately said, whatever you're reading, besides the Bible, put it down now. and read these three books. You remember them? I'll put you on the spot. But that's not the point. There are important, helpful, good things to read. And I'm not much of a reader. In high school, I was into football. I was into basketball. I was into the sports. And I did not do that well in school. And by God's grace, I had just an average B grade point. My high school coach would say, B's get degrees. In fact, he said C's get degrees. And I joked Alan about that at the seminary. Alan, C's get degrees, brother. He's got five kids, and he's got to put food on the table. But anyway, how did I get on that? Learning good books. It is intimidating at some point. We're like, well, John Calvin, or J.C. Ryle, John Bunyan, these books, whom I can't read. You can do it. I'll say to you what, not Ian Murray, no, the other Hamilton, yeah, Ian Hamilton said to me, he said, when I was looking at John Owen, the abridged version, he goes, kind of like took it out of my hand and it's like I can't read Owen he says listen if English is your first language and you have at least a fourth grade reading comprehension you can read Owen and you should read Owen and you should read what Owen wrote and so I took I bought the volume I mean I bought the 16 volume set, based on that advice. And then I did, I started reading volume one, I could say, okay, this is not third grade level English. But I do know what words mean. So I just started reading slowly and out loud. And I started seeing how he thinks and how he communicates and it started making sense. And I've eventually read all volume one and all volume two, then half of volume three, and then You see, it's the discipline of consistency and keeping in it, sticking with it. It's already been touched on, but it is important for our learning to take it in, to take it in regularly. And Don Whitney touches on very wisely, I think. When it comes to learning, there's active learning and there's passive learning. We want to be active learners. But first, what do I mean by passive learning? Passive learning is when you're watching TV and you just start learning stuff. It's like, oh, that beer is made in that state. Or you learn even wretched stuff. Or you just start getting this information, this knowledge that you probably don't even need or want. That's passive learning. We passively learn Justin Bieber's name. I can't name a song he sings, but I know that name. And we don't want to be like that when we're disciplined and spiritually disciplined in our learning. We want to be active learning. And Brother Lee's already honed in on this and touched it a lot with meditation, being intentional versus unintentional. That's another way to say it. I'm intentionally going to start reading my Bible. When I was in the Air Force, that's when You start learning a lot about discipline in a real practical sense with basic training. Who in here has been in basic training before, basic military training? Eric and me, Tom. First thing they do is they take those civilian clothes off. They shave your head with no guard. And they put you in lines and ranks. And they start yelling. and whipping you into shape and you learn real fast. If I don't shape up, if I don't get disciplined here, this is not going to be good. This is not going to work out well for me. But you do learn fast in what I need to do in order to help. Let me go back to serving for a second because I remember vividly one time it clicked in basic training. There's too much that I can do by myself. We cannot be individuals here. Because when we show up into the barracks, and we've got 10 minutes until lunch, and we show up, and the bunk beds are knocked over, all the foot lockers are emptied out, and just like a tornado hit the place. And you've got 15 minutes till lunch, or there's no lunch. And then after that is physical training. You realize, if I just work on my bed, which is wrecked, and I gotta find my sheets. If I just work on that, and then work on folding my shirts perfectly, and then work on putting my socks perfectly, and then if I'm just about me, we won't make it. So we had to figure out, okay, they don't want us to do that. In over a couple of weeks, we figured out like, man, so-and-so's like the master shirt folder. So-and-so's the master bed maker. I cannot make a hospital corner like that. And so we said, okay, what we gotta do so and so, you just start going and folding shirts as fast as you can, you start making these beds fast, and you start getting socked, and we work together and we're serving each other, and guess what, in 15 minutes we're done. And that's the idea, and that's the war type mentality too, is you are not an individual, you are not an isolated individual, and the unit is not going to be helped. If you have that mindset, that translates into spiritual things. But learning, be intentional with your learning. Read the best books. Read them. You have an opportunity to read the best books. You do not have an opportunity to read every book out there, but you have an opportunity, by God's grace, to read Calvin. And you have an opportunity to read some of the living guys, Ferguson, Piper, and others. Read them, and take them in at your pace, but be disciplined about it. And it may be that you get I'll just use, like, St. Clair Ferguson's book on the Christian life, and you read it once a year, and that you just own that book. You will be more blessed in that than just not reading anything or starting a few and just getting discouraged, but if you just read and consistently be disciplined about it, after your Bible reading, you will be blessed and you will grow and mature as a Christian. The importance of the Bible, I don't think I'll touch on that other than The reality that the Bible is our spiritual sustenance. It is our food. It is our strength. And every day we need to take it in, don't we? It is the same thing as not eating physically for three weeks. You will be at the point of death if you don't. You have to take it in. If you have someone in the exercise metaphor who's built strong He's well-shaped. I mean, every muscle is just fit. That person needs food, too. Even though his muscles are strong, he still has to have food, or he's going to be weak. So even though you've exercised, the Bible intake is the priority. It is our sustenance, and it's our food. And I think that, you know, we've got to have that energy. And it does strengthen us. The strength mentality, the inner strength comes with that consistent discipline regularity. You think of the proverb, I can't remember which one it is, but it basically says, he who can control his temper is greater than he who can take a city. And it takes more strength. It takes the man who can control his temper, and how are you going to do that? How are you going to control your temper, without the Holy Spirit, without spiritual sustenance, without being taught and learned, you can't. But that guy is stronger, that guy is greater than the one who can take cities. And the more we know about him, this is R.C. Sproul from the book, he said, the more we know about him, God, the more we are able to love him. Now that's practical. Those of us who get to know a friend, the more we get to know the friend, the more we love them. You don't love them as much the day you met them as the day 10 years down the road with them. The love increases with the knowledge. Same with wives. Brother Conrad and other elderly men and those that have been married for 10 years, 30 years, they'll tell you that they love their wives more today than the day they married them. Why? Because love comes with the knowledge. So that's when we're disciplined to learn. The knowledge increases. And the knowledge, the heart doesn't love what the head doesn't believe. And what the head doesn't know, the heart's not going to love. And the heart's ears are up here in the head. And that takes discipline and reading through the eyes. you taking in the Word, and knowing God, we're able to love Him more. And the more we love Him, the more we seek to know Him. You see, it's almost like a circular, a beautiful circle. I want to know Him more, and when I get to know Him more, I love Him more. When I love Him more, I want to know Him even more, because there's more to know, and I want to know... When I read Owens, Volume 1, on the glory and person of Jesus Christ, I just feel like I fell in love with Christ more and more like I had never known. Because I had never known these things that he was teaching me. I'd never had these thoughts. It never occurred to me. And here he is exposing me, opening up. And really it's the Lord, I think, who teaches us through teachers. He gifts the church with teachers. And have you ever had this thought about God? No? Well, let me tell you about this. And you start learning. And then your love for God starts increasing. It's endearing. You read Owens volume one on the glory of Christ and the person of Christ. Your heart is just ready to explode for love of them. And I may hear even like a lame contemporary song about Christ. But now when I hear that song and what I've learned about who he is, it's almost the song itself has freshness. And I don't know if they're thinking about what I'm thinking about, but it's Christ. So that is a beautiful way to say it. We have this, brothers, for a reason. Brother Lee's done a wonderful job talking about that. We have that for a reason, and it isn't just to be sitting around on our shelves. It's food for our bodies. There are letters in the New Testament to the churches because they are important for the churches to know. Corinth, Paul said, Chloe's people have told me that there's a problem here. And so he wrote them the letter of Corinthians and then the second letter. And you not think that's important for us? Do you not think that that problem could happen here someday in our culture, which is almost identical to Corinth? Galatia, I'm writing to you because I've heard that this teaching has come in about circumcision and you need this instruction. Even Romans, Ephesians, John, the Gospels, they're all instructive for us as a church and we need to know these things and understand them so that, Paul says, that we may grow up and not be like children tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. God doesn't want us tossed to and fro. He wants us stabilized, and that comes from the discipline of learning. Because if you're ignorant, you're vulnerable too. So that corrects our error, gives us instructions, roots us and grounds us in the truth, and Jesus says, come to me and you'll know the truth and the truth will set you free. So it is ultimately for freedom too. We're learning, not so that we're in bonds and bondage. The best of bonds perhaps, I saw Jeffrey Thomas wrote an email that Mack will share sometimes, like those annual letters. And he closed one, I never forgot, he said, instead of like, loving Christ or grace to you or some of these, they're good ways to close a letter, he put, in the best of bonds. Remember that? In the best of bonds. So yes, we're free, but no, we're not free. You see, we're free in Him to love Him and do His will. And when we do His will, when we line up with Him at the lunch table, we were talking about how Christ loves the church more than anything. And If our love for the church lines up with his love for the church, you talk about real peace, real motivation, real passion, and real purpose that can come. And this comes from learning, too. May his mind be in you. You see? How are we going to get his mind in us? Right here. Not some mystic whatever that's out there, some religious thing. His mind comes to us from this. This is the God breathed. This is the Greek word homo... Theonistos. Theonistos. Breathed from God. You want God to breathe on you? Then open this. He is breathing on you. Breathing. Think of that. What's God's breath do? When he formed Adam out of clay with his hands. He was a lifeless lump there, wasn't he? Until he did what? Breathed on them. It is life-giving. And breathe, O breath of God, to him. We have the Holy Spirit, we have the Trinity, the Trinitarian aspect, the Father, the Word, the Son, the Breath, the Holy Spirit. This is for us, the Scriptures, and then learning from good books like this one. J.I. Packer introduced it. I don't know how he does so many introductions. He intros almost every book out there, it seems like. But anyway, he says, this book is worth reading at least three or four times. On the first reading, you should think about this. And then when you read it again, you should think about this. And on your third reading, I want you to think about... That's the kind of book you want, isn't it? On spiritual discipline. So this whole theme is important. We don't want to bring you men together to just trivialize your life. We want to help you. We want ourselves to be helped. We want mature, disciplined, free, Christ-like brethren. You look at the Puritans and Reformers. The volumes they wrote, that 16 volume Owen, John Flable's got his, Thomas Watson's got his, Calvin's got his, the commentaries on Calvin are from here to here. And then you can have his institutes, and you can have his tracts and letters. You talk about discipline, and it's for learning, and for the church's instruction, and he did that with a pen. With that precision, with that substance, with that kind of content. that's carried over for 500 years and blessed the church. Do you not think that's important, that God raised him up for a reason? Take those books down and chip away at them. Brother Allen inspired me too. He said that he and his friend, I'm putting you on the spot, but he said he and his friend, they decided they're going to read the works of Edwards, Volume 1. They're going to take this year and do it. I was like, okay, have at it. He said, no, no, Jeff, look. I looked at how many pages there are. It's two pages a day. If we can just read two pages a day, we'll be done in a year. Discipline, brother. Discipline. This is why you're here. Strengthen your spiritual discipline. He's got seminary. He's got work. But the reality is the same, isn't it? It's two pages a day. Can I not wake up 15 minutes earlier and read two pages. Yeah. And the consistency is the key, isn't it? It's like the working out. You don't do it once. It's six months before you start seeing results, or five years. And you go five years having worked out. Won't you be glad that you just didn't give up when you got sore the first time? And now when you're 90, you're able to actually move maybe? I mean, I'm just this very man centered, but the same with maybe investing. You don't just plop in $25 into a savings account and you're ready to retire when you're 70, 90, 80 years old. It's consistently contributing. Every paycheck takes out this portion. So when it comes to discipline in the spiritual realm, you do have to take out portions and portions and portions. We eat there, I mean, you get your tray and it's almost like, well, I wish I could just eat the whole thing, this is so good. But no, we take portions and it takes time and daily. This is a pervading principle, isn't it? Well, in all our efforts to learn, all our efforts to serve, remember, it's for the purpose of godliness and for the glory of God. And everything else is secondary. God is the most important thing. He is the most important one. His desires are the most important desires. His way is the most important ways. And He is the goal. He is the prize, isn't He? The pearl of great prize, the treasure in a field. It's Him. The message is Christ. The gospel is the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified for sinners and he has come down and gave his life as a ransom for many. He has come down to save sinners and he's shed his blood for us. And you talk about the ultimate humbling of a person in all of existence, leaving his father's throne to be born into Bethlehem I mean a place and growing up in Nazareth. I mean it's not like he was born in the 20th century in New York City in a palace or a high rise beautiful place. He grew up in Nazareth and at the fullest of time. So we can humble ourselves too with gratitude and love and serve one another and we can have the desire to learn of him. He said in Matthew 11 After you say, come unto me, all you heavy laden and burdened, I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and what? Learn from me, and I'll give you rest. You will be blessed, and you'll have life. Amen. That's all I have, brothers. Praise the Lord.