Has it been good so far, church? Alright, choir sang good, congregationals were good. It's been good. Well, buckle up. This morning, I'm convinced that some pastors really love to yell and scream and get angry. Some of you probably know some. I know I do. And I'm not one of them. I don't, sometimes I preach and you don't realize just how much I'm preaching to myself. And so this morning, If anything prickles ya, just know it prickled me first. And if you feel like I'm preaching at you, good. That means you need it. And there you go. You don't wanna come to church and not get preached to. I mean, that's what we're here for, right? So if you come to me afterwards, say I was preaching right at you, then I'll say you're welcome. Because that's my job. Matthew chapter six in our Bibles this morning, Matthew chapter 6. The church is a place for believers to come. We hope lost people will come. We hope visitors will come and they'll hear the gospel and get saved. But we can't just preach the gospel of Jesus Christ every single Sunday morning service or else those that only come Sunday morning will only ever know the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so we got to preach the milk, the meat, and everything in between. And that's what we're going to do a little bit this morning. There's reproving, rebuking, and exhorting one another. And this morning's a little bit of those. So Matthew chapter 6, this morning we're going to talk about the masters of your mind. The masters of your mind. In Matthew 6, we'll read a few verses and then we'll pray. Starting in verse number 22, the Bible says, The light of the body is the eye. If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. He cannot serve God and Mammon. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this day. Thank you for your word. Help me now as I seek to preach it in a way that glorifies you. Lord, help us to retain it. Help us to take it and apply it to our own hearts, our own lives, and help us to be changed by it this morning. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Here we see the Bible teaching us that if your eye is single and focused, that is light, and if it is not, if it is divided, that is evil, and it speaks of not being able to serve two masters. Of course, we know because you'll end up loving one and hating the other, and we know to hate in the Bible is to essentially love less than, and so it's not that you absolutely despise your other master, but there's a preference that becomes innate in our minds, and if we are serving trying to serve God and the world, one is going to end up being preferred over the other, and it's going to be as though we hate God if we serve the world. And so we see here this teaching of not having two masters. The very next verse, though, brings us to the concept of our mind. Therefore, I say unto you, take no thought for your life what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor yet for your body what you shall put on, is not the life more than meat and the body than raiment." Teaching here is clearly we need to put more of our thought life, more of our minds to the things of God and less to the things and the cares of this world. Now, is it wrong to consider what should I put on today? No, I'm glad you all made that consideration this morning. Nobody's here wearing a swimsuit, thank you. You put some thought into it and that's not a sin. It's not wrong to have hobbies, it's not wrong to have other things that our minds take part in, but the problem becomes when those things become more important than the things of God, when they become more prevalent than the things of God, when our mind craves those thoughts more than spiritual thoughts, and we'll get into that a little bit more. Today we are constantly barraged with thoughts, Concerns, temptations, worries, imaginations, anything you can think of. Anybody ever been asked the question, what are you thinking? Yeah, show of hands, how many have been asked that question? All right, how many of you ever answered nothing? Okay, you're all liars. And so am I, because I don't know that I've ever had a time in my life when my brain was completely turned off. Now sometimes what you want to be thinking of doesn't show up. I've had times here where I have mistyped my notes and I have the wrong verse reference, and wouldn't it be a nice time for my brain to bring back the correct reference? Doesn't always happen. Sometimes I just stand there wondering what in the world am I gonna do next? I'm thinking, I'm not thinking of what I want to be thinking, but I'm thinking. And when we say, especially men, when our wives ask us what we're thinking, we say nothing. They might believe us, but it's usually not true. We just don't want to have to explain why we're thinking what we're thinking. I mean, why are you thinking about that right now? I don't know. My brain, it's crazy. I mean, they're thoughts that run through our heads on a daily basis. If they could just be projected for the whole world, we'd all be terrified of each other. Like, man, that guy has some weird thoughts. That lady, she thought about killing me three times today. That's strange stuff. And she's my wife. I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. So our brains are always on. There's always something going on in our heads. Whether the thought is an important one or not, whether it's the one you're supposed to be thinking about or not, there's always something going on upstairs. And in God's word we're told in 1 Peter 4.1, for as much then as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind. For he that has suffered Sorry, he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin. We have the armor of God in Ephesians 6, of course, and the only offensive weapon we're giving in the armor of God is what? the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. That's an offensive weapon. In the Bible, we're also told to arm ourselves with the mind of Christ. And so to have the mind of Christ is something we are to have in our lives. And we say, okay, well, pastor, I'm a Christian. I must have the mind of Christ. I'm in church. I read my Bible. I pray. And that's wonderful. Those are all good things. I believe the reason though, and today, and most Christians in America, or at least most who claim to be Christians in America, don't take the stand against sin that they should, or the reason that we don't fully surrender to Christ in our lives, the reason that we don't live the way God's word says to, the reason that there's so few people surrendering to be pastors and missionaries and evangelists, is because we're trying in our minds to serve God and the world. serve God and the flesh, to serve two masters. Now, this is a weird question, but I'm sure somebody in here has. Has anybody ever walked on the top of a fence? All right, a couple of you. Now, obviously, that's not what the defense is intended for. and you're probably just trying to show off or prove that you can balance or whatever it may be, or give you the benefit of the doubt, maybe you were rescuing a kitten out of a tree and you needed to climb up on the fence to do it, I don't know. But if you're walking on a fence, you are a really good representation of most Christians today because on the one side, I'm gonna move this over here. On the one side, you've got living for God, living in the church, in your Bible, in your prayers, and doing as God says, and spiritually minded things. On the other side, you have maybe not absolute wickedness, but things that aren't spiritual, things that aren't pertaining to God and the church and all of those things, and you're trying to walk that fence in between, and what happens if you fall with half on the one side and half on the other? Ouch, yeah. You get hurt. And how often do we see those who claim to be Christians trying to live half in the world and half in the church, and then guess what? They get hurt, and they blame God, and then they flop over onto the world side of the fence. You wouldn't have got hurt if you weren't doing that. So many times people who, I hate the phrase, people use that phrase, I've been church hurt. Well, have you ever been work hurt? Have you ever been relationship hurt? Have you ever been home hurt? You got hurt, and most of the time, people who say, well, I got church hurt, they got their feelings hurt, and they're just immature, and they don't know how to handle it spiritually. It's just how it is. There's a lot of babes in Christ getting offended all the time. And we ought to never try to offend somebody, but we ought to also try not to be offended or be offendable. And so if we are trying to live half for the world, half for God, and we fall, it's going to be painful. And the solution to that is to turn towards God and the church, not to turn towards the world. And the mind of Christ is something we're supposed to have. We cannot serve two masters. So turn with me to Romans chapter eight in your Bibles, and we'll just see what this other option is. It's got a name in the Bible, the carnal mind. The carnal mind. Now I hope most of you in here today already had that thought. I hope I don't have a carnal mind. Most of us wouldn't have had the word hope in there. We would have just said, well, I don't have a carnal mind. All right. We'll keep going. We'll find out. What is a carnal mind? Romans chapter 8, verse number 5. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the spirit, the things of the spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. That word enmity means the quality of being an enemy, the opposite of friendship, ill will, hatred, unfriendly dispositions or malevolence. Carnal mind is the opposite of a friend to God. The carnal mind is the enemy of God. And you notice there what follows those that have the spiritual mind is life and peace. It's pretty hard to claim that we have a spiritual mind when we have no peace in our life. What's the problem? Believers, I believe we, whether it be for a time or whether it be for a season of our lives, we allow ourselves to become a lot more carnally minded than we want to admit. While we try to battle our flesh and sin and the devil in our culture, our own mind is often against us. Ephesians 2.3 says, among whom also we all had our conversation in time past, in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. and were by nature the children of wrath even as others. The mind has its desires too, and they're just as fallen and sinful as the desires of the flesh. In Hosea 4, 6 we read, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, and it continues on. I don't think, sorry, I know that there are those who are carnal as Christian. I mean, the first Corinthians tells us the Corinthian church was full of carnal Christians. And we see a lot of reasons why, divisions among the church, things like that. I think there's a lot of carnal Christians out there that are carnal because of their lack for knowledge. They just don't know the word of God. They have not been taught. Maybe they go to a church where they've got a homosexual woman pastor telling them that the Bible doesn't matter. They lack knowledge. Okay, I believe there's some of those out there, but in a church like ours, an independent fundamental Bible, even King James, Hellfire Preaching, Baptist Church, I don't think a lack of knowledge is the problem. In fact, I can think of several instances where I have been talking to someone about what is going on in their life, and they've said, I know I'm not doing right, I even know the verses, but that didn't do it. They had the knowledge, They had it up there, but it didn't cause them, the knowledge alone didn't cause them to choose that which was right. There's a lot of people who know better than they do. Let's look at, well, we don't have time this morning, but if you think about Romans chapter seven, verses 15 to 25, that's every preacher's favorite verse to not read, because that which I do, I would not, and that which I allow, I don't do, and it's quite a tongue twister of a passage. But the Apostle Paul is decrying, actually go ahead and turn there with me, you're only a page off in your Bible, in the last verse, After he talks about a wretched man that I am, he talks about the struggle between the flesh and the spirit. Verse 25 he says, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord, so then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. So the Apostle Paul has this great struggle that is detailed in 10 verses of this back and forth of I want to do this, but I do this. And I tell people not to do this, and then I do it. And he says, with my mind I'm serving Christ, with my flesh I'm serving sin. Can you imagine how much worse that struggle is if your mind isn't serving Christ? He says, in my mind I serve the law of God. Now, if you're a carnally minded Christian, you can't say that. Now it's not just your flesh that's serving sin, it's your mind. So what's serving God? Not much. Not much, he's like, well, my mind on Sunday morning between 10.30 and 11.30, well 11.45, if we're being honest. So we battle between this having a carnal mind and a spiritual mind and we don't want, I don't think anybody in here wants to be able to say, yeah, I'm a carnal mind, my flesh is my mind's master and sin is my mind's master, we don't want that. So how do we know if our mind is carnal, if our mind desires and loves the world more than it desires and loves the things of God and the things of the Spirit? We gotta be honest. So I'm gonna run us through some questions, and this is not an answer, these are all rhetorical, just so you're aware. Not that anybody was gonna volunteer these answers, but just so you know. Can you or can I listen to ungodly music? Now, again, ungodly. It's music that's not meant to uplift God. That involves all of your country, all of your rock, all of your classic rock, all of your rap, all of that stuff. Ungodly, not designed to lift up God. Can I listen to that for hours on end, but 15 minutes of hymns puts me to sleep? Okay, all right, that's one. Can you scroll Facebook or Instagram or whatever in the world there is nowadays, I can't keep up with it, for hours, but the pastor, if he goes past 30 minutes, you're out. Your mind is elsewhere. Some of you have already, your minds have been wandering off to other places. I see it. Some of you, it's happening right now. Who knows where you are? All right, can you watch shorts and YouTube videos all day long about things that you don't even care about? But then when you sit down and open your Bible, every fiber of your being and your brain is somewhere else and telling you to, and you read one verse and there's a word in the verse and you're like, oh yeah, and you go do something else. It's just hard to sit down and focus on your Bible, but you can sit down and waste two hours watching videos. Can you watch the news all day but not pray for five minutes? Or is your five-minute prayer five minutes because that's how long it takes you to say, Lord, bless this person and this person and this person and this person? Prayer's a conversation with God. It's not supposed to be a repetitive, I say the same thing every time the same way every time. We're supposed to have fervent prayer in our lives. Can you stand and cheer at sporting events but saying amen at church is embarrassing? It's okay to say amen at church. Almost at any point, almost. Now, depends on what the pastor is saying. At certain points, you're not supposed to say amen. But I'll leave that to you to be able to make that differentiation. But saying amen in church, saying praise God, lifting up holy hands as the Bible specifically says, oh, I couldn't do that. People are watching. Okay, go to a Steelers game, go to a Penguins game, go to, you know, whatever you enjoy and you're hooting and hollering with the rest of them. Okay, are we carnal? Do you get emotional while watching TV and movies? Or the one Hallmark movie they made into 50,000 other movies? It's still one movie. I know some of you love the Hallmark channel, I get it. That one storyline is your favorite and so you like seeing it 50 different ways. Do you get, does that stuff touch you, but you have never been to this altar? So I don't have to go to the altar to pray. No, you don't. So why is it special? Why avoid it? Can you go to a complete stranger's home to buy junk? I gotta be careful here. I also go to garage sales. I mean, some good deals. long as you can sort out the junk from the little bit less junk. We can go to complete stranger's homes and haggle with them over the price of something that costs a dollar. Some of you ladies, you're professional garage sale hagglers, and we can do that, and praise God, that's all right. It's a good skill to have. But go to that same door and knock on the door and say, I'm from Slipper Rock Baptist Church, we're just out inviting people to church. Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ is your Savior? That terrifies you. Why? I mean, you're meeting that person. I don't know, it's just a few things that I got convicted about, about is my mind spiritual or is it carnal? Am I Well, we're gonna move on. If any of those, or if many of those are you, or are me, then we're at least a bit carnal in our mind. And it is a daily battle to have a spiritual mind and not a carnal mind. I believe our churches are full up with people who, if we're honest with ourselves, 99% of our day it's carnal. And then a little bit of spiritual sprinkled on top here and there. That's not what God desires of us. Turn with me to Philippians chapter four, and well, Philippians four will be good for now. I warned you at the beginning, this is one of those messages that hit me hard, and so I'm assuming it's gonna hit hard this morning, but we need stuff like this from the Bible. Philippians chapter four, verse number six, the Bible says, be careful for nothing. But in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. Now that word careful means, of course, full of care. It doesn't mean, you know, don't look both ways, cross the street. It means full of care, anxious. And interestingly enough, it's the exact same word that in Matthew 6.25 is translated as thought, when Christ said, take no thought for your life. So God doesn't, God says don't be so concerned with the food and the drink and the clothes and the things of this world be more concerned with the spiritual things. So what are we supposed to think on? Well, it continues on Philippians 4 in verse number seven, the Bible says, and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good rapport, if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things. Why do we have to fight to pay attention in church? I know I'm not that charismatic of a guy. I know I'm not that entertaining, and I don't ever want to be because we're here to learn the word of God, not to be entertained. There's a lot of preachers out there making that mistake, but anyways, why is it so hard to pay attention for 30 minutes to the preaching of the Word of God or to the Sunday school teacher teaching the Word of God or to your spouse or to your father teaching and leading devotions at home. Why is it so hard for our minds to just stay there? and not be wondering about what's going on at home, and not be wondering about what's going on tomorrow, and not be making the checklist, and not be running through everything else. And if we were to count up all the things that everyone here has thought about other than what's going on right now in the last 10 minutes, it would probably be a pretty long list. I'm just saying, our minds don't stop. And so often it's so hard to focus our minds on spiritual things. Part of it, part of it's just the fight that we're going to have until we go home to heaven. It's fighting this flesh and our mind is a part of it. But a lot of it is that we don't do what the Bible says is necessary to bring our minds to where they ought to be, to focus on the things we ought to focus on, to leave behind and leave away the things that we ought to leave behind. 1 Peter 1.13, the Bible says, Be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Girding up the loins is something that you do if you're getting ready to work, if you're getting ready to fight. You're gathering up the garment and securing it and getting it to where it's not going to move and get in your way. It's not going to be problematic. If you are swinging a sword and your clothes get in the way, that's a problem. Girding up the loins is tightening and concealing and bringing everything together so it's functional and ready. If we're to gird up the loins of our mind, we're not to have our mind just wandering all over the place. We're to have some control over our mind. In 2 Corinthians 10.5, the Bible says, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. That's one of the most difficult verses in all of the Bible to obey. Casting down imaginations. Anybody here daydream? All right. Anybody doing it right now? All right. At least you're honest. Casting down imaginations. You realize, why am I thinking about this? And you say, no, I'm gonna stop it right there. That would fix a whole lot of sin in our churches and in our nation, because most of the sins that we commit outwardly start right up here. They start as us imagining committing them. We don't just, oops, oh no, I accidentally committed adultery. That doesn't happen. You think about it, and you think about it, and you think about it, and you imagine it, and you imagine it, and you imagine it, and then all of a sudden, oh no, I fell. No, you dove in. because your mind was fully committed before your body ever followed suit. We're supposed to bring our thoughts into captivity to Christ. Romans 12, one and two, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service, and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Ephesians 4.23 also says, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. I believe it would transform our church, our nation's churches, if the people of God would realize and be honest with ourselves about just how carnal our minds are. Just how much our minds love to dwell on the things of the world and really don't love to dwell on the things of God. It's so simple, and like I said earlier, we know so much better than we do. We know what is right. We know what is best. We know what is godly. We know what the Bible says about it, but actually doing it is so hard. Why? Most of the time it's because our minds aren't on board with what we want to do. Our spirit is in it. We want to serve God. But our body is always gonna be against that, our flesh, and if we don't bring our mind around to control it and focus it towards the things of God, we're gonna always struggle every day just to even kind of meet the bare minimum to call ourselves a Christian. Think about what is a Christian, a Christ-like one. Okay, what is Christ-like? Now compare that to your last 24 hours. Compare it to my last 24 hours. How many people have I told about Jesus Christ? How many souls have I run into that I don't know where their eternity lies? Did I say a word to them about spiritual things? Or did we talk about the weather? Talk about sports, talk about politics. My mind, when I have a moment to myself, is my mind, Lord, how can we do better as a church? Lord, how can we improve this ministry? Lord, how can we support more missionaries? Lord, which missionary should I pray for today? Or is my mind, I wonder what to watch on TV? I wonder which series to binge next? Maybe it's not even things like that. Maybe it's, you know, important things like your job, keeping up your home, There's some things that aren't sinful and aren't wrong unless they consume your mind and leave no space for God. Boy, that's easy to do, isn't it? It's a lot to think about in this world, a lot that can take up our mind. And I don't know about you, but my mind, if we're going to compare our minds to a computer, You got different sizes of space available, storage space, right? They call them gigs, terabytes, gigabytes, whatever. I'm like one megabyte, like there's not much up there, not much space. Some of us, we're filling up so much with the things that maybe they're sinful, maybe they're not, but it's filling it up to where, all right, now I wanna focus on the things of God, and the pressure of all that full space is just forcing it out. You ever try to learn a verse after 18 years old? Did it come easier than when you were 12? No. There's more up there now. It's a little hard to add new information and retain it. But just because it takes more effort and it's harder, does it mean that we shouldn't do it? No. When's the last time you memorized a new verse? And then compare that to when's the last time I memorized a new movie line? It's funny how our minds are drawn to things of this world, but the spiritual things, we've got to tell our mind, no, you're going to focus right now. The other day I was here working and it was just one of those days. so many things were going on, and I had so many things on my to-do list, and the phone wouldn't stop, and so the iPhone now has these things called focuses, and I can make it to where only certain notifications will come through, and I have one that's called study, and the only notifications that will come through are from my wife. And I was like, you know what, I forgot about that, and I turned that on, and from that moment on, I wasn't bothered, and I could read my Bible for more than five minutes. So I don't know about you, but if you start reading your Bible, and you're four minutes into reading your Bible, and you find something, you're like, oh, I'm gonna go find this, and then the phone rings, are you gonna go back to it after that conversation, or are you gonna completely forget that you were even reading your Bible? I mean, our minds are so often our enemies. So this morning, I know it's a little bit different than a Sunday morning normally is, but this morning the thought is, all right, is my mind, I don't want you to think about anybody's mind but your own, is my mind more carnal or is it more spiritual? Is it more prone to the thoughts of this world or more prone to the thoughts of God? And if you are honest and you know that answer and you know it's not the one it should be, the question is, I now know, what am I gonna do about it? Am I gonna start reining in my thoughts and casting down my imaginations? Or am I going to start focusing my thoughts more on the things of God? Am I going to be proactive about being in my Bible and removing all distraction? Or am I gonna just keep going and let my mind wander away from the conviction I feel right now until I don't feel it anymore? We gotta get serious about our own spiritual welfare. Nowadays, everybody's like, you know, self-care, oh, self-care is so important. You can't work 40 hours a week, you gotta take care of yourself. We got a generation of wimps, I'm sorry. I'm not sorry, but I'm sorry for all those that aren't, but man, this is rough. My generation and down, it's like we forgot how to live, some of us. We don't wanna do that. We don't want to be like that, but for spiritually, boy, it would be nice if some people took their spiritual welfare a little more seriously than they do their physical welfare. The doctor tells you you've got this problem, and in order to fix it, you've got to do this, this, and this. You say, yes, sir, I'm going to do that, because I want to live. The preacher says, you've got this problem. In order to fix it, you've got to go to this verse, this verse, and this verse. I don't think that's necessary. Which one's more important, a physical or a spiritual? That answer tells you if you're carnally minded or not. All right, I think the point's been made this morning. I'll wrap it up. And we're gonna have a hymn of invitation today. And if Miss Emily and Brother Rob can come get started, get ready for that, we're gonna sing a hymn of invitation in just a moment. My Bible's closed. And I love you, church. I'm preaching this because it's what God laid on my heart. And I'm telling you, our church I believe we have a good church here. I believe God has blessed us and we have great unity here and we want to serve God. But boy, we could do so much more for God if as individuals and as families and as a church we say, you know what, I'm going to forget the carnal stuff and I'm going to be more spiritual. I'm gonna forget some of that worldly junk and spend less time in that and thinking about that, and I'm gonna start thinking more about the things of God. Not just on Sunday morning, not just on Wednesday night, but every single day, all day, I'm gonna be trying to be in my Bible more, I'm gonna be trying to pray more, and my thought life, I'm gonna put some reins on it and try to pull it back. Because wouldn't it be nice if it was easier for your mind to remember who are our missionaries? than it is to remember what's the starting lineup of my football team when I was 12. I mean, some of these things, we don't even know why they're up there, but they're up there. And then if I were to ask this morning, I mean, we support, praise God, we're blessed to support 43 different missionaries or ministries. Anybody here think if I called on you, you could aim all 43 of them? That's a big ask. But if for work we had to memorize 43 things, Would we not do it? Amen. Remember, I gave permission. We're okay to say amen in church. And I'm not immune to this. When I'm preaching, I look out and I see faces. And boy, it can be interesting sometimes. It's interesting this morning. But your pastor also, you know what I see and what every pastor sees when he's preaching the word of God and he's looking out? He sees who's not there. And he starts wondering why. And he sees who is there, but they're looking at their phone. Or who is there, but they're doing this. And we've gotta keep our minds focused on what's the message for those that are paying attention? We don't always do a good job of that. Nobody's immune. Your pastor's mind is a labyrinth of chaos. I need to learn from this message just as much as anybody else. I encourage you this morning, don't be offended. be encouraged that, hey, there's something I can do. I can bring my thoughts under control, and I can bring my thoughts under captivity to Christ, and I can think more on God and more on the things of God than I have been. So this morning we'll do it this way. Every head bowed, every eye closed. I don't know your thought life. I don't know your mind, but God does. With nobody looking around, I just want to pray for you. If you would say, Pastor, I need to renew my mind and refocus it on the things of God, would you pray for me? Would you just raise your hand this morning so I can be praying for you? Amen. That is a lot. A lot of people. Praise God. I'll certainly pray for you, but why not take some time this morning and ask God to help you? We're gonna sing a hymn of invitation. I encourage you, don't just sit in your seat. If you have a need and God is dealing with you this morning, come to the altar. Spend some time in prayer unashamed that you want God's help with fixing your mind on Him. We all need it. I encourage you to come as the piano begins to play, and Brother Rob, what song are we singing? Page 489, let's stand together and sing it out. I'll pray at the end, and the altar is open. What's holding you back, page 489. That's a lot of songs to choose from. 49. All to Jesus I surrender, all to Him I freely give. I will ever love and trust Him in His presence daily. I surrender all. I surrender all. All to thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all. All to Jesus I surrender. Holy at his feet I bow. Worldly pleasures all forsaken. Take me, Jesus, take me now. I surrender all. I surrender all. All to thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all. All to Jesus I surrender. Make me Savior, Holy Thine. Let me feel Thy love. I surrender all. All to thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all. All to thee, I give myself to thee. Fill me with thy love and power. Let thy blessings fall on me. I surrender all. I surrender all. All to thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all. Let's sing verse number two again. All to Jesus I surrender. Humbly at his feet I bow. Worldly pleasures all forsaken, tell me, Jesus, take me now. I surrender. Honestly, I surrender all. It's been good to be in church this morning. I hope and pray that we can walk away changed by the Word of God and let that change last and make an impact and effect on our lives as Christians. Let's go to the Lord in prayer and then we'll be back tonight for graduation service, celebrating. We've got a kindergartner, a high schooler, and a college student all this year that have been faithful to the church that we're gonna recognize this evening. And so please come if you're able. It'll be graduation service, still preaching, still singing, but we'll look forward to seeing you back if you're able. Lord, we thank you so much for your word. Thank you for our time in it this morning. Lord, help us. To be tender to your word, help us to be responsive in our lives, to consider our ways, Lord, before your word every day. Lord, help us to go forth and be obedient witnesses for you. Lord, help us to do our best to love you and serve you the way that you deserve. Lord, we thank you for your many blessings upon us. Thank you for your word. Thank you for this church and the people in it. Thank you for the opportunity we have in this community to make an impact for you, Lord, that you would allow us to serve you as a blessing. Lord, we thank you. Help us to have a grateful heart this afternoon. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.