Let me pray as we begin. Father, we thank you that you've enabled each of us to be here this morning. Thank you for a chance to sit, not just during Sunday school, but also during worship, and to realign our minds to yours. I pray that you'd enable us to do that in the topic that we're talking about today here in Sunday school. We pray in Jesus' name. Okay, so week 10 of our Faithfulness When The Heat Is On series, and today we're going to be talking about, this is sort of a big picture topic, is gaining and maintaining perspective. So, you know, here's the things I think most of you have been through these, you know, that we should expect persecution. We've talked about examples. biblical examples of responding to it. How do we respond to both individuals and governments that are persecuting us? What's God doing with persecution? Last week John talked about God's plan and keeping us firm to the end. Today I want to talk about perspective, and this is so, I think, critical, and when we look at the saints in scripture, what enabled them to carry through was having the perspective of what's really going on here, and sort of getting out from the details of what's before them, and looking at what is the big picture, and having that firmly in their minds as they did it. So let me ask you, how would you define perspective? Anybody? There? Okay, yeah, the way you look at something. In fact, that's even the literal sense when we say, yeah, I looked at it, then I went and got a different perspective. You know, if you're talking like from an art, you know, it's like I looked at it from a different angle, right? It's like the way that we look at something. Good. There's an example from my own life that I'll tell you about that I think helps to kind of explain kind of a good analogy of what we're talking about. I do not enjoy running. I never have liked running. Just to run just to run has never been something that I've liked. And I know a lot of people like it, right? I was actually secretly happy when the orthopedic surgeon after my second of three knee surgeries says, you should never run again. I was like, yes! But there was a time in my life when I had a coach pull me aside and said, hey, if you work really hard, you might be able to make the varsity basketball team at one point. And that summer, I liked running because there was a purpose for it. I knew that if I was in better shape than everybody, that could overcome other things. that I ran, I actually sort of enjoyed the running, not the running itself, but there was a point to it. There was a perspective on why I'm doing this that made all the difference than just, OK, I'm going to run in a big circle again, which is what it always usually felt like. And it hurts. It's like, I'm going to run in a circle, and it hurts. Like, why am I doing this? So you see how perspective changes the way that you're willing to put up with pain and difficulty because there's a bigger purpose. I think, at least for me, that's a helpful analogy to show the importance of perspective. I know that my perspective should be that even if I'm running in a big circle and it hurts, there's a good reason for it. It's hard for me to do that. So there's other ways that I can exercise that I do. Okay. So what I want to do is consider six perspectives. These are probably all things that have, we've talked about. I think there are things we've talked about at one time or another, and we're going to, I mean, we only have a few minutes here, so we don't have time to go into all of these, but when you look at these, these are a way of looking at us from a big picture perspective and looking at the world that I think is very important when we're talking about Christian persecution, and it's certainly important in many other, you know, parts of our life, right? When we go through dark providences and when we, you know, different things that can affect us, and we're focusing on persecution here, and you see them listed. What I'm going to do is for each one of these, there's sort of one scripture that is a key passage. I won't say the key passage because some of these have Actually, most of these have multiple scriptures, but sort of one scripture that says this pretty clearly, and then we'll discuss it briefly, and then there'll be a question that's common among all these is, how does this perspective help us in times of persecution? Okay, so let's start with our citizenship being in heaven. If you would, turn to Philippians 3, 18 through 21. And just keep your Bibles out. We're going to be turning to six different verses this morning. So Philippians 3, 18 through 21. And I'll go ahead and read just so that those who are online can hear. For many of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their God is their belly, and they glory in their shame with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And from it, we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. So particularly verse 20 there, but in contrast to those whose God is their belly, they said they're going to shame, their mind is set on earthly things, like they are focused on the things of this earth. It says, but our citizenship is in heaven. And those of you that have lived in an overseas environment, in other words, an environment that's a different country than where you maybe grew up in, there's a sense when you're living like that or you're visiting a country like that, it's like, this isn't really my home. My real citizenship is back wherever I was born and grew up. And there's a sense that as we go through life, we should have that feeling like, this isn't really my real home. My real home is ultimately in heaven. And it's not that we don't live here, right? We do, but it's not our true citizenship. So what things change when we realize our primary citizenship is in heaven and not here on earth? What are some examples of things that this will affect. Okay, long-term goals are more oriented towards eternal things, our citizenship in heaven, than the passing things of this world. Okay, good. What else? Okay, so minor frustration, stresses in the light of eternity sort of take on a different amount of stress and frustration. I won't say none, right, because they still are stressful. What else? We know that that's all part of the plan, and that takes some of the edge off of it, because the focus is on the library. Okay, so when we see things like earthly structures around us fall apart, or falling apart, then it takes some of the edge off because we realize, well this isn't our, sort of our foundation isn't here. The very first student small group we did this year, the topic of citizenship being in heaven came up in the sermon. So we were back in the room back here and we came up with, each table basically did this little exercise and brainstormed ideas. And we ended up with a whole whiteboard, and I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture of it, because it was just thing after thing after thing that's like, yeah, if our citizenship is really in heaven, and it was just like the things you were saying, it affects so many things about the way that we live, the way that we think, what's important to us. So that's good. So now the question is, how does this perspective help us when we are persecuted? So if we're encountering persecution, either personally or governmentally, how does remembering that our real citizenship is in heaven enable us to go through that in a more God-honoring way? Joel? Our oppressors have no power over us in an ultimate sense. OK, so our oppressors have no power over us in an ultimate sense, right? They can't take away our true citizenship. Even if we're dishonored here, we'll be honored in eternity. Okay, even if we're dishonored here, we'll be honored in eternity. The challenge here is these are all going to map together, so I think they're all related. Yeah, so having compassion on our persecutors, because we have an eternal home, and they don't, right? So they're in a more difficult situation. That actually gets into one of the next ones that we have. So, good. But I think this is one that is certainly way beyond just persecution. Our citizenship being in heaven, if you meditate on that and think through, if that's really true, what does that change in my life? That really affects a lot of what we invest our time and energy into, how we respond to things, those kinds of things. Okay, so perspective two is that being persecuted is actually a place of blessing. And this sounds absolutely crazy from one perspective, but let's look at Matthew 5, 10 through 12. So this is in the Sermon on the Mount, in the very first section in the Beatitudes. So Matthew 5, starting in verse 10, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. So here Jesus is saying you are blessed when you are being persecuted on his account, right? Not just persecuted because you're being a jerk or persecuted on account of being Christ. So now we think of the person doing the oppressing or the persecuting and the person who's persecuted, who's in the most blessed situation and why? You're talking about the right side of history, and what we're talking about is in the big picture, it's certainly the most blessed position. Now, it's a little bit of a trick question, because if you say at this moment, you know, who is sort of in the best position. At this instant, it's probably not the person being persecuted, right? There's short-term, intermediate-term difficulty, great difficulty, right? But in the big picture, right, in terms of what Jesus is thinking of, it says your reward is great in heaven. The reward is not on this earth, right? The reward is great in heaven. So again, in terms of being persecuted, you know, this is a difficult mindset to have, right? Because again, we have to recognize, you know, think about Christians that are being dragged off of their faith and killed, right? There's no sense that they look at that and say, wow, this is a great spot to be in, right? But there is some sense that in the big picture, this is a, you know, Jesus says, that you are blessed. There is a blessing that comes from that. But you can only see it when you really look at the big picture. Wesley? Even in the present picture, where you're under the persecution, there is a sense of blessing, as in, you know you're in the right spot. There's like a confirmation of that. Right. physical comfort in this world, you know, that there's a spiritual blessing in knowing that you are right with God in this situation. Yeah, yeah, Wesley made a good point. So that even when you're in that place, you know you're in the right spot. So there is a sense of spiritual blessing and recognizing this is right, even though it's very, very difficult and hard. As I just said, reading books like Paul's book, The Martyrs, and martyrs would say when people said about them that they counted it an honor to be worthy to be persecuted. Yeah, so what Terry was saying is that a lot of the martyrs that we have record of, especially the early Christian martyrs and probably those that are today, too, counted it as an honor to be worthy of sharing in the sufferings of Christ in that way. Right. And to be sort of for the name of Christ, to be doing that. And that's what Jesus is saying here is that there is there is an honor to that. So. So, yeah, that's kind of backing up the idea that even even here, there is a place of blessing. We don't want to minimize, it's not that, again, it doesn't take away the pain, but it's a different way to view it that makes that pain less intense. Okay, perspective three. Our trials in this life are small compared to the glory of eternal life. So here's a verse that I know this is one of Andy's favorite verses. that every time, it seems like it comes up often when I'm teaching or preaching, and we often talk about it afterwards, but 2 Corinthians 4, 16 through 18. So we do not lose heart, though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day, for this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. As we look not on the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen, But the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. So when you look at this verse, there's really actually two contrasts that are present. One is talking about in terms of what we experience here with the things we see, versus in heaven, in eternal life. So there's one contrast, which is the extent, or the amount of it. So Paul calls the trials on this earth, light. and really the blessings of heaven waiting, right? So he says, this light momentary affliction, right? So that's the light part. And then he talks about an eternal weight of glory, right? In other words, there's sort of like, it's light versus heavy. Now, the thing is, you know, things in this earth are not light. Like that by itself is a very, you know, almost harmful way of thinking about it, right? But it's only in comparison to glory that they seem light, right? And that's the only way that they seem light. There can be very, very heavy things, you know, on this earth. But when we have this perspective compared to heaven, they are light. Now that's difficult for us to get our minds around because, you know, this verse even points out, what do we see, right? We have what we see and what we're currently experiencing that's right before us. And that is sort of what the call here is to not just see that, but to look beyond that into the bigger picture. But there's also a contrast of time, of duration. So Paul talks about this as light and momentary afflictions. And by the way, when Paul is speaking of things, Paul did not have a carefree, just wonderful, your best life now kind of life. you know, great difficulties. He despaired to the point of death because of all these things. He had physical ailments, apparently. So, you know, this is not somebody who just sailed through life and had an amazing, you know, easygoing life. So he knew what it was to have afflictions. So momentary, this life, versus eternal. And again, all we know is this life, right? So our life seems fairly long, to some extent. I mean, the older and older you get, it seems years go by faster. But still, we live in this life, and it sort of seems like that's it. But when you look at this life, however many years it is, let's say you live 100 years. That's a long life. Well, what is 100 compared to eternity? A hundred divided by infinity is zero, actually. Right? And so compared to eternity, there's no way that this life can't be anything but short. So we can't see that unless we, by faith, recognize that what God has said is true. But that's another perspective thing, right? If we're focused on these years here only, We're gonna miss some of the things that are there. So how does this help us when we're persecuted? And again, I realize some of it's a little bit obvious, but go ahead and feel free to. There. Just a brief phrase. This too shall pass. Yeah. We'll be gone soon. Yeah, so the phrase, this too shall pass. And we can be glib about that and be kind of almost uncompassionate of somebody going through difficulties, but there is an absolute truth to that in the long term. This will eventually pass. God will make things right in the end. So this is an important perspective. I think this can be a very difficult thing to keep on our minds, and this is something we need to remind ourselves of, particularly when we have the struggle, when we have the difficulty right before us. And again, it comes between what we see versus what we can't see. What we see is difficult. What we can't see is where the glory is. I think that this perspective can also help us combat pride because in the situation where we are being persecuted, especially in the context of the last perspective, we can feel like we're doing this great thing and we're gonna, you know, it's almost like God would then owe us because, you know, we even died for the faith. But the glory that's coming in the eternal life far outweighs anything that we can do here, even to, you know, persecution death. So Aaron's point is that the glory of eternal life really outweighs, even if we are martyrs, right? We can sort of think, hey, I'm a great thing because I'm a martyr. And there is something that is honorable about that, right? But even that is outweighed by the glory of eternal life, the glory that is given to us, not because of what we've done, but because of Christ. Okay, so perspective four. And again, I'm sorry, these do relate, but they're not all exactly the same, right? So our treasure is in heaven. Matthew 6, 19 through 21, so later on in the Sermon on the Mount. I'll just go ahead and read this. You're probably familiar with it. Feel free to turn there. Matthew 6, 19 through 21. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. So Jesus is talking about the contrast between earthly treasures and heavenly treasures. And treasures on earth, oops, okay, so this is totally like I didn't finish this part. So you can see the slash, but yeah. You can think of a lot of earthly treasures, and these are all things that will not pass into eternity. So your bank accounts, your IRAs, your houses, these kinds of things, our jobs, our reputations, our roles, all these things are earthly treasures. They're not evil in and of themselves, they can be a blessing, but they are not you know, ultimate. Treasures in heaven, there's anything that we do to serve God or advance His kingdom. That's sort of my paraphrase, but basically things that, you know, treasures that continue to exist once this earth no longer exists, right? And so, you know, Jesus talks about both of them, right? And he's talking about where your treasure is there, where your heart be also. You know, we have a phrase in our house, you know, like things break down, a car breaks down, you know, so that it's like, ah, moths and rust, you know, kind of like, like these things in this world, this tend to break down. They don't, they don't last. Right. But, um, so we have treasure in heaven. So, so again, As we're persecuted, I won't even ask the question, but I think you can see that if our treasure, if what we value are things that are eternal, meaning, for example, when we encourage someone in the faith, or share the Gospel with somebody, that actually has eternal value, potentially. And it's, I don't think it's just, it's anything that sort of grows God's kingdom, that magnifies God in people's minds, and all those kinds of things. Those are all things that will last past this earth. And so then again, when we're being persecuted, we realize this persecution almost by definition, is temporal. It's part of this earth. And if anything from this persecution lasts, it's good things. It's sort of the reward of sharing in the sufferings of Christ. And in the big picture, those are the things that are good. Thoughts? Anything else on this one? Okay, five. blindness of unbelievers. This is something we talked about in one of the early sessions here, but from 1 Corinthians 1, 18 through 24, this is talking about how there's sort of two groups of people. There's what this verse calls those who are perishing, and those who are being saved. We'd say unbelievers and believers. And the way that they look at the message of the cross, at the gospel, is very, very different. So, 1 Corinthians 1.18, for the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. So there's a pretty big distinction. Folly, meaning just useless silliness, right? Or the power of God. Big, big difference. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart. Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom. It pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles. but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." So when we have people, you know, as I said, the message across is very, very different. And when we have people, depending on people's perspectives, right? And if we have people persecuting us, for being Christians, and they see that Christians are the problem, and that's what happens historically. There's a sense, I think, that we can have compassion on them, because they don't see the reality. They can't see the truth, and they don't want to see the truth. It is folly to those who are perishing, right? And so at some level, when we look at Stephen and Jesus, but Stephen, what did he say when he was being stoned? Remember? What's that? Did I hear something? Yeah, yeah. Didn't he say, forgive them for they know not what they do? Or is that only Jesus? Okay, so that was Jesus on the cross. I should look this up. But Stephen said something. Yeah, yeah, so basically saying, don't hold this against them, right? Yeah, lay not this into their charge and yeah, whatever the... So he was able to say, to recognize, these people are blind. They're not seeing the reality, even as he's being stoned by them. And that's pretty amazing that God was able to enable him to see things that way. But I think this does enable us to have compassion and to recognize, again, the longer you look, the longer in time frame you look, the more you realize that the people who seem to have the power now are actually in a very, very long-term, horrible, dangerous situation. And to have compassion on them, and that God would rescue them as well. Okay. So finally, perspective six is the permanence of Christ's kingdom. Daniel 7, 13 through 14. So this is something that certainly appears throughout all of scripture, the idea that Christ is an everlasting king, right? That he has a kingdom that will never fade away. This is a verse that I think is says that pretty succinctly. So Daniel 7, 13 and 14. I saw in the night visions and behold with the clouds of heaven, there came one like a son of man. And he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away. And his kingdom, one that shall not be destroyed. So when you think about this, in contrast, every earthly kingdom, this cannot be set up. So every earthly kingdom that has ever existed, or that currently exists, is not eternal, and will have an end someday. And so that is another perspective that I think is important, because as earthly kingdoms come and go, we realize that's just what earthly kingdoms do. It's very easy for us. We grow up in whatever situation we grow up in, whatever time period in history, and our assumption is, sort of implicitly, that things just will continue the way that they always have. is sort of what we expect growing up. I mean, we see it in nature, the sun rises, the sun sets, the seasons come, the seasons go, and it sort of just seems like everything should continue, but the reality is that's not true of kingdoms. And some people grow up and die in a kingdom that didn't change a whole lot, but a lot of people You know, the kingdom they grew up in is no longer the kingdom that they die in. It's changed. And that's what kingdoms do, right? And that is not what Christ's kingdom does, though. Christ's kingdom is not a kingdom that is sort of like rising and falling. It's a kingdom that is ever growing and is permanent and has stable roots, unlike any earthly kingdom. So how does this help us when we are persecuted? We are, it helps remind us that we were never made for this world. No matter which government we're under, we were never made for it. But to glorify God in that we were made for the heavenly kingdom. That gives us, that gives us the yearning in our hearts. It's never satisfying. Yeah, we weren't made for this world, right? We were made for this heavenly permanent kingdom. And that's why there's a sense that there's a dissatisfaction. you know, we see things aren't as they should be. It also drives us to want to bring other people into it, because they're in a kingdom that will not last. Yeah, so it drives us to want to bring other people into this permanent kingdom, because they're living for a kingdom that won't last. And, you know, Scripture says in talking about citizenship being in heaven, you know, Scripture still informs the exiles that are exiles in Babylon, go, you know, work for the good of your city, right? And I don't think Scripture, you know, these perspectives do not mean that we don't attempt to live life in the kingdom that God has placed us in, in a way that is good, right? We're not saying that, but there's a perspective that recognizes even as we seek the good of this kingdom, ultimately it's going to crumble. It's no longer going to be, right? And so we should seek its good, but not put our hope in it. Okay, now again, each one of these, I mean, these are again all things that I think are somewhat probably familiar if you've been around here for a while. And there's probably more related ones, they're somewhat interrelated. Each one of them we could go into a lot more detail on. But I think, as you look at these, this really does change how we live. If we live with these perspectives in the forefront of our mind, it really does change just about everything. Here's just a few things. It certainly changes what we invest our time and energy into. We're going to be more focused on building treasure in heaven than treasure on earth. What we value. You know, what we allow to make us upset, right? How much we're shaken by life's dark providences, including persecution is one of those. And, you know, I think just if you go back to the running example I had at the beginning, I still had to run, right? I still had to go in a circle with pain. That's my definition of running. But the edge was taken off, right? It had a difference, right? So again, what we're not saying is this removes pain, that this even makes the pain less painful. It does give us a perspective that enables us to honor God through the difficulties of this life and to recognize that these things are not everything, right? And to not overemphasize the things we can see above and beyond the things that we cannot see. things that we see are temporary, the things we cannot see are eternal. Comments? Questions? Thoughts? Back to the last point, I think to the extent that we identify with Christ's kingdom, which is permanent, eternal, we can also be joyful and confident in that kingdom continuing and thriving, even if our own personal life or situation is not turning out great for us, because to the extent that we identify with that, we can be confident that we can take that with us to the grave and know that what we're living for is going to be worth something. Yeah, OK. So what Anna was saying for those in the back are that even The more that we see that ultimately our real identity is with God's kingdom, then we can be confident even if things are crumbling around us, we can still be joyful that God's kingdom is continuing to advance. And our particular situation may not reflect that at all. We may not look at our situation and say, I'm advancing God's kingdom here, right now, other than just by trying to be faithful, but to not despair because we know the battle is won. Is that a good summary? It's a little bit like, you look historically at large wars, and there often is a point where it becomes clear who's going to win. Usually until the very end, because once it's crystal clear to everybody, then you usually stop fighting. But there's a point where the soldiers at least realize, okay, we're losing, we're going to lose. We're going to win. We haven't won yet, but we are going to win. And it may be that you lose your life at that stage, but the victory has been secured. And that's the situation we're in. The victory of God's kingdom has been absolutely secured. And there are still battles to be lost on this earth and difficulties, but the ultimate kingdom is secure. But let me ask a question. So it's really easy on a Sunday morning to go through these perspectives and say, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. I agree with that. How do we actually get these to be on the forefront of our mind enough that they affect us? Practically speaking, how do we live this way? If you could put yourself in the position of being this world, where the king there has sent you to be an ambassador for his kingdom, knowing that whatever happens to the place you're being sent, whatever happens to them and its world and everything else doesn't affect you, because you're going to be pulled back by that king because you're his ambassador. You're going to be pulled back to be there. And while you're here, you think about, you reflect on your life and you say, you know, we're really just wasting my time. What am I supposed to be doing? Oh, that's right. I was sent here to do something specific. And I'm either doing it or I'm not. So that affects your every day or maybe you don't think about it every day. And what do you value? Well, they have down here. They have dollar bills. Well, they don't have dollar bills. They're worthless to us because we're in a different world. And again, that king that sent the ambassador here, you know, there's been ambassadors that have been pulled from the country because they weren't doing what the king wanted them to do. You know, we experienced that when we were in Saudi Arabia. There was an ambassador fool because he wasn't doing what the U.S. government wanted him to do. So you know what? Our whole life can be viewed in that. You know, in other words, if you're a science fiction person, you can even think of, there's a, we're aliens. I think the Bible says that too. We're aliens. We come here from a different world. And we're here as aliens in a foreign place. We weren't sent here to wreak havoc. We were sent here to not only be a witness and have the power to live this life that He's given us to live, but also to bring others with us, to make other ambassadors. I think it wraps up all the whole story. All right, there's no way I'm going to summarize that completely, but Terry is bringing up probably another perspective, right? It's kind of like a matching perspective, is that we are ambassadors sent by our king to this world, right? And just like ambassadors get pulled back, the ambassador is not ultimately living like the real citizenship is from where they've been sent. And there's an analogy there. And I think, you know, in terms of the question I was asking, probably why I came up is to the extent that we live life thinking that way. So it's sort of like, can we remind ourselves of these truths day by day and remember as I'm going into work that I'm an ambassador for God here at work. or as I'm interacting at school, or I'm doing whatever, that's my fundamental identity and role. Yeah, I think that's good. And reminding ourselves of these things. That's the challenge. Here we are Sunday morning, it's all crystal clear. Monday morning, an hour after the alarm has gone off, is this what we're thinking? Probably to some extent, but probably not to the same level we are at this moment. And he kept saying you're from below I'm from above I've been sent here he kept saying that So he had to have that focus in order to be the perfect sacrifice. Yeah, Christ definitely had that, right? Or he continually said, you're from below, I'm from above. The Pharisees just loved it when he said that. They just, oh, yeah, I agree wholeheartedly. It makes me specious there. But he recognized, yeah, there's a big difference. He had a mission. He was sent. He knew that this was not his permanent home. OK, Andy. helped me over the last few years in having a firm belief in the sovereignty of God. Absolutely, what he's saying is having a firm belief in the sovereignty of God. And again, that's where our solidity comes, right? God is not one of many actors in this universe that are vying to be able to have control. That's not how this works. God is the one, ultimately, who is sovereign and therefore is trustworthy. All right, Scott, I see you're at your last one, last comment. Yeah, I think the question you're asking is a great one. And I think it's so difficult. If we can keep that internal perspective, how wonderful all of our lives would be if we could just see Christ in all situations and not be distracted by the world. In our small group, we were studying Philippians 4, 6, through 7. Be anxious for nothing. The Apostle Paul said, be anxious. So if we had that internal perspective, if we were coming to prayer and supplication at Thanksgiving, we would be anxious for nothing. I think it's prayer. I think it's memorizing the word. I think it's spending time in the word, spending time with others to be encouraged when you're not. I think there's so many of those sort of graces that are afforded. I think it's difficult to do it on our own. I think we do need to lean on each other, lean on the word, lean on the prayer, lean on God. I love that question, Jim, because that's a hard one. I think you hit the heart of it, which is really the only way we can remember this is to build habits into our life to continually remind ourselves of these things. We tend to be very forgetful people. We tend to go through life and not remember what we just thought about yesterday. but if we have all the things you mentioned, right? Things built into our life where we're reminded again and again, and we, oh, that's right, that's right, I am an ambassador, right? That's right, you know, all these things, so that's good. Okay, let's close in prayer. Father, we are grateful that you have given us the big picture perspective. Lord, you are the one that creates, has created the universe, you are the one that has created eternity that has created heaven, that is preparing a place for your people. And help us, Lord, to see these things, help us to build these things into our lives and to be able to remind ourselves of these things so that we could live according