Latest / Madison Church of Christ Bible Studies / God According to God | Mark Kelly | Week 09

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God According to God | Mark Kelly | Week 09 · Madison Church of Christ Bible Studies

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to God. If you're ever in the Madison area, we'd love for you to stop by and study the Bible with us on Sundays at 5pm or Wednesdays at 7pm if you have questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, you can find us online@madisonchurch.org be sure to subscribe to this podcast as well as our Sermons podcast. Madison Church of Christ Sermons. Thanks again. Thank you again for stopping by. I hope this study is a blessing to you.
• 0:38
  Speaker B: No, I am not Mike Baker. He is the more intelligent, better looking teacher. So you have me for tonight since he had to be out of town, but we'll be continuing in the subject that he has been teaching this quarter on God according to God. I also teach this class a little bit differently than he does. It's been a few years since I've taught it, but it's on the attributes of God. So I love this is one of the subjects that I really love. That's why I'm in this class. I like to hear someone else's perspective. The interesting thing is the subject he gave me for tonight I never included in my study. So it's not that you can't get to all of God in 13 weeks. Okay. It's just the way it is. So this is cool. I got to do something that I haven't been able to do in my other classes anyway. So first thing I want to do is just remind you about our theme for this year and that is home. And wanted to encourage you now that we've already had our first hospitality opportunity and fellowship opportunity. Our next fellowship opportunity is coming up in May, so be thinking about that. And this is the opportunity to have someone in that you've never had in your home before, that's from the church family here, and spend an evening together, have some food, play some games, just talk, whatever. But have someone in your home that week and if it turns out you're busy that week, that's fine. Do it a little before, a little after, it doesn't really matter. We just kind of targeted that particular week and then in June, another opportunity to do a hospitality event where you'll invite someone in that you've never had at your home before that is not a member of the church and so give them an opportunity to get to know you. Maybe you can talk about the church with them and God's good news about Jesus and that. So be thinking about those dates as they come up here. Be here before you know it. So to get us started in our class tonight, how many of you have never seen the movie Inside Out? If you've never seen the movie Inside out, okay, we got a couple of people never seen it. All right, so movie about emotions and it is an animated movie. Now, Mike, last week he showed a trailer of an R rated movie. Well, being an elder, I figured I better tone it down. So mine's pg, not, not R. But I want to show this first. And I'm afraid I'm going to have to skip through a commercial here. But we'll see. Sometimes they pop up and sometimes they don't. We'll see what happens here.
• 3:05
  Speaker C: Ever wonder why you feel the way you do? We'll get to know your emotions when things go wrong. Anger is there. This is anger. He will make sure the world knows anger is in control. What you really need to watch out for is when he's out of control. Get to know all your emotions with Disney Pizza's Inside out. Rated Peachy.
• 3:36
  Speaker B: 2013 or 15, I think it is. That movie came out and I guess the. The part two version of that came out here just recently. But if you've never seen that movie, it is really, really good about emotions as it goes through different emotions that are running through a child's head. But obviously the subject for tonight is going to be on anger. And as that's the character in the movie, he's a lot of fun to watch. When something happens that makes you angry, what do you do to hold back that explosion? When something happens that makes you angry, what do you do to. To hold back that explosion of anger? Walk away. Deep breaths. Yeah, some people say just hold your breath, you know, count to 10, or just something like that. Just allow yourself to settle down before you respond. How long can an average person hold their breath? Do you have any idea? 45 seconds. Okay, 45 seconds. That sounds. That sounds reasonable. It's 30 to 90 seconds is the average. You know, I'm probably more on the 32nd side, but there's a man or a magician by the name of David Blaine. I don't know if you saw this event back in 2008, but he's underwater in this sphere and I think this was on the Oprah Winfrey show. And he held his breath for 17 minutes and 4 seconds. Now they said it was oxygen assisted, which I think means I didn't read it enough, but I think it meant he inhaled some pure oxygen and then he had to hold his breath from that point forward. And he did it for 17 minutes and 4 seconds. But in 2021, his record was defeated or beaten by Budomar Sobot from Croatia. And his record is, as you can see it on the clock there, 24 minutes and 37 seconds. Holding your breath for that long, Well, I hope none of us find ourselves in a situation we are so mad we have to hold our breath for 24 seconds or 24 minutes, because that's a very, very difficult thing to do as you can. I couldn't even comprehend it until I started reading about it. Most of us will probably stop holding our breath after a maximum of 90 seconds. Proverbs 16:32 says, Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. So in this verse, we read that a person who doesn't have a quick temper is better than the mighty person or the powerful person or the strong person. In other words, restraint is better than forceful action. Now, in. In Hebrew, the word anger is based on the word af. It's pronounced af, but it's ap is the spelling in Greek. And as Strong's word ho639, Mike likes to throw those things out there. So if you're keeping track of those, you've got it. Now, HO6 39 is AF, and it has the meaning of anger. It also has an interesting meaning that it has to do with the nostrils and breathing. In Genesis 2, Seven says, then the Lord formed the man out of dust from the ground and breathed into the nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. So God breathed life into Adam through his nostrils, which is the same word. And it also is used to describe anger. So you can think about the fact that if you're angry, your nostrils flare. Maybe that's the connection. Not quite sure where the connection is there, but the same word for nostril and anger is the same word in Hebrew. The verse in Proverbs that we read, Proverbs 16:32 calls to mind, you know, a long, slow breath or a holding of the breath and a pause before we respond to something that's happened. You can. You've seen people. People you know, take a deep breath to calm themselves down. And you've probably seen people as well, count to 10 and those types of things before responding. So got some questions. Anybody here know why the Hebrew language relates nostrils and anger together, I don't know either. I was hoping one of y'all would know, so. But anyway, again, just coming out of the word study, that's. That's what it means. There are two different meanings for it. All right, what about this question? What bodily metaphors and images do we use to talk about anger? What's the child doing? Yeah, okay, got the arms, got the body language of the arm. She's got a scowl on her face. You can tell she's angry. You can tell she's not happy. Okay, that is not a happy face. We have red in the face. That's another body language thing we see from people who are angry. Shaking people will be shaking. That's another thing we see out of them. And another question is, what does it take? Or why does it take more strength to restrain anger than to display it? Anger is an emotion, and so to not respond to that, you're having to suppress that natural emotion. It's a God given emotion. There is nothing wrong with feeling anger. There are reasons why we should feel anger under certain situations. It's how we respond to the anger that is either good or bad. But it does take some effort and some strength to restrain from responding in an improper way when we are angry. A couple of verses out of Proverbs we're going to throw up here. But both out of chapter 14. One is verse 17, the other is verse 29. Verse 17 says, A man of quick temper acts foolishly and a man of evil devices is hated. And verse 29 says, whoever is slow to anger hate has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly. So these two verses are related in an interesting way. I mean, if you look at the way they're written, they're both talking about one uses the word temper, the other uses the word anger, and then it ends up being the same Hebrew word aph again is used in both of these as it's talking about your temper or being angry. So in verse 17, the two phrases in verse 17, the one on the left, are set in parallels. The second phrase is just another way of saying the first. So a quick tempered person is equal to a person who devises evil schemes. Quick tempered person is equal to one who devises evil schemes. And doing foolish things will make you a hated person according to this verse. So some questions on this. Why would being quick tempered lead to devising evil schemes? Or how can being quick tempered lead to devising evil schemes? Think about how to get even if you're angry. Angry because somebody did something to you that you, you perceive as wrong. Revenge. Yeah, revenge, exactly.
• 11:37
  Speaker D: That comes. That brings a common phrase to mind that what is it? Revenge is a dish best served cold. You know, getting. Getting back at somebody over. Over a long period of time. I mean, that seems to be exactly what he's talking about there.
• 11:57
  Speaker B: Okay, good, good. Next question is why would doing foolish things make a person hated? Verse 17 says a man of evil devices is hated. So why would doing foolish things make a person hated. Okay. Become noted as unreliable. Okay. Yeah. Or the potential for it to escalate. Is there. Yeah. Good. Did someone start to say something over here, sort of say, imposing on my time? Yeah. And then what then is the caution against being quick tempered? Ah, good. Consequences. We always need to be reminded. All of our actions have consequences. Good actions, bad actions, and the ones that occur from us. Being quick to respond to our anger can give us consequences that are not good. Any others on that? All right, so back to our verses. The one on the right, verse 29. So it's the opposite of the verse above or verse 17. Plus there's a contrast. So here, patient people have understanding. It says, patient people have understanding, but quick tempered people display folly. So how does having patience lead us to be more understanding? The very first thing that we see or hear or think might not be the right thing.
• 13:49
  Speaker E: I'm thinking about self control when it comes to this. Self control is all about your interactions with other people. When you take other people into consideration, you are actually taking the opportunity to think about what other people are feeling or thinking or whatever. You're going outside of yourself. So you're actually allowing yourself to learn, allowing yourself to interact with the environment that's around. Because you're in self regiment.
• 14:20
  Speaker B: Good. You know, it's hard to learn without providing time to gain the knowledge. So when you are patient, when you do slow down in the moment of anger, take it in, listen, look, ask before responding, understand really what's going on in the situation. And then talk about a situation in which not having all the facts, in other words, not having an understanding of the situation led you or someone you know to get angry too quickly. Got a real life story there usually.
• 15:00
  Speaker F: Involves barging in to break up, you know, kids yelling and screaming, not fully assessing what's going on. There's multiple examples of that.
• 15:11
  Speaker B: Jeffrey's back there laughing. I said, you don't have any kids screaming at your house, do you, Jeffrey?
• 15:18
  Speaker D: Well, one, you know, again with involving kids. But when my kids ask to do something, but I already have something else in mind that they're going to enjoy. But I tell them, no, you know, we're not, we're not doing that one thing that you want. Then they get upset before I can even tell them, you know, the, the better thing that I have in store for them.
• 15:42
  Speaker B: Right. Yeah. Us adults can be the same way sometimes. Yep. We're telling our kids, but nobody's going to tell themselves. That's okay. I get that. Well, we get angry sometimes simply because we don't have all the facts. We hear something, we read something, we get angry about it, but we don't have all the information that we need. So that's why it's good to just slow down and learn the situation. Our, our current political climate right now is just a good example of that. And it's, it's on both sides and, and I'm not, I don't want to get any details on anything that's being talked about now and in the media and everything. But you see, it, it's just lots of misinformation, lots of misunderstanding, and again, it's both sides and it just, it's a good example of how we should not be. Sometimes when we're trying to get information out or we hear about something that gets our attention and we don't, we don't like what we hear or what we see.
• 16:49
  Speaker D: That's like, especially on social media, people see a news story and they just see the, the headlines and they share it along with, you know, whatever their venting of anger is and, you know, distaste for the other side. But then if you actually click through and read the story, it doesn't really have that much to do with what the actual headline was or, you know, or, you know, something like that. It's not as upsetting if you actually read the whole story rather than just reposting the headline and venting frustration about it.
• 17:24
  Speaker B: Right. Gaining the knowledge of the whole story is important. Do that before we respond.
• 17:30
  Speaker G: I even seen in workplace where you were told a situation and I'm, I deal a lot with HR kind of situation, and you get told part of the story as, as we're talking about, and it's easy to get angry or get upset with an employee and you don't have all the facts. And once you find out all of the facts in both sides of the story, you can make a much better assessment of what needs to happen instead of quickly losing, you know, the cool and it's happened in, you know, many situations. And jump on it and point to something that they actually didn't do or didn't. You know, the way that it was portrayed, didn't. The actions were not there and they might have done exactly the right thing, needed to be patted on the back. Instead they were getting accused falsely. I think again slowing down during the whole thing and making assessments is far better than us having to take back words look foolish.
• 18:54
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 18:55
  Speaker H: Going on the taking back words. I think it's very fitting. Obviously it's in proverbs with a lot of speak talks about what is wise, what is unwise. Humility comes up so much if you act too quickly. I teach second grade today. I started to get on to an eight year old because they were an eight year old that typically misbehaved. Someone said they did something, I believed it because that's what typically happens. It was not the full story of what happened. So then I had to apologize to 22 other 8 year olds for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. So then being able to say I did get this wrong and correct it when just being patient and slowing down would have led to less.
• 19:39
  Speaker B: Yep, yep. And what about the situation where we hear something happens between two people and this one comes to you and says this happened and you go that's terrible, Terrible. Why did that happen? What have you gotten? One side of the story. So we need to stop. Don't get mad, take time, get the other side of the story. That's one of the things we've learned in the eldership is you always need to get both sides of the story before you try to handle a situation that involves more than one person. But again, that's all part of this. Take time and learn and get some knowledge about what's going on in the situation. The bottom line is we say and we do things we regret because we're acting out of anger, because we didn't process the information or get the information we needed to act in the proper manner. Right now we are studying the book of Galatians on our Sunday night Bible classes. All of our connect groups are and I don't know if your connect group has gotten to the fruits of the Spirit yet or not. Our class is doing that this coming Sunday night. But I wanted to read this part of Galatians as part of our class tonight. Galatians 5, starting in verse 19 says, now the works of the flesh are evident. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. Against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. So in this letter, Paul contrasts the acts of the flesh, that list of bad things, with the fruit of the Spirit, that list of good things. And the virtue of patience is listed in verse 22 of that passage. So some questions around patience and how it relates to our anger. How does showing patience demonstrate that a person is led by the Spirit, which is what we should be. We should be led by the Spirit as Christians. So how does patience demonstrate that? How about being patient and getting the information and understanding the whole story shows you want what's best for that person or those people involved versus you just turning around and getting angry at something. That's the way it can demonstrate that we're led by the Spirit, which, if any, of the acts of the flesh, that list of bad things in Galatians 5 are opposites of patience. And I'll throw the list up there. Which one of those looked to be the opposite of patience? Fits of anger. Yeah, you look at that and you can see a lot of connection between these and patience. Or lack of patience.
• 23:16
  Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, you could say the sexual sins that are listed there shows a lack of patience for God's time and God's will in your life. And, you know, maybe like drunkenness, you know, you're trying to drink away some memory or something like that, rather than patiently dealing with it. I mean, several of these, you could say are, if not exactly the opposite, you know, certainly opposed to patients.
• 23:50
  Speaker B: Yeah. Talking about the drinking thing, usually people are trying to medicate a problem or an issue or something that's happened, an event in their life. And the way to do that without drinking, you know, you can see a professional counselor, my wife is one, so she has lots of things that she does, and Karen and Darren, our other two counselors, that they provide tools to put in your toolkit, so to speak, to help you deal with those types of things and to develop the patients that you need to deal with the problem that's going on in your life versus medicating it with drugs. Or alcohol, that sort of thing. All right. Can we say that fits of rage are the most direct opposite of patience? That's the first one that was mentioned. And that jealousy and discord, those are kind of like the opposite emotions and actions. That seems like the case to me. So if we are not allowing the Spirit which is given to us after baptism, we have the Spirit of Christ. If we're not allowing the Spirit to influence our restraint of anger, what should we say about the Spirit's work in our lives? Going to James 1, starting in verse 19, it says, know this, my beloved brothers. Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls. So James is instructing his readers here to be quick to listen, quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to become angry. Why is that? Why are these his instructions? They're God's instructions. But why is he bringing them out?
• 26:05
  Speaker G: Because we tend to do the exact opposite. We might hear, but we sure have to put our two cents in right away, instead of taking some time and being thoughtful about what we. What comes out of our mouths and being thoughtful before we ever let anger even enter the picture. And those are not easy things to do, right?
• 26:39
  Speaker B: Right. Does anger produce righteousness? It does not. It does not. Again, we can feel anger, but it's that outward showing of anger is where we can do the opposite of what we should be doing, which is producing righteousness. So why does he say slow to speak? You know, it seemed to me we should be quick to speak, you know, defuse the situation, jump in there and try to cut off whatever's going on. Why should we be slow to speak?
• 27:16
  Speaker I: I think just like she was saying, when you're quick to speak, you're not really listening to the person talking. You're trying to think about what you're, excuse me, saying next. So, so slow that down and truly listen. Instead of just merely hearing, listen to that person and then speak.
• 27:40
  Speaker G: I can give an example.
• 27:42
  Speaker B: Okay.
• 27:44
  Speaker G: Yesterday my daughter was dealing with a manager in store. And this manager, and we were. Not only was the manager there, but it was the. Also there was an employee. And there has been dissension between the manager and the employee. So she was trying to solve a problem. So listening to both sides of the situation, trying to assess what, you know, what's really the picture, what's going on. And as the employee was speaking. The manager, instead of listening to the whole picture, wanted to interrupt and then give what she thought needed to be said in order to defend the situation. The employee was not in the riot at that particular moment, but it didn't need to be defending. It just needed to be listened to so then they could make other assessments and suggestions so that this could be a better way. So after the meeting was over, my daughter was able to sit down with the manager and say, you don't need to comment. Let them speak. Let them totally hear them out what they have to say. Then we put thoughtful in how you come back to that person, because it will be that much better received if you will take that time, do that. So that's just a. An example. I feel like that we need to take more time in that kind of situation with our family members.
• 29:32
  Speaker B: If I have found it out in. I have found out in my household, in conversing with Becky, that if I am not slow to speak, I will not have thought through what it was I was going to say and I will regret what I just let out of my mouth. Not that it's bad, it's just that wasn't the best way to say it or something like that. So again, slow to speak gives you time to collect those thoughts and put that message together and assess the situation and say the right thing at the right time. Also, James, he points out that anger. He's calling anger moral filth and evil, basically in these words here. And normally we think of filthiness and rampant wickedness as sexual sins and those types of things. But he's talking about anger here is one of the things he's. He's bringing out. So anger can be just as bad.
• 30:33
  Speaker F: Matthew 5 or Matthew 7, I can't remember. But what proceeds out of the mouth, out of the mouth comes from the heart. Corollary here, right? If your heart's not in the right place, might have that filthiness and wickedness inside that can produce.
• 30:53
  Speaker B: Yep. All right, some more questions on this. In what settings and situations are we probably most prone to getting angry quickly?
• 31:02
  Speaker E: What was that with those we love the most?
• 31:04
  Speaker B: Oh, good. Yeah, you're right. And, and why is that? Why do we get angry quickly with those we love the most? I didn't ask it because I knew the answer. I was just asking.
• 31:18
  Speaker D: I mean, I think there are several factors involved with that. First of all, you know, like, like she said that, you know, if you're only around somebody for a short period, period of time, then it's a lot easier to stay on your best behavior for a little bit. But, you know, your. Your family, your friends that are around all the time, you know, it's. It's a lot harder to stay on your best behavior all the time. And. And so you're more likely to let that slip when you're around them. You also feel more comfortable, and so you have, you know, fewer inhibitions around your. Your. Your loved ones. And I think also sometimes we can feel like, you know, we feel like they're committed to me, so it doesn't matter as much what I say to them. You know, I don't have to be as careful. And of course, it shouldn't necessarily be that way. But, you know, sometimes. Sometimes it can feel like. Like you can take a little bit of advantage of that commitment that they have towards you to vent a little bit.
• 32:29
  Speaker B: Right. All right. And then there we go. In these settings, whether it's with family, people we love the most, or whatever the setting is, what words or phrases or discussion tactics often lead to premature anger? You ever told someone to calm down and it did the opposite effect? There's a lot of things we say that escalate things. So again, think about how those words will be received before you let them out of your mouth. Anybody have any special techniques that you use that help you delay an outward expression of your anger? Run away. Okay. A lot of the same stuff we were talking about at the beginning.
• 33:16
  Speaker I: I know in stressful situations, and I too, have worked in HR before I retired, just the different things would come up. I would recite to myself Psalm 29:11. The Lord gives strength to his people. The Lord blesses his people with peace. And Lord, I need strength and peace.
• 33:36
  Speaker H: Right now.
• 33:37
  Speaker I: You just feel that way. And that has really been my go to verse in almost any situation. You know, whether it's just stressful, whether, you know, I feel angry about something, or whatever kind of difficult time.
• 33:50
  Speaker B: You're not talking about Mike. Right. Okay. All right, good. I appreciate that. So usually in a class, I go through the biblical lesson and then cover the application. Well, tonight I flipped that. So we've gone through the application part, and now we're going to go back to the biblical part. We are slow to anger, or should be. We should be slow to anger because we follow a God who was and is slow to anger. As we're studying the attributes of God in Mike's class this quarter, this is the one he wants us to focus on tonight, is that God is slow to anger in the verse That, I guess this is his main verse. It states it in there. Exodus 34, 6. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord. The Lord a God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Now the English Standard Version says slow to anger. What are some other translations out there? How do they word that? Anybody happen to have a different one or you remember one? Niv is the same. Yes. The King James Version and the new King James Version, I believe they both say long suffering. We've probably heard that before, that God is long suffering. And most of them that I looked at say slow to anger. But there's long suffering in the King James Version and then the contemporary English version. Contemporary English Version says God is very patient, very patient, which is what we were saying we needed to show patience. What would cause God to be impatient or angry with us? One word. It's a little short one. Sin. Sin. What is sin? This is basic stuff here. What is sin? Yeah, it's not doing what God said do. That is sin. Breaking God's command, God's law. That is sin. And so when we sin, that would be something that could cause God to be impatient or angry with us. Second Peter 3. 9 says, the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. What does this verse say about God's anger and about our sin?
• 36:36
  Speaker E: Justified. His anger is justified.
• 36:40
  Speaker B: Okay, sure, it will come.
• 36:44
  Speaker E: But we are given time to come back to him in repentance.
• 36:50
  Speaker B: But it is sure to come.
• 36:53
  Speaker J: I think it's important to remember that. I think it's from that verse. Obviously God's not out to get us. It's. He doesn't want to punish us. He wants us to have every opportunity to come to him. And he wants to remember our sins no more. You know, it's not. He doesn't want to keep it in a ledger or anything like that.
• 37:17
  Speaker B: Absolutely. You know, God is God. So if he wanted to zap us the instant we committed our first sin, he could do that. He is God, but he doesn't do that. It's because he's patient. He's long suffering. He's slow to anger, so he doesn't do that. 1 Peter 2:21 for to this you have been called because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin. Neither was deceit found in his mouth when he was reviled. He did not revile. In return, when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. Some of this scripture quotes From Isaiah, chapter 53, prophecy about Jesus Christ. When did we see Jesus angry? Okay, in the temple. We're turning over the tables of the money changers. Which gospel is that in? Matthew and Mark and Luke. All four gospels talk about this one. They're all in there. Does Jesus fly off a handle when he goes into the temple? Now, this was most likely preplanned. He was expecting to find this. And I've done a whole lesson which obviously we don't have time for tonight on that event, so we'll have to hold that back for later. But that's one of the examples we have of Jesus and his anger. Another one is in Mark or it's recorded in Mark 3:1:5, where Jesus was rebuking the Pharisees. He was healing the man on the Sabbath day. And he was angry because they were trying to catch him doing something illegal. And so it talks about Jesus anger there. Again, he wasn't outwardly angry, but he did feel the emotion. So if God does not fly off the handle, then is that acceptable for us to do that? No, it's not. So I tend to believe this kind of summarizes what some people were saying just a minute ago, that God being slow to anger is just a different way of saying he gives us a lifetime to repent and to turn to him. Let's close with a prayer and then we'll dismiss our good Father, we're grateful for every blessing you give us in life. We thank you for the time tonight to be together and to study your Word. And Father, we know we do things that anger your. We know that we are not perfect. But we are so thankful, Father, for the forgiveness that you have offered through your son, Jesus that provides a punishment for our sin, but it doesn't come to us. It was through your son. And we're so grateful for that gift, for that salvation. And we pray you'll help us to live our lives doing good things for others and that others may see your love through us. And we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. All right, Mike will pick back up next week. He was supposed to send me homework. He did not, so no homework for this week.