The podcast explores the profound concept of "more of Him and less of me," emphasizing the importance of surrendering personal desires to embrace a greater purpose aligned with God's will. The hosts engage in a lively discussion about the challenges of enacting this principle in everyday life, particularly in a culture that often prioritizes individualism and self-centeredness. They highlight the necessity of humility, prayer, and reflection in cultivating a heart that seeks to serve others rather than oneself. Personal anecdotes and biblical examples, such as the stories of Joseph and Daniel, serve to illustrate how faith can guide individuals through life's complexities and injustices. Ultimately, the conversation encourages listeners to adopt a mindset focused on God's greater plan, fostering a community of support and understanding in their spiritual journeys.

Takeaways:

• The concept of 'more of him and less of me' emphasizes humility and surrender to God.
• In moments of frustration, it’s essential to respond with love rather than anger.
• Practicing patience involves recognizing our limitations and seeking God for guidance.
• Prayerful discipline is necessary to cultivate a heart that reflects Christ's compassion.
• We often overlook the importance of understanding others' backgrounds in our judgments.
• Daily personal inventory can help us identify areas where we need to prioritize God more.

What's going on, everybody?

What's up, everybody?

How's it going?

I'm Derek.

I'm Matt.

I'm Kevin.

I'm hydrating.

Hail Hydra.

Oh, no, this is not hydrating.

Oh, you could be the villain.

Hydrate.

Hail Hydrate.

No, I need you, everybody, to hydrate.

Carleen's on the side.

That's another trigger word for me is hydrated.

I'm all for hydrating, but, like, that whole hashtag hydrate killed me.

I'm all for drinking water when you're thirsty.

What?

Well, there's that, too.

Okay, well, I mean, it makes sense, right?

Like, I don't see a purpose in drowning yourself in water.

But today.

That's not the topic of today.

What is the topic for today?

I can't remember.

No, I'm just kidding.

It comes straight out of the mouth of John, actually.

Written by John the Baptist.

Probably right out of the mouth.

John the Baptist, more or less.

So.

Wow.

It was John the Baptist in the book of the.

Yeah, but we're.

It's John 3:30.

It is John 3:30.

John the apostle wrote it.

John the Baptist said it.

Isn't that crazy?

And we are going to paraphrase it right now by saying more of him and less of me.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Good topic.

It is.

Buckle up.

It's about to get real.

Welcome to the truth response.

All right.

Kevin, would you pray for us today?

Absolutely, Lord.

Father, we are humbled to come before you and we are thankful in your greatness and your wisdom.

You have given us the walk that we're on.

And we hope to share some thoughts today that will bless other people that are in the listening world.

Lord, I ask that you keep our topic to your will and that you are patient with us and show your compassion as we seek more of you and less of us as we show the world your light in everything we do.

I thank you, Lord, for all the blessings.

And I pray this in Jesus holy name, amen.

Amen.

Amen.

So, I mean, the concept that we're going to talk about today is.

I mean, it's super simple.

It is a very simple concept.

But enacting it is not quite as easy as it is simple to understand.

Yeah, okay.

Well, you say it's simple.

It is.

Okay.

What is simple about it?

What is simple about it?

Just the overall context.

I mean, it's easy to make a statement.

Him increasing in our lives and our wants, needs and desires becoming less as he transforms us.

That's pretty simple.

It's simple on paper.

No, I'm saying, like it's simple in concept.

Sure.

I'm not saying it's an easy simple.

In conflict, absence of conflict.

It is easy.

It's sort of like freedom of speech.

I did not say it when I said simple.

There's a reason why I use the word simple because it's not easy.

But I don't think it's a simple concept for everybody to understand because the tenets of the concept require surrender.

It requires stop looking at you when you're hurt feelings or stop looking at you when you're anxiety ridden or angry or frustrated.

It's not about you.

And that is the most difficult thing for our generation of Facebook narcissism to grab at all.

So I don't think it's as simple as you may think it is.

I don't know.

I'm thinking that it's simple.

It's just really hard.

I mean, it's really hard to jump on board with it, to agree with it, even as simple as a thought process, right?

Like it's.

Philosophically, it doesn't take much to understand.

Okay, this is something you know well.

But I'm all over this topic.

Let's do it.

But here's where it starts.

One of the biggest questions that come at Christians by other people is why, if God is good, does he allow bad things to happen to good people?

And on that concept, on that threshold immediately comes down to this topic.

Because in our infinite, infinitesimal minuscule understanding of God and good, his good, not ours, is where this topic goes off the rail immediately.

Because we evaluate good as something happened to me that I liked, something didn't.

It's bad.

And it's not about that.

So if you consider you made me angry, well, you're already off this.

It's already not about God.

Well, yeah.

Our justice system is built on what we can experience.

We have it through the perception of our world and our reality and our lives.

So the idea that there could be something greater than.

I mean, and God even says his thoughts are higher than our thoughts and his ways are higher than our ways.

But which sounds also easy in concept, right?

And harder in application.

But the thing is that we can't help but see it through our very biased point of view.

We see life the way we see it.

And you know, as much as we try to incorporate godly thoughts, desires, righteousness and peacefulness and all the good things that we're trying to incorporate into our lives, they're still tainted and altered by the fact that we're living this Life now and everything that we experience changes that.

And it is a factor and a variable.

Right.

But in order to enact it, then it's strictly discipline, you know?

But I'm stuck on what you're saying.

What you're saying.

It's simple.

Because the way I used to look at it is it's so easy to be bad.

It is so easy, so simple, so easy to be bad.

It is hard as crap to be good.

Oh, yeah.

You know what I'm saying?

And it's a hard thing to have to swallow that you have to realize that that's when you see everything coming at you that you think is bad, but it really isn't.

It's only the things that are happening are things that are meant for you to grow on.

So it's not really bad.

It's just things to enlighten you, basically.

So when you look at being more of him and less of you, it is a surrender.

It is a sacrifice.

Your own will, your own want for a will of something, someone, God, the deity that you don't understand.

Yep, exactly.

Surrender is actually one of the.

I had a couple points written down about it, and that is one of the big ones.

And, you know, it's important because, I mean, our ambitions, we tend to put above God's right.

And so there is.

It's kind of a sacrifice of living in a worldly way versus living in a godly way.

The way to live in a godly way is to live by his will.

He makes the rules.

He's the Lord of our lives.

He calls the shots.

The earthly way is to.

Or the worldly way is you're your own God, you're in control, you make the rules.

And they're in conflict all the time, always.

So you have to surrender one to get the other.

And the funny thing is that most people surrender God.

Yes.

And they rationalize why?

And they choose their will.

They rationalize it, they justify it, because it's what seems right to them.

Because once again, they're going through their limited perception of what reality really is, where it should be the other way around, where we're giving up ourselves for Him.

What most people don't understand about that, I think, is that they think they're losing out.

They think that what they're gaining isn't enough.

Because that's the only way that you wouldn't make the compromise or you wouldn't make the decision to surrender your wills for God's will is you think you're losing out on something, whereas God's actually promising a more bountiful and beautiful life.

Not even, not just mainly more in eternity that we want to make sure that we're locked into.

But you know, if you have God in your corner versus not, you know, I'd rather have God in my corner.

But we tend to forget that his blessing, his protection, his provision comes with his will.

Right.

But in the heat of battle we're worried about regaining the power that we have presumed we have lost.

And when you add to that surrender, it gives you that emotional reaction that would be otherwise negative.

When you look at the traffic jam and it makes you angry or frustrated, you are right there surrendering God for your own devices.

If you are looking at it from a prism of God and I'm not saying in an absolute way, it literally you're praising God for the fact that whatever is causing this wreck or work zone or whatever may be keeping you from further harm.

I agree.

And the ability for us to do that is strictly prayerful discipline and chasing God with a fervor that is beyond anything that we have here.

Yeah.

Now I think the, I think that that is true when it comes to our reaction to things.

I don't think that frustration in innately is that.

I don't think that it's like a rejection of God's values or ways in place of our own.

I mean God created frustration, God created anger.

God created all of these things and there is a good value to them.

It's how we act and react within those things that shows where our priorities actually lie.

So I agree, but I think that fine tunedly that's where it's at.

Believe it or not though I don't agree that anger is genuine.

I agree anger is a response to another emotion that we're feeling.

Fear.

But also and it says in Philippians 4.

Six, you know, be anxious about nothing.

Well, I will back you up on that just using the concept that you threw out there.

So you talked about being in traffic and don't get me wrong and that's a real loose.

No, I know but it's a common.

But I'm just going to give you a different perspective into it.

Now don't get me wrong, I am the kind of person that sometimes just being in traffic is frustrating because I don't want to be in traffic right now.

But the number one thing that frustrates me in traffic are selfish people.

I tried to get if I'm in a good place and I'm trying to make sure everybody's got their room and look, we're going to get through this everyone kind of mentality and you know, it's not that big a deal.

I'm not going to let it get to me.

And then people start cutting each other off and taking advantage of everybody.

That drives me bananas.

That drives me insane.

I've been lined way down the street and hear you come up in the fast lane and then cut him.

That's every day on 82 over 80.

Don't even turn on your blink or nothing.

So right there I'd be like, but.

It'S like, but I mean, so there's such a thing as when you get angry at what you can perceive to be unrighteousness.

So it's like, and there is righteousness, there is an unrighteousness that is okay to be frustrated with or angry with.

I'd say your frustration and you're angry that you're out of control.

In that scenario I get, I'm more angry at depravity.

Okay.

Like at that point I've already given up control.

It's more of why do you feel better than everyone else?

That's how I feel.

So it's the entitlement.

Yeah, I don't like people feel that.

Yeah, I feel that's what I'm bothered by the most is that people are so self centered and so selfish that they will take advantage of anyone else.

So let me toss this juxtaposition at you.

What if that person happens to be in a medical emergency on their way to a hospital?

You don't know that.

You're just angry because you presume.

Okay, but you're now in the judgment seat.

Yes, I know.

But if six people are doing it, they're not all.

And that's, I'm not saying that, but what I'm saying is you have now made yourself the judge.

Yeah, I guess I am.

But still, I mean, so stop right there.

Isn't that God's job if we want more of him and less of us?

Okay, okay, but, but, but that's going.

To send me down a rabbit hole.

But no, he's going to, he's opened up this, he's opened this up.

So take getting away from the traffic thing though, when we can actually see and properly judge when something is unrighteous.

So I mean there are some scenarios where we can see people blatantly sinning, blatantly going against God's will and we can be frustrated and angry and sad and all those things about it because we know that this is what God's Will in this situation is.

So here's my question, and it should break our hearts.

Would Jesus do if he were standing where you were standing in that moment?

It would probably break his heart to see people doing this.

It would.

But would his reactions be the same one you would choose?

Well, I mean, besides what I say behind my windshield, I mean, you understand.

Where I'm going with this.

Again, like I said, this subject, Jesus got angry.

I'm not saying he didn't, but he got angry for the injustice.

That attitude they were showing toward his father.

It was still anger.

I mean, I get angry about it, right?

And I'm not saying anger cannot be righteous.

What I'm saying is it's a secondary.

It's a reaction.

But what I am saying in context.

The Bible does say that anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

Right.

And it also says be angry and sin not right, and don't let the sun set upon your anger.

But in this context of more him, less us, it comes down to really, what would Jesus do?

And if we're willing to be honest with ourselves in that moment, likelihood is that we have deviated from Christ's path at that moment.

Well, possibly.

But we also.

I think you've touched on something kind of accidentally, or maybe not accidentally, but it requires humility, where we have to realize that, you know, first off, once again, going back to something I was frustrated with in a scenario, is that no one's greater than another, we're not more important than another person.

And then also understanding our position under God, we're not greater than Him.

So that goes.

Humility plays into submission.

Well, yes, like I said, humility plays right into submission.

Then where it's like, okay, yep, my place is not greater.

I'm not, you know, in many cases.

I mean, your point on judgment is valid in a lot of cases.

But still, you know, we have to understand that, you know, we, as a partaker of this world right now, I see you shaking your heads.

I'll go, you finish your thought, and then I will speak.

You know, we still have to see our humble place as God's servant.

We're not, you know, we're in this world, we're not of this world.

We have to be able to be his light in this world.

And that means sometimes humbling our own agendas, desires, frustrations, and all that stuff for the better of the community around us.

And I agree with that.

My only point, and I wanted.

Don't want you to lose your point.

I won't lose it would be again, when you see people who are not living as Christ would want them, it's not your role per se to involve yourself at that level.

It is your role to love them.

Well, okay, so that's going in a different direction than I think that we intended in the beginning.

No, I get it.

It's flipping it on the humility part.

Well, I mean the humility.

And by the way, I'm going to tell you, I suffer from that prideful entitlement on many levels.

I can speak to it as not a virtue.

Yeah, but I mean, frustration, I agree.

With where you're going.

Frustration in those scenarios doesn't have to be enacted on.

It's one thing to feel it, it's another thing to act on it.

So it's one thing to be in traffic and frustrated and hurt and upset because you see people doing things that you believe are wrong.

It's another thing to try to do something about it in a way that is, as you kind of put it.

Is it our place to step into that or not?

Let me step in because I wholeheartedly disagree with the whole terms that we keep throwing around of judgment.

It is 100% our place to judge.

But here is why.

It's because we're not talking, when we say judge, we're not talking about condemnation.

In fact, just earlier in the passage, John 3, it clearly addresses it once and for all.

Alright, so anybody.

Here's my hot take, right?

For all of humanity, this is the biggest thing right here.

It says whoever believes in him is not condemned.

But whoever does not believe in him stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only son, period.

If you don't believe in Jesus, you're already condemned.

I don't have to do it.

I don't have to condemn you.

You're already there.

It says it right there.

Doesn't absolve you from doing it.

But hang on, hang on.

I don't have to.

You're already condemned.

Like, it's not.

I didn't say so.

It's an observation.

I didn't say so.

God did.

Right?

And if, and if you're, tell me.

How you're allowed to judge.

Hang on.

If you're a believer in Jesus, you're not, you're not condemned anymore.

So like, there is no more of that.

Like, I didn't do it.

I am simply saying Jesus said it.

Well, John said it.

John said it.

Right?

John said this about Jesus.

So, like there's that.

But that does not tell you you can judge.

Okay, so.

But we are.

Okay, but we are encouraged from Scripture to judge what is right and wrong in our world, in our lives, and in the world around us.

Thus, discernment.

Yes, that's judgment as discernment, but it is still judgment in itself.

You have to use judgment in order to have discernment.

Okay, let me stipulate judgment of others.

You can judge.

You can judge behaviors, you cannot judge motives.

You cannot judge hearts.

And again, in the context of more him, less me, you have to remove that from the equation in order to have more him, less you.

I'm not saying we're not human and we don't suffer from it.

No.

Here's one for you.

Okay, so on your side of things, right, To.

To somewhat back up what you're trying to get across about judgment.

And I know this isn't necessarily there, but we got to get there from here.

Okay?

First Corinthians, right, talks about judgment a lot.

First Corinthians 5 talks about being.

It says that free from the law.

It's not my business to judge those outside the church because God already did it.

Right?

Right.

That's already done.

That's the condemned.

Right.

However, right after that, it says, expel the wicked person from among you.

That sure does look like judgment to everyone.

Right?

But it says right there, it says, expel the wicked person from among you.

And then the very next chapter, it talks about literally judging each other within the church in order to reconcile chapters.

Like in the last day or two, and I did not get that out of these chapters.

I would stipulate two things for the course of this conversation.

This is a rabbit hole subject, but I would stipulate this.

You would have to understand the context in which they stipulate wicked because it could be a hardened heart disrupter.

And again, your observation in that scenario is you're observing their behavior, not their heart, and you are discerning that as being something undesirable and not of God, which I am 100% on board with.

Right.

I think it's still going to be seen as.

I think it's the difference between judge and condemnation.

I think the wording that we're using, that's the problem.

I have some of this is semantics, but it's not because people, people inside and outside the church have this problem.

Okay, but.

Okay, but you're.

You're.

The way your system works is it has to be within the context of understanding where our place is.

Okay?

That's how your system works.

Well, His.

I mean, it's not necessarily in conflict with his.

But you, if we understand the way.

We talk about it, is my problem.

That's the.

That's the problem.

Yeah, that is.

But you're using a word in a different way in order to.

No, I'm using the word.

No, no, not you.

They are using the word in a different way.

That's what I'm trying to say.

That's what I was saying.

Okay.

Yes.

So if you're using it under the context of I am a sinner, I have problems.

I understand they have problems, too.

And you're judging, as in, how can you be helpful, loving, and such like that.

Great.

Understanding what's bad and what's good in the world, great.

But it's all under the context of understanding that we're all sinners and we've all fallen short of the grace of God.

Right?

Yes.

Under the proper context, yes, judgment is in place.

But that's even.

I mean, literally, 1 Corinthians 6 is also talking about saying you've done this wrong and making a judgment about it.

Well, yes, it's really important.

That's why with the way that you measure it will be measured to you.

So the way that you judge it will be judged to you.

If you're judging in the context, as I said before, that, okay, without Christ, I'm just a dirty rotten sinner, and so are they.

Then your judgment then is all based on the only thing that is righteous, and that is God.

Right, Right.

And his righteousness.

And you're comparing yourself and them, but you're keeping in mind where you are in that place, too.

So, once again, humble and surrender.

And so, yeah, it's.

It's.

I'm just saying, like the whole condemnation versus judgment versus don't judge me versus all of that, it gets out of hand because I will concede the semantics.

Of the discussion we're having now to get to the greater point, because I took it from something simple.

Traffic.

Sure.

Let's take it to an argument with somebody you love.

When my wife and I have an argument, which, by the way, honey, we never have those.

But seriously, everything you're doing in that moment is entrenching because you feel the need to make your point.

And what I'm suggesting is, everything through the gospel, everything through Christ's mission, he observed everything.

Miserable paganism, crucifixions, everything around him, and he did not display the characteristics that we're talking about.

So more of him, less of us, means we have to model our Behavior which is disciplined to what we think he would do in that scenario.

It doesn't mean we.

It's the reaction, not the emotion.

Yes, that's what I was trying to say with angry.

Well, maybe I don't.

But I don't even think he was angry.

I think it would break his heart.

I think it saddens him.

Do you know that automatically the body cannot help its chemical reaction?

Yes.

So whether you have a physiological response.

To everything, always going to happen.

Accelerated heart rate, traffic, you're going to be like, you're not.

You're not surrendering God.

But here's the thing.

You can train your body not to do that.

Okay.

Yes, again, it is discipline.

That is what we are trying.

Disciple discipline.

But.

It'S always how you react.

Like when people cut.

Okay, I started doing.

I said, let me try something different for when people do this, because I'm driving 82, three days a week, I get aggravated.

That's three days a week, I get aggravated.

So what I started doing was I would put on Christian music, and I would put it to the top of my speakers and roll down my windows and, you know, for some reason, let's get everybody aggravated.

I'm just gonna.

I'm.

I just.

I feel a sense of peace.

You want to cut in front of me?

Go ahead.

I flash my lights.

Go.

It doesn't bother me, but I do notice some people roll their windows down.

Some people pull up slow past me, and they're like, you know, looking, and I'm like, whatever.

I don't even care.

Because regardless.

And I would say you were there showing more of him, less of you in that moment.

And that's.

That's things I started to try to do.

Because music tames this savage beast.

It does all the way.

But you're also talking about priority there.

Your priorities is to put him at the forefront of even your trip.

Yes.

That is my whole point of this whole discussion.

As long as I can get my husband to just not want to talk to me on the phone, I'm good.

I'm good.

That's my time of peace, you know.

And I think a lot of.

I think a lot of the argument is semantics.

Sure, sure.

But all of the people listening are going to have similar issues with these semantics.

Absolutely.

Hashing out the semantics are important, and I don't think it's something that should be skipped over.

I mean, it's helpful to define the actual why we're using them in certain ways, because one word can mean many different things and trigger Many different thought processes and people.

So just to say judgment, you're going to get a response that's different from everyone.

But if you're going, okay, but if you, this is what I'm talking about.

Specifically, then it helps everybody judges that statement differently.

Yeah, well, let's.

Okay, so let's go back, let's go back and talk a little bit of the, speaking of context.

We'll talk about the context of John the Baptist in this and how this even came about.

So in his context, what happened as he's doing his ministry, John the Baptist is doing his ministry and then somebody comes to him and it says, hey, this Jesus guy, you know, that you baptized, that was, you know, he's over there and him and his followers are baptizing people now as if it's in conflict with John.

Right.

And John, of course, his response, and I'm really summarizing this is basically cool.

You know, that's great.

You know, I'm excited because this is the guy.

He's the guy.

I'm not the guy.

And then he ends with.

And this is from the Christian standard translation.

Christian Standard Bible.

It says he must increase, I must decrease.

He's approached as if what God is doing is in conflict with him.

And he's like, no, it's not.

What he's doing is way more important.

And so that's really the context we're talking about.

How can we apply that to our lives then?

Where besides traffic, how many ways can we recognize that what God's got going on, what Christ has got going on in this world is way more important.

Than what we've got going on?

I think we definitely as humans are a very short sighted people.

You look at all of the Old Testament and how many hundreds of years at a time did it take for things to happen before, you know, God's plans?

Actually, you know, saw a harvest, right.

And it's no different today.

I mean that hasn't changed.

That whole God's concept of time has not changed.

So the things that we do now, it's important that they're eternally focused, kingdom minded.

Because if they're not, then we lose sight of the bigger picture anyways.

Right.

Yeah, we become short sighted.

I like to say we exchange the eternal for the temporary.

Yeah.

And it's wild how much we make that bargain.

And it's ridiculous, you know, because.

And a lot of that has to.

I mean we have, we're fed that our environment, our culture, everything.

We watch society.

Exactly.

Well, we're beyond a microwave Society.

We're an Amazon society.

You can have it tomorrow, you can have it today.

We're a doordash people.

You don't even have to go get it.

Somebody get it for you.

We are a society that gets everything at the tips of our fingers as fast as we can get it.

If you have a question, go on your phone.

It's a whole different world than when we grew up.

And kids these days take it for granted because this is the only world they've known.

And that's what curates a lot of cultural conflict.

But the thing is that with that mentality in place, we're told, anything you want, we want it now.

Then you should have it right now.

And so it's bad enough by your example, when you look through the Bible, it's bad enough that it is evident with proof upon proof that we are an impatient species.

We really lose sight of what's important because we get impatient.

Well, and the number one person that I love to throw out there as far as Bible stories go is Joseph.

And when it comes to this, like, his.

His mind was on God.

He had put God ahead of himself at every turn.

And it says that.

I mean, it.

It clearly talks about everything from.

Everything he did was everything.

God was with him in all of the things, and his mind was on him.

And that.

Just think about, like, how we feel about injustice, right?

Like, sometimes injustice needs to happen so greater things can happen.

And it's hard to even look at it through that lens.

I mean, seriously, you're right.

And I might.

We might even be able to go as far as, like, slavery in this country had to be as bad as it was, not that it was a good thing, but had to be as bad as it was so that it would get abolished when it did.

We're one of the first countries to, like, really get rid of it legally, right?

It took forever.

Took forever.

Yeah, but they didn't get rid of it completely.

Well, now, legally speaking.

Legally speaking, yes.

Legally speaking, yes.

But you're right, but it's.

That's the speaking culturally.

So progress.

Progress has happened is what I'm saying.

You know, we're in eternal mindset, right?

So, like, what I'm saying is, like, sometimes things.

Joseph's gotta happen.

Joseph's a great example.

Another great example would be Daniel.

Yeah, Daniel was.

He was, you know, he comes from a land that was just conquered.

He's brought in as a trophy, and.

He'S beloved by the leader.

Beloved by the leader, but he stays the course.

He and his Friends, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego stay the course.

You know, they don't turn their backs on God.

They're willing to stand up to him no matter what the consequences.

Yep.

They don't need to.

One of the most amazing things is when Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, Rack, Shack and Benny.

Yeah.

Always are getting ready to be thrown in the furnace.

And they say to Knocking about of the bunny and they say that basically they say, our God can save us from your hand, but even if he doesn't, that's a huge statement.

They fully believe that God could save them from that peril, but they were willing to go no matter what, even if he doesn't.

We're not bound to you.

We're not bound to what you.

We're not turning our backs on him.

That's a fear of the Lord.

That is an amazing thing.

That is.

That isn't.

And that's a thing that we can unpack sometime.

But that's a fear of the Lord that is so vibrant and right on the outset.

I love that so much.

That's a hero statement of the Bible for me, because, I mean, that's right up there with, you know, pick for who you're going to serve, but for me and my house.

Yeah.

Daniel and what's his name, the leader, whatever.

The king.

Nebuchadnezzar.

Yeah, Nebuchadnezzar.

They were buddies.

They got to a point where they were.

I mean, they were trusted.

Right.

Yeah.

They developed a relationship where he.

There was a respect.

Well, Nebuchadnezzar really respected Daniel.

Oh, yeah.

But Darius was his buddy.

Okay.

Yeah.

Which one was in.

Darius threw him in the lockdown.

Yeah, that's the one I'm talking about.

Right.

So, like, it broke his heart.

He.

Yeah.

And he.

I mean, it was like he was flim.

Flammed by the asparagus.

So for those of you who don't know what we're talking about and we keep referencing, there's a show called VeggieTales.

Not Veggie Tales in the house, but just Veggie Tales because that was when it was biblical.

But that is a cartoon about veggies that tell Jesus stories all the time.

And it's super awesome anyways.

But yes.

Still holds up.

But I mean, if you think about it, like, man, not only did it break his heart, but, like, he had to follow through with it.

And then, like, he did so pleased when it.

He woke up the next day.

Yeah, but I mean, but that's what it takes.

It takes that forefront of putting God first in every situation.

I mean, you had that with Joseph.

Joseph, he.

I mean, his brother sold him out.

He went into servanthood of a household, then was thrown in jail, and all the while saved the world.

And then what gets me is one of my favorite things about the story of Joseph.

Oh, yes, he did.

But one of the things is, like, he's in jail.

And you know what?

He doesn't.

He's not.

Woe is me.

He's like, how can I take care of these people in jail?

That's amazing.

That's the heart of God right there.

And then with Daniel, it's the same.

He's like, they just never took their eyes off of what's going on.

And yes, because Joseph stayed that way.

You know, Israel continued to be a nation because of that.

And I mean, yeah, there was that period of time in Egypt that kind of got Rocky for about 400 years.

But, you know, had it not been, they would never have been there.

They might have died out.

So, I mean, there's blessings even in the.

As you kind of pointed out earlier.

The turmoils, but there's also examples in the Bible of God using you even when you refuse to look at it his way.

Jonah.

Jonah.

That's exactly who I'm talking about.

I mean, God's like, oh, no, you're gonna go tell these people.

And he's like, nope, not only does he not want to tell, he's willing.

To let them all die on that ship.

He was willing to die.

Right.

But not only that.

Like, he.

He didn't just not want to go to those people and tell them to repent and to turn away from their evil.

No, he was angry when they did.

He didn't want them saved.

Right?

Like, think about that level of person.

Right?

Like, we.

Most of us don't want to think that we are that way.

And I would say we've all maybe been there once or twice.

Right.

Yeah.

Doesn't it?

It does have some 9, 11 feelings.

Right?

Or some awesome, dare I say it, bring it a little closer, October 7th feelings.

October 7th feelings.

When in October 7th, the whole Israel.

Thing, when the Jews were attacking.

Okay, so I'm not saying it.

Also some Pearl harbor feelings.

There's a lot of feelings.

Right.

I'm just making those examples of our modern day.

So let's talk about feelings.

They seem to be quite in conflict with the Lord.

Only with the way that we react.

Right.

Like only with the way that we react.

That's why really putting him above us and putting.

Making him greater and us less looks like getting on our knees and submitting to him all the time.

Yes, Right.

And which is where meekness comes from.

It's got to be the practice of just discipline, talking to him and walking with him.

That's why my focus.

And I've said this a long time ago, I haven't said in a while, but here.

But my focus in life is just walking with Jesus, man.

Like, I don't, I don't care about what comes next.

Right.

I read the end of the book.

Sweet.

I mean my God wins.

So we say that.

But.

And forgive me, we say that.

And I say that too.

But in the heat of that moment when that injustice is coming down on you, that is where the power of reading and finding heroes in the Bible, like we're talking about Daniel and all the others and Joseph.

In the heat of that moment, your strength of prayer and reading scripture is the only thing that will stop your humanity from taking over.

I don't want to react.

I want to act when something happens.

I don't want to react.

I want to act.

And the only way you can do.

That is to be proactive.

Is that that point you gotta.

It's like practicing for the big game.

You can't expect to go in there and make the all star play if you haven't practiced.

That's right.

Yeah.

So I mean, but also the things that we're talking about though also require a bit of.

Sometimes when the world is lacking, we need to step up and be leaders about this.

We need to be the example.

Sometimes where there's no example, you know, no matter what the situation.

If we look in a situation that just feels like it's full of depravity, well, how can you be the light in that?

Correct.

How can you be the salt that helps the situation?

You know, And I mean that's what we're called to be.

We're called, we said this before, we're called to be salty and lit.

We need to be the light in this.

In the darkness, we have to be the salt that helps preserve and heal and make better.

And so how can we do that?

And sometimes that requires stepping up in a leadership moment, in a leadership role, in a leadership Life that just pushes it in a place that it wasn't there before.

And that's where I see what Jesus would do when it's more him than us.

Absolutely.

It's a selflessness.

There's an unknown author who gets credited as unknown for saying, but says, I may never come this way again, so let me do what good I make today, okay?

And I may have missed a word or two in there, but that's the light.

That is the light.

And again, we only miss that, like in this environment.

We hear it, we see it, we feel that we can do it.

It's in the heat of battle, and it's usually because we've turned it and gone, oh, what about me?

And that.

What about me?

Is where we feel the injustice, where we recognize the injustice.

You know what's great about what, What Carlene's talking about in that traffic jam where she's like turning up the music and rolling the window down is she had to leave the house earlier, anticipating that she prepared for the game with her practice.

And that's why I keep going back to this is a discipline.

Oh, yeah.

To disciple.

To be a disciple of Christ, you are disciplined.

And the disciplined is to forego your natural inclinations, whether they're environmentally stimulated or whether they are inbred to you, that you now will forego your own benefit or well being at times.

For the greater good.

God's good.

And sometimes you have to do your comfort as well.

My wife and I were talking about this the other day.

Is that sometimes you see a situation and you start saying things like, it shouldn't be like this, or why doesn't somebody do this or that?

I don't understand why this keeps fall apart, Nick.

You'll end up on a job doing something.

I know, but like.

But when you ask this question, sometimes God goes, well, who do you think gave me do it?

Why don't you do it?

Okay, so you're right there.

I have an example of that.

I was in Honduras last year, last October, and I was ranting to my pastor buddy over there, right?

The one that actually runs the church over there.

I'm like, man, our church just refuses to teach on like, the spiritual gifts.

We keep saying that it's a necessity, and we keep saying it's a necessity, and nobody's listening.

Nobody will step up to do it.

And he turned to me and said, that's because God's calling you to do it.

And like, now I'm leading a spiritual gift.

And it was just like.

And sometimes it Takes getting a little uncomfortable and making that step.

And it takes somebody pointing it out to you, Right?

Absolutely.

That's why he sent them out two at a time.

So if there's anybody that's listening and you're in our church, I would absolutely love to have a second teacher in my class.

Yeah, I've had plenty of situations like that where it's like, well, if you.

If you see how this is wrong, why don't you speak up about it?

You see, and you have to.

Going back to what we talked about in the beginning, it's like humble, sacrificing myself, stepping into that.

And as I said before, you kind of have to lead into that situation, like, okay, well, I guess I have to do it.

And there's the lazy part of myself that does not want to do that at all.

And I'm like, okay, here we go.

I respect that.

What about.

What about.

Let's.

Let's think about it through, like a logical.

What really happens in somebody's brain when it comes to that?

Right.

Somebody should step up to that.

Right.

Okay.

They've noticed an injustice or something that's missing or whatever.

Right.

It's good.

Somebody should step up to it immediately.

They don't want to take it.

Why?

Generally, they don't feel like they're equipped.

They're not the right person for the job.

They've never done it before.

There's a little bit of fear in that.

Right.

We talked about fear earlier.

But that's.

I would say that's generally one of.

The first main reasons I don't have any of those trepidations.

Yeah, but you're also the one who's willing to, like, if there was something that needed to be shouted from the stage, you'd be the first one willing to do it.

Right.

So there's some people that don't have.

No, what I'm saying is you're calling out a good number of.

I would say a majority of people.

My emotions would be different in that.

So I would like to give voice to them.

For those few people that are like me, it is because I'm lazy.

I got enough on my plate, and I don't need to invest in doing that because I have other interests pulling me over here.

That would be the reason I would tell you no, sure.

Or I don't want it to.

Similar way for me.

Whereas it says, I realize that my personality.

If I.

If there's an idea, I really like some.

If I want someone else to do it is because I know that if I do it.

I'm going to disregard everything else because I'm going to throw into it.

Oh, yeah, I'll immerse myself.

You know, when I felt the call to youth ministries because, well, I felt like youth are important.

They need something.

Like, I want to throw myself into it.

And there's been things that, like, since I've been here that I'm like, I love that idea.

I'm not doing that.

If I do that, and I can't.

Do what I identify with students.

You know what I mean?

Fully identify with it.

I don't.

I don't want to do that.

Yeah.

I threw out an idea the other day.

I was.

Maybe within the last two weeks, I said something to Nick.

I was like, oh, man, you know, we can end up doing something like this sometime.

He's like, you want.

No, I'm not doing that.

No, no, you can forget that I said it if that's going to be the case, because I can't.

It will distract me from the things I need to.

But.

And not to lose Derek's point, because the majority of people are going to feel more like you're talking about.

They don't feel equipped or they're.

They're insecure about their own ability to deliver.

God doesn't always call the equipped, but he will equip the economy.

I'm getting there.

Right.

I'm getting there.

So then the thought process, if they feel that, even just that glimpse of like, maybe I'm supposed to be the one that does it, I can't do that.

Right.

I'm not.

I'm not equipped to do it.

Right.

Just like you said, there's your crisis here.

I.

How could I do that?

Like, that's not my gifting.

That's.

You know, I've not ever done anything like that before.

Blah, blah, blah.

Right.

There's all of those kinds of thoughts and processes that end up going into it.

And I'll give you a perfect example of what you're describing.

A lot of people lead a prayer.

Oh, yeah, Tell somebody.

Lead a prayer.

Yeah.

I think it's really interesting, by the way you touched on something that's just to make it a simple statement.

Anytime that you go to God and you begin a question with how.

You.

Should almost guarantee he's going to go, if you trust me, I'll show you.

For sure.

On the prayer thing, just a quick caveat.

Just talk to him, right?

100%.

Look, I have yelled at God, okay?

His shoulders are way bigger than mine, Right?

His shoulders are Way bigger than mine.

And you know what?

His heart breaks when my heart breaks.

And so he knows where I'm coming from.

Even if it's selfish, he gets it.

Misguided, naive.

Misguided or naive?

Like, he gets it, and he wants nothing more than for joy to overtake us.

Right.

I didn't say happiness.

And that's a mistake.

That's a mistake we run into, too.

But he wants joy to overtake us, and he wants to walk with us through.

Not the woman on the View.

No, I don't.

Yeah.

Anyways.

All right, so.

But then back to.

Back to what we were talking about, like, sorry, we.

We get to that point where we start disregarding the possibility that we could be the one because of all these different things.

And Scripture tells us that, you know, his greatness is going to shine through in our week.

Well, there's some.

He's putting on my heart to say something right now.

It is that humility in those people that is closer to God than the people that are ready to step up, like I am, on an ongoing basis.

Well, maybe.

Perhaps that's right.

He likes moldable clay.

Yes, he does.

He definitely loves moldable clay.

And even if that moldable clay is a little resistance, I know that firsthand.

I have been many resistant.

Many resistant.

Yeah.

But you know what you do to clay that's resistant?

You add a little water to it.

Yeah, well, that's true.

Or you put it in a microwave.

Okay.

I've never done that.

We're not gonna do that.

So.

But yeah, there's.

There's a history of people that didn't think that they were the person for the job.

Moses, Boom.

Right there.

He.

He didn't think he was the dude, and he tried to do what I tried to do.

I think you got the wrong guy.

I think it's.

Do you know who I am?

Do you know what I've done?

Yeah.

And, you know, I mean, it's.

It's funny, like, when I read that about Moses, I'm like, I got a kinship with you, man, because I did the same thing.

And I even tried to pull a Jonah.

And not necessarily against the people, but against the job.

I didn't necessarily want to do it.

I tried to run and avoid it.

And you have people that just didn't feel secure.

And God's going, no, no, it's going to work.

I mean.

Well, they tell you when God puts you on a path, if you will, especially at that moment when you don't have the spiritual gifts, once he's identified the mission.

He will give you the gifts.

At that point, you will always have a major shift from what you are doing in order to achieve it.

And that's where the crisis of faith comes in.

Because ultimately, we don't believe God will do it with us.

It's a cycle that really happens, that you have to be prayerful.

You have to be in the scripture.

Otherwise, it is so easy to let it be a fleeting thought and go, if it needed to be done, it would have been done.

I think.

I think that he loves both a trusting and a willing heart.

And what he can do with that is incredible.

When I was in school, he.

I would learn something, and he would have me put into practice, like, the next day sometimes.

And it was wild.

I'd get it.

I'd be sitting there with something, and then suddenly there was the chance to use it.

Right now?

Yeah.

And it was like, wow.

I kept joking with my wife.

It was like, he's waited long enough.

Now he's got to get me back up to speed.

But, yeah, just the openness to.

Okay, well, okay.

You say, go, I'll go.

And he does it with me a lot.

Yeah.

I love this topic.

You've been way quiet.

I'm listening.

Y'all are like.

So, like, what?

What?

Jump in.

What's up?

All right.

I got a question.

You can answer.

What's a practical way that we can start doing that?

To start putting him above us, to make him greater and us less.

It's a practical thing.

Blast your music in traffic.

Why not?

Absolutely.

I mean, Timothy is told to devote himself to public reading of Scripture.

I mean, that's.

I mean, I thought there was a music reference with Timothy.

I overlooked.

I was just waiting.

Yeah.

I was thinking that's what I went through first.

I see what you did there.

It's good.

It was very good.

But I was.

At first, I was like, when it comes to music.

What.

No, but seriously, I understand what you're saying.

I'm that one that's like, why are you calling me to this?

Like, me of all people, right?

Like, I.

It's.

I.

I am always in spiritual crisis.

It's like this.

But see, that's.

That is.

That means you're moldable clay.

That's molding you.

That's the Paul's.

That's the Moses.

That's the, you know, Abrahams and the.

I know why.

No, don't get me wrong.

Yeah.

I know why.

I am one of his children.

That I'm a walking, talking testimony.

So I am Good for what he wants me to do.

It's just so much.

It's like, can you let me just finish my paper, please?

That's why he says, come to me all ye who are weary and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest.

Yeah, good song.

I'm still waiting.

But he's gonna give me rest.

And I know it's true.

Just.

I know it's coming.

Not yet.

Is an answer that he gives us.

That's like, today I made a.

I think I made a decision on something.

And I was just like, something just told me, just do it.

Just do it.

Some might not be happy about it, but it was just do it.

Well, if it can get us in trouble, don't announce it here.

Being guilty of my wife, me of going from 0 to 100 in an instant and thinking that I've communicated with them like her and my family.

Like I bought houses without her before.

Hey, we're moving.

By the time you get back from vacation, I'll be in Chicago.

Hope you come see me.

No lie.

So my wife is a saint, but that's not the point.

There are people, myself being one of them, that I do not communicate well.

As to my logic stream, that leads me to a decision.

I'm very prayerful about things and those people around me.

My mom has suffered through it.

My wife especially suffers through it.

Is.

And she's just sitting there going, is this a conversation we've had?

Where are you going with this?

Because I'm like, I'm there.

So I'm very quick.

I'm slow to decide, but very decisive.

Makes any sense.

Because I'm going to analyze stuff.

And the one thing that God has put on my heart over that, because that is some of the injustice my wife lives with, is to back it up.

And when I tell her what my thought process is, two things I try and remember now.

And it is a practice.

One is don't be a know it all.

Be open to other information.

Because I become more condescending with it because I've already thought it out.

And then the second is I don't always have to be right.

And those are the two things that I think are giving me a little bit more peace.

Because I'm that personality.

And I do things like I still find it now.

I still find it to be.

When it comes down to male and female aspect of it, it's totally different.

You see what I'm saying?

Yeah.

I can't speak from the female side of it or even regardless of gender.

There are More passive or aggressive personalities, male or female.

I'm an aggressive personality, so I operate from that visual.

I'm in between.

I'm not really aggressive.

So you're passive aggressive.

Yeah, I guess you can say that.

Like, by the way, that's that alpha that we were talking about.

I'm very analytical.

Yeah.

Everything has to have a who, what, where, when, and why in order for me to make a complete decision.

There are sometimes that I was just, like, rash and was like, I'm gonna do this, but there has to be a purpose of why something was done right.

That you're describing exactly.

When I came to Christ, there was something that happened that pushed me that way.

And slowly but surely, like, he's.

And I love the way he works with me.

He takes a little and then, you know.

No, he just chucks bricks in my head.

No, he takes a little.

You know, like the whole clay thing, but he takes a little and he's like, oh, I'm gonna redo this part.

You know?

And I'm okay with that because I don't know how I personally would be able to handle a full 360, like, in five seconds.

But see, what you're describing, though, is beautiful because it is how you get to showing more of him, less of you.

Correct.

Because it's through that obedience and that little morsels that you start building bigger steps to it.

Correct.

I'm a firm believer in.

I don't want to look at the box for the puzzle.

I want to just start putting it together.

Okay.

And assuming this is the out, you can always tell what the outline is and going from there.

So I always use the little smaller pieces.

Everything I look at is broken up into small pieces.

And as I start to put them together, I'm like, okay, well, I'm going to put over here together first and see what happens.

That's like the transition I made from leaving the hospital to going to mental health and then realizing, what am I doing?

That's not where I need to be.

And I knew it.

Like, I had a feeling, and I ignored the feeling because I just thought.

I need a job.

That's not where I was supposed to be.

I was supposed to stay where I was at.

I think a practical application that we could probably all use a little more of.

It's the one thing that everybody refers to, don't pray for, and that's patience.

Oh, I never pray for patience.

And here's why that is.

That is a practical thing.

It's because.

Because God's not waiting on You.

No, there's no amount of God waiting on you.

Because if you take five days to decide something, if you take three hours to decide something, that you're seeking him in, right?

The whole time or three weeks, three years, he's going to be there when you make that decision.

So he's not waiting on you.

And if you reject doing whatever it is he's calling you to do, he's gonna have somebody else do it.

Right?

Like he's gonna raise another, but he's not waiting on you.

Like, you have time to seek him.

That there's.

That is one of the.

Slow down and communicate.

Right.

That's one thing at me too, right?

Like, my brain puts together things like, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

I have all the logic, just strings together.

And what comes out of my mouth is, this is what we're doing and not a, hey, based on these different things, right?

Based on these different things, like, I think that our best route is going to be this.

What do you think?

That's not what comes out.

Even though that's essentially what I mean, that's not what comes out of my mouth.

And so if I were to slow.

Down the finished product, you got to.

Let people catch up.

If I.

If I were to slow down and be like, hey, I'm thinking about doing this, and here's a few reasons why.

What do you think?

Like, that changes the whole conversation, and that will create.

And I'm specifically talking about spouses.

I mean, we've brought up spouses, but everybody.

I think everybody communicating with each other.

It's vital that we just slow down, because God's not.

God's not saying, all right, come on, you only got seconds left.

It's not.

I'm just throwing this out there because there's something that was said, shared with me in a group, and it was specifically to, like, those of us who are married or have a spouse, partner, whatever, that where we need to communicate better so they're on page with us, is how I would put it.

And that was pray with your spouse.

Oh, yeah, it is.

Truthfully, it's the most awkward thing I've ever tried to do in my life.

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

I don't know why it's so awkward for me, but in so doing it, you're exposing to your spouse, male or female.

Doesn't matter what thoughts and struggles you are going through.

And in so doing, a, you're praying, so you're bringing it to the Lord.

And your partner would therefore also acknowledge and recognize that you've been prayerful in these things that you are, I might quickly come up with a solution.

It may have been weeks of prayer, but they don't see it.

They see it as a very rash, quick decision, and it will give them comfort and it will give them a little bit of peace.

And God does all things through peace.

And I'm telling you as I sit here, Joanne, if you ever listen to a podcast, which I know you don't, I'm sorry.

Because I am so guilty of doing it wrong all the time.

So I think one of the things that I like everything everybody's saying, but I think one of the biggest things we can do to take a step towards more of him and less of us is just to give yourself some time.

Take some time.

Do a personal inventory.

You know, really look at your life and see what areas of your life you've put above him or where you put him first and see what needs to change.

Obviously, it's great when we can see, hey, I'm putting him first here.

Great.

Don't get too proud of yourself.

Move on to the next spot.

I guarantee you're going to find something.

There's always somewhere where we can be getting better, where we don't even realize it.

Take a time to think about your day sometimes.

How did I do today?

How did I do in the last five minutes?

You know, sometimes it's just, you know, if you're listening to this podcast in the car, I know some people do.

How have you done in your drive till now?

You know, like, where there's.

There's plenty of ways in our lives where we can just take a moment and go, okay, how did I do there?

That's one of my favorite ways of reading scripture when I'm doing personal scripture reading is holding myself up to it and going, okay, where am I at with this?

I do it all the time, and it's incredibly informed.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And humbling.

Yeah.

I think to wrap up, I'd like to say, like, there's another practical thing is just pray for God's eyes for the world.

And by that, I mean there's a Brandon Heath song, right?

Says the lyrics go, give me your eyes for just a second.

Give me your eyes so I can see everything that I've been missing.

Right?

Like, and take the time to pray that you see the individual that is before you and the possibilities of all the things that have brought them to this moment.

And I'm not saying you have to actually, you know, know and understand all of those Things, but the fact that they have a history that brought them to being before you, whether that's in traffic or at a podcast or at a food bank, whatever.

Like, there's a lot of things, a whole lifetime of things that have brought them before you.

Right.

That when you can see people through that lens, you will start seeing yourself differently, too.

Yep.

Amen.

So, great subject.

I.

I want to plug a podcast on here.

I was on a podcast we recorded last night that is called Theology Throwdown.

We did discuss something similar to our podcast last week, which is election fallout.

We talked about.

I think the title is going to be Trump won Now, what Christians or love your enemy?

Well, that's.

No, I mean, like for just a.

Fancy thing, what we saw.

Right.

So for Theology Throwdown is what the podcast is called.

I think that's what the title is going to be.

It releases today, the day we're recording.

So when you guys are listening, it will be last Wednesday, but check it out.

I'm on there.

I talk a little bit.

There's a couple other really great people on there.

You can find it at the Christian podcast community website.

Or you could probably just type in Theology Throwdown and it'll pop up.

And if I liked this podcast and I wanted to subscribe and share it, where would I go?

You would go to our YouTube channel or anywhere that you're listening to this, but preferably the YouTube channel, if you could.

Comments are also welcome.

And it doesn't matter what the comment is, we'll accept it.

You can reach out that way, no problem.

If you liked or didn't like.

If you didn't like it, you know.

What you can do also, usually, especially if you're doing it from a device, you can share it, which is actually send it to.

What is that?

What is sharing?

Sharing.

There's usually a button that you can send it to people.

You can actually recommend it to people.

They can watch it and you can.

Basically, it's like advertising for something that you're already into.

Yeah.

Not while you're driving, you know, unless you're stuck in traffic and it's not moving.

No, but you can.

Yeah, you can actually encourage others to get into the program that you're already enjoying.

And that share button sometimes looks like three circles.

Yeah.

With the lines that are.

That connect to the three in like a.

This pattern.

Just saying that.

That's a share button.

But in all seriousness, we would love for you to share any of these podcasts with.

With someone and just.

Man, you guys all know somebody who needs to hear some of this stuff.

You know what else you can do, what you can actually like expressing on YouTube?

You can comment on it.

Really?

Yeah.

You can comment, tell about what you like, what you don't get.

Your opinions.

Could you.

You can ask questions.

You know, could you tag somebody?

You could totally tag somebody on social media.

You can be at work playing it.

You can.

Oh my goodness.

You could be a little difference maker.

Yes.

If you're an Uber driver, put it on your radio.

Oh, man.

Yeah, we can reach the world and.

Trust me, we have 184 episodes that you could, you could start from the beginning.

So much started from the bottom.

Now I like Messy Bits.

Yeah, yeah, the messy bits.

Messy Bits were good.

That was good.

But yeah, I mean, you could do.

All these things and more soon.

Patreon's coming, guys.

It's right around the corner.

It's gonna be almost there, so hang in there.

Enjoy the women's podcast that just came out and look forward to the men's podcast at the end of the month.

God bless.

Hey, thanks for joining us.

Make sure to subscribe and give us a like on itunes and Spotify so that you will never miss the show.

And while you're at it, check out our Facebook and Instagram pages and make.

Sure you tell your friends friends about this show.

You don't want them to miss out on the truth because we are all about the truth here.

Thanks for joining us this week and God bless.