Expecting God's Best

My name is René, I'm one of the pastors here. I want to invite you to grab the message notes that look like this "Defang Fear" is the series we've been in now. Either way, I actually joined you via Facebook Live like a lot of people are right now because I was gone the last couple of weekends, like really away. My wife and I were down in Peru where I was speaking at a conference for missionaries and it was so powerful in a lot of ways, but one of the many things I love, I want to show you how diverse this group was.

There were missionaries there serving the Peruvians. I mean, and these were pastors and doctors and hydrologists and prison chaplains, all kinds of different folks, but they were from Korea, Brazil, Peru, of course, Brazil, India, China, the UK, Australia, and the reason I wanted to show you pictures I snapped just of some of the people who were at the conference was this. It is so easy here in Aptos, California for us to somehow get the impression that Christianity is white, frankly, and Western and European and American and you have to understand that it's not.

That globally, this is what the faith that you and I are a part of looks like and I love that and especially here on Martin Luther King Jr. Weekend, this is very important to point out that this is exactly what God designed it to look like from day one. I love this verse here. Yeah, it's awesome. I call it divine diversity, right? I love this verse in Revelation chapter 5, "Lord, you have redeemed by your blood persons from 'every tribe and language and people and nation.'" As I was there sharing with that group of people, most of whom, by the way, did not speak English even as their first language, but English was their shared second language, so they invited this English-speaking pastor to preach.

It just gave me a great perspective. One of the missionaries from Korea came up to me and he said, "It's so encouraging to hear from the pastor from America." He goes, "For those of us in Korea, it's so wonderful to hear how God is moving in foreign, dark nations like California." That gave me some perspective, you know? But I thought to myself, I need to, as an individual and we need to, as a church, grow to value that as much as God values that, because Jesus Christ gave his blood for that picture right there from every tribe, every people, every nation, every language.

That's what we are a part of globally. And one of the things I'm stoked about is next week in World Outreach Week, we've talked a lot about it, but you're gonna get more glimpses of this beautiful, diverse thing that we're all a part of. Now, this weekend, let's wrap up our series, "Defang Fear." Why do we need to talk about defanging fear? Well, check this out. Polls say, "Americans are more fearful now than at any time since 9/11." Is that hard for anybody to believe? We live in an anxiety-ridden country.

Check this out. BarnesandNoble.com reported last August, a 25% jump in sales of books about fear. That's a 25% jump in one year. They say in the publishing market, this is the biggest growth sector. It's no longer like Harry Potter books. It's books about fear. Titles like, "The Culture of Fear," "The Science of Fear," "The Gift of Fear," "Conquering Fear," "When Panic Attacks," "We Are a Frightened Bunch." Well, as we wrap up this series today, I want to get very, very, very, very personal.

I have personally benefited a lot from books like those and from seeing a professional counselor over the years and from anti-anxiety medications to deal with my own anxiety attacks that years ago put me in the hospital. And I've told that story many times here at Twin Lakes Church, and I recommend checking out all those avenues if anxiety and fear is something that you really struggle with. But this morning, I want to share about something that's even more basic.

I want to share about something you can do for your anxiety and your fear that can defang it, that is free, that you don't need anybody else for, and something that I know can change your life, not in a week, not in a year, but starting right now this morning. I'm gonna talk about something that the Bible talks a lot about, but there's a modern phrase for it, counselors like to talk about something they call cognitive therapy. That's how you choose to think.

Did you know that what you choose to think about actually, physically changes your brain chemistry? Did you know that? And we right now live in an era where like never before you are being told what to think. You are being force-fed, frightening headlines and scandalous gossip and all this clickbait by all these super smart algorithms that are designed to keep you clicking, clicking, clicking, clicking, clicking, and we respond to fearful things, so that's what they're feeding you.

We need to take charge of our brain diet, or we are going to become more and more and more anxiety-ridden as a culture and as individuals. And today I want to talk about five changes I made in my own mental life that are contributing to my ongoing recovery from anxiety. And this is all right out of Scripture. This is very personal how I am defanging fear and anxiety in my own life. I call this message expecting God's best because I've got a lot of sub points, but the message is really all about one big idea, and it's this, the principle of expectation.

Your expectations influence your life far more than you realize. You tend to see what you expect to see. You tend to feel what you expect to feel. You tend to experience what you expect to experience. So my question is why not expect the best? See when it comes down to it, jot this down, there's three basic approaches to life. First there's pessimism, right? Like when the Israelites were right on the border of the promised land, the land of Canaan, and they complained "Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and our children will be taken as plunder."

Wouldn't it be better for us to go back to Egypt? Now notice they don't say they might be, they say they will be taken. Now some historical context this is right after the parting of the Red Sea. This is right after all those 10 plague miracles. This is right after the Passover. This is right after one miracle after another, but they were like nope, it's all over. And would you agree with this? Pessimism is an easy sell in our culture right now, right? Here's the problem with pessimism. Pessimists don't move forward into the promised land.

Pessimists don't work on their marriages to make them better. Pessimists don't reach out to their communities as part of their church knowing that it might take 10 or 20 years in a community like this, but eventually we're gonna build goodwill toward the good news. Pessimists don't do any of that. Why? Because pessimists think it's all going to hell in a hand basket. So why even try? All right, so you don't want to be a pessimist. What's another alternative? Well, you could be a blind optimist, right? Blind optimism, Pollyanna optimism, denying the truth optimism like in Ezekiel 13:10.

Do you know the Bible actually comes down hard against Pollyanna optimists? Look at what God says about the blindly optimistic prophets. "They lead my people astray, saying, 'Peace when there is no peace. When a flimsy wall is built, they cover it with whitewash.'" And sometimes often in the name of faith, Christians fall into this trap, fall into the trap of whitewashing real problems, lying about reality, living in denial, and that's no good. So you don't want to be a pessimist. You don't want to be a blind optimist. Good news, there's a third way you could call it biblical optimism, biblical optimism.

Like for example the Apostle Paul in Philippians, he says, "I live in eager expectation." And by the way, if you're taking notes, circle those two words, eager expectation, because those two words right there summarize the whole concept I'm trying to put across to you this morning. Can you live with eager expectation that God is going to work in and through you? "I live in eager expectation and hope that I will always be ready to speak out boldly for Christ." Now as Adrienne said in his message a couple of weeks ago, great message by the way, Paul writes this, the guy's in prison, he's chained to a guard 24/7. He's actually on death row in Rome and let look at look at his attitude and notice he doesn't say, "I live in eager expectation. Everything will be awesome."

Well, he says, "While I'm going through these trials here, you know, you can focus on the positive without denying the negative." In fact, he says, "I realize I'll probably die, but for me living means opportunities for Christ and dying, well, that's better yet because I'll be with Jesus." That's biblical optimism. Now, why be like this? Why not just be pessimistic? Well, biblical optimism honors God and this is absolutely the most important reason. You're saying I am trusting the Lord to work sovereignly no matter what the situation looks like and it helps me.

It actually increases my ability and research proves this again and again. Optimism increases IQ. It increases physical performance and you know what else? When I live in eager expectation, I find that God uses me more and I'm blessed by being able to work in people's lives. I'll give you one quick example that I've shared with some of you before. I was leaving one Sunday right after church. All five of us in our family zipped down to the airport in San Jose and I was very excited because we're going on our vacation and it was a Southwest flight. It was packed and we all had to split up.

So the family, all five of us had to sit in different parts of the airplane and I sat down and it was like the only part of the plane that the middle seat was not taken. So I was like, "Yes, the middle seat isn't taken." And what was my expectation? My expectation was nobody's gonna talk to me. I'm gonna start vacation and I'm gonna have some me time and you know like ministry is over. I'm just gonna focus on René for a while. And at that last minute, the last person to walk onto the plane is a young woman maybe in her early 20s and she sits right there in the middle seat.

So I'm like, "Oh great. Oh, that's okay." So almost immediately I feel a little nudge. You know how you feel sometimes? Talk to that woman about the Lord and I'm like, "What? No, I'm not gonna do it. I'm on vacation, God. I'm on vacation." Talk to her about the Lord. I don't know what to say. I don't know how to start the conversation. This is a young woman like 22 years old, you know? What am I gonna say to her? And you know, this idea pops into my head. Just ask her if she went to church today. It's Sunday.

And I thought to myself that was like the lamest she's gonna think it's the lamest pickup line ever. So I've been to church lately, you know. So I'm like, "No, I'm not gonna do it." And I'm like arguing with God for the whole flight. We were going to Phoenix. "Oh, no, I'm not gonna do it. I'm not gonna do it." So finally I'm like apparently the Holy Spirit's not gonna let go of me because the urge just kind of keeps getting stronger and stronger. So as the plane is landing, we're coming over rooftops now in Phoenix. I look at her and I clear my throat and I'm like, "Okay, I gotta talk to her because, you know, gotta just do it."

The plane touches down and I go just blur out. "So did you go to church today?" She turns to me instantly and says, "As a matter of fact, I did." And I want to talk about it because I've been feeling like I want to go back to church. I guess she just starts gushing. I'm a lapsed Christian and I felt like I need to go back to church today. But the only church I knew about was about 45 minutes from my house. It was way up in the north part of Saratoga and I just wish I could find a good church that was closer to my house. And I live in this like small village on the central coast nobody's ever heard of called Aptos.

And I go, "Well, perhaps the flight attendant can help you with that." No, I shared our services. Now, here's the thing. Why was I—why did I have my arms folded like I'm not gonna talk to her? Because my expectation was not eager expectation that God is going to use me. My expectation was I'm just not gonna talk to anybody now. But if like the Apostle Paul, I went through my days with eager expectation that somehow in gentle ways, I'm gonna be ministered to and I'm going to have a chance to minister to other people, that would help me to see the opportunities, right? And then optimism also encourages others. It is just contagious.

And people need to be encouraged to be biblically optimistic now more than ever. So, what I want to do in the rest of our time together is to quickly share with you five strategies for developing biblical optimism in discouraging times. Because I know what some of you are thinking, "But René, I am a born pessimist. I'd like to be optimistic, but I just tend to be naturally negative." Well, you know what? Me too. In my nature, I am naturally an eeyore. I default to pessimism. I really do. I've told you before, if my wife is five minutes late coming back from an errand, first thought I have is, "She's probably dead." That's the first thing that goes through my mind.

None of this comes naturally to me, but I am slowly learning. None of this is original to me. None of this is revolutionary. I'd heard all of this before. You have to. My problem was I wasn't actually doing these things until I had my anxiety attacks. And suddenly they became very relevant. And as a preacher, I had to stop preaching these things and start doing them. So, I want to challenge you. Practice all five of these this week and see if it doesn't start to defang fear and anxiety in your own life. Jot them down.

Number one, initiate each day with grateful prayer. Initiate each day with grateful prayer. Studies have shown that the first 10 minutes of your day sets the tone for the rest of the day. So, don't start with the morning news. I'm not saying don't read it eventually, but just don't start there because 90% of it is negative. Start with grateful prayer. Psalm 5:3, "In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice. In the morning, I lay my requests before you and then wait in," what? Expectation. How does morning prayer develop expectation? Try this. I first suggested this last October and I'll say it again.

When you wake up, the moment you're in bed and you kind of vaguely start to realize you're conscious, and right now maybe your first thing that you want to do is grab your phone and, you know, check the news feed or check your Facebook feed. Instead, before you do anything else, thank God for five things. Name five things. What I do is I think of things that are ahead of me that day and I think of them in grateful ways. God, I'm so grateful that I get to share this message with people this morning. I'm grateful I get to teach the new members class after church. I'm grateful that I get to be a part of a celebration of life, speaking at a memorial service later on this afternoon for a beautiful person.

Let me just tell you from personal experience that this changes the way you see everything ahead of you for the rest of the day. You begin to see what's ahead of you with gratitude and expectation instead of a vague sense of dread. So initiate your day with grateful prayer. Then number two, meditate on God's promises. Meditate on God's promises to you. I hope you know that your mental diet affects your fear level, right? Look at this on the screen. I thought this was a great post the other day. Me. Wow, why am I so freaked out all the time? Also me. Watches disappearance shows, listens to murder podcasts, watches unsolved crime videos, right?

So to help you change your mental diet, we put these verses in your notes on pages three and four of your notes. You can cut these out, just use them the way they are, maybe paste them onto three by five cards as memory cards. This is really personal to me too. When I went through my own anxiety attacks, the doctor in the emergency room turned out to be a believer who attended Twin Lakes. And he told me, René, write out some positive promises of God, put them on cards, read them throughout the day whenever you find your brain going to anxiety. So I gave you like a starter pack here.

And let me focus on two more verses, not on those cards, but in your outlines. Jeremiah 29:11, for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you, not harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future. Now this was given to the people of Israel when they were in their Babylonian captivity time. But that same idea is reiterated for all believers, all throughout the Bible, like in Romans 8:28. We know, not just hope, we know that in all things, all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

These verses are not saying that grim times won't come. It's saying that even in the grim times and even through the grim times, God is going to work. So this week when you get some news that just throws you sideways and you start to go, everything's falling apart. Oh no, remember, wait, wait, wait, wait. God has promised that even though I didn't want to hear this news, somehow God is going to work through this news. And so I'm going to live my life with eager expectation. And then as you go through your day, you eliminate negative speech, eliminate negative speech.

And this falls into two categories. What are you saying to others and what are you saying to yourself? Look at this great verse in Ephesians 4:29. "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only, circle only, what is helpful for building others up according to their needs that it may benefit those who listen." One of my biggest concerns about Christians right now is how much we are being influenced by the media in terms of the way we communicate. If you tune into any radio station, I feel like any TV show, any podcast, whether it's Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal, Christian or atheist, or about some other subject like sports or movies, it just feels like it's all so antagonistic.

It's all so full of just negative energy all the time. And what's happening is we're beginning to mimic that way we communicate to each other and even communicate about our faith. And we forget what James 3:5 says. Look at this paraphrase from the message translation. By our what? Speech. We can ruin the world. Turn harmony to chaos. Throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up and smoke with it. Smoke right from the pit of hell. Do you agree with the truth behind that verse? You can set yourself up for failure and you can set your children and your friends and your co-workers up for failure with harsh and negative and judgmental words.

And this isn't just about what you say to others. It's also about what you say to yourself. And this is a very biblical concept in the verse right before this verse. James 3:4. James says the tongue is like the rudder of a ship. It's very small, but he says it sets the course of your life. See what's that mean? Think about the way you narrate your life. To yourself. Yeah, it's always tough times for me. Life stinks. Life is unfair. Or you know what I keep seeing God doing in my life? God keeps working. Even through the undeniably tough times, whichever way you choose to go, that's your rudder.

And we could get stuck in these negative self-talk loops. I know this is part of the problem with my anxiety. I've told some of you about how one night my wife Lori and I were on a very romantic dinner date at a restaurant down in Pacific Grove, down there near Carmel, just really, really romantic, beautiful. And we noticed that there was nobody sitting outside on the restaurant patio. And so we asked the waiter, is that is the patio open? Can we sit out there? He said, sure. We said, even if we're the only ones, he said, absolutely. You can, we're going to make it special for you. They were like candles. So it's just us out in the garden.

And we've got so excited. They served our food. We were so thrilled. And then woman walks out of the restaurant, older lady, and right next to us, separated from us by a little planter box that had like some plants sticking up, like not three feet from us. She lights up her cigarette and blows the smoke literally right into our faces. Maybe she didn't see us through the plants, but just right in our direction. Then another woman walks out, a friend of hers opens up her purse, takes out her cigarettes, lights up, blows in and out like not the 350 other degrees, just like right toward us.

And I whispered to Laura, I go, honey, we can fight crime with our new superpowers. She goes, what are you talking about? I said, well, because we must be invisible. I was already so mad. And then one of them, the taller one, starts talking really loudly in this New Jersey accent. They'd apparently just flown in for a funeral down in Carmel with a friend of theirs. And this was like the reception after the funeral. And they came out to smoke. So she starts talking about what she told the widow after the funeral. And she goes, so after the service, just like this, after the service, I told Blanche, I said, honey, don't worry about it, because we're all going to die.

This is apparently how she was comforting the widow. We're all going to die. And then she starts listing ways you could die. I told her you could die of emphysema. You could die of a stroke. You could die of a heart attack. You could die-- she goes through this whole list. You could die of cancer. And then she starts listing all the cancers she can think of. You could die of brain cancer. You could die of lung cancer. You could die of skin cancer. You could die of esophageal cancer. This is the soundtrack to our romantic evening now. I'm looking at Lori like, what's happening here?

Then she runs out of cancers. And she starts talking about other far-fetched ways that you could die. And she-- Lori can vouch for this. I am not making this up. This is as word for word as I can recall. She says this. She said, I told her, honey, you could die walking past the Pebble Beach golf course getting hit in the temple with an errant golf ball. Her friend who's just been going, aha, goes, aha, every time I look at a golf ball, I think instrument of death. And we're like, what? She goes, you could die, baggage could drop on your head from a passing airplane with a faulty cargo latch. She's on a roll.

And finally, Lori and I just go, wait, or check, please. You know, we're out of here. And she's not stopping. As we're leaving, we're hearing the sounds of the night fade away. "You could die! You could die! You could die!" I don't know if she ever stopped. She could be down there now. It's still going. Well for some of you, this is the soundtrack to your life. I could die. I could die. I could die. I could die. I could die. I could fail. I could fail. I could fail. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it. I'm so stupid. I'm so stupid. I'm so stupid. I always fail. I never appreciated. Everybody else doesn't like me. School's too hard for me. Work is too hard. That is the rudder of your mind.

You are setting your course of your moods and your relationship and even your influence. Replace that not with a pep tech. But what we talked about in point two, you meditate on scriptural truth. Now one disclaimer. When I say eliminate negative speech, I'm not talking about mourning, lamenting, grieving. Mourning and lamenting and grieving are biblical and they are actually productive. I'm talking about complaining speech. I'm talking about grumbling speech. So you do those three things and then number four, a lot of people forget about this one, participate in acts of service.

Have you discovered that volunteering actually helps you with anxiety? You feel anxious. You feel fearful and then you go visit somebody who's sick or you go bring somebody food or you volunteer at the winter homeless shelter and suddenly counterintuitively. You feel your attention's being distracted from your anxieties and on to helping other people. This has been proven again and again. Paul says as we have opportunity, let us do good. To who? All people and especially those who belong to the family of believers. There are always a ton of opportunities here at TLC. You can get info every week out at the info desk about how you can plug in and serve.

I'm just going to mention this now because next weekend we're going to be talking more about this and you're going to be getting all kinds of chances to learn how you can serve God locally and globally. And then finally, number five, concentrate on God's power. Don't concentrate on your weakness. Don't concentrate on all the things that you think you can't do. Concentrate on God's power. Now again, like all five of these, this sounds so obvious. You and I have been taught this if you grew up in church since you were in kindergarten. Problem is we forget to do this.

Check this out. This is remarkable. The Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry had an article about a recent massive study on anxiety. 147,261 adults were questioned from 26 different countries and the hypothesis was that anxiety would be most prevalent in poorer countries and countries where there's a lot of unrest. Their conclusion? The exact opposite. Quote, "General anxiety disorder is especially common and impairing in high-income countries like ours." Isn't that almost incredible? We are the most anxious people on the planet. Not people in countries where there's war, not people in countries where there's poverty, not people in countries where you think, well, they have a reason to be anxious. It's us. We're number one.

Why? How could an affluent society have a problem with anxiety? The problem with affluence is not affluence itself. It's that we are so affluent, so focused on progress that we can easily lose sight of how much we need God. And even as Christians, we can get out of that daily relationship and that leads to anxiety. Martin Luther King, Jr. actually preached a message all about this. He called it, "Why Jesus Called a Man a Fool." It was a sermon about Jesus' parable of the rich fool in Luke chapter 12. That's the story Jesus told about a man who thought to himself, "I am so rich, I have everything I will ever need." But he was a fool, Jesus says, because he forgot God.

And so here on Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend, I thought I would finish this morning by quoting a couple of pages from the end of Dr. King's sermon. Is that okay with you? This is powerful stuff. He starts the message this way. He says, "This morning, I did not come to give a civil rights address. I have to do a lot of that. But, you know, before I was a civil rights leader, I was a preacher of the gospel. And this was my first calling and it still remains my greatest commitment." And then he reads the parable of the rich fool and expounds on it. And then here's how he starts wrapping up.

He says, "You know, a lot of people today are forgetting God." Now they haven't done it theoretically as others have done through God is dead theology, but a lot of people just get involved in other things. They're big bank accounts, they're beautiful automobiles. And I know this from my own experience. Now watch this. The first 25 years of my life were very comfortable years, very happy years. Didn't have to worry about anything. Now, of course, I was religious. I grew up in the church. I'm the son of a preacher. I'm the great grandson of a preacher and the great, great grandson of a preacher. So I didn't have much choice, I guess.

I had grown up in the church and the church meant something very real to me, but it was kind of an inherited religion. I had never had an experience with God in the way that you must have it if you're going to walk the lonely paths of this life. And then I will never forget. One night, very late, it was around midnight, the telephone started ringing. I picked it up. On the other end was an ugly voice that said in substance, "N word, we are tired of you and you're mess. And if you aren't out of this town in three days, we're going to blow your brains out and blow up your house."

I'd heard these things before, but for some reason that night it got to me. I got up, went back to the kitchen, started warming some coffee. I started thinking about many things. I pulled back to the theology and philosophy that I'd studied in the universities, but the answer didn't come there. And something said to me, "You can't call on Daddy now. He's up in Atlanta, 175 miles away. You can't even call on Mama now. You've got to call on that person that your daddy used to tell you about, that power that can make a way out of no way." And I discovered then that religion had to become real to me and that I had to know God for myself.

And I bowed down over that cup of coffee. I never will forget it. And oh yes, I prayed a prayer and I prayed out loud that night, "Lord, I must confess that I'm weak now. I'm faltering. I'm losing my courage." And I heard the voice of Jesus. And he promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. No, never alone. No, never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. And I'm going to go on believing in him and you'd better know him and know his name and know how to call on his name. And you have to say, "He's my everything. He's my sister and my brother. He's my mother and my father." If you believe it and know it, you need never walk in darkness. Amen.

Now he goes on to say, "I still," he says, "I still, I don't mind telling you," he says, "I still struggle with discouragement at times." But he says, "Then I remember I know who to call on and I remember my dependence on God." And here's how he wraps up. He says, "So don't be a fool and recognize your dependence on God." And I want to give you an opportunity to have that moment with the Lord. Because what Dr. King talks about is exactly what Paul talks about in our final verse. Paul says, "We were really crushed and overwhelmed and we feared we would never live through it. We felt we were doomed to die and we saw how powerless we were to help ourselves. But that was good." What? How can a feeling like that be good? "For then we put everything into the hands of God, who alone can save us." Paul says, "For he can even raise the dead." And for Christians, it always comes back to this.

Jesus was in the grave and God resurrected him to life and that same resurrection power is at work in you who believe. Now watch this. Paul says, "And he did help us." Yes, and we expect him to do it again and again. We started by talking about the principle of expectation and here it is again. Are you going through life expecting the God of resurrection to work good even out of the bad, to bring life even out of death, to bring joy even when there's sorrow, to bring power when there's weakness? If you live with that eager expectation, it changes everything.

Now I'm not saying you throw a switch and then you're there for the rest of your life. This is part of our daily walk doing these five things. In fact, look at the question at the bottom of your notes. I'm going to give you some homework. Fill this in in two ways. First, what am I expecting God to do in my life in this next year? Just think about it. What are you expecting God to do in your life in 2019? You will see and experience what you expect. So spend some time considering that question and also fill in the same sentence this way. What am I expecting God to do in my church in the next year?

When you come here to the 10:45 service, if this is the one you normally come to, do you expect that when you find your seat and during the greeting time, you are going to meet some people who are seeking after God but it's their first time here and you are going to have the opportunity to turn to them and be friendly and help them along their journey toward God because they're going to meet you. If you are expecting to meet new seekers after God every week, you're gonna notice them. If you don't expect that, you're gonna walk right past them.

Are you expecting that every weekend when you come to church, God's gonna give you insight that it from the word of God inspired by the Holy Spirit that's gonna change your life? If you're expecting it, your heart's gonna be open. You're gonna get it and if you're not, it's just gonna be a ritual. What are you expecting God to do in your life and in this church in 2019? Live with eager expect... I tell you, I expect that this next year is going to be amazing for you and for this place. I expect that through all the ups and downs of 2019, God, the God of resurrection is going to move powerfully in your life. Do you expect that too? I pray that you do. Let's live with eager expectation in our lives. Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, thank you for being a powerful God, a loving God. We want to live in eager expectations so we dedicate this year in our lives, in this church's life, to your glory. And with heads bowed, I want to invite anybody here to pray that very personal prayer of Dr. King. You may feel like you're as low as look and go right now. This is the moment your religion goes from inherited to personal. And you can pray, "Lord, I need you. You are my everything and so I receive you into my life today. In Jesus name, amen.