10.06.2024 PM Service

The speaker talks about his recent experience speaking to the Gideons and realizing that they do more than just hand out Bibles. He also mentions a prayer request for someone teaching creation to homeschool kids. He emphasizes the importance of caring for others and mentions that serving can be tiring. He then discusses different perceptions of God and concludes that God cares for everyone because he understands and has experienced suffering. The speaker encourages the audience to serve and minister to others, even if they feel untrained, using the disciples as an example. Gather your Bibles tonight. Turn to Mark chapter 6. Mark chapter 6. I had the privilege yesterday of speaking in Little Rock to the leadership of the Gideons here. And they have quarterly, they meet for their state, the state Gideons meet to plan and strategize and all of that. And they meet quarterly. And I had the opportunity to go to Little Rock yesterday morning and preach and encourage them. And it turned out it was a blessing to me. And I was able to sit through some of their planning meetings a little bit before they finally just kicked me out of there. But I enjoyed the morning. It got me to thinking, you know, and a lot of times, and I was reminded yesterday that I've always had some type of involvement in just about every one of my churches with the Gideons because they are a ministry. But it's always been up until here lately that we always think of the Gideons as the guys that give out Bibles. But what I am learning and what I am beginning to see is they do a whole lot more than just hand out Bibles. They have very much impressed me. I know a few times this year they've stopped by the office and three or four of them have stopped by the office and they just come just to visit and find out what's going on in the church, what's going on in my family and how they can pray for me. I know the auxiliary, the women, have come to our parking lot a couple of times and just pray for our church, pray for our community. And it goes a lot beyond just passing out Bibles. But one of the things that I noticed yesterday and one of the things that I've seen and kind of been a prayer request, I didn't mention it earlier, but Brother Morris has got the opportunity this week, he's going to MENA. They're rounding up a group of homeschool kids and who else? We don't know. We've been praying for a while. But he has had an opportunity to go into a home and be able to teach creation and stuff for three or four days this week. And so pray for him as he does that. But what I'm finding out is we have a world that really does need people to care for. They need people to care. And everywhere you go, there's somebody that has a need or something. And Christianity is a tiring job. Serving people is a tiring job. In Mark 6, verse 30-34, and I didn't do any slides tonight, but he'll try to keep up with me with the Scriptures and everything. But I just want to kind of encourage you tonight because we're going into this time of the year is what I call the holiday season. October, November, and December. The quarter that it's all about thanksgiving, it's about giving, it's about caring, it's about sharing. And there's going to be a lot of opportunities and a lot of doors opening for us to minister, for us to serve, for us to reach people. But I also understand that it can get tiring sometimes. It can take away from what you want to do and what you get to do and maybe some of your family time and some of your free time. But I want to encourage you tonight that Jesus Christ knows this and He cares. In Mark 6, verse 30, it says, It says, You know, we have so many different impressions of God. You go ask just about anybody, what do you think of God? Or who is God to you? And you'll get some of the weirdest ideas and stuff that everybody has these different ideas. Some people think that God is this high and holy person that sets themselves above everybody else that doesn't have any time for people. That doesn't have any time for someone like us. And then there's others that look at God as the father of time, right? This old grandfather figure who just kind of winks at sin and has kind of started creation and just sits back up there in heaven. And he just watches kind of his amusement to see how things are going to play out here on this earth. And we need to understand that God is high and holy. He is a holy God. He's separate from sinners. He can't go with us as we saw in this morning's message. He cannot be touched by our wickedness. And he cannot look upon our sins. And he sure definitely doesn't just kind of wink at our sins and our lifestyle choices. But he is a God that cares. He is a God that cares. And he's often portrayed as a God of wrath and judgment. And, you know, you get this one side, these extremists in Christianity that, man, God is a God of wrath and judgment. But then you go to the far other extreme and what? God is a God of love and forgiveness, right? So you've got wrath and judgment. You've got love and forgiveness. And somewhere in the middle, I don't know exactly to what point, but somewhere in the middle is the real truth of the matter that God really does care. He cares for everyone. He's a God of love. He is a God of compassion. And one reason He cares is because He's known what we face. How does God in heaven know what we are going through? Well, as we saw this morning, He came into this world. He lived amongst us. He was God Almighty, but He robed Himself in human flesh so that He might live among men and that He might die on the cross for us. And while He was here, if you study the life of Jesus Christ, you'll find that probably of all individuals, He probably endured more than His share of pain and suffering. He probably endured more than His share of poverty that was there. And He knows what it's like to do without. He told His disciples that on one occasion. He knows what it's like to be rejected. He was rejected by His family. He was rejected by His community of Nazareth. He was even rejected by His nationality, the Jews. And He knows what it's like to be hated. He knows what it's like to suffer pain. He knows what it's like to be hungry and thirsty and alone. He even knows what it's like to die in the place of somebody that doesn't deserve it. And these verses tonight that we come to, He looks at Jesus Christ and He walks through this world and He experienced all of this. And it tells us in Hebrews that He is our High Priest, that He has been touched with all infirmities and everything that we have. He knows, He understands, and He cares. And as we think about it tonight, these verses that we're looking at tonight tell us without a doubt that Jesus Christ cares about us. But He cares about two different groups we see in this passage. First of all, He cares about those laboring servants, those that are laboring, that are working for Him. But He also cares about His lost sheep. And so as we look at this passage of Scripture, if you'll notice in verse 30, it says, And the apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus and told Him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. And so if you understand, if you go back in the context, and I'm always talking about context, context, context. You go back to the beginning of Mark chapter 6, and you find out that Jesus Christ ended up calling His 12 disciples, and then He just sent them out in pairs of two. He said, Go out and preach the gospel. Stay in places that will take care of you, that will provide for you. And so they do. They go out and they start going, and as they go out, they start healing people. People start coming to them. Words start spreading. And man, all of these sick and needy people are coming to them and ministering. And in the meantime, while all of this is going on in their life, you have the story parenthesized in between that and between this time when King Herod ends up taking the life of John the Baptist. And John the Baptist is now dead. And it says there, if you go back up in verse 13 and look, it says, They cast out many devils, they anointed with oil many that were sick, and they healed them. And so here they are out doing all of this stuff and everything, and then John the Baptist dies. And you read in the context that the disciples end up coming to John. They get his body. They go off and they bury him. And now they come back and they gather up with Jesus Christ. And they begin in verse 30, they begin to share what all they've experienced. From the highs to the lows, they begin to talk about what they have done. And the Bible is very clear, as we saw this morning, that He presented us. He's presenting us to be ministers, and we'll look at that next week. But God saved us to serve. God saved us for service. He saved us, and then He equipped us in order to serve, in order to fulfill what He wants us to do. And when our salvation and our service, our works, prove the reality of our salvation. And so we don't work because we have to be saved. We work to prove our salvation, to prove that we have been reconciled unto God. As a matter of fact, David's attitude in Psalms 84.10, he said, For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. And he says, I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. I want to be a servant, even if it's just being a doorkeeper. So the question that we ask is, what are we doing for Jesus Christ? We need to be doing something. We need to be active. And we do different things, and we give different opportunities and stuff. But sometimes we need to look and find specifically, what does God want us to do? How does God want us to serve? And how does God want us to minister? And a lot of people will say, well, I can't serve because I don't have any training. Well, if you go back to the first part of Mark chapter 6, the disciples didn't have a lot of training either. As a matter of fact, he said, I was reading it earlier today, he said in verse 7, And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two, and gave them power over clean spirits, and commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey, save their staff only, no script, no bread, no money in their purse, but be shod with sandals, and put on two coats. And he said unto them, In what place soever you enter into a house, there abide to you, depart from that place. And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you when you depart then, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them. And I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. And they went out and preached that men should repent. There's not a lot of training there. There's not this class of discipleship. And this is the way Jesus worked. He would send them out to do, to work, to serve, to meet people's needs, and then they would come back and there would be a time of bouncing stuff. Hey, this worked out. This didn't work out. What happened here? And so we see a lot in the Gospels where Jesus Christ is meeting with His disciples, and they're talking about what is going on. And so that's what they're doing here in verse 30. They said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while. For there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat. So he gives them a little bit of advice. He says, Come out into a desert place and rest for a while. And he said in verse 32, they departed into the desert place by a ship privately. And so Jesus is looking at these guys and He's seeing their enthusiasm, but He understands according to verse 7 up there, verse 13, man, they have been casting out demons. It's everywhere they go they're drawing people. People are just coming to them. And it says there in the Scriptures that they didn't even have time to eat because they were dealing with people. I know Austin and Kay and them have been on mission trips with me and stuff. There's some days we don't get lunch. There's some days we don't get supper because things just start happening. And what? The next thing you know, lunch time's passed. Supper time's passed. And I remember one night we had got one of the missionaries there. His wife could speak English, and we'd always get her to go translate for us. And at that time she had two little old girls, and they went with us. And I can remember going in at Walmart at 11 o'clock at night. The last thing we had to eat was that morning at 9 o'clock. And we was in at 11 o'clock at night into a Walmart trying to find something to eat to help them. They were tired. They were crying. They were hungry. But that's what happens in ministry. You get busy. You get doing. You're serving people. And all of a sudden, time gets away. And a lot of people would have suggested that it would be a waste of time to get into the desert place, right? A lot of people say, you know, when things are going, you need to be pressing. But sometimes that will wear you out. And Jesus is looking at His disciples, and He says, man, y'all are going to burn out. Y'all are going to wear out. And even when they come to Jesus, this crowd is there. And so He calls His disciples away for a time of rest and refreshing. And one of the things that we need to understand in ministry, there is a lot of physical stress in ministry. If you are serving and you are working, especially when you are working with people that do not care, that do not really appreciate, that's not going on, there is a lot of stress that takes place. And that constant stress, that constant wear. I know nine times out of ten, when I go to the doctor's office, and I start complaining about this, or this ache, or this pain, or whatever, the first thing He asks is, how are you resting? Are you sleeping at night? Are you getting away from it all a little bit? Because rest is vitally important. As a matter of fact, God Himself set up a day of rest, right? He said He worked on six days, but on the seventh day He rested. Our bodies are not designed to just continually keep going. There has to be a time that we slow down just enough to allow our bodies to rest. I was reading a deal not too long ago that said preaching a 45-minute message. Preaching a 45-minute message is equivalent to the mental and physical stress of working eight hours. You say, standing up here is not that big of a deal, but you don't understand the mental and the stress. You don't think about the hours late at night of prayer, the early mornings of getting up, of Sunday mornings when I get up at 5.30, 6 o'clock, wondering, did I get the right sermon? Did I get everything lined out right? Is this really what God wants me to do? And then you get up here and you preach it. I mean, you can ask my wife, Sunday afternoons, Sunday nights, I am drained. One of the things a lot of people don't understand, but me and Lisa don't do a lot of stuff on Saturday nights. And we do it because why? I know Sunday is going to be strenuous. And so Saturday I rest. Saturday I don't do a lot of hunting. I don't do a lot of fishing. I could. That's when I could get it in. But I don't do that because why? Sunday's coming. And I know what's going to happen. And so there's this strenuousness that is there. And God wants us to serve Him, but He doesn't want us to kill ourselves in the process. We're no good if we're dead. We're no good if we're unable to work. But then I think the second problem that they had, not only did they physically need some rest, but I believe there was also this idea, this danger of being lifted up with pride. He sent these disciples out and what? Man, they're casting out demons. They're healing people. All of these people are coming. Man, they are meeting needs. And the problem is that sometimes what happens? We begin to think, look at what I'm doing, right? And so sometimes we just need to step back. Sometimes me and Lisa have been talking here lately. It just seems like you go through seasons in your life, and right now we're going through one of them seasons. It seems like God is just really blessing me and giving me opportunities to do things and extra opportunities to preach and teach and minister and do the things that I love. And it's very easy to think, man, look at what I'm doing, and forget about that God. We can't do anything. Our works are absolutely nothing. It is God that is doing it. We must never come to the place that we think it's all about us. It's not about us. You know, it was a great privilege and honor to speak to them guys yesterday, but guess what? Anybody could have got up there and spoke to them guys yesterday. They could have had anybody. But you know, when I preach, I need to give God the glory. When we teach lessons and classes to your class, and man, things go well and people are learning, we need to give God the glory. When you choir members hit everything in perfect pitch on Sunday morning and you perform your songs perfectly well, we need to give God the glory, right? It's not about us. It's God working in us. And so if we're not real careful, we could fall into this trap of thinking that we're something special. And so sometimes we just need to get away and rest so that we can rest our body, so that we can realize, guess what? Even while we're resting, the work's still going on. Because if you notice here, what's happening? He brings them out to the desert, but people are still coming. People are still there. And so as we look at this, notice not only does He care for the laborer, but He also cares for the lost sheep. This is in verse 33. And the people saw them departing, and many knew Him... I'm talking about Jesus Christ. Now they've gathered up with Jesus Christ, and so they run a foot thither out of all cities and out went them and came together unto them. And Jesus, when He came out, saw much people and was moved with compassion toward them because they were a sheep not having a shepherd, and He began to teach them many things. And so if you go back up to verse 30, what did He do? He said, let's go get in the boat and let's go to a deserted place. Let's go to a place where we can rest. And so I got to study in this region, in this area that was here. Of course, the very next event that's fixing to happen in Mark chapter 6 is they're going to get on the other side of the sea and all of these people have gathered up, and this is where Jesus Christ feeds the multitude. And so a big miracle is coming, but what did they do? They went out for a time of rest. They went out for a time of rejuvenation. And what I found out in this region is literally to go across the Sea of Galilee was about a four-mile trip by boat. And so it was four miles to go across. But being on the Sea of Galilee, you can see all the way across the Sea of Galilee. So you can go by land, and it's about ten miles to go by land. And so what happened was all these people see Jesus get into a boat with His disciples and start heading across, and they take off on foot. And most of the time, depending on the wind and everything else, at a good, steady pace of walking, you can actually walk ten miles quicker than you can go four miles by boat. And so by the time Jesus and them pull up on the other side, people are already starting to show up to where they were going to rest and rejuvenate. And so according to Mark chapter 6 and verse 44, there was approximately, it says He fed 5,000 men. So if these men had a wife and even possibly two kids, you were talking anywhere between 5,000 to 20,000 people that was already waiting on Him when He gets to the other side. And so can you imagine the disciples? They've been all this going on. They just lost John the Baptist, the one that brought them the kingdom that preached Jesus Christ to them. He has now been killed. You're on this emotional roller coaster. You come to Jesus and He said, guys, we need to get away and rest. Yeah, we do. And so they start to go to rest, and when they get to where they're supposed to go, there's about 20,000 people standing there waiting on them. You know, the Bible tells us that Jesus, when He saw the multitude, He was moved with compassion toward them. If you think about it for just a minute, there's several different emotional responses that we can have. And He chose compassion. But one emotion that we can have toward people in this situation is apathy. Apathy refers to an absence of emotion. In other words, you see a need, but you don't really care, right? There's a lot of people that have apathy. We see needs around us, but we don't care. But we know that there's people that have need, and there is a lot of apathy in our world today. There are a lot of things that are just simply unmoved by what's going on. When you hear them describe finding people floating in rivers and stuff, folks, that ought to stir us. I watched on a documentary the other night of when the Hezbollah came in and invaded the thing the other day, and I didn't even finish it. I was so shook up. And so they were interviewing young people that was caught in this deal. They had live footage from their phones. And to watch these guys as they just gunned innocent people down in the streets and stuff. And like I said, I couldn't even finish it. But there's a lot of people that would watch it with apathy and say, You know what? They needed help, but I'm not there. That's over there, right? That's away from us. Another emotional response is sympathy. Sympathy refers to a harmony of feelings. In other words, you see a need and you know how they feel because you felt that way too. And you can sympathize with them. You know, when I see somebody hungry, I can sympathize that they're hungry because I've experienced hunger. When I see somebody tired, I can sympathize. When I see somebody having a need and having problems paying their bills at the end of the month, I can sympathize, right? I see their need and I know what they felt like. But then you go a little bit further. You have apathy. Then you have sympathy. And then the third one is empathy. And empathy speaks of our emotions that's stronger than sympathy. You empathize with someone. It means that you actually start to hurt with them. You see that they have a need. It moves you. But now you're kind of involved into this deal and you kind of have pain for them. You kind of feel for them. You may cry. You may pray. You may do something. But the fourth word and the one that Jesus has used, Jesus didn't have apathy for them. He didn't have sympathy for them. He didn't have empathy for them. The Bible says Jesus had compassion. Compassion. The word compassion means to be moved inwardly. To yearn with tender mercy, affection, pity, and empathy. It refers to the deepest possible feelings. And you see that phrase moved with compassion. It means that they were moved in their inner organs. You ever been so moved by a situation that your belly hurt? You ever been moved by a situation that it made you sick to your stomach? You felt it in the bottom of your heart. You felt physically ill or whatever. And so someone has defined compassion as sympathy coupled with a strong desire to help. It refers to the capacity to share feelings. To enter into the same feelings. To feel the same thing. Notice the reason for Jesus' concern. He was moved with compassion in verse 33. All of these people had run this ten-mile track around the Sea of Galilee to the other side out of all of their cities. They came out there, and verse 34 says, and when He came out, He saw much people and was moved with compassion toward them because, here's the reason, they were as sheep having no shepherd. He saw them as a flock of lost sheep. You know, I got to thinking about something this week. I've heard of people hunting wild goats in the wild and stuff, but I've never heard of wild sheep. Sheep can't survive on their own. They have to have a shepherd. They have to have someone to take care of them. Someone to tend to them. And yes, they had their religious leaders, but you think about their religious leaders, the scribes and the Pharisees and the religious people of their day. All they cared about was their self. They didn't care about the people. They used the people. You know, unfortunately, we have a lot of people in Christianity today that don't care for the people, but they use their people as a means to get where they want. Ezekiel 34 explains all of this in verse 1-10. He said, The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy saying to them, Thus saith the Lord God unto the shepherds, Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves, should not the shepherds feed the flocks? You eat the fat. You clothe you with the wool. You kill them that are fed, but you feed not the flock. The disease have you not strengthened, neither have you healed that which was sick, neither have you bound up that which was broken, neither have you brought again that which was driven away, neither have you sought that which was lost, but with force and with cruelty you have ruled them. And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd, and they became meat to all the beasts of the field when they were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill, yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them. Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord, as I live, saith the Lord God, surely, because my flock became a prey, and my flock became meat to every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did my shepherds search for my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not my flock. Therefore, O shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock. Neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more, for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them." The religious leaders of the Jews looked at the people of Israel and saw them as people that existed to serve them, to benefit them. They stripped them of their wool. They stripped them of their meat. They stripped them of everything that they could strip them, but they did not care for the sheep. But when Jesus looked at the people of the Jews, the Israelites, He saw them as lost sheep in need of a shepherd. When you think about sheep, sheep need a shepherd to find their way. He says when the shepherd was not taking care of the flock, they scattered. They took off. They were out there into the wild. Sheep without a shepherd are absolutely defenseless. He told Ezekiel that the wild beast ate them and conquered them. Sheep without a shepherd are dumb. They can't do what they need to do. And just like Jesus Christ, He says no man will come unto the Father unless what? The Holy Spirit draws him unto Him. And so notice in verse 34, and we'll wrap this up, notice His reach of concern. And Jesus when He came out, He said because they were a sheep having no shepherd, and He began to teach them many things. And as I read that verse, I get the sense that while Jesus saw the crowd, He's looking at something more. He's not looking at the crowd. I believe what Jesus is doing is He is actually looking at a huge group of people. But He's looking through these group of people and He's seeing individuals. He's seeing the woman out there that needs to be healed. He's seeing all of these individuals. He's seeing people out there with broken hearts. He's seeing people that have physical ailments. Those that have emotional needs. Those that are going through spiritual things. I think He looks out in the crowd and He sees the crippled child. He saw the abused wife. He saw the depressed father that things just wasn't going on. The rebellious teenager. He looked at the crowd, but I think He saw the individual. And you know what? That encourages me today. When I think about that, I praise the Lord that we serve a God who knows all things. He doesn't look at the crowd. He looks at the individual. He looks at us. A quick survey of the Gospel. You'll find the boundless love and the compassion of our Savior Jesus Christ. He had compassion for those that were scattered. He wanted them to be brought together into a fold. He had compassion for those that were in sin. He had compassion for those that were sick. He had compassion for those that were suffering. He had compassion for those that were seeking a Savior. And even though Jesus Christ knew all of their faults, and knew that absolutely none of them were perfect, He still had compassion and expressed it in love to them. He didn't just look at that which was apparent on the surface. But He looked at those people to see their deepest need. When I read that, I'm convicted. Just as your pastor, I'm convicted. Because how do we see people? How do we see people? I know one of the men this morning that was here in church drove all the way from Mabelville. He's looking for a church. How in the world does a guy find out from Mabelville about Kentucky Missionary Baptist Church? Because he ran into Mike Nally in a tractor supply. They knew! They struck up talking. And they found some similarities. They found some things alike. And of course, I found out this guy wants me to call him this week and talk to him because he's real big into some prophecy and he wants to ask some questions about the end times and stuff. But when you look at that, we look at this world and we look at things, and how many people have I passed in tractor supply that I've just walked on by to get my stuff, to get it done, and get home? Right? And so, you know, I didn't talk to the deaf guy that showed up today, but he showed up last week. He was concerned enough that he came back this week to do that. And yes, I know he needed money, and I never promised him any money. I never said anything to him about money. I just kept inviting him to church. And he said, I'll be there Sunday morning when church starts. And so he was here. But I think what we need to do is we need to make sure that we are moved with compassion. We see what the need is. And we actually get involved. And look at the last part of v. 34. His response. He began to teach them many things. He began to teach them many things. There they are. What do they go out there for? To rest. He was away from people for a minute, right? But when he got out of the boat, he looked at these people. And yes, he was tired. Yes, he was wore out. Yes, it had been a long day. I cannot imagine rowing a boat four miles across the water and seeing all of these multitudes and wanting to start teach, right? I'm thinking, man, let me get me a meal. Let me get some water. Let me get a little bit of rest. I've rowed just a little bit. I've never rowed four miles. But here they paddled this boat to the other side. And Jesus, God, had gathered up all of these sheep right there in the wilderness. Somewhere between 5,000 to 20,000 people. And the Good Shepherd, the Great Shepherd, looks out and doesn't look at this crowd, doesn't look at an opportunity of loss of rest or anything else, but what does He see? He sees individuals that have needs. That need something. And He says He begins to teach them. He begins to teach them. And you know, as we're going into this holiday season right now, and I'm preaching this to me as much as I'm preaching this to you, we have some great givers in Kentucky Missionary Baptist Church. We have some great servers in Kentucky Missionary Baptist Church. We have great people in Kentucky Missionary Baptist Church. But all of us, including myself, can probably stand to look at people with compassion a little bit more than what we do. And you know, when you see the woman, I talked to a preacher the other day that had a chance to talk to a woman in Walmart, because he simply looked down the aisle and here she was standing there and she was crying. And instead of just walking away, he walked up to her and he said, ma'am, what's going on? And she had lost a family member. Her world was falling apart. And he was able to sit there and share Jesus Christ, teach her, pray with her, show her a point of the way to Jesus Christ in her time of need. And you know, I love preaching. I spend a lot of time preparing to preach. I love you. I spend a lot of time serving and doing things. But you know what? Sometimes I forget the masses. Sometimes I forget the people that are outside these walls. And so maybe, hopefully, we understand that if God cares for us, that He's going to say, hey man, come over here and rest. And you know what? He didn't allow His disciples to do all the ministry. He did it. He said He began to teach. He took that responsibility. Even when He goes into the next story, and we may look at that in two weeks when He feeds the 5,000 people. What did He do? He said sit them down in groups and give it to them. But He did the work. He took care of it. And so as we go into this holiday season, I just want to kind of focus our mind and just focus our hearts just a little bit. You know, I love the holidays. I love Thanksgiving. I love Christmas. I have tons of memories with families and friends. I have wonderful memories of get-togethers with churches and parties and everything else. And I love all of that. But sometimes while we're going through Christmas, there's a lot of people out there that are hurting. There's a lot of people that need Jesus Christ that don't have good memories, that don't have good things to reflect on. And you know, the easiest thing we can do is to look at them as sheep without being a shepherd. And you go back to the 23rd Psalms, and what does it say about the shepherd? The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. You know, sometimes all it takes is for us, if we're going to be a good under-shepherd, is just lead them to Christ, to where they can get rest, where they can get the nourishment, where they can get the water, where they can get the things that they need, not only physically, but even more importantly, spiritually. Dearly Father, we thank You as we stand for a verse of invitation. We thank You so much for this story. And Father, man, it is great when things are happening. It is great. There is a joy like no other to serve You. There is a joy in serving that even though it is physically tiring, it's mentally tiring, it's emotionally draining, that there's something that's inside that just makes you want to keep going. Keep doing it. Keep moving on, because we know the day is coming.