Who God Really Is

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

I am not preaching today, Amen? Alright. We have a good friend of ours, a mentor of mine, John Strappazon is going to be sharing a message from God's Word today and I just wanted to introduce him and just give you a little background. John has been an amazing force in collegiate ministry over the years. He was at Texas Tech University for many years and had over 1,500 college students a week at their service at their church. He was then over in college in collegiate ministry in Oklahoma and he was actually my boss for a couple of years. And he was a great boss, I don't know if I was a great employee, but he was a great boss and he has mentored me over the years and meant a lot and there was one particular instance where he went to bat for me and stood up for me in a very situation that was scary to me and he was there for me and I'll never forget it and so I'm going to pray for him and he's

going to come and share with us. So I hope you hear from the Lord today through John. Lord Jesus, thank you so much for John and Wanda and their lives devoted to you and to helping others walk with you, for his passion, for disciple making and mentoring others to help them walk with you. God, I just thank you so much for his influence on my life and I just pray that we would just really hear from you today through John. In Jesus' name, Amen.

The lights on. I don't know how it's possible that all of these are different. This is like, you know when you go put your credit card in at some place, how are all of those different? How can they have so many of those that are different? I'm just surprised at that. Anyway, I keep that, I guess that's one of the ways they keep us off balance. But today, I'm excited, today is a really special day in my life. Today is my 45th anniversary and my wife is here to celebrate it with me, stand up Wanda. Yes, I want you to stand up. You know, when I was getting ready to marry her, ask her to marry me, one of the things that bothered me that I didn't think I could do it. I didn't think I could last go the distance. My parents hadn't, they divorced and I just didn't think I could do it. But you know what? It doesn't matter whether you can do it or not. Jesus can do it.

You have to make some choices but Jesus can do it. I know all of us have had this situation where you're at a ball game or at the mall or maybe in Walmart or Target or someplace and you see someone that you know. And you call out their name and you begin to head toward them and when they turn around, you have no idea who that is. Have you had that experience? You're like, oh, okay. You know, you try to walk by and pick up something else. Or maybe you've had the opposite experience where someone's called out your name and it sounds like someone you know and you turn to see them and you have no idea who this person is. When you're in my line of work, when you meet a lot of people, you can't, it's really not good for you not to recognize someone. But maybe you're like this where you smile and they're heading your way and you're thinking, I have no idea who this is.

I don't know what I'm going to do and they're getting closer and you're trying, you know, you're beginning to, sweat's beginning to break out on your brow and they get really close to you and you begin to extend your hand and they walk right by you and embrace someone right behind you. Have you had that experience? Well, if you have it, you will. It's coming for you at a store nearby. You know, mistaken identity is something that just sort of happens in life. People will mistake you for other people. You will mistake them for somebody else. And while that's not such a big deal, it is really a big deal when we have a mistaken identity of who God is. And today I'm going to talk to you about that. And if you will turn your Bibles to Psalm 103, Psalms easy to find. If you just let your Bible fall open, most likely it will fall open to Psalm or just open the middle.

And if you hit Proverbs, you've gone a little far to the right. And if you hit one of the other books, anyway, you'll find it. What is God really like? Today I'm going to talk to you about his real identity from Psalm 103. First thing we need to know is that he's different than us. Isaiah 55, 8, 9 tells us this. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Have you ever thought, if I was God, I would do this? Or if I was God, I would do that. One day I was in a car with one of my nephews in law and he was just irked about something. He tends to get irked about a lot of things. And he was, I don't know why God doesn't deal with those people. Why doesn't just take them out? He was talking about people who have done really bad things to people.

And I kind of paused and I went, well, he'd have to take you and me out because of our sin. You see, God is not like us. God handles things differently than I would a lot of times. And that's probably a good thing because sometimes I'm not the nicest person. Sometimes I don't always know exactly how things are going to work out. So today, the Bible tells us today that and it's told us for a long time that God is different than us. Now, Moses knew God. He knew God really well. Outside of Jesus, I would say Moses arguably knew God experientially firsthand the most about God. And he's who's writing this chapter here. It says, we're going to begin in Psalm 103. But before that, Exodus 33, 11 says, the Lord would speak to Moses face to face as one speaks to a friend. Now we know that face to face wasn't exactly that. It was a reference to how God would speak to him more than physically because we know

that physically no man can see God and live because of who he is. So speaking kind of figuratively here that they had that kind of relationship where God would speak to Moses as a friend would speak to a friend. So Moses knew a lot about God. So in Psalm 103, we're going to look at verses 7 through 18. But we're going to break this down by just reading a part of it at a time. So the first part, we're going to look at verse 7, which says, he made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel. Now the idea of ways here in the Hebrew, which the Old Testament was written in Hebrews, different language than we speak. In the Hebrew, it means acts or designs or intentions. So intentions, he made his intentions known to Moses. He made his ways known as deeds. That is his nature and the methods of his dealing with the children of men. Moses and the Israelites knew both what to conceive of him and how to understand him,

what to expect from him by what he did and how he handled them. And we'll talk about that. Well, that's just his way or that's just her way. What we mean is what they're kind of like, that idea. And we learn what someone is like because of their ways. That's how we get to know someone. We get to know them by their habits, their behaviors, their practices, their reactions to different situations. Now today we're going to talk about five of God's ways that fill us in on his identity. There are five different things we're going to talk about today. And I believe if you can get your arms around these, if you can let these kind of soak into your heart, it's really going to change not only how you relate to God, but it's going to change you. So let's take a look at the first one. What is God really like? The first part is found in verse eight. It says, the Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love.

The first thing we need to learn about God is that he has a long fuse. He has a long fuse. It burns for a long, long time before it comes to an end. God never flies off the handle. He never overreacts. He never gets up on the wrong side of the bed. He never has a bad day. Now I grew up in an Italian home and my dad was quick to anger. I mean my dad was a dog that did not bark. He just bit. There was no warnings. There was no I'm going to get the belt. There was no if you do that again, this is going to happen. It was just bang, bang and over. And my dad was just as likely to pick me up and kiss me on the mouth as he was to light me up. That's who he was. He was not slow to anger. And so if you know people like that. Maybe you have a boss that flies off the handle or maybe you had a mom or dad who did that or a sibling who did that. Well, God doesn't do that. God has a long fuse.

Again, he never flies off the handle. He never gets up on the wrong side of the bed. He never has a bad day. He never overreacts. The first thing we can learn about God is that he has a long fuse. Now there's something else in this passage that I want us to see before we move away from this first one. It says he's abounding in love. Abounding in love. Let's just suppose that my wife and I go to somewhere for lunch this afternoon and they have a waitstaff, that kind of place. And I have finished off my first glass of iced tea. And this wait person comes back to fill up my glass again. Well this person's a talker. They don't pay any attention to what they're doing. And they're pouring my glass of tea. And I've decided I'm just going to watch and see what happens. So they're pouring it and now it's about half full. I'm watching. Now it's about three fourths of the way full.

And now it's up to the rim. And I think I want to see what's happened. It's kind of feisty. And now it's running down the sides. And this person's still pouring. And now it's running across the table. And now it's running on the floor. That is a picture of abounding. My glass is abounding in iced tea. That's what it means when God says he's abounding in love. He's pouring more love on your life and my life than we can hold. More love on our lives that we can handle. That's how abounding he is in love toward you and I. But let's go back and remember the first part of this. It said here that he has a long fuse. The Lord is compassionate and gracious. Slow to anger, abounding in love. So the first thing we can learn about God is that he has a long fuse. Now we're going to play. Is this going to be audience participation today? Or someone might say this is an all-skate today.

Everybody gets to play. So the first thing is, what's the first thing I want you to tell me? Okay. I want you to tell me what's the first thing we've learned about God today. What is it? He has a long fuse. Yes, if you're taking notes, write that down. He has a long fuse. Now the second one is found in verse 9, which says, he will not always accuse nor will he harbor his anger forever. Number two is he has a short memory, but not a bad one. We know some people that have a bad memory. I've got a bad memory. I just forget stuff. I mean, my wife will say to me, let's stop at so-and-so on the way home. I'll drive all the way home and go, oh, I forgot. And my wife is wonderful to me to sometimes let me do that. Now sometimes we get close now and she'll go, remember we're going to such-and-such. I'll go, okay, that's great. Now I've had to learn to accept that because, you know, as a guy, I do everything right.

Can I get a witness here? No. Nobody's going to put up their hand, not if your wife's. Amy's looking at Dan. Does any other men do that? Forget. Well, see, God has a short memory, but not a bad memory. He doesn't forget things. He chooses to not treat us like our sins deserve. You see, he gets over things quickly. He chooses to forget. He doesn't hold a grudge. Well, it's a good thing he's not like a lot of us. Many of us don't get hysterical, but we can sure get historical. You know, I'll finally hear people say, I can forgive, but I'll never forget. And somehow we wear that like that's a spiritual badge. Well I'll forgive him, but I'll never forget it. Well, that's not good. Now, here's an idea on forgetting, and this has worked for me quite a bit. You know, there's some people who really hurt you. Some of us have too soft a skin, and we'll talk about that later.

But to forgive someone is very hard, especially depending on how bad the offense is. But once we've decided we're going to forgive them, the best way I've found to forget it is that when it comes up in my mind, when it plays on the big screen of my mind, I change the channel. I just don't play with it. I don't sit there and go, yeah, that's right. Hmm. And you know what? I can't help it. Sometimes when I see him, it's boom. It's right there, right in front of me. The best way I've found to forget is to just change the channel. Sometimes I've just got to leave the room. And see, sometimes forgiveness is a process that we have to walk through as we forgive them. But it's a choice that we're making to do that, to even leave the room unless I go to another room and go, rrr. But it's to change the channel and to think of something else. But that's a choice we have to make.

That's a choice we have to make. And you see, let's go back and read this again. He will not always accuse nor really harbor his anger forever. You see, God has a short memory but not a bad one. He gets over things quickly. He chooses to forget. It's not like God can't remember. But that he has chosen to forget it. He doesn't hold a grudge. Now we learn two things about God. What's the first one? Rrr. Oh, he's got a long fuse. What's the second one? Not a bad memory. It's forgetful. Because we're going to be around some people who are forgetful. I am one of those. I resemble that remark. I can forget things. This is why I have one of the things that's wonderful about my wife is she remembers stuff. And you know how when a mate will die, it seems like the other person is kind of lost. Well, I've actually read up about that. That's because the longer you live together, the more you use each other's brains.

And when your mate dies, you've lost part of your brain. I'm going to, if my wife goes before me, I'm going to be in big trouble. You guys just find me in a gutter somewhere going brrr, brrr, brrr, brrr. Not really. But we do do that with each other. So he's got a short memory, but not a bad memory. Let's go to number three. According to this chapter, number verse 10 says, he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. The third thing that's true about God is he has a thick skin. He has a thick skin. He isn't touchy. He isn't easily offended. He has no desire. Now listen to this. He has no desire to get even or get back at us or to even the score. And he doesn't expect us to make it up to him or promise not to do it again. Now let's stop there. Some of us think we need to make it up to God. No. Some of us think we need to make it up to him.

You know, Jesus made it up to him. Not you. That's why Jesus came and died. You see, either Jesus paid it all or he didn't pay any at all for you. And those of you who punish yourselves after you do something and you go put yourself in the corner and you put a dunce cap on your head or whatever it is you do to yourself and then after you've punished yourself long enough and you can feel good about yourself, then you come back and say, I'm okay. That does not honor God. In fact, that sort of flies in the face of what Jesus did. Plus you're weird. When you're mad at yourself, you're just weird. And everybody's like, why is he so weird? Well he's mad at himself. What? It's really hard for us to believe that Jesus paid for everything. But you need to begin to move that way because Jesus really did pay it all. He's paid for all the dumb and bad things that I've done in my life and all the dumb

and stupid and bad things I'm yet to do. He's paid for all of it and you need to get over yourself. Now another thing is don't tell God you'll never do it again because what do you do when you do it again? What do you say, I'll never, never do it again? Really I mean it this time God, I'll not do that again. Well one of the problems with doing it again, obviously you don't want to do it again. And God knows that. And he's not going to say, you know, you do that again and you're out pal. Now I've heard that from my parents and from other people, but God doesn't do that. Don't tell him you won't do it again because you also have an enemy who is listening and is going, really? Well let's see. And I know you're like me, I don't want it. Don't do it again because God will forgive you. Then you're really off. So don't promise God stuff like that. And when you do do it again, he'll forgive you again because that's who he is.

He's not like you. He's not like your mom. He's not like your dad. He's not like your coach. He's not like your teacher. He's who he is. We got to get his identity right. Now if there's something you can't seem to get past, get some help. A lot of the things we run into in life we can't fix on our own. We need other people to help us. Call yourself and find somebody to help you or to hold you accountable so that you can move forward. See, life is about, this is very important. What I'm about to tell you is very important. Life is not about perfection. It's about progress. If I saw the hand, if I asked you if you were a perfectionist, would you be tempted to put your hand up? Surely no one's here that's a perfectionist. The problem with being perfectionism is you will never reach it because when you get close to it, you will change it. You will make it harder. Well, I did do that, but I should have done that.

Then when you do that, then you go, but I should have done that. You'll just change the game. God is not looking for perfection from you, but progress is the thing we want to make. Is progress toward becoming more like Jesus? Some of that involves asking forgiveness. Some of that involves forgiving ourselves. That's how we make progress. See, one day you will be perfect, the Bible tells us, when you see Jesus. Right now, God does want us to make progress. Progress is the goal, not perfection. I think we've heard three things about God now, haven't we? What is it? What's the first one? And what's the second one? That's right. He's not just forgetful. What's the third one? Yeah, a lot of us have a thin skin. You're just too easily hurt. The tendency is for us to have a thin skin and a thick heart or a hard heart. And we want to flip those around to where we're not so easily hurt.

We have a thicker skin to where, well, you know, I walked in there and he didn't talk to me today as we think he is. She didn't talk to me. I don't know who they think they are, but I know none of us would ever think that. So what we want to do is we want to believe the best of others and give people a break to be able to do that, to make progress. And you won't always do that. That's where progress is important. You just want to make progress and see progress can be made and celebrate the progress that you make. So we've got three things that we've come up with now. Let's go to number four. Number four is found in verse 11 and 12 and 13 and 14. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far as he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear

him, for he knows how we're formed. He remembers that we are dust. Now I want to look at something before we move forward is that the part where it says on those who fear him. Proverbs 9, 10 says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. See this is the mark of those who know him. These are believers. To fear the Lord is to put him in his rightful place. To fear the Lord is not like if Godzilla ripped the roof off the building or if a tornado was coming down the street. It has, well, let me just say it, fearing the Lord has a part of that in that because the Bible teaches us that our God is a consuming fire. So he's not somebody that we fool around with. But the idea here of fearing him is putting him in his rightful place in my life. That he is God and I'm his creation. That he's the Lord, I'm not. And that's the idea of people who have put God in his rightful place, that they have

a healthy, not a I'm afraid of my dad kind of situation. But he loves me, but he is God and I am man. So those are the ones who fear him, those who put him in his rightful position. That's what he's talking about here. Those who've come to know him as their Lord and Savior. Those who've turned their lives over to him and are counting on him to make them right with God, not themselves. Because somebody is going to pay for your sin. It's either going to be you or it's going to be Jesus. And you don't want it to be you. Now let's go back to what this one teaches us. This one teaches us that he has a soft heart, but he's not a soft touch. God is a soft heart, but he's not a soft touch. He never, never mistake his kindness for weakness. Never mistake his kindness for indifference. Never mistake his kindness for indulgence. He's very serious about his children and they're growing into the likeness of his son, Jesus.

You see, he chooses to be kind to us. He chooses to be kind to us. He has a soft heart toward us, but he's not a soft touch. Do you know what I mean by soft touch? That means that I can sort of get away with things. That God would kind of go, eh, that's my kid. He says, don't do that again. God is not like that. He has a soft heart, but he's not a soft touch. He wants us to grow into the likeness of his son and he's going to spare no cost to himself and no cost to you to make that happen. But he has a soft heart toward us. Now he chooses to be kind to us and his loving and kindness are expressed through two things. They're expressed through two things. First is his forgiveness. Let's look at verses 12 and 13. As far as the east is from the west, so far as he removed our transgressions from us. As far as the east is from the west, so far as he removed his transgressions from us.

Now the first time that I flew to China, we took off from Los Angeles and we were flying along and I remember that they had all the blinds down in the windows. And I thought, why do they have the blinds down in the windows? I can't see anything. It's dark in here. So I went over there and opened a blind and looked out and was looking for a while. There's water and there's more water. All there is is water. I shut the blinds real quick because there's no place to land if you know what I mean. Now also what happened at this time was somewhere out in the ocean somewhere, we crossed the international date line. And somehow the day I was in was tomorrow all of a sudden. And I'm like, what? You know, I'm still confused about it actually. You know, I think they ought to have a line there. You know, like they have in the first down for the football games? They ought to have some kind of a line that's there so you know when you crossed it.

You see, the beauty of that is that God has placed our sins as far as the east is from the west. Nobody really knows where that is. We have the international date line obviously. But the idea here is that when we ask God to forgive us, he really does. And he puts it somewhere where it can't be found. So stop digging up your backyard looking for your sins. When you ask him to forgive you of it, he has forgiven you of it. Don't get your backhoe out and start digging. And remind God of how bad a person you are. He's forgiven you. And he's put it as far as the east is from the west. So that's the first way that he shows us as love and kindness is expressed through forgiveness. And then in verses 13 and 14, he says, as a father has compassion on his children. So the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. For he knows how we're formed. He remembers that we are dust.

The second way that I believe that he shows his love and kindness, the second way his love and kindness is expressed to us is through understanding. The first one is through forgiveness. Total forgiveness. Complete forgiveness. And when you ask God to forgive you for something, and you mean it, he forgave you. And he put it somewhere where nobody can find it. The second way he's shown this is through his understanding. You see, he has a clear perspective on us. He was one of us. And he knows how hard it is to be a human. For he knows how we're formed. He remembers that we're dust. He was there when we were formed. And he remembers that we're dust. And I've been chewing on this for a long time. And the best I can come up with is that God knows it's hard to be a human. It's hard for us to choose to do the right thing. Now he's helping us do that. And along the way, we won't.

We'll ask his forgiveness and he'll pick us up and move us forward. But I think he knows it's tough to be you. It's tough to be you and trust him. I think he knows that. For he knows how you are formed. And he remembers that you are dust. So we've learned four things about God. What's the first one? Let's start again. One, two, three. Number two. Okay, I better go back. Soft heart but not a soft touch. Okay, let's go to number five. You guys are doing good. Are you with me still? You in the game? All right, let's get this fifth one. Let's take a look at verses 15 and 16. Now these could be the most discouraging verses in the whole Bible. It says this, but they're not. The life of mortals is like grass. They flourish like a flower of the field. The wind blows over it and it's gone and its place remembers it no more. That's not very encouraging. But there's a big however, our but here.

From everlasting to everlasting, the Lord's love is with those who fear him and his righteousness with their children's children, with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts. Number five is this. He is devoted to his children. The idea here is loyal, faithful, committed, and true. What's happening in these verses here is he's contrasting verse 15 with verse 16. The contrasts of our nature. See, our nature is we're finite. He is contrasting his eternal nature with our finite nature. You see, all of us are short-timers. We all have an expiration date. We just don't know when it is. And the end of the story is that we're not going to be able to do that. And God is infinite and we are finite. God goes on forever. And like I said, we're short-timers. But even though this is reality and it could be depressing, it highlights our need, our tremendous need for him.

So it contrasts his infinite all-time nature with our finite short-term nature and shows us our need for him. But it also highlights his commitment to us from everlasting to everlasting, never fading or ending. It's still there no matter what we do or don't do. It's not dependent on me. Did you catch that? You being with him for eternity is not dependent on you. It is dependent on you to the point that you make the personal decision to turn your life over to him and to receive him as your Savior, as the one who's going to make you right with God. That's what you determine. You determine your fate. But once you do that, you will be with God from everlasting to everlasting. He will never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever let go of you or let go of me. The Bible tells us in Hebrews 13:5 that he will never leave you and never forsake you. He's never going to give up on you.

No matter what you do now, he will, if you get carried away with messing your life up, he will come and find you. And like a good parent, he's going to try to bring you back along. But he will never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever give up on you. So there are five things we've learned about God today. What are they? What's the first one? Long fuse. He never flies off the handle. He never gets carried away. He never has a bad day. He's got a long fuse. My dad, God bless him, I love him, and my mother was the same way. I had both of them coming at me. So you can feel sorry for me today. They both had a short fuse and with each other. So he has a long fuse. He never gets carried away. Number two. That's right. He chooses to forgive and forget. It's a choice he makes. And we can learn to make that too. What's the third one? He has a thick skin. He's not touchy.

He's not easily offended. Isn't that good that he's not easily offended? Because I'm pretty offensive. What's number four? Yeah. He's got a soft heart. His heart is bent towards you. He loves you, but he's not only to get away with stuff. Okay? And what's the fifth one? Let me say that. Let me hear that one again. He's devoted to his children, and he shows his love for us in two ways. By his forgiveness, his complete and total forgiveness. There's nothing you can ever do that God cannot forgive you for. Now, there is this thing called consequences though. You know, some sin has different consequences. If I lie to you, you're probably not going to like me, and you're not going to respect me. But if I kill you, I get a prison ministry. There is consequences to our sins, because reality is reality. It's real. So there are five things that we've learned about God. And if you can grab these, if you can get these, let these soak down into you, they're

going to change who you are. Because it's going to free you up in your relationship with God. You don't have to be worried about what he's going to do to you or what he thinks of you. If you've given your life to Jesus and received him as your Savior, you are now his kid. The Bible tells us that to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become the children of God. See, everyone's a creation of God, but you become a child of God by choice. And if you haven't made that choice, that's what I would encourage you to do today. Now this is the real God, not someone that you made up, or your mama told you about, or your daddy told you about, or your coach, or your teacher, or somebody else, some peer of yours told you about. This is the real God in the universe. This is who he is. You need to learn to relate to him for who he is.

Not who you thought he was before, but for who he is now. And that's going to change who you are. He's not your mom or dad. You see, one of the things that happens is when we come to faith, we tend to look at God like our mom or our dad. Not that we put our dad's face or our mom's face on him, but that we relate to them like we related to our parents. Some of you had wonderful parents, and you should praise God for that. And some of you had more questionable parents. But even the best parents, God is even better than that. So you want to relate to him for who he is. Not for who you thought him to be, but who he is. This is his identity. He is for you. Don't be afraid to be honest with him, to get things right with him, because he is for you. He wants to forgive you, and clean you up, and send you back out. There isn't anything that you've done or can do to separate you from God.

You need to be stopped being so mean to yourself. Or get off your own back, for some of you, you're the only one up there. Now, if you have sinned, and you've done something wrong, and you know it, go to God and get it right. Go right now. Don't say you'll do it later. You'll forget you'll be like me. Do it right now, and get it right with him, because there's no reason not to, because he's for you. Don't be thinking of old things. If you've asked forgiveness for it, those are gone. Let's just move forward from this moment forward when we walk out that door. If you don't know Jesus, give your life to him today. If you do know him, let it all go. And when you walk out that door, this is who God is, and this is how you're going to relate to him. And this is how God relates to his kids. Psalm 25:10 said, all the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful to those who

keep the demands of his covenant. Begin your relationship anew today, or for the first time today. Isn't it exciting that this is who God is? That this is who the real God is? And as we close, I want you to tell me one more time the five things about who God is. What's the first one? He has a long fuse. He's not going to fly off the handle. He's not going to slap you in the back of the head. He has a long fuse. What's the second one? What's the third one? He's not easily hurt. Isn't that good? Oh my gosh. What's the fourth one? He has a soft heart, but he's not a soft touch. And he knows it's hard to be a human. And he's OK with that. But let's just keep getting things right with him and keep making progress, not aiming for perfection. And what's number five? He is devoted to you and to me. Isn't that great? Father, thank you for who you are. Thank you that we can have your identity right.

No matter what we've taught before, Lord, this is who you are. Lord Jesus, help us to relate to you for who you are. Help us to relax in our relationship with you. In Jesus' name, amen. Before we play our last song, I want to do one more thing, David. I'm going to count to three. And we're going to take a deep breath. Some of us are just so uptight. And we've been so uptight in our relationship with God. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to count to three. And I'm going to ask you to take a deep breath. One, two, three. Feel good? Let's do that again, just for fun. One, two, three.

God bless you. Thank you for letting me speak to you today.