Know Your Roots (transcript)

Turn around and say good morning. Say I haven’t seen you in a while. I didn’t quite hear it. Jen. Jen Green.

Good morning. So good to see you guys. Great to see the Shelton’s here with us this morning. Anna got everybody up on time. Got all of her boys’ hairs brushed appropriately.

Zach, come in. Zach, come in here. Come on. Look at this hair brushing that Anna did. So handsome.

Whoo. Not because of her. That’s the best and most accurate answer. So Anna, come out here so we can see you too. Now, for all of you single for all of you single young adults living here in Jackson, this is what could happen to you.

There is hope. There is hope. You know I talk about being a a a pretty hardcore ski bum, like, growing up. I don’t think I could hold a candle to Anna. Let’s be honest.

Let’s be honest. Nobody bummed harder or skied faster than Anna Shelton. I skied with her a couple of times. I was like, forget it. I will die trying to keep up with her.

And now they have babies. Now they have and now they have babies. Zach, does she still ski really fast? Yeah. Of course.

Take it down just a little bit, but they met, they fell in love, they got married, they started their family here, and Zach got saved and baptized here. Yes. Yes. Yeah. I’ll never forget during COVID Easter, Anna sent me a little video of, like, we’re doing worship up on a lift, and it was piped through the radio, and it was so dystopian and weird.

And Zach is in the car and, like, the worship is coming through the radio and he’s like, just singing along and it was it was so precious. And now they’re living in where where? Tennessee. Tennessee, and we’re always praying about a door for them to open to come back to Jackson. But hold on young people.

Your your your nice nicely combed dashing young man is waiting for you around the corner. So love you guys so much. If you have a bible with you open. Please open your bibles to the book of Leviticus. Just just kidding.

But I was kind of testing. Those pages are those pages are pretty creased. Open your Bibles to the book of Ephesians. Oh, man. There yes.

There are other books to the right. It’s not Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and then maps in the back. Well, there’s Revelation. Oh, you guys. You guys.

Sheep bite. They bite and they nip, poop everywhere. The knees of a 72 year old. Ephesians. So I’ve had a series of conversations in the hopper that we’re not going to start this Sunday, that this is now the third Sunday, that at the last moment, I’ve called in audible and gone in a different direction.

And why we haven’t gone here sooner is is waiting for greater confidence from the Lord and out of fear, to be honest, fear of being repetitive, fear of opinion. I value your feedback and opinions, and especially of our close friend group. I take that into great consideration, but I’ll stand before none of you on judgment day. But I also want, not necessarily greater clarification, but I want greater confidence that how I approach the subject will be most honoring to the Lord. That was probably Clay.

It was me? It was you this time. The the the the the subject will be will be Israel, and that is not what we’re diving into this this Sunday. Where we are going is in Ephesians, and I haven’t told you exactly where yet. But I want to start by asking you so please be praying for me that that I would hear of the Lord and be obedient to him with confidence.

Where we are going is the book of Ephesians today, and I wanna start by asking you a question about a colloquialism that we’ve all are familiar with. And that phrase is know your roots. When you hear that phrase know your roots, what do you understand it to mean? Know your roots. When somebody says know your roots, what where you came from?

What else? Where you came from? What you represent. You represent. Know your roots.

Okay. Maybe allegiance to college or college football team. See? There it is. What else?

Oh, Who you are. Okay. So, we we all pretty much have an understanding of that phrase, know your roots. If somebody were to or if you were to think of that phrase, know your roots, how would you answer what are your roots? How would you answer that?

What are your roots? Either specifically or generically for you. My roots are in the Midwest. Oh, yeah. My roots are in the Midwest.

Yep. Minnesota. What? You might be a Jew. Well, she said it.

I was not gonna talk about Israel today. Know your roots. What do you think of, Jay? Know your roots. Oh, values.

Southerner. A lot of our roots have to do with where we come from. Yeah. Native native Jacksonite, native Wyoming, subtle subtle flex. When Selah and Kai were younger, we spent a lot of hours traveling across a tri state area for soccer, and every there was one portion of every road trip that we that we would take without fail when I would have the aux cord and be like, okay, sailing Kai, it’s time to know your roots.

And it was an education on early nineties rap music with the foundation stone of the beast, Steve Boys, The Tribe Called Quest, Wu Tang Clan, and all, you know, all of these all of these bands that that are really foundational and fundamental for modern rap music appreciation. So I would always tell Selah and Kai, know your roots. And they would just roll their eyes. And so that’s the title of the conversation that we’re going to have today, know your roots. And it is not about Israel or the Beastie Boys.

What? Oh, about the Beastie Boys? Oh, what I consider music. You know I need lots of prayer. More shots fired on my birthday.

Ephesians. If this is how y’all show love to your pastor, I would hate to see your scorn. Another poke. Corey, why do you have that face? And when they were younger, when they were younger, I I raised them I raised them with Star Wars to know their roots.

Ephesians chapter three He’s really loved by me. Ephesians chapter three and we’re going to read either one person can read all of this or we can split it up and people can read a few verses at a time and then pass it off. We have Mike in the room. Adam’s got the mic and and we have Mike in the room over from IEF who’s over here. So love having you here this weekend with us, brother.

Please say hi to Makayla and your family. Ephesians chapter three, we’re gonna start in verse 12. We’re gonna go through verse 19. I called an audible earlier this morning, so this is your keynote. Alright.

Who would like to start for us? There we go. Oh, you know what? Back it up to twelve. Oh, did say twelve.

Twelve through nineteen. Do you want to go back to eleven? Alright. I’m the pastor. We will start reading in verse 12.

Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God’s presence. So please don’t lose heart because of my trials here. I am suffering for you, so you should feel honored. We’re passing this around. Sure.

Oh, she does do that. Starting with 13. What? 14. There’s only there’s not a 14.

Oh, yeah, there is. My Bible’s special. For this reason, I kneel before the father from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches, he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you being rooted and established in love may have power together with all the Lord’s holy people to grasp how wide and how long and how high and how deep is the love of Christ.

And to know this love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of god. Yes. Amen. Amen. So.

But my favorite was 20, Doug. We’re only going to 19 though. Yeah, maybe next week. Okay, fine. Maybe.

Not him who’s able to lose numbers. Pastor Brian. Yeah, you are like my kids. Thank you. Okay.

Alright. Alright. That you may be Now, someday someday we’re gonna have more room for more of our family to like meet together all at once. How are you gonna be this unruly when there’s more of us? Same way.

I kinda like it. Just more of you. Just more unruliness. Here’s what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna look at each of these verses in verse 12 through 19.

We’re going to take a stroll or hike if you will and we’ll stop and we’ll point out several important principles that Paul is sharing with us and then we’ll tie it all together in a bow and then there’ll be an invitation for you to respond and the invitation will come in the form of a challenge that will hopefully get under your skin because when we’re challenged that’s best how we grow. And so to get into chapter three verse 12, I want you to first notice this paired phrasing. There is a balanced statement that is made right at the beginning of verse 12, and I want you to identify it. And there’s even some grammatical cues that tell you where the fulcrum or the balance point is of this balance statement. Can anybody see it?

It’s right at the beginning. Fair. I’ll I’ll I’ll I’ll you’re on the right track. You’re on the right track. Anyone else sees something different?

It’s before it’s before the comma. Alright. Okay. You’re yes. You’re you’re you’re you’re hitting in the right area.

If we’re playing hand grenades or horseshoes, you get full credit. So, look at the first part of this balanced statement because of Christ. That sits on one side of the fulcrum. The word and is the fulcrum or the pivot point. Think like a teeter totter or a she saw when you were in school.

And the other side is and our faith in him. So because of Christ sits on one side, the fulcrum is the word and. The other side of the fulcrum is our faith in him. These two statements not only are they balanced but there is some there is beauty and there is a key for you in this passage for unlocking what Paul goes on to say. There are two components, because of Christ and then our faith in him.

Can you have one without the other? No. But maybe yes. Did well, let’s talk about this. Because of Christ.

What is the because of Christ? If somebody were to ask you if they were reading the Bible for the very first time and they didn’t know about Jesus, they didn’t know about the amazing riches found in Deuteronomy and Leviticus. They’re like, because of Christ. Like, what is what does that mean? What did he do?

Because the cross. Because of his life, death, burial, and resurrection. All of that is because of Christ. But there’s also an additional component, not that because Christ is incomplete or insufficient. That’s not what I’m saying.

But what I am saying is there’s a fulcrum and then there’s more to it. There’s an additional component. What is that? Yes. Oh, yep.

Sorry. Missed it. Because of faith in Christ, we can approach him. So one side and if out in the margin of your Bible, you can you can do a little doodle, a drawing of a triangle, and then a little seesaw. Because of Christ is one component and all that he did.

But the other component is our faith in him, The person, life, and ministry of Jesus. Those two work together in a powerful conjunction like remember when you were a kid and you were reading like a kid, like like a kid novel or something, and the hero had to go around and find these different components and then assemble them to make a key to fit it in the slot to unlock the treasure of the pharaoh or whatever. This is that here that Paul is giving us. These two components fit together that unlocks what he goes on to say. We have to pause at verse 13.

So don’t lose heart because of my trials here. First of all, where is here? And second of all, what are his trials? He is in prison where? Yes.

Go with it. Rome. It’s his first imprisonment in Rome. In that word trials here, Philipsis and a and a a synonym for talypsis is also what’s on the wall right there to the right of the screen? Well, great.

And we’ve talked about tribulation today again. So Paul is experiencing tribulation in prison, but he’s like, this is this is don’t worry about me. I got this. Verse 14. When I think about all of this, what is all of this?

All the ground that he’s covered so far in his letter, but specifically, these two things that we’ve just talked about, because of Christ and our faith in him. Because of these things, I fall to my knees and pray to the father, the creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I feel like when he says, I prayed to the father, and then verse 15, he cannot control his quill that it just gets carried away as he’s writing. He’s like, okay, back to focus. Back to focus.

I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources, he will empower you with what does your translation say? Strength by what, Ella? In the inner man. Okay. Go ahead and read your whole sentence.

Wait. Here it comes. Here it comes. Yes. Verse 16.

Yes. Go ahead and read that for us. That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner man. There we go. So, where are we strengthened?

Inwardly in our inner man And what or who does the strengthening? The Holy Spirit. New roots. New creation. Here’s Mike tying it back to what we started with roots.

We haven’t even gotten to the the crux passage. Do you know crux, like in climbing, is a Latin word? Crux. We hear the word crux and we think of the hardest part, the most difficult part, c r u x. On this multi pitch route, this is the crux pitch.

Of the crux pitch, this is the crux move. We hear that all the time, right, because we’re climbers. We’re all climbers here. But the word crux is a Latin word. Where does the word crux, what does it mean in English?

The cross. So whenever I hear my Lost y Lost buddies talking about asking for beta for this next climb, and I talk about the crux move. I’m always like, you don’t even know. The crux means cross, and it is an intentional reference back to the cross of Jesus Christ. So we’re not even to the crux or the most foundational key point.

Micah’s trying to race ahead. But where are we strengthened? From the inside. From the inside. Our inner man.

And who does the strengthening? The Holy Spirit. This is why one of the one of the reasons among many at Tribe, it is one of our macro themes that we talk about a lot at Tribe. The person and ministry and role of the Holy Spirit in the church today. We’re gonna just take Paul at his words in this text, and we’re going to play fill in the blank for just a moment.

That you would be strengthened in your inner man by fill in the blank. What do many churches or Christians, what word do they insert instead of the Holy Spirit? Oh, what? The trinity. Maybe they would say the trinity, but theologically and application wise, may my question might have been too much of a reach.

They may say that you would be strengthened in your inner man by the power of going to church. That you would be strengthened in your inner man by the power of Works. Oh, works. Tithing. Now, you’re picking up what I’m putting down.

How about how about that you may be strengthened in your inner man by the power of memorizing words in this book? Now, if you’re like, We’ve got to think for just a moment about the Pharisees. Now, they only had this part of the book, but did they have this part of the book memorized forwards and backwards? And what happened to them? Logos no Reima.

Yes. Yes and yes. I love it. Logos no Reima. Look.

Cory, quick. Quick. Logos, no rhema. So so what Mike is talking about is two other Greek words. Both of those words are synonyms for the word word.

You’ve heard me talk about this a lot. The logos of God is the written word of God, but it remains dormant. It has the capacity for life, but it remains dormant until the logos of God is planted in the inner man, not just intellectually in your brain. When the logos of God is planted in the inner man, in your heart, and you submit to it, another core macro theme of the preaching of tribe, surrender and submission to God, what then happens? It becomes the living word of God.

Living and active rhema. It comes alive. So the Pharisees had the word, but it just stayed up here, cerebral intellectual knowledge. Much like an example that I use all the time, the difference between an apple and an apple seed. Are apples tasty?

Are apples yummy? Are apples nutritious? Absolutely. What about apple seeds? If you’re just like, apple seeds.

What about dried apple seeds? Uh-uh. What about like slightly roasted dried apple seeds? Uh-uh. Okay.

Zach grew up on an orchard. He was like, well, maybe. Did you know that there is a trace amount of arsenic in apple seeds? How do how does arsenic and and creatures go? Not so well.

Not good. So, there’s so here’s the point that I’m making. When when when we have his word, it comes to us in the form of an apple seed. Think of the potential in one seed. Incredible.

But that seed must be planted in order for the potential to be realized. This is what Paul keeps getting at. He’s like, oh, the metaphors and the connections, they just keep going and then his pen is is about to get carried away again but verse 17, then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you what? Trust in him. What is a key component of trust?

When you trust somebody you’re vulnerable with them. You surrender to them. And then what is the result? We have arrived at the crux of our conversation this morning. The second sentence in verse 17, what’s it say?

You can just say it. That you would be rooted and grounded into God’s love and keep you strong. Okay. So now, off in the margin of your Bible and in your notes this morning, you can underline that word root and it can be traced all the way back to verse 12. Because of Christ.

I don’t know if Paul expressly intended for this hyperlink, but it’s a beautiful hyperlink nonetheless. Because of Christ, component one, component two, our faith, trust, surrender in him, not just a cerebral head knowledge, sword drill, know where the bible know the where the place is in the verse of the bible. But then that surrender and trust, it results in what? Being rooted in him. That Greek word rooted is an interesting word because it has for two thousand years the same connotation that we think of.

Know your roots, where you come from, what your identity is, what you identify with the closest. Know your roots. Being rooted in Jesus according to the handwriting of Paul has for two thousand years the same meaning, idea, and understanding, which is really cool because sometimes Paul and Jesus or in the New Testament, phrases or expressions are used that are either completely lost on us today because we don’t come from an agrarian society or times have changed or technology has expired or their knowledge of the world around them was different than ours today. But this is a beautiful expression because for two thousand years, it’s meant the exact same thing. Know your roots.

Paul uses this phrase one other time. It’s only used twice in the Bible, and for each time it’s used in the intended understanding that we have today of that phrase, know your roots. Have any of you here ever been tasked with pulling up a tree by the roots? It’s horrible. So years ago, I was a full time student at school in Oklahoma.

I was working at a bike shop, and I was working on a, like like a lawn maintenance crew. I was like cutting grass, and the boss, his name was Tony Domec. He’s like, hey. The the route is done for today, but I’ve cut down this tree, but I wanna yank out the the tree by its roots. Like, get this tree stump out of here.

Like, I’ll pay you I’ll pay you a $100 to come yanked I’ll pay you a $100 to yank this tree stump out of here. And I was like, well, well, let me come over and and take a look. So I showed up at his property and I don’t remember the species of tree, but the tree was this big around. I was like, this is gonna be the easiest $100 that I have ever made in my life. Oh, No.

No. He had he had a he had a rock bar there. He had a a sharpshooter shovel, a little narrow shovel. He had a spade shovel there. He had a pickaxe there.

All that was needed was just my strong back in calloused hands, and I was gonna walk home with a $100 cash in my pocket. Five hours later, oh my gosh, I had dug so deep and around this tree stump so much. I was saying like, can I start a fire under there to burn? The roots just kept going and going and going. I had the rock ball.

I was like every tool in the shed. I was like trying to sawzall this thing out. I was trying to like like cast it out. I was I was doing everything possible. I go back into his tool shed and I was like, there’s gotta be something here.

I didn’t wanna use a chainsaw to like touch the like the the the chain in the dirt or hit a rock. I didn’t wanna do that. But I was looking around looking around and then I saw a tow rope. I was like, oh, I got you now. I found this tow rope and I was driving a Nissan Titan at the time.

I was like the only guy in all of like Tulsa, Oklahoma that had a vehicle with four wheel drive. And so I was like, now I got you. Four and a half hours later, I think of this. So I hooked the the the chain and the tow rope up. I’ve dug out and around.

I mean, the the whole I mean, the the whole root system is like like exposed, and it still won’t come up. But I wrap the chain around this, and I rig it up to my truck. And I’m like, this is really cool because now I get to use my truck. And I put it in four, and I’m like, it’s not going anywhere. And I put it in four low and I’m like, it’s not going anywhere.

And then, I mean, what’s the next logical thing to do if you’re a guy? Hit it harder. I did. I did. And guess what happened?

I didn’t Close. That almost sounded like a confession from experience. Remember, there’s no shame here. This is a safe place. I hit that so hard.

The the the the tow rope broke, but the shackle was still attached to it. Flang, it had so much kinetic energy. It thong the back of my tailgate so hard, leaving the hugest dent in the whole wide world. That may have happened to us last week. So so physics and and vehicle recovery says just put like some like, even like like a towel on that that that that tow rope, and it dampens the energy, and the tow rope will fall if it should break.

Well, now I know. Six hours later, the stump comes up after a dent in my truck and a big dent in my pride and ego, and you can do the math for what I ended up working for that. And I think I’m not sure, but I think I saw him, Tony Domec, standing in the window with a cup of coffee just laughing, laughing away. I he got a bit he got a great deal. He got a great bargain that day.

But the point that I wanna make as we land the plane here this morning is this. Into what are you sinking your roots? Write that question down in your notes this morning. Into what are you sinking your roots? We think of being a new creation.

We think of our faith because of what Jesus did. When this happens, when we when we combine our faith into what Jesus did, We are strengthened where? In our inner man by what? Not by reading of God’s word, not by church attendance, not by tithing. We are strengthened in our inner man by the person of the Holy Spirit, which is why he is always the welcome guest of honor here at Tribe because he is the one that strengthens our inner man.

And what is the result? Our roots grow. The question is, into what do your roots grow? Because of his goodness, because of his kindness, our roots grow. But where do they grow?

Oh, yes. Yes. Sorry. Sorry. Yes.

Yes. It’s great. So in verse 17, right, it says rooted. And so the Greek word for that that Paul uses, it it is painting this picture of an anchor that nourishes and ultimately determines the destiny of the whole plant. So when rereading the verse 17 with that kind of picture that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being anchored and nourished and destined and grounded in love.

And so just to answer your question, where are you rooted? Where where are your roots? They’re anchored in love. They’re nourished in love. And the destiny of you then is love.

So I just wanted to add that little That’s the idea and the goal. But I also want us to be real and practical here at Tribe. Because the reality is that there is a tendency for our roots to spread out into something that is not Jesus. The roots of escapism, the roots of dwelling in our past, the roots of the easy, comfortable way out. Crab apple trees above the graft inside conversation for those of you who have read birthright.

Christian, do you know who you are? But when forces get applied to our life, those roots are what anchors us. But into what is the tendency for your roots to to try to spread out into? Your old way of life, past bondage, or when the wind blows or the chain gets wrapped around and trying to yank you out, you grip on with everything that you have. What is that?

Is it found in a relationship with Jesus that has come from time spent cultivating a relationship with Jesus? Or is it the easy, quick, quick thing? My prayer for our tribe fam is that we would be rooted and grounded in his love. You’ve heard me say this before. It’s been a while.

If I could pull it up out of my fifty two year old memory bank, could we, with ink, the oceans fill, were every stock on earth a quill and every man ascribed by trade to write the love of God would drain the oceans dry nor could the scroll contain the hole, though stretched from sky to sky. Oh, love of God, how measureless and how strong. It will forever endure the saints and angels’ song. Know your roots. Where do your roots grow?

Holy Spirit, with the few moments that we have left in service this morning, will you help us to identify if there are any roots trying to shoot into or reach out for anything other than because of Christ. Show us. Are we trying to put some roots into relationship, our appearance, our accomplishment? Is that old dirty devil trying to tell us that those roots are still alive that are trying to attach us and drag us into the past? Fear, anxiety.

Number one, Jesus show us into where we, our tendencies, and our human nature is to sink roots. And then number two, Holy Spirit show us, show us. Look at experientially that we would of the the spirit whisper to your heart. Help us. Help us.

I feel like perhaps someone may have a prayer that they’ve kind of been praying, muttering in their heart during this ministry moment. And I’d like to give you an opportunity to say that prayer in the mic. First for yourself, and then in your prayer, turn that prayer for the rest of us. I knew it. I knew it.

I knew it. Lord, as we are stretching our roots out, searching for life, searching for nutrients, things that will fill us up and give us life and enable us to to grow and to produce fruit, Lord. We we wanna stretch our roots down into you. I pray against any any false nutrients or or false sources of life that we may be attached to or chasing after that will lead us into to to death and to wither away, Lord. You are the one true source of life.

We wanna rest in that. Yes, Jesus. We wanna abide in that. Yes. Thank you.

We can do nothing apart from you, Lord. It’s beautiful. You are the vine. We are the branches. Yes.

Yes. Nothing further to add. We pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen. Well prayed.

Amanda, I couldn’t do this to you. These sheep are so bitey and bucky today and Feisty. I you I don’t want you. I couldn’t do that to you. So today, I’ll continue.

I’ll I’ll press on. We’re worshiping the Lord one other way. And I feel like the Holy Spirit just said, yeah, the like, I gave you these sheep, and I would have no other sheep. Imagine docile, milly mouth, milquetoast, mamby pamby sitting quietly, sheep on the end. No.

This is the exact flock that I love so much. Because the Lord’s like, takes one to know one. Thank you, Lord. Let’s worship the Lord one other way, and then we’ll get out of here this morning. We worship the Lord by singing, by by it is an act of worship when we trust him enough to remove our armor and be vulnerable in front of him and just come just how we are.

We worship the Lord in song. We worship the Lord by considering his word. We make hyperlinks in our brain and make notes in our notebook and notes in the margins of our bible. We discuss God’s word. Most importantly, we submit and surrender to God’s word.

That’s also how we worship him. Then we also worship him with our tithes and offerings by surrendering a portion of our finances. And we’ve we’ve talked about it a little bit in the Christmas season. And now that we’re in 2026, you’ll hear us mention it each and every week. But if you give electronically, you can designate a portion of your tithe or above and beyond your tithe to tribes next home as we are saving our pennies for our next home.

Maybe just maybe there are some more unruly sheep out there in the valley and we gotta enlarge our sheep pen to make room for them. But you know how most people give? They’re generous with their smartphone by sending a text to (833) 369-7847. You if you just type give and then a dollar amount. But if you also type next and a dollar amount, that is what is called restricted giving and that every penny goes towards our next home.

And if you remember, we said back in November or December that we have had a generous offer of a matching campaign that up to a $150,000, every dollar that you give will be matched. And if you feel generous enough to give a gift over $15,000 or I don’t know. We don’t have it set up. Just come talk to me like, I’d like to pledge more than $15,000. What we would then do with your gift is invite you to be a co challenger so that so that any dollar that’s given is more than doubled.

And you know the other ways to give. Why don’t I pray over the offering, share a couple announcements, we’ll get out of here. Lord Jesus, thank you that when our roots go into you, it is always the perfect amount of nutrition. So what we’re saying is thank you for taking great, great care of us. Thank you for the jobs that we have, the work opportunities that we have.

Thank you for the paycheck. Even though our name is on it every two weeks, it really comes from you. So we surrender a portion of our finances to tell you that we love you and that we trust you. God, I ask that you would receive these finances and use them to make your name famous here at Tribe, in Jackson Hole, the surrounding region, and to the uttermost bounds of the earth. We pray these things in Jesus’ name, and everybody said, amen.

So this you can check the board to sign up for a Sunday morning goodie. There were doughnut holes this morning. Thank you, Clay. I mean, he didn’t make them, but he picked them up. Thank you.

That counts. There’s also opportunity to serve on a Tuesday evening by making a meal for our 25 to 40 young adults that we have in the TMC on a Tuesday, which is great. And then the last thing is this, just before you get out of here is, I’m not saving the most important announcement for last even though it sounds like it. Sorry. Please be praying for me.

Sorry. Don’t read into that more than anything. But I’m just praying, really praying about this series. Like, the balance and the tension between being a good parent and a good shepherd, leading you into the pasture that I feel like God has called me to. And on the other side of that tension is all of the things.

You what? Do you wanna share it? Oh. Okay. Okay.

So just please be praying praying for me about that in this next week or so. And as we wind down, would it be alright if I prayed for all of you? Alright. Stand up. My birthday.

Lord Jesus, thank you for each and every one of the sheep that you have given me. I’m just the under shepherd. Jesus, this is your flock. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you for the honor of being an under shepherd under you in shepherding this flock of sheep. Thank you. I really, really I it is an honor for me, and I do love your sheep so very much. I command a blessing over these sheep. Thank you, Lord.

God, I ask that everything they set their hand to this week would be filled with the fragrance of your Holy Spirit and that it would prosper. If they’re on the job site, if they’re in the clinic, if they’re on the hill, if they’re on the road, wherever they are in the office, in the classroom, no matter what they’re doing. Lord, would they experience the nourishment that comes from being rooted in you? I command a blessing over them. We pray these things in Jesus’ name, the strong son of God.

And everybody said, amen. I love you guys so much. Have a great week. Remember, you got this. 10/29, baby.

The time.