Paul tells us to "Rejoice in the Lord always..." (Philippians 4:4).  We have so many reasons to rejoice when you think about it.  Paul was in prison for preaching Christ.  When you look at his life, he could have complained.  He was arrested, shipwrecked, stoned, etc., but he rejoiced in Christ.  If Paul, who went through difficulties, still rejoiced "IN THE LORD" then so can we.  One author wrote, "The book of Philippians can be summed up in four words, "I rejoice; rejoice ye!"  The redeemed can rejoice in Christ. 

The Lord rejoices when the lost are brought to Him.  When the lost sheep, lost coin, and lost son were found, there was rejoicing and celebrating going on.  God rejoices in his heart.  If God rejoices, we too, should have a heart that rejoices.  Why should we have a heart that rejoices?

One reason is because of where we came from.  We were lost in sin.  We were ungodly sinners and enemies of God. But He came to our rescue through Jesus.  Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 that we have been washed, sanctified, and justified.  What a beautiful thought!  Because of what He has done for us, we continue to walk in the light.  When we walk in the light, we have continual cleansing.

Another reason we rejoice is what we have in Jesus now.  He transferred us from darkness into light.  We are now in the light and have His daily spiritual blessings.  We have forgiveness, grace and mercy, His love and so many others.  Keep living the blessed abundant life (John 10:10).  God wants a relationship with us.  Get in the Word, get in prayer!  Walk with Him!  Rejoice as you live the Christian life. 

A final reason why we rejoice is because of where we are heading.  We are headed to God's Promised Land of Heaven!  We have an inheritance waiting us that can never perish, spoil, or fade (1 Peter 1:3-5).  Don't give up on Jesus and don't miss Heaven for the world.
 
Keep on rejoicing for what we have in Him!  Rejoice in the Lord always, and again, I say rejoice! 

Proverbs 4:23 says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” FOCUS!  A man went to golf with a few of his buddies. As they stood on the tee box looking towards the green, one man said, “That green seems a long way off.” His buddies didn’t say a word. The man teed up his ball and
said, “Sure is a narrow fairway.”  His buddies didn’t say a word.

He said, “How am I supposed to hit it over those trees?” His buddies didn’t say a word. They didn’t say anything because they were trying to psych him out. He stepped up to the tee and hit a great tee shot over the trees.  He heard the guys behind him groan, and he just thought they were jealous of his tee shot. After watching their drives, he knew they were jealous of his shot. None of the other guys got even close to the trees.  They hit the ball left and they were miles from the green. They walked down their side of the fairway, and the man walked down his.

His ball wasn’t in the fairway, instead, it was in the weeds surrounded by trees.  He said, “Man, this sure is a tough hole.”  He looked at the next shot, grabbed a club and hit a great shot. His ball hopped right on the green. He was hoping someone would have taking a picture of his great shot. None of his buddies were watching because they were on the other side of the fairway looking in another direction.  He just picked up his bag and started walking towards the green. When he got near the green, he noticed something strange. He saw some men on the green who were already putting.

These were men he didn’t know or recognize. He thought, “These men are really slow or very lost.”  As he looked around the green for his buddies, he finally saw them.  They were on a different green. Right then and there, it hit him. He had played the wrong hole. He had aimed at the wrong target. Everything started to make sense to him.  The groan he heard from his buddies off the tee was not a groan of jealousy, but of pity. His buddies hit the ball right where they were supposed to. That’s why the hole seemed hard. He was playing the wrong hole.  A good friend would have said something, but they didn’t. Golf is hard enough and especially if you are going in the wrong direction.

Life is hard if our focus is off. If we are going the wrong direction in life, it can be hard as well.  Jesus had a heart that was focused. His life never got off track. He kept His focus on what He came to this earth to accomplish. He came to seek and save the lost. He stayed on God’s course. He came to save souls.  The Bible is filled with examples of those who didn't have focused hearts.  Let’s look at Cain for a second. Cain and Abel were brothers. Both brought an offering before the Lord. God had regard for Abel’s offering but not for Cain’s. We know his anger got the best of him. His anger caused him to do that which was wrong. Cain had a heart problem. 

Let’s look at David for just a second. In 2 Samuel 11, you have the story of how David was walking on his roof and saw a beautiful woman bathing. He sent for her and had sexual relations with her. He ended up
getting her pregnant.  He sends her husband Uriah home from battle and tries to get him to sleep with her to make it look like the baby would be his. He wouldn’t sleep with her while his men were in battle. David ends up having him put to death in battle. 

David, a man after God’s own heart, sinned by committing adultery and with murder. We know how Nathan the prophet in 2 Samuel 12 rebukes David for his sinful actions.  David ends up telling Nathan in verse 13, “I have sinned against the Lord.” His heart wasn’t focused on God. This is a man after God’s own heart, remember that! Even the Godliest people can get distracted by the evil one. He was distracted by a beautiful woman and it got him into trouble. David had a heart problem. 

How do we have a focused heart?  By SEEKING God.  One of the ways we can seek God is by worshiping Him. Worship allows us to draw near to God.We also are to GUARD our heart and mind.  In Matthew 6:21, Jesus teaches us that where our treasure is, there our heart is. Basically, we set our hearts on what we value the most.  As Christians, we say God is our greatest treasure. If He is our greatest treasure, then we will guard that treasure fervently.  We need to STAY close to those in Christ.  We need each other.  Let’s make it our goal to encourage each other.

1 Thessalonians 5:11 says, “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” The Christian walk is a group project.  The final way to have a focused heart is to FOCUS on things above.  Because our focus or our life is on Christ, when He comes again, we will be with Him for all eternity in Heaven.  Remember it is the pure in heart who shall see God (Matthew 5:8).  Why do we focus on Jesus and going to Heaven?  What is so appealing about being in Heaven?  John MacArthur once said this, “When people ask me what appeals to me about Heaven, it isn’t streets of transparent gold or gates made of pearls; it is the absence of sin.  I’m tired of sin.”  We focus on things above because sin is also very appealing.  Sin is fun and sin feels good.  Because of that, lets keep our focus on Jesus! 

​If I were to ask you what the two greatest commands found in scripture are, what would you tell me?  The answer is:  To love God and to love our fellowman!  In Matthew 22, a lawyer asked Jesus a question to test him.  He asked Jesus, “What is the great commandment in the law?”  He tells us this in Matthew 22:37-40, “37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

I don’t know who wrote this, but I love what the person wrote.  “Loving God without loving people is impossible. However, loving people without loving God is impossible as well. Loving people is the direct result of our love to God.”  This passage from Matthew 22 is found in Deuteronomy 6:5 which says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” The Israelites were to love God wholeheartedly.  The same is true for us today.  

First, we are to love God with our whole Heart.  The truth is, we give God our heart and life because Jesus did that for us.  We love Him who first loved us (1 John 4:19).  Because He loves us, we love Him with our entire being or wholeheartedly.  Because of what God has done for us, He deserves our attention and devotion.  We devote our lives to God by submitting to Him in what He says to be saved.  We devote our heart and life to Him by loving Him and obeying His commands (John 14:15).  We live for Him because He loves us!  We are holy because He is holy.  He has saved us and made us one of His own.  Because of that, we love Him wholeheartedly. 

We are to love God with all our Soul.  It’s been said, “Our Soul is the very core of who we are.” Jesus came to earth to save us from our sins.  The soul is the deepest part of who we are, the part of us that searches for something more than just the physical and day-to-day life.  I love what the Psalmist wrote in Psalm 42:1-2, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.  My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.  When can I go and meet with God?”  

Nothing else will satisfy our souls like the Lord.  To love God with our soul is to live a Godly life before Him.  To love Him with our soul is to live a holy life before Him.  When the Devil temps us, we choose God over the lures of the liar and his empty promises.  It means we love God and follow Him no matter what happens.  We pray for God’s Spirit to dominate our lives as opposed to sin.  It is giving God our everything because He gave us our greatest need – salvation.  Here is a question all of us can ask ourselves to see whether we love God with all our soul or not.  “When I speak or act, does it sound/look like Jesus or the world?”

We are to love God with all our Mind.  Loving God with my mind means I need more of His thoughts.  I need to be in His Word.  I need to hear His truths daily.  I need to study and soak up my mind with what He wants me to fill my mind up with.  There is much filth in the world that can corrupt our minds.  The Devil wants the mind just like God does.  The one we feed will lead!  The one we feed will lead our lives. 

​We can renew our minds and fill our minds up with God or we can allow the garbage of this world take control. Our thoughts shape our behavior, right?  Scripture speaks of how we should guard our heart.  Proverbs 23:7 says, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”  Proverbs 4:23“Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”  To love God with all your mind means to focus on God’s Word and way of life!  

We are to love God with all of our Strength.  Loving God with all your strength means that we are going to do everything within to please and glorify our Heavenly Father in all that we do. It means always doing our best while holding nothing back.  To love Him with all our energy.  David Ralston wrote, “To love God with all our energy, with all our abilities, with all our talents, and with all our spiritual gifts, means serving the Lord by ministering to others.  It means holding nothing back when it comes to our energy level in showing our love for God.”  We love God with all our strength by connecting to the power and might that God gives us.  We are strong in the Lord.  Let’s be committed to living a life of love for God and one another.  Love Him with all your strength!   

We are to love our Neighbor as we love ourselves.  James 2:8 says, “If you keep the royal law found in Scripture, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing right.”  Probably the best way we can love our neighbor as we love ourselves is to treat people as if they are Jesus.  If we saw every soul that we met and see them as Jesus, we would be more loving, caring, forgiving, and we would make a difference in the lives of others.  In the parable of the Good Samaritan, our neighbor can be a complete stranger.  But following Christ means being a neighbor to everyone, and most importantly it is about us being that good neighbor.  Peal Dy wrote, “Love your neighbor exactly as you love yourself. No more and no less.”

Jesus said, "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God."  What a beautiful promise for those who are walking with God in purity!  All of us, as His children, should seek to be pure in heart.  I know there is so much filth in this world that can corrupt our souls.  Our purpose is to glorify Him in all that we do.  But the evil one wants to spoil that goal of ours.  Pleasing Him should be our highest joy in life.  Without holiness no one will see the Lord (Hebrew 12:14).  As we run the race, we are to lay aside or shed the whatever holds us back from being pure.  

Jesus had a pure heart.  He was pure in that He was all about doing what His Father wanted Him to do.  He was pure in that He was sinless.  He bore our sins on the cross and left us an example that we should follow in His steps (1 Peter 2:21-24).  He makes us righteous because He was innocent and unstained from sin.  He was righteous and He died for the unrighteous.  He was tempted in all points like we are, yet without sin.  But He is able to help us in our time of need, remember that!  He had a pure and obedient heart.  Because of that, let's listen to Him.

We, as His children, are to have a Pure heart.  Thankfully, we can come to Jesus in baptism and be saved.  God came to make something beautiful out of the messes we make.  He saved a wretch like me like the song says.  But sometimes in our walk, our heart is full of trash.  We often let so much junk into our minds and heart.  Because of that, we like David, need to pray for God to create in us a clean heart and to renew a right spirit within me (Psalm 51:10).  

To be pure in heart is more than just Sunday morning church only.  It is a daily thing.  To grow a pure heart, it takes weeding and seeding.  Get rid of the weeds of sin and plant the seeds of Christian characteristics in our heart.  We are to have the mind of Christ as the Bible says.  We are to take captive every thought to obey Him.  As a man thinks, so is he!  How are your thoughts?  Pure?  Impure?  We own the choices that we make.  

How can we have or grow a pure heart?  Prayer.  Pray for God to control my heart.  Think about things that are pure and put into practice God's ways (Philippians 4:8-9).  Turn to God and His Word.  Pray for the Spirit of God to have total control of us.  We live in a dirty, sinful world. Pray for God to help us stay clean so filth can't get in our lives.  

Purify me Lord, from ways that aren't of you.
Take away the old, and make my life brand new.
I surrender all to You, not my will but Thine. 
The less there is of me, the more of You I see.

Psalm 139:23-24 says, "Search me, O God, and know my heart!  Try me and know my thoughts!  And see if there be any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting."

Stay pure and let's go to Heaven together!  

All of us should have a heart that is connected to God. We should listen to God’s Word, we should seek Him in prayer, and have a heart that praises Him in worship. Are we connected to God like we should be?
I read a study from Network World from back in 2016 that shows how obsessed we are with our phones. The study showed that people either click, tap, or swipe on their phones at least 5,427 times in a day.

Wow!  That number comes from the top 10 percent of phone users.  Those who don’t use their phones as much, on average, touch their phones 2,617 times a day. Still a big number of times people touch their
phones. There was some software installed on Android devices that showed that the heaviest of phone users are touching their phones a couple million times in one year.  41 percent of the people said, “They probably won’t change the way they use their phones.”

We are addicted to our phones. We either get on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, check email, etc., but how many taps, touches, swipes, or clicks are taking place between us and God in a day?  How connected are we to God? How often or how frequently are we reaching out to God? I think most of us are guilty of playing on our phones more than we reach out to God. God wants us to draw near to Him. 

James 4:7-8 teaches us, “7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

A connected heart communicates with God in prayer.  An important part of our connection with God is through prayer. The Bible tells us about prayer. We know Jesus prayed to His Father as we
saw earlier. Paul teaches us to pray without ceasing or to pray continually (1 Thessalonians 5:17). We are told to continue steadfastly in prayer (Colossians 4:2).

We are told to pray in the spirit on all occasions (Ephesians 6:18).  Our prayer should be to let His light shine in and through us so others can see our awesome God.  Like the song Father God, may my steps be worship, may my thoughts be praise, and may my words bring honor to your name! What a blessing it is we can go to God in prayer, and He hears us!

A connected heart reads God's Word.  This is a desire that we should daily want. We should want to
continually hear from Him and have a steady diet of His Word. The Bible talks about meditating on scripture day and night (Psalm 1:2).  Jesus tells us that He is the vine, and we are the branches.
As the branches, we are to abide or remain in Him (John 15).

We are told to put into practice what we have learned (Philippians 4:9). The only way we put into practice what God is telling us is through His Word. Those who abide or remain in Him, will men and women of the Good Book. We will treat God’s Word as a valuable treasure.  God’s Word is powerful. God’s Word can help us as we live from day to day. 

C.H. Spurgeon, once said, “A Bible that’s falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn’t.” If we are in God’s Word, we will have hearts and lives that are connected to Him. When we are connected to the Vine
as His branches, our lives won’t fall apart, but will be strong in Him.

A connected heart worships God.  We come together to remember what Jesus did for us in the Lord’s
Supper. We can pray to Him. We devote ourselves to the reading of God’s Word. We sing praises to His wonderful name. We sing and encourage one another as well.

What a blessing we can come and worship. After we leave here, our lives should change. In Matthew 17, Jesus was transfigured. His face was as bright as the sun, and His clothes became white as the light.
He was in God’s presence because a voice from Heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him.” Before God, Jesus’ face changed. Moses, after speaking to God, his face was
radiant (Exodus 34).

When we come before God with humbled hearts, He can do His work on us. He can transform us. A change should occur in our lives after spending time with God. I truly believe that. From day to day, we are to be transformed and not to conform.  Our spiritual worship is to live a holy life from day to day (Romans 12:1-2). A life that is connected to God will seek to worship God in spirit and truth. A connected heart will love Him, worship Him, and seek to please Him in all that we do.

Let's connect to God through prayer, through study of His Word, and through worship!  Let's have a heart like His and let's go to Heaven together! 

In Philippians 2:5, Paul wrote, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus…”  Bottom line is “Our heart should be the same as that of Christ Jesus…”  Jesus had a loving, caring, serving, and a forgiving heart.  All of us are to have a forgiving heart as well.  Alexander Pope once said, “To err is human, to forgive is divine.”  That is true.  We do sin and the Lord forgives.  If we are to have a heart like Jesus, He is one who forgave.  Jesus had a forgiving heart and the same should be said of His children. 

I have often said and truly believe that forgiving others is easier said than done.  We are quick to accept the fact that God can, will, and does forgive us of our sins.  But we are not quick to forgive others when they do us wrong.  Jesus was one who had a heart that forgave.  He didn’t come to earth to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved (John 3:17).  He came to redeem us from sin and death.  He was the only perfect, sinless person to ever walk the earth. 

He doesn’t have to forgive; He could condemn us.  He has the right to because of who He is.  I like the song in our books, “I Keep Falling In Love With Him.”  One of the lines goes like this, “He keeps cleansing me over, and over and over, and over and over again!” 

I keep sinning and He keeps forgiving!  I am imperfect, but the perfect one has forgiven me numerous times.  When I come to Him and ask for forgiveness, He doesn’t condemn but forgives because He loves me.  We need to learn to have the same attitude that Jesus had. 

Wouldn’t it be great if we could forgive like Jesus did?  He wants us to develop a forgiving heart like He forgives.  Let me read what Paul wrote in Colossians 3:13 which says, “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”

The Message Version says, “Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you.”  I love the verse in Ephesians where Paul talks about forgiving one another.  Ephesians 4:32 says, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”

From time to time, we sin against others and need to be forgiven.  Sometimes others will do wrong to us, and we need to forgive them.  When someone does us wrong, one needs to acknowledge their sin and seek to be forgiven. 

Biblical forgiveness is where the wrongdoer confesses, “I have singed against you, and I need you to forgive me.”  The one wronged will either forgive the person or not.  The truth is you have the choice to forgive someone or not. 

You own the choices you make in life.  Hopefully, Lord willing, we will forgive others as God in Christ as forgiven us.  Thankfully, God has dealt with our sins through Jesus. 

He has shown grace and mercy towards us in taking our place on the cross.  For that, we should be eternally grateful.  In love, God forgives us and removes the debt of our sins.  He removes our sins as far as the east is from the west Psalm 103:12. 

To forgive others is a decision to drop the offense and to let it go.  Forgiveness involves releasing the guilty party from the guilt of their sin.  God, when He forgives, declares us to be not guilty.  When we forgive someone else, we are declaring them to be not guilty as well. 

There is a benefit in forgiving others.  When we forgive others, we get rid of the bitterness that can eat away at our souls.  Relationships can be restored with others as well.  But when we forgive others, we are doing that which God commands and therefore, glorifying God.  Shouldn’t we desire to glorify God in all that we do? 

Forgiving others is part of the Christian life.  We need to remember how much God has forgiven us in Christ.  We don’t deserve His grace and mercy, but He shows it to us anyway.  We deserve judgment, but we receive forgiveness and love. 

Let’s say we are sitting in the theater, and we are about to watch the latest movie that we have been wanting to see.  Instead of the movie we want to see, the movie is an unedited, undeleted story of or your entire life.  How many in here want to see that movie version?  

I would say that not many of us want to go back and relive some parts of our lives.  This movie would contain everything you ever said, every unclean and impure thought, and all the things you ever did in secret that nobody knows about.  The things you thought you got away with. 

I don’t want to see that and thank God, that doesn’t exist.  When I look at the sins I have committed, God throws my sins into the depths of the sea never to be brought up again. 

Having been forgiven so much from God above, He commands us to forgive other people who do lesser sins against us.  In third grade English, the one who wrongs us is a sinner in need of God’s grace as well.  Be kind and forgiven towards all. 

Think about the words of Jesus in Matthew 6:14-15!  Just because the other person hasn’t asked to be forgiven, you can do as my friend Zach Neal posted on Facebook the other day: “You can forgive someone even if they don’t ask for forgiveness.” 

General Oglethorpe once said to John Wesley, “I never forgive and I never forget,” and John Wesley said, “Then, sir, I hope you never sin.” Because we all sin, we all need forgiveness and we all need to forgive, just as God in Christ has forgiven us. 

May we all seek to have a heart like His! 

Last Sunday, January 1, I wasn't able to worship with you all due to having the stomach bug.  But I am thankful for men like Justin Rutledge.  I called Justin and told him my situation and he offered to speak.  He told me it won’t be a very long sermon, but I know you guys weren’t going to be upset with him over that. 

I will say, and I think you will agree with me that being sick is awful. But when you are sick, it sure is nice when others are present to help you out when you need something to drink, some medicine, a snack, or whatever. 

As I was laying down the other day thinking about being sick, I thought how I can make a spiritual point out of being sick this past weekend for my devotional this coming Wednesday night.  I thought that all of us have an illness that needs to be dealt with. 

All of us can say like David did in Psalm 51:4, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight…”  All of us have sinned and we need The Great Physician’s care.  All of us have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory or standard of living (Romans 3:23). 

Because of our great need, God had a plan to send His Son to the earth to die on the cross for our sins.  He has given us the help that we all truly need.  John 3:16-17 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

I am so thankful for the salvation, forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and blessings of having Jesus in my life.  He has been so good to us.  I loved the old saying about God:  God is good all the time and all the time God is good. 

When we are sick with sin, we, as His children, turn to Him for help.  Turn to Him for spiritual cleansing.  When we first learned of why Jesus came to earth, we turned to Him in faith knowing He is the answer and cure for our sin problem. 

We lean on Him, we rely on Him, and we turn to Him for every need in this life.  He asks us to seek Him.  Peter tells us, “Cast your cares upon Him for He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7).  Sadly, there are so many who will never turn to God.  There are so many who are lost in sin. 

There are so many who do not know the love of God.  There are so many who know nothing about Him.  I challenge all of us to be bold and courageous enough to share Jesus with one soul this year.  Focus on one person in our lives.  Pray about it!  And ask God to use us to bring that person to Him.  I believe He will be there to help us. 

The world is lost in sin.  Sin is rampant in our world.  Just look what happened in Searcy last night.  People shot and killed in McDonald’s area, and shots fired in apartment complexes, some close to Harding University.  It’s a sad world.  The world needs Jesus.  I guess the world has always been a rough place. 

Even in the beginning the hearts of people were only evil continually.  I guess as a parent, sometimes the world my kids are growing up in doesn’t always look so promising.  But there is still good in this world, remember that.  No matter how sinful it may be, we can be the light.  We can be kind to others.  We can let Christ glow in and around our lives. 

The world needs Him.  It is good to see that so many in our world were turning to God in prayer this week to heal the Damar Hamlin from the Buffalo Bills.  Damar Hamlin is in critical condition due to collapsing on the field.  It was nice to see Dan Orlovsky pray for him on TV.  On ESPN for that fact a channel that typically doesn’t talk much about God. 

It was nice to see how so many people in our country turned to God in prayer over a football player.  Wouldn’t it be great if the sin sick kept on turning to God instead of sin?  I pray that more and more people will keep turning to God.  I pray that we, as His children, will keep living the life that shows we need Him.  I pray that by our actions, others will want what we have.

Keep living for God in a world that is filled with sin.  We can do this.  Jesus said in Matthew 5:13-16, “13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

What Jesus is saying is that others will come to see Me by what they see in you!  The lost need to see Jesus living in us.  Be a salty example and one that glows for God.  The world needs to see who we belong to.  Pray and ask God to use each of us in a mighty way!  Give thanks to God for the help He has provided us. 

Ryan