Alright, if you can turn your Bibles with me to Psalm chapter 90, and I want to read, we're going to be in this text for about three weeks. So before we jump into the book of Hebrews, we want to take some time to kind of wrestle through this text, and then you'll understand why I chose this text in a minute once we begin the sermon.

But we'll be here, and then when I come back from India, we'll jump back, jump into the study of the book of Hebrews for those of you who want to get a head start. Alright, so let's start reading. I'm reading out of the NASB, verse 1. "Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.

Before the mountains were born, or you gave birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. You turn man back into dust and say, 'Return, O children of men.' For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it passes by. For as a watch in the night, you have swept them away like a flood.

They fall asleep in the morning. They are like grass which sprouts anew. In the morning it flourishes and sprouts anew. Toward evening it fades and withers away. For we have been consumed by your anger. By your wrath, we have been dismayed. You have placed our iniquity before you, our secret sins in light of your presence.

For all our days have declined in your fury. We have finished our years like a sigh. As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, or if due strength, eighty years. Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow. For soon it is gone and we fly away.

Who understands the power of your anger and your fury according to the fear that is due you? So teach us to number our days that we may present to you a heart of wisdom. Do return, O Lord, how long will it be, and be sorry for your servants. O satisfy us in the morning with your loving kindness that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.

Make us glad according to the days you have conflicted us and the years we have seen evil. Let your work appear to your servants and your majesty, their children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us and confirm for us the work of our hands. Yes, confirm the work of our hands.

Let's pray. Gracious Father, we thank you so much for your faithfulness in 2018. We thank you, Father, as we look forward to the next year. As we reflect, evaluate, project, and plan, give us a heart of wisdom according to your word. May pursuing Christ, worshiping Christ, fellowshipping with Christ be our greatest passion.

So for that end, we pray for your reminder, we pray for encouragement and guidance. We thank you in Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, as you guys know, today is the last service of 2018. It went by so quick, right? Again, you say it every single year, I say it every single year, but it seems like every year it goes by faster and faster.

Some of you, 2018 was filled with joy. You had, I can't remember how many weddings we've had. I can't remember how many children we had. It almost seemed like it was every single week. So it's great that a lot of you are multiplying. You've taken trips. Maybe you've gotten raises.

In 2018, maybe it was a good year for you. And maybe in 2019, you're praying that God would continue to bless you in your life. There's some of you in this room that has gone through tremendous hardship. You've wrestled through the sickness of a loved one. And even now, I know that there's many in our church who have parents or sister or brother or somebody that they're praying over and is visiting the hospital on a regular basis.

And so we are praying with you and we see you from a distance. And so 2018 has been a rough year and 2019 looks like it's going to be a rough year for you as well. Every year at the end of the year, we naturally, whether we like it or not, it's all over.

Whether it's at church or you're watching television, they have a countdown. What happened in 2018? What are the 10 best things that happened? If you're a sports fan, what are the 10 best dunks in the NBA? And so everything is kind of winding down. And then when the new year comes, they begin to project that hopefully, you know, this is what's going to happen.

So it forces us to reflect upon what happened. For me, as I look upon 2018, you know, the biggest thing obviously that happened to me was I turned 50. And again, it's just another year, but it's difficult not to think of mortality, you know. Not that, again, I know there's people in this room who are much older than I am and so I don't want to offend anybody, but at the same time, turning 50 kind of caused me to think about, you know, like the next generation.

You know, I don't know how long God's going to have me on this earth, whether it's 25 years, 30 years, 10 years or five years, I don't know. But turning 50 definitely made that reality much more real. That our time here is limited. And it is passing by so fast, you know.

And I remember very specifically, you know, my 25th birthday. And the reason why I remember the 25th birthday so vividly was because that was the first birthday I had after I got married. And so Esther threw a birthday party, invited all the youth group kids, you know, to our apartment and I remember her making the Korean dish doenjang jjigae.

I remember very specifically everything about that party, who was there, you know, and because it was the first time I felt like I had a full-blown birthday party for me and I was married and my wife threw that for me. So it was so vivid. And then I think about it seemed like yesterday that would happen and those 25 years went by just like that, right?

And so, you know, as I get older, I realize that money comes and goes. There are periods of life you have more money than you need or you don't have enough. But you can always get money. You can lose money. But time, once it is spent, is gone. And so the most valuable thing that we have really is time, you know.

And that's the danger when we're young because we don't think of time as a commodity. We think of time as something that we just spend to enjoy ourselves until you get to a certain age and then you begin to become more wiser and think, oh, maybe I should be more wise with my time.

But a real wise person recognizes that early on in your 20s, right? And not what you wait until your 40s or 50s or 60s, but in your 20s, you recognize that this is one life that God has given you. How am I going to invest it for God's kingdom?

All of this, it really is introduction really to chapter 90 of Psalms because the background behind the Psalms is Moses has led the nation of Israel through the desert for 40 years. So they're on this side of the mountain looking and eagerly anticipating going into the promised land. So what Moses does here is he's reminiscing over the past of Israel's sin that caused them to be wandering for 40 years.

And they're eagerly anticipating that once we get to the other side, everything that they had hoped for was going to be fulfilled. And so Moses has taken his time, kind of just like, you know, at the end of every year, we're reflecting back in the past and projecting for the future.

That's exactly what Moses is doing here in chapter 90. So it's split in three parts. So I'm going to be covering the first, next week, the second, and then the week after that third. It's split into three sections. First section in verses one through six, which we're going to be covering today, is to remind the nation of Israel who God is.

And so we're going to be spending some time talking about that, that before they move forward that our view of God is the most fundamental and important truth that if we get it wrong, or if we have a misunderstanding of God, or a partial understanding of God, it affects the way we see church, it affects the way we see money, it affects the way we see relationships, eternity, it affects everything about our life.

So first and foremost, Moses reminds them of who God is. Second section, verses seven through 12, in light of who God is, he talks about who is man. What does a nation of Israel need to remember? So he talks about their 40 years and why they were wandering and why God was angry with them.

He reminds them of that before they get into the promised land so that they don't repeat the same mistake. And then the third and final part of it, verse 13 to 17, describes man's dire need for God. That knowing who God is, knowing your condition, that the only answer to that is to cry out to God and for God to answer and to forgive.

And that's the last and final section. That before they move into the promised land, they needed to have this, and they need to have a firm grasp of who God is, who they are, and who it is that they are depending on. And that's how this chapter is divided.

So the way that I named it was, "Look up, look in, and look out." So that's going to be the sermon outline, or at least the title of the three-part sermon. So today is the look up part, look to God. First thing that he says in the beginning, it says, "It is good to give thanks to the Lord." No, I'm in a different chapter.

Okay, it's verse 90. That didn't sound right. "You have been our dwelling in all generations." Now you might read that in passing if you know the background. Remember what we talked about? In order to understand the Bible, what's the first and most important thing that we need to understand?

Context, right? So if you don't know the context, it just sounds like many other passages where it says, "Lord, you are my dwelling." But remember the context in which this is written. They're eagerly anticipating to get into what? The promised land, their new home. The word for dwelling place here in some other places is translated refuge, or if you want to take it literally, it just means home.

Before you get into your home that you've been wandering for 40 years and fantasizing about, crossing over this mountain and finally getting to the promised land, he reminds them that the Lord your God is your refuge. He's your refuge. For every single one of us, for every single one of us, there is a longing and a desire to be home.

No matter how much you love to travel, no matter how many places you go, whether you're an introvert or an extrovert, at some point, you want to eventually get home because that's where you feel rested. That's where you're not thinking about anything. You went out and did experience some tremendous stuff, but at some point, you want to go home, right?

Because that's where the loved ones are. That's where you feel rest. That's where you're relaxed. That's where you feel safe. You can see the Israelites are thinking while they're wandering in the desert, they're vulnerable because they're not protected. Enemies can come and just squash them anytime they want. So for any nation, their dream would be to go into a city where they're fortified with walls and protected.

So they were probably dreaming this, like, "Oh, we're almost home. We're almost home." And Moses reminds them, "That is not your home. God is your dwelling." You know, I read this years ago. You know, some of you guys may remember it. Most of you guys weren't here when I read it, but it made me think about, again, that song from Michael Buble.

Last time I mispronounced him. I said Michael Bubble, but it's Michael Buble. I'm not going to read the whole thing, but I thought it was appropriate for the text that we're looking at where he talks about missing home. You know, "Another summer day has come and gone in Paris and Rome, but I want to go home.

To be surrounded by a million people, I still feel all alone. Just want to go home. Oh, I miss you, you know, until another winter day has come and gone away in either Paris or Rome, and I want to go home. Let me go home. And I'm surrounded by a million people.

I still feel alone. And let me go home. Oh, I miss you, you know." You know, I think that song is popular. Obviously, it's a catchy tune, but, you know, that's one of the songs that I have on my iPhone that when I'm flying and I'm away and I want to kind of block out the noise, that's usually the first song that comes out.

"I want to go home. I want to go home. I want to go home. Because I'm tired, you know? I want to sleep on my own bed, right? I want to eat my wife's cooking." And so that song, to me, it kind of reminds me not only about my home in Irvine, but it reminds me of the groaning in my heart that no matter where I am, that there is a longing to go home because our home is not here.

In Hebrews 4, 8 through 9, the author says, "If Joshua had given them rest," meaning, as Joshua led the nation of Israel into the Promised Land, if Joshua gave them that rest that they were looking for, he would not have spoken of another day after that. So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

In other words, they were looking to go to the Promised Land because they thought they were going home, but if that was truly their home, it would have been finished. But Joshua speaks of another place. Hebrews 11, 13 to 14, these men and women of faith who wandered out and gave their lives, if their desire was to be home to the Promised Land, many of them never made it.

God didn't keep his promise, in other words. This is what it says, "All these died in faith without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on earth, for those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own." Every single one of us, the scripture says, the Holy Spirit's been deposited and is groaning on our behalf, interceding for us.

What do you think the Holy Spirit is praying for us? When he groans on our behalf, what do you think he's groaning on our behalf for? So that you can be comfortable? So that your business will be successful? So that you can live a little bit longer instead of dying at 30, that you died at 90?

What do you think he's primarily deposited in us for? He's groaning to bring us to the Father, to actualize the salvation that was started when we accepted Christ, and it's going to be fulfilled in glorification. So the Holy Spirit is groaning for what? To take us home. A Christian has the Holy Spirit constantly reminding us, "This is not your home." And the frustration with Christians sometimes is that we try so hard to make this our home when the scripture clearly keeps telling us, "This is not your home." And we're jumping from relationship to relationship, from group to group, from event to event, to find rest and peace.

But this is not our home. That's what Moses is trying to remind the nation of Israel. You're going to go into the promised land. You are going to have mountains around you, but that is not your rest. The Lord your God, He is your refuge. Again that's why Paul says in Colossians 3, 1-4, "Therefore you have been raised with Christ.

Keep seeking the things above." He doesn't say you've been raised with Christ, now make the best of it on earth. He doesn't say that. Now that you've been raised with Christ, now that you know that you're not from here, look up where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Set your mind to the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ was your life, our life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. In other words, our life, while we're here, will always feel like it's not our home, because it isn't.

No matter how comfortable you are, no matter how financially well off you are, if you are a born-again Christian and the Holy Spirit is indwelling in you, there will always be a sense of discontent with this world, because it wasn't meant to be our home. Just like the promised land for the nation of Israel was only to ultimately point to the coming of Christ.

It was to teach them about the inheritance. It was to teach them about glory and the new heavens that are going to come, but it was only a shadow, and that was not their reality. Philippians 3.20, it says again, "For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ." How long was this?

This was not something new. He says He's our refuge in all generations. In other words, before Egypt, during Egypt, and after Egypt, the Lord has always been your refuge. Your home was never the promised land. Crossing over this mountain is not going to get you to your home. The Lord has been your refuge in all generations.

Before the mountains were born, or you gave birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. To us, mountains are a place that we hike, and we go to the peak, and we take good selfies, and we put it on our Instagram, and so we think of mountains as a beautiful place to visit.

Think about what mountains were for them at that time. Mountains were natural barriers to protect them from their enemies. So if you look at the ancient civilizations, typically they are surrounded by natural walls because it protected them from enemies so they could see them coming, you know, standing up on the top, and even if they did come, they would have the higher position.

So for them, the mountains, Moses is on this side of the mountain looking, saying, "We're going to cross over to the promised land," but he says, "Before the mountains were ever created, God was." God was your refuge. He was your protection. It's not the mountain. Another thing that the mountain represented for the ancient people was that they believed that if they climbed the mountains, that they would get higher, and they would be able to be closer to God.

So a lot of the idols, idol worshippers, set up temples and places in where? High places. And God told the nation of Israel that, "Do not worship me like the pagans do," and set up altars in where? High places. Because they thought that if they kept on climbing, that they would somehow get closer to God.

So the mountain naturally represented to them a place of refuge and a place where they thought that they could bring themselves higher and get closer to God. And that's the context in which Moses is saying, "Before the mountains were born, you gave birth to the earth." The only reason why these mountains are even here is because the God who created it is there.

And the moment we forget that, and we begin to give credit to the creation rather than the creator. Think about all the magnificent places that we visit, whether it's big cities or, you know, again, you go to Beijing, they have the Great Wall. Some of you guys may have been there multiple times.

We go there and people spend thousands of dollars to visit, to look at it, and be marveled at this pile of rocks. I've been there so many times because that's exactly what it looks like to me. But it's man-made structure that, you know, like, what is that? I forgot.

1,500 miles and 500 years to build, and then never acknowledging the mountain that it sits on. And it's not even the mountain. It's the God behind the mountain and the man that God created who had the intellect and the will to be able to put those stones together. But like it says in Romans chapter 1, you know, that man's sin is we give credit to the creation rather than the creator.

We make creation our refuge rather than the one who created it. And that's the first thing that he reminds the nation of Israel. Before we get into the promised land, it is not sin to be comfortable. God was going to protect them. It is not a sin to have finances.

It is not a sin to have good retirement. But the moment that that becomes our refuge, the blessing that God has given us can easily turn into a curse. And that's what Moses was projecting. If we forget who God is, this promised land that he's taken us into can easily turn into a curse.

Second thing that he reminds us, man's fate is ultimately in God's hands. He says, "You turn man back into dust and say, 'Return, O children of men.'" In other words, God is in charge of your life. You know, one of the most foolish teachings of this world, and every time you hear somebody who's experienced any kind of success, do you have anything to say?

And they say, "Well, believe in yourself and you can do anything." Order trash. And usually, if you've lived long enough, you know, nobody believes that. Only young children believe that. Like, anything? I can be like LeBron? No. Not going to happen, right? If you believe in yourself, you can achieve anything.

You can't grow a centimeter. You know what I mean? It's like, "Oh man, I want to be a little bit taller." No. You can't. You don't have that control, right? I mean, even when we make promises, "I'll see you tomorrow," right? You're making a bet. And from now until then, nothing's going to happen.

You're just kind of taking the probability of how things have been, and the possibility that I may be able to make it there is high. That's not the best that we can do because we can't control what's going to happen. So it's like, "I'll do my best to be there tomorrow." That's about as honest you can get.

To think that somehow we can control our destiny. It's a lie. It's a deception. So the first thing that he says, "Remember who God is. He is your refuge." In other words, He is your home. He is your goal. And you already have Him. Don't forget that. But ultimately, God is ultimately in charge.

Not you. Think about how much of our frustration lies when we start to think, "Only if I had this. Only if the circumstances were different. Only if I had more money. Only if I had this. Because if my circumstances were different, I would have more control over my fate." And we forget that God is absolutely sovereign.

In John 10, 17, 18, "For this reason, the Father loves me because I lay down my life so that I may take it again." Only God can say that. No human being can say, "I lay down my life and I take it back up when I please." You didn't choose to come into this world.

And when it's time for you to leave, you're not going to choose to leave either. God has ordained that time. It is appointed for all men to die once, and after this comes judgment. Who appointed your death? God did. He appointed your life. He appointed your death. The reason why He's telling us all of this is as we are going in, they may be thinking like, "Now that we have what we want.

Now we have the promised land. We have the protection of the mountains. We're in charge of our own fate. Now let's work hard and make something of our nation." He's reminding them, "You don't have that power. Only God does. God is the only one who is absolutely sovereign." That's why in Philippians chapter 4, 6 through 7, Paul says, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God." In other words, your anxiousness is because you haven't surrendered to God.

And why would you give Him thanks before He answers your prayer? Because you're acknowledging that He is the one who has power over me. Whatever circumstance you're in, how much of our anxiousness is because we don't have control over our circumstance. When we think we're in control, if I do this and I put my money in this account and invest in that, this is going to happen.

If I switch jobs and do this and that, or, and we have all these things that we've well planned and then all of a sudden you throw a wrench in that, and then we begin to get anxious because we've lost control. But He says, "When you're anxious with everything, bring your prayers and supplication and thanksgiving to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." God has us in His hands.

He has the power of life. He has the power of death. And until we recognize that, we do our best to live in rebellion against that, even when you don't know it. Oftentimes our rebellion against God is not a shaking of fists before God. It's small decisions that we make that have nothing to do with Him for the purpose of making my life better, to have more control over my life.

I want you to see the two pictures, okay, if you can put that up. Okay, all right. Anybody know what the name of these things are? Nobody in first service knew either. I tried to Google it. Basically, it's eggs. There's a technical name for it, but we're not that sophisticated.

It's just eggs, right? I mean, eggs. Many of you had eggs this morning, right? Did anybody have eggs and say, "Take the shell and you preserved it, and you put it into a carton and it's waiting for you?" No. What is an egg shell? It's how you take the yolk and the thing out.

Trash. That's exactly what it is. That's trash. But who would think that that's trash? No. It was trash before the artist put his hand on it, right? And it was because the artist put his hand on it, and all of a sudden the trash became something to be displayed, right?

The egg in itself, the egg in and of itself is trash. It's because God put his touch on it, and that's the distinction between you and I and the rest of creation. God is the one who has the power to bring us from dust and to put us back into dust.

And the only reason why you and I are distinguished between the rest of the world is because God said, "You will reflect me and my glory." And that's why the Bible describes our fallen rebellion as falling short of his glory, because if his glory doesn't shine off of us, it's just trash.

It's just dirt. So he's reminding us, he is our home, he is our refuge, and he is our creator. Don't forget that. Go to the next picture. I have another one. This is just soda can, okay? So if you didn't understand, you couldn't relate with the egg. It's just Pepsi can or Diet Pepsi can or Dr.

Pepper, okay? So I'm trying to cover all of you, right? And they made it into this beautiful art. And to the right, it's Christmas season, so those are ornaments made out of cans, right? Trash. Some of you are going to drink some soda today, and you're going to throw it into the trash can.

And if you're a really good citizen, you may redeem it for one cent, right? It's just trash. Until somebody creative and talented put their hand on it and made it into that. And that's what he's reminding the nation of Israel. God has the power. He brought you out of dust, and he can take you back into dust.

Recognize him and him first. Isaiah 64, 8, "But now, O Lord, you are our father. We are the clay, and you are our potter. All of us are the work of your hands." We're not in control of our destiny. God is. And that's why we have the greatest value, and we feel the most alive when his glory shines off of us.

Not our work, not our determination, not our intellect, not our experience, not our finances, but when his glory reflects off of us. Third and finally, he says, "God is eternal." God could be our refuge, and God could be sovereign, but if he is not eternal, he's not reliable either.

He's temporary. But he says, "No, he is eternal. God, a thousand years is like yesterday when it passes by." Second Peter 3, 8-9, "But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.

It passes by just like that." And then he says, "A thousand years is like a watch in the night." You know, when I first read it, a watch in the night is like, "Hmm, a watch in the night. What is it? How is time like a watch in the night?" And then again, again, remember the context.

They didn't have watches back then, right? So that's not what he means. A watch in the night is describing Jewish time that's divided into three parts, four hours each. And so basically, they would say first watch would be the first four hours, second watch would be the second four hours, and then they would do that again for the daytime.

First watch for the daytime, second, and third. So that's why when you see Jesus' death, they'll describe it in first hour or second hour. They're not talking about six o'clock, seven o'clock. They're talking about that period, right? So when he says, "A thousand years is like a watch in the night," think about when time passes the fastest for us.

You ever get so tired and then you say, "Oh, I'm going to lie down for a minute," and you wake up 15 hours later? You missed work? All the apartments that you've made, you had to pay your bills, and now you're going to have to work hard to make up for that.

And you got a bunch of phone calls angry, right? And you thought it was five minutes, but it passed by so quick. That's what he's comparing time with for God. That we just lie down and that watch at four hours in the middle of the night that nobody even thinks about, right?

Now if you're college students, you might be up during that time, but normal people are asleep between two to six, right? That's the time that we don't really think about. It just passes. You just lie down, and then during that time, then you just wake up at six, and you don't think about two o'clock, three o'clock, four o'clock, five o'clock.

That's what he's comparing to God because he is eternal. He says he has control over all things. He's sovereign. But in comparison to God's sovereignty, he says in contrast to man, we are like floods who swept away, they fall asleep. We're like swept away like a flood, right? I mean, you've seen so many videos of what happened in Indonesia even recently.

And I've seen so many video clips about the tsunami that happened years ago where people were just on the beach having fun, and all of a sudden, they see the water being stretched out and you have videotapes of people like, "What's going on?" Next thing you know, they're gone.

They perish. Over 300,000 people just disappeared. He said that's like our life. It comes and it goes that fast. James chapter 4, 13 to 15, "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit,' yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow.

You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes." God is eternal, and a thousand years to him is like a watch and a night, but for us, we're like vapors. We come in a short period of time and then we're gone. We don't have control over that.

We know where this is headed, 100%. Whether you die when you're in your 20s, whether you die in your 50s, whether you die in your 90s, we all are going to die. He's reminding them, in this short life, don't forget who God is because we don't know. That's again, that's the temptation when we're young, that we make all these plans.

If I go to school and if I make enough money and if I buy a house and if I get married and if I have kids and we make all of these plans, by the time you get to your 30s, 40s and 50s, you realize that you don't have as much control as you think you do.

Then life passes by and then you try to teach your kids things that you've learned, but that they go through the same thing. It's so quick. I remember years ago, my father was sick and he was sick for over a year and a half before he actually passed. So we knew it was coming.

We just didn't know exactly when. We knew it was going to be, it could have been any month, it could have been a year, two years down the line. But it took a year and a half just to slowly erode. But I remember during that period, they had friends and they're about the same age and the guy, my dad's friend was maybe about four or five years older than him.

So he was older. And so whenever they would get together, they would always pray for my dad because my dad was sick. He's like, "How's your health? What's going on?" And then they were the one always concerned about him. And then one day we got news that he played a round of golf, came home, said, "Oh, I'm a little tired.

I'm going to go in and lie down." And then he never woke up. And we were all like, he was so healthy. Never knew. It was just time. And he went peacefully. You and I don't have that kind of control. Our life truly is like a mist. And I remember even my father at the end of his life, he was so uncomfortable because he knew that the end was coming, but it just wasn't coming.

And so we were visiting at the nursing home. He stayed with Phillip for a period. And I remember when he was in the nursing home, he slipped into coma. And then the nurses ran into the room and they revived him. When he got revived, he wasn't like, "Oh, thank you so much." He said, "Don't do that." Because he was ready.

He served God faithfully all these years, and then he knew that the next place that he was going was much more comfortable where he is now. And I remember thinking at that time, with all the modern medicine and technology that we have, that the only thing that they could have done for him is to prolong his suffering.

And so we were, obviously, we're sad when he passed, but we're also glad because we knew where he was headed. That's our faith for all of us. And that's the hope that we have for every Christian, every Christian that knows Christ. This is not our home. This is not our home.

God is our refuge. And the sooner we believe that, sooner we pursue that, sooner we give all our energy to have that, the happier we will be. So whatever it is that you have planned for 2019, whatever it is that you want to put behind 2018, my prayer that you would keep this in mind.

And I pray that God would bless you in your business. I pray that you would stay healthy. I pray that some of these things that we're allowed to have in this life, that you would experience that. I pray for that. But I also pray above all of that, every single one of us would find their home in Christ.

Let's take some time to pray as our worship team leads us. And seeking the Lord's blessing, whatever it is that you are pursuing, whatever you've been frustrated with, again, if it had nothing to do with Christ, to take some time, come before the Lord. I laid this before you.

Lord, it's been so hard with my family, my children, my circumstance. But in the midst of all of this, let me remember that true life is coming and to look to Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith. So let's take our time to pray as our worship team leads us.