Built Well

Speaker 1: 0:00

All right, well, welcome to LVC. Like we said, I'm so glad, I'm happy I got to tell you something. I'm happy to be at church today, I'm so happy to be with you. There's no place I rather be than hanging out with you guys on this nice cold Sunday morning. Ok, now I have a question. I have a question for you today. Who in here has ever tried to put together IKEA furniture or whatever brand, all the different brands? Ok, I got to say something real fast about this furniture. Ok, I'm going to pat myself on the back. I'm going to give myself a little encouragement, because where I am today is a lot better than where I used to be when I used to have to do this. It was bad.

Speaker 1: 0:42

Well, I remember when my wife and I, when we first got married, we got this nice dining room table. And so here you go, we're at the store and we saw the dining room table. I was like, oh, this looks great. Four chairs, it's going to look so good for our little condo, it's going to be awesome. And then we so we buy it. We buy it. And then when it comes shipped to us, it comes in this slim box. You're like, I'm like when I buy it. I just want it to come as I saw it on the display, like why can't it just come that way? And so when it comes, it has this slim box and I'm like what the heck, how am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to do with this? And so I bring it in and I dump it out and there's about 1,372 pieces in it. I'm like this ain't the same dining room table? Now, that's what I got to say.

Speaker 1: 1:26

I've come a long way, because as I was putting this dining room table together, I think my wife started to reconsider her decision to marry me, because I was getting a little frustrated. I might have kicked, thrown, yelled at the furniture. I was at some anger problems. I've come a long way. I was getting a little upset. But I remember when we had this I'm trying to put this thing together. It's about an hour or so goes by, I still don't have it all right. And then Erin, my beautiful wife, she says to me her man, her husband, she says should we call our friend Matt to come and put this together? Now, matt is a lot more crafty than me. Matt wouldn't know how to do this in about 30 minutes. But I'm the man of the house. I said I said I said woman, I said I'm putting this thing together. This is my house.

Speaker 1: 2:32

About two hours later I do it, I put it together and we go to sit down on the chairs and they wibble and they wobble and they will fall down. So I called Matt, said hey, matt, can you come over and fix this for me? And he did. He came over and fixed it. I just didn't tighten it enough. That's all.

Speaker 1: 2:51

It was the Allen wrench. I was like where's Allen? I didn't even know. I thought that was a person. Ok, that was funny, ok.

Speaker 1: 3:00

But here was the problem. Here is the problem with the table. It wasn't built on a solid foundation. It wasn't built on a solid foundation. And my point is that sometimes it's hard to build things on a solid foundation. Sometimes there's so many pieces, there's so many things going on in our lives. There's so many things. How do we build our lives on a solid foundation? When do we all agree that we want to build something on a solid foundation? When do we all agree? When you go to the restaurant, you go to Starbucks and you get the wibbly-wobbly table and makes you upset? No one wants a wibbly-wobbly table at the restaurant. We love things that are built on a solid foundation, and so we're in a series.

Speaker 1: 3:47

Today we're in part three of a series called Pray First, where our hope as everyday people who are learning how to become Jesus followers, is that prayer is not our last resort. Prayer is not our fourth quarter, last play. Hail Mary. Let's see if we can do it. Know that prayer will be our first response that we have a life built on prayer. And what is prayer? To demystify prayer? Prayer is simply talking to God. It's simply just talking to God, having an ongoing communication with God, and we want to build our lives on that that we can begin to look at prayer not as a religious obligation but as a life given connection between us and God.

Speaker 1: 4:26

Now I do want to say for everyone in here we are in 21 days of prayer and fasting. We are in day 14 of that and I encourage you to do seven days of prayer and fasting if you haven't joined us already, and I encourage you to join us every morning on Google Meet Monday through Friday at 6 in the morning. Come on, it has been great. We've been having over 20 plus people on these 15 minute prayer calls. It's been a great, great thing. It's powerful and, again, our website has all the info you need to know about 21 Days of Prayer If you want to join us. It is never too late to give God your first things. Never too late to do it.

Speaker 1: 4:59

So, and the reason why we are starting our year with 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting is because we want to build a solid foundation through prayer. We want to build in our lives a solid foundation. Now. Jesus has a lot to say about building on a solid foundation. I want you to check this out. Jesus says this in Luke 6.

Speaker 1: 5:17

He says so why do you keep calling me Lord, lord? I like this question. Why do you keep calling me that? Why do you keep calling me Lord, lord, when you don't do what I say? I will show you what it's like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching and then follows it. And it follows it. And I want to say something. This is the heart of our church right here. We want people to be with Jesus, come to Him, become like Jesus, listen to His teaching, and that's why small groups are so important. Small groups are our best time for us to become like Jesus. When we are in healthy relationships, it forms us into the person that God has called us to be, just like when we're in unhealthy relationships, it forms us into the person that we don't want to be. Your life change, the life changes you want, a lot of times would come through healthy relationships with other people going in the direction that you're trying to go in your life, just saying, ok, so, but it's what we want to do. We want people to be with Jesus, come to Him to become like Jesus, listen to His teachings and then do the stuff that Jesus did follow through, follow Him, follow Him through.

Speaker 1: 6:15

Jesus continues. He says it's like a person building a house who digs deep, who digs deep and lays the foundation on solid rock. And notice this is so important. Notice what Jesus says. Next, when the flood of waters rise, hold on, wait a second. Jesus is telling the story. He says when you build your house, you dig deep and you build a foundation. Because. Then he says when, when the flood waters rise, notice that he doesn't say if. Notice he doesn't say it might. Notice he doesn't say if you follow me, your life is going to become pretty pretty pony and unicorns and everything's great and nothing bad is ever going to happen to you ever again if you become a Jesus follower. He doesn't say that, does he? He doesn't say that. He says the person who digs deep and lays a solid foundation when the flood waters rise.

Speaker 1: 7:22

As a Jesus follower, you will deal with storms. As a Jesus follower, you will have troubles. Sometimes your kids will do things that leave you up late at night worried about them. Sometimes you don't get the promotion. Sometimes you are single a little bit longer than you hope. Sometimes that depression doesn't go away instantly. Sometimes that anxiety comes out in the most inconvenient time. And I know I ain't sounding very encouraging right now, but I don't want to bait and switch you. I want to be honest with you that becoming a Jesus follower does not exclude you from the pains and troubles and worries of life.

Speaker 1: 8:00

Jesus says when the flood waters rise and Chet is out, and then he says and breaks against that house, meaning the flood waters are going to rise and they're going to hit hard. At times Life hits hard, but notice this, lvc, and this is what I want for you so bad today. Because when the flood waters rise and it breaks against the house. It stands firm because it is well built. Don't get me to put your dining room table together. It's well built. It's something that you can build your life on. Did you know that God wants you to be well built for the flood waters of life? Did you know that God wants you to be well built for the flood waters that are coming in your future? Did you know that God wants you to be well built for the problems and the troubles and the trials and the heartaches and the things that break down that will come in your life? He wants you to be well built for it.

Speaker 1: 9:04

Check out the next part. He says but anyone who hears and doesn't obey is like a person who builds a house right on the ground without a foundation. When the flood sweep down against that house, it will collapse into a heap of ruins that don't sound good. And if we're being honest today in church, can we be honest today? If we're being honest today, that's where some of us find ourselves right now. Some of us find ourselves in a heap of ruins. So the question I want to ask you today is this which builder are you going to be? Are you going to be the builder that digs deep and lays a foundation, or will you be the builder that wants to go by the instant gratification and just build the house right then and there, without doing the digging, without doing digging?

Speaker 1: 9:58

First thing I want to say is this when we say, when we say Lord Lord, we got to mean it. When you say Lord Lord, mean that thing. Because here's the thing Jesus is our Lord and Savior. So we can pray a prayer and Jesus saved me, saved me, I can spend eternity with you, and that's great and we want that, and that is that is important. But there is a difference between a savior and Lord. Jesus might be your savior, but is he the Lord of your life? Is he the Lord of your life? And in that culture the word Lord meant is someone that you're giving your devotion to, that you give your devotion to.

Speaker 1: 10:40

I remember growing up, my mom would always say to me Jacob, love is an action, love is an action word. I was like Mom. I don't know what that means and what she was saying was take the dishes to the sink. Love is an action. It's more than just saying it. You know, and here you go. Have you ever been around someone who constantly says one thing but never follow up on what they're saying. Or have you ever been called out when your words didn't match your actions? It's never fun to be called out, but it's especially not fun to be called out when your five-year-old calls you out. When your five-year-old calls you out, it's especially not fun.

Speaker 1: 11:22

Before winter break, I was volunteering at my daughter Kingsley's school. I was one of the watchdogs. I was a wolf it's awesome, it's an awesome program and I was in her class. When dads come and it's a great thing, and I was one of the watchdogs. I was in her class and a couple of the kids at her little table she's in kindergarten a couple of the little kids at her table. They were like picking her nose and saying I hate my mom. You know my mom, she's smelly, you know they're just. I don't know they're just being five year olds, whatever. And they just kept using that word hate and I was like dang, they say no word, hate a lot. This is a good opportunity for me to tell Kingsley not to do that. So after class, after school, I said hey Kingsley, hey man, when those kids were saying like I hate my mom, I hate this, so that's not a good word, you don't really want to use that word. And I said, especially, you never want to talk about people behind their back. Sometimes I'm like really direct with my kids. I was like that's like a good life lesson, right. Then you know sometimes you don't want to do that, you don't want to talk about people. And she's like, okay, dad, that sounds good, okay. So here you go.

Speaker 1: 12:21

A couple weeks later, couple weeks later, at dinner, my son Jameson if you haven't noticed, my son Jameson, he has the loudest scream in the history of screams. I mean, I mean, just like he gets to a new octave of scream, he can be on a scream old band one day. Are those things still around? Okay, maybe not Okay, so. So so I mean he get a new octave of scream. And so here you go. We're eating dinner, eating some stir fry or something, I don't know what we're eating. We're eating dinner and Jameson drops his fork and he screams as loud as possible. I mean the loudest ear piercing scream ever.

Speaker 1: 12:57

And just my natural reaction to this loud scream was Jameson, I hate when you scream like that. And right when I said that, my daughter, as sharp as can be, she says dad, we don't use that word hate. You told me when those little kids at school were saying hate that we don't use that word. We don't use that word. And so if they can't use that word and if I can't use that word, dad, you can't use that word. And I was like, but his scream and it hurt my ears and that was just my natural reaction. You know I was and I was like you know it's not the hardest thing ever when you got to submit yourself to a kid like like, all right, you're right, you got me. I gotta say something. So I did. I apologize to Jameson and her, and I gotta say something to parents and to the leaders if you're leading people, never be too prideful to apologize. I'm going to tell you that some of my best moments, some of my best parents and moments, is when I made a mistake, identified it and went to my kids and told them hey, dad shouldn't do that, just want to let you know. Same thing, if you're leading people to never be too prideful to apologize. And here's the thing that I said one thing and did another thing.

Speaker 1: 14:07

Jesus says in this verse. He says you say Lord, lord. You say Lord, lord, your intentions are in the right place. This is what I want. I want to let some people know that your intentions might be in the right place. Intentions are good. We want intentions, but the things that we want to do with our intentions.

Speaker 1: 14:22

If you want to deepen your relationship with God, if you want to deepen your relationship with God, you got to get from intentions to obedience and I know that word obedience Like what? Man I don't know. I'm myself and I'm free and I do what I want. I paved my own path. No, you don't. No, you don't. We're all following somebody. We're all being formed by somebody or something. We are all disciples of somebody or something. You just got to choose who you want to be a disciple of. And I'm going to tell you today being a disciple of Jesus will lead you to the best life possible. And so we got to get our intentions from. We got to get from intentions to obedience.

Speaker 1: 15:04

It's good to have intentions, but they got to be obedience. And for example, for example, you may want to deepen your relationship with God, but you aren't willing to give up that relationship that you know and everybody else knows. You need to get out of. You want to be a parent. You want to parent about it, but your phone screen time is still a little too high. You want to be a better spouse, but your time together consists of too much TV time and not enough talking. We have good intentions, but what prayer does and being built in prayer, it moves us from intentions to obedience. See, the best way to put it is this. I got another illustration I'm loaded with illustrations today.

Speaker 1: 15:43

If your daughter was playing high school basketball, cross you up. She was playing high school ball and then, all of a sudden, lebron James came out to watch her play and LeBron said man, this girl can play, she's good, she's good. Then, at the end of her game, she walks up to you and your daughter and says hey, she's a baller. I want her to come and follow me. I want to teach her how I play, how I study, how I eat, how I prepare for games. I want her to apprentice, honor me. What are you going to do as a parent? You're going to say heck yeah, heck yeah, because you know, based on who LeBron James is. If your daughter had that one-on-one attention, have that one-on-one connection, had that apprenticeship, had that discipleship, it would guarantee her success in the WNBA.

Speaker 1: 16:38

And I'm going to let you guys know today that when we are formed by Jesus, when we follow Jesus, when we trust Jesus, it's us getting that one-on-one apprenticeship that will guarantee the success that we want in life. So we got to move from attention to obedience and what I'm going to tell you today is are you going to be willing to obey and to listen when we say Lord, lord, when we pause and allow God to lead and lead us gently, and we can move from these attention to obedience, because prayer isn't about asking God for things. Prayer is stepping into a conversation with God and be willing to listen and act on what he's saying. See, there's a story in the Gospel that you're probably familiar with, because even if you don't go to church, even if you're not a church person, you've heard the phrase. You've heard the phrase get out the boat. Or you've heard the phrase walk on water, which means you know doing something extraordinary or impossible.

Speaker 1: 17:35

See, here you've got the disciples. They're in a boat and a great storm comes. A great storm comes and it's shaking the boat, it's rocking the boat, it's breaking up against the boat. And you've got to remember, most of the disciples are fishermen, so they know how to handle a storm. This ain't new for them. So for this storm to be making them afraid, to be shaking them, it's a bad storm. Okay, it's a bad storm and it's hitting against them hard. They're in panic and then so they're in this boat, there's a storm coming and then, all of a sudden, they're looking out and they see Jesus. They see Jesus taking his nightly stroll on the water and they're like is that, is that Jesus over there? They're like like who does that? Who takes a long walk on top of the water? No one has, but Jesus is. Jesus is on top of the water.

Speaker 1: 18:29

And the disciples? They're in the boat and they're freaked out and they're panicked and they're on shore. What's going to happen to them? And there's Jesus from a distance away, walking on the water, and I think this is a good picture of how we can feel at times with our communication with God. My life is drowning in God. You see, far away and distant and, like you're more interested in other things and I'm drowning over here. But I want you to see the exchange between Jesus and Peter here. The disciples are terrified, they are overwhelmed by their current circumstances and I don't know about you, but I've been overwhelmed by my current circumstances before I can relate to that. But Jesus is walking on the water with the winds hitting, and he says to them take courage. It is, I don't be afraid. Now sounds good, but there's winds and there's waves and there's and it's stormy out and there's a lot going on, and Jesus is walking on the water. He's at a distance from them.

Speaker 1: 19:32

So a pie didn't sound as clear as when we read it in the Bible. It probably sounded more like take. I afraid it probably was a little bit more muffled, right. It probably wasn't as clear as you want it to be. It probably wasn't as clear as you want it to be because the noise was in the way. It probably wasn't as clear as you want it to be because you have so much anxiety, right, you got so much stuff going on and you want to hear God, which you're afraid because you feel like your life is drowning. And it doesn't sound as clear. And I'm going to tell you this sometimes our communication to God isn't as clear as we want it to be. But just because it's not as clear as we want it to be, it doesn't mean he's not speaking to us Just because there's winds and there's waves and there's problems and there's troubles, it doesn't mean he's not speaking and it doesn't mean he's not calling you out to the water. And notice Peter's response here. Notice the response of Peter.

Speaker 1: 20:39

And, before I get there, again, my son Jameson. He screams loud and he also is the fastest talker in the world. If you try to talk to Jameson, he talks so fast, he muffles up his words like he'd been drinking some Jameson. He's like I don't know, so he'll say an entire sentence. He'll say an entire sentence. You'll be like what in the world did you just say? So what do you have to do when he talks? Cause if you say what, he'll cry and scream. Do that scream thing? What you gotta do is you gotta lean in, you gotta get close to him and say can you say it again? And when you lean in and listen, you can understand and sometimes it's not that God isn't speaking. There's so much winds and waves, there's so much noise and problems, there's so much panic and confusion we can't hear well, and what we gotta do is what Peter does.

Speaker 1: 21:41

Peter says Lord, if it's you, tell me to come on the water. And so when we're afraid, when we don't hear God, clearly we still gotta lean in. We gotta lean in and say, okay, if that's you, and I love that he says if that's you, he still has doubt. Did you know that your prayers can be laced with doubt and God still hears it? Did you know you can have so much doubt? And that doesn't disqualify you from talking to God. On the contrary, I would say bring your doubts to God. If doubts are only prayer you have, then make that your prayer. And he comes and he leans in. He says if that's you, if that's you, he says tell me to come. And Jesus says he says come. He says come and Peter leans in and he says come.

Speaker 1: 22:29

And Peter does something crazy. And some of us we've been doing something crazy for the past 21 days. Some of us we've been fasting. Some of us we've been praying. Some of you you serve. Some of you you've been spending daily time with God. Some of you you come to church every week and people around you are like why are you serving that church so much? Why are you so into God? And you're just saying I gotta lean in because my life is crazy, he says. He says I rather lean in there than be stuck on this boat. I know there's a storm and I know this boat makes you feel like it's safe and stable. You know the thing about our sins. You know the thing about our addictions. You know the thing about that problem that we struggle with. It likes to convince us that it's safe and stable all while we're sitting in it and we're drowning. It might be safe and stable, but I'm gonna get out. So, peter, he got out of the boat. And because he got out of the boat, what did Peter do?

Speaker 1: 23:38

Peter walked on the words that Jesus spoke to him, and prayer is our connection to God, to simply talk to him and trust him. Peter doesn't just walk on the water, he walks on the word of God, and prayer is us walking on God's word. And LBC has everyday people who are learning how to become Jesus followers. Let's align our prayers with our actions. Let's pray and live like we believe. Jesus is Lord, lord, because, like Peter, even when we step out in faith and even when we begin to sink, jesus rescues us and walks beside us. We're gonna say Lord, lord and mean it. We're gonna trust him. And when we trust him, it leads to this unshakable strength through persistent prayers. It leads to this unshakable strength through persistent prayers. It's well built. It's well built. We want a life that is well built. It's made the right way. It's made the correct way. We want a life. We don't want a wibbly, wobbly. We don't want an insecure life, and to do that it's about the foundation.

Speaker 1: 24:52

In this story, jesus makes one thing very clear there's nothing different about the two builders. There's nothing different about them. They both know how to build, they have the skill set, they have the resources, they have the beachside location. The only difference is one wanted the house faster than the other. So one just built the house, but the other one took time to dig.

Speaker 1: 25:30

Have you ever had a dig before? Have you ever had to do that? Do you know how horrible digging all day is? My one and only time in construction, I was 16 years old. I went out to work there weren't somebody to go on a mission trip and my goal it sounded so easy was to move this big old pile of dirt from the back of the house to the front of the house, and I said this would be a breeze. I'm going to do this. It's going to be great.

Speaker 1: 26:04

Eight hours later, in the July Virginia Beach Sun. It was the single worst day of my life. It wasn't easy. It hurt, my shoulders hurt, my arms hurt. And I may just say to you today the life that you want, the life that you truly desire, is not going to be a quick build, because if you do it too fast, when the flood waters come it will be left in a heap of ruins. So it's going to take some digging. It's going to take some digging when you want to give up. Keep digging, even when you're trying your best to live for God and disappointment happens.

Speaker 1: 26:55

Dig Even when you prayed and your prayer isn't answered yet. Dig Because a persistent life of prayer will lead to a resilient heart and, just like a house built on rock stands firm, a life built on consistent prayer is more resilient to life's challenges. That's why we got to spend daily time with God. Build a resilient life through prayer. Set aside time each day. Let me get a little practical. Set aside time each day for a specific time to pray, to journal, to do a thankfulness journal at the end of your day. Start small, start where you are not where you want to be, start five minutes a day and, once you get into the habit, slowly start to increase it.

Speaker 1: 27:38

Pray at all times. If you're at the gym, listen to worship music while you're pumping, folding clothes, put on an devotional app and fold your clothes and as you fold in parents. This is one thing I do, parents. When I fold my clothes for my kids, I say a prayer for them. I pray for them every time I fold their clothes. That's just one thing I do. I want to encourage you to do the same, because it's not a quick fix.

Speaker 1: 28:03

Building a strong foundation in prayer, like building a house, doesn't happen overnight. It's a journey and every step counts. When you say Lord, lord, mean it. Have unshakable strength through persistent prayer. And lastly, don't give up on the dig. Don't give up on the dig. We live in a world that does not believe in the dig. We live in a world that says you need it now and in a hurry. You've got to have it instant, just like your mashed potatoes should be instant. No, ew, it's not good.

Speaker 1: 28:35

But Jesus says I will show you what it's like when someone comes to me, listens to my teachings and then follows it. I want you to get this. Jesus says I will show you someone who comes to me, listens to my teachings and then follows it. I will show you If you want to know what it's like to be a Jesus follower, if you want to know what it's like to follow him, if you want to know what it's like to be formed by him. This is what he says. I will show you what it's like for someone who comes to me to listen to my teachings and then follows it. That person digs deep. That person's a digger. That person digs deep and builds a solid foundation.

Speaker 1: 29:15

If you want to know what a Jesus follower is like, it's not someone who's walking around and they're escalating, acting like God, is prosperity me and all this good stuff. That ain't it. If you want to know what a Jesus follower is, it isn't someone who's just like God, give me this and they expect God to be a genie on the bottom. You better rub him the right way. No, if you want to know what a Jesus follower is like church, it's someone who digs deep. It's someone who says I ain't going to give up yet. It's someone who says life hurts me, but my God is bigger than that. It's someone who says, though they slay me, I will worship my God. Though my dreams have fallen, I'm going to keep getting back up, because if I got breath in my lungs, then God's not done with me.

Speaker 1: 30:03

Yet I'm going to dig deep and I'm going to tell you this LVC for us to reach our city, for us to reach our neighbors, for us to make an internal difference, we got to be dig deepers. I only know that's a real word, but we got to dig deep. You want to know the single biggest problem in our world today. That's a big statement because there are a lot of problems. Like the prophet Jay-Z said, there's 99 of them. You wanted a single biggest problem in our world today. It's that there's a lot of Christians who label themselves Christians, who aren't followers of Jesus, because imagine if Christians became followers. Oh, and our hope, lvc, is that everyday people is that everyday people will learn how to become Jesus followers, because when you're a Jesus follower, you dig deep. When you want to give up, you dig deep. When you can't move on more ends, you dig deep.

Speaker 1: 31:15

Galatians 6 says this. So let us not get tired of doing what is good. Don't give up on the dig. Don't give up on your daily time with God. Don't give up on worship. Don't give up on coming to church. Don't give up on your thankfulness journal, don't give up on the dig, don't give up on the solid foundation because at the right time, at the right time, at the right time, at the right time, at the right time, come on somebody on the right time. We will reap a harvest of blessing. If you don't give up, keep digging, keep digging, keep digging, keep going, keep swimming. Don't get me saying some fine and dory up in here, just keep swimming, just keep digging.

Speaker 1: 32:02

And Jesus says I'll show you what that person looks like. I'll show you what that person looks like. That person is building a house, who digs deep and lays a foundation on a solid rock. When the flood waters come, when they break against your household, that person stands firm. Why? Because they're well built. So, god, jesus, the Holy Spirit, we come to you now. We say we want to be well built. We want to be well built, lord.

Speaker 1: 32:53

I just pray right now, holy Spirit, to give people supernatural strength to keep digging. There's people who are you're digging for your marriage right now. Keep digging, god. Give them strength. There's people who are, they're digging for some joy in their life. Give them strength, lord, to keep digging. There's people, man, life has hit you upside down and I feel the Holy Spirit saying he's with you, he's digging right beside you. Don't give up yet. Don't give up now. Keep digging, keep digging, keep digging, keep digging, lord, Because we dig, we dig.

Speaker 1: 33:32

I want you guys to know today we don't dig on an empty promise, we dig on an empty tomb. We don't dig on an empty promise. We dig on an empty tomb. We don't dig on an empty promise. We dig on an empty tomb. And Jesus rose again, meaning you can rise again, meaning you can get back up again, because he defeated death in the grave. And our hope is in Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. Our hope is in Jesus, who hasn't failed and he won't start with you. So, jesus, we love you, we trust you, we put our faith in you and we dig Because at the right time, we'll reap a harvest if we do not give up. So we love you and we need you. Lord, in Jesus' name, everybody says Amen, amen. Let's give God some praise and hear it today.