First Things First

If you’ve got your Bibles, I’d like you to turn with me to the book of Matthew chapter 6. You know, if I was going to speak to graduates, actually to you through graduates, if I was going to go to a place in Scripture, this might be one of the places I’d want to go. I call it keeping first things first.

Jesus is preaching the Sermon on the Mount. I think it’s the greatest sermon ever preached. It’s unbelievable the amount of incredible wisdom that is in these three chapters. It’s basically Matthew 5, 6, and 7. In the middle of it, He talks about how do you deal with worry and anxiousness.

Now, I got a little bit of that this week. Some of you know that I play a little golf. It’s just a little. I’m not very good. I’m okay on my good days. But I don’t have a big yard. So what I’ve got to do, and plus it’s just a smart thing to do because I always hit my house and my cars, and I get these little foam balls. So when I hit my house and my cars and my windows, they don’t break nothing. And what to do is I get in the front yard, and I’m just kind of trying to work on a swing. It’s not very good. And I hit it over the house into the backyard. And I go in the backyard, and I hit it over the house back into the front yard. I just go back and forth. And sometimes if I’m not feeling real good and I just got to go work out an issue, I just, Beth will look and just go, let’s go hit some golf balls.

And so, now every once in a while, I’ll catch one. Normally, they just go about 40 yards. They don’t go far. I’ll catch one, and I’ve got a little pond behind my house, and the ball will sail, and it’ll go in the pond. And then I’ll just kind of get my little, you know, ball grabber, and I’ll put it out there to get it.

This week was a little bit different. I go out, and by the time I got my ball grabber, you know, the wind had carried it out just a little bit. So I got my extender, and I’m putting it out, and I’m trying to get it, and it’s just not reaching it. So I extend it some more, and it’s barely reaching it, and I’m trying to get it to pull it back in. So I got to go all the way down to the edge of the pond, and imagine this being the edge, okay? So I’m here, and I’m reaching out for that thing. I’m leaning out, and I just happen to look down, and at the bottom of my feet, about three feet away, is about a six-foot gator.

Now, I don’t know if, how you do in that kind of situation? But my anxiety level just went up just a little bit, and I mean, his head, and normally I’m looking for him. We got this little, he just kind of roams, and he’s not really scared. I don’t know if somebody’s been feeding him or what they’ve been doing, but he just kind of hangs, and he usually hangs in the corner of our, the pond, in the corner over here. So when I go down near the pond, I’m always looking in the corner because that’s usually where he’s at, or if I can see him in the middle somewhere. Well, I didn’t see him in the corner. So I’m right there, and all I could think of was, Al, it might be a pretty good idea if you got off the edge of this little pond and moved where we were in, maybe about 20 feet back, which I did quickly. I didn’t know these old broken-down knees could move that quickly, but they did.

Now, you talk about being anxious. I mean, I got on, I got, now Beth has been trying to get that gator out of our pond for weeks now. I got on the phone that afternoon. I was calling DNR. I was calling HOA. I was calling the management company. You need to get this gator. This gator’s not scared of nobody. Plus, I don’t know how, six-foot gators can move pretty quick. You know, I’ve seen 14-foot gators on golf courses. They’re like, you know, lumbering dinosaurs. But this sucker, when I saw his head right there, and he was facing me, he was looking at me. He wasn’t moving. And I started thinking about that, and I started thinking, you know, ain’t that Like sin? Isn’t that just what sin’s like? You look into normal places, it’s not always there. You think you’re pretty safe. And next thing you know, it’s creeped right up next to you. And it’s ready to get out there and snap and bite. It’s ready to move on you.

If I was going to talk to graduates, especially this morning, or any of you, I’d kind of look at these particular words. We’re in Matthew chapter 6. We’re going to start with verse 25. I want you to just kind of follow along with me. If you’ll stand for the reading of God’s word, listen to what Jesus is saying to the crowd.

For this reason, I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you’ll eat or what you’ll drink, nor for your body, as to what you’ll put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow nor reap nor gather in barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you, by being worried, can even add a single hour to your life? Why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow. They do not toil. They do not spin. Yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all of his glory clothes himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? Oh, you of little faith.

Do not worry then, saying, what will we eat? What will we drink? Or what will we wear for clothing? For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things. For your heavenly Father knows what you need of all these things. Here’s our verse: But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you. So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Thank you for standing. Please be seated.

I’m just going to basically point out two basic principles this morning that I believe shape our life as a believer in Christ. And if we’re going to leave something to the generations following, the generations of Hunter and Lauren and Bobby, what are we going to be leaving them? And if I could tell them anything, that’d be it. Because I believe this: if you get this right in your life, you get this seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, you get that right, I’m telling you, everything else kind of falls into place.

When things are going messy in your life, when nothing seems to be working, you can probably come back to this verse, Matthew 6:33, and you can look at it and you can pretty much say, do I got the first thing first? Is the main thing the main thing? You get the main thing the main thing. I’m telling you, for some reason, God just takes over. God’s not going to fight you about it. I’m just going to share something with you: God’s not going to fight you over it. God’s not going to make you do it. That’s not the kind of God that He is.

I mean, it’s like a parent trying to make their kids love them. You don’t want to make your kids love you. You want your kids to love you because they want to love you, give you honor and respect and priority like they ought to. And when kids do that, things usually fall into place.

So we’re going to look at some of these things. Someone once said this: don’t sweat the small stuff. But also remember this: to God, it’s all small stuff. So that’s why we do it.

So let’s look at our first principle. Our first principle is this. I call it the 100-0 principle. Now, some of you are going to probably look at this and go, oh, that doesn’t make any sense at all. First of all, it’s not realistic. Well, how many people would look at the Bible and look at the things that are in here and say, well, that’s not realistic?

Here’s what the 100-0 principle is. Number one, the definition of it is this: you take full responsibility, the 100, for the relationship, expecting nothing, the 0, in return. Also, relationships need to take priority over our expectations. Anthony Robbins said this: some of the biggest challenges in relationships come from the very fact that most people enter a relationship in order to get something. They’re trying to find someone who’s going to make them feel good. In reality, the only way a relationship will last is if you see your relationship as a place that you go to give, not as it goes to take. My mama used to say that. Two types of people in the world. There’s givers and there’s takers. And just be honest. Who gets most? When you take, you don’t even like yourself when you’re just a taker. Givers always get more and have more. Especially of what’s important. The 100-0 principle. Someone said life is an echo. It’s an old Chinese proverb. What you send out is what usually comes back. So, let’s look at it. So, what does that mean? If I’m going to give zero, I’m going to give zero and I’m going to expect zero. Well, Al, that’s not real fair. We’re not talking about fair. We’re talking about what’s right. See, I can’t control what someone else does. I never control what anybody else does.

Kurt Bradford, who’s preaching this pulpit, has this thing saying, he’ll sit there and say, if someone else can control your goals, you don’t have a very good goal. So you can’t control what other people do, what other people say, what other people think. The only thing you can control is what you say, what you think, what you do. And so if you go into the thing is, I’m going to give 100%, and I’m going to expect zero back. I used to say, especially when I was a, I remember when I was on staff at a church, my perspective would be this, you know, if I make the Lord look good, and my pastor look good, and my church look good, probably going to look good. Now let’s take that into the secular world. You make your boss look good, people, your team, the people you work with look good, maybe your company look good. You think you’re probably going to look good? Probably. Now you can’t control what they do or not do, but the deal is, is to go into the attitude where I’m going to give 100. Now you said, well, that’s, how about 50-50? Who wants 50% of anything? I don’t want 50% of something. Do you? And you said, well, me and, you know, it’s like me and 50, she don’t want 50% of her husband. She wants 100% of her husband. Well, what about the 100-100 principle? Well, the problem with the 100-100 principle is what? What are the expectations that you have on the other person? Do you want perfection? You going to get perfection? Probably not. See, when you come in with a 100-0 principle, my prayer would be, you’d be around someone else who would say, have maybe have a 100-0 principle. You know what that kind of does? Pretty, that works out pretty well.

Now you say, well, is that scriptural? What did Jesus do? You know what the Bible says? Bible says that, while we were yet sinners. Didn’t say when we were perfect. Didn’t say we were searching after God. Didn’t say that we were trying to be righteous. Didn’t say that we were trying to be the good person. Didn’t say that we were wanting to bring all the things of God in our life. The Bible says, while we were yet sinners, Christ dies for us. He leaves His throne. You want the 100? How about let’s leave the throne of heaven, come down in human form, go through all the junk down here of which He did not deserve any of it because He was perfect? You want to talk about giving the 100? You talk about going to the cross and dying for sins that had already been committed from the very beginning of time and that would be committed until the end of time and everything in between and deciding that He would die and be the atonement for our sin before the Father? When we weren’t even looking at that, you want to see the 100-0 principle? The perfect picture of the 100-0 principle.

So how do you do that? How do we do that? Well, I want to take the acronym of focus because I think to do this, you got to get up in the morning and you got to focus on this. This is not easy. Number one, the F, our first desire is God. The Bible says here in 33, that seek ye first the kingdom of God. That’s Christ and His righteousness. Now what is righteousness? Righteousness is doing the right thing. It’s never the wrong time to do the right thing. And the deal is This is when I’m willing to say, I’m going to put myself on the back burner so that you can be benefited, or I’m going to do without so that you can do with, then that’s righteousness. See, unrighteousness is saying I’m going to take from you so I can have. Not that I’m going to do without so that you can have, I’m going to take from you so I can have. That’s unrighteousness.

But the first desire is what does God want? When was the last time you’re about to do something, say something, you’re starting to think something, and your thought is how God would handle this? What would Jesus say about this? If you’re honest and you’re like me, you’re probably going, I don’t think that too often. But that’s what we need to do. See, we make God first.

There’s an old bumper sticker. Remember it used to say, God’s my co-pilot. Remember that bumper sticker? Yeah, a bumper sticker came out after that that I thought was even better. It said this, if God’s your co-pilot, then you’re in the wrong seat. I like that one a whole lot better. God’s not about being the co-pilot. God’s about being the pilot of your life. And that’s what’s important.

And He looks to here, He said, man, folks, I want to tell you, you want worry, you want anxiety, you want all those things in your life? What happens? They say 95% of the illnesses out there, one of the big contributors to it is anxiety, is worry. We take anxiety and worry out of our lives. I’m telling you, when they’re calmer and your blood pressure is better and you’re thinking straighter and you’re sleeping better, all those things are happening in your life. And God takes those worries away from you. Everything just flows better.

He says now, and we worry, but I’m thinking about, can you imagine being young people today? I’m thinking they’re kind of going, how can I afford a home? How can I afford cars? How can I make a living? I’m just struggling to survive. And I know this, when we put God at the center of our lives, somehow those things work out. I don’t know how that all happens.

I used to talk about with tithing. My mom used to sit there, she would sit there, she told me from a young age, when my stepdad was just an enlisted, a lowly enlisted man in the Navy. And she’d send me down for bread and milk out at the local little grocery store right there on Durant Avenue in North Charleston. She used to say this, as long as we tithed, money came from somewhere. We’d get a check, we’d get a reimbursement, something would happen where we, something. I don’t, I can’t explain it, but somehow that would do.

And it’s not about the money. The money, God owns it all anyway. The deal is, is to trust. Do you trust God with your life? If you trust God with your life, Matthew 6:33 makes sense. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and then all those things get added unto you.

But it’s not just trusting you, it’s about having a relationship with Him. See, He starts talking about, He starts talking about the birds of the field. If God can have a relationship with birds, don’t you think He wants them with you? If He can clothe a bunch of flowers and have a relationship with His earth, do you not think He wants to do that for you? God wants relationships.

Red Auerbach, who used to be the former coach of the Boston Celtics, he won nine NBA championships while he was the head coach. My favorite, one of my favorite coaches of all time was John Wooden. He was a coach of the UCLA Bruins, especially back in the 60s. Won 10 NCAA national championships in 12 years. Just imagine that for just a second. 10 championships in 12 years.

Their secret, they asked him, okay guys, what are your secrets? He said, most average and even good coaches have a clear commitment to winning. That’s the results. But what we also had was not just, we had that commitment to winning, but we also had an equal commitment to rapport and chemistry. That’s the relationship. And we never compromised one for the other. And that’s what made us and our team successful.

It’s not just about winning. Got to come together as a team. God’s sitting there going, if you’re going to go through this life, guys, we got to come together as a team. We got to have rapport. We got to have relationship. There’s chemistry.

with the Lord. And He’s telling us that here. You get that with the Lord. You don’t have to, you don’t have to be anxious about things. I mean, that verse 25 is amazing to me. And for this reason, I say to you, listen to what, this is, it’s in the words of Al Smith, Billy Graham, the Pope. This is the words of Jesus. Do not be worried about your life. And you’re going, yeah, really? And God’s saying we need to be about Him. So our first desire is God. Our desires take a back seat. Well, we don’t usually like back seats. It’s like the trunk. I don’t want to be in the trunk. Sometimes you got to sit there and say, God, it’s what You want. It’s where You want to go. You’re the hundred. I’m going to go where You go. My desire is to make You look good. When we do that, we get to see consumption of the right things become automatic.

I gave these graduates a Bible. I wrote in them. And it’s from, it’s from, And I wrote from their Sauldam family. I want them to know they have a church family. I want them to be reminded of that. I want them to understand that there’s people out there that love them, proud of them, rooting for them. I mean, we’re rooting for you guys, Hunter and Bobby and Lauren. She’s in the back. We’re rooting for them. We want them to do well. We want them to make it. You know, we’ve got high school graduates. The neat thing about Bobby is Bobby’s got his GED. I think that’s kind of a neat thing. Bobby could have, you know, he kind of left, but he came back. He finished. It’s about finishing. That’s what we need. It’s consumption of the right things. This is the right thing. It’s being in it. It’s getting to know this book. It’s staying close to God. Because I want to tell you, the failure rate is unbelievable. The failure rate in the ministry. 10% of all ministers that will start out in the ministry will finish in the ministry. 10%. Within five years, 50% are gone. So if we’re struggling, can you imagine what folks who aren’t in the ministry are just regular folk? Can you imagine what young people are struggling with? God is saying, if you’ll seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

We also need the you, understanding the consequences of our actions. Now, I need to tell you something. The frontal part of the brain isn’t totally formed, especially for guys, until they’re 28. Did you know that? Okay. Women is 24. So ladies, we got an excuse. Okay. Did you ever look at your kids and sit there and say these words, what were you thinking? Have you lost your mind? Did you not realize that if you did this, this would happen? And when they go, well, no. There’s a reason for that. This part of the brain hadn’t quite developed all there yet. So we need help. That’s why they need mature Christian adults in their lives. That’s why you come to church. That’s why we read scripture. That’s why we study. That’s why we try. We memorize verses. That’s why we need the Lord’s help. That’s why this thing called, we try to, you try to get saved at an early age because then the Holy Spirit enters you and helps you with that. You ever been about to do something really stupid and something inside of you goes, man, I think twice about that. Holy Spirit talking to you. You ever, and this has happened to me. You ever had a thought that shouldn’t be there and you’re mad and then all of a sudden a praise song rolls around or an old hymn or something. That’s what the Holy Spirit said. Get your mind on something else. Why we need that? Because there are consequences.

And then the last, and then the S, satisfaction with today will lead to contentment. What He says in the very last verse, don’t worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Ain’t that the truth. See, most of us, we want to live in the past. Now, sometimes we remember all the good things in the past, but not all the past is good. See, when we’re about unforgiveness and we’re about not, you know, I’ll forgive you, but I ain’t going to forget. We know forgiveness without forgetting is not forgiveness. See, what biblical forgiveness means is this. It’s saying that not only do I forgive you, which allows me to move on and get out of the past where I’ve been living, but it allows you to move on to the point where saying, “I’m not going to hold that against you. And I’m moving on with my life.” That’s how we get out of the past.

Tomorrow hadn’t come yet. We worry so much about tomorrow and what it’ll bring. And I’m telling you, things change in this world in such an exponential fashion. I can’t comprehend it all, especially technology. Gosh, I still remember the days where I, me and Beth got in our car. You know, we’re, we’re 19 years old and we’re heading back to Athens to go to the university. And, and our parents didn’t know we got there until we walked in dorm rooms and picked up landlines and dialed mom at home and said, “Okay, we got here,” five hours later.

Now I remember when April went to Clemson. “Okay, when you hit 26, I want to know it. When you hit Columbia, I want to know it. Okay, when you hit 385, I want to know it. When you hit 85, I want to know it. Okay, when you turn on, when you get into your dorm, I want to know it.” Different world, isn’t it?

Gosh, and some things remain the same. And when we’re, we’re, when we can get through today and make today right. And we go to bed at night and look in the mirror, be happy with how we lived our life that day. There’s a contentment. And that contentment only comes when we do the right thing at the right time in the right way. And that comes from seeking the first, the kingdom of God, His righteousness.

Take this number two, which is this: relationships plus action equal results. You’ve got to have the relationship, but folks, at some point you’ve got to commit. You’ve got to make the decision. The kingdom of God is Christ and it extends to the Holy Spirit as He enters us. When you commit to Christ and He comes into your life, that’s He, He enters us. Jesus enters us, folks. Someone once said this: if you could wrap Jesus in leather, this is what He looked like. Well, Jesus, when He enters you, takes us.

I’ve known folks that didn’t care about reading, didn’t care about studying, then couldn’t understand anything in the Bible. And all of a sudden they get saved and all of a sudden they have a desire to get here. And all of a sudden this starts to make sense because He enters them and righteousness is how we live. It’s also how we use what we’ve been given. We have been given Christ. And when you make Him first and, and, and you seek His righteousness, not, not your righteousness, His righteousness.

When it’s a hundred plus, I don’t care what they do. I don’t care if they give anything back, but they’re going to get a hundred percent of me. But you say, “Well, that’s, Al, that’s not realistic in the world. What if I have this toxic boss?” Well, first of all, you might want to change the terms. If everything in your life is toxic, you might want to change it to maybe difficult. Maybe how you look at things. Remember, people aren’t the enemy. Satan’s the enemy. But usually I find this: when you do the hundred zero principle, usually good things come out. They didn’t say perfect things always come out of it. I mean, there are going to be times where that person you’re trying… I mean, if they lie, they cheat, they steal, they’re violent. That’s a different ball game. But if you go into it and say, “You know what? I’m not going to do this.”

Now, how do you do that? I mean, how do you fit? How do you do it? Let me give you four quick steps.

Number one, step one is determine what you can do to make the relationship work. And then just do it. Demonstrate respect and kindness to the other person, whether he or she deserves it or not. Not whether they deserve it. You do it because God wants you to. You go back to the early Christian days, you know what absolutely blew people away about the Christian faith? It was how they lived, how they talked to each other, how they talked to others, how they talked to even the Romans, how they talked to their captors. There’s early church fathers that would be chained to their captors and would lead their captors to Christ. You just do it.

Step two, don’t expect anything in return. Again, remember, it’s not the 50-50 thing. It’s not even the 100-100 thing. It’s the 100-0 thing. Don’t expect it. You may get it, but don’t expect it. Do it anyway. Step three, do not allow anything the other person says or does, no matter how annoying, to affect you. In other words, don’t take the bait. Sometimes Satan’s just trying to bait you. Well, they’re saying that to me. I’m going to come right back at them. Well, they’re that way of me. They don’t respect me. They don’t love me. Well, they’re going to get it in return. What about Jesus? Did they not spit on Him at the cross? Think about how He went up on the cross. Did they not mock Him? Come on down if you’re who you say you are. And yet, what were the words out of His mouth? Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Now, you may look at them and go, well, Al, I’m not Jesus. No, you’re not. But what is our bar? The bar is Jesus. The bar in down here is kind of like when young people date. What do I tell them? Set the bar high. Young ladies, set the bar high. Young men, set the bar high. You’re more apt to get. If you set the bar here, you’re more apt to get where you’re setting the bar. You set it low, you’re going to get exactly what you want. Then he complained after you get that. Don’t take the bait. And the last one, be persistent with your graciousness and kindness. Often we give up too soon, especially when others don’t respond in kind. So again, remember to expect nothing in return. Dr. Joseph Stoll, former president of Moody Bible, said this, it’s all about people. People matter, and everybody counts. John 3:16, for God so loved the world. He said He just loved this group or this group. The Bible says God loved the world. You can’t control what other people do. You can only control what you can do. Nothing stands in our life, this one and the next, if the foundation, the first thing, is not God and the things of God. Someone said this, patience is the companion of love. One of the great gifts of the Spirit that we see in Galatians 5 is, you know, peace, love, joy, kindness, what? Patience. That’s the one we don’t like. That 100-0 is tough. Sure it is. But it’s more like Jesus. The only way you can do the 100-0 is if you seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Life is tough. Let me close with this. One of my favorite movies, Christian movies, is called Facing the Giants. It’s by a little high school football team. There’s a scene in the movie about kind of hanging in there. I’ll just play it, and then we’ll talk about it in a second. Morgan, if you can throw that up there.

What’s up, Coach? How strong is Westview this year? A lot stronger than we are. You already written Friday Night Down as a loss, Brock? Well, not if I knew we could beat him. Come here, Brock. Dude, Jeremy. Am I in trouble now? Not yet. I want to see you do the death crawl again, except I want to see your absolute best. What? You want me to go to the 30? I think you can go to the 50. The 50? I can go to the 50 if nobody’s on my back. I think you can do it with Jeremy on your back. But even if you can, I want you to promise me you’re going to do your best. All right. Your best. Okay. You’re going to give me your best? I’m going to give you my best. More thing. Do it blindfolded. Why? I want you giving up at a certain point when you can go further. Jeremy, get on his back. Done. Good tight hold, Jeremy. All right. Go, Brock. Knees off the ground. Just your hands and feet. There you go. A little bit left. Coming. Good start. A little bit left. Go, Brock. Good strength. That’s it, Brock. 20. You give me your best. You keep going. That’s it. Don’t stop. You got to keep moving. Let’s keep moving. Let’s go. Don’t quit until you got nothing left. You go. Moving. Keep moving. Moving, Brock. That’s it. You keep driving. Keep your knees off the ground. Keep driving. You’re very best. You’re very, you’re very. Keep your knees off the ground. That’s it. You’re very. You negotiate with your body to find more strength, but don’t you give up on me, Brock. You keep going. You hear me? You keep going. You’re doing good. You keep going.

Do not quit on me. Keep going. There’s an influential player on this team. Around defeated. So will they. Tell me you can’t give me more than what I’ve been seeing. He’s carried a 140-pound man across this whole field on your arms. He’s gifted you with the ability of leadership. Don’t waste it. Can I count on you? Yes. That is it, Jeremy. I’ll say it still. Count on you. Zero principle will be the hardest thing you ever do. I say this. Don’t quit. No matter what comes back at you, you don’t quit. No matter what the world tells you, you don’t quit. You can carry more. You can go for it. God will take you places you can’t even dream about when you seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Then the rest of it just, I’m telling you, folks, just fall into place.

So what’s your decision going to be? Right now, you can think of a person or a situation in your life where you’re going, you know, I haven’t been given 100%. Or I haven’t. It’s always on how they respond to me. And God’s going, oh, it’s about what you do. So you’re the one that carries the gospel. You’re the one that’s calling yourself Christian. You’re the one that’s sitting there saying, I want to live by these principles. My bar is Jesus. I’m saying, if you’ll seek ye first Me, My righteousness, My kingdom, we’ll get there. We’ll go further than you ever thought. The reason we don’t is because He doesn’t. He didn’t quit on us. He never quits on us. You can think of relationships in your life right now where you need to go, I need to do the zero, the 100 zero. And I’m not going to take the bait. I’m just going to try and be Jesus. If you’ve got to leave the room, leave the room. Leave the room. If you’ve got to go, you know, if you’ve got to try and think of what you’re going to say for us, say it, then do that. Do whatever it takes. Take first the kingdom. Do what’s right. That’s what I would tell graduates. And that’s what I would tell you today.

Let’s pray. Father, You have chosen us for a variety of reasons and futures and talents and gifts. I think of these young graduates and I think how awesome, what a life they have in front of them. It’s not going to be easy. Life just isn’t easy. And sin is horrible. And sin sneaks up and it says things and does things. Sin is never fair. Life isn’t fair. But what we do know is that You’re good and You love us and You died for us and You take us away from our sin and You give us a new plan and purpose in life. Father, there’s a world that needs to hear that and it can’t unless we do the hundred zero principle. That’s what You did. Father, maybe this morning we just need to commit to You. Maybe we need to give our life to You today and say, Lord, I want You in my life. I want to do that. I don’t know how I can do it, but I can’t do it without You and I want You in my life. And maybe we need to make that decision today. Maybe we just need to recommit our life to You and just say, you know what, Lord, I’m going to change how I do work. I’m going to change how I talk to people, how I’m going to talk to people in my neighborhood. Lord, I’m going to change how I talk to people in my church. I’m going to change how I talk to people that I just come into contact with because I do want to be the Jesus that someone sees. Whatever decision to make, help us to do that. In Your Son’s name we pray. Amen.