MCC Podcasts
Working It Out - Thankfulness-To-God-For-The-Calling-On-Your-Life
If you have your Bibles, love to have you turn with me to first Timothy. We're in a series, and if you don't, there's one under the chair in front of you. And if you have an electronic Bible, you can also check your email and look like you're studying the scriptures at the same time. So that's cool. But if it rings, I will publicly humiliate you and bring you right up front. No, I won't. I won't. That'd be fun, wouldn't it? So leave it on, Gail, see what happens. Somebody called Gail. We're in first Timothy, and we're doing the series called "Working It Out," because first Timothy is a story, it's not a story. It's a letter that Paul wrote to Timothy about the church in Ephesus where Timothy was pastoring. And they're trying to work out how to live for God. And that's what our series is, man. This is us. We're trying to work it out. We're trying to figure out how the church is supposed to live and how it's supposed to work. I want to read the text, and we'll get into the truth that I think God has for us this morning in that text. It's 1 Timothy, chapter 1, still in chapter 1, verses 12 through 14. And I'm so glad that Art got the passage last week about murderers and sexual stuff, and I get to do this passage. So that's why he's the lead pastor. Timothy, chapter 1, verse 12 through 14. I think Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service. And even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The word of the Lord, amen, or thanks be to God. You know, I trip on people's stories. I mean, I love people's stories. If you've ever met with me, you may, even for the very first time that we've ever met, you may have felt a little interrogated even, wouldn't be too strong of a word. Have you felt that? Anybody ever, isn't it? Did you feel that a little bit else, just a little? So there's this sense in which I just think that God has revealed in these stories, and I love the idea of how God has put one step in front of the other to get us to the place where we are right now. In fact, the title of the sermon that I'm preaching this morning is because this is about Paul's story a little bit. It's about, this title is the story of where he has placed me. Every one of us has a story about how we are, where we are right now, right? Everybody has a story, and I love the reflection on that story because like the chaos theory or the butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon, you don't know how it affects what's going to happen 25 years later, and that's how God uses it to get us to where you are right now with this job and these friends and these people and this moment in time. It is a fascinating study on the sovereignty of God, but also on just the meaning of where I am and who I am right in this moment. I just love it. I love people's stories. I just, I make up people's stories if I don't know their stories. I sit at a restaurant like that, whether that movie "Date Night" with Steve Carell and Tita Faye, where they were like, "What's that story?" You know, and they're making up the stories of what they see, you know, next to them because everybody's story is just so fascinating. Last night we had the TV on and we saw the KQED special on the history of the Soul Train TV show. Do you know the Soul Train TV show? Are you all American bandstand people? So growing up in Oakland in the 70s, I watched the Soul Train as much as I possibly could, and this show was like a flashback into every memory I had from age 13 to 18. I mean, it was a wild experience, and I knew everywhere to every song, to every artist that they showed on this thing. And my kids sat around watching me like it was off an awful car wreck. But what it did, of course, was is it flashed back to all of these stories? Because as we know, music just isn't about music. It's about the memories that it brings back to you. And, you know, there was one song that came on and I realized this was the first summer that Linda and I dated in 1979. I'm pretty sure that I worked up the nerve to kiss her during that song. You know, how many years ago is that now? 32, three years ago. I mean, it's that, every song had a story. And then I realized, oh, yeah, I had those friends. And that led me to those involvements. And that got me to church. And then I gave my life to the Lord. And then I, right? Fast forward to today. I love this idea of stories. Everybody's story is about the steps that God used to get us where we are. And our text is about Paul summing up his story. Because working it out is about how do we live this thing out? It's about working out the place that God has put us. It's about the place. It's about now. It's about you in this time. When we go, hey, go live for the Lord. It's not some conceptual idea, you guys. When we say go live for the Lord, we go, go live for the Lord with that husband, with that many years of marriage in that home, with that car, with that job, with that bank account, with those gifts, with those frustrations, with that church, with that pastor, with those people. You hear where I'm at? We don't just go work it out. We go, you go to the, you have been called to a place. And now you got to live out that story from that place. It can't be conceptual. How would that be helpful for us? It has to be you working it out in your life. It's sort of like somebody without kids writing a book about parenting. Am I right? Or you reading books about parenting when you're pregnant and you read the book. This is awesome. I'm going to be a great parent, but you have to work it out with your child. And that kid that God gave you, and then that season that that kid was in, and then the next season, and then the second kid that came along, and you work it out, and then you realize, oh, what's my personality coming out? I'm becoming my mother, you know, and how does that work? You work it out with the reality of what's in front of you. Friends, it's not conceptual. That's what this is about. Working it out is the story of where God has placed me, and how I live for him in the midst of how God has led and where he's placed me. See, our place is all about God's leading. You go, wait, no, because I was out of God's will and I took that step. Well, you know what? I believe in the sovereignty of God. And God, if he couldn't have had you work it out in that place, would have kept you from making that step. And I don't know why he does keep you. All right, here's the parenthetical. Got to say this all the time. I don't know why he keeps you from some steps and doesn't keep you from other steps, and why he keeps some evil at bay, and why he lets other evil happen. I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. But he's sovereign, and where you are is the place that God now has you. And we work it out in that place. This book of 1 Timothy is about the story of place. It's about Paul and about his mentee Timothy, and about a bunch of friends and Christians they had in Ephesus. It's about the 60s, some of you remember the 60s? Only it's the 'O' 60s. It's the 60s, 60s. I mean, it's the time and place and people and culture, and they're trying to live it out for God. In fact, I had put together a little timeline when I was going to do the introductory sermon for this book, and I didn't get to use it, but man, the slides were cool. So I thought I'd throw them up here for you, and you see them, we're talking about a very real place. A.D. 48, but Jesus was crucified in about 30. Paul became a Christian in about 35. You're thinking history with me, right? I mean, this is a real live date. In 48, Paul meets Timothy in this town called Lystra. This is awesome, you can't see any of this. This is all of Paul's missionary journeys traveling all around, but you get this is the Holy Land over here, right? This is Turkey over here, okay? Here's Lystra right there. Paul goes when his first missionary journey. He hears about Timothy, Timothy 17 or 18 years old. Timmy? Two years later on another missionary journey at 50, Timothy's invited to go with Paul. Why? Because he's heard Paul hears good things about a very real young man, who's 20 years old, who's had prophecies prayed over him. He has been, there's a good word about him. I mean, this is a young man. Everybody goes, this guy's doing something for the Lord. And this is only 20 years after Jesus's crucifixion. The church is barely up and running. And here's this young guy. So in 53, Paul's on some travels. He meets the Ephesians. Timothy joins with them. They, oh yeah, there's the Ephesus church. You see that? So you see Lystra where Timothy was met. Here's Jerusalem again. Here's Ephesus over here right on the coast of modern day Turkey right now. They go and Paul meets the Ephesians. Timothy was out ministering somewhere else. He eventually came and joined them. They stayed for over two years, almost three years in 53 AD. In 56, Paul leaves there. Now Paul met that Persian church in 53. He stayed there for over two years. In 56, he has to say goodbye to the church. If you are familiar with the Acts story, it's in like chapter 20 or something like that. Did I write it down? Yeah, I think it's 20. He says goodbye and they all get on their knees and they weep. Because in those three years, they grew to love this pastor who invested in them. And he gave his heart to them. This is real people. I understand this. I pray for you sometimes. You ready for this? I pray for you sometimes. And my heart breaks within me because I think about you all day every day. Do you understand that? What a loser. You don't think about me till I get up in front of you. I think about you all day. It's my job. I'm paid to think about you. Our hearts have been knitted together. Have they not? Because they've been called to ministry where in this place. And he says goodbye to the church and they weep together over that whole thing. Keep going here. Paul then writes to that church the book of Ephesus. He's in prison in Rome and he's thinking about these people that he loves. This is now in 61. Timothy goes back in 62 and becomes their full-time pastor. It was like he was their youth guy. They raised him and he was this young man and they loved him and he was hanging out with Paul. And then they sent him off to go do ministry with Paul. And then in 62 he came back to be with them. Paul writes then this book around 63 saying, "Hey, I know you're back at the church. Let's help you help them work it out in the place that they're in." 66, Paul goes to trial and is killed by the emperor. In 96, 30 years later, John records Jesus' words about this church in the book of Revelation in chapter 2, Ephesian church is still on the map and Timothy is still pastoring it. And when you go and you read that, they forgot their first love, all that kind of stuff, that's the pastor helping them work it out 30 years later. Who's with me for the next 30 years? Right now, in or out. I want to know. You in or I'm just kidding. That's a cult. And then in 97, Timothy is killed in Ephesus helping the church defend itself from false teaching, which is what art preached about a couple of weeks ago in chapter 1 from where the book was written in 63, that was 34 years before Timothy spent 35 years as a pastor in Ephesus. Isn't that cool to see kind of the history? This is a real place, friends. This is a real group of people. This is the place that God ordained all of. I mean, Timothy had a believing mother and a believing grandmother and then he had people who had the gift of prophecy and then Paul heard about it and then he got invited. I mean, come on, all the steps and to got them to working in Ephesus at this time with these people and trying to figure out how to work it out. That's them. Here's the point. God puts people in places with other people and with circumstances for his glory and for his service. God is at work doing that and that's where we work it out because he's at work doing it in this place at this time with these people. God has orchestrated that and Paul reflects on the story of his place in this couple of verses and we ask ourselves, what's my story of my place? How do I work it out? What's my place then? How do I work it out? Because we have this concept that maybe from orbit we see that there's this world out there and God is somehow above it and in it and we're somehow his servant but it feels so conceptual. But as you begin to shrink it down and zoom in a little bit, you see the little dot somewhere, the little red marker somewhere along the line and you realize this isn't about God conceptually somewhere out there and me sort of being a servant, it zooms down until you find we see you in your place at this time working it out. And I think that's you showing up late for church right there. That's just a joke, sorry. I'm going to take Paul's text, his story, his reflection, just these three, two, three verses on his story and gleaned some insights about us working it out, the story of our place, where God has put us in this text. You ready to do this? Zoom through it for the rest of our time? I want you to have your scriptures open in front of you because we're not going to keep this up there the whole time and I want you to have especially verse 12 and 13 just right in front of you as we go through because I want you to also see the outline that's in front of you. First, here's a first reflection. I got two key truths, two foundational truths to this idea of working it out in the place that God has placed me, two key truths. And just look at that first verse one more time, go back, sorry, since you still had it. I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has given me strength that he considered me trustworthy, faithful, appointing me to his service. Two key truths to work in it out in the place where he's put us. Number one, we live in a place of thankfulness, we live in a place of thankfulness. We live in a place of thankfulness. He doesn't even get any further and he's like, listen, and he talks a lot in his letters at the beginning of almost all of his letters about some great grand praise, some great thanksgiving he gives. He's like, listen, here's what my heart is for you guys. I thank God this. And in this one, he starts reflecting on his story and he just, but that first part is that I'm thankful. He's in a place of thankfulness and he says, I thank Christ Jesus, my Lord, don't miss any of the terms in there. Christ, the Messiah, Jesus, this real God in my life, I thank Christ Jesus, my Lord, which means boss, my Lord. He goes, the first foundational truth is we live in a place and we have to live in a place of thankfulness to the Messiah, to the Savior, to our Lord. We start with thankfulness. And before we go into what he's thankful for and how that plays out, I was just stunned by that as I studied the text on Monday, just exhausted from the retreat and just said, Lord, speak to me in the text that I'm in. And Monday morning, I just, this just overwhelmed me, this idea that we have to start by living in a place of thankfulness for our story. And that can be all the sermon you need to hear. My wife's reading a book that she is crazy about and trying to get me to read, and I haven't read it yet, but the title ministers to me, it's called A Thousand Gifts. Have you heard of this book? Got to know men? Oh yeah, in the second row. And The Thousand Gifts, and it's written by a woman who apparently has found out all the ways that is an at-home mom and she can be thankful for dirty diapers. I don't get the story, but what I get is this idea of a thousand gifts. It's not entitled gifts. It's not entitled a dozen gifts. It's about this idea that our place starts with our understanding of thankfulness for where God has put us. And can we turn our hearts to get in a place where we recognize that everything that gets in front of us, everything that's in our life, every person, every trial, every great thing, all of it is a gift from God, good and bad. It's a gift from God. It's like he wrapped it up and he goes, "I have your good and my glory and mind here is a gift." Friends, every last thing in your story is a gift from him. And you go, again, remember I did the parent radical over here? There's some tragic stuff that's happened to you that God didn't say, "Yippee, let me put the bow around that and give that to you." But he took that tragedy in that sin and I don't know why he allowed it to happen. But he took it and he said, "I can make this a gift to you for my glory." That's what he can do with it. You with me? How are we not the people that rehearsed that truth? How are we not the people that are so aware of that that we can find a thousand gifts from the Lord in our story every single day? How are we not those people? And I confess I'm not that person. I can find the three things that frustrate me when there's a thousand gifts in front of me. Am I right? We just start by that idea that we're living in a place of thankfulness. But thankful for what? And here's what he parses, look at verse 12. Go ahead and put the slide there and they can look in the scriptures there. In verse 12, he says, "I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has given me strength." Now first of all, so there's this idea of strength that comes in. We're thankful for his strength. Here's what I get out of that. Paul's going on to talk about the place of ministry that he's been given. He's going to go talk about his story and that God called him to this place that he's working it out in, with his gifts and his ministry calling, his purpose in life. But he starts by going, "I thank Christ for the strength." Because as he goes into parsing his life and is going to be talking about the ministry that he's been given, the place he's been called to, apparently friends, he's setting this up to say that it's going to be hard and strength will be required to live out of service in the place that God has us. Come on, anybody say amen to that? Is it not hard? Is it not hard to live for the Lord? If you're surrounding yourself with Christian information or music or teaching that says that the Christian life is easy, it's not good teaching. Apparently it's going to be difficult. He starts by going, "I thank Christ my Lord, who strengthens me because the calling he's going to bring me will absolutely require his strength." Paul's famous for saying, "In my weakness, he is strong." In fact, in his calling, in Paul's conversion story, oh, we got to read it. Listen to this, Acts 9, Paul's conversion story, Acts 9, because he maybe haven't read it for a while, but since he's telling his story, can I read it just these few verses? Listen to the word of the Lord, Acts 9. Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out. He was called Saul then. Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples. And he went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues and Damascus so that if he found any there who belonged to the way, that's cool. That's what Christians called themselves back then, the way. "Whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. And as he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him, he fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? Who are you, Lord?" Saul asked. "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting," he replied. "Now, get up and go into the city and you will be told what to do." The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless. They heard the sound but did not see anyone. Paul got up from the ground and when he opened his eyes he could not see, or he could see nothing. So they let him by the hand into Damascus and for three days he was blind and not eat or drink anything. In Damascus there was in a disciple named Ananias and the Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias, "Yes, Lord," he answered, which is what you should say when the Lord speaks to you in a vision. The Lord told him, "Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus, named Saul, for he's praying there and in a vision he's seen a man from Ananias come and up and place his hands on him and restore his sight." "Lord," Ananias answered, "I've heard many reports about this man and all the harm he's done to your people in Jerusalem and he's come here with the authority of the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name." So first he's like, "Yes, Lord," speak to me and the Lord said, "Go find Paul." And he's like, "I'm not a good idea." Verse 15, "But the Lord said to Ananias, "Go this man." Listen, this man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. Verse 16, "I will show him how much he must suffer for my name." In Paul's conversion story, he doesn't even know anything about Jesus yet. Who are you? I'm Jesus. Ananias is on his way. The first message he's going to get is, "Go, serve Jesus, and I'm going to tell you how hard it's going to be for you." That's good news. Apparently, living out our story in the place of where God has put us, working it out, is going to be hard. And so we start with this thankful. We've got to live in a place of thankfulness to Christ, our Lord, and we're thankful for his strength because he's going to meet us in that. Much more to say about that, but it's a little bit of a subpoint, so we'll let that go. But we've got to be thankful for it because here's the thing, friends. We've got to be thankful for it for his strength because he won't call us and put us in this place and let us face challenges if he's not going to give us the strength to be able to handle it. He will not do that. There is no temptation that has seized you except that which is common to all people. And God is faithful. He will not let you be tested beyond what you can bear. That's from 1 Corinthians. So we're thankful for his strength. The second thing we're thankful for according to the text in verse 12 is, "For his vision and his trust in me, his vision for me and his trust in me, stay with me now. You've got to see this point." He says in verse 12, "I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy or faithful." He considered me faithful. I'm thanking God. What are we thanking God for? For his vision and his trust in me. He says, "He considered me faithful or trustworthy to then go and be his servant in this place." Friends, this is true of all of us. That we have to live in a place of thankfulness for the strength God's going to give us, but because he has a vision for you by considering you worthy, trustworthy, faithful to him to have a job to do for him. Listen, any of you have teenage boys? Mine's not in the room. I'm going to tell you this story. When we need something to get done and get it done right, we go right to his sisters. You with me? This is how boys learn to be stupid, by the way, because parents just go, I know I should help him, but it's too much work. So we just done his sisters do it. God, Paul says, God had a vision for how capable and trustworthy and competent and faithful I was so that he called me to do something in this place. You're looking at me like, why is Jeff so excited about this idea? Because you haven't thought it through as much as I have. I was sick the rest of the week and I thought about it all week long. When did God consider Paul faithful? He called Paul to service on the very day that Paul was converted. Paul had no time to live in faithfulness and trustworthiness. He had no time. God didn't go, I have watched you for 20 years, live for me. So now I'm going to give you something to do in this place. On the day he was converted, our text in Acts 9 starts with, and Paul was still breathing out murderous threats against the disciples. Paul was in the midst of killing people, and Jesus said, you, I consider faithful to serve me. Come on now. He did nothing prior to getting converted, prior to getting called to service. So when Paul says, I am thankful to God for this strength, and because he considered me trustworthy, his thankfulness is because God had a vision for who Paul could be, for who Paul would be, not for who Paul had been. That's the good news, friends. God has a vision for who you are at your best. His vision that he had for you in heaven when you're fully saved and fully justified and fully glorified. This is the vision that God has of each of us. He considers us faithful. It was his vision for Paul that was his consideration for what Paul could be and what Paul could do, not who Paul was. That means that no matter how far you've come with God, or how long you've walked with God, he says, I have a vision for you in this place, and I consider you faithful and trustworthy to serve me. Now let's work it out. That includes every last human in these chairs. You with me on that? That's why we're thankful for it. That's why Paul's thankful for it. We're going to work it out. We got to live a life of thankfulness for the strength he's going to give us and for the reality that he has a vision for our lives that has nothing to do with how great I've been for him. God considers you faithful before you are. And that's big grace. And then he trusts you with his work, with his reputation, with his glory. He trusts you with that. Apparently you're worth that. And that's what we work out. Man, we're grateful for that, for his vision for my life is so much more significant than my evaluation of my life. And that's what we live out. The third thing we're thankful for, his strength, his vision for me, and his trust in me, I cannot believe I'm moving on past that other point. I hope you took notes. We're thankful for his appointment. That's what he's going in this sentence in verse 12. "I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service. I love the word appointing me to his service, giving me a job to do, giving me a way to serve him in the place that I'm in, and we're grateful for God's appointment in that place." And you go, well, I'd be grateful if I got called to be the messenger to the Gentiles and kings and to the people of Israel. That's Paul. That's what he got called to. You know, friends, it's all over the scriptures. In fact, the most famous grace verse, the most famous be saved, Hallelujah Jesus verse in Ephesians chapter 8. For it is by grace you've been saved through faith, that verse. This is not of yourselves, the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. That's good news. But the next verse in Ephesians 2.10 says, "For we, our God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do." That's his vision. That's his vision for us before we were found faithful. He considered us faithful, and he created before when he were created, he had in mind the good things that we would do to serve him. He goes, "I got an appointment in this place, in this time for Ileana." And that was in God's mind at her conversion. And then God's sovereignty was in his mind before the beginning of time. Listen, your story of place, the people, the home, your gifts, your strengths, your awful resume, whatever your place is right now, whatever your story is, that is your appointment to service. Your job is your call to the world. Your next door neighbor is the neighbor God gave you to love. The school that your kids go to is the place that you get to love and support. The ministry of this church that you've affiliated yourself with is now your ministry. And the missionaries we support are your mission fields, friends. This is your place. This is your service. We are appointed to these places. And I tell us that because we think, "Well, I need a ministry. I got my life, but I need a ministry." No. Your place is your ministry. God has orchestrated it all along. So you are where you are and you are who you are and you are with you whom you are and you have what you have and you don't have what you don't have and that is your service. So when we work it out, we live this life of thankfulness to Christ for strength, for the vision he has for us and for my appointment to this place. And if he's been changing my circumstances and I had to downsize or I lost that job or I got called with me or my boyfriend broke up with me or whatever, if he's changing my circumstances, then that is my new appointment to service. We are royal appointees to the king. And we go, "What's our job?" And he goes, "Where do you live? Who are your friends? What's your world? What's in your checkbook? That's your job." And we're thankful to God for this appointment. So we go after it. Are you thankful to God for this appointment and for this vision he has for you? Or are you frustrated by your life and spend most of your time wishing you or somebody else, wishing you had different strengths, wishing you lived somewhere else, wishing you had more of this, wishing you had less of that? Or do you receive his appointment to that life as your service? That doesn't mean you don't improve. That doesn't mean you don't get another job if the Lord prompted you and leading you. That doesn't mean you live in mediocrity and go, "That's your appointment in life. That's your lot in life." It's a different conversation. Don't take it out of context. But where he's placed you is your appointment and we're grateful for it. We're thankful for it. One of the other things that was told Paul when he was converted. Remember this phrase from the King James, "Don't kick against the goads." Remember that phrase? Lord, who are you? I'm Jesus who you're persecuting. Don't kick against the goads. I had to look up goads. Do you know what that means? Goads is a prawn. It's a pointy stick. But the cattlemen, the shepherds would poke the cattle and move the cattle around. It's not a very attractive analogy, but such as it is, Jesus goes, "I got a life for you. And where I lead you is going to be that life. Don't kick against it. You embrace my calling, my appointment, my ministry that I have for you. You embrace it." So we're grateful for it. We're working it out where we are by being thankful for the strength, his vision for us, and living out the life that he's given us. I'm running out of time, so I'm just going to mention this last one other than living in a place of thankfulness. What else are we going to do? What foundational truth to work it out where he's placed us? How did I say it? We know that this story is unfolding even though I was that guy. It's a foundational truth we live with. We know that this story of place, and my appointment to ministry in it is unfolding even though I was that guy. And Paul goes on in the rest of the wheel, what guy? Verse 13, "Even though," Paul says, "I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, even though I was that guy I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord Jesus poured out on me abundantly." He's grateful for his call and he goes back to reinforce even though I was that guy. And Ben's going to talk about more that Paul's story and grace in the next passage, but we know that Paul was convinced that Jesus saved him because he was the worst of sinners, so that then everybody else in the world could go. And if you saved him, Paul spoke against Jesus, Paul worked against Jesus, Paul killed Christians. He was all in against Jesus. Very few of us were all in against Jesus. And Paul goes, "This story of service is unfolding even though I was that guy. I was shown mercy because of my ignorance and unbelief. Do you not see the love and the mercy of God in that phrase? I didn't know what I was doing, and I didn't believe Jesus yet. It was an idiot, and God got it and showed me grace. That's a big grace." Ben, come on up. I want to respond to the Lord one more song before we go. "If we are going to live out our, we're going to work it out this faith that we have in this place, at this time on our little red dot from Google Earth, and your little dot where your house is, and your little red dot where your school is, and your little red dot where your work is, and your little red path on the freeway where your commute is. If we're going to work it out, foundationally, we live in thankfulness that this is the place. This is the appointment. This is the life that God has given me to serve him. Even if I was that guy, no matter how far I've come, no matter how perfect, no matter how far I've not come, and no matter how imperfect I continue to be, my place is a royal appointment to serve the king. Friends open, your spiritual eyes this week, to the thousand gifts, to the places, the people that you're called to tomorrow, and ask God for the discernment to be grateful for it and to live fully into it.