Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - The Cost of Trying to Control Everything | Lysa TerKeurst | Book Club: Part 3

Episode Date: June 22, 2025

Trusting God isn’t always easy, especially when you’re not sure what the future holds. But when you surrender to His will, you’ll be amazed at what He can do. In this message, Pastor Lysa TerKeurst shares the key to letting go of control and trusting God.NEXT STEPSHave you made the decision to follow Jesus? You might be wondering what’s next for you. We want to help! Check out these resources to ​​discover what saying yes to Jesus means: https://www.life.church/yesGET READY FOR AT THE MOVIESMovies speak to our circumstances, connect us to one another, and inspire us to action. But there’s more we can learn from them. During At the Movies, we’ll look at films in a whole new way. It all starts this July! See what it’s like: https://life.church/atthemoviesABOUT THIS MESSAGESome of our most meaningful growth happens when we hear someone else’s story. During Book Club, we’ll get fresh insights and practical ideas for living with confidence and purpose.Want to let go of control? Learn how to start living with your trust in God: http://go2.lc/controlABOUT LIFE.CHURCHWherever you are in life, you have a purpose. Life.Church wants to help you find your next step. Our hope is that your journey will include joining us at a Life.Church location throughout the United States or globally online at https://www.live.life.churchFind locations, videos, and more info about us at https://www.life.church or download the Life.Church app at https://www.life.church/appFIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIAFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/life.churchInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/life.churchTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lifechurchYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@life.churchCONNECT WITH PASTOR CRAIG GROESCHELYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/craiggroeschelFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/craiggroeschelInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/craiggroeschelTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@craiggroeschel#lifechurch #lysaterkeurst   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I always like to lay down a few ground rules before I start to speak, because sometimes when you're listening to a message, it can be so easy to start assigning that message to all the other people who need to hear that message, right? And so just to make sure that we are listening for ourselves, I want you to pick one of your neighbors, and I want you to repeat after me. This message is for me. I will not use it against you. Okay, now I want you to pick yourself. second choice neighbor, they're not at all offended, that you didn't choose them first, is fine. And repeat after me, this message is for me, but you need it more.

All right. With that, let's just go ahead and get into God's word. I'm going to be in 1st Samuel chapter 25. And if you haven't been in the 1st Samuel in a while, there is absolutely no shame in turning to the table of contents. Amen. It's in the Old Testament. First Samuel's right before Second Samuel. You're welcome. All right, here we go. First Samuel, chapter 25, verse two. A certain man in Mayone, who had property there at Carmel, was very wealthy. He had a thousand goats and three thousand sheep, which he was shearing in Carmel. His name was, and we're going to use the Hebrew pronunciation, Naval. Everyone's saying them out. Naval. His name was. His name was. He's going to use the Hebrew pronunciation, Naval. His name was Naval and his wife's name was Abigail. She was an intelligent and beautiful woman. Abigail was

intelligent and beautiful, but her husband was surly and mean in his dealings. Now, do you think if her husband was surly and mean in his business dealings, that he suddenly became Prince Charming at home? No. So this is what Abigail is dealing with at home. Abigail is a beautiful woman, she's an intelligent woman, and she has a problem. Her home life is hard, her husband is mean and surly. Now, we're going to see in verse four, David comes upon the scene. Now, David was in the wilderness. He heard that Naval was shearing sheep. Now, who is this David? This is the same David, David and Goliath, David, right? David is destined to be the future king, but he is not yet on the throne because the current king is pursuing David to take his life.

So David has escaped out into the wilderness because the current king is trying to kill him. Now, there are some men that have gathered around David. You can find a description of those men in 1 Samuel chapter 22 starting in verse 2. All those who are in distress or in debt or discontented, gathered around him, and he became their commander. That's a fun group of people to lead, right? Now, why were these men in distress, in debt, and discontented? You see, these men had escaped into the wilderness as well,

because at the time they were working for wealthy landowners. These wealthy landowners had a system set up by which they would loan these men money and then charged them so much interest they would not be able to pay the debt back no matter how hard and how long they worked. It was a faulty system. And so, of course, these men are in distress, in debt, discontented, and so many of them have broken away from their wealthy landowners.

And when they went into the wilderness, David was there, and David became their leader. It says, when David was in the wilderness, he heard that Naval was shearing sheep. Okay, now let me say something else about the connection between David and Naval. You see, David and his men, while they're in the wilderness, they have done a great favor for Naval. They have encamped like a human wall around all of Naval's animals and his shepherds. This is Naval's wealth. So David has protected Naval's wealth. David has done a great favor for Naval, and now it is about to be festive time. And so David just assumes that Naval would be very grateful.

And so David is going to send a message to Naval saying, I have done a great favor for you. Will you do a great favor in return and give me and the men who follow me food for it's about to be festival time? So David sent 10 young men to Naval to give this message in David's name and then they waited. This is what Naval says. Who is this David?

Who is this son of Jesse? Many men are breaking away from their masters these days. Why should I take my bread, water, and meat and give it to men coming from who knows where? Well, as soon as they said that, the 10 men hear it,

and they lose translation, but they go back to David. And while they're going back to David, they say, oh, we are telling. And they go back, and they report to David every word and immediately rage builds up inside of David. And David says to his men, strap on your swords. We will go and kill Naval and all the males belonging to him. Now, there was a servant that sees and hears what's going on and this servant decides not to go to

Naval because Naval is mean and surly in his dealing. Instead, this very wise servant goes to Abigail, who is beautiful and intelligent. So, one of the servants told Abigail verse 14, Nival's wife, David sent messengers from the wilderness to give our master his greetings, but he hurled insults at them. Yet these men were very good to us. They did not mistreat us. And the whole time we were out in the fields near them, nothing was missing. Night and day, they were a wall around us.

the whole time we were hurting our sheep near them. Now think it over, Abigail, and see what you can do. Because disaster is hanging over our master in his whole household. He is such a wicked man. No one can talk to him. Abigail has a choice at this point. Abigail can try to take control of the situation, or Abigail can be a faithful steward of this situation.

There's a big difference here. You see, what we don't trust, we will try to control. This is very true. Now, it's true in our human relationships, but it is also true in our relationship with God. If we don't trust God, then we will do everything in our power to take control of every situation. And you go, well, no, no, no, no, no. I mean, I trust God. Okay, me too.

I trust God until I don't. Okay? And so let me give you a definition. If you are trying to take control of a situation, you have two mantras. The first mantra is everything depends on me. everything depends on me. And when you feel like everything depends on you, that is going to be leading you right into anxiety, fear, frustration, disappointment, disobedience, chaos, and you'll get yourself into a situation where you have emotional exhaustion leading to spiritual confusion. Why isn't God helping me? Everything depends on me. And regarding the outcome, if you're in control mode, if I'm in control mode, the outcome, this is what I say, I am only willing to accept the outcome that I think is best. Anything else, anything else, anything else,

I will not accept. Now, there's a big difference between control and stewardship. Stewardship is very different. Stewardship also has two mantras. Instead of everything depends on me, stewardship. When I'm in stewardship mode, I will say I am only able to manage that which is within my ability to manage. Now, I'm going to be responsible. It's not like I'm going to have a baby put it in a crib and go, you know, let go and let God, right? No, no, no. We need to be responsible for that which is within our ability to manage. But regarding the out, I will trust God. Now, what does that lead to? That leads to obedience where we realize my job is to be obedient to God. God's job is everything else. And what does that lead to?

That leads to surrender. Not surrender as in I'm giving up, but surrender as in I will trust God. I wonder how differently our life would be if we really, really believed that God is good and that God is trustworthy. I wonder, I wonder how differently our lives would look. You see, I pray this prayer every single morning when I wake up. And it's a prayer that God answers every single day. And this is the prayer I pray. God, I want to see you. God, I want to hear you. God, I want to know you. God, I want to follow heart after you.

And before my feet even hit the floor, today, God, I say yes to you. I don't even know what I'm saying yes to you, but I'm saying yes to you, God. And God, here are all of my circumstances, here are all the things that I want to present in petition and requests to you. But I'm going to look through

these eyes at everything I face. This is going to be my perspective. God, you are good. God, you are good to me. And God, you are good at being God. Therefore, I'm going to trade my will for thy will because I'm so confident you will. Now today, Lord, will you show me someone to forgive, someone to bless, and rich evidence of your goodness and faithfulness all around me. and that's a prayer that God answers every single day. Every day, some fool bumps into my happy, every single day. I mean, all you have to do is go to a coffee shop and the person in front of you, heaven forbid, they frappade their latte and wheylaid their whole day, right? And they turn around and they say something rude and bump into you. But you see, when you have prayed that prayer,

you have already pre-forgiven that fool. That's right. And so just because, lay down an offense does not mean I have to pick it up and carry it with me and let it ruin my whole day. No, you do, you boo, because I have already forgiven you. That's right, right? How differently would our life look if we did this? Yes, okay. And then God show me someone to bless every single day. Every day. God sends someone across my path. every day of someone who needs a little bit of my time, a little bit of my emotion, a little bit of my encouragement, maybe a little money.

Every single day, there is not a day that goes pipe that I don't meet that person. I meet that person every day. And when I make the connection, this is the person that God sent. It reminds me so strongly, the presence of God. It reminds me that of all of the people in all of the universe, God brought this person and made sure that we cross past with each other today. Because that is the God we

serve. And if we can remember that God's presence is in our everyday situation and we start to see and recognize God is here and where the presence is, that's where God's power is. And when we start to see it every single day, we surely will start looking for God's goodness and God's faithfulness in everything we see. And the more we look for God, the more we will see God. Matthew 5-8, blessed are the pure and heart, for they will see God. Blessed is that person who desires to see God, for they surely will. Now, I know a lot of you in here, you are facing some really tough stuff. stuff. Maybe your story is a little bit like Abigail. There's something at home that is breaking your

heart. I know what that feels like. The past 10 years of my life, I walked through the depths of hurt and heartbreak and pain. I was married almost 30 years, and I found out my husband was being unfaithful. And it wasn't just one time. It was over and over. and boy with everything in me I wanted to put that marriage back together with everything in me and my mantra was it all depends on me and I am only willing to accept the outcome that I think is best the only way in my brain that this could be a redemption story is through reconciliation and so I fought and I stayed and there were noble reasons for that but there were also some really unhealthy reasons for that. And in the end, I recognize that I had been enabling the whole situation

because I was so afraid if he hit rock bottom that the consequences would not just affect him. It would affect our whole family. And so I did everything I could to be his savior. God never called me to be a Savior. I could be his wife, I could not be a Savior. And the last year we were married, I remember I took my hands off. We separated and I decided instead of a Savior, I was going to be an observer. And I just released it to God. And I paid attention to what choices.

he made. And in the end, I got the clarity that I wanted. I mean, not the clarity I wanted. It was the clarity that I needed, but oh, man, it was not the outcome that I wanted. It was not. You see, it's going to cost us something to trust God with all of our heart, but it'll cost us more if we don't. So Abigail is here, and she has a choice. She can surely go and try to convince us. her husband, but how do you think that's really going to go? Is it really possible to control another person? Is it really possible to make somebody do something if they are unwilling or incapable of making the changes that we are desperate for them to make? Would that work for her to go and try to control Navajo? Absolutely not. So Abigail's going to be a faithful steward. She has the

ability to manage what is within her ability to manage. Now, what does David want? David wants food, right? And so Abigail has access to food. And so Abigail does not go to Naval. She does not try to control the situation. She has access to food so she will be responsible for the food that David wants. Abigail acted quickly, verse 18. She took 200 loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, five sea as a roasted grain, a hundred cakes of raisins and 200 cakes of press figs with a partridge and a pear tree and loaded them on the donkeys. By the way, this is, if you do Bible food math, I personally love Bible food math. This is a perfectly portion meal for 600 men.

And how many men are with David by the time you get to first Samuel 25? 600. Abigail was indeed beautiful and she was intelligent. Sure was. So she loads all of this on the donkey. She sends her servants ahead. And verse 20, as she came riding her donkey into a mountain ravine, there were David and his men descending toward her.

And she heard David say this. David says, it has been useless all my watching over this fellow's property in the wilderness so that nothing of his was missing. He has paid me back evil for good. May God deal with David be it ever so severely. If by morning I leave alive one male of all who belong to him. And what Abigail does next astounds me the only way I can possibly make sense of what she does next is that Abigail is a woman who absolutely

trust God, who absolutely realizes God is good, God is good to me, God is good at being God. And whatever the outcome is, my job is to be obedient to God. God's job is everything else. That's the only way I can describe and I can possibly understand a woman when after hearing the threats of David and facing all these men with drawn swords and David swearing to kill. Verse 23, when Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed down before David with her face to the ground. She fell at his feet and said, pardon your servant, Lord, and let me speak to you. Hear what your servant has to say. Please pay no attention, my lord, to that wicked man in a vow. He is just like his name. His name is fool.

And folly goes with him. You see, Abigail, she is not being subservient to David and she is not putting herself in a position of weakness Abigail in her humility is putting herself in the position of great strength the only way David would possibly be able to listen to Abigail is if she came in humility if she had bowed up and showed up like oh no you didn't I will cut you I mean she is facing these men with with all these swords. What do you think David would do with one slice of his sword? Abigail would be gone. But no, David sees Abigail in a posture of great humility. Humility is not a position of weakness. Humility is actually a position of great strength. You see, the safest place for us

is on our face before the Lord. That is the safest place for us. And there's two routes to get there, the pathway of humility and the pathway of humiliation. The only difference between the two is one chooses to bow low while the other trips and falls there. But we will both wind up on our face before the Lord, right? Now here's what Abigail is going to do. Abigail is not only going to give this festive food to David, but even more importantly, Abigail is on assignment. Abigail is on assignment to remind David, David, you are destined to be a great thing. leader. You are destined to be a great leader. Do not derail your destiny for a moment of revenge. Do you not

remember that God has destined you to be the future king, the future leader of all of our people? And you're going to derail your destiny because somebody got all up in your business today. And now you're going to go kill him. You're going to shed needless blood. And so Abigail is on a assignment. Verse 26. And now my Lord, speaking to David. As surely as the Lord your God lives as you live, since the Lord has kept you from bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hands, may your enemies and all who are intent on harming you be like Neval. And let this gift which your servant has brought to my Lord be given to the men who follow you. Now please, forgive your servant's presumption, David. The Lord your God will certainly make a

lasting dynasty for you, David, because you fight the Lord's battles. And no wrongdoing will be found in you as long as you live. Even though someone is pursuing you to take your life, the life of my Lord will be bound securely in the bundle of the living by the Lord your God, but the lives of your enemies, he will hurl away as from the pocket of a sling. What is Abigail reminding David of? do you remember do you remember when you faced an impossible giant god did it then and he will do it again god did it then and he will do it again do not derail your destiny uh-uh and then she says verse 30 and when the lord has fulfilled for my lord every good thing he promised concerning him and is appointed him ruler over Israel, my Lord will not have on his conscience the staggering burden of needless bloodshed of having

avenged himself. Do you want to know what the Hebrew word for that staggering burden when we do something wrong and it just sits on our conscience so heavy? It's the word fuka. You have to be careful how you say it, but I want you to say it with me, right? Fuka, right? Fouca. Abigail is saying, David, do not bring that fuka on you. Do not have that heavy burden of regret sitting on you. you. And then because Abigail is intelligent, but she is also beautiful. She says, And when the Lord your God has brought my Lord's success, remember your servant. Now, you may not believe that that is how she said, what she had said, but it's going to make a lot of sense in just a minute. You've got to keep scripture in context. Amen. All right, here we go. David said to Abigail,

praise be that the Lord God of Israel, who has sent you to meet me. May you be blessed for your good judgment, Abigail for keeping me from bloodshed on this day and from avenging myself with my own hands. Otherwise, as surely as the Lord God of Israel is, who has kept me from harming you, if you have not come quickly to meet me, not one male belonging to Nevalu would have been left alive by daybreak. Then David accepted from her hand what she brought him and said, go home in peace. I have heard your words and granted your request. So now verse 36, Abigail went home. She went to Naval.

And he was in the house holding a banquet like that of a king. He was in very high spirits and very drunk. What does that mean in the original language? It means he was drunk. That's right. And so she told him nothing at all until daybreak. Then in the morning, when Naval was sober, his wife told him all these things,

and his heart failed him. And he became like a stone. And about 10 days later, the Lord struck Nabal and he died. Hallelujah. No, no, no, no. Do not bring that Fuka down on your head. So that is bad. Okay. Now, I don't want you to go home and go, oh, I love Lisa's message, because she doesn't told me what somebody is going to do to somebody. The Lord is going to strike you. No,

this is Abigail's story. This is not your story. But when David heard that Naval was dead, he said, praise be to the Lord, who has upheld my case against Naval for treating me with contempt. He has kept his servant from doing wrong and has brought Naval's wrongdoing down on his own head. then David sent word to Abigail. David sent word to Abigail asking her to become his wife. Listen to what the scripture said. His servants went to Carmel and said to Abigail, David has sent us to take you to become his wife. She bowed down with her face to the ground and said, I am your servant, ready to serve you.

I bet she was. And then it says Abigail quickly got up on her donkey. Yep, that is what she had done. Okay. Now, I wish I could tie this story up in a neat, nice bow and go, and Abigail lived happily ever after. No, it's a little complicated. You can see, David has some other wives, some concubines, this whole situation, right? But I am so glad that the Bible does not always tie stories up in a neat nice bow because my life never ties up in a neat nice bow either. And I would imagine yours doesn't either. But we do have a choice. We do have a choice. We do have a choice.

every day with everything we face. John 1633, Jesus says, I bring peace to you. In this world, you will have trouble, but take heart. I have overcome the world. Take heart. Take courage. God, you are good. God, you are good to me.

And God, you are good at being God. I wonder how differently our life would look if we really believed that God is good and if we really trusted him. If you're physically able, will you please stand? I want to read this declaration that I wrote, and when I wrote this, I wrote it in my journal. It was like at 2 a.m. one night, 2 a.m. is such a hard hour when you wake up and your emotions are just in a.m., in a funk and your mind just won't stop spinning. It's too late to call your late friends, too early to call your early friends, so there you are at 2 a.m., right? And so I put pen to paper one night, and that day this declaration was for me, but what an honor it is for me to be

able to read it over you. Being brave. Being brave is not always something you feel. It's something you do. You do it in the face of fear and unknown outcomes and risk. You really don't want to take. You do it when your enemy is staring you down with taunting statements of defeat. You do it not to prove that there's something great inside of you. You do it because if you don't, something will die inside of you. You do brave things because it's time to rise up and speak up and let truth find its freedom with your voice. Whatever you've been through, whatever you're going through, whatever you're facing. Acknowledge it. Speak it. Cry over it, but don't die over it. You've been hurt, but you do not have to live hurt.

You do brave things because you were made to connect, not with all people, but with the right people. Like getting to church today, this is the best place to be for the hurting human heart, right? So you were made to connect with the right people, take the right wrist, take it slow, but don't stop, don't withdraw, don't disappear. You do brave things because you are a person who can kneel humbly and rise intentionally. You'll find good people and good people will find you. And you'll do brave until you become brave. You'll know laughter again. You'll know love again and you'll know deep in your bones. You will not waste all that you've learned. Those spilled tears, every one of them helped you let go of the pain to make room for possibility. Your life is not a tragedy. It's a test.

testimony that God is your rock and your redeemer. And if your hands are shaking, let it be only because you're pointing at the devil who picked the wrong person to mess with this time. See, don't wait until you feel brave. No, go be brave. And remember, if God is for you, nothing, nothing, nothing can stand against you. Amen and amen. Come on, church. Let's tell Lisa, Lisa, thank you. Lisa, thank you for your faithfulness. Thank you for your vulnerability. And to our church, if you receive God's word to you today,

say I receive it. Do you receive it? Why don't you guys be seated for just a second? The book is Lisa's latest book. I want to trust you, but I don't. If you want that confession, it's in there. If you want to hear more from Lisa, I encourage you to do so.

And what I want to do is I want to give you a moment just to let the Holy Spirit settle that word in your hearts because I sense that God wants to do more for so many of you. So God, have your way. God, help us to genuinely trust you as good, not just in our words, not just in our mind, but in our hearts. And as you're praying today, maybe watching online, maybe you're at one of our church locations, and you find yourself. And you find yourself, trying to maybe control something or trying to control someone. It's probably because you don't fully trust God. And I wanted to say just very lovingly to you just kind of echoing what Lisa said. And that's just that you don't always have the power to control, but you do always have the

power to surrender. And so today, if there's something you're trying to control, maybe a health situation, maybe something in your marriage, maybe something with a kid. God knows we often try to control our kids, don't we? Trying to control another person, trying to control an outcome. And you say today, I just want to trust it to the Lord. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, not on your own understanding, but in all your ways, acknowledge him, put him first, trust him, and he'll make your path straight. Today, wherever you are, if you're trying to control something or someone, and you want to say, God, I trust it. I trust her. I trust him. I trust it to you. I'm not going to control. I want to surrender this to you. If that's you today, would you just lift up your hands?

And a moment of prayer before God, lift up your hands online. You can type in the comments section. I'm surrendering. You can even name what it is. I'm surrendering my marriage. I'm surrendering my financial fears. Whatever it is, I'm surrendering this to the Lord. And God, thank you that you are good and that you are faithful and that your word is true. All your promise, sisters are yes and amen. So God, we acknowledge, we want to control, we want to be in charge, but we're not very good at being you. So God, help us to trust you with all of our hearts. And God, to stop trying to figure it out and manipulate it. But know, God, that our job is to obey you. Your job is everything else. So God, help us to be obedient, help us to be trusting. God, help us to

let go of what we're trying to control and surrender it to you, knowing you're always good, you're always faithful, your word is always true. God, we trust you, we believe you're good. We believe for miracles. We believe for provision. We believe for your power to be revealed as we trust in you. Today, as we keep praying, I want to talk directly to some of you that don't really know maybe where you stand with God.

And if we could sit down and talk and I could ask you some questions. Some of you would say like, well, you know, I try to be really good and I try not to gossip. I try not to cuss and I try to help people and I'm trying really hard to be good. And that is kind of another way

that people try to control things. Like, hey, I'll be good enough for God. And if I could just tell you as your pastor, the Bible actually tells you that you can never be good enough for God. In fact, the Bible tells us the opposite. Like, we've all been bad. And the Bible calls it sin.

We've all, every single one of us. You know, you've lied, you've cheated, you've gossiped, you've lusted. We've all sinned against God. And there's no way we can work our way to God. And this is why the gospel is called good news. And this is the best news. For God so loved the world that he sent his one and only son, Jesus. That whosoever believes in Jesus would not perish.

but would have eternal life, who is Jesus. He is the perfect sinless son of God who died in our place for our sins. And the Bible says that we're made right with God, not by our own good works, not by our own control, but by God's grace through our faith, believing in the perfect work of Jesus.

And there are those of you right now, you need to let go of control of trying to be good enough because you can never be good enough and surrender your life to the Lordship of Jesus. He is the only one who can ever make you, right with God. So today, if you don't know where you stand, and maybe you've hoped to be good

enough or tried to be good enough or worked to control your way there, let me just tell you right now, you can't and you won't, you never will. The only way you're ever made right with God is by surrendering your whole life to the perfect work in the grace of Jesus. So today, if that's you, let's settle it. Just acknowledge I'm not good enough. I've never been good enough. Today I'm stepping away from my sin and I'm surrendering my life to Jesus. When you do, scripture, says, God will forgive all of your sins and make you brand new. If that's you, you're watching, you're watching online, you're at a church right now, and you know you need his grace. Today, by faith, we're going to say I'm stepping away from my sin. I'm giving my life to Jesus.

I'm believing that what he did will save me. His work is perfect and enough. Today, I give my life to Jesus. That's your prayer. Would you lift your hands high right now? All of our churches just lift them and say, yes, Jesus, I surrender to you. God bless you. Oh, my gosh. Praise God for you. today who say yes Jesus I'm surrendering my life to you online type in the comment section I'm I'm trusting you to save me I'm trusting Jesus to save me and today let's just let's just settle I just pray this prayer wherever you are pray heavenly father I surrender my life to the lordship of Jesus Jesus save me forgive all of my sins make me brand new me with the power of your Holy Spirit so I can know you, so I can live for you, I surrender.

My life is not my own. Thank you for new life. You have all of mine. In Jesus' name, I pray. Church, could you take a moment to give God praise? Give him praise today. He is a good God. He is a faithful God. Welcome those born into God's family.