2 Thessalonians 1:1-4 Growing in Faith

Welcome to Recast Church in Madelon, Michigan, where we are growing in faith, community, and service. You are listening to a message by Pastor Don Filsek from a series entitled, WAR. If you would like more information about Recast Church, check us out at recastchurch .com or you can find us on Facebook.

Here's Pastor Don.

Hey, Pastor here. If you'd be willing to fill out that connection card you received when you walked in and put it in the black box back there, if it's your first time filling one of those out, then then please take a free coffee mug back there, our way of saying thanks, and remember that you can put any of your own personal updated information on there.

If you're not currently receiving the weekly email that we send out, please share your your email address with us, and and that way you'll start to receive that. Now again, you can unsubscribe yourself from that at any time.

You're completely in control of that, but at the same time, that's the primary way that we communicate with people is through email and sending that out each week. And then any offerings you would choose to give, go in the black box back there.

The offering envelope is provided for you. You can either recycle that or use it, and that's available for you back there as well. Last week, we looked at the definition of church from 1st Corinthians 12, and Paul showed us that a church is a body of people with a variety of different skills, talents, and abilities all organized together in unity by God, that it is his work that has brought us together, that it is his desire that we operate together like a body operates with hands and feet and eyes and ears and all of that, and we all have a different role to play here.

And we ought not to look down on others for their role, and we all ought not to elevate others for their role, but when it's all said and done, we ought to see each other as mutually necessary in this body that we actually need each other, and others actually need us.

And so that's what we looked at last week, and defining what church is will hopefully help us all to understand our personal role as members unified within the diversity of members that we have here. And again, I encouraged you at the end of the service last week to consider your role in the church, and are you plugged in, and are you doing the things that God has gifted you and called you to, and if you're not, then to come and speak with us.

And I did have some great conversations with people last week as a result of that. But now in the next three messages, I'm turning to thoughts about what does the individual member need to remain connected and functioning well within the body.

What Maturity Looks Like in the Church

So if we take the definition from 1st Corinthians of a church being like a body, now what do the individual members need in order to be functioning well and in a wholesome way? In other words, if I've decided that Recast is the place for me, then what should I be doing?

Is that a good question? Is that logical? Is that reasonable for us to ask? So another way of saying that is, what does maturity look like for us? What does maturity look like? And hopefully the majority of you know that the leadership of Recast believes that maturity is defined by growing in faith, growing in faith, growing in community, and growing in service.

Okay, good. Some of us are aware of that. And that's where we're heading. By faith, we stay connected to God through his word. In community, we are accountable to others in relationship, the way that God designed us.

Did you know he designed us for relationship? How many of you knew that? Some of us, even if you raise your hand and you know that he designed us for relationship and he designed us for community, it still can be tough sometimes to really connect at the heart level with people.

How many of you would admit that it can be tough at times to connect with people at a heart level? Does it get messy at times? Any of you that are married should have raised your hand because you know that it can get messy at times.

It can be difficult. I mean, you don't always see eye to eye and yet God has brought us together. How many know that the proximity to people increases the reality of frustration? There are times in your life where you'd like to go live on an island, right?

Every one of you, it doesn't matter how extroverted you are, there are times in your life when you've said, boy, it'd just be easier to go this alone. But that's not what God has for us. He has for us community, has for us unity and a diversity of people who are indeed going to rub us the wrong way at times.

And we're gonna rub them the wrong way at times. But we are dedicated and committed to this because it is God who has brought us together. And so we continue to stay connected in community and then part of that community is also the aspect of service.

We grow in service. And as we grow in service, we fulfill the role that God has given us in the body. He's created some of us hands, some of us eyes, some of us ears, some of us see, some of us hear, some of us in a variety of different functions that we have here.

And so I'm gonna take a message. Today, we're gonna be talking about growing in faith. Next week, we're gonna be talking about growing in community. And the following week, we're gonna talk about growing in service.

And that's the direction we're heading. Today, we're gonna turn to the introduction of a letter, one of the letters to the Thessalonians in order to see the amazing reality of growing in faith in a local church, that local church in Thessalonica.

And the reality of their growing in faith is something that I think is a model and an example held up for us. Paul commends the church in the Greek city of Thessalonica for growing abundantly in faith and increasing in their love for one another.

And I feel like a commendation is due to you at Recast as well. And I really believe that our church has grown in faith. I have seen an abundant growth in faith here in this community for people actually coming to the knowledge of Jesus Christ in faith and then coming and getting established and rooted and growing up.

And then those of you who have come in at various stages that are continuing to grow and take on the word and believe it by faith. But I believe there's also a challenge for us as well. Just that we are growing in faith doesn't presuppose that indefinitely.

And so the challenge is to stay firm in the process, to continue to wrestle with God and wrestle with his word, continuing to grow in faith. So I want to open our Bibles to 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 verses 1 through 4.

There's actually a misprint on the front of the of the bulletin. There isn't a chapter 4 even in 2 Thessalonians. It's 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 verses 1 through 4. So follow along as I read. Does anybody have a page number by the way?

849 for those of you still looking for it. Let's follow along. Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy. To the church of the Thessalonians, in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

We ought always to give thanks to God for you brothers as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring.

Let's pray as the band comes to lead us in worship this morning. Father, there is an awesome and glorious mystery in this process of growing in faith. I think all of us have felt that at times. What steps do we need to increase our faith, to increase our trust in you?

And sometimes we just don't even know how to do that. And the reality is there's this mysterious component of you growing our faith. And then this aspect of us working hard to put ourselves in a position to grow in faith.

And Father, it's obvious from this text that all glory goes to you when we grow in faith and simultaneously there's a call on our lives to continue, to persevere, to endure. And so Father, I pray that you would allow that balance to be clear in this message.

And then even as we have an opportunity to worship you, to glorify you for the work that you have done in our hearts. So I pray that as we sing these songs, we would do so in hearts. Just move deeply with gratitude for all that you have done for us.

And Father, that you would allow our worship to be pleasing to you because our hearts are engaged with you this morning. I pray that you would minimize the distractions, all the different things that have gone on this week.

You would allow us to shed all of that stress and all of those worries and come before your throne in worship of you. You are awesome. You are great. You are awesome. You are holy. You are majestic. You are worthy.

And you are our Savior. In Jesus name. Amen. Thanks a lot for leading us in worship this morning to the band. Encourage you to keep your Bibles open in front of you to 2 Thessalonians, the book of 2 Thessalonians 1, 1 through 4.

And again, I don't I don't remember that page number, but if you if you what was it? 849. So if you lost your place there, you can turn over to 849. This is a shorter passage and it's kind of easy to take in the whole scope of the text at a glance.

I mean, you can probably read it several times while I'm talking here and really get the flow of it and really figure it out. And for that reason, I want you to be able to have the text open in front of you to be able to see as we dig in what it is that God is saying through the Apostle Paul that it's his word and not primarily me speaking here.

But even as you keep open to 2 Thessalonians, stay there if you want. But I'm going to I'm going to summarize the majority of Acts chapter 16 and the first half of Acts chapter 17 for us just briefly.

That is the place where we find in the text of Scripture, the foundation, the planting of the church in Thessalonians and Thessalonica. The Thessalonian church is started there in Acts chapter 16. And we have a pretty detailed accounting of how this church got started.

And that comes to bear in our understanding of how they grow in faith and how they grow in their love for one another, as we're going to see in this text. At the start of Acts chapter 17, there is no church in the city of Thessalonica.

It's not that there's it's not that there's a Catholic church. It's not that there's only a Presbyterian church. It's not that there's only a Methodist church or there's only a non-denominational church.

There is no church in the city of Thessalonica. At all. There was no place to go to learn about Jesus Christ. There was nobody there who could tell you that he died on the cross for your sins. Are you getting the the the depth of the darkness in this city regarding the Christian faith?

There was no testimony in the city of Thessalonica that Jesus Christ is Lord. The public religious climate was full of religious Jews who were going about their duty attempting to keep the law and polytheistic Gentiles who were worshiping a bunch of God, Zeus, Athena, all of that stuff.

And that's what was going on in Thessalonica. There was also the cult of emperor worship, Thessalonica being under Roman rule at this time. So there would have been the cult of worshiping the emperor and all of that stuff.

But Paul had received a call from God and was traveling around the area of modern-day Turkey, not in Greece yet, he's in modern-day Turkey, at the beginning of chapter 16. He's proclaiming Christ in synagogues.

His first and foremost thing when he would come into an area was to go into the synagogue because that's where the Jews were. The Jews were at that time looking for a Messiah. And he says, Jesus is the Messiah.

Jesus revealed himself as the Christ. And so would that be a logical place for Paul to start? They're already looking for a Messiah. I'm going to start here with these people. And so he would go to the synagogues.

And one night while he was there in the area of modern-day Turkey, he laid his head on his pillow. And that night he had a dream. And in that dream, a man from Macedonia appeared to him and called out, come over here, Macedonia being in Greece.

He's in Turkey. And he gets this dream. And I don't know if the guy had a sign on his forehead that said Macedonian. I don't know. I mean, how did he know this guy was Macedonian in the dream is unclear.

But he took this as God's desire for him to go to Macedonia to share the truth. Come over here and talk with us. So he does. Paul and his posse, they boarded a ship, made a trip to the Macedonian city of Philippi, where we get the book Philippians.

And while he was there, they met a woman named Lydia. They proclaimed the good news that Jesus is the Christ. He is the Messiah. He had that Christ had become the sacrifice for her sins. And she believed and became the very first recorded convert to Christianity on the continent of Europe.

A place where Christianity is going to have the greatest foothold for centuries from that point forward. And interestingly, it was a woman. She was the very first convert. The pagan Gentiles got all riled up.

Paul shares the gospel with more, more come to faith in Philippi. The Gentiles get riled up, get angry. And eventually Paul and his friend Silvanus. By the way, when you have the name Elizabeth, you can shorten that in a lot of different ways, right?

Elizabeth can be shortened to Bath or Eliza or all different kinds of things. The name Silvanus can be shortened in Greek to Silas. And they would often call the guy Silvanus. They would call him Silas.

So we're going to see him mentioned. Do we see him mentioned in Acts? And then we also see him mentioned in Thessalonians. Same guy. One is his full formal name and one is a shortened name. Paul and his friend Silas were thrown into prison and they were beaten.

And then even the jailer gives his life to Jesus Christ while they're in prison. Okay. That's the kind of evangelism that Paul and Silas had. Just even, even the jailer comes to faith in Christ. But Paul and Silas in the end are asked by the mayor of Philippi to leave.

And he said, you know, cordially, could you get out of my city? You're stirring everything up and causing problems. And so they leave. They depart Philippi. They head West, finding a little community called Thessalonica.

There was a Jewish house of worship there. And so Paul and his guys go there. And for three weekends in a row, they go to the Jewish synagogues and they proclaim Christ as the Messiah. It's very clear what they communicated to people.

Jesus is the chosen one. He is the Messiah, the Christ. Some of the Jews and some of the Gentiles of Thessalonica. And it says a bunch of the leading women in the community were persuaded and believed this truth about Jesus Christ.

Well, the Jews became all jealous in that city. They wanted everybody to come to the synagogue to hear them. And now people were going over to Paul and starting to hear him and listening, listening to him and giving him more attention than they were to the teachings of the Jews.

And so they stirred up a riot and trying to find, they tried to find an intact Paul, but they couldn't find him. I don't know if he was just out, if he was just at the outskirts of town or if he was just hanging out with his buddies and they couldn't find him or whatever, if he was visiting somebody else's house at the time.

But so they couldn't find Paul. So they went to the house of one of these brand new converts, a guy named Jason. And Jason was arrested. And, uh, in the process he's being arrested. The other believers secretly escort Paul and Silas out of town by night.

And the implication in the text and acts is that, that, um, Jason is, uh, is required to give them money in promise that Paul and Silas will never return to Thessalonica. And so there's this money that's exchanged in order for him to both get out of jail and make this pledge.

Three weeks. How long did Paul have to plant this church? Three weeks. At the high end, three weekends, he spoke in the synagogue and he has run out of town. When we read about the church in Thessalonica, it's important to understand how this church was planted.

Three weeks. I, where was recast three weeks in? Right. I mean, the idea of a church planner planting a church and being ushered out of town in three weeks, that's, that's tough to imagine. Paul was swept into town, was there maybe three weeks, proclaim the truth with boldness.

These brand new believers immediately encountered hostility from their neighbors and friends. How many of you know that the mob that was stirred up in this little Greek town probably knew the people they were attacking?

You think so? These are your neighbors. This is your, this is your gated community turning against you. Okay. These are the people that you rub shoulders with and that you wave to while you're there mowing the lawn and stuff.

And now they're at your door, beating it down, saying, give us Paul. Okay. Are you getting what I'm saying here? Three weeks. And this kind of hostility has happened. And Paul and company were swept out of town.

Most scholars believe that the letter of first Thessalonians was written pretty quickly after Paul and Silas left. He, how many of you know that if you were leaving in that situation and as you were leaving town, you were looking back, hearing the mob scream.

You might be a little concerned for the church that you just started. Maybe a little bit. Okay. As you see the torches and the pitchforks as people are marching through town, you know, it's kind of like, how, how are things going?

How are things going in Thessalonica? So he writes the letter of first Thessalonians pretty quickly, um, as they're fleeing. And it's clear that Timothy, Timothy, the new Testament character was the courier for the letter.

It wasn't Paul. It wasn't Silas. They had been pledged to not return. And so they sent Timothy with a letter to find out how things are going. Paul wanted to check on them. He wanted to give them encouragement.

So the letter of first Thessalonians is an encouragement and a, a test that you can kind of send it out there, get Timothy involved and say, how are things going here? How have you fared in my absence?

And that makes our text this morning, the very first time that we hear Paul say anything, once he's gotten any kind of confirmation of how things are going back there. So that's why we're not looking at first Thessalonians.

We're looking at second Thessalonians. He's now gotten a report from Timothy back on how things are going up there. And so now we see this text of gratitude and thankfulness and acknowledgement that this little fledgling church is growing in faith.

This little fledgling church is growing and increasing in their love for one another. I know it's a lot of buildup, but it's a buildup because we see abundantly growing faith in the worst of environments.

And I want to, I think it's helpful for us to understand the environment in which this faith is growing. The environment in which this small church after just three weeks are growing in their love for one another.

The letter in the start here, looking at verse one, the letter is attributed to Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, or Paul, Silas, and Timothy. Most scholars identify the writing style really consistent with Paul.

We have enough of the writings of Paul to be able to tell word usage and phrases that he prefers and things like that. And so he's able to determine the writings. I mean, we're able to determine the writing style pretty clearly.

And it's pretty likely that Paul was the primary author, but he includes Silas and Timothy. They're mentioned because this indeed, it does have their endorsement. Silas had a significant ministry in that community, just like alongside of Paul.

And now Timothy has had a ministry there because he took the letter to them, checked in on them to see how they're doing. Are you getting what I'm saying? So that's why we have those three recorded as the ones who are sending this letter.

And Timothy is the courier for the second letter as well. But notice that what Paul left after only three weeks of work in verse one, he refers to it as a church. After just three weeks, it is now a church.

This small gathering of believers was already organized in a community of caring individuals. They were already solidifying the bonds of a body. They were already becoming a body together, even after three weeks.

Is there something maybe about Paul's teaching that let them know they need to be unified, that they needed to hang together, they need to watch each other and have each other's back? Something about his teaching that has guided them and directed them into that.

They were already sewn together by the work of God, the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, as the text says. Paul doesn't waste words and he sets out right from the beginning to remind them that the location of the church, the real spiritual location of the church is in God and in Christ Jesus.

And he has no fear of using the name Jesus. He doesn't leave this as a generic greeting. He specifically reminds them that Jesus is Lord and Jesus is Christ. Back in Acts 17, it's clear that the main point of Paul's gospel presentation when he was with the Thessalonians was that Jesus is the promised one from the Old Testament.

He is the Messiah. He is the one God has chosen to take away our sins. And that was his message when he was with them. And Paul offers to the church a traditional greeting, but spices it up with Christian flair here at the start.

Most Greeks during this time would greet one another with the word, Arene. So you're walking down the street, you'd say, Arene. They'd respond, Arene. And on you go, you know, you're pushing your grocery cart, Arene, Arene, which translated into English is peace.

So you're walking down the street, make eye contact with someone, peace, peace. That's it. Okay. That's the Greek greeting to one another at the time. But Paul steps it up with Karis Kai Arene, grace and peace.

But not just Karis Kai Arene, but he says, grace and peace from God, our father. Now, when a Greek person said to another Greek person, peace, it was probably as empty in reality as our, how's it going?

Now, when you, when you pass somebody and you say, Hey, how's it going? Are you looking for a, an exposition of their day? Or are you hoping that the answer is fine so that you can just kind of move about your business?

I mean, in reality, when you say, how's it going? What does that, what does that greeting mean in our culture? It's a, it's a pretty innocuous thing that you're looking for. You know, would a Greek person feel the freedom to kick back and say to the greeting, peace?

Well, no. As a matter of fact, I have no peace. I got fired from my job yesterday. My dog died and my bunions are acting up, you know, is that how you would respond to somebody who's just walking down the street?

Peace. No, no. I say this to suggest that most social conventions tend towards empty connection with people, towards trivial. And almost, uh, we play the masquerade in our culture. And I think that's human culture around the globe.

There are those types of things where we aren't really asking the question that the words are asking, right? Look at what Paul does though. In verse two, he says, grace to you and peace from God, our father and the Lord Jesus Christ saying peace to someone in the end is wishful thinking, right?

It's hopeful. It's like, well, I hope you're having peace. I mean, that's what we mean by it. Not much more than that. But to say grace and peace from God, our father and the Lord Jesus Christ is to pack his greeting full of truth and reality, not just wishful thinking, but reality.

Where is the source of peace? Where is the source of grace? Paul wants his fledgling church to be reminded at every turn that the most important things come from the father and the son. Where does grace come from?

The father and the son. Where does true peace come from? The father and the son. Now that doesn't, this doesn't mean by the way, that you need to sign at the end of every letter, grace and peace from God, our father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

And you know, or, or just, but what I would suggest to you is that there are opportunities for you to place a hook in relationship with others. Now, the irony is that, um, I think people in the world are actually, are actually interested in a religious person.

Now, I hope that you're more than a religious person, but for you to actually say to someone, boy, you know, they ask you how, how's it going? You're like, man, the Lord just blessed me. Something awesome this past week for you to actually put those little hooks in there where they know that you're a person of faith.

You don't have to expound on, um, you know, uh, you know, the depth of depravity in the world and how we're all sinners. And, uh, but in those moments where, are you getting what I'm saying? Those moments where you can actually infuse a conversation with just a split second of letting them know you're a person of faith, that when they have a difficult time, how many of you know that when people go through difficult times, even unbelievers, they sometimes are looking for a religious person to interact with.

Did you know that? And I would love for it to be one of you guys. I would love for that to be. Now, some of you are kind of going, well, Don, that is so far out of my personality. That is so far out of my comfort zone.

You know, I'm not that kind of wheel and deal and kind of like, oh, the Lord is good. Amen. Hmm. You know, it's all good. I never met somebody by that, like that, by the way, I've met some people. I, I, uh, maybe I've mentioned this before, but there was, um, I worked at a distributing company for a lawnmower parts when I was, when we were first married and I was working two or three jobs.

And, um, there was a UPS guy who would come in and in all the time. And this guy from UPS, yeah, shout out. Um, uh, there's a UPS guy who would come in and every other thing was hallelujah. Praise the Lord.

You know, he's just like, everything was just so upbeat. And it was like contagious. I was like, I want to be more like that, but I'm going to know that your personality is maybe different than that, but I would suggest to you that don't use your personality as excuse.

In other words, if you say to me, I'm shy, well, there is an element of that shyness that is not God oriented. And there was a element of, you're a really outgoing extroverted person. There's an element of that that's broken too.

And it's a matter of actually recognizing what does God want me to do from situation to situation? How does he want me to testify? And how has he created me to testify? And there are no excuses. I'm too shy is not an excuse for not sharing your faith and providing those hooks to people around you.

But also I'm bold. Doesn't give you the right to run rough shot over all of your coworkers either. You get what I'm saying about that balance? So Paul is, is direct. He's writing to a church and he's very, very upfront about his faith and where does his trust rest?

Where is true hope? Where is true peace? Where is true grace from the father and the son? And he wants them to know that right off the bat. But now we come to the main point in verse three, Paul identifies that there is something he should be constantly engaged in.

There is something he ought to be always doing. Now that he's got this report from Timothy, Timothy's come back. It's been a positive report. And now he says, there is something I ought to always be doing.

He ought to be always giving thanks to God for the Thessalonians. He said, I should, I should always, in every breath and every thought I should be giving thanks for you. Wow. What's going on there? Giving thanks to God.

He says is the right thing for me to be doing. It's correct. It's almost like it is an, uh, a right obligation for me to constantly be giving thanks to God for you. That's what he's saying. And the word, because in the middle of verse three shows why Paul's heart has been moved so much to gratitude.

And this is the point because their faith is growing abundantly and their love is increasing for one another. Paul looks at this fledgling church plant and he sees that they are growing in faith and growing in love.

There's a vertical aspect to this growing in faith in relationship to God. By the way, faith is defined in relationship to what cannot be seen. When you think of faith, you need to begin to think of taking that which is unseen over that which is seen.

It will always pertain to our relationship with God. Faith as we use it should always pertain to our relationship with God. Now, faith is always exercise in the real world. So make sure that you're hearing me clearly.

When I say that, that faith pertains to things unseen, it doesn't mean that faith itself is invisible. Faith is about that which is invisible, but faith itself is not invisible. So let me give you some illustrations and scriptural illustrations, biblical illustrations, the way that God illustrates faith.

So faith for Abraham had an external manifestation that looked like wandering around this earth without a settled home. Why? Because his heart had faith and he believed that God had a more permanent home in store for him.

But the book of Hebrews tells us faith looks like David seeing past standing there in the shadow of that massive muscle bound giant and looking through him to the mighty power of an invisible God who was not visibly standing there with him to defeat this giant.

You see how the interplay of invisible, invisible, what was visible to David? What did he see with his eyes? What did he perceive with his ears? What did his senses take in in that moment? I guarantee that our knees would be knocking if we saw what he took in with his eyes.

And yet he stood there with confidence. Why? Because what was invisible was more powerful to him than what his senses could take it. Getting what I'm saying? That is an illustration of faith. How about faith looks like Peter?

Peter who knew water. Have you ever thought about what Peter knew about water? Peter lived his life on the water. Peter was a fisherman. Okay. How many think that fishermen have some knowledge of water?

How many of you think that at some time Peter had watched something sink in the water and his Lord is standing on the water? This is different. And his Lord says, step out of your boat and come to me.

Whoa, what did Peter know about water? Well, I mean, you step in, you get wet, you're going, you're going in, right? What would ever move him to take that first step out of the boat, but to perceive that which is unseen, that which is invisible, invisible, that which makes no sense logically, but I'm here and my Lord is calling me and I'm going to step out of this boat right now.

And he does. We were so critical of Peter. What about the 11 who sat there in the boat is critical because his faith waivers. And then he, he walked on water, man. That is so awesome. But by faith, faith will always be in some way taking what is invisible over what is visible.

That's what it is. Now, it takes all different kinds of forms in our lives, so it will be accepting the truth of scripture over what seems immediately real. Sometimes it's taking those invisible concepts that seem to fly against our social norms and taking the word over the world.

Are you getting what I'm saying in that? So let me illustrate that for us and put some flesh on that. In the immediate realm, sex before marriage is pretty normal. Do you agree with me on that? In the way that our world works, in the way that our culture works, would you say sex before marriage is pretty normative?

It is. Why wait if you love each other? But the word of God says, wait. Do you see how faith taking the trust in the invisible versus the immediate is required in that step? To exercise faith in regard to our sexuality is necessary.

And the question is, which will we, which will we choose? Faith drives us to take that which does not make physical sense. The word of God tells us to let no unwholesome speech come out of our mouths, but only what helps build up others.

Anybody think that's one of the toughest passages in the entirety of scripture to apply? Only speak what is beneficial to helping others. I don't know that a day goes by that I don't drop the ball on that in some way, shape or form.

And faith is taking, taking the immediate gratification, is taking that over the immediate gratification of fitting in with the guys at work. I know it's a struggle for some. Me and Kyle, you know, dealing with the guys at work, you know, we got to watch our language, man.

But no, I know that that's a struggle. I know. And it's a matter of like, which, you know, it's a matter of faith. Taking this as what is important, taking this as what is valuable or what does it mean to to work third shift and and be around some some gruff and tough and just kind of like, well, I'm just fitting in.

I'm just trying to speak their language. I'm trying to get well. Building up, encouraging scripture says, do not be drunk with wine. Scripture says, do not lie. Scripture says, do not gossip. Scripture says, do not do not sin in your anger, like spiking a basketball and getting a technical foul yesterday in basketball.

I'm ashamed of that. And it's something I let the team down. Your pastor did that yesterday. And I don't like it. And I see these things in me and I go, there's an aspect of faith involved in this. There's an aspect of of of of seeing what really matters most and seeing the things that don't matter that much in basketball.