Our topic is Have a New You by Friday. Now, how many of you would like to change some things in your life? Just put your hand up. Is there some thing -- yeah, see what I mean? We don't like to change things.

To those of you who want to lose weight, let's pick on that. I can help you lose weight. You want to lose weight? Post your weight tomorrow in the break room at work. And then every Monday, change it. You'll lose weight. Why? Because you've taken that step to lose weight.

How are you going to lose weight? We're all going to lose weight differently. But see, within the behavioral science area -- so there is some unwritten that's says, "For behavioral change to take place, that has to take all a long period of time." Well, let me tell you a little story about Kevin Leman.

I grew up in Williamsville, New York outside of Buffalo. I graduated fourth in my class in Williamsville High School. Unfortunately, I was fourth from the bottom and not fourth from the top. One of my vivid memories was being in a reading group with a girl who ate paste. I remember thinking, "I know I don't belong in this group."  They got buses school system. They have this wonderful way of putting me in the slow learner group. And despite my efforts, I became a senior.

And I couldn't get in college. I couldn't get in a university. My mother, God bless her, she was the believer in our family and she prayed for me everyday of my life. And actually she went to school more than I did come to think of it. I used to cut school on Mondays and Fridays with great regularity.

But long story short, I couldn't get in college. Finally got in a college on probation then got thrown out a year later for stealing the Conscience Fund which is a long story we don't have time to go into and then move from Chicago -- we'll moved back in front of a college. In Chicago, I moved. That's the nice way of saying it. You're gone.

But I came to Tucson Arizona and got a job as a janitor at Tucson Medical Center, a local hospital. Well, God does move in strange ways because I met my wife to be in the men's room of that hospital. She was a nurse's aide. You know how the janitor puts the barrel and let you know "don't come in?" and I'm mopping the floor. See, my wife is a looker. I mean she's 67 years old and still a looker. I mean she'll walk in a restaurant, I'm not kidding you heads will turn.

And a neat thing about Mrs. Uppington as I call her, she's the classy one of the two of us is she's pretty on the inside and she's on the outside. But she walked in and our eyes met and I thought, "Oh, not that chick." because I've seen her in the hospital, I was afraid to say anything to her. She was just so stunningly beautiful.

I felt, "There she is. Say something." and I was always good at saying stupid things because I was sort of the class clown or when I left so I said, "Uh-uh, would like to go to the World's Fair with me?"  Well, the World's Fair was in New York City. This is Tucson Arizona. I'm making $195 a month full-time,, okay? So she says, "Well, I don't know."  I said, "Well how about lunch then?" so I moved quickly.

And we went to McDonald's and we shared a 20 cent cheese burger and a 10 cent coke. Now you got to be old to remember the 15th cent burger. How many of you remember the 15 cent burger? Okay, you're going to die soon. That was a long time ago.

But anyway, I'm telling you, I'm falling in love with this chick, I can't believe this woman is talking to me and we started to date and we're sneaking kisses before our 7 to 3 shift and things are move along and I'm in love. I mean I am walking down the street like this, man. I am in love.

Now, what you have to understand about me is I'm a punk. I walk cool, I smoke on my Salem cigarettes. I'm cool. I got the belt for you all guys on the side. I got greasy hair going back. And to top it off, I've got a chip tooth that had worn to the porcelain cap so I got a hole right in the middle of my tooth. You put that together with a janitor's uniform with a cross broom and a mop, I was a looker.

But see, women have this ability to look inside us men much better than we do. As men, we're blinded by the outside. When we started to date, we dated about four months, she pops the question. She says, "Would you like to go on a church with me?"  I remember thinking, "Oh no. She's one of them."

What do you say this chick you fallen in love with gentlemen? You say, "Oh yea. I'd love to go to church, I was lying through my teeth.

I didn't want to go to church. I remember sitting our church, okay? Thinking, no chick is worth this. And then she wanted me to go at night. Why would you go to church at night? You didn't do it right in the morning? And I was sitting there at night and this guy was talking about the guy who knew Jesus Christ was in his head but he didn't know who he was in his heart.

And friends, I knew who he was talking about. I tried to avoid that sucker. And every time I looked up, those big brown eyes were looking at me. And then you talk about being under conviction of the Holy Spirit. I mean men, the beads are sweat. I mean I was sweating like a hog and everything that happened that night was supernatural because I didn't want that to happen and yet, I walked out to that church praise God, a new man.

I had taken two courses at the university, Geology 101 and flunked it. I worked full-time, took one course flunked it. I took another course, Geology 101, flunked that again. I was old for two at the U, became a believer, went back to school full-time, 16 unit load dean's list. What does God do to your life? He changes your life. He gives you new life through his son Jesus Christ I mean. I mean I'm a living testimony to that.

Graduated in fourth from the bottom of my class was shaking consumer's mathematics as a senior in high school. "Nancy went to the store with a dollar to purchase four apples, came home with 50 cents change. How much were the apples?" That's final exam stuff.

I remember my youngest daughter bringing home her math assignment. I've looked in that and I said, "Shazam! When did they start using letters?" But God is in the life changing business. Isn't it interesting? He uses ordinary people to do what? Extraordinary things.

Well, let's go back to "Have a New You by Friday."  If there are some things in your life you want to change, you got to focus in on one thing, that one thing whatever it is and you begin to shrink yourself. If I say in the little book Have a New You By Friday, the book only cost 300 bucks. Go see a shrink for a couple of sessions. You see how much money you've just laid out?

And I believe that you can actually shrink yourself. We all grew up in families, okay? I'm the guy that wrote the Birth Order book, youngest in the family, had older sister Sally, Pastor Sally we call her Pastor Sally, children's ministry pastor, never got a "B" in her life and anything, perfectionist, okay? Come to her home and the first thing that greets you is the Clear Vinyl Runner. Oh, it's a very warm feeling, welcome to our home!

I've never seen her furniture which is covered with sheets and only comes off when company comes over. And check this out, she puts newspaper under the cuckoo clock. That's my perfect sister. Then I had brother Jack who was a quarter back on the football team voted best-looking in his senior class and all that and a great student who by the way has a PhD in Clinical Psychology, okay?

And then there was me. Now looking back in shrinking myself, what was the lie that I believed about myself in my family? The stars of the Leman family were who? Older sister and older brother.

I wonder how many people here this morning had believed a lie based upon on how they were brought up. Maybe you were put down and criticized. I'm telling you, there are people here who are procrastinators par excellence. I don't want to see you show your hands but I know you're here in huge number.

I'm so old, I've done every TV show there is. I've done Oprah like 5 times and now she's retired, Regis over 20 times. If you're really old, you'll remember a guy name Phil Donahue? I did Phil Donahue with the Birth Order book. But when you look at families and here is this little -- all these little cubs come out of a den, everybody sees themselves differently.

I only count when I achieve, when I do right, when I'm perfect and all those things that people have. I only count in life when I'm noticed, when I get other people to put in my service, when I mediate. And everybody has a little life thing. But so many of these things we learn about ourselves are lies just like I believe that successful people in the Leman family were brother and sister.

There was an old grey-haired school teacher who was somewhere between estrogen and death who pulled me aside in April of my senior year and said, "Leman, have you ever thought that maybe you could use those skills for something positive in life?"

You know, that was the first time a teacher ever said to me I had skills. She said, "I have seen you in the classroom. I hear teachers talk about you in the faculty lounge. Maybe you could make something of yourself."

It was interesting. That was April of my senior year. That's the time I went and saw my counselor for the first time of my life by the way. I mean he looked up and he said, "Leman, with your grades and your disciplinary record in the school, I couldn't get you admitted to reform school."

Now, I got thrown out of fourth grade, got thrown out of Cub Scouts, got thrown out of college, okay? And yet 41 books later, 10 years as a dean's list student at the University of Arizona, I have accomplished a few things in life with God's help because he took me when I was what? Submissive to him, okay? You want to make it in marriage today, you better understand what the word submissive is. It is that ever a fun topic to bring up to women today.

I spoke of women of faith, 10,000 women in a round, it was sickening. The smell of estrogen was overpowering. I'm the only man in the place and Mrs. Uppington is sitting down next to Amy Grant having the time of her life not listening to a word I'm saying, by the way.

But listen to what Saint Paul says. He says "Your wives must submit to your husband's leadership in the same way you submit to the Lord."  Now we've beaten women over head with submission gentlemen, I'm telling you.

I call Saint Paul the equal opportunity employer because if you look down a little bit farther down in Ephesians 5 and you hear these words and you husbands show the same kind of love to your wives as Christ showed to the church when he died for her.

Well, who here knows where they were on January 8 of 2011? Anybody? January 8th, 2011, anybody know? In the first service, we had a couple of people. Anybody? Not one. Losers. I know where I was. I was in New York City. I just did Fox & Friends and they wanted me to spend the weekend and do the Monday version as well.

So I was walking in the streets in New York and my cellphone went off. It was my daughter, "Dad, dad! Did you hear the news?"  "Honey, what are you talking about?"  " Gabrielle Giffords was shot."  Well, she's our congresswoman from Arizona. And a young man 18 years old who was crazy to put it bluntly pulled out a gun and started shooting people at an event.

Eighteen people were shot, six were killed. A bullet went right through Gabrielle's head and out the other side. She's recuperating. Now, in fact last week, I was on Fox last Thursday in New York and got a chance to talk to Mark Kelley who's Gabrielle's husband and she progresses with her struggle through rehab. But you know what didn't get the headlines that day? There was a man there that when this mad man pulled out the gun, you know what he did? He took his wife like this, 76 year old man and he pulled her like this right behind him and took a bullet in the chest. He's in heaven today.

Ladies, what you need to understand about that husband, yes I know he can sit there and watch two ball games simultaneously and his boxer shorts belching, eating a pizza, yes, he is your gift from God. He would take a bullet for you. That's how most men are.

In the book "Have a New Husband by Friday," I say ladies, think of your husband as a four year-old that shaves. He's the simple one. He's not the complex person you are. You're weirder than weird. He has two basic needs, to be needed and wanted by you. And somebody would say, "Well, where is respect?"  "It's in there but it's not number one or two."

Despite popular opinion, a husband wants to feel needed by you. He sure doesn't feel needed out in the world of work, he's looking over his shoulder, it is called downsizing. And men identify it outside the family much more than women do. Women identify it inside with relationships. Like I said, that we're the "hug me" thing that moves. Just watch him here at church, they hug everybody "Hi, how are you?" and they kiss each other and they miss. What I'm telling you is there's humor in the fact. God was originally the humorist so he came up with this one and the two shall become one.

Back to Ephesians 5:21, listen to what it says. "Honor Christ by being submissive to one another."  You got to know who you're leaving. How many women here today or tonight would love a foot rub or back rub? Hands up high, foot rub or back rub? Gentlemen, make a note now, okay?

Now, if Mrs. Uppington were here this morning, you wouldn't see her hand in the air. Do you know why? In to quote her, "I don't like being rubbed. Scratch me."

She likes to be scratched. Now check this out, S-shape like this on her back, S-shape and then backhand like this, something that tell me that there is S-Shape and backhand. I don't have a clue. And then she loves it when I do this to her arms and she really likes it when I just stroke the inside of her hands like this with my fingernails. Now, if I start there, she says "Oh, I don't like that. That tickles. Start at my back." and then I pray something will happen.

Another thing about women, they lie like dogs. Can we talk about that for just a second? Now, talk about people who are different, night and day different, Mrs. Uppington is a five forker, okay? She's a four forker. She loves restaurants that have four and five fours. I hate those things. I'm a one forker. Plastic fork, no problemo, okay?

So we're out for dinner in one of those four forkers and we're off for dessert. Now desserts are only $13.50 a piece and we passed on dessert, we're driving home. So she turns to me, we're driving home and she says, "Do you want to stop for ice cream?"  "Ice cream? Oh no."

Ten seconds later I look over and the lights in the cars are hitting her face. I see tears streaming down her face. "What is wrong with you?" "Nothing." "Nothing? You're crying aren't you?" "I said there's nothing wrong." "What is wrong with you?" "I want to stop for ice cream." Talk about communication. When your wife says, "Honey, do you want to stop for ice cream?" she is not asking a question. When she says, "Honey, we need to talk." no needs or needed by you sir, she's got something to say.

Now here's the unique thing about women. Women want us men to know how they're thinking and how they're feeling without them having to tell us how they feel. Now here's the problem for every men that's here, okay? I'm going to do the thinking for you, "Hey honey, just tell me what you want me to do and I'll do it."  Well that's not good enough for the Mrs. Uppingtons of the world. It's just like we've had hard research for years about women. Women like to be held. They like to be cuddled. They like to be talked to. A women says to her husband "Harold, would you come over here and just give me a hug." Puts down the newspaper, walks over and goes. What did she tell to herself? "Well, he held me alright but he only held me because I asked him to and not because he really wanted to. Do you see the problem? They're weird.

Women have the ability to come to a full point. Have you ever see a dog, a birddog work in a field. A birddog work a field back and forth then all of a sudden they'll smell the scent of the bird, a quail, a pheasant, whatever and the dog goes into a full point. And their whole body strings out, little front paw goes up, head is out, nose on that direction and the tails go out behind them.

Women have the same ability that comes to a full point many times when they're shopping, "Oh! Oh, look at that. That is adorable. They got two of them. I'm going to get them both." or when they discover their girlfriend just got a new hairdo, "Oh! I love your hair." which is a clue for the other woman and say "Oh, they don't even mention my hair. Look at it. I want on my skin and my long neck and my coloring and she look a like." I mean, I'm shortening the conversation for time. Women talk in volumes. They use three and a half times the number of words that men use in a given day. Two men meeting, watch. I'll do it again in case you missed it.

We specialize on arm's length relationships, okay? Does your husband want an arm's length with you? No, he doesn't. And by the way, he has no friends. He has no friends.

He's got his fishing buddies. Oh, they talk a lot, 45 minutes of silence and he hits nothing. That's communication.

We go to our friend's house. He's a state farm agent. He's cooking steaks out back, I joined him out back. We had a nice evening. We're driving home, she starts on me and she says "What's new with Joe?"  "Nothing"  "What do you mean nothing?"  "I said nothing."  She said "Well, you're out there in the backyard and for a long time, what were you talking about?"  "Nothing."

Women can't understand their men can be together and talk about nothing. That's who we are. You know if I meet some guy at a punchbowl, I have no need to get into some deep. Emotional, "See you." fist bump, "Goodbye. I got my punch. I'm out of here."

I mean God is the original humorist. I am telling you, we came up with the two shall become one. That's not easy getting behind the eyes of a woman. That's not easy to getting behind the eyes of a man because we see things from our own biased perception and yet God calls us to come together. Well, how does this work into our faith? For people who grew up in critical eyed families, okay?

Most of you grew up in authoritarian homes. We'll talk about this on Monday night. "Hey, you listen up. You're going to do what I tell you to do as long as you live under this roof, you understand me? Oh, you want something to cry about? I'll give you something to cry about." How many of you can identify with that? Okay? That's the authoritarian model. But now we got a whole another genre of parents, "Oh Brittany, it is 8 PM. have you chosen to go to bed yet?"  What's wrong with that picture?

But anyway, if you grew up with a critical eyed parent, one that could spot a flaw at 40 paces -- I remember working with a girl. Her early childhood memory was she was helping her daddy wash the car and daddy ripped the hose out of her hand and said, "You're not spraying the car right."  What kind of relationship do you think that girl have with her heavenly father?"  Hitting him is the best because she saw God. He's that big guy in the sky who had the biggest Wham-O slingshot looking for imperfect people like you and me. And I'm here to tell you, you and me are pretty imperfect people.

If you want to take encouragement today, take a look at the disciples. They were dumb as mud. They're the dumbest people that walked the earth in so many ways. If you look at the Book of John which I love to read the Book of John over and over and over again, John 14, "Jesus calls all the disciples together. He knows the sands of time is going by quickly. It's time for him to get out on that cross." And by the way, did he want to get on that cross? No. The human side of him didn't want to get on that cross but he knew he had to fulfill his father's will.

He gets up and he says, "All right, listen up guys, Peter put your fork down. This is important. Eyes up here. All right, listen, I'm out of here, okay? I'm going to go and prepare a place for you." he says "And you know where I'm going." I love this scripture because Thomas -- I identified so much with Thomas because he was so stupid and he says, "Lord, don't have the foggiest idea what are you talking about?"  And then Philip's getting up and he says, "Yeah, yeah. Show us the father and then we'll know."

And Jesus says to Philip, "Philip, after all this time you've been with me, you don't who I am? If you've seen me, you've seen the father." Did you ever think how cool it would be to live when Jesus walked this earth, to be in the multitude and watch him feed five thousand or jump over to John 2, Jesus' first miracle at Cana and Galilee? Wow, there's some teaching there.

And if you remember -- the four or funny story I think is they ran out of vino and Jesus' mother Mary is there and she says, "Hey son, come here. Do your thing."  Now what has Jesus say to his mother? "Woman, what have you to do with me?" He separates himself from his mom. He says "No."  It's one of the mysteries in the Bible because if you read on and Jesus changes the water into wine.

One day it hit me what happened. I think Jesus' mother Mary gave Jesus the look, the same look you might give to your son or you daughter if you ask them to do something and they didn't do it. But you know, in verse 11 it says, "The disciples believe that he really was the Messiah."  What's easy to believe when you see it before your own eyes? Have you ever feel like you don't measure up, you haven't jumped high enough? You're not alone because I'm telling you these guys were dumb as mud.

On that Easter morning, there's sequestered behind close doors. They're fearful that they're going to be discovered because they were seen with Jesus. They were Jesus' followers and they were fearing that they were going to be killed. And all of a sudden in their midst, Jesus is standing in there midst. He didn't come through a door folks. This is the Jesus we worship this morning, the all powerful, the all knowing, God in the flesh.

And I'm telling you, when he appeared there, the disciples were checking their pants. They weren't saying, "Oh we knew you're going to come through that door any second. Yeah, we're just here talking about it."  No. You see, that's the humanness. I'm telling you. If you feel like you don't measure up, you're in good company because we're all imperfect and that's why we believe in God's grace. He loves us despite our stupidity.

I can tell you, there's been so many times in my life where I would say, "Hey Lord, let me drive. Let me drive. I can drive sort of moving over there, a little further, Lord. Okay, thank you." And I drive along in life's way, I get down a mile or two and what do I do? I crashed. And what's the first word out of my mouth? "Lord?" "Is that you Leman?" "Yeah. Could you just call me little tow truck to get me out of this mess?"  "It's on its way fat boy."  He is able and just to what? Forgive us of our sin. That's called the human condition folks.

But what's keeping you from moving forward? Why aren't you where you say you want to get to? I don't know how many of you even remember the old Bob Newhart Show where he was a psychologist and he had a little therapy group and the guys in the therapy group are worth the whole show.

They had one little pip-squeaky little guy, a bald headed guy. I think his name was Mr. Peterson. And Mr. Peterson was a salesman but he wasn't making any sales. And so Bob said, "Well, let's role play this. Let's just sort of go through what you do."  And he said, "Well, okay. Well, I go to the door and I stand there. And then while I stand there a while and if no one comes out then I move along to the next door." And Bob Newhart says, "Now wait a minute. You just stand there? You don't knock on the door?"  "No."  Did you see the problem?

See, some of us are treading water in life and here's the busy hands people that's the fun part about it. It's like you're in the deep end of the pool and there you are treading water and I come by and I'll say, "Hey, get moving along."  And you'll look up on me and say, "What are you, stupid? Can't you see my arms moving and my legs moving?" I said "Yeah, but you're not going anywhere so you tell me where you want to go."

Who's the successful one in your life, in you family? Where do you want to get to? You worship an awesome God that's says "All things are possible for those who love the Lord."  So who's holding who back? And back to marriage, do you know what please your husband? Then why don't you please him? Maybe it's because all the baggage you have. Maybe you didn't have that loving father. Maybe you have a psychological chip on your shoulder about men. Maybe the word "submissive" really get your hackles up. You got to be mutually submissive to each other.

That's what that wonderful verse in 5:21 is all about. You honor Christ by what? Being submissive to one another. I'm telling you, as a guy that's been married for 45 years in a row, there's nothing better than being married, nothing. Do you slow down? You slow down. You slow down physically, emotionally, sexually, we're down to four or five times a week but we're dealing with it the best we can.

And I'm just telling you, we need to be joyful in God's service on this earth. And who holds us back? I think we do. I think we should in our self and we should on other people. You should do this. You should do that. The fact is that God made you one of a kind. He's given you his Holy Spirit. What else do you need? You can drive down the big eye -- is that what you call it here where forty and twenty five come together -- and you can be talking to the creator of the universe. If that ain't cool, you tell me what's cool and you have that power within you and yet you tell me you can't do this and you can't do that. You're a lying dog. You're just lying to yourself because with God's help, all things are in fact possible.

In terms of the love languages, you got a little insert in your goal today about love languages, we all have love languages. My friend Gary Chapin wrote the book.

Gary and I have been friends for years. I have been in his home for dinner. I know his kids and his wife well. Talk about different people, well, night and day different, those two people.

They gave us this love languages sort of like -- I think there's almost a similarity between the Birth Order book. If you read the Birth Order book, it's a life changer book for people. Read the 5 Love Languages, it's a life changer for people. He has given us some handles to hang on to, quality time, acts of service, words of affirmation, gifts, physical touch. What does your husband complain about ladies? What does your wife complain about gentlemen? Well, whatever she complains about, he complains about their chip in their hand that this is important to me, that's their love language but we're different.

So, we got two people. I always say Sandy and I live in a two story house, her story or mine? And we tend to see things completely different. I'm a morning person. I get up with a happy face. I'm telling you, pretty woman that she is, it takes a while for that beauty to come forth. She's got this apricot stuff she puts on her face in the morning. It's on an eight sided jar. It looks like poppy seed dressing to me but it works.

Oh gosh, we got to fly here. I'm out of time. Question for you on this Sunday morning, can you be a better Christian? Can you be a better Christian? That's the question and it's a sucker question so don't bob your head up and down too high. Because the fact is, you can't be a better Christian. That's like asking the question, could you be better pregnant? Either pregnant or you're not, either love God with all your heart or you don't.

In fact, His Holy Words says this in Revelation. He says, "If you're lukewarm about me, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to spit you out of my mouth."  I think that's so cool. The Lord of Lords, the King of Kings uses the word "spit."  "I'm going to spit you out of my mouth."  That's a gross word in many ways but that's how terrible that thought is to Almighty God.

In terms of changing things in your life, you don't have to feel like changing it. Mrs. Uppington, God bless her soul. She has thrown out my slippers at least three times and I've rescued it from the garbage each time. And the last time, she was so frustrated because I would admit they're filthy. They are filthy, they are gross, they have paint on them which is a mystery because I've never painted anything.

And she sat there with her hands on her hips she says, "Le--" when she lectures me, it's Lemmy. "Lemmy, Lemmy, Lemmy. Why do you insist on wearing those gross slippers?" What do you suppose I tell her? "Because they're comfortable."

We tend to slip back folks to what's -- Oh, you two kids are listening, interesting. What are you listening to me for? Don't have things better to do than listen to an old fat guy like me? It's very fun to see kids who listen to some old guy.

But anyway, it's interesting you can drift back to the comfortable but the comfortable isn't good for you. God's not interested in you being a status quo. He wants you to share the love of Jesus with people and not beating them over the head.

You know what I met Mrs. Uppington? She told me later, "You know, kissing you is like kissing an ashtray. But you know what? When we first dated--" on that first date, if she would have said, "Excuse me. I need to share with you the four spiritual laws."  I mean I would have been gone in a second. We wouldn't be married today and have those five wonderful kids.

So, God has given brain in your head. Use it. Use it for his glory. Don't be afraid to talk about the life changing power that exists in your life. Love people even though they're unlovable. This Sandra has said to me many times -- I get these pharisee letters. I'm sure Pastor Skip gets his share of them. They're written by well meaning pharisees who were the keepers of the law.

I was on the Today Show once. I got a fourteen pager from a woman. She ripped me from one end to the other and she signs it in Christian love, Rose. I wanted to just punch her out -- well, in a Christian loving way, you know what I mean.

But the pharisees or the keepers of law, I'm just reminded, God gives us -- he gives us new life when he gives us his son Jesus Christ, new life. Be who you are. Mrs. Uppington would never wear socks like this. She says "Why do you wear those socks?"  I said, "I don't know." but I got a drawer full of them. The wilder they are, I don't care if they match. I don't care what color they are anymore. I really don't care. "That's who I am." I can play that same game ladies. "That is who I am."

You know, women are weird but we love you anyway. And men are strange. And tonight, we're going to be talking about men are strange women are weird.

Let me leave you with this thought. How many of you have little pictures on your refrigerator door right now that are drawn by little kids? Hands up high! I wanted people to see. Now, here's the question. Are those drawings any good? "Good? I want to say they're down right precious Leman. My little grandson Timothy drew that picture of that airplane for his granny."  "Oh madam, I've talked to Timothy and that's a dinosaur."  "Well, it's still precious."

I would think this morning is Almighty God looks at each of our hearts. He sees these little imperfect people, these little imperfect drawings that don't have everything together. But the good news is he loved us so much that he sent his son into this world and his son did get on that cross and he was mobbed and he was spit on and they said things like, "If you're who you say you were, why don't you get your self off that cross?"  Do you know what the Lord Jesus could've done to his mockers friends? With a simple look in the thought, they would have been ashes but he fulfilled his father's will.

You and I have some fulfilling to do too, to keep those commandments we said in front God and friends years ago relevant to our marriage, to be good husbands, to be good fathers, to be good moms. There's nothing more important than family on this earth. God gave us that. He blessed that. He wants you to do good at it. What keeps us from doing good at it, us, our prideful, arrogant attitude that we want to win. Marriage is not a competitive sport. If someone's winning your marriage, guess what? We all lose. Let me close this in prayer.

Father, thank you for this church. Thank you for this body of believers. Thank you for the great leadership from Skip and the other pastors here. Thank you for the many hands like these musicians who gives so much time to your work every Sunday and every Saturday, Lord. Bless the many hands who made this Calvary Chapel exactly what it is, a great church and outpouring of real Christian love and the Albuquerque area.

So Lord, this is your day. We do rejoice. We are glad that we say that you are our father and we are your daughter and we are your son. So Lord, I just pray right now that people who have never made that decision to never say "Lord, I'm sick of making deals with you. I want to live life to the fullest and I want to be yours forever and I want to share eternity with you." that right now, in the quietness of their heart and mind that that decision will be made.

Thank you Father, to loving us as you do in Jesus' name I pray, Amen.