SPEAKER_01 0:04

Self-government isn't just choosing your own leaders, it's learning how to govern your own self. You can only be as free as you are responsible. So that word responsibility is one I'd like to zoom in on today.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

But I think this might offend some people. Are you worried about that?

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Do we really hold anyone responsible these days?

SPEAKER_00 0:35

It is incredibly maddening. I mean, all the fraud that's been uncovered, the fake daycares, completely fake medical centers, political kickbacks. I mean, someone's got to be going to prison for this stuff.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

And yet it seems like they don't, doesn't it? They lawyer up somehow, and whether it's sex crimes or cheating or politicians getting fabulously rich just all of a sudden, it doesn't seem like we're living with the accountability that the law should require. Welcome to Abundant. Conversations about the life everyone's looking for and what's getting in the way. That was quite the intense introduction there, wasn't it, Del? I'm Dan Jarvis, joined by my good friend Del Fasenfeld, and today we're offering a special episode as a part of our American Future series, slightly different in format than usual.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

You gave a talk recently, Dan, on responsibility, American responsibility. Not a typical topic. What brought that on?

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Well, I was studying American history and I realized that the word responsibility is actually an American word. I did not know that before. So you you dig into it and you start to realize that the idea of holding people responsible as individuals, certainly holding government officials responsible, is kind of new on the world stage. And that informed a lot about our founding. And I think it explains something about why America today is wealthy and full of opportunity and has a its own ethos. It gets back to this idea of responsibility. And so the more I dig into it, the more I think, wow, somebody needs to share this message with the world. I think we need a revival of all that in our generation.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

It sounds interesting, and I think what makes this presentation fascinating is that you actually apply it to government leaders, to average citizens. Sort of surprising because you also tie it to what the Bible has to say in Israel's history and how one of those kings lived sort of an American life. But I think this might offend some people. Are you worried about that?

SPEAKER_01 2:37

Not really. It probably will offend some people, but I think that goes with the territory when you talk about things like this. This summer, some of my friends down in Naples, Florida asked if I would come and share these findings at their church. And so what you're about to hear is a talk I gave at Venture Church in Naples, just presenting what is American responsibility? How does it relate to the Bible? How does it relate to you and I as modern-day citizens? And I hope it's interesting to you.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

Well, let's hear it.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

America itself, it's not a people group, it's not a bloodline, and it's not just some geography, although we can celebrate all the geography around us. America really is an ideal. It's a set of values that we've agreed as a culture to hold. And to the extent that we're willing to hold on to those values, we can preserve our freedom, maybe even expand our freedom. But to the extent we abandon those values, we recognize quickly we start to lose the things that have been handed down to us. Someone once said that freedom is not a one-time victory that you win. It's more like a garden that you keep cultivating. And if you forget to cultivate your garden, you know what happens in that place. So as Americans, we take our freedom seriously. And maybe some of you in this room have come from other places. You were born in a different country and you've come to America, and you would say, Yeah, there are things about America I appreciate as well. That's why I'm here. In fact, an interesting thought experiment to do personally is to ask yourself a couple of questions. One would be, what has America given to me? And wow, when I reflect on that and I think about all the opportunities that I've been given as just one person, I have to look up to heaven and say, thank you, God, that I get to be here. It's also interesting to ask, what does it mean to be American? Is it just that you're from here or that you've moved here or that you have citizenship here? Or is there something moral or emotional or even spiritual about what it means to be American? So today we're going to think about that a little bit together. We'll open up God's word and think about what it means to be free, what it means to have freedom in our hands, what we do with that freedom. So here's a question that I think is not really a matter of personal opinion. It's something we should be asking God to help us with as disciples of Jesus, and that is what responsibilities do I have as a Christian living in America? So in any country, any part of history, this would be a valid question to ask about the place that you live. What responsibilities do I have uniquely as a Christian believer in this particular time, in this particular place? If you lived in a country defined by oppression or persecution, your expression of Christianity would be a lot different. You'd still be called to follow Jesus. But the way you would do it, the way you would worship would likely be different. If you were in a culture that was particularly impoverished or fallen upon difficult times, your way of walking with the Lord, your way of interacting at church would be a lot different. But what does it mean to be in a free and by all accounts prosperous culture? Is there something about following Jesus here that we need to be attentive to? And think of many scriptures that would potentially relate to that, from whom much is given, much is required. We would think about the idea of freedom as being a blessing, but something we also hold in trust, something we recognize is a responsibility. So that word responsibility is one I'd like to zoom in on today. It's actually a uniquely American word. I don't know if you've ever studied it or you know this, but I was surprised to find out that before the founding era of the US, responsibility wasn't a thing. It wasn't a word that anyone would have known or used in casual conversation. It's kind of this mix of accountability and duty, which would have been historic concepts, of course, but putting those together and saying that individuals bear personal responsibility, or even more so looking up at the leaders of a culture and saying those leaders are responsible, not just to their own whims, like the divine right of kings, like a monarch can say whatever they want and that becomes the law. But no, there's a higher responsibility. All of us have to answer. That's the word responsibility, response. You're answering. There's a pledge that's made, and you circle back to that pledge. And the idea that you as a citizen are responsible, or that your government leaders are responsible, that they have to answer to someone, to something, that's actually a uniquely American idea. Now, the reason that surprises me is I feel like my whole life, I've I just naturally use that term all the time, don't you? That kid should take responsibility. Or wow, we should hold that politician responsible for what they said or did. Or maybe we would say the essence of American values, individualism and what? Personal responsibility. So here this new concept was popularized by our founders and framers as they were contending with the type of government that would ultimately define our republic. So I have a few chapters and verses for you from that founding era. For some of those of you who might be a little skeptical, I know my wife was skeptical when she first heard me talking about this. Is that really true? She had to Google it and make sure that yes, responsibility is actually an American word. So here's a little bit of background. In the 1787 constitutional crisis, as it was called, they were debating, trying to get all the states, all the colonies to line up and agree on the premise of what the new nation, how it would be governed, how would they protect themselves from becoming another version of what they just left behind, another monarchy where the government had too much control, but at the same time have some sort of accountability in the government. So this was the debate behind the scenes. Here's a little bit of that background. Should the executive branch consist of a single person, a president, or a committee? Many delegates feared that a single executive would mirror the British monarch. Well, that's certainly a legitimate concern, right? You give a president too much power, and what do they not have? Responsibility and accountability. So you don't want that, but there is a flip side. Have you ever been governed by a committee? Say, oh, I'm kind of glad they worked all that out 250 years ago, and that we're not still battling that out. We have other battles to fight now, of course. So supporters of strong presidency argued that a single executive was necessary specifically to ensure responsibility. If power was shared among a committee, corrupt or incompetent officials could hide behind each other, scattering the blame. That would never happen, would it? Oh, wow, does it happen? A single president would have nowhere to hide and would be able to be held accountable. We say, well, to the extent that our system does work, or you must say what you will about how it goes now, the truth is when the president does something, anything, there are a lot of voices trying to hold that individual accountable and responsible. So we'd say, at least in that regard, the system's working. Now, as the Federalist papers were being written, this is where the word responsibility came into our American lingo as individuals. People would read the Federalist papers and debate this. Here are a couple quotes where they were setting up this idea that the government would actually be responsible to the people, which is a very new idea. Madison wrote: the responsibility of the government to the people will perhaps appear not only new but paradoxical. He was saying, I know everybody's thinking is tuned into monarchy. So they're all thinking, I have to do what the government tells me. I have to answer to the government. And now suddenly we're going to start a form of government where the government is responsible to the people, and the government is the one who makes a pledge and has to circle back and actually follow through. So new thinking. Today we take that for granted. He wrote in that same essay, Federalist 63, responsibility in order to be reasonable must be limited to objects within the power of the responsible party. In other words, you can't be held responsible for something that you can't control. But the things you can control, the choices you make, the power you have, yes, you're responsible with those things, both as an individual and even more so if you're a leader. In Federalist 70, Hamilton wrote that the weightiest objections to the plural executive is that it tends to conceal faults and destroy responsibility. So our founders and framers argued this out, and as they did, two things happened, two things were fused together that have become part of the American values that we would all probably be thinking about when we wave a flag or go to a parade. And that is individual responsibility, that you are accountable, that you have choices, even if you don't have any power, so to speak, you do have the power of your own choices. And then that the government would be responsible. So this is all new thinking, and I'm grateful for it. I feel like the word responsibility is a gift because when we open up God's word, we would say, well, of course, we're responsible before God, right? We're accountable to our duty before God. We're responsible. So it actually helps us understand what it looks like to be a Christian who has the freedom to make choices, but we know we're not our own king. We don't get to do whatever we want. We are accountable ultimately to God, we're responsible. Alex de Tocqueville in the 19th century observed that Americans possessed a unique focus on relying on themselves rather than on the king or the state, cementing personal responsibility as what he said was a defining trait of American identity. So I would say this: the American experiment that we all get to be a part of, 250 years old now, rests on this. You can only be as free as you are responsible. And when you dial down responsibility, it is not a far jump before you start having to dial down freedom. The more you are willing to take and own your decisions and use your power of choice to do good, the more free you can be. Self-government isn't just choosing your own leaders, it's learning how to govern your own self. Now you open up the Bible and you say, what can we learn about freedom and responsibility? In the ancient world, the cultures of that time, even many of the cultures represented in the Bible, didn't have freedom, anything like what you and I are enjoying right now. Freedom or the prosperity that usually comes with it. Most of the cultures of the ancient world were monarchies or in some way pitting groups of people against one another and saying certain classes of people were in charge and everybody else had to do what they say. There wasn't a sense of equality that we all take for granted that we all celebrate today as Americans. So when you look back in time, you say, well, where could we learn about freedom and responsibility? There aren't a lot of good examples because America was one of the first in world history where thousands of people, actually millions of people, were granted personal responsibility. And then together they're going to live as a culture and hold their leaders responsible, all looking up to heaven at their creator and saying the rights we have and the responsibilities we have come from heaven, not from us, not from the opinions of the more powerful people among us, not from our own wants or desires, but from God. So this is a new thing we're all doing here, even though it's been happening for 250 years. So I look back in the Bible and say, who is an American citizen the most like when it comes to personal freedom? And I find the kings of the Bible to be the most like what you and I experience today. Now, we would think of the kings as living opulent lifestyles and getting to do whatever they want. And I would challenge you to find an ancient king who's living a more opulent, more entertained, more well-fed, more opportunity-filled lifestyle than you are living right now. It would be difficult to find very many candidates. The world has changed so much that you and I have more in common with the ancient kings than we do with the ancient common people. And so we would say, Praise God for that. I'm so glad I was born here and now to experience all this abundance and all this opportunity. But are there some lessons we should learn? I think so. Turn in the Bible to 2 Samuel chapter 11, and we're going to do a quick profile of one little snapshot here of David's life. King David, who defeated Goliath, King David who ran from Saul, King David, who was chosen by God to be the king of Israel, at the peak of his power, when the victories had been won, David himself had a remarkable level of personal freedom. So the question is, how did he handle it? When he had freedom and prosperity in his hands at long last, Israel at that time, his kingdom, was the regional superpower. No one wanted to tangle with them or mess with them. They had God's blessing, they had abundant prosperity, they had God's truth in their hands. David had a lot of things to celebrate. In that moment, how would he handle freedom and responsibility? Let's read about it. 2 Samuel 11, verse 1. In the spring of the year when kings normally go out to war, David sent Joab and the Israelite army to fight the Ammonites. David thinks, you know, I've kind of reached this pinnacle. I think the army can handle this without me. And they could. They did a great job. Look at the next verse. They defeated, they destroyed the Ammonite army and laid siege to the city of Rabbah. However, David stayed behind in Jerusalem. A little semi-retetirement here, right? David's had a long run of victory and success, and it's time to take it easy. He has the freedom to do whatever he wants to do, because he's the king. Late one afternoon, after his midday rest, another perk of being a king, I guess, or for a lot of us, a perk of being an American in Southwest Florida, David got out of bed and was walking on the roof of his palace. He looked out over the city and he noticed a woman of unusual beauty taking a bath. He sent someone to find out who she was, and he was told she's Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite, which David would have known exactly who that is. Uriah was one of David's fighting men, one of the named leaders in David's army. Verse 4, David sent a message messengers to get her, and when she came to the palace, he slept with her. A spectacular, catastrophic moral failure in an instant. With all this freedom, shirking the responsibility of where the king was supposed to be and what he was supposed to be doing, David falls into sin. It says she had just completed her purification rites after a menstrual cycle and she returned home. Later, Bathsheba discovered she was pregnant, and she sent a message to David saying, I'm pregnant. Did David take responsibility? Well, let's keep reading. David sent word to Joab, his commander, send me Uriah the Hittite. So Joab sent him to David. This is from the battlefront, back to the safety of Jerusalem. When Uriah arrived, David asked him how Joab and the army were getting along and how the war was progressing. And then he told Uriah, Go home and relax. David even sent a gift to Uriah after he'd left the palace. But Uriah didn't go home. He slept that night at the palace entrance with the king's palace guard. When David heard that Uriah had not gone home, he summoned him and asked, What's the matter? Why didn't you go home last night after being away for so long? I mean, David's really hoping he can get Uriah home to Bathsheba so that nine months are going to go by and no one will realize the baby is actually his. Well Uriah replied, The Ark and the armies of Israel and Judah are living in tents, and Joab and my master's men are camping in the open fields. How could I go home and wine and dine and sleep with my wife? I swear I would never do such a thing. Like Uriah here is filled with honor as a warrior. David certainly wasn't, not at this moment. Well, stay here today, David told him, and tomorrow you may return into the army. So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day, and then the next. And David invited him to dinner and got him drunk, and even then he couldn't get Uriah to go home to his wife. And again he slept at the palace entrance with the king's palace garden. So the next morning, David wrote a letter to Joab, and Kit this, gave it to Uriah to deliver. Imagine having that sealed envelope in your hand, having no idea what the contents were. The letter, verse 15, instructed Joab, station Uriah on the front lines where the battle is the fiercest, and then pull back so that he will be killed. So Joab assigned Uriah a spot close to the city wall where he knew the enemy's strongest men were fighting. And when the enemy soldiers came out of the city to fight, Uriah the Hittite was killed, along with several other Israelite soldiers. David here has gone from adultery, well, you might say he's gone from shirking responsibility to adultery to lying, now to murder, all in a span of a very short time period, just a few days. Jumping down to verse 26, Uriah's wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. When the period of mourning was over, David sent for her and brought her to the palace, and she became one of his wives, and she gave birth to a son. But the Lord was displeased with what David had done. Of course. David had freedom, he had victory, he had all this blessing from God. And what did he do with that moment where he could actually choose to do whatever he wanted to do? He chose to walk directly away from God. Instead of using his freedom to do right, he used it to indulge his own sinful desires. David in this moment needed a wake-up call. And God sent him a voice in the form of Nathan. Look at the next verse, chapter 12, verse 1. The Lord sent Nathan the prophet to tell David this story. A little parable here. There were two men in a certain town. One was rich, one was poor. The rich man known a great many sheep and cattle. The poor man Owned nothing but one little lamb that he brought, that he bought. He raised that little lamb, and it grew up with his children. It ate from the man's own plate, it drank from his cup, he cuddled it in his arms like a baby daughter. And one day a guest arrived at the home of the rich man, but instead of killing an animal from his own large flock or herd, that rich man took the poor man's lamb and killed it and prepared it for his guest. David was furious. As surely as the Lord lives, he vows, any man who would do such a thing deserves to die. He must repay four lambs to the poor man for the one that he stole and for having no pity. And then Nathan looks right at David and said, You are that man. The Lord the God of Israel says, I anointed you king of Israel and saved you from the power of Saul. I gave you your master's house and wives and kingdoms of Israel and Judah. And if that had not been enough, I would have given you so much more. Why then have you despised the word of the Lord and done this horrible deed? Now David had real consequences to pay for his sin. Regardless of what his next step would be, he was going to pay some severe penalties for what he had done to Uriah, to Bathsheba, and the trust that he'd broken with God and with his people. But in this moment, David had a choice. The choice that a free individual always has. When you're confronted with the truth, what will you do? So three options. I think of Nathan there, by the way, and think Nathan really was a patriot. He wasn't a loyalist to David. Whatever the king says, whatever the king wants, I'll make him happy. No, Nathan was a patriot to the kingdom of God, to say the truth matters more than what the king wants, or what the more what the king would say. Nathan was willing at risk to his own life to go and tell the king the truth. So what did David, what could he do? You think, well, the first option, David could deny responsibility. Just like King Saul before him, David could say, Hey, this wasn't really my fault, or I don't have to answer to you, Nathan. Who are you to tell me what to do? It's actually not all that different than what Adam and Eve did in the garden when they were first confronted with the original sin. Remember, Adam's like, it's the woman you gave me, it's her fault. And then the woman is like, it's the snake, it's his fault. So that's an option when you're confronted with truth, deny responsibility. A second option for David in this moment would be to shrug off responsibility. Hey, who cares? I'm the king after all. I can do whatever I want. I'm free. Who are you to tell me what I can and can't do? Kind of like Cain in Genesis 4. Remember when God came to Cain after he'd killed his brother? He said, Cain, where's your brother? Cain's like, uh, you know, am I my brother's keeper? Thankfully, David took the third option. He took responsibility. Now, this doesn't negate his crimes, it doesn't erase the consequences of those crimes, but it is the first step in the right direction, isn't it? To say, you know what, I agree. I made those choices, and I was wrong when I made those choices. So David wrote a psalm, Psalm 51, in response to this scenario. After Nathan had confronted him with his sin, David penned the words of Psalm 51. I'd love for you to turn there right now and see his confession, see his plea for mercy. David did not excuse his sin. Oh Lord, I was tired, or oh, that was that's just me, or oh, it was how I grew up, or oh, it was just a moment of weakness. David owned it and he threw himself on God's mercy. Did he deserve forgiveness for what he did? You tell me. You just we just read about the story. Did David deserve mercy and forgiveness? Absolutely not. David deserved the fullest consequence of the law for wronging people. But he did what any responsible person has to do when they're found out to be in sin. He said, God, I need you. Psalm 51, verse 1. Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. That is not because I'm great or I'll try to do better next time, or look at my life before this, it was good, and this is just a mistake. No Lord, I don't have any excuse. I'm just going to say, have mercy because of your love, not because of me. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. Wash me clean from my guilt, purify me from my sin, for I recognize my rebellion. It haunts me day and night. Against you and you alone have I sinned, and I have done what is evil in your sight. You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just. For I was born a sinner, yes, from the moment my mother conceived me, but you desire honesty from the womb, teaching me wisdom even there. Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean. Wash me and I will be whiter than snow. Oh, give me back my joy again. You have broken me. Now let me rejoice. Don't keep looking at my sins. Remove the stain of my guilt. Create in me a clean heart, oh God. He's saying, Lord, I never want to go back. I never want to be that ugliest version of myself that we just saw. Would you please change me and clean me so that I can live a different kind of life? He says, renew a royal, a loyal spirit within me. Do not banish me from your presence. Don't take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and make me willing to obey you. David took responsibility in the same way that you and I are called to take responsibility. The freedom we hold in our hands is not just about the power to make choices, but it's about the circling back of those choices and answering for them. It's responsibility, exactly. In our national history, there have been various moments when, in addition to the personal sense of responsibility we all recognize we're called into, there has been a call to national responsibility as well. When one individual does wrong, they're responsible for that. When a nation does wrong, together they're responsible for that. Abraham Lincoln recognized this, and in 1863, he called the country to fasting and prayer. Have you heard of this? It's remarkable. In the midst of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln is looking at the atrocities being committed, the devastation of the American homeland. And he looks up to heaven and he thinks maybe this isn't just political. Maybe we have wronged God. Maybe this is some consequence of our sin. So he calls the whole nation to pray and to fast and to seek God. The sin of slavery had been a scourge since the founding era, and for many political reasons, they struggled to get rid of it, but they didn't finish the task. And now Abraham Lincoln is wondering if it's that, if that's the cause for all of the pain being endured by the country at that time. Here's what Abraham Lincoln said, and I want you to imagine a president today saying this to America it is the duty of nations as well as of men, so nations and individuals, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, that those nations are only blessed whose God is the Lord, insomuch as we know that by his divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements. May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates our land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins? To the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people, we have been recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no nation has other ever grown. This is 1863, he wrote this. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us. Then we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom or virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of grace, too proud to pray to the God who made us. Abraham Lincoln was willing to stand in front of our country and call all of us to responsibility for the national promise that all of us had made in the declaration that people were created equal and endowed by their Creator with rights, and there was an egregious violation of that promise. So it's time for us to be responsible. And God, we don't deserve your mercy, but we call out for it. So what do you and I do today? Here we are in 2026. You may have your own assessment of how America is doing as a country, as a culture, how Americans are doing as families, as individuals. There's a lot we can learn from the kings because in many ways we're like those kings, 330 million of us, pretty much getting to do whatever we want, with more prosperity and variety and opportunity than any generation has ever had. So how are we doing with all that freedom? How are we doing with responsibility? Could make it personal and ask, how are you doing? How am I doing with all the liberty that we have in our hands? Two lessons I think we can learn from the story of David. One relates to Nathan. I think America desperately needs bold, brave men and women like Nathan, who are willing to look at the kings of our day, not just the presidents and congress people, but the individual citizens who are living like kings and be willing to tell them the truth. And maybe God would call you to be a brave patriot like that. But before we can speak like Nathan, we have to pray like David. Because it's not the White House that needs to change so much as is my house and your house. The decisions of America are your decisions and my decisions. Sure, you're one of millions. So your decision might not register in the national news cycle. But if you'll make the right decisions with the free will, the power that God has given you, if you'll take that power and be responsible with it, if we all will, we can make a difference in our country. We can look at Psalm 51 and make it personal and say, Lord, to the extent that I have failed to use my freedom for good, to the extent that I've used my liberty for my own selfish purposes, Lord, would you have mercy on me? And would you create in me a clean heart and change me? And before we point at our spouse or our community leaders or some other people group or some politician and say they need to change, Lord, I'm willing for you to change me. In one of our national hymns, America the Beautiful, there's a certain line that I think deserves some reflection. It's in the second verse. Confirm thy soul in self-control by liberty in law. Let me read you the context of that. Familiar words for all of us who've been around for a while here in the U.S. O beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, for purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain. There's a lot of fun and amazing things to see and experience across America, of course. America, America, God shed his grace on thee and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea. O beautiful for pilgrim feet whose stern, impassioned stress, a thoroughfare for freedom beat across the wilderness. Now here's the line. That line was written to you and to me as citizens of our country. And if we want liberty to expand, to sustain, to maintain, if we want to pass the torch to the next generation, we have to take responsibility for our own decisions, the choices we make every day, and we have to say, Lord, with whatever power you grant me, whatever choice you put in my hands, I will be willing to follow you. Would you pray with me? Lord Jesus, we are thankful that we are here and we are now in the midst of so much prosperity and so much freedom. And we recognize with that great freedom we have been handed a sacred responsibility. I pray that out of this congregation you would raise up some brave Nathans who would be patriots beyond political party and who would speak truth, who would be loyal only to you and your word. And I pray even more that out of this congregation that every one of us would kneel down like David did and take real responsibility for the lives we're living, the choices we're making. And that Lord, you would create in us clean hearts so that we can love you, we can worship you, and we can live in the freedom that you offer to us. We're so grateful for America. We recognize that great trust has been given to us. We want to be faithful with it. Jesus' name we pray. London is sponsored by Barion.life and originates from Barrient Center Bible Church in Southwest Michigan. Special production thanks to Ben Sanders, Trevor Jones, and our whole BCBC team. Help share Abundant. Subscribe wherever you listen and help us grow the Abundant Family by passing this episode along to another person. Sharing might take you 10 seconds, but it really might encourage someone. Let us know your thoughts at share at Abundant.show. And until next time, live abundantly.