Followed By Mercy

Abba Father: Stop Groveling and Start Resting in God’s Love

W. Austin Gardner

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Are you tired of performance-based religion? Austin Gardner explores Ephesians 3, revealing how we have bold access to God as "Daddy." Learn how to stop trusting your own faith and start trusting the "faith of Him" to carry you across the street.

In this session, international keynote speaker Austin Gardner breaks down the revolutionary truth of Ephesians 3:12. Moving beyond performance-based religion, Austin discusses the "Pharaoh Principle" of being a prisoner to your circumstances versus a prisoner of Jesus Christ.

Whether you are a ministry leader facing "church hurt," or an individual struggling with a health crisis or past failure, this message provides a roadmap for finding rest. Learn why God doesn't want your groveling—He wants your trust. Austin explores the Hebrew roots of "Abba Father" and why understanding yourself as a son or daughter is the key to leadership development and personal growth.

Key Topics Covered:

  • The Identity Shift: Why you are a son, not a servant.
  • Faith of Him: Trusting God’s faithfulness over your own performance.
  • The Joseph Story: How God turns what was meant for evil into a global ministry.
  • Biblical Boldness: Having the confidence to "walk into the throne room like you own the place."

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Why We Reach For God The Wrong Way

Austin Gardner

I want you to understand that people have been trying to get access to God a whole lot of ways. For a long time. Ever since the Garden of Eden, when man and woman, Adam and Eve, our fathers, decided they didn't want God to be God. They wanted to be God themselves. They want to be able to say, this is what's right and this is what's wrong. See, that's what the devil said. He said, he don't want you to eat that one tree, the knowledge of good and evil. Because if you do, in that day, you'll be like him and you'll be the one making decisions. Problem is, ever since we started making decisions, we blew it. I never

The Father’s Plan In Christ From Eternity

Austin Gardner

measure up to who I want to be. And I got my standard up here, and I would get up to about here. You know what I mean? And yet the father said, You were perfect when I made you, buddy. I love you. I love you like you are, love you where you are. I love you if you fail me. I love you no matter what you do. And since you wandered away and did your own thing, I got an answer for you. My son Jesus. He will come to earth and he will die. He will take all of your sin and all of your fault and all of your blame and all your failure, and he'll put it on himself and he'll pay the price like he was you. And when he gets through, then all he says is, Trust me, I paid it. And then he actually looks at us and says, If you just trust me, he just picks our face up. He said, There's no shame, there's no guilt. Look me in the eye, cheek to cheek, face to face, like a husband in sweet, deep love with his wife. It's like God says, I love you, and it's all fixed. Jesus paid it all. Well, in Ephesians chapter 3, verses 1 through 13, Paul is kind of explaining how he is privileged to be the guy that gets to give the good news to the people who had never ever heard before. The Gentiles, the pagans. He is going to the people. The Jewish people had access to God. But the Gentiles, that's most of us, if not all of us, we were far away without God and without hope. And God had a plan from the very beginning. And I want you to read with me. We'll just we'll just read starting in verse 10. See, I'll start in verse 31. Let's start verse 11. Look at what it says. According to the eternal purpose, which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. So I need you understand this. God never wanted us to leave. And God never abandoned us. And when Adam and Eve walked away, and then when I walked away on my own, the God of heaven is like, I love you, buddy, and you can run as fast as you want, but I'm coming for you. And I'm gonna take you home because I love you. I'm gonna bring you back. I'm gonna pay you, I'm gonna pay your price. I'm gonna fix things. And that's what he did. And he purposed that all the way back in the very beginning, before you were ever born, God said, I love you. For God so loved the world and gave his only begotten son. You probably heard that. He said, But God committed his love toward us while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And so God, all the way back in the beginning, said, I got a plan, and my plan is a person, and the person is Jesus. Verse 12. In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Him. Now, I I I would like you to kind of go over this with me. In whom. How many of y'all can see that says in whom say amen? Shake head, do something. You see, it's not in what? Because performance-based religion told you,

Boldness And Access By The Faith Of Jesus

Austin Gardner

well, you gotta give your money, you gotta go to church, you can't do this, you can't do this, you can't do this, you gotta do this, you gotta do this. And what you do, God's looking at Jesus Christ. There was this kid up in there was it w North Carolina, I believe it was. I was preaching it in his church. He might have had just a little bit of problems, but all the time at his house, he'd go, he'd look at me and go. And I would just drive right back at him because he thought that was so funny. A little kid. But you realize that's kind of what you think God does, isn't it? You think God's going around all the time just looking at you, find something wrong with you. He's keeping a record of you, and he's but that's not what it says. We'll get to it in a second, but it says we have access by him. But I want you to look at in whom? In whom is not baptism, it's not church membership, it's not church attendance, it's not how many times you read your Bible, it's not how much money you give, it's not how good you are, it's in a person in whom. And who are we talking about here? We're not talking about a Baptist person, we're not talking about somebody you know like that. We're talking about the one that God planned us from the very beginning. He said, I purposed that. I planned that, I made that. Because the second Adam and Eve walked out of that garden, God's love was like, I ain't gonna be God without you. I love you. And I'm gonna make a way for you to know me. And that's what he did. So it said, look at this. It says, in whom we have boldness and access. Now, I'm gonna, but because I want to kind of I got a lot more to go over, but I want you to look at this last part of the verse. By the faith of him. Kind of like two ways to read that. Because most of you read that by the faith in him. But that's always. By the faith in him, it'd be like, I just hope I believe enough. I just hope I trust him enough. But that's not what it said. It says by the faith of him, by the faith of who? By the faith of the in whom guy. By the faith that God purposed him. You see, you don't know if it can be made right, but he does. You don't know if you can get all the way to the end, but he can. You don't know if you can pay your sin debt, but he can. It's kind of like the kid that's standing on the there's an avenue in Argentina. They call it the widest avenue in the world. It's 28th Street, 20th of July, I think it is. I can't remember the name of it for sure. But it's like 20 or 30 lanes across. I mean, it's just like a sea of road there. Can you imagine a little boy getting ready to cross? He's about four years old. And his dad reaches down and grabs his hand and starts to walk across. The kid ain't crossing, trusting himself. The kid's crossing, trusting daddy's got a hold of him. Can I get an amen? He's trusting not his faith, but his faith. Not my faith, but my daddy's faith that's gonna get me across. And daddy's just looking both what he said, and moving and carrying him across the street. And that's what God does. We are trusting in the faith of him. He believes God. He's the purpose of God, he's the person of God. And all he wants you to do is realize I'll do it. I'll take care of it. But watch this. Keep reading. It says, in home we have boldness and access with confidence. That is three, I don't mean it's wrong, but they're like redundant. Over and over saying the same thing. It's saying, hey, you can walk in there like you own the place. God said to you, just come on in like you own the place. Boldness. Just open the door and come on in. He said, and bold with boldness and access with confidence. You don't come in like, do you have time for me? He said, no, you come in with boldness. You have access, you have entrance, you can come in and you can do it with confidence because you're coming in in the name of Jesus. Now I want you to know before I get to the real message here, that that's not an isolated text. You see, for years I've been serving God, I've been faithful. I have. I mean, I got, I don't know, 60 years, I guess. 71 minus, yeah, 60 years probably. Man, I don't miss church. I do everything I was supposed to do. But sometimes I felt like he didn't really want to talk to me. And I felt like I didn't quite measure up. I felt like he was saying, You want to talk to me, you come in and say

Come Boldly: Mercy And Grace, Not Performance

Austin Gardner

you're sorry. Say you're sorry for all the junk you ain't been doing, buddy. Yeah, you haven't measured up. That's one of my big things was if no matter how much I studied for a sermon, did I study enough? No matter how much I prayed, did I pray enough? Did I pray right? I mean, kind of hard to please. I kind of grew up with that as a boy, but that's not what you got going on here. In this verse, it says, In whom Jesus, we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Jesus. In Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 16, the Bible says, Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace. You see, he told us to come boldly. You don't have to go and say, God, I'd like to talk to you. I'd like to get some help from you. God, please. I know I don't desire it, but would you please help me? That's not what he wants. He said, You come on in. Because through Jesus, you have access. One of my favorite stories. A person who's needing healing in the Bible says to Jesus, You could heal me if you wanted to. And Jesus responds, Well, I want to. That's pretty good. Amen. I mean, that's a theological argument. Because he said, You could heal me if you wanted to. Jesus didn't say, Well, I want you to go synagogue. I want you to start tithing. You ain't been tithing. Well, you just ain't been doing too good, buddy. You're married, Jane Jackson. You ain't, no, no, no. Jesus said, I want to. You can come boldly to the throne of grace and watch this. You can obtain mercy. You can get mercy. You know this because we've gone over it and over and over. When Moses said, God, who are you? God responded and said, the first thing he said about himself, I am merciful, which means I am full of mercy. He didn't say, I am the rules keeper, I'm the judge. He didn't say I'm the creator. He didn't say I'm the almighty. He didn't say I'm the all-powerful. He said, If you like to know who I am, I am merciful himself. What a God, amen. The second word he uses in the Bible I use is gracious. In the Hebrew Bible, which is the Bible, it's a synonym for merciful. So basically, God walks in and goes, You want to know who I am? I'm merciful, merciful. So I think he's merciful. How many of y'all would agree with that? Say amen. You've seen it in the Bible. You know that. He said, Come boldly to the throne of grace. You need help and you don't deserve the help, and you just need somebody to help you. And he said, Well, come. And then find grace. You're hurting, you have needs. God wants to hear from you. God wants you to come in boldly, and God wants you to tell him. How about another one? Romans chapter 5 and verse 2. We'll get to with this verse one more. We're going to get to the message. But watch this. Romans 5, 2. By whom also we have access. See, we can get in by faith. Now by faith. That's kind of like I just believe. I have confidence. I trust. I have Benny and I have 20 grandchildren. And they mostly figured this out. He'd give us about anything we need or won't. They're like, he spoils us. I've had my children, I have four children. I've had one of the kids come up. One of their kids, one of my grandkids come into my office, and they say, Granddad, we was wondering if you could do this. I said, why didn't you mama ask? She said, this is what the kid said. She said you wouldn't turn me down for sure. Read the verse. That's what's going on. By whom? By Jesus, we have access into this grace. We just believe him. We just trust him. We just believe him by access into this grace. And now notice what you do there. You don't work. You don't strain at it. You don't try to do it. It says here, we just stand there. It's kind of like my bratty grandkids, like, granddad, take care of me. Amen. But you know, I love it when they do that. Can I get an amen? You grandparents, you like it. And God's looking at you saying, hey, I just want you to realize I love you. The door's open. Access is given. It's given through Jesus.

Sons And Daughters: Abba Changes Everything

Austin Gardner

Just enjoy. He's not calling you to a life of work. He's calling you to a life of rest. Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden. All y'all have been overworked by religion, and all you've been overworked by that, come unto me that labor and are heavy laden. I will give you rest. That's what he said. By whom also we have access by faith into this grace. And we stand there and we get excited. Rejoice and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. This Greek word for rejoice here is it's a ridiculous word that we don't we don't fully understand in American English. And I certainly don't understand it. I am basically a non-emotional person. I mean, when you tell me we should get excited, I go. And when you tell me we should start crying, I'm like, I'm just not. Now Betty's a lot, she doesn't get excited, but she could cry at the drop of a hat. Amen. But this word for rejoice here is the how many of you saw that movie a long time ago, something like my Greek wedding. What? Big fat. How y'all know? See, they watched it. So those big fat, you know how they they're dancing and shaking and moving around. Yeah, you know what that is? That's this word rejoice. It's like crazy people holding hands, going around circles, kicking their feet up. They're just excited. That's a culture I'm not used to because I'd be sitting over and I'm excited. But here's what he said: he said, rejoice in the hope, in the trust, and the confidence that you have in God. Let me give you one more. Verse 6, Galatians 4, 6. This is uh climax of this particular part of the message. And why do you see this? Because you are sons. God is not asking you to be his servant. We love preaching that. He he's called you his friend, but he's really not asking you to be his friend. He's calling you son. First John 3, 1, behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the children of God. He's our dad. My dad and I weren't even that close. He was an austere, hard, severe man. And he got older, we finally started getting closer. But I never questioned what he'd do. If I had car trouble, if I car wreck. Which I did a lot when I was back in those ages. And and if if I got in trouble, I'd go find a nearest phone sign, he'd call my dad. He'll take care of this. He he he he he wants you to realize you're his child. You're his son. I hate to say this, but you get special privileges. Because you and the family, if I could get an amen right there. For God so loved the world that gave his only begotten son for us, for us. And he sent forth the spirit of his son into his heart. So here's what he did. He said, They ne now listen to me, they will never ever understand this on their own. They're human beings and they're just a little on the dumb side. That's us. So he said, I'll put the Holy Spirit in them to say to them, you can say daddy. Abba means daddy. And something inside of us, after we're trusting Jesus, something inside us, he does love you. He does love you. And you can say daddy, and you can get in close because he does love you. And the Holy Spirit moved into you to remind you you belong to God. That's pretty sweet. God said, I want them to love me, and I know that I have a hard time doing it, so I'll just go inside of them and love them. Love me through them. That's pretty sweet. So Paul said, Paul said, We are children and we have access. I I preached uh Valentine's Banquet, a late Valentine's Banquet last night up in Adair's. And they said, we call Valentine's Banquet couples. Call it anything you want to do, this is just when we're doing it. I said, Great group of people. Wonderful people. And I told them, you know, you can't love and you can't love till you know you're loved. You don't know how to love till you know how you're loved. And then I explained to him, we're sons and I made this comment. I don't know how to tell you how much I love being a daddy. From the time little bitty old Chris popped out, and I saw him the first time, and I held his little head here, his little rear end here. You know, that is totally impossible when you look at this now. Amen? Impossible to believe. But you know, from that day forward, my heart exploded. When Stephanie, when my wife was giving birth to our daughter Stephanie, I told her as serious as I could be, I said, I really don't want this baby. And she was like, she said, why? I said, I don't think it's possible to love another one like I love the first one. And uh And I also said, and I don't want girls. And she was born a girl. But you know, it took me a long time to really fall in love with her. I think it was a split second, maybe a half of a split second. I looked at her and I was like, wow, and kaboom! My heart exploded. I was like, I didn't know you could love this much. Come on, come on, and you get to say Abba, Father. That's saying daddy, father. That's a little, that's a little kid climbing up on his daddy's lap and saying, I know you love me, I know you take care of me. All right, let's get to the message. All that's been introduction, but it's pretty sweet, amen. How many of you know you're children of God? Say amen. You know how you know that? You know that? Because the Holy Spirit of God moves into you and tells you, yes, you're in the family. Yes, I love you. Now, if you'll go with me to Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 1, I still think it's gonna really help you. Bless you. And Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 1, the Bible says, For this cause, I

Prisoner Of Jesus: Reframing Suffering

Austin Gardner

Paul, the prison of Jesus Christ, for you, Gentiles. I want you to look at this and in your mind underline, for this cause. You see, you're important. You're a child of God. You're a child of God. It doesn't matter if you've wandered away, doesn't matter if you've been distant, doesn't matter if you hadn't been talking. In fact, here's what God said. You can wander away all you want, but I'm I'll go with you. You know, somebody got saved a long time ago, you ain't really lived it, you ain't been walking with God. Come on, be honest. And you think I walked away from God, and God's like, ha ha, joke's on you. He can't walk away from me because I said I'd be with you forever. I'll never leave you and I'll never forsake you. So when you went wandering away over here, I just went with you and he's with you right now. Because he never leaves us or forsakes us. If that's in the Bible, say amen. Did you know God has a plan for your life, God has a purpose for your life, and God has a way to use you, and that's the key. So Paul says his job is to talk to people who've never heard about God, about how good God is. My job's to talk to people who've heard about how bad God is. In our churches. And we got this judge and this referee and all these rules, and I need you to understand that no, that's true. I know you heard it at church. I heard it at church all my life. I used to think I don't want to die and go to heaven. I do not want to die and go to heaven because as soon as you get there, he starts judging you. I was like, uh-uh, not me. When I was a kid, they said they put that big old video screen up there and show everything you ever did wrong. I'm like, Lord help me, Jesus. Nobody knows about it, but if he does that, everybody's gonna know about it. No, that's true. Jesus took care of your sin. Can I give a name now? Oh, it's not true. Paul said that's the reason. Now look at this that me, Paul, I am a prisoner of Jesus Christ. Now I I need you to stop and understand something here. He framed that in a very positive way. He's actually a prisoner of Rome. He's in prison. Wrong. But Paul looks at his circumstances and says, I'm not about circumstances. I'm about Jesus. And I may be in prison, but I'm not going to let my circumstances name me, claim me, or make me anything. I am going to look and say, God's working in and through my life. And I am the prisoner of Jesus Christ. Now, you know, I've been dealing with cancer. Things are going good right now, but I've been dealing with cancer. But here's biblically what Paul would say, Austin, you're not made by your circumstances. You're not made by where you are. You're not made by what you're doing. You're not made by what you did to. It's all about the person of Jesus Christ. And I want you to know, I don't know where you are, I don't know what's going on in your life, but I want you to know this. He has not one day loved you less. He has not one day loved you less. He's not one day said, you blooming idiot. If you just get back in church, I'd love you. He's never said that. Pastor might have said it. I'm not denying that. We get like that sometimes. But Jesus didn't say that. He loved you when you were a sinner. He loved you when you were yet without strength. Romans 5.8, Romans 5.6. He loved you when you were ungodly. And so he's always loved you and he keeps on loving you. And he so he never says that to you. He never says, if you'll do this, I'll love you more. If you do that, I'll love you less. He never does that, does it? Because he said, My name is love. God is love. That's what he said. So Paul said, I see all my circumstances. I think sometimes we get a little older. We think that maybe we can't do as much for God. But Paul didn't say, I'm a prisoner of old age, I'm a prisoner of Rome, I'm a prisoner of cancer, I'm a prisoner of health issues, I'm a prisoner of my circumstances. Paul said this. No, I belong to Jesus. I belong to Jesus. And he said, for you Gentiles. You need to notice that in the verse. He said, for you Gentiles. Because what he's saying in the verse is that ministry is always him through us for others. Him through us for others. Some of the most important ministries at the church, we don't always give them their importance. I've been extremely guilty of this. For example, you know. Probably. One of the greatest ministries in the world is being a mother. I have four fabulous children. I really do. And their mama did more about that than I did. I was always out doing something. One of the greatest ministries in the world is being a husband or being a wife or being a friend. And and and don't let bitterness creep into your life and hurt creep into your life. You might be church hurt, you might be people hurt, but God loves you and He always has loved you, and He continues to love you. I want you to understand, God's will is not a place, it's

God Uses Your Story For Others

Austin Gardner

a person. He's the prisoner of Jesus Christ. This is the wildest verse in the world. Philippians 1:12, Paul makes this comment. A lot of junk has happened to me. I'll read it to you in a second. But Paul says, a lot of junk has happened to me. I've been abused and mistreated. A whole bunch of junk's happened to me. But Paul's attitude was, I want y'all to understand that everything that's happened to me has sent the gospel further down the road. Your story. God doesn't want you hurting. God doesn't want you far away. God doesn't want you beat up. God doesn't want you begging to come back. He's like, you ought to beg come back. I never left you. I ain't quitting. I ain't leaving you. I don't leave. It's kind of like that. It was this movie that came out years ago in the cross and the switchblade. And David Wilkerson was a, I think, assembly of God preacher, and he went to New York City and he was trying to lit win these gang members to Jesus back when I was a kid. So but he went to this one guy named Nicky Cruz, who was a gang, he was the war leader for his group. He told Mickey, he said, God loves you and I love you. And Nicky said, Shut your mouth, and some other words. And he said, You can tell me to shut up. But I'll just tell you again, God loves you. And I love you. And he said, I'm gonna cut you into a thousand pieces. And David Wilkerson said, Well, if you do, all thousand pieces are gonna say, God loves you. And so do I. Well, Nikki ended up getting saved and became a big famous evangelist. But the whole point is, that's exactly how God loves you. I don't care where you've been, I don't care what you've done, he loves you. And and let me explain something to you. He's gonna take your story and help somebody else. You're thinking, I really messed up. And God's like, Yeah, but just let me get a hold of it. I can turn that story, I can fix that story, I can use that story. So when Joseph was in, when Joseph was in Egypt, his brothers beat him up, sold him into slavery. He'd been abused by slave traders, he'd been falsely accused, been put in jail. 13 years of his life has gone by, and it's horrible, but Joseph figured out this verse. And Joseph said to his brothers when it all when they all started getting back together, he said, Y'all meant it to be evil. Y'all trying to hurt me. But God turned everything for good. You meant it for evil, God meant it for good. And so God takes our story. God takes you right where you are, and God changes it. It's your attitude. It's your attitude. You need to realize that God has a ministry for you, raising your children, helping with your grandchildren, being a friend, being a neighbor, being a husband, being a wife. God has a plan for you. Go down with me to Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 2. I want you to notice what it says in Ephesians 3, 2, because you need to understand in Christianity, it stops being about me. If you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God, but I want you, this part I want you to pay attention. Given to me to you word. That's old-fashioned English. But what it's saying is, God gave me this for you. God put me here for you. God's doing this for you. And God wants your life to count for others. God wants your life to count for others. God takes you where you are, and God wants to use you to

Given To Me For You: Everyday Ministry

Austin Gardner

bless others. For a long time I thought, man, those real big churches, they have a real ministry. But biblically, every one of us has a ministry. Wherever we are, maybe you you help with the homeless and you think, I don't know how important that is. In God's eyes, it's big. He likes to keep up with cups of water and kind words and jail visits. That's our God. He likes all that. So he said, He said, it was good to meet you were. Now then go down to verse 7 real quick. Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 7. Notice what the Bible says. And I need you to get a hold of this that the Gentiles, seven, that's six, my brother. Payton's trying to help you. All right. Wherefore I was made a minister. You need to understand it's God making you into the servant that helps others. It's God taking your story and your hurt and finding Bible truth and God working in your life, and God's going to make you able to help others. If that doesn't excite you, I don't know. You say, I don't want all this wasted pain. I've hurt so much, and it's been terrible. When God's like, I could fix that. I'm going to make you a minister. But this happens to be time to quit, but this happens to be probably my one of my most beautiful favorite things. Look at this. By the effectual working of his power. I got a whole bunch of other verses I could throw in here. We don't have time now. But I just want you to know, you say, Well, I don't know how I could use my story. I don't know how I could be a help to anybody. You don't know where I've been. I don't, but he does. And I know that he can take where you've been and what you've done, and his power is at work in you. He effectually works in us. You are never alone, you are never forgotten, you're never pushed to the side. You're his favorite. And the second you wake up and realize what our father thinks of you, so you don't know where I live. He does. In John 17, 23, he prayed and said, Father, help them figure out I love them like I love you. Oh, excuse me, I said that wrong. Help them figure out that you love them like you love me. God loves me like he loves Jesus. God loves you the same way he loves Jesus. You know when he said that to him. He was getting ready to be baptized. He was 30 years old. And the heavens open, and it's basically like God screaming so nobody can hear it. And he said, That's my boy! I'm very happy with him. He hadn't done a thing with his life yet. He hadn't preached one sermon, he hadn't healed one person, he hadn't fed any hungry people, he hadn't raised any of the dead because God didn't like him for what he did. God liked him because of who God is. God likes you, doesn't matter what you've been doing, where you've been, he's working in your life. You are not extra. You're not on the sides. God is doing a lot. And you may say, I'm not worth it. Well, I'm not worth it. But the next verse, Paul said, I'm the least of all the saints. If everybody God saved, I'm the worst off. And so if the worst off's already been gotten, I'm pretty sure you're okay. So I want you to go home knowing this. You are the child of God if you've placed your trust in Jesus. You say, what does that mean? It is not hard. Nothing about baptism, nothing about giving, nothing about being faithful in church. It's just saying this. I believe you. Thank you for loving me. I used to talk about praying the sinner's prayer. I'd like to talk about praying the gratitude prayer. Thank you for loving me when I don't deserve it. Well, that's basically like a sinner's prayer, isn't it? Thank you for loving me, even though I'm a mess.

Made A Minister By His Power

Austin Gardner

I don't really want my children walking into my house groveling at my feet, like, Daddy, will you love us? I'm like, don't be ridiculous. I love you. You don't have to grovel. And a father looks at you and says, I love you. I have a plan for your life. I'm gonna take every mess and every hurt, I'm gonna turn it into a ministry for you. Father in heaven, I love you. I thank you for the chance to serve you. I