 I want to read from Genesis chapter. This has been personally a revelation and something I've been on a journey. Genesis chapter 33 verses 13 and 14. All of our notes are also on your version Bible app. You can click on more events and then enable location finder and then you're able to follow those notes as well and download them straight into your computer. But Jacob said to him, my Lord knows that the children are weak and the flocks and the herds which are nursing are with me. And if the man should drive them hard one day, all the flock will die. Please let my Lord go on ahead before His servant. I will lead on slowly at the pace which the livestock that go before me and the children are able to endure until I come to my Lord in seer. On March 11th, 2020, COVID-19 was declared as the global pandemic. It was supposed to be two weeks to slow the spread. We all took our shelter in their houses to wage war against this invisible enemy. Two weeks turn into months, two months turn into a year, a year turn into two years and probably it's gonna go to three years. A mental health crisis, a national psychologist association issued a warning of the impact of these events, the lockdowns, the masks, the COVID, all of the stuff that's happening right now, that the impact of these events on the long-term physical and mental health is going to be greater than the actual pandemic itself. And Americans are facing a second pandemic which will be the effects of what we have been through. We're already seeing that. In fact, the Harrison Paul in February of this year found out that 61% of people are experiencing undesired weight since the pandemic. 41% have gained more weight than they intended on the average 29 extra pounds. 67% said they're not sleeping as they used to before the pandemic. 35% are sleeping less, 31% are sleeping more. So some people are sleeping more now, praise God, but some of us are sleeping less. Alcohol, 22% are drinking more alcohol to cope with the stress during the coronavirus. 46% of generation Z, Gen Z, and generation Z or Gen Z is pretty much those who were born from 1997 until 2012. 96 of them are most likely generation to say that their mental health has worsened compared to millennials, boomers, and other adults. More than half of employees served in the United States plan to look for a new job in 2021. Economy has shrunk at 32% in the second quarter of last year. This shock of April, May, and June was more than three times as sharp as the previous record, which was 10% in 1958 and nearly four times the worst quarter during the Great Recession. We are facing right now extremely unprecedented times. We are. I know that those of us who live in choice cities where maybe are not as, we feel like we're not as affected, but people lost their businesses. Some people lost their jobs. Some people lost their family members. And some people are not, they didn't lose anything. They're afraid that they will. Young people today, during the COVID time in the last two years, more suicides happened with teenagers than teenagers dying out of the pandemic. This is a very unprecedented and a very difficult time. On the top of that, we had to face a whole racial, almost like a revolution that was happening with Black Lives Matter. We had an incredible, difficult, toxic election. Till this day, we're still suffering the consequences of that. The laws and the rules that are being implemented in our land right now are crazy. The stuff that is being shoved into a school is bizarre. The things that are being pushed into our students today is crazy and we're living right in the middle of that. We're getting to the point where in some states you're not allowed to go to the gym, you're not allowed to go to a restaurant, if you don't prove that you have been vaccinated. Some people get vaccinated and they still get sick and then there's a whole battle about vaccinations. Then there's whole push, the mandate, the mandate of the vaccination, the problem is that what it does is it takes a toll on the human being. All of this takes a toll on our life. And today I wanna speak for just few moments concerning it's not gonna touch unnecessarily the spiritual component as much as on the practical component of finding peace in the pace of life. Jacob is our story and the Bible says that Jacob had a family, he already had flocks and he had children and he had wives, something that was permitted during that time. And something happened with Jacob, he meets Issa and Issa gives him this invitation. He says, hey, I want to pretty much accompany your family. I want to accompany your life. I wanna give you this security guardian, pretty much guard ship. I wanna guide you with my men all the way to the place that we're supposed to be. And Jacob tells Issa and he says, I can't let you guide my family. He says, if men were to drive the children and my flock, all of the livestock, flock, herds, nursing children, all of them will die. If you're taking notes, I wanna share with you two points from these two verses. One, during this time, as we're trying to bounce back, as we're trying to get to normal and honestly guys, we're not trying to get back to normal, we don't want normal. We want something new, come on. I don't want what we had two years ago. I want what God has for us in the future. And so there's no going back to normal. I don't want normal, I want something new. I want something supernatural. I want something that mind and man cannot explain. I want something that will glorify God. I want something God, it's something that will make me wonder about how good God is. I don't want normal, I want supernatural, I want revival, I want the glory of God. Come on somebody in the chat, drop that in the chat. That I don't want normal, I want supernatural. I don't want like it used to be, I want like God wants it to be, amen. But I want you to notice in here is that the first thing I wanna mention is that if we are not led by the spirit, we will be driven by the flesh. Jacob says, if man were to drive, God doesn't want your life during this difficult season to be driven. I know in the culture we live in today, culture preferences, respects, gives honor to people who are driven. We even say man, this person is driven by success. This person is driven by ambition. Like this person, they're driven. That means that they're motivated. Driven means that they are excited. Driven means that they are enthusiastic. Driven means is they're not lazy, they're not stuck. But I want you to see that being driven is actually unhealthy. In the scripture, God drove enemies out. He never drove his children, he led his children. If something drives you, that's not healthy because it's not God. God is not a driver, he is a leader. God is not a driver, he is a shepherd. You don't drive your children, you drive your car. You leave your children when you walk in the park. You don't drive them, come on somebody. And if you do drive your children, you need deliverance. You need some parenting help. You should not drive your children. The Bible says that the Lord drove from light into darkness, Job 1818. Numbers 32, 21, it says, until he has driven out his enemies from before him. Isaiah 8, 22, it says that then they will look to the earth and see trouble and darkness, gloom of anguish. And they will be driven into darkness. Have you noticed that every reference dealing with driving is into darkness, not success. Into darkness, not into a good family. Into darkness, not into better health. Into darkness, not into healthier you, newer you, good mental health, not into that. Anytime you're driven, you will be driven into darkness. Are you driven? Are you driven by success? Are you, because if you're driven, you're driven by an external force. And that force is not the Holy Spirit because he does not drive. The Holy Spirit leads. Word driven means it implies controlling force, pushing a passive subject. Controlling force, pushing a passive object. How do you drive a car? You have a force. You are the force pushing your car being passive. If you are driven, that means that you are a passive object and some kind of an external force is controlling you. As Christians, we are not controlled and pushed and we are not passive. As Christians, we are led and we participate and we involve ourselves with our creator, the Holy Spirit. Being led implies a participation on the part of a disciple and the Lord went before them they in a pillar of cloud to lead the way. Exodus 13 21, Psalm 25 5, lead me in your truth and teach me for you are the God of my salvation and you I wait all day. Revelation 717, for the lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to the living fountains of water and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. You must stop being a car and start being a child. You must stop being a driver and start being a disciple. If you feel overwhelmed, if you feel under stress, if you feel right now like your life is going and the very, very excessive, crazy speed, I wanna ask you a question. Are you currently being led or are you being driven? Are you taking every opportunity that is thrown at your way? Are you chasing some kind of a fairy tale or some kind of a wind that you cannot catch? Are you in this cycle? You can't stop, your mind can't rest, you can't sleep and you find yourself irritated. You find yourself numbing yourself with stimulants. You find yourself restless at night. You find yourself maybe snapping at people that are closest to you. Perhaps you find yourself, you can't function without many, many cups of coffee, not because you enjoy coffee, but because you can't live without coffee. If you have a pace that is not sustained by the grace of God, I wanna ask you a question. Who is driving you? Who's driving you? You need to prove to your friends that you're better than them. Who is driving you? You need to prove to your parents who said to you, you'll never succeed and you can finally prove them you can. What is driving you? Because God doesn't drive, He leads. And when He leads, He leads to still waters. He leads in green pastures. He leads in a way that doesn't damage and grind on your soul. He leads in a way that you don't lose your family. You don't lose your mental health and you don't pick up extra weight. He leads in such a way that you don't lose the local church. You don't stop tithing and you don't stop serving. He leads in a way that your whole life is being successful. Not only your bank account is growing and so is your belly. Not only your bank account is growing, but so is your anxiety. Not only that your responsibilities is growing, but so is your depression. God leads in such a way where there is a wholeness that takes place to your soul. But driving damages and destroys us. Why is driving dangerous? Driving is always done by men. Have you noticed, Jacob said, if men were to drive, men drive. The spirit of God leads. Driving is always done by force. Men work to drive hard and leading requires you to follow. Driving is hard, leading is easy. Driving is trying to do everything fast. Jacob says, if men were to drive, the sheep, the herds, and the livestock in one day, because you know when you're driven, it's when you do everything right now. Like, well actually no, not right now, you needed everything yesterday. You know you're driven when you are impatient. You know you're driven if you're trying to catch up for all the years that you lost. For those of you who, you know, alpha kind of a personality and you're type A personality and you're entrepreneur or you're like, you just need to get it done. You're just like, man, I just have so much stuff and you use your family dinner to get stuff done. It's like you're always, always on. You never turn off. I wanna ask you today to honestly examine your heart and ask yourself, are you driven or are you led? Now if you don't have the Holy Spirit, the best thing you can do is be driven and you can be successful in the eyes of people. But once you have the Holy Spirit, you don't have to be driven. You can be led. And to be led, that means you gotta know your leader. That means you gotta spend time in a quiet place. You gotta spend time with the word. You gotta spend time. In order to be led, if you're allowing somebody to lead you on the highway, you have to always see them. But if you are driving your own car, you don't have to see anybody. You just have to pretty much hit the pedal to the metal and you just gotta keep going. The moment you are led, you have to wait for the Holy Spirit. You have to pray about it. You can't just, if somebody presents you a business opportunity, you can't say, yeah, yeah, I got it. Of course, how much money does it make? Yeah, count me in. You say, let me wait, let me talk to my wife. Let me just wait 24 hours. Let me pray about it. Why? Because you're waiting on the leading, not on the driving. Otherwise, you're gonna jump at every opportunity and then you're gonna look back and you're like, man, I'm doing so much and I have so little time. I signed up for this course. I signed up for that club. I signed up for this thing. I signed up for that thing and then you're pulling your hair because you don't have enough time. But in reality is you were compelled by external force instead of led by internal leading. And Jacob said this to Issa. He says, if your men were to compole, push my children, he says they're all gonna die. Driving will lead to death sooner or later. It will lead to the death of your mental health. It will lead to the death of your family relationships. It will lead to the death of your marriage. It will lead to some kind of a death of your intimacy with God because you don't need God to be driven. You just need more time and more money. But in order to be led, you just need God. He said, Lord, lead me. Lord, guide me. I had to personally practice this this year, like never before. I have more opportunities now than I have time to do. More invitations to go speak at different places and people sometimes even are spreading the rumor. They're like, it's easier to get Benihin to the conference than Vlad. And they're like, he always says no. Like I was in Denver and the guy looked at me and he says, do you know how many people I talked to? And they said, it's impossible to get you anywhere. And I said, that's a good compliment. It's not that I'm walking around feeling like, oh, look how important it is, how important I am. But I had to take time this year to say, you know what, not everything that's good is God. Not everything that looks like will advance my career or my calling is where God wants me to be involved in. And I do know one thing is that when the Holy Spirit leads with his pace, there is his grace. When he guides, he provides. If he will steer my life, he will supply my needs according to his riches and his glory. I don't need to be at every place at every single invitation he can cause. Come on, somebody. And then all he can do is he can blow on one thing that's not supposed to be doing good. And then that could compensate for the times that you feel like you missed out because you gave priority to the leading of God. When you take a day off to be with your family, when you take a day on Sunday to be in church instead of putting in extra few hours at work, when you begin to prioritize your marriage and it seems like, but I could do so much here, so much there, I lost my business. I need to start something really fast right now. I need to finish my four year college in two years or three years. And then you're missing out on so much. I wanna encourage you. Stop allowing the forces of this world to drive you. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you will know what is the perfect, the will, the will of God is. Come on, somebody. Touch your neighbor, say, be led by the Holy Ghost. Say, slow down to the pace of God's grace. I want you to see the second thing is not only we're not supposed to be driven, we're supposed to be led, but the second thing that I wanna highlight and that is the grace of God should determine the pace of our life, not our opportunities. Let me say it again. The grace of God should determine our pace, not our gifts, our potential, or man. Man, I missed so much time. I need to catch up. Look what Jacob says to his brother, Issa. He said, I am not going to let men drive. He said, because driving means controlling, pushing a passive object. And my children are not objects. And your men will not have the luxury of driving them. And this is the first statement. If you wanna live a peaceful life, you have to fight the need to be driven. And you have to accept yourself in the position of a disciple. Put yourself as a disciple that is led by the Holy Spirit and resign as this passive object that ambition, needs, opportunities, and all of these things drive you. Be led, not driven. But the second thing I want you to notice is Jacob says in the next verse, he says, I will lead slowly at the pace that the herds livestock and the children can endure. Have you noticed that when you are refused to be driven, only then you can lead? You can't lead if you are driven. You can't lead your family if you are driven by something. Constantly something is pushing you, something is driving you. You will never be a leader. You will be a driver if you are driven. You will drive your family. You will drive your ministry. You will drive your life. There will be squeakings all the time, grinding all the time. Everybody's upset, everybody's happy. And even if God grants you, you will be successful. You will be successful alone because you lost everybody. But Jacob says, I will not allow the men to drive my family. He says, these are soldiers, my family, they're young children. He says, I have to develop a different pace. And then he says, I will lead slowly at the pace that the children and the flocks that are with me can follow. We have to determine our own pace, our rhythm, our stride in life. And this has to be determined by what is the grace of God on right now. When the grace of God is on the church, we can open more services. When the grace of God is on the conferences, we can do more conferences. When the grace of God is on social media, we can start doing more. But a lot of times when there is no grace and we begin to run faster to compensate for the lack of God's favor, we end up burning stuff up. We end up being burned out instead of being blessed by the grace of God. We do sense a grace of God moving at Hungry Jen. We do sense a grace of God that is moving in our services, in our small groups. We do sense that global ministry of Hungry Jen is moving forward. And that's what we're trying to keep up with the grace of God. But I wanna ask you in your personal, in our personal life, few things I wanna highlight. Grace of God will lead you to stride, not strife. Not stress. The grace of God will lead us to stride. Stride meaning you take steps. When you're striving, when you're stressing, when you are anxious, that's not the grace of God. That's something outside of the grace of God. And you can examine your own heart and ask yourself, am I striving or am I striding? Am I taking steps? But if I honestly skipping steps and there's glitch that is happening in my mind and in my life. Psalm 37 verse 33 says the following, the steps, can somebody say the steps? The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. Let me ask you a question. Are you running too fast? The Bible doesn't say the run of the good man, the steps. Meaning he has a stride to his steps. There's a rhythm, there's a pace to his life. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and he delights in his way. So not only that you enjoy your life, God delights in your pace. God delights in your rhythm. God delights in your stride. God delights in the way your life is happening. He looks at that and he makes him happy. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and he delights in his way. And God says, even if in that rhythm, pandemic hits your business. Even if in that rhythm, sickness comes to your house. Even if in that rhythm, there will be a trouble. God says, though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down. For the Lord upholds him with his hand. I just wanna encourage you. When you find your pace of grace, it doesn't mean there will be never a bankruptcy. It does not mean there will be no funerals. It does not mean that there will be no hard days. It just simply means that God delights in your way and he will uphold you even if you fall. He will be there for your family even if you fail. He will help you. Come on, somebody. Jesus lived in a constant state of rest. He was never in a hurry, he never ran. We don't see that. He did not use a racing animal but a walking animal. He walked so slow that a crowd could keep up and a woman with an issue of blood could touch him. He slept in the storm and yet he was still able to do what God called him to do. And at 33, he finished everything God had him to finish. Was the whole world saved because of his preaching? No, but he accomplished what God called him to accomplish. We are wanting to be like Jesus and to be like him, we have to allow the grace of God to help order our steps. The other component that I wanna mention is that grace does not go faster than peace. What does it mean to follow the rhythm of grace? How do you know if you're following or not? Very simple question. Do you delight in God at this season? Number two, is there peace in your soul? And number three, are your children keeping up? So the first one is, do you delight in God at this season? Because if you lost your delight in God and you lost your inner peace and your children, your family is no longer around, you don't have any more friends around you. That means you're either going too slow or you're going too fast. The peace of God is the indicator if the grace of God is currently on your life. Because the way God lets you know that his grace is in you, he gives you his peace. When there is no more peace, meaning there's constant turmoil, if we would cut you in the half and there's a storm taking place, even though there's no hurricane in tri-cities, but all of that hurricane landed in your mind. Even though there's no more wind this morning, but that wind, it's like you're tossed to and fro, driven like a ship in your mind and you feel like, man, I'm always stressed out, I'm always snappy, I'm always anxious, I'm always like that, I believe in God I'm gonna ask you a question. If you lost your peace, you probably have lost his grace. And if you lost his grace, all you gotta do is you gotta go back to the Holy Spirit and say, Holy Spirit, I want you to be my leader, be my shepherd, and I want you to begin to guide me, speed me up. Stress is your destiny, giving you a ticket for speeding. Exiety, a lot of times, anxiety. I've heard from one of the psychologists who works with people who have mental issues and he says 75% of people who come to him who need sleeping medicine, who need medicine for anxiety, he says, if they could do few simple things, like wake up on time, make up their bed, take a shower, eat healthy year, exercise few times a week, and do something for somebody else. He says, they will no longer need my pills or my services. He says, I tell them to do that, if they do it, they usually don't come back to me. If they don't do it, I still give them pills, but he said, the pills don't help because most people's pace of life, when they wake up, lack of discipline, lack of prioritizing time with the Lord, lack of prioritizing time with the family, lack of structure and lack of that stuff. He says, that is the real reason they experience anxiety. 70%, 75%, somebody said, the statistic says, 75% of doctors' visits today are due to anxiety, not to the actual physical illness. People come and they say things like something is hurting, I can't know, I don't know what, and they begin to examine their life and they notice that, yes, you have a lot of anxiety and they can push you on pills, but I wanna encourage you. What you really need, first and foremost, is the peace of God, but you can't find peace until you find that relationship and you start finding that rhythm that God wants you to be on, that he is leading you to do what you're doing. Are you with me? And let the peace of God rule in your hearts to which also you were called in one body and be thankful. But I want you to read, I want you to listen to what the net translation says. Let the peace of Christ be in control in your heart, for you were in fact called as one body to this peace and be thankful. So let the peace of Christ be in control in your heart. Let only one thing control you and that is the peace. Amen. When pandemic broke out, I was super excited that I finally can catch up on work. I had so many ideas, I just had no time. So all of my trips were canceled. I was like, yes, finally I can do more work. And so I started to do more work. I started to record curriculums for small groups that I always wanted to do, just didn't have time. From those curriculums, one thing led to another. I started a website, personal website, because my trips were canceled, I started to sell my content on the website. It grew a little bit, felt the leading of the Lord to start giving stuff for free. Three days later, people start sending donations. That turned to something that I started getting more ideas. I launched an online school that has, as of right now, probably 19,989, let's say 20,000 students, as of right now. It has six e-courses. Now, it has six e-courses. I start writing more books. I start producing more curriculum. After that, I launched an unprofit. After that, I launched, started to do YouTube. The YouTube started to take off for a month. It's about a one million views that happens on YouTube. TikTok took off, and things just started to happen. Then we did 40-day fast, and my life honestly starts just spinning even crazier. After that, not only the school was launched, not only the books were launched, one month, when I launched, I launched one reading plan a month on U-Version Bible Lab. In the reading plan, U-Version Bible Lab, one month this year, there was 100,000 subscriptions to that one reading plan in one week. As of right now, there's about 800,000 subscription, just on U-Version reading plans. Things just started to take off, and it was incredible. It was amazing. Started on Russian YouTube, and next week, launching a Spanish YouTube. And so, different things started to happen. The Lord has helped me, and I have three people now that started to work personally for me, and honestly, there was a time where I started to experience where I'm like, oh man, my mind doesn't turn off. Like, it spins out of control. There was a time when on my day off, I would just do more work. I would write, I would create content, I don't stop. And the crazy part is I love it. I love it, that's what I would do if I wouldn't have to do what I do right now. I would, I love to do that. The breaking point for me happened when a week before we had a marriage conference here, and my wife on Friday morning, while I was creating curriculum, she was going to a walk with the dog. It's our day off, and she was going for a walk with the dog, and she asked me to go with her, and I felt so upset that she asked me to go for a walk with the dog. I was upset why she got the dog in the first place. And I was upset, why does she want to go for walks? You know, why doesn't she just want to sit down and write her own book so we can reach more people together instead of just one of us? Imagine what we do with two books instead of one book. And I remember I was upset, and I threw something at her, and not physically, I like said something really, really negative, and she's just like, okay. And so she just went to have a walk with the dog, and I noticed that the dog almost like replaced the husband in her life. The dog was always there, and you know, he never had books to write, never had courses to do, and so, and the dog treated her really nice, always licked her, and been with her, comes to the bed, sometimes sleeps right between us. And I was like, bro, this is too far, you crossed the line. On our marriage conference, the Lord started to deal with my heart, and he said, you know, he's like, if you want your wife, he says, you have to be a good husband. And he says, you're not a good husband. And I started to, during our fast, I started to repent from that. But as time got busier, time got crazier, just recently, about a few months ago, we both listened to a book. I would highly recommend every person. It's called the Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. I see people clapping already for that, okay. I did not get paid to promote the book, by the way. But John Mark, you owe me royalties. We listened both of us, we drove to Seattle. On the top of that, we also launched a for-profit company called Unveil. So if I mention everything that we've launched just in this week, I'm just gonna confuse you all. So I'm just gonna say a lot was done. And I remember talking to my wife, and I said, man, our life is just getting crazier. And when we listened to the book, something started to transpire in both of our hearts, that then I started to teach to our staff, and our staff started to practice. And I'll just mention a few things that I started to practice. I'm not saying these are rules, I don't keep them every single weekend or every single day, and they're probably gonna change next year. But that's something that I just wanted to share. Started to realize that not everything good is God. Started to also realize that Jesus' stops in the Bible were as important as his steps. A lot of miracles happened when Jesus stopped, not when he kept walking. So sometimes stopping is when God's miracle power can be. So when I stop, God can actually do more than just when I walked. I always thought God is only working when I'm walking. And I started to realize that God is actually working if I can stop. Also, something I've never done, made fun of people for doing that. I actually got a journal, imagine that. When I saw a guy with a journal, I was like, dude, bro, you lost it right there. I actually went and I got a journal for one reason. I started to write exactly what the Lord shows, what the Lord guides personally. And this is my personal history with God. It has moments here where just a few days ago, the Holy Spirit touched me right here and showed me that we will see 1000 people in our church before we move into a new building. I felt a vision from God. It was crazy. It's in here. It's those kind of things. And it started to journal. I started to read physical Bible because I read digital so much and I read not only, this is not to brag. I'm just sharing my personal journey to encourage you and to read not only in church, but in the airplane, in the airport and during my free time to take the Bible as like, you know, you would take something to just kind of relax yourself with, to numb certain things and just scroll through, just read through, to really start to get an enjoyment back of the Holy Scriptures. Instead of reading it for a sermon, to read it from a spiritual, soulish diet. I started to limit my phone usage, especially an hour before going to sleep and after the prayer, not to bring it to prayer. I used to use, my phone uses to unlock the car and I found another way to unlock and unlock the car without the phone. And I noticed something that happened when I don't check my phone in the mornings and I check it after the gym. It really, there's only one person who can disturb my prayer time and that's the pastor. But nobody else can disturb it. I don't have to come to church thinking about how to respond to a text message. And it's not that I ignore, it's that most people are sleeping anyway and I'm not God, I can't fix everybody's problems. I wanna be able to spend time with God without having stuff coming up. And then I wanna go and run and exercise in the gym without getting in a fight with somebody on the phone. I can't tell you how many times I would work out, stop the workout, get out of the gym and then start like rebuking people and I have no business doing that. And I was like, this is madness. Somebody were looking at me like, dude, this guy is insane. And I was like, you know what the best thing to do is I actually finish my workouts in 20 minutes instead of 40 minutes because half of the time I'm texting or taking selfies. Okay, I don't take a lot of selfies in the gym though because I don't have nothing to show for. I also started to realize that running is very good spiritually. It seems interesting. A lot of men and women of God are men who physically run, experience, they say somehow anointing is connected to running. Catherine Kirk said the same thing. And I was like, man, that's where you get the anointing. You just go running. And so something happens with running. You release endorphins, healthy endorphins. You don't need to rely on stimulants. You don't need to rely on other external things that could kind of bring that. You can do that by running. And plus it helps a lot with physical weight as well. Another thing that I started to realize that is that day off is not a Sabbath. Sabbath is when you can stop. Sabbath is when you can rest. And Sabbath is when you spend time with God. And Sabbath is when you spend time with your family. And so in my case, I have one day that's day off running errands, doing stuff, fixing sprinklers, washing the car, cleaning the house. And to have one day where it's on Friday night till Saturday, it doesn't happen every week. But most of the time, I try to make it happen where for 24 hours, give rest to my cattle. You know what my cattle is? It's my iPhone. Give rest to everything and just stop for just 24 hours. The world is not gonna go to hell in a basket if you stop for 24 hours. And you just be with your family. You just be with God. You just have a dinner with your family. We started to practice that with our family. We're on Friday nights. We'll bring the whole family together. And it's interesting when your phones are off, you actually can talk. And the lunches don't last 30 minutes. And everybody's after that into their own little zone out, Rome, but they're actually interacting. There's a conversation that takes place. Your soul gets replenished, not just around God, but also around your family. Some of you have never been, you don't know the last time you were around your family. You need to be with your family. You need to spend time with your family. If you wanna pray for them, it's one thing, but you gotta also be with your family. Are you with me? And the last thing, the last two things. And I've noticed right before going to sleep, 30 minutes, if I started to spend 15 minutes reading every single time before going to sleep, it's crazy how it changed my sleep. Instead of, it's a blue light in your phone actually damages your sleep. So they encourage at least for an hour before you sleep, you don't have your phone on. But it's interesting, when you take a book and you begin to read right before you go to sleep, it stimulates your mind and your understanding. It enlightens you. A lot of people fall asleep with entertainment instead of enlightenment. It's something beautiful if you have a book next to your nightstand instead of an iPhone. Leave your phone in the kitchen. Have a book next to your nightstand so that you can read about things from the word of God and have your life being enriched because, and then the last thoughts will be the things you've read in good books or the Bible so that you can go to sleep in a more peaceful way. And the last thing I'll mention is fasting. Fasting, the word fast, it's actually the opposite of what happens when you fast. Everything is slow. Fasting should be called slow because when you fast, everything slows down. Everything stops. But that's in a natural, in a spiritual, everything picks up. When you fast, you slow down. Your mind, you slow down. Everything stops. Your body can catch up. Your stomach can start eating the rest of the stuff that you've been packing over there. And then your stomach slows down. Your mind begins to slow down and something begins to happen in the realm of the spirit. Now God speeds things up as you slow things down. Fasting is such a powerful discipline and I wanna encourage you today. If you don't have peace in your life, if you don't have rest in your life, I wanna encourage you today, maybe you went through a huge loss and you're trying to kinda get your way back. Get back into your secret place with God, find direction and rhythm from Him. I wanna encourage you, examine your heart if there are external forces driving you in unreasonable pace. Examine your heart with their external forces driving you into your own darkness and you find yourself overwhelmed and deal with those forces. Submit them to God and invite the Holy Spirit to be not a force but a friend that will guide you to green pastures. Make proper adjustments in your phone, in your schedule, in your house so that your life can be a piece of heaven on earth so that you can be an example of what it's like for the kingdom of God to rule and reign. And what is the kingdom of God? It's not eating and it's not drinking. It's righteousness, it's peace and it's joy in the Holy Ghost. You can't have the kingdom if you don't have joy. You can't have the kingdom if you don't have peace and you can't have kingdom if you don't have a righteous standing. Come on somebody.