 Right good morning everyone, welcome to a new week. Let's begin this time with a word of prayer Kennedy, can you please lead us in prayer? Amen, thank you Kennedy. Okay, so last week we we moved into chapter 10. We looked at planning and execution. Some of the main important points that we you know studied about was execution is the key to management, right? So for example, we have only plans and we don't execute the plan, it's of no use. I know we have some brilliant ideas, you know, technology, innovation, all these things are made available. But if we don't execute what plan we have made with the tools that are available, it's just going to be plan on paper. And something that's on paper will remain the same if it is not been executed, right? So we looked at how we must determine the council of the Lord, the Lord will always, you know, while we are brainstorming for ideas, we may get many inputs from many people in your team, determine the council of the Lord, right? What is what is God's plan? What is God's purpose for this organization for the probably the project that is coming up? What does God want me to do? So determine the right council of God, get the right people involved in planning, right? So maybe in ministry, it's time to make a decision, get the right people involved, people who are tenured, people who, you know, have a passion for the vision, they want to see the organization grow, they want to see the ministry grow, get them involved, right? Now, finding the key people and getting them involved, you know, it's it's very important, right? Because remember that even in ministry, you know, it could be one person who started the ministry, like the senior pastor would have started the ministry. But as the years go by, you know, it's always it's always good to form a team and get right people involved in planning. Because, you know, sometimes in ministry, we feel, okay, I can do all things, meaning I can plan, I can make the decisions and I will execute the decisions. Now, initially, when the ministry is small, that's all right, right? Maybe 30, 40, 50 people. It's all right. But once we begin to grow about 50, it's good to get a team, get people involved in planning. And that way you, you know, you get ideas, you get inputs from others. Now, here's another thing. Creating a team or forming a team is a process, right? People come, people may leave, but stick to that plan of having a team, right? We also looked at being preempt to the unexpected, which means, you know, when you're in an organization or even in ministry, plan ahead. You know, it could be five years ahead, it could be 10 years ahead, it could be one year ahead as well. But it's very important to plan ahead. Why? Because when we plan ahead, we will kind of have an idea as to where we want to see our organization ahead. But where do I want to see the ministry? Now, maybe we started in 2020. It's 2022. Two years have passed by. And so what you can do is you can also plan strategically like 22 to 2025. Here's what I want to see my, the ministry areas. Here's what I want to see. I want to see these kind of things, activities happening in the church. These are the programs and these are events that we can do and plan ahead, look ahead, preempt to the unexpected. What if, you know, our church grows and there is more than 100 people, there's no place in our, you know, in the hall that we are currently located at. So how do we look out for a bigger place? Okay, so later on as the ministry grows, we will want to record our meetings. So what do we need? We need a good camera. We need people who are equipped and trained and, you know, recording and dealing with equipment. So when you look ahead, you know, you set certain things and plan. Let me give you an example, right? So for example, the church is maybe 60, 70 people, right? The ministry. And you've had this in your heart that, you know, I want to record our sermons and put it on YouTube and let people watch it and let it be a blessing to people. Now, what are the things we must do as a leader? First things first, you're looking ahead, right? So one day, I want to see my, you know, I want to see the sermons recorded. I want to see, you know, our worship being recorded, put on YouTube and people being blessed. So you may not have the, you know, the equipment, you may not have the sort of sources, you may not have the people. But when you plan ahead, you know, the Lord will send people. And as the ministry grows, you know, you have maybe youth joining your team, joining the church. And then you ask them, hey, what do you do? And, you know, if they're interested in, you know, audio or video recording and things like that, you get them on board. You put them, you know, give them opportunities. And so that way, you're looking ahead and saying, okay, three years down the line, this is what the plan is, but I'm, I'm, you know, planning ahead. I'm looking at how I can achieve those things. So from here, this is where we stopped. Let's move on to the next point. Chapter 10, planning and execution. I'm on the next point. Some seasons are more intense than others. Okay. Abraham has a question. Please, what happens if people are not passionate and you have to drive the leaders to because they are too busy, do we pull them? Okay. Sorry, I got a little bit of cold. So just bear with me. Yeah, that's a good question, Abraham. Here's the thing that what we would do is we must remember that passion for something or, you know, a zeal for something comes from within, right? So for example, you know, you may be passionate about music, but you may not be passionate about swimming. Right? So that's something that comes in yet in leadership. One of the things, signs of a great leader is getting people passionate about a vision. Now, we must understand that for them to feel that way, it takes time. Right? So, so for example, you know, if you've got people in church who are very laid back or, you know, they just want to come on Sunday and they don't want to do anything extra. They just want to be part of Sunday services and go back home. But they may be regular on Sundays or you have leaders who are, you know, busy and they can't be there for everything. We don't pull them down. Like we don't say, okay, because you're not able to come. You know, I can't give you this responsibility. But we give them opportunities. We like, for example, if a leader is constantly not available or constantly unable to fulfill his task in the ministry, he may be working in the corporate sector, but he's constantly not been able to, you know, serve and the leadership role that has been given to him. He's constantly not able to fulfill the task. Now, the right thing to do is to call him or her and speak to them and say, okay, see, we understand that you are working in the corporate sector. It could get, you know, really intense work could be strenuous and all the other things. But we'd also like to see the ministry grow. And since you are a leader, you have certain responsibilities as a leader even towards the church. So let us know whether you feel, you know, you're able to, because there are many times, many leaders did themselves, they'll come and tell us, you know, I feel discouraged because I'm not able to give my best to the church and as a leadership role. So can I take a break for three months or six months and we readily agree to that. But there are times when people want the leadership role, but they don't want to do anything. They want to be known as a leader, but that's when you have to take action. You can, when I say action, you mean, let them know the importance of also what you're looking at from your point of view in the ministry. So sit, speak to them. Let them know that, you know, probably you can give them a timeframe in three months. If you're unable to, if we see that as a leader, you're still unable to fulfill the responsibilities and, you know, get the church to, you know, to minister to people being available for them. If we see that you're not able to do that, it would be great if you could take a break, you know, concentrate on work for some time, you know, get a change of your mind and then come back. So Abraham, the right thing to do would, you know, just, you know, to drive them. There are many different things that we can do, but then again, passion is something that is instilled inside, but very important. Don't immediately just, you know, ask them, you don't have a passion leave. No, God can, you know, put that passion in their heart for as they begin to serve, as they begin to minister the church. So give them time. That's what I would like to say. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Some seasons are more intense than others. Can somebody read Proverbs 10-5? Any one of us? Proverbs 10-5. Yeah, Proverbs 10-5. He who gathers in summer is the wise son. He who sleeps in harvest is a son who causes shame. Thank you, Pastor. Yeah, thank you, Abinas. Yeah, so he who gathers in summer is wise, but he who sleeps in the harvest is a shame. When the time for action has come, we must be put into action. There will be times of hard, intense work. There will be times when things are going all right. Right. So in these seasons, like for example, when you look at a church, a ministry, when are the times, you know, we are very occupied, we have a lot of work or we have a lot of things, a lot of events, Christmas, Christmas is a good example, right. So you've got the whole year, we do a lot of events and all that. And then when things like Easter and Christmas comes, there's this additional, you know, events and additional things that we like to do in the church. And so those seasons are more intense. There's more planning. There's more, you know, getting together, team effort and all of that. So even in the corporate sector, there will be seasons where things are intense. There will be seasons when, you know, work is just going on normally. So be ready for both. You know, don't, don't feel that, oh, why everything was going smooth now. Suddenly, there's so much of work. How do I manage this? I can't do this. Don't give up very easily there. Remember that some seasons are intense, some seasons are just regular work. So let them pass by in their seasons, right. Now execution, execution can be messy and destructive. Let's read Proverbs 14, 4. Proverbs 14, 4. Proverbs chapter 14 and verse 4. Okay, go ahead. Proverbs 14, 4. Where no oxen are, the true is clean, but much increase comes by the strength of an ox. Thank you, Avinas. Now what we're trying to say here is when we have certain plans and we are working on those high level plans, we, you know, executing those plans, there will be times when the smaller things will look very unimportant, right. Now when smaller plans look unimportant, it can turn out to be messy. Things can turn out to be destructive. Now let me give you an example in terms of ministry, right. So as a leader, you may be looking at, okay, we have this Christmas programs, this Christmas week. We have all these events set in place, house visits, cattle singing here, cattle outreach programs, you know, malls, carols at the malls, carols in the church, and then we have big Sunday, all these events. And so we are thinking about how, you know, we're going to achieve all this. We have the teams placed and now smaller things may be disrupted. Maybe there is somebody in the church who just needs a prayer, who's going through a very difficult time, going through a sickness or just lost a loved one. Now the challenging part would be, you know, we're only looking at, okay, these are the events for this week. These are the plans for this week. And then we forget about the little things which could really make, you know, someone's day, which means those small things which can also, if not looked at, can be messy and disruptive. Somebody in the church may be hurt and just needs prayer or needs comfort. We may just ignore that and look at these, you know, the cattle events and all of that. So as a leader, make sure that especially in times when there's a lot of plans, that lot of, you know, events and there's, you know, a lot of, you know, that you're going to be busy, make sure that the smaller aspects of the ministry is looked after well. You know, as a pastor sometimes, and some of you may be already in the pastoral role, your church members sometimes won't only the pastor to pray for you. They feel comforted that way. So not always you can tell, you know, tell the youth leader to pray for you or, you know, you tell this other leader, the church leader to pray for you. Sometimes they don't feel comforted. So we must be there for them. Right. So being available for them is very important in times of execution. Next point, stay focused and avoid distractions. Proverbs 12 and verse 11. Let's read it. Proverbs 12 and verse 11. Proverbs 12 verse 11. The one who stays on the job has full on the table. The witless, the witless is whims and fancies. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Abinaz. The witless chases whims and fancies. The word whims and fancies means they go after things that have, you know, they're not focused, right, to everything they feel they wanted. Right. Now, focus is a very integral part of execution. Right. And I believe that when you have focus on specific goals, you will be able to achieve it. Right. Now, the problem is there will be distractions. Even to the smallest, you know, aspect of learning, it can be a smallest reason or the smallest distraction that can take us away from a specific goal. Let's take this simple example. Right. If we want to learn an instrument, example, we want to learn the guitar. Now, if you're focused on it, you know, we start off, we take a couple of lessons, maybe, or you feel, okay, we can just go online and learn. And so initially we can start it. Now, the key is to stay focused. Right. We can very easily start something. But when there's distractions, it's easy to, you know, so for example, you're learning the guitar, initially it's not going to be easy. Right. There's a lot of things that you have to do. There's finger exercises and, you know, it gets boring. You're not going to, we're not going to get everything, you know, the chords right at the very first, you know, week or it takes time. Now, what happens is we may get distracted. Oh, there's other options. There's, you know, I can listen to music. I can go out and play with my friends or I can visit other people. I can go for a drive or I have other work to do. And so there's a lot of other distractions. So for us to achieve goals, we must stay focused. Right. Now, I just give the example of learning an instrument because a lot of, you know, surveys say that 90% of people who take an instrument, they don't finish learning it. Why? Because they give up very easily. And when we have a vision or a focus ahead of specific goals that we have set, we need to stay focused. Right. What about, you know, we've got these new year resolutions that we make, there are times you say, okay, I'm going to do this, this, this, this, this. And we don't do it. Right. Some of us may do it as well. So that's wonderful. That means we are focused. But if we don't, that means there are things that have come in that has avoided us, these distractions that have avoided us to stay focused on our goals. As leaders, here's a very important point that we must remember. We need to stay focused. Right. There will be people who will come and say, you know, you don't have to do this, you don't have to do that. And there will be, you know, the enemy will come with all kinds of distractions. We have to stay focused as leaders. See, you see a goal, you set a goal, picture that in your mind. For example, some of you are probably learning an instrument, wanting to play in church. Have that picture in your mind. One day, I want to see myself leading the worship in church. Right. And so when you see that in your mind's eye, you begin to avoid these distractions. You say, okay, I want to see this. This is a focus. This is a goal that I have. Or some of you want to see yourself as a manager or a senior manager. So you picture it, stay focused on the goals. Now, it's also very important that, you know, remember what distractions are and what distractions are not. Right. Now, if you're planning something, you're, you know, preparing or for example, you're training yourself in a certain thing that you have been a certain goal. And if you have small children and they come and say, you know, they're playing with you, don't chase away your children and say, no, I'm set my goals. You're a distraction. Now, they're not a distraction. Right. They are children. And as a parent, we need to be there for them. Right. So we must understand what is a distraction? What is a distraction? Right. If there are times you'll have to go look after your parents, be there with them, go ahead. Right. They are not distractions. They are people who, who love you, who care for you. And it's our responsibility to look after them as well. When I say the word distractions are things that are whims and fancies, right, just don't profit anything in our lives. So avoid those distractions. Next point. Don't just talk, act, but act on what is really important. Proverbs 14, 23. Yes. Could one of us please read that? Verbs 14 and 23. Okay. I will go ahead and read. Proverbs 14, 23. In all labor, there is profit, but idle chatter leads only to poverty. You know, in, in execution, action is very important. So action must be prioritized. That are, you know, so don't just talk about it. Act on it. Right. It's wonderful to plan. It's wonderful to put it on paper. Share it with people that you know, but don't just be talking about it. Right. So for example, if you, you know, if you feel that you want to, I'm just giving this example, right. If we feel that a person wants to start his ministry, his own ministry, right, or his own organization. And he's been telling this to his friends, you know, one day I will start the organization. I'll start my own ministry. And so he's telling it to his friends, his family, his loved ones, everyone are saying, Oh, great. You're going to do this. That's wonderful. And he gets inputs from people or other senior pastors and people who care for him. They give him some inputs and ideas and strategies. And so he's got everything. But imagine he keeps talking about it. He or she keeps talking about it, but doesn't do anything about it. So what's going to happen? After a year, they're going to ask, Hey, you know, you, you plan to start your own ministry. How's that going? Oh, it's, it's, it's, yeah, it's still on paper. Okay. So they'll say, okay, two years down the line. Hey, you had planned to start your own ministry. What happened? No, it's not yet. Okay. Imagine three years, four years, five years down the line, people ask you, okay. So what are, what are you doing in the background to make sure that you start what you, you know, the vision that God has put in your heart? Not really. I'm sitting and praying about it. Now that means it's only talk. The problems here in probably this is in all labor, there is profit. But if it's this idle chatter, there's nothing, there's not going to be any outcome out of it. There are many, many people who I've met in my life where they've said, you know, I want to do this, this, this, this, especially in ministry said, I want to be your pastor, I want to start my own ministry. But I didn't see any effort taken by them. They would be at home, just sitting and praying the whole day or, you know, not doing any work and their parents are upset about it. And at least, you know, like for example, if, you know, just start a small group or a cell group or go out on the street, start some, something small. And when you put your hands to the plow, which means when you put your hands to God begins to bless. If we only have the plan, and if we only talk, what can God bless? We can't, nothing. But if we plan and we put our hands to labor, God will bless that. So one of the things that we do in leadership and as leaders is avoid idle chatter. Avoid it. You don't have to keep talking about things. You know, there are some people who, who say this, right? They, hey, this guy only talks. I've not seen him do anything about it. He has big talks, right? But execution is nothing. I don't see any of what he's saying coming to pass. Now that's an embarrassment. That's a failure from our side. Right? So we must remember. Don't just talk, but put our hands to the labor, right? Engage your team because together, everyone achieves more. Ecclesiastes chapter four was nine to 12. Yes. Could one of us please read that? Ecclesiastes chapter four versus nine to 12. Shall I read it? Yes, please go ahead. Two are better off than one because together they can work more effectively. One of them falls down. The other can help him up. But if someone is alone and falls, it's just too bad because there is no one to help him. If it is cold, two can sleep together and stay warm. But how can you keep warm by yourself? Two people can resist an attack that would defeat one person alone. A rope made of three cords is hard to break. Thank you. Thank you, Rupa. Yes. So the whole point that this writer here, Solomon is bringing out is have a team, engage a team. Two people are better than one. And so we also talked about that, right? So in terms of planning, in terms of execution, when the ministry organization is small, you have to take matters into your own hands. But as the ministry or the organization grows, you have to get people involved, get a team involved. Remember that the greatest sign of a leader is not how many sermons he has preached or how many sessions of worship he has led. The greatest sign of a leader is how many other leaders he or she has raised up. That is the greatest sign of a leader, right? Because when we have a team, it's a joint effort. All of them come together, work together. Everyone takes ownership of the goal of the work that has been assigned. Now picture this. Imagine you're a church of 200 people and you have no leaders. Now there's something wrong in that. Even if we are 50 people, you should have a few leaders in the church, right? That if we don't have leaders in the church, and it's just one person who's, it's like a dictatorship kind of a situation. It's very wrong. It's always good to have maker team, former team, even if it's two or three more people. Right? I've shared the example in Mangalore. We were just 10 people, but we opened a WhatsApp group and had about four, five of them as integral part of planning and coordination. And even now, now that we're about 80, 70, 80 people right now, so we all get together, we plan. But it all started off when they were 10 people. 10 of us, four or five of them were in the, we got together, put our ideas together. And so we always feel that the church has grown. Yes, firstly, because God has done, God has brought people together. And two, what I noticed was the core team, the five of them who was, who are part of this, the initial team, they were encouraged. They said, hey, now we are part of this team and we are involved in making decisions and planning for things in the church. So as a person who's in this team, I have to make sure that I do the best for the church. And I began to see a change in attitude. They were willing to come early. They were willing to share to people about events, worship evenings, they would bring people. And they weren't doing that before, but now they were doing that. Even when times when there was failure, when we have failed, failure meaning, we planned an event and we didn't expect the results as much as we'd like. So we all take responsibility. Say, okay, this is what happened. I remember this one worship evening we had planned somewhere in the middle of 2018 that was, we were about maybe 20 people in the church. So we planned a worship evening and we made invites, hundreds of invites and we made the E invite. We went on the streets, gave out invites to students and families. And we really felt that at least two, three families and a couple of students would come. And it was on a Saturday. And then the worship evening, it was about five o'clock. And I really, and our team, like all of us expected, at least a few, 10, 15, 20 new people to join us. But it was very sad, but there's only two of us. Only two of us were there. But we did the whole one and a half hours of worship, just prayed and we closed. But then after that, we did join together and we decided, we talked about it. We thought, okay, what went wrong? Was it the timing? Was it the day? So we need to find out. So we began to call the youth. So as a team, we found out that Saturday is not a good day to have events. Saturday evenings, Monday to Friday, students are busy. Saturday, they have a half day. And they want to just go home and rest because the entire week, they have been busy in their colleges and, you know, hectic studies and so we understood, okay, so Saturday is not a right day. So we came up with different kind of studies. We all, as a team, said, okay, Friday evenings is a good day because they finish on Friday and they feel that it's a weekend, they will be willing to come. So we moved Saturday evening, worship to Friday evening. And so we realized, okay, the college gets over at about four o'clock. By the time they come, it'll be, you know, take rest, travel and come. So let's move the worship evening from five o'clock to six o'clock. So we moved it from five to six. And then the next worship evenings, we started seeing a lot of youth coming. A lot of families started coming as well. So we realized, okay, you know, it's because it was not one person's effort. We engaged together in a team, we planned, we all got inputs from different people, right? And then they, we all came up with this decision and it worked because we saw progress in the church. We saw that people were willing to come, spend time and worship and eventually they began to attend church and they were, you know, plugged into church that way. So engage your team. You may have a certain idea, but the other person may have a whole different idea on achieving that same target or achieving that same goal, right? Different minds will have different strategies. So it's good to have a team. The next point is accountability. When things are going rough, when things are going tough, be accountable. You know, when, especially when times, you know, progress is reviewed, right? You have a yearly review, probably a half yearly review or a yearly review in the corporate sector. And if you're, you know, if you are a leader or even if you're working under some leadership, if you see that there's no progress, own up, be accountable, right? Now the whole cycle of reporting and reviewing, planning could happen on a weekly basis, could happen on a monthly basis, quarterly basis, half yearly basis, yearly basis. So different organizations have different kinds of structure. But here's what it is. Be accountable. Don't give excuses in the sense if we are in the leadership team in the probably children's ministry, right? And we've been assigned some work, you know, prepare material for the children's, you know, prepare a course material or probably prepare kind of activity sheets for them. And then your senior pastor says, you have to prepare this so that when the month of June, July comes, once we restart children's church, these are the things that needs to be done. And we can use this material. Now imagine, you've been told three months in advance, but and we sit and we try on the last 15 days we're sitting and you know, trying to complete the task and the task is not completed. It's just a half-hearted work and we send it to our, you know, our senior leaders and they say, this is not okay. Now, during the review time, they say, you know, these are things that were not done. Now don't give excuses, but be accountable. Say, yes, I, these are things that I should have done. Somehow I didn't do it. It was my negligence. But can you give me another opportunity? I will, this time I will and in ministry, usually they give, you know, there's grace, they give you an opportunity. But in the corporate sector, we don't know, right? But the safest thing to do is be accountable. Even in the corporate sector, if it results in, you know, something that could be drastic ahead in the future, it's all right. But it's always good to be accountable. Say, okay, yes, I should have done this, but I didn't. And mostly, nine out of 10 times, if you are accountable, a good leader will always give another opportunity. They will not, you know, just ask us to leave and all of that, right? So when you're going get stuff, be accountable, be, you know, accountable to the organization, to your leaders, to the people around you, and be accountable to your performance. It's very easy when we think about ministry, you know, to just take it as it is. And I think when we think of ministry, we need to raise up our level, right? We need to stop thinking that, okay, it's all right. You know, God is there, God will do everything. No, no. Sometimes we have this saying, right? God knows my heart. God knows why I'm doing this. You may not understand, but God knows. So all that is good. I mean, God knows everything, but God has also set, you know, leaders above us because we need to be accountable to them, right? There were people whom I know of who said, you know, I'm accountable only to God. God knows my heart. And so I will, that would be the wrong thing to say, right? God is place leaders among us. We are to be accountable to everything that we do, right? Next point. Some lessons learned are more valuable than the profit gained. Let's read Proverbs chapter three was 13 to 17. Proverbs three, 13 to 17. Proverbs chapter three, 13 to 17. Proverbs three, 13 to 17. Happy is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding. For her proceeds are better than the profits of silver and her gains then find gold. Amen. Pastor, you are muted, I think. Sorry. It's 13 to 17. Verse 17 to verse 17. Sorry, Pastor. Yeah. No problem. Yeah. The 15 says, she is more precious than rubbish and all things you may desire cannot compare with her. Length of the day is in her right hand and in her left hand reaches an honor. Her ways are ways, her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Abinas. So now the process of execution is a great teacher, right? Now, I'm sure all of us have a story where we can say, Hey, this is a lesson I have learned. Probably I learned it the hard way or I learned it, you know, just watching people. I learned this lesson because this person did something and it went, the outcome was disastrous. And so I learned I will never do that, right? And so in life, we all learned lessons, right? It's a great teacher, right? Something that we, you know, sometimes we fail or we fall down in a certain area in our life and we learn a lesson when we say, I wish I didn't do that, but I know that going ahead, I will not do, that make the same mistake. So the experience and lessons from each strategy is invaluable, right? So we, you know, more than success, this, the lessons that we learn is so valuable because we are learning it on our own. It's not on paper. It's not something that you're reading and you're, you know, putting it into your life. No, when certain lessons we learn in our life, that is more valuable than profit gained. Make a note of times when we have failed, make a note of it, write it down, write down times when we have succeeded, times when we have failed, times when, you know, things were very difficult yet, you know, those lessons, those seasons taught us lessons, right? Make a note of it and learn from both the positive and from the negative, right? And especially in ministry, we'd love to say this. We will all go through challenges. We will all go through positive, negative. There will be things that work out, things that don't work out, learn from them, right? Now, if we don't learn from them, Bible teaches us that it is, you know, it's like digging a pit and we ourselves falling into it, right? When we fail or there is a season where we have fallen down and we stand up again and we don't learn from that, then it's like digging a pit and falling into it once again, right? And last point, above all else, let God be in charge. Let's read Proverbs 16 and verse 3. Proverbs 16, verse 3. Thank you, Christopher. Yes, put God in charge of you. This message translation is really nice. So put God in charge of your work, then what you've planned will take place. Commit your plans to the Lord, just like point number one. Commit your ways, your plans to the Lord, trust in Him and know that He shall bring it to pass, right? When God is in charge of your work, God knows how to make things come to pass. When we trust in Him, even when it looks like an impossibility, He will bring it to pass, right? So even as God is teaching us many things, right? It could be a small, you know, a small role that you're doing in your church, committed to God. Say, God helped me to do well in what has been assigned to me. Remember, the Lord Jesus taught us to be faithful in small things. When we're faithful in small things, God will give us bigger opportunities. And I'm sure all of us, you know, we've all probably been serving in the church. Maybe for many years, you've just been in the background. Nobody has noticed your hard work. And now you're just continuing to be faithful. God will open doors and God will honor you. God is watching, right? So don't be discouraged if people don't call you on the stage, clap for you, or people don't, you know, recognize you. It's all right. You know, sometimes we may feel hurt. It's part of our natural being. But look at it on the positive side. Say, God, I know God is the rewarder of our work. Our labor in the Lord is not in vain because He's watching. So even if it's something as meager, as cleaning chairs, or setting up the book table, nobody may see us doing all these things. But trust in the Lord, and He will make things come to pass. He will grant us the desires of our heart, right? So we'll stop here. We'll pick up from chapter 11 tomorrow. Any questions? Any thoughts? No questions? All right. Let's close in prayer. Could one of us please close in prayer? Would you mind closing in prayer, please? Yes, Pastor. Thank you. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, you chose us, Lord. When you called us, Lord, when you created us, Lord, you gave us each one a gift and each one a calling, Lord. And it's only you, Lord, who knows what you've called us and how we will achieve it, Lord. Because without you, Jesus, we are powerless, Lord. We are unwise, Jesus. We do things according to the way we see it, fatal. And we prefer that you come in our lives. You come in our heart, Lord, so that you can direct us, Lord, so that you can give us wisdom, Jesus. How to plan, how to play on project, how to start ministry, Lord, how to do everything that you've called us to do, Lord. And we prefer that you have all the glory and people see that your name will be glorified. And that's only, you're the only way, you're the only truth and the only life, Lord. And we will be example to not only people in the, our churches, Lord, but people in the world, Lord. We thank you, Father. Thank you for your grace. And thank you for your Holy Spirit that will guide us in your mighty name, Lord, we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much, Mangi. Thank you, everyone, for joining. Have a great day ahead. We'll see you tomorrow. Bye now. Thank you, God bless you. God bless. Bye.