All right, just doesn't sound the same as what it normally is. So Jim is gonna turn me up a little bit. If you look on the screen behind me, this morning's lesson is gonna go into new direction. We've done a series of sermons over the last couple months, looking at first and second Peter. And why those letters were written why they're important, but now I want us to look at something else here this morning. You think we live in a time when we might need a little extra encouragement? You think there's some frustration in society? Do you think there's some problems in life? Is anybody tired of the pandemic? Right, we're tired of the pandemic. Life is difficult, life is busy. Our careers are hobbies, our children. I mean, we run ourselves ragged and I want us to really stop and consider for a little bit about encouragement. I want us to really look at the art of encouragement. I tell you what, here at Lincoln park, I think we do a pretty darn good job when it comes to encouragement. We have lots of us within this auditorium who like to like to encourage. I've said before, I said, Randy's got almost like my burnaby. You know why I say that? Every Sunday and every Wednesday, even now that I'm down a Tennessee and I do my lesson and I summed it up here for you guys. I still get a text from him on most Wednesdays, encourage me about the lesson. And it'll always make sure he comes up to me afterwards and gives me some form of encouragement about the lesson. And every time I see him, he's trying to offer encouragement. And I love that because really, isn't that really what the Bible calls us to do? How can we become that unified body of believers that family a believers if we're not always looking for ways to grow in the area of encouragement? And although we do a good job here at Lincoln park, we can always be better, right? And there's some of us that probably do some more encouraging than well, probably others. And so that's what I want us to concentrate on here this morning. I want us to think of encouragements. And I'm sorry that Jim used a slide that replicates and kind of really looks like me this morning. I didn't ask him to do that. But I wanted it to be an encouragement for you all to know that you chew. Can look like that if you just put a little time in the gym. So while we look at this, like this life have a way of kind of just bringing us down, right? Life has a way of weariness down. And when we become discouraged what usually is one of the some of the first things that happen when we become discouraged, what's one of the first things I usually have. And what do you think, Russ? Faith? Face starts to kind of wander a little bit, but don't we also start to start complaining a little bit? Anybody here ever complain? Anybody here have some difficult days and you start to complain? Well, that is usually something that starts to happen. We start to feel sorry for ourselves. Has anybody during the pandemic? Kind of followed yourself complaining and feeling sorry for yourselves? Has anybody who watches the regular news, whether a local or national news, do you start to kind of complain and feel sorry for yourself? It starts to feel sorry for this nation. And so brother and we need to know that complaining and feeling sorry for ourselves is something that's really inherent in humanity. But it doesn't have to be. Because there's this little stream of thoughts that go through your head all the time. And psychologists in them they'll call it self talk. And you get to determine that little stream of thoughts as I'm speaking right now. There are some of you that have a stream of thoughts that are going through your mind, some of them may be focused on encouragement, some of it might be focused on something else completely that has nothing to do with this worship service. But there's always thoughts going through our mind. You get to determine if they're positive or negative. You get to determine what you're doing with that little stream of thoughts that's constantly going through your mind. And so in today's world, it appears that everyone is becoming more and more connected. Well, you think about it, most people have smartphones. Most kids nowadays have smartphones. And it would appear that through social media and all the various platforms that were more connected than at any other time in human history. What's the problem with that? We're becoming more and more disconnected, personally. In the flesh, personal relationships. One on one fellowship time. Why? Because I got 700 Facebook friends. Even though I haven't seen probably 678 of them in 25 years, I got 700 Facebook friends. Even though I have no idea what's going on in their lives, I have 700 some Facebook friends. I really don't. But I'm sure there are people out there that do. What's my point? I don't care how many Facebook friends you have. If you're not interacting on a one on one, face to face in the person and the flesh relationships and interaction with people. While we are more connected at this point in time from a technological standpoint at any other time in our history of the world, we are dealing with higher levels of depression and higher levels of suicide than at any other time. Well, how could that be? We got all these social media things that people love my posts and they think my posters are funny and they think they're so great and I have all these social media friends and I have this great social media following. And yet, I'm suffering with depression. And suicidal thoughts. Well, how can that be? Brethren has God designed us to be separate and apart from one another or did God intend for us to become to spend time together. The God desire for children to leave their mothers or fathers and for sons, find a wife, it's a cleave to their wife and become one flesh, both in mind, body and spirit. When God created mankind on the 6th day, and then we know in genesis chapter two, when God created man, he said, it is not good for man to be alone. When you want to punish somebody in the judicial system in the system, where do they put the criminals when they really want to punish them? It's solitary confinement. Why? Because we know as human beings we're designed got designed us in order to be in fellowship with one another. So the worst thing you could do to a criminal is to separate them from the masses. And to make him be in an area that he's by himself. Why? Because what usually sets starts to set in regrets and depression and all these other things that go along with it. So as I said earlier today. I don't care how many Facebook friends that somebody has. It will never make up for the lack of personal in the flesh relationships with individuals. And brother, and that's something that we need to really fully consider. Because we're made with the desire to connect with people on a personal level. Don't people feel good about themselves when they feel like they belong? I mean, those doesn't it feel good after, and then I know sometimes we don't always want to break up our routine break up our schedule and schedule some fellowship time or go visit somebody. But how many times, even though you really didn't want to do it, but after you did it, you felt so much better. Like, man, I'm glad I went out of my way and I went and met with so and so because I actually, I actually enjoyed it. I felt good about it. And so we have to remember rather than that, while we are connected more from a technological standpoint, we're less connected personally and one on one basis than at any other time in our history. Young kids are having trouble because they have a hard time knowing how to talk with one another nowadays. I can't tell you every time you go to a restaurant every time you're out in public, you'll see a family of 5 sitting around the table and they're all on their phones, doing this. They're not even talking. They're not even enjoying the people that are literally right there in their presence. I had a friend who used to come by once in a while. And so some of the Christian fellowships over my house. And he would always be playing words with Friends. Anybody play words with Friends? And he would be playing words with Friends while we're all setting their talking. I said, why don't you use your words with your Friends? I mean, we're literally sitting three feet from one another and you're playing a game on your phone..