Three for 3: Week 3

Name is Andrew, and I'm so glad that you're here.

If you're new, if this is your first.

Time, welcome.

This is the third week in a message series that

we've called three for three, Three lessons from Proverbs chapter three.

Let's say that three times fast. No, it's gonna be

a good day.

We're gonna look at Proverbs chapter three, verses nine and

ten in just a few moments.

And I want to encourage you.

Please have something to write with today, whether you use

pen and paper, take a note on your phone. Speaking

of your phone, you can use the Church of the

Crossing app and access message notes. Each week we prepare

an outline that you can follow along and you can

save those notes for yourself for later in your walk

with Christ.

So encourage you to do that.

Well, you may or may not know, but there are

a few subjects that most preachers are a little bit

reluctant to preach about. You know. For example, many preachers

are reluctant to preach.

About the end times.

Well, two summers ago we did a whole sermon series

on the Book of Revelation.

So today is not about the end times.

But Proverbs chapter three does address a subject that some

people are reluctant to preach about, and that subject is money.

Ooh, what was did you hear that? What was that?

Did you feel that?

I think it's fair to say that each of us

has some type of reaction when we hear the word money,

especially in church. You might groan, you might frown, you

might smile or have an internal eye roll.

But however we respond.

I think we have a reaction to it because money

is personal, it's sensitive, it's a challenging subject, and there

are some of us who have some baggage related.

To church and money.

I recently heard a story about two men who were

on a fishing charter in the Caribbean, and suddenly a

violent storm battered their fishing vessel, and these two men

ended up marooned on a deserted island in the middle

of the ocean.

And one of the men.

Was panicked, and he was pacing up and down the beach,

wringing his hands, worried. The second man was calm, sitting

underneath a coconut tree, relaxed.

And the first man.

Said to the second man, aren't you worried that no

one's gonna find us and we're gonna die? And the

second man just calmly said, no, I'm not worried. I

make one hundred thousand dollars a week. I faithfully tied

to my church. My pastor will find me. I know

that was a silly joke.

So before we go any further, I think we should pray.

But let's pray because I do believe that as we

open God's word, God is going to speak to us.

God's gonna challenge us, God's going to guide us. And

so let's prepare our hearts to received from his word. Father, God,

we thank you for your grace and for your presence.

And God, we thank you for your word in an

age where there is a lot of noise, in a

culture where there's a lot.

Of spin and opinion.

God, thank you that we can go to your word

for absolute truth, eternal truth, perfect truth.

And so God, we ask.

That your spirit would speak your truth from your word

to our hearts.

And we pray this in Jesus's name. Amen.

So let's go ahead today and begin by looking at

this text Proverbs three, verses nine in ten I encourage

you to read along. We read, honor the Lord with

your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops,

then your barns will be filled with overflowing and your

vats will bring over.

With new wine.

Now, obviously, for some of us, we might be tempted

to skip some of what we just read. You know,

for example, I'm not a farmer. I don't have crops,

I don't have barns. You know, this seems a little

bit outdated. Someone else might think, well, what's a vat?

I don't even like wine. I don't drink wine, Like

this doesn't really apply to me. But remember when we

read the Book of Proverbs. Proverbs was written in a

metaphor and wisdom literature, and it uses analogy.

And so as we look at.

These verses, there is a spiritual and moral truth hidden

within this farming analogy. Let's look closely at some of

the words we just read. Notice this word here, it

says wealth. This word wealth is the Hebrew word han

ho n han and han is used throughout the Bible,

not only to describe riches and wealth, but simply it's

a word that's used to describe possessions, things that we own.

And then notice this word, this word crops. This word

crops comes from the Hebrew word to buah, and tabua.

Is not exclusively an agriculture term.

Tibua is also used throughout the Old Testament in the

place of income, profit revenue.

It's a comprehensive term.

And so the point is whether or not you are

rich or wealthy, whether or not you grow vegetables. We

all have possessions, we all have income, we all have resources.

And so the big idea today in this message, the

one point that I want to share is this, honor

God with what you have and trust Him for what

you need. Honor God with what you have, trust Him

for what you need.

Take a look.

Closely at the first line in verse nine, we read here,

honor the Lord with your wealth with the first fruits.

Would you say the word first fruits? First fruits?

First fruits is a term a concept that appears throughout

the Bible repeatedly. And so for just a moment, I'd

like to describe the context in the history of the

first fruits or the first fruits offering. See Remember, the

nation of Israel at this time was a agriculture society,

an agrarian culture, and so that means that to live

you had to farm, you had to grow something, you

had to raise livestock. That was the economy in Israel.

And when God brought the nation of Israel out of

slavery in Egypt and brought them into the Promised Land,

God knew that in the prosperity of the Promised Land,

in the fruitfulness of the land, that the Israelites might

forget where they came from, and they might forget how

God provided.

So. God wanted them to remember that.

He brought them out of slavery, that he brought them

through the Red Sea, that he brought them through the desert.

How he provided.

So God created three national holidays for the Israelites.

To observe. Three national holidays, there was the.

Feast of unloven Bread, the Feast of Harvest, and the

Feast of in Gathering. In each one of these had

a specific meaning to remember God's provision. Unleven Bread was

to remember God's salvation. The festival of Harvest to remember

God provides the first harvest. The festival of in gathering

to remember God provides.

The last harvest.

As I was learning about this, I thought about here

in the United States, we have three holidays that kind

of span the summer season. We have Memorial Day that

kind of kicks off summer, and then there's Fourth of

July in the middle of summer, and then Labor Day

kind of tapers as summer's fading into fall. Those are

like three holidays. The Israelites had these three national holidays

to remember God's provision. And it's this one, the festival

of the harvest, where we get the idea of first fruits.

And so look at Exodus twenty three. God gives instructions,

celebrate the festival of harvest with the first fruits of

the crops you sew in your field. So the festival

of harvest took place at the very beginning of the

harvest season, when those first ripe crops were ready to

be harvested, when when those first sprouts were coming through

the ground. Earlier this spring, I planted a small raised

garden in my backyard, and I planted peppers and kale

and green beans and carrots and a few things and

wanted to grow some vegetables.

And honestly, it's been a struggle.

It's been a challenge, and a little bit this point,

I refer to my garden as a boutique snack garden

because it doesn't produce enough for a whole meal is just,

but we can snack on it. And over the summer,

I was concerned about my carrots because I didn't see anything.

I was concerned there wasn't gonna be any harvest from

the carrots. And so just a couple of weeks ago,

I saw a couple of carrots pushing up through the ground,

and I pulled out three or four of these carrots.

These were the first fruits, the very first vegetables ready.

To be harvested.

And you can see here the shepherd really enjoyed eating

the fruit of our labor, the first fruits. Good Indiana boy,

you know, living off the land. So these were the

first fruits. God gives instructions in Exodus twenty three, bring

the best of the first fruits of your soil to

the house of the Lord.

You were gone.

So farmer harvested his first fruits, those first sprouts, whether

it's carrots or dates, or figs or wheat, whatever, those

first things that were ready to harvest. The farmer would

gather those things into a basket or a container, and

he would carry those to the house of the Lord,

to the temple, and he'd hand that basket to the

priest as an offering of his first fruits, and every

Israelite would recite the same prayer as they gave their offering.

It's this prayer in Deuteronomy twenty six. They would say,

the Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer, subjecting us

to harsh labor. Then we cried out to the Lord,

the God of our ancestors. And the Lord heard our

voice and saw our misery, toil and oppression. So the

Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand

and an outstretched arm, with great terror, and with signs

and wonders. He brought us to this place and gave

us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.

And now I bring the first fruits of the soil

that you Lord have given me.

So for generations, these Israelites, every year.

At the beginning of the harvest, they would get those

first fruits and recite this prayer. And remember, we were

once in slavery, we were once in bondage, we were

once abandoned. But God provided, God gave, and that was

their first fruit offering.

Just as the Israelites.

Were slaves in Egypt, you and I were slaves to sin,

and just as God set them free, he has set

us free. The death and the resurrection of Jesus purchased

our forgiveness, secured our eternal life. And we are living

in a spiritual promised land because of the inheritance of Jesus.

And so when we offer God and offering, when we

bring him a portion of what we have, we are remembering,

reminding ourselves how He's provided, how He's given us eternal life.

Honor God with what you have and trust Him for

what you need. At the beginning of this series, a

couple weeks ago, I mentioned that some of this message

series is inspired by.

Two spiritually influential people in my life, those being my grandparents.

And earlier I talked about my grandmother's faith, and today

I want to tell you about my grandfather.

His name was Courtney, but I called him Papa, and Papa.

Grew up in a poor, hardworking family in Ohio and

from at a young age. As a young boy, Papaul

went to work in construction and he didn't go to college. Instead,

he pursued a career in construction and home building and

started his own company and he became successful, and Papa

became the greatest example of generosity that I've ever seen.

You know, the Bible talks about tithing, which is giving

a ten percent of our income to the Lord, and

Papa believed in tithing, and he believed what we're talking

about with the first fruits. Papa believed that his tithe,

his ten percent to his church, was a first fruits offering,

and that meant that he tithed based on his gross.

Not just his net.

He gave his ten percent based on before paying taxes,

before retirement contribution, before any expenses. That was his tie.

That was his first fruits offering because he believed, honor

God with what you have. And this is something that

Papal passed on to me into our family. And I

remember being a young boy and my parents would give

me a five dollars allowance each week.

That was my allowance, that.

Was my income, and so every Sunday I would take

my two quarters, my ten percent to give to the

Lord my offering. Growing up, my church had you could

get customized tithing envelopes and you have your name printed

on at your ad these were yours.

And I was so.

Excited when I was old enough to have my own

tithing envelopes. I felt like a big boy, and each

week I would put my two quarters my ten percent

as an offering. If you're a parent, if you're a grandparent,

disciple your children in honoring.

The Lord with what you have.

Teach them while they're young how to honor the Lord,

how to grow in generosity. Papaul believed in tithing to

his church, and he believed that if you honor God

with what you have, he'll provide what you need. You see,

Papa didn't believe that ten percent belonged to God and

ninety percent belonged to himself. He believed one hundred percent

of what he had belonged to God. Every nickel belonged

to God.

And so he.

Managed and stewarded his generosity to honor the Lord. I

remember growing up there were several times there might be

somebody without withd work or unemployed and couldn't make ends meet,

and so my papa was he wasn't hiring at the time,

but he would somehow invent some job, come up with

something so he could hire this person and pay them

so they could make ends meet. At Papa's funeral, I

remember meeting several women who all sat together in the

same row at the funeral, and each of these ladies

told me how Papa was generous toward them when they

were single parents. One lady worked in his office, another

lady was a real estate agent in his company. And

I met one widow who'd been widowed for several decades,

and she told me that she rented a house from

Papal for more than thirty years and he never raised

her rent once over two hundred and fifty dollars a month.

Like generosity was just his lifestyle. He believed in honoring

the Lord with what he had, Honor God with what

you have, and trust Him for what you need. And

so today I'd like to share with you just a

few principles about generosity that I learned from Papal.

Principle number one, we cannot outgive God.

God is the ultimate giver, and when you are generous,

when you honor Him, when you give, you can't outgive

what God can give.

But look at our text again. It says, honor the.

Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all

your crops. Then your barns will be filled with overflowing

and your vats will brim over with new wine. You

see when we honor the Lord. God honors generosity. God

blesses generosity. God is a giver. You cannot outgive God.

And I'm so impressed and amazed at the faith in

the generosity of our church family.

I know a young couple in our church, a young

family who faithfully gives a portion of what they have

to the Lord each week. However, for the young man,

the husband lost his job and he was without work

laid off for six months, which meant income was shrinking,

but the expenses were not shrinking. They have kids at home,

They've got bills to pay, they got to buy groceries

like they still got things to do, and so it

been really easy to change some of their things, change

their budget, alter some things.

But you know what, they chose to continue to.

Give their offering, trusting the Lord. I know, it's it's

it's it's it's it's amazing.

And God provided for them miraculously.

Somehow, at the end of each month, there was enough

money to pay the bills. Other friends and family anonymously

blessed them financially. Somebody anonymously paid for one of their

children's tuition.

Just God showed up.

God blessed them, And when I asked them about this

six month period, they said to me, Andrew, it's really

easy for us to doubt ourselves and doubt our own abilities,

but we never doubted God. Why wouldn't we trust him?

That faith inspires me. Honor God with what you have

and trust Him for what you need. Now, I'm not

saying that God is gonna make you rich if you're generous.

I'm not saying that God is going to give you

anonymous surprise.

Money when you give to the Lord. That's not what

I'm saying at all. I'm just saying you cannot outgive God.

I'm not preaching a healthy, wealthy prosperity gospel. Let me

just say something about the prosperity gospel for a minute.

The prosperity gospel is a heresy that says, if you

give to an organization, to a church, or a TV evangelist,

then God will give you a material reward.

It's a quid pro quo theology. I give God this,

God owes me this. I give more to God.

God will make me healthy, wealthy, and prosperous. And some

who believe in the prosperity gospel will quote Proverbs Eleaven,

which says a generous person will prosper. Whoever refreshes others

will be refreshed. A generous person will prosper. But let

me tell you something. This word right here, prosper is

the same word root word for the word anointed. A

generous person is an anointed person. A generous person has

the anointing of God on their life, has the blessing

of God, the favor of God, the righteousness of God.

It doesn't say anything about a material reward. I don't

know about you, but I would rather have the anointing

of God on my life than all the material things.

Of this world.

God may bless us materially. God may bless us with success,

but more importantly, he anoints us with his favor. Honor

God with what you have, and trust Him for what

you need. So the first principle we learned from Papal

is we cannot outgive God. And the second principle that

we learned from Papal is we are stewards, not owners.

You see, a steward doesn't own the money, they manage.

The owner owns it, and the steward manages it, spends it, invests,

it saves, it. They are entrusted to care for what

belongs to the owner. Remember when the Israelites brought in

their first fruits, how they would collect those first sprouts,

those first harvests, and bringing them into the Lord's house

as an offering. And remember they would all recite the

same prayer, that prayer that says, so the Lord brought

us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an

outstretched arm, with great terror, with signs and wonders.

And look at the verse nine. He brought us to this.

Place and gave us this land, a land flowing with

milk and honey.

And now I bring the first fruits.

Look closely, the first fruits of the soil that you Lord.

Have what given me.

So when the Israelites gave their first fruits, they recognized

the land did not belong to themselves.

It belonged to the Lord.

He gave them the land, he gave them the resources,

he gave them the soil. They were stewards of what

God gave them. God owns one hundred percent.

Of what we have.

It might be your name on the paycheck, but it

is God's provision. It might be your name on the

title or the deed, but it is God's property. It

could be your name on the on the building, but

it is God's company.

We are stewards. Are you a steward or are you

an owner?

Papau believed wholeheartedly that he was a steward and not

an owner, even when money was tight. Some of us

may remember in the eighties there was a terrible recession.

Unemployment was at its highest since the Great Depression, interest

rates were at sixteen percent, inflation was at like thirteen percent,

and consequently, Papaal's construction company wasn't making any money because

nobody was building houses, and nobody was buying houses, and nobody.

Was selling houses. Like he was losing money.

And most companies in a period of time like this,

they would lay off employees or furlough employees to try

and save money conserve resources.

But Papa believed he.

Was a steward and not an owner, and so he

didn't do that. He chose to keep all of his

employees' jobs and he paid them out of his savings.

He believed he was a steward, not an owner. I mean,

if that's not extreme enough, Papa continue during that time

to tithe to his church.

Now hold on.

You think for a minute, you tithe ten percent of

your income. But if he's not making any money, that

means there's no income.

So how does he tithe? He chose to tithe on.

His losses, the money he wasn't making. I know it's

it's extreme, but he believed he was a steward, not

an owner. Are you a steward or are you an owner?

An ownership mentality will limit your generosity. An ownership mindset

will block your faith.

And I think there's a few styles of ownership mentality.

First, you have the confident owner, the one who's confident

in their resource, is confident in what they have, and

this is.

A misplaced trust.

You see, a confident owner forgets to honor God with

what they have.

A confident owner says, this is mine. I earned it,

I worked for it, I deserve it. It belongs to me.

I determine my future, I set my course. And the

Bible warns.

Us of this type of attitude in Proverbs eleven, those

who trust in their riches will fall, but the righteous

will thrive like a green leaf. There's a confident owner mentality,

and there's also the wanna be owner mentality. The wanna

be owner wants something they don't have yet. They crave

that thing, that material thing. They want that stock portfolio,

they want that dream house. They want that zero turn

lawnmower that you see your neighbor driving around on the

weekend like they want, but they don't have an Ultimately,

wanna be owners are motivated by envy.

It's a great motivator. When I was a young boy,

I was a nerd.

Well I probably still am a nerd, But when most

kids are dreaming of a new skateboard, or new basketball

shoes or a new bike, I had my site set

on a new laptop computer. And my parents gave me

some extra jobs and chores that I could do to

earn a little extra money to save for this thing

that I wanted. And one of those jobs one summer

was cleaning out the garage. And do you remember when

we used to order things out of a catalog, like

like a paper catalog. Well, I had a computer catalog

and I cut out a picture of the computer that

I wanted, and on a hot, sweaty afternoon in the garage,

I duct taped that to the garage wall.

It motivated me. This is what I'm sweating for. This

is what I'm working for. This is what I'm grinding for.

Like, I know that sounds silly, yet how many of

us have a mental catalog picture that were motivated. That's

what I'm sweating for. That's what I'm working for, That's

what I want. The want to be owner is motivated

to get more worldly things for themselves. So there's the

confident owner, the wanna be owner, and I think there's

also the hoarding owner. The hoarding owner may not have much,

but they hold on to it. It's a mentality that

it's all gonna run out, there won't be enough, And

a hoarding owner.

Is not generous because they're afraid.

You see, a confident owner forgets to honor God, a

hoarding owner.

Forgets to trust God. And I struggle with this mentality.

I fear unexpected expenses.

I have anxiety about emergencies, things you can't plan for,

hoping and saving that I'll have the resources to take

care of it. In twenty twenty, when the pandemic was

shutting everything down and people were paying and panic buying

in the stores, I got swept up in some of that,

and I remember going to the bank and withdrawing a

lot of cash out of my bank account because I

wanted to have my money in case.

I couldn't access the bank. And you know what, I

never needed that cash ended up putting back Today.

I don't want to live in fear. I want to

live by faith. I don't want fear to block my generosity.

I don't want fear to block God's blessings in God's

anointing in my life. I want to honor God with

what I have. Honor God with what you have, trust

Him for what you need. So, are you an owner

or are you a steward? Be struggled with traits of

the confident owner, be a wrestled with the envy of

a wanna be owner, or the fear of a hoarding owner.

Honor God with what you have and trust Him for

what you need. So Papal's principles are we cannot outgive God.

We are stewards, not owners. And finally, one more principle

that Papal teaches, and that.

Is we are investors. We are investors.

Papa used this language investing. He said, We're investing in

God's kingdom, We're investing in other people. We're investing in

God's ministry. He was an investor. For example, in the

church I grew up in the youth ministry. The high school,

middle school students would often go on trips and retreats

and camps and mission trips.

And my Papa knew.

That trips like these were incredibly transformative for young people.

This is where people gave their life to Christ. This

is where they heard the gospel, where someone get called

into ministry where they would be discipled in the faith.

And he wanted to make sure that no student missed

out because of finances. And so he told the youth pastor,

whatever it takes, he would cover any cost, and he

basically wrote a blank check for any needs based scholarships

for those type of events because he wanted people to

hear the gospel. See Papa believed what Proverbs three teaches,

Verse twenty seven says, do not withhold good from those

to whom it is due when it is in your

power to act.

Papa also valued education.

In fact, he wanted to help young people go to

college who maybe couldn't afford it, especially pastors and ministry

leaders who maybe couldn't afford college or couldn't afford the

loans for college. And so there are several pastors and

leaders who went to school because Papa paid for their tuition.

And he believed that by writing that check or paying

that tuition, he was making an investment in God's kingdom.

By investing in a pastor's education, he was investing in

thousands of people hearing the gospel for decades to come.

He believed we are investors.

And in the Bible, God talks about how our giving,

how our generosity invests in the ministry of God's kingdom.

In Deuteronomy twenty.

Six, God says, when you have finished setting aside a

tenth of all your produce in the third year, the

year of the tithe, you shall give it to the levite,

the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, so they may

eat in your towns and be satisfied. And so God

says the tithe your ten percent is helping the most vulnerable,

because look at these four people groups. Look closely, the levite,

the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow. What do these

four groups have in common? Each of them were not landowners.

Remember this is an agricultural society.

You needed land.

You need to grow something, produce something, raise livestock. That's

how you lived. If you didn't own land, you couldn't survive.

The Levites they were the only tribe that did not

receive a land inheritance. They dependent on the other tribes

to provide. The immigrant did not own land.

In Israel. In a widow, her husband might own land,

but when he passed.

Most likely the property defaulted back to his brothers or

his family. And so here is God saying We're gonna

provide for the most vulnerable.

We're gonna provide for those in need.

And Church at the Crossing does the same thing in

our community. Our giving brings the gospel to our community.

We're investing in the ministry of the gospel. We cover

the costs for the neighborhood market that's open on Saturdays,

serving over one hundred families in our community. We fund

celebrate recovery on Tuesday nights. We're just last Tuesday, I

got to see people celebrate their recovery journey. People stand

up and say, thirty days in recovery, someone else ninety

days in recovery. Somebody was there who had a whole

year in recovery. Passport's employment has helped over twenty five

hundred people in job search and job transition. We launched

Repair Care, which is a ministry to help single moms

and widows and with small home repair and yard work,

things that are challenging for one person to do. And

not to mention what we're doing around the world, the

missionaries we support.

We've got a team from our church right.

Now Dominican Republic helping rebuild a house for a single mom.

I mean we are investing in the Kingdom of God.

We are investors.

We honor God with what you have and trust Him

for what you need. At the beginning of every new year,

I intentionally ask the Lord to.

Give me a word or a theme for that year

to focus on in my life.

And at the beginning of this year in January, he

put the word generous on my heart.

Generosity.

That's been my theme this year, and the Lord has

been developing this attitude within me in addition to my tithing,

teaching me practices and habits to grow in generosity. Because

I want to honor God with what I have. I

want to live by faith. I want to see God

do something with the investment I make.

I want to be like Papal. So where do we

go from here.

I believe that there is a challenge for each of

us today from what we've heard, and that challenge is,

what is your next step in generosity? I can't tell

you what your next step is. That's not my place

to prescribe something to you. Only God can tell you.

Will you ask Him to show you? For someone God

might prompt you to start giving, and that might seem

scary and take some faith, and you think ten percent, Well,

maybe it's to start with a step one percent, two percent.

For someone else.

God may challenge you to step up to ten percent

or beyond, or to start giving consistently each week each month.

Your next step might be to take a finance class

our church offers us. I know there's one coming up soon,

to learn how to budget and manage money. That might

be the next step. I can't tell you what your

next step is, but will you ask God to show

you what your next step is? I want to end

by telling you one more thing about Papal. I mentioned

that Papal financially supported pastors and leaders, many of them

he paid for them to go to college long before

I was born. For decades, he helped pastors with living

expenses with financial needs long before I was born. And

when he paid for many pastors go to college.

These weren't loans. He never got paid back. These were investments.

Well, today I personally know five men, five pastors who

were financially blessed by my grandfather, and all five of

these men have made positive investments in my life. I mean,

one of them taught me how to preach. One of

them is the greatest encourager in my life. All five

of these are role models, inspiration mentors, Father figures investing

into me. And I promise you that there's no way

decades ago, when my grandfather was investing in them, there's

no way that he would have predicted that these people

would become investors in my life.

But that's how the Kingdom of God works. When you

honor God with what you have.

Remember what our text says. It says your barns will

be overflowing and your vats.

Will brim over with new wine. That's overflow.

There's no way decades ago that Papal could have predicted

the overflow of his generosity. I'm benefiting from the overflow.

So will you ask the Lord what is your next step?

I think it's appropriate for us just to take a

few moments now to turn our hearts and our minds

to God's spirit and let him speak to us. Would

you bow your head with me and close your eyes

and just ask him what is your next step?

And then I'll close this.

In prayer, Father, God, a trust that you are speaking

to us. And Father, we pray for the faith to

trust you with what we have, to honor you with

what we have.

And God, I also want to recognize that.

In a room like this, with a number of people

like this, there is undoubtedly some of us who have

a big need, who have a financial need, have a

material need God, and it.

Can be overwhelming. It's keeping us awake at night, a

job thing. And so God, I pray boldly in the

name of Jesus, that you would.

Provide that need, that you would provide those funds, that

you would provide that opportunity, that you would bring resolution. God,

that you would bring a decision. God, but provide. God,

You are the provider, You are the giver, and so

we trust you for what we need.

And we pray all of this in Jesus's name. Amen.