The Power of a Seed

What is the power of a seed?

The power of a seed goes far beyond its small size and unassuming appearance.

A seed is a tiny package of potential.

It grows into a mighty tree, a vibrant flower or nutritious plant.

The seeds are resilient and able to withstand challenging conditions and to bring about a harvest.

However, the most powerful part of a seed is its ability to reproduce and multiply.

Seeds reproduce and multiply, creating a generational legacy beyond their existence.

Seeds will transform landscapes and communities over time.

The power of a seed doesn't just apply to the physical world, but also to the spiritual realm.

Scripture repeatedly tells us and shows the power of small seeds of faith.

God is in the business of using individuals and communities of people who are willing to sow seeds of faith to bring about an abundant harvest.

For seeds to germinate and be successful, they must find their way to good and healthy soil where they can be nurtured and cared for over time.

Paul echoes this thought in his prayer for the church in Ephesus.

As we step out sowing seeds of faith, Paul's prayer in Ephesians is our prayer.

When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the creator of everything in heaven and on earth.

I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources, he will empower you with inner strength through his spirit.

Then Christ will make its home in your heart as you trust in him.

Your roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong.

And may you have the power to understand as all God's people do.

How wide, how long, how high, and how deep it's easier.

May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully.

Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work with us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.

Glory to Him in church and in Christ Jesus through all generations, forever and ever.

Amen.

All through Scripture, we see God partnering with men and women, asking them to sow seeds of faith and be part of the redemptive work here on earth.

God comes to Abraham in Genesis chapter 12 and asks him to leave his homeland, his family, and everything he's ever known, so that God can produce a new nation of people who will be committed to him.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

Abraham has the faith to believe in God and his promises and to step out in obedience.

As a result, the world has never been the same.

As this new nation continues to multiply, they find themselves in slavery in Egypt.

Here the Lord hears the people's cries and sends a deliverer, Moses.

And even though Moses is initially reluctant, he eventually trusted God and had faith that the Lord would use him.

The Lord used Moses' faith to perform mighty miracles and free a nation of people from Israel.

When Israel established an earthy king to be like the other nations around them, God chooses the most unlikely candidate, a little shepherd by the name of David.

David was a small in stature, but he had big faith, fighting the giant Goliath and conquering the promised land for the people.

When God's people find themselves in exile living among the enemy nations, God uses a man named Daniel who practices his faith even in spite of opposition.

When sentenced to death by being thrown into the lion's den, Daniel's faith doesn't waver and God is glorified.

In the New Testament, God uses people like Peter and Paul and Priscilla to establish the church.

Through their faith, they sacrificed everything to see the good news of Jesus continue to spread and transform lives.

Throughout history, God has continued to use men and women of great faith to accomplish his purposes.

Men like St.

Patrick, who became a missionary to the Irish, and in 29 years of ministry, he baptized more than 120,000 citizens and planted approximately 300 churches.

William Tyndale believed the Bible should be printed in English so the common man could read the gospels in their native language.

Tyndale had great faith even while facing opposition and was eventually executed.

Harriet Beecher Stowe allowed her faith to help her write the influential novel Uncle Tom's Cavin, which helped challenge the attitude of slavery in America.

The faith of Corey Tinboom allowed faith to guide her while she was imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp in Germany.

She snuck a Bible into a camp and led worship in the barracks.

We could continue to tell story after story.

Stories of Elizabeth Elliott or Martin Luther King Jr.

or Diedrich Bonhoeffer, Mother Teresa, among many others.

Here's what we want you to see: God is in the business of using people willing to sow seeds of faith.

God tends to take those seeds of faith and bring about a far greater harvest than anyone could ever imagine.

And God led my wife and I to Walton County, Georgia in 2004, and we began to pray about the reality of planting a church in Walton County.

We began to look at the community as we lived in the community.

We began to study the demographics of the community.

And what we found out then was that 85% of the people in Walton County on any given Sunday were never in church.

They were never going to church on a Sunday morning.

And we know those demographics have changed.

And it's even it's even exponentially worse now.

And so when people begin to hear us talk about planting a new church, they were like, man, look at all the churches in the community.

The landscape is dotted with steeples.

But but we realized, and you know this, we we most of us know this, that just because there's a building and a steeple does not mean that there is a healthy church underneath that steeple.

So many of those churches are dying on the vine.

And so God had led us at that point to plant a new church, a church that would that would reach people that didn't even know they wanted to go to church yet.

A church that would reach unchurched people, a church that would reach dechurched people, maybe a church that would reach people that experience church hurt.

Maybe it was a it would be a church for people that simply wanted a fresh work of the Spirit of God.

We were looking around and we knew Nathan and Caitlin and Megan, and so that kind of uh kind of pushed us to come here, to come somewhere where we know people.

Um and we came and we we really just kind of we kind of fell in love.

We really felt home.

Um I know it's cliche, but we were just we were welcomed with open arms.

And um and that's kind of that's kind of what I guess drew us in and uh caused us to keep coming.

My name is Claudia Anderson.

I've been at Church of the Grove since June of 2007.

I was in between churches, did not have a church home, and a friend was telling me about a new church that had just gotten started at Youth Middle School.

Church at the Grove became my church because when I walked in the door of that middle school, Russ Butcher was standing there and he greeted me.

I did not realize he was the pastor and invited me in, and the people were so friendly.

And I'll never forget at the end of the service, Barbara Bledsoe walked over to me and said, Hey, I'm Barbara.

Um, we have community group at my house.

If you want to come, let me know.

And so I walked out and I thought, wow, this is a whole different situation than what I'm you know, used to.

And I came back the next week, and there again, there was Lara.

Hey, Claudia! I'm like, okay, wait a minute.

There's something wrong with this guy who knows my name.

I've only been in here one time.

So I went in, love the worship, he's preaching the word, and as I walked out, it just hit me.

This is where I'm gonna be, and this is where I've been ever since.

We both grew up in Newton County and we were coming back like home from college, moving back and trying to establish, you know, a sense of church family.

And so we were had we were attending um a church in in Macon and Milledgeville, and then we actually through Facebook, I found church at the Grove.

Like I think it was our pastor that at the church we were at shared something or or something as silly as that is, but and I was like, well, we can try this, try this church out.

It seems like you know, what we want in a church.

And we came one Sunday and tried no more churches.

We never looked back.

It immediately felt like our home and where we wanted to grow our marriage and where we wanted to be.

I I love the memories and the thoughts.

Things flourished, God worked, and and we always wanted to be a church.

It was about multiplying.

And so I remember when we began to dream about planting a campus in social circle, and we sent out Nathan and Caitlin Boyd, and they they they sold their house in um in Loganville, and they literally moved right into the center of social circle.

Five years after Church at the Grove began in Walnut Grove, there was a dream to start a new church in the small city of Social Circle.

Even though the Walnut Grove campus was still portable, meeting in a school, setting up and breaking down each week, there was a desire to see the good news of Jesus continue to spread.

At the beginning of 2012, a small team of approximately 30 people launched a new campus that began to gather in Social Circle Middle School.

Over the last 12 years, many have come to faith in Jesus and we have seen a number of lives transformed.

We have impacted our local school system and city government.

We have volunteered in countless number of events and shown that we are for the circle.

I was 26 years old when we launched Social Circle, and I had no clue how to write a sermon or how to plan a service, not to mention to lead other people who were far older than I was.

Although I didn't have much experience or knowledge, I did have a heart and a desire to serve the Lord, to reach people far from God, and to lead them to become followers of Jesus.

Over my time here at Church at the Grove, I've learned that God is in the business of using people that are willing to say yes to his voice.

God uses our faith to do more than we can ever imagine.

Church at the Grove, immediately from my first visit, I knew it was the right place for me.

Um, some positive, significant spiritual moments for me here at Church at the Grove was I was invited to uh serve in Kids Grove.

And then finally, it was actually my daughter Emma who said, I think we should help in the baby room.

And I said, Have you lost your mind?

Babies are hard.

And she said, But I think you'll love it.

And I'm so glad my daughter knows me so well because I absolutely love it.

And it's an extra blessing to get to do it with her, to serve with her.

I can't adequately express my gratitude.

I can't adequately express that my cup overflows every time I step into this church.

My heart is so full.

I'm so blessed.

I'm so glad to be a part of this church.

I'm so glad to serve, I'm so glad to give, and to see it multiply tenfold is the most beautiful thing.

It's truly a miracle to witness it.

We've always been a church that wanted to be about multiplying and and and planting new churches.

And so as we think back, as I think back about that time, I think about the people that were willing in the very beginning to sow seeds of faith that would make Church at the Grove a reality, and not just church at the Grove, a reality to make this kingdom-advancing work a reality.

But I want to talk to you a little bit about where we are now in the life of our church.

We're at another crossroads, we're at another place where there is a need for us to sow seeds of faith.

Um, as we move forward, as we look forward to this next season in the life of Church at the Grove, I'm asking our church to really consider three things.

Number one is I want us to consider how we should press in into the presence and the person of Jesus Christ like never before.

That we would move forward as a church called to follow Jesus at a deeper level, to be truly followers and disciples of Jesus.

That is the first part of this initiative.

The second part of this initiative is for a hundred percent engagement, a hundred percent engagement in pursuing Jesus, his presence, his person, but also a hundred percent engagement in the generosity initiative part of this journey.

And then thirdly, I want you to consider that we need new facilities.

We need to add facilities to our existing facilities primarily to provide for the extensive growth that God has already brought to church at the grove.

We know he's gonna continue to bring more people that need uh to be reached with the gospel of Jesus.

I love this building that is behind me.

This building that we moved into in 2016, it has served us so well.

It has been a blessing, a huge blessing for us to be able to move on this property and have our own place and to be able to worship and to be able to gather our children where they can hear the gospel and be taught about Jesus.

This building now has the potential to be remodeled and repurposed in such a way that it will serve specifically the needs of our next generation.

I think about like my like my kids, and like it's exciting for me to know that like I heard something the other day about your your kids are gonna go through stuff in life, and unfortunately, they're not always gonna come to you.

And so having other mentors and people in their lives who are going to be able, godly mentors who are gonna be able to encourage them and challenge them and call them out and be a safe place for them to run to in the situations when the world gets hard and dark, like knowing that there is community that we found through this church that is gonna be life-changing for my children, that is something that excites me to know that I'm in a place where I can trust the Lord is we're gonna see the Lord in their lives through through the way that other people in this church are living their lives faithfully.

So, as we consider the power of a seed, I want you to imagine something with me.

I'm standing out here on the ground where our new auditorium will be.

We want to build a building, yes, that is used for worship, but is also available to our community.

As we move forward into this generosity initiative, I am asking you to pray and to fast and to consider your part and your role and what God wants as we sow seeds of faith into this season of ministry, knowing that God is going to do great things moving forward.

God is not limited by time, space, or resources.

The only thing that limits God is our lack of faith.

When the disciples of Jesus struggled to have faith, he made this powerful statement in Matthew.

I tell you the truth.

If you had faith, even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it would move.

Nothing would be impossible.

Nothing is impossible for those who have faith.

A seed might seem small, but inside this little shell, it can impact people for generations to come.

What seed of faith will you plant?

How will your seed of faith impact the generations that come behind you?

Four Generations isn't about building a new facility.

It is a movement of people sold out to follow God, sowing seeds of faith that will change our community in the world.

What will God do as we step out in faith to follow him?

If I had had a chance to meet you, um, I'm one of the pastors here uh at Church at the Grove, and and I want to welcome every one of you that is with us.

Some of you are here, uh you're just part of our family, you're part of our um congregation or part of our church, and and we're we're glad you're here, but also want to welcome those of you that might be here for the first time.

We're excited that you're here to celebrate with us.

Um and this is a monumental day, this is a monumental season.

I want to welcome um our church family from Social Circle as we're streaming down to Social Circle live today.

And so um uh uh one of the one of the comments that was made in the video, I can't remember um exactly who it was, but they they said that they found themselves at a crossroads.

And I think that we find ourselves at a crossroads.

I know that I find myself at a crossroads in in my life in this season.

And and I'm just gonna be vulnerable for a second here.

Um my wife and I planted this church along with a group of people.

I always say, I I did or or we did.

Craig Story was a partner with us, and I'm so thankful for Craig's investment.

And and of course, Nathan was in high school, I think, when we planted the church, maybe college, but but but but it's been a while back.

And so all three of my children, I've got I've got three kids.

My my oldest turned 26 this past week.

We've celebrated his birthday, Josiah.

He lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Um I have a daughter named Abigail who who used to lead worship here a lot.

And some of you know Abigail from that standpoint.

Uh she got married right out there under that big oak tree on September 30th this year to a young man named Birch, and I'm very thankful for the fact that he is a godly young man.

And then I have a son named Caleb who is 18 years old.

He is in his first year out of high school and and really just trying to uh determine what God's path is for him.

But so so the reason I say that is I want you to know that my kids have all grown up and and they have loved Church at the Grove, and Church at the Grove has immeasurably invested into their life.

But but they're gone.

They're gone.

I uh my son Josiah, I'm just gonna be honest with you, I don't I don't see him coming back probably to this community.

My my daughter Abigail has some dreams that I think will take her away.

Um not saying they won't ever come back, obviously.

Um, not sure about Caleb, but but but the hardest part or the most critical part of our parenting journey is really done.

And so I say that to say this is when I came to the point where where I felt God speak to me and sharing it with our elders for confirmation and our staff for confirmation.

I'm just gonna be really honest.

I didn't I didn't necessarily want to take this journey.

I was at a crossroads.

I was at a crossroads, and part of my heart was, you know what?

This has been a 28 years in ministry, um, 17 years planning a new church from scratch.

Um It's hard, it's difficult.

Man, I've got I've got a good several years left.

I can I can pastor and and and we can ride off into the sunset.

And God says, No, at this crossroads, you're gonna listen to me and you're gonna take direction from me.

And so we find, I found myself at a crossroads, and I believe we as a church find our church at a crossroads.

And we have found ourselves at this crossroads numerous times.

You hear the stories, you hear the testimonies.

Many of you know, and so I want you to turn in your little booklets.

I want you to turn to page 25, page 25, and I don't want you to read all the material in the booklet this morning.

I want you to take it home and read it.

I want you to pay attention and follow along with the message this morning.

I've got these little cards in my hands to remind you that our children and our students have already, for the last few weeks, they have gone ahead of us on this journey, and hopefully you have heard them talk about what it means to sow a seed of faith and the power of a seed of faith.

And I'm just gonna read this passage that was read on the video.

I'm gonna just read it again, and we're gonna, we're really gonna camp out in this passage over the next four weeks.

And it's Paul's letter to the Ephesian church, the church at Ephesus.

And it's chapter 3, verses 14 through 21.

He says, For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being.

That according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being, listen, and this is where you underline, circle, being rooted and grounded in love.

Rooted and grounded in love, that you may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may, listen to this, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to him.

Now to him who is able.

Is God able?

Let me ask you a question, church.

Is God able?

Now to him who is able, do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us.

To him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.

Amen.

Now that we're gonna we're gonna unpack this whole section of scripture over the next four weeks, but I want to I want to really focus on that word rooted.

And why?

Why would I focus on the word rooted?

Because we're talking about the power of a seed, the power of being planted, the power of planting a seed to see it grow, to see it develop.

And we see this imagery all throughout scripture of trees, of growth and plants.

As a matter of fact, Proverbs 318 says this wisdom is a tree of life to those who embrace her.

Happy are those who hold her tightly.

So Solomon says, Wisdom is a tree of life.

Wisdom is a tree of life.

Hold tightly, embrace, embrace her, embrace this wisdom.

Trees are mentioned more than anything in the Bible other than God and people.

All the trees in the garden.

God creates all the trees in the garden.

He says, all of these trees are good.

They're meant to be pleasant for sight and good for food.

He says there's two trees specifically in the Garden of Eden.

He says there's the tree of life, and then there's the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

And we know that.

We know that.

He says, hey, you can partake of the tree of life.

Don't touch, don't even touch, don't, don't, you stay away from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

One leads to life, the other leads to death and separation from God.

God establishes a covenant with Abraham at a place that was called the Oaks of Mamre.

The Oaks of Mamre, Genesis 13 through 15.

The New Testament begins with Jesus' family tree.

The New Testament begins, and we kind of want to skip over that.

We want to skip over the fact that there's this genealogy, Jesus' family tree, but it's hugely important.

It's hugely important.

Zacchaeus, Zacchaeus was a weak little man.

And a weak little man was he.

Zacchaeus, he met Jesus while he was in a tree.

He climbs the sycamore tree, and that is where he met Jesus.

Jesus surrenders his life in a grove of olive trees.

We call it the Garden of Gethsemane.

But he surrenders his life in the grove of these olive trees.

And what happens with Jesus' death?

He dies on a tree, doesn't he?

Jesus gives his life and he dies on a tree.

It would have been known in that day as the Roman cross, the Roman tool of execution.

Jesus dies on it.

Revelation 22, 2, this is the end of the story.

It says that the tree of life will be in the new Jerusalem.

And so trees are significant.

And that's why I want to read out of Psalm 1 this morning and just share a couple of things out of Psalm chapter 1, one of my favorite Psalms, and it says this: it says, Blessed is the man who walks.

Psalms 1 · chapter mention

Now, this is this is, I open with comment that we often find ourselves at a crossroads.

We often find ourselves at a crossroads and individually, but we also find ourselves as a church at a crossroads.

And we see this in this Psalm 1, and it starts off this blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers.

But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law, he meditates day and night.

He is like a what?

Say it with me.

He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season.

That's what we want to be.

And its leaf does not wither.

In all that he does, he prospers.

That is my hope for you individually, my hope for you as a family, and my hope and prayer for us as a church.

And then he says, then he gives us the other pathway.

The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

Now, I'm going to ask you to take your booklet home.

And I want you to read through it.

I want you to talk about it with your family.

I want you to pray over it.

I want you to pray for our church.

I want you to pray for your role in this generosity initiative.

But I want you to listen to me very, very closely.

In social circle, listen to me.

This initiative is not about a building.

What we are about to enter into, what we have entered into, it is not about a building.

Let's say that together.

It is not about a building.

Here's what it's about: it is about a journey where we want to press into the person and the presence of Jesus like never before.

That's why we picked this passage.

God led us to Ephesians and this prayer that the Apostle Paul prays over the church at Ephesus.

It's not about a building, it is about a journey where we press into the person and the presence of Jesus.

That's what this journey is about.

Now, secondly, here's my heart and desire is that there would be 100% buy-in from everyone in our church.

100% of you would participate.

100% full unity at the level that God leads you, there would be 100%, whether it's in Walnut Grove or whether it's in social circle.

We are a church that is one.

We are a church that is together.

When we planted here in Walnut Grove and we we went and we sent people to social circle, we were unified.

All of the transitions that we've had, buildings that we've moved to, all in unity, 100% engagement.

Everyone shows, everyone's involved, everyone at whatever level God leads them.

And then thirdly, I want us to see God work in such a way that we can reach more people.

And we can disciple more followers and advance the kingdom through adding to our facilities here at Walnut Grove.

And you see, where is that on the priority list?

Where's the building on the priority list?

It's after Jesus, it's after unity.

And then the result is we move forward in what God's called us to do.

And so this psalm, this passage offers us a brief picture of two distinct pathways.

We find ourselves at a crossroads.

Where are we gonna go?

Are we gonna are we gonna go down the pathway of saying, you know what?

Status quo is good enough.

And I'm gonna be honest with you, that's how I felt.

Hey, I my kids are raised.

I'm moving into a different season.

But God says no.

There are families here that have God has already brought, you see the growth.

We see the growth that has already taken place.

So much so that we've had to add five.

The service to 5 p.m.

We call it the five.

I'm telling you, it's alive at five.

Last week was was good.

It was awesome.

And we see the work that's happening in our students and our children.

The growth is already here, and more is coming.

Will we just stick with status quo or will we answer the call that God has placed on us to reach more people?

Jesus, listen, Jesus, Jesus, after his baptism, he he goes to a synagogue.

And it's kind of his coming out, where he gives his mission statement.

He stands up in the synagogue and he takes the scroll of Isaiah and he opens it up.

And he reads from Isaiah 61.

And here's what it says The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of the vengeance of our God to comfort all who mourn.

Now that's that's what we see in Luke chapter 4.

Luke 4 · chapter mention

But if you were an observant Jew, you would have known when Jesus or rabbi reads the scripture, you always look a little bit before and a little bit after what they read.

To understand the context.

And in verse 3, listen to verse 3, to grant to those who mourn in Zion, to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit, that they may be called oaks of righteousness.

Oaks of righteousness.

When you plant a seed, you plant a seed, it begins to grow.

It begins to flourish, but it is small and it is tiny.

But over time, as God provides the resources, the sun, and the nourishment from rain, and it is it is in good soil.

It has the potential to grow up into a healthy, healthy tree.

And God said, we're called, listen, that we may be called oaks of righteousness as we invest in our children, as we sow seeds, the power of a seed is that one day it will be an oak of righteousness.

That's what God's called.

For our church, our church to be an oak of righteousness, for your family to be an oak of righteousness, for your child to be an oak of righteousness.

The planting, finish the verse, the planting of the Lord that he may be glorified.

So here what am I asking for you to do today?

I'm asking for you really three things.

I'm asking for you to pray.

I'm asking for you to pray.

And I'm asking for you to fast.

I'm asking for you to fast.

And you say, Well, Russ, you know, fast what?

I some of that may depend on how the Lord leads you, how it may depend upon uh the rhythms in your life, but if you want some direction, let me give you some direction.

Just fast from sunup on Friday to sundown on Friday.

Or pick another day.

Sunup to sundown once a week.

When it is time that you normally would have a meal, you pray over what God is calling you to do.

And so pray and fast.

And here's what I'm asking thirdly is that you would commit to commit.

We're not committing today.

I'm asking that you would commit to commit.

I'm asking that you would commit to commit.

And so what do we need from the Lord for that?

We need the Lord to give us faith.

We need the Lord to give us faith to step out.

We need the Lord to give us the same kind of faith that he gave that group of families that originally stepped out in faith.

They left the comfort of their established churches.

They left the comfort of what they knew as, and many of them left children's ministries that were established.

Many of them left student ministries that were established.

And many of those families are still with us, and they have raised their kids, and now their kids have had kids, and their grandchildren are in kids' grove.

And so pray, fast, and commit to commit.

Father, thank you for your goodness and your grace.

Thank you for your provision over 17 years.

Thank you for a fresh vision for our church.

May we be ready and willing to step out in faith again and to plant a seed.

And may we experience the power, the power of a seed.

The power of a seed and what will happen when we step out in faith.

So, God, give us faith.

Give us faith as we pray, as we fast, as we commit to commit.

Father, give us faith.

There may be somebody here this morning that needs to take their first step of faith and to put their faith in Jesus.

Just like we heard in the baptism testimony, put their first, put their faith in Jesus for the first time.

Some of you are going, you're in a desert, you're you're in a wilderness experience, and God is whispering, this is the place to plant roots and to join in seeing God work and move in a miraculous way.

Whether it's in walnut grove or in social circle or in one of the future places that we plant.

Father, we thank you for your goodness.

We lift you up and we ask you to give us faith.

It's in Christ's name we pray.

Amen.