Into the Cave

My name is Rust.

If I haven't had a chance to meet you, it is great to have you with us.

And I don't know what's wrong with the seats in the first three rows.

So this is definitely the Baptist section right over here.

Y'all have the spirit.

Y'all have the Holy Spirit right over here.

I'm kidding.

I'm just joking with you.

Hey, would y'all join me in welcoming our online folks that are worshiping with us online?

We're excited, excited to have our online worship and to have people that for whatever reason, maybe because they don't feel comfortable help-wise getting out, or maybe they're on vacation, or maybe they're having a World Series hangover, whatever it might be.

Today in 1517 was the day that Martin Luther nailed the 95 thesis on the wall on the front door of the church at Wittenberg in Germany.

And it was 95 discussions that led to us returning to the Word of God, the faith and Jesus alone, being what we are grounded in, that, the Gutenberg press, all the things that happened at that time in history, that is a significant day.

Today is also a day that we hand out candy, so that's what we're celebrating too, right?

Now, as a pastor, can I give you a couple of uh can I give you a couple of just uh words of wisdom uh in regard to Halloween and what you do and how you handle it as a believer, okay?

How you handle it as a believer is think like a missionary.

Approach it like a missionary and and and listen, hand out good candy, okay?

And and use it as an opportunity to get to know people that maybe you don't know, and you invite them to church.

Now, if you're not handing out good candy, you invite them to another church, okay?

If you're handed out, you know, peanut shaped marshmallow stuff, you you but but man, full I'm talking Snickers full size.

You tell them to come to church to grow with you next week, okay?

And and and use it.

Now, I'm because I'm I'm gonna be home.

My wife, my wife is gonna be visiting her mom um uh today and tomorrow.

And so I'm gonna tonight's my night, handout candy.

But I'm listening at 8.05, I'm leaving the bowl on the front porch, and I'm coming inside to watch baseball.

So just so y'all know that, if y'all want extra candy, you can come to my house at 10 after 8 if that's you.

All right, uh that's good.

It's a lot of fun.

All right, listen, um we've been in this series called Soul Keeping, where we've I've really hoped, I had really hoped that the last three weeks that we would define what the soul is and begin to give you an idea of how God has wired us and created us.

Very different than what we normally do and how we normally teach.

Uh, but these next two Sundays we're gonna be in um 1 Kings chapter um 19 primarily.

1 Kings chapter 19, and we we we're gonna be talking about Elijah.

1 Kings 19 · chapter mention

I read a book uh on vacation a few weeks ago uh called Out of the Cave by a pastor named Chris Hodges, and he talks he talks through the story of Elijah and how Elijah went into the cave of depression and how he walked out of the cave of depression.

Lots of practical things, which is interesting because we live in a culture and we live in a time of history where we're blessed more than we've ever been blessed.

And when I say that, I'm talking about just the practical way of life.

We have access to more conveniences and just by looking at everything in the outward appearance and looking at how we live life, we should be the happiest people in history on the planet Earth.

Now, when I say that, I'm talking specifically about us in the United States of America.

There's other places that are that are not like that are not happy.

I can tell you, uh Haiti is a place where when you give and you give an offering, part of your offering goes to support churches that we've helped plant in the country of Haiti.

And our pastor, missionary Steve, who who is from Haiti, had moved to the Americ uh moved to the United States.

He felt led to go back after the earthquake in 2010.

He and his wife haven't even been able to go back to Haiti in the last three years because the country is a mess.

It's a political mess.

Gangs are running the country.

Some of you have heard about uh just recently Christians that have been kidnapped and they're being held for ransom uh by a gang.

And so we haven't been able to go.

And so what God has done is God has opened a door in the Dominican Republic for us to continue to plant churches for Haitian-speaking people.

But I can tell you in Haiti, it's the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

And I thought I had seen poor.

I've been to Africa, I've been, I've been to um uh Mexico, I've been to Eastern Europe, I've been to, you know, I haven't traveled all over the world, but I've I've been around some places that don't have the standard of living that we have.

Haiti is the poorest of the poor.

And so we have the best life that we could imagine.

Why would we struggle with emotional pain or depression or anxiety or worry?

If we have life so good, why would we struggle with some of these things?

I I'm I'm an extrovert, and so I feed off of being around people.

But I will tell you, the past year and a half has been a struggle.

It's been a struggle emotionally.

It's been a struggle.

One of the things my wife and I talked about is the y'all remember when everything shut down for about 12 weeks, um, and and so my kids had to come home from college, my two oldest kids had to come home from college, our youngest was at home.

That was the biggest blessing of this whole experience, is all of us were in the same house for 12 weeks.

We sat and had dinner together for 12 weeks.

And some of you are smiling because you would say, that's the you would ask the question, is that really a blessing?

And we had our moments.

We had our moments.

But we we we just, I said, Jill, we'll never have this again.

They'll go back to school.

They're gonna they're gonna go off and get jobs.

I'm praying one, I'm praying they go off and get jobs.

And and and they'll be, they'll get married and they'll be on their own.

And but but outside of that, that whole that whole year was a difficult year because I'm an extrovert and I feed off of people.

And not being able to be with my church, not being able to be be in process of what God's called me to do, it was emotionally difficult for me.

So the pandemic has been difficult, but the normal life is difficult.

Even before the pandemic, there there seemed to be there seemed to be an increase in pastor pastors, uh, pastors committing suicide.

There was this just in a short period, there was a a number of pastors that took their own life, I think, under the emotional strain of just life in general, carrying the weight not only of their life, but the weight and the souls and the heaviness of dealing with leading people.

Mental health hotlines have increased over the past couple of years, 900% in the number of calls they've received over the pandemic.

The CDC says that one out of four under 30 considered suicide during the past couple of years, and it was one out of ten for the rest of us that were older.

Divorce filings have gone up 20% over the last couple of years.

Antidepressant medication has gone up 300%.

Um, and so what I have felt so convicted about is that we, the church, and God's word needs to speak into the soul health of his people and into soul health in general.

God wants us to walk in the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

God wants us to walk in the identity of Jesus Christ.

It doesn't mean that all of that's gonna go away completely because we live in a fallen, broken world.

And I know that, listen, I am not a doctor, I am not an expert.

There are things that are completely outside of my expertise in this, and so I know that.

I acknowledge that.

I don't do a lot of counseling, but but when I people come see me, one of the first questions I'll ask is when was the last time you had a physical?

When was the last time you had a checkup?

Because our physical health and our soul health, our emotional well-being, all of it's tied together.

That's what we spent the last three weeks talking about.

Our wills, our minds, our bodies, and our souls being in alignment.

Hebrew people call it shalom, the peace of God that surpasses all understanding, all understanding.

And so there's reasons that we struggle with emotions.

Here's a few uh things that I think are important to understand.

Depression often points to something deeper.

Depression often points to something deeper.

It is a symptom of something that is not healthy inside your heart or your soul at the soul level.

It's maybe your body and your soul, your heart, God's trying to teach you something or tell you something.

There is often a stigma around the topic of depression or a stigma about emotional pain or anxiety or worry.

We need to get rid of that stigma.

I have I have to wear these glasses.

So I don't have any shame in telling you that I can't see you right now.

I mean, I finally, you know, if if I want to be able to see the words on the page and see your faces, I have to put these on.

There's no shame in that.

There should be no shame in you acknowledging, man, I am hurting at a soul level.

Maybe I'm not, maybe there's something unhealthy.

There's some, so remove the stigma.

Let's get it out in the open.

Let's talk about it.

But thirdly, you need to understand this: your illness or your depression is not your identity.

It's not who you are.

Don't, we we just thank you, Hannah.

Remember who you are in Christ.

In Christ, you are redeemed, you are adopted, you are, you are given new life.

You have a new identity.

You are a new creation.

Paul says, says, says, anyone in Christ is a new creation.

The old things have passed away.

Behold, all things are new.

2 Corinthians 5, 17.

Listen, so the church needs to speak out in these issues, and then we need to look at see, this is nothing new.

This is nothing new.

This is the battle that humanity has been struggling with.

It's nothing new.

Jeremiah, we were doing some sermon planning this past week and looking out ahead at what we feel like God wants to speak into the life of our church, and somebody, I won't mention his name, he said, man, let's do a series on Jeremiah.

And I'm like, man, that is depressing.

Jeremiah is depressing.

He wrote a whole book out of his depression called Lamentations.

Let me just read a few lines and you'll understand.

And I'm kind of joking, half joking.

It would be a great series to do because it's out of the Bible.

Anything in the Bible would be good to talk through and teach through.

But Lamentations 3.17, peace has been stripped away.

Here's what Jeremiah says.

And I have forgotten, I have forgotten, see what he would remember, I have forgotten what prosperity is.

I cry out, my splendor is gone.

Everything I had hoped for from the Lord is lost.

Now that's depressing, isn't it?

The thought of my suffering and homelessness is bitter beyond words.

I will never forget this awful time as I grieve over my loss.

Verse 20, out of the English, out of the NIV, he says, I will remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.

My soul is downcast within me.

The Apostle Paul had had low moments in his life.

2 Corinthians 1.8, he says, We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experience in the province of Asia.

Here's what he says.

We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself.

The apostle Paul.

And then Elijah.

I mean, I could we could talk about other other great leaders and godly people throughout church history.

I think last week we talked about Mother Teresa, we talked about Charles Furgeon, other leaders.

Elijah is a prophet of the Old Testament, and here's what sets Elijah apart.

Elijah was allowed to be present when Jesus was transfigured on the Mount of Transfiguration in the New Testament.

He and Moses were allowed to stand with Jesus in all of his glory.

And so Elijah is a very important figure in Scripture.

Now, 1 Kings 19, 1 through 4, we're going to look at his story and look at how Elijah goes into this cave of depression.

1 Kings 19, 1 through 4.

Now Ahab told Jezebel.

Ahab, king of Israel, his wife Jezebel, Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword.

So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying, May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.

Elijah was afraid and ran for his life.

When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there.

While he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, he came to a broom bush, sat down under it, and prayed that he might die.

I have had enough, Lord.

Now, this is, can we be let me let me ask you, have you ever felt that just that last phrase, that last sentence?

Lord, I've had enough.

Anybody ever felt that way?

You said it, you felt that way.

Some of you are not telling the truth, or you're not participating, one or the other.

I had enough, Lord.

I said that.

Most Sunday afternoons, I say that.

Take my life, he says.

I am no better than my ancestors.

So Elijah ends up in a cave, which is a great metaphor for depression.

And I know that this is going to be overly simplistic, but I want to talk about six things that lead us into the cave.

And I don't want to belittle anything about mental health at all.

But from a spiritual standpoint, here's six things I think that are worth looking at out of this passage.

Six ways that we can get into the cave.

First one is life imbalances.

Life imbalances.

Now, what do I mean by life imbalances?

More and more research is pointing to a lot of our emotional state, a lot of our emotional issues are directly related to our lifestyles.

And so Elijah has these two great victories in 1 Kings 18.

So let me just give you a brief overview of what has happened right at the end of chapter 18.

Elijah is one of the prophets that has been living.

Ahab has killed off all the prophets.

I believe it was Obadiah was a prophet that had hidden some prophets away so they couldn't be killed.

But Elijah, the fact that he's living is now made known to Ahab and Jezebel.

And so they call for this great battle on Mount Carmel where Elijah says, well, let us let us let's set up two altars.

Let's set two altars up.

You set up an altar to the gods of Baal.

Go get all of your prophets, and we'll set up an altar to the God, to the living God, and then you call upon your God to bring fire upon your altar.

I'll call on my God to bring fire on this altar, and we'll see whose God is real.

So 450 prophets of Baal start calling on their God, and they and they call and they call for hours.

They cut themselves, they're bleeding, and they're they're they're doing anything they can.

Elijah mocks them.

He makes fun of them, which is which I like that about that scripture says that he mocks these uh the these prophets of a false God.

He says, hey, where is your God?

Maybe he's in the bathroom.

I mean, that's what he says, maybe he's relieving himself.

Where is your God?

He can't be found.

And so finally they get to the point, and just to throw salt in the wound, uh, Elijah says, hey, pour water on the altar.

Not just one time, multiple times, put water on the altar.

He calls on God, and God comes down in fire and consumes the altar with fire, proving that his God is real.

Not only that, there's a bit of famine in the land, and Elijah calls for God to bring relief for the famine, and he stands out on the mountain and he begins to see a cloud moving toward him.

He says it looked like the shape of a hand, and all of a sudden there's relief and there's rain.

Two major victories.

Two major victories.

And then just in a few verses, he's running scared away from Ahab and Jezebel.

Now, what does that say to us?

It says that Elijah was human just like you and me.

We can go from one minute enjoying the blessings of God into the next moment broken because of the circumstances or the emotional strain or the difficulties, whatever the reason, you can feel like and wonder in your mind is God, where are you?

Where have you gone?

I don't sense that you're here.

Part of it is just life is hard.

I've taken lots of ski trips with young people.

So I'm a recovering youth pastor.

Okay, that's now part of my identity.

I'm a recovering youth pastor.

So I've been on the slopes many, many times with students, and so I I I've talked to some of the rescue workers that are, you know, wearing the red vest and the red outfits, and they're helping people who get wounded.

And they'll one time I was in a conversation and they said, Do you know what part of the day that most people get injured?

What is that?

They said, It's always at the end of the day, the last hour or two.

It's for two reasons.

Number one, they're exhausted and they're tired.

Number two, they've been skiing all day, so they get the hang of it and they get overconfident.

See, not everything that is doable is actually sustainable.

And we run and we go and we push, and we're afraid of missing out, and so we push a little harder, and at the end of the day, we're exhausted, and not just physically, emotionally.

Stephen Alardi says this he says, we were never designed for the sedentary indoor social.

Socially isolated, fast food laden, sleep deprived, frenzied pace of modern life.

We weren't designed for that.

And Solomon knew that in Ecclesiastes 4.6.

He says, better to have, now, this is the richest man probably that's ever lived.

The wealthiest man that's ever lived.

He said, better to have one handful with quietness than two handfuls with hard work and chasing the wind.

And the question is, when is enough enough?

For the pace of life or how, how, what type of lifestyle we want to live?

The second thing that leads us into the cave is comparing ourselves with others.

The sin of comparison, the difficulty of comparison.

Verse 4, look at what Elijah says.

He says, Take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors who've already died.

I'm no better than any prophets that have come before me.

I'm no better.

He's comparing himself to others who've come before him.

President Theodore Roosevelt said this that comparison is the thief of joy.

Comparing ourselves.

Now, how do we compare ourselves?

It's constantly in front of us.

It's constantly.

Where is it?

It's right here.

It's right here.

I didn't even know I wanted that.

Oh, let me just keep.

Oh, I didn't know I wanted that either.

Why do they get to go there?

Why do they get to go on trip?

I never get to go on that trip.

Somebody walked in this morning and said they drove home from Jacksonville last night.

Sinners.

They, I'm not even gonna, I'm not gonna, I don't want you to know who it is.

But but we we John Mark Comer in his book, uh, Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, he he said, he says, listen, all the billionaires who have invented smartphones and TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram, by the way, these these things in and of themselves are not evil.

Okay?

So if you're on Facebook, it's not, you're not sinning.

If you're on social media, you're not, I mean, it's not, I'm not talking about this as a sin.

I'm talking about the dangers of them, but this is just an interesting fact.

They are now all sending their kids to schools where phones and social media are not allowed, private schools.

Galatians 6, Paul says this.

He says, pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won't need to compare yourself to anyone else.

For we are each responsible for our own conduct.

And so I wrote down from Pastor Chris, who wrote uh the book Out of the Cave.

He talked about selective ignorance.

Selective ignorance.

I made a conscious decision.

My wife and I made a conscious decision that we would not consume ourselves with the news.

I mean, that we, you know, when I say that, I check, I check headlines every day just to make sure that we're not in a world war, mainly.

And that the world hadn't fallen apart and you know, that I can that we can safely go on with our lives.

I mean, I check headlines.

But but I grew up in a house where you just, you know, um, and and I there's people in my family, they they keep the news on all the time.

Not not when uh when something bad happens, like 9-11, when you you're constantly checking on things.

I mean, all the time they're listening to the news.

And no wonder they're they're emotionally uh distressed and filled with anxiety and worry, selective ignorance.

There's certain things that I don't even need to be aware of and worry about.

I don't want to know what you're eating.

I don't want to see a picture of your lunch.

I don't, I mean, it's I hope you enjoy it, but I don't have to be consumed with what everybody else is doing all the time.

And so I could keep going with that.

Comparison is a major, major problem.

Number three is ruminating, and I'm gonna explain, ruminating in self-talk.

Here's what Elijah says in verse 10 of 19, 1 Kings 19.

He says, I have zealously served the Lord God Almighty, but the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, killed every one of your prophets.

I'm the only one left, and now they're trying to kill me too.

See, Elijah is worked up, and he's talking and speaking things that are not true.

They're not true.

Self-talk.

You talk to yourself every day.

You say, well, that's that's kind of weird.

Well, we all do it.

We all talk to ourselves.

Hannah alluded to it.

We have to preach the gospel to ourselves every day.

The good news, because if you don't, if you don't, if you're not careful, all you're gonna do is dwell on negative, dwell on things that are out of your control, and you're gonna be anxious and worried and constantly distressed.

You know what ruminating is?

The literal, the literal meaning of that is chewing the cud.

You know what a cow does?

The cow will eat the grass and he will chew it up and he will swallow it.

And then what does he do?

Then he brings it back up.

I mean, he brings it back up and he chews it some more and he swallows it again.

Then he'll bring it back up.

That is what happens when you constantly dwell on negative thoughts in your mind.

Brian Tracy is an author.

He said 95% of your emotions are determined by the way you talk to yourself.

You've got to speak to your soul.

And what you speak to your soul needs to be truth.

It needs to come from God's word.

You are redeemed.

You are a child of God.

You are um you have been bought with the blood of Jesus Christ.

If you are in Christ, you're a new creation.

You're you're adopted into the family of God.

God is sovereign and he is in control.

Paul says it this way in Philippians 4.

He says, and now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing.

Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right and pure and lovely and admirable.

Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me, everything you heard from me and saw me doing, then the God of peace will be with you.

Sometimes you just gotta sit down and you you this is just something I that I was taught 28 years ago or 30 years ago, is in my personal worship time.

Sometimes I just need to start writing the attributes of God down.

And I use the alphabet.

That's how I do it.

I've done it, y'all, I've y'all heard me talk about that before.

God, you are almighty.

God, you are beautiful.

You are caring, you're a delight for my soul.

You're edifying, you are encouraging, you are faithful, you're good.

I mean, just I mean, and it's those that number one, that ushers you into the presence of God, the Holy Spirit, the activity of the Holy Spirit in your life, control the mind, control the life.

Number four, stepping in the cave, inability to process pain in a healthy way.

The inability to process pain in a healthy way.

Now, part of this is most of us, if not all of us, sometimes struggle with wrong and unhealthy expectations in our world.

What do I mean by that?

We live in a broken, fallen world.

Bad things are going to happen.

That is the result of human rebellion against God.

It wasn't how God created things, God created things in perfect harmony.

Where Adam and Eve, it speaks of them walking in the cool of the day with God, the fullness of his presence, no separation.

But when they decided that they could do things their own way, and it brought sin, and sin brought death.

Romans 5.12, Paul says, but as a result of sin, death became part of something we have to deal with.

All of natural, our environment has suffered the consequences of that.

Our souls have suffered the consequences.

Our physical bodies don't, we don't live forever physically in this physical earthly world.

And so sometimes we have to just get real.

This is a broken world.

The writer of Hebrews says it's appointed unto man wants to die.

People will, at some point, their physical bodies will give in to death and decay.

It's gonna happen.

We shouldn't be surprised.

We should have healthy understanding, a healthy understanding of theological expectations.

Listen, we all deserve the judgment of God.

It is the grace and the mercy of God that has given us the opportunity to hear the good news of Jesus Christ.

And so we need to understand that.

Jesus said in John 16, 33, he says, take heart.

He says, You will have trouble in this world, but take heart, I have overcome the world.

Victor Frankel, if you want an interesting book by an interesting author, so the little b book is called Man's Search for Meaning, that he wrote following his imprisonment during the Holocaust.

And he says, the goal of life is for us to understand our purpose and meaning.

The goal of life is purpose and meaning.

And if you don't have purpose and meaning, you will dull your life with pleasure.

Just pleasure.

We're supposed to have meaningful work, we have meaningful relationships, we have meaningful purpose in our life, and even listen, even though it doesn't sound right and doesn't feel right, there is meaning and purpose in our suffering.

So what?

That we can comfort others.

So that we can comfort others.

There's purpose in our pain.

Number five, isolation and loneliness.

We're the most connected people in history, but we're the most lonely and isolated generation in history.

We've never been able to connect with others like we can now with technology, but we seem to be the most lonely and isolated generation in history.

And that was the first problem in the Bible.

Before sin even entered the equation, God looked at Adam and He said, It's not good for man to be alone.

I don't even like the term social distancing.

That's not a good term.

And if you're sick, stay away from me, okay?

But but I mean we we're we're social creatures, we're creatures that are social.

And so we we don't need to take our cues from the world.

What does he say?

He says, you you need to um do not do not be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

And then finally, number six, so what takes you into the cave, it's just spiritual warfare.

Maybe this is the most important, but it's the last on the list.

Spiritual warfare.

We as believers, as followers of Jesus, we need to be able to tune in to the reality that there is another world that runs parallel to our physical world that where we can see and touch.

And it's just as real, if not more real, than the world that we live in that's physical.

Spiritual warfare.

There are enemies that are fighting over your soul.

There are enemies that do not want to live, you want you to live with joy.

Here, let me tell you what, the purpose of the devil and all of the uh demons that exist.

Their purpose is to keep you from Jesus.

But if they can't keep you from Jesus and you have salvation in Jesus, they can't do anything about that.

But then their purpose shifts is to make you as miserable as possible so you can't join God in his mission to see others redeemed.

You see it?

1 Peter 5, 8, 9 is to stay alert, watch out for your great enemy, the devil.

He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.

Stand firm against him and be strong in your faith.

Remember, remember, remember that your family of believers all over the world are going through the same kind of suffering you are.

That's why my wife and I follow a ministry called Voice of the Martyrs.

That's why I love, and it helps us keep up with what other Christians are having to endure in other places on the planet, places like North Korea, places like Iran, places like Africa or South America, where there's great persecution and great difficulty to live out your faith.

That's why I love Operation Christmas Child because it keeps us in touch and connects us.

That's why I love taking mission trips to places like Haiti when COVID is not interrupting our ability to do so.

I love things like we do in another month called Shot with a Hero.

It connects us with people and helps us remember other people are going through the same thing or worse than we're dealing with.

Ephesians 6, Paul says, put on the armor of God so that you'll be able to stand firm against all the strategies of the devil.

He's given you authority as a believer.

God has given you authority over the enemy.

You can stand strong.

In the midst of your difficulty, in the midst of your hurt, in the midst of your depression, in the midst of dealing with what you're dealing with, you don't have to cower down to the spiritual forces that want to steal your joy.

And I'm gonna stand strong.

I'm gonna I'm gonna, I don't feel like it sometimes, but I'm gonna I'm gonna fight with everything I've got.

And my goal in ministry has been to finish well.

To finish strong.

And I want I'm out of time.

I'm out of time.

So next week, next week, I'll share a couple of things personal that are personal a little more personal to me.

Does your soul need some healing?

Does your spirit need some healing?

Are you hurting?

Let's just pray and ask the Lord to touch us.

God, have your way up, have your have your hand upon our hearts and our lives.

God, would you would you work?

Would you work?

At home, we're praying for you.

We're gonna pray this morning for healing, emotionally, mentally, so that you can walk in the authority that God has given you as a believer in Jesus.

Would you pray with me, Father?

God, we beg and plead with you that you would work, that you would speak.

God, that you would reveal yourself, that there would be clarity in our understanding of who you are and all of your attributes, all your glory.

And Father, that we would just start with Jesus.

That He is gentle and lowly.

God, that we can we can take His yoke, which makes it means He will help us carry the heavy load that we have.

He says we don't have to journey through life without help.

We've got the hope of Jesus.

And so, Father, we ask that you would speak and you would work.

And God, you would reveal yourself.

And God, I pray for healing.

God, that you would put your hands upon people that have hurting hearts, hurting emotions, and God, that need a touch of the Holy Spirit.

So we're about to go into a time of just really just singing this prayer.

Lord, I need you.

I need you.

I want you to consider asking for someone to pray for you.

Asking for someone to pray for you.

Maybe be willing to let someone pray for you.

Maybe to open yourself up and to be vulnerable with somebody.

Father, would you work?

Would you speak?

Would you work in our hearts where we would put the shame aside?

Understand it's okay to be weak.

And it's in our weakness that your strength is made evident.

And so, Father, we love you and we worship you.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

And everybody said together.