Faith for the Future

Well, it is great to have people in the room.

I want to say welcome to all of you here at Walnut Grove that have chosen to worship with us.

I know some of you, it may be your first Sunday back physically with us.

Some of you may have been with us last week.

But regardless, it is great to have you in this room and to see faces as I am sharing and as I am speaking and preaching.

And I want to say welcome to those of you that are still watching with us online.

For whatever reason, you may not feel comfortable getting out yet.

Some of you may be on vacation or for whatever reason you're watching and worshiping with us online.

You are just as much a part of our church family as you worship at home as you would be if you were in this room.

And then today I want to say welcome to Social Circle Campus.

We are doing something new for the first time today, as we are broadcasting this sermon live online, but also to the Social Circle Campus for the first time this morning.

Let me tell you why we're doing this.

Is one of the things that I have loved during this season.

It's been a difficult season as we have dealt with the COVID-19 crisis.

But one of the things that's been kind of precious for our church is to have one voice.

Between Nathan and myself, I feel like that the church has come together and that we're more unified and we're more like a family, one family in two locations.

And so we feel like that the Lord is going to continue to lead us to multiply and to plant new churches and to plant new campuses.

And there's some things that are in the works.

I don't uh want to get into that in detail right now, but at some point we will have another campus or two, and and having the technology available to us now will allow us on occasion, not we're not going to do it every week, but on occasion to broadcast our sermons from one campus to the other.

And it'll continue to allow us to have one voice, to be one family, and to be unified together.

And I know some of you that love Nathan and you love Pastor Nathan and love his preaching.

Don't you worry.

Um we're not going to do this every week because I know you will revolt, right?

You there'll be an uprising because people love Nathan in Social Circle.

Um, but but excited about this opportunity, because of your generosity, uh, we have the technical ability to do this, and we will do it on occasion as needed and as God leads us.

So welcome Social Circle this morning as we conclude this series called Family Life.

We're in this series, it's been four weeks as we conclude today, and we've been talking about the family and how important the family is.

And today we're gonna conclude it talking about marriage.

So if you've got your Bibles, you can open up to Genesis chapter 12.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

We're gonna look at the story and the marriage uh between Abram and Sarai, who later became Abraham and Sarah, and we're gonna talk about how the family life needs to be grounded with a healthy marriage, a faith-filled marriage.

That's what we need.

We've been talking the last few weeks about uh walking around what we call the Family on Mission Triangle.

And we the very first week we talked about the importance of spiritual parenting.

Every family needs spiritual parents.

And spiritual parents, I know we know what parents are, biological parents, but spiritual parents are parents that love God with all their heart, with all their soul, and with all their might.

And it's not limited to the biological family, right?

It can be, it we can have adopted parents.

We can have uh you can be single, you can be divorced and still be a parent.

You can be, you can have, you can disciple other people and you can you can be like Jesus and and draw people around you as a as a single person and and and you can invest in spiritual children.

But the key to that is you love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

And then we said the the the the next week we as we moved around the triangle, we said that every family that that is is learning what it means to be discipled.

That's God's design for the family, is for discipleship to be at the heart of it.

It every family needs predictable patterns.

Predictable patterns are are those are those times that you take advantage of in your already ordinary uh routine rhythms in life where you talk about and teach your kids to think about and how to live out the gospel of Jesus.

So it may be family devotions, it may be conversations uh around the dinner table or the breakfast table, or it may be conversations as you as you travel.

We were basing this whole series off of Deuteronomy 6, and as they as your kids wake up, as you go about your way and as you put them to bed, you're constantly looking and developing predictable patterns where you can insert the truths of the gospel.

And then last week we talked about missional purpose, that every family understands that they exist not for their own pleasure, their own sake, but they exist for the sake of the gospel being taken to the world.

Missional purpose.

And so the church is a family, a collection of families that understand that we are all on mission.

We are partnering with Jesus.

He gave us the Great Commission.

Go and make disciples of all nations.

And we we we gave you a couple of tools, bless every home, which is an online prayer tool for you to be praying for those neighbors and those family members that are closest to you.

And we we talk about who's your one that the top of that list of people are people that you're investing in and potentially inviting to church or inviting them to the gospel.

You're sharing, you're praying for, you're caring for, and you're sharing Jesus with the people around you.

But the foundation for all of that, the foundation of the family is always gonna be the marriage.

A healthy, gospel-centered marriage between a man and a woman who are committed to Jesus above all, and they are committed to one another for life.

And so we're gonna take just a peek at the marriage between Abram and Sarah, who would become Abraham and Sarah, and how marriage is always a journey of faith.

Marriage is always a journey of faith.

And so, so it one of the things I've I've I've kind of second-guessed is is I probably should have preached a sermon back in March on how you could COVID-proof your marriage, right?

But uh, but we didn't know COVID was coming.

But if I'd have known COVID was coming, I should have preached a sermon on how to COVID proof your marriage.

Here's why that's important, as I have, as I have had conversations with other pastors, as I have had conversations with counselors and even had conversations with men and women in the law enforcement community, they will all tell you that that just it's been crazy.

The counseling load for pastors and counselors has gone off the chart because married couples weren't really prepared for shelter in place uh and and weren't ready to sustain their marriage.

And so I've heard from the law enforcement community that that domestic cause has has gone up as couples have been um have been uh shelter in place, maybe and locked into their homes with nowhere to escape.

And all of a sudden, man, the temperature goes up and it gets heated and there's arguments and there's struggles.

And so here's the sermon for that how to covet proof your marriage.

And we're looking at the story of Abraham and Sarah.

See, see, this is a crazy year as well.

I I have more weddings probably this year than I've ever had in 25 years of ministry.

More weddings this year than I've had in 25 years of ministry.

And so it's it's it's fun to do the weddings, and it's fun to see these couples who who were absolutely madly in love with one another, and I would describe it as they are caught up with the warm and fuzzies or the tingly-wingglies of marriage, right?

Really, it is.

See, this past week on Wednesday, my wife and I celebrate celebrated 25 years of marriage.

25 years of marriage.

Yes.

That's yes, and it has been great.

And it's been 25 years of warm and fuzzies and tingly winglies.

I mean, it's just it's been that way for 25 years, right?

I hope my wife is, yes, yes, my wife is watching at home.

But here's the reality is the warm and fuzzies are great, and I hope that every marriage maintains the warm and fuzzies for their whole marriage.

But I will tell you, there's been pockets or there's been seasons where we've had to rely on something besides the warm and fuzzies.

We've been had to rely on a power that was outside of ourselves.

We've had to rely on something that goes beyond just the feelings.

And we've got, we had to rely on the fact that we exchange vows in front of family and friends and in front of God, and that we were committed.

Regardless of what happened, we were committed because what happens often to these young couples is they are drawn to one another and they are attracted to one another, and those warm and fuzzies are huge in the beginning.

But what happens is they don't understand that the relationship eventually could be crushed by unrealistic expectations that those warm and fuzzies are always going to be there every day, every minute, every hour.

And if we don't have something besides the warm and fuzzies, that we'll be crushed by the circumstances and what just happens in life and the world.

The loss of a parent, the the diagnosis of cancer for somebody in the family.

Kids grow up and their problems get more complicated, and sometimes the warm and fuzzies don't maintain the relationship.

And we've got to remember that our marriage is based on faith.

As a matter of fact, the big idea for today is this that faith is following when the future is not in focus.

Faith is following when the future is not in focus.

Sometimes when we think about life, things don't go the way we plan.

Our marriage doesn't go the way we planned in the beginning.

And we can look at Abraham and Sarah as an example for this.

And if you've got your Bibles, uh let's let's look at Genesis chapter 12.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

Um, and this is a promise that God gives Abram.

It's the foundation of the Jewish nation and the promises that God provides for Jewish people and for Christians alike.

Look at what it says here.

He says, Now the Lord said to Abram, Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.

And I will make of you a great nation.

I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

And so Abram, who would later become Abraham, his legacy is a legacy of faith.

How do we know that?

Because he's mentioned in the New Testament as a man of faith.

He's mentioned in the New Testament as a man who believed and trusted God, a man who was obedient to the Lord.

We look at Hebrews chapter 11, it's called the great hall of faith.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

And so the writer Hebrews says this in 11, uh chapter 11, verse 8 of Hebrews, he says, By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called out to go to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance.

And he went out, listen to this, not knowing where he was going.

And I think marriage is like that.

When you stand before God and you stand before the pastor or the justice of the peace or whoever's marrying you, or you stand before the witnesses that are there and watching you exchange your vows, you are embarking on a journey, and you don't know where that journey is going to take you.

It's a journey of faith.

The journey of marriage is a journey that requires faith.

And faith is falling when the future is not in focus.

Imagine that conversation.

Abram walks in, he's worked, God has spoken to him, and he walks in, he says, honey, we need to pack up.

We're leaving.

We're moving, we're relocating.

Life says, Where?

Abram says, I don't know.

All I know is we need to get the camels, we need to load up, we need to pack up, need to go.

Where are we going?

I don't know.

When are you gonna know?

I don't know.

All I know is God is telling me that we are to pick up and we are to move, that God is going to take us to a place He has promised to us.

And I would imagine that would have been a tough conversation.

Some of you can identify, I mean, you you you've you've you've had to have those conversations where where you might even know where you're going.

But it's a transition in your life, it's a transition in your marriage, and it is a difficult transition.

It's difficult, and you've got to realize that sometimes those those decisions, those transitions are transitions that require faith.

You may not know how exactly how it's gonna go.

You might think you know, but you're not prepared for the for the circumstances and and and the difficulties that that journey has in store for you.

And it's a journey by faith.

Let's pack up.

God's spoken.

What has God spoken to you?

What has God put inside your heart?

What is it that God has has led you to do in your life?

Where are you in your journey?

Have you followed God's will?

Are you willing to step out on faith?

All right, listen, this the journey that I'm talking about is not just a journey for for pastors, it's not just a journey for pastors and their wives, it's not just a journey for people in full-time ministry.

It is for any person who is following Jesus.

Any couple who's married, it's a journey that you take, and it's a journey of faith.

And Abram says, I will move because I trust God.

And Sarah ends up saying, You know what?

I'm going to trust you because you trust God.

Let's go.

God often calls us and wants to bless us, but the blessing will only come when we embark on the path of faith.

And there is no other way to get the blessing.

Here's, let me tell you how I'm wired.

I want to know all the details, right?

I want to pull out Google Maps and I want to know exactly where I'm going.

I want to know exactly where the stops are.

I want to know exactly where we're gonna, where we're gonna stay, spend the night, where the restaurants are.

I want to know all the details.

But God says, sometimes I'm going to ask you to embark on a journey where where you may not know all the details.

It's not something that can be uh put on Google Map or waves.

And you you've got to trust God to step out on faith.

It makes me think of Psalm 119, 105, where uh the psalmist writes, Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Now, see, I I have a floodlight kind of faith.

I want God to kind of shine the floodlight where I can see every little detail.

But God often calls us to a flashlight faith.

Now, the the the Old Testament, in the days of Abraham, they didn't have flashlights, they would have had oil lamps.

And so the idea would be when he you walk out into the pitch dark where you can't see just 12 inches in front of your face, and all you have is a little oil lamp.

And and the reason the psalmist writes it this way is he knows that sometimes we can only see one step in front of us, and that's the flashlight faith, where you trust God for the next step.

We want a floodlight, but God says, You follow me for the next step.

You may not know all the details, but I am good and I am faithful.

You can trust me.

Let's go.

And that's what God wants for our marriages.

Even during the hard, difficult times when we're we're we may be sheltered together during COVID, or we may experience some type of loss or some type of difficulty with our kids.

And God says, I've got this if you'll just trust me.

As a matter of fact, back to Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews says in verse 6 of chapter 11, he says, Without faith, it is impossible to please God.

And I'm gonna tell you, I want to please God.

I want to have a relationship with my Heavenly Father, and I want to have a marriage with my wife who loves Jesus with all of her heart.

And I want us to have a marriage and a life and a journey of faith because we want to please God.

Abraham, out of you I'm gonna make a great nation.

Out of you, there's gonna come, there's gonna come a promise that is gonna be for the whole world.

And even though Abram and Sarah messed up, even though they faltered in their faith, God is always faithful to his promises, even when we fall short.

I think we're always gonna have areas that we struggle in.

There's three specific areas I think sometimes we struggle in our marriages and on our journey of following Jesus.

The first one is this often we are controlled by fear.

Fear.

I mean, just imagine the faith and the potential fear that Abram and Sarah would have dealt with as they obeyed God and stepped out on faith.

Look at verse 11 of Genesis chapter 12, back to Genesis 12.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

It says, when he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, I know that you are a beautiful woman in appearance.

When the Egyptians see you, they will say, Now, this is during a famine.

There's a famine in the land, and for Abram and Sarai to actually have food to eat, and for them to have to be able to continue their journey, they had to detour into Egypt for a brief period.

Verse 12, and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, This is his wife.

Then they will kill me, but they will let you live.

Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.

So Abram resorts to lying because fear has gripped his heart.

Rather than manning up, rather than stepping up as a man of God, as a man of faith, he allows his wife to be taken by the Egyptian leaders for who knows what, rather than just manning up and saying, This is my wife, trusting that God would have his back.

And can you imagine the consequences?

Can you imagine how wounded?

Their relationship would have been because of this.

Where in your life has God spoken to you?

And you failed to follow and obey because your heart was gripped by fear.

It's interesting when I talk, I'll talk to men and women, I'll talk to couples, and a lot of times they'll refer back to a period in their life where God spoke to them clearly about stepping out on faith.

It might deal with finances, it might deal with having children, it might deal with having uh adopting a child, it might deal with something related to ministry, leaving their current life to go into full-time ministry or to serve as a servant leader in some way.

And a lot of times they will point to that particular period in their life where they veered off, they were controlled by fear, and they've missed out of the bl on the blessing that God has for them, and it's caused a wedge of distrust that's lasted for years, that's gone unresolved.

See, fear can grip our hearts and cause us to miss out on so much that God has for us.

So, where was it that you stepped off?

Where was it where you you veered off?

You've got to come back to that place and you've got to say, God, listen, we are going to believe and we are going to trust and we're going to obey.

And we want every bit of the blessing that you want to pour out on us.

We're going to trust you with our finances.

We're going to trust you with our marriage.

We're going to trust you with our vocation.

We're going to trust you with our involvement in the body of Christ.

We're not going to be gripped by fear.

We're going to step out.

And we're going to believe because we know that the gospel, the truth of the life that comes through Jesus' life and his death and his resurrection, it's something that we've got to preach to ourselves every day.

We've got to apply it, not just to our hearts and our point of salvation.

We've got to apply it to our marriage and all of our relationships and our entire family.

We've got to believe.

Faith is following when the future is not in focus.

And so sometimes we are controlled by fear.

Here's another area where we're where we lose track and we we we lose sight of what God has for us.

We we tend to control and manipulate the circumstances for ourselves.

Look at what happens with with Sarai and Abram.

Genesis 16.

It says, now Sarah, because what's the promise for Abraham and Sarah?

I will make a great nation from you.

Out of your life will come a great nation.

Well, if you're going to have a great nation, you've got to start with what?

One child, right?

There has to be, there has to be at least one child that comes from their marriage.

And at this point, they're barren and they're moving into their old age and they are beginning to question and lose trust in what God has promised them.

And so what sometimes when we lose trust and we we we have a struggle to submit to what God has said to us and believe his promises, we manipulate the circumstances.

Now, Sarai, Abram's wife, Genesis 16, verse 1, he had borne him no children.

Genesis 16:1

She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar.

And Sarai said to Abraham, Behold, now the Lord has prevented me from bearing children.

Go into my servant, and it may be that I shall obtain children by her.

And Abram, rather than manning up and leading and trusting and being a man of faith, Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.

Now this is where I would say, men, be careful about what you listen your wife say.

And I'll say, I'm going to listen to every word my wife says, right?

And he steps out and they manipulate the circumstances.

And they don't believe God.

Here's something I learned.

God is rarely early, but he is never late.

God is rarely early, but he is never late.

Sometimes you've got to wait and you've got to trust.

And you've got to wait and you've got to trust.

Faith is falling when the future is not in focus.

And so they take matters into their own hands and they manipulate the circumstances and they end up getting a child by Hagar, the maidservant, and it leads to a rippling set of circumstances.

Listen, listen, that our world still deals with the consequences to this day, thousands of years later.

And so we're controlled by fear, we manipulate the circumstances, and the last struggle that we have with faith is we stop believing the promises of God.

Now, I'm about to read some verses that are 30 years after God has given the promise.

And God is faithful and he is good, but sometimes over time and through the struggles and the circumstances, and even in our marriage, we lose the warm and fuzzies and we lose the tingly-wingglies, and we're left with just saying, you know what?

I'm going to believe and I'm going to love and I'm going to be faithful.

And you've encountered circumstances that you didn't expect.

And those uh those circumstances are crushing the expectations you had at the beginning when you stood before God.

And listen, God is still working, God is still faithful.

He's still in control.

Look at Genesis 17, verses 16 and 17.

Genesis 17:16

He says, I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her.

I will bless her, and she shall become nations.

Kings of peoples shall come from her.

Then Abraham fell on his face and he laughed and he said to himself, Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old?

Shall Sarah, who is 90 years old, bear a child?

Fast forward to chapter 18, verse 11.

Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years.

The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah.

So Sarah laughed to herself, After I am worn out and my Lord is old, shall I have pleasure?

The Lord said to Abraham, Why did Sarah laugh and say, Shall I indeed bear a child now that I am old?

Is anything too hard for the Lord?

Let me ask that a quick let me ask that question again.

Is there anything too hard for the Lord?

Is there anything too hard for the Lord?

Some of you are sitting here in this room, some of you are watching online, you're at home, you're on vacation, you're somewhere, some of you are sitting in an auditorium and social circle.

And you are feeling hopeless.

You are feeling the weight of what you think are unfulfilled promises.

And God is saying, is there anything too hard for me?

And you worry and you wonder, and you just simply need to try and believe.

At the appointed time, I will return to you, verse 14, about the time next year that Sarah shall have a son.

But Sarah denied it, saying, I did not laugh, for she was afraid.

He said, No, but you did laugh.

I talked to couples who were who were desperate to conceive.

Couples that are hurting over unfaithfulness, couples that are hurting over divorce, individuals wondering, will I ever be happy again?

Can I ever experience the kind of love that I desire again?

And God says, you trust me.

You follow me.

Even though the future is not in focus, you follow me.

Here's what I want to encourage you with.

Here's three real practical next steps to do as we close this time together.

The first one is this invite God into the center of your marriage.

Invite God into the center of your marriage.

You trust God.

You've pushed God away.

You have brought yourselves or your ideas or or maybe the world's concepts or principles or philosophies, and you've put them at the center, and that's gotten you to the place where you are now, which is a place of hopelessness.

And God says, listen, bring me back and put me in the center of your marriage.

How do you do that?

Maybe it's just you getting together and you praying together.

Grab the hand of your wife, grab the hand of your husband, and you start with just praying together.

Maybe it's coming back to church after maybe spending time, a season in your life away from church, and you understand that that's a predictable pattern.

We're going to sit in the presence of God with the church family and listen to the gospel be taught on a regular basis.

We're going to start handling our schedule and our gifts and our talents and our finances in a way that honors God, and that's putting God in the center of your marriage.

Secondly, do not waver in your faith.

Listen, here's kind of this one of the mysteries of this gospel we talk about is you can't produce faith in and of yourself.

You don't even have the power to produce faith.

And so so it's a it's kind of a it's one of these mysteries that says, do not waver in your faith, but but you can't even produce the faith.

You surrender and ask God to give you the faith that is an unwavering faith in him and his promises.

And you trust him.

You put him at the center of your marriage and you don't waver.

You believe.

Regardless of the circumstances, regardless of how you feel, you trust in what you know.

And the same God that raised Jesus out of that grave has the He's the same God that gives you the power to produce faith that is unwavering.

And finally, don't play the church thing.

Don't play church.

You get involved.

You say, Well, Russ, you don't know how I've been hurt.

You don't know how how I've been how how I've been a part of a church that that things blew up and how how I was wounded by people in the church.

Yes, yes, yes, I understand that.

There is no such thing as a perfect family, there's no such thing as a perfect marriage, there's no such thing as a perfect church.

We are all broken, we are all lost without Jesus.

We are all in need of healing and redemption and salvation.

And so what you do is you find a church where you know and you can trust the heart of the leadership and the heart of the church family is seeking after the Lord and putting the gospel front and center above their own ideas.

And you jump in and you get involved, and you don't look at the failures of people, you keep your eyes on the faithfulness of God.

I love the legacy of Abraham that's mentioned in the New Testament.

I've referred to a couple of verses in Hebrews, but here's one out of the letter that Paul wrote to the church in Rome.

Romans 4, 19.

He says, He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead, since he was about a hundred years old, talking about Abraham, or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb.

No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.

Hopefully, that'll be my legacy.

Hopefully, that'll be the legacy of mine and Jill's marriage.

That'll be the legacy of our family, that'll be the legacy of your marriage, your life, your family.

That'll be the legacy of our church.

I'm not gonna read it right now, but I love how Abram, Abraham, over and over, you see, you see how God works in his life, continually blessing him, but also asking him to obey him.

Genesis 22.

His son Isaac has been born, the promised son has been born to Abraham and Sarah.

And God commands Abraham, he gives him a strange command.

I want you to get up, I want you to take your son, and I want you to prepare a burnt offering, and I want you to sacrifice your son to me.

What?

Wait a minute, wait a minute, God.

Can we rewind a little bit and go back and look at everything we've been through to get to this point?

You promised that a great nation would come for me, and we've messed up and we've dropped the ball, but you have been faithful, and now you have a son for us, and you're asking me to do what?

And he takes his son, Isaac, Isaac doesn't have a clue what's about to happen.

And he builds the altar and he takes Isaac and he lays him on the altar.

Because God is asking for obedience.

Then as he raises the knife, he says, Stop.

I'm gonna bless you because of your obedience.

And we, on this side of that story, we have the vantage point to know that that story is pointing forward to where the Heavenly Father will take his very own Son out of his love for us.

God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, Jesus, to die a cruel death, to be sacrificed on the Roman cross, that whoever would believe in him, whoever would put their faith in him, would have everlasting life, eternal life.

That's the hope that we have.

That's the hope that every marriage has.

If we will build our lives and our marriages and our families on this gospel truth, that Jesus has come, Jesus has died, Jesus has rose again.

And it's through your faith in that that gives you hope, that gives you joy, that gives you life.

Some of you sitting here this morning might need for the first time to take a step of faith, to put your faith and trust in Jesus for the very first time.

Some of you watching online, this morning is the morning that you would take that first step to trust Jesus, to forgive you of your sins, to wipe away every bit of your sins so you can be reconciled to your Heavenly Father, and so you can have joy and hope and you can live a life of faith even when the future is not in focus.

Some of you in social circle this morning, maybe your first step is to put your faith in Jesus Christ right now, right this moment.

So would you pray with me?

Would you bow your heads with me this morning?

Would you pray with me?

And I want to give you a chance, those of you that need to trust Jesus, for the first time.

I want to start with you.

We say here at the grove that the gospel is simple as ABC, that you admit that you're a sinner, you admit that you need Jesus, and you believe and you trust in what he provided in the life, death, and resurrection of his son Jesus Christ.

And you believe and you trust.

You put your faith in that event in history.

And you confess Jesus as your Lord and your Savior.

And the Bible says you are a new creation.

The Bible says you are made alive.

You are reconciled to your heavenly Father.

And now you can begin this journey of faith.

For those of you maybe that are already believers, but you just say, God, I need to come back, and I need to come back to that point where maybe I stepped away because of a lack of faith.

And I need to put you back at the center of my life, the center of my marriage, the center of my family.

I I need to I need to trust you entirely and wholly with everything that I have.

Let me pray for you, Father.

Would you see the hearts of the people in this room, watching online and social circle?

God, would you do a work, even in the midst of this crisis that we're in, would you do a work that would ignite a revival in your church?

And God, start with me, start with us, start with this family.

Would you do something that would ripple into this community, that would ripple across our nation, that would ripple around the world?

And God, we want to follow you anywhere and everywhere you lead us.

So, God, would you do that work?

God, thank you for your grace.

Thank you for your mercy.

Thank you for the hope that we have in Christ's name.