Pastor Bryan Grant | Faith Moves From Promises to People | July 20th, 2025

What a morning.

I'm already fired up and it's I love when the Holy Spirit moves.

Worship just gets fired up.

Love hearing the voices of the church in behind me as we're leading, as as have my hands up, and all I just hear is just people worshiping all around the church.

That just is amazing.

Love what God does in these moments of corporate worship.

And I just love this how just how we've been in this series this last little while on everyday saints and how God's called ordinary people, which is all of us, to do extraordinary things for Him.

Pastor Malachi had an amazing message last week on Moses.

I would suggest you go back and listen to it.

It was so good.

But he said this, and this is what stuck to me.

It was about who is with you and God, not who you are.

And it's about what God has given you, not what you lack.

So this week I really want to lean into Abraham.

And he's an interesting character because just like every one of our characters, I mean interesting, I should say he's just like a normal character.

He's a guy that ended up in the Hebrews Hall of Faith.

He made a lot of mistakes.

He left his own place to go somewhere else.

He believed for a son when he was old.

Er, wiser.

I don't want to start the whole service by offending someone.

But he was willing to offer Isaac to be able to to God when God asked him to.

And this is what it says in Hebrews, and I love this because it's such a great start.

Hebrews 11:8.

Hebrews 11:8

It says, By faith Abraham obeyed.

Just starts with that.

When Abraham obeyed, when he was called to go to a place that he was to receive the inheritance, he knew the promise, he knew where God called him to, but then he went out not knowing where he was going.

Sounds like some of us.

Sounds like me when I left the house this morning.

Getting ready to come and just pray and prep for the sermon.

Like, Lord, this is your sermon.

Where do you want it to go?

And this is what I love about Abraham.

I want to lay down the foundation for him this morning.

This is Abraham.

He's a friend of God.

He was hiding half-truths.

He lied twice about his wife to save his skin so he wouldn't get killed.

Said that his wife was his sister.

He was doubting God's promise.

He was rushing God's timing, not once, but he did it over and over again.

Before he had huge acts of faith that we read in Scripture, he there were times of incredible failure.

God didn't fulfill his promise in Abraham's timing, so he slept with Hagar trying to get a son sooner than he was supposed to.

Tried to force God's promise and said that he'd deliver, but then that choice that he made left generational consequences, spiritual consequences, emotional consequences, all because he stepped out from the promise that God had for him.

Abraham laughed at God's plan, but then he tried to help it along.

But the thing I love about all of Abraham is that he's still in the hall of faith.

He's still one of the founders of our faith.

He's still a father of our faith, and he was a massive screw up.

How to say that nicer.

Do you know why?

Because God didn't cancel him through the whole thing.

Do you know what he did?

God trained him.

God discipled him.

Abraham's screw-ups didn't disqualify him.

They discipled him.

They stepped on.

I love this.

They crushed his pride.

Some of us need a good pride crushing.

Right?

They softened his heart.

They rewired his faith.

Which is where I want to lead us today.

It's this moment where my job is to promote the gospel and say, God, this is what you want this morning, is to offer up the scriptures so you can receive change from the Holy Spirit today.

See, he did all of this, he struggled through his own things, all of all of the issues he was having.

He was struggling with all of that before he got to the bigger breakthrough that God had called him for.

That same man who once lied twice, but his wife being his sister, that same man that lied those two times would stand before the God of the universe one day and then stand in the gap for a city he didn't even live in.

Something bigger.

This is not just about personal faith.

Our faith, church, is not just about our personal transactional relationship with God.

When we're talking about faith today, it's intercessory.

When we speak of Abraham, intercessory prayer is standing in the gap between God and someone else.

Something else.

For our family, for our church, for our city, for our country.

We're praying on their behalf when they can't or they won't.

That's what we're gonna learn about Abraham today.

It's not just about praying for someone, it's about carrying the burden that God has for someone else like it's your own burden.

And so often, church, with no personal benefit.

And that's what I say is everyday saint faith.

That's what God's called us to.

Abraham didn't come become great because he was perfect, he became great because God kept working through his weaknesses and his screw-ups and his mistakes.

Even though he was a big screw-up, he kept on working through those things, and his faith wasn't just about the promise that he wanted, but the mercy someone else needed.

So big.

It's in this portion of scripture that I want to read with you today.

We've seen in Abraham in Genesis 18.

He's on a quiet hillside, just about to confront God about Sodom and Gomorrah.

And I love this because they're human moments, they're moments that we actually get to see, and together they show us something so much bigger.

So I just want to pray.

Lord, we just don't want church to be a place that we come to on a Sunday, but a place that we come in and we receive your Holy Spirit and we change and we move forward.

So Lord, just pray that, Lord, our heart is open, our minds are open, Lord, that your Holy Spirit is just poking the buttons that need to be poked today.

And that we're ready for your Holy Spirit to move in our life, and that we will be willing to change and shift and add a layer of perspective to our prayer life, Lord, today in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So I want to read Genesis 18.

Thank you, Michael.

Genesis 18.

Then the man set out from there, and they looked towards Sodom, and Abraham went with him to set on their way.

And the Lord said, Shall I hide hide from Abraham what I'm about to do?

Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.

For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household to keep to keep after him the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so the Lord may be bring may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.

Then the Lord said, Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and their sin is grave.

I will go down to see whether they have done all to uh done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me, and if not, I will know.

So the men turned and went from there, and went towards Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord.

Then Abraham drew near and said, Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?

Suppose there are fifty righteous within this city.

I love this.

Suppose there's fifty.

Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it if there's fifty righteous who are in it?

Far be it from you to do such a thing to put righteous to death with the wicked, so that the richest fair, the righteous fair as the wicked, far be it from you, shall not judge all of the earth, do what is just.

The Lord said, If I find Sodom fifty righteous people, I will spare the whole place for their sake.

Abraham answered and said, Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, who am I but dust and ashes?

Suppose there are five of the fifty righteous are lacking.

Will you destroy the whole city for a lack of five?

We have gone down from fifty down to the Lord, is there just five?

I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.

Again he spoke to him, Suppose there's forty there.

For the forty sake, I will not do it.

Then he said to him, not the door be angry, and I will speak.

Suppose thirty are found there.

He answered, I will not do it if I find thirty there.

And behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord.

Suppose twenty are found there, for the sake of the twenty I will not destroy it.

Then he said, Oh, let the Lord not be angry, I will speak again, but this once, suppose ten are there.

He answered, For the sake of the ten, I will not destroy it.

Then the Lord went his way when he had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.

Interesting passage of scripture.

Suppose you're probably wondering why that one.

This is what we see in Genesis 18.

12, 16, all the ones before this, we see all the things that Abraham had done that were just mistakes.

Screw-ups, he was being obedient, he knew what to do, but he still was making big mistakes.

But what we see in chapter 18 of the Genesis is a different type of Abraham.

A different Abraham, but a different kind of faith.

Not the kind that reaches for the promise, but reaches for the people.

So here's here we go.

We don't see the one in this who lied, even though he was still made mistakes.

We don't see the one who doubted, who struggled, or who was fearful necessarily, or even we see the one who was deeply flawed all the way through this, but the one who stood in the gap, he shouldered God's heart, not just his promises.

And sometimes we do do this, don't we?

We want all the benefits of having faith, the healing, the resources, the doors of our destiny open, God's favor, God's breakthroughs.

We want all of the benefits sometimes without the burden of intimacy with God.

Can I be honest with you, church?

This one hit me a little hard.

Even as I was preparing for this, I'm like, Lord, where is my prayer life in all of this?

I'm preaching not just to you, but also to my heart in this one.

God, I sometimes I say this, Lord, I want all the benefits.

But sometimes I don't want to put the time in for devotions or for prayer.

God, I like the idea of surrender, but I don't like the practice.

It's too hard.

God, I want all of your presence, but I want it without any of the pressure.

What do we see in current current culture right now is that God's promises are easy to market.

They're good promises.

God has a plan for you, God has a breakthrough for you, increase is coming.

I believe all of those things are right and true and good, and that's biblical, but it preaches well, it pumps us up, and none of it is wrong because God is the promise giver, but God is also the promise keeper.

I want to say this, but if that's what we're chasing, then we're living in a transaction, we're not living in a relationship.

So if you this one was Lord, I'm this is how I'm receiving from the Lord.

He said, if you're living this faith and following Jesus for good vibes or a good, strong week, or you uh any of the last time a better week, what do you look, what are you living for?

Then you've missed the whole point.

If you're living just for, Lord, I gotta have a good week for me.

Lord, that it was nice and simple, there was no struggles, everything was fine.

I was, I think Paul would have said this to us I didn't get beaten, shipwrecked, thrown in jail, and nearly killed for a motivational speech.

I did it, I did it because the tomb was empty and that changed absolutely everything.

We sang about it all morning.

Pastor Brody fired us up about what Jesus did on the cross for us.

That's what we're here for.

The problem is that we're so often trained to just be a consumer.

We treat God like a spiritual vending machine, and it drives me crazy.

Not because I see it in you, because I see it in me.

We swipe the prayer card.

Like, Lord, do this thing for me.

We pray the right thing, say the right thing.

We come to church, someone asks you at the front door, like Pastor Brian, how are you doing?

Blessed and highly favored.

You get that?

And you're just like, oh, I'm fine.

Meanwhile, on the inside, you weren't fine.

You got struggles that are happening in your life.

You got family members that have cancer, you're dealing with health problems, you're dealing with people that don't know Jesus in your family.

And you've come to church and you've held back from the Lord when there's a building filled with people right now that want to love on you and pray with you.

This is what church does.

We're trained to be consumers.

We sometimes treat God like Amazon Prime.

He's our Father.

He wants your heart, not your shopping list.

Right?

But that's the struggle.

Sometimes this is what happens.

We chase the promises of God.

And not knowing his heart, when you don't know his heart, when you do not seek out God's heart, do you know what that does?

That leaves you entitled.

It leaves us entitled.

This is hard for me to hear.

Because again, I want to go to the place where, Lord, I want all of the ease of being knowing you and all the power and the authority, do great things in your name, but do I want to put into the work?

When I know what his heart is, if I don't know what his heart is, I get entitled, not transformed.

We start to feel like God owes us.

And if there's a delay in her promise or anything, your faith gets bitter, you get upset with the pastor or the church or the all that stuff that's going on.

Pastor, and you say God didn't answer my prayer, so I left the church.

I say this because that's what I did.

I got mad, the pastor said something I didn't like, hurt me in my heart, and I left.

And I was gone for years from the church.

Not because the church did anything offensive to me necessarily, because I chose that.

Because I wasn't seeking God's heart, I was doing what I wanted to do.

This is what I think.

If you I want you to hear me when I say this, when we chase God's heart first, when we seek out his face, not just what he can give us.

When we fight to be into his presence, God's promises will follow us.

Do you know what, church?

There's promises in my family that I've been hanging on to for 20 years.

I got family that doesn't know Jesus.

I got a prayer list of things for my family that I haven't had answered yet.

Some of them are, but there's some big things on that list that I'm standing in faith for.

And I've had plenty of opportunity to walk away because God, you didn't answer that prayer when I wanted you to.

What we do when we see this passage of scripture in the middle of all of this, church, in his struggle, in his sin, in his pain, in his anger, and his frustration, the lies, everything that we went through, he could have stayed focused on all of those things.

He could have stayed focused on his struggles or his fear or the things that were happening.

But that's not all of what Abraham's faith actually is.

Now we start seeing something deeper here.

He shows us that God's heart is where the hard things live.

That when we pursue him, he gives us strength to walk through things that we didn't know we that we could do.

When our heart is not to be entitled but to be transformed, we'll walk in his promises like they're the last thing on the earth.

Because there's nothing else that will satisfy.

The heart of God will call us deeper.

So I love about Sunday mornings.

This isn't the last day of the week for us, it's the first day of the week.

We're getting set up.

Coming into his presence.

The heart of God will call us deeper on a Sunday morning when the worship is hitting right, when pastor is hitting right, when all the things that are going on, we're ready, and the Holy Spirit is speaking to us and moving us into, moving the needle in our lives a little bit more.

We want to be changed.

Lord, what's that call for us to move deeper?

Because sometimes that call means that He's gonna ask us to forgive those that we don't want to forgive.

He's gonna ask us to love people that don't love us back.

He's gonna ask us to do things that we don't want to do.

He's gonna ask us to wait when we want to run.

That's my biggest problem.

I'm the least patient human being on the planet.

Challenge accepted.

Hold my drink.

You know what this all is?

This is not this type of prayer, this type of life that we live isn't glamorous.

I could name so many people in this church right now that are praying for their church, praying for their their country, praying for family members, praying, and you don't see it all.

I heard this, is this this uh says it this way prayer is the engine room of the believer.

Prayer is the engine room of the church.

It's the heat everyone feels, but no one sees.

When we as a church are praying and God is moving and doing things, it's because we're coming together and praying, not because we're just showing up to Sunday on a morning.

We're a Sunday church or on a in a oh wow, that was hard.

Coming to church on a Sunday morning, we're coming with the intention, God, I'm gonna seek you out.

God, I need more of what you have.

Lord, where in me is broken?

Where in me needs a touch from you, where in me, and we're seeking him out, not just to sit in a seat and and sit here, but actually to go where God's called us to go.

Prayer is the engine room of the believer, and that type of faith doesn't go viral.

It's not a little not, you don't see, do you know?

I'm gonna point out Kathleen.

Kathleen Award has been with our church for longer than I've been here.

And if she comes up, she's I I was I saw it on Sunday, she's got these uh prophetic prowling eyes, I call them.

And I'm kind of just like, I'm gonna stand over here.

She's got something going for me.

I yeah, yeah.

But this woman has faithfully served this church for 40 years.

Behind the scenes is praying for the pastors, praying for the school, praying for everything that's happening in this place.

That is an everyday saint that keeps on going even when she can't see what the outcome is gonna be.

There's 20 other people in this room that are standing firm and saying, God, I'm not gonna give ground.

I'm gonna keep praying, I'm gonna intercede for this church, I'm gonna intercede for these people.

Real faith doesn't just claim the promises, it carries people into the presence of God.

This is if your faith only benefits you, then it's incomplete.

Faith that only seeks personal blessings, only breakthroughs for you and favor without ever moving to serve others, loving others, sacrificing others, is shallow, self-centered, and out of sync with what God has called you to.

That one hit me rather hard.

Because it challenges me.

Lord, where's my faith?

What am I standing in faith for?

What am I praying for?

Am I praying just for things for me?

Like, and don't want all you to walk away from this message.

Pastor Brian said we can't pray for ourselves, it has to be only for other people.

That's not what I'm saying.

What I'm telling you is that your faith is for others.

To stand with them, to stand in the gap for them.

On Friday night, when we were praying for people at worship night, I'm standing in the gap for people.

Our team is standing in the gap for people that God would move in their life.

We talk a lot about faith in church.

We talk a lot about it here because it's so important to the core of who we are.

Faith for breakthrough, faith for miracles, faith to receive the promises, faith to move mountains, all those things are good and biblical and true.

But here's my question to you What if the greatest expression of your face, of your faith, wasn't for something you'll receive, but for someone else's rescue?

We've got to take this faith from being something that is just personal and transactional to us and moving it into this place where we're adding a lair where it's about.

What God's called you to do, the burden that you're carrying for others.

I want to make this just a little bit clear.

This is where I love this scripture because it actually flips the script for us.

We're conditioned, church.

We're conditioned in crit in modern Western culture to see faith primarily as a transactional, personal thing just for me.

Have faith and you'll be healed.

Believe and there is more, and those things aren't wrong.

But it's more.

It's more than that.

I want you to hear me.

Faith does grab a hold of those promises.

Whatever promise God has promised to you, He is the promise keeper and the promise giver.

He will keep that promise.

But that's not all that our faith is for.

What if your walk with God wasn't marked by what he gave you, but by how you stood in the gap for others?

Right, right back to the beginning.

What about for people who don't know how to pray for themselves?

A country that doesn't know how to pray.

A city that doesn't know.

People in your family that don't know.

That's the kind of faith that Abraham had.

It's not just the mountain moving type of faith, but it's mercy pleading type of faith.

He didn't just believe for Isaac.

He fought through that.

He stood and said, God, I'm gonna do be obedient to you.

And if that means I'm gonna sacrifice my son, I will do so because you've called me to.

It's a question that the Lord asks, and I kind of was like, Lord, what does that even mean?

Like, why would he say it like that?

And it wasn't rhetorical, it was him actually extending Abraham an invitation.

And I love what 1 Corinthians 2.10 says, as all these things God is revealed through the Spirit.

For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

Abraham didn't just hear instructions, he heard God's tension.

When we read that scripture, he kept on asking, Lord, is there more righteous people?

And he kept on bringing it to before the Lord, and the Lord was willing to be merciful.

But you don't get that kind of questioning to God unless you've been in that battle with God before.

Or you can ask God those tough questions.

You don't get those questions and feel like you can unless you've been in that place with Him.

And you've walked through it.

You don't play pray for that way unless you've been in that battle.

But God invited him into those thoughts.

Why?

Because Abraham walked closely enough with God that he was trusted with that tension.

That he was trusted with that burden.

That's when the where the intercession starts, church.

Not with the big old prayers that you see on Sunday when we get up from, it's the ones that are behind the scenes that are praying diligently and fervently and with fight in their system because that's where God's called them to do.

That's what intercessory does.

We want to see change in our city, we start praying.

And being burdened for where God's called us to be.

We want to see change in our country, same thing.

We don't get on Instagram and we post an angry video.

We get on our knees before God and say, God, how are we gonna make change?

We get burdened for our country, we get burdened for our city, we get burdened for our family.

I love this because Abraham in this moment wasn't tuned to just his own needs.

I'm not telling you to forsake your own needs.

I'm saying that God has more in store for you.

There's a heart here.

He turned, he was tuned into God's burden.

Amen.

So the next one is that we have faith that steps into the gap.

I love this.

Abraham said this in uh 23 and 24.

Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?

Surely there are fifty.

And then I was kind of just thinking, but Lord, I appreciate all of those things that he was saying.

And he wanted to just keep on asking the Lord and was willing to talk to him about it.

But there's a scripture that we in James chapter 5, verse 16, it says, Therefore confess your sins one to another and pray for one another that ye may be healed.

James 5:16

But the prayer of the righteous person has great power as it is working.

We are that believer.

We have that power in our hands, and we're seeking God in our righteousness, like, Lord, I'm willing to stand in the gap.

I'm willing to stand in that place, and I love it because it's not very poetic, but it's very strategic.

Abraham's prayers mattered.

How many of you in your walk with God have ever said, Well, my prayers just don't matter?

Okay, just me, cool.

Or your prayers hit a ceiling, God's not actually hearing what I'm saying.

I think at some time in our walk with God, at any given point, we have said those things.

God, I'm praying, and you're not doing anything.

What I would love about him is that Abraham didn't just walk away, he didn't drift away from Sodom and Gomorrah.

He said, That's my problem, that's my burden, and I'm gonna pray for it.

He stepped towards the tension.

Sometimes we like to run from the tension.

What's the burden that God's asking you to do?

Are you stepping towards the tension?

But he was willing to step between a holy God and a broken country, a broken city.

And this wasn't casual, just a casual type of prayer.

This was like a spiritual confrontation.

And he was really willing to go to battle.

I love this because revival says, Come, Holy Spirit.

Mercy says, please wait.

Don't give them what they deserve yet.

Lord, I want revival.

I want revival in our church, I want revival in our city, I want revival in our country.

But Lord, I'm gonna keep pursuing this and saying, God, wait until people know you.

Wait until people know you.

Amen.

But then, faith.

The next one is that we had see out of Genesis 18 is a faith that pleads based on the character of God.

1825 says, Shall not the judge of all the earth do what is just?

And I love what Micah 7, 18 says.

This is amazing.

Who is a God like you?

Who is a God like you who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of inheritance?

You do not stay angry forever, but hear me, church, he delights to show mercy.

He delights to show mercy.

Thank goodness, or none of us would be here.

I didn't deserve Christ on the cross.

There's nothing that I did to deserve that.

But he died on the cross.

He wanted to show me mercy and save my soul.

He saved my soul.

What a powerful verse.

I love it because he's marveling about who God is.

He's marveling on this.

Next portion of this is that faith that carries the burden without a benefit.

That's what we see Abraham doing.

And Philippians 2, 3 and 4 says this do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

Lead each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Abraham had nothing to gain from praying for Sodom and Gomorrah and carrying that burden.

He had nothing in the physical realm.

He was Lot's Lot was his nephew, he was praying for it, he didn't live there.

He had no physical reason to actually that to be the place that he wanted to go to.

And to try and say if they were wicked, they were violent, there was all kinds of perversion that was happening in the city.

But this is what I read from this, and we see about God's mercy is God's mercy isn't earned, it's extended.

When we are praying and we're standing in the gap and we're saying to God, Lord, I want this person to know you, or what we're standing in the gap for, that layer of prayer.

We're extending.

Say, God, we just need more of you in this situation.

Do you know what Abraham's gain was all this?

It wasn't physical, it was spiritual.

He gained intimacy with God.

He got to align his heart with God.

He learned to carry a burden that was beyond himself.

He saw the value of others living righteously before God.

Faith doesn't just isn't just about claiming or promises, it's about fighting for people.

Is this alright, church?

So I just want to just kind of just take a minute because this is as I was going through this, this is quite a hefty move forward.

I'm gonna call the worship team up.

But we see that Abraham's faith hears the heart of God.

It's not just about us, but it hears the heart of God.

It's faith that stands in the gap for people, stands in the gap for what he's called us to carry the burden for.

It's faith that pleads based on his character.

The fact that he loves mercy.

And he was merciful to us, merciful to us.

Faith that carried a burden with no benefit.

No applause, no reward, nothing viral.

He was just praying.

But that faith alone, church, is the type of faith that will actually change the atmosphere of your home.

It'll change the atmosphere of a situation, it'll change the atmosphere of wherever you go when you're prayed up in that situation, when you're standing in that gap, it will change the atmosphere.

It'll shift.

That alone will shift atmospheres.

But I don't think that we're done there because there's one more faith that gives mercy one more day.

I love this because it's adding a layer of prayer and faith and standing to who we are.

This is what it says in 2 Peter 3.

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promises.

Some count slowness.

I have counted that slowness way too often.

But he is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

Not some, not just a few, but all you know what it's hard about this one is we don't know what would have happened after all of this.

If there had been ten, God could have spared that city, or five, God would have spared that city.

That's just not just a theory that we see, that's actually scripture.

That's what God said.

But God showed us through this that mercy was on the table.

That when we stand in the gap, that He hears our prayer.

And when we're fighting for this thing that's the whatever the burden is that God has in your life, that judgment for Sodom and Gomorrah was on hold all because of one person that stood in the gap.

And as I was reading that, that kind of gave me a moment just to pause, and it kind of was like one of those sobering moments, but also to fire me up.

Like, Lord, you hear me.

Can you stand with me?

Lord, you hear me.

You hear my prayer, you hear the burden of my heart.

Can you just close your eyes with me?

I just want us to just take a second here, and I just want us to ask this question just ask the Holy Spirit just to speak to you in this space.

Is my faith just about me?

Have I made my relationship with God purely transactional?

Just take a minute to speak to God about this.

That I can align with your heart?

Is it a coworker?

Is it a son or daughter that are far from God or don't know God?

Is it a neighbor?

Family member?

Who is that you're standing in the gap for today and say, God, I will have a burden for that person.

Lord, we ask that as your Holy Spirit just shows us as we ask these questions, Lord, where's our relationship with you and all this?

So we add that layer of just faith, more faith and prayer and being someone who intercedes and stands in the gap for others, Lord, that you would just, that we could align with your heart in this.

That our heart would align with what you want and a deeper relationship with you.

I just want to offer up this opportunity to know the God that we're talking about, the God that loves, the God that shows mercy, the God that looks at you in this space right now, if you don't know Jesus and says, I love that person.

I want the church to follow along with me in this.

If you want to be the one that prays that prayer today, just ask you for this.

Lord Jesus, I ask for your blessing.

That I need to know you deeper.

But I repent of my sin and I walk towards you in this.

In Jesus' name.

Lord, we ask for your peace and your joy over this church as we move forward in all that you've called us to, Lord, that we would stand in the gap for those things, Lord, that our faith would be pushed forward, that our faith would be challenged, that we would see all that you've called us to, Lord, and Lord, carry that burden as we align our heart with yours.

Lord, thank you for who you are.

Thank you for this time that we had in Jesus' name.

Amen.