The Footsteps of Faith

All right, Romans chapter 4 is we're going to take our text today.

Romans 4 · chapter mention

And I know you think I'm joking. I'm dead serious. Please, please.

I told the story a few weeks ago, but I got a call from somebody in like Roanoke,

that area, saying somebody with one of your church shirts vandalized my porch.

I was like, well, praise the Lord.

He said, yeah, I posted it on Facebook, and everybody told me where this church

was. I thought well maybe we shouldn't go and you know smash somebody's pumpkins

and maybe that's the best You know, i'm just joking.

I'm just but it's amazing all the way from rome Okay figure out where freedom

worship church was if you're going to act the fool don't wear your church shirt

All right, uh as I read this scripture this morning Um, I do want to let you know.

Okay, so this scripture in romans chapter 4 I want to say this because if I

Romans 4 · chapter mention

don't preface this then Uh, you know everybody in internet land will be sending

me facebook messages telling me that I changed the scripture Okay, so I'm not doing that.

So this scripture, these two verses that we have, is trying to reflect the meaning of the covenant.

That's what Paul is trying to do, talking about Abraham.

It uses circumcision as that example. That was the example of the covenant that

the scripture points to.

The problem is when you read a passage about circumcision, all anybody ever

concentrates on is circumcision, all right? We're talking about the covenant.

And so every place it says circumcision in this text, I've replaced that with

the word covenant. Everybody say covenant.

You read the commentary. That's what it's talking about. I wouldn't preface

that because otherwise people will be saying, oh, brother Scott,

all the plagues of that book is going to come upon him.

Because the book of Revelation says if you change one word of this,

then all the plagues are going to. No, that's not what we're doing.

We're making sure that you understand. Because my goal as a pastor is to get

you to understand what the word of God is saying. All right.

That's what I'm accountable for. All right, Romans chapter 4,

Romans 4:11

verses 11 and 12 is what we're going to read.

The Bible says this, And he received the sign of the covenant.

Everybody say covenant.

As a seal of righteousness that he had by faith while he was still not in covenant.

The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being in covenant.

So that the righteousness would be counted to them as well. Man,

this is saying a lot. I'm going to explain it.

And to make him the father of the covenant, who are not merely participants

in the covenant, but who also walk in the footsteps. Everybody say footsteps.

Of faith that our father Abraham had before he was in covenant.

I want to focus on that passage of scripture there.

The Bible says that he was walking in the footsteps of faith,

walking in the footsteps of faith, because the Bible shows there's a walk of faith.

For those who are graduates, it's graduate Sunday, there's a walk of faith that you're called to walk.

For the rest of us, you're in a transitional season of life maybe you've taken

a new job maybe you've had kids,

speaking of uh did i see pat and ember somewhere with

uh with the newborn here oh there they

are got that newborn baby right in here in the house of god hallelujah for some

of you you've had kids maybe maybe you've gotten married there's transition

in life maybe your kids have left home through it all we're called to walk in

the footsteps of faith and so this is a sermon to the graduates,

but not only the graduates, but for everybody here that's been in a transitional season of life.

That's to us this morning. So let's talk about this. I want to preach on this

subject, the footsteps of faith, the footsteps of faith. Let's pray together.

Father, in the name of Jesus, we thank you for your Holy spirit.

We thank you for your word.

God, I thank you that you're here with us this morning and Lord, we're not here.

I don't preach with enticing words of men's wisdom, but God,

let it be with the power and demonstration of the Holy ghost.

So father, let your word go forth freely and we thank you for it in the name

of Jesus we pray and the church said.

Amen. Amen. Speaking to our graduates and to everybody that's walking in this

walk of faith this morning, because as you make any decision,

as you make any transition in life, the question is not just where you will

go, but who you will trust to lead you there.

That's what our focus is. That's really what I want to focus in on this morning

and kind of be my thesis throughout this sermon is the question is not just

where you're going, but who is going to walk with you?

Who's going to lead you through this life as you go?

Now, I can remember years ago, I can remember graduating from college,

and I squeezed four years of college into five, okay?

Ashley, she did it in three years. We averaged four years of college,

all right? It was the average. But after I finished college.

I can remember walking across that stage, getting that degree.

They gave us this big tube with a degree in it. And I remember after that graduation,

the sense of accomplishment and then the sense of, oh no, what am I going to

do next? It was the same way with high school.

When I finished high school, they handed me that diploma.

No joke. As I walked off the stage, I peeked inside just to make sure there

was really one in there. I wasn't the greatest high school student.

And I remember the sense of accomplishment.

And then I thought, Oh no, what am I going to do now? Because life didn't come with the manual.

I remember I called Ashley at a, at a moment of weakness and proposed to her.

And before she had a chance to think it through, she said, yes.

And I remember after we got married, I thought, okay, I've accomplished this

in life. We're married now.

And then I thought, Oh no, what, what, what I got somebody that I've got to

help take care of now, and she's, you know, I don't want to make her dad mad,

and so, you know, I, oh, no, and I remember when we had our two sons,

that, that sense of accomplishment, the love that you'll never have,

and then you think, oh, no,

oh, no, oh, no, and, and,

you know, and if you have adult children, and they're, they've become adults,

parenting adult children is the hardest thing ever, is, can anybody say amen

right there? How many of you guys got adult children?

Yes, I thought it was difficult when they were four, but parenting adult children

is like the hardest phase of life because you have all this infinite wisdom

and they don't have to listen anymore.

I mean, think about it. You're wiser than you've ever been. You've seen more

now than you've seen the last 20 years, but now they don't have to listen.

Seems to me that that's a little bit backwards, but we'll kind of move on from there.

The reality is transition in life is inevitable.

Transition changes the phases of life. They are inevitable.

For all of our graduates today, they were tossing cats in the air and they're

walking across a stage to get a diploma.

You've been climbing that mountain for years, but probably what you're figuring

out now is you get to the summit of this mountain and you, the clouds blow back

and you realize that there's just as much mountain left to climb than what you've just climbed.

It's that way in every phase of life, transition never stops.

And see, most of the time we come through one phase of life and we actually

find ourselves asking the question, what comes next?

And the reality is what comes next is a new decision, and a new challenge,

and a new chapter, and new discovery in every phase of your life.

Now, you may have a plan, or you may be totally clueless.

You might be like most of us, as you reach one of the pinnacles of life,

you think, okay, I'm there, but you don't have a plan for what comes next.

But here's what we got to figure out. It's the plan of God.

Oftentimes, it doesn't come with the clarity. It doesn't start out telling you

everything is going to happen. it begins with a call.

It's God calling you out to walk before him and trust him no matter what goes on in your life.

And there's no better example for that than the life of Abraham.

We call Abraham the father of faith or the father of the faithful.

And we see here that Abraham, God gave Abraham one command.

He just told him to go out to the land that I'm going to show you.

That's the only command that God gave Abraham was just to trust him.

It didn't start with certainty. It started with trust.

It didn't begin with a blueprint. All Abraham had was a promise,

but he didn't have any details.

As a matter of fact, I want to show everybody in this building today that Abraham's

walk, the footsteps of faith that we're talking about.

The writer of Romans called them the footsteps of faith, that Abraham's footsteps

of faith, it's not just a story. It's not just history, but it's a blueprint

through every season of your life.

It is a pattern that you can use in every season of your life.

And so in just a moment, we're going to talk about the call,

the cost, and the confidence of faith, and we'll get there.

And I trust you, listen, everybody will get through this.

I've not lost a patient yet, so we're going to get through this together, all right?

See, life is not just a passive experience. Have you ever looked around and

you think that some people are just wandering through life without any purpose at all?

Don't point, all right, especially if they're with you, but have you ever seen

these people and you've thought, man, they're just kind of wandering through

life. They don't have any purpose, and you know, I think this. I know.

I'm kind of judgy in this kind of area and this kind of, I think this sometimes,

and I know Ashley, she cringed at the 9 a.m.

When I shared this, but I'm going to be transparent with you.

It's just who I am. If I'm walking through Walmart and, you know,

it's three o'clock in the day, I'm walking through Walmart and I see somebody

wandering around in bed pants, you know, it's just something that comes to mind.

I'm just, is anybody else like you just like, what are they doing?

They're obviously they don't have a, they couldn't even plan to put pants on, right?

They couldn't even plan to shower before they came out. And so there's certain

people though that you look at.

You think, did they even have a plan? Did they even got to have a purpose in what they're doing?

And most of the time I think they're getting Cheetos and, you know, whatever.

Anyway, but I look at this, according to Abraham, and life is not a passive experience.

It's filled with choices that determine the direction and the destination of our life.

I want to say that again, that life is filled with choices that determine not

only the direction, but also the destination of our lives.

Every choice that we make either leads us, and listen to me very clearly,

every decision either leads us closer to God or it inhibits our progress and getting closer.

So it's either leading us closer or it's keeping us from getting closer to God.

That's why Abraham is such a powerful example for us because Abraham's choices

were not just absurd decisions. We'll look at the choices that he made.

Music.

Some of these choices outside of the will of God would have seemed crazy.

But they were not just crazy choices.

They were tests that were designed to lead him closer to the purpose of God.

And Abraham's journey is a pattern for every believer in this building today.

Doesn't matter if you're graduating high school, college, or if you just graduated

from yesterday and you made it to today and you're figuring out how to raise

these kids and put up with that husband and transition in this job, whatever it is,

Abraham's life is a purpose or is a pattern.

And so we see here, it's not just what do you do next, it's who will you trust

as you go? Now let's take ourself back.

2,000 years B.C., that Abraham, he is progressing in his life,

and God speaks to him and tells him to leave his homeland, leave everything

that he knows, leave his fathers, according to Genesis chapter 12.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

And Abraham believed that the promise that God had given him was worth leaving,

so much so that in Romans chapter 4,

Romans 4 · chapter mention

we come to a place where the writer of Romans says that Abraham's faith led

him to a promise that even though he was not born with that destiny in mind,

even though his father didn't give him, that earthly father didn't give him

this destiny, that the heavenly father, because of his faith,

gave him the promise that was due to him.

Now, the reason why this is important in our scripture today is what God is

trying to show us is the same thing that Paul was trying to show to Roman believers.

It doesn't matter if you're not a Jew, if you walk the walk of faith,

if you trust God, if you hold to the promises, then the same promise that Abraham

had could be yours today.

I'm saying that maybe your daddy wasn't a preacher.

Maybe you weren't raised in Sunday school.

Maybe you have been known by your bad decisions in the past.

That does not disqualify you from the kingdom of God, the promise of Abraham.

The footsteps of faith that we're reading about today tells us that if we just

walk the walk, if we follow the promises of God, if we walk in the footsteps

of faith, then the same promise that Abraham has can be ours today.

Are you glad about that this morning? If you're glad, give the Lord a hand clap

of praise. I'm glad about that.

See, we're seeing it's not just for those who were raised in the faith,

but it's for all of us that believe.

It speaks to the progressive power of faith. It shows us that faith is progressive.

Now, I remember when I first gave my heart to Jesus Christ, I was raised in church.

I was raised in church, but church never got in me. I've got to be honest about that.

But in 1997, I gave my heart to Jesus Christ. I was 19 years old,

getting ready to turn 20 years old, gave my heart to Jesus.

And the Bible says that every believer has been given the measure of faith,

which means that I had enough faith that the Lord could save me.

That's what that means right there.

But every day I live this life, I get a little more faith.

Every time I see someone healed, I get a little more faith.

Every time I see someone who used to be addicted to drugs and they get delivered

by the power of the Holy Spirit, I get a little more faith.

Every time I see somebody come out of a lifestyle that they shouldn't be in

and they give a testimony that if it had not been for the Lord on my side,

I get a little more faith.

Every day that I walk this walk of faith, I grow in faith. It speaks to the

progressive nature of faith.

The Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians 3, not that, it tells us,

there it is, being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory

to another. In other words, the more you see.

Music.

Faith. If you are not growing, then you are not walking the footsteps of faith.

I love what A.W. Tozer said. He said this.

He said, the man who has God for his treasure has all things in one. Amen.

In other words, when you find this treasure, the Bible says it's like a treasure

hidden in the field that when a man has found it, he goes and sells all that

he has so that he can buy this field so that he can have the treasure.

That's what the Bible says. When you have found this good walk,

this way of Jesus Christ, no wonder they used to sing the song,

you can take this whole world, but give me Jesus. Amen.

You may have heard that song, but anybody got that testimony that now that you

found this treasure, you can take this whole world, just give me Jesus. us.

Abraham's journey. It was filled with trials. It was filled with difficulties,

but he never, he never turned from his direction with serving God. He had faith.

Now, faith. I really do believe that in today's culture, faith has become such a soft word.

Have you noticed that? We say things like keep the faith.

We say things like just have a little more faith. And really what we mean is,

we hope you remain optimistic. That's what we mean.

We have reduced faith to optimism.

I mean, all of us are guilty, all right? That's all of us. We have reduced faith to optimism.

When we start looking at what it means biblically, faith is more than optimism.

The Bible has a substantial meaning to this word in mind.

As a matter of fact, faith in the Scripture is our heart's response to the call of God,

that we are responding to a purpose that is greater than us,

that is calling us out from where we are to places that God has for us.

Now, that's what we're talking about this morning. I want to share these three

points, and we're going to transition to our graduation ceremony or our recognition

after this, but I want to share these three points.

The call of faith, this is everybody, everybody.

The call of faith, the cost of faith, and then the confidence of faith.

The call of faith, the cost of faith, and the confidence of faith.

First of all, the call of faith. In Genesis chapter 1, the Bible says that God

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

spoke to Abram, and he said, go from your country. I love this.

Go from your country, your people, your father's household to the land that I will show you.

I love it because what God doesn't say there is, Abram, I've given you a map

and here's where I want you to go.

And here's what's going to happen along the way.

See, what we find is life most more than more often than not,

life does not come with a roadmap.

Amen. We love five-year plans, don't we?

We love knowing what's going to happen tomorrow, But in life,

the Bible says that no man is promised tomorrow.

So God speaks to Abram, and he simply says, go to the land that I will show you.

And basically what he's saying is, you get up and start walking,

and I'll give you the details later.

I've got a friend that we were in business together. I worked in an organization

with him for a while, and he was ex-military.

And he used to tell me, he said, I got a soldier's mentality.

And I didn't really know what that meant, so I inquired of him.

And he said, I was in the military, and he said I was a drill sergeant for a

while, served in different positions for a while.

He said, but a soldier's mentality is, I take orders, and then while I'm marching

there, they give us the explanation, and I find out how the mission is going to be done.

That's the way it is in the kingdom of God. God doesn't tell you how he's going

to work it out. He just tells you that he is.

God doesn't tell you what the challenge is going to be around the corner.

He just tells you that he is with you. He calls us out from where we are and

asks us to walk before him.

But this is difficult for us, especially in America.

Let's talk about American Christianity. We want God to tell us exactly what's

going to happen tomorrow.

God, tell us how you're going to heal us. God, tell us how you're going to meet our need.

We like to have it planned out so that we get an alert on our phone,

a reminder on our phone, so that we know when everything is going to happen.

Some of you guys have refrigerators that have notes on it, digital notes.

It tells you everything going on on your refrigerator.

I'm thinking, well, we really like to be in control, and that's not what we

find in our walk with faith.

As a matter of fact, more times than not, we don't know what is around the next

turn. We have to trust in God.

The great writer C.S. Lewis said it this way, says, Faith is the art of holding

on to things your reason has once accepted in spite of your changing moods.

In other words, the circumstances of life may change, but God never changes.

The seasons of life may change, but God, who has called you out from where you are, never changes.

I know you may go through difficulty, but God called you out from where you

are to take you to somewhere.

And he may not have told you the term by term directions, but we have to trust

him through every single season of our lives.

I started thinking about when I was preparing this, I started thinking about

when I was younger and I was in the ministry and we were newly married.

And man, it seems like everywhere we turned, there was financial uncertainties.

Uncertainties. There were occupational uncertainties.

There were people uncertainties. You know, you think about this.

When you get this many people in our world doing life together,

everything is going to be uncertain.

But the one certainty that we have is that God has called us out.

The same way that God has called Abram, Abram, Abraham, out from where he was,

God has called you out from the life that you used to live to walk before him in the kingdom.

Now, the call is the glorious thing, but I would be lying to you.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention to you that there's also a cost involved.

Now, we don't like to talk about the costs because we like to think that we

got we got easy living in the kingdom of God, that that once you give your heart

to Jesus Christ, everything is going to be smooth sailing.

But how many people that's been living for the Lord longer than five minutes

found out that we still have problems?

Amen. I've had people, I've been counseling with them before,

and I've had people that's actually said, preacher, you don't know what it's like.

And that's my response every time. You know, I know I'm supposed to be,

I'm supposed to sit there with my arms crossed and my legs folded and say,

oh, but old brother, I just laugh. I'm like, really?

Really? The Bible says it rains on the just and the unjust.

We all got life to live, guys. That's what it says.

There's a cost to pay in this. See, let's look at this cost of the call that

we see in Abraham's life.

See, the Bible says in Genesis 12, 14, the Bible says that he calls him out

of the land of his father, out of the land of his kindred, and to walk before him.

See, we don't think that much about that because we know the end of the story.

We know that Abraham's going to be blessed, and so we don't think about God calling him out.

But if you've been living in 2000 BC, what you would have realized was,

was that your family and your good name, that was the only thing that it was

politically and socially, everything that you had back then.

For Abraham to leave his father and his land was social suicide.

So we don't even think about that. God said the one thing, the main thing that

gives you comfort and security in your life, I want you to walk out and leave and walk before me.

The book of Hebrews chapter 11 says that Abraham was wandering like a stranger in a foreign country.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

In other words, he was just wandering around waiting for God.

He was walking around waiting for God to tell him the next move.

The Bible shows us he was wandering.

Here's the truth, is that our culture does not want to hear this,

but faith will always cost you something.

See, the reality is, is that all of us have a country that we have to leave.

For Abraham, his country was a physical country where his father and mother leave.

But all of us have a country, a something that we have to walk away from.

When I first gave my heart to the Lord Jesus, I remember there's a group of

guys that I knew I couldn't keep on doing the things that we used to do.

And so I went to them and told them. I mean, I just made it plain.

I said, hey, guys, I love you, but I can't hang out.

We can see each other at school and whatever else, but I can't be doing what we've been doing.

And they were very critical at first, but over time, as they saw what God was

doing in my life, and some of them began to walk for the Lord themselves,

almost all of them came back to me at some point and said, I realized why you

had to walk away. I realized why you had to separate.

See, there's always a cost that comes along with the call of this walk with faith.

Here's what Dallas Willard said. He says, the greatest enemy of spiritual growth

is not sin, but the illusion of control.

In other words, when you think that you have everything under control,

when you think that you call the own shots in your life, then that's the enemy of faith.

Because real faith says, God, I may not know what's gonna happen tomorrow.

Music.

And the Bible said that young man went away sorrowfully because he loved his riches.

No, there's always something that you have to walk away from.

It'll always cost you something. And I know as believers, modern day believers,

we like to say, oh, you know, if I don't do it, somebody will.

Have you heard somebody say that? I've heard people say, oh,

you know, if I don't do it, God's will still be done, it will.

And we've let ourselves off the hooks with that.

We love to go back, you know, the Bible says talking about Esther said,

and we love to quote it, it says, oh, Esther was called for such a time as this.

But the reality is that part that we don't pull up in our daily devotional was they told Esther.

He said, you've been called for such a time as this. But if you don't do it,

those gallows that are being built down there, you're going to hang by the neck

in those same gallows if you don't do it.

The reality is there's always a cost of faith. And God's not letting you off

the hook by saying, if I don't do it, somebody else will.

No, the reality is if we're going to walk this walk before Jesus Christ,

then we must walk it in faith.

Because I know everybody wants to amen on the call, but nobody wants to amen on the cost, right?

Hey, what'd you say he's going to call that devotion to a mind he's going to put out?

The contextual devotion. Yeah. Yeah. You know what that means is,

yeah, there's hope, but there's always a price to pay.

Yeah. You're calling for such a time as this, but if you don't,

you're going to hang on the, anyway. All right.

Bonhoeffer said it this way, did it? Bonhoeffer said it this way.

It says, when Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.

That's reality. Maybe not a physical death, but there's going to be some things

you've got to do that you don't want to do.

There's going to be some things you're going to walk away from that you don't want to walk away from.

There's going to be some, listen, it's going to hurt sometimes to say no to

this flesh, but that's a part of this walk of faith.

We tell the story of Abraham. like it was easy for Abraham to leave his father

and mother because he knew he's going to get something great.

Abraham went through a lot of stuff before he got to the promise.

He went through a lot of stuff before he got to the promise.

The reality is you may go through some stuff, but the promise is worth it.

Man, this is the, see, if it wasn't for this last part, the cost would seem too great.

But the reality is there's a confidence of faith as well because there's a promise that we've got.

Faith isn't just costly. It's anchored in a promise.

Genesis chapter 12, verses 2 and 3 says it this way.

Genesis 12:2

And I will make you a great nation. I will bless you. I will make your name

great so that you will be blessed.

I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you. I will curse.

And you all of the families of the earth shall be blessed. And here's the reality. God has called you.

It may cost you something, but at the end of the day, you have a promise.

And your promise may not be that all nations of the earth will be blessed,

but your promise may be that those little kids running around in your household

are going to be blessed one day because you walked the walk of faith.

It may be that the place where you work is going to be blessed one day because

you walked the walk of faith.

It may be that your name and maybe your family's had a bad name and maybe God's

doing a generational change in you.

It may be that people look at your entire generation, your lineage differently

because you walked a walk of faith.

So here's what the Bible says about Abram. The Bible says that he was looking

forward to the city with foundations whose architect and builder is God.

In other words, he knew he was looking for that city. For us,

Jesus Christ has gone away to prepare a place for us. Amen.

See, everybody wants to get to heaven. You know, those old country songs,

everybody wants to get to heaven, but nobody wants to die, right?

That's, everybody wants to get to heaven, but nobody wants to walk the walk.

And the reality is there is a walk of faith that must be walked in order to

see the eternal promise.

Abraham, the reason why he was walking this walk is because he was looking for

a city whose builder and maker was God.

And see, we got that promise because the Bible says that we have the Lord Jesus

Christ, that he has gone away to prepare a place for us.

Look at the model of Abraham. Look at it reflected in the Lord and Savior Jesus

Christ, that Jesus left the ultimate home in heaven to come down to earth.

He paid the ultimate price for our sin, the ultimate cost for our sin,

and at the same time has turned around and made us the ultimate promise,

the ultimate confidence that we have in salvation.

See, what I'm trying to say is it's worth it all because Jesus said,

I've gone to prepare a place for you.

See, what that means is that the cost is worth it. The call is great.

The cost sometimes can seem difficult.

But the promise is worth it. It's worth it.

Remember that in every season of life that you're in, that it's worth it.

Hope if you'll come help me finish it this day, finish it this way.

In our first service, I preached this, and Brother Rob Albright,

he came up and he shared this with me, and I told him that I would give him

credit today, but if I use it in the future, I'm going to take credit for it,

all right? So he gets one-time credit for it.

He said this. He said, here's what

the Lord spoke to my heart as you preached. He says, we grow as we go.

We grow when we go, but when we don't go, we don't grow.

Faith is progressive, which means when you're not walking this walk of faith,

you're not growing in the Lord.

You're not progressing in the

Lord. Progressive faith, progressive sanctification is the will of God.

But when you're not growing, When you're not being faithful,

when you're not going, you're not growing.

I look at this today, and we all got a part to play in this.

We like to say, God, it's all you. Listen, it's all the Lord.

He gets all the credit. But we've got a work to do in this.

Augustine of Hippo said this. He said, God provides the wind,

but man must raise the sail.

God provides the wind but man must raise the sail which means we got work to

do we've got a part to play this we got a walk that we've got to walk,

and so i got to ask you the question what is god calling you to walk out of,

and what is god calling you to walk to because there's a walk of faith that's

required let's all stand up all over this building.

As I give this call, if our graduates could prepare for our ceremony.

But here's my call today. Every head bowed, every eye closed.

If you're here today and you know God has called you. Maybe God's called you

to witness to that person at work.

Maybe God has called you to be that believer in your family that holds the line.

Maybe that god maybe god's called you to volunteer in church and do more in

church reach out in your community maybe god's called you to pray more to read more,

whatever it is maybe god is calling you out of something and say you know you

you need to step away from that for everybody in here there's a walk of faith

so nobody looking around this person between you and god but if you're here

today and you'd say pastor scott god is calling me out of some things,

or God is calling me into some things.

If that's you, I just want you to raise your hand and say, that's me.

There's hands going up. There's hands going up all over this building.

All over this building. Yeah.

That's us, guys. That's us. You can put those hands down. Here's what I want us to do.

Can we just join hands right now? Can we join hands with the person next to us, people next to us?

I want us to pray and what I want us to pray for is God, give me the faith to answer the call,

but also God give me the faith to keep on walking when I see the cost remind

me of the promise when I see the cost,

let's pray that right now Father in the name of Jesus we come before you we

thank you for your Holy Spirit and God we just pray right now for everybody

God that's answering this call of faith for those of us God we believe that

you're calling us out of places you're calling us into places.

Father, I pray for those who you're calling God to do a work in your kingdom.

For those who you're calling God to get closer to you. For those.