Not Your Ordinary Church Service: Messy Church | Part 4

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

I was 23 and stepping into my very first full-time pastoral position.

I'd recently finished up my schooling at Moody Bible Institute.

My wife and I were married about a year and a half.

Our plan originally was we wanted to get back to the West Coast.

We're both from Santa Cruz, so from Chicago, we wanted to go to, you know, anywhere on the West Coast, really.

And we ended up in Georgia, which was exactly opposite of that direction.

And I was hired to do a lead and start a youth ministry at this church plant in Georgia.

Now think about this.

23, newly married.

We bought our first and only home that we've purchased for$160,000.

That's not even a down payment for a lot of your houses here today, right?

In the first two months there, we had our very first child, Ella, and then we started this ministry together.

You know, when Jenny and I were dating and engaged, we had this prayer that God, would you make us better together than we ever could apart?

And it's just our prayer together.

God, would you make us better together than we ever could apart?

And so when we've been doing ministry all these years, uh it's been a team.

It's been something that we said, man, we're all in.

So though I started this job, Jenny came alongside.

And honestly, I she is an incredible, amazing leader.

Uh I just her gifts and her skills, her ability.

Uh uh, it's amazing.

I often say she's a better leader than me.

I'm just a better talker uh up front, and that's pretty true.

A lot of what God has done over the years wouldn't have happened without uh her leadership.

And so we dove into starting this youth ministry together, and it started out in this um, I think it was a Wednesday evening in uh this basement.

Now, if you're not from the South or never been to the South, the basement sounds dark and dungy.

That's not the case in Georgia.

They're amazing, by the way.

I mean, the huge, this thing was like 3,000 square foot of just an incredible game area that this uh family opened up to us, and we started having these kids come in.

Um, and Georgia's a little interesting, right?

Um, at least from the West Coast perspective, because it has that Christian culture or that southern charm.

In fact, um in Georgia, I remember our very first time going out to eat there.

Uh, the gal asked us what church we went to.

And we're like, excuse me, very thank you.

Like, what do you mean?

Um we're part of a church, I didn't know you knew that.

But this was like how waiters and waitresses just started the ordering.

They would ask, and if you didn't go to church, you just picked whatever megachurch was around to just pass the test at the beginning, right?

And so there's this Christian veneer and this southern charm that's kind of encapsulates everything.

And we started to have all these kids that didn't fit the scope, these party kids, these amazingly wealthy kids, these kids that came from really some tough backgrounds and awkward kids and all the rest.

And I remember a year in, my wife said something that was so profound.

She said, you know, Ryan, ministry was easy when we didn't really know anybody.

Isn't that true?

See, the minute you get to know somebody, it gets messy, doesn't it?

When you stay up on the surface and you just kind of see the outside, it's easy.

But then we started to get to know these kids, got to know their families, got to see the hurt and the brokenness, the marriages that were struggling.

I mean, unfortunately, we saw deep racism and loneliness and depression.

Ministry was easy until we got to know people.

And then it got messy.

And it just became one of those things where we realized okay, we're called to lean into the messiness of life.

You know, I think the reality is, is we're all messy.

And we're all a bit of a mess.

Welcome to church.

I hope you're having a fantastic day.

Jesus sent me to tell you that you're a mess.

See, the problem actually, though, in the church isn't so much that we're all a mess.

See, when we gather people together and we're a mess, it's kind of like, okay, you part of what you get is a one big mess, but the problem in the church is that we try to cover up our mess, isn't it true?

We try to hide our mess.

We try to live up to some Instagram ideal of filtered perfection that we want other people to see and never really show our true selves, and as a result, never really experience belonging or healing or home.

See, what would it look like for us to be a church that doesn't simply cover up our mess, but actually helps carry one another in our mess to Jesus.

See, I think that's a not ordinary church service where we don't just come and we look good, and you do look good, by the way, uh, but we don't just come and look good on the outside, but we're really honest, like, hey, the truth is we're all a bit of a mess, I'm a mess, you're a mess.

Uh we all have something going on, whether it's anxiety or pride or lust or loneliness or depression, or maybe you're struggling with your marriage, maybe you're struggling with a relationship, maybe it's an addiction.

But we all have something, and we go, you know what, this welcome to church.

We're all a bit messy, and we're not gonna hide it, but we're going to then begin to help bring one another, one another to the very feet of Jesus.

Mess and all.

See, I think that's a not ordinary church.

See, church, we talk about this this way, church is the family of God.

Uh, and yet sometimes when we gather together, it is uh a little bit like a uh, you know, kind of like an awkward family reunion.

And you're going, like, this is how do we engage, how do we do this?

And listen, think about this.

What if the church was once more known for how we love one another?

You know, when Jesus was commanding his disciples, his final words in John 13, 34 through 35, he said this: he said, A new command I give to you that you love one another in the same way that I loved you.

By this, the entire world will know you are my disciples by how you love one another.

Like mess included and all, Jesus said, What people will see as the distinguishing mark and something that is incredibly irresistible about those who follow me is how well this community loves each other.

Mess and all.

What does it look like for us to once more be known for how we love, or better yet, how do we become a church that deeply cares for one another and simply carries one another to the feet of Jesus?

That's what we want to wrestle with.

That's what we want to become as we uh regather as a church.

Uh if you got your Bibles, would you open up to Mark chapter two, Mark chapter two, verse one, as we wrestle with this today?

And Mark 2, verse 1, we we pick up the story uh, what I'm calling an impromptu uh church service.

Mark 2:1

Jesus was on a teaching healing tour.

He was traveling through the Galilean area teaching and preaching, and then he goes to Capernaum, which was their home base at the time.

It's where actually Peter and Andrew's house was.

And Capernaum is a seaside city, it's a wonderful, incredible town, central trade route.

It's where Peter and Andrew based their fishing uh business out of, and James and John as well.

And Peter and James uh Andrew's house was uh Jesus' kind of home base for when they're doing ministry in the Galilean area.

And so they've just finished this work and they've come back for a little RR.

And what happens then is an impromptu church service, and as a result, we get a picture and a vision for how we're to embrace the mess around us and help carry people to the very feet of Jesus.

We pick it up in Mark chapter two, and we did this last week, so I thought we would do this this week.

We stood in honor of the word of God.

We won't do this every single week, but I thought, hey, why not?

Let's do it again.

Would you stand with me in the reading of God's word together?

Mark 2, verse 1 says, A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home.

Mark 2:1

They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them.

Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them.

Since they could not get to him get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and lowered the mat the man was lying on.

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, Son, your sins are forgiven.

Now some teachers of the law were sitting there thinking to themselves, Why does this fellow talk like that?

He's blaspheming.

Who can forgive sins but God alone?

Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, Why are you thinking these things?

Which is easier to say to this paralyzed man, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Get up, take up your mat and walk.

But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.

So he said to the man, I tell you, get up, take up your mat, and go home.

He got up, took his mat, and walked out in full view of them.

This amazed everyone, and they praised God, saying, We have never seen anything like this.

This is the word of the Lord, amen.

You may be seated.

It's an impromptu church service.

I'm actually going to turn these real quick.

An impromptu church service.

And it's here we get a vision for how we're going to embrace uh the messiness of life and carry one another to Jesus.

To do this, I want to help unpack four groups that were around Jesus, look at four different groups that were surrounding Jesus, and then give us just simply three practices from this text of how we're going to engage and be that Jesus-centered community.

How do we actually really deeply care for one another and carry one another to the feet of Jesus?

And so you notice there's four groups that were all around Jesus.

You had the crowd, you had the friends, you had the uh paralytics, or the person not necessarily a group, and then you had uh the religious or the Pharisees.

Let's just take a look at all four around Jesus.

The first group was the crowd.

Now think about this.

Jesus had been away, he's been teaching, and word got out quick, and he wasn't planning on doing anything else, but just get a little bit of RR, and the minute he shows up, a crowd forms.

Now, in Capernaum and in the ancient world, then, houses didn't have, you know, the different sections of rooms the way they do today.

They were the original open concept house.

There was really mainly just one big room.

That joke was for my wife, who's a realtor, by the way.

Um, there's one big room, sometimes a second room as well.

One of the large rooms in that day could potentially hold 50 people.

So when we're imagining and understanding this, there's there's about 50 people crowded in and outside, all clamoring to hear from Jesus.

He has compassion on them, and he begins to preach to them.

And yet then these men come up with this friend who's paralyzed, trying to get this guy in to see Jesus.

And you just can imagine they're packed in and they're going, like, okay, hey, I got I got this guy, and the crowd, and somebody at some point had to say, dude, you're a little late.

We're already in.

Um, why don't you find him when he's kind of roaming around?

He's actually in the middle of a great story right now.

You should hear it.

Oh, wait, you can't.

You're outside.

Never mind.

And here's something that's been deeply challenging to my heart about the crowd.

The crowd unintentionally hindered access to Jesus.

You know, um, a commentator uh notes that in the Gospel of Mark, we see the crowd in all sorts of ways.

We actually see Jesus' response to the crowd, that the crowd, uh, he often has compassion upon them.

But one of the things we see through the Gospel of Mark that's uh repeated about the crowd is they often hinder access to Jesus.

And I just have been wrestling and wondering about our gatherings, about our time, about us as the church, and like how do we actually hinder access to Jesus?

You know, I think at best they were unaware, right?

At best they were unaware that there was a problem, that they were unaware that they were hindering access to Jesus, but at worst they were unconcerned.

Didn't care.

Literally, somebody had to not care at some point, and they had reason not to, by the way.

Uh paralytic, uh, the belief for them was if you are suffering, it is because of your sin, and because he is a sinful person, he's suffering justly, so leave him outside.

So we're unconcerned about him.

I didn't do the wrong you did, you don't get access to Jesus.

I'm gonna be here.

And I think this happens to us is that we begin to look down on people because they're not where we think they should be at.

But I think sometimes it's not just that for most of us that we're just unconcerned, we're unaware.

You know, I thought about it in our way we gather here, and even when we do our like little meet and greet thing.

I think one of the ways that we're unaware of hindering access to Jesus is when we're unintentionally just not looking or friendly to other people.

You know how many times I've heard over the course of the life of our church somebody saying, Man, so-and-so met me and they welcomed me, and it just made me feel like I was home and I belonged, and so I stuck.

It's like when we do that, see, we can we can go out here and go, it's amazing and it's wonderful, and we want to see our friends and family and people, and and that is so good, and that's a part of it, but we actually have to have eyes to look around and see, man, who's not connected?

Who's who's standing and like going, like, I have nobody to talk to?

This is the most awkward thing in the whole world.

We're doing this meet and greet, and I can't even really go to the cafe um to get coffee to feel comfortable.

See, the crowd, they're unaware that they hindered access to Jesus.

First group.

Second group is the friends.

Now, now the friends, notice, uh they cared, right, enough to carry their friend to Jesus.

They cared enough to carry their friend to Jesus.

Think about this.

This paralyzed man, he cannot get to Jesus on his own at all.

There's no hope.

He can't walk to him.

It's uh just unless Jesus maybe passed by him.

His friends go, okay, we're gonna carry you.

And then we're so concerned about you getting to Jesus.

Um, unconcerned crowds don't concern us.

See, because okay, we can't get through the door, okay, the windows blocked.

Hey, let's try to roof.

You know what I was thinking about this house?

What would be amazing is a skylight.

All right, this house could use a skylight.

I'm sure they would want that.

Uh in uh Capernaum and in um in Israel at that time, houses were built so that the roofs had these long beams across, then some thatching across, sometimes tile over that as well.

And then they'd use clay and hay and mud to build a waterproof tite on the top.

And the roof actually was one of those spaces like a deck is for us today in that day.

So they in the evening would go up there and enjoy and hang out.

Um, there'd often be some grass or even some uh garden stuff growing up on there, and so these men could climb up.

There's a staircase on the outside of houses, they would climb up the staircase and then dig through.

It was actually quite easy for them to do this, move the tile out and um then drop their friend down.

Man, think about the friends.

Listen to this.

The friends were deeply concerned for their friend and wanted to help.

They believed Jesus not only could but would help.

He had the ability.

They didn't just sit and hope, they were moved to action.

They didn't let a setback hold them back from Jesus, and they worked together to bring their friend to Jesus.

You have the crowd, they were unaware.

The friends, they cared enough to carry their friend to Jesus to do whatever it took.

And then you had the paralytic.

Think about how he felt.

I mean, one in that moment to feel so loved by people who would go out of their way and and literally carry you to Jesus.

I just wonder what he was thinking as he's up on that roof and he's seeing his buddies, I we just think they're his buddies, digging through.

And I wonder what Jesus is thinking.

He's like, probably mid-story, just kind of looks up and going, okay, well, let's let's wait and see what's gonna happen here as some of the dirt begins to fall down.

He's like, you know, we'll just pause the teaching for this moment.

And all of a sudden, you know, light begins to break through from the uh roof, and you know, you see these guys peering down.

Yep, we got it in the middle, that's where Jesus is.

Whoo, glad we got that right.

And then they begin to lower him down, and the eyes of Jesus are on this man, and every other eye's on him.

And what he's thought, and what he's felt for as long as he's been paralyzed, and I don't know how long it is.

The text doesn't tell us.

He could have been paralyzed his entire life, he could have had an you know accident at work.

God's angry with me.

God's against me.

This is a result of who I am.

And Jesus' first words, these are so powerful.

Son relationship, family.

Your sins are forgiven.

Like God's not angry at you and your family, and I'm meeting you with grace in this moment.

You can only imagine the joy that swept his heart in that moment.

And here's what we saw with the paralytic that his deepest desire, he was unaware of his really his greatest need.

Said it another way, his deepest desire wasn't his greatest need.

See, he desired physical restoration, and Jesus says, There's an internal spiritual healing that I want to do in your life.

I like how um Tim Keller wrote and said it.

He said, Jesus says, You see, if you have me, I'll actually fulfill you, and if you fail me, I will always forgive you.

I'm the only Savior who can do that.

But it's hard to figure that out.

Many of us start going to God, going to church, because we have problems, and we're asking God to give us a little boost over the hump so that we can get back to saving ourselves, back to pursuing our deepest wishes.

And I think that's where many of us come in.

That our deepest desire is not actually our greatest need.

We need Jesus, we need his healing, we need his forgiveness, we just need him, and we're just going, God, no.

If you would fix this, if you would just fix this area, would you fix my marriage?

Then everything would work out right.

If you would just fix that anxiety and depression, then everything would work out right.

If you would just fix my job, then everything would work out right.

And he's like, no, no.

I want to meet you deeply and profoundly.

His deepest desire was not his greatest need.

And then finally, finally we have the Pharisees or the religious.

And you notice their knowledge of God blinded them to their need for God.

They're sitting watching this unfold.

And they're seeing Jesus, they're seeing this man, and they're just criticizing the entire time in their heart.

Now, there's a rabbinic saying that says there is no sick man healed of his sickness until all his sins have been forgiven.

So they don't they believe that you cannot be healed until you've been fully forgiven.

And then Jesus says to this man, your sins are forgiven.

And knowing in their heart, only God can forgive sins.

And then he says, which is easier, remember this?

To say your sins are forgiven or get up and walk.

Well, clearly it's easy to say your sins are forgiven.

I can say that right now to you, and you go, Well, thank you very much.

It doesn't mean anything from you, Ryan.

And you can't prove it.

How can you prove that you forgave my sins?

And to prove it.

He then says, get up and walk.

And in that moment, confronts the Pharisees and the religious leaders that they may know a lot of nice things about God, but they're unaware of who God is and how he's operating.

Because God incarnates right in front of them, and the paralytic's sitting there, and he knows his need for God, and the Pharisees are in just as much need of God, and yet they're living judgmental, thinking they're okay.

And so, how do we become a church that deeply cares for one another and carries each other to the very feet of Jesus?

I want to give us really three practices of a not ordinary church, of a Jesus-centered community for us to live into.

I believe as we do this, man, not only will it change and transform you, it'll change and transform others, and this is the type of community Jesus desires for his church.

The first practice of a Jesus-centered community is that a Jesus-centered community makes room for all people to have access to Jesus.

Hey, we're gonna make room for every single person.

How can we make room?

How can we carve out space?

How can we be intentional?

We're gonna go, okay, I get it.

There's times where we're unaware, there's times we're honestly unconcerned.

How do we make room for all people to have access to Jesus?

You know, part of the way we make room in our services is some of the practical things that we said in the very first sermon of the series.

Like part of making room is showing up early and staying late so that you have space to engage.

So that we're in Silicon Valley, it's like hustle, hustle, hustle, right?

Just hurry, hurry, hurry, I gotta get on.

And you just make space.

What if you carved out space and you're gonna be, I'm gonna be intentional.

I'm gonna be intentional with somebody and just ask them how they're doing.

How can I be praying for you?

Remember, we asked last week, over the last few weeks, who can I encourage?

It's part of how we make room.

We asked last week, here's a remember this?

Said, go have a great meal and maybe invite somebody along with you.

My parents did that.

And they said it was the best Sunday at awakening since.

They both met a young, and two young professional gals, and they just were talking, getting to know them, and then they said, Hey, you want you guys want to come out to lunch with us?

How awesome is that, by the way, the church.

You have um some mature people, um that's the appropriate way to say that.

And these young professionals, and they said, Yeah, we would love to.

And they went out to lunch and they got to hear all about their story and connect them, and it was awesome.

And my dad's like, this was the best Sunday because we engaged.

And then he told me a story when they had just moved to Dallas for him to start seminary.

They had no money, I wasn't born yet.

My two brothers moved into government assistant housing.

They um were trying out a church, it was called Bible uh Reinhardt, Bible Church, that is, and then they um they weren't sure how they were gonna afford food, and they after service, they're just sitting in the parking lot, and my dad says, I just had my head on the steering wheel.

Like you just made this massive move, you feel far from home, you don't know how you're gonna provide for your family, the weight of it all comes crashing in, and he gets this knock on the window, and this couple says, Hey, would you want to come over for lunch?

Yeah, because we're not eating otherwise.

And they went over with a few other couples to this couple's home.

My dad said, That one lunch changed the trajectory of his life.

It was a lunch.

He's like, through that lunch, I got connected at Reinhardt Bible Church.

I started teaching a high school, you know, uh, Bible study.

Then they asked me to lead the college ministry.

I got connected to the senior pastor there, his name's um something Geiger, I forget, is uh Don Geiger, and he became a mentor for me, still to this day.

I can connect with him, and he introduced me to, and he named significant people that I've known through the course of my life who've been influential.

It was one lunch, and we just gotta start making room for people, and it's this simple, simple, but significant.

You know, one of the ways I was thinking about how we make room for people not in this service, I was confronted with this the other day.

Uh, I went to the store, truth be told, it was Bevmo.

I just gotta get that out there.

And as I'm checking out this guy Joshua, I I would love to say that I'm always in like this really great welcoming space.

I I was in my head, I was just ready to go home, hang out with the family.

Kind of, it was um, you know, middle of the week.

I'm just like, okay.

And I'd met him before.

And he reminded me that I had once came and spoke at his uh at his school, his college.

And I just realized, I'm like, here I am in my head, and not even paying attention to the human on the other side who is checking me out, not literally checking me out, you know what I mean.

Instead of making room.

And all of a sudden it clicks, it's like, Ryan, make room.

And so we began to talk.

It's like, yeah, I'm like, what are you doing with your life?

What's going on?

And uh, it's like I'm trying to find a church.

Man, we'd love to have you anytime.

It's like these are so simple but significant that we'd be a church that makes room for all people to have access, then we'd be aware that all we can do is carry, only Jesus can bring healing.

All the men could do was get their paralyzed friend to Jesus.

See, this is so helpful because you can't be the savior, you can't heal the marriage, you can't fix the problem, you can't, but you can carry.

You can carry.

Our role is to help carry people to Jesus.

Well, how do we do that?

We pray for them, or we just simply be present with them, we pursue after them and bring them to Jesus.

You know, um one of my really, really dear friends, not a part of Awakening, um, they a couple friends, they went through a really hell of a year.

Uh, unfortunately, he had an affair, and a few of us are just walking really closely with them.

And it's been so painful and hard.

And in the early days of like figuring out how do we walk alongside, there's like you just want to be able to fix it, don't you?

You just want to be able to like, man, how can we solve this?

And and we're spinning out thinking and praying, and what can we do?

What can we do?

And and then all of a sudden it just was so clear.

Only Jesus can heal their marriage, only Jesus can save their family, only Jesus can bring about true repentance, only Jesus, here's what we can do, we can support.

When we get really, really clear, all we can do is carry people to Jesus, and our goal isn't to be Jesus, but to bring them to Jesus.

It's powerful.

And people experience the healing and grace of Jesus.

One way that it happens in this church, there's a gal in our church during that meet and greet time that carries people to Jesus, and I love this.

She goes and meets somebody brand new, gets to know their name and a little bit about them, writes their name down on a card, and then prays for them all throughout the week.

And then intentionally looks for them after the very next week to say, ask them how their week is, and that she had been praying for them.

Like it's one of those ways that we just get to carry people to Jesus.

Make room for all people to have access.

All we can do is carry, only Jesus can bring healing.

And then finally, we all are messy and need to be carried to Jesus.

Started this way, we'll close this way.

We're all messy.

Isn't it easier to be the one that prays for somebody and not necessarily being prayed for?

Sometimes I think it's just safer to be the one that's carrying but not necessarily being carried.

And where we just look around and we go, I'm a mess, guys.

We're all messes.

Like the reason we have small groups is so that we can be in community growing together, and that you have a group of people the same, no, we're we're all messes, and at times we're all gonna carry one another towards Jesus.

But where we just acknowledge that.

I dream of a day like when our prayer line is just packed because we don't say there's a small prayer and I don't really need it today, or it's too little, but it's just like, hey, we're all waking up and gone, you know what, I can't wait, and today I need to be carried, and I'm gonna help carry someone else.

You know, um there's this brothers who are triathletes.

Well known, world uh like famous.

I mean, they're just elite in their area.

They um name is Alistair and Johnny Brownlee for those who are in that world.

In 2012 at the London Olympics, they um Alistair, who's the older brother, three years older, won gold.

Johnny won bronze, so they're standing on the podium together.

Uh they're just this powerhouse of brothers, and the 2016 Rio Olympics, Alistair again won gold and Johnny won silver standing next to each other.

Johnny, um Johnny was having an incredible year, the younger brother uh on the world tour for uh triathlon.

In fact, uh the final event, he was set to win the entire uh series if he won that event.

It was in Cosimel, Mexico, and he was demolishing everyone.

Uh in a way back second and third was his brother Alistair and another runner.

Uh and when you s you you can go on YouTube and watch the close of this event, and when you see Johnny, he's only about 500 meters away from the finish line.

And commentators are going, he's got it in the bag.

He is the world champion.

I mean, literally, he had such a lead that he could could have probably walked the rest of the way and won.

And he was looking strong and he was looking good, and then all of a sudden there's a little wobble, and the commentator's like, he's not quite uh oh, what is that?

And he did something that happens in endurance um sports, they call it conking out, where his body just begins to shut down.

In fact, some of his internal organs even can shut down.

It's actually quite dangerous.

And you see him wobble and struggle and then all of a sudden fall to the side and caught by one of the um spectators.

Alistair and the other uh guy are running, coming, closing in, and he sees his younger brother has fallen to the side.

And instead of running and trying to get first and come back, he runs to his brother.

He grabs his arm, puts it over his arm, and he finishes the rest of the race.

He carries his brother to the finish line.

And Alistair doesn't just tie for second place with his brother.

He doesn't just give up the opportunity to have gotten first by carrying his brother.

He actually takes his brother and pushes him over the line so that his brother could get second.

I think that's what we're supposed to be as the church.

That as we're running our race, as we're running the fast pace of Silicon Valley, that we see our brother or sister who are stumbling, and instead of going, like, I'm gonna just finish, I'm gonna stop, and I'm gonna help carry you, and I'm gonna push you across the line, and we need to be that kind of church.

And as we close, I think there's some here that just need to be carried in this moment.

I'm gonna invite you to stand up, and I just want to spend a moment praying together.

Go ahead and stand up.

And if you're here and you're going, like, man, I need to be carried, Ryan, and we already acknowledge we're all messes.

Here's what I'm gonna ask you to do.

I'm gonna ask you to just raise your hand, acknowledge I'm I'm needing to be carried in this moment.

And if you're in the place where you feel like you're um Alistair and you have the strength, and you're going, I I know we're all messes, but Ryan, I I can pray.

So if you're needing to be carried, would you just raise your hand and then look around?

And if you're around somebody, would you just reach out your hand towards them and just start praying for them?

You don't need to know your their name, God knows.

You just start praying for them.

And so raise your hand high.

We got it right over here.

Reach out their hand and begin pray.

Look around, church.

We got hands up all around and begin to pray for them.

Reach out your hand toward them and start praying over them.

We got hands in the back, turn around and pray for them.

Hands all the way in the back.

Reach out your hands, church, and begin to pray.

Carry one another to Jesus.

God, I raise my hand because I'm a mess.

So grateful that when you see us, you say, son and daughter, not angry with you.

Welcome home.

God, I pray for those that right now are battling depression and anxiety, that you just would bring healing, bring wholeness, bring life.

With addiction, would you break the bondage?

Relationship and marriages that are struggling.

Would you bring wholeness only you can save?

We acknowledge that.

God, may we be a church that carries one another to your cheek, your feet in prayer.

We need you.

We need you.

God, thank you for the women and men who are saying, We need you.

We love you.

Thank you that you meet us right where we are.

We hope you are blessed by this message.

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