3 Words that Change Everything

Happy New Year, church. Happy New Year. It's going to be a great year. I'm declaring it. I'm believing it. How many of you are just at all of our campuses, show of hands, how many of you are just glad 2025 is over? Anybody? It's been one of those years and you're ready to go on and move on to the next year. I love this time of the year. The end of December is always a very kind of a reflective month for me. I'm looking back through journals. I'm trying to close one chapter and prepare for the next one, and I'm believing that this is going to be a great year. Hey, before we jump in too far, let's bring our tithes and offerings into the storehouse. Amen? So I was even kind of reflecting on that concept and that idea that everything you've done the last couple of days, so today's January the 4th, so the last couple of days, everything you've done, every year you start over and it's the first time you've done it this year. So it's the first time that you brush your teeth, hopefully, if you still haven't done that. Let's do that now. It's the first time you brush your teeth. It's the first time, your first meal, your first prayer. This is our first church gathering of the new year. Like it's the very first one, and I think that's impactful and pretty special. Maybe it was the first kiss. Maybe it was the first, if you haven't kissed your spouse yet this year, you should probably do that too. But it's a year, it's the time of firsts, and it's that way with giving too.

Like this will be our very first time to give, and there's a couple of passages I wanna read to you and then I'll pray. In Exodus 23 verse 19 it says, the first of the first fruits of your land you shall bring into the house of the Lord. Proverbs 3, another passage that many of us are familiar with in Proverbs chapter 3 verse 9 it says, honor the Lord with your possessions and with the first fruits of all your increase. It's this idea of first, that God gets our first and God gets our best because he's worthy of it. And then verse 10 says, when you do this it says, your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine. So many of us today are giving for the first time this year, and there's something impactful about that, there's something special about that. And so we give with that posture this morning. So if you came prepared to give, you can give online, you can text to give. Over 90% of us at Victory Church give online, and that's great. If you came prepared to give paper today at all of our campuses, as you leave by the door you'll find slots that you can slide those into. Let's pray for the offering. Lord, we thank you so much for the privilege it is to give. We're honored to do so, and it's the first time we're doing it this year. And we bring our first, we bring our best into your kingdom because we believe that you are faithful, Lord. We know that this seed will multiply your kingdom, but it will also bring fruit and blessings back upon our lives. We thank you for it. In Jesus' name. And everybody said, amen. Amen. Many of you are waiting to hear like, John, are we fasting this year? Are we doing 21 days of prayer and fasting?

We're not, you can keep eating, okay? We're doing something different this year, all right? So for the 11 years that I've been the lead pastor, we've done 21 days of prayer and fasting every single January. And this year we're doing something completely different. This year as a church, we're going to do Lent, we're going to honor Lent, and Lent starts on February the 18th. Lent is simply, it's actually 40 days of fasting. You're like, are you kidding me, John, we're going from 21 days to 40? It's different, okay? So we're going to be producing some curriculum and some content that we're going to push out to you guys. And every day, it's a season of fasting and praying. And Lent is really the idea of self-denial and going through some sort of suffering. So February the 18th, 40 days from then, going up all the way to Easter weekend. So it's like, I'm self-denial, I'm going through suffering, and then on Easter weekend we break our fast, okay? So we'll walk you through this, don't panic, it doesn't mean you can't eat for 40 days. Every day, we'll do something a little bit different, okay? Every day, we'll give you an idea of something that you could do, and we'll be producing content and pushing that out to you every single day. And so that's coming up. I didn't want any of y'all to think we've backslidden and we're not praying and fasting anymore. That's not the case, okay? So that's going to be great. So just sit back, relax. You'll get emails, you'll see social media, you'll see platform announcements. If you don't get our emails, you really need to sign up for our emails. You can do that on the website or go to the Connect Center at your campus.

Okay, I'm excited to preach today. If you go with me to the book of 2 Kings, 2 Kings chapter 4, this message is something that I leaned into probably now, probably seven months ago. The Lord kind of spoke to me and did a moment of ministry to me personally, and I knew at some point that this would be a message. that I would I would preach to the church. Didn't know when um and I think as I reflected on it, it's the what I believe is the perfect message to start a brand new year in as we close the door and close the chapter on one year and we kinda step into a new year. We we're a church of seasons. We don't do sermon series. We do sermon seasons and I'll be honest with you. As I prayed and reflected on the new year of January and and perhaps even into February, the lord was just silent and I don't like it when the lord's silent but how many of y'all know sometimes god even speaks through silence and um the the great theologian Garth Brooks, some of god's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers. Um I think that was Garth Brooks. Was that Garth Brooks? Um so so I'm kind of excited because there's an anticipation to me that I don't have a sermon season in mine. So, all I know to do is to to pray and seek the lord every week and just come every single week with what I feel like the lord's asking me to speak and that's okay, right? We can get out of the box of church, right? You guys are okay if we're not in the sermon series. That's okay. It's like, oh, we're not doing a sermon series. No, we're just gonna see what the lord wants to do uh every single week. So, Second Kings chapter four, this this may be familiar to you. I preached a message on this this chapter a couple of times last year. Uh this is part of this chapter is about the Shunamite woman. Remember we talked about the Shunamite woman and how she

built a room in her house. She started something. Remember that sermon was called start something that only god can finish and we talked about how she put three things in this room. A lamp, a bed, and a chair. And then the prophet Elijah, Elisha comes to her and says, this time next year, you will have a child. And so, that's the context that we're setting up, okay? So, she gives birth to this child and then we're gonna pick up right here in Second Kings chapter four verse eighteen and this is what the word of the lord says. It says, and the child grew and now it happened one day that he went out to his father, to the reapers, and he said to his father, my head, my head. So, he said to the servant, carry him to his mother. That's a typical dad, you know? Like, I'll hang out with my kids but once there's a problem, go see your mother. I don't know. You have a headache? Boo hoo. Go see your mom. I don't know what to tell you, okay? Pop an ibuprofen and get back to work. Uh verse twenty says, when he had taken him to and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knee till noon and then died. And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut the door upon him, and went out. So, she took this dead child that we know is a baby child cuz it's set on her knee till noon. We, I hope he wasn't some 30-year-old kid. That'd kinda be weird. So, she takes him up to the room that she built for the man of God, lays him on the bed of the man of God, shuts the door, and walks out. Okay? Um verse twenty-two, then she called to her husband and said, please send me one of the young men and one of the donkeys that I may run to the man of God and come back. And so he said, her husband said, why are you going to him today? It is neither the new moon nor the Sabbath. We'll

talk about that in a little bit. Watch what she says back. It is well. Well, no, it's not. It's not well at all. That was her only reply. Three words. It is well. Then she saddled the donkey and said to her servant, drive and go forward. Do not slacken the pace for me unless I tell you. And so she departed and went to the man of God at Mount Carmel. And so it was when the man with the man of God saw her from afar off that he sent his servant Gehazi, look, the Shunammite woman, please run now to meet her and say to her, listen to this, is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? And is it well with the child? And she answered, it is well. Such a bizarre verse. Such a bizarre reply that she would utter the words of the song that we just sang a few moments ago, it is well. And when we hear those words, it is well, it does. It reminds us of this famous song that was written in 1873. In 1873, a man by the name of Horatio Spafford who was a successful lawyer in Chicago and a committed Christian, he wrote this song. In 1871, Spafford lost most of his real estate fortunes in the great Chicago fire. He was married to a woman named Anna Spafford. And in 1873, hoping to help his family recover emotionally from this loss, of their wealth. Stafford planned a trip to Europe and business of course delayed his journey but he sent his wife and kids on a ship without him over to Europe and they traveled on the steamship called the Ville des Havres and on November the 22nd 1873 the ship collided with another vessel in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and sank in 12 minutes. 226 people died including their four daughters. The wife Anna survived and she was rescued and taken on over to Wales and from Wales she sent a telegram back to her husband in Chicago and the telegram only said one thing, saved alone what shall I do? That's all it said. So Horatio did what any good husband would do he left Chicago immediately jumped on

a ship and took off to go meet his wife and as he's crossing the Atlantic Ocean the captain of the ship calls Horatio to the bridge and says these words to him he says at a careful reckoning we believe that we are currently passing over the place that the ship wrecked and so the captain tells her tells him the ocean in this spot is three miles deep and so he left the bridge of the ship and went down into the belly of the boat into his room and he wrote the song it is well with my soul where the lyrics of this song begin to make sense where he says when sorrows like sea billows roll it's because he wrote the song in the belly of the ship as the ship was rocking on the waves passing over the very place that he knew his daughters were below him three miles deep and it's amazing it's an amazing phrase it's an amazing three words three words it is well it is well and it strikes me and it shocks me and I had a decurrence that happened to me this summer my whole family we had gone to Africa and I was going to our church in Lesotho and I just decided to take my whole family and so I was we were there and I was I was about to get up and preach and I was sitting on the front row and I had my whole family with me and I had this sermon prepared and I was ready to preach and this worship team at the Lesotho campus went into this song it is well and I didn't realize how much that was going to minister to me because I'd gone through some disappointment and some challenges and as that song began to sing I sat there on the front row moments before having to preach and you know you know me I never cry but I sat there on the front row with tears streaming down my face as the Lord began to minister to me in a very very profound way and these three little words it is well begin to say and minister to me in such profound ways that just three words just three words it is well and I didn't realize it at the time but later as I went back and and processed and meditated on that moment what I what I what I later wrote down that became a sermon that I'll preach to you today is that those three words it is well said something different it wasn't just three words it was so much more profound than that that when I stood there and saying it is well it was ministering to me in three

ways and the words it is well when I mustered up the courage to stand there and declare it the same way the Shunammite woman declared it even after she lost her son she was able to say it is well and even after Horatio was able to pass over the very spot that his four daughters were somewhere beneath him three miles deep but he wrote this song it is well with my soul that it ministers in a in a profound way and in what they show us is that saying the words it is well we don't say those words because it's true because it's not well it's not well at all but we can say those words because we're choosing to say those words within ourselves and when we make the choice to utter the words no matter what circumstances may have come our way when we're able to step out in faith and say it is well there's actually three other things being said to our soul simultaneously and that's what I want to talk about today because it is well is it's not a step Statement of circumstance, it's a declaration of trust. It's a declaration of trust, those three simple words. And it doesn't mean everything's fixed. It doesn't mean it's fixed. When I say it is well, it doesn't fix all of the things. It just reminds my soul that I have an anchor, that I have a sure and steady anchor to rely on. And so, as I thumbed through some of these notes over Christmas break, I thought, I can't think of a better sermon to preach as we finish 2025 and all of the things that 2025 and maybe previous years has brought you and has challenged you by the suffering and the pain that you may have endured. And maybe there's no better way to start a brand new year than to learning what it means to say it is well and to practice saying it is well.

And maybe this year, for the rest of this year, and maybe for the rest of our lives, when this life has a way of doing what this life does to us, we muster the courage in those moments to say it is well. Let's practice, all right? All of our campuses, just say that with me. Say it is well. It is well. Come on, say it one more time like you mean it. Say it is well. It is well. It is well. It is well. So three words that say three different things all at the same time. That's what we're gonna talk about today. So the title of the message today is three words that change everything. Three words that change everything. Let's pray before we dive in. Lord, we thank you so much for this time and this moment. I thank you for my brothers and my sisters that are at their campus today or maybe they're watching online. I pray that you would speak to your saints today, Lord. Speak to us, encourage us, challenge us. And like we do every day, hopefully, but at least every week, we go to the one place that is truth. It's the only truth.

This world is full of perceived truths, but today we dive into the one place that is full of truth. And we ask that you help it to penetrate our heart and to drop a seed in our heart and that it would produce fruit, that it would produce fruit in our lives. In Jesus' name, amen. So what I wanna do is I wanna go back through the story that we just read and my favorite way to preach and just let the scriptures preach to us. We're just gonna go verse by verse and I'm gonna show you three things that it is well says to us, all right? So the first one is in verse 23. Verse 23 says this, it says, so he said, why are you going to him today? This is her husband. It is neither the new moon nor the Sabbath. And she said, it is well. What an odd thing to say, you know, like why are you going to the prophet today? It's not the new moon and it's not Sabbath. So there must be something happening here culturally in the Jewish, ancient Jewish culture that might explain something, give us context to why in the world the husband would say this. It'd be like somebody, you know, you're going through a devastating situation

and you're like, I'm gonna go up to the church and meet with a pastor and have them pray with me. And your spouse is like, why would you go up there? It's not Sunday, right? It's not Sunday, why would you go up there? Well, this new moon in Hebrew is Rosh Chodesh and the Sabbath as well is the recognized times for worship and sacrifice and seeking instruction and the prophets were typically consulted on these days. And so going to Elisha outside of these times would have seemed unnecessary and uneventful. And so, you know, in essence, what the husband was saying is this isn't a spiritual day, this isn't how this actually works, so why are you going now? And all she says back is, it is well. What a weird thing to say to your spouse. That's all she said, it is well. And just walked out the door. And you're thinking, my wife's lost her mind. She's crazy, right? So when we say it is well, she was saying something. The point, number one, if you're taking notes, the first thing she was saying when she said it is well is she was saying, I still believe. I still believe. And when we have the courage in the midst of heartache and disappointment and challenge to even sing songs like it is well, when we say those three words, it is well,

what we're really saying in our heart of hearts is I still believe. I still believe. And her husband's response was normal. It was even reasonable. It was reasonable. What he was saying is our son is dead, nothing can be done, and there's no reason to break routine. Okay, there's no reason to break our routine. He was logical. He was just being logical. But with three words, the Shunammite. This woman broke religious protocol. She broke through religious protocol, and what she's saying is, my faith is not gone, I'm going to inquire with the Lord. I'm gonna take my boy, and I'm gonna put him in the room, on the bed of the man of God, and I'm going to inquire with the man of God, which in those days would have been the same as inquiring with the Lord. She interrupted the routine, and when we're reading it in our current culture, her saying, it is well, and walking out the door, I'm like, that's kind of rude, that's kind of mean. Won't you be nicer to your husband? She said, it is well, and walked off. You'd think that might start a fight in the home, but I don't think she was being rude. I don't think she was being rebellious.

I don't even think she was suppressing her emotions. In ancient Jewish culture, speech carried power, and to say something almost solidified the thing that you said. It was a cultural thing. So she wasn't willing to say, you're right, he's dead. Because in their culture, to speak that would be to solidify that it's true, that it's finite, that it's finished, that it's over. And so she just said, it is well. And even in saying that, there's a faith that's just coming up out of her that's saying, you know what, I still believe. Because she's going back to the word that that man of God told her, you're gonna give birth to a son. And if you remember back then, she was like, don't play with me, don't you play with me. That's in verse 16. So she believed by faith that God was going to do this. And I don't know what has happened to you or to your loved ones or circumstances that you've walked through in 2025, but when you say, it is well, what you are saying is, I still believe that God is capable of doing something powerful. What you're saying is, if it's not good yet, God must not be done yet. It's the ability to muster up faith from within to say, God's not finished with this yet.

And you see these moments through scripture, there's one in Habakkuk that's one of my favorite, that I would almost identify as a, it is well kind of faith. That it is a, it is well kind of faith. That when I say, it is still good, it is well with my soul, I'm telling my soul something. We still believe that God is good. We still believe that God can take what the enemy meant to harm us with and turn it around and use it for good. And Habakkuk is an example of that. Habakkuk 3, 17 says, though the fig tree may not blossom nor the fruit beyond the vines, though the labor of the olive may fail, though the fields yield no fruit, though the flocks may be cut off from the fold and there may be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. Job had this ability, Job lost everything. Job lost everything. And that's like one of the most depressing books of the Bible to read this. But there's this really powerful moment where you see Job give his own version of it as well. In Job 13, 15, this is what Job said. He said, though he slay me, yet will I trust him. Like there's this, it is well, I still believe that God is good.

I still believe that God can do what he says he's gonna do. Come on, we're gonna practice all day. Say it again, say it is well. It is well. Good practice. Let's keep going to the second point. I'm just gonna keep reading the text. Verse 25 says this. It says, and so she departed and went to the man of God on Mount Carmel. So for context, where is the Shunammite woman from? Shunamm, that's where she's from. So from Shunamm to Mount Carmel is roughly 15 to 20 miles. Okay, just for context, doesn't really matter, but for context. She got on a donkey, she goes 15 to 20. I don't like to drive 15 to 20 miles. She gets on a donkey, goes 15 to 20 miles. It says, so it was when the man of God saw her afar off that he said to his servant Gehazi, look, the Shunammite woman, please run now to meet her and say, now I want you to really grasp these questions that they're asking this grieving mother. Is it well with you? No, no, not at all. Is it well with your husband? Well, I don't know. I was kind of short with him when I left. So when we get back, we'll see.

I don't know. Is it well with your child? No, it's not well at all. And her reply was, it is well. Now watch this, verse 27. We didn't read this part, verse 27. When she came to the man of God at the hill, she caught him by the feet. Awkward, okay. But Gehazi. came near to push her away. But the man of God said, let her alone, for her soul is in deep distress, and the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me. So number one, it is well, when you say it is well, it is well says, I still believe. Number two, when you say it is well, it is well says, I surrender. I surrender. Now you may not think that after reading the text of her grabbing the prophet's feet, which is kind of strange, and you're right, it is strange. In fact, in this day and age, grabbing a prophet's feet was highly inappropriate, it was culturally inappropriate, and in fact, it was risky, pretty risky. Hence why Elisha's servant pushed her away, went to push her away. It doesn't say that he was like, hey, listen, this is awkward, please don't touch the prophet's feet, you know, put up a little barrier, don't cross this line.

The Bible says that he went to push her, push her away, and Elisha stops him, stops him from pushing her away, recognizing that there's this holy desperation in her. And why did he grab, why did she grab his feet? That's weird. Well, grabbing the feet, it was symbolic, there was something meaningful about this in that day, so grabbing the feet was an ancient, it was a posture. It was a posture of desperation, it was a posture of humility, it was a posture of an urgent appeal. It meant I'm appealing, I am trying to appeal, right, to the court, so to speak. Remember when Ruth goes to Boaz and it says that she got by his feet and laid by his feet, this in Ruth chapter three, that she wasn't trying to be romantic. That's romantic, you know, when you're in the mood, guys, you can just go sit by your wife's feet. No, that's weird, okay, that doesn't work. I don't know, that wasn't in my notes, but that's just free, it's free, it doesn't work, it's not romantic. She wasn't trying to be romantic, Ruth. It was a, for her, it was a formal appeal for redemption. She was appealing to Boaz, saying I'm helpless, I can't help myself, I'm appealing for you to redeem me. Will you take me in? And so when she grabbed Elisha's feet,

she was saying a couple of things. She was saying, I have no leverage. I cannot leverage you or trick you into doing something for me. She was saying, I have no argument, I have no solution. All I have is a need. I have a need that only my God can meet. And she's coming with full humility. She's grabbing him by the feet. She's desperate. And what she's saying is I can't fix this. I can't carry this. I'm placing this at your feet, and I surrender. I am at full abandonment, I surrender. There's no way that I can fix this in and of myself, and so I surrender to you, Lord. I surrender this whole thing to you. And when we were able to say it is well, no matter what you're walking through, if I can say it is well, what you're saying is, God, I'm trusting your heart more than I'm trusting your hand. I'm coming to the Lord, and I'm appealing to the Lord. I have no control, I have no leverage. What we're saying when we say it is well is we're saying God is still writing my story. And chapter one was terrible, but I believe the book is not finished, and I still believe, I still have hope that chapter two and chapter three,

that God can do something great. So I surrender my story to God, and I say, God, I tried to write chapter one, and it didn't work. You write chapter two. I surrender, I surrender it to you. It is well for the Shunammite woman, for Horatio Spafford. It is well does not mean I'm giving up. It doesn't mean I give up. It means I give in, Lord. I'm giving in, I'm giving in. I'm coming into alignment with your ways. As confusing as they are, as hurtful as they seem, I'm surrendering it to you, and I'm trusting God. So just a quick question before we go to the third one and final one, is what is it in your life right now that you feel like you can't fix? Is there an area of your life where you would say you would have the same posture as the Shunammite woman that's like, I have no leverage, I have no control, there's no way that I can change the situation? I don't know what to do from here, and so it is well. It is well with my soul, Lord. I surrender. If you take me down a path that I hope we don't go, it's well. It is well with my soul. Come on, we're gonna say it one more time. Say it is well. It is well.

Come on, close your eyes real quick, and say it like you're not repeating after me, but I want you to say it to the Lord. Say it is well. It is well. There's something really healing about uttering the words it is well. Last but not least, we go to verse 28. So she arrives, and she has this really great posture, it seems, where she says it is well, and then she takes the gloves off. Then she takes the gloves off, because she gets real, and she gets raw. So in verse 28, she says, so she said, did I ask a son of my Lord? Did I not say, do not deceive me? Now, she is reminding the prophet Elisha of something that he said to her in verse 16. Verse 14, 15, 16. Because she builds the room for him. If you remember, Elisha comes to her and says, thus said the Lord, gives her a prophetic word that by this time next year, you will conceive, and you will give birth to a son. And in verse 16, just a few verses earlier, this is what she said back to the prophet, okay? No, no, my Lord, no. Do not lie to your maidservant. So in our common day vernacular, she's like, don't play with me.

Don't tease me. You know how long I've wanted a child. You know how long I've prayed to have a child. And now you're saying I'm gonna have one. Don't you tease me. Don't you set me up just to disappoint me. Don't you raise my hopes and then crush my dreams. And so that's when this realness is coming out of her. And I love that she's blunt and she says, did I ask for a son? So she gets raw and she gets real. So it as well says something else, and it might be the most important one. It as well says, I still believe. It as well says, I surrender. And number three, it as well says, I refuse bitterness. I refuse to get bitter. And you may think, well, I don't know, John, she seems pretty bitter. I don't know that she is. Here's what I see her doing, okay? She's attending to her pain without allowing it to poison her soul. She's being, and I love that we serve a God that we can be real and honest and raw and vulnerable with because she's speaking honestly, but not angrily. She's just being honest with the Lord. She's asking questions. Did I ask for this? She's being real.

She's being honest. She expresses pain, but she does not cast blame. She didn't say, why did you do this to me? She wasn't blaming God. She was showing and expressing her pain. And this is really important. She brought her disappointment to God, but not against God. So she didn't get bitter. She just brought her pain to the Lord and said, Lord, why is this happening? Why am I walking through this? So when we say, listen, I know some of you have been betrayed, you've been hurt. You may have been abused. I don't pretend to know your pain. I don't pretend to downplay it. That's not my heart at all. But when we say, when we have the courage and the faith to say it is well, what we are not saying is this didn't hurt. That's not what that means. You're actually able to say, if anybody, if the Shunammite woman and Horatio Spafford, if Horatio Spafford can be in a boat passing over his four dead children, three miles beneath him and him say, it is well with my soul. It doesn't mean he's saying, that's not a big deal. No worries. He's not saying that at all.

It's more, I refuse to let this season corrupt my soul. I refuse to let the circumstances of this life corrupt me. And become poison to my soul. I'm not going to get bitter. I refuse to let pain become poison. And part of that process of being able to say, midst of betrayal, in the midst of heartache, in the midst of all those things, when you say, genuinely can say it is well with my soul, what I'm declaring is I still believe that God is good. I surrender my future to the Lord and I refuse to get bitter. I'm not gonna get bitter. I'm not gonna allow this to penetrate my heart. And some of us, you know, I know it's January the 4th and the year's kind of already four days in, and some of us have carried bitterness into 2026. It's a great opportunity, y'all, for us to start over, to erase the dry board, to start a fresh year of saying, I refuse to carry bitterness into 2026. And you may have carried it four days into 2026, but we can stop it today. We can stop it today. We can refuse, we can make the refusal. Well, how do I do that, Lord? How do I do that? How do I believe? How do I let the bitterness go? By going back to number one, when I say it is well, I still believe, I still believe.

I still believe that God is good. I still believe that he has good things in store. And so as we step into this new year, this is how we're gonna close. We got plenty of time, we got 17 minutes, roughly, okay? Can you believe I finished preaching that soon? That's crazy. It's a Christmas miracle is what that is. Don't clap, Monty. Monty's clapping that I finished the sermon early. Gosh, just for you that next week, I'm preaching twice as long, all right? Here's how I wanna, here's how I want us to finish. Would all of our campuses stand to your feet? I wanna give us an opportunity to step into a new year declaring it is well, it is well. So we're gonna go back into a worship song at all of our campuses, and we're gonna sing a similar, it's the it is well song, but it's a different rendition of it. It's one of my favorite songs, I love it. And what I'm gonna do is at every single campus, what I wanna do is I wanna open the altar area, all right? And at our campuses, you may not be able to make it down to the altar. That's okay, just step out into the aisle. Go to the back of the room and worship at the back of the room. What I want us to do is I want us to go into a season

or a mode here where we are, we see this as a yesterday and tomorrow deal. So yesterday was the heartache and the pain and the loss and the challenge and the betrayal and all the things that life has thrown at us. But today we're making a decision that in the midst of all of that, we're gonna model what the Shunammite woman modeled so well and what Horatio Spafford modeled so well, that in the midst of the confusion, in the midst of the heartache, in the midst of the pain, I can say it is well with my soul. And believe by faith that as I say these words, maybe the first time you say them, you don't even believe them. Like it means nothing, they're just words coming out of your mouth. But by the power of the Holy Spirit, as I continue to have this sink into my heart, that three things begin to happen. That when I say it is well with my soul, something in me starts to believe again. Something in me starts to believe by faith that God can do magnificent things in the midst of pain and heartache and loss. And that I am making a declaration that I surrender. I surrender. Lord, I surrender my life to you, I surrender my plans to you, I surrender my family to you,

I surrender it all to you. And then last but not least, Lord, last but not least, I refuse, I refuse to carry bitterness one more day. So at all of our campuses, I'm gonna pray and just consider the altars open. And well, John, why do I need to go to the altar? Why can't I just do it right here in my seat? You can, it's fine, it's not that big of a deal. But there's something about taking a step of faith and just by faith stepping down. And what I like to imagine the altar area is a place where we rebuild altars to the Lord. And it's a step of faith and saying, I'm gonna go down and I'm gonna sing and I'm gonna declare the goodness of God and I'm gonna declare it as well with my soul and make a direct connection. And you can do that from your seat, you can do that from down here. But let's pray and then I'm gonna invite you as soon as I say amen. You don't have to hesitate, you don't have to think about it, you don't have to wait to see if anybody else is gonna go. When I say amen, just leave your seat and come down front and let's worship together, all right? Lord, I don't pretend to know what people have walked through I don't pretend to know the disappointment, the discouragement, the pain, the heartache.

But God, I pray that by the power of the Holy Spirit, we could model what we see in scripture, where our faith can rise. And over the next few moments, Lord, I pray that as we say these words, it is well. As we say it with our mouth, that you would do a work in our heart. And we start the year off this way. What a great way to start the year with a clean slate. It is well, Lord, with our soul, in Jesus' name, amen. We're so grateful that you joined us today. At Victory, we pray big prayers to a big God, and we expect big results. If you would like to receive prayer, you can submit a prayer request by visiting victory.church.pray. If this message or any of our messages have impacted your life, and you would like to partner with us through giving, you can do so at victory.church.give. Thank you again for joining us. At Victory Church, we live life to the full.