Gold In The Ground | Reframe The Fire | Jen DeWeerdt

Well, good morning, church. So glad that each and every one of you are here. And will you join me in welcoming all of our City First Church locations, Cape Coral, Janesville God Behind Bars, all those joining us on the Pando app, we just want you to know we are so glad you're joining us as well. It's going to be a great day in the house. And we are in this series called Gold in the Ground. All right, we're talking about how God has placed something valuable in every single believer. But oftentimes, it's buried, and just waiting to be discovered. And sometimes we have to dig for the gold, right. And as I've, I've looked into this idea of digging or mining for gold physically, I've learned that the initial form in which gold often presents itself doesn't look anything like the finished product that you and I know it as. And the shiny gold that you have on your rings, or you wear on chains around your neck, doesn't start out like that. Okay, there is this word, a process, a process that takes place to purify the gold. It's called refining, refining. And to refine something means this, to free from unwanted impurities or materials. And I want to show you two photos today. The first is a photo of a piece of gold that hasn't been through the refining process. And there it is. Okay, that does not look like gold, does it? At the beginning, it doesn't look anything like the end result. It looks like something that Caden and Connor, when they were young, would have brought in the house after playing out in the dirt all day. And then when they were looking away, I would have been like, I'm tossing this. That's what that looks like, right? I would have been stuck in a drawer somewhere. And someday I would have found out, I would have been like, what is this? And there it goes in the garbage. But there is gold in there. And it has great value. You just can't see it yet, right? And the second picture is this. This is actually what gold looks like. That was that same chunk, okay? I watched a video and the man took that chunk that looked like something I would throw away. And once he refined it, this is what it looked like. Pure gold. After being through the refining process, it actually looks like what you and I usually see when we think of gold. So what does this refining process look like? And they're going to show a video behind me that kind of gives you a little visual, all right? The gold is first mined from rock and then crushed and heated until it melts, all right? And you can see it's not pretty. There's like heat underneath it. It's kind of nasty. There's the stuff boiling up. You're like, where is the gold in there? The impurities rise to the surface and are removed leaving only what is pure. And through repeated, everybody say the

word repeated, repeated refining, the gold becomes stronger and it becomes brighter. And the true value is revealed. It's always been there. It's always been there, but now it's visible. You know, and I watched multiple videos this week on gold refining. I know, what do you do during the week, Jen? Well, I watch, you know, YouTube videos on gold refining, and it's fascinating, you guys. And I do not have time to dive deep into the process, but here's what you need to know, okay? In a nutshell, the process is not quick and it is not easy, but in order for the gold to be proved as gold, it needs to go through the refining process. Otherwise, you don't know it's gold. In other words, the gold can't be proved without the process. No process, no proof. So what does this have to do with us today, here and now, as people of faith who are just doing our best to follow Jesus, right? And it brings me to our scripture today, because actually there's multiple references all throughout scripture, Old Testament and New Testament, that talk about this idea of refining, the refiner's fire. But we're going to read out of 1 Peter, chapter one, verses three through seven. And it says this, and I love how Peter starts off here. What a God we have, and how fortunate we are to have him, this father of our master Jesus. Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we've been given a brand new life. have everything to live for, including a future in heaven. And the future starts now. God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The day is coming when you'll have it all, life healed and whole. I know how great this makes you feel, even though, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure. Genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. Peter is saying here, gold being proved pure is like our faith being proved genuine. How beautiful. He's using a metaphor.

The gold is like our faith in Jesus. And the fire likened to the difficulties that we are gonna endure as people of faith. And there's a couple of things here, okay? In this passage, and we're gonna break this down a little bit more, but just off the top of my head here, here's a couple of things. Peter starts off bold and with emphatic encouragement to the followers of Jesus. Did you notice that? Is anyone in here an over user of exclamation points? If you get a text with periods, it means I'm mad. Because exclamation points just means I'm excited. I really mean what I'm saying. And I wanna point out here, okay? You probably didn't notice it, but in the very first part, some of you are nudging each other right now. The very first part of this passage, when Peter is talking about encouragement, there are three exclamation points. This is my guy. Peter's writing to believers who are walking through difficulties and hardships. And he starts out with a declarative reminder, and I wanna do the same with us today. What a God we have, right? Amen. How fortunate we are to have him, the father of our master Jesus, because Jesus was raised from the dead church.

Guess what? We have been given a brand new life, and we have everything to live for, including a future in heaven. He's watching out for you, and he's watching out for your future. The day is coming, amen, when you will have it all, life healed and whole. And I believe many of you today, you needed that today. You need Peter's encouragement to you. Remember, God's got you. There are so many stories in this church, people walking through difficult, heavy things, some even unimaginable. I personally know of many people who have recently received a diagnosis, they've experienced loss, tragedy. There are challenges being faced right now in families, relationships, and businesses. There are financial situations. Ooh, that sounded like I said something bad. Well, you take that for what it is. Financial situations that seem dire, right? All of us, this is what I know too, all of us are facing temptations of some sort. Temptation to sin, that temptation, you know, it's different for each and every one of us, but we all struggle. Some of you are encountering great discouragement

or doubt in your faith right now. And today, I want you to take heart, and I want you to be encouraged by the words of the Apostle Peter. Because what we have in Jesus, because of our heavenly Father, it pales in comparison to what you were having to endure on this side of heaven. It pales in comparison, even though it's hard. Essentially, before Peter talks about this refining, Peter is helping breathe hope and give perspective before he talks about the second thing that I want us to see in the passage, and that is this, is that in this life, we are having to put up with every kind of aggravation. I love the way the message version puts that, having to put up with every kind of aggravation. I love those words, every kind, meaning this, small to big, from annoying to overwhelming. Every kind. We're gonna face all kinds of aggravation because we live in this hopelessly broken world, amen? Amen. And the root word for aggravation comes from the Latin word aggrave, which I think that sounds just so much cooler than aggravation, right? You're like, I'm going through aggrave right now. But it means this, it means this, to make heavier. Every aggravation.

To make heavier. Some of us, we're just walking through heavy things right now. I actually, I don't know if there's one person within the sound of my voice that isn't dealing with something heavy. Again, small, big, just annoying or overwhelming. You know, other translations of the scripture use these kind of words right there. Every kind of sorrow, sadness, grief, distress, heaviness. And I do not know, like I just said, one believer who isn't encountering some type of aggravation. Something that makes life just a little heavier. You know, the Apostle Paul, he's the one who wrote many, this is different from the Apostle Peter, you know, Apostle Paul wrote much of the New Testament, and in 1 Corinthians 10, 13, he says this. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. No struggle that you're facing has overtaken you that isn't common to man. Meaning this, your aggravation isn't the exception. Your suffering isn't exclusive. It doesn't mean, it's not personal. Listen, the enemy would love to turn your aggravation into isolation. But you are not the only person who is walking through heaviness right now. He's gonna make you think you're the only one

experiencing sorrow, or sadness, or grief, or distress, or heaviness. No way, no way. This is why being planted in a church is so important. Because we're all facing something. We have so many new followers of Jesus in this church right now, and it is beautiful. And I just wanna encourage you, okay, when things get hard, well, not when things get hard. They will get hard. There will be aggravations that you face. But guess what, you don't have to face it alone. In the house of God, people journey with you. They pray with you. There are people who have gone before you. I have followed Jesus for over 30 years, and I still need the house of God. You never outgrow his church. You don't outgrow it, because we need each other. You aren't meant to put up with every aggravation alone. And if you'll allow me just to share for a moment a little bit of my recent story, my recent aggravation, my aggrave. You know, in early March of 2020, anybody remember that season, that month? Dun, dun, dun. Early March 2020, I was on a trip to Brussels to speak at a conference. And about two days after I got home, I got COVID. I didn't know it was COVID.

And then the world shut down. Jer always says, I think Jen is patient zero. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. But after that first bout of COVID, I experienced some of what, you know, now we all term, we know the term, long COVID symptoms. One being serious brain fog. And that, coupled with getting older, and some of the changes that come with that created a one-two punch for brain fog. And it's a strange kind of headache. And every time, every time I get a headache, every time I speak, every time I have share a message, either a full message or something small in service, or if I'm in a meeting where I'm having to concentrate for an extended period of time, I get this brain fog. And it will last and linger for hours. Like today, once I get off of this stage and go home, unless something is completely different than the last few years, this brain fog will essentially wipe me out for a couple hours this afternoon. I'll have to lay down and I'll just have to write it out. It's honestly the reason why I speak when I have, I kind of duck out the back. Sorry, I'm not gonna get weepy. It's because I just, my mind, and I have to do this three times. So by third service, you just need to pray for them because.

Who knows what's gonna happen? But there are times when I am deeply discouraged by that. And it's challenging because I know it's coming, right? I know every time I get on the stage, I'm gonna walk off and it's gonna be like, bam. And this is just one area of heaviness that I feel in my life. It's just one area. Because here's the deal, we all have more than one. It's just mine, I don't say that to make you feel sorry for me. Yes, pray for me, that would be great. But I just know, but guess what? I'm not gonna let it stop me. And you can't let it stop you either. That aggravate, however we say it, right? Peter continues, he tells us that something is happening to our faith in these times. Something's happening in these aggravations. He doesn't just stop there. He says in verse seven, which you've already read it, but I'm gonna read it again. He says, pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure. Genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. Now listen, I'm not going through the fire to prove myself. No, but guess what? It is proving my faith. It's proving my faith.

Just how gold is put through the process, the fire and proved pure, it's in the suffering where our faith is proved genuine. Where we see that our faith is real. It's solid. It's strong. I'm stronger on the other side of what I'm facing. It's much how we can actually see the gold once it's been through the refining process, right? When our faith has gone through it, through that aggravation and suffering, we can see it. And we can do this. If you've walked with Jesus for any bit of time, you can look back on your life and you see it. You see what it's grown in you. You see how God has made beauty out of the things that you've had to walk through. Doesn't mean it's not hard. It doesn't mean you love it, right? But we understand that what we are walking through is doing something in us. That there is a process taking place that is proving our faith. Our suffering is likened to a fire. And I don't know about you, I was taught to not play with fire, right? If I put my hand too close to a flame, my first reaction is what? Not to keep it there. This is amazing, right?

My first reaction is to, ow, pull it away. Yeah. And can I tell you that it's our natural, it's natural for our initial response to our faith being proven by the fire or suffering to feel the same. We want to run from the heat. We want to run from the fire. And we will if we don't understand the purpose of the refining fire. Of the hardship, of the suffering, of the difficulties we face. And if you think about it in terms of gold, right? The pictures I showed you earlier, the purpose of the refining fire is to prove, perfect, and prepare. It's to prove, it's to perfect, and it's to prepare. It's to prove what's really inside. Remember, you couldn't see the gold when it was just a rough piece of rock. And it's to perfect what's there, to remove the impurities. And it's to prepare it for its purpose. This gold ring, going through the fire, prepared it for its purpose. The hardships you face will do the same in you. It proves the faith you have in Jesus. It perfects the faith in you, and it prepares you for the purpose God has for you. It prepares you. But before your faith is proven, perfected, and prepared,

you must be pressed, pushed, and purged. It's not gonna be easy. And if I could just pause here, I don't even have this in my notes. And this is a total other sermon, okay? But I think this is where you kind of have to go, okay, is it, does God cause the suffering, or is it just the world we live in? And man, we live in a hopelessly broken world. And we are gonna, Jesus even said it, you're gonna have troubles. You're gonna have trials. And it's not easy, and it's hard to understand, and I get it. But today, I want to challenge us today, and this is the title of my talk, I want us to reframe the fire. We just have to reframe it. Reframe it. Because we can either be like, I am out of here, or we can say, God, help me reframe it. Help me to see the process for what it is. And the first thing is that we need to, how we reframe it is we see it as a process. It is a process. The fire is a process. And can I tell you, God is all about process. We see this all throughout scripture. I mean, everybody in scripture was going through a process. Some of the things they walked through were their own fault.

Other things were the situations they found themselves in because of the hopelessly broken world. Sometimes God did allow things to happen to people. It was a testing, all right? Like, let's say Moses, all right? Guess what? Moses, he went through some things that were difficult, and he also did some things that put him in difficult situations. But guess what? God didn't throw the gold out in Moses. Instead, he showed up in a burning bush to reveal himself. He wasn't like, I'm done with you. No, no, no. God was like, all right, I'm gonna show up in a burning bush, and we're gonna do some work on this holy ground, sacred ground. And we'll get to that in a minute. In the refining process of gold, there are multiple steps. There's the reheating, there's the filtering, there's the melting, and then guess what? Do it again. Some of you need to know this today. You need to hear this. God is not frustrated with your process. He's not frustrated with your process. You are living in a cloud of condemnation and guilt because you feel like you're not where you should be. But I want to show you this right now. You are here right now.

You're here. You showed up. Whether you're watching online, whether you're, God behind bars, come on, somebody. Whether you're in an auditorium today at any of our locations, guess what? You're here. God's not done with you yet. And he is patient in your process. There's a part of the process, though, that is very important for us to remember, and it's this word, okay? And sometimes it can be a big, scary Bible word. It's this, repentance. It's a turning from sin towards God. Confessing or telling him where you've fallen short. And church, and those of us who have followed Jesus for a long time, this isn't a one-time thing. It is over and over and over again. There are times when the Holy Spirit in his loving patience shows me where I'm falling short, and then I repent and I confess. I repent and I confess, meaning this, okay? These two words, I turn and then I tell. I turn from what I'm doing and I tell him about it. God, forgive me, I'm sorry. I have to do this every day because I'm a mess up. And he knows we're gonna mess up. Does he love it? No.

But I say it all the time. He is patient with our process. Some of you need to write that down. You need to stick it on your mirror. At home, when you're getting ready, he is patient in my process. He is patient with my process. But we have to view the process not as punishment, but as preparation. The process isn't punishment, it's preparation. You're not being punished, you're being prepared. And preparation takes time, work, and patience. And the second way, right? We have to reframe the fire as a process. The second way we need to reframe the fire is this, is we need to view it as sacred. Suffering is a sacred space. Aggravation is a holy place. Why? Because suffering connects us to Christ. Remember, I talked about the Apostle Paul. He writes here in Philippians chapter three, verse 10. He says that I may know him, Jesus, and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering. The fellowship of his suffering. There is connection in the suffering. Paul saw. I saw suffering not as punishment, but as participation. I'm getting to participate with Jesus.

It's bringing me closer to Him. He saw it as sacred because it was something He shared with His Savior. He saw it as sacred because He shared it with His Savior. How beautiful is that? Suffering invites us, invites God's presence in a unique way. I'm telling ya, suffering invites God's presence in a unique way. Psalm 34, 18 says this, the Lord is, what is that word? Close. Close to the broken hearted. There's a closeness to God that only exists in the valley. It only exists in the valley. And I've experienced it. It's almost as if suffering becomes a sanctuary. It can become a sanctuary. Where there is a completely different level of His comfort and strength that is present. And when we reframe the fire as a sacred place, it causes us to draw near to Him, not push Him away. When we view it, okay, God, this isn't just something I can run from. This is a sacred place. This is where I can actually have fellowship in the sufferings of Jesus. See, we see that the fire isn't to be feared or fought, but rather to be faced and embraced. I know it's not easy.

And I know it's hard. And there's lots of feelings that come with it, but church, as followers of Jesus, we view the aggravations differently than the world. They're doing something in us. It's a sacred place. And this week, my friend, her name is Jess, she posted this and I wanna read it to you. Jess and her family, their fourth son, Bodhi, has some extreme medical challenges. And he found himself in the ICU this past week for about seven days with pneumonia. And she penned these words and I thought, this is so beautiful because Jess is choosing to reframe the fire as a sacred space. And she said this, when we are in these spaces, it's a natural human reflex to want to fix or wish it was all different. But I'm learning about settling into what is, to set aside the desperation and say, what is here for me? What can we do with what we have? What is the insight, the gift right here? What can I do with what I have? What if we set aside the angst? What if we settled into the challenge? What if we stopped resisting and running? I'm not sure I'm any good at this yet, but I'm thinking about it. And I'm dipping my toe into the what is and I'm trusting God to meet me here.

And I have a feeling it is where we see the beauty and find the fullness, even in the spaces we don't want to be in. Wow, penned from an ICU room. What powerful words. It's a sacred place. And in closing, we started out at the beginning of 1 Peter, but then as Peter is wrapping up the book of 1 Peter in chapter five, he circles back to this idea of suffering and gives instructions and a promise. Instructions and a promise. And we read it in chapter five, verses eight through 10. It says, be sober-minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Resist him when you want to run. Resist him. Firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. Again, you're not alone. This is happening everywhere. People are suffering. are endearing hardships. And after, he says, you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

He's gonna do it. Out of the aggravation, I love that. What's the instructions for us? Be watchful, resist the devil, and stand firm in your faith, don't you dare give up. God's not giving up on you, don't you give up. I don't know what your stage is. This is my aggravation right now. When I get off of it, the brain fog is real. I know it's coming. I don't know what your stage is, but guess what? Don't you dare give up. Because here's the beauty of it, okay? Yes, you will get to see the gold that God pulls out of you, but guess what other people are gonna see it too? How cool is that? It's like the effect is multifaceted. People actually go, there's something different about you. You actually stuck it out, and you're like, that's the gold that God himself pulled out of me, because I did not quit. Your job is just not to quit. Stand firm in your faith, because then there's the promise that he says. Will he not do it? He himself will restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. God is working in you. He's working in you.

Don't give up. Let's reframe the fire. And this is my prayer for us, that as we leave here, we would begin to say things like this. What's refining me is redefining me. And what's pressing me is proving me. What's testing me will be my testimony. Come on, somebody. What's weighing on me is working inside of me. What's aggravating me is where I will walk in authority someday. And what's pushing me is purifying me, and I will overcome, and God will pull gold out of this suffering. It's his promise. It is his promise. So don't fear the fire. Reframe it. Reframe it. I pray as you walk out of here today, as you walk into the challenges of your week, whatever you're encountering, every kind of aggravation, right? Small, big, annoying, overwhelming, I don't care what it is. Reframe it. God's working in me. He's pulling things away. There's gold inside of me,

and it's gonna come out. And I'm gonna see it. My family's gonna see it. My community's gonna see it. My church is gonna see it. My life group's gonna see it. That God is faithful. He himself will do it. And so this is what I want us to do in this next few moments. Nobody leaving unless it's an absolute emergency, please. Because I believe this is one of these sacred moments. Because there's people in here that you've been so tempted to walk away, and you're framing of the fire, the situation, the aggravation, the suffering you're walking through, it is so, you're just done with it. And today you're saying, God, I'm reframing it, and I can't wait to see what you do with it. I can't wait to see what you pull out of me. See, here's the thing. You don't have to prove yourself to God. That's not what the suffering is about. You're not having to prove yourself to God. What you're proving is the faith. Your faith is being proven. It's being tested, and it will reveal itself because he is faithful. He's faithful in it.

And this is what I want us to do in this moment, okay? Is that if you are in here today, and we're early, so we've got a little bit of time to pray. If you're in here today, and you say, Jen, I needed this message. And I choose today to reframe the fire. I gotta reframe it. It's sacred, it's a process. God is working in me. I'm not gonna run from it, I'm gonna run to it. I'm not gonna fear it, I'm gonna reframe it. If that is you today, I want you to stand to your feet. If that's you, you're saying, today I'm reframing the fire, Jen. I'm reframing the hardship that I'm going through, the things that are aggravating you, the sin, the temptation, the struggle, the hardship. I don't know what it is, whatever it is, you're saying today, I'm committing. And as you're doing it, give God a huge round of applause. Praise the God who is working inside of you. There is gold inside of you, don't you run from it. This is more than a motivational message, this is God's message to you today. He's working in you, there is gold in you. He's gonna confirm it, he's gonna reveal it, he's gonna strengthen you. you today. And some of you, you need to write that down. Reframe the fire. I'm reframing it. That thing that is annoying me, that thing that is aggravating me, whether it's small, or whether it's big, whether it's annoying, or whether it's overwhelming you right now.

You're saying, uh-uh, I'm reframing. There's gold in here. And I can't wait to see what God does. And I'm going to resist the devil. And I'm going to resist the urge, the temptation, to quit in the middle of it. I'm going to surround myself with people in the house of God. I'm not going to walk away from the house. I'm actually going to plant myself more in the house, because I need the people that have walked the journey before me. And if you're still seated, go ahead and join us in standing. And no leaving, please, unless it's an absolute emergency. And can I just say, this is a total side note, when we wrap up service, you guys, can I just be a pastor for a minute? When we wrap up service and we ask you guys to hang tight for 30 more seconds, will you please do that for us? Because there are people who are making life-changing decisions in that moment. And there are people who need the instructions of what to do next. So man, hang tight. You got this. If that's your aggravation, let God make gold in you. This is what I want us to do. If that was you, you stood up and you said, God, I'm reframing, I want you to lift your hands right now. I just want to pray for us. Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for who you are. I thank you for your goodness. I thank you for your kindness. God, I thank you that even though we live in this hopelessly broken world and we are having to put up with every kind of aggravation, maybe it's a health situation. Maybe it's a financial situation. It's a diagnosis. It's a relational situation with a spouse or with a child or a friend or a coworker. Maybe it's something in our career that just seems overwhelming right now, God. We choose, God, by the power of your Holy Spirit. Won't you do it, God? We pray that you would help us reframe the fire, reframe the aggravation, reframe the difficulty, reframe the challenge. God, it's not on us. God, we just choose to stay in the fire and we choose to stay planted in your house and we choose to stay connected to you, God. May we, I pray, Lord God, that there would be such a sense by the power of your Holy Spirit, Lord God, of people meeting you this week in the sacredness of their suffering and the sanctuary of their suffering. I pray that your presence would be revealed in greater ways than they've ever experienced. As they reframe the fire, I pray that you would do something inside of them, Lord God, that something would rise up inside of them, that they would reframe it, that they would focus on the future and just not on what they're having to experience. God, we love you and we thank you for who you are today. I thank you for this house. I thank you for this church and I thank you for what you're doing. And with every head bowed and

every eye closed, if you're here today and you say that you want to make Jesus the leader and forgiver of your life, every single time that we gather together as a church, we give people an opportunity to make this decision because it will change your life. You are not meant to walk through the flames and the fires and the difficulties of life by yourself and maybe you've tried it and it has not worked. But I want you to know that there is a God who loves you, who sent his son Jesus to die for you, to pay the penalty for your sins and your shortcomings. And today you can say, I want to follow Jesus and everything changes for you. And so if you, that is you today with every head bowed and every eye closed again, lift up your hand right where you're at. Just lift up, say, today's my day, Jen. I am following Jesus. I'm making the decision to follow Jesus. There's hands everywhere. And if that is you, we are going to pray all together as a church. And I want you to say it loud, church, so that these people know they are not in it alone. And we're going to say a simple but a powerful prayer that is just you receiving Jesus and God is listening to your voice. Let's pray. Dear Jesus, today I choose to follow Jesus. I turn from my ways. I confess my sins and I follow Jesus. I receive salvation. I receive forgiveness. I receive the love of God and I exchange my sin for his forgiveness and his goodness in Jesus name. And everybody said, amen. Can you give those who prayed that prayer? Wow. What an absolutely incredible message. I hope it was encouraging. It was challenging to you, and if you made that decision to make Jesus the leader and the forgiver of your life, congratulations, it is the best decision that you will ever make, and we are celebrating with you. And maybe you're sitting there going, okay, hey, I made this decision, I prayed this prayer, now what? Well, there's a couple of things we would encourage you. Number one is let someone know. If you have a friend, a family member, a coworker, somebody else that's on that journey of faith, let them know so they can come alongside you and encourage you in your faith.

Or if you're going, hey, I don't have anybody, drop it in the chat, let us know. We'd love to have pastors come alongside and help you out. The second thing is this. You'll see a QR code on your screen for a resource that we call New Beginning, and it's just gonna answer some basic questions like, hey, I prayed this prayer, I'm starting this relationship with Jesus, now what? It's gonna talk to you about where to read in the scripture or how to pray, different things like that that are just gonna help you, encourage you as you continue to grow in your journey of faith. And then Beth has something else for you as well. Yeah, so after you go through the New Beginnings resource, a great next step for you would be to sign up for GrowthTrack. Okay, it starts the first Sunday of each month, and it really is all about just discovering your God-given purpose and design. So it's just a great next step in your faith journey. We encourage you guys to sign up. You can do so on the website or the app. Yeah, absolutely. If you need prayer for anything, we would love to be praying with you. We have teams that are praying all throughout the week, and so if you have a prayer request, you can drop it in the chat or you can go online or the app and just simply put it there,

and we'd love to just join our faith with yours and agree with you for whatever you're believing for. And then if you have an answer prayer, if you said, man, I've really been praying for something and God has shown up, and God has shown up in that circumstance, let us know. We wanna celebrate with you. And then we'd also encourage you to do this. If this message was an encouragement to you or a challenge to you, to go ahead and send this link to somebody, somebody that may need to hear this or maybe they're in a season where they need to go, okay, hey, I'm in that refining process, man, that you would send it to and let this be encouragement to them as well. Yeah, and the best thing that you can do is come back next week, okay? Next week is Candypalooza. So if you are going to be at any of our physical locations or you can get to one, Kids is hosting basically a fun-filled candy party, all the things that's supposed to be happening. It's gonna be amazing. It's Western themed. So if you have some kiddos, they can dress up Western theme if they want to. It'll be fun. To City First Anywhere,

we just wanna say that we hope you have the most amazing week. And we'll catch you next time, guys.