Heart For Faith | Pastor Rebecca Peterson

we want to take a minute to welcome everyone who is joining us online, online family. We love you. We're so grateful that you are here with us. And then we want to put our hands together for all the men and women who are joining us in correction facilities all across the US. You are our church family as well. We love you. And we pray that God speaks to your heart today. So we have been in this series called Heart for His House over the last couple of weeks. This is God's house. And we want to have a heart for His house. But also throughout the Bible, you will find many moments where we are actually called the house of God. That we are the body of Christ. And He lives in us. And God is really good at coming in and cleaning up our hearts. And so what we are committing to throughout the series is that we want God to do some work in us. We want to have a heart for God. But also we want to have a heart for His church and all that He wants to do in this place. And we've got some theme verses. We've been reading through these same verses every single week. And the goal is that we want these verses to kind of be burned in your heart. We want you to memorize them and know them.

The first is Psalm 122.1, which says, I rejoice with those who said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord. Hey, what a privilege it is. Come on, I'm going to need you to rejoice this morning because we get to be in church today together. We get to be in the presence of God. And so I'm so grateful for the church. What a gift that it is that we get to come together and worship with one another. Matthew 16, 18, these are the words of Jesus. He says, I will build my church and all of the powers of hell will not conquer it. And so make no mistake, this is His church. This is not our church. We do not own this church. We are just facilitators of what Jesus wants to do here, but this is His church. And when a church is built on a foundation of Jesus, nothing can come against it. All the powers of hell will not be able to come against the church of Jesus. And so we're continuing this series today. And I'm excited for what we're going to jump in this morning because here's what we're committing to today that we want to have a heart of faith, that we want to have a heart of faith. And so let me pray for us. God, we're so grateful for you. Thank you that you are here with us.

And I pray that you come speak to our hearts. Right now, God, we open up our hearts to hear from you. We put aside any distraction, anything that is on our mind that might be keeping us from hearing a word from you today. And we ask you to come and speak to us. And it's in Jesus. And we pray, amen, amen. So we want to have a heart for faith. And I thought that I could find just a really great definition for what faith is. But I think the word of God lays it out very great for us. In Hebrews 11-1, it says, now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. So faith is having confidence in what we hope for. Faith is having confidence in who God is to us that we believe that what he says in his word is good and true. We believe that when he speaks a word or when we read a promise that God's going to be firm on his promise and so we can have hope in who he is and the character and in the nature of who God is. And then we can have assurance about what we don't see yet. We can have assurance that even though we don't see a way out or we don't see God working and moving that we can actually have complete assurance that God you are working and you are moving and you are doing things and you are responding and you are listening to the prayers that I'm crying out to you. And so this is what faith is. Faith is saying I don't know how it's all going to work out.

I don't know what's going to come around the corner but I have faith in who God is. I have faith that he loves me. I have faith that he's for me. And I have faith that God's got me and he is in control in every single season of my life. And faith isn't something that you just wake up one day and just say I think I'm just going to have some faith today. Faith is something we've got to grow. It's something we've got to cultivate. Faith is not just something we operate in on a Sunday morning. It is something that we want to be active and growing in our life every single day. And I want us to be a house of faith. I want us to be a people of faith. I want us to be a church of great faith where we believe God for the impossible, where we believe that God's going to come through for us, where we believe that God's going to be a healing God, a miracle working God, a financially providing God that we believe in God and we believe in what he says. And so I want to talk this morning about the importance of having faith for our own lives and the importance of us having faith for the lives of others. And so when it comes to having faith for ourselves, faith for our own lives, I want us to look at Hebrews 11 this morning. It is a whole, we're actually not going to fully unpack it

together, but it is a whole chapter on faith. And it's often called, it might be labeled in your Bible as the heroes of the faith chapter because as you read through Hebrews 11, it grows through so many people in the Bible. and all of them, it talks about how they continue to have faith, even in impossible circumstances, even in difficult situations, and the whole chapter is encouraging us to continue to have faith in God, even when things feel out of control, even when things feel like they're not going the way that we want. And so we read about people like Enoch, who was actually commended for his faith. He walked closely with God for 300 years. 300 years when the whole world was living in wickedness, this was actually, his life was leading up to the flood when God destroyed the entire earth because of the wickedness of people, and he continued to have faith. He continued to trust God. He was actually one where God took him from earth to heaven in a moment. He didn't even die. God was like, it's time. Like you've lived a good life, you've been faith-filled, only happened two times in the Bible with Elijah and with Enoch that God was like, "Let's go, you've got great faith,

and now I'm ready to bring you home to me." We read about people like Job, who Job lost all of his wealth. He lost his 10 children. He lost all of his status. He walked through trial after trial. He literally was sifted by Satan. He had an incredibly difficult, tragic life, yet God describes Job as blameless and upright because he continued to have faith in God, even though his life was so hard and so difficult. We read about Noah where it says, "By faith Noah built a boat." When everybody thought he was crazy, when people were looking at him like, "What are you doing?" He had crazy faith that said, "I'm gonna believe because God told me to do it, I'm gonna obey, and I'm gonna have faith that God's got me in that when he gives me a word and when he gives me direction, I'm gonna have faith in him." We read about Sarah where it says, "By faith Sarah," even though she was entirely too old to have a baby, she believed in the word from the Lord, that God said he would fulfill his promises to her, that he would give her a child and she continued to have faith year after year, and her faith actually led to a miracle baby. All of these heroes are the faith.

Listen in Hebrews, believe God for the impossible. Their life was not easy. Their circumstances were not easy. They questioned God along the way. They had doubt along the way. They wondered, "God, I don't know what you're doing," but in the end, they continued to have faith in their life, and that is what they are marked for and known for. They're not remembered necessarily for all of the hardships and all of the heart, they are remembered for their faith, and that's what God saw in them. And so here's how I wanted to think about faith this morning. Faith is like a muscle that we've got to work out in our life. Now, I don't work out. I'm sure you're shocked by that. And I've realized lately that I'm like, "Okay, I'm in my 40s now," and I kind of pride myself in being strong and independent and capable and tell me that I can't do something. If you tell me I can't, I'm going to do it anyways. I'm going to kill myself, trying to do it. This has always kind of been my personality, but I'm not strong. I don't really, my arms are so weak, and I've realized over the last 12 days that I've been home by myself that I need somebody to help open jars for me, and I need somebody to move stuff for me, and I don't want to be that girl. Like, I want to do it on my own. And so, what I've realized over the last couple of weeks is,

it might be time to actually start working out and getting a little bit of strength in my arms, and so my husband, he's been working out, he's been going to the gym now for, I think, a little over two years, he's been on this journey of like, "Hey, I want to get healthy, I want to be strong," and he's been begging me for the last two years. Like, "Come on, girl, like, let's be the couple that goes to the gym together." And I'm like, "No, let's be the couple that goes to Chick-fil-A together." That sounds great, like, that's, "I'm your girl," if it comes to that, but I had started to realize, like, "Oh, it might actually be time," and so I really hope he's watching online from the airport because this week I ordered workout clothes. And that's like step one, right? Because if you're a girl in the room, you're like, "If I get a cute little workout set, I might actually feel motivated to get up and go to the gym." And so I got on Amazon and I found this little, like, cute little set. It was like $12 or $15. And I got it in and was like, "That's actually really cute." And that put on, I'm like, "It's really cozy, like, it's soft." And I think maybe it's kind of motivating me enough to where I might want to get in the gym. And I might actually see some muscles start to grow on my puny little arms and I might begin to feel a little bit strong because I don't want

to be a weak old person, like, "I want to be strong, I want to be able to lift green kids when it gets that time." Like, "I want to be a strong girl." And so I got to get in the gym, though, and I got to start working out, right? And this is how your faith goes. You've got to work out your faith. You've got to build your faith. You've got to be willing every day to get up and say, I'm not just going to-- when I'm thinking about it. I'm gonna exercise by faith every single day. And the really good news is that God takes your really tiny faith. He can take your faith just like that scripture that Pastor Aaron read earlier. He can take your faith that is so small and he can still do something incredible with it. But he also wants to build your faith and he also wants to grow your faith. But we've gotta be willing to let God work it out in us. And so biblically, this is how our faith grows. Our faith grows through the word and our faith grows through trials. We don't like the second one very much. But this is how our faith grows. It grows through the word. It grows through getting into God's word. We talked about this last week, Romans 10, 17. It says that faith comes from hearing

that is hearing the good news about Christ. This is how our faith grows. This is actually how your faith begins. When you decide that the gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news that Jesus came and died and rose again and now lives inside of us, this is the gospel of Jesus. And this is the foundation for our faith. When we choose to hear this good news and say, man, I believe that. Like I'm putting my faith in that and I believe that God loves me enough that he sent his son for me. And that is the foundation for our faith. But our faith continues to grow as we continue to get in the word of God. As we continue to read stories about who God is. As we continue to study about the nature and the character of God. And we read about all of these beautiful stories where God was a provider and a healer. And he came through and he loves people really well. This is what will grow and build your faith. But you have to get into the word of God. You cannot put your faith into someone that you don't know yet. And so we have to get in his word and study it and learn about how God and put our faith in him. Faith requires a foundation of truth in who God is. And we're gonna learn about who he is when we get into his word.

And so we talked about this last week, we wanna be a church that has a heart for his word. I gave you homework last week. I just was talking to a lady in the lobby with her daughter and she said, I did my homework this week. She's like, I read through Psalm 119, it was a long one. You gotta make, break that one up and read a little bit out of time. But when we get into God's word, it is gonna grow and it is gonna strengthen my faith. Hearing his word isn't just listening. It's actually paying attention. It's saying, God, I'm actually paying attention to what you're speaking in your word. And I'm actually receiving it and I'm choosing to try to understand it as best as I can. And so if I didn't encourage you enough last week, let's fall in love with the word of God. It is active, it is speaking. It will always speak to you. Don't start in a weird spot. Like start in the gospels is what we talked about last week. Let's start, let's read about the life of Jesus and I'm telling you this, it will grow your faith. So faith also comes through seasons of trials, through seasons that are hard, through seasons that are difficult, through seasons where we're waiting for a breakthrough moment. Seasons where we're asking God to move

and he's saying, I just need you to obey though when I'm asking you to do right now. And this is hard, right? This is the point where I'm like, no, I'll just stick to the word of God. And that's how I'll grow my faith, but it's both. And our faith will grow greatly through the hard trial seasons of our life. Let's look a little bit more at Hebrews 11 today and we're gonna look specifically at one of the heroes, heroes of the faith, or two, it's actually two, Abraham and Sarah. So it says, by faith, Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice, he who had embraced the promises, was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. So God calls Abraham to take this beautiful son that he had waited so long for. God had spoken to Abraham and Sarah and said, I'm gonna give you a son. They were old and they didn't see it happen and they actually waited 25 years from the moment that God spoke the promise to them. They waited 25 years before Sarah actually became pregnant and they have this baby and he has a miracle and he has a gift from God. And then God says, Abraham, I'm actually gonna ask you to sacrifice Isaac to me.

And you might be thinking like, that is very cruel. Like it does seem that way, right? Like this, why God, why would you ask him to do this? But I want us to break down this story a little bit because God never intended for Isaac to die. He wanted to test Abraham's faith. He wanted to see if Abraham would trust him and obey what he was asking him to do. And so what we need to know is that in that waiting season, before this moment where God asked, Week after week and month after month. God when will we see this promise happen when will you see it? When will we get this baby that you have promised to us that you have spoken over us? It was in that season that God began to grow Abraham and Sarah's faith It was in that season that God began to build such a great faith in Abraham that that faith carried him for 25 years that faith carried him because he he worked it out any Exercise it year after year and he kept putting his faith in God and then this baby is born and it's a miracle And his faith is just on high and he's like God You did what you said you were gonna do and you came through and now we're to this moment when God is Testing his faith, but it was in the waiting season of 25 years that his faith actually grow so that he could get to this Moment when God could actually test his faith and he would actually pass the test But his faith had to be grown first in the waiting season And it's in the waiting season that we don't typically like very much right like come on God I don't want to wait. I don't really have to wait for a whole lot in my life I want food I can order it and it can get to my house. I need groceries They can deliver it like we don't want to wait. We don't want to wait in long lines We don't want to have to wait to do much, but it is in the waiting when God grows your faith It is in the trials when God grows your faith and let's continue to read it says that Abraham Reasoned that God could even raise the dead And so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from the dead so Abraham had reasoned in this moment in this moment I'm gonna obey what God is asking me to do because my faith grew in those 25 years that I waited for this son

And so I'm gonna believe in this moment that if God is actually asking me to sacrifice my son I'm gonna obey him because I actually believe that if God tells me to do it He's gonna just raise him from the dead. That is some serious faith that was grown in a season of trial and struggle We need God to test our faith We need God to grow our faith And if you are in the season of your life where you are waiting and God is strengthening your faith And he's asking you to grow it and you're like man God I've been in this workout for a really long time like I would love a break from the workout right now Do not lose faith Because God is doing something inside of you that is worth it I'm gonna read some verses that I don't always like very much I feel like these are verses that God has always reminded me and come back to in my life And they're not the easiest verses for us to read and so let's read these and James 1 it says consider it pure joy My brothers and sisters whenever you face trials of many kind like sure I'm gonna feel very joy-filled that I'm walking through trials and troubles of many kinds I'm walking through hard things, but this is what God's Word says Because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance and so let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete not lacking anything He says continue to trust continue to pursue God continue to let God Test your faith why because it's gonna produce some perseverance on the inside of you And that perseverance is something you're going to need in your life for the next season had Abraham given up in those 25 years and not let God produce some perseverance in him when it came to the Season of testing. I don't know that he would have trusted God I don't know that he would have obeyed God and Abraham encountered God in such a miraculous way God actually provided a something else another animal for him to sacrifice in that moment instead of his son And he got to see God come through in such a miraculous way But it was because you let perseverance finish the work He let God continue to produce something on the inside of him and I have seen this work in my life I've seen this work in so many of your lives

Where you've kept persevering you've kept putting your faith in God And I've just seen God just grow my faith sometimes I feel like I don't have a ton of great qualities have a lot to learn I have a lot to grow in but faith is one of those things man that God has produced inside of me And it didn't come on an easy season It didn't come from me just you know life is just great and I'm just coasting on through But yet God's just grown my faith no it came through the hard seasons where I had to be on my knees every single day Asking God to just sustain me for one more day where I had to believe that God would just somehow do a healing work inside of me And he did and he kept producing faith and so if you came in this morning And you're wondering if the season is ever going to end Maybe God is still doing something inside of you. Let him continue to work in you When I go to work out It's not going to be easy, right? I'm weak. I'm going to have to start with a little five pound weights in the corner, like I have to dust those off the ones nobody else is using in the gym. And then I'm going to be super sore after the first day. And then I'm going to go back, and it's going to be even harder. And then I'm not going to get to walk good. And it's not going to be easy. But at some point, I hope, to Jesus, that I'm going to have a breakthrough. And I'm going to see those muscles start to grow. And I'm going to come in here and be like, guys, I've been lifting 20 pounds. Like, I don't know. It's just it's growing. And I'm getting some muscles in my arms.

Let perseverance finish its work so that you will be strong and that your faith will continue to grow in him. We also want to have faith for others. This is the church. And this is how the church functions best. When we choose to let our faith grow, when we choose to let God do a work in us so that we can have faith for others. I want to give us just a quick breakdown of a story that we're going to jump into that I'm sure many of you have heard before. Maybe you're new to church, though. And you've never heard it before. I hope that this is the first time for somebody to have heard this story. It's a good one, so buckle up. But Jesus is teaching to a group of people. He's in a home. And he's teaching. And the home gets really crowded. And there's people in this house that want to hear the word from Jesus. Now the house gets full. And people are lining up outside of the home. And they're trying to peek through the windows. And everybody just wants to hear what Jesus is teaching. Because the crowd would often gather when Jesus would teach. And so we've got Jesus. And he's teaching. And then we have four friends.

And they have a friend who has been paralyzed. And they load their friends up on a mat. They each grab a corner of this mat. And they begin to drag their friends to Jesus. And I didn't do all the studying this week to know how far was the journey for them to get to Jesus. But often people would travel a really long distance to get to him. And so they get him to this house. And now they can't get in the house. And so I just imagine they're sweating. They're hot. They're dirty. They've been dragging this guy. He's covered in their dirt and their dust. I am picturing him probably really grouchy right now. Like, oh, I've drugged me this far. I can't even get into the house. And so what they do, often, our homes and Bible times were, would have these flat roofs. And they would be made out of clay that would kind of harden and form these little tiles that would protect their roof. And there would be typically some type of ladder where you could climb up onto the top of the house. And so they drag this man up the ladder, up to the roof of the house. And they begin to pull back some of the tiles of the house. And they begin to scrape through the roof. And they begin to lower this man to Jesus. Let's read in Luke 5.

It says, "Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat. And they tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd. They went up to the roof. They lowered him on his mat through the tiles in to the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus. So picture this scene, like he is preaching. And he's probably like, I'm at my best point. And it's like, when one of you gets up to go to the bathroom, right when I'm like, I am nailing it right now. And you're walking out of here. And they begin to lower this man down before Jesus. And they lay him at the feet of Jesus. And so let's continue to read. And so when Jesus saw their faith, he said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven." Now I can only imagine because my husband has taught me to read humor into the word of God at times that I just think, what was this man thinking? Like, I've been drug here. I'm dirty. I just got lowered into a roof. I've probably bonked my head at some point on this journey. I came to be healed. Like, I came to walk. And Jesus is like, your sins are forgiven. He's like, great. That's not what I came for. I came to get healed.

Like, I came so that I could get up and I could walk out of this room. 'Cause I'm sure those friends were like, buddy, we're getting you there. We are not taking you back. Like, we're not going back. We're not dragging you back again. But Jesus looks at him and says, your sins are forgiven. And in this moment, some of the people in the room that were doubting Jesus began to say, who is this man that would actually say he could forgive someone's sins? Like, the only God can do that. And so Jesus is like, guys, what's easier for me to do? Forgive his sins or actually heal him. And so he says, he continues on in the story. And he says, so he said to the paralyzed man, I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home. And so immediately he stood up in front of them. He took what he had been lying on and he went home praising God. And so this man came in that room paralyzed. He could not walk. He could not get to Jesus on his own. And here's what I want us to focus on right now. It was not the man on the mat's faith that Jesus noticed. This is nothing about his faith. very grumpy, I don't want to be here right now, I cannot believe that you have humiliated me

and lowered me on a mat in front of Jesus, but we don't know where he was at right now in his journey. It was the friend's faith. It was those four friends that had enough faith to wake up in a morning and say, "Hey, maybe we can put him on this mat, "and maybe we can carry him across town. "Maybe we can get up on that house "and fight through the crowd and lower him down to Jesus "because we just believe if we can get our friend to Jesus. "He'll be healed. "That God will do a healing work in him." Little did they know that God was gonna heal, not just his physical body, but he was gonna forgive him and that Jesus was gonna cleanse him and heal him spiritually as well. It was the extraordinary faith of four friends that Jesus says, "I see your faith "and because of your faith, your friends healed. "Because of your faith, he's gonna walk out here, "healed body, soul, and spirit." He's gonna walk out of this place a new man. Our faith affects others and all of us are gonna have seasons in our life where we struggle to get ourselves to Jesus, where we struggle and we feel like I don't have faith and you need friends in your life who are willing to be crazy enough to tear up a roof to get you to the feet of Jesus. This wasn't just a good idea that they had.

This was a God idea, where God said, "I am testing your faith right now "to see if you'll take this long journey "and you'll go out on a limb "and you'll do something crazy "like drag your friends to Jesus. "The faith of friends is powerful. "And if you think that your faith is only for you, "you've missed it. "And if you think that you can walk through life "without the faith of others, you've missed it." We need people. We need faith-filled friends who want to get us to Jesus. And so sometimes you need the faith of others to carry you. And then sometimes you need to be the person that's like, "Hey, I'm doing pretty good this week. "I'm actually willing to carry somebody to Jesus. "And this is what we do in brotherhood and sisterhood. "This is what we do in our small groups. "This is what we do in Wednesday night prayer and worship. "We are carrying people to Jesus. "And so you can come in the room with your faith low "and we're going to push you to Jesus. "Or you can come in the room "and God's been stirring something inside of you. "And you can actually put your faith to work "and begin to carry people to Jesus. "This is the beauty of the church. "And this is why we need people. "And this is why we create community.

"So maybe you've been thinking about coming to prayer "and worship and you're like, "Do I really want to come and sit in a room for an hour "and like all we're going to do is pray and worship? "Like that's it? "Like that's all we're going to do? "Yes, yes. "Because some of you, God is going to give you an assignment "to carry someone to Jesus. "And it's going to be your faith "that actually leads them to the feet of Jesus "where God looks down and says, "Oh man, I see your faith right now. "It has caught my attention. "And now your friend gets to experience "the healing touch from the Lord. "It's God that does the miracle, "but he does use us. "And some of you are going to come in the room "and just barely getting by. "And we've got some really amazing people "that would be honored to grab a corner of your mat "and carry you to the feet of Jesus. "So I'm going to invite Pastor Jonathan up "as we begin to close out today. "Because I want us to be a house of faith. "I want us to be a people of great faith. "I want us to be a group of people "who believe God for the impossible. "I want us to be a group of people

"who are willing to get down on the mat "with other people and help get unto Jesus. "And you might not be this morning on "and that physically paralyzed. "But you might be paralyzed this morning in your fear. "You might be paralyzed this morning in your sadness. "You might be paralyzed this morning "because you got a diagnosis that does not look good "and you're feeling weak and you're feeling weary "and you're feeling scared. "And you don't know what God's doing right now. "You might be laying on a mat of depression. "You might be laying on a mat of anxiety. "Wherever you find yourself, "this is why God gives us the church. "Can God meet you in a moment "and bring healing on your own? "100%. "I've seen him do that personally in my life "where nobody was around. "It was just me and the Lord. "And I had to touch from God. "But he also gives us people. "And we don't know what he wants to do "and how he wants to do it. "So I want to be able to sit in the presence of God, "but I also want to be able to sit with people "who are going to push me closer to Jesus. "I want to know that whatever I'm doing in my life, "I am just trying to get closer to Jesus.

"And I'm so grateful for the people in my life "who want to carry me closer to Jesus. "And so there's a couple different types of people in here "this morning. "Some of you who, your faith has been growing, man. you've been seeing God come through, and your faith just feels high right now, and you're like, God, you've got me, but then there's others in the room that your faith is feeling weak this morning, and you're struggling, you're in a season of waiting, whatever it is. And then I know there's others in the room this morning. That you would say, I've not even put my faith in God yet. I don't even know if I believe in this God. Here's what we believe. We believe God loved us so much. He sent us son Jesus to die on the cross for us, to forgive us of our sin, which is what separated us from God. And when he did that, and he sent Jesus, he tore that veil into him. We now have access to a very holy God. We now have the Holy Spirit that comes and lives in the inside of us. And so if you came in this place and you don't know that God, I pray today, you don't leave without settling your faith with him. He is calling you home. He is welcoming you close to him.

And so here's what we're gonna do. I'm gonna invite you to stand on your feet. I'm gonna give you a chance to stand up, stretch it out, make sure you're awake and ready to go. And we're gonna exercise our faith today. We're gonna work out those faith muscles in our lives today. And we're gonna begin to intercede and pray for everybody else today. And so if you did come in here and you would be that first person that I said that maybe you're in a season of waiting, you're in a difficult moment, you've got a diagnosis, you need God to provide, your marriage is a mess, you need a job, whatever it is, I'm just gonna invite you to lift your hand all across this room. (gentle music) And then here's what we're gonna do. If somebody around you's got their hand lifted, you know the drill. We're gonna just reach out and just put a hand on their shoulder. I want every single person to have somebody praying over them. And so once somebody puts their hand on your shoulder, you can drop your hands. Like we've got a couple of people over here. Perfect. And so I'm gonna pray this morning, but here's what I want from you. I want you to pray as well

because your prayers are faith filled. You have the same Holy Spirit on the inside of you. And so I want us to pray. We're gonna pray that God would move. We're gonna pray for supernatural presence of God. We're gonna pray for peace while we're in a waiting season. And we're gonna pray for God to do miracles in our lives this morning. And we're gonna exercise the faith that God has given us. And so as I pray all across this room, let's lift up our prayers. God, we love you. And we're so thankful that your presence is here with us. God, you hear the prayers of your people right now. And we believe, God, that when we pray, our prayers actually make it to your ear. You hear them. You actually hold our prayers in a beautiful golden bowl, God. And so right now would you hear our prayers, God, and hear our cries as we intercede for those in this church. We pray for the hurting and weary hearts that are in here, those that are tired. They've been walking through a season where they've been trying to trust you, God, but it has not been an easy journey. God, thank you that your power is made perfect in our weakness. And so I pray right now that as we continue to put our hope and our trust in you, that you would fill us with fresh strength,

you would fill us with fresh vision. I pray that as we are in a season of waiting, God, that you would fill us with your perfect peace, that we would encounter you. I pray right now, God, you would speak a word to our hearts. Right now, God, that you would just deposit in our hearts, a reminder that you love us, that you are for us, that you are with us. I pray for those who just are just hurting right now in their hearts, God, they're just feeling that overwhelming sadness, or they're struggling with anxiety or depression, where the enemy is just attacking their minds. I pray right now in Jesus' name, that you would bring healing in Jesus' name, that you would touch bodies from the top of their heads to the bottom of their toes, that they would have a touch from the Lord, and it would experience a supernatural healing in Jesus' name. We pray for financial provision in Jesus' name. I pray for marriages to be healed in Jesus' name. I pray that you would redeem the things that the enemy has tried to steal from our life. You are a God who redeems and restores all things. And so this morning, we put our faith in you. We continue to trust that you are working on our behalf, and we pray that you would continue to grow and build perseverance in us, so that we can be a church and a people of great faith. And it's in Jesus' holy name that we pray, amen,

Amen.