Praying for a Blessing

summer again, isn't it? Well, I've long believed that the church is never as tall as it is on its knees. And on Wednesday across churches that I've served and know about, it's been prayer meeting. And that's a powerful time when the church comes together for prayer. And I'm glad to be a part of a praying church. And that's so very important now. Prayer is the base and it's interesting, isn't it, how the devil attacks the prayer ministry and the prayer life? We can get so busy and so caught up and so into things and neglect our prayer time. And it has to be guarded and protected. And why? Because the enemy wants to take that from us. Tonight I want to talk about praying for a blessing. Praying for a blessing. Tom Ella, who was one time a pastor and the executive director of the president, I suppose, of the International Mission Board, defined a blessing like this. A blessing is an act of God by which he causes someone or something to supernaturally produce more than would naturally be possible. Supernaturally produce more than would naturally be possible. So when you're praying for a blessing, when you're asking for a blessing, when you're seeking a blessing, you are praying for something supernatural. And if you keep that thought in your mind, I think you'll get the gist of this text. I want to call your attention to one of a very familiar story. It is in Matthew chapter 14. Matthew chapter 14, we're going to look beginning in verse 15. For a blessing, think of it, for a missionary. It might be to see a harvest of souls more than thought possible. That would be a blessing perhaps for a missionary. Think of it for an offering. Church is trying to raise funds. An offering that is blessed can accomplish more than by some human cleverness or scheme. And then maybe for a preacher, a blessing would be an effective, a more effective ministry. Those are just some examples of praying for a blessing. So I call your attention to Matthew's gospel, beginning there in verse 15. It says this, "When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, 'This place is secluded, and the hour has already passed to eat.' Send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves. But Jesus said to them, 'They all need to go. You give them something to eat.' And they said, to him, 'We have nothing here except five loaves and two fish.' And he said, 'Bring them here to me.' And ordering the crowd to sit down on the grass, he took the five loaves and the two fish and he looked upward to heaven. And he blessed the food. And breaking the loaves, he gave them to the disciples. And the disciples gave them to the crowds. And they all ate and were satisfied. When Jesus does a work, he satisfies. And they picked up what was left

over the broken pieces, twelve full baskets. And there were about 5,000 men who ate, besides the women and the children. Now this story is repeated in other gospels, but Matthew is the only evangelist to notice there were 5,000 people associated with this particular miracle. And he counts only men, not the women and children. Some have estimated that crowd could have been up to 15,000 people. Imagine that. That's larger than the populations of the villages that surrounded the Sea of Galilee. Here Jesus is in retreat and now the people come to him. He's teaching them. He's been going on all day. People are tired. They're hungry. It's evening. And the disciples don't want to mess with it. They don't want to deal with this issue. And they say, send them away. Let them go find food for themselves. They were trying to solve a problem by purely natural means. Actually they needed a blessing. Some may call that a miracle. Wayne grew them that theologians says, "A miracle is a less common kind of God's activity in which he arouses people's awe and bears witness to himself." It is a less common kind of God's activity in which he arouses people's awe and wonder They're focused on the problem. They're looking at saying well this crowd is it's this hour is late The place is secluded the time is supper times already passed send them away and then in verse 17 They said we have nothing here except five loaves and two fish They're focused on the problem. So many people I know focus on the problem Here we are in a church trying to do something I've led churches where we needed money for this or that and you always have people say well We can't do that it can't happen here. They won't give they won't do this and such I love it how church leaders sometimes make excuses for people I will never forget when we finished a building program at one church and we had a man there who's gone on and He was a kind of a skeptic, you know He's one of those guys it really you got to show it to me and I'll never forget We were finishing up the project and it was sitting at a table And he he was the one that kind of kept up with our building funds and he looked at that and he said you know I Said that before we could begin this program We would need to raise a million dollars Then he looked at the numbers and he said he took his glasses off and he flung him on the table and he said We raised a million dollars. I never would have believed it

And I had to look at him and say brother Joe. I never doubted it. I Never doubted it. God will provide Send him away. It's just not enough. So they focused on the problem Jesus focused on the provision My father has all that we need. I love to pray this prayer that Paul prayed My God shall supply your every need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus and how great are his riches? How abundant is his supply? My God will supply that need according to His riches Jesus was basically saying bring those fish and those loaves to me and I'll show you What I can do and he did it when you put a little in Jesus's hands He can turn it into a lot and more than that he can turn it into more Than enough if we'll allow him to have it. Don't we try to take hold of it Don't we try to hang on to it? Don't we want to fix it? Don't we think that we've got this? When it we just need to release it to Jesus. That's what they had to do. I want to answer the question this evening How can we obtain the blessing of God if you're like me? You want God's blessing? Every day my wife and I gather and we pray together and we seek God's blessing on our lives on our family on our church on our Pastor on our staff on people that we know about on a group of people we call our Prodigal souls who have gotten away from the Lord and got off into things we pray God's good hand of blessing on them Don't you want that? Well, let me show you from this passage four things that that can remind us and show us How we can obtain that blessing and the first principle is this? The size of your need does not limit God's blessing The size of the need is it too large? Is it too small? Sometimes we think well God's not interested in that. Do you know this God is a God of details Little many things. Sometimes we think we've got to ask God for those big things like someone having cancer or a financial problem or Relationship problem, but he's interested in the little things I used to tell people I knew of a radio station in East Texas and they said we're interested in what interests you Well, so is the Lord He's interested in what interests you and if it's a problem to you. It's a concern to you He wants to hear about it small things people say pastor. This is a small thing

Well, yeah, it is but I can give him the small things just like I can give him the big things Satan never says that's just right just right. It's either too big or too small Well, is there a solution? I'd like to remind you over in the Old Testament the story of Abraham and Sarah It was the Lord and Genesis 18 who said I will certainly come back to you in a year's time and your wife Sarah Will have a son and now Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent behind him Abraham and Sarah were old Getting on in years Sarah had passed the age of childbearing and she laughed to herself will I have to light? But the Lord asked Abraham, why did Sarah laugh saying, "Can I really have a baby when I'm old?" And here's to what I want you to see. Is anything impossible for the Lord, is it? No, is anything impossible for the Lord? At the appointed time, I will come back to you and about a year she will have her son. Nothing is too hard for him, for the Lord. The Lord sees the size of the need and the greatness of God. We, someone said, it don't like this. Our glance ought to be on the problem, but our gaze on the Lord. Sometimes we get that backwards. We want to look at the problem, and somehow the Lord's not big enough to take care of it. Notice when Jesus took the loaves and the fish, it says in verse 19, the latter part there, that he looked up toward heaven. While he was preparing to bless that food, he looked up toward heaven. What was he doing?

He was asking the blessing. He was gassing God to multiply that little bitty bit, that small amount. And glorify, glorify himself through it, but use it. But he was also, I believe, getting the mind of the Father. Have you ever been through Henry Black of these experiencing God? Some of you have, it's one of the most wonderful studies you'll ever go through. And there was a time about 30 years ago when, see, Mike, everybody was doing it. It was incredible. But one of the things that he said over and over is this, you need to have the mind of the Father. If you're going to do God's will, you've got to have God's mind. And so I believe that's what Jesus was doing. Father, what do you want to do in this situation? I have long suggested prayers like this. If you go to a bank and have a safe deposit box, you have two keys. You have a key and the banker has a key. And you don't get in that safe deposit box unless both of you turn the key, right? So when I pray, I have a key. And when the Father hears my prayer, he has the key, so to speak. And together, the keys turn and the door is open. So the key to answered prayer is getting the mind of the Father.

Sometimes I pray a prayer that I want to see God answer. When God says, no, that's not what I want to do. This is what I want to do. And so when I ask him to do what he wants to do, what does he do? We get an answered prayer. God, what did you want to do in this situation? I can't tell you how many times people come and this happens often. I'm sure most of you have experienced that. Someone will come to you with a problem, say, would you pray for me? And I pray like I think got you an answer to that prayer, right? But what if you say, God, there's times, I don't even know how to pray for this person. This situation is so desperate or dire and seemingly so hopeless, how should I pray? And when you get the mind of the Father, you get God's answer. So I believe Jesus was doing that. God was working through the actions of Jesus. So the size of your need doesn't limit the blessing, whether it's a small need or a great need like feeding that many people with so little resources. The second thing I want to say, the cause of your need does not limit God's blessings. The cause of the need. The disciples were desperate, desperate. Bring them here, they said, bring them here.

Prayer can avail in situations beyond our cause and control. In other words, there are times when we get ourselves in a jam, either intentionally or unintentionally, and we need God's help. There's some people desperate, didn't they, when they get in trouble? That's when we pray, Lord, I messed it up this time. You gotta help me. Well, the cause of the need doesn't limit that. Whatever caused it, there are a lot of people that have said to me, well, pastor, you don't know what I've done. I've done this and such. I will never forget a man named Bob. I knew down in Louisiana, Bob was interesting kind of person. He started coming to our church. He had lived in that area, grew up there, went away, lived on the west coast for a while, and came back, and his mother had died. I buried his mother, and Bob began coming to our church, and Bob had a checkered past. He was separated from his family, and I'll never forget Bob coming to me on one occasion. He sat in my office, and he had a sad look on his face, and he said, pastor, do you think God can forgive me? And I was so glad to look Bob in the eye and say, Bob, I don't think he can forgive you. I know he can forgive you. It doesn't matter what you've done. It doesn't matter where you've been or how badly you've messed up.

He is willing to forgive if you're willing to trust him Bob realized, God can forgive even me of the things in my life. The cause of your need does not limit God's blessing. There are times when I just have to say, God, you ever done this? Husbands, it's a humbling thing, isn't it? I blew it. Hard to think I had to do and my pastor's probably look at my life and say, you were right. I blew it. She said, I'm just waiting for you to say that. They know it. Acknowledging my failures. We tried to do it our way. The disciples said, here's a solution, send them away. Let them by their own food, Jesus said, no, you're going to give them something to eat. Acknowledge the fact that we fail. And then we can see God begin to work. Number three, available human resources, do not limit God's blessing. How do we plan based on what we think we can do? I've been enough church committee meetings to know that. Well, what do you think we can do? What do you think God wants to do? How about vision? How about seeing things maybe like God would see them? How about thinking, what could God do in this situation? What could God do through me? We have been reading a book of staff recently and one of the chapters, and I think it was the one for today was talking about that very thing. What can, what thing should we be doing or could we be doing?

And the only way to explain it is that God did it. If you can explain it, then God didn't do it. God is in the miracle of blessing business. What could be done and the only explanation is God did this. Think about it. How would you pray if you knew only God could do this? Only Jesus could do this miracle. I mean, the resources weren't there. People were hungry, they were tired, they needed a miracle. They needed a blessing. And what would you do? How would you pray if only, if you knew only God can do this? Well, I think there's a amount of desperation in that for sure. But the confidence and faith in my God is big enough to meet this need. There's no mountain too high, there's no problem too great. There's no burden too heavy that he can't make light if we will believe in him. Folks, there are people on my list I mentioned a while ago that I've been praying for, we've been praying for for years. Some of them, we don't even know their first names. Some of you have added to our list and we pray for them and we don't know the outcome, but we know the God who knows them. And we pray one day on the other side, we'll see the results of those prayers that we've sown in tears. God deliver, God help, God set free these captives. That's our prayer. Well, one of my favorite stories in the Old Testament is that of Elijah. Remember him on Mount Carmel? He threw down the gauntlet to King Ahab and the prophets of Baal. Each side builds an altar, they sacrifice a bull,

they call on their deity to rain down fire and consume the sacrifice. And the test is the deity who responds with fire is the one the people accept as God. So the prophets of Baal go first. Remember, they build their altar, they shout, they dance, and they slash themselves until the blood comes out. But the Scripture says this, there was no response, no one answered, and no one paid attention. I love the people who go around thinking they would just stick good thoughts. You know, like that's going to change the world, right? Remember several years ago, traveling and backing. Remember when cars had bumper stickers? And on the car in front of me, it said, imagine world peace. Well, that's going to change a lot. If I can imagine world peace, it's going to happen, right? No answer from the prophets of Baal. No one paid attention, and then God did what he could do. Elijah praised that simple prayer and then a fire, both of lightning can't fall down, devours the altar, and then the people repented and the prophets were slaughtered. That's because God made Himself known that day. So, human resources do not limit God's blessing. Whatever the resource is, God can use it for His glory. I love what Matthew said in chapter 3, or 6 verse 33, but seek ye first, the kingdom of God, and His righteousness. Sometimes we say, well, it's not enough. Just think, one small stone in David's hand, slew a giant. What's in your hand? What can God use that you have?

People say sometimes, well, God can't use me. I don't have what it takes. I don't have the talent to play an instrument or sing a song or preach a sermon or teach a class. And I would say, what's in your hand? What can God use? You remember the old gospel song, heard it a long time ago? Little as much. When, what? God is in it. Little as much, just that five loaves and three fish, that small amount, a two fish, rather. I'll get that right. If God is in it, he took that small amount and used it. And if we'll seek the kingdom and his righteousness, God adds to that. Human resources don't limit. What is so little among so many? When God's in it, it's a lot. Fourth idea. By faith, we can claim God's blessing. You see, Jesus blessed this, but the disciples had to distribute that. You know, we have these, we have these controversies in theology lately, about divine sovereignty and human will and how they work together, how one is offset by the other. And it's one of those things in theology

that's been raging for decades, if not centuries, and it still will go on. Where does God work and how does humanity work? How do they work together or know what happens? But what I see here is Jesus saying, give me what you have and we'll ask God to bless it and we'll use that. So we have God's working through human resources. God can use you if you're willing to be used. God can change the world through you if you're willing to do it. He can use you. I don't have much pastor, what do you have? What do you have that God can use? What talent skill, ability? What resource do you have? Give me use for God's glory. Seeing people use hobbies, I've seen people use just simple things that they had for God's glory. Just simple things God can use for many, many bleeple. There are four steps I'd like you to see here. When you come to that point about claiming God's blessing, first question you say, or first thing to do is do this. Assess the situation. First thing is assessment. My late wife was a nurse and she talked about assessing the patient. We've got to see where they are before we can help them.

We can't take them where they need to be. If we don't know where they are. You go to Six Flags and one of those amusement parks and what do you see on the little side? You are where? Here, where are you? I'm here. This is where I am. Lord, I'm in this situation and it's not good. If we could get so much done, if we just acknowledge where we are, we play these games like, well, I'm not really here. I'm not really, this isn't really, I'm not supposed to be here so I'm not here. I admit, I've done that. I think, well, I'm not supposed to have these feelings so I don't have those feelings. You know, I wanted to, Pastor talked about playing golf. There are times I wanted to take a golf ball and write Bill's name on the ball and give him a good whack. (congregation laughing) That's therapy, right? Bill represents a troublemaker in the church. In order to preach or say he did that, he wrote a deacon's name on the ball. I've been giving some trouble to put it down on the tee and gave it a whack and hit it. So the ball hit a tree and came right back.

(congregation laughing) Just can't get rid of him. In the garden after Adam and Eve sinned, the Lord is walking in the cool of the day, seeking Adam. You know, our Christian faith is the only one where God is seeking man. All the others, man is seeking God. And what does God do? Adam, where are you? Where are you, Adam? What's going on? What's broken the fellowship? God knew, but he wanted Adam to admit it. This is what the problem is. Assess the situation. Where am I? Where are you? Second, approach God's throne. Jesus looked up to heaven and he said, "Father, bless this." I'm so glad that Christ has made a way. The older I get, the more I'm amazed at God's grace and goodness. All my life he has been faithful. But when you look back, you see God's good hand. Look back on several incidents of my own life and see God's at work. At the time, I didn't see it, but a seemingly random meeting or a connection or a place I went that I wasn't expecting and ran into somebody led to something greater. I like to tell people it was a spaghetti supper that got me a job when I needed a job. We were visiting a church. Well, we weren't even visiting that church. We were in college,

and there was a church over here, but I didn't think I wanted to go to that church because they weren't Southern Baptist. And they looked like an independent Baptist, and I heard bad things about them. But just happened to be that the music minister lived nearby in the apartment in college, and he came over and invited us, so we started going to that church. In the process, my late wife lost her job. Well, she didn't lose her job, but she had to quit working because she was expecting a baby, had some problem pregnancies, which meant that she had to quit working part time. And I, who was working full part time, needed to go work full time. And if I needed to go work full time, I needed jobs so I can work full time. You with me? And it just so happens, we started going to that church, and we met a couple. One guy's name was Danny. Danny said one day, "Hey, you like spaghetti? You look at me. Do I look like I don't like spaghetti?" He said, "I make the best spaghetti." Okay? Prove it, buddy. You're on. So we're in his house one night, we're eating spaghetti, and Danny says, "You don't want anybody looking for a job." I go, "Well, let me think." Yeah, me. I need a job. My wife's going to have to quit working. I'm at part time working at the forward place, pushing parts. I need a job. He said, "Well, here's a guy you need to go see." Now, that was a random thing, it seems. We just happened to go to that church, and just happened to like spaghetti, and just happened to them meet a man who liked to make spaghetti, and just happened to go to supper with him, and just happened to tell us about a job where he worked. Turned out it was a full-time job in a machine shop. I tell people that's what I worked for a living. Been preaching ever since. You'll have to think about that and get that joke, but anyway. So I went for the interview, and it just so happened that the guy who was over the hiring, or hiring me, was a preacher. He was bi-vocational. He passed through the church on the weekends, and he oversaw the shop, and he hired me. He said, "Dave, I hired you because I couldn't make you mad." I never understood that kind of interview. Anyway, that's what he said. "But we became friends. I got a job, and it put me through college, and it took care of my family, and God took care of us." So the random meeting, going to a church within plan 2, meeting a couple that we didn't know who liked to make spaghetti, going to eat with him, him happening to mention that. Me going to there at that job when I met Brother Bruce, and Brother Bruce became my mentor, and later on he taught me much about pastoring. I watched everything he did. I learned a lot about pastoring. That's why I'm strong on mentoring young men in ministry, because Brother Bruce, he wasn't that great a preacher, but he was a great pastor. Later on, he recommended me to

my first little church out in the country, and then later on another church, and he was a big part of my life. All of that seemingly random, God took where I was, and God used those events. Small things to do great work in my own life. The third thing I would say is to acknowledge God's blessing. You bless God and seek the blessing. And how do you do that? You praise Him. What I thank you that you've heard in my prayer, because he'll hear your prayer. If you're willing to trust Him and ask His for His cleansing petition, that's when you say, "God, would you do this work in my life?" You know the steps, and then the presentation where you say, "God, here am I." Like Isaiah did, "Here am I. Use me. Send me." I set myself apart, acknowledge the blessing. That's what the Lord Jesus did. When he looked up to heaven, he said, "God, you're going to bless this." I ask you to bless him. I ask you to multiply it, and he did. Assess the situation, approach the throne, acknowledge the blessing, and then act in obedience. Act in obedience to the Father. What He says to you, do it. Jesus took the loaves and the fishes. He told them to sit down. He looked up to heaven. He gave it to the disciples, and the disciples Pashed it on. Maybe God won't. Maybe he wants you, in some way, to be a blessing to someone else. Some of you have heard of the missionary Hudson Taylor. He was one of the first missionaries in modern history. And he prayed specifically when he went to China, "Lord, send laborers," but he didn't stop. He didn't just say, "God, send the people." He began to prepare for them. He made plans, he organized the resources, and he expected their revival before he ever got the answer. How about that for praying in faith? "Lord, send the workers." I'm gonna set up for him. And in time, the workers came just like he prayed.

That's what I call praying in faith. In life, I've seen God do incredible things. And I thought about what are some of those miracles besides the story I just told. One of them happened just a few years ago. In fact, we were talking about it just the other day. Our church had a mission project that in around Christmas, we go down to the Rio Grande Valley, Laredo, Texas, rather the Rio Grande Valley. Laredo's kind of on the west part. I'd pasture down there rather than seminary. And kind of like what our church does with the shoeboxes, we gave away the shoeboxes down there. And we only, they called it Holy Presence, P-R-E-S-E-N-T, presence. And so we went down there and started, we had gathered, I think, a few, a couple of hundred or so, 300, I don't remember, shoeboxes. We started on a Friday, went all the way into Saturday, Saturday night. We're gonna make a last stop. Just before we made that stop, our host just said this. Let's take a few more boxes than we planned, and they had some spare in their warehouse, and let's just put those in the trailer, so we did. So we went to this little Colonia, and these people, you have to feel for them. They live in Squalor, they have very few things, and there are some people who take advantage of them,

knowing they can get away with it. One of the houses where we ended up didn't have a door, he just had a curtain for a front door. That's how some of them lived. So we go and we canvassing, and we had a little meeting, there was a little mission house, that's where the missionaries worked, and they brought the children in, and they shared the gospel, and then we shared our shoeboxes, and so we're done. Well, I happen to notice that the pastor we had worked with that morning was there. What are you doing here? Why are you here? He said, "I'm headed to another location." There's a lady over there reaching out to another Colonia, and it was several miles away. And I got this, a bright idea. I said, "You need any shoeboxes?" He said, "I don't have any." So I went to our host, and I said, "Do you think we could take some of those boxes over there?" We hadn't planned this, it was totally unplanned. He said, "Sure, go ahead." So by the time we got loaded and ready to go, the pastor had already left, and I let him know, "Hey, we're coming." He said, "Good, I've got 25 kids out here in this open field."

We said, "Okay, we're on the way." But on the way, as we were going, and you know, the devil always tries to stop God's work, there was a head-on collision between an ambulance and another vehicle, and an ambulance had a patient in it. And what I heard is that patient died, but it was a head-on collision, and the whole highway we were on, two-lane road, was blocked. Now, we had a man with us who had been a police officer, and you know how some of them are, "I'll take care of this, I've got this." So he gets out, he walks on down, he said, "We'll just make a way." A few minutes later, he came back with his tail between his legs, like Mama said, and said, "We're gonna have to go around." So we did, but we had been stuck in line for quite some time. So I called the pastor, I said, "Look, we've been delayed, but we're gonna take a detour, "and we're gonna get there." He said, "Good, 'cause now I've got 50 kids." It had gotten dark by that time, and while we took that time, there were more delays, because we had to go this way, if you know some of those roads down there, some of them are not that great, and they're all this way. So I called the pastor, I said, "We're on the way,

"we're coming, we've had some delays, "we've had to take detours." He said, "Great, now there's 75 kids here." And he was getting later. And finally, we arrived, and I will never forget that moment, and those who were with us can tell you the same story. When we rounded that corner, we had just won the Super Bowl. Because when those kids saw the van coming, they came up, shaking, clapping their hands, and cheering, and said, "Yay, they're here!" We wanted to wave, and we wanted to win the Super Bowl. And we wanted to win the Super Bowl, and we wanted to win the Super Bowl, and we wanted to win the Super Bowl. And we came, when I lived in Louisiana, we had to throw them from candy, I guess, if we could, but we felt like heroes. So we backed the van up, we backed the trailer up, and we prepared to give away what we had, the missionary that had been working with the kids, sharing the gospel with them, trying to reach those kids. And then all of a sudden, I realized something, when all the kids went, "Whoo!" Right there on it. What are we going to do? We don't have kids, we don't have enough stuff. And I looked at the missionary, and I told her and said, "I don't think we're going to have enough for all these kids." And they've been waiting out here for a long time. How in the world can we tell them that? She said, "Just give what you have, and we'll trust the

Lord." Well, the children came, and we gave away those gifts. And we gave away those gifts, and we gave them away. And when it was all done, they were all gone, and not one child was left. I saw God work. It may not have been loaves and fishes. It may have been backpacks and shoe boxes, but God took a little, and He made a lot out of it. He can do that in your life and in my life if we're willing to let Him. When you're praying for a blessing, keep these things in mind because our God is an awesome God. Some people pray, and they wait. Others pray, and they move. And when you truly believe that God has heard you, live like the answer is already in motion. Twelve baskets full, leftover. The world needs to see what God can do through His people as they seek His blessing and His good hand. May you do it. May we do that together, Church, because the world is in a situation where desperately needs to see the Church marching, showing the love of Christ, shining and sharing as we hear. May you and I join our hands and pray the blessing of God on our lives, our Church, our families and our ministries and our world. Join with me, please. Father, we thank You for Your goodness and Your mercy. We thank You for Your blessings. Lord, as we remember, You've been good to us and it's all out of

grace. How in the world did we deserve any of it when we don't? We are so thankful that out of Your grace You gave us new life through Christ, and You promised to forgive our sin if we would turn from those sins and trust in You. You promised, Lord, to hear our prayers, You promised to answer. You promised to pour out from the windows of heaven and blessing. May You do that upon Your people, upon this Church and this ministry, upon our lives, Lord, as we shine and share a love of Christ in this community. Father, we thank You in advance for the things You have done and for the things You are going to do because You are a God of miracles. Praise You, O Lord. Bless this group as we go. Keep us in Your care until we meet again. And we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. Amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]