Stubborn Faith | Pastor Micah Berteau | Parables

This is what Jesus said about parables. Jesus always used stories and illustrations like these when speaking to the grounds. In fact, he never spoke to them without using such parables. This is fulfilled what God has spoken through the Prophet. I will speak to you in parables. I will explain things hidden since the creation of the world. So why go seven weeks? Why are we doing this? I might tell you, don't miss a single week of this series called parables and great job. I mean, for 8/30, this or all of our services, so full so far, why? Because we are hungry for the word of God. And I want to know what Jesus taught about. And it said this, that you're going to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven through the parables that Jesus taught. Now, anybody remember last week's parable? Well, week one, anybody, anybody, any takers? Sewer, sewer? Yeah, good job, good job. We've got a few of y'all got the sewer. All right, or the soil. You remember the soil. We talk a little bit about that. Going to what? A soft soil, a soil that you can receive the seed of the word of God, and you will produce fruit. So it's a beautiful word.

Now, in that kind of word, Jesus is encouraging us. Hey, soften your heart, be sensitive to the Holy Spirit, receive the word of the Lord. He's not always teaching only one side. This next parable is also going to be something you need to be strong in. So that was something you needed to be a little bit maybe more sensitive to the Holy Spirit and soften your heart. Don't have just a firm disposition that is against what God wants to do in your life. Now, open up your life, say, God convict me, move me, mold me. This week, he's going to talk about how you need to be persistent. This is going to be the parable of the persistent widow. It's called, so let's go to Luke, actually 18, one through eight. Luke 18, one through eight is our parable for week two of this amazing series. One day, Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up. There was a judge in a certain city, he said, who neither feared God nor cared about people. A widow of that city came to him repeatedly saying, give me justice in this dispute with my enemy. The judge ignored her for a while, but finally, he said to himself, I don't fear God or care about people, but this woman is driving me crazy. Husband straight ahead. Nope, nope, don't even, don't even trot, don't even, not even an amen. Not even, don't even give a nod.

Like, it's not true. He said, look, this woman is driving me crazy. I'm going to see that she gets justice because she is wearing me out. I'm telling you, this is a dangerous parable for every man in the room. There ain't no way out of this one. She's driving me crazy, she's wearing me out, but look what the woman gets. She's wearing me out with her constant requests. So what, she gets what she's been constant about. So I actually appreciate her annoying this judge. Then the Lord said, learn a lesson from this unjust judge. Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don't you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly. That's good news. But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on earth who have faith? Which is saying this, he's returning one day, by the way. I believe that we're arriving closer and closer to those days. I think you can look around and there's a lot of indications that the world's getting crazier, God's getting near. But I think at some point we have to also realize what is God looking for in these last days? He says, I'm not just looking for your consistency.

He said, I'm looking for that kind of faith. What's that kind of faith? Thanks for asking. That's my sermon title for you today. You know what kind of faith that the widow had? It's what I call stubborn faith. Yeah, that's my time. Why? Because sometimes we got stubborn kids, we see that. But stubborn isn't always a negative of a word. Sometimes it's a strong stance, it's the definition. It's a, I'm dug in. Not going anywhere. If anything comes against me, I still believe this is where I belong. And if God before me, who could be against me? That's what being stubborn means. It means believing the word of God, even despite the worries of life, stubborn about the promises. and realized. And Jesus taught us that. So let's talk about it for a few minutes and pray one more time. Jesus, we thank you for this parable. I pray, God, that we learn to push, to persist, to go past. God, to not give in too soon. I pray, God, against the spirit of quit in this place. Thank God. We will see the other side. We will see you make good on your promises and you will weave everything together for our good. We will see you make sense of everything that we've been through. And I thank you for the breakthrough that's about to happen. In Jesus' name, come on, everybody say amen. Amen, amen, amen. Here's the thing about Amazon. Here's the thing about Amazon. They do this two-day shipping thing. Anybody ever partake in the prime shipping? Anybody ever do that? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Come on, admit. Where's my Amazon addicts? You know what I'm saying? And so you love it, right? Because you click it, you get it in two days. Now, that's the promise now in DFW. What is a little bit of that promise?

Now, maybe in some other markets as well, maybe bigger markets, you can get it in less than two days. You know the other day, my kids, we only had one jump rope in the house and they started fighting because there was only one jump rope. God forbid, we only have one jump rope when we have four children. They don't know how to share. So we just bought another jump rope and it gave me options. It had two days. It had one day. It had 12 hours. My favorite? Three hours. You know your kids are going crazy when you're going to pay three bucks to get it there in three hours. I will pay a dollar an hour, three hours to get that here. It got there in three hours. You know what that tells me? It tells me that we have a culture that's very used to ordering things and getting things exactly when we want them. I ordered something for my kids the other day. And you know you ever ordered something and you even pay a little extra for expedited shipping? You know what I'm saying? Because you need it there by a certain day. You needed your Cowboys jersey in town by this Sunday. You know what I'm saying? Like, you needed it. I'm seeing less and less Cowboys gear every Sunday. Are you losing faith already or what's going on? Like, man, I got to preach the good news again. I don't know. Just build your faith. That's why you're here though for, you know, you're praying for your team. You know, I love it. And here's the deal. There's a reality out there. It's like, all right, I can order it and then we can stand there and I paid a little extra so that you get here a day early. I did that for my kids. I bought them something early last week. And they kept asking me, Dad, where is it? And in true fashion, how many know it gets really, really annoying when it goes past the two days into the three days? You all of a sudden feel like you got something to say. And listen, a lot of people, especially in the Christian world, have the gift of emails. You got typing fingers. And even if you don't, you will chat GBT the best thing and you will just send it in. And listen, if they do not get your item here on time, they go here about it. Because you paid extra for it, right? So I remember I shot him an email. Hey, where is it at? You know, bought it for my kids. Oh, we're so sorry. It's a day late. We'll take care of the shipping. It's in transit. So I go back to my kids, they said, all right, where's it at? I said, well, I talked to them. And they said, okay, where's it at? I said, it's in transit. They said, what does that mean? I said, here's what it means. It means we don't know where it's at. But it's coming. I don't know where it's at. I can't track it. I don't got a number, but I know one thing. It's coming. And I had to keep telling my kids. My kids were like, that doesn't make sense. If it's not there, if it's not here, where is it? So that's what I'm

trying to tell you. You're going to have to learn to wait on some things. And this is what we're going to learn today. We're going to have to learn to wait on some things. Some of you can't track God. Some of you all can't FedEx track him. You don't got a tracker number. You don't know when the answer's coming. You don't know how he's going to do it. You don't know when he's going to come through. You know he's good on his promise, but you're not sure when, how, if he's going to come through in this particular scenario. But let me just tell you, you prayed it. He heard it. It's in transit. That means you do not give up while you're waiting. That means you stand firm in the fact that I don't know where it is, but it's coming. So that's why I walk around. It's like, where is it? I don't know. The promise of God, but it's coming to my life. It's coming to my life. It's coming to this church. It's coming to your family. It's going to arrive in your life, but it never arrives for people that quit too soon. Quitters never see God's promise. Have you have you ever thought about that? People that... They never get to see God actually use the story and turn things for their good and take the family in and restore the marriage. You didn't stick it out long enough. It wasn't a no, it was just a not yet. And you just didn't know it was in transit because we all journey with waiting rooms, right? And I love the doctors that are in our church, but y'all be making us wait a cool minute. You know what I'm saying? We will be up in that waiting room. It's not that you're waiting. It's how you're waiting. How are you waiting? Who are you becoming when you're waiting? Because at some point you have to learn the rhythms of God just because you prayed it doesn't mean he has to do it right then. A lot of times he pauses and this is what he's teaching us in the parable. He said, "Hey, last week the soils, do you need the parable of the soils or you're not going to understand any other thing that I teach you? You need to learn to have a soft heart, a soft soul to receive the word of the Lord." This week he said, "Cough it up." Isn't that funny? He's the most well-rounded communicator to ever walk the planet Jesus is. And here's the day he rolls out with the parable. In most preachers, I love communication. I love the art of communication. I get to write sermons. As long as you allow me, I'll preach the good news of Jesus Christ every single weekend for you here. But at some point you learn that you like to weave into your sermon different points. Jesus rolls out and gives you the entire point in line one of this parable. Now that's typically not the best way to do it. But here's why I think he did it. I think Jesus

did it because the people were not picking up what he was putting down. They were not hearing. They were not listening. So he looks out and he says, "I'm going to tell y'all a parable." You know what it's going to be about? To always pray and never give up. And they said, "All right." Because I got to tell some people that aren't praying and are giving up to chill. They need to breathe. Have you given God enough time to work on it? Or have you just turned straight into a complaint session? Like let him, you know, can't be young for a second, let him cook for a second. At what point, where's my people that actually cook? You like cooking, you love, you can get in the kitchen, you invite me to, come on now, invite me over in Jesus' name. All right. Is anything good fast? That's why it's called fast food. It's gross. I just dump it in some really hot oil and serve it to you. And then, God forbid, the fast food is slow that day. Oh, you'll see the other side of you. We are conditioned friends to want things now. But all my cooks know, good things come to those who wait. You need the right ingredients. You got to sprinkle the right with a guy that does the salt like that. Salt, salt, dude. I don't know. I didn't want to say bay, but y'all just made me say bay. All right, here we are. And what is it? It's everything is measured. What if God is just putting ingredients together? What if he's just pulling a little bit of wisdom over here? And he's pulling a little bit of maturity because you didn't have that in last season and you needed to face the giant. So he's pulling some ingredients called maturity and he's putting it in over. And then he said, you know what? You don't have a prayer life. I need to have them have a prayer life. So he's pulling a little bit of ingredients of a prayer life and a dependence on God and a trust in the holies. And he says, hey, I need some of this. And I'm telling you, let God work. Stop jumping out of the process before he's done. Yes, he's got a good plan. But can we let him finish the good plan? Some people be like, man, I've been saved for a year and I just haven't seen it. You know what you need in your life? Can I just be honest? You need some seasoned saints. You know what I'm saying? You need some of those people that got some gray hairs and have been saved for 40 years. Oh, help me preach the good news of old people. Yeah. You know what? You need you need elderly in your life. You need someone that will look at you and say, that's all you're going through. I went through that in the 60s. Easy money for God. You need somebody that downgrades your problem. Here's the problem. You've got too many friends that are putting and gaslighting your problem and making it bigger than it actually is.

That will look you dead in the eye and say baby get over it You're gonna be just fine. Not only are you gonna be just fine. You're gonna be better because of it This is what you need I thank God for people that have been through and I thank you for everybody in here That are those people that have been through some things and refused to quit families. Thank you We look to your marriages and we thank you Why because we stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us and what Jesus is teaching the next generation in this moment I need to teach you to always pray and never give up now in the original language It's actually I'm gonna teach you to pray and to never lose heart There's a Greek word for the never lose heart this Greek word. You know what it means it means to be Discouraged I'm going to teach you to pray and not be discouraged now real quick Discouragement a lot of you just immediately the moment when I said the word you went to an emotion of Discouragement you feel in that you feel it daily right the emotional wave of discouragement It's not even talking about the emotion of discouragement. It's talking about a state of discouragement It's for those that are stuck in a state of Discouragement and you know that because you can't see a positive thing in your life You know that because a good thing could happen to you, but you will only extract complaints from it God gave you a new job, but you hate the hours God gave you a spouse But you don't like how that's going and every time God does a good thing and a new thing You're stuck in a state of discouragement that you can't even see what God is doing in the middle of it Some of you need to just be free from that today Discouragement and he says I'm gonna teach you a parable about a widow who would never give up in the face of an unjust judge So you can learn that your discouragement is not meant to be deadly for your life And it's not meant to be permanent in your life. You can come through this you can get out of this You don't have to stay stuck here I don't know when it's coming but I know it's in transit and I know my God is going to come through and when I know that I can wait different when I know that I can worship knowing that the God that's in control is on my side So the first thing that you have to know is when he starts to this thing He's like all right. Let me tell you about a widow who about I'm gonna teach you to pray never never lose heart

Not to be discouraged. Let me tell you about the widow who kept going back to the judge And she didn't get it on the first ask which tells me this delay doesn't mean denial Delay does not mean denial Just because it's not here today doesn't mean you are denied the request Keep praying it. It didn't work last time. What if it works this time? Well, you know what I said it, you know, I prayed this prayer like 40 times. What if what if it's the 41st time? You don't know when God is gonna do it. That's why you don't count the times. You just know the God I don't try to figure out. Well, look how many times. No, I'm not trying to hold that against God I trust God. I have to trust the man and I have to realize that if I've been delayed a little bit Let me just encourage you delayed doesn't mean denial, but it does mean development It does mean development cuz at some point you're gonna have to realize I'm delayed But man, I'm being revealed right now I don't know about you. You ever had a delay flight. Oh Oh Cancelled is even worse and you get like, you know what the thing about Look, I'm a fly American and and you know, I get all the flyer freakin flyer miles get all the stuff, right? You don't put us on a plane in hopes that they will fix it. I Appreciate the faith of American Airlines You ever been delayed though to the point to where they got on the anaconda said it was just maintenance We fixed it however We're just waiting on paperwork and you have to wait on paperwork for an hour I waited for two hours just for paperwork to be done because you needed the right person to walk in and sign the papers I say hey look God has assigned me as an authority to sign those papers Let's get this plane rocking and rolling guys And it's an amazing thing to sit there, but here's what I learned sometimes We don't need the plane to take off on time It shows us that the world doesn't revolve around us [BLANK_AUDIO] You don't need every prayer to be answered in day one.

You don't need every request to be absolutely attended to on week three. Sometimes it's good for us to sit in it, wait in it. Man, when is this? It's tension, but the tension reveals you. It doesn't build you, it reveals you. You wanna know who someone really is? Put him in a pressure cooker. Put him in a moment where they don't know how to respond. My encouragement is this. Why in that moment would you give up on God out of all the things? Isn't it crazy, the first thing that you typically turn to is God to say, hey, why aren't you, where are you? Don't blame God, no worship God, don't blame God. Praise God that he got you here. Don't blame God that he's not doing what's next. I'm telling you the same God that got you here is the same God that can get you there. So I stopped for a moment, I realized I might be delayed, but that doesn't mean I'm denied. I said it to my kids, sometimes it's not a no, sometimes it's just a not yet. Sometimes the timing is off, sometimes he's still cooking, sometimes he just needs different ingredients. And for the woman, she kept going back to the judge over and over and over again. Sometimes we need that kind of motivation. You need that kind of fire.

You don't need somebody to give you the motivation. You should see that the hand of God can move it any day that I wake up in any moment that I'm alive. That's all the motivation I need. If you read the word of God, that's all the motivation you need. There are plenty of scriptures in there that give me the fervency to stand again, to go again, to pray again and to ask again. 'Cause once I learn who God is, what makes me think that he's not gonna come through from me? Can I just tell you, you're delayed? Doesn't mean you're denied. Joseph was delayed 13 years between the dream and the palace. Did you know that Abraham and Sarah were given the promise to be the father of many nations that they were gonna have a child, put it to 25 years between the time they got the promise and the time they heard the promise and got the promise, 25 years. How about the woman with the issue of blood? She had an issue for how many years, 12 years. And even her said, you know what? I'm not gonna just stay in my same house. I gotta get out of this house of despair, out of this house of discouragement. I gotta get out of the surroundings. I'm in and I gotta get to Jesus. She was sick and tired of being sick and tired. And some of y'all need to be tired of their condition today to wake up and realize,

I gotta touch Jesus. Or this might not change. I gotta get to Jesus. David was anointed king as a teenager, but he was crowned king at 30 years old. Can I tell you today? I don't know how long it's gonna take, but it's in transit. I don't know what God is up to, but he's up to something. 'Cause what you need to learn is the second thing, and the second thought is that there's purpose and persistence. Not just persisting to persist. You know, I feel like I'm part of like with my boys and even just me when I played football back in the day. I felt like there was a lot of things that asked us to do, just to do them. Just run again, why? Just do it. It's like you had a bad day, sir. I don't know if my coach ever had a good day. I don't know. You ever think that about coaches? You'd be like, man, do you ever ever have good days? And so just run again. Okay, and we learn sometimes, have you ever, we will persist just to persist. We will continue, just to continue, almost on empty, disregarding our own souls. Just running us dry, just to go

and maybe God will do it this Sunday and every single Sunday, this is what your spirit looks like, barely hanging on. And God said at what point are you gonna realize, I'm not asking you to persist, just to be persistent. There's actual purpose in persistence. When Jesus was looking at the cross, there was a beautiful scripture that says for the joy set before him, he endured the cross. Didn't say he enjoyed the cross. That's a little noticeable situation there. Some of y'all be like, man, it's been hard. It's supposed to be, but it's not forever. Did you know that there's an expiration date on every trial that you're gonna go through? Come on, let it age like milk, let it get old. Let it get out of your life. you face. There's an expiration date in the name of Jesus and we might not enjoy it, but when we endure it on the other side is going to be a joy for everything that you've gone through. There's going to be a joy, no weeping that can come against that kind of joy. There's going to be victory. There's going to be overcoming. You're going to climb that mound. You're going to kill that giant. You're going to see the other side, but you're going to have to endure before you see that. He said, "There's something in the middle. I have to endure the cross for the joy set before me." He set something before him. It was purpose. You know what Jesus' purpose was? You and me. He said, "I'm going to endure the cross because I got a mind and a heart on what the result of this cross is." You know what the result of it is? Salvation from my children. For you and everybody in here that you can make a decision at any point in time and receive the gospel of Jesus Christ no matter how you walked in because he endured it, you can enjoy it. You can say yes to this all because there's purpose in persistence. You're not persisting for no reason. You're not pushing through for no reason.

You're doing it for generations after you. You're doing it for the little boy and little girl that you have in your family as a father and maybe as a mother that's watching you, that has eyes on you. Look at Mom. She's still praying? Look at Dad. He still goes to church. How? Maybe God is real. That's what I want our kids to know. He's real because I said so. He's real because they saw him in us. They show you persist. They show you not give up to every enemy scheme and every demonic attack. They show you press through every poverty moment in every broken place. They show you rise above and say God is still my shepherd. He is still everything that I need. He is my savior and if you could have a home that can worship Jesus, you're already on the winning side. You're already in victory. You're already above and up beneath and you need to know today God is on your side whether you know or not. So you better get worshiped in your home. Be like, I'm just wondering if he is. No, he is. So that's why there's purpose. And the judge was like, this woman is crazy. She's wearing me out. I kind of want to do that to the enemy sometime. Why are the enemy out so much? To where he goes back to his little demon minions and he says, I just can't get him. He's too stubborn. I can't. And it's so frustrating because you have such a stubborn faith and you realize that quitting is not your best option. It's your most immediate one. It's not your best one. You can do it right now, but friends, everything you've ever prayed for is on the other side of not giving up. Why would you stop here? You're only on chapter four of your story. But the pen back in God's hands let him continue writing because you're a bad writer. Here's my next thought for you is that Jesus is the better judge. Jesus is the better judge. Just a few more minutes with you today. Here's what I mean by Jesus is the better judge. This parable was never about the woman unknowing the judge and the judge being Jesus so much that she finally got her prayers answered. This wasn't so you would have the disposition of all I had to do was annoy God so much and I'd get it. It's kind of bad theology. No, no, no, no, no. That's not what this parable is about. On surface value, if you skim it real quick, you might think, oh, cool. God's the judge. I'm the widow. Let's annoy him until I get it. It's not it. That's not it. Jesus actually says, what are you saying? The second half of the pair is so beautiful. We thought we were about to learn and we do. We learn a lesson about persistence from the widow. He said, but learn a lesson from the judge. He shifted the whole thing. He said, look, you can learn from him. You know what you can learn from him? He's an evil judge. He said he doesn't care about God. He doesn't care about people.

Yet the woman still broke through that and he said this, if that kind of judge would render a good judgment against the widow, how much more? your past, your present, your future, knows your DNA, your family, everything about you and loves you the same, how much more will God, who is good, who is gracious, who is merciful, render a good judgment on your behalf? He said, "Look, your persistence will annoy the enemy, and your persistence will let you see that I've been here the whole time." He's the better judge. And if you're looking, it says if you're looking for a good answer, he's going to give you the best one. He's not going to wait, he's going to rush to your aid. He might not give it to you exactly like you want, but he's a better judge. So I have to trust that judge Jesus is going to vindicate me, take care of what I'm facing, because a lot of you, you know what offense is? A fence is you becoming the judge of the scenario you're in. You know what being, having forgiveness is, letting God take over the judge duties again. Because listen, you ain't no judge duty, you ain't going to do good. You're going to always think vindication looks like one thing, but God is the most fair. And he wants you to win, he wants you to not quit, he doesn't want you to walk away and give in to the enemy's devices, he needs you to stop and realize he's that good, he's that gracious, he's for you, not against you. And that's why we arrive at activating our stubborn faith, activated. Your soil can be soft, but your faith can. Sorry, your faith is going to have to be firm. Some of you, your soil is hard and your faith is soft. Your sensitive in the wrong ways, so you get hurt way too easily and you run away from God quickly. And you think being firm is maybe a different definition, because that's what it's been. No, no, no, he needs your faith to be firm, you need to be stubborn in your faith. The other Greek word that's in this text, that's really cool, it said, it alludes to,

the woman wasn't just persistent with the judge by going back over and over and over and over again and asking him, it said the Greek word, she's a fighter. I thought that was really cool, you ever see Rocky? Yeah, I love Rocky, what is it, just keep swinging? It said she gave the judge, it wasn't like the judge just became a good guy. And gave in, no, she perverbally gave the judge a black guy because she, what, kept swinging. She's a fighter, just because you have faith doesn't make you a fighter. You need to be a fighter to have real faith. And let me just tell you this, the kind of faith he's going to return one day, by the way he's going to return one day. And when he returned one day, he's going to look for people that had stubborn faith in the face of an evil culture, in the face of a failing culture, in the face of sin rampant, in the face of bad news being everywhere, in the face of brokenness, in the face of hurt, in the face of offense and bitterness. Can you have stubborn faith that says I can recognize the evil, but I will not become the evil that's around me. I am in the world, but I'm not of the world. I refuse to go that direction. I'm going against the stream, help me to stand out and have a different kind of faith. So perverbally put your fist up and friends fight again. Throw hands again. You throw in hands with the wrong enemy, I do not fight against flesh and blood, but I fight against the principalities in this dark realm. Know who you're fighting against and if I got the power of the blood of the lamb on my side, then every time I swing, hell is going to feel it. Every time I wake up, hell is going to feel it. Every time I praise God, hell is going to feel it. Every time I lean in and have a conversation to my children about Jesus, hell is going to feel it. the devil know today he can't have your soul, he can't have your future, he can't have your

marriage, he can't have your family, he can't have your calling. to have anybody that's got some stubborn faith. So I got anybody that has some faith in their bones to say say not today. Can you stand your feet before you make me keep reaching? I gotta get you out of here. Can you bow your heads? In the name of Jesus? Stubborn our faith. I don't even know if you say it that way. Strike in our faith. Let us dig in our heels to the word of the Lord. God, we refuse to give up. I speak to the spirit of quit in this room. Leave their minds. Leave their bodies. If it's not good, God, you're not done. That means it's just being developed. That means God, you're still sending it my way, but it might be in transit. So God, we worship while waiting. We pray while waiting. We raise our faith while waiting. We today, God, collectively say, devil, get your hands and your lies off my life, off my children, off my marriage, off my future. Today, I give the devil a black guy because I'm going to keep walking with God. I'm going to keep going. I'm going to find a new wind. I'm going to find a second breath. I'm going to find a new grace for his mercies are made new every single morning. Right now, God, we tap into those mercies. We need them. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for a new strength for this new fall season that we're heading into. God, a new understanding, a new revelation. I just feel it with my friends today. This is not your season to give up. This is not your season to quit. Not now. It's too soon. Let God finish your story. It feels so long that thing. Let God finish what he started. If there's anybody in here that needs to receive Jesus Christ as the Lord Savior, and you know who you are, your distant, your far. You've been walking in brokenness for too long. Now you need to walk with the one who can heal you and mend you. If you need to get saved today, time is not on our side. By the way, he is coming soon. When I get to three, would you lift your hands if that's you ready? One, you know who you are. Two, you want to get saved. Today, three, lift your hands if that's you. Thank you. Thank you, Jesus. Come on even online to say that's me, that's me, that's me, that's me, that's me, that's me. Come on, lift your hand if that's you're here. You want to pray this prayer with me. Say Jesus. Come on, say it with strength. Say

Jesus. Save me. Heal me. I believe you went to the cross, died, but rose again. And today, I choose resurrection power in my life. I don't want to be the same. Make me more like you in Jesus' name. Come on one big amen, give me God a good praise right there. Ooh, it's not your season to quit. It's not your season to walk away. God's going to do it. That's exactly what our declaration says, isn't it? Hey, if you need prayer, if you got saved, we want to know who you are. If you need prayer, our prayer team is down here. Let's read the declaration together before we run out of here. I believe what God has spoken over my life. His word will not return void. This year will reveal his faithfulness. This year will produce fruit. This year will be filled with miracles. In His timing and bias power. Come on, you do it. God's going to do it. Hey, we love you. I believe it. Get some stubborn faith this week. I'll see you next Sunday. The best is yet to come.