Week 2 | “What do I do when it’s not clear?”

Life is full of decisions, a new job, a relationship, a calling you can't shake, a door you don't know whether to walk through or close. It can make you wonder, God, is that you? But God's will isn't meant to be a mystery. Learning to discern it takes wisdom and faith. Let's deepen our trust in the God who never stops speaking. Well, good morning, everyone. Special thanks to Kirk for starting that clap. Appreciate that. Now, great to be with you guys. My name is Pat Brennan. I get to hang out with all of our student teams across all of our campuses. Grateful to be here with you this morning. Special welcome to all of our other campuses around Chicagoland. Also, a unique special welcome to Jefferson City Correctional Center. So grateful to be with all of you as well. And as we've already done, shout out and special welcome to our seniors. Thank you guys for being here with us. We're grateful for you. Jacob's alumni, thank you, Lexi. That is where I went as well. Graduated last year, still. The fact that you laughed tells me everything I need to know about how we're gonna get along.

I've gotten the privilege of being part of our staff team for about 20 years. And when I started, the first role that I got hired into was a producer role. What I learned was that meant I was responsible for the setup, the tear down, all of the production needs, everything that happened in our student spaces at our Wheaton campus. I did not know how to do any of those things. I still think it's a miracle that I've been hired, but you can't take it away. I've already been here, so I'm staying. One of the things that I learned at a portable campus, our Wheaton campus is still portable, is my responsibility was to drive the very large box truck. And you'd say to yourself, clearly they trained you. They didn't. My training was, here's the keys. What I learned, this box truck that we called Optimus Prime, it was a very large, concerning vehicle that someone should be trained on. And again, I'm realizing right now, by the way, I'm gonna pause. I'm just gonna share some things. This is a safe place. This is 20 years ago, right? We're safe, we can be honest and transparent with one another, so this is 20 years ago. I'm not saying I would make the same decision again, but nonetheless.

So I get the keys to this truck, I'm supposed to drive it. So I'm driving it back one night with all of our things in there. And I realized, you ever turn on a car and realized, if I turn this off, this car will die. Like this is not gonna, this is the last run we have. But I wanted to get back to the storage facility so I didn't have this giant box truck dead on the property we were renting. So I start driving, and very quickly down the road, the windshield starts fogging up. Like really, really bad. So I'm like leaning over in a massive truck, trying to wipe it, and it's just not working. Nothing's working, the defrost is broken, shocker. That just wasn't on the list of things we used to purchase a truck at that time. And so I realized something. I have this moment as a 19-year-old, entrusted with a vehicle that they should not have entrusted him with, had an epiphany. So well, rolled down this window, and you notice, by the way, not power windows. We did not do that. So this is, seniors, this is what you would do to roll down your window. And I'm like, I can just stick my head outside of this car as I drive it. So down Route 59 in West Chicago, Illinois, here's 19-year-old me driving this giant truck,

realizing that the only way I could see a clear path forward is if I stick my head out of the truck and drive it to the storage facility. I made it safely. No one was injured. The truck did immediately die, I swear to you. It died when I got to the property. That truck is no more. And I share that with you because the truth is, when we want clarity, when we have a big decision, when we have a big moment, when we have something going on in life, and we want clarity, we are willing to go to some pretty crazy lengths to see what we can't see in front of us. If you are in this room or you've been in this space where you go, hey, I have a big decision coming up. Maybe I'm choosing where I'm gonna go for school, what I'm gonna major in, what's going on in my relationship, what the next step is for us, the next step in our faith. Maybe you're a parent and you're trying to help your kids discern some things, maybe nearing retirement, trying to figure out what a next step is, you're at a crossroads of a job. In my family, we have some pretty substantial medical issues going on with one of my family members really trying to navigate what's the wisest next step. When you've been there, when you feel the pressure, when you feel the weight, we know, right? We're like, I'm willing to do about anything

if it will get me a little bit more clear before I make this decision. We will turn to all sorts of things. We'll type it into an AI search engine. You're like, what does AI think that I should do? We will roll some dice. I remember, so I went to Jacobs High School and I played football for a day. And I know you looked at me and you say, Pat, as I look at you, you'd make a phenomenal kicker. And I got out for the football team. I go out there and I thought, man, this is gonna be a long summer. So I go home to my parents. I'm like, I don't know if should I play football or should I play soccer? And a lot of you judged me with that statement. I can receive it. And I looked at my parents and go, I'm gonna flip a coin. I'm gonna flip a coin. If it lands on heads, I'll play football. Lands on tails, I will play soccer. And so I flip the coin, lands on heads, says I'm playing football. I look at my parents and go, it looks like I'm playing soccer anyway. But we're willing, right? Like, it's like, oh, if I can just get a sign, an advantage with clarity. And I just wanna ask you the question,

like, what do we do when it's not clear? When God's plan for us doesn't totally seem clear, when all the pieces haven't moved right into place, what do we do when it's not clear? Pastor Sean gave us an excellent message last week. If you didn't see it, I wanna really encourage you to go back and check it out that talks about the ways that God works within his will. But today, I wanna ask, even knowing that about God, what do we do when it's not clear? Now, here is my guess. If you are like me, if there is any chance that there's an opportunity for me to gain clarity, you might be a Christian. You might have attended here since the theater days. You might be brand new, walked in. This is your first time here. But I'm gonna guess, if there's any advantage, right? If there's any leaning, if there's any way we can get a little bit of clarity of what God's will might be for our life, I think we're probably willing to lean in. And so I wanna challenge us today. Like, will we lean in? Will we listen? Will we learn together? Will we dive into God's word if there is an opportunity to gain clarity for on what we do when it's not clear? Will we take, we'll pray for us

and we'll dive into the content. God, grateful for you, grateful that you are a God who desires not only what is good for us, you desire for us to not worry, you desire to diminish anxiety when we think about the future. God, we know your desires, but you, God, we also know you actually desire to give us clarity. And yet you desire for us to go to you to get that clarity. God, might we do that this morning? Might this content shape us as we have discussion this Sunday, we pray, amen. Amen, I realize that for me, my issue with clarity is not often that I can't see the first step in front of me, it's that I can't see the final step, right? Like I might know what to do today, but what about tomorrow or the next day? I might know how to manage my finances here, but what if this happens? I might know what school to go to, but what if I choose to change? I might know the next group to sign up for, but what if I don't know anyone in that group? Like we do a lot of what ifs. And the hesitancy about knowing all of the steps can sometimes prevent us from taking any steps at all. But we talk about next steps a lot around here, and that's really intentional because when it's not clear,

when God's will doesn't really seem clear for our life, I wanna challenge us that it's not about the final step, it's about the next step. It's not about the final step, it's about the next step. And I wonder how many of us have resisted a next step that God might have put in front of us because we can't see the final step. Now, how will we kind of discern this? I wanna give us a very practical tool. And you see some furniture up here. We'll get to this in a little bit, but I realize like when I open a box of furniture, nowadays they give you like one tool that looks like no other tool you've ever bought. Like some of the furniture makers were like, let's make something that no one can buy and store and find and like we'll make sure that's the only tool. And we all know this. You assemble the furniture, you lose the tool, three bolts come loose later and you hide those quickly in a drawer so no one asks them about you because you don't have the tool anymore. But it's really actually the simplest thing. You only need one tool to assemble the entire furniture. And I wonder for us, sometimes we look at all these different things, all these different, we'll read the stars, we'll hear about psychics online, we'll go to every friend we can possibly find,

we'll post on social media, we'll do polls. When in actuality, God's like, hey, I'm just giving you some simplicity. How do we know God's, well, I wanna give us a tool that's actually on the back of your card. I'm gonna tell you what's on this card. Now, don't leave to get angry with me if I said, now you can go, you have the card. But we're gonna talk through it today. Hopefully you can hang on to this. That gives us a tool. How do we know God's will when it doesn't seem clear? Now we're gonna use an acronym, will, that again, there's some content on the back of our card. But I wanna dive into the first letter we have because when God's will is not clear, one of the things, there are four kind of angles we can look at this. And I wanna be really clear. It's not that we're highlighting one over another, but I think when these four things work together, it can help give us clarity. So the first we wanna look at is the word of God. The word of God often, when we look at something, when we look at a decision, I don't know about you, You know we're Christians, so the right answer is I go to my Bible first, all of us, right? Everyone's hands up. But hypothetically, let's just imagine we weren't in this space.

Hypothetically, maybe we're moving too fast, maybe we're going too quick, maybe we haven't built in quick rhythms. Hypothetically, maybe sometimes we can forget that God actually gives us his word to go to. And I wonder, again, if we can be real, it's how many of us forget that man, I get lost in what I can find online or man, I want to ask the guys that I work with, we forget, man, did I go to God's word with my question? And so I want to pull up a passage that's actually in the book of James chapter one, verse five. I'm going to look at a couple different scriptures today because what I want to highlight to you is God helps make his will clear throughout scripture, throughout history, throughout creation, not just in one spot, he gives us these tools all along the way to remind us that he wants to meet with us and give us clarity. James chapter one, verse five says this, if any of you lacks wisdom, I love this, if any of you lacks wisdom, you mean like just the adults? Nope, any of you lack wisdom. Just the really spiritual people? Nope, any of you lacks wisdom. Just the people who've been coming here for a while? Any of you lacks wisdom? You should ask God. If any of you lack, you should ask God

who gives generously to all without finding fault. He doesn't just give a little bit, he gives generous. We have a generous God who gives generously without finding fault and it will be given to you. Man, God's word itself reminds us that we can go to God and ask for wisdom when it is not clear. Now, again, I'm someone who actually, I'm like, I love to walk through Ikea. Does anybody have any brave souls who like to do that? I appreciate the three of you. We can go to, that's like, I'll start a group maybe on the registry next time. Ikea walkers, I don't know. Here's why I love it. Because my house, I have five kids, my house is filled with all sorts of furniture that at one point was like perfectly pristine and now reflects a family of seven living in the house. And I walk through Ikea and everything's assembled perfectly. I've never assembled a piece of Ikea furniture without missing at least one piece. I don't know if that's a world record, that's just how I roll. But I walk through and everything's perfect. I buy stuff and I get it home and it comes in a box that furniture should not fit in, right? We're immediately like, okay, this is not good. And it comes to all these pieces.

And now, show of hands, anyone in here like, yeah, I mean, instructions are optional, people, right? Like, yeah, instructions are like just suggestions. For me, it's like this weird game I play with myself where I say, I'm smarter than the instructions. I've never won that game. Often what happens is I get 2 3rds of the way through and I pause, there's usually loud noises that I yell and all sorts of things that I promise I could yell in church too, I'm just saying. And my wife goes, what happened? I go, I gotta disassemble all those steps because I missed one step that was earlier. Again, I know, just confession, I'm the only one this has ever happened to. There are currently wives nudging their husbands because this happened this weekend on Furniture Assembly. How often do we forget to like look at the instructions that we were given before we start? Well, like God gives us his word written throughout generations, lived out by the church. And it is so easy for me, I don't know about you, it is so easy for me to actually not go to his word. Maybe I'm busy, maybe other things just seem compelling and flashy, honestly, maybe I'm nervous that his word is gonna tell me something different than what I wanna do. And I wonder for us, if we were a people defined by a people that hey, when it's not clear, when we're not clear on God's will,

that we would look at the words on the page. And then very simply, we would just pick up the next piece and take the next step. I don't want us to get concerned with the idea that man, this is just a pile of materials right now, or this doesn't look like what I saw in the store, this isn't really what I want. Because here's my challenge to you. Very often, God calls you to your next step, which is not your final step. Very often, God says, here's the next step I have for you. And you're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, but I don't wanna go that route. I don't wanna do that thing. I don't wanna live in that hard space. I don't wanna have this hard conversation. And God says, man, when it's unclear, what if we just looked at the words on the page to a God who says, ask for wisdom. Anyone, ask for wisdom, and God will give it to you generously. Then pick up the next piece and take the next step. Second letter is I. So we start with the word of God, then we go to the influence of others. And I love this passage we read out of Proverbs. It says this in Proverbs 11, verse 14. For lack of guidance, a nation falls, but victory is won through many advisors. You know, I love this because it shows the stakes

of going it on your own. It shows the weight of deciding like I know best, I don't want any other influences. It shows the significance of the importance that wise advisors have in the lives of those who choose to follow Jesus. And I just wonder like, how many of us, like we probably have advisors, but I love this, like how many of us have wise advisors? Here's what I see often. It just happens in my life, right? When something's unclear, when I'm facing a decision, I know there's two groups of people I can call. There's the group of people who will tell me exactly what I want to hear and I'll feel really good about it. Then there's a group of people who I know will tell me the truth. And I might not feel good about it, but I know I can trust it. You know, God gives us spaces like this and people like those in your row to give us one another, to give us the presence of one another so that we can learn and be influenced. We have a groups registry that opens today. Here's something that I've learned about our groups in the summer. Sometimes groups in the summer can be a little bit lower than groups during kind of the school year. And that was just interesting to me

because I go, man, we have this time to explore. We have some incredible groups. If you've not actually done a rooted group, I really want to encourage you. Like you could find no better way to spend a group in your summer than diving into rooted and learning about the worship rhythms we have at our church. But man, I don't know about you, I would never say no to more wise advisors in my life. I've never met a person who says, I've got all the wisdom I need, thank you. Too many wise people, I don't want any more wise people. I'm good. And we structure this so that even if you're disconnected, even if you're new, or you've been around here for a while, but you're looking to get connected, that we can build communities of people who can build into one another because God speaks in groups of people where two or more are gathered. We read that in scripture. Remember, go back to the word of God piece. And I wonder what that might look like for you. You might have walked in here going, we got really busy plans. How busy are you that you maybe don't want more wisdom in your life from the influence of others? I just have this decision I face, once I get everything lined up,

then I'll find some other people. How busy are you that you don't want support or community from one another? What if this summer we saw more people get plugged into community and do a group than any other season we've ever had? Because here's the thing, it's not just for you. It's for the influence you can lend to other people as well. It's for the way that you can lean into others as well. We have an incredible young adults community that's started to take shape as well. If you're a young adult in this space and you are not connected, and I actually appreciate, I'm gonna highlight, the young adults clapped. So now they're not gonna clap. We're gonna clap for them, because they're incredible. Um. Man, if you're a young adult in our church or you're watching online, you need to connect it. It can be so isolating, that transitionary phase. I really want to challenge you, come get connected. Because we need more wisdom of people in our life. And the truth is, when I face projects like this, I am, I like to say I'm handy. I'm handy, I can solve projects. Looked at my wife the other day. I go, hey, I repaired our dishwasher. And she knows that means I tried to repair our dishwasher.

But I didn't say tried. When I say I'm handy, I mean I'm cheap. And I'm aware, thank you, yes, yes, God is good. I'm aware that sometimes I get myself into some situations, and you know this, right? You're staring at the project. Like, all right, it's time to make a call. And then you call the people who know what they're doing. Now, you could ask, why don't you call them to begin with? I don't know, I'm falling, but Jesus is good. And his blood covers my sins, it's fine. But we know that, right? Sometimes you need the influence of others. And the truth is, here's my question for you. How many of us are willing to listen to those we trust, pick up the next piece, and take the next step? You know, I'm a drummer, and so my drums are in my basement, and I have to put on sound-canceling headphones so that I don't ruin my hearing as I put on my drums. And sometimes, if I'm sitting amongst people I trust, I'm way more interested in sharing with them what I wanna say versus listening to what God might be saying through them. It's like I'm putting those headphones on every time somebody's talking. I wonder for some of us if we're just willing to lean into these groups, to people we trust, and listen for what God might be doing through them. Are we willing to listen to those we trust,

pick up the next piece, and take the next step? We move to the first L, life circumstances. Because sometimes God works through ways that people go, that seems like coincidence, or wow, that showed up. And we're like, yeah, actually, God works in incredible ways and weaves things together that we can't even see ahead of us. There's this passage out of 1 Corinthians, I wanna bring it up here. The Apostle Paul was writing to the church in Corinth, and we're gonna read it here in chapter 16, verse 8 and 9. I've never paused on this verse before this message, it's really weird. It's kind of like this highlighted to me. Says this, but I will stay in Ephesus. What you need to know is Paul loved traveling around the ancient Mediterranean, planting churches, telling people about Jesus. He loved it. And so when we see this, but it means he wanted to do something else. You read earlier, he wanted to do something else. And he says, but I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, because a great door of effective work has opened to me. And there are many who oppose me. Now I love this, because you read Paul, go like, man, I see that God opened this effective door of work. And it's like the many that opposed me,

many of us would see opposition of those who don't follow Jesus as a closed door. But Paul doesn't. Paul's like, man, I've seen God work. I know what God calls me to do. It's like, oh yeah, by the way, there are many who oppose me. I wonder what it looks like for us to live our life at a pace where we can recognize an open door and step into it. I wonder what it looks like for many of us, even when there's obstacles, even when there's challenges, even when I think about people who serve with us at our student ministry, our small group leaders are the greatest volunteers we have at our church. And if you volunteer elsewhere, you're so awesome. I get to be biased because I'm a student pastor, so please don't judge me. But our small group leaders are absolutely incredible. We got Dan here, right in the middle. He didn't know I was gonna say this. But man, I see, like when you're a young adult, you have so many opportunities, so many options, so many reasons to not show up and like, high school students aren't always the easiest. We love them, but they're not always the easiest. I know that's shocking to many of you to hear. We got a leader like Dan who shows up every week faithfully to build into the lives of the next generation because a door is open and he stepped into it regardless of the obstacles.

And that is the sort of people we have serving all around our church because they live at a pace that will not prevent us from seeing when God is moving around us. When... When I had my first kid, Patrick is his name, we got a video monitor. And so some of you guys know like love-hate relationship with video monitors if you had a kid because you can see what's happening in their room and then at the same time you get no sleep because you're always watching what's happening in their room. So I got a new parent and so I'm like very vigilant on this. I remember he would not sleep at all. I was so exhausted. And he just learned to kind of sit up, bless you. He just kind of learned, he just learned to sit up and he was sitting in his crib. And I remember the monitor goes off and he's like, he's talking as loud as like 5 a.m. I'm like, oh, but I can see him, he's sitting there. And the next moment I roll over and he has stood on top of his crib. Like he's like, I learned I can't walk, but I can fly. And I have this moment of like, this is it. Like I, without thinking, dart out of bed, sprint down the hallway full speed, go to grab the handle. And the loudest crash you hear in my house was me full speed hitting my door and falling backwards.

Now, good news is he heard the noise and fell back to his crib. So still effective parenting, still got the job done, all right? That's what I'm saying. I was in physical pain. The rest of the family thought it was hilarious. So you provide joy where you can. But I just, I forgot to like turn the handle to see if the door was open. I wonder how many of us move at a pace. We're in a culture where we glorify running at a pace where we're exhausted. We move at a pace where we can't discern when God has closed a door or opened a door because we're still so focused on doing the next thing and the next thing and the next thing and the next thing. You know, one of the things I love about gathering here weekly, it builds in a rhythm for us. Like, hey, no matter what else is going on, we gather together, we worship together, we look at one another, we hang out with one another, we share in fellowship. It gives us a rhythm in our life to pause. I would guarantee you, even if you greeted people in the lobby, like how are things? You probably heard, been busy. Yeah, busy, got a lot of plans.

Oh, kids are busy, graduation season, busy. Yeah, we're busy, right? Like that is the default. I'm busy has taken place if everything's fine. And it's so interesting. Nowhere in scripture does God say, man, God blessed just a really busy lifestyle. It's interesting, God talks about presence and patience. He talks about an easy burden and a lightweight. He talks about pauses and rests and he opens doors and closes doors for those who are willing to pause and see it. You ever dumped out a bunch of furniture to start assembling and you can't find the next piece? I don't know about you, because I open the box, just like dump the whole thing out, and then I look around, like I can't find that one screw. Well, you would have if you slowed down and organized the pieces and took the time, like there's some furniture building race. I don't know who you're racing against. Last time I checked, we weren't racing against one another. God's created us all with a plan and a purpose. We're not in competition to see who can do the most and the fastest. Well, our job is to do it as faithfully as we can, discern His plan, what's next for us, and we can help one another do that by living a life where we're able to recognize where the doors are opened and where the doors are closed.

And as we look at God's word, as we listen to one another, as we recognize those doors, we walk through the door. We pick up the next piece, might not be the final door, but we pick up the next piece and take the next step. Now, the last, the last is not the least important. Like I said, I kind of give four angles to this framework, this will framework. I was gonna make a will, willow joke because I have five kids and dad jokes are appropriate for me, but I didn't because that's the round of applause it would get, but that's what I expected. Great. The last L is something that far too often, if I'm honest with you, I can overlook and breeze past. It's the leading of the Holy Spirit. And what we can forget, if you know the story, if you know the story of Christianity, if you know the story of Jesus, Jesus himself looked at the people who hung out with him the most and said, guess what? When I leave, you're gonna get somebody who's even better to have than me. It's gonna be better for you. Jesus, who was hanging out with his disciples on earth, looked and said, hey, I've got great news for you. If you choose to follow me, like you're gonna have an advocate, you're gonna have wisdom on my behalf. It's gonna be even better.

Man, I don't know about you, so often I can forget the better. God, why don't you speak to me? And forget that I sometimes just need to allow him to lead. There's a passage in the book of Exodus, a little bit of story about this passage. Moses and the Israelites, kind of this ancient leader, this ancient group of people were leaving Egypt. They'd been enslaved, so they'd been freed. So they're walking through the desert. They're super pumped, they're celebrating. We're like, no longer enslaved. We're gonna leave here. They got to take all these riches with them. And they get to the Red Sea. The Red Sea is a giant wall of water blocking them from escaping the Egyptians. All of a sudden, the Egyptians get really furious, start chasing them. Like, hey, we're gonna chase you down. All of a sudden, the people looking around going, we must have misunderstood. We walked through one door and that was a mistake. How many of us have taken one step when it's not clear, but then all of a sudden we face some obstacles. We're like, oh, maybe I made the wrong step. I love this story. Because you see a group of people who love that God's doing work in their life, and all of a sudden they face another obstacle.

They're like, well, one obstacle too many, we're out. And we read this actually in Exodus chapter 14, verse 13. So Moses said to the people, hey, don't be afraid. Stand still, see the salvation of the Lord, which he will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. The Lord will fight for you and you shall hold your peace. And then get this. And then the Lord said to Moses, why do you cry to me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward. Now, what I love that passage is because he tells the children of Israel to go forward before he has split the sea. He's like, hey, tell them to walk forward. And Moses is probably like, dude, there's a sea here. Like, this is not gonna work for us. But what I love is God calls us to the next step before we can see the step after that. It's not our job to see the step after that. It's our job to be faithful to where he's leading. Man, I wonder how many of us just need to listen to God's voice and take the next step. You know, there's gonna be a prayer team up front afterwards with us, or you can stop by the next steps area in the lobby. And so many of us move from thing to thing to thing that we just don't pause and listen to where God's fear might be leading. I would love to invite you to just pray

with someone about that. Maybe for you, like for the very first time, you wanna lean into the work that God might be doing in your life, and I wanna challenge you to just come forward. Again, I love our seniors. They're so incredible, and they lead the way in this. What I need to tell you is when we do this at camps, we go, hey, I wanna challenge you to go pray with your leader. I literally see the entire congregation move. Like, no one's there. I spend a little time in adult spaces sometimes. I'm like, hey, I wanna challenge you. Come down front if you need prayer. And there's like, you know, 10 people. I'm like, really? Like, only 10 of us needed prayer. The rest of us were solid, we're good. Your lunch reservations can wait for a moment. I would argue you'll feel much more at peace when you're enjoying your lunch if you've prayed for God's leadership. And so if I could just challenge you, if you're just like, I've felt, man, every time Pastor Dwayne's up here challenging me to come get prayer, I've held back. I wanna challenge you, today's the day. What does it look like to listen to God's voice and take the next step?

You know, as we look at this framework, first we have the word of God, are we going to God's word, are we bringing it to God, are we reading, are we studying his word? There's actually a Bible study plan, even in our app. You can go to Daily Habits, download the Bible study plan to follow along. You know, when things aren't clear, are we going to God's word? Are we in communities of people that will influence our lives, that we trust, mentors, pastors, people who are more spiritually mature? Are we willing to slow down enough that we can recognize the life circumstances? Are we allowing ourselves to be led by his Holy Spirit? Are we a congregation who does not fear when it's not clear, but understand that when it's not clear, it's an opportunity for God to move and work in our lives? What if the best work that God was going to do in our church was in the very moments that we felt unclear? Because it's when we feel unclear that God gets to show up in ways we never expected. What if you're stalling, you're fear, you're uncertainty about the decision you're facing actually will be a massive spiritual moment in your life? Because the first time we're willing

to invite God into it in new ways. What if we're willing to pick up the next piece and take the next step? Because honestly, in the next step, even when we feel uncertain, even when we're not sure how everything will play out, in the next step is often where you find your next step. And my prayer is we are a congregation that will move forward taking step after step even when things aren't clear to trust that God's plan for our life is way greater, way larger, way better than any plan we could have on our own and we will do it together faithfully believing that he is a God who wants what's next for us. Let me pray for us. God, we are grateful for you. We're grateful that you are a God that leads us, that guides us. You're a God who wants to generously give us clarity. You are a God who generously wants to give us wisdom. You are a God who has proven in the past that you will lead us and guide us. And God, I pray that you meet us in our fear and anxiety around the things that we struggle with. I pray that you meet us and I pray that we're reminded that you are not a God of shame or guilt. You are a God of glory and of faithfulness

and you are a God who wants to guide us. God, I pray that this morning we feel free from anxiety and fear of the next decisions and when it's not clear, God, that we look to you and take the next step. In Jesus' name we pray, amen, amen.