What To Do When God Doesn't Answer Our Prayers | Robby Gallaty | 1 Samuel 28

Good morning, welcome to Long Hollow. If you're here for the first time, if you're joining us at our Gallatin campus or you're tuning in and worshiping online in a living room or driving in a car or incarcerated, we welcome you to Long Hollow. Today we're gonna talk about, I think a question all of us have asked before. What do you do when it seems like God doesn't answer your prayers? You ever been there before? What do you do when it seems like God doesn't answer our prayers? The way it works is this. You pray a prayer, you say the right words, you say it in the right tone, you say it in the right tempo, and nothing seems to come back. It's as if your prayers have never made it out of your room. Anybody ever been there before? You wait for a sign, you look for a nudge, you're trying to hear for a whisper, you're like, God, anything, but nothing comes back. And it almost feels like heaven is shut up to you. Heaven is quiet. Now, every believer, if you've been a Christian for any length of time, I think has experienced this. I mean, you pray for your marriage to turn around, you fast and seek God, but it's still falling apart. You pray for a terminal illness, a health crisis,

and it comes back. You pray for a wayward son or a daughter to come home, but they never do. And you have to wonder, if you're honest, you ask the question, God, are you even listening to me? Are you even there in my life? King Saul, today, we're gonna see, is asking the exact same question. He's actually in the same situation. The Philistines in the text have lined up across the valley, and so Saul is pressed to inquire of the Lord. And he goes to God, and God says nothing. No dream, no word, no prophet, no response. And so he has a decision to make. What does he do? Do I sit and wait on the Lord, or do I seek another avenue? Do I go after counterfeit voices in the world, or do I sit and wait on God? Let's see what happens, 1 Samuel chapter 28. The question we're gonna ask ourselves is this. What do we do when God doesn't answer? Do we seek another voice, or do we deal with the sin that silenced the first one? 1 Samuel 28, we'll start in verse three. I have to warn you, this is probably the weirdest verse, chapter in all of Samuel, maybe in the Old Testament. When was the last time you heard a sermon on the witch of Endor?

Went from Star Wars last week to Harry Potter this week. But anyway, I'm playing, I'm playing, don't email me. Okay. Actually, we're back at Star Wars with Endor. But anyway, okay, here we go, verse three. By the time, everybody there say word. By the time Samuel had died, all of Israel had mourned for him and buried him in Ramah, his city. And Saul decided to remove the mediums and the spiritists from the land. Now, this is a bad man, evil man, doing a good thing. You would think, wow, this is great, but it turns bad quickly. The Philistines then gathered and camped at Shunem. So Saul decides to gather all of Israel, and they camped at Gilboa. When Saul saw the Philistine camp, he was afraid, and his heart started to pound. I wanna show you what we do when God seemingly is silent. Number one is this. Silence, write this down if you're taking notes. Silence from God tempts us to chase after a counterfeit voice or counterfeit voices in life. Silence from God, we're tempted to go after other avenues. So Samuel dies, he's the prophet, just for background. And Samuel's the one who anointed King Saul, and now he said, but listen, because you messed up, David's gonna be the man, take your place. And, but Saul's still king. And after Samuel dies, Saul gets convicted probably

and says, I gotta clean this place up. And that's what he does. He cleans the entire land or cleanses the land from two things, mediums and spiritists. Now, the ESV, I think, says necromancers. Is that what your ESV says? Okay, that's just talking to dead people. Okay, that's literally what it means. So let me explain the first one. A medium is just like it sounds. The medium is the person who is standing in the middle of the natural world we live in and the spiritual supernatural world. Okay, that's the first one. The necromancer or the spiritist are people who talk to dead people, okay, literally. Now, he knows that God does not allow this, so he does a good thing, but that doesn't last long. And so Saul realizes the Philistines have come, and so he talks to the Lord. He's like, God, I really need your help here. And what does it say? Heaven is silent. Now, before we get into why God. doesn't respond, I want you to see why he does respond to God. It's because the text says he was fearful. Did you catch that? His heart was pounding with anxiety and fear. Do you know the number one weapon?

When Satan reaches for the number one weapon closest to him to go after you as a Christian, you know what his number one weapon is in our life? Write this down. Fear. That's it. Fear. Fear of failure. Fear of bankruptcy. You're not good enough, they're gonna laugh at you. Fear of being accepted. Fear of breakups. Fear of the future. Fear of other people's opinions. Fear of what people, can go on and on. Here's how I like to say it. The presence of fear in your life shows the absence of faith in God. Write that down. The presence of fear in our life shows the absence of faith in God. Candy says it better than me, so I'm gonna borrow her line. I think this is a good line. She always says, what you fear the most is where you trust God the least. I like that. What you fear the most in life, and everybody has a great fear in life,

is where you trust God the least. So let's go back to the text, and let's look at verse six. Let's pick up the account. So Saul inquired of the Lord, but the Lord did not answer him in dreams or by the Urim. I wanted to explain all this. Urim's just an ancient gambling practice, which is bonkers. Or by the prophets. Saul then said to the servants, find me a woman who is a medium so I can go and consult her. This guy's an interesting character here. I will say that he just banished all the mediums from the land, but now he's gonna secretly go talk to this lady after he does not want to wait on the Lord, and that's the key. He will not wait on God. He's gonna take matters in his own hands. Verse eight, Saul disguised himself in a costume by putting on different clothes and set out with two of his men. They came to a woman at night. Why at night? Not a trick question. He didn't want to be seen. He's incognito.

He's in disguise. They came to the woman at night, and Saul said, consult a spirit for me. Why don't you bring up for me the one I tell you? But the woman said to him what? Now she knows better than him. You surely know what Saul has done, right? How he has cut off the mediums and the spiritists from the land. What, what, are you trying to set a trap for me to get me killed? Then Saul swore to her as surely as the Lord lives, no punishment will come to you from this. Now everything about this, and there's so many things about it, is wrong, and Saul knows it. I'll give you two of them. The first one is this. The woman, the witch, is correcting the king's bad behavior. Did you catch this? She's like, I don't know who you are. Is this a trick, like really? Do you know what Saul just said? And so she's like, didn't the king, which is him, just say, don't contact a medium, and here you are contacting a medium. But the second one is pretty interesting. You would think this woman that has supernatural ability could see a man in a costume.

I got, like that, like, I'm out. I'm like, this isn't even real. What are you talking about? Like she'd say, all right, Saul, take off the wig, bro. I see it, the gig's up. But she doesn't say that. Which shows us, and I want you to get this. Most of the people in this realm are charlatans. You need to hear this. Most fortune tellers, most palm readers, most psychic hotlines, 1-800, you know, fortune here. Most of these people are fakes. These charlatans have built a business preying on desperate people who are looking for answers. Now, coming close, and I want you to hear this. It's one thing for someone who doesn't know Christ to pay for a tarot reading. It's another thing for a Christian who's born again to do it. It's one thing for an unbeliever to wake up every day, when we used to have papers, and find your Virgo horoscope, or Pisces. It's one thing for you to do that as an unbeliever. It's another thing for a Christian to seek spiritual New Age practices. Now, why do I say this? Because if you study your Bible, the entire Old Testament is a case study for God commanding his people, never, listen, never get involved in divination,

or sorcery, or witchcraft, or New Age practices, or consulting dead people, even if you are desperate. Now, here's how it works. There is a spiritual world that's real, and I believe this stuff is real. I was gonna tell you a story about a time I went to a clairvoyant, literally, and I. thought she saw two dead people in my life, but I don't have time, so don't worry about it. You just trust me. But the point is, this stuff's real. I don't know if she was real, but the supernatural world is as real or more real than the world we see. You have to understand that, okay? So it's real, but here's how it works. Unless that spirit world forces itself into our life, we are to stay out of it, why? We have no business seeking it. Here's why. The moment you engage in an act of demonic activity, you open yourself up to demonic oppression. That's what you do. Demonic spirits are often behind this spiritualistic phenomena, which is masquerading as voices of dead people. So normally when something like this happens, you have two options. When a medium starts to channel or claims to channel conversations from the past,

it's either demonic deception or the trickery of the person or both. Regardless, we shouldn't engage in it. Now I'll give you an example. In Acts 16, the apostle Paul and Silas are making their way through a town called Philippi. You remember this? And the only person that recognizes Paul and Silas as being men of God is a woman who is being held hostage by men making money off her because she's demon-possessed and could tell the future. And she's legit because when they walk down the street, nobody recognizes Paul and Silas, but the demon-possessed girl does. She's like, hey, I know that guy. That's Robbie and Candy. I know who they, what in the world? So what does Paul do when this woman identifies him as being a follower of God? He casts the demon out. Don't miss this. He doesn't consult with the spirit. He confronts the spirit in Jesus' name. And why is that important? Saul, instead of rebuking the darkness, which he knew better, embraces it. He goes into it. He tries to find a solution to his problem, but here is Saul's biggest problem. I want you to get this.

If you haven't figured it out up to this point, Saul's biggest problem wasn't that he went to the wrong place. Saul's biggest problem wasn't that he talked to the wrong person. Saul's biggest problem is that he was seeking the wrong thing. Here's what I mean. Saul knew it was important to clean up the land. He forgot to clean up his heart. That's the problem, which leads us to the second insight in this text when God is silent in our life, which is God's silence, don't miss this, invites us to repent of unconfessed sin. God's silence is speaking in our life, and most of the time, it's calling us, inviting us, wooing us to repent of unconfessed sin. Let's go back to verse 11, and let's pick up the story. I have to warn you, this is where the wheels fall off, in a good way, but I'll be honest. It's one of the few sermons, Todd, we're about halfway through, about three, four hours in. I'm like, is there another passage I could, I mean, this is honestly, is there another passage? But here we are, okay, here we go. No, no, there's a lot here, but it's really overwhelming. Verse 11, who is this that you want me to bring up for you, she said. Would you bring up Samuel for me, he answered.

When the woman saw Samuel, she screamed, and then she asked Saul, why did you deceive me? You were Saul. Now, here's one of the reasons why I think she's fake. She's as surprised Samuel comes back as Saul is. She's like, oh, wow, I wasn't expecting that. Right, okay, so there you go. When the woman saw Samuel, she screamed, but the king said to her, don't be afraid. What do you see? Well, I see a spirit form coming up out of the earth, and that's an interesting insight here. He's coming up out of the earth, which is a place called Sheol. Again, I don't have time to explain this. Hades, which was the underworld where dead people went to before Christ. If you wanna know a commentary on this, read Lazarus and the rich man across the chasm. Remember this? The rich man's like, hey, go tell my brothers that this is bad down here. Give me some water, and Lazarus. So there's a chasm, because people think, well, did Saul go to heaven? No, I don't think so. I don't know where he went, but I guarantee he didn't go. This is a bad man who's evil and disobedient and takes his own, anyway. I don't think he goes there.

So he's gonna go to, that's all Saul's saying is, you're gonna be with me means you're gonna be in, you're gonna die, is what he's saying. The king said to her, don't be afraid. What do you see? I see a spirit form. Then she said, what, he said, what does he look like? An old man is coming up from below. He's wearing a robe. Then Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he knelt low with his face to the ground and paid homage. Why have you disturbed me, Samuel said, by bringing me up? I'm in serious trouble, Saul said. The Philistines are finding. against me and God has turned away from me. That's key. He doesn't answer me anymore, either through the prophets or in dreams, so I've called on you to tell me what I should do. That's an insight there. Samuel answered him. Since the Lord has turned away from you and has become your enemy, why are you asking me? Why are you seeking after me? What he's insinuating is, you need to be talking to the Lord. The Lord has done exactly what he said through me. The Lord has torn the kingship out of your hand and given it to your neighbor, David.

You did not obey the Lord and did not carry out his burning anger against Amalek. Therefore, the Lord has done this to you today. The Lord, now this is the sobering part. The Lord will also hand Israel over to the Philistines along with you. Tomorrow, you and your sons will be with me. Not in heaven, in dead. You're gonna be dead. And the Lord will hand Israel's army over to the Philistines. Now, here's what I want you to do. I know we did a lot of sidebars and a lot of, I don't hunt, but I love chasing rabbits, so. We're gonna lock back in, okay? Because there's a lot here. There's a lot of guys trying to get me to hunt, but I'm not hunting yet. But anyway, I like to chase rabbits, biblical rabbits. But watch this. Let's lock back in for a moment. I don't want you to get hung up on the mechanics of mediums or the mechanism of spiritus in the text. The text, that's not the point of this text. The text doesn't tell us how it happened, what she said, the word she used. It doesn't tell us any of that because that's not the point of the text. At the end of the day, here's the point.

I think God says, this knucklehead won't learn. Samuel, I need you to get up and go talk to this dude. Like, literally, God just intervenes and she's blown away like, wow, I'm surprised it happens. And the answer Saul is asking for is not what he receives. See, here's the problem with Saul. At the end of the day, instead of seeking a word from God, he wants to hear from everybody but him. In the real reality, below the surface, Saul probably wouldn't tell you this, but this is what we know about Saul. Saul is a man bent on pleasing people. That's his problem. And I think we all struggle from that as well. I know that's my problem as well. Like, you want people to be happy. You want the approval of other people. And I think the reason Saul messed up in the first place is this case in point. Go back to 1 Samuel chapter 15 and I wanna show you what happens in verse 24 after he is just made king and he's given a mission and he messes up and then he realizes and says to Samuel, Saul's like, this is why I messed up the mission. He said, I have sinned, if you're there, say a word. I have sinned, Saul said, and transgressed the Lord's command and your words. Why? Say it with me. Because I was, not everybody at once,

I was afraid of the people and I obeyed who? Them. Now, I know that never happens to you, but I've heard of people that, it happens to all of us, right? How many times do we do things not to please God, we do it, what? So people like us, so people approve us. You know, sadly, the same thing happens in church. I see people in our church who are very active in our church, they volunteer all the time, but at the core of it, they're still doing it not for God, they're doing it for themselves, right? They want people to notice them. There are literally people, did you notice that? There are literally people I've seen that will go around just so I see them. I mean, it's crazy, and I don't have anybody in mind, but I'm just thinking, like you'll position yourself in a chair just so I'll walk past you, or you'll be in the lobby just so one of the staff members or the pastoral staff can see you're here, or you have to come up every week so that, and I get it, you wanna see, and I love to see you, but the reality is, why are you doing that? Are you doing that so the staff notices you? Even worse, they'll text me, are you preaching today? You're not preaching today, or Robbie, and they only come for a certain thing,

and here's the thing, I've been in ministry long enough to know those people don't last. Here's what we've learned, and the pastoral staff, we talk about it. The people sometimes who are the first in line are the first to leave. They come and go, not for God, they come and go for themselves. They're here for the approval of other people, so I'll ask you this question. Would you come to church and worship God today if no one in this room saw you? Would you come and sing to God if no one acknowledged you? Would you go serve on mission if no one congratulated you? Would you give to? the Lord if no one affirms you. Here's what I've learned. Some of the most active people in church can become the most deceived about their own spiritual state, why? Because their busyness gets in the way of their spiritual condition. Write this line down. You can be the busiest person in the building and at the same time the loneliest person before God. You can be the busiest person in this building. You could be here all the time. You're the first one to hear, the last one to leave. But you can be far from the Lord. And we all know people like this

and probably that's maybe why you came to church. I remember when I came to the Lord, it was after my life falling apart. God uses suffering and silence and pain. There's nothing wrong with that. But think about this. Some of you came to church today because you're in a crisis. Like your life is falling apart, things are hard. And you came today because in a real sense, you're like, man, I need God to bail me out. I need God to help me. There's nothing wrong with that of coming to the Lord in desperation. The question is, what will you stay for? Because sadly, here's the reality. As things begin to settle down after a crisis, those people tend to fall away quickly. And we know people like this, right? We know people like this. We know people like this. We know people like this. And we know people like this, right? We know people who are active and here, and then sometimes they fall away. And I think the problem is in our minds, we have reduced God to this utilitarian genie who's only there to get us out of a jam. Amen, you better help me, God, I'm here. Look at me, I'm reading my Bible every day.

And then they return to their old life after a while instead of continuing to walk in repentance to God. Write this down. A crisis will bring you to church, but only Christ will keep you here. Not me. Because I'm gonna make you mad. I'm making you mad now. You're like, I ain't coming back this way. This guy's a jerk. I'm gonna make you mad. The worship team's gonna sing a song you don't like. Somebody's gonna say something in the lobby. Somebody's gonna preach something in a life group. You're gonna get mad. If you're here for people, you're gonna come and go. But if you're here for Christ to honor God, you'll stay. And that's the problem with Saul. Saul was always trying to seek an answer and put the blame on everyone else. Saul wants an answer without repentance. Sammy, I don't know why God don't answer me. Repent! No, you don't understand. It's those Philistines. Repent! That's what he's saying. God tore the kingdom from Saul and gave it to David. Not because David was perfect. Watch this.

It's because David sought repentance. David's not perfect, just like us. But David knew when he messed up, he knew where to go back home again when he messed up. As a believer, and let me just say, if you're a new believer, lock in for a minute. As a believer, the moment you and I accepted Christ, the moment we accept Christ, the Bible says we are sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. I don't believe, I've written on this in two books, firmly planted, I have two chapters on this, so much I believe in this. You cannot lose your salvation. Not if saved, always saved. It's once saved, always saved. Why? Because if you don't do anything good, follow me, if you're raised differently, if you can't do anything good on the front end to be saved or born again, how can you do something bad on the back end to lose it? It's just reverse works. Reverse works. It's like, no, you can't do it on the front, but you can do something. Okay, but here's the thing. Here's the good news on that. If you're truly born again, you are filled with the Spirit. Ephesians 1 said, you are sealed with the promised Holy Spirit

who is the guarantee of our inheritance with Christ. So that means once you're sealed, nobody can take your salvation from you. Don't miss this, though. However, as a Christian, you can live out of fellowship with God through unconfessed sin. And I'm tapping into, I'm putting my finger on the pulse of somebody right now because you're like, man, I mean, let me say it another way. You may not go to hell at the end of your life, but you may feel like you're living in it right now because of unconfessed sin. And instead of looking within, what does Saul do? Saul wants to blame everybody on the outside, right? It's always this person, and that reminds me of my family member years ago. Right after I came out of drugs and alcohol, I had a family member younger than me who, unfortunately, I was a bad role model for him. When I got out of the world, he wanted to follow suit, so he kind of watched me at the clubs and this, and so he kind of followed suit, and naturally, you know where that road leads. He got in trouble and relapsed and got put in prison or jail for a while. And he decides one day, he calls me on the phone, and he says, hey, I think I figured out the issue.

There are some really bad problem people in New Orleans. That's the problem, these problem people. So I'm gonna move. He said, so he literally picked up, and he moved as far as he could away to Los Angeles, California. That's a good place to go, right? Some of you are like, what? We left there to come here, right? He went there, right? He's like, I'm gonna go there. I'm gonna go there and get right in. And he lasted for about a year. I remember calling him on the phone, and I said, hey, listen, the problem is not people. The problem is not the empty beer bottle. It's not found in an empty pill bottle. The problem is you have a sin problem. You need to confess and surrender your life to Christ, like I did. He's like, man, I don't want that. I'm done with that. So about a year later, he calls me on the phone. He's like, man, I relapsed, back on drugs. I gotta get out of here. He said, LA's just filled with a bunch of problem people. I'm moving to Texas, San Antonio. He moved to San Antonio, the great state of Texas, San Antonio, because they have better people. And you know the story.

He lasted another six months, eight months. He called me again. He's like, man, this place ain't nothing but problem people, a bunch of problem people. He said, I'm moving back to Louisiana. And I said, hey, listen, I think I found the problem. The problem is you. You're the problem, and you're bringing the problem everywhere you go. Friends, listen to me. It's always easier to blame others than bend the knee in prayer to God. Well, if she wasn't, and if the kids weren't, if my boss weren't, and if this guy, that's what we do, right? If that's the case, if unconfessed sin is the barrier between you and God, then here's what we do today. We deal with it today. We don't justify it, well, this is why I do it. We don't minimize it, it's not really that bad, is the discovery. We don't rationalize it, well, the reason is, we don't do any of that. We don't pass go, we don't collect $200, we don't return to where we are. We don't confuse, come in, remorse and repentance, because that's a big confusion for a lot of Christians. Do you know the difference? You ever done a study on the difference between remorse?

Remorse is you come to the altar crying. Repentance is you don't go back to the place you came. Let me give you a list, this will help you. Repentance is sorry for the consequences. I mean, remorse is sorry for the consequences. Repentance is sorry for the sin. It's subtle, but I want you to get this. Remorse is, I'm sorry I got caught. Repentance is, I'm sorry for the sin I've committed. Here's another one. Remorse wants relief. Repentance wants restoration with God. Someone, I just wanna deal with this, that's remorse. Remorse cries over what the sin cost you. Repentance cries over what the sin cost our Savior. Feel the weight of that. Remorse looks in the mirror. Repentance looks to the cross. One looks at you, one looks out. Here's a final one. Remorse wants the silence to end. When are you gonna speak? Repentance wants the sin to end. Now Saul and David are the case study of the Old Testament between remorse of Saul and repentance of David. But did you know the Bible gives us another contrast in the New Testament that is just as impactful? Judas and Peter. I don't know if you caught the similarities. Judas and Peter knew each other.

In fact, they were two disciples. They were in the same crew. Same Savior, on the same night, the same crime, similarly. Both betrayed Jesus, one with a kiss, one with a denial. And at the end of the day, both of these men were sorry. Both of these men were overwhelmed with grief. Think about it, Matthew says Judas himself was full, quote, of remorse over what he did. He even took the silver. You remember, what does he do? He takes the silver and gives it back. He's like, I have sinned. He even says those words. But here's the difference. Remorse can return silver, but remorse can't return to God. What does Judas do? He takes matters in his own hands and hangs himself. Peter, on the other hand, is going to weep bitterly. Just like Judas, he's remorseful. But there's a difference. His sorrow doesn't drive him to take matters in his own hands. His sorrow drives him back to Christ after three denials in the courtroom. I don't even know who that man is. Never seen him before. I know I sound like him, but when he realizes what he did to Christ, he weeps bitterly. And then he goes back to fishing, why? Because he probably realizes, Jesus is done with me.

How can I recover? For somebody, listen to me. For somebody who thinks that I've done too much, Peter's your friend right now. Peter thinks, how can I recover? from denying I knew God. I don't know if you did worse than that, but that's probably the worst. I don't even know who this man is. So what does Peter do? He goes back to fishing, John 21, why? Because he's done with preaching. He can't recover from that. Jesus says, hey Pete, it's me. Come have catfish po'boys, brother. On the, no, probably not, but come eat fish on the seashore. And then Peter comes, and what does Jesus do? Just because, or the same way he denied him three different times, Jesus asked him a three-fold set of questions to restore him completely. Peter, do you love me? Of course I do. Well, Peter, do you love, let me ask you again. Do you love me? See, here's the difference. Remorse ended in a rope. Repentance ends with hope. Same sin, same sorrow, different outcome. Judas took matters in his own hands. Peter placed his failure into nailed-scarred hands.

You see the difference? Big difference. So what do you do when God doesn't seem to answer? You don't put on a disguise and seek a counterfeit answer. You don't go looking for another voice. We're tempted to do that. What do we do? You don't pack up and move to a new town. You don't point fingers and blame other people. Here's what you do. You don't look out there for the problem. You look what? With the help of God within here. Heard a missionary years ago in seminary, he visited our class. Kind of an odd thing to say, he said this to us. And at the time, I'm like, this is kind of odd. But he said, he said, some of the greatest men and women I met on the mission field have always, write this down, kept their sin list short. Interesting line. They kept their sin list short. Here's what he was getting at. He was saying, most of you in here, I was a seminary, but I'll say it to you. Most of you in here don't even know you're being defeated by consistent, persistent sins in your life because you haven't named them.

You haven't named them. Let me ask you this way. Do you know your top three sins right now that plague you in life? You should. The top three. I know my top three, and I got more, by the way. But I know the top three, because we all have sins in our life. And here's what I want you to do. I want you to go home, if you've never done this, I want you to label it pride, arrogance, criticism, whatever it is. I want you to name it. Gluttony, approval-seeking, addiction, whatever the sin is you like. Name them, and then, like John Owen said, ruthlessly attack, be killing sin with the power of the Holy Spirit, or sin will be killing you. That's the only option. You're either attacking sin, or sin is attacking you. And so if you're in this place today, and you're like, Pastor, I've never done that before. I don't even know what you're talking about. The first step is not to attack all these sins. The first step is to surrender your whole life to the one who overcame all sin. And his name is Jesus. And so I wanna challenge you now.

If you've never surrendered your life to Jesus, don't gamble your eternity on a prayer you keep putting off. That's what, Judas never got to make it right with Christ, and he's gone. And so some of you are like, well, I'm gonna get right tomorrow. I'll get right tomorrow. What if tomorrow never comes? And so surrender your life to Christ right now if you've never done that. Number two is this. Maybe you know the Lord, and you've trusted Christ, but it feels like God doesn't answer. It feels like God is distant. If you're a believer, and you've been busy on the outside, but you feel like you're empty on the inside, remember the seashore with Peter. You see, Peter's failure wasn't the end of the story. It was actually the beginning of a story, and the same thing goes for you. If you think, man, I've done something too bad, or I've sinned too much, remember Peter. The silence you feel in your life is not God walking away, don't miss this. It's actually God welcoming you back home. That's God's invitation to say, hey, why don't you come back? So I wanna ask you today, if you feel far from God, maybe you're saying, I need to come back.

It's not by working harder or performing more. It's by repenting, coming back to Christ. So I wanna pray for us now. We're gonna transition into the Lord's Supper here at Gallatin. If you're online or at home, you can join us as well. And you know, the Bible says that before you partake of the Lord's Supper, it's a family affair, so it's believers, we get to partake of this last meal that Jesus had with his disciples. Paul is very clear on this. Do not partake of the meal if you're an unbeliever, you bring condemnation on yourself. And so if you're here today and you're like, man, I don't know where I am with the Lord, I wanna pray over you right now so you can know that you know that you know, that you know Jesus, and not that you know Jesus. Jesus, but that Jesus knows you. And so join me as we pray and prepare our hearts to partake of the Lord's Supper. Bow your head for a moment. And if you're here today and you're unsure of where you are with the Lord, but you want to be sure in the quietness of your own heart, just say something like this, Jesus, I know I can't fix myself. I know I've done some things that I'm not pleased with. I know I can't be perfect, but I do know someone who was.

Jesus, I surrender all to you today. If that's your prayer, and you mean it sincerely, I just want to pray over you, acknowledge you before I pray. Would you just pray where you are? Just slip your hand up, no one looking around but me, and just say, Pastor Robbie, pray for me. I prayed that prayer. Thank you, brother. Anyone else, if you're here, you're in the chapel, you're at Gallatin, would you raise your hand? Praise God. Anyone else, I see you in the back. Anyone else, praise God, thank you. Sister, praise God, thank you, brother. Just raise it high so I can see. Praise God, thank you, sister. Anyone else, hands all over, praise God. Just raise it high, Pastor Robbie, pray for me. Anyone in the balcony, thank you, I see you in the back, praise God. You can put your hands down. Father, thank you so much for Jesus. Thank you for the relationship we have, and you prepare our hearts as we partake of the Lord's Supper in honor of you, in Jesus' name we pray. Everyone sit.