Speaker 1: 0:00

Now, a black belt is just a white belt who kept showing up. Now, if you had one word to describe how people thought about you, if you could pick just one word to capture your life, to sum up everything you stand for, what would that word be? Some people, they will want to be known as successful. Now, that's a good word. God wants you to be successful. God wants you to succeed in your life. Other people might say the word influential that's a good one too. I think we're all called to be salt and light in the world and make a difference. Some people may just want to be happy. They will want to be known as happy. Another way you can even use that word happy. They will want to be known as happy. Another way you can even use that word happy is they may want to be known as blessed and fulfilled. Now, all those are good words. All those are words that we should go after and strive for, but I believe there is one word that matters more than all of those, one word that God sees above the rest. Because when we stand before God in heaven, he won't say well done my good and successful servant. He won't say well done my good and influential servant. He won't say well done, my good and happy servant. What he is going to say to you and to me, or what we want him to say, is well done, my good and faithful servant. Faithful, faithfulness. If there was one word to describe our lives, I believe we should strive for the word faithful Today, as we close our message series Think Ahead.

Speaker 1: 1:41

We're talking about the power of decisions, because we know that the quality of our decisions determine the quality of our lives, and the problem is that so many of us are not very good at making decisions, and now there's a lot of reasons for that. We got so many notifications popping up on our phone. We got so many different opinions out there on the internet, so many different things to think about. Sometimes it can be challenging to make good decisions. So what we want to do, what we want to do, we want to understand, what are our values, what are we responsible for, and so, instead of waiting for the heat of the moment when we're faced with difficult situations, we're asking God to help us pre-decide what we'll do in certain situations, and today we're going to look at the theme of faithfulness.

Speaker 1: 2:26

We're choosing to pre-decide to be faithful, because consistent faithfulness never happens accidentally. It never happens accidentally. There is no way we'll be faithful day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, without being intentional. And the reason why? The reason why it's hard to stay faithful is because the natural trajectory of our lives is easy. It's how can we make things easy for us? It's convenience. We want things to be easy and convenient. The trajectory of our life is towards convenience. And being faithful, especially faithful to God and doing what is right, is rarely easy. It's rarely the easy decision. It's often hard, it often comes with a cost, but it's often worth it. Here you go.

Speaker 1: 3:18

Let's look at this Bible verse to set our tone for today's talk. Check this out. It says this. It says look at the proud. Look at them. Look at the proud. They trust in themselves and their lives are crooked, but the righteous will live by their faithfulness to God. I like that. What do they do? What do the proud? Do they trust in their own wisdom, their own knowledge, their own self-righteousness, their own goodness, their own bank accounts, their own abilities? They trust in themselves because they're proud.

Speaker 1: 3:47

Now, unfortunately, unfortunately, I am often the proud. I'm often proud. I often think I can do it my way, I often think I can fix all the problems. I often think if I only work harder, then the results will get to what I want and I think a lot of us struggle with that If I can do more, if I can be more self-sufficient. So here's what I want to do I want to intentionally decide not to be proud. I want to intentionally decide that I want to surrender to God, that I want to not just try to get rid of my weaknesses, but I surrender my weaknesses to God, because where I am weak, he is strong. When I acknowledge my weaknesses, then I can actually really intentionally depend on God for His strength. That was good, and so what I want us to do is to do that, is to look to faithfulness.

Speaker 1: 4:41

So now that raises a question, though what does it mean to be faithful practically speaking? Like, what does that mean On a practical level? What does that mean to be faithful? Because I used to think. I think most of us, on the top of our heads, will say well, faithfulness means what? Not cheating on your spouse, that's a good one. Not cheating on your taxes, that's a good one too. Trying to be a good person, all true and all good, but when you look at how Jesus talked about faithfulness, he had a different focus. He had a very different focus. In fact, if you study every time Jesus used the word faithful, you'll see he always talked about three specific things, three specific categories when he talked about faithfulness. When Jesus talked about faithfulness, he talked about how we treat people, how we steward resources and how we respond to the nudge of the Holy Spirit. That's what he always is talking about. Look at, when Jesus talked about faithfulness, it was always about relationships to people. It was always about how we take care of our resources and how we respond to the Holy Spirit.

Speaker 1: 5:43

So, in response to the values that Jesus has on faithfulness, we're going to pre-decide three things. Today. We're going to pre-decide three things. The first one we're going to pre-decide that every interaction is an opportunity to add value. Now, this is a big one. Every interaction I have with people, every time I go to my workplace, every time I go to Starbucks, every time I go to my workplace, every time I go to Starbucks, every time I go to Food Lion, every time I go to Walmart, I'm going to use it as an opportunity to add value to people. We're faithful in our relationships. Okay, here you go.

Speaker 1: 6:22

The second thing we're going to do, the second decision we're going to pre-decide is every resource is an opportunity for God to multiply. Every resource is an opportunity for God to multiply because Jesus defines faithfulness as how we steward what he trusts to us. And the third decision is that every prompting of the Holy Spirit is an opportunity to obey God, every one. Because every time Jesus talked about faithfulness, he talked about these three things, and we're going to pre-decide to do that. Okay, so what does it mean? What does that mean? That means everywhere you go, every person you meet, everyone you see, is an opportunity to bless them. It's an opportunity to encourage, it's an opportunity to be generous, an opportunity to add value into their life. And the reason why we want to pre-decide this is because we will never, ever add value consistently, accidentally. And the reason why and we all know this, and the reason why we would never just accidentally add value to others, and we all know this the reason why is because we are ridiculously selfish. We think about ourselves, and this is how I know we're selfish and you know it too If you took a picture with eight of your closest friends group picture.

Speaker 1: 7:35

The first thing you're going to do when that picture is out. Who is the first person you're going to look for Yourself and, if you look good, print it. But if you look bad, hey, we need to do a redo. Everybody, this one isn't good, even though everyone else all the other seven could be looking great. This is how we do it right.

Speaker 1: 7:57

We naturally think about ourselves, and so, even when it comes into conversations that we have with people, we're constantly thinking how are they perceiving me? What do they think about me? So our conversations to people can be very self-focused. We're thinking things like wow, I hope I sound good. Do they like me? Do they like what I'm wearing? Do they care? Did I embarrass myself? Are they analyzing the things that I said? And we can walk away from a conversation so focused about us that we never made an impact on someone else. Instead, what we're going to do is we're going to add value. When we come in to meet people, when we come to talk to people, we want to add value to their lives. Paul puts it like this. He says this. He says don't let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, but only what is helpful. Check this out for building others up. I love that. Building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. I love this.

Speaker 1: 8:54

To be faithful to God is to add value to other people, if you want to know how to serve God, if you really want. If you ask me, jacob, how do I serve God, I would say how are you serving people? How are you serving people? Because the way you love people is a direct reflection of how you love God. Let me actually add one more to that the way you love difficult people is a direct reflection on the way you love God. It's easy to love those who love you. Even not good people can do that. But can you love someone who hurts you? Can you love someone that drives you crazy? Can you love that person? And so here you go. We're going to tell the truth, we're going to love people, and people will be better for it and they'll have more faith and feel more. This is another way I would put it.

Speaker 1: 9:49

I don't know if you ever had a boss like this. I did at one point. I had a boss. Anytime I pulled up into the parking lot and I saw his car there, I would be like oh man, I got to talk to this guy today. If you're a manager, especially if you're a manager, if you got people that work for you, or even kids, whatever when people know you're in an environment, if their heart is filled with dread, I want you to think about that. Instead, when you walk into a room, when you walk into an environment, man, it should feel a little bit lighter, it should feel a little bit happier, it should feel a little bit better because you're bringing Jesus with you everywhere you go and people can see it.

Speaker 1: 10:24

Before we preach to people about Jesus, man, we can show people Jesus in the way that we act, in the way that we live. Is that good to anyone? So we want to do that. Here you go, think about Jesus. What did Jesus constantly do? Jesus constantly spoke kind to people. Then, when the disciples well, the disciples, when they always were doing crazy stuff, always like just not saying the right thing, and did Jesus ever just tell them you guys are just idiots? He probably wanted to, but he didn't. Instead, when they were worried about things, jesus says hey, hey, hey, hey. He says you don't got to worry about it. And the reason why? The reason why you don't got to worry about it, because look at the birds, look at the little birdies in the sky. God takes care of the little birdies. Of course he's going to take care of you. Of course he cares about you. You know, today has enough worries of his own. Just seek first God's kingdom and his righteousness and he'll take care of you. That's how Jesus talked to the disciples.

Speaker 1: 11:17

Think about this the woman who sinned. She was caught in the very act of adultery. What an incredibly horrible situation this woman is in. And what did Jesus say to her? What did he do? He didn't say shame on you, you pathetic person with no self-control. No, no, he knelt down in front of her. He wrote something in the sand. We don't know what he wrote down, but we do know what he wrote down, cause all the self-righteous people that were trying to condemn this woman to say I got to get up out of here. Jesus got my business all exposed. And so Jesus knelt down next to this woman caught in the very act of adultery. Who has all the right to condemn her because he was perfect and sinless? He doesn't do that. He says where are your accusers? And she says I don't see them. And then he says well, neither do I condemn you. He said go and leave this life of sin, and that phrase leave this life of sin. What he is saying there is. There is more to your life than you think. There's more to this thing. Again, this is how Jesus talks to people.

Speaker 1: 12:20

And Peter knuckleheaded Peter like this guy so full of passion. He was just not, but he wouldn't think about it sometimes. This dude denied Jesus, not once, not twice, but three times, after saying I would never deny you. Those guys might, but not me, jesus, I'm your guy. He denies him. And when Jesus encounters him at the beach after eating some fish because that's what you do, he says he says Peter. He didn't say Peter because you deny me. You're canceled, buddy, you're out of here. Was going to build the church on you, not anymore. No, no. What is he doing instead? He says hey, do you still love me? Peter says yeah. He says then go feed my sheep. And what is Jesus doing here? He's reinitiating the mission and the purpose and the calling on Peter's life. Come on, these are the words.

Speaker 1: 13:15

This is how Jesus adds value to people. He has value to people in this way and I just want some people to know today that God wants to add value to your life. Maybe someone told you you made too many mistakes, you messed up too much, you didn't, you don't have the right amount of numbers in your bank account. God wants to speak to you today. He says your life matters and he wants to add value to you. Okay, so here you go. Jesus does this.

Speaker 1: 13:40

Jesus constantly has this interaction with people, and this is faithfulness to God. This is faithfulness to God. I'm here today and this is the truth. I'm here today not because of how awesome I am, because I'm just this great, fantastic pastor and leader. No, no, no. I'm here today because of the many encouraging words that people have spoke over my life, like throughout my life. They're speaking encouraging words into my life. When I didn't feel valuable, they reminded me of my value in God. When I made bad choices, they rallied around me and said you have more than that choice. You can do it. You can do it. You choose to be a person who adds values to others and parents. Let me just speak to parents and grandparents for a moment here. Even if you're just mentoring people, I want to say something to you. Okay, do your words add value to your children, and it's wild how often we curse our children without even recognizing it. And now, when I say curse, I'm not talking about like some crazy, just ritual thing. That is a curse. But I'm not talking about that.

Speaker 1: 14:39

The Bible says our words, our words, are either blessings or what Curses the words we say. And we live in a world that has desensitized words because you can comment whatever you want on a situation that you know nothing about, and so our words are desensitized now. But our words have power. Our words can speak life. It was the very words of God that made this whole earth happen. Words are powerful, and so with our words, we can have blessings or curses, and so sometimes we accidentally, unintentionally, curse our kids. When we say things to them like you are so difficult, it's a curse. It's a curse. You are always so sensitive. Why aren't you like those kids? Curses, curses, those are curses. And instead, instead, yes, our kids need honest feedback, of course, but the words we're speaking over them, words are we speaking? Okay? And so I want to encourage us today to be people who are faithful by speaking words of blessing over our kids, and we can do that today. You want to know when you can start that. Right now, you can start that right now. You can be a person that adds value to people. Okay, the second way we're going to be faithful to God is a pre-deciding that every resource is an opportunity to multiply.

Speaker 1: 16:15

In Matthew 25, jesus tells a parable about a man who goes on a journey and he entrusts his wealth to his servants. Okay, check this out. To one servant, he gets five bags of gold, to another, two bags and to another, one bag of gold. The first two servants invest their gold and they double what they were given. Check this out. This is how the story goes. His master replied Well, done. Good, and what Faithful servant. You have been faithful with a few. I will put you in charge of many things. You multiply what I gave you. Check this out.

Speaker 1: 16:52

The Greek word there that is translated for faithful is the word pistos, and pistos is this it's a person who shows himself faithful in transaction of business, the execution of commands or the discharge of official duties. That's a cool word. I like that, and the reason why I like that is because one of the ways you can be faithful to God is simply by caring for what God has given you what God gives you. Here you go. If God gave you an ugly yard, man, clean that thing up and make it the best yard possible. Be faithful to it. Man, clean that thing up and make it the best yard possible. Be faithful to it. If God gave you a clunker of a car, man, make that the nicest clunker there is. If God has given us bodies, we steward our bodies well. We steward them well. If you are in business, come on. If you are a business person, sometimes you know and this happens and it makes sense Sometimes we think about the people who can make most impact for the kingdom are the missionaries, are the people out feeding the poor, and I don't think we need to compare people but sometimes what happens is the business owners, the ones who are like man, striving to start.

Speaker 1: 18:00

They kind of feel like, oh well, I guess I'm a second class citizen in the kingdom of God. No, no, no. Let me say something. Let me say something to our business people, to our business owners, people who are working in the marketplace our marketplace people To create something that adds value, to bless someone, to being a good leader, to being a person that leads with integrity, and to those who are in business, those who are business owners, to take a little risk and multiply it. When you begin to create more jobs for people, when you begin to add value to your community through your workplace, that is building the kingdom of God. That's what it looks like to be a kingdom person in the business world, in the marketplace, and that's why at LVC, we are ridiculously passionate about stewarding resources well. So here you go. When you give to LVC, we manage it and we create margins. So everything that we took in from the past year, we budget at 90%. And the reason for that is so we can be ridiculously generous to our partnerships that we partner with and so that we can bless our community and that we're not living paycheck to paycheck because we want to steward well what you guys invest into the kingdom of God. And here you go.

Speaker 1: 19:11

And that's where this one guy with the one bag who was afraid I want you to see this I kind of feel for this guy. I feel for this guy because I've been there when you're afraid to make a mistake, right, you're afraid to make a mistake and at the end, watch what the master says to him. He says so I was afraid and I went out and I hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you. His master replied you wicked, lazy servant. It feels kind of harsh, doesn't it Feels harsh, but this is what I want you to get from this story. The other two guys took what the master gave them, multiplied it. More people got greater impact through multiplication.

Speaker 1: 19:55

This one guy took what the master gave him and hid it and said I was afraid. God gives you a purpose in your life and you can either use that purpose to multiply the kingdom of God in this world or you can hide it and keep it to yourself. And I'm going to tell you this. He says you lazy and wicked servant sounds harsh, but what he's trying to say here is this wicked. The wickedness was because he didn't trust God. Instead, he only trusted what was in his circle of control and he had to let go. That's why every interaction is an opportunity to add value. Every resource is an opportunity to multiply and every prompting of the Holy Spirit is an opportunity to obey God. Every prompting of the Holy Spirit is the opportunity to obey God.

Speaker 1: 20:45

I love Acts 20, verse 22,. When Paul, the Apostle Paul, he's really happy. Things are going good for him. And if you read about Paul, a lot of times things don't go good for Paul, but Paul's in a season where he planted a church and things are going good. He's happy, he's feeling fulfilled. But check out what the Scripture says. It says filled and fulfilled. But check out what the scripture says. It says and now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem not knowing what will happen to me there. I love this. I love this Because he didn't know.

Speaker 1: 21:19

He was comfortable where he was, but the Holy Spirit was asking him to move. The Holy Spirit was asking him to do something different. The Holy Spirit was asking him to do something different. The Holy Spirit was putting in his heart to step out in faith. And he said I'm going to go to Jerusalem not knowing what was going to happen to me there. I can't explain it, I don't understand it. I don't know the details. I just know God is calling me to do it and when you follow Jesus, he will prompt you to do things that you might not have all the details. He will prompt you to do things that you might not have all the details, you might not have all the data, you might not be able to say well, this is a good, logical decision for me to do this risk, but the Holy Spirit is leading you. You may say well, jacob, how do I know? It's the Holy Spirit. That's why we have to spend daily time with God. When we spend daily time with God, we begin to understand the voice of God. And we begin to understand the voice of God. I'm not just taking risks of faith, jumping out hoping it works out. I'm being prompted and led by the power of the Holy Spirit. So I got two stories and the keyboard can come on up and make it real spiritual up in here for me. Two stories I want to share with you, personal stories for us, for me and for Aaron.

Speaker 1: 22:35

When we started the process of adopting our youngest son, aaron and I, we never wanted to be foster parents or I don't want to say never, but that wasn't in our plans. We weren't. We didn't plan to be foster parents, we didn't plan to adopt. And how this process happened out of nowhere I got a call from Child Protective Services and at first I was like why are they calling me for? You know I was nervous, but then we ended up figuring out what the deal was. And so we ended up sitting on this Zoom call this is kind of still during COVID time. We ended up sitting on this Zoom call where we learned that this woman that we know was going through a hard time and we discovered that she was pregnant, with the baby on the way. And again, like I said, aaron and I we never had intentions to foster, never had intentions to adopt. And as this conversation on Zoom is happening, all of a sudden I get this nudge from the Holy Spirit. I get this nudge from the Holy Spirit and it says the nudge from the Holy Spirit is pretty clear. It's take the baby, take the baby. And I'm sitting there on this call saying I ain't hear that. That's not. It. Take the baby, take the baby, take the baby, take the baby and nudge Aaron and I say tell you know when the baby comes, we'll definitely handle the details with that. And so here you go.

Speaker 1: 24:17

So that day, that same day, our little baby boy was born, that very day and we ended up getting him, taking him home, all that good stuff, and last spring we finalized his adoption. We finalized his adoption. It's a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful story, right? Can't even picture life without him. He fits, so he's a part of our team. Our team would have been empty. We would have been a player down. We would have been a player down if we would have said no to the prompting of the Holy Spirit. We didn't have the details, we didn't have all the facts, we didn't know how it was going to play out. But can we become people that say yes to Jesus and not just yes to facts? Can we live in the tension of the mystery? Can we live in the tension of? I don't have it all figured out, but you can do impossible things, god. Second story Before we had kids, our BC days before children, aaron and I we were at the top line Italian restaurant in Virginia Beach Macaroni Grill, italian restaurant in Virginia Beach, macaroni Grill.

Speaker 1: 25:51

And we're leaving Mac Grill and we're walking out and I passed the hostess and again I felt the prompt of the Holy Spirit go, encourage her, encourage that girl. And to that I said nope, walked out, walked all the way to the parking lot, about to open the door, I look at Aaron and say the Holy Spirit wants me to encourage Edgar. So I walk all the way back in, go to the hostess, stand, look at the girl and say hey, you know, my name is Jacob, you know I'm a Christian and I, just as we were walking out, I just feel like I feel like God. You know, god put on my heart to tell you. And I gave her some words of encouragement and just you know stuff like that. And she looked at me and she said thank you, that was so nice of you, thank you, and that was it. That was it. There was no her crying tears going down her face and she didn't say to me I was going to end it tonight, but because you said that my life has purpose, there was none of that. I don't know what she did when she got home, but all I know I said that she said thank you and that was it. And I walked back out and went to the car and the spiritual principle I want you guys to know from this is this Obedience is our responsibility, outcome is God's, obedience is our responsibility.

Speaker 1: 27:13

The outcome, the result. We're so result driven, aren't we? I want my 30-day abs, I want to know my investment, my return on investment, none of those things. But sometimes he just wants us to obey. Sometimes he just wants to say yes. Sometimes he's going to say yes to this, and that's faithfulness. See, sometimes you'll see the reasons and other times you won't. And what I want you to understand is that God is going to put someone on your heart, that God is going to put someone on your heart. God is going to put something on your heart, a ministry to lead, a thing to do.

Speaker 1: 27:48

And you may say I don't have the details, I don't know how I'm supposed to do this, I am an unfit person for this. But a yes to God, a yes, is how you can glorify God and find purpose in your life. I'm faithful to add value, I'm faithful to multiply what he's given me and I'm faithful to obey, because the righteous will live by their faithfulness to God. And here's the truth. Friends, you will overestimate what you can do in the short run, but you'll vastly underestimate what God can do through a lifetime of faithfulness. Let me say that, let me make that make sense, let me make that plain for us Because I don't know about you guys, but I think someone needs to hear this You'll overestimate what you can get done in this season.

Speaker 1: 28:36

If I just work harder, if I just do this, I can change my marriage, I can change my finances. I can change my marriage. I can change my finances. I can make impact. I can do this, I can do that, I can do that. And if it's all me-centric, if it's all about me, you'll overestimate your ability and underestimate what God can do.

Speaker 1: 28:54

When you're just faithful every day. I'm faithful to showing up. I'm faithful to loving my kids. I'm faithful to loving my spouse. I'm faithful to doing my job well, with excellence. I'm faithful where I'm at right now and, god, you would take my faithfulness and you will bless me beyond what I can ever think, dream or imagine. It's playing the long haul and again, the story of our church, the story of LVC, is that God just really wants this church to happen. He just really wants it to happen. We move up here, we move up here. We move up here, and a lot of people know this story. But if you don't, we moved to Richmond in 2019, aaron and I, with our daughter and a couple people from Virginia Beach, we gathered a team of roughly 55 people. We started the church. 265 people opened in a day. Six weeks later, what, covid happens? And here you go. Honestly, I didn't think we would reopen again. I didn't think I was like this is it. We moved up here and this is it. And that time period of us being closed and being online.

Speaker 1: 29:51

I was offered two jobs. I was offered a job in sunny Myrtle Beach Come on Two locations, 700 member church, wealthy church and I said, but God told me, richmond, and I felt like an idiot. Later I got another job offer in St Louis, senior pastor of a church of around 1,000 people. They said a part of the deal they would pay for my master's and doctorate degree and I said, but God told me Richmond, god told me Richmond, richmond. And the pastor who was talking to me about that he said he said, man, you should take this job because your church will never grow out of COVID. And he wasn't trying to be mean, I mean, he was saying the facts, are this the facts? And he wasn't trying to be mean. He was saying the facts, are this the facts? As if our God has to listen to the facts. So you'll never make it. You'll never make it. I said yeah, but I told God five years in Richmond. And he knew COVID was not happening. So I gave him five years. So I'm in Richmond, I'm in Richmond, I'm in Richmond and, guys, can I tell you this?

Speaker 1: 31:04

Our church is growing, lives are being changed, families are being changed and I'm telling you, god wants to multiply our vision, expand our reach, and it requires all of us to be faithful. Faithfulness, faithfulness yeah, we can clap for that. Come on, come on, faithfulness. And so, if you want to be successful, if you want to have influence, if you want to be happy, what do you do? You're faithful.

Speaker 1: 31:35

In the small things, you're faithful, and when God trusts you with little, he gives you more. You're faithful with those around you, he gives you a little bit more influence. You're faithful to make a difference in the world, and suddenly you're fulfilled, and suddenly you feel blessed, and suddenly you feel full of joy because he's trusting you with more, because the righteous will live by their faithfulness to God, and every interaction is an opportunity to add value. Every resource is an opportunity to multiply, to steward, and every prompt in the Holy Spirit is an opportunity to obey. And so, when the Holy Spirit prompts, we say yes, holy Spirit, send me, because obedience is your responsibility and outcome is God's responsibility. And my promise is this you will always overestimate what you can get done, which will make you vastly underestimate what you can get done, which will make you vastly underestimate what God can get done.

Speaker 1: 32:25

But when we switch it, when we switch it, when we say I know I can't do it, but he can, when I know I can't, but he can, like Moses, I can't speak, but God says but I can. Like Joshua, I can't lead these people, but God's like but I can. When Peter is like I can't do this but I can, god says. And when we do that, when we do that, we activate faithfulness. And when we activate faithfulness, we see God move. Because the truth is this a black belt is just a white belt who kept showing up. So, god, jesus, holy Spirit, help us keep showing up, help us keep showing up, lord, help us be faithful, help us be faithful to you. It's what you have put in our hands. Come Holy Spirit, come Holy Spirit, come Holy Spirit. Show us, lord, who is one person we can add value to this week. Show us, lord, how we can manage our resources well. Show us, lord, how we can manage our resources well. Show us how to pre-decide and not just be reaction, reactionary.

Speaker 1: 34:23

I just have this image that the Holy Spirit has dropped in my heart you feel tangled in webs that are not your own. Yeah, you're like doing everything you can to get out, but it seems like the more you move, the more tangled you get. I don't know if anyone can relate to that feeling, or if you feel like Jacob, that's me. If that's you, I just want you to shoot a hand up. I'm not going to call you out, nothing like that. I just want you to shoot a hand up in the air so I can see who I'm praying for.

Speaker 1: 35:05

If you feel tangled in a mess that is not your own, holy Spirit, we pray that you untangle, that you break the webs, that you bring freedom, freedom in Jesus' name. And so, lord, we pray direction, purpose, and we pray the strength to let go of things we need to let go of and the strength to hold on to what you are giving us. So, jesus, we say here we are faithful, faithful, lord, and we can be faithful because you are faithful In all our highs and all of our lows. You have been constant, so we learn from you, we lean into you and we say more of you. We love you in this place today, in Jesus' name, amen, amen. Let's give God some praise in here today.