An Uphill Faith

go to be able to catch up. But um Ronnie is a man who lives a life of righteousness and we have been uh the beneficiaries of that over the last decade. Just being able to to meet them, get to know them through our Harvard network. um that if you were in the email this last week, I introduced more of that to you for those who aren't familiar with it. But um this is a couple Ronnie and Melissa who love on pastors and their wives, love on churches around the country who travel a lot uh to help us when we are weary in our souls and in our hearts and and when you know as most of you know that church planting is hard and difficult. um and we need the love and support and care from those outside sometimes.

And so they have been gracious to be able to come and bless us this morning and just share with us and hopefully uh we will be encouraged by it. And so I'm going to pray one more time and then we'll let you all take a father. Thank you so much again for Ronnie being able to come and just share with us this morning. As he opens up your word and as he speaks, may we be spoken to by the spirit of God. May we receive the truth that you have for us this morning, the spiritual food that our souls need so that we would be restored and renewed and refreshed this morning to continue sewing into this hard neighborhood, into this hard community, this hard a city that needs the light, needs the gospel, needs the truth. Would you help us this morning, Lord?

It's in your name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thanks, brother. Well, what a horrible story to to open the service with. Um, man, I don't I don't I don't have a comeback.

I don't know where to go from that other than I just find that as you get older, the more you just seem to get reminded of how old you are. Um, I am not old enough to be Dwayne's dad. I just want to state that. I'm I'm getting up there, but I'm not I'm not quite there. Um, as much as he likes to think that I I am, I'm not. Um, well, gosh, if you have your Bibles, you turn to John chapter 4 and uh we're going to talk about um our faith.

And uh it's a story from John. And uh you know we uh I I was thinking about our faith in terms of something that we would all you know we we would all agree that we would love our faith to increase. You know if I were to ask all of you, hey, where's your faith at? None of you would say, you know, it's fine. I'm just I'm really I'm really pumped with where it's at. Um I don't want an increase.

In fact, I have too much faith. I'd like to lower it a little bit. You know, none of us would be in that kind of a place. We would all like an increase in our faith. And and the problem though is that uh faith doesn't really work like that. We don't just get to snap our fingers and say, "All right, I'm going to have an extra helping extra, you know, uh helping of faith today to kind of get me through the day."

And in fact, what makes it even harder is that our faith kind of feels like it's an uphill for us. You know, it it's it's not just something that we are gliding through. It's something that we experience a lot of ups and downs. And a lot of times whether we're in an when we're in a down place with our faith or what we might, you know, uh define as a as a down time or a downturn in our faith, it feels like we're going uphill. It feels like we're battling the elements of of our faith. Um, and so we're just going to read a story today out of out of John 4 about a certain um uh high government official that was grappling with his faith and he has this confrontation with Jesus because he had a sick son.

And um we're going to see the parallels between what this brother experienced and what what we experience. Um I I grew up uh in Southern California. I grew up in this massively kind of hilly rural neighborhood that was kind of carved out of the side of these foothills. It was a really kind of strange place in Southern California. In fact, we're going back to visited at the end of the week. And we lived on an acre of land, um, which is not a lot compared with the Midwest, we found out, right?

If you have an acre of land in the Midwest, people are like, "Are you sure you have enough room to even build a house? You know, are how how can you live?" Right? I know that doesn't apply to the city as much, but you had to go up in this neighborhood these up these long steep driveways um to get to a lot of the houses and all the streets were these just these crazy steep inclines. So, anytime that me and my brother and our friends anytime we decided to take our bikes out, you know, we were faced with a workout, right, that you know, it felt like the tour to France, right? We had a lot of uphilling to go, right?

Um uh so you know but if we did venture out we had we had access right because it was a beautiful area. We had access to all kinds of amazing trails and trees and meadows and creeks to play in so many things to explore if we were willing to brave the exhausting hills which you know as an eight-year-old who likes cartoons and cereal it was a big thing to contemplate before going out. But our faith is kind of like that. It's an uphill faith. Here's a quote from Simon Laauo from his book Faith in the Wilderness. He says, "The road of faith, it goes uphill."

He said, "If you do not progress, you will fall backwards." He goes on to say, "A faith without much effort does not know true belief. And in fact, it is a faith not worth having." So, we want to ask the question as we begin here, what what is faith? We talk about it so much. We see it sort of illustrated to us in scripture.

But what is faith? Well, here's one definition. Faith is it's trusting that God is working for his glory and our good whether we can see the workings of his hand or even understand the movements of his heart. Right? And this is what we see uh in this story that we're going to read about a man who is confronted with the opportunity to believe or not believe Jesus's words. to believe or not believe Jesus's word.

So, let's just dive in. John chapter 4. I'm going to pick up with uh verse uh 46 actually. And uh this is something that uh happens after Jesus's uh confrontation with the woman of Samaria. And it says in verse 46, so he came again to Canaa and Galilee where he had made the water uh wine. And at Capernaum, there was an official whose son was ill.

And when this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. So Jesus said to him, "Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe." The official said to him, "Sir, come down before my child dies." Jesus said to him, "Go. Your son will live." The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.

And as he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. So he asked them the hour when he began to get better. And they said to him, "Yesterday at the seventh hour, the fever left him." And the father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, "Your son will live." And he himself believed and all his household. This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.

This is the word of the Lord. And what we learn is that a a growing faith is an uphill faith because Jesus calls us to believe his words even when we can't see his hands at work. And so the question for us then is, are we willing to take a step? Are we willing to even take another step on that uphill road of faith when we're tired? When when we're exhausted? And that just might be the story for some of you this morning because all of you are in a place with your faith, right?

If you placed your trust in Jesus Christ, it means you have a faith. It was gifted to you, but it also means that you're at a particular journey in that faith. It's it's somewhere you're somewhere on that hill, right? And sometimes it feels like we're in a place where everything's gliding. And then I would say the other 99% of the time it feels like we're in a place that feels like a bit of a struggle and we're wrestling. Are we willing to take another step even on this road to faith when it feels like we're going uphill?

Because when we do, this story shows us how Jesus responds to us in the growing pains of our faith. And the thing about faith is that it's not something that you just arrive at, right? you know, at however old I am, 94 now, um, according to Dwayne. Um, you know, I just still feel like it's a struggle. I've been a believer since I was about seven years old now. And, um, I still believe.

I have days where it's like, do you even have a faith, Ronnie? You know, it's like th this this faith that you hold to, that you believe, this trust that you have in Jesus. Sometimes it feels like I have a thimble full of it, which is weird after all those years, but that's the nature of faith. And the first thing we see as we read this story, and this is really a way to encourage us, is that Jesus, he listens to our longings. So, as you consider where you're at in your faith this morning, when you consider the struggles or the uphill nature of it, this is something you can be assured of right now, and it's that Jesus listens to your longings. This man who was called an official, he was a nobleman.

He was likely part of King Herod's court. He had probably had great influence in and power. He had obviously heard about Jesus from the miracle that Jesus had performed at the wedding in Kaa. But like all of us, his influence and his power had limitations, right? It had limitations. He had a son who was terminally ill.

And so even this this elevated title and position he had though, however important, however prestigious it was, it provided no no help, no cure for his son's illness. What we see here in this story is not just a man with an elevated title. Um but but this is a a brother who's in desperation. He's desperate. And desperate men and women will sometimes get to a point where they are willing to seek any means possible, right? To change what they are powerless to change.

And this is a brother who is powerless to change what is going on with his son. None of the wealth or the power he had accumulated mattered in that moment. Right? It didn't mean much. It's interesting how God does that in our life. He will allow things to come our way.

He will allow trials to come. He will allow hard things to surface so that we see our limitations so that be they become more more in view, right? And we understand that our life is but a breath like we're told over and over again in scripture, right? And trials are interesting for us, right? They they test us. They test our affections for God.

They test our our ability. They test our sense of resources. And by the way, nothing will test those things like the loss of a loved one or the potential loss of a loved one. In those moments, we are given a vision of mortality, right? And what's important and what's not so important. So this man has come to the end of his rope.

And by the way, there's always something at the end of our ropes that will try to either grab hold of us or we will try to grab hold of. Right? This man pursued the one person that he thought could help. And the question then for us is do c can you resonate with that? Even at the beginning of this story, you've been in a place where it's like, man, I I need help. I'm grabbing for something.

Am I grabbing for the right thing? Am I reaching towards the right person? What am I doing when I'm at this place where I've just lost any sense of power and control over a situation? What are you going to reach for when you're at the end of your robe? And by the way, he wasn't asking the question that the the woman at the well asked if we remembered that story, which was, can he be the Christ? Remember when she asked that about Jesus?

Can he be the Christ? Who is this person? He's telling me all these crazy uncomfortable things about me. Can this be the one that's been talked about and prophesied about? This brother just knew that Jesus had some kind of supernatural power. And here's what's significant for us.

Jesus listened to this man's longing. And Jesus listens to your longings. He listens to our longings. And that is so important for us to hear who are traveling this uphill road of faith or haven't even yet taken the first step to remember that. Right? Maybe that's you this morning.

Without knowing it, this official was at the foot of the hill that is our faith. He was pursuing Jesus who listened to the desperation of his heart. He lays out exactly what he wants. Come to my house and please heal my son. It's a bold request, right? Can you imagine going up to somebody and saying that today?

Going up to Dwayne and saying, "Here's the thing. My kid's sick. What I need you to do is come over and make it better." To which Dwayne would say, "Do you remember who I am? I'm a man." It's a bold request, right?

And Jesus responds to it curiously in verse 48. He says, "Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe." And this feels like a strange response, doesn't it? You know, like Jesus was almost being callous, almost like he was lacking compassion. And of course, if he did, he wouldn't be Jesus. So, we know that that's not true.

But Jesus's response here was in reference to the hearts of the people who only desired miracles, who only desired magic tricks from him. People who wanted Jesus to perform spectacles. They wanted a magician. They said they wanted a messiah, but really they wanted a magician. Right? The problem is that desiring miracles of Jesus is not the same as desiring Jesus.

Right? The people in Kaa, remember when you turned the water into wine, they were miracle seekers. You turned the water into wine, what else you got? Right? And there would be a pattern of this in in Jesus's life. In fact, let's go to John.

Let's let's go to John 6:25 and this story um after he had fed the 5000. And and it said in verse 25, when they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, "Rabbi, when did you come here?" And Jesus answered them, "Truly I say to you, you were seeking me not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal." And when they said to him, "What must we do to be doing the works of God?"

Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God that you believe in him whom he has sent." So they said to him, here it goes again, "Then what sign do you do that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the man in the wilderness as as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat." And Jesus then said to them, "Truly I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

They said to him, "Sir, give us the bread. Give us this bread always." Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst." So we see this pattern in the life and the ministry of Jesus where people don't really want Jesus as much as the things Jesus has to offer. You know, and that's something that can be very characteristic of us, right?

We we lose sight of Jesus because we have all of the blessings that Jesus provides or the potential of the blessings Jesus provides right in front of us. And that's just tangible. That feels like something we can grab hold of. That's some feels like something we can benefit from immediately. Few years ago, uh Melissa bought me some tickets at Christmas to see a comedian named Nate Baretti. You guys know Nate?

Yeah. So, now I I know you all have heard of him, but this was before he got super big, right? Man, I was listening to this guy before everybody was, right? That's what you're about ready to hear me say, but it really was before he was big. And um we had just kind of heard of him, heard some clips on YouTube, thought he was funny. And we were able to see him at this tiny club that fit about 50 people.

And um there we were sitting in the front row. I mean, there there weren't many people in the club. He was right there doing his routine, just as funny as he ever was. Um but man, when I when I was when we were watching Nate, you know, and if you know him like I do, you call him Nate. Um my uh my ex my expectation I had expectations, right? I'm going to see Nate Baretti.

But my expectation was that we were going to go to the club, watch Nate perform some, you know, new material and that the material is going to make us laugh, right? It wasn't very it was was a very simple night, not complicated, right? Uh my expectation was that we paid for entertainment. Uh we got entertained and it was a great exchange, right? If if we would have come on stage and Nate would have started, I don't know, like preaching in instead of doing a comedy routine, I would have been like, I I didn't pay for preach. I get paid to preach.

I didn't pay to see Nate preach to me. Um, I paid for comedy. Um, but that's how Jesus was being treated by the people of Kaa when he turned the water into wine. At the same time, we know, going back to this story, the motivation of this father was to see his son live. And that's a good motivation, isn't it? But there was something even bigger going on here that this man didn't realize.

And it's shocking to think about, right? And it's this. This man needed Jesus to save his soul more than he needed Jesus to save his son's life. That's a crazy thing to say, but I think you all understand what I'm saying here is that there was something even bigger going on when he approached Jesus than even his son's life, right? There was something more eternal and more astonishing going on here. And Jesus is responding in a way that points to the greater narrative of this man's life, which is pursue me for me.

Right? And that's what Jesus is always saying to us. That's the message that Jesus always has for you and for me. It's a good thing to go and bring your requests before the Lord. Say, "Lord, I just need this. I just need you to do this.

Will you do this?" The Bible tells us, "Bring your prayers and supplications before the Lord. ask him for whatever you got. Right? It doesn't mean he's always going to answer you the way you want to be answered. Right?

When we start believing that, that's called bad theology, right? But it doesn't mean that he wants us to to come to him and bring our requests. It also means that we come to him not just with our requests, but with a a a growing desire, a growing affection, a growing love for him. Not just for the answer he might give us or the thing he might provide for us, but for him himself, right? That's what we're actually growing in at the end of the day when we talk about what this faith thing is. It's growing in a particular kind of love and an affection for Jesus that is everinccreasing as we walk up the uphillness um of our faith.

Right? Very interesting. This man's faith was at the foot of a hill. And yet, this man's first step toward Jesus would prove to be his first step toward the uphill faith of the Christian life. Just like what happened with those who followed the w the women at the well to pursue Jesus. Remember when she told everybody and people started following her to follow Jesus.

And the first thing this man experiences was that Jesus listened to his longings. Jesus listened to his longings. Secondly, Jesus not only listened to his longings, but Jesus cared about his fear and his faith. Jesus cares about our fear and our faith. We get to the uh verse 47 and the word asked. The word ask comes in and it means that this man was literally begging Jesus.

That's the sense of the word is that this man was literally begging Jesus and would not leave him alone. The guy's just going after Jesus, right? He was filled with fear. He's filled with anxiety. You need to come down before my son dies. You know, this is a pressure cooker.

There's a time limit on this. Time is fading. Time is running short. He was pressuring Jesus, but also pre presuming Jesus would heal his son the way he thought it would happen. Isn't that interesting? So, he's pressuring him, but he's also presuming on Jesus, right?

He thought that maybe Jesus would come perform some kind of a ceremony or ritual. Right? This is how I think I I believe Jesus can heal my son. And this is there's also a way that I think he's going to do it. Which is why it's so interesting the way Jesus replies in verse 50 when he says, "Go." Like this conversation's over.

I got you. I heard you. Your son will live. And isn't that really the word that you want to hear? Well, on on first glance, we go, "Yeah, but then you think kind of, right?" Because what did Jesus do in that moment?

He just sends him home. He doesn't say, "Yeah, let's go. Hold on. Let me grab my bag. Let me grab my doctor's bag because I got some things I got to do before this kid lives again." He just sends him home.

It's crazy. And I don't know about you, but but to hear those words from Jesus as somebody who is is believing who Jesus is, but is still, you know, the your faith is still new or it's still growing or it's just about to to kick into gear. I don't know if I would have been horribly disappointed. Like what do you am I supposed to believe that? What do you mean just go? What do you mean just go?

Your son will live. And this is astounding to us because it sounds like Jesus is being kind of dismissive. You mean you're not coming over, Jesus? You expect me to just believe you without giving me a sign? Which is that is exactly what Jesus was saying? And in that moment, the eyes of this man's heart somehow were not given a lot of detail, but they were somehow open to who Jesus was.

He truly is the son of God. He truly is creator of the universe. He truly is savior of the world. Was this man able to articulate all of that? Probably not. He simply believed Jesus in that moment.

Even without all the ceremony, even without the ritual, with one word, Jesus had transformed this man's unbelieving heart into a believing heart. What it reminds us of is that seeing was not believing. Believing was seeing, right? Hebrews 11:1 tells us, "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." Faith hopes for the unseen things. And in the same way that Jesus listens to our longings, he cares also about our fears and our faith.

He has compassion. He has understanding for those things that bring fear and trembling into our lives. He cares for us when we cast our anxieties on him. Jesus understands that the uphill road of faith also takes detours. It also has downward slopes through the valleys, right? But the fears that shadow us in the valleys are also what help to increase our faith when we finally come through them.

I remember when my my dad passed suddenly in 2007. Uh fairly young uh in this day and age. Uh he was 69 years old. Was such a difficult season though after my dad uh died. Um it happened so suddenly you know when death comes suddenly and you don't you have a chance to say the things or to even you know kind of tie a bow on some some of the details that didn't get taken care of. Um, I was so afraid of what life was going to be like uh without him.

There were so many unanswered questions and so many relationships that that changed, you know, after his death. It was a fearful place. And yet, I can I can look back now in hindsight and see that it was the catalyst for my faith to increase, right? For areas of my life to become uh more mature spiritually, right? The Lord cared about both things. He used that fear to increase my faith in areas I didn't even know were lacking until my fear exposed them.

Right? Jesus cares about that with you, too, about the things that you are going through. He cares about the losses that you have suffered. He cares about the limitations that right now you are enduring through because you know you find as you get older uh as Dwayne uh so kindly reminded us of this morning in particularly in regards to me. Um you you realize you have so many limitations as you get older. You realize that you don't really have control.

Now, we're taught to have self-control, but we but when it comes to the the the things that uh you know uh the things that happen in the course of our lives, we just don't have control over those things, right? We just don't have control. And if you don't believe it, you h have a kid and then you can find as they get older, you have no control over their lives like you thought you did. Um but it's a very interesting thing, right? The Lord cares about those things. He understands our losses and our limitations.

He understands and cares about our fears. Our Here's the final thing. The third thing we see as this nobleman steps on this uphill road of faith. And it's this is that Jesus actually blesses us in our battle to believe. Isn't that crazy? You ever think that Jesus is just standing over you just going like, I can't believe how weak your faith is.

I I can't believe after all of these years that you're still struggling the way you are. Sometimes we think Jesus is just sort of, you know, standing over us as the disapproving dad. Like, come on, man. Didn't we go through this? Haven't I taught you this? Shouldn't you learn this by now?

He just doesn't do that. Why? Well, because he's patient. Because he understands what it's for us to be human. He understands what it is for us to be grappling with things and to be wrestling with things. He understands there are things in your life you're going to be struggling with until the day you die.

There are things in your life that you're not going to get the amount of growth that you wish you could have in those things. Other things you're going to get all this growth, right? And then you got these other areas where you're like, man, it's just been a struggle. I've just not gotten the growth in that particular area. And Jesus is there constantly with the words, well, here's an idea. Come to me all of you who are weary.

Just come over to me. I get it. I get it. It's okay. It's the nature of the world and the fallenness that we all live and operate in. But Jesus blesses us still in our battle to believe it.

We'll be too idealistic to think that this man didn't have doubts, right? Even after he left Jesus for the journey back home. Again, the road of faith is uphill. even from the day it begins. It's how our faith grows. It's how our spiritual stamina increases.

It's how our trust in Jesus expands. But there's an important word that emerges in verse 52 after this nobleman's servant meets him to tell him that his son was recovering. And it's this word, yesterday. You know, if I was this man and my son was this sick, I probably would have gotten home as soon as possible. Like, whatever the transportation was in the day, whatever the chariots, whatever transportation was, I would have said, "Get me back. Get I'm taking the redeye flight.

I'm getting the direct flight. I'm paying extra if they even had do those anymore." Right? But that's what I'm doing. I'm getting home. But the fact that this man takes an entire day to travel what would have only been four hours for him indicates how deeply he was trusting in the words of Jesus.

It's it's astonishing, right? And Jesus blesses this man because it turns out that God uses his faith to eventually bring his entire household to faith. And what this helps us with this morning and what it teaches us is that Jesus blesses us in our battle to believe. Isn't that wild to think that he doesn't always provide us exact exactly what we want? He doesn't always heal our children. He doesn't always repair what's broken in this life.

He works in incredibly mysterious and at times massively confusing ways. But he provides for us in ways that are specific to exactly what we need. We just don't know how he does that. In all of it, he always responds in a way that never deviates from his goodness, his glory, and the good of our faith. Jesus listens to our longings. Jesus cares about your fears.

He cares about your faith. He blesses you in your battle to believe. And because faith is uphill, we need Jesus to walk with us up that hill. And here's the thing, he does. We need Jesus to walk with us, to encourage us, to carry us in each of these unique ways. And listen to this.

Because Jesus is the one who has the power to heal a man's son from death. We're reminded today that he also has the power to help us persevere when our faith is weak and when our fear is strong. So we just must ask oursel this question which is where are we on the uphill journey of our faith today? Does it feel too risky to go allin on trusting Jesus like this brother did? Charles Spurgeon said, "God is too good to be unkind and too wise to be mistaken. When we cannot trace his hand, we must trust his heart."

That's the essence of our faith right there. What's interesting is that we would much rather trace his hand before we trust his heart. Right? But that would just make us consumers. That would just make us not need to have a faith. If everything was presented to us as fully formed and fully finished, everything better.

Why would you even need to have a faith? What would what would God be doing then to increase that faith if not put you in a position where you need to go to him in desperation like this man did because of his sick son? That's the goodness of God. And that he cares about things that we would like to bypass. And he says, "But you can't. You can't because that is not the life of faith.

That is not a place that I would put you in that would increase your trust and your affection for me. What would it make you is somebody who just wants me for the goods and services that I provide you, but not for the intrinsic good of who I am and what you actually need in your life. Jesus told his disciple Thomas, remember in John 20, he said, "Have you believed because you have seen me?" Again, it was okay. Thomas is doing all right. That dude gets a bad rap.

Thomas is doing fine. We're going to be hanging with Thomas someday forever, right? But then he says, "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." That's all of us, right? There's a beauty in that. There's a beauty in believing God.

There's a beauty in trusting him when we can't trace his hand like we see with this man. Peter reminds us in 1 Peter 1:7, "The tested genuiness of your faith is more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ." So your faith is so precious to God that he lets us be tested. He lets us not be able to trace his hand for the express purpose of trusting in his heart so that we don't just want the things of Jesus but we want Jesus himself and we find ourselves at a very exhausting place walking uphill uh in our faith journey and we get a get a better understanding we get a better sense we get a better vision that that he's not just trailing behind us he's walking ing ahead of us. And before we know it, we realize we're not just walking uphill in this faith journey. We're being carried uphill because that's the nature of Jesus Christ.

That's what he came to die to do, right? That's why he rose after three days so that we could have a faith so that we could have something that wasn't just about what we can get, but it's something that would remind us of what we've been given over and over and over again. So, let me pray. And I'm going to pray that the Lord would give us just a a greater sense of his heart for us this morning as we consider just all the different places we might be today uh with with our faith. So, would you bow your heads and pray with me for a minute here? Lord, I thank you for this time.

I thank you for the district church. And Lord, I thank you for uh Kelsey and Dwayne. Uh, I thank you for the kindness that they have shown Melissa and I. I thank you um for the hospitality that they've shown us. Thank you for the friendship that they've given to us. It's so valuable.

It's been such a meaningful thing for us. And Lord, as we just reflect on our faith and this man's faith, this nobleman who was just at the very beginning of that uphill mountain. Lord, we think about our own lives. We consider what you're doing. We consider not knowing what you're doing. But we know who you are.

And because we get so many examples in scripture like the way you healed this man's son, we remember that you are doing that work in our lives. We don't always get to see it the way that we want to see it, but we have the benefit of believing it because we know it's true and we've seen the evidence of that truth. So Lord, draw us back to you this morning, Lord. Wherever we find ourselves, whatever difficult place we find ourselves in, whatever prayer is not being answered the way we wish it could be answered, Lord, we know that you listen to our longings. We know that you care about our fear and our faith. And we know that you are blessing us in this battle to believe.

You're a father who shows compassion on his children. And I pray for for us to hear that and to receive that and to refocus our eyes on you, the author, the perfector of our faith. We thank you that you are good to do this. We pray all these things in Jesus name. Amen.