Growing More Like Jesus Everyday

I love to tell stories. My dad's here today. My dad is here, yes.

My mom is watching from heaven and very thankful for that. A lot of friends and family are here. I can't take the time to figure out who made it to first service and who's in second service. But you know who you are and you know you mean the world to me and love telling stories. Grew up in a home where my dad told a lot of stories and dad was a pastor.

I'm a preacher's kid and I love the church.

I know a lot of preacher's kids that don't.

But I'm grateful that I can because I'm grateful for my mom and dad and the legacy that they gave and the way that they love Jesus. And my dad would always tell stories and I fell in love with stories. So I find it to be one of the Jesus ways of teaching. He tells a story and then he tries to help you understand the spiritual principle behind the story. And it helps me because I have shiny object syndrome and stare out the window too much.

Stories help me.

As much as you guys have honored us and blessed us today, can't say thank you enough. But today it's Sunday morning. It's time to preach the gospel. It's time to get our eyes on Jesus. And so do my best.

Fourth of July. Earlier of this year, Tamsy and I had gone to a place that we love very much. Some of you may have been to before. Waynesville, North Carolina, a little mountain town, Lake Genaluska. Fourth of July, I think I took a photo.

We were there there. If you've never been, it's a beautiful little town. They should give me a kickback for stuff like this, but they don't. Working on that. But we love it there.

Our dear friends Carlton and Taryn Bell had introduced that place to us years ago. We always enjoy it. And on this time, Tamsy and Eden and I were there. And I went for a walk one morning and found the Green Hill Cemetery, actually probably the prettiest spot in the city. And I'd never, never been through there.

I've been there many, many times, but had never gone through the cemetery. And I'm that weird guy that will just go walk through the cemetery and read gravestones. I'm not morbid. I know that's kind of scary sounding to some people, but you know, it's amazing to me a person's story is held in that dash between the two dates, right. And the lives, the people they've impacted, the things that they have been through.

And I was just walking through the cemetery, probably a few photos for you. And I came across the gravestone of a man named William Holland Thomas. I'd never heard of him before. I was fascinated by his tombstone there. There was a little marker.

I began to read that in the 1800s. He was born and raised right there in the Waynesville area. And at age 13, he had become a clerk at a trading post with the Cherokee Indian. And he, by age 13, started learning the Cherokee language, which is not an easy language to learn. But he loved the people.

He made a connection with them. And matter of fact, he got so connected with them, the chief kind of adopted him into the tribe.

And in doing so, William got more acquainted with the needs and the plights of the people and began to advocate for them among his own Native people there in Waynesville.

And so by 1839, Chief Yongasuka was dying, and he made William the chief of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians. I don't know that this has ever happened in American history. I like to read. I've not come across it again. But in Waynesville, North Carolina, William Holland Thomas became the chief of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians as a white European man because he had fallen in love with these people and he advocated for them.

He went on to become a lawyer. He went on to become a North Carolina state senator. He helped them purchase much of western North Carolina so that when Indians were being removed from their land, they were able to say, actually, we own this. He protected them and helped them. And matter of fact, he's still remembered to this day.

If you go to Cherokee, North Carolina, there's a play that's been going for 75 years called unto these Hills. He's part of that journey. In that play, I came across that story. I came across his gravestone. I began to study, and I was just fascinated by it.

But when I continued to read, I learned that as beautiful as that was, he later actually started having mental challenges and ended his life in the mental health system and perished in Morganton, having pretty much lost his mind. And the people that were writing the article said one of the speculations was that he had such a hard time justifying how his own people were treating the Cherokee. He had a hard time loving his own, but he loved people that were different than him. And when I read that, I felt like the Holy Spirit reminded me, it's not either or, it's both. And we live in a time when a lot of people in the church are Rallying to a lot of causes, and they're coming behind things that I think are very important, and they're rallying to the cause and they're pouring their love out for refugees and orphans and difficult things and situations in Ukraine and Russia and the Middle east and Gaza and Israel.

There's so many things. And yet I also run into people that have a hard time loving their brother and sister in the church.

And I just felt like on this final message, as a pastor on staff at the refuge, I just wanted to talk about the journey to love that God's taken us on. And I believe he wants all of us to go on. Because first John says this. First John 3, 14, 16. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love each other.

There's many passages in the scripture that tell us that we are supposed to love the broken, we're supposed to love the lost. I am not saying that the scriptures do not tell us that. What I'm telling you is we have got to love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Verse 15.

Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. Verse 16. This is 1st John 3:16. So if you want a good verse to remember, right, we know John 3:16.

Here's one. John 3:16. This is how we know what love is. Jesus Christ laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and our sisters. It's been said before that an expert this is in the business community always makes me laugh.

But an expert is anybody that lives 50 miles away from here.

If you think about it for a second, what they're saying is it's just hard to trust and listen to the people, you know all their stuff. For some reason. It's easier for us to receive from somebody who's got a shiny website or lives out of town and they come in and their teeth are white, you know, and they can tuck their shirt in, you know, and they just look so. But we don't know their stuff. So somehow we're more impressed when the truth is maybe the person sitting beside us could have told us the same thing.

We've just dismissed their value because they're one of us. Can I tell you something today?

I love you. I just love you. I want you to know I mean it. I want to tell you there's so much beauty and value in the person sitting right beside you right now. The Church of Jesus Christ is to be a shock and wonder to the world around us because all of us can be impressed with shiny people somewhere else.

And I'm not saying those shiny people are bad. I'm just saying how about we don't just love them, how about we love one another?

If you've got your Bibles, I want you to turn to Proverbs Chapter three. Proverbs Chapter three, a really well known passage. And then if you're able to put a marker or slide over, you can also mark 1 Peter 1. Just going to read a couple passages today from those two places and if you have your Bibles, you can get there. Would you stand?

I'm going to read a portion of Proverbs 3. We're going to honor God's Word this morning and as you're finding it as you stand. If I haven't met you, my name's Nathan. I know you've heard a lot about that today. If this is your first time here, I am so sorry that you were having to put up with this.

I had no idea about the life size cutout. I want y' all to know that right now. I want to go on record and say had no clue that's what that was. But I've already thought of fun games I could play with that by posting it in people's offices or something. So we're going to pray about that.

But grateful that you're here in the house of the Lord. You're in a great church. Let's honor God's word. I'm read Proverbs 3, verses 1 through 6. My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart, for they will prolong your life many years and bring you peace and prosperity.

Let love and faithfulness never leave you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all of your heart.

Lean not on your own understanding in all your ways. Submit to him and he will make your path straight. Can we make a declaration we make every single week here at the refuge over this word we just read? Are you ready? Let's say it together.

Go. I will hide this word in my heart that I might not sin against God. This word is life to my body and health to my bones. I will be a doer of the word and not a hearer only. And I'm confident of this that he who has begun a good work in me will complete it in Jesus name.

Why don't you hug Somebody give them a high five. You don't know them. Introduce yourself and let's have a seat.

Proverbs, chapter three, especially the first part, very popular, very well known passage of scripture. So I was meditating on this journey to love, this idea that sometimes we can love people that are far away, but have a hard time loving the ones that are in the room with us. How do we get there? How do we go on that journey? And I can just say that it's a lifelong journey, so if you've stumbled a bit, you've stubbed your toe a bit, that's okay.

It's a journey. Let's just keep moving, right? Don't stop there, don't have a pity party, don't post it on Instagram, you know, just get up and let's keep moving because there's incredible people around us and we will not make it without one another. And so as I was meditating on this, Proverbs came to mind because I was reminded of a photo that our good friend Marcelo took of us years ago. Actually, I think they have it us on this little journey together.

So this is 20 years ago. That's me, that's Tamsy, that's her hair, doing amazing things. We don't really know how it did that. It's the supernatural touch of the Holy Spirit. And then that is.

That's our 21 year old. That's our daughter Ella, and that's at Franklin's park for those that are trying to figure it out. I saw the gears turning, so I'm just going to tell you where it's at. I was thinking about this photo because it really encapsulated so much of what we felt. We had no idea where we were going or how we were going to get there.

But we really did believe in what Pastor Jay said. We believe God put it in our hearts to be a part of this.

I didn't know. Later, Marcelo would take that photo and he turned it into a little poster that sat on the nursery walls at Central Drive for I don't know how many years. Eight years? Nine years. For those of you that can see it.

And on there as part of the decoration, if I can fight the glare, it says Proverbs, chapter 3, verse 5 and 6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways, acknowledge him and he'll make your path straight. And when we moved from Central Drive to build this building, we were getting things moved out of the Central Drive building. I took this off the wall and I stole it.

So Pastor J and Mellie, confession, it's part of it. So I just need to confess this right now. I took it, and I'm not sorry. I just want you all to know.

I figured since it was us, I could take it. But I just wanted to confess it publicly, that I've kept it ever since. And as you guys know, I probably won't throw it away. I keep all kinds of stuff. It means something to me.

I remember not knowing how it was going to go. I remember being scared. I remember. And many of you know what this is like. Starting new relationships, starting new businesses, starting new families, trying to build a house, trying to build a legacy.

There's so many things we don't know, and we're called to love. Well. And I just would say to you, rather than give you a bunch of great information today, I just want us to rehearse. How can we love well? How do we go on this journey to love so that we can succeed in the end?

So I'm going to give you a few thoughts from Proverbs, chapter three, and I'll frame it this way. In our journey to love each other the Jesus way, we must number one, wear love and faithfulness around our necks and let them into our hearts. If we're going to do this the Jesus way, we've got to follow what the scriptures say. Proverbs 3, verse 3. Let love and faithfulness never leave you.

Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart. You know, if a businessman is required to wear a tie and dress shirt every day he goes into the office, then. Then every time he looks in the mirror, he's gonna see it. And every time people encounter him, they're gonna notice it.

And they will notice when it's missing because it's so often there. And it's a reminder to us. Love and faithfulness don't need to be things that where hope show up in our lives, but we need to every morning, like, put it on like a necklace or like a tie. And when we look in the mirror, we're reminded that it's there, there. And that way, when we're not behaving a certain way and love and faithfulness is not being demonstrated, we can be confronted in a loving way.

Wait a minute. I'm supposed to have my tie on today. Wait a minute. I'm supposed to have my necklace on. We wear it around our necks.

It's for our own accountability. It's for others to see. It's a priority in our lives and in a day and age where we all want to have the latest hot take or we want to know what's cool and what's happening and what we're on the front edge of the trend. Can I just tell you? Love and faithfulness are the most beautiful things you could be in touch with.

Wear them around your neck, let them into your heart. The second thing, if we're going to do this the Jesus way on the journey to love, we must not allow our hearts to be compartmentalized. Here's what I mean by this. We trust the Lord with all of our heart. Proverbs 3, verse 5.

Not with all the parts of our heart that we feel okay about, but we've been burned before in relationships. So I don't really trust the Lord as it relates to relationships, but I trust him with my money and I trust him with my business. No, he wants us to trust him with all of our hearts. And that's not always easy. And you're not a bad person if that's hard for you.

Matter of fact, you may have had to learn some coping skills growing up to compartmentalize some things because things weren't good and healthy. But he is good and healthy. And as you come to him, he will decompartmentalize. And all of a sudden you can just trust Jesus, period. Whether it's with your finances, whether it's with your occupation, whether it's with.

Whether it's with your marriage, your relationship, your parenting. You don't have to segment it out and say, God, I'm trusting you here, but I'm manipulating these things over here because I'm terrified. That's the human condition we understand. But perfect love casts out all fear. So you can go to the Word, put that love and faithfulness around your neck, say, I'm going to be at least confronted with it every day.

Am I operating in love? Am I walking in faithfulness? And when you're not, don't get a condition. Just say, okay, I need to put it on today so that I'm confronted again. Let's not compartmentalize our hearts.

One of my favorite verses I pray every day is Psalm 86, verse 11. Teach me your way, O Lord, that I would rely on your faithfulness. Give me an undivided heart that I may fear your name. Fear compartmentalizes our hearts. I trust you.

I don't trust money, and so therefore I trust money. I don't trust you, and therefore. And fear compartmentalizes. Ah, but he wants to give us an undivided heart. And as we walk with that wisdom, then we can journey to love the Jesus way.

You gotta remember the book of Proverbs. King Solomon is writing this, and he starts it in chapter three as a father speaking to his son. He's trying to give godly wisdom so you can live a godly life successful in the Lord. So that's gotta be a reminder today, number three, how do we do this the Jesus way? We've gotta remember it's not our job to figure everything out.

It's actually not our job. And listen, people like me hate this part because I love trying to figure stuff out. I love it. I mean, I like to bang my head against it and figure. That's why my sister was asking me the other day, where do you get all these stories from?

I'm constantly on the hunt for stories because I'm just curious. I just want to know, well, why? Why did they do that? You know, it's exhausting. I'm just gonna tell you right now.

But I do like to try to figure things out. And so this is the part that's the hardest part for me. And lean not your own understanding.

If the verbiage is messing you up, don't lean on your own understanding. That doesn't mean you're not supposed to be informed. That doesn't mean you can't take a class or read a book. That doesn't mean you're not supposed to have any understanding. So, look, if you're using that as an excuse.

Now, look, Mom, I don't listen in class because I'm trying to honor the Lord here, okay? Just trying to be a Jesus person. Pastor Nathan said it, you know. No, it's not that we're not supposed to have any understanding. We're not supposed to rely on it as it relates to honoring and walking with the Lord.

So it's good to have. We're not supposed to lean on it as it relates to our relationship in knowing him. I love what St. Augustine said when he said this. Faith is the first step. Understanding.

Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore, seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand. I think it's the essence of what King Solomon is trying to say to us. If we're going to go on this journey to love, we're going to have to quit trying to figure it all out. Just trust the Lord with all of our heart and say, you know what?

People are messed up. We know that because we have to wake up and look in the mirror. Every single day. And we have to be reminded, dang, you know what I'm saying? Like, I need help, Jesus, please.

You know? And that's every single person. And so we're going to be disappointed and we're going to be frustrated, and I've done all these things and worse. We just can't lean on our own understanding. If we're going to walk in love and do this the Jesus way.

Fourth piece. If we're going to learn how to love this journey the Jesus way, we got to give God the credit and the glory.

Proverbs 3, 6. In all your ways, submit to him. Your version may say, acknowledge him, and he will make your path straight. Do you notice that it's actually not our job to make our path straight?

Like, it really isn't. That's not our part. I have tried to make my path straight. I don't know how many times, you know? No, he makes the path straight.

We lean on him. We trust in the Lord. Right. I think I put it in your notes. The net result of having reached for these things is that he makes our paths straight.

We don't have to give God the credit and the glory in anything that you've done well. Give God the credit and the glory in the things that you've messed up and you wish you could do it over again. Give God credit and glory that you're not done. And it doesn't define everything. Any good, anything, any stories, anything you would hear from me and my family in this season as they're being so kind to honor these 21 years that we've gotten to play the role that we've played.

It is because Jesus has been taking us on a journey to love. That's all it is. If you hear it, it's because there were tears shed of us having to look in the mirror and say, oh, God, my heart's not right. Oh, God, I've got to go apologize. Oh, God, I need to extend a little more grace and a little more forgiveness.

If there's anything good, it's because the Lord's been working it in us and he's been working it out of us. And if you bump into any amazing people in this room and there's so many and you see God doing great things in them, you know what it is? It's them trying to journey. It's them trying to journey to love with the Lord. And the Lord's challenging them.

Hey, you need to be a little more patient with your speech. You need to bite your tongue a little Longer. You need to be a little more humble. You just need to serve a little more. Can I just tell you something?

That's the beauty of the church. It only happens when we come together and we help each other on this road.

It's our call on that journey. You've got to celebrate along the way. You've got to celebrate along the way. Tamsy and I learned we've been married 25 years. We joke 18 of the happiest years of our lives.

You know what I'm saying? That was a joke. You were supposed to laugh at that. But we go through hard things, right? Things are challenging, but you've got to learn.

And this was a phrase we learned probably 10 years into our marriage. Let it count. Let it count. Everyone's trying their best. We're trying.

When people give their effort and it doesn't meet every need that you have. Let it count. Let it count. Let's extend some grace. We're all trying to get there.

And along the way, let's celebrate God's faithfulness. Celebrate it. Pick up markers. The staff blessed me so much this week. They all came and shared stories and they all had little trinkets, or one of my friends calls them tchotchkes and little things because I'm a collector of random stuff.

It's because there's a story connected to it. It's because it reminds me of the person. And they all had little things and shared little stories. And, you know, we have to have those markers, those mementos of. Wait a minute.

God's been faithful and he's brought me this far. Matter of fact, it's a biblical principle in First Samuel, chapter seven. I'll just read it to you quickly. You don't have to turn there. There's a passage that talks about Samuel caring for the people of Israel.

Here's what it says. Then Samuel took a stone, he set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called it, called its name Ebenezer. For he said, till now the Lord has helped us. So the Philistines were subdued and did not again enter the territory of Israel. The hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel.

The cities that the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Makron to Gath. And Israel delivered their territory from the hand of the Philistines. There was peace between Israel and the Amorites. Why do I tell you this? Samuel got some stones and he stacked them together.

And this is just a little picture, my friends. Al And Angie gave me. But this is just a picture, a miniature of what it would look like. They'd be much bigger than this. Because the idea was, when you have experienced the goodness of the Lord, don't just say, well, that was neat, and move on.

You've paid too much. There's too many tears that have been shed. There's too many prayers that have been prayed. No, you've journeyed hard and long. When the Lord shows up big in your life, you've got to get something weighty.

And you got to mark that moment. And then you got to mark it again. And you got to mark it again. And it's got to stack. You know why?

Because the next part of the journey might be hard too. And you need to see that every time you walk by and say, wait a minute, he's been good. He's. I remember when we didn't have any money. I remember when we didn't have health insurance and we had to go.

I remember when the cars kept breaking down. I remember. And we didn't know what we were going to do. I remember when we got let go. I remember.

And he was faithful. Ebenezer is a funny name. We typically associate it now with Christmas carols. I love that my daughter is actually going to be part of a production with Joe Phillips called the Ebenezer Experience because Dickens picked his name for a reason. In Ebenezer, in Hebrew, it's Eben Ha'.

Atzer. Eben Ha'. Atzer. It's a compound word. Eben is stone.

Ha' atzer is help. It's a reminder that God helped me make it this far.

I don't know what you're walking through right now. I don't know where you are on your journey to love. Please keep love and faithfulness around your neck. Remind yourself every day, God, am I walking in love? Am I walking in faithfulness?

And if you're not, we still love you. Just put it on, bind it around your neck. Trust the Lord with all your heart. Don't compartmentalize it. Don't give him some.

Give him. Give him all. Is that easy? No. It's a journey.

But let's keep on the journey. In all your ways, acknowledge him. He'll make your path straight.

We've experienced so many beautiful things in our 21 year journey. We hope to experience more as being part of the church family. I am traveling a lot in the next six weeks, so if you don't see me much on Sundays, I wasn't lying. Just got a lot going on right now, my family's going to be here. I'm going to be here as often as I can, especially in this next season with tour.

But I want to finish this message with this.

My buddy Carter wrote me a little note not too long ago.

He gave me a rock.

He wrote me a prophetic word. How old is Carter? Is he 10? Something like that? Close to it.

Sorry, he's my friend, but I can't remember how old he is. Carter, I love you. He gave me this. It says, just as this stone is solid, may you always stand strong in the Lord who is your sure foundation.

You know, it's a stacked stone. It's a reminder. I have so many cherished memories here. We'd be here all day if I started talking about them. But I won't cherish the events and the services and the moments near as much as I will the lives of the people who have been kind enough to say that we played any role in them coming to know Jesus in their family, being restored in them knowing what it's like to bless their parents or bless their kids.

Peter said it this way. I asked you to turn to first Peter. We'll turn there quickly now as we finish First Peter, chapter one.

This is what he says. Now that you've been purified. Excuse me. Now that you've purified yourself by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love, watch for each other, love one another deeply from the heart.

For you've been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through the living and enduring word of God. Therefore, rid yourself. Come on, Church. Come on, Church. I know it's hard.

Rid yourself of malice and deceit and hypocrisy and envy and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies crave pure spiritual milk so that by it you may grow up in your salvation. We've been in a series on spiritual maturity.

Now that you've tasted that the Lord is good as you come to him, the living stone, rejected by humans, but chosen by God, precious to him, you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in scripture it says, see, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen, precious cornerstone. And the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame. Jesus is our cornerstone. We root ourselves on Him.

But can I tell you, each of us are to be stones of remembrance. Your life in my life. When I come across you and I remember. I remember the day their marriage was restored. I remember the day we prayed for them to have babies and now they have them.

I remember the day that God did a healing work. I remember when they started the business, we didn't know how it was going to go, and now it's thriving. I remember it's stacked stones and the room is full of it. You have so much opportunity to hear so many stories of God's faithfulness. Love one another.

Well, get over your stuff.

Get over your stuff. I'm not saying it's easy. I'm not saying. Listen, I get it. I got stuff.

We all got stuff. We're trying to finish this thing. Well, we want to root ourselves on the firm foundation. It's a journey that love. Can we learn to love?

Well, that's our commitment. That's our call. So let me say this. Thank you for loving my family. Well, thank you for walking with us as we continue to learn how to love the Jesus way.

Marcelo took us back to Frank List park the other day. I think there's a photo of it as I turn around and stare at this wall. There it is.

It's the same spot.

Ella's still in the middle. I'm a little chubbier than I was. Tamsie looks amazing. Owen and Eden showed up over the last 21 years, and I'm so grateful they have.

We still don't fully know where it's all going, but we're going to do our best to trust the Lord with all of our heart and lean not on our own understanding in all of our ways. Acknowledge him and ask him to make our path straight.

I want to pray for you. I want to ask you to search your own heart and just ask the Lord where you are on your journey to love. It takes a lot of twists and turns. We get hurt. We get frustrated.

The church. The church will disappoint you. Oh, my gosh. Come on. We're just people.

And it's a masterclass of learning how to love one another. Well, if we'll choose to. And Pastor Jay and Melanie have loved me and my family well, and they've been very patient with me. They've allowed me to grow up. I was 24 when I started.

I'm not 24 anymore.

I didn't have any of this gray hair.

I'm going to ask my family to come and join me. We want to be part of the prayer team today, if that's okay. Pastor jml. We want to be part of the prayer team. And I just want to say this the greatest way you could honor me or my family is to love Jesus, to love his people and love the world around you.

The Jesus way. Not perfect. We're all, we're all a work in progress.

But you know, today, if you're on your journey to love and just in a rough patch, your heart's divided, you're frustrated, just not sure. It's easier to love the people way out there and harder to love the ones in here. Can I ask you today, let's just do business with God. Let him do a good work in us so that he'd be glorified. Would you agree to that?

Would you stand all across the room today? I'm going to pray and then we're just going to join the prayer team. As the prayer team comes, I'll have me and my kids, we're just going to be a part. If we can pray for you, for anything, if we can serve you in any way. First of all, our family loves you deeply.

Second of all, if you're new to the refuge, you have found a great church with great people that will love you well, be patient with you, let you go on your own journey, and we'll get a chance to journey together. So as I pray, I ask Pastor Trent to sing over us, but ask our prayer team to come. You've never given your life to Jesus. Today is a great day to respond to him. You know, you're struggling on the journey to love.

Well, today's a great day to come and be prayed for. We'll journey with you, we'll partner with you. Let me pray. Father, in Jesus name, would you take this word and multiply it? God, would you instruct our hearts?

Would you do a new thing in us? We're on this journey to love the Jesus way. God, if we've gotten hung up, Lord, if we find ourselves rallying to causes but then not loving your church, well, God, would you just convict us? God, if we've bumped into others and it's hurt our feelings or offended us, God, would you just help us get to that place of love today that we would repent, that we'd say, lord, teach me the Jesus way. God, if we haven't put love and faithfulness on our neck and we haven't been reminded in a while how important it is, would you check us again?

And God, today I pray that in any way that we've let our hearts become hard, Lord, would you just open our hearts again to love your church, to love your people, to love the mission. The reason that we exist is to see Jesus made glorious in the earth. God help us celebrate well those markers and lead us by your spirit in Jesus name as they lead us in worship. If you need prayer for any reason, would you come people pray with you today.