OPENING REMARKS

I don't know about you guys, but I wanted to hear more from the kids. I definitely did. it's great to have them sing and to show us what they were learning this weekend. so glad, so grateful for our church family. We had so many people who if we were paying them an hourly wage, we couldn't afford how many how much how many hours they poured into serving for VBS this week. And just so grateful, had such a great time this past weekend. Glad to be able to celebrate that this morning and kinda culminate things today. I do want to encourage you as you go out today and as Rosalie talked about those boxes, give generously and hey, help Pastor Nathan out a little bit out there.

All right, to today's sermon. I just want you to be aware that our midweek Bible studies resume again this week. So on Wednesday nights at seven o'clock, our men and women get together. We're studying Galatians right now, so that's back on this Wednesday at seven.

And then also our youth group, which meets kind of sporadically throughout the summertime, they're meeting this Wednesday at 6:30 as well. So that's anybody grades six through twelve, they can be here and have that time together, which will be great.

One last thing about our calendar for the week then. One of the things that's important to us as a church that matters so much is prayer. And I would say that much of the fruit that we've seen over these past few days for VBS is a result of fervent prayer. And so this Thursday at seven o'clock is our prayer gathering, and I know all of you will be there, right? By attending this morning, you have agreed. No, I just kidding, but that'd be awesome. I hope you can come. I'd love to have you there for that this Thursday. We need to continue to go to the Lord in prayer and ask him for his help in all areas of life.

I'm excited to open up God's Word with you this morning. If you have your Bibles, let's go to Genesis chapter twelve.

GENESIS RECAP

if you're new to our church, what we do is we go through a book of the Bible and kind of teach section by section, and right now we're in the book of Genesis and we have made it all the way to chapter twelve. In the next couple of chapters, we see how God rescued through the flood and Noah in Genesis 6 through 9. And last week we looked at the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11, and now we're going to be introduced to a man named Abram or Abraham. I will just say on the front end, I will be using both those names, Abram and Abraham. It's the same person. A couple chapters later here in Genesis, God changes his name from Abram to Abraham. We'll talk more about that in a couple weeks. But just show me grace if I say a different one that we're talking about the same person. Alright? So I'm excited to be in that today.

INTRODUCTION

So the question we're going to talk about this morning, what I want to talk about is the question, what does it mean to be a Christian? I thought it'd be really helpful for us to just spend a few moments this morning by looking at the story of Abraham to talk about the question: what does it mean to be a Christian?

One of the most recent statistics for our country is that nearly 75% of those who live in this country claim to be Christians. That just seems wild to me. But what that tells us is that not everyone who claims to be a Christian is really truly a follower of Christ. So I want to talk this morning about what does it truly mean to be a Christian? And this was really highlighted for me. And if you're a regular evident, this is one of the classic Josh stories that gets told. This is you can hear it again, this is for those who are new to our church.

But when we first moved back up here, so my story is I grew up in Port Huron. My dad was a pastor, grew up as a pastor's kid, went off to school, and graduated from college and started serving a church in Indiana. My wife and I moved back here in roughly two thousand seven, two thousand eight to start this church with a a team of people. And we were not prepared for the craziness that is Hall Road. Alright. We went from country roads to Hall Road. And I love the efficiency of Hall Road. I just don't love the craziness of Hall Road. but we were driving down Hall Road with our in our in our vehicle and we were making one of those amazing Michigan lefts and there was a car next to us that said the honk if you love Jesus, had a bumper stick that said honk if you love Jesus. So like all right these people are really friendly. So we honked. And they gave us the one-finger salute. It was the craziest thing. If that was you, I'm glad you're here at church. But welcome to Michigan, right? That's basically what that was.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Christians need to be perfect. That's not what we're saying. And so I want to talk this morning about just that question: what does it mean to be a Christian? What does it mean to be a Christian? Now let me just say this as well before we get into the text. That the good news, which is what we call the gospel the same thing means good news. Starts with bad news, really, that we are sinners in need of a savior. That our sin separates us from God. So many people think that they're going to live a good life and that that's going to be their entrance into heaven, but that's not what the Bible teaches. That's not a good plan.

The Bible says that all of us are under God's righteous or just punishment because of sin. No one gets to pass. No one is good enough. No one lived a perfect life except for Christ. But the good news is that God sent his son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. That if you put your faith and trust in Christ, you can receive forgiveness of sins, and you can receive his righteousness. This is the most beautiful thing that we could possibly know: that in place of our debt, our sin debt, Jesus deposits his righteousness into our account.

I pose this to you. If you were to go to your bank account and supposing there's not already $100 million in your bank account, and you were to open and just look at your bank account and statement you were to see a hundred million dollars in your banking, you'd wonder who broke the law, like what thing happened. But what an amazing thing. And Jesus takes his perfect righteousness, deposits that into your account because of your faith through faith in Jesus Christ. That's the saving message of the gospel. That's the good news. Praise God for that. Like that's how we are saved. And a person begins a relationship with God by turning from sin and by trusting in Christ. And what I want to do is I want to look at the story of Abraham and see a couple of key things that we see that God does in his life, that are also a part of what it means to be a follower of Christ, what it means to be a Christian.

SCRIPTURE READING - GENESIS 12:1-9 ESV

So I haven't read the text yet, have I? Okay. Let's go ahead and stand together. If you're able and will stand together in honor of the reading of God's Word. And then we'll look at this passage and walk through it together. So Genesis chapter twelve, starting in verse one.

“Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” So Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east.”

You guys didn't know Ai was in the Bible, did you?

“And there he built an altar to the LORD and called upon the name of the LORD. And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.”

PRAYER OVER THE MESSAGE

Let's take a moment to pray and ask for God's help. Lord, thank you for these moments. As Cam already prayed and mentioned, help us not to take these for granted. Lord, I know there's a lot of distractions. But I pray that you'll help to kind of cut through that and help us to be focused and dialed in for just a few moments. God, more than anything, as we pray often, we just want to acknowledge what we don't need right now is more fluff. What we don't need right now is more of what the world has to offer. What we need right now is an encounter with the living God. So God, you are powerful to save. You are powerful to do that and to draw each one of us to yourself by your grace. Help sort out the cobwebs, the lies and deceit, and I pray that God you'd help us to build on the foundation of truth. Thank you just even for your mercy and grace right now. Please use this time, God, for your for our good and for your glory in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated.

MESSAGE

So what does it mean to be a Christian? What does it mean to be a Christian? I don't know if you know this or not, but Abraham's a pretty big deal. Abraham's a pretty big deal in the Bible. He's one of the most significant figures in the scriptures. I don't know if you know this as well that all three major world religions, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, all trace their roots back to this man, Abraham. The New Testament, the first book of the New Testament, the book of Matthew, begins with the genealogy of Jesus, and it begins with Jesus tracing his genealogy from Abraham.

We read this in Matthew 1, verses 1 and 2. It says:

“the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”

Then it goes into the genealogy. Abraham was the father of Isaac and traces all the way down to the person of Jesus. Side note, the Gospel of Luke traces Jesus' genealogy back to Adam, the very first man. So Jesus is a real historical person. The Bible describes his genealogy. I just challenged by that real quick side note. How far back can you go in your genealogy? Grandparents. Great grandparents? Maybe not. Jesus' genealogy is traced all the way back to Abraham, all the way back to Adam.

And so Abraham and his family have been called by God to travel from an area we talked about last week in what modern-day southern Iraq. I think we have a picture. And so God calls Abraham and his family to travel from Ur of the Chaldeans to the promised land. And they venture through what's called the Fertile Crescent, following some of the common trade routes, and they stop and get paused in Haran. That's how the end of chapter 11 ends. And then from there, Abraham and his family continue on from Haran down south through what's now modern-day Israel. They stop at a couple places to build altars and to worship God. This is the call of Abraham.

But what I want to do this morning is just use what God does in Abraham's life as an illustration of what he does in all of our lives by giving us a call of faith. And the first thing I want us to notice in what we read this morning is number one this that God calls us to leave our former way of life. That when God calls someone to follow Christ, He calls them to leave their former way of life.

Look at what God says in verse 1, Genesis 12, verse 1.

“Says now the Lord said to Abram, Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.”

So God calls Abram to leave his country, to leave his family and to leave his father's house. And the land that Abraham was living in was known to be a place of great sin and great wickedness. And God was calling Abraham to separate himself from them, to worship him. God called him to leave that place, to be different than those around him and to follow him. And that oftentimes happens. God calls us. He may not call you to leave your country. He may not call you to leave specifically your family, but he does call you to leave your former life when he calls you to walk with him as a follower of Christ. God calls Abraham to step out in faith.

If you look again at verse 12, he says,

“Go to a land that I will show you.”

That's often how the call of faith works, isn't it? I wish that it was an exact like here's the itinerary. That'd be nice. But often the call of faith is just that. It's a call of faith. God, I will step out in faith and trust you. I don't know where the destination is. Now, thankfully, we do know the ultimate destination for those who are those of us who are alive in Jesus Christ, right? What's the ultimate destination for those who are believers? Heaven, right To the unknown, trusting God. That's what it means to be a Christian, that God calls us to leave our former way of life, to trust Him. And for some of you this morning, God is calling you right now to leave your former way of life and to trust and follow him. I don't know each one of you, but I know enough in a room like this to know that there are some of you this morning that know that you can't keep living the way that you're currently living. You know that that the life you're living right now, it cannot continue. You have to choose.

Not surprisingly, since my name is Josh, but my first my sorry my favorite book of the Bible is the book of Joshua. A little biased, but I love the last part of the book of Joshua, when the leader of God's people calls all the assembly together and basically says, You need to choose this day. Are you going to serve the gods of the people who dwell here, or are you going to serve Yahweh? The one true God. And Joshua says this line, you've probably heard this line. Joshua says, as for me and my house, what? We will serve the Lord. We will serve the Lord. The temptation for us when we hear the call of God, the call of faith to follow him, the temptation for us is to get part of the way and then to be called back to the old life. I'm sure that's not happened with anybody in this room.

There's this call, we step out in faith, we're all excited to follow God, and then life happens and pressure, and it's so easy to go back or to get stuck part way. And that's similar to what happened with Abraham and his family. They're called from Ur the Chaldeans and they get paused in Haran. That's so easy to do. That's the temptation is to stop part of the way. But the call to follow God is a call to follow him fully and not just in part.

This is what Jesus said in Mark chapter 12, verse 30. He said:

“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.”

Not part of with all of it. So the call to follow God is a call like Abraham to leave your former way of living.

Now the next thing I want you to see in this passage is number two that God's pro God promises to bless us, excuse me, beyond what we can imagine. God promises to bless us. If you choose to trust God, now let me just give a quick pause. I promise this is not a prosperity gospel sermon. If you're unfamiliar with that teaching, there are some who teach that if you choose to follow God, that God will fill your life with blessing after blessing after blessing in an earthly sense, and that's not true. You're like preach. All right preach, brother.

But there is blessing that comes through trusting in Christ that is far beyond anything that this world can offer. Look at what God promises to Abraham in verse 2.

“God says to Abraham, I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you, I will curse”

So you might notice in those verses, four times God says, I will, I will, I will. I'll make of you a great nation, I'll bless you and make your name great, I'll provide protection for you, and then I through you I will bless all the families of the earth. Now I do want to clarify, it's important for us to understand that these promises are made to uniquely to Abraham, okay? So God's not promising to make you into a great nation. And you're like, oh man, that was my aspiration, that's my goal. , that's not a promise given to you. , these promises are specifically given to Abraham, but in Christ, God does bless us in so many ways. God provides through Christ forgiveness of sins, life everlasting, full and abundant life, peace and joy and fulfillment. All those things are guaranteed in Christ. Promise to those who put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Amen, church.

And all these promises that God makes to Abraham, God does fulfill these promises. God does bless Abraham. And God is faithful 100% to all the promises that he made to Abraham. I want you to notice at the end of verse 2. God says that he will bless him and make his name great, and there's a so that. What's the purpose? It's a so that you will be a blessing. Here's where I want to challenge those who claim the name of Christ. , the temptation is to think that salvation. salvation is all about you. the temptation is to think that all the powers in the universe exist to be pointed in on you and your own good and your own happiness and success. And that just simply isn't true.

God has given us a grander vision in Scripture than just that life culminates toward us and our own happiness. The grander vision is that everything exists to bring glory to God. That you exist to worship and glorify God. And even salvation, it’s for your good, but ultimately it's to bring glory and honor to God. Does that make sense? So God doesn't just bless Abraham just for Abraham's sake, God blesses Abraham so that Abraham would be a blessing. So even in salvation, God doesn't provide salvation for you just so you can be saved, but so that you can serve Christ and be a blessing to those around you. Hopefully that makes sense. The Christian life isn't meant to terminate on you or to end on you, but so that you would serve the Lord Jesus Christ.

Last week I shared about Burger King have it your way and somebody one of our friends here sent this picture I thought this was funny my wife shared it with me this picture. Christ is King. Have at Yahweh. Anyway, it's bet it's it's it's it's it's humorous church humor, but but the point of of all this, the point of the good news is not to culminate on you, it's for glory to God. Jesus died so that you could be saved and that you could live for him and that others be blessed through you. And this promise to Jesus that the whole, sorry, this promise to Abraham that the whole world will be blessed through him is fulfilled ultimately in Jesus. Hopefully you see that. That that through the lineage of Abraham we get eventually ultimately to Jesus and that all families of the earth are able to be blessed through him. You are blessed to be a blessing.

You guys all know what happens to a body of water that doesn't have any fresh water flowing into it and no water flowing out of it? What happens to that body of water? It becomes stale and stagnant and full of mosquitoes, and it stinks really bad. So that's what happens to us as Christians. If you think that life is simply about you and the church is about you and that salvation is about you and the Bible is about you and all these things are about you. There's no growth, there's no life there. It's all about God and his glory. So God saves you. God blesses you in Christ so that you can be a blessing. And you may wonder why something seems like it's missing from your life, and maybe it's this. God's plan of salvation wasn't meant to simply terminate on you, but for you to then live for Christ and serve others to be a blessing.

Ephesians 3:20-21 says:

“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power that is at work within us, to him be the glory in the church, and in Christ Jesus through all generations, for ever and ever. Amen.”

So in Christ, God doesn't promise that life won't be hard, but He does promise that it will be infinitely better than apart from Christ. God promises to bless us beyond our imagination. We place our faith and trust in Christ. Now God initiates this relationship with this covenant with Abraham and Abraham responds in faith, that's number three. That our response is to walk in obedient faith. And these last couple verses, verses four through nine, we follow Abraham's journey as he goes from Haran and ventures down through modern day Israel and he stops along the way to worship God. But I love what verse four says. So Abraham went as the Lord had told him. That is simple obedient faith, isn't it? Abraham, leave your former way of life and follow me. And Abraham's like, well, I've got a five-year plan of my own, and I want to make sure this fits in. I just have a couple questions. I love how simple it is. So Abraham went as the Lord had told him.

It is in many ways like the New Testament says it's childlike faith. The Bible calls us to have faith like a child. So Abraham went. Abraham demonstrated simple, straightforward, obedient faith. And here's how the other parts of scripture talk about Abraham. Genesis 15, verse 6. It says:

“and Abraham believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.”

Again, important clarification. Abraham didn't just believe in God, like I believe God exists. He believed God. He took the word of God and said, God, I believe, I trust your word. I don't just believe in you. I don't just believe that you exist like the like the tooth fairy. I don't just for the record, I don't believe the tooth fairy exists. Anyway, I don't personally believe that. If you anyway That's what happens when I was taking my notes, okay? It says Abraham believed God. He trusted God. And that faith, that belief in God was credited to him as righteousness.

Galatians 3:6-9, again talking about Abraham says:

“Just as Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness, so know that those who are of faith, those are sons of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, proclaimed the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, All the nations will be blessed in you. So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.”

So Abraham's going along and he's setting up places of worship in the promised land, the land of Canaan. He's driving a stake in the ground. Saying today I'm making a decision, I'm following God, no more playing games.

So I had the privilege this past week of being a part of vacation bible school. Like I said last week, last two summers I've been out of town and so this week I I had the privilege of being a part of that and Rosalie gave me a really important job. I got to wear this shirt. That was part of my job. I got to wear a lanyard, that's the other important part of my job. And I got to carry around a binder, a folder. It made me look very important. And one of my daughters asked me what my job was, my what my role was. I said, Well, I'm a point person. I point and tell people what to do and where to go. I'm a point person. And she didn't think that was very funny, but I thought it was hilarious. dad jokes, galore. But reminded me of an event that took place in the early days of our church. So before we had this building, we were we met in schools for about ten years, and there was a brand new school that we wanted to rent, but it was it was a brand new school. It hadn't even had its first school year yet. This was the summertime. But I really needed to get inside the school to see if it had the space that we would need as a church to rent. And so I I couldn't get official permission. So I threw on my best pair of khakis and a button up polo and tucked my shirt in and I grabbed a clipboard to make it look like I knew what I was doing and I found a construction entrance that was propped open by somebody. And I made sure it wasn't nighttime. I did it in the daylight, so it didn't look too bad. And I just went around and there were other people there, other tradesmen working and I just kind of went around and like check okay yep check yep and like okay yep check yep it has restrooms great awesome and so I didn't end up in jail, which is awesome.' Thats that's kind of the moral of the story. but I was pretending. Right? I wasn't there on official business, I was just kind of pretending like I belonged. And the thought occurred to me as it relates to this topic of what is a Christian, that there are many people who are simply pretending.

There are a lot of people who are claiming to be Christians, but it's just a name. They're not actually living as followers of Christ. And what I want to encourage you with dads and moms, grandpas and grandmas, friends and family who are here, have you given your life to Christ? Our kids have been have had a great week. They've been poured into by so many this past week. They've been taught the good news of salvation through Jesus, but what about you? The reality is they need parents and grandparents and a church family that is going to raise them in the faith. They need Christian models and examples all around them. The truth is that you can't give them what you don't have. The most important thing you can give them is your own genuine authentic relationship with God. You can't lead them places that you haven't also gone. So God is calling you this morning, the call of faith to walk with Him.

Hebrews 11:6 says:

“without faith, it's impossible to please God. Without faith, it's impossible to please God.”

Let me read to you an extended passage from the book of Hebrews about Abraham. Hebrews 11:8-16 says:

“By faith, Abraham, when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance Him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has its foundations, whose designer and builder is God. By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore, from one man and him as good as dead. I love that. Sorry, Abraham. Therefore, from one man and him as good as dead were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven, and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore. These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, having acknowledged that they were strangers in exiles on earth. For people who speak this way, make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country. That is a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to call their be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.”

God's called us to follow him in faith. Excuse me. I was reading this past week and was challenged by one of the illustrations that I read. I think this describes a lot of people when it comes to faith in God, and I thought I would just read that for us for just a moment. Here's what it says. This person writes:

“I would like to buy about three dollars worth of gospel, please. Not too much, just enough to make me happy, but not so much that I get addicted. I don't want so much gospel that I learn to really hate covetousness and lust. I certainly want don't so much that I start to love my enemies, cherish self denial, and contemplate missionary service in some alien culture. I want ecstasy, not repentance. I want transcendence, not transform I'd like to be cherished by some nice, forgiving, broad-minded people, but I myself don't want to love those from different races, especially if they smell. I would like enough gospel to make my family secure and my children well behaved, but not so much that I find my ambitions redirected or my giving too greatly enlarged. I would like about three dollars worth of gospel, please.”

And if and if that doesn't describe our culture as it relates to this idea of being a Christian, I don't know what else does. There are people who want just enough Jesus to make their life easy. But that's not the way that it works. God calls us to surrender. He calls us to die to ourselves and to trust Christ. Do you hear the call of God to walk in faith?

So every summer for the last probably fifteen years our family has had the privilege to travel up to Port Austin for family vacation, always around the 4th of July. And if you're unfamiliar, Port Austin is about two hours straight north, and it's kind of like Lake Michigan, but on this side of the state. It's really, really beautiful and quaint up there. And we have a house that we go there and stay at, and when our kids were little, they used to call it our vacation house. It's not our vacation house, but someone lets us use it. And on the wall is an old rotary or dial phone. So the first couple years we had to explain to them what it was. If you're unfamiliar with what it is, take it take a Kleenex box and attach it to the wall. And you have to, you know, kind of put your finger and kind of dial the number. If you mess up, you have to start all over again. if you have like big numbers like nines and eights, it's like takes forever. and then you have these really long cords that the phone's connected to. it's really interesting. So when we were growing up, we had that kind of phone and I remember sitting at the the kitchen table for dinner and my dad was also a pastor and so the phone would ring often. but at dinner time he would take the phone off the hook and yeah so that's what you if you don't want to be dis interrupted you had to take the phone off the hook. And then you had to let it be for an insane amount of time, this annoying beep like I know some of you are twitching, you're bringing back I'm bringing back some trauma, but and then it eventually would stop doing that and then when someone would try to call, they would just get that that busy tone and they couldn't get through. Do you guys remember this? Okay, all right, a few of you do. Yes, I see those hands. I see those hands. So I was thinking about that as an illustration for this idea of God calling. That God is calling.

God is calling you to trust Him by faith. He's calling you to leave your old life behind and to walk with him anew by faith. But just kind of taking that analogy even further, is there a busy signal when God's trying to call you to walk by faith? I just I don't have time for that right now. Too many other things that I want to accomplish, want to do. Is there anybody even answering the phone? Or do you gladly I remember they'd say they'd pick up the phone, you know, somebody would pick up the phone and say and you know call out and say, hey, so and so is calling, it's for you. And if you want to have a private conversation, you have to take the really long cord and go into a a separate room. The core would get all stretched out they until finally made that amazing device and sold it on all those sales shows on TV. But are you gladly receiving the call by God to walk in faith. Is God calling? Will you answer the call to give your life to Christ? Will you walk in obedient faith? Will you answer the call to live as a Christian?

CLOSING PRAYER

Let's pray. Father, I thank you for the privilege of these few moments together, and I pray that this would be fruitful and productive for you and for your glory and for your purposes. God, thankfully, you know every human heart. You know where each person is in their walk with you. And you know those who are discouraged and doubting they've stopped partway or maybe those who maybe are for the first time hearing about the good news of Jesus Christ. God, I pray that you would by your spirit, by your power, you draw us closer to you and give us faith. God, thank you for the immeasurable riches that we have in Jesus Christ. For those who are believers, who are followers of Jesus, I pray that you remind them, remind us of how much you have blessed us in Christ and the home that you're preparing for us in heaven. God help us to serve you and to serve others faithfully. To realize that you've blessed us in order to be a blessing. God, I pray that our faith would be real. God, I thank you for this time to be together. I thank you for our kids this week. I thank you for all the work that was poured into that. Every ounce of energy that was given, every prayer that was prayed, every word that was spoken. That these are real life and death issues. So God, thank you for your work that happens in the unseen. I would give you praise for it. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.