(This transcript was generated by AI. Apologies for any inacuracies)

Today I wanna talk about getting through tough situations.

Sometimes it's life can be tough, weeks can be tough, days can be tough, shoot, even hours can be tough, right?

Come on, but I want you to turn to somebody before we get started today and say, hey, we're gonna get through this.

Come on, tell them, we're gonna get through this.

Yeah, yeah.

So over the last couple of weeks, I've had the opportunity to spend some time with a few folks who have lost loved ones.

And I know those can be difficult times and difficult moments for us in life when we lose someone that we dearly love.

And sometimes we wonder, man, you know, can I keep on keeping on?

Can I keep on moving forward?

You know, and oftentimes we lose a job, we lose a relationship, a relationship gets messed up and we're like, hey, can I keep on keeping on?

And today I wanna encourage you from God's Word that, you know what, it's not over until he says it's over, come on.

And I do believe we can keep on, keep on, keeping on.

And what we're here for is to celebrate who Jesus is and what he's come to do here on earth in our life and through our life and what he offers us is eternal life.

But we gather every single week to encourage each other's faith in who Jesus is so that we can continue to walk out who he says we are in the earth.

And today we're gonna do that from 2 Corinthians.

If you have your Bible, I wanna invite you to open it up to the book of 2 Corinthians where the writer here writes the church at Corinth.

And this is the fourth letter he actually wrote them.

But as he writes on this letter, he basically sends some words of encouragement about how to keep on keeping on.

The writer here was facing some challenging moments in his own life.

Some people had began to basically hate on this one, the Apostle Paul who had started this church in Corinth.

They were hating on him saying that, you know, God is not working in his life though he was planting churches all over the world.

Come on, somebody.

They were like, God's not working in his life because he's got way too much trouble in his life.

In other words, they were saying, hey, because he's facing so many hardships, you know what, God's not blessing his life and so God must not be connected to his life.

And the Apostle Paul, he writes the church at Corinth and he encourages them, oh, no, I'm truly connected to God whenever I'm in all of this trouble.

And I wanna read to you what he says in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 18.

He says, we don't look at the troubles we can see now, rather we fix our gaze.

Everybody say gaze.

We fix our gaze.

We fix our gaze on the things that cannot be seen.

For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

In other words, he says, we fix our hearts, we fix our mind, we fix our thoughts, we fix our gaze on the things that we have not yet seen.

However, the things we see now won't last forever, but those things that are unseen will last forever.

And he says, you wanna know how I keep on keeping on?

It's where I fix my gaze.

Look at your neighbor and say, fix your gaze.

Go ahead and tell them, fix your gaze.

He says it this way in 2 Corinthians 5, verses 16 and 17.

He says, we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view.

He says, we no longer evaluate everybody from a human point of view, because we know who Christ is, is basically what he's saying.

He goes on to say, at one time, we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view.

How differently, he says, we know him now.

We once thought of him as just a human being, but how differently we know him now that he's resurrected and he's ascended into the heavens.

He says, how differently we know him now.

He says, this means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person.

Everybody say new person.

The old life is gone and the new life has begun.

Basically, what he's saying is, whenever you have this new life in Christ Jesus, and you don't only look at Christ Jesus merely from a human point of view, but you look at it from God's point of view and who Christ truly is and what he's really done, he's saying that you can begin to see things differently.

Because when you view Christ and you see him, what he did in his life here on earth, he went through a lot of trouble.

He went through a lot of challenges.

He went through a cross.

He defeated the grave.

He defeated sin.

He resurrected from that grave.

He revealed himself 40 days after he resurrected from the grave.

And eventually he ascended into heaven and he sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty.

And Paul says, hey, we've learned to look through a new lens.

It's not what we see here and now, but it's what we see in the future because we know who Christ is.

Come on, put your hands together if you know who God is today.

You can get through it.

You're gonna get through it.

You're a new person in Christ Jesus.

You're a new person in Christ Jesus.

The old is gone, the new has come.

And sometimes when people respond to the gospel, the good news of who Jesus is, they're like, well, shoot, I don't feel so new.

But you gotta change your gaze because Christ has come to make you new.

He's come to make all things new, but you have to begin to focus not on what is just seen, but on the true things that are unseen.

It's not denying the truth of what is seen.

The truth of what is seen is what it is.

But just because what you see is what it is doesn't mean what God says won't ever, ever happen.

And so we have to believe the truth of God's Word and the truth of who Christ truly is and the truth of what God's gonna do if we're gonna get through the challenges in this life.

We're going to get through the hard times.

We can get through the tough times.

Jesus, he's been declared when he was here physically on earth.

He says, in this world, you will have a trouble.

But he turned to his disciples and he said, take heart.

Everybody say, take heart.

He could have just said, fix your gaze.

He said, take heart because I have overcome the world.

And what Jesus is saying is, listen, learn to change your gaze because I have revealed to you who God is.

I've revealed to you God's plan for your life.

I've revealed to you God's power for your life.

I've revealed to you God's purpose for your life.

And truly, if we can grab hold of this today, we can keep on keeping on whenever things happen.

Again, the writer here who is writing the church at Corinth, he was going through some difficult moments.

People were hating on him.

Anybody ever had somebody hate on him?

People were hating on him and basically saying, he wasn't worthy to talk about the good news of who God is.

He must not truly be a follower of God because he had trouble in his life.

And Paul says, yeah, I have trouble in my life, but I have a gaze that gets me through the trouble.

And today we're gonna learn how to look through that different lens.

How to begin to look through the lens that God calls us as Christ followers to look through so that we can get through the difficult moments.

It doesn't mean that life isn't going to bring hardships.

Does it mean that life isn't gonna bring difficulties?

And guess what?

You may not even cause them, but the reality of it is you can get through them.

And so many times people don't fix their gaze.

So over the next few minutes, I hope I can encourage us to fix our gaze or look through a different lens and look through the lens of God's plan.

God's plan is laid out for us in 2 Corinthians 5, here in this letter in 2 Corinthians 5, verses one through seven.

He says, for, the writer here tells the church, he says, for we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down, he says, that is when we die and leave this earthly body, earth suit that we live in.

He says, we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands.

He says, we grow weary in our present bodies in these earth suits, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothes.

Anybody like new clothes?

Come on.

I love new clothes.

He says, for we will put on our heavenly bodies, we will not be spirits without bodies.

While we live in these earthly bodies, we've grown inside, but it's not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies or that clothe us right now.

In other words, we don't wanna just be naked.

He says, rather we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up and given away, swallowed up by life.

God himself, he says, verse five, has prepared us for this.

As I guarantee, he has given us his Holy Spirit.

So we were always, he says, we're always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies, we are not home with the Lord.

For we live by believing, he declares, not by seeing.

He says here in this passage of Scripture, God has a plan.

And he has a plan for you in eternity.

That's an amazing thing to grab hold of that we're just passing through.

Today won't last forever.

We're gonna get through it.

We're gonna be able to make it to another day.

We can look forward to something in Christ Jesus.

We don't have to keep these earth suits we're in for our entire eternity.

We're gonna get new ones.

Tell your neighbor you're gonna get a new body.

Tell him you're gonna get a new body.

Come on.

New body.

Man, man, that feels good.

It's gonna be better than going to Neiman Marcus or whatever you say that name of that thing.

It's gonna be awesome.

I don't know the name of all these cool stores, but it's gonna be awesome.

It's gonna be new.

People say, why do you get so many new shoes?

Out of the way, new feels, come on.

People say, why would you stay in a certain hotel where you can stay in a cheaper hotel?

Because I like the way it feels, come on.

If I can afford it, I'm gonna pay for it.

Yeah.

Why would you sleep in a tent where you can sleep in an air conditioner?

That just don't make sense to me.

New.

Paul says, fix your gaze on the things that are to come.

New bodies, new earth, new heavens, new things.

And by the way, where there is no more sorrow.

Where there is no more sadness.

Where there is no more pain.

A new heaven and a new earth.

The writer's like, God's got a plan.

It's an eternal plan.

And though the enemy has snuck in on humanity here on this earth and then sin entered this earth and sin has defiled this earth in its current state.

Guess what?

God's not finished yet, come on.

He's not finished yet.

The writer in Acts chapter three is, Peter helped a lame man walk and the people around Peter was like, you know, what happened to this man?

Peter tells him in Acts chapter three, verse 21, he says, hey, you need to be refreshed.

You need to be refreshed.

He says, you need to be refreshed knowing that the time of restoration of all things is coming.

See, he says, understand who Christ Jesus is.

He defeated death, he rose from the grave, he ascended into the heaven, he's coming back.

And he says, you need to get refreshed in your current state.

And when you trust the gospel of Christ, you can be refreshed because you know that the things of this earth will not last forever.

There is going to be a new heaven and a new earth.

The writers throughout scripture speak of eternity, speak of restoration.

Isaiah 35, he speaks of the restoration of all things, what it will be like, it's going to be amazing.

Isaiah 35, verses three and four, he says, with this news, he says, what you need to do is strengthen those tired hands and encourage those who have weak knees.

Say to those who have fearful hearts, be strong, do not fear, for your God is coming to destroy your enemies, he is coming to save you.

He is gonna make all things new.

Come on, he's got a plan.

Romans chapter eight, Paul says, hey, all of creation groans for this new day, for this restoration.

The rocks are crying out, the animals are crying out.

You know what, the lamb will lay with the lion.

Come on, it's gonna be an incredible, incredible space.

Rivers will run through the deserts.

There will be highways through the wilderness.

Come on, church, he's gonna restore all things.

It ain't gonna be like it is now.

And so, you know, Revelation 21, John, he got a revelation of what it's gonna be.

And he says that in Revelation 21, verse five, he says that Jesus says, I am making all things new.

Man, see, whenever we go through difficult moments, doesn't mean we don't feel sadness, sadness is real.

But we can fix our gaze on the things that are still yet to come.

Whenever we go through difficult moments with our body, our relationships, it doesn't mean that those things aren't painful.

They are real and they are painful.

But you know what, you can begin to have the hope of Christ and who God is and the hope of forever and eternity with God if you'll trust who Christ is and trust that he came to forgive humanity of their sin.

And we can put faith in who he is because he defeated death, he defeated the grave, he rose from the grave, and he still sits in the highest honor waiting to return.

It's not always gonna be this way.

Your best days today don't even compare to what will be.

We can live in the lavish space here on earth, and I'm not knocking anybody who does live in fabulous places, you know, again, if you can afford it, live in it, okay?

All things new, but don't attach yourself to the best days or just the best things and get sucked in to think that is all there will ever be.

I'm telling you, we see dimly now to what will be.

Keep your gaze on the things that is still yet to come.

We're gonna make it, come on.

Keep your gaze on the things that are still yet to come.

Says I am making all things new.

I think about here just a few short months ago when ever I went through this little neck surgery that I had, it was actually a big neck surgery, but as I went through that time, you know, and again, I'm like, man, I don't know if my body will ever get fixed back right.

It still don't feel like it's ever gonna get fixed back.

Right, but you know what, I still keep getting up.

And again, not because I don't hurt and I'm not saying that sometimes, you know, hurt can't keep you down.

I realize sometimes you can be on your back, you can't walk, you can't, but at the end of the day, here's the deal, I have to fix my gaze.

You know what, it ain't gonna stay this way forever.

Come on, it ain't gonna stay, because my Bible says right here in 2 Corinthians chapter five, I'm gonna get a new body.

And so I wanna do the best I can while I'm in this body as I look forward to the new body.

And again, if all you live in right now is what you live in, it doesn't mean don't make the best of what you live in.

I mean, make the best of where you are, make the best of what you're doing, make the best of where, you know, and again, one of the ways you can make that the best is look forward to it, it won't always be that way.

But again, the writer here says, you wanna know how we get through trouble?

We fix our gaze on God's plan.

He is gonna make all things new, it's not final.

Some people ask the questions, you know, why doesn't an all powerful God let these bad things happen?

The reason these bad things happen is because sin entered the world.

Sin means missing the mark of God's glorious standard.

That's what sin means.

The Bible says we have inherited a sin nature, missing the mark of God's glorious standard.

And we don't have to look far from the tree to realize that we have all missed the mark of God's glorious standard.

We have messed up and somebody needs to get it right.

And Jesus came to make it right.

He came to forgive people of their sin, connect them to a living God, so one day we'll be delivered from this world of sin.

And again, God is making all things new.

His plan is being worked out.

He has declared that the enemy and evil will go in the abyss forever.

That's what he has declared.

You know what, has it happened yet?

Absolutely not.

But it will happen and you fix your gaze on the things above, not on earthly things, and begin to trust God for who he is.

Look through the lens of his plan.

What does it mean to fix my gaze?

And get through the moments.

It means I trust God's power.

Look through the lens of God's power.

Look what the writer says in 2 Corinthians chapter four, verses six and seven.

He says, for God said, let there be light in the darkness.

And he has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.

He says, we now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile jars.

We're like broken clay pots.

Have you ever seen a broken clay pot?

He says, we're like fragile jars containing this great treasure.

This makes it clear that our great power, but I say power, is from God, not ourselves.

So he says, look through the lens of God's power.

In other words, when you look at me, hopefully you see brokenness.

Hopefully you see a few flaws.

And when I look at you, I definitely see some flaws.

Come on.

But he says, if you begin to focus on God's power in the light of Christ, you can look through the flaws and you can see the glory of God and the power of God through my flaws and your flaws and the purpose.

So then what God does is he gives purpose to the brokenness so that other people can see his amazing power.

It's like cutting a light on inside of a pot that is completely dark, that has no cracks on it, has no brokenness in it.

You don't know the light's on.

But if you knock some holes in that pot in a dark room, that light will begin to shine through the crack.

Come on.

And begin to show that there is a light on the inside and it'll lead people in the dark on the outside to the light on the inside.

He says, we're like fragile jars.

Look at your neighbor and say, you're fragile goods.

You're fragile goods.

Tell them you're fragile goods.

We're all fragile.

Life is like a vapor here on earth.

It's here for a moment and then it's gone.

But we trust the power of God who lives in us over the fragileness of the outside.

And again, things happen in life.

Many times I cause them, many times you cause them, many times other people cause them.

But things happen and brokenness happens in every single family and every single person's life.

But again, look at the power that could come out of that brokenness.

Look at God's light that can come out of that brokenness.

And then, you know what, you'll begin to move forward in the brokenness with the broken vessel.

Did you realize the brokenness has power to change the world?

I love John chapter nine because some people came to Jesus one day and they asked Jesus why this young boy had been blind since birth.

Why do bad things happen to good people?

That's what they asked Jesus.

And they said, is it because of his sin or his parents' sin?

And Jesus didn't say it this way, but it was basically, he said, it's not because of his sin nor his parents' sin, but it's simply because sin has entered the world.

And the reality of it is, but God can use these bad things for his glory.

Jesus says it this way in John nine, verse three, they said, why did this happen to this boy?

And Jesus said, this happened so the power of God could be seen in him.

So the light could be seen through his brokenness.

And Jesus goes on and tells him, look, we must quickly carry on the task assigned to us by the one who sent us.

The night is coming and then no one can work, but while I'm still here in the world, he says, I'm the light of the world.

Then he spit on the ground.

Jesus spit on the ground.

The Bible says he made mud with the saliva and he spread the mud over the blind man's eyes.

Now that doesn't seem very compassionate to respond to somebody who is blind and had been blind from birth.

You know what, to spit on the ground, make mud and put it on their eyes.

But I wanna show you something.

Then Jesus told the man in John nine, verse seven, he told him, go wash yourself in the pool of Solom.

And the word there, Solom means sent.

He says, so the man went and he washed and he came back.

Let's see.

So the man was obedient.

He did what Jesus said with mud on his face, come on.

Blind, he makes his way to the pool.

He does something ridiculous.

He washes his eyes, then he can see.

And this is what I know about all of our brokenness is God's power can show up in a powerful way if we're willing to participate with God and keep on moving when God says move.

See, I wrote in my journal many, many years ago, the greatest way for God's power to show up in my life is through my participation with God.

Because if I just sit and I do nothing in my brokenness, I'm just a crumbled pot and I don't desire to share the light that is on the inside of me through the cracks and flaws.

And I don't participate with God and I'm not obedient to the things of God and I don't walk with God and step into my calling or step into my assignment.

I'm gonna miss so much with my life.

God's power is seen when we participate.

I mean, think about King David.

Most of us have heard the story about a young shepherd boy defeating a giant.

And the whole army of Israel was sitting in their tents, shivering, not participating.

David comes up with a sling and a stone and he goes out and he defeats a giant.

Why did David defeat the giants and nobody else could defeat the giant?

Because David was willing to participate in his brokenness.

Father Abraham, go to a land I will show you.

I'm gonna bless you so that you will be a blessing.

Abraham, leave something and go to the place I'm showing you.

Participate, trust me, do what I say, be obedient to me and then you will see my power begin to execute through you.

See, one of the greatest ways for us to look through the lens and see God's power is through our active participation.

No matter whether we're a teenager, no matter whether we're a senior adult, we don't have to have it all figured out.

I can tell you right now, King David at that particular time didn't have it all figured out.

But God had told him in his heart that he was gonna use him and David was willing to be a willing vessel on the backside of a desert, sitting behind a rock, taking care of a few sheep.

When a lion and a bear would show up, he would participate and follow through with his assignment.

And eventually he takes his brother some sandwiches, but they ridicule him.

They say he's not worthy to be there.

He's young, he can't do anything with his life.

David didn't let all of those troubles keep him from participating with the vision of God and the power of God in his life.

And because he was willing to participate, he saw God's power.

See, the Bible says the same power that lifted Jesus out of the grave is available to you and available to me.

But the truth of the matter is, I have to step into that power and trust that power in my brokenness.

You're never going to be perfected on this side of heaven, but you are a work of perfection in God's hand.

And God takes us as a vessel and he molds us and shapes us.

As we walk with the spirit of the living God in us, he begins to do great and mighty things.

He works the old out and he puts the new in.

That's why the writer in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17, can say, the old is gone, the new has come.

It's not because he's reached perfection, but he knows there's a new spirit at work in him, realigning his spirit to all the great things that God has in store.

It's a deposit.

The spirit of God is a deposit into the believer so that you know that you can't see it yet, that it is what God says it is.

And you run hard after it.

And you know in the heart of hearts and the deepest part of your gut, it ain't you making the changes, it's a spirit in you that is making your spirit so miserable and he wants to teach your spirit the ways of God.

When your spirit goes in its own direction, his spirit begins to correct your spirit and your spirit gets in line with his spirit and then the Holy Spirit's power in your life begins to work out of your life.

Come on, put your hands together.

Oh, I'm preaching a whole lot better than you clapping today.

We're gonna get through it.

God's power is seen when we participate.

So many people say, pastor, why do you want people to participate in the work of the church?

Because the church is the work of God.

Come on.

And if you ain't participate and you don't know what you're missing, why you wanna sit at home on your couch?

Because your brokenness is your brokenness and your brokenness can be brought into God's power and God's family through the gifts that God gives you or it can sit alone and it can continue to deteriorate where it is.

I'm inviting you, my friend, out of a heart of compassion to participate in the things of God and watch what God can do.

And again, you're here today.

I understand that.

But so many times when the trouble comes, we begin to shrink back and hide and God says, no, no, no.

That's not the time to shrink back and hide.

It's the time to cling to me and see what I can do.

And I can tell you right now, when you get around the church, the church is made up of people, broken people.

Look at your neighbor and say, they broken.

Tell them you are too.

And sharp edges of brokenness will hurt you.

But let me tell you what's devastating to you is for you to separate yourself from the power of the living God and the vessel that God is working through, which is the local church.

That is devastating to you.

My friend, I'm not here to guarantee you your feelings won't get hurt and you won't get hurt in the local church.

But what I am here to guarantee you is God's spirit will see you through and he will build you into something magnificent.

Paul is the founder of the church in Corinth, but there was some people in the church coming along, even saying that he ain't of God because he had trouble in his life.

Can you imagine what that felt like?

Some of the people, he had won the city to Christ.

Come on, people were participating.

They were going off the rails.

He was getting them back on the rails.

He was talking things to them, but they were like, Paul's got way too much trouble in his life for God to be in his life.

But he kept working through it.

He didn't retreat from the church.

He joined up with the church.

He built the church.

He planted the church.

He deposited the church.

He began to spread the church.

He is the missionary of missionaries because he had a heart for people to connect to God.

He didn't want people to die in their brokenness.

He wanted God's power to show up in their life.

God's power shows up when we participate.

And lastly, I wrote down, it's not only that we need to look through the lens of, you know what, the future, God's plan, through the lens of God's power, but I wrote down, we need to look through the lens of purpose.

Again, we're walking here on this earth, we're in brokenness.

It's not all gonna be fixed.

I have some good weeks, I have some bad weeks.

Some of my weeks are better than my other weeks.

Some of my days are better than my other days, all those kinds of things.

And I'm sure it's the same in your life and your family's life.

Again, I'm connected to several hundred families, you know, because I'm a pastor of a local church in a local community, and I have yet to find the perfect family, including mine, okay?

But the reality of it is, is we all have brokenness in our family, we all have brokenness in our neighborhood, we have brokenness on our street.

But if we can understand God's purpose in our life and let that purpose work through our life in the midst of the brokenness, it can change everything.

You know, when I used to play collegiate sports and I played college football, when I played college football, I hated running wind sprints, but I knew the purpose of running a wind sprint.

I knew it would build the endurance I needed to win games with a team.

And what I'm saying to you today, there's a purpose to your life and you can get through the difficult moments.

You can run the wind sprints, you can begin to get through those things if you understand the calling on your life.

2 Corinthians 5, verses 18-21, he says this.

He says, God has given us, the church, the people in Corinth, us, the task, everybody say task, assignment.

You could translate that a lot of different ways.

The calling, people talk about being called.

You're called by God if you know Christ.

He says, God has given us the task of reconciling people to Him.

For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, no longer counting people's sin against them.

And He gave us, the writer here says, the wonderful message of reconciliation.

So we are Christ ambassadors.

God is making His appeal through us.

We speak for Christ when we plead, come back to God.

For God made Christ who never sinned to be an offering for our sin so that, everybody say so that, we could be made right with God through Christ.

So here the writer says we've been assigned a task when we come to Christ, we know Christ, the light of Christ is in our heart.

We're, what we would refer to in the church world, a spirit, a spirit-filled believer.

Whenever that, understand what your task is in a broken world, it's simply reconciliation.

Your task isn't to correct all the wrongs, but the truth of the matter is, sometimes you do have to correct the wrongs so people can get it right.

Your task is to reconcile people to God and then begin to let the Spirit of God work in their life and begin to correct them.

And look, my wife corrects me all the time.

She does, and I receive it because we're one.

And the reality of it is though, I can tell you right now, her correction to my life is wimpy to the Spirit's correction to my life.

And God will, this is what I'm saying, if we can truly work as vessels to reconcile people to Christ, the same God that corrects me is gonna correct them.

The same Spirit that corrects me is gonna correct them.

And what I don't know is if they're a believer and they're walking out of line with God, I know He's gonna give them a spanking.

I don't have to give them a spanking.

He's gonna do what He says He's gonna do.

But that doesn't mean I pat everybody on the fanny too and tell them what they're doing is okay when it's not okay, when it doesn't align with God.

Sometimes, you know what, you just gotta, almost gotta be a horse's butt to people to let them know, you know what, that is not okay.

And we kind of live in a world that's out of balance.

It's not about reconciling people back to God so God can correct people.

It's about pacifying people so they'll like me.

That's not reconciling people to God.

That's just building, building friendships so people like you.

There's a big difference.

And again, you know what, God has a mission for the church and the gospel, the good news is way too good to leave in a spot and not challenge the church to step up and be the church and fill all the seats from the top to the bottom over and over, reconciling the world back to God because, you know what, eternity is way too long for people to live without God.

He gave us the task.

It's a task.

It's an assignment.

And in my brokenness, all the days of my life, with my brokenness, my job is to be a reconciler.

Will everybody respond?

I don't know.

But the reality of it is, when I get before my Jesus, He's gonna look to me face to face and He's gonna say, well done, my good and faithful servant.

You ran the race, you finished the race, you completed the task.

All the days of your life and your life was about reconciling people back to me.

I'm not saying everybody in here needs to quit their job tomorrow and take on an occupation at the church.

But what I am saying, the calling on the church is for us to go out into the highways and byways and live through the gift mix God gives us as a community of believers and a community of faith in a community to change a community with the power of the Gospel and begin to reconcile the world to Christ.

The military says it this way, we don't wanna leave no one behind.

And my friend, I'm here to tell you, we don't want to leave no one behind.

Father God, I thank you for Jesus.

I thank you for Him being a great example for us to keep on keeping on when things get hard.

God, I pray in the tough moments, we would not give up, we would not quit, we would not pull over to the side, but God, we would recognise you have a plan, you have power that lives in us and God, you have a purpose for us and a destiny for us on this life.

God, may every man, woman, boy and girl step into the challenge.

May they not fix their gaze on their current challenges, but God, may they fix their gaze on the things of Christ and what is still yet to come.

Jesus, it's because of you, the best is yet to come.

And we pray this in your holy name, amen.