Don't Give Up

[00:00:00] How are we tonight? [00:00:04] Glad to hear. I'm going to pray for us. Dear Heavenly Father, I love you so much. I'm incredibly thankful for who you are and what you do. I recognize, Father, that without you we can't do any good thing. So I pray that you would just open up our hearts to you today. I pray that we would see Christ in brand new ways to be the men and women you've called and created us to be. To be. To do the good you've created us to do in this world. I pray this all in Jesus name. Amen. [00:00:32] So some years ago, my sister Sarah, you may have met her before. [00:00:37] Her and her husband Jacob ran a race. I think she ran the 5k and he ran a half marathon. So I'm not the girl who's going to run the race. I'm absolutely the girl who will show up at the race with a poster and cheer for you. [00:00:51] Not going to run it. So they were running. Her kids and I, we showed up to cheer for them. We had our posters. It was very early. It was in Medina. She came running out, we cheered for her. But as soon as she got done running the race, she grabbed us and she's like, okay, we have to go back. And we're like, what do you mean go back? You finished running? She's like, no, there's this spot not that far from the finish line. And you're done, you're exhausted, There's a hill to get up. You want to give up, you don't have anything left. She's like, I was just about. You remember this? I was just about to start walking and there was people there cheering and it gave me the push. And I want to go back and cheer for other people because she's amazing. So we did. We went back to that spot right, where people were like, ready to be done and quit the race. And we held up our posters and we cheered for mom. And we're like, you can do this. Don't give up. And it was kind of cool to see the people who would get that, like, last little bit of momentum that would help push them forward to finish the race. [00:01:50] Now I think it's interesting because in life, in so many places and in so many times, it does kind of feel like we're running a race and we hit these moments where we just feel ready to quit. [00:02:01] I don't know about you. Have you ever been tired before? [00:02:04] There's a season of tired where, like, I don't. There's like, no juice left in the tank. I'm coasting on fumes. I got nothing left. And we have these moments, these seasons in our life where we're like, I've been running really, really hard. There's this huge hill in front of me. I don't think I'm gonna make it up the hill. And the. There's not a lot left. And we feel ready to just quit or give up or we feel like we tried our hardest and this really maybe wasn't our hill to take. [00:02:33] Maybe it's a season for you. Maybe it's a season you're in where your work life has just gotten the best of you, and you've been giving all you have to work, and you're not really seeing the payoff. Like, nobody's holding a poster when you leave the office going, wow, great job. You're so awesome. Right? [00:02:51] You're just kind of worn down. [00:02:53] Or maybe it's school. Maybe you're in high school or college and you're like, oh, my goodness, I have to start a whole new year, guys. Did you feel that way going back to school? Anybody? Like a whole new season and, like, one more paper and one more homework assignment and one more early morning of showing up, and you're like, I just don't know how much I have left to give the best of myself. [00:03:14] Maybe it's in your relationships, maybe it's in your family, and you love them. They're great. They're really great. Your favorite people, but they kind of are demanding. [00:03:26] They kind of need a lot from you. Or maybe if you're our parent, there's so many mouths to feed. You're like, I just went to the grocery store, you guys. How could there be? No, I'm the only one who, thank you, spends hundreds of dollars at the grocery store. Or maybe it's just day after day trying to keep your head up and doing your best, and you just feel discouraged. [00:03:47] You feel like it's not getting better, and you just don't know how much more you have in you. [00:03:53] I want to be that little boost of momentum for you tonight. I want to be a little shot of encouragement, and I want to point us towards Christ to give us that boost of what we need, whether it's strength or grit or courage or hope or faith, whatever it feels like we're lacking, to not get that last hit hill to do what God's called us to do. There's this really cool verse in Galatians, Paul's writing letter to his friends, and he wants to encourage them. And so in Galatians, chapter 6, verse 9. He says, let's not get tired of doing what is good at just the right time. We will reap a harvest of blessing if we don't give up now. It's interesting because the word for tired here, it's not just like, hey, I'm tired, I need to go to bed. It's like utterly slow, spiritless. It's wearied, worn out and exhausted. So I don't know about you, I've experienced two different kinds of tired in my life. I've expired experienced the kind of tired where, like, I am exhausted, but I'm energized at the same time. Have you ever been here before? Who went on a mission trip before? Anyone? Mission trip? I've never slept so little in my entire life, you guys. I'm talking, like, I'm lucky to get three hours of sleep of night. But there's something so exciting about being on a mission trip and seeing what God is doing. And it gives me so much hope and excitement and energy and it's tired, but energized. [00:05:20] But there's another kind of tired where I just feel like it doesn't matter how much I sleep or take days off, like, there's no catching up. I'm weary in my soul. Have you ever been there before? Like, down to my bones. I just feel worn out because life and stress have this ability to add up over time and wear us down and exhaust us. [00:05:45] Now we look at stress as it's like, bad. And there's all these studies about stress and there's the good side of stress and the bad side of stress. But just to keep this simple for us, my very favorite definition comes from an article I read. It said stress is the perception that the situations we're facing are greater than the resources we have to deal with them. Resources such as time, energy, ability, and help from others. [00:06:08] So we find ourselves facing situations in life and we're overwhelmed because there's so much that we have to get done, but we don't feel like we have what it takes to get things done. [00:06:20] And it's hard to keep going when you've got more and more and more to do and more piling up and you're already running on empty. [00:06:27] It's hard to keep doing good like Paul encourages us to do when we feel like we have nothing left to give, but yet so many of us try. [00:06:36] I don't know about you, I'm a just do more clearly, it will work next time. Like, the only reason it didn't work last time is because I just didn't try hard enough. So I'm going to do the exact same thing. [00:06:47] I'm just going to try harder. And you guys, this time it's going to be different. Have you ever done this before? [00:06:53] Well, here's the shocker. Maybe you have it. [00:06:56] Let me just spoil it for you. It doesn't work. [00:06:59] It turns out the exact same way every single time. You're just more tired. But we keep thinking like, no, no, I just didn't try it this way, or I didn't just say it in the right way. Like if I just move my words differently, if I use a different tone, they'll hear me differently this time, right? And we keep trying to do more and more and more and we wear ourselves down. [00:07:19] And we're not just physically tired, we're emotionally tired. We are mentally tired. Our souls are worn down. [00:07:29] And just like our bodies need time to refresh and repair, our souls do as well. [00:07:36] Just like we go to bed at night so that our minds and our bodies can have time to rest and be ready for the next day, we need time for our souls to rest, to repair, to refresh, so that we don't just keep wearing ourselves down trying to do more and more. [00:07:57] Some of us have really heavy loads to carry and we can't quit. [00:08:01] Some of us have a lot of people depending on us to show up every single day whether we want to or not, and we just can't let them down. [00:08:08] Some of us have quit and we know the repercussions of what it feels like. The disappointment, the discouragement, sometimes even the shame. [00:08:18] And so what do we do when we find ourselves in this spot? [00:08:23] Because Paul says, don't quit, don't give up, don't get tired of doing what's good. Because at just the right time, at just the right moment, God has a blessing, a work that he's going to do. See, we don't need to do more things. We. We need to do the right thing, which is find our rest in Jesus Christ. [00:08:47] When I can't catch my breath and I feel like I've got no energy and nothing left to give. The solution isn't doing more things that I've already tried. The solution is turning to Jesus Christ and letting him help me instead of trying to do it on my own. [00:09:04] Because we all have lives to manage and stress that gets the best of us. And sometimes we get in our own head and we listen to. To these thoughts and think that they're true. And they're not true. And it disrupts our health and our well being. [00:09:19] And in those moments, what I need is not to try harder. What I need is not to do more. What I need is what I can only find in relationship to Jesus Christ. [00:09:33] The help that my soul needs. I can't find any other place than in relationship to Jesus Christ. [00:09:41] So here's where I want you to meet me. Where do you feel most stressed right now? Your life might be different than my life. You came in here bringing a whole different backpack of stuff, right? Your stress that you're carrying, your relationships, your work, your thoughts. [00:09:57] Where you feel exhausted, where you feel overwhelmed. Where are you most stressed in your life right now? [00:10:05] Because that's the place where we need Jesus the absolute most. [00:10:10] That's the place we don't try to do more on our own. We try to turn more towards Christ and ask him for help. [00:10:19] But here's the tension, here's the challenge. So you think about where you're most stressed and where you're most tired and where you're most overwhelmed. [00:10:27] A lot of us are in a place where we feel this way. Cause we're just trying to control everything. You don't have to say it out loud. I'll say it for us. I'll say it for me. [00:10:38] Most of the times I feel most worn down. I'm trying to do God's job and my job and everybody else is around me. Have you been there before? [00:10:46] Because nobody else is gonna do it the right way, you guys. If I'm not there, it's just not gonna happen. Clearly the world didn't exist before me, it won't exist after me. And if I'm not there doing the things, it's going to come crumbling down. And at least that's what my stress tells me at 3 o' clock in the morning, very convincingly. [00:11:05] Most of the places we are exhausted and overwhelmed. We aren't looking for God's help. We're trying to do it on ourselves, by ourselves. [00:11:13] Most of the places we feel absolutely worn to the bone, heavy in our spirits. [00:11:19] We're trying to control things instead of trusting God to help us right where we are. [00:11:26] And this is such a hard tension in life because we think, I'm working hard, right? I'm a go getter. I'm trying look at all the accomplishments. And we let that energize us until it doesn't. [00:11:39] Until we have nothing left and we're ready to blow up. [00:11:43] Not that you blow up. I know just me. I'm the only one who blows up and loses their temper sometimes. But here's the tension. [00:11:50] I have to admit that I'm not in control of all of this. But God is. [00:11:57] I have to admit there's a lot of things I can't do on my own. [00:12:02] But with the grace of God, awesome things can happen. I just have to trust him more. [00:12:09] See, here's the thing. None of us like to admit we can't do it. [00:12:13] None of us like to admit, like, oh, I'm powerless there. I don't want to be powerless there. It doesn't feel good. [00:12:20] It kind of feels like garbage. [00:12:22] That's my nice church way of saying it. It doesn't feel good there. And so I try to, like, compensate by being more strong in other areas. But it's not working. [00:12:33] The situation we're in isn't working. And trying to do more and more and expecting things isn't helping us. [00:12:41] Some years ago, we read this really cool book by Richard War. He's a Franciscan monk. [00:12:45] He said letting go isn't in anybody's program for happiness. [00:12:49] Yet all mature spirituality, in one sense or another, is about letting go and unlearning. See, we've taught ourselves we have to do everything and we have to hold on to everything. [00:13:01] But to grow in our faith, to grow in our souls, we have to learn to let go and unlearn some of the bad habits we've taught ourselves over time. He said. But the ego hates. What it hates more than anything else in the world is to change even when the present situation isn't working or it's horrible. Instead, we do more and more of what doesn't work. The reason we do anything one more time is because the last time didn't really satisfy us deeply. [00:13:32] Think about it. [00:13:34] Sometimes we've eaten too much. I'll just use the easy analogy. We've eaten too much. [00:13:39] And it's not because that last one felt so good. It's just because the one before wasn't enough. [00:13:44] And it wasn't enough until now. I'm sick and I have a stomach ache, and it doesn't feel good anymore. [00:13:49] But that applies in every area of our life that we're trying to do more and more that isn't actually healthy or good for us. And one more never satisfies us the way we think it's going to. [00:14:03] So for us to really embrace where we are most stressed, where we are most exhausted, overwhelmed and worn down, we need help. [00:14:13] And rather than trying to do more on our own, we need to Turn to God and say, God, I can't do this on my own, and I'm sorry. I've been trying to for so long. [00:14:25] See, sometimes the biggest thing I need to admit to God is I've been trying to be God in my own life and not let you be God. [00:14:33] And all of the problems that I'm ranting and raving and complaining about and why the world is unfair. Mostly it's just I'm trying to do God's job. And it turns out I'm really bad at doing God's job. [00:14:45] But he's really good at it. And he invites all of us to trust in him, to let him care for us. [00:14:54] Because throughout time in history, there is one story we have been studying of how God works. And it is the incredible, vast love that God has for you and I. [00:15:05] It's the incredible amount of times that God shows up again and again and again and saves his people. [00:15:13] It's the faithfulness of God. Even when people were faithless, God was faithful still. [00:15:20] And when we trust in him, he has our very best interests at heart. [00:15:27] See, it turns out he wants to bless us. He's not sitting up in heaven, just waiting for us to do something bad so he can catch us and be like, aha, I knew it all along. [00:15:38] You really are. That's not how God works. He doesn't delight in punishing. He delights in helping, in saving, in finding those who need him most. [00:15:51] See, where I am most tired, I need more of Jesus Christ. [00:15:55] Where I feel like I'm facing an uphill battle on my own. I don't need to just dig down deeper and find more strength. I need more of the Spirit at work in me, giving me the strength to do what I could never do on my own. [00:16:11] But I can't do that apart from God. [00:16:14] See, sometimes a lot of us have a hard time trusting God because we just don't know Him. We haven't spent time with Him. And it's really hard to trust somebody you don't know. [00:16:24] When's the last time you just spent some quiet time with God? [00:16:27] Maybe you just took out your Bible and you started reading one of the gospels to learn a little bit more about who Jesus is. [00:16:34] When's the last time that prayer became, like, a normal. Like, just going to spend a couple minutes, like, before I go to work or before I drop my kids off, or before I go to school, or before I do that. Next thing, just going to spend two minutes with God and say, help me be your girl. Help Me be your guy? God, I have a hard conversation. I don't want to get it wrong. Can you help me? God, I have to do this thing that feels really, really hard. Could you help me in the circumstance? [00:17:01] See, God isn't far. [00:17:03] He's right there. [00:17:06] We put this distance between us and God, and when we turn to him, he stands ready to help right where we need him the most. [00:17:16] Maybe what your heart and your soul need most today is just some of that quiet time in the presence of God. [00:17:24] Maybe you need the reminder that God really does love you, that he really is for you, that he really is ready to take your part and be on your side and help you do this messy, crazy, strange, busy, wonderful life that you have before you. [00:17:42] See, it's easy to quit when we feel like we're doing it all by ourselves. [00:17:47] It's a lot easier to stay in the game when we know somebody is there rooting for us and cheering us, wanting us to succeed. [00:17:55] Maybe. [00:17:57] Maybe the place you want to quit is the exact place God wants to meet you, so you know him better. [00:18:05] Maybe the place where you're tired and worn down isn't because you're doing the wrong thing. It's just you need more of God on your side. And when you trust in him, you're gonna find ways to live your life to have faith and courage that you've never had before. [00:18:22] See, sometimes we think, well, it's hard. I'm doing the wrong thing. [00:18:25] This is too hard for me. I can't. I should definitely quit. Who's ever started a new habit and been like, well, that was a terrible decision? [00:18:33] I used to let Sarah talk me into doing exercises together. She's like, it's this thing called insanity. I'm like, that doesn't sound like a good idea. [00:18:41] And I did it one time. Pretty sure I fell down the stairs that time, too. It's a bad decision, you guys. All right. We try things and we're like, this is going to be awesome. I'm going to go get it. I'm going to do amazing. And then we're like, no, bad decision. That was terrible. But sometimes we start right things, good things, healthy things. But it's still hard and challenging. Maybe it's hard because it is hard to. But just because it's hard doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. [00:19:06] Maybe it's the thing that absolutely needs to be done for good. To be in this world. You just need more of Christ at work in you, giving you the strength and courage to do it see, God promises he'll give the strength and courage. Your job is just to show up and do the work. [00:19:22] See, this is where I get messed up. I think I have to do all of the things that God said He would do. My job is to show up and, and do the work. [00:19:32] It might be long, it might be hard, but you have to keep going because you don't want to miss what God is going to do next. [00:19:42] See, if we quit, we never get to see what's waiting on the other side of that hard thing. [00:19:47] We never get to learn who we might become when we conquer that hard thing. [00:19:53] We never get to see what God might do next, who God might call to the adventure to do it alongside of us. We. One of my favorite things about God is the people he brings in my life at different seasons of my life. [00:20:05] Friendships I didn't even know I needed. But God knew. And he brought the right people in my life to do life with me, to give me that boost of encouragement and hope, reminding me that he's not done yet. [00:20:19] One of the most incredible things that we understand about God is he has never quit on us. [00:20:26] We are here today, each and every single one of us, because the incredible persistence of Jesus Christ, when it was its hardest, he did not give up. [00:20:39] When he faced the most terrible thing the world could throw at him through dying on the cross, he did not quit on us. [00:20:50] And we have grace and hope and joy and peace and strength and courage because Christ has already gone before us. [00:20:58] Christ has already done the hardest work that ever needed to be done. And he's never going to ask us to do something harder than he's already done. [00:21:07] In fact, because he did the hardest work, we can trust him in our hardest moments because he gets it. He understands what it's like to be tired and worn down and, and be fully dependent on God and keep going. [00:21:23] And that's what we can do when we do life with Jesus Christ. See, on my own, I really can't do any enduring, lasting good things. I might have a highlight moment, but it's not going to last. It's not going to be enduring. But when Christ is present, you guys, everything changes. [00:21:44] Some of you have experienced this. You've seen lives change that never I could have. I couldn't change their mind. They didn't believe me. They didn't think my idea was better. But Christ showed up and did what only he could do. [00:21:57] And when we trust in him, we get to be part of this incredible adventure. And Paul says, let's not get tired of doing what is good at just the right time. We will reap a harvest of blessing if we don't give up. So I just want to give you a couple of ideas on how to make this really practical. So we need Christ. We cannot do it on ourself. We have to admit, I've been trying to do it on my own. It isn't working. I'm not going to do more of what's working. I want to do life with Christ where he's helping me. So let's make this practical. Like, how do I practice this in my day to day life? I was listening to a leadership conference last month in August, and a woman named Tasha Urich spoke. [00:22:37] She talked about this idea of resilience and grit and strength. And she said, what happens is we all have this resilience ceiling and it's the moment our coping skills, our resilience runs out. She said we're all good up until the point we're not. [00:22:56] So you've been here before, right? You're great, you're coping, you're doing everything you can. Something frustrating is happening, you're managing it, you're managing it and then you're done. [00:23:05] Have you ever been there before? And that's the moment, like you yell and lose your temper, or that's the moment you throw everything and you walk out dramatically because you're done. Or it's the moment maybe you say the thing that you can't take back, felt good in the moment, but it left a scar on someone and now you can't take it back. Right? We're all good until the exact moment we're not. And what happened is our coping skills, our resilience. We hit the ceiling on what we had, she said, but that is the exact moment we all feel like failures when we hit that ceiling. [00:23:39] That's the moment she actually, this is one of my favorite things. She called it great gaslighting. [00:23:44] Like, we feel shame because we did the thing we didn't want to do. We lost our cool or said the thing, and we feel awful about it. But she said, if you want to shatter that shame, there's two things you have to do. Number one, forgive yourself. [00:24:00] I love this. This is not the Oppression Olympics. She said, you're not failing. You've hit your resilience ceiling. All right, if you're writing anything down, write this one down. It is physically impossible to power through everything. I don't care what TikTok video you watch, I don't care what intense adrenaline Rushing protein shake. Somebody drank and did some impossible thing. We have a limit and we cannot just push through everything. [00:24:31] That's how we wear ourselves down. [00:24:35] That's how we become broken and exhausted. She said, first you gotta forgive yourself, then you have to grow forward. She said just surviving isn't sufficient. You have to reinvent yourself. [00:24:47] She said, sometimes the season you're in just needs a new strategy. That's it. [00:24:52] We're running into a brick wall and nothing's changing. Just needs a new strategy. Try something different and it might be the exact answer. And then she said, focusing on my needs is a key to a better future. She said all of us have three core needs that when they're being met, we can really thrive and be the people that we're trying to be. [00:25:14] She says it's confidence, choice and connection. [00:25:17] Confidence is right. I have the ability to do this thing. I have the resources, I have the help, I have the tools that I need. So a lot of times we're trying to do things that are too hard and beyond us and the resources that we need. [00:25:30] God is helping us and he's putting incredibly good people around us, ask for help. [00:25:36] I don't have to prove to everybody I'm smart enough, strong enough, I can do it all on my own. I actually can't, and neither can you. [00:25:44] But we can find confidence in doing it together. [00:25:49] But see, where do you find your confidence in what you can do, what you can make, what people think of you. [00:25:59] See, a lot of times our confidence is wrapped up in things that are temporary. [00:26:05] People's opinions change. The thing I could do good a year ago, I might not be able to to do next year. [00:26:13] I can't always control those things, but I can find this connection, this confidence I need in Jesus Christ. Who does Christ say I am? [00:26:25] Who does Christ say I can be? [00:26:27] Cuz if you read his words, they're always encouraging you. You can do more than you think. Because he who is in you is greater than he who is in in the world. Christ at work in me gives me the confidence to do more than I could ever do on my own. [00:26:44] I know this because I've tried it. The first time that I got up to preach, you guys, I was terrified. It was not good. I'm pretty sure there's no record of it, thank God, but I got invited and I was scared and I was terrified. And I trusted God and he did all this work and I did study. I had like less than five minutes of a full sermon. But you would have thought That I was, like, at the White House doing, like, the most, like, expensive big thing in the entire world because I was so terrified. But I trusted God, that He was calling me to something that was greater than me. [00:27:18] And I depended on Him. And I let my confidence not come from my own ability, but what I believed Christ wanted to do through me. [00:27:28] See, when I trust in that, I'm always going to try things that are too hard for me because I'm trusting in God. And I'll tell you what, nothing will give you more courage than the prayer God, if you don't show up, this is actually going to be bad. [00:27:40] Like, God, if you don't move here. It's pretty. I've said quite a few of those prayers in my lifetime, and thank God, by His goodness, he has shown up and incredible things have happened. [00:27:54] But I have to find my confidence in Christ first, and then everything else is a reflection of that. It's not what I do that defines me. It's not what people think of me that makes me who I am. It's not what I can make. It's not what I can do. It's who Christ says I am first. [00:28:12] That gives us the confidence that we need to do the hard things we're called to do and then choice. [00:28:18] A lot of times we're tired because we're like, I don't have any control here, you guys. It's out of my hands. There's nothing I can do. If you're trying to change people, you felt this before. Amen. [00:28:28] It just isn't working. But you still have a choice. Every single day, you get to make choices about the kind of person you're going to be. I can't control them, but I can control me. I can control how I respond. I can control what I do. I can control what I think. [00:28:45] Even when the thoughts are bad, I have, like, red flags that go off in my mind. Like, that's not a healthy place. We're not going there. And I redirect because I've learned if I spend time in that thought, I'm gonna feel miserable afterwards. [00:28:58] And if I feel miserable afterwards, I'm not better. [00:29:01] The people I'm thinking about aren't better. Because now I'm grouchy at them, and they don't even know what happened. Like, I had a pretend fight in my head, and it was intense, you guys. [00:29:11] And I feel all of the big emotions in the. They're like, what happened? Right? Because I passively, aggressively fought with them in my head, and I never Every day we get to choose who we're going to be, what we're going to say, what we're going to do and what we're going to think. And you get to choose the healthy habits that you practice every single day. See, everything good we want, it is an uphill battle. But every good thing worth doing has been worth fighting for century after century after century. [00:29:40] Because it matters. Because we're doing something worthwhile, life changing. Who said it would be easy? [00:29:46] But I can't have terrible habits and expect to climb Mount Everest. [00:29:50] I can't have terrible habits that make me feel like garbage and expect to go out and run a marathon, right? I can't have bad habits and expect to have a healthy life. [00:30:01] I have to choose every single day how to be a healthy person. [00:30:06] I could spend 10 weeks on that subject, but I won't. You know what you need to do to be healthy? All right, last one is connection. None of us were meant to do this alone. [00:30:16] You've been trying to go it alone for a really long time. [00:30:19] In some places you are so self sufficient and so high functioning, a lot of people wouldn't even know that inside you are drowning. [00:30:27] You're so used to being high achieving and making things happen. From the outside, everybody's like, wow, you've got it made. But inside you can't breathe. [00:30:37] See, none of us were made to do this alone. Who are you connected to? [00:30:42] Who are you doing life with? [00:30:44] Who's in your corner cheering for you? [00:30:47] Who's in your corner reminding you God's got this trust in him, let's pray together. [00:30:53] Who's got your back on the days where you're like, man, I can't do one more thing, they're like, I got you. And they show up and they do the thing that you needed help doing. [00:31:03] Whose corner are you in? [00:31:05] You know, you've been through some stuff, you've learned some things and there might need some be somebody who needs you to encourage them because of what you learned on that road, what you experienced, what character you develop because you didn't quit. [00:31:22] And the very story you have to share might be the very place somebody else is just about ready to give up. And God can use your voice and your story in a powerful way to encourage somebody else. [00:31:34] You aren't meant to do this alone. God gave us this beautiful community to do this incredible life with. And we're a church who does hard things. [00:31:43] We have more hard things ahead of us than behind us. Guys. We have more work that God's calling us to do. Our hope isn't in what we can accomplish alone. Our hope is in the incredible, enduring, loving faithfulness of Jesus Christ. Christ. And here's what I know about him. He's not done yet. [00:32:01] And I don't want to miss what he's going to do next. [00:32:03] I don't want you to miss what he's going to do next. I don't want you to miss that adventure that he's created you for that's going to call out more in you than anything else in your entire life. [00:32:16] The blessings you most desire for your life, God wants to grant those to you. [00:32:22] But you gotta trust in him. [00:32:25] You gotta let him direct, you gotta let him connect, you gotta let him encourage you and strengthen you to get back up and do that next right hard thing that needs to be done. [00:32:36] If you're tired, if you're weary, if you're exhausted, can I just encourage you to turn one more time to the loving arms of Jesus Christ? [00:32:47] Let him meet you where you are, pick you back up, dust off your knees for you and walk with you hand in hand as you finish this race. He's called you to. Dear Father, I pray that you would help us. I pray that you would fill our hearts with a sense of hope and courage and strength that could only come from you. [00:33:07] I pray, Father, that every heart right now, you know where they're at. You know their race, you know their name, you know their family, you know where they're coming from and what they have ahead of them. I pray that you would speak your courage and hope and joy and love into their lives. I pray that you would restore to them the strength, the energy they need to keep on going and not give up. I pray, Father, that we would have a heart full of faith connected to you to finish the race you've called us to race. I pray that the name of Christ would be glorified in this world and that good would happen in every single corner because of who you're calling us to be. I pray this all in Jesus name, Amen. Amen.