Left Out

(dramatic music) - Chapter 16, verse 1, "Now Sarah, Abram's wife, had borne him no children, but she had an Egyptian slave named Hegar. So she said to Abram, "The Lord has kept me from having children. "Go sleep with my slave, "Perhaps I can build a family through her." Abram agreed to what Sarah had said. This is the word of the Lord. - Thanks be to God. - Would you stay standing for one more moment please? (audience laughing) Y'all know me. May we be good here, so the word, and faithful to us. May we love Jesus deeply. May we trust what Jesus says, and may we follow Jesus well. You may be seated. Water, earth, fire, air. Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony, then everything changed when the fire nation attacked. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them. But when the world needed him most, my people. (audience applauding) If you know that, you're a real one. Oh, we're gonna have a good night. That is the opening of Avatar, the last airbender, arguably one of the greatest cartoons to ever exist, and the people of God said. (audience applauding) See, that narration is Catara's. But I started to wonder what if her brother Soca told the story from his perspective. 100 years have passed, and the war cost us a lot. I was 10 when fire nation soldiers killed my mother in our house. My father gathered the men of the Southern water tribe and sailed the way to fight. And I still on the ice as I watched, the boats disappear into the gray. A few years later, my sister and I discovered the new Avatar, an airbender named Ang, and now we're on one of the most important journeys in a hundred years. Through the Avatar, the whole world could be set right. And we're here to help. Catara, she's working on her waterbending, becoming a great master. Ang is learning the four elements, becoming a great Avatar. She's the promised child, the hope, for a better world. And I'm just Soca. No powers, no spiritual calling. Nothing's ever been given to me or spoken over me. No, not like Ang. Not like my sister. I'm here for all of it, and in so many ways, I'm left out of all of it. So if you can feel that, you can empathize with where we find Sarai and Genesis 16 from her perspective. Through four chapters of this story, the call, Egypt, the separation from Laud, the covenant she's been present and silent, described, taken into Pharaoh's house, moved around all without art. Verse one. Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children, but she had an Egyptian slave named Hegar, so she said to Abram, "Yahweh has restrained me from giving birth." See, this is the first time in Genesis we hear Sarai speak. Her words they're experientially honest. She's been barren since chapter 11, on the journey with Yahweh, but God has not opened her womb, and that's not abstract for many of us in the room. I know some of the stories, and like pray for so many of us in our church. If that's you, genuinely I'm sorry. Please know that you are not alone here, or in God's story. See, for her whole adult life, this is private guilt and public shame, in a culture where her worth was tied to bearing children. She has no real way to a future, to be remembered or to contribute, all while the person closest to her is handed the opportunity of a lifetime. That's complex. Verse two. "Go sleep with my slave. Perhaps I can build a family through her." So she wants to build and have a sense of contribution, future of purpose, and like who among us doesn't want that, right? So she makes a plan saying perhaps, which sounds a lot more like desperation than confidence to me. So Sarah planned, survived plans to use Hegar, an enslaved woman, a household servant from Egypt. Now this is not the same as the transatlantic slavery in our country, but it's not as benign as being a household servant or maid. So he Hegar's owned and powerless. She's a little say over her future. Her name means something like the sojourner or the immigrant. She's the outside of the powerless one in this household. Perhaps I can build through her." Which to me, that's tribut, like she's violent. No? (audience laughs) I mean, that's when I read that I'm like, "Oh, that's gonna insane." Just being honest, I'm sorry to the Bible. But like, I need to pause my own reactions for a moment. See what survived proposes is actually a legal, contractual and expected practice in the ancient near east. The law code of hemorrhabbing addresses that if a wife was barren, she could have a slave woman, bear children for her, and then the child would be designated as the wives. That may be what is kind of happening in Genesis 29, a few chapters later from here, with Jacob and his wives, and their servants, and then the 12 kids that come from them. Socially, this may be closer to surrogacy or adoption than it is to polygamy or exploitation and still. Hagar is a human being whose dignity really matters. She gets elevated as a second wife, but she's in this position, carrying Abrams child in the first place because she's enslaved. Now, time and again, the biblical narrative shows this cultural practice as opposed to God's way. God is not for this. This is the practice that leads to chaos and pain, not human flourishing. So scripture is not condoning this. It's naming a historical reality because without it, we miss a simple fact that being human in any age is complex. Now, here's what makes this story even more complicated. Who's actually read this before? The story of Sarah, Hagar, yep, well, tune in my hair, good God. Yeah, if you've read this before, what I need you to do is pause everything you know. Just like, don't get ahead of the story. Be in it here and now. If you read Genesis slowly, you'll realize that Sarah is not actually defying a promise that God gave her about children. Don't get ahead of the story. See, in Genesis 11, she's barren. Then, Yahweh appears to Abram in 12, 13, and again, in 15, promising offspring, and blessing to nations, the snake crusher coming through him, but never once does he name the mother. In 15, Abram thinks that the heir will be his servant, Eliasar, but God says, no, he's gonna have a biological child. But again, nothing about the mother. So why would Sarah, who's been barren, assume she'll have Abram's promised child? I get the chapter 16 and Sarah is still barren, and there's no promise to her or for her or about her. She's been around for all of it, but left out of all of it. See, she may believe the promise is for Abram, but why would she think it's for her? She's not defying a clear word from God, but she is using a culturally acceptable way to solve a problem for the gap that God left open. You with me? You tracking where we're going? See, that is complicated. Verse three, "After Abram had been living in Canaan 10 years, Sarah, his wife, took her Egyptian slave, Hegar, and gave her to her husband to be his wife. He slept with Hegar, and she conceived." Now verse four, "When Hegar knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress." So Hegar's elevated as a second wife, gets pregnant, and then begins to despise Sarah. Now, can you see what this is like from Sarah's perspective? Her plan, it's backfiring. What she used to build up is beginning to tear her down. Do you know what that's like? See, when the person you elevated gets the promotion that you wanted. When that small liar, that exaggeration, it works out for a bit until it doesn't, and then it blows up on you, and it creates chaos for everyone around you, and you're left picking up the pieces. Anyone been there? See, Sarah, since against Hegar, then Hegar, since against Sarah, and so what does she do? She blames her spouse, which isn't right, but that's human. See, things go sideways. Her impact doesn't meet her intentions, so she moves the blame off of herself. Yet at the same time, Abram has blamed a hold, right? Thank you. Yeah, He does. You can talk with me. He does. He goes along with this plan to take and grasp, and then he doesn't step in when Hagar's treating. Sarai with contempt. Verse six, Abram said, "Do with her whatever you think is best." Then Sarai mistreated Hegar. See, if you're starting to clue in on the themes of the story, this is Genesis 3 and 4, Melodies playing over and over and over, taking, grasping, listening to a voice, giving to a passive husband, doing what's good in your eyes, bearing children with violence, mistreating and being driven out of the land. It's reprising the Genesis story and it's even teasing Exodus, but in reverse. Now, we have the future family of Israel oppressing an Egyptian. So we find ourselves here within a pressed, powerless, pregnant woman on the run through the desert. Now, question, why is Hegar in this scenario? But we said, whose fault is this? Hey, you're OK. You can talk. Yeah. [INAUDIBLE] Well, there's Sarai's taking and giving points for you. Abrams sleeping with Hegar, also points for the Abram answer. Hegar's contempt for Sarai. Abrams' passivity and refusal to dignify Sarai, Sarai's refusing Hegar's child as her own. Sarai's cruelty toward Hegar, there's a society that enslaves Hegar as a powerless utility, a culture that made Sarai's through and enslaved woman normal. There's Abrams' episode in Egypt where he lies and has given slaves from Pharaoh, likely how Hegar even enters the household. There's then even more tender than all that. There's God. His choice to not open Sarai's womb. And God leaving out who the mother would be in the first place. See, it's complicated when the story doesn't have simple heroes or villains. When everyone's left trying to figure it out and sort it through, when even explaining the story, you're kind of not sure where to point the finger, but now you're left with a mess. It's complicated. You just turn to someone next to you and say, life's complicated. Turn to somebody else first so you ignore it and say, I know that's right. [LAUGHTER] See, for a number of reasons, mostly outside of her control, Hegar is now in the wilderness. And it's there, that verse 7, the angel of the Lord found her. Now notice this. She is not going there for a solitude retreat. She's not trying to look for God or meet God. She's on the run, headed back home, and it's there that God finds her. So God seeks her out, the powerless person in the wilderness. It's not out of God's reach or grasp or sight. God is available and able to even in the wilderness find Hegar, which for all of us, we should begin to go praise God. Thank you, Jesus. God shows up in the wilderness. He seeks her out, and then he does something unexpected. God tells Hegar to go back. See, He does not extract her from her situation. There is a way of escape. And she's on it. But in this moment, God says, don't take it. Go back. Now hear me. The scripture does not advocate for staying in abuse. This is wisdom literature, not one for one instruction. So we listen for the wisdom of this moment in light of the whole of scripture. We read a story like this how it wants to be read. So we read it first about God. His commitment to fix the cosmos to renew creation and bring flourishing through a snake crushing seed. Then about the messy people God partnered with in their story and their vocation, so he can renew creation for everyone. We don't read it first about me and about you and about what we're going through. It's not a one for one for every circumstance. But when we read scripture as God's story, the cosmic story and their story, we can receive wisdom for our complex stories as well. Are you with me? You with me? So gone, yeah, go ahead. Mac Daddy's here tonight. So God sends Hagar back, but hear me with a purpose and a promise, verse 10. I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count. See, he instructs her then to name her son Ishmael, meaning God hears. Can you imagine every time she calls her boy or says her boy's name, or hears his name, she's reminded when God met her in the wilderness that he hears her and that he heard her. Or in other words, he is the God of the oppressed, to which we can say amen. The God shows up in the middle of oppression. It's what Mary began to know. And she broke out and praised when God showed up for her. She said, "My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God and my Savior. Why?" He's brought down rulers from their thrones. He's lifted up the humble. He's filled the hungry with good things. See, he's the God who heals the broken hearted and he saves those who are crushed in spirit. He brings good news to the poor and he sets the captives free. See, this is the God of the oppressed. Or put in the words of the late James Cone, it is impossible to speak of the God of the Israelite history who is the God revealed in Jesus Christ without recognizing that God is the God of and for those who labor and are heavy-lated. See, all that is good news. So after Hegar is met by God in the wilderness, she does something that no one else in Scripture does, how does single other person. She gives God an "A" L. Roy and says, "You are the God who sees me, for I have now seen the one who sees me. Have you ever had that happen to you? I have." Or in the middle of my mess and the chaos and just the, I don't even know how to go word for it of life. God shows up. Not even that He fixes everything at the moment, but He shows up and the best way I can even remember it is He saw me. He saw me. He came close. He saw me. How intimate and how personal of our God. See, the only person in all Scripture to give God a name is this oppressed Egyptian woman on the run. Verse 15, "So Hegar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had born." Abram finally has his child at 86, which my God. [LAUGHTER] 86. After all that waiting, I remember what it's like to be on the complex journey of waiting for a kid. And then when I finally got to have her and hold her and see her and watch her just grow every day, you're like, oh my gosh, how she used this big at this point. And watch her last week. I think learn how to kind of give a kiss or discover her hand for the first time and like, oh my, she's just freaking out. She's like, this is mine. Or be up late right now with her when she's teething. Sweet Jesus. [LAUGHTER] And there's a dream about her future and all the things that are to come and to love her. See, Abram raises his boy and cherishes his boy. And thanks God for his boy. 13 years of parenting. Go by, chapter 17. And when Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, I am God Almighty. Walk before me faithfully and be blameless. Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers. See, there are no parallels in the ancient world to this. The nations, gods, they made demands and they offered favors, but none bound themselves to a person or to a family, let alone to bless the whole world. So Yahweh gives Abram his partner responsibilities. Why? Well, look what's happened in the story so far. In chapter 15, Abram trusts God and God puts all the weight of the covenant on himself while Abram sleeps. But then in 16, Abram sleeps with Hagar. He takes and grasps, and that makes a mess that God will not ignore. So he commands his covenant partner. Walk before me. Stay in step with me. This is covenant intimacy. It's Genesis 5 and 6. It's enoc and Noah. Walk before me and be blameless. Behold, undivided, integrated, aimed rightly. See, this is the phrase use of Noah, the one who also got to be a part of saving the world through his righteousness. God will not let his partner do what's good in his own eyes anymore. He calls him now to participate, to take on some responsibility. Then I will make my covenant. So the covenant God initiates by grace has expectations. Come with me. See, that's what Paul gets at in the New Testament. God's covenant is unmerited, but it's not unconditional. It's grace we cannot earn, and it expects something from us. Vladimir Loskey put it this way. Grace is not a question of merits, but of a cooperation, of a synergy of the two wills, divine, and human a harmony in which grace bears even. more and more fruit. So, grace is a presence of God within us which demands constant effort on our part. Or in the language of the goat in our community, Dallas-Wolored, grace is opposed to earning, but not to effort. God gives His partner a practical way to live into the covenant relationship. Everyone's favorite sermon, the one you were likely, excited to hear about tonight's circumcision. Now, if you look at the screen behind me, you'll see a photo of, I'm like, (audience laughing) Could you imagine? Also, respect, give props to my community, they came up with that joke. Circumcision was practice across the ancient near east as a right of puberty, fertility or marriage. God takes this common practice and transforms its meaning. Now, remember, God wants to bless Abrams' body and give offspring, but Abrams been taking with His body. So, God hasn't cut it and submit it back to Him, but not only Him, every male born or purchased received it, which could you imagine the conversations that way, right? And God said, what? You don't get it, you'll get it when you're older. See, the sign it marks the whole people's belonging across generations. It's not just for one, it's for the whole community marking themselves for God. It's marked in the negative, a reminder of the damage that it can cause others, but it's also marked in the positive. A reminder of what God wants to do through Him as He submits. For us in our community, this can look like the practice of consecration. Setting someone or something apart for God. See, we offer all of ourselves, especially the good God has given back to Him, the influence He's given, the sex drive that He's beautifully made, the resources, the intellect, the friendships, the time, maybe you're good at cooking, the skills, the experiences, as God's people, we consecrate ourselves, so God can do through us. We give everything back to Him so He can do good in the world, because when we don't, haven't we seen what it looks like for people who bear God's name to not consecrate themselves before Him? The damage that happens in our world and in our country. When people who claim to have God's name don't submit all of themselves to Him, all of who they are, all of what they think, all of what they have, all the ways they relate to the world around them. See, it's in this moment of consecration that God renames Abram to Abraham. His name now a reminder of his consecration that he's living in God's story and not the other way around, that he's living in God's world and not the other way around. Verse 15, "As for survive your wife, "you are no longer to call her Serai, "her name will be Sarah. "I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. "I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations, "kings of people will come from her. "Now for the first time, God brings up Sarai." Ah, wait. So maybe God's silence about Sarai was not a sign that she was excluded. It was just him not saying anything yet. And sometimes God does that. Sometimes he's silent about the details or he leaves gaps and that's frustrating. Anyone else? And God doesn't tell you the thing you want to know where he gives you part of the plan and part of the dream and part of a word and part of it, and where God somehow seems to leave gaps. That's frustrating. And it would be too simplistic to just like wrap this teaching up with a bow and say that everything's now okay, that God spoke the word, I wish God would have actually just told him from the jump. And that's how I would have done if I was God. But what had been easier if God opened Sarai's womb the moment he met Abraham? Would have been better if God told them the plan then they waited and waited and waited for decades. Why didn't God give them the details? Why the gap, God? The complex thing is God doesn't say. And we have to sit with that. He doesn't say. He does not explain himself here. But here's the wisdom that I found in my story with God. In his mercy, wisdom and kindness, sometimes God leaves gaps, which is not always pleasant and God can be trusted. Sometimes God leaves gaps and he can be trusted. Say that with me. See, God finally says the mother is going to be Sarai. He renamed her from Sarai to Sarah, which she most of us like, not a big change. But her name actually grows to me and something like Lady or Princess of Multitudes. So you see what God's doing? He's building her up. Verse 17, "Abraham fell, face down, and he laughed and said to himself, "Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? "Will Sarah bear a child at the age of 90? "But notice what's happening. "See, Sarah as the mother is news to Abraham. "The mother and the time on the two things "that seemed to be most important. "The two things that would have mattered most to me "God was silent about until now." So Abraham responds with a mix of honesty about what's even possible and love for what he's nurtured. Verse 18, "Abraham says to God, "If only Ishmael might live under your blessing." See, practically speaking, Ishmael is Abraham's offering and he could be God's partner, but personally, Ishmael is the son that Abraham loved and raised and imagined a future with for 13 years. Ishmael has been the plan. Only Ishmael may live under your blessing. Verse 19, and God said, "Yes, but your wife, Sarah, "will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac, "and as for Ishmael, I have heard you, "I will surely bless him, I will make him fruitful, "and will greatly increase your numbers, "but my covenant I will establish with Isaac, "whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year." So here are God's response, "Yes, God will care for and bless Ishmael, "but no, God does have a particular way "he wants this partnership lived out, "a way that constantly demands what the scripture is trying "to teach us over and over and over, trust." See, now notice that this particular trust isn't giving up making plans altogether. Oh no. See, this is giving up the plan that he's been living for 13 years already. See, it's hard to stop taking and grasping things into his own hands, but what may be harder is actually letting go of the plans he's already been living. Do you hear the difference? See, let me say that again. It's hard enough to stop taking things into my own hands. What may be harder is letting go of the plans I've already been living, letting go of the way I've already been doing things, letting go of the way that I've already been writing my story. So God tells Abraham to give up the way he's been going about his family, his vocation, and his story. You can hear the father's voice almost let it go. Let it go. Stop grasping, stop taking. Let go of the thing you've been holding on to, let go of the way you've been living your plan for all these years. I know it's hard, but you can't trust me. So let's pause for a moment. The most important voice today will not be from someone on a microphone, the most important voice every time we gather is from the spirit of Jesus who lives within you. He's been speaking to you before you got here. He'll be speaking to you for the years to come and we're here just to posture ourselves to be open to his voice. God may want to be talking about something that has nothing to do with this teaching. That's freaking awesome. So, I'll just pause for a moment and be quiet to listen. It often helps me to sit up straight or to put my feet firm on the ground or to open up my hands. So, find whatever posture is helpful for you. No pressure, do whatever you want. If your mind gets distracted, bless God. Bring it back after. Be quiet to listen. Now in the authority of Jesus, I command any voice that is out of alignment with Jesus to be silent now. - Yes, God. (silence) - Any spirit, any power that's trying to exalt itself above Jesus, command you to be silent now. King Jesus, we honor you and worship you. We will revere you here. We're open to you, to your leading, to your voice. Spirit of living God, what are you saying to me? (sighing) Where do you want to partner with me in the world? Where have I let cultural norms lead me? Where is life's complexity brought me? How are you asking me to concentrate? What are you asking me to let go of? How are you inviting me to try? Holy Spirit, what are you saying to me? Holy Spirit, what are you asking me to let go of? If something comes to mind, you can ask God more about it. Maybe there's a memory, an image, story, a scripture. If nothing seems to come to mind, sometimes for me, I just use that as an opportunity to go. Maybe God wants me to speak first. Maybe he's leaving space for you to talk and him to listen. There's likely something you should say back to him. Make sure it's honest, not right. If you want to write it down, grab your phone or a journal, write it down. Because the Monday is coming. It's easy to forget. Just take a few more moments. Five, four, three, two, and one. You can open your eyes down. That was where I planned to end the teaching. I kept reading the scripture and found something to be pretty odd. Chapter 18. The Lord appeared to Abraham. Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. Verse six. So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. Quick, he said, get three seas of the finest flower and need it and bake some bread. Verse nine. Here's your wife, Sarah, they asked him. There in the tent he said, verse 10, then one of them said, I will surely return to you about this time next year and Sarah, your wife, will have a son. Now notice, God already said all this in Chapter 17, just verses ago. I don't miss y'all, but I hate repeating myself. And I hate when people repeat themselves to me. I'm like, nope, I'm with you. I'm locked, don't like we don't need to do this, just move on. So why does God show up to Abraham's crib, eat his food, and then repeat himself? Well, this seemingly unnecessary repetition is actually the moment that the whole story hinges on. Did you notice it? See, God asks where Sarah is, then repeats his promise about her. Why? Verse 10. Now, Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent which was behind him. Why is he doing this? It's because Sarah was listening. Sarah was listening. See, Sarah was listening. It wasn't enough for God to tell Abraham about his plan to bless Sarah. God goes out of his way to find his princess so she could hear it for herself. My God, he blesses the oppressed and the powerless, hegar, and the wilderness, then the complex, hurting, sometimes problematic, easily forgotten Sarah in the kitchen. He brings in the ones who are pushed out. He goes after them just like he's going after his bride and the whole cosmos. What is the story about? Well, it's about a society that doesn't let those in the margins flourish. It's about what humans do when God doesn't tell us everything we want to know. It's about people doing what is right in their eyes and it's about what God does when all of those factors collide. Are you with me? See, God works with messy but moldable people. Anyone who will release control and consecrate to him and listen to his voice even when it's hard, see God goes, "I can work with that." I can use that. I can do something with that and praise God for that. See, he seems to partner with people and do things that look unwise to all of us, allowing a manipulative family, a canonite prostitute, a stuttering murderer, a forgotten shepherd boy, an engaged virgin, a betraying fisherman, a complicated new family called the church. See, but the wisdom of God is just foolishness to the world as the scripture says. He partners with real messy people with me and with you and he often waits to do things so it's too broken and too complex or impossible so that it could only be a God story. Only be a thing that it could be. It was only him. Only God can do it. Only God shows up. Only in the way that just God can do. See, he almost seems to like waiting for it to be a God story because this is his story. We're living in it. This is how God partners with people to bring about human flourishing. Amen. Verse 11. Abraham and Sarah were already very old and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, "After I am worn out and my Lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?" Which is hilarious. Then the Lord said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh and say, 'Well, I really have a child now that I'm old?' And right now I've never noticed this but notice God starts talking about the things that Sarah is thinking about, not even saying out loud." Well, what's the wisdom here? Well, partnering with God requires us to continually renew our trust. So, you trust is not just something we think or feel. It's what we practice with our bodies through a life of consecration. A life of trust demands something from every one of us in every season of our lives. Hey, Gar, a powerless immigrant has to go back to her condition, trusting that God sees here and will care for her. Abraham, who has power and resources, who deceives and takes and grasps, and sometimes trusts, has to let go of the plants he's been living out and consecrate what can either bless or wound. Sarah, the need, they're powerful, nor fully powerless, but easily overlooked and forgotten, has to sit with the gaps and let God do the impossible after a lifetime what feels like neglect. All of that is trust. And that's not just what God asks of us. So no. Y'all, it's what He joins in with us as well. See the God who saw Hegar in the wilderness and asked her to go back into the mess is the God who put on skin and bone and ran into the mess himself. The God who told Abraham to let everything go is the God who knelt in a garden and prayed, not my will but yours. He opened his hands and laid everything down so the whole world could flourish. See this God who promised life through Sarah's Baron womb is the very God who was killed and sealed in a tomb but turned out place of death into the birthplace of resurrection life for anyone who trusts in Him. Well this is the true seed, the one who crushes sin and death and Satan himself. See how the seed comes into the world. The snake crusher comes into the world. What a God. What a God like this. See He's a God of the promise who delivers on the promise and we as people of the promise then have to learn how to wait. We wait. We wait for the birth of new creation. We wait for four tastes of that new creation to come burst into the complexity of our everyday lives. The way we wait is through trust. See trust is less about our capacity to muster up something and it's more about the reliability of what we're trusting. It's not about what you feel for whether you're nervous about the outcome. Be nervous maybe that's fine. Not, it's about the object of that trust and whether whatever you're trusting in can deliver on the promise. So the important question for today is not how much can I trust God. The important question is will the God I'm placing my trust in come through? Will they come through? Will the world for the cosmos for all of creation for you and for me can God do it? Verse 16, then the Lord said, "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" Would you stand with me? Again, the most important voice today is the spirit of Jesus who's already at work in you. We want to be attentive to Him. That's why we're here. That's why we gather. Before we offer any invitations or senses, I don't really just pause to listen again. It helps you to close your eyes or to open your hands. Whatever posture helps you become more available and accessible to God. Just encourage you to take that now. Just putting your body in a position where your heart already is. God, I want to be available to you if you want to. You don't have to want that. God will honor your choice. For one more time, Holy Spirit, what are you saying to me? What are you saying to us? Through it all. Through it all. I've learned to trust in Jesus. I've learned to trust in God. Through it all. Through it all. I've learned to depend upon His Word. And through it all. Through it all. Through it all. Through it all. Thanks for joining the Bridgetown family as we engage in this teaching series. To learn more about the life of our church and how you can get involved, visit Bridgetown.Church/Welcome. If you're interested in contributing financially to Bridgetown Church and to our ministry, you can do that at Bridgetown.Church/giving. Wherever you're joining us from, we hope this resource blesses you and encourages you to be with Jesus, become like Jesus, and do what Jesus did.