Prayers That Move Mountains - Pastor Susie Gamez | Sacramento

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     Pastor Susie Gamez, Canadian by birth and Korean by heritage, is now Mexican by marriage and American by immigration. With a passion for reconciliation, racial justice, and the Gospel, Susie and her husband Marcos met at Fuller Theological Seminary while getting their M.A. in Intercultural Studies. They are now proud parents of four beautiful LatAsian kids. After serving as a youth pastor and church planter in South Central Los Angeles for 14 years, Susie now resides in Sacramento and serves as the Co-Lead Senior Pastor at Midtown Church.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:14

It is a good morning because today is Palm Sunday, and uh we are one Sunday away from Easter Sunday, or Resurrection Sunday, as some of us like to call it. And uh today kicks off what is essentially the most important or the holiest week of the Christian calendar. In fact, the week between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday is referred to as Holy Week, or some people know it as Passion Week. And if all that happened between Palm Sunday or the week before Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection, if the importance of it has not really struck you before, well, let me frame it to you this way. Did you know that one third of all of the writings of the Gospels, so Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, which summarize the life and ministry of Jesus' 33 years here on earth, one-third of all the gospel writings focus on just the last week of Jesus' life before his death on the cross. Um, so so this is an important week. What happens in this week is so important because it is the culmination of God's plan for salvation of for all of humankind. Everything from the time that Adam and Eve sinned in the garden back in Genesis 3 and thereby built a barrier of sin between us and God, everything points to the coming of Jesus and his death and miraculous resurrection. See, he he not only did the miraculous by dying and coming back to life three days later, his conception and his birth was miraculous. Let's not forget about that, right? Um He did the miraculous by fulfilling every single prophecy that was ever made about him. Go back and read the Old Testament. There are countless prophecies made about the coming Messiah, and Jesus fulfilled every one of them. Um Jesus performed many miracles while he was here on earth, and and really he did the miraculous simply by living out a sinless life, a blameless life. Something that you and I or anyone past or present could ever, nothing, it was not something that we could do, uh, but Jesus could do it. He was the only one who could ever come and live a sinless life. So what is impossible for us, Jesus did. And what Jesus did by taking our sin to the cross was he removed the mountain of sin that stood between us and God and gave us access back to God. He did what we could not do on our own. No one but Jesus can remove the barrier of sin between us and God. This is the good news. That's the gospel presentation. That's what Holy Week is all about. No one but Jesus can remove the barrier of sin between us and God. And no one can move a mountain. Or can they? That's what today's sermon is entitled. It's actually about moving mountains, prayers that can move mountains. And so we have this thought, okay, well, no one, not a human person, could move a mountain. Or can they? There's a story about a man in India who is known as a man who moved a mountain. His name was Dashrath Minjahi, and he was a landless laborer who lived in northern India back in 1960. Uh he lived amongst some of the lowest of the low in a caste-ridden society, and he and his people had no access to some of the most basic necessities in life. So they didn't have access to clean water or electricity, education, and health care. Except between Gelaur, where Manjihi lived, and Wazirganj, there stood a 300-foot mountain. And the only way to get from his village to Wazirganj was one road that took you 75 kilometers around the mountain. Another way was to go up and down the mountain. It was much shorter, but a lot more dangerous as well. Because there was no road that took you there. One day, Manjihi's wife got very sick, and she was neither able to make the difficult climb up and down the mountain, nor was she able to take the long journey around it. She needed to go see a doctor, but the journey would prove to be too difficult, and as a result, she ended up dying. I know so far this story sucks, right? But but there's more, I promise. Manjihi, he was obviously grieved at his wife's death, but he did not want her death to be in vain. So what he did was he devoted the rest of his life to ensuring that this mountain would no longer be a barrier for anyone else to the things that his people needed for basic survival. With just a hammer, a chisel, and a crowbar. He didn't have any fancy material, he was a poor man, lived in a remote village. So with just a hammer, a chisel, and a crowbar, Manjihi began to literally chip away at the mountain so that he could carve a road in the place that the mountain once stood. He went to the top of the mountain and from the top down carved away at the mountain. He wanted to see a road in the place that the mountain once stood. He put his own life at risk. Every day, sometimes getting hurt by falling rocks, and of course, the work was physically exhausting. And he did this alone every day. Every day for 10 years, 10 years it took for other people to catch on. For 10 years, he worked hard every day on his own. And 10 years later, people were like, oh, hold on, wait a minute. He's making some progress here. They started to see the vision too. So 10 years later, people started to join him. And so people joined him and they started making more progress, but it still took a total of 22 years. 22 years, this man was at it and he chipped away. And in 1982, after 22 years of labor, he broke through the mountain. He moved a mountain and he created a road that was 30 feet wide and 360 feet long. And now doctors and schools and job opportunities that used to be 75 kilometers away were now only three to five kilometers away. He provided access. See, even after Manjihi had moved a mountain, he didn't stop there. He advocated for the road to be tarred and he wanted it to be connected to the main road. And as a way to get the government's attention, he walked along the railway line from where he lived all the way down to New Delhi, the capital. He petitioned not only for better access to hospitals and schools and water. He wanted these things in their town, not in the neighboring town. So he kept on advocating. So the road it finally got tarred 30 years later. And today there is electricity, a school, and even a hospital in his home village. Now Manjihi, he did die in 2007. To most people, moving a mountain does not seem possible, but Manjihi, motivated by love and faithful to the task, was moved to action and he did the impossible. He moved a mountain. We're wrapping up our series in the book of Mark today. And the Gospel of Mark is much about the actions and the miracles of Jesus. This is why we called the series Put It Into Practice. And because today is Palm Sunday, we're going to start reading from Mark 11, the explanation or the description of what happened on Palm Sunday. So I'm going to take us through quite a bit of scripture today, but if you pay attention, there's a thread of connectedness that Mark wants us to pick up on. So let's start reading in Mark chapter 11 in verse 1. It says this. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, Why are you doing this? say the Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly. They went and found a colt outside in the street tied at a doorway. As they untied it, some people standing there asked, What are you doing untying that colt? They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches, palm branches, that they had cut in the fields. Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the coming kingdom of our Father David. And Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve. Now, um, if you spend any time around kids or if you have kids, uh you know that inquisitive kids, curious kids, kids that ask a lot of questions, they're they're uh amazing. Um and yes, it can get kind of annoying sometimes too. You know, like when they ask repetitively, consistently, constantly, why this, why that, how come this? What about this? You know, it it can get exhausting for the person who is trying to answer these questions. Um it can get exhausting, but it it's actually an amazing and beautiful thing to have a posture of curiosity. And I think we can learn something from the kids by maintaining a posture of curiosity. I think in our reading of scripture, it it could be so much more meaningful if we stayed curious. You know, if we ask of the text, I wonder why this happened. What does this mean? What does it really mean? Uh what was significant about this? How come this? Why does the heading in my Bible here in Mark 11:1 start with uh a subheading that says the triumphal entry? Why is this moment called the triumphal entry? Jesus was about to be led to the cross. Why was this moment considered a triumphal entry? See, a triumphal entry is the kind of atmosphere that you'd see when a war hero or a king would enter into the city. Typically, to be celebrated as a war hero, you would have had to slay at least 5,000 people out on the battlefield. This type of celebration was reserved for those kind of war heroes or royalty. Um people would wait for this hero to return home and then give them a triumphal entry when they came back to their city. It's definitely not the same thing, but um, but think of it like victory parades after your sports team wins the championships. And I I promise I'm not trying to be petty here. I'm not just like the Dodgers just happened to win the World Series last year. So I'm just saying, I'm not I'm not trying to start in anything, okay? I'm just saying, when so like when the Dodgers went back home to LA and they had their victory parade, right? There were people who lined the streets and they were like holding up signs and they were shouting and they were celebrating, and and and the players were on top of the buses or whatever, and they were waving at the people. And and I there was this actually, this is a funny moment. There was a viral moment where a kid was holding up a sign and he wanted to catch the attention of Otani, and and he writes on his sign, Otani, marry my mom. So this kid was shooting his shot. I think it was his shot, not his mom's shot. He wanted to be otani's son. Um, anyway, back to the Bible. Uh and back to staying curious, why did Jesus ride a donkey into the city of Jerusalem? Why was he given this triumphal entry? Okay, wait, why did Jesus ride a donkey versus a horse? Let's go there. Um, there's a lot of paradox in this scene. Starting with Jesus' entry into Jerusalem, the triumphal entry, uh, it seems a little bit strange. Um, because like we said, this type of fanfare being given to Jesus, it was usually reserved for power-hungry kings or heroes of war who were out to kill and conquer. But here Jesus was entering into the city, and yes, he was about to triumph, but not in the way they expected, and not in a way that would usually be celebrated like this. See, Jesus was about to triumph over sin and death, not because he was going to take lives, but because he was about to lay down his own life. So it was a paradox, it was countercultural, it was different from how things usually were. Jesus was about to embrace death on a cross for everyone to see. It was not what the people were expecting. And most kings or war heroes, they would have rode into the city riding on a horse, on a powerful stallion or a grand chariot pulled by a strong horse, um, because it's a symbol of war, it's a symbol of victory, it's a symbol of strength. But instead, here comes Jesus riding on a lowly donkey, which is a symbol of peace, a symbol of humility. And as we can see in the text, Jesus gave very specific instructions on how to go get this donkey. It wasn't because they couldn't find a horse and they were out of horses to buy, borrow, or rent. Uh, Jesus was going to ride on in a on a donkey uh as a fulfillment of prophecy. Way back in the Old Testament, it was prophesied in Zechariah 9.9 that your king shall come in riding on a donkey. Zechariah 9.9 says, Your king shall come to you. A just Savior is he, meek and riding on a donkey. Jesus fulfilled every prophecy that was made about him. Here we see again that Jesus, though he is the Son of God, all-knowing and all-powerful, he is at the same time humble and meek, not arrogant and mighty in the worldly sense of the word. Jesus is ultimately king, but not in the way that people pictured a king. This seems like a small detail, but why did it matter that the donkey had never been ridden before? That detail is there is on purpose. I had a friend back in the day who was really on the prosperity gospel tip, and he said that uh the donkey never having been ridden before was a sign that it was only the best for Jesus. Brand new, without a scratch or a dent. But but this reasoning doesn't quite match up with the rest of everything else that Jesus lived out in his uh ministry. So here's a more plausible reason. Because this donkey had never been ridden before, it wasn't broken in. Meaning it hadn't been trained to take a rider on its back. It would have been naturally unwilling to let somebody ride on its back. And here's Jesus demonstrating that he had authority over all creation. Because even an untamed donkey could be ridden. And when Jesus was the rider, it would submit to his authority. Here's another notable thing about Jesus riding on a donkey. Jesus was most likely riding on a Jerusalem donkey because where were they? Jerusalem, right? And did you know that a Jerusalem donkey has these markings on its back? Is there right? Okay. You see the picture? What does it look like? A cross. And that's not by accident. As Jesus rode into the city, yes, a triumphal entry. But he was being led to the cross. And this is what he sat on and looked down at. The other gospel accounts say that as Jesus rode in, yes, the people were laying down branches and they were shouting Hosanna, but Jesus looked over Jerusalem and he wept. He was grieved at where Jerusalem was, but also he knew that the cross was before him, and all he had to do was look down at the back of the donkey and see the cross. None of this was by mistake. Now I'm not going to ask every single question of this text, but here's some other important things to note. What does Hosanna mean? Do we know what that means? It means please save us. So when they were when he was riding in, the people were actually shouting, please save us. And yes, Jesus would bring salvation, but again, not in the way that they expected. They expected a political hero. They expected somebody who was going to change things up for them. Their situation here and now. That's what they wanted. But but Jesus was going to have victory. He was going to save, but just not in the way that they had expected. And finally, why did they spread their cloaks and their branches on the ground? It's called Palm Sunday because they spread palms out before him. But what is the significance of palms? It was like rolling out a red carpet. Historically, palm fronds symbolize triumph. And they were used to honor kings and heroes and victors in war. And in Jewish custom, they were also seen as a symbol of freedom. Yeah, I took a lot of time to set this up because it does give us an understanding of the how and the why in the rest of chapter 11. So, you know, in that first segment of scripture, it ends with verse 11, and I never really paid much attention before, but you know, it just seemed like it was a tying up of loose ends, like a concluding sentence to take us to the next day. Then they all got ready for bed because it was late and they called it a night. But but, you know, after Jesus rides into Jerusalem with the people shouting, Hosanna in the highest, verse 11 says this. He went into Jerusalem and into the temple. He looked around at everything. But since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve. He paused. He looked around the temple. He observed. He took it in. And he lamented some more. He saw the state that the temple was in. But it was late. So he went to bed. Now this is important because what we see happen the next day is not Jesus being reactive. It's him responding to the thing that he observed the night before. That he had taken time to think on, that he had taken time to pray on. And what happens next is a response to what happened the night before. So what does happen the next day? Mark 11, starting in verse 12, it says this. The next day, before they get to flipping tables, okay? The next day, as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves because it was not the season for figs. But then he said to the tree, May no one ever eat fruit from you again. And the disciples, they heard him say it. Now we're gonna come back to the fig tree in a few verses, and and the setup of how Mark tells this story is important because this is this is kind of Mark's style of writing. A nickname for this type of literary device that Mark is using here is actually called a Markin sandwich. So a Mark style sandwich. And what's the best part of a sandwich? Middle. Some people want to say it's the bread, but it's not, okay, it's the middle. Um the it's what's inside that counts. It's the center part, right? So so it is with a Markin sandwich. What Mark does here is he starts telling the story. Of the fig tree on top, but he really wants you to pay attention to the meat in the middle, the thing in the middle. But he's just he's serving it up with two pieces of bread on top and in the middle. So you come upon this passage of scripture where Jesus, feeling hungry that morning, he goes to this fig tree that looks like maybe it should have fruit because it's got nice leaves. It looks healthy, but he goes up to the fig tree and he finds out that it has no fruit and he's mad. So he curses it and he says, May no mo no fruit ever come from you again. And it they make a point to say that, you know, and the disciples observed this. So it's one of those moments where you're like, what is going on with Jesus, right? Okay, sure, he was hungry, but was he hangry? Was he being reactive here? Was he just like, dang, I wanted some figure, you know? And it's almost like people who don't can't get their coffee in the morning, you know? You go to a coffee shop and they say they ran out of coffee. Like he'd be mad, right? So you're looking at Jesus and you're like, why is he reacting this way? Didn't you know? Dang, Jesus, someone cut you off on your donkey, somebody talking about your mama, or like, what's happening here? Jesus, what's this really about? And you wouldn't be wrong to think that this particular incident or or more specifically, this miracle that Jesus performs is out of the ordinary. Because usually when Jesus performs a miracle, it results in a blessing or more fruitfulness or healing or multiplication, even resurrection of life. His miracles were positive and good, but this particular miracle was one of destruction. He cursed the tree and he said, May no one ever eat fruit from you again. He was upset because he wanted to see fruit from this tree, but all it had was leaves. Jesus was upset. And here we get to the meat. Here's what the fig tree situation is really about. Let's move on to verse 15. Verse 15 in Mark 11 says this. On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. And this is what he was mad about. The chief priests and the elders of the law, they heard this and they began looking for a way to kill him. It's because, like, they got caught. Okay? They feared him because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching. And when evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city. So again, remember how in verse 11 Jesus went into the temple and he looked around. He took it all in, he observed, reflected, and prayed on it. So Jesus' response to what he saw in the temple was not reactive, it was responsive. What Jesus saw on the way to the temple, the fig tree with leaves but no fruit, was a response to what he saw in the temple the night before, and what he saw when he came in, and he saw the money changers, and he saw that people were being barred from being able to worship. Because this is what was happening. The money changers and those who were selling sacrifices, they were acting as an obstacle for people who wanted to just come and worship. People had to come and purchase sacrifices. This was the Passover festival, so people from faraway lands would come uh so they could come worship. And and instead they get to the temple and people had set up shop in the place that they were supposed to worship. Now, now, you know, it wasn't by accident that they set up shop in the Gentile courts. The temple was segregated back then. There was a place that the Gentiles could worship and the Jews could worship. And so they would set up shop conveniently where the Gentiles would usually come and worship, where where those who were on the margins, those who were poor, would come and worship. And they would come and they would jack up prices, and they would they would change money for exorbitant fees so that they could make a profit in God's house. And Jesus came in and he said, No, we're not doing this. My house is supposed to be a house of prayer for all nations. Let's not set up any obstacles, any barriers, any mountains that would make it hard for people to come and worship. This is what Jesus was upset about, and so he cast them out. He said, Get out of here. Don't be a tree that looks like it should have figs, but I come upon it and there's no fruit. I wonder if for us too we can take some inventory. I'm not trying to stick a knife. I'm just saying, let's take some inventory. Are there places where I might look like a temple on the outside? But I'm lacking fruit on the inside. I don't want Jesus to come upon my life and say, you look good on the outside. I don't see no fruit. So after this episode, the chief priests and the teachers of the law they heard this and they began looking for a way to kill Jesus, for they feared him. But the conviction was too much. Because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching, they feared him. And when evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city. So this brings us to the next day and the bottom part of the mark and sandwich. Because here comes the fig tree again. So Mark 11, verse 20, it says that in the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. So a day earlier it looked like a healthy tree. It's got all the leaves and everything. They come upon it the next day and it's withered. It's a shriveled up tree from the roots. And Peter remembered this and said to Jesus, Rabbi, look, the fig tree that you cursed has withered. Jesus responds to him by saying, This have faith in God. Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, go throw yourself into the sea, and does not doubt in their heart, but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours. That sounds like really good news, right? But I wonder, you know, if we stay curious, if some of us read this with a little bit of skepticism, I could I could pray for this mountain to be thrown into the sea and it'll happen as long as I don't doubt. Really? I could ask for anything, and and and if I believe, it will be mine. See, the disciples say, Rabbi, look, the fig tree is withered. And the disciples are surprised at this, but Jesus is like, Listen, I don't know why you're surprised. You've been walking with me for three years now, right? Uh he's saying, Have faith in God. You're surprised that this fig tree has withered, but uh, I'm not. And I want you to learn this lesson. Truly, I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, go throw yourself into the sea and does not doubt in their heart, but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for him. You know, Jesus could have followed that statement up with this. Are you not convinced by now that nothing is impossible for God? Nothing is impossible for God. Nothing is impossible for God. Nothing is impossible with God. Those were the words that Mary said when the angel Gabriel came and told her that she was miraculously with child. Nothing is impossible with God. And and the disciples had walked with Jesus for all these years and they still were not convinced after he had raised people from the dead, after he had given sight to blind, after he had given hearing to those who could not hear, and after they had seen paralytics uh pick up their mat and walk, they were still not convinced. Uh nothing is impossible for God. Remember, this was the time of the Passover feast. So it was a time when the people were remembering the miraculous things that God had done for their people in the past. When God had sent plagues over Egypt, all the babies died overnight, except for the Jewish babies whose parents had believed and obeyed and put the blood of the Lamb over their doorposts, and the Spirit of God passed over and saved their children. This was leading up to the Exodus when God parted the Red Sea and sent manna from heaven and sustained their people for 40 years in the desert. So it should not seem impossible for people to believe that God could have a mountain thrown up into a sea. Or to have a fig tree, the fig tree withered at the roots. Yes, we can pray for the impossible and God will hear. And God can. But to what end? So that we can live out our wildest dreams and name and claim whatever our hearts desire? No, because what Jesus says here is consistent with what Jesus had been teaching and living out on different occasions, because they would have remembered in John 14, 13 and 14, it says, Jesus taught, and I will do whatever you ask in my name, in my name, so that the Father, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. So with that in mind, you may ask me for anything in my name, in accordance with the Father's will and for the glory of God, and I will do it. John 16, 23, he said, In that day you will no longer ask me anything, because very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name for his glory according to his will. And our verse of the year comes from John 15, 5, which is all about abiding, remaining in God. And when you remain in Christ, you will bear much fruit. And here's the invitation again: ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you for my Father's glory. When your desires line up with God's desire and God's purpose and God's plan, ask away whatever you wish, and it will be done. Lastly, I want to give you some cultural context about mountains. Moving a mountain was a metaphor in Jewish literature, which meant to deal with an apparent insurmountable difficulty or to do something that is impossible or seems impossible. In ancient Near Eastern culture, there was an understanding that mountains were where heaven and earth meet. Think back to encounters in the Bible. So many powerful, sacred, holy encounters happen on a mountaintop. We even have that saying, it was a mountaintop experience, right? And so the Jewish people they had an understanding that mountains were a special place. Mountains almost felt like this is where heaven and earth meet. The Celtic people, so the Irish people, they they also have this concept of something called thin spaces. Thin spaces describe locations or moments where the boundary or the veil between heaven and earth feels thin, almost transparent, allowing for closer connections to God. So maybe mountains feel like a thin space. You know what else feels like a thin space for some people? Cemeteries. If you think about it, when you walk around in a cemetery, you're very aware of the thin barrier between life and death. Between life here on earth, the material, and the eternal. I know people who used to prayer walk in the cemetery because it felt like a thin space. Korean people, they love to set up prayer places in the mountains. They have whole prayer mountains. Um and maybe it's because the reality of our closeness to God just feels more, you feel more in tune with God there. And going back to cemetery, some of you have heard me tell this story before, but um I like to reflect on this every now and again because um this story challenges me in the best ways. Um of you have heard me tell the story of my husband Marcos, whose best friend and cousin Luis was killed when he was about 19 years old. Um Luis had been running the streets and you know he's kind of up to no good. And Marcos had recently been saved from that same life. And Marcos comes from a rich heritage of faith. He had a praying mother and father, they were pastors of a small Latin Pentecostal church for years. Um, but he had a praying grandma as well, who was mostly bedridden, but she spent most of the days of her waking life um uh reading scriptures and praying. And Marcos was definitely on the top of that hit list. So he he got saved and he started living a radically different life, but soon after his cousin Luis was killed, and he was so grieved by that. Grieved not only for himself but for his grandmother who had raised Luis. So Marcos taking the word at its word, started to think and pray, and and he was like, you know what? Jesus invited us to pray some audacious prayers, to pray for the miraculous, to pray for the seemingly impossible. Jesus raised people to life. And so I know for some people you might hear this and it might sound foolish, but but this is actually uh challenging and encouraging to me in the best of ways because what Marcos did was he went to the cemetery, he went to his cousin's graveside, and he prayed that his cousin would be raised back to life. He took anointing oil, he poured it over the gravesite, he he took a backpack full of clothes, he um he even put extra pegs on his bike because he envisioned that he was gonna have to ride his cousin on his bike to present him back to his grandmother. He had that kind of faith when he approached the cemetery to pray that his cousin would be raised to life, and his cousin was not raised back to life that day. But there was still a miracle that happened. Because it's a miracle that that Luis he he was not raised back to life, but Marcos's faith did not die. In fact, it breathed more life into his life of faith, it breathed more life into his sense of purpose and ministry and vision. This was the beginning of God commissioning him to go into a life of ministry. He went on to Bible college and he and he was he was really he was really adamant about sharing his faith. He preached the gospel and he still he was he he invites people to come to church. We have some guests with us today who who um not coming to church for the first time, but but I mean it it was this kind of thing, like a seed was planted as he prayed those prayers. And the thing that I'm most inspired by was that he didn't let something that really seems like an impossibility prevent him from being moved into action. He still prayed those prayers, and God answered those prayers just not in the way that he expected him to. And and and I wonder for us too, if that's an invitation. It's an invitation. So you know, sometimes it feels risky to pray certain prayers because you're like, well, what if I pray for this thing and what if I fast and pray and really like believe that God's gonna answer this prayer, but he doesn't answer it the way that I want him to, or when I want him to. My challenge back to you is gonna be, well, you know what? God always answers prayers, but it doesn't always happen the way that we expect it to. Sometimes the answer is no. Sometimes the answer is later. Sometimes the answer is yes, and maybe not even in the way that you think it's a yes, right? But but God hears our prayers. Another thing that Marcos said recently, as we've been praying through some things, he said, you know what? Either God is good or he's not. That that's a profound statement. Either he's good or he's not. It's not like he's good sometimes or he's kind of sometimes kind of kind of good. He's either good or he's not. He's either God or he's not. He's either King of kings and Lord of Lords or He's not. It's either you're gonna put your full belief and trust in God as God, Lord over all creation, the one who knows the beginning from the end, the one who is sovereign. His ways are higher than our ways, not our ways, he his ways are not our ways because he knows he has a plan, he has a purpose. So are we gonna trust and believe that God is God, that God is good, that God is love, that God is for us, that he hears our prayers. Can you believe that? And when you pray, yes, you can pray audacious prayers. There is an invitation. When he says pray, the mountains would be moved, he's actually saying, No, I invite you. Bring every need that you have to me, because nothing is impossible for me. He can do the miraculous. There are so many things just from this week, right, Pastor Krista? Things just from this week where we have to stop and say, but God, whoo! If not but for the grace of God, whoo! So many miracles, so many answers to prayers, so many ways in which God has kept us. So when we stop and recognize that God is in control, that God is good, He has invited us to be His people, the sheep of His pasture, He loves us and He is for us.