SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the City Covenant Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: We are a warm, welcoming church located in downtown Spokane, dedicated to practicing the way of Jesus in the heart of the city.
SPEAKER_00: Please join us as we dive into the Word of God together.
SPEAKER_01: It's 1045.
SPEAKER_01: I've got about 25 to 30 minutes.
SPEAKER_01: So I know many of you have are already grateful for me to preach shorter, right?
SPEAKER_01: And so I get that.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what we're doing.
SPEAKER_01: We are looking at the sermon series during this, um during summer.
SPEAKER_01: We're looking at prayer.
SPEAKER_01: As we look at all these different stories of prayer throughout the Old and New Testament, here's what we're doing.
SPEAKER_01: Um each one of these texts is a standalone sermon, right?
SPEAKER_01: So if you miss some, you can dive right back in and hear the talk on prayer.
SPEAKER_01: So today we're looking at 2 Chronicles 20, and I can't believe of all the times that I forgot to write down the page in your pew Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Um I I forgot what it is.
SPEAKER_01: I forgot to write it down.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Philip, I don't know if you see that pew Bible or somebody can help me.
SPEAKER_01: Um you can tell me in a second and help everyone else.
SPEAKER_01: Get to 2 Chronicles 20, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Um feel if somebody knows the NIV one in your pew Bible, go and tell it to me.
SPEAKER_01: Um, whoa, what's the other one?
SPEAKER_01: 385, that's the text.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're looking at 2 Chronicles 20.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just gonna give you a little clue for finding, navigating the Old Testament, right?
SPEAKER_01: You've got the Pentateuch, you've got you right, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, right?
SPEAKER_01: You've got that a little bit after that, right?
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna hit Joshua and Judges, and then 1st and 2 Samuel, you've got Ruth in there too, it's a small one, and then Kings and then Chronicles.
SPEAKER_01: So that's just a little tidbit.
SPEAKER_01: That wasn't even part of the 30-minute talk, okay?
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't count against my time.
SPEAKER_01: Um, I want to tell you though, what's happening, and then we're gonna read 2 Chronicles 20, okay?
SPEAKER_01: There's something that's coming up in the history of the nation of Israel, and they find themselves at this inflection point where they desperately need God's help.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, that's where we're going.
SPEAKER_01: That's the text that we're gonna read in a minute.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to tell you how we got there.
SPEAKER_01: Because going back around 1000 BC, there's a young guy that almost everybody who's walked into a church knows about.
SPEAKER_01: There's this young guy, teenager named David, right?
SPEAKER_01: David um kills this Philistine named Goliath.
SPEAKER_01: Um, what we see is it's not just David doing it on his own.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, it was really it was God's hand in the midst of this, protects the nation of Israel, right?
SPEAKER_01: Um, David is then moved up into this place of leadership, right?
SPEAKER_01: He's brought up into this place of leadership, and and it begins this golden era for Israel because unlike his predecessor Saul, um, he understands one other thing that ultimately he has this role as king, but that God himself is the ultimate king of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: And David lived like this.
SPEAKER_01: He knew this, right?
SPEAKER_01: He was a deeply flawed person in his own ways, but still he understood that God is the ultimate king, right?
SPEAKER_01: And God creates this covenant promise with David, and he assures him that one of his lineage will always be the king of Israel, right, which reaches its ultimate final culmination, its fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ, as Jesus Christ is the true king that all of Israel have been waiting for, right?
SPEAKER_01: In the lineage of David.
SPEAKER_01: And then from that point on, though, from David's point on, there's always, though, this abiding question behind everything, which is will God preserve David's line despite Israel's repeated failures, right?
SPEAKER_01: Because even though God has this promise, at the same time, Israel seems to not be living into the promise so frequently, right?
SPEAKER_01: So there's David and then the next guy right in line, his son, Solomon.
SPEAKER_01: And Solomon, I mean, it starts out so great, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Solomon, this guy with so much wisdom that people from around the region come and they want to learn from Solomon, right?
SPEAKER_01: Because Solomon is blessed with this incredible wisdom from God himself.
SPEAKER_01: But then something happens as it starts going downhill because Solomon starts making these alliances with other nations because he thinks in his wisdom he should secure the boundaries of the country, right?
SPEAKER_01: And secure the country by forming alliances with countries that didn't trust in Yahweh, right?
SPEAKER_01: But by doing that, he goes so far as building alliances with other countries by marrying foreign wives.
SPEAKER_01: But the challenge is with these foreign wives who didn't serve Yahweh, Solomon starts being drawn away from God Himself, right?
SPEAKER_01: And this is actually something that we see so frequently.
SPEAKER_01: We see ultimately in the story of the nation of Israel, what's happening is the biggest threat to Israel isn't from the outside.
SPEAKER_01: It's not military conquest from the outside.
SPEAKER_01: Actually, it's compromise from the inside, right?
SPEAKER_01: And so that unfortunately is starting with Solomon.
SPEAKER_01: It goes downhill and it goes from bad to worse.
SPEAKER_01: Solomon dies.
SPEAKER_01: Um, the 10 northern, there were 12 tribes of Israel, right?
SPEAKER_01: The 10 northern ones end up breaking off, and and all you're left with is these two smaller ones, Judah and Benjamin, that just end up being known as Judah, right?
SPEAKER_01: And so um about 60 years after that happens, we roll in to where we're at now, right?
SPEAKER_01: The northern tribes are gone.
SPEAKER_01: Um, Jehoshaphat, this new this new king, is doing a mostly good job, actually.
SPEAKER_01: There's some really great things that's happening, right?
SPEAKER_01: He he comes and he he says, hey, we can no longer um worship.
SPEAKER_01: We we can't have these pagan deities, we can't have these pagan shrines anymore, right?
SPEAKER_01: So in his efforts to like make Israel great again, he looks and says, We gotta get rid of the pagan shrines, right?
SPEAKER_01: He he ends up saying, we need to learn the ways of Yahweh once again, right?
SPEAKER_01: We need to learn the ways of Yahweh.
SPEAKER_01: And so we need to teach people about how to insist, we need to teach people how to follow God's law, right?
SPEAKER_01: He ends up appointing judges and he reminds them that justice ultimately belongs to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: He gets that ultimately the national renewal of Israel is only gonna happen actually with spiritual renewal, right?
SPEAKER_01: But he's not perfect.
SPEAKER_01: He does one thing that really ends up bringing things sideways.
SPEAKER_01: He creates an alliance with this wicked king from the north named Ahab from the northern tribes, and which turns into a total mess.
SPEAKER_01: Fast forward, where we're at now in 2 Chronicles 20, is three tribes from around the area, not Israel, not Israel, um, uh the people group of Moab, the Moabites, the Ammonites, and probably this other group called the Edomites, are formed this alliance against Judah, and now we stumble in to the text we're reading today.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so that's the background.
SPEAKER_01: And so if you would join me in reading 2 Chronicles, we're gonna read it 2 Chronicles 2 through 17, but we're gonna, there we're I'm shortening a little bit, so I'll tell you if we're gonna move on to another line, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And we're gonna we're gonna read this, then we'll pray, and then we'll study it together, okay?
SPEAKER_01: This is what 2 Chronicles 20, verses 2 and following say.
SPEAKER_01: Some people came and told Jehoshaphat, a vast army is coming against you from Edom, from the other side of the Dead Sea.
SPEAKER_01: It is already in Hezazon, Timar, that is, in Gedin.
SPEAKER_01: Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the Lord, and he proclaimed a fast for all of Judah.
SPEAKER_01: The people of Judah came together to seek help from the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Indeed, they came from every town in Judah to seek him.
SPEAKER_01: Then Jehosaphat stood up in the assembly of Judah in Jerusalem at the temple of the Lord in front of the new courtyard and said, Lord, the God of our fathers, or the God of our ancestors, are you not the God who is in heaven?
SPEAKER_01: You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations, power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you.
SPEAKER_01: Our God, did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham, your friend?
SPEAKER_01: They have lived in it and have built in it a sanctuary for your name, saying, If calamity comes upon us, whether the the weather, the sword of judgment, or plague or famine, we will stand in your presence before this temple that bears your name, and we will cry out to you in our distress, and you will hear us and save us.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 12 Our God, will you not judge them, for we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us?
SPEAKER_01: And this is the line.
SPEAKER_01: I love this line.
SPEAKER_01: We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.
SPEAKER_01: All the men of Judah, with their wives and children and little ones, they stood there before the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Then the spirit of the Lord came on Jehaziel, the son of Zechariah, the son of Beniah, the son of Jael, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite, a descendant of Asaph.
SPEAKER_01: As he stood in the assembly, he said, Listen, King Jehosaphat, and all who live in Judah and Jerusalem, this is what the Lord says to you.
SPEAKER_01: Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this fast army, for the battle is not yours, but God's.
SPEAKER_01: And it finishes at the end of 17 by saying, Do not be afraid.
SPEAKER_01: Don't be discouraged.
SPEAKER_01: Go out to faith than tomorrow, and the Lord will be with you.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, this is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Father in heaven, we thank you for your goodness, your kindness to us.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you that your mercies are new to us every morning.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you that you teach us how to pray.
SPEAKER_01: We we see the prayers across all of Scripture, and we pray that even as we study today, you would move in our hearts so that we might know you more, so that we might be able to give our hearts even more to you in prayer, knowing you've already given your heart to us.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, and we simply respond.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, help us to be people that would say that we don't know what to do, but our eyes are on you.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, help us to be those type of people.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, be because of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And it and it's in his strong name we pray, amen.
SPEAKER_01: So these folks, they get together, they pray, right?
SPEAKER_01: They and it says, this is the language that's used, the um NIV uses a more general gender-neutral word, right?
SPEAKER_01: Of ancestors.
SPEAKER_01: The original word in the Hebrew would have been fathers.
SPEAKER_01: And so when they go back, it says they they go and they say, Lord, the God of our fathers, right?
SPEAKER_01: This phrase, just you know, it's used in 1st and 2 Chronicles um four other times.
SPEAKER_01: About 20 times, it's used 20 times in the Old Testament in total, right?
SPEAKER_01: And this word, this invocation, every time they they say, God of our fathers, they're essentially saying, our confidence as we pray, God, our confidence is not just in what we are seeing today, but our confidence is in what you've always done, who you've always been, right?
SPEAKER_01: So they're reminding, even as they pray, they're reminding themselves and God, is this is all of our history together.
SPEAKER_01: You're the God of covenant, you're the one who has been so committed to us, right?
SPEAKER_01: And and he says, God of our fathers, which fathers is he talking about that God has already been faithful to, right?
SPEAKER_01: So let's just look at this for a second, right?
SPEAKER_01: Who are they, right?
SPEAKER_01: You think about some of these patriarchs, right?
SPEAKER_01: You think about some of the ancestors, right?
SPEAKER_01: You have Abraham and Sarah with these impossible promises of blessing and then children, right?
SPEAKER_01: You have Jacob wrestling with God, right?
SPEAKER_01: You have Joseph in all of his despair, right?
SPEAKER_01: Remember as he's thrown into the pit and then sold into slavery, right?
SPEAKER_01: You have Moses in the Exodus, you have David's victories, you have Solomon's temple, right?
SPEAKER_01: So, in other words, Jehoshaphat's grounds today, he grounds today's crisis in yesterday's faithfulness.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the thing, he's not just talking about family tree, he's not just talking about genealogies here.
SPEAKER_01: It's about the covenant, right?
SPEAKER_01: This this title, God of our ancestors.
SPEAKER_01: What this is saying is that God's character is stable across all generations.
SPEAKER_01: He knows that God is trustworthy, and he's reminding all of his people that that's what his prayer is rooted in.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, that's what our prayers are rooted in, right?
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we can be tempted to despair and we wonder: is God still faithful?
SPEAKER_01: Is God still caring about me?
SPEAKER_01: Is God still going to come through?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: And this is the type of prayer.
SPEAKER_01: I know, you know, it's funny, this little line from 2 Chronicles 20.
SPEAKER_01: My guess is outside of going through like a Bible through the year plan, it's not a chapter you've read a ton.
SPEAKER_01: And there's this nugget in there that all of a sudden says, oh my goodness, this changes everything.
SPEAKER_01: The way I pray is actually, when I pray, it's based on this knowledge of everything that I do, or excuse me, everything God has done in the past.
SPEAKER_01: Look at how trustworthy he is.
SPEAKER_01: I get to trust in God because he's always been trustworthy.
SPEAKER_01: This is who he is, right?
SPEAKER_01: The one that called Abraham, right?
SPEAKER_01: The one that delivered Israel out of captive slavery in Egypt, right?
SPEAKER_01: The one that established David's throne and heard Solomon's prayer is the same one.
SPEAKER_01: He's the same God who Jehoshaphat cries out to now.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: This is why it's such a big deal.
SPEAKER_01: It reminds them that their hope rests not in present strength, because they have very little of that, but in the enduring faithfulness of the covenant God.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Here's the thing these invading nations, these invading peoples, they have military strength.
SPEAKER_01: All Israel has is a memory.
SPEAKER_01: Yet in biblical faith, memory isn't some type of like nostalgia.
SPEAKER_01: It's not sentimentalism.
SPEAKER_01: It's evidence, it's a knowledge of who God is.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: When we pray, we start praying by going backwards so that we can pray forwards.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: We start looking at God's covenant faithfulness in the past, knowing He will continue to be faithful.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: We look at what God has done in the past to ask for our present help.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, I mean, you gotta look.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta look at your own personal life.
SPEAKER_01: You look and say, why was it?
SPEAKER_01: They remember in Joshua 4, they're crossing the Jordan, and God tells them to build these rocks.
SPEAKER_01: You remember that, those piles of rocks?
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: So we can say, because one day you're gonna need to tell the people after this generation about God's faithfulness.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: So you don't forget.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna have to go back and say, look, the God of our ancestors helped us.
SPEAKER_01: He's with us, he's present.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, you have to make those stone piles in your own heart.
SPEAKER_01: Because there we are constantly assaulted over the years.
SPEAKER_01: As we get beat down, discouraged, right?
SPEAKER_01: As we get to a point in our lives where it feels like we become hopeless.
SPEAKER_01: You have to be able to look back and say, that's right, hold on.
SPEAKER_01: In 1998, God did that.
SPEAKER_01: And it feels like that was a long time ago, but I know he did it.
SPEAKER_01: And it might only be that one thing that I remember now, but I know he really did it.
SPEAKER_01: That's those pile of stones for your life.
SPEAKER_01: When they say God of our ancestors, they're recalling all those stones.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I remember a cut a long time ago now, Keris was just a little baby.
SPEAKER_01: I remember I was so bummed out for a while in life.
SPEAKER_01: Like life was crazy.
SPEAKER_01: We were short on money.
SPEAKER_01: I was working two jobs.
SPEAKER_01: I was trying to, I was working at First Press for like 20 hours a week or something.
SPEAKER_01: I was working at this company that was clearly gonna close called New Home Trends, doing this urban planning consulting thing.
SPEAKER_01: Mia's working a lot as a teacher, and what I would do is I would bring Keris to the YMCA downtown because they had two free hours of child care that I could go to every single day, right?
SPEAKER_01: And so I would go work on my sermons in the YMCA like commons, right?
SPEAKER_01: And Keris would be hanging um in the YMCA daycare with some people that we became close friends with because we saw them so frequently.
SPEAKER_01: And I just remember one day I'm rolling in there, and that when the YMCA had just opened, you could never find parking in there.
SPEAKER_01: And so I am driving around, I feel like if you guys remember this moment from Dumb and Dumber where Jim Carrey is complaining about how everything bad is happening and even their pets' heads are falling off.
SPEAKER_01: I'm having one of these moments, right?
SPEAKER_01: I'm having this moment, and I just say, God, you know, I I'm trying to follow you.
SPEAKER_01: I I feel like um I'm, you know, I'm I'm I'm following you.
SPEAKER_01: I know you're trustworthy, I know you're good, but I just I'm driving around here and I've got my daughter in the back, and we're gonna, we can't even find a flipping parking spot right now.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, God, could you just give us a parking spot?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, why can't you be the type of God who gives people like me parking spots?
SPEAKER_01: All I'm asking is one.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm just prepared, you know, I'm gonna have to leave the parking lot, the gate's gonna open, I'm gonna find, you know, I don't know where I'm gonna walk from.
SPEAKER_01: And somebody pulls out right in front of me.
SPEAKER_01: And they back up, and there's a parking spot.
SPEAKER_01: Now listen, I am not in the business of praying for parking spots, okay?
SPEAKER_01: But on this particular day, I don't know if it was God saying to me, touche, you know.
SPEAKER_01: What I think it was was God saying, I'm still here.
SPEAKER_01: I know it feels like you're alone.
SPEAKER_01: I know you feel like you're fine feeling and experiencing what seems almost like insurmountable odds right now.
SPEAKER_01: I'm still with you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm the God of your ancestors.
SPEAKER_01: I'm still here.
SPEAKER_01: We fast forward to the second part of the sermon that I want you to see.
SPEAKER_01: The line that I love, right, is that God of our fathers line.
SPEAKER_01: There's a second line that I mentioned.
SPEAKER_01: These people who are desperate now.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: The best prayers come, right, when we're desperate.
SPEAKER_01: And these folks are desperate.
SPEAKER_01: They look and say, there's insurmountable odds against us.
SPEAKER_01: They say, God, we don't know what to do, but our eyes are on you.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have any direction.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have what seems like any hope other than you, God.
SPEAKER_01: So now what what else do we do?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: You've always been faithful to our ancestors through this covenant, and our eyes are on you.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, there are days that you are gonna face when the when the the scan at the doctor doesn't go the way you thought and it doesn't bring the news you prayed for.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: There are there are seasons when the savings are gone and tomorrow still expects something from you.
SPEAKER_01: Or there are nights when the chair at the dinner table stays empty, and you wonder if they're ever gonna find their way home.
SPEAKER_01: Right, there are moments when the the phone never rings, the door never opens, and the silence just feels louder than the answers.
SPEAKER_01: And there are burdens that no one else can see.
SPEAKER_01: The the private grief, the hidden shame, that that quiet fear that you'll carry into another Monday.
SPEAKER_01: And there are just these crossroads, right, where it feels like every path costs something.
SPEAKER_01: And wisdom just feels beyond reach.
SPEAKER_01: And there there are times when faith isn't having the answer, but simply lifting your eyes to the one who does.
SPEAKER_01: I remember the first time we ever went as a family to Hawaii, we went out to this beach called Yokohama Beach, way, way out on the west side.
SPEAKER_01: It's behind way beyond any towns or anything.
SPEAKER_01: Good, nice waves, big waves.
SPEAKER_01: That's when I say good, that means big.
SPEAKER_01: And um, we'd been out all these small places with waves because we had to for little kids.
SPEAKER_01: And we I get to go to one good wave beach.
SPEAKER_01: So we're out there.
SPEAKER_01: And and Karis and um Karis and I and Levi, Judah wasn't born yet, and Karis and Levi and I are on the beach watching the waves, running through, you know, we can come up to the edge of the waves, but they're little kids, right?
SPEAKER_01: So they're cautious.
SPEAKER_01: Like they should be, right?
SPEAKER_01: They're big waves.
SPEAKER_01: And as we're we're walking, here's what's amazing with little little kids when they walk with an adult in a situation like this.
SPEAKER_01: You would think that what they would do for their own safety is they would be looking at the waves, protecting themselves.
SPEAKER_01: But you know what they do?
SPEAKER_01: They didn't.
SPEAKER_01: They looked at me.
SPEAKER_01: They said, even though I don't know if this is safe, my eyes are on you.
SPEAKER_01: They said, I I know you're the one who's gonna keep me safe in the midst of this.
SPEAKER_01: They looked up.
SPEAKER_01: You know, when we read 2 Chronicles 20, the big movement is not Oh, God wins a battle.
SPEAKER_01: It's the the people of God.
SPEAKER_01: Stop looking at the enemy.
SPEAKER_01: They stop looking at the danger out there.
SPEAKER_01: And they start looking up to God and they start saying, our eyes are on you.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Joe Hosephat's a great confession.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the thing this isn't like a William Wallace moment.
SPEAKER_01: This isn't this great moment of courage.
SPEAKER_01: It's a great moment of dependence.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know what to do, but our eyes are on you.
SPEAKER_01: I know they're coming for us.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, I know you have things that you feel like it's all these things coming for you.
SPEAKER_01: Our eyes are on him.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 15, it says the battle's not yours, but it's God's.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 17, it says, Don't fear, go out to face them tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: God's going to be with you.
SPEAKER_01: What do we see?
SPEAKER_01: Do not fear.
SPEAKER_01: Said 365 times throughout the scriptures.
SPEAKER_01: There's enough.
SPEAKER_01: You could read one of those texts every single day of the year.
SPEAKER_01: On one hand, the battle's not yours, it's God's.
SPEAKER_01: And go out and face them.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord will be with you.
SPEAKER_01: The knowledge that God's with you doesn't lead to inaction.
SPEAKER_01: It leads to go out and do what you're supposed to do.
SPEAKER_01: Go out and do, live your life.
SPEAKER_01: Go out and do it, knowing God's with you, knowing God's present, in utter dependence, go out and do it.
SPEAKER_01: You don't just stay in your room waiting for the phone call to call all the time.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you keep on trucking.
SPEAKER_01: Knowing ultimately, though, the battle's not God's, or the battle's not ours, it's God's.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't mean that Christians never struggle.
SPEAKER_01: It means that the decisive battle has already been fought, though.
SPEAKER_01: And it's been won by Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Israel stood and watched while God defeated their enemies.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus fought our battle against the greatest enemies.
SPEAKER_01: He had victory over sin and death and the devil.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the thing: we don't do it.
SPEAKER_01: We don't contribute to that.
SPEAKER_01: We simply say our eyes are on you.
SPEAKER_01: We recognize when we look and at the as we live out our lives, how much of the time have we said, the way I could have the right social standing is if I do the work?
SPEAKER_01: The way that I could have the right spiritual standing is if I do the work, right?
SPEAKER_01: The way I could get dot that you fill in the blank is if I do it right.
SPEAKER_01: Yet what we see with Jesus is unmerited favor, unmerited grace that we receive.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Christ, disarmed rulers, authorities, He He triumphed over them on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: Israel's greatest act was to trust while God fought.
SPEAKER_01: Our greatest act is to trust in the one who already won.
SPEAKER_01: And I will tell you one last thing as we close.
SPEAKER_01: Look at that, I'm ahead of time.
SPEAKER_01: I'll probably give some other talk stories instead then.
SPEAKER_01: I'll tell you this.
SPEAKER_01: Sorry, that's a joke.
SPEAKER_01: I think sometimes the challenge with a sermon like this, I'm gonna tell you this now.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes the victories are really slow.
SPEAKER_01: I think we have to know that.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we we hope for the ecstatic for the immediate, don't we?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: It's like you you somebody gets married, you watch them get married, they do these incredible vows.
SPEAKER_01: They say sickness and health, right?
SPEAKER_01: They say richer or poorer.
SPEAKER_01: You know, they're 21 years old, and whenever you say those vows, you mean them.
SPEAKER_01: But guess what?
SPEAKER_01: You actually are really hoping for richer and healthier.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: You're not anticipating what it's gonna be like when you're 70, right?
SPEAKER_01: When we when we look and say, look, the promises of God is that God's gonna fight my battles, God's gonna bring me the victory, he might do it real slow.
SPEAKER_01: That's just a reality.
SPEAKER_01: But we know that he's with us in the midst of it.
SPEAKER_01: I want to, I'm gonna read this thing to you, then we're gonna finish.
SPEAKER_01: Um, some of you guys have heard me talk about this guy, Andy Squires.
SPEAKER_01: I like this singer-songwriter.
SPEAKER_01: He has this new song called Sing Your Glory.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Here's the lyrics.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Looking back, I can barely see you.
SPEAKER_01: I've learned how to live without a breakthrough.
SPEAKER_01: You're not making this very easy.
SPEAKER_01: I'm packing my bags and leaving.
SPEAKER_01: Just kidding.
SPEAKER_01: Where else would I go?
SPEAKER_01: Here's the part that nobody should know.
SPEAKER_01: Some miracles only come slowly.
SPEAKER_01: But I sing your glory.
SPEAKER_01: I I don't know where you're at today.
SPEAKER_01: But but as we pray, as we sing, we sing his glory.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Father in heaven, you are with us.
SPEAKER_01: You're trustworthy, you're good, you're the God of our ancestors, you're the one that you call us to give cast our gaze upon you.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, help us though, in that because we confess that we don't always live into that.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, even though that's the call, even though that's the hope, even though you've given us all these incredible promises, so frequently we don't live into it.
SPEAKER_01: But you do.
SPEAKER_01: You're the God of covenant faithfulness.
SPEAKER_01: And you keep welcoming us back.
SPEAKER_01: And you keep calling us to pray.
SPEAKER_01: And we just give this little thing back to you of praise.
SPEAKER_01: As we pray and get to know you, Lord, we thank you for that.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you for who you are.
SPEAKER_01: In Christ's name we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening.
SPEAKER_00: Please join us in person for community worship, the breaking of bread, and prayer.
SPEAKER_00: We are located at 512 South Bernard Street, Spokane, Washington, 99204.