Preaching Jesus: A Witness

It is such a privilege to be with you guys this morning. But it is fun for me to be with you all this morning, and thank you for sharing your lives with me and allowing me to share what God has done in my own life over these last few years. So it's a real privilege to be down and to know the goads the way that we do, and to know the crossies the way that we do, and to just know that you are very well loved and cared for by them. So that's a special privilege for us. to from Washington DC to know that you're in such good hands and that God is lovingly caring for his church here in Charlottesville. So that's a real sweet blessing for me as well. I'm going to start us off with some prayer. Father, your ways are not our ways, and your thoughts are not our thoughts. They are so far above us that we cannot comprehend them. And so when we open up your word, we need your help of the Holy Spirit to reveal things that are hidden in your scripture for us to understand. We ask for that now that you would help us to have ears that would hear, to have hearts that would be soft, to have minds that would listen and walk away encouraged, renewed with a spirit for obedience and faithful living. In Jesus name, amen. So we all sit here, every single one of us women, we all have our own story. Each one of you do. Each one of you has your own struggles. You all have different kinds of hidden sores of the soul, as I call them. Some of you have secret dreams that you hold on to and terrorizing temptations that taunt you. Some of you have shameful memories you'd give anything to erase. Things we thought would come of our lives that haven't. fearfully think they never will. Some of us are able to talk more of these things than others, but all of us have things that are hidden deep down and buried in our hearts. We wouldn't dream of sharing with anyone. These hidden sores, as I call them, produce a kind of nagging, appalling inside that often distracts us, that keeps us from walking faithfully along the path that God has for us. We are broken people. with broken dreams, with broken lives, with broken hearts, and each one of us needs repair. It's only through Jesus that we can find that kind of restoration. And so we are gathering here today as Christian women to encourage one another in that. So now on this talk, I want to help us to go take a little bit of a closer look on what it means for us to hold the treasure of the hope of Christ in our jar of clay hearts. What does that actually look like for us? So God has continually, patiently taught me this lesson numerous times and repeats to do so with my life. He has been very patient with me. The most heart-wrenching experience that God has allowed me to endure so far has to do with the health of one of our children. See, our youngest daughter, Eliza, she came into the world much like any baby comes into the world. She transitioned into our home like tiny people do. She screamed and she cried for food, for a diaper change, to be picked up, the usual. It wasn't until her two-month checkup that the doctor discovered something was not normal about her development. I was working as a nurse in the labor and delivery unit in Louisville, Kentucky at the time. And I had grown fairly accustomed to what a routine check looked like for infants. But what I wasn't familiar with was being the parent when a routine exam goes wrong. That doctor friend of mine discovered what we call a click in her hip. And after running some diagnostic tests, we discovered that she had a very complicated case of what we call today developmental dysplasia of the hip. The same thing you hear about dogs, except it's more complicated for her as a human. I had four children at the time, they were five and under, and the idea of a cloth diaper change for a six-month-old in a body cast didn't exactly make my heart skip a beat for joy. Eliza did indeed have a surgery that ended up with some very severe complications following, and we're still awaiting a second, more complicated surgery sometime before her 18th birthday. As the events unfolded during that time, Brad and I had some really hard truths we had to face. She won't ever, sorry. She won't ever walk like our other kids. She'll never be able to hike and explore the outdoors like her family loves to do. And she won't ever run in the mornings like her mom to clear her mind and to pray. Her ability to carry children one day is questionable. She will live with chronic pain, physically chronic pain for sure, but possibly emotionally, no doubt. Those first days were pretty hard, but strangely, the dark days didn't come until later. I had fear at the beginning, but there was also a peacefulness that set in during her initial diagnosis period. I can't really explain it with my words, but what I do know is God was protecting us tremendously during that period of time. And one special morning in His Word, He brought me to John chapter 9, verses 2 to 3. And this is what it says. As Jesus went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents? Neither this man nor his parents sinned, said Jesus, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. And as I thought about the phrase, so that the work of God might be displayed in his life, I had to wonder, could this be true for my daughter's life? This suffering, the suffering that came about at the hands of a gracious and a good God, is afflicting my little girl, so that the work of God might be displayed in her life? Really? Could this possibly be why this hard providence has come? Is that really how suffering works? For as Johnny Erickson Tada likes to put it, God often permits that which he hates to accomplish that which he loves. God often permits that which he hates to accomplish that which he loves. Maybe this wasn't some kind of punishment for misdeeds. I thought to myself, maybe this was the way God intended to proclaim himself through our lives. It wasn't punishment. It was actually proclamation. And that's the main point I want you to take away from from our passage here. The suffering we experience as Christians here on Earth is not punishment, but a means of proclamation. The suffering we experience as Christians here on Earth is not punishment, but proclamation. Even if we're disciplined for sin, we are still proclaiming God's glory by demonstrating His truth, His justice, His power. Each one of us, we are proclaimers. We are walking billboard advertisements for who God is. So the question then is begged of that. What are we proclaiming? What are you proclaiming in your life today? Who is hearing you? Who is watching that message of your life? See, that truth was practically embedded into Paul's DNA. He was certain, absolutely certain, that the sufferings he endured were for the glory of God. So if we look down at our text for now, we can consider how we can reveal Jesus to the world when we end up broken for his glory. Looking down at 2 Corinthians 4, verses 7 through 12. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed. Perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not abandoned. Struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus's sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you. So after exhorting the church at Corinth in the previous verses to boldly, confidently, and faithfully declare the truth of God plainly, Paul identifies with them in the suffering that will come. He begins with the word, but. Now, that particular contraction always has a way of grabbing us when one of my children begins with the word, but it's rarely a good thing. However, Paul seems to be using it much more like an encouragement to his readers. It's a kind of arm around the shoulder, coach-like, pep talk, confidence builder. Paul had lived through a tremendous amount of suffering, and he could speak to them, to these Corinthians, about the confidence of how God would use their sufferings as a mantle to display his glory. So what is this treasure that Paul's referring to here? It would seem, if you look down, to point back to verse 6. For God, who said, let light shine out of darkness, made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. in the face of Christ. In other words, the treasure that we hold is the gospel. And what exactly is a jar of clay? Well, a jar of clay is just an earthen vessel. It was used for storage in that time period. It was also used in the ancient world as a common metaphor for human weakness. You see, these pots were prone to break. Clay jars could be used for cooking. They could use them to put into a furnace, but care had to be taken that the pot was always full. If placed into a furnace empty, it would crack and break. It must be filled in order to withstand the heat of the furnace. Isn't it interesting that Paul notes that our jars are filled. We are filled with the gospel and that enables us to withstand the heat of trials and suffering that are sure that we are going to come in our way. If we're empty and we're placed into the heat, we would just crack and break. But instead we are filled and we are filled with the treasure of the hope of the gospel. What an odd thing for God to put treasure into something made out of dirt. Isn't it just like God, though, to choose the foolish things of the world in order to shame the wise, the weak things of the world to shame the strong? What is shining out from us is from him. God made his light to shine in our hearts. What does it say? to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. So with this confidence in hand, Paul moves from the exhortation of evangelism right into encouragement to display God's power through our brokenness. So what is the purpose, though, of suffering? Why suffer? Well, if we look down at verse 7, we note that Paul here says that they are lackluster jars, are broken lives. They're perfect display piece for his extraordinary beauty. The jar is expendable. It can be used, but it is utterly essential. We are both expendable and essential. That's the purpose of our suffering. It's the first point I want you to draw you to. If we were to be beautiful gold and urns embellished with decorations and all kinds of gems, we would only cloud, or worse, we would distract others from God's glory. You know, living in D.C. has all kinds of challenges. I'm not born and raised in a city. It's been a new place for me to get used to. But I have to say, there are a lot of special gifts. One of them, my favorite, is the National Gallery of Art. Our whole family enjoys a trip a few blocks down from our house into corridors filled with beautiful treasures of art. Each family member has their favorite piece, and it changes from season to season. It could be a robust Rubens, a highlighted Rembrandt, or a very serene Monet. But what I'm certain wouldn't make it onto our family list of favorites would be some huge, grandiose Michelangelo framed in thin cardboard, streaked with dirt, and then spackled up against the wall with kids' glue. It would never fit. That kind of artistic masterpiece placed into kind of a dilapidated, torn-up frame, it would never work. Neither would you have some sort of magical piece placed into some huge, monstrously large frame gilded with gold and arrayed with diamonds and other gems. The frame, again, would distract from the masterpiece itself. The perfect frame is a simple one that highlights the piece and draws the observer to the painting within, not the frame without. It's an ordinary frame for an extraordinary task. Just like us. We are an ordinary people gifted by Jesus for the extraordinary task of holding out the treasure of the gospel to the world. We are extraordinary by being completely ordinary. We become extraordinary by being completely ordinary. So sisters, can I encourage you today to embrace your ordinariness, your normalness as a means to be totally extraordinary for Christ. For our ordinary lives are not only the medium for the gospel, but they're also the message itself. See, we ourselves are redeemed brokenness. God uses broken to display the beautiful. And that's the second purpose in our suffering. Our life is a stage. It's a stage for the Lord's glory. When others see our weakness, it actually acts as a highlighter for God's strength to show that this all surpassing power is from him and not from us. We only are who we are because of what He's already done for us. It's not something we've done. We only are who we are because of Him working through us. The hope of future glory that we talked about earlier today, He has awaiting us. And when we live our lives with that idea in the forefront of our minds, of heaven and Him awaiting us, we declare Him and not ourselves and what we do to the world that's watching. I recently watched a speech that Joni Eareckson-Todd gave in which she spoke rawly of her own sufferings and that continue to plague her even today. One thing she said that's haunted me a little bit, but I've latched onto the truth with a fervor. Like Paul in her passage, she sees suffering not only as a message to others, but also an encouragement to us at the same time. She says, suffering is like a little splash of hell to wake us up to what we've been ransomed from. to find Jesus in your splash of hell, that is heaven. It's like a splash of hell to wake us up to what we've been ransomed from. When we find Jesus in our splash of hell, that's heaven. When the suffering comes, and we all know that it will, remember that your jar of clay is secure because, what? It is reinforced with that impenetrable truth of the gospel. You might feel as though you break into a million pieces. God promises to hold us fast until the end. You might feel like your jar of clay is leaking, but actually you're overflowing with God's power as it's perfected in your weakness. You show that all surpassing power is from God and not from you. That's the reason that Paul can actually rejoice in his sufferings. As he suffers, God's power spills out to those around him. He's reminded of the gospel when he suffers, and we can too. We can be reminded of what we've been ransomed from. Have you ever wondered why we are so fascinated with those dramas where we watch other people suffer? And I don't mean like in a sadistic, haha kind of way, but more the idea of you slip the DVD in wondering, what is it? What are they going to do? How are they going to make it kind of a way? We want to see people come out of their ills and their sorrows victorious on the other side. We want to know, are they going to champion over it or are they going to fall prey to it? Well, Shakespeare penned one of the famous lines from his play, As You Like It. He says, all the world's a stage, and all the men and women, they're merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts. All the world really is a stage. Men and women have their entrances and exits off the stage, but God, who created the heavens and the earth and everything in them, the sovereign ruler over all, He doesn't change. He created men and women in His image to display the glory of His word. And as Christian women, you should have the desire to display, to manifest, to show those around you who God is and what He's done for you. So if your life's a stage, and if you're a billboard advertisement, we're walking around displaying something. So the question is, what are you advertising? What are you proclaiming with your life? Suffering reveals idols. When we go through hard times and the bottom of our lives drop out, it shows us what we're actually holding on to. Are we holding on to Him or on to our health? Are we holding on to Him or to our financial state? What is it that you're displaying when you go through suffering? Are you able to proclaim with Job, though he slay me, I shall hope in him? I don't know if you have these here, but in D.C., we have these crazy people that get dressed up in, like, chicken suits or some other crazy outfit, and then they stand on the corner of a busy intersection, flapping their wings, trying to get you to come in to eat their barbecue or shop in their store or something of that nature. The kids and I always marvel as we drive by of their courage. But they might look like a nut, but if it works, they wouldn't still be standing out there. So, obviously, it still works. So what I want to ask, is that how you display the Lord? Do you advertise the Lord like you're in a chicken suit? Are you willing to do that risky bold thing to shout out for his goodness, even when your body's failing you? Even when you're suffering at home alone in your physical illness or frailty due to the ravages of age or illness? Do you know that's still a means of proclaiming the gospel, even if it's just a smile? As Christian sisters, we have a wonderful opportunity to do this in a unique way through something called discipling. It's what I talked about earlier. Discipleship. It's that way that we help one another get to heaven. God calls us, in Hebrews chapter 10, 25, to encourage one another daily and all the more as we see the day approaching. When we disciple others, when we're weak, in a weakened state, It can be such a means of encouragement to our Christian sisters, yet another way for us to be that bulletin board for the Lord that we trust in Him. We advertise God's power in our ability to muster up our own strength instead to fix the situation. Titus 2 exhorts older women, train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be submissive to their husbands. What better way to do this for us ladies here that unzip our lives to one another? Let your raw underbelly show as you sort of wrangle dinner, a whiny toddler, a head cold, a younger Christian sister sitting in your kitchen all at the same time. How much can they learn from you during that time? For when we let others into our lives, we display what it looks like to practically work out the gospel in suffering. Isn't it one of the reasons that we like to watch those real-life dramas? That's why we enjoy them so. We watch and we learn. And that's what discipling is. Watching and learning. Sure, there are words involved. And sometimes direct observation, though, is the better teacher. Janie Ortlund defines it this way. She says, discipleship involves be who I am more than do what I tell you. Be who I am more than do what I tell you. Who you are will make an impact. So when you let others in to the challenges that you're facing as a woman, as a mom, as a young person, as an older person, you show them how you depend on the Lord in those times and how amazing he is as the overcomer. First Peter 4 19 says those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful creator and continue to do good. As walking advertisement sisters, commit yourselves to him, to do good, as a bold advertisement of his work in your life. When we persevere through the heart of life, we demonstrate to those watching that the credit does not belong to us. The credit belongs to the sustaining power of the Almighty God. So if our purpose in suffering is that we are expendable but essential to display His glory, what is our hope, though, in that suffering? When you're in the midst of that trial, how can you draw hope? And that's the second point I want to draw us to, hope in suffering. So suffering, It has such a way to change us, some for the better and some for the not so good. Either way, the altering dramatically changes us forever of who we will be. The interesting thing about suffering, it doesn't matter if it's a big trial or a small trial, they all hurt, all of them. Pain is associated with any kind of trial, whether large or small. It's kind of like the difference between an annoying nag of a nasty paper cut versus the excruciating, gnawing pain of losing a loved one. I don't know what your own personal experience with suffering's been, whether you've had lots of big trials, or lots of little trials, or just a few things in your life. Maybe the big trials are easier for you because you recognize that you have nothing, so you don't wrestle with it as much with the Lord in that. Sure, they're hard, but you're so far underwater, there's no way out than by His grace. Maybe it's harder for you to trust God in your little trials, when you get sick for the third time in a row, or you stub your toe on the basement door at the end of a very long day. For Christians, suffering is meant to change us indeed, for the better, for his own renown. Suffering is going to come in so many different ways and each though, each one is uniquely constructed by the Lord of love to sanctify us. to draw our hearts towards Him and to display His power to others. No matter how it comes, suffering is never easy, but God has words of hope for us here in our passage. Looking down, starting in verse 8, as we read, it says, But we have this treasure in jars of clay, showing that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed. perplexed but not in despair. persecuted but not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed. I want to look through each one of these parts, these adjectives that Paul gives us for just a minute here. The first one he gives is hard-pressed on every side or afflicted. Hard-pressed speaks something of weight on the chest. It's the heavy feeling that you get in your heart in a difficult or trying situation. It's kind of like being backed into a corner, feeling like all the odds are against you, and that everything seems to be going wrong, nothing seems to be going your way. What does Paul say? He says, but not completely to the point of being crushed. The weight sits on you, but you will not crush. You will not be crushed under its intensity. The second one he uses is perplexed. Another way to think about it is at your wits end. You ever heard that phrase? You can feel like I'm at my wits end with your children or with a situation at work or with your husband. As a young mom, I know that feeling towards our children at times when all of your mommy buttons, as I call them, have been pushed. It actually can mean something even more than that, though. It can be that feeling of intense aloneness, a darkness of the soul, that kind of feeling when happiness is a feeling you don't really remember anymore. But again, even in that, Paul reminds them that yes, these feelings may come, but not to the point of despair or utter hopelessness. There is always hope. Third, he talks about being persecuted. I'm sure most of us in this room knows what it feels like to be persecuted in some way. Whether it was for being the slow kid in school or dressing strangely in junior high, We've all been teased or ridiculed in some fashion at some point in our lives. But what Paul is referring to here is a persecution for belief in Christ. It's being verbally assaulted for his belief in Jesus. It's the kind of rejection of our soul's core belief. It's not about how we dress. It's losing a job promotion because our belief in Christianity means we were perceived as being intolerant of others. It's the kind of quiet rejection a mom might get when she shares the gospel with another mom in a park and the mom stops coming. It's the Christmas family gathering when your stepfather asks you to, your stepmother asks you to, or your mother, excuse me, asks you to pray that your stepfather is absolutely enraged that you are going to pray over the Christmas meal. This is that kind of persecution that Paul has in mind here. He says, but not abandoned. We are never, ever, ever alone in those moments. When we are rejected like that, the Lord of love is with us. He is our comforter, he lives within us, and he is always with us. The next one he talks about is struck down. Paul literally means being struck by a blow or physically assaulted in some way. It also, though, can refer to physical limitations that we might experience or sickness. It can also mean quite literally death. It is inappropriate for Paul to have put that on his list. Death for the Christians, not the end, which is why Paul can say struck down, but not destroyed. We might suffer physically, even if we suffer unto death. But it's not the end of the story. We, as Christian women, cannot be destroyed even by death. It's not the end of the story. We show that we have that all-surpassing power from God, especially and even in our death. Psalm 116.15 says, Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. He doesn't leave us in our suffering when it's hard. He uses the suffering to produce perseverance, which produces character, and finally, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Spurgeon says it well, stating, God trains his soldiers not intensive ease and luxury, but by causing them to endure lengthy marches and difficult service. He makes them wade across streams, swim through rivers, climb mountains, and walk many tiring miles with heavy backpacks. For how can you know if you have faith until your faith is exercised? So what lengthy march are you on? What stream are you wading through? Do you really trust that you're not going to be left alone? Do you trust in his word when he said you will not be crushed? Your faith is being strengthened in this life through the difficulties that you face. Your Heavenly Father knows you. Your Heavenly Father loves you. He has perfectly orchestrated these things in your life. Why? But to draw your heart closer to His. And often, this will mean suffering. You might have to remind yourself of that quote that we said earlier. God often permits that which he hates in order to accomplish that which he loves. In the book, A Sweet and Bitter Providence by John Piper, he takes a look at the book of Ruth and the sometimes strange and often bitter paths that the godly are called to right, excuse me, to walk. And this is what he writes. Life is not a straight line leading from one blessing to the next, and then finally to heaven. Life is a winding and troubled road, switchback after switchback. And the point of the biblical stories that we read is to help us feel in our bones, not just know in our heads, that God is for us in all these strange turns. The life of the godly is not a straight line to glory. It's more like a dark road, seemingly unknown trail, the mountains. There are rock slides and slippery curves, hairpin turns that make you go backward in order to go forward. But along this hazardous twisted road that doesn't let you see very far ahead and may even make you feel like you've been led to the edge of the cliff, God gives us encouragement and hope that all the perplexing turns in our lives are going somewhere good. Often when we think God is farthest from us or has even turned against us, the truth is that he is laying the foundation for greater happiness in our lives. God is not just showing up after the trouble and cleaning it all up. He's plotting for our joy. He's plotting the course and managing the troubles with far reaching purpose for our good and for the glory of Jesus Christ. We only see part of the picture right now, but God, he gets to see it all. He has the best seats in the house of eternity and he is in control of it all. He will not allow you to be crushed in despair, abandoned or destroyed. You belong to him. You're his. He'll never leave you. He'll never forsake you. He's right where you are in your pit, just as he was with Joseph in the bottom of that dank well or in the loneliness of his prison cell. He's right there with you if your mind torments you with the questions of why, just like he was with Job when he stripped him of everything he ever loved. He's right there next to you when you're slandered at work, just as he was with David when his brothers ridiculed him for his bravery in trusting God when he was facing Goliath. He's always with you when you're struck down by sickness or worse, struck down by the hand of another. just as he was with Stephen when they stoned him to death in the streets of Jerusalem. There's purpose in our suffering far greater than we can understand now. But one day, the pages of our life story would unfold and our eyes will see and understand the work of the Lord. But for now, we carry on in faithfulness, fully assured that we will suffer But not, not ever alone. He's always right by our side. Looking down at verse 10, it says, we always carry around in our body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. Life is at work through death. It seems like a bit of a paradox, but doesn't treasure in a jar of clay also seem like a bit of a paradox? When we suffer as Christ did, we show our stress fractures, but we do remain intact simply because of his power. Christ himself suffered, leaving us an example that we should follow. He was hard-pressed on every side, deserted by his disciples, falsely accused, everything coming against him on that day he stood before Pilate. But he was never crushed. He was perplexed, crying out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? But never in despair. He was persecuted. Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and their fists. But he was never abandoned. He was struck down. They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha and they crucified him. But he was not destroyed. He is not here. He is risen. You see, our struggles are not against flesh and blood. Our struggles are against the rulers, the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Jesus knew that. Jesus lived that. And even unto his death, he did that. He entrusted himself to his heavenly father. And when the day turned dark and difficult, he reminded himself of that. We must remind ourselves of that truth as Jesus did on our dark days. Remember what his death, the death that you carry around in your body, your jar of clay, remember what it means. What does it say? Life. It means life for us. His death means life. So you hear lies in your head, but he always speaks the truth. You taste bitter moments. He went so far as tasting death. You see hurt all around you. He sees the victory that's already been won. You might feel pain. He bore your pain so that one day you wouldn't have to. When the moments come that steal your joy and rob you of hope, remember the one from whom men hid their faces. Remember your savior that hung on that cross, pleading for his father not to forsake him. We have the victory in Jesus, in our Christ, over our despair, our persecution, our affliction. We carry around in our bodies the death of Christ, the reminder of the price paid for us, so that the life of Christ might overflow out of us. The victory over the grave might ooze out of us, out of these pots, pouring out to the watching world, life at work in death. So I don't know what the future holds for our Eliza and her hip. Every six months, we pack up our crew up into our jalopy of a minivan. We trek up the coast to the world-famous Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. We take a bunch of pictures of her hip, and all six of us crammed into the room anxiously await the doctor's arrival and his assessment. Every six months, surgery or no surgery? Surgery or no surgery? Every six months, surgery or six more months of freedom? So we can choose to live in fear as a family, as a mom, of what Eliza's life is going to be like, what it holds for her, what her future will be like, or I can choose faith. We can choose to have faith to live our lives as a banner, declaring the never-ending goodness of our Lord, the bountiful provision, even in the midst of the circumstances that we face. The faith to let this power be manifested all the more clearly in our weakness, announcing to the world that this all-surpassing power is from God. It is not from us. We've shed a lot of tears. I am certain that more will come. But the great hope is that the story isn't over yet. Eli's story isn't finished. He's still at work. He said he would never leave us or forsake us. Do I really believe that? Am I living like that? You know, He said He'd never leave or forsake you. Do you really believe that? Do you trust Him at His Word today? Will you trust Him at His Word tomorrow? Will you trust Him at His Word in the future? Until you go to be with Him one day in heaven? Or until He returns to take you home? I pray you do. Pray with me. Almighty, most merciful Lord, you have given us so much in Jesus. You have forgiven us our debt, and we praise you for it. We know that this life holds things that we don't understand. We are hard-pressed on every side. We are persecuted and abandoned, but never completely, Lord. You are with us in all things. Might we live with the promise and hope that you never leave us or forsake us? Might we live our lives as a bulletin board, a banner for the world to see that our hope rests in you even when hard circumstances come? Might these women be filled with strength and courage as they leave these doors today to faithfully proclaim the gospel hope that they have even in their weakened and dilapidated state? even when they feel worn out. Give them the hope and the strength to pour into each other's lives, to support one another as sisters as they traverse this road to heaven. Would you do that for us, Lord? Would you be our hope and our security? We praise you for the way that you love us. In Jesus' name, amen.