You are invited to shift your perspective and see your current struggles as opportunities for spiritual growth rather than just obstacles. Embrace the discomfort of the valley, knowing that God is building your character and strengthening your faith just like muscles grow through resistance.
So now we get to go into the message portion of the of the sermon or of the service, and I have the honor of introducing the most beautiful speaker in the world and the best speaker in the world. She is full of Jesus and anointed, and she preaches messages to me all the time every day. And so it's my joy to get let you hear some of the amazing things that God has shown me through her. It's my joy to to get to let you hear that same stuff. So so, baby, I'm excited for the word you have for us.
Alright. Check check. Making sure this microphone thing works. "Mic check". Deacon Mike, you good?
Mic check, you good? Alright. Well, good morning. Good morning. Miss Dolly Tripp is gonna miss your pantsuit.
She brings my son, I have a 12 year old son, and she brings him pantsuit, like, at least once every 3 weeks, like a big old dish, and he'll just sit on Sunday, and he's like, I'm so happy. So thank you so much for your faithfulness, not just to bring food to my children, but also to your faithfulness to the kingdom and continuing. Like, that that's no excuses. Anybody that has an excuse that's like, I can't do what God wants me to do, that's crap. Welcome to "real church".
I missed y'all last week. We had the stomach bug go through our house, and we have 4 kids. So if you have multiple people in your house, you know, it just feels like it keeps going and going and going, and so I was so excited to be here. Today, I will say what David says. My name is Courtney Phillips.
I'm the executive pastor at Real Church. It is my joy and my honor to be here. There is nowhere I'd rather be, and there's nothing that I'd rather be doing than to be here with you today. He says it every Sunday, and I understand it. I feel that.
I'm gonna dive right in. I kinda want you to get to know me a little bit and how my brain works. I'm gonna share a part of my life that is a core memory. And if you don't know what a core memory is, we're gonna watch a little clip from a super cute cartoon that shows what a core memory is, and it's basically these little cartoon characters that are emotions inside the head of an 11 year old girl. So could we get that clip rolling on the screens?
So that's what I mean when I say a core memory. It's a part of your past, whether it's 1 instance or it's a couple of instances that build an aspect of who you are. Now, our identity is in Christ, and the enemy uses some core memories to build a bad part of who we are. It builds a part of us that God didn't desire for you. And if that is you, and if you say, I have a season of my life that's traumatic, and I feel like I'm who I am today because of that trauma, and it's not walking in holiness and impurity and in freedom, then I would encourage you that when the the altar team comes forward at the end of service, you come for prayer, we also have opportunities for counseling and things like that.
So if you need that, please let us know. So I'm going to share a couple of things that are a part of a core memory of who I am today. Can we pull the picture up of my nana and my paw? Is it up? Look how pretty she is.
She's like 4 foot 10, and I swear she could just completely destroy hell with a water gun. That is a mighty woman of God, a mighty man of God. So I'm gonna tell you a core memory with my nana that builds on who I am today. You need to understand a little bit about where I come from. I'm from North Louisiana, and most of you know I'm from Poe Dunt, Louisiana.
I sound like cornbread when I start talking about where I'm from. So my family, you know, a bunch of young people are wanting to, like, buy all these lots of land, and we'll just build houses, and we'll raise chickens and goats, and we'll live in a homestead, and we'll all be best friends, our kids will go to each other's houses. Oh my gosh, that's so much fun. That's how I grew up. I grew up like the "little house on the prairie".
You can ask Kevin, you can ask Deasia, they've been there. They've seen that where I'm from, my family all lives on the same property essentially. And what's cool is my nana and my pa, they have 4 kids, my dad and my aunt aunts and my uncle, and they all live right next door to 1 another. So I grew up with my brother and my 6 cousins, and I was basically raised by 10 different people, my nana, my pa, my parents who are phenomenal, and my aunts and my uncles. So when I say I know that it takes a village to raise a kid, it takes a village to raise a kid because it took a village to raise me, and I'm grateful for it.
I'm grateful for my village. So when I went to college, I would come home every weekend, and I'd do what I call make my rounds. I would go to the loop, that's where my family is, it's called H. W. Armstrong loop.
My last name used to be Armstrong, so it's our family's property. So I would go to the loop, and I would at least go see my mama and my daddy, and my nana and my pa. But when I'd go into my nana and my pa's house, was always really quiet going in because I didn't know if they were going be napping. And so I remember this 1 time, I was probably 20 years old. I walked in, and I said, nana.
And I didn't hear anything, so I walked in a little further. And again, you didn't lock doors back then, you just walked in. So I said, nana. And I heard her, and I heard her in her sewing room. And I heard her talking, and I, you know, I might have been 20 years old, but, like, I didn't want to whoop in for interrupting a conversation.
So I just was really quiet, and I was eavesdropping. But I was standing outside the door and I heard her say my name. And so that, I was like, what's she talking about me for? But what I heard was my little, old bitty nana. I peeked in, she's sitting in a rocking chair with a bible in her lap, crying out to God.
In the middle of the day, this isn't a church service, there's nobody in the room, she wasn't expecting company, crying out to God on behalf of her kids and her grandkids. And just so you know, my little old bitty nana and my pa, today, every single day, they pray for at least their 4 children, their 8 grandchildren, their slew of great grandchildren, Temple Baptist Church, which is where they've been faithful to since, I think, 1960, and real church. So you and what God has done in you and through you in this body are a result of her dedication and faithfulness to God. Amen. Can we honor my nana and my pa, please?
I don't know if they'll ever hear this. They don't have internet out there, you know, in most places, so I I don't know. I have the privilege of going and seeing my family later this month, so I'm really excited about it. Maybe I'll sit down and let her let her see that. But that wasn't the only thing that built the core memory.
See, a little while later, and I mean, time escapes me. So I remember inviting my nana to our church on a Sunday for something. Maybe I was gonna be leading worship, or playing piano, or something, and I wanted her to be there, and I told her on a Saturday, and I was like, nana, I want you to come to church with me tomorrow for this thing. She says, well, I'm serving in I'm I'm serving in the nursery tomorrow. I can't I can't just drop that.
No big deal. Right? Okay. I understand. I didn't realize that the enemy used that to implant She did nothing wrong.
She's faithful to her church. She's faithfully doing what God has asked her to do. The enemy plant an idea in my head that my nana cares more about her church than she does her own family. How silly is that? She's going to serve the families of her church.
I praise God for the people who serve in the nursery. Amen? And all the parents said, Amen. But several years later, we had moved away, and then we moved back, and again, I invited Nana to something that would have been important to me, probably on a Saturday, to come and see us at church for something. We we attended a different church at the time than than her church, and Nina wants you to come see it, and she was like, I I can't.
I've got something going on with the church. And just so you know, listen to how silly and immature I was, she was serving the widows of the church on Sunday morning, and I was like, she cares more about the widows of the church than she does coming to do what I want her to do. Like, how immature was that? So instead of just letting myself build on that, eventually, I just had a conversation with her, and I said, sometimes it seems like you just love your church more than you love me. I was expecting I was really expecting, oh my goodness.
I'm so sorry. How dare I love the Lord more than you? Like, was I kinda had in my head that it was gonna be this beautiful moment, and instead she said something that I'm probably not gonna say it exactly the way that she said it, but I know what I learned. Do you all know how those things happen in your past? Like, you might not remember the exact words, but you remember the tone in which they said it, and you remember the lesson that you learned.
Core memory built right here. She said something like, I gotta do what God's asked me to do. Like, what else am I supposed to do? She didn't apologize. She didn't she didn't have to.
Like, how am I going to argue with that? You gotta do what God wants you to do over what I want you to do? Where are your priorities, nana? That's so silly. And so, she is dedicated not just to her church, because I thought that's what the issue was.
You know, I had this whole thing made up that she had this issue. My nana is so dedicated to the Lord, and she loves me way more than I thought that she did when I remember back to her in that quiet place praying for me and my family. She showed her love for me in so many different ways throughout my entire life. And in this moment, it hit me, I'm being immature, my nana is the mature 1, and I need to learn how to live like her. Scripture says to consider your leader's way of life and imitate their faith.
She is a leader in the kingdom in my life, and I wanna imitate her faith.
So
today, I'm going to be talking about dedication. Dedication to the Lord. What does it look like to stay faithful? A longevity of *faithfulness* with God in the midst of real life. I'm a very practical person.
You can ask my husband. I try and make our house as easy and practical as possible. I'm not super crazy about everything, but I need things to make sense. And so I want this to hit home and to make sense, and for that, I need a volunteer. Some of y'all are crazy because y'all are raising your hands.
Y'all don't know that I was a youth leader, I could have y'all swallowing a lot of goldfish right now. So wait until I ask you, wait until I present to you what my ask is. I need someone I'm gonna be honest, I'm looking over in this section. I know all the "gym rats" sit in this section. I need someone who's in the gym, who would say like they're pretty they're pretty strong.
They they know how to work out. Can I have someone Come on up, man? Alright. Thank you. This is Lewis, y'all.
Alright. I don't wanna show you up or anything. I have a 5 pound dumbbell. Alright? A little heavy.
Yeah.
Alright. When I do I'm I'm not a gym rat. I go to the gym, I exercise, I'm trying to trying to get stronger. Might be a little stronger than him, but when you do a basic "bicep curl", y'all trainers don't fuss at me, I'm not a trainer, so I don't know officially how I do. When you do a bicep curl, you kinda wanna plant your feet, keep your hand out, and you wanna curl it up and down.
Correct? Yep. Is that right?
That's perfect.
Can I see Mine was pretty awesome? Right? Can I see you demonstrate It looks it looks dwarfed in his hand? Can I see you demonstrate a bicep curl? Good job.
Good job. He is very strong. I can tell because he did that. So I want you to just kind of stand right back here, and I want you to just keep doing that. Alright.
A little fat, you know, get your reps going, man. Like, yeah, yeah, there you go. Alright. You just do that till I tell you to stop. Okay?
Alright. I give a long intro and a real short message, so I'm not gonna keep you here all day. You're doing great. When we first come to Jesus, and and I'm gonna be honest, I'm speaking primarily to *believers today. So if you're here and you're not a believer, hey, I want you to hear this because by the end of the message today, I want you to say, hey, I need this relationship* with the Lord that these people have.
Just being completely transparent. I know in a room this size, there may be different dynamics here, but I'm speaking to believers today. When you first come to Jesus, there is an ease about what you're doing. Like, you're trusting in God. You're acknowledging him in everything.
Like in in Proverbs-3, **trust in the Lord* with all your heart. Don't lean on your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths. You know what your next step is, because you're doing the things that God has told you to do. Your focus is on Jesus*. Man, you tell me to go, where are we going?
What are we doing, God? You want me to share the gospel? No problem. That's easy. That's as easy as curling a 5 pound weight with big old biceps like that.
It's super simple. There is an ease to following Jesus when we're new. Does anybody relate to that? I was ready to do anything that got you tell me to go live in a tent in Guyana for the rest of my life, I'm there. I will give up everything.
And for a while, it feels that way, but then, life happens. You tell me to go share Jesus on the job, I don't care if I lose my job. I'm surrendered to you, Jesus. And then, you're like, oh, I got bills to pay. What's gonna happen if I keep doing this as serious as I was?
I've already been told by family and friends I'm taking this whole Christian thing too seriously, amen? What's gonna happen when I am doing this, and then my boss comes in and says, hey, it's awesome that you got this new life and everything, but you're making our customers uncomfortable, so you need to stop sharing so much. What do you do? I can acknowledge *Jesus* in my character, which is true, in how I live my life, but what happens when Jesus tells me to share the gospel with someone? Do we risk losing our job?
No. We wouldn't do that, and all of a sudden, "real life sets in", and it gets challenging to follow and to trust him and to acknowledge him, and and all of a sudden, things get a little a little tougher. How how are you doing?
Got a good pump going.
Okay. Alright. Does it feel like it might be 6 pounds now? Yeah. It's starting to feel a little bit heavier.
Right? Like, whew. Okay. But I can keep going. Like, I I can keep going.
I can I can make some adjustments to my life, and then, you know, you're a single guy, and your your guy friends are like, let's go to the bar, and let's let's see if we can find some honeys, you know? And then, you're like, I don't feel like that's what God wants me to do right now. And then you start getting ridiculed by your best friends. Then you've gotta decide, I wanna be able to witness to them, so maybe what I should do is I should go, I should just be there, and so I don't lose my witness. We start making excuses for not doing things what the way that God wants us to do, don't we?
It becomes really easy to start making excuses and all of a sudden, the lightness and the ease of following Jesus gets a little bit heavier. *Romans-12*, David said it this morning, I I think in the it was either the dream team service or when you were hosting. Therefore, I urge you brothers in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your "spiritual act of worship". Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, and then you will what?
Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is. If you start following Jesus and it's easy, and you're like, yes, I'm doing this, this is great, and then things get a little challenging, maybe, just maybe, you haven't been having your life transformed and your mind renewed to who you really are in this new walk with Jesus, and his will, his good, his pleasing and perfect will is a little bit more clouded, and it's harder to figure out what's next, and you feel kinda stuck. It's very simple when our entire being is *surrendered* to him. It's very easy. There is an ease to it even though it is challenging sometimes to follow Jesus with everything that we are when when we are just completely devoted.
But when our devotion wanes, often being able to hear his direction for us wanes. And as born again believers, we thrive being led by our heavenly shepherd. Amen? When we're not being led, we're like sheep that are like, what do you want me to do? I don't understand what I'm supposed to do, and the Lord is saying, hey, I want you to trust in me, and I want you to acknowledge me in everything, and I want you to be transformed, and I want you to renew your mind to who I say that you are.
You have gotten really caught up in all of this worldly stuff that in some ways is good, but it can be a distraction from who you are. Men and women of God, if you are a follower of Jesus, it is no longer you who live, but Christ who lives in you. When Jesus called his disciples, therefore when he called you, he didn't say, come to me, life will be easy. He said, some of you are gonna die for my namesake. We need to make sure that we are willing to live for his namesake, so that if we're faced with death, we can face that for his namesake.
Cause some of us are willing to die and take a bullet in our head, but we're not willing to give up some things that he's saying, hey, this isn't good for you. This will crush you, I love you, I want you to give this up because I want you to follow me with everything, and this is hindering you, men and women of God. We have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us. So what started as easy, how's it going?
It's tougher. We do it to ourselves sometimes. And scripture is clear. If you wanna know what his will is for your life, if you wanna know what your next step is, 9 times out of 10, go back to the last thing he told you to do. If you're like, oh, I feel like I used to hear God all the time, and now I don't hear him.
I just wish that I could hear him, but you're still living in sin in an area. Hey, the simple thing to do is just go back to the last thing he told you and be what? Obedient. I love you, God. Do you?
*Jesus* says, if you love me, you will obey me. So our love is done through obedience. Touchy feely love, like, I love you, is kind of junk. The Lord looks for fruit. He wants to see if you're gonna do what he tells you to do, that is love.
You doing okay?
I'm sweating.
He's sweating. This little bitty 5 pound weight, you start out, it's so easy. It's so I could do this all day. 10 minutes in, you're like, I don't think I can do this all day. You can put it down.
Y'all give it up for him. He was my creative element for the message. You're gonna be sore tomorrow, dude. Just on that 1 arm. Can I get that Do you have that picture?
The cartoon picture? Yeah. That's what Lewis is gonna look like tomorrow.
I'll have to hit the other side
of Yeah. Have you seen those pictures of leg day where they only work out legs? Or no, they forget to work out legs and they're like, oh, and then there's like little bitty stick legs. *Luke-9:23, and he said to all, if anyone come after me, let him deny himself*, take up his cross, how often? Daily.
Daily and follow me. It seems like in our culture This isn't a part of my message, but I'm gonna say it anyway. It seems like in our culture, we get really, really excited about new things. Like, I got a new job. This is what I've been waiting on my whole life.
I got a new house. Oh my goodness. I'm gonna take care of it forever. Like, I'm so excited. It's like we put everything into new things, and eventually, the shine wears off of everything.
And at first, it's like, cross. What do you want, Jesus? Where are we going? I'm with you. And then that cross just gets a little heavier.
It's like, I gotta pick it up now? Real life is not made to be easy. But as you follow Jesus, there is an ease to it because he's with you. Come to me if you're weary, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you because my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
But let's not forget, there is a yoke and there is a burden, and that's for the lost. We should be burdened by that, but his yoke is easy. Why? Because he's doing it with his heavenly father. We when we follow Jesus, there should be an ease to it, but it's not easy all the time.
And I know in Christian subculture, since I was a teenager, we've talked about, like, "mountain top experiences". Like, I remember as a as a kid, when I would get out of summer camp for, like, a week, I was, like, ready to storm hell with a water gun, like, I'm ride or die, Jesus, what are we doing? And then life got in the way, and I got out of my word a little bit, and I got busy, and then my time in the in that secret place of prayer just wasn't really happening anymore, and you know, I didn't really wanna listen to worship music because like, this Britney Spears has a new song, you know, like, were all of these things that happened when I was a kid that just got in the way and started distracting me, and I'm not putting down things of the world, but you are in the world, you are not of the world. And so just a side note, make sure that what you're putting in is holy. What I was listening to wasn't holy when I was a kid, just FYI.
The Lord loves Britney Spears, but I'm not listening to her music. We talked about these mountaintop experiences of like spiritual renewal, like you would go to a church service or a worship service or a conference or camp, and it's like, oh my goodness, finally, I'm on fire for the Lord again. And it would fade. How many of you have experienced that? Hands all over the place.
It would eventually fade, and then we'd be like, I'm in the valley. I'm just like, I'm in the valley. Can't wait to get to the mountain top because the valley, it's hard. We're trying to get to the mountain top, that mountain top where we perceive as where we're just on fire, but remind me what grows on the mountain. There's snow and dead trees.
The valley is where there's life. In the valley are the streams and the still waters that he says that he'll lead you by. They're not on the mountaintop. The lilies grow in the valley. That's why Jesus is called the what?
The lily of the He's the lily of the valley. Perhaps, we need a mind adjustment and to renew our mind from, oh, I just can't wait to get up to the mountain. The mountain is good. Don't get me wrong. The mountain is where Moses went and talked to God face to face.
The mountain is where Jesus went to be with his heavenly father. The mountain is good, but it is a reprieve, a spiritual reprieve from life. We are not meant to live on the mountaintop. Real life happens in the valley. The valley is not the pit.
But if we can't be content in the valley, then we won't survive the pit. And Dallas Willard says this, at some point in every person's life, your world will fall apart. What matters then is the soul that you've constructed. And so I wanna learn to worship and praise the Lord in the valley. In the valley, there's beauty, there's bunnies, there's deer, there's streams, there's flowers, there's meadows.
The valley is beautiful, but there are also bugs, and snakes, and mosquitoes. I put them in their own category of bug when you live in Florida. There's pollen in the valley. There are predators in the valley. We're meant to live in the valley, walking hand in hand with our heavenly father.
So that when those times of tragedy strike, we can praise from the pit and know that we're not alone there. A lot of us want this ease of life, and we're chasing these mountaintop highs when he's saying, hey, what if you just hold my hand in what you perceive as the lows, which is really real life? Listen to this. This is God's perspective. *Isaiah-40* verses 4 through 5.
Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the uneven shall be made level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of Jehovah shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. For the mouth of Jehovah has spoken it. Psalm 23, we all know it. Yea, though I "walk through the valley" of the shadow of death.
A lot of us picture the valley as death. Like, the valley is like the worst place that we could possibly be. No, the pit's the worst place, but when we're doing it with the Lord, we can worship him in the midst. I will fear no evil. He'll lead us beside streams of or he'll he'll lead us behind beside still waters.
I'm getting a little tongue tied. I believe that we need a perceptive shift a perspective shift on our life. I believe that we need to renew our mind to the fact that following *Jesus* costs us everything. **Full surrender**, being like my nana. *Faithful*, full of faith, which means ready to stand in the midst of anything.
I My nana and Paul have been married for 65 years. They got married the day she got out of high school, the day she graduated high school, and then he went to boot camp, and they had 4 children. Do you think that that was easy? Staying faithful through that? Staying faithful to the Lord through who knows what?
All of us have those stories of man, this is hard, life is difficult, but if we can remain faithful, you know, when the word talks about putting on the full armor of God, my favorite part of that passage says, and when you've done all that you know to do, you stand. And sometimes when we're in the valley, we need to be like, well, I'm gonna stand. Listen, I will give you an example of my last couple of weeks. It's heartbreaking, but as a pastor, when something happens really, as a believer, when something happens in the body, when 1 part is hurting, we should hurt too. We had a we had a death in the church family.
So, that's heavy. And then, all in the midst of this, I've got sick kids, and it was the stomach virus, and 1 of them is 2 years old. So you can imagine the craziness of our house during that time. And when the third 1 was not sick anymore, got to feeling a little better, and we had a little reprieve, it was a couple of days, I was like, melt on top, like, finally. The fourth 1 got sick, and she does not do sick well.
No. So I'm exhausted. I'm hearing things from our church body of things happening 1 after the other to so many people, and I'm just like, alright, Lord, can we have a break? Can we please have a break? And then, not narcolepsy, but an old thing that I thought was healed started creeping back in over this last week, and I'm like, what next?
How many times have we been to that place of **"1 more thing"**? I can't handle 1 more thing. If 1 more thing happens to me, I'm gonna lose it. And then I opened the back of my van, and you know how it like it has those hydraulic things? Well, they weakened, and it didn't fall all the way, but it fell just enough to bump me in the head with my sunglasses on.
Such a small thing. And I stepped back, I'm in a parking lot of CVS at this time, and I stepped back in the middle of everybody and I went, uh-uh, mm-mm, we're not doing this. And I was just, I got in my van with the gate open, I don't even think you some stuff happens to me, y'all might have seen me, y'all might have been there and been like, what is happening to pastor Courtney? And I got in there and I sat down and I was like, I'm not letting it get to me, absolutely not. I'm done.
And we get a call from our insurance guy, and he's like, FYI, although your roof is only 7 years old, you might need a new roof. I was like, I'm not getting 1. I don't know if you all remember Madea from back in the day. She'd be like, it ain't finna get me. Like, that's how I felt this week because I was like, 1 more thing every time I say, if 1 more thing happens, 1 more thing happens.
Why? Because God is more concerned with building my character than he is with making me comfortable when I'm in the valley. So we need to learn to be comfortable in the valley and content. Paul, the pit of a Roman prison, said, I have learned to be content in all circumstances, and we need to do what Luis was doing with that weight, and build up some spiritual muscle so that we can learn to be content, and that takes repetition. Reps.
Come on, it's good.
Reps. Muscles, if y'all are biology people, I hadn't taken it in a long time. But from what I understand, muscles are made of fibers like this, And whenever you work out, I don't think lifting 1 5 pound weight for 1 rep is gonna do much. But when you push yourself, you create little micro tears in your muscles. Is that right?
That's right. Alright. And then they grow together. They tear. It hurts.
If you've had a good workout 3 days later, you are sore. But they grow back together stronger, and they build mass, and they build strength so that you can lift more. We need to grow their spiritual muscles, so that when we are in the valley, we can be stronger for tomorrow. So, I'm gonna ask our altar team to come forward once again, our altar ministry team to come forward. We're gonna be closing out.
If I could have if there's some soap music, some *worship* in the back, that would be great. I think that some of us need a new perspective on what life looks like. Some of us enjoy wallowing in the valley. I wanna learn to praise in the valley and be content in the valley. So if there are any of you that are like, I don't even know what it looks like to "walk hand in hand" with Jesus and to have that mountaintop experience, This is for you too.
Do not miss out on the day The Bible says today is the day of salvation. If you have never been born again, if you have never made the decision to follow this Jesus that we're talking about, and you say, I want to know him, I wanna know what it looks like to follow him, or if you have questions about it, these are the guys you come and talk to. And then for the believers, who maybe you've been following the Lord for a while, or or you've been following the Lord for a week, and you're like, man, when I'm in this valley, I feel like I can't survive, I can't breathe, everything keeps coming against me. Maybe you need a brother or a sister to come alongside you and hold your hand while you're in the valley for a season. Do not think that you will be burdening the people in this church family with your stuff.
It is our joy and our honor to help to "bear your burdens". So allow them the privilege of praying for you. So we're going to be closing out. Lord, you are so sweet. Thank you for making yourself into a human and coming into the valley with us.
Thank you for walking through that so that I can walk through it. You said in this life, we're gonna face trouble, but take heart because you overcame it. And if you overcame it, you can hold our hands as we walk through it so we can overcome it too. Lord, help us develop the spiritual grit to keep going when it just feels like 1 more thing, we're not gonna be able to survive it. We love you, and in Jesus' holy precious name I pray.
Amen.