What Do Christians Actually Believe?

Well, good morning church. How are you this morning? I love Pastor James. He did this first service as well and he introduced himself merely as just a pastor, but Pastor James, he's our lead pastor here on the campus. Yeah, I love how humble he is about that as well. Uh, but today is going to look just a little differently and we asked some of our team to come up here. Um, and my name is Danny. I get to be one of the pastors here on the campus and I've got Adrian here uh next to me. Uh Adrian, he leads uh our student ministry here in the campus. Uh actually all of our team does multiple things on our campus. Uh so when I say one thing, it's actually there's like five, six different things that our team does, but P uh Adrian leads our student ministry. Uh and we've got next to here we have Domingo. Domingo pastors are celebrate recovery on our campus.

Yeah. And then uh we've got Wes. You guys see Wes quite a lot on the stage here. He Yeah, he is our uh worship pastor and creative pastor here on the campus. Uh uh and so today we're going to do something just a little differently. Uh uh we're going to take a look at we've been in this series called I believe. We looked at these last four weeks with ministers I believe and we've taken um biblical foundational truths and we to looking at them and so many times when we come Sundays and Monday comes around and we life happens right so our school we have school we've got family there's things that happen and we forget what happens on Sunday and that's not what God asks for us we want to go back and remember the truths that God has actually done and that's really what this whole series is is built on about because James says this in in chapter one and he says do not merely listen to the word.

He says do what it says. Our goal isn't just to hear something God's word. We want to build our lives on top of God's word. And then and like I said that's really what this whole series has been about. We look at and so the last four weeks we've had some incredible four incredible areas we looked at to what am I building my life on? Can I trust the Bible enough to make it the authority of my life? Who is the God I believe in? And then the last Sunday, we looked at Jesus coming back. But we're looking at Jesus coming back and how we should be living our lives knowing that. And so this morning, we're going to hear from from our teams, our our amazing team here as we revisit those weeks and look at those um and what God has already said to us about it to not to forget those and what we believe because what we believe matters. What we believe matters what we do in our life. What we what we end up starting to build our lives on. And

that's the foundation. And honestly, that was week one where we started out with the foundation of what we believe. Yeah, if you didn't get a chance to watch the whole series, um, last time I was up here, we were in a different series and I was like, "Man, you got to go watch on YouTube. They're it's free. You don't have to pay for nothing. You get to watch and rewatch and continue to watch so that when you when you get to work on Monday, you have it in your heart. You have it in your soul. But if you didn't get to watch the series, I would go watch it." But we started out with the foundation and pastor used the apostles creed to to show how foundations work. And so there's actually three Christian creeds um that kind of align orthodox Christianity. There's the Apostles Creed, the Nyian Creed, and then the Athanasius Creed. And they're like different levels essentially. And so the Apostles Creed, we could look at like the foundational level for the everyday person. Okay? So

back in back in ancient times, people were illiterate. Most of them did not not know how to read and they didn't have access. They didn't have access to the scriptures the way we do. Right now, you could look on your phone. There's so many different Bible translations. They're free. There's Bibles in front of you. I have probably about 15 Bibles at home. So, if you need a Bible, let me know. I will bring you one. I promise. Um, I ask you guys, I challenge you guys to bring your Bible. Who brought your Bible? Yep. All right. So we have access, but back then they didn't. So they came up with these creeds to help keep believers in line with what we believed through Christ. So they they followed the Jewish religion of Judaism, but then we believe that Jesus is the Messiah. And so there's a separation there. And so they said, "Hey, you look like a lot like the Jewish people. Are you Jewish?" And a lot of times people didn't know how to

separate those things. And so they came up with the creed. So the apostles creed is almost like the pledge of allegiance of Christianity. Okay? It just gives us an understanding of what we do. And so we need to use that not as the foundation but that kind of outlines the foundation for us. Okay? It's the hole that we pour the concrete of scripture in and it keeps everything in place for those that don't, you know, like Pastor Danny, Pastor James is studying scripture all week. A lot of you guys are at work and you're going home and doing stuff. You don't have that opportunity and the creed help keeps you within the framework of what Christianity is. There is one caveat that I want to point out in the apostles creed. At the end of the creed it says I believe in one holy Catholic church. And I want I we need to define what that term Catholic means. It comes from the Greek word catholicos which is derived

from kada which means concerning and halos which means the whole. And so that word means universal. It means the entirety of people that believe in Christ as Lord. Okay. So it's not saying the Catholic Roman Catholic church as we would know it. It's a word from Greek that existed before that church that is saying anybody past, present, and future that believes in Christ, we believe that Christ is going to come back for those people. We believe that he's going to save them and that he's going to be with them for eternity. Okay? So, when if you're looking at the creed, if you choose to memorize it, which I would encourage because it gives you something to talk to people about and and it helps you express your faith, then understand when you get to that word, it simply means universal. Okay? So we don't have any issues. There's nothing going on. It just means the universal church of Christ of all people who believe in Christ.

That first week I would say everything was summed up in in one sentence for me. Okay? So if you have a chance, go watch it. But Pastor James said God loved them. Meaning the people in your life. He was talking to us. He said God loved them the people in our lives so much that he placed you in their lives. Okay, listen. God loved the people in your life so much that he placed you. He called you to go reach them because you can reach them in a way that pastor James can't, that I can't, that Danny can't. Amen. Okay. You are there to reach them because you know them. You have a personal, we talk about that relationship that we have with God. Relationships matter. And you have a relationship with them in the way that we don't. And so, he's placed you there so you can point them to him. Okay? And so what you believe matters and being able to express that matters because there's hard questions that people ask.

There's difficult things that people that you love will ask and you have to be be able to express those things. Saying I don't know is a is is fine. Hey, I don't know yet. Let me find out. Let me come back with an answer. But if we have a solid foundation founded on the word and the and then we use the creed to help us verbally give that to people then we can help people build up from the foundation of Christ from the foundation of scripture. They can build up their own faith. A a big thing that we see in youth is the youth are trying to build their lives their spiritual lives on their parents on their parents' foundation. And when they go to college or when they are not on their parents' foundation anymore, that gets shaken and it gets destroyed. And and God loves his children. So he will allow them and he will work with them and he will show them and he will shepherd them to their own faith. But initially

they're trying to build that faith on their parents' foundation. And so we need them to know who Christ is. We need them to know. We need you to know. That way we can answer those questions for them. So I would I would say, "Hey, memorize the creed. It just gives us an understanding of what we believe, understand what it is that it's simply an easier way to tell people what we believe and who we believe in.

Yeah. Absolutely love it. Yeah. So, everybody believes something and what you believe becomes the foundation upon which we build, you know, our lives on. And so, in week one, we were looking at everybody believes something. So, that shapes our beliefs, our decisions, our priorities, things in our lives. And our beliefs will be tested. Uh Adrian is talking about our beliefs will be tested and know what we believe which is very important. Um and so here I have a question for you Adrian with this is when somebody's faith is being tested maybe through disappointment uh questions or something that they just don't understand what do you think is the most important thing that they can do to strengthen that foundation? Uh, one of the things I will always point back to is if you read through the Old Testament, uh, one of the things that God tells the the Hebrew people when they are going through struggles, they're going through the desert, they're going through the Red Sea, is remember who I am. Remember what I've

done. And so, we need to remember who God is and what he's done in our lives. Okay? Th those are real things that really happen that we have to count on. John in first John when he appeals to them, he doesn't appeal to to miracles or to mysteries or to mysticism. He says we believe in Jesus who we've touched and who we've seen and who we've smelt and who we know. And so when we remember, we don't remember an abstract God that's not there. We remember a God who has come down to earth and has been with us and has brought us out of our struggles and has pulled us through storms. we have and what that does is it helps us shift our focus because we can either focus on the storm or we could focus on the solution. We need to ask is this something that I can get out of right now with one decision or is this going to be a process in which I need to

be obedient to God to go to God in prayer and continue to do what he's asked us to do. And so when our foundation is being shaken, the point of that is is for us to go to God and like pastor said, fill in those cracks that are that are forming so that the foundation would be solidified. And and filling in the cracks is something that we we need to do through the spirit through the word of God so that we can be in in an immovable object when those things show up.

Yeah. So good, Adrian. Thank you for that. And to know who God is, you really need to be in the Bible. And Pastor James had said it um in in week two here is once you start reading the Bible, the Bible starts to read you. And so to know who God is, to know his character, you really need to be in the Bible, which which is week two for us, right? Uh the big idea was simply Christians believe in believe is true. It's the authority upon which we believe build our lives on. Right, Wes?

Yeah. So, I have the opportunity to cover and recap week two of the Bible. Um, and when I look at that week, when I look at that sermon, the big idea that I took away, one kind of standout thing is that the Bible isn't something that we just believe is true. It's the foundation that we build our lives on. 2 Timothy 3:16 says that all scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the servant of God, that's that's us, the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. And I'm going to come back to one part in that to the word God breathed. But first, I want to look at kind of the first thing that Pastor James covered. And we have in today's day and age, we have more information and more access to information than ever before in human history. You know, if we need to know something, you a couple years ago, we would Google it. Now, we just ask Chat. We say, "Hey, Chat, what is this? I can't tell you how many things even here on our campus if if something is going wrong or there's like a technical issue." we just go to Chat GPT and usually in 10 minutes this the problem is solved. Um and so with that access to information, I was talking to my wife about this a couple weeks ago. Have you realized that even though we have such quick access to information, it's you 3 seconds of a Google or a Chat GPT request away, we can find out anything. But have you noticed that with that has come, people seem to have lost the ability to hold on to that information? It seems like as as the access to information has gone up, the ability to hold information has kind of gone down cuz we don't need to remember things. You know, it used to be you had to go to a library and then you had to find their encyclopedia, then you had to find what you were looking for, take notes, remember it. And now we can just at any given moment, oh, what was that thing again? Here, let me find out. And another thing with that is all of that access information doesn't necessarily equate to wisdom. When we look for wisdom, we go to the word of God. And you know, growing up, Pastor James would say to me all the time, for wisdom, go to the book of Proverbs. There are 31 Proverbs. There are 30 or 31 days in a month. Read a chapter of Proverbs a day and do that repeatedly and you will soak up so much wisdom just from that one book. It will make your life 10 times better. And Psalm 119 says that your word is a lamp into my feet and a light into my path. It is the guiding principle in which we live our lives. You know, Pastor James also said this. He said the more you read the Bible, the more the Bible will read you. The second thing is this is what I wanted to go back to God breathed. The Bible is God breathed. We have an image that we can put up. Pastor James showed this when he covered this topic. So this is a visualization of all the cross references in the Bible. This is the Old Testament referencing the Old Testament like earlier in the Old Testament. This is the New Testament referencing the Old Testament and the New Testament referencing the New Testament within itself. There are 63,779 cross references within the word of God. If if that was one person, if one author J.R.R. Tolken, CS Lewis, if if one author did that in a book, we would consider it the greatest work of literary art that has ever happened and ever will happen. But it wasn't just one author. It is. The Bible is 66 books written by 40 authors spanning 1,500 years across three continents of Europe, Africa, and Asia in three languages, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. And it tells one united story and has no contradictions.

Again, if that was just a person, if that was just an author, the greatest work of literary art that we've ever known, Lord of the Rings, the Odyssey, like, forget it. That would be the greatest. But it is God breathed across all of those authors, all of those years to have one unifying story and no contradictions. The only logical option is that God spoke and the Holy Spirit spoke into the authors of the Bible. Another thing we can do is we can look at archaeology. We can look at what science has discovered of the ancient world in our modern times. You have the Tel Dan inscription which was found in 1993 but it's from the 9th century BC. This inscription contains the phrase house of David making it the first extra biblical reference to King David's dynasty. That's King David, the one that slang Goliath, the one that became the king of Israel.

Then we have the pilot stone. It was found in 1961 in Ceceria Maritima which is about 25 miles north of Tel Aviv. This stone beared the inscription of Pontius Pilate and it was the first time that history and science had proven, hey, this is this is the Roman prefect. This was the guy that was over this area of Rome who presided over Jesus's crucifixion. Pontius Pilate was until that time we only saw his name in the Bible. Now we have archaeology proving hey this this happened. Then you have the Dead Sea Scrolls and Pastor James talked about it a little bit but I want to focus on one. It was the great Isaiah scroll. This scroll predates any other biblical manuscript that we have by about a thousand years. And the crazy thing is it is nearly identical to the Isaiah, the book of Isaiah that we have in our Bibles today. The oldest manuscript by far. And it is nearly identical to what we guide our lives with today. If you want to know a little bit more or you're interested in the biblical history, the history surrounding that, if you go to Washington DC, there's the Bible Museum there. It is amazing. If you want to stay here locally in the valley, the Hampton Inn in Goodyear has a Bible museum in its lobby. It's completely random. I don't know why, but the owners of that uh hotel are great believers and they just wanted to have a Bible museum there. My grandparents when they would come to visit from New York, they would always stop by and they loved that place.

Hebrews 4:12 says that the word of God is alive and active. It's sharper than any double-edged sword. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and the attributes of the heart. The Bible again, it's not just a book. This is a living, breathing. This is the word of God and it affects us when we read it. There was a there's a guy I'm I'm chronically online. It's it's a problem. But when I was just scrolling Instagram one day, I came across this video. And there's this guy. He lives in New York City. He's an atheist. And he said, "I'm going to spend 30 days pretending that God is real to see if it'll make me as a person happier." And for 20 days, he did that. He posted a video every day. He said, "This is day one, two, three of me pretending that God is real." And by day 21, he he was doing the video and he said, "I can't pretend anymore. This this has changed my life."

God, the Holy Spirit, Jesus has made an impact on my life and I'm no longer pretending. This has become real. This is this is a real thing and it has changed my life and changed who I am." The Center of Bible Engagement did a study. They asked 40,000 people ages 8 to 80 to read the Bible. That's it. And what they found is when somebody read the Bible one to two times a week, there was a negligible effect on their life. When they read it three times a week, they saw a small effect on their life. But when people started reading the Bible four or more times a week, they saw loneliness dropped 30%. Anger dropped 32%. Bitterness, bitterness in relationships dropped 40%. Alcoholism dropped 57%. Sex outside of marriage dropped 68%. Feeling spiritually stagnant dropped 60%. Porn viewing dropped 60%. Sharing your faith went up 200%. And discipling others went up 230%.

When when you look at this, these are these are real things. These are real ways in which reading the Bible impacted people's lives. When you look at that, you realize that the Bible isn't just a book that you read. It's a book that fundamentally changes you as you live out the words that it gives you and you live those out in your life. Yeah. So good. Yeah. That reminds me of Romans 12:2 and not being transformed. um don't don't conform to the pattern of this world but allowing God to transform a renewing of your mind. And I love the fact how um science and archaeology are now on the side of the authority au authent authenticity how authentic the Bible Bible is. Um and so when you're reading the Bible you get to find out God's character and who he is. And one of the things that you come across is the Trinity and what the Trinity is all about and how powerful the Trinity is for us and the character

and find out who he is. And uh Domingo, I'd love for you to to go ahead and speak to that. Uh I'm sorry. Before we do that, I do have a question for you, Wes. Um on this that there's so many voices in our in our lives today. Um probably more than any generation that there there have ever been. um practically how do we make sure that God's word remains louder in our own lives than those other voices?

Yeah, I think I think it's actually pretty simple. The Bible, the word of God has authority. The question is, do you let it have authority in your life? Like I said, I'm I'm chronically online with you guys. I don't know when you wake up, what's the first thing you do? You check Instagram, check Facebook, look at your notifications, look at Tik Tok, the news, your email. That's that's the first thing that's happening when you wake up. You're you're allowing that you're allowing social media, the world, anything, the first bit of your time.

You know, if you want to look at what matters to you, what really matters to you, you look at two things. You look at your calendar and you look at your bank account. where you spend your time or prioritize your time and where you spend or prioritize your money show you what is actually important in your life. So, I want to challenge you if if you're, you know, if you feel like all of these you have every single voice or everything coming in, you don't you feel like you you don't have the space to let the Bible make a work in your life. Instead of, you know, opening up your phone first thing and checking Instagram, you know, open up your Bible, open up the word of God, let that have the actual place of authority in your life by giving it the first fruits of your day.

So good. So good. I love that. I love it. And so as we're looking here now at the Trinity, the Trinity doesn't just simply talk about who God is. It reveals who God is to us. Right, Domingo? Absolutely. Absolutely. So let's talk about the Trinity. The one, two, and three. I'm talking about God, the Father, I'm sorry, God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit because they're three in one. The way I was introduced to them was "En el nombre del Padre, y del Hijo, y del Espíritu Santo. Amén." In the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit. Amen. Understanding what the trinity actually meant was a challenge you guys because I wanted to have a relationship with God. I long to understand who Jesus Christ was. But for me, hearing about the Holy Spirit, Holy Ghost, my mind would just go somewhere a whole different direction. But understanding that the father loves us. Understanding that the son redeems us and the holy spirit empowers us.

And one example is if you guys get baptized here at Camelback, when we baptize you, what do we say? We baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Bring you back down and back up. We do what Jesus did. When Jesus got baptized by John the Baptist, John the Baptist was like, "I'm not worthy to do this." But Jesus was like, "We're going to do this." And when Jesus got baptized, what happened? God sent his dove. God opened up the clouds and Matthew 3:17 says, "This is my son who I love, whom with him I am well pleased." And then I didn't understand who Jesus was. I understood religion growing up. But in order to have a relationship with Jesus, I had to unlearn the way I was raised. Let go of some of that baggage. And what I mean by that is stop idolizing all the stuff that I was taught. Talking about Jesus Malverde. I'm talking about Santa Muerte. I'm talking about sage, the eye, the crystals, all the stuff that would

stress me out that would make I have all these intrusive thoughts. In order to have a relationship and walk into my purpose, it had to start with God. Had to start with Jesus. And it had to start also with the Holy Spirit. You see, the Son redeems us. The father's love sent the son and the son willingly came. Jesus took on human form so humanity could finally see what God is like. I and the father are one. John 10:30. John 14:6 says, "I am the way and the truth and the life." I love how Pastor Wes was giving about that illustration about Hampton Inn because that's where I rent all my cars from. And it was interesting that I rented a car from there. And every time before I leave, I always pray and say, you know, God, I'm asking for the hedge of protection. Please get me there and back home safe. I got a family. Well, you know, I I rent a small little Toyota Corolla. I show up, they give me an SUV. I'm like, I'm going to

California. Do you know how expensive gas prices are out there? They said, take the upgrade. It's on the house. Not knowing that going to California on the way back, I was going to experience this storm that was really traumatic. Not knowing that what I experienced out there in Buckeye when I got the notifications to pull over that the flood was coming and to get on to higher grounds. What do you do when you're by Watson? You got nowhere to go. It was the spirit that came to me. The Holy Ghost that said, "Pull over, Domingo." It was the spirit that kept me calm. It was God, Jesus, and the song Jesus be the name, the 9-minute version that while I was right there to the side, I could hear car piling after car, piling after car. I got to experience two semis just crashing, going down. I afterwards when it all cleared up, I was crying. I was such a mess. But I was

thankful to be here. It was that moment when I got off the highway, came home that I realized that I was in that SUV that I had complained about because that SUV got me home safe versus being in that Toyota Corolla. Who knows what would happen. But understanding who that Holy Spirit was was something that had to be new to me because a lot of times people could acknowledge God. A lot of times people could acknowledge Jesus. But it's the Holy Ghost that we struggle. But you see John 16 7 says it is for your good that I'm going away. Unless I go away the advocate will not come to you. Ephesians 5 5:18 says be filled with the Holy Spirit. And the way I think about the Holy Spirit was when Pastor Wes and you heard our Camelback Amazing worship team was leading us in worship just a couple minutes ago. I get the chills. I get the goosebumps. My hairs tend to rise, whatever hairs I still have left.

But I know that's the spirit, you guys. That's how I know that God's in the house. That's how I know how Jesus is here. And that's how I know this place is anointed. It's sacred because God lives through us, Jesus lives through us and the Holy Ghost does too. So when it comes to understanding everything and understanding not only the goodness of our father, understanding who Jesus Christ is, but think of it like this.

The father planned redemption, the son accomplished redemption, the spirit works out redemption in us. the Trinity becomes the gospel, the good news. This isn't simply, we're not talking about just basic news. We're talking about what was biblical. We're talking about how in order to break these generational curses, in order to experience a different quality of life, in order for Mikey speaking into my calling, my purpose after a failed suicide attempt, I had to realize that I was a mess. I had to come clean to everybody that I was the one struggling. I had to stop living in denial and be part of God's community. Be part of what God was doing, embracing and just be open and honest. Talk to God, talk to Jesus, talk to the Holy Spirit. And when I started coming here and Pastor James was like, "Start reading Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John." Because I had lots of questions, you guys. I had

questions the way I was raised. I had questions like, "Show me this, show me that." Not understanding and not realizing that in order to experience the truth and love of Jesus Christ, it was me that I had to walk in through those doors. It was Jesus that was bringing me through the doors. It was Jesus that was surrounding me with some godly men, but it was going to be up to me to walk in and embrace and accept God's free will because I want to go to heaven and I want my kids to experience a different quality of life. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, Domingo. Yeah, the Trinity is amazing. It um reveals how God loves us and how he restores us and he reveals, you know, um how he lives with us. We believe God the Father, we believe God the Son, and we believe God the Holy Spirit, that it's three persons in one. And we'll never completely understand the infinite power of God. But the trinity

reveals something to us, a beautiful relationship with us that that the father loves us, the son redeems us, and the holy spirit empowers us. I I do have a question for you, Domingo, on this. Um, of those three truths, the father loves us, the son redeems us, and the spirit empowers us, which do you think maybe sometimes uh as Christians we have the hardest time really living in and why?

I think honestly it's the Holy Spirit because not only trying to understand it but trying to embrace it and accept it because we were raised in a generation that we're fed Disney. We talk about Jim mini crickets but we don't really talk about the Holy Spirit and what the Holy Spirit does for us. That's why it's important not to go into that comparison trap. But also here at Camelback we don't talk about how Jesus looked like. Here at Camelback, we talk about how Jesus lived. So, if you understand who God is, you're having a relationship with Jesus. Don't forget the third person, the Holy Spirit. It's the Trinity. We can't do this without them leading the way.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Um, and so last week we looked at we were looking at the second coming of Jesus, Jesus coming back. And we looked at a passage in John 14. And it's so incredible as you're looking at that passage, you can also look at our own lives because as we get ready for maybe family that's coming, uh friends are coming over. We get things ready in our own homes and we prepare for them and that that says something to them. We're preparing something because they mean something. They matter to us. And so as we're looking at that week, it wasn't um do are we believe that Jesus is coming. We're looking at are we living like Jesus is coming? And so we're looking at that. And one of the things is is trusting in him. And so John 1 was John 14:1 was saying, he says, um, do not let your hearts be troubled. He says, you believe in God, but also believe in me. And so as we're we're wanting to live this out in our lives, we trust him while we wait,

right? And that doesn't always mean that um things are not bad, things are not going to happen with us. Faith isn't always I'm under always understand what God is doing. Sometimes faith is simply I know the one I'm trusting in and whatever maybe it's troubling our hearts we can go and we can say I trust in you God because I know who you are. I know the one you are because of when I read the Bible I see the promises and I see what you're really telling me and I see this happening in my lives. And the other thing is um we're looking at John 14:2 and Jesus says I'm preparing something for you. He says remember what I'm preparing for you. He says my father's house has many rooms. I'm going there to prepare a place for you. And it's so great that he's so personable personal. He says my father my father's house and there's a place for you. I'm preparing this for you. And it wasn't just an analogy of how he's building

something here. He's saying that there's something here is a picture of you belonging there with me. The room is here in my father's house for you. And the other thing we're looking at is in John 14:3, he says, "Live ready for my return." He says, "I will come back and take you to be with me." And that's not like a might or maybe. These are promises that I'm coming back not when things seem to be in the perfect condition. I'm coming back for you. And and this is a promise that he gives us. And so when he's saying I'm coming back for you, live ready like live like I I'm coming back. And so that means what do we need to do with our lives? Who do I need to forgive? Who do I need to love? What do I need to reconcile with? Maybe it's who do I need to tell who about who who Jesus is in our life. Living ready doesn't mean waiting for Jesus to come rescue me. Living ready means faithfully

following Jesus in the world even when it seems so uncertain. And these are some foundational truths in our lives that we need to get ourselves prepared and ready for because when we have these foundational truths in our lives, we build on top of this. And so when the storms do come, man, we're ready for those storms. They're not going to rock us because we know the truth. I would love to pray this for our for our church. I pray over our whole church on this and as we continue to to take on Sundays that we just continue to build on top of this. And so church, would you mind stand with me as we pray for ourselves and pray for our church as well.

Father, I thank you for your word. I thank you that you just haven't left us to figure out life on our own. You've given us the foundation. You've given us your word. And you revealed yourself as the father, the son, and the holy spirit. And you've given us this promise that you are coming back for us. And God, don't let these simple truths be unknown. Help us for these to become truths that shape our lives where our foundations might be weak. That you will strengthen them. That you always be the voice that becomes louder than any in the room. Jesus, what you've done for us and how you desperately want us to know you and allowing the Holy Spirit to work in us. And while we're waiting for your return, you help us to live ready. Lord, help us to love people, to forgive people. Help us to share the gospel of the truth and the love of that. Help us to be faithful. Help us when our hearts are troubled because these are your promises,

Lord, that when we come to you that you will be there and that you are coming back. Lord, we love you and we thank you for that. And in your name we pray, Jesus. Amen. Amen.