The Groanings of the Holy Spirit

A couple of weeks ago, I spoke about the year 2020 as being a year of wonders, a year that we will see wonders. Now, let me define that. When I say wonders, when we begin to experience things in our lives that only God can do. Human effort, even in religion, can only take a person so far. And usually it ends up in exhaustion and questions and oftentimes even failure. But God, by his Holy Spirit, is able to take us so far beyond. Anything we've even thought or hoped or imagined that our lives could be, he's able to give us freedom that we can't purchase through human effort or even efforts to cleanse ourselves up. We can't purchase freedom through anything that we have done. It's because of what he has done and who he is that you and I have hope for the future. And we're living in a perilous moment in history. And this is a great time for the church to become the church again, the way God intended us to be. So open your heart today. And I believe the Lord's gonna speak to you in a very, very special way. Just before we begin, I'm just curious today because I see so many young faces here. Of course, when you get to be my age, I guess almost every face looks young now. But if you're 35 or under, would you stand up please? Just for a moment. Just not gonna ask you to do anything, just stand up if you're 35 or under. All over, praise God. Just stay. Bless the Lord. Thank God for you. Thank God for you. I mean that with all my heart. Thank God. Thank you so much. If you wish you were 35 again, would you stand? No, I'm just kidding. What an opportunity. How my heart is so gladdened to see so many young people in the house of God. Thank God for you. Thank you. You turn in your Bibles to the book of Romans chapter eight. Romans chapter eight, the letter of the Apostle Paul. I wanna speak to you this morning, a message called the groanings of the Holy Spirit. The groanings of the Holy Spirit. Father, I thank you, Lord God, with all my heart this morning for your faithfulness, Lord, to us. Thank you, my God, that you cover us when we are weak. You lift us when we're weary. You correct us when we're wayward and you love us when we don't love ourselves. Thank you, Lord, that you have a plan for every life. Everyone listening today in this house, those that are alone at home and shut in, you have a plan for every life. Even somebody today who might be listening in prison. You have a purpose for every life, a divine purpose. It's so much bigger than we could even think or imagine on our own. I pray, my God, that you would come upon me, Holy Spirit, deliver me from my own frailties, give me the ability to speak this to your people and give our hearts, Lord, oftentimes our hearts are so poverty stricken when it comes to faith, but give us that gift of faith today, Lord, that we might be able to reach out of wherever we are and believe for something that only you can do. Help us, Lord, not to push away your thoughts towards us. Give us grace to believe that our lives can make a difference in this generation. Every life, no exceptions, nobody on the sidelines in this moment of history. I pray, God, for faith to arise in every heart. Rise your church again, Lord, my God, back, Lord, to what you intended her to be from day one. Give us the grace to believe. We thank you in Jesus' name. The groanings of the Holy Spirit, Romans chapter eight, beginning at verse 22. Now I'm reading from the New King James Version. If you don't have a Bible or some kind of device to follow along, there should be a ribbon on the bottom of the screen that you can read from along with me. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Now, let me just stop there. I'm gonna just go line by line, verse by verse. When sin entered into the human race, sin came into this world through Adam and Eve, our initial parents in the Garden of Eden. It started, up to that point, everything was in divine order. The Spirit of God had moved, God had spoken, everything was created. Life was created, life was given, borders were established. There was a divine order to creation up to this point. But because sin entered into the human race, everything that was of order began to spiral down into disorder, and everything in creation groans. Because you and I know that without humankind living in sin, things would be a lot different than they are today. And not only that, verse 23, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. I don't know about you, but I groan every day. From the day that I became a new believer in Christ, I see the high calling of God in Christ Jesus that's written over my life in the Word of God, but I also know clearly how short I fall sometimes, and there's inner groaning. Lord, you have promised that one day I will be delivered from this body that fights against the Holy Spirit. One day, my God, I'll be in a place where I can't even be tempted anymore. One day, I'll be in a place where my thoughts are clear, my words are clear. One day, thank God for that, you and I will be in a place where this, we will have a heavenly body that no longer fights against the Spirit of God and the Word of God inside of us. And if you've had a taste of God, you groan for that. You groan, there's an inner groaning. Say, oh God, not only does this world need to be completely redeemed, but Lord, you have promised, you've given me this raindrop of a thunderstorm of life that will one day eternally and forever be mine. And I thank God with all of my heart that one day I'll be in a place where I don't ache when I get out of bed in the morning. You understand what I'm talking about? If you don't, just hang around a few years, that's coming your way. One day, I'm not tempted to be angry with somebody. One day, unforgiveness will no longer be tugging at my heart. One day, the words that were spoken over my life where people are speaking today will no longer have the power to pierce through and wound me. One day, the sorrow that maybe some here are experiencing that you wonder if it will ever go away will suddenly be gone. And we groan inside for that redemption. We groan for that place. Praise God, and we know that it's not that far away from us. Eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body, verse 23, verse 24. For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope, for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. We wait for it with perseverance. Likewise, the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought. In other words, there are things that you should be praying for right now, but you don't know what it is you should be praying for. But the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Did you know that? According to the Word of God, the Spirit of God, the third person of God, of the triune God, dwells inside these physical bodies, and he is groaning about something right now, right now. Right where you sit, there's an inner groaning of the Holy Spirit. Now, he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. In other words, God has something specific for your life, specific things that he wants to do that you don't even know about. You don't even know what your future's going to be. You don't know clearly what it is that he wants to do and how he wants to do it, but I can tell you one thing, the Spirit of God inside of you is making intercession for you according to the will of God, the will of God for your life. Whatever it is that God has for you, we are so resistant to what God has for us. It's anything that's outside of the parameters in the sense of our self-view, of what we think our life should amount to or will amount to or can amount to. We somehow just want to push it away. We don't want to believe it, even though the Holy Spirit, God, God, who's taking up residence inside our earthly bodies has said, I have something that I have designed specifically for you through which I will be glorified in the earth. It's not something you can do. It's not a skill that necessarily you have. It's something God says that I intend to do through you that my name might be glorified in the earth. And we know, verse 28, that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. In other words, so he's not leading you into something that's harmful or hurtful, it's good. Everything God does is good. Remember when the Spirit of the Lord moved on the face of the waters in the beginning before even humankind was created, everything he said, everywhere he led, everything he did, he looked down and said, it is good. For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. When Christ was raised from the dead, the same spirit, the Bible says that raised Christ from the dead will now also quicken our physical bodies, our mortal bodies. And we will be given new life, a new future, a new hope, new giftings, new abilities. The Bible promises a new mind, a new heart, and a new spirit. That's the inheritance that is yours in Christ. He bought it for you on the cross. Remember the scripture says when he was raised from the dead, he took captivity captive. He took everything that captivates you captive and gave gifts unto men. He took your captivity into captivity and then showered everything that he won on that cross. Everything that belongs to him now belongs to his church, now belongs to his body. Moreover, verse 30, whom he predestined, these he also called. In other words, you were predestined by God to bear the image of Christ in this earthly body, and he also called you. And whom he called, he justified. And whom he justified, these he also glorified. What shall we say then to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Over the Christmas holidays, I had an opportunity to be out at our Bible school in Grantville, Pennsylvania, and I was speaking with a young girl. I had an evening of meeting with 24 of our foreign students. There was a young girl there, she's only 19 years old, from Mongolia. And she told me, she said, about a year or two ago, I started having a repetitive dream at night. And at night, God does speak to a lot of the young people around the world in this way now. There's too many instances of it for it to be simply happenstance. She said, in the dream, I would go outside. And she said, the whole sky would be lit up with stars. And I would look and I would stand there and I would gaze at the stars. Then suddenly a star or two would start heading towards me. And she said, I couldn't figure out what are these things? What is this about? And she began to pray and she said, God, what is it that you're trying to tell me? And he told her, he said, the stars that you see in your dream are the thoughts that I'm thinking about you. They're too numerous to be counted. They're too marvelous to behold. And every once in a while, I just throw one your way, hoping you will agree with the things that I'm thinking about you. And you have to learn to stop ducking and dodging the thoughts that I have towards you. Isn't that amazing? One of the thoughts that God had toward this young lady is to bring her to America and bring her to a Bible school where she could be trained in the ways of God and then be able to go home to make a difference in a country that desperately needs the truth of Jesus Christ. Now, listen to the words of Jeremiah. And Jeremiah, God was speaking through Jeremiah to about a people who had spent a long time in captivity. And he says, after 70 years, I will visit you and perform my good word towards you and cause you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord. Thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. I know the thoughts, God says, that I'm thinking about you. They're not necessarily in line with the thoughts that you're thinking about you. You look into the mirror in the morning, just like I do. And what do you see? You see a history of the flaws and the failures, the things you shouldn't have said, the things you shouldn't have done, where you fall short. God said, those are not the thoughts I'm thinking about you. I called you and I've already justified you. I've already cleansed you. I've already declared you to be mine. And I have a pathway, a plan and a purpose for your life that's so far beyond the thoughts that you think about yourself. I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord. Thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. I have a future for you, God says, an incredible future. Then you will call upon me and go and pray to me and I will listen to you. And you will seek me and you will find me when you search for me with all of your heart. What does it mean to search for God with all of your heart? It just means, God, I want what you want from me. That's what it means. I want your heart to become mine. I want your will to be mine. I want your pathway for my life. Said you'll pray and I will listen to you and you will find me when you search for me with all your heart. Lord, I wanna make a difference in this world. I wanna make a difference in my family. I wanna make a difference in my workplace. I wanna make a difference in my community, my city, my town, my country. There's no limit to you, God. There's no limit to what you can do. And if you have a specific plan for my life, I wanna know what that plan is. And I'm not gonna draw back through unbelief. I'm not gonna say, no, this can't be. It can't be for me. All through scriptural history, God has always come to people to do the work he can do, but he waits till we're too old to do it. In Moses' case, he calls us when we're too young. In David's case, he calls Esther when she feels unlovely and unwanted by the king. He needs a prophet. How many times did he wait for a barren womb to bring a prophet into this world to do what only he can do? And when you and I get to the point where we say, God, if anything's gonna happen, it's gonna have to be you, then we're at the point when actually we're ready to be used by God in this world. You'll search for me and you'll find me when you search for me with all of your heart. You know, too often, perhaps most often, we think that prayer is you and I trying to move the reluctant hand of God, or asking him to do something he hasn't thought of already. You know, Lord, in case it escaped your attention, my son is lost, my daughter is lost, my family's in shambles, Lord, in case you haven't seen, in case you haven't noticed. Or somehow we get it in our head, and religion can do that to us, it's a sad thing, that somehow God is, he came to the earth, went to a cross, went through all this public humiliation, suffered the beating he suffered, was nailed to a tree and died, just so that he could go back to heaven and sit on the throne, fold his arms and point out all our mistakes. And somehow is reluctant to answer our prayer, but that's not who God is, that's not the way God operates with people. As a matter of fact, the very opposite is true. Listen to the condition of the nation in Ezekiel's day. Chapter 22, beginning at verse 27. Her princes in her midst are like wolves tearing the prey to shed blood, to destroy people, to get dishonest gain. So that's the leaders now, are tearing the country apart, they're destroying people and they're greedy. Her prophets, that means there's a religion attached to this, plastered them with untempered mortar, seeing false visions, divining lies for them, saying, thus saith the Lord God, when the Lord has not spoken. So you have a corrupt leadership, you've got a religion attached to it that is encouraging it. The people of the land have used oppressions, committed robbery, mistreated the poor and needy, and they wrongfully oppressed the stranger. And so it's so easy to say, God judged the nation. When a nation gets like this, I'm sure everybody there was of the opinion, including those in God's house at that time. This nation has gotten so corrupt, it deserves the judgment of God. But God was thinking something else and was looking for somebody to agree with him. He says, so I sought for a man among them who would make a wall and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land that I should not destroy it, but I found no one. Imagine that, God has thoughts in his heart of mercy. And he's looking for one person in the nation who will agree with him. It's so hard to agree with God sometimes when everything in the natural seems to be the opposite. It's so hard to agree that maybe God has a call in your life when all you see every night is the failure. And he's trying to speak to you. He's trying to say, I have something so much bigger for your life than what you think your life is going to amount to. I feel when I read this passage of scripture that there was nobody left that thought that God could be merciful. But even deeper than that, there's nobody left who believes that God could actually use him or her. Isn't that amazing? There's nobody left who believes that they could actually become a wall or stand in the gap or somehow their life could make a difference and push back the deserving judgment of God from a nation and usher in a season of mercy. God help us if we ever get to that place. In America today, if you get there or I get there and we somehow believe that God could no longer use our lives in the way that he wants to. It's not God who's reluctant to show mercy. It's you and I who are reluctant to believe that when he speaks to us about doing something in or through us that we haven't personally thought was possible. Hence the groanings of the spirit. The Holy Spirit knows the will of God for you. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the triune God who lives in your earth and vessel and knows that he can perform the will of God through you. And there's this inner groaning of the Holy Spirit. I feel it again today in the church of Jesus Christ. This inner groaning of God inside of his own people saying, if you only knew what I had for you. Oh, father, would you open this sister's mind this brother's mind, would you help them to understand the plans that you have for their life? Plans of good and not of evil. Plans to make a difference in their generation. Plans to take them out of weakness and bring them into strength. Plans to do something that can only be done by God. Plans to do something so phenomenal that the only song they will have is only God could have done this. I called out to him and he heard and he came to me. The inner groanings of the Holy Spirit. This passage I read to you this morning is very, very special to me because many of you know my story. If you don't, I'm gonna tell it again. If you do, I'm gonna tell it again. So it makes no difference. But from the age of 15 to 24, I suffered from terrible panic attacks because realistically, a lot of pressure was put upon me. My grandfather was a judge. A lot of pressure was put on me to be the next successful lawyer perhaps in our family. And I didn't feel that I could, neither did I wanna do it and I didn't feel I could ever live up to other people's expectations. And so at the age of 15, there was an implosion, like a computer meltdown that happened inside my life. And I started to suffer panic attacks. If you've ever had these things, you will know it's the closest thing to heaven. It's the closest thing to hell on earth you'll ever experience in this life. Without warning, it's like somebody pours a bucket of sand on your head, your heart begins to pound out of your chest and you suddenly feel like you're going to die. A sense of a foreboding sense of darkness comes over you and blackness and hopelessness for the future. Oh yes, and for nine years, I suffered this. And I went to doctors and all they did was give me pills. Thank God, it helped a little bit. I took so many Valiums, I went through college in a bubble, I could barely reason or think. I just to be able to be in a classroom with people, I'd have to take Valium. Then as I got older, it started to mix itself with whiskey and it was a really, really bad combination. And then at the age of 24, I got saved. Praise be to God. And one night at home, I was laying in bed, my wife and I felt another one of these attacks. It was about midnight and I was only a brand new believer in Christ and I felt another one of these attacks coming into my life. And so I went downstairs into my living room. And as a believer in Christ, now there was no more pills. Those were gone and the whiskey was gone out of my life and out of my house. There was no more of that for me. But I had been reading my Bible that day and I didn't know all of this about the groanings of the Holy Spirit. I didn't understand it, but I remembered a half of a verse, verse 31, if God is for us, who can be against us? And I believe there's this inner groaning in my life for freedom. Remember, we talked about the groaning of creation, the groaning that we have in our physical bodies and the groaning of the Holy Spirit. And I'm groaning in my heart and say, God, I don't wanna live life like this. I don't wanna be like this 10 more years from now. This has been hell on earth for me and I'm not doing this anymore. I felt this courage that could only be born of God rise in my heart. And I went into my living room that night and I said these words. I said, Satan, you can only kill me if God allows you to. And if he does, I'm going to heaven. So I win either way tonight. I win, this is a win-win for me. So you throw at me everything you've got. You throw the full force of it at me, but I throw back at you what I now have in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I resist you. And as I stood there, I felt a heat hit me in my feet. Now I'm not talking a fuzzy warmth, I'm talking about a heat hit me in my feet, go through my calves, go through my thighs, go through my center core of my body and right out the top of my head. That's 40 years ago. I was set free that night from nine years of hell in one minute in the presence of God. And knowing the power of God, it started to open my heart to the groanings of God, the whispers of God, the whispers of the Holy Spirit, the things that God had destined my life to be. Now, listen, folks, if you think you're so far down the alley that there's no light at the end of your tunnel, I was farther down than you are, I'll tell you right now. I was hopeless when it came to preaching the gospel. I didn't care about people, I didn't even like myself. I didn't wanna be in ministry, couldn't care less about any of that stuff. But there's these whispers of God started coming into my heart. These inner groanings of the Holy Spirit that God had something bigger, God had something better, God had something deeper, God had something more profound, God had something that only God could do that he wanted to do, and all he asked me to do is agree with him. That when he opened the door, he asked me to walk through it and as best as I know how for the last 40 years, when he has opened the door, I have walked through it. I have asked him for the strength and for the power and it's been a glorious life, I'm telling you right now, because I'm never qualified to do anything that I do and I thank God for that. I don't have to put a certificate on my wall because it's not by might, it's not by power, it's not by human intellect, it's not by ability, it's by the power of the Holy Spirit, it's by the presence of God. And so all the glory goes to him for everything he's ever done. All the glory belongs to him. And so the point is really simple. He has no respecter of persons. He doesn't just pick one here and one there, maybe that was the way it was done in the Old Testament, there would be an anointing here, an anointing there, somebody with gifted here, somebody there, but I remind you that the prophet Joel said when God's spirit comes, he would pour out his Holy Spirit on all flesh, your sons and daughters would prophesy, your old men would dream dreams, your young men would see visions, there would be a complete level ground at the cross of Jesus Christ. The anointing of God wouldn't be just for a select few that would just rise up and somehow take the preeminence in the house of God, the anointing, the plan, the power of God would be for you and you and you and you and you and you. Yes, you, the anointing of God. In the upper room, 120 failures went in and began to pray. They'd all run when Christ needed them, they were all completely aware of their glaring failings in their lives. There was not one there that could have a boast of his or her own righteousness or faithfulness or anything else, everybody had run when Christ had needed them. They couldn't even pray with him in the garden, all their boastings of love and loyalty had come to nothing, they'd fallen like dust through their fingers, yet here they were. And when God's Holy Spirit came, then this inner groaning of the spirit, they began to speak it. They left that room and they began to speak it in the marketplace. The Bible says they began to talk about the megaliths of God, which really means the anticipated outworkings of the inner life of Christ. They began to speak about the things that God was going to do in a way that only God could speak it. People coming home from the temple from just casual everyday religion, as sincere as it might have been, were stopped in their tracks, thousands of them were stopped in their tracks by just 120 people who'd had an encounter with God. And they were speaking the things that God wanted and they were believing what God was speaking to their hearts, they were believing what God was revealing to them. And as they began to speak and as they began to move in the power of God, 3,000 at least bent their knee that day and said, we thought we knew who God was, but you have a living presence of God within you that we now desire. And in my heart, I say it's time for you and I, it's time for the church in America to rise up again. It's time for us to respond to these inner groanings of the Holy Spirit and say, Lord, I will not be sold short. Now, listen to me, I'm not talking about heaven now, okay, you understand, you can be a mediocre Christian and still end up in heaven, folks. Or you can be a man or woman that says, God, I want everything you've got for me. Whatever the pathway is for my life, don't let me live my own plans and my own life, but whatever it is that you have for me and the giftings you have to make that happen, and I open my heart to it, oh God, I open my heart to it. You know, there's an old poem we used to love to quote, it's called Flanders Fields. It's about soldiers that have gone on before and they've fought a good fight. And there's a line that I just love and it says, to you from failing hands we throw the torch, be yours to hold it high. If you break faith with us who die, we shall not sleep, but poppies grow in Flanders Fields. And so here we are, I've walked this walk and I know this to be true. And I asked for those that are 35 and under that are here for a specific reason today because it's your turn now. Those of us who are getting older can't go on forever. One day our bodies are gonna fail, but we've known and walked in the power of God. And if you don't understand that, just read the book, it's time to pray, you'll get it all there. But I challenge you with all of my heart, with all of my heart, respond to the inner groanings of the Holy Spirit. It's not your plan that will glorify God, it's God's plan that will glorify his own name through you. Praise be to God. There is so much potential in this room, you have no idea. You bear the living Christ in these earthen vessels. And if you will let him do what he wants to do, it will be no less miraculous than it's been throughout history. Somewhere, sometimes somebody is gonna lay hold of this truth again in our generation. May it be you today. May it be you. May it be you. May you be like that young girl in Mongolia that would go out in her dream and look at the stars and learn to stop ducking the thoughts of God and is now on a journey that only God can take her on. May that be your calling and mine. And so here's my altar call. It's really simple. Lord, I wanna know what you're speaking to me. Help me not to resist it. Help me not to push it away. Not because of youth or because of age or because of past experience. Lord, you've called me, you've declared that I'm a new creation. You've said that you won't withhold from me everything I need because of Jesus Christ in me. And so God, I'm asking you. Now, this is a sober moment because you don't know where this prayer's gonna take you. But I do know one thing, Christ will be glorified in it. You don't know where it's going to lead. And you can't even start thinking about where it's going to lead, you don't know. Just Lord, I wanna know your thoughts. I wanna know your thoughts towards me. So Father, I thank you God with all my heart. For those you've gathered in this house today, I thank you Lord for the thoughts that you are speaking. I thank you for the inner groanings of your Holy Spirit. Even in my life, Lord, I pray God that I not shut my mind to you as I get older. But help me Lord to follow you all the way to the finish line. I pray God for the people that are here, for every one of us Lord, that nobody would push aside the plan that you have for their life, not even one. We would want to be a people who glorify you again in the earth. This world is in need of a church that brings glory to Christ again. God, let it begin. Let it begin with every life that's here. Everyone who's listening online, those that will hear in the future. Let it begin with us, oh God. And move upon every heart, in every place, in every church where people are seeking you. Help us Lord Jesus Christ to pray in a way that our hearts are open before you. Help us to say yes and never to say no. But oh God, give us that revelation of your thoughts towards us. We give you the praise and all the glory in Jesus' name. We're gonna stand in just a moment. I wanna give a second altar call too as well. For those who really need to be free, I'm gonna pray for you. If you need to be free, and for those you've got some obsession in your life, you've got a problem like, it doesn't have to be similar to mine, but you just say, God, I gotta get free from this if I'm ever gonna grow in grace. And for others who just wanna hear, you just simply want to hear the thoughts of God that he's thinking towards you. Let's stand, balcony, go to either exit in the main sanctuary. Just slip out of your seat and meet me here in the annex you can come to. We'll wait for you. Same thing in our campus churches. You step up between the screens. We're gonna worship for just a moment. And when we're done worshiping, we're gonna pray together. Hallelujah. You know, throughout history, spiritual awakenings happen when we make the transition from speaking about God to God speaking through us about himself. This is a momentous time. I believe in the future of the nation, the future of your family, your community, wherever it is that you come from. You're saying, God, I want you to start speaking to me and speak through me about yourself. Take my life, Lord, and wherever you want it to go and make it into what you have determined it to be, not what I think it should be. You know, you think you're something, but God thinks you're something completely other. And it's so hard to lay hold of it, so hard to agree with God. And by his grace, he doesn't show us the whole plan. We wouldn't be able to have, we'd implode. The night I got free, if he would have shown me my whole future, I might've had another panic attack. You know what I'm saying? But he didn't, he didn't. He just, it's line upon line, step upon step. Every door he calls you through, just go through it. Just go through it. He asks you to speak, speak. If he asks you to do something, just do it. Keep it simple. And you watch. Then suddenly you're starting to hear the thoughts of God and they're no longer foreign to you. And you're walking. He's actually walking through you and talking about himself. Father God, in Jesus' name, this is your church, Lord. Young and old gathered here, God. This is your church. And this is our only hope for the future. It was your only hope on the day of Pentecost. It was your only hope after the cross. My God, it's the only hope for the nation. It's the only hope for so many people in our society today. But I thank you, God. It's a great hope because you're here. Because you live in us. You live in us, Lord. So I'm asking for the grace in all of our hearts to be able to hear your voice again. And to agree with your thoughts about us, Lord. Not to push them away. Help us, Lord, to say yes to you. Wherever you lead us and whatever you ask of us. Help us to trust you for the giftings when we get there to do what we're called to do. Help us, Lord, to put our confidence in your hands. God Almighty, keep our ears open, Lord, to the voice of your spirit. Thank you for these men and women. My God, this is our hope. This is your church. It's a mighty church. And I thank you for it. I thank you for these men and women who recognize their need of you and long to hear your voice. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. Hallelujah. Take a moment now and just talk to him. Just take a moment. Just talk to the Lord. Go ahead. He said, you'll search for me and you'll find me when you seek me with all of your heart. Just tell him that you wanna know. Just say, God, I just wanna know. I just wanna know your thoughts. What are you thinking about me and where do you wanna lead me? What are the giftings that you have for my life? How can I glorify you? Go ahead, lift your voice. Take a moment. Just take a moment. And don't be ashamed. Don't be shy. He wants to talk to you. He loves you. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. Father, we truly believe that 2020 will be a year of wonders. When you begin to do, Lord, what we can't do. When you lead us back to the source of our life again and you help us to be your church, a supernatural church. A people empowered by the spirit of God, led by the word of God, cleansed by the blood of God. God almighty, thank you so much, Lord Jesus. Thank you for giving us this glorious opportunity to glorify your name again. Before you return, oh God, thank you. God, thank you. Lord, I ask you to give us the gift of hearing ears. Whatever it is that you would speak, Lord, help us to say yes. Oh, how many times you came throughout scripture and you spoke to people in possibilities, Lord. You spoke to a virgin about having a son. Spoke to a barren womb about sending a forerunner to Christ. God, all through scripture, Lord. All through scripture, my God. All through scripture. Give us ears to hear and help us, my God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, God. Hallelujah. I'd like to close with that song, if you don't mind, Greg. Yeah, God is fighting for us. Pushing back the darkness. He's fighting for this society through you. You are the light that's set upon a hill. That's what Jesus said. So, let's go with rejoicing. This is our last service in 2019. Going into 2020, God is lighting a lamp. God is fighting against the darkness and he's doing it through you. Let's give him a shout of glory. Would you give him a shout in his house? Praise God. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord.