Psalms Week 2 • Psalm 134

Show Notes

Sunday, October 17th 2021 • Beau Bradberry

"Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the Lord!" — Psalm 134:2

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Beau Bradberry

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Well, good morning.

Glad that you guys are with us.

If you've got your Bibles, go ahead and open up to Psalm 134.

That's where we will be this morning.

It is a good day to be here.

If you're a first-time guest, I just want to thank you so much for being here and being

here to worship with us.

We are grateful and honored and privileged that you would have taken the time to be here with

us this morning.

At the end of the service, I'll be back here at the welcome table.

I would love to speak to everyone, but primarily I want to focus in on if you're a first-time

guest, I'd love to meet you, learn your name, and just have the opportunity to thank you

face-to-face for being here and worshiping with us.

And then if you have any questions about our church, who we are, what we're about, it's

a wonderful place.

I would love to take the time to be able to answer those questions for you.

Well, as you turn there, I want to kind of share a revelation that God in His kindness

and His grace gave to me last night that is completely separate and removed from the message.

If you don't mind if I kind of chase a rabbit before we get started.

So, my kids love music, and they've got one particular band that they love.

The band is Need to Breathe.

Now, I don't know if you like Need to Breathe, but my kids love Need to Breathe.

If you were to rate your love or the love of a band in particular, a musical artist in

particular, I would say in my life, Need to Breathe is a solid eight.

I like to listen to them.

I got all their albums downloaded on my phone.

I don't know if that was a thing, album downloaded on the phone, but that's what I got.

I'm old, that's what I refer to it as, right?

I got them all downloaded.

It's better than saying I have their CDs, I guess, right?

So, I got them downloaded on my phone.

I love them, but my kids on a scale of one to ten are like a twelve.

And so, if Need to Breathe is going on tour, they want to watch Need to Breathe.

And so, we'll take them to see their concerts.

Now, normally, Need to Breathe comes to Columbia, which is wonderful for us.

We go to the concert, we're home.

But this year on their tour, they decided to go to Greenville on Saturday night, last night,

and go to Charleston tonight.

And so, my wife and I were talking, and she said, let's take the kids, let's go to Greenville.

And she said, what night do you want to do that?

And I said, well, the concert starts at seven.

We should be all right.

Let's go to Greenville.

We'll go there.

That'll be in plenty of time.

I can get home and rest.

She said, are you sure it's not going to go too late?

Like, no, we're fine.

The concert should be over three hours.

Thinking typically should be over by ten.

We're clocking.

We're booking.

If you walk anywhere with me, you know I move quickly, all right?

So, keep up or you will get left behind.

My family knows that, all right?

So, we're sitting there at the concert last night.

It was a wonderful concert.

If I'm talking louder than normal, I still can't hear well, right?

And so, but we're there at the concert, and the first band comes out, and they play.

And I didn't know that there was a first band, but there was a first band, and they played.

And then Switchfoot came out, right?

And so, Switchfoot played, and they kept playing, and they kept playing, and they kept playing.

And then we're waiting for Need to Breathe, and Need to Breathe came out, and they started playing.

And at 10.30, I look at my watch, and I lean over, and I whisper into my wife's ear,

man, they ain't even done the encore yet, right?

And she looked at me in her kindness and the love in her eyes and said,

wow, you're getting old, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's it.

That's it.

And so, rolled into the driveway at 1.30 this morning, and so I'm running on coffee and the Holy Spirit, right?

Which is most Sunday mornings for me anyway, so it was a wonderful time.

So, we're looking at Psalm 134 this morning.

If you were with us last week, we started this new series, and it's a neat kind of creative way

that we're doing things with this series, and I really appreciate the extra time and energy

that our worship team that our worship team is putting in to every week they got to learn a new song, right?

And that's not normal.

Most churches don't do that, but that's what they're doing as we're playing these and as we're using these in times of worship.

Joanne led us in our Lord's Supper in the performance last week.

That was wonderful.

And so, what they're doing is each week, the song that is sung will reflect directly the Scripture that we're reading.

And so, the Psalm 134 that they did was a rendition that the Robbie Seaband did, and they led us in that in worship.

And so, it's kind of a neat time and a neat opportunity for us to worship.

Well, this week, we're in Psalm again.

We'll be here for eight weeks.

We're in Psalm 134.

I want to kind of explain a little bit about why this Psalm is the way that it is.

It says the things that it says.

And if you're looking at your Bible, your paper Bible, you'll kind of notice on the top there, at least mine does, it says a song of ascent.

And that's a very specific thing that we're going to see in some of the Psalms.

So, the Psalms together, collaboratively, were poetry or were songs that were written by different writers, most of them David,

but different writers of Scripture, and they were a reflection of God and their relationship and their interaction with Him.

But if you read through the Psalms as a whole, Psalm 120 through Psalm 134 are all of these which are considered songs of ascent.

And so, here's what these are.

About three times a year, during the time that the Psalms were written, the Jewish people would return to Jerusalem for different religious festivals.

Now, Jerusalem is a city that was up on top of a hill, and then even within there, the temple was on the hill in Jerusalem.

And so, as they would journey on their way to Jerusalem, as they would journey up the hill on the way to the temple, these would be the songs that they would sing.

And so, literally, what you're reading in your text, what I read in my text, is that as they are going, and don't worry, I'm not going to sing, that's what they do, right?

They're singing, come bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who stand by night in the house of the Lord.

Lift up your hands to the holy place, and bless the Lord.

May the Lord bless you from Zion, He who made heaven and earth.

And so, as you read all of these from Psalm 120 to 134, that's what all of these are.

So, that gives us a context.

What did you do on the way to worship today?

What they were doing is they were preparing themselves for what they were about to encounter.

Now, for me this morning, I was like, man, I'm going to keep my eyes open, right?

But what do we do within there?

And so, we see this beautiful reflection of these individuals as they are preparing their heart as they journey into worship.

So, I want to ask you a question this morning.

It's a question that you just get to think about.

Like, we're not going to walk around and make everybody share their answers.

We probably have a lot of different answers in this room, but here's the question that I have.

Why did you come to worship today?

Of all the things that you could have done, of all the places you could have gone, of all the things you could be a part of,

Why did you choose today to get up out of your nice, comfortable bed, to come here to gather with a group of people, to sing a few songs, to hear a message preached?

Why did you choose to do this today?

This week, I found an interesting study, and maybe some of you will align with some of these.

But in 2018, Pew Research, and so, they're like a think tank out of D.C. that focuses on religious research.

They did a survey, and they asked, and I quoted them on this because it was important.

Those who attend religious services at least twice a month.

So, we're not talking about people that just show up for Christmas or Easter.

We're not talking about people who just showed up back years ago, but people who roughly have regular attendance to a, some form of religious worship gathering.

They asked them this question, why do you attend?

Why do you attend?

And then they gave several answers for them to choose from, and you could choose more than one, but then they published their, their top 10.

And maybe you will find that, that your heart kind of echoes the hearts of some of these individuals in asking the question, well, why do you go to church?

Reason number one, top reason, was to become closer to God.

Great, great reason to come to a, to a service.

Number two, I get this, I'm a parent.

So, children will have a moral foundation.

Great reason to get up and to come here today.

Number three, to make me a better person.

So, they're thinking about themselves, they're, they're seeing themselves, and they recognize they need to be better.

Number four, for comfort in times of trouble, right?

Number five, I find the sermons valuable.

And in a poll, we polled 100% of you guys, and it came back 100%, that's your reason, right?

Just agree with me on that, it encourages me this morning.

Number six, to be a part of a community of faith.

Number seven, to continue a family's religious traditions.

Number eight, I feel a religious obligation to go.

Number nine, to meet new people and to socialize.

And number 10, to please my family or my spouse.

The top 10 reasons across denominations and across faiths, according to the Pew Research in 2018, of why people attend religious services.

Now, there are a lot of reasons that they are given here.

And you can imagine there are probably others that were not included since this is the top 10.

And I'll be honest with you, I think some of these have great value.

I think some of them, maybe not so much, right?

But you and I, we all have our reasons.

Here's what stuck out to me about this, and this is what we're going to kind of press into as we look at Psalm 134.

It is this, all of these answers, whether I agree with them or disagree with them, or they're somewhere in between,

all 10 of these, what struck me is they all center on the individual.

They all center on the individual, on the person.

Let's look at them.

I want to be closer to God.

Great, it's great, it's phenomenal.

I want to be closer to God as well, but it's still focused on me.

Number two, my children, to have a moral foundation, right?

Like, my kids, I want my kids to have this benefits me.

In times of stress, in times of loss, I want comfort.

I think all three of these reasons are great and wonderful reasons that are there, but they still focus on me.

And even those that I think have less value, right?

To please my family, right?

I don't want to listen to it.

They just, so I'm just here.

I feel an obligation of religious tradition.

It still focuses on me.

Now, here's what I want to be honest with you guys with.

I'm not saying that if you were here for any of these reasons, that you're wrong.

If you came here this morning because you need to feel comfort, you could have looked for comfort in a million different things.

And I'm so glad that this morning that you have your opportunity to find your comfort in Jesus Christ.

And we celebrate that.

I'm not saying it's wrong if you're here this morning because you want this moral understanding of God's word in your kid's life and that they embrace that and then take that on.

I'm not saying it's wrong.

It's what I desire for my kids as well.

I'm not saying that it's wrong if you're here this morning because you're feeling a little distant from God and you want to draw closer to him.

All of these are wonderful reasons for you and I to live in the benefit and in the blessing of our relationship with the Lord.

But, but, if I am the only reason that I am here, then we may be missing it altogether.

If it ends and begins with me, then we may miss it altogether.

So why would we come to worship if it's other than ourself?

And I believe this is what Psalm 134 is pointing us to.

That as these pilgrims would journey from far away to come into Jerusalem,

as these pilgrims would get great sacrifice so that they can find themselves where they would be,

they find a great reason for it in this, in gathering and worship.

And what I want us to see is that in this, in worship, we bless God.

In worship, we bless God.

Let's look at verse one.

Come, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who stand by night in the house of the Lord.

The Christian life, I'm going to be honest with you.

If you're, if you're wondering, if you're one of those people here and you're, you're kind of iffy on what it means to be a follower of Christ.

Like, let me say, as a person who lived half of my life far and in rebellion from the Lord, right?

And then God saved me and seen the transformation and what he's brought me to.

The Christian life is about the blessed life.

It is so wonderful to see and to experience how God works and moves and blesses me in this life.

And you and I are blessed so many ways by God.

You and I, within the congregation of the body of the believers that he gives us, are blessed.

You and I, in the context of the gifts and talents that he allows us to use for his kingdom, are blessed.

You and I are ultimately and supremely blessed that in Christ and in our salvation that we are blessed.

And so you and I being blessed by God, you and I being blessed by one another is an important part of Christianity, of our faith.

It's so important that Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, like his longest recorded sermon, that this is how it begins.

Blessed are those, blessed are those, blessed are those.

Like, Jesus is speaking the truth.

And to follow him means to be blessed.

But it's very interesting because in worship, we're called to bless God.

To bless God.

To bless God.

So, when you're blessed, when I'm blessed, what does that mean?

It typically means that we have received something, that someone has done something for us, right?

It's how Christ blesses us with salvation.

You and I did nothing to earn it, nothing to deserve it.

And he blesses us with his salvation, with the work that he did for us.

When we're blessed by others, just think of a few, right?

You go and you bake a cake and you take it to someone.

You bless them.

You see someone and God lays it on your heart to write them a note or to send them a text message of encouragement.

And so that blesses them.

You've got someone in your life who you know is financially struggling.

And you go to them, not with a loan, not with strings attached.

But you say, you know what?

God's laid you on my heart.

And I want to bless you financially in a way.

Like these are the ways.

We do something for someone that they cannot do for themselves or that they do not do for themselves.

And so we bless them with that.

So what can you and I do for God?

What can we do for him?

Well, when we bless him, we bless him by what so many of us just did.

We praise him, we exalt him, we worship him, right?

Like what we do in here matters.

Not because we need to check a religious box.

Like my heart breaks for the individual who says,

The only reason why I attend a worship service twice a month or every Sunday or whatever day that they gather

is so that I can fulfill some religious obligation.

That's not what we're here doing.

You and I are not checking the box and then moving on.

But what we do in here matters.

And we need to make sure that it is about him.

And so we worship him.

We proclaim who he is.

And we seek to bless his name.

You know, we simply, simply this.

We worship God for who he is.

And that's what we see in scripture.

Just a handful of them that we see.

We worship him because of his counsel.

Psalm 16, 7 says,

I bless the Lord who gives me counsel in the night.

Also, my heart instructs me.

We worship him for his holiness.

Psalm 103, 1.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me.

Bless his holy name.

And we worship him for his majesty.

Psalm 104, 1.

Bless the Lord, O my soul.

O Lord, my God, you are very great.

You are clothed with splendor and majesty.

And so we bless him not out of our circumstances.

We bless him not out of our feelings.

We bless him not based out of who we are or where we are, but we bless him based out of who he is.

Right?

My feelings change.

My feelings change.

My perspective changes.

There's things about me constantly moving and changing and adapting in my life.

And so if I worship God based out of all of these things that are in my life that ebb and flow and change and move, then so would my worship.

But he is the great counselor.

He is holy.

He is the creator.

He alone in his majesty.

Right?

And so we bless him.

We worship him because of who he is.

And this, this is what God tells us, is your life's purpose is to bless God.

Right?

Your life's purpose is to bless God.

Isaiah 43, 7 says, everyone who is called by my name, who I created for what?

My glory.

Why were you created?

Why was I created?

For his glory.

Whom I formed and made.

Right?

This is your purpose in life.

1 Corinthians 10, 31.

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, what?

Do it all for the glory of God.

And every beat of every moment of every fiber of who we are, this is what we do.

Now, I'm not saying that you and I don't live in the benefit from this.

But I have this illustration that come to me this week.

Oftentimes we cast our eyes, is what scripture tells us, to set our eyes on him.

And that's our worship.

But so many times the positioning and the posture of our heart is not looking at him, but looking into a mirror.

That we are the object of our worship.

Instead, all of our worship being pointed toward him.

And so in worship, we bless God.

But let's, let's keep reading.

Read verse 2 of Psalm 134.

Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the Lord.

Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the Lord.

What I want us to look at is this isn't just where we are and what we do, but it's in responding in worship.

That this is what God has called his people to do.

And we continue to see this in the Psalms.

Psalm 63, 4.

So I will bless you as long as I live.

In your name, I will lift my hands.

Psalm 141, 2.

Let my prayer be counted as incense before you and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.

And so like, right, we're going to, we're going to have a lesson on, on raising hands.

I want to say this, right?

I get it.

Some of us in here, man, we walk in and we hear that first drum beat and it's like, boom, I'm ready.

Right?

We're there.

We're there.

Some of us are like my son at the South Carolina football game when we played to Kentucky and lost a few weeks ago, but I've moved on past that, right?

And we get there and they got those towels as you walk in, right?

And so we all grab towels.

We're good Carolina fans.

We're going to grab the towels.

And so we're in there and then I'll look over.

And so it's, it's Aaron, Emma, Grayson, and me.

And so we're all right-handed.

So, right, the towel goes to the right hand and sandstorm hits, right?

And Grayson starts waving that towel, whoop-ow, whoop-ow.

And what I'm noticing is my daughter almost has a concussion, right?

Because he's just hitting her over and over in the head.

And she's like, Grayson, he's like, uh-uh, I'm in the moment, right?

I'm swinging this thing.

And that's some of us with worship, right?

I served under a pastor.

I love him to death, Phillip Lee.

I served under a pastor at Cedar Creek.

And he asked me one day, he's like, man, why don't you sit beside me?

He said, you always leave a chair in between us.

I was the campus pastor and he was the senior pastor.

And I said, man, because you almost hit me every week, right?

Because if I'm there and all of a sudden the moment catches you, you're like, whoa, there

you are, right?

And so we have that.

I'm a hand raiser.

And some of you, though, like when you come in here, you're like, that's a little weird,

right?

Like, what are we doing?

Where are we at?

Like, what is this whole thing that's going on?

And so I do it.

So I wrote down as I've interacted.

Now, there isn't one right answer that when we draw from Scripture of why people raise hands.

Even when you look at this, like God gives this as an opportunity in the Psalms in a response

of worship.

But there's not a reason that's given or mandated within Scripture about why it's done and when

it's done.

But it's what we see.

And so I want to kind of answer the question, and there may be other reasons for this, but

what I've experienced in my life and in my pastoral experience of why people raise hands.

And it's a response.

It's a reflection.

And typically one of three things.

One is that the words that I am proclaiming, it is the moments of agreeance and truth.

And so within that, I say yes.

Yes, God.

Yes, what we just proclaimed.

Bless the Lord.

Yes, this is true.

And I raise my hands with it.

There'll be other times that we see, and it's an act of surrender, right?

And so I raise and lift my hands.

I give up my ways.

I give up who I am, Lord, and I surrender to you.

Another that it can symbolize is an act of dependence, right?

Of desperation of, God, I need you.

I lift my hands, Lord.

I am empty, Lord, and I desperately, desperately need you.

And so when you see people respond in these different ways, right?

One hand, two hands this way, like, here we go, all kinds of things, right?

If you were to ask them why, more than likely, it's one of these three.

And God puts it in Scripture.

But we're not here to say that you're not worshiping God if you're not a hand raiser.

I'm not here to say that if you don't do this, then you don't love the Lord.

You're not a mature worshiper.

That's not where we are.

Because I do want to say this, that when it comes to worshiping God, when we see this within the heart of Scripture, I would say it's heart over hands.

Right?

Heart over hands.

In John chapter 4, Jesus is speaking with a Samaritan woman at the well, right?

And long story short, right, she comes and she asks Jesus, as he's kind of confronting her and some sin and some things that are going on in her life, not kind of he blatantly is, right?

She asks him a question concerning the proper place of worship.

And I love Jesus' response, John 4, 23.

But the hour is coming and is now here when true worshipers, true worshipers, will worship the Father in spirit and truth.

For the Father is seeking such people to worship him, right?

She wants to know what it's all about.

And Jesus says about in spirit and truth, about the transformed life, about who we are.

So we can walk in here every single week and be the person who's spinning around, throwing hands up in the air, and you're thinking like, man, that guy is really into worship.

Like, look how he's responding to the Lord.

But if the heart's not changed, if the heart's not transformed, then give him an Oscar.

Well done.

Because it's about here.

And then the beauty of that is what we see in Scripture when the transformation of what God has begun to do plays out in the life of the individual.

And whether it's a head hung with eyes closed, whether it's someone singing and proclaiming so off-tune that it's not funny, but it's the sweet, wonderful sound that God hears.

It's the hands lifted.

It's the brokenness of there.

It's the heart above the hands, right?

And so when we come to worship, when we bless him, it's out of the transformation of who we are.

It comes from, this is what I was.

Lord, and this is what you've done.

And so this is the overflow of this.

All right, and then lastly in verse 3.

May the Lord bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth.

Now this is the part that we like, right?

When we worship this way, when they would go up there, what would happen is that after worship, the priest would stand.

And as everyone would leave the temple, they would look at them and say, may the Lord bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth.

May the Lord bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth.

May the Lord bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth.

And this is what the priest would say to them.

And so you're thinking, man, that'd be fantastic.

Hey, Boca, like work out there and hit everybody up with a blessing as they go, right?

Like this is where we are.

This is where we are, right?

Well, here's what's taking place.

Here's what's happening.

Here's why we are blessed.

It's being blessed and being a blessing.

Being blessed and being a blessing.

We begin by saying this message that you and I, we are blessed by God.

And we are blessed by God for a very unique purpose.

We are.

We're blessed by God for our gifts and talents and all that we are and all that who he is so that we will bless him.

It's what this whole message has been about.

That we bless him with our praise.

We bless him not only when we gather, but we bless him in our cars.

We bless him in our homes.

We bless him at our jobs.

We bless him at every single moment of our life.

That we're doing all that we can and all that we are to live for his name, for his glory, for his renown.

That we bless him.

But also, we are blessed by God so that we will bless others.

And this is filled within the context of scripture.

When Jesus says that the greatest commandment is to love God and love others, that wasn't a new defining moment in there that has been continued on.

And in Genesis 12, verses 2 and 3, when it talks about the nation, the people of God, of who they are to be.

This is what God says.

And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you.

And he doesn't drop a period there.

And I will bless you and make your name great.

And again, there's not a period there.

So that you will be a blessing.

And I will bless those who bless you.

In him who dishonors you, I will curse.

And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

And here's what it's pointing to.

Jesus.

Jesus.

Jesus, the lineage from Abraham that would go all the way through that Christ would come from.

Right?

So I will bless you.

And then here's what you will be.

You will be a blessing to others.

Right?

You're blessed.

I'm blessed.

I'm blessed beyond belief.

I'm blessed beyond what I deserve.

And God blesses me.

God blessed me with his salvation.

He blessed me with his son.

He blessed me with his spirit.

God blessed me in creation.

God blessed me with you.

God blesses us in so many different ways.

And for us, it's the easy to say, this is what I've gotten.

This is what I've received.

And so it's me and God.

I'm going to bless him because he's easy.

Right?

Like this is it.

Like it's the feel good goose bump moment.

But as they leave the temple, as they go from the temple, may the Lord bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth.

And what they know is that they've been blessed for a purpose and for a reason, not only to bless God, but to bless others.

To bless others.

So in just a moment, I'm going to wrap up here and we're going to go back to blessing God.

From the cries and the depths of our heart of who he is and what he has done, we will bless him.

But I want to give us a challenge this week.

I want to give each and every one of us a target to look at.

And would you leave from here in the blessing of the Lord, but looking for the opportunity to bless those around you.

Right?

Maybe you need to do what we mentioned earlier.

Maybe you need someone who's going through a difficult time, a difficult season.

And a word of encouragement, a handwritten note, a phone call, a text message, a stop by their house just to encourage them and to love them could be a blessing for them.

Maybe you need to bless someone with an act of kindness.

Do something for someone.

Take a moment out of your schedule, out of your day, to cut your neighbor's grass, to move their trash can down to the road, to pull it back up for them.

Right?

To wash their car, to have a moment to bless someone with an act of kindness.

Maybe you've been blessed financially and God's laying on your heart an individual that you need to go to, not because they've asked, not because they've begged.

Maybe they have and blessed them financially.

Maybe you need to reflect the nature of Christ in your life and you need to bless someone with grace.

They've hurt you.

They've offended you.

And what you can begin to do in the process of this week is bless them through grace by forgiving them.

All of these things are wonderful things that could be done.

All of these things glorify God and show that we've been blessed.

And so we seek to bless others, but they just scratch the surface.

Because the one desperate thing that the world needs, that God gives us, that makes us unique, that makes us special, that we can go and bless the world with.

Which is what Genesis 12, 2 and 3 talks about.

Is maybe we can go and bless someone with the gospel.

To sit down and share with them the hope that we have.

Of who Christ is.

And what Christ has done.

The price that he paid on the cross.

The death that he overcame and the tomb that he walked out of.

And the life that he's calling us to.

And that we don't earn it and we don't deserve it, but he gives it to us.

And maybe that as we leave here, because we've been blessed.

Because we know.

Because we've experienced.

You and I can go and bless others with the hope of Jesus Christ.

Would you pray with me?

Lord, we are here this morning.

And Lord, may we bless you.

May the words that we say be the reflection of our hearts that bless your holy name.

May we lift up our hands and lift our hearts in joyful adoration to who you are and what you've done.

Lord, we thank you for your kindness and your compassion.

Lord, we thank you for your counsel that you give us.

We thank you for your peace that settles within us.

Lord, we thank you for all that you've done, Lord.

And we respond by blessing you.

Lord, may we this morning, though, receive and understand that as we've been blessed by you, as we bless you.

Lord, that we're called to go out here and bless others.

And so, Lord, spiritually speaking, help us get our eyes out of the mirror.

Of looking at ourselves and focused in on us.

But as we see you, Lord, show us the broken, hurting world around us.

The lives of the many.

Maybe we need to drop off a pound cake.

Maybe we need to pay for someone's groceries.

Maybe we need to forgive the person who doesn't deserve it.

They haven't asked for it.

Lord, you've forgiven us.

And so, Lord, we need to forgive them.

Lord, more importantly, maybe we need to bless someone with the gospel.

Lord, help us see people the way that you do.

Help us look for moments and opportunities, doorways, to share the reason why we have hope in Christ.

Lord, help us pause for a moment in our chaotic, hectic lives.

And focus on why we're here.

To bless you.

And to share, Jesus, the lost and broken.

It is in your name we pray.

Thanks again for listening to the Willow Ridge Church weekly podcast.

We hope that you enjoyed listening to this week's message.

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