Frankie Mazzapica - Lord, Have You Misled Me?
The title of today’s message is: «Lord, have you misled me? Have you tricked me?» I felt like you were leading me in this direction, and now I’m backing up, saying, «I think you misled me.» I thought you were going to do awesome things in my life; I really did believe that you would do awesome things. But when I look around, I see everything except for awesome. Have you misled me? When we were younger, when we were in high school, we had a vision of what our life would look like, and we believed that God’s hand was going to be on it. We believed that God would take care of it. Now we reach our age, and we look around, saying, " God, I think you misled me.»
I think the dreams that were in my heart I probably made up because none of those things are happening. Have you misled me? We have a case study; we’re going to talk about Jeremiah because this is how Jeremiah felt. We have three major points. The first one is what I was kind of hinting at-that sense of being called by God, that there’s something in you. He didn’t call your name, Frankie. He didn’t do that. You just feel it right down in here. Are you with me? Say yes. Let me hear you. Are you with me? Say yes. It’s not out loud; it’s just right down in here. He calls you. The second point I want to talk about is how Jeremiah recognized that he was called, but then he backs up and goes, «God, have you misled me?»
The third part I want to discuss is how your heart burns. Your heart burns. Let’s dive right into the Scriptures right away: Jeremiah chapter 1, verses 4-5. The Lord gave me this message. This is Jeremiah speaking: «I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb.» Now hold on a second. The Bible is full of parables and stories. When you read a story or a scene like this, it’s not in the Bible just so you can read a story about somebody. It’s in there so that you can take Jeremiah’s name out and put your name in, because God does not have any favorites. So when He says, «Jeremiah, I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb,» I want to say this to you: Before God took His hands and went into your mother’s womb and formed you with brown eyes, green eyes, blue eyes, blonde hair, or black hair -you’re going to be bald, but you’re going to enjoy the first 19 years before He does that.
Oh my goodness! Before I formed you, I knew your name. Before He even started, He backed up and said your name. He knew your name. Before I formed you in your mother’s womb, before you were born, I set you apart. He formed you. He looked; He formed you. And before you were born, He said, «This one’s different.» I want you to know that that feeling on the inside of you, which you can hardly put into words and don’t even know what it is -that you are different -you just know it. That’s what God put in you. God put that in you. He said, «I’ve set you apart. I appointed you; I pointed at you as a prophet to the nations.»
In those days, it was very hard to be a prophet to the nations. You can read about prophecy in 1 Corinthians chapter 14; there are several different types of prophecy, but there’s one type of prophecy all of us have-a type of gift. In 1 Corinthians 14:3, it says that prophecy encourages and comforts. So when you speak into somebody’s future, like when I bless you and say, «Just raise your hand; I want to speak a blessing into your life,» it is encouraging and comforting.
When you look at someone and say, «This is what I believe you’re going to do. This is what I believe is in your future,» you’re prophesying into their life. You are going to; you will-you’re prophesying. He’s saying that he prophesies to the nations. It is so much easier for you and me to prophesy to the nations than it was for Jeremiah. For Jeremiah, he had to get up, go in a boat, ride a camel, get on a donkey, and walk for miles. They hadn’t even figured out how flip-flops worked yet, and they still had to walk for miles.
You and I, when we prophesy to the nations, it’s really easy because when you look around this room, you can clearly see that there are nations that have come from all over the place. Nobody is 100% American. No one. There’s something called 23andMe. Are you familiar with that? You can find out your heritage, your lineage, and you think that you’re Swedish or you’re from Africa or whatever, and then you pull it up and you’ve got like 42 different nations that have poured into your blood in some way, somehow. I found out that I’ve got African in me, Brazilian in me, Sicilian in me, Italian in me; I’ve got all this stuff I didn’t even know I had. I had zero Swedish. You can find out everything else. If you did some type of study, you would just have a plethora. So, why am I saying this? To prophesy to the nations that are around you. In those days, they were all Gentile. They were all Jew. They were all Samaritan. It’s easier now. He says, «I’ve called you for this. This is the call of God. I’ve called you for this.»
Now my son Luke has some friends that come over the house. One of the coolest guys that come over the house-don’t take this personally, Connor, but it’s actually Grady. Give Grady a round of applause. Come on up here! I need your help real quick. Grady’s probably never going to come back to church for this, but anyway, give him a microphone. He didn’t know I was going to do this, but anyway, Grady, I want you to throw some numbers out there. Try to guess my phone number. All right, go ahead. I’m going to go with 469-873-2164.
Now why did you just laugh? It was spot on! I told you -didn’t I tell you he was the coolest kid? Are you dating anyone right now? No, sir. All right, give everybody your phone number. No? Just…
All right. The reason why he couldn’t guess my phone number is that phone number was given to me. There’s not a person on this planet that has my phone number. You can want my phone number, you can try to take my phone number, but that phone number is for me. When God called you, nobody can take it. Even the haters can’t take it. The people that you feel like are outshining you — the person at work or the person at school that’s making your life miserable-they can’t take it. It’s yours.
I want you, even when you doubt this, to say, «God, I believe in you.» Say that three times. I know that it feels elementary, but speak to your spirit. Prophesy to your spirit. Say, «God, I believe in you.» One, two, three-say it three times: one, two, three. Everybody: one, two, three. One more time! Grady, is there a friend of yours that you wish went to church but they don’t? Yes? All right, think of that person. You got their name? Okay, got it. I’m going to try to guess. Okay-Jeremiah? It’s not the one on my mind. Let me put your mic up here so they can hear me. Strike out-Jennifer? No. Tristan? Not the one. Anthony? Nope. Um, Sammy? No. Does he go by Sam? Not normally.
The reason why I don’t know the friend that he wants to come to church is that it’s not my assignment to get that friend to come to church. I don’t even know the name that’s in his heart; I don’t even know who it is. Yeah, but it’s in his heart. That person has been assigned to him, not anybody else. Your assignment is assigned to you. I don’t even know what it is-no clue. Grady, I’ve got this entrepreneurial spirit in me. When I was in elementary school, I used to sell pencils. Anyone here sell pencils? You buy them for 10 cents, and then you sell them for a quarter. When I got a little bit older, I think everybody’s done this-I started a lawn-mowing company. Raise your hand if you’ve ever started going around mowing yards.
As I got older, I tried different things. I’ve lost so much money. Goodness sakes, I made Ally so mad for like three months. She was so mad at me; I lost money. But it’s in me. It’s in me. I want you to say it loud enough for everyone to hear it. I’ll always be the pastor of this church, but there’s this entrepreneurial side that I want to try something else. Take a guess. And if you missed the first one, take some other guesses on what you think I want to give a try. Just look at me and be like, «You’re the kind of guy that would want to collect basketball cards.»
Close. Try again. Golf tournaments-he comes to our house too much; that’s the problem, so he’s kind of cheating. No, try it again. What kind of business would I want to start or try? Starting a shoe company? I told you he was the coolest kid, right? No, try again. Do you think your son would know? I’ll tell you what it is. I’ve got this, and I don’t know if the Lord would bless it or not, but I would like to spend extended periods of time in another country doing missions. But I’ve tried ministry things before, and God doesn’t bless it. However, I would like to see if God would bless that. It’s not time for it yet, but I believe it’s coming. But he wouldn’t know that because God put it in me. God put something in you. I couldn’t guess if I guessed all day long. There’s a call of God on your life.
Give Grady a big round of applause. Thank you, Grady. There’s a call of God, but feeling misled is common. Let me read this to you. This is in Jeremiah 20:9, I’m sorry, 20:1. When the priest in charge of the temple of the Lord heard what Jeremiah was prophesying, Jeremiah said, «God, you called me by name.» He was arrested. So they arrested Jeremiah the prophet and had him whipped and put into stocks at the Benjamin Gate of the Lord’s temple. «Oh Lord, you misled me! I allowed myself to be misled. You’re stronger than I am, and you overpowered me. I felt called; everything’s falling apart. You misled me.» I want my daughter, who’s home from college, to emphasize this point for me. This is our oldest daughter, Presley. Would you put your hands together for her?
Hello! Good morning. My brother was up here a few weeks ago talking about his experience at camp, and I’m also going to talk about my experience at camp this summer at a different camp. But I am a huge fan of camp, and I think what better extension of the gospel than to take kids that aren’t your kids in as your own and love them as if they are your own? It’s really special to break down walls by doing things like going down the water slide and going on the zipline and then feel like you really know the kids, and then be able to sit down with them and say, «Here’s the gospel.» It’s just a really special thing.
My first summer working at camp-the camp is called Pine Cove — was last summer, and I worked for one half, which is five weeks. My job was being a counselor, and the description of the job, if you imagine camp, is just that-like you’re going down the water slide, going on the zipline, and you’re doing every single theme night with all of the kids. If they’re dressing up crazy, you’re dressing up crazy. You’re eating every meal with them, spending the nights in the cabin with them, like all of that kind of stuff you’re doing with them. And then on top of that, you get to be the one that sits with them and hears what’s going on in their life and prays over them, and then a lot of times, share the gospel with them.
And so, at the end of my five weeks last summer, I was like, «Oh my gosh, I’m going to sign right now for next summer! Like, I’m going to pre-sign. Yes! This was the best thing I’ve ever done; I’m doing it again!» And so I committed to the next summer. In the fall, I was just waiting for them to call me with a job offer, and they called me in October. They were like, «Hey, we’re so excited to invite you back, and we want you to be Work Crew Director! It’s going to be awesome! What do you think?» I was like, «Oh my gosh, yes, absolutely!» I was so excited because I was like, «Oh yay, promotion! I was a counselor, and now I get to do this awesome new job!» I did not know at all what I was signing up for, but I thought, «It’s going to be great because it’s camp, and it was awesome last summer.»
And so I showed up this last May. I finished at Texas A&M, came home, grabbed my stuff, and went straight to camp. I had committed to 12 weeks, from May 11th to August 3rd, which is a really long time, but I was like, «I totally got this!» I showed up and quickly learned that being Work Crew Director and being a counselor is not the same at all. Just to give a glimpse into what it looks like to be Work Crew Director: it means directing work crew, hence the name. Work crew are the people who serve out the food at camp, clean up the food at camp, and also maintain the camp. So, cleaning all the buildings, taking out the trash-all that kind of stuff. As their leader, I’m telling them to do it, but I’m also making it fun to do.
The summer starts, it’s week one, and I’m pumped up to be doing this job. Some things we did included serving 4, 680 meals throughout the entire summer. That’s 400 kids a week, including staff. So if that’s 400 people, that means 400 plates, 400 cups, 400 forks-you’re also washing all those. I did not really think about how when you do that for the six meals we have in a day, it can get kind of annoying to have to do it over and over again. I had to keep encouraging everyone, like, «Okay, we’re going to do this again. It’s going to be awesome!»
I also didn’t think about how if there are 400 people eating, that’s 400 people worth of trash six times a day. Sometimes things would happen, like when we would be taking out the ginormous trash bag, lifting it up into the dumpster, and the bottom would just rip out. The eggs from breakfast, the refried beans from lunch, and the chicken Alfredo from dinner would be all over us, and we would be like, «Yay! Let’s keep going! This is so much fun!»
Another thing, sometimes at camp you can make bracelets. When I was a counselor, I would just show up with my campers and be like, «Yes, let’s make bracelets!» Then I’d go back to the cabin. I did not even think about all the people crawling on the floor, picking up beads for 300 kids. I did not think about the person who had to keep saying, «Yes, guys! Let’s keep going!» while picking up these beads and cleaning out drains when people accidentally pour grease down them. So, you’ve got to clean all the grease out of the drain. It was really awesome and fun for the first three weeks, but by week four, I was like, «Shoot, I have eight more weeks that I committed to doing this!» This is like every day from 6 to midnight; I do not know if I can keep doing this.
I was feeling really discouraged because I was like, «God, I really feel like my strengths are pointing toward being a counselor. My strengths are not in being efficient; I’m not good at thinking of the fastest way to put eight burgers on a tray! I’m just not good at that!» I thought this might have been the wrong thing. I was also getting a little prideful, thinking, «I should be doing something else, not this.» So going into week five, I was like, «There is just simply no way! God, you have to show me something! You have to give me new eyes because I really can’t see.»
And that’s when I came upon Acts 6. And so I’m going to read what I read to you guys now: In these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. And the twelve summoned the full number of disciples and said, «It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.» And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem. And a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.
And so, reading that, I was encouraged but also convicted by the fact that I had looked at what God asked me to be faithful to and saw it as not worth doing. I thought of those disciples, the twelve and whoever else was going out to plant all of these churches and spread the gospel, but there were seven who were asked to stay back, to stay home, and to be faithful to home base and do a job that probably seemed, in a human mind, a lot less important and a lot less cool to do, and probably a job that a lot fewer people saw. But the Lord saw it as important and worth doing, and that was what He had given them to be faithful to, so they stayed back and were faithful there.
Later on in Acts, it talks about how some of them went on to do great signs and wonders and what the Lord had asked them to be faithful to. And I realized how quick I was to forget where the Lord had saved me from; I thought that what He was calling me to wasn’t worth it anymore. He reminded me of where I was before I knew Christ and the life I was living before then, and then I looked at where I am now. And like, anything is worth it if I can know what the Lord can do through His gospel. And so it’s worth it to clean out drains, and it’s worth it to take out all of this trash because I know what the Lord is capable of doing for me and for everyone else, the people I’m serving alongside. And so the ministry became the people I was serving with. And then also just praying and asking the Lord, like, teach me how to depend on You and understand that anything is worth it knowing what You have done for me and what You will do for other people.
What I clung to throughout this, after reading Acts, was that the next day would still come. So that day was really encouraging, but I still had eight more weeks. And so I needed a weapon to fight against the lies in my mind. And so I clung to Psalm 16, and I want to share it with y’all too, as like allowing that to be your weapon as well. It says, «The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; He holds my lot. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.» And so I was challenged: do I really believe that the boundary lines of my life-like camp right now-are a pleasant thing that God has called me to? We have to truly realize and believe that the boundary lines of our life are good because He has called it good, and He holds our lot for our entire life. And that’s what He promised in Psalm 16, and so it’s true now. And then we have to also trust that this is just not it; there’s a beautiful inheritance beyond this.
Later on in Psalm 16, it says, «Because He is at our right hand, we will not be shaken.» And so it’s not because we’re doing a really good job here, or our job is really awesome, or what’s before us in our life that allows us to be unshakable, but it’s just because He is at our right hand. And so that was my greatest encouragement. I’ve truly learned and I am continuing to learn what it means to depend on God. I’ve also learned that if dependence is our goal, then weakness is to our advantage. And so that just blew my mind: I can look at weakness and say, «Yay! I don’t know what I’m doing at all, and I can’t do it on my own,» because sanctification is ultimately depending on God more and more every day, not becoming independent of Him. And so that was just an awesome lesson I’ve learned this summer, and I’m learning to continue to remind myself of that every day. And so thank you, guys.
My first summer working at camp-the camp is called Pine Cove — was last summer, and I worked for one half, which is five weeks. My job was being a counselor, and the description of the job, if you imagine camp, is just that-like you’re going down the water slide, going on the zipline, and you’re doing every single theme night with all of the kids. If they’re dressing up crazy, you’re dressing up crazy. You’re eating every meal with them, spending the nights in the cabin with them, like all of that kind of stuff you’re doing with them. And then on top of that, you get to be the one that sits with them and hears what’s going on in their life and prays over them, and then a lot of times, share the gospel with them.
And so, at the end of my five weeks last summer, I was like, «Oh my gosh, I’m going to sign right now for next summer! Like, I’m going to pre-sign. Yes! This was the best thing I’ve ever done; I’m doing it again!» And so I committed to the next summer. In the fall, I was just waiting for them to call me with a job offer, and they called me in October. They were like, «Hey, we’re so excited to invite you back, and we want you to be Work Crew Director! It’s going to be awesome! What do you think?» I was like, «Oh my gosh, yes, absolutely!» I was so excited because I was like, «Oh yay, promotion! I was a counselor, and now I get to do this awesome new job!» I did not know at all what I was signing up for, but I thought, «It’s going to be great because it’s camp, and it was awesome last summer.»
And so I showed up this last May. I finished at Texas A&M, came home, grabbed my stuff, and went straight to camp. I had committed to 12 weeks, from May 11th to August 3rd, which is a really long time, but I was like, «I totally got this!» I showed up and quickly learned that being Work Crew Director and being a counselor is not the same at all. Just to give a glimpse into what it looks like to be Work Crew Director: it means directing work crew, hence the name. Work crew are the people who serve out the food at camp, clean up the food at camp, and also maintain the camp. So, cleaning all the buildings, taking out the trash-all that kind of stuff. As their leader, I’m telling them to do it, but I’m also making it fun to do.
The summer starts, it’s week one, and I’m pumped up to be doing this job. Some things we did included serving 4, 680 meals throughout the entire summer. That’s 400 kids a week, including staff. So if that’s 400 people, that means 400 plates, 400 cups, 400 forks-you’re also washing all those. I did not really think about how when you do that for the six meals we have in a day, it can get kind of annoying to have to do it over and over again. I had to keep encouraging everyone, like, «Okay, we’re going to do this again. It’s going to be awesome!»
I also didn’t think about how if there are 400 people eating, that’s 400 people worth of trash six times a day. Sometimes things would happen, like when we would be taking out the ginormous trash bag, lifting it up into the dumpster, and the bottom would just rip out. The eggs from breakfast, the refried beans from lunch, and the chicken Alfredo from dinner would be all over us, and we would be like, «Yay! Let’s keep going! This is so much fun!»
Another thing, sometimes at camp you can make bracelets. When I was a counselor, I would just show up with my campers and be like, «Yes, let’s make bracelets!» Then I’d go back to the cabin. I did not even think about all the people crawling on the floor, picking up beads for 300 kids. I did not think about the person who had to keep saying, «Yes, guys! Let’s keep going!» while picking up these beads and cleaning out drains when people accidentally pour grease down them. So, you’ve got to clean all the grease out of the drain. It was really awesome and fun for the first three weeks, but by week four, I was like, «Shoot, I have eight more weeks that I committed to doing this!» This is like every day from 6 to midnight; I do not know if I can keep doing this.
I was feeling really discouraged because I was like, «God, I really feel like my strengths are pointing toward being a counselor. My strengths are not in being efficient; I’m not good at thinking of the fastest way to put eight burgers on a tray! I’m just not good at that!» I thought this might have been the wrong thing. I was also getting a little prideful, thinking, «I should be doing something else, not this.» So going into week five, I was like, «There is just simply no way! God, you have to show me something! You have to give me new eyes because I really can’t see.»
And that’s when I came upon Acts 6. And so I’m going to read what I read to you guys now: In these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. And the twelve summoned the full number of disciples and said, «It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.» And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem. And a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.
And so, reading that, I was encouraged but also convicted by the fact that I had looked at what God asked me to be faithful to and saw it as not worth doing. I thought of those disciples, the twelve and whoever else was going out to plant all of these churches and spread the gospel, but there were seven who were asked to stay back, to stay home, and to be faithful to home base and do a job that probably seemed, in a human mind, a lot less important and a lot less cool to do, and probably a job that a lot fewer people saw. But the Lord saw it as important and worth doing, and that was what He had given them to be faithful to, so they stayed back and were faithful there.
Later on in Acts, it talks about how some of them went on to do great signs and wonders and what the Lord had asked them to be faithful to. And I realized how quick I was to forget where the Lord had saved me from; I thought that what He was calling me to wasn’t worth it anymore. He reminded me of where I was before I knew Christ and the life I was living before then, and then I looked at where I am now. And like, anything is worth it if I can know what the Lord can do through His gospel. And so it’s worth it to clean out drains, and it’s worth it to take out all of this trash because I know what the Lord is capable of doing for me and for everyone else, the people I’m serving alongside. And so the ministry became the people I was serving with. And then also just praying and asking the Lord, like, teach me how to depend on You and understand that anything is worth it knowing what You have done for me and what You will do for other people.
What I clung to throughout this, after reading Acts, was that the next day would still come. So that day was really encouraging, but I still had eight more weeks. And so I needed a weapon to fight against the lies in my mind. And so I clung to Psalm 16, and I want to share it with y’all too, as like allowing that to be your weapon as well. It says, «The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; He holds my lot. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.» And so I was challenged: do I really believe that the boundary lines of my life-like camp right now-are a pleasant thing that God has called me to? We have to truly realize and believe that the boundary lines of our life are good because He has called it good, and He holds our lot for our entire life. And that’s what He promised in Psalm 16, and so it’s true now. And then we have to also trust that this is just not it; there’s a beautiful inheritance beyond this.
Later on in Psalm 16, it says, «Because He is at our right hand, we will not be shaken.» And so it’s not because we’re doing a really good job here, or our job is really awesome, or what’s before us in our life that allows us to be unshakable, but it’s just because He is at our right hand. And so that was my greatest encouragement. I’ve truly learned and I am continuing to learn what it means to depend on God. I’ve also learned that if dependence is our goal, then weakness is to our advantage. And so that just blew my mind: I can look at weakness and say, «Yay! I don’t know what I’m doing at all, and I can’t do it on my own,» because sanctification is ultimately depending on God more and more every day, not becoming independent of Him. And so that was just an awesome lesson I’ve learned this summer, and I’m learning to continue to remind myself of that every day. And so thank you, guys.
Whenever I talked to her when she was at camp, it was emotional for me as a father, it was emotional for Ally as a mother, because you’re listening to your kid struggling. And it was interesting because at the end of every phone call, she would say, «I just believe. I just believe God is going to take care of this. I just believe God is going to take care of this.»
And I want you to know that God has not misled you. You’re just in a season where you’re looking around. You’re going, «He hasn’t misled you; He’s called you.» There was something in Jeremiah that he wanted to quit, and he even considered it. But look at what he said in this last scripture: «But if I say, 'I’ll never mention the Lord or speak His name, ' if I tell myself, 'I’m done; I’m not doing this anymore. You misled me, ' or speak His name, His word burns in my heart like fire, it’s like a fire in my bones. I am worn out trying to hold it in; I can’t do it.» Has anyone here ever tried to walk away from God? Like, «You misled me,» so you just say, «I’m done.» Have you ever tried it? It’s like you can’t stop thinking about Him; He keeps crossing your mind over and over again. You can’t, because it’s like this burning fire.
And that’s why you’re here today. I want you to repeat to yourself over and over again, even during the darkest seasons, when your hand is in the drain pulling out trash that’s falling all over you, and other people seem to be doing really, really well. I want you to just say to yourself, «God, I believe You. I believe You. I believe You. I believe You.» You cancel out those thoughts. Say that with me three times real loud: One, two, three: «God, I believe You.» Everybody, this time: One, two, three. Why don’t you let this song echo the theme of today’s message? I believe it’ll bless you. Take a listen to this.
Let’s all go ahead and stand up if you would. I want you to know that there’s an acronym: H.A.L.T.- Hurt, Angry, Lonely, or Tired. Hurt, Angry, Lonely, or Tired. If you’re hurt, don’t trust your emotions. If you’re angry, don’t trust your emotions. If you’re lonely or tired, don’t trust your emotions. H.A.L.T.-Hurt, Angry, Lonely, or Tired. It’s during these times that you have to know your emotions are lying to you. And you just say, «God, I believe You. I believe in You. I believe in You. I believe in You.»
Some of you are in this room, and you feel this wrestling match because your spirit is resonating with the message this morning, but you know that if your heart were to stop beating in the next five minutes, you’re not ready to see God. The Bible says that to be absent from the body is to be present with Christ. The moment you take that last breath, you’re looking at Jesus face to face. If your heart were to stop beating, you’re not ready for that. And if that’s you, you’re the most important person in this room. And so when we pray together in a moment, I want you to just tell the Lord, «From this moment forward, I will serve You.»
Everyone here, just bow your head and whisper to the Lord something from your heart. And you can just say, «I love You,» over and over again. You could just say, «I believe in You,» over and over again. But it doesn’t need to be loud; in fact, it’s probably better if you’re quiet. I don’t want anyone around you to hear your prayer; I just want you to whisper it. But tell the Lord something. There’s not going to be any official dismissal, but if you could just close us with some kind of song. No official dismissal. You can leave whenever you get ready, but let’s sing this song one time through before anyone goes. May the Lord bless you, may He keep you, may His face shine down upon you and be gracious to you. May His countenance be lifted upon you and bring you peace, in Jesus' name. Amen.