Lessons Learned From The Eastern Shore

It's really good to be back home and hearing the mayhem next door. I know I'm in the right place. Is that the middle schoolers? That's great. When you're in the Holy Land, one of the things that you're just aware of is that peace is so fragile. Here, we enjoy that liberty. That's such a neat thing. I want to say, looking around at this small crowd that comes on Wednesday nights, and folks who are newer may think, well, we don't work. If this is good, where is everybody? My answer to that is a couplefold. North Way, over the last years, has been purposefully transitioning to an increased commitment to the small group as the place where discipleship and change really happens. That's no revelation. If you've been with us, we've been doing that for 15 years. We have tended to do it in seasons of intensity. In August of 1995, God really broke my heart with the reality that too many people were not getting connected. Since that time, we've been really pouring energy into helping folks find those groups and get into them. We're developing, as most of you know, a very high commitment level cell ministry, which I think is going to change our church over the next couple of years dramatically. As a consequence, lots of folks have one or two nights of commitment that they're already locked into. In our culture, where choice abounds, one of the things some folks just choose to do is to invest in that rather than the Wednesday night. We understand that. I have told people, and will tell this group, if it's either or, it's more important, as far as I'm concerned, to be in that cell group or in that small group on a weekly basis. Because you need to be in fellowship where you're encountering the place of change. It can happen here as well, but the corporate meetings are more a time of inspiration and hopefully a little bit of revelation, but not so much a time of face-to-face working it out. That's where a lot of people are. We're also tonight up in the offices. There's another 30 or 40 people in our new discovery groups, and they're plugging into the church, and the Lord is using that new format very effectively. There are different things, but my heart is going to be this, that Wednesday nights will continue to be something that we're going to do, because it is such a vital time. It's such a wonderful time. As long as some of you are here and come with open hearts, I don't mind doing it. I know Susie and all the other pastoral staff want to serve you in that way, if it's something you continue to feel is important in your week. I want to invite one person tonight to share her perspective of her trip overseas. That will set the way for my really brief teaching tonight. Then we're going to have a good half hour of ministry time, kind of picking up where I understood we left off last week. I've asked Gene Yannickus to help lead some ministry time here as we go through the evening. By the way, if you're a visitor tonight, I see some faces I don't know. That doesn't mean you're a visitor. You could have been here four or five weeks, and I've just not seen you. But if you're a visitor, we're glad you're here. Wednesday nights is really just a family time, and I hope that some of the folks around you will make you feel welcome and answer any of your questions. After the service, you're all invited to Missy McCabe's house for a complete dinner. Donna, would you please come up? This is Donna Geertzahler. She came with us on the trip. I'll let her share, then I'm going to share something about her. I'll go first. Most of you probably heard me say on Sunday, we had folks in the entire spectrum of health, spiritual maturity, and age. We had one lady who was 84, and Donna was one of the younger women that was on the trip. It was such a blessing from early on to see Donna, without being assigned to do so, come alongside of our most senior citizen and help her up and down. I'll tell you folks, there were times when it was a real assignment. It would have been easy for Donna just to take off and get extra looks at things and linger a little longer at things and be in it for herself, but she really was an example, and I just want to commend you for serving our people that way. It was a real blessing. What did the Lord say to you on the trip? Wow, that was not expected, so I'm going to take him back. Thank you, Jay. The one word people have asked me since I've been back, what's the one thing, the one thing that you would say really stood out, and there isn't one thing. There is just so many things that I'm sure I could talk for hours up here, but the one word that we learned is Yofi, and Yofi in Hebrew means awesome, and that's the only word that comes even close to the 11 days that I got to spend with the 35 people from this church, and of all the things I was thinking of this afternoon after Susie called me and asked me to do this, I thought what's something I could share, and probably the first thing that really impacted me a lot was the feeling of being at ease and at home in Israel. It wasn't like we were, yeah, we were halfway around the world, but it just felt so comfortable to be there and to actually visually see the things that I had been reading about for years in Scripture just really was kind of mind-boggling to me. But the one day, I think it was our third day, we were in Tiberias right on the Sea of Galilee, and our hotel was absolutely gorgeous, and just looking out over the sea, and we got to take one of the boats out into the sea, and we were about halfway out there, and our tour guide, who was marvelous, was pointing out all the different places where Jesus was and taught and did his miracles, and the captain of the boat turned the engine off, and there was such silence out in the middle of the sea that it was just so peaceful out there, and Jay had given us a small devotional at that time about Jesus calling Peter out of the boat and how he began to sink, and I thought, gee, if I stepped out of this boat, I would be gone in a flash, and I thought, isn't that just how our walk with the Lord sometimes is? We start to fade away, and we don't realize how slow it's fading away because we're taking our eyes off of Jesus. But as Jay finished his talk to us and the motor started, we were thankful for that, and took us back to the next port, just this cloudburst came up, and it just started pouring, and the boat did have a roof on it, praise God, and we all huddled in the middle to stay dry, and by the time we got to our port, it was to a very light drizzle, and I thought, isn't it again just like God to show us how quickly the storm would come up on the Sea of Galilee as we have read in Scripture? So that is just one thing that I just thought, I'm a very visual person, show me what you want, and I'll be able to do it. So all the pictures that I have, I'll have for a lifetime, and I know Jay and I think Susie and Mac are planning on doing another trip maybe in two, two and a half years or so, and all I can say, it was an awesome time for me and a life-changing experience for me. Jay also said when we got baptized in the Jordan, he said that it was just a life experience, a faith experience, and I think that sums up the 11 days, because it was really a faith experience for me. So I am blessed, and I can just only exhort you to think about going in another two years or whenever the next trip is, because the experience far outweighs the cost. Great, thank you. If you're a long-range planner and willing to go out a little bit on a limb, May of 98, which is not really that far, a year and a half, May of 98 is when we'd like to think about going again. So much can change that may, who knows, but that seems like a good time for our schedule. By the way, a number of you asked me how I did with my physical deal on my back, and I have to tell you, I don't know if it was the ground or what it was, but I did really great. I had virtually no problem, other than it just got worn out like everyone else. I've had more back pain since I've been back here. Walking, actually sitting has been bothering me. But I would ask you to pray for Paul Moduleski. Paul is the guy with ALS. The troop was very hard on him. He went over with some breathing problems and came back and they had worsened some, and so he has been in the hospital now for several days with a mild case of pneumonia, but in Paul's condition it's serious. He's doing better. I just visited him about 5 o'clock, but I know he'd appreciate your prayers. He'd love to be home. I trust one day, maybe next Wednesday, which, by the way, we're going to have a pretty complete presentation next Wednesday, hearing from several people, showing some video and some slides, hopefully, and then having some ministry time and prayer time around the trip experience, and hopefully Paul can share something of what God did in his life, which was quite moving. Now, I didn't ask Donna to talk about that particular experience, but if you'll turn to Mark 4, that's what I want to teach from in a very abbreviated fashion tonight, and then we'll look to see what the Lord wants to do in conclusion. It's a longer passage, so let me read it, and if you have a Bible, follow along. If not, just tune in, and if you're near someone that looks like they're hogging their Bible, slide over and say, this is church, you should share. Or if you're near someone and you've got four Bibles in a row and someone behind you has no Bible, tap them on the shoulder and say, share. Okay? All right. Mark 4, 35. That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, this is Jesus speaking, let us go over to the other side. Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat, and there were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, Teacher, don't you care if we drown? By the way, the Sea of Galilee is estimated to be about 150 feet deep. It's only 8 miles wide and 15 miles long, but it's pretty deep. It's not unlike Lake Tahoe. If you've been out west, it's sort of similar to that. He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the waves, Quiet, be still, or peace, be still. Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith? They were terrified and asked each other, Who is this? Even the wind and waves obey him. They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an evil spirit came from the tombs to meet him. This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. This was one extremely possessed individual. If you would see the artifacts of the iron of that day, it was primitive and very, very heavy. To be able to do this is an incredible feat. I'd have to say a supernatural strength. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills, he would cry out and cut himself with stones. When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. He shouted at the top of his voice, What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Swear to God that you won't torture me. For Jesus had said to him, Come out of this man, you evil spirit. Then Jesus asked him, What is your name? My name is Legion, he replied, for we are many. And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area. I'm going to come to why that's important in a moment. A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. The demons begged Jesus, Send us among the pigs, allow us to go into them. He gave them permission and the evil spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about 2,000 in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned. Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons sitting there dressed and in his right mind and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man and told about the pigs as well. Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region. As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged him to go with him. Jesus did not let him, but said, Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you. So the man went away and began to tell the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him and all the people were amazed. I learned something on this trip that I hope will be helpful to us tonight as we move into a little season of ministry. Let's begin with this little map that I wanted to present. We'll need a screen to come down if John is ever up there. You hear so much about the Sea of Galilee or the Lake of Gennesaret, which is what it's called. By the way, Gennesaret in Hebrew is the word for harp and that's why it's called the Lake of Gennesaret. As you can see, it's like a harp. I don't have my little laser pointer, unfortunately, but you can see here where it says Galilee. That's the region of Galilee. Maybe you could point with a pen there. Could you do that, Nancy, to help us out? Look at the lake there. Point to the lake, to the right, to the right, and down a little bit there, that little blue spot. There you go. The pen is, you can see, near the town of Capernaum. Capernaum is a small little town, relatively speaking, to Jerusalem or even to Iberia. But Jesus apparently hung out there quite a bit. It's a beautiful region, by the way. It's probably the greenest part, one of the greenest parts of the whole nation. The climate there is a little more warm and moderate than it is anywhere else, which is really beautiful. But we know, because of a number of references in the Gospels, that's where Jesus hung out, and that's where he did a lot of his teaching. The Mount of Beatitudes and so on is there. That entire region around Capernaum to the western bank, where we're going to keep focusing up above there, Nancy, is all Jewish settlers and Israelites. To the right, or the eastern shore, where you see Gergesa, do you see that? Can you point to that? That's the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. The sea coming down here, this is the River Jordan right here. The River Jordan, now you can lift it up. You can lift up the whole map. It flows down, down, keep going, down into the Dead Sea. And that's what creates the boundary. On the left is Israel, modern-day Israel. On the right, you can see, are some of the other nations. Now slide it back up, please, to the sea. Now what we know is that Jesus hung out on the north and western shores a whole lot, but only once do we hear of him climbing in the boat and going to the eastern shore. And if you look at this passage again, let's take a look back here at Scripture. We can just leave that overhead off. Jesus had been teaching, he'd been ministering, and it says, look at verse 35, that day when evening came. Now, friends, it was not common to go out on the sea at night. In fact, what did most fishermen do? Yeah, they go to bed early and get up early so they can do their best fishing in the morning. So this whole thing seems kind of really upside down. And here's what I want you to get. When Jesus said, hey guys, let's get in the boat and go over to the other side, in their minds they're thinking, well, wait a minute now, Master. On the other side, that's where the pagans are. That's where the people who don't have a clue about you are. Why in the world would you want to go over there? Because not only were they pagans, but they were fearsome people. In fact, it was known to the Jews that these were Baal worshippers, and Baal was the god of nature. And it was known to the disciples that these people were the enemies of the Israelites and many times would attack them, slipping around the north shore and attacking and so on. And so there was a lot of confrontation going on. So in their minds, you've got to get this picture now, because this is going to come right down to where you live when I'm done here. Jesus is calling these disciples to go on a little journey across the lake at the wrong time of day to the very worst possible region imaginable to them. Normally, if they went anywhere, they went west into Galilee, you can see Nazareth, and if you kept going over down here, that's where Jerusalem is. So they're thinking, what are you doing this for? But, being good disciples, they said, well, you know, wherever he's going, we're going. So they get in the boat, and what happens halfway across the lake? All right, now follow what I said before. Who is Baal? The God of nature, and more specifically, the God who expressed himself in thunder and lightning, and this furious squall comes up. What do you think the disciples are thinking now? Uh-oh. We've made Baal pretty mad, and he is causing big-time trouble. Now, you wouldn't know this if you didn't fully understand the context, which, I have to admit, I didn't fully understand it before this trip. So here's, notice, there's a little flotilla of boats. Okay, verse 36 says there's a bunch of them going together, and this squall comes up, and I don't know how it could be on this relatively small body of water, but apparently he was so furious that the waves were pounding over these boats. They weren't big vessels by any means, and the disciples literally thought that Baal had stepped out of his region and was bringing all havoc down, and they were going to die, and not a real good scene going on right there. So Jesus steps up, and early on, and here's what I want you to get, demonstrates his lordship over the authority of the pagan gods. Look what Jesus says. He's got up, rebuked the wind, and said to the waves, quiet, be still. Wow. A little question here. How many of you have ever talked to the weather? I've talked to the weather man. Well, it's biblical. It's biblical from time to time when you sense that for some, not necessarily convenience, but if danger is striking because of weather. I have more than one time on airplanes rebuked certain forces, and sometimes even driving. We were coming back. Was it... Help me out, a couple of guys, bud. I'm not sure. We were on a retreat, coming back on the turnpike, and we got into one of those whiteouts. We were going about 70 miles around the turnpike, and all of a sudden, I mean literally all of a sudden, nothing but white. I mean, it was like looking at that screen. And I remember thinking, this is not good, because if somebody stopped, we were going to be killed. I mean, it was that bad. And I can promise you, everybody in those vehicles was at one time rebuking the snow and the weather. So it's a biblical thing to do. But look what happens. Bells ticked off. Jesus rebukes him. So initially, he wins the first battle. At that point now, they're really intrigued. Wow, who is this dude? That even the wind and the seas obey him. He lands on the shore, and this demon-possessed man, and when you drive... Let's put that mat back up, please, Nancy. When you get on that side, there's not really a cliff, but really just a few hundred yards from the shore, there's a pretty high hillside, and you can see some caves and places where a person like this, tombs are oftentimes in caves, was dwelling. And so he came down, and when the boats arrived, he confronted Jesus, and obviously from this, it wasn't him, but the demonic presence in him, the spiritual presence, that began to confront Christ and say, What do you want with me? Look at verse 7. What are you doing with me? This was serious stuff, and Jesus apparently, if I might... Are you reading this with me? Notice that they had a dialogue, and so apparently, Jesus had come out of him, but the demons didn't do it right away. How many of you saw that? Did you catch that? Where am I getting it? Well, because it says here, What do you want with me, Jesus, in the most high God? Swear to God that you won't torture me, for Jesus had said to him, Come out of this man, you evil spirit. So they're saying, Wait, can we make a deal? Now, why in the world would Jesus make a deal with demons? The only thing I can figure is this. One of the things that the Baal worshipers did was to sacrifice pigs. We read about it in other places in the Bible. Pigs were sacrificed to Baal. And by the way, another word for Baal is Beelzebub. And what is Beelzebub identified as? Satan. So, these Baal worshipers, some of those pigs were going to be sacrificed to their God. Which, by the way, do you also see again how horrific this was in the eyes of the Jews, who thought pigs, of course, according to the law, were totally unclean and inappropriate. You'd never sacrifice a pig to the Most High God. So everything about these Baal worshipers was anathema to the Jews. All I can figure is this. Jesus waited, knowing that these demons were going to want someplace to go. And here's this herd of pigs that would be fodder for Baal. But rather than have them be sacrificed to Baal, Jesus said, Well, okay, go ahead. And so the demons, and I don't know how you picture this, I guess Hollywood would do a great job, seeing all these demons climb into these pigs. And the guide showed us where they could have easily herded themselves down over this cliff and down into the water and drowned themselves. Now, in so doing, what did Jesus do? Well, let me give you three things. This is a powerful story. Here's the application, and I'm done. First thing I want us to see in this is if you're a believer in Jesus, number one, go where the action is. Don't always stay in Capernaum or the western shore. Sometimes, friends, you've got to go right into the face of the worst of it. How many of you like to do that? A brave few. I've got to say, most of us would rather play it safe. I read in this, there was no reason other than Jesus wanted to demonstrate his lordship. He went where the action was. In a few moments, when we go to minister, there may be parts of your life that you don't want to deal with. They're the eastern shore of your life. It's not where the Lord really hangs out much. It might be a dark place. It might be a place of bondage. It might be a place where you feel as imprisoned as that man. And that's why the song we selected tonight talked about freedom and getting set free. All of us, if our hearts are somewhat like the Sea of Galilee, we have places where the Lord is welcome and where he seems to dwell. And we've got some eastern shore of our hearts as well, friends. Tonight, I wanted to give opportunity for the Lord to go where the action is and to confront some of that. Now, it may not be in your heart tonight in a specific way, but maybe it's something in your household. Maybe it's something where you work. Maybe it's something in the place where you serve in ministry. Maybe it's something in your neighborhood. But we all have eastern shores where we just kind of don't want to go there because the forces seem so strong. But the second thing is Jesus demonstrates that he's Lord over all. And all I can say when he stands up and rebukes that wind and basically says, okay, Baal, God of thunder and lightning, peace be still. What a powerful thing. And then when he says to the demons, hey, go into the pigs. Let's take this worship offerings and dive them on into the sea. I mean, you've got to see the reaction on the faces of these disciples. They're in enemy territory and Jesus has now totally messed with the most sacred thing of these pagan worshipers. And you can see what their reaction was. Instead of bowing the knee to him, what did they do? What did they say to Jesus? Would you please leave our territory? You're messing up our idol worship here. We're not appreciative. We really would like you to just leave us alone. Get out. But the truth of the matter was I think that they were so overwhelmed by what they saw they just had no category for it. And the third thing that this teaches me is believe Jesus for total victory. In that dark region, we are tempted to just kind of accommodate, to accommodate areas of compromise or hurt or disappointment. And friends, I read this story tonight and I say, you know what? Jesus goes right to where the action is. He is the lordship guarantees that along the way if there's confrontation, he will prevail. And if you believe for total victory, there will come a time when everything that holds you, that binds you, that brings fear into life can be broken off and you'll be set free. This was, if you will, this story is really a picture of the eternal battle between God and Satan, between good and evil. It's a picture, a microcosm of really an eternal struggle that God will prevail upon. But you'd never get that just reading it. You have to really understand just how significant, let's go back to that map please, how significant that simple decision to get in the boat and go to the other side. You read that, no big deal, but what you have to understand is that's the Lord saying to you and to me tonight, I want to get in and go to the other side of your heart. I want to touch in you whatever you feel today maybe isn't surrender, maybe is a point of conflict and I want to set you free. Let's stand together and I'm just going to say, Lord, it's time for us to meet you and let's do that together. Jean, would you come on up please? Let's ask for the Holy Spirit to come and anoint us with his presence. We're going to sing Jesus the Holy and Anointed One and then we're going to wait on the Lord for a few moments and I'm going to invite you, in fact, in just a moment, let's just quietly as we sing this chorus and then some of us perhaps want to come forward, but let's just ask the Lord right now according to his word to begin to touch our lives, to come across the sea of our heart and to confront whatever we want to set free in our lives tonight. Sing it. Jesus Jesus Lord Jesus Jesus Please exalt your spirit Your word is alive unto my feet Jesus, I love you Jesus Holy and Anointed One Jesus Let's just wait upon the Lord, Jean. You know, as we were sitting there and it's so true, there are so many things in our heart that we've never dealt with and you know, they're not demons that come into our lives, but they're strongholds and because we don't know how to deal with the strongholds and a stronghold is an area in your life where you're constantly being bombarded with certain thoughts. The one thing that those demons, what they did is when they came upon the pigs, they drove them. It was a compelling force. Now we're cleansed by the blood of Christ, but our thought life is where the enemy begins to really bombard us. He doesn't come inside, but he bombards us and he bombards us. Until it becomes a point of weakness and at that point of weakness, it becomes a power base and with that power base is when the enemy then begins to bring in his thoughts to cause you to go into a different direction and the Lord is saying to you tonight, we need to get rid of some of the strongholds, some of those roots of bitterness, some of those areas where we have not exposed them to the light and as long as there's darkness there, then that's what the devil feeds on and he keeps sending the thoughts and that's what becomes then a power base. Then it becomes an action. Then it becomes a deed and then all of a sudden, you've got a stronghold and you come to the place and you say, I don't understand. Why do I keep doing the same thing over and over and over again? Why do I have the same thoughts over and over and over again? And as the Lord has spoken through that word tonight, let's go over into the other side. Let's go into those dark areas and at that time, no one went there. No one went there. You know, they would try but when they saw how evil and how hard it was to deal, they didn't want to deal so they left them alone and it was almost like two separate entities and that's somehow, sometimes, the way that we become. We have one facade, one way, but deep down inside, there are areas that we've never brought to the light and that's what the Lord wants to do tonight is to allow you to come forward and expose that which is binding you so that you would expose it to the light and you'd be free. Does anyone relate to that tonight? Does anyone relate? That's what the Lord wants you to do tonight. Come forward. Let's deal with those dark areas. Let's get free tonight. In the name of Jesus, come forward. Can we sing it again? And then you come forward. Come forward. Jesus Let's get free in the Lord tonight. Jesus Holy Lord Jesus Jesus Jesus Your spirit Your word is alive Unto my feet Jesus I love Jesus Jesus Risen and exalted one Jesus Faithful, confidant I worship you Show of might My strong believer I lift you up Faithful blood Faithful blood Most sufficient blood I worship you Show of strength I lift you up Faithful Faithful blood Faithful I worship you My strong believer I lift you up Shalom, my peace Shalom, my peace My strong believer Faithful More shalom, my peace Shalom Strong believer I lift you up Faithful His name is exalted Far above the earth His name is high Above the heavens His name is exalted Far above the earth Give glory and honor And praise unto his name No one but the name His name is exalted His name is Give glory Over every life The place that he would bring it to He set himself up as a stronghold In the name of Jesus We speak the name of Jesus Over all those In the name of Jesus Our Lord, our Savior, our Master Our Deliverer Amen But the name of Jesus, oh the name, but the name, you are, you are my, you are my, my, my, for you, you are my, you are, you are my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my some of you I sense have been fighting a battle that's been going on for a while maybe you might be here and say you know I've asked the Lord to go on the other side of my lake and the battles raging and I know what that's like and there are times we're tempted to give up but there's a promise I want to end with tonight and it says when I am weak then and you know I I'm discovering the farther I go on in my Christian walk the more the Lord undoes before he does I wish it wasn't that way I wish I was a quick learner but I'm a slow learner I have a disability spiritually it seems sometimes and God just has to do it the hard way maybe that's true for you as well but he promises when your strength about God that's when he's strong so let's sing this together this course his strength is perfect when our strength is gone and if you're battling tonight just sing this as your promise your faith declaration and let's join hands as we sing his strength is perfect when our strength is gone he'll carry us he'll carry us when he can carry us when he can with his power with his power he'll be he'll be our he'll be our star his strength is perfect his strength his strength is perfect when our strength is gone when we can't carry on raising his power becomes strong his strength is perfect his strength that in your gentle love and in your perfect strength you will complete the work that you've begun thank you Lord that you have ordained for us to be holy and that you won't stop the work until we are holy totally renewed redeemed in the image of Jesus Lord whatever it is we hand it to you now and I thank you Lord as we close that the hands that were joined to you now remind us that we don't do this journey ourselves it's not all about just me Lord it's about us it's about be