When Deliverance Looks Impossible.

As we've been reading through Isaiah and the Gospel of Mark leading up to Easter for Lent, you can find this on our website under resources. We have a whole Lent guide with fasting practices, prayer prompts, and reading plans. But this week we had quite the chunk of scripture.

We were reading through Isaiah chapter 37, all the way to 45. I had a long drive this week, so I was listening to it, and I think it took me over an hour. It was a good chunk of scripture, but there's so much in there. So we're going to be flipping around quite a bit today.

If you have your Bibles, you can pull them open. Some of the text will be on the screen. By a show of hands, who here is from the South, or has lived in the South? Okay, we've got a few of you here. I am definitely not from the South.

I learned that this week. I drove to Nashville. One of my little cousins was singing at the Grand Ole Opry for her show choir competition, and they won. It was super fun. But as I was driving there, I realized just how not from the South I am.

Everyone drives so polite in the South. Slow. And I'm sitting there thinking, what is wrong with me? All of this stuff was coming up where I'm tailing people. But I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, driving around the city where if you're not going ninety in a fifty-five, you're living wrong.

Anyone else? I know some of you are from that part, or you're from cities. Now, I'm not proud. I know it's illegal. So, Lord, I'm confessing my sin in front of all of these people right here.

But there's something that came up in me. And it's funny, because I've been having so many of these moments as we're preaching through Isaiah, where the things I'm teaching on, and the practices we're fasting through together, it feels like the Lord is teaching me extra in preparation. This isn't fair. Our fasting practice this week was to fast from hurry and just slow down.

And here I am, wondering if anyone is going to move over. I was passing people from the right lane. It was so bad. But these things come up in us where we realize, why do I want to hurry?

Why do I want to drive faster? Because I want to get where I need to go. And sometimes in doing that, when we're not careful to slow down, we miss where God is working and moving right in our midst. Today we're talking about what it looks like when we find ourselves in situations where deliverance seems impossible. We're looking at the people in Isaiah, at what was happening with the Assyrians, an impossible situation, and how they had to choose to slow down, to see God, to trust God, to seek God, and to surrender to God, rather than taking things into their own hands and trying to bypass every car so they could take fifteen minutes off the GPS time. No one was hurt or injured in the process of me making it home on time, just so we're clear. But today we're talking about what is happening for the people of Israel, the people of Judah.

I want to give us a little background before we dive deeper, because we've been talking a lot about the Assyrians, and whenever we pick up in scripture, it can be confusing. The Bible is a wild book with all these things happening, so we always want to make sure we know what we're stepping into when we're reading these scriptures. Assyria was the dominant power, the first ancient superpower empire, coming in very dominantly. Their capital cities were Nineveh and Nimrud, which we'll hear about in scripture and other places.

What made them so terrifying to everybody around them is that they had the most highly trained military power. So when we say they're surrounded by Assyria and this military power is coming up against them, this is no joke. This isn't, oh, but we have a strong army too. No, they were far more advanced than anyone else, and they didn't just win battles, they brutally dominated them. It was not only physical warfare that we see historically with the Assyrian empire, but psychological warfare too, and we're going to see that.

We're going to see this back and forth of taunting coming from their leaders and rulers. They would publicly display their captives. They would spread stories of brutality. They would send messages mocking the Lord and any other god.

They were nasty. They knew how to attack, not just physically, but psychologically. They destroyed cities. They exiled populations. So when the people here in Isaiah say we're a little scared, that's very warranted. It's not because they've heard rumors, but because they have seen what happens to people when Assyria surrounds them. Here's what we're going to see: this is taking place before Facebook comment sections, before Reddit, before all the different group chats you can be in going back and forth. We're going to read a series of conversations between this empire and King Hezekiah, with Isaiah in the mix.

I want to start by reading Isaiah 36, which is technically last week's reading, but I want us to pick it up. Verse one: in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah's reign, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.

We skip down to verse four.

This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: on what are you basing this confidence of yours? You say you have strategy and military strength for war, but you speak only empty words. On whom are you depending, that you rebel against me? Look now, you are depending on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which pierces the hand of anyone who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who depend on him. And if you say to me, we are depending on the Lord our God, isn't he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, you must worship before this altar?

Isaiah 36:1,4-7

So he's continuing to taunt them. We're going to skip to verse sixteen.

Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: make peace with me and come out to me. Then each of you will eat fruit from your own vine and fig tree, and drink water from your own cistern, until I come and take you to a land like your own, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, the Lord will deliver us. Have the gods of any nations ever delivered their lands from the hand of the king of Assyria?

Isaiah 36:16-18

Again, when we look at what's happening here, this is rooted in him saying, have you seen anyone delivered from the hand of Assyria? At this point the answer was no, no one has been delivered. And so he's coming at them with this fact, trying to get them rooted in that, rather than the impossible things God can do. So the first thing we're going to talk about is that deliverance is dependent on God.

But let's pray over the scripture one more time. God, we thank you for your word that is alive, that is active. God, we thank you that even as we read these stories of words spoken to people long ago, you are speaking to us through it. So God, would you help this text come to life? The pieces that are confusing, would you make sense of them? The questions that we have, would we just find you, find closeness with you, in the midst of our questions? God, I just pray that you would draw us closer to you and your heart, to who you are and your love for us. We ask this in your name. Amen.

Deliverance is dependent on God

So we are seeing here, our first point today, is that deliverance is dependent on God. Jerusalem is surrounded. Assyria, the most powerful empire in the world, has already conquered city after city. Here's Hezekiah's response, in chapter thirty-seven.

When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the Lord. He sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. They told him, this is what Hezekiah says: this day is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the moment of birth and there is no strength to deliver them. It may be that the Lord your God will hear the words of the field commander, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to ridicule the living God, and that he will rebuke him for the words the Lord your God has heard. Therefore pray for the remnant that still survives.

Isaiah 37:1-4

Hezekiah hears the words. He sends officials to Isaiah. Then Isaiah tells them to carry a message back.

Do not be afraid of what you have heard. Those words. Listen! I am going to put a spirit in him so that when he hears a certain report, [inaudible] the sword.

Isaiah 37:6-7, partial

So there's many things happening here, but I want to talk first about Hezekiah's response when he hears the reports. What is his response? He slows down and goes to the temple with sackcloth and ashes, and he prays. What were these sackcloth and ashes that we're reading about? This is another one of those moments where the Bible gets so cool when we look at what the people hearing this for the first time would have known. We read it and think, what does that mean? Maybe I've heard it, maybe I haven't.

Wearing sackcloth was this rough, uncomfortable fabric. It was not something anyone would want to wear. It was not the prized possession you'd put on to look your best. It was usually made from goat's hair: rough, coarse, intentionally uncomfortable. And ashes were often put on the body as a sign of humility, a reminder that at some point I'm going to die. So it's humility before God. He's coming before God humbly, saying, here I am in sackcloth and ashes. It's a sign of repentance and turning back to God. When people went to the temple with sackcloth and ashes, from dust you came, to dust you will return. It was a sign of repentance and humbly standing before the Lord.

It was also a sign of grief and desperation. It was a way of saying, I have done everything I possibly can, and there's nothing else to do. So I'm going to come before you in desperation, and I'm not going to hide my pain. I'm not going to deny the real, raw feelings and emotions of what's happening, but I am going to say, God, here I am in my grief, here I am in my suffering. If you do not intervene, we will die. This was mourning. This was a form of lament, deep distress. It was also a sign of public dependence on God.

You would go to the temple. You would mourn publicly. You would lament publicly. You would pray and repent publicly. This wasn't a thing where you quietly pray a prayer of repentance in the background and nobody sees. You would publicly show, God, I am turning to you completely. I am trusting you completely. I'm depending on you completely, nothing else. Here I am, visible for everyone to see.

That's what's happening here. He was displaying to the community that this feels impossible and we need God to intervene. Then a letter was sent to Hezekiah, mocking, taunting, very defiant. But this wasn't just against Judah. It was against God.

Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord, and Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: God, almighty God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Give ear, Lord, and hear. Open your eyes, Lord, and see. Listen to all the words that the king has sent to insult the living God.

Isaiah 37:14-17

I love this. I wrote in my notes, he's so concerned about how people are viewing God. Think about the role he's in as king. He could have prayed, God, don't let me let them down as a leader, give me the strength to make the right decisions. But instead his prayer is, God, my heart is grieved by what people are saying about you. This shows us the humility Hezekiah had, recognizing that he was not the king, but serving as king for the King of kings. He recognized that he was playing a role of surrender, a role of stewardship, a role of obedience to God, and he was grieved that people were talking about God that way.

Isaiah sends a message back to Hezekiah after this letter, saying, this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria. And I want to read the summary of what happens.

Concerning the king of Assyria: he will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here. He will not come before it with shield, or build a siege ramp against it. By the way that he came, he will return. He will not enter this city, declares the Lord.

Isaiah 37:33-34

This is a wild statement. We are talking about an empire that brutally destroyed and exiled people. Now Hezekiah is getting this letter from the prophet saying, he's not going to come near you, you're good. Think of the faith it takes to walk in that, to say, okay, this is what the Lord said, and his prophet is speaking on behalf of him to his people, and now we're just going to believe it. This is scary stuff to pray to be delivered from.

The angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies.

Isaiah 37:36

I want to talk about this for a second, because one of the things about reading the Bible is that we have other historical texts that we don't necessarily consider God-inspired, but that give us more understanding. The letters of Josephus, and another Roman historian I should have put in my notes, both talk about different ideas of how everybody was killed, but it's historically documented that a hundred and eighty-five thousand men of the Assyrian army were killed, according to multiple sources. One says their weapons were destroyed, another says they were eaten by mice, there are all sorts of theories, but the one thing that keeps coming back, no matter what it was, is that they were done. They were gone. This is a wild thing that we can just read over, but a hundred and eighty-five thousand of the most powerful military, destroyed. Then it talks about the king.

One day, while the king was worshiping in the temple, his sons came and cut him down with the sword.

Isaiah 37:38

Isaiah told him this was going to happen, and now it's happening by his own sons. His son succeeded him as king. All of these things are happening. But I want to go back to when Hezekiah gets this letter. He hears the rumors, dresses in sackcloth and ashes. Then he gets the letter, reads it, and what does he do? He goes and spreads it out before the Lord.

I love what this shows us about Hezekiah as a leader. All of us have people watching us, whether we recognize it or not, watching how we live and who we live for. We are demonstrating the love of Jesus in everything we do. You might not relate to being king of some city or nation, but you can relate to the places you find yourself in desperation, where you need deliverance, where you're saying, God, I don't know what to do with this. He lays it out and says, here it is. He is physically displaying his dependence on God in this moment. He doesn't fight. He doesn't strategize. He slows down and goes to the temple.

I'm going to be honest. If someone said, everyone in this room is about to be attacked, it would be hard to just say, let's pause, let's lay out our fears, let's take a moment. I'd be like, let's fight, let's go. This is a big deal, what he's demonstrating here. It shows that he is depending fully on God for deliverance. Last week we talked about how we grow dependence, and we need to grow it so that when moments like this come, we know how to rely fully on God for deliverance and nothing else.

Deliverance begins when we stop trying to control, when we recognize that our job is not to fix it or strategize, but to surrender, to bring it to God, and trust that the Holy Spirit will give us the strategy we need. I love that in the beginning of chapter thirty-seven, when Isaiah writes back to him, it reads almost like a comment section going back and forth. He says, this happened because you prayed. The king of Assyria died while worshiping another god. What a display. There will be no other gods. He was cut down with the sword, just as Isaiah said.

But here's what I want us to note: it wasn't until later, around 612 BC, that Assyria finally fell once and for all. Assyria did not fall once and for all in this moment. God delivered the people in this moment and delayed what was going to happen. Eventually he delivered them from Assyria completely. Some of us today are in situations where we want it completely done, completely gone, and we're living in this moment of the now and the not yet, recognizing there are things God is going to completely deliver us from in the snap of a finger. I've seen it, I believe it. We're going to look in a minute at the Gospels, where Jesus came and fulfilled that, where he spoke and people were healed, he touched them, and miracles broke out left and right. God can deliver in a moment, but sometimes the deliverance is a delay.

Deliverance shows us who God is

And this is where we have to continue to grow our dependence and come back to the promises of God, to remind ourselves that even if it's not an instant deliverance, we have hope that Jesus is going to deliver us once and for all. The people here didn't know who Jesus was yet. They hadn't seen the Messiah, but we are living on the other side of his death and resurrection. So we can claim that hope over our situations. We can say, God, we know you have the power to defeat death, so surely you can deliver me from this situation. But I want us to pause and recognize that sometimes the deliverance is the delay. If you find yourself in a moment where it's a delay, and you're still saying, it's not complete, lean into the grief, lean into the longing for Jesus, lean into the waiting, even when it feels exhausting, and trust that God's presence is going to meet you there. Sometimes God delivers us immediately, and other times it's eventually, but we know it's coming.

The final thing here: deliverance shows us who God is. These are the moments in the delay when we have to lean into who God is. This is where Isaiah 40 to 45 starts to show us hope. Up until this point it's like you are defeated, you are destroyed, it's brutal, and you're asking, God, what are you doing? Then we get to this part and we start to see the hope.

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. A voice of one calling: in the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low, the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together.

Isaiah 40:1-5

Verse four is always one of my favorites, where he's going to make it level. Jesus says the road is narrow, but Jesus came to make it level for us, so that it's possible for everyone to come and walk in the fullness of who Jesus is. I love that it's all people, not a select few, not a chosen few, but all people will come and experience the glory of God.

So do not fear, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. All who rage against you will surely be ashamed and disgraced. Those who oppose you will be as nothing and perish.

Isaiah 41:10-11

A little further in that same section, verse fifteen says, see, I will make you into a threshing sledge, and we talked about this last week, the power of the threshing. There are so many promises in Isaiah that God gives us to remind us, to strengthen us, that if we're seeking deliverance, if it's delayed, if we're not seeing it immediately and we're in that waiting, if we're getting the letters, if we're hearing the rumors of what's to come, our response can be to continue to seek God, to name what's happening, to come with repentance and humility and acknowledge our humanity: God, I can't do it on my own, so would you remove every idol, every way I've been trying to do it on my own, would you remove it in Jesus's name, so that I can continue to trust you as the one who delivers, not any empire, not any of my military strength or skills that I've trusted in the past.

How do I trust you, Jesus? Here's the thing I want us to catch today: our deliverance is never just about us, but it's so we can continue to be the people who prepare the way, who level the ground for those who need a little help coming closer to Jesus, who remove everything standing in the way so the people around us can see the purity of who God is through the way we show up, serve, and love.

Deliverance is personal

The final thing I want to talk about today is that deliverance is personal.

Do not fear, for I have redeemed you. I have summoned you by name. You are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.

Isaiah 43:1-2

The Lord is with us. He is with us as we wait for deliverance, as we pray for deliverance. I want to read briefly in Mark chapter nine. The disciples are there, a large crowd around them, the teachers of the law arguing. Jesus asks, what are you arguing about?

A man in the crowd answered, teacher, I brought my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not. You unbelieving generation, Jesus replied, how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.

Mark 9:17-19

I always love these moments of humanity with Jesus, where he's like, come on, guys, we've been over this. What's happening? He asks, how long has he been like this? And the father says, since childhood.

But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us. If you can, everything is possible for one who believes, Jesus replied. Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, I do believe, help me overcome my unbelief.

Mark 9:22-24

This is a raw, honest conversation with Jesus, showing us the invitation we have to come before the Lord honestly and humbly, laying down our pride to say, God, will you help me overcome my unbelief, overcome my doubts, overcome my questions. We can bring these things to God. We don't have to pretend it's going to be on our own strength that we see deliverance and healing from the things we're struggling with. We don't have to pretend we have perfect faith or always have the answers or always feel like praying. We can say, God, I'm going to be honest, I don't even know why I'm here right now, I don't even know if I want to talk to you right now, but here I am, will you help me? This is where Jesus meets this man, meets this boy.

I command you, come out of him, and never enter him again.

Mark 9:25

He speaks to the spirit. The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently, and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that everyone said, he's dead. But Jesus took him by the hand, lifted him to his feet, and he stood up. I believe that even today, as we speak this word out, there are some of us here that Jesus wants to come alongside, and he's saying, here's my hand, will you take it? I want to personally lift you up, because who we see Jesus to be is someone who, yes, he was surrounded by crowds, but he always took time for the individual, to be personal, to say, I want to lift your hand, I want to see you healed, you delivered.

The father brings his son. The disciples try and fail, which shows us that sometimes we can try and fail. He says, if you can do anything, and Jesus says, well, yes, I can do anything, do you know who I am? He says, help my unbelief.

Closing invitation to prayer

I'm going to invite the worship team to come back up as we get ready to close today. Here's the truth of what we're reading: deliverance does not require perfect faith. Jesus cares more about you showing up in your honesty before him than about your perfect words, your perfect prayers. He would rather you come to him, pause, come in with sackcloth and ashes and surrender, than try to prove to him your well thought out strategy, even if it's based on the Bible and the best things you've learned. He wants you to come honestly before him.

In a few minutes we're going to go into a time of prayer and response, and Nathan and Abbie are going to be in the back to partner with you in prayer, because there's something so beautiful about not only being able to come before the Lord and say, help, here I am, will you lift my hand, but being part of a community in the body of Christ where we can go to somebody else and say, here I am, this is what I've got, will you grab my hand, will you help lift me up today. You can go to the back and say, this is what I need prayer for, or you can just say, I've got nothing, will you just pray.

I want to encourage you today to go and receive the gift of prayer and someone partnering with you in prayer. I want us to leave this room today with this hope: as hard as it can be to read this story about this old, ancient military power, it might be hard for us to connect to, but deliverance is possible. God didn't just deliver Jerusalem overnight, but we see later Jesus show up and deliver that boy in a moment.

For years, I've gone back to Isaiah 43 and 44, and there's a back and forth here I find fascinating.

Forget the former things, do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up, do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. The wild animals honor me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the wilderness, streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself, that they may proclaim my praise.

Isaiah 43:18-21

This is one we like to quote a lot because it's really hopeful and joyful. Then it gets interesting.

Yet you have not called on me, Jacob. You have not wearied yourselves for me, Israel. You have not brought me sheep for burnt offerings, nor honored me with your sacrifices.

Isaiah 43:22

Isaiah is proclaiming what the Lord is doing, and saying, but wait, let's pause. You have not come to me. You have not called on me. Then chapter forty-four starts.

Listen, Jacob. This is what the Lord says: he who made you, who formed you in the womb, and who will help you: do not be afraid, Jacob, my servant, whom I have chosen. For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground. I will pour out my spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. They will spring up like grass in a meadow.

Isaiah 44:1-4

We're pointing to who God is again in this moment. He's saying, hey, I'm doing these things, whether you called on me or not. Which is interesting, because in one sense Isaiah is saying this happened because you prayed, and sometimes God will answer things because we call on him and pray. And then there are other moments where he's saying, just so you know, this is happening around you, I'm going to make a way in the wasteland, you didn't call, but listen, this is happening. He will pour out his spirit, his water, on the thirsty, the streams, on the dry land, and they will spring up because of what he has done and is doing. We will be delivered not by our own might, our own power, our own strength, but because of who God is and what he's doing.

When I read this, my heart grieves, because I say, God, may it not be said of us that we do not call, that we do not see you and take time to pray and repent and surrender to you. Because you're doing all of these things. He is moving in our city, our workplaces, our neighborhoods. He is doing a new thing. Will we see it? Will we slow down and say, God, I want even more, I want you to deliver me from this sickness, I want you to deliver me from this addiction, I want to see the streams of living water flow through my life. So how do we slow down, how do we listen, because God is speaking.

Our so-what today is that God is the only one who can truly deliver us, and he's inviting us today to step into this moment of saying, stop striving, stop controlling, stop trying to rush, stop pretending you can fix what only he can heal. Only by his stripes are we healed. So the practice I want to invite us into today is to identify what we need deliverance from, to recognize that we get to read about what God was doing then and know that he's inviting us to be part of his story of redemption, of healing, of deliverance. Identify what needs deliverance in your life. Is it fear, is it addiction, is it control? What are those idols, those things you're looking to for strength to fulfill you that aren't Jesus? Then pray like Hezekiah. Part of our rule of life and our practices is that every day we pray the examen, which includes a moment of repentance, of saying, God, would you show me, would you create in me a pure heart, a clean heart, would you show me any ways I'm not living like Jesus, and would you help me surrender that and turn back to you. And then I want us to have that moment of confession, like the father in Mark 9, being vulnerable and honest enough to come before the Lord and say, this is what I need help with. Maybe I'm always spiraling with the strategies, I'm so stuck by this, I'm so caught up in this. Jesus is not afraid of the things you're about to say. He wants it, he welcomes it. And then we're going to close today by declaring the truth.

Isaiah continued to point them, when they're afraid, when they're worried, when they're overcome by their life, back to the truth of who this army and this military power really is up against. Let me remind you who God is, again and again. Because the people of Israel forgot all the time. The disciples forgot all the time. And God is saying, I'm going to remind you over and over again. I feel like the Holy Spirit wants to remind us again today. I'm going to invite you to stand, and I'm going to read some scriptures, and invite you to go to the back, receive prayer, spend time with the Lord, naming and praying for deliverance over the situations, maybe something personal, maybe something you see happening. Would you take a moment, if you're comfortable, and close your eyes, and begin to say, Holy Spirit, would you show me anything I need to name and surrender that I've been trying to deliver myself from. I want to give you this picture: God is not intimidated by the things that surround us, the things we are up against. And I want to remind you of who God is.

Do not fear, for I have redeemed you. I have summoned you by name. You are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. When you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned, the flames will not set you ablaze.

Isaiah 43:1-2

I am the first and I am the last. Apart from me there is no God.

Isaiah 44:6

Forget the former things, do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up, do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.

Isaiah 43:18-19

So do not fear, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Isaiah 41:10

God, today we thank you that you are with us. We thank you that you are for us, and that you are delivering us. Lord, I pray right now, would you show us, would you help us name the specific things we are grieving, that we are lamenting over, and would we spread it out before you now. Would you help us not to fear, would you help us not to worry about what others will think of us, but to be so focused on you, Jesus, and how you welcome us to come, even in our unbelief, and say, help, help my unbelief, help me overcome something that in my own strength I cannot overcome. God, would you lead us closer to you in repentance, and remind us of the strength of your spirit and your promises, that even if we feel like the deliverance is just a delay right now, the fullness of the deliverance will come. And would you help us to look to eternity and the hope found in you, Jesus. So we welcome you, Holy Spirit, as we pray, as we worship, as we respond. You're welcome here, Holy Spirit.