Embracing Silence: Deepening Faith in God's Presence

### Bible Study Discussion Guide

#### Bible Reading
- **Luke 18:9-14**: "Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else: 'Two men went to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: "I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else. For I don’t cheat, I don’t sin, and I don’t commit adultery. I’m certainly not like that tax collector! I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income." But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, "O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner." I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.'"

#### Observation Questions
1. **What was the Pharisee's attitude in his prayer, and how did it differ from the tax collector's attitude?** ([35:31])
2. **What specific prayers of Jesus during the Passion Week were mentioned as unanswered in the sermon?** ([25:09])
3. **How does the sermon describe the significance of "Silent Saturday" in the context of Jesus' Passion Week?** ([26:25])
4. **What analogy is used in the sermon to describe the growth that happens during spiritual silence?** ([41:24])

#### Interpretation Questions
1. **Why does Jesus' parable in Luke 18 emphasize the importance of humility in prayer? How does this relate to the sermon's message about the posture of our hearts before God?** ([36:21])
2. **In what ways does the sermon suggest that God's silence can be an invitation to deepen our faith? How does this compare to the experience of the tax collector in the parable?** ([44:50])
3. **How does the concept of "Silent Saturday" challenge our understanding of God's presence during times of suffering and unanswered prayers?** ([26:25])
4. **What role does the community play in helping individuals navigate through periods of spiritual silence, according to the sermon?** ([27:38])

#### Application Questions
1. **Reflect on a time when you felt God's silence in your life. How did you respond, and what did you learn from that experience?** ([44:50])
2. **The sermon mentions that our giving and service are expressions of our love for God. How can you actively participate in church ministries, such as Scouting, to demonstrate your commitment to God's work?** ([20:38])
3. **In what ways can you cultivate a humble and repentant heart in your daily prayers, similar to the tax collector in the parable?** ([36:21])
4. **How can you use the Lenten season to engage in practices that draw you closer to God, such as online prayer studies or communal worship? What specific steps will you take?** ([43:16])
5. **Consider the analogy of the tree planted in winter. What are some "winter" seasons in your spiritual journey, and how can you embrace these times to deepen your roots in faith?** ([41:24])
6. **How can you support others in your church community who may be experiencing a season of spiritual silence or unanswered prayers? What practical actions can you take?** ([27:38])
7. **As we prepare for Easter, how can you reflect on the suffering and silence that Jesus experienced to better appreciate the significance of His resurrection?** ([26:25])

Day 1: Silence Cultivates Spiritual Depth
In the quiet seasons of life, when God's voice seems distant, one might feel a sense of spiritual barrenness. However, it is precisely in these moments of perceived silence that one's faith has the potential to grow the deepest roots. Just as a tree in winter silently prepares for the vibrancy of spring, so too can the believer use times of divine quietude to develop a more profound connection with God. This period of growth is not marked by grand gestures or revelations but by the quiet, steadfast commitment to seeking God's presence with a pure heart. It is an opportunity to trust in God's faithfulness and to prepare oneself for the seasons of growth that He has in store. [41:24]

Psalm 1:2-3 (ESV)
"But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers."

Reflection: How can you use a current period of silence in your life to deepen your relationship with God, rather than viewing it as a time of spiritual drought?

Day 2: Humility in Prayer Transforms the Heart
The essence of prayer is not found in the eloquence of words nor the volume of requests made to God, but in the humility and repentance with which one approaches the divine. The parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector illustrates that God values a heart that recognizes its own need for mercy over one that boasts of its piety. In prayer, it is crucial to come before God with a posture of humility, acknowledging one's shortcomings and seeking His grace. This humble approach to prayer is transformative, aligning the heart with God's will and opening the door to a deeper spiritual communion. [37:15]

Luke 18:13-14 (ESV)
"But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted."

Reflection: In what ways can you cultivate a more humble and repentant heart in your daily prayer life?

Day 3: God's Silence Invites Deeper Trust
When God seems silent, it is not an indication of His absence but rather an invitation to seek Him with greater earnestness and trust. The silence can be a canvas upon which God paints His purposes for our lives, often in ways that are unexpected and beyond our understanding. This divine quiet should not be mistaken for neglect; instead, it is a sacred space where faith is refined and one's reliance on God is deepened. In these times, believers are called to listen more intently, to be still, and to know that He is God, trusting that He is at work even when His voice is not heard. [44:50]

Habakkuk 2:1 (ESV)
"I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint."

Reflection: How can you practice trusting in God's plan for your life, even when His silence challenges your faith?

Day 4: Service Reflects God's Transformative Love
Acts of service within the church, such as supporting ministries like Scouting, are tangible expressions of love for God and neighbor. These acts are not mere obligations but are reflections of the transformative power of God's love in action. Through giving and serving, individuals contribute to the development of the community and the shaping of future leaders. This service is an outpouring of gratitude for God's grace and a commitment to participate in His work, demonstrating faith in action and the impact of a heart changed by God's love. [20:38]

1 Peter 4:10 (ESV)
"As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace."

Reflection: What is one way you can serve in your church or community this week that reflects your love for God and His people?

Day 5: Lenten Practices Enrich Our Spiritual Journey
The season of Lent is a time of introspection and preparation, leading up to the celebration of Easter and the resurrection of Christ. Engaging in practices such as online prayer studies and communal worship can significantly enrich one's spiritual journey. These practices provide opportunities to draw closer to God, to reflect on the suffering and silence that Jesus experienced, and to strengthen the bonds within the church community. By participating in these spiritual disciplines, believers can deepen their understanding of God's love and grace, preparing their hearts to celebrate the victory of the resurrection. [43:16]

Isaiah 58:6-7 (ESV)
"Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?"

Reflection: Which Lenten practice can you commit to this week to help you reflect on Jesus' sacrifice and grow closer to God?

**Morning's call to worship**

Just a bit of instruction when we get there. I'm going to read the part that's lighter, and you will read the part that is bold.

We come before God as equals in God's sight. None of us is perfect and without blemish.

Thank you.

We are called to be joyful obedience in God's realm. Amen.

Alright, friends. As we prepare to transition in service, I just want to say thank you all. Some of you may not have been aware before this morning that we host two scout troops in our congregation.

And I want to say thank you, church, because if it wasn't for you and your continued giving to our church and our ministries, we could not offer our facilities to these troops so that they may help develop the future men and women of our community and be able to make them into not only the future leaders of our community, but also to people who are going to do amazing works and change.

So thank you for the continued contributions. If you'd like to give to ministries like these through our congregation, you can do so at the time of offering, which is at the time of communion, through the baskets up front. You can also go through the church app. You'll see all the different ways there on the screen.

If you're not aware, we offer our facilities to scout troops free of charge because we see them as ministries and partners with us. And the United Methodist Church has sponsored and partnered with Scouting for more than 100 years. Is that not amazing?

Someone else will have to tell me the history of our congregation, but I know that our Cub Scout troop and us have had a very longstanding relationship. I don't know when we started that relationship, but it has been many, many, many years that we have partnered with them.

So as we prepare to go to the Lord in prayer, I just would love to remind you that you can share prayer requests. You can put them in the church app or write them on a note and put them here in the offering baskets as well.

Would you all join me now in prayer?

Almighty God, I want to thank you for the children that you give us to develop not only spiritually, but also in their skills and their personalities that you have given them. Every child is unique and that you give us opportunities to develop them to be the people you want them to be.

So thank you for the ministries, not only our church, like children's ministry, but also of Scouting. Please allow us to continue to develop these beautiful souls and help them to be the people you want them to be.

Lord, we also ask your blessing over the study of your word. I pray that you help us to nurture each other through the study of scripture, but more importantly, that you speak to us, whether it be in this space or in children's, and that we may draw deeper to you.

We pray this in your holy name. Amen.

For the kids that are going to join Miss Katie and Kids Club, I'd like to invite you to go there now.

And just a word to any of our new friends and parents. If your child is going to Kids Club for the first time and they have not registered with Miss Katie, we would like to ask that you go with them and get them registered and then come back. We like to know who goes with who to make sure all children make it back with the right person. It's very important to us. Have fun.

So we are starting into our sermon series for Lent, which is the season leading into Easter. If you like to follow along with the notes of this series, you can do so in two ways. If you have the church app, which you can find in any app store, you can click on the worship tab and you'll find the sermon notes there.

Or if you don't want to download the app, you can go to the church's web page, fiumc.org, click on the EMAC button, and you'll find a link to open that web page. There are some quotes and things that I have put into the app there for you, and you might find that helpful in a video that I'm going to show on in just a little bit.

So this series, God on Mute, is where we are. Hold on, Siri thought I said Siri. Be more clear.

Series is when we're talking about this idea of God being silent. And we're going to unpack that concept as we work through the life of Jesus and his most difficult days, meaning what we call in the church the Passion Week, which is the week of Jesus's death.

And we're going to start that next week with Maundy Thursday, or the day of the Last Supper, where we get our communion service from where Jesus had the Last Supper. And then he went into the garden and he prayed. And those prayers he prayed were unanswered that day.

He prayed for unity, and he prayed for the cup of suffering to pass from him, and all the things he asked for that day were not taken away. And the prayer for unity is, let's be honest, is the church unified? The universal church of Christ is not unified. We have more denominations in the world than we can count.

So all the prayers of that day have still remained unanswered for Jesus. And then we go on to Good Friday, where Jesus was forsaken by God. We don't often like to think of it in this term, but Jesus himself uses it when he says, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

And last week we talked about Jesus' baptism, where publicly Jesus was claimed by God, and the voice from heaven came down and said, "This is my son, in whom I am very pleased." But unlike that day on the cross, God did not call down. And there was no sign from heaven as he hung, suffering, and he was all alone.

And then we have Saturday, which in the church we call Silent Saturday or Holy Saturday. And some may wonder why is Holy Saturday holy when nothing seems to happen, when all are grieving and everyone's prayers of the early church seemed unanswered, nothing moved, nothing happened, and God did nothing and he said nothing.

And then we will end this series with the prayers of Easter Sunday, when the silence was broken and prayers were answered and hope came back into the world.

Now does this seem like something on prayer that seems interesting to you? Yeah? Does anyone ever feel like God doesn't hear your prayers?

Well, this morning as I started the service, before y'all arrived, we have prayed multiple times already today. The worship team and I, we prayed before rehearsal. I walked and prayed over our worship space and our children's space.

I'd like to actually invite y'all in the weeks to come if you would come early and pray with me. Because when we pray in unison, God honors that the community of Christ are praying together. If you'd like to join me in praying over our worship space, you join me next week at 9 o'clock.

I know some of you are thinking 9 o'clock. You can do it. There'll be coffee. But I can show you how we can walk around our worship space and ask God to bless worship and bless the people who walk in. I'll teach you how to do it.

The reason we're talking about this right now, friends, is because the wondering of unanswered prayers is something that is so prevalent in the world. But if you've ever wondered why God doesn't answer your prayers, it's because you believe in God.

See, this is the thing. Pew Research did a study and 71% of Americans pray daily. Actually, 20% of agnostics and atheists pray daily. But when their prayers aren't answered, it doesn't change their beliefs.

Because if God doesn't answer an atheist's prayer, it affirms for them that there is no God. When an agnostic who's not 100% sure if there's a good deity out there that believes and cares for them, prays and asks God to heal someone and God doesn't intervene, that agnostic doesn't have a faith that is shaken because they didn't really know if God was going to do anything and all that's happened is affirm that for them.

But for a Christian, when we pray for God to move in our life, when we pray for God to help someone who's sick, when we pray for God to help our financial situation, when we pray for God to bring us a job, and the prayers aren't fulfilled, we don't always know what to do with that.

And these moments of our prayers unanswered, our faith, our belief in God that he is good and he cares, those are the moments that we then have to decide what do we believe.

And this is the reason, there's really three aspects of this. There's an emotional component of prayer. And in emotional prayer, most of us have had some type of pain in our life that we've processed and we probably lifted to God.

There's an intellectual side where we have questions. Maybe we've asked God those questions. Maybe we have questions about God that we've tried to connect to and nobody's answered for us.

But friends, there's also a cultural aspect of prayer. And this is where, honestly, the church is not transparent enough. And the Bible is.

I'd like to read you a quote from this pastor that I heard years ago that moved me so deeply. His name is Pete Gregg, and he leads a prayer movement in England that has just moved through England, which, by the way, is more unchristian than we are as Americans.

And he has brought a revolution of prayer to the country, but he has suffered greatly in his own life. And I heard him share part of his story years ago, and it stuck with me.

And he says this in the introduction of his book: "The church needs to be as honest as the Bible about the struggle of faith, the pain of life, and the fact that wrestling with the silence of unanswered prayer is not an act of unbelief, but of defiant and deepening faith."

Throughout this series, we're going to be looking at how if Jesus' prayers were unanswered, it does not mean that God loves us any less.

But before we unpack our scripture, I want to share a testimony with you that's going to be on this video. And this is Pete Gregg in the introduction. He's being interviewed by someone, and he had this story of another pastor that he wanted to share.

The audio is a little bit of a struggle, and you'll hear why. So if you want to go back and know exactly what's said, I've put the transcript of this video into the sermon notes for you.

Let's listen to this story.

Today's guest is Bob Sorge, a pastor from Kansas City with the most remarkable story. Could you imagine everything in your life that you thought you were? And then trying to bring balance to think, how is God good?

Let's look at our scripture for today. It comes from the book of Luke, chapter 18. I'm going to start in verse 9.

Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else.

Two men went to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and the other was a despised tax collector.

The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer. "I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else, for I don't cheat. I don't sin and I don't commit adultery. I am certainly not like that tax collector. I fast twice a week and I give you a tenth of my income."

But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, "O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner."

I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God, for those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

If we were to take this story into today's society, the equivalent of these two people would be the most holy, revered Sunday school Bible teacher in the church versus the worst in our society.

You know what I mean, right? The drug dealer, the child abuser, the death row convict. This is the extreme that Jesus is pinning as he does this story. He's putting the holy reverend of the one versus the scum of the earth on the other.

And yet he's saying, this one is the one that God is going to grant mercy. That's an extreme in this parable.

But yet, he comes back to the heart of the person who's praying. Oftentimes, we end up losing faith in our prayer because we forget the journey that we are on.

I've said it multiple times, but how many times do we pray expecting God to do something specific? And then after we pray for that one thing, when we don't get what we've asked for, we lose faith because God didn't give us what we wanted. He didn't grant the healing or the financial deliverance.

Now, I'm sure none of you pray in this way. It's just me, right?

Abigail and I have just recently started watching the new Percy Jackson series, the TV show. She loves Percy Jackson. And there's an episode where they all go to give offerings to the gods.

And it's interesting because we've also been reading through the Bible where they're talking about the burnt offerings that they give God in the Old Testament. And it talks about how they are a pleasing smell.

Well, in Percy Jackson, they say you have to give the burnt offering of whatever it is you like. It doesn't matter what you give as long as you like it.

So you're sacrificing something you like, is what they say in the show. And then they go on to say that if you sacrifice enough that you really like, then maybe the gods will pay enough attention to you and you've waved enough, like, look at me, and maybe they'll give you something back.

Now, see, in the Old Testament and the New Testament, the way the Percy Jackson is portrayed, this is the common way of the pagan world. You do enough things to make the gods happy, maybe they'll give you something.

You sacrifice enough, you give enough for them, you honor them enough, you wave enough things their way, then maybe they'll grant you something. But our God doesn't work that way.

Our God wants us to have a pure heart. Our God wants to give things to him because we love him, not because we want him to give something back.

If we go down and we offer ourselves and our hearts and our offerings, and we say, okay, God, I've done X, Y, and Z, what did I get in return? He says, I think you've missed it.

Which is the point of the story that Jesus gave. The holy man was trying to show how good he was, and he was fasting and praying to mark his holy checkbox, whereas the sinner was repentant.

See, this series is all about embracing the silence. Because when we embrace the silence, we can seek God.

And there's this idea that in the silence and in the hardship, and sometimes even, yes, in the suffering, we don't sign up for suffering, I don't mark it on my calendar. I don't go, this is the week that God and I are going to suffer and grow together.

But in the silence and the suffering, there is good growth. There's this idea that when you plant a tree, if you plant it in the spring, the tree will not get deep roots.

But if you plant a tree in the winter, because it's not spending energy on the leaves that it makes, the roots of the tree grow deep. And by the time the spring comes, it's gotten its foundation ready so that it can bloom.

And the tree will live for many years. As we unpack this in the prayer, as we look at the life of Jesus and where he was, we're going to look at this idea because without the silence of winter, we cannot be rooted enough for the spring that's going to come.

Without the suffering of Jesus' life, Easter morning would not have been a celebration.

Now, I mentioned last week with Lent that Lent is as impactful as you decide to make it. So I want to share some ways you can take this series and go deeper with it, and it's your choice.

Starting today on our website, you can find a free online prayer study that's written by Pete Gregg. I don't know anyone that has experienced more suffering and powerful prayer than this man.

And he shares part of his story in this study. But it's completely free, and you can find it through our website and in the church app. The first lesson came out today if you want to unpack more the idea of silent prayer.

Also on Wednesday on the website and through our social media, I'm going to do a live stream to pray for anything you want live, but also answer questions. That'll be at 8 o'clock at night, not in the morning.

So if you want to be a part of that, just join either on Facebook or log into the app, and we'll answer those questions, but most importantly, pray together.

Because this is a season about us getting to the heart of who we are so that we can pray.

So this morning, I want you to open yourself, to be present with the silence. As we go into this season of looking towards our Lord, would you pray with me now?

God Almighty, I am so thankful that you, God, in the silence of the grave, did an amazing work that we never could have imagined.

God, no matter how long we wait in prayer, no matter how long it takes for you to show where you're working, the winter season does not ever last forever. Even in the coldest places, eventually the temperatures rise.

So Lord, we ask today that for those of us in this room that are in a season of winter, spiritually, that you help us to embrace it, to allow the growth to be rooted deep, so you will help us to be ready for the next season to come.

Lord, I pray for those of us so that may not be our season, that you help us to enjoy the spring, to enjoy the pause of the testing so that we may be able to live fully into you until the next winter comes.

Most importantly, God, bring us into your fullness so we may experience your glory and your grace and your love. We pray this to all that you are today. Amen.

Friends, as we prepare to come to the Lord's table, just a word that this is open to all people. You don't have to be a part of our congregation to come. The only thing God asks is that we confess to him anything that we've done wrong.

And we'll have a moment here, just a second, of unified confession. Now, you don't have to come either. If you choose not to receive communion, that is your choice as well.

So would you take a moment now and let's confess to God in this liturgy you'll find on the screen.

Merciful God, you have made us citizens of heaven, but we confess that we have set our minds on earthly things. We have let our desires for security restrain us from serving people experiencing poverty.

We have allowed our fear of danger to curb our love for our enemies. We have let our love of possessions dull our generosity. We have let our craving for public status prevent our honesty about hidden sins.

Yet you know the desires of our hearts and nothing is hidden from you. By the power of the Holy Spirit, conform our sin-weakened bodies to the glory of Christ that we may be the body of Christ for the world.

Take a moment, lift anything in your heart that you feel like you'd like to give to God this morning.

Almighty God, we thank you that you see each of us as your beloved children. You see more than just what's on the surface, but what is within.

And that you receive us all the good and all the bad. And that you hear anything we lift within us to you. And that you receive all things that we give and you forgive all confessions.

And now friends, would you join this word of forgiveness with me?

Friends, in the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven. Amen.

On the night Christ sat with his friends, he broke bread and he said, "This is my body which has been given for you. Eat in remembrance of me."

He also took a cup and he said, "This is the blood of the new covenant. Shed for the sins of all people. Drink just as you eat in remembrance of me."

Almighty Father, send your spirit upon this bread and juice that we may experience your grace. We pray this in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

I'm going to invite those who are going to help me serve communion to come forward. As they come, I'll just give a word of instruction.

All those are invited in just a moment after I serve my helpers. When you come, you'll come up the center. Then out the outside, we'll start from the back.

When you come, you'll come up the center. Then out the outside, we'll start from the back to the front. You'll receive a small piece of bread to dip into the juice.

If you want gluten-free bread or prepackaged so that yours isn't touched, you can find that in the center. And you're welcome to stop and pray at the kneeling rails after.

I'll invite you all forward in just a moment. The Lord's table is ready and we invite you all to come. We'll start in the back first. Amen.

Alright. A couple things. Easter's coming, right?

Alright. Are we anticipating? Awesome. I got some things for you to anticipate.

Okay. First off, who knows that we do an Easter egg hunt every year? Yes. You all were so amazing in your Easter eggs last year that the kids could not carry all the eggs home. It was the most amazing thing ever.

I need you to do it again. Okay? We're starting our egg collection. So there are baskets in the entryways. There is no, like, it doesn't matter what you bring. Bring any eggs.

One thing Katie asked. Katie said if you fill them at home, which is what I do, I buy empty eggs and fill them. She said make sure that they don't open. We had some like we're opening in the yard, so maybe tape them.

Okay? If you don't buy them pre-filled, which I don't because it costs more. I'm cheap.

Alright. Next thing. Palm Sunday is March 24th, which is when the egg hunt is, March 24th.

Alright. And y'all can have a seat for a second if you want. I know you're standing. I need y'all to get some excitement.

Okay? Children's ministry is growing. I know most of you don't see it because you're out here. It's okay. But friends, children's ministry is growing. The nursery is growing, especially the pre-teens are growing.

We cannot house the number of Easter people in children's ministry with one service. Amen, right?

Now, that was not the level of excitement it deserved. Thank you. Thank you.

Yes. We double our numbers on Easter. Children's cannot handle being doubled. So Easter, Palm Sunday and Easter, which both was doubled last year, is going to have two services, 9:30 and 11.

Some of you are now very happy for an 11 o'clock service. It's okay. I know you don't like the 9:30. You'd rather sleep in.

So just know we're going to do it twice. That means you get to choose when you want to come. It also means we'll need a couple extra hands to make it happen twice.

Okay? You can go online. You can let us know where you want to help. So the potluck and the egg hunt is going to be at 12:15.

We're going to set up in Grace Place. So this is how we'll do it. So if you come at 9:30, you can help set up during 11 so that we can roll straight into lunch at 12:15, right?

Right? It's going to work. It's going to be great. And then the people who come at 11, they'll just roll straight into Grace Place at 12:15. It'll be fantastic.

Unless it rains, which we're going to pray, all of us with fervent prayers that it doesn't rain and we don't have to set the bounce house up inside because it'll be a mess.

Alright. Alright. So then just a couple other things. If you like to get up early, some of you do. Not many of you.

But if you like to get up early, Spring Park and the Breaking Bread ministry, we're in an alliance with multiple churches to have a community sunrise service at Spring Park at 6:45 Eastern morning.

I will not be there. I love you all. I will not be there. That's a whole extra hour I have to get up early to do my hair. Not doing it.

Okay. I love you, though. And it's a wonderful service. You get to be at the river and watch the sunrise is gorgeous.

Okay. So if you love sunrise, go out there. And then our Easter services will be here at 9:30 and 11. If you want to help, come help us welcome people to celebrate our Lord.

Okay. If you have questions, let me know. And we're going to talk about this shorter, but talk about again next week and again and again until Easter gets here.

Okay. Yes. Okay. Great. Great. You are already asleep and it's not nap time yet.

Okay. And let me pray us out.

Almighty God, thank you for the amazing people that we have with us today and online. And thank you for us being able to learn from Jesus's hardships and apply them to our lives.

Thank you for the season of Lent in preparation for Easter. But most importantly, thank you for just the fact that we get to gather as your people.

And for the season of worship and all that you give us. I pray, God, that you help us to go from this place and bring love and hope to the people around us that we come in contact with this week.

We pray this in your holy and powerful name. Amen.

- "Our God wants us to have a pure heart. Our God wants to give things to him because we love him, not because we want him to give something back." [40:10] (Download | Crop for social media)

- "See, this series is all about embracing the silence. Because when we embrace the silence, we can seek God." [41:24] (Download | Crop for social media)

- "Without the silence of winter, we cannot be rooted enough for the spring that's going to come." [43:16] (Download | Crop for social media)

- "God, no matter how long we wait in prayer, no matter how long it takes for you to show where you're working, the winter season does not ever last forever." [44:50] (Download | Crop for social media)

- "The church needs to be as honest as the Bible about the struggle of faith, the pain of life, and the fact that wrestling with the silence of unanswered prayer is not an act of unbelief." [31:57] (Download | Crop for social media)

- "The holy man was trying to show how good he was, and he was fasting and praying to mark his holy checkbox, whereas the sinner was repentant." [40:10] (Download | Crop for social media)

- "If you sacrifice enough, you give enough for them, you honor them enough, you wave enough things their way, then maybe they'll grant you something. But our God doesn't work that way." [40:10] (Download | Crop for social media)

- "In the silence and the suffering, there is good growth. There's this idea that when you plant a tree, if you plant it in the spring, the tree will not get deep roots." [41:24] (Download | Crop for social media)

- "The prayers of that day have still remained unanswered for Jesus. And the prayer for unity is, let's be honest, is the church unified? The universal church of Christ is not unified." [25:40] (Download | Crop for social media)

- "When we pray in unison, God honors that the community of Christ are praying together." [28:41] (Download | Crop for social media)