Prayer Works Bible Study: August 31, 2025

"Prepare To Defend Pt 4 - The P.E.A.C.E.F.U.L Approach To Defending Your Faith "

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Ok, family, let's go to the throne of grace. Heavenly Father, we come before you and give you thanks for this day because you alone are worthy. We thank you, Father, because your word says that if we lack wisdom, we only need to ask and you will freely give.  

So tonight we are coming to you asking you to fill us with your wisdom. Help us to understand as we go through this lesson what your word is trying to tell us what you want from us, what you expect us to do, especially as we go about preaching the gospel.  

We give you all praise, honor and glory. We thank you for your marvelous ways and your marvelous light. And it's in Jesus name we pray. Amen, Amen, Amen. All right, so let me share. Ok can everybody see always prepared to defend public slide? 

Alright, so tonight, this is Week 4 and it was placed on Vee's heart, this acronym Peaceful. And it's this approach that we are using to defend our faith. And so for those of you that may not have received this lesson at least up until last week, let us know and we'll make sure that you get it.  

But this will now be included. Week 4 will now be included in what we send out and what has been sent out. So if you need a recap. I suggest you look in your e-mail and find this and go over it because this is really helpful, especially if you're in the workplace for example and someone asks you why are you the way you are.  

This is a means by which you can express your faith, your belief and give a small testimony to help people understand why you believe what you believe. So here we go. 

OK so all of this, the basis of all these, we have like 2 scriptures that we're going to read. This is the first one that is the basis. This is at the heart of why we're even talking about this topic.  

Always being prepared to defend 1 Peter 3:15. But in your hearts, honor Christ the Lord as holy always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason, for the hope that is in you. Yet do it with gentleness and respect and here's another foundational. 

Scripture and yeah, so this is Jude 3: 3-4 rather and it says beloved while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all time handed down to the Saints.  

Certain people have crept in unnoticed. Those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation. Ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into indecent behavior and deny our only master and Lord Jesus Christ. 

So here we have it. Two urgent messages to out to believers, we have to be prepared to defend or speak up about our faith, and we also need to be prepared to even go even more vigorously when we're talking about our faith as needed.  

Earnestly because in the church, in the churches, there are people who have crept in without us even being aware, who say all the catchphrases they raise their hands. They say Hallelujah at the right times, you know, but they don't believe in Christ.  

So when you're encountering those types of people. Especially in the church, we have to be prepared to do with the Holy Spirit, says so that truth is coming forward at all times. So those are two foundational scriptures behind this topic today, which this is something that the spirit place in my heart.  

I wasn't thinking about it at all. And this I heard in my spirit, peaceful and then I'm like, ok, what do you mean, peaceful? When you're defending your faith. You need to have a peaceful approach.  

Again, this was laid on my heart. So the letters of the each letter in the word peaceful represents something that we need to understand when we're talking about our faith. P stands for prayer.  

E stands for empathy. A stands for awareness, C confidence. The other  E endurance, F faith. You understanding and L love, so we're going to touch upon each of those letters and what they mean when we're talking about the a peaceful approach to defending your faith. 

So the peaceful approach to defending our faith is to always begin every conversation, whether sharing your testimony or defending your faith with prayer. And I know family as we did the Bible devotions last year. 

That was one of the sayings that I used to always try to close with. You know that we should always pray before we do anything and do not do anything without prayer. 

OK, so now we're going to look at going a little deeper into what are the aspects of prayer. You know, we all have an idea what prayer is. But let's go a little deeper into what does the Bible say about prayer? 

It's a huge topic, so we're going to look at the model prayer. We're going to look at the posture of prayer, the motives of prayer, the habit of prayer, prayer and fasting. Praying for your enemies.  

Pray with persistence and the power of prayer. So when I look at all these different aspects of prayer. Ok but before we start it, now I remember I've been warning from the beginning that at some point this was going to be a little interactive, a little interaction. 

Ok so every time you see one of these slides, it looks like this. I am expecting and hoping for someone to have something to say. Come on Christians somebody should have something to say or something to put in the chat related to a question that you see on the screen, right?  

So this is the first one and just by the way, we have quite a few scriptures. I mean an inordinate amount of scriptures in this lesson. And so I know we are not going to be able to get through every single scripture.  

So what we plan on doing is picking out some of the highlight script. And trying to discuss those and bring those into the forefront. But as I said before, when we send this out, all of this will be there for you to go over in your spare time.  

So what are a few scriptures that tell us about the importance of prayer? All right, Christians, think about it. In all the years of your study what's the scripture that tells you about prayer that you can think of anybody? 

Well, I have to look, look it up. But I believe it's at Phillipians when the Bible says don't worry about anything but pray about everything. Thank you and when I look at that last word, it's everything thing that mean don't leave nothing out. Include everything that's on our heart that we need to pray about. 

Amen, yes so Christians, my Christian brothers and sisters. Have in your heart scriptures that are relevant to what you need to talk about. So we're talking about prayer. So thank you, miss Nina.  

Alright, so here are a few scriptures we're not going to go through all of these scriptures. They will be available for you. But there are, as I said there's a model prayer, the posture of prayer, the motives of prayer and the habit of prayer. 

 So everyone knows the model prayer. Let's say it all together. As Jesus said in this manner therefore pray let's all say this together. 

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil one. For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever, Amen. 

Amen, that's our model prayer so every Christian, everyone should know this model prayer, even my little adopted nieces and nephews, niece and nephew in the back. You know this model prayer. 

Yes. And my sister well, I know my sister in Christ, you already know this. Alright, so that's when we're talking about prayer. We need to understand what did Jesus mean by this model prayer.  

What is he modeling for us in this prayer? We should know that. So if someone says, what's the whole big deal about the model prayer? What it? What does it mean and how can we incorporate what Jesus modeled for us in this prayer in our prayers, our own prayers, our father in heaven we recognize you Father as all holy.  

Holy your name is so holy, your Kingdom, whatever you desire, let it happen. Your will. What you want, what you want for us in this world let it be done. Whatever your will in heaven. Let it be done here on Earth and let us not stand in the way. 

Not our will but your will and something Calvin and I have been learning in this interesting chapter in our life is Lord, we want to walk in your in your center of your will and not your permitted will because he will permit us to do almost anything. 

Especially we're intent on doing it and we walked in his permitted will a few times and it wasn't pretty. So we're like Lord, you know what, if you really don't want us to do that and you really don't want us To go there.  

Please don't allow us to do, just shut it down, please. Because it's a long way back from the detour we take in his permitted well to get back on the right road to the center of his will. And just going to go on for the sake of time, the posture of prayer, what does that mean? 

So it says here that he went a little farther and fell on his face and prayed, saying, oh, my Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will and this is what I was saying.  

You want to always be in the center of God's will. Anything that we can possibly think of doing we need to first pray about it so we can find ourselves in the center of his will. He will lead us where he wants us to go.  

He will speak to us if we listen carefully to what he and Holy Spirit or through Holy Spirit, what the spirit is saying, and so we just need to look for his will. We don't need to put our will first.  

I mean Vee and I were talking about this earlier, you know, God is so good in that yes, he will allow you to do what it is that you want to do. But it may not be what he really wants you to do and for you to learn a lesson as to what he really wants from you.  

He will let you go off on that tangent to do the thing that you want to do until you find yourself butting your head and coming back to him and saying Father please put me in the center of your will. Then he is like, ok, that didn't work out for you. Here's my way of doing things. 

Yes, and you see that in this in this passage. This is Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. He fell on his face. Now if you were to look up, that phrase fell on his face, you would see how many times that phrase is uttered in the Old Testament and the New Testament. 

So the posture of prayer is not necessarily physically falling on your face, though sometimes what it takes. Sometimes that's what it takes. Sometimes we we're falling on our face.  

That means we are so humbled before the presence of the Almighty God, we can't do anything but fall on our face and this is Jesus, the son of God falling on his face in the garden of Gethsemane because he knew he what he had to go through.  

But he understood that it was God's will. So falling on your face before God requires such a great humility. Then we get to motives of prayer. 

Motives of prayer. So the motives of prayer what is behind what is the intent of your prayer? So here the tax collector standing a far off would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast saying God be merciful to me a sinner.  

And so this is us recognizing that we are sinners, it's true God, through Jesus, has forgiven us and sees us as his children. But we are sinners in the sense that we are of the fallen, that we are a part of this world.  

We are not permanent residents of this world. No, because we've been for. But nevertheless, the temptations in this world, the glitz, the glamour that this world may offer us are all temptations.  

And so we have to recognize in our heart of hearts who we are, who we are in this world and who we are as far as God and Jesus are concerned. 

Amen and if you read that whole Scripture passage, this is Jesus commenting on two people that were coming into the temple to pray, and one was a religious person, religious, scriber, whatever and he was like, you know, I'm so glad. I'm not like this sinner or tax collector.  

Here I do this, I do that and do this that and that. And I'm so he was self-righteous and then this other tax collector who's like he couldn't even look up he was like God have mercy on me and Jesus said the tax collector was the one who went away justified.  

Not the one that said, oh, I'm so glad I'm not like him. So the motives of prayer, what are our motives of prayer, our motives of prayer to remind God of just how good we are, our motives of prayer in recognition that we know just how terrible we are.  

And then this last one here in the column. But what do we ask for? And James said and even when you ask, you don't get it because you're motives are all wrong. You want only what will give you, give you pleasure.  

So we need to examine what we're praying for. Yes God will provide all that we need. This scripture says that but what are the motives for whatever you're praying for? That kind we have to kind of check ourselves.  

If you're praying for, I don't know what you're praying for. If you're praying for a new car, a new house. What is the motive behind that? What kind of car are you praying for? What kind of house are you praying for?  

What kind of title are you praying for? Why are you praying for it? Is it so that you can be admired by other people? Is it so that you could have the means to provide for other people? Is it so that you can have the means to spend more time on pleasure.  

These are things we have to be careful of in our motives of prayer and then we get into that habit of prayer. And here we can learn a lot from Jesus about the habit of prayer and hear these scriptures say he went to the Mount of Olives as he was accustomed.  

Now in the morning having risen a long while before daylight, so Jesus went out to the mountains. He rose early in the morning and he said he went out to the mountain and prayed and continued all night in prayer.  

So sometimes the habit of prayer requires different things for us to do, as Jesus said, but above all else he was accustomed to do this. So are we accustomed to prayer? Have we gone to the habit of prayer, or do we hop into bed and maybe when we realize, oh wait, I didn't.  

I didn't pray, you know, tonight. Let me just our father, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Thank you, Lord you know my heart, Amen. You know, or but do we have the habit of prayer? We're just like, we're in the habit of, I don't know, getting up, having a cup of coffee, whatever it is that you habitually do.  

Can you treat prayer even better than that. So Jesus is showing us that he's also showing us that habit has different levels. Sometimes he had to get up early in the morning, long before daylight.  

Sometimes he had to go up to the mountain by himself solitary, yeah, sometimes he had to withdraw from people to pray, and that's for us. Sometimes different situations, different circumstances may require different types of prayer. 

So prayer and fasting and you notice that it's these two are always together. There's seldom a time where it's fasting alone. It's usually prayer and fasting, and so here in Matthew it shows this kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting. 

And this was when Jesus and the apostles came down from the mountain after Jesus was glorified or transformed and a gentleman came up and says, you know, about my son. The demons throw him down and, you know, beat on him. 

And your disciples, I asked them to try and get rid of this, you know demon and they couldn't and this was the response That Jesus gave you know when the apostles asked, why couldn't we Get rid of this demon. 

He says because this kind comes out by nothing but prayer and fasting, so we see how effective prayer is. But prayer and fasting takes it to a whole other level. And this is also where we gain control of our own faculties and put ourselves down for the sake of what it is that we're praying for. 

And so I look at Jesus and I admire the fact that he was able to go into the wilderness and fast for 40 days. I struggled to fast for a week, let alone a few days, you know. And so it's just a testament to How prayer and fasting can elevate ones prayer life. 

Especially if we're praying for something that's within the scope of what God is permitting or as we say in the center of God's will. It says there in Daniel and this was Daniel now Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make requests by prayer and supplications with fasting sackcloth and ashes. 

And this is a whole other level of prayer and fasting. And so we have to reverence the Holiness of God and understand who we are approaching when we pray. It's not like I'm approaching Vee and saying you know hey I need this, you know.  

No, we're going to the Almighty God who created everything. And it's that level of reverence that we have to have. So prayer and fasting, as I said, takes it to a whole another level. So that's also something we need to have in our arsenal.  

In our weaponry as we confront the enemy for various things that the enemy may be doing, putting in our path, blocking us, or using other family members, for example, to confront us about what we believe, Amen.  

And Jesus said this kind and we are living in an age where we have many of this kind, this kind of demonic forces, this kind and why prayer and fasting because those things that we have difficulty giving up are the same things that the enemy will use when we dare to try to cast him out.  

But what? You don't cast me or you don't even have control over here whatever it is. This so this kind. So when we fast it's for a purpose, it is for tearing down strongholds, storming the gates of hell, snatching people from the fiery pit. 

This kind so brothers and sisters in Christ as Calvin was saying. If we are desired to go to another level in our faith, get ready to pray and fast and Lord knows it's not easy, but we need to understand that and in the essence of time, let's go to the next one.  

Praying for your enemies. Question for each of you can you think of one person right now who you can't stand? Think of one person right now who you can't stand. You don’t want to breathe the same air. 

You know, I won't be that mean, That's all right, we don't. I won't name any names myself, but hey, hey, listen. Hey, you preaching the right prayer today, girl. I'm telling y'all talking about the right stuff today. 

We know you that's the spirit because I need, yeah, I have yeah, I've been, yeah, yeah, yeah. I've been but anyway, I ain't gonna call no names, but they sitting in there. They sit in the living room and I constantly have to deal with this in my experience all the time. 

So this is why this point so important. When we told that where Jesus said pray for your enemies then we then you will surely know your sons and daughters of the most high, where you can pray for your enemies, and even Jesus said from the cross. 

He is from the cross, dying, naked, bleeding, messed up and he still looks down on the same people that put him there and said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.  

So my brothers and sisters in Christ, my nieces, my niece and nephew in Christ, when you think of the people in your life who are giving you the most problems, who you can't stand. Pray for them.  

Pray for them every day. Lift their names up to God, the almighty father. And when you can do that, you will know you've arrived at a new level in your faith, must have known he sent in a prayer request about this this morning. 

Oh, ok. I didn't know. That's right. It's a spirit. Oh I should have did same stuff you talking about. Ok and the last two points last two, aspects of prayer. Prayer at with persistence again so your prayer life has to be persistent.  

It can't be prayed today, then next month, Pray and then the following two months go by. You know, this is something that has to become your life. So pray with persistence in Luke here it says then he spoke of. Horrible to them that men always ought to pray and not lose heart.  

And then in Romans likewise, the spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings, too deep for words. 

Sometimes the prayer and groan is a prayer. You just don't even have the words and God knows God can interpret groans. Yes, Lord and in the power of prayer this is the power that we have in our prayer.  

Whatever things you ask in prayer, believing that's the key you will receive. But it's also all connected to asking, rightly. So whatever you ask rightly, that's in accordance with God's will and you believe it, you will receive it. 

Don't believe that you're playing for $1,000,000? Don't believe that you're praying for a brand new Ferrari or you know that's not the center of God's will, alright. What you pray for us to align with God's will, has to. 

Good, good. So all these scripts, you're not going to read all of them, but we encourage you, we'll send these slides out afterwards. You can read them and even come up with even more than this. 

So, so now we're going to get into the next letter and the peaceful approach E empathy. Remember that everyone has a story. Empathy enables you to see things from someone else's perspective. So that same person or people that you can't stand, there's a reason why they are the way that they are. 

So empathy is going to enable you to pray for them, ok? Alright, so because I was getting, I was getting you actually all the kind of spirit from being a whole lot of interactive because we don't have enough time.  

But just think about what are a few scriptures that tell us about the importance of empathy now? Empathy I don't think the word empathy is used in the Bible. But let's look at a few scriptures that kind of talk about empathy as a concept. 

So Luke 15:20 and he rose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion keyword and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And so this is the prodigal son and the Empathy that the father felt in Scripture is compassion and it's just another way of loving an individual.  

So if you know the story of the prodigal, then you can understand why and how this father felt for his son in spite of what his son did. How he was able to have the level of compassion for him that he did. 

And then in Psalms it says as a father shows compassion to his children and for all the fathers out there, you understand that the Lord also shows compassion to those who fear him.  

So notice there's a fear but this is a healthy fear. This is not a fear like, well, I did wrong and my father is going to beat me. It's not that kind of fear, but it's again the reverence that you have for the Lord God shows compassion to those who fear him, for he knows our frame, and he remembers that we are dust. 

That's creature gives me so much comfort when I missed the target and missed the mark on occasions. I just repent and I say thank you, father, for knowing my frame. And remember that I'm just dust.  

Thank you for your compassion and something that, you know, we need to think about is the prodigal son. The prodigal son came to himself, and the father had compassion. But what's amazing is that sometimes people will not come to themselves.  

Some people, sometimes the people that hurt us the most, will never ask our forgiveness. But that doesn't get us off the hook as Christians. And here we see in Hebrews 4:14-16 where it says since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens.  

Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses. But one who in every respect has been tempted, as we are yet with without sin. 

Let us thin with confidence, draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace and to help in time of need. I actually was thinking about the greatest the other scripture was which was about while we were yet sinners Christ came.  

That's what I was thinking of. So even those people who have not come to us to ask our forgiveness, who have causes a whole heap of pain, even if they don't ever come to you, we have to remember that while we were still sinners, Christ still came.  

So how can we not forget? How can we not have compassion and empathy? Ok, moving on. The letter A be aware of the signs of the times and don't be caught unaware of the deceptions that are misleading and destroying people. 

Jesus warned us in the last days many will be deceived and I'm praying Lord, let me not be one of those who are deceived. And that is my prayer for each and every one of us. And how could we not be the ones that will be deceived?  

Awareness and what do we mean by awareness? What Hosea say in chapter 4 verse 6. It says my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge because you have rejected knowledge. I reject you from being a priest to me and since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. 

We can't forget one of the quickest and shortest routes to deception is not knowing God's word and then also forgetting the goodness of God. You're on an express road to deception when you forget that and when you don't know. 

If you don't know the word, just think about this and you go to a church that someone gets up and starts preaching something that to you sounds good, feels good but you yourself don't know the word. Then how are you going to know the truth?  

How will you know that what is being said that's making you feel good, that sounds good. Is from God, so you have to be responsible for your education in the scriptures, just like you would be responsible to go to university and learn.  

You couldn't say that the teacher didn't teach me. Can't say that right. You are responsible for learning and so this scripture is paramount. That's all I'm gonna say. This scripture is paramount. If you don't know, you will be destroyed. 

And if you make sure that you know the signs of the times that Jesus talked about in Matthew 24 Pastor Zee, I think it's Matthew 24, we talked about the signs of that make sure you know that. 

So we won't be like the others who around seeing all this craziness and foolishness happening in the world and losing their minds. How is this happening? What's going on. No, no, this is supposed to happen.  

So you don't have to lose your mind. You don't have to lose heart see in peaceful. Means confidence. Be confident in the Lord and in his power, mercy, grace, and faithfulness know that you are saved by grace through your faith in Jesus, the Messiah, and by nothing else.  

You are a child of the most high. God, it is so important that we know this and we understand it, because if it hasn't happened to you, so happened to you yet some emissary of the demonic realm will come in your face and accuse you and tell you, oh, you're still the same.  

You haven't changed. But you can say I am confident that I'm a child of the most high God and greater is he who is in me, that he was in the world, that you must be confident. And don't let your faith be shaken by the lies of the enemy, as if you study what happened to Jesus in the desert after his fasting for 40 days. 

All the things that the enemy came at him with, we can expect those same things. But we have to be confident, be confident and you'll know your confidence comes from knowing your testimony and sharing your testimony and standing on your testimony and remembering the goodness of God in your life.  

And don't forget it. Don't forget it. So if your script is about confidence let's just read Psalms 27. When the wicked came against me to eat up my flesh, my enemies and foes, they stumbled and fell.  

Though an army man camp against me, my heart shall not fear. The war may rise against me in this I will be confident. One thing I've desired of the Lord, that I will seek, that will I seek that I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple. 

This is one of my favorite Psalms, so when you hear the enemy whispering in your voice, have a have a scripture, have scriptures of confidence. You know there may there are sometimes when the enemy will come whispering in my ear telling me stuff about myself.  

You know trying to remind me of the stupid stuff I've done in the past. Trying to remind me what I just thought about a minute ago, about somebody that wasn't kind. You know, you think you're such a Christian.  

Like, no, I know I'm a sinner and but I have a scripture that I can say over and over. Over the top of the voice of the enemy. So get your scriptures of confidence that you can say, especially in moments, when the enemy is coming after you and trying to accuse you. 

And get you to deny or get you to not believe that you're saved by grace and that God loves you. Get your scriptures of confidence. These are just a few. Alright, so we're up to E. 

E the Christian walk requires endurance for the letter E, remaining steadfast in our faith in the face of mockery, scorn, rage, persecution, and even when God seems distant and silent. 

So my brothers and sisters in Christ endurance, Christ's message to us is we will be persecuted. There's no getting around that. If someone tries to tell you that all the Christian life.  

Oh it's page and gold and oh if you're truly blessed by God you won't suffer. It's a lie from the pit of hell. We must suffer, we will suffer, even in putting these, even in putting a these, these devotions together and getting on every morning and whatever we're trying to do for Christ, we suffer for it.  

But nevertheless we endure because we know this is part of this walk. And probably one of the most difficult times to remain to endure is when it seems like God is distant and silent. Oh, my Lord, that is one of the most difficult times.  

But this is when you go back to your scriptures of confidence and this is when you remember what Jesus said you in this life you will be persecuted, but cheer up because I have overcome the world, so we endure because Christ told us to and he promised us he will be with us. 

Ok, so I'm not going to read all the scriptures about endurance, but they're here on the screen and I encourage you to keep looking them up. Do you want to read one? 

So I like first Peter here 2:20 and it's this for what credit is it if when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure. But if when you do good and suffer for it, you endure. This is a gracious thing in the sight of God.  

So you know again we can look at our lives and say well you know I lost my job. Let's just say because they were downsizing and now I'm suffering but was that because you were good.  

Was that because you did something or was it because the company just needed to get rid of people and you happen to fall? You see, so that that's not what this scripture is leading to. 

What this scripture is saying is you are arrested for something that you didn't do, but in the interim you are praying for your captors. You are praying for those that are accusing you, and as the scripture says, praying for your enemies and while you're doing this, you're being beaten.  

Think about my favorite character in the Bible, Steven, and what he went through. Steven did good as far as the brothers, the disciples are concerned, for taking care of the widows, taking care of the tables, and when it came time to step up and give his testimony, he did. 

And for that brothers and sisters, they stoned him to death. And who was standing right there on the sidelines? Saul. So and that's a whole another story, because how Saul comes into the picture is another aspect. 

But here again endurance for everything that Steven had to go through in those final moments. The reward for him, he looked up, he saw Jesus sitting on the right hand of the father.  

And so for us, we want to endure whatever hardships we might have to endure. Whether it's within our control by, for example, telling the truth about something that is going to cause harm and danger. 

Or because we are being put in a position where we might even be put to death. Can we endure that knowing that we are beholden to our Father, that we are beholden to Jesus, and that it's that giving of ourselves, if you will, that is the true reward in heaven, that we're going to receive. 

And I just want to speak a word to my niece, my niece and nephews back there. One of the most difficult things you're going to face is standing out being different from the other young people because you don't want to be different. 

You want to fit in. I understand but there's going to come a time when you're going to have to stand up for what is right. And you have to and be willing to endure, endure the mockery, endure the jokes, endure the whatever negativity people may throw at you.  

Your parents have poured in into you such a mighty strength, and you are under their wing and their banner. And there's going to come a time when it's going to be just you just you against the crowd.  

And you have to stand up for what is right and it's going to be hard. It's going to be so hard. But praise God, if you are able to resist and endure, you'll look back and you can say thank you, Lord. 

But if you give in and you go along, believe me, you'll regret it. So just get ready. Just get ready. ZJ get ready, David, get ready, Ava, get ready. None of us on this call have gone through what you 3 will go through.   

It’s whole another world that you all are living in. So take all this, eat it, drink it. Believe it, because there will come a time where you'll have to make a choice to do what is right or to go along with the crowd.  

And we're praying that you will always do what is right. Always do what is right. I don't know why they did, the spirit just was like, has me speaking to you 3 today. You know, I'm just going along. Don't blame the messenger. 

Don't shoot the messager here. Alright, so we're going to the last three letters. F for faith. Faith is the fuel that sustains us by faith we move mountains, by our faith we please God. So I'm sure we can all think of scriptures about faith. I'm sure we can all think of scriptures. Anyone you want to read. 

And Jesus answered them, have faith in God truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain be taken up and thrown into the sea and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass. It will be done for him.  

Therefore I tell you whatever you ask in prayer believe that you have received it and it will be yours, Amen. Wouldn't it be wonderful we could all believe that if we could all be like alright Lord, you know what we need?  

You know I need this. You know, I need this provision. You know, I need this favor. I trust you and I'm not going to worry about it. It's in your hands, Amen. And you just wait with expectancy, no matter how long it takes. Wouldn't that be great if we were all at that level?  

We are working on it, Amen. By faith by faith, let us be mountain movers because Jesus said by faith. And The thing is, it's faith even the size of a mustard seed, that's nothing, that's nothing. So if you have just that much faith, it'll be yours. 

Take your little faith and as Ephesians 6 says in all circumstances take up the shield of faith. Which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. You notice it said take up the shield of faith.  

It didn’t say clap back. It didn’t say take out you know your gun, say what is say shield your defense. That's our defense. We're taking up the shield of faith and it's not some flimsy shield.  

It's a shield that's covered from head to toe backside all around us. That's our shield of faith, right. Allright, so we have two more letters. Understanding U, rely on the wisdom and understanding that can only come through the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Oh my goodness and proverbs is full of scriptures about understanding. A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion do we do we know some folks, are we surrounded by? 

Do we know some folks ok and here whoever is slow to anger has great understanding but he who has a hasty temper, exalts folly. My Lord, Lord, Lord. And then of course the one that we all know and recite trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 

In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will direct your path. Trust in the Lord, and don't lean on your own understanding. Don't we live in an age where everybody has an opinion? 

You can go on social media right now and see the opinions of individuals that amount to a hill of beans, but you will get yourself all worked up because somebody says something that you don't agree with and it just goes on and on, on and on. 

And these are individuals that speak folly. These are individuals that just want to have something to say. I have no control whatsoever, but we're not going to be that way now with the last letter of love. Now I know everybody's everybody knows a scripture about love. 

Love everyone, especially your brothers and sisters in Christ, and even those who are the most difficult to learn. That is the most difficult thing for us as Christians, but that's what will distinguish us from the rest of the world when we can love those who are the most difficult to love, even the ones in office.  

When we can love them, can you imagine I mean with everything that you're seeing in the world today. How difficult just search yourself. How difficult is it to pray for Mr. Trump? How difficult is it to pray for Mr. Musk?  

How difficult is it to pray for all of those leaders that have become the face of chaos in this generation that we're in right now and this is exactly what we're called to do, family. We called to love them.  

Even if we feel there are enemies, we are called to love them. We can't expect love from God if we don't show love. We have to show love. We have to pray for the souls of these individuals.  

We have to pray from a loving perspective so that just as we pray for forgiveness God will forgive us because we are showing love, Amen. So I have a few scriptures about love. Let us read the most famous or one of the most famous ones.  

Let's read 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. Let's read this one all together ok, we can stay muted, so we won't distract each other. But let's read first Corinthians 13:1- 13 and if I speak with the  tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love.  

I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 

And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love it profits me nothing. Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous. 

Love does not brag, and is not arrogant unbecomingly. It does not seek its own, is not provoked does not take into account for wrong suffering, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth, believes all things hopes all things, endures all things love never fails.  

But if there are gifts of prophecy they will be done away with, if there are things they will cease. If there is knowledge it will be done away. For we know in part, and we prophecy in part. 

But when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child. When I became a man, I did away with childish things. 

For now, we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. But now faith, hope, love abide in these three. But the greatest of these is love.  

The greatest of these is love, so to wrap up today, out of everything we've said and sharing your testimony and witnessing of the goodness of God, let everything be flavored with love, everything.  

Next week, come prepared to give your testimony al right. No more than two minutes, everyone. Everyone come prepared to give your testimony. I'm looking at you, Nadia she smiled because she knows I'm looking at her, 2 minutes.  

You know one at least one minute, but no more than two minutes. Because we like to leave the last half hour for Pastor Zee to kind of close this out and recap alright. Again, anybody have any questions about that? What to come to do next week? 

Ok Pastor Zee that is it for us tonight. Do you want to close this out with anything? Yeah, you know, one of you know you were talking about, you know, when we can pray for our enemies.  

Just a quick story, I think I was a must have been second year of high school I think and I used to visit my grandmother every summer. And then you know, you will go to the fields in the morning, do all that you need to do.  

Then after that you go take the cattle for grazing in, you know. And when we used to go out there, you know, you meet other boys, so you probably end up having maybe 500 cows put together, you know, different people from different places.  

And we will we just take times just corralling them but in between there, there's soccer matches going on there is fights going on, you name it. Everything was going on out there. And of course there was this young man, same age as me, high school too, so we used to play soccer and you know, I was kind of a good and he was not.  

And he just started hating on me and 1 year because you know, I go once I go 3 times a year. He lives out there. But you know, I'll go three times. So whenever we come around, he knows all the boys from the city are in the village.  

And we fought one time. He hit me so hard I thought he hit me with a rock. And this began this hatred and disliking of not standing someone and it was, it was maybe good seven years of this.  

That, you know, it became so bad that when school closes up, I'm in the city. In my mind, I can't wait to go all the way to go fight this kid. It became something that I thought of towards the end of school year, where writing exams in my head or hey, I want to go to my grandmother.  

You're gonna fight with this boy and of course, one of those times, you know, and it became you know most of the stuff that used to happen out there, right? Nobody knew. Because don't ask, don't tell. 

So you know, but it became so bad that it got to my grandmother. So one day I come back and she says to me, hey did you guys fight today? I'm like, yeah, we did. Says when is this going to end?  

I’m like, yeah, until he decides that he doesn't want to fight, right. So in the moment, she says to me. Come here let's go in there closes the door and she read that scripture. So like I want you to pray for him today.  

I mean, it took me 30 minutes to master the, you know it almost kind of like I felt like I was being defeated doing that. And surprisingly enough, is only after when I started praying. that you know, in that moment something happened in me, almost kind of like this dissolving of anger and I can’t explain it.  

But I remember it's almost kind of like something fell off me. And the following day we met and I greeted me and he was just like, kind of like in shock. Like, why is this? You know, like what's happening here?  

So again right the reason why the Lord wants us to pray for our enemies is not because of our enemies. Is because it is for Christ that freedom that he came so that we can have freedom. 

So when you hold somebody right, you are actually not free. You are one who is not free because you're having to carry things that you shouldn't be carrying, so it's like carrying. It's like, you know, April being pregnant and I'm like, I'm men always say this or we are pregnant.  

No, you're not. You are not pregnant. You don't know what that feels like, right? So it's like carrying this thing that you can't carry and you are not supposed to. You're not designed to carry it, so you are pretty much gonna carrying the devil's engine per say in you.  

And that way we were never designed to carry. But from this scripture I learned that praying for your enemies is not for them. You know when Jesus says forgive them for they don't know.  

He was literally releasing himself from getting mad wrong because he could have done something about it. Where you say forgive them for they do not know what they are doing. In other words, I'm willing to endure this pain for what they could possibly get in return of what they're doing to me.  

And that's powerful because you can't do that if you don't understand what love is. Because what Jesus did on the cross was love. It wasn't forgiveness, it was love. So again, you know, praying for your enemies.  

You are pretty much releasing yourself from caring things that you shouldn't be caring. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day that you have made. We thank you for this hour for this moment.  

And we thank you, Lord, that you are constantly teaching us, encouraging us, reminding us of things that we need to make sure we are taking care of. We bless you and honor you for your grace, for your love, for your peace, and within you for this community of believers that constantly gather and come together.  

We know it's not easy, but Father, we I encourage knowing that this spirit is always with us in everything that we do. Now as we go in through this week, as we celebrate Labour Day, as some of us rest, and all the things that goes on tomorrow.  

Continue to bless our families, our children. And we pray, Lord, for your grace, for your love to continue to abide into abound in us. And Father, as we continue to pursue you. May you make yourself strong in us.  

So that we can carry you on behalf of this Kingdom. So that somebody, somewhere gets to believe in what we believe in, which is the Kingdom of God bless the works of our hands. Bless the works of the one who sent us.  

Bless us in everything that we do and we will be so quick to give you glory because we know it rightfully belongs to you. As we go throughout the night, pray for a restful night and we pray Lord, that the seniors amongst us that may they could be at the held in health and strength in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

We pray for wisdom as they continue to take care of themselves. Drinking water, eating right and everything else, Lord they must do in order to live comfortable lives. We pray, Lord, that may they have the wisdom and the courage to do it.  

And will bless you and honor you for this community and our children who continuously dedicate and give them back to you. Because you know their path, you know their ways, you know, the way they should go.  

So help us to teach them in the things they should understand and know so that when they get older they will not depart from that which we have set in them as a foundation. Now lead us to the night until we meet tomorrow morning.  

May you continue to bless us in everything that we do in Jesus name, Amen, Amen, Amen and Amen.