Rev. Elliott Everitt - RUF Mercer & RUF Mississippi State: Recent Episodes
Elliott Everitt
Weekly sermons by Rev. Elliott Everitt and others at Reformed University Fellowship (RUF) at Mercer University (2013-2017) and Mississippi State University (2017-2020).
This sermon was preached at the first RUF at Mississippi State of the fall semester 2020 at Grace Presbyterian Church.
Luke 7:36-50 - What Would You Do?
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
The following sermon was preached at the weekly meeting of Reformed University Fellowship at Mississippi State University. For more information about the ministry of RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate.
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
This sermon was preached at the weekly gathering of students of RUF at Mississippi State University. To learn more about RUF at MSU, visit www.ruf.org/hailstate
One would be hard pressed to find many thoughts more profound than this: in the beginning, God.
If there is one thing that is clear from all of the gospels, and if there is one thing that all the gospels make clear that Jesus understood about himself, it was that he came to die.
Jesus was the promised King who would sit on the throne forever. When he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey at the beginning of the last week of his life, there was no mistaking the symbolism and significance.
Many people had encounters with Jesus. Here we find what Luke records as the last three personal encounters Jesus had before he entered Jerusalem for the last week of his life.
Perhaps the most famous parable Jesus told, but have we done it a disservice by not seeing clearly where we fit into it?
He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose. - Jim Elliot
Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. Naked come to thee for dress, helpless look to thee for grace. Foul I to the fountain fly, wash me savior, or I die. - Augustus Toplady
Isaiah 40:1-2 [1] Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. [2] Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned...
Jeremiah 8:22- Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored?
Isaiah 53:3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Hebrews 2:18 "For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted."
You endeavor to prove an incredible and well nigh impossible thing; that God endured to be born and become Man. – Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho
What is the gospel? What were the gospels of the New Testament? Who is Luke? Why should we listen to him? This semester we'll be looking at the good news of and about Jesus according to the gospel of Luke. In his opening verses Luke wants us to be certain of something: that Jesus really is good news.
Day 2 of Elliott's dating seminar from Week 2 of SuCo 2017. In the first talk, Elliott explored the "What" and the "Why" of dating. In the second talk, he explores the "How."
Day 1 of Elliott's dating seminar from Week 2 of SuCo 2017. In the first talk, Elliott explores the "What" and the "Why" of dating.
What is the purpose of heaven? Why think about it or talk about it? Is it just the place we go when we die? Is it just the better option to hell? What if we're given a vision of our final destiny, not so we can manage and survive in this life, but so that we can thrive?
There is perhaps no more hotly discussed or debated chapter in Revelation that chapter 20 dealing with the the 1000 years, Satan's binding and the first and second resurrection. What we can we all agree on? We're destined for thrones.
As John's visions recorded in Revelation draw to a close he sees the destiny toward which all history is moving. What he sees, but really hears, is the eruption of heaven in thunderous praise. Why? Because God wins. But, more importantly, love wins.
What is the most dangerous thing about the hostile entities arrayed against the people of God and the world? We are often awed by their splendor and power, to the point that no one is invulnerable to to their sway.
The Dragon of Rev. 12 does not work alone. In Rev. 13 Johns sees the work of the Unholy Trinity, 666, made up of the dragon, the beast from the sea, and the beast from the land. A scary image in itself sure, but even scarier still is that the "whole earth" marvels at their works.
What if behind all the stories and circumstances of our lives, there was another story, the ultimate story? In Revelation 12, John sees and tells that story. There's a princess, a dragon, and war.
If Revelation 4 and 5 are true, that God and the Lamb sit enthroned at the center of the universe, then how do I process the sin and suffering in the world and in my life? The Lion has conquered, and the Lamb is worthy to open the seals, and as we witness it through John's eyes in Rev. 6 we can begin to make sense of that question.
Our world is in a crisis, and more and more it is harder to deny this fact. In Revelation 5 John weeps because he sees the cosmos in crisis. Who is worthy to open the scroll of God's plan and purposes for the universe?
Now begins all the big and spectacular images Revelation is known for. How do they come? How are we to see and understand? The same as John, we've been invited by Jesus himself through the door.
Before getting to the more popular visions and images of Revelation, Jesus, the one who is in the midst of the lamp stands, speaks directly to each of the seven churches. What would it be like to get a letter from Jesus?
Revelation 1:9-20. The first thing John saw was so magnificent, so majestic, so glorious, so vision shattering that he fell down as if he were dead. What did he see? Jesus.
Rev. 1:1-8 - Many people bring many different assumptions and baggage to a look into the the last book of the Bible. What is it about? Why is it there? Simply put, John wants to show us something. More specifically, John wants to show us someone. Take a look for yourself.
There is no greater truth in the gospel than that there is nothing, not one thing, that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. How can that be? Because God has loved us with an everlasting love, springing from eternity past and guaranteed to secure us into eternity future.
There is no greater truth to give us assurance of God's love than this: that we can be called children of God.
Many consider Romans 8 to be the best chapter in the Bible. Here Paul brings home succinctly all the threads he's been weaving about the glorious truths of justification by faith alone, and he begins with the glorious truth of the power of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
If we have died to sin, how can we live in it? But, we're not under law, we're under grace. So... is the law sin? In Romans 7 Paul answers just as emphatically as he had in Romans 6, by no means! What good, then, is the law?
Grace covers sin, and I've plenty of that, so is that it? Just when you thought it couldn't get any bigger or more profound Paul brings the grace of the gospel to bear on our every day lives. The grace that saves is the grace that makes us new. How? Because by grace we have been saved AND united with Christ. Therefore not only is my sin covered, but it's power has been broken as well.
As Paul continues to unpack the good news of justification by faith in Jesus he wants to make something clear: what we have in the gospel is a sure thing. Far from some fragile truce, the gospel of justification by faith reveals to us a love that will not let us go.
There is nothing perhaps harder to wrap our minds and words around than faith. What is it? How do I do it? Is it important? Paul says the keys to understanding this glorious good news of being made right with God by a righteousness apart from the law and works is that it comes through faith. So, yes! It's pretty important!
Romans 3:9-31 - Paul arrives at the big news to which he's been building and from which the rest of the letter will flow. We need righteousness to be right with God. What if that righteousness was from God? That kind of news would change everything.
We are blessed to welcome to RUF this week Rev. Gary Leibovich, the senior pastor of Strong Tower Fellowship (PCA) Macon, GA.
Romans 2 - As quickly as he Paul spoke of the judgment of God against the irreligious, he turns and says the religious are no different. How can this be? How can the religious deserve judgment just like the irreligious? Again, it all boils down to a righteousness(in this case "self" righteousness) that falls short.
Romans 1:18-32. Paul opened his letter by telling us he has really good news, but he immediately follows that up with the wrath of God. What are we to make of this often taboo subject? How does it square with the supposed good news?
In the opening verse of his well known letter to the church at Rome Paul tells us that he has Big News that he's Not Ashamed of about what it means to be Right with God.
Follow Sammy on Twitter @sammyrhodes and look out for his new book, "This is Awkward," hitting shelves March 1, 2016.
Follow Sammy on Twitter @sammyrhodes and look out for his new book, "This is Awkward," hitting shelves March 1, 2016.
Follow Sammy on Twitter @sammyrhodes and look out for his new book, "This is Awkward," hitting shelves March 1, 2016.
Follow Sammy on Twitter @sammyrhodes and look out for his new book, "This is Awkward," hitting shelves March 1, 2016.
All corners of our world and culture, religious and not, are trying to define womanhood by how you look and what you do. In Proverbs 31 we find a rather remarkable picture. The culmination of wisdom, according to the author, is finding the excellent woman. "An excellent woman, who can find?"
Our hope and prayer is that Mercer students would find RUF a safe place for the convinced and unconvinced to process the truth claims of Christianity.
While the conclusion of the David narrative in the book of Samuel seems to show David lacking, it actually serves to show us once again his greatness as he points us to the mercy of God.
II Samuel 23 records the names and feats of David's mighty men. As we focus in on one particular story which took place early in David's reign, we begin to see what it means to be mighty in God's eyes.
The most heartbreaking episode in the life of David, without a doubt, is the rise and fall of his son Absalom. We look at Psalm 63 as we trace the story that spans 2 Samuel 13-19.
What do you expect the chapter after Bathsheba to contain? An answer to David's grievous sin, yes, but perhaps not the one you would expect.
In one of the most unsettling chapters in the whole Bible, King David, the man after God's own heart, flies headlong after his own desires and pleasures and into sin. What do we do with a villainous king?
Rev. Josh Garrett steps in and leads us through 2 Samuel 9, where David shows us what it is like to show the love that you have been shown, to give what you've been given, to see the world and people as God sees them.
2 Samuel 7 is one of the most important passages of the entire Old Testament as God covenants with David that his throne will be forever.
One of David's top priorities in his new kingdom was to bring the ark of the Lord back to Jerusalem. Surely the Lord would bless this priority, but the turn of events in bringing it back left David and us confused. How can we be close to a holy God?
As I Samuel's account of David's rise to the throne draws to a close, we see how the true king is found in the wilderness.
Jesse McCallister takes into the cave at Engedi in I Samuel 24 where David is handed King Saul on a silver platter.
No sooner had David stepped off the battlefield victorious did he learn a vital truth. If he was going to be God's anointed one, he was going to need friends, and God provided one in a beautiful way.
I Samuel 17 - One of the most well known stories of the Bible swells with significance at the front end of David's rise to the throne. Once again the theme of "things are not as they seem" arises to point us to the true king, the man after God's own heart.
We encounter King David where God introduces him to the story and to us in history in I Samuel 16. Israel's first king, Saul, has failed, but God has provided for himself a king for his people. How does a king who lived 3000 years ago have anything to do with us?
This final installment failed to record at RUF large group, but here it is recorded as it was preached again at North Macon Presbyterian Church on Sunday, January 4, 2015.
The gospels and Jesus himself make one thing very clear: he came to die. In Luke 23 we find all the details Luke wants us to know concerning the darkest day in all of history.
When Jesus rode into Jerusalem the Sunday before Passover, the people shouted "Hallelujah" to the king. By the end of the week, the crowds would cry "Crucify!" In this passage, the triumph of king Jesus and what he's bringing is real, but the reality of the tragedy of it all can't be ignored.
What does real and assured faith in this Jesus look like? As Jesus draws near to Jerusalem, Luke sets up an answer to that question for us that seems like a bad "walked into a bar" joke. What's the answer? Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose.
Jesus came in glory, and all beheld his glory, but it was totally unlike any glory anyone was looking for. Jesus called anyone who would follow into that his glory: a daily dying to self, sin and the world. Most unexpected? Where that glory would be most magnified.
Jesus did not live up to many people's expectations, and so they were all left with the choice of what to make of him. In this passage, we see a spiritual juggernaut, an upstanding citizen, and a woman of the city all coming to grips with the unexpected of Jesus. The results? Unexpected.
In what is commonly known as the Sermon on the Mount we find Jesus doing what he has already said he expressly came to do: preach the good news of the kingdom of God. What does this kingdom look like? How can we know it when we see it?
For most, Jesus and miracles go together without question, whether you believe they were historically factual or not. How are we supposed to process the miracles presented to us in the gospels, especially given the fact that we weren't there?
Luke wants us to be certain about just who this Jesus is. So he tells us a story about how he was rejected in his hometown. How do we make sense of that?
How did Jesus resist temptation in the wilderness? If your default answer is "Because he was God," perhaps you have missed a beautiful truth: Jesus was tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin. What does it mean that Jesus was tempted?
Few stories stick out in people's collective mind like the nativity, yet only two of the four gospel writers record it. Even then, there emphasis is clearly on events surrounding the birth of Jesus rather than the birth itself. As Justin Martyr records in "Dialogue with Trypho," 'You endeavor to prove an incredible and well nigh impossible thing; that God endured to be born and become Man.'
To conclude his glorious letter packed with so many glorious truths and their implications on our daily lives, Paul concludes by telling us something we most probably already know: life's a battle. More than that, Paul says living as children of the light means that there will be spiritual warfare.
Paul has been unfolding for us the grand mystery of God from before time to unite all things in Jesus Christ. How does marriage fit into that? Paul tells us it's a picture of what God has done and is doing for us in Jesus.
The gospel tells us that God has done for us in Christ what we cannot do ourselves. The gospel also gives us new life, and with that new life comes a new way of living. Here Paul spells out how the Christian should walk.
If you are in Christ, if the glorious truths of the gospel are true of you, then you are a new creation. In the latter half of Ephesians 4 Paul outlines exactly what that looks like.
As Paul makes his turn into the second half of Ephesians, he makes a sweeping application of the truth of the gospel for the church: Unity.
Paul concludes the first half of Ephesians, which has been a glorious account of what God has accomplished for us in Christ, with a prayer. What does he pray for? That we would be rooted in the glorious truths of the gospel.
Why do there seem to be so many walls in our relationships and in society? Paul says that apart from Christ our natural condition is one of separation and alienation, but that in Christ the walls have been torn down.
Paul makes an astonishing statement: we were all once the walking dead. The gospel does more than tell us good news, it tells us why we need good news. God has done something in Christ that we could never do for ourselves. He brought the dead to life.
What is it that causes Paul to erupt in a prayer of praise to begin his letter to the Ephesians? It is that God has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing through grace before time, grace in the here and now, and grace that will carry us home.
Who are you? Who do you think you are? Identity is one the fundamental aspects of life. At the opening of Ephesians, it's clear that Paul is excited about something, and it has everything to do with his readers' new identity and its life changing implications.
RUF Fall Conference 2013 at Camp Kaleo in Forsyth, GA with RUF's from UGA, Ga Tech, GSU, Kennesaw State, Emory, Mercer, and SCAD and featuring our speaker, former Mercer Campus Minister Chris "Buck" Rogers.
RUF Fall Conference 2013 at Camp Kaleo in Forsyth, GA with RUF's from UGA, Ga Tech, GSU, Kennesaw State, Emory, Mercer, and SCAD and featuring our speaker, former Mercer Campus Minister Chris "Buck" Rogers.
RUF Fall Conference 2013 at Camp Kaleo in Forsyth, GA with RUF's from UGA, Ga Tech, GSU, Kennesaw State, Emory, Mercer, and SCAD and featuring our speaker, former Mercer Campus Minister Chris "Buck" Rogers.
RUF Fall Conference 2013 at Camp Kaleo in Forsyth, GA with RUF's from UGA, Ga Tech, GSU, Kennesaw State, Emory, Mercer, and SCAD and featuring our speaker, former Mercer Campus Minister Chris "Buck" Rogers.
The last of his "I am" statements, Jesus says that he is the true vine. If Jesus has revealed anything about what it means to be in relationship to him, it's that we either find our entire lives in him, or we have no life at all.
As Jesus continues to comfort and exhort his disciples in the Upper Room, and after he claims to be the way, the truth and the life, he makes an amazing promise to calm their troubled hearts. He will send "another" Advocate. Who is this Advocate? What does he do? And how is that he is "another" advocate?
The Farewell Discourse, unique to John's gospel, is Jesus' words of encouragement and instruction to his disciples in the Upper Room the night of his betrayal. Here at the beginning, we see Jesus has come to glorify his Father, and bring us back into the glory He has known for eternity.
Jesus walks into a context of death and sorrow, he weeps, and he claims to be the resurrection and the life. Christianity alone claims that God came deliberately to put himself on the hook of human suffering (Keller), and reality of his resurrection is that he has turned evil, suffering, even death itself on their heads.
What makes Jesus the good shepherd, especially in contrast to the false shepherds, the thieves and robbers? The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep, his sheep know his voice, and they are eternally secure in his hands.
In continuing discourse with those who heard him claim to be the light of the world, Jesus continues to draw out what this means for us. In so doing he points to the Truth about our darkness, the Lies we believe in the darkness, and he goes to the videotape of who he really is.
If Jesus is the Light of the World, why were (and are!) so many blind to his person and mission? Jesus as light exposes things to show what they really are. Are you in the light? Do you really want to be?
Why are you following Jesus? Jesus says our need of Him lies at the core of our being, and to believe and follow him is feed on him for life itself.
Jesus intentionally breaks every social barrier - gender, race, morality - to lead a woman to living water.
Did Jesus really say you must be born again? Don't let familiarity with this concept and the most well known Bible verse cause you to miss the utter beauty of the gospel as it is so clearly laid out for us in this passage.
As John transitions from the eternally begotten Word of God to Jesus of Nazareth, the invitation is to come and see.
St. Augustine said of the gospel of John that it was deep enough for an elephant to swim and shallow enough for a child not to drown. The first 18 verses of the gospel, commonly known as the Prologue, show forth the infinite depth of God's most perfect revelation of himself in the person of Jesus Christ, the eternally begotten Son and Word of God.
Elliott's first sermon with RUF at Mercer. RUF strives to reach students for Christ and equip them to serve. In others words, our hope and prayer is that believers would be strengthened in their faith and that the lost would be claimed for Christ. We believe the gospel is sufficient to do both.