Sermon - The Battle Withinn: "Kingdom Wisdom " Series

Sermon Outline
Focus: The greatest battles in our lives are often not around
us—but within us. Every conflict ultimately asks one question:
Who is sitting on the throne of my heart?

I. Every Conflict Reveals Competing Kingdoms (vs. 1-3)
      Conflict often exposes deeper desires.
      A good desire becomes dangerous when it becomes a ruling desire.
      Conflict is often the smoke; idolatry is the fire.

II. Every Idol Demands a Throne (vs. 4-6)
      The world says, “Build your kingdom.” Jesus says, “Follow Me.”
      Every false king promises life but leaves us empty.
      “But He gives greater grace.” (James 4:6)

III. The King Invites Us Home (vs. 7-10)
      Repentance is stepping off the throne and returning to the Father.
      Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.
      Kingdom wisdom begins where self-rule ends.

IV. Questions for Reflection
      What desire is competing for the throne of my heart?
      Where am I resisting God’s rule?
      What would surrender to King Jesus look like this week?

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:04

If you can just have approval and recognition from a boss, you'll be happy. If you can just have that wife or husband and family, then you'll be happy. If you can just control every situation you find yourself in, you can be happy. If you can just succeed, then you'll be happy. Again, those things are not in and of themselves bad things. Don't mishear me today. They become dangerous, however, when they become ultimate things.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

Welcome to the Church of the Lakes weekly sermon podcast. We're so glad you've joined us, and we're honored to be part of your spiritual journey. Today, Pastor Jared Priestet continues with our sermon series Kingdom Wisdom using the book of James, written by the half-brother of Jesus. Today's message is titled The Battle Within. The greatest battles in our lives are often not around us, but within us. Every conflict ultimately asks one question: Who is sitting on the throne of my heart? And now, here's Pastor Jared. Be blessed.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

Such a joy to be you in worship this day. I just wanted to offer a quick note of celebration. Um, many of you maybe even know what I'm about to say. Uh just a moment of just gratitude to you as a congregation, as our faith family. Uh, this past Monday at 11:30 in the afternoon, uh, Meredith and I had the blessing of adopting Jaden into our family. Uh he spent 1,222 days in foster care. And the judge on Monday said he is now the natural and permanent member of the priesthood household. And I just want to say thank you so much to this congregation for behalf of Meredith and myself. Um not only are we a gift to him, I think he might be more of a gift to us. Uh, if you know Jaden, he is just an incredible human being uh who the Lord uh had this plan laid out for him. He took brokenness and made something good from it. And uh praise be to God that we serve a God uh who does that. It really struck me if I can take one more minute. Uh Jaden gets a new birth certificate, a brand new birth certificate. It's literally a new birth, and that's happening to him physically, and when we come to Christ, that happens to us spiritually. We are giving a new life, a new birth in him. And so there's a lot of parallels with the adoption of Jaden to our own adoption as a family of God. And as the months uh kind of drone on, I will probably bring a lot of that up in our sermons so we can become more understand more fully really what Jesus and his blood did for us at the cross. Um so praise be to God. Thank you, church, so much uh for celebrating with us either in person or in spirit last last Monday at 1130. Um today we are continuing on in a series of messages. We started six weeks ago. Um, I've actually been enjoying the book of James so much that I altered our series to do one more week next week. Uh so we're gonna be in the book of James for seven full weeks, and we still have kind of missed pieces of it, uh, which I apologize for. Uh but what we've been uh doing is we've called this series Kingdom Wisdom. And one reason this is such an important piece of the puzzle wisdom is because we live in a world that is just drowning in information. Particularly with the dawn of AI, we have any type of information we desire at our disposal in any given moment. Uh yet, though we're drowning in information, we are starving for wisdom. We truly are starving for wisdom. So over these past six weeks, we uh we have allowed the author James, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to help cultivate a kingdom wisdom in us. And today he's gonna add one more layer uh to understanding how to cultivate wisdom, and it has to do with the battles we face in life. Uh he's gonna kind of argue in James chapter four uh that the greatest battle you and I will ever face in life is not outside of us, it's inside of us, it's in our our own hearts. And so we're gonna pick up this conversation, James chapter 4, uh, and work through the first 10 verses. Listen to God's word. If you have your Bibles, open them up. If you need a Bible, see me after service. I want to put the word of God in your hand uh this day. But listen to God's word. Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings or passions or desires that war within you? You want something and do not have it, so you commit murder. You covet something and cannot obtain it, so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask with wrong motive, in order to spend what you receive on your pleasures. Adulterers, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Those who wish to be friends with the world therefore become the enemy of God. Or do you suppose that it was for nothing that the scriptures say God yearns jealousy for the spirit that he has made to dwell in us? But he gives all the more grace. Can I say it again? But he gives all the more grace. Therefore, it says, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Therefore, submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep. Yet your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. Friends, this is indeed the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Will you pray with me? Lord God, I thank you already for the gift of this morning, the chance we have to gather in this space to draw ever closer to you, to hear your life-giving word proclaimed. And Lord, now as you've bestowed upon me the task of offering reflection on this life-giving word, I just pray in this moment, God, that you just soak it with the blood of Jesus. The redeeming work that He did for us at the cross, that you undergird it with the power of your Holy Spirit, God, so we can leave your edified and encouraged, and maybe even challenged to draw ever closer to you. Lord, we love you. We need you. It's in your name we pray. Amen. Friends, have you ever noticed how quickly we become experts at explaining our own behavior? Did you notice that? Let me give you a few examples of how we have become experts at explaining our own behavior. If you're running late to an event and you show up, what do you what do you usually say to the host? I'm sorry I'm late, traffic was terrible. But if somebody else is late to that same event, what do you say? They just don't know how to handle their time well. You know? How about this one? Uh, you in a moment of anger kind of fly off the handle. You say the person you were angry at, I'm so sorry, I've been under a lot of pressure lately. I did not mean to take it out on you. But if somebody else flies off the handle, what do you say? They got anger issues. Well one pastor said it so well. He said, We're all defense attorneys for ourselves, but prosecutors for everyone else. Isn't that so true? Look, like we instinctively look outside of ourselves for the reason why things aren't going as the way we wish they were going, or the why reason why we're behaving the way we're behaving. We blame our spouse, or we blame our parents, or we blame our children, or we blame our culture, or maybe even some of us blame the devil. Well, what's the old saying? The devil made me do it. Now, don't get me wrong, the devil is a very real entity that we have to deal with. Uh Peter tells the early church in 1 Peter his letter to the early church that the devil actually prowls around like a roaring lion waiting to devour its prey. So the devil is real. But if you notice in James' letter to the early church, the section I read today, the devil doesn't even make the page until verse 7. No. James starts so much closer to home. He begins with that posing question: What causes quarrels and fights among you? Now, again, if someone were to ask us that question, we may say things like this Well, it's the culture in which we live. It's the politics of the day. It's that colleague or co-worker who ticked me off. It's my spouse. It's my circumstances. James says, No. It's not any of those things. What causes quarrels and fights among you? Is it not the passions or desires that war within you? Friends, this morning, James, what he's gonna do is he's gonna turn the mirror around and he's gonna want us to look ourselves in the eyes. Listen, before we as the people of God can change the world around us, we have to make sure that the Spirit of God has changed us from within. Because here's the truth that James is gonna carry through this entire passage of scripture. Every conflict in life we face is ultimately a conflict of kingdoms. Every argument, every broken relationship, every church disagreement, every bitter spirit, every prideful response in a moment, beneath all of those lies this one question. Who gets to be the king? Whose kingdom prevails? Is it mine? The kingdom of self? Or is it God's? Friends, every human heart has a throne established on it. And every day someone sits on that throne, the question is, will it be King Jesus or will it be self? James says, again, the greatest battle in your life, it's not outside of you, it's not the workplace, it's not your home, it's not the culture, it's not that difficult family member. The greatest battle in your life is in your own heart. And until that battle is settled, James is saying, every other battle around you is going to continue to rage. So here's the first thing I want to impress upon you today is that every conflict that you face, it reveals competing kingdoms. Again, look where James starts in verse 1 to 3. He says, What causes quarrels and fights among you? Do they not come from your desires or passions that battle within you? Notice James says that our problems don't begin with our behavior, they begin with our desires or passions inside. Now, listen, desires and passions in and of themselves are not bad things. God created us with desire, with passion. Okay? We all have a desire to be loved. Is that a fair statement? We all have a desire to feel significant and to be seen. We have a desire to, you know, feel like we have worth and purpose to our existence. We all have this desire to find rest and peace. The problem is not that we have desire. The problem is here with us that we take those good desires and we make them ruling desires. We take blessings that God bestows upon us and we've make them our masters. Uh John Keller, the theologian from the 16th century, in his uh, you know, uh systematic theology books, um, the institutes, says this about the human heart. He says the human heart is an idol factory. Uh Tim Keller will pick that up in his book, Counterfeit Gods, which I would commend to you. Uh the human heart is an idol factory. What does he mean? He means we take good things and we make them the ultimate things. Let me give you an example. Say you want your spouses, or if you're not married, your best friend's respect, their admiration. Now that's a good thing to want their respect and their admiration. But if you must have their respect and their admiration for you to find peace and worth in life, then guess what? You have just made a good thing, another king. James says, you desire and do not have, so you quarrel and fight. Do you see what he's saying? He's saying the conflict that's on the surface is just merely the smoke. Idolatry, that's actually the fire that creates the smoke. Friends, we spend so much of our energy and time trying to blow away or extinguish the smoke while ignoring what's actually causing it and burning underneath it. Like, why do our marriages struggle? Why do churches divide? Why do friendships fracture? It's because underneath all of those conflicts are two little kingdoms that are colliding. My way, my expectations, my rights, my kingdom. Now, before we think that James is just talking to those other people, we need to remember that every single one of us has this battle that is raging inside our hearts. Friends, if we're honest, most of us, unless we've conditioned ourselves to do it, most of us don't wake up with the first prayer on our lips being, Lord, how can I make your kingdom come today? If we don't condition ourselves to have that be the first prayer we offer in the morning, we'll wake up asking, How can my day go as I want my day to go today? How can I avoid discomfort today? How can I make sure I stay in control of the things that I have to stay in control of today? That's not merely selfishness. Friends, that's a rival kingdom. Every conflict is ultimately a kingdom conflict because every conflict eventually asks the same question. Who is sitting on the throne? Friends, James says, until we can recognize the battle within us, we will spend our lives blaming the battle on everyone else around us. Didn't we see that right in Genesis 3 with Adam and Eve? They disobey God. What's the first thing Adam does? Blame shifts and throws Eve under the bus. What does Eve do? Blame shifts and throws the serpent under the bus, right? James says we will blame everyone else if we don't deal with this battle inside of us. But but James isn't finished with his conversation. He shows us the smoke, the surface conflict. Now again, he wants us to get underneath of it and actually expose the fire that fans those flames and produces that smoke. Okay, what is it he says that keeps pulling us away from the kingdom of God? That generates the fire that creates the smoke. What is it that pulls us away from the kingdom of God? Says it in verse 4. It's friendship with the world. That's what pulls us away from the kingdom of God. Here's the second thing I want you to hear. Every idol demands a throne. Every idol. James has exposed the smoke. Now he takes on the fire that causes the smoke. Listen again to verse 4. You know, asking again, how do we get pulled away from the kingdom of God? He actually calls the church in this moment an adulterous people. He says, Don't you understand that friendship with the world produces hostility toward God? I mean, that's a startling accusation, isn't it? That you're an adulterous person? Why does he bring up adultery in the middle of this conversation? The reason he does is because all throughout the canon of scripture in the Old Testament, God, the living God, saw his relationship with Israel not as just a friendship, but as a marriage. And so every time that Israel broke one of God's commandments, they weren't just breaking or dismissing a rule of God. They were actually breaking the covenant they had with God. That's why he talks about adultery. James wants them to understand that they are giving their hearts. At times we are giving our hearts to another lover. James says that what happens whenever our hearts, this is what happens whenever our hearts love the things and the ways of the world more than the values of the kingdom of God. We break our covenant with our God, and he gives us that harsh admonition. Now let's be clear. James, in terms of our relationship with the world, isn't saying that as Christians, we are called to withdraw completely from the world, live in ivory towers so we cannot be affected by the world. Jesus himself says, no, no, be in the world but not of the world. And Jesus lived that out perfectly, didn't he? He loved sinners. He welcomed outsiders, he leaned in, he moved toward broken people. No, what James is talking about in this moment is so much more subtle and so much deeper. What he is saying is to be a friend of the world means you have adopted the systems of the world as your ideology, as your worldview. It's so difficult in America today because we were established as a country in 1776 on Judeo-Christian values. So we have the veneer of Christianity in our law books, but they have been so the systems of the world have perverted them so much that we've really lost the conviction of making sure we're people of the kingdom of God and not falling in love with the value systems of the world. Here's an example. The world value system says to us, promote yourself. Climb higher on the corporate ladder. Now again, that in of itself may not be a bad thing, but when it becomes an ultimate thing, what has it just become? An idol that produces the fire that creates smoke that causes conflict. So the king values of the world say, promote yourself. What does the kingdom of God say? Deny yourself. The world says, build your own kingdom, make a name for yourself, leave a lasting legacy for the generations to follow. But what does Jesus say? Take up your cross and follow me. The world says, make a name for yourself, maybe even get one plastered on the building at a university. But what does Jesus say? When you pray, pray, hallowed be thy name. Did you see it? Two completely different kingdoms. One built on self-exaltation, the value systems of our world. The other one built on self-surrender, the value system of the kingdom of God. And friends, every day those kingdoms are colliding inside of us. That's why criticism stings so deeply. That's why we compare ourselves to one another. That's why somebody else's success feels like our failure. Because every idol inside whispers the same lie. Oh, if you can just have me, then you'll be happy. If you can just have approval and recognition from a boss, you'll be happy. If you can just have that wife or husband and family, then you'll be happy. If you can just control every situation you find yourself in, you can be happy. If you can just succeed, then you'll be happy. Again, those things are not in and of themselves bad things. Don't mishear me today. They become dangerous, however, when they become ultimate things. The great reformer Martin Luther in the 16th century had this to say. He says, Whatever your heart clings to, whatever your heart relies upon, that is properly your God. Wow. That statement actually begs some searching questions. What does your heart cling to? What do you rely upon? Here's a question. What if you lost it tomorrow would cause you to wonder if your life is still even worth living? That thing or that person may be what's sitting on the throne of your heart. Listen, church, idols are not necessarily a bad thing. Usually what our idols are are good things that we've turned into God things. And everything we've turned into God things, they become false kings in our lives. And every false king eventually becomes a cruel master. Do you realize every single idol over promises and under-delivers? You all probably, like me, have had enough oopses in life with idols where you've rely too heavily on them because they've made you promises. They've lured you in with promises, and at the end, what's happened? They've never delivered on what they've said. They've promised to deliver on. They promise freedom, but they will always leave you enslaved. They promise you life everlasting, but they will always leave you feeling empty. Wow, James is really leading us to the point of despair, isn't he? Who's to save us from this? What a wretched man I am! Who shall save me from this body of death? Verse 6, James gives us this pivot moment, brings us to the point of despair, and then he says, but but he, meaning God, gives greater grace. Friends, don't fly past that statement too soon. In fact, if you have your Bibles open, underline it. But he gives greater grace. James has exposed our pride. He's exposed our rival kingdoms. Our wandering hearts, and then he says, but but he gives greater grace, greater grace than your pride in failures, greater grace than every idol that you've ever chased in every moment of the existence of your life here on earth. Listen, God doesn't merely want to just expose our hearts. God's desire is to heal them. Friends, God doesn't simply point at the throne on our heart and tell us to get off. No, He provides us the grace to step down. Because listen, here's what I've discovered, at least in my almost 46 years of existence on earth. The hardest person in the world to be is your own king. Hardest person in the world to be is your own king. Hardest person. Why? Because it's exhausting, isn't it? It is exhausting when we try to spend our energy controlling everyone and everything around us. We try to fix every problem, we try to manage every outcome, we try to carry every burden we were not equipped to carry. Church, you and I were never equipped to sit on the throne. Only one person can carry the weight of being a king. And his name is Jesus Christ. So what do we do? We have this tug-of-war competition going on. What do we do? James tells us what to do. Here's the prescription. He says, submit yourselves therefore to God. Draw near to God, and he will undoubtedly draw near to you. Listen, those are not merely commands. Friends, that is an invitation. That is an invitation to come home. The third thing I wanted to share is the king, King Jesus, invites you and me to come home. James has just exposed our hearts. He's now extending God's invitation. Look at verse 7 to 10 again. Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil. Draw near to God. Cleanse your hands. Purify your hearts. Humble yourselves before the Lord. You know, at first it sounds like James is just giving us a list of commands. I don't think he is. You know what I think he's doing? He's describing for you and me what repentance looks like. That's what he's doing. Repentance church looks like someone who has spent years of their life building their own kingdom, finally pivoting, and coming home to the king. Repentance looks like submission. It looks like stop when we stop fighting God, it's resisting the devil. It's when we stop believing the lie that life is found in anyone or anywhere else other than in Christ. Repentance is drawing near, it's moving towards the Father. And in that moment, realizing guess what? The Father has always been moving toward you. It's humbling yourself, it's stepping off the throne. Church, James isn't saying this is what you must do to climb your way back to God. No, no, no. He's just simply saying, Come home. Come home, church. Come home, sinner. Come home, friend. You know, I can't help but in this moment in these verses, think of the prodigal son from Luke 15, right? We all know the story from the prodigal son. He did something that would have been so distasteful in that day and age. He asked his father for his inheritance before his father was dead. Basically saying, Dad, I wish you were dead so I could have the money that belongs to me. Well, what this prodigal son thought was that, well, what he wanted was the father's blessing without the father's rule, is what he wanted. And he thought that freedom meant leaving the father, leaving home. So what does he do? The father, in his grace and mercy, gives the prodigal son his inheritance. He goes off to some distant land and he squanders it all and prostitutes and illicit living. Finds himself at one moment just empty. Right? I mean, here's the thing, church. Every kingdom apart from God eventually is going to leave you empty. The prodigal son realizes this. Gets to the point in his life where he is eking out an existence doing what? Feeding pigs slap on a farm. Scripture then tells us in Luke 15 that the young man finally came to his senses. You know what that means? He repented. He realized in that moment I was never meant to be my own king. And I need to go home. And so he set off to go back home. And when he got home, you know how the father responded? Not with a lecture. Not with shame. Not with an I told you so. The father ran toward him. He runs toward us. That is grace. Listen, every step we take toward God reveals that God the Father has already been moving toward us. Grace. Undeserved merit and favor. So how can James make that promise that when we draw close to God, when we run after God, that God in turn will draw close to us? How does he make that promise? Well, it's because Jesus made it possible. He ends with a statement, humble yourself. What person humbled themselves more than Jesus Christ on earth? Jesus, the Son of God, left his throne in heaven. The second person of our Trinitarian natured God condescended himself, left his throne in heaven, came to our earthly existence, and fleshed himself with our humanity, and even became a servant. Eventually wore a crown of thorns, like the only king who ever deserved a throne, willingly surrendered himself from that throne onto a cross. Even before he went to the cross, what does he pray in the Garden of Gethsemane as he's sweating drops of blood? Not my will, but thy will be done. Church, Jesus won his kingdom through surrender. And because he surrendered himself for us, we in turn can surrender ourselves for him. Like he did not, when he shed his blood on the cross, it was not only for our sinful actions, he died also for our sinful self-rule. Like on the cross, friends, he died for rebels like you and me. So we could be called the sons and daughters of a king of God, the living God, so we could receive a new birth certificate and be reborn. Jesus hung on a cross so the people who were building their own kingdom could finally become part of his kingdom. You know, when my children were small, they're all teenagers now, which is just crazy for me to believe that I'm closer to 50 than I am to 40. But they're all teenagers now. But when they were little kids and we'd go into the car to leave somewhere, I'd unlock the door, I'd open the door, unlock the car door, I'd open it up, and undoubtedly one of them would jump into the driver's seat, sit down and grab a hold of the steering wheel. Many of you parents have had the same experience with your kids. And they did so because it felt so good to sit in the driver's seat. It felt powerful, right? And we'd let them sit there for a second and pretend they were driving the car, and after a couple minutes, like, okay, let's get into the car seat, let's get into the booster seat. Daddy's got to get into the driver's seat and drive this car. And they never wanted to leave. Why? Oh, because it feels so powerful to be in that driver's seat, doesn't it? Church, that is James 4. We've all climbed into God's seat. We've insisted on driving ourselves. We've tried to build our own kingdoms and we are exhausted. And we're exhausted because we were never created to carry the weight of being a king. There is only one person who has the ability and the capacity to bear the weight of kingdomship, and it is Jesus Christ. Let me end with an invitation. Every single day, friends, we bow before something. Maybe it's approval, maybe it's comfort, maybe it's success, maybe it's control, maybe it's even fear or anxiety or money. Look, every day we're choosing which kingdom is going to rule our hearts. Today, James asks the simple question: who is sitting on the throne? You know, maybe today you realize that the battle you're fighting isn't really with anyone else. Even though it may feel like it has been with someone else. Maybe you realize that, you know what, maybe that real battle that I need to be fighting right now is in my own heart. A battle over control, over pride, over surrender. And perhaps today Jesus is whispering into your ear, My son, my daughter. It's time to let me drive. As we sing, I want to invite you to respond. You know, in the services I've been leading ever since the beginning of the year, really, uh, I've offered a new element of worship, and that's the altar rail. An invitation to come step forward and kneel at the altar rail. You know, kneeling at the altar rail doesn't make you more spiritual. Doesn't give you, you know, more points, jewels in your crown in heaven. But if you walk through the canon of scripture from the beginning of end, when somebody encountered the living God, when there was a proclamation of God's word and they felt a compulsion to respond to it, they had to do so, not just spiritually, but physically. And so they approached, they kneeled, they worshiped, they wept, they surrendered. And so I want to give you that opportunity today as we sing our closing song. If you want to, if you have heard the word of God in a profound way and you need to respond more than just a prayer on your mouth, but with your whole body, come to this altar rail and kneel in time in prayer with the Lord. And after service, we'll have some of our prayer partners come up, like Pastor Sue and Pastor Robbie, to pray over you as I'm out in the back greeting. But listen, if today you've learned that you've been trying to be your own king and today to surrender, come to this altar rail. If your pride needs to be surrendered so you can be more fully part of God's kingdom, then come to this altar rail. If you want to draw near to God, come. If you have never given your life to Jesus Christ, and this is the moment you do that, I insist that you come. If the Holy Spirit is prompting your heart to respond to what he has shared with you today, simply come. Church, let's step off the throne. Let's bow before the true King, because kingdom wisdom begins where self-rule ends. Praise be to God. Will you pray with me? Lord Jesus, I want to thank you for speaking to us this day through your word. And I for myself, but also for the collective whole of us, God, just want to ask for your forgiveness. God, that you would forgive us for the times that we have sought our own kingdom instead of yours. God, we thank you as James says, that your grace is greater, though. Greater than all of our pride and all of our bitterness and all of our resentment and whatever it is, God, idols that we're chasing, that your grace is greater, and your grace is always welcoming us back home again and again and again. So, God, by the power of your Holy Spirit that lives within us, will you teach us to humble ourselves before you, to surrender our lives to your loving rule, and to trust you with every burden we carry? God, as we leave this place, may King Jesus reign in our hearts so that our lives will reflect your kingdom in all we do. We pray this all in His name, your Son, our Savior, and all God's people said. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 34:27

Thank you for listening to the Church of the Lakes podcast with Pastor Jared Preset. If today's message encouraged you and helped you grow as a devoted follower of Christ, we invite you to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can also help others discover this podcast by leaving a five-star rating or review and sharing it with your friends, family, co-workers, and others in your circle of influence. We're also very grateful for your generosity, which helps make messages like this available to more people. If you feel led to give, please check the link in the description. And if you're in the Kent, Ohio area, we'd love to invite you to join us in person on Sunday and worship together. To learn more about Church of the Lakes, visit church of the lakes.org or click the website link in the description. Until next time, stay encouraged and keep walking in faith.