And I invited one of our staff members named Belinda Stanford to come up here and read scripture.

And I need to tell you a little bit about Belinda before she reads.

So I asked Belinda to do this like four months ago.

And she rejected me.

Belinda works in our financial office.

And so she was like, Miles, I'm all about excel spreadsheets and being in the background i'm not about

to read scripture in front of thousands of people i was like okay i respect that then she comes back

into my office the next day in her office with the other ladies who run all of our finances and

organize all of our lives as like diagonal from me i got to keep them close so that they can keep us

on the right track and so and so she comes in she's like I should not have said no. I should have had the courage to stand

up and read scripture. So if you ask me again, I will say yes. And I was like, okay, this is, this is kind of strange, but I will, I'll ask you at some later date. Well, fast forward months and months. In the last couple of weeks, Belinda has received news of a diagnosis that cancer that has spread

way further and wider than her and her family were aware of and very, very scary prognosis

that's in front of them. And I don't really want to get into the details of all of that. But as her

and her family have been gearing up for the journey that's in front of them,

it's been amazing to watch you lead our staff to a position of desperation before God.

And so two Sundays ago, I got to sit behind you and your husband as you were worshiping.

And I got to be honest, there's desperation for God that you know

you should be cultivating in your heart and spirit, but then you see someone's dependency as they're

singing the same song as you're singing, but they're singing it different. Like they're singing it

like their life depends on it. They're singing it like complacency has no place in God's church.

They're just crying out for God's presence.

And it just moved me so deeply.

...