1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,000 ... 2 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:59,980 Thank you. 3 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:00,840 - Thank you. 4 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:59,980 Thank you. 5 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:29,980 Thank you. 6 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:59,980 Thank you. 7 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:29,980 The end of the day is a very good day. 8 00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:59,980 Thank you. 9 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:10,000 I like it. 10 00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:12,000 I like it. 11 00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:16,000 Thank you. 12 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:18,000 Thank you. 13 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:20,000 Thank you. 14 00:06:20,000 --> 00:06:49,980 I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. 15 00:06:50,000 --> 00:07:19,980 Let's give him a minute. 16 00:07:20,000 --> 00:07:33,140 it. Huh? Oh, yeah. Flick the light. Okay, good morning. I think we're going to get started. 17 00:07:33,140 --> 00:07:42,160 We have a couple announcements to start with this morning. The first one is particularly 18 00:07:42,160 --> 00:07:47,720 for those that are watching online. Brandon has updated the live stream page on the church 19 00:07:47,720 --> 00:07:55,240 website so if you are watching off the website when you scroll down you will see now a link for 20 00:07:55,240 --> 00:08:01,160 the digital bulletin which has the songs and the lyrics and everything if you're needing that and 21 00:08:01,160 --> 00:08:07,240 also the announcements that we have in our church email as well and then they have links for 22 00:08:07,240 --> 00:08:12,760 alternate ways to watch online if you keep scrolling down you will see an option to email 23 00:08:12,760 --> 00:08:18,460 us your prayer requests with different slots for your name email address and 24 00:08:18,460 --> 00:08:23,640 how we can be praying for you and additionally there's another section 25 00:08:23,640 --> 00:08:29,020 there to sign up for our weekly newsletter and that's just we just send 26 00:08:29,020 --> 00:08:33,880 you that once a week or we just send additional information about closings or 27 00:08:33,880 --> 00:08:37,960 major updates about services we don't try to junk up your email too much and 28 00:08:37,960 --> 00:08:47,620 and then if if another option on there is also there's an area for online giving 29 00:08:47,620 --> 00:08:52,900 if you would like to do that it's down and to the right of the page so it's 30 00:08:52,900 --> 00:08:56,860 just a little update so that you don't have to go to 20 different pages and do 31 00:08:56,860 --> 00:09:00,640 20 different things you can just do everything you want to do right there 32 00:09:00,640 --> 00:09:05,860 while you're watching online another one we want to say thanks to Erica because 33 00:09:05,860 --> 00:09:11,480 She came in this week and decorated everything and climbed the ladder a lot and only almost 34 00:09:11,480 --> 00:09:14,960 fell off a couple of times, but everything looks great. 35 00:09:14,960 --> 00:09:19,560 She's getting us updated for spring, so we're super thankful for that and her taking time 36 00:09:19,560 --> 00:09:20,280 out of her schedule. 37 00:09:20,280 --> 00:09:26,700 An additional reminder that Brandon's kidney transplant was about a month ago, and he's 38 00:09:26,700 --> 00:09:31,200 on a lot of the immunosuppressant medicines, so no hugs, handshakes, or holy kisses for 39 00:09:31,200 --> 00:09:31,520 a while. 40 00:09:32,520 --> 00:09:39,920 And then lastly, if you haven't grabbed one, there's a stack of notebooks on the back table 41 00:09:39,920 --> 00:09:41,480 there and pens. 42 00:09:41,480 --> 00:09:48,080 About a year and a half ago, we started doing our prayer and share time together, just another 43 00:09:48,080 --> 00:09:53,020 way for us to connect with each other and know what to specifically pray for each other. 44 00:09:53,020 --> 00:09:57,180 And so these notebooks are for you to have, to take with you, to bring on Sundays. 45 00:09:57,180 --> 00:09:59,140 They have a free pen. 46 00:09:59,140 --> 00:10:00,360 Everybody loves free pens. 47 00:10:01,460 --> 00:10:09,820 And we encourage you to grab one of those so that during this time when people are sharing what they would like us to pray together about, we can write those down. 48 00:10:09,820 --> 00:10:11,860 It's a really good, simple tool to have. 49 00:10:11,860 --> 00:10:16,740 I'm really good at forgetting everything, so writing everything down is really good for me. 50 00:10:16,740 --> 00:10:26,820 And I think you'll be surprised at how encouraged you are, not just by praying for those within our church, but to know that those in our church are praying for you. 51 00:10:26,820 --> 00:10:30,300 I think we've had many examples of that encouragement. 52 00:10:30,720 --> 00:10:35,540 And I know me personally, I'm encouraged by all the prayers that I don't even know people pray for me. 53 00:10:35,540 --> 00:10:39,540 And I think being married to Brandon, I need all the prayers I can get. 54 00:10:39,540 --> 00:10:47,500 But I would say specifically pray for Brandon because he accidentally shaved his beard off this week and he's dealing with that. 55 00:10:47,500 --> 00:10:48,760 So, but it's coming back. 56 00:10:48,760 --> 00:10:57,460 So, and then one last big announcement, we have a new five-year-old, Isabel, had a birthday this week. 57 00:10:57,920 --> 00:11:01,400 So we want to sing happy birthday to Isabel, if that's cool. 58 00:11:01,400 --> 00:11:06,000 And anyone that can sing really well should just start that, or we'll just start. 59 00:11:06,000 --> 00:11:07,180 You ready? 60 00:11:07,180 --> 00:11:11,760 Happy birthday to you, woo! 61 00:11:11,760 --> 00:11:15,900 Happy birthday to you, woo! 62 00:11:15,900 --> 00:11:24,680 Happy birthday dear Isabel, happy birthday to you, yay! 63 00:11:27,920 --> 00:11:36,000 job turning five so all right we're going to get started today in our time of worship and we're 64 00:11:36,000 --> 00:11:43,120 going to be uh reading together out of Psalm 65 so let's go ahead and stand and uh the verses will 65 00:11:43,120 --> 00:11:50,240 be up on the screen and we're going to be reading Psalm 65 verses 5 through 8 together 66 00:11:52,640 --> 00:12:00,240 and it begins by awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness oh God of our salvation 67 00:12:00,240 --> 00:12:08,640 the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas the one who by his strength 68 00:12:08,640 --> 00:12:15,760 established the mountains being girded with might who stills the roaring of the seas 69 00:12:16,400 --> 00:12:20,540 the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples, 70 00:12:20,540 --> 00:12:27,080 so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs. 71 00:12:27,080 --> 00:12:33,400 You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy. 72 00:12:33,400 --> 00:12:34,960 This is the word of the Lord. 73 00:12:34,960 --> 00:12:36,740 Let's pray. 74 00:12:36,740 --> 00:12:41,880 God, we thank you so much that we get to gather together today 75 00:12:41,880 --> 00:12:46,680 and to worship you and to just remember your awesome deeds 76 00:12:46,680 --> 00:12:49,980 and your gifts of righteousness and salvation for us. 77 00:12:49,980 --> 00:12:54,300 We thank you for those that are watching online and that community there, 78 00:12:54,300 --> 00:12:57,300 and we hope that they are encouraged by our service here today. 79 00:12:57,300 --> 00:13:02,420 We thank you so much for all the good things that you've given us, 80 00:13:02,420 --> 00:13:07,400 and thank you for those that have helped us in the church, 81 00:13:07,400 --> 00:13:10,840 and we thank you for those that pray for each other here in our congregation, 82 00:13:10,840 --> 00:13:12,940 and we thank you for Isabel and her birthday. 83 00:13:12,940 --> 00:13:16,400 We thank you for joy in the morning and joy in the evening. 84 00:13:16,400 --> 00:13:20,660 Help us today as we worship you and allow it to glorify you. 85 00:13:20,660 --> 00:13:21,920 In Jesus' name, amen. 86 00:13:21,920 --> 00:13:26,420 All right, our first Song this morning we're going to be doing is 87 00:13:26,420 --> 00:13:27,640 This is Amazing Grace. 88 00:13:39,160 --> 00:13:53,880 Who breaks the power of sin and darkness, whose love is mighty and so much stronger, the King of glory, the King above all kings. 89 00:13:57,000 --> 00:14:01,600 Who shakes the whole earth with holy thunder 90 00:14:01,600 --> 00:14:06,160 Who leaves us breathless in awe and wonder 91 00:14:06,160 --> 00:14:11,940 The King of glory, the King above all kings 92 00:14:11,940 --> 00:14:16,500 This is amazing grace 93 00:14:16,500 --> 00:14:20,720 This is unfailing love 94 00:14:20,720 --> 00:14:25,520 That you would take my place 95 00:14:25,520 --> 00:14:30,080 That you would bear my cross 96 00:14:30,080 --> 00:14:34,360 You would lay down your life 97 00:14:34,360 --> 00:14:39,700 That I would be set free 98 00:14:39,700 --> 00:14:47,900 Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me 99 00:14:51,180 --> 00:15:06,680 Who brings our chaos back into order? Who makes the orphan a son and daughter? The King of glory, the King above all kings. 100 00:15:09,680 --> 00:15:14,400 Rules the nations with truth and justice 101 00:15:14,400 --> 00:15:18,960 Shines like the sun in all of its brilliance 102 00:15:18,960 --> 00:15:24,620 The King of glory, the King above all kings 103 00:15:24,620 --> 00:15:29,100 This is amazing grace 104 00:15:29,100 --> 00:15:33,400 This is unfailing love 105 00:15:33,400 --> 00:15:37,960 That you would take my place 106 00:15:37,960 --> 00:15:42,520 That you would bear my cross 107 00:15:42,520 --> 00:15:46,760 You would lay down your life 108 00:15:46,760 --> 00:15:51,840 That I would be set free 109 00:15:51,840 --> 00:16:00,380 Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me 110 00:16:00,380 --> 00:16:07,100 Worthy is the Lamb we're slain 111 00:16:07,100 --> 00:16:12,540 Worthy is the King who conquered the grave 112 00:16:12,540 --> 00:16:16,260 Worthy is the Lamb who was slain 113 00:16:16,260 --> 00:16:21,520 Worthy is the King who conquered the grave 114 00:16:21,520 --> 00:16:25,720 This is amazing grace 115 00:16:25,720 --> 00:16:29,780 This is unfailing love 116 00:16:29,780 --> 00:16:34,520 That you would take my place 117 00:16:34,520 --> 00:16:39,160 That you would bear my cross 118 00:16:39,160 --> 00:16:43,420 You would lay down your life 119 00:16:43,420 --> 00:16:48,860 That I would be set free 120 00:16:48,860 --> 00:16:57,080 Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me 121 00:16:57,080 --> 00:17:06,500 all right we're going to be moving into our prayer and share time next if you're watching 122 00:17:06,500 --> 00:17:11,540 online there will be a slide up with a phone number to text if you would like to send your 123 00:17:11,540 --> 00:17:16,120 prayer requests that way we will receive those sooner than we would an email prayer request if 124 00:17:16,120 --> 00:17:21,040 you have something immediate you'd like for us to pray for go ahead and text that number and then 125 00:17:21,040 --> 00:17:28,360 we will be muted here, but I believe Brandon recorded a video that we'll be playing during 126 00:17:28,360 --> 00:17:34,000 that time here. So just stick around, and then we'll be back after we're done having our time 127 00:17:34,000 --> 00:17:38,420 here together. And with that, we're going to be singing our next song, Give Thanks. 128 00:17:51,040 --> 00:18:03,860 Give thanks with a grateful heart 129 00:18:03,860 --> 00:18:08,440 Give thanks to the Holy One 130 00:18:08,440 --> 00:18:12,180 Give thanks because He's given 131 00:18:12,180 --> 00:18:17,800 Jesus Christ, His Son 132 00:18:17,800 --> 00:18:22,720 Gives thanks with a grateful heart 133 00:18:22,720 --> 00:18:27,360 Gives thanks to the Holy One 134 00:18:27,360 --> 00:18:34,720 Gives thanks because He's given Jesus Christ 135 00:18:34,720 --> 00:18:42,880 And now, let the weak say I am strong 136 00:18:42,880 --> 00:18:47,880 Let the poor say I am rich 137 00:18:47,880 --> 00:18:55,400 Because of what the Lord has done for us 138 00:18:55,400 --> 00:19:02,020 And now let the weak say I am strong 139 00:19:02,020 --> 00:19:06,760 Let the poor say I am rich 140 00:19:06,760 --> 00:19:14,240 Because of what the Lord has done for us 141 00:19:14,240 --> 00:19:19,320 Gives thanks with a grateful heart 142 00:19:19,320 --> 00:19:24,200 Gives thanks to the Holy One 143 00:19:24,200 --> 00:19:33,260 Gives thanks because He's given Jesus Christ His Son 144 00:19:33,260 --> 00:19:38,480 Give thanks with a grateful heart 145 00:19:38,480 --> 00:19:43,080 Give thanks to the Holy One 146 00:19:43,080 --> 00:19:51,820 Give thanks because He's given Jesus Christ, His Son 147 00:19:51,820 --> 00:19:58,320 And now, let the weak say I am strong 148 00:19:58,320 --> 00:20:10,820 Let the poor say I am rich because of what the Lord has done for us. 149 00:20:10,820 --> 00:20:17,560 And now, let the weak say I am strong 150 00:20:17,560 --> 00:20:22,140 Let the poor say I am rich 151 00:20:22,140 --> 00:20:26,820 Because of what the Lord has done 152 00:20:26,820 --> 00:20:32,640 For us gives thanks 153 00:20:40,820 --> 00:20:43,280 All right, you may be seated. 154 00:20:43,280 --> 00:20:55,120 Okay, so Russell isn't here, so I'm going to talk a lot. 155 00:20:55,120 --> 00:21:03,920 Welcome to our prayer and share time. 156 00:21:03,920 --> 00:21:05,800 A little different online. 157 00:21:05,800 --> 00:21:09,260 For the people who don't want their requests shared online, 158 00:21:09,460 --> 00:21:14,600 We mute the service that is in person, and I spend a little bit of time with you. 159 00:21:14,600 --> 00:21:20,520 So if you have anything that we can pray for you about, just send us a message or leave 160 00:21:20,520 --> 00:21:25,180 a comment, or you can head over to our website, collegeparkcc.com. 161 00:21:25,180 --> 00:21:30,960 There's a link there to share your prayer requests with us, and we'd love to be praying 162 00:21:30,960 --> 00:21:31,440 for you. 163 00:21:31,440 --> 00:21:38,300 I'd like to share with you just a little bit from Charles Spurgeon, and then pray with 164 00:21:38,300 --> 00:21:38,980 you this morning. 165 00:21:39,460 --> 00:21:44,660 So he's writing based on the 119th Psalm, verse 49, that says, 166 00:21:44,660 --> 00:21:48,680 Remember your word to your servant, in which you have made me hope. 167 00:21:48,680 --> 00:21:50,620 And Spurgeon will say this. 168 00:21:50,620 --> 00:21:57,280 Whatever your particular need may be, you will find some promise in the Bible related to it. 169 00:21:57,280 --> 00:22:01,480 Are you faint and feeble because your way is rough and you are weary? 170 00:22:01,480 --> 00:22:05,160 Here is the promise. He gives power to the faint. 171 00:22:05,820 --> 00:22:11,480 When you read such a promise, take it back to the great promiser and ask him to fulfill his own word. 172 00:22:11,480 --> 00:22:16,200 Are you seeking for Christ, thirsting for closer communion with him? 173 00:22:16,200 --> 00:22:19,440 This promise shines like a star upon you. 174 00:22:19,440 --> 00:22:24,420 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. 175 00:22:24,420 --> 00:22:29,540 Take that promise to the throne continually and do not plead anything else, 176 00:22:29,540 --> 00:22:32,260 but go to God over and over again with this. 177 00:22:32,720 --> 00:22:36,080 Lord, you have said it. Do as you have said. 178 00:22:36,080 --> 00:22:41,520 Are you distressed because of the sin and burdened with the heavy load of your iniquities? 179 00:22:41,520 --> 00:22:43,260 Listen to these words. 180 00:22:43,260 --> 00:22:50,620 I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. 181 00:22:50,620 --> 00:22:51,360 Would you pray with me? 182 00:22:51,360 --> 00:22:55,860 Father in heaven, thank you for the promises of your word. 183 00:22:55,860 --> 00:23:01,500 And we thank you that you don't just make promises, but that you are the one who keeps the promises. 184 00:23:01,500 --> 00:23:18,460 And so in those times of difficulty, when our way seems like it's all uphill and it's always a struggle and we're surrounded by grief and worry, may you encourage us with the promises of your word and may we hold on to those promises and may we bring them to you in prayer. 185 00:23:18,460 --> 00:23:22,140 I pray for those who are watching with us this morning. 186 00:23:22,140 --> 00:23:29,560 I ask that you would be at work in their lives to strengthen them, encourage them and help them in all the different ways that they need. 187 00:23:29,560 --> 00:23:32,700 We thank you that you are a good and loving Father. 188 00:23:32,700 --> 00:23:35,480 It's through your Son, Jesus, we pray. 189 00:23:35,480 --> 00:23:36,080 Amen. 190 00:23:59,560 --> 00:24:29,540 Thank you. 191 00:24:29,560 --> 00:24:59,540 Thank you. 192 00:24:59,560 --> 00:25:29,540 Thank you. 193 00:32:29,560 --> 00:32:57,660 Let's move into the time of communion. 194 00:32:58,940 --> 00:33:01,100 And we're going to be singing What a Beautiful Name. 195 00:33:21,100 --> 00:33:33,260 You were the word of the beginning, one with God the Lord most high. 196 00:33:33,260 --> 00:33:46,760 You're in glory in creation, now revealed in you our Christ. 197 00:33:46,760 --> 00:33:53,480 What a beautiful name it is, what a beautiful name it is 198 00:33:53,480 --> 00:34:00,240 The name of Jesus Christ, my King 199 00:34:00,240 --> 00:34:07,220 What a beautiful name it is, nothing compares to this 200 00:34:07,220 --> 00:34:13,880 What a beautiful name it is, the name of Jesus 201 00:34:16,760 --> 00:34:25,200 You didn't want heaven without us 202 00:34:25,200 --> 00:34:31,700 So Jesus, you brought heaven down 203 00:34:31,700 --> 00:34:37,980 My sin was great, your love was greater 204 00:34:37,980 --> 00:34:45,140 What could separate us now? 205 00:34:45,500 --> 00:34:58,280 What a wonderful name it is, what a wonderful name it is, the name of Jesus Christ my King. 206 00:34:58,280 --> 00:35:12,140 What a wonderful name it is, nothing compares to this, what a wonderful name it is, the name of Jesus. 207 00:35:15,500 --> 00:35:29,580 Death could not hold you, the veil tore before you, your silence, the boast of sin and grave. 208 00:35:29,580 --> 00:35:42,480 The heavens are rolling, the praise of your glory, for you are raised to life again. 209 00:35:43,740 --> 00:35:49,920 You have no rival, you have no equal. 210 00:35:49,920 --> 00:35:57,060 Now and forever, God will reign. 211 00:35:57,060 --> 00:36:03,660 Yours is the kingdom, yours is the glory. 212 00:36:03,660 --> 00:36:10,720 Yours is the name above all names. 213 00:36:11,140 --> 00:36:24,180 What a powerful name it is, what a powerful name it is, the name of Jesus Christ, my King. 214 00:36:24,180 --> 00:36:37,820 What a powerful name it is, nothing can stand against, what a powerful name it is, the name of Jesus. 215 00:36:38,720 --> 00:36:44,980 What a powerful name it is, the name of Jesus. 216 00:36:44,980 --> 00:36:51,900 What a powerful name it is, the name of Jesus. 217 00:37:08,720 --> 00:37:25,460 Generally, when we think about names or we're choosing a name, our thoughts generally run 218 00:37:25,460 --> 00:37:27,920 more toward, do I like this name? 219 00:37:27,920 --> 00:37:29,740 How does this name sound? 220 00:37:29,740 --> 00:37:34,240 Or if you're a parent, what can people spell with the initials of my child's name? 221 00:37:34,240 --> 00:37:37,200 I have to be careful with that as well. 222 00:37:37,200 --> 00:37:46,580 But biblically, when we come to the idea of names, names were more than just something used to identify one person from another. 223 00:37:46,580 --> 00:37:49,760 Biblically, names were a description. 224 00:37:49,760 --> 00:37:54,020 They sometimes described the hope that was for a person. 225 00:37:54,020 --> 00:38:01,700 So, for example, Noah's dad, when he names Noah, he names him in the hopes that he will bring rest to mankind. 226 00:38:01,700 --> 00:38:06,800 Probably did not turn out the way that he had ultimately envisioned that name, but that was his hope. 227 00:38:06,800 --> 00:38:11,060 Sometimes names were a description of physical characteristics. 228 00:38:11,060 --> 00:38:14,980 Sometimes names were a picture of what would happen in the future. 229 00:38:14,980 --> 00:38:17,300 But names were more than just an identifier. 230 00:38:17,300 --> 00:38:19,640 It was a description. 231 00:38:19,640 --> 00:38:22,880 It had something a little more deep to it. 232 00:38:22,880 --> 00:38:29,340 And so throughout Scripture, you find God being identified in all different kinds of names. 233 00:38:29,340 --> 00:38:33,920 The reason for that is because one simple description doesn't fit. 234 00:38:34,260 --> 00:38:41,920 Perhaps one of the interesting ones, or most interesting ones, or at least for me, one of the most comforting ones, 235 00:38:41,920 --> 00:38:45,740 occurs in Genesis, the 16th chapter. 236 00:38:45,740 --> 00:38:49,720 And you may be familiar with this story. If not, I'll kind of summarize it for you. 237 00:38:49,720 --> 00:38:53,160 Abraham and Sarah have desperately wanted a child. 238 00:38:53,160 --> 00:38:57,440 That has not happened at this point yet, despite God promising. 239 00:38:57,440 --> 00:39:07,120 And so rather than wait for God, they sort of rush ahead with this plan for Abraham to have a child with her servant Hagar. 240 00:39:07,120 --> 00:39:09,140 Hagar has a child. Sarah becomes jealous. 241 00:39:09,140 --> 00:39:13,340 There is all this chaos in the house of Abraham. 242 00:39:13,340 --> 00:39:19,580 Sarah eventually convinces Abraham to send Hagar essentially out in the wilderness, 243 00:39:19,580 --> 00:39:25,420 which essentially was a way of getting rid of her without actually having to get rid of her 244 00:39:25,420 --> 00:39:32,400 because she's in the middle of the desert. There's no water. She is alone. And Genesis 16 sort of 245 00:39:32,400 --> 00:39:38,900 pictures that scenario and what is happening. And so she finds herself in the wilderness. There is 246 00:39:38,900 --> 00:39:45,900 no water. God comes and speaks to her, makes her a promise. And this is what she says in response 247 00:39:45,900 --> 00:39:51,400 to God in verse 13 of Genesis, the 16th chapter. She said, so she called the name of the Lord who 248 00:39:51,400 --> 00:39:59,220 spoke to her, you are a God of seeing. For she said, truly here I have seen him who looks after 249 00:39:59,220 --> 00:40:08,300 me. Therefore the well was called Bir Lahay Roy, and it lies between Kedesh and Bered. And what 250 00:40:08,300 --> 00:40:16,020 she calls God is the God who sees me. That's the name that she gives to God, that God is the one 251 00:40:16,020 --> 00:40:22,980 who sees this seemingly unimportant, broken, struggling, fearful servant in the midst of 252 00:40:22,980 --> 00:40:28,000 the wilderness. And she calls the well that God gives her to drink from and to refresh her, 253 00:40:28,000 --> 00:40:35,900 these Hebrew words, the word literally means the well of the one who sees me. And isn't that a 254 00:40:35,900 --> 00:40:41,300 wonderful thought that God sees us, right? The greatness of God who created, who is eternal, 255 00:40:41,300 --> 00:40:43,480 who is bigger than we can imagine, 256 00:40:43,480 --> 00:40:45,420 He sees us. 257 00:40:45,420 --> 00:40:48,420 And He doesn't just simply see us, 258 00:40:48,420 --> 00:40:50,360 but that He loves us, 259 00:40:50,360 --> 00:40:52,060 He cares for us, 260 00:40:52,060 --> 00:40:55,700 and ultimately He comes and He saves us. 261 00:40:55,700 --> 00:40:59,700 So we remember as we partake of this meal, 262 00:40:59,700 --> 00:41:00,980 this Lord's Supper, 263 00:41:00,980 --> 00:41:04,980 we remember that God sees and God saves 264 00:41:04,980 --> 00:41:06,880 and then we'll partake together. 265 00:41:06,880 --> 00:41:07,560 Father in Heaven, 266 00:41:07,560 --> 00:41:14,080 thank you for the examples throughout Scripture of you seeing the small and the insignificant 267 00:41:14,080 --> 00:41:21,520 the broken and the hurting help us to see and help just as you have seen and helped us 268 00:41:21,520 --> 00:41:26,220 we thank you for the good news of the gospel i asked this morning that you would 269 00:41:26,220 --> 00:41:32,600 help us to see clearly your love for us we ask that you bless this bread and this cup that we 270 00:41:32,600 --> 00:41:37,360 would be a people who proclaim your son until he comes again it's in his name we pray amen 271 00:41:37,560 --> 00:41:41,980 you would take the bread with me as Jesus says 272 00:41:41,980 --> 00:41:44,700 when he takes the bread at the last supper 273 00:41:44,700 --> 00:41:47,420 and passes it to the disciples and says, 274 00:41:47,420 --> 00:41:50,960 this is my body, which is for you, do this in remembrance of me. 275 00:41:50,960 --> 00:41:57,620 In the same way also, he took the cup after supper saying, 276 00:41:57,620 --> 00:41:59,560 this cup is the new covenant in my blood. 277 00:41:59,560 --> 00:42:02,760 Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. 278 00:42:04,620 --> 00:42:07,640 And then he'll remind the disciples and us as well 279 00:42:07,640 --> 00:42:11,380 that as often as we eat this bread and drink this cup, 280 00:42:11,380 --> 00:42:15,520 we proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. 281 00:42:15,520 --> 00:42:21,380 So if you would turn with me to Acts, the 19th chapter, 282 00:42:21,380 --> 00:42:24,220 if you want to sort of follow along. 283 00:42:24,220 --> 00:42:29,260 Normally at this point we will read sort of a big chunk of Scripture. 284 00:42:29,260 --> 00:42:33,900 We're going to kind of read bits of this as we move through it this morning. 285 00:42:34,320 --> 00:42:37,340 We're going to pick up here in just a minute in verse 21. 286 00:42:37,340 --> 00:42:43,300 Paul's time in Ephesus is sort of drawing to a close, and so things are sort of wrapping up. 287 00:42:43,300 --> 00:42:46,100 We're going to see a little bit more of that in the coming weeks, 288 00:42:46,100 --> 00:42:49,760 but what happens here is sort of some excitement in a theater. 289 00:42:49,760 --> 00:42:56,180 The theater in Ephesus sat about 25,000 people, and Luke records all of these events, 290 00:42:56,180 --> 00:43:01,720 and one of the things that we learn from how Luke records these is that Luke knew what he was talking about. 291 00:43:02,180 --> 00:43:05,820 And so when you look through, this is sort of more of a historical account 292 00:43:05,820 --> 00:43:08,780 than necessarily sort of a theological account. 293 00:43:08,780 --> 00:43:12,980 You find that all of the details about the town of Ephesus, 294 00:43:12,980 --> 00:43:15,620 from the fact that they deeply practiced magic, 295 00:43:15,620 --> 00:43:19,640 that they made these shrines, that they sort of sold and passed out, 296 00:43:19,640 --> 00:43:25,360 that even the names of the Asiarchs or the clerk or the mayor of town, 297 00:43:25,360 --> 00:43:28,900 which in Greek, the Grammatusi, uses all of the correct words, 298 00:43:28,900 --> 00:43:30,860 all of the correct information. 299 00:43:31,020 --> 00:43:34,160 One of the reasons why that's important is because in Luke's day, 300 00:43:34,160 --> 00:43:36,140 you didn't have Google, you didn't have Wikipedia, 301 00:43:36,140 --> 00:43:40,280 you didn't have a way to research something without going there. 302 00:43:40,280 --> 00:43:44,680 And so the fact that throughout his entire two letters, Luke and Acts, 303 00:43:44,680 --> 00:43:49,760 that Luke gets all of these sort of nitpicky details right, 304 00:43:49,760 --> 00:43:53,640 encourages us with the truth of his account. 305 00:43:53,640 --> 00:43:59,420 Now Luke's purpose in recording this is sort of a byproduct of that as we see the truth, 306 00:43:59,500 --> 00:44:06,800 But the purpose of Luke recording this is, in essence, he's writing sort of a history and a defense of Christianity. 307 00:44:06,800 --> 00:44:13,220 And one of the things that he is showing is that Christianity is not a threat to the Roman Empire. 308 00:44:13,220 --> 00:44:23,140 That it's never been that Paul, in all of his riots and all of these problems, has never been convicted of anything by a Roman official. 309 00:44:23,140 --> 00:44:25,680 In fact, in this case, it's the exact opposite. 310 00:44:25,760 --> 00:44:30,880 The people who are causing the commotion and throwing the riots are the ones who are at fault. 311 00:44:30,880 --> 00:44:34,060 And the Roman officials will look at Paul and they will say, 312 00:44:34,060 --> 00:44:38,440 look, he's the innocent, you guys are ultimately the problem. 313 00:44:38,440 --> 00:44:42,460 And so we're going to take a look at this account of sort of this riot 314 00:44:42,460 --> 00:44:45,900 or this difficulty at the theater here in Ephesus. 315 00:44:45,900 --> 00:44:50,640 So let's go ahead and have a word of prayer and then we'll dive into it. 316 00:44:50,640 --> 00:44:53,500 Father in heaven, thank you for the good news of the gospel. 317 00:44:54,460 --> 00:45:00,580 This morning as we look through these verses and we see some of the things that are happening in Ephesus, 318 00:45:00,580 --> 00:45:04,580 I ask that you would point us and direct the news of the gospel. 319 00:45:04,580 --> 00:45:09,140 That we would see that there is good news. 320 00:45:09,140 --> 00:45:11,640 That that good news changes and transforms. 321 00:45:11,640 --> 00:45:16,520 That even when we don't want to hear it, the good news of the gospel confronts us. 322 00:45:16,520 --> 00:45:21,380 And that in the brokenness of this world where everything wears out and falls apart, 323 00:45:21,380 --> 00:45:24,000 the one thing that lasts is you. 324 00:45:24,460 --> 00:45:27,160 So direct us to you this morning. 325 00:45:27,160 --> 00:45:29,780 It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. 326 00:45:29,780 --> 00:45:35,220 So Paul, in the beginning of the book of Romans, starts like this in verse 16. 327 00:45:35,220 --> 00:45:35,540 He says, 328 00:45:35,540 --> 00:45:41,320 I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation 329 00:45:41,320 --> 00:45:46,080 to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 330 00:45:46,080 --> 00:45:51,720 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, 331 00:45:51,880 --> 00:45:56,140 As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. 332 00:45:56,140 --> 00:46:00,220 And Paul's very beginning of his words to the Romans, as he starts, he says, 333 00:46:00,220 --> 00:46:04,880 the gospel is the power of God for salvation. 334 00:46:04,880 --> 00:46:08,260 Now, the gospel simply means good news. 335 00:46:08,260 --> 00:46:13,260 When we hear people talk about it, oftentimes we use gospel to describe music, 336 00:46:13,260 --> 00:46:15,360 or we might use it to say it's the truth. 337 00:46:15,360 --> 00:46:16,560 Well, it's the gospel truth. 338 00:46:16,560 --> 00:46:20,800 The gospel, throughout the New Testament, simply means good news. 339 00:46:21,180 --> 00:46:25,720 And when Paul will unpack the gospel for the Corinthians, he'll say this. 340 00:46:25,720 --> 00:46:29,580 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel that I preached to you, 341 00:46:29,580 --> 00:46:32,020 which you received, in which you stand, 342 00:46:32,020 --> 00:46:36,620 and by which you are being saved if you hold fast to the word that I preached to you, 343 00:46:36,620 --> 00:46:38,600 unless you believed in vain. 344 00:46:38,600 --> 00:46:43,280 For I delivered to you, as of first importance, what I also received, 345 00:46:43,280 --> 00:46:46,900 that Christ died for our sins, according to Scripture, was buried, 346 00:46:47,520 --> 00:46:51,260 And on the third day, he was raised in accordance with Scripture. 347 00:46:51,260 --> 00:46:55,840 And so Paul will start by telling the church the gospel is not something you grow out of. 348 00:46:55,840 --> 00:47:01,600 It's not just something for new Christians, but it's something that the church holds on to and clings to. 349 00:47:01,600 --> 00:47:04,660 And then he describes the gospel so very simply. 350 00:47:04,660 --> 00:47:07,720 And he starts by saying it's of first importance. 351 00:47:07,720 --> 00:47:13,600 If you think about all of the things that the Apostle Paul knows and has experienced, 352 00:47:13,920 --> 00:47:17,080 and all of the information that is in his head, 353 00:47:17,080 --> 00:47:19,160 Old Testament, all about Jesus, 354 00:47:19,160 --> 00:47:21,340 all the places he's been, 355 00:47:21,340 --> 00:47:24,320 out of all of the information the Apostle Paul has, 356 00:47:24,320 --> 00:47:27,640 he says, the most important thing I can tell you 357 00:47:27,640 --> 00:47:31,080 is that Jesus died for your sins according to Scripture, 358 00:47:31,080 --> 00:47:33,180 was buried, and on the third day, 359 00:47:33,180 --> 00:47:35,300 he was raised in accordance with Scripture. 360 00:47:35,300 --> 00:47:37,760 He says, this is the good news, 361 00:47:37,760 --> 00:47:41,560 that Jesus comes for broken, sinful people, 362 00:47:41,560 --> 00:47:43,420 he dies in their place, 363 00:47:43,700 --> 00:47:50,000 He is buried, and he rises again, ultimately triumphing over Satan, sin, and death. 364 00:47:50,000 --> 00:47:57,400 And the gospel is what separates Christianity from every other system of belief in the world. 365 00:47:57,400 --> 00:48:01,840 Because Christianity offers good news. 366 00:48:01,840 --> 00:48:04,960 Everything else in this world will give you good advice. 367 00:48:04,960 --> 00:48:07,660 Here's how you can do something. 368 00:48:07,660 --> 00:48:08,980 Here's how you can be better. 369 00:48:08,980 --> 00:48:10,160 Here's how you can improve. 370 00:48:10,160 --> 00:48:13,280 Here's how you can fix the problems in your life. 371 00:48:13,400 --> 00:48:16,140 And the gospel says that Jesus has done it, right? 372 00:48:16,140 --> 00:48:18,320 That's the difference between news and advice. 373 00:48:18,320 --> 00:48:20,720 Advice tells you what you need to do. 374 00:48:20,720 --> 00:48:23,580 News tells you what's already been done. 375 00:48:23,580 --> 00:48:27,200 And the gospel comes with good news. 376 00:48:27,200 --> 00:48:28,700 I'll illustrate it like this. 377 00:48:28,700 --> 00:48:34,980 Several years ago, Rachel was out of contacts and then her glasses broke all at once. 378 00:48:34,980 --> 00:48:40,220 And we were in the middle of some kind of crisis, which those kind of things always happen when there's a crisis. 379 00:48:40,500 --> 00:48:43,620 It never happens when your schedule's free and your bank account's full. 380 00:48:43,620 --> 00:48:47,640 It's always in those moments where everything just seems like it's falling apart. 381 00:48:47,640 --> 00:48:50,240 It's always the straw that sort of breaks the camel's back. 382 00:48:50,240 --> 00:48:54,380 And so we started calling around for glasses appointments. 383 00:48:54,380 --> 00:48:55,560 Nobody had one. 384 00:48:55,560 --> 00:49:01,120 And we remembered we had a friend of a friend who worked at an eye doctor. 385 00:49:01,120 --> 00:49:03,980 And so we called her and said, we don't have any appointments. 386 00:49:03,980 --> 00:49:05,120 She said, let me make some calls. 387 00:49:05,120 --> 00:49:10,280 Calls back and says, you have an appointment here, like tomorrow. 388 00:49:10,500 --> 00:49:14,300 So Rachel went, and she went to her eye doctor appointment, and as she got done, she went 389 00:49:14,300 --> 00:49:17,420 to sort of settle up at the desk, and then he says, oh, it's already been paid for, right? 390 00:49:17,420 --> 00:49:19,160 That's good news, right? 391 00:49:19,160 --> 00:49:21,320 It's, how much do I owe? 392 00:49:21,320 --> 00:49:27,300 That's advice, but to get there and have somebody say, hey, it's all taken care of on your 393 00:49:27,300 --> 00:49:29,580 behalf, that's good news. 394 00:49:29,580 --> 00:49:31,280 And that's what the gospel tells us. 395 00:49:31,280 --> 00:49:34,600 Everything else in the world will say, here's the big list for you. 396 00:49:34,600 --> 00:49:38,400 The gospel says, it is finished. 397 00:49:39,600 --> 00:49:46,000 God has saved you, and what we find is that the gospel will transform our lives. 398 00:49:46,000 --> 00:49:52,400 The gospel will confront our sin, and the gospel ultimately is the only thing that lasts. 399 00:49:52,400 --> 00:49:58,080 So I want you to see in our text this morning, we get a glimpse of how the gospel transforms. 400 00:49:58,080 --> 00:50:02,600 We've all experienced transformation. Sometimes it's a good transformation. 401 00:50:02,600 --> 00:50:04,860 Sometimes it's a bad transformation. 402 00:50:05,420 --> 00:50:09,960 Earlier this week, I was getting ready to leave for somewhere, and I said, oh, I've got to trim up my beard a little bit. 403 00:50:09,960 --> 00:50:11,700 I was so tired. 404 00:50:11,700 --> 00:50:15,420 Reached in my drawer, grabbed my beard trimmer, and just started trimming my beard. 405 00:50:15,420 --> 00:50:20,240 And then I looked in the mirror and realized the little guard that's normally on my beard trimmer is gone. 406 00:50:20,240 --> 00:50:26,000 And at that point, I have half a beard, and I'm going, Rachel, it's an emergency. 407 00:50:26,000 --> 00:50:27,100 It's like, what do I do? 408 00:50:27,100 --> 00:50:29,420 Do I just leave it, hope nobody notices, right? 409 00:50:29,420 --> 00:50:31,980 You know, we've got to go to the doctor so I can just wear a mask. 410 00:50:31,980 --> 00:50:33,120 Maybe nobody will notice. 411 00:50:33,900 --> 00:50:39,440 Anyway, it was a remarkable transformation, so much so that Luke, when he sees me for 412 00:50:39,440 --> 00:50:42,060 the first time, goes, you're not dad without a beard. 413 00:50:42,060 --> 00:50:46,220 And then he spent like the next two days trying to find my beard because he was convinced 414 00:50:46,220 --> 00:50:47,500 that it was lost, right? 415 00:50:47,500 --> 00:50:50,020 We've all seen those transformations. 416 00:50:50,020 --> 00:50:53,000 In fact, we really like sometimes watching transformations, right? 417 00:50:53,000 --> 00:50:57,960 We watch these shows about old houses where you go in and everything's falling apart, 418 00:50:57,960 --> 00:51:02,200 and then at the end, before the reveal, they'll say, let's remind you of what it looked like, 419 00:51:02,200 --> 00:51:02,420 right? 420 00:51:02,700 --> 00:51:04,320 Then you go back and see all the terrible things, 421 00:51:04,320 --> 00:51:08,780 and it flashes in to the new kitchen and the new bathroom and the new living room, 422 00:51:08,780 --> 00:51:12,060 and we see that transformation, and we say, that's amazing, right? 423 00:51:12,060 --> 00:51:14,640 We like watching transformation. 424 00:51:14,640 --> 00:51:19,260 In these verses, we get a glimpse of gospel transformation. 425 00:51:19,260 --> 00:51:20,560 Let's pick up in verse 21. 426 00:51:20,560 --> 00:51:26,100 Now, after these events, Paul resolved in the Spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia 427 00:51:26,100 --> 00:51:30,260 and go to Jerusalem, saying, after I have been there, I must also see Rome. 428 00:51:30,680 --> 00:51:34,280 And having sent into Macedonia two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, 429 00:51:34,280 --> 00:51:37,400 he himself stayed in Asia for a while. 430 00:51:37,400 --> 00:51:41,780 And so the first thing we see in this is sort of Paul's missionary plans, right? 431 00:51:41,780 --> 00:51:43,960 Here's what I want to do, here's what I plan to do. 432 00:51:43,960 --> 00:51:49,780 But in those plans, we get a glimpse of the transformation that has occurred in Paul's life. 433 00:51:49,780 --> 00:51:51,600 Do you remember where Paul started? 434 00:51:51,600 --> 00:51:54,660 Where we first meet Paul, he's named Saul, 435 00:51:54,660 --> 00:51:59,720 and he's sitting with an angry mob outside the city of Jerusalem, 436 00:51:59,920 --> 00:52:05,060 And they are throwing rocks at a Christian until that guy dies. 437 00:52:05,060 --> 00:52:07,360 Acts 7.58 says, 438 00:52:07,360 --> 00:52:10,100 They cast him out of Stephen into the city and stoned him, 439 00:52:10,100 --> 00:52:14,100 laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. 440 00:52:14,100 --> 00:52:16,740 Just a few verses later in Acts chapter 8, 441 00:52:16,740 --> 00:52:19,780 But Saul was ravaging the church. 442 00:52:19,780 --> 00:52:26,500 And entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. 443 00:52:26,500 --> 00:52:29,740 And now look where Paul is. 444 00:52:30,600 --> 00:52:34,500 He says, first of all, he wants to go into the world to hear the gospel. 445 00:52:34,500 --> 00:52:35,440 He says, here's my plan. 446 00:52:35,440 --> 00:52:36,180 I'm going to go to Greece. 447 00:52:36,180 --> 00:52:37,260 I'm going to go to Jerusalem. 448 00:52:37,260 --> 00:52:39,840 And then he says, I must see Rome. 449 00:52:39,840 --> 00:52:45,140 Now, this is not sort of us saying something is amazing where it's like, well, you have to go see that, right? 450 00:52:45,140 --> 00:52:48,380 You see a really good movie, and you tell your friend who has the same taste in movies. 451 00:52:48,380 --> 00:52:49,820 You've got to see that. 452 00:52:49,820 --> 00:52:55,240 It's not a seeing of interest or entertainment or I'd love to see the Roman architecture. 453 00:52:55,660 --> 00:53:01,860 Paul is saying, I must go to Rome because he wants to share the gospel with the capital of the Roman Empire. 454 00:53:01,860 --> 00:53:10,000 His goal now is not to drag Christians into jail, but rather to tell people about Jesus. 455 00:53:10,000 --> 00:53:15,540 It's like when we get really excited about something we care about and we can't wait to share it. 456 00:53:15,540 --> 00:53:17,480 So for me, that's dogs. 457 00:53:17,480 --> 00:53:21,060 Like every time I meet a new dog, I'm taking pictures of the dog. 458 00:53:21,060 --> 00:53:24,260 And then I text it to my friends and say, hey, look at the dog I just met. 459 00:53:24,280 --> 00:53:26,500 And they say, oh, that's an amazing dog, right? 460 00:53:26,500 --> 00:53:29,260 Paul is so excited by the gospel. 461 00:53:29,260 --> 00:53:33,160 It's captured, not just his mission and his plan, 462 00:53:33,160 --> 00:53:34,980 but it's captured his affections. 463 00:53:34,980 --> 00:53:37,960 And he says, I want everyone to hear the gospel. 464 00:53:37,960 --> 00:53:40,980 And he's going to tell Romans that I'm just stopping in Rome 465 00:53:40,980 --> 00:53:42,800 and I'm going all the way to Spain, right? 466 00:53:42,800 --> 00:53:44,740 I'm going to the other end of Europe. 467 00:53:44,740 --> 00:53:46,900 He's been transformed by the gospel. 468 00:53:46,900 --> 00:53:50,660 More than that, he deeply cares about the church, right? 469 00:53:50,660 --> 00:53:53,140 This church in Jerusalem that he sought to destroy, 470 00:53:53,780 --> 00:53:55,200 The reason he's going to Jerusalem 471 00:53:55,200 --> 00:53:56,980 is because there's no food in Jerusalem. 472 00:53:56,980 --> 00:54:00,380 And he's going to go around to all of these churches 473 00:54:00,380 --> 00:54:02,160 that we've seen in this missionary journey. 474 00:54:02,160 --> 00:54:04,800 And he's going to take up an offering in each one. 475 00:54:04,800 --> 00:54:07,400 And he's going to take up to Jerusalem 476 00:54:07,400 --> 00:54:10,760 so that these struggling Christians can buy food. 477 00:54:10,760 --> 00:54:13,760 He has gone from persecuting the church 478 00:54:13,760 --> 00:54:17,820 to now collecting money so that the church can eat. 479 00:54:17,820 --> 00:54:22,660 We also get a glimpse of how the church has been transformed. 480 00:54:23,260 --> 00:54:27,960 If you remember where we were last week, the church repents of all of the things that they 481 00:54:27,960 --> 00:54:31,780 have been worshiping and putting their hope in other than God, and they will bring their 482 00:54:31,780 --> 00:54:35,860 magic arts books, and they're going to burn them in the sight of all. 483 00:54:35,860 --> 00:54:41,040 They counted the value of them, found it to be 50,000 pieces of silver, somewhere at least 484 00:54:41,040 --> 00:54:46,540 $5 million, maybe up into, some estimate, maybe even up into the billions, depending 485 00:54:46,540 --> 00:54:49,320 on what size the pieces of silver were. 486 00:54:49,820 --> 00:54:54,260 And the Word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily. 487 00:54:54,260 --> 00:54:58,260 When the church sees God's power, when the church repents, 488 00:54:58,260 --> 00:55:00,820 when they put their undivided trust in Him, 489 00:55:00,820 --> 00:55:03,400 and when they live like He has called them to live, 490 00:55:03,400 --> 00:55:06,400 the Word of God increases mightily. 491 00:55:06,400 --> 00:55:09,740 And so we've seen a transformation in Paul and in the church, 492 00:55:09,740 --> 00:55:14,100 and now we get a glimpse of the transformation in Ephesus. 493 00:55:14,100 --> 00:55:16,280 Starting in verse 23. 494 00:55:17,020 --> 00:55:21,080 About that time, there arose no little disturbance concerning the way. 495 00:55:21,080 --> 00:55:23,720 It's what people would call the church. 496 00:55:23,720 --> 00:55:25,320 You'll find that reference throughout Acts. 497 00:55:25,320 --> 00:55:26,640 They refer to them as the way. 498 00:55:26,640 --> 00:55:30,900 I remember Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. 499 00:55:30,900 --> 00:55:33,420 No man comes to the Father except through me. 500 00:55:33,420 --> 00:55:35,840 And so the name, not that the Christians took for themselves, 501 00:55:35,840 --> 00:55:40,580 but that the world was giving to the church, they think they're the way. 502 00:55:40,580 --> 00:55:45,420 A man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, 503 00:55:46,020 --> 00:55:47,220 brought no little business. 504 00:55:47,220 --> 00:55:51,940 These he gathered together with the workmen in similar trades and said, 505 00:55:51,940 --> 00:55:55,720 Men, you know from this business we have built our wealth. 506 00:55:55,720 --> 00:55:59,800 And you see in here, not only in Ephesus, but almost in all of Asia, 507 00:55:59,800 --> 00:56:04,420 this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, 508 00:56:04,420 --> 00:56:07,040 saying that gods made with hands are not gods, 509 00:56:07,040 --> 00:56:11,620 and there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute, 510 00:56:11,620 --> 00:56:15,480 but also the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing. 511 00:56:16,020 --> 00:56:19,400 that she may even be deposed from her magnificence, 512 00:56:19,400 --> 00:56:22,620 she whom all Asia and the world worship. 513 00:56:22,620 --> 00:56:27,580 If you remember, Ephesus is a center to this God Artemis. 514 00:56:27,580 --> 00:56:31,740 They have built a temple there with 127 columns 515 00:56:31,740 --> 00:56:35,140 that are 60 feet tall, 6 feet thick in gold. 516 00:56:35,140 --> 00:56:37,580 It's one of the wonders of the ancient world. 517 00:56:37,580 --> 00:56:40,940 And in fact, they were so intent on this temple lasting 518 00:56:40,940 --> 00:56:44,180 that they built it not on the solid rock of the city, 519 00:56:44,360 --> 00:56:47,260 but they build it on sort of marshy ground intentionally 520 00:56:47,260 --> 00:56:50,520 so that when earthquakes would come, right, 521 00:56:50,520 --> 00:56:53,520 the foundations kind of move with the earthquakes 522 00:56:53,520 --> 00:56:56,800 rather than the whole thing just cracking and falling down. 523 00:56:56,800 --> 00:56:58,140 It was a beautiful temple, 524 00:56:58,140 --> 00:57:01,280 and it brought all kinds of tourism and business. 525 00:57:01,280 --> 00:57:04,360 And look at what these guys who sort of set up outside, right? 526 00:57:04,360 --> 00:57:08,460 Last year, we had a wedding in Ohio on the way back. 527 00:57:08,460 --> 00:57:11,180 We took a little family side trip, not really side trip, 528 00:57:11,180 --> 00:57:13,080 but a little extra bit of a journey 529 00:57:13,080 --> 00:57:15,000 and took the kids to Niagara Falls. 530 00:57:15,000 --> 00:57:16,980 It had been a long time since I'd been there. 531 00:57:16,980 --> 00:57:20,540 And you walk in, and it's right, you have the falls, which are nice, 532 00:57:20,540 --> 00:57:22,560 but then there's all of these tourist things, right? 533 00:57:22,560 --> 00:57:25,100 You've got all these shops where you can buy postcards and mugs. 534 00:57:25,100 --> 00:57:26,940 There's not just like one little gift shop. 535 00:57:26,940 --> 00:57:29,760 There's like gift shops everywhere you look. 536 00:57:29,760 --> 00:57:33,360 It's just wall-to-wall gift shops for this attraction. 537 00:57:33,360 --> 00:57:37,020 And what would happen in Ephesus is all of these craftsmen 538 00:57:37,020 --> 00:57:42,480 got their living from selling things to people who came to visit this temple. 539 00:57:42,580 --> 00:57:47,740 In this case, specifically, this guy Demetrius is involved in making little sort of silver shrines, 540 00:57:47,740 --> 00:57:53,860 little copies of the goddess Artemis that people could take home with them and pray to in their house. 541 00:57:53,860 --> 00:57:55,080 And what has happened? 542 00:57:55,080 --> 00:58:02,420 Because the church has been a church, because they have repented and their hope is in Jesus, 543 00:58:02,420 --> 00:58:05,680 business has started to drop off. 544 00:58:05,740 --> 00:58:12,660 You see, the church has been so effective that it has impacted the economy of Ephesus. 545 00:58:12,660 --> 00:58:19,300 You find that even things that maybe don't seem like they would be impacted by the gospel 546 00:58:19,300 --> 00:58:21,220 are impacted by the gospel. 547 00:58:21,220 --> 00:58:24,840 And so what you find in this sort of loss of business 548 00:58:24,840 --> 00:58:32,500 is the gospel isn't just transforming, but it's confronting the city of Ephesus. 549 00:58:32,980 --> 00:58:37,660 Now, I don't know about you, but oftentimes I'm not a big fan of confrontation. 550 00:58:37,660 --> 00:58:42,700 We always like to sort of find an easy way through those difficult situations, 551 00:58:42,700 --> 00:58:44,940 maybe not having to deal with it, avoid it. 552 00:58:44,940 --> 00:58:48,620 And we see confrontation sometimes as a bad thing. 553 00:58:48,620 --> 00:58:54,320 And sometimes confrontation, especially for the sake of confrontation, is a bad thing. 554 00:58:54,320 --> 00:58:58,560 But there are times when confrontation is incredibly loving. 555 00:58:58,960 --> 00:59:03,800 One of the things that sort of burned into my memory is there was a little boy who lived 556 00:59:03,800 --> 00:59:09,720 down the street, and he was out riding his tricycle one day, dead center in the middle 557 00:59:09,720 --> 00:59:10,300 of the road. 558 00:59:10,300 --> 00:59:15,400 And over the little hill right here comes a UPS truck, and he comes to the top of the 559 00:59:15,400 --> 00:59:18,360 hill and sees a little boy on his tricycle in the middle of the road, and he just stops. 560 00:59:18,360 --> 00:59:24,040 And that little boy looks at that UPS truck, and then he just goes, bro, and starts pedaling 561 00:59:24,040 --> 00:59:26,660 as fast as he can head on at the UPS. 562 00:59:26,660 --> 00:59:27,880 He's probably like three years old. 563 00:59:28,120 --> 00:59:30,260 I'm going, where are his parents, right? 564 00:59:30,260 --> 00:59:35,520 It's not unloving for a parent who sees their kid playing chicken 565 00:59:35,520 --> 00:59:37,180 with a UPS truck in the middle of the road 566 00:59:37,180 --> 00:59:39,700 to have a confrontation with that child, right? 567 00:59:39,700 --> 00:59:42,300 That, in fact, is the loving thing. 568 00:59:42,300 --> 00:59:46,300 To not confront your child is incredibly unloving. 569 00:59:46,300 --> 00:59:52,100 And so there are times where confrontation is not unloving, 570 00:59:52,100 --> 00:59:53,680 but rather loving. 571 00:59:53,680 --> 00:59:55,540 And the key for us, I think, is to know 572 00:59:55,540 --> 00:59:59,680 when it is a good time to confront and when it is not. 573 00:59:59,680 --> 01:00:03,040 What you find is that God confronts his people in different ways. 574 01:00:03,040 --> 01:00:04,520 Sometimes it's very blatant. 575 01:00:04,520 --> 01:00:06,120 If you remember Jesus and the Pharisees, 576 01:00:06,120 --> 01:00:07,120 what will Jesus say? 577 01:00:07,120 --> 01:00:09,020 He'll say, you bunch of snakes. 578 01:00:09,020 --> 01:00:12,480 Or he'll say, you children of the devil. 579 01:00:12,480 --> 01:00:15,600 Jesus confronts sometimes very boldly. 580 01:00:15,600 --> 01:00:19,680 But then there's other times he confronts very gently. 581 01:00:19,680 --> 01:00:22,320 Remember the woman at the well who he speaks to? 582 01:00:22,320 --> 01:00:24,260 And he confronts her about her sin, 583 01:00:24,400 --> 01:00:27,080 but he does so in a way that gets her attention, 584 01:00:27,080 --> 01:00:28,720 shows her that she is loved, 585 01:00:28,720 --> 01:00:31,240 so much so that she goes into the town and she says, 586 01:00:31,240 --> 01:00:35,980 hey, come see this guy who knows everything that I have ever done. 587 01:00:35,980 --> 01:00:39,320 God sometimes confronts us bluntly, sometimes gently, 588 01:00:39,320 --> 01:00:41,820 but it's always according to what we need, right? 589 01:00:41,820 --> 01:00:46,480 He doesn't confront for the sake of confrontation, but for our need. 590 01:00:46,480 --> 01:00:51,180 And what we find in Ephesus is God confronts through the truth of Paul's message. 591 01:00:51,980 --> 01:00:54,580 He confronts through the lives of God's people 592 01:00:54,580 --> 01:00:56,740 as business begins to drop off. 593 01:00:56,740 --> 01:01:01,260 But notice how he and the church doesn't confront. 594 01:01:01,260 --> 01:01:04,900 Because this is a place where we struggle, right? 595 01:01:04,900 --> 01:01:09,480 The church isn't confronting these idol makers 596 01:01:09,480 --> 01:01:11,840 with an angry mob, 597 01:01:11,840 --> 01:01:14,580 or with an angry sign, 598 01:01:14,580 --> 01:01:17,740 or with an angry political message. 599 01:01:17,740 --> 01:01:21,800 They're confronting simply through living their lives 600 01:01:21,800 --> 01:01:27,240 Christians as Christians. And I think many of us today get this a little backwards when it comes 601 01:01:27,240 --> 01:01:33,780 to confronting culture. Many of us take the picture of the mob that confronts 602 01:01:33,780 --> 01:01:39,420 the Christians, and we use that as a model rather than looking at how the church confronted 603 01:01:39,420 --> 01:01:45,700 the idols. Listen to how the angry mob confronts. Now, some cried one thing, some another. This is 604 01:01:45,700 --> 01:01:51,240 after they rile up the mob, they head to the theater, for the assembly was in confusion. Most 605 01:01:51,240 --> 01:01:55,760 them to not even know why they had come together. Some of the crowd prompted Alexander, whom the 606 01:01:55,760 --> 01:01:59,780 Jews had put forward, and Alexander, motioning with his hand, wanted to make a defense to the 607 01:01:59,780 --> 01:02:05,140 crowd, but they recognized he was a Jew. And for about two hours, they all called out with one 608 01:02:05,140 --> 01:02:10,820 voice, great is Artemis of the Ephesians. And so you got this mob and they're chanting, what do we 609 01:02:10,820 --> 01:02:16,820 want? And they think, oh, when do we want it? We're not sure, right? We just know that we're mad and 610 01:02:16,820 --> 01:02:22,780 we're going to shout about it. And so many times when Christians confront, this is the model we 611 01:02:22,780 --> 01:02:30,560 choose. Why are we mad? I don't know, but we're going to shout about it. See in this is that how 612 01:02:30,560 --> 01:02:37,600 the church should confront. We're not very good at this. I remember in college, there was a store 613 01:02:37,600 --> 01:02:42,200 that went into our little college town and it was an adult store and it wasn't like out on the 614 01:02:42,200 --> 01:02:46,480 outskirts or, you know, in a field somewhere. It was like dead center in the middle of town. And so 615 01:02:46,480 --> 01:02:51,720 everybody is upset about this. And so, you know, the churches had protested and boycotted, which 616 01:02:51,720 --> 01:02:55,000 I don't know why you need to boycott something you weren't supposed to go to anyway, but, you know, 617 01:02:55,000 --> 01:02:59,180 that's what they were doing. Anyway, so the one church said, you know, we're going to pray for 618 01:02:59,180 --> 01:03:03,720 this store, but not in a good way. We're going to pray sort of an imprecatory, angry prayer. And 619 01:03:03,720 --> 01:03:07,700 every time you drive by, pray that bad things will happen to them. And they got bumper stickers made 620 01:03:07,700 --> 01:03:13,500 up for all of their cars that said, you know, we do the drive-by. And underneath is the name of the 621 01:03:13,500 --> 01:03:17,900 church and it's so you got all these cars driving around with bumper stickers on i'm saying we do 622 01:03:17,900 --> 01:03:22,660 the drive-by and it's like well this seems like an unseen right because there was no way to know 623 01:03:22,660 --> 01:03:29,060 what they're talking about and they were confronting not in a i think a biblical way but in a way that 624 01:03:29,060 --> 01:03:36,200 like this crowd and it's such a such a temptation for us to confront like that listen to what Peter 625 01:03:36,200 --> 01:03:41,320 says about how we're called to confront even if you should suffer for righteousness sake you will 626 01:03:41,320 --> 01:03:47,640 be blessed. Have no fear of them or be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, 627 01:03:47,640 --> 01:03:52,360 always being prepared to make a defense for anyone who asks you for the reason for hope 628 01:03:52,360 --> 01:03:57,160 that is in you. Yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, 629 01:03:57,160 --> 01:04:04,060 so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. 630 01:04:04,060 --> 01:04:11,040 Notice what he says. He says, you don't change. You're not wishy-washy. You honor Christ in your 631 01:04:11,040 --> 01:04:16,920 hearts, you make a defense, you do so with gentleness and respect. And that's what the 632 01:04:16,920 --> 01:04:22,500 church in Ephesus says, and we know that because in verse 37, for you have brought these men here 633 01:04:22,500 --> 01:04:27,980 who are neither sacraments nor blasphemers of our goddess. You get the impression that the church 634 01:04:27,980 --> 01:04:37,400 simply lived for God, spoke the truth, and it had an impact on their world. And so what you find is 635 01:04:37,400 --> 01:04:40,260 the Gospel confronts and changes. 636 01:04:40,260 --> 01:04:43,060 And you and I live in an argumentative, 637 01:04:43,060 --> 01:04:44,460 very angry world. 638 01:04:44,460 --> 01:04:46,240 We all have opinions. 639 01:04:46,240 --> 01:04:48,920 We all like to oftentimes express them loudly. 640 01:04:48,920 --> 01:04:51,980 But do we behave differently 641 01:04:51,980 --> 01:04:53,780 because of the Gospel? 642 01:04:53,780 --> 01:04:57,040 In verse 24, 643 01:04:57,040 --> 01:04:59,380 it says this, 644 01:04:59,380 --> 01:05:00,280 a man named Demith 645 01:05:00,280 --> 01:05:01,760 who made silver shrines of Artemis 646 01:05:01,760 --> 01:05:04,460 brought no little business to the craftsmen. 647 01:05:04,460 --> 01:05:06,540 The Gospel changes lives. 648 01:05:07,400 --> 01:05:09,900 It confronts the idolatry in our life. 649 01:05:09,900 --> 01:05:14,120 And third, I want you to see the gospel brings us a lasting hope. 650 01:05:14,120 --> 01:05:17,940 So these shrines, little silver figures of the goddess, 651 01:05:17,940 --> 01:05:22,080 what's interesting about them is in Ephesus they found the wooden ones. 652 01:05:22,080 --> 01:05:24,400 They found some made of stone. 653 01:05:24,400 --> 01:05:28,240 They've never found any of these silver shrines. 654 01:05:28,240 --> 01:05:30,940 Nobody doubts historically that they existed. 655 01:05:30,940 --> 01:05:33,180 In fact, everybody says, yeah, they obviously existed. 656 01:05:33,240 --> 01:05:35,300 We have all kinds of historical accounts 657 01:05:35,300 --> 01:05:39,540 about silver shrines of the goddess Artemis. 658 01:05:39,540 --> 01:05:42,280 What happened to those silver shrines? 659 01:05:42,280 --> 01:05:44,180 What happened is that when people came 660 01:05:44,180 --> 01:05:45,860 and they invaded and took over the city 661 01:05:45,860 --> 01:05:47,460 or you ran out of money, 662 01:05:47,460 --> 01:05:48,940 you took your little silver shrine, 663 01:05:48,940 --> 01:05:49,280 what did you do? 664 01:05:49,280 --> 01:05:51,460 You melt it down and you sell it for the silver that's within it. 665 01:05:51,460 --> 01:05:53,280 And at the end of the day, 666 01:05:53,280 --> 01:05:56,900 this riot in town that fills a theater of 25,000 people 667 01:05:56,900 --> 01:05:59,940 and they're shouting and screaming about Artemis. 668 01:05:59,940 --> 01:06:00,760 At the end of the day, 669 01:06:00,760 --> 01:06:02,660 the very thing they were worried about 670 01:06:02,660 --> 01:06:04,560 is not selling enough silver shrines, 671 01:06:04,560 --> 01:06:05,560 what did it matter? 672 01:06:05,560 --> 01:06:07,620 Because here we are, 673 01:06:07,620 --> 01:06:08,300 thousands of years later, 674 01:06:08,300 --> 01:06:09,380 and there's none of them, right? 675 01:06:09,380 --> 01:06:10,740 Because they all got sold. 676 01:06:10,740 --> 01:06:11,980 They all got melted down 677 01:06:11,980 --> 01:06:14,440 and used to buy groceries 678 01:06:14,440 --> 01:06:15,640 or support your travels 679 01:06:15,640 --> 01:06:17,080 or help start a business. 680 01:06:17,080 --> 01:06:18,240 They're gone. 681 01:06:18,240 --> 01:06:20,680 And one of the things we see 682 01:06:20,680 --> 01:06:24,280 is the lasting power of the gospel. 683 01:06:24,280 --> 01:06:27,660 Jesus will say this. 684 01:06:27,660 --> 01:06:30,020 He'll say in Matthew chapter 6, 685 01:06:30,020 --> 01:06:31,460 do not lay up for yourselves 686 01:06:31,460 --> 01:06:33,840 treasures on earth where moths and rust 687 01:06:33,840 --> 01:06:35,960 destroy, and where thieves break 688 01:06:35,960 --> 01:06:37,940 in and steal. But lay up for 689 01:06:37,940 --> 01:06:39,280 yourselves treasure in heaven 690 01:06:39,280 --> 01:06:41,760 where neither moth nor rust destroy, 691 01:06:41,760 --> 01:06:43,900 and thieves do not break in and steal. 692 01:06:43,900 --> 01:06:45,960 For where will your heart be 693 01:06:45,960 --> 01:06:47,200 as well. 694 01:06:47,200 --> 01:06:49,940 You see, in the Gospel we have something that 695 01:06:49,940 --> 01:06:51,980 can't be stolen, can't be 696 01:06:51,980 --> 01:06:54,100 shaken, can't be melted down, 697 01:06:54,100 --> 01:06:55,700 can't be taken away. 698 01:06:55,700 --> 01:06:57,920 We have a hope that 699 01:06:57,920 --> 01:06:59,920 lasts and lasts 700 01:06:59,920 --> 01:07:01,300 for eternity. 701 01:07:01,460 --> 01:07:06,720 And what we find is the gospel changes, it transforms, it confronts us, 702 01:07:06,720 --> 01:07:08,620 not with the purpose of just making us angry, 703 01:07:08,620 --> 01:07:14,200 but to bring us to this hope that lasts for eternity. 704 01:07:14,200 --> 01:07:15,940 Let's have a word of prayer. 705 01:07:15,940 --> 01:07:18,700 Father in heaven, thank you for Jesus. 706 01:07:18,700 --> 01:07:19,880 Thank you for grace. 707 01:07:19,880 --> 01:07:23,440 Thank you for the hope that you have given us. 708 01:07:23,440 --> 01:07:27,580 Help us as we consider how to live in a broken world, 709 01:07:27,580 --> 01:07:32,820 A world filled with all kinds of different things that we all seek to worship. 710 01:07:32,820 --> 01:07:34,920 We just ask that you would focus our eyes on you. 711 01:07:34,920 --> 01:07:41,080 That you would help us through our lives to proclaim the good news of the gospel. 712 01:07:41,080 --> 01:07:44,300 That we would be gentle and respectful. 713 01:07:44,300 --> 01:07:48,300 That we would be unwavering in our love for you. 714 01:07:48,300 --> 01:07:50,980 Thank you for Jesus. It's in his name we pray. Amen. 715 01:07:50,980 --> 01:07:56,140 We're going to sing Blessed Assurance. 716 01:07:56,140 --> 01:07:58,320 We're going to sing the first verse and the third verse. 717 01:07:58,320 --> 01:07:59,220 Let's go ahead and be standing. 718 01:08:26,140 --> 01:08:33,680 God, born of His Spirit, washed in His blood. 719 01:08:33,680 --> 01:08:44,840 This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. 720 01:08:44,840 --> 01:08:55,740 This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. 721 01:08:56,140 --> 01:09:04,200 Perfect submission, all is at rest 722 01:09:04,200 --> 01:09:09,960 I am my Savior, I'm happy and blessed 723 01:09:09,960 --> 01:09:15,400 Watching, awaiting, looking above 724 01:09:15,400 --> 01:09:20,960 Filled with His goodness, lost in His love 725 01:09:20,960 --> 01:09:32,000 This is my story. This is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. 726 01:09:32,000 --> 01:09:43,120 This is my story. This is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. 727 01:09:46,800 --> 01:09:49,340 I want to thank you for joining us this morning. 728 01:09:49,340 --> 01:09:54,020 We're thankful for those of you who are joining us online as well this morning. 729 01:09:54,020 --> 01:09:58,100 Just a couple of announcements before we wrap up this morning. 730 01:09:58,100 --> 01:10:00,680 First of all, we're back here Wednesday night, 731 01:10:00,680 --> 01:10:04,440 walking through sort of the end of 1 Thessalonians. 732 01:10:04,440 --> 01:10:07,680 That's sort of what's happening next. 733 01:10:07,680 --> 01:10:10,060 Also, we're very thankful. 734 01:10:10,060 --> 01:10:11,460 Rachel mentioned this. 735 01:10:11,460 --> 01:10:16,480 We're thankful for Erica and the work she did getting us ready for Easter. 736 01:10:16,600 --> 01:10:24,580 that's coming up here in just a couple weeks. So Palm Sunday is Sunday, April 10th. And so we're 737 01:10:24,580 --> 01:10:31,300 excited to sort of see how Jesus begins his last week in Jerusalem with the triumphal entry. I 738 01:10:31,300 --> 01:10:35,820 think we're going to be looking at that Sunday. There's a song that the children sing. They're 739 01:10:35,820 --> 01:10:40,000 kind of in the middle of the temple. Pharisees get mad because they're loud in church. And Jesus 740 01:10:40,000 --> 01:10:45,920 says, they kind of got a point. So that's where we're going to be for Palm Sunday. And then Good 741 01:10:45,920 --> 01:10:53,560 Friday, April 15th, 7 p.m. We gather on that Friday to sort of remember the death of Jesus 742 01:10:53,560 --> 01:10:59,760 together, and then we gather Sunday, April 17th, to celebrate the resurrection. And one of the 743 01:10:59,760 --> 01:11:05,240 reasons Easter is such a big deal for the church is because it's a celebration of the gospel. 744 01:11:05,240 --> 01:11:11,440 We have the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, who is the cornerstone of the church. 745 01:11:11,720 --> 01:11:14,820 This is the good news that we share to the world. 746 01:11:14,820 --> 01:11:20,020 And so we are excited to celebrate that as well. 747 01:11:20,020 --> 01:11:27,200 Also, one of the things we wanted to mention, we'll send this out in the email as well. 748 01:11:27,200 --> 01:11:33,000 One of the things we've been looking for is a way to help or sort of give you an opportunity 749 01:11:33,000 --> 01:11:37,600 to help on the situation that has been happening in the Ukraine. 750 01:11:38,180 --> 01:11:44,860 There's a lot of big organizations helping, and one of the things that we found out from Erica this week 751 01:11:44,860 --> 01:11:52,360 is there's, I guess, a group of people making sleeping bags, and we'll have some pictures of that as well. 752 01:11:52,360 --> 01:11:54,560 I've got them on my phone. I can show them to you if you want. 753 01:11:54,560 --> 01:11:58,820 It's kind of really interesting. There's a lot of people who are struggling, right? 754 01:11:58,820 --> 01:12:02,980 You're sleeping in a parking garage. It's cold, and so they're making sleeping bags 755 01:12:02,980 --> 01:12:06,940 and just passing them out so that people can be warm 756 01:12:06,940 --> 01:12:09,720 and have a little bit of shelter 757 01:12:09,720 --> 01:12:13,400 and a little bit of them for about $20 a piece, 758 01:12:13,400 --> 01:12:17,680 which if you've tried to buy like a nice sleeping bag recently, 759 01:12:17,680 --> 01:12:21,120 that's a good thing. 760 01:12:21,120 --> 01:12:25,400 So we'd like to put together a little bit 761 01:12:25,400 --> 01:12:27,220 to help support that couple ways. 762 01:12:27,220 --> 01:12:31,360 Is Stu and Erica for some of the details. 763 01:12:31,360 --> 01:12:36,060 You can, if you want to give through the church, you can put in the offering, you can either 764 01:12:36,060 --> 01:12:40,840 make a note or, you know, give us a, you know, give us some indication what that's for. 765 01:12:40,840 --> 01:12:45,440 If you'd like to do it online, if you'd like to give online, there's actually a drop box 766 01:12:45,440 --> 01:12:50,500 that pulls down just as Ukraine, and that'll set those for those funds. 767 01:12:50,500 --> 01:12:55,700 So we'd like to, over the next couple weeks or so, help with that. 768 01:12:55,700 --> 01:13:01,340 And so we'll put some posts probably on Facebook and in our email as well, just to sort of 769 01:13:01,340 --> 01:13:05,520 let you know. So if you have any questions, I can talk to you about that, or Stu and Erica can help 770 01:13:05,520 --> 01:13:10,000 answer some of those questions. I think it's a good way to help. I just kept thinking about 771 01:13:10,000 --> 01:13:14,840 where it talks in John about how, you know, if you see your brother hungry or thirsty, you see 772 01:13:14,840 --> 01:13:20,720 people who need shelter. One of the things that Christians seek to do as we bring the gospel is 773 01:13:20,720 --> 01:13:27,460 to bring help for those who are hurting and who are in need. And additionally, I would add that 774 01:13:27,460 --> 01:13:35,000 you keep in prayer the people in countries who are struggling and hurting. I would pray that the 775 01:13:35,000 --> 01:13:42,980 church in these situations would be there and be present and be helping and comforting in the 776 01:13:42,980 --> 01:13:49,860 midst of these things and be a voice for goodness and for truth. So we're going to go ahead and have 777 01:13:49,860 --> 01:13:55,240 a word of prayer. And then we'll, Evelyn, are you wanting to read? And Evelyn's going to read our 778 01:13:55,240 --> 01:13:57,280 closing verse, and then 779 01:13:57,280 --> 01:13:59,180 we're going to sing 780 01:13:59,180 --> 01:14:00,920 the doxology. Father in heaven, 781 01:14:00,920 --> 01:14:03,160 thank you for Jesus and for grace 782 01:14:03,160 --> 01:14:05,300 and for hope. Help us 783 01:14:05,300 --> 01:14:07,360 as we seek to live for you in this 784 01:14:07,360 --> 01:14:08,160 world, that we would 785 01:14:08,160 --> 01:14:11,380 be like your son, that we 786 01:14:11,380 --> 01:14:13,380 would share the good 787 01:14:13,380 --> 01:14:15,120 news about the hope that we have been given. 788 01:14:15,120 --> 01:14:17,180 It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. 789 01:14:25,240 --> 01:14:35,640 Behold, the eyes of the Lord is on those who fear him, 790 01:14:35,640 --> 01:14:37,660 on those who hope in his steadfast love 791 01:14:37,660 --> 01:14:40,420 that he may deliver their soul from death 792 01:14:40,420 --> 01:14:41,820 and keep them alive in famine. 793 01:14:41,820 --> 01:14:46,460 Our soul waits for the Lord to use our help and our shield. 794 01:14:46,460 --> 01:14:49,500 Our heart is glad of him because we trust in his holy name. 795 01:14:49,500 --> 01:14:52,380 Set your steadfast love, O Lord, upon us, 796 01:14:52,380 --> 01:14:54,080 even as we hope in him. 797 01:14:54,340 --> 01:14:55,460 This is the word of the Lord. 798 01:14:55,460 --> 01:15:13,360 Praise God from whom all blessings flow. 799 01:15:13,360 --> 01:15:18,440 Praise Him, all creatures here below. 800 01:15:18,440 --> 01:15:24,300 Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts. 801 01:15:24,340 --> 01:15:30,160 Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 802 01:15:54,340 --> 01:16:24,320 Thank you. 803 01:16:24,340 --> 01:16:54,320 Thank you. 804 01:16:54,340 --> 01:17:24,320 Thank you.