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2022-01-16
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTeX8-n-RfQ

Oh my soul, I'll worship your holy name. The sun comes up, it's a new day dawn. It's time to sing your song again. Whatever may pass and whatever lies behind you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

We're going to start our service today with a psalm of praise. It's good to start the week off, I think, with that. J.I. Packer said, praising energizes and renews our prayer life. And so when we praise the Lord, we're reminded of all the good things that he does for us, all the good things he continues to do for us. So we'll go ahead and stand. We're going to be reading Psalm 113. We're going to read the whole thing. And it's verses 1, 9, what? It's only nine verses, so. But, yeah, so let's go ahead and stand, and we'll read that together today. And it begins, Praise the Lord. Praise, O servants of the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised.

The Lord is high above all nations, and His glory above the heavens. Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, who looks far down on the heavens and the earth? He raises the poor from the dust, and lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes, with the princes of His people. He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the Lord. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray. God, we thank you for our time together today to worship you. We thank you for the opportunity to praise you and to acknowledge that you are God and that you lift us up when we're down and you are always for us in this life. And we just ask that you be with our service today and allow that to glorify you in Jesus' name. Amen. So to start out our time of praise and worship, we're going to be singing together Who You Say I Am.

Who am I that the highest king would welcome me? I was lost, but he brought me, and oh, his love for me, oh, his love for me. Who the sun sets free, oh it's free indeed I'm a child of God, yes I am Free at last He has ransomed me, His grace runs deep While I was a slave to sin Jesus died for me Yes, He died for me Oh, the sun sets free Oh, He's free in me I'm a child of God Yes, I am In my Father's house, there's a place for me I'm a child of God, yes I am I am chosen, not forsaken I am who you say I am You are free in me, not again, I am who you say I am. Who the sun sets free, who is free in me.

I'm a child of God, yes I am. In my father's house, there's a place for me, I'm a child of God, yes I am. Now, can you go get me a bottle of water, please? Thanks. All right, to our prayer and share time, we are, yes, please bring it here. Thank you. Thank you for that. All right. Russell's not here today, so I'll be taking over that part of it. But if you're watching online, there'll be a slide up on the screen with a phone number to text if you have any prayer requests, please send those, and then we'll be able to pray with you together on that. So, are you okay? Okay, sorry. For those that are watching online, that's my kids. So, we're going to be praying together here, so we'll be muted here.

So, just give us a few minutes after that, and then we'll be back to continue our worship today. So, we're going to be singing together, Build My Life.

Thank you. Jesus, the name above every other name Jesus, the only one who could ever save Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe We live for you Oh, we live for you Holy, there is no one like you There is none beside you Open up my eyes in wonder And show me who you are And fill me with your heart And lead me in your love to those around me Worthy of every song we could ever sing Worthy of all the praise we could ever bring Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe We live for you Jesus, the name above every other name Jesus, the only one who could ever save Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe We live for you, oh we live for you Holy, there is no one like you

There is none beside you Open up my eyes in wonder And show me who you are And fill me with your heart And lead me in your love to those around me I will build my life upon your love It is a firm foundation I will put my trust in you alone And I will not be shaken Holy, there is no one like you There is none beside you Open up my eyes in wonder And show me who you are in me With your heart and lead me In your love to the world around me All right, you may be seated.

Just a wonder, considerable, how much the hand I pray. I see the stars, I hear the mighty thunder. The power of love, the universe is here. Yes, it's my Savior, my Savior, God, to me How great Thou art, how great Thou art And since my soul was taken out to me, I'll bring that one, I'll bring that one. When through the waves and forest glades I wander, and in your heart, it seems to me in your dreams. When I look down, I look down to the ground to the ground. And in my heart, I just want to pray. It's my God, I want to say you've got to be I'll pray, I'll pray, I'll pray It's my God, I want to say you've got to be I'm ready to go. Oh, my Lord, my Lord, my Savior, He led a prayer to take your love away.

This is my step, my favorite heart to be. How great I love you. This is my step, my favorite heart to be. How great I love you. The baby does not know. When Christ is born, He will be raised in the world. When He is born, He will be raised in the world. When He is born, He will be raised in the world. And I'll praise you And I'll hear you And I'll hear you And I'll hear you And this is my soul And it's great to go to me And I'll hear you And I'll hear you And I'll praise you Oh, my dear, my dear, my dear, my dear, my dear, my dear, my dear, my dear, my dear.

Thank you. I can hear not to love the same thing, but you are the only one that's in Jesus' name. I can hear not to love the same thing, but I can hear not to love the same thing, but I can hear not to love the same thing. Thank you. May you all, may you allow, Lord as Lord, He is Lord, Lord as Lord. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. As we move into our time of communion, we're going to be singing Help the Father for us.

How deep the Father's love for us How vast beyond all measure That He should give His only Son To make a wretch His treasure How great the pain of searing loss The Father turns His face away As wounds which mother chosen one Bring many sons to glory Behold the man upon a cross My sin upon His shoulders Ashamed I hear my mocking voice Call out among the scoffers It was my sin that held Him there Until it was accomplished His dying breath has brought me life I know that it is finished I will not boast in anything No gifts, no power, no wisdom But I will boast in Jesus Christ His death and resurrection Why should I gain from His reward I cannot give an answer But this I know in all my heart His wounds have paid my ransom

I've been, over the past couple weeks, reading through the book of Exodus. And as I've been doing that, one of the things that continually stands out to me is God's provision for his people in the midst of sort of dark, difficult, desert times. And so he brings them out of Egypt, and he brings them through the sea, and they're hungry in the wilderness, so he feeds them, and they're thirsty in their wilderness, and he feeds them. They don't like the food, so he feeds them something different, and he cares, provides, and takes care of them through the wilderness. In John the sixth chapter, Jesus is speaking to some religious leaders and they're wanting a sign. They're wanting some proof. And Jesus says, they say, what kind of sign do you have? And then they bring up Moses.

And they say, our fathers ate manna in the wilderness as it is written. He gave them bread from heaven to eat. And they say, we feel like we're in the wilderness. We want some bread. And if you're really sent by God, you can do what Moses did. You can provide for the people in the midst of the wilderness. And so Jesus will say this. Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. And so he says, it's not Moses that provided for the people. It was God himself. And he said, he's sending some true bread, some better bread,

something that will truly nourish you, and they look at Jesus and they say, Sir, give us this bread always. They say, this sounds great, never having to be hungry again. We want that bread. And then Jesus says something startling and wonderful. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and who believes in me shall never thirst. There are times, I think, in our lives where it feels like a little bit that we're in the wilderness, right? We're hungry, we're thirsty, we're tired. Maybe we feel overwhelmed and alone. And one of the things that as Christians we need to be reminded of is that our nourishment and our strength and our hope does not come from ourselves or from our abilities or from our goodness, but it comes from God.

And one of the purposes of the Lord's Supper is that it would direct our eyes and our hearts and our minds to Jesus and to the cross. That we would see the love that God has for us, that he sent his only son to save us from our sins. And to remind us that true satisfaction for our soul and true nourishment isn't found in the things in this life, but it's found in Christ. So what we're going to do is we'll pray and then we'll partake together, turning our eyes toward Jesus. Father in heaven, thank you that you do satisfy the longing of our soul. And in this moment, as we break this bread and we drink this cup, may we remember the weight of the events that these represent. That we may remember the sacrifice of your son on the cross

and his suffering on our behalf. How he saves us from our sins. How he has won the victory on our behalf. How he gives us hope. And may you nourish our weary souls in this moment. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Jesus will say, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Let's partake together. And then he will say, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. We are going to be in Acts, the 17th chapter this morning. Before we get there, let's go ahead and have another word of prayer. Father in heaven, bless our time together as we look at this little church in this little town.

Six short verses, but they contain some wonderful truth for us. So I ask that you would encourage us, that you would convict us, that you would help us, that you would change us. We thank you so much for Jesus. We thank you for grace and for hope. It's in your son's name we pray. Amen. So, I don't remember how many years ago, but we were getting some new neighbors, and they had bought the house across the street, and they were in the middle of remodeling the house. And so, being nosy neighbors that we are, one of the things we would do as they were remodeling, we saw the building, we had to kind of peek through the windows as we were driving by or getting our mail. And so finally, Rachel met one of the neighbors at the mailbox

and just said, hey, can we come see inside your house, right? Because sometimes you just need to open the door and look inside, right? What Luke is doing here in these six verses in Acts 17th chapter is he's opening the door and he's letting us look inside at this little church. It's a quick glimpse. He doesn't give us a huge amount of details, But what he does is takes something wonderful, kind of opens the door, and says, take a look at this. So I'm going to go ahead and read our text, and then we'll just spend some time unpacking it. The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. So they've come from Thessalonica, snuck out of the middle of the night, heading to Berea. And when they arrived, they went into the Jewish synagogue.

Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica. they received the word with all eagerness examining the Scriptures daily if these things were so many of them therefore believed with not a few greek women of high standing as well as men but when the Jews from thessalonica heard that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at berea also they came thereto agitating and stirring up the crowns then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea but Silas and Timothy remained there those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed. So Luke opens the door, gives us a glimpse of this Berean church. Not a long look, but it is an encouraging one. So I don't know if you've

ever felt really tired and frustrated, but I'm guessing probably all of us have. And I was thinking back, and when I left, graduated high school, and spent the summer, was getting ready to leave for college. My parents were in Colorado, and I was going to Missouri, and they were going to meet me in Missouri on their way back home from Colorado. And so I got my car all packed up. And just like normal, it took like eight hours longer than I thought it would to pack up. So instead of leaving at like, you know, eight o'clock in the morning, it was like four in the afternoon when I got ready to leave to drive to Missouri. I said, you know what, I'm going to drive a few hours, try to get all the way across New York State, and then I'm going to find a place

to stay and so i had been up all day been packing and you know it's all the the things getting ready so i was already tired and so i drove and i drove and i drove i finally got to like eight o'clock at night it's like i am so tired i'm gonna find a hotel so i you know back then uh you couldn't just pull something up on your smartphone or make a reservation so i saw the sign on the side of the road the list of the hotels and well that one looks like uh probably not going to get murdered if i stay there so i pulled in drove in went into the desk and i'd like a room like oh absolutely uh can i have your identification your credit card so i i hand that to them they look at it

and said sorry uh we don't rent rooms to anybody under 25 and so here i am a whole lot of miles from home a whole lot of miles from my destination and so i get back in the car and i drive to you know down the road a few more miles find another hotel went in sorry we don't rent rooms to anybody who's under 21 i think well we're heading in the right direction and so i drove and i drove try another hotel sorry we don't rent rooms and finally it's like 12 30 at night and i said i'm gonna try one more time and then i'm just gonna sleep in my car on the shoulder of the road and i pull into the hotel went in and they uh gave me a room uh thankfully didn't even look at my id

so i i kind of had lowered my standards for what kind of hotel i was gonna stay in and i got a room and i just remember how tired and how frustrated i was right because it seemed like everything i tried to do, which is like, no. And life sometimes feels that way, right? We're going along and we're tired and we're frustrated. And then what happens? We get grumpy, we get angry, and all of these things begin to happen. In Acts chapter 16 and 17, what we find is Paul and Silas and Timothy, their missionary journey has gotten very difficult. In Philippi, after doing some wonderful things, they're dragged by a mob in the center of the city, brought before the magistrates. They rip off their clothes. They beat them. They tie them up, and they throw them in the darkest part

of the jail. And the next morning, when the officials come to talk to them, you find out that the whole detention and punishment was illegal. And instead of apology, they say, get out of our city. And so they get out of the city, and they begin to walk, and they stop at two towns, neither of which have a synagogue. And so they just keep going, and they walk like a hundred miles till they come to the town of Thessalonica. In Thessalonica, they show up for church or the synagogue, three Sabbaths in a row. And ultimately, at the end of those three Sabbaths, an angry mob storms the house where they think Paul, Silas, and Timothy are staying, drag the occupants of the house down to the center of the city. There's almost a riot, and Paul and Silas and Timothy end up sneaking out of town in the dead of night, 45 miles by foot,

to the town of Berea. And so now they find themselves in this little town. And if I was one of this small band of missionaries, I would feel extra small, right? Extra tired, extra frustrated. You're doing some good things and the gospel's taking root in Philippi and an angry mob shows up. So you have to hike 100 miles and you get to Thessalonica and you start doing some good things and an angry mob shows up. You got to sneak out in the middle of the night You have to feel like nothing is working, and you're tired, and you're frustrated. And we've all had those kind of days. And most of us, when those days happen, our attitude is not very good. So look what happens to Paul, Silas, and Timothy when they get to Berea.

Verse 10, when they arrived, they went to the Jewish synagogue. Think about what they've encountered over the past several weeks or several months, right? They've traveled almost 150 miles on foot. They've faced down several angry mobs. They've been beaten, thrown in jail, had to sneak out of a town in the middle of the night. And immediately they get to this town and they don't say, you know what, I need a week off, right? I need to eat, I need to take a nap, I need to recharge. Immediately they go back to work preaching the good news of the gospel. Now my point with saying that is not for us to look at God and say, get back to work, sharing the good news of the gospel. My point is to look at Paul, Silas, and Timothy and point you to the fact that their strength and their ability to get back to work in the midst of this discouragement is not because they're strong, but because they serve a God who is strong.

And my point is not to say, get back to work, but rather fix your eyes on the God who will give you the strength to do what you need to do. They have to be sustained by something other than their own strength. In a few weeks we'll see Paul moving into the town of Corinth and in 2 Corinthians he writes several letters to this church because they have all kinds of problems. But in 2 Corinthians he talks about some of the conflicts and struggles that he's encountered. I just want to share with you what he says about those difficult times. He says this in 2 Corinthians chapter 1. We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction that we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.

Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead. You hear what Paul says? He says it's not because we're strong or because we're good. He says it's because God is the one who gives us strength. He's the one that we rely on. In 2 Corinthians chapter 3, he'll say this. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim that anything is coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant. Not the letter of the Spirit, for the letter killed, but the Spirit gives life. Do you hear what he says? He says it's not because we're strong and we're able to keep going in the midst of difficulty,

but because God has encouraged us and strengthens us, and he is sufficient for the task that is ahead of us. And then in 2 Corinthians chapter 13, he's threatening the church saying, I'm going to come back, and if I have to, I'm going to knock some of your heads together because none of you are listening. And he'll say this, not because I'm strong, but he'll say, for he, speaking of Jesus, was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you, we will live with him by the power of God. And what Paul is saying is that my strength isn't enough. If I was trying to deal with the events in Philippi by myself and having to hike all the way to Thessalonica

and dealing with those discouragement and having to sneak out and hike to Berea, I wouldn't be able to do it. But God is sufficient. And you and I need to hear this message, especially in those moments where we feel like everything has been no and nothing is working and we're frustrated. And we're going, I can't do it. The answer's right, you can't, but God can. He is your strength, and He is your sufficiency, and He is your hope. And that's why Paul, Silas, and Timothy are able, in the midst of this discouraging scene of ministry, to get up first thing and head back to preach the good news of the Gospel. What's interesting is that the things in Berea go a little differently than Thessalonica. Listen to what happens. And some of them, I'm sorry, jumped a whole part.

So when they get to Berea, they go into the synagogue and they preach. One of the things that happens is that this church has a very different reaction than Thessalonica. Look at verse 11. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica, and they received the word with eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these were so. Many of them therefore believed, not with a few Greek women of high standing as well as men. Now this verse is pretty familiar if you've been around the church very long. Specifically verse 11, that these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica because they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. And by and large, I think maybe the church has addressed this verse not in 100% of a good way.

And what I mean by that is that for many of us, this verse has been used to fuel our prong, right? We use this verse, right, those in Thessalonica were more noble as sort of a license to compare ourselves or look down on other Christians. And so we will look at this and we'll say, well, I'm more noble. I'm like the Bereans, not like the Thessalonians. I love the Bible. They don't care as much about the Bible as I do. And my church cares more about it than their church. And this is something that is sort of habitual in many churches, right? And we'll say, look, it's right here in the Bible. Those who study the Bible are better than those who don't. We're the real Christians. And what we're doing when we do that, when we use this verse as fuel for our pride,

we're doing exactly the opposite of what Jesus prays for the church. So the night before Jesus goes to the garden, and the night before He's arrested and He's crucified, He prays for the church. And He prays not that we would be united and proud and putting each other down, but He prays that we would be one. This verse is not intended to be used to fuel our pride. And additionally, it's not even talking about church people. These people aren't Christians yet. This is not a verse comparing Christian A and Christian B, the Christians in Thessalonica and the Christians in Berea. This is comparing people who aren't Christians, who aren't Christians yet. In the synagogue in Thessalonica and the Jews in the synagogue of Berea, it's comparing two non-Christian responses to the gospel. One group sort of goes with their own pride

and their own arrogance. The other group humbly engages with the word of God. So this verse is not intended to be fuel for our pride. The other way that we address the verse, it's not a bad way, but I think it's an incomplete way, is we simply look at this verse as a good example, right? So we look at this, we say, I want to be people who, we want to be people who eagerly dive into the Word of God, and that's wonderful, and that's good, but we're missing something in this verse when we do that. Have you ever wondered why there was such a difference in the reception of the gospel between Berea and Thessalonica? Let me read to you about the Berean Christians. Many of them therefore believed, and not a few Greek women of high standing, as well as men.

And then, in Thessalonica, And some were persuaded in joining Paul and Silas, as did a great many of those devout Greeks, not a few of the leading women. But the Jews were jealous, and taking some of the wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob and set the city in an uproar, attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out in the crown. So why so many in one town and a few in the other? Why sort of acceptance in one town? Why an angry mob in the other? And the simple answer is because of the word of God. Verse 12 says this, because many of them therefore believe. Why do they believe? Because they had honestly and humbly engaged with the word of God. The Word of God will strengthen you, will transform you,

will change your heart as He works to transform your life. Hebrews says this, The Word of God is living and active. It's sharper than any two-edged sword piercing to the division of soul and spirit of joints and marrow and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. This book is not just simply a book full of information and a bunch of different stories or a bunch of rules. This is a book that will transform the depth of your heart. And one of the reasons you see such a difference between the people who weren't believers in Thessalonica and the people who weren't believers in Berea is because one group humbly and honestly engaged with the Word of God. And so one of the things we see is we do see this wonderful example of diving into the Word of God.

But more than that, we see the power of the Word of God to change lives. The Word of God transforms and saves. And so in the midst of this, what we find is conflict returns. Acts 17 and 13, when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the Word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there to agitating and stirring up the crowds. And here's the thing, when there is spiritual growth, there will be spiritual opposition, right? When we start to work for the kingdom of God, when good things start to happen, that is when the enemy opposes us. He doesn't have any need to oppose us when we're simply sitting and doing nothing. But when we start to advance for the gospel in the strength that God provides, there will be opposition.

And as Paul proclaims the word of God, these people from Thessalonica, and think about it, how much do you have to hate some guy to hike 45 miles one way to just try to get him beat up and thrown out of town, right? That's the level of opposition that they face. And so in Acts chapter 17, you get this glorious glimpse of this new community. We've seen how God encourages us in the midst of what seems like discouragement. We've seen how the Word of God changes and transforms people, brings them into the kingdom, and then opposition arises, and we get a glimpse of this little church in Berea. Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there, and those who conduct Paul brought him as far as Athens,

and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed. Now, that just sort of sounds like a transition to his next stop, but there is something wonderful that is happening here. They don't just say, hey, Paul, get out of town and head on your way. Then some of these members of the church, Timothy and Silas, stay behind to help this little church grow, and then a bunch of the guys in church gather around Paul, and they say, you're not going to walk on this road by yourself. And so they walk him to the sea, and they get on a boat with him, and they get him safely to Athens. And once he is safely established there, they go home. Now remember, this is not like today, where I can call my brother and say,

hey, you want to run to Lowe's with me real quick, and we go and do that. These guys would have to leave behind their family for a period of time. They have to face danger on the road. They're going to face danger on the sea. They're going to have to pay for these things in a time when money is not prevalent. This is a sacrifice. But they look at the Apostle Paul and say, our brother in Christ will not face the dangers alone, but we will walk with him. And I love this picture of Christian community. It's one of my favorites. And I've shared this with you before. One of my favorite verses in Acts, and it's in Acts chapter 28. Paul is in chains. He's on his way to Rome. He's facing an uncertain future.

He doesn't know what is going to happen to him. He may go, and he may die. And the Christians in Rome know he's coming. And here he's on the road to Rome, and Acts 28 says this, There we found brothers, and they invited us to stay with them for seven days. And we came to Rome. And the brothers there, when they heard about us, came out as far as the forum of atheists and three taverns to meet us. And on seeing them, Paul thanked God and took courage. Paul, in that moment, sounds like he was a little bit discouraged. And when the Christians hear that Paul is coming, they walk, not just a little bit, but miles and miles outside of the city. And they find Paul, and they surround him, and they walk into Rome together.

And I love that picker of Christian community. And you see it in Berea. As Paul faces an uncertain future, how he travels, what's he going to find in Athens? The church comes around him and walks with him into that future. You see, the gospel creates a community of people who should walk together. So what happens to the Berean church? This is an interesting church because out of all the churches in the New Testament, some we know a little bit more about than others, but the Berean church, after this passage, is never mentioned again. We never hear about the Berean church. But what's interesting is we do get a glimpse of some of the Christians from Berea, specifically one.

In Acts chapter 20, Paul is in trouble again. It seems to be his kind of way of doing business. He'll spend three months, and he'll say this, a plot was made against him by the Jews, and he was about to set sail for Syria, and he returned through Macedonia. Sopater, the Berean, son of Pyrrhus, accompanied him. And some of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus, Secundus, Gaius of Derbe, Timothy and the Asians, Tychus, and Trophimus. And what you'll find is that Paul is facing a plot where some guys want to kill him. And so this guy from Berea, and the text doesn't say this, but my picture is this guy is like, they're going to kill Paul, they've got to get through me. And he shows up, tracks as Paul's bodyguard. And what's interesting, this other group of people is like, we'll just meet you at Troas.

But Sobiter, he walks with Paul this whole way, kind of sort of, somebody's in trouble, he's like, hey, I'm going to go with you and make sure you're okay. And that's what this Berean does. interesting, there's a guy with a very similar name, possibly the very same guy mentioned in Romans 16, who had evidently made his way to Rome, had known the church and encouraged the church. So what you find, this little church that we just get these little six verses of continues to have an impact in a small way on the kingdom of God. And so many times we look at our smallness and say, what can I do? In this little church, it seems that one of the things they did as they stood by their brothers and sisters in Christ, especially in the face of danger.

That one of the wonderful and most encouraging things to the church is when brothers in Christ and sisters in Christ, we stand together and we help one another and we encourage one another. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this testimony of this church that simply serves, that loves the Word, that loves your faith, that even when they face risk, They walk together into the unknown. Thank you for Jesus who enables us to do this. Help us in our lives to love your word, to be encouraged by your power, that you would be our sufficiency, and that we would walk with one another as we face the difficulties of this life. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Ultimately, the Berean church is able to do that because their eyes are fixed on Jesus. So we're going to go ahead and stand and sing Be Thou My Vision.

Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart. Nor be all else to me Save that Thou art Thou my best thought By day or by night Waking or sleeping Thy presence, my light

Be Thou my wisdom, and Thou my true Word, I ever with Thee, and Thou with me, Lord. Thou my great Father, and I Thy true song. Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee, Lord.

Riches I heap, O man's empty praise. Thou mine inheritance, now and always. Thou and Thou only, first in my heart. High King of heaven, my treasure now all. High King of heaven, my victory you are. May I reach heaven's joys, O bright hymn's sun. Hearts of my own heart, whatever before. Still be my vision, O ruler of God.

We are thankful that you are here with us this morning, joining us here in person, or those of you who are joining us online. We are thankful for you. We'll be back here Wednesday night, continuing on, wrapping up 1 Thessalonians, the second chapter, moving into chapter 3, moving through that. But also Thursday, 1 p.m., the ladies' group will be here at the church meeting for Ladies' Bible Study. So that is this Thursday. Also, if you haven't signed up for our email list, I would encourage you to do that. We didn't send out an email this week because the service that provides our email list and provides our website and provides our live streaming had a major service outage for the last couple days, but they are back up and running. So if you have any trouble doing that,

Just send me a message or shoot me an email, and I'll get you added to that as well. So we are going to have a word of prayer. We'll read a verse of Scripture, and then we will sing the doxology. Father in heaven, thank you for your church and for your people. Thank you for this warm place to meet. May we take the good news of the gospel out with us. May we walk together as brothers and sisters in Christ, seeking to encourage one another. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. At the end of Hebrews, we find these words. Now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. From whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him, above ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Thank you.