Invite you to take your Bibles this morning to Acts chapter 18 Uh, we’ve got a short text this morning. Thanks Justin. We return again today to our series in the book of Acts and looking at actually two verses and we’re actually only focusing on one of them, but we are going to be taking a journey this morning, actually three journeys.

And, uh, that’s gonna be how we’re gonna start. A little bit of a geography lesson, little bit of an overview of what’s been going on in the book of Acts and going to be going on. But Acts chapter 18 is a transitional moment and particularly verse 23. And I’d like to read just verse 22 and 23, pick up from where Pastor Ben left off a couple of weeks ago.

Acts chapter 18, verse 22, when he had landed at Caesarea. And this is talking about Paul. He went up and greeted the church and then went down to Antioch. After spending some time there, he departed and went from one place to the next, to the region of Galatia and frig, strengthening all the disciples.

Lord, we look to you this morning. Glory in a morning that is beautiful. It reminds us again of a creator God, a God who loves beauty and has created beauty for us to enjoy. And Lord, as we gather in this room this morning, I really pray that as we open this word, that you would speak into our lives, that you would call us, compel us to long to go deeper in our experience with Jesus Christ, our Lord, our Savior.

In whose name I pray. Amen. Amen. What I’m gonna do for the next probably four or five minutes is to present where we are, because actually what is happening here is a transitional moment in the Book of Acts. It is the ending of the second missionary journey, which was a big deal, and the beginning of the third missionary journey, which is a bigger deal.

But there’s a statement made in that transitional moment, which is where I’m gonna focus my message this morning. But just to give context, um, we’re looking at the fir the first missionary journey, and there are three missionary journeys that Paul was a part of. And they spanned about 10 years of ministry from 80 47 to 57.

And as we come to the first map, um, basically we see. That, um, Paul is starting at Antioch, right there. Jerusalem is down in this area, down actually farther, but this is, this is, uh, Antioch up here. He is going to take, um, his partner who is Barnabas at the time, and they are going to follow this blue line.

The blue line goes to Cyprus, it then comes up north, it comes over to here, it ends at Derby, and then he retraces his steps and goes back to Antioch. That is the first missionary journey. It is a journey that, uh, focuses on this arena and if we can put that blue mark right, this is basically the hub of the first missionary journey where that blue square is.

The Jerusalem Council occurred in, in chapter 15 of the Book of Acts back in Jerusalem where Paul and Barnabas have been out. They’ve been reaching Gentiles. And now’s the whole question, what do we do with these gentiles? Do they have to become Jews? I mean, don’t they have to be, uh, converted to Judaism before they can become followers of Christ?

And, and the conclusion is no. And now Paul is going on a second missionary journey, beginning in chapter 16, and this section Mi missionary journey.

I don’t know where he went. All right, well, the second missionary journey is now beginning here and is going up through this area, and basically it again starts in Antioch. This time he goes this way and he tries to go to Ephesus in that red. Um, designation there. The stop sign is he was stopped by the spirit.

So then he went north and he said, okay, we’re gonna go up into this area, Bethia. Um, because that is along the Black Sea, the coastal area. There, there were a number, number of cities that apparently he wanted to preach in and God stopped him again. So then he continued along and he went Toro ass, sort of the end of the line.

And he, he sort of had this sense that on the second missionary journey, Paul is somewhat wandering at this point and God then calls him over in a dream to Macedonia, to, he starts in Philippi and works down and spends the majority of his time here in, in Corinth. Al over 18 months in Corinth. And while he is there, that area, um, over here, the, the big rectangle becomes the hub of the second missionary journey.

First missionary journey was here. Second missionary journey is basically Greece. Paul is concluding, uh, his trip as he, he travels and he and he now comes over here, just finally gets to Ephesus and is just there for a moment. He has wanted to go to Ephesus. It is the center of the, it is basically the, the crown jewel of the eastern part of the entire Roman empire, the second most prominent city in the Roman Empire.

And Paul is, um, leaving there, if we can bring that up again. He leaves there and now he’s come back and we pick up in the verses we read. It says that he lands, he comes to Caesarea and then he travels back up to Antioch and now he’s at Antioch. And verse 23 picks up with the statement that he started out again, this is the start of the third missionary journey.

As Paul now begins that journey, it says, when he landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church, and then he went down to Antioch. It says down, even though it’s going north because Jerusalem and was much higher elevation than Antioch. And that’s how they talked back then, elevations. And so he was going down.

After spending some time there, he departed and went from one place to the next through the region of Galatia. Basically, he’s going back and this is going to be his third missionary journey. And on the third missionary journey, Paul is going to minister in this area originally, um, primarily again in Galatia and these surrounding areas.

Frige is right here. But where Paul is gonna spend almost all his time on this missionary journey is in one place, the city of sis, he’s gonna be there over two years. He’s gonna do some more travels and he’s gonna come back and he’s gonna be there again. Ministering, uh, in nearby city of Melitus where he meets the elders of the city of, of the church in Ephesus.

So he’s got three missionary journeys with three different emphasis in terms of location, geographical focus, first in Southern Turkey, which is Galatia, uh, then in Greece. And now in the third missionary journey that he’s embarking on, he is going to go primarily to Ephesus in that ministry. Paul, priorities for ministry.

Are, are presented to us in verse 23, and they are the priority that he had. It is the priority that the church collectively had. It is the priorities that we as a church collectively and as believers, individually should embrace. And those priorities in verse 23 are going to be that Paul was determined to make disciples by God’s grace and then to build disciples.

I’m gonna look at that simple outline, uh, this morning in sort of a big picture way, because this phrase, strengthening Disciples, is foundational to the ministry of the GOs, the Book of Acts as the focus of the church’s ministry throughout the world. So we’re gonna look at that together. The first thing we find is that Paul.

Is always seeking to make disciples. Verse 23 says, Paul set out. From there the picture is that Paul, he’s come back, he’s settled in Antioch. It’s an established church. He loves the people there. He is spent a lot of time there. He is been an elder in the church, but he’s itching to get back out on the road.

He’s longing to again, get out and, and communicate the gospel to areas Ephesus Preeminently as a place to present the gospel. It’s striking how significant that was in the Roman world. The Roman world basically tolerated all religions. Everybody can believe whatever they want. Of course, just the Romans themselves had hundreds of, of deities, but they had placed, they, they, they had embraced, uh, Judaism.

They had, they embraced everything. They embraced all of the various religious faiths. The only thing the Roman authorities asked was that you give some token allegiance to the concept that the emperor is, is a deity. But it wasn’t really a, a, an act of theological spiritual devotion. It was more of a political allegiance.

The second preeminent principle that the Roman, uh, authorities had in terms of religion is not only must you pay lip service to Caesar, but secondly, you must not try to proselytize other people to your faith. We tolerate everybody. Don’t try to make somebody else become what you are. Implying that what they are and what they believe is not appropriate.

Well, the essence of Christian faith put the early believers in the crosshairs on both accounts. So the gospel we are reminded was never intended to be kept to oneself. It is not a religious dogma entrusted to its followers for their own consumption. The gospel literally means good news. The gospel is something that is news.

It is news to be shared. It is news to be proclaimed. It is news to be declared. It is a messaging that is presented to others, and it immediately put them in the crosshairs of the authorities because, They were intentionally then foundationally viewing their faith as something to try to share to others.

In Acts chapter one, Jesus said The whole mission of this new enterprise called the church would be you will be, once you’ve received power that comes from the spirit, you will be witnesses to me throughout the entire world. The early church grasped that and their champions like Paul led the way. And so we look at then what Paul is doing as he is embarking on his trip, but he’s representative of the whole feel of the early church that we have been given.

Not a dogma, not a religious faith that is entrusted as a a private treasure. We have been entrusted with. News, good news. It’s our gospel and the word evangelism is from Evangeline, that good news gospel. We see a couple of things. The people they sought to reach Paul followed the same pattern in all of the cities.

He will do this on the third missionary journey in the same way that he did on the first journey and the second journey, he will go to ultimately two groups of people. He will start with those with a worldview more similar to the one that he embraced. He would go to the Jews they believed in one God, one, uh, one Theas God, who was overall a creator God.

But he would also take his message, and we see him most prominently visualizing that in his messaging to the, to the Athenians as he’s talking to the philosophers and the city mucking bucks there in Act 17. And he, and he’s, he’s defining this God to a people that have a very different worldview than he does as he talks about a God of transcendence, a transcendent God who is a creator to whom all people will be accountable.

Now, Paul was the prominent spokesman for this movement, but the overwhelming majority of converts in the Roman Empire would never hear Paul preach. They would come to faith through the lives and the influence and the, the, the testimony of those who had embraced the concept as Christians of being witnesses.

To Christ with his good news. Now, there’s a big question here. How is it that going to a, a culture

with individuals that had no concept of transcendence, no concept of a God that is, uh, a God that is both creator, sustainer of life, a God that is desiring to be personally involved in their lives, which was so contrary to the Roman perspective, a God that. Believed in a, a, a, a culture believed in imminence.

Everything’s gotta be right here, right with me. Touch, feel. It’s, it’s a man. I’ve got a God for this. I’ve got a God for this. I carry him around. That’s my view of God. But the idea, one God transcendent creator, was totally contrary to their belief system. How was it that the church was able to move people towards the gospel?

Well, it’s a question that’s really relevant for us, and I’ve mentioned this lately. I, this is where I’m spending a lot of time just processing, trying to really execute culture and, and, and thinking where we are and what does it mean and how does this, that, that we are secularized and, and far more secularized than we have ever been before.

And how did we get here? And how was it, uh, that, that just a handful of centuries ago, a couple of centuries ago, Virtually everybody believed in some type of a deity. The concept of of atheism was almost non-existent in the western world. And now we have moved dramatically to a culture that is moving to more nons.

What is your religious faith non in the result than ever before? How do we then speak in the concepts of a transcendent God? Well, it’s important to just realize the thinking of people today. You might say, well, I don’t know. Most of the people I know believe in God, and most of the people I know would, uh, you know, would, would, would, would, um, believe that you know that, that God is big and maybe even that his creator?

Well, here’s an analogy od it’s like believing that there are power plants that produce our electricity. I don’t know if you know this, um, but pse and G doesn’t actually make your electricity. That’s produced by gas plants and nuclear power plants here in new, in, in southern New Jersey. That’s where virtually all of the power that you find, the electric power that comes into your home, uh, and your office and this building come from natural gas plants, nuclear power plants.

Now, I might ask you, do you believe that? And you’d say, well, I think so. You usually don’t lie, but well then I would say, Google it, you’ll find out. Cuz then you’ll, but it’s true. So we might say, okay, yeah, yeah, I believe that. And then I might ask, does that affect your life? And, well, no, I mean, I, I never even thought about it.

Maybe I, I knew power came from, you know, Niagara Falls for most of New York state. I never really thought about where my power comes from, but yeah, I, I believe it. But does it affect my life? No, I don’t. I, I, I, I don’t ever think about it. And, and this is, Probably gonna be the last time I’m gonna think about it because you’re making me think about it.

And no, it’s not really affecting my day-to-day experience and I don’t expect it to. That is how many people live their lives culturally with God. You say, do you believe exist? Yeah. Uh, is he bit, yeah. Uh, does it, does it affect the way tomorrow when you’re planning your week? Will that be something that you are, you are, you’re bringing in?

I would quite frankly say I’m not only talking to people outside the church. I’m people inside the church. But basically there’s a, there’s a concept that yes, people believe in God, but as far as touching their day-to-day lives, their day-to-day experience where God said, I’m transcendent. I’m the creator, and I’m the one that hold people accountable for their behavior, and I have moral absolutes that I have laid out for, for all of humankind to whom I will ultimately hold all people accountable.

I’m sustaining life. I’m overseeing life. I am ruling in the world in which you live. So how do we, IM people, pack people that don’t really think about God, that aren’t really reckoning on God when they get up and plan their day, their week, their future, and aren’t really thinking about the need of a relationship with God in particular.

Well, here’s how it happened in the early church. In the book of Acts, and I’m just gonna highlight a few things. The reason they made an impact on those people, and I’m summarizing now, studies overall in the Book of Acts and also some of the epistles people saw individuals that are, had a relationship with the living God that impacted their lives.

They saw and heard evidence for God in people’s lives. The Book of Acts is a story of lives that were experiencing the power of God. That’s the very impetus to go out with the good news was people were experienced power from the spirit of God. They were living the old theological term, korum Dale in the presence of God, as the Latin word talks about, that God was real to them.

That it wasn’t just you got up tomorrow morning or tonight as you plan your week that you don’t, or, or the next month that’s coming up in June and, and you don’t make all those plan and without. Thinking of where does God fit in this? And am I listening to God? Am I, am I hearing from God as I process life, as I think of doing life,

the gospel impacting a culture that does not have a sense and is not living with the reality of a, of, of a transcendent active God that is actually making it available to do life with him, needs to see the living power of God. That’s why we were all excited last Sunday with 13 people getting baptized in both services, hearing the stories, and I was struck with Pastor Jared’s words as he baptized the 13th of them.

This one in the 10 30 service. Here was his statement as he closed the service and it was great. He said, if you showed up today, maybe you came to support someone who was baptized. Maybe you just walked in. But one thing you found from these testimonies, our God is alive as we heard. It doesn’t matter if you have traumas or if you have addictions.

If you’re chasing other spiritual practices, God is life and he’s pursuing you. This is the reality that the early church throbbed with as they went forth with people living in the presence of God, that culturally people are going to have to sense that God is alive, God is moving. The second thing we find about the early church is they had a reason for hope in suffering.

The Christians did not see life as random. They knew a God that was orchestrating the circumstances of their lives. It’s why Peter says in one Peter three, verse 15, as he’s talking to a church that is under intense suffering, he says this,

always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason, for the hope that is in you. He says, People don’t expect you to have hope when you don’t have God as the central reality of life, orchestrating life, having purpose in, in circumstances that are allowed to come into our lives and are purposed by God.

He says, all you look at suffering as is something to get over. It’s only looked at as if I can just live through this. If it can just be eradicated, if I can just get out of it. But the Christian says, I embrace these moments. I embrace what God is desiring to do in my life and he is intending through these circumstances that I don’t live with wasted moments where now I can’t be productive and I, it’s just getting through this thing till I get to where I really live my life.

The Christ says, no, there is a God that is involved. I quoted this book a while, a few weeks ago by Alan Noble called Disruptive Witness, and in the book he is arguing that there are two. Preeminent barriers that we share that we face in our culture in the Western culture today, uh, to the gospel. First is the lack of transcendence, the lack of sense that there is a God to whom are accountable, that there’s a God.

That’s superintendent, but he has a second one as well. The second one he said is people are distracted. That people are, are, are constantly, their minds are full. They’re, they’re, they’re struggling with so many different things. Smartphones, tablets, computers, social media platforms, distract people from really thinking and processing.

A recent study by Reed Health Centers in the Midwest did a study of people on their phones. They actually had a system where they were able to measure on their phones how many touches people had. And it could be, uh, just a time when you, you were typing, it could have been a time when you were tapping the phone, when you’re swiping the phone screen all counted as a touch.

They found that an average user touches their smartphone 2,617 times every day with heavy users clocking in at 5,427. That’s a distracted group of people. We are a distracted culture, and he is arguing in the book, Alan Noble, is that people are, their minds are so, they’re, they’re thinking, they’re looking at the neck thing.

You know, if, if, if they got quiet for a moment, the first thing you do we do is look at the phone, check it out, and he says it’s, it’s hard to get people to process and think, so how do we speak in truth in such a day, in such a culture? His suggestion is this, recognize that modern people, Are invariably more open to considering Christianity during times of stress, difficulty, disappointment, or suffering.

When I read that the first time, I immediately went to the book of Ecclesiastes in my mind because in Ecclesiastes there’s a statement. Here’s a statement. Wisdom is found more in the house of mourning than the house of feasting. Could I paraphrase it? Here’s a Willie paraphrase. You do a lot more thinking about life at a funeral than you do at a tailgate party.

Our culture is keeping us moving at tailgate parties. But when you come to a funeral, what do you think about? You think about what would people say about me? You think about, oh my goodness, this guy’s only two years older than I am. Oh my goodness. You, you, you, you embrace it. You’re processing. You’re thinking about life.

You’re thinking about mortality. You’re thinking about where you’re investing your life. Times of loss, times of pain, times of suffering. Our megaphones in our lives, but also the lives of people that we do life with. Every crisis of a coworker is an opportunity to offer, to pray for them or with them. We need to believe that, that people you would never think would pray will respond many times.

Not everybody, and you don’t know which ones. So there’ll be rebuffs. But to recognize these are moments when people are feeling something are struggling, lost. These are God appointed moments. The gospel speaks into it because Christians have a, a comfort and, and, and Peter says, people are gonna look at you guys and you’re suffering right now.

And he says, be ready to talk to them about the reason for your hope. Third Christians were willing to do that and ready to do that. They engaged with the, the, the needs of people around them. It’s a statement made by a guy named an

with apologies to him, but since he was from the early second century. He’ll, I’ll get by. He made this statement as he wrote to Roman authorities about Christians, but among us, you’ll find uneducated persons and artisans and old women who, if they’re unable in words to prove the benefit of our doctrine, yet by their deeds, exhibit the benefit arising from their persuasion of its truth.

They don’t ha, they don’t rehearse speeches, but exhibit good works when struck. They do not strike again when robbed. They don’t go to law. They give it to those they give. They give to those that ask of them and love their neighbors as themselves. They’re not Christian in name only one’s. Readiness to forgive.

Others to serve. Others. To deny others is the most powerful polemic for the truth of the gospel. That we have embraced ourselves with a Lord that is a servant.

Great read by Langdon Gilkey, and if we can just bring up that book. It’s called The Shong Compound. It’s a story of a guy Langdon Gilkey, who was a liberal professor that was teaching in China at the time. He was caught up in the Japanese sweep and got thrown in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. While he was there, he was with a bunch of missionaries and a bunch of other, uh, western, um, ex expatriates and ba basically, they were all there and he was studying it.

And he actually wrote a, a, a really interesting study about, it’s, it’s basically about how do people live under stress and what he found. Was that many of those that were religious were just as exploitive, as irreligious people. There are many missionaries, some of the missionaries anyway, began to form cliques and, and look out for themselves, protect their food, sort of, sort of be a community within the community and to care for each other.

Only yet he saw something strikingly different and impactful in some of the others. He saw people and he cites one guy in particular who spent tireless hours in caring for elderly prisoners in teaching the Bible and science to anybody that wanted to hear it. Organizing games and dances for the kids, and sharing his food, his time, his energy.

You’ve heard of the guy, at least some of you have. The man’s name was Eric Little, the star of the Chariots of Fire, the Olympic gold medalists who gave his life to serving the gospel in China. Eric Little died in that camp in 1945, but Langdon Gilkey, his whole life was impacted by Eric Little because he saw the influence of a man and others with him that lived out a gospel.

And it was compelling in its reality, making disciples, helping people be brought into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ drove the Apostle Paul as he went on the third Missionary journey. It drove the early church, but the second thing we find, and this one I’ll be shorter, he did something else and it’s found in our text again this morning, the end of verse 23.

It said he went into that area of Southern Turkey, Galatia frig. And it says he was strengthening all the disciples. This is a fascinating thing because this phrase is used at really pregnant moments in the Book of Acts. It’s used in Acts chapter 14 after, after Paul went, you know, he went on the journey and he, and he went, first of all from Antioch and he started to move up in from Cyprus up into Galatia.

And he shared the gospel and he won converts. And then it says, as he was on his way back on the journey, it says he was strengthening the disciples. When he returned and went out on the second missionary journey, the first thing he did, which was was a year later, the first thing that he did was he went through that area again of Galatia Southern Turkey today.

And it says he went there strengthening the disciples. When he set out on the third missionary journey here in our text, it says, as he went through that same area, he went there strengthening all of the types he wanna say. How much did strengthen these people need?

Paul was consumed with not just having decisions but living active disciples in Christ. He poured his life into helping them grow and mature. So what does that look like? Just some quick thoughts. Seeking for disciples to stand on their own is what is implied? The word strengthen is actually the word in the original to stand, Paul was determined for these believers to stand on their own in the faith.

Now again, The overall majority of these people are people that had no concept of a transcendent God. No concept of God has created. I mean, they knew nothing. They knew no Bible, and Paul was determined that these individuals would be able to stand on their own, feed themselves from the scriptures. I love what it says here.

He was strengthening all the disciples. I mean, some of these people were Jewish with a great heritage of, of monotheism, A one God creator of all others have absolutely no con. All different places, all different ages, all different backgrounds, all different intellects reminds me of when I first started in ministry.

My mentor in ministry was a guy named Dr. Floyd Davis, and Dr. Davis made a statement to me. He said, mark, I’m gonna tell you what your job is as a pastor, and it relates to everybody that God brings to your ministry. Your calling is to help people. Go from where they are to where God wants ’em to be. And he said they’re gonna start at all different places.

And this is Paul. He says, I’m not just targeting, targeting these guys cuz they’ve got a theological background, or I’m not just gonna target these guys because you know, they’re kind of cool. I mean, they’ll be the great newsletter. When I explain about these people where they’ve come from, Paul says, I’m passionate about helping all the disciples be strengthened.

Secondly, he appointed disciples to depend on God, the Holy Spirit. 56 times in the Book of Acts, the Spirit is mentioned. This is the very foundation of Jesus teaching. You’ll receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you. As you look at the messages of Paul, if you look at the focus people, were always pushing believers into the spirit of God saying, lean on him, learn from him.

Allow him to empower your lives. The third thing that was true of building disciples was encouraging believers to embrace suffering in spiritual warfare. And Acts Chapter 14 is one of those passages where it talks about strengthened disciples. Lemme just read it to you. I think we have it up there. They returned to Lystra and to I Iconium and to Antioch.

That was areas in Southern Turkey strengthening the souls of the disciples. There’s that word, encouraging them to continue in the faith and saying that through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God. One of the great beauties of Christian experience is we have hope in hardship. We have a way of looking at it differently.

Pastor Tim Keller of Redeemer Press passed away late last week. To everyone, I think is incredible Loss to those that really were influenced by his ministry is a deep loss. While Marin and I were away last week, and Scott and Faith were away, Scott and Faith sent to us a link to a, and this is before we knew anything about what was going on with Tim Keller.

It was a message by Tim Keller, and we listened to, in the cars we were traveling just as Scott and Faith had done. And in the, in the letter in, in the message, Keller was saying, this is how suffering is. He said, think of it as an email. You relieve, you receive a a, a a, an email that is the hardship or the suffering.

And he says, with that hardship email comes two attachments. A document, you know, that’s included with it. And he said, the one attachment comes from the devil. And he said, it is a message, it is a messaging of, uh, discouragement. It is a message of hopelessness. It is a message sometimes of condemnation. It, it is a message.

It just beats you down and, and calls you to interpret your hardships in a way that is destructive and hopeless. He said, but there’s always a second attachment with the email of hardship. And he says it’s a, it’s, it’s an attachment from God. A God that says there’s hope in this. There’s purpose in this, that I am present with you, that, that I’m using all these things in your life.

Spiritual growth is to listen and to read the right attachment. It’s to say, I know there’s gonna be those two messaging that come. I’ve gotta read the right attachment. I’ve gotta believe that. I’ve gotta hear this. It was a really helpful visual to me. I just thought it was perfect. Last Sunday in the baptism, one of the young men that talked said something.

He was giving his journey. His name’s Dylan. He’s, well, I was gonna say he’s the one, but I think it was a 10 30 service. He towered over Josiah by about that much, but as Josiah baptized him. But, but in the, in the, uh, his testimony and he was talking about how God had been at work in his life and it was a beautiful testimony.

And he just said, uh, I, I realized that in God troubles don’t come to me. They come for me. That is profound. That’s right. That God orchestrates and allows circumstances for us that those are the moments. Spiritual growth, deepening as disciples is believing that God is at work. That we can say with confidence that a sovereign good God, that if I could see everything that God sees, what is going on in my life is exactly what I would pray for.

Challenging believers to stand in the unity that comes through prayer. The church went forward on its knees.

We’re going through a transition here, right? This is our last Sunday in here. I know we’ve talked about that earlier. Gonna be over in the My prayer. Many of our prayers is not that. This is gonna be a time when we sort of put life and ministry on hold, but that God will use this summer to bring people to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

That God will be building disciples this summer, that we will see him work in unusual and powerful ways.

We must be people that pray. I sense a tremendous stirring more than I think any time I remember in the ministry here for people to be praying. There is a deep swelling of hunger to pray individually, but also to pray together. Last Monday night, our, our board chairman, Doug Lindo, and I love this. He had brought the names of all the 13 people that were baptized and a little bit about their testimony, and we took time as a board.

Which is pastors and deacons together, praying over each person as they’ve shared publicly. Certainly what the devil wants to do is undermine, discourage. We go forward by praying. We grow by praying. We deepen, by praying Paul and barks on a new journey. Making disciples was his passion, but building and strengthened disciples was always there and so it should be for us.

Lord, thank you for the good news, the gospel, something to be declared. Something to be lived. Lord, help us to be a people that even this summer are consumed with the desire to be seeing lives change by the gospel with the desire to see people deepen in their walk. Embracing suffering, looking this week in our office, in our neighborhood, for people that maybe would be open for us just praying with them or praying for them.

Lord, may we be people that are living and speaking the gospel. In Jesus’ name, amen. Amen. Now go in peace to love and serve and enjoy the Lord.