Acts 13:1-12 • Church Expansion
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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)
It is the consistent prayer of God's people through the ages. Guide me, O thou great Jehovah.
More than my power, I need yours, and surely believers would not have ever felt it more than when the risen Lord said to His first disciples, "When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth." As though by His very death, resurrection, and ascension, the rock of our salvation has landed in a sea of unbelief, and rippling from His work is the work of the Holy Spirit ever greater and widening.
As you look at Acts 13 in your Bibles today, we will see it's one thing to talk about that work of the Holy Spirit, quite another, to live by that power.
As God is planting a little church at the crossroads of Asia and Africa, who nonetheless believe that by the power of the Holy Spirit, the work of great Jehovah will be done in this place and for the nations. It's that spirit that is ours to appeal to yet. Let's see how He works. Let's stand and look at Acts 13, verses 1 through 12.
Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers.
Barnabas and Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manai, and a lifelong friend, some of your translations will say, a member of the court of Herod the Tetrarch in Saul.
While they were worshipping the Lord in fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."
Then after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucion. From there they sailed to Cyprus.
When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the Word of God in the synagogues of the Jews,
and they had John to assist them.
When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus.
He was with the Pro-counsel, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the Word of God.
But Salamis, the magician, for that is the meaning of his name, opposed them, seeking to turn the Pro-counsel away from the faith. But Saul, who is also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, "You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?
And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time."
Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand.
Then the Pro-counsel believed when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord.
Let's pray together.
Heavenly Father, what we would ask for is not human teaching even in this moment, but the teaching of the Lord, which is accomplished not by the wisdom of any person, but by the will and the working of your Holy Spirit, for which we now pray that same Spirit that came with truth and power in the time of the apostles, that same Spirit we would ask you to send, that we might do your will, sending into the Word, this Word, your Word, for the sake of your Son, our Savior.
So bless, we pray, in the name of Jesus, amen. Please be seated.
There are more people this day worshiping Jesus in China than in the United States.
Smaller percentage of the population, but so many people in China that this day there are more people worshiping Jesus in China than in the United States. There are more people worshiping Jesus in Africa than there are in the United States.
At the beginning of the last century, only a small percentage of the people of Africa would identify with Jesus Christ. Today, over 50% of the continent of Africa identifies as Christian. Over 500 million people in Africa identifying as Christian.
More Muslims have come to Christ in the last 15 years than in the last 15 centuries.
The fastest growing church in the world is in Iran.
Underground persecuted and pursued and nonetheless a church that is growing like wildfire and is not stopped by false religion or the pressures of government.
In the last hundred years, the places where more people worship Christ are no longer in Western Europe or North America, but in the global south, in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The largest churches in London are African and people from the Caribbean.
The largest churches in Texas are Hispanic.
The largest church in the PCA, our denomination, is Korean.
I say to you those things, not simply to throw facts at you, but to deal honestly with what evangelist and pastor Francis Chan says is one of the best ways to undo the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And that is to claim that what is written in the book of Acts is simply ancient hyperbole that doesn't deal with today.
If we will perceive, if we will believe what the Spirit is doing, that one sent by our God who is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, then we will really confess that there may be different ways in which the Spirit address the task of our age.
But the Spirit is alive and well and working and powerful. And our job is to say, how do we get on board with His work? You must recognize that when you're in evangelical Bible-believing churches, it's almost cliché to say the way in which we pursue valid mission is we identify what the Holy Spirit is doing and try to get in line with His work. So easy to say, get in step with the Spirit.
But what does that mean? How do we lift our sails to catch the wind of the Holy Spirit?
So much of what is written in the book of Acts is to help us know how the church in every age might resist what we know is the work of the devil in our own hearts.
Cynicism that says our challenges are too big for the Holy Spirit in this age or too different for God to be real for us now to say the Bible is not realistic for our realities to be hopeless about the Holy Spirit.
And so what is happening in a place like Acts chapter 13 is God is saying to us, here is how my church lifts its sails to catch the wind of the Spirit to be in His purposes going to His destination with His power. How is that done?
The first thing made obvious in this passage is the church of God to catch the wind of the Spirit has to commit to unity with humility.
The humility is first saying, Spirit, show us what you're doing, not what we desire, not what we want, not what we're comfortable with. Show us what you are doing. That has happened in these early chapters of Acts. Acts chapter 1, "The risen Lord appears and He ascends, but not before telling His disciples, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and you will be my ever-widening witnesses to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the end of the earth." Chapter 2, that Holy Spirit comes with power and a wideness of mercy at Pentecost as Jews gather for a feast day from the nations, and in doing so, hear the message of the gospel in their own tongues. And in chapters 2 through 6, the church begins to grow.
Thousands are added, such as believe, added to the church daily. We are told so much so that even the Jewish priests start to believe.
And that's when the authorities have enough of that.
So by the time you get to chapter 7, the persecutions begin.
The apex of that is where a young man named Saul at that point holds the cloaks of those who stone Stephen who is proclaiming the gospel.
You would think it's all done all over.
But instead by the persecution that is coming upon Christians in Jerusalem, like seeds in the wind, they are dispersed across the ancient world, and the gospel travels with them. So much so that we have to find new ways of expressing the gospel, new people to express it. And the same man who held the cloaks of those who stone Stephen is met by Jesus on the road to Damascus who says, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?
Who are you, Lord?
I am Jesus whom you persecute."
And Paul, the very one who has led the persecutions against the early believers in Jerusalem and across the ancient world, becomes a believer as God changes the heart of a monster.
And by chapter 10, the same Paul who has been commissioned to take the gospel not just to the Jews but to Gentiles gets the door open for him by Peter the Apostle as God not only changes the heart of a monster but changes the heart of a bigot.
Saul is going forward, but we know Peter will stop him. Remember who says the gospel is for the Jews, the covenant people.
Peter gets called by the Holy Spirit of God to the house of a Roman centurion and there receives a vision of that spirit in which God says to Peter, "Don't you declare unclean what I have declared clean." If my gospel can claim all peoples, it can claim the Gentiles. Open the door to the Gentiles which becomes the open door to Saul now named Paul to take the message to the Gentiles. But who will support him? Who will enable that? He's cutting himself off from his homeland, from his people, from the Jews, from the authorities. How will Paul be supported for this mission to the Gentiles? In the dispersion, the early Christians have gone so far as to be in the place of the crossroads of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
And in a town called Antioch, they establish a church. It's actually the first place that people called themselves Christians, followers of Christ. And in Acts 13, we get the first roster of the officers of the early church. And in doing so, we find a people who are not only humbly seeking to follow the wind of the spirit, but humbly willing to yield to the people that God is bringing into the church for his own purposes. Who are those people? Chapter 13, verse 1. There were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius, Manaiian, and Saul. Now, I'll just confess to you as I was this week studying up on this chapter, this was better than Ancestry.com. I mean, you just start looking at person and connection and connection, and you say, "Amazing is this work of the Holy Spirit preparing for the spread of the gospel." Who is listed first? Barnabas. It's a Jewish name, a name that means son of consolation or just encouragement.
And he needs to be an encourager because he will accompany Paul on the first missionary journey sent out from the church at Antioch. And one of the first places they will go is to Cyprus, which is taking it to a Greek culture.
Barnabas' home was Cyprus. He's got a Jewish name, but he's been raised in Greek culture. So when the gospel starts going to the Gentiles, to the Greeks, what begins to happen is he knows the language. He knows the people, he knows the culture, and he is able to not only encourage Paul in ministering to those people, but when disciples begin to object, the gospel can't go to the unclean Gentiles, to the Greeks. It's Barnabas who's been raised among the Greeks who says, "Yes, yes, the gospel is intended for the Gentiles," and he encourages the church in their ministry to the Greeks of Cyprus and other lands as well. It's like it was all planned. It's like it was being worked out by the Holy Spirit ahead of them. Now it doesn't mean it's without challenge because that first missionary journey in which Barnabas went with Paul and they began to go to Greek lands, there are lots of challenges as people are pushing back, not just Jews not wanting that gospel of Jesus to go forward, but the Greeks not wanting it to enter their lands. And so there's a cousin who's going with Barnabas. His name is John Mark. When he gets intimidated by the difficulties and he ultimately abandons Paul and Barnabas so that when they get back from their journey, report what has happened and are sent out again, Barnabas says, "Let's take John Mark again."
Paul says, "He abandoned us."
No. And the consequence is that Barnabas and Paul have a falling out. The encourager does not become encouraging.
And there's this breach in the work of the gospel even among its leaders which won't be healed we will see for almost 10 years.
And then the gospel begins to work as leaders yield to one another, give deference to one another and ultimately even John Mark becomes used of God again. Do you recognize that every time you pick up your Bible and you look at the gospel of Mark, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, when you look at Mark you are looking at the gospel written by the coward of the first missionary journey whom God redeemed, restored and used. Every time you pick up your Bible and look at the book of Mark you are seeing a trophy of the grace of God. This is God at work. This is God healing and repairing and it's what an encourager like Barnabas would want to happen despite his own weaknesses because the spirit is blowing.
And it's not just Barnabas who's listening. There is Simeon who is called Niger. Niger just means black or dark like Nigeria. It means this, the Simon is from North Africa in all likelihood where there was a cadre of Jews. But if his skin is dark it means by Jewish law his ancestors have at some point intermarried and he is impure by Jewish standards to some extent. And yet the same Simon the black is part of the church, not only part of the church, he's part of the leadership in the church. And you get an even greater insight into what that means by recognizing that North Africa was in the ancient world simply known as Cyrene.
And if this Simon is Simon of Cyrene you may have heard that name before because while Jesus was on his way to the cross and because of the flogging no longer able to carry the cross the Roman soldiers said to Simon of Cyrene, "Help him carry the cross." And Simon of Cyrene saw Jesus crucified and dead. But if the account is right what John Stott says is the greatest likelihood of the biblical writer then what you see is Simon of Cyrene who watched Jesus crucified become a believer and in Jerusalem becomes part of the persecution that now sends him out to Antioch where he's a leader in the church.
And it's not just Simon of Cyrene, Lucius of Cyrene.
Lucius is a Roman name, an oppressor from Cyrene.
He's not just Roman in background, he is African in descent. And so you have an enemy as well as one who is put aside by ethnic hatreds aligned with Simon of Cyrene, aligned with Barnabas ministering to the Greeks and suddenly see the leadership of the church being assembled for the ministry to the nations.
In fact it almost gives you goosebumps to think that what you see in this first leadership of the first church to send out missionaries is this cadre of Africans who are being prepared to take the gospel to the nations.
And it's not just God's work in that regard, no name would have been more arresting to early readers of the book of Acts than Manan.
A lifelong friend of Herod the Tetrarch. Now your translations will vary. A member of the court, a foster brother, a family member.
We're all struggling to say what the Greek actually means. It just means this Manan brought up with, that's just the language, brought up with Herod the Tetrarch. Whether he's a member of the court or a family member, brought up with Herod. Now what do you remember about Herod?
His father, Herod the Great, was the one that the wise men came to.
Where is he who is born king of the Jews?
Says, "Hair, well I'd like to know that too, that I might worship him."
His intention is to kill any competitor to his own kingship. And so he ends up slaughtering the infants of Bethlehem in order to hopefully slaughter his rival who was already fled to Egypt by an angel appearing in a dream to Joseph and Mary. But this is the son, this Herod. What do you remember about him but that he was a vassal governor of the Roman oppressors, though he was Jewish by Herod. He is a traitor, a ruler who rules under the authority of the Romans over his own people. And because he seems to have abandoned Jewish faith, he marries incestuously and receives the preaching of John the Baptist against him.
And as a consequence it is this Herod who beheads John the Baptist.
And that's not all he does.
For one night when the Jewish crowds bring someone named Jesus to this Herod, he tries him then turns him over to Pilate to be crucified.
Herod murdered Jesus. And now here is a member of his own court. Now here may be an actual family member who is in the church. Do you recognize how hard it must have been for the early Christians who believe in Jesus who have been driven by persecution from home and family and livelihood going out to a foreign nation and they show up in church on a Sunday and who is there to lead but Manan.
I could see somebody saying, okay, I can accept a Jew raised among the Greeks. I can accept a Jew with a different skin color. I can accept a Roman of African descent but Manan, not Manan. That is a bridge too far. I can't go that far.
And to honor this one would be to say, Holy Spirit, what are you doing?
That I am being required to say that the same Jesus who would forgive my sins has forgiven someone like Manan so that he could be part of the family of God despite crucifying the family of God.
You must have been so hard but not harder to accept than the last name in the list.
After Manan there is the name Saul.
The one who led the persecutions of the early Christians in Jerusalem and beyond.
This is the one who took people from their families and put them in prison or tortured them or murdered them. This is he.
And you can just imagine that if you had been in Auschwitz, if you had experienced the decimation of your family and your town and your background and your way of life and somehow you survived it all and you got to a distant church in the United States and you go to that first worship service and the one who is leading the worship service is a Nazi general.
God don't require this. This is too much.
No, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned each to his own way and the Lord has laid on Jesus the iniquity of us all.
All have sinned and fallen short of the glory. This leveling of the gospel to say when sinners are leaders it's because someone has cleansed their sin.
Someone who could cleanse those as evil as these can deal with the sin in my life, my rebellion and my shame.
If he could save them he has a message for me.
We need to hear what it means when the people of God in the earliest centuries are saying unity is not in uniformity.
Unity is welcoming those so different, so devilish in perhaps my understanding or background that the grace of God is so great that I bow before the work of the spirit in ways that I struggle even to do. Think of our culture where we are where national leaders cannot even shake one another's hands cannot even listen to words without tearing them up. Where we recognize that simply insulting and hating people is just part of political gamesmanship.
Where church people sometimes say things they should never have said as well.
And have forgotten what it means to give respect to those who do not deserve it for the sake of the ministry of Jesus Christ.
What would it mean if we believed, really believed that the same spirit who was present in Acts 13 is present here.
And calling us into his ministry by the same way he called those early Christians saying to them and to us, spirit of God, change them and we would be ready for the change by lifting our sails to the work of the spirit and say, "Blow, spirit, blow, even into my heart, if you must, that I might go as you intend, where you intend, as your will would direct."
If we really believed that, that being in unity by humility was the way that the spirit blows we might even be able to hear a letter like this without being angry.
Dear Mr. Chapel, I've been compelled to write to you about something I feel very strongly about.
I've moved away from here to attend my university and with this move I've had to seek a new church.
The church I'm attending makes a huge effort to reach out to our community.
The worship consists of, oh you know this is going to be dangerous, the worship consists of hymns, contemporary gospel songs, and even songs in different languages all within the same service.
I feel motivated by the Holy Spirit to write to you about this because of the amount of diversity at grace.
If we started doing the same, whatever lines or walls stood between people who feel out of place and not welcome at our church, those lines and walls would start to be erased.
In this church where I attend, scripture was read in not just English but in other languages.
I know it would be a hard transition. Worship leaders of this church told me how difficult it was for them.
It was something that made people stretch and grow outside of their comfort zone.
But in the end, it benefited everyone. I know we already have incorporated ESL, English for the Second Language of Midi Internationals among us. I know we've already incorporated ESL. But I feel like our church can take another step into embracing the whole body of Jesus Christ. Now you can say one of two things. You can either say, "Ouch! How dare she?"
You can say, "Praise God, this is somebody raised in our church with the priorities of the gospel who is wanting us to have the spirit blow, to change us, to extend us, to extend the gospel to all kinds of people." What we say, a church for all generations and peoples, somebody young in our church actually believes the spirit could do that.
And is saying to us, "You have taught me well. I want to be that kind of church, this kind of church." And Acts 13.
What will that require?
New direction that is spawned by devotion that is deep.
It's so interesting to see how the church begins to make progress. Verse 2, "While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting the Holy Spirit said, set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." What is the church doing? It's been persecuted. It's been moved out of homeland. It's been moved away from affluence. And what are they doing?
They are worshipping.
Every right to complain, but they are worshipping. As though glorifying worship is the place where the Spirit begins to work in the hearts of His people. You know, so often when those of us who counsel young people are trying to help them think about career and life path, we say, "Listen, you know, it's easiest to turn a car in motion. If you're just going to sit still and back up and do nothing, you're unlikely to find the direction you intend." And for us, we know that worship is the motion of the Holy Spirit. It's God's people in worship that are discovering priorities for their hearts, priorities for God's people, priorities for His church. And that worship is in itself challenging to us because it involves not only that consistent devotion while they were worshipping, as though it just keeps on happening regardless of the challenge, there is with that consistent devotion gospel dependence.
Verse 2, "While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting," verse 3, "then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on Paul and Barnabas and set them out." Now, we all know about the process that we just did with Stephen and Courtney.
We pray and we have a service to lay hands on them and send them out, and it is a blessing to be inspired by young people who are saying, "Pay any price. Go anywhere for the sake of the gospel." And we know that's one of the ways the Holy Spirit works, but it's the church in prayer first. What is prayer?
Prayer is by its very nature confession of the need of the Lord beyond my strength and ability. Lord, I can't do what you ask. We can't be the church that you require. If you don't work, it's what Stephen said, "Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain." "Unless the spirit blows." We have no hope of doing the work of the spirit. And that spirit blows as we kneel down before the Lord and say, "God, we need you to do something." And it's not just putting a holy aura of ceremony.
It is profound confession of the people of God. We can't do this apart from your spirit. And the same is true of fasting. Now, I must tell you that when I was raised in a church that would focus upon fasting, what often was emphasized is when you fast, what's going to happen is you're going to focus entirely upon God and not even upon your needs, which I would just tell you I never quite achieved.
Because when I fasted, I got hungry.
And I wanted to focus on the God, but my stomach is making me focus somewhere else.
What if I didn't perceive fasting as some way to kind of ritualistic pay off God so that he would be nice to me?
What if what I perceived was fasting is the physical form of prayer? That what we are doing is we are pushing away from our nourishment, from what would strengthen us to say, "God, it's not in my strength, but only in your strength that I can do your will. And my hunger is not betrayal. My hunger is worship."
Because what my hunger is saying is, "You're weak.
You need nourishment.
And it's actually in your weakness that the Spirit is going to blow, not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord." Do you know where that comes from? That comes from Zechariah, where the people of God were in great deprivation, but the full quote should help us. This is the word of the Lord to the leader of God's people, "Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord of hosts. Who are you great mountain before this man of God? You shall become level, and he shall bring forward the top stone from you with shouts of grace, grace, grace to all."
And our weakness, he is made strong.
Not by our affluence, not by our decisions, not by what is in us, but when we are pushing away from self on our knees in prayer, fasting, saying, "Not in my strength, not in what my nourishment provides, but entirely by the work of the Holy Spirit, I believe the Spirit will come, not as I confuse my strength with his strength, but as I confess my weakness
so that he might show himself strong."
Blow, Spirit, blow.
As I confess, I need you, and this church confesses the same. When that happens, what we begin to do is say, "God, show us. Show us what you want, not what we want. Show us what you want to do." And that's what happened here. As verse 2, "The Spirit has set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." Identify the workers and the work.
That's what the elders did in this church just a couple of weeks ago, saying, "As best we could, what are the needs of our community, not what are the needs of our church, what are the needs of our community? What is our mission? What is our calling? How has God gifted us with workers and resources so that what he has made us to be, we are fulfilling not our comfort, not our desires necessarily, but as we assess as best we can how the Holy Spirit has been blowing in this generation, previous generations, and the generation to come, how do we set our sails to that wind?
And in doing so, we are asking the Spirit to accomplish what we could not accomplish in our power, which ultimately is requiring us to proclaim Him with courage, not our own. How does the Spirit blow? Not just as we have humility that leads to unity.
Not even just as we begin to say, "I need the power of the Spirit," but claiming it, begin to proclaim the gospel with courage.
What does that require? Verses 4 and 5, "So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they," Paul and Barnabas, "went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus." Now, I've already said earlier, whose home is that?
Barnabas.
Now, just think of this.
The first place he proclaims the gospel is in his hometown, to his family.
Who do we most hate expressing the gospel to?
The people who know us.
Our weaknesses, our frailnesses, our hypocrisies, and we say, "They know me! They won't listen to me!"
In your weakness, if you would confess that, the Holy Spirit can work.
Not by might, nor by power, nor by reputation, nor by wisdom, but by the Spirit.
We speak with courage even to family. We speak with courage even to enemy.
I mean, there's this strange account of this magician who seems to have somehow entranced the people of the area so that even the leader, the pro-counsel, is not willing to listen to Paul, and Paul says, "You son of the devil! I'm not saying this is always the way to share the gospel.
How dare you try to make crooked the straight way of the Lord!" And what he is doing is he's willing to say what may be hard to say for the sake of the gospel, but he goes, if you will, he goes right into the jaws of the lion, willing to say what must be said as hard as it may be. Do we have that challenge in a culture that concludes that gender is fluid and same-sex relationships are to be celebrated, marriage is optional, and divorce is inevitable?
Life begins and ends when it's convenient for you, and political animosity is acceptable as long as somebody disagrees with you, and pornography is fine as long as no one finds you out.
But to speak into that, there's danger there.
There's difficulty there. Even in the church, there's danger there.
Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit. I say what needs to be said. I'm not talking about being tactless. I'm not talking about wandering away from people into isolation. Here is Paul and Barnabas going right into the hometown, speaking to the difficult situations, believing the spirit will use it. And ultimately what they are doing is they are speaking truth to power so that by the 12th verse you recognize that even the highest leader is recognizing there's something I have to listen to in these people. They speak with courage. They speak of a Savior who loves past sin. They love each other despite past sins. I have to listen to these people.
And he believes the gospel as the spirit blows in such people who will in humility embrace the power of the spirit with courage, whether you're called a family or enemy or power to address. We send Stephen and Courtney and recognize they face great challenges, but we don't just spit in the wind and hope the best. We say, "Lift your sails. We'll help you do it. We'll lift the sails too." Some of you need to go to Springfield. Some of you need to back them up. Some of you need to help them financially and say, "Blow, spirit, blow.
Help them. Help us. Be the kind of church you need us to be because our comfort is not the place where the spirit is most likely to be working." Last night I got an email from Christian leaders in China. I'll just read you a portion.
Dr. Chappell, as you know, the Wuhan pneumonia is spreading in China, causing tens of thousands
to be patients under treatment.
As a speaker, this August in Hong Kong, I'll go to the Hong Kong Bible Conference, a quarter million people scheduled to come, if the government allows.
They say, "We would like to invite you to write a short message to the saints here that we could be comforted, encouraged, and inspired."
I must tell you, I got that email. I said, "I don't even think I'm worthy to write to believers who are going through such difficulty and harm and pressure. How can I write?"
All I think I could do was try to find words from Scripture. Brothers and sisters in Christ, as I read the challenges you now face in China, tens of thousands under treatment for pneumonia.
Public activities suspended, schools closed, church meetings suspended, leaders in the church without freedom to proclaim the gospel.
I only write to tell you, the eyes of the worldwide church are upon you. The eyes of the angels are upon you. But most of all, the eyes of King Jesus are upon you. In the world, believers are praying for you with strong confidence in the eternal purposes of God who will never falter. Your courage and faith inspire fellow Christians around the world. The prayers of the worldwide church are being offered to the Father on your behalf. And we know that the Holy Spirit intercedes for you with groanings too deep to utter,
willing the purpose of God for your life so that all things will work together for good. These temporary afflictions are working for you a far more exceeding and eternal way to glory for the things of God are being fully revealed by the work of His saints for the glory of His Son.
I in my church will pray for you. In the words of the Apostle Paul, "We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that He has chosen you and He has sent His Spirit to help you." He has!
And not just them, but we who would lift our sails to the wind of the Spirit and say, "Blow, Spirit, blow." We kneel before the power of God and we yield to the message of the gospel. Blow, Spirit, blow. And we believe you will work in us for the gospel that is in Jesus Christ. Father so, bless us we pray, that we would not turn to ourselves but to the work of your Holy Spirit in faith and confidence, that regardless of the earthly challenges, we would believe you that the eternal purposes are being fulfilled by the Holy Spirit as we lift our sails to Him in humility, in confession, and Father we pray in courage.
We lift our sails to you. Blow, Spirit, blow. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.