Bold In Our Faith — Acts 12-14

0:00 Well, we'll get into Acts chapter 13 or continue in Acts chapter 13 after you guys had a week off. From that and we were able to attend Friday and Saturday here for the conference and and we are thankful to be here for that. So, if you have your Bibles, Acts chapter 13, we're going do verses three to 12. Andy asked this week, he text Mason and I and asked how how far I would get and I said, well, either to verse 12 or ninety minutes, whatever's first and then I was told I have till 12:15. So, we're going to we're going to roll but Acts chapter 13 verses three to 12, it says, then when they had fasted and prayed and laid hands and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.

0:55 So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Cilicia. From there, they sailed to Cyprus. When they reached Salamis, they began to proclaim the word of god in the synagogues of the Jews and they also had John as their helper. When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they found a magician, a a Jewish false prophet whose name was Bar Jesus, who was who was with the pro council, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, this man summoned Barnabas and Saul and thought to hear the word of god and sought to hear the word of god but Alamis, the the magician, I keep on to say musician, the magician, for so his name was translated was opposing them seeking to turn the pro council away from the faith but Saul who is also known as Paul filled with the Holy Spirit fixed his gaze on him and said, you who are full of deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the lord? Now, behold, the hand of the lord is upon you and you will be blind and not see the sun for a time and immediately a mist and a darkness fell upon him and he went about seeking those who would lead him by the hand.

2:28 Then the pro council believed when he saw what had happened, being astonished at the teaching of the lord. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this opportunity to meet here together to look at your word. We pray that as it's being taught lord that it would it would go forth in a mighty way. Anything that's said of my own doing, Lord, would fall by the wayside and and your true message would go go forth and we know that your word is is is powerful and profitable for many things and lord, I pray that you would use it in the way that you'd have it to be used this morning.

3:06 It's in your name we pray. Amen. So, as we get into this, I'm just to let you know, I am probably not going to drop any major theological bombs on you this morning that you're going to be like, wow, I never really knew that. Some of this maybe review but there are a few interesting things that that I found as I went through this passage. Being on or to well and and to continue on that thought, when I first saw kind of where everybody was going to be at and I read this, I was like, I don't know.

3:43 I'm not sure. Maybe I'll do something do something different and I'm glad that I didn't. As I as I studied on this, I I do appreciate Joel letting me have what was a major shift in name change of Paul or Saul to Paul in this. I feel honored that I got to be a part of that. Because from here on out, he'll be known as Paul.

4:25 So, we're we're picking up right at the beginning of this missionary journey. The setting as far as geographically and where this is going to be, most of this journey really is focused on taking the gospel and evangelizing Asia Minor. Specifically today, we're going to be looking at I mean, I'll mention them. So, I'm just going to go over it now. Four different places.

4:51 Now, when you read your Bible, I'm not a real deep person and I'm not really well educated. You probably, the suit probably or jacket probably made you think that but the truth to that is, I do construction and most of the week, I'm covered in drywall mud or paint or sweat and it's nice to dress up every once in a while But I... Not the smartest guy that's been around, and so a lot of my studying and things when I when I go to read starts off with me having a lot of questions. And basically, I try and answer the questions and I I think sometimes maybe there's folks out there that are like me and have some of the same questions. So, I'm going to address some of em whether I mentioned it was a question or not this morning.

5:37 That's where some of this comes out of. But when you read your Bible, unless you're a a geographical I don't want to say nerd but you're really up on geography of that that area. You may read some of these places and wonder like, how far are they traveling? Where are these places? Is this a different city?

6:00 Are these countries? What what is this? I know. Like, this is a very basic maybe for some of you but Cyprus, when we talk about these four places that we just read, different locations. Cyprus is a country.

6:15 The other three locations that are mentioned are all cities. So I hope that helps you. It did me as I was looking into some of these things. I knew Cyprus was a country. The other ones I wasn't 100% sure on.

6:28 But when we we pick up here in verse three, I'll backtrack a little bit. I know technically Denzel covered verse three. Does anybody else have a section break in between verses three and four in your Bibles? I I do. Some of them are unfortunate.

6:48 This one, I don't know that it's unfortunate but I felt like it's worth mentioning verse three again because when you think about sending missionaries out, this is a pretty good way to send them when you start in verse three. When they had prayed and fasted, they laid their hands on them and sent them away. Again, not not technically the the area I was going to cover today but I think that's worth noting that before they rushed into sending out these missionaries, they fasted and they prayed. Now, don't have to do a show of hands but I wonder how many of us in this room in the last year have fasted at all. You know, maybe in your lifetime, you've never even fasted but they fasted and they prayed And I was thinking a little bit as I continued studying this through the week after sitting through the messages of the conference.

7:46 It reminded me a little bit about some of the the the things that brother David was talking about when he shared about this relationship between Paul and Timothy and a lot of times he would relate it inside the local meeting to the relationship maybe between the the older and the younger which as a side note, I was sitting over here, and every time we talked to the younger crowd, he always looked over here, which I try not to take offense to. But I'm gonna try and evenly spread this out as we look around. But this relationship between the older and the younger. And when I read this verse, I thought, you know, they fasted and they prayed. And I thought as a young man, you know, there were times in my life where I get an idea in my head and I thought, that 's the way.

8:35 I mean, it really wasn't until, I don't even want to admit but prior that that not that long ago to where I thought, you know, I really don't know everything that I thought I knew. It's okay to not know everything. In fact, nobody likes the person that walks into a room and already knows everything. And so... But I had these ideas and maybe that was you and you, hopefully, when you were younger, we've outgrown that now.

8:58 But where we get this idea and you're like, gung ho, I'm going forward full speed, nothing can stop me and then maybe you share that with an older brother or sister and they're like, well, just slow down a little bit here. It's similar to the idea I got from this when they fasted and prayed. Not that Paul and Barnabas, they've been doing ministry together for for a while at this point. I believe it's about eight years. So, they weren't like young kids.

9:28 They weren't novices at this but yet when when this this the Holy Spirit was moving rather than just just rush right in and not even think about it and go forward. There was this time of pausing. You know, it wasn't that they they put the brakes on. They continue to move forward. They didn't hold back but they also didn't rush into things and so just like maybe that could happen in a relationship with a younger person, an older person, and how, you know, there's there's wisdom and not rushing into everything.

10:00 Taking it, you know, praying through things, really trying to decide and say, hey, is this the Holy Spirit's leading me in this life? Or in this decision? And maybe as a second point to that, what a what a argument for plurality of leadership as well in that because sometimes, you know, everyone has different personalities and things but when you have a plurality of leadership and plurality of people making decisions, it kind of helps even things out. You get the people that want to rush into things and when you rush into things, sometimes mistakes are made but then you have people like me, I'm on the other side. I usually move like sloth speed and if everything were up to me, nothing would ever get done.

10:45 So, it's good to have that mesh. So, not necessarily like it says that in the verse but as I was looking through this, it that kind of stuck out to me but it says they they fasted and they prayed and they laid hands on one another or on specifically on them. Doesn't mean they punched them. I understand that that that's a use of that now when you go hands on with somebody. That's not what happened here.

11:10 I won't go into a whole lot of detail on this but I anybody ever read Vernon McGee's through the Bible stuff? I think it's a commentary technically. I found this interesting as he read the or he said this about the laying on of hands. He said, it doesn't impart some special power. And then he says this, I'm afraid all that we can impart to someone by laying our hands on them is whatever disease germ we have on our hands.

11:38 I thought that was interesting and worth sharing but you know, there there are some maybe different denominations where they there's a it's a big thing and this is holy moment of putting hands on people and like they're transferring this power through them and it's not really so. You can go back to the Old Testament and see the laying of hands on things was was an idea of identifying yourself with whatever it was you were laying your hands on. So, think Old Testament and the sacrifices. What did the the the sinner that would come do? They would lay their hands on the the the goat or I think it could be an ox even.

12:17 They put their hands on it, identifying with that animal that they're placing their sins on that animal and sending it away. So, in the same way, when we think of the setting of what's going on here, these these men were putting their hands on these Paul and or not Silas, Paul and Barnabas, putting their hands on them as a way to identify we are we're sending you in our place. We're staying here. God has us here for a purpose here but yet we fully understand that we need to send you out. We need this work needs to go on and so they place their hands on them as a way to identify with them.

13:30 So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit. Sent out by the Holy Spirit. Now, they were confirmed by the local saints and believers there in Antioch but what did the local saints and believers there do? They prayed and they fasted. I mean, so from from first idea, from start of this whole thing, it started with fasting and prayer.

13:57 It started with god. And when they sent them out, the writer at Luke here identifies this also ending ultimately with god, the holy spirit being sent out by him. It started and finished the whole process was filled with god. It made me think in my own life, you know, how how many times are there and I'm not one typically that rushes with things but there are some things, decisions I make that that I don't consider really at all. Is this of god or not?

14:36 And and I was a little, you know, felt like it maybe needed a little time of confession in that. You know, Amanda and I, we are expecting number eight. I don't know. Took me a second but number eight and what that did for us is showed us that you need to have a little bit more space in your house because we have, I mean, kids tripled up in rooms that are... I mean, you basically, you walk in and there's enough room for them to hop in their bed.

15:09 You know, it's like get... It gets tight. And so we've been going through this process of of making plans to do an addition and it's not that we haven't sought the lord in this. Well, I believe that we have but it's so easy. You know, this morning when Ray read was a second Timothy, the love of money and it's not that I just keep thinking about money in the addition.

15:33 Of course, there's this money involved with that but it's stuff. It's maybe pleasures and it is so easy to just get dragged into that and then we just leave god out of it completely. So, I don't know if that's if that describes you at all but it it did me and so that it started with ascending of them by the Holy Spirit and it ended with the Holy Spirit with god and so they were sent to Cilicia as I mentioned was a city and they sailed from that city. It was a port to the island of Cyprus which was Barnabas' hometown or his home country, not his hometown. And I found this interesting because was Barnabas Barnabas a Jew or a Gentile?

16:24 Be be a Jew. So, sometimes when you put people on the spot, they're like, wait a minute. This might be too easy. I don't want to answer this and get it wrong. Yeah, he was a Jew and so, his home country though was Cyprus.

16:40 I found that interesting because that's not really like a country that many Jews would be from but you can find that in in chapter four verse 36. You know, of Acts, it it mentions that and so that's his home country. So, for Barnabas, in a way, it's almost like a a going home. So, if any of you or most of you from here, I know the answer for that for some of you but have you ever gone away for a while and then come home? Do you look forward to that or It's kind of like, I'm not so sure about this.

17:16 I don't know what we don't know from this. What Barnabas was thinking but I'm sure there were some feelings that he had and at this point, he had done ministry, I believe with Paul for about eight years. You do kind of wonder like I know like when I went away to college and my roommate and I, we would get a break and we'd get to go back home like there was a part of me that was excited to be like, let, I'm gonna show him all the stuff that's by me, you know, Cedar Point and the... I think at the time, the Indians were not so great, but we did go to an Indianscape and was excited. I don't know if if Barnabas had any of that or not, but I imagine he did.

17:59 I imagine he may have also had some feelings of going back home to the people that knew... Now we... I don't know if Barnabas was this, but I'm describing myself. Maybe what a knucklehead he was when he was younger. They're like, really?

18:13 This is what you're doing now. I don't know. I'm not sure. The reality is he went. He went.

18:38 And and what happens here in verse five is what you could call the classic Paul move. Where does he go? To the synagogue. Every time. It's like he gets to a new place.

18:51 He goes straight to the synagogue. There's a couple reasons for this. Number one, I don't know if you're aware. He also wrote Romans and there's a little verse there towards the end of chapter one that talks about first for the Jew then for the Gentile. He's kind of practicing what he's preaching for one.

19:10 But there's another thing, the Jews at this point didn't care much for the Gentiles. If he were to go into this new city and immediately just start reaching out to the Gentile people, there's a good chance that that would offend the Jews and then the Jews wouldn't listen to him and so he goes into the synagogue first because it was also a custom that you would allow an outsider, a visitor to read from the scriptures which this presented an awesome opportunity for Paul to then share the gospel message. We don't know for sure what exactly happened in the synagogue at this place. So, it must not have been super important for us to know in this particular instance but this was a common thing for Paul to do. He mentioned it several times really in just the next few chapters of doing this.

20:04 So, we would go to the Gentiles first and then it says this, in verse five, they also had John as their helper and so I don't know who did chapter 12 but this would be the same John from chapter 12 verse 12. We we would refer to him often as John Mark. So, I got to mention Paul, the name change but I also get to mention now, John Mark doing something for the lord. Now, Mason's up next week. For you students of the New Testament, you already know this.

20:36 I'm not going to give the spoiler alert away but something happens with John Mark that Mason will probably talk about next week. So, you can read ahead for that if you want. But John's with him and we're not really told a whole lot about him in this. It doesn't even mention him as getting people's hands laid on him and prayed for as they're sent out. So, we're not sure.

21:01 Did he did he rush into this? Did he want to be a part of the action? Was he asked to go by Paul and Barnabas? We're not sure. We're not told in this.

21:09 In some way, whether he was asked to or not, it appears that Paul began to at least count on him because he was upset when he left which led to a whole different thing that you guys will get to as you keep progressing through Acts. But this leads us to to this next verse here In chapter 13 verse six, they're going to be at a new place and when they had gone through the whole island island as far as Paphos, they found a magician, a Jewish false prophet whose name was Bar Jesus. Now, I want to talk about little bit about Paphos or Paphos. I'm not sure if I'm saying it right but you can read it there for yourself. This is the capital city of Cyprus.

22:35 Well, I won't something just came into my mind that Roger shared with me earlier. You can ask him about it later but not not a place where for the believer, you'd think like, this is nice. I like, I like to have a house here and go out the front door and just look around and see what I can see like, you might not want to do that in this place and I didn't necessarily put all the details of this in here but you can go and read about the goddess of Venus or the goddess Venus and and how she punished the women specifically and the things that they had to do throughout their life at least one time in reference to what they had to do as going to the Temple Of Aphrodite or Venus. Again, I know I'm kind of vague there but some people said, well, they weren't sure if it was a myth or if that was real or not but not a not a place for the believer that I would think you'd be very comfortable going. Why do I mention all this?

23:37 This this vile type of living. I don't know about you guys but sometimes when I look at things that are going on around and you see the things going on in the news and and the way people advertise things even today, you're like, this is just like filthy. Like, everywhere you look, there's just the goddess of Venus being pushed on you from every direction. I mean, even for things that don't even make sense sometimes, you're like, really, we have to include sexuality in every single thing. Doesn't make sense and you think there has never been a time in all history that's as bad as it is right now.

24:20 And it's like, well, have you studied the Bible? I mean, it's bad. I'll admit that but I mean, we don't get real far into the the Old Testament to where we see god wiping people out. Entire civilizations, less eight people because of the wickedness and and just immorality going on and so, I mentioned this because it's easy for me sometimes to maybe put myself in an island and say like, man, I really got it bad. It's hard to be a hard to be a man living in this society with you always just had to feel like you have your blinders on and and things and I wish I lived in a different time and it was, you know, the nineteen fifties leave it to beaver type where everybody was fully dressed and all these different things.

25:13 It's always been around. And these men were being sent to a city that was full of it and had not yet received the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is what they entered. So they encountered Aphrodite, Venus, the filthy, evil, vile religion. They also encountered a society of people who were heavily influenced by astrology and fatalism, which fatalism would be like fate.

25:49 So in other words, you just say, well, it's just all been predetermined. Everything happens by fate anyway. Why should I try? Just going by the breeze that pushes me type thing. That's fatalism.

26:04 That's the society. So, the religion, vile, awful, the society heavily influenced by astrology and fatalism. And then, they encountered this nice fellow who was a Jewish false prophet named Bar Jesus. Now, I want to stop there for just a second. Why do people seek out or search and follow, I won't just say false religions but just any religion in general.

26:42 And I feel like a lot of times it's because there is this hole in our heart that we're trying to fill with something. Now, we know what the answer is but people are always searching, okay? So, that's the religion aspect. Now, the society, why are people following astrology and having these heavily motivated type of living into fatalism? I believe it goes back to the same thing.

28:30 Charged and full of the Holy Spirit to fulfill god's purposes with his people and to begin to take the gospel message to the other most other most parts of the world. And so we have this Jewish magician who's influencing the pro councilor, the governor, Paul and Barnabas were summoned by this man because he wanted to hear what they were teaching. Now, when you're summoned by the governor in that day, it wasn't like hey, you want to come over? I'll wait to hear back from you. No, you kind of had to go.

29:09 Again, don't know what the emotions were for Paul and Barnabas at this time but you do have to wonder like, I wonder what's going to happen here. Like, because we're going to share the gospel message and there's already riffraff being stirred up everywhere that this message gets taken. Is he even going to really listen to us? Are we just going to be put in jail? What's going to go on?

29:32 Again, we're we're not given that here but again, they went. With the backing of the Holy Spirit, but also at the same time with having the backing of the Holy Spirit, they have and I don't know what the word would this for this would be but the the way being paved by the Holy Spirit. They had him in front of him. They had him behind him. He was all around.

29:57 And so this this Jewish apostate man opposes them. He opposes them and we're not told exactly what what he did, how how he opposed him, did he did he say something? Was he, I I have no idea. We don't know from reading this but we do know that the gospel message according to first Corinthians is a stumbling block for the Jew and foolishness to the Greek. So, the reality is, whether it was this man or it was something else opposition was coming.

30:35 It's not a question of will opposition comes. The question is, how will I handle the opposition when it comes? And I wondered in my own life, do I face opposition? How much opposition am I facing for the gospel message? And friends, I gotta be honest with you.

31:02 I'd like to say it's more than it is. But if I'm being real honest, I don't face nearly enough opposition, which for me leads me because I, again, I ask a lot of questions, leads me to say, why, Brian? Why are you not facing so much opposition? And the only answer I can come up with is, I'm probably not living in a way like Paul and Barnabas were and I've got work to do in that. It's not that I'm out living some sinful life chasing, you know, all the things that they were doing.

31:42 But man, it's easy to get sucked in to live in the Christian American life. Or the American Christian life I should say. And fall into that slope of just or slump of what's comfortable. You know, we're talking about this recently with with somebody. I don't know when you study the seven churches of Revelation if you're one that says, well, I think they do represent different times and they're accurate.

32:06 When it comes to the church of Laodicea, it seems hard to to say that that doesn't represent pretty well what happens in America oftentimes. Not everywhere, not in every place, not in every meeting, but often. John Wesley, one time after not facing persecution for three days, was wondering if he had backslidden and I thought, well, man, I'd probably go a lot longer and not wonder that but he went three days. He was wondering, have I backslidden? And so, he began to to pray for reassurance that this was not so and while he was praying, a man recognized him and hurled a brick his direction at which he just moved out of the way.

32:59 And rather than throw a brick back which would have been like, let's be honest, a lot of us would have thought, I'm not taking it. I'm throwing it back. What did he do? He prayed. He said, thank you lord.

33:10 I know I still have your presence. I thought, wow. What a what a testament and John Wesley, I mean, that wasn't all that long ago. I mean, it was several centuries but to have that kind of relationship with the lord to where you wonder like, I'm not facing any persecution. Am I still really, not that I'm not a believer and I've lost my salvation.

33:48 If I said Paul and Saul and mixed them up all throughout this. I I hope you've been tracking. But from this moment on, I did everyone else a favor. You can just call him Paul because this is where it changes. Saul being his Hebrew name, Paul being his Roman name.

34:05 I want to take just a second to reflect on for those who have read more of the New Testament, know Paul's interactions with people and things that he dealt with because it changes his name. So, I want to look at two sides to him now and I already, I said ninety minutes, man. Alright. We'll we'll wrap it up here but I want to make this point. When you Ray read from second Timothy here this morning at the lord's supper, Kind of like Paul's final act.

34:40 Sending this letter out. Basically, I look at it like this is his last chance to give any bit of wisdom to to Timothy to send him out because he knows his time is is near. Never once, unless someone has a verse, do you read in any of Paul's letters, specifically the ones where he's in prison or being actively persecuted, which is like all of them, where Paul ever laments about his position or complain. In fact, I mean, you read some of these book. Philippians even like it's if it's mentioned, it's like just a footnote like because he has to say it but he doesn't talk about how awful the circumstances are there and so you have him when I kind of look at him just like meek, mild, just like, I'm being persecuted.

35:30 I'm not going to fight back. This is what's expected. So, you have that version of Paul. Then, you have this version of Paul in verse nine, who filled with the Holy Spirit fixed his gaze on him. I don't know what that means for sure but I have children and I know when I was my children's age, there were times in my life where my dad fixed his gaze upon me.

35:55 Y'all know what I'm talking about? Some of you don't and you should. You you ought to you ought to know what that was like. You know, the sound of a belt being pulled through loops. You know what I'm talking?

36:10 Yeah. Some of you, you're like belts. We... Never mind. I'm lose...

36:14 I'm wasting time. But you compare this to to that meek kind of side of Paul to to what he does now. He fixes his gaze on this man, and he says, you who are full of deceit and a fraud, you son of the devil. You enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the lord and you think, how can this man go like at the times of his life where he's meek, mild, and just taking what's given to him in the form of persecution. Be the same guy who's fixing his gaze on somebody.

36:52 I don't know if you want to call this Christian swearing but he lets him have it here and goes on to actually make him blind which is another interesting point. If you read Acts chapter nine, Paul had a similar thing happen which led to his conversion which is a whole different thing. I I knew I wouldn't have time to get into all of this today. But why would you go from this meek man to all of a sudden just like water guns blaze in hell kind of situation and it's on this simple thing. The kind of meek, mild Paul, that was in his times of persecution.

37:38 But buddy, when when it came to the gospel message being shared, he would not let anything get in his way and right now, in this story, he is concerned with the soul of this governor of Cyprus. And he was not gonna let something get in the way of that. And so he goes on there. He says, the hand of the lord is upon you and you will be blind, not see the sun for a time, and immediately a mist of darkness fell upon him and and you can read the rest and I'll close with this. This has been in my mind since since I think it was the first message when David shared this last week and I know I've referenced that several times.

38:20 So, if you weren't here, you can go online. I believe they're all online but he talked about the gospel message and how that it's available to everybody. The only difference between the saved person and the non saved person is one simple word, no. Because when the gospel message was offered to everyone, there were some that said, no. No, thank you.

38:44 I have a better way. I don't need your Jesus. I can do it on my own. Whatever the excuse is and we're not told from this story but I wonder how this man's life changed. How this he went by two different names in here but Alimis, the magician, how did his life change from that moment?

39:05 When he was blinded, did he have a similar experience that Paul did of being converted? Or did he go on because it says here for a time, did he go on living in spiritual blindness for the rest of his life and ultimately, at this moment right now, he's spending eternity being tormented in hell. And so the question, I think for us and there's really a lot of maybe applications and ways that you could close this out which I promise I'm doing. The plane is coming in right now. Where does that leave you?

39:43 Have you responded to the gospel message? Well, the reality is actually I can answer that for you. You have responded to the gospel message if you've heard it one way, shape, or form. You've either accepted it or if you've rejected it. If you've accepted it, I wonder, is your life being lived in such a way that you're facing opposition?

40:06 And I know I'm a visitor here and this could be the last time I get invited back. But I wonder if that describes you. Sometimes that does me more times than I'd like to admit. Now, if I'm not facing some sort of opposition, I know we live in America. So, it's not like I can, you know, go hand out tracks and somebody's going to chop my head off.

40:27 That maybe coming here. I don't know. But is there any pushback at all because the Bible does lie when when it says that it's a stumbling block for the Jew. We know that was written specifically for that time there in first Corinthians but we know that the gospel message is a stumbling block for a lot of people. Again, Ray, I've mentioned several times this morning.

40:47 We'll do it again. In the lord's supper, when you mentioned sharing the gospel with your uncles or or maybe it was your uncle. I'm not sure but they they rejected it. It was a stumbling block because they didn't want the gospel message and knowing that that would bring change in their life to affect the pleasures that they were wanting to partake of in this life. Have you received the gospel message?

41:09 Are you living for the lord in such a way that you would receive opposition for the way you were living? Let's let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. I know I am a a flawed man and I do know that your word will not return void. Lord, I pray that as we as we think about these thoughts of of being sent out, sending others out for the purpose of doing your work that we would do it in such a way no one necessarily wants persecution and to face opposition but we know that that's a that's a true sign that we're doing something right for you.

41:53 Lord, I pray that you give us boldness to live in this world. We feel like it's so often so far from you. None of it took you by surprise but you have us here as we sang that song in the in the lord's supper this morning about about your your love and and Denzel referenced it again. Lord that we would just live in such a way that would lead others to you. In our words and in our actions.

42:23 We pray all these things in your son's name. Amen.