Episode Transcript
[00:00:10] There is a.
[00:00:11] I think that this is a saying that I read somewhere at some time.
[00:00:17] But if you.
[00:00:18] If you go to a cemetery and you look at tombstones, you'll notice a small dash.
[00:00:27] The small dash sits neatly between the person's birth date and their death date.
[00:00:34] And the saying is, you and I live in the dash.
[00:00:38] Isn't an interesting thing to consider that when you go to a cemetery and you look around at the tombs, whether it be somebody that you know, that you love, a loved one who's passed, or somebody that you've never heard of before, it just. It gives us perspective in a way that few other things in life give us perspective.
[00:00:58] So Charles Spurgeon, who's one of my favorite, if not my favorite preacher of all time, one of my favorite men who I never knew, but I really hope to talk to in heaven one day, Spurgeon said that there are few things.
[00:01:13] There are few things in life that preach a better sermon than these words, which is what you would often hear at the end of funeral services.
[00:01:21] Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
[00:01:28] Spurgeon said those words preach a stronger sermon than most sermons we hear on a Sunday because it gives us perspective to remember that one day you and I will be earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. And if you're a guest, you're like, this is the most depressing sermon I've ever heard.
[00:01:52] Maybe, but you will die one day. I will die one day. Unless the Lord Jesus returns first.
[00:02:00] We'll all breathe our final breath.
[00:02:04] And then, as the old Puritan John Bunyan in Pilgrim's Progress said, we'll cross over the river of death, our final enemy, death, and into the presence of God.
[00:02:16] And the reason I bring these things up to you is not to be depressing.
[00:02:20] And it's not merely to give perspective.
[00:02:22] It's this. Over the next two weeks, as we've been in the Book of Acts, and we'll do this periodically, if we're going through a long book of the Bible and we're spending a lot of time there, we'll take the high level series, like the Book of Acts, and we'll do like a mini series in it. So I want to do two weeks on the life and death of Stephen, this man named Stephen, one of the first deacons of the church.
[00:02:42] So I want to talk to you this week about what it looks like to live a good life, what does it look like by the grace of God, to. To live in the dash.
[00:02:51] And then next week we'll Come back and we'll talk about what does it look like, by the grace of God, to die a good death?
[00:02:59] What does that look like? It's important to think about it.
[00:03:03] It's important to consider it, not just for that day, but for today.
[00:03:09] Luther said there are two days that really matter the most, the day you die and the day Christ returns. That you need to Christians, we need to always keep our mind on these two days, the day you die and the day Christ returns, because it helps build perspective into today.
[00:03:25] It develops. God uses that by his Spirit in a way to grow us in gratitude and presence and joy and courage, to be reminded that one day you will breathe your last and appear before God. And for those of us who are in Christ as Christians, it'll be the most glorious day of your life.
[00:03:43] Okay, so what does it look like to live a good life through the lens of our friend Stephen?
[00:03:52] The book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 8, verse 10, talks about what it looks like to live a bad life and to die a bad death. And this is what Ecclesiastes says.
[00:04:00] It says, then I saw the wicked buried.
[00:04:04] They used to go in and out of the holy place and were praised in the city where they had done such things.
[00:04:10] This also is vanity.
[00:04:12] And so Solomon saying that the wicked, even the ones who receive praise in this life, when they go to the grave, everything they've done up to that point is vanity.
[00:04:25] That's one way.
[00:04:27] See, we all have a choice. That's. That's one road to take is the way of wickedness, rejection of Jesus, far from God, and it ends in vanity.
[00:04:39] The contrast to that and what I think we see lived out in the life of Stephen, who was, by the way, and I'll say this probably multiple times this morning, not a perfect man.
[00:04:47] So when we talk about living the good life, we're not talking about living a life of moral perfection. That's not what Christianity is about.
[00:04:58] But Psalm 1, verses 1 through 3 says, Blessed is the man or woman who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers.
[00:05:06] But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. It says that he's like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. And all that he does, he prospers. Prospers. What's at the heart of that description of that man is his delight. His delight is in The Lord.
[00:05:33] So a good life, again, is not a life of moral perfection. A good life is marked by a delight in the Lord.
[00:05:40] That's what it looks like to live a good life.
[00:05:43] And that in many ways is what we see in Stephen. So here's some high level context for the Book of Acts. The Book of Acts is about the rule and reign of King Jesus.
[00:05:51] It's about Jesus from on high, after having died on the cross for the sins of his people, buried in the ground, raised by the power of the God. By the power of God, not the God, by the power of God, on the third day, appearing to his disciples and several hundred others. So if you want proof of Christianity, find your proof there. I mean, there are lots of proofs to Christianity. But several hundred people testified that they saw with their eyes that this Jesus who had been crucified under Pontius Pilate, had been raised back to life.
[00:06:21] Strong evidence there had seen the risen Jesus. And then Jesus leaves their presence and, and goes back to heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father, having completed his work as the king and as the Savior of his people. And the Book of Acts is about the continuation of his kingdom, being advanced through the lives of his broken and imperfect followers.
[00:06:43] It's a wonderful book. And so the book isn't primarily about the apostles. It's not primarily even about the Holy Spirit, who is himself God. It's about the continuation of the rule and reign of King Jesus. Does this make sense so far? This is what the Book of Acts is about. So when we get to chapter six, we talked last week about how the a group of Christians known as the Hellenists were frustrated because they felt as if, or maybe this really was the case, that their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. And so they come to the apostles with a complaint.
[00:07:16] And rather than the apostles trying to play Jesus and do it all themself, they said, hey, you need to find men who are filled with the Spirit, filled with wisdom, and to delegate these practical responsibilities to so that they can do this, so that we can focus on the ministry of the Word and prayer. Okay, so many people think, and I would agree with this, that Acts chapter six is the inauguration of the differences between the church offices of elder and deacon. Elders focus on word and prayer. Deacons focus on practical ministry. And this is what we see start in the Book of Acts. But then Luke, who wrote the Book of Acts, locks us in on one individual deacon named Stephen. We don't know a whole lot about Stephen. So what is it that leads us to say that by the grace of God, this man Stephen lived a good life. And what does that mean for you and I today? Three characteristics and one means by which these things are cultivated in our life. Okay, so number one, look at verse eight with me.
[00:08:11] It says, and Stephen full of grace.
[00:08:17] So if you want to underline, highlight box, whatever you want to do in your Bible or write in your notes and write down those three words, full of grace, this is the first and I think, friends, most important characteristic of Stephen's life, that Stephen was a man who was full of grace.
[00:08:41] What does that mean?
[00:08:42] I think it's twofold. Okay, so sub point, trying to be real specific in my outline with you here.
[00:08:49] If Stephen was a man who was full of grace, the first thing that that means is that Stephen was a recipient of grace.
[00:09:00] He was full of grace, meaning on one hand, he was a recipient of grace.
[00:09:07] Though we don't know when or how Stephen came to faith in Jesus. Maybe it was during Pentecost, maybe it was following Pentecost.
[00:09:15] We don't know when Stephen, by the grace of God, came to faith in Jesus. We know not just through this text, but in verse 6 above, when the apostles say, find men who are full of the Spirit, that Stephen was one of those men.
[00:09:30] How was Stephen full of the Spirit? He was full of the Spirit because he came to the one who provided the Spirit, Jesus.
[00:09:39] Stephen was a recipient of God's grace.
[00:09:47] Ephesians 2, which I'll talk again a little bit at the end of the sermon, but Ephesians 2 is amazing, as is all of the Bible.
[00:09:56] But here's what Ephesians 2 says.
[00:09:59] It says, lest we lose the simplicity of the good news of what Christianity is all about, Ephesians 2 says that you and I, everybody in the room, regardless of whether or not you grew up in the church or how long you've been a Christian at some point in your life, and some of you still, and I'm so grateful you're here, if this is. You are dead or were dead in your sins, that because of our sin against God, because Adam and Eve sin, and because we're all born in Adam, that's our natural state, that we're born in Adam.
[00:10:29] We're all guilty of sin before God and alienated from God and the life of that God brings, we are dead in sin. And here's a little like, talk back exercise for you. We're a Baptist church, but you can talk back some. What can dead people do?
[00:10:49] Dead people can do nothing. They can't speak, they can't choose. They can't make good or bad decisions. They can't do anything. Dead people are dead.
[00:11:00] That's the bad news.
[00:11:03] But the good news is, as James would say, mind bogglingly spectacular.
[00:11:09] The good news is that while we were dead in sin, God, who is rich in mercy and because of the great love with which he loved us, made us alive.
[00:11:22] He made us alive in Christ because of Christ's perfect life in his death on the cross, his resurrection from the grave, his righteousness, he made us alive like he took our dead heart that could not choose right from wrong as it pertained to God. And He. Like he made it, he took it from being a heart of stone to being a heart of flesh.
[00:11:47] Isn't that amazing?
[00:11:49] Being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, made us alive together in Christ. And this is what the verse says, and this is how it pertains to Stephen and us.
[00:11:59] By grace, we have been saved through faith.
[00:12:05] So there are really two kinds of people in the world.
[00:12:09] There are those who have received the grace of God and those who have yet to receive the grace of God.
[00:12:17] Christianity is not an invitation to be better and live a better life. It's an invitation to receive, to be a recipient of what has already been done. For you and for me, this is the good news.
[00:12:34] And so I've given this illustration before. It's a John MacArthur illustration. I think it's awesome that when he says, by grace, you've been saved through faith, somehow we kind of make faith the point of that passage. And we're like, that becomes the thing that we put our focus on. So we're like, do I have faith? Do I not have faith? Do I have strong enough faith or do I have weak faith?
[00:12:52] Probably a lot of the time you and I have weak faith.
[00:12:55] But faith is not the emphasis of the text. Graces.
[00:13:00] So MacArthur was like, it's like if you have an empty bucket and there's a well filled with fresh water, and you drop your bucket down into the well of fresh water and you pull that fresh water out, that's kind of like grace and faith. The fresh water is the grace, that's the salvation.
[00:13:19] That's the emphasis there. All you're doing is dipping the bucket in and pulling it out.
[00:13:23] And so it's by faith that we receive Christ and what he's accomplished. But it's by grace that he's made our hearts alive to do so.
[00:13:31] Does this make sense? Stephen was a recipient of grace. Are you friends?
[00:13:36] Have you been. Have you yet received this grace?
[00:13:43] I mean, some of. Some of us in the room are Christians, genuine Christians.
[00:13:49] And we still struggle to live our life as if the Christian life is based on our efforts or our goodness.
[00:13:57] And so you need to be reminded this morning that it's by grace that you've been saved. You have been and are a mere recipient.
[00:14:06] You're a recipient of the good news of God's gift of grace. For so Stephen was first a recipient of grace. He was once lost, as all of us once were, but now he was found. He was once far from God because of his sin, but had now been brought near into communion with God by grace.
[00:14:29] Stephen was a recipient of grace. The second thing I think it means that he was full of grace was that he was an extender of grace.
[00:14:38] So he wasn't just a recipient of grace, that grace that he had received through Jesus. He was now an extender of that grace toward other people.
[00:14:48] And here's the basic principle behind that, and we all know this, like you and I cannot give what we have not yet received.
[00:14:57] We can't offer forgiveness when we have not yet received forgiveness. And that doesn't mean Christians don't struggle with forgiveness. We all do in a variety of ways.
[00:15:05] And so the antidote to what is that struggle of forgiveness, no matter what one's done to you, is being reminded of the forgiveness that you've been given in Jesus.
[00:15:16] So Stephen was a recipient of grace, and as a result of being a recipient of grace, he's now an extender of grace. It was like his life just permeated grace.
[00:15:28] So he was a man who was full grace.
[00:15:34] The second thing that it says is that he was full of power.
[00:15:40] Stephen was a man who was full of grace.
[00:15:43] And the second is he was full of power. How did this power manifest itself? Well, Luke tells us in the remainder of verse 8, he says that there were great wonders and signs that were being accompanied through Stephen.
[00:15:59] So here's just a practical note. Remember how we talked several weeks ago about how the Book of Acts has both prescriptive and descriptive things in it? You guys remember that? If not, it's okay. I'll remind you.
[00:16:12] So prescriptive means that there are certain things in the book of Acts that happen in the book of Acts that aren't to be expected as normative in the life of the church today.
[00:16:20] Like apostles.
[00:16:22] We don't have apostles anymore, okay? Apostles were chosen by Jesus himself in the first century. We don't have Apostles anymore. We have pastors and deacons. Those are the offices of the church. Okay. That's a prescriptive thing. A descriptive thing would be like generosity in the church. This should always mark the church of Jesus Christ is generosity. This is something that's to be expected for all times and all places among the people of God. And so just because wonders and signs were being done through Stephen does not mean that's going to be the normative experience and for every Christian today. But it's possible, right? So I'm not saying it doesn't happen today.
[00:16:58] That would be called a cessationist, and I'm not that personally. But it is to say that this doesn't necessarily mean this is gonna be a normative thing. So what does Stephen being a man who's full of power mean?
[00:17:14] Man? I think for us it means that, yes, wonders and signs were being done through Stephen, but the gospel, the grace of God, had not only come in word in Stephen's life, but also in power.
[00:17:27] First Thessalonians 1:5 says, Our gospel, this is Paul. Our gospel came to you not only with words, but also with power.
[00:17:35] For the Holy Spirit gave you full assurance that what we said was true.
[00:17:41] 2nd Corinthians 5:17 says, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
[00:17:48] The old has passed away, and behold, the new has come.
[00:17:52] And then John 3:3, which is one of the most extreme things Jesus could ever say, says, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.
[00:18:07] Meaning Jesus is saying, our problem is so radical before God that nothing short of you receiving a brand new heart will get you into the kingdom of heaven.
[00:18:16] You must be born again. You must be made a new person.
[00:18:19] I say, I quote all these texts to remind us that to come, to know Jesus grace, to be a recipient, recipient of grace, always insinuates that transformation in your life will occur.
[00:18:36] Okay, so it's impossible to just be a recipient of grace and not be changed at all.
[00:18:42] In other words, Stephen was a man who was full of grace and full of power. Stephen was a transformed, transforming man.
[00:18:56] One of my favorite quotes is from a guy named John Newton who wrote the hymn Amazing Grace.
[00:19:02] And here's what Newton says about his late life conversion and about his relationship with Jesus as it pertains to his transformation and maturity as a Christian. Because some of us, I think, can be discouraged by this.
[00:19:17] He says, I am not what I ought to be.
[00:19:21] Amen.
[00:19:23] I am not what I want to be.
[00:19:26] I am not what I hope to be in another world.
[00:19:30] But still I am not what I once used to be.
[00:19:35] And by the grace of God, I. I am what I am.
[00:19:40] Let that comfort you today.
[00:19:43] Like some people in the room need to be lovingly challenged to consider whether or not you actually know God.
[00:19:54] Like, if there's never been any change in your affections, in your desires, in what you want out of life, then you do need to consider that.
[00:20:07] You need to consider whether or not you've ever been a recipient of the good news of Jesus, or if you've thought in your mind and lived out in your heart this false reality that to be a Christian is to be a good person.
[00:20:21] Have you received Jesus? Have you taken hold of him as your living Savior and living Lord? Some need to consider that this morning. And it's the grace of God that you're here to do so.
[00:20:34] The Spirit could have left you at home not to hear that, but he didn't do that. Because.
[00:20:41] Because the love of God and the grace of God and the cross of Jesus and salvation is available to you today.
[00:20:47] But then others of you who are Christians who struggle with, with this idea that like, I, I don't know if God. I don't feel like God loves me.
[00:20:57] I really struggle to feel like God loves me. I hope that that quote is like a balm to you. Of course you're not who you want to be.
[00:21:05] Of course you're not who you want to be. Of course you're not who you will be in the world to come when Christ returns. But you're not who you used to be.
[00:21:13] And take heart in that.
[00:21:16] It's like we've talked about this before. Like when my kids were learning to walk.
[00:21:21] Sidney and I never berated them when they fell on their face, right? If every single step a child takes is a moment of celebration from the Father, every small step of obedience, every small step of repentance, every small expression of faith, as small as it feels to you, and as much as you are tempted to compare yourself to everybody else in the room, like it is, it merits the. It doesn't merit, but it leads to the applause of the Father and so allow that to bring comfort to you. But the principle is the same, that Stephen was a man full of grace and full of power. The Gospel does not just come in word. The Gospel also comes in power.
[00:22:04] Life transforming power. You're not the person who you used to be if you know Jesus and if you've been saved by Jesus. And this process will continue throughout the duration of your life, you and I will all die with unconfessed sin in our life. So the point is not to weed out all of the sin in your life so that you get to go to heaven. You get to go to heaven because Jesus said you get to go to heaven. And so that's the good news. And the rest of your life is going to be transformation after transformation after transformation through the power of the Holy Spirit. He's full of grace and full of power. And then the final characteristic of Stephen, this is verses 9 through 14, I'll read them to us, is Stephen was a man who stood for truth amidst great opposition.
[00:22:49] Who stood for truth amidst great opposition. So verses 9 through 14 says this. Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen, as it was called, and of the Cyrenians and of the Alexandrians and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen that they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking.
[00:23:15] Then they secretly instigated men who said, we have heard him speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God. And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes. And they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council. And they set up false witnesses who said, this man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law. For we had heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and. And will change the customs that Moses delivered to us. So Stephen was a man who was full of grace, full of power, and a man who stood for truth amidst great opposition.
[00:23:54] They accused Stephen of blasphemous words against Moses and God. Never happened.
[00:24:02] It's a false accusation.
[00:24:06] They accused him of speaking against the temple and the law specifically. And this is really interesting, speaking against the temple by saying that this man is saying this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this temple, and in three days rebuilt will destroy this temple.
[00:24:28] They're quoting. They're not quoting, but Jesus says this. In John 2, verse 19, Jesus answered them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up so it doesn't. Jesus didn't even say out of his own mouth, I will destroy this temple.
[00:24:40] He's speaking to them and he says, destroy this temple, and in three days I'll raise it up. And what Jesus is doing there, for those that don't know, is the temple in Jerusalem was the place that the people of God from the Old Testament would go to worship God. And Jesus is saying, hey, here's good News, Revolutionary news. I'm the temple now.
[00:24:58] And so he's saying that you'll destroy this temple, meaning his own body. Jesus isn't saying, I'm going to burn down this building or my followers are going to burn down this building. He's saying, I'm the temple. You're going to destroy the true temple of God, and in three days, God's going to raise it up again.
[00:25:16] And so they were accusing Stephen of things that weren't even true about Stephen.
[00:25:21] They weren't even true about Jesus. These were false accusations. He was experiencing great opposition at the hands of the religious leaders of the day. They were bearing false witness against Stephen, which was in direct contradiction to the law that they claimed to follow.
[00:25:40] Exodus 20:16, the Ninth Commandment. Thou shall not bear false witness. They're bearing false witness, proving the point that Jesus makes time and time and time again. You're missing the point of the law and finding your hope in the law will never lead you to life.
[00:25:55] So they weren't even obeying the law, that they were getting ready to kill Stephen over, saying that he was disobeying.
[00:26:02] So Stephen was a man who.
[00:26:05] He stood true amidst great opposition.
[00:26:08] 1 Peter 3, 15, 16, which I think is an embodiment of Stephen and is our call as Christians today. Says in your hearts, honor Christ. The Lord is holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason, for the hope that is in you.
[00:26:24] You do it with gentleness, yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. So this is what we see happening in the midst of opposition. Stephen was a man who stood for truth. And so to you and I. So are you and I, to be full of grace, full of power, stood for truth in the midst of opposition. How did he do it? So this is the. The application piece for us today. How did. How did he do it? How are we to do it?
[00:27:01] Verse 15 is amazing.
[00:27:05] Okay, so look at verse 15 with me.
[00:27:08] Acts 6:15. And I want you to try to picture in your mind's eye what this might have looked like.
[00:27:15] Gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
[00:27:25] All right, I just need to start moving my thing there. Okay.
[00:27:31] I have had the opportunity over the years to Sydney and I to go to many places around the world for mission trips.
[00:27:38] And one thing that never ceases to amaze me, lots of Things about those trips, when you go overseas to a place that you know, no one, no one knows you, which is a sobering reality, to be in a city of like, 9 million people and not a single person knows you exist.
[00:27:56] But you go to a place like that and then you come across somebody and you almost instinctively are like, I think that's a Christian.
[00:28:05] Why?
[00:28:07] Why is that?
[00:28:10] What is it about Christians that you can just look at and you can be like, it's a brother, it's a sister.
[00:28:20] Well, how can you tell? I can just tell.
[00:28:24] It's mostly in their eyes.
[00:28:27] I think that there's.
[00:28:32] That there's just. There's something like.
[00:28:35] And again, we're not talking about moral perfection.
[00:28:38] We're just talking about a life that's been transformed by grace, that is in a relationship with their creator.
[00:28:47] There's something different about them.
[00:28:50] There's, like, hope in their eyes.
[00:28:53] There's confidence in them. That's an otherworldly confidence. It's not like the boisterous crud that we see on the Internet.
[00:29:02] I mean, there's something different about them.
[00:29:06] I just assume that that's what our brother was like.
[00:29:11] They looked upon him with all of these false accusations. You said this, you did that. You're a blasphemer. You said this about the temple. You said this about the law. You want to overturn Moses. You want to do all these things.
[00:29:23] And at least for a while, he's going to preach a really great sermon next week. But at least for a while, he just kind of stands silent. And there's something about his disposition that makes them say, it was like an angel.
[00:29:38] This is the power of the grace of God in the life of a person.
[00:29:45] They looked upon him. They didn't look upon him. They gazed upon him and saw that his face was like the face of an angel. One commentator says, Stephen thus looks as if he resides in heaven because the Spirit.
[00:30:05] Because the Spirit had closed the gap between heaven and earth.
[00:30:11] Do you know final thought for you?
[00:30:15] Do you know that for those who are Christians in the room, your name is already written in heaven.
[00:30:24] Like, to one extent, to some extent, like a positional, spiritual. I can't explain fully kind of way.
[00:30:32] We're already there.
[00:30:35] Our bodies aren't there yet.
[00:30:37] Our souls aren't there yet.
[00:30:40] But your name is there.
[00:30:42] It's there, and it can't be taken away.
[00:30:47] Jesus wrote it there.
[00:30:50] And I wonder if just a mere remembrance, reality, might lead you and I to live a good life.
[00:31:00] That for those who are Christians, in the room, your name is already written in heaven.
[00:31:08] Jesus told his followers in the first century, don't rejoice that the demons are subject to you, which is pretty stinking awesome.
[00:31:16] Rejoice rather that your names are written in heaven.
[00:31:23] We remember because of the blood of Christ, because we're in Christ by grace. For those who are.
[00:31:32] We've been filled with the spirit of God, who is himself, power.
[00:31:36] Our names are written in heaven. And as we remember this on a day by day basis, though imperfectly by the grace of God, might we be people that others gaze at and say, face is like the face of an angel.
[00:31:52] It's what I want for myself and it's what I want for you.
[00:31:58] So let's pray together.
[00:31:59] Father, we love you.
[00:32:01] Thank you for the example of Stephen. Thank you. That God, for those of us who you've called out of darkness and into the light of your kingdom.
[00:32:11] God, you have before the foundation of the earth, God, you wrote our names in heaven. We can't fully imagine that. We can't fully comprehend it. But we pray that by a working of your spirit, you would help us now contemplate it a little bit more, to believe it just a little bit more. God, that when we sing, we would sing with our hands lifted and our voices raised, not for show, but because we just can't believe that you've written our names in heaven.
[00:32:38] And we're excited about it. God, we're thrilled that you so loved us even while we were sinners, sinners that you sent your son to die in our place.
[00:32:50] And so, God, might we be a people who are full of grace, not just recipients of grace, but extenders of grace to other people.
[00:33:00] I pray that we'd be a people who are full of power, that the person of the Holy Spirit lives in and moves in and animates all that we do.
[00:33:13] God, pray that you would help us to have strength and courage to stand for truth in the midst of cultural opposition and to do so with gentleness and respect.
[00:33:25] And God, would you help us again to remember Christ as we worship? We love you and we pray all of this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
