This recording is from Christ Kingdom Church in Waterford Lakes, East Orlando. Visit us online at christkingum.org for our calendar, driving directions, and more audio recordings. I'm Mr. Readin from I'm Acts 9, chapter 9, verses 31 to 43. You can follow along in your Bibles or from the booklet in the front of you. So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was built, and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied. Now, as Peter went here and there among them all, he came down also to the saints who lived at leader. Then he found a man named Anias, bedridden for eight years and was paralyzed. And Peter said to him, Anias, Jesus Christ healed you, rise and make you a bed, and immediately he rose. And all the residents of leader and Sharon saw him and they turned to the Lord. Now there was, there was in Joppa a disciple named Tabitor, which translated means darkness. She was filled of good works and acts of charity. In those days, she became ill and died. And when they had washed her and laid her in an upper room. Since leader was near Joppa, the disciples here in that Peter was there sent two men to him, urgent him. Please come to us without delay. So Peter rose and went with them. And when he arrived, they took him to the upper room. All the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing turnics and other gametes that darkness made while she was with them. But Peter put them outside and knelt down and pray. And turned into the body, he said, Tabitor, arise. And she opened her eyes. And when she saw Peter, she sat up. And he gave her his hand and rose her up. Then called in the saints and widows, he presented her alive. And it became known throughout all Joppa that many believed in the Lord. And he stayed in Joppa for many years with one Simon, 18th. This is a word of the Lord. Thanks, Karen. Our 3rd through 5th graders can be dismissed to go to their classes. Let me pray for our time again. We bow your heads as we come to the Lord, pray with me. If I'd just pray right now that you would add a blessing to the reading of your word that you would come and you would speak and you would open it up to our hearts. God that we might see you for who you are, that you might reveal yourself God to us in a very specific personal and direct way this morning. God, thank you for being the God who has come and who has interrupted time, who has interrupted our lives. To not just be a God who is sitting back watching things in the world happen to be a God who has become part of it, who took on flesh. You became a man who came to earth and who still is a man in the form of the Son, Jesus Christ, and who will return one day. God will you fill us with the hope of the knowledge of that when you speak and meet with us now. Let me pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Well, we're continuing our series in the book of Acts. My name is Scott Puckett. I'm the pastor here. If you're new or glad again to have you here this morning, there is an insert, a sermon insert that might help guide you. There's some outline you can follow along. The scripture text is there. I just want to draw that through attention. That might be helpful. As we're looking at this text, we're going through Acts. We've seen lots of things. We're seeing how the early church is living after the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. Jesus had promised that after he died on the cross and after he rose again, that he would not leave his people alone. And not just in memories. He didn't want his people just to have memories about him and have stories to tell. He was going to pour out his Holy Spirit to live in and through us. An amazing promise which he made good at on Pentecost as we read about in Acts chapter 2. So we're seeing the impact of that. We're seeing God living in his people. And now here we are in chapter 9. We've looked at Stephen and his life, one of the earlier deacons, and the first one, as we know as a martyr, to give his life to be stoned to death for the cause. We see Philip, another deacon, just a couple of chapters ago, working God use and through him. We read last week and studied about Saul who would become the Apostle Paul, how God was not just working through his people, God even worked through one of his arch enemies as far as human beings on earth, and radically transformed the one who was persecuting the church to become one of the greatest followers of Christ at that time. And even in history. And now we see him continuing to work through Peter in this particular passage here this morning. One of the things that caught my attention in this was the passage, the very first verse of this, in this chapter was this. So the church throughout all Judean Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up, and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied. The church is experiencing peace. The church is being built up and faith, and it's multiplying. Well, who of us wouldn't want that to happen if you're part of a church, part of this church? We all desire that. We all want that. Let me ask you this as individuals, who of us wouldn't want that? I mean, how many of all the 7 billion people on the planet, isn't everybody looking for peace? Isn't everybody looking to be built up? Isn't everybody looking to see a multiplication of their life? To see their life have an impact on others? Whether it be through their children or being through how they reach and touch? I think deep down all 7 billion of us share that because it's been planted there by God. And the fruition and the power for that to happen is through his Holy Spirit. And we see that happening here. What made the church grow? What will make us grow? Well, we're told two things. They walked in the fear of the Lord, which is part of the respect effect, and they're walking in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, which is part of this respect effect. Now, before you think that's just a typo, it's not. And those of you that know me know I like to make up words, and I've done it again. Respect effect. Respect is a combination of the word respect, and the combination of the word rest, and seeing them both play together. It's the respect effect here. They had a great respect for God. They had a great rest in him, the comfort of the Holy Spirit. And here's a primary principle I want us to get this morning. You will grow in faith to the degree that you walk in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of this Holy Spirit. That's what the early church experience. That's what we will experience as a church. That's what you will experience as an individual. Your faith will grow to the degree that you walk in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of this Holy Spirit. You know, just Thursday night I was working late, and I was driving home from Panerabrit. Yes. And as I was driving home, they closed it to him, right? So I have to leave at that point. I came up to the Woodbury Lake under her light, just over here. And as I was approaching the light to stop, I looked over on the side, and there was a car that had just kind of, looked like it just kind of veered off the road, and was actually touching the brick wall over there. The lights were on, and I couldn't tell what was going on. It didn't look like it had been a, and there was no skid marks or anything like that. The car was just kind of over there. I noticed it had been there since I was driving down. As I was waiting for the light to change, it stayed there. And I was sitting there thinking about that. I was going through my mind, wondering, what's going on? Is there, you know, I wonder if everybody is okay? I had this flashback in my mind of what I think is represented by the respect effect. I'm going to come back and tell you more about that a little bit later in the sermon. But I made a U-turn in just a side, you know? I need to check this out. You know, I'd rather have the peace of mind knowing that everybody was okay. So I get out of my car, and I start walking over. There's a guy on a cell phone walking. I thought, well, this is probably the owner of the car. I'm like, hey, is this your car? And he's like, oh, no, I'm just walking home from an LA fitness. But since I've been at the bridge and seen it, I've seen it sitting on the sides, you know, motionless. I'm like, that's strange. So I'm like, well, maybe we should go check it out. So me and this guy go over there and walk it out, walk over there, and look in the window. And sure enough, there's a guy head knocked over on the windshield. Car is running. The doors are locked. We can't get in. So we start tapping on the windows, saying, hey, hello, are you okay? I'm even going around to a driver's side where his head is literally touching the window and I'm knocking on the window using my keys and anything I have to get his attention, not moving at all. So the other guy says, should I call 911? And I said, yeah, I think you should. So he starts calling 911. And I'm still trying to get the guy to a browser wake. I'm trying to figure out his even alive. And as I look closely through the window was tinted window, I eventually could, you know, focus on his chest. And I saw it was barely, it was moving a little bit. So I said, I think he's got, I think he's alive. Is he on a break window? I mean, what do you do at this point? Well, fortunately, the police got there within a matter of just a minute or two. They must have been close and they came up and they came in flashlights and started shining in the windows. And the light in the guy's eyes got him to kind of come to consciousness enough as they were telling me, hey, unlock the door. And they got him, he eventually got the door unlocked and they were able to come in and start working with them. Of course, they pushed us back at this point. So we don't really know what's going on. They've asked us to stay in case they needed more information, that kind of thing. And then the fire trucks came and, you know, why you need a hook and ladder for this incident? I don't know, but they were there. So, and anyway, they were working on the guy for a while and after about 20 minutes they said, you know, we were like, is he okay? They were like, well, we're not sure what happened, but they hadn't even taken him out of the car in the vehicle yet, but they told us we could go ahead and go and move our vehicle and so on. So I gave the guy right home, but as I was thinking about this, I was going, you know, I don't know, we may have saved the guy's life. We just had a, you know, be diabetic and passed out and wasn't like, maybe that's life threading, too. I don't know, I don't know what happened. It could be life threading, right? Becky is nodding her head. But I just thought, you know, what made me actually pause and stop there was a voice I'd heard last summer from the guy Matt who had taken me in Charles and some of us, some guys from another church and their kids on a little adventure trip, father son. And this guy had told us a story of how he was working in his gym. And here's a guy that could be making a lot of money somewhere. But he's doing adventure trips for, you know, camps and churches and father son trips and he's working in a gym working with, you know, elementary age students. You know, the guy is not making a ton of money. Let's just say it that way. But one of his classes is is that he teaches little boys and he calls it hero class. He teaches little boys how to be heroes. Which is not always that popular with the moms in particular who are thinking, what does that mean? What does that look like? But it had gone through my head and I literally thought about him in hero class as I sat there and thought, should I get out the car and go even take a look and see what's going on. Why did I do that? I mean, obviously the Holy Spirit was leading in guiding and anybody else could have done as well too. The point is not that I did it. The point is here what made me even think about it was the respect I'd had for this guy named Matt was the rest of resting in his guidance on that trip. And even the things he had encouraged us and the stories he had told had an impact on my life. And that impact six months later was still stirring around up here. On an opportunity happening presented itself. I just thought about under a minute hero class but I thought of Matt's hero class and it had an impression on me. That's a small microcosm of what I think is happening here in the church. As the followers of Jesus Christ are understanding who Jesus is, the Son of God, as they are resting in their comfort and understanding that his Holy Spirit is with them. Amazing things are happening. I'm going to look more at that here this morning. Number one, I want you to look at the respect effect, how respect fits into this. They were walking in the fear of the Lord. Fear could be translated in some ways in our context, reverence. They had a holy reverence for the Lord. They had a holy respect for God. It's the respect effect. So let me ask you a second this morning, who do you have a deep respect for? I mean, is it a war veteran? I mean, you might think it's not like a John McCain, no matter what your political affiliation is. I think we all respect somebody a war veteran like that. Is it a professional athlete? Tiger Woods is ups and downs but you can't not respect his professional ability to play golf. Maybe it's a successful entrepreneur. It means that an Oprah Winfrey or Steve Jobs, people that we've seen have done some amazing things. That incredible journey from nothing to incredible impact. Well, who do you personally know that you have a deep respect for? Think about it. For me, growing up, as I thought about this question, a couple of people popped my head. One was Coach Pahera. Coach Pahera was, I don't know what he did for a living, but he coached Lil League football and he coached me in seventh grade. And everybody wanted to be on Coach Pahera's team because Coach Pahera loved football and he loved kids. And I remember that after we played games, he was the only coach I'd ever had then and even after in Lil League that would print out full stats for every player and the entire team. I mean, every blocker, what percent of your blocks did you make and keep? You got graded. Every tackle that you made and so and so many tackles are assisted in this many tackles. Let me tell you after a while, every kid wanted to work hard and do better because Coach Pahera noticed, Coach Pahera cared enough to keep detailed stats of seventh graders playing Lil League football. Had a great deal of respect, had an impact. That's why players wanted to play for him. I thought a Joe Trouble was my high school economics teacher. Now, I know this is going to be hard to believe, but when I was in high school, I was not very motivated in school. I know try to use your imagination on that. If it had something to do with sports, something to do with music or something to do with girls, then that was a different story. I was interested, but many subjects did not grasp my attention at all. And economics, believe it or not, was not one of them. But Joe Trouble taught economics. And I remember Joe Trouble today, even though I only had him for one semester when I was in school there because you know what, Joe loved economics. He loved students. And Joe's love of students, love of economics, converged. And I can remember some of the basic principles. I actually paid attention, I'll listen because he made it interesting. He made it connect with our lives. He made us think about, you know, when you go buy a ticket for a movie, there's economics involved. When you go to make dollars to get something to eat, there's economics. And he wanted to go do, save up for a car, there's economics. And he connected the dots. He gave me a great love for learning, great respect that I had for both coach by here in Joe Trouble. Knowing about someone brings one level of respect, but knowing someone personally, which I didn't really know those guys personally, brings even a deeper level of respect. I mean, I learned a love of coaching footballer and a love of teaching from both those guys. But again, it was the interaction with guys like Amat Golden who I got to spend a week with and had time with. They really made a difference in the choice. By the way, here's a picture of that. I forgot to show that earlier. Here's a picture of the actual car accident scene there on that. When you know somebody personally, there's a deeper level of impact that happens even through somebody's life. You will grow in faith to the degree that you walk in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of his Holy Spirit. This is the respect effect component. It's part of what the early church was living and experiencing. Most people living near Jesus probably had a certain level of respect for him if you think about it. I mean, even though I didn't like him, had to respect the fact that he was a powerful teacher. In fact, the scriptures in the gospel several times says, and he taught or preached like no other man did because he preached as one having authority, it says. His preaching was amazing. His ability to be compassionate. I mean, who was going to debate his compassion to touch the lepers, to reach out to the prostitutes, to touch those that were they outcast, whether they were tax collectors or whatever the case was. You had at least respect that on some level and not to mention his healing power. I'm sure most of the people knew somebody or at least were aware of somebody that was miraculously healed by Jesus in the course of his short three and a half years as he was living and doing ministry. It had to be some level of respect, but it was his disciples that personally knew him that had an even deeper level of respect. And that deep level had a life impact on each of those disciples. I mean, think about some of the events that happened. Think about calming the storm. Mark IV tells us they count. When Jesus comes in, remember when there's this incredible storm, they're about to crash and the ships about to break apart and the disciples who are many of them fishermen who are the kind to freak out or freaking out. And Jesus is asleep and they wake him up and he gets up and he says, peace be still in the wind and the waves all die down within an instant. And now they're freaking out more. Verse 41 says, they were terrified and asked each other, who is this that even the wind and the waves obey him? That's holy respect. That's a fear of the Lord. Or maybe it was in the transfiguration, remember when Peter, James and John were taking up a Jesus on the mountain top and we're told that he's transformed before them. That he begins to shine like light and his pure snow and his face shines like the sun. Verse 6 of that chapter says, they fell face down to the ground terrified. It's a holy respect. It's a fear of the Lord. Or think about the time another water incident in Matthew chapter 14 where Jesus comes to them walking on the water. It's one thing when he's riding in the boat. It's another thing that he's walking on the water. Verse 26 says, they were terrified and cried out and fear. They thought he was a ghost until Peter gets out and takes a closer look. And then Jesus joins them in the boat. There was a holy fear and reverence with them. And there's a holy spirit comes and lives inside of them. It only intensifies the resurrection power of God and by his spirit. John Piper writing about this specific passage says this. He says, the fear of the Lord is that sense of awe that the Lord God is infinitely holy and infinitely powerful and may not be trifled with. He is free to break in with indescribable, heart-stopping, suddenness and power whenever and wherever he pleases and acts as full of that. Jesus breaking in power. Whether it was through Peter in this passage that has a guy who's been lame for eight years to get up and walk or tabitha that is brought back from death to life. Jesus is interrupting in power and in glory. Peter's life is a reflection of this great respect for Jesus. Even in this passage verse 32 says that Peter was going to make disciples.
Jesus' last words have been go and make disciples of all nations and Peter's doing it through the power of the Holy Spirit. He raises a lame man in Jesus' name. That's not just a little, you know, in an unimportant detail. He's doing it in the power of Jesus' name. Don't miss the fact in verse 40 that he stops to pray before raising tabitha. Just walk all in and go. She's dead. Clear out. I'll take care of this from here. Right? He clears them out because, by the way, that's what Jesus did when you raised another sermon girl from the dead, cleared the room. But he prays. He cries out to God. He cries out to Jesus. Peter's walking in the fear of the Lord. You will grow in faith to the greed that you walk in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of his Holy Spirit. We're seeing looking at the component of that fear of the Lord. So my question to you this morning is, do you walk in the fear of the Lord? Or is it just a casual relationship? Is it a consultant relationship? Well, when things get bad, you know, me and Jesus will talk. You know, I'll go to him with prayer. Or is it just a theoretical relationship? You consider yourself Christian or follower of Christ because you're not Muslim. Because you're not the atheist or is it that kind of a thing? The fear of the Lord. Do you walk in fear of the Lord? Because the early church was. Peter was. And it produced growth. It produced life. It brought peace. The first component in the respect effect is this idea of resting in the Lord. I mean, this idea of respecting the Lord, walking in fear of him. And the second is rest. This is the rest effect, part of that. Not only were they walking in the fear of the Lord, but they were walking in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. It's the rest effect. It's the idea of coming in and trusting oneself to another. Well, what does it mean to walk in the comfort of someone else? I mean, looking back on Coach Pahera from your Joe Tribal, those guys had my respect. No doubt. But neither were a source of particular comfort for me personally. When I went through a tough time, I didn't call them up and say, what's going on? So ask yourself this, when you have felt isolated, whose presence brought hope, truth, and love to you? Or when you do feel isolated, whose presence brings hope, truth, and love? That is one that you're seeking to walk in comfort with or under. And of course, the question is, is it ultimately God through Jesus Christ and His Spirit? It was in the early church, it was in Peter, and miraculous power was flowing in and through them. Because the fear of the Lord was combined with a walking in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. You know, the first time that we experience probably the comfort of walking with someone is as little children. You know, as little children sleeping, for example, one of the first things that happened, you know, and I've had six kids go through this, is that when they're in need of comfort, especially at nighttime, right, which is the time that they most probably are in need of comfort, it's not enough for mom and dad to come pray with them and come tuck them in and say, God's watching your knees, take good care of you. Good night, little little booger, get something to go, right? Because undoubtedly at some point or another, maybe in it for a whole phase of life, they're going to come in, well, well, mind any minute knock, they're going to come into your room, okay, and they're going to want to crawl in bed, or they're going to want to lay down beside you in the bed, okay, and they're going to go to sleep at that point, and it's not because they're setting is more comfortable, and believe me, you as a parent, it's not more comfortable, right? Okay, but they could be totally uncomfortable, they could be hotter, they could be, you know, whatever, but they're going to go to sleep because they are resting in the comfort of one who is with them, even as children become older and things like that. I've noticed even my older kids who, thankfully, are not crawling in bed still with Lauren. You know, when it comes time and they're sick or something, or they have to go to the doctor, they take comfort in that a parent or both parents are going with them to the doctor. You know, there's something about when you're not feeling well, you don't want to be alone. There's something about when there's going to be terms and doctors poking and prodding that you want to be not alone. Even older kids usually appreciate that aspect of it. You will grow in faith to the degree that you walk in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of His Holy Spirit, and we understand that and see how that works as children. But even outside as children, even outside of a parenthood, we can see what that happens as well too. I remember when I was in the youth group growing up, one of my first youth directors was a guy named Tom May. And Tom was a guy who took a lot of interest to me. And if he hadn't took a lot of interest to me, I'm not sure what would have happened because I was a little quiet kid that kind of sat in the corner. I was the one that wasn't getting involved. I was kind of the one who was only speaking as my spoke to me. You know, I kind of liked that youth group a lot of times. I really just went because my parents made me and said, you need to go and so on and so on. But Tom May was the guy that actually said, hey, you like to play tennis? Well, yeah, let's get together and play tennis. We'd go out, we'd hit the ball around the tennis court. And then Tom, when it just played tennis, he'd ask me questions. He'd say, how are you doing? Tell me about what's going on, what are you interested in? He took an interest in my life. He was one that cared about that. He's one that would call me Pucket Man. And he would come up and say, Pucket Man, what's going on? What are you thinking about? He would pursue me. You know why I kept going back to that youth group is because Tom May was a source of comfort of one who was doing life and coming along life with me, who came into my world, inviting me into his world, who merged our worlds together, and was an incredible youth director that had a great impact on my life. I think also the example of Jeremy and I experience this with Nathaniel Ottawa New, our missionary that we support from Togo Africa. When Jeremy and I went back there, I think it was 2009, Jeremy, right? That we went. I never knew how much it was important to have the comfort of that, because this was one of my first international trips at this point, is to have somebody that speaks the language, okay? Anybody been out of the country? Anybody ever needed a translator? Okay, yeah. When you do that, you know how important that is. And it was particularly important. I've talked to you guys about this before, that's me and they are in shirt. When we went up to Northern part of Togo, that was the Muslim, predominantly Muslim area. And we came up on the place where they were, their temple or where they were worshiping. And you can't tell from this picture, but there's people packed outside because they can't get in. And through translators, we had the ability to come in and meet with their mom, their leader of it, and sit down and talk with them here. And Northern part of the Muslim part of Togo, I was so glad to have a translator at that point. That could communicate between us with that. An ethanol was a incredible source of comfort on something, on a trip like this. I would not dream of doing it again. By the way, when we go in this coming fall, which I hope many of you will come, you'll be with us again, right? Jeremy? Yeah. Jeremy's nodding with that. But it was a source of comfort. It was a source of need when you have that. I was talking to a pastor for this past week, and he was sharing the story of how the senior pastor, their church had gone through a crisis and had to step down and leave. And he said, you know, my wife came up to me and asked me this question. He said, my wife asked me, if you feel isolated, alone or stuck, who would you turn to? And she said she was asking me because she wanted to know that I had at least one or two names that I could share after that question. Unfortunately, this guy did. But why is that important? Because after especially seeing what happens when people live in isolation, this wife wanted to know that her husband, who's a pastor as well, had somebody, had a couple people that he could talk to, people that were walking life and doing life with him. It's a very important question because we all need that. It's filing someone that you feel is a restful place for you. And there's nobody more ultimately that that's supposed to happen with as Christians, fathers of Christ and his through his Holy Spirit. That's why the scripture says he is the comforter. You will grow in faith to the degree that you walk in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of his Spirit. Let me, you might be thinking one thing that I was thinking through this, is how do these two fit together because holy respect and resting in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, those kind of seem to be oxymoronish a little bit. It kind of looks like those don't usually have those fit together and the same thing. And John Piper, I thought, did a wonderful job in giving an analogy of this. He said, you know, it's like a hurricane. It's something we can understand living in Florida, if you've been here any number of years. You will grow in faith to the degree that you walk in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of his Holy Spirit. And John Piper said, you know, it's like living in the eye of the hurricane. Listen to what he says. Rest in the eye of his love and care. Trimble at the wind of his holy power and be on the alert in your life. And in the world for utterly amazing breakings of his might to turn things around. Let there be in your life an open-ended expectancy that Jesus is going to act. He's going to turn things around. And when he does prepare to reap, if that was a great illustration and picture of how can you find comfort in this one? Who's all powerful? There's one who nobody can stand in this presence with any sin. Jesus comes and makes that way possible. He invites us to walk in relationship with them, but don't think that it's a casual relationship of just sweet comfort with him. He is the power that created the universe with a single word. He's the one that will come back, riding a white horse, the one who's called faithful and true, to restore all things. You will grow in faith to the degree that you walk in the fear and the comfort of his Holy Spirit. This is how the early church was living. This is how Stephen, Philip, Paul who we looked at last week and how Peter we're seeing in this example, is living. They walk in the fear of the Lord, a holy respect. They walk in the comfort of his Holy Spirit, a holy rest. It's the respect effect. Not a bad word, right? A lot of this, the question is this, will you draw near to God who's to be feared and at the same time is the God of all comfort? If you do, you will find yourself set free of worldly fears and boldly living a life of faith just as Peter did in this passage, just as the disciples were, just as the early church was. Acts is not just a book of tell you what happened then. Acts is a book to tell us today of what it looks like for the church being powered by the Holy Spirit. They have so much fear and respect for God. There's no need to have it on earth or from human beings. That's why Stephen, even while he's being stoned to death, cries out in prayer, or Lord forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing.
Why is Philip leaving Jerusalem, apart from his family, fleeing from guys like Saul, as we read about, and going to where to Samaria, the wrong side of the tracks? Because he's not going alone. The Holy Spirit is with him. The Holy Spirit's going to whisk him away to go somewhere else as the story goes. The Holy Spirit's in control. When you have a Holy fear of God, and yet are experiencing a walking and a holy comfort and rest in him, amazing things happen. I told a story about Madden and the car thing, but I actually decided to call Madden because I thought he would be encouraged to hear that, Hey, your story about your hero school came to my mind in this incident. I just wanted to share it with him. He and I emailed back the last couple of days talking about it. He said something in the email that I just want to read as I close this morning, because I thought it was profound. And with his permission, I'm reading this. He says, I'm often reminded by those who want their boys a much safer and more predictable life than I'm proposing that most heroes are in the cemetery. There is a cost. There is a risk. The next car you turn back to may explode in flames as you approach. The story isn't always pretty. However, I believe it is right. That's why I get excited about hero training with these young boys. I really think I can help them believe at a young age that this is who they are. So of course they step in. Why do we train? Because this world still needs heroes. There are still causes to fight for it and injustices to fight against. I'm saddened by those who have quit fighting. I can't help but wonder if the same is true in the church. This is him writing to me about today. He says, you'll teach Sunday the majority will listen while they're but not act on it when they leave. Just like the guy who drives on past the suspect car. Some hear God's spirit. Some feel the nudge. Very few act on it. But those that do turn back and save the guy in the car, apply the message. Act on God's whisper. These are the true heroes. These folks get my attention. These folks live wildly full lives. I couldn't help but think as they're not a message here and a reminder here for us as the church that God invites us, that God of the universe to walk with him, with all his power on our disposal to work in his name. And he says, lo and with you always, even to the end of the age. I don't know what's going on in your life right now. I don't know what challenges you're facing. But I know that God is bigger. And let me tell you something. Until God is bigger in your mind than your crisis and your challenges, you're going to miss the power. Because he really is. Again, wherever you're at, whatever's going on, he hasn't just said I'm the God of all power but he said I'm the God who's with you with all my power. And I know so often it's where we go off track, me and others. Every one of us I think is when we begin to feel isolated and begin to feel like we're alone. We feel like we have nobody that's really there. Right? You can be in a crowded room. You can be at church with all these people and still feel alone and isolated. That he says I'm with you if you're following me. So whatever that is, maybe walk in the fear of the Lord, maybe walk in the comfort of his spirit so that we might experience the power, the work, the growth. They might see our lives multiply for his name and for his glory. You will grow in faith to degree that you walk in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of his Holy Spirit. Then we grow in faith. Let's pray. God has asked that you would buy your grace, draw us near to you and empower us to walk by faith, to walk empowered, to walk in the fear of the Lord. And God, we're honest. We must confess that we don't naturally do that. God, we're in need of your healing touch, we're in need of your power to come and in the midst to come and transform us. So God, would you continue to remind us of who you are, what you've done. Remind us that we're not alone. God, would you come and breathe fresh on us this morning. God, there are many specific areas and struggles that each of us have. Will you speak now by your spirit to leading God, to give strength and comfort? May your promises be brought back to people's remembrance even now as we respond and come to your table in just a moment. May we see your fulfillment of sending your Son as one not just to forgive sins, but to break the power of sin. We might live according to a new nature. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.