The Sermon text today comes from chapter 1 of Luke's letter to the Elder Church entitled Acts, beginning in verse 1. The first account I composed theophilus about all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up into heaven, after he had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom he had chosen. To these he also presented himself alive after his suffering by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of 40 days speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God. Gathering them together he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait for what the Father had promised, which he said, you heard from me, for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit, not many days from now. The grass withers in the flower fades, but the word of God stands for ever. Let's pray together.
We'll Father I pray now for a heart like a little boy Samuel to be formed by your grace in each of us,
but though the matters we'll talk about this morning are waiting, the need that we have is no more clearly expressed than in what he said to you there in the temple. Speak, Lord. For your servant hears. So Father I ask that you would speak, Lord Jesus I ask that you would speak to your bride this morning. And we know you have, we know your word is living in active, we know you are not silent, you yourself or master are the very word of God. The one through whom the Father has spoken in his last days. So we know you will not be silent, but would you grant okay that we would present ourselves to you as your servants and that because you are our king and we are your servants that we would be eager to hear. How we pray that you would open ears even today. You who are the one who made the seeing eye and the hearing ear will you now enable your children to see in here in the very kingdom of heaven in this place. And I pray particularly for those not yet your children, those not yet your people, but to whom you hold out the promise through your work Lord Jesus that they might become your people. I pray that you would shine today as we look at the book of Acts and that you would stand forth from this the word which pays tribute to you and that you would act savingly and show your mighty right arm is ready to save any and all who will come to you. I pray in your mighty name amen. Well I am I've been looking forward to preaching on Acts for about nine months and you thought you were tired of the book of Hebrews.
This series is a first sermon in a series on the book of Acts and we're embarking on it this morning and I know God is going to do amazing things through this book because wherever this book is engaged by Christians it turns them upside down and we need a little of that we probably need a lot of that and I saw this happening in our life group last year we spent the whole year studying the book of Acts and I know some of you are in BFF and you're about to go off in the book of Acts you are not going to live the same way your year is going to be a year that you remember if you will submit yourself to the book of Acts and God's message in it you will be a different person and your view of the church will be different and your view of the world will be different and your view of the Bible will be different and your view of the local church here not worldwide but here in this room and in these relationships will be forever changed and so I just am so expectant and hopeful that our king will come and he will use this book to wield his agenda in our midst very graciously and very powerfully so I am thrilled but as we begin this book and I know some of you are doing math you're saying Hebrews was 13 chapters, Acts is 28 the difference is Acts is a narrative book and Hebrews is an epistle that is an argument based book so I'm not going to give you any estimates but what I want to do this morning is I want to make the case for you I just have a very simple agenda I want to persuade you that it is worth our while and your while to spend more than a little while on this book together and to be thinking about it and I want to do that by emphasizing the importance of the book of Acts in three different spheres first the sphere of the Bible and our understanding of the Bible Acts placement in the Bible second the importance of Acts to understanding our world and I mean the late excuse me the early 21st century in which we find ourselves what does Acts have to say to us about the world in which we live and how if at all does God offer or hold himself out to equip us to engage and understand the world we live in that's an important question you ought to be thinking about that and then finally the final sphere where this book is going to be so important that I want to consider with you this morning is the sphere of our local church. Acts is the right book for such a time as this at a manual question in church and I want to reflect with you on several reasons for that so first let's just go to the Bible let's just talk about where Acts is in the Bible I had a professor and seminary who taught me a very good question which was whenever you began to study a book in the Bible always ask this question before you do anything else if this book were not in the canon of scripture what would you be missing in other words what unique contribution does this book make that enables you to understand the rest of the span of the Bible's message and when you come to the book of Acts that is a huge answer to consider because just think about where Acts is physically in the New Testament between the end of John's gospel and the beginning of Romans if you took Acts out right you'd go straight from John 21 25 to Romans 1 now that would be a very jarring transition if you didn't have the book of Acts because you'd get to Romans 1 1 and you'd say I don't understand this Paul an apostle who's that right I mean who's this Paul guy where did he come from none of the gospels talk about an apostle named Paul and Paul would be fairly critical his ministry his calling his apostolic credentials more than fairly critical I was being facetious they're utterly essential to your understanding of the rest of the New Testament and just think about how much happens between John 21 25 and Romans 1 1 a lot let's think we'll get to Paul here a little bit more in a second but first just think about the disciples I mean the world of the disciples is very different between the end of John's gospel and moving into the epistles how do the disciples get transformed from these bewildered cowardly just like us I'm not beating them up any more than I beat myself up if we myself up if we were in their spot we probably would have deserted long before they did but they let's remember where they were they don't really get it there isn't a lot of power in their lives the same lessons over and over and over again that's the best you can say about them the worst that you can say about them is that they deserted their king at the moment of his greatest need and that they were ashamed of his gospel and that they didn't believe the resurrection how do you get from point A there to disciples who are now apostles who are willing to endure whatever suffering may come so that they may proclaim the name of Christ how do you explain that that's an important question to know the answer to the ax gives us the answer let's go back to Paul who's this Paul guy if you don't know who Paul is and you don't have a firm basis for understanding what his credentials are as an apostle unequal footing with the other 11 or 12 you're you're going to miss a whole lot of gospel truth now your New Testament is going to get a lot smaller if you don't understand Paul's conversion if you don't understand the mission that Christ gave to him you have no way to explain how in the space of less than 30 years you go from a small band of people in Jerusalem who are defeated and this ought to send chills down your spine a small band of defeated scattered people on the fringes of the Roman Empire to go from that to a movement of churches being planted such that in the capital of the most pagan anti-god empire in the world there is now a network of churches now how do you explain that in 30 years how do you explain how those churches came to be you got to understand the ministry of Paul you got to understand the ministry the Holy Spirit and Paul's being deputized and sent and empowered and Barnabas and yes even John Mark sent away from Jerusalem into the nation so that by the time you get to the late 40s there is a church in Jerusalem excuse me in Rome that is astonishing how about the inclusion of Gentiles in the church would you have and that ought to be important to you we take it for granted that we deserve to be members of the Covenants of God's grace and God has made it plain all along that Gentiles are grafted in and that we have not the natural branches we have no right to be included in God's covenant it is the grace of God in Jesus Christ oh we are admirable that we have a Jewish Savior and that to become a Christian means that you have to become a Jew we ought to be shocked by that more and we ought to be a lot less anti-Semitic than we are how do you explain God's purpose of including the Gentiles one of the things that the Book of Acts gives us so powerfully is a very clear picture that from the very beginning from the very beginning I mean I know some of you have sat under dispensational teaching and you've been taught that the church is a parenthesis and is a plan B that is destructive it is unbiblical it's not true junk it it is anti-Gospel it is unscriptural have I made myself clear and you can't hold to that theology and read the Book of Acts because the way the gospel is preached in the Book of Acts is very clearly God shows us from His Word that from the very beginning God's plan was to include all the nations but that he was going to do it through Israel and the Book of Acts helps us understand Israel's relationship to the world Israel is not intended biblically to be a drain toward which everything flows in history regardless of what you see on TV or read in books everything is not supposed to flow toward Jerusalem the plan is that everything would flow from Jerusalem to the nations that Jerusalem would be a life giving fountain overflowing with life not that everything would lead there and we see that illustrated in the Book of Acts that is so critical and so it helps us understand when we see that trajectory in the Book of Acts it helps us understand that God's plan is to make the whole earth his temple not some puny little building in Jerusalem God has way bigger designs in redemptive history than to take back Palestine hello don't shrink his purposes down the Book of Acts will help you not do that it is a glorious gift and God's going to build a temple he's not well he's doing it right now he's building it in this room he's building it in every nation and he doesn't do it with mortar and stone he does it with living stones with people from every tribe tongue and nation on the earth and he's assembling this global dwelling of God in the spirit and the Book of Acts shows us that he's doing that is we see the gospel penetrate and that is so exciting to see and that really brings us to the last big thing that Acts helps us with well second to last thing and that is the Holy Spirit if you didn't have the book of Acts you wouldn't really know how it is that Jesus kept his promise to be personally present with his church and to be powerfully present after his ascension right I mean he makes some pretty strong promises in the gospel of John in chapter 14 he says I will not verse 18 he says I will not leave you as orphans I will come to you where is it how's he keep that promise did he not know he was going to be crucified did he not know he was going to ascend to the Father's right hand how's he going to keep that promise Holy Spirit how does he keep the promise that the helper will come how would we know that you know if you just have the rest of the epistles in the New Testament you won't really know the story of how Jesus kept his promise and it's important to know that Jesus keeps his promises and Acts will help us to understand the Holy Spirit what a glorious journey chapter 2 will be for us and then finally what's the link between Jesus and the apostles message because you know if you didn't have the book of Acts you go from the gospels to Rome Rome it's right you go from Jesus teaching now to the apostles teaching well you ought to ask the question what's the authority of those apostles to speak in the name of Jesus Christ how come their word is God's word that is an important question to consider and that is one of the questions that Acts gives us the answer to so Acts is utterly critical to understanding the Bible it's also essential to an accurate understanding of our world and this is this is part of this is one of my passions as a Christian and particularly as a pastor and it is to lay out wherever I can what the Christian worldview what the biblical worldview has for implications about how we move you see Christianity isn't just some formula you believe what we'll see again and again in the book of Acts and we saw it a little bit as we were looking even at the sluggards field is that there is a worldview there is a structure of thought that goes with conversion there's a way of understanding the world out there and in here there is a new way of understanding history after a conversion you cannot look at human history in the same way you will see different truths you will understand things beneath the surface that unbelievers cannot understand and so Acts is very important when it comes to this question of understanding our world and this is a this is a question you ought to be asking you ought to you ought to be asking the question what in the world does the book of Acts have to do with a post 9-11 world I mean last week right the Hurricanes had an intervened you would have heard this message the day after the third anniversary of 9-11 but it's eight days ago so we should be asking the question and testing God's world again and again and what does this book have to say to us in a as we live in a post 9-11 world as the world is very different in a lot of ways it's also exactly the same in most ways we just see it more clearly and that's what makes the difference but we live differently than we used to before 9-11 and what does Acts have to say to and about our world I mean just think about what's in the book of Acts I mean what what in the world do Pentecost the life of the early church the selection of the first deacons the conversion of Saul the conversion of Lydia the the first converting Europe the conversion of the Philippian Jailer the imprisonment of the Apostles one of those things have to do with a post 9-11 world what does the martyrdom or the martyrdoms of Stephen in chapter 7 and James in chapter 12 what do those have to do with us when we live in this world where we now have a department of Homeland Security and where we know people who've been to Iraq what they have to do what in the world does the conversion of the Samaritans have to do with people like us who live in a world where did you see this this last week about the you know the the hijackings that took place in in Russia a few weeks ago and those two planes blew up at the same time did you read that the way the second woman got on the plane they both had been stopped and identified everybody knew they were Chechens so they went even in Russia they got through they went to a security screen and they got higher scrutiny and the second woman was able they identified them as potential terrorists the second woman bribed her way on the plane for 34 dollars does Acts have anything to say to a world or stuff like that does it you see what Acts reminds us is that the world really is I mean there's a sense in which the book of Acts does agree with our cultural consensus right now the world is about conflict we're we're thinking about conflict don't we we're thinking about it a lot we're also thinking about conquest there seems to be a heightened awareness of a friction between two big systems right and that's a good thing to bring into focus the problem is this Acts comes to a very different conclusion from our cultural consensus on the nature of that conflict and on the right prescription to respond to that conflict so it's good and 9-11 has been helpful in some ways to wake in us out of a stupor and a naivete as we think about human history that's a good thing you should think God for that I would much rather transact real life than la la land life wouldn't you so what does Acts help us do well Acts for one thing helps us reach an accurate diagnosis of what's really going on in the world and you see the the main issue in the world if you listen to media you would think that or you read the newspapers you think that the main problem in the world right now is that there is this collision that that there's an alienation at the heart of history and the the real formative shaping guiding alienation at the heart of history is the gap right now between the Middle East the Islamic the world of Islam and the liberal democracy that is championed by the West and acts as that is so shallow that is such feeble analysis that is so superficial Acts won't let you get away with that kind of feeble analysis now that conflict exists don't get me wrong that conflict exists but what acts is going to teach us is that that conflict is symptomatic or something okay so you just want to deal with what's on the surface don't come to church for about three years but if you want to if you really want to listen to what God has to say in his word about the real shaping force of history will come and study the act the book of Acts with us because it's very important not to get that wrong so you like the rest of the Bible and this this is not it's not just true the book of Acts it's true the whole Bible but Acts really brings into focus like the rest of the Bible what Acts does is it leads us to look deeper it leads us to look beneath the surface of the tidal waves in history there are some big tidal waves in history but you know tidal waves don't come from nowhere they have causes and if you want to understand a tidal wave you can either fly a helicopter over the beach after hits the shore or you can look beneath the surface to the eruption or the earthquake way way way way down that gives rise to the tidal wave and Acts takes us down to look at that and that earthquake exists that that the shaping alienation in history the driving force of history is not between east and west it is between simple man and Acts brings us back again and again and again to that core central dominant shaping preeminent conflict in history and what Acts teaches us is that everything that we encounter is a function of that reality and God's response to that reality in Jesus Christ what Acts does is it gives us not just a diagnosis but it also gives us a prescription and Acts reminds us that there's only one prescription there's only one now again I this is risky in an an election year and I'm going to read you something from the 9-11 Commission report I have absolutely no political agenda here so don't miss interpret me you see if even if what's important to see is what I want to what I want to share with you is how the world responds to that diagnosis in other words if we're going to consider Acts prescription for how you respond to a world that is so full of tidal waves of conflict and conquest and if that's how the world is then how does the world respond to that reality if it doesn't acknowledge that the real fundamental shaping truth is the alienation exists between simple man and the God of the universe is holy if you get the diagnosis wrong how good is your prescription going to be it's going to be shallow now I don't expect the 9-11 Commission to come up with perfect answers okay but then I did didn't have you read this I didn't read the whole thing but I'll tell you when when the world sees a problem and then gives you a prescription I want to know because I want to see how inadequate the non-biblical response to the reality of evil in the world is that matters to me because then I can have a conversation with somebody and so I got the 9-11 Commission report and the whole first part of the 9-11 Commission report is what happened we all know what at some level the second part of the report is what I was interested in what should we do what should we do in light of that reality and that part has two sections what we do internally like changing your life at the airport and you know the FBI being able to tap things and all that kind of stuff but there's a section of those recommendations entitled this engage the struggle of ideas
here's what the news in short the United States has to help defeat an ideology not just a group of people that's a huge insight that what the issue is is thought structures see and what that means is that they catch Osama bin Laden they catch all those guys doesn't matter the thought structures still on the loose so that's what we got to fight how can the United States and its friends help moderate Muslims combat the extremist ideas and here's what the recognition America or to Muslim parents terrorists like bin Laden have nothing to offer their children but visions of violence and death America and its friends have a crucial advantage we can offer these parents a vision that might give their children a better future if we heed the views of thoughtful leaders in the Arab and Muslim world a moderate consensus can be found now what's the vision I want to know what the vision is that will change people's lives don't you I want to know the vision of the future should stress life over death okay I like this individual education and economic this vision includes widespread political participation and contempt for indiscriminate violence it includes respect for the rule of law openness and discussing differences and tolerance for opposing points of view unless of course they're even jogging and you hear that's the best the government can do friends now I'm not saying there's anything wrong with these policies do not misunderstand me I am not saying there's anything wrong with those policies those are good policies but you know something my worldview is a Christian absolutely prevents me from having any confidence in the sufficiency of those policies right that ain't going to fix it you're just swimming on the surface there because the real issue is not that they don't have Levi's genes it's not that their literacy rate is too low those things are symptomatic of a deeper alienation and the book of acts will force us to look at that yes acts agrees that the issue in the world is conflict and the issue in the world is conquest but it's a different kind of conflict and it's a different kind of conquest the conflict in the world is between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness and the book of acts is about the kingdom of God expanding look at chapter one the text that Jim read look at what Jesus talks about in verse three when Luke summarizes this and we'll we'll look at Luke more next week who is Luke and why we should trust him notice what he talks notice what he talks to his apostles about to these he also presented himself alive after his suffering by many convincing proofs appearing to them over a period of 40 days now that's a long time with the risen Lord what's he talking about don't you want to know I want to know what he's talking about because that's a pretty important period of time right I mean he does not have time to waste so whatever it is that he's going to talk about whatever the summary statement is for those 40 days he spends with his disciples through whom he's going to turn the whole world upside down by the way what is it that he's putting into them and notice 40 days that is going to set them out loose in the world and turn it upside down speaking of the things see that now go to chapter 28 which is last chapter don't get your hopes up we're not going to be there for a while so I thought I'd give you a preview go chapter 28 acts ends in Rome with Paul ministering in Rome verse 31 last book excuse me last verse in the book we'll start at verse 30 and he that's Paul stayed two full years in his own rendered quarters and was welcoming all who came to him preaching the kingdom of God see acts says you're right world you're you're about half right we need to talk about conflict we need to think about it we need to think about conquest but the conquest that should shape us is the conquest of the kingdom of God and what we're going to see in the book of Acts is that every single culture every single culture including our own this is not just about over there this is about us every culture has certain cherished treasured idols that need to be unmasked and revealed to to be the false gods that they are and it is the churches privileged to go into the world to enter those cultures to penetrate those cultures with the gospel and to say see the difference between your false god and the living god who created all things that's what the church is supposed to do that's who we're supposed to be and that's what preaching and declaring the kingdom of God is all about so it's not just about overseas it's about our culture as well okay let's talk about acts in our church acts for such a time as this at IPC utterly important I think to the life of our church and there are two things I want to focus on first what I'll call a tendency that we have toward practical deism and I'll define that in a second and the second is there's a vision for the life of a church that is given in the book of Acts it is so attractive and I want to show that to you from chapter 16 it's not where people ordinarily go but this is just so captivated me that I want to share it with you and lay it before you and then I want to close with some prayer requests first of all what is a practical deism and did you even know you were guilty of that see the book of Acts the one thing you can't say about the book of Acts is that God doesn't do much in this book man he is highly active in this book isn't he's doing stuff all the time the book of Acts is this whirlwind tour through all these mighty demonstrations of this power in the world as the gospel advances as it breaks out of Jerusalem and advances to the ends of the earth and God does so much but you know what practical deism is you've heard of the phrase deism before right deism is a view where you believe in God and you essentially believe that once he created the world and he set up rules because he's a very organized God and loves order he set up rules and then he got the the universe so it was self-sustaining and then he basically pushes it to the side and leaves it alone to kind of operate on its own that view was very popular during the Enlightenment right you know what's attractive about that view you can have a view of order and coherence and you can get that at least theoretically without God that's a great view if you want to believe in a stable universe but don't really want to deal with the God issue right he's just the great watchmaker it's a great watch I love this watch I really want I don't want a relationship with a watchmaker now on paper none of us would say we believe in that kind of God right on paper but we sure live like that don't we do we really have a high sense of expectancy that God is I mean a high sense of expectancy that God is going to meet with us that he's going to do things that he's going to answer prayer that he's going to convert people through the most unlikely people to be converted why is it that when I and Maria talk about neighbors and people in our neighborhood why is it that I instinctively have a higher sense of the probability of certain neighbors being converted then I do other matters why is that why do I have a gut reaction that says they're probably a more likely candidate than those people why do I why do I assume that the Soviet Jews who live just down the street from there are more of a long shot than the very lukewarm Methodist down the street why do I assume that it's because I don't believe I don't believe as I should as he is worthy of having a belief but he is poorest so practical deism as a tendency I think it's I think it's not just my problem I think we all have this problem where we will have paper beliefs that we touch again on Sunday morning but then when we live during the rest of the week we essentially function like either he's not there he's not inclined to act powerfully his promises are maybe yeah you know they're kind of relevant and the valuable I know they're gods but do we really live poised on tiptoe in our lives waiting for God to have see acts is going to teach us how to do that let me give you an illustration that I shared with the men yesterday at the breakfast acts is written by luke and luke wrote a two volume work and his two volume work volume one is the book that we call the gospel according to luke and volume two is the book that we call acts okay now originally those two books were one book two volume work but in their early church they separated those two volumes why well there was a a desire for the fourfold gospel to be together for all four gospels to be together in one collection so if you look at the history of the manuscripts you can see that there were collections of gospel of the four gospels being circulated through the early church and copied so luke's gospel was separated from what we now call the book of acts now the book of acts that volume two work was put together with Paul's letters and a collection of Paul's letters is circulated and that makes sense because acts help us understand the ministry of Paul now there's nothing wrong with that except it makes it harder to see one of luke's very important purposes and that is this luke by putting these two works together one of the things he wants to show is that the ministry of Jesus Christ the personal ministry of Jesus Christ which he exercises through his personal presence and his personal power does not end when he ascends into heaven in fact the book of acts we're going to see next week is all about what Jesus does the title acts of the apostles is not the title god gave to that book they're the acts of Jesus Christ now that's important for us to see because we are in danger I think each of us of missing that same reality in our lives that you know we think about what Jesus did in the past that's the gospels and now okay that his ministry ended he's handed the baton off to the apostles and now we get into phase two of the ministry and the rest of the Christian life is about doing what he told us and we'll look forward to the future we'll look with gratitude to the past but in the present where is he my friends how would it affect you if when you woke up in the morning and I asked them in this question how would it affect you how would it change things if when you woke up in the morning you knew that when you went out into the living room Jesus Christ personally was going to be present there waiting ready and desiring to teach you
to hear you tell all the troubles of your life but that changed the way we thought about personal devotional time and he is there would it change the way that you thought about being in a life group or discipleship team if you knew that Jesus Christ personally is the leader of that group well yes would it change the way you listen to a brother or sister tell you the troubles of their heart if you knew that that was the voice of Jesus Christ speaking to you would it change the way that you approached worship if you knew that Jesus Christ personally was going to be the worship leader and someone yes would it change your prayer life to realize that as you kneel or as you sit at the table and the weary and you don't have the energy to pray would it make a difference to you to realize that Jesus Christ is personally in the room but he is what about evangelists what if you knew that in every hard conversation with an unbeliever that you're a little bit afraid of what if you knew and realized that you were never going to go into that conversation alone but that Jesus Christ himself would be there by his spirit and by his spirit but that changed your approach
yes friends Jesus Christ is in this room Jesus Christ is not an absentee of any of this people and acts will help us to remember that and I've gone over my time so here's what I'm going to do I'm going to show you chapter 16 verse 5 and then what I was going to share with you in the conclusion I will put in this the newsletter that will go out this week prayer requests some suggestions for how to pray through acts and for yourself and for the church let's just go to chapter 16 real quickly I want to show you a church that I would love for us to become verse 5 so the churches were being strengthened in the faith and were increasing in number daily that's a radical verse that's a kind of church I want to be the pastor that's a kind of Christian I want to be that's a kind of Christian every Christian ought to want to be strengthened in the faith daily and excuse me strengthened in the faith increasing in numbers daily you see what an interesting combination that is because ordinarily we would assume that in order to grow through evangelism you would have to either pick that or pick being an edifying church for believers we're either going to be a secret church or we're going to be a believer's church and the book of Acts says below me no way you don't choose between those two things when God is active in a body when the spirit is moving those two things happen simultaneously and they're not just accidents that they go along with one another they mutually reinforce each other a church that is growing is a church that is growing in the gospel that's a church whose hearts are being changed both toward God and toward other people those people evangelize a church that sees people come to faith in its midst through its ministry grows in faith don't choose between those two things I want both of them I am a hog I absolutely want both of these and this is one of the things I'm going to ask you to pray about Darren is going to he shared with the men yesterday and I'll share it with you and you'll see it in down news later on when we weren't at land as a leadership team one of the areas that we identified as an area of excellence that we are committed to growing in non-negotiable as a church is in the area of evangelism and so the men were working with said okay well that's a nice thing to say but how about how about some objectives here people have got some concrete objectives so you can ask God and seek God for certain targets and I'm going to share those targets with you and I think nobody is saying that God gave us a vision okay don't misunderstand me this is something we are seeking God to give us what we are seeking in one year is ten new conversions ten conversions in one year in this church that would turn us upside down ten now some of you are saying too low I say you're right it is too low wait to hear the five of you and some of you are saying no what would God have to do to make us into the kind of church where he would be pleased to bring ten news where think about all the relationships that the web of relationships in this room all the contacts we have with people ten is a very small number in the next year do you think God can do that do you think God would want to do that in this church are you ready to invest in praying that God would not just bring them in but that he would transform you and me into the kind of people who would want to go find them and tell them the truth and love them and invest in relationships and spend ourselves and be willing to be mocked as we look for those ten are you willing to do that would do so much and in five years we're seeking him for one hundred hundred thousand to low to high no if act sixteen five remains of jewel that you jellously hold up before God and say make us this that is a kingdom advancing kingdom honoring prayer how badly I ask you pick that jewel up this week and ask yourself how badly but now we come and we are so aware that we are so inadequate it is easy to be passionate for an hour so much harder to be faithful for a week before a month or four year and so I pray that you would do a work in us to make us the kind of church where it might be said of us truly that we were people being strengthened in the faith and yet who are increasing in numbers that we would see how the gospel produces both those things and that we would experience that so that Christ would be honored in this fellowship and that his kingdom would be advanced from this fellowship to the very ends of the earth we pray in Jesus name