Saul Is My Chosen Instrument
First B Jackson
2025-01-26

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Alright. Good morning, everybody. How are we? Oh, boy. Hey.

Would you stand and join us in song? I've got an encouraging word here from Luke 12. And this is Jesus speaking to all of us, and he's saying, don't be afraid, little flock. It gives your father great happiness to give you the kingdom. Would you join us in singing the song, Evidence.

I've seen the evidence of your goodness all over my life.

Faithfulness is what beside me. Winter storms made way for spring. They have a season

Few announcements. Excuse First of all, is Awana on tomorrow night, Carl?

Yes. Yeah.

Hey, Ray. What do you

wanna be when you grow up? A mechanic. You think about it. We've got Awana's on tomorrow, and it's dressed like how you what do you wanna be when you grow up?

Oh, cool. That sounds good.

Alright. It's 05:45, and we'll see you then.

Alright. Iwana is on. What do you wanna be when you grow up? Teton Valley Idaho Fellowship is meeting second Friday of the month. It started last month.

So it started this month. This is still January. It'll be in February on the second Friday. If you want to talk to Emily Anderson, there's her number. She's probably serving in the nursery.

There she is. There she is. Back in the back. Talk to her and she'll tell you more about it. JH Women's Community Bible Study is on Nehemiah this time around.

It's really good. Carl and I are planning on playing with the band this week. Wednesdays, ten to twelve down at Gateway Church in Raptor J. That will be Nehemiah rebuilding together. Hand me another brick.

It's pretty good. The men's snowmobile retreat is happening. It's a 120 per person, no matter the size of the person. Okay? We've been saying it was one for men and one for boys, but I've got a red line up there that says a 120 per person.

February twenty third to twenty fifth, Old Faithful Christian Ranch, Richard Largie is in charge of that and that's his number. Let me see. On the go, you can take first b in the Bible with you. We're in Matthew right now. I have really really enjoyed it.

Maybe it was all of Leviticus that is making me enjoy Matthew that much more, but I've really really enjoyed it lately. If you wanna sign up for those emails, you can get them on first b jackson dot org or you can text me or Nick or call the office and we'll get you signed up. Congregational meeting is between services today. It'll We'll recognize volunteers. We'll discuss and vote on the budget.

It's the normal congregational meeting. It's kind of required by the constitution, we do it once a year in January. So that's happening. And connect hour is a potluck. So I've saw people bring in all kinds of stuff down there.

Pretty neat stuff from savory to sweet. It'll be down at the other end of the hall after this service. And is that it? That is it. Anybody have anything they wanna say?

No. I'm just kidding. Would you stand up and we'll sing it together? Let's praise God together. Take.

Let us bless the Lord. Let's sing this together. And Lord that we would taste and see that you are good and find joy as we take refuge in you. God, I'm so grateful to be here together as the family of God to lift our voices to you. It's not this band singing to this congregation, it's us, all of us together lifting our voices, Lord, and it brings so much joy.

Thank you. Thank you, God, that we get to do this. We get to lift our voices to you, and God, that it would be like an incense, a sweet smelling incense to you, that you, God, would be pleased with the worship. Now that would be from the heart, from the depths of who we are. In Jesus' name, amen.

Father of kindness, a wonder of kindness you have poured out grace. You brought me out of darkness. You have filled me with peace. Giver of mercy, oh, my help in time

confidence is your faithfulness. And I will rest in your promises. My confidence is

We get to sing of God's holiness this morning. And I share a verse, Deuteronomy three, and Moses says, oh, Lord God, you've begun to show your servant your greatness and your strong hand. For what God is there in heaven in heaven or on earth who can do such works and mighty acts as yours. And Lord we would say the same, who can do such wonderful things like you, our holy God, holy other, that we see you as such. In Jesus name, Amen.

You can have a seat here for a moment. This is the worship through giving part of the service, and I'll invite our ushers to come on up, and we're gonna sing the song, you have already won from Ephesians six ten. It's finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. And before we sing, Ray, may

I

ask you to pray?

God, thank you. You for is to assemble this morning for the time and for people to be here in agreement singing your praises, Lord. If we have questions, being willing to ask one another, being a look into your word and to see what we need to see. Lord, we ask that you would illumine your word this morning. You you say Jesus that that's the job of the Holy Spirit is to illumine your word.

And if it doesn't come into light, Lord, by your spirit, it's just words on a page. Lord God Almighty, I pray that the living and active word of God would be sharp this morning, and it would be piercing hearts, and it would be bringing us to a place of absolute dependence upon you. Lord, we we have at this time the time to give back a portion of what you've given to us so that we'd see the gospel move forward. Lord, would you use it in whatever way you see fit? We wanna be doing your will and your way, Lord.

That's our prayer. We long to do your will. If you'll show us your way, we'll walk in it. That's the prayer. So God, I pray that you'd be doing that this morning.

Take these resources whether it's what's placed in the plates or whether it's a conversation with a neighbor, some time spent in study, meditation, contemplation. Would you use all of those, Lord, to prepare us for the steps that you have placed in front of us. In Jesus name, we ask that you'd bless. Amen. And there they go.

How are you all this morning? Is everybody okay? A little crispy in the morning this morning? Sound check at twelve below. Warm the pipes up a little bit.

I'm gonna introduce you to somebody. A lot of you all will already know him from just being in the valley for a long time. Steve Gilmore is here somewhere. There he is. So this is Steve Gilmore.

He is going to be starting something up. I'll let him tell you more about it. He is a great friend. He comes by almost every Friday, and we hang out for a little while. He's a pastor over in Driggs.

He lives on this side till he does the reverse commute. What he calls the stupid commute. I don't know why. Beautiful either direction. But I'll just let Steve tell you more about what's happening, and I'm excited about it.

After having gone through our 12 step program in sermon series a while back, it feels like God is building towards a lot of restoration, recovery, and restarting. So here's Steve. Thank you, Steve.

How do wanna do this? 36 ago, I sat with you and worked through the 12 steps for the first time. I've been doing drug and alcohol work for twenty plus years at Curran Sealy. Now we're called what are we called?

Mental Health and Recovery Services of Jackson Hole.

Of of Jackson Hole. There we go. So I've been doing this kind of work for a long time. I pastor a church in Driggs. I have recently begun to call myself a neurotheologian.

And a neurotheologian is somebody who has advanced degrees in both neurobiology and the Bible. And putting them together, we find a God restoration, who wants you to receive his grace. Anybody know what the Greek word grace is? Anybody know what is? It's joy.

When I receive his grace, I live in joy. And so I'm going to facilitate a twelve week program. It's partially on video. It's one third video, two thirds learning how to do relational stuff that heals our brains. And we do that together in groups of three or larger.

This is for anybody who's in active addiction. I only ask that you don't come drunk. And if weed is your drug of choice, see if you cannot smoke it in the morning until you come. So there's going to be people, I've done this in Driggs. In my class, youngest was 16, the oldest was me.

I, after this long, got a great deal out of going through this this time. There are people that have obvious addictions. There's people that have ones that aren't so obvious. Anybody stuck doom scrolling? Okay, that's a dopamine rush.

And so this is for everybody that wants to live in joy. And it's absolutely fabulous. Join us. It's going to be on Wednesday nights, downstairs, depending on how many people in one room or another. That's it.

Thank you. There's in the back

and you can Yes, there's more information in the back, but Steve is planning on being here between services. So catch up with him. That's what he looks like right there. I'm really really thankful for him. He has helped a lot of people here get get into a mindset of allowing God to set them free, if that makes sense.

It should make sense. It's beautiful. So thank you. Can I pray for Steve before I go on into acts? God, thank you for Steve.

Good morning. I thank you for the ministry that you have done through him in this valley for such a long time. I thank you for all of the life experiences that you gave him in his education prior to coming to you as a grown up, Lord. I thank you for that and I see some parallels in what we're studying today. I pray Lord that you would very be very, very present and active and that it would be something that we know and that we actually sense and feel at the same time.

In Jesus name, I ask for your blessing on that man but on this ministry and on all who attend. Amen. Amen. Alright. So, here we are.

We're up to Acts nine verse one. I think we're gonna go through verse 20 today. Listen fast anyway. I don't have nearly as many slides as I normally do. I want you to think about Saul.

This is what it says right after what we covered last week with Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, and I want to say this, it was a shot in the arm for me last week. Knowing Ernesto was here to be baptized ahead of time was beautiful and wonderful, is in Spanish, and it's kind of fun, and I really really enjoyed it. I've talked to him several times throughout the week this week, and I I just had a ball. In the second service, I made the same offer that I made to you all while still in the pool. Hey, anybody else?

Here's water, what hinders you from being baptized? And two folks, that's that's never happened here before since I've been here. Spontaneously, one of them had already agreed to baptize and we're just looking for a good time and he decided that was a good time. And the other one was the first visit that she had made to the church, and when I said, is there anybody else? Two people raised two hands, and it was just Yeah.

It was just beautiful. It was really helpful. So so we go from the joy of last week's Philip running alongside the chariot and getting up in there and explaining from that very passage, Isaiah fifty three seven and eight, explaining from that very passage, the suffering servant passage, all about the good news about Jesus, having it accepted and immediately, here's water what hinders me from being baptized. Being baptized and then heading home. So he's heading back to Ethiopia, a big part of Sub Saharan Africa, South Of Egypt, and that guy goes back and the gospel is spreading beyond the bounds of Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria.

It's going to the uttermost parts already head south. And then, this is the next sentence. Actually, it's after Peter and John go back to Jerusalem. Philip gets transported. He says at Azotus or Ashdod before he realizes where he is, and then he travels north to Caesarea Maritime.

Meanwhile, Saul. What do we know about Saul? From Acts, what we know about Saul is Saul was one of the witnesses and he completely agreed with the killing of Stephen. It's a lynch mob at that point. Okay?

He was a willing participant. He's holding the coats. He's not throwing the stones, but he is one of the witnesses and he completely agreed with the killing of Stephen. And there was a great wave of persecution that began that day, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem. All believers except the apostles were scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria.

This we also know about him from a little earlier on. You might not see Saul's name anywhere in there, but there were Jews from Cyrene, Alexandria, and Cilicia in the province of Asia. And if you know anything about ancient geography, Cilicia is the state or the province that Tarsus, where Paul is from, is the capital. Tarsus, Cilicia was one of the great centers of learning like Alexandria was in Egypt, and like Athens was in Greece. Tarsus was the best education you could get in the area, was right there at Tarsus, and that's the way that Paul came up.

And if you think about Old Testament, New Testament, Moses was trained in all the ways of the Egyptians with the best teachers and the best secular education available, but when the time came for him to choose whether he'd stick with Egypt in the Egyptian way or to be led by God, he chose to be led by God. Paul has the kind of education that allowed for him to be to really advance. Actually, we skip on down to Galatians, where is it? I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my own countrymen. I was more extremely zealous for my father's people or my ancestral traditions.

If we look at him in Philippians, he's speaking much later, but he's speaking, although I myself could boast as having confidence even in the flesh as Saul. If anybody were to boast in the flesh, he says, I could because I have more reason. I was circumcised in the eighth day, that's when that's supposed to happen. Of the nation of Israel, the chosen people of God, of the tribe of Benjamin, one of those good ones. I was a Hebrew of Hebrews, stood out among my people.

As to the law, I was a Pharisee. That's the best kind according to the Pharisees. As to zeal, I was a persecutor of the church. As to the righteousness which is in the law, I was found blameless. Now, you can hear his you can hear his whole pedigree coming up in him.

Now, he's saying, I'm not boasting in this stuff. The next line is, I count it all as rubbish for the superior knowledge of knowing Christ. Right? Actually, let me go back to where is it? Here it is in Romans.

Romans. As to the law, anything that the law could show me of righteousness, I was blameless. Now, you know that's not true, right? Nobody's blameless before law except for Christ. It's funny because Steve just mentioned this.

Some of the some of the addictions are outward and people can see them and know about them and you can tell. But look at Paul. Paul says, what should we say then? Is the law of sin? No, far from it.

Oh, may it never be. On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin at all except through the law. It shows us what sin is. For I would not have known about and his is apparently it's his. He could have been just using rhetorical argument, but I think this is it.

When he says, as to the law, blameless, he knows he's not blameless. And right here in Romans when he's saying, the things I wanna do are the things I don't do. The things I don't wanna do, those are the things I end up doing. I would not have come to know sin except through the law for I would not have known about coveting if the law had not said, you shall not covet. Now covet is very internal.

It's not something that other people see. But sin taking an opportunity through this commandment, just knowing it was against the rules, oh, it produced in me a covenant of every kind. He had an ambition for more. And since we know how religious he was, and since we know how zealous he was, that's where it was shining. He was standing out from among his peers.

He was the top dog, not dog, that's Gentiles. He was the top guy. Alright. Sin taking an opportunity through command, it produced in me a coveting of every kind for apart from the law, sin is dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came and I saw it, sin sin came to life and I died.

It conquered me and this commandment which was to result in life, it proved to result in death for me. For sin taking an opportunity through the commandment, it deceived me. Do you feel deceived by your addictions? Oh, boy. Yeah.

And through it, it killed me. It got the best of me. So then the law itself is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good, but what it did was show me that I was dead in my sins and transgressions even though nobody else could see it outwardly blameless, inwardly, I just wanted to be the head. I wanted to sit in the middle of that Septuagint right there in the smartest position, had the education for it. Meanwhile, Saul, it says meanwhile, Saul back to the story.

Saul was uttering threats with every breath and he was eager to kill the Lord's followers. He didn't get a chance to throw a stone at Stephen, but he was looking forward to the opportunity and uttering threats with every breath. So he went to the high priest, and he requested letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus. Should have had a map up here, sorry. Damascus is north, it's about 85 miles north or a 120 miles north, sorry, a 120 miles north or so of Jerusalem.

He requested letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, asking for their cooperation. There were about 10 synagogues in Damascus at the time. And he was asking for the cooperation in the arrest of any followers of the way. They weren't called Christians yet at this point, and when they were called Christians in the Antioch later, it was to make fun of them. It was a term of derision.

Followers of the way, Jesus is the way. Suddenly shown down around him and he fell to the ground and he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Now, do we have any record that we know of with absolute certainty that Paul ever laid eyes on Jesus directly? No. We don't.

He fell to the ground, he heard a voice at this point, we all know it's Jesus. Right? It'll say it in a minute. But think about it for a second. Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

Well, who are you Lord? Who are you Lord? And actually, this is an interesting editorial decision. My Greek my professor was one of the guys who wrote this version, translated this version and he used a small l there and that stood out to me. Why?

Because Lord can mean anything from sir, just kind of polite term of like respect to Lord, like master and Lord. It's used for Yahweh to get around saying the name of God. Right? Who are you, Lord? He he at that point didn't know Jesus.

So I think my my professor put the small l because he didn't know who Jesus was at this point. Same word later in the text will be a capital l when it's from a believer. Who are you, Lord? Saul asked. So that's that.

And the voice replied, I am Jesus, The one you are persecuting. Now, who was Saul persecuting? The church. The way. The followers of the way.

Now, we have read and read and read. I think it's Matthew 25 where it says, whatsoever you've done to the least of these, my brothers, you've done it to me. We don't usually think of it this way. Saul was persecuting the church and whatever he did to the least of those churchmen and women, he was doing that to Jesus and Jesus recognizes that. Why are you persecuting me?

This has a little bit of big brother vibe, doesn't it? Like, me and my brother might have fought a lot when I was little. Tussled around in the yard, he might have shot me with a BB gun at very close range. But if anybody else wants to mess with my little brother, oh no. Why are you persecuting me?

Right? And Jesus says, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Who are you Lord? Blinded by the light. And the voice replied, I am Jesus, the one that you are persecuting.

He didn't say amongst those. I am the one you're persecuting because you're messing with my people. Now, Saul, get up and go into the city, Damascus, and you'll be told what you must do, what is yours to do. And the men with Saul stood speechless for they heard the sound of someone's voice, but they didn't see anyone. And Saul picked himself up off the ground, but when he opened his eyes, he was blind.

So his companions led him by the hand to Damascus. When he left, he left with the patents from the priests, and he was seeking cooperation from the religious organization, right, to get there, and he was going with extreme conference, uttering threats with every breath, looking forward to doing God a favor as Jesus had also said. When there will come a time when people who kill you will think that they're doing God a favor. Saul picked himself up off the ground, but he was blind. That's a completely different way of life.

So his companions led him by the hand of Damascus. He remained there blind for three days, and he did not eat nor drink, fasting for three days blind. Now, was a believer in Damascus. Actually, text says, which is a disciple or student. It's someone who is who is engaged in following Jesus.

Now, there was a believer in Damascus, so it's already spread. It's already headed towards Ethiopia to the South. It's already in Damascus. There's a believer there already when Paul was heading there. He's heading there to stamp out the advance of the church.

There was a Methetes, a disciple or student there in Damascus, and his name was Ananias. Not the Ananias that Paul preached I mean, Paul, sorry, Carl. That Carl preached about a few weeks ago that was struck dead, different Ananias. If you're making a story up, wouldn't you call them two different names? Just happened to be his name.

Sorry. They're not making this story up. This like I tried to say last week, it's connected to real life. There were two guys, Gilbert West and Lord Littleton that thought that if we can disprove two things, we'll completely eradicate the senseless religion of Christianity. And Lord Littleton and Gilbert West both set out to downplay or completely disregard Saul's conversion and the resurrection of Jesus.

And in the process, both of them became believers because you can't. It's so historically accurate and there's so much that confirms it. My goodness. There was a believer in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord spoke to him in a vision.

Now, he spoke to Paul. Jesus spoke to Paul, why are you persecuting me? Get up and go into the city and you will be told what you must do. Now, there's a believer in Damascus named Ananias, and the Lord spoke to him in a vision calling Ananias. Yes, Lord, capital l, same word.

I just think that's interesting. Yes, Lord, he replied. The Lord said, go over to Straight Street. Straight Street is still there. Damascus is a hard place to be, but Straight Street is still there.

The Roman columns and the arches are still there. There's no doubt about where this took place. Go to Straight Street to the house of Judas. Again, wouldn't you change the name? If you're just making the story up, gets confusing when you add the same no.

Judas' house. That's what it was. That's why he said it that way. Not the same Judas Iscariot, but go over to Straight Street to the house of Judas. When you get there, ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul.

Saul of Tarsus? He is praying to me right now, struck blind, confronted with his error. Can you think about this for a minute? Since I went to all that trouble of describing covetousness and ambition, can you think back to Saul standing there during Stephen's speech in zeal? Man, that guy's good.

Stephen's speech, Stephen's sermon to the Sanhedrin was just gorgeous. It was this great retelling, and I'm sure that Saul was going, I wanna do that. I want to be that guy. I want to speak like that. I want to have this kind of an audience, and that guy needs to die.

Because you know, if you're covetous of somebody else, they don't deserve what they got. I deserve what I I deserve what they've got. He is praying to me right now. That is so profound. Saul of Tarsus is praying to me right now.

Jesus appearing to Saul about him persecuting him. Something started to fall and click into place. Now, when we hear later on in some of Paul's letters like what he did after that, oh, I didn't hang around there. I went from there up to Arabia, and I studied and I prayed and I thought about things, and I didn't go immediately to Jerusalem. When I finally did, he tells us all that stuff later, but right now, he is open.

He's praying to me right now. He has been humbled in his zeal and in his pride, he was struck down, and now he's in a position because God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. He is praying to me right now. Saul of Tarsus is praying to me right now. I've shown him in a vision of a man named Ananias that's coming in and laying hands on him so he can see again.

But lord, can you hear that? Lord, you know this is Saul of Tarsus? You know he's carrying letters to kill us? You know that he's on his way here with orders to drag us back in chains? Lord, am I hearing you correctly?

Exclaimed Ananias, I've heard many people talk about the terrible things this man has done to the believers in Jerusalem. One of them was holding the coats while they stoned Stephen, you know. I've heard many people talk about the terrible things this man has done, and he's authorized by the leading priest to arrest everyone who calls upon your name. He's speaking to Christ Jesus, to God. But the Lord said, go.

I didn't stutter. Right? You're my guy, Ananias. I already told him Ananias was coming. I'm not getting somebody else.

You go. For Saul is my chosen instrument. That smack of Isaiah 55, I think it's fifty five eight where it says, his ways are not our ways, his thoughts are not our thoughts. You're really gonna use that rascal Saul. Go for Saul is my chosen instrument.

I'm gonna use that education that he got. I'm gonna use that zeal. I'm gonna use that misplaced passion. I'm gonna use every bit of it. Go for Saul is my chosen instrument.

He's gonna be the one to take my message to the Gentiles, And he's going to be the one to take it to kings and to the people of Israel. This guy is pretty well rounded for my usage. He is the right tool in my hand. He'll do great things, and he'll end up writing two thirds of the New Testament. And I will show him how much he must suffer for my name's sake.

It ain't gonna be easy. This is to Ananias. So Ananias went. I love that. Look at the immediacy of that.

Even Paul, he was going to Damascus. Yeah. Jesus says, keep on going to Damascus. You're not gonna go enter those gates. Great Damascus.

Great gate in Damascus. Right? You're not gonna enter those gates the way you thought you would. But when you enter in and you stay at State Straight Street for a little while, you'll be ready. So Ananias went and he found Saul at Judas' house on Straight Street, and he laid his hands on him because that's what Jesus told him to do.

And he said, Saul, brother, brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road has sent me so that you might regain your sight. Because that's what Jesus told him. I love this and be filled with the Holy Spirit. All of that stuff that Paul had in his backpack, all the tools he had in his toolbox meant nothing without the Holy Spirit. But now, things changed rather quickly.

He sent me so that you might regain your sight. I'm sure Paul was glad to hear that, and be filled with the Holy Spirit, and instantly something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he regained his sight. And then he got up, and he was baptized. Again, immediate. It's right right in the moment.

There was not a hesitation. There was not watch care for six months. There wasn't a whole list of confirmation boxes that you had to tick, but transformation had begun. He got up and he was baptized, and afterward, he ate some food and he regained his strength. Three days of fasting and prayer, got up, ate some food, regained his strength, and Saul stayed there with the believers in Damascus for a few days.

Oh, he was going to drag him back to Jerusalem. He was going back to drag him going to drag him back in chains, and he ends up in the hospitality of these believers. And immediately, he began proclaiming or preaching about Jesus in the synagogue saying, he is indeed the son of God. I was wrong. I was wrong.

Now, I see it. Now, I see it in every passage that I knew the defense of this, and now this guy who had been used to apologetics or debate from one side of the story is empowered by the Holy Spirit and has to switch teams. And immediately, he does begin preaching about Jesus in the synagogues. Now, I think that's the last of the passage. It goes on to say, yeah, he was staying there for a while and and the folks in Damascus that had been expecting him in the synagogues that were against the Christians, Those folks were so vehemently angry about him.

They wanted to snuff out Paul and kill him. So he was lowered down over a while. We'll get to that next week. But I just wanted to I just wanted to say, Lord God Almighty, in the ways that we are wrong, would you show us and allow us the grace and the humility to receive it with joy and to begin acting on it even if it means a total change, even if it means laying down everything we previously had held as dear. Would you give us that same kind of grace that you gave Paul, Saul?

In Jesus name, that's what we're asking for. Collectively, Lord, and I pray individually too. We want to know your way so that we can walk in it. Amen. I'm going invite the band to come on back up and would you stand?

And we're going to sing always. The altar is open. If you want to come up and pray, you're welcome to. If you want to come up and talk to me, I'll turn my mic off and quit playing the bass. But I'm here between and I'm hereafter.

God, thank you for Saul. Thank you for the example. Thank you for spreading the gospel to the South, to the North, to the West, and to all the parts. Amen.

Same. I believe there's scars in your hands, God of creation knows me by name. Lord is faithful. Yesterday,

As a benediction, we've got something from Psalms, I think. Psalm thirty one nineteen says this, oh, how abundant is your goodness, God, which you have stored up for those who fear you and work for those who take refuge in you. The sight of the children of mankind. In the name of Jesus, I pray Lord that those treasures that you've stored up, Lord, that they would be very very real, that they'd be very very felt. Not necessarily in this realm, in the normal way that we think about it, lord, but I pray that what we have in you would be something that we know we have in you.

And Lord, would you allow us to give that away just as freely as we must receive it. In Jesus name, amen.