The Church: His Strength Made Perfect in Weakness

So if you have your Bibles, let's turn to them. We'll be going to Acts chapter 15.

Acts 15 · chapter mention

Acts chapter 15. And let's rise together, please, if you're able.

Acts 15 · chapter mention

Acts chapter 15, and I'll be beginning with verse 30 and to the end of the chapter.

Acts 15 · chapter mention

Do listen and do give attention because this is God's holy and inspired word.

So when they were sent off, they went down to Antioch, and having gathered the

congregation together, they delivered the letter.

When they had read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement.

And Judas and Silas, who are themselves prophets, encouraged and strengthened

the brothers with many words.

And after they had spent more time, they were sent off in peace by the brothers

to those who had sent them.

But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of

the Lord with many others also.

And after some days, Paul said to Barnabas, Let us return and visit the brothers

in every city where we proclaim the word of the Lord and see how they are.

Now Barnabas wanted to take with him John called Mark, but Paul thought it best

not to take with him one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not

gone with them to the work.

And there arose a sharp disagreement so that they separated from each other.

Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus.

But Paul chose Silas and departed, having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord.

And he went through Syria and Sicilia, strengthening the churches.

This is the word of the Lord. You can be seated.

Let's pray together. Lord God, as we do, when we approach your word,

we ask for your Holy Spirit.

We can't of our own strength or in our own ability understand everything.

We need you, Lord, to teach us, to instruct us, to open our eyes where they

need to be opened and our ears and our hearts.

Do that, Lord, as we look at this passage and as we are ultimately called to Jesus Christ himself.

In his name we pray, amen.

So in Acts chapter 15, as the chapter closes, I hope you're asking these kinds

Acts 15 · chapter mention

of questions already on your own, like, why this section? Why is this here?

Last week, we had a little bit more formidable question about why those four

edicts from the Council of Jerusalem, blood, food, polluted idols,

and strangled meat, and so forth.

But this is a little different. You get to this next section,

and you ask yourself the question, why?

Why would Luke include a fight? That's kind of basically it. Why would you do that?

Especially as things are chugging along nicely. Things are moving great.

I mean, there's unity, there's peace, there's joy. Everyone's excited, everyone's happy.

And smack dab in the middle of this towards the end is a fight.

Why? Well, the first thing you'll notice is that Luke, and even though at the

very beginning of Acts, you basically, he's outlining his work as a work of a history.

This is a history. This is an orderly account of all the things that happened.

But you know, right away that he's not,

He's not a professional or academic historian, right? Academic historians sometimes

will say, this happened because of this.

And even though so-and-so said this and so-and-so said that,

I'm gonna make this argument because he's wrong for this reason.

He doesn't do any of that.

It's not academic. It's the first thing you'll notice. He's not writing a history.

He's also not writing like so many missionaries write their newsletters.

I know because we were missionaries, okay?

There was always a funny thing about missionary letters. most of our colleagues

that we worked with on the field had to raise support.

And so when you're writing mission letters, you rarely talk about fights.

You know, we had a real banger of this person. They got so angry, they just had to leave.

You might end a letter say, and so-and-so went a different section to a section of Africa like that.

In fact, you might've even expected, why didn't Luke just say,

well, Paul went to this direction and Barnabas went this direction and they

took different guys. Could have said that because that would have been true.

We oftentimes times on the field when we were missionaries, we went through

very difficult times, a lot of struggles, and sometimes the struggles would

be explosive, personalities and fights and difficulties and disruptions.

And yet they worked through it. We all worked through it. The Lord was good and brought peace.

But then when it comes out in your denominational newsletter called the New

Horizons, we would always look at and say, what's the New Horizons version?

Now, again, they weren't deceiving you, and they don't edit things out so that

you won't know the truth, but they certainly don't put every detail of everything

that happens because they're trying to show you in the long run the blessings

of this particular field.

So he's not a professional historian. He's not an academic, and he's also not

a missionary giving like a typical report that makes everything look great.

You know, typical, they'll say, look, they'll say from this month to that month,

a hundred people got saved, hallelujah, and this many things happened,

and we've started a new church.

They don't tell you that in trying to start up the new church,

one of the pastors who gave this land stole it all back and you had a big fight

and so forth. All that's left out.

My point is Luke doesn't leave it out, and you do have to ask why.

Why would he put a fight in this story? Why do you and I need to know that Paul

and Barnabas had a fight, right?

Seems kind of funny. First thing you need to note is that as you think about

that question and all the other questions we face in Acts, you remember that

Luke is writing what we would call redemptive history or theological history.

Now, that doesn't mean he leaves things out so that you won't know or some deceptive

way. No, what you can realize is that what he puts in is important for us to know, right?

And it's theologically important for us to know. What's the theology behind

why Luke said this and why Luke didn't say that? That's the way we should be

approaching this history. It's different than other histories.

So this morning you would think, why this low point? I mean, it is a low point.

And why does he include it? Well, it's an unpleasant detail that we need to

know about. We could say that from the beginning, right?

Yes? I ask a question, so you can at least shake your head. I'm not sure sometimes.

I know we're OPC, but you can...

So it's an unpleasant detail that I probably wouldn't have put in my newsletter because...

I don't know. It just depends. You're editing, you're redacting.

You're like, okay, let's just say that Paul went here, Barnabas went there,

and both were blessed in the long run. Hallelujah. But he doesn't.

He tells you in particular that there is a sharp disagreement.

And the word that we'll look at in a moment doesn't mean just like a minor thing,

but the word is paroximus. It's like a huge explosive disagreement.

So that when you look at the word, you're not looking at someone who says,

well, you know, I'd like to think this. Well, that's a good point, but I'll think that.

But by the time this disagreement was finished, you can imagine that there are

guys saying, you will not take that man.

I don't care what you can do. This is the kind of thing we're talking about.

The word used means something that provokes violent emotions.

These guys had a serious fight and they were assumedly angry at some point,

at least to the point like, why doesn't Barnabas just listen to me?

Of course, Paul's like, Barnabas has been good so far, but he obviously has bad judgment.

By the way, when I looked at this text off and on, you're tempted to sort of

try to take sides. Who's right here, by the way?

Who do you think is right? Well, guess what? Luke doesn't tell us. That's also important.

What's not said is important as what is said. We're not supposed to be able

to say, oh yeah, I know. My mind at first, when I was reading through it,

I'm like, I'm with Barnabas.

Because I mean, after all, when you look at Barnabas from the first time we

see him, he's a Levite who gives land to the church and Levites don't have an inheritance.

So he gave everything he had to the church and he served the church and his

name was called Barnabas, son of encouragement. All the guy ever seems to do is encourage.

Barnabas was the first guy that went to the people and said, accept Paul.

You can imagine how that would have gone over.

Barnabas could have said, I'm the reason you're here, man.

You would have never been accepted if it weren't for me. You can imagine.

So at first I was kind of like, Barnabas is my guy. I think Barnabas was right

because now here's the disagreement. it.

1537, it says, Barnabas wanted to take with him John Mark, but Paul thought it was not best with him,

to take one who had withdrawn from them from Pamphylia and not gone to them from the work.

The only thing we know about this dispute is it revolved around whether or not to take John Mark, okay?

And one person wanted to take him and we don't know why Barnabas did,

we can assume, but we know why Paul didn't.

Paul basically said, this guy has already left us once.

He's already left us once on the way to the field and it was difficult.

And when he left, by the way, it was right before they got into very serious tribulations.

And it looks like, as I was looking at it, it looks like it might've been that

they had to cross some serious mountain terrain in their quest and their journey

and their missionary journey.

And it might've been right there where John Mark says, ain't no way.

I'm not going there. I'm going home.

Not much, by the way, even in the earlier account, not much was given.

It just said John Mark went back. That's all it says.

Don't exactly know why, but so what happened here? What's the dispute?

Well, and by the way, you can imagine Paul and Barnabas.

John Piper says this, Paul and Barnabas, whose friends were names together like

David and Jonathan, or like Peter and John.

These brothers had spent an entire year together, all the way up to this dispute,

working together, suffering together, going through tribulations.

Barnabas was the one who probably went to pick up the body of Paul after he'd

been stoned to death, and he lifts up his brother, and they struggled together

like soldiers in battle.

Very few people understand what that's like, except soldiers who've been in

battle together. And on the other side of it, they have a bond and a union that's like unbreakable.

So this is a big deal. We can just be left wondering, Piper says,

if Paul and Barnabas couldn't stay together, I think this is a good question,

if Paul and Barnabas couldn't stay together, who in the world can?

Who can? You see, there are fights in churches, and Luke wants us to know this.

Churches and church leaders get into fights, disputes.

And again, not just, well, I think this, and well, that's a good point,

old boy, but I think that... No, this is like fights.

Paul and Barnabas were able to return to the lovely city of Antioch with great news from Jerusalem.

It should have felt like a festival of sorts. They'd gone through the serious

doctrinal issue of circumcision, receiving the Gentiles, the council of Jerusalem,

the announcement was made.

There's peace and unity and it's glorious.

Even to the very time that Luke brings up the dispute, they're like,

they're out and they're preaching together.

And yet there's a dispute and a separation. And I want to highlight that word.

Paroximos is the name of the word. And it means a severe argument based on intense,

differences of opinions. And our English word, we have a strange word.

You don't hear it very much, but it's called paroxysm.

If someone says, why are you having a paroxysm? It doesn't just mean you're

slightly upset. It means you're shaking.

It's the kind of word that provokes violent emotions. So they're more than likely,

it reminded me a little bit of the Council of Nicaea.

When you pull back the curtains and the debates of the Council of Nicaea,

you actually have guys screaming and shouting at each other.

We read the Nicaean Creed almost every week. We didn't this week,

but we read it. And it's like, of one substance with the Father by whom all

things were made. It's glorious.

Now it's 1700 years old. And we read the Nicaean Creed as if that's, oh God, thank you.

At the Council of Nicaea, some of you remember this story because I've seen

this at St. Nicholas. You know the story of St. Nicholas, Santa Claus?

Evidently, according to lore, St. Nicholas was so angry at some of the erring

opponents that he jumped across the table and smacked the man in the face and

a brawl broke out. That's Santa Claus?

I know. And when I read the history of the Council of Nicaea,

I went into it thinking, oh, praise God, there's glory.

When you pull back the curtains of the Council of Nicaea, there was chanting and singing.

Evidently, each side would take a position and they would chant it.

Okay, you can imagine like children on a playground. and they were yelling and

chanting and trying to get more people to chant and out shout the other people

by singing and shouting and screaming like a bunch of kids.

That's the Council of Nicaea. When you pull back the curtain,

on the other side of the Council of Nicaea, it's like, praise God, orthodoxy was saved.

But in that council meeting, if you read some of those accounts,

these guys were literally physically brawling.

Like, you know, sometimes you see pictures of those other parliaments in other

nations where the MPs are just literally throwing chairs and screaming.

That's what happened at the Council of Nicaea. And yet God, from that,

brought us a glorious creed that we still recite today that's almost 2,000 years old.

John Calvin says this, he says, by now for a light matter in which might easily

have been ended, they break a holy bond of God's calling that could not fall

out without great perturbance for the rest of the godly.

Matthew Henry also says, he says, this contention was so sharp between them

that they parted asunder one from the other.

We're not told which one of them was right, but it's certain there was a fault

on one side or the other, or perhaps both.

It is a pity that they should part and not be reconciled. So who was right?

We're not told and we're not really supposed to know. We know that one or both

of them was wrong. Someone should have relented. Someone should have given in,

one side or the other, or we know that maybe it was both.

They refused to give in. They were stubborn, okay? They were angry.

And the one thing we need to learn by that is that when God is silent, we should be silent too.

So if you think you're with Paul or you think you're with Barnabas,

you shouldn't think that because we don't know and we're not told.

And therefore we have to say, we don't know.

I hate to do that as a pastor sometimes. Many people say, Pastor,

what's the answer to this perplexing question? And I often say, I don't know.

I just don't know. Because part of it is it's not given in the Bible.

So when God is silent and doesn't reveal something to us about either one,

by the way, these are apostles.

These aren't just like people in the church, not that you're less,

but you would expect more from an apostle.

It was a long lasting disagreement. Was Paul being too hard on Mark?

Shouldn't he be forgiven? We don't know.

We do know, though, that eventually in the long term, these brothers were somehow reconciled.

They came together again. We have proof of that later in the scriptures where

Paul writes about both Mark and Barnabas in a positive light.

Aristarchus, this is from Colossians 4, Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner greets

you, and Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, concerning with whom you have instructions,

if he comes to you, welcome him.

So by the time he's writing Colossians, which also was completely left out in

the book of Acts, we don't have any record of Paul's work in Colossi,

just these letters later.

But we know that in Colossians, Paul said, you see this brother,

Mark and Barnabas, welcome them, they're brothers.

So there's reconciliation. In Philemon, Paul also says, Epaphras,

my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends you greetings. And so does Mark,

Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

So what at first appears to be an irreconcilable split in the church does end

up by God's grace being reconciled and being healed to some extent.

And we also have to note the blessings of this.

Immediately you'll note that there's a blessing now because now there's two

missionary journeys instead of just one.

And one of Luke's themes, as you start to read it and pay attention,

is that he wants us all to know that the church of Jesus Christ is God's instrument

that has fulfilled the promises of David's kingdom and of Israel,

and it's not going to be stopped.

And guess what? Up to now, mostly it's been external foes or people who have

betrayed and left, the Jews and all these, now it's within.

And Luke wants us to know that this God's chosen institution,

the church, will not be defeated, even from within.

God will continue to do the work. We even see Silas now, who's a prophet,

who's now recruited for the missionary journeys.

So basically this disputes gives us two for the price of one,

right? God in his sovereignty took what was bad and made it a blessing.

It also, we know if you look carefully at the works of the apostle Paul,

it seems to have made him a different man as well.

He was becoming more and more a pastor. When you read the book of Timothy,

for instance, when he speaks of Timothy, that young man, he speaks as a father to a son.

He says at the beginning, to Timothy, my true child in the faith.

Amazing. This is Paul as a pastor now, later through the suffering and hardship

and struggles and disagreements, later reflecting and teaching his disciple,

even encouraging Timothy, who was a young man, may have been 16 or so when he started.

Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech

and conduct and love and faith and purity.

Until I come, devote yourself to public reading. And he goes on.

In other words, it looks like in Paul's ministry, at least from this,

if not from many other things, the Lord was using this to mature Paul into a seasoned pastor,

not just a missionary, not just a warrior or a soldier on the mission field, but a seasoned pastor.

Timothy and Paul loved each other because Paul was a pastoral father to him.

Paul loved and admired this young man in Philippians 2. He says,

I trust in the Lord to send you, Timothy, to you shortly, that I also may be

encouraged when I know your state, for having no one else like-minded like him

who sincerely cares for my state.

For all seek their own, not the things of Christ, but you know that his proven

character as a son with a father, he has served me in the gospel.

So we have, in one sense, an immediate blessing, two missionary journeys instead of one.

We also have the growth and maturity of both of these apostles,

particularly Paul is what we see.

But what's the major point? Is there more than that?

Is it that just God takes bad things and makes them good? Well,

he does, right? Are you with me? He does. That's a minor point.

But what's the major point?

The major point, I think, is outlined in my own sermon title,

which says, The Church, God's strength made perfect in weakness.

Strength made perfect in weakness. Matthew Henry says, We can see that the best

of men are but men, subject to passions as we are.

Perhaps there were faults on both sides, as usually is in the contention.

Christ's example, ready? Henry gets it. Christ's example, then,

is the only copy without blot.

This fight, this disagreement, this weakness in the church doesn't weaken the

church itself. It reminds the church to look to the only one who doesn't have

this kind of weakness, the only one who will make the church what the church is intended to be.

You'll notice that Christ's love for his church is a love that's sanctifying.

We need to take, in other words, the loving, mature, long view of the church

as the institution of God's choice.

When it says, when Paul says in Ephesians 5, we've been reading this in Sunday

school, husbands, love your wives also as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her.

And then it says that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of

water, that he might present her a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle

or any such thing, that she, his bride, should be holy and without blemish.

She's not there yet. The church is not there yet.

How many times have we heard people say, I want a church that's like it was

in the days of the apostles? Well, guess what? Even the apostles fought.

Here they are right here. They're fighting in the days. You want an apostolic church?

And Luke is reminding us the apostolic church, in spite of her disagreements,

in spite of the flaws, looked to Jesus Christ, the only hope of making this

church right, of bringing his bride to become spotless and pure.

God's love through Christ to the church is a sanctifying act of love that will

make her right. The church is full of messed up people, okay?

The church is full of people who even the apostles couldn't get along.

But the church's strength is made perfect in this kind of weakness,

because even in this weakness, Everyone's eyes, like Piper said,

if these two guys can't get along, who in the world could?

But guess what? It doesn't depend on them. The church, the kingdom,

the work of Jesus Christ depends on Christ.

And in this fight and in this weakness and in this struggle,

our eyes are turned back to Jesus, not to men in the church,

not to the church merely as an institution, but the church as God's chosen vessel.

All throughout the book of Acts, I keep emphasizing and I'll keep repeating,

like it or not, Thank you.

That the church is holy, Catholic, and apostolic. That's what's in our creed, the Nicene Creed.

What does it mean? We didn't create the church, God did.

From the beginning of Acts, God said to these men, wait, and after he gave them

a promise, he said, go and take over the whole world. He said,

wait, I'll send you the Holy Spirit, and he does.

And the Holy Spirit authenticates the church, not as the work of apostles or

men, but as the work of God.

God created this institution. God created this church with all of its weaknesses

and all of its flaws, and every church has them.

God did it. The Holy Spirit created this institution.

The Holy Spirit set aside the apostles, and the Holy Spirit blessed them with

signs and wonders and miracles and preaching of the gospel.

The Holy Spirit did this. And we see right away, too, that this glorious,

beautiful bride of Christ is also Catholic.

It wasn't just going to be restricted to Jews.

It was going to go to everyone in the whole world.

All of the curses of Babel are going to be reversed through this glorious bride, this institution.

And it's founded on the apostles in spite of their weaknesses.

It is strength made perfect in weakness. Listen to what Paul said about this

analogy personally, but it applies to our text as well.

In 2 Corinthians 12, he says, three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.

Don't know what it was, but something serious.

But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

Therefore, he said, I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness so that

the power of God may rest upon me for the sake of christ and i am content with

weakness insults hardship persecution and calamities for when i am weak,

then i am strong it's the core one of the core paradoxes of the gospel,

when by divine power we realize that all of our work and all of our efforts

and all of our activity and we realize all human sufficiency is inadequate it's

nothing and it can do nothing,

when that sufficiency is completely broken and gotten rid of,

then that weakness is filled with the strength of Jesus Christ, who never fails.

He never fails. And he's the king of the church, and he's given us the church.

By the way, that doesn't mean the church can be just gotten rid of.

Sorry. Church can't be gotten rid of. His victory comes not through the strength

of his people or the power and glory of a church.

Remember, his church is his bride. His bride, Christ doesn't love his wife because

she's the most beautiful lady.

He says, I'm going to love her until she is the most beautiful lady,

until she is the most beautiful, until she's perfect.

We don't have the right to say, well, because the church is not perfect,

I'm not going to, I'm not going to be a part of it. I don't have that right.

Any more than you would have a right as a husband or wife to say,

well, my husband isn't what he's supposed to be. So he's no longer my husband.

She's no longer my wife. Papa, like that, like people do to the church today.

By the That doesn't mean if you have to stay in a terrible church.

You should leave that local church. Come to our church. Just kidding.

By the way, that gets you back to that old, I mean, I heard this as a kid.

You've heard it before where the pastor says, you know, if you think you've

found a perfect church, don't join it because you'll ruin it.

Then you'll make it imperfect. It's not going to be perfect because you're not perfect.

The church cannot be no more perfect than any one of us is perfect.

But the church is God's chosen institution. It is his bride. He loves her.

He shed his blood for her. Don't, you know, you and I don't have the right to

reject her just because there are imperfections.

His victory is made strong through the weakness of his people,

even the weakness of the church. That's why Paul could say, we have this treasure

in clay jars, clay jars, things that can be broken, things that can mess up,

things that aren't right.

And our tendency is oftentimes to look at all those things which aren't right.

I wish the elders in our church would fill in the blank. I wish our pastor would

quit banging on about, don't fill in the blank.

You know, I wish the deacons were busier doing what?

I wish the women of this church were fill in the blank.

I know there's nothing to fill in the blank with our church,

but if you look at the church that way, there are never ending amounts of problems you can find.

And you'll stir up more problems and more problems. Instead of looking to Jesus

Christ who gave the bride, is his bride, and he knows she has blemishes.

He knows she has spots. He knows she has wrinkles. That's why his goal is to

get rid of them all through us, clay pots, vessels that are weak.

Failure and fighting of the church pushes us closer to Jesus Christ, our Savior.

This fight, this disagreement, this weakness and failure in the church pushes

us ever more back to the one who never fails.

It did remind me of that passage we read from Zechariah 3, which is why we read it.

I was struck by that. I love that passage. That's one of the fourth night visions of Zechariah.

It says, he showed me Joshua, the high priest, standing before the angel of

the Lord, and Satan at his right hand who had accused him. And Satan said,

and Satan accused him, but the Lord said, the Lord rebuke you.

Just stood between the accuser and the great high priest, representative of

the entire Levitical priesthood and the entire nation of Israel.

He stood before him and he didn't come up with some argument.

His clothes are not dirty. He doesn't have, no, he said, I rebuke you.

And then he basically said, I rebuke you because this is my bride.

This is the one I'm going to say.

The Lord has chosen Jerusalem. The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem, I rebuke you.

And then he describes it. He says, is this not the brand that I plucked from the fire?

Poor Joshua, verse 3. Now Joshua is standing.

You can imagine Joshua standing there, head bowed, dirty clothes,

filthy, actually guilty of what was accused.

He's standing there, and then the Lord says, remove the filthy garments.

And he said, remove them, and even give them a new turban, for I have removed your iniquity.

The great high priest was guilty, by the way, just as you and I are guilty,

just as the church is oftentimes guilty of fights and disagreements and squabbles

and things that aren't right.

But the Lord is there saying, I will make it right. And this is my chosen instrument.

Joshua wasn't chosen because he was perfect. We see him standing there before Satan himself, guilty.

Guilty as charged, but the Lord said, I'm going to put a white garments and

clean turban, and I'm going to lift him up.

And he says in the future, speaking of us, the church, well,

behold, I set a stone and I've set before Joshua on a single stone with seven

eyes. I will engrave its inscription, declares the Lord of hosts,

and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day.

And in that day, declares the Lord of hosts, with every one of you,

you will invite his neighbor to come under the church of Jesus Christ is going

to one day be the pure, spotless, and holy vessel.

And she is the instruments with all her weakness, with all her fights,

and with all her failures.

She is God's chosen instrument for salvation through Jesus Christ.

And in our weakness, it doesn't just show, well, I don't need the church,

and the church is full of a bunch of hypocrites, blah, blah, blah.

No, it says how much you do need this church because the church is Christ's

bride, and he will make her pure.

It says that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by

the word That he might present her to himself a glorious church Not having spot

or wrinkle or any such thing But that she should be holy,

and without blemish Yes, the church is flawed and it's flawed on purpose,

It's flawed on purpose Can you imagine?

You might say as we're tempted, well, if I were God My goodness,

we do that a lot If I were God, I wouldn't have had pastors that are imperfect,

I wouldn't have had elders that are flawed and fight I wouldn't have had a pot,

That's exactly what he did On purpose,

So that as we look at this glorious institution That has no replacement You

can't reject it We look at this institution And even in a fight and failure

Our eyes are turned to Jesus Christ,

Who says to us Just as he said to Joshua the great high priest I'll make you

clean And I'm the only one who can do it Amen And let's pray together.

Lord, how we thank you for this brief passage, strangely enough,

about a fight that draws our eyes to Jesus.

It doesn't draw our eyes away from the church, which is flawed and has failures

and weaknesses. It draws our eyes to Christ precisely because we have weakness,

precisely because we need your strength.

Lord God, as we live that paradox, that seeming contradiction,

help us to be weak so that we'll be strong.

And bless this church with similar weakness, Lord, as our eyes,

even if we do have troubles, even if we have difficulties, Lord,

turn our eyes to Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our faith.

We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.