Acts 14:8-20

Good morning, Church Open Your Bibles to Acts chapter 14. Our text today is Acts 14 verses 8 through 20. Acts 14 verses 8 through 20. Let's pray. Father, we ask that you would show us your kindness as you honor your word that is preached here today. May it pierce our hearts, may it expose our need for you. Do this for the equipping of your saints, for the work of the ministry, to the glory of your name. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Acts chapter 14 beginning in verse 8 through verse 20, hear the word of the Lord. In enlistra a certain man without strength in his feet was sitting, a cripple from his mother's womb who had never walked. This man heard Paul speaking, Paul observing him intently and seeing that he had faith to be healed, said with a loud voice, stand upright on your feet and he leaped and walked. Now when the people saw what Paul had done, they raised their voices, saying in the like a Lyconean language, the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men, and Barnabas they called Zeus and Paul Hermes because he was the cheap speaker. Then the priest of Zeus whose temple was in front of the city brought oxen and garlands to the gates and tending to sacrifice with the multitudes. But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard this, they tore their clothes and ran in among the multitude crying out and saying, men, why are you doing these things? We also are men with the same nature as you and preach to you that you should turn from these useless things to the living God who made the heaven and the earth, the sea and all things that are in them, who in bygone generations allowed all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless, he did not leave himself without witness in that he did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons filling our hearts with food and gladness. And with these sayings, they could not scarcely restrain the multitudes from sacrificing to them. Then Jews from Antioch and Iconium came there and having persuaded the multitudes, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead. However, when the disciples gathered around him, he rose up and went into the city and the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derby. This is the word of the Lord. Will Paul and Barnabas now have come to the city of Listera? And when they come to Listera, they meet a certain man without strength in his feet who was sitting. Luke tells us he was a cripple from his mother's womb who had never walked. And so this is the first note that is recorded of Paul and Barnabas in their arrival in the city of Listera. This encounter that Paul has with the layman in Listera certainly reminds us of the encounter Peter had with the layman at the gate beautiful in the temple in Jerusalem, recorded for us in Acts 3. Those two encounters should also remind us that Jesus healed the laying. In Luke 722, Luke records Jesus instructing the disciples of John when John's disciples come to Jesus, John is in prison and they ask Jesus, are you the one that we are to look for? Are you the one we've hoped to see? Are you the one we've been looking for? John wants to know. And the answer Jesus gave was go and tell John that the lame walk. The blind see and the gospel is preached to the poor. The lame being healed is an indication that Jesus is indeed the looked for Messiah. And now these two apostles of Christ are doing the same and even greater works than their master. The prophets foretold of the day when God would raise up the lame as a sign of his victorious, never-ending reign. The advance of the gospel would extend that victory through all the earth. Micah records in his prophecy chapter 4, verses 6 and 7, in that day says, the Lord, I will assemble the lame. I will gather the outcast and those whom I have afflicted. I will make the lame a remnant and the outcast a strong nation. So the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion from now on even forever. In a world and in an age in which men are drunk with power and the lust for it, how ironic that God declares he will make the lame a remnant and the outcast a strong nation. Truly God takes the foolish and weak things of this world to confound the wise and to bring to nothing the mighty. We are to be constantly reminded that the gospel is the power of God to salvation. We are to be reminded that there is nothing more powerful than the gospel of Christ. It is the power of the gospel that brings lasting and eternal transformation. God has blessed us to live in a nation in which we can elect our rulers. You could sponsor a law past and legislate your somewhere and make law of the land. You can do that. You have been given the right to do that as an American. That right did not come to you apart from the gospel. And the gospel, which is the power of God to salvation, is the chief means by which a nation, a people, a culture is changed. But God has put you on this earth in this place at this time for you to make a difference in every way. We need Christian men who are elected to offices. We need Christians who are salt and light throughout all of our culture in every aspect of it so that the gospel, the salt and the light of the gospel will infiltrate and fill and shape and define the very culture we live in. What we see happening today is the exact opposite. We have a band in the gospel. We've been afraid to preach it from our pulpits because we're afraid to offend people. We're afraid to call sin sin. We're afraid to call people out of their sinful lifestyles. We're afraid to preach truth because we fear man more than we fear God. And as a result, our culture has been filled with godless, anti-Christ doctrines and practices. And the very gospel that defines the findings of this nation, even the daily things that you participate in and the judgments you make and the way you view things has been so shaped by the gospel that we can't we can't even discern it. We take it for granted. And now as we see those foundations beginning to crumble and things change in our nation, we wonder what what has happened? What's gone wrong? Well, what's gone wrong is we have forsaken the gospel of Christ. We can pass laws and we should pass godly laws. We should elect leaders and we should elect godly leaders. But all the godly laws and all the godly leaders as much good as they may do, that cannot change a heart. Only the gospel can change a heart. And until the hearts of men are changed, our laws and our elected officials are just a bandaid on a deeper problem. We need to do all of those things. But at the very foundation, we must trust the gospel to change men's hearts and the gospel cannot change men's hearts if the gospel is not preached is not lived is not demonstrated through our own lives in our own words. If we are not the living epistles, the salt and life making the difference in the world around us. Luke's narrative in the book of Acts lays out the advance of the gospel. Peter preaching to the Jews and the temple in Jerusalem healed a man lane from birth. Now Paul and the remote regions of like like onia and the city of Listera preaching to Gentile healed a man lane from birth. And all of this is through the power and the demonstration of the gospel first to the Jews and now to the Greeks. True to the command of Christ, the gospel was going forth not only to the Jews but to all nations even to the ends of the earth. And the good news of the son of man was no longer only for the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but for the whole world. The gospel was being preached with signs following to establish his church and all the earth among all peoples. Verses 9 and 10 and this man heard Paul speaking and Paul observing him intently and seeing that he had faith to be healed said with a loud voice stand up straight on your feet and he leaped and walked. The lane man heard Paul speaking no doubt he heard Paul preaching the gospel Luke does not tell us specifically what the lane man heard Paul say, but we know that Paul was preaching the gospel he was speaking the good news. Perhaps even of the signs that were already done by the power of the Holy Spirit and Paul's words inspired faith in this man. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And as Paul spoke he observed the lane man intently and discern that the man had faith to be healed. The word used to describe how Paul fixed his eyes on this man is the same word used to describe how Peter fixed his eyes on the lane man. He healed at the temple gate in Jerusalem. And here Paul stretched forth his gaze and fixed his eyes upon this man not a casual glance but a steadfast gaze conveying intent in that gaze Paul could discern the man had faith to be healed and said with a loud voice stand up straight on your feet. In other words Paul didn't invite the man to stand up he didn't ask the man if he wanted to or if he could stand up he commanded the lane man to stand. Again this is the boldness that comes only from the Holy Spirit. This didn't come from the human resource of Paul. This came from the Holy Spirit indwelling this apostle. And upon Paul's command to stand up straight the lane man obeyed and he sprang up and he walked. A man laying from birth never having walked leaped up and walked for the very first time. This was not just a miracle that he stood but a miracle of regeneration that gave him renewed muscles, renewed strength and coordination to do something he had never done before in his life. He leaped and walked for the very first time. This was an actual recreation or we could say a new creation. It was a picture in the natural of what has happened to this man spiritually. Paul writes in his second letter to the Corinthians verses chapter 5 verse 17 if any man be in Christ he is a new creation. What does that mean? It means exactly what it says behold the old has passed away and all things are made new when you are born again of the spirit the Bible says you become a new creation. And when this man had faith to be healed he had faith in the Lord Jesus Christ not just to be healed but that his sins be forgiven and that faith in the Lord Jesus Christ the lesser miracle was his ability to walk after being lame all of his life. We look at that as the greater miracle I would submit to you that is the lesser miracle of the miracle that actually happened because I believe this layman was born again and made a new creation. And the outward manifestation of that his ability to walk the regeneration of his muscles and his bones and his coordination to be able to be lame all his life and then leap up and walk that's a miracle. But the greatest miracle was the fact that he went from being darkness to light that he was in death and sin and was translated into the kingdom of God and his son. He once was darkness but now he was made light in the Lord that is the greatest miracle that is the miracle of a new creation. The outward manifestation was his ability to walk we focus on the wrong thing because you could go through this life never being sick a day in your life being in perfect health. But if you die without Jesus you will spend eternity separated from him and that's not a good thing. And so the greatest miracle here was the recreation the new creation of this man the healing of the layman recorded in Acts 3 and Acts 14 were both in close proximity to temples. The layman healed at Acts 3 was at the temple of God in Jerusalem and he was healed as a witness to the Jews. The layman healed here in Acts 14 was at the temple the pagan temple of Zeus outside the city of Listera and he was healed as a witness to the Gentiles and we see the great commission is being achieved. Where Jesus said go and carry in Jerusalem and wait for power from on high that you will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria into the ends of the earth. And now we see through Paul and Barnabas the gospel being taken literally to the ends of the earth and the nations hearing the good news of Jesus Christ. In both cases the Lord's apostles pointed Jew and Gentile to the true and living God and his Savior Messiah Jesus Christ in both cases the gospel of grace was preached in the name of the one true God. Dispelling false ideologies and false religions and the lie that man can earn God's favor and can earn God's salvation through his own merit and religious service that is a lie you cannot earn God's favor you cannot through your own merit earn salvation it is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. This is the gospel that Paul is preaching to these Gentiles. Dispelling these false religions and these false ideologies of both Jew and Gentiles. It is by grace alone that we are saved whether Jew or Gentile and there is no other way of salvation except the way of grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Verses 11 and 12 now when the people saw that Paul had what Paul had done they raised their voices saying in the Lyconian language the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men and Barnabas they called Zeus and Paul Hermes because he was the chief spokesman. In verse 11 and 12 we see several things to note first the reaction of the people shows us this was indeed a notable miracle recognized by all the people this indicates that this man this layman was known in the city as a man hopelessly lame his only help came from alms and kindnesses of others his cruel existence had not gone unnoticed for upon his miraculous healing the people knew only divine intervention could have done this in other words this was not some trick of some magician this truly was the work of God in this case these people of Lystra assumed it was the work of Greek and Roman gods they assumed that Paul and Barnabas were Zeus and Hermes come down to them. In verse 11 Luke records that the people raised their voices in the Lyconian language and this was a spontaneous reaction to this notable miracle Paul and Barnabas were preaching to the people of Lystra in Greece and the Greek language but the people of Lystra upon seeing this miracle take place the healing of the layman the people in their extreme excitement reverted to their native tongue declaring the people of Lystra and the people of Lystra. The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men the belief that the gods would come down to mingle with men was not an uncommon belief in the Greco-Roman world in fact there was a tradition among this very people that one time Zeus and Hermes had come down in the form of men but they were treated with less than hospitality and were rejected and as a result Zeus and Hermes destroyed many of the people of Lystra with a flood kind of sounds familiar doesn't it. Thus the people of Lystra were going to be hospitable to these supposed gods that had come down to them Barnabas they called Zeus and Paul they called Hermes Luke tells us the reason they called Paul Hermes was because he was the chief speaker he was the guy preaching so they assumed that Hermes was that Paul was Hermes because Hermes was the spokesman for Zeus and because they were crying out in the Lyconian language Paul and Barnabas at first didn't understand what was happening and when they finally heard that the people were preparing sacrifice with oxen and garlands brought to the multitude of the people they realized what was taking place. Then in the next three verses Luke writes then the priest of Zeus whose temple was in front of the city brought oxen and garlands to the gates and tending to sacrifice with the multitudes but when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard this they tore their clothes and ran in among the multitude crying out and saying men why are you doing these things. We also are men with the same nature as you and preach to you that you should turn from these useless things to the living God who made the heaven the earth the sea and all things that are in them. The temple of Zeus was in front of the city Luke tells us and the priest of that pagan temple began to prepare an offering and sacrifice for Paul and Barnabas who they thought were the gods Zeus and Hermes. When Paul and Barnabas heard Luke says when they heard what was taking place by the time they heard this it had become apparent to them what the priest and the people were doing they tore their clothes and they rushed in among the multitude and an effort to stop them from doing this. They were with all their effort trying to make the people realize that they were not gods but men with the same nature as them all. In other words Paul and Barnabas were not willing to receive the glory that belonged only to the most high God. If you remember the story of Herod who went to the city of Tyre and appeared before the people there and Josephus tells us that Herod had this silver gown on and when it shone in the sun he looked like this bright light and the people began to say a God and not a man, a God and not a man. And Herod did not correct the people he actually embraced the declaration that he was deity that he was God and as a result the Bible says that the angel of the Lord struck him down at that very moment. Well Paul and Barnabas were not about to receive this kind of glory heaped upon them. They knew that glory belonged only to the most high God and the fact that the glory belongs only to God is always true. It was true then it is true today but man in his sinful nature often seeks to usurp the glory that belongs to God. But Paul and Barnabas would have none of it. They encouraged the people to turn from such useless and empty things proclaiming to them the living God who made the heaven, the earth, the sea and all things that are in them. These pagans believed Zeus was the giver of such blessings and Paul is pointing them to the one true and living God the creator who alone has provided the fullness of all things, turning them away from their many empty and false gods. Paul continues urging them to stop and to turn to the living God saying verse 16 through 18 who in bygone generations allowed all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless he did not leave himself without witness in that he did good gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons filling our hearts with food and gladness and with these sayings they could scarcely restrain the multitudes from sacrificing to them. Paul's words were intended for them to understand that it is the living God of creation who has provided ample witness of his goodness to all men. In other words Yahweh not Zeus gives to all men the rain from heaven and the fruitfulness of the seasons filling our hearts with food and gladness. Do you realize the goodness of God even people who did not acknowledge God who did not believe in God do you realize the goodness that God pours out upon all humanity. He rains on the earth he causes the earth to produce bountiful fruit and harvest. Do you realize how much food we have in this nation. Do you realize how much food is thrown away and wasted in this nation because we live in a nation with such abundance. Where does that abundance come from? It comes from God. The only people that go hungry in this nation are the people that choose to go hungry. I'm not saying everybody has everything they want to eat but there is so much food. It's rare to go to a city, a community that does not have some form of food pantry or something where people can get food. That is the abundance of God. That is God's goodness poured out upon all of us. It rains on the just and the unjust. This is what Paul is telling these Gentiles of Listera. It is not Zeus who has given you these things. It is Yahweh. It is the living God, the true and living God, the creator of heaven, of earth, of the sea and everything in them. They believe Zeus was the creator of those things. Paul says no, it is not Zeus. Zeus is empty. Zeus is a false God. I give to you the true God, the living God, the God of true fullness, the God of true abundance who has filled your hearts with food and gladness. Paul and Barnabas are doing their best to try to make the multitude understand that they are not gods but mere men and all the while pointing them to the true and living God. They are trying to restrain the crowd from making them recipients of idolatrous praise and worship. They know all glory belongs only to the living God. Luke informs us in verse 18 that they could scarcely restrain the multitude from sacrificing to them. Yes, in bygone generations, God allowed all nations to walk in their own ways. This is what Luke tells them. But not without a witness and not without consequence. For his invisible attributes are clearly seen by all. Those are the words Paul writes in his introduction and his letter to the Romans. Now with the advent of Christ, the victory of the cross and the ascension to glory, Christ has conquered all of his enemies, all powers and principalities in the heavenly places. He has triumphed over, Christ made an open show of them in his victory and he has inherited all nations. Psalm 2. He is now the victorious king of kings and lord of lords. Now he commands all men to believe on him and he has commanded his church to disciple the nations, baptizing them in the name of the triune God, and teaching them to obey all that Jesus has commanded. No longer may the nations walk in their own way. Christ has inherited the nations and he has been given the name that is above every other name. In fact, Paul writes, one day, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is lord to the glory of God the Father. Paul knew this and he preached accordingly. The Jews who opposed him hated the message of the gospel and they hated the Christ of the gospel. They murdered Christ and they would do the very same to Paul if they could and we see in verses 19 and 20 that's exactly what they attempted to do. Verse 19, then the Jews from Antioch and Iconium came there and having persuaded the multitudes they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city supposing him to be dead. However, when the disciples gathered around him he rose up and went into the city and the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derby. The Jews who had opposed Paul and Barnabas and Antioch and Iconium came to Listera, they're following them trying to make sure the message of the risen Christ and the gospel of grace is not preached or imparted to Jew or Gentile. We see in verse 19 the same Gentiles who were ready to sacrifice in honor of Paul and Barnabas calling them gods are now persuaded by the Jews that they are blasphemers and they stoned Paul and we're not told how or why Barnabas escaped this fate but Paul did not. He was stoned and left for dead and after stoning him they dragged his broken body through the city and left him outside the city supposing he was dead. Luke does not tell us that Paul was dead but he was thought to be dead and no doubt severely wounded. This is the stoning Paul makes reference to in 2 Corinthians 1125. This stoning could also be the source of some of the scars that Paul referred to in his letter to the Galatians, verse 16, verse 20 of Acts 14. It is commendable that these new converts to the faith, these new disciples of Christ in the face of such violent opposition gather around Paul as he rose up to go back into the city among the people who just tried to kill him. So Paul didn't run away, he went back into the city. He left the next morning with Barnabas but he left on his own terms. It's most likely that these disciples who gathered around Paul who was left for dead prayed over him. Did God raise him up from death? We don't know. Did God divinely protect him from the stones that were hurled in him with the intent to kill him? I would say yes, God did. In some form, some fashion, he obviously was severely wounded but God did not allow him to be killed. We're told only that Paul was left for dead but he arose and went back into the city. There is no doubt the power of God that raised up this man. It was that power, the power of the Holy Spirit that raised him up. We are then told by Luke that Paul departed the next day with Barnabas to the city of Derby. Stoned near death, yet the next day he travels to the city of Derby to continue preaching the gospel that was responsible for his near martyrdom in Listera. This is not just human courage, this is the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the importance for us as believers. There is a reason why God has given us His Spirit. He's given us His Spirit chiefly that we would be witnesses to Him. In being witnesses to Him, that Spirit empowers us, emboldens us, it leads us and guides us into truth because we're to be witnesses of the truth. You need to know the truth that you're to give witness to. Well the Holy Spirit is your teacher. The Word of God is your guide and the Holy Spirit in you will illuminate this Word. You need to reveal truth to you so that you can witness to the truth. It is the power of the Spirit in you that gives you that ability, that empowerment to give witness to Christ. God didn't give you the Holy Spirit so you could go around and exercise gifts. The gifts in fact are not the main purpose of the Spirit. Paul wrote a whole letter, two letters actually, to the Corinthian church, chastising the church because of their emphasis on gifts when they were void of fruit. It's the fruit of the Spirit that we must ask God to manifest in our lives. We all are to manifest fruit unquestion. The gifts of the Spirit are only manifest as the Spirit wills. So the Spirit doesn't will for everyone to manifest gifts. In fact read 1 Corinthians, do all speak in tongues? No, do all have gifts of healing? No, do all read your Bible Christian. But are all Christians to manifest the fruit of the Spirit? Yes. If the Spirit lives in you, the fruit of the Spirit must be manifest through your life. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, those things must be manifest in your life. That is the true measure of whether you are filled with the Spirit or not, is whether the fruit of the Spirit is manifest in your life. A mere man cannot from the resources of his own human spirit do the things that Paul did or any of the other apostles or any of the other believers we see throughout church history. This is a demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit working in and empowering God's servant. This is a prime example of the words of the angel to the rubble, not by my nor by power, but by my spirit says the Lord of Host. This is the epitome of what it means to receive power from on high to be witnesses. That power to be witnesses is a gift of grace. Paul was not a special man in any sense that he merited or earned such power. He was chosen by God, graced with such power as the Lord willed in various circumstances and various situations. Paul could not use these gifts at his will. It was according to God's will. It is as he writes in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 11, as the Spirit wills. It is not as you and I will, it is as the Spirit wills. It was nothing that Paul is doing. It was the Spirit working through divine and providential grace. It is still the same today. It is not according to our will. It is according to his will. By divine and providential grace. The same is true for us today. We do not serve a different God. We do not live under a different grace. We do not have a different Holy Spirit. The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in you and in me. It is, it will strengthen even our mortal bodies. For Paul, the Spirit strengthened him when he needed to rise up after being stoned and left for dead. Surely the same Spirit that raised up Jesus and Paul can raise up to go and give witness to Jesus Christ in a far less hostile environment. We may experience some ridicule, but we experience no realistic danger of death. I submit to you, you go out and decide you are going to walk down the streets of Taylor and witness to Christ. Your chief fear is not someone is going to kill me. Someone is going to throw rocks at me. Your chief fear is someone is going to ridicule me. Make fun of me and look at me funny. It is embarrassment that we fear, not death here in America. If we as Christians in America cannot overcome embarrassment, what are we going to do when the day comes that we actually have to face death when we preach the gospel? Don't think that day couldn't come. It could come. But that's not the day we live in today. The chief fear of most Christians today in America is embarrassment, not death. But even if we did face death, can the Spirit not empower us to go even in the face of such danger? It did Paul. It did all the other apostles and it has for countless disciples of Christ throughout the ages. The need is not less. I say the need for the gospel is as much now as ever before we could even make the argument I do believe that it is needed now more than ever before. I venture to say that the gospel cannot go forward without men and women and children making it known every day in every place in every way, not just behind pulpits and churches on Sunday. You are here today to worship the Most High God to be equipped for the work of the ministry to go out into this world and make him known. And it doesn't matter what age you are. This is why we disciple our children, even our children give witness to the gospel in their way. The gospel of Christ must be central in all of life and for all the world. I will never forget the graphic images of Somali pastors being stone to death for their faith in Christ. Our friend Ghatana smuggled video footage out of Somali, Somalia of pastors he had discipled weeks before who now were caught, were discovered as believers and they were given the opportunity to deny Christ and embrace Islam and they were fused and they were stone to death. Just as Paul was stoned in Listera. I venture to say that you and I will never be stoned or left for dead because we preach the gospel. However, you may be ridiculed, you may be canceled by the culture, you may be looked at squinny eyed or you may simply just be ignored. Your reputation could be in danger but likely not your life. What is it we're waiting for? What is it that holds us back that keeps us from being bold in our witness to Christ? We need the power and the love of the Holy Spirit to make us bold to propel us forth not just the power of the Holy Spirit but the love of the Holy Spirit. Do we love men enough to tell them the truth or do we love our reputation? Do we love what men think of us more than we love men who are lost, who are dead in their sin, who need to know the truth of the gospel? But we remain silent because we are more fearful of what they may think of us than we are fearful that they will die and burn in hell for eternity apart from Christ. Is it possible God could use your words, your gospel witness? My words, my gospel witness, if I am bold enough to open my mouth and speak forth his gospel, I don't believe it's unreasonable to think that he would, that he could. We need the power and the love of the Holy Spirit to make us bold to propel us forth. Therefore we must pray for it, we must seek for it, we must then walk in his power and walk in his love giving powerful witness to Christ. This is what God commands us to do as his disciples in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Here is your charge, church. When I first read this text, the first thing that really stuck out to me was Luke recording that Paul observed intently the lame man and seeing he had faith to be healed. And then he commands him to stand upright on his feet. I wonder how intently we observe people or how tempting it is to get so caught up in life that we see people but we don't really see people. We see people but we don't really observe people and it struck me that Paul observed this man intently. And he saw that he had faith to be healed. He discerned that he had faith to be healed. I don't believe that Paul would not have observed him intently, I don't believe he could have seen that the man had faith to be healed. I believe we should pray for such discernment. I believe we should pray that God would help us to be observant, to observe people we encounter, to observe them intently. And that God would give us a level of boldness. Do you have the level of boldness you would like to speak God's word to people? I would like to have more boldness. I believe our witness would be more effective if we observed people more intently. I believe as a Christian you are capable of seeing things that may not be obvious to others who do not have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them. I believe God can give us a discernment to see beyond the surface. Therefore we are charged to be bold in the Holy Ghost. And that charge to be bold is not a charge to be weird or to be obnoxious. It is simply a charge to be bold in your witness to Christ. To pray when it is appropriate to pray, not when you think it's appropriate, but when the Spirit thinks it's appropriate. Oftentimes that's not the same as what we think is as appropriate. To witness when the opportunity presents itself to be proactive and not reactive, looking for opportunities to be a witness to Christ, that will require faith. That often requires a step of faith. That means stepping out of our comfort zones. It may be difficult, but it is not complicated. Sometimes it is difficult to give a powerful witness to Christ, but it is never really complicated. Don't overthink it. Sometimes we just need to take a step of faith and venture out of our comfort zone and trust God to use us in ways mightier than we might think he would. Let us sing our thanks to God. Praise God, the womb of blessings glow. Praise him of creatures here we go. Praise him of our healing we hope. Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. The Lord be with you. The Lord bless you.

Acts 14 · chapter mention Acts 14:8–20 Acts 14:8–20 Acts 14 · chapter mention 2 Corinthians 12:11