48 "Finding Encouragement in Tense Times" Acts 20:1-12 | Sunday, May 17, 2026

And turn your Bibles to Acts chapter

number 20. We'll dismiss the children

back to children's church at this time.

Acts chapter 20 will be our text. We're

Acts 20 · chapter mention

in the middle of a series verse by verse

through the book of Acts

entitled The Empowered Church.

The main point of the entire book is

that Christ's work continued by His

Spirit through His witnesses from

Jerusalem to Rome. And that's really

what we've seen

throughout this book. And now as we come

to Acts chapter 20, the Apostle Paul is

Acts 20 · chapter mention

beginning his journey back to Jerusalem

where he will be imprisoned, tried, and

ultimately sent to Rome

where about 10 years after this

particular moment in time he'll be

beheaded for his faith in Christ.

And so that's what this chapter begins.

We saw a couple of weeks ago the end of

chapter 19 that a riot broke out in

Ephesus because the gospel was hitting

where it hurts, their crafts, their

idolatry,

their temple. It was all being utilized

much less because the gospel was

transforming lives in Ephesus.

And so this riot breaks out. Paul is

kept from going in by his friends and by

the disciples.

And ultimately the riot is calmed down

by a town clerk. And so I set that

context because as we read verse number

one of chapter 20, it begins saying,

"And the uproar was ceased." And so

that's what it's talking about there in

Ephesus. And so let's begin reading in

our text this morning. We'll go to verse

number 12.

And after the uproar was ceased, Paul

called unto him the disciples and

embraced them. And departed for to go

into Macedonia.

And when he had gone over those parts

and had given them much exhortation,

he came into Greece. And there abode 3

months. And when the Jews laid wait for

him as he was about to sail into Syria,

he purposed to return through Macedonia.

And there accompanied him into Asia so

Peter of Berea and of the Thessalonians

Aristarchus and Secundus and Gaius of

Derby and Timotheus and of Asia Tychicus

and Trophimus. These going before

tarried for us at Troas.

And we sailed away from Philippi after

the days of unleavened bread and came

unto them to Troas in five days where we

abode seven days. And upon the first day

of the week when the disciples came

together to break bread,

Paul preached unto them ready to depart

on the morrow and continued his speech

until midnight.

And there were many lights in the upper

chamber where they were gathered

together.

And there sat in the window a certain

young man named Eutychus being fallen

into a deep sleep. And as Paul was long

preaching, he sunk down with sleep and

fell down from the third loft and was

taken up dead.

And Paul went down and fell on him and

embracing him said, "Trouble not

yourselves for his life is in him."

When he had therefore was come up again

and had broken bread and eaten and

talked a long while even till break of

day, so he departed.

And they brought the young man alive and

were not a little

comforted. I want to draw your attention

to a couple of things here. That last

phrase,

"were not a little comforted."

That word comforted is the same word

translated in verse number two when it

says had given them much exhortation.

It's a word that means to encourage.

It means to

lift them up. It means to coach them up.

That's what Paul is doing as he makes

his rounds to these churches before his

ultimate departure.

And so the title of our sermon this

morning

is finding encouragement in tense times.

Finding encouragement in tense times.

Let's pray and then you'll be seated.

Father, I ask you to help us by the

power of your Holy Spirit to grasp the

truth of your word that we need today.

And I pray that as believers ourselves

living in these days, we would find the

encouragement that we need in Christ.

It's in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. May

God bless the reading of his word. You

can be seated and we'll get into our

message.

>> [clears throat]

>> In recent years we've observed some

tense times for Christians.

Whether it was the 70 Christians who

were beheaded in a church in Congo

or the suicide bomber at a church in

Syria

or several Christians who are imprisoned

for more than 25 years in Iran.

Here in America, we hear of mass

persecution abroad and it's almost

unfathomable to us.

But whenever it hits home, we feel the

tensions rise.

We can feel it in ourselves.

Whether it's the assassination of a

prominent Christian voice like Charlie

Kirk

or the shooting at Covenant Christian

School in Nashville

or perhaps the vehicle driven into a

vacation Bible School at Crosspoint

Community Church in Michigan.

But whenever it hits home, we we feel

that tension rise and the more attacks

that we see, more tension we feel.

And these tense times can often leave us

discouraged, can it?

Wondering,

when will it happen again?

Where?

Perhaps even asking, could it happen

here?

>> [snorts]

>> Sometimes,

therefore, we can shy away from being

public with our faith, from actively

engaging in evangelism,

because at times we feel like Paul when

he described his feelings to the

Corinthians, where in weariness and

pain, reproach and distress, fear and

anxiety.

>> [snorts]

>> In those moments,

when we feel like throwing in the towel,

you know what we need?

Encouragement.

We need encouragement.

In those [snorts] particular times, we

need something to pull us out of the

depression, out of the fear, out of the

distress, and we need something to give

us that shot in the arm to continue on

in the work of Christ.

Well, just as you and I need

encouragement

in these tense times,

that's what the churches in Macedonia

and Greece and Asia needed in Paul's

day.

Because as we've come through the book

of Acts, we've seen

that everywhere Paul goes preaching the

gospel, tensions rise.

Tensions rise.

In [snorts] Macedonia, Paul was beaten

and imprisoned

in Philippi. At Thessalonica, he was run

out of town. And then the same Jews

chased him down to Berea and ran him out

of town there once again.

In Corinth, Paul was dragged before the

council.

And then after 3 years of ministry in

Ephesus, a riot breaks out and two

Christians are dragged into a

tens of thousands of people in the

theater

and is about to be made a public

spectacle just to be delivered.

But really, this is just the beginning.

Because now we are moving toward the end

of the book of Acts

where the persecution

settles in on the Apostle Paul.

>> [snorts]

>> He is determined to return to Jerusalem

and we'll find next week that in his

farewell speech to the elders at Ephesus

he says this, "I don't know what will

happen there

but everywhere I go

the Holy Spirit bears witness

that bonds and afflictions

await me."

Paul knew what was coming at Jerusalem.

Yet in following the Holy Spirit he was

still heading there.

On his way to Jerusalem a prophet speaks

in the spirit and says that Paul will be

bound.

The disciples beg him not to go to

Jerusalem

but Paul says, "Why do you break my

heart?

For I am ready not only to die at

Jerusalem but to be not only to be bound

at Jerusalem but to die for the name of

the Lord Jesus."

Times are growing tense throughout this

region and it was clearly bringing fear,

anxiety, and discouragement.

And so before Paul heads back to

Jerusalem, he makes one more round

through Macedonia, Greece, and and

Achaia and Asia to give these churches

what they needed as they face these

tense times

particularly

in his absence.

Because from this moment on, Paul

intends as we find in the letter to the

Romans

that once he's been at Jerusalem, he'll

go to Rome and then he'll go on to

Spain. That's his plan.

And so Paul is wrapping up his ministry

here and he knows that in his apostolic

absence these churches need

encouragement because times are only

going to get worse as he wrote to

Timothy who was in Ephesus.

And so So question is where do they find

encouragement?

And how Paul provides encouragement for

them is how we can find encouragement

today

in the times that we face.

What we'll notice in our text is that it

starts with his encouragement in

Macedonia and in Greece.

And then it gives us just kind of a

snapshot there. A simple statement about

his encouragement, but then in his

ministry in Troas we actually get a

bigger picture,

a window into what that looked like. And

so let's begin with encouragement in

Macedonia and Greece.

We read there in verse 1 that following

the uproar in Ephesus, Paul embraced the

disciples.

He gave them a good old-fashioned hug.

Sometimes that's encouraging. Just have

that. But then it says that he departed

and he planned to go to Macedonia there,

but I want you to understand that Paul

did not leave Ephesus because it got

hard.

Paul was already planning to make his

return to Jerusalem. We saw that in

chapter 19, verse 21 that he planned to

pass through Macedonia and Achaia.

Achaia and Greece are kind of used

interchangeably referring to that area

of Athens and and Corinth and Cenchreae

where he had started churches.

And so he's already made his plan to go

there. In fact, we read in chapter 19,

verse 22 that he already sent Timothy

and Erastus ahead of him to go and

prepare those churches for his arrival.

And so Paul is already planning to head

there. And what he's doing at the end of

his third missionary journey is

continuing a pattern he established on

his first missionary journey. He planted

churches in uh Galatia and in Phrygia.

And at the end of that journey, he went

back to every single church.

And then what we find is on his second

missionary journey, you know where he uh

goes? Galatia and Phrygia. And he comes

back to those churches he had planted on

his first journey. And then going to his

third missionary journey, he returns to

Cilicia where he had started churches

before ever going on a missionary

journey

in his home area.

And then he goes to Galatia Phrygia. And

you know what he's doing each and every

time?

He is strengthening.

He is

he is confirming. He is exhorting those

churches. And so Paul, anytime he

started a new journey or finished a

journey, he would return to churches he

planted to encourage them in the Lord.

And that's exactly what he's doing here

in Macedonia.

He's returning to Thessalonica, to

Berea, and to Philippi where he had

experienced much persecution with them.

And you know what he does?

He encourages them. What we find in

verse number two, it says, "And when he

had gone over those parts and had given

them much exhortation,

he came into Greece."

And so he spends his time doing what

this word literally trans- translates

to, encouraging with much word. That's

the literal translation.

What it means is that he spoke God's

word to them.

And he encouraged them from the

scriptures as they continued to go

forward. And so he spends time there in

Macedonia. [snorts]

And and what he what he's doing or let's

just ask this, why do they need this

encouragement? Well, it's because times

were tense.

Because

these were cities where disciples had

faced intense persecution from the Jews.

In 2 Corinthians chapter 8,

2 Corinthians 8 · chapter mention

Paul says that the Macedonians were in

great poverty and affliction.

And do you know where he let that or I

wrote that letter from?

Philippi.

He was seeing it with his own eyes. And

he wrote to the Corinthians that they

were in much affliction here.

Well, the same thing was true in Greece

because it says that after he had given

them much encouragement, he came into

Greece and abode there 3 months, but

notice what happens and when the Jews

laid wait for him as he was about to

sail into Syria, he purposed to return

through Macedonia. So, Paul spent three

months likely spending most of his time

in Corinth, but could have also gone to

Athens and Secria and he's encouraging

them the same way he did to the

believers in Macedonia and it's right as

he's about to set sail for a Syria for

Syria that a plot is uncovered

him.

Many believe that it was have been on

the journey back on the ship that maybe

they would have thrown him overboard or

or done something like that where it was

more inconspicuous. Why do you say that?

Well, because it says that when he

discovered this, he purposed to return

through Macedonia. Now, if you look at

geography in that region, it's a lot

faster to sail directly to Syria that it

is to go up and over everything again.

And so, that tells us there was

something about that particular ship

that he knew I need to go back, but you

know what else is going on here?

Tensions are rising even more.

Yet another assassination plot has been

uncovered. Bonds and afflictions await

Paul. Churches in Macedonia and Greece

are in affliction and what they need

was encouragement.

Well, how exactly did Paul encourage

them?

Well, that brings us now to his ministry

in Troas.

We find in verse four

that Paul is accompanied by a group of

men and according to chapter 21 verse

five, their wives and their children are

there as well. And so, there's whole

families here that are accompanying Paul

back to Jerusalem. And while this is not

Luke's emphasis, we know according to

Paul's letters that these families were

going with him to deliver an offering

from their churches to the afflicted

saints in Judea.

That's what the offering was about in 2

2 Corinthians 8 · chapter mention

Corinthians chapter 8 and chapter 9.

It's mentioned in 1 Corinthians chapter

1 Corinthians 16 · chapter mention

16 as well as in Philippi that there was

a collection of the Gentile saints that

was going to be delivered to the

the Jewish saints. Why? Paul believed

that this would go a long ways in

bridging the gap between Jewish and

Gentile Christians.

And so these families are traveling with

him and it tells us

that they went before us in verse number

five. This is Luke now speaking first

hand. These going before tarried for us

at Troas. And so now Troas, they would

have had to sail from Philippi to the

Asian coast there. So now it's actually

back in Asia in Troas.

And notice what happens here.

It says that upon the first day of the

week

when the disciples came together

to break bread. We'll just start there.

And what we realize that the disciples

first of all found encouragement when

they gathered together.

When they gathered together.

>> [snorts]

>> See these disciples come together on the

first day of the week and this is the

first mention that the church at that

time would begin gathering on Sundays.

Because for Jewish the Jews, they would

gather on Saturdays on the Sabbath day.

And so it would allow for engagements

with the Jews in the synagogue. But then

also the Lord Jesus rose from the dead

on the first day of the week. And so

Christians would gather together on

Sunday. And what we find is this was

probably more typical

that they gathered around this time.

Around 4:30 or 5:00. That's not

necessarily in the morning because for

many of them Sunday was still a work

day, especially for the Jewish

Christians. And so they would gather

together in the evening on a Sunday and

they would worship the Lord. They would

sing together. They would fellowship

around a meal. But then at the end would

observe the Lord's Supper or break bread

as it's often said here.

>> [snorts]

>> And so, I want to say to you tonight the

first place that believers ga- uh find

encouragement is by regularly gathering

together.

We're talking about faithfully

assembling for church services.

Because when we gather, let's think

about it, when we gather and sing

together, lift up our voices as one

about the death and resurrection and the

return of Jesus Christ, they can get our

focus off of how tense times are here

and how great times will be then.

It reminds us that God is in control,

that he is greater than any of the evil

forces of this world to where we can

sing out, "Blessed be God." as we read

in Psalm 124.

Where we can recognize that our help

comes from him, and so it lifts our eyes

off of this broken world to see our

unbroken God.

It helps us.

We receive encouragement from our prayer

times together.

As we bear one another one another's

burdens and pray for boldness and

strength and realize that a lot of us

are going through the same struggles,

that there are financial struggles and

there are family issues and and there

are there are work issues and and we go

through all of these things and as we

pray together and bear one another's

burdens, we can grow closer to one

another and find encouragement in

Christ.

It's encouraging when we pray together,

but it's encouraging when somebody's

praying with you.

When somebody's praying with you.

>> [snorts]

>> Fellowship

also has a way of lifting our spirits,

reminding us that we're not alone.

Some of you have been through some hard

times of late.

And yet when you came together on Friday

night

at our home fellowship, that for just a

few hours it was like you could put

those things out of your mind and you

just got to have a good time together

playing bingo, you know, just doing

that's just it it's encouraging to get

around one another and to be with fellow

Christians. That can be encouraging.

Sometimes in the middle of a hard week,

you can come together at our midweek

Bible study on Thursday nights and it

can be like a shot of spiritual

adrenaline to bring you through a couple

more difficult days till we can come

together on Sunday.

But notice that we also find

encouragement in taking the Lord's

Supper.

It reminds us of the great sacrifice

that Jesus made.

And about how how we can

how in Christ we are all brought

together as one new people,

one new family with a heavenly

citizenship

purchased by one blood and that is Jesus

Christ.

It brings unity as we remember

the price Jesus paid for us.

And so in the weekly assemblies of our

church, our music, our prayers, our

fellowship, our communion can all

provide encouragement to us.

And so it's important that we gather

together, but I want to point out to you

that none of those things

are what Luke emphasizes here.

Instead, there is one particular thing

he focuses on and that is the word.

Remember, in Macedonia, he gave them

much exhortation, which means

encouragement through much word.

That means Paul spoke many messages and

gave them many words of encouragement

from God and through the gospel about

their condition, about who they are, but

how great God is. He encouraged them

through the word and that's exactly what

we find taking place in Troas.

It tells us in in verse number 20 that

it was about five days after the other

group had gone to Troas that that Luke

and Paul arrived there and they spent

seven days there. And they gather on the

first day of the week to break bread and

notice what it says there at the end of

verse seven that Paul preached unto

them, ready to depart on the morrow,

and continued his speech until midnight.

Like a preacher who knows he's preaching

his last message,

he got everything in that he possibly

could.

He's going past midnight. Knows

he's leaving soon. But I want to point

this out to you that the word translated

preached isn't the typical word that

means to declare aloud like we might be

right now. It's actually more like what

we normally do on Sunday nights when

we're in the the the smaller room over

there and we are discussing the

scripture back and forth.

That's what this word is.

They got together and the encouragement

doesn't just always come from a preacher

on a platform declaring the word.

Sometimes it's sitting around together

and talking about the word. It's the

word dialectics. It sounds like

dialogue. That's two people speaking,

not monologue.

But but the central focus

is on the word. That's what they're

talking about.

Notice in verse 8 it says there were

many lights in the upper chamber where

they were gathered together. That seems

like a very random fact to point out

until you read the next verse because it

says there sat in the window a certain

young man named Eutychus being fallen

into a deep sleep.

And as Paul was long preaching, he sunk

down with sleep and fell down from the

third loft to the third story here.

And it says that he was taken up dead.

And to all of us it says, "Don't fall

asleep in church."

That's not really what the emphasis is

here.

The emphasis is on the preaching.

It's on the word of God.

That there was something these believers

desperately need and this young man on a

typical Sunday who would have worked all

day long is now up past midnight.

Doing everything he can to stay awake

and whether it's all the bodies in this

upper room or or the the odor from the

oil lamps, we don't really know, but he

falls asleep. And I just want to say you

shouldn't fall asleep in church, but

especially not if you're sitting in a

third-story window.

He's taken up dead.

But it says in verse 10 that Paul went

down and fell on him and embracing him

said, "Trouble not yourselves, for his

life is in him." And then it says in

verse number 12, "They brought the young

man alive."

Notice, he was taken up dead.

He was dead.

But Paul, like Elijah the prophet,

fell on that little boy and stretched

his hands over his and his legs and his

mouth over his and breathed on him and

that boy raised to life. Christ is still

working through the Apostle Paul to

bring about a similar resurrection as

Paul wraps this young man in his arms.

He says, "Don't be troubled. His life is

still in him and he's risen from the

dead." I want to just pause for a moment

and say to you that the same power that

restored life to Eutychus can restore

life to you if you will believe on him.

Because Jesus is eternal life. He said,

"I am the resurrection and the life. Any

believe on him, he will live though he

die." That's exactly what we see with

Eutychus and I just want to tell you

today that we that we are apart from

Christ, we are dead in our trespasses

and sins. We are broken, we are fallen,

we are separated from God because of our

sin. But by the grace and mercy of God,

Jesus came and he gave his life on the

cross for you. He shed his blood as the

atoning sacrifice for your sin so that

if you would believe solely and

exclusively on him, all your sins could

be forgiven, you could be saved and

awakened to life by the spirit of God.

>> [snorts]

>> That's what Christ can do.

Raise you to new life, not just

spiritually, but one day even

physically.

That though you die as Eutychus did, you

can live forever as Eutychus lived.

>> [snorts]

>> See,

having raised Eutychus from the dead

here,

notice what Paul does verse 11.

Acts like nothing happened.

It says, "When he therefore was come up

again

and had broken bread

and eaten,

they talked a long while." Talked is the

same word translated preached.

They continued their biblical dialogue

until the break of dawn and then he

departed. And notice it says in verse

12, "They brought the young man alive

and were not a little

comforted."

They left encouraged after an all-night

service

with the Apostle Paul.

And the central focus of the whole

meeting

was the word of God.

>> [snorts]

>> And what it tells us

is that Paul encouraged the disciples in

tense times by gathering them together

to hear God's word.

That's where they found the

encouragement.

And so I want to say still today

that the best place for you as a

Christian to find encouragement in these

tense times

is for us to gather together to hear

God's word.

That's what we need.

Singing is great.

Worship and prayer is so needful.

Fellowship is so helpful and communion

is so vital to our Christian lives.

But what they needed more than anything

at this time was to hear from God and

where you hear from God is in his word.

That's what we need in these tense

times.

Once again, the centrality of preaching

is at the forefront of Paul's ministry.

And the preaching of God's word must be

at the forefront of our ministry as

well.

When you're going through hardship,

when you're even suffering because of

your faith in some way, though it may

feel like it's small to us, we can only

live in the world that we live in.

We don't live in a world where

Christians are constantly being hunted

down and persecuted. And so And so when

you compare it to that,

our suffering can seem so small, but in

your life, it's so big to you.

The financial struggles that you go

through, the health struggles that

you're going through, the afflictions,

when when other people hurt you, when

people steal your stuff, when people lie

about you and slander you, when your

boss fires you because you can't work on

Sundays cuz you want to go and gather

with God's people. When you face your

own share of hardship, what you don't

need is some self-help messages.

What you don't need is a theatrical

performance.

What you don't need is felt needs

preaching. Listen, you don't need to

hear the opinions of Mark Martinez, nor

is any other preacher.

You need to hear directly from God.

And where you hear from God is through

his word.

Our churches need preachers who are

willing to simply stand up and read

God's word and explain what it says and

make it application to your lives.

That's what we try to do here because I

have nothing to offer you apart from

God's word.

The The encouragement, the strength, the

exhortation must come from the Lord.

>> [snorts]

>> I'm kind of concerned

because

in 2020 in the midst of the pandemic,

churches started live streaming

everywhere.

While we sat home comfortably in our PJs

watching canned pre-recorded services.

And yet coming out of the pandemic, many

were content to continue that way.

And I don't mean to be hyper-critical,

but there are some church models today

where when you come into church

you might have you might have a band up

there or you might not.

You you might have somebody leading the

service, but then when it comes time to

the preaching or perhaps even during the

saying, you just have a big old screen

and there's somebody that was preaching

last week somewhere else.

And they can't really make eye contact

with you.

And they can't offer you any human

touch, and they can't be with you in the

hospital when you're about to have

surgery, and they can't pray with you

when you've lost a loved one or lost a

child.

There's no real connection there. As and

I'm just concerned that so many

Christians are relying on distant

churches and distant preaches preaching,

and they find themselves at home

discouraged and wondering why and where

they can find encouragement. What we

find is encouragement comes from

gathering together as a body to hear

from God.

We all need to hear the same message

from God all together so that we realize

that the same hope for the people on

this side is the same hope that I have

over here.

It all comes from the Lord.

You need to be gathered with God's

people to sing and to worship and to

pray and to fellowship and communion

together, but you need to be gathered

under the sound of God's word.

You need church members

who are present in your life

to provide you with that human touch

to pray with you, to weep with you, to

rejoice with you

because bodies bring encouragement that

screens never can.

>> [snorts]

>> We need that gathering together.

You need faithful pastors

who can be with you

the tough times of life.

You need someone

who isn't looking at you from a platform

with hollow eyes through a screen,

but one who can really connect with you

through eye contact.

One who is filled with the spirit, not

for last week's moment, but for this

week's moment.

For the tough times that you've been

facing throughout this week.

That's the connection that you need.

Tense times

can really weigh us down, can't they?

Where you come in to church on a

Thursday night or on a Sunday and all

the pressures of life have just weighed

you down.

And you're looking for encouragement.

Let me tell you if that's you this

morning, you're in the right place. This

is what you need.

You need these people in your life.

You need this word being spoken to you

and read to you.

You need that singing together.

This is why the author of Hebrews wrote

to Jewish Christians who were waning in

their faith.

To provoke one another

to love and good works, and here's the

how, not forsaking the assembling of

yourselves together.

As the manner of some is,

but exhorting one another and so much

the more as you see the day approaching.

See, the author of Hebrews understood

that when times get tough for us,

when persecution ramps up,

as Christ's return draws nearer and this

world wax waxes worse,

we need to gather not less,

but more.

Not less,

but more.

Today, many times we're just content to

have the one Sunday morning service.

By the grace of God, this is the reason

why we have Thursday night. It's the

reason why we do Sunday night as well

because the the word tells us as things

get harder, we don't need to gather

less.

We need to gather more.

And I'm convinced of that. Why?

Gathering to hear from God's word is how

you find encouragement in the tense

times that you face.

So, let me just ask you to today.

How important

is the regular gathering of the church

in your life?

How important is it?

Is [snorts] it optional

or can't miss?

Is it out of convenience or religious

routine or do you see it as vital

to living the life that Christ has

called you to live?

God shows us here

that the weekly gathering of his church

under his word

is his gracious provision for us to find

the encouragement we need

as this world grows more hostile

toward our faith.

Church, I just want to say to you you

need this.

You need this.

Don't check out

when things get hard.

Isn't that how it is?

That when when life gets tough, when

nothing seems to be going right, when we

get so deep dis- deeply discouraged and

distressed by the problems and the cares

of life,

we just want to stay home.

>> [snorts]

>> I don't feel like going today.

I don't feel like being around people.

>> [snorts]

>> But what if the thing you need the most

to pull you out of that

is the gathering of God's people

and the hearing of God's word.

I encourage you

to be faithful

to the regular gatherings of your

church.

Jesus

viewed his church

as so important

that he gave his life on the cross

for it.

That he demonstrated his love

for all of us gathered here today.

And that while we were yet sinners, he

still died for us.

He bought us,

purchased us,

redeemed us at the cost of his very life

for everyone

who believes and is gathered with this

group today.

How could we see something so important

to Jesus

to be so little important so

so little importance to us?

Oh, may we never forsake the assembling

of ourselves together,

but rather draw the encouragement we

need from his word in these times that

we face.

Our heavenly Father, we

come to you today recognizing that our

help comes from you.

And my prayer

is that what we have received this

morning

or this afternoon will be seen

and accepted as your gracious provision

[music]

for our discouraged souls.

And I pray that as a church

we would strive as best as we can

by your grace

to make [music] this a place where

people find encouragement.

That when we come

we would love one another

with joy.

That we would sing your praise

with gratefulness.

That we would sense your presence and be

filled with your spirit, ready and able

to encourage however

someone might need.

I pray that you would help us to see

this gathering as important

as it was [music] to your son.

In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.