The Book Of Acts | Astounding God (May 31st, 2020) - Mike Armstrong

I don't know about you, but I feel like I've seen a lot of those trick shot type videos pop up all over online these days, really since people have gone into full hibernation mode in quarantine.

And I think the real reason for that, of course, is because people are so bored, right?

They've just been at home like crazy and they're looking for anything, it seems, uh, to break up the monotony and really be astounded.

Well, as you get yourself turned to Acts chapter three, and good morning, by the way, redemption.

Great to be back with you this weekend.

As you get yourself turned there, uh you might remember that last time we were together, we saw God do something astounding, right?

In that he healed the man who was lame from birth.

You remember that?

And how he used Peter and John to do that just outside the temple gates.

Now, of course, of course, the people, they they respond to that miracle uh by being astounded, right?

And they just swarm together and and then they come around Peter and John.

And I mean, let's just read it for ourselves, okay?

Let's read now, starting in uh verse 11, just five verses today of Acts chapter 3.

Acts 3 · chapter mention

It says, While he clung to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astounded, ran together to them in the portico called Solomon's.

And when Peter saw it, he addressed the people.

Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk?

The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate when he had decided to release him.

But you denied the holy and righteous one, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the author of life, whom God raised from the dead.

To this we are witnesses, and his name, by faith in his name, has made this man strong, who you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.

All right, so so the people they have this reaction to what they've just seen, right?

Kind of like they just saw a trick shot video.

Like, are you serious?

Did these guys just pull this off?

And so, Peter, what does he do?

Well, he takes, you know, the opportunity here to address their response and of course, you know, launch into the gospel, right?

And so this morning, what we're gonna do is we are gonna take a look here at our own response when God does something astounding.

Okay, we're gonna ask ourselves three questions here to kind of help us go deeper into this as we get into God's word.

But before, uh of course, before we do all of that, uh let's just pause here for a moment.

Join me as we pray.

God, we come before you and Lord, we are so thankful for your word, Lord.

This is an amazing uh moment in uh your word that we want to understand, Lord.

We want it to transform us, Lord.

So I pray that you through your Holy Spirit uh would do this, Lord.

I pray that we would learn to see all the astounding things that you are doing all around us all the time.

God, I pray that we would respond rightly to those things, God.

And so teach us, I pray, Lord, transform us, glorify Christ in us.

Uh, do this all in his name, amen.

Amen.

All right.

Well, first thing here today, let's jump right in, okay?

When God does something astounding, does it ultimately draw my attention to how great he is?

Okay, now take a look at verse 11 here as we unpack all of this.

Here's what it says it says, While he clung to Peter and John, okay, the he being, you know, the man who had just been healed, okay, all the people, utterly astounded, there's that word, okay, ran together to them in the portico called Solomon's, okay, also known as Solomon's porch or Solomon's colonade, kind of depending on the uh translation that you have.

And so what was that?

Well, that was, you know, kind of this large roof-covered area supported by uh pillars that was connected to the to the temple, and it provided shelter for the Jews uh from the weather.

And so it was a place that they would spill out into.

Large groups of them could kind of hang out there.

And so for us, I think really what kind of comes to mind for me is if you grew up in churches in the 80s and 90s and some of those buildings of the 80s and 90s, uh, you think of like uh like a fellowship hall.

It seems like every church had one.

It's kind of that idea.

They could spill out there and have uh very mediocre uh coffee.

Okay, so so obviously this crowd, they are totally blown away uh by what they just witnessed.

Okay, to be utterly astounded, as the text tells us, means uh exactly what you think it would mean, right?

It means uh just to be amazed, right?

To be astonished, to be to be filled with awe.

Okay, now is it a good thing uh to be astounded when God does uh something great?

Well, yeah, of course it is.

No uh nothing wrong uh with that uh at all.

Okay, but you can tell here by by what Peter says next, how he addresses the people that he can sense, okay, and again, that's that's through the Holy Spirit.

Remember, he is he's being led by the Spirit here, he can sense that their astonishment, you know, just isn't in the right place.

Okay, verse 12, take a look.

It says, when Peter saw it, okay, saw the people gathering all around and he kind of saw what was going on, he addressed the people, he said, Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this?

Or why do you stare at us as though by our own power or piety?

Okay, piety is like religious devotedness, okay?

Why would you look at us as though by our own power and piety we have made him walk?

Now, when he asked that first part of that question there, you know, why do you wonder at this?

Uh, it's really a mild rebuke.

He's like, guys, this shouldn't be, you know, shocking to you anymore.

You shouldn't be wondering, like, what on earth is going on here by by what we just saw, right?

Because if you think about it, this miracle is just, you know, simply one more in a long line of what God has been doing, you know, through Christ and and and through the Holy Spirit for some time now.

And if you remember, you know, that's essentially what the book of Acts is all about.

If you were to flip back just, you know, like like one page in your Bible there at to the very first verse of the book, one verse one, what does Luke say?

Luke's the author of Acts.

He says, in the first book, O Theophilus, okay, in the first book, he's referring to the gospel of Luke, right?

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

He is the author of that.

And so remember, Luke and Acts are basically two volumes of his two-volume uh set.

Okay, and so he says there in the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach.

Okay, so Luke's saying, even as he starts this off, he's telling them, I've all I've already shared many examples with you of what Jesus taught and certainly what he did, right?

Miracle after miracle, all of that being in my first book.

Okay?

And by saying that, he's implying here that in this second book, the book of Acts, okay, it's all about what Jesus continues to do and teach.

Okay, and and that's really the angle that Peter is coming at here when he addresses the men of Israel in verse 12.

Okay?

He says, guys, this shouldn't be catching you off guard anymore when you when you see something like this happen.

Okay, God has been stacking up miracle after miracle over and over again.

I mean, even as recently as the Holy Spirit coming down in power on the disciples in the upper room.

And then there was the whole, you know, speaking in different tongues and languages, and and then you know, Peter shares the gospel, and 3,000 people get saved in one shot.

And and Peter's kind of like telling them this, and and and he's kind of like, you guys shouldn't be still asking, like, what on earth is is going on here?

Like it's some big head scratcher.

Okay, so it's it's this gentle or or mild rebuke, really, for their stubborn hard-heartedness that that's blinding them from being able to see here that clearly this is a work of God that has just taken place.

Okay, which really leads Peter now to the second thing that he asks them in verse 12.

Take a look.

He says, He says, Why do you stare at us, right?

As though by our own power or piety uh we have made him walk.

Okay, so so we know that the crowd is astounded, right?

They're utterly astounded.

It's told us that.

That's obvious.

Okay, the but the problem here is that they are attaching their amazement to the wrong thing, to the wrong source.

Okay, and pretty quickly, right, Peter picks up on this.

The fact that their awe and their wonder is aimed at at he and John, right?

That's what they're blown away by.

And he's like, he's like, well, why would you think that we would have the power uh to heal this guy?

What made you think that?

You guys you guys know that we're just these common guys, right?

We're we're we're these uneducated fishermen.

He's like, we're just we're just regular dudes.

It's something that he actually really gets into in in chapter four, as we'll see soon enough.

So he's like, why would you think that you know we somehow are super spiritual enough, you know, to possess the strength required to make this man walk in and of ourselves.

He's like, what would make you think that?

Right?

That that's foolishness.

And so again, what he's getting at and what he's you know really implying here by by asking these questions is guys, like don't miss what what's happening here, right?

Get your attention off of us.

Okay, okay.

Don't be don't be looking at us about all of this.

Get your attention fixed on the Lord.

Okay, he has done this great thing.

It's his power.

Okay, John and I, we're we're merely the conduits of that.

And church, I think that you know, we can can fall into similar ditches as the men of Israel when God does something astounding in our lives.

Now, I get that these Jewish men, they're they're not followers of Jesus, at least not at this point, right?

And you know, they need saving grace to be able to see and understand this properly and have the spiritual eyes and get it the way that Peter and John get it.

I understand all of that, okay, but but I kind of wonder if, you know, you know, us as professing Christians, those who you know claim to be believers, I wonder how often we make similar errors when the Lord astounds us.

Okay, think about it this way.

Okay, when when God comes through in power and you know and answers a desperate cry that that you've uttered to him, okay, it could be a situation that has caused you uh great sorrow, and maybe that's dragged on for a long time, or or or when he provides for you, right?

Like in a very real and very practical need that you have had and you've lifted up to him, and Lord, I I need this, right?

Or or maybe it's when he gives you peace, you know, because you're because your mind and your heart have been stuck in that chaotic loop of just fear and anxiety and and and despair, and you can't seem to get out of that rut, or or or maybe he just he comes through for you in a way that you weren't even asking.

Right?

The Lord is so good to do that sometimes.

Like, here you go, here's a blessing that you didn't even think you needed.

I just want to give this to you because I love you.

Hey, listen, the point is here, when he does something astounding in your life, does it serve to draw your attention to how great he is?

Right?

Does it get your eyes on him?

Does it get your focus there?

Okay, where you're where you're just you know awestruck by his infinite worth, right?

His immense value.

Have you ever been struck by that?

And you're like, man, the Lord is in is incredible.

You know, or where you're moved to just praise him and thank him for his loving kindness to you, how he has given you the thing that you've asked for and just continues to pour out grace in your life, or or where you're just you know richly satisfied in your relationship with him, right?

Isn't that such an amazing thing when we're just like, man, I just love you know being close to the Lord and and just enjoying the intimacy that comes from his presence?

Right?

That is what it means to have our attention drawn to how great the Lord is.

Is that the kind of thing that that happens to you, in you as the Lord works in your life?

Or when the Lord does something incredible, do we kind of respond like Israel does here?

You know, where we don't really seem to have the eyes to see it, right?

And it's just like going over our head and we're totally missing out on it.

I mean, do we miss sensing the grace that is right in front of us every single day?

Right?

Do you would you would you know instinctively think that God has been stingy with you when it comes to his mercy and it comes to his grace and it comes to his love and his kindness to you?

Are you missing it?

You know, all the ways that he is moving, you know, big and small, you know, and working on our behalf.

Are we seeing that?

You know, or are we like the the men of Israel here in that our our eyes are drawn to the astounding act itself, but not the astounding God of those acts, right?

You see the major difference in that?

As Christians, do we get more caught up in the gift rather than the giver?

Right?

As you consider you know your own motives very carefully and and honestly here, do you find that that sometimes or or maybe often, like we just want answers to our prayers?

Like that's really all I want.

I'm quite happy to keep God at a distance.

Lord, just just give me.

We're like that petulant toddler screaming in the checkout line for his mom to, you know, give me that thing, gimme, gimme, gimme.

Right?

And it's not like that kid in that moment is you know, is thinking, you know, mother, I just I just really appreciate the way that you have birthed me and you know have nurtured me and care for my needs.

Yes, I really want this chocolate bar, but but truly I just want to enjoy the intimacy of your presence and your goodness to me.

Like, that's not what a kid's doing in that moment.

And I again I wonder if that's sometimes how we are uh with the Lord, right?

Or can we say that that we're growing to desire the answerer of our prayers, not just getting the answer from him.

Listen, church, I am I'm certainly not saying that it's wrong to you know marvel in you know the acts of God themselves, right?

They're they're amazing.

It's not wrong to delight in the things that he gives us and the answers to prayers, certainly uh not.

Okay, it's just to say that all of that, that the goodness of God extended to us, should really be you know drawing our attention to him as as the source of all of those things.

Okay, and of course, what all of those things show us is just exactly how great our God is.

Okay, here's the second thing now.

Okay, when God does something astounding, does it expose my sinfulness in light of Christ's holiness?

Okay, so notice here now what Paul does next.

Okay, he's just worked to avert their gaze, you know, away from you know he and John and and onto the Lord where it belongs, okay, and and now that he's got their attention there, he he really seizes this moment to highlight two very critical things uh whenever you share the gospel.

Okay, both he he highlights how how how righteous and and how how holy God is, okay, and how extremely opposite of that they are.

Okay, just take a look at this here in verse 13.

Here's what he says He says, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers.

Okay, so what he's doing here is he's emphasizing God's covenant faithfulness with Israel as established through their forefathers, right?

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

These are the patriarchs of Israel that uh that we find in the Old Testament.

Okay, now remember here that the Jews they were they were all about the Old Testament, right?

They believed it uh fiercely.

Okay, who was it that they did not yet believe in?

It was it was Christ.

Okay, but next here, uh Peter introduces Jesus to show that that his work is perfectly aligned with God's work in the Old Testament.

Okay, so the God of our fathers, we saw that, okay, glorified his servant Jesus.

Okay, now using that word servant there certainly would have caught their eye.

Okay, it would have drawn their attention back to the Old Testament.

You see what's happening there?

Back to Isaiah 52 and 53.

Because the word servant there, when applied to Jesus, uh, that wasn't very common.

It's not very common in the New Testament.

Okay, but but it is used in Isaiah 52, towards uh the end of that, where he is described as a, the Messiah is, as a as a suffering servant.

Okay, so you see what Peter is accomplishing here.

He's working to connect the Old Testament with the work of Christ.

He's he's hitching those two things together.

Okay?

Now keep going.

Okay, it says uh glorified his servant Jesus, okay, whom you delivered over and denied.

Okay, to deny means to disown or reject, okay?

You delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate when he had decided to release him.

You remember in the Gospels, uh Pontius Pilate, right?

He was the Roman governor in charge of kind of maintaining order among the Jews there.

And so he, you know, Luke or sorry, Peter rather, uh, he mentions uh that whole situation where they rejected Jesus uh with Pilate, even though Pilate was about to release Christ.

Okay, now verse 14 says, but you, he says it again, denied the holy and righteous one, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you.

Right?

You remember Barabbas?

Right?

It was their custom to release uh one prisoner, and they're like, We want Barabbas, we want the guy who's killed people.

That's how much we hate Jesus and we want to see him killed.

Give us Barabbas instead of Christ.

And so Peter is just going after it here, right?

Verse 15 now.

And you killed the author of life.

Okay, he's like, you you took away the the life of the very one who literally gave life to all things, right?

You killed, you know, the author of life, whom God raised from the dead.

There's the resurrection there, right?

And it says, to this we are witnesses.

They saw Jesus alive from the grave.

Yeah, I mean, how brilliant here is the Lord to inspire Peter to say these words, right?

God heals this man, right?

The lame the man lame from birth, and then and then uses Peter to get right down into what matters most, right?

The gospel.

In in like one sentence, right?

He he elevates both the holiness, right, the righteousness of Jesus as the fulfillment of the Old Testament, right?

Which again they believed, right?

And at the same time, he he brings in into the open here the immense guilt of these men, right?

You delivered over, you denied it.

You asked for a killer to be released, and then killed the one who came to release you from death.

Right?

It was it was intended here, as you can probably tell.

Imagine being there.

It was intended to be, you know, such a jarring revelation for these men.

Right?

Jesus is the true, holy, and righteous one, right?

He's the Messiah.

And in their mind, they were they were to realize, like, man, we we failed to see it.

Right?

And not only that, we're we're actually responsible for for killing him in such a such a heinous way.

Right?

Our sheer wickedness has been completely exposed here, and and we stand guilty before God.

Right?

Look, the the the contrast here between Christ's holiness, okay, and and their sinfulness, right?

That that Peter, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, does such a great job of juxtaposing, right?

Well, all of that, that's our story as well.

Right?

Christ's holiness and and our sin.

And if you're you know watching this today and and you are realizing that that your sin renders you guilty before the God who sent.

Jesus to die for those very sins.

Can I just urge you right now to confess those things, your sin, you know, to him right now?

Would you repent of your sin?

Would you believe that Jesus is the holy and righteous one, as the scriptures tell us, right?

Who took your punishment for you on the cross, uh, in your place, and will graciously forgive you.

Will you believe that?

Will you, you know, will you recognize that he will remove your guilt and and declare you holy and righteous?

Right?

That is what salvation is.

That's what it means to have faith in the name of Jesus Christ.

Listen, for those of us who who are Christ's followers, we're believers, we profess him.

Okay, whenever God does something astounding, you know, in in our lives, it should continue to serve as a reminder of our amazing salvation.

Right?

That we were, that we were depraved, right?

We were we were wicked, we're we were guilty before God.

I mean, jarringly so.

It's so bad how how how evil we are compared to how holy and and perfect God is.

And yet Christ, in his perfection, he chose to save us by his grace.

Anytime God does something amazing, it should remind us of those things.

Okay, and and his astounding power displayed in our lives, you know, should likewise just continue to have the effect of working to expose the various ways that our sin and our pride are still prevalent.

When we think about how good God is and how astounding his works are towards us, it should humble us.

We don't deserve anything good from him, right?

Not at all.

We don't deserve one good thing, but yet he chooses uh to astound us in just countless ways, in many ways.

It should make us revel in his holiness, right?

It should make us revel in his goodness, you know, it's to be thankful to him.

It should it should cause us to be to be worshipful.

It should foster a desire to glorify him in like every way that we possibly can, not hold back areas of our lives where we're living for self.

No, Lord, would you come and would you be glorified in every area of my life?

Listen, church, let's really seek to, you know, the Lord here for a better grasp on these things this week.

You know, that God's astounding power and his grace would you know would rightly, okay, rightly highlight that that gap between our sinfulness and his holy perfection.

Right?

That's what makes us view him more highly and us, you know, more lowly, which really gets us here uh into our final thing.

Okay, when God does something astounding, okay, does it lead me to humbly give credit where credit is due?

Okay, verse 16 now, Peter says, look at this, and his name, okay, so that that's Christ's name, his name, referring to Christ's power and Christ's authority.

We talked a bit about that last time.

Okay, in his name, by faith in his name, he says, has made this man strong, whom you see and know.

Now, whose faith is this referring to?

Right?

Is it the is it the healed man's faith?

Is it the faith of Peter?

Okay, well, well, the text doesn't tell us outright, but but I certainly land on it on it being that Jesus healed this man on the basis of Peter and John's faith.

Well, there are certainly occasions where the faith of the person who's being healed is mentioned.

I think you can jot down Acts 14, verse 9.

Acts 14:9

We'll obviously get to that at some point.

Well, certainly occasions where the faith of the healed person is mentioned.

Uh, typically speaking, okay, the you know, the gift of healing in the New Testament is attributed to the faith of the one doing the healing.

And we know that the apostles were given such spiritual gifts.

Okay, now does this mean that that that John and Peter had some kind of special, innate, you know, ability, you know, to conjure up enough faith in this moment when they just when they really needed it to heal somebody?

Okay, no, not at all.

I mean, just take a look at the next part of this verse here, because it's just so clear.

Okay, it says, and and the faith that is, notice this, through Jesus.

Okay, you need to highlight there.

The faith that is through Jesus, I mean that the the faith itself, okay, the the faith that that Peter and John had was was caused by or or or given to uh Peter in that moment by Jesus.

Right?

Humans flat out do not possess the required faith necessary to perform miracles.

Okay, so the faith itself is a gift from God.

Okay, so again, Peter says that the faith that is through Jesus has given this man, the this man, this perfect health in the presence of you all.

Okay, notice how Peter is just so quick to show everyone exactly who is responsible for healing this man, right?

Peter just gives credit to where credit is due.

He knows that the people are about to bow down to them, right?

They want to pump their tires.

How amazing are you guys?

What an amazing trick shot, you know, in a way, to heal this man.

He's like, no, no, no, no, no.

Very quickly, before we even get there, here's the reality of it here.

The faith was given to us uh by Christ.

Again, it's it's in it's in Jesus' name, right?

It's in Jesus' power, it's in Jesus' authority.

All of all of that is what got this done.

Okay, even the faith that Peter and John had, as his agents of this miracle, that itself was given through Jesus.

Okay, it takes a right view of God and self, as we've already been talking about here uh today, uh, that provides Peter with the humility needed to grasp this properly.

It's okay.

When when God does something astounding in your life, which we've been you know mentioning here, are are you quick to humbly give credit where credit's due?

Are you quick to do that in your heart with your words in your mind?

You know, have you noticed how easy it is to just like you know trip and stumble all over this uh all the time?

Perhaps when when God does the incredible in you or or for you, perhaps somewhere in your, you know, in your mind or or in your heart, or again, even in your words, you know, you give the credit to yourself for for what took place.

You know, for you know, I just had the right amount of faith today, right?

For for God to be impressed enough to give me that thing that I need, to answer my request, right?

Or you know, God did this great thing in me because I'm such a I'm such a mighty prayer warrior, you know, or or because I I just dug deep enough to find the faith within, to convince God that I'm worthy of his power working on my behalf.

Right?

Or or or maybe for you, your thinking is like, well, you know, I did read my Bible enough this week, you know, or or or I certainly understand my Bible better than other people, you know, do, or you know, or I went to church enough times, or I served 185 weekends in in a row, you know, so therefore, you know, God, God had to do something for me.

He had to come through and and pour out his power and do something astounding.

Do you see how easy it is, you know, to subtly and sometimes not so subtly, you know, take credit for ourselves, you know, and and and really rob God of the credit that he deserves.

Okay, or or maybe when when God comes through and he astounds you with his power, perhaps for you, you're not, you're not crediting yourself, but maybe you're you know you're you're crediting the faith or the human ability involved to someone else.

Like maybe for you, it's like, well, because I prayed with with an elder.

You know, and and certainly it's because of it's because of them, you know, or or my small group leader prayed for me, or or or it's somebody that I you know kind of view highly and I I respect their maturity, and and so therefore the reason God came through is is all because of them.

Right?

Or or maybe for you it's you know a time that someone just showed immense kindness and and and goodness to you, and so and so you give them the credit, right?

Even though ultimately, ultimately, if you think about it, if you kind of zoom out and just kind of pause for a second and consider all of it, it's it's the Lord, right, working through that that person to be kind and extend his love and his grace to you.

Right?

I I battle this whole like not giving credit where it's due thing, like all the time, right?

I, you know, the the Lord you know gives me some kind of astounding power in my life and some some answer to my prayer, and I'm all like, well, you know, it must be because I you know I prayed like a champ, you know, or you know, or I obeyed him pretty well this week.

See how that becomes so works-based, right?

I did something, therefore God was paying me back for that, or therefore God owes me.

I'm not treating the Lord and and and his power as just gifts of grace, right?

And that's how I get, right?

Just taking the credit, left, right, and center.

Right?

Often, you know, when I when I read a book by an author that I that I really love, and you know, it's something that just really connects with me, you know, I just kind of subtly in my in my mind and maybe even through my words, I'm just saying, like, man, this guy's an incredible author, an incredible pastor.

He has such a way with words, and and you know, he's just he's just so able to communicate effectively, and I'm and I'm just like, I'm basically bowing at the guy, right?

And giving him the credit instead of realizing that that it's been God's grace in that guy's life to be able to help him communicate effectively and be used powerfully.

Right?

In what kinds of ways uh do you do this kind of thing?

Right?

You see how so all of how all of it is is in in many ways just is just robbing God of glory.

It's claiming it for ourselves or giving it to another person.

When God says, My glory I will not give to another, right?

We certainly don't deserve the glory.

No, no man or or woman uh deserves it at all.

Now again, in the same breath here, I'm not saying that it's it's wrong to thank somebody for being kind to you.

Right?

It's not wrong to encourage somebody or or even show them them honor, right, to those who God uses to astound us.

Okay, what we're really getting at here today is that as as Christ followers walk with the Lord and we see him do you know astounding things in all the different ways that he does that in our lives.

What will what that will be accomplishing over time as as we're you know sanctified and as we are growing in grace is that it will draw our attention to his greatness.

Every time we see his power and we see him pouring all of that out, right?

It'll it'll make us that much more aware of that you know significant gap between our rebellion and our sinfulness and God's holiness, right?

Which ultimately will humble us to and lead us to giving him all the credit and all the good things that we see in our lives and all the good things that we receive.

You know, listen, I want to pray for us uh right now and pray that the Lord would get our hearts to this place and continue bit by bit to transform us and help us to see how great he is and really glorify him and all the astounding things that he does.

And so why don't you join me uh as we pray?

God, we thank you for this time together in your word, Lord.

We thank you that you are truly an astounding God who does astounding things.

God, I pray that you would give us eyes to see this, Lord.

Sometimes we get so selfish and so you know our eyes turned inwards that we can't even see the goodness of your grace.

We can't even see all the powerful things that you are doing.

And so, God, give us eyes to see all that.

Lord, humble us uh as we you know wait on you, Lord, and and as as we you know, there are certain things that we're we're not gonna be able to see, Lord, because you you won't open our eyes to see that, Lord.

I pray that we would we would sit and we would wait and we would trust you and believe that you are working on our behalf, working in power to transform us, to make us more into the image of Christ, Lord, answering our prayers as we pray kingdom minded, kingdom focused prayers.

Lord, continue to do the astounding in our lives, in our church.

We pray all of these things in your name.

Amen.