Called to Make an Impact not to be Impacted (Impact part 2)

Good morning everyone.

Glad you're all here today, members and guests alike.

Thank you all for your attendance.

Glad you're all here today and let's join in with the song service.

He has done marvelous.

He has done marvelous things.

Praise the Lord.

He has done marvelous.

He has done marvelous things.

Praise the Lord.

He has done marvelous things.

Praise the Lord.

He has done marvelous things.

Praise the Lord.

I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised.

So, shall I be saved from my enemies?

The Lord, live and bless me.

The rock and the God of my salvation be exalted.

Let the God of my salvation be exalted.

The.

Lord, live and bless me, o Rock, and let the God of my salvation be exalted.

I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised.

So shall I be saved from my enemies.

The Lord, live and bless me.

The rock.

Let the God of my salvation be exalted.

The Lord, live and bless me.

The rock.

Let God and my salvation be exalted.

I will call upon the Lord.

I stand to praise you, but I fall on my knees.

My spirit is willing, but my flesh is so weak.

Light the fire in my soul and the flame make me whole.

Let me know where I've been so light the fire in my heart.

Again.

I feel your arms around me as the power of your healing begins.

You bring new life right through me Like a mighty rushing wind, like the fire in my soul be raised up in the flame.

Let me hold my spirit.

Lord, you know where I've been, so light the fire in my heart again.

All right, good morning.

So Acts, chapter 9, verse 17 through 19,.

Acts 9:17–19

It says so.

Ananias went and found Saul.

He laid his hands on him and said Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road, has sent me so that you might regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Instantly, something like scales fell from Saul's eyes and he regained his sight.

Then he got up and was baptized.

Afterwards he ate some food and regained his strength.

Let's begin with a word of prayer.

Dear God, we thank you for this day.

God, we thank you for an opportunity to get together this morning.

God that we can be a church family that gathers to praise and to worship you.

And God, that we can be a family that will go out into the world and make an impact for your kingdom.

And God, we're thankful for each and every person that's here this morning.

God, we pray that you'll open up our hearts and our ears and our eyes to the things that you want us to see and to hear this morning.

We thank you for Jesus.

We thank you for his example of how to love and interact with people.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen, alright, good morning.

We started a series last week about the idea of impact, and last week we kind of focused on the idea that we are called to make an impact for the kingdom, and this morning this week we're going to spend some time talking about that.

Yes, we're called to make an impact for the kingdom, but also the world called to make an impact for the kingdom, but also the world wants to make an impact on us, that there are things in the world that are going to make an impact on us.

And so I thought this morning, as we got started, I thought it would be kind of fun to go back to your childhood and talk about some of the toys that made an impact on your childhood.

So I want you to think about that for just a second.

Did you have a favorite toy growing up?

Was there a favorite thing that you had as you were growing up that you still remember that thing?

You might wish you still had it.

You might still own it.

We're going to go through just a couple things here.

This came from a list that said these were the toys that were impacting most childhoods, and so we're going to see if anybody had one of these.

How many of you had a Barbie?

Yeah, all right.

How many of you had the Dreamhouse?

Or was that just a dream?

Okay, yeah, your parents bought that for you and then you sold it for way less than they bought it.

Right Today it's on Facebook Marketplace.

All right, a lot of you had a Barbie.

So scientists say, researchers say, that you had a good childhood because you owned a Barbie.

So there you go.

Hopefully that's it.

How many of you had one of these?

That's a big wheel.

I have vivid memories of being in our basement riding the big wheel around in the, uh, the, the pillars or the beams of the basement were kind of the passing lanes and you'd weave in between them.

It was like you were playing real life mario kart on that thing and then if you were really good at it, if you really pushed your feet, you could spin the tires on those things.

I know you did that too.

Uh, we had a big wheel.

I, I wish.

I kind of want an adult size big wheel.

I was thinking this morning how much fun it would be to ride that thing through the church and just be my way of transportation.

A yo-yo, anybody.

Have a yo-yo, any yo-yo people.

Okay, anybody know how to walk the dog?

Yeah, you could walk the dog Anybody.

Rock the baby?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, anybody.

Do the Eiffel Tower?

No, yeah, it was a crazy one, I don't know.

I wasn't that great at the yo-yo because I would leave it down and it wouldn't come back up and then I'd take my dad would be like you get three turns, you can bring it to me three times because you had to finagle it just right to get it wound up.

I wasn't very good at a yo-yo.

Justin, I think, was pretty good at the yo-yo.

He brought it.

He's going to do show and tell after church if you want to see him do the yo-yo.

The easy bake oven that's the old school one, I believe.

How many of you had an easy bake oven?

Okay, so that means you all can bring me cookies next week because you had your easy bake oven.

It looks a little different now.

I'm sure it probably is way different now, but if you had one of those scientists, researchers say that you had a good childhood.

How about an Etch-A-Sketch?

Yeah, everybody's got an Etch-A-Sketch.

Those are still a thing.

We still have one of those.

The boys play with it for 30 seconds and then they throw it.

But you would spend hours, you know, crafting just the right image, and then somebody would bump you and it would shake and it would disappear.

I always liked the Etch-A-Sketch, but I'd get too into it and then I'd accidentally turn the wrong knob and then you threw off the whole thing, because then you had to start over the Etch-A-Sketch.

Those of you that didn't have a Barbie you had a GI Joe.

How many?

Yeah, a couple hands.

Okay, justin, what were the action figures we had?

Do you remember what I'm talking about?

You had the arm thing.

Yeah, think about that.

Get back to me.

Here's what Justin and I did with our action figures.

Our favorite time of the year was Christmas, because mom and dad would put the tree up and we would position all of our army men and all of our action figures in the tree.

We would have a full-on war in that tree.

But the problem was is we'd often lose them in the tree.

They would just kind of disappear, because we had one of those trees where you had to put on each little branch, like you had the little red tag and the green tag.

So after Christmas it was like a second Christmas, because we'd take down the Christmas tree and we'd find all of our GI Joes.

It was great.

Legos Anybody Lego people Okay, anybody still Lego people.

Now they make like Legos for adults.

It's fun.

You spend like $100.

Oh, it's expensive.

You hundred dollars to?

Oh it's expensive.

You can build the Eiffel Tower.

Yeah, you want me to get you set for Christmas?

No, you don't want to do a Lego.

No, you don't have the time.

Legos and if you didn't do Legos, you played with these Lincoln Logs.

You could build the nicest cabin out of those Lincoln Logs.

Lincoln Logs, I think, are still a thing.

Jeff, for VBS he built a cabin, if you remember, for VBS and he used the Lincoln Log strategy and it actually stood up there the whole week and so we got some of those.

And then there's Play-Doh.

How many of you had Play-Doh growing up?

How many of you know it tastes like salt?

Yeah, we all did it.

It still does.

You want to get a taste, chuck?

You take my word for it.

I tried a piece this morning.

It's still pretty salty.

We all had Play-Doh right, and now they have all kinds of Play-Doh sets.

You can do the Play-Doh hair shop and you can get your little scissors and everything like that.

We all had Play-Doh growing up and then, hopefully, if you had a, if you're childhood, hopefully you had one of these, mr Potato Head.

Now they have Mrs Potato Head.

You can have the whole family and you'd spend hours recreating Mr Potato Head, taking his ear and putting it where his arms should be and his eyes and different things like that.

These are all toys that supposedly make an impact on your childhood, and there's a lot of things in this world that make an impact on who we are and what we've become and what we grow into, and so I need a volunteer to come play with the Play-Doh.

Who wants to be my volunteer?

Not everybody.

You want to do it, buddy?

No, he said you want to do it.

Come on, come on up and play Play-Doh.

You didn't know you were going to get to play with Play-Doh at church, did you you?

Here we are.

I'm going to put you over here.

All right, you just get to work with that.

I need you to make like a perfectly flat circle.

Okay, you got it.

All right.

That's this is Caleb.

Everybody, say hi to Caleb.

All right, this is Caleb.

Caleb is going to make a perfectly flat circle.

He's going to make it nice and clean.

Caleb, that circle that you're going to make, that flat circle that is going to represent our life.

Okay, has everybody got it?

So what he's making is your life, it's going to represent our life, but there's a lot of things in our world that impact our life From a young age.

There are things, there are people, there are places that make an impact on us.

There are teachers, there are friends, there are family that make an impact on us.

And so, caleb, you got that circle done, all right, perfect.

Now, what I want you to do, there are things that we see in this world that make an impact on our lives.

So I want you to take Mr Potato's eyes out.

You pop those out, just pluck them right out.

You got it, okay.

I want you to just press them into that Play-Doh, just kind of make an indent.

No, no, no, no, with the eyes, with the eyes, turn them around.

There you go, there you go.

Good job, good job.

You can just leave them in there too, if you want.

Just like that, I'm gonna move that so people can see you playing with your Play-Doh, all right.

Then there are things that people say that impact our life.

You know, people say hurtful things and those are things that when you hear them, they kind of hurt, right, when someone says something against you, and so it hurts.

So I want you to take that mouth off of Mr Potato Head and you're going to do the same thing.

You're just going to kind of press that into that Play-Doh there.

All right, here you go.

So people can speak negatively and it can make an impact on our life.

We hear things, there's music, there's TV, there's things All these different things that make an impact on us, that we can hear.

So we take one of those ears, just kind of press it down into that Play-Doh.

There are people that we come into contact with that make an impact on our life and so, caleb, I want you to take one of the hands off, take that and just kind of press that down into the play-doh as well.

There's a lot of things that make an impact on our lives.

There are people that we walk with, that we spend this life with.

So I think one of those shoes will pop off.

We're just going to completely disassemble.

There you go, just press that in anywhere you can fit.

All right, you got it.

Can you try to like peel that off of that table and show everybody what it looks like.

Yeah, something like that.

Okay, good deal.

Now, caleb, I want you to pull every one of those items off of that.

Okay, very good, now show everybody.

Is it still a perfectly flat surface?

No, because it's been impacted.

There's been things that's happened to it.

That has impacted it.

Very good, you can set that Play-Doh down.

You can have a seat.

I might use you in a little bit.

Everybody say thank you to Caleb.

We're going to jump into our story today.

We're actually picking up right where we left off last week.

We're going to be in Acts, chapter 19, verses 17 through 19.

Acts 19:17–19

This is what we read for scripture reading this morning, and we talked a little bit about this at the end of last week.

It says so Ananias went and found Saul.

He laid his hands on him and said Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road, has sent me so that you might regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Not only are you going to get your sight, but you're going to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Instantly, something like scales fell from Saul's eyes and he regained his sight, and then he got up and was baptized.

Afterwards he ate some food and regained his strength.

So Saul has this come to Jesus moment, literally, where Jesus stops him on the road, stops him in his life, stops him in his tracks.

And, if you remember, we talked about last week his goal at this point, when he was walking to Damascus, was to arrest and persecute Christians.

And he has this come to Jesus moment where he has a conversation with Jesus and it leads to this moment when Ananias accepts the call to go speak to Saul, accepts the call to speak to Saul, saul pledges loyalty to King Jesus and he's baptized.

There's many different illustrations that we can use for baptism.

Oftentimes, you may hear Mark talk about it as a wedding ceremony.

That baptism is like a wedding ceremony.

One of my college friends, when he talks about baptisms, he says it's like a time, a moment of pledging loyalty to King Jesus.

And so here's what Saul is doing in this moment loyalty to King Jesus.

And so here's what Saul is doing in this moment Saul is deciding for the first time in his life that his life is all about King Jesus.

What's it mean to be loyal?

That's a question.

Give me a definition for loyalty Anybody, anybody.

Okay, let's do this then.

All right.

Being a Browns fan, I was going to get a little more touchier subject.

I was going to say many of us are loyal to the Ohio State Buckeyes and so, even though last night they disappointed us, this morning you still woke up a what A Buckeye fan, because that's loyalty.

And so what Saul is doing here is he's declaring that he is loyal to King Jesus, no matter what happens next.

I'm loyal to Jesus.

We keep reading here.

Here's what happens as we continue through our story.

It says Saul stayed with the believers in Damascus for a few days and immediately he began preaching about Jesus in the synagogue, saying he is indeed the Son of God.

All who heard him were amazed.

Isn't this the same man that caused such devastation among Jesus' followers in Jerusalem?

They asked and didn't he come here to arrest them and take them in chains to the leading priest?

He come here to arrest them and take them in chains to the leading priest.

Saul accepts Jesus as his Savior and then he immediately starts doing what Sharing it with everybody else.

He pledges loyalty to the king and then he goes and shares with everybody about the king.

Here's something we learned from Saul Once I declare Jesus, I'm free to share Jesus, and I think many times as Christians we think we kind of have to level up or we have to get promoted before we can start telling somebody about Jesus.

But I think some of the most positive and most encouraging moments is when a new Christian shares with other people why they're choosing to pledge loyalty to Jesus.

And so we see this with Saul.

He immediately has his life impacted by Jesus and it happens in such a way that he has to go share it with other people.

But here's the issue yes, he pledges loyalty to King Jesus, but the world will challenge loyalty to King Jesus.

But the world will challenge that loyalty.

The world is going to challenge that loyalty Immediately as he starts preaching and teaching about Jesus.

What are the people saying?

Isn't this that guy?

This is this dude we heard about.

This is the guy that was coming to arrest and persecute people.

This is the guy that had all of these ill intentions of when he came here, because when we pledge loyalty to King Jesus, satan's going to throw everything at you he can.

Satan isn't happy when we pledge loyalty to Jesus, because that means Satan is losing.

Here's what happens.

After a while, some of the Jews plotted together to kill him.

So Saul is now the persecuted instead of the persecutor.

At one moment, just a few days before, saul was the guy persecuting Christians.

And now, real quickly, in just a quick moment, after a few days before, saul was the guy persecuting Christians.

And now, real quickly, in just a quick moment, after accepting Jesus, we find out that Saul is now being persecuted for his faith.

There's people that didn't believe that he had changed.

We keep reading in our story.

This morning we get to Acts, chapter 9, verse 26.

Acts 9:26

It says when Saul arrived in Jerusalem, he tried to meet with the believers, but they were all afraid of him.

They did not believe that he had truly changed.

Saul tries to do the right thing.

He's a new Christian, so he thinks he needs to be around who Other Christians?

And so he gets this mindset in his head.

He has a calling to get to the church, to get to the disciples.

But he gets to the disciples and what happens?

They're afraid of him.

The same people that have accepted that Jesus changed their lives are unsure if God could really change his life.

Isn't that sad?

This is a sad part of the story you have the disciples, the followers of Jesus, have adapted the worldview of Saul, because through the world, saul was a killer, he was a persecutor, he was an evil, angry guy that you didn't want to be around.

But the church, the disciples, started to believe what the world thought.

Does that make sense?

They're afraid.

Now, are they right to be afraid?

It's like a hard subject Because, like, would I be afraid?

Yes, I'm a scaredy cat, so I'd be afraid.

This guy, you know and here's something we talked about at the 830 service he's going back to Jerusalem.

He's already been there persecuting Christians before, and so maybe some of these disciples have had their brothers or sisters persecuted by this man.

So there's some connection there that this could be really hard for them.

But as the church, as the followers of Jesus, aren't they supposed to be the ones that say come on, brother Saul?

But the problem is is oftentimes we as the church allow the worlds to impact the way that we view people.

I listened to a podcast this week.

It was a deep podcast about a really crazy situation of how God worked in this family dynamic situation.

But in this you start to hear a story of a girl who is struggling with identity, which is a common thing in today's world.

She's struggling with her identity and what her purpose is and what she was created to be.

And she grew up in the church and she said as I struggled with my identity, I felt a strong calling to run to the church.

She's struggling with her identity, but she feels God calling her to the church.

She feels God telling her that she needs to run and find a Savior.

And she's talking about this.

As she's talking about struggling with identity, she has not done anything yet.

She's not committed any kind of harm or anything like that or any sin.

She's just struggling with the idea of her identity.

But she feels this pull to go to the church and find a Savior.

But guess what happens when she gets to the church?

She's treated with negativity and judgment.

And she says she said I tried, I felt the calling of God to go find a Savior and go to the church, she said, but when I got there, I was reached with negativity and judgment.

And you know what she did?

She left.

She left the church and she joined a different community.

She joined the community that was loving towards her.

Now you have to go on and listen to the whole podcast and I can give it to you if you want, because it is crazy how God is going to work in this situation.

She now serves at a church with her husband, helping people identify in Christ, so thankfully they found another church.

But so many times we allow the world to impact our thoughts on people and we push that on the community and the outside world.

Does that make sense?

And so this is what Saul is experiencing.

He's following Jesus, he's found Jesus, he's found a Savior and he's trying to get with his community.

And when he gets there they say I don't know, big guy, I don't know if you can join the crew.

You struggled with that.

We didn't quite struggle with that.

We were over here struggling with this, and that's a little different.

And so this morning we're going to take just a few minutes.

How do we overcome the impact of the world?

How do we overcome this?

What did Paul do?

What did Saul do?

How did he overcome the impact of the world?

The first thing is he understood and knows the impact of Christ.

What's really neat and powerful as we start to read about Saul and his journey and his faith.

It's really neat because you know that Paul goes on to write a lot of the New Testament, and so you really get to see this story play out.

And he goes on to write a lot of the New Testament.

And so you really get to see this story play out.

And he goes on to write this in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17.

2 Corinthians 5:17

He says this means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person.

The old life has gone and the new life has begun, and so when we're in Christ, every day we start new.

You heard Woody use the illustration for years that God's love is like a windshield wiper right, that when we're baptized into Christ, that God's love will continually wipe away our sins.

Well, also, when we think about the impact of the world, each and every day, because of God's forgiveness, we get to start new.

But yes, there's going to be things that impact us, but that we are made new.

And Paul understood that, saul understood that.

And when you understand that, it changes everything Because you're no longer a child of enter your sin.

Okay, so there's no blank, it's not popping up there.

This is where you take this personal.

You're no longer a child of addiction.

You're no longer a child of abuse.

You're no longer a child of lust.

You're no longer a child of guilt, you're no longer a child of shame.

You're no longer a child of anger, of frustration, of gluttony, of jealousy Enter whatever it is for you.

You're no longer a child of that.

You're a child of God, and Saul understood that, thankfully, and he's able to get through this moment.

But so many times in our life we allow our sin to control and define who we are.

Some of us walked in here this morning feeling more like a child of sin than we did a child of God, and that's a problem.

Paul writes a very vulnerable letter in Romans, chapter 7, where he says I try to do the right thing, but I always do the wrong thing.

Romans 7 · chapter mention

Remember that passage.

It's so relatable.

I wake up every morning and I want to do the right thing, but you know what?

I do the wrong thing.

But then he goes on to write in Romans, chapter 8 that's from last week, I'm not sure why that's up there goes on to write in Romans, chapter 8, verse 1.

Romans 8 · chapter mention Romans 8:1

He says so there is no condemnation for those who belong in Christ Jesus, and because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving spirit has freed you from the power of sin.

That's the difference.

We are a child of God and it changes everything.

How do we overcome the world while we love God and love people?

That's from last week too, but it's in here again this week.

I want to read Romans, chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

Any idea who writes the book of Romans, paul?

Okay, so take that into consideration as we read through this.

This is what he writes in Romans, chapter 12, verses 1 through 2.

Romans 12:1–2

It says so.

Here's what I want you to do God helping you.

Take your everyday, ordinary life, your sleeping, eating, going to work, walking around life and place it before God as an offering.

Everything you do is for who, god.

Embracing what God does for you is the best thing that you can do for him.

Don't become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.

Instead, fix your attention on God.

You'll be changed from the inside out.

Readily recognize what he wants from you and quickly respond to it.

Unlike the culture around you always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, god brings the best out of you and develops well-informed maturity.

This is Paul.

This is Saul writing this Fall so in love with God that he's in every day of your life.

We're going to keep reading.

It says I'm speaking to you out of the deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have the responsibilities in relation to you, living then, as everyone does, in pure grace.

It is important that you not misinterpret yourself as people who are bringing this goodness to God.

No, god brings it to all of you.

The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.

In the same way, we are like the various parts of the human body.

Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around.

The body we're talking about is Christ's body of the chosen people.

Each of us find our meaning and function as a part of his body, but as a chopped off finger or cut off toe, we wouldn't amount to much, would we?

So, since we find ourself fashioned into all of these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ's body, let's just go ahead and be what we're made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other and trying to be something that we aren't.

If you preach, just preach God's message, nothing else.

If you help, just help.

Don't take over.

If you teach, stick to your teaching.

If you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don't get bossy.

If you're put into charge, don't manipulate.

If you're called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond.

If you work with the disadvantaged, don't let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them.

Keep a smile on your face.

Love from the center of who you are.

Don't it run for dear life from evil.

Hold on for dear life to good.

Be good friends who love deeply.

Practice playing second fiddle.

This is Saul writing all of this.

We're not done.

Don't burn out.

Keep yourself fueled and be aflame.

Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant.

Don't quit in hard times.

Pray all the harder.

Help needy Christians.

Be inventive in your hospitality.

Bless your enemies.

No cursing under your breath.

Laugh with your happy friends when they're happy.

Share tears when they're down.

Get along with each other, but don't be stuck up.

Make friends with nob, but don't be stuck up.

Make friends with nobodies.

Don't be the great somebody we're not done.

Don't hit back.

Discover beauty in everyone.

If you've got it in, you, get along with everybody.

Don't insist on getting even.

That's not for you to do.

I'll do the judging, says God, I'll take care of it.

We's not for you to do.

I'll do the judging, says God, I'll take care of it.

We're not done.

Our scripture tells us that if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch If he's thirsty.

Thirsty if he's thirsty.

If he's thirsty, get him a drink.

Your generosity will surprise him with goodness.

Don't let evil get the best of you.

Get the best of evil by doing good.

There it is.

That's how we're supposed to live.

Saul the persecutor develops the heart of God and writes those words Find a Barnabas, find a Barnabas.

This part of the story we didn't really pick up on yet.

But in Acts, chapter 9, when he greets the disciples in Jerusalem, he's trying to meet with them and they are a little bit afraid, they're a little bit scared of him, and so they send him away, or they try to.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

And I think about this moment where Saul's life has been flipped upside down.

He believes it.

He believes that God is working in his life and he wants to serve God to the best of his abilities.

He wants to seek out the disciples and he wants to be around other Christians.

But when he tries to do that, he's turned away and I think about, as Saul enters and leaves the room where the disciples were.

I think about all the thoughts that would have been coming to his head, thoughts of well, I tried, well, it just wasn't meant to be.

Well, if God wanted it to be, it would have happened.

Or maybe it was, you know, when I lived the other way, I didn't face these struggles.

Maybe I should just give up.

Maybe I should just get angry and persecute them.

I don't know what all thoughts were taking place, but I imagine that Saul was leaving the door and then enters Barnabas and we read what Barnabas does.

It says Then Barnabas brought him to the apostles and told them how Saul had seen the Lord on the way to Damascus and how the Lord had spoken to Saul.

He also told them that Saul had seen the Lord on the way to Damascus and how the Lord had spoken to Saul.

He also told them that Saul had preached boldly in the name of Jesus in Damascus.

I don't think that Barnabas was just talking to the disciples.

I think he was talking to Saul.

He says Saul, don't give up.

Saul, don't give up.

God's been working in your life, god's changed you, god has done miraculous things through you and he's going to continue to do them.

Don't quit.

I know the world and the world's opinion and the view and the impact of the world is hard and difficult.

Don't quit.

I envision this.

I don't know how it really unfolds, but I think about this story.

I don't know how it really unfolds, but I think about this story.

I just imagine Barnabas grabbing him by the shoulder and saying no, no, no, come back.

He joins the disciples.

He goes on to write most of this.

Barnabas said no, I've seen how God's worked in your life.

We all need a Barnabas.

We all are going to face the world.

We're all going to face hard times and difficult times where it's going to be really easy to say I'm done, I quit, I don't want to do this anymore.

But we need people in our life that grab us and say no, you got this.

Let's pray, father.

God, we thank you for our day.

God, we thank you for this morning.

God, we thank you for the way that you work in our life.

God, god, we're thankful for the way that you work through Saul and God, I pray that, as we continue to study Saul and just the life and the way that you transformed him, that we can be encouraged and know that you will work in our life, god, that you have a purpose for us, that you see us as valuable as a resource that you can use to make an impact on the kingdom, that you can use to make an impact on the kingdom.

But, god, I pray that we can trust in you and believe in you and know that you're in control.

We know that the world has a lot of things to offer.

There's a lot of things in this world that can impact us in so many different ways.

But, god, I pray that we can put our trust in you and know that you are in control.

God, I pray this morning that each and every person here knows that they are a child of God, that they don't have to be a child of their sin, they don't have to be a child of their past, but they can be a child of King Jesus and, god, I pray that we continue to know that love that you've given us.

God, I pray that we will find a Barnabas in our life, somebody that will build us up and help encourage us in our moments of weakness.

God, I pray that we can be a Barnabas to somebody this week that we'll seek out somebody and try to encourage them this week to continue to follow God.

God, thank you for each and everything you do for us.

It's in your son's name we pray, amen.

My only hope is you, From early in the morning To late at night.

My only hope is you.

My only peace is you, Jesus.

My only peace is you, Jesus.

My only peace is you, From early in the morning to late at night.

My only peace is you.

My only joy is you, Jesus.

My only joy is you, From early in the morning Till late at night.

My only joy is you.

I have a maker.

He formed my heart Before even time began.

My life was in His hand.

He knows my name.

He knows my every thought.

He sees each tear that falls and hears me when I call.

I have a Father.

He calls me His own.

He'll never leave me, no matter where I go I go.

He knows my name.

He knows my every thought.

He sees each tear that falls and hears me when I call.

He hears me when I call.