But Now...

Yes, I want to share with you today a very powerful and significant message that Paul preached in Athens.

But let me back up a little bit and just explain a little bit about who Paul was, because he is a significant character in the New Testament and has a very unique, as we all do, very unique life.

He was actually born in Tarsus in Asia Minor, which is what we would call Turkey nowadays, along the coast, a seaport, but part of the Roman colony in those days.

And his parents must have been very significant in the Roman world there, because when he was born, he became, as his parents were, Roman citizens.

But he was a Jew.

So he's already a very unique individual in the Roman Empire.

In order to get his education, his parents sent him to Jerusalem, the best education of the day.

And he sat at the feet of the best rabbis.

At the time that this troublemaker, Jesus, was journeying around Jerusalem and what we call the Holy Land.

He was caught up in all the fervor, all the zealot actions of the Pharisees, especially and the Sadducees, who were so angry at Jesus.

And after the crucifixion and resurrection, Paul joined in the other leadership in Jerusalem to try to take out these Christians.

We can read about this early part of his life in the stoning of Stephen, the first martyr for the faith, in the book of Acts.

And Paul was there holding the robes of those who were throwing the stones and killing Stephen.

Later he got permission from the high priest in Jerusalem to travel to Damascus to hunt down these Christians and conduct a trial or worse.

On the road to Damascus, he had his lightning bolt experience.

He had one of those dramatic encounters with the living Lord.

And he was thrown to the ground, was blinded, and he heard words spoken to him saying, Saul, Saul, which was his Hebrew name, Saul, why do you persecute me?

And he said, Who are you, Lord?

And he said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.

Stand on your feet, and I'll tell you what you must do.

The subsequent words define Paul's life.

They're found, and I've asked that that be put on the screen, in Acts chapter 26.

Acts 26 · chapter mention

He said, I'm delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.

Now that commission, we call it the vision that he got from Paul, is extraordinarily significant.

Because from that moment on, Saul became a one who studied all he could about the Lord Jesus to fulfill that commission.

He journeyed throughout the known world in that day to open people's eyes, not physical eyes, he would later get his sight back, but spiritual eyes, the eyes of our heart, just like we were just praying.

And what did that mean?

Jesus was very, very clear.

He said, Saul, I want you to turn people from darkness to light, from Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness and sanctification.

That is a place of holiness in me.

That's rather specific, don't you think?

So, in some places he planted churches, in some places he he discipled and taught.

In many places he preached, and he journeyed and journeyed and journeyed.

When he got back to Jerusalem, the apostles were not happy that he was there.

He had already been known as a public persecutor of the church.

And to be honest, they sent him back to Tarsus.

They did just what we would do with troublemakers: go home.

Later, a very famous leader in the church, Barnabas, who had been a Hebrew priest and became part of the close network of the early apostles, he contacted Saul, Paul, and said, Come join me.

Let's do ministry together.

They then went on a mission trip through Turkey, area they would be very familiar with, preaching in the synagogues, seeking to establish a company of believers who could then share the faith in that community, and they could go on.

He then went on a second missionary trip, and I've asked that the map of this trip be put on.

You see over on the right side is where Jerusalem is, Caesarea.

He was home-based at this point in Antioch in Syria, up to the 3 o'clock position on the map.

He journeyed through Tarsus, his hometown, back through Derby, Lystra, and continued on his way.

Got over to the Aegean Sea, where the Lord spoke to him and said, actually, it was in a vision that he got at night, and said, and it was a soldier dressed as a European, a Macedonian, said, Come over here.

So he journeyed across the north part of the Aegean Sea, that's Macedonia, into places that were made famous in his journeys.

Philippi, Paul's letter to the Philippians, Thessalonica, Paul's letters to the Thessalonians.

He eventually journeyed down from Macedonia into the Achaea region and down into Athens.

See where Athens is down in the southwestern portion of the Aegean Sea.

Athens was a major city.

We might say by this point, the major city in Greece at this time.

There were approximately a half a million people there in Athens at the time Paul arrived.

I now want to pick up the story in Acts chapter 17, and that's where we're going to be.

Acts 17 · chapter mention

So if you have your Bibles with you or your phones, we'll be having the passages up there on the screen.

And we're going to pick up in Acts chapter 17, verse 16.

Acts 17:16

Paul was waiting for his friends, Silas and Timothy, who were still up north.

He was waiting for them to join him in Athens.

His spirit was provoked within him as he saw the city was full of idols.

So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day, with those who happened to be there.

Now, this is a picture of what Athens looks like today.

And yes, this is the Acropolis, the hill that overlooks Athens, and up on the top was the Parthenon and many other temples.

These are the ruins you'll see if you go to Athens today.

This is what he is seeing everywhere he goes.

You see, the Greeks had a whole lot of gods and goddesses, as you probably know.

And though the Romans had come and conquered Greece, the Romans thought the Greek gods sounded really good, so they just gave him some new names.

It was essentially the same collection.

There were twelve gods that were the primary gods in the Greek, what's called the Pantheon, the Greek collection of gods.

And you've heard a lot of them, Zeus, who was supposedly the king god, and Athena, who was the goddess of Athens, and there's all sorts of stories about them, Poseidon, the god of the sea, and Aphrodite, and all sorts of these major gods and goddesses, but there were hundreds of gods and goddesses for anything and everything in life, and temples were all over Athens, including upon the heights, the big temple, the Parthenon, devoted to Athena.

That's what Paul found himself in when he got to Athens.

You can imagine vastly different than his life that he'd had.

But he's now in Europe, and he's not going to be primarily with Jews.

He's speaking to folks like most of us who do not have a Jewish background, but were the Gentiles, were everybody else.

And he's seeing that they worship all of these gods and goddesses.

And it's he's baffled by it, and we're told that he was troubled in his spirit.

He felt so bad for these people that they didn't understand truth.

Let me just pause for a moment and make it a little bit more complicated and maybe a little bit more personal for us today.

Jill and I were there just a few weeks ago as we go up onto the Acropolis, and as they're explaining to us all these temples and who they were for and all the rest of it, and they mentioned this big one, the Parthenon, this temple to Athena, they mentioned that a portion of the building was the city bank.

Look at him and said, What?

We went to other places in our travels, and there were often vaults for offerings for the gods and goddesses of their day.

But the Bank of Athens was in the same building as their primary worship.

So 2,500 years ago, did the Greeks understand that there's a somehow a spiritual connection with money and worship?

The seductive nature of money?

Did they get that?

Is that what Jesus is referring to when he says no one can serve both God and man or money?

God and money or mammon?

That throughout Jesus' teachings and parables, he's talking about how money can be seductive and get our attention.

Is that why we all we still today struggle with our use of money?

Because it has some kind of a deep root to it that wants to take control of our thoughts and our hearts.

Don't know, but we were staggered that in this beautiful temple, inside that was the bank.

Now let me raise another one with you, and yes, I'll celebrate with many of you here.

Tennessee won yesterday.

We're very happy about that.

I see some of you have worn orange and Micah, well done, great cheering.

But when we got to other places, like we went to Olympia, which is where they had the first Olympics in 1776 BC, they apparently felt that competitive sports were also closely connected to the spirit life.

So all of the athletes in the Olympics had temples, literally 50 temples to their gods.

And in order to enter out on the racetrack, they first made their offering to the God that they were serving in their running.

So 2,800 years ago, did the Greeks somehow understand that there's some spiritual connection with competitive sports?

No, we wouldn't say that.

We certainly don't get excited about sports, do we?

Not like the excitement we have for Jesus, right?

What I'm just saying is some things have been around a long, long time and have been a trouble for people for a long, long time.

And Paul understood that and he was troubled by that.

So, as he's speaking, some of the Epicurean, and I'm continuing in verse 18, some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him.

And some said, What does this babbler wish to say?

Others said, He seems to be a preacher of foreign deities, because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.

And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new teaching is that you're presenting?

For you speak some strange things in our ears.

We wish to know, therefore, what these things mean.

Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who live there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.

Let's pause here for a moment.

We're still setting the stage for what he's about to preach on this major platform.

There's some philosophers there as well, if they aren't confused enough by all of their gods and goddesses.

They had major philosophies in their day, the Epicureans and the Stoics.

The Epicureans were people that wanted to just enjoy life.

Their commitment was good food, good drink, good times.

They just wanted to be happy.

And leave all these troubles behind.

That can be for somebody else.

You know, reminds me of times I've met over the years with couples getting ready for a premarriage counseling, and I ask them what are their goals in life, and they say, I just want to be happy.

Don't we all?

You know, happiness is like chasing after the wind, isn't it?

It's there for a moment, on circumstances, then it's gone.

Jesus, just pause for a moment.

Another rabbit trail.

Uh Jesus talks about joy.

He talks about joy a lot.

That's the inner reality of a relationship with Him.

But happiness, nothing in Scripture is about being happy.

It's too fleeting.

But they were committed to that.

They just wanted to be happy.

The other group were the Stoics.

The Stoics were committed to a disciplined life.

If you do things right, you follow the rules, you live a good life, and avoid all of those things that might cause us anxiety or tension.

We certainly don't want anger.

So you may find it interesting that historically the Stoics avoided politics.

How did they know that back then?

So here we are.

We've got people who want to be happy and just be left alone so they can be happy.

We've got others who think that their life goal is to just follow the rules and live a good life, and maybe you'll be good enough.

Sadly, I'll admit to you, I've had people on their deathbed turn to me and say, Fred, I hope I've been good enough.

And after spending my life as a pastor, I want to weep.

How could you think that means anything?

So, in the midst of all of this, you've got gods and goddesses, you've got banking, you've got sports, you've got trying to be happy and trying to live a good life.

Paul steps in with a message about Jesus.

And what do they first call him?

A babbler.

The word in the Greek means he's like a chicken who picks up seeds and spits them out without swallowing them.

That is, they're putting him down, saying he's obviously talking about things that he hasn't thought about, and it makes no sense whatsoever.

In that environment, he asked them to come to the Areopagus.

Now, another picture.

Yeah, we were there.

We really were.

I could show you 350 other pictures of Athens, but let's go on.

This is up on the top of the Acropolis.

Next picture.

Uh that is actually from the Acropolis, looking where where that panthe the temples were, looks down over the hill, and that little stone cropping.

It's called Mars Hill.

That is actually the Areopagus.

That's where Paul was taken.

No big temple, no big building.

It was hundreds of years before Paul got there, used for judicial decisions.

But it's where the most educated people would go, sit on the stone, and discuss things.

And yes, about a stone's throw from the Acropolis.

In fact, we asked our guide, I said, I said to her, Are you going to be taking us to the Areopagus?

And she said, How do you know about the Areopagus?

And I went, that's what I do.

And she said, Well, as a matter of fact, let me show you.

And she walked over to the edge of the of the temple area and she said, That hill right there, that's the Areopagus.

I have to admit, Jill and I were a little disappointed.

Thought there'd be a big church or something there.

No, just a rock.

And she said, But our tour is going back to the hotel because it's our first day.

You can stay here if you want.

Go down this path and you can be there.

So we did.

Next picture.

Paul was standing on this rock, and that wasn't his background.

In other words, this may be the most significant sermon in the Bible.

We could say maybe Peter's in Acts chapter 2, but that was to the Jews that had come to Jerusalem.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

He's now speaking to the public.

People with all these opinions about life.

Sounds like Americans.

Everybody's got a different opinion about what matters in life.

It's not any fancy place.

He's not gotten a big stage.

Except he's got the biggest stage on the planet.

He's now in Europe, probably one of the most educated people of his day.

And they're all sitting at his feet as he reads these words.

And yeah, to be honest with you, it's hard for me to share with you.

Because three weeks ago, I stood on those rocks, and I read the words you're about to hear.

And I read them aloud.

As my wife Jill and our friends Dave and Kathy, we got teary-eyed too.

Because these words changed the world.

You ready?

This is what he said.

Paul standing in the midst of the Areopagus said, Men of Athens, I perceive that in everywhere you are very religious.

For I passed along and observed the objects of your worship.

I found also an altar with this inscription to the unknown God.

What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.

You see, in the midst of all the chaos of life, he said, When I was walking here, you had this little altar area, and it was just said to an unknown God, I want to tell you what that's about.

Now, for some of us in the room, it may seem like that today, with all the interest, all the activities, all the things to think about, everything that social media and Washington and amusement and entertainment and Hollywood and everybody tell us about what's important.

I want to speak to you about something else.

Something far more significant.

To someone who may actually be unknown to you or to some of your friends.

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place that they should seek God and perhaps feel their way towards him and find him.

You see, he apparently is affirming them and saying, I can see you're very religious.

He said, I can see that.

But I want to talk about the one that you don't know.

He is the God of all of us.

He said, He said, You notice what he's doing?

He's saying, it's not me the Jew and you everybody else.

And it's not you, the Stoics, and you the Epicureans.

He's not saying, you those who worship Athena and you who worship Zeus and you who worship whoever.

He says, no, we're all one.

And he has given us four purposes in life.

Four, if you will, foundational ways that we then get into what true meaning is all about.

He says, first, he's given us an allotted time.

We are born and we pass.

He has done that.

It's not ours.

Except to use for him.

We can't control when we're born, we can't control when we die.

He's given us those times.

He's given us the boundaries, we're told, the second thing, the boundaries of our dwelling.

So for now, here we are in Woodstock.

Here we are.

And in this stage of life, this is the boundary we've got.

Yeah, maybe in weeks to come we might be in another part of the country, another part of the planet, but he establishes those boundaries for us.

That's the second thing he gives us.

The third thing he gives us.

He says, is to feel our way towards him.

Perhaps he says, feel our way towards him, perhaps.

That if we recognize that there really is one who may be unknown to us at a moment, but we can feel our way to him.

It's interesting because he has in that wording that he uses the doubt whether we'll actually find him.

Perhaps we'll feel our way.

The language is used to by the prophets to grope along like a wall in the darkness in the hopes that you come into the light.

He says, yeah, everybody comes to realize that you have to kind of figure out what life is really all about.

Now, while he's preaching this, Christians around the world are coming to understand there's actually four ways we find our way towards him.

I'm sure you know the four, but I'll just remind you of them.

They're contained in Acts 2.42.

Devoted to the Word of God.

If you want to find God, you need to read the Word, right?

Say yes, I believe.

Yeah, come on.

Hallelujah or something.

Raise your hand, somebody.

There we go.

Okay.

We read the Bible.

And to be honest with you, if you're reading the Bible four days a week, you have a biblical worldview.

You're one of only 6% of Americans right now.

If you're not reading the Bible four days a week.

Studies have shown I'm not pointing the finger at you, my family.

I'm not going to point my finger at you.

Studies have shown if people are not reading the Bible four days a week, they don't see things through the eyes of faith.

There's too many other forces in our lives right now.

How's that?

Second, we devote ourselves to one another.

We hear how God speaks to our lives as we hear how God speaks through one another.

We devote ourselves to the Lord's Supper in the context of worship.

That was the third thing.

We devote ourselves to what goes on here, these amazing musicians who take us into his presence and then lead us into the bread and the cup.

That's how we find God.

And yes, the fourth one?

Where?

That's how we find God.

Now, Christians had already discovered that, but he's talking to a group of people, they don't understand those four disciplines at all.

So they're like perhaps going along a wall.

And maybe many of us here are the same way.

All of us have been there at some time in our lives trying to figure out what is this life all about?

I used to think it was about flying aircraft.

I really did.

I mean, really?

We've all been there.

We've all been confused, perhaps finding our way.

But then the fourth thing he says is that this God actually wants us to find him.

So this time of uncertainty unknown isn't going to last forever.

Ah.

So if you're talking to some teens or some kids and they're a little confused about what life really matters, that really the most important thing is not what grades they get.

Not really.

Really isn't the most important if they get first in their sports?

Not really.

Then you might just say that, well, you know, all of us are on a journey and we try to find them.

And the way Christians do is through the Bible and through fellowship with other believers and through the Lord's Supper in worship and through prayer.

So that's what we encourage our young people to consider.

But Paul goes on and takes it further.

He doesn't keep it just in the philosophical way.

He says, yet he is actually not far from each one of us.

And then he quotes the Greek philosophers, not the Bible, these folks don't know the Bible.

He says, For in him we live and move and have our being.

He tells him, we're already connected to this God.

He's already with us.

He's quoting a philosopher from two centuries before.

And he says, as even some of your poets have said, we are indeed his offspring.

You know, not only is he going to be challenging all these Athenians with the mystery of Jesus, he's affirming them.

He's saying, look, I know you're religious, but there's something you don't yet know.

And I know you're seeking to find God, but your folks have already said he's right here with us.

We're already connected to him.

He goes on and says this.

Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is made like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the arts and imagination of man.

You can imagine at this point he's pointing up the hill to the Acropolis, to all those temples, and he says, You can't really believe the God of the universe is there, do you?

He's not from our own creation.

He says, the times of ignorance God has overlooked.

But now.

He commands all people everywhere to repent.

But now.

All of us get in a time of ignorance.

We think we're going to figure it out.

We're going to figure ourselves out.

We're going to make sense of this crazy stuff we call life.

And Paul says to all of them, with all of their different perspectives of life, he says, yes, we've all been living in a time of ignorance.

And Paul could certainly say, as I did, but now.

What's the name of this message?

But now.

It's time.

It's time for each one of us, wherever we've been on this journey, whether we've been walking with him for a long time or a short time or not yet, but now.

Take the first step.

Just repent.

Acknowledge that we haven't figured it all out yet.

We never will.

I know you hear it say it a lot.

We hear it all the time in America.

You've got to find yourself.

And we look inside.

And we somehow think the truth will just be inside if we work hard enough.

And we point our fingers, if we're not careful, at everybody else, and say, if I just didn't have them in my life, I'd be all set.

And Paul is saying to these people with all their different opinions, he's saying, folks, repent.

Truth isn't on the inside, it's on the outside.

You want truth?

You're going to find it in the one who's made you, who's given you time and boundaries and hunger in your heart to seek for him.

And yes, if you do, you'll find him.

And then you'll know.

Because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all of us.

By raising him from the dead.

In other words, Paul's very clear to these Athenians.

I'm not giving you another theory.

I'm not giving you another way to understand something that it might be a little clearer.

He's saying, God has given us the proof that everything now has changed.

Jesus risen from the dead.

We can live a new life.

What's the word of repentance mean?

It means that we just turn and we say, God, I'm sorry, I need to do this.

I was with a couple just recently.

And I said, I know for a lot of us Americans, we have so much pain in our lives that we're just trying to hold it together.

We're just trying to survive and make another day.

Time to step into something new because that doesn't work.

That's right.

It doesn't work.

God has so much more for us than just surviving.

He wants us to say, I'm going to turn and do something new.

I'm going to turn and look to Jesus.

I'm going to find that if I can just turn to Jesus, then He can forgive me and I can learn how to forgive all those folks in my life who have hurt me.

Why is it that we all, so many of us, need to be on anxiety drugs when the heel of our soul is named Jesus?

That's what Paul was saying to these folks who were so confused in all the things they were hearing in the world about who they had to worship and what they had to believe and what they had to practice and what to do with banks and sports.

I mean, all of it was so overwhelming.

And Paul steps into it and says, I know you're religious, but there's someone else.

His name is Jesus.

And when you turn to Jesus, you're going to find a freedom you never knew.

You're going to find truth.

And oh yes, dear Athenians.

Oh yes, dear Americans.

It's not you're earning his love.

He already loves you.

That's what blew them away.

This God was not waiting for them to make yet one more sacrifice that they'd be good enough.

Not to follow one more rule, not to step away from life so they could be happy enough.

None of that.

Accept this gift of forgiveness and love.

Accept this gift of righteousness and truth.

Accept this gift that God has a plan and purpose for each of us.

And we find it by going to our Maker.

We find it by going to our Redeemer.

And then we get filled with the Spirit, and everything's new.

What do we call this life?

He's introducing to them.

It's a life of grace.

As a teenager taught me many years ago, God's riches at Christ's expense.

God's riches at Christ's expense.

Oh.

This was the message.

That first day, a couple folks believed right away and said, We're with you, Paul.

What do we do?

And then it spread through Athens.

Within a few days, if you keep reading the chapter, he goes across to Corinth, spends a year and a half in Corinth teaching them.

Our guide, by the way, said, to understand the difference between Athens and Corinth, Athens used to be Harvard, Corinth was Las Vegas.

And Paul was smart enough to cover it all.

But his message never changed.

We will never be happy apart from Jesus.

It's a pipe dream.

We will never be good enough except when we accept Jesus.

We never will.

We'll never figure out life apart from going to the one who has made us and redeemed us.

So I brought a guest here to close.

His name is Corky.

Can you see him?

He's got a little, a little, see a little nice little face, big smile.

Do you see Corky?

As I was praying about our time together, I don't know why, but uh at least I didn't initially, I said, Lord, why do I need to bring Corky?

And uh it was like us.

You see, Corky is called Corky because his head's just a cork.

And he's actually empty.

And if Corky tried to figure out life by himself, he would probably think that his purpose is to just keep a smile on and pretend that everything's okay and just sit on the shelf.

And then maybe sometimes he'd realize that someone comes along and puts a charger, a phone charger, on his head, because that's where I keep my Apple phone charger to charge my watch.

So he might think that's his purpose.

It's not.

It's not even just to sit on the shelf.

Do you know what I made Corky for?

And in fact, the only one who would know is the one who made him, and that's me.

You want to guess?

It's hard to know, isn't it?

And that's why, apart from Jesus, we ought to be very careful about what we tell people their purpose in life is, even our own children.

I remember my youngest when he was uh, honey, what was Kevin, about 10 or so, maybe eight.

He said to me, Dad, what's my purpose in life?

And yes, my first thought was, Oh, I finally have a chance to tell him.

And I fortunately faith kicked in.

And I said, son, whatever God wants you to be is your purpose.

And he said, Well, how do I find that out?

And I said, Well, you ask him.

And he said, Well, I have asked him, and he hasn't told me.

What do I do until he tells me?

And I said, Enjoy third grade.

He's now a nurse and essenceist.

He's the guy who puts us to sleep, but then fortunately is there to wake us up.

He finally found his purpose.

Purpose of Corky.

I made him to carry communion wine.

Because when I go to take communion to the sick, they need to see a smile.

And sometimes I don't yet have one when I go in the room.

Like my friend this past week, who asked if I could bring her the Lord's Supper.

And as we sat, as I sat down with her, she started talking about all the trips she'd been on recently.

And then I said to her, What are we really here for?

She said, I've got cancer.

I said, Let's pray.

And let's break bread together.

I suspect no one in this room would guess what Corky was for.

But I know because I made him.

The only way you're gonna understand your purpose in life, just like those Athenians 2,000 years ago, was to go to Jesus.

I'm not talking about religious activity.

It's not just going to church.

As a friend of mine said a long time ago, going to church and thinking you're gonna become a Christian is like going in a garage and thinking you're gonna become a car.

It doesn't work that way.

Because the Lord's looking for heart, isn't he?

He's looking for a mind that's yielded to him.

A mind that starts by repenting and saying, Lord, I'm sorry I'm trying to figure out life without you.

My brothers and sisters, our culture is wrong.

It's driving you away from the Lord as it tries to drive Jill and me away.

Truth will not be found inside.

You don't have to find yourself.

You have to find Jesus.

And once you snuggle up with Jesus, you're gonna find you are more wonderful than you ever imagined.

And why have you had to suffer so much?

It's making you stronger.

It's making you ready for what he's got for you next.

And it's a wonderful gift he has because it includes his glory, it includes his victory, it includes a life where we don't have to be anxious because he isn't anxious, and we're just staying with him.

This was the message that Paul preached on that hill 2,000 years ago.

It's still the same message.

Look for Jesus.

Repent and discover that the life that is ours through the Holy Spirit.

Should we pray?

Aren't you glad I didn't talk about sex once?

Let's pray.

Blessed and Holy Father, we don't want empty lives.

We don't want to think we're clever or smarter.

We just want to walk with you.

We humbly pray, Lord, for the outpouring of your Holy Spirit.

That that which is of you that we've heard this day would be written deep within the heart and mind of each of us.

And that we could then share that hope, that truth, that love, that grace with family and friends alike.

Strangers too.

Lord, forgive us when we've been wrong.

Bless us when we're right.

And all for your glory, Lord Jesus, in whose name we pray.

Amen.