In his sermon titled 'Preparation, Commission, & Transition,' Peter Allison discusses the themes of preparation, commissioning, and transition as seen in the book of Acts. The sermon highlights how the apostles, initially fearful after Jesus' crucifixion, were transformed into the foundation of the Church through the Holy Spirit's power. Allison emphasizes the continuity of the Gospel message from the Old Testament to the New Testament, underscoring the seamless transition from Jesus' earthly ministry to the apostolic foundation of the Church. He also explores the significance of Theophilus, suggesting he may have been a converted high priest, and examines archaeological evidence that supports early Gospel dissemination. The sermon concludes with a call for the modern Church to embrace the power of the Holy Spirit in advancing the Gospel, emphasizing the internal transformation and external impact of the Kingdom of God.

To the Bibles, to the book of Acts, I had intended this week to mention that we were going to be in Acts. I intended yesterday to send out a note that we would be in Acts. Then I thought last night, I forgot, I'll do it the first thing when I get up. And I didn't. So, apologies if this is the first time you are hearing that we are in Acts.

But We had finished Luke and had taken a short stay through the book of Amos. Short trip and we are now coming back to the Acts of the Apostles. So please give your attention to the Word of God. I'd like to read the first 11 verses, but we'll primarily be looking at the first couple. The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which He was taken up, after He, through the Holy Spirit, had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.

And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which He said you have heard from Me, for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. Therefore when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And He said to them, it is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come to you. And you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth." Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven?

This same Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven." Blessed are those who hear this word of the Lord and keep it. Almighty Father in Heaven, thank You for preserving Your Word and bringing it to us this morning. We thank You that You have preserved it infallibly. May I ask, Lord, that your word which is powerful living and powerful That it that this sharp two-edged sword may sift the very thoughts and intents of our hearts And I asked that you would sanctify my sinful lips this morning, that they may proclaim this Gospel of the grace of God in Christ. In Jesus' name, Amen.

After Jesus' crucifixion and His appearing, where the Gospel of Luke ends, The disciples were a shattered group of very fearful men who were terrified just by Jesus appearing in their midst. They had trouble, you remember, believing that the person standing in front of them could possibly be the one who was crucified a few days earlier. But over the next forty days, there was a remarkable transformation as Jesus prepared them and commissioned them to be His witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and to the uttermost parts of the earth. These frightened and fearful men became the foundation on which the Church of Jesus Christ, whose kingdom conquered the Roman Empire in less than 300 years. These apostles became the foundation on which the Church of Jesus Christ was built along with the prophets.

And they conquered the greatest empire in the world without an army of swords and shields or tanks, but by the preaching of the Gospel, they converted the Roman Empire. Paul told the Colossians in Colossians 1 that the Gospel has come to you as it has also in all the world. The Gospel came to them, he said, as it had come to all the world. Now you might think that sometimes the world means the Roman Empire, and that could be what it means here. But Paul goes on to say, it's bringing forth fruit around the world, as it is among you since the day you heard of it.

And he goes on later in that chapter to say, "'If indeed you continue in the faith grounded and steadfast and are not moved away from the hope of the Gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven.'" It makes it a little bit harder for a world to be just the Roman Empire. Paul says it was preached, the Gospel, right into the Colossians before 70 AD, that the Gospel was preached to every creature under heaven. The Gospel of which I, Paul, became a minister. Now, sometimes we allow what we know or think we know to interpret the Bible. And this is probably one of those times where we kind of think, well, he's just speaking.

Not everybody under, not every creature under heaven heard the Gospel. That Because we think from our archaeology and our history, well, we know the Gospel didn't come over here to wherever the people were that were living in this area right now. They didn't call it Conroe back then. They called it something. And there were people.

But the Bible says that the Gospel went was preached to every creature under heaven. Every creature under heaven. That means I think it had to have gone around the world. Now, We have records of the Gospel going to England and to the pagan kings there before 60 AD. Caradoc was captured by the Romans, taken back to Rome where he was a prisoner in Caesar's house.

That was very common. A son was put to reign there. That was a very common way of ensuring some continued observance of a nation they have conquered while still allowing that nation to basically govern themselves. You keep the king in Rome, so that if the son goes astray, he has some leverage over him. Well, this man could have easily been converted.

Paul was allowed to preach the Gospel there in Caesar's house. Here's somebody who's living there for probably five or six years could have heard the Gospel went back to England. And here he's an influential king who's bringing the Gospel on people who would have believed. And there is indeed evidence of the spread of the Gospel throughout England, very, very, very early. But also, there is much archaeological evidence in the United States of things that would claim to mystify many people.

Pastor Joe Moorcraft talks about a place in West Virginia that he personally went to visit that had part of the Ten Commandments inscribed on a cliff that was obviously very ancient. There are many archaeological things that indicate that there were people living here long before we think of the Native Americans. And indeed, DNA evidence through the Y chromosome provides evidence of where branches of people moved throughout the earth. It's remarkable how this has all of a sudden popped up very, very recently, in this century in fact, with the ability to trace, to sequence the Y genome. And the fact that there are an average of three mutations per generation in this Y chromosome, you can very accurately look at the differences between two Y chromosomes and know how far back they went before they came from a single person.

You know, we all came from Noah and his sons, and they came from Adam, but we all came from Noah and his sons, and they came from Adam, but we all came from Noah and his sons. And so you can see this in both the Y-chromosomal record and in the mitochondrial DNA, both the male and the female lines. And so the evidence is indicating that there was a large migration of people into North America here, about the time of Christ. And that predates the migration of another group of people into North America that we would call, we would typically think of as the Native Americans. So we know that there are these ancient civilizations like the Mayans, and then after them, after their civilization went defunct, because they went into the human sacrifices and idol worship the same as the nations before them that God removed those kingdoms.

And like our nation seems to be doing. These nations became extinct and other cultures came along behind them. So after the Mayans came the Incas and the Aztecs. And again, very ancient civilizations that also fell into the same sins and God removed them. And so, we can't say that the Bible is true because it's proven by archaeology.

We have to say that the Bible is true regardless of what we know from the archaeological record. But This is what the Bible says. The Gospel was preached to every creature under heaven in Paul's day. And it would seem that the records that we are uncovering are consistent with that, as we would expect them to be. And so this book of Acts gives the history and the founding of this New Testament church by the apostles and the prophets.

It tells us the inauguration of the Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven that was preached in the Old Testament is coming. And so we want to look this morning at just some of these introductory matters at some of the people that are mentioned here, who they are, give some background on them, as well as this time of preparation, commissioning, and this transition from Christ being on earth and preaching that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand, to a transition to Christ not on earth anymore in the flesh, and the Kingdom of Heaven being inaugurated. There was a transition. Well, the first person here we'll look at is Jesus.

It's a former account I made of Theophilus of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach. The former account, of course, was the Gospel of Luke, written 15 years after Christ's ascension in 30 AD. So that would put the Gospel of Luke at about 45 AD. The Gospels are in sequence of their order in the New Testament. Matthew was eight years, Mark ten years, Luke fifteen, and John was thirty-two years, according to the records in the probably fifty percent of the Greek manuscripts contain that information, those colophons.

And in that former account, in the Gospel of Luke, he testified that Jesus, this Jesus here, was the Messiah, the Son of Man, the last Adam, the seed of the woman who crushed the seed of the serpent, the judge of all the earth as Abraham recognized, the seed of Abraham in whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed, the prophet like Moses from God would raise up from his brethren, the great I Am of the burning bush, the deliverer from the Egyptian furnace, The wilderness rock out of whom poured a river of living water. The kinsman redeemer of Ruth who raised up to her a godly seed. The angel of the Lord of Manoah. The greater Son of David who rules the nations with a rod of iron, and of the increase of his government, there will be no end. The Holy One of Israel, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

The Son of Righteousness who has risen with healing in His wings. The Eternal Father, the Prince of Peace, the One of Whom the Law and the Prophets all testify, is Isaiah's suffering servant by whose stripes we are healed. Jesus is the eternal Son of God who came in the flesh to save His people. He is our great High Priest who has offered of Himself a sacrifice for our sins. Jesus.

This is the Jesus that Luke refers to. Jesus, the One in whom our life is hid with God. This former account of what Jesus began to do, who He was, where He came from, And how He was the fulfillment of all these Old Testament prophecies. He was the fulfillment of all these Old Testament shadows and types. Luke, It's clear he's the author of this book because he refers to the former account that he wrote to this Theophilus.

And we know that Luke was written to Theophilus by Luke. So even though he's not named in this book, he is the author of it. And actually it's interesting that all three of the books that he wrote in the New Testament, Luke, Acts, and Hebrews, are three books that have no author attestation in them. I think almost every other book other than the Gospels are all anonymous. But all the other books I believe have authors and attestations.

So one of Luke's signature things, And I used to believe that Luke was the, or that Paul wrote Hebrews, but I really have to be reconsidering that in the light of things that some people have been showing me. And that's one indicator, That's one consistency that we see with Luke is that he does not name himself as the author. And so he refers to this former account that we've looked at, that we began looking at four years ago. And like I said, when I started four years ago with this book, I didn't see Luke as the author of Hebrews. And that brings a lot of things into play in Pester Kaiser's work following David Allen's book that argues for Luke as the author of Hebrews makes a number of observations about Luke that I think are strong evidence for him being a Levite with detailed knowledge of the temple and a detailed knowledge of Hebrew writing as a Jew then.

And I would refer you to Pastor Kaiser's message on the book of Luke for if you're interested in all the details that he brings out there regarding Luke being a Levite and a Jew. So Luke writes this account to a Theophilus. Luke's Gospel says that he wrote the first account so that Theophilus might know the certainty of those things in which he had been instructed. So I think that would indicate that Theophilus was already a believer. And Luke was writing so that he might be more strongly assured and firmly established in the truths of the Gospel.

Luke called him in the Gospel the most excellent Theophilus, using a title given to Roman nobility. When Paul addressed the Roman rulers, like Felix, Festus, and Agrippa later in Acts, he used this same word to address them. So it's a word that is reserved for Roman nobility, but it could also be used of a high priest appointed by a Roman ruler. So this is probably a Roman ruler or a high priest appointed by Rome. Theophilus was a very common name.

However, There aren't any Roman rulers by that name who could have been addressed by a title of nobility. But there was a high priest by that name since the time of Christ. Following Josephus, Usher lists Theophilus, who was the son of Ananas, as being high priest from 37 to 41 BC. He was a descendant of Aaron and a Sadducee. The Sadducees were the priestly order.

And they were very tied to Rome. And in bed with Rome as it were. This Theophilus was the brother-in-law of Caiaphas. That was the high priest under whom Jesus was crucified. His father was Ananas and he had five sons, Eliezer, Jonathan, Matthias, and Ananas, who also all served as High Priests.

And that's a very unusual thing. And so in addition, Theophilus' son Matthias served as the next to last High Priest before the temple was destroyed. So this Theophilus comes from a family of great power and influence, even after he's removed from high priests. Most of these priests only served a couple years, some even a year, and then they'd be removed. But it's clear from the fact that all of these sons of Ananas serve as high priests, and Theophilus' own son serves as the second to last high priest in the sixties, that Theophilus is a man of great influence and great importance.

And there are a number of things in Luke and Acts that fit this narrative of theophilists being a converted high priest. A converted priest. Acts 6-7 records that many priests were saved. Then the word of God spread and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith." That would fit. Of all the Gospels, you remember when we went through, we said that Luke speaks the most about the demonic more than any other gospels.

Well, that would fit as well because the Sadducees didn't believe in angels and demons and spirit beings. And so Luke is bringing this out to Theophilus because he's coming from a background that denied any spirits existed. So Luke is seeking to instruct him and make him more sure and certain in this way that he's in this faith. And that would be one area where he might have legitimate doubts and concerns. What about these spirits?

His whole life he'd been denying they existed. Luke is also the only Gospel that included the account of the rich man and Lazarus. Now why is that significant? Why would Luke put that in there? None of the other Gospel writers did.

Well, the Sadducees, you remember, didn't believe in the resurrection. Or they didn't believe that there was any conscious existence after death. And so this would be another theme area that Luke would want to bring into his ordered account of the Gospel to Theophilus. Phil Kizer and others also point out that Luke's books were written in polished Greek that would be fit for a courtroom. And so not only could These writings, Luke and Acts, be used to impart a thoroughly biblical worldview to a converted Sadducee who came to faith.

But they also provide, as these other authors point out, they also provide a defense of Christianity that's suitable for a court. The language is high and polished. And if you've ever read court documents, you know that they are very precise. They are very... You read a contract, it's ten times longer than we would say it ordinarily because they are being very precise and detailed with the language.

That's a necessary attribute of court documents. Both of these books are written in this kind of high Greek polished language. And I'd like to read what Pastor Kaiser says, how these are suitable for court. He says, Several scholars have shown that the sophisticated Greek of Luke and Acts is a legal defense of Christianity. And from the very first verses of Luke to the last verse of Acts, these books would have formed a perfect defense for an individual Christian who is being tried within a Jewish court.

Both books presuppose a sophisticated Jewish legal audience." You see, and that would fit Theophilus, a high priest who knew the temple, who knew the rights, who knew all the aspects of the temple, who was very familiar with all the Hebraisms that Luke puts in his writings. It's a lot like Job. Job is written in the same kind of Hebrew, polished Hebrew, because Job, the book of Job was a defense. Job was a king of Edom. And he was being tried by these people that were coming to him, these friends.

And so his book, the book of Job, is a very polished defense, legal defense. And I think that's what we have here following Pastor Kaiser and these other scholars that he's looking at. And so in Luke's introduction here, Luke summarizes the characteristics of this apostolic church and the gospel message, which was the lifeblood of the church. And so we see a couple things in this characterization of the apostolic church and the gospel message that she preached. We see the continuity of the message.

The former account means I'm following a previous account. This book of Acts is a sequel, a following to Luke. It's a continuation of the same message. This account of the history of the church that was established in Acts does not represent a failure of the previous plan and purpose for Jews and of Christ's disciples. This isn't plan B.

This is a continuation of everything that had been taught. It's one continuous account. The Gospel account showed Jesus was the Messiah of the Old Testament, and it gives us the history of His incarnation, of His earthly ministry to save His people, of His death, His burial, and His resurrection, exactly as the Old Testament prophesied. Exactly as the Old Testament foreshadowed. Exactly as all the types of the Old Testament pointed.

And the Gospels again and again say, again and again, that Jesus did these things so that it might be fulfilled what was written. Even the very words that He spoke on the cross were foreshadowed in the Old Testament. And so Luke says that this account was about what Jesus began to do, that Gospel of Luke. And so this book is continuing the history and providing the account of what Jesus continues to do. So there's a continuity of the Gospel message from the Old Testament to the Gospels, to Acts and the foundation of the Christian church.

There's no break. There's no discontinuity. There's no changing to another plan. Rather, we see the church in Acts going back to the Old Testament for their direction and recognizing that they were the seed of Abraham. Then secondly, we see a Christ-centered message.

The Gospel account contains the things that Jesus began to do. And this book continues the account of what Jesus continues to do through His Apostles and His heralds. It's all about Christ. Notice also how teaching in this Christ-centered message, it's what Christ began to do and to teach. Both are necessary.

Neither is sufficient. Teaching and doing have to be joined together. Doing without knowledge leads to misguided zeal. It's a zeal that is not according to knowledge. And you know, when you're going in the wrong direction and you're going fast, That's bad.

It would be better to be going slow in that case. So as zeal according to knowledge, you may be going fast in the wrong direction. That's not good. But knowledge without action leads to ivory tower uselessness, And knowledge that simply puffs up. Those who have learning but don't do anything with it are like a person, James says, who looks in a mirror but then forgets what kind of man he was, what kind of person he was when he walks away.

This is a Christ-centered message, but it's Christ doing and teaching. And so often, that's important. It is by our love that we show that we are disciples of Christ. And people don't really care what we know, especially what we know about the Gospel, until they know that we care for them, that we love them. And it's only when we demonstrate that love for people that they might be willing to listen to what we have to say.

And when we get that backwards, we run the risk of being very obnoxious. You notice Jesus always led by doing. When he presented, when he came in, he did. He fed people, he healed people, he had compassion on people, and then he taught them once they were willing to listen. And that's an important, I think, lesson for us.

What is going to convert these hardened, pride marchers? When they see that we're willing to suffer and die, That's what has an impact. Not our standing out there and sanctimoniously proclaiming all sorts of truths. It was the martyrs being willing to die and die in horrific ways that had such a profound impact on the church, on the day. Thirdly, we see that this is through the Spirit.

He through the Spirit gave commandments. Christ gives us the example of living by the power of the Holy Spirit. Christ was God. In a sense, you could say He didn't need to live by the Spirit. He was God.

He could have done it with His own divine power, but in His days on the flesh, He prayed to God. He worked by the Spirit to give us an example of how we have to live and how we have to work. It's by the Holy Spirit. And Jesus said that the Holy Spirit couldn't come until He had ascended. The apostles we also see are commissioned and equipped.

They were Christ's heralds. They were chosen by Him, equipped by Him, and commissioned by Him. He through the Holy Spirit gave commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen. Hebrews tells us that no man takes this honor to themselves, that Christ was ordained. He didn't take that honor to himself.

And no elder, no apostle takes that honor to themselves either. They are raised up through the church and the laying on of hands. These apostles were ordained by Christ So that their message would not be regarded as a mere human message, but as the Word of God. When they came preaching the Word of God as His apostles. They were His ambassadors.

They spoke officially and formally Christ's words. It was Christ's message. And it should be a message that we receive as Christ speaking to us. Paul told the Thessalonians, for this reason we thank God without ceasing because when you receive the Word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe. The words that these apostles spoke, they spoke as commissioned officers, those who were sent by Christ, who were given His message.

And so they are not speaking their own words. They are speaking Christ's words. And we can be confident that the message as it comes to us from them is the message of Christ coming to us through the instruction of the Holy Spirit. As He moves, He moved them. We also see that this gospel is the gospel of the kingdom.

In those forty days, he was speaking of all the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God. The Gospel is called the Gospel of the Kingdom in many places. The Kingdom is where Christ's rule is mediated through Christ. And the kingdom is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and joy and peace in the Holy Ghost. And he who serves Christ in these things, Paul said, is acceptable to God and approved by man.

The kingdom is not outward, Paul is saying. It's not about eating and drinking. It's not in these outward things. The kingdom is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. And it's He who serves Christ in these things, these inner things of righteousness and joy and peace.

It's there that the kingdom is. The Pharisees asked Jesus when the kingdom would come. And Jesus said, that kingdom doesn't come with observation. They're not going to say, see, there it is. He said, for the kingdom of God is within you.

This kingdom is a spiritual kingdom. This is the kingdom that was prophesied by Daniel. Remember there was that vision of this statue. The head of gold and silver and bronze, and then iron legs and feet of iron and clay. And this stone cut without hands from this mountain comes down and destroys that.

And that was a picture of what was going to happen here in Acts. That stone cut without hands was the kingdom of heaven. And it destroys all these earthly kingdoms. But it doesn't do it with swords and guns and tanks and things. It's a spiritual kingdom.

It does it through the preaching of the Gospel. And it's an internal kingdom. Christ is reigning in our hearts. Now, it's internal, but it certainly has a great impact on the visible world. Because what happens when rulers are ruling or Christ is reigning in the hearts of rulers?

Well, then they're going to do like our forefathers did and make their laws conform to the laws of Scripture because Christ is reigning and ruling in them. And what happens when Christ is reigning in us? Well, then we live according by the power of the Holy Spirit. We live according to Christ's ways and not the ways of this world. And you see, the world is transformed on the outside because Christ is reigning in our hearts on the inside.

And so, I think it's a very misguided notion to think that this kingdom has no impact on the world and that there are somehow two separate entities and that the Scriptures don't apply to politics or other what we call secular matters. Rather, this kingdom by the power of the Holy Spirit, conquered the Roman Empire, and it should have a huge impact on the world, on the outside world around us. This was the kingdom that John the Baptist said was at hand. This was the kingdom that Jesus preached. Repent!

The kingdom of heaven is at hand. This is that kingdom. It's here. Now there was a transition, a forty day transition period between when Christ arose and when He ascended, and was seated at the right hand of the throne of God. And in that time, there was a transition.

And Christ presented Himself alive with many infallible proofs in that time. This transition was a part of the preparation of these Apostles to change them from the fearful, cowering men to these mighty, spirit-filled warriors who were bold to speak the truth to kings and to crowds of hostile people. And so Christ, first of all, shows Himself with many infallible proofs to be alive. Infallible when we speak of the Scriptures, we think of it as without error. In this case, it simply means proofs that are irrefutable.

They admit no other explanation. You can't answer them. You can't refute them. They're irrefutable. They're the, we might say, the smoking gun.

That's what it's saying. There these are smoking gun proofs. These are the means the evidence which caused something to be known in convincing and decisive matter. And so the apostles saw these proofs. Now we don't get to see them today.

And Jesus said to Thomas, Blessed are those who believe even if they hadn't been seen. But the apostles were given these proofs because they are the foundation of the church. And we today can rely on their testimony to the resurrection of Christ and to the accounts that they have given us, the written accounts that they have given us, and the evidence of which they speak. They saw it. They were the witnesses of it.

And as Christ's apostles, their witness is true. And there were many appearances. We won't look at them all this morning, but there were a number of appearances where He appeared to His disciples. Infallible, unrefutable evidence of the resurrection. I think this period was also to transition them from seeing Christ in the flesh every day.

They walked with Him for three years every day and they depended on Him. Anytime there was a problem, they went to Him. When there was a storm on the sea, these are seasoned fishermen, but they go to Jesus. They needed to see His physical presence. But now He's not going to be there.

So there's this period of a transition where he isn't with them every day, but he does make appearances to them. He appeared to them the day he arose. Then we read that he appeared a week later. So there's a transition as he transitions them from seeing him every day to not seeing him. He's telling him, he taught them, I'm going to go away and you won't see me.

So he's preparing his disciples to lay this foundation of the church. He's teaching them to live by faith as they wait on the Lord for the Holy Spirit. He's teaching them to live by faith as they wait on the Lord for the Holy Spirit. He's teaching them to live by faith. So This is a glorious book.

Many people want to think that we want to go back to this book to be just like these Christians here, but we have to realize this was the infant church. And we're a church 2, 000 years later. Yes, these principles are true. But the church in its infancy is not what we want to replicate. We do want to replicate the power of the Holy Spirit who does live with us and dwell with us as He was with the disciples.

And the great things that we saw in the early church were done by the power of the Holy Spirit. And those same things can be done again. And they have been done. When God's people storm the gates of heaven through prayer and through action, through doing, great victories like this are won, as are recounted in the book of Acts. And so I look forward to going through this book and seeing how it is a guide, a manual, for the church today.

Not that we want to copy, not that we want to be just like them, but we want to copy them in their power, which is the power of the Holy Spirit proclaiming the Gospel. So let us pray. Heavenly Father, We ask that you would open our eyes through this book to all those areas where we as your church have fallen short of our calling. To take your gospel to the world, to baptize the nations and to teach them to observe all that you have commanded us to do. Lord, may we be more and more a people of doing as those in this book were.

May we be a people who rely upon your Holy Spirit and do not seek to accomplish in the flesh this work that you have called us to do. We do not seek to live in the flesh and walk in obedience to your commandments in the flesh, but Father, may we possess those riches and that heritage and those resources that you have given to us in Christ. May we seek them through prayer and access them. And Lord, may our lives be those that are lived as those who are hid with Christ in God. So that this life that we now live in the flesh, We live by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us.

Father, where our practice has become weak, we ask that You would strengthen it. Where we have worked in the flesh, we ask, Lord, for Your Holy Spirit to empower us. Where we have become pessimistic, we ask, Lord, that we may have the outlook of victory that we see in this book as nations and kingdoms and principalities and powers are subdued before your throne. Lord we we bow at your feet this morning. We love you and we thank you that you are the reigning king.

In your name we pray. Amen.