Peter Allison's sermon, 'The Unfinished Book,' explores the abrupt ending of the book of Acts, emphasizing that it is not incomplete but rather a reflection of the ongoing nature of God's kingdom. He argues that Acts concludes with Paul under house arrest in Rome, illustrating the day-to-day life within God's kingdom despite seeming adversity. Allison describes the kingdom of God as requiring a king, citizens, laws, and territory, and asserts that Paul's actions—preaching and teaching with confidence—furthered this kingdom. The sermon highlights the spiritual and earthly dimensions of the kingdom, which spans all creation and consists of citizens whose lives are transformed by Christ's rule. Despite Paul's imprisonment, his ministry laid the groundwork for the eventual triumph of God's kingdom over the Roman Empire. Allison encourages believers to find strength in their mundane tasks, trusting that God's power is made perfect in weakness and that the kingdom advances through righteousness, peace, and joy.

Our scripture reading is Acts, chapter 28, beginning with verse 30. As we come to the conclusion of our study of the book of Acts, These last two verses close out this book. Verse 30. Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding Him. Blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law He meditates day and night.

Heavenly Father, Your Word is truth. We ask that You would impress that truth upon us. That You would equip us in the school of Christ this morning. That You would give to us a spirit of illumination. That You would sanctify my sinful lips to proclaim Your Word.

Preserve me from error. I ask in Jesus' name, Amen. Well, the book of Acts Well, the book of Acts ends seemingly in the middle of the story. We are left hanging, Not knowing what happens to Paul or the conclusion of the saga that began some two and a half years ago in Jerusalem With his arrest in the temple. One commentator called the ending, quote, abrupt and not a satisfying close.

Says the lengthened account of the whole process of Paul's imprisonment and hearings before the various Roman authorities is most unintelligible if Luke intended to break off at the very critical point and say nothing about the event to which he had been leading up to for so many chapters. Well, he goes on to speculate that Luke maybe was intending to write a third book and something happened that prevented him. But I think we can reject any idea like that out of hand. God's Word is perfect, refined seven times, purified. It's not an incomplete work that has been involuntarily cut short by some outside event.

But it is true that it ends abruptly, leaving this story unfinished. The question is, why? Why? You know, every other historical book ends when the story being told winds down and there is some historical interlude or transition. Genesis, for example, ends with the death of Jacob and Joseph and draws to a close that period of history in the world through the time of the patriarchs when God's covenant people were represented in that one family.

Isaac not Ishmael, Jacob not Esau. Exodus then opens with God's people being as numerous as the sand on the sea and ends with the completion of the tabernacle and the glory of the Lord filling that wilderness tabernacle. Leviticus ends with the completion of the giving of the law. The last verse there says, These are the commandments which the Lord commanded Moses for the children of Israel on Mount Sinai. So it's a very logical place to end that account.

Numbers ends with the close of the narrative of the wilderness wanderings. These are the commandments and the judgments which the Lord commanded the children of Israel by the hand of Moses in the plain of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho. So one is the conclusion at Mount Sinai. The other is the conclusion as they're getting ready to cross into Canaan. Deuteronomy, which we just recently read last week, closes with the transfer of leadership to Joshua, the death of Moses, following his instructions as they prepared and begin the conquest of the land of Canaan.

Of course, Joshua closes with the death of Joshua and of Eliezer the high priest. Judges closes with the conclusion of the period of the judges right before the monarchy. And it gives us an assessment of the status quo in that time, which is that everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes. It's laying the foundation for the monarchy that would come. The books of Samuel and kings document the rise of the monarchy in Israel and they carry it through to the Babylonian captivity which is the end of the monarchy.

And Chronicles then is just a post-exilic account of that same history. And in the New Testament, each of the Gospels begins with Christ's advent and it closes with His ascension. But Acts is the exception, it's different. It opens with the inauguration of the Kingdom of Heaven, and it provides a rather detailed account of the Gospel being proclaimed to all the world, beginning with Jerusalem and then to Judea and Samaria, and then throughout the Roman Empire. And it covers roughly the 30 years of church history in the transition from the Old Testament to the New Testament, which is from the time of Christ's ascension up until the destruction of the temple in 70 AD, or 73 when that war concluded.

And so in that sense, it does cover an epic. But it concludes with this obviously unfinished ending. It's kind of like ending the narrative of an airplane journey with the airplane taking off. We don't learn anything about the rest of the trip or how it lands. And that, brothers and sisters, is because the plane has not yet landed.

And I won't carry that analogy any farther. But see, the last two verses of Acts show us the ongoing day-to-day activity through which this kingdom grows. It gives us this little snapshot of rather ordinary activity. It's actually an amazingly full picture of life in this kingdom and giving us almost an inside view of how one of its pillars lived. That's the Apostle Paul.

It's a picture of life that shows us things that we all experience in our day-to-day lives. Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house and received all who came to him. See, after living this very adventurous and arduous life, after facing persecution, beatings, stonings, shipwrecks, plots against his life, seeing and performing miracles in the signs of an apostle. Then these two years of detention in Rome are in some ways quite typical of our ordinary lives. He rented a house by himself, and was presumably not immune from all the domestic duties and obligations of routine life that we all have.

Living in his rented house, he had to provide for all the things that one needs to provide for to maintain a house, including the funds to do that. I think sometimes we can hide behind the daily demands on our time as an excuse for why we aren't as consistent in maybe all the spiritual disciplines as we would like to be. And We can read wonderful accounts of people in the Bible and their fellowship with the Lord and sometimes forget that they often had all the same pressures and demands on their life as we do. Or on the other side, we might think that because we have a job tying us down every day, or little children to instruct and care for continually, or some other aspect of our life that we think might severely limit our ability to do kingdom work. But here's an example of someone performing kingdom work, serving essentially under house arrest, not able to travel or even leave their home.

The last verse, 31, tells us how Paul occupied his time during these two years in Rome while he was in detention. Preaching the Kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding Him. Let's look at each of these items. The kingdom of God. The things that concern Christ.

The preaching and teaching. His confidence and the milieu in which these labors were carried out. First, the kingdom of God. What is this kingdom of God that Paul was preaching? Well, this kingdom of God that Paul preached is promised and foreshadowed in the Old Testament.

You remember Nebuchadnezzar had a dream that he didn't know the meaning of, And in order to ensure that his wise men didn't just make up some meaning, he demanded that they tell him both the dream and what it meant. And by the grace of God, Daniel was able to tell Nebuchadnezzar that his dream was of a statue with a head of gold, a chest and arms of silver, a belly and thigh of bronze, legs of iron, and feet partly iron and partly clay. And then Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar that as Nebuchadnezzar watched in his dream, a stone was cut without hands, which struck the statue, this image, on its feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, and the bronze, and the silver, and the gold, which represented all the four major empires of the ancient world, the Babylon, the Median-Persian Empire, the Greek Empire, and then the Roman Empire. These empires were crushed together, and they became like chaff from a summer threshing floor, and they blew away.

So there was no trace of them found anywhere. And the stone that struck this image on the feet, the iron and clay, it became a great mountain and fills the whole earth. And Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar that this stone, which struck this statue and destroyed it, was a kingdom which the God of heaven would set up. He said it was a kingdom that would never be destroyed and it won't be left to anybody else. In other words, the king would never die and somebody else inherit the throne.

This kingdom would break in pieces and consume all the other kingdoms. But the kingdom that God would set up would endure forever. And both John the baptizer and Jesus himself commanded people when they came preaching, commanded people to repent. Why? Because the kingdom of heaven was at hand.

By the way, I think that the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of God are the same thing. Matthew talks about the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of God. The other writers of the New Testament usually speak only of the Kingdom of God. But I think they're the same thing. Some people see them different.

They see the Kingdom of Heaven as a future of one thousand year reign of Christ here on earth. And they see the Kingdom of God as a spiritual kingdom in the hearts of men. But these two terms are used interchangeably even by Matthew. And so I will use these terms interchangeably as well this morning. So for the Kingdom of Heaven to be at hand means that its arrival is imminent.

If this kingdom was still future today, some two thousand years later from when it was said to be imminent, then it really couldn't have been imminent in the days of John the Baptist and Jesus. Now what is a kingdom? This kingdom is described extensively in the Bible and called a kingdom. Well, a kingdom needs four things, without which it isn't a kingdom. Now, there are other things you might want to have, But I think these at least are essential.

Without these, you cannot have a kingdom. And that is, there needs to be a king. And secondly, there need to be people that comprise the citizens of the kingdom. And third, there must be laws that prescribe right and wrong. And fourthly, in order to have a kingdom, there has to be a territory that the people, the citizens occupy.

And I would submit that if you don't have all of these, then you really don't have a kingdom. Because if there is no territory, there is no place for any citizens to exist. There has to be some place, some territory in which they exist. And without laws, no one would know what to do. For example, if one man needed some hardwood for some furniture and his neighbor had the perfect hardwood tree on his property, how should he obtain that wood?

You see, without a law, without some set of standards, it's impossible to answer that question. It's impossible to know what would be the right way to get it. Without laws, at best, people can only do what is right in their own eyes, which means that each person is a law to himself. And in that case, the kingdom is divided against itself. Jesus said that kind of kingdom cannot stand.

It cannot exist. And that's sort of what we're seeing today. Everybody has a different idea about what is the law and what constitutes right and what constitutes wrong. And when you have that, you can't have a kingdom. Now, without a king or someone to lead the people, it's impossible for the people to act together.

As Paul told the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 14, 8, regarding the need for clear and intelligible communication. He said, for if the trumpet makes an uncertain sound, then who would prepare for battle? Well, without someone deciding what signal the trumpet should send, no signal would be sent, not even an unintelligible one. And so without any signal, no one could do anything. So you need to have somebody to decide what signal gets sent for people to be able to act together.

And so of course without citizens, there is simply no kingdom. So you need each of these things to have a kingdom. So we could ask, in this kingdom of heaven that is eminent, that Paul is preaching, that Jesus said was eminent and Paul was preaching, who are each of these items? Who are the citizens? Well, we saw that the citizens are Israel.

And last week we saw Israel was the people of God, whether Jew or Gentile. The citizens are all those who are in Christ. In the Old Testament, the church was comprised exclusively of Jews. And the Gentiles who believed on the Messiah had to become circumcised and become Jews and keep all of the ceremonial laws of the Jews, of the Mosaic Covenant, in order to join the church. But now in the New Testament, you see, Gentiles can come to Christ that's most of us, Gentiles can come to Christ without first becoming Jews.

Because the believing Gentiles are grafted into that church, joining with the believing Jews who were already there. You see, the church does not replace Israel. In fact, when you consider that the Israelites under Moses in the Old Testament are called a church, they're considered a church, that statement doesn't even make sense. The unbelieving Jews are cut off. Are cut off.

Paul referring to the church, Paul told the Ephesians in 2.19 that you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. They were citizens. Citizens with the saints. They've been brought in to this kingdom. Naturalized citizens as it were.

Paul told the Philippians, Philippians 3.20, that our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself." Notice that it is at this present time that we are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. Right now. Those verbs are present tense. We are now citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. Even before the new heavens and the new earth, even before the second coming of Christ.

We are citizens in this kingdom of heaven. The king. Last week we saw that the hope of Israel for which Paul was in chains is Christ, the promised Messiah. And you remember both Messiah, which is the Hebrew word, and Christ, which is the Greek word, mean the Anointed One. The Anointed One.

And Psalm 2 says, I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion. My anointed one, Psalm 2 calls Him. The anointed one. Christ is set as king in Zion. Referring to God the Father, Paul says in Colossians 1.13, He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, and He is the head of the body, the church.

We've been conveyed into this kingdom. We've been delivered from the kingdom of the evil one, the power of darkness, and brought into the kingdom of the Son of His love. And John writes in Revelation 17 that those who are with the beast will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is the Lord of lords and the King of kings, and those who are with Him are called chosen and faithful." And John gives us another very vivid picture of Christ the King going forth to war in Revelation 19. It says, Now I saw heaven opened and a white horse, and he who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes were flames of fire, and on his head were many crowns, and he was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his name was called the Word of God.

Now out of his mouth goes a sharp sword, and with it he should strike the nations, and he himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness of His wrath and the wrath of Almighty God. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. King of kings and Lord of lords. And of course, if you remember from the study of Revelation in the afternoon, this section of Revelation is speaking specifically of what happened in 70 A.D.

The law of the kingdom, the third essential element of a kingdom is the Word of God that's recorded in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament. Jesus makes this connection in Matthew 5 when He says, Don't think that I've come to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn't come to destroy, but to fulfill. For assuredly I say to you, not one jot or one Tittle will by any means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Heaven and earth can pass away, but nothing in the Word would pass away.

Now here is the connection. Whosoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so shall be called least, " where? In the Kingdom of Heaven. But whosoever teaches, does, and teaches them, he shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. So Christ is the King.

His Word is the law. Israel, the church, is its people. What's its territory? Well, the territory of this kingdom is the whole earth, all of creation. David prophesies of God the Father saying to his son, his anointed in Psalm 2, Ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession Yes, God created all the world.

It's his But he is saying specifically that of Christ his anointed one the Messiah the Christ in His Messianic reign that He has given Him all the nations of the world and the ends of the earth for His possession. That's the territory of the Kingdom of Heaven. Revelation 11.15 speaks of the fulfillment of this promise in 70 A.D. When the seventh angel sounded, and there were loud voices in heaven saying, the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever." The kingdoms of this world, the earthly nations have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever. The salutation that opens the book of Revelation, Revelation 1-5, brings grace and peace from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth.

The territory is this creation. Now some people want to separate kingdom into an earthly physical kingdom and a heavenly spiritual kingdom that is not of this world. And there are several passages, a number of passages, in fact, that teach the spiritual nature of this kingdom. For example, when the Pharisees asked about restoring the kingdom in Luke 17, verse 20, He said, the kingdom of God does not come with observation, nor will they say, see here or see there. For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you." And Jesus told Pilate that his kingdom was not of this world.

But then shortly after that, Pilate said, well don't you know, Jesus wasn't answering him, and he said, well don't you know I have authority to set you free and authority to crucify you. And Jesus' response was you would have no authority at all unless it had been given you from above. Jesus is asserting His kingship over Pilate. You see, the way to see this is that both these aspects are true at the same time. We as people have a physical body on a physical earth, but we also have a spiritual body.

We have a spiritual dimension. We have a Spirit. The Spirit is God that forms that Spirit of life within us. And we're not in contradiction. Because we're spiritual, doesn't mean that we have no earthly existence.

And because we're earthly, doesn't mean we have no spiritual existence. You've heard the saying, some people are so earthly minded that they are no heavenly good, and some people are so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good. We have both. And the Kingdom of Heaven has both as well. So the Kingdom of Heaven is where Christ rules in the hearts of His people.

And through them Christ's dominion is extended over every square inch of this world. His law is progressively obeyed in every nation in the face of the earth. And people are daily added to His kingdom through the proclamation of the Gospel. That's the Kingdom. And Paul was proclaiming the Kingdom of God.

Paul was preaching the Kingdom of God. In several places in the New Testament, it's called the gospel of the kingdom. So the word for preaching there in verse 31 means to make an official announcement or to make known by an official herald. You See, Paul as God's official ambassador was proclaiming Christ's kingship and offer of peace with God. That's what he was doing every day for two years in his rented house.

He was as God's ambassador proclaiming God's offer of peace to all those who confessed Him as Lord and believed in their heart that God raised them from the dead. This is what the Apostles did throughout the book of Acts and In their campaign the Israelites campaign to take the land of Canaan way back in in Deuteronomy The Israelites were instructed in in the chapter on war chapter 20 verse 10 that when they came to a city, they were first to offer it, they were first to proclaim an offer of peace to it. Same word in a different language, but they were to proclaim an offer of peace to it. In the New Testament language, that would be to proclaim the Kingdom of God. And the next verse says, "...and it shall be that if they accept your offer of peace and open to you, then all the people who are found in it shall be placed under tribute to you and serve you.

But if the city would not make peace with them, but war against you, then they were to besiege the city. And when the Lord delivered it into their hands, they were to strike every male in it with the edge of the sword." See, that is the exact picture in which the Gospel is proclaimed. The Gospel of the Kingdom is God's gracious offer of peace to all who submit themselves to Him and serve Him. All those who accept that gracious offer. Gracious means He didn't have to offer it.

But all who accept that gracious offer and serve Him and come under His dominion and acknowledge Him as their king and lawgiver, He makes peace. But all those who do not accept His offer of peace, the Bible says are punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, as Paul said in 2 Thessalonians 1.9. We often think of the Gospel as constituting those essential elements of the wrath of God against our sinfulness, our sin being imputed to Christ and His dying in our place to satisfy God's wrath and His righteousness, His perfect righteousness being imputed to us, resulting in our justification. But you see, that's just the beginning. That's just the entrance into the kingdom.

There is the whole life in the kingdom that follows. And that purpose of that life is for Christ to subdue every one of His enemies, either in His grace or in His wrath. But He will subdue every enemy so that He is glorified. Paul was also teaching the things that concern Christ. Now teaching and preaching are closely related, but they're not quite the same.

They're a little different. Teaching is the imparting of knowledge. Preaching was the proclamation, the official proclamation of a herald with the message of a king. But teaching is focused on instruction of disciples to enable us to observe everything that God has commanded us. It's focused on edification and on our sanctification so that we as citizens in the kingdom of heaven are thoroughly equipped for every good work.

So teaching is what applies God's Word to every area of our life. And so Ephesians tells us, Ephesians 4, that God gave shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying the body of Christ till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." And so Paul here is teaching the things that pertain to Christ. He was teaching all who came to Him in His rented house that there was another king over Caesar. That Caesar's authority came from God. And that he, Caesar, was God's minister.

He was teaching that the kingdom of heaven would triumph over every other kingdom of this earth. He was teaching masters how to treat their slaves with kindness, and husbands to love their wives, in a culture where not that much earlier, heads of the home had life or death power over those in their family. And he did this, Luke says, with all confidence. That's a very fitting Greek word that Luke uses. And it means, quote, a speech that conceals nothing and passes over nothing.

Openness, frankness, plainness, open to the public before whom speaking and actions take place, a state of boldness, courage, fearlessness, especially in the presence of persons of high rank." That's what that word means. Paul was doing it with all confidence. He was withholding nothing back, especially in the presence of those of high rank. All confidence. If Christ is the King of kings, ruling the nations with a rod of iron and we are the citizens of His kingdom, what boldness, what confidence we can have in our kingdom labors.

Because no good king will fail to protect his citizens. I mean, even bad American rulers who hold the executive power in the United States will act to protect American citizens that are attacked abroad. You can think of a number of times when that's been done. One example is in the chaos, In the wake of the fall of the Shah of Iran in 1979, William Gaylord and Paul Chipperone, two senior corporate executives from Texas here, were trying to complete their work in Iran. And they had a government project over there they were working on.

These were very high level executives. But they were grabbed off the street by the Shah's secret police and put in a dungeon. Now, the whole story and the exact circumstances that led to their arrest and all are somewhat complicated, but just skipping all the details, Tehran offered to release them for $12.5 million in bail, which was the exact amount that They had paid on their contract So far Ross Perot the owner of the company known as EDS at the time Was not about to pay that and so he assembled a team of former special forces who went over to Iran and freed those two hostages. That man's not a believer, but he took care of his employees. How much more Will Christ not protect and provide for His servants?

The citizens of His Kingdom. And lastly, it says, no one forbidding. No one forbidding. Those are the last words in this account. Nothing, you see, can stand in the way of Christ's Kingdom.

Nothing. Not even the gates of Hades. Paul told the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 15 that Christ will reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. You see, there is no power in heaven and earth, there is No power that is visible or invisible that can withstand the advance of Christ's kingdom. You see, with His preaching the kingdom and teaching the things that pertain to Christ, Paul was advancing the kingdom of God and laying the groundwork for the victory of that kingdom over the Roman Empire.

But don't forget the context in which this happens. Paul is in prison. He's in detention this whole time. And to a casual observer just looking at the externals of this picture, it looks very much like a defeat. Paul has defended himself multiple times in courts.

He's never been found guilty, but he's still going to spend four years in prison, seemingly unable to continue the work that he'd been doing. Unable to travel, unable to plant churches in cities around the Roman Empire. But you see, the appearances are not the reality. The truth is that Paul is here planting the seeds and watering the sprouts that in 250 years, the beginning of the 4th century, He is laying the foundation for the defeat of the Roman Empire without anyone lifting a sword or firing a gun. Through the preaching of the Gospel, The Roman Empire was converted.

And in the language of Daniel, their power was smashed to smithereens and ceased to exist. And today that empire doesn't exist. But God's kingdom does. Christ's people do. His law does.

It endures. In fact, it's grown. You see, the sword of the Spirit is the weapon that subdues. And it conquers in a way that No physical sword and no army could ever conquer. See, because grace conquers hearts.

The Word of God conquers hearts and turns those hearts toward the one who conquered them and makes them willing servants in that day. And there's no earthly weapon that can do that. When you bring swords and guns into a nation, you don't endear the people that you conquer to you. You often do just the opposite. No, I'm not saying that that's never necessary.

There is a time for that. Jesus commanded His disciples to take a sword, contrary to the Roman law at the time, which forbid them from carrying a sword. So there is a place for that. But that's not how the kingdom grows. In fact, God's strength is made perfect in our weakness.

To make something perfect is to complete or accomplish it, to bring it to full measure. And His strength, His power, is brought to its full measure in our weakness. And so you might be a mother tied down at home. You might be a husband working a repetitive job or a job that seems repetitive. Day by day, you do the same thing.

You get up, you go to work, you come home, you sleep. But we need to remember not to judge by the outward appearances. The kingdom does not consist in the outward. It's not in the outward eating and drinking, but it's in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. That's where the Kingdom is.

And He who serves Christ, Paul said to the Romans, He who serves Christ in these things, righteousness, peace, and joy. And we can have joy in any circumstance. It's not dependent on what's happening to us. Righteousness and peace we can also have. He who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men.

This is our goal as citizens of the heavenly kingdom to be well pleasing to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is how His kingdom advances. It is in these mundane tasks that we do in righteousness, peace, and joy. And so, let's remember not to interpret our situation from the headlines. Rather, Philippians 3 instructs us to forgetting those things that are behind and reaching forward to those things ahead, pressed toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Our Father in Heaven, we acknowledge how easy it is for us to evaluate the situation by the headlines around us, to evaluate progress by external things. And yes, ultimately, you do. But we also remember that your death on the cross that looked for all the world like the greatest defeat was actually the greatest victory. And help us to remember that it is in our weakness that your strength is made perfect. And that we can do all things through You who strengthen us.

And that You do use the work of our hands. You do establish us by Your grace. And so therefore, Lord, grant to us to be steadfast, immovable, Always abounding in your work, knowing that our labor is not in vain in you. Help us Lord to remember this, through Jesus Christ. Amen.