So we started in our outline
raising the question, as you have it in your outline, that
God values what? What does God value? Yeah, don't
ever forget that God values relationship or there would be nothing that
we could call salvation or redemption. And this marvelous plan that
God has implemented by which he would not only reveal his
redeeming mercies, but save a people for himself from every nation,
kindred, tribe, and tongue." God values relationship. And as we were dealing with the
fact that God values relationship last week, I demonstrated that
by looking at several passages of Scripture. And I want to look
at one more as a premise text. While we get ready to go back
to Acts chapter 16 and that's Ezekiel chapter 37 34 if you
will look with me at Ezekiel 34 We're gonna start at verse
11 through 15 and ask our quest ourselves the question does this
text of Scripture underscore our basic proposition that God
values relationship Ezekiel 34 here's what God says and let's
see if this is a fulfilling itself in the context of our present
study today in the book of Acts. Ezekiel 34, I'm going to read
verses 11 through 15, then verse 23. And let's ask the question,
does this relate? Is this a correlative passage
to our New Testament text, Acts chapter 16? Are we there? For
thus saith the Lord God, Ezekiel 34 verse 11, behold, I, even
I will both search my sheep and seek them out. Is that what is
happening in Acts chapter 16? Behold, I, even I will both search
my sheep and seek them out. Verse 12, as a shepherd seek
it out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are
scattered. so will I seek out my sheep and
will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered
in the cloudy and dark day. If you know this Old Testament
passage given to us in the book of Ezekiel during the exile period,
the period of exile where Israel is in captivity under the Babylonians,
we are somewhere between 500 and 600 years before Jesus when
the text says, Will seek out my sheep as one who is among
them. This can only refer to the Incarnation
of the Son of God who is the shepherd of his people? This
can only refer to Jesus in that context and he's saying that
Christ would come and that he would deliver his people out
of all the places where they have been Scattered in the cloudy
and dark day look at verse 13 and I will bring them out from
the people and gather them from the countries and I will bring
them into their own land and feed them upon the mountains
of Israel by the what? And in all the inhabited places
of the what? So if you were to look at verse
13 carefully, you would see that God uses a process by which he
separates his people from the society in which they are a part
of to distinguish them before himself and then to minister
to them essential redemptive realities so that they become
beneficiaries of his salvific effort. I will bring them out. You'll see that in our last point
in our outline. You have come out in order to
come in and we're going to see that in the Acts text as well.
as a paradigm for how God actually saves people. This is what we
are thinking about in our heart. So he will bring them out and
feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers. That's
gonna be our last thought today, how that the river plays a strategic
role in God's work of redemption and salvation and nurturing of
his people so that it's not a coincidence the way in which the Philippians
here in Acts 16 are brought to a saving knowledge of Christ.
And here then in our text is what I want us to see in verse
14. I will feed them in a good pasture
and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be. There shall they lie in a good
fold and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains
of Israel. And saints, what I would have
you to know in verses 11 all the way through verse 14, the
way those verses open up is this way. I will, I will, I will,
I will, I will. And what we're dealing with on
Sunday right now is the will of God. We're in our second installment
this Sunday on the subject of the will of God. And if you were
to tag one of the five aspects of the will of God as were enunciated
a couple of weeks ago, what aspect of the will of God would be underscored
here? I will seek them out. I will bring them out. I will
feed them. I will feed my flock. I will
seek that which was lost and bring again that which was driven
away. Would it not be the redemptive
will of God manifested in the salvation of his people through
the efforts and work of their great shepherd, Jesus Christ.
Would it not be that? So here Ezekiel, under the inspiration
of the Spirit, and it's the Spirit of Christ, is prophesying things
that will happen down the line, though he is contentually using
the scenario with Israel being scattered into the Babylonian
country. Now, having said that, look with
me over at verse 23. This is an interesting, what
we call a prophetic insight into the actual fulfillment of this
prophetic word. He says, and I will set up, how
many shepherds? Over them, and he shall feed
them, even my servant who? and he shall feed them and he
shall be their shepherd. Now, is he talking about the
David, who is the son of Jesse, who is the son of Obed, or is
he talking about the beloved, who is the son of the living
God? The beloved, the son of the living God. Although he has
no problem using the Hebrew term, Dawid, because David is a great
type of our ultimate shepherd, is he not? What's wonderful about
salvation, if you will, turn with me back to Acts 16. What's
wonderful about salvation, when we properly understand what salvation
is, is that it's God's prerogative to come get us. That's what's
so wonderful about salvation. God is the one who is coming
to get us. And when you listen to the way
he says, I will do this, I will do that, I will do the other
thing, you then discover that God's heart is filled with counsel. It's filled with counsel. In
other words, God has a plan. Like God is not poverty stricken
in his own mind as to how he's gonna do it. And his heart is
so full of the agenda that he can pour out of his mouth line
after line after line after line in detail, full meticulous detail,
how he's going to do it. That means he's a God of purpose.
Is that right? He's a God of purpose. And so
it also means that God values what? That's right. He values relationship. So going
back to Acts chapter 16, notice in our PowerPoint, point number
one, I'm going to run through these quickly to move on into
point number two and three, and I'm hoping to consummate it today.
Point number one, what is the principle encompassing the event
that's taking place where We have seen already that God has
led Paul and his companions by a vision of a man who is calling
for them to come over into Thessalonica and they are driven into Thessalonica
and then ultimately land in Philippi. And as we saw last week on the
map, I'm kind of scared to ask them to pull that back up again.
lest it crashes. We have traveled north all the
way up into Asia minor, right? We are in the regions of the
seven churches of Asia minor. We are in the Macedonian area.
In fact, we've gone up past the seven churches into the Macedonian
area where Philippi is. Philippi is part of the larger
Macedonian region, which today would be part of Turkey moving
more towards more north. towards the edge of the Turkey
area to cross over into Rome, Italy, and then the areas where
Corinth and the other churches were, they're going further north.
And so these men have traveled a long way under the inspiration
of a vision that we talked about last week in obedience to Christ.
So we see under what is the principle encompassing these events, the
preparation of the heart and man, and the answer of the tongue
is from who? The Lord, that's right. So here
God has prepared men to go and they've gone. Way up in the north
in Philippi is a band of seekers that God is preparing their hearts
to hear his word. Does God collaborate like that?
Does God have to prepare a people and then prepare a preacher and
bring that preacher with a prepared message to a prepared people
so that they can receive God's salvation? That's exactly what's
going on in our context. And so under our first point,
we have, what is the principles encompassing this event? Three
things largely. The savior is doing what? Gathering. We talked about that last week.
I kind of lifted up that concept, the Adam what? Gatherer, the
Adam gatherer principle. This is how you know that you
have been brought into the new paradigm, that you are part of
a ministry of reconciliation. That what the gospel is designed
to do is bring men and women back into the fold. Because our
condition apart from an experience of grace is that we're scattered.
And the goal of the gospel is to seek out God's lost sheep
and bring them back. The ministry of reconciliation.
So Christ is gathering all things to himself, is he not? Now we
would be able to say that absolutely affirmatively when we think about
our own salvation experience. God has brought me back to the
fold. He has brought us back to the
fold. So under that first proposition, the Savior is gathering. The
servants are what? Led. Paul and his band have been
led to this place. Led. Led by the Spirit of God
as we looked at it. Acts chapter 16 verse 10 if we
can recount that again and after that they had seen the vision
immediately We endeavored to go into Macedonia Assuredly gathering
that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them
They knew what they were called to do and they had an impulse
to go because of the vision So the Savior is gathering the means
that he is using is his servants who are called to preach Now
who is he gathering our last point? Sinners are what? Now this is where we're going
to do a little bit of work because I want us to now Nurture the
thought of how God works And we can see it in our text how
God works to bring a person to a place where when the gospels
actually preached They believe it in a saving way Because our
text tells us in Acts chapter 16 these words over in verse
14 And a certain, sorry, yeah, verse 14. And a certain woman
named Lydia, a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira. Now
Thyatira is a little bit further away, but it's still in that
area, which worshiped God. Now notice how Luke uses that
term, worship God. Now, when that phrase is used,
it does not mean that they know God in a saving way. It's important
for you to know that, principally because we've already had it
patterned for us in previous chapters with other persons just
like her. So when you meet people who are
God worshippers, you are not necessarily meeting saved people.
When you meet people who are interested in the Bible even,
you are not necessarily meeting people who have been born again.
but you may very well be, we don't know the heart, it requires
a manifestation of Proverbs 16.1, you may very well be meeting
people whose heart the Lord is preparing. The preparation of
the heart in man and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.
So as a witness and as an evangelist and as people who want to be
sensitive to the working of the Lord, because in the matter of
people being saved, all you and I are, are helpers together with
God. We don't save anyone. We don't
get anyone saved. We don't tell them how they are
to be saved. God has to save them. But God
often does what we call a prevenient work, a work of grace and bringing
a person to a place where when that combination of their heart
being ready and the word being proclaimed takes place, life
occurs. And so contextually what we are
seeing is that God has chosen to deal with a band of people
in Philippi, a colonial city of Rome. which I'm going to talk
about toward the end of our outline, which is fascinating in terms
of how God works. She's a prominent woman. She's
a business woman. She's a woman who has many servants
under her. So she's not impoverished on
a financial level, or she is not demeaned within her own character,
like operating out of a sense of low self-esteem. A lot of
times people will say that we only need God because we don't
have anything else, that God for us is a crutch because everything
else in our life is falling apart. I wish that were true. I wish
that were true, but God saves the high and the low. He saves
the rich and the poor. He saves the healthy and the
sick. All that is required for God to save is for God to seek. All that is required for God
to save is for God to see. He doesn't have to make you broke
before he saves you. Now, sometimes that helps, but
sometimes that doesn't. He doesn't have to destroy your
life or destroy your home. All he has to do is touch your
heart. That's all God has to do is begin
to touch your heart. And because God is strategically
wise to use all sorts of people to advance the gospel, he's going
to take this noble sister, Lydia, and help use her to help the
apostle start the church at Philippi, a wonderful, wonderful epistle
of a faithful congregation who stayed with Paul through all
of his troubles. So we read in verse 14, as we
get ready to deal with our second point, And a certain woman named
Lydia, seller of purple of the city of Tyre, worshiped God. She heard us, whose heart the
Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken
of Paul. See verse 14? What Paul would
say here is that the gospel actually had an impact in her life. Then
we read in verse 15. And when she was baptized in
her household, she besought us saying, if you have judged me
to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house And what? Abide. Now watch this. And she constrained
them. I submit to you that verses 14
and 15 underscore a true saving experience. That when we break
this down and delineate it, salvation is clearly seen in all of its
components here. The sinner in need of God, brought
to a hunger and thirst for God. The servants of God in obedience
to the proclamation of the gospel are brought together with the
sinner. The sinner has met the requisites for hearing the gospel
in an effectual way. And when the gospel has come
in an effectual way in the life, the sinner responds by believing
and trusting and demonstrating that they want this Christ to
the level that they cleave to the gospel. And that's what's
taking place here. So we'll break it down according
to our outline. Point number two, four fundamentals
to salvation. Four fundamentals to salvation. The first is when we think about
if God is really working salvation in a person's life, if we are
evangelist and we really want to see things happening in people's
lives, the first thing that I would say is that they will be given
by God a what? Hunger. And you actually, yours
says three, mine says four. I'll leave that out for a moment
what the fourth one is The first one is that there has to be a
hunger for God when we talk about going out and sharing the gospel
with people What we say is try to detect whether or not a person
is sincerely interest in you're interested in your conversation
Because we're not to cast our pearl before swine And we're
not to give the precious things of the gospel to dogs. Now that's
bad language in our culture, but it's biblical language. And
what it underscores is, is that people are not ready for the
riches of heaven. And as a consequence, you don't
fight with them, you don't wrestle with them, you don't toil with
them, because you can't save a person by winning an argument. So God has to go before us and
prepare the heart in order that that person might begin what
we call the tutorial requisite of hearing. The tutorial requisite
of hearing. And that would be the second
characteristic in our outline. The word is what? Humility. Humility. So there has to be a hunger.
Secondly, there has to be what? Humility. What do you mean by
that pastor? Humility is the gift that God
gives the hungry soul. to be ready to be taught the
gospel. Humility is what God gives the
hungry soul to be ready to be taught the gospel. See to be
saved you have to be taught and to be taught you have to be humble
because we all know everything already. Do you understand what
I'm saying? So, but when you, when you become
hungry, guess what? Hunger will lead to humility
and humility will lead to teachableness. And when you and I are teachable,
we are prepared for the gospel. So under hunger, three or four
verses in there, one verse that I really want to go to, uh, Matthew
five, six says, blessed are they that what hunger and thirst after
what that has to be a gift of God, right? Because you and I
hunger and thirst for wickedness when we are in our unsafe state.
As Job says, we drink iniquity like water. We crave after the
bread of deceit. All we want are the dark murky
waters and stolen waters and bread eaten in secret. All of
the things that are not really appropriate for us. That's what
we go after because our desires and passions are corrupted and
perverse. But when God begins to deal with us in terms of our
soul's real need, we begin to hunger and thirst for what? All
right, so now it's an interesting concept there. When we begin
to hunger and thirst for righteousness, you know what he's hungering,
he's causing us to hunger and thirst for? Becoming what? Right. Becoming right. I'm gonna break it down, very
simple. When God begins to create in
us a hunger to become right, it means the first work of the
Spirit of God has begun, John 16, 8. When he, the spirit of
truth has come, he will convince the world of what? Right. Right. We talk about that in
our witnessing class as well, that you and I have to share
the word of God with them in the area and in the doctrine
of what sin, which means violation of what God's what, right? You cannot share the gospel appropriately
until the law issue is set forth in the conscious of men. We are
violators of God's law. Is that true? Transgression of
sin is transgression of the law. And when the soul becomes hungry,
it becomes hungry to do what? Get right with God. Now, it's
not right with God, but it's starting a hunger to get right
with God. What does that take? That takes
the Spirit of God to show us our sin and show us the impact
and consequences of our sin. the results of our sin, how it
separates us from God, and it deprives us of the Imago Dei,
and then it corrupts us internally, and it deceives us, and it leads
us into bondage and captivity, and it creates misery in our
life. And ultimately, it will what?
Destroy us. Until we see sin like that, we
won't hunger for righteousness. Here's the reason for which a
lot of people come to church and go from church unchanged. Because they're not coming to
get right with God. They're not coming to get right with God.
They're playing church. How do I know the Holy Ghost is working?
Because he reveals to me my sin nature. Then he reveals to me
my sin practice. And then he reveals to me my
sin judgment. The wages of sin is what? He
reveals that to me and makes me a prisoner of sin and then
I begin to hunger for righteousness and the only righteousness that
can actually adequately meet this condition of my sin is the
righteousness of God in Christ. That's why Christ said it for
himself in Matthew chapter 5 verse 6. Blessed are they which hunger
and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be what? Now watch
this. This is going to move us into
our next consideration. Go with me in your Bible to Psalm
81. Psalm 81. Watch how Psalm 81
actually speaks to God's coveted mercies in bringing his people
to a place where they hunger for him. and in hungering for
God, God meets their needs because he has told them, this is how
I will meet your need when you hunger for me. As I'm thinking
this through, I'll tell you what comes to my mind quite frequently
these days relative to God's imperative and mandate of will. The mandate of will of God is
where God commands us to do this, commands us to do that, right?
Where God tells us what to do. Wherever God is telling us what
to do, He is establishing and He is laying down conditions
for us, right? So this is a conditional proposition.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be what? Is that
a conditional proposition? Of course it is. It's an imperative
with a promise. If you believe, you will be what?
Right, so when God values relationships, he has a right in the value of
the relationship to dictate the terms of the relationship reciprocally,
right? So what God is saying to us is,
in order for us to enter into the commonwealth of Israel, we
must believe God. But what's going to lead us to
the state of believing if it doesn't first start with hunger?
So now watch what God says in Psalm 81. This is so fascinating.
I'm going to start in Psalm 81. I'm going to start at verse 7. Are you there? Psalm 81.7 through
Psalm 81.10. I'm just going to block these
out. This is God reproving Israel, but these four verses are going
to serve us as a model of how God calls us to certain prerequisites
and conditions so that he can meet them, so that he can be
glorified in saving us. He says, you called in trouble
and I did what? That's how God works, right?
You called when you were in trouble and I did deliver you. I answered
thee in the secret places of thunder. I proved thee at the
waters of Meribah, Salah. This is God recalling how when
Israel cried out that God met their needs. This is why we say,
ladies and gentlemen, even though you don't understand the doctrines
of grace, even though you may struggle with the doctrine of
election or predestination or the doctrine of God's irresistible
grace, all teachings that we're about to now begin to explain
over here at grace in our Sunday school class. When you struggle
with God being sovereign in his saving efficacy and you wonder
why God will allow people to go to hell. Here's what you may
always know. No one goes to hell who doesn't
want to. No one ends up in hell who does
not want to be there. Don't ever construct a theology
that basically amounts to there are some people in the world
who really wanted to be saved, but God rejected them and ignored
them because they weren't God's elect. That would be a faulty
assumption on your part. Am I making some sense? The only
persons that will ever be in hell are people who said no to
God and yes to hell. Are you hearing me? By the way,
if you struggle with that, follow this logic. All say no to God
and yes to hell. All. So then how is it that I'm
saved by grace? That's all. You are no different
than those who say, no, I want to go to hell. So it's God's
grace and grace has to be explained in an accurate way in order for
us to honor and adore God for even such a concept as grace,
because apart from the grace of God, there go I. Now watch what God says here.
This is quite interesting because he's reproving Israel for failing
to understand God's coveted faithfulness to bring them out of Egypt, into
the wilderness, and ultimately into the promised land. Here's
what he says. He says in verse eight, here, O my people, and
I will testify unto you, O Israel, if you will hearken unto me.
Now here's what God mandates in verse nine. There shall no
strange God be in you. Do you see it? There shall no
strange God be in you, neither shall you worship any strange
God. Is that a condition that God
is laying down? Is that a necessity to affirm whether or not we're
true Christians? In other words, here's what God is saying. Are
you ready? When God brings you out of Egypt and puts you on
your journey towards Canaan, he does not allow for you to
have a whole bunch of gods on the journey with him and you.
Cause he values relationship. He is telling you, you must get
rid of all the other gods and see me as your only saving God. I'm here to tell you that this
is how we also discover and determine whether or not an individual
is really experiencing a true work of grace. Because when God
is bringing you to himself, he's stripping you of all the other
false gods in your life. That's a prerequisite to coming
to God. That's a prerequisite to coming
to God. And Israel was full of it because they lived in a culture
for 430 years of pluralism and everything was a god. Pantheism,
polytheism, gods everywhere. So when God brings them out by
an outstretched arm and a mighty hand, you know what he's saying?
Drop all the gods. You shall have no other gods
before me. I am the Lord your God. Does
he have a right to say that? Now watch how this works. He
says in verse 10, which is such a powerful verse relative to
what we're dealing with in Acts 16, I am the Lord, your God. See verse 10, we talked about
this in our Wednesday Psalms class. And if you didn't come
get to see these, great. Whenever the text says, I am
the Lord, your God, what it's referring to is God's covenant
relationship with his people through the redemptive work of
Christ. God is the God of all flesh. but he's the Lord of only
the redeemed. God is the God of all flesh.
Elohim is the God of all flesh, but Yahweh, our Jehovah, is the
God of the redeemed alone. He is not Lord of every individual
in a redemptive way. Am I making some sense? So that
when we call him Lord, what we are acknowledging is his work
of redemption through Christ on Calvary, which purchased me
and makes me his slave. Y'all follow that, right? That's
what's going on here in our text. He says, I am the Lord your God,
which brought you out of the land of Egypt. That's the opening
heading over the 10 commandments, is it not? Exodus chapter 20.
This here is the Sumerian king constitution. This is an ancient
constitutional format that kings gave to their slaves. When they
told their slaves, I own you, I purchase you, I bought you,
you serve me and me only. And here are the dictates of
our relationship. So Jehovah God is the king and
Israel is the slave. So we have three covenant models,
right? Father, son, what? King, servant, what? Husband,
wife. So as Israel was a typical type
of Jesus, the only begotten son, God called Israel his son, but
Israel was also God's servant. God's servant. As we are servants
and we are also sons, Israel was God's servant. And here's
what he said. I brought you out of the land
of Egypt. Now here's the next line. Open your mouth wide. Do you see it? Open your mouth
wide. Isn't that interesting? So what
he says is, I brought you out, now demonstrate to me that you
are willing to trust me to meet your every need. I brought you
out. I delivered you by an outstretched
hand. I brought you out through blood.
I put the blood on the doorpost of your house. I passed over
you in the night when the death angel destroyed the firstborn
in Egypt. Cause the Red Sea to divide and
you walk through dry shot I led you by a pillar of fire at night
in a cloudy pillar during the daytime. I the Lord did all these
things Now I want you to demonstrate that you will find all your need
only in me Open wide your mouth. That's it open wide your mouth
wide. Now this is interesting again
because it's saying be hungry. Be hungry. Also be humble. Is that right? Be humble. What is the metaphor here? The
metaphor are a baby eagles. You know how baby eagles open
wide their what? Their mouth. And when they open
wide their mouths, Do you notice how they make a lot of noise?
Because the mouth is attached to the what? Heart. Always in
the scriptures. Always the mouth is attached
to the heart. Always. The scriptures don't
leave room for the hypocrisy of a disconnect between the words
and the mouth when it comes to God's people. God expects his
people to tell the truth with their mouth because their mouth
is to be connected to the what? Out of the heart, men believe
it. Then with the mouth, confession
is made in the salvation. Is that true? So now watch what
God is saying to Israel. He's saying to Israel, I want
you to hunger and thirst for righteousness only from me. Only from me. And the term wide
there is a Hebrew term and a Greek term that means to be candid. It means to be wide open. It
means to be unrestrained. Do you see the picture? Candid. What do you mean, pastor? Candid.
What do you mean, pastor? Candid. Like a baby is candid. You know, when babies need something,
they don't have a little volume register on their cry. They only
have one volume that's wide open. Is that true? Babies don't like
when they're doing that. They don't really want that.
They just want to play with you. But when babies really want something,
can they crank it up? Now watch this, this is exactly
what God is saying to his people, crank it up. Crank it up. Open your mouth wide like the
baby eagles that open their mouth wide and they cry for their mother
and cry for their father with unbridled desire. That's the
way you're to come to God. Cry out, cry out. Open your mouth wide. Don't open
it a little bit. Open it wide. And again, the
Hebrew term there, wide, is an interesting term because what
it means is to stretch it out completely as far as you can
get it out. Open it. Now, here's what God
is saying. Are you ready? Here's what God
is saying. I want you to open your mouth as wide as your need
is because I'm going to actually satisfy your need as wide as
your need is. That's exactly what God is saying.
I want you to open it wide because when I, what? Fill it. See the
word fill? When I fill it, I'm going to
fill it all the way up. That's interesting. As a condition
for a relationship. Because in order for you to actually
execute that, that particular imperative, you actually got
to believe God. You know how you and I are by
nature. We're constrained, aren't we? Just stay there for a moment. And what God is saying to you
and me is don't be constrained with me. Don't, don't, don't,
don't think of me as a God who actually plays games with you,
who actually is stingy and manipulative. I'm not a God who gets pleasure
out of you not having your real needs met. I'm not that kind
of God. No, when you come to me, you open your mouth wide
in an unbridled, careless, unconstrained fashion, and you will glorify
me when you do that. That's what he's saying. You
will glorify me when you do that. It's interesting. I don't know
if you guys know anything about the nature of prayer, because
actually this here is an antecedent to prayer. Are you with me? This
is an antecedent to prayer. So like, have you ever been in
a situation where you know that you needed something from God? but because you did not actually
estimate God's capacity to meet that need at the level of your
need, you only kind of just toss that prayer up a little bit.
Do you know what I mean by that? Just kind of, you kind of, Lord,
you know, uh, I'm four months behind on my rent. Um, you know,
and I, you know, would you help me out or Lord, you know, if
this doesn't come through, I'm going to have a really bad situation.
or Lord, you know, the situation with my spouse is this or that,
and you are praying, but you are not urgent or passionate
about it. Do you guys understand what I'm saying? So I'm not gonna
leave here until I do this, because what I know is when we are stingy
in our prayer, it's because we have not met these requisites.
We're not hungry. We're not humble. Do you understand
that? We're not hungry, we're not humble.
We're not hungry, we're not humble, and we're not hearing. We're
not hearing. And the fourth one adjacent to
hearing is actually believing. See, so at the root of a lack
of real humility, a real hunger, a real hearing, unbelief. Unbelief. Unbelief would hinder
me from calling on the God who has already demonstrated by the
enormity of the price that he paid to redeem my soul in the
person of his son. To call on him for lesser things
with constraint is nothing but unbelief. Am I making some sense? So Romans
chapter 8 would say it like this. If God spared not his only begotten
son, but offered him up for us all, how shall he not also with
him freely give us what? Right. So now that proposition
now encourages us and it urges us to believe God fully for secondary
issues since he has met the main issue in our life. Is that true?
Now, right here is where you're going to have a long, difficult,
arduous journey in your walk with God until you mean business
with God at this level. I'm going to share with you right
now. So human nature is this. This is how we are. You and I
will hold on to our dignity, even with God, so long that we
will end up being spiritually poverty stricken because we are
too proud to cry out to God like we ought to. Can I get a witness? So I have to share this because
I know how this works. And then we're going to go back
to our text in a moment and see why God sent his servants, what
amounted to thousands of miles, at least several hundred, 800
miles all the way up into Philippi of the Macedonian area to meet
the crying, hungering, humble needs of a woman. Are you guys
hearing what I'm saying? See, the woman was crying out
to God to reveal himself to her. And she did it as a pattern week
in and week out. Sabbath in and Sabbath out. She
says, I don't know him like I ought to know him, but I'm calling
on him. You want to join me? And the next thing you know,
she's got a band of people with her and all they're doing is
praying. Are you hearing me? That's all
they're doing is praying and they are persisting in prayer. And it evoked a vision of a man. that spoke to God's servant,
the preparation of the heart, the answer of the tongue. And
as they continued in prayer, God was getting his servants
all the way up to the north. You guys follow what I'm saying?
See, this is so very important with regards to our understanding,
not only how salvation works, but how God works interrelationally
with his people to bring them to a place where they understand
how God works. And so Psalm 81 verse 10, I am
the Lord your God which brought you out of the land of Egypt.
Open your mouth wide and I will fill it up. That's the way God
is talking. I will fill it up. Go back to
our text now. Acts chapter 16. Let's see if
we can work through this a little bit more. What do you mean fill
it up? Remember now I stated that the
mouth is attached to the what? Heart. so that when God says
He will fill your mouth, what He's really talking about filling
is your heart. Okay? That's what He's talking
about filling. So we read now in verse 14 again,
in a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, the city
of Thyatira, which worshiped God, which worshiped God, which
worshiped God. What do you mean by worship God?
Well, she strategically and intentionally week in and week out gathered
together with other worshipers of God. And they found them a
place where they could worship unimpeded. They found a place
where they could worship uninterrupted. You mean business with God? when
you set aside both time and place to call on God. You mean business
with God, right? You mean business with God. You
mean business with God when you get away from the cultural context
in which you are existing, which is constantly distracting you
from the most important thing in your life. You mean business
with God when you get away from that. and you do it consistently
week in and week out, week in and week out. Remember now it's
the Sabbath day. So she knows something about
Torah, doesn't she? So Torah has worked in her heart
by the Holy Ghost to bring her up under the law. And remember
what we've been learning according to Galatians chapter three, verse
24 through 28, that the law is a school master to do what? Bring
us to Christ. So what's happening? The Spirit
of God is using the Jewish system, having imposed it upon the heart
of this woman. We don't know whether she's a Jew or a Gentile.
It doesn't matter. We've already been taught by
another Gentile a few chapters earlier that God is no respecter
of what? Male or female, Jew or Gentile. We got our pattern, right? We
are in our second paradigm of a person who is calling upon
God in the context of what? Prayer. We've got our second
model, don't we? Our first one is with whom? Cornelius. Keep your hand here and look
at Acts chapter 10 and mark again how it worked with Cornelius
in chapter 10 verse 1 and 2 and see the similarities of how God,
by his spirit, begins a work of prevenient grace in the soul,
preparing the soul in the context of prayer to receive God. Acts
10 verse one, there was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius,
a centurion of the band called the Italian band. He was a what
kind of man? And one that what? With all his
house. See it? Now, so now we have the
portfolio of another man who is hungering after God. He's
a God-fearing man. That's the same idea as a worshiper
of God. He's a God-fearing man. He's
a worshiper of God. And the text tells us that he
did it with all of his house. Is that not also what our sister
Lydia did? She brought them all, didn't
she? Now watch this. a devout man that feared God
with all his house, which gave much alms to the people. So you
see, he was compelled to now be sympathetic to the needs of
the poor, right? This was not some evidence of
him being saved. It was simply some evidence of
his heart being softened to the conditions around him because
of a hunger in him, a hunger in him, hunger in him to get
right now say again if we were dealing with ethics this is an
aside but if we were dealing with ethics when you are learning
to observe how God is working in the life of people and he
works in the life of people slightly differently with every person
according to their temperament according to their personal temperament
and their circumstances and their conditions or their means or
not. When God's working in a person's
life, and that person discovers that they are being compelled
to want to get to know God, and they have some framework of a
knowledge of God, as Romans 2 says, you have a form of the knowledge
and the truth of the law, and they realize that God is a God
who takes care of the poor, and they are now driven to give monies,
or support missionary works, or support activities that are
charitable in nature. Don't you forbid that? Don't
you look down on it. Don't despise it. Neither make
it a sure token of salvation. Understand, however, that it
may very well be a work of the Spirit of God, bringing that
person to a level of sincerity with God, preparatory to salvation. Am I making some sense? And good
physicians will recognize that. Spiritual physicians will recognize
when God is working on a person, but has not yet brought them
into a saving knowledge of Christ. But he's working. God gets glory
out of all good works before and after salvation, does he
not? And he shall render unto every man according as his work
shall be. Is that true? What's my case
study? It's the guy that I closed with
last week. If you guys remember in the book of Luke, round chapter
19, His name was Zacchaeus. Remember Zacchaeus? Christ had
long before set his marks on Zacchaeus, the tax collector.
He decided this day to go to Zacchaeus' house. As he's walking
down the street, healing folks and doing ministry, Zacchaeus
sees Christ and starts running after Christ. You know God is
doing what? Drawing you. No man can come
unto me except my father would send me what? Draw him. Zacchaeus
found a sycamore tree, right? A fig tree. Climbed that tree
like a little pygmy brother, didn't he? He got to the top
so he could see. Did he want to see Christ? Did
he want to hear from Christ? He did not know that the preparation
of the heart in Zacchaeus and the answer of the tongue was
right there. And the twain were about to meet. Longitude and
latitude were about to collage in an act of grace. Right? Because that's what happened.
Our master walking and healing folks and preaching the gospel
and he stopped by the tree. Zacchaeus, come on down. It's
time for you to take me to your house. I want some lunch. That's
what happened. Zacchaeus fell out of that tree. He couldn't believe that the
Lord looked up at him while he was looking down on him. And
the next thing he knows, the Lord is in his house. Now here,
watch this. Zacchaeus was a crook to the
hilt. He was as thuggish and criminal
as anybody in the IRS could be. That's right. You know why? Because God saves sinners. God saves sinners. Sinners. And when he gets into the house,
he doesn't even let the Lord Jesus start talking. Lord, you
know what? I've been giving people their
money back. In fact, I've been giving them back fourfold. And
some folks I've been getting more, more than that. I've been
giving people back every year. Lord, I've been, if I, if I took
too much, I gave it back. You know what our Lord said to
him this day, salvation has come to your house. What was happening? A work of grace, preparing Zacchaeus
for the master's presence. This is where we have to be careful
when we're dealing with the souls of men, wondering what's taking
place. Is God drawing? Is he saving?
You and I can't know the secret counsels of the Lord. You and
I can't always discern the sovereign decree, the will of God until
it manifests itself in the evidence. This is what we're going to get
back into on Sunday. How to operate within those four
categories. how to operate in the category
of his preceptive will, his sovereign decreed of will, his mandate
of will, his secret will, and then ultimately the fifth category,
the redemptive will of God. How to navigate, because sometimes
we will make, draw conclusions and we are wrong because we're
trying to get God to tell us the secret. When the key to our
learning the will of God, like as is the case with all these
people, is our walk with God. Why is that really the key? Why
is the key of learning the will of God actually walking with
God? Because God values relationship. Did you guys get that? I'm gonna press it home Sunday. See, you and I would love to
just take a test, get the test right, Get our score. If we get a passing grade, we
good to go. But a test score is not the same
as a relationship. You guys follow what I'm saying?
Some of our more cerebral brothers just want to get the test right. Well, if you're thinking like
that, you got the test wrong already. You're going to get
a failing grade because the way God works is to draw you near
in a process. that's gonna humble you, create
a hunger, create a humility. What's our third one going back?
Create a what? Create a hearing. I think there's
one more verse here in our text here, create a hearing, but one
more verse in our Acts 10 text. Notice what it says. I'm in verse two. He was a devout
man, one that feared God with all of his house, which gave
much alms to the people and prayed to God always. Saved people don't even do that. Got it? Saved people don't do
that. This man's not even saved. He's
not saved. God has to send a servant called
Peter for him to hear words by which he and his house will be
saved Are you guys with me? He's not saved yet And yet he's
doing things that say people don't do That's amazing, isn't
it's remarkable, isn't it? It's humbling, isn't it? but
this is how God works when he begins to Bring us into a state
where we will be saved And then he saw in a vision,
evidently about the ninth hour of the day, an angel of God coming
to him, saying to him, Cornelius, when he looked on him, he was
afraid and said, what is it, Lord? And he said to him, your
prayers and your arms are come up for a memorial before God.
Isn't that amazing? Now, how many of you want God
to answer your prayers like that? He ain't gonna answer him like
that to you. God's not gonna answer him like that to you.
Pastor, why? You ready? No. It's because you're already
saved. You're already saved. All right. I know I knocked some
of you over your chair with that right there. Well, let me help
you. See, when once you are brought
into a saving relationship with God, based on the premise of
the gift of faith, God is not initiating his relationship with
you. on the grounds of signs and wonders as if you are an
unbeliever. Signs and wonders are for unbelievers,
not for believers. Did you guys hear what I just
stated? Signs are for those who do not believe. For believers,
we do not have to ask for those signs because the ultimate sign
has been revealed to us in the atoning work of Jesus Christ,
which has settled our soul into the reality that God loves us.
So I'm not asking for signs anymore. I'm praying for manifestation,
but I'm not asking for signs. Did you guys get that? It's very
important for you to know because, okay, so how many of you had
God come to you in a vision with an angel and talk to you like
nigger demons? Don't raise your hand now. Don't raise your hand.
He didn't, he didn't be very, be very, be very careful. You
and I will have to stand. I'm serious about this. You and
I will have to stand before God if we lie on God. Be careful. Church folk love to lie on God.
They love to lie about experiences they had. Please be very careful
now. Be very careful. Be very careful.
Okay. Faith comes by what? That's right. It comes by hearing. It comes
by hearing. It comes by hearing. He did not obtain faith by that
angel coming to him, telling him what was going to happen.
He only obtained faith when Peter preached the gospel to him, and
it was evidenced by the Holy Ghost coming upon them and them
speaking in languages. Is that true? Very important
for you to know that saving faith is not acquired through visions
and dreams and manifestations. And then post-salvation for the
people of God is that we're not calling on God to send an angel
to talk to us unless, of course, we're talking about the angel
of the Word of God, which is the Lord Jesus Christ, and we
want to see Him. But going back then, so we can
work through our third point, get to our third point. So under
the three fundamentals you have here, hunger is what God is requiring,
humility. What do we mean by humility?
I said earlier, humility underscores teachableness. Teachableness,
Isaiah chapter 57 verse 15. This is an old text. You've heard
it before, but I want you to see it again. And then I want
us to see a model of humility in Acts chapter 9. You've heard
this before. I'm not going to quote it because
you've heard it before. Thus said the high and lofty one that
inhabits eternity, whose name is what? Holy. I dwell in the high and holy
place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit. See it? This here again is the
paradoxical nature of relationship between a holy God and simple
people. God, your sin does not hinder God from fellowshipping
with you. What God wants from you is humility. Got it? I, the high and the lofty
God dwell with the humble, the humble, the contrite. And my objective is to do what?
Revive the spirit of the humble and revive the heart of the contrite.
He's coming to the hungry soul. He's coming to the humble soul.
He's coming to the hearing soul. Is that what he's doing in our
texts? Are they not hungry at the Riverside? Are they not humble
at the Riverside? Show you how they're humble at
the Riverside. When I said humble, I mean, teachableness. Teachableness
is seen in Acts chapter eight. Go with me to Acts chapter eight,
show you what I mean by teachableness. So this also is a discernment
moment. a discernment moment for us because
sometimes we will think a person is teachable but in reality they
are not or rather we will think that they are humble but in reality
they are not because they're not teachable. You might meet
with somebody that will actually have a nice demeanor and you
will think that they are humble by their demeanor. but when you
go to share with them the truth of the gospel and you may have
to correct certain doctrinal differences or Nuance differences
and they go now to kind of push back on you and you know, you're
right They're not being humble Watch this. I'm in Acts chapter
8 and we show you an example what we mean by the hungry humble
Hearing servant Acts chapter 8 verse 29. Do you remember the
Ethiopian eunuch? Oh This is our model. I'll show
you what it means to be humble. And that humbleness is really
equivalent to teachableness when it comes to the matters of salvation. I'm in Acts chapter 8. I'm going
to read verse 29 through 31. And here it is. Then the Spirit
said unto Philip, Go near and join yourself to this chariot.
And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him reading the prophet
Isaiah and said, do you understand what you are reading? Got that?
So now here's the teachable moment. This Ethiopian is headed back
home after coming from the feast in Jerusalem. He has been able
to purchase a scroll of Isaiah because he's a wealthy servant
of the queen of Ethiopia, Candace. So he has resources. He's reading
the scriptures out loud as all proselytes and Jews do because
the Old Testament Torah was designed to be read out loud. That's why
young bar mitzvahs read the scriptures out loud now. So Torah is to
be read out loud. So he's reading the scriptures
out loud, and Philip is asking him the question, do you understand
what you are reading? Now I'll tell you, if this Ethiopian
was in the 21st century, and he was rolling down East 14th,
our Mission Boulevard, our Hesperian, and one of us Christian brothers
walked up on him and say, brother, do you understand what you're
reading? You know what he would say? Of course I understand what
I'm reading. I know what I'm reading. I don't need you to
tell me what I'm reading. I'm fine. And he would miss his
blessing. would miss his blessing. But
you see the man that was reading this scripture was also what?
Hungry. And because he was hungry, he
was what? Humbled. And because he was humbled,
he is about to be given a what? And the consequence of hearing
is what? Believing. Is that what about
is what about to occur here? Alright, watch how this gift
works. It says over in verse And Philip ran dither to him
heard him read the scriptures and said do you understand what
you're reading? He said in verse 31, how can I accept some man
should guide me? Is that humble? Is that humble? That's radically humble He knew
that he was on the outside of the window window shopping Never
ever putting on the garments of righteousness though. He was
reading them And in his soul, he was hungry for an understanding,
but he had no breakthrough. Now he's on the Gaza Strip where
they're acting a fool right now, headed back to Ethiopia downhill,
right south. And this brother comes running
out of nowhere and jumps on his chariot. And he invites this
young man in. He doesn't know who he is. He
has an entourage. He could have killed Philip.
But remember, the preparation of the heart of man and the answer
of the tongue is of the Lord. This evangelist, Philip, knows
that he has an assignment, doesn't he? And because he has an assignment,
God's going to open the door, isn't he? He's going to open
the door for Philip to explain the text. Here it is, verse 32. And the place, I'm sorry, verse
31. And he said, How can I accept some man should guide me? And
he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. See
that? And he desired Philip. And he desired Philip. And he
desired Philip that he should come up and sit with him. Do
you see the pattern? And he desired Philip that he
should come up and sit with him. One of the other evidences that
we know that God is working in people's lives when he is drawing
them is when he brings us into contact with them and we begin
to share the word of God, they have a desire to continue in
communion around the scriptures. You don't have to hunt people
down. You don't have to chase them down. You don't have to
corner them. When God is working in their
heart, they are ready to have the dialogue. They know that
this is a God moment. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? This is discerning. This is a discernible evangelism
where you and I are not trying to force the issue. It's knowing
when God has opened the door to give you an hearing with someone.
And so the evidence is clear. They already have a prerequisite
hunger. They are humble enough to be
taught because faith comes by what? Hearing. They've got to
hear. How can I accept someone guide
me? And then he says, after he tells
him, come on up, sit with me. Verse 32, the place of the scripture
which he read was this. He was led as a sheep to the
slaughter and like a lamb done before a shearer, so open he
not his mouth in his humiliation, his judgment was taken away and
who shall declare his generation for his life is taken from the
earth. And the eunuch answered Philip saying, I pray thee, I
pray thee, I beseech thee of whom speaketh the prophet of
this, of himself or of some other man? Hungry? hungry to know. You guys get that? Isn't that
a wonderful, blessed, blessed, blessed occasion when you get
to share the gospel with a hungry soul and God has given you the
answer because he has prepared you by teaching you the gospel
effectively enough so that you can answer those questions. Those
were wonderful days for yours truly. Wonderful days, wonderful
days where it became evident to me when I was a young man,
as we are working with our young men now, that the primary thing
that God wants me to do is to get in his word so he can get
his word in me so that he can get his word out of me into the
life of those who need to have his word. It becomes evident
to us when we know the word of God at the level of being able
to explain the gospel, that the harvest is all white and people
are ready to hear you when you are ready to explain the gospel.
Not debate, explain the gospel. See that word guide there that
he said, how can I accept some men guide me? It's the term that
underscores that he recognizes that he is a babe. And as a babe,
he's willing to have his hand taken by the hand of a guide
and led into the truth. He's humble. And we're all babes
until we learn the gospel. Is that true? We're all babes.
Somebody has to teach us the gospel. how to understand it,
how to have it internalized in our life so that it's a reality
for us, and then how to explain it to others. And that's what
Philip is doing here. Another wonderful example of
what I mean by humility. Is that a good example? And then
finally, let's go back to our text, because my time is almost
up here, and I want us to see one more aspect of it, which
is really critical as well. Acts 16, 14. So it says and this woman Lydia
the seller of purple heard us whose heart the Lord what and
Luke is very Intentional about this terminology and phraseology.
Why do I say that because Luke? Besides being inspired by the
Holy Ghost was a physician So what he's talking about is a
work that God must do to prepare people to actually understand
his words God has to do open heart surgery for you to actually
understand his word. With your natural unregenerate
first Adam heart, you can't understand God's word. God has to do a radical
work of going in your heart and taking out the stony heart, putting
in a heart of flesh. Now watch this. And by the spirit
of God, begin to explain to you the scriptures. Are you hearing
me? So now just quickly, the term
here that's rendered in verse 14, and he opened Lydia's heart
and the Lord opened, opened the heart of Lydia. That term open
literally means to explain. Explained it's used in Acts chapter
17. I think verse 2 or 3 where Where the Apostle Paul? Yeah,
notice what it says over in chapter 17 verse 2 and Paul as his manner
was went into unto them and three Sabbath days Reason with them
out of the scriptures you guys see that. I Now look at verse
3, opening and alleging that Christ must need to have suffered
and risen again from the dead. What is verse 3 doing? It's teaching
us how Paul opened the Bible and taught precept upon precept,
line upon line, here and there, the realities of the person and
work of Christ in the Old Testament. How that Christ was really the
subject of Scripture, particularly concerning his suffering, death,
and resurrection. Watch this, and in the same way that Paul
is explaining the Scriptures, God was explaining to Lydia's
heart the gospel. So here's how we will close with
this. Watch this now. This is so very important. This
is why I say we don't lead people down a Roman's road trail to
salvation. We don't tell them repeat after
me. We don't do it because the Holy
Spirit has to open the heart and explain the gospel to them
himself. And when he explains it to them,
guess what? They will go, I got it. I got
it. Are you guys hearing me? I got
it. See sovereign grace, teachers and preachers know this. What
we know is we can't teach anyone heavenly things. It's why our
master said in Matthew chapter 16, when he asked Peter, James,
and John, when they were headed to Caesarea, he says, Peter,
James, and John, who do men say that I, the son of man am? And
Peter says, I'll tell you exactly who you are. Other men say this,
but I know who you are. You are Jesus, the son of the
living God. You are the Christ, the son of
the living God. And what did Christ say? Simon, flesh and
blood has not revealed this to you, but my father, which is
in heaven. So now the point is this. When we are experiencing
the revelation of God's grace in our heart, it's the Holy Spirit
writing the truth in our heart so that we know it from God.
This is part of the new covenant blessing. It's Hebrews chapter
eight and it's Jeremiah 31. You don't have to go there. Listen
to what he says. In those days after that time, I will make
a new covenant with them. Not like I did with their fathers
in the wilderness, a new covenant. And in that covenant, I will
take out their stony heart, and I will put in a heart of flesh,
and I will write my laws upon their heart, and I will put my
spirit in them, and I will make them to do my commandments. Watch
this. And they shall all know me, from the least to the greatest,
so that no man need teach them what salvation is, because the
spirit of God will teach them who Christ is, what he did, why
he did it, where he is now. In other words, that's God's
personal prerogative to actually teach you what it means for you
to be saved. Am I making some sense? Oh yeah,
he uses means to explain the scriptures here and there, but
God has to teach you that he is your savior. God has to be
the one that reveals that. And so the impact of God revealing
to Lydia, the grace of God in Christ, Manifested itself in
verse 15 this way and when she was what? baptized That always
blows me away You'll get people who swear they're saved Jan and
they won't get baptized for 500 years after the so-called conversion
They swear they say Am I telling the truth? They'll swear they
say and but they're gonna put off baptism. I And in my head,
I'm going, this is a radical disconnect. Because nowhere in
the scriptures do you ever see in the book of Acts anyone ever
delaying to be baptized. Never. Because the first act
of explicit, open, symbolic obedience is baptism. That's the first
act. The Ethiopian? When the Holy
Ghost revealed to him who Jesus was in Isaiah 53, he was the
one who told Phila, hey Phila, ho, ho, ho. Brother, I'm head
is desert, I see a pond of water over here. Come on now, I don't
want to miss another pond. Can we handle this now? What
does hinder me to be baptized? See, he was responding to an
overwhelming revelation of God's grace in his heart. He was ready
to commit to the Christ that it revealed himself to them.
So now we get to Lydia. What does she do? Baptize me,
brother. Baptize me, brother. If you count
me faithful, baptize me and then watch this. Stay with me. We're
going to take this one up in two weeks. Because next week,
our July weekend is on July 1st and 4th, we won't be here on
Friday or Saturday because we got a conference to go to. Love
for you guys to come up, but you guys know that. So no Friday
study. But here's what I want to say. You can't read anywhere
in the scriptures where Christ shows up by the gospel and by
the power of his spirit and save men and women and they become
indifferent to Jesus. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? We're going to see the pattern that when you experience
the grace of God, you don't want to go anywhere else. And you
don't want a circumstance to occur where you get severed from
the Christ who has come and revealed himself to you. Abide with us. Do you hear echoes of luke 24
with the two men on the road to Emmaus? Abide with us. Do you hear echoes of john 15
where christ said I am the true vine? You are the branches. My
father is the husband everyone that abides in me and I and them
bear much fruit So shall you be my disciples? How to know
how do we know that we are authentically his we want him to abide with
us. Let's close in prayer. Father,
thank you for this time. Thank you for our Bible study.
As we go our way, we ask the question that we open our study
with. Is this true of us? Are we such
as are hungry for the word of God? Are we such as are humble
enough to receive the engrafted word of God with meekness that
we might grow thereby? Are we such as are like Lydia
constantly hearing knowing that faith comes by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. If we are, we thank you for that
blessed gift. And then we pray, Lord, that
you would fill us up so full with your word and with your
spirit, that we would be a means of provoking others to be hungry
and thirsty for your word. We live in a day, oh Lord, where
there's a famine in the land. We live in a day where men and
women are hungry and thirsty for every other thing but you.
Use us, oh God, to be a means of provoking them unto love and
the good works towards you. Help us to kindle the embers
of our brothers and sisters who are waxing dull and cold around
us. To inflame them once again to
a passionate love and zeal for Christ that they might come out
and gather together with the saints and be ready to do the
work that you have called us to do. You have warned us. You have warned us in your word.
That in those days, iniquity will abound and the love of many
will wax cold. And we see that in our generation. The cold, diminishing, drought
ridden, indifferent, apathetic heart of the Christian. Have mercy on us, O God. Have
mercy on our churches. Have mercy, O God. Only you can
fan the flames of love and passion. and zeal and desire for Christ.
Only you can lift us up out of this lethargy. Only you, oh God.
Only you. Take our hearts, oh Lord, and
seal it for your courts above. Give us all troubling mercies
as we go our way. Prepare us for our Daughters of Grace conference
tomorrow. Prepare us for our Revelation Bible ministry tomorrow.
Wake us up with zeal and enthusiasm to come out and share and learn
and become a sisterhood, as you have called us to be, Titus 2
women, so that we can serve our younger generation and prepare
them for this crazy world that they are about to enter into.
Use your people up, oh God. And when you use us up, take
us home. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.