Courage from the Spirit - Pastor Tom Loghry
In Acts 4, we see the apostles filled with the Holy Spirit, who gives Peter and John the courage to give their defense to the high priest trying them for healing the lame man.
Transcript:
Then Peter filled with the Holy Spirit said to them, rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness, shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: it is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. Jesus is the stone you builders rejected. Which has become the cornerstone. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we met must be saved. Acts four, eight through 12.
How high can you climb before you become afraid? What is your breaking point? The point in which you say no more, no further. And what would it take for you to go further? I wouldn't call myself a fan of heights. I'll climb when it's needed, I do it every year to clear the leaves from the gutter, but I'd call myself risk averse.
If it's not really needed, then I become more averse to doing it. In my senior year of high school, my school went on its typical fall retreat to a camp in New Hampshire, and the annual tradition was that the senior class would go down the zip line, but to go down the zip line you had to first climb, and that's the tree that we had to climb right there.
It was about 50 feet high that we had to climb to zip line down. Now, normally I wouldn't do that. Like I said. I'm risk averse. But it was tradition. Between the pre peer pressure, the guide waiting at the top, and most especially my safety harness, I was able to do something I wouldn't normally do, so I did zip line down too, which I've got a picture of that.
You can see me a little bit blurry, but I'm zip lining down.
It's a trivial thing, but you could say that doing something like that requires a little bit of courage, and that courage was helped along by people and that harness. We need courage for zip lines, and we need courage for many more things in life. In fact, we need courage to be Christians. We need boldness.
Now, some of us are born with more of that than others just naturally, some of us are very outgoing, just bold, ready to speak our minds, but none of us have a full measure of what we'll need to follow Jesus. Quite literally, we need to be encouraged. We need encouragement to do the hard things to stand for the gospel, to speak the truth, to go against the current. But God finds us full of fear, afraid of what tomorrow holds. Afraid of losing face, afraid of forgiving others, afraid of death, afraid of so many things. For all of this, we need courage. In today's passage, we see God's readiness to give it. So we pick up in Acts four verse five.
You'll recall that from the previous chapter that something amazing had occurred. Peter and John had gone to the temple to pray, and on their way there, they had encountered a man who'd been lame from birth, and they healed that man. And they went into the temple, this man leaping and bounding, and Peter preached the gospel.
He told them, he told the crowd that gathered amazed at seeing this man healed, that he was raised because of the name of Jesus Christ, by his power, by his authority. This one who is crucified, that has now been raised from the dead and the temple authorities, the priests were not happy about this. And so they put 'em in jail overnight.
And so as we pick up here in Acts four verse five, we find them proceeding to make their judgment concerning them, says in the next day, the rulers, the elders, and the teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. Annas the high priest was there, and so were, so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and others of the high priest's family.
They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: by what power or what name did you do this? Something that's important to realize here in terms of these fellows that are interrogating Peter and John, is that this is the same group that interrogated, judged Jesus and saw that he was nailed to a cross.
Now you can imagine if you were Peter and John and you had seen Jesus crucified, that this could be a little bit fear inducing. They were willing to crucify Jesus who was the promised Messiah, literally had done nothing wrong. So if they crucified Jesus, what would stop them from crucifying you? It's a very dangerous situation.
The question that they asked Peter and John is regarding the power by which they performed this healing. They say, by what power, what name did you do this? Now, this is a question that they had heard before as they walked alongside Jesus, because Jesus is being asked all the time regarding where he got his authority from, where he got the authority to teach the way that he did, where he got the authority to forgive people's sins, where he got the authority to drive out demons.
Religious leaders preferred to think that maybe he got his powers to cast out demons from the devil rather than being able to admit that his authority, his power, was divine in nature. Now we understand the meaning of their question even more based on the way that Peter responds. Continuing on in verse eight, as was read, it says, Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit said to them, rulers and elders of the people.
If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness, shown to a man who is lame and are being asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: it is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.
Jesus is the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone. Salvation is found in no one else, for there's no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. It's very easy for us to miss certain details as we're caught up in the narrative, but please don't miss this.
Notice what it says in verse eight. It says that when, and when Peter began speaking to them, it notes that he was filled with the Holy Spirit. He was filled with the Holy Spirit. He was not speaking from his own resources, the words that he was able to find. The courage that he had to be able to speak to these men who had crucified his Lord, his master, his teacher, his savior. That was only possible because he was filled, fueled by the Holy Spirit, and the fact that this has, this is happening that he can draw upon this resource of the Holy Spirit, goes right along with what Jesus had promised the disciples.
In Matthew 10: 18 through 20, earlier on when Jesus was sending out his disciples, even in the course of his ministry, he says, on my account, you'll be brought before Governors and Kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles, but when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time, you'll be given what to say for it will not be you speaking, but the spirit of your father speaking through you.
And Luke 21:15, he tells him, for I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. So Peter is stepping up in this situation, knowing the promise that had been given by Jesus, that he would have everything he would need in this situation. Now, the thing that Peter kind of points out here, that's just real odd is they are on trial here because of doing a good thing, for doing a kind thing and healing a man who had been lame from birth. Kind of ridiculous when you think about it. And that's what Peter's kind of pointing out here. And so he is like, really? You're gonna put us on trial because we healed someone?
You want to know the source of the authority, the power by which we raised this man from the dead?
The source is Jesus Christ. It is in the name of Jesus Christ that he's been healed, the same Jesus Christ you killed and yet was raised from the dead. This one has raised this man to his feet, healing him. When Peter, and as we see elsewhere in scripture, when it talks about in the name of Jesus, when we're talking about the name of Jesus, we're talking about the authority of Jesus.
You think about maybe you've watched some like old crime show and they say, stop in the name of the law. What, what are they talking about there? They're talking about that the law is the authority. So when we're talking about the name of Jesus. We're talking about the authority of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
It's by that authority that this man has been healed. Now, Peter knows that they don't accept this, that they have rejected Jesus. They rejected him before. They're rejecting him now, but he says, this is no surprise. Rather, he says that this is in keeping with what was said in the scriptures. He quotes Psalm 118 where it says The stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.
The full passage there just verses 21 through 23 says, I will give you thanks for you answered me. You have become my salvation. The stone that builders rejected has become the cornerstone. The Lord has done this and it is marvelous in our eyes. Now in pointing to this scripture, Peter's doing two things.
First, he's saying the fact that you guys rejected Jesus, even though he is the Messiah means nothing because that's exactly what God prophesied was gonna happen. Because otherwise they think, well, we rejected him so he can't possibly be the one. Well, God said that's exactly what would happen, but also we see here that Peter is pointing to this new reality that is being established in Jesus. Jesus is the cornerstone. The cornerstone of what? He's, the cornerstone of this new temple of God. A cornerstone of a temple that is not built with granite or with marble, but with those people that God has redeemed and claimed as his own.
Peter in his letter 1 Peter verses two, chapter two, verses four through five says, as you come to him, that's Jesus, the living stone, rejected by humans, but chosen by God and precious to him, you also, like living ,stones are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
You see, we're so easily impressed by buildings. This is a wonderful building. Sometimes we go various places in the country and see these beautiful cathedrals. The temple at the time in which it was standing was a magnificent, magnificent structure, but none of these buildings compare to that structure that God is building in Jesus Christ.
This new temple, which is composed of you and I as we have been built upon Jesus Christ, it's a wonderful grand thing.
And it also points to this, this reality that Peter testifies to in verse 12. He says, salvation is found in no one else for, there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.
The reality is this. According to Peter's testimony, Jesus has been revealed to be this promised king. His power to heal is demonstrated. His power to restore is demonstrated just in this one example of this man who's been raised to his feet, but so much more than that, and in fact, he is the one and only source to which we can turn in order to be saved.
There is no other. And this is nothing that Peter is concocting on his own, making anything, making more of Jesus than he himself made of himself. Because Jesus himself says in John 14, six, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. And the only re, the reason why Christ is the only way is because we are all sinners. Paul says in Romans 3: 23, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. None of us can save ourselves and there is no one else who can save us but Christ, because he is the perfect man who laid down his life, not because of his own sins, but because of our own sin. Who conquered death and conquered sin and now stands as our savior offering life to anyone who would turn to him.
And it's only by turning to him that we can get that life, to get that salvation, to get that forgiveness. And that's something we really need to remember.
Our faith is not a game in speculation, thinking, well, I think maybe Jesus is the way to salvation, but maybe other people can find other ways to salvation. If we were just groping around on our own, trying to philosophize about things, maybe you could take that sort of modest position. But that is not the testimony of scripture.
What the word of God says is this, is that there is only one way to be seen. And it is in Jesus Christ. And so for our own salvation, we must turn to him and we must turn others to Christ in order to be saved because there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. We are with Jesus, or we are without him and without salvation.
Now to say these leaders were surprised would be an understatement. Continuing on in verse 13, it says, when they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus, but since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say.
So they ordered them to withdraw from the Sanhedrin and then conferred together.
These leaders recognize that something's different about Peter and John. There's something unexpected about them because they can tell that the authority with which these men are speaking and Peter's speaking, the courage that they have in standing before them does not come from their upbringing. It doesn't come from their background.
These are just ordinary men. They're ordinary men with accents from the region of Galilee. Not a place where you expect the big important people to come from. Now, it says that they were unschooled ordinary men. It doesn't mean necessarily that they never went to any schooling, but kind of just the contrast here.
If we were gonna try to bring it into our own day, it would be like saying that. They graduated from Galilee County High School and they're standing before a bunch of guys that have their PhDs, very polished resumes, and yet they're standing there putting them to shame.
And the reason why they're able to do this is because they had been with Jesus, they recognized that they had been with Jesus and say, oh yeah, these guys look familiar. We've seen them around. But that's the reason why. Their authority came from their proximity to the king and by the work of the Holy Spirit who is enabling them to make this stand and give this testimony, but also, we must consider this, that as they're taking all this in, these religious leaders, and they're saying, okay, here's these guys who shouldn't be standing up like this.
They also recognize there's a third guy here who shouldn't be standing up like this. The guy that was lame from birth, he's standing there. How can we repudiate that evidence? What argument can we make against that? They can't. And so they say, okay, go away. We need to confer together. We need to counsel together.
So continuing on in verse 16 says, what are we going? They say, what are we going to do with these men? They ask, everyone living in Jerusalem knows they have performed a notable sign and we cannot deny it. But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, and we must warn them to speak no longer to anyone in this name.
They don't have much of a plan here. They say we can't, we can't deny what they've done. They've healed this man. And so for that reason, also it's very difficult for them to really take any action against them because again, they did a good thing. They healed this man. And so the plan that they come up with is we're just gonna warn them in a strong angry tone to stop doing this, to stop talking about Jesus.
And so that's just what they do. Continuing on in verse 18, says, then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus, but Peter and John replied, which is right in God's eyes, to listen to you or to him. You be the judges. As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.
After further threats, they let them go. They could not decide how to punish them because all the people were praising God for what had happened. For the man who was miraculously healed was over 40 years old. Peter and John, when they're brought back before these guys and they tell them, stop it. You can't talk about Jesus anymore.
They just point to the reality of the situation. We know who Jesus is, that he is the Messiah, that he is the son of God. We know the power of God firsthand by this healing that's been performed. So what's better for us to do? Should we really listen to you or should we listen to God? They're like, we're not gonna tell you what to do, but we know what we're gonna do.
We're gonna stand with God. We're gonna be obedient to God regardless of what you decide to do. Doesn't get more courageous than that. They're saying, you know, bring it on, basically. Do whatever you want. Here we stand. And it kind of reminds me of kind of the boldness that we see from Jesus. Now when Jesus was crucified, we see him very often just being very silent and just kind of matter of fact because he was willingly submitting himself to what they had in store for him. But in Luke 13, it is just a really kind of interesting anecdote. Some of these leaders had come to him and said, Herod is planning on killing you.
Trying to threaten him, basically make him scared because here was a guy that beheaded John the Baptist. Luke 13:32 through 33. Peter says this to them. He says, go tell that fox I'll keep on driving out demons and healing people today and tomorrow, and on the third day, I'll reach my goal. In any case, I must press on today and tomorrow and the next day.
For surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem. Don't you just love that? He's just like, I'm gonna keep on doing it. I'm gonna drive out the demons. Nothing's stopping me. I'm marching forward.
Peter and John have that same sort of boldness about them here. Their stand is also, I think, reminiscent of the stand that we see Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego take in Daniel three. Remember, the Israelites were brought into exile and some of these young men especially were brought into the court of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, and they were being compelled along with all the people that they, to bow down before this large statue that was made of Nebuchadnezzar, that they would worship him as a God. And they said no. Now the threat of saying no, the punishment of saying no to King Nebuchadnezzar was, you're gonna be thrown into a furnace. You got this big furnace burning lots of fire. We're gonna throw you in there and burn you up for defying the king.
And this is what Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego say to King Nebuchadnezzar at that time, they say, king Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we, you, if we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it. He will deliver us from your majesty's hand.
But even if he does not, we want you to know, your majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up. In so many words, what is it better, for us to obey you or to obey God? That is the stand that they took at that time, and this is the stand that Peter and John are taking, and it's because like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they know that God is with them.
It's not only just this authority thing where they, we should obey God rather than you, who do we fear more, but they know God is with them.
In Psalm 118, in Romans eight, we have these own reminders for our, for ourselves, and thinking about and remembering that God stands with us, he's with us as we stand for the gospel and for the truth. In Psalm 118, we hear the Lord is with me. I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me? The Lord is with me.
He is my helper. I look and triumph on my enemies. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in humans. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than the trust in princes. And then what Paul says in Romans 8:31, verse, very well known says, what then shall we say in response to these things?
If God is for us, who can be against us? That's the attitude we should take, following the footsteps of all those who have come before us. If God is for us, who can be against us. And so we stand because it is better to obey God than to obey man, and as fearful as the circumstances may be, if we believe in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit who dwells within us will give us the courage to stand in that day.
Now the high priest, after hearing this response from them, there was nothing else they could do. Again, because all the people were ecstatic about the healing. They couldn't punish them. And Luke notes here in his record that again, this was an incredible healing. This man was over 40 years old. He'd been lame for 40 years, and one commentator suggested that Luke in noting this may even be making an allusion to the Old Testament, thinking about the 40 years in the wilderness that that Israel spent before they got to get to the promised Land. It was a tough time for Israel. Once again, we have a beautiful picture of restoration here. This man who is lame for over 40 years regains his ability to walk.
This is a season of restoration. New things have come upon the people because Christ is truly the Messiah. And so all they could do, these high priests, is they could just threaten them and release them. And from there, Peter and John go back to the church. So we look at verse 23 through 26 in closing. It says on their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God, sovereign Lord. They said, you made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our Father, David.
Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed one. So they come back with this report of everything that happened and the, the believers respond with prayer and they call upon God as their sovereign Lord.
Now, thinking about the meaning of those words, sovereign Lord, they're recognizing God's control of all things, and they recognize this further by noting that he is the creator, the one who made the heavens and the earth and the sea. And this is following a pattern that we see in the Old Testament of calling upon God in this, in this manner.
As the one who's made all these things and they fill this out. It's a reality that God is sovereign. He's in control of all things by pointing to a prophecy that they have just recently seen fulfilled. Now, again, we talked about Peter being filled with the Holy Spirit as he spoke. In verse 25, it says, you spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our Father David.
We see the Holy Spirit at work, not just in the New Testament and the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit at work in all times, in all places inspiring the words of scripture. And here they quote Psalm two verses one through two. Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed.
Now, as we look at these last verses here, 27 through 31, we find their interpretation of, of what this prophecy pointed to. They say, indeed, indeed, Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed.
They did, what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Now, Lord, consider the threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus. After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
So what they're saying is that that word that was spoken by David, inspired by the Holy Spirit in Psalm two is pointing to what happened to Jesus. Of, of how all the rulers, the gentile rulers, Herod, the religious leaders, they all came together to conspire against Jesus, the one who's anointed the Messiah.
And yet this is so important to realize, and yet in verse 28. They say they did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Isn't that interesting? Yes. All these leaders, they had no good intentions for Jesus. They had a wicked plan to kill an innocent man, and yet what they were conspiring to do, actually.
Fell right into line what God had been intending and planning should happen. Now, this is a mystery how God does this, but this falls right in line with what their testimony is, is that God is sovereign. Nothing takes him by surprise. He takes every free decision of ours and he works it all together from eternity past.
He sees it all. He works it all together, weaving it together for his purposes. This, this is so important for us to remember in terms of the big picture of God's plan of redemption. I think it's also important for us to remember as we think about our own lives, trying to reckon why, why does this happen?
Why does this happen? Why does that happen? And I recently heard this awesome poem by Grant Colfax tullar called the Weaver Poem that I think really drives this home. He writes. My life is but a weaving between my God and me. I cannot choose the colors he weaveth steadily. Oft times he weaveth sorrow, and I in foolish pride, forget he sees the upper, and I the underside.
Not til the loom is silent and the shuttles cease to fly, will God unroll the canvas and reveal the reason why. The dark threads are as needful in the weaver's skillful hand as the threads of gold and silver in the pattern he has planned. He knows, he loves, he cares; nothing this truth can dim. He gives the very best to those who leave the choice to him.
These believers have seen this to be absolutely the case most recently in Jesus Christ, this dark thing. Their Lord hanging on the cross and yet revealed three days later as our salvation, the good news. And they know that God's sovereign hand continues to work now for their salvation, for His glory, for their good.
Now, it's notable what the request is here. They've made a testimony here. Now they get to their request in verse verses 29 and 30. They do not ask for their enemies to be removed. They don't ask God, please remove all opposition. They do not pray for things to be made easy for them, to be made comfortable for them.
Instead, they ask, God, give us what we need to win. Verse 29, they say, enable your servants to speak your words with great boldness. Now, we've already seen the case that God has given Peter that boldness in speaking before the high priest. Now, collectively, they're praying, God, give us this boldness. We know there's gonna be opposition, but give us the boldness.
Give us the courage to stand and testify to who Christ is, to the salvation that he brings. And then they request stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus. Now, the, the purpose of these signs is it testifies to the reality of who Jesus is.
Nothing like having the guy who's been lame his whole life, standing right before you heal, now healed. They say, God, pour out more signs so that more people might turn to Christ and be saved. This is what they pray for. Not that things would be made easy, but that God would give them all the things they need for this moment.
In response, it says, it says that the room was shaken. The place where they were meeting was shaken. Now it's an interesting detail that it says that it was shaken, because it even seems as though there's some significance behind this. It's not just a random occurrence, that it's alluding back to what the Old Testament said would occur, what God promised he would do.
In Haggai two verses six through seven says, this is what the Lord Almighty says. In a little while, I'll once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations and what is desired by all nations will come and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord Almighty.
God has promised his people that he's going to overturn the powers of this world and establish his kingdom to, that he's going to fill his house with glory. And we see this come together, this prophetic anticipation with the reflection given in the book of Hebrews. Hebrews 12, verse 25 through 29.
It says, they see to it that you do not refuse him. Who speaks? If they did not escape, when they refused him, who warned them on earth? How much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven at that time? His voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, and that they refer, they're talking about God's presence at Mount Sinai, about how his presence there shook the earth.
They say once more, I will not shake not only the earth, but also the heavens. The words once more indicate the removing of what can be shaken, that is created things, so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let's be thankful and to worship God acceptably with reverence and awe for our God is a consuming fire, and that place is shaken. God is showing them, once again, his power. There's gonna be all kinds of forces coming against them. There are gonna be all kinds of forces that come against us today, because we are the church. We stand in continuity. It's a long time now, but we stand in absolute continuity with those early believers.
We are going to face opposition for following Jesus Christ, but no opposition can stand against the power of God. He's shaking the earth, overturning every power that stands against him. And so while everything else is shaken. We remain unshaken because we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and so we can stand firm.
Their prayer is answered. It says they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
We still need the Holy Spirit today. We need him to give us courage to give us boldness and speaking gospel truth.
But do we ask, do we ask like the church does here? I'll tell you what, I think we're more apt to ask God to just take our troubles away, to take the climb away, but perhaps it is God's will for us to climb, to stand tall, to take courage, to speak boldly. And so he takes none of it away and he waits. He waits for us to call upon him.
To ask that he would give us courage by the spirit. Do you really think he won't give us boldness if we ask for it? Of course he will give it. He is for us. He's not against us. He is with us. He is our helper. When the odds stack high, when the valleys sink low. We are tempted to despair in that moment. We must remember Christ crucified.
We must remember the cross, the intersection of a wicked conspiracy and God's perfect plan. Courage rises as we remember that our God is sovereign. Satan tewgh his best punch, and God throttled him into the dust just like he planned. Remember the cross. Your trial, your trouble, your suffering is not any more formidable than the cross.
God is at work weaving every sorrow, every trial, and every joy together for his glory and our good. What begins with death ends with resurrection, his and ours. And so we boldly stand in the name of Jesus Christ. He is the Savior, the one and only. Every single person needs him. He is ours and we are his, and so we are secure.
And so by the spirit, we are given the courage to proclaim his name to the ends of the earth and over every square inch of it. Let us pray.
Dear Father,
Thank you for sending Christ. Thank you for sending your son so that we might be saved, so that we might be delivered from our sins and from the cruel powers of this world father, that stand against your kingdom. Father, we thank you that our king and your kingdom is greater than any power of this world.
That the name of Jesus Christ is above every name, not just in stature and glory, father, but in authority. So Father, we pray that you would fill us with the Holy Spirit so that we would have the courage and boldness to testify to the truth, to the truth of the gospel. Father. To be able to persevere in the face of hardship.
Father, we thank you that we have this promise that you are with us, that we can know that we are not alone in the face of trial, and that you will supply exactly what we need as we call upon you. So Father, we pray that you, you would equip us now. So that we can testify to the salvation that is in Jesus Christ.
We ask this in his name, amen.
Hey there, Pastor Tom here. I hope you enjoyed this sermon I offered to Rockland Community Church. Rockland Community Church is located at 212 Rockland Road in North Scituate, Rhode Island, just around the bend from the Scituate Public High School. We invite you to join us in person or virtually this Sunday as we continue our series The Spirit and the Church. It's our joy to welcome you into our community.
Intro/Outro Song
Title: River Meditation
Artist: Jason Shaw
Source:http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jason_Shaw/Audionautix_Acoustic/RIVER_MEDITATION___________2-58
License:(CC BY 3.0 US)