- Well, it's exciting to invite us into a brand new series called Witness in the Book of Acts, and we'll be spending the next several months going through this incredible book together. You know, yesterday we commemorated 20 years of 9/11. I still remember exactly where I was as I received the phone call from my father-in-law telling me what was going on. We were in California, three hours behind everybody else. News was just rolling across the country. And you remember exactly where you were when you found out what was taking place. 2,997 souls were lost in this world. Some of whom got a witness for Jesus Christ and ended up spending eternity with Jesus. But there were others who died and never embraced Christ as Savior and Lord, and went into a Christless eternity. Because Jesus Christ is the only way to find forgiveness and hope, it fuels the urgency, especially during this culture, of our message and mission to be a witness for Jesus Christ. And it is that message and mission that is at the heart of the Book of Acts. And so, I would like to invite you to take your Bibles out. You can turn to a Bible on your iPhone, grab your iPad, take a look at the Bible in front of you. Maybe it's one you brought into this room, and let's go together to Act 1 as we begin this journey on the topic of being a witness to our world. You know, it was Paul, the apostle, who said in Romans 1:16, he said, "But I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ because it is for everyone. It is salvation for everyone who believes. To the Jew first and also to the Greek." And as we begin this journey together, we're gonna grow in our understanding of who Jesus Christ is. This is a map of the journey that we're gonna be embarking on as we walk through Acts. This is the territory we're gonna cover. Acts covers a period of 30 years from A.D. 33 to A.D. 63. And it covers about 10,000 miles as believers go throughout the known Roman world. It is the narrative account that provides the context under which many of our New Testament books were written. Dr. Luke wrote it. He was a medical doctor who wrote the third gospel account. He did detail research to make sure that he got all of the facts correct as he laid them out before us. And in many cases, he had an eyewitness account 'cause he was right there, which we'll find out with the apostle Paul. I want you to consider over 30 years, three decades, 120 individuals mentioned right here in chapter one, grew to an enormous number that turned the world on its heels. And all of it was done by the same Holy Spirit that was alive then and is alive today. And they didn't lose sight of their message, the message of Jesus Christ. If you'll look down at verse one, Acts 1, Luke says in the first book referring to his gospel account, "O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when He was taken up after He had given commands through the Holy Spirit, to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented Himself alive to them after His suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God." He laid out for us that Jesus Christ wrapped Himself in flesh and came to us. And it is Acts that continues that story, the story of the Holy Spirit, moving through not only the acts of the apostles, which is the title at the top of your page, as we enter into the Book of Acts, but as He grows the church in and through them and in and through us, and how Jesus continues to demonstrate His presence through us in the person of the Holy Spirit. We encounter this individual that Luke is specifically writing to Theopolis. We don't know a whole lot about him, but I don't want you to miss this point. And that is that this is a message for you and for me personally. It's not just a message to the church. It's not just a message to a group of people. It's a message to you and to me, because our message is about the person of Jesus personalized for you and for me. It's why we oftentimes, and you'll hear this if you've been around church people, you'll hear an invitation to come and receive. And here's the phrase, Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. It doesn't mean because you're not joining a community, it doesn't mean that we're not doing this together. It doesn't mean that you're not part of a church, but it means that you're making a personal decision to receive Christ as Savior and Lord. So we all have to come to a moment in our life when we realize that it's not my parents' faith that saves me. It's not my church that saves me. It's not some religious act that saves me. It's when I come to that moment in my life where I understand I'm separated from God because of my sin, and in repentance and faith, I turn and trust Jesus Christ as a person, I put my trust and faith in Him as my Savior and my Lord. That's the only message we have that gives us forgiveness and hope. And that's because the person of Jesus has promised. Did you notice He appeared to them, it says in verse three, during 40 days speaking about the kingdom of God. He gave them 40 days of a theological education. Boy, would I would've loved to have been right there. We read a little bit of it from Luke in Luke 24, where there was two of his disciples walking to the road that led to a Emmaus and Jesus appears. And He begins to walk them through the Old Testament and show 'em all the prophecies and all the promises that pointed to Him. And I have, as many of you have wondered, wow, man, I just wish I was right there, right? Well, you know, the truth is we get the same stuff right here in the whole book. As matter of fact, we get the added stuff found in the New Testament. Just read the book. It's all right here. That's what Jesus brought him through. Go through, start in Genesis and go all the way through revelation. You see Jesus written all over the pages that are found in this book as it communicates the cross, and the resurrection, and how it all points to Him. So yeah, Jesus is personalized and Jesus is promised, He unfolds that. And we'll see some incredible things that He does now by way of the Holy Spirit. But we also understand that our message contains the person of Jesus actually provided. He was promised and now He was provided. And that's what He is convincing them of. If you look down at verse three, it say, "He presented Himself," notice, "Alive." Not just resuscitated, but resurrected with a new resurrected spiritual life. "Alive to them after suffering by many proofs." That word proofs actually is the word convictions. It describes how He convinced them. He lived in front of them. I mean, there was 120 early believers right here that we read in the Book of Acts, and there was no smoke and mirrors like illusionists use today. It would have been really, really hard to present a hoax in the middle of the city. He died. He really died, and He was buried, and He came back to life again. It was no hoax and He proved it. He ate, He slept with them, He taught with them, He traveled with them. It was all right there. Now, Paul comes along. We'll read about him starting in Acts 8 and then chapter 9. Paul comes along and he writes one of the New Testament books, 1 Corinthians, 30 years after the events that take place right here. He wrote it around 53, 54 A.D. So if Acts took place during the timeframe of 33 A.D. to 63 A.D., he's writing 1 Corinthians, and we'll read about it in Acts 19, 20 years after Jesus ascended and went to heaven. And he gets to chapter 15 in 1 Corinthians, and he begins to describe the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And he says, "Jesus appeared to over 500 people at one time and to Peter." And he basically says, if you don't believe me, go find one of them and talk to them about it. They'll tell you the exact same thing. As a matter of fact, when he uses the phrase, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, many of the scholars actually believe that he was borrowing from a hymn that was used in the early church all the way back to its inception right here that is taking place in Acts 1, 2, and 3 as the church is launched in chapter 2. I mean, it's like right there. 9/11 happened 20 years ago and you remember those events. Certainly, you would have remembered this incredible event of the cross and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And most of the apostles gave their lives. They were martyred. None of them admitted it was a lie, except for John. Tradition says that the apostle John, they tried to kill him by boiling him in oil, okay? And that didn't kill him. I mean, no way God's gonna let this guy go. Why? 'Cause He moved them over to the island of Patmos 'cause you know, the Romans couldn't get rid of him, so they put them on an island. And then he got the Book of Revelation, which is in the last of our New Testament. And then it goes from second generation to third generation believers, and we have accounts of them giving their lives. Why? Because no one would willingly die for a lie. They were convinced it was all true. And since the resurrection is true, it changes everything. And the same truth is available to us today, and it moves people from facts to faith. A few years ago, Lynette and I were over in St. Petersburg, Russia. And we linked up with some wonderful friends. And two of those individuals was Josh McDowell and my son. Now, many of you know Josh. He's spoken here. He's a friend of ours. And Josh was over there with my son. Josh is one of the greatest defenders of our faith. He was an atheist who researched the facts, and then he wrote a couple of books about those facts because he eventually gave his life to Jesus Christ. Well, we began to talk with the president of, or he began to talk with one of the presidents of the school that he was speaking at while he was over there. And the story of this president is this. His mom was a KGB officer, and she sent her son when he was small, into another room with a fireplace and said, "There's a stack of books there. I want you to burn those books." And many of them, if not all of them, were Christian books. Well, what did he do? Like most kids, well I'm gonna see what these books are before I throw them into the fire. Well, one of the books he pulls out was written by Josh McDowell called "More Than A Carpenter". That's a book we use here. It describes his journey and really being convinced of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He really did live. He died. He came to life again. And so, he reads the book and he gives his life to Jesus Christ. And now he's the president of the school that we spoke at. Last week, we heard the story of a woman who was a broadcaster in the country of Syria. And she somehow comes in contact with another one of Josh McDowell's book called "Evidence That Demand A Verdict". Okay, some of you are familiar with that one. That's really all of the details about the historicity of the Bible and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. She reads that book and she gives her life to Jesus Christ, moving from fact to faith. So you know what she does? You can't make this up. She reads through the Book of Acts, the book we're embarking on. She gets into chapter 9 and starts reading about the apostle Paul in Damascus, by the way, that's Syria. This is a predominantly Muslim country, not at that time, but it is now. And she reads the journey of Paul. And then she reads of another man by the name of Ananias who was told by the Lord to meet the apostle Paul at the street called Straight. You know what she does when she gets to that? She stops, she says, "I know exactly where that street is." The historical street right there in the Book of Acts. So she's moved to produce a documentary film on the life of the apostle Paul in Syria. Well, the government finds out about it. And they call her up and they say, "Hey, we heard you're producing this movie on the apostle Paul, and we want you to do," get a load of this, they didn't stop her. They said, "We want you to produce this film." I think she had already done it. And they said, "We wanna do a gala event. We wanna announce this to the country." And she's like, I can't afford to do that. I can't invite all these people, and pay for this and dinner, and invitation, all that kind of stuff. So he says, "Well, just a minute." He puts her on hold. He goes and has a conversation, I'm guessing with some other government official, he comes back on the phone. He says, "We'll pay for the whole thing." You can't make this stuff up. People are moving from fact to faith because it's all true. And the same message of salvation through Christ changes lives then, it's changing lives today, and it is for all of us, the resurrection changes everything. And therefore, it takes our message and moves us to a mission. Look at verse 4. "And while staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Holy Spirit," which he said, "'You heard from me for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.' So when they had come together, they asked him, 'Lord, will you, at this time restore the kingdom of Israel?'" He's been teaching about the kingdom in verse 3, and that's what prompted that question. You know, they still didn't get it yet. They were still thinking Jesus was going to set up His earthly kingdom right here and now, and overthrow Rome. They didn't understand that He was gonna send them on mission and to do something very significant until He comes again. So now He unpacks it and He says to them, He says to them, "'It is not for you to know the times or the seasons that the Father has fixed for His own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth.' And when He said these things, as they were looking on, He was lifted up and a cloud took Him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as He went, behold two men stood by them in white robes and said, 'Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven?'" I mean, I wanna stop there and say, you didn't quite understand the memo, guys. This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw Him go into heaven, but He's not doing it yet, so get busy and do what I've called you to do. That's kind of the idea of what he's after here. He's sending them on a mission. Now, go back up because there's some interesting words that are used starting in verse 4 and 5, or an interesting word. We're gonna come back to this in Acts 2, but I want you to understand right up front some basic concepts of what he's saying here. He says to wait for the promised Holy Spirit. And then he says in verse 5 that John baptized with water, the Holy Spirit is gonna baptize you. Well, what's he referring to there? We'll unpack this as we go throughout the book. But the word baptized is a very colorful word. It's sometimes means to dip or immerse. It means identification. It means to unite with which is the meaning here. And when he says, "John baptized you with water," what he's saying there is that people were called to repentance by John and they were united with him in their pursuit of God. They were repenting and turning back to God. That's the idea here. And the water baptized or gave a physical indication of their choice. He says, "Now the Spirit's gonna baptize you in a very powerful way." And we read about it in Acts 2, which we'll get there. So the big question though that I want us to at least understand to start with is what does that look like for us today? Acts is a transitioning book. It tells us how life happened and the church grew. And eventually, people like the apostle Paul were inspired by God. He wrote these wonderful New Testament books, which solidify the major doctrines of our faith. And when we get to the book of 1 Corinthians 12:13, he deals with this subject. And he says that the moment you trust Christ as Savior, you are baptized by the Holy Spirit into one body. And what he means is the same idea of here, you're united with Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. He is now the leader of your life, the leader of this church, and you are united with Him in a new and powerful way as we are together as followers of Jesus Christ. See, Jesus Christ was physically on the earth with these individuals. And He says, look, I'm sending the holy Spirit. In order for that to happen, I gotta go to heaven physically, and then I'm gonna send the Holy Spirit so that I can spiritually identify with you. You will spiritually identify with me. And my very presence will be with you through the person of the Holy Spirit who now dwells within you, no matter where you are, no matter where you go, 24/7, no matter how big this movement gets. Because Paul in 1 Corinthians 12 says. "You're baptized. You're united with Jesus. And we were all made to drink of one spirit." What he means is the moment you trust Christ, you are baptized by the Holy Spirit, placed into the family of God, with Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, united with Him, His presence will live in through you so you can live this resurrected life. Why? Because the Holy Spirit now dwells within us. We have access to all of this. So then the question is, what? How do I access that kind of power? Well, Paul tells us. Ephesians 5:18, another little book he wrote. He was pretty pleuritic, okay? Amazing man. And he says there, "You need to not be under the control of wine, but be under the control of the Holy Spirit". He's talking about the filling of the Spirit that happens on a continual daily basis. One time you're baptized placed in the body of Christ, and then you're filled, that happens practically. I just did it this morning. I get up in the morning and I said, Lord, I need you to send your presence and give me power through the Holy Spirit to live the kind of life you want me to live today. I'm yours. Take me as I am. And then He takes us. And as I step out in faith, as you step out in faith and live according to His will and ways, it's the Holy Spirit living in us that gives us power to do exactly what He's called us to do, to live out the resurrected life. And as we look at the story of growth of the church, starting with acts of the apostles and moving, this all takes place because of the central message of Jesus Christ to tell the story. That's our mission. A week ago, Lynette and I had the privilege of being in Washington, DC with an individual by the name of Joel Rosenberg. He's been here, he's spoken, and he speaks to our groups when we go to Israel. And we were there with some wonderful, wonderful friends, and we got to hear Joel interview, and it was public so I don't need to hide names here, but he actually interviewed the former head of the CIA and former secretary of state, Mike Pompeo. It was an unbelievable treat. Now, just so you know, 'cause he says this publicly, he is, and I'm gonna use some very important words here, he's an evangelical follower of Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. Have I covered all the bases there? I mean, it's a part of his life. And he openly stated, it was amazing. He openly stated that when he negotiates with world leaders or when he did negotiate with world leaders, he was sitting across the table. Oftentimes in those conversations, he would purposefully bring up that he was a follower of Jesus Christ. And why did he do that? So that they would know the value base he's coming from. Now, think about that. He's willing to tell world leaders who could put their finger on a button and destroy our planet, that he's a follower of Jesus Christ, and I and you oftentimes run scared because we don't wanna communicate Christ to our neighbor. So, a friend who's next to me, immaterial, but he stands up and he asks a question during the Q and A time. And he goes, "Mr. former secretary of state, if you were sitting in a coffee shop with a pastor, he's sitting across the table, what advice would you give them?" And I didn't give him that question, but I was sitting next to him. And former secretary of state, Mike Pompeo says, "Here's what I would tell him. I would tell him to keep Jesus Christ central, central to everything." Why? Because it's the heart of our message. It's about Jesus Christ. It's about being a witness for Jesus Christ and that we are to be a part of that mission because it never ends until Jesus comes again. Look at verse 1. He says that in this first book, "O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began." Now, by the time we get to the last chapter in the book of Acts, it doesn't end. If you haven't gotten there yet, you'll find out. Paul is under house arrest in Rome, but then it doesn't end. It doesn't conclude. There's no chapter, you know, whatever. And it doesn't just keep going on and on. Have you ever gotten to that point where you're in a movie or you're reading a novel and you're like, come on, you can't leave me here. Well, that's how the book concludes for Luke, but it's not really an ending. Why? Because it goes from them to you and to me. I remember the first time I'm watching "Star Wars". Remember those? That's when the movie started become sequels. And so, I went through that first movie "Star Wars" and you get to the end of it, it's like, oh man, what's he gonna do? Darth Vader is gonna come back and you know, C3PO is gonna be torn apart. I mean, you just starting to figure out, oh man, all this stuff's gonna, and then you read a novel by Joel Rosenberg and I get to the end of those things, and it's like, come on. I gotta wait another year for the next one to come out? Well, that's what's happening. Why? Because it moves from them to you and to me. We are to go, and the mission is to go and be a witness. Right before Jesus ascended on the Mount of Olives, which is recorded at the end of the gospel of Luke, and also here in Acts. He was up in Galilee and He gave this great commission. Here it is. "Go therefore and make disciples." That's the command. As you're going, as you're living your life, get out into the world and make disciples, followers of Jesus, of all nations, all ethnic groups, everywhere, doesn't matter who they are. "Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit." How do I make disciples? He tells you, teaching them. "Teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you and behold I'm with you always to the end of the age." They were called. They were commanded to go and to share that message. The hope, the cross, the resurrection. Jesus is alive because it changes everything. Empowered by the Holy Spirit. Because I have to tell you, how on earth were they gonna pull that off? That was a worldwide movement that they watched. And quite frankly, we'll read about it next week. This is 120 believers meeting in the upper room. You get the impression that they're still running scared. Certainly that was the case with Peter. I mean, he was a guy that was intimidated by a servant girl inside the courtyard of the high priest when Jesus was being tried. And we're gonna find out in a couple of weeks, stands up in front of thousands of people in Jerusalem with boldness and proclaims Christ as Savior and Lord. it's a remarkable story. There's only one way that can happen, and it is through the empowering work of the Holy Spirit of God. If you'll look down at verse 8, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." And while Rome is in ruins now, we have this global worldwide movement empowered by the Holy Spirit because it changes lives. The word power that is there in verse 8, we actually get our word dynamite. It's explosive dynamic power. The word witness is used no less than 39 times throughout the book. It's key. And it means to testify, to go out and proclaim that Christ is alive. And Acts 1:8 is really an outline of the book. We'll uncover this as we move our way through. It moves from Jerusalem. He says he gonna power you to live out the gospel to Judea, to Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. And we'll come back to this next week, but this happened through ordinary average people who didn't always wanna go into Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. And so, God had different ways of moving them and pushing them to go be His witness. They were just like you and me. This opportunity to go and to share Christ by way of the Holy Spirit is given to us, empowering us to live. This is not a message given to Jesus's seal team six witnesses, okay? This is given to average people like you and like me, who knew that they had found hope in Jesus Christ, from a variety of walks of life. When I was at Dallas Theological Seminary, I was grading for one of the professors by the name of David Roy Zuck, or Roy Zuck, not David, but Dr. Roy Zuck. That's it, get the doctor right there. And we would have a set of criteria we would grade papers on, back then we assigned letter grades, and then after I did the grading, I would sit down with Dr. Zuck and we would go through, you know, what grade I gave them so he could make some adjustments if need be. And there was an international student who still had to make the grade, but you know, you wanna go through his paper with Dr. Zuck 'cause he didn't do very well. He didn't address the criteria that was indicated, so I gave him the letter grade D on the assignment. So I sat down with Dr. Zuck and he looks at me after I said, David Lou got a D. And he said, "David Lou". He said, "That is the former hit man for the Malaysian mafia." And I said, can I have that paper back? I'm gonna change that from a D to an A, man. You know, we got a killer running around Dallas Seminary, and I don't wanna get on his bad side. Well, he began to unfold the story. He didn't get that designation because, you know, he was a ferry in a story. You know, he got it because he did some really bad stuff. Well, the story is he was actually framed for a crime he didn't commit. And he was put in jail for it. Well, the guy that framed him, another bad guy, actually had a sister who was a follower of Jesus Christ. And she felt guilty about this. So she started writing David Lou in prison and she began sharing her life with Jesus Christ and she shares Christ with him, and he gives his life to Jesus. So then he's released. And before he comes to Dallas Seminary, he travels up into communist China. And he was doing, I saw pictures of it, 'cause he was in one of my classes. He was following me around. Where he would do outdoor open crusades, boldly proclaiming the message of Jesus Christ in communist China. I am convinced to this day that the communist government wouldn't touch him because he was a former hit man for the Malaysian mafia. God does those kinds of things. You don't have to be a David Lou, but when you were called into a relationship with Jesus Christ, you were then commanded to go. You're called by faith, and then the command comes because He called you by name. He put your name on it. John, you're commanded to go. Julie, you're commanded to go. Roy, you're commanded to go. That's the point. And it happens when you integrate your faith into the workplace. It happens when you integrate your faith into working on somebody's heating or plumbing system in their house. It happens when you're a medical doctor or you're school teacher. It happens when you're a mom in the neighborhood, you're integrating your faith so that you can communicate who Jesus Christ really is. It can happen on an airplane. We've had this. We were coming back again from Washington, DC. I was in a corner by the window, actually working on a sermon, I believe. Lynette's sitting next to me. All of a sudden she hits me, hey, we gotta talk to this guy. I'm like, I don't wanna talk to anybody. I gotta preach, man. I got stuff to do. So she says, "No, no, no. I've been watching the movie on his computer." Now at first I'm thinking, you shouldn't be doing that. There's like a dividing space here. Get your nose out of the people's business. And she says, "No, it's a movie about the meaning of life." And there were people on the movie, you could see the subtitles, they're given just not truthful information. So I felt ugh all right, so the Holy Spirit's speaking here, so we closed up stuff and we began to have this marvelous conversation with this young man, gifted individual. Now I have to tell you, we didn't lead him to Christ, but we planted seeds. We planted seeds in his life. It can happen as it's happened with Lynette when she's chatting with someone and the cable company, sharing the message of Christ. Now, why do I share these stories? Why would I share a story about somebody coming to my house? This really happened, where they were buying some furniture from me, she shows up and as we have this conversation, she reveals to me, believe it or not. Again, I don't make this stuff up. She's tells me, "I'm supposed to be dead. I was told I was supposed to die within a year. And I'm here with you." Now, wouldn't you think that's an opportunity for Roy the preacher to have something to say? So I said, you know why we had the conversation? Can I just pray with you? And I open up the gospel in the middle of that prayer and invited her to check out Rock Point online 'cause it was kind of at the end of the whole COVID thing and all that kind of stuff. Why do I share that? I share all these things 'cause I want you to understand that the same stuff that happened in the Book of Acts is happening today. You just need to step out and be a witness. You may not have the gift of evangelism. I don't, okay? I plant seeds. I know people that do, and they lead thousands of people to Christ. But we simply need to step out and to be a witness. Now, if you're to think back a generation, I did some research this past week, it can be either be 20 to 25 years, it can go to 40 to 80 years. it's hard to tell, I got different, but there was one statistic that came up that I saw and I just landed on it 'cause it's right in the middle, the generation is 30 years. So what does that mean? That means if you've embraced Christ as Savior and Lord, you are the great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great. That's 20. Great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great. That's 40. Great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great. That's 60. Great, great, great, great, great, great spiritual grandchild of one of these 120 believers. And you have been called to be a witness and take the message and mission to your world and mine. Some of you perhaps have never committed your life to Christ. You're gonna have that opportunity over and over again. And you can today. If you'll come to the end of yourself and acknowledge that you're separated from God because of your sin. And if there's a conviction in your heart wanting forgiveness and wanting to know for certain you have everlasting life, it happens in a moment where you confess your sin to Jesus. And in repentance, you turn to Him. You bow your will to Christ and you embrace Him as Savior and Lord. And for the rest of us, we've been called. I want you to remember back in that moment when you trusted Christ, what that was like. It might've been a child, might've been a student, might've been an adult where you received an overwhelming sense of peace and joy in your life. You found peace because you were that person who had a troubled soul. You knew you had no more excuses left and you were weary. And so, you embrace Christ as Savior and Lord. And for some of you, it was Jesus Christ that saved your life, saved your marriage, saved your family, delivered you from an addiction. And now, you've been handed this message. And I never want you to forget the power of what Jesus Christ has done in your life and let that fuel, fuel what we are talking about in this series to be a witness as we are commissioned to take our message to our world. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for the power and the call that has been placed on our life. Father, we thank you for the overwhelming goodness of your grace to us. And Lord, if we have committed our lives to you, you've called us to go, to follow that commission to live for you as your witness. And it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.