- Good morning, I'm actually not Pastor Seth, I am Azariah Zapeta. And I'm gonna to be reading our passage today, starting in Acts 5:12. "Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon's Portico. None of the rest there to join them, but the people held in high esteem. And more than ever, believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women. So they even carried out the sick to the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them. The people also gathered around the town around Jerusalem, bringing the sick, and also those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed. But the high priest rose up and all who were with him, that is, the party of the Sadducees, and filled with jealousy, they arrested the apostles and put them in public prison. But during the night, an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out and said, 'Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of Life.' And when they heard this, they entered the temple daybreak and they began to teach. Now when the hight priests came and those who were with him, they called together the council, and all the Senate and the people of Israel and sent them to the prison that they might be brought in front. So they returned and reported. We found the prison securely locked and all the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened, we found no one inside. Now when the captain and the temple and the chief priests heard this, they were greatly perplexed about this, wondering what this would come to. And someone came and told them, 'Look, the man whom you've put in prison, standing in the temple and teaching the people.' Then the captain with the officers went and brought them, but not by force for they were afraid of being stoned by the people. And when they had brought them, they set them before the council, and the high priest questioned them saying, 'We strictly charge you not to teach this name yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teachings and you have intended to bring this man's blood upon us.' But Peter and the apostles answered, 'We must obey God rather than men. The God of our Father raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging on a tree. God exalted Him at his right hand as leader and savior and gave Him repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to all those who obey Him.' When they heard these things, they were enraged and wanted to kill them. But a pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in honor by all the people stood up and gave orders to put the men outside for a little while. And he said to them, 'Men of Israel take care what you are about to do to these men. For these days, Theudas rose up claiming to be somebody and a number of men, about 400 joined him. He was killed and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. After him, Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him. He too perished and all who followed him were scattered. So in the present case, I tell you keep away from these men and let them alone for if this plan or is this undertaking is of man, it will fail. But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God.' So they took his advice. And when they had called him the apostles, they beat them and charge them to not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. Then they left the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name, and every day in the temple and from the house of house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that Christ is Jesus."

- Thanks, buddy. All right, well, good morning. I am Seth Fagerland. I love the opportunity to invite students to be a part of this moment with us. Thank you, Azariah, I appreciate it. We're going through a series in the Book of Acts, and we call it witness. The church is born, it's growing, and God who is a missionary God is advancing the story of His gospel to the whole world, and He chooses to do it through His people. We will be finishing out Acts 5, as you just heard read, and you can turn there if you haven't already. It's on page 913 in the ahead of you. But let me start with this. I'm a big fan of Western movies. I know I'm a South Dakota boy. 'Cause normally there's this moment in a good Western where an individual or a group, they saunter into town much like this. And they show up say, "Hey, there's a new sheriff around here. Now things are gonna be done differently around here." "Wyatt I Am Rolling". Okay, great movie. But eventually when they show up, and they challenge basically whatever powers were at play, whoever was in charge beforehand. And eventually, you know where every Western ends with, the showdown, the showdown. And where the old power encounters a new power, and they have a moment in the street. In the right in the tumbleweed, the dust, all that kind of stuff comes out. And it's inevitable. 'Cause they never come together and say, "Hey, it seems like we have a difference of opinion of how things should be done around here. We should sit down and talk about that, how it could be best for each party, and then see how that would work, " "Mm-hmm, that sounds like a great ..." No, they never do that. A, it would make a horrible movie. But B it's because when it gets to the level of encounters of power, things need to change. They have to change because both power position is claiming that they have the authority the way things should be done, the way the world should be, the way life should be lived. And everybody else that's senses this moment. In a good Western, all the people that are caught up in the drama, they feel it too. And they're longing for a new way to live life that they hadn't known before. So the same is true actually in your life, in my life. Not an old Western showdown. But we have encounters a power all the time. And sometimes we don't even realize it but much like those people in a Western, we sense it. We sense it because one of the primary indicators of this is our emotions that we experience. You see our emotions come from what we think is real or what we think is true. And our emotions are very real. Okay, emotions are very real, but depending upon our perception of what is going on, our emotions may not always be true because rarely are our perception's correct the first time. And to be overly simplistic, let me narrow down our emotions to the big four. Mad, glad, sad, scared. It bothers me that scared doesn't rhyme with mad, glad, sad. But that's my personality. Mad, glad, sad, scared, all of those emotions point to our internal awareness of whether or not we feel okay. Whether or not we feel like we are okay. We long for a new and better way to live life than what we've known before, or from what we see lived out around us all the time through other people. We want to be okay. And in that we want the power in order to be okay. So back to Acts 5. First off, let me say, there's a lot in here that we're not gonna be able to cover everything. That's why I had Azariah read it, and not myself. But so if we get to a section and I don't go deep enough into an area that it kind of jumps out to you, I'm sorry. We just won't have time to unpack everything, but let me encourage you sometime this week, grab some friends, study the scriptures to know God. Open up the Bible together. You can continue that together. But what we see emerging in the storyline of the Book of Acts is an encounter of power. And much like an old Western, there is a showdown that is coming, but it's not a showdown that you and I would expect because the new power that has come to town is different than what they had known before, and definitely different than what they were expecting. But it starts off with this new power that starts to saunter into town. Let's go back to Acts 5, starting in verse 12. "Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people in the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon's Portico. And none of the rest dared joined them, but the people held them in high esteem and more than ever, believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women." Okay, the church is growing. If you're someone who marks your Bible, I hope that you've noticed, especially at the beginning of the Book of Acts, these markers, these almost handholds along the way that is telling this story is the church is not only born, but it is growing. Now I noticed I put these in your sermon notes, but check these out. I'll read them, Acts 1:15. "In those days, Peter stood up among the brothers. The company of the persons was about 120." Acts 2:41, "So those who received his word were baptized. And they were added that day about 3000 souls." Acts 2:47, "And the Lord added to their number day by day, those who were being saved." Acts 4:4, "But many of those who had heard the Word believed, and the number of the men came to about 5,000. Not counting the women and the children, could have been two or three times that amount." Acts 5:14, "And more than ever, believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women." So where is this scene taking place? Sometimes it's helpful to actually see it. This is actually a replica of the Temple Mount surrounded by what the surrounding area and topography looked like, a first century Jerusalem. Someone created this, a whole team created this. It's over in Jerusalem, fascinating to see. But we're facing the temple here from the east. And so as you come down, right behind you would be the Mount of Olives. So you guys remember the scene of the triumphal entry, where Jesus riding the foal of the donkey, and the palm branches, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." That's the scene coming down. And then ultimately Jesus would have entered this eastern gate and into the temple. Now this scene that has happened. They say they're in Solomon's Portico, Solomon's Colonnade, which is right here along this side. But obviously we're behind it. You can't see it. But if you look on the far side, you see this rose of Colonnades. So Solomon's Portico where these giant pillars, that not only provided an area, that provided relief from the sun, because it gets hot over there. But it also provided the acoustics for the teaching that could happen amongst either small pockets of people, but even larger crowds of people. See, we have amplification, we have electronics. They didn't have that back then, but yet still thousands of people would gather. And it was fascinating to imagine. And it says that they were all gathered together in Solomon's Portico, his Colonnade. And according to Acts 4:4, there was over 5,000 men, not counting the women and the children. This is a large crowd that is starting to gather and exciting things are beginning to happen. Miracles, healings are taking place. At the beginning of the church, the power of the Holy Spirit was manifesting itself in such powerful ways. And what I love, what is noted and people became believers in Jesus. You would think when power like that would come up, they would be worshiping or believing in the apostles. Or they may have said, "Hey, this isn't us. This is the Holy Spirit." Like, "Hey, we need to worship the Holy Spirit." The Holy Spirit points people to Jesus. And it says people were believing and trusting in Jesus. I love that. There's great excitement where everyone fears this new powers emerging among the people which then leads to that encounter of the powers that we saw coming. Verse 17, "But the high priest rose up, and all who were with him, that is, the party of the Sadducees. And they were filled with jealousy and they arrested the apostles and they put them in public prison." They were filled with jealousy, why were they jealous? Because up to this point, they were the gatekeepers between the people and God. The Sadducees with their fancy clothes, position and titles, they worked primarily in that temple area, especially like within the temple itself. And now all of a sudden they see crowds and they see exciting things happening, but it's not happening through them. And it's not happening even where they were at. It's happening off to the side with this ragtag group of nobodies. They have no credentials. There's nothing important about them, they're fishermen, and they're jealous. But it's not the jealous that we saw last week. The jealousy of God, that intense, loyal, jealous love that God has for us. No, they were jealous in the jealousy that you and I know. They were envious of what other people had, their achievements or their position, their advantages. So these Sadducees were not jealous, they were jealous, not for God's honor, or for the advancement of God's kingdom, but they were jealous for retaining their own power, their own influence. They were jealous to maintain their own sense of importance, their own sense of feeling okay. And we see this theme develop again and again in the Book of Acts. Well, then what happened? Verse 19, "During the night, an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out and said, 'Go stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life.' And when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach." I love how casually Luke is, like, and then an angel appeared. I mean, normally when an angel appears in the Bible, people are like flat on their face, they're freaking out, they think they're dying. Anyway, we don't have time to go deeper into this, sorry. But you should look up how often an angel appeared to people in, even in just the New Testament. It's fascinating. And so it's very, very cool. And we find out later that the guards and everybody were right there, and the 12 apostles just walked on by. Those guards didn't have a clue. Like I just said, imagine like poking a gardens, and see what happens, ah, sorry. My mind, my imagination. Okay. There is a power that is available to you that doesn't always make sense, nor do you always see it. Now I do wanna comment on what the angel told them to say. They said, "Go stand in the temple, speak to the people all the words of this Life." Now, the word Life here, and it's capitalized, upper case L-I-F-E in ESV. And it's referring to the blessing of real life after the resurrection. The words of the Life means the words of salvation, the words of eternal life. The angel told them, go tell everyone how they too can receive eternal life. Go tell them about the power that is available, then to live this life in a new way, go tell them the power that is available for their salvation. And it seems that early Christianity could have been called the Life, as well as the Way. You may have heard that before that early followers, they didn't call themselves Christians. That came later. They called them followers of the Way, but they also could be called followers of the Life. So let's fast forward a little bit. Of course, the whole Sanhedrin, verse 24 describes that they were greatly perplexed, and wondering what this would come to when they were told these guys weren't in prison anymore. The doors were locked, the guards were there. And then someone runs in and says, oh, hey, those guys you locked up. Yeah, they're in the temple right now, teaching everybody, which I think is hilarious, It's that funny moment in the scene where this group gets all angry and excited and they'd come over here, at the same time who they're after shows up where they just were. That little kind of like cat and mouse kind of game which I think is hila, all these religious leaders, they all leave the temple to go have their big, important meeting over here. And then the apostles show up, and then they have a captive audience with everybody. No other people were in the temple besides them, and all the people. I find it hilarious, I love it. But one quick side comment. And this is where we have to intentionally challenge ourselves, to remind ourselves that these apostles were normal people. They were human beings who experienced emotions, just like you and I did. There's a good chance that the disciples could have ran and hid. I mean, even after seeing an angel, they could have been like, "Hey, we just survived that. Let's live for another day. Let's go be able to go tell other people. Jesus said, we'd be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. I wanna get as far away from here as I possibly can sometimes," because they probably had a good idea what was coming their way. Think about it. When was the last time that that whole group of all the religious leaders got together? It's where they sentenced Jesus to death. So you can about imagine the disciples in that moment. I know you and I know the end of the story, but them in the moment in the present, this got real really quick. Yet they had the power to have courage, to continue to witness to all the words of this Life that the angel told them to go and speak. See, courage. Courage is not the absence of bad, not the absence of something scary. Courage is the ability to walk forward in the face of it. And that's that power we see here. So now, verse 26, the captain with the officers when brought them, not by force, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people, but keep track of this in your sermon notes, because we're starting to see evidences of these different powers at play, the old power, they were jealous, they were afraid. And yet we also see evidence of the new power at play. It was supernatural, and it was courage in the face of scary situations. So the apostles are brought to the council, and the council repeats itself. "Hey, we told you guys to no longer speak in the name of this Jesus." Verse 29, "But Peter and the apostles answered, 'We must obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging Him on a tree. God exalted Him at his right hand as a leader and savior to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things. And so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him.'" Can you hear the echo that is reverberating in the Book of Acts? I mean, how Acts even started, Acts 1:8. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea, even Samaria, and yes, to the ends of the earth. Acts 5:32, "And we are witnesses of these things, and so as the Holy Spirit, whom God has given those who obey Him." This is that moment. These powers are now facing off at each other, and saying, "Hey, there is a new power in town. Things are gonna be done differently around here. We're witnesses of this, and so is the Holy Spirit." And what was the response? The text says, verse 33, "When they heard this, they were enraged." They were furious. And they wanted to kill 'em. Same moment, same group that killed Jesus literally months prior. Again, notice the emotions that are being expressed when the old power is being confronted by this new way of life, this new power. It says that they were jealous. It was no longer about them. And this power that this group had, they didn't have, they were afraid. They were afraid of what the people would do, but they were afraid of what the other people thought. And they were enraged. They were furious. They did not feel okay. They were being called out. They were feeling defensive. They were feeling threatened. And when we get to that point, we just wanna remove the threat, don't we? And so they wanted to kill 'em. And then a pretty cool moment happens in the midst of all this, where one guy in the midst of this enraged mob of religious leader stands up and claims the talking platform, verse 34, "A Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in honor by all the people stood up and gave orders to put the men outside for a little while." Again, we don't have time to dig deeper into everything. I so wish we did. I would love to chase down this tangent, and the implications of it. But why don't you do your own study and look up the next time that that character, Gamaliel, is mentioned in the Book of Acts. I'll give you a hint, it's an Acts 22, but look, to see who it's attached to. So we are soon about to see the character, Saul, who later becomes Paul show up in the Book of Acts within the next couple of chapters. But anyway, back to chapter 5, Gamaliel says, "Hey, be careful what you're about ready to do with these men." You remember all those other guys who thought that they were the Messiah or some Messiah figure, and they got a bunch of people to follow them? Yeah, they died. And the followers, they went away, no big deal. So be careful what you are about to do with these men. In fact, leave them alone." Verse 38, he says, "For if this plan or this undertaking a man, it's gonna fail. It will fail. But if this is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. In fact, you might even be found opposing God." So they took his advice. Verse 40 says, "When they called the apostles back in, they beat them and charge them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and then let them go." This time, the Sanhedrin, this group of religious leaders, they physically enforced their command to the apostles, saying, "Hey, you need to knock this off." The first time when it was just Peter and John, chapter 4, they just verbally said, "Hey, don't do this anymore. We are warning you." This time, they physically punished them. Now the text does not say if they received the maximum 39 lashes according to the Jewish law. The Jewish punishment of 39 lashes or 39 stripes was given by the synagogue for false teaching, for blasphemy and for serious lawbreaking, all of which you could about imagine they would seriously apply in this case. But you could about imagine they went from wanting to kill them and they settled for this. This was not a spanking. This was not a slap on the hand. They beat them bad. And they wanted to make an example to this new power saying, this is what's gonna happen to you. And I love what happens next, verse 41. "And then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing, rejoicing that they had been counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name of Jesus. And every day in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus." So what do we do with this passage? A couple of quick notes of practical application before we dive even just a little bit deeper. I think this would be fun for you to dialogue these with your life group sometime this week or your family or your friends, or your friends who become family, fremily, whatever. Okay, number one, it says that they continue to teach and preach Jesus as the Messiah, even when they weren't supposed to. And that's a hard line sometimes, isn't it, for you and for me? Sometimes it's a line that a new believer doesn't see. A person becomes a believer and they're just like, I need to tell other people about Jesus. Sometimes I love being around new believers because they're not hindered in any way. And they just love telling, "Can I tell you what God's done in my life?" Versus those who've walked with Jesus for a long time. You see sometimes there's that tension between the wisdom of knowing when to share and sharing over the course of versus sometimes even the fear of what someone would think about us in a moment. And yes, our lives do declare the reality of this new power in us. But so often I think our default is, well, I'm gonna wait until someone asks me about Jesus instead of stepping forward and verbally sharing the message of Jesus with others. Yes, with gentleness and respect. That was one thing I saw. A second thing, I was gripped by what Gamaliel said to the council. Remember what he said? Be careful 'cause you might find yourself fighting against God. And it got me thinking, with our emotions of what we think is real, what we think is true, do we ever find ourselves fighting against God? I mean, when we have become so convinced of what we think we know what God wants in our life or in someone else's life? And I don't wanna cause wrestling in anybody, unless it's something that God wants you to wrestle with. So I'll just leave it at that. But thirdly, notice things don't always happen the same way every time, does it? Even in the very beginning of the early church and even with the apostles. I mean the first time they were verbally warned, "Hey, knock it off." Second time, they were badly beaten. The first time they experienced this miraculous release from jail, but yet John the Baptist didn't get that. And neither is James coming up in the Acts chapter 12. The same can be true for you and I in our lived experience sometimes. And I'm saying, I wanna be sensitive to this, but sometimes we do receive healing. Sometimes the disease remains. Sometimes the relationship gets restored, and sometimes it falls apart. Sometimes our circumstances miraculously change in the moment, and sometimes we have to continue walking forward in a dark valley of a season for a long time. I wanna just note the immediate results are not always the evidence of this new power of play. So now let's dive a little deeper with what is going on in this passage. Like we said, at the beginning, when things get to the level of an encounter of power, things have to change. They have to, because two authorities of power are saying, this is the way things are, this is the way that life is gonna be lived. And people long for change, they long for a new and better way to live life than what they know before. And this is same for true for you and for me. We encounter these power systems too. And we don't always realize it, but we sense it. And like we said, mad, glad, sad, scared, those are the major emotions that we have that point to our internal awareness of whether or not we feel like we are okay. And our emotions of what we think is most real, what is most true, emotions are very real. Please don't hear me wrong, but our emotions are based upon our perceptions. And if our perceptions happened to be incorrect, then our emotions, although real may not always be true to what is actually going on. We desperately want to be okay. And in that we long for the power to be okay. So this new power shows up, it saunters into town, declaring that there is a new way to live life, and it's gonna be lived. And again, this is not a power that they were expecting, or that they had seen before. It was so different. So I wanna mention this book. I think I've mentioned it before. It's called "The Way of the Dragon Or the Way of the Lamb." I mentioned this book in like the only blog post I've ever written. So this should be easy for you to find the Rockpoint blog. If you Google my name, Seth Fagerland blog, it should show up. The only blog I've ever written, there you go. But check it out if you want some Christmas ideas. I list several books in there that have had a big impact in my life. Okay, they're there. Anyways, this book, this book had a major effect on me. 'Cause the authors invite you on a journey to uncover Jesus's seemingly contradictory way to power. And that is through witness. They ask the question, why do so many rockstar pastors implode under the spotlight? How have so many Christian leaders and institutions been lured by toxic and abusive power? Why are so many Christians tempted to chase worldly success and status? Because rather than seeking the kingdom power embodied by Jesus, we've embraced a form of power that is antithetical to the cross of Christ. And in this book, the authors paint a richly biblical vision of power through witness. And they go on a journey to gather wisdom from some of the great recent sages of our time of face, such as J. I. Packer, Dallas Willard, Marva Dawn, John Perkins, James Houston, and Eugene Peterson. And you get to listen to their conversations, and rediscover the wisdom of the cross of Christ and the power that truly sets us free. It's a great book. But they point to Jesus's way of power. Do you remember the sermon on the Mount? When Jesus was launching His public ministry, and the people were starting to gather, momentum was building and he gathered up on the mountain, or the sermon on the Mount, right there outside of the sea of Galilee, and James chapter 5, 6, and 7, He goes through what's called sermon on the Mount, but He starts the whole thing off with the beatitudes. This might sound familiar to a lot of you. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account, rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven. That sure sounds like a different form of power, doesn't it? So different from what the world says, that being bigger, better, stronger to get what you want. That's how the world's power works. And at the end of His message, three chapters of Jesus describing a new way to live life. It ends with this, "And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching for He was teaching them as one who had authority, someone who had power different than the scribes, the religious leaders that they all knew at that time." Two different powers. He was teaching a new power of how to be okay, but not just be okay, but to be blessed. My friends, Jesus Christ not only died on the cross as a substitutionary payment for your sin and my sin, but He also victoriously rose from the grave. Conquering not only sin, but death itself. Therefore He, and only He has the authority to offer you a power of a new way to live life. And it's not what you expect. It's not the power that the world says of being bigger, better, stronger. It's actually power through humility because your source of power is coming from someone else. So you and I now have a power that sets us free. Free from what? Well, free from fear while free. Well, free from the fear of what? It's the power that sets you free from the fear of not being loved. That is what is going on here. The deeper desire that we all have to, we all, that desperate, we wanna feel okay. And then we want the power to be okay. We long to be loved. And we asked the question, what kind of person do I have to become in order for you to love me? Because the rationale is you can't hurt me if you love me. And if that's our rationale, then we deploy all forms of strategies to try to accomplish that in an attempt to win affection. We wanna say the right things. We wanna look a certain way. We wanna think all the same people are cool. We wanna do all the right activities. We adapt all the time. Who do I have to become in order for you to love me? It almost sounds like I was describing teenagers. This is true of all of us. This is true of all of us. Jealousy, rage, anger is never the first emotion, is it? Fear is. And fear says, I'm not okay. Fear says, I am not loved, but what emotions did we see in this new power? Supernatural. It's not always seen, but it's always there. Courage, not the absence of fear, but the ability to press forward in the face of it. Joy, regardless of your circumstances, even painful circumstances, and that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor that shame no longer defines us because we are no longer disqualified. We are chosen, we are accepted, we are included, we are blessed. Why? Because the new power says so. You and I now have a new power that sets us free from the fear of not being loved. Only God's perfect love sets you free from fear. So as we prepare to close our time with another worship song, to remember again who God is, and who we are in Him, I want us to close reading actually a passage from 1 John 4. And remember John was one of the apostles that was right there in that moment as well. But how God's perfect love sets us free from all fear. "By this we know and abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen, and we testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in Him and He in God. And so we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love. And whoever abides in love, abides in God and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment because as He is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out all fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love others because He first loved us." Jesus, we love you, and we trust you. You are God, and we belong to you because you say so. And with the eyes of faith we declare that we belong to you. Not because we deserved it, not because we earned it, but because of who you are. So Jesus now by your Spirit within us, may we declare, praise the Lord, may we declare hallelujah.