the book of Acts Week 15 | June 29, 2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, good morning everyone. It's great to be back with
you all after some much needed time off of rest
with my family. Thanks so much for allowing me to
do that, and thanks so much to Rachel and to
Jake for leading in my absence these past two Sundays.
They really did an awesome job. So let's show Rachel
and Jakes some appreciation for what they did. So during

(00:23):
my time away, one of the things that I was
able to do, something that's actually been on my radar
for many years now, is to visit to the Legacy
Museum in Montgomery, Alabama. And the Legacy Museum tells the
difficult story of the racial injustice that has shaped our
nation from the slave trade to the Jim Crow era
and into our current mass incarceration crisis. Is the museum itself.

(00:48):
It sits on the site of a former cotton warehouse
which served as a staging area for slaves who were
waiting to be auctioned off down the road in the
town square. And one exhibit that was particularly sobering to
me that I found myself just sort of staying and
lingering at for quite a while was a wall of
hundreds upon hundreds of jars of dirt that were taken

(01:09):
from the locations all over the dation where racial lynchings occurred,
including a jar from Terre Haute, Indiana. It was just
beyond saddening to me to read these stories, to picture
the abject horror that some people experienced at the hands
of angry mobs. It was unreal to learn about some

(01:31):
of the irrational reasons given for the lynchings being insticated,
things like a black man passing a note to a
white woman. That I've been reflecting on these things that
I've learned that day at the museum. The thought that
keeps coming to my mind is how many Christians were
in those crowds. How many people genuinely thought that they

(01:54):
were doing the right thing in the name of Jesus Christ.
Were these people haunted by their actions later in life?
Did they wrestle with God with the things that they
had done? How many people that were there ever experienced
a collision with what they believed to be true with
the actual truth of God's kingdom. You see, in many ways,

(02:18):
this is exactly what we see unfolding in our text today.
In our passage, we see a collision between what Saul
genuinely believed to be true and the actual truth of
God's kingdom. Saul genuinely believed that he was doing the
right thing, that he was honoring God by persecuting, arresting,

(02:41):
and even murdering Christ followers. He genuinely believed that he
was right, that he was that this was a good
thing to do. But he was wrong. He was wrong.
Our text today is the most famous conversion story in
the entire Bible, story of how Saul became known as

(03:03):
the apostle Paul. I'm going to interchangeably use both of
these names throughout today. Just heads up. If I say
Saul or Paul, I'm talking about the same person. As
we'll see Saul's journey in our texts, it went through
three stages, and this will serve sort of as an
outline for us today. First, there's a stage of a
collision with God. Saul has a collision with God, and

(03:26):
this was followed by the second stage of a time
of waiting. And then third there was a time of
encouragement in support from others. Collision waiting, encouragement and support.
As I've been studying for this message this week, reflecting
on my own life, I've realized I've experienced these seasons

(03:48):
in my life multiple times. My conversion story didn't necessarily
take me through these stages. My conversion story certainly isn't
as dramatic as this one. But I've had seasons of
spiritual growth and maturation that have taken me through collision, waiting, encouragement,
and support. And I'm willing to bet that you've experienced

(04:10):
this to I'm confident that you've had similar seasons in life.
Perhaps you are in the middle of a season like
this right now. My goal today really is to expand
on what Rachel challenges two weeks ago, As she so
elegantly said, quote, the Holy Spirit keeps teaching, and we're

(04:31):
invited again and again to ask not just what do
I know? But what am I assuming is final that
might need to be re examined? In other words, and
what areas do I genuinely think that I understand God,
that I am correct, but this false belief will eventually

(04:54):
lead me into a collision with the Lord. I'm hoping
that we can explore this pattern from Paul's so when
these seasons necessarily occur in our own that we are
ready and prepared that we can recognize them that we
can navigate them well. Spiritual growth and maturation often will
pass us through collision, waiting encouragement and support, and when

(05:15):
that happens, let's be ready and prepared. So that's where
we're going this morning, as we're preparing to explore this text,
apply it to our lives, considering what God is doing
in the lives of us and the people around us.
Let us first approach the Lord humbly in prayer. Let's pray,
So God, we first of all admit that we walk

(05:39):
around thinking that we're right. That's true of everyone on
this planet. And God, with so many dissenting positions and
ideas and perspectives, we know that this can't be true.
Every one of us might have a handle on truth
to a certain degree, but we're all lacking the fullest
picture of Your kingdom. So God, we recognize that there

(06:01):
are certain things that we can, as Jake encourages with
just a moments ago, that we can believe that we
can stake our life on, that you are the Messiah,
that you die for our sins, that you will raise again.
But God, we also humbly accept that we don't know
how all this works out in our everyday life. Sometimes
how you are leading us to be your followers. So

(06:22):
give us a heart that can hear you this morning,
that's ready to respond to your truth. So I pray
God Amen. So first, let's look at the collision that
occurred between Saul and the Lord, starting in verse one. Meanwhile,
Saul was still breathing up murderous threats against the Lord's disciples.

(06:45):
He went to the high priest and asked for him.
Asked him for letters to the synagogues and Damascus, so
if he found anyone there who belonged to the Way,
whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners
to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly
a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to
the ground. He heard a voice heated him, Saul, why
do you persecute me? Who are you? Lord? Saul asked,

(07:07):
I am Jesus whom you're persecuting. He replied, Now get up,
go into the city, and you'll be told what you
must do. So we first met this pharisee, this man
named Saul, in the account of Stephen's murder from Acts
chapter seven. When we were studying Acts seven, we were
told that Saul he was present, that he heard Stephen's

(07:30):
words about God's kingdom, about how Jesus Christ is the
fulfillment of everything that scripture has said about the coming Messiah.
We are told that Saul he not only witnessed the
stoning of Stephen, that he approved it. We're told that
he held the coats of those who were doing it.
Like Saul was there, he was a part of the mob.

(07:53):
Hearing these words of Stephen, being present at his lynching,
this awoke a new level of disdain, a new level
of offense and condescension deep within Saul's heart. The disciples
being persecuted and chased out of Jerusalem, this wasn't enough
for him. Instead, he requested that the Sanhedrin grant him

(08:14):
the ability to chase after the Disciples of Jesus who
were fleeing, to track them down, to hunt for them
in foreign lands, and so he could extradite them back
to Jerusalem where they could meet the same fate as Stephen.
As er Tech says, he was breathing out murderous threats
against the Lord's disciples. Is here, what I want to

(08:39):
do is slow down and pause and just consider the
conviction of Saul here. I want us to notice how
all in he was. He genuinely thought he was right.
This was a ton of work. People don't like their

(09:00):
lives so fully to something that they're just sort of true.
This was an all consuming effort on his part. Saul's
journey to Damascus that he probably would have done on
foot was about one hundred and forty miles. That would
have taken them about one week on foot just to
get there. If he walked twenty miles a day, and
after rounding up some disciples, you'd have to do the

(09:22):
return journey back vigilantly making sure that they didn't escape.
And granted, he didn't do this all by himself. He
had some people with him. As our text tells us,
these are more than likely members of the Temple Guard.
But I think even this shows his deep conviction, because
he wasn't just doing this as an individual, he was
leading other people to do the exact same thing. Saul

(09:46):
was so convinced that he was right, that he was
morally correct, that he gave himself over entirely to this work.
This was what Saul was going to be doing for
the foreseeable future. Interestingly enough, as we see on this map,
but I understand it's hard to read. The red solid
line is the journey that Saul probably took from Jerusalem

(10:06):
up to Damascus. And I want you to notice that
it takes him through the region of Galilee. It takes
him through the hometown of Jesus. It takes him right
by the Sea of Galley, maybe the exact same spot
that Jesus calls the original Disciples. It maybe was on
the exact same patch of earth that this collision with

(10:29):
the Lord occurred. Verse three. As he neared Damascus on
his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.
He fell to the ground. He heard a voice say
to him, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? Who
are you? Lord? Saul asked in this phrase, who are you?
This is the crux of the collision that was occurring.

(10:52):
Who are you? It's like Saul saying, I had this
concept of you in my mind for such a long
time now, but what's happening right now doesn't fit into
any box I've made for you. So tell me who
are you? I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. This

(11:17):
was a collision with the truth of who God is
and the God that Saul has constructed in his own mind.
What was actually happening didn't fit within the framework that
Saul had for God, and the results, in his own
sort of way of seeing the world were catastrophic. Everything

(11:39):
that he thought he understood about the Lord would need
to be reconsidered, re examined, reformed into the actual truth
that was being revealed. Jesus Christ is the Messiah. In fact,
in many ways, is what we've been seeing the past
few weeks as we've been studying in the Book of
Acts with the Disciples right the Jewish Christians, they couldn't

(12:02):
imagine Samaritans being welcomed into God's kingdom. So the Lord
orchestrated a collision between the apostles false ideas and the
truth of his kingdom. The Apostles were there, they were
present when the Holy Spirit was given to the Samaritans.
As Rachel taught two weeks ago, it was unfathomable that

(12:24):
a foreign eunuch could enter into God's kingdom. But to
Phillip's amazement, he did a collision. See here's the point.
No matter where we are on our spiritual journeys, we
will all have times of collision. When our incomplete and
incorrect ideas of God are shattered against the truth of

(12:46):
who He actually is. It's impossible for you to ever
fully comprehend the goodness, the love, the power, the wisdom,
the grace of the Lord. As Paul himself will later
write to the Church in Rome, how impossible it is
for us to understand God's decisions in his ways. God

(13:09):
is so much bigger than who we are. You see,
just like Saul in our text, we all have the
tendency to make God into our own image. We all
do this. We all subconsciously impose onto God our own standards,
our own ideas, our own perspectives, our own values. We

(13:32):
force these onto God. We have the tendency to be
convinced that we are fully correct, that we are right,
when in fact we're not. Some collisions sound like this,
A God of love could never have standards that could
cost me how I really want to live. Other collisions

(13:53):
sound like a God who is eternally minded can never
care about social justice and a fallen world like this?
Or what about? A God of holiness can never make
room for people who have done, or believe or struggle
with blank A God of justice can never instruct me
to forgive or to patiently bear with people like this.
A God of goodness would never allow that type of

(14:13):
suffering in my life. A God of redemption would never
draw this kind of line in the sand. A God
who's perfect could never love or accept me without me
first fixing myself in certain ways. God can never be
that good, that near, that patient, that willing to forgive,
that welcoming, that uncompromisingly holy. God can never have this

(14:36):
calling on my life. God can never ask me to
give up so much, to be that generous, to be
that involved, to be that merciful. God could never call
me to be that much like Christ. That's impossible. A
collision between what we believe to be true and the

(15:00):
unbelievably big majesty of God verse six. Now get up,
go into the city. You'll be told what to do.
In this moment of collision, Saul had no idea what
was happening. The only thing he knew for sure was
that he had to surrender his own ideas, his own

(15:22):
plans to the Lord. Instead of doing what seemed to
be right to him, he had to humble himself and
listen to God. He couldn't listen to what seemed right
in his own eyes. He couldn't listen to what the
culture was saying, he couldn't listen to the political narratives,
the noise of this world. He had to surrender and

(15:42):
obey God. And friends, in our own moments of collision,
we have to be prepared to do the same thing.
We must slow down, surrender, and listen to God. And
that brings us to the second stage of Saul's conversion

(16:04):
of time of slowing down and waiting, a time of
waiting Verse seven. The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless.
They heard the sound, but they did not see anyone.
Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened
his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him
by the hand into Damascus, and for three days he
was blind. He did not eat or drink anything. So
Saul's waiting was really manifested as a time of darkness.

(16:28):
He went temporarily blind, and within this there was a
symbolic truth and a practical truth for us to notice.
So first the symbolic truth Paul's temporary loss of vision.
It really just symbolizes how spiritually blind he had been,
like how clueless. He had been. As we mentioned already, Paul,

(16:48):
he was present at the stoning of Stephen. He heard
what Stephen had said about Jesus, how he fulfilled everything
that the scripture had said about the coming Messiah. Paul
was there, he heard it, he took get in. And
when we studied Steven's murder in Acts, chapter seven, something
that we mentioned is that after Saul became the apostle Paul,
after Saul converted, much of his later theology that we

(17:12):
see flushed out in all these epistles throughout the New
Testament really was. It was just what Stephen was saying,
but flushed out like Paul was teaching the same types
of things that Stephen was saying. We mentioned that Stephen's
speech was the second longest speech in the entire New Testament.
It was so long and so detailed here in the

(17:34):
Book of Acts, because Paul probably told Luke, who's the
author of Acts. Paul probably told Luke in great detail,
this is what Stephen said, and what we know, what
we sort of infer from that is man. These words
did not go in Paul's ear and out the other.
These sank deep into his heart. Paul remembered in great
detail what Stephen had said. In fact, it's very possible

(17:59):
that in our text today we see Saul sort of
giving himself over to a willful ignorance. You've ever been there,
like you just give yourself over to doing something so
that you don't have to admit what you know is true.
Maybe Saul went on this rampage of persecution for the
very purpose of busying himself enough to silence the voice

(18:21):
of Stephen in his mind, to drown out his own
gnawing questions. He might be convincing himself that he is
right in order to avoid the catastrophe of being wrong.
He may have been closing his eyes to the truth

(18:42):
because he was afraid of what he might find. Saul's
temporary blindness was symbolic to his current spiritual health, And secondly,
Saul's blindness had practical implications as well. I've shared this
story before, but when I was in my mid twenties,
in the middle of my divorce, where it's just a
horrible time in my life, certainly a season of collision

(19:03):
for me where I'm like God, I don't know what's
going on. When in the middle of this season of
my life. One of the things that I did is
I just took a day trip down to Mammoth Cave.
There's a spot that we were with as kids, so I
was just trying to find some sense of like, oh
like normalcy and comfort. So I'll just go visit this
place that I went as a kid. I thought was
kind of cool. And during the tour, one of the
things that the ranger does, he's like, do you want

(19:25):
to know what blackness feels like? And they'll turn off
the lights. I remember in that moment, like everyone's going
from like having these conversations and having a great time.
But as soon as the lights went out, everything stopped,
All conversations paused, no one was moving around. There's just

(19:47):
a stillness, a listening and awaiting. I remember feeling like
that's a pretty good analogy of how I feel right now, Lord,
emotionally and spiritually in this season life. I feel in
the dark. I also felt the Holy Spirit encourage me
in that moment just notice what everyone's doing, They're listening.

(20:13):
I felt God invited me into that same posture with
him during that season slow down, Wait, Listen. See Within
Saul's temporary blindness, God gave him what he needed. He
gave him the time to think. He gave him time
to slow down and listen to the Lord. Saul's given

(20:33):
the conditions to allow him to rethink God. Stephen's speech
certainly lingered in Saul's mind, but he never slowed down
enough to ever unpack it. He just busied himself in
this moment. What may have been just an annoyance sort
of bouncing around in his head was able to come
center stages. All the distractions and business were eliminated. As

(20:58):
Saul sat in the dark, all he could do was
considered Stephen's words and to pray to God about them.
In fact, this is what we're told in the passage
that he did verse nine. For three days Saul was blind.
He didn't eat or drink anything, so he's fasting. Verse eleven.
The Lord told Antonius go to the house of Judas
on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus

(21:19):
named Saul, for he's praying. It was in the darkness
as he fasted and prayed that Saul finally acknowledges the
truth Jesus is the Messiah. See, friends, I know that
you've experienced seasons of life like this. I know that's
true when you're so confused, you're so overwhelmed, you're so

(21:45):
in the dark with what was happening, that you were
forced to slow down and think in that uncomfortable slowness
where you were just craving distraction, you were craving an
answer when all you could do was pray. See I
applaud Pastor Jay for his leadership last week, because that's

(22:07):
exactly what he led us to do as a church.
Instead of throwing ourselves into the noise, into the busyness
of the outrage, of the panic, of the worry during
this time of political unrest, instead of doing that, Jake
encouraged us to slow down and pray, make ourselves available
to God, to seek his heart, to seek his way,

(22:29):
to acknowledge his kingdom, to plant ourselves in His kingdom.
My hope is that that wasn't just like a swell
thing we did together one Sunday morning, But this is
your posture ongoing. When you and I experienced seasons of collision,
this will always be accompanied by a season of waiting,

(22:51):
a season when we can no longer ignore the things
that we've been putting off, that we've been stuffing down.
Season when all that comes to the surface, and we
have this stare at it. We have to ask the
hard questions, We have to seek the truth. We have
to admit I have no idea what's going on the
season where we have to wrestle with those old, incomplete

(23:13):
ideas of God and accept the truth? Lord, Are you
really that much bigger than I ever would have given
you credit for a season where all we can really
do is fast and pray. Sometimes that's a pretty short
season of waiting Paul got three days. Other times these
seasons can be painfully long, like three years. Maybe you're

(23:36):
in a season of waiting right now. So my encouragement
is leaning in the prayer, lean in, seek the Lord
through scripture. Consider fasting not as a silver bullet, not
because you can manipulate God to giving you what you want.
So you can slow down and listen one Peter five six,

(23:58):
a verse that during that time of collision of my
life really became instrumental one Peter five six. Humble yourself
under God's mighty hand. Stop squirming around, Just stop humble
yourself under God's mighty hand. He'll lift you up in
due time. The season of collision will always be followed

(24:21):
by a period of waiting, and this time often feels
like you're in the dark. Lastly, Saul's conversion was sort
of punctuated by a time of encouragement and support from
other followers of Christ. Verse ten and Damascus. There's a
disciple named Annonius, and Lord called him in a vision. Anonius, Yes, Lord,

(24:43):
he said. The Lord told him, go to the house
of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man
from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. Side note
here this is in my notes, But I think it's
interesting that you see two names of people that have
like pretty bad reputation in the Bible, like Antonius and Judas,
but like these are different people. But I do think

(25:05):
that there's something to be said there that like God
is calling Antonius and Judas to do something instrumental for
his kingdom. Different people, but interesting. In a vision, he
has seen a man named Anonius come and place his
hands on him to restore his sight. Lord Antonius answered,
I've heard many reports about this man and all the
harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem,

(25:26):
and he has come here with the authority from the
Chief Priest to arrest all who call on your name God.
This is a bad idea, But the Lord said the
Antonius go. This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim
my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to
the people of Israel. I will show him how much
he must suffer from my name. Anonius is. Basically, it's like,

(25:47):
all right, not my will, but your will. So he goes.
So Anonis went to the house and entered it, placing
his hands on Saul. He said, brother, Saul, the Lord
Jesus who appeared you on the road as you were
coming here, he has sent me so that you may
see again be filled with the Holy And immediately something
like scales fell from Saul's eyes and he could see again.
He got up, and he was baptized, and after taking
some food heed, he regained his strength, jumping down to

(26:08):
verse twenty six. When Saul came to Jerusalem, he tried
to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him,
not believing that he was really disciple. Letting Saul end
is a bad idea, a bad idea. But Barnabas took
him and brought him to the apostles. He told him
how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord, that
the Lord had spoken to him. How in Damascus he
preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus. So Saul stayed

(26:30):
with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly
in the name of Christ. Just a few quick observations
as we start to close. The very first thing the
Lord did after Saul's a season of collision and waiting
was over was to bring other people into Saul's life
to kind of come alongside him, to walk with him
in encouragement and support. It wasn't like God is like, hey, Saul,

(26:52):
you just had this like revolutionary thing with me. Now
go off on your own and figure it out. The
first thing he did is he brought other people, other
disciples to come walk with. A man named Anonius went
to Saul, and let's not miss this. Antonius obeyed the Lord.
The Lord, even though he was hesitant. This is not
a good idea. I do not want to do this.

(27:12):
I think that's the picture of Jesus. So he's praying
in the garden. This is this is I don't want
to do this at all. There's any other way. Take
this cup from me. But Anoni's just like Christ allowed
the Lord's will to guide him and not his own.
And through that picture that we see God extending christ
like love to Saul. He's like he's wrapping Saul in
the love of Jesus. When Anius arrived, he referred to

(27:37):
Saul as brother verse seventeen, placing his hands on Saul,
and and I said, brother, Saul, the Lord Jesus who
appeared you on the road as you were coming here,
he sent me that you may that you may see
again be filled the Holy Spirit. Right, Antonius is welcoming
Saul in spite of his past. This familial language brother.

(28:00):
On top of this, it was through Anonius that Saul
learned more clearly the plans that God had for his life.
Verse fifteen says the Lord said that Edonius go, This
man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to
the Gentiles. In fact, later in the Book of Acts,
as we'll come to it eventually, in chapter twenty two,
we hear the apostle Paul say that it was through Anonius,
like his own understanding of how he learned his own

(28:22):
calling was from the mouth of Anonius. Paul says in
Acts twenty two, anon I said to me. The God
of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will,
to see the righteous one, to hear words from his mouth.
You'll be his witness to all people of what you've
seen and heard were than anything. What I want to
see is Antonyus is extending christ like love to Saul.
Antonius is being the hands and feet of Jesus to Saul.

(28:45):
And God didn't stop there. We also see the Lord
bringing another man named Barnabas, someone that we've met and
Acts chapter four already, to stand in the gap for
Paul when he came to Jerusalem verse twenty six. When
Saul came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples,
that they were all afraid of him, not believing that
he really was a disciple, but Barnabas. But Barnabas took
him and brought him to the apostles. He told them

(29:07):
how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord. The
Lord had spoken to him, how in Damascus he had
reached fearlessly in the name of Jesus. Barnabas also is
exemplifying Christ's like love. He's advocating for him, He's standing
in the gap for him. He is closing a distance
that Saul cannot close on his own. He allowed, He
makes a way for Saul to enter the community when
there was no way, just like Annonius Barnabas is not

(29:32):
holding Saul's past against him. Two very clear pictures of
christ like love being unfolded right before Saul here. See
here's my point. In our own season of collision and waiting,
be on the lookout for who God is bringing into
your life to walk with you, people who are showing

(29:55):
Christ's like love to you who are living out the kingdom.
As I reflect on my biggest seasons of collision in waiting,
without exception, during these times, the Lord raised up very influential,
faith driven, wise and stabilizing people to walk with me,
people who allowed me to ask the hard question, people
who allowed me to wrestle with the uncertainty and friends,

(30:18):
God is going to do the same for you too,
as you mentioned before, Perhaps you during a season of
collision and waiting right now. Perhaps this has been brought
on by a personal struggle or by a life circumstance.
Maybe it's the current political climate. Whatever the reason, my
encouragement to you as you listen and pray is be
on the lookout for who God is bringing alongside. God

(30:43):
will use others in your life to reveal what He's doing.
Is it possible that the Lord is using me as
your pastor as your shepherd to play a bigger role
in your life right now? Do we need to meet
just to pray and to talk through things? I would
love to do that. Perhaps it's someone else in this

(31:07):
room that God's bringing to your mind, because you know,
you're calling me to be like Barnabas or anais in
their life, aren't you. Maybe someone has already confided in
you that they're in a season of struggle or confusion.
That's the case, will you respond to the Lord's invitation

(31:28):
walk alongside them, encourage them, show christ like love to them.
Is it possible the Lord is calling you into action?
If so, how will you respond? Collision, waiting, encouragement and
support friends More than anything, What I want you to
know is this is a normative part of discipleship. This

(31:52):
does not mean that God has lost sight of you,
that he doesn't love you. If you're going through it,
it means the exact opposite. It means that he He's
aware of you enough to have you follow in the
footsteps of the saints. He's at work in your life.
He cares too much for you to remain in this
vague incomplete knowledge of who he is. He is currently

(32:14):
building you up more and more to understand the glory
and the majesty of His kingdom. Let's commit to understanding
this now that these patterns are normative, so that we're
better equipped to navigate these season productively when they do occur.
We certainly see Saul, Anonias and Barnabas doing this, and

(32:38):
they had pretty good results. Let's pray, so, Holy Father,
we again we bend our knee, and we admit to
you that you are God and we are not. You
have the full picture, we only have scraps of it.
Help us to give you the benefit of the doubt.

(33:00):
Help us to lean into your grace and love more
and more. Help us have the courage to trust one another,
so that you can continue to build within us a
picture of a truly Christian community, one that where we
are known and that we know others. Give us an
ambition to not just have faith, but allow the faith

(33:21):
to have us to overtake who we are, to believe
in the ancient way. As Jake mentioned, help us to believe.
We love you, We need you. See You're precious and
holy name. We pray Amen.