Sermon artwork

Acts 11:19-30

Preached by Bart Erlebach on 12th January 2025

Scripture

19 Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. 20 But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus. 21 And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord. 22 The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 23 When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, 24 for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord. 25 So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, 26 and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.

27 Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28 And one of them named Agabus stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world (this took place in the days of Claudius). 29 So the disciples determined, every one according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers living in Judea. 30 And they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.

(ESV)

Generated Transcript
The reading is from acts chapter 11 starting at verse 19. Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed traveled as far as Tunisia, Cyprus, and Antioch, spreading the word only among Jews. Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene went to Antioch, and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the lord Jesus. The lord's hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the lord. News of this reached the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabus to Antioch.

When he arrived and saw what the grace of god had done, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the lord with all their hearts. He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the lord. Then barnabas went to Tarsus to look for saul. And when he found him, he brought him to antioch. So for a whole year, Barnabus and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people, the disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.

During this time, some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. 1 of them named Agabus stood up and through the spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. This happened during the reign of Claudia. The disciples, as each 1 was able, decided to provide help for the brothers and sisters living in Judea. This, they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and saw.

Great. Thank you for reading that for us, Jane. And happy new year everyone. Thank you very much. You didn't have to respond.

I suppose. But happy new year. I wasn't here last week. So, but it's good to be back. With you all, and it was good last week to be at Grace Church, Worcester Park, and, see what things are like there.

I gather it was cold here, last week, and it was cold there as well, but they have it cold every week there, whereas we actually have heating here, which is lovely. So when it's working, it's it's good. For those who don't know me, I'm Bart. I'm pastor here at, at Hope Church. And this morning, we're going to be looking at that passage in Acts chapter 11.

This is a little 1 off sermon because we're going to be thinking as a church about Outreach. And we're going to be doing that more over the lunch. And then just so you know, next week onwards, we're going to be starting a series in the book of colossians. And we're looking forward to that, a series that we're calling fullness in Christ. And so, if you get a chance between this week and next week, do you have a read of the book of colossians.

It won't take you long, 15 minutes, say, to read it through, but it'd be great if you did. So, let me begin our sermon by praying for us. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this time that we have, and we thank you for your word. And pray please as we think about Outreach, how to reach out with the good news of Jesus.

Father, please would you teach us? Help us to do the outreach in a way which is glorifying to you. And we pray your blessing on our time and your blessing on our attempts to reach out to those who don't know Jesus. So please help us we pray, amen. So please keep the passage open in front of you in acts chapter 11, verses 19 to 30, and we will come to that in due course.

So page 1 1 0 5 if you've got 1 of the bibles that was on the seats. So like I say, we're thinking about outreach. We, as a church, have now planted, which is great. It's very exciting. That we're now started as Hope Church Tolworth.

Been praying about it, and now we've launched. The Lord has provided incredibly for us. He's provided us with a great group of gifted people To work together. We've got a good venue to meet him. We've received support from other churches financially and in prayer.

We've had Christmas, and it's been good. We've had Carol singing. We've had Carol service. We've had Christmas morning, and it's been good gathering together and beginning as a church. And now we're in 20 25.

And we think, what's next? I wonder what you're hoping for. When it comes to reaching out, what are you hoping for? Well, it it's funny when people say that about to Churchill, you say, you know, what's your vision? What are you hoping for in 5 years time?

Maybe I'm thick on this, but I suspect, actually, most church leaders and most churches will say, actually, we're kinda hoping for the same thing. We're hoping that more people will hear about Jesus and come to faith. That's what we'd love to see, isn't it? People from the local area, from the local streets, on the sunray estate, those in the toll width in the signal park towers, we'd love to see lots of them coming along, hearing about Jesus, and putting their faith in him. And of course, that will mean then services maybe would be packed with people, not so much people coming from transfer growth.

That is from just coming from other churches, but people coming because they wanna hear about Jesus. We want people coming in who don't yet know Jesus, who hear about him and put their trust in him, who come to life, as you would have heard last week, come to life because they hear the word of god, and because it's god's spirit breathes into them and say they come to faith in Jesus. We want that. We want the children's ministry to be growing as children are inviting their friends to come along and hear about Jesus. And for the youth ministry to be established and be growing as well.

We'd love there to be people from the different ethnic groups that there are in the local area. And there are different groups around here. We'd love them to be coming along. We'd love to have courses full of people exploring Christianity. We'd love to have baptisms.

How's it gonna happen? How are the people from the local area and your friends and your family and work colleagues? How are they gonna come to know about Jesus? How's it all gonna happen? The temptation is to think that what we really need is the right strategy, the right plan.

We need the right ideas. And later on over lunch, we are gonna ask you to write down your ideas for how to reach out to your network and to the neighborhood. But maybe we think that's what we really need. We've got to have the right ideas the brain wave, the brilliant plan. And we need to put on the right activities at the right time.

And you know what would really guarantee it? If we had If we had the right speakers, then we're guaranteed that this is gonna work. I mean, okay, if if we could get Some of you won't have heard of it. If we could get Tim Keller back from the dead and invite him. If he would surely, if he were here, or if he could get Billy Graham back from the dead and get him here, I mean, that would guarantee it, wouldn't it?

Then you'd be onto a real winner in this area. Get the right person, get the right plan, and you're onto it. But if we think that, Who carries the burden for the outreach success? Who does it all depend on? You see, we can think it's all on our shoulders.

We have to make it happen. We've got to have the right plan. We've got to set up the right groups. We've got to get the right person speaking. We've got to do it.

And if we do it, it'll be a success. If if if we don't, whatever it is won't be. But of course, that's a recipe for burnout, actually. It leads to 12 months down the line of congregations are exhausted because you're trying everything under the sun, desperate because we've gotta make this work. An eldership who feel under pressure, and therefore put demands on everyone, and a pastor who's probably broken down.

So before we start now, it's important to start things and to get things going. But before we do, let's learn the lessons from acts chapter 11 and from this church plant in Antioch. Just before we launched, I went on the commission, staff focused conference. There were others here who went on it as well, and it was a really good time, or at least I was there for 1 day of it. And while I was there, Simon Martin, who's pastor of senior pastor of King's Church, Walton, which is a k mission church, preach that on this passage, and I found it so helpful.

I wanted to pass on to you what I learned. It's not just duplicating what he said. It's not that, but it is passing on to you some incredible encouragement from this passage. And in this passage, in act 11, we see, the 1 thing needed. Oh, I've gone beyond that.

There you go. What's the 1 thing that's needed? So, X Chapter 11, we see the planting of a church in a place called Antioch. And it's an incredible plant, which sees lots of people coming to faith. There are lots of people who come to faith here.

And we do see the 1 thing that's needed. And we see that the 1 thing that's needed isn't first and foremost a strategy. They didn't actually have 1. Have a look at verse 19. Verse 19, have a look on in your bibles.

Now those who'd been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed traveled as far as Tunisia, Cyprus, and Antioch spreading the word only among Jews. So the planting in Antioch wasn't a result of a great strategy meeting? Was it it's not you don't get there that the apostles in Jerusalem had a great planning meeting. They said, where should we head, where should we go? Okay.

Antioch looks like the right place. Okay. How are we gonna go about it? There wasn't a great strategy meeting. It happened because the people were fleeing persecution.

Now, just to give you a little bit of context on that, at the start of the book of Acts, the focus is all on Jerusalem. The apostles were instructed in chapter 1 of acts to stay in Jerusalem until they'd been given the Holy Spirit, and then they were to take the message about Jesus and were to go out. They would go out to Judea, to Sumeria, and to the ends of the Earth. That's acts chapter 1 verse 8. So the plan is, receive the Holy Spirit, go out.

And that's the plan of the book. You can trace, as you go through the book of acts, you can trace the gospel starting in Jerusalem and then going out to those areas. But what you see is that the disciples needed to be pushed to go out of Jerusalem. You see, the Holy Spirit is given in chapter 2, and they should have just then just gone out, but they don't. They stay in Jerusalem.

The focus is there. And they aren't going out. And then in chapter 7, Stephen, who's a follower of Jesus, is killed. And in chapter 8 verse 1, we are told that on that day, A great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. They go out not because of their great plan, their great strategy, but because they're persecuted.

They're forced out. And chapter 11 19 picks up on this when it says, now those who'd been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed. So there's back in chapter, end of chapter 7 beginning of chapter 8. They go out. And they travel north, and this is heading north.

Each of these places, Finetia Cyprusantio, that's heading north. That's where they go. Now, don't mishear this. I'm not saying planning is unimportant. It is good to plan.

But clearly, in this case, we see that planning and strategizing are not the 1 thing that you need. There's value in planning in working on understanding the people you're trying to reach out to, and so making wise decisions. Of course, there is. But in the end, success in Outreach isn't about strategy nor Is it about big names? First 20?

Have a look. Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Irene went to Antioch and began to to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the lord Jesus. Now it's noticeable here that you don't have any big names. Generally, in the book of acts, you're following either Peter or Paul, but neither of them are there, at least not to begin with. To begin with, who goes?

Well, you're not told the names of any of them. In fact, it seems quite ordinary who goes. Who is it? It just says, Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Irene went to antioch. We don't know their names.

They're just ordinary believers. People like you and me who just went. Now we've said it already, but aren't you tempted to think when it comes to outreach in this area? If god were to substitute you for someone else, someone more gifted, someone more able. And you attempted to think things would just go better.

And you attempted to think, swap, swap me or swap you for Rico Tice, if you've heard of him an evangelist or Rebecca McLaughlin, also an advantage. If the lord were to swap us for 1 of them, things would go better. But here, god uses ordinary people, not the big names. So the big thing is not big names nor is it gimmicks? They just spoke about Jesus.

They didn't roll into town into Antioch with a big marquee They didn't set up a circus to draw people in and then tell them the gospel of Jesus. They didn't have juggling bears or elephants or anything like that. Kinda come roll up, roll up, come and come and see, see this bed going, by the way, let us tell you about Jesus. They just spoke. It says they spoke to Greeks and told them the good news about the lord Jesus.

That's what they did. Now it's significant that they spoke to Greeks 1 of the big changes that had to happen in the church, at the time, was that the Jewish Christians needed to see that. The good news about Jesus was for all people, not just for Jews. This was a big change for them. And if you read in chapter 10, you see the lord having to convince Peter that he really could go to the these non Jews.

And I'll leave it to you to read it yourself. Peter has an in a vision, an incredible vision, but he has to be convinced to go to non Jews. But even with that and with a few non Jewish converts, The Christians still hadn't really started to reach out to non Jews until this point. What happens in Antioch is the first time Christians are really going out to meet non Jews, crossing a cultural divide. And what do they do?

They go to them, and they tell them the good news about Jesus. Now I think that's significant for us as well because at this area we're planting into that we've planted into. Is a very mixed area. I'm very thankful to John Strong for having done some work for us on the the the area, the people of the area, what what's the place like that that we've, that we planted into? And what we find in in what he found was there are lots of different nationalities around us.

Some parts, there are more Muslims. Sometimes some places, there are more, hindus. The ethnicity varies from street to street in the local area. How are we going to reach them? How do we cross cultures?

Well, Here, they're doing exactly that. And I'm sure there was more thinking about how to do this, how to cross a cultured boundary to to reach out to others. But essentially, they spoke about Jesus. That's what it says. So I'm no expert in crossing cultures, but we need to hold on to the fact that whichever culture we're trying to reach Whatever people's background, we do have what they need, which is the good news about the lord Jesus.

That's what they need to hear. And in antioch, they didn't come with great gimmicks as they went. They just went and spoke about Jesus. In the end, there is a simplicity to that, isn't there? It's a wonderful simplicity.

So there weren't gimmicks. They spoke about Jesus. What's the 1 thing that's needed? We still haven't got there yet. The 1 thing that's needed verse 21, it's in there.

Have a look at verse 21. The lord's hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the lord. That's it. The 1 thing needed is the hand of the lord. That's it.

The hand of the lord was with them and a great number of people believed. Of course, that's what we need. If the lord's hand is with you in anything, you can't fail. Can you? I mean, if the lord's hand is with you, whatever it is, you'll be alright.

The lord's hand was with them. And so a great number of people believed. Think back in the Bible to 1 of the greatest missionary events in the Bible. Thing back to a guy called Jonah, who went to the city of Ninevah. He was 1 of the worst missionaries you could possibly imagine.

He didn't want to go. He ran away He'd rather die drowning than go to the people that he was supposed to go to. But in the end, god got him going there, reluctantly, he went, goes to the city, goes to the middle of the city, and proclaims 1 of the worst sermons ever. It the message is just 40 more days and nineveh will be overthrown. That's it.

And the entire city turns to the lord. How does that happen? Because the hand of the lord was with him. And if the hand of the lord is with you, it'll succeed. So what we need is the hand of the lord.

Now what difference does that make to us as we start to think about, like I say, over the lunch, we're gonna think about how we're gonna reach out. What difference does this make to that? I think it takes the pressure off you and me. You see, whether hundreds come to faith or nobody comes to faith, He's ultimately in the lord's hands, isn't it? It's not in your hands, and it's not in my hands.

It's not about whether we get the strategy right. You see, it's not that on judgment day It's not that there will be anyone who comes to us and says, you know what? If you'd got your strategy right, I'd have come to faith. If you'd put on a Tiddly winks group on a Wednesday morning every other week, I'd have heard the gospel and belief, but you didn't, so I didn't. So you stuffed up.

That's not the way it works, is it? It doesn't depend on our strategy, but on the hand of the lord. We're dependent on his sovereignty The lord has already purposed who will be his. Later on, in acts chapter 13 verse 48 says, as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. The lord knows who on this estate and from the towers and who in your friends is gonna become Christians.

He's already determined it. So we can trust his sovereignty, and we can trust the lord's sovereignty that he will get us doing the things that he wants us to do. Yeah. We might need to think about it, work on it, plan. Yeah.

Think about what we're gonna do and decide what we're gonna but ultimately, the lord is in charge. He's going to determine what we end up doing. And because he's sovereign over it all, I think that that frees us up to say actually we can try things. We can just try things prayerfully, but we can try things. It gives us a freedom to try things with a joy and a trust in the laws.

We'll try things. See what the lord uses. Without any pressure that we've gotta make people come to fame. And if we need to stop something, we stop it. If we need to change it, we change it.

If we need to start something new, we start something new. But it also means the fact that we're dependent on the hand of the lord, it means prayer is essential. Prairie is essential, isn't it? Because that's how we depend on the lord. We look to him.

So you're better putting on fewer events that you're covering in prayer than putting on loads of things but not praying. And we have begun at Hope Church with a significant emphasis on praying together. It's been so encouraging, and that needs to continue and needs to come from a sense of not just that we're doing our duty, not just that we're doing, actually, of course, we need to pray. Of course, we do. We'd tick that box, but a sense of total dependence on the laws.

That prayer is not a it's not a dutiful extra. It's not like when a parent says to their child, you know, put your jumper on. I'm trying to, yeah, whatever. Gotta put my jumper on. It's not like god's saying that to you.

You know, you must pray. We go, oh, you know, okay. Suppose we suppose we must pray. But rather it comes from a sense of need of dependence that we need the lord to work among us. That is more like oxygen.

Isn't it? We need prayers like oxygen? You've gotta do it. We need the lord to work, and therefore, we're gonna pray. I've mentioned before, the Brooklyn tabernacle in in New York, their incredible growth in the 19 seventies.

They went from about 20 people to thousands of people, and their testimony was it was all down to prayer that the church family were pleading with the lord for the area they were in. We've started well, but I'm keen for us to learn how to do this more. To earnestly seek the lord, knowing that we need him, and that the people around here and our friends and family are dead without him. I think we can settle for the idea that our society is pretty hard to the gospel. So we think we need some brilliant new way to engage the culture, to proclaim the gospel in a way that engages people where they're at, not wrong to do that.

But we can think that's the key. If we could just find that, that thing, that way of communicating the gospel, their need, the gospel's power, we can connect it in a clever new way. Like, like a Rubik's cube where you learn the technique and you go, well, once we've got that technique, yeah, we got it. We can do it. I think we I think we think that's that's what you've gotta do.

If you could only connect with the culture in that way, then you'll see it. But that's not this, is it? If I'm reading this right, we need the hand of the lord with us. And if his hand is with us, people will believe. And therefore, We need to get on our knees and pray.

So that's our first point. It's by far the longest point. The 1 thing we need is the hand of the lord. But that doesn't mean we sit back. We just pray and do nothing.

Because the lord does use his people. So second point, trust the lord to use the gifts he's given you. Those in Jerusalem hear about what happened in Antioch. So they send Barnnebus to them to check it out. And Barnnebus is an interesting choice.

He's not 1 of the 12 apostles, so he's not 1 of the sort of big names. We first meet, Barnabas in chapter 4 and find out he was actually called Joseph to begin with. Well, his name was Joseph, but the apostles called him Barnabas. Which means son of encouragement. Which is a great nickname, isn't it?

When you love to be called that? Son of encouragement. Everyone just goes, he's such an encouragement. We just gotta call him son of encouragement. He's great.

He was a levite from Cyprus So, actually, he was a Jew, who came from the same place as some of those who went to Antioch. So maybe that helps that he kind of knew knew the background of some of those people. He sent, and what does he do? Notice what he does when he arrives. First 23.

When he arrived and saw what the grace of god had done, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the lord with all their hearts. He saw what the grace of god had done. And that's what excites him. That's what gives him joy. And that's what what we need to be on the alert for.

What's god doing among us? Because it may be different from what we're expecting. And it says he encouraged them to remain true to the lord with all their hearts. In other words, he did what he was good at. He's an encourager.

So that's what he did. And then he decides to go and get saul. And brought him to antioch. And for a year, they taught together. We learn.

It seems he so he goes and gets saul brings him and they teach together. And it seems we have 2 men here who god uses who are very different. You've got barnabas, the encouraging, pull the teacher, and we barnabas taught as well, but they use the gifts god god gave them. And so I just want to encourage you to use the gifts and character god has given you in reaching out. 1 of our temptations is to try to imitate others, isn't it?

You think of other people who are really good at reaching out, you think, oh, I've gotta do it the way they do it. But god has gifted you in a unique way. And he's got you here as part of Hopechurch, and he's got you here for a reason. If he wanted that other person, they'd be here, but he wanted you here. So use the gifts god's given you.

Some of us will be introverts, some extroverts. Just out of interest, I've I've got a little theory. I wonder whether this will be borne out. Don't worry if you don't want to join it. I mean, it's only raising your hand.

If you know, hands up if you're an introvert. Okay. Hands up if you're an extrovert. Interesting. A little bit of my theory coming through.

I had a feeling we might be more introverts than extrovert. And I think that was right from what I said, but it doesn't matter. Used the character god's given you, introverts, you'll be able to reach out to people that extroverts can't. Oh, by the way, if you don't know which you are, don't worry. It's not that big a deal.

But introverts will be able to reach out to people that extroverts can't. And extroverts can reach out to people that introverts can't. Use the gifts and character god's given you and the network of people he's given you because no 1 else has that network like you do. Some will have more energy be able to do more Some people are laughing that already. Some people have less energy therefore, and less time, less capacity to do things.

And that changes with your stage of life as well, doesn't it? If you're single and, you know, then you maybe maybe have more time, but you might not. Depending on your work, you maybe have more time or less time. It's gonna vary. And that's alright.

Good. Okay. The point is, god's given you a particular set of gifting personality circumstances. Use them for the glory of Jesus. Don't think you've got to be like someone else.

Some are creative, some are planners, some put chairs out, some love getting coffee out, some love being upfront. Use the gift cards, given you for the glory of god. And you can be confident in the gifts he's given you. No church is going to be like Hope Church Tolworth, because no church has no other church has us in it. We'll therefore be able to do things other churches can't and won't be able to do things other churches can.

And that's alright. It's exciting because god's brought us together to be this church family. Now, I wonder also whether you see that barnabas knew his limitations. We don't know the exact reasons why he went off and going to get saul. But it's clearly he thought, you know, we'd be better with saul and me teaching rather than just me.

Now, like I said, I don't want to push this too much, but it's noticeable actually in acts that the normal practice was for them to go plant churches in pairs. Now There may be something there for the elders to consider as we think about the future and about staffing, maybe, dunno? But I think what we can see here is barnabas did have wisdom in knowing his limitations. He he thought, actually, we'd do better with Saul as well. Up.

Now it's very exciting to think what things we can start up, what things we can try. And when we do, as we do, whatever that ministry is, whether it's an outreach group, maybe it's something we're already doing, No when to say no. No when to say, actually, I'm at my limit. People that, a little bit done that already, which I'm thankful for, you know, just taking on and taking on and taking on, know your limits. No when it's right to say no.

I can't do that. And know when it's right to say, actually, I need someone else alongside me because it'll work better if we have more than 1 of us doing this. That's alright too. Know your limits. Because, actually, if we do, we'll reach out more effectively.

But use the gift Scott has given you. I don't want to make that an excuse for going, well, I'm never going to do anything. Of course not. No. We want to start you.

We want to do things, but know when you need to say I need someone alongside me. And lastly, and much briefer. Let's support other churches too. There was an opportunity given to the church in Angteok, and it came about through a prophetic message. So verse 27, says during this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch.

1 of them named Agabus stood up and through the spirit predicted a severe famine would spread through the entire Roman world. This happened during the reign of Claudia. The disciples, as each 1 was able, decided to provide help for the brothers and sisters living in Judea. This, they did send in their gift to the elders by Barnibus and Saul. So the message is given.

There's gonna be a famine. And, therefore, the disciples, therefore, the the people in Antioch make it, a collection to send to the church in Jude, which includes the church in Jerusalem, by the way. So they're now supporting Jerusalem Church. Now it would have been so easy, wouldn't it for the church in Antioch to say, well, we've only just planted. We've only been going a year.

We can't give away to other church. We can't give, you know, we need we don't know what resources we need. We need to keep hold of it, but they didn't. They look for opportunities to support others. They made a collection and they sent it off.

And that's a reminder to us that we too must look to support others. That's why it's good to be part of commission, great to have had commission Sunday last Sunday. Have Grace Church Whistapart. Sam from there come here, me go there. It's good to support 1 another.

And it won't be long, actually, before there's a new the before we won't be the newest church plant in the commission network. There's going to be 1 in Hackbridge. So it'd be good for us to be supporting them, but not just in commission. We can support other churches as well. We want to support other churches.

Through the FIAEC, I'm aware that there's a church plan that's going to be launching next Sunday in Kidster. It would be good for us to be praying for them as well as they launch. It's good to be outward looking, not just focused in on ourselves, aware of the needs of other places and other churches. So there are our lessons from Acts chapter 11 as we start thinking about outreach. I think the end result of this passage is, as we thought earlier, it is that it liberates us to try things.

Because the burden of being successful is not on you and me. Yes. We want to try to make wise decisions. We want your good ideas, but really what we're doing is having our eyes firmly fixed on the lord. And with joy in our hearts, because of his grace to us so far, we give things a try with enthusiasm, with energy using the gifts he's given to us, but mostly with total dependence on the laws.

Now, like I say, after the service over lunch, we're going to want your ideas for how to go about reaching out and how to how to reach out to the local area and to your network of, friends and family. But I'll tell you more about that in due course. Let me lead us in practice. Father, we, thank you that we have the good news of Jesus to speak to others. And we thank you that the 1 thing that we need is your hand to be with us.

And so we plead with you father that your hand would be with us as we reach out. Father, we thank you that your hand has been with us in so many ways that you've provided so much. But lord, we need you to work in us and through us to reach out to this neighborhood and to the people we know. Lord, without you at work, this will all be pointless. So lord, we plead with you, please.

Would your hand be with us? Would people hear of Jesus? And come to faith in him. Give us hearts that depend on you rather than on ourselves and our wisdom and our strategies and the people and father help us to rely on you. Kappas to learn to do that together and help us further to use the gifts you've given us and to try things And to support other churches as well.

Lord, would your hand be with us? We pray, amen.