Acts 8:1-25 | The Art of Tracing

Zach Cunningham continues a series on the book of Acts.

Transcript

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Good morning, guys. Welcome back to King's Church. Welcome, welcome, good morning. We're doing good. Oh, thanks, guys. Acts chapter 8 is where we're going to be. If you have a Bible, Acts chapter 8, we're jumping right back into our series through the book of Acts. So you guys have a Bible, you can go ahead and turn there. I'll say a few things uh before we jump in. First of all, uh, if you're new, my name is Zach. I'm one of the pastors here. I'm so excited that you're here to join us on this Sunday. Uh the second thing I want to say is shout out to the UNT men's and women's track and cross-country team, okay? Because guys, yes, yesterday we placed, I think men placed second place in the American Conference, which has been a while, I think, since we're done. I I think a couple of our guys had some personal best or personal records, okay? I know Connor and Aiden uh had some personal records yesterday, so shout out to the UNT track team. Hey, third thing, real quick, if you guys will let me honor the fifth commandment uh by honoring my mom. Um, I know last week was Mother's Day, but my mom is in the house this morning. Can we welcome my mom and my brothers? Let's get my mom. Love you, so thankful for you. My mom was always intentional. She was always there, okay. She was at every game, every track meet. I wasn't always setting personal best, but my mom was cheering like I did, okay, every time. And so I just want to say in front of everyone, Mom, I love you. Honor you. You know, they say if you trace back behind every good man or average man, you'll find a great mom. And so, Mama, thank you for being there for us. And speaking of that, tracing back, I want to talk about tracing this morning. I want to teach you the art of tracing. And here's what I mean: not necessarily tracing letters like we've been teaching my daughter to do, okay? She's been tracing the A, B, Cs, okay, just uppercase. We haven't made it to lowercase. But I I don't want to talk about tracing like tracing over something, uh, but I want to do a different kind of tracing in Acts chapter 8. And I'll explain it like this. Uh, I've never, I had never been to the mountains until I was a junior in college. Okay, if they say there's mountain families and beach people, uh, we are certainly beach people, okay? You can talk to my mom. Raise your hand if you are a beach person, okay. Look around, okay? Hands down, any mountain people? Okay, okay, hands down, don't judge me, guys. But guys, look around. Your honeymoon might be impacted by what a girl said there. Um, anyways, don't judge me. But the first time I've ever been in the mountains, I was 20 years old. And I was on a mission trip uh in Peru uh with Pine Cove, and on one of our off days, the guy was like, hey, we're gonna use our off day, and we're gonna go see two things. We're gonna go see the mountains, which I was excited about, but also we're gonna go see a massive waterfall. And I'm like, awesome, bro, because number one, I've never been to the mountains. And number two, the only waterfall I'd ever seen was Turner Falls, Oklahoma. Okay, which uh not impressive, okay. Let me tell you. So, anyways, I'm excited. We drive out there, I'm in a bus, we're driving the mountains, and I can see it and get excited. And we finally parked the bus, and he's like, all right, like the guy's like, we're gonna go hike and find this waterfall. And I'm like, awesome. So we start hiking for like 30 minutes, no sign of water or sound of a waterfall anywhere. And finally, he walks up, we're buff following him, and he says, Guys, we found it. And he walks up and he shows us this tiny little stream of water. And he's like, We have made it to the waterfall. I'm like, bro, take me back to Oklahoma. I've never said that in my life. Anyways, so he's like, now he smiles, and obviously, you know what he does. He says, Come with me, let's hike. And so we walk 30 minutes along and we trace this stream until it turns to a little creek. And then we trace the creek, and then slowly it turns to a small river, and we trace the small river to the point where you gotta take your shoes off and get in the river to keep following it. And finally, you can hear it before you see it. We turn the corner, and there it is, this massive waterfall, like two football fields high, massive, violent waterfall. And I should like to quickly say that, say this this morning. We traced a small stream up to this massive waterfall. And the further you traced it, the more impressive it was. The further along you trace something, the greater it was. And I start there this morning because that right there is actually a really important practice in the Christian life, the art of tracing or following something small or something on the ground here on earth to a far greater reality behind it, to see the things on the earth, things that are beautiful, things that are powerful, good, and meaningful, but not to let your hunt or adventure stop at a stream of the world, but instead to trace it up to a bigger, fuller, more real reality that exists behind it. And Acts chapter 8 is full of streams just like that. Because on the surface, Acts 8, it's gonna look like a bunch of different events happening. Okay, you got persecution and preaching, miracles and messiness, but underneath it all, above it all, God is doing something bigger. And I think Acts chapter 8 is an invitation from Luke, the author here, to learn the art of tracing what's happening on the ground to the God who's above it all. Okay, let me show you what I mean. Go to Acts chapter 8. We're gonna start in verse 1. Drake took us there a little bit last week, but we're gonna circle back. Okay, if you remember last week we saw the bold and bloody scene of a man named Stephen, who in his life preached a message, but also in his death preached a greater message that Jesus is the Savior worth living for, but also the king worth dying for. And he became the first Christian martyr in the Bible. And so we're at a pretty pivotal moment for the early church. Like, what happens next? Like, what do they do as a response to seeing not just Jesus, their leader, die, but now Stephen, their friend, die? Like, what's the next play after that? We'll keep reading. Look at verse 1. This is what it said. Luke writes, Saul agreed with putting him to death. Okay, and not so random aside from Luke. Okay, we're gonna see more of that guy later. On that day, it says, A severe persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the land of Judea and Samaria. Devout men buried Stephen and mourned deeply over him. Saul, however, was ravaging the church. He would enter a house, house, drag off men and women, and put them in prison. Okay, so you can see it here. So far in the book of Acts, like when the disciples are persecuted and put on trial, mostly they stand up to their enemies, right? They're bold, they don't back down like Stephen, but at this point something shifts, like things rev up, the persecution rises, and it reaches a threshold that things change. Okay, you can see it here. It says, on that day, the day that Stephen died, not just any persecution, but what does it say? A severe persecution broke out. Or in other words, the enemies of the church gained some momentum. They gained some courage, and they stepped out of the shadows and tried to squash the Jesus movement. Like they killed Stephen, and in their minds, they're going to continue the streak and the momentum and keep things going. So much so that it says this all except the apostles were scattered throughout the land of Judea and Samaria. And so the apostles, they hold down the proverbial fort in Jerusalem, but it says, everybody else, and note, everybody else is probably like 10,000 people to this point, probably more. All those guys and gals are scattered, and they spread out throughout the land of Judea, and what does it say? Samaria. I would underline that word, Samaria. That's going to be important for us coming up later. Now, I'll let the train pass a little bit. You stop at verse three, and so far this morning, this is a bummer, right? Like a guy on our team gets killed. All of our people make for the hills. Okay, it feels like we're down 28 to 3 in the third quarter. Like from the surface, from the surface, it does not look good. But you keep reading past verse 3 into verse 4, and you realize we have found our first stream. And streams don't look impressive, but you don't stop at the stream, you trace it up. Because Luke wants us to see that underneath the chaos and behind it, like, how could God possibly be at work in this mess? Well, look at verse 4. It says this. So those who were scattered went on their way preaching the word. And there it is, right? Like the persecution scatters the people, but the people scattered the word. Like the very thing that the enemy thought would extinguish the gospel, extinguish the faith, actually was served to advance it. That yes, suffering and persecution is real. Like Stephen really died here. And families really suffered here, and yet somehow, mysteriously and sovereignly, God was working through all of it. Which leads me to the first stream that Acts 8 teaches us to trace, and it's this trace God's hand through suffering. That as believers, we're called to trace God's hand through suffering. His hand, his plan, his providence, even through, and maybe especially through suffering. And that's what's true in the Book of Acts 8. We've already seen this in the book of Acts. But even if you pause here and just step into this room and think about people in this room, okay, maybe you don't even need to think about your story. Maybe you can examine your life right now, but I can tell you there are some stories in our church of some people that are standing at a pretty dark stream in life that looks a lot like loss. Okay, whether it's a disruption or a closed door or an unanswered prayer, suffering that people didn't choose, a season where it feels like everything is unraveling. And here's the deal from the Bible that's real suffering. And the pain is real. But what Acts 8 teaches us is that just because you can't see what God is doing doesn't mean he isn't doing something. Like I've always enjoyed the quote from Piper that says this God is always doing 10,000 things, and you might be aware of three of them in your life. That even if you read the Bible, you can know this. Like even when you don't understand his ways, you can trust God's heart. He's doing something here. And we see this in Acts 8. Like behind this little stream is a waterfall of God's goodness and his providence. And we'll move forward because we've already talked about this a little bit in the book of Acts. But before we do, uh there's a poem that I want to read a little of that I found really encouraging and comforting in moments of suffering. And I think it might be helpful for anybody in this room who is in the middle of one of those moments. It's a poem uh by a guy named William Cooper, and it was written in 1773. Okay, so it's older than our country, but it's still producing fruit. And the poem is called God Moves in a Mysterious Way. That God moves in a mysterious way. And I want to read a portion to you. You can look it up later. Ryan's got on the screen. It says this that God moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps in the sea, and he rides upon the storms of life. Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take. The clouds you so much dread are big with mercy and shall break in blessings upon your head. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace. Here it is. Behind a frowning providence, he hides a smiling face. And that's been true in my life, and it's true in Acts chapter 8. That behind a frowning providence, or persecution, or suffering, God always hides a smiling face you can trace up the stream of whatever it is to the goodness of God. That's the first tracing that we need to learn to do as believers. And the second one is right around the corner. Look at verse 5. Okay, we're in verse 5, and we saw a man named Stephen last week, but Luke is going to introduce us to our next character in verse 5. It says this it's like a cutscene, okay, verse 5. Philip went down to a city in Samaria, and he proclaimed the Messiah to them. The crowds were all paying attention to what Philip said, and as they listened and saw the signs he was performing. For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed, and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed, and so there was great joy in that city, which is our prayer here in Denton, is it not? Great joy in the city. Now that's an incredible scene here, right? You have a whole city that just heard the gospel preached, and they saw demons flee, and the lame walk, and dead people come to life. This is what happens when the gospel takes over a city. Glory to God and great joy for his people. But notice here in Acts 8, this isn't just any city, is it? What is significant about this city? Well, it's a city in the region of Samaria. There's that word again. You might want to underline it because that's a really, really big deal here. Because if there was ever an us versus them reality, it would be between the Jews and the Samaritans. Okay, long story short, there are centuries of hostility between the Jews and the Samaritans. Okay, the Jews saw them, the Samaritans as half-breeds, okay, they mated with the Assyrians when they came and took down the northern kingdom. They saw them as religiously corrupt. They had their own version of the Pentateuch, they had their own worship center, which was not Jerusalem. Like if you thought there was a chasm between the cowboys and the eagles, there is a grand canyon between the Jews and the Samaritans here. Okay, the gospel, here's what's significant about this. The gospel isn't just traveling to a new geographical area, it's going into enemy enemy territory. But what's significant about this moment, it's not just good news of Jesus crossing barriers, but it's the words of Jesus being fulfilled, is it not? Because what you know about the book of Acts is Acts 8 is a fulfillment of what? Acts 1.8. Because what does Jesus promise to his disciples? He says this in Acts 1.8, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. And so this goes back to what we were saying before. Persecution doesn't stop the mission. It actually launches it to the next level, the next phase of the mission. But there's something else significant about the story that we just read. Not just that the gospel spread, but who spread it. You know, it's interesting. In back-to-back verses in Acts 8, I think we get our second stream to trace. Because if you go to verse 4, these guys don't even get a name. It just says this those who were scattered preach the gospel. There's no name here. And I think Luke is doing something there. And then you get to verse 5, and we finally get a name. And his name is Philip. And what's significant about Philip is his insignificance. Okay, it kind of reminded me, there's an ESBN commercial that's like 14 years old, but it's still one of the most memorable commercials ever. It shows this ordinary, like middle-aged white guy who shows up at different places. Like he shows up at a restaurant to get a table, uh, he shows up to get a taxi and uh get picked up at the airport, and they ask him, hey, what's your name? And he says, My name is Michael Jordan. And uh, and you guys know the scene, like you can tell the disappointment of all the people, like you're not the Michael Jordan we thought. Okay, this guy got the experience a lot. I imagine Drake has got that experience a lot, not the Drake, especially this last week, not the Drake that we were hoping for. But what's happening here and what's happening in Acts 8 is if you know the scriptures, this isn't the Philip that you may have expected. You see, there is a Philip who's one of the twelve apostles, right? Who walked with Jesus. He performed wonders and miracles, and he passed out some miracle bread. He did all this stuff. Maybe he's the Philip that you would expect God to use to advance the next phase of his mission. But this Philip isn't that Philip. No, this Philip is the Philip back in Acts chapter six, whose primary job in the church was to pass out not miracle bread to the crowds in John 6, but pass out ordinary bread to widows in Acts 6. And yet, he's the guy that God used to display his power to the Samaritans, just an ordinary guy from the soup kitchen. And I won't spend too long here on the second stream because we talk about this a lot, but we do need to trace this one up, okay? First, we trace God's hand through suffering, and second, we trace God's power through ordinary people. That you and I, we need to learn to trace God's power and own the fact that God's power works through ordinary people. Okay, over and over again. God is gonna show us that the point of the story is not, wow, Philip is awesome, but that Jesus is awesome and he loves to use ordinary people to do awesome stuff. Like that's the story of Acts. That's the story of this church. Okay, again and again. We see it fishermen, widows, food distribution guys, we got teachers, insurance salesmen, we got people from big places like Chicago, where Tyson's from, and people from small places like Honey Grove, Texas. And so we got people in this church. And so if you're sitting here and you're feeling particularly unhelpful and unusable, two things. One, uh, you don't understand the point. Number two, God likes to use people like you. Okay, God uses, you look at this church and you see people like Dean, Derek, and Dylan, and the point isn't those guys are awesome, but that God is using people like that to advance this church. That's the point. And we need to learn to trace up the streams to give glory to where God's glory uh deserves alone, right? To God. You look at people and go, man, if God's using average people, uh, God gets the glory, and we don't. Yeah, he loves to use us, and that's the story of the acts. That's the second thing we need to learn to trace, and that's a lesson for us today, and it's especially a lesson for the guy we meet next in the story. Because Luke's gonna do something unique next. He's gonna introduce a new character that is a contrast to everything we just talked about and learned about from Philip. Okay, a guy who needs to learn a lesson or two. Let's finish up the story with one final story and stream. Verse 9. So we're in this city in Samaria, uh Samaria. A man named Simon had previously practiced sorcery in that city and amazed the Samaritan people while claiming to be somebody great. You ever met someone like that? Verse 10. They all paid attention to him from the least to the greatest, and they said, This man is called the great power of God. And they were attentive to him because he had amazed them with his sorceries for a long time. Okay, so here we meet a fascinating dude named Simon, who had fascinated the whole town with his witchcraft for some time. And you can see the contrast that Luke does here. You got Philip who proclaims Jesus, and you got Simon who's promoting himself. Philip brings great joy to the city. Simon just amazes the city. Philip is pronouncing the kingdom, he serves the kingdom, but Simon is establishing his own kingdom, literally claiming to be somebody great and welcoming the crowd, saying he is the great power of God. That's the opposite, right? Of gospel humility. But look what happens next, verse 12. But when they, the city, believed Philip, as he proclaimed the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized. Even Simon himself believed. That's interesting. And after he was baptized, he followed Philip everywhere and was amazed as he observed the signs and the great miracles that were being performed. Okay, so the man who amazed the town is now amazed at something else. But notice it doesn't say he was amazed by the amazing grace of God that saves a sinner like him. And it doesn't say he's amazed at the cross or amazed at Jesus and the sacrifice of Jesus. No, this magic man is amazed by the signs and the miracles. And you gotta think about this. This dude, Simon, like he knew tricks, like he knew sorcery, and in a sense, he knew what power looked like, but he's blown away by real power here. And so maybe we learn something about his heart here, but we're definitely gonna learn something by what happens next. Keep reading, verse 14. When the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that the Samarit Samaritans had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, okay, which is a big deal. Okay, try to enter this moment. The enemies of the Jews are coming to faith. And there would have been a lot of questions surrounding this. Like, was it legit? Like, is this just a Jewish thing only? Like, are we gonna have to start our own church? Like, will there be a Jewish church and then a Samaritan church? And and there's a lot of questions, but let me tell you by sending Peter and John, they signal something very significant both to the Jews and to the Samaritans. There is no longer an us versus them. This is a symbol of unity, like the two big name guys, okay, Peter and John, who with James are going to lead the church in Jerusalem, they don't send someone else. And they don't send a runner or a peasant. No, they go themselves to show that there is a unity that could only happen through the gospel of Jesus. Okay, which is related to what happens next with the Holy Spirit. It's interesting. Look at verse 15. And after they, Peter and John went down there, they prayed for them so that the Samaritans might receive the Holy Spirit, because he had not yet come down on any of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And then Peter and John laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. Okay, so in other words, the same John, who, if you know the gospels with Jesus, who once wanted to call down fire on the Samaritans, is not laying his hands on the Samaritans calling down fire, but instead calling down the fire of the Holy Spirit to fall on the Samaritans. There's a shift here. Now I want to do a quick aside here because this passage sparks a lot of questions and debates. Question: Why do the Samaritans believe, then get baptized, and then receive the Holy Spirit? Like that's not the order I was taught in Sunday school. That's not the order of my systematic theology. Like a lot of people will see this and even say, you need to have a second, unique experience of the Holy Spirit. This is where that conversation comes from. Now, we said it before, even Drake said it last week. It's going to come up in Acts again and again, I think five times. Here's what I see here. This, again, is a unique spirit-receiving moment that happens when the gospel jumps a hurdle. Okay, we see it in Acts chapter 2 when the Jews come to faith. We see it here in Acts 6, when the Samaritans come to faith, you're going to see it in Acts 8. When, again, with the Samaritans, you're going to see it in Acts 10 with the Gentiles, sorry, again in Acts 19 with the disciples of John. Here's the point. Anytime there's a major kingdom-expanding moment over cultures, God likes to show up publicly and visibly to announce to everyone, hey, these people belong to me too. They get the Holy Spirit too. Or in other words, God delays the Spirit until the apostles arrive, so that everyone can see that's the same gospel, the same spirit, in the same family. There's no second class citizens in the family of God. Though to Simon, the sorcerer, he doesn't quite see it that way. Okay, look at what this fool does next. Verse 18. It's foolish. When Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money, saying, Give me this power also, so that anybody I lay hands on may receive the Holy Spirit. Okay, if we learned a little bit about this dude's heart, at his amazement at the signs and wonders, we now know a lot about his heart with this deal that he's trying to make. You see, it's obvious to me that Simon, he doesn't want God, he wants power, he wants control, he wants the gifts, not the giver of the gifts. And this is where Simon settles with playing in our third stream without tracing it up to where it belongs. Because these signs and wonders, these gifts of the spirit, while they are incredible, they are never the point. They are actually pointers, pointing to something greater. Okay, one pastor describes Simon like a toddler here. Okay, my son Kaden uh is kind of like this. Okay, we'll be outside my backyard and I'll be holding him. And we started to see like uh cardinals, like red birds come up. And I'll I'll hold Caden and I'll say, Kaden, look, and I'll point at the cardinal. And what does Caden do? Silly foolish one-year-old. He doesn't look, he doesn't understand the whole like pointing thing along the line. He stares at my hand the whole time. And he makes the same noises. Wow. And he looks at it and he's like, the same faces. Why? Because Caden doesn't understand the point. Simon is a lot like that here. He saw the signs that Philip was doing and he was amazed, but he failed to trace it up. He failed to trace the miracles up because miracles are not destinations, they're windows to something better. Which leads me to the final stream that I want to encourage us to trace, and it's this to trace God's goodness through his gifts. To trace God's goodness, his attribute, he's good, through his gifts. That yes, signs and wonders are incredible, and we should pray that God would do miracles. The whole point of these gifts is to point to something beyond themselves, to the goodness of God. And that's true, and we should do all those things. But here's what I want us to see this morning: that it's not just miracles that point us to God, but also it's his ordinary gifts, his everyday gifts that are meant to do that too. You know, C.S. Lewis, he talks a lot about this in a couple of his books. He uses the word transposition or to transpose, and it's this idea of these greater realities in life that are expressed through lesser things. Or he used another picture like the stream of waterfall, he used the sun and sun beams. And he argues there's a difference between looking at a beam and looking along a beam. That you can look at sunbeams and analyze it and love it and appreciate it, or you can look along the beam and trace the gift up. And he makes the argument that all of the gifts in life are kind of like that. Okay, think of the ordinary gifts in life. Okay, a good meal, a sunset, a deep friendship, hiking with your kids, a great basketball game tonight, go pistons, a painting, like whatever it is. Just think about any of the good gifts of God. Lewis argues all of these things are good, but they are not meant to terminate on themselves. They are sunbeams, they are streams of goodness that are meant to be traced up to the source of goodness, God Himself. And I think one of the dangers in life, and for us in this room, is we become a lot like Simon, fascinated with the beam while missing the sun. You see, it can be easy to laugh at Simon in this text, but how easy is it for us also to want the benefits from God without actually wanting God Himself? Or I've heard it said wanting the kingdom and not the king, or wanting the king's stuff without the king's rule. But listen, if you read the scriptures, you know Jesus is not a means to an end. He is the end himself, he is the point. And that's the first warning and lesson we can learn from Simon. But the second one is right around the corner because look at what happens in verse 20. Simon does the whole, like, I'll give you money for the thing, and Peter gets ticked. Verse 20. But Peter told him, May your silver be destroyed with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money. You have no part or share in this matter, because your heart is not right before God. Therefore, repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that if possible your heart's intent may be forgiven. For I see you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by wickedness. Okay, so Peter lets him have it, right? And you know, that's a bit jarring. We don't usually talk like that to our friends. It's a bit jarring, but sometimes it takes this level of bluntness to wake somebody up. Because Simon thought he was powerful and free, but Peter says you're poisoned and bound. But that brings a lot of questions, right? Because didn't we just read that Simon believed that Simon believed, and yet, how can he believe and Peter say your heart is not right before God, or your heart is crooked? Or it's here we get another warning that might be applicable to us in this room, and it's this there is a kind of belief in Jesus that does not save. Like there's a belief in Jesus, an association with Jesus and his people, a fascination with Jesus' miracles, and even a proclamation of Jesus' Lordship that does not save a sinner from hell. You see, we see this throughout the New Testament, right? The crowds in John 2 who believed, and yet Jesus says, You just believe me because of the signs, and he did not entrust himself to them. James says, even the demons, what? Believe. Matthew 7, Jesus says, one of the scariest verses in the Bible, many will call me Lord, Lord, and yet he says, Depart from me, I never knew you. There's a belief that doesn't save. And I think what we learn here is that Christianity is more than just intellectual agreement. And it's more than just proximity to spiritual things like Simon. And it's more than an admiration of Jesus, church attendance, or knowing church language. No, genuine saving faith isn't just believing that Jesus exists, it's surrendering to Jesus as Lord and treasuring him over all things. That's the invitation of the gospel. Not come to Jesus and get stuff, but come to Jesus because he is better than all the stuff combined. And the good news of the gospel, and the good news for people like Simon and people like you and me, is Jesus really does save sinners with crooked hearts, with proud hearts, with greedy hearts, people who are more enamored with his gifts than Jesus. And Peter says, bro, you better pray and hope Jesus forgives. And the good news is this Jesus does forgive and he can forgive. That's the good news of the gospel. You can't buy the gifts of God with money, and you can't buy the grace of God, but instead you come to the cross empty-handed, broken, and bankrupt. And it's at the cross that we find the greatest tracing event to ever exist. In fact, all of life can be traced back to the cross, can it not? Because at the cross you trace the hand of God through suffering, the greatest suffering. And you see the day that looked like a great defeat turned out to be a great victory. And it's at the cross you trace the power of God, but not through ordinary people, but through the only extraordinary human to ever exist, the Son of God for sinners. And it's at the cross that you trace God's goodness through his gifts, but not just any gift, his greatest gift. Because Romans 8 says what? If God didn't spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him freely gift us all things? And so, church, let's be a people that traces every stream upward, every joy, every sorrow, every gift, miracle, and longing back to Jesus. Let me pray and we'll sing. God, I'm so thankful for today, even this Sunday morning. You have given us a thousand gifts already by 11.03 a.m. That if we would have eyes to see them, we would have traced them with gratitude back to you. God, I pray for all of us in this room. For those who are suffering, and suffering feels so real, and it is, God, that they see a few things that this light momentary affliction is not worth comparing to the glory that's going to be revealed, but also God causes all things to work together for good. Help us and help them trace your sovereignty and your plan through the worst suffering imaginable. All of us, that you would choose to use us to serve Denton, Texas, and U and T and T Dub and the greater area. God, would you do it again? And when people leave this place, not knowing that worship is awesome, the sermon is awesome, but the savior is awesome in this place. And God, I do pray that today, as we have lunch and we enjoy the lesser things, the great gifts that you have given us. Burger, baked potato, whatever I mean that you did bear, Lord. Would you, in that moment, God, would you help us point our gratitude, not at the plate, not at the kitchen, the guy who made it, but ultimately to the Father who gives all good gifts. Help us enjoy you today, even as we sing about the gift of grace that Jesus is. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. You guys can stand and we'll sing.