Westminster Talking the Text Podcast for Sunday, May 10, 2026 | Acts 17:22-31 | with Donovan Drake, Sarah Bird Kneff, and Stephanie Boaz

Westminster Talking the Text Podcast for Sunday, May 10, 2026 | Acts 17:22-31 | with Donovan Drake, Sarah Bird Kneff, and Stephanie Boaz

John 14:15-21

Christ our advocate 

14:15"If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

14:16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.

14:17This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

14:18"I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.

14:19In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.

14:20On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.

14:21They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me, and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them."

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:04

Welcome to another Talking the Text. I'm Donovan.

SPEAKER_00 0:07

I'm Stephanie and I'm Sarah.

SPEAKER_02 0:09

And uh let's see, we got a guy on the pitch in England somewhere. I'm sure he'll send pictures sometime during the podcast. Uh Will uh has been fired. No, he is he is under the wet weather. I said, feel better. I was gonna go easy on you today at the podcast. Almost friendly, like I wrote to him, and he said, Wow, a once in a million event. And I said, sorry you have to miss it, Will. But that's the way it's gonna be. And Ashley. And Ashley has kids for voting day, right? Yes. Their school is closed for voting, so they're home with her. Yep.

SPEAKER_05 0:47

So you get us. So you get us. The three musketeers.

SPEAKER_02 0:50

All right.

SPEAKER_05 0:51

I like it.

SPEAKER_02 0:52

Okay. We have uh our text is from Acts 17, 22 through 31, which is late in Acts, and we're still in Easter season. Um we've got Paul standing on the Areopagus, which is in Athens, and I had an opportunity to stand on the Areopagus and preach a sermon to a group of Westminsterites sometime in the last 15 years. I don't remember when that was. What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you, the God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. From one ancestor he made all peoples to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps fumble about for him and find him, though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being, as even some of your own poets have said. For we too are his offspring. Since we are God's offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and the imagination of mortals. While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which we will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. And when they heard this of the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed, but others said, We will hear you again about this. At that point, Paul left them, but some of them joined him and became believers, including Dionysidius, the Areopagite, and a woman named Domeris, and others with them. And so this is the word of the Lord.

SPEAKER_03 3:30

Thanks be to God.

SPEAKER_02 3:31

Amen. All right, so uh it's a sermon in Acts. Acts is known for its sermons. Um what is it? It's trying to persuade people who are trapped in idolatry, right?

SPEAKER_03 3:54

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 3:56

Which I guess could be any of us, right?

SPEAKER_00 4:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:00

To this day.

SPEAKER_00 4:01

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 4:02

Even those who are ordained. Right?

SPEAKER_00 4:07

Yeah. Sometimes, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:09

Yeah, sometimes on occasion.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

This is also a really open people, a people who like to hear about different things and consider it and discuss it. So he's going into a fairly friendly audience, considering he's been, I don't know, grabbed and arrested at least twice in this chapter already. And um Yeah, this is a piece of cake, right? Right, compared. So he's going into a really friendly audience. They're curious. They're curious. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 4:42

That's um I think I mean, as always, I always go back to like what has come before this, and I I think about the um verse 16. He's so he's basically like in a layover, right? He's waiting. He's um he's wandering around Athens, and he's deeply distressed to see that the city is full of idols. And so he's been arguing in the marketplace and in other parts of the city, and then they're like, we will hear you in this official, you know, this official space, give you a place to present your case. Um and then it talks about the Epicure and I had to remember Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. This this is when I wish Will was here because he knows those kinds of I'm like, but weren't the Epicureans the ones that like they wanted to escape, they wanted to escape like any discomfort, right? So they they kind of wanted to, they they wanted to not have to experience any of the distress of the world, which uh in some ways uh feels very um current for us, right? Like the ways that we try to escape, um and the idolatry just of that, of escapism. Um and then the stoics, I mean, what were the stoics? They just wanted to um not be affected in any way emotionally, or like that was the the virtue was self-self-development, yeah. Yeah. So um, but yeah, I just I think about that, I think about that audience of like people he's preaching to um and and their curiosity of like are they're open to what he's about to say.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

And he goes in with respect. You know, he talks about having walked through their city and paid attention to what they have around and and brings it up in his conversation. He he doesn't come in and say, you're just totally wrong. You know, which which I think is generally a good way to approach most people without just telling them they're wrong.

SPEAKER_02 6:55

Right. He's got the in with the inscription of the altar to an unknown god, right?

SPEAKER_00 7:00

Exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_05 7:01

He uses words of their own poets with ways to connect with them.

SPEAKER_00 7:05

So if there's anyone who needs to be a little disarmed before he shares what he has to say, um he has done that. And and he does it in a way that says this already can belong to you.

SPEAKER_05 7:23

The the verse 27 is the one when you I I don't know what the I was reading a different translation earlier. Um people fumbling about for God, like searching for God, fumbling about to find Him. Indeed, he's not far from us. Like it almost feels like an oxymoron, like you're you're reaching out for something that's actually right there. But the the translation I I read had something about like grasping in the dark, right? Oh, nice. Um, and I feel like there are lots of times, even as an ordained pastor, where I feel like I'm grasping in the dark, fumbling about for God. Um kind of like Marco Polo, you know, where you're like you're closing your eyes and you're just waiting for the response. Um and yet in him we live and move and have our being. Like he is closer to us than our very breath. And I so I don't know what to do with that tension there. Um because he's he's with us and yet I feel like I'm fumbling sometimes. Do you all ever feel like you're fumbling? Oh yes. Oh yes, oh yes. Never dawn of yeah, he's shaking his head vigorously.

SPEAKER_02 8:35

I've never fumbled it. No, I was just thinking about um Mother Teresa and her spiritual darkness. I was trying to find a quote for her.

SPEAKER_05 8:49

Um they discovered her journals, didn't they? Like a lot, and they were like, they thought this was just gonna be you know packed with all of these beautiful uh revelations of God's presence and goodness. And it was just her like crying out to to feel him, to see him.

SPEAKER_02 9:10

Yeah, and I think that's you know, like Mother Teresa has a hard time fumbling around with God, and yet I think she would say, and I think you know, that we would say is that you know it's God is in we live and move and have our being uh in God and in God's grace. And you know, though we don't feel it or express it's present, right? Steadfast love is always present.

SPEAKER_05 9:41

She has a quote, Mother Teresa has a quote about prayer where it's like someone asks her, you know, what do you say in your prayers? And she says, I don't say anything, I just listen. Oh wow, okay, so what does God say? He doesn't really say anything, he just listens. Like this idea of like just the the presence, the being, the being with. Um and the noticing. I um can I do a plug for my summer book group? Yes, do it. This summer, 2026, beginning June 4th, 9:30 a.m. on Thursdays. Um, we're gonna read some of uh one of my favorite author, who's his name's Frederick Biekner, and the um the theme throughout all of his writing could be summed up in just like listening to your life, paying attention. And so it's not like being on guard for okay, is God speaking? Let me fumble, let me find him. It's like even being still sometimes and paying attention to where he already is at work around us. Um, and I think that helps me make sense a little bit of this, right? Like in him we live and move and have our being. He is around us, he is in us, he is for us, he's working through us. Um and so I I don't know, that's just um join us on Thursday. We'll figure it out.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

But I think also the we are his, we belong to God, we are gods is such an important part of that, too.

SPEAKER_02 11:03

Yeah, so here's you know, this is a you're trying to persuade someone of your faith. Yeah. Um can we do that with words?

SPEAKER_00 11:15

Yeah. Okay, so I was a little shocked that it's already the sixth Sunday of Easter. I would have sworn we were only on like four. Right. And so I started looking, but but you know, thinking about this Easter season, it's post-resurrection, and the resurrection is so important to our faith, but the resurrection can't be explained. Nobody witnessed the resurrection, right? People saw the risen Lord. And so um one of the things that came to me because I mean, Paul is so bold to stand up in front of people that don't believe necessarily what he believes and to say it. And people are changed by that. And that is something that's very uncomfortable for a lot of us to just someone we don't know tell them what we believe, and then wait for some kind of response or hope in some kind of response. And we think, what will we say? Well, you can't explain the resurrection, nobody can. Um, we didn't see the actual risen Lord, but we have been told about the risen Lord. And when it comes to sharing our faith, it's really as simple, although I still recognize it's hard, it's as simple as telling people what we know about the risen Lord, what we know about Jesus, but not just telling, also showing. And it's so simple that we make it impossible.

unknown 12:48

Right.

SPEAKER_02 12:49

You know, I think I don't know. Maybe it's just the way I do believe there are people built for kind of an intellectual ascent to Jesus. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:01

That oh, finally it's been explained to me in a way that I get it. Yeah. I guess I'm not one of those people. I mean, I you know, um and maybe I mean, is that apologetics in which you can finally get someone to get there intellectually? Is that safe to say?

SPEAKER_00 13:20

We did talk, uh it's been weeks now, but we did talk about those people that came up in our podcast, those people who are out there that we know still don't believe. And how do we become a part of changing their mind? And when it comes right down to it, it's not about us changing their mind. It's about showing up and doing what we're called to do because it's always the spirit that's changing minds. It's not us. And so being faithful to what we're called to do, but always remembering that they're there because it holds us to a standard of taking really seriously what it is we're saying and when we're saying it.

SPEAKER_02 14:04

So I uh like Paul, you know, and Paul in his letters say, you know, I see the risen Lord, but I see the risen Lord in you. That's an easier way for me to get there. Oh, I like that. Then you know this is this is a story of Jesus, and this is how he died. You know, and you know, I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 14:23

It's well, and this, I mean, this passage is a little intimidating. If you think, if you're like, oh, I need to be like Paul. If I got up on the Areopagus, if I got up in the pulpit, I would need to be able to talk about the creator and in living and moving and having our being, I'd need to be able like this idea of trying to craft this perfect persuasive sermon. But I think you're right that there's there's something about seeing God in us. And who was it? Maybe been Craig Barnes who would say, like, uh, the last thing you're we're called to be witnesses, right? Yeah. And and we don't use that language as much in this tradition. But like to witness to someone or to be a witness, the last thing you want a witness to do is get creative. All they're supposed to do is get on the stand and tell you what they've seen and heard. And so, and we all have those moments. It's not about selling it, it's about just here's how God's faithfulness has been in my life. Just sharing it. But I love that because yeah, when a witness gets creative on the stand, perjury.

SPEAKER_03 15:23

Right.

SPEAKER_05 15:24

Right, right.

SPEAKER_04 15:24

Or whatever.

SPEAKER_05 15:27

But I just I just think that that makes a lot of a lot of sense. Um, I was in um, so I do spiritual direction once a month, which um some of you are probably familiar with. Adam's trained in this as well, certified in spiritual direction. But one of the things that I continue to struggle with, and it goes a little bit back to what you were saying, Donovan, is especially having grown up in the church, having gone through a theological education, talking about the Bible in this kind of context, I can do that all night, like all day, right? And I can tell my spiritual director all the right answers. And then she's like, Do you believe that? And she'll be like, Do you believe that? And she'll point to her head. Do you believe that? And she'll point to her heart. I mean, there's something about that difference between the head and the heart. And it's still really challenging for me to move it from head to heart sometimes. I mean, do y'all struggle with that? Please say yes. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:19

Oh yes, absolutely, absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 16:21

It's like I can think the right things, but do I feel the right things? I mean, and not even feeling like, oh, a warm, fuzzy feeling, but like just knowing the truth of God's love. Like something as simple as that, right?

SPEAKER_02 16:32

Yeah. You know, there was a time probably ten years ago, I heard it more, you know, spiritually but not religious, right? Oh, yeah. Um and he says, you know, Athenians, I see you extremely spiritual, you are in every way. And you know, spiritual but not religious was probably a a uh reaction to all the things we've been you know, this is how we believe in God, the doctrines and everything like that. So there was kind of a rejection of it, a belief that God is living and moving and having its being, but there was no what? Theology or construct behind it, right? Or very little, perhaps.

SPEAKER_05 17:14

Um different people talk about that, like Paul's words here. Is he being complimentary? Or you know, or does he mean superstitious? Does he mean, you know, it's kind of like they're two it's a double-edged sword the way he's saying you're extremely spiritual.

SPEAKER_02 17:30

Um I think he says it, doesn't he begin with Corinthians, uh, the letter of Corinthians that way? I know you are extremely spiritual in every way, for you all have these great gifts, you know, blah, blah, blah. So it's a little tongue-in-cheek in the beginning of uh Corinthians.

SPEAKER_00 17:44

But um I have been thinking about, I have been thinking hard since last week about how you can can we super confidently read sarcasm in scripture. I mean, it's so hard. Like I feel like it can be one option. And and my favorite, of course, is a woman at the well. Like, is she street smart?

unknown 18:05

Right.

SPEAKER_00 18:05

Yes. Is she being cheeky to Jesus? Maybe sarcastic. Is she also just showing up and engaging because it's just the two of them? Like, I think all those are possible, right? But like no one can be pulled out as like for sure. Right. Because but but I love I love that I've been ruminating on that for the last week. I really sort of appreciate it.

SPEAKER_04 18:27

This is when I really wish we had video a podcast so that you all could see Stephanie's like cheeky. If you see Stephanie on Sunday, get her to do her cheeky dance.

SPEAKER_00 18:40

Which actually, thank you for the segue, brings me to my next to my next comment because this idea that God is out there and doing something is one thing. Whereas in in Christianity, God is not just out there, God is changing us from the inside out to be a part of that acting and moving and doing.

SPEAKER_02 19:03

Yeah, ambassadors for reconciliation in everything that is being reconciled, you know, all things being reconciled.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

So because this Jesus that came and is risen and and is is Jesus who came to show us the fullness of God's love. You know, it's easy to not see as much love in the Old Testament unless you're really patient. There's plenty of love in the Old Testament. There's lots of choosing, which is an act of love. There's lots of patience and and second chances. Those are all acts of love, but somehow Jesus comes and and really fleshes that out for us, literally fleshes that out for us and shows us the love of God and what God's intentions are, which is life-changing, world-changing.

SPEAKER_05 19:55

Can I okay? So kind of in that vein, verse 30 is uh one of those kind of challenging ones, I think. Or no, yes, verse 30. Um God has overlooked the times of human ignorance before Jesus. I mean, this is how I'm interpreting it, before Jesus came and people didn't know, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent because he has fixed the day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. So, like this idea of like Jesus coming with with love and with justice, and like those being intertwined, right? And and like what is that, what is that again? This kind of comes back to some of the, I guess some of my upbringing. Um we were talking about this in our Sunday school class on Sunday about coming from different traditions. I I grew up Presbyterian, but I grew up in the Bible belt. So I like I was surrounded by a lot of Southern Baptists, a lot of fundamentalist types of um of thinking and the way, the truth, and the life. That was interpreted as like only Jesus, come through the Father, only through Jesus, nothing else. Same with this. It almost reads like a sheep and goat's like he overlooked the time of human ignorance, and now it's the reckoning. And it's hard for me to read that sometimes with like with grace and righteousness, justice, mercy, and righteousness, you know, the sounds like a stick rather than it's a good thing.

SPEAKER_02 21:25

It does.

SPEAKER_00 21:26

It does, yeah. Wow, that's a we that I have not read it that way before, so I am really thankful that you were saying.

SPEAKER_03 21:32

Sorry. I'm reading it.

SPEAKER_00 21:35

I'm reading it as this has happened and now there's there is new opportunity for us going forward. But that's why I appreciate you saying it like you did, because I can see that now. I didn't see that before.

SPEAKER_02 21:49

And um Yeah, I think if you turn repentance into a you know, movement towards good news as opposed to self news or all that kind of thing. Right. Yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_00 22:02

I I do okay, this is this is one of those places where I am reminded by I am reminded that Paul is very um hierarchical and linear. And so there's something nice and simple about this linear view. There's the past, and now everything's changed, and there is this day that it's going to happen. And that I don't think that that's wrong exactly. I I just am not a hundred percent sure it's the full story.

SPEAKER_02 22:36

Will likes the linear view. I was gonna say too bad he likes the linear view.

SPEAKER_00 22:39

It wouldn't have been my day to whoop up on my own. I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, Will and Paul are the same. He's so he's more tender than he lets on. I don't think I could whoop up on him.

SPEAKER_05 22:53

But no, I mean that makes sense. That it's kind of like the it it feels a little like clear-cut.

SPEAKER_00 23:01

Well, and I think sometimes we can we can get this idea that your day will come. That that you know, sort of in practice, people are like your day will come when we talk about justice. And um, and and I think that I mean the day, any moment you are faced with recognizing you have sinned is a day that that Jesus is is stepping in. That there is some judgment happening and grace happening.

SPEAKER_02 23:35

But it but at the same time. If we took it away from kind of a repentance from I'm not measuring up to a repentance of embracing that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, then uh you know, to me it's the difference is like, you know, they compare uh the day of righteousness to kind of like the um the harvest, right? When I think about, you know, for me harvesting blueberries or harvesting strawberries, dragging me out of the fields because I get so greedy, because I just want more and more and more and more and more. Rather than uh rather than thinking, you know, okay, I've got enough to measure up. It's it's the joy of participating, right? Yeah. Um I I don't know if Paul is saying it doesn't sound that way to me, but I would hope it would be that way to me. Um because otherwise it does feel a little bit like, okay, measure up and you're on the clock and time's a waste in which doesn't feel true to our tradition, but there are plenty of traditions out there where it feels true.

SPEAKER_00 24:50

Yeah. Well, and it may not be our tradition and yet it's in like scripture. It's right, right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 24:59

I mean the Well it's in the and it's in the the water we swim in, I think. Uh-huh. Like this idea. Even if we're just this, I think being human. I mean, I am my husband and I have been married for six years, six years in October. And um, I know. Uh COVID bride. Um anyway, no, I uh I I think about this because he's so good at not keeping score. And sometimes it is so challenging for me to be like, okay, well, you did the dishes last night, but I did the laundry. So you need to get up with the baby, and I'm gonna get up with the toddler in the morning since you got up with the baby overnight. Like, and he doesn't even think about that. But I am trying to quantify, to qualify, and to make sure that we're even. And I do that with God too, right? You know, like, okay, well, I did my quiet time on Tuesday, but I missed my quiet time, you know, whatever that means, whatever that even looks like. And you begin to think that you're not measuring up.

SPEAKER_00 26:03

Um quiet time. We call that uh commute.

SPEAKER_05 26:10

Yeah. That that has been my quiet time. It really took me like an hour 20 to get here today.

SPEAKER_00 26:18

I stopped feeling so kind of salty about the commute once I was like, look, you have Spotify. I I just like accidentally got Spotify because it was something that we needed on a West Virginia mission trip. And then I was like, why don't I keep this? This is kind of awesome. Oh, it is. And so whether I'm listening to music that helps center me, um, because I like a lot of the contemporary Christian music, especially um the stuff the stuff with good theology, obviously. But um, but I also like podcasts then, and it's just a really good time to just be in in good thought, not just moving from one place to another, but be in good thought.

SPEAKER_02 26:57

So are you familiar with Nate Berghazi's thing on is that I do my own laundry?

SPEAKER_01 27:03

Oh, yeah. When we talk about keeping score, that's a I went to that immediately.

SPEAKER_04 27:09

Yeah, and his wife is like, great.

SPEAKER_01 27:12

Great.

SPEAKER_04 27:12

Way to go, Nate.

SPEAKER_02 27:14

It didn't go as well as I expected. Plus it's so I I'm wondering a little bit about um you know, even the you know, can our desire to share faith become a false idol?

SPEAKER_00 27:33

Oh, oh, that's interesting.

SPEAKER_02 27:35

You know, that we worship, you know, trying to get the message across more than God itself. I don't know. I mean it's just you know, can we worship evangelism more than we can worship God? I don't know, or salvation more than we can worship God. I don't know. It's just I'm I'm looking at Paul going, okay, uh you know, I hope this is really good news and not about grabbing people and making sure that they're in the boat before the time's up, kind of thing.

SPEAKER_00 28:07

Yeah, yeah, because he felt like the day he's talking about was really coming right on him. It could be any day.

SPEAKER_05 28:14

Well, and I think anything with with that slant of control, right? Where you're like, I need, you know, I'm in control of the message, of how the message is conveyed. I need to make sure that I'm doing it the correct way. I'm always doing it. You know, I have the right bumper sticker on my car, like honk if you love Jesus, I'm getting the message out there, whatever, and yet God is still moving. There's a lack of so I think it can be idolatry. I think anything that we try to box in and control, even if it is the good news of the gospel, if we're not allowing God to actually come in and move and work and and sometimes mess up our plans, yeah. Um I mean, I think about some of the mission work in the like early 20th century, some of the stuff that we did as in the name.

SPEAKER_02 29:02

Five years ago.

SPEAKER_04 29:03

Five years ago, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 29:04

But like the idea of like in the name of in the name of Jesus, and this is all for your good because we want you to know Jesus in the way that we know Jesus, and this is how it's gonna be, and and all like under good motives, and yet I think it became its own idol. I mean, would you agree? I think that's kind of Yeah, yeah. But I don't know, I don't know for us today at Westminster what that would look like. Um that's why I don't know where you're gonna go with this on Sunday.

SPEAKER_02 29:29

I wish I did.

SPEAKER_05 29:30

Do you have a title?

SPEAKER_02 29:32

I my first thing was just taking uh the line, I see how extremely spiritual you are, or extremely spiritual in every way, or something like that. But I don't know where I'm going.

SPEAKER_00 29:47

Yeah. I think we are, I mean, the Christian message was a new message. We are in a a time when what is Christian may bear the name and may not be. Right. Um, and not just because of differences in doctrine. We are in a time when there are those who are wearing the name Christian and clearly are not exhibiting the risen Lord.

SPEAKER_02 30:19

Right. And then we have to watch ourselves in doing that too, right? I mean, I think that's the challenge of this is is how do we how do we love, you know, humbly, what you know.

SPEAKER_00 30:32

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 30:32

Uh all that kind of thing is, you know. And knowing that uh, you know, I think it has to depend largely on the spiritual, and how do we get out of the way of all that? I you know, that I think that's to me the challenge is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:49

It's not always about the words. Right. It just isn't always about the words. It is always about the person and how you are living out and embodying who Christ is. Always. If there are words that accompany that, that's wonderful. But you cannot preach the gospel and live completely different and expect that people are going to take you seriously. You to preach the gospel, you first have to know the risen Lord. You have to really believe that he is God. You have to really believe that he loved every single person that he saw, whether he had a full interaction with them or not. Right. And then we have to do the same, right? And we have to seek to do the same thing. We're not gonna accomplish that, like the risen Lord, and yet the risen Lord is calling us to try, calling us to believe that because Jesus loves everyone, even if they're Christian in name only, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:00

I would prefer it if this text it would have said uh because Paul was so well loved, they asked him to speak on the Areopagus.

SPEAKER_00 32:08

Yeah. Yeah. No, no. But he saw an opportunity and he knew the risen Lord, and he took it. Right. So that's part of our message. If the opportunity presents, take it. Right.

SPEAKER_05 32:24

Well, and there's a comfort in the where, you know, the the same, what is it, the same power that raised Christ from the dead lives in, you know, the same spirit that had the power to raise Christ from the dead that may is the spirit that is emboldening us to do this work. So it's not that we're on our own, it's not that we have to make it up. So exactly. That's the that that that's at least gives me a little bit of peace of mind.

SPEAKER_00 32:48

Yeah. And it's not always happy, happy, joy, joy, good times. Right. We're all positive, which is often what I get accused of preaching. And let me say, let me say welcome change for me. That is that is that's not the message. If it comes with joy, okay. Joy comes from love. But but sometimes that message is speaking love to someone who doesn't realize that love is really for everyone. And so sometimes you stand your ground on something because you are standing there on behalf of others. Um, it's not just about being nice and being kind and making people feel good in your presence, it's about really bringing Jesus, who is in you and changing you all the time, to every conversation that you have, especially when lives depend on it, especially because you love the person beyond you or because you know Jesus wants you to.

SPEAKER_02 34:05

All right. I think it's time.

SPEAKER_00 34:09

All right. Yeah. Let's pray together. Lord God, we thank you for this passage of Scripture that shows us the boldness of Paul to stand up and to preach about you. We are amazed as people who stand up and preach, that so many were transformed by that one preaching. And we're thankful for the reminder that whenever we want and are ready to represent you, you can do something whether we see it or not. So for the three of us in this room, we thank you for the reminder to be bold in our preaching. But also, Lord, we thank you for the reminder that the message is from the risen Lord. Help us to point our lives to Him, to focus our eyes on Jesus, to open our ears, not just in this Easter season, but in every day of our life. Where there is an opportunity to show love, make us bold to show forth that love. And if there are words you want us to speak, help us to be aware of them and to say them with grace. Lord, we thank you that you are the one that we follow. And even on days when we are confused or overwhelmed, you are still at work and you are ready to pull us back in to a ministry with confidence or not, because you will do what you will do. And for this we are thankful. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

SPEAKER_02 36:04

Amen.