00:00: Sometimes people hear what they want to hear.
00:05: Have you ever noticed that?
00:07: Sometimes they seem to only catch certain pieces of what you're saying or what somebody else is saying.
00:14: And not only do other people do that, but I think sometimes we do that.
00:19: We have this tendency to hear what we want to hear or to read what we want to read.
00:25: We'll be in Scripture and we'll see this part, but ignore that part.
00:30: When I look at the book of Acts, through which we've been working, I think it'd be really easy to either focus on the victories, focus on the provision of God, where there's thousands upon thousands of new Christians, there's all these new congregations planted regionally and increasingly spanning outward, and to just be like, yay, the early church, they had it all together.
00:58: It was great back then.
01:01: Or, to fixate on the challenges, the problems.
01:06: You can look at all the suffering the Apostle Paul and others went through, the opposition and the persecution, the threats to life.
01:16: You could add to that the New Testament epistles correcting various problems in the early church and think, ay, ay, ay, ay.
01:24: That's a very technical term, by the way.
01:28: But I think we need to blend these perspectives and be realists.
01:34: That in the early church, as seen in the book of Acts, but also seen in the New Testament epistles, there was great grace and provision and kindness shown by God, and there was all sorts of challenges and difficulties and opposition, and both were true.
01:54: When we look at our passage in chapter 18, we need to put it in context.
02:02: Chapter 17, verse 10, Paul and Silas are separated from their coworkers.
02:08: They'd been in the Greek city of Thessalonica, and they'd been separated from the others.
02:12: Some stayed behind.
02:13: They went on.
02:14: They went to Berea, and then had some successful ministry there, but after a time, some Jewish people from Thessalonica came over, stirred up trouble, and so then Silas stays behind there, but Paul again has to move on and ends up in Athens.
02:33: 1715, Silas and Timothy are still in Berea, and he makes the further journey.
02:37: And so we see Paul chased out of place after place, sometimes going with others, sometimes being forced to go off on his own for a time.
02:48: And so when we enter 18, we need to picture Paul's situation and recognize that at this moment, he's alone, and he's opposed.
02:58: He's not in this sunny, happy place of, hey, I've got my team around me, things are great, loving this.
03:05: He's in a time where he's experienced hardship after hardship, with some successes in the mix, but hardship, and he's now by himself facing opposition.
03:16: Opposition is hard to deal with.
03:18: It's especially hard to deal with alone.
03:20: There's something about the loneliness of going through hardship that is often devastating in a way that it just isn't when you're with others.
03:30: I think that's probably part of why God gives us the church as a family to go through things together.
03:36: Now notice in verses 2 and 3, he's alone, he's opposed, and then we meet this couple, Aquila and Priscilla.
03:46: He found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome.
03:57: And he went to see them, and because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and worked, for they were tent makers by trade.
04:04: I like that.
04:07: This couple is, like Paul, away from home.
04:12: They had been cast out of Rome where they had been.
04:14: The emperor had made a decree, and so they're new in town, as it were.
04:19: Probably a religious expulsion because it's aimed at the Jews.
04:23: There's some historical records indication that this might have been related to the influx of Christianity in Rome and conflict between the Christians and the Jews and just get all you guys out of here.
04:36: The passage leaves unclear to my mind whether or not Aquila and Priscilla are believers at this point.
04:42: They clearly become believers.
04:44: Elsewhere in Scripture, they're referred to as Christians.
04:47: They end up having a positive influence on Barnabas.
04:49: I suspect, based on the way the passage goes, they're probably already believers by verses 2 and 3.
04:55: And Paul connects with them, and they start working together.
05:02: They're tent makers.
05:03: He's a tent maker.
05:04: This is their trade.
05:05: This is what they do to make ends meet.
05:09: What I see when I look at this is God saying, I'm not going to leave you alone.
05:14: No, I'm not bringing those folks here to you yet, but I'm going to give you some new friends.
05:19: I'm going to give you another brother and sister in the faith to walk with you during this time.
05:23: You're not going to be alone.
05:24: And not only to some degree potentially in ministry, but even when he's not out and about doing ministry, when he's got to take time to make ends meet, he gets to work with them in that.
05:35: Right?
05:35: Teamwork.
05:39: God is giving him new friends and coworkers and support for this time of ministry.
05:44: We see later on, towards the end of our passage, verse 18, Paul stayed many days longer and then took leave of the brothers and set sail for Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila.
05:54: So Syria, in context here, is not contemporary nation of Syria.
05:59: This is Syria northwest of Israel.
06:02: That's where the city of Antioch is.
06:04: There's actually multiple cities named Antioch.
06:06: The one that's typically referred to in Acts, which is kind of the home base, home base for Paul and Barnabas and their ministry, that's Syrian Antioch, northwest of Israel.
06:16: So he's basically, he's now on his return to home base, to headquarters, and he brings this couple with him.
06:22: So there's been a bonding, there's been a connection that's been built.
06:25: I see in this passage fresh grace from God for Paul.
06:29: Things change, but God's grace meets the moment, and he provides.
06:34: I think sometimes we want to live in the past.
06:38: We're like, oh, this experience I had was great.
06:41: I just want to keep having that over and over.
06:44: And God says, no, I gave you that for then, but now I have this other thing for you.
06:51: There's a saying, you can't go home again.
06:55: And I think there's a version of that that's true for all of us.
06:59: Yesterday's grace is for yesterday.
07:01: Today's grace is for today.
07:03: And today's grace may be different than yesterday's grace.
07:06: You can't go back to that other thing indefinitely.
07:15: Verse 5, Silas and Timothy arrive.
07:18: They've been separated.
07:19: They follow in his footsteps.
07:22: They get caught back up with her.
07:23: The team gets bigger.
07:26: And then we see more of the ministry happening.
07:28: And we see some pretty typical stuff.
07:31: For this era, Paul follows the same program time and again.
07:35: We see in verse 4, he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks.
07:41: So he's in the Greek city of Corinth.
07:43: He goes to the synagogue where the Jewish people are.
07:46: There would have been non-Jews who were open to and pursuing Judaism there as well.
07:50: And he reasons with them in the synagogue.
07:53: Oh, what does that mean?
07:54: In context of Acts and other passages, it's him saying, hey, let me show you from the Scripture that what you've been waiting for, God to send the Messiah, God to send the Savior, it's happened.
08:05: Jesus, in our lifetime, is that one that we've been waiting for.
08:10: He fits it to a T, right?
08:12: So he's reasoning with them with regards to the Christian message, showing how Jesus fulfills the promises of God in the Old Testament.
08:20: Later in the passage, not in Corinth, but as he gets to the city of Ephesus, we see him doing much of the same thing.
08:28: They came to Ephesus and he left them there, but he himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews.
08:34: Anytime he shows up in a place, if there's a synagogue, he shows up, he tries to bring the gospel to the Jewish people.
08:39: And, like is commonly the reaction, verse 6, And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, Your blood be on your own heads.
08:53: I am innocent.
08:54: From now on, I will go to the Gentiles.
08:57: He shakes out his garments.
08:58: That's a cultural way of saying, I'm rid of you guys.
09:02: I have no responsibility towards you guys at this point.
09:06: I gave you the shot.
09:07: You passed.
09:08: It's on you now.
09:09: Right?
09:10: And he says, I'm going to go to the Gentiles from now on.
09:13: Why would he do that?
09:15: I think the one reason that overarches all the others is that God had called him to do that.
09:21: We see in Acts 9.15, when we see Paul's conversion, the Lord said to him, Go, this is to Ananias, Go, for he, Paul, is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.
09:38: So God used Paul to bring the message to Jews, yes, and to stand before kings and governmental leaders, yes, but he's especially called to be apostle to the Gentiles.
09:48: That's what he does.
09:49: And there's receptivity amongst the Gentiles.
09:52: You remember in our study of the book of Romans, at the end of Romans 8, Paul then gets on this tangent.
09:59: He says, Well, if all this stuff I've been saying about Jesus is true, why is it that the Jewish people are by and large not responding rightly to Jesus?
10:07: Romans 9, he gives the answer from the perspective of this is how the sovereignty of God is playing out.
10:12: Chapter 10, he gets into the human response and the human responsibility in the situation.
10:17: And chapter 11, he says, There's still more work that God's going to do in the future.
10:21: And Paul specifically says, God has moved into a phase where he's working primarily for the salvation of the non-Jewish people, the Gentiles.
10:31: But once he's completed that era of work with the Gentiles, there's going to be this surge, this influx of ethnically Jewish people who will come to believe in Jesus.
10:44: And so Paul understands that in his lifetime, in the church age up to the present, I believe, that God is especially doing something with non-Jewish people.
10:56: You see it played out in verses 7 and 8.
10:59: And he left there and went to the house of a man named Tidious Justice.
11:05: That's a very Gentile name.
11:08: A worshiper of God.
11:09: His house was next door to the synagogue.
11:13: Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord together with his entire household.
11:17: And many of the Corinthians, hearing Paul, believed and were baptized.
11:21: I see a three-part thing there.
11:23: I see this Gentile who lives next door to the Gentile, or next door to the synagogue, saying, yeah, I believe.
11:30: Paul, come set up shop at my place.
11:33: So he sets up his ministry right next door to the synagogue.
11:40: I bet that was real popular with the Jews at the synagogue, right?
11:44: God gives them a perfect location for this.
11:46: Second, we see that Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, came to faith in Jesus.
11:50: He and his whole family.
11:52: I'm thinking that was not popular in the synagogue, right?
11:54: They lose their ruler, their leader guy, and his whole family.
11:58: They all come to faith in Jesus.
11:59: That had to have been very divisive, very noteworthy in the life of that congregation.
12:07: And many other Corinthians are coming to faith in Jesus, right?
12:10: There's active, good stuff going on here.
12:14: Because God is at work through him in the midst of this.
12:18: They're not welcome to the synagogue.
12:20: Well, that's bad.
12:20: But they get set up right next door.
12:22: That's good.
12:23: Most of the Jews don't want to hear it.
12:25: That's bad.
12:26: But the leader of the synagogue and his family come to faith.
12:29: Well, that's good.
12:30: It's this mix of hardship and difficulty and suffering, but great grace from God at the same time.
12:36: Now, mixed responses to the message of Christianity, mixed responses to the gospel, even at times very strong, very negative responses to Jesus and the message of Christianity is normal.
12:52: That's normal.
12:53: It's to be expected.
12:55: That was Paul's experience.
12:56: You see this all through the book of Acts.
12:58: You see it in his epistles, that there's often negative responses to his message, right?
13:02: Well, that's because Paul was a goofball, and he wasn't good at it.
13:06: Well, no.
13:09: Jesus had the same experience, didn't he?
13:12: Jesus, in his three and a half years of public ministry, had some people respond very favorably, and many respond very negatively.
13:19: So we can't blame it on that.
13:20: It's normal in Jesus' life and ministry.
13:22: It's normal in Paul's life and ministry.
13:25: And it's normal in our life and ministry.
13:28: So don't look at the hardship.
13:30: Don't look at negative responses to your faith or your sharing of your faith and think, I must not be good at it.
13:37: I must not be a good Christian.
13:38: I must not be called to share my faith, etc.
13:41: No, that's not evidence for that.
13:44: That's normal and to be expected, and God's word prepares us for that.
13:49: Don't let negative responses deceive you into thinking, God must not be with you in this.
13:57: That's not the case.
13:58: Think about the passage that primarily gives us our marching orders for how to live in this time as we wait for Jesus to come back.
14:06: It's the Great Commission, right?
14:08: Jesus said, Jesus is either a liar or he is with his people always, always, without exception, to the very end of the age.
14:38: You don't go through the Christian life, and you certainly don't go through evangelistic situations without the faithful, ever-present Jesus with you in the person of the Holy Spirit.
14:50: God has said, I'm not going to leave you on your own.
14:54: I'm going to be with you.
14:57: Don't think negative responses means anything otherwise.
15:02: Now, zero in on verses 9 and 10.
15:04: I love these verses.
15:07: The Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, Do not be afraid, but go on speaking, and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.
15:18: Do not be afraid, but go on speaking, and do not be silent.
15:25: So, don't be afraid.
15:27: Don't get silent speaking up about your faith, but go on sharing the faith, right?
15:32: Why does God need to tell him that?
15:34: He's already got his marching orders as an apostle.
15:36: He's already on this second missionary journey.
15:37: He's already in a place where he's specifically able to share the faith.
15:40: Why would God give him this kind of instruction?
15:44: I think the obvious implication is that he would at least be tempted to clam up, to be a little more reserved in his sharing because of fear.
15:54: Why would he be fearful?
15:55: Well, because ministry was hard, because he faced all kinds of, not only opposition, but persecution and difficulty, even to the very brink of death.
16:05: In 1 Corinthians, Paul describes, or maybe it was 2 Corinthians, Paul describes his ongoing sufferings as an apostle.
16:17: He writes of himself that he had far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings.
16:25: If I have a beating, I remember it.
16:31: I can't even imagine having so many beatings that you lose count of them.
16:36: Countless beatings, and often near death.
16:39: Five times I received at the hand of the Jews the 40 lashes, less one.
16:45: That is a whipping, a scourging, 39 lashes in a row.
16:52: And he had that five times he experienced that.
16:54: Three times I was beaten with rods.
16:58: Once I was stoned.
17:00: If you remember that passage, they leave him for dead.
17:02: They throw rocks at his head until they think he's dead, and they walk away.
17:06: Three times I was shipwrecked.
17:09: A night and day I was adrift at sea on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from the Gentiles.
17:19: So Jews and Gentiles are out to get them.
17:21: Danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers.
17:27: So everywhere he goes.
17:28: Even false brothers.
17:29: Even people that are part of the church and seem to a degree to be Christians, but are actually not believers at all.
17:36: They attack him.
17:37: In toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night.
17:42: This is to the point of insomnia at times.
17:46: Working hard.
17:48: In hunger and thirst, often without food.
17:51: I don't like fasting for a day, let alone often without food.
17:57: In cold and exposure.
17:59: Yeah, I get why Paul would be afraid.
18:01: I get why Paul would be tempted to clam up and try to minimize the amount of hardship he has to go through.
18:07: But God tells him in verses 9 and 10, don't be afraid.
18:11: Don't clam up.
18:13: Keep speaking.
18:14: And on what basis does God give him that encouragement?
18:16: Three things.
18:18: I am with you.
18:20: He reaffirms his presence and says, I am with you.
18:23: You're not going through this alone.
18:26: That's true for us today.
18:30: Number two, no one will attack you to harm you.
18:33: Now, I don't think that means you won't face opposition.
18:39: The passage clearly indicates him facing opposition, and there's more that we're going to get to in a moment.
18:43: But it's saying, you're not going to get a beat down.
18:45: You're not going to get stoned.
18:46: You're not going to get whipped.
18:48: You're not going to go through that kind of suffering during this phase.
18:51: God is essentially giving him a season of reprieve from those kinds of sufferings.
18:58: And here's the part I really like about it.
18:59: And it's not just that the next 18 months that he spends there are free of that, but God tells him they're going to be free of it.
19:06: He's not just waiting for the next shoe to drop and goes through 18 months where it doesn't.
19:09: Hey, he knows that he's got a sort of beating vacation, as it were.
19:16: He doesn't have to worry about that for a time.
19:19: And third, he says, here's the reason, for I have many in this city who are my people.
19:25: I don't believe that means there are many Christians in this city.
19:30: Because the whole thing is, go ahead and share the Christian message.
19:34: They need to hear it.
19:35: I think the point is, God is saying, I've got many elect people in this city that I'm going to be bringing to Christ over this next year and a half.
19:44: Keep sharing.
19:45: I've got work to do through you here, and I'm going to give you a reprieve from this because I have some major grace that I'm going to be pouring out.
19:53: I think that's the point.
19:55: God's saying, I've got plans for the people here.
19:58: Keep sharing.
20:00: Keep preaching.
20:01: Don't let fear make you quiet.
20:06: Do you ever feel a temptation to be quiet about your faith?
20:10: A reticence to share the gospel with the people around you because you're concerned about a possible negative response?
20:17: I'm assuming that if I asked for hands, every one of you would raise your hand.
20:21: God knows what he's doing.
20:23: And he works grace through the sharing of the gospel.
20:27: Don't be afraid of that.
20:30: What about verse 12 and following?
20:32: No one will attack you to harm you.
20:34: And then verse 12 and following, we see the Jewish people unite and try to get Paul in trouble with the Roman government.
20:41: Verses 12 and 13.
20:42: When Galileo was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal saying, this man is persuading people to worship God contrary to the law.
20:55: What do they mean?
20:56: Do they mean contrary to Roman law, contrary to Jewish law?
21:00: It's not clear.
21:02: It could be Roman law in that he's talking about Jesus as king.
21:06: That happens elsewhere.
21:08: Could be contrary to Jewish law.
21:10: Roman government was open to all sorts of different religious stuff.
21:13: So in general, he's not in violation of Roman law.
21:18: How's Paul going to get out of this mess?
21:21: The answer is by doing nothing.
21:23: I love how it phrases it before he can even open his mouth.
21:28: Before he even has the opportunity to contradict the claims against him.
21:32: Verse 14.
21:33: The proconsul Galileo throws it out of court.
21:36: Right?
21:37: I love that.
21:38: God says, don't worry about it.
21:39: And then when something bad happens, God's like, oh, I got this.
21:42: I'm not even going to give you a chance to speak up.
21:45: Why does he throw it out of court?
21:47: He says, hey, this is your Jewish stuff.
21:50: This isn't a Roman thing.
21:51: I'm not dealing with your Jewish stuff.
21:52: You guys, you're the Jews.
21:54: You go deal with your Jewish stuff.
21:55: I'm not messing with that.
21:57: In other words, he says, this is out of my jurisdiction.
22:00: I deal with Roman stuff.
22:01: You guys deal with the Jewish stuff.
22:04: Now, is this a case of a really righteous ruler and Paul lucked out this time because he got a great secular pro-consul that's just a really just and upright man?
22:19: Nah, that's not what's going on here.
22:22: We see that because in the very next moment, we're told that they rally against the probably replacement ruler of the synagogue and there's a public beat down right in front of the pro-consul and he's like, nah, whatever, I don't care.
22:33: This is not a just man.
22:35: This is not a good man.
22:35: This is not a righteous man.
22:37: So why does he let Paul off the hook?
22:38: I have to believe it's the sovereignty of God at play saying, no, I'm protecting Paul right now.
22:43: This is not about us relying on righteous rulers.
22:48: This is about God protecting his people.
22:51: God does not struggle to keep his promises no matter the circumstances.
22:56: God can even use very unjust people to accomplish justice when he purposes to do so.
23:04: That doesn't mean we affirm that unrighteousness, but we can trust God regardless of the circumstances.
23:10: And then we look ahead.
23:14: God has more plan than just protecting Paul for a while while he's in Corinth, more than using Paul's gospel preaching to save those in Corinth.
23:23: We see in verse 18 Paul begins his return, right?
23:26: He's on the second missionary journey.
23:28: He's wrapping things up.
23:29: He's beginning to head home to Syria, specifically to the city of Antioch.
23:34: He's got this vow and haircut situation and he ends up in the city of Ephesus.
23:39: This is the first time that Paul visits Ephesus.
23:44: This is the first time that Paul the apostle brings Christianity and the Christian message to the city of Ephesus.
23:52: And as is his habit, he starts off in the synagogue trying to help the Jewish people recognize from the Old Testament that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah.
24:01: And he gets a favorable hearing.
24:03: They ask him to stay with them longer.
24:06: I would think that he'd be like, all right, I like this.
24:10: They want to hear more about it.
24:11: I'm going to stick around.
24:12: But for whatever reason, he declines.
24:14: We don't know why, but he decides not to stay longer.
24:18: And instead he says, verse 21, I will return to you if God wills.
24:24: And he sets sail from Ephesus.
24:25: I think he's probably saying, I'd like to stay.
24:28: I hope to come back, but that's going to have to be in God's hands.
24:31: Right now, the answer needs to be no.
24:35: And we know from the rest of the book of Acts and from the New Testament letters that he does end up back in Ephesus.
24:42: In fact, the New Testament book of Ephesians is a later letter written by Paul to the church in Ephesus.
24:48: When we get to Acts 20, we're going to see his final visit with the Ephesian church and his farewell to the Ephesian elders.
24:56: And we see that there was a close relationship built.
24:59: a powerful form of ministry took place there.
25:03: In 1 Timothy 1, verse 3, we see him leaving Timothy there for a time.
25:07: Here in our passage this morning, he leaves Aquila and Priscilla in Ephesus for a time, leaving them some Christian influence.
25:14: All these things come to pass.
25:16: And when you put together the timeline for Paul's ministries and movements and activities, you find that Corinth, the passage we looked at today, he spends about 18 months, maybe a little longer, the second longest place he stays anywhere.
25:30: But later on, when he's in ministry in Ephesus, that is the longest place that Paul spends in one area of ministry his entire ministry career.
25:39: Two and a half to three years he's going to end up spending there.
25:42: At the time, he doesn't know.
25:44: He's like, it's not time for me to stay.
25:45: I'm going to leave it in God's hands for what's ahead.
25:48: And God has great things ahead for ministry, for the sake of the church, for the sake of God's kingdom in the future in Ephesus.
25:55: Paul doesn't know.
25:57: He says, I'm going to leave it in God's hands.
25:59: Are you willing to leave the unknowns in God's hands?
26:04: Or do you have to control everything and, God, give me all the answers right now.
26:10: We can, at times, ask God to give us answers and there's times where he's not going to give you the answer.
26:15: It's not time for you to know that.
26:16: It's not what he wants to reveal at that stage.
26:19: He wants you to just wait and see or wait and trust.
26:23: Parents, you've seen this with your kids, right?
26:25: Sometimes they demand all kinds of answers from you.
26:28: Well, wait and see.
26:29: I really want a pony for Christmas.
26:31: Am I getting a pony?
26:32: Wait and see.
26:34: Or if it's a pony, the answer is probably no.
26:35: But just wait and see.
26:37: Wait and see.
26:38: God can be trusted.
26:41: I think there's a good lesson for us in that.
26:43: Trust God with the future.
26:45: And trust that God may be at work right now building up for something yet to come.
26:50: There's this early positive reception where they want more.
26:54: He leaves Aquila and Priscilla for some level of ministry.
26:58: But Paul has no idea the amount of ministry that God's going to call him to down the road.
27:04: And it's all being set up.
27:06: God has perfect wisdom in all things, including the timing.
27:10: I would imagine most of you have been frustrated with the timing of God on some things.
27:15: There have been things that you wanted to happen in a certain time.
27:18: Things that you didn't want to happen that happened.
27:22: God knows what he's doing.
27:23: He doesn't make mistakes.
27:26: And if your timing and God's timing don't match, guess who's got it right?
27:31: It's not you.
27:32: It's not me.
27:33: God knows.
27:35: When I look at this passage as a whole, and I try to look beyond the specific circumstances and say, what is God showing us?
27:43: I think we're seeing a good, gracious, sovereign, God at work for the good of his people and the building up of his church.
27:54: That's what I see in this portion of Acts 18.
27:59: And if God does not change, and he doesn't, then I have to think that's who we're worshiping and following today.
28:07: A good, gracious, sovereign God who works for the good of his people in the building up of his church.
28:15: Now, we've got to be careful not to twist that.
28:18: If God is good, gracious, and sovereign, that does not mean what we often want it to mean.
28:23: That means I'll never have to deal with hard things because God will just work things out easy and pleasant, which is not true.
28:30: We see it even in this passage.
28:31: We can't hear the part we want to hear and ignore the other.
28:34: God's good, gracious, sovereign will will take his people through hardship sometimes, but he'll be with us in that.
28:43: He's got good purposes.
28:45: He knows what the plan is.
28:46: He's doing the right thing at the right time in the right way to accomplish a good that is far beyond what you or I could ever engineer.
28:57: Let's pray.
28:59: God, would you help us to believe more fully?
29:04: To not just say the right things about you, but to remind ourselves and preach to ourselves these truths day in and day out as we face temptation to doubt, as we wrestle against fear.
29:19: Would you help us to believe that you are present, that you are gracious, that you are good, that you are wise, that you are sovereign, and to say, if God wills, to all the things that we might want, and say, I leave it in God's hands.
29:38: He knows what's best.
29:40: I'm going to let God work it out His way in His time, and I'm going to be okay with that.
29:45: We pray this in Jesus' name.
29:47: Amen.