Standing with Jesus.

Well, happy Sunday, everyone. If you guys have your Bibles and you want to turn to Acts chapter seven, we are going to be in Acts seven and eight today. We have been this summer, and this is kind of our last wrap-up of the summer. I tend to do this a lot where we'll start these series through books of the Bible, and I'm like, we'll get through it all by this date. And then we're a couple weeks in and I'm like, there's just too much. We got to slow this down. And you would think that I would learn, but I still don't learn.

So we have made it all the way. It took us, I don't know, sixteen something weeks in the summer to get through seven chapters. And we are going to wrap up today our Set Apart Summer series. But then in two weeks, when we're back in person, we're going to continue in Acts. And we're going to start to look at the life of Paul, the apostle. We're calling that All of the Sudden. We're going to talk about how all of a sudden Paul meets Jesus and everything changes.

So that's coming. But we're wrapping up this Set Apart Summer. We started the summer and all the podcasts are available. If you want to kind of catch up to be like, what have people been learning about? What have they been talking about here? They're all available for you to go back and listen to. We have called this Set Apart Summer. This comes from this idea of the word consecration.

In Joshua, before they go and they cross over into the Jordan and the Israelites fight these mighty battles and win, the first thing that the Lord does before that happens is he said, pause, consecrate yourself today for tomorrow the Lord's going to do amazing things among you. And that word consecration really just translates into being set apart and fully devoted. Set apart and fully devoted. And it's important to then know what you're devoted to, right? That's an important thing.

How many of you were at the game Friday night? The Badger game? Alright, you know if you go to a Badger football game or if you're trying to drive at all during a Badger football game, there is a lot of devotion here in Wisconsin to our sports teams. Now that is something I am not. Like a Wisconsin native. I am still learning the culture. I'm eight years in and I still feel like I have no idea what's happening whatsoever. And I know I was with some of you who are from Wisconsin and you two were there at the game with me. And you're like, I have no idea what is happening whatsoever.

But on game days you see a lot of devotion. Like we all put on our red and our white and we're like fully devoted to I don't even know what sometimes. Because you get there and you're like, we're here for a football game. But you look and you're like, they're not here for a football game. Like they're just all in line for the pretzels. Like they're devoted to the pretzels right now, right? You look out and you're like, oh, they're not fully devoted. Like they're getting that angle. Look at that shot. That's a new profile pic right there. That's what they're devoted to right here on game day.

And it goes on and on like you look around and then people are devoted. I saw many Friday night devoted to getting on the jumbotron. I may have been one of them. It was not successful, but you see people you're like, why is that guy dancing the entire game and not watching it? Oh, okay, I know what you're devoted to. We're all there. We kind of from the outside looking in it's like we're all devoted to the same thing, but we're not.

And we as followers of Jesus have to be people that are saying we're not only going to be set apart and start to dress this way and look this way, but now we are going to fully devote ourselves to the ways of Jesus, to his mission. That is what we are after. And we need to be both set apart and fully devoted.

We're going to be talking more about Stephen today. Will you join me in reading, if you have your Bibles open, Acts chapter seven, starting in verse fifty-four?

When they heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Look, he said, I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. At this they covered their ears and yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Then he fell on his knees and cried out, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. When he had said this, he fell asleep and Saul was there giving approval to his death. On that day, a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him, but Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison. Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. Philip went down to his city in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ there. When the crowds heard Philip and saw the miraculous signs he did, they all paid close attention to what he said. With shrieks evil spirits came out and many paralytics and cripples were healed. So there was great joy in the city.

Acts 7:54-8:8

Let me pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you for the ways that you have been moving for generations. Continuing to do the miraculous. Continuing to empower us to preach your gospel. To grow in closeness and likeness to your son, Jesus. And I just ask right now that for these next few moments that your Holy Spirit would speak to us, that you would encourage us, and that you would empower us to continue to go out and to make disciples. To go out and to see miracles all over this place so that it can too be said that wherever we go, we see God, the way that you have been working and you are working. And we see that there is joy in this city.

It's in your name we pray, amen.

Joining Jesus in laying down our lives

The so what for today is that Jesus brings joy to the city. There is joy in the city. And now what do we do with that? We join Jesus. We join Jesus. That is what we see happening here. And I want to talk about this because when we're looking at these scriptures, it's saying they're scattered and saying that there was persecution. Yet at the same time, there's joy. There is joy in the city because people are being set free and people are being healed and people are being restored and they're finding Jesus.

You see, sometimes I think we have a hard time letting emotions and different things coexist at the same time. Where we either are in a time of celebration or we're in a time of mourning. But you see here, like after Stephen died, it says that the people mourned. They grieved and then they continued and the joy continued as well. And I think these are always important things for us to remember because sometimes when we start to follow Jesus, we think that it's just like up and up and up and up and reaching until we get to heaven.

But when we start to follow Jesus, we are following Jesus in his ways and we see that Jesus, he endured a painful death on the cross. He endured persecution. He endured things coming up against him, yet he continued. And as he did, he made way for his kingdom to come. And there were moments of joy and moments of pain and sometimes moments of both right there in the middle.

And we see that Jesus, he took time to grieve. Jesus took time to weep. Jesus took time to acknowledge the things that were happening, yet also acknowledge that there is joy right there in the middle. Jesus is moving all over the city. There was great joy at this moment.

The promise fulfilled in persecution

What is happening here is that leading into the book of Acts, Jesus died. He paid the price for our sins. He's raised back to life. He gathers the disciples at the beginning of Acts and he says, wait here, I'm going to send my Holy Spirit who's going to continue to flow through you. The comforter is coming. And so they wait. They're filled with the Holy Spirit. And then from that place, they begin to go and to preach the gospel and their experience is persecution.

If you remember Stephen, he was one of the seven that were appointed by the apostles to then go and be the deacons of the church and help continue to lead the church and steward the church. So Stephen is there and he's in this role and people start accusing him of blasphemy. They're accusing him of speaking against the name of God. And so what we read in chapter seven, we talked about a few weeks ago, is Stephen's response to the persecution was not to meet people where they were at, but instead he shared in grace and in love and in kindness the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Acts chapter seven is just full of this. And this shows us a lot about Stephen that leaves me even asking, like, okay, how does this happen? What does this look like? How do we become those people that when we too are met with things that come up against us our response is not to hide or to shrink back or to even like get ready and fight back, but instead to respond in the ways of Jesus?

I want to point out a few things that I find really fascinating about scripture. If you've been around at all, you know like I love the more that you get into scripture and you pay attention to the words and the numbers and all the different things. It's like this big puzzle that's so fun to solve where you're like, whoa, and this leads to this and this leads to that. But it causes us paying close attention to the words we're reading, to the ways that the Spirit's speaking to us. And you can see this in the life of Stephen.

He must have been someone that was close to the Lord, because when he was giving his speech in chapter seven and his sermon to the people, he is quoting scripture, which shows us he knew the word of God. He was paying attention to the word of God. He would have heard stories of Jesus. He was paying attention to the ways of Jesus and how Jesus lived.

If you flip back and you look in Acts chapter one in your Bibles, one of the last words that Jesus speaks is this. He goes and he's talking to his disciples one last time before he ascends into heaven. So Jesus was crucified. He's raised back to life. Before he ascends into heaven, he appears to his disciples. And the last thing in Acts one eight, he says this:

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

Acts 1:8

That's it. And then Jesus ascends into heaven. So these are the last words that Jesus is speaking here to his disciples. You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, and Samaria, and to all the ends of the earth.

I want you to look how Acts eight one starts here. First it says, Saul was there giving approval for his death. And on that day great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem. And all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. So Jesus is saying here's the promise. This is what's going to happen. I'm sending you my Holy Spirit. In one eight he's saying to empower you to go out to Judea and Samaria. Leave this place of comfort.

And then all of a sudden in eight one, the first thing that we see is that persecution. What could have been something that led them to withdraw and to hide, they then go and scatter and are scattered to the very places that Jesus said that they were to go and proclaim the gospel. This is one of the many moments in scripture and I don't think it's a mistake. I didn't plan this. I'm not that organized. The first thing that we started at the beginning of the summer is one eight and this empowerment to go to these places and as we're wrapping up here today of what it means to be set apart and fully devoted, we find ourselves here in chapter eight and that shows us that sometimes the things that the enemy is using to cause pain and to cause defeat, God's going to say, watch me. Watch me use these things to now catapult my gospel into places that it never would have gone. But watch me do this right here in this moment.

Now, I want to be careful here because this is not saying like God wanted Stephen to be stoned and to go through this death, right? But this is what happened at this time, and God instead is using it to further his kingdom and his gospel. But what we see here is that Stephen made way for Jesus through laying down his life. Stephen made way for Jesus through laying down his life, which causes me to think, like Stephen knew what he was doing.

Because if Stephen didn't know and hadn't heard and didn't know about what Jesus did for him, why wouldn't he do it for other people? But knowing that Jesus just went through the same thing of being falsely accused, of being crucified when he shouldn't have been, and then was raised back to life. Now Stephen is willingly laying down his life.

The last thing that I want to catch here is that the number eight, if you do like a number study on this, there's a couple different things that come up in the Bible of what this number represents. New life, resurrection, and this was my favorite. A commentary said the number eight often represents the consecration of the heart. The consecration of the heart. Jesus is gathering them in the beginning of Acts in the comfort of their own homes. And he's saying, you're going to go out and you're going to preach.

And now in order to do that, you need to be consecrated. You need to live set apart and fully devoted to me and my ways. And they're starting to get that. And now they're starting to live that way. And Stephen lived, set apart, and fully devoted to the ways of Jesus to the point of laying down his life, his physical life, in order to see new life come. In order to see resurrection now of the gospel being preached.

Now Stephen's life wasn't physically resurrected here, but we see when everybody else is looking around and it's like, okay, we got them. They're going to stop preaching now. It's done. It's dead. It's over. It's defeated. What happens? It begins to scatter and it begins to spur up to Judea and Samaria. The place that Jesus said, I want my gospel to go. When we look at situations and we think it's dead and it's over and it's gone, there is still new life coming. There is still new life that God wants to bring and breathe into those places.

Stephen knew where to look

So what does it look like for us to join Jesus? Stephen joined Jesus in laying down his life, and we too today can choose to do that because we are chosen by God. We can choose to respond in that full obedience. And I want to point out again that Stephen, in Acts, before he was appointed, what was happening at the time is that there was that divide between the Hellenistic Jews and the Hebraic Jews.

So the Hebraic Jews were essentially saying like, hey, we are the chosen people because of our race, because of our ethnicity, because we are the ones that stayed close to Jerusalem. Like we should be leading the charge. And so they were neglecting other people. And the Hellenistic Jews, they were there and they were ready to be fully devoted to Jesus. And these are the men and the women and the people that were chosen to then lead at that time in Acts.

The ones that maybe to everybody else didn't fit the norm or didn't fit the people that they thought would be in charge and leading in that moment. Which is a constant reminder to us of God's heart that he's saying, I want all people, all people to surrender to the ways of Jesus. That there's nothing about you that disqualifies you and you get to choose will you respond in obedience to following me and my ways.

Stephen knew where to look. When he was giving his speech in chapter seven and his sermon to the people, in verse fifty-four, full of the Holy Spirit, he looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And then he says, look. Now there's two things that I love about this.

One, it shows us like Stephen knew. He knew like Jesus ascended into heaven. Like I'm looking up. Like I know where to look to see God and to find God. And then I love that he turns to people and he says, look. He was not only going to demonstrate and say, like, I know where to look and I'm following the ways of Jesus, but he was taking other people with him for the journey. And he said, now all of you, everybody that's here, like, look with me.

Do you see, do you see it right here in this moment? Jesus is standing. He's standing. Earlier in Acts, it says, Jesus, he ascended into heaven. He was sitting at the right hand of the Father. And it's in this moment, Stephen being persecuted, Stephen laying down his life so that people would know Jesus. And Jesus stands. Jesus is standing with us. He did not leave us to be alone. He did not leave us so that he could not be found, but he left with us his Holy Spirit so that we can be familiar. We can communicate with him. We do have access to him and he is standing with us, cheering us on in the times where we're like, God, I don't know if I have anything more to give.

Jesus is cheering us on. But it's like, God, I don't know how to make it through this situation. Jesus is cheering us on. He is standing with us today. Do we know where to look? Do we know where to see him? Do we know where to find him? Are we going back and reminding ourselves through the stories of scripture? Are we in conversation in our community, letting people into the honest conversations and the vulnerabilities that we're walking through and say, would you remind me where to look? Where do I find? Where do I look?

Stephen knew where to look. Stephen joined Jesus in laying down his life. In his persecution he proclaimed the gospel, the good news both in word and in deed. In his pain then we also see that his response was to pray for forgiveness. Can you imagine? You are being wrongfully accused of blasphemy. You have now responded in a kind, honoring, grace-filled way. You have tried to appeal to people and say, no, like this is the truth. This is what you're longing for.

And now you have been thrown over. The Jewish tradition for stoning, he would have been thrown. They would have tried to crush his body. And I find it so interesting and it makes sense. But the first place they would try to throw the stone next would be right to the heart to crush your heart. And I think how often is that the first place that the enemy tries to take us out to? Saying, well, if I can just crush their heart, if I can just get them so discouraged, so defeated, so brokenhearted, feeling empty, feeling lost.

And then if that wasn't it, then they continued to throw stone after stone after stone until he would breathe his last breath. At this they covered their ears, yelling at the top of their voices. They all rushed at him, dragged him out of the city, began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of the young man named Saul. While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Then he fell on his knees and cried out, Lord, do not hold this sin against them.

And as he said this, he fell asleep. He fell asleep. This peaceful way they describe his death. In the midst of something so painful, so not peaceful, so chaotic, he fell asleep. You can just see and hear in this story the trust that Stephen had for Jesus, the trust that he had for God, the trust that he had to say, you're going to use every single moment of this for your glory.

And the way that not only was he laying down his life, but he was allowing his life to outlive him by choosing to speak words of grace and words of forgiveness in this moment.

Jesus' example and our response

I want to read in Luke twenty-three some of Jesus' last moments.

Pilate called together the chief priests, the rulers, and the people, and said to them, You brought me this man as one who is inciting the people to rebellion. I have examined him in your presence and have found no basis for your charges against him. Neither has Herod, for he sent him back to us, as you can see. He has done nothing to deserve death. Therefore, I will punish him and then release him. But the whole crowd shouted, Away with this man. Release Barabbas to us. Barabbas had been thrown into prison for an insurrection in the city and for murder. Wanting to release Jesus, Pilate appealed to them again. But they kept shouting, Crucify him, crucify him. For the third time, he spoke to them. Why? What crime has this man committed? I have found in him no grounds for the death penalty. Therefore, I will have him punished and then release him. But then with loud shouts, they insistently demanded that he be crucified and their shouts prevailed. So Pilate decided to grant their demand. He released the man who had been thrown into prison for murder and insulted and surrendered Jesus to their will.

Luke 23:13-25

Similar to Stephen, right? He's falsely accused, and now he's enduring this persecution, and there's a crowd around him, but nobody's stopping it. And with Jesus, same thing. There's a crowd around him, but they're all bought into this idea of crucifying him. And so it goes on in Luke twenty-three. In verse forty-four, it says:

It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. For the sun stopped shining and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.

Luke 23:44-46

Into your hands I commit my spirit. And when we flip back and we see Stephen's last words, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Do not hold this sin against them. Stephen knew Jesus. He knew the power of laying down his life for the gospel. Right before that, Jesus in verse thirty-four says:

Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing.

Luke 23:34

Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing. Now we can read these words, but I want you to think of for you like the people that have hurt you the most. To have that type of grace in that moment. Now that doesn't mean you don't feel the pain, right? It doesn't mean you don't acknowledge the pain. And it even says like after Stephen's death they grieved. After Jesus death they grieved. But to still have that posture of saying Father forgive them. They know not what they're doing. To have that posture of Stephen that says Lord forgive them. Do not hold this sin against them. That type of grace is the grace of God. The grace that only God can allow to flow through us.

And the grace that continues to watch the gospel expand and reach people all over the world. We see that Stephen joined Jesus in forgiving. He did this in the midst of his pain. It's almost as if he understood the promise and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit was not one that was going to be absent of pain. And it's hard for us to talk about this. It's hard for us to acknowledge that following Jesus is not a life here on this side of eternity that is going to be absent of pain. That's going to be absent of having moments where even today, as we're saying, like, God, I need a miracle. There are still going to be moments like that in our life. Moments of questioning, moments of doubt, moments where we don't know where to turn.

But the difference in following Jesus is saying that we continue to look up in our midst, knowing that at the same time death is occurring, that new life is happening. That at the same time pain is occurring, that the promise of God is flowing through us. And that there is joy in the city and coming to the city. That there is peace that is promised to us that surpasses all understanding. Stephen fell asleep. That is a peaceful way to go. It wasn't this like he bled to death or this or that, but he fell asleep. It ended in peace. We are promised peace, wholeness, shalom, completeness, peace. It's coming.

Stephen joined Jesus in letting his life outlive him in the way that he laid down his life and he used his last words for his glory and for his grace to flow through him.

A ripple effect

Now, I kind of talked about it, but in the next couple of weeks, we're going to look at the life of Paul, who first was Saul. And then after he meets Jesus, his name and identity is completely changed. And if you remember, it starts in verse eight. It mentions that Paul was there. He was there. Saul still persecuting Christians was there when Stephen died. Now Stephen at that moment, like he doesn't know the man who's going to go on and he's going to write the majority of the New Testament that generations for generations for generations are going to read and come to know Jesus is right there in my midst, watching the way I handle this pain.

He doesn't know that. Like we don't have an account to our knowledge of God saying, hey, before you go, this is what this painful situation is going to lead through. We don't have that. But we have Stephen trusting God, trusting that as he followed the ways of Jesus, that he was making way for Jesus to do what only he could do. And so he laid down his life and he trusted God with the rest.

What kind of person does this? It's the kind of people that keep their eyes on Jesus. The ones who know where to look. The ones that set themselves apart and proactively are setting themselves apart from every other voice, every other influence, and saying God it's you. It's your way. The ones who are fully devoted, all into following the ways of Jesus.

So some of the questions I have for us today is what is our response to pain? What is our response when people hurt us? Is it to look to Jesus to be our healer? To look to Jesus to be the one that makes a way? Because our response to that is a result of the daily choices that we make to follow the ways of Jesus or to not follow the ways of Jesus. The things we do, they do something to us.

And as we follow the ways of Jesus, we are being formed into the likeness of Jesus. Stephen followed Jesus in kindness in his words. And he spoke the truth, but it was with kindness. He followed Jesus in knowing the scripture. Jesus would quote scripture. He knew the scripture. Stephen knew the scripture. He followed it in radically loving people.

Living set apart and fully devoted

How do we live this set apart and fully devoted life? How do we live this type of way? We remember that this present moment is not our promised eternity. We remember that just like Jesus stood when Stephen was in that moment of pain, that he's standing with us and he invites us to stand up for the people around us. We remember that joining Jesus is joining him both in relationship and on mission to seek to save the lost. To help everyone around us know that they are worth dying for and that Jesus is standing with them to, cheering them on.

It's continuing to join Jesus in bringing that healing and bringing that hope and bringing that peace and that joy into the city. And so if you're here today and you feel like you are far from God and you don't know where to look, Jesus died for you. Jesus is standing with you, cheering you on. So keep going. Trust that in the midst of your doubt, in the midst of your searching, in the midst of your questions, that peace is coming.

And trust that he's going to use it to guide you closer to him. Look up and say, God, where are you at? Open my eyes to see you.

If you're here today and maybe you're feeling defeated, I really sensed that as I was praying over the scripture that there's just this sense of like sometimes we can be so defeated. I was reminded and I posted something on Facebook a couple weeks ago. I think it was August nineteenth or twentieth that marked eight years that I had moved here to Madison. And I remember being so excited, but I came here with like nothing. To the point where I borrowed six hundred dollars from my fifteen year old brother to pay the security deposit at my first apartment.

And I slept on an air mattress for months until somebody gave me their toddler's extra twin bed that I slept on for the next couple years. And then somebody else gave me a bed and I've just been blessed with beds. So thank you Lord for providing beds because they're expensive.

But I share that to then say I also recently found a journal from twenty nineteen, which I would have been here three years at that point. And at that point, like I would have looked back and been like, God, like I don't know what else to give you. Like we've kind of given it all. I literally don't have anything else in my bank account to give you. And I had written down, and this is crazy because somehow like we have kept going, right?

I had written down, well, I only had six hundred dollars of income come in this month. That's it. And then a few weeks later, it was, I don't even know if I'll have six hundred dollars next month. And I don't know how to pay rent. And I don't know how to keep going.

And I share that with you because so much I think sometimes again of following Jesus is we think that on this side of eternity, the more obedient we get, then it's like, oh, the more blessings that are going to come. But I share that saying like God has continued to provide for everything that I have needed. Right? In miraculous, powerful ways. But it has not been this like I make one big sacrifice and now all of a sudden like everything I ever dreamed of is right here.

If anything, sometimes it's like, God, like I thought, I thought we kind of did the whole thing. I thought we died to ourselves daily. I get that, but like daily? Because like I already died to like I think we were crucified once. Do we have to keep going? Like what else do we have to give, right?

But following Jesus is dying to ourselves daily, being crucified daily, recognizing that this present moment is not our promised eternity. That we are not living here for today. Because if we live for today, that would be really discouraging and really defeating. Because today Stephen's dead. But tomorrow the church is scattered. We started this summer reading about the church comfortable gathering and community. Now we have seen God's promises flow through these people as we have read these stories.

But now it's ending with persecution and them being separated from their family and their friends. But the gospel still moving forward? If I were them and I thought that this moment was my present reality, I would not be very encouraged.

But when we hold to the truth that following Jesus and laying down our lives is making way for his kingdom to come, and we live in the truth and the reality that his kingdom is here and it is coming and that there is more to come, and that we have the promise and the hope of eternity that someday there will be peace, shalom, wholeness, we can keep going. We can keep going.

There was a ripple effect of Stephen's death. I want you to think of if you're standing at a body of water and you were to just drop a stone, you might just watch it sink to the bottom and think, well, that was it. But then you start to watch the water expand and you start to see the ripples flow over to places that it wouldn't have gone before unless that stone was ready to say, okay, I'm going all in. I'm going all in. I'm going deep.

Stephen's life was not wasted. His words were witnessed by the person who then goes on to preach to more people than any of us will probably ever, ever could ever imagine. And he didn't know that in that moment. But what I love most about this story is that Jesus jumped right out of his seat for the one that he loved. And I want to leave us with that today. That Jesus is not sitting far off or distance. He didn't come and not leave us with his Holy Spirit. He left us with his Holy Spirit, right? He didn't come and say, okay, now I'm raised back to life. Have fun. Like, see you in heaven. He said, I am with you. And he's standing with us saying, keep going.

And so I want to invite you to stand as we close today. And as we kind of end this Set Apart Summer, this idea of consecration may we continue to walk in this. To be people that say we are set apart and fully devoted to the ways of Jesus. And part of the ways that we do this is like Stephen, to continue to spend time knowing the Word of God. Spend time in his presence. Spend time with his people. Know that we're not alone in this but we are in a community together.

If Stephen thought that he was the only one that would have been really hard to lay down your life. But when you recognize that we are all just a piece of the greater story that God is writing, it makes it a little easier. So today I want us to close in saying the Lord's Prayer together, which we do this from time to time as a church because it was clear like Stephen knew the ways of Jesus.

This is how Jesus taught his disciples to pray, where he starts with this:

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

The Lord's Prayer

So Lord, we thank you for this time. We thank you for this word. We thank you for these past three months that we have been set apart and fully devoted to your ways. And we do declare that as a church that yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.