Acts 8

that we get an understanding and a revelation of who you are. Father, help us tonight by giving us your words, your mind, your thoughts. Father God, Lord, as we prepare to study tonight, God, in Acts chapter 8, Lord, there's a word in there that is relevant for the times that we are living in now, for what we are experiencing right now. Father, help us not miss it in the name of Jesus. Father God, I pray that you will work our mouths, God. Lord, I pray for John and I, that God, you will take whatever it is that we plan on saying, and God, you make it right. Lord, that you make it better. God, I ask that you sanctify us with this word tonight. God, I pray that you will help us submit to your sanctification process, God. Lord, I pray that we just don't see ourselves as saved without needing to be sanctified. Lord, I pray against those of us who find ourselves being conformed to the patterns of this world. And Lord, I ask that you will even rescue us from that, God, and help us conform to the image of the one who we are made in, Father God. That is you. Help us to be more like you. Help us to be more loving. To be more caring, to be more understanding, but to also be more discerning. Father, we need your help. Lord, we need your grace. We need your anointing, God. We cannot do anything without you, and we don't desire to do anything apart from you, Father God. Lord, we anchor ourselves to the vine in this moment right now, Father God. And Lord, we are excited for the fruit that will come from this word. The fruit that will come from being in unity with one another. God, Lord, you prayed in John chapter 17 that we would be unified, that we would be one. And Father, we come together right now as unified, as one body. Father, we are one body with many members. God, I pray in the name of Jesus, Lord, that you will help us to, to, to always keep that truth, Father God. So that no factions can come into this place, God, that no factions will come into the body of Christ where we start separating ourselves from one another. God, help us to always be anchored in the truth of who you are. Help everything that we do always point back to Jesus and not ourselves. God, Lord, we thank you and we praise you, God. We cannot thank you enough, Father God. Kevin, can you come back? Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Father.

Heavenly Father, we come to you, give you all the praise and the honor and the glory. That you deserve. Thank you for allowing us to gather here together. Thank you for allowing us to fellowship, oh Father. I ask that you please continue to keep us safe, keep us safe from any hurt, harm, and danger, oh Father. Allow a word to come through Brittany and John tonight, oh Father. I ask that you touch us, oh Father. Allow us to hear what you have to say, oh Father. Allow us to walk in the way that you want us to walk, oh God. I ask that we be obedient to your calling upon our lives, oh Father. I ask that we continue to, to hear from you. I ask that we continue to receive the love that you've given us, oh Father. Receive the grace that you've given us, oh Father. Receive the joy that you have given us, oh Father. And I ask that we continue to bring disciples to your kingdom, oh Father. We continue to reach the unbelievers, and we continue to to just extend our love towards them. Oh Father, I ask that you be with those who are grieving right now. I ask that you continue to lift them up, oh God. I ask that you continue to allow them to see you, oh Father, even in times when they can't even see you. I ask that you be a light unto their path, oh Father. Oh Father, I ask that you just be with all of us. I ask that you be with our families, you be with our friends. Oh Father, I just thank you. You've done so much.

I've been there.

You've been a good God, and I just want to continuously lift your name up. I ask that whatever we need to hear, it be heard tonight. I ask that you continue to make ways out of no way. And I just want to thank you. I thank you for what you've already done. I thank you for what you're doing, and I thank you for what you are going to continuously do. For it's in my God and Son Jesus' name I pray. Amen. One thing that we did during our time together this weekend is we just allowed ourselves to sit and practice God. And we don't want you to feel like this is operated and led by just us, so if y'all could just take time um, just sit in the presence of God. And if there's anything specifically that God is speaking to you to pray, we just want to give 1 or 2 minutes for y'all to be able to just flow in that space. Heavenly Father, we just thank you for this time. We thank you, Father God, that whatever you occupy becomes holy ground. We ask, Lord, that as we read this word, that this word would read us, that you would examine our hearts, Lord, and that you would begin to wash us. That you will begin to restore us, that you will fill us, Lord. We ask that this would be a time where we can grow stronger in our bond with you, that this would be a place of intimacy where iron can sharpen iron and your word can remain true. We ask, Lord, that you would breathe upon us, Lord, that you would refresh us, and that you would show us the things that we would need that when we leave these doors, that we'll be able to impact our workplace, our home life, our families, our friend groups, the streets that we walk on, the gyms where we work out, the stores that we shop at. God, I just ask that you would allow us to be walking billboards, that we would declare that you are good and that you are hope. But I thank you that we have the opportunity to even join together where others are being persecuted. God, you've given us a safe place to seek refuge. May we never take that lightly. But we ask, God, that you would impact us to be able to impact others, and that your Holy Spirit would be able to grow and strengthen inside of us. Lord, help us to see what messages you have laid out in this word. And God, we just thank you that where you are and where you impact, we will never be the same again. We just speak a blessing over each and every person that is here, and I thank you all to me what you're doing in their lives and through their lives. So we surrender ourselves and we pour out ourselves, Father God. We decrease so that you may increase and that you can fill us with the things that we need. Whatever impurities, imperfections, whatever flaws, whatever anxiety, whatever trauma that we bring into this space, God, we're thinking that we lay it at your feet. Thank you, God, that you are not one that would turn us away, but you welcome us. And you even said that you rejoice when we come before you. So we thank you, Lord, that your face is shining upon us and that we can experience your glory in forms of fellowship and studying the word and in worship. Use this time, Lord, we ask of you. We call it all done. In your mighty name, Jesus, we pray.

Amen.

So as Bernie said, we're going to use this time to really just allow it to be the same. Nothing's going to change. We're going to read the text and we're really just going to open the floor to see what you guys see, what we see. We're going to point out a few things, but in the flow of the discussion. So it's Truly, honestly, it's going to be the same that it always flows. As you know, we've been going through the book of Acts and we've been studying how the Holy Spirit has impacted a group of disciples that have been following Jesus in his 3-year time span. So if you are in the book of Acts chapter 8, we're going to read it all together. Um, actually, what I would like to do this time is just have one person read from, um, verse 1 to verse 9 or verse 8, and then somebody else can pick up at 9 and read that to 18, and then we'll just keep going from there, 19 to 26, and then we'll have somebody else close out for us. So we can have somebody go from 1 to 8. I'll go. Uh, this is the NIV. On that day, a great persecution broke out against the church in 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 both men and women and put them in prison. Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there. When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he had said, for with shrieks impure spirits came out of many. and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. So there was a great joy in that city.

A man named Simon had been a sorcerer there for many years, amazing the people of Samaria and claiming to be someone great.

Everyone from the least to the greatest often spoke of him as the Great One, the power of God. They listened closely to him because for a long time he had astounded them with his magic.

But now the people believed Philip's message of good news concerning the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ.

As a result, many men and women were baptized. Then Simon himself believed and was baptized. He began following Philip wherever he went, and he was amazed by the signs and great miracles Philip performed. When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that the people of Samaria had accepted God's message, They sent Peter and John there.

As soon as they arrived—

am I going to 16?

Uh, to 17.

Okay. As soon as they arrived, they prayed for these believers to receive the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them, for they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John laid their hands upon those believers, and they received the Holy Spirit.

And when Simon saw that through laying on the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, saying, give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands he may receive the Holy Ghost. But Peter said unto him, thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter, for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven. For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.' Then answered Simon and said, 'Pray ye to the Lord for me, that none of these things which you have spoken come upon me.' And they, when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem and preached the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans. And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is the desert. Do I do 27?

Uh, we can have somebody start off on 27.

So he started out and met the treasurer of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under the Phadake, the queen of Ethiopia. The eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and he was now returning. Seated in his carriage, reading aloud from the book of the prophet Isaiah. The Holy Spirit said to Philip, 'Go over and walk along beside the carriage.' Philip ran over and heard the man reading from the prophet Isaiah. Philip asked, 'Do you understand what you are reading?' The man replied, 'How can I unless someone instructs me?' And he urged Philip to come up into the carriage and sit with him. The passage of scripture he had been reading was It says this: He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth. He was humiliated and received no justice. Who can speak of his descendants, for his life was taken from the earth? The eunuch asked Philip, tell me, was the prophet talking about himself or someone else? So beginning with the same scripture, Philip told the good news of about Jesus. As they rode along, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, 'Look, there's some water. Why can't I be baptized?' He ordered the carriage to stop, and they went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away. The eunuch never saw him again but went on his way rejoicing. Meanwhile, Philip found himself further north at the town of Azotus. He preached the good news there and in every town along the way until he came to Caesarea.

Amen. So like we usually do, we usually take like 1 or 2 minutes to kind of just examine the passage in the same manner that we read. We'll break it up a little bit, and then we'll go first just from verse 1 to 8. And just kind of see if there's anything that stood out to you. And after that, like, little 2-minute mark, if anybody wants to open it up to thoughts, feel free. So I'm interested to see, uh, what your guys' perspective are and things that God is speaking to your heart. I would love to hear what you guys have to say about this first portion.

Yes, ma'am.

Um, I was reading along with a guide and it showed me like the Greek definition of the word scatter. So they have two definitions, but in the context they used it in verse 4, so those who scattered went on their way preaching the word, scatter means to either make something disappear or it means to like plant or sow seeds. So I just thought that was really interesting because I guess you could say he was kind of using both definitions because Saul was basically like persecuting Christians. So he was trying to make them disappear, but when they were forced to like spread out, it just kind of like forced them to spread the gospel, which was what they were supposed to do because Philip He went to some, um, okay. And yeah, that was just really good. I like the Greek definitions of words. It kind of just like make everything pop more.

Yeah, I think a fire point about that is that if you go back to Acts 1:8, it talks about them— and Brittany talked about this with me too— it talks about them being called to spread the gospel to, you know, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth. And one thing that you notice is that even though the enemy is trying to get them to stop the movement and scatter, as you said, God cannot be stopped. Like, it's no way you can stop God. He's very intentional what he's doing. So even though the enemy intended to disperse the movement, God just used that persecution to allow him to spread the gospel and actually fulfill feel what you see in Acts 1:8. Um, so I, I love the fact that you use that breakdown of the word because, as you said, they're essentially just taking that time to spread seed and plant, um, what God called them to do in the first place.

I also think that, um, verses 1 through 8 of the 8th chapter is a good example of evangelism and like what that calling and office looks like from what Philip did.

Um, I just like how it was passed down, because as we see from previous acts, it was Stephen and it was Philip that was chosen. It was filled with the Holy Spirit, and to see like that submission, even though, you know, we see that Stephen was— he was executed, that the torch was passed down to Philip, and how mildly he moved down to Samaria, which we are familiar in scripture, which was like the first time Jesus met the lady at the well. And, um, how at that time, through her testimony, everybody got to know her and got to see it. Now it kind of gives us like perspective of like how evangelism changes over time, even with, you know, different circumstances.

I also want to add to what Marta said, outside of being out, but in terms of how they almost got an opportunity— you know you gotta hold the mic— almost as how they got an opportunity to to spread the word from being scattered because of what was going on. It makes me think of how even in nature, there are certain plants that when the weather conditions get too intense and they can tell they're about to die, instead of putting their effort into growing leaves, they put it into growing flowers so that when they do die, their seeds can be spread everywhere. So I feel like that's immediately what I thought of, how like we can see that even in the creations God has made. So it's only natural that that happened with people spreading the gospel as well.

I know you have something you want to say. After her, I wanted Brittany to share a point that we talked about earlier.

I forgot I was going to say something. Sorry. Um, what I was thinking about was verse 8 reminded me of Psalm 16:11, where it says, "In your presence is the fullness of joy." And I think it's just a reminder and a comfort for us that even in the face of persecution, even in the face of the enemy moving or trying to stop the gospel, that literally in the presence is— in the presence of the Lord is the fullness of joy. Where it says like there's so much joy in that city from individuals being saved, from individuals crying out, from people experiencing healing. And so it just reminds me that even in the midst of chaos that goes on in the world or around us, we can choose to have the heart posture of really standing on what scripture says, which is that in the presence of the Lord there's a fullness of joy.

You know your Bible.

Yeah, uh, so in verse 7 it says, for with— in my Bible it said, for with shrieks impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. What are shrieks? It's like another form of screaming, like a real obnoxious, okay, nasty scream.

Yeah, in my translation it says crying out with a loud voice. I don't know if you've ever— there's sometimes when you're in like spaces where there's like deliverance going on and you hear like really, really loud screams, um, or like people crying out.

Brittany, run in.

No, I'm, I'm, I wanted to make sure, um, Um, you know, the Holy Spirit is speaking through y'all, so like, we up here, but I'm also learning. So, um, one of the things about Acts 8 that we'll see as a through line throughout is like, this chapter does a really good job of showing the sovereignty of God and how he was enforcing his kingdom on Earth. And one of the catalysts for him enforcing his kingdom on earth came through persecution. And I think, like, that's a really good place for us to just, like, sit with for a second, because what they just experienced was the murder of Stephen. And after that, it was the jumping-off point for believers being persecuted. And the persecution was so great that all the believers had to scatter except for the apostles. And it makes me reflect on the sovereignty of God in that there's this song, and in the song, the lyrics say that he could bring violence and it would still be right. Right. And I think this is an example of that. I'm sure at that time they probably wanted to stay. You know, this is their home. This is Jerusalem. But persecution is driving them out. And it's violent, but it is the sovereignty of God that makes it right because he told them that they would have to go to Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth in order for the gospel to spread. And it makes me think about— I'm sure all of us have experienced some form of persecution in our life that caused us to move out of a space that we probably didn't want to leave. Like, I, I lowkey left my parents' house because me and my dad were not getting along. I like lowkey got kicked out at 27. But, you know, that was necessary because that, that was the moment of having my own place that I was able to start having quiet time with God. And I had to be responsible for going to church by myself and not just because my parents were going. And so I'm curious, like, if you all can relate to persecution ever driving you to a place and realizing it was the sovereignty of God.

I'm going to keep it brief, but it's funny because that's been a— probably the biggest testimony of my pregnancy. So when I was— what was I, like maybe 7 weeks pregnant or so? Um, I I was working at Lurie Children's. I'm just throwing the name out there.

It don't matter to me.

But I was working there. And it was really a space where I saw the Lord move insanely to get me into that space. Like, literally, my job application was denied, and I still got an interview. And so when I was in that space, basically, there's a situation that happened. And my manager, we went from being, like, locked in super close to, like, it completely flipping the switch. And so there was so much persecution that I was dealing with in that space that was significantly impacting my mental health to the point to where I spoke with my psychiatrist and was like, I genuinely am afraid of the health of my child and the health of my mental health if I stay in this space. And so she's like, you know what, okay, we're gonna put you on short-term disability for 8 weeks. So I started short-term disability end of September. I have not went back to work since. So literally my entire pregnancy, um, I have not had to work. I have been able to be home. I have been able to rest. I have been able to take each day, day by day. We have not missed a meal. We have not missed a paycheck. And even looking back, like, when I was going through that space, there was So like, I remember just crying, sobbing, having panic attacks, anxiety attacks every single day. And I really couldn't understand what was going on. But it was really the sovereignty of the Lord, just giving me a space to be able to spend time with my husband before our daughter comes one-on-one, for me to prioritize my mental health, for me to heal and grieve and spend so much undivided time with the Lord, with my dog, with my family, and really have just a unique pregnancy experience that you never hear. Like, You don't hear people talking about, you know, not having to work. Like, you hear people complaining all the time about that. And so the fact that I haven't had that stressor, and I haven't went without bills being paid, I haven't went without the provision of the Lord, it didn't make sense in the moment of like, why am I going through all of this? I don't understand. But it just ends up just showing how much the Lord cares about me, my husband, and our daughter, that although in that moment he put us through that situation, it has allowed for me to really have such a restful, peaceful, and healing pregnancy journey that I don't think that I would have had if I would have just tried to stay in that space, but also taught me the importance of advocating for yourself and leaning into the Holy Spirit.

So yeah, great job.

So something that I've been thinking about a lot, I feel like in the past few days, especially over the weekend, is because I'm relatively like newer to my— to the faith, and relatively especially as an adult, I'm new to figuring out what that means in adulthood. Um, and I think about politics, I think about, um, a friend of mine shared recently that her mother intended to abort her when she was pregnant. But the doctor, after she showed up to her appointment, just looked at her mother and said, I can't abort this baby. And that's how she's here today, which is a testimony in and of itself. Right. But what interests me and disappoints me is some would look at that as persecution, as punishment, like the doctor not going with the mother's will. Would be considered unfair treatment. And I think what that makes me reflect on is you can find blessings in everything. There's nothing that can happen to you in this world, so long as God is reigning over it, that's not going to come back to be a blessing. I'm a testimony to that as an individual. But it's just really important that we don't try to interpret things before we have the full picture. It's really important that when the 15th hit comes after 14 back-to-back hits, that you don't give up after that 15th because this is just getting too much. I think that's what's really important about the tent. What's really big about the tent is that staying power. And remaining in his word and remaining in his honor. And obviously that's easier said than done. But look at my friend. She literally would not be here without that decision. And her mother having to come to terms with that and be pregnant with this child for 9 months to raise this child into adulthood. Some people see that as a curse. So, yeah, I think it's just really important to not get caught in the loop The God that we serve is a timeless God. He has the entire plan outlined. So, yeah, just stick with that, I think.

Y'all want to come up here and we can just switch places?

You're a part of the circle. Someone in the chat, I just want to add this, said that that's how they ended their corporate career. Same type of experience. So I just wanted to share that.

Really similar, kind of like parallel from what you just said. And I, um, I was looking at this part in Acts, and it's talking about— let me, let me find it real quick. Uh, it says, but Saul— this is, this is verse 3. It says, but Saul was going everywhere to destroy the church. Um, he went from house to house, dragging out both men and women to throw them into prison.

And what's your name again?

Galila.

I feel like her point is so important. And I mean, just seeing it in my own life, whenever there is scripture and then there's something else that's kind of like outside of the parallel, right? Like, it's not the seeds that are spreading, but it's like, okay, why is this important? And I feel like God has to show us both sides because it's like we don't know where we are in our story where there's going to be a transformation. We're looking at Saul and we're like, this is horrible. Look at what he's doing. He's persecuting all these people. But it's like, the buildup for you to see what he was doing in the midst of God trying to do what he was doing. But God was changing his heart. So it's like, as those seeds are getting spread, they're touching him too. So I just think also, just looking at— we don't know where the seeds are hitting. They may look like it's so much wickedness, but God is sovereign in every space. And just trying to continue to seek out, Lord, I don't understand right now, but I know you're still working. Amen. And that's so important right now because, I mean, every day on the news we're getting hit with headlines after headlines of all of the chaos and wickedness going on in the world. But we have to be reminded that God is omniscient, he's all-knowing, and he's all-powerful. And he's Alpha and Omega. And so we can't get caught up like the rest of the world gets caught up in certain things where, as Galilea said, you start prematurely making judgment as if you know the mind of God. And if they had made a judgment for themselves despite this persecution, that they were going to endure it, right? Like, well, we just gonna stick around and we gonna fight back against the persecution, instead of scattering, instead of leaving, then they would have been working in opposition to the will of God. And so I think it's sometimes— it's really important that in this season and moving forward, especially as the remnant of God, that we have to, we have to exercise the same staying power that the presence of God gives us in anchoring ourselves in his sovereignty. Because if we anchor ourselves in his sovereignty, as I said before, that then reminds us or gives us a godly perspective to say he could bring violence and it still be right. Like, he's someone who can kill and make alive. We cannot— we cannot put ourselves in a position where we allow our emotions sometimes to hijack the will and the ways of God. So I think it's just important that, you know, we don't brush over the fact that it was persecution that led to all of us knowing God today. Okay, I'mma go.

1, 2, 3. Okay, I'm not—

I'm not gonna try to divert this, but, um, last night when I was reading, I just—

I don't know, I just let the Holy Spirit lead me, and I just— my Bible just randomly opened to Hebrews 12. And it just came back to my remembrance now. The first part beforehand, they were talking about the witnesses of faith, you know, that had faith in God before Christ came. And so just reading the beginning part, it says the first part of talking about releasing all hindrance that the sin so easily entangles us and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus. The pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross, scorning and shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

And so if we consider Jesus and everything that he did, he endured the cross to death because he knew the glory that was set before for him.

I believe that even in our suffering, even when we don't have the whole picture, we know that it will end well for us regardless whether it's in this lifetime or the next lifetime. It will end well for us. And yeah, and even like the author of Hebrews, he continues and says that even the sin that we endure now, you have not dealt with it to the point of shedding blood, so you're not going to die. So like you're gonna be good regardless. So that's what I thought about.

Of course, we'll do these two and then we'll move on to the next portion after that.

Okay, so I'm gonna try to make this short, but I got a scripture that I want to share, and it's 5 verses. But when I think about persecution— well, when we think about persecution, um, I remember I went to this, um, service a few, like maybe a year ago, and the pastor was saying how, um, we're persecuted, we're pressed. And when you have an olive, you have to press it, and that's how the oil is produced. So in our times of persecution, we're being groomed, we're being molded into the image of God, and oil is producing from our lives. Because if you don't have the oil, you don't have the glory. And glory is really truly the presence of God. So we have to endure certain hardships, trials, and afflictions so that we may be able to bear witness with one of the fruit of the Spirit, which is long-suffering. How can we say we are Christ, we are of his, but we don't understand long-suffering? So God puts us in these persecuting situations, trying times, to be made more like him. And so I read this this morning in 2 Corinthians 6:4-9, and it really just talks about what it means to be a minister of God. And this is the King James Version. It says, but in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessity, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tomoats, in labors, in watchings, in fasting, by pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report, as deceivers and yet true, as unknown and yet well known, as dying and behold we live, as chastened and not killed, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing all things. So in the midst of your persecution, all of these things are being developed so that you may not only produce the glory of God but walk in it in allow other people to experience it.

No, that's it. That's all I got. Um, I guess compared to what everybody just said, it made me think of a scripture because I've been in, um, Jeremiah.

So after Babylon had, um, I think they by this time they had already like—

what's the word? Captured them or something, the people of Judah— I mean Jerusalem. But it says, for I know the thoughts that I think towards you, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end. And I think sometimes, like, in our troubles, like, that's what the devil, like, wants us to think, that, like, God doesn't— like, it's not for us to understand even, like, the things that we don't understand, that go through in our lives.

Yeah, I just want to say, like, as we, uh, transition on to this next portion, you guys are talking about enduring the persecution and the fruit that comes after it. But what I love, what we see before, is Stephen, we see Philip, we see all of the 7, the apostles, all rested and abiding Christ. And I think it's super important for, for us to remember that our job is to be so engulfed in the presence of God that he fills us and equips us with the things that we need. And so you guys all said it beautifully, it's that presence and being filled by God and, and resting with him and just getting in his word and worshiping him, praying, praying to him and having that quality time with God so that when those times come, you have been so filled with his presence that you resemble him in everything that you do and how you— and how you speak, how you conduct yourself. But I have a question for y'all because this interested me. Um, we kind of talked about this. We get to look at this character named Simon who's known as the sorcerer, and it talks about him being famous. It talks about, you know, the things that he's done, the attention that he's gained. And his response to what's happening. I want to kind of know what you guys think about his response. Is it genuine or is it, um, opposite of that?

So actually, my first time reading this, I don't know about any of you all, but I was just really thinking about like, why is Simon even in this passage. And I guess I kind of say it like that because, you know, you have someone who obviously doesn't believe in Christ at the time. It then goes to talk on how he heard the message, he believed, and then it's just like you get to verse 24, and when he realized he's done something wrong, he's just like, well, you pray for me, you know, I don't want these terrible things to happen. And then it's just like there's no real resolve, or I guess like you don't get that happy ending in the story of just like, you know, he repented, he came to Christ, and then, you know, he then went telling all the people about the good news. It was just kind of like, it's almost like a paragraph break. And there probably is like some break in time of just like, okay, well, this is what he said. You know, he probably didn't end up believing, like, we don't know. But I'm just like, why was he input into the story without there being like an ending to it? And so I kind of just was writing down just like, it's a clear compare and contrast between just like real power and fake power. And so it's just like in verse 4, it compares Philip, and the first thing that it says is that he's going on preaching the good news about Jesus wherever he went. And then when they talk about Simon, it talks about him leading with his power, his magic. And so it's just like one thing that I noted was just how in what we believe, yes, there are miracles, there are things that happen, um, But it all starts with the word. It all starts from the good news. And it's just like the fake power, it leads with power. And then it's just like it also may not have a good news or a good story to go with it. Because I'm thinking in my head, I'm just like, okay, well, why did— if they both were doing miracles, if they both had power, why did people choose to follow Philip instead of Simon? And it was just like, it's because of the hope, the joy, the fruit that came from the word. And then it was just like showing how all the power that he had, it didn't come from Philip, it came from the word that he preached, that he believed. And it just also shows like how easily people can, um, I guess like be diverted or be, um, the word is like— I'm losing it— but, uh, deceived of just like you, you want power. And that's how you have all of these religions and beliefs that come from just like trying to mix Christianity with other things. And it's just like you want that, you have that hunger for power, and you kind of see that in Simon towards like verses 20 through 24 of just like he heard the good news, it was good, but you have that greed and that hunger for power. And it's just like, well, how can I do more? You know, can I speak to my ancestors? Can I, you know, do do this magic, do all of these things. And it just shows, like, for, for us, yes, you know, us believing in Christ, there are going to be miracles, there are going to be things that he wants to change, but it all starts with the word. It all starts with Jesus. And the more that we focus on that, that's where all the power is going to flow from. It flows from the word. It doesn't flow from anything else other than that. And so, uh, yeah, you preaching.

Um, something that I just, uh, looked at, one of the verses that kind of just spoke out to me was, um, how they heard the preaching of Philip, um, and then even Simon, you know, believed himself. And the verses— and in verse 14 it says, now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John. So it's like they sent reinforcements. And it says, who, when they were come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost. And so I'm thinking about that and how, um, you know, you can hear a preacher, you can believe a thing, but, um, it's when you receive the Holy Ghost that, you know, you receive power and that that's like the, I guess, doubling down of, um, like the true belief. Because when Simon, you know, he thought he was operating in good power or whatever, um, and then he also believed. But it's really when you receive the Holy Spirit that, you know, you can do all, all of these things. You can heal, you can, you know, do all the things that Jesus did. And you know, just to have those reinforcements, Peter and John, just to back up what, what Philip has said as well.

Kind of to what both of you were saying, it reminded me of two things. It reminds me of in the Gospels where it talks about how you'll know people from their fruit. And I think of even in today's era and age where we have so much access to just the world, right, where we see, you know, preachers or influencers or whatever, and we see them speaking in tongues or preaching or saying all these words, like, wow, this person has so much power, like, this person is anointed. But when we actually really get close up to the tree, we'll see, like, that's not actually a lemon, like, that's literally plastic. And so the importance of really just, like, not Sorry, but the importance of like really examining a fruit, like looking at their works, looking at the things that they're doing and not just assuming because they're hooping and they're hollering and they're saying all these things that they really have power because power can be manipulated in multiple different ways. And I even think of one of the things that we even see today that's really sad is where he talks about, you know, he offered the apostles money so that he could have this power. And I think about how We know that salvation is free, but it costs us something, and that's something that it costs us is our life. And for some people, that's a price that they're not willing to pay. They'll pay $1 million, $2 million, $3 million to have the power of the Holy Spirit. But if you're like, no, this is actually free, you just have to pick up your cross and die daily to your desires. It's like, oh no, that costs too much for me. And so it's really just like saddening to see how individuals would rather give up monetary value, which is something that's going to literally cost them, versus just giving up their lives, which is something that's free. Am I passing it to you?

You can pass it, you can pass it back there, and then I'll let her go, and then you can go next.

Okay, I want to go back off of what you were saying, how we see that in the book of Acts it's so important to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Simon was the way he was because he was unrepentant. And God does not come into a vessel that does not have a repentant heart, because in Acts 2:38 it says, repent, be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. So it's like baptism is not enough. You need to receive the Spirit of God because that is what will transform you and get all of the wickedness out of your heart.

And before—

I'm sorry, because she had raised her hand too. I'm gonna let her go and then— thank you.

Yeah, Destiny has something to say too. Um, I think what everybody has said has been excellent. Um, something about Simon that really sticks out to me is that he is not pursuing God, he's not pursuing Jesus, he's pursuing power. So that is his one thing. It's not Jesus, it's not anything. So I think that's why it's such a stark difference, and that's why he got reprimanded, because you could just tell what his North Star is. His North Star is the power, and that's, that's sin. Like, that's what sin is. That's what The original sin was in the garden. Eve wanted power. That's what you're seeking for, that you're not seeking God, you're not seeking to sit with him. He is not your North Star. So I think it's very, it's very relevant to today and every age, because I think a lot of people do see the signs and wonders. And they want that, but they don't really want God. So I think that's why this passage is so, like, revealing of the heart, because it's like, this isn't just Simon, this is a lot of people. And this is easy to fall into because that power is obviously— it's something like Simon was known by everybody. Everybody wanted to be like him. He wants to be be noteworthy, and he wants to build his own tower. So it's just like, it's easy to fall into wanting that instead of wanting rest in God. So that's all I have. I just feel like you took the words right out of my mouth because I was really thinking on the fact that this was him seeing that it was the miracles and wonders.

Because when you see in verse 13, he said, then Simon himself believed also. And when he was baptized, he continued with Philip and wondered and beholding what the miracles inside which were done.

His whole focus was on the wonders and the miracles and not just, just the transformation of it, because that's all that he wanted. That's all that he's seen. And I feel like his heart was not in the right place.

And it made me think on Mark 4 where it was saying those, you know, the parable of the seeds where his heart was on stony ground. He received the word, but it wasn't embedded in him. He didn't let it transform him.

He had time with Philip. He had those times of Philip preaching and talking to him, but he didn't let those words root in him.

I think Destiny has something. And then Destiny, after you're done, can you pass it back to Oluseun?

Yes. Okay.

So I think what I was going to say is like in the beginning, they— he says he was going around saying that he himself was somebody great.

And then everyone's like, yeah, like This man is the power of God that is called great.

And he's like, yeah, like, I got it. Like, me and God, we locked in.

And then I like, I imagine like kind of like the shame he feels that he like, he sees what the power of God like truly is. And he's like, man, like everyone's about to find out that that ain't me. That like, I did not have that in my heart. Like, how do I get that quickly so that like my character, so that my witness is not like Like, they're going to know.

And he's like, I'll pay you for it.

Like, they're going to find out. Like, you know.

Yeah.

And yeah, that just stuck out to me.

Like, I just had a question going back to, like, the scripture calling out that the people were baptized, and it goes back to the point that somebody made that, um, being baptized is not enough. Like, we need the Holy Spirit in order to be transformed into the image of Christ. So my question is, is at what point do you receive the Holy Spirit? Because I think people automatically do think that, you know, I believe, I get baptized, I put my faith in Christ, but like these people, I'm assuming they did the same thing, like they believed in Christ, so therefore they got baptized, but they didn't get the Holy Spirit. So at what point do you get the Holy Spirit?

Like, do you understand the question?

Like, thank you, Lord.

All right, so I'm only gonna say a little bit and then she gonna finish because we were actually just talking about this. So when you think about it, the Bible says that the Holy Spirit is the one that reveals things to us. So it's through the Holy Spirit that we can even confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Without that, without a genuine confession of that, you know that we are void of the Holy Spirit. And if you look at it, it uses specific language in the Bible. There's times when it'll say that there's an indwelling, so that the Spirit is in us, and then there's when the Holy Spirit falls upon us. They are confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord, and they are recognizing that, which means that they have received the Holy Spirit. It is in them, it is indwelling in them. But then you see a display of an outward pouring of the Holy Spirit, which then is where that power flows. So you have the first portion, which is, I confess that Jesus Lord is my Lord and Savior. I believe that he lived. I believe that he died on the cross for our sins. I believe that he rose again on the third day. I believe that he now sits on the right hand of the Father, interceding on our behalf. That without the Holy Spirit is impossible to genuinely confess that. And then you see that Peter and John come and consider— they finalize it by allowing the Holy Spirit to then flow, that power to then flow through them. And it's now outward where it can affect people around. Now I can go and preach the gospel, I can go tell somebody, you know, about the love of Christ, that Holy Spirit is now actively moving. But, um, she had a perspective and a point that I think is even better than what I'm saying.

No, everything that he said is absolutely right. And you know what, I knew this question was gonna come up. The Holy Spirit already told me earlier, so I was like, you know, there's— it's, it's necessary that we bring clarity to this because the way in which we receive the Holy Spirit— let's just go to scripture. I want you all to turn to Romans chapter 10. This is how you know you saved. Um, it's Romans chapter 10 and it's verse 9. And, uh, can someone just read this out loud? Romans chapter 10, verse 9 through 12. Who got the mic? Oh, I can read it. Can you read it?

Yeah.

Um, you said 9 through 12?

9 through 12.

Yeah. If you declare with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As scripture says, anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame. For there is no difference, no difference between Jew and Gentile. The same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him. And then 13, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Awesome. Now we gonna do one more turn because I just want y'all to know where the addresses is in case you ever gotta like go back and reference and clarify. Am I saved? Do I have the Holy Spirit? So go to Ephesians chapter 1, and I want you all to read verse 13, 13 and 14. And since you got the mic, round 2. Ephesians chapter 1, verse 13 and 14.

And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth the good news that God saves you. And when you believe in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. The Spirit is God's guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has— and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.

Amen. So I wanted us to go to the actual scriptures that explains how we know we are saved today and how we know we have the Holy Spirit. It's that we confess with our mouths that we believe that Jesus is Lord and that he died for our sins and he rose on the third day, but also that we believe that in our hearts. It's two parts. And it's a lot of people out here who are confessing with their mouths, but they do not believe in their hearts because they do not have an understanding of the gospel. They don't have an understanding of who Jesus is. You can get a lot of knowledge. It's like people who read the Bible, but you're just a Bible reader. But when you study the Bible and you get, um, that comprehension, that is what transforms you. That's what makes you fall in love with Jesus, because you have an understanding. So I just wanted to clarify that so that all of us understand today in the room how you know you're saved. But when it comes to Acts chapter 8, I also found it interesting that the apostles Peter and John had to show up and they had to lay hands to give them the Holy Spirit. Knowing what I know that I just established of how we know we're saved and we receive the Holy Spirit, why wasn't it automatic for them? And in my research, 3 things that I came across that gave revelation. The first thing is the historical context between the Jews and the Samaritans. If you don't know, they did not rock with each other at all. They had beef. Like, even so much so that I think it's in— it's another place in the Bible where Jesus, he meets the Samaritan woman. And it talks about how depending on which version you read of the scripture and the reference, it basically says like, and the Jews did not associate with the Samaritans. So even for Jesus to do that, it was smoke. Like, what are you doing? So like, get this context in your mind that Jews did not rock with Samaritans. And now we have Philip, who is a Greek-speaking Jew who was one of the 7 that was serving tables. He's now in Samaria where this divide exists, and he is preaching the gospel, and they believe, right? They believe. But this is the risk, is that since the Jews did not rock with the Samaritans, it would have been really easy for a faction to take place in the church. A faction is basically a clique. And so you would have put at risk division in the body of Christ when Jesus desires that we all be one, that we all have one spirit, that we all are one body, we are one church. But if these two groups don't get along, you got Samaritan Christians, you got Jewish Christians, they got their own doctrine over here, the Jews got the doctrine that is right. Because they have the revelation of Jesus Christ. But that was what was at risk. And so if the Holy Spirit had fell upon them and they did not have the apostles who established the doctrine that we read today— like, we believe what we believe because they, they wrote it with the help of the Holy Spirit. If they had received the Holy Spirit without that establishment, it would look unfortunately like it looks today. We got a lot of different denominations. Everybody kind of has their own doctrine. That's why you have so many different versions of the faith, when the reality is that Jesus wanted us to be one body. I would say he probably would prefer that we would be one denomination. So that's the first thing. Their beef— if they had received the Holy Spirit without this unity, then you would have multiple versions of the faith. The second thing that I was able to find is that the apostles also had to come and, um, authenticate the salvation of the Samaritans because we just learned that they were already oohing and aahing at Simon the sorcerer. And in that time, they were used to being impressed by that type of power. And so they're trained, they are discipled by that type of power. You have to coming, you got to validate that. And I forget who said check the fruit. They had to examine and to make sure that what happened was actually real. And so that confirmed that they were actually operating with the same spirit in all of them. Are y'all operating with the spirit of Simon still, or is the Spirit of God at work in you all? And so that type of order— the last thing that I will say is that it demonstrated the authority of the apostolic doctrine. And I kind of just talked about this, but what I was reading and I wrote down, the reason why the apostles also had to come was because there was a time in which they also didn't really believe and were not fully bought into the truth. When Jesus said he came for the Jews and the Gentiles, they were like, I feel like it's just for us, right? And so there's something special in the sovereignty of God that he still found it necessary for the apostles to show up and lay hands to show them they could receive my spirit too. I'm, I'mma have y'all lay hands so that they know that they can receive it. But then also, it's, it's the authority and the order of God at that time that the apostles were the one who's, who had to do it so that there was a that there was a shared leadership that they had, but that leadership was deferred to the ones who walked with Jesus. I mean, why not? They were still alive, right? So like, why, why bring new people into the fold when these were the ones who were literally his disciples? And then today we have all of these books in the Bible who were written by those apostles and established the doctrine. I say all that to say, I don't know at what point Jesus, God decided that we can go back to just receiving and believing in the Holy Spirit falling into those who have checked those two boxes. I know in Acts chapter 10, the Gentiles received the Spirit upon belief. But I think the main thing here is that, like, we can't put God in a box. Like, sometimes his way is just his way because he's sovereign. And I believe that in this particular text, the 3 points that I was able to find, and I'm happy to share the link to the reference that I found on BibleHub that broke this down for me. But I believe that, you know, sometimes God is just God and his ways are higher than our ways, and he's sovereign that way. But the most important thing for you all to understand today, if you were ever uncertain if the Spirit of God is within you or if you truly are saved, you now have scriptural reference to read and, and reference and evaluate yourself. Am I just confessing with my heart— with my mouth, or do I truly believe in my heart? Did that make sense? Okay, because I spent time on that today.

Okay, really quickly, I just want to— and this ties into, I guess, how Simon perceived them needing to come out and lay hands and then wanting that power. Someone in the chat said, just before you asked that question, but it obviously ties in, if we're not careful, Christians can start putting faith— putting our faith in the miracles and the miraculous instead of keeping our faith in God and the Word. This is a scary place because it takes— because all it takes is a lapse in miracles for us to doubt and lose faith. Instead, if we keep our faith in God, we endure persecution with a persistent hope in who our God is.

Who said that?

Jonathan. Jonathan, he be talking.

Jonathan, yeah. Um, something that I thought about, um, something similar to whoever in the chat.

I thought about like how, like, people go viral.

And so like, only for a second, like somebody may go viral or video may go viral.

And then we hooping and hollering about this one thing, like now it's the Epstein files. And, you know, it's all of these different things that is in our mind at this moment. And then it's like, maybe a few months go by. It's not there anymore. And so I feel like that's kind of how the same thing with, you know, Simon was. It's like, okay, he was on top for a moment, and now here come Philip and, you know, the disciples, the apostles. And it's like, now he's like, no, I want to still be at the top. But I just think about how, you know, like the people who were, you know, receiving this word from them, like how they just kind of sway with, with the, the next best thing, so to speak. And so I think it, it just, for me, just going back, like, it solidified, you know, the, uh, Peter and John just kind of, you know, help clarify, like, hey, you receive the word, but you also receive the power when you receive the Holy Spirit.

Um, I just want to go back to how Peter and John really rebuked this, and how I know Jesus would have really rebuked this. And I think we're also called to really rebuke this, because if we see stuff like this in the church— because these are— this is the initiation into the church space. And they're like, you will have no part, you cannot enter, you are not to come in. And I just wish sometimes we were this protective of the church because God is like, no, he can't even be in the heart of somebody that thinks like that. So it's like, I think we also have to have that kind of attitude toward like any sense of like, you're not here and you can't judge people's heart. But like, I think we should be sensitive to it. And I think Paul in the letters talks about this a lot. And just like, if you see any type of things that, you know, a person with the Holy Spirit in their heart would not do, you have to rebuke it and be like, you cannot, you cannot enter this space because it has to be pure for God. We were kind of talking about this a little bit earlier too. I, um, like, one of the debates is, was Simon actually saved, right? Like, he believed, but was he actually saved? I believe he was. I just believe he wasn't sanctified. And I think what he was trying to do was skip a step. And I think, like, sometimes Um, we forget that after salvation comes sanctification. And so he still had this in his heart, which is why he had to be corrected. And sometimes we get saved and then we have this zeal, and it's like, I want to do that too, I want to start a ministry, I want to hurry up and just jump out here and like do I want to do all of the signs, and I, I want to do what I know is a byproduct of the power of God. But you'll do that prematurely in an effort to platform yourself because you know a lot now about God, and that is exciting. But you do have to go through the sanctification process because there are things in your heart that if you move prematurely, you will injure believers in the body of Christ, or you will allow that power to get to your head, and you will build a god for yourself, and it will be yourself. And so I think, like, it's everything Jasmine said. We have to be discerning of people who call themselves believers and who are actually not believers, and examining that fruit, and then discerning sometimes, like, is this person— have they just haven't been sanctified? They haven't submitted to the sanctification process. And I will say that, like, since sanctification is an ongoing process— we'll be getting sanctified into our old age— we do have to ask the Lord to help us understand, God, is this person truly saved, or is it that? So that we know how to deal with people. Uh, some people we, we will have to rebuke And we have that right. I know people be like, we cannot judge other people in the body of Christ. We can. It's called righteous judgment. If I see you out of line, I could be like, hey girl, we don't do that in our family. I can do that. But I think that if you actually not in our family, I got to ask different questions. I got to figure out, so what Jesus you believe in? What do you actually believe? To determine that.

Um, also something that I think initially when I kind of heard and understood the concept of sanctification and giving your life over to Christ and salvation that comes with that, something that initially put a lot of pressure on my shoulders, but I now find is my greatest liberation is being in Christ's love is all or nothing. You're either completely in or you're completely out. You will try to find little loopholes or maybe try to make this work, or I'm okay with giving this up. Maybe I just do this. Oh, I'm drinking every single day. Now I'm just going to drink once a week, maybe. Oh, I smoke. I'm going to just smoke once a week now and I'm going to cut it down.

It doesn't work.

And all you're going to do is exhaust yourself and weaken your soul for literally no reason. Like, for what? And like, I think the reason why that put a lot of pressure on me when I heard it as a kid is I was like, oh, like, if I step out of line, like, what happens or whatever? But that's not the point. If you step out of line, the same way you would apologize to somebody if you wrong them, you have to come back to God and confront that. But he doesn't do that as like a gotcha moment. He does that so you can strengthen yourself for next time that pressure comes, for next time that temptation comes, because it will. The point of this isn't to purify and then just move. That's not why our lives are so long. That's not why our earth is so fruitful. That's not why we have so many opportunities. The purpose is like the prayer gym to strengthen that muscle. And with that comes maintenance. And with that comes confrontation of difficult things that you may not be ready to look at. But on the other side of that is literal salvation. I don't think we really emphasize that. This is salvation. This is the gates of heaven that we're talking about. And you're going to give that up for a joint? Seriously. I mean, we sit here and we can giggle about it now, but even me, I struggle with that. And when you when you go home at night and when you're by yourself, that's when the real pressure comes. Right here, we can all tell each other how great we are and how we don't commit like these things and we don't commit to temptation and everything. Like, I'm telling you this now, not so you can hear it now, but so you can hear when you need it. So I can hear when I need it. Like, it's— yeah, I just, I don't ever want the weight of these conversations to just stay here. And I don't ever want you guys to feel like the message is as powerful as it is here and not literally outside of those doors, because that's when the real work happens. So yeah, I'm done now. Somebody take the mic. Yeah, once again, just speaking for the chat, um, and this goes along with what you just said, they said sanctification is also not an excuse to sin.

Yes, I just wanted to piggyback off of something that I said earlier because the Lord brought another sermon back to my mind about the gift of evangelism and what really comes with that office. Because we see in the book of Acts that Philip— I believe he is the greatest evangelist in the Bible. So if anybody in here knows that they're called to be an evangelist, study his ministry and what comes with it. But specifically in Acts 8, we see that, okay, he's operating in this gift of evangelism A lot of the times the gift lacks discernment, as we see him, you know, welcoming Simon, telling him to come along, having him follow him. But in all reality, he didn't have those discerning eyes to see that his heart was unrepentant. And so with that, just encouraging you all, that's why it's also important to do ministry with other people. I think we talked about this a few sessions back, how the body, the church is made up of different gifts, many members, different offices. So you can't just solely depend on yourself for all things because you don't make up the body of Christ. And if you know you're lacking in one area, the Bible says to pray and ask for the gifts. But it's not unlikely that evangelists struggle with discernment because that gift doesn't really come with that calling.

Can I ask you a question? Does, does everybody in here know specifically like what your gift is, or are you still like in the space where you're trying to figure it out? And it's not like I'm about to tell y'all what y'all get, so I just want to—

this is out of interest.

I feel like when you look at, um, Stephen And when you look at Philip, you can clearly see that it wasn't declared what their gifts were right away. It was in the posture of surrender. It was in the posture of just giving everything freely that you get to really see them operate in that small calling first, like serving tables and serving the widows. You see that after that, the greater work came, but the primary thing that they did was just say yes and surrender. So even for me myself, I'm still trying to figure out like what exactly I'm supposed to do. But that's why I'll say something like yes to this, even though I know I don't have no business up here. But I think that when we posture ourselves to surrender and truly say yes, you will find that in that place, God will prepare you for everything you need for the next stage. And then you get to see him as he's in that joy then evangelize. I don't even know if he knew that that was what he was supposed to do. As he got scattered, I feel like his surrender and his obedience led him to then just speak the word and allow a lot of people to come to Christ. And to transition to the last part, portion of this, you see him then just being obedient. The Holy Spirit is telling him, hey, go stand next to that chariot, it's something I want you to do. If he doesn't have that posture of surrender in his heart he's not gonna be keen to have his spiritual ears listen to the Holy Spirit because he's like, well, who is over there? What's going on over there? And then you see this next portion, which to me is kind of like my favorite part, um, but I wanted to see— I'll stop talking and to see if anybody else has anything that stood out to them in this latter half of the portion before we break out and pray.

Wait, why is this your favorite part?

Why is this my favorite part? One, because I love Ethiopia. Two, because it's interesting that we tend to neglect the portion of history where the northern and the southern kingdom was broken apart. So you had the tribe of Benjamin and the tribe of Judah in the south, and the rest of what made Israel in the north. Um, we know that there was a lot of people that ended up migrating down to Ethiopian. We talked about this, uh, over the weekend, but I don't know if y'all find it interesting that a random person of royalty following his Candace has a scroll of Isaiah in a time where it was hard to have scrolls. And I find it also important that Jesus, our Lord and Savior, made it an appointment for him to specifically have a text that attested back to what he was going to do for everybody, not just for the Jews, not just for the Gentiles, but the whole world. And I feel like, um, in 1 Peter it talks about how even the angels wanted to know about this, what God was doing for us. It says that they look in interest about what the prophets spoke about, what was coming. Even the prophets themselves didn't even know about it, so they were speaking about something that they would never get to experience. And yet here, an Ethiopian man gets to enjoy and embrace that. And like, his thirst and Philip's obedience, I think, perfectly models how we're supposed to live. We should be thirsty and be like, at all costs, I'll take that. And on the other side of that is the submission to be able to go wherever God tells us to go and give that to the next person. So that's why it's my favorite.

That's good.

I just want you to teach.

But yeah, we'll open it back up.

That was good.

Reading this last portion, it reminds me of two things. The first one it reminds me of is being obedient when God tells you to go the first time, even if you don't know what's on the other side of that. Because we see from this scripture, um, what's on the other side of that is somebody's salvation, is somebody coming into agreement with the word of God and coming to know Jesus for themselves. And so in that, it's important where when the Lord tells us to do something, I think sometimes even myself included, we're like, okay, what is— what do you want me to do? How am I going to get there? Do you want me to take a bike? Do you want to take the train? Like, we want all the details, and sometimes go is the only detail that we need, and we don't know what's on the other side of that. And so it just shows the importance of being obedient to God the first time. But also, as we were kind of talking about like the Holy Spirit, and, and even as we were just praying, one of the things that I was thinking about was the importance of and the necessity of the Holy Spirit even when it comes to reading his word, right? Like the individual that's reading this word, when in my version Philip asked him, uh, do you understand what you're reading? And he said, how can I unless someone guides me? I think sometimes we can come into the word of God and just read it as face value, but it's until we really submit ourselves and really surrender to the Lord and ask him, can you give me the wisdom? Can you give me the knowledge? Can you give me the discernment? Can you allow the scales to remove from my eyes so I can really be able to read and interpret and study your word and not just read it as I would any other book, but really read it to understand what you're saying. How does this apply to me? How does this relate to Jesus instead of just taking it at face value? So the importance of even submitting ourselves and surrendering to the Holy Spirit and welcoming into what we're reading, like the Bible says Holy Bible for a reason because it's holy and treating it like that by inviting the Holy Spirit in that space too.

Very good. I'll also just say quickly, as y'all figure out who next, uh, delayed obedience is still disobedience. Like, what we see Peter do is— Peter's on the move, okay? He just left Samaria, now he's on the road an angel tells him where to go and he goes, and then the Spirit tells him to go to that chariot and stay near it. He doesn't understand why, but imagine if he delayed obedience because he needed more information or he needed more confirmation, or, 'No, send another angel. If you send one more person and they say the same thing, then I might believe you.' And I think it's, it's it's our human nature to, like, be intellectuals. It's our human nature to feel safe when we have more information. But if you really trust God like you say you do— Lord, I trust you.

Lord, I surrender.

Lord, you are sovereign.

And we got to act like it, even when we don't have all of the pieces to the puzzle.

Really quick, just, you know, they're active out here.

They're active out here.

Um, and this is not exactly related to your question, it was just before, um, but they said, I believe Simon needed deliverance because of how Peter described him: gall of bitterness, resentment and wickedness, and then bond of iniquity, deep-seated perversion and distortion with rebellion. I think this also shows that Simon was jealous of the power they had and the attention they received from it.

And the reason why I asked that question too, I think somebody said it I think that although it could very well be that he had a very selfish and a self-intent to try to please himself, I think we do a bad job of providing truth with love. And I think that because of like what she— what she spoke to about salvation being a process, like the Bible says, we overcome, we are overcoming. I think we do a bad job of stewarding new believers, and that's why I asked that, because I think that the church, like what you said and what somebody else said, is in a bad state because of what we allow, where our eyes are focused on, and then how we respond to people who are not like us or not on the level with us. And I remember one of my homies, he had just came to Christ, and something happened to him where he was sharing his testimony He was like, dog, God is so good. And we were like, nah, bro, you can't. But you know, shout out to you recognize that it was God. But like, we— I think we do a bad job of recognizing like, this, this dude is on the start. Like, he could very well be something and take that same ambition, the same hustle he had to do it for himself. And flip it, but we just got to be more, um, postured in our heart to receive it like that and to steward people.

Um, I just think that this also, like, when I'm looking through this, it's really just showing like how you have to really be diligent on taking inventory of your heart, because when we see that it's bitterness, it's iniquity, you really have to check that because it's like Like you said earlier about how we do a bad job of stewarding other people because we looking at like what they say and how they look. And it's like, first we need to look within ourselves.

What are we doing wrong?

Where, where is our love? Where is the willingness?

Where is, where is the surrenderance in order for me to do the work of the Lord?

It's okay, I love you though. I love you too. Um, so back to the eunuch. I think this story really reminds me of myself and how I came to Christ. Because you think of the eunuch, he's not in Judaism at all, but he has access to these scriptures and he doesn't understand them. And I think about how when I wasn't part of the church and I had access to a Bible and I would read it and I was like, I don't know what this is saying, I have no idea. But it really took someone just giving me that Jesus part. This was this guy. He gave me the Jesus part, and like, it unlocked so much for me. And I was like, oh my gosh, I, I see it all. It's making sense. Everything clicked. And just like how he saw the water and he's like, baptize me now, I dove into the word. I was like, I need this. So it's just like, um, it really reminds me of that, especially from him being on the outside and not knowing the context, not knowing the culture, not knowing any of the backstory, and just needing to be sit down and explained that for everything to be unlocked. I thought that was pretty cool to look at.

Yeah, and it's crazy because now she'd be running laps around me, but I think it's important for us to know that, like, whether the work is small or large, your impact, what God can do through you, you may not, like, see it immediately right now, but you might affect generations. Whether it's you talking to one person and that one person reaching 1,000 people, that 1,000 people reaching, you know, the next nation. I think it's important to remember that though you may not see it, your impact it will last generations beyond generations beyond generations. And that's ultimately what we're trying to do, is preach the gospel to everyone that's heard. And Philip— what we don't see is that after Philip talks to this eunuch who is direct underhand of the Candace, which is the Queen of Ethiopia, a lot of people in historical texts say that this eunuch was responsible, and this Candace was responsible, for then going back and evangelizing to people in their country. And even though Ethiopia looks completely different than what it looks like now, you can see and trace back— and I think you can speak to this more than anybody— like, the historical presence of the church in Ethiopia. And Philip's obedience was not only to the Samarians and to the people that he spoke to, but he also got to impact a bunch of people that he may have never even seen. Which ultimately leads back to the fulfillment of preach to Samaria, Judea, and the uttermost parts of the world.

Can we go over like the scripture that he reads to him? Because I think I don't understand it.

Yeah, so it says he was led like a sheep to the slaughter, as a lamb before his shearer, in silence. So he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation, he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his, of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth. So this was a prophecy that Isaiah gave speaking about Jesus. Jesus is that sacrificial lamb for us. And if you remember, when he was being tried, they kept asking him to basically defend himself. And Jesus is so So even Jesus was so submissive to the word and to the prophecy that he would not allow himself to speak. So if you remember, they kept saying, you know, they're accusing you of this, what do you say? And he wouldn't say anything. So it's speaking basically to Jesus being that sacrificial lamb. And that is the door that opens Philip to then proclaim the gospel and let him know that Jesus is a sacrificial lamb that died for you, that died for me. He rose again, and the rest of the gospel. And then that's what then influences him to want to be saved. So if you— yeah, if you go back and you read Isaiah, Isaiah spoke a lot towards him being the sacrificial lamb, which I think is weird because if you were there in that time as a Pharisee or a Sadducee or a Jew who didn't believe, they knew this text. So it always confused me is if y'all knew this text and y'all knew that he would have to die for our sins, why would y'all not want to respond to that and see like, oh dang, we just actually fulfilled prophecy? But yeah, so I mean, that's what that speaks to. It speaks to, um, Jesus is being a sacrificial lamb and then also not speaking, uh, when they accused him and wanted him to make a defense for himself.

It's Isaiah 53 if you want to go back. I think it's also important to see as an evangelism best practice. He didn't walk up to him, get in his Bible and say, oh, so let me tell you about what you mean. Like, he didn't enter into this, um, this moment as a know-it-all. He actually asked him, like, do you understand what you're reading? And I think that for the evangelist in all of us, it's important that we meet people with curiosity first, just to get an understanding of what they already know, so that we're not coming in off-putting and we're starting at a place where it's different than where they actually are. And I just love that Philip asked him, do you understand what you're reading? And then, you know, he, he was a little smart mouth. He said, how can I unless someone someone explains it to me. And I think for us, what we can learn from this eunuch is that if you are reading something in the Bible and you don't understand it, you don't gotta just breeze past it and say, oh, I don't know what that means. If you don't want to, uh, ask another person, which, which is kind of what I would advise, just doing things in community and the power of community, I think if there's that you know that might be a bit more spiritually mature in the faith and have a little bit more understanding than you do, you can reach out and just say, hey, I was studying this. I did it today. I reached out to PO, I reached out to my mentor, and I was like, help me understand why in this particular case they had to lay hands, right? Instead of just coming into today and if you had asked, I would not have had that understanding to speak to speak to it. But ask people, right? Exactly what Destiny just did. She said, explain what he was reading. And I think that's so important. But also, there are Bible commentaries, right? There are study Bibles. If you find the version of the Bible that you're reading to be too difficult, get another version that is easier to read. That does not make you less literate than somebody who's able to read the King James Version. I just think it's so important that as, as we, we've heard in the Old Testament, in all thy getting, get understanding. Do not just get the knowledge, but make sure you get the understanding. And when you are helping somebody, don't tell them everything that you know. Meet them where they're at, understand that, and then give them understanding.

Um, Jonathan in the chat said, and Excellent time to say this after what you just said. Um, in our walk with the Spirit, we have a cool opportunity for humility, just like Akia said. And this was when he spoke earlier. Um, if we don't see any spiritual flaws, there's no reason for us to submit to the Spirit for renewal of mind. But when we're humble and we pray and we ask God to reveal our shortcomings, when we listen to wise counsel as they sharpen us, then our surrender to the Spirit allows for continued spiritual maturation. That's right, right?

Yeah.

Um, and then Holly agreed, saying that it goes back to the statement that we have to be proactive about looking at our own hearts, actions, etc., before we judge others.

I just wanted to share another scripture for all of us. Um, because Jasmine, what you said really resonated with me about the eunuch, because I feel like we all can resonate with the eunuch. We didn't— we weren't born knowing Christ.

Somebody either witnessed to us or he revealed himself unto us, and we wanted to know more.

And so God led me to a scripture in Isaiah 56, verses 5— well, starting at verse 5. And he's talking about the eunuch. He's talking about the stranger who may not have come from the, the land of Israel. But since God has given us this free gift of salvation, we are now his people. And it says, even unto them will I give in my house and within my walls a place, a name better than of sons and of daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. Also the sons of the stranger that join themselves to the Lord to serve him, to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants everyone that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it and taketh hold of my covenant, even them will I bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all people. And I just want to encourage y'all, like, that is the promises for us as we are walking with the Lord, as we go in covenant with him, as we are serving him. He's going to make us joyful. He's going to give us an everlasting name that cannot be cut off. And it's just a reminder of the gifts and promises of God.

You've been cooking all night.

I was ready.

I mean, I could talk about Ethiopia if you want to hear about Ethiopia. Ethiopia is— yeah, it's a deeply— I was there last year on a side quest, and It's a deeply, deeply, deeply holy country. Yeah. So there is this one church called Lalibela, and it's in one of the countryside cities of Ethiopia, and it's a church completely carved out from the ground, and it's in the shape of a cross. And it's, yeah, it's a full-size church. If you ever want to look it up, I can, I can text a picture in the chat just for reference later. But it is, yeah, it's entirely carved from basically just like off a mountain and they just like went in and built this whole thing. That being said, you see a lot of influence from the West there, unfortunately. And I think people are really divided again by denomination. People are really like, oh, she's Protestant, I'm not gonna engage with her. Um, you have to be Orthodox, like that's the only way. Um, like you have to have your church, like you have to have your saint at the church and everything, and it's very rigid. And also it's been corrupted because of the West and because of colonization, to the point that a lot of times people don't even want to speak the language of Amharic because they prefer to speak English because they think that it's not proper to speak Amharic and that the proper language and the proper way to act is how Europeans and Americans do. And I say this to say that institutions are incredibly easy and some would even say built to be corrupted, but The reason that we have spaces like the tent and the reason that we've created spaces like the tent is because of individuals, right? And the power in that doesn't come from our individual walks with Christ. It comes from us coming together and sharing that. And people can offer different perspectives. People can say, explain verses to you, like you said, Brittany, in ways that make makes sense to them. And that's why it's so important, not just in fellowship and not just in faith, but to meet people where they're at. I feel like it's really easy to turn people away by just preaching at them instead of just being like, what do you need to talk about right now? What do you need to hear? I feel like a lot of my conversations that turn into conversations about faith is just me asking a friend, what's going on? What's on your mind? What are you thinking about? And again, I have liberation on my mind a lot. I think that gives you a lot of liberation because if you relinquish the control that you have over, am I going to say the wrong thing? Am I going to do the wrong thing? And you just give it to the Holy Spirit and you go in with the understanding that I'm going to listen to this person, I'm going to hear them out to the best of my ability. God will take you the rest of the way and he'll put the words in your mouth of that person he's to hear, but you need to trust in him. You need to make that decision. Like, I trust that he's going to lead this conversation the same way that Brittany and John did that before they led this conversation, the same way Pio does every single week before he comes here. So, yeah, that being said, though, I think Ethiopia has got a lot of history, but there's also a lot of work to do like there is here. Adding on to what you were saying about like, you'll, you'll know what you need to say and the Holy Spirit will provide you those words. I feel like it's also important to, to— what am I trying to say? If there's something you don't completely understand or don't know how to articulate, like, so there have been times where Galilea asked me a question and I'll try to explain my understanding, but I'm like, but if you have any questions, let me know and I'll try to find those answers for you because I don't know everything. I can't, like, you know, I'm not there yet. But I feel like it's also very important to communicate that in a way to others that you also are growing. Like, you aren't like, done. Like, you can read the Bible 18,000 times, but every time you read it, it's still going to be new. So I think it also shows whoever you're basically ministering to in that way that there is, like, a growth that continues to happen even after you take your next step. And it shows them that it's okay to ask questions. Like, you may ask a question that leads me to realize that I thought I knew this thing, but I don't know what that means at all. So I think that's very important as well. I wanted to say, just like connecting to what both of you guys said, specifically you, just like with releasing control about what you're going to say, I think like, as of late, like the past year, like I feel really charged about— and me and Henry were just talking about like not keeping our faith personal, but, you know, sharing it out. And like a part of me like feels scared because I'm like, I don't want to get to the Lord and he'd be like— and I think my little PO says like, who did you share your faith with? Like, who did you bring to the faith? Who are you discipling? And like, I've been really taking inventory of that. Like, am I sharing my faith? Am I keeping this to myself? Am I being shy about the Lord? Like, what am I doing? And so sometimes that can build like anxiety in me, and I'm like, Well, I want to share faith, but like you said, I'm scared that I'm not going to say the right thing. And like, I have, you know, understanding, thank God, and like scriptures and like I understand the gospel when it comes to articulating things and feeling confident. That's where I get choked up at. So I appreciate you saying like just coming with— if you have that curiosity and asking people like, hey, like, where are you at? Like, just knowing this is a conversation and it's not all on me. To bring people to Christ, but just to be confident in him knowing that I'm doing what he told me to do, and that's enough. And even if I do make a mistake, that it's going to be used like in the future. Like, we can still learn from our mistakes and then take it in the future, but all of it, like, God gets the glory for it. So I just want to say thank you all for saying that.

And I think, uh, before we go into prayer one underlying thing that I'm seeing is that my fear is that we as the church, like the organization, we're missing the mark right now in today's age. And it's not going to come through that. I think it's going to come through like you guys and us all being able to step outside of the church borders and truly live this out. And I think that they modeled that quite well. And my fear is that if we continue as we are as the organization church, that we will struggle. And so my prayer is that we will have more people that have the boldness and that have the submission and that have the passion to go out and truly live this out so that we can reach others that may not be reached by the church walls because of the things that you guys mentioned. And until the focus gets back centered on Christ and truly submitting to him and loving him, it's going to be our job. Because if not, who else? I think we see it now. There's so many different influences, there's so many different ideologies, religions that are coming up that are taking the place of us. And social media and in the marketplace. I mean, wherever you go, their influence and their voice is so strong. It's really going to take each and every person here, the people that we know, to take that back, the territory that really belongs to God. Um, so if no one else has any final remarks or questions, Holly's gonna close us out real nice with this.

Um, she says there's so much revelation to be received in community when we come to the table with humility and transparency.

So, um, what I would like to do is like what we always do, just spend some time in prayer. And I want to give it back to Brittany just to lead us out, uh, and just really spend some time meditating on what we read and what we talked about.

How many of you feel like you struggle to find the language to talk about your faith or God to others? Just raise your hand. Okay. How many of you feel like in addition to struggling to talk about, uh, your faith, that you still struggle understanding God, but that's one of the blocks as well. Okay, we're gonna pray for that, um, because in, in these times that we live in Um, I pray that God gives us the language, our language, right? Whatever way he wants us to say the things that we need to say for the people that he has in our path. I believe that, um, there's a way that he wants us, um, to speak and to be bold and to be confident and to be effective. And the enemy wants us wants us to be insecure about what we know, and he wants us to be insecure about what are people going to say if they see that I am this in love with Jesus. Like, I know I talk about it, but I am sold out for him. And so let's just spend some time praying for that. God, I thank you. Lord, we thank you. We thank you for just moving through every person in this room. God, I thank you that your wisdom just flowed with ease tonight. Father, I thank you just for giving us understanding that we're not just leaving here with knowledge, but God, we have understanding. Father, we thank you for clarity. God, I thank you for John. I thank you for equipping him. With the grace to teach and to teach well. God, I thank you that you have even given him insight into, um, the history of the word to bring further clarity, God, so that when we leave, we have additional language and context to share. God, Lord, I thank you that you've done the same with me. Father, I thank you that you have spoken through your vessels tonight. Lord, I thank you that the vessels in this room are yielded vessels to you. God, I thank you that I know in their hearts that every person here, they have surrendered to you. God, I know that every person here not only loves you but is in love with you, Father. And Lord, I thank you for the grace that you've given them to love you more. And God, I just ask that As you have given us the mandate in Matthew 28:19 to go and make disciples of all nations, God, we need your help doing that. Father, we are asking that you will put a grace upon us, Lord, that you will give us language, God, not to win arguments but to win hearts. Father, Father, I pray that you will give us the insight to know you better, to you better, so that we are not speaking from a memorized script, but Father, we are flowing from the heart, that we will flow from our love and how you have shown up in our lives and the evidence we have, Father God. And we will use that passion, Lord, to proclaim your gospel not only to our family, but Lord, to the ends of the earth. Father, I pray that for those who feel shy about displaying just how much they love you or allowing you to fully express yourselves through them, God, I pray that you will remove that shyness in the name of Jesus, and you will replace it with the boldness that comes with the Holy Spirit. Father God, I pray that you will increase the power upon them right now in the name of Jesus. Father, I pray, Lord, that the depth of how much they love you, that it is reflected in how they live for you. Father God, I pray that they will pour out their lives to you, Father, and that they will leave none to reserve. Father God, I pray that you will allow them to become more, more knowledgeable about the things that you need them to know. Father God, you have put certain graces upon us, Lord. You have called us to certain people, and there are things that we need to know that are specific to those people. So Father God, I pray that you will reveal to us who we are called to serve. And Lord, I pray that you will even give us understanding about them, Father God. Lord, I pray that the evangelistic grace would even fall upon all of us in this room, Lord God. We want to proclaim your word, Father God, we want to go to those who are unbelievers and lukewarm believers. And Father, we want to clarify where you have been misrepresented. Father, I pray that you will grace us to be clarifiers in the spirit. Father God, I pray, I pray that whatever is getting in the way, God, if it is a level of self-consciousness, God, if we are thinking too much about ourselves and we are thinking too much about how others may perceive us Father God, I pray that you will loosen our grip on how much we care about how we look to others. Father God, I pray that you will increase our care for how you look to others. Father, I pray that you will start sending us people. Send, send us people, God, that we can start exercising evangelism to. God, Lord, I pray that for anyone who is dealing with a spirit of perfectionism in this room, Father God, that the reason why they don't speak up is because they have to have the perfect words and it has to be done perfectly, and they even need a perfect outcome. Father God, I pray that you will remove that in the name of Jesus. Father God, I pray that you will help us to put all of our reliance on the effectiveness on you, Father God, that we will acknowledge that you are the source of our power. God, it is you who are the source for everything. And Lord, may we just be mindful that we are just mere resources that you use, Father God, and that you have distributed throughout the earth, Lord, to point people to plug back into you as the source, Father God. Lord, I pray that coming out of today that there will be a spirit that falls upon people to be more in love with you, God. Lord, I pray that no one leaves here today shy about you, that no one leaves here today suppressing you, God. Help us to not be quenchers of the Holy Spirit, Father God. Help us to not hide you on our social media profiles, Father God. Help us to not be, be people who just scroll past the things that speak about who you are, but we don't engage in it, Father God. We don't we don't post it, we don't share it because we don't want to turn off other people. I rebuke that right now in the name of Jesus. Father God, I pray that you will just allow us to come into the fullness of what it means to be ambassadors of Christ. Father God, I pray that we do not manage the brand of ourselves, but Father God, that we will manage the brand of who you are, Lord God, which means that people need to know about you, God. Help us to make you more visible, Father God. Help us to raise awareness about the goodness of Jesus Christ, Father God. Help us to point people to the truth that you are the way and the truth and the life, and no one can come to you except through your son Jesus Christ. Help us to proclaim Jesus Christ, Lord. Let him be our North Star in this season, Father God. Lord, I break every, every area and level of shyness off anyone who is suppressing who you are in this room right now. God, may they feel the conviction about it, God, and may they repent, and may they turn, Father God, to you. Lord, help us to know that this is not about us, as we saw Philip, Father God, as he obeyed to, to, to what the Holy Spirit told him to do. We we saw that he decentered himself, that he realized that it was not about him, but it was about something that you needed him to do, and he surrendered to that. Father, I pray, Lord, that that same grace of surrendering falls upon us. God, I pray that we move when you say move, and that we stay when you say stay. Father God, I pray that we will listen to you with open ears. God, I come against the spirit of over- intellectualization, Father God, that we have to get the full story every time you tell us to do something, or we need more people to come and validate a message before we believe in it, Father God. I pray, God, that we stop questioning if we hear your voice, Lord God, and that we have the confidence that the Holy Spirit within us is speaking to us and through us in the name of Jesus. Help us to stop doubting you, Father God. Help us to to stop doubting your power, Father God. Help us to stop doubting your will and your way, Father God. Help us to not hijack your desires, Father God. Lord, I pray, I pray that when we leave here, God, we are walking billboards for you, Father. I pray that when we leave here, we are truly walking epistles for you, Father God. Lord, I pray that we see our lives, Father God, as lives that you are using to enforce the kingdom of God here on earth as it is in heaven. Lord, what we are reading about in the first century of the church is that, Lord, you had put enforcers in place, and God, you had given them territory to take over so that you, you would be made known throughout the land. Father God, help us in the name of Jesus to be enforcers for the kingdom. Father God, I pray that you give us discernment. Increase our discernment, Father God, to know what is of you and what is not of you. God, help us to not fall victim to deception in this time. God, Lord, help us to be able to discern what a counterfeit is from the real. Father God, I pray that as the enemy plans to send those who want to deceive us, God, and the spread of delusion across the land, Father, I decree and declare in the name of Jesus that we are protected from it. Father, I pray and I decree in the name of Jesus that none of us will have a reprobate mind, Father God, that no one in this room, God, will fall, uh, fall to their own demise because of their desires, Father God. I pray, Lord, that you don't even hand us over to our desires, Lord God. Lord, I pray, God, that you hand us over to the desires of your heart, God, that you will keep us anchored in you, God. I pray, Lord, that in this moment, God, that you would— that you would help us consecrate our hearts to you, God. Help us set apart the things that we desire and we love to be things that you desire and that you love, in the name of Jesus. God, I thank you. I thank you for the repentance that is taking place right now. God, I thank you that minds are changing right now. I thank you that behavior is changing right now. Father, we have nothing to lose when we are with you, God. Lord, I pray that you loosen our grip on our image. Father God, I pray that you will loosen our grip on being understood correctly, Father God, or needing to be validated, God. Lord, I pray that you dismantle all of that in this season, Lord God. May we continue to fix our eyes on you, but God, but if we say we love others, God, and we say that we love ourselves, Father God, a huge part of why we love ourselves is, is demonstrated in when we show up on Tuesdays. God, help us to invite others into this space. God, help us to love them as we love ourselves. We love ourselves enough to show up here. God, help us to love others enough to continue inviting people to be here as well. God, help us not to hoard you. We don't want to be hoarders of you, Father God. We don't want to be selfish about you, Father God. We want other people to know you and to share you, Father God. Help us to do that well, Father. Help us to get out of your way, Father God. Lord, we want to be useful to the kingdom, Father God. Help us be useful to the kingdom, Lord. Help us to not just be takers, God, and just ask you for things and we don't give you nothing in return, God. The least we can do is live for you, Father God. We repent for not living for you, Lord. Lord, we offer ourselves in this moment as living sacrifices, as we know that that is holy and acceptable unto you, Father God. We lay our lives down on the altar for you to burn up anything that you need to burn out of us and for you to impart anything that you want to impart within us, Father God. I pray in the name of Jesus that spiritual gifts will fall from heaven right now and be imparted in your children. God, I pray in the name of Jesus that you will impart the gifts to prophesy in this room, Father. I pray that you will impart the gifts to evangelize in this room, in the name of Jesus. Father God, I pray that you will release the spiritual gift to discern spirits in this room, Father, in the mighty name of Jesus. Father God, I pray that you will release from heaven and loose here on earth in this room the gifts to teach in this room, Father God, in the mighty name of Jesus. Father God, I pray that you will raise up deliverance ministers from this room in the mighty name of Jesus. Father God, I pray that you will not withhold your hand, God. Lord, I pray in this moment that your angels will locate your children, God, and will touch them and impart spiritual gifts upon them. Father God, give them clarity. God, I pray that when people leave this room tonight, that they don't leave the same, God. If they need boldness, give them boldness in the mighty name of Jesus. If they need more confidence, release confidence in the mighty name of Jesus. Father God, you, you demonstrated in your words when Moses pushed back on you, when he told you that he did not speak well, you responded and told him, who makes mouths? Father God, we defer to everything that you have made, and we we declare that you have made it perfectly, Father God. Lord, we do not speak against ourselves, Father God. In the name of Jesus, I say that everyone in this room can speak well, Father God, that no one in this room has a speech impediment, Father God, but they speak well and they speak even better of the things of you, Father God. Lord, I pray that you will release the grace upon this room for people to become pastors and to become preachers and to become apostles, Father God. We want to be enforcers of the kingdom of God. We want to push back the kingdom of darkness, Lord God. We work for you, Father God. We are co-laborers in this kingdom with you, God. We thank you that you have invited us to be co-laborers with you, Father God. We thank you that you are so mindful of us, Lord God, that you do not see us as just mere peasants sense. But Father God, you have seated us above the angels. How mindful are you of us, Father God? Help us take our seats, Father God. Lord, I thank you that this word has gone out, God. I thank you that seeds have been planted, Father. I thank you that hearts have been transformed, God. I thank you that who you are will be proclaimed to the ends of the earth, Father God, until you take us, until our last breath. We live for you and we die for you. Jesus, Lord, bless your holy name. We exalt your holy name. Thank you, Jesus. Lord, we pray this in the mighty name of your Son Jesus Christ, who is worthy of it all. Worthy is the Lamb Worthy is the Lamb who was slain for our sins. How dare we? Forgive us, Father. We pray this in his name, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Can we— can we sit this just a little bit longer? And what I want to do is open it up for anybody else that wants to pray too. I really want to start off just praying over you guys because I do see a lot of gifts in here and the daily lives that you guys go through, the struggles that you go through. I really want to pray that God will cover you. I want to pray that God's peace be upon you and that he equips you. Father, I just thank you for every person that you brought here, not only physically but over the chat. Lord, there is a great work that you have placed before each and every person here, and we know because of your promises, the good work that you start on each and every person here, you will see it to completion. Lord, I thank you for the grace to endure persecution. I thank you for the perseverance. Lord, I thank you for the strength that you have equipped each and every person here with. Though you may not see it, the Lord has brought you through through a mighty long way for a purpose that will testify of his goodness and his glory. So Lord, I thank you that where we've come from, it will not look like today. We will rejoice in you, Father God, because we adore you. Your goodness will last forever. Lord, I thank you that your mercy, your grace, and your love, it all abounds. Lord, we long to to discover how long, how deep, how wide, and how high your love is. So Lord, I just pray that your hand be upon each and every person here. I pray that joy that looks strange to the world will fill every person here. I pray, Father God, that you would begin to reveal your purpose in a more clear and brighter way. And Lord, I thank you for reassurance for the person who is asking questions, for the person who may have doubt. I thank you that clarity will become more and more abundant. Lord, we don't want to just take, as Brittany said, but we just ask that we can give all of ourselves unto you. I pray that whatever blockage, whatever hindrance, whatever questions, whatever doubt may be in any of us, Lord, I pray that it be be removed right now. Lord, we thank you for your love. We thank you that you've not given up on us. We don't deserve it, but you give it to us so freely, Father God. You displayed a life of sacrifice, and we want to be the same way. And so, Father God, we ask that you help us to steward this correctly. Help us to not make the mockery of your word. Help us to not do things out of our own strength or out of our own understanding. Lord, we come seeking you first, knowing that everything else will be added unto you. We come seeking you first, God, because you sought after us. We love you, Father, and we come here boldly, prostrate. Help us to have the posture to God that will have boldness yet humility. And I ask that this word, not only just Acts, but the word in entirety, will be buried in our heart, to God, so that out of the abundance of our heart you will flow. Lord, we surrender everything. We come with open hands. We come with an open heart. I thank you, God, for those who are experiencing burden. Who are experiencing the weight of life. I thank you, God, that your promises said that if we come to you and take upon your burden and your yoke, you said that it would be easy and light. So we trade the weight of this world to God with your freedom. I thank you, Lord. I just keep hearing the word peace, God. I ask that your peace which passes understanding will sit with us right now. That the Holy Spirit that is also able to exude power is the same Holy Spirit that is also able to calm the storm. Lord, I thank you that you showed us that in your might you can speak to the mighty winds that brush against us, that crash against us, and tell it to be still. So for those who need stillness, Lord, I pray that you would just instill it to them right now. We thank you, God, and may your name be praised today, tomorrow, and forevermore. It's in your Son Jesus' name.

I just want to say that there is breakthrough waiting to happen, and I just want to encourage you all to press deeper, press deeper in your prayer. Thank you for this moment that we have right now, Lord. Thank you for the fellowship that we have in prayer, and that your Holy Spirit continues to move in each and every one of us, Lord. Thank you. You died so that we may have life. You have given us your Holy Spirit so that we may have a boldness out of this world, Lord. I pray, oh Lord, that we come against the fear that is within the world, that we are fighting against, Lord. Yes, Lord. And we are fighting against nervousness, we're fighting against worries, we're fighting against stress. But Lord, when we have you, we have no fear. Yes, Lord. We have no doubt, we have no stresses, we have no worries, Lord, that can come against you.

Thank you, Lord.

I pray, oh Heavenly Father, that as we speak your word, as we speak to people our testimonies, as we share in this battle, Lord, that is against the world, that we know that we have you, that we can come boldly before you, oh Lord, that we can lay hands and heal people, that we may proclaim the gospel, Lord, to everywhere that we may be, Lord. Our job the grocery store, our friends. Oh Lord, I pray that as we speak, Lord, the seed is planted. But as we plant these seeds, Lord, we may not see the fruit of those things, Lord, but you have allowed them to increase. And I pray, oh Heavenly Father, that as we receive these things, as we receive this freedom from having fear, Lord. I used to be afraid, but now I am set free, Lord. I receive your power, Lord. I receive your love, Lord. And I pray that you would set each and every one of us free, that we are no longer afraid to walk in this dark world, Lord, that you are the light, that you allow the light of you, oh Lord, to shine through each and every one of us, that when someone is seeking, oh Lord, Lord, the light, that they are able to find it in each and every one of us, Lord. That as we go about this day, as we go about these next few months, Lord, I pray that you will allow us to encounter someone that needs you, that we may be a light, oh Lord, to that person, that we may be just a hug, a smile, Lord, an encouraging word, Lord, that we may be something that that can set them free. The Lord, it is not by our power, not by our might, but it's by the hand of you, oh Lord. It is by your Holy Spirit, oh Lord, the power that works in us, oh Lord. And I pray that you continue just to build us up or build bolder believers, oh Lord. But as we read and study your word, oh Lord, that you allow us to continue just to walk in faith, knowing that you are the one that gives us revelation, that you continue to allow us to have dreams and visions, oh Lord, that we may be able to share in the things that you have for us.

Amen.

I pray, oh Heavenly Father, that the gifts that we have, whether it be evangelist, whether it be an encourager, whether it be an intercessor, oh Lord, all these things, oh Lord, I pray that we walk boldly in them, that we may not know the extent of what our gifts may be, Lord. But we ask, oh Lord, that you would reveal these things to us, that you allow us to be helped, oh Lord, so that we are able to walk boldly in that gift, Lord. And I pray, oh Heavenly Father, that you allow us to open our mouths and speak, because if you don't speak, Lord, your word will be brought to your people. And I pray, oh Heavenly Father, that as we speak, Lord, and as we share our word, your words, oh Lord, I pray that hearts be healed. I pray that bones be healed, Lord. I pray that minds be healed, oh Lord, that you are the one that continues to cast out any doubt, oh Lord. Thank you. And that is by your power, Lord, by your strength, that we are able to do these things. And I thank you, Lord, for just this, this time that we've had, that wherever we may go back to, Lord, that they may see the light, that our light may not be covered, oh Lord, but it is shining through, oh Lord, that it's shining through us, Lord. I pray, oh Heavenly Father, that you allow us not to be afraid when the enemy tries to come roaring like a lion. Lord, you have defamed that lion, Lord. He is trying to roar, he is trying to make us afraid. But God, we have you.

We have been able to lift defeat the Goliaths in our lives, oh Lord, because we have you, oh Lord.

Thank you, Lord.

Thank you.

David was small, but God, he had you.

Thank you, Lord. And I thank you, Jesus, for allowing us to stand boldly before our enemies, thank you, Lord, knowing that you are the one that has defeated them, Lord.

Thank you, Lord, that we have favor in you, that we have favor with you, Lord, and that anything that we may come up against, that as long as we are obedient to you, as long as we are surrendered to you, we are able to overcome these things. And it is by your Son Jesus' name I pray.

Thank you.

Um, I know, I know we want to go, but one thing that I feel felt in my heart is— I don't know about y'all, but I have family that doesn't yet know Christ. I have family whose hearts are broken because of the things they've experienced in life. And the devil despises unity. And what used to be a model of unity is the family, and it's under attack. We see it in all of our homes. So if if we could all pray together. And I want to actually ask you— I don't know why specifically it came up, but if you could lead us in prayer, and we all support him through prayer as well. But our families, I want us to be in prayer for our families.

Father God, we just come before you humbly but boldly before your throne, just to tell you that we need you. Father God, there are so many people in this world who are hurting. There are so many people in this world who are crying out, who are crying out to things that have no power, who are crying out to things that have no voice, Lord. But Father God, we just thank you right now for your word, your word that remains true since the beginning of time. Your word is the only thing that you hold even above your own name, Lord. Your word has power when it is spoken. Oh Lord, your word has power when it is understood and when it is believed, Lord. And so, Father God, right now we just ask you for unity in the families, um, oh Lord, the families that are even our church families, oh Lord, our families, our small group families, oh Lord, that we have, Lord, even the families that are not necessarily related to us by direct lineage of blood, oh Lord, but the families that we have in Christ. Christ. We just ask for unity in the body of Christ, Lord. Father God, we ask for unity, um, in the homes as well, with our brothers and our sisters, our mothers and our fathers. Oh Lord, we pray against discord. Oh Lord, we thank you that you will give us wisdom, oh Lord, when it comes to dealing with challenging people and challenging situations. Oh Lord, Father God, God, thank you for the grace that you have given us, oh Lord, to forgive others as well who may have wronged us, oh Lord, to forgive those who have mistreated us, God, and to still show the kindness, the love that you show to us. Father God, we ask that as they see us, Lord, that they see you most importantly, oh Lord, that we are not selling ourselves but we are selling you as we go go before one another. Father God, I pray that in the family homes, Lord, that you would just allow for our people to see you. Oh Lord, give us empathy for your people. Lord, allow for us to be humble even before your own people and not see us and not to see ourselves, oh Lord, as puffed up, as things that we have done, oh Lord, and that we are better than one another, Lord, but allow for us to see that we too were once in need of a Savior, Lord, that we too were once sinners. But Lord, it is only because your darling Son Jesus died on the cross and that we believe by faith, Lord, that we are saved, that we are made right. And so, Father God, we just thank you for those who are even single right now, Lord, looking for a mate. Father God, we ask that you you would allow for them to, um, be sanctified during this time, oh Lord, and to not rush the process, God. But we also ask that as they do find, um, other people, or that as they do find friends, as they do find partners, oh Lord, that they would find those that are equally yoked, Lord, that they would find those that are running the same race. Oh Lord, we thank you, God, for continuing to allow allow for your word to be spoken and to be spoken unapologetically. We thank you for saving those and to continually reaching out to our family members and friends who don't know you, Lord. Father God, we thank you for continually equipping us, oh Lord, with your word, that we too would not just sit by— stand as a bystander, oh Lord, and just expect for you to move all the time in a miraculous way, but that we would be the that is for us, that would save our family. But Father God, I also pray that you would remove any shame, oh Lord. I pray that you would remove any guilt. I pray that you remove any fear from us, oh Lord, for the idea that we have to do all the work, oh Lord, and that if they are not saved by our hands, that maybe we messed up. But Father God, I thank you that as we continue to go forth, as we continue to reach out, as to just honestly live a life that is sold out to Christ, Lord, that we give all the, um, all the burden that we may carry, oh Lord, and give it to you, oh Lord, that their salvation does not come by what we do right and what we do wrong, oh Lord, but their salvation comes from Christ alone and the power of the Holy Spirit moving. So Father God, I just thank you that as you continue to equip us to go out into homes, to go out into our own homes, into our own friend groups, into our own communities, oh Lord, that you just remove that weight from us, oh Lord, of saving everyone, and just allow for your spirit to be moved upon the people, Lord, that as we continue to proclaim the word, that the miracles will follow, will follow the word that is spoken. And so, Father God, we just thank you for unity in our homes, oh Lord. We thank you that even you are continuing to watch over and care care for the children, oh Lord.

Thank you.

Those who are in vulnerable spaces, those who are— have— may have been hurt and abused, oh Lord. Those who just are still in a space of learning, God, we thank you for surrounding them with the right people. We thank you for surrounding them with the grace, oh Lord. We thank you, oh Lord, for continuing to protect your children, oh God.

Thank you.

Even those who may be old and stuck in their ways, oh Lord, we thank you for just allowing them, Lord, to still see your grace, to still see your mercy, oh Lord, and to still give them time to repent. Father God, we just thank you for your faithfulness when it comes to family, oh Lord. We know that we all come from different backgrounds, different experiences, oh Lord, but God, we thank you for your faithfulness through generation to generation to allow us to be here, oh Lord, that our parents did not abort us, oh Lord, that our parents did not give us away. God, I thank you that even in spaces where our family and our parents may not have known you, oh Lord, that you allowed for something in our life, Lord, to bring us to this point right now, Lord, that we can all be gathered together in your name, praising you and worshiping you, honoring you, oh Lord, for who you are. And so, Father God, we just thank you that today is a testament of your faithfulness even when it comes to family, the Lord, that no matter what generational curses may have plagued our family, the Lord, no matter what, um, things may have come in our family line, God, we thank you that you— that today is just a physical manifestation, an example of your faithfulness through family. And so, Father God, I thank you, and I pray that we would also see others, um, as our family as well, that we would not limit the family view point of, um, just blood to family, oh Lord. And God, we thank you that the idea of family started with you, that it started with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, that it did not just start when you created Adam and Eve, oh Lord, but it started even before the formation of the world. And so, Father God, we just pray that we would use your example of family to love on others, oh Lord. Or if it wasn't for family, we would have no one to love on and to show how good you have been to us. And so, Father God, we just pray that you would just continue to give us peace, oh Lord, continue to give us wisdom, continue to guide us, oh Lord. And it's in the mighty name of Jesus we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Yeah, y'all made this super easy. Um, we appreciate y'all, we love y'all with the love of Christ. As always, y'all ain't gotta rush to go.

I got announcements. Oh, I got PO announcements.

Which ones you got?

Okay, so the first announcement is next Tuesday we we will be back here— wait, well, before I say that, I gotta ask y'all. Okay, yes, we will be back here next Tuesday. It's just so natural to say that. Um, and so, uh, next week we are collaborating with the ministry called Edify and Elevate, and it's another Bible study. They have been studying, um, the fruit of the spirit, but specifically the cultivation of the fruit of the Spirit. It's one thing to demonstrate the character of God, but it's another thing to be sanctified to do that. And so what they've been studying is leading them to talk about the presence of God and the staying power of God. And that's exactly what the tent is really all about, that, that leading with presence and then leaving with power And so we're excited for their community to come next week, in which I will say, get here on time so y'all can have your seats, um, locked in. That's going to be great. And then there's a big announcement that's coming next week too, so make sure you are here to hear that from P.O. Um, it will be the last Bible study of this season of Acts, and then we will be taking the month of April off to go and live out what we've learned. So how fitting that we've just talked about evangelism. Um, y'all can go street evangelize with John and Bill.

Hey, y'all want to come through? Uh, especially men.

Yeah, because they be on the street with it. Um, but we'll take the month of April off and then we'll come back together in May and resume. Um, and that's all of the announcements I had.

Yeah, that was pretty much it. Um, yeah, if you're not on both, let me know. I can add you. Um, our Instagram @TheTentLive. The flyer that was posted at the beginning of the season is just a little bit off because we didn't plan what we're going to do next week, but I have something in the works, so we'll send an updated one with just saying that we're gonna talk about Act 9 next week as opposed to when we get back. Um, and in that 4 weeks, act it out, but also keep your eye on the chat. We're gonna try to do something so that we can all see each other and it's not just like, am I in 4 weeks?

Um, so that all is posted on Instagram. Oh, one more thing. Pio and Christine also wanted to thank you all who gave last week. Um, y'all gave and they're super grateful. But I think like all of us who are now pretty much like a part of this ministry are grateful because it is allowing us to expand in ways that I think are going to be like really exciting. Um, and so I just want to thank you all for that. And as the Lord puts it on your heart to do it again, you know, by all means put a little something on the side. But what you've done was great, so thank you.

And don't forget about the prayer gym. I do see a few new faces, so we have like a group Zoom where we meet to pray in the morning and in the evening. If you want to know more about it, feel free to come up to us and it will get you involved with that as well. But we do every day, um, yeah. And then my favorite, 10 PM.

That's the one you can go—

that's going—

one going on right now.

Yeah, so we, we won't be able to take part in that one, but if we do get out on time in the future, 10 PM or 6:30 AM, I know you can go.

Yeah, I just had a prayer request on the—

speaking of the month of April, our baby's actually due in April.

Come on, baby.

Today, and she's just growing really, really healthy. I'm trying to just ask that y'all just pray for us.

What's your due date? April 20th.

Yeah, so I ask that y'all just pray for us as we enter into this new season. Yeah, um, these last few weeks have been extremely uncomfortable, um, so just praying for, um, endurance. And it's a silly prayer request, but we're giving birth at Prentiss, and I really want the room with the lake view.

Okay, okay. Lord, do it.

So anytime I talk to y'all, right?

Yes, yes, yes, you will. Amen. Send us a picture or something in the chat, in the room, like, look what the Lord has done.

Yeah.

Hey, I'm not gonna lie, I believe in praying now instead of just saying we'll pray for it. You wanna, you wanna lead?

Yeah, that's right. Everybody just point your hands and remind me your name. DeAndrea. DeAndrea and James. DeAndrea and James. Okay, because praying, but Father God, we We thank you, Lord, and we rejoice with the angels that you have decided, God, to choose DeAndria and James as parents of this beautiful baby girl that is coming into this world. And Father, we just rejoice, Lord, because we are aware that it is you who decides intentionally when we come into this world and into which family, Father God, and which generation. So Lord, I praise you that you have seen is necessary for this child to be here. And God, I thank you in advance that this is the child of God, that this is your child, that this child is a part of this family, Father. And so Lord, we praise you, Lord, for what a beautiful blessing, Father God. Lord, I pray right now for this child, God. I pray in the mighty name of Jesus for this child birth, Lord. I pray that it is perfect. Father God, I pray that it is perfect in every way possible that it could be perfect. Father God, I ask that as they prepare for labor, Father God, that Lord, there will be no complications in the name of Jesus. Father God, I pray that the doctors will be aligned with the mandates from the kingdom of heaven in the name of Jesus over this child. Father God, I pray, Lord, that if there is already any nurse who is set up to be on the schedule, or any doctor that is set up to be on the schedule, that is not ordained to bring this child into this world, Father God, I pray that you will remove them from the schedule right now in the name of Jesus. Father God, I pray that the believers in the hospital are present in the room. Father God, I pray that the intercessors in healthcare are present in the room. Father God, I I pray that you will assign them to them right now in the mighty name of Jesus. Father God, I pray, I pray, Lord, that there be no mishaps, no mistakes, no malpractice in the mighty name of Jesus. Father God, I pray that this will be easy, Lord God. Lord, we know that childbirth is supposed to be hard, God, and that was a curse, but you are a redeemer. And you are a redeemer, and you became a curse, Father God, so we can be free from curses. So Lord, I do not believe, Father God, that she is going to experience an unbearable pain, but she is going to experience all of your peace, Father God, in the mighty name of Jesus. Father God, I pray that you will also equip James on that day, Father God. Lord, I pray that you will give him supernatural superhero strength in that deliverance room, Father God, as I know you will. God, I thank you, Lord. I thank you, Lord, for this union, Father God. I thank you, Lord, that they are operating in righteousness, Father God. I thank you that they seek you together, Lord God. As you said, that those who seek you, Lord, there is a reward for that. God, I pray that they will experience a beautiful reward when they see their sweet baby's face, Father God. Lord, we decree and declare 10 toes, Father God. We decree and declare 10 fingers, Father God. We declare that every physical thing will be exactly as it is supposed to be, Father God. We decree and declare that the baby will come out with eyesight, looking around in excitement at his parents, Father God. We decree and declare that the baby will come out able to hear all sounds, Father God, in the mighty name of Jesus. Father God, we decree and declare that every aspect of this child's neurological system will be operating exactly in right standing with the kingdom of God. Father, Lord, I pray that every organ, Father God, will be operating in the exact way that you have ordained and designed it to be. Father God, Lord, I thank you for a healthy baby in every aspect of the word. Father God, I thank you, Lord, that you have already decided that through them, Father God, that you are sending your next prophet, your next evangelist, your next pastor, your next preacher, your next exhorter, your next intercessor for the kingdom of God. Lord, I thank you, Lord, that I know before this child even shows up at the altar of a church, it has already been dedicated to you, Lord God, that it has already been set aside for the kingdom of God. Lord, just thank you for that. Lord, I pray for the mother. God, I thank you that despite what she has experienced in her family, Lord, that you have healed her and you have prepared her, Father God, to be all that you have called her to be in the ministry of motherhood. Lord God, I thank you that you've chosen her. God, I thank you that you have allowed her to be healthy this entire time. God, I know that she's experiencing some discomfort God, but Lord, may it be a sweetness comfort. Lord, may in the name of Jesus, Lord, may she experience your presence like none other in these last few weeks. God, I pray, God, that you will anoint and grace her to carry this child to full term, Father God, to full term. Lord God, Father God, I thank you, Lord. I thank you, God. For just allowing us to be witnesses of this moment with them. God, I thank you for allowing them to come into the tent and allowing us this opportunity to pray for them as sisters and brothers in Christ. God, Lord, I thank you. We got another sister, brother in that room coming into the faith. God, we rejoice with the angels. Lord, I thank you for giving her the room that she desires in Princess Hospital. God, I thank you that she'll be looking out over the lake, just experiencing your favor, Father God. Lord, I thank you just the, the moment that she realizes the room she has, that even makes everything better, Father God. I thank you because I know that you are able, and I know you hear our prayer, Father God. It is not outside of what you are able to do. And God, you said we can ask for big things and small things. This is big to us, Father God. We pray that she gets that room in the name of Jesus. And Lord, we are excited, we are excited to experience the baby girl running around this room next year when she's walking and talking. God, we are excited to hear her voice, we are excited to meet her, and we praise you and we glorify you because you You have done it again, Lord. Help us to be a village for them. Help us, God, as she develop and continue to grow in relationship and friendship. God, Lord, I pray that you will continuously put them on our hearts, God. I pray that as they will be taking time away from the tent to become parents, Father God, I pray that you will keep them on our minds, keep them in our prayer requests, Father God, Lord, I pray that, um, she drops the registry in the WhatsApp so that we could be a blessing. And Lord, we pray all of this in your precious and mighty son Jesus' name. Amen. Come on, baby!

All right, so y'all free to, uh, stay a little bit, hang out. If y'all got to go, we understand, but We love y'all, we appreciate y'all.

Amen. I'm excited, girl. I want to see that room. I can't wait to see that room.