This Changes Everything [PART 3] | Mike de Vetter | Sunday 22nd March

[00:00:00] Well, it really is a privilege to be able to bring the Word this morning and this afternoon now, actually 12, 12:30, we're continuing a series that Mark began at the start of the year, going on a journey through the book of John. John was one of the disciples of Jesus that saw and witnessed and encountered how Jesus lived and loved and served people. [00:00:27] And we're looking at this journey of John. We're in the first chapter, and what we see is this introduction that says that Jesus was, is and will always be the Word of God. [00:00:42] And I wonder if we could do something this morning before we get too settled. I wonder if we could stand for those that are able, because I want us to read this word together. And I think sometimes when we change our posture, it gets our focus a little bit more intent. [00:00:59] Can we read this passage as it comes up this morning from John 1, 14, 18? [00:01:07] Let's read together. [00:01:08] The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son who came from the Father full of grace and truth. [00:01:23] John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, this is the one I spoke about when I said, he who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me. [00:01:38] Out of his fullness, we have all received grace in place of grace already given. [00:01:44] For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. [00:01:51] No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known. Father, we thank you for your word. Lord, let it change us and transform us today. [00:02:07] May we be conformed to the likeness of Jesus as we understand this Word and live it out today in Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated. [00:02:17] That's the last time I'll ask you to stand for a while. I promise. [00:02:22] One of the deepest longings in every human heart is to truly know God. You know, the writer of Ecclesiastes wrestled with this, having seen everything under the sun, declared it meaningless, but came to this conclusion. To know God and to worship him always, that was the desire of the human heart. [00:02:40] Across human history, we have tried everything, every religious practice and ritual to try and either get up to God or feel like we're bringing God down to us, thinking that our righteous acts, the things that we do, the way we perform, the boxes that we tick, if we do all of that right, God will somehow be pleased with us or we can gain his favor. [00:03:05] And it's relentless. It's a pursuit that fails because the Bible's really clear. There is no one righteous, not even one. [00:03:16] I get it right 99 times and I get it wrong. Once I've struck out. [00:03:22] 999 times. I miss out once I've struck out. [00:03:26] We're not righteous enough. We cannot bring God down. We cannot please God through our own actions. [00:03:35] And what we're seeing here is, I think, some of the greatest words that we can receive. The good news of Jesus, that God himself comes close to us. [00:03:48] John begins his gospel with a radical claim. We no longer have to guess what God is like, because God is near. God has revealed himself in and through Jesus. [00:03:58] Let's read this verse 14. So the word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. [00:04:06] The eternal Word of God, the living Jesus came and moved in close. [00:04:14] Remember, John uses his language in John 1 that he also that he's picked up from the language that we read in Genesis 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. [00:04:26] John says, in the beginning, the Word was with God. The Word was God. [00:04:32] Like nothing, nothing is created except through the power of the Word. And the Word is not just words on paper. The Word is a person. And his name is Jesus. [00:04:44] And the Word that we read, every time we read the Word of God, God is with us. [00:04:52] So if you are unsure, if you're uncertain about where you stand with God, open his Word and say, jesus, thank you that you are here with me. As I read you, as I experience God near to me, the one who was God, who was with God and is still and will forever be God literally moved into our neighborhood, moved next door. [00:05:22] Even better still, he was right here beside me. [00:05:27] And I can experience him every single day. [00:05:30] In these verses, John gives us three profound truths that I want to look at today. [00:05:35] The first one, let's just dwell on this for a minute. Jesus came near. [00:05:42] Just remember, this is a group of people that for hundreds of years, for hundreds of years were waiting for this Messiah to come. [00:05:53] Like generation after generation goes to the grave. And then another generation. And then another generation goes to the grave waiting for that promised Messiah. [00:06:04] And Jesus comes near. [00:06:08] So the Word became human and made his home among us. [00:06:12] The phrase made us home among us literally means tabernacled among us. [00:06:19] So it's for God. Sit a task for the Israelites. Said, I want you to build a holy place for me. We read this in Exodus 25:8. Have the people of Israel build me a holy sanctuary so I can live among them. [00:06:35] God's desire has always been to dwell amongst his people when they were in the wilderness. [00:06:41] The tabernacle was built so that the priests could come in and offer sacrifices on behalf of the people. [00:06:48] But there was a limit to who could go into that holy place. You had to be a priest in order to get into that holy place. [00:06:55] Why? [00:06:56] Because humanity was still flawed because of sin. [00:06:59] When Adam and Eve sinned, every generation that followed entered into sin. [00:07:05] We're born into sin. We're not born holy, we're not born righteous. We're born as sinful people. [00:07:11] And so up until this point, God's holiness could not be contained within humanity because humanity was fallen. [00:07:20] The good news of the gospel says that Jesus came near. And because of that, the tabernacle that dwell among us, God saying, now I will dwell in you, with you, close to you. You don't have to go through a pastor or a priest or a minister in order to be close to God. You can go there because of Jesus. You can enter God's presence anytime, anywhere because of what he did. [00:07:53] I think that's some good news. I think that's good news. I think that's something that should get us excited. [00:07:59] It should put peace and calm within our spirit when our world is falling out around us. That we can say, but, Jesus, you are here. [00:08:10] You're here in the boat with the waves tossing and turning around me. You are with me. Jesus came near. [00:08:19] The tabernacle was only a shadow of something greater because God's intention and desire was that Jesus would be with us. [00:08:28] Imagine the CEO of a global company sitting in the high skyscraper and up in the corporate office. [00:08:38] But then he chooses to come outside of that corporate office and finds himself on the factory floor working minimum wage alongside the people that he's building this business with, Experiencing the hardships and the trials and the challenges. [00:08:52] That's a little bit of what we see. God. Not distant, but actually wanting to be close. [00:08:58] Teaching, learning, showing us what it means to serve and love and live alongside. [00:09:04] I had the privilege of spending a number of years serving under a man called Luke Bro. He was our pastor back in New Zealand and pastor of a big church. Thousands of people across multiple campuses. And every Friday, I was on the team there as the children's pastor. And every Friday we get this email that says chairs. And it wasn't chairs to a good week, kind of well done. It was chairs, which means that we had to go move chairs. [00:09:31] And so we would go into the auditorium because lots of activities had happened throughout the week, Kids programs and Holiday clubs. And we used the building as often as we could just to bless our community. [00:09:40] But on a Friday, we had to reset for three or four, five services on a Sunday. [00:09:45] And so we would gather in the auditorium, and there, before everybody else arrives, is our senior pastor with a chair trolley, moving stacks of chairs to. To be put in place. [00:09:59] Now, logically, I was thinking, this probably doesn't make sense for our senior pastor to be moving chairs when he could probably be doing something more important than that, right? So in my mind, I'm thinking, this doesn't make sense. [00:10:14] But I'm so glad for a leader who said, I want to show you what it's like to love and serve. There was something that he instilled into me as a leader, that actually, leadership is all about servanthood. [00:10:28] If I want to lead, it's through the serving of people. [00:10:32] This is exactly what Jesus did. [00:10:35] Jesus came. [00:10:36] He said, I've come to serve. Not to be served, but Jesus, we should be serving you. He says, yes, but I have chosen to come and serve you. I've come to dwell among you. I've come to be close to you so that you would experience my presence and the incarnation, which is the divinity of God, fully divine, becoming fully human. [00:11:02] God didn't lose any of his divinity when he became human, but he took on everything that we could also take on. Every challenge, every struggle. Jesus felt hunger, Jesus felt fatigue. [00:11:15] Jesus felt sorrow. [00:11:17] Jesus felt disappointment. [00:11:20] Jesus felt betrayal. He experienced the very thing that we can experience on a daily basis. [00:11:27] So we go, God, you just don't understand. He does because Jesus came near. [00:11:34] So what does this mean for me? What does this mean for you? It means that because Jesus came near, we can approach his throne with boldness. As the writer of Hebrews says, we can come to the throne of grace expecting that God will meet us in our need. [00:11:51] I'm not coming to my strength. I'm not coming in Mike's accolades and achievements because I'm not good enough. But because of Christ, I can approach that throne of grace with a confidence that I'm a child of God. I know who I am and I know who God's called me to be, even amongst my failures and my faults. [00:12:11] Because Jesus came near, I know I'm not alone in my suffering. [00:12:16] I love the statement that Paul makes, and I've shared this before, that I want to know Christ. He says, he declares, I want to know Christ. I want to know the power of his resurrection. I want to know the miracles. I want to see all of that and experience the fellowship of the suffering. [00:12:34] We can't have a gospel that doesn't also include suffering and heartache and trial and challenge. Because that is so much a part of our faith, is that we walk through those difficult moments because Jesus is near and he experienced it himself, because Jesus came near. God understands my human experience. [00:12:55] He understands that as I'm walking through that dark valley. Anyone ever walked a dark valley before? [00:13:01] Anyone in the middle of a dark valley right now? [00:13:04] Jesus is with you. Jesus is near. [00:13:07] He won't leave you. He won't forsake you. He won't say, just come on, make it out to the other side. No. Psalm 23 says, his rod and staff comfort us. He's walking with us through. [00:13:19] He'll pause when we stumble, and he will lift us up again and say, come on, keep walking. Mike, I'm with you. You're not on your own. [00:13:29] You know, Christianity is different to a lot of religions because a lot of religions are good acts. And the things that we do get us a credibility with God, right? So if I do this and I do this and I perform in a particular way, I'm going to gain God's favor. [00:13:46] But God says, you know what? [00:13:51] Humanity can't do that because there's no one righteous. [00:13:55] But I will come down and I will dwell among the people who are sinful in nature, but they are my very dearly loved children. [00:14:05] That's Jesus who draw near. [00:14:09] On Monday night, we have our prayer meeting, and it was a special moment. On Monday night, we pray a lot of different things, and sometimes we have a theme that we want to pray into. [00:14:21] And then sometimes we just kind of pray as we're led and guided. [00:14:25] And Monday night was. It was a beautiful, strange, glorious moment. Because in the middle of prayer, it was almost as though God just closed our mouths. [00:14:38] No one could speak. [00:14:40] There was this gentle but a weighty presence of God. [00:14:46] You know, I'm a leader, so the leader in me is going gotta lead this moment. [00:14:51] Felt the gentle whisper of Jesus. Shh, shh. [00:14:59] It's like he's saying, I've got this. [00:15:01] Don't worry. I'm in control. [00:15:04] It's beautiful. Like minute after minute after minute, just sitting in this beautiful presence of God. The weightiness of that moment was like nothing I've ever felt before. [00:15:16] It was just. [00:15:19] We kind of looked up, looked up at each other. [00:15:22] It just kind of went back into that place again. It's like, who's got to speak first? Not me. [00:15:28] It was beautiful. [00:15:30] But in the middle of that moment I kind of tilted my head back and I had my eyes closed. But it was like I had this vision, this picture of something out in the distance like a faraway place. [00:15:42] Try to strain with my natural eyes to try and see. I couldn't work out what it was. [00:15:47] And then all of a sudden, it was like a camera angle in a movie. Like the zoom just kind of. [00:15:52] It was right there. [00:15:54] I just knew that it was God saying, I am here. I'm not a distant God up there. [00:16:00] This is how people perceive me. But I am here. I'm right here with you. And we felt his presence as we prayed, as we didn't say anything, we felt his presence. [00:16:10] I think sometimes we talk too much. [00:16:13] I think prayer, we do too much of this and not enough of this. [00:16:18] I think we do well just to listen a little more when God wants to speak to us. [00:16:25] Jesus came near. He is near today. [00:16:29] I don't know what your challenge is. I don't know what trial you're facing. I don't know what you are walking through today. [00:16:35] But here's what I know to be true. [00:16:38] Jesus won't leave you. [00:16:40] He won't forsake you. [00:16:42] He is here today in your time of need. [00:16:46] Would you acknowledge Him? [00:16:48] That's all he wants from you. [00:16:50] Would you say, jesus, my life's a mess and I need you. [00:16:56] And he will be everything, everything you need him to be. [00:17:01] And all the things you don't know he needs to be in your life. [00:17:04] All the things you think you know, you need, you don't. But he does. He knows exactly what you need. [00:17:11] So Jesus came near the first truth. The second thing we see in this passage is that Jesus reveals God's character. [00:17:19] Remember, God exists in the triune being, the Trinity, Father, Son and Spirit. [00:17:25] Mark preached on this in the first week that God exists in relationship. So therefore, that's what our lives should look like as well. We're not called to be in isolation. We're not called to do life alone. We're called to be in relationship and the Father, the Son, Spirit you see throughout Scripture, working beautifully together to minister to people, to love and draw and prompt and heal and save and love. [00:17:56] So Jesus reveals God's character. John carries on. He says, we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father's one and only Son. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. [00:18:08] Now these words that John speaks echoes when God revealed his character to the Israelite people through Moses. Exodus 34, 6. The Lord, the compassionate and gracious God Slow to anger. Listen to this. Abounding in love and faithfulness. [00:18:24] Jesus reveals the character of God and John's making a powerful statement. Everything revealed about God in the Old Testament is now being revealed in and through Jesus Christ. [00:18:39] If we want to know what Jesus looks. If we want to know what God looks like, look at Jesus. [00:18:44] If you're not sure, if you're trying to understand the Bible and trying to understand the story of faith, just stay in the Gospels. Just read the Gospels through time and time again and you will see the way Jesus loved people. The way he reached out and touched the lepers, the unclean. [00:19:02] The way he broke all protocol to go and save someone and love someone. Healing people on the Sabbath when the rules say no. But the compassion of God says, yes, I will heal somebody because they need to be healed. [00:19:17] The injustice that Jesus took on who he fought for. [00:19:25] The children. Let's get rid of the children, says the disciples. Jesus says, no, no, no, no. You let the children come to me. Because they understand the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God belongs to someone who has the heart of a child, the faith of a child. [00:19:40] Then Jesus lays down his life for the world. [00:19:43] So John continues from his abundance. We have all received one gracious blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses. But God's unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ. [00:19:55] The law reveals God's holiness and our need for salvation. But Jesus brings something greater. The fullness of grace. [00:20:03] Is there anybody in this place thankful for God's grace? [00:20:07] God's riches at Christ's expense. I learned that as a child. The acrostic. God's riches at Christ's expense. [00:20:15] Everything I didn't deserve through what Jesus had to go through. Wow. God, thank you. Thank you for your grace. [00:20:26] When the people sat under the law, they had to tick the boxes in order to be right with God. And they couldn't. That's why every week they had to bring another sacrifice. [00:20:37] Another sacrifice. A sin offering. For what? I've done wrong again. I've blown it again. [00:20:46] But Jesus comes and he brings grace. He brings forgiveness. [00:20:51] He brings a righteousness that is only found in Christ alone. [00:20:58] Anyone ever kind of had this conversation with God? [00:21:02] God, is this the last time youe'll actually forgive me before your grace runs out. [00:21:09] I'm here on a Sunday morning again. God, I've messed up again. [00:21:15] I've sinned again. It's the same thing. I know. [00:21:19] You know what found themselves in that place. [00:21:22] I've gossiped again. [00:21:25] I've had lustful thoughts. [00:21:27] I've got angry again. It's got the better of me. I've doubted your faithfulness. I've doubted your reliability and God. Here I am again. Surely your grace must run out. [00:21:40] I had this picture as I was thinking about this. [00:21:44] About standing at the bottom of the Niagara Falls with a cup. [00:21:48] Call it the cup of grace. [00:21:50] It's like drunk from the grave. It's like, oh, I have no grace left. [00:21:54] Oh, I'll put it back into the flow. [00:21:58] I've messed up again. More grace. [00:22:01] More grace. Like, how many cups will I have to drink before that waterfall runs dry? [00:22:09] And that's not even an accurate picture of the abounding, limitless grace of God. [00:22:15] A hundred times, a thousand times, ten thousand times. [00:22:19] There isn't a limit. See, we even want to put a limit on God as to how many times he'll forgive us. Because we think that, well, maybe that's too many times. [00:22:30] God's grace is extended to you and to me. [00:22:34] In Christ, there is always more grace available than my failures. [00:22:39] I'll say that again. In Christ, there is always more grace available than my failures. [00:22:48] And here's what I've discovered in my journey with God. [00:22:52] The more grace I receive, the less likely I am to want to go into sin again. [00:23:01] Paul was wrestling with this. [00:23:04] He says, so should I sin more so more grace can abound. [00:23:10] So if I sin more, will I get more grace? Surely not. [00:23:16] Actually, the complete opposite takes place when you are fully aware of the grace of God and His forgiveness. [00:23:22] When the temptation of sin arises, actually our hearts are drawn into the God who extends that grace to us. [00:23:32] We want to be in his presence. And we know that when we sin and when we mess up and we get it wrong, for that moment, there's a separation because sin separates us from relationship with God. If I mess up with Amy, there's a gap. Until that relationship is restored. [00:23:51] It's not on her part, it's not on God's part, it's on my part. [00:23:55] But I do feel like we need to understand the difference between condemnation and conviction. [00:24:04] Because I think we want to stay wallowing in this place of condemnation. I don't know why, but we kind of do. We can go weeks out of sorts with God and the response. All we need to do. I've said it before. We're only one prayer away from being right with God. [00:24:23] One prayer that says, God, I surrender. God, I'm sorry. God, forgive me. I messed up. I need your grace again. He says, thank you. Now let's keep going. [00:24:34] I've fallen over, so I'll just stay on the ground for the next four weeks and wallow in my sorrow. No. [00:24:41] The condemnation of the devil would say, ah, you're a bad person. You're not worthy of God's grace. [00:24:47] True. [00:24:48] That's why it's grace. [00:24:51] We don't deserve it. We don't deserve his unmerited favor. We do not deserve that. And yet he gives it. [00:25:02] So when we're feeling like we've failed, when we're feeling like we're not good enough, put the cup out again. [00:25:10] Receive some more of his grace. [00:25:12] Receive that grace that is unlimited and unfailing. [00:25:16] This is what John's saying. [00:25:18] From Christ we receive grace upon grace, cup after cup. [00:25:23] Grace, grace, grace. It won't run out, so don't spend a minute more than you need to outside of his favor and his presence because of the guilt and the condemnation that's from the enemy. The conviction of God is a different thing. [00:25:41] When the Holy Spirit convicts us, says, mike, you were rude to Amy. [00:25:46] You go make things right. That's the conviction of God. I'm like, yeah, I was. [00:25:50] And I go and apologize and I ask for forgiveness and I make things right with my wife. [00:25:56] When I've spoken badly to my kids, when I've got angry and I've got frustrated and I go back and the conviction of the Holy Spirit says, you didn't give your kids the time that they needed. You're rude and you're dismissive. God forgive me. [00:26:09] Thank you. Thank you for pointing that out in my life. [00:26:15] Holy Spirit wants to convict us. Why? To bring us closer to God. [00:26:20] I love James. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. The picture I have is as I take my faltering step towards Him. He has already stepped into my space. [00:26:29] It's like even before my foot hits the ground, he is there. [00:26:34] Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. [00:26:40] The last thing as I close this morning is that Jesus reveals the Father's heart. [00:26:47] Jesus came near number one. [00:26:49] Jesus reveals God's character. [00:26:52] But then we see that Jesus here reveals the Father's heart. [00:26:56] John concludes the section with a remarkable statement. He says, no one has ever seen God but the one and only Son, who is Jesus, who is himself God. [00:27:08] Again, affirming the Trinity that God is three in one and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known. [00:27:17] The word translated revealed, means to explain or to interpret meaning. Jesus interprets God for humanity. [00:27:26] A complex nature and understanding of who God is Jesus steps into the world and says, I am God. [00:27:36] See how I love. See how I serve. See how I lay down my life. [00:27:40] This is a reflection of the Father's heart. [00:27:46] What is God really like? [00:27:48] Look at Jesus. [00:27:50] See how he loved people. See how he lived. See how he served. [00:27:54] Hebrews 1:3. The Son radiates God's own glory and expresses the very character of God. [00:28:00] Jesus is not simply pointing us to God. [00:28:03] He's showing us God. He's revealing the nature of the Father. [00:28:09] And we see Jesus when we see him forgiving sinners. [00:28:13] We see the compassion of a father, the mercy of a father. When we see Jesus healing the broken, we see the compassionate nature of the Father. [00:28:24] When we see Jesus on the cross, we see John 3:16 revealed. For God so loved the world. [00:28:32] Let's take the world out and put your name in there. [00:28:35] Come on, say it right now. For God, so loved Mike. [00:28:40] Come on, let's say it together. For God, so loved. [00:28:44] Correct. That's your name. Well done. [00:28:49] For God so loved Mike. [00:28:52] That he would give his only son. This is the only Son that when he came up out of the water, when Jesus came up out of the water of baptism, the Father's voice from heaven says, this is my son. [00:29:05] This is who I love. And I am well pleased because of Christ. Guess what he says about you. [00:29:13] This is my son. [00:29:15] This is my daughter, whom I love. [00:29:18] And I am well pleased. But I messed up. Have another drink. [00:29:24] Receive his grace. [00:29:26] He loves you. [00:29:28] He forgives you. [00:29:30] But we must keep stepping in towards that relationship. Jesus draws near. Let's keep drawing near to him and experience that grace and all that he has for us. [00:29:46] These few verses, John reveals the wonder of the Gospel. [00:29:51] That God came near through Jesus, that God's grace is abundant. [00:29:56] It's limitless. There is no limit to the grace that God extends to us. [00:30:02] Our failure, our disappointment, the things in our life that we had no control over that affected us. [00:30:14] God enters that space. [00:30:17] Would you let me heal your heart? [00:30:20] Would you let me bring life into those places that feel dead? [00:30:26] And then we see God's heart revealed in Christ. The invisible God becoming visible. [00:30:33] And then we see Jesus. When we see Jesus, we see a God of grace and truth. [00:30:41] So we know that Jesus came near, know that Jesus revealed God's character. We know that Jesus showed the Father's heart. [00:30:49] That's great. We can put a full stop on it and go home, or we can make a decision to do something about that. [00:31:00] Bible's really clear that we're to Go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that I've commanded you to. [00:31:14] As I've been looking into what it means to be a disciple of Christ, if you sum up all the law and the 607 laws of the Torah, impossible to fulfill. [00:31:26] But when Jesus was asked what is most important, the great commandment, he says, love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind, with all of your strength. [00:31:37] Would we allow our hearts, which is the thing I love? [00:31:41] What is it that I love? [00:31:43] That's my heart, my soul, who I am, my identity, my mind, how I think, what I think. [00:31:54] Would I allow my strength, which is what I do? Would I allow that to be discipled? Would I allow someone to speak into my heart and my soul and my mind and my strength and disciple that within me? [00:32:07] Will I be brave enough and courageous enough to go to somebody else and say, hey, can I speak into your world? [00:32:15] Can I tell you what Jesus has done in my life? [00:32:19] Can I disciple your heart, your soul, your mind and your strength? It's one thing to hear a word and go, wow, that really encouraged me. But I wonder if we'd be courageous enough to go out today, over this week and do something about the fact that I know that Jesus is near. So if he's near for me, guess what? He's near for my neighbor. [00:32:40] So I wonder if we could, for a moment, just close our eyes, because here's what I know to be true every time we ask, God will never fail to give us an assignment that might bless somebody else. [00:32:54] I want you to pray a prayer in whatever words you would use. [00:32:59] But maybe it's something like, God used me to love somebody and bless someone this week. [00:33:07] And as you pray that prayer, I don't know whether you see pictures, I don't know whether you see names, an impression. [00:33:15] I believe God is giving people faces and names, moments, opportunities. [00:33:22] Right now, he's just beginning to reveal those people to you. [00:33:27] Friends, that is your assignment. That's the spirit of God speaking to your heart right now. [00:33:33] Is it your literal neighbour? Is it the person that lives beside you? [00:33:38] Is it the person that you struggle to forgive? [00:33:44] Is it the person that you haven't met yet, but you will be ready to give that person a cup of coffee, to smile at them and engage in a conversation? [00:33:58] Would you just pray a simple prayer? Jesus, because you came near, could I reflect you to someone else? In my world. [00:34:13] God, I thank you for the assignments that you're giving us. [00:34:17] I thank you for your power that's promised in Acts 1:8, that we will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon us. That power to be your witness. [00:34:26] Lord, would you empower us this week to be your witness to declare that Jesus, you came near, that you revealed the character of God, that you showed us what the Father's love looks like. Could we do that for someone this week? I pray in Jesus name Might take some courage. [00:34:45] Might take you stepping out of what's comfortable. [00:34:50] But get ready for a ride. [00:34:52] Get ready for the testimonies to come in as you just love on somebody as God has asked you to.