Who Are You Really?

The speaker begins by expressing gratitude for being alive and for the opportunity to bring God's word to people every Sunday. He then introduces the topic of the sermon, "Who Are You Really?" and reads a passage from the book of Acts. He emphasizes the importance of having the hand of the Lord upon us when doing God's work and highlights the role of the Holy Spirit in enabling us to succeed. The speaker discusses the growth of the church in Antioch and the disciples being called Christians because they reflected Christ in their character and behavior. He encourages listeners to be conscious of the presence of the Holy Spirit and to let their character reflect Christ. He concludes by discussing the four aspects of being a true disciple of Christ and the importance of growing in those aspects. Praise the Lord! People of God, praise Jesus! Well, again, it's another beautiful Sunday. We are grateful to be alive. We are delighted to be able to bring God's Word to God's people every Sunday. We don't take it for granted. We thank God for life. We are grateful for the opportunity to see the truth of God's Word and for the grace given to us to communicate this Word. Tonight, this evening, I am speaking from a subject that I have titled, Who Are You Really? Who Are You Really? That's the subject, the title of my conversation with you tonight. My text is from the book of Acts, chapter 11, verses 19 to 26. Again, that's Acts, chapter 11, verses 19 to 26. Let's pray. Holy Spirit, we welcome you. We invite you. We exalt you. We love you. We ask that you will come. Come and teach. Come and preach. Come and glorify God. Let your presence fill this place. The anointing that makes teaching easy, let it come upon my life this evening. Give me articulation of speech. Give me nimbleness of mind. Teach me first so that I can teach. Let Jesus be glorified in this place. In the name of Jesus. Amen. And so, our scripture, our text, Acts 11, from verse 19, reads... This is from verse 19 now, of the book of Acts, chapter 11. Now, those who were scattered after the persecution that arose over Stephen, traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to no one but the Jews only. But some of them were men from Cyprus and Cyrene, who, when they had come to Antioch, spoke to the Hellenists, preaching the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus. Verse 21. And the hand of the Lord was on them, and a great number believed and returned to the Lord. Then news of these things came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent out Barnabas to go as far as Antioch. 23. When he came and had seen the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all, that with purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord. He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord. Verse 25. Then Barnabas departed for Tarsus to seek Saul. And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And it was that for a whole year, Paul, Saul and Barnabas assembled with the church and taught a great many people. And the Bible says the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. Hallelujah. And so we find in this text, starting from verse 19, we find that after the death of Stephen, followers of Jesus were persecuted. And as a result of this persecution, they were scattered abroad. The Bible says they traveled as far as Phoenicia, as far as Cyprus and Antioch. As far as Cyprus and Antioch. And as they went, as they traveled, they were preaching the word to no one but the Jews only. Remember now, the Jews are the people of Jesus. Jesus was a Jew. And so they were preaching, the Bible says, to no one but the Jews. And we find that they settled in Antioch. They settled in Antioch. And in Antioch, the Bible says the hand of the Lord was with them. And a great number believed and turned unto the Lord. So as they preached, the hand of God was upon them. And many people believed them. And many people turned to the Lord. When you are doing the Lord's work in spirit and in truth, it's guaranteed the hand of the Almighty God is upon you. The hand of the Almighty God is with you, guaranteed. The reason is this. There is no one, no one who can do the Lord's work in their own natural ability. It's not possible. Because it's a spiritual assignment. So you need a spiritual advantage to be able to do the Lord's work successfully. The Bible says, and the hand of the Lord was upon them. And as a result of this, a great number believed and turned unto the Lord. And so the advantage they had that caused a great number to believe and that caused them to turn unto the Lord was the hand of the Lord that was with them. This is why when, as Christians, we're going into the field, maybe to evangelize or to do anything for God, we need the hand of the Lord upon us so that we have the spiritual advantage. It is not by power. It is not by might. But by my spirit, says the Lord. The hand of the Lord must be upon you as you go out to do the Lord's work. Anything you try to do in your own ability, in your own power, is sure to fail. Why? Because the advantage that we have as believers working for God is the hand of the Lord upon us. So as you're raising that child, as you're building your business to glorify God, as you're building your home to glorify God, as you're out there in the marketplace to glorify God, working for kingdom expansion, as you're preaching, as you're teaching, you can only have success by the hand of the Lord upon you. The Holy Spirit of God is the advantage of the believer. The hand of the Lord comes by way of His Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one who causes you as a believer, who causes you to succeed and a great number believe and turn to the Lord. And your business becomes great and is profitable for kingdom business. And your children are raised right. Your marriage is working right. The secret to the success that you have as a believer is the hand of the Lord upon you. If you venture out on your own, you are sure to fail. So, in everything we do, the hand of the Lord must be invited to be with us. The hand of the Lord must be invited to be with us. And as we diligently, obediently work for God in spirit and in truth, His hand truly, surely comes upon us. The evidence of His presence is seen in our results. The result, the outcome of what you do for God is the evidence of the hand of the Lord upon you. Amen? And so, as the disciples of Antioch setting Antioch on fire by the hand of the Lord, as Antioch catches the revival spirit and is ignited by the power of the Almighty God, the news of this revival in Antioch gets to the church in Jerusalem. And the church in Jerusalem, they sent, the Bible says, they sent Barnabas to Antioch. Because now, remember, Antioch, the people in Antioch didn't set out to go and establish a church there. They were just running away from persecution. And the Bible said they went to different places. They went to Phoenicia, they went to Cyprus, they went to Cyrene. But the Bible doesn't record this level of revival in all these other places. But in Antioch is where the fire broke out. Because of the quality of discipleship of those who went to Antioch. So, a church was burst in Antioch because the disciples, as they went, the Bible says, they were preaching Jesus. The hand of the Lord was upon them as they preached. A great number believed and turned to the Lord. And a church was burst in Antioch. So, the church in Jerusalem now, hearing of the news of this revival, sent Barnabas to Antioch. And so, Barnabas goes to Antioch. And he sees that indeed, God had birthed a great thing in Antioch. Verse 23 of our text says of Barnabas, When he came and had seen the grace of God, he was glad. And he encouraged them. So, he was glad of what God was doing, which meant that they had no idea that it would happen. The Bible says, he saw the grace of God. It was by grace. God released grace upon those disciples so that they could birth a church in Antioch. It was unplanned. And so, because it was unplanned, it was a new church, it needed to be discipled. So, Barnabas goes to Tarsus, the Bible says. In verse 25, we find that Barnabas departs for Tarsus in search of Saul. And he brings Saul, Saul is still Saul at this point, he isn't converted yet to the Apostle Paul. But Barnabas goes to get Saul and brings Saul, who is later Paul the Apostle, brings him back to Antioch. And the Bible says that they assembled with the church, this new church now in Antioch. Barnabas and Saul assembled with the church and they taught a great many people. This was a new church. Obviously, they had fire, they had passion, but they needed to be taught in the Apostle's doctrine. They needed to be taught the right way so that they could take root downward and grow upward correctly. Because, obviously, they didn't set out to establish a church, there couldn't have been among them someone who was skilled, who was knowledgeable about the doctrine. That's why when the news got to Jerusalem, the old church in Jerusalem, they had to send out someone who could teach them. So that's to say that there was no one amongst them who had the necessary knowledge to teach them how to ground the church correctly. So the church in Jerusalem had to send out someone who was knowledgeable enough. And guess what? Even Barnabas, who was knowledgeable enough, when he got there and he saw what the grace of God was doing, he realized that he couldn't do it by himself. And so he goes to Tarsus to seek Saul to help him to teach these people because God had done an awesome work in Antioch. So for a whole year, can you imagine a new church that required a whole year of teaching, foundational, fundamental teaching, so that they could be set straight and they could grow right. The Bible says Saul and Barnabas taught a great many people. So the church grew so vast, so big, so unexpectedly, that it took them a whole year to teach a great many people. And the Bible says, verse 26, which is the last bit of verse 26, and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. The disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. In fact, the Bible says that prophets, when the church now had this growth, and the church in Jerusalem heard about this growth, even prophets from the church in Jerusalem came to Antioch to be a part of this move, this move of revival, this move of fire, this unexpected explosion of power by the grace of God. Even prophets came to see what the Lord was doing and to be a part of it. And the Bible says, when all of this was going on, the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. So that's to tell you that all this time that they were going, all this time that Barnabas came, all this time that he went to seek Saul and bring him to Antioch to join him, all this time that the prophets came from Jerusalem, the disciples were just disciples. They were disciples of Jesus Christ. And who is a disciple? A disciple is a follower of a doctrine, a follower, a believer in a teaching of someone in a movement. They were just disciples. But because of the marvel that was going on, and because of something that was different about these disciples, the Bible says that the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. So this is a good place to ask, why were the disciples now called Christians as opposed to just disciples? As opposed to just followers of Jesus? Why did the people, what did the people in Antioch see about these people, these disciples, that made them change their identifier? What did the people of Antioch see about these disciples, about this new church in Antioch, that made them feel compelled to identify them differently, to give them a unique identifier, to change their mode of identification from just disciples to the specific name Christians? The simple answer is that they looked and behaved, they talked like Christ. To the people in Antioch, they behaved like Christ. The disciples talked like Christ. And they were successful in bringing others to the same experience of behaving like Christ, of talking like Christ. They were like Christ! So much so, that when the people of Antioch saw them, by virtue of their behavior, by virtue of how they replicated Christ on the earth, the people of Antioch had to identify them differently. These were not just disciples, these were now, they were almost like representation of Christ. So they were like, it's like having Christ in different people. The same person was being seen in different people in the same way. That's how impactful the lives and the ministry of the disciples were in the church in Antioch, that it necessitated a change of name. Their names changed because by virtue of how they reflected Christ on earth. And they all did it in the same way, so that everywhere they went, they could easily be identified, not by their looks, not by the color of their skin, not by their names, but by their character, by their behavior, by their conduct. It was evident, this is a Christian. Why? Because there was a single way, a common behavior, there was something that was common to these different people, that you could trace back to Christ. They were all replicating Christ on earth. And the whole territory was affected by this, the whole territory was aware of this, to the point where they had to give it a name. They had to identify them in the same way because they were different people behaving in the same way. And this same way was reflective of their Christ. So that means that as Christians, our character is a strong indication of our faith. Our character is how we reveal Christ. Our character should reveal Christ. People, without opening your mouth, by your conduct, by your behavior, by your character, people should know who you are. If you have to tell somebody you're a Christian, your Christianity is questionable. Because as a Christian, you carry a glory, you carry a presence. You carry a glory, you carry a presence. The Bible says, as we read earlier in the previous verse, that as the disciples in Antioch went about preaching and went about doing the Lord's work, the hand of the Lord was upon them by the Holy Spirit. And right now, as Christians, the Holy Spirit has been sent to help us to be Christians. Because, like I said earlier, in our own strength, we cannot be like Christ. Christ is a perfect Christ. On earth was a perfect man. We cannot, in our own strength, be like Christ. This is why Christ himself said to carry in Jerusalem. He said to his disciples after he had ascended, after he had resurrected, he said, carry and wait for the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will come and help you. Because we cannot do it in our flesh. But the Holy Spirit is available to help us. You know, many years ago, I read a book. The title of the book is Good Morning Holy Spirit. And in that book, the author talked about having a daily consciousness of the presence of the Holy Spirit. That the Holy Spirit is with us. Jesus is with us. The presence of the Lord is with us at all times. We can't see him with our eyes, but he's with us. We can't see the Holy Spirit, but he's with us. And so, he said that he dedicates a place, a meeting place with the Holy Spirit. When he wakes up in the morning, he speaks to the Holy Spirit. He communicates with the Holy Spirit. He's been aware that the Holy Spirit is present. And he said he had a special place, meeting place, prayer place. And he found that without fail, Holy Spirit always met him in that place. And so I began to practice that in my own life. And I still do to this day. Everywhere I go, I take the spirit, I take the consciousness of the Holy Spirit with me. The consciousness of Jesus Christ being with me. In my mind, when I enter a place, I enter a room where I'm driving, I have a special location for the Spirit of God. I scan the environment and see where is the Lord standing right here? Where is the Holy Spirit located? And in my mind, the Holy Spirit is in that place. In my house, there is a special location for the Holy Spirit. As I move, I am conscious that in him I move, in him I live, in him I have my being. And so because I'm conscious of this, there are places I will not go. There are things I will not do. There are things I will not say. Because I am conscious of the presence of the Holy Spirit with me, there are places you won't find me going. There are people I won't associate with. Why? Because I know that I am not alone. The Spirit of God is with me. God is with me by his Spirit. And the Bible says that the eyes of the Lord will not behold iniquity. So I will not consciously give God iniquity to behold. I am conscious of the presence of Almighty God with me wherever I go, wherever I am. And I have found that it's a source of power. That is the secret to power. Secret to revival, personal revival, corporate revival, territorial revival. When you are conscious of the presence of the Holy Spirit, the presence of Christ himself, right where you are, you can't see him with your natural eye, but in your mind's eye you have a place for God in your life, in your home, in your business, in your country, in your government. That is a source of power. That is a source of fire. The hand of the Lord is with you by his Spirit. If you give him pride of place in your life, in your business, corporately, territorially, personally, you will always have fire because the Spirit of God is the Spirit of anointing, the Spirit of revival. He is the one who knows the way to the sacred place of the Most High. And the Bible says, he who dwells in the sacred place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. The sacred place of the Most High is the place of power. And no man knows the way except the Spirit of God. And so if you have a special relationship with the Holy Spirit, and you have a special place for the Holy Spirit, he will lead you to the sacred place of the Most High God. And you will be on fire. You will do exploits. Hallelujah! And so, going back to the issue of character, the character of the Christians in Antioch. The Christians, the disciples, first being called Christians in Antioch, they were called that because of their character. Their character reflected Christ. Our character reflects Christ even today. So that means that as a disciple of Jesus Christ, your character, my character, is how we tell the world that we are disciples. And that means that as a disciple, as a true disciple of Jesus Christ, our character must always be... we must always be growing as disciples. So our character must always be evolving. We must always be growing in certain aspects. We must always be growing in certain aspects. And if we have those aspects in our lives, there are four of them, then we know that we are disciples of Christ indeed. Now having those four aspects, we must continually be increasing in those four aspects. And what are the four aspects? The first one, the first way that you know that you are a true disciple of Jesus Christ is by your level, the quality of your character, the things that you do. How do you reflect Christ in your life? Like we have said earlier, the reason why the Christians in Antioch were identified as Christians was because of their character, because of the things that they did. The things they did reflected Christ. What do you do? What is your character? Who is your character reflecting? Is your character reflecting Christ? What's the condition of your heart? What do people know you by? Who are you really? As evidenced by your character, who are you really? How are you conforming to the image of Jesus Christ? Are you growing more like Christ every day? Is Christ seen in you easily? When people look at you, do they see Christ? The people, Christians, and many of us have met many of them, they don't need to tell you. Just by being around them, right away you know something is different about this person. There is a peace, there is gentleness, there is something about this person. Their character is telling me something. What is your character saying to the people around you? Even married couples, the longer they stay married, they begin to look like each other. They begin to resemble each other. Their minds begin to flow in one accord. If it's a good marriage, so also disciples of Christ. The longer, the more we know Christ, the more we behold Christ, the more we are supposed to resemble Christ. In our conduct, our deportment, our carriage, by the power of the Holy Spirit, by the gifts, the fruit of the Spirit, we are supposed to be like our Christ. The Bible says, by their fruit you shall know them. You are a fruit of Jesus Christ. Are you reflecting Jesus Christ? The things that you do, the life that you live, is that a good fruit of Jesus Christ? Can people see you and say this is how Christ is or was when he was on the earth? Your speech, your conduct, your mindset, the things that you say, are they the things that Jesus would say? The things you do, are they the things Jesus would do? Are we conforming to the image of our Christ every day by the help of the Holy Ghost? Are we doing it? As I said earlier, we are human beings, we are in the flesh, we cannot do it on our own, but we have a helper. Every day we must recognize our frailty, our inability to be like Christ without the help of the Holy Ghost. And put ourselves every day at the altar of Christ. And say, Jesus, I did this today, can you imagine that? I said this, can you imagine that? I am sorry, help me not to say it again by your Holy Spirit and he will help you. The next way that you know if you are a disciple indeed, is the level of light and spiritual understanding that you have in the things of God, in the word of God, your level of wisdom, the level of your wisdom, the level of light and understanding that you travel with, determines if you are a disciple or not. Because the Bible says that, first of all, God is the God of wisdom. And the Bible says, he who lacks wisdom, let him ask. The God of wisdom is your God and he is with you by the Holy Spirit. The more time we spend with Christ, spending his word, spend beholding him, meditating on his word, meditating on his goodness, the wiser we become. Because he rubs off on us. The wiser we become, the more time we spend with the Holy Spirit. By the Spirit of God, God talks to us, God teaches us, God sends us light to navigate the darkness of life, so that we have wisdom, infinite wisdom, divine wisdom, to make decisions that people who live in darkness do not have. And so by associating with the Holy Spirit, we enter into a higher realm of understanding, a higher realm of wisdom, because the Spirit of God is the wisdom of God. Number three, the third way to know if we are disciples indeed, and if we are growing as disciples, is the outworking of the grace and the power of God in our lives. We read in our text that Barnabas, when Barnabas got to Antioch, he was happy, he was glad to see what the grace of God was doing in Antioch. Meaning that there were things that were happening supernaturally, that could only happen by grace. And so when we are disciples of Christ, we receive grace. The grace of God begins to move in our lives in a supernatural fashion, so that it's evident that there is something different about these people, that we have a spiritual advantage that causes us to do things that others cannot do ordinarily. You find that you know things that you know that by your own strength you don't know. You build things, you have knowledge about areas that you were not trained in, but by the outworking of the grace and the power of Almighty God in your life, you show yourself as a disciple because you have insider information by the Spirit of God. In the name of Jesus Christ, you do things that others who don't have His name, who don't have His power, who are not familiar with His power, do. Because the name of Jesus is the access to the miraculous. The name of Jesus Christ gives us access to the miraculous. We do on earth miracles because Jesus said, Such greater things than I did shall you do also. Matthew 28 verse 18 says, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. And Luke 10 verse 19 says, Behold, I who have all this authority, I give you power to tread upon serpents, upon scorpions, upon all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. The God, Christ the King for Jesus is the fullness of the Godhead and He is the head of all principalities and powers. He says, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. And God, Christ the King has given to His disciples, His believers, this power so that we can replicate Him on earth and glorify Him as He glorifies God in all the nations. The more time we spend in the sacred place by the leading of the Holy Spirit, the more time we spend with Jesus, the more time we spend with the Holy Spirit by prayer, by fasting, and by the earnest desire to be like Him, the earnest desire to make Him proud by our character because we don't want to disgrace our God. We don't want to embarrass Him. We don't want people to say, If you are a Christian, I don't think I want to be a part of God. We don't want people to turn away from God because of us. And we know that we can't do this in our own ability, so we have an earnest desire, earnest desire to be like Christ by the help of the Holy Ghost. So as we earnestly desire to be like Christ, to make Him proud, He releases power for us to do this. He releases power for us to be like Christ so that the whole earth can see Christ in us and He is glorified as His Father is glorified. Amen. Hallelujah. So the fourth and final way that we know that we are disciples, true disciples of God and that we are growing in the things of God, growing as disciples, exemplifying Christ on earth, the highest level of evidence that a believer can show that he is a disciple first of all and that he is growing as a disciple is love. Love is the principal evidence of a disciple. Because God is love. God is love. God loved the world. The Bible said He loved the world, so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. He loved the world so much that He gave and He gave His most precious gift, His only begotten Son to die for mankind, to save mankind from sin. Jesus loved so much. He loved us so much that He went to the cross to die. He gave and He gave His most precious gift, His own life to save us. People who persecuted Him, people who hung Him on the cross, knowing who human beings are, He still loved us and went to the cross to save us from eternal damnation. Jesus loved His Father to the point of obedience and He went to the cross because it was the will of God for Him. It was the will of God for Him. He loved His Father to the point of giving up His own life to obey His Father and He loved us, humanity, to the point of giving His most precious gift, His life. Therefore, a Christian who is growing as a disciple will be easy to spot. It's easy to tell a disciple of Christ, a true disciple of Christ, every day working hard with the knowledge that I am a human being but my mandate is to glorify Christ on earth, to replicate Him on earth so that through me all of humanity can see Christ. If they see me, they see Christ. By my conduct, by my deportment, by my behavior, by the way I love, by the outworking of the power of the Holy Ghost in my life, by my level of wisdom and illumination and understanding, by the level of life that I have, by the power that I carry, there will be no doubt as to who I am. I am a Christian, a disciple of Christ. So Christians are easy to spot. Everywhere we go, we are to behave like Christ, we are to love like Christ, we are to talk like Christ, we are to give like Christ. And when the opportunity presents itself, we are to work miracles as Christ did because Jesus said, greater works than I did that so shall you do also. When the opportunity presents itself, we are to work miracles like Christ in His name. By the level, the superior level of our wisdom, in all areas of life, it will be evident, it will be evident that we are disciples and all of this is possible through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The ministry of the Word of God. The Holy Spirit of God is the spirit of wisdom. The Holy Spirit of God is the medium through whom Jesus teaches the believer wisdom. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to us to come and tell us all things, all things. And through the Spirit of God we know all things. Intimacy with Jesus is only achievable through the Holy Spirit of God. So the more intimate you are with the Holy Spirit, the result of intimacy with the Holy Spirit and intimacy with Jesus is superior levels of wisdom, illumination, understanding. The Holy Spirit knows all things. He tells us all things. If we pursue the presence of the Holy Spirit, if we have an overcapacity of the Holy Spirit, in us, in our homes, everywhere we go, we will always be on fire. A Christian who doesn't have an overcapacity of the Holy Spirit is a lukewarm Christian. It's a powerless Christian. It's a Christian who has limited light, limited power. And fire only comes through the Holy Spirit. When the Spirit of God lives in you, you can't hide the fire because a house that is set on a hill cannot be hid. No man lights a candle and hides it under a bushel. If you are filled with the Holy Ghost, filled to capacity with the Spirit of Christ, every day you will be easy to spot as a disciple of Christ. You will carry fire. Everywhere you go, you will ignite your environment. Why? Because the Spirit of God is fire. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of revival. You can't keep Him down. You can't keep Him in. If He is in you, He overflows. The love will overflow. The fire will overflow. The word will overflow. Power overflows. Grace overflows. And you become easy to spot When the opportunity presents itself by the power of the Holy Ghost, by the working of the Word of God, the name of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, you will do the miraculous. You will raise the dead. Why? Because as a disciple, Christ becomes evident through our lives. Hallelujah! Praise the Lord in Jesus' mighty name. So we have almost come to the end of this evening's meeting. But I want us to pray. I want us to look unto Jesus. Why? Because He alone is the author and the finisher of our faith. There is no one anywhere who can, in their own strength and their own ability and their own power, be what is required to be a disciple of God and to grow, a disciple of Christ and to grow in power. It is by the power, the grace of God. So tonight, let's pray. Let's ask the Holy Spirit of God to come, in His power, in His might, to inhabit our hearts, inhabit our minds, inhabit our homes, to empower us, to give us the grace to focus on Jesus Christ and to be like our Christ, because we cannot do this thing by ourselves. Let us commit our endeavors, everything that we do, let us commit everything in our lives to Jesus, to the Holy Spirit and ask for His help. Let's ask for mercy. Let's plead the blood of Jesus Christ over ourselves and in any way that we have fallen short, in any way that we have sinned against God, let's hide ourselves under the blood of Jesus Christ and ask God for mercy. Let's ask God to look upon us and see the righteousness of the blood of Jesus Christ. Lord, tonight we come before you, through and of mercy and grace, by the blood of Jesus Christ and in His name. We acknowledge that in our own strength, we cannot do anything. We can only do what we are required to do by the Holy Spirit. We ask for mercy, Lord. Have mercy upon us, upon our homes, upon our families. Forgive us of anything, every sin that we have committed against you in Jesus' name. Holy Spirit of the living God, we reverence you. We acknowledge your sovereignty. We acknowledge your power. We acknowledge that we can do nothing without you. We ask for your help now. Come and help us. Help us, revive us anew. Ignite us afresh. Set us ablaze for Jesus, so that we can be ambassadors for Christ. Transform us. Increase us in wisdom, in light and understanding. Help us to love. Give us a loving heart. Fill us to overflowing Holy Spirit of God, so that we can manifest the fruit of the Spirit. And everywhere we go, we can be evidence that Christ lives. He lives in us. In Jesus' mighty name. Amen. People of God, praise the Lord. It's been another glorious Sunday evening. And we thank God for this opportunity to bring the Word. And until next Sunday, take care. Take care of yourselves. The Lord is with you. His grace is with you. Every need in your life, the hand of God has met for you. The Lord protects you. The Lord keeps you. The Lord be with you. And the Lord manifests Himself in your life in a new and fresh way today. This week is the very best week of your life. In Jesus' name. Amen.