(Acts) Living in the Call of God — Brian Brodersen

Paul's Ministry in Ephesus

Acts, Chapter 19, we have been following the Apostle Paul. And. To me, this has just been one exciting adventure following him through acts, you know, I've read through acts many times and I've thought through it a couple of times, but I don't know, it just seems like this time through I am getting inspired as I go through it.

And as I see the apostle just so passionately going about his service to God and just, you know, with all diligence and the kind of commitment that just made him an unstoppable force, he just went from place to place, spreading the gospel and planting the churches as he went.

And so in our last study, we saw that Paul spent. A couple of years in the city of Ephesus, he came into Ephesus and he found a handful of disciples that hadn't really experienced that full relationship with the Lord, and then he ministered to them and brought them into more of a full experience with Christ.

And then he went on to minister in the synagogue and there was some fruit that was born from that. And then, as usually was the case, he was driven out of the synagogue after a period of time. But then he set up in what was called the School of Tyrannus.

And therefore, a couple of years, Paul, on a daily basis, he would minister the word. Some scholars believe that he actually had a set time. One of the ancient text actually refers to the time of the day that Paul would have been teaching on a daily basis.

And so there's speculation with possibly, you know, some good background information for that, that Paul taught four to five hours every day. And so he had this basically, you know, just sort of a school that was open and that people would come and listen to the gospel message.

And we know from the record here in chapter 19 that all of those who are in Asia, Asia heard the gospel through Paul while he was in Ephesus. So as this was a place where people would come for all different kinds of reasons, for religious reasons, for commercial reasons and all of that sort of thing, word must have gotten out about this man, Paul, and about the message.

And as lives were being impacted, they would tell their friends about it and more and more people all the time would show up. And Paul had a busy thing going each and every day. We also learned that during that period of time, God worked unusual miracles through Paul's hands and even pieces of his clothing would be taken.

And as a person would touch that piece of his clothing, they would be healed of various diseases and things. And God was working powerfully to show that Paul was his servant and that the message that he was bringing was indeed his message.

And we're told there that many who practice magic, they came and they committed their lives to Christ. They burned their books and they just completely turned away from those occultic practices that they were involved in.

And so in verse 20, we read, then the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed. So the picture is that there's just this great sense of God's presence and his power working here in the city of Ephesus.

And so in this place that was a center of idolatry and a center of immorality and a center of occultism, here was a place where God was moving mightily. You know, there are a lot of places today that are probably very similar to the way Ephesus was.

And, you know, what happens sometimes is we have a tendency to sort of look at a place like that and say, oh, that's you know, that's not a place to go start a church because, you know, it's there's too much sin there.

We need to go look for a nicer community or something like that. And a lot of times what happens with people who are looking to plant churches, a lot of the different movements that are sort of out and about today within the church world, they always look to go into the suburbs.

They look to go into, you know, the outskirts of a large city, into the nicer communities where people are a little more civilized and and maybe a little bit more well to do financially or whatever, because it's all part of a strategy, you know, that we're going to reach out to these middle class sort of yuppie kind of people.

And and quite often the the city centers, the places where, you know, things are so desperate, the church is vacating those places. But Paul wasn't like that. Paul went anywhere. I mean, I'm not saying we shouldn't go to the suburbs, which we should go everywhere, but we shouldn't exclude certain places because we look at it and say, oh, you know, that that place is too sinful.

There's a particular region in England that has sort of been on my heart lately. And part of the reason is I have a friend who lives there. And for the past seven years, he's been pestering me, actually refers to himself as the pest.

He's been pestering me to somehow get a church planted in that area. But I just found out on this last trip that this particular region is known as the most unchurched area in the country. Now, to me, that sounds exciting because these people don't know anything and unchurched over there is really sort of a good thing, because that means the Church of England hasn't had any influence.

And that's probably better that that hasn't occurred. But I think of that that kind of opportunity to go into a place where people have not heard, because people who haven't heard are a lot of times people who are very open when they do hear.

And so that's what Paul did. And so in this city of Ephesus, this great center of population and wickedness, the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed when these things were accomplished. When the church was established, when Paul felt that things were at a place where he could now consider maybe moving on to a new region, it says here that he purposed in the spirit when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia to go to Jerusalem, saying, after I have been there, I must also see Rome.

And so Paul had a desire to move on. He felt that he had accomplished his task in Ephesus. The church was up and running and they had no doubt raised up leadership and other people were able to step in and do the things that Paul had been doing.

So now he wants to go back into some of the areas that he had previously planted churches in. But eventually he wants to get back to Jerusalem for a time, but then ultimately he wants to get to Rome. Paul has this great desire to get to Rome and to preach the gospel in that capital city of the ancient world.

And so he sent into Macedonia two of those who ministered to him, Timothy and Erastus. But he himself stayed in Asia for a time. So now Paul's planning and Luke gives us some insight into his planning.

So he's wanting to go back into the area of Macedonia for a while. So he sends these two men ahead of him to sort of prepare the way for him. But now he remains a bit longer in Asia, in the area of Ephesus.

The Gospel's Challenge to Idolatry

And about that time, there arose a great commotion about the way for a certain man. Named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Diana, brought no small profit to the craftsman. He called them together with the workers of similar occupation and said, men, you know that we have our prosperity by this trade.

Moreover, you see and hear that not only at Ephesus, but throughout almost all Asia. This Paul has persuaded and turned away many people saying that they are not gods which are made with hands. And so listen to the testimony of Demetrius.

He, of course, is upset at what's going on because they're losing money. This guy, Paul, he's causing a problem. He's turning everybody away from. Idolatry, and as he's turning the people away from idolatry, that's having a negative impact on our business because that's how they were making their money, they were selling these shrines.

But it's interesting that this was the testimony of this man, Demetrius, an unbeliever and a man who was hostile, hostile, really, to the gospel message. But nevertheless, he he acknowledges that it's this Paul, he's the one who is responsible for this.

He's turned many people, not just here in Ephesus, but all over Asia. He's turned many people away from these things. Boy, what a great testimony the Apostle Paul had his life. How impactful was his life that he was known even by his adversaries as one who had turned many people to Christ.

Faithfulness to God's Individual Calling

Now, you know, Paul, he really. Did nothing more than fulfill the calling upon his life. And that's really the goal that each and every one of us ought to be shooting for. We might not have that kind of a calling necessarily to be like an Apostle Paul and to go out and to pioneer churches and to preach the gospel in this way and to turn many people to the Lord.

But there is a particular calling upon our lives and we don't know all of the things that that might include. But here's the important thing, that we be faithful to the calling that God's put upon our lives, just as Paul was faithful to the calling that God put upon his life.

You see, the Lord is not going to question us about whether we attain to the same stature or the same level as another person. He's not going to say to us someday, now, did you lead as many people to the Lord as my servant Paul did back in his day?

He's not going to say, did you. Plant as many churches as this other servant of mine did, or, you know, did you feed as many poor people or he's not going to say that what he's really going to ask us is simply this.

Did you do what I called you to do? Did you fulfill the calling upon your life? You see, that's an important thing to grasp, because a lot of times we can, I think, sort of get in a trap because. We compare ourselves with other people and we think that their calling must be sort of the standard for any calling, and then we we we look at ourselves in comparison to that and we either feel satisfied that we've done just as well or better or we're disappointed because we've fallen so far short.

But you see, the important thing is to just note this, that God has a specific call for you individually that isn't necessarily comparable to anyone else. I mean, there might be some similarities, but but God's not measuring you by that.

All he's measuring you by is what he gives you and calls you to do. And this is the key. It's simply being faithful. Paul said that himself in writing to the Corinthians, he said, this is what God is looking for.

He said what God is looking for in a servant or in a steward is that he be found faithful. And so whatever the Lord's called you to do, be faithful in it. Do it to the best of your ability, do it with all your heart.

Make that your primary goal in life to fulfill that particular call that God has upon you. It might be the call as a mother to faithfully raise your kids in the faith and pray for them all of your life.

It might be for you as an employee of some company to be there at that place and to be in the position there on the job and to be that witness that you are there, you're just there day in and day out, and it might seem like a boring thing.

It might seem like, man, I'm not doing anything for the kingdom, but if that's where God's called you and that's where he's placed you, that's obviously where he wants you and you are doing something for the kingdom as you bear witness to Christ with your life, as you pray for those people.

As you just make yourself available as God's servant to pray for his work, wherever it might be going on, as you become aware of it. You see, that's the thing, as Pastor Chuck has often reminded us, Paul referred to himself as an apostle by the will of God.

That was God's will that Paul be an apostle and he fulfilled God's will, but God has a different will for each of us. And the important thing, again, is just to to be faithful to it. And so Paul was faithful and God used him powerfully and he turned many away from idolatry.

And so Demetrius, he's concerned about this. And so he's calling together his fellow craftsmen. And so verse 27 says, so not only this trade of ours is in danger of falling into disrepute. But also the temple of the great goddess Diana may be despised and her magnificence destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worship.

Now, when they heard this, he's speaking to these craftsmen, Demetrius is when they heard this, they were full of wrath and they cried out, saying, Great is Diana of the Ephesians. And so he's got them all whipped up, they're all excited now, they're angry, they're full of wrath.

This Paul, he's taking away our business, he's causing us to lose money. And then they kind of throw this in there and he's offending our goddess Diana. I don't think they really cared about that, to be honest with you.

That was just a means to an end. And the end was making money. And so often that's the case. You know, it's interesting that there's only two times in the book of Acts that we have a record of of Gentile opposition to Paul's ministry.

Generally, the minister, the opposition to his ministry came from the Jews. But on two occasions, we have a record of Gentile opposition. And in both cases, it was over the issue of money. You remember in Philippi when he cast the demon out of the young girl who was a fortune teller and those men who used her to make money off of her ability to tell fortunes.

They were the ones that were upset. They were the ones that caused the ruckus. They were the ones that caused Paul and Silas to end up in jail. But it was because they were losing money. And so here it is with Demetrius and his friends as well.

The Ephesian Riot and the Limits of Mob Power

So the whole city was filled with confusion and they rushed into the theater with one accord, having seized Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians, Paul's travel companions. And when Paul wanted to go in to the people, the disciples would not allow him.

Then some of the officials of Asia, who were his friends, sent to him pleading that he would not venture into the theater. Now, that particular theater that they're referring to, there's still the ruins of it in Ephesus.

That theater could hold about twenty five thousand people. So this was probably quite a riot. There was probably a very large mob of people that gathered here at this point. And so some cried one thing and some another, for the assembly was confused and most of them did not know why they had come together.

That's usually the way it is in a mob situation. You know, people don't even know what they're doing. You know, I had a funny experience a few months back, back prior to the the Iraqi war beginning. You remember there was all the anti-war demonstrations and all of this kind of stuff going on, not only here in the U .S., but all over the world.

And you remember our news people were faithful to report that to us every day, letting us know how much other nations and people were upset and hated our president and hated the Americans and all that.

And I happened to be in Germany about the time that all of that was leading up to the conflict. And I was in the city of Cologne and I happened to walk into the midst of an anti-war demonstration. And it really kind of caused me to chuckle because it was much like Paul said here.

Most people didn't know what in the world was going on. They were out there riding skateboards and drinking beer and playing their guitars and just, you know, sitting around talking to each other. And I thought, oh, this is an interesting anti-war demonstration.

You know, there are a few diehard communists out there with their Che Guevara posters and their literature and all that. But for the most part, people were out there just, you know, it was sort of a big party.

And yet, you know, the media is reporting all of this anti-Americanism and, you know, they're showing these rallies and all of that. But so often in these large groups of people that gather together, this is the kind of situation as Luke and I think almost comically, Luke sort of makes note of this.

Most of the people didn't know what in the world they were even doing there. It was just a crowd had gathered and they walked up and what's going on? I don't know. Stick around. We'll find out, I'm sure, sooner or later.

And, you know, other people come up. And and so the crowd did continue to grow. But in verse 33, it tells us at this point, they drew Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward. Now, here's what's going on.

There's a Jewish community here. They've already pretty much rejected Paul. And now Paul is preaching against idolatry and that's caused a problem. Now, the Jews in the community, they're paranoid at this point that somehow this is going to backfire and it's going to result in them getting into trouble, getting harassed.

And so this man, Alexander, evidently he wants to make it clear that they're not supporting Paul. They're not associated with him. They're not in any way, shape or form connected to what he's doing. So that's Alexander's motive here.

He wants to disassociate himself. Interesting thing, a Jew. He wants these Gentiles to know that, hey, it's not the Jewish community that's opposing your idolatry. You know, we have nothing to do with it.

It's this other guy over here. An interesting thing for the Jews who were supposed to be the great, you know, promoters of a monotheistic religion and those who were known as being against idolatry. But yet here they're trying to disassociate themselves because they think they're wanting to protect themselves.

So the Jews put him forward and Alexander motioned with his hand and he wanted to make his defense to the people. But when they found out that he was a Jew, all with one voice, cried out for about two hours, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.

Boy, can you imagine that for two hours? They just were chanting that. Now, when the city clerk had quieted the crowd, he said, Men of Ephesus, what man is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple guardian of the great goddess Diana?

And of the image which fell down from Zeus. Therefore, since these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rashly. Now, the city clerk, of course, he would be the one who would be responsible if the Roman authorities really had to intervene and.

You know, deal with this situation, they would have come back to him and said, look, why did you allow this uproar to happen in your community? So he's looking out for himself, but he notice how he appeals to them.

He says, look, what do you what are you all upset about? Come on, everybody knows that, you know, we are the guardians of the temple of Diana or Artemis is actually the proper reference here. And then he refers to this image that fell down from Zeus.

Now, what? Bible commentators generally believe to be the case here is that there must have been some sort of a meteorite or something that had landed in the area and they took it to be. Zeus sending them this image of Artemis, and so they made replicas of that and set up the temple and worship, so he's appealing to them.

On this level, he says, look, everybody knows that this is a fact. So what are you so upset about? He says these things can't be denied. And now he says, for you have brought these men here who are neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers of your goddess.

Therefore, if Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have a case against anyone, the courts are open and the pro councils are there. Let them bring the charges against one another. But if you have any other inquiry to make, it shall be determined in the lawful assembly, for we are in danger of being called into question for today's uproar.

There be no reason which we may give to account for this disorderly gathering. And when he had said these things, he dismissed the assembly. Now, the city clerk was smart. He realized himself that this wasn't about it, wasn't even about Paul directly attacking the temple, or it wasn't like he was standing in Ephesus and preaching against that thing specifically.

He realized that Demetrius and his craftsmen had the problem because it was an issue of their pocketbook. And so he just says, look, these men haven't blaspheme your goddess. They're not committing any sort of sacrilege toward toward the temple here.

So just leave them alone. If Demetrius and these guys have a problem, they can go before the magistrates. They can go before the councils. And evidently, that satisfied the crowd. Most of them didn't know why they were there anyway, so they figured time to disperse.

So they dismissed the assembly and after the uproar had ceased, Paul called the disciples to himself, embraced them and departed to go to Macedonia. And so now Paul's ministry in Ephesus is finally winding up and he heads back now over into the area of Macedonia.

Paul's Journey Toward Jerusalem

Now, if you look at your map, of course, you've got Ephesus would be in modern day Turkey, the westerly coast and then across the Aegean back over into the area of Macedonia and Greece. That's where Paul now headed.

Now, when he had gone over that region and encountered and encouraged them with many words, he came to Greece and stayed three months. And when the Jews plotted against him as he was about to sail to Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia.

And Sopater of Berea accompanied him to Asia. Also, Aristarchus and Secundus of the Thessalonians and Gaius of Derby and Timothy and Tychicus and Trofimus of Asia. These men going ahead waited for us at Troas.

So Paul has this team, some of them from the area of Macedonia. The others are from the other side of the Aegean, back over in that area known today as Turkey. And so verse six says, we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread and in five days joined them at Troas, where we stayed seven days.

So Paul went back through. And now, although Luke doesn't tell us, if we read Paul's second epistle to the Corinthians, we discover what it was that Paul was doing during this time. Paul was going around to those churches in that area, and he was taking up an offering that he was going to deliver to the poor saints in Jerusalem.

You see, the church in Jerusalem had fallen upon some hard times. They were going through some difficulties. And Paul, who, of course, was a Jew and who loved his people and who loved Jerusalem, but was sort of seen by many of them as a renegade because of his ministry among the Gentiles.

He thought this was a great opportunity to sort of endear himself and the Gentiles to the Jews by taking them some aid during their time of difficulty. And so he goes around to the churches and he collects.

This gift and these men are with him and they're going to eventually get this gift back to the church in Jerusalem, but you see, Luke. Doesn't give us the details, it's amazing how brief of an account.

Of the ministry of Paul, Luke really does give us. This whole book of Acts here is a very, very brief account of the events that happened in the first, you know, 50 or 60 years of church history. Luke just singles out certain key things and concentrates on those things, but there's a ton of things that he doesn't really give us any insight on some of Paul's letters and some of Peter's writings as well help to sort of fill in some of the blanks.

But there's still plenty that hasn't been filled in. And so they left Philippi after the time of Passover, the Days of Unleavened Bread, and it took them five days to sail from Philippi across over to Troas.

So it's almost sort of directly across, maybe coming a bit southeast. And so they arrive in Troas and they stayed there seven days. Now, on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight.

The First-Day Gathering and Christian Worship

Now, here, the seventh verse is an important verse, because this is where we see that the early church gathered for worship on the first day of the week. The day that we know is Sunday, there is a lot of concern on the part of some people about us worshiping on Sunday.

And sort of having denied the Sabbath day and all of that kind of thing. And quite often people will come up and ask the question, why did you change the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday? What right did you have to alter what God had established in changing the Sabbath?

But you see, we didn't change the Sabbath, the Sabbath is still the seventh day, always has been, always will be. And the Sabbath day, of course, was an important day among the Jews. But, you know, the interesting thing about the Sabbath, it wasn't necessarily a day to go to church.

Although you certainly would have done something like that, but it was really a day of rest. That's what God intended with the Sabbath day. It was a day for everybody to rest. You see, the Jewish people, they worship God every day.

There wasn't a special day, you know, set aside where just once a week you decide you're going to take an hour out and worship God. But for the Jews, it was a daily activity. So the Sabbath was really a time of ceasing from their labor, resting.

Now, when the day of Pentecost came and when the gospel began to go out, the Christians, they began to gather together to worship on the first day of the week. Because, remember, the first day of the week was the day that Jesus had resurrected from the dead.

So they did it primarily, no doubt, in commemoration of the resurrection. And so it became the day that the believers gathered together. Some diehard Sabbath people, they accuse the Catholic Church of, you know, forsaking the Sabbath and setting up worship on the first day of the week.

But the Catholic Church didn't even come into existence until about 500 years after the apostolic period. So we're reading right here in the apostolic record in the book of Acts that it was the first day of the week that the disciples came together to break bread.

So what we have established, this worship on the first day of the week, is something that we have drawn from the scriptures, not something that we've just, you know, decided to do. Because some church has instructed us to do it, but yet at the same time, we, of course, like they did as well, we worship the Lord every day.

And, you know, here at Calvary Chapel, we don't make a whole lot of distinction and we do in one sense, you know, Sunday is the day when most people do gather together. But we have, as you know, services going on here every single day.

And that's the way it ought to be. So it was the first day of the week that they came together and they broke bread. And I think that's a reference to partaking in the the communion elements. And so Paul is ready to depart the next day, so he's speaking to them and his message continued until midnight.

Eutychus and God's Power Over Death

Now, sometimes I feel a bit long winded in my preaching, but I've never preached till midnight. There were many lamps in the upper room where they were gathered together and in a window set a certain young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep.

He was overcome by sleep. And as Paul continued speaking, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead. Now, I've fallen asleep in church myself, and I'm glad I've never sat in a window on the third story because I might have done the same thing.

Not really a smart place to sit. So Eutychus, he falls asleep and falls over backward and. Ends up dead, but Paul went down, fell on him and embracing him said, do not trouble yourselves. For his life is in him like Elijah and Elisha.

Paul throws himself on this young man who is dead. Remember, Luke is writing this. Luke is a doctor. So. Luke would have told us from the medical standpoint if it was anything other than death, but Luke tells us that he was taken up as dead.

And so Paul, like Elijah or Elisha of old, you remember the stories, how. Those little children had died and they laid themselves on top of the child, and then in a process there was a restoration, God brought life back to the children.

And so here Paul throws himself on Eutychus and. I like the way Paul really doesn't draw any attention to himself, he just simply says, do not trouble yourselves, his life is in him now when he had come up, had broken bread and eaten and talked a long while, even until daybreak, he departed and they brought the young man in alive and they were not a little comforted.

So I would say so they were greatly comforted. Then we went ahead to the ship. And sailed to a sauce there, intended to take Paul on board, for he had given orders, intending himself to go on foot. And when we met at a sauce, we took him on board and came to Mitalin.

We sailed from there. The next day came opposite us the following day. We arrived at Samus and stayed at Trigillium. The next day we came to Miletus. For Paula decided to sail past Ephesus so that he would not have to spend time in Asia, for he was hurrying to be at Jerusalem, if possible, for the day of Pentecost.

Paul's Farewell and the Call to Faithfulness

Again, just following. The geography here. They pick up Paul there on the coast and as they set sail, they stop at these. Islands along the way. And then they end up at Miletus. This. And it's here at Miletus that Paul is going to call together the elders of the church in Ephesus, and it's here that he's going to say goodbye to them.

After these many years now of having ministered among them. He's going to bid them farewell and he's pretty convinced that he's never going to see them again. And it's a very touching encounter that we read about here in this story as they all gather together there with the apostle.

And as they gather together, Paul. He really sort of speaks his heart to them, knowing that he's not going to ever be with them again. He's going to remind them of his ministry among them, and then he's going to really sort of give them instruction so that they can be assured that they're going to make it.

Without him in the future and in the remainder of the 20th chapter here from verse 18, that is what Paul does. And this is one of my favorite portions of scripture, there are so many things that Paul said here that are just the kind of things that really, you know, just hit deeply.

And leave a great impression, and therefore, I don't want to get into it tonight, but instead we'll wait and we'll pick up next week in verse 18 and we'll go through. These very touching words. Much like Paul's final epistle to Timothy, these are his final words to these people that he loves so much in Ephesus that he knew he'd never see again, but he imparts to them real vital truth that will take them on into the future.

And so in our next study, we'll look at that together. But as we close one final thought, and it really is just sort of going back to what we talked about earlier. I want to just emphasize again, God's call, God's plan.

He has it. All laid out for each and every one of us. And the important thing in life is just to get in that groove of what God has for us, because that's where life really happens. As we've said before, that's where the adventure is, that's where the excitement is.

And it's a matter of just discovering it and knowing that, you know, because life can be rough sometimes it can get hard, it can be difficult. It can even become monotonous to some degree. But if we just keep focused on this fact that, you know, I'm doing what God has called me to do, I'm doing what God has created me to do, then that makes everything else just, you know, it just makes it all fit together the way it ought to.

And so the question tonight is, are you in the call of God? Are you seeking the call of God? Are you asking God to direct your life? Do you realize that it's not just coming to church? It's great that you're here, but there's so much more to it than this.

And I think, sadly, there are people who are content to just come to church and to get that hour in or that two hours or something like that a week, you know, OK, I went to church. I did my religious duty for the week and then I'm back out living my life and doing my thing.

But if that's the case, you are missing out on the most glorious life possible, the life that God has prepared for you, a life right smack in the center of his will. So don't be content with anything less than that.

Because if you are, you're just living so far below what God actually has for you. But realize God has a plan, he has a purpose, he has things that he wants to work into your life, he has things that he wants to accomplish in your life and through your life.

And when we're living that way. That's what Jesus was talking about when he spoke of abundant life. He said, I've come to give. Men life and that more abundantly, that's what he's talking about, the life that's in the center of God's plan.

So. Get in the center of God's plan and enjoy that abundant life that the Lord has for you. And remember, it's not just about coming to church, it's about living each day for the Lord and finding that call and that purpose that he has for you.

That's when it's a thrill and that's what it ought to be. That's what God wants it to be. Let's pray, Lord, we thank you that you did come to rescue us from our sin. To rescue us from the destructive effects of it.

But Lord, you came to rescue us from boredom as well, came to rescue us from the monotony of life. You came to set us on an adventurous course. And Lord, each and every one of us, we believe what your word says.

Lord, we believe that. We are your workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works that you ordained beforehand for us to walk in. And so, Lord, as we seek you each day. May we be walking in that. And Lord, even on those occasions, even during those days when we might be bored, when things might seem a bit monotonous, help us, Lord, to step back and get a glimpse of the bigger picture.