The Scattered Church

Amen. As you’re grabbing your seat, grab your Bibles opened to Acts chapter 8. Acts chapter 8 this morning will be our food. And as you’re doing that, I want to tell you something I learned this week about the soybean. You know, probably a typical illustration. I have some soybeans.

So I’m no farmer. But I talked to some people who are more knowledgeable in the thing. And my good friend James actually went out this morning and actually plucked these out of somebody’s field. So they’ve already harvested it. It’s fine. They don’t care. But James is knowledgeable in this area. He’s married to a farmer’s daughter. And I was asking him about this concept that I feel like I understand about soybeans and just seeds in general.

And the concept is that the power that lies within the seed to be able to grow and yield a harvest does not come from it as a collective. Like if I were to take all these soybeans and make a little hole in the ground and pour all of them in one spot, there’s a good chance that a few of them would take root and grow, but there’s probably a vast majority of them that would lie dormant and would be wasted.

Rather, when I scatter the seed and spread it out, each one of those soybeans now has the potential to take root and take hold and grow. And each of these soybeans, each seed, has to kind of make the decision to die to itself to produce the plant so that more soybeans could grow. And that’s just kind of, you know, you get that. It’s common. No farmer would go out to his field and just dump all this seed in one place and go, “Eh, that’s good enough for this year.”

He would prepare the field and then he would scatter the seed throughout. But what I learned that’s really interesting specifically about the soybean is that farmers will actually persecute the soybean to help it grow strong so that it can produce more. Meaning that if they were to just plant the soybeans and allow them to grow, they would grow up, but they would grow up fluffy. And if you’ve ever driven by a field and there’s fluffy soybean plants, the farmer is not happy about that.

And so they’ll actually introduce elements and chemicals to the soybean plant so that it will grow stronger and the weak stuff, the fluffiness, will be blown away from it, get off of it, so that it can produce more and more and more and the harvest will be greater.

And the thing I want you to see this morning is that the scattered church we’re going to see here in Acts is actually more effective than the gathered church. And the fluffy church isn’t as useful as the persecuted and strong church. And that might sound like a little controversial.

Like I like to be the gathered church. I like fluffy. It’s nice; it’s comfortable. But what we’re going to see in our story through Acts as we continue marching through is that God will actually use persecution in the life of the church to make it take root, to help it be strong and to help it yield a greater harvest.

And as we look at our text today, I just want to remind us of kind of where we’re at, the state of the church. Just a couple things. We have our first Christian martyr, Stephen. He’s been killed; he’s been stoned for the message of the gospel. And then we get introduced to a new character, right? He’s mentioned there at the end of chapter 7 and right here Acts 8:1 it says, “Saul. Saul approved of his execution.”

See, while the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin are kind of the entities of opposition against the Christian movement. We now have the face of the war for them against Christians, Saul of Tarsus. Like this is the villain reveal of the movie, ok? This is like Darth Vader against the Jedi, right? This is Ivan Drago against America. This is Thanos against the Avengers. This is the bad guy, and you kind of get revealed here in the movie.

And so there’s kind of a dramatic turn here in Acts. And so I don’t think that we could just read these next few verses just as they are. I think we have to set the mood this morning. So we’re going to set the mood. Look with me at Acts 8.

And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. (Acts 8:1-3)

Do you feel the drama in the room with that statement, right? You kind of have to, like you can’t just glaze over those verses. Things are not good. This is the low point of the film. This is like the rise and fall that Pastor Holder has explained to us. This is one of the lowest points, arguably the lowest point the disciples have faced since the death of Jesus on the cross.

You just have to put yourself in the story a bit. Imagine you’re a young believer. Your eyes have been opened to the light of the gospel message that Jesus was the Messiah- He came to forgive sins through the shedding of His blood- and you have salvation and a relationship with God available to you. It’s amazing.

And you join these other believers and God is at work. There are miracles happening. People are being saved every single day. There’s unity. There’s commonality centered around the gospel message.

And there’s been a few instances where your like main leaders, they’ve been arrested and stood before, but even that has been amazing because they just get released. The last time they were imprisoned, an angel showed up and like broke them out of jail. Like you’re invincible. This is amazing. We’re up and to the right constantly. This is awesome.

And then you install these bright young men, Stephen being one of them who has so much potential, so much opportunity for God to use him. He’s teaching, he’s evangelizing, he’s serving, and then he gets arrested. And you’re like, “Oh man, this must just be kind of what happens when God starts to use you is you get arrested.”

And so you do what you’ve been doing and you maybe gather with some of the other church and you’re praying and you’re just waiting to hear that an angel showed up again and broke Stephen out or how he was beaten and man, that’s just such an amazing thing that we’re worthy to be persecuted for the sake of Christ.

And then you hear shouting across town and a mob forming. And you find out that Stephen wasn’t just beaten; they killed him. They stoned him. He’s dead. And things kind of start to get a little scary around town. There’s whispers of threats coming from this young man who you’ve seen around at the temple. They call him Saul.

And one day a friend runs into your home and locks the door and says, “You’ve got to grab whatever you can carry. We need to leave now. And three doors down as you’re sneaking out the back you see them kicking in a door and grabbing a man and his wife and binding them and taking them away. And so you’re on the run. And as you’re running and people are fleeing in all directions, you’re kind of like, “What are we going to do? Where are the displaced? Where’s Peter? Where’s John?”

And they’re like, “They’re not leaving. They’re staying. They’re hunkering down. They’re not going anywhere. But we’ve got to go. We can’t stay here.”

Now what? You gave yourself to this and things are in a bad place. You have no plan, there’s no leadership. Do you get the picture? I think it needs to be kind of vivid in our mind because otherwise we kind of just coast through these few verses and try to get to the next story. But we have to understand that things are in a tight place. The gathered church is now scattered.

And what we’re going to see is that God does not waste it. It’s not a footnote in the story of Acts. It is purposeful. This great persecution, this tribulation that the early church is facing is strategic in the hands of the almighty God.

Because you and I, we would read the word “scatter,” and we would think that’s a failure. Like they were building a great thing, there was a movement, and now it’s spread out. That’s wrong. The movement has stopped. It’s not a good thing. But God sees it as a scattering farmer would see seeds. Like there’s going to be fruit. It’s going to yield a harvest.

The first thing we should gather this morning is this: The scattered church is not stopped; it is sent. There’s a purpose. Nothing is wasted in the hands of our God. look at verse 4.

It says, Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip, when they heard him and saw the signs that he did. (Acts 8:4-6)

There are a few things that stand out to me in that text as I’m reading it. Maybe go back and underline them to see this. The word preaching in verse 4, the word proclaimed in verse 5, and then in verse 6 the words crowds and signs. Preaching, proclaimed, crowds and signs. Now I’m just saying this, the reason Philip is in Samaria, is because a man was just murdered and set off a mass persecution for preaching and proclaiming Jesus, gathering crowds and doing great signs.

So if it’s me and I’m on the run from Darth Saul and his stormtroopers, like I’m maybe laying low for like a week. But here is Philip and he just marches into a town and starts doing exactly what Stephen is doing. There’s no stopping. There’s no quiet sneaking around. He just continues on with the mission.

See, Philip was back in chapter 6, Philip was chosen with Stephen as the first seven deacons. So Stephen would have been a close friend. So they were serving together. They were evangelizing together. They were serving the Lord.

And so, if I’m Philip, I’m having some feelings about my friend just being put to death. And there’s maybe some fear of it could happen to me too. And so my first question as I’m running from this persecution is, “Where are we going and what are we going to do when we get there?” And it’s interesting to me that he’s not hiding, he’s not making great lamentation over his brother. He’s preaching the gospel to a new city. He continues on with the assignment.

And it’s not just any city. It’s important to note that this is Samaria. He’s a Jew. Remember the parable about the great Samaritan. We, in this day and age, you hear the word “Samaritan” and you instantly think, “That’s a good person. That’s someone who wants to serve other people and do good things for people. Back in that day, “Samaritan” to a Jew was a bad word. There was some deep seeded hatred between these people.

That’s why the good Samaritan parable is so scandalous as Jesus tells it, because of all people to stop and help someone it wouldn’t have been a Samaritan. Or they wouldn’t have wanted it to be a Samaritan.

And so here is Philp who is taking a message that is not a popular message at the moment to a city where he is not a popular person. The odds are stacked against him. So wouldn’t it be better to just be silent, Phillip? Just be quiet for a little minute. We’ll get back to the mission here in a minute. Maybe we just kind of get our bearings a bit, lay low, maybe gather some other people. Like build a small church and then go out and start preaching.

But Philip does the exact opposite, and here’s why. The scattered church is not silenced, it is empowered. It’s not silenced, it’s empowered. Not only is Philip preaching, but he’s filled with the Spirit. He’s performing miracles. He’s casting out demons in very obvious ways. Do you see it there? He says, For unclean spirits, verse 7, crying out with a loud voice came out of many who had them and many who were paralzyed or lame were healed (Acts 8:7. So it’s not like he’s doing this kind of in secret. Like people are aware of what’s happening. Crowds are starting to gather. Philip is coming into Samaria not low; he’s coming in hot. HAWT- Holy, Anointed, Witness and Testifying. That was for free.

Like he’s not coming in like oh, I’ll just kind of find my place. Like he knows what God has called him to do. He’s not silent. He’s empowered.

And then verse 8. I love what happens. There was much joy in that city (Acts 8:8). So there was much joy in that city. How does that happen? Because God is using the scattering of His people to take the gospel message to a place it’s never been, to a people who’ve never heard it so that more and more believers will join the family of God. The seeds are scattered and they’re taking root quickly.

And that joy that is in that city, listen, it’d be easy to read that and be like, “Of course there’s joy. Like he’s doing awesome stuff. He’s healing people. He’s casting out demons. Like they’re just happy he’s there to provide relief for them from the burdens that they’re facing. But that joy that it’s speaking of is actually referring to the joy that comes from what? From them preaching the Word, from Philip preaching Christ to them.

Joy cannot be found, true joy, cannot be found in just the relief of earthly problems but in the salvation that comes through Jesus Christ. Yes, they found freedom from the bondage of demonic oppression and physical afflictions. But more importantly they were finding freedom from the bondage of sin in their life. The freedom that only comes from Christ. No wonder they had joy in the city.

Again, you read it and you’re kind of like, “Was there any fear?” I don’t sense that there was fear around what Philip was preaching. Because again, his message he had to kind of explain who he is and why he was there. Hey, I’m going to preach to you the good news of Jesus Christ. Because we were preaching it over there and then they start killing people. One of my best friends, he actually just got stoned to death. He was doing exactly what I’m doing right here right now.

And then there was this guy Saul. He was like grabbing people, taking them off to prison. It was crazy. And we’re just going to set up shop and do the same thing here. There’s like probably one guy in the back. “Uh, can you not send the psychopath to our city please? We were good and then you showed up.” Like maybe some fear around the idea.

I was reminded while reading it, there’s a story of when Jesus’ ministry on earth in Matthew chapter 8. There’s this account of Jesus and He gets to a town. And He arrives on a boat and He gets off and there’s one main road into town. And along that road there were two demon-possessed men, it says, were so fierce that no one could pass by. So basically they had trapped people in the city or anybody who tried to get in or out had to deal with these demon-possessed men who were violent and vicious.

And so Jesus shows up, gets off the boat and encounters them. And of course the demons recognize who He is and they say, “Have you come to torment us before the time?” because they know Jesus has already won and has authority over them. And the whole story is funny to me because the demons don’t even like wait for Jesus to cast them out. They’re like, “Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. There’s pigs. Just let us go in the pigs before you do anything.”

And Jesus, He doesn’t even have to say it. He says, “Go,” and boom, out into the pigs. And then the pigs run off a cliff into the sea, drown, dead. Bad day for the two pig farmers who then run into the city and they’re like, “Here’s what happened. There’s this guy who got off a boat, demon guys, they’re in the pigs. They died. So if you’ve got some sheep, we’ll do the sheep now. But maybe avoid that guy. But please don’t fire me. It’s not my fault.” Right?

And so the town comes out and they see these demon-possessed men sitting in their right mind. Like this is amazing. A miracle just happened. And their response is not joy. There’s no like, “Oh my gosh, the Messiah, he’s here!” It’s fear. They beg Jesus to leave.

Now fear of what? Now maybe, you know, they’re afraid He’s going to keep doing this with killing livestock, and that was their main source of income. Like you’re ruining the town. Please stop. Maybe they’re just terrified of the power that He held and they don’t know what to do with it.

But instead of responding with a form of joy like, “It’s Jesus!” they respond and they beg him to leave. Samaria could have made that same choice. Philp coming in full of power of the Holy Spirit casting out demons in the same way, healing paralyzed and laem men. What is this power? We don’t understand. And you’re telling us people are dying for it? We want nothing to do with it.

Instead, they have the faith to get through their fear and they find joy. And Philip could’ve given in to some of this fear as well. Again it’s Samaria and Samaritans. Like there’s this hatred between the two. Like this is maybe a place where I found refuge, but I don’t want to bring this message. Like these people aren’t ready to talk to me. And maybe he’s fearful of Saul and if I start preaching like Saul is going to find out. And he already took out Stephen. I’m next.

Sometimes I forget men and women in the Bible are like real people. Like I just assume they’re like perfect Christian robots. Like, “Of course. I’m going to preach the gospel. Do-do-do-do-do.” There are feelings and emotions attached to this. His friend has died. He’s on the run. And still, he’s doing exactly what God has called him to do. Why? How is that possible? Because he has joy and the fact that Jesus has got him, that the Holy Spirit is empowering him.

See like the soybean, the persecution is not uprooting the gospel message. It is actually causing the roots to grow deeper and deeper in the lives of His people. And it’s causing the gospel message to grow wider and wider and yield a greater harvest.

So the question for us out of that is what makes us afraid? What keeps us from experiencing this type of joy, because we’re stuck in fear? I think there are three things we can pull out of this that we are afraid of. The first one is fear of man. See, Philip could have chosen to fear Saul or the Sanhedrin or the people of Samaria.

And we have our own names that we fear. I know I should talk to my family member about who Jesus is and what He’s done in my life, but man, I don’t want to make Thanksgiving awkward. It’s going to take a bad turn if I bring it up. I just, I’m just not going to do it. I know I should be more bold in my witness at the office, but there’s that one guy who I know he’s an atheist and he’s just going to call me out and they’re going to label me the office preacher and that’s who I’ll always be.

And I want to tell my friends that like, of course I’m not going to do that because it goes against what God asks me to do, but then I’ll never get invited to anything ever again. I’ll be the weird Christian kid at school. I’ve had all of those conversations in my own head in my life.

There’s fear of suffering. Would any of us have blamed Philip for being afraid of suffering, for fearing for his life to some degree? Prison and/or probably death is on the table. And for us, listen, most of the time our idea of persecution is actually “egocution”. It’s an attack on our pride and our ego. “They said I was not right. They said I was wrong. They don’t like me anymore.” And that doesn’t make it less real for us, but rarely are we in physical danger for our gospel message.

But still, we’re afraid to suffer. We’re afraid to be put in a place of discomfort. But if I can be really honest with you, every believer of Jesus should have a theology of suffering. Jesus promises suffering. He promises persecution. See, if you believe that the gospel to you is a ticket to an easy life with problems solved and earthly comforts given, you and I are reading different Bibles. It is guaranteed that we will suffer for the name of Christ, because earth is against Christ until it is made new.

And in our flesh that produces fear. I don’t want to suffer. I like being comfortable. And we have fear of the unknown. As Philip is fleeing his house, I can imagine he’s just fearful of like what’s going to happen now? I don’t know where I’m going to end up. I don’t know what I’m going to be doing. I don’t know who is coming for me. It’s fear of the unknown.

And even in the middle of the joyful celebration of Samaria, it would be ok to probably consider that Philip is with one eye looking down the road wondering when Saul is going to come marching up it. I just don’t know. I’m here. I’m doing what God has called me to do, but there’s this unknown and it takes control of me, and there’s fear surrounding it.

We like to be in control. I’ve never heard someone say they’re out of control in like a good context. Oh look, they’re out of control. No. it’s always a bad thing, right? Driving down the road. “They’re out of control. Get off the road.” Right?

I get that personalities are different in the room. Some people are like, I just go with the flow man I don’t need to know the plans, right? You married somebody who makes the plans, because that’s way easier for you. Raise your hand if you’re married to a person that’s like…no, I’m just kidding. Don’t do that. Right? We like to be in control. We like to know the plans. And maybe our personalities are different.

I’ll see this play out in my kids. Mason is our oldest. He’s got to know the plan. “Daddy, what’s the plan? Where are we going? When are we going to get there? Who’s going to be there when we get there? What are we going to do when we’re there? When are we leaving? When are we going to go back?”

“Bro, we’re going to Target. Calm yourself. Ok? It’s the same every time.”

And then there’s Jackson. Doesn’t care about the plan. There’s one time I’ve come outside and he’s just in our van, no shoes, pajamas still on. And I’m like, “Jackson, what are you doing?”

“I don’t know.”

“Why are you in the car?”

“You said we were going to go someplace.”

“I was talking about Christmas, bro.”

“Oh, ok.”

Doesn’t need to know the plan.

“How long have you been in the van?” Doesn’t care.

That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the idea that when we’re in a situation we have no idea what’s about to happen to us, none of us like to be in that place. At least give me the next step. I might not need to know the end goal, but at least tell me what’s coming next. But when we’re in that place, there’s fear and a lot of times that fear will cause us to lay low, sotp, sit, wait, until we’re sure that it’s safe to step out.

So those are our fears. How do we combat fear? How do we get to a place of joy? How do we get to a place where we’re just resting in the joy that comes from the gospel? Here’s what gives us joy: faith in the mission. Faith in the mission. When we believe in the Great Commission, we can believe in the power that’s available to us.

See, at the end of the mission brief where Jesus says go and make disciples of all nations, He ends it with the power that comes when He says, “And I will be with you always, to the end of the age.” When we put our faith in the mission, it’s not faith that oh, I can do this. I’ve got this. I can make it happen.” It’s faith that Jesus is with us working through us. And we put our faith in that. We lose the fear that comes. The fear of man? What can man do to me? I have the Lord on my side. I am doing what God has called me to do. You and I need to have faith in the mission and believe that God is with us.

How many times do you think Philip and these early believers and followers of Jesus heard this from the disciples? Go and do what God has called you to do. You are anointed with the Holy Spirit. You are called. And remember He is with you. He’s with you at that Thanksgiving dinner this week that you’re dreading. He’s with you at the office full of skeptics and atheists. He’s with you as you walk the halls of your school. He’s with you always. Have faith in the mission.

Another thing is faith in eternal life will get rid of fear and replace it with joy. See, I really believe the lack of fear for personal safety that we see exemplified over and over again in Acts is not because they feel like they’re invincible like nothing can touch them here on earth. It is because they have placed all of their faith in the fact that this life is not the end.

Eternal life is everything. That when Jesus ascended into heaven and said, “I go to prepare a place for you,” He wasn’t talking metaphorically. He was saying there is something after this that is far greater than what you see right now.

So death is just a doorway to the disciples. It’s not the end. And so go ahead. Persecute my body. Take my life. It doesn’t matter. I have faith in eternal life. Suffering is nothing. Death is nothing compared to what waits for me.

I’m so excited that Saul is introduced. It’s kind of like you know the whole story. You’ve seen the movie, you’ve read the book, but you’re re-reading it and your favorite character, like a big character, is about to get introduced and you want to just kind of sit in the whole character arc and see it happen.

But spoiler alert if you don’t know, Saul switches that “S” for a “P” and becomes Pual and writes basically most of the New Testament. And in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, he writes this: We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed, always carrying in the body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies (2 Corinthians 4:8-10).

The irony of Saul/Paul writing that as he in this story is persecuting the church, is striking them down, and they are not perplexed, they are not dismayed, they are not in despair. They are carrying the death of Jesus, but also the life of Jesus, of eternal life through resurrection. They have faith in eternal life, and we should do the same.

See, we cling to verses like that, 2 Corinthians 4, we cling to it in 2021 like, “Yeah Lord, no matter what happens, like I’m going to hope in you and you’ve got me.” But are we actually putting our faith in eternal life?

Or are we putting our faith in the relief of a worldly affliction at some point? Like, “God, the greatest thing you could do for me right now in this moment is to fix my problem, heal my disease.” Or are we praying, “God, the greatest thing you could give to me, you’ve already given me, and it’s eternal life? So whether in this life or the next, God I pray you’d give me faith.”

And the last one is faith in God’s promises. We fight fear of the unknown by having faith in God’s promises. See the joy in Samaria was not rooted in the signs and wonders that Philip was doing, but in the promise of God to bring salvation. Samaritans are a people who were rooted in the law of Moses. The law was everything to them and their idea of the Messiah was nothing like what Jesus was doing.

But their eyes are opened through the power of the Holy Spirit and they see the message that Jesus is offering that He is the final payment that the law that they held to is now fulfilled in Him and they believe. And they believe the promises of God are fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. What great joy is found when we start to lose our own expectations of who Jesus is and what He should do for us and we start to just surrender ourselves to the promise of salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ alone. It is not through works so that no man may boast, but through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

When I have faith in God’s promises, there’s no more fear of the unknown because it’s no longer the unknown. I may not know, but I know the one who does. I may not know what’s going to happen next, but I know the one who does. I may not know where to go, what to say, what to do, but I know the one who does because my God is a promise-keeper. Psalm 145:13 says, The Lord is trustworthy in all he promises and is faithful in all he does. He doesn’t waste anything.

So here’s the truth my friends. God will not waste a moment. The scattered church is an effective church in the hands of God. A persecuted church is being used in the hands of our God. It’d be easy to look at this passage and just think like, “What a waste. What a low point. Why did this have to happen? Why couldn’t God deliver Stephen? How much potential he had. How much more he could have done for the faith of those believers at that time. How many more people would have come to Christ if he had stayed alive. God, why?

And Lord, the church right there, it was gathered. There was so much momentum. Thousands being saved, people being served, taken care of, needs being met. You were on a roll and then you just let one guy come and just ravage the church?

We find out later from Paul’s testimony that it wasn’t just a simple like they went and sat in jail for a couple of days and then he released them. Paul later described his testimony that he persecuted, jailed, tortured and killed Christians thinking he was working in the name of Christ, working in the name of God. For what? What did it do?

He’s working. He’s not wasting anything. His promises remain even when we can’t see it. Later in 2 Corinthians, Paul shows us one of these promises when he writes, For this light and momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal (2 Corinthians 4:17-18).

It may not be known right now. You may not be able to see it. But He’s doing something with it. He’s working right in the middle of it all. Not a moment of a trial will be wasted. He will work it for good. And we find faith and joy when we choose to believe God’s promises to us.

See, one of the amazing things about the scattered church is the fact that it’s led to a moment where we sit here today in Michiana in the middle of the cornfield praising God and sitting under the banner of the message that Philip took to Samaria. And in a few moments we will be the scattered church again. We’re gathered in this moment but then we will scatter across this area and we will face all sorts of different opposition and persecution and trials.

And there are people here in this room who are going through the hardest season of their life right now, whether it’s a sickness or disease, a hard marriage, a prodigal child. I can’t name them all, but God knows exactly where you’re at in these moments. And I want to remind you I came to church today to tell you that God is not wasting it. He is working for you eternal glory. And it might be unseen. It might feel like it’s not there. But I promise you when I read these eight simple verses I’m reminded that my God is a God who is never off His throne, who has never missed a moment of opportunity.

And so listen. I can’t stand up here and guarantee that if you have faith to believe that God’s going to work it, right now in this moment everything is going to be perfect. But I can guarantee you beyond a shadow of a doubt that one day you will stand before Jesus and everything will be perfect. Everything will culminate into the glory of a Savior who died, who shed His blood.

See, so much we think is wasted. Why? It’s so not worth it to go through these hard things. Why can’t we just be fixed? And the cross is our example. Jesus willingly giving up His life like that seed so that all would know life forever.

And I believe that. You know, I love that it says that “except the apostles fled.” So what were the apostles doing? I can believe and trust from what they usually do is they were praying. And I can almost picture Peter on his knees saying, “Lord, be with Philip. God, he’s so bright. There’s so much in his future. You’re using him so greatly. He’s so full of your spirit. Would you be with him wherever he is? Wherever he’s at, would you use him?”

And prayer is one of the greatest weapons we have to fight against fear and sometimes it’s easier just to come to church, tuck your Bible under your arm. “You know, doing good. I’m all right.” But we know. We know how hard things are. Some of you are being persecuted and opposed by family members for your faith. Others of you are just facing the hard things that come from living on a broken world.

In James 5 he gives us an instruction. He says, Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord (James 5:13-14).

So Pastor Micah is going to sing a prayer over us. I just don’t want you to miss this opportunity. I’ve invited our pastors, elders, some friends just to be down front. We’ve cleared some space here in the front.

And I just want to invite you. Maybe the step you need to take today to step out of fear toward faith so that you can have joy in Jesus is just to come and say, “Would you pray for me? I just need to pray with other believers and be affirmed that God is working in my life. It’s hard for me to see right now. I don’t understand how this could lead to God’s glory, but I have faith to believe that my God is a promise-keeper. Would you pray that with me?”

And so as Micah sings, I just invite you to just come to the front. Let’s just fill this place, make it a house of prayer, so that we can see that there are people in our lives who believe and have faith to know that God is working through all things, that the scattered church is effective. But right now as the gathered church, let’s build one another up in prayer.