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Being in the right group, studying the right things, living a decent life—it feels like that ought to be enough. But in Acts 13, Paul announces to a synagogue full of people who had done exactly that: there are things the Law of Moses simply could not free you from, and being part of the in-group won’t close that gap.
The following study questions are AI generated and may contain errors.
The sermon opens with Iranian protesters whose shared bravery still isn’t enough without outside help. Where do you see a similar pattern in your own life—places where belonging to the right group or doing the right things has felt like it should be enough, yet something deeper is still missing?
Paul and Barnabas affirm that the Law of Moses and David’s example are good foundations, yet neither can free us from everything we need. How do you tend to treat “good foundations” (Bible knowledge, church involvement, moral effort) as if they were the finished house?
The people in the synagogue begged to hear more and some followed immediately, being urged to “continue in the grace of God.” What does continuing in that grace look like for you right now—beyond simply showing up?
The treadmill illustration shows that having the equipment is useless unless you actually use it—and that Christ has already done the real work. In what ways do you still try to “earn” what Jesus has already finished, or treat church as a place to “fold laundry” rather than receive His grace?
The warning from Habakkuk 1:5 is that God’s people can scoff at the very work He is doing in their day. Where might we be at risk of missing or resisting what God is actually doing among us right now?
This transcript has been automatically generated and may contain errors.
Has anyone else this week been watching just the incredible footage of the Iranian people who have been protesting? Just stunning what they’re doing, standing up and trying to achieve freedom. We’ve seen this before, but never on this scale. There have been previous protests in Iran where people tried their best to achieve freedom, but it’s now spread all throughout the country with people crying out, “Long live the Shah,” referring to their old ruler, the son of whom has become a symbol of freedom. He talks about establishing a constitution, democracy, and has worked from the United States for years towards that.
You see these people crying out, and you see these pictures of these women who take off the garments they’ve been required to wear over these last decades, and then light a picture of the Ayatollah on fire to say they’re in defiance, knowing full well what will probably come of them. In fact, some estimates now place the number of protesters killed by the regime at over 2,000. I think about that. I think about the bravery. What kind of bravery does it take to do that?
I’ve tried to take stands for things. I’m sure we all have at some point taken stands for something, but you know, I have never taken a stand where I thought it was likely it would cause someone to turn a gun on me and kill me. And the idea that you live in a place where the government, if they can find you, will kill you, and the only question is, will they kill you quickly, or will they kill you slowly when they find you? The bravery is incredible.
So they cry out their chants of freedom, they storm the government buildings, they burn the pictures, and they hope for a better future. But I was reading an expert on Iran and the situation in Iran, as much as we can discern it because the internet’s been cut off there for several days and only a few people who happen to have a Starlink connection can communicate out. And the thought is, as the government amasses its forces, these protesters probably only have a matter of days that they can hold out before the government manages to completely crush them.
And I thought about that. Tens of thousands of people crying out for freedom, demonstrating incredible bravery. And it basically comes down to this, if someone from the outside doesn’t decide to help them, they will be crushed, and they will be killed. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t know if we’ll get involved, I don’t know if Israel will get involved, I don’t know if some other party will get involved and try to protect these protesters. There are a lot of questions there. But one thing that’s very clear is, they’re hoping for outside help, and unless they receive it, they can’t get the freedom they so desperately are fighting for and showing such bravery for.
You see, it doesn’t matter if they’re part of the in-group, and right now, if you’re in the midst of those protesters, and you’ve, for years, and in quiet ways, maybe been in undergrounds and fought for freedom, it has to be exhilarating in the midst of the bravery to finally have all these other people, and know right around you are all these people fighting for the same thing, and they’re right there with you, and they get it too, and they want it too. But being part of the group isn’t enough, they need something more.
As we come to Acts 13 tonight, once again, and we find ourselves in the middle of a synagogue as Paul and Barnabas are preaching, here’s the thing that Paul and Barnabas are telling the people. You’re in the in-group, right, it’s exhilarating, you’re with all these other people who believe in God’s word, but here’s the thing, if that’s all you have, sin’s going to crush you, death is going to crush you, that isn’t enough, you need something more. Being in the in-group is not the same as being saved.
And just like those protesters, if no missiles are launched and no planes fly in, they will be crushed, and if we mistake being with a group of people reading the Bible, or a group of people that sing spiritual songs, or a group of people who claim to care about the things of the Bible, if we mistake that for actually receiving the help that we need from the Lord, then we too will be crushed. Let’s pray tonight that we don’t make that mistake.
Father, thank you for this evening, thank you for your word, and as we come to it tonight, we pray, Lord, that you would remind us of what really matters. We confuse all sorts of things that we think put us in the right place. We think that we can just be part of a group, and that group will do it for us, but Lord, we know that’s not what your word says. So Lord, would you direct us to what gives us hope, the external help that we need, and the external help that you actually provide. We ask this in Jesus’ precious name, amen.
We need outside help, too, and that’s what we find in verse 38, Acts 13, 38, if you’d like to turn there in your Bible. Here’s what they say:
“Let it be known to you, therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. Beware, therefore, lest what is said in the prophets should come about. Look you scoffers, be astounded and perish, for I am doing a work in your days, a work that you will not believe even if one tells it to you.”
They went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath. And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God.
Well, let’s say up front, there’s something beautiful happening here just that the people are there gathered to hear God’s Word. It’s good to be with God’s people. Amen? It’s good to be with God’s people. I’m glad that I’m with God’s people tonight. That’s a good thing. And I feel that when I’m here. I feel that when last week I was online, but I was with my brothers and sisters in Christ as part of our family, both in person and online. Just being with you is a good thing, and I’m so thankful for that. And they felt that here, too. It’s good to be with God’s people.
Well, who is it that they were with? They’re in the synagogue. So really, the template, in a sense, if you really want to think about what the church looks like. The synagogue was not the temple. Temple was where you offered sacrifice. The synagogue was the gathering together. That’s what it means. And they gathered together, and they did what? They studied God’s Word together. They praised God together.
And so Paul and Barnabas come. They’re preaching to these people, and we’re told there are two types of people in the synagogue. There are the Jews. That’s obvious enough, right? Jews go to synagogue. But then there are those, depending on your translation, it may say God-fearers or devout converts, or it could say a number of different things. But these, in other words, were Gentiles who had come to believe in the Lord.
And they may not have gone through following all the ceremonial law. They may not have been circumcised. They may not have restricted their diet to only the things God had permitted, but they believed that God was the God of the universe. And the more they pursued Him, and the more that they gave up some of those things that this broader society would permit, the more they were outcast anywhere other than with God’s people.
So these are people that, maybe in some sense, were the most excited to be together with God’s people. I think we all know that. If you didn’t grow up in the church, and at some point you became convicted that Jesus is Lord, and you started coming to church, you may remember that initial excitement you had where it was like, okay, this is something I believe in. I’m going to change my life, and this is going to be part of it.
Maybe it’s a little more gradual for those of us that grew up in the church. But maybe it’s then that we can think of someone that we know who’s suddenly come to believe in Jesus. And we just see that fire and that excitement. Even if someone changes denominations and becomes really passionate about a certain part of theology, it’s sort of fascinating to watch someone, because all these things are super, super exciting, and they’re super, super fired up about it, and they’ll have all these big theological debates that maybe someone else who’s studied that area of theology for years and believes it doesn’t have anymore, because like, well, okay, it’s fine. I believe it, but I don’t need to argue over it. No, I just realized this is the best thing ever. I’m passionate about this.
We know that fire of conversion. I think that’s telling, because here are people who have paid a price, who have decided to change their lives, and there’s the cradle Jews, so to speak, the people who have always been Jewish and have always gone to synagogue, and they’re passionate because it’s their identity. But here are people then who that isn’t the case, and they’ve chosen to make it their identity, and they’re all there together, and so, yeah, they’re excited that they’re with God’s people, and they’ve paid a price for it.
We feel that a little bit today in our own culture, right? If we’re really going to do the things of God, and we’re going to say, I’m not going to be someone where the world is the model of how I live. I want to be clearly a part of God’s people. I want to do what God calls me to do, and if that means not participating in certain activities or watching certain things or listening to certain things or saying certain things, I’m going to do that because I want to be known as Jesus’s.
We know that there’s a cost, and I want us to keep that in mind in the background, because whatever cost we might think that we feel in our culture, we have to understand it was much, much greater for both Jews and God-fearing Gentiles that are in the synagogue as Paul and Barnabas preach, because they were so different from everybody else.
We live in a world, a region of the world, most of us at least, depending on where you’re, if you’re tuning in online, maybe this isn’t true, but for most of us, we find ourselves in a place that, even if it’s largely secular today, is deeply influenced by the Bible and biblical views on a whole host of matters, and so even as the world is in opposition at times to the things of God, it’s not in opposition to everything of God. We walk in here tonight, and we don’t expect anyone to give us a hard time about it. We have freedom to worship.
If you were a Roman Gentile, and you decide, I’m not going to eat pork anymore, I’m going to get circumcised, I’m going to go to synagogue and honor the Sabbath, I’m not going to work on the Sabbath, and you start to do these things, you aren’t just viewed as maybe a little bit, there’s somebody who takes their religion seriously, maybe a little too much, you know, that sort of thing. No, you were viewed as just absolutely nuts.
It might cost you deals in the marketplace, standing in the society, dramatically so. A lot of these people, and over the time subsequent, were a lot more like those Iranian protesters standing up right now than they are like us, because the price was so much higher.
So as Paul and Barnabas preach, they don’t come in and say, you know, everything that you’ve given up opportunities in life for, every insult you’ve taken, every risk to your lives you’ve taken, it was all for naught. They don’t say that, and they don’t need to, because that’s not true. They talk about David, and they don’t say, well, David wasn’t really any good, he was just a, you know, old king, forget about him. No, they don’t say that at all.
It’s clear as they’re preaching here that God used David. And I imagine people in the synagogue nodding, nodding, yes, yeah. Maybe some of them, as they became God-fearers, they’d become God-fearers because they’d heard some of the Psalms, and they thought about some of David’s life, and they thought, you know, even though he was so imperfect, he sounds a lot different than all of our Gentile kings. And maybe, maybe there’s something to the God whom he worships, who’s been so faithful to.
Or maybe it was the law of Moses, as difficult as it was, especially in a society that thought it was just completely objectionable to insist on things like worshiping only one God and thinking there really was only one God, maybe some of them were impressed by the fact that God’s word lays out a clear sense of justice and care for the downtrodden and all these things that society often didn’t do at that time. Maybe someone said, you know, that’s really beautiful. I want to know the God who’s behind that.
So now that’s denied. But, there’s a big but here, there’s a big, big problem here. David served God’s purpose, but David can’t intercede for them, David can’t make anything right. Why? Because David is dead. David served God’s purpose, and then he died, we see that in verse 36.
And going on, well, but there’s the law of Moses, there’s my hope, there’s why I’ve given up so much and I’ve come into the synagogue, because at least there’s the law of Moses, verse 39. And by him, speaking of Jesus, everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.
I spent all that time talking about these converts, because imagine that you’ve said, okay, I’m going to follow the Lord, I’m going to give up all this, and I’m going to start to really live by the law of Moses, and then you hear someone say, by the way, it can’t actually free you from everything you need to be freed from. Wait, what?
Notably though, Paul and Barnabas aren’t saying, the law of Moses is false, it’s just not enough. And this is the challenge that Scripture brings us to over and over again. Am I just taking the foundations, or am I, and missing the fact that God’s building a house upon it?
Because, you know, a foundation’s really nice. If you have a house, if you’re going to build a house, you want a foundation, right? You don’t want sinking sand, you want solid rock, or at least solid concrete, solid rock would be even better, right? If you just blasted it out and built your house on top of that, that’d be really nice and solid.
But what you wouldn’t want to do is just have a foundation, right? The construction stops, and you just have this big hunk of concrete there with no roof on it, nothing inside of it, and that doesn’t do you a whole lot of good.
And really what Paul and Barnabas are saying to them is, it’s wonderful for you Jews that you have continued to hold fast to what has been passed down. It’s wonderful, you Gentiles, that you’ve said, I recognize that the Lord is true, and so I want to follow him, even though it’s difficult. But right now you have a foundation, but you need a house.
And being a good person, by doing God’s will, it’s good. It’s good to be good, but it isn’t enough. Knowing the scriptures well, as they were becoming more and more acquainted in the synagogue. If you’d been there all your life, you knew them probably better than most of us do. And if you were new, well, maybe you didn’t, but you were trying to learn more and more.
But here’s the thing, it wasn’t enough. Sometimes we still make those mistakes today. Oh, I’m a good person. Oh, I know the scriptures really well. Oh, I don’t do, let’s just have a big old blank here. Fill it in with whatever you’d like, that you don’t do, that you look at other people and they do that. Well, I don’t do that.
This blank is here nice and blank in my life. I’m not doing it. And therefore, I have a good foundation. And if it’s something that God has actually told us not to do, that’s a good thing. Just like studying the Law of Moses is a good thing. Just like choosing to become a God-fearer and rejecting the pagan ways and coming to the Lord, that’s a good thing, but it isn’t the complete picture. It isn’t the house. It’s just a piece of concrete building towards something.
I love the page extension. I love the page extension. I mean, it is one of the best things that’s ever happened to this region. It’s just so great. I mean, it seems like you can get, well, maybe not anywhere, but anywhere oftentimes it seems like I want to go because you can get quickly across St. Charles County, you can get into St. Louis County, you can get to wherever you need to go really quickly. Traffic’s usually not too bad. I love it.
And the first part of it was built really, really well, too. If you look at the part that goes from Maryland Heights over into St. Peter’s, it’s nice and solid, spacious. The bridge is nice. The exit ramps are nice. But you know the parts they’ve added on after that, the parts that went out to O’Fallon as the budget got smaller and smaller, the lanes got narrower, there were fewer of them.
And I also noticed something else. They didn’t compact the dirt enough, clearly, under certain parts of the road. Because unlike that first part where they spent everything they needed to and took all the time they needed to, you get to about Mitterer’s Mall Drive and on, and it seems like they always have to close down parts of it because things start to sink. And the same places keep sinking.
Try to go over Highway K, wow, that’s bumpy. I mean, it’s not good. I see familiar nods here. Yes, we know this. If you live in this area, you know this well. And if you don’t, you learn it the first time you try.
And I say that to say a foundation is a good thing. It’s good to be with God’s people. It’s good to study his word. It’s good to follow his word. Foundations are a good thing. They shore things up.
But as much as maybe we can talk about Highway 364 and say, you know, it has some questionable foundations. They needed to work on that more. We probably also know highway projects over the years that were canceled. And they had laid out the road, but they put the gravel down. They compacted it. They built up the dirt around it. They ran it all out. And then they ran out of money and just canceled it.
And you see a part of a road going somewhere, and then the concrete just stops. And the road bed stays because they laid it down so well. It’s still there, but it doesn’t do anything.
And that’s almost, not almost, it is worse. Because it’s one thing if you have to know to slow down when you get to Highway K because you’re going to go over a bump almost inevitably as soon as they finish working on it. But it’s another if you approach a road and you need to get someplace and there simply isn’t any road there.
There’s a nice grassy hill that isn’t going anywhere because it’s really well built, but you can’t drive it because most of us don’t have four-wheel drive. And maybe even if you do, you don’t really want to try it.
And as Paul and Barnabas come to the synagogue, what they’re basically saying to these people is that you have a great grassy road bed for God to build on here. You’re doing the right things. You’re hanging out with God’s people and being encouraged by each other. You’re studying God’s word.
But don’t stop there because if that’s where you stop, that’s enough. You have the road bed. You’re not going to get anywhere. You need the road on top.
Where’s it all been building to? And so it is today we need more than just being in church. Now, as a little church plant, I don’t think this is as great a danger for us as a church that’s long established because it’s a pretty intentional decision to decide to come to a church plant.
And we might have been, between online and in person, we’ve been meeting for five, working on soon six years now. So, you know, it’s fading a little bit, but I think there’s still this sense in which it’s a very intentional community.
But over time, it’s something for us to watch out on. And even here, it’s still something we should check our hearts for. Is it that I feel spiritual because I’m in a church plant? Because I’m in this little band of people together?
Or is it because of the something more that goes on top of that? And certainly wherever you go, maybe you’re tuning in tonight and you’ve been in a church for decades, and it could be a perfectly good church. It might be exactly where God wants you to be.
But if you’re thinking what really matters is that you’re there, it’s not enough. And if you come here, being here still isn’t enough. It’s not enough. Because it’s not just good to be with God’s people. We need to become God’s people.
Verse 40, “Beware, therefore, lest what is said in the prophets should come about. Look, you scoffers, be astounded and perish. For I am doing a work in your days, a work that you will not believe, even if one tells it to you.”
So they went out and the people begged that these things might be told to them the next Sabbath. And after the meeting at the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God.
Here’s the thing. It was true then, and it’s true now. We need to be with God’s people. We need to study God’s word. But then we also need to become God’s people. We need to respond to what we hear about and what we witness.
Being in a church is an incredibly huge blessing towards becoming God’s people. God uses his people to build up that big, old, grassy foundation for the road that he’s going to build in your life. But you still need the road.
We need to hear and respond. When God acts, we need to have the reaction he calls us to. When we think about what the prophets said over and over again, God was acting, but the people needed to respond. They needed to actually understand what God was doing and embrace it.
They just were standing there dumbfounded, saying, “God’s not going to do that.” One passage quoted here is Habakkuk 1:5. And you think about that passage. It’s talking about scoffers, but who are the scoffers? They’re God’s people who can’t believe that Babylon is actually going to be raised up and turned into a vehicle of God’s judgment, that God is going to use this nation to work.
God’s people didn’t see it. God says, you need to understand what I’m actually doing. And so it is today. We need to be ready to understand what God is doing. They were called to a reaction, and they didn’t respond so often when the prophets cried out. And here, Paul and Barnabas say, that’s still God’s warning. You need to respond.
It’s not good enough that you’re showing up at synagogue. What are you doing with what you’re learning at synagogue? What are we doing today with what we learn in church? That sounds all kind of doom and gloomy, doesn’t it?
That’s the wonderful thing that we see here in Acts 13. The people, they actually respond. They don’t just say, “Oh, well, that sounds really nice, and maybe I’ll think about it. And why don’t you send me a book on that, and I’ll read about it, and maybe someday I’ll get back to you, Paul, Barnabas, if you’re coming back through town someday, let’s talk again.”
And they say, we need to know more about this. We need to embrace this. What do we see here? They realize that just because they were God-fearers or just because they were lifelong Jews, it didn’t matter. There was something more they needed to do.
And just because the only faith that you’ve ever identified with maybe is being a Christian, but you haven’t really done anything with it, God says it’s not enough just to have a title floating around you. It’s not enough just to show up at a church. It’s not enough to somehow be in the in-group. What you need to know is actually you need to know Jesus.
And these people had the right response. They didn’t hesitate. Depending on how you translate it, it’s really kind of interesting here. It says they asked Paul and Barnabas to come on the next Sabbath, but it could be they actually say, will you come during the time between now and the next Sabbath?
And I kind of like that. I can’t say that’s what they were saying for sure. Both are legitimate understandings of how they phrased it. But I think maybe what they’re saying is, we need to have a Monday night study on this, and we need to have a Tuesday night study on this. We have those here, actually. And we need to have a Wednesday night. We need to do this, Paul and Barnabas, because we’re talking about something really important, and we don’t want to miss out on what God’s doing. We want this.
And then there were some people. Some people said, I don’t even fully understand this yet, but I don’t even want to wait. I’m just going to believe right now. I don’t want to wait until you show up tomorrow. I want this right now.
Why? Because they realized all that they’d been doing, all they had given up. If they didn’t actually respond to what Paul and Barnabas were telling them, that Jesus had come for them, that he was offering forgiveness of sins to them, if they didn’t have that, then they didn’t have anything they needed.
Over there we have, I just couldn’t quite bear to take it down, our Merry Christmas banner. I know, I know, it needs to come down. But it does say Happy New Year as well, I’ll point out. It says Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
And it’s still early enough in the, I guess the lights don’t agree with that. Sorry, lights. It’s still New Year time, right? And one of the things, one of the reasons I can say that, is if you drive by the local gyms right now, they still have full parking lots. So it’s still New Year’s time.
And those new treadmills and things that people ordered and got for Christmas or for New Year’s, they still are actually doing their original intended purpose right now, right? The treadmill’s still turning on.
The treadmill has not become its most beloved and common function in the house of clothes hanger yet. But we know that banner is going to come down, and so too are the full parking lots at the gym.
And we know those treadmills that are running now, they’re going to start collecting clothes again. And here’s something I can say confidently. It doesn’t matter if you bought the cheapest treadmill that was available with some unpronounceable name brand on Amazon, or if you got the most premium deluxe Peloton exercise system with the fancy screen integration and custom music and coaches and everything else.
If you don’t use it, it doesn’t do you any good. Now, if you want to use it, having it there is a good step towards that. It’s a useful thing, but by itself it doesn’t do any good. You have to actually use it, and you have to use it for what it’s intended for.
If you’re going to come to church, if you’re going to study the Bible, a lot of times we love setting up all the equipment, right? We’ll learn the ideas, we’ll learn the theology, we’ll show up because it does feel good to be with God’s people, but we’re still essentially treating the church, we’re still essentially treating God’s people as sort of a place to fold our laundry. We’re just going to put it over it.
And we don’t want to do that. Because, okay, if you don’t walk on the treadmill, you won’t be quite as in shape, but what we’re talking about here is so much more serious. It’s not just that you might not be as in shape, you don’t have eternal life.
As we think about the incredible action that God did by coming into this world and saving us, the thing that we need to do is actually say, Lord, help me by your Spirit to actually react to this. Help me to actually live this and believe this.
I don’t want to just have some place to set my clothes. That’s what Paul and Barnabas urged. Verse 43: “And after the meeting in the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God.”
What do they mean by continue in the grace of God? In other words, we’ve preached now to you this grace of Jesus, that Jesus is faithful, that Jesus is here for you, but now you need to continue in this. This is what you need to actually make your identity.
It isn’t enough that you make your identity that you show up on Sabbath for some teaching at the synagogue. You need to actually have a life in God’s grace.
Last week we saw some of the Gentiles respond, the ones that weren’t necessarily even God-fearers. They’re just Gentiles hearing this being preached, and they said, whoa, this is pretty neat stuff. This is amazing. We need to respond to this.
But here we see those who already have the treadmill set up. It looks pretty good. It’s an impressive one. But are they going to get on it? Are they going to use it?
Now here’s the one thing with a treadmill or other piece of exercise equipment. It doesn’t do the work for us, does it? The reason I think most people don’t get on the treadmill they bought, no matter how much they spent for it, is because it’s still a lot of work to spend enough time to get any benefit from that treadmill, right? And if you speed it up and you put the angle higher and do all these things, I don’t know. I’m sore. I don’t want to do this.
But how ridiculous is it when we don’t respond to God? Because here’s the other thing. God isn’t asking us to get on a treadmill and do spiritual exercise until we’re strong enough for it. God says, I’ve already gotten on the treadmill for you. I’ve done it for you.
All you need to do is actually say, I want the benefits of that treadmill. I don’t want to just be sitting on the sidelines.
And I have to say, myself, if someone could do that for exercise, all you need to do is just say, I want the benefits. That would sound a lot more appealing to me. Anyone else? I mean, that sounds pretty good.
I’m not saying there isn’t any work in the Christian life, but what is clear is that we aren’t going to earn our place in the Christian life. There is work. God gives us things to study and do. He calls us to gather together, all these things. But all those things that we do, they’re all just helping to serve as an encouragement for the thing that He’s done, so we can understand it better and be those who embrace it more fully and use it more truly.
He’s already been on the treadmill for us. It’s Him, not us. And that’s why we don’t want to just be in the in-group.
God’s painted the picture of salvation. He said, let’s finish that foundation. I’ll put the house on it. I’ve already framed it up. I’ve already wired it and put the drywall up. It’s all there. Jesus already finished it for us.
As Paul and Barnabas preach to these folks and their message continues to come to us today, the call is, take what God has already done for you and experience that grace today.
Will you pray with me, please? Lord, we do pray that you would help us to be those who embrace what you have done for us. We can’t do it. What we do, we try to build a foundation. We receive the different things that you’ve provided to us that are a foundation, but Lord, what you call us to do then is to repent and believe, to believe in the finished work that our Savior has done for us and to receive the benefits of what He has done for us and to recognize that our Savior is the one who builds the house. What He calls us to do is to be inside it.
We pray this in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.
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