After a summer series looking at Psalms 24-33, this morning Pastor Jamie will resume preaching through the book of Acts. Acts 14 recounts the travels of Paul and Barnabas through several cities in Asia Minor, where they preach the Gospel, make disciples, and face persecution from both Pagans and Jews. Many of the hymns we sing this morning celebrate the preaching of the Word to all the nations. We’ll ask all the Lord to help us to “spread through all the earth abroad the honors of [His] name” (O For A Thousand Tongues To Sing), and we’ll encourage one another to “spread His praise from shore to shore” (O The Deep, Deep Love Of Jesus). We’ll look forward to the day when “His praises sound through every land” (Within Your Temple Lord—Psalm 48), when “all that dwells above the sky, and air, and earth, and sea” joins together to worship the creator (My God, My Portion, And My Love). Though the church faces resistance—perhaps even violence, as Paul and Barnabas did (Acts 14:19)—we can take heart that Christ promises peace in the midst of “toil,” “tribulation,” “tumult,” and “war” (The Church’s One Foundation). Though we may find ourselves trapped in “a horrid pit” with “bonds of miry clay,” our God promises to raise us up (I Waited Patient For The Lord—Psalm 40). His works of grace will spread so far that sinners throughout the world will “learn to make [our] God their only hope and fear.”
—Henry C. Haffner
