In this sermon, the speaker discusses the importance of preaching the word of God and the role of speeches or messages in the book of Acts. He mentions that 25% of the book of Acts is comprised of speeches, which are believed to be summaries of the actual messages given at that time. The speaker also shares a personal experience of distributing gospel tracks in Vienna and how God gave him the idea of Operation Mobilization, a ministry focused on spreading the gospel in Western Europe. The sermon emphasizes the need for evangelism and the power of God to guide and inspire individuals in their mission.

Looking now at chapter two, if you have your Bible. There's a lot in this great book, so I'm afraid we're gonna, in this series together, we're gonna miss in some ways more than we are able to cover. Let's just pray again. Father, we thank you for this challenge already this morning to our own hearts. Lord, I especially pray for the young people that I've just been speaking to. Our hearts so go out to our young people to see them really going on for you in power and grace. And we commit to you, Father, the youth activities, even as we're here together. Guide us now as we look into this great book. In Jesus' name, amen. Yesterday, we especially focused on the first chapter. We talked a little bit about the authorship and the fact that this is really the acts of the Holy Spirit. We saw that key verse, which would be very easy for me to get stuck on, Acts 1.8. But you shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost part of the earth. I want to quickly move on, but I think it is good, and John will be touching on this as well, to just realize that to a large degree, the uttermost part, the places like Tibet, the places like Bhutan and Afghanistan. And again, in different periods of history, you can refer to different countries in different ways depending on where you live. But the very fact that so many places are still unreached should be an enormous challenge to all of us. There are two scriptures that I always combine with Acts 1.8. There are a number. One of them was Matthew 9 that we looked at last night. But the other one is 2 Corinthians 10, 16. 2 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 16. Here we read, we want to tell the good news in the areas beyond your city. This is another translation. We do not want to brag about work that has already been done in another man's area. Now that's an interesting thought. And I don't think it's saying that we never should do church planting where a church already exists. And of course, there are many people in the United States that believe the greatest need in America is still planting new churches, and new churches are being planted. Some of you may come from new churches. And I have that double burden. I want to see new churches planted, and especially in more neglected areas. But I also long for the older churches to become renewed and become more sort of book of Acts, more visionary. But I think Paul, the author of Corinthians, is trying to say that this especially was his passion, and that this should be considered part of our passion today. To see the gospel go where there are no churches, where Christ has never been named. The other scripture I tie into this is Romans 15, 20, Romans 15, 20. Again, a very strong plea. I always want to preach the good news in places where people have never heard of Christ. I do this because I do not want to build on the work that someone else has already started. That was his apostolic vision. That was his pioneer spirit. And that same kind of vision came upon me as a young person of only 18 and 19 years of age. That I wanted to give my life to those places where Christ was not named. That's why I left the United States when I was only 21. And I've never been back except for these wonderful preaching opportunities. That's why in the early days of our movement, the only focus was the communist world, the Muslim world, and closed countries. That led me to Spain, which was a closed country at that time under Franco. It was there I was learning Russian. And I soon headed for the Soviet Union. And just a testimony of God's grace in the midst of failure, my effort in the Soviet Union was a complete failure. And I was arrested by the KGB and accused of being an American spy. Got considerable newspaper publicity on that point, which really wasn't my main goal. After two more days of interrogation, the KGB decided I was a religious fanatic. And I don't know where they got that idea. They're finding all these Bibles and all this literature hidden in our vehicle. And gave us a submachine gun escort back to Austria. In Austria, some weeks before when I was in the streets giving out tracts, I focused on a young people's group from Britain. And the idea came to my mind that if I had this young people's group helping me give out these tracts, it would all go much quicker. It takes time to give out 5,000 gospel tracts in the streets of Vienna. And it was during a day of prayer after this failure that God gave me the name Operation Mobilization. And the idea that I should be willing to work in Western Europe, not just closed countries, not just Muslim countries, communist countries, not just the regions beyond, but Western Europe. And to see, and that's when God gave me during that day of prayer the name Operation Mobilization. I know it may sound off the charts to some of you, but God just gave that name right out of the blue. And that has been the name of this movement for some 38 years. And the idea was work with the local church, work with God's people. Don't bypass God's people in your rush to reach the unreached. That's why when we look at the Book of Acts, when we talk about missions, we shouldn't firstly think, well, can I go or can't I go? That is not the first question. The first question, the first issue is to take ownership of the vision, to take ownership of the task, to become Book of Acts, New Testament in your thinking, in your attitude, in your vision, in your praying. And then God will have to lead in terms of the next step. And we're going to have, I believe, considerable emphasis this week on being a sender. And one of the books that all of you should pick up from the table here or the other table is the book Serving as Senders. Acts or Romans 10, 15, how will they go? How will they preach unless they are sent? We'll especially see that when we get to Acts 13. This was an important decision to be made there in chapter one, as to who would take Judas' place. And I've been studying quite a bit about that in my commentaries, and it's quite interesting. But I would tend to agree with commentators that say this is not a mistake. Some people say it's a mistake. Paul was really to be the replacement, but I don't see that myself. And I believe the Holy Spirit was directing in the choosing of Matthias, even though they used a very unusual approach, the drawing of lots to choose that person. I don't have time, however, to focus on that, and wanted to rather focus on verse 14, Acts 1, 14. Because this is one of the main themes that we talked about yesterday morning, when we looked at, what was it, 11 or 12 different main themes that flow through the entire book of Acts. Can I remind you of those? Witness and world vision, prayer and meetings, which we're at right now, boldness and reality of suffering for the local church, fifth, teamwork, six, handling problems, seven, preaching in resurrection power, eight, flexibility, mobility and adaptability, nine, the Holy Spirit, ten, leadership, eleven, unity, twelve, growth and church growth, thirteen, the supernatural, and fourteen, baptism. So right here, in the very first chapter, we have that challenge about prayer ministry. When I was with John last time, the thing that excited me the most was the prayer mobilization that his organization was involved in, both in America and India. And to me, anything we can do to mobilize people in actual prayer. Some very depressing surveys have been taken, even among missionaries, especially those who've been on the field a while, showing that often their great struggle was in their own prayer ministry. If missionaries so often committed have struggle in their prayer ministry, and getting to those prayer meetings, we shouldn't be too intimidated if we're having some difficulty in that area ourselves. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren. This is one of the first recorded prayer meetings, of course, there in the book of Acts. And I wanted to read it also in this modern translation. I think that just always helps shed light on what the Holy Spirit is trying to say. I don't know what your thoughts are concerning books like The Message. How many of you have read the latest paraphrase I know of, The Message? Raise your hand. Quite a few of you. How many have found that an enormous, just refreshing approach to the scriptures? Most of you have kept your hands up. I know that's a lot of controversy. Michigan is one of the most famous states for controversy concerning Bible translations. And I don't particularly want to get involved. My own view is that the Holy Spirit has protected his word, and has protected the translation of his word. And though some translations are poor, I believe the Holy Spirit only allows them to go so far. And that we can trust the Bible, and we can trust modern translations. Of course, if we're a theologian, we need to study deeper than if we're Joe Blow attempting just to have our morning quiet time in the word of God. But let me read this modern translation of Acts 1 and verse 14. They all continued praying together. Some women, including Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Jesus' brothers, were also there with the apostles. This was a prayer meeting. Later on in Acts 12, we're going to see a prayer meeting. In Acts 13, we're going to see a prayer meeting. I want to ask you, because this is my approach to Bible study, are you personally involved in any really good live prayer meetings? How is your church prayer meeting? Most of you belong to local churches, local fellowships. Are you having some good biblical Book of Acts prayer meetings? I'm convinced that it has been a major strategy of Satan to get God's people away from prayer. I remember reading a rather popular book by a California author. Many good and many horrible things have come from California. And everybody from Michigan should visit California at least once. It is a very unique state. It's almost like Texas. It's almost like a separate nation. And they feel, the Texans feel, their state bonding almost equal to being bonded to the United States. I believe it is a miracle of God's mercy that we did not split into many, many different nations. You just look at Yugoslavia right now. That could have happened to our country. And just read a little bit of history. That somehow we've hung together as a nation. I believe that has generally helped the cause of world missions. You have the American passport, and pretty well the whole world is open to you. It would have been very interesting with 48 different passports and customs and checkpoints at various states. I won't give my comments from Britain where it's all one country, though we have Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, which are almost like separate countries, even more so in the last couple of years. But it is interesting, however, that in our country we have different motor vehicle laws for every state. And we have different licenses for every state. But I'll not give that message this morning because it's basically irrelevant. But this California writer launched a book. A lot of pastors, a lot of men in training, and women in training for the pastorate read this book and it said this. Anything in your church that you have to push, you have to keep pushing it to keep it going, drop it. Within the next 10 years, 10,000 prayer meetings across America were dropped, and I'm not exaggerating. Vast numbers of churches have no prayer meetings at all. They may have one as a little token for a few little remnant of people who keep insisting that there should be some prayer. It's usually some weird hour in the morning or some other strange hour of the day, and only a few people go to it. Some have it midweek with 15 other things all going on at the same time. I remember arriving at a very famous church in Dallas, Texas, to speak at the prayer meeting, to discover there were 15 things or 10 things competing with the prayer meeting. In my desire to be grace-awakened, and by the way, despite me pushing that book, is not an easy thing for me because I am a natural grace-killer. I might as well just confess that and save you the problem. I surely have a legalistic streak left in me. I surely have a grace-killing streak in me, and I have to constantly seek the Lord and re-read these books and try to find the balance. So, in that night there in Dallas, I remember trying to think, well, this is better than nothing. This is one of the ways I survived with God's chosen frozen. When you see things in such a miserable state, such a low state, the lack of witnessing, the lack of prayer, the lack of love, you say, well, you know, it could be worse. This is supposed to encourage you. And as you go back to your own church, I pray that you will not go back quoting me with some grace-killing instinct, but that you go back trying to fan and encourage whatever little bit is going on in the area of corporate prayer that you will somehow try to get involved with it. Maybe do a little research because there may be more praying going on than you realize. Many churches are into small groups. Small groups is where a lot of the church growth is in the world today. And some of those small groups are praying groups. And there are prayer movements. We are a nation that got more infatuated with Bible study than prayer. I'm glad that some people are infatuated with Bible study. My sister's in the Women's Bible Study Fellowship. It's gone like wildfire. Now, there's another similar movement. There's several similar movements. Women are studying the Bible. And often it's evangelistic. Women are coming to Christ through these Bible studies. That's great. How I would long to see a similar movement, and I know it does exist, in which people are gathering together to pray, as it was in Acts 1.14, Acts 12, and Acts 13, and other passages as well. In fact, when we get to Chapter 4, we find a very interesting prayer meeting, 4.31. When they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together. They were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness. One of the encouraging things that happened with me yesterday was someone gave me an envelope. And when I opened that envelope, it was signed by a group of men who were praying yesterday morning. They were praying. I remember getting into that group one other year. And that was such an encouragement to me that not only were they praying, but they made a commitment to continue to pray for John and I and for the ministry throughout this week. Please do pray for the ministry among the young people. I just spoke to the, I don't know, I guess the junior high, and then in a couple of days I'll speak to the high school people. And I have just such a burden to be able to share with these young people. I think here I even get a chance to speak to the children. They always like my balloon. But it's a wonderful thing what God does among the children at Maranatha. And there's a lot of work that goes into it on the part of the staff, and we need to be praying for that. Sometimes even when we gather in one another's apartments or rooms for a conversation, for a cup of tea, for some fellowship, it's good to just take part of that time for prayer. Some of us don't find it easy even to pray with our own spouse. My wife and I all of our life have struggled in our prayer life together. Praying with others, praying in OM, we have a lot of prayer meetings. And I'm in all kinds of prayer meetings every week and a half night of prayer. But I have to confess, prayer with my own wife has been a struggle. How are you doing on that? Maybe you could send me your email. Just the tremendous prayer times you're having with your own wife and how you're, our husband, taking nations together for Christ and having nights of prayer together and mornings of prayer together. What about ten minutes of prayer together? My wife and I took a long, seemed like a long walk, along the beach this morning and we had prayer along the beach. And we found that one of the ways we've been able to pray together has been to keep it short. I always felt my wife prayed too long. And I've always felt, even in a prayer meeting, I felt, well, pray short once, let others pray, and then pray again. So my view of praying with my wife is I pray a fairly short prayer, then she's supposed to pray, and then I get another shot. But when she starts praying, she just keeps going on and on. And, you know, I'm praying with her, and then I'm praying for her, then I'm praying against her. I've actually prayed, you know, I'm just being honest. Lord, close her down in the name of Jesus. I believe God does have a sense of humor, or He wouldn't be able to handle certainly the likes of my wife and I. We were a Bible college marriage. We thought we knew each other because she thought I was a man of God. She thought I was wonderful. She believed my theology, which is right out of Ephesians, not the whole chapter, very risky, just a couple of verses, you know, submit. And she believed it all. She gave all of her money to world evangelism, which in those days was mainly to me. And we rushed into marriage. Moody would not let you marry when you were a student. So the moment I got my diploma, bang, straight into the wedding. No honeymoon, straight to Mexico. And the wedding, the marriage, you know, it was great, you know, for several weeks. Then she started to read those other verses. And we've been having a lot of discussion ever since. 39 years. Some people in the secular world would classify us as a mismatch. Many a Bible college marriage is, humanly speaking, it's a mismatch. We also get them on our ship, sometimes known as love boats. Get, you know, people on that ship for two years. First year, no dating. We're, you know, a little strong on that first year. I tell you, when the first year is over, it becomes, you know, a romantic zoo. We find them kissing in the lifeboats. And pretty soon they're announcing they're wanting to get married. There's thousands of people who have met their husbands and wives through OM. They're all over the world. And I tell you, it's scary. Some of them are mismatches. But by God's grace and by God's power, because plan B and God's sovereignty can be as great as plan A. Most of those marriages are going on today. And my wife and I have had 39 wonderful years going for that big 4-0 next January. Prayer, prayer meetings, prayer in our homes, prayer with our children. I believe that is the vital breath of God's people. And I'd urge you during this time at Maranatha to get some wonderful time alone in prayer. Maybe on the beach. Maybe on the prayer tower. The prayer tower isn't open just there in the morning when a few of us pray. And you're welcome to come. But the prayer tower is open all day. You can go up there on your own. There's also, just on the other side of this little waterway over here that leads to that lake, a beautiful walking and prayer area. There's another national park about a few miles from here. I go down there and pray. You can, of course, pray in your room, pray in your car. You can pray walking, pray kneeling, pray lying down in bed. Oswald J. Smith, one of my heroes, used to do a lot of his praying walking around his desk. So the book of Acts is a book that's going to take us into prayer reality. Not just personal prayer, but prayer meetings. And it was after that prayer meeting that God chose the person to replace Judas. And often when God is going to do something new in your life, He leads you to prayer. He leads you to extra time in prayer. And if we would spend more time in prayer before launching into some of our stock market purchases, launching into some of our business adventures, launching into buying more things, or moving somewhere to build our new house, I believe sometimes we would get much more the mind of God. But I want us to go on to chapter 2, or otherwise I will not be able to cover from the book of Acts what I long to cover. And in chapter 2, of course, we have the day of Pentecost. It's important to understand that between chapter 1 and chapter 2 we also have the Ascension. And ideally I wanted to speak a lot more about the Ascension when the Lord Jesus was taken into the heavens. Maybe we could just look at it a moment. Back to chapter 1, sorry. Verse 10. While they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, Ye men of Galilee, who stand ye gazing up into heaven, this same Jesus, who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven. Again, it's fascinating to read what men of God say about this passage. It is viciously attacked by liberals. They say this whole idea of Jesus like some, you know, astronaut is going up in front of these people. It never happened that way. That's what the liberals say. It is mythology. And it was exciting to read John Stott, an outstanding evangelical who stood against a tide of liberalism like almost no other man I know in Europe, holding fast that this happened in time, space, and history. Now probably many would say that after he went up and was out of sight, then the great change took place into the spiritual realm. Because if heaven is a physical place that's within range of our universe, some people have a lot of difficulty with that. I'm not going to say it isn't. I'll let you wrestle with that. But I lean more toward the whole reality of a spiritual world that is not visible through the telescopes of our great scientists who, by the way, have looked a lot further than they did a hundred years ago. I don't want to get into controversy on that. But certainly it is an option that all that we speak of in terms of heaven, in terms of God, in terms of what happened to Jesus as he went out of sight. Did he keep traveling one million miles, five million miles? What part of the galaxy? Or is there a spiritual realm, a whole complete spiritual dimension in which God dwells, which is referred to in God's word as heaven? And it is heaven. I'm not talking about unreality. I'm talking about reality. I'll let you study that one on your own. But I believe this happened in time, space, and history. One of the men who influenced me in my life when I struggled with doubts and struggled with questions was a man named Dr. Francis Schaeffer. He and I became very close friends in Europe, and I would listen to many of his tapes, and he would come and speak at our OM conferences. And when Dr. Schaeffer used to speak about the cross, he said, if you were there and ran your hand down the cross, you would get a splinter. It happened. It's historical. And it's glorious. Going on to chapter 2, we have, of course, the day of Pentecost. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, there were all with one accord in one place. Boy, that's a high goal. One accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven like a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Most of the commentators I have read on this say that these were languages that other people understood from different parts of the known world. It does not include American Indians or the Maoris of New Zealand. But it includes the known world of that day, and that's where we have to accept that the Word of God coming through Luke will include some of Luke's impression and feeling of what the world was rather than what we think now looking at the entire globe. Again, that is not an issue that I'm interested in having an argument about. But it's interesting to just read the text and let the Spirit of God speak to us. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men out of every nation under heaven. That's what I was just referring to. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together and were confounded because every man heard them speak in his own language. Quite amazing. And they were all amazed and marveled, saying, one to another, behold, are not all these who speak Galileans. Again, liberal commentators say that there was just such a disruption there, people didn't know what they were hearing, and so they called it other languages. I would say that is rather far-fetched. Others have tried to say this is the speaking in unknown tongues, which is spoken later on quite a lot in Corinthians, something that has continued to be a complex controversy for the whole body of Christ for many, many years. But it seems to me that in this particular case, and I'm not going to get into Corinthians, we're talking about languages that these people understood. The big issue, however, is not these languages. I don't believe the big issue is even the wind and the fire, though I believe that is important. The big issue is that this was the birth of the church as we know it today. Now, another commentator I read insisted that the church was born under Abraham. And that's something I perhaps need to do a little more study on because, to be honest, I haven't thought of that before. But I think what that person is saying is that we must not think that God's chosen people, we as God's people, the church, it just started at Pentecost. There were a people of God back right through the Old Testament, though they were not called the church. Those of you who have had a lot of dispensational teaching will know that a new dispensation has just been born. That was quite important at Moody and Dallas years ago, and I'm sure some of you have studied the different dispensations. I would certainly not be classified as a great hyper-dispensationalist, but I do believe that God worked among his people in different ways at different times. And here at Pentecost, we are having the birth of something that is completely different that was experienced before Pentecost. And there is no great mention of the church until we get into the Book of Acts. And the word Christian was first used at Antioch. We'll be getting to that a little later as well. Some people celebrate Pentecost Sunday. If you come to Europe, you will discover that we celebrate Pentecost Sunday in Germany, in Great Britain, in different churches in different ways. But I think it is important to realize we don't just think of the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the ascension, all of which is absolutely historical and vital, but we also acknowledge the coming of the Holy Spirit to indwell the believer. And this great Pentecost event marks the coming of the Holy Spirit in a powerful way referred to before as Jesus leaves so his Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, comes to be with the church and to indwell each believer. Romans is so strong, it says if you have not the Spirit of Christ, then you have not Christ. And as you perhaps read through the second chapter in preparation for my ministry tonight, which will be basically from verse 41 to verse 47, six, seven of the most exciting verses in the whole of the New Testament, I trust that it will be a blessing to you. Allow me in closing just to read verse 21. And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. There are many major speeches in the book of Acts. Though it's referred to as the book of Acts and therefore we think of action, we think of Paul going over the wall in the basket, we think of the disciples moving out in evangelism, Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, there's lots of action in the book of Acts. But in fact, counting the speech of Stephen, 25% of the book of Acts is speeches. They're messages. Most commentators feel that those messages are a summary of the real message that was actually given at that time. But again, some may not agree with that. So we find Peter's sermon here in Acts chapter 2. Verse 14, Peter standing up with the eleven, lifted his voice and said unto them, ye men of Judea and all ye that dwell in Jerusalem, be this known unto you and hearken to my words. Because, by the way, these people were so excited and so filled with joy, they were accused of being drunk. Does that ever happen in your church? You know, people next door accuse you of being drunk? Let me tell you, in the average church, if we're being accused of anything, we're being accused of having fallen asleep. I believe that many conservative evangelicals have overreacted to our Pentecostal brothers and sisters and have ended up in the deep freeze of dead orthodoxy. And believe me, if we look at what's going on in the world today, you can easily decide which one is worse. Brother Andrew said it's easier to cool down a fanatic than it is to warm up a corpse. These people were filled with joy. They started to get excited. They started to sing. Some of them looked like they were drunk. And Peter had to include this in his message. This is one of his first big apologetics. These people are not drunk, as you suppose. Seeing it is, there's only nine in the morning. Third hour of the day, it says in this translation. But this is that which was spoken through the prophet Joel. And it shall come to pass in the last days, said God. This is right out of the Old Testament. I will pour out My Spirit upon flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your young men shall see visions. Your old men shall dream dreams. And I, My servants, and I, My inmates, I'll pour out in those days My Spirit. They shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath. Blood and fire, vapor and smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness. The moon unto blood before the great, able day of the Lord will come. And it shall come to pass whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Is that for just a distant future? I think quite a few people would say so. Or did that happen? Is that what was happening there at Pentecost and at Calvary? Some might say, well, is this one of those scriptures that refers to both at the same time? There's lots to study in the book of Acts. There's lots to think about. And if you think I'm the kind of person that sort of arrived and have all this neatly in little categories and can throw it all up on my overhead projector, I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed. This is a great study for me, though I've been in this book for 43 years. And some of it, to be honest, I still don't exactly understand as I read different interpretations. But one thing I know, the basics throughout the book of Acts are absolutely clear. We say in England clear as a pike's staff. And I hope you'll not be stumbled by some of the things that aren't so clear and some of the different interpretations as you come from many different churches and probably read different commentaries, but that you'll act on those things that are very clear concerning prayer and the reality of the Holy Spirit. I remember Billy Graham speaking about the Holy Spirit saying, I don't care how you get it. The walk of the Spirit. The reality of the Spirit. I don't care how you get it. Just get it. I remember what D.L. Moody said. He was always known for emphasizing the need to be filled again and again. Many of you know this story, but I'll repeat it. It's so good. D.L. Moody, by the way, even in a secular encyclopedia was described as overweight American evangelist. He would have looked great by the way in one of these global jackets. You know, more global in his appearance. Overweight American evangelist who depopulated hell by two million souls. Not bad. Not bad. And once he was speaking about the need to be filled again and again with the Holy Spirit and a lady supposedly in the front row raised her hand and said, Mr. Moody, why do you keep going on about being filled again and again? And he looked her in the eye and he said, Madam, I leak. I tell you, that ministers to me. Because I'm one needy, weak, leaky Christian. And praise God for the free refills. The one thing I like of American restaurants over British restaurants. They give you free refills. If you go to Britain and drink your cup of coffee and think the second cup is free, you're in for a big surprise and you better have a little extra change in your pocket. Praise God for the free refills. Be filled with the Holy Spirit. Every believer should have his own or her own personal Pentecost and know the reality of the Holy Spirit in their lives. Let us pray. Our God and Father, we thank You for this time this morning to be in Your Word. We thank You, Father, for this book of action, this book of the acts of the Holy Spirit, this book of acts of apostolic men and women. And we long to know more of this in our own lives. And ask, as we continue this study throughout the week, that we may not be hearers of the Word only, but doers. For we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.