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Acts 4:36-5:11
36 Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, 37 sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
5:1 But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, 2 and with his wife’s knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet. 3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? 4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.” 5 When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it. 6 The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him.
7 After an interval of about three hours his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8 And Peter said to her, “Tell me whether you1 sold the land for so much.” And she said, “Yes, for so much.” 9 But Peter said to her, “How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.” 10 Immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. When the young men came in they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. 11 And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.
[1] 5:8
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
The, first reading tonight is from the book of Acts chapter 4 verse 36 to chapter 5 verse 11. Thus, Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas, which means son of encouragement, a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostle's feet. But a man named Ananias, with his wife Zaphira, sold a piece of property property, and with his wife's knowledge, he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostle's feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own?
Speaker 1:And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart, and have you have not lied to man, but to god? When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it. The young men rose and wrapped him up, and carried him out and buried him.
Speaker 1:After an interval of about 3 hours, his his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. And Peter said to her, tell me what you sold the land tell me whether you sold the land for so much. And she said, yes, for so much. But Peter said to her, how is it that you have agreed together to test the spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.
Speaker 1:Immediately, she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. When the young men came in, they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.
Speaker 2:Luke 1212. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed or hidden
Speaker 3:that will not be known.
Speaker 2:This is the word of the Lord.
Joel Brooks:Thanks be to God. If you would pray with me. Lord, we do ask that you would honor the reading of your word. We hear these words differently than all other words we have heard this week. The words from your scripture demand all of our attention, all of our focus.
Joel Brooks:Through your spirit, they become life changing words. And we pray that would happen tonight. God, may you reveal yourself to us. May we meet with you in this moment. Lord, nobody needs to hear from me tonight.
Joel Brooks:My words are death, but your words are life. So come breathe breathe life here. I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. And I pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Amen. 9 years ago, I never pictured myself sitting on the floor, pretending to have a little tea party with Molly, Susie, Brenda, other Brenda, Chrissa, Pookie, and Ned the Lamb. And if you had told me 9 years ago that that was going to be my life, I would have said you were crazy because I'm a man. I I mow lawns. I wear Old Spice.
Joel Brooks:I I use power tools. I like I like to build things. I, I'm not one who just kind of sits around having pretend tea parties, with, with, with a bunch of stuffed animals. But all of this has changed now that I have 3 little girls because that is what they love to do. I, I have tried raising them like boys, and it just has not worked.
Joel Brooks:At the age of 3, I even read Caroline, the art of war. And I and I hope it would have would have taken root in his her heart, but it did not. All they want to do is play pretend, dress up and play pretend. They pretend to run an orphanage. They pretend to run a nursery.
Joel Brooks:They the favorite thing they do now is they have something called, Berry Lane Bakery and they they love playing Berry Lane Bakery and they set up a little restaurant and we have all this pretend tea. And, and so I've got to do that with them, but I've got a confession. I'm really good at it. I mean, I'm, I'm really good at playing pretend. A lot of times I up the ante and I'm like, it's not just a tea party.
Joel Brooks:It's a tea party with a robbery going on, you know, and just I make it very exciting. And the other day I'm having this tea party and I'm actually pouring myself pretend tea realizing that all 3 of my girls had left and they were playing they were playing we. Now now, I don't think I'm alone. I probably am alone in this. But I don't think I'm alone at being really good at playing pretend.
Joel Brooks:I have found that adults are better at it than children. When I when I first moved into this neighborhood about 12 years ago, I did everything I could to not tell people I was a pastor. And so I would, I would meet my neighbors and they'd say, hey, what do you do for a living? And I'd say, I, I'm I meet with people and just try to be as vague as possible. Looking back, that was a mistake.
Joel Brooks:Who knows what they, you know, they were thinking I was doing at this time. Just going around meeting with people. But but I realized that once word leaked out that I was a pastor, I never got an honest answer after that. All of a sudden, people put on masks, they played pretend with me. They started throwing all this God talk.
Joel Brooks:It's like this God talk was never there before, but now they're trying to work in church, work in, you know, Jesus without a profanity behind it. And, you know, just just trying to pretend that, you know, Hey, we're, we're like you. They cease to be real with me. The church is full of pretenders as well. We see this in this unusual story about Ananias and Sapphira.
Joel Brooks:You can read through all of the new testament and you're not gonna read anything like this. There's absolutely nothing like this story in the rest of the new testament. Yet, it's a story that most of us are are somewhat familiar with. You've heard the story how they they lie and God slays them down for their wickedness because they're evil people. I mean, nobody names their kids Ananias and Sapphira now.
Joel Brooks:Those you don't those names are bad, they're evil. But if you slow down and actually read the story, you're gonna realize they're not particularly bad people. Matter of fact, they look a lot like us. Ananias and Sapphira sold some property. They gave this money to the apostles.
Joel Brooks:It was a very generous thing to do. It probably be safe to say it is more generous than what most of us in here have done. Maybe all of us going and selling some of our property and giving the proceeds to the church. And I'm sure it was a it was a great deal of money. Now, you know, I'll give you this granted, they they fudged a little, they lied just a little bit about the amount that they gave, but it was still a generous thing.
Joel Brooks:You know, maybe they gave 80%, and they kept back 20%. Is that really worth their death? Really? I mean, the church was was richer for it. I'm sure the poor that were helped by it could care less where the money came from and if the people who gave it lied or what their ethics were.
Joel Brooks:They they just wanted the money to help them out. Do you know what Birmingham would look like if all of the churches acted like Ananias and Sapphira, if every church member acted like them, do you know what Birmingham would look like? You would completely eliminate poverty in all of Birmingham. There would no longer be a homeless problem. All churches would be running at a surplus.
Joel Brooks:You would have money to, to build schools, to build hospitals. The church would be honored in the city for all that it had done and all that it had given if we acted just like these 2 wicked people, Ananias and Sapphira. So who really cares if they fudged just a little bit? I mean, what's the big deal? It's like somebody on the street coming up and asking you, hey, do you have any money?
Joel Brooks:And you open up your wallet, and you're like, you know, I've got a 10. All I got is a 10, and you give it to them. But you actually know that in your pocket, you have a $1 bill, and you walk away. That's that's that's what's going on here. You gave a 10, but you had a 1.
Joel Brooks:Is it, is it worth your death? Is it, does that demand capital punishment right there? So what is really going on in this story that this little white lie demands their death? And if you read through the new Testament, you're going to quickly realize that a lot worse sins were committed in the new Testament than this. And yet nowhere does God just kill them.
Joel Brooks:You, you have, for instance, I will just look at the Corinthians. Corinthians, the church of Corinth, they're suing one another over trivial things. They're committing sexual immorality. They're eating food sacrificed to idol idols. They're even boasting of the fact that somebody in their congregation is having a sexual relationship with their stepmother and they're boasting about that.
Joel Brooks:They are getting drunk when they partake in the Lord's supper. And yet, despite all of that happening, not once is anybody there just slain. God doesn't punish anybody there. But here in this story, little white lie, for people being very generous. And no matter how you spend this, no matter how you interpret this, it ends with 2 dead people in front of the apostle's feet.
Joel Brooks:And so it's a, it's a difficult passage to understand when you first read it. And so something of great stake, something of great importance has to be going on here. This story is contrasted with what happens just before. That's why we read the end of chapter 4 because chapter 5 begins with the word but. But a man named Ananias, and this is a strong contrast.
Joel Brooks:And so, you have to understand what was happening before in order to understand what's really going on here. And so you go to verse 32 when it says, now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul. One heart and soul, and and no one said that any of their things belong to him was his own. But they had everything in common. We looked at this just a couple of weeks ago when we were going through this part of acts and how there's this perfect unity in this early church.
Joel Brooks:They're all on the same page. And that's one of the reasons that the early church is exploding in growth because they're of the same mind, They're unified. They have the same mission. Nothing is hidden from one another. And then here come Ananias and Sapphira, and they blow it all with a white lie.
Joel Brooks:They they completely shatter this unity. No longer is it one heart, one mind, but they completely dissolve that. They break community. And that is what the story is about. It's it's not so much a story about greed.
Joel Brooks:I do think you could preach about greed from this text, but that's, it's not primarily about greed. I mean, they didn't have to give anything. I do think they were greedy people, but that's not why God killed them because if they had come and given 80% and said, hey, we're keeping back 20%. Okay? If they've been open and honest about that, they would have been killed.
Joel Brooks:It was something about the lies, something about the cover up there. That's why god killed them. The problem is they're not being honest with the church. There's that unity, there's that sameness, there's there's this openness and vulnerability and transparency before everybody, and then they go and they lie. They don't want others to know the true condition of their heart.
Joel Brooks:We do struggle with greed and we can't let anybody know this. Yes, Peter, that really is all the money. They wanted people to see them like they saw Barnabas. They wanted all that respect and that honor that Barnabas got. They wanted to be seen just like them and not for people to see them with greedy hearts.
Joel Brooks:Ananias and Sapphira were the first people we have in the new testament and that first people in the early church to put on a mask, to put on a mask, to pretend to be somebody that they were not. It's right here early in the church that being fake, fakeness entered in and began destroying community. And it needed a severe punishment. Now, I bet you can relate to this. I'm the youngest of 3 children growing up, and we went to a church that was 30 minutes away.
Joel Brooks:Most of our family arguments happened in the car on the way to church. I'm not sure if any of y'all could relate to that, but that's just, that is when our arguments were most intense. Yet the moment we got out of those car doors, the moment we walked in the church, we were the Brooks family. You know, we have mom the church organist, dad the deacon, you know, the 3 stellar children. They're the model of what a Christian family should be.
Joel Brooks:And we had to play that part. And I really I kind of felt like I needed to play that part. Keep up that image. For those of you who are home group leaders, I would, if I was a betting man, I'd put money on this. I bet that a lot of times you might have, let's just say, strong disagreements or personalities might come out probably in the 5 minutes before home group starts, is when there's gonna be some intense fight.
Joel Brooks:But when people come through the doors, I'm so glad you're here. You know, come in. Yes. Thank you. My home always looks like this.
Joel Brooks:It's always clean. We're always perfect, you know, and just my children are always wearing dresses. Yes. You know, and just just come into our perfect life. And I I bet that's happened to y'all, not me, to y'all.
Joel Brooks:Ananias and Sapphira would have got along really well with Southern Christians. They would have, they would have fit right in. It's who they were, but it's not who God wanted them to be. Let me tell you what, God knows who you are. God knows who you are, and I know who you are.
Joel Brooks:You're a selfish, rotten, wretched center, just like the person next to you, both sides in need of grace and need of Jesus to save you. That's who you are. Anytime you try to hide your anger, hide your greed, hide your selfishness, hide your addictions, hide your pride, and pretend to be these perfect people, you were no different than Ananias and Sapphira. We all put on these masks because the the thoughts the thought of somebody actually knowing us, actually knowing the the hidden sins in my heart, the things I do when nobody's looking, the the the thought of somebody actually knowing that terrifies us. But God knows who we are.
Joel Brooks:And let me tell you what, God does not love the person you pretend to be. He loves a person that you are. God didn't die on the cross for the person that you pretend to be. He died for the sinful, wretched, horrible person that you are. That's the person he died for.
Joel Brooks:That's the person he loves. That is the person that he is not ashamed to call his own. Here in acts, we see that this early church, it is thriving. I mean, all before you see the Holy spirit, he is working. He is moving.
Joel Brooks:It is a powerful testimony of the church going forward. There's this openness with believers, And then these 2 people play pretend and it messes it all up. And the Holy spirit, when he sees them playing pretend, and he sees that hypocrisy, he sees that as a bigger threat than sexual immorality, a bigger threat than Christians suing one another, bigger threat than getting drunk at the Lord's table. He says, I gotta we have to end that because that will kill the church. Just think of how different this story would have been if Ananias and Sapphira had been honest.
Joel Brooks:I mean, just think about it. If, if Peter said, is this, you sold the land for this? And he said, no, no, that's sorry. I didn't mean to give that impression. That's 80%.
Joel Brooks:We're keeping back 20. Honestly, we just, we're really scared to give everything. We're really scared. I just, I know we've talked about the sovereignty of God, but I just kind of feel like I need a, a, a nest in which I can land. What do you think would have happened if if do you think I would have been like, sorry, wham, you know, you're dead.
Joel Brooks:You know, you confess that. So you you would have you would have seen the church rallying around them. Well, let's pray for you. Let's pray that that God shows himself as real to you. Let's pray that whatever idol you're holding on to, whatever security you think that money can provide, that he shows you that it's worthless.
Joel Brooks:Let's pray that you believe God's grace that you find in his your identity and him alone. Let's pray this for you. That's what you would have seen. And it'd been transforming for the church if there had been an openness and a vulnerability there. What are we supposed to learn from this story?
Joel Brooks:Well, for starters, I think we should learn that we're supposed to be real and we're supposed to be honest with our Christian brothers and sisters. I think God wants us to realize that his spirit only works with who we are, not who we pretend to be. And so if you feel like the spirit of God is just not moving and he's not working in your midst, maybe you should try taking off your mask because you're just pretending too much. God wants us to be so secure in his grace that we no longer have to pretend to be somebody else. When Sapphira came forward and lied to Peter, it says in verse 9, chapter 5, says, how could you test the Spirit of the Lord?
Joel Brooks:I love that word test. Ananias was only accused of lying to the spirit. Saphira is accused of testing and testing the spirit of the Lord is just seeing how much you can get away with, how much you could get away with before he calls your bluff, How much before he calls you on it? It says, I know, I know the real condition of your heart. A little over 30 years ago, some of you might've, might've heard of the great Asbury college revival that happened.
Joel Brooks:Asbury college it's it's in Kentucky. It's a Christian private Christian school. And over 30 years ago, they had this amazing revival in which a normal, 50 minute chapel service turned into a chapel service that lasted 185 hours nonstop. People did not leave the chapel for over a week. Students, and faculty, they found themselves quietly praying, weeping, some silently, some out loud.
Joel Brooks:They were openly confessing their sins. They were seeking forgiveness from people that they had had injured or had hurt. God's spirit was just moving so, so much in that room. One, one student, even went up to the Dean and the Dean wrote about this and it just came up to some Dean. I just want you to know that I am a habitual liar.
Joel Brooks:I've lied to you and I've been lying to all of these people. And there was just such a freedom of confession during this time. The people who hadn't been at the chapel service at this time, they were out there wondering why is nobody going to class, you know, where is everybody? So they they go around to try to investigate. They get in the room, they can't leave.
Joel Brooks:The spirit of God simply just overwhelms them and they begin praying and weeping and confessing. The the revival was not chaotic. It was very orderly. God was just simply moving in their hearts in an extraordinary way. The revival spreads to about a 130 or so different colleges, Missionaries came up from this people called missions sent all over the world.
Joel Brooks:It's safe to say that this revival had a large impact all over the globe. And it's interesting how it all started. It all started during one of their chapel services, in which typically people struggle, struggle to stay awake for. I don't know how many of you went to schools in which you were forced to go to chapel services, picture that, you know, slide your card through or whatever it is, go through it. You have to get a certain number of credits.
Joel Brooks:That's the congregation there. Alright? And they had a guest speaker who got up and was extremely dull. People had a hard time paying attention to and he ended 10 minutes early. So there was 10 minutes to kill.
Joel Brooks:And so he said, does anybody here have something that they would like to share? We got 10 minutes. Anybody want to share? And a young man came forward. This man was known by all other students there.
Joel Brooks:He was kind of the Christian leader of the, of the campus. He was the Barnabas of the story, if you will. That's, that's what people identified him as. And he walked down the podium and he, he grabbed it and people say, you know, he was just visibly trembling and he got up there and he just said, I just, I just have to say this because I am completely addicted to pornography. And the spirit of God fell.
Joel Brooks:Spirit of God fell. It started changing lives. Because a guy a guy gets up there, and you know, when under the spirit, just just pushing him, he's saying, I can't pretend anymore. Everybody here thinks I'm a Barnabas. Everybody's here like, you're a great Christian leader.
Joel Brooks:You're, you're doing all this. Wow. We we want to be like you. Parents are thinking, that's the kind of, you know, the person that I want my daughter to marry right there and all this, and he's living this huge lie. And guess what they're saying?
Joel Brooks:He's so sick of wearing this mask. He's so sick of pretending. He gets up there and he just says, this is who I am. The spirit of God falls. And then that podium was lined up with people just confessing and confessing saying, this is who I am.
Joel Brooks:There's a lot of talk, especially I did college ministry for about 10 years in which revival is one of those buzzwords that everybody wants. Revival, revival, revival. I promise you that's not what people want when they're praying for revival. They're, they're praying for, give us this power, give us these signs, do a few miracles. When they're praying for revival, they're not thinking, can I get on a rooftop and broadcast my sins to everybody?
Joel Brooks:That I could be so secure in your love, Jesus, So secure in the gospel that my identity is in you and you alone that I could get up and I could just say, this is my sin. This is who I am, but my identity is not what you think about me. My identity is in Jesus Christ. And so he is the one who has saved me and so I can openly share this. I can even agree with Paul, oh wretched man that I am.
Joel Brooks:God will someday set me free from this because I am trusting him in this. That's that's that's the seeds of revival there, which I don't think is what people have in mind when they pray. Ananias and Sapphira, they're hypocrites, because they pretended to be something that they were not. They pretended to be better people, better hearts than they had. But there's another form of hypocrisy that I think is also in the church and something we have to fight equally as hard.
Joel Brooks:I know so many Christians who play pretend every day, but, but not like Ananias and Sapphira. I guess the best way I could, I could share this is just just to tell a story, or just give an illustration. Have you ever been sitting around just just shooting the breeze with your friends, You know, talking about whatever game happened earlier, talking about, you know, whatever is the current trendy TV show that's on, and you're talking about this, and then and then you realize like the person's voice just kind of fades away. It's like, Maybe it's just me that that happens to. And I just think, I don't care about any of that.
Joel Brooks:There's not one thing you're telling me that I have the remotest interest in interest in at this point. And in you just there's this deep passion about who you are in Christ, what he's doing in your life, how the gospel has radically changed you, and hear this just just coming at you. And you nod your head, and you kind of push that down. You're like, I can't just talk about those things. They'll think I'm a freak.
Joel Brooks:And so you kind of nod your head, like, yeah, that was that was a that was a really good episode. Yeah. Yeah. Georgia Bulldog, oh and 2, you know. Yeah.
Joel Brooks:I hurt about that. And you just there's a part in you, just like Galatians says, you know, the spirit inside of you crying out Abba Father. You just will say, I'm a child of God. Alright? I just want to say it.
Joel Brooks:I just I just wanna say Jesus is alive. And and but you push it down. And what you're doing is you're denying who you are. You're a child of the king and you have reduced yourself to things that the servants would talk about, people in bondage would talk about. And you just kind of nod your head in agreement.
Joel Brooks:It's like, yes, that that's that's really what holds the affections of my heart. I gotta agree with you on that. Let go of those things. Embrace who you are as a child of God. Think of the encouragement that we would have if we begin sharing the intimate things that God is doing in our heart.
Joel Brooks:The things that God's teaching you in prayer, the things that God's teaching in your word, and we begin praising him corporately together. Think of what the church would look like if you became the person or opened up and acknowledged the person you are. Because if you keep suppressing that and keep suppressing that, you know what? You actually will be that shallow surface level person. You'll no long you'll no longer be a hypocrite.
Joel Brooks:That will be who you are. And I know some of you are thinking, I just, you know, I just can't turn that all. I mean, I've never talked about those things. I felt those stories, but I've never People just think I'm so weird. My my husband would think I'm weird if I do that.
Joel Brooks:My family would. Let me tell you, just just take a step of faith. Lauren and I started dating, like, 20 something years ago. In the eighties, late eighties, I can't even remember. But, shortly after we started dating, I went over to Lauren's parents' house and her mom's a really good cook and she fixed dinner.
Joel Brooks:She asked me if I liked butter beans, and I said, yes, I like butter beans. I've, I promise you, I've replayed that conversation about a 1,000 times in my mind. I am certain that I did not say I love butter beans with a passion. I am, I'm certain I did not say, you know what, if I could only eat one thing for the rest of my life, it would be butter beans. I just, I just simply said, yes, I like butter beans.
Joel Brooks:So for 6 years of dating, every meal, everyone I ever had with her family, she served me butter beans. When we got married, every meal afterwards, she has served butter beans. I mean, it's it's astonishing. We'll go and she'll be like, I didn't have time to cook tonight. I just just thought to order pizza.
Joel Brooks:I'm like, but I know how much you love butter beans. And so so we will have pizza and butter beans together. I I I am not making this up. It's so much I just want to tell her who I really am. I, I'm not the butter bean guy.
Joel Brooks:That's, that's, that's not me, but it's too late for me. I, I, I am, I am caught in this lie and I will live it forever because I will I will crush her if I ever say that. And and I think some of you kind of feel that way. You you've been trapped. You've you have put on this, you've pretended, you put on this mask for so long, and you're like, well, it's just easier to say the course.
Joel Brooks:We're not talking about butter beans here. Alright? We're talking about your identity as a child of God. And it's time for some of you to just begin opening up and letting people see what the Lord is doing in your heart. And that you find your identity in him, and in him alone.
Joel Brooks:But what all of this boils down to here is, do you believe the gospel? Really? I could say that probably about every message, but do you believe the gospel? If you really believe the gospel, you can be open and you can be honest about your sin. You know why?
Joel Brooks:Because God knows all of it, even more than you do. And yet he still loves you, and he has accepted you. So you don't have to worry about what others think about you. Because your identity, I mean, your creator smiles upon you. And Jesus has forgiven those sins.
Joel Brooks:He has dealt with those sins that it reminds me of an old hymn. I'm going to somewhat misquote this, I think, but says when, when, when Satan reminds me of all the sins I've done, I tell them these and a thousand more, but my savior remembers none. Because all of those sins were dealt with. And so you could bring those things that's dealt with. It's on the cross.
Joel Brooks:So if you believe the gospel, you can be open and honest. And also if you believe the gospel, you will realize that your identity is not money. Your identity is not how many things you have. It's not in the relationships you have. It's not in being a good parent.
Joel Brooks:It's none of those things. Your identity is being a child of God, and you will want to share that and embrace that. Pray with me. Our father, every one of us here needs to confess that we are no different than Ananias and Sapphira. Every one of us have played pretend.
Joel Brooks:Every one of us have put up mask. We're terrified of people knowing us. God, I pray that through your spirit, those things will begin breaking down. I pray we would, through the power of your Spirit, actually believe the gospel. Not just intellectually, but it would permeate so deep in us.
Joel Brooks:It would transform us in how we live. That there'll be such openness with us, that your spirit would be free to move and powerful testimony of Jesus in our midst. Lord, and I pray that this week or this moment, whenever that you you put in us, just you remind us of our identity. And we hear your whisperings of love being blown into our heart that we would not shy away from that. But Lord, that we would be open and we would share and we would embrace who we are.
Joel Brooks:We would not hide our identity from those who we've been hiding from in the past. Lord, we ask that you would make those things a reality in our lives. And I pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.