If you don’t mind, open your Bible or your Bible app to Acts 20. Beginning at verse 7 you’ll see a story in which Paul, while preaching a lengthy sermon that went on until midnight, caused a young man to fall asleep and fall out of a third story window! This isn’t the part of the chapter I want to focus on, I just want you know that maybe my sermons weren’t so bad after all!
I’d actually like to turn your attention to the text immediately after that story in which Paul says good-bye to the elders of the church he started in Ephesus, because I think there are a few similarities to me saying good-bye to you all at St. Paul.
Paul was in Ephesus for three years (v.31) like I was at St. Paul for three years. Like Paul felt “constrained by the Spirit” (v.22) to leave and go to Jerusalem, I also feel led by the Holy Spirit to go to Berlin (though I hope that “imprisonment and afflictions” do not “await me” like they did for Paul! (v.23)). And like Paul “knelt down and prayed with them all” (v.36), I have also been praying for you and the church.
To Read More of Pr. Rob's Letter and the full August 2024 Newsletter, go HERE