{"href":"https://api.simplecast.com/oembed?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcbccoweta.simplecast.com%2Fepisodes%2F8-9-26-the-promise-the-power-and-the-purpose-xN8jyfpT","width":444,"version":"1.0","type":"rich","title":"8-9-26: The Promise, the Power, and the Purpose","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_url":"https://image.simplecastcdn.com/images/976808b7-f110-40ee-9300-beebded7c3bb/6018d3ba-8d77-46d5-be3b-f34191bd4603/1.jpg","thumbnail_height":300,"provider_url":"https://simplecast.com","provider_name":"Simplecast","html":"","height":200,"description":"What does it look like when an unstoppable fire gets started? In Acts chapter 1, we are brought face to face with the origin story of the church, and it is a story that belongs to us just as much as it belonged to those first disciples. The passage opens with a risen Christ spending 40 days with his followers, not simply celebrating his victory over death, but reaffirming the mission he had always been building toward: the proclamation of the kingdom of God. We are reminded that from Genesis to Revelation, the entire arc of Scripture points to a God who relentlessly pursues his creation, determined to restore what sin had broken. The cross was not a detour. It was always the plan. And the resurrection was not the end of the story. It was the launching pad for a movement that would reach every corner of the earth. What makes this message so compelling is that the people God chose to carry it were ordinary. They were uncertain, they were asking the wrong questions about timing, and they were completely incapable of fulfilling the mission on their own strength. Yet God did not disqualify them. He equipped them. The promise of the Holy Spirit stands at the center of this passage as the answer to every excuse we might offer for why we cannot live on mission. The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in every believer. That is not a small thing. That is everything we need."}