If you have your Bibles, you can turn to Acts 16, and we're gonna start in verse 11. The conversion of Lydia. So, setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city in the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in the city for some days, and on the Sabbath day, we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the woman who had come together. One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul, and after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay. And she prevailed upon us. As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gained by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and us, crying out, these men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaimed to you the way of salvation. And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And it came out that very hour. But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers. And when they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, these men are Jews and they are disturbing our city. They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice. The crowd joined in attacking them and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's bonds were unfastened. When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried with a loud voice, Do not harm yourself, for we are all here. And the jailer called for lights and rushed in. And trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and all your household. And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and all who were in his house, and he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds, and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them, and he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God. But when it was day, the magistrates sent the police, saying, let those men go. And the jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, the magistrates have sent to let you go. Therefore, come out now and go in peace. But Paul said to them, they have beaten us publicly, uncondemned men who are Roman citizens, and have thrown us into prison, and do they now throw us out secretly? No, let them come themselves and take us out. The police reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens. So they came and apologized to them. And they took them out and asked them to leave the city. So they went out of the prison and visited Lydia. And when they had seen the brothers, they encouraged them and departed. This is the word of the Lord. So good evening. As I said, my name is David. I'm here. My great-grandparents on my wife's side and my parents are here. So I'm feeling extra nervous a little bit. So if you bear with me this evening. But so I'm currently working through the Master of Divinity program through Puritan Reformed in Grand Rapids, Michigan. So I thank you for allowing me to come and bring the word to practice these skills that I hope in the future I'll be able to use on a weekly basis. So our text this evening, it focuses on Paul's first missionary journey into Europe, which takes place during his overall second missionary journey. And it's split into three distinct sections, and each of the different sections is giving us the story of a conversion, And so first we have Lydia, the seller of purple goods, who is converted through the hearing of the word and the Lord opening her heart. Then we have the conversion of a slave girl who is converted miraculously after Paul cast this demon out. And then we have this conversion of the Philippian jailer who comes to faith after God sent an earthquake to shake the foundations of the prison that he's guarding. So they sort of escalate. It starts with just the word, and then it goes to this casting out of a demon, and then finally to this miraculous earthquake that takes place. So in the beginning of chapter 16, we're actually told that Paul was directed through the vision of a man of Macedonia to go to Macedonia after the Holy Spirit had told him, hey, don't go to Asia. So Paul and Silas, they end up in Philippi, which is a Roman colony in Macedonia. It's not the capital city, but it's important. It's well populated. I would say Minneapolis to St. Paul is sort of the comparison you can make here. But this makes a lot of sense because in order to evangelize, people are an important part of that equation. My dad was a church planter in the Assemblies of God and then the OPC, and he's been doing it for many years. But I remember growing up, one thing I'd heard him say was, if there's enough people in a place where they're building a McDonald's, there's enough people to plant a church. So not a bad marketing strategy. But this evening I'd like us to look at each of these conversions a little bit closer. The conversion of Lydia, the unnamed slave girl, and the Philippian jailer. And if those of you who are more partial to alliteration, you can think of this instead of the conversion of a seller, of a slave, and the conversion of a soldier. So with that, let's begin with the conversion of Lydia, the seller of purple. So Paul and Silas, they travel a long way without really knowing what they're going to encounter. They know the Holy Spirit has told them to go to Macedonia. And this story, it always reminds me in Acts 8 of Philip and the eunuch, where the angel of the Lord says to Philip, hey, get up, go on this road down to Jerusalem, between Jerusalem and Gaza. And Philip isn't told much else besides, hey, go. And he gets up and he goes. And that conversion of the eunuch leads to great fruit, and even today, Christianity albeit Orthodox Christianity, is the largest religion in the country of Ethiopia. So when God calls us to action, we shouldn't delay. But so Paul and Silas, they're in Macedonia, and they find a group of women on the Sabbath praying near the Ganges River. And so typically, Paul and Silas, they would go to the synagogues on the Sabbath. We read that over and over again. And so there's some debate among commentators whether or not there was a synagogue in Philippi. And so some more modern scholars argue that there is some archeological evidence to suggest that there was, in fact, a synagogue in Philippi. But without getting really deep in those details, it's not that interesting, I promise. But the chief evidence here that there was not a synagogue is that Luke makes no reference to a synagogue. And also, there's this reference to women praying at a river. And why this is interesting is because in order to form a synagogue, you need to have at least 10 Jewish men to do so. And further, Philippi, as a Roman colony, they had just expelled all the Jews from Rome. And so it would make sense that Philippi is probably not looking very kindly upon the Jews in their city. So it would make sense if you're a practicing Jew who wants to worship on the Sabbath and you don't want to draw attention to yourself, a quiet space by the river is not a bad idea. So it stands here to reason that this group of Jewish women, they didn't have a synagogue in which to meet, and so Paul and Silas found them by the river Prang. And so as their typical routine would go, they'd sat among the women, and they began to teach about the work of Christ. And Lydia is a woman there, and she's from Thyatira, an Asian city, who was a seller of purple. Lydia was likely a God-fearer, which God-fearer just means that she was a Gentile, who believed in the God of the Jews and practiced Jewish customs. So Luke writes that Lydia heard Paul's words and believed because the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. So the word of Christ comes to mind here. In John 6, 44, when we read, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. Lydia didn't come to faith because she was smarter or more logical than the other women who were there. Lydia came to faith because the Lord opened her heart. So we have to remember we can't reason people into the gospel. That doesn't mean we shouldn't present the gospel at every opportunity, but it does mean we should never forget that we're not going to convert someone. It's always the movement of the Holy Spirit and God calling them as one of his children. So then Lydia is then baptized along with her household. And at this point we need to at least address the issue of baptism. and more specifically, to whom this sign needs to be applied. So as a Reformed congregation, you're likely familiar with the Westminster Shorter Catechism. And question 95 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks, to whom is baptism to be administered? And the answer is, baptism is not to be administered to any that are out of the visible church till they profess faith in Christ and obedience to him. but the infants of such, as are members of the visible church, are to be baptized. Now I point this out because this text from this morning, this evening, excuse me, this text is given as a proof text for why we should baptize the children of believers. And so if you read any commentaries on Act 16, they're going to fall into one of three categories. So there's going to be one that If you think infants should be baptized, you'll use this as evidence that infants should be baptized. The flip side is also there. If you think that only adults should be baptized, you'll argue that children weren't baptized in this scenario. And then the third group are the people who I appreciate the most, who say that, well, whatever you think about infant baptism, that's probably how you're going to interpret this passage. And so, well, there's not a ton of time right now to go and do a deep dive about how this passage supports or doesn't support infant baptism. I do want to just touch briefly on a few thoughts from Zwingli that really helped me when I was struggling with this idea of infant baptism. You can tell where I landed. Both of my children have been baptized by my dad, actually. So anyway, but Zwingli, the great Swiss reformer, he held to a covenantal view of baptism. So covenant theology, there's a connection between the Old Testament and the New Testament. and a connection, therefore, between circumcision and baptism. So Zwingli believed that baptism has now taken the place of circumcision, and so now this sign that was circumcision has been expanded to include female children as well, and they should be baptized. And what Zwingli pointed to, I always thought this was interesting, he would say that if you're a Jewish parent at the time of Christ, and you're sitting under Christ's teaching, and your children have been circumcised, and you're listening to the teaching, and then Christ is crucified, he's ascended, and afterwards you want them to have baptism. Well, if they're not allowed to baptize their infants for a Jewish culture that is just entirely wrapped up with symbology and signs, it would be very difficult, and a Jewish parent would feel very disenfranchised if their children were not allowed the sign of baptism. So you can look into this. I mean, this is really based on Colossians 2 and 1 Corinthians 10. If you want to dig more into this, if this is something that you're struggling with or have questions about, there's a small work just called Understanding Four Views on Baptism, which is a really good starting point. But with that, let's continue here with the text. So after Lydia's conversion and baptism, she urges them to stay with her. And the phrase she used is, she urged us. And then further, they say it again, She prevailed upon us. So she just would not let this go. She really wanted him to stay with her. And it's similar here to a phrase that's used to describe Lot, pressing the angels to stay with him as opposed to in the town square in Genesis 19. So the two angels, they come to Sodom. And Lot sees him coming and he says, hey, hey, come to my house, come to my house. And they're like, no, we'll just spend the night in the town square. And Lot knows the evil that's in the town square. And he says, no, please, as your servant, I beg you, come and stay with me. And so the angels come and he serves them food and he gives them a place for the night. And so it's interesting here that Lydia is pressuring Paul and Silas to stay with her to prove that she's converted, whereas Lot is pressuring these angels to keep the angels away from the evil that he knows is in his town. So I'm guessing they each serve food. I'm guessing the food served by Lot was a bit saltier. There's no scriptural backing for that, but I'm almost certain about that. Some Old Testament scholars, great. So a point of importance to remember though regarding Lydia. Paul's first conversion in Europe was of Asians after being prevented from going to Asia by the Holy Spirit. This isn't a coincidence, right? It just didn't happen to be someone from Asia who Paul converted. This is the work of God, the hand of God, the power of the Holy Spirit working in the heart of Lydia to bring that first believer to be an Asian person. So let's move forward here. After the conversion of Lydia, Paul and Silas, they stay in Philippi, and they continue to preach the gospel. And so as they're going back and forth each Sabbath here to sit and talk with these women, there's this slave girl, and she's standing right behind him just talking about how, oh, they're so great. They have the power and the message of the true God. But it doesn't feel so right. Paul can tell that there's something wrong here. But I want to be clear here when it comes to this girl. She was demon possessed. So this is evidence. It's not just like a con. Some commentators, more modern commentators will say, clearly the owners are just bummed that their con got found out. But that's not true. Like if this was just a con, the owners wouldn't have been nearly as upset. They probably would have picked up and just moved to the next town. But so in this instance, the woman who's possessed has lost this ability, and so their owners can no longer profit on it. And the word here, it's interesting, in verse 19, the literal translation would be something like, their gain had gone out, which is the same verbiage used in verse 18, the demon had gone out of the girl. So at this time, this girl, she would have been possessed by what the unbelievers of that time was called the spirit of Apollo. And so Apollo was a Greek god. There's this whole oracle of Delphi. You can really get deep into this stuff if you want to. But the only reason why I even mention this specific connection is I think you could read this passage and come away with the understanding that Paul actually thought that this woman was possessed by the spirit of Apollo. But no, Paul doesn't buy into those superstitions. We know because in 1 Corinthians 4 he tells us, we know that an idol has no real existence and there's no God but one. So reading this portion of scripture though, there are some questions that arise when you read this narrative. And so the first one being, Why would a demon, this girl's truly demon-possessed, why would a demon speak truth that Paul and Silas are servants of the Most High God, showing the way of salvation? So the people of that area know this girl to be a fortune teller. And it seemed that she was approving of what Paul and Silas were doing. So it would seem to an outside perspective that these people were in tandem. They were working together and they approved of each other. And again, this is not what Paul wants. Like this woman is not with them. And so William Fawcett writes, Satan's speaking truth on this occasion was a master stroke of devilish policy. He spoke the truth to counteract the truth. the devil confessing Christ is often more dangerous than the devil denying Christ, for he confesses only to oppose. So from the outside perspective, you may think that they're together, but the only reason this demon is working this way is to convince others that the way to salvation is through her approach as well as through Paul's approach, which clearly Paul cannot abide. So second, this girl has followed them for days at this point. And so you have to be wondering, why didn't Paul cast out this demon when she first arrived? And there's a couple of different possible explanations for this. But so first of all, Paul might have been unsure if the woman was possessed. I mean, she may have just been a real fervent supporter of the gospel. And we read in 1 John 4, 1, that we shouldn't believe every spirit but to test them. But this seems pretty unlikely from the way that the narrative is constructed. It seems obvious that Paul knew that this woman was demon possessed. So it's possible, seems unlikely. Calvin argued that Paul was actually waiting. He thought the issue might resolve itself without requiring direct intervention from himself and that the woman could be converted and the evil spirit cast out. It's a possibility. I'm not really sure that that's the case but so I think the most likely reason is the one that I sort of dismissed out of hand when I was reading about this passage and it's that some commentators argue that Paul delayed casting out the spirit because he knew the uproar that it would cause and he still had more work to do among these women at the water. And so the first time I read that explanation, I just thought, that can't possibly be the case. Like, Paul never shies away from persecution. What are we talking about? But then one commentator framed it in this way, that it wasn't about Paul's well-being, it was about his yearning to have more time to preach the gospel. So we don't know the true reason, but regardless, the time came when Paul was so annoyed that he cast out a demon. And that word, it's interesting, the commentators go back and forth on the best translation of this word. Because we think annoyed, and we all sort of think the same thing. But it's not annoyed like I get with my daughter when she's asked for the fifth time to go to the park when we're literally on the way to the park. We're going to the park. Just settle down. That's not what Paul's feeling here. He's annoyed. But what it is, it's more of a mix of sorrow and just disappointment that this girl has to contend with this possession. and this pain so the work of the gospel can continue. So I think Paul was filled with such sorrow for this girl and I think it really hurt him to continue preaching the gospel knowing this torment. But anyway, Mark 1, 24 to 25 says, what have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. But Jesus rebuked him saying, be silent and come out of him. So Paul in this instance, he's doing the same thing that Christ did in that even though the demon is confirming the message he's preaching, he's denying his association with this demon. So the third question then here is, do demon possessions still happen today? And I know you're thinking he's covered infant baptism and now he's on the demon possession and he's here one Sunday. I realize these are controversial things, but I've read a good amount on demon possession. And my favorite quote comes from Ligon Duncan, and he writes, I don't know much about demon possession, but I've read a lot of books by people who say they know much about demon possession, and they don't know much about demon possession either. And so a first, a couple of thoughts here that we can say, or that I'm willing to say, about demon possession with certainty. So first of all, the Gospels make a clear distinction between illness and demon possession. So some more modern theologians will say, well, no, this is clear. It was just diseases that the disciples didn't understand. No, it's clear in scripture. It's a different category. It's not that they didn't understand. It's a separate thing from illness. So Matthew 4.24 says, People brought to Jesus all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them." So clearly this isn't an issue of, oh, they just didn't understand what these issues were. No, demon possession is a separate item. Second, Sinclair Ferguson points out that considering the whole of Scripture, demon possession is in a very, very minor portion of Scripture. And it's most common in the Gospels because this is when the devil is facing his fiercest attack. So as expected, the amount of demon possessions would increase at the climax of redemptive history. And so finally, I'm not sure if demon possessions still happen in the way we have in our text, but we know that Satan is real, and we know that there are demons who do his work, but those who are indwelled with the Holy Spirit, we can't be demon possessed. We can be demon oppressed, like we can face trials and temptations certainly, but as far as unbelievers are concerned, I'm not willing to say one way or the other, if demon possession still happened today, but I'll leave that up for your consideration. So we do have to admit though, at the beginning I said we're talking about three conversions. We're not actually told that the slave girl after the demon is cast out, that she converts. But I would think if you have a demon possessing you and a guy casts it out, I think you'd wanna hear what he has to say. And so I think with that in mind, I think saying that she converted, I don't think it's too much of a stretch. But so the owners of this girl are furious, and they bring Paul and Silas before the local magistrates, just as Paul thought they would. And an interesting note, actually, in scripture, this is the first time that Christians come before the government and not from Jewish religious leaders at the day. So it's a different kind of persecution being faced here. So with that, Paul and Silas are thrown into prison. Let's move forward here to our conversion of the Philippian jailer. So Joseph Alexander points out that the original charge brought by the owners of the slave girl are replaced with charges of a more public nature. So teaching those things outside of the Roman culture and custom. And really because the rationale here is they didn't think that the magistrates would care if they just said, hey, They took away our demon-possessed lady who was making us money. So they had to change it that would get something a little bit more publicly supported, which again, as we read, Jews are not well thought of at this time. So why not just change the accusation to be about them being Jews? And so the magistrates then they order that Paul and Silas be beaten with rods and they're thrown into prison and they're kept. And the magistrates, they don't know who they're dealing with, right? So they don't know that Paul and Silas are Roman citizens and they don't know what's worse, they don't understand they're throwing men of God into prison. And so the question does arise though, why is Paul silent about this Roman citizenship issue while they're being beaten? And I think that truly this is the work of the Holy Spirit given to Paul and Silas that the work needed to be done at the prison. And also this would help strengthen the faith of those new believers in Macedonia. And so we move forward here into the prison. And I think it's safe to say this is the worst prison break in history. It would be a terrible movie about all of the doors opening and all the prisoners stay home. But it's about midnight. Paul and Silas are bleeding from their wounds. And they're in these stocks. And the way that stocks would work, it's just terrible. So they have these wounds on their legs and their arms. And the stocks would stretch them so the wounds wouldn't be allowed to heal. So they can't sleep. They're in agony. But they're not sitting there and they're not wallowing, they're not self-pitying, right? They're sitting there. What are they doing? They're praying and they're singing hymns to God. And if you think about the mindset of the jailer at this point, these men have just been stripped and beaten and put in stocks, and they're not sitting there whining, they're sitting there singing praises to their God. So the jailer, he falls asleep, he has these thoughts just swirling in his head, and then the earth starts to shake. And this is the climax, this is the big conversion in our set this morning. But we know that the earth starts to shake, And it shakes just like it did at Sinai. And it shakes just like it did in Acts 4 when the Holy Spirit came and filled the believers. And it shook just like when Christ was on the cross at Calvary. And the earth shook again to bring this jailer to his knees. So the jailer then, he's awoken and he assumes that all the prisoners have escaped because the doors are open. And so he takes a sword, he's about to kill himself, but Paul stops him. So within Roman culture, suicide was seen as an acceptable route to go if you were going to be killed due to the failure of your duties anyway. So the jailer He's baffled, right? He hears a voice and he's like, there should not be anybody here. He's very confused. So he calls for lights to check on the prisoners. And he's in disbelief because the prisoners are still there. And Paul and Silas could have escaped. And maybe that was the sign that you would be waiting for, right? You're in prison. All of a sudden, all of your chains fall off. You think, well, okay, I'm going to get out of here. But no, Paul and Silas stay because the Holy Spirit was working in them, knowing that the work was not finished. So here this jailer comes to the feet of Paul, and he crumbles on the ground, and he asks this question. He says, what must I do to be saved? What must I do to be saved? There's a few different interpretations here. I think as Christians, we fall into this sort of trap of, well, we assume we know what he's asking when he says, what must I need, what must I do, or what must I do to be saved? But if you really read this here, the answer is obvious because the chronology of events dictates it. So the question isn't about the earthquake, because the earthquake has passed. The question isn't about losing the prisoners, because the prisoners are all still there. And the question isn't even about suicide, because he's already sheathed his sword. The jailer asked this question. because the God of the universe had not only shaken the foundations of the prison, the holy, wise, just, omnipotent God, creator of all, had shaken this jailer to his core. He stood on the edge of eternity, and he was scared, and he was lost, and he was broken, and he could see what was before him, and he was moved to say one thing, what must I do to be saved? And the Holy Spirit moved in his heart, and Paul and Silas laid the beauty of the gospel before him, and they said, believe in the Lord Jesus, and you'll be saved. If you're here today and you're lost, you're scared and you're broken, and you haven't experienced that power of the Holy Spirit, I pray that you would put your faith in Christ. Confess that he is the Lord, who has given himself up for your sins. And Christ will return. He'll guide us, and He'll be our King, and we will be His people. We read in Revelation 21, And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There should be no more death or sorrow, no crying. There should be no more pain for the former things have passed away. Then he who sat on the throne said, behold, I make all things new. So a lot of possible applications from this text, and I think there's two really that I want to highlight briefly. So first, Christian hospitality is one of the first things shown after the conversion of both Lydia and the Philippian jailer. same man who had just thrown them in prison and put them in stocks to ensure that their wounds wouldn't heal. He was no longer their tormentor. He was their comforter. He bandaged their wounds. He brought them food. He wanted to ensure they were as comfortable as possible. We need to invite unbelievers into our homes. We need to have them in our home and show them what it means to be cared for by Christians. So one of the, I came here, I loved it. There were three girls out in the lobby playing a board game and I love board games. I have a ton of them. They're like my favorite thing. And one of the reasons I like them so much is it's a very unthreatening way to get people into your home. And so we sort of, we work in a surprise Bible study, like not really, but each night we do a Bible story and a prayer with our daughter Maggie. And we also work through the Westminster Shorter Catechism for children. And Maggie really likes to include everybody. So if you're an unbeliever at her house, she may come up to you and ask you a question like, why should we glorify God? Because he made me and takes care of me. And like, I don't think they're gonna have a conversion experience right there, but I think that those unbelievers who, they don't refuse to participate, we think Maggie's pretty cute, so they feel obliged to help out here, but so, they're not gonna convert immediately right there, but maybe it puts a seed in their mind and they start to think about that, like. God? Am I glorifying him? Who is this God?" It makes them ask these questions. But so this is just one way that you can get people into your house. My wife has done knitting events or just over to dinner, but we need to be having unbelievers in our home to be willing to share the love of Christ with them. So second, How we handle trials within our lives shows the world where our hope lies. So Dennis Johnson writes, when adversity dampens our mood, we need to sink the roots of our joy more deeply into the Lord himself, rather than relying on surface circumstances. Paul and Silas in prison, in the stocks, you wouldn't know that was their location by their mood, by their demeanor, by their willingness to pray and praise their creator at that time. Tertullian writes of Paul and Silas, the legs and the stocks feel nothing when the heart is in heaven. This isn't to say that Christians can't mourn or be in a place in sorrow, but it does mean that even in the darkest of circumstances, we need to understand that our God is holding us in his peace. I think one of the hardest things about being a Christian is when someone comes up to you after a tragedy and they say, how could God let this happen? And it can be really easy to sink into this apologetic perspective about like sin and the problem and the evil, but no, it's not the time for platitudes or argumentation. It's a time for sorrow. It's a time to mourn with those who mourn. It's a time to pray that God would grant them peace, and it's a moment to remind them that God hates the sin of this world so much he sent Christ to die for it. Philippians 4, 4-7 says, Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, Let your request be known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we pray that in all circumstances, we may find your peace. We pray for the strength to always rely on you, even in the most difficult of circumstances. God, we pray you be with all those in mourning. We pray that you would give them your peace that surpasses all understanding. Help us to shine the light of your son in the darkest of times. Come, Lord Jesus, come. In all these things, we pray your son's name. Amen.