A Spirit Filled Life — Acts 18

0:01 It's a blessing and honor to be bringing the word, to you all today, and I trust the Lord be with us. But let's ask the Lord for his help. Father God, we come to you today in immense need, oh, Lord. We come to you today and recognize that we need to hear from you, oh, Lord. We need to hear your words, not the words of man, not clever speech.

0:36 Father, the power of the spirit. We need you, oh Lord. God, I don't want to waste this time. I know that you don't want this time to be wasted. So lord, please enable me to speak your words faithfully, to say what you would say, oh Lord, to this body in Westlake.

1:05 And Lord, I pray that you would give us ears to hear what the spirit would say to us today. Hearts of faith to receive these words. Lord, we need you. We come to you in weakness. We come to you in frailty.

1:28 But, God, we don't rely on our strength. We rely on the power of the living God. We see that you raised our savior from the dead, and you're working today. So God, please use this time for your glory. May we be to your glory today.

1:47 We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. So our our assignment for today is Acts chapter 18 verses one through 17. So I'd ask you to turn your Bibles to that passage. The word of the Lord, it says, after these things, Paul departed from Athens and went to Corinth and he found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome, and he came to them.

2:34 So because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and worked, for by occupation they were tent makers. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded both Jews and Greeks. When Silas and Timothy had come from Macedonia, Paul was compelled by the spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ. When they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook his garments and said to them, your blood be upon your own heads, I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.

3:08 And he departed from there and entered the house of a certain man named Justus, one who was worship... One who worshiped God, whose house was next door to the synagogue. Then Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his household and many of the Corinthians hearing, believed, and were baptized. Now the Lord spoke to Paul in the night by a vision. Do not be afraid, but speak and do not keep silent for I am with you and no one will attack you to hurt you, for I have many people in this city.

3:51 And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. When Galileo was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him to the judgment seat saying, this fellow persuades men to worship God contrary to law. When Paul was about to open up his mouth, Gallios said to the Jews, if it were a matter of wrongdoing or wicked crimes, O Jews, there would be a reason why I should bear with you. But if it is a question of words and names in your own law, look to it yourselves for I do not want to be a judge of such matters. And he drove them from the judgment seat.

4:35 Then all the Greeks took Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat, but Galileo took no notice of these things. I'd like us to consider the question, what is the Lord Jesus worthy of? What is he worth? What is he worth to you? What has he done for you?

5:50 And do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is the perfect, pleasing, and acceptable will of God. So we consider what is the Lord worthy of? Why are we here today? What does he do? There's two words in in Romans chapter 12 that I want to highlight.

6:18 It's the words holy and acceptable. It says, I urge you therefore brothers, because of the mercies of God, in light of what God has done for us that you present your bodies, you give yourselves to the Lord. And he uses this word holy and acceptable. And he says that us presenting ourselves to the Lord is our reasonable service. This is...

6:46 This makes sense for us for us to do in light of who our God is and what he has done for us. So holy, what does that mean? We see this in a salvific sense that we have been made holy by our God. He has cleansed us of our sins, of all of our unrighteousness. We couldn't do it.

7:11 So he sent his son to do it for us. If you could summarize the gospel in two sentences, it's Christ died the death that we deserved and we get to live his life. His life is imputed on us, that's true, but also his life is within us. It's not meant to just be a statement that we're like, okay, I'm I'm good, I'm clear. Like, I have his life.

7:40 His life is now mine and okay, now I can live. It's no. No. His life is ours. His righteousness is ours.

7:49 It's imputed to us. But now, he lives within us. If you look at Acts chapter one, how did Luke introduce the book? He said, he wrote to Theophilus, first account, the book of Luke. He said, this is what Jesus began to do.

8:11 So what is he doing now? What is he writing for now? This is what Jesus is continuing to do, but he's ascended to heaven. How is he doing anything? The work is done, isn't it?

8:25 Right? And it is. It's done, but now we continue it in our life. He's continuing with the church. He's continuing with you and I.

8:39 Holy and acceptable. So if you've been made holy, what does this word mean? It means I have been set apart from my sin and now I give myself to God. I give myself to God. I belong to him.

8:58 I'm set apart to him. I owe my life to him. He's mine, but I'm his. I belong to him. My life belongs to him.

9:13 So there's a sense that that word holy applies to our continual Christian life. Yes, that's what our life is marked by before God. He judges us as holy. He's, I reckon you holy, but now we're available to him. We're God, like we're sanctified.

9:35 We're consecrated unto him. We're we're saying, Lord I'm yours. I'm yours. Acceptable. This word also applies to us once we were saved.

9:49 What does Ephesians one teach us? It says, we were accepted in the beloved. Brothers and sisters, what have you done to accomplish that? Can anyone stand up here and say, God accepted me because I was the guy. Like, he wanted like I'm...

10:09 Because of all I could offer the Lord, he's like, yep, you're you're fit to be in my family. Jesus made himself a friend of sinners. Who are we? We were the sinner. We are sinners.

10:26 But Jesus said, I will accept you out of the abundance of my love and my grace and my favor. I'll I'll pour my favor out on you. Not because of what you can offer to me, but because I love you. Because I love you. So yes, we're acceptable to God.

11:10 You've been redeemed. You've been washed. You've been cleansed. This is true. It doesn't change.

11:17 But my life is meant to be lived out in you. Romans six, it teaches us, would we continue in sin because we've received the grace of God? No. No. Why?

11:35 Why? Because of who the Lord Jesus is. Because of what he's done for us. Does he mean anything to you? What does the Lord Jesus mean to you?

11:50 When you hear his name, what does it do to your heart? My heart is often disaffected by the truth of the gospel. It's often cold and calloused and dull and it's just, I'll just live my life. I'm comfortable. I'm I'm good.

12:14 I'm I'm saved. I'm good. Let me just go. But no. No.

12:19 If God has saved us, if he's redeemed us, if he's made us his children, We belong to him and we want to please him. We want to live for him. And we, yes, we have been accepted into his family. But now, we get to serve the one that we love. We get to give ourselves to the one that we love.

12:43 Not in order to earn that grace, not in order to say, okay now Lord, I know you saved me, but now I have all this to offer you because of how I lived. It's it's not any of that. What did we what did we just sing? Thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus for the blood applied.

12:59 Thank you Lord. This service, this heart, this is all thanksgiving unto the Lord. It's all thanksgiving and it has to start there. I'm not calling any of you guys, I'm not calling this body to activity, to vain speech and vain motion, to try to create and manufacture the works of God through this body. That's that's not what the Lord wants.

13:30 He wants a heart of thanksgiving. A heart that's that's his. That we see the gospel and we're we're transformed and changed and we're submitted. We're consecrated. We're available to him.

13:47 So are you available to him? As believers, we say the Lord Jesus is worthy. We confess it with our lips. But is that a reality in your heart? What does your heart say?

14:09 What does your hands and your feet say? What does your schedule say? What does your life say? Does it say, I'm available to God. I am thankful to God.

14:23 I love the one who has saved me and I give myself to him. I belong to him. He has won my heart and he continues to win my heart. I continue to give myself to him. This is not meant to just be vain speech or just, okay, I've checked the box, I'm good.

14:42 This is meant to be a daily experience. Spirit filled service is normal. This is meant to be, this is meant to be the Christian life. And please, my heart is not to discourage. I I can easily be discouraged by Acts chapter 18 and see, this is what it means to serve the Lord.

15:09 Oh my goodness, I fall short. Oh my goodness, my heart is cold. Oh my goodness, my heart doesn't care about the Lord as I should. But that's not the point of this. Our God is patient with us.

15:25 He's even now patient with us and he's working in us. He isn't asking us to look at ourselves and summon up activity. Or he's not asking us to get everything perfect or... He's just asking us, are you willing to follow me? Are you willing to listen?

15:44 Are you willing to take a step? And even even mess up or even fail, you're taking a step. You're following me. You're not giving up. So please, when you when you listen to these words, don't let the enemy discourage your heart and think, since I'm not here, this is no longer available to me.

16:05 Since I've fallen short in serving the Lord, which all of us can say, all believers can say, we have fallen short in serving the Lord. Your posture does not have to be one of, okay, screw it. I know, it's too late. I'm a lost cause. No.

16:22 What has the Lord done for you? He saved you. He's redeemed you. He sanctified you. You're his.

16:29 He's worked so wonderfully in your life. Can't you believe him now to work continually? To keep working. To help you to grow. To help us to press on.

17:21 We pray. We pray. We don't say, okay, I haven't I haven't done enough for the Lord, so now let me just like start just running and going and like doing all this activity and just jumping around. No. We get on our knees and say, God, we need you.

17:39 God, I can't do this without you. God, we can't... We we don't have vision for what we need, what... For where you're leading us. I don't have vision for how you want me to serve you, but Lord, I know.

17:50 I know that I know that I know that you want to use me. I know that you want to use this body. That you haven't brought us together purposelessly. That you're not wasting your time with us. That you have a purpose with us.

18:04 And we go before the Lord and pray and say, God, help us. God, give us vision. We listen to the Lord and then we go. When he responds we say, okay Lord, I'm yours. I'm yours.

18:22 I'm available and I'll go. So yes, if you want to go, you're ready. Let's look at verse one. It says, after these things Paul departed from Athens and went to Corinth. We were going to look at some track...

18:43 Tracking where Paul has been and see where he, you know, all the all the all the travels and things like that. But we've studied that and I encourage you, it's it's good study and I'll I'll share these slides. But what I want us to see here is is Paul was a man that was led by the Lord. He was submitted to the Lord. And he isn't here by accident.

19:10 If you think that Paul just stumbled across to Corinth and you just like, you know, he's like alright. No. The Lord is leading him. He's here for a purpose. Turn your bibles to first Timothy chapter one.

19:32 And let's look at this fellow, Paul. First Timothy chapter one verse 12, and listen to who this man is. It says, and I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me because he counted me faithful, putting me in the ministry. Although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor and an insolent man, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.

20:19 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. However, for this reason I obtain mercy that in me first, Jesus Christ might show all long suffering as a pattern to those who are going to believe on him for everlasting life. Listen to these words. Who was that man? He hated the church.

20:53 He hated the Lord Jesus. He hated what God was doing through the church and he was in opposition. He was a blasphemer. When he heard the name of Christ that evoked hatred and contempt and anger in his heart and he was so zealous with that anger, he was willing to kill believers because of it. But look at what this look at what this passage says.

21:18 It says, he counted me faithful. Alright. That doesn't make sense. Are we talking about the same guy? This guy, insolent, blasphemer, persecutor.

21:31 Wrong fella. He's like, stay away from him lord. No. God saved that man. But look at what happened in Acts chapter nine, and I had the blessing to preach on that so it's in my mind.

21:44 But Acts chapter nine said, Paul said, okay Lord, what would you have me to do? When he got saved, that was Paul's response. He said, Lord, what would you have me to do? Paul said, yes to God. Was Paul a perfect man?

22:00 Was he a sinner? He was a sinner. He's calls himself the chief of sinners. I'll let him take that title. I'm not gonna take it.

22:07 I'm kidding. This guy, he's not the right guy for the ministry, but what what did God do? He saved the man and he used him. That's incredible. He used this man.

22:38 He called him faithful because Paul said yes to him. Paul said yes. He simply just said yes. Not perfectly, not not... He didn't...

22:48 He wasn't this perfect guy, but he's... He continued to say yes to God. Look at Peter. Man, God was patient with that man. Peter said no to the Lord Jesus so many times.

23:03 He said no Lord, probably more than any of the other disciples. Check me on that. But you look at when when the spirit of God asked Peter to go go to Cornelius, what was Peter's response? What? No.

23:16 That's that's not the right. You must be mistaken Lord. But God was patient with him and Peter obeyed. Peter obeyed. Listen to these words.

23:28 If you fail, don't stay there. That's where that's where this, that's where Satan would have you to be. He said, you've already failed in your Christian walk. You've already been defeated like this is just pointless. You've been saved, so just just get to eternity, just grind out this life.

23:45 No. Peter failed. Paul was the wrong guy to bring into the ministry, but God was patient. God was working. And what was their response?

23:58 And what is our due response? How can we be faithful? How can we be acceptable and pleasing to our God? We say yes. And if you say no, we're...

24:12 It's confess. Just as simple as that. Just confess it to the Lord. Say, God I said no. I made I made a mistake.

24:20 But don't stay there. Don't give up. Just because you said no, doesn't mean the Lord will receive your yes. He's working in you. He's given his spirit to you.

24:31 So if you've if you've failed, if you're if you're like, I'm not I'm not that guy. God's patient. Trust his patience. Trust his spirit that he's working in you and just say yes. And why can you say, yes?

24:47 Because it is the power of God that's promised to work within you when you offer yourself to him. That's why it's spirit filled service. It's not the pride of man elevating himself to God and saying, Lord, look at what I've done. It's it's no. We've we've failed.

25:06 We've fallen short, but but God, I want to press forward. I'm I'm letting go of what's behind and I'm looking to the upward call in the Lord Jesus. I'm willing to trust God for what he has ahead of me. I'm willing to trust that he has not given up on me. I'm willing to trust that he can now use me.

25:28 And Paul was a man that was faithful because he continued to say yes to God. Not perfectly, but faithfully. He said yes. He didn't give up. So verse one, we're in Corinth.

25:45 And the spirit of the Lord led Paul there. And what I want us to consider is that this is where God had him. This is where God wanted him. God purposed in bringing Paul to this location to use him mightily and to work through him. So I ask you, why are you here?

26:08 Does the Lord want you here? And I think that's a reasonable question like, test if the Lord wants you here. I'm I'm not encouraging people to like leave Westlake, but like test. Test if this is... Ask the Lord, is this where you want me?

26:22 Is this where you want me to serve you? Is this where you would have me? And if and if the Lord's saying, yes, I I want you here, then then then you're here for a purpose. You're here because God has placed you here. You're not here by happenstance.

26:40 You're not here just... You've... You're not here because like it's just whatever. No. God has a purpose for you being in this body, but also where has God placed you in your life?

26:53 What what vocation do you have? What family are you in? Who's your parents? Who's your children? Who's your brother?

27:01 Who's your sister? Who's your family? Who... Where where does God have you? Is that just happenstance?

27:08 No. No. God has you where you are for a purpose and God wants to use you. He wants to use us mightily wherever he would have us. There are no wasted seasons if we say yes to God and we trust.

27:25 We trust that he is not just being fickle or just you know, blindly leading us. No, we say, God I trust that this is where you have me. I believe you. So Lord if you have me here, I don't understand and I don't wanna just go off into activity. Lord, help me.

27:43 Show me. Why do you have me here? And when he when he teaches you, just say yes. Just say, okay Lord, I'm willing to obey. I'm willing to go.

27:54 I'm willing to speak. And this also applies to our body. Why does God have us here? It's a question, does he want us... We've talked about that.

28:07 Does he want us to go someplace else? That's a question and we should seek the Lord on that. But if he has us here, it's for a purpose. It's for a purpose. Who...

28:18 What's around us? We have a stewardship of where God has placed us. It's not it's not happenstance. It's not it's not just, it's it's real. This is this is what the spirit of God is doing.

28:33 This is how he works. He, the Lord Jesus, he ascended to heaven and he brought down his spirit and he gave it to the church. And now we continue the work of our Lord where he has us. This is not just hypothetical. This is meant to be the normal Christian experience.

28:50 But listen, if we fall in short, I fall short. If we fall short, the Lord just... We can just say, Lord, we've fallen short. But it's okay. God, I trust you.

29:02 I trust you still want to work. I trust that you haven't given up on me. I trust that I I can be a pattern of your patience towards me. That our body can be a pattern of your patience towards us. That people can say, okay, maybe that person doesn't do doesn't do everything perfectly.

29:22 Or maybe maybe this body doesn't do everything perfectly, but they say yes to God. And if they mess up, it's they say they they confess it and they say yes to God. They continue. They press on. So how would the Lord have you press on and where he has you?

29:38 Have you asked the Lord and and looked at what he's placed in your hands? The relationships, the marriages, the children, the the body, the the church, all of these things. What has God placed in your stewardship? And what would he have you to do? I believe the Lord wants to answer that question for us.

29:58 And he... I'm not saying he hasn't answered that for you, but if you don't know, it's okay. Pray. Seek the Lord. He's patient.

30:45 If you go to Romans chapter 16 verse three, Paul, he talks about Aquila and Priscilla. He has great admiration and great fellowship with them. He loves his brother and sister. And he and he says in Romans chapter 16 verse three that they are his fellow laborers, laborers in Christ. There's a lot that happens in this verse, but we're we're just gonna look at one like just couple simple things.

31:12 Why did why did why did the Lord send Paul to them? And why why were they together? What brought them together? They were brought together because they shared the Lord Jesus. They shared him.

31:26 They shared an affection and heart for him. And they also shared an occupation in what... In the work that they did. But I also wanna say that they they shared they shared the service of the Lord together. They worked together, they labored together.

31:45 When when Paul presented himself, his body to the Lord as a living sacrifice, he looked to his left and right and Aquila and Priscilla were doing the same thing. They together presented themselves to the Lord, available, holy, acceptable to him and they shared that ministry. They shared, they had that in common. That word fellowship, it's it's like what you have in common, what you share. And and as a body, what brings us together?

32:12 Why do we come here to worship the Lord and remember him every... For the first meeting? It's because we all love the Lord. As believers, we love the Lord. It's not because we all cheer for the browns or like we have all have the same job.

32:29 No. What do we share? We all find the Lord Jesus to be the most excellent. We all find the Lord Jesus to be the most lovely. We all say, he has redeemed me.

32:46 The son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. And we can say, instead of me we can say us. Us. And we share that. But the other the other part of that is fellowship also means partnership.

33:00 They worked together. Paul called them fellow laborers. They worked together. And what I want us to see is, this is normal. This is the normal Christian experience that as a body, we come together to worship the Lord Jesus.

33:18 As a royal priesthood, we worship the Lord. We offer up spiritual sacrifices to the Lord. But also, we proclaim the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. We proclaim together as well. Is this just, God was purposeful in this.

33:38 Why? Because he knows that I'm weak. He knows that you're weak. He knows that each of us, since we have the spirit of God, are able to act like the holy spirit to each other. The spirit of God is called the the paraclete.

33:55 He's he's coming below us. Para meaning he's beside us and he's encouraging. He's he's pushing us forward. He's compelling us. And we get to be that to each other.

34:06 We get to be that encourager that comes alongside and even even convicts, even even offers correction and change and we all receive that with grace. But we come alongside each other and we act like the holy spirit to each other and we all press forward together. This is God's purpose. This is normal. This is God's design.

34:26 This is what he means for our body that we would partner and work together for the gospel. That we would pray and obey together. That we go before the Lord and say, Lord, how would you use me? But also, how would you use us together? We have a stewardship of where God has placed us.

34:46 We want to be faithful. What does that mean? We want to say yes to you. So how would you have us do that together? We seek the Lord together and we can obey together.

34:58 And this is what Paul enjoyed. That brought joy. He enjoyed that relationship. We're gonna skip this point. Talk to me about it later.

35:45 And if you look at this word in the Greek, this verb means that the spirit was acting on Paul. It's it's like Paul was being continually compelled. And that word also means he was burdened. He was afflicted by the spirit of God. The spirit of God was doing this to Paul.

36:09 And it also means he was continuing to do this. So what does this mean for us practically? And how did Paul receive this burden? How was his heart moved by the spirit of God? We see two sides of this and this is the faithfulness side.

36:26 This is our responsibility to God. Paul was before the spirit of God. In other versions it says, he was completely devoted to the preaching of the word. That's other versions that it says. He was completely devoted to the work.

36:41 So he devoted himself to the spirit of God. He said, it's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. The life that I now live, I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave myself, gave himself for me. And I'm a I Paul present myself to God as a living sacrifice. He was available to the spirit of God.

37:05 And what was the spirit of God faithful to do? The spirit of God worked in Paul's heart. He worked in his heart. And where our hearts can be dull, they can they can be hard, they can just be ineffective. Ineffective by the gospel.

37:25 Ineffective by those that are dying around us. Those that are headed towards hell around us. When our hearts get are unaffected. When they're, when it just doesn't, I'm just living. I'm comfortable.

37:39 When they're comfortable, what is the response? Paul submitted himself to God. He said, God, I don't I don't want... I'm just editorializing, but this is what it means to us. God, my heart isn't where it ought to be.

37:55 And you could even say, if your heart is there, it's not always where it ought to be. We need to continually drag our hearts to the Lord and say, Lord, give me your heart. Give me your heart for the lost. Give me your heart to serve. Give me the heart that you have for those around me.

38:15 And the spirit of God answers that prayer. He answers that prayer. I was reading George Mueller's biography on Sunday. I need to finish it. But he was he was describing the story of how he would he would would be preaching and and he said that he just didn't see souls get saved.

38:37 And he said a brother, this guy preached, he saw souls get saved. And his response was, I'm not surprised. I'm not surprised by that. And the reason why he said that was, this brother he prays earnestly for the salvation of souls. He prays earnestly that souls would be converted.

38:57 And when I heard that phrase, I was kind of taken aback like that kind of sounds wrong. Like you just gotta like just do, like pray more and like it just automatically happens. But listen, listen to what what he's describing here. This is God's means of working through us. This is his means of us using his grace, of being empowered by his spirit, and seeing seeing the spirit work in our midst.

39:25 We offer ourselves to God and we ask the Lord, Lord, I don't want to preach in vain. I don't wanna waste my time. Lord, I need you. Lord, you must save souls. I can't do it, Lord.

39:40 You must show up and Lord I I want it. He used that word earnestly, that he was earnest in prayer. And it's this, I'm gonna keep praying. I'm gonna keep asking Lord. I'm gonna keep persisting in prayer.

39:53 And Lord, my heart isn't always there, but Lord work on my heart. And then the next day, my heart isn't there. Lord work on my heart. And we continue in that. We press on in that.

40:03 And brothers and sisters, listen to this. The Lord answers. He listens to that. And I'm not saying this because I see this perfectly. I don't I don't...

40:14 I confess, my heart isn't there. This this reality, I don't I don't really see this as it ought to be. My life isn't the normal Christian experience as it ought to be. But by the authority of the word of God, I want to I want to express to you, this is what the Lord honors. He honors when we go before him in prayer and when we earnestly seek him.

40:37 I don't say that because I can I can't offer that to you? I say this because God is willing and ready to offer that to you and to us. This is what the Lord wants for us. The question is, are we willing to be earnest in seeking the Lord for it? How badly?

40:57 How badly do we want to see the Lord use us? How badly do we want to see the Lord save souls among us? How badly do we want to see the glory of God in our midst? That it wouldn't just be, we wouldn't just be content. I mean, we can obviously be happy when we see souls saved, but seeing souls saved is meant to be normal.

41:45 Is that because Paul failed? Did the spirit of God fail? Would we say that? And we see in this other case, the Gentiles, they heard and they received the word. What happened there?

41:59 What we see here is we are before the Lord, but he must do the work. It must be him. We can't manufacture it. We can't, okay, if I do this, I'm entitled to to see this result. That's not it.

42:16 We're not entitled. We earnestly seek trusting the Lord that this is what he wants to do. And we leave the results to him and we say, God, I trust you. I know that you want to work. And if I don't see it, Lord I trust you.

42:33 I know that you're working. I know that you're working and he is working, but we don't need to get discouraged. We need to press on. We need to be earnest in our prayer. We need to say, Lord, we aren't seeing you work as as we we believe this is normal.

42:51 We see this in your word. We see this in the book of Acts and we trust that this isn't just this isn't just for then, this is for now. That you still want to save souls. You still want to use us. You still want to work in us.

43:05 So we need to continually trust the Lord and leave the results to him because we can't we can't transaction this out. It has to be the Lord. It has to be the Lord. Well, we're getting low on time. I want to end with this last thought.

43:34 I wish we could finish, but that's okay. So Paul, he receives this vision from the Lord and the Lord says, I am with you. He says, don't don't be afraid. He says to speak, to don't keep don't keep silent. I'm with you.

43:53 I'm with you. And no one will attack you or harm you for I have many in this city. That applies to us. God has many in this city. He is working here.

44:05 He's waiting for our yes. He's waiting for your yes. He has many that are in your life, that are in your workplace, that are in your families and he's waiting for your yes. So Paul, he takes God at his word and he goes forth with confidence. And what happened?

44:27 He gets in trouble. So he goes before... He he gets dragged out by the by the Jews in the synagogue and they're like, this this guy, he's he's calling us to disobey the law of God. He's calling us to worship God in a way that's contrary to what the Lord wants. And then Paul, he's about to open his mouth, but what happens?

44:47 The Lord took care of him. And it said he was before the judgment seat of man. He was before the judgment seat of that proconsul. Each of us, we stand before the judgment seat of man and we can think, oh my goodness, what is this guy gonna do to me? But Paul had a vision from the spirit of God that gave him confidence that the Lord is with him in this work.

45:19 That the Lord won't forsake him in this work. So that gave him confidence in the light in light of affliction. That gave him confidence before man. And the Lord answered that prayer. The Lord took care of him.

45:34 But we see this interesting situation that happens. We see the Jews, they say, this man, he calls us to worship God in a way that's contrary to the law. And how did the law call the Jew to worship God? We see that the moral law, all it did was it revealed sin. It condemned them.

45:58 The civil law, it taught them how to live rightly amongst each other but they fell short of that. But then the ceremonial law, this allowed for two things. There could be more, so I'm still learning. Atonement and worship. So this was God's provision during this time that the Jews even though they were sinful, God would say, I will...

46:23 This animal, this sacrifice will take, will cover your sin. It'll allow you to come before me cleansed and now you can worship me. And that then there's then there's the sacrifices they could offer. The thanksgiving offerings, the whole burnt offerings that they could offer to God as worship. But this is what the Jews did.

46:47 They said, that that animal it's it's covered my sin, know, so I'm good for I'm good with God. So you know, I I am waiting for a Messiah, but the Messiah I'm waiting for is to not... It's to take care of my spiritual condition, it's to it's to make us great in the world and it's to it's to raise our condition before man. They didn't see their need. In first Corinthians it says, Christ is a stumbling block to the Jews.

47:18 The Jews thought they were good with God. That we're good. I I follow the law, I'm good, know. I give the sacrifices, I I do the things, I do all the religious activities, so I'm good with God. And there could be some of us that are here today that follow that same idea that says, I'm I'm good with God.

47:39 I I do the activities that he prescribes. And then we see the Greeks. It said, after he went to the to the proconsul, the guy said, I don't care. I don't care what's going on. This is your guys' issue.

47:57 This is your this is your Messiah. This is your law. Just take him away. And it said that they beat the ruler of the synagogue. And it said that Galileo Galileo took no notice of this.

48:10 He's like, I don't care. We see in first Corinthians one that for the Greek, the Gentile, that the cross of Christ is foolishness. It's foolishness. It's... What do you mean you're trying to like, you're trying to please God like you need a savior like, oh, your savior died on a cross?

48:31 Our our gods, they don't die. It's foolishness. It's stupid to them. And many of us can, some of us can be here today and say, it's foolishness. I'm good before God.

48:45 I don't I don't need that. I'm I'm I'm good. I'm I'm comfortable. Like my life is good. I have things in order.

48:51 It's all good. It's foolishness. He he tossed it aside. But what is it to us that are saved? To us it's the power of God.

49:02 It says, not many that are noble among you were called. He chose the weak things in the world. Matthew chapter five it says, blessed are the poor in spirit for they shall inherit the kingdom of God. What does that mean? If you don't come to God with a spirit of, Lord, I am bankrupt before you.

49:25 I have nothing. I have nothing to offer you Lord. I'm a sinner. I'm weak. I can't I can't improve my spiritual condition.

49:35 I can't earn my way to heaven. There's nothing I can do. And all these activities, they don't bring peace to the guilt in my heart. They do nothing because I know that I am a man in need. That is that is what it means to be poor in spirit.

49:53 And what does God do in that condition? He saves. He saves. If your heart is calloused to that, if you find yourself thinking I'm doing the activities or I don't really care and your heart isn't there. Listen, when I when I was 18 and I was not walking with the Lord, when I asked the Lord, when I prayed to him, I I said, Lord, I know that I need to change, but there's nothing I can do and my heart doesn't even really want this.

50:27 So I asked the Lord, Lord, you need to change my heart. I don't even have a desire to follow you. You need to give me that desire. If you stand here today and your heart is callous, it's just like I don't really care about the gospel. Take that to the Lord.

50:41 Say, Lord this is where I'm at, but but I but I know it needs to change. Take it to the Lord and he'll listen. He'll listen. He's merciful. He's patient with you.

50:55 But know that one day we will stand before the Lord and we will be judged before him. And right now we have an opportunity to judge for ourselves who the Lord Jesus is. We can judge for ourselves and say, yeah, I see that I need him. We have that opportunity today to judge for ourselves, But this time will end where you will no longer have the opportunity and you will see that the Lord Jesus truly is who he says that he is. That he truly is Lord of all, that he truly he truly is that savior, but then it'll be too late.

51:38 So I plead with you. I plead with you, if you don't know him and if your heart is cold, don't stay there. Don't stay there. He's available to you today. And Christian, if your heart is cold, don't stay there.

51:52 Don't stay there. Confess your sins. Present yourselves to God and say, Lord, I'm available. I'm not perfect, but Lord, you're patient. I'm available.

52:26 And we thank you for how you've worked mightily in our midst. How you've worked mightily. We thank you Lord. Help us to press on. We ask this in Jesus name, amen.