Spirit Led Decision Making — Acts 20-21

0:00 Alright. So we are gonna be looking at ax twenty one one through 16. At least I hope so. I don't wanna hear that, but we should be able to get there. So I'm gonna start with prayer, and then we'll we'll read through together.

0:27 Dear Lord, we come to you today, and we just wanna surrender to you and ask that you work your will. We ask that you'll show us truth from your scriptures that would change our lives, and and we, pray that you would enliven our minds and our hearts would be, moved by the things that you show us. And I just pray that your your mercy on us as a body and the people that hear this. I pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

1:07 Acts twenty one one through 16. I'm reading from the New Living Translation. After saying farewell to the Ephesian elders, we sailed straight to the Island Of Cause. The next day, we reached Rhodes and then went to Patera. There, we boarded a ship sailing for Phoenicia.

1:29 We sighted the island of Cyprus and passed it on our left and then we landed at the Harbor Of Tyre in Syria where the ship was to unload its cargo. We went to shore and found the local believers and stayed with them a week. These believers prophesied to the Holy Spirit that Paul should not go on to Jerusalem. When we returned to the ship at the end of the week, the entire congregation, including women and children, left the city and came down to the shore with us. There, we knelt and prayed.

2:08 We said our farewells, then we went aboard and they returned home. The next day after leaving Tyre was Ptolemis where we greeted the brothers and sisters and stayed for one day. The next day, we went on to Caesarea and stayed at the home of Philip, the evangelist, one of the seven men who had been chosen to distribute the food. He had four unmarried daughter... Daughters who had the gift of prophecy.

2:39 Several days later, a man named Agabus, who also had the gift of prophecy, arrived from Judea. He came over and took Paul's belt and bound his feet and hands with it. And then he said, the Holy Spirit declares, so shall the owner of this belt be bound by the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem and turned over to the Gentiles. When we heard this, we and the local believers all begged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem. But he said, why all this weeping?

3:15 You are breaking my heart. I am ready not only to be jailed at Jerusalem, but even to die for the sake of the Lord Jesus. When it was clear that we couldn't persuade him, we gave up and said, the Lord's will be done. After this, we packed our things and left for Jerusalem. Some believers from Caesarea accompanied us, and they took us to the home of Nasen, a man originally from Cyprus and one of the early believers.

3:56 So I'd like to just give a little context to this. Obviously, those that have been following along in this series, which is most of the ones in the room here at least, know that we've been going through acts from the beginning, and now we've made it to chapter 21. And in acts one verse eight, and this was a section that I spoke on, you have a transition, and there are many transitions. I wanna follow a few of the transitions to where we are at this point because this is another section. For whatever reason, I seem to have gotten the transitions, the starts, the ends.

4:43 So so there's a few transitions here. And so and so you... Starting at the beginning of the church, there's the transition from Jesus' earthly ministry to the time of the acts of the holy spirit in the church. And the key verse here that is not just a key to the transition, but a key to understand this whole section of time in Acts is Acts one eight. And here Jesus is last words recorded on earth before he ascended.

5:26 He says this, he says, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses telling people about me everywhere in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. And so if you're looking at this map here that we have on the wall and I have up in the PowerPoint presentation, and perhaps it can be provided also on the... Online as well, we'll see. You see in in in chapter one, this is that start, and it's the end of the ministry. It's the beginning of Acts and end of Jesus' earthly minis...

6:08 Ministry beginning of Acts. And then you see from this verse, it says, you're gonna start in Jerusalem, and that's exactly what happened. And then there was the transition to, Judea, which is the section around Jerusalem and, which is noted, it was Jesus' command that it just kind of naturally spread that it was shared with among Jews in that that section closer to Jerusalem. And in that that section, it was about three years that it was kind of Jerusalem and Judea. So from AD thirty to AD thirty three and the first seven books of the bible.

6:59 And then you see the scattering. So farther into Judea, the edges around Judea, Samaria. You see this scattering. This is this... So this this...

7:13 That next section kind of greater Judea and Samaria and some of the outer rings of the Gentiles or or the ends of the earth, if you will, you can you can make that equivalent to to... First, I'm gonna mention in just a second here, but the but the Gentiles. So you have that that scattering over the next six years in a kind of preparation for a transition of focus to the time of the gen... To where where there's a real growing of the church, a transition to a... Into...

7:48 From a focus on the the the Hebrew church to the Gentile church. And so that's that's from AD thirty three to AD forty seven. And right at the end of 8047 was kind of the wrap up of that section on Antioch that I spoke about where it was kind of that beginning. It was kind of like this transition, a church that was multiethnic, Hebrew and Gentile. And so that was a real transition right there.

8:37 It should be noted that as they went to Samaria, like, right at that... It got ready to be the... Well, the dispersion that Paul previous to the the dispersion, Peter seemed to be the main character that God used. And, and then as the dispersion happened, the the the persecution that was caused by... The the leader of that was Paul.

9:10 And so as the church was scattered, we, of course, know that that that Paul comes and becomes a kind of main character starting with being a persecutor of the church and, spearheading this kind of murdering of at least one person that we know for sure, but believe it was probably multiple people that were put to death, and many were imprisoned, and many had to run for their lives to basically liquidate everything they had if they could, lose most of it, and start over somewhere else, whole families. But this was used of God, and so Paul, working against God, was used of God. And we see just a key point here, Acts nine verses fifteen and sixteen. The section here where Saul, was actively persecuting, meets the Lord on his way to Damascus. And so he's following people out to the...

10:14 To these either Gentile towns and and seeking to persecute them, but god intervenes. And we have this this word from the lord to Ananias as Paul has been blinded and he's waiting to hear from god. Acts nine fifteen and sixteen says, but the lord said, go for Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to kings as well as to the people of Israel. And I will show him how much he must suffer for my name's sake. And so from the beginning that Paul is kind of introduced as a Christian, there's this word here from the Lord, this prediction, a prophecy.

11:01 It doesn't call it a prophecy, but it says the Lord said this in a vision to Ananias. Specifically saying that he is gonna use this predator, this evil man, and make him into his instrument. He's already used him to... For his purposes, but now he is switching sides. And this is a wonderful thing.

11:27 I think that it it if nothing else, I think a side note would be that it it... We have to remember never to count anybody out and certainly not ourselves. God can use us in ways that that we can't even imagine. And, hopefully, he's using us willingly. Okay?

11:46 And that's one of the big the big parts of this message because, God used Paul when he was working against God, and then God used Paul mightily even more... Even greater, I would say. I'm not sure if that's possible, but if it is, he used him even better and greater as he joined God, actually working with him to grow his church and to to honor his name. So Jesus had given his last words, and he mentioned, you know, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the earth. And then the, the word from the Lord that Ananias got, he...

12:51 There was a kind of a similar list. He said he's gonna go to the Gentiles. And so you see that in this map here that I have up here where he's prepared over multiple years. He he slowly gets more and more involved with the church. Well, he's he's there right away, but I I...

13:17 You don't see his name. You know? He's he's working with people that introduce him. He is... He's quietly ministering.

13:25 As... It's it's it's a bit hard for any group to accept someone like him who has actively been persecuting, and now he's one of them. That's that's a that's a hard... So he had to be introduced by multiple people, Barnabas and things like that. And then you see him really come into his own, if you will, in Antioch.

13:45 And then from there on, there's the three the three missionary journeys. So chapters 47 through 56 in Acts over about nine years is a description. I'm sorry. Years 47 through 56. Chapters 13 through 21 is a description of Paul's missionary journeys.

14:11 And there's descriptions of how he ministered, who he ministered to, what he said, what happened to him, what happened to the people around him, people coming to the Lord and being discipled. There's also descriptions of of, real suffering on his part, attacks, spiritual and physical attacks on his body, on himself, difficulties in travel. And so you have a a good portion of Acts describing now this character Paul. Unless anybody think that this is about any of these characters, you recognize, by the way, that if you go all the way to the end of Acts, this... You know, the the whole second half of Acts from 13 to 28 is...

14:56 Basically, the main character is Paul, or you could say so. It's... It it that goes back to him saying, he is my instrument. Okay? This is the...

15:07 To to reach the Gentiles. So this section, this church, this this, 47... This this section of these three missionary journeys, he is reaching the Gentiles. He is that instrument. But then you come to this new section and and and and, again, it's talked about here.

15:25 It says, it's my message. He's going to reach kings. Right? And so now he's going. His his ministry is is changing, and it's all according to what what what was called out way back when by Ananias here.

15:54 He's gathered from multiple churches and offering. There's a group of men with him, including Luke at certain parts that writes this book of Acts. Some people believe that these men are just representatives of some of the churches to kind of show support, like, we are one. There is unity among us. We are coming together and along with the funds that were collected to be delivered to Jerusalem.

16:29 And so he's he's rushing back, and and this is where we come now to chapter 21. So he has... He started in Philippi about fifth... About fifteen days previous to chapter 21, and he is trying to get back. So he starts at the...

16:56 I believe it's the Passover. Yeah. It's the Passover in Philippi, and it's fifty days at that point in time to get back to Jerusalem for Pentecost. And so at the time where he's at Meletus, which was the... Yes.

17:13 Last week, he's about fifteen days into that journey. And now he has another... And this is kinda... I only document this because he's really, really specific and throughout these. I was here this amount of days, and I went here, and I went...

17:28 And so you can kinda see him marching along in a way that you don't actually see in most of the other passages. A whole very significant section of passages where he is he is saying, I am here for these days. I am... I'm moving to the next. Now I'm here for another day here.

17:43 I just stopped real here. I went around, you know. So so now we're fifteen days in to this trip, and he has a real urgency. He wants to be back at Pentecost. He doesn't exactly say why, but it seems to be that there's probably a few reasons, The spirit itself directing him, but also the fact that there's gonna be a lot of Jews there.

18:06 And though he is called the apostle of the Gentiles, his heart is demonstrated for the Jews. He longs. In fact, there's a section here in in Romans where he says, I would give... I would be damned or I would give up my very right to be with Christ in order to see my countrymen saved. So even though he's not called necessarily to that, even in the original prophecy about Saul given to Ananias, he said, and to the Jews a little bit also.

18:40 So Lord's not gonna keep him from ministering to these extra people, although that's not his first calling in ministry. His first calling was to open up the church to the Gentiles, that he was the one to minister to the Gentiles. And so... But still on his heart. And you can see it in the way that he travels.

19:01 You can see it in way that he talks. You can see it in the way that he gathers funds to help those that were persecuted there, both still from the trials of the dispersion, the trials of having everything moved and losing everything. That's still happening many years later, that they're still dealing with persecution there, especially in Judea and Jerusalem. And... But also there there had been a...

19:29 This wasn't not the... This this collection was not directly for the this collection was not directly for the, what do you call, famine that had been predicted many chapters before, but... So there was probably some things still happening from there. So Paul has this urgency to be there at that time when everyone else is there at Pentecost. Not to mention there was probably some symbolism or meaning to him considering the real launch of the church at Pentecost many years previously, for which he was not really a part of.

20:13 So as I said, I hoped I could get to chapter 21. So chapter 21, we start here. They... I'll I'll try to make it as quick as possible in the first introduction here because they're... Chapter 21, the first couple sentences, they're just, again, going through that quick travel.

21:00 I'm gonna skip right to there. And they they landed... So they... They've they've made this travel. Phoenicia was the region, and it says in verse four, they landed at the Harbor Of Tyre in Syria.

21:20 Syria was the Roman state or province that was in that region of Syria. And along that coast, also, we understand it as Lebanon, along that coast was Tyre, was the harb... They... So they land in Tyre, this city, this great city of Tyre. And they...

21:40 He had kind of been jumping along, but here he chooses to stay seven days. And it's an interesting it's an interesting kind of situation because it doesn't appear in anywhere that he's ever ministered or been or been a part of the ministry for the church there in Tyre. So it actually says they got off this little ship, and it was a cargo ship, most likely. Not... They didn't really have ships that would be devoted to carrying people.

22:19 So he... Here he was in this this little ship hugging the coast most likely. They had a a a series of of of ships that would make these coast hugging routes, and that they would just go along these small shallow harbors and and could deliver a lot of goods quickly or relatively quickly for the time. And so Paul was likely, with his compatriots or or people along with... Coming along with him, he was he was literally coming to this place and looking for Christians.

22:50 He didn't know them. And I think that is a... I think it's a... Just a thought, a kind of a side note is that even when we travel, I think it's fun. There's Christian freedom.

23:08 You don't have to go to church when you travel, for sure. You know, you don't have to go to a local congregation. But you see Paul's heart was to be with the believers, even when he was perhaps a bit rushed. And so here, he was rushed. He wasn't panicked.

23:23 We're not sure whether he intentionally stayed seven days or that just happened to be that loading rhythm. Like, he was on a ship, took three days to unload, three days to find enough cargo before they went. Not sure. All we know is it says he stayed seven days or in some translations, a week. That's the same thing, I guess.

23:42 So he stayed seven days and it says that he he spent this time, he found this this group of believers and he was in such fellowship with them that when they left, that the whole families came out of the town with them. This wasn't like a a five minute car trip. It was a very significant... It's like, I don't know. I noticed that some people that are more socially aware and care more about people, when someone visits their house, they walk them to the door.

24:14 And sometimes if they really care about them and wanna show something, they'll walk them even to the the door of their car parked outside. Right? I'm not socially aware enough normally to do that. I'm distracted or maybe I don't love people that well, but I probably did with my wife many times. But there was that type of love and affection after having just met that they came out and it says they went and then before they got on, they sat at the beach and they prayed.

24:55 They had a little prayer meeting and they all... They came out to see them leave. So when he returned to the ship at the end the week, the entire congregation, including women and children, left the city and came down to the shore with us. There we knelt and prayed and set our farewells, and then we went aboard, and they returned, and they returned home. So the next stop was Ptolemis.

25:21 It doesn't say much there. It's just a little next... One day down. They literally got off for one day, maybe one night, and and then they left. So not too much there.

26:06 In fact, I don't even sure if it was a Herod. It might have been another... Anyways, but this was a major... A political economic center, crossroads. You have a deepwater port, artificial first ever, apparently.

26:20 They didn't really know how to dredge back then, but Herod the Great was a a... Quite an architect and an innovator, and that was actually how he got his power, actually, was he made a bargain with the Romans to create this city. So this is a storied city. And for whatever reason, Philip, the evangelist, he comes back. So back when we were talking about the dispersion, Philip, the evangelist has, was one of the seven, and it mentions that right here.

26:53 And this is opposed to Philip, the Apostle. Philip the Evangelist was one of the seven deacons in that early church. And he was a co laborer with with Stephen, the first martyr, who... Paul himself was directly responsible for his death. They they literally...

27:20 The people that killed him called him their leader in that by throwing their coats after the stoning. And so here you have Philip whose entire life was totally upended by a man named Saul. Now I guess they call him Paul. I'm not exactly sure on that. That's the...

27:40 They might... Saul... It really is not... It's... One is the the Hebrew version, one is the the Greek version of the same name.

27:52 So I think they're interchangeable, not necessarily like a new name. So anyways, here, the same man is here in his house with his family. And that right there, I think, is just a symbol of the power of Jesus Christ, of what happens when people are transformed. Both they are able to be at the house, but they are able to be accepted at the house. When the persecuted meets the persecutor in grace.

28:22 And it doesn't really mention that. It does... It kind of alludes to it, but it doesn't go deep into it. And so here they are at this seaport. It's the closest kind of seaport to Jerusalem and so the next step is Jerusalem.

28:36 But here it mentions specifically that Philip, the evangelist, has four unmarried or virgin daughters And they stay there several days, and these daughters can prophesy. Now they don't prophesy that's recorded here, which is interesting because it's getting a lot of prophecies these days, but they're not prophesying. They're they're just there and it... And I think they just... I'm not sure why exactly it mentions that these these daughters are there that prophesy except for the fact that I I think it mentions that...

29:10 I think it's it's a sign that this house is a place where the whole family is guided by the spirit of God. Right? I know there are some people that have pontificated that these four daughters actually are in secular history as having lived almost to a 100 years old and played a big part in passing on secular history reports of the church to some of the early church fathers. So that's an interesting side note. However, here, it's just said, hey, they're prophets and well regarded, it seems.

29:47 And so and so that's mentioned. And then then there is a prophet that comes that does prophecy. And so Agabus comes, and we remember Agabus from chapter 12 where he prophesied that there would be a great famine in Judea. I think maybe across the greater area, forgot where, but he prophesied this famine. And at that point in time, that was the Antioch church responded to that by giving money.

30:26 And now Agabus is coming. And that was a big transition, by the way. That was a sign of transition in the church as the church went full circle from Jew to Gentile, but then Gentiles giving back and kind of a sign of a maturing church a kind of a gateway to a time where the church grows into the Gentile land. So now Agabus comes back into the picture and he meets Paul and the group there at Philip's house. And he does kind of an interesting thing that we're not kind of used to, but we see it a lot in the Old Testament.

31:09 And he uses kind of this acting out of... To acting... He he kind of uses a miming or a pantomime or symbols to take the word of God that has been given to him by the spirit and to, I guess, try to make a greater impact. We're all very affected by modern day media. We...

31:40 Pictures and stories make a make a difference to us. And he was doing, I guess, you'd call real life theater because what he did was he he asked for Paul's belt. So give me your belt. Here you go. Alright.

31:56 He's like... And then he bound his own hands and arms. You know? I don't know how you do that. That's kind of hard.

32:05 He said, the man whose belt this belongs to... Obviously, everybody knew who that was. He had just done it. The man whom this belt belongs to, he is going to be bound by the Jews in Jerusalem, and he is gonna be given into the hands of the Gentiles or turned over to the Gentiles. Now I gotta make sure my pants stay up.

32:37 Well, that I did that. So so he is gonna be bound, and and it says, when they heard this, the local believers all begged Paul not to go to Jerusalem. But he said, why all this weeping? You're breaking my heart. I am not...

33:03 I am ready not only to be jailed at Jerusalem, but even to die for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when it was clear that he couldn't persuade, that we couldn't persuade him, and and by the we, it looks like the whole group, including Luke and that... The group of people that had been coming with him, says when we couldn't persuade him, we gave up and said, the Lord's will be done. Now I want to... I specifically did not reference the previous section.

33:42 So verse four, I believe it is, of this same section where it says... When he was in Tyre, it says, these believers prophesied through the Holy Spirit that Paul should not go on to Jerusalem. And there arises a question. This is a big question. I think it's an important one because there's a lot of talk.

34:43 I don't believe that's the case. I think it's pretty clear it's not the case to me, but I'm not going to necessarily a 100... I'm not gonna be crazy about that other than to make a make a few points here because I think that that... I think they should be made the relevant to how we live our life today. And even what our call is as people...

35:06 As believers, people who follow Christ in the church today. So in in verse four, it actually says that... Let me flip through my pages back to the... It actually says specifically, they prophesied through the Holy Spirit that Paul should not go on to Jerusalem. It's confusing because they're like, wait a minute, the Holy Spirit's saying don't go to Jerusalem.

35:40 And I think my understanding based on the context, just if you look at everything else, including what I set up about what God specifically called him to, is that... And then even the... And I'll go to the the previous chapter. Based on the context, that the Holy Spirit did say that he was going to suffer, but it was human judgment. So they prophesied in the Holy Spirit that he was going to suffer, that he was gonna be bound, but he did not say that he shouldn't go.

36:12 Okay? That that was based on the personality of the prophet at that time and that he was, it was out of probably genuine care for a beloved brother. Someone that already become a beloved brother. Someone he probably just met, but he didn't wanna see this man go and suffer. And so we see that.

36:37 And and again, you see that with Agubus. Agubus himself does... Is is named. He does not say do not go. He just says, you are going to see suffering.

36:49 And I see Denzel smiling because he's like, Andy, you know I preached on this. In his sec... What? In his section, last last week, there was the... In in in verse 20...

37:05 I mean, chapter 20, verse twenty two and twenty three, Paul tells the people there in Miletus, the elders, he says, and now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem constrained by the spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish the course and the ministry that I receive from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of grace to God. And so Paul here is actually saying, one, that he's... We've only recorded two actual incidents, but previous to those recordings, he's already said, every place he's going, someone's coming and prophesying and saying, you're gonna go to Jerusalem, and when you do, this is what's going to happen. And what do you take from that?

38:09 Right? I think to a group of people who are somewhat adverse to suffering, and I think any healthy person does not want to suffer. Right? This is not a natural thing. You you say, is this even good that he would be going to do this in some sense?

38:45 You say, like, why would we be going to suffer? You get why people wouldn't want him to suffer, and I can imagine Paul probably doesn't want to suffer himself. But I believe that Paul's Paul's march towards Jerusalem is actually a lot like... There's some real parallels to Jesus Christ's march toward the cross when he is coming to Jerusalem too to die on the cross and to suffer for our sins. Not that he's bearing sins by any means, but that oftentimes you see these kind of parallels in suffering.

39:21 And even in that same march, if you remember Peter saying, Lord, God forbid that you go. Jesus is starting to say the same thing, Hey, I'm gonna suffer. And well meaning Peter, I don't know if he was well meaning or not. He really... I I...

39:43 He's probably partially well meaning, but he also had some wrong ideas about God and and and what the Messiah was here to do. And he he he said... And and and the Lord called him and said, get behind me, Satan. Right? So just a thought.

40:01 If we're giving advice to the people that we love, and it all has to do only with, are you suffering or are you not, you need to consider whether you are getting in the way of God's will. Is this only about whether you prosper or you suffer? Or is this about, is your advice to this other person, whether it's a son, a daughter, a colleague, if you're trying to advise your own parents on things. You know? And sometimes parents, they need help from their children, you know?

40:34 And so whatever. I'm not speaking to you, dad. It's just the way it works, you know? It's it's two ways. But whatever it is, the people that you love, we we have to look at at why Paul was doing this.

40:54 Right? And it's both both his calling. He says, and I will show him how much he must suffer for my name's sake. That wasn't so that he could suffer for anybody's sins. Right?

41:10 It wasn't it it it wasn't that kind of suffering. It wasn't to get back for all the evil he had done. He wasn't bearing his own sins or anybody else's. But still, but still, he was God's vessel to do a great work. And in that great work, there was going to be great suffering.

41:34 And that's just the truth of it. Right? God oftentimes uses suffering to make us ready for a great work. And Paul was no stranger to suffering. There was numerous accounts of suffering already to this point.

42:08 It starts to like, okay, I think I hear what you're saying. I think I'm gonna suffer. Right? Or maybe not. Like, who knows what it is?

42:16 But, like, Paul is hearing this message over and over again, and I'm thinking like, why does God have to tell him this so often? Is it because he has a hard heart? Is it because of something else? I don't think it's because of a hard heart. In fact, you couldn't...

42:29 It doesn't seem like there is a man more committed to following the will of God than Paul there. But what I do think is that... I almost think that it's a... Perhaps I'm pontificating too much, but I believe perhaps God is just recognizing. God has recognized that the calling is going be so difficult that if he's not fully prepared for the commitment that he has, that he's not gonna be able to bear that load.

43:08 I think of... I don't know. Some of you might have had scenarios where you... You're like, man, if I knew that this was going to happen, I would have never agreed to it. Right?

43:18 Like, God did something in your life. You're like, man, that was really hard. I'm glad it worked out the way it is. God used it. I have a lot of joy now because of it.

43:26 God healed me, helped me. But if he told me it was gonna be like that, would have never done it. And and there's been a number of things like that for me. Some that I I remember even saying, I think God tricked me into that. I know that's not right.

43:43 It's not true. It's not theologically sound, but it kinda felt like that. You know, like, did he trick me into that? Right? But this isn't one of those things.

43:50 God wasn't doing that here. Okay? God, I think when it gets to a certain level, he wants full disclosure. And I think maybe we all need a certain amount of faith to even accept that full disclosure. Does that make sense?

44:07 Not all of us have it. I probably don't have that kind of faith. So God doesn't tell me things like that. He's like, we'll just have to hit you over the head when you're not watching. It's kind of like the nurse that gives you a shot and said, is gonna be, this is gonna be, no, you won't even feel a thing.

44:23 And then you're like, did you, like, oh, just got me. She didn't even tell me she was gonna do it, you know? You know, I... What I will say, I'm being facetious, but I wanna have faith like Paul, that I believe God is so good. I believe he is so good.

44:47 Not just in my mind, not intellectually, but in my heart. So that if he wants to tell me what's going to happen in my life, he can trust me with that. That I still believe he is good even before the fact, knowing what's going to happen. Right? And and I I think this gets to the issue of true faith.

45:10 Like, do we have faith in God that he is good regardless of some of the things that happened? Paul had an interesting perspective because of where he came from. He saw... He he found himself engaged in the greatest of evil and murder. And then he found himself redeemed in ways that few of us could ever experience in our life.

45:32 And perhaps if we had been in the same situation, we would have done just as much evil and been saved in that same way. I don't know that my saving was less than Paul's, but still there was an experience that Paul had that we didn't. And so when it was said that he would be shown how much he would suffer for my name's sake, he actually could accept that and be shown. Right? He had that kind of faith and God gave it to him.

46:07 That was a blessing. I think, one of the things that this whole question of, you know, kind of God's will in our lives brings up is that we should seek other people's wisdom when we're making decisions. This is more general. However, we have to... And it's worth considering.

46:45 However, we are all responsible before God for the decisions and what he calls us to and and what he commands us to. And you even think of, like, the Old Testament prophet who... He came and he condemned the king of Israel at the time from Judah. And as he was making his way back, he was told not to eat anywhere. And another prophet came and prophesied and said...

47:12 Gave a false prophecy. He said, no. You can eat here right in Israel. Sit down. Have a meal.

47:17 God told me. I'm a prophet too. And he listened to him. Thank you. Thank you for that reference, dad.

47:31 AI these days. I would have named the prophet if I knew it. But... So anyways, I'll wrap this up. So so so, anyways, the point was that we we...

47:56 We're responsible for God for the things he calls us to do, And he'll give us the grace too. He gave Paul the grace. Paul was faithful, and we'll see more about that next week, I believe. The the ending verse here that I didn't really cover here, and it... And it's kind of that last verse as he arrives to Jerusalem, before the mayhem starts, and all this kind of comes to a head.

49:14 That man was kind of that last hospitable person to Paul before that you see that next kind of stage of persecution start that had been talked about this whole time. Dear Lord, we just thank you for your word. Thank you for the way that you plan our lives. We we worship you because you're a great god. And, Lord, I pray that we would all be willing to surrender like Paul did and that you would give us faith, and that you would give us great joy and usefulness.

49:54 You equip us to do your will, and I pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.