None Of Myself All of Thee — Acts 26

0:00 We're going to get started here with a word of prayer. And as as we pray together, we're... I'm leading in prayer, but you can pray along with me, see if you agree with the things that are being prayed. If you want to talk to the Lord yourself, you're certainly happy to do that or certainly able to do that. So just feel free to ask the Lord for whatever need may be on your mind or heart this morning.

0:24 Our heavenly Father, we want to pray this morning together here as a collective group. Father, we are looking, we're sitting here this morning perhaps with expectation. We know we've been having this study in the book of Acts together and the things that we've been learning and tracking through the book, been... We see it to be beneficial, even relevant to our daily our daily lives. And father, the the expectation this morning is that we might hear a word from you.

0:56 What is it that you want to impress on our hearts this morning? What is it that you want us to take away this morning from the book of Acts? What is it this morning that you want us to really grab ahold of our heart as we see this man Paul as he would seek to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ? So Father, we pray this this morning. We ask these things and we also pray that you administer to our hearts to the specific needs that are here, that are represented.

1:25 Whatever the need may be, Father, we know that your grace is sufficient. And so we ask that this morning as we continue in our study. We're committing ourselves to you. We want to open the word now, and we ask this in Jesus Christ's name. Amen.

1:44 It's okay to say amen too, you know? Let's see if I can get this right. Let's see. A couple of about em, well, several four weeks ago, I think. Devin started out.

1:57 You remember, we're in the book of Acts and Devin, he purposely left himself his beard shaggy, his hair unkept, maybe a little bit longer, came in a little disheveled, trying to represent or identify or get into character with the with Paul who had been in prison now for several years and so that's what Devin did. John came the next week with sandals on, right? And and so, I'm not sure if he was trying to be like Jesus or be like be like Paul but then last week, Brian came up and he says, hey, what can I do? Well, my middle name is Paul. You know, so he he identified with Paul that way.

2:38 Now, I I was when when Brian said that last week, I got me thinking through the week. I thought, well, what can I do? And I had this idea, a great ideas and so I I had this idea. I'm going to go like to CCS Dramas, the drama club or whatever. Get some Paul Paulinian costume and and and get in the costume, get into character, and during the songs, I was going go up here and hide behind this curtain, you know, and there'll be, y'all y'all would be totally unexpected and then when Samuel called for me, I'd be, I'd bust out like and just start right into Paul's narrative, you know, like and and be able to recite the whole thing but then I thought, well, I don't know if I can memorize that much.

3:19 Maybe if I was younger, like some of these Sunday school kids memorizing their verses. But we are... We truly are right in the midst of Paul. He's been given permission to speak for himself in front of King Agrippa, in front of of of Festus and Bernice and and so he's he's he's on trial and so go back to Acts 26 there. Acts 26 is where we are and I'm going to pick up read.

3:52 We we covered verses one through eight last week and so just to kind of make the content the connection and the continuing the continuance of the narrative. I want to start back in verse one. Acts six and verse Acts 26 and verse one. Then Agrippa said to Paul, thou art permitted to speak for thyself. Then, Paul stretched forth his hand and answered for himself.

4:40 Wherefore, I beseech thee to hear me patiently. My manner of life from my youth which was at the first among my own nation at Jerusalem know all the Jews. He's saying that my life was an open book so to speak. The people understand and know my background. Verse five, when which knew me from the beginning or from my youth, if they would testify after if they would testify of me that after the most straightest or strictest sect of our religion, I lived a Pharisee.

5:15 And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers, unto which promise our 12 tribes instantly serving God day and night, hope to come, which for hope's sake, King Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews. Why should it be thought a thing incredible to you that God should raise the dead? Verily, this is verse nine, I verily thought or I truly thought with myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Which thing I also did in Jerusalem and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority of the chief priest. And when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them.

6:16 I was consenting to their death. And I punished them often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme and being exceedingly mad against them. I persecuted them even even unto the strange cities. And so, well, Paul's right there. We get into our our new...

6:36 We we were reading this to kind of connect last week and this week. Paul is speaking and in verse nine, we break into the new territory, okay? That's the new territory and and Paul is is is given an explanation, given a little background, given his history, and he says this this phrase at the very beginning of verse nine. I verily thought or we might we might substitute the word truly. Some of you might say, honestly, some transact or some translations might say indeed.

7:08 You can go ahead and push the first slide up and so, I want to pull this little phrase out of here. Today, I'm going to be pulling four phrases out of this narrative that we're covering and this is the first one. I I'm going to use the word truly because we don't really use barely too much, you know, these days but I truly, I sincerely thought, I was earnest. I and so here's Paul saying, I thought it was right to to persecute the Christians. I thought it was right to go to the chief priest and say, hey, Jesus, I thought Jesus was a lunatic.

7:40 I thought we should try to stop his this movement called the way. He he he thought that and he truly thought that. He verily thought that. He sincerely thought that. So much so that he took action on those thoughts.

7:56 When I was when I was 18, just finishing up high school and I was trying to decide, you know, where I was going to college and I had my mind set on North Carolina State. That was where I was going to go, okay? Any Wolfpack fans here? No. Not this far north of the Mesa Dixon line?

8:15 Alright. So, anyway, that's where I was going to go. My dad said to me, he goes, Andy, why don't you just consider? He wasn't telling me what to do when he get... Why don't you just consider going to a bible school one year and then then transfer to state, you know, go.

8:29 And I thought about that and I was like, seems like a pretty good idea. And so I started figuring out which school I might attend. We heard about Word of Life Wednesday night. I I thought about them, Emmaus, Bryan University, Cedarville, Liberty, but the the choice came down. I decided to go to Liberty.

8:49 I committed to go to Liberty one year and after that, I was going to transfer. That was my, that was my track. You know, that was what I thought. I thought of Liberty as a Bible school. I thought of North Carolina State as a real school.

9:01 You know, like that's kind of what my 18 year old thinking was. Now, when I got to Liberty, I had a wonderful experience. I mean, like I was like, wow, this is a great school and you know what? I I didn't know this just because I was naive about it. It was more than a Bible school.

9:20 It was a full liberal liberal art school. In fact, the things I wanted to study, they had that program there and I was like, wow, okay. Yeah, this is what why would I go anywhere else? Made great friends, had great experiences, And so I want to make this correlation. I thought Liberty was a Bible school.

9:41 I was sincere in thinking that. I thought I was going to go there for one year and then transfer to a different school. Paul thought. You know, isn't it interesting here as we're reading this? Here...

9:57 Here's Paul. He's he's before he's before these god, these these leaders. He's before these fellows that are representing the Roman, the Roman government had they hold positions in the Roman government. He's before them. They don't know Christ as savior.

10:16 They don't think anything about Christ. Some of them may not even know about Christ and so, here he is and he's he's representing these things and you know what? Everyone of the people he's talking to had a thought about Christ. You know what man's religion is? What man thinks about God?

10:38 And how how many how many man made religions were sincere, were were were like serious, were ready, that kind of made some sense to them, and they they they went forward with it, but then they realized it's wrong. Or we evaluate it. Excuse me. We evaluate it and say, well, this doesn't match up with the scripture. This doesn't match up with the Bible.

11:22 If I have a thought and it's like god wears purple on Tuesdays, and I don't have any scripture to back it up, then I need to reconsider that thought, right? I want to make sure my thoughts about god align with the word of god. I want to actually take the word of god and and make sure my thoughts align in like I I develop my thoughts about god from the word of god. Now, here's something else that's very interesting is that you realize Paul when he's given his he's given his testimony back from a youth. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisee, of the straightest, most serious sect and and he would go and he would do these rites and rituals and listen, don't we remember that every rite or ritual, every Jewish practice or custom, it pointed to something, right?

12:15 It had a reason behind it. Paul carried through these rites and rituals not knowing the spiritual significance of it but now, he stands there a man today in in that courtroom. He stands there the a man today and the difference in his testimony is that he knows the rights and rituals. He's talking to King Agrippa who knows the rights and rituals but King Agrippa doesn't understand any of the spiritual significance behind the rights and rituals And, boy, we think about that in our own life. Am I following rite and ritual?

12:50 Am I rote? Am I going through the motions? Or do I understand the spiritual significance behind what God has asked me to do? The breaking of bread, the prayer meeting, the teaching... The collective teaching of the group of the saints, working together on on a common goal, being a witness, telling my neighbor about the Lord Jesus Christ, loving one another, giving.

13:22 Do I understand the spiritual significance behind the things that God has asked me to do? I thought I knew. I thought. See, now it makes such a big difference if we could take the practice and the spiritual significance and put them together. It's like the dynamic duo.

13:49 You know, it's like Rhesus. It's like, you know, so you you you see what Paul is is being able to communicate now. Let's continue on as we read here. Now, we're in we're in verse, excuse me, verse 12. So, he's he's transitioning, right?

14:05 He's transitioning into a little different part of his and part of his life. So, he's telling his life pre Christ up in through verses one through verses 11. Now, verse 12, whereupon, remember he's still talking to Agrippa and the audience there. Wherefore, as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priest. At midday, oh king, I saw in the way a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun or brighter than the sun shining out around me and and and also them that journeyed with me And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking on unto me saying, in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?

14:56 Is it hard for you to kick against the pricks? And I said, who art thou, lord? And he said and answered, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. But rise and stand upon thy feet for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which you have now seen and of those things which I will appear unto thee or these the things I will show you. Verse 17, the the I'm going to deliver thee from the people and from the Gentiles unto whom I now send you.

15:33 To open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light, and to turn them from the power of Satan to God, and that they may receive forgiveness of sins and the inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me and we'll pause right there. The next thing that I'll I want you to do, let's see, you can, yeah, we got the we got the slide up there but I want you to look look at your Bibles right quick here and notice as we read through this, there was there was three I statements that that Paul made. I went, I saw, I heard. And so I'm kind of collecting those three together and I'm saying, I experienced. The first thing Paul said is I thought.

16:34 They're just going to decide if they're going to pass them on or or what but so, he's telling them that this is what I experienced. This is the very thing that I that I I I was going to Damascus. I saw a great light. I heard, I heard a voice from heaven. I heard...

16:54 I I asked questions. He's he's telling about his whole experience. I I don't know what what's something what's something that you speak about from experience? You may got an idea in mind or something that you you speak about from experience like something you tell other people about or? Buying a house.

17:24 Buying a house. Oh, that's good. That's good. Yeah. So, you you you got your first time homebuyer experience and maybe you've had some maybe you've had some easy transactions.

17:38 Maybe later in life you have some harder transactions than buying a home. You know, but you can speak... You go... You tell that story. You speak from experience.

17:48 It's like you don't have to study it before you talk about it, right? You don't have to go like, let me review my notes about what happened here. You just, when you experience something like buying a home, you can kind of just, it kind of just flows out, right? So Paul didn't have to go back and say, let me review my notes about how I understood who Jesus was. Let me go review my notes and figure out like how I came to understand the spiritual significance behind all the rites and rituals found in the Jewish customs.

18:18 He he spoke from experience and so this is this is like a this is a... You know, if you and I would experience god, we could speak to each other in this same way. We could speak from experience. You experience God, you can speak from experience. It's...

18:38 And God's so open and available to be experienced. We think about... I would say this. So if we would... Say somebody was in that courtroom that day and they're thinking like, what makes a man go from persecuting the Christians to like trying to convert people to Christianity or promoting Christianity?

19:06 What makes him do that? Paul answers that question in his testimony. He answers that question. And look, he lived a life strict as a Pharisee. He lived a life according to the straightest rites and rituals and rules.

19:27 He put his he put his money where his mouth was. You know, like... But then when he left that, when he understood the mistake that he had made because of his own thinking and he understood God's thinking and he and he he went from darkness to light. He went from the power of Satan to the power of god. He gives testimony of that.

19:48 He gives testimony of that and that person, if they were asking, what made the difference? They're like, wow. God made the difference and Paul's trying to crack the window open for them a little bit and say, look, you know the Jewish forefathers. You know Abraham. You know god made Abraham a promise and this was the very promise that he would send a deliverer.

20:11 You know he told Moses he would send a deliverer. You know he used Moses as an example to set my people free, free from the bondage of Satan to deliver them to the power of God. You know these things. You see this was the hope of the promise we were looking for? And Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of that promise.

20:32 And so now what we have with Paul is the evidence of a changed life. Oh, you can you can do your debates, right? You can have your your apologetic debates. You can you can do, you know, hours and hours of debates and you still end up like, I wonder which one. Was saying you made a good point there.

20:55 But you know what you can't argue with? The evidence of a changed life. Once I was blind, now I see. Once I followed the ruler of this world, Satan, but now I follow God. And you know, I think that was evident in Paul's life.

21:16 I think that was evident that day in his testimony as he spoke there before those people. And you know what? That that option is is available to us. That option is available to you and I to to experience God in such a way that people examine our life or look at our lives and say, wow, that's a changed person. There's something different about that person.

21:41 There's something about different about him. There's something different about her. And you know what? A relationship with God, it does it does affect every aspect of our life. As a Christian, it affects my my my role as a father.

21:58 It affects my role as a husband. It affects my role as an employee. It affects my role as a friend. It affects my role. You see how this happens?

22:06 Like, as a believer, as a Christ follower, as whenever I'm put on trial, I can speak from experience and say, this is why I do what I do. This is why I'm following the lord Jesus Christ. He saved me from my sin. He put me on a track for righteousness. I mean, we look in this I don't have a slide for this but we look and look at back at your at your passage here and I want you to notice this real quick.

22:51 Take a take a role. Take an active role but rise Saul and stand up on your feet for I have appeared unto you for this purpose. Now, notice this, purpose, alright? Grab the hold of the word purpose and now here we hear what the purpose is. Paul, I want you to come.

23:09 I've got a purpose for you and here here it is. It's twofold. The purpose to is to make you a minister and a witness, okay? That's the that's the twofold purpose that we have and so, what is a minister? It wasn't like he was going to get a new set of clothes or or that kind of thing or or go in to be a clergy.

23:30 That's not what he's talking about. I want to make you a minister of the gospel. I'm going to make a minister also, we see the same word servant, right? That's that deaconess word. I'm going to make you a minister.

23:44 I'm going to put you into full time service for for myself. So, that's the first thing he said. Then, he said, I'm going to make you a witness. A witness is own is really a person who who declares or tells what he knows or what he's seen, what he's heard, and what he knows and now, now, Paul is being able to do that. Now, he's being able to declare what he had seen, the great light, what he had heard, the voice from heaven, and what he knows now to be true, all the principles that he used learned in the Old Testament match up with this god, this god, and and the son of the lord Jesus Christ which he's now experiencing.

24:25 He knows these things to be true. So, the two fold purpose, to be a servant, to be a witness. I think we can all identify with that too, right? What is the purpose of you becoming a Christian? God's got a service for you to do, a spiritual enablement, a spiritual gift.

24:44 He he saves you with a purpose. He's got a purpose for you to put you into service for him. Look up spiritual gifts. So, like 20 spiritual gifts in the New Testament. That you're a minister, you're a servant of god and a minister to the saints and then you're also opportunity to be a witness to tell what you have seen, what you have heard, and what you know.

25:10 There's there's Paul and he's given us that given us that example and so, if you want a little Denzel loves it when I do this. If you want to need a little jingle, okay? The purpose that you were saved for is so that you would you would know and show, Okay? There's your jingle. Know and show.

25:33 Know know that he saved you for a purpose that you you you got a gift to use for him and show it. Be a witness. Be a witness. Back to Acts one eight. You see, I'm not asking you to turn there but just reference that in your mind and when the holy spirit has come upon you, you will be my witnesses, right?

25:51 And so, that's a theme all the way through the book of Acts is to be a witness. Paul has given us a tremendous example of being a witness for the Lord Jesus Christ. He's being led of the spirit. He's being comforted by the spirit. He's been given the words to say.

26:06 He's been given this opportunity, an open door before him. And here he is, Paul. Let's let's carry on. Alright, we're in we're in verse 19 now, okay? So, we've got just before I I enter that new section here, just to review this, one thing I truly thought, that's the first phrase.

26:23 Then I experienced or I encountered. We're talking about that. Alright. We're going to we're going to recognize the next I statement that Paul makes here. It's in verse 19.

26:33 Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision, but showed showed first unto them at Damascus and at Jerusalem and throughout all the coast of Judea and to them... Unto the Gentiles that they should repent and turn to God and do the works meet for repentance or suitable for repentance. Verse 21, for this cause, the Jews caught me in the temple and went about to kill me. And so there he starts to continue. He tells about his experience, his chain, his change but then he says this, I was not disobedient.

27:17 Maybe if we would turn that around, we would say that he was obedient, right? He was not disobedient, but he was obedient. What was he obedient to? Well, he was obedient to the very purpose that God had given him. He says, look, I'm I'm going to save you for this purpose to make you a servant and a witness for me.

27:35 And and so and I'm going to you've seen me now and I'm going to continue to reveal things to you. Boy, do you understand that is available to you? Yes, you understand the lord Jesus Christ. He died for my sins and I say, please save me and now I'm walking this Christian life and there's new things for god to show me. There's new there's new ways for me to experience god.

28:00 There's new ways for me to understand what faith is. Different steps of faith, different degrees of faith. There's new things that God is going to show me. He's going to put me in a circumstance that I... It's beyond me.

28:16 I... I'm going to trust in him. Then, I'm going to experience god in a new and different way and you know what I'm going to be able to do? I'm going to be able to speak from that experience. I was not disobedient to the things that god told me to do.

28:29 He said, to go and to show. He said to go and to tell. He said to go and to be a witness for me. He did that. Paul did that.

28:40 And you know what he ran into? Interference, opposition, fights, wasn't popular, trouble, but that didn't discourage him. He he he kept... Well, he he experiences that, but he's he's... He has this and he he could sit there and say, was not disobedient.

29:33 Am I being obedient to scripture? Am I being obedient to the Holy Spirit? If I was to if I was to stand before this group today and and King Philip here would say, like, tell me, tell me your defense. You're able to speak for yourself. Could I stay King Philip, I was not disobedient to the things that God showed me to do.

30:01 This is what Paul was able to say. I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. And you say, well, it's no fair. Paul got like a heavenly vision. We just get the Bible.

30:13 Yeah, but it's red letters. You know? Like, at least you get you get a little, highlighting, little emphasis. Boy, what a rich treasure it is to see the record of of Abraham and Moses and David. To see the record of Paul and for all that to be preserved.

30:35 And you know, we're talking about this Acts study here and we're thinking like, why is Paul giving his testimony again? Haven't we heard about this in Acts nine? Yes. Luke recorded that for us. Haven't we heard about this in Acts 22?

30:47 Yes, he did. Haven't we now what? We were... It's repeated again in Acts 26? Yes, it is.

30:54 It's God God's dealing with man. And every time God deals with man, you and I have things to learn from it, things to take away from it, things that we can say like, okay. And I'm speaking general, mankind. God dealt with mankind. Therefore, I can expect a similar a similar interaction.

31:18 I can expect a similar result. I can expect I can put my faith in god and he's going to work in me and I can expect that I can I can be obedient to the things that god will show me to do and I can say, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision? I was not disobedient to God's word. I didn't make the mistake of thinking my own thoughts about God that were off. I I I stayed true to my experience.

31:52 The things that my experience lined up with the word of god and I could say yes and then I was obedient to the things that god revealed to me. You see, when when the lord Jesus spoke to Paul, he said, look, there's things you have seen so far but there's things that I will reveal even more to you. And and now let's go let's go on to the the last section of verses here. We're in verse 22. Verse 22 this, and we're having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day.

32:35 Witnessing... There's that word again. Okay? Witnessing both to small and to the great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come. And let me just assert here that you see, you follow the flow.

32:52 Remember, Paul's on trial for doing something wrong, he's saying, look, I'm preaching the same message that Paul did... Or excuse me, that Moses did. I'm preaching the same promises that are all found in the prophets in the Old Testament. Look, don't you understand that this is just continuing on? You kind of miss Jesus, but like if you connect the dots with Jesus, then all this makes sense.

33:12 And so he's saying, therefore, I obtained help of God. I continue to this day witnessing both to the small and the great, like to the the to the officials, to the kings of the world, to the rulers of the world, and even to the to the to the normal people of the world or the regular people of the world. I I continue to stay witnessing the small and great people saying none other things than those which the prophets and and and the Moses did say should come. They've come. Verse 23, that Christ should suffer and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead and should show light unto the people and to the Gentiles.

34:28 We read about Paul and then we've done three missionary journeys with Paul. And so then we've got these multiple prison terms. It's really like one big term, but multiple prison locations that we have Paul in. And you think, okay, here we are. But like Paul, the time that has elapsed, he's still saying right now in this situation, he says, I continue.

34:54 Other places in scripture he says something like this, I press on toward the mark of the prize of the upward calling. And isn't that a message for us this morning? Would would we all be able to say this, I continue. Hey, what are you facing right now? What is it in your life right now that kind of makes you stop and like, I'm a little nervous about this.

35:22 I'm a little worried about this. I'm kind of anxious about this. Would you be able to say in the face of that trial, that circumstance, whatever it is, would you be able to say, I continue? Notice something else. Very important about this verse is the first phrase that we read in verse 22, having therefore obtained help of God.

35:46 The help of God. Hey, it's available to all of us. It's not like God just puts us out there and and and like says, good luck. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. I will be with you.

36:02 Whatever you're going through, I obtain the help of God. Therefore, I continue. As a believer, every believer, every follower of the Lord Jesus Christ in the face of whatever trial or whatever circumstance can say this, I continue. Now, don't slip to the next one first. Want to preface the next slide.

36:42 I truly thought, I experienced or encountered, I was not disobedient, I continue. I've asked us as a group this morning to consider every one of these phrases personally. Am I thinking right about God? Maybe revisit revisit my experience, the experiences with God and then kind of say, am I am I speaking from my own experience? Is my faith bolstered or encouraged by my own experience with God?

37:20 Am I being obedient? Am I being obedient to the things that God showed me to do? And am I continuing? Will I say in the face of trial or hardship, I continue? Now I'm gonna ask you this.

37:36 Let's say that you say, you're evaluating, you're tracking with this little four point outline and you're saying, yeah. Let me ask you, why if you're not, why? If you say, yeah, I got my own thoughts about God and I'm good with that. If you say like, well, my experience, you know, was kinda dry, kinda cold. I don't know.

37:56 You know, like, yeah, I got saved in Sunday school, you know, like I said a prayer. Obedient. I got, you understand how much I got to do? You understand the demands on my life? You understand like like what it takes to provide for a family and why I got this doing.

38:13 I got this project to do and like, what what do you mean obedience? I continue. Man, I can't even make it through the day. And I'm gonna say, what if that's you? And I'm gonna say, why?

38:36 Let's see if I can get his... Do we have any French people here from French descendants? Oh, you are. Maybe you get this name right for me. Theodore Monod.

38:51 Throw his poem up here. This guy in Paris, he wrote this poem. This was probably about sixty years ago, okay? But listen, let's let's look at it. We're we're with that question in mind, why am I not fill in the blank?

39:10 All of self and none of thee. This is... The thee is God. Okay? All of self, none of thee.

39:20 Hey, as we... As we're tracking through and looking at Paul's life and looking at at his testimony, how much of Paul do we see? How much of Paul do we see? You know what we see? We see this progress.

39:33 We see this process of Paul coming to an end of himself. Hey, I was a Pharisee of the Pharisee. We see a lot of self in that, don't we? In that first part, we see all Paul, all self. I was doing it.

39:47 I was making it happen. You gave me 10 rules. I knocked out 10 rules. Man, I could do it. I was at the was at feet of Gamilio.

39:55 I was doing and I I rocked his. That dude, he couldn't give a report that I didn't score 100 on. I could do it. Self, all of self, none of god. He didn't understand the spiritual significance of the things that he was doing.

40:10 He was doing the right and ritual but he didn't put a spiritual connection to it. It was all of self. None of god. Next slide. Some of self.

40:23 Some of thee. Some of self. Some of God. What's that like? I meant to ask him if that big golden throne chair was still here in the chapel somewhere that we used for VBS one time.

40:39 I was going to set it up here and I was going to see if I could set two people in it. Well, Tim and Bethany are kind of cozy right there. They'd be like on a, you know, like if I could bet, if I could get two people on the throne. Yes, what it is. Some of self and some of god.

40:55 Like god, let me just sit there right with you. You know, we're right there together on the throne. We we can do this god. Go to the next slide. Less of self, more of thee.

41:12 Less of self, more of thee. You know, I think we all... I think this is kind of a normal, natural progression. We kind of experience this as humans, don't we? We...

41:24 God is so incredible. God is so so magnificent. He loves us. He desires a relationship with us. He wants to make us a witness.

41:35 He wants to make us a servant of his. He wants to make us a witness. He's building a bride for himself. He's coming again. We're going to spend eternity in heaven with him.

41:43 He wants us to go out into the highways and the byways and tell the people about that. He wants you to experience new things about himself. He wants you to taste and see the lord is good. He wants you to say like the Psalmist, my cup, I mean, my heart is igniting a good matter and my my my cup is overflowing. I have come that they might have life and they might have life more abundantly.

42:05 He wants to do all these things. But there's... We we have this experience for like, okay, that sounds kind of good but I think I'm in charge. Okay, maybe maybe I'm not so much in charge. Maybe god could help me.

42:20 And then maybe, oh, maybe we get to the... This is the John this is the John the Baptist phrase. Oh, when he's preached that day and he said, here's here's the Lord Jesus Christ, the prophesied Messiah. I must decrease and he must increase. You see that?

42:40 Less of self, more of thee. And then the last one, the last slide there. None of self in all of thee. Maybe that's why. Maybe that's why I couldn't...

42:54 Maybe that's why I don't have a Pauline... Paulinean testimony. Maybe that's why I don't have a testimony like Paul. Hey, would we would we be willing to consider this as a group that we would go for... Forward from here and say, look, God, I want I want.

43:13 Well, maybe maybe you... Where are you in that? Am I at the all of self and none of thee? Am I at the sum of self and some of thee? Am I at the less of self and more of thee?

43:23 Am I at the none of self and all of thee? Maybe wherever you are, how about, let's say, ask the Lord to help you. Why don't you make a commitment to progress to the next one? Progress to the next one. It's just kind of a natural flow.

43:37 Go to the next slide. As I was preparing this week, I was asking, Lord, what is your message for us? What is your message for us? And these four phrases seem to stand out to me. I truly thought, I experienced, I was not disobedient, I continue.

44:00 Let's go to the next slide. Remember in verse 15 when we read that earlier, the Lord Jesus answers Paul's question and says, who are you? I am Jesus. Closing thought here. What are you thinking about Jesus?

44:45 We give thanks for the things that we see so evident in scripture. We ask this now in the name of the lord Jesus Christ. Amen.