- Well, thanks to Todd, and welcome to all of you here in our lower gathering area and also online. And obviously the elephant in the room is my voice. So yeah, once, you know, it's not COVID. I took the test, it's negative but, plus this is not COVID. So I get laryngitis every couple of years, and today's the day. So we're gonna make it through this, but I hope you're a part of this exciting journey. We did this last year and it's gonna be a phenomenal time. So please stop by, pick your books up, put it on your calendar and let's see what God does. I'm gonna pray for us before we open up God's word. Lord, thanks for your word and its truth to our lives. And so, even in the midst of a crazy world, we humble ourselves before you, and quiet our minds and our thoughts. And we draw upon your strength today. And give us eyes to see your truth and hearts willing to obey. It's in Christ's name we pray, amen. Well, I thought we'd begin today with just kind of a brief connection because we've taken two weeks off due to Rockpoint reaching. But when we began the series entitled Witness, we started with Jesus on earth. And in Acts chapter one, before he left and ascended to heaven, he gave what is the promise of the entire book. And it really lays out the structure, because he said in Acts 1:8 to his disciples, he said, go to Jerusalem and wait, the spirit will come upon you. And you'll be my witnesses, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the rest of the world. And now we're beginning to see that take place, because the church grew in an incredible way. And then all of a sudden there was persecution that began. And because of that persecution, the church began to be cast out of Jerusalem, Judea. And then we picked up in chapter eight in Samaria, and now we land in Acts chapter nine, whereby the persecution is continuing, but God does something incredible. And so today I wanted to focus on this subject that God wins. And go ahead and take your Bibles out and grab your phone, your iPad, go to Acts chapter nine, verse one. As we continue in this story, persecution is growing, the church is spreading, and so Luke decides at this point to talk to us about somebody he's introduced us to earlier on, but it is one of the most pivotal parts of the entire book. And it really drives home this subject that God knows what he's about, and God wins. You know, as we look at at our world today and what is happening over in Europe, it is obviously an evil, you know, disgusting situation that is happening. Many of us have, you know, for those of you that are probably my age and younger, I mean, I remember Vietnam to a certain extent. Some of you probably don't even remember that. I just have to tell you, world, you know, a war is awful, and we are seeing 24/7 live images of scenes that are absolutely, should rightfully infuriate you. And when you look at what is happening around the globe and, you know, an evil dictator in Russia doing what he's doing, call it what it is, right? You know, you begin to ask these questions, even follower of Jesus, you know, God, where are you in the midst of all of this? And what are you doing? How does this fit in? Well, we know without getting into the particulars of end time events and eschatology, we know Jesus is coming again. And we know he will establish his reign, millennial reign, which moves into the new heaven and new earth. And we know he's King of kings and Lord of lords. But we've got this gap where stuff is going on, and we don't know how close we are, we don't know how far away we are, but certainly things are speeding up. And we wonder, God, where are you? And I think we have to pause in the midst of what is happening in our world and in our culture. And it just so happens that this passage arises today out of the book for us to remind ourselves that God does care for human life, that he hates evil and he hates sin. And we live in a world that is full of evil, sinful people. And that's why he sent a redeemer, Jesus Christ. He did remind us of hope, of salvation only through him, and he is coming, and he is going to establish his reign. And I think today it, this passage reminds us that God is at work no matter how dark the world is. God is at work in the life of an individual to give us an illustration of no matter how evil he was at a period of time in his life, no matter how evil the world is, God is oftentimes working in ways we can't possibly totally understand at this point, looking at our situation. He's calling people to himself, he's setting the stage for what he's about to do next. We see that in our passage today. And he's actively pursuing those that are his, and he's actively growing his church. And he's pursuing it through the power of the holy spirit. That has not changed and it never will. And we go back to that truth. The church at this point is experiencing, in the first century, some dark persecution. There's a lot of stuff going on, but it's in those dark days that, even with the loss of life, which we've already seen in the book of Acts, God is on the move. God is on the move and the church is growing and it's spreading. And it's moving in remarkable ways, as we saw in Samaria and today in Acts nine. And now we're gonna see how God is at work in the life of the church's greatest adversary in the first century. So if you look down at Acts chapter nine, look at verse one, I'm just gonna read two words and then we gotta stop again, right? It says, but Saul, you know, Luke changes from Philip in chapter eight and some of the remarkable things that God was doing. And he says, but Saul, let's go back to him. Saul was brought up earlier, and this is the guy that describes himself in, and he wrote most of the new Testament, in first Timothy 1:13 he describes himself, listen to this, as a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an opponent of the church. And I think we have to stop and look at who he was so that we can grasp the incredible change that happened in his life. He grew up in Tarsus, which is modern day Turkey. And in Acts chapter 21, verse 39, again, we'll get to some of these later chapters. He actually says he was a Jew of Tarsus in Solicia, a citizen of no insignificant city. This was a city of diverse culture and also international commerce. It was known for its university, and it rivaled the university in Alexandria, where the ancient library of Alexandria was. And also Athens, Paul's gonna show up there. And so Paul would've understood Greek philosophy. Paul would've understood Roman law. He would've understood Hebrew scripture. Paul would've spoken ancient Greek. He would've been, had a working knowledge of Latin. He would've spoken Aramaic, which is a derivative of the Hebrew language. He would've understood and spoken Hebrew itself. He would've understood Jewish history and Jewish culture. He would've understood the old Testament. He's been described as someone who would, we would describe today as somebody who had a photographic memory. He was absolutely brilliant. And probably in those adolescent years, because he grew up in a strict Farasaic home, which was a sect of the Jews that Jesus constantly had trouble with. And in his adolescent years, he moved from Tarsus down to Jerusalem, and he became a follower of a very famous rabbi who's already been mentioned in the book of Acts, rabbi Gamaelial. And it's under his tutelage that he would've learned to dissect the old Testament. He would've interacted with people through a question and answer process called a diatribe. And he would've been able to expound the old Testament and teach it in a very effective way. And he was part preacher, part lawyer, prosecutor. He was way beyond his contemporaries. As a matter of fact, in one of the books that he wrote, he says this. For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people. So extremely zealous was I for the tradition of my fathers. He would've been a contemporary of Jesus and he would've been in Jerusalem. Jesus went in and out of Jerusalem, so I'm sure he heard Jesus. And he also was right there when Peter and John were speaking to the San Hedron, because he would've been a junior member of the San Hedron. He was a follower of rabbi Gamaelial. He wouldn't have been on the San Hedron yet, but he was in top gun school, so he was right there with these guys. And he also was there at the murder of Steven, the trial. He heard Steven's speech, and I'm sure there were a lot of people that wondered about Steven's death. You know, what was the point of it all and what happened? Well, there was a guy by the name of Saul who was there, and God doesn't, he doesn't waste anything at all. You know, this is the guy who was right there, who said yes to Steven's death. He probably participated at the end of Acts five and the beating of Peter and John. I mean, he was so zealous, and he was gonna do everything with total abandonment to reject the church. If you'll go over to Acts, just keep your finger in Acts nine, but go to Acts 26. I wanna show you something. Acts chapter 26, verse nine. Paul is once again, describing himself, he says, I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And I did so in Jerusalem, and not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priest. But when they were put to death, I cast my vote against him. He was a murderer. And I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme. In raging fury against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities. He was feared and he knew they were spreading. And so he decided to go from Jerusalem up to Damascus, which is about a hundred miles north. And it says in verse one, but Saul, back in Acts nine, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogue of Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now they were referring to themselves as the way, interesting, John 14:6, Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. So they adopted that, you know, I'm following the way, I'm following the truth of Jesus. And he was going a hundred miles north, and he was gonna go after him. He was breathing threats. Steven's death was not enough. He was ravaging the church, according to Acts 8:3, which meant that he was like a wild boar running through a vineyard. And he was religious, but he was godless. And he thought he was in total control, but yet God was unwittingly using the apostle Paul and the others who were persecuting the church to spread the church, which is an amazing thing. I mean, it totally reveals the fact that oftentimes we think we're in charge, we're pawns on God's chess table. And he's moving and he's growing the church. And through this incredible, incredibly brilliant persecutor of the church, I'll put it that way. The church is growing, it's spreading, and God is doing what God wants to do. It's amazing what he's done. And then if you look at verse three, he says, now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him, and falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? He said, who are you Lord? And he said, I'm Jesus, who you are persecuting, but rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do. And the men who were traveling with them stood speechless, hearing the voice, but seeing no one, and Saul arose from the ground. And although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And for three days he was without sight. He neither ate nor he drank. I think you gotta stop here and just, let's play with, or think about the gravity of what just happened in this guy. And that's why I wanted you to see the contrast. Paul thought he was in control, but he's not anymore. And this proud individual who was ravaging the church fell flat in his face, and now he's blind and dependent. Just a complete change from who he was. And I find it significant that Jesus knew his name. Jesus knew exactly who he was and he didn't give up on him. And then if you'll go to look at verse four, Jesus says it twice, verse four and then verse five, why are you persecuting me? It's interesting he doesn't say, why are you persecuting the believers? Or why are you persecuting the truth? Why are you persecuting me? And that's because when someone comes to know Christ as savior, you're united with Jesus. And if you're persecuting a believer, you're persecuting Jesus. It's from this that Paul will write. And so much of what Paul writes about in the new Testament. You can trace back into what happened in his life, in the book of Acts. And here's a perfect illustration. He talks about, in the new Testament, the union that we have with Jesus. That if we've put our faith and trust in him, you've been crucified in Christ. You've been raised in Christ. When God looks at you, he sees Jesus because of his death as payment for your guilt. This is where Paul gets a lot of this stuff from. And then somewhere in between verse five and verse six. Paul, well, he was Saul, repented of his view of who Jesus was, and everything changed for him. There's no prayer recorded. He actually refers to a few more things that Jesus said. Luke kind of gives a summary version. By the time you get into Acts chapter 26 Paul unpacks it a little more, and Jesus was communicating to him that I am Messiah and I've come bring forgiveness of sin. And in between verse five and six, there was true repentance. Everything Paul thought about Jesus, he acknowledged at that moment was false. Everything in his life was focused on the fact that Jesus was dead and he wasn't the Messiah. And now he's looking at the resurrected Lord and everything he believed was false and everything the believers were telling him was true, and everything changed. It was stunned, he had a complete turnaround, which is the essence of repentance. In his mind, there was a turnaround which led to action and he changed and he turned in a different direction. He was transformed from the inside out. He was ravaging the church. And now the great, what would be referred to as the apostle Paul, which is later communicated in the book, was ravaged by God's grace. And he would be known as the apostle of grace. And he would become, as he writes even in the new Testament, a bond slave of Jesus. I mean, in verse six, Jesus says, I'm in control now, 'cause he says, you'll be told what you are to do. You're no longer in control, buddy. I am. And that's why he refers to himself as a slave of Christ. Now, when I come to verse nine and it says there that for three days he was without sight and neither eight or drank. You know, when you read the Bible, you should ask a ton of questions, okay? So when you learn how to study and read the Bible, you should be that kid that never stops asking questions, okay? Some of you know him, 'cause you had him grow up in your house. And it should be, why is this here and what's going on. I don't have a lot of answers for why, but there was two thoughts that came to my mind, why three days, you know, he didn't eat, he didn't drink. Well, three days immediately in my mind reminds me of the resurrected Christ. He was buried for three days and he arose. So to me there seems to be some kind of a connection with the fact that Saul died. Saul died to his old self, his old life. And he was born again. Don't run from that term, he was changed. He was transformed, he was spiritually born anew. And it so changed his life, he never recovered from it. The other thing that comes to my mind is what did he think about for three days? What was the image in his mind? He had a photographic memory. What was the image in his mind? Well I can tell you, because if you lose your sight, the last image you have is burned into your brain. It was the resurrected Jesus Christ. For three days, he's praying. For three days, the last image he saw was Jesus, son of God, Messiah and Lord, staring at him. And I'm telling you, he never recovered from that. We could go on and on for another message on that one. So in verse 10, now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias. And he said, here I am, Lord. And Lord said to him, rise and go to the street called straight. It's still there by the way, in Syria and Damascus. And at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, and behold, he is praying. And he's seen in a vision, a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he may regain his sight. But Ananias answered, Lord, I've heard from many about this man, how much evil he's done to your saints at Jerusalem. I mean he was legitimately scared. And here he has authority from the chief priest to bind all who call on your name. But the Lord said to him, go, for he has a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. And we see that unpack throughout the rest of the book now. Verse 16, for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name. So Ananias departed and entered the house, and laying his hands on him, he said, brother Saul. Isn't that interesting? Brother Saul. The Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the holy spirit. And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes. Not exactly sure what it is. And he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized in taking food. He was strengthened. We don't know much about Ananias, But God used him to do a remarkable thing. He pushed him out of his comfort zone to trust him. God takes us through difficult times to remind us of who he is, to remind us of his hope that he always wins. And he pushed him out, he said, go. It's interesting that Ananias's name, you know what it means? It means gracious. So here he is going to the apostle who's gonna be known by grace, his name means gracious. And verse 16, that Paul's gonna suffer, well it was Saul here, we'll come back to that in a second, Look down at the next half of verse 19. For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus, and noticed this immediately. He proclaimed Jesus in the synagogue, saying he's the son of God. And all who heard him were amazed and said, is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon his name? Has he not come here for his purpose to, for this purpose to bring them bound before the chief priest? But Saul increased all the more in strength and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ. I am sure all of three days of contemplating what happened, three days of connecting the dots with his photographic memory, to see the Messiah showing up in the old Testament over and over and over again. And immediately he stands up, and communicating that Jesus Christ was the Messiah, proving it. See, when you give your life to Christ, you need to understand something. There's a change of your will. And when you finally submit to him as the son of God, he lays claim to your life. Now as a child, you can come to Christ. And a lot of that is unpacked, but eventually that shows up. 'Cause we're gonna see in a moment, he doesn't give up on you. And that's what happened to the apostle Paul. In verse 23, when many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him. That shows up over and over throughout the book. But their plot became known to Saul, and they were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him. Noticed this, but his disciples took him by night, let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket. Isn't it fascinating, he already has disciples? He's already trying to help others do the same. It's exactly what we talk about here at Rockpoint, our mission statement, multiplying disciples in a healthy church, you come to Christ, you help others to do the same. That's exactly what we see. You know, God doesn't give up on people and neither should we. God knew him by name, no matter what he did to the church, no matter what he did to persecute the cause of Christ, he didn't give up on him. And Saul's situations should encourage all of us. And maybe you told a friend in high school and maybe you told a friend in college, or maybe you told an adult or a neighbor and maybe they were kind to you, but maybe blew you off. Don't give up on 'em. God is working in their heart and life. And when God's word is placed in someone's heart, you never know what he's going to do. And sometimes some of the most resistant individuals are the ones that God is working on more than anything else. They're resistant because they're so convicted. Every person is created in the image of God, with infinite dignity, value, and worth. And if God looks at them that way, so should I. So who are the Sauls in your life? Who are the ones that are most resistant to you? God hasn't given up on them. And our job to be a witness is to plant seeds and let God bring forth the fruit. And that's exactly what you see in the life of the apostle Paul. He was exposed to Peter and John's teaching. He was exposed to the teaching, probably of Christ. Steven's teaching definitely planted seeds. He was right there. Seeds of faithful Christians living before him, and God began to bring forth the fruit. And again, I gotta connect this dot for you. In first Corinthians, which was written 20, 30 years after Jesus ascended to heaven, in chapter three, the Corinthians loved to follow people, we see that today. You know, we oftentimes say, oh yeah, they're a Christian rockstar, they're this kind of thing, whatever it is. Well that was going on back in the first century, there's nothing new. And some people were following Peter and some people were following Paul, and some were following this charismatic, you know, speaker by the name Apollis, he'll come up later on in the book. You know what Paul does? He writes the church and he says, look, whether it was Peter, Paul, or Mary, no, not Mary, but Peter, Paul. Some of you didn't get it 'cause you have no idea what they, who they were, or Apollis, it doesn't matter. We just plant seeds, it's God that causes the growth. You know, I grew up in Chicago, had Polish, Catholic family behind me. I played with two of their kids, they were brothers. And I had two other friends who were brothers, they were Italian Catholics. So I lived in the Polish and Italian area, heavy Catholic. And you know, my parents would always encourage me, invite 'em to church. So we'd haul 'em off to a Southern Baptist church, which was so totally foreign to them as Catholics, but seeds were planted, you know? And I found out years later, one of the guys, Polish Catholic family, gave his life to Jesus, lives in Texas now. The two Italian boys, they gave their life to Christ. They're going to a Baptist church in the area. You just never know. You are called to be a witness. So when you share Christ through your words and your actions to your kids, your grandkids, and some of them run from God and become prodigals, don't you dare give up on them. There's no guarantee. There's no guarantee. But you pray that that's the seed that was planted in their hearts, that God would draw them and bring fruit. Maybe you've just tried to be a good neighbor, or maybe you're a coach or a teacher, a friend, praying with someone. Focus on planting those seeds, and let God bring forth the fruit. Here's the other thing we learned from the great apostle Paul, it's that God uses suffering to mold us into a powerful witness. And this oftentimes happens because he's planting seeds, and he's doing so in your life through suffering, Paul is gonna suffer. And I don't know why God seems to use suffering as the crucible by which he grows you and makes you into his witness, but he does. We don't have time to go there, but second Corinthians chapter 11, verse 23, it's in your outline, you just pull it up. You don't even have to write it down. And then also into chapter 12, Paul describes the suffering he went through. He wasn't just shipwrecked and, you know, not having enough food and all that kind of stuff. This guy was beaten to the point of death, stoned. He was going to suffer for the cause of Christ. And then he was given some kind of a physical ailment, a thorn in the flesh, he actually prayed for healing, but God doesn't always heal. Here's a guy who could heal at command, and yet God did not heal him of his own physical ailment. And the response that Jesus gave him was, man, I'm not gonna heal you, but my power is perfected in your weakness. He says, my grace is sufficient for you in the midst of your suffering. He says this in chapter 12, because I'm gonna give you everything you need so that, in and through you, you will be a more powerful witness than you would be if you didn't have this ailment. See, that's what God does. And if you wanna make a difference in this world, you wanna take a stand for Jesus Christ, you will face suffering and opposition, and probably going forward, more persecution than we've ever done before. And we will face it, as followers of Jesus Christ, in a million different ways. But God works through that and he demonstrates who he is. This is not exclusive to me. I was contemplating not saying it, but then it just kept coming up into my mind. So I said, okay, I'm gonna go ahead and do it. This may, we've been in full-time vocational ministry for 30 years. So just give you a thumbnail sketch that fits into this point. And there are others, just talked with somebody this morning. In 30 years, I've lost my sister at 48, I think, was when she died of ovarian cancer. My nephew died at age 23, came up here, got bit by some kind of mosquito in the area. We're not really sure. Had a form of encephalitis, had seizures and died, wrecked my family. Above the Lord. Don't understand why on that one at all. My son, we almost lost him. Now, he was one of these kids, every time I walked into the hospital, they say, hey, Mr. Fruit, you wanna put this on your tab? Yeah, just put it on my tab. He's constantly in the emergency room, but we almost lost him with a motorcycle accident. Seven doctors and nurses came in his hospital room and looked at him and said, we can't tell you how lucky you are to be alive. My daughter has kidney disease. And you know, now I've been struck with this goofy thing called acute pancreatitis. They cannot figure out what's wrong with me. They first told me, oh no, it, you know, most of these 50% of it, we take your gallbladder out. You'll be okay. So they took my gallbladder out, I'm not okay. So every six months I go through what I affectionately call my weight loss program, 'cause you can't eat. And they still don't know what's a matter with me. So at this point I don't have any more organs to harvest. So I'm done, don't touch me. But they can't figure it out. You know, I just, it doesn't matter whether you're in full-time vocation ministry. I'm just try to talk to somebody who's working in a major company in the area. I just talked to 'em this week. His family's wrecked right now. He is a great follower of Christ. He's a leader in his company, travels. He's got a great family, great kids. I'm not gonna tell you who it is. And his family's wrecked right now because of opposition. He is definitely a target of the enemy. And so we prayed together. I'm telling you, you're going to face it. And I don't know why God does this, but he causes us to grow. And it is through those times that his grace is sufficient and his power is perfected. And we finally get to that point when wrestling with God, that we are to remember that God always wins and we let him have his way, 'cause he knows what he's doing. It's what happened with the apostle Paul, God won. God knows everything. Reminded me of an illustration. You know, many of you know I grew up in Chicago. So I used to drive by a cemetery. And I think I was told when I was growing up, did it all the time. There's some mafia people buried in there. Well, one of the guys that's buried in there is a former mob boss. You might recognize his name, it's Sammy Jean Conna. And he was a mob boss in Chicago from 1957 to 1966. And I just recently met a friend who was telling me that his dad was an FBI agent in Chicago and was assigned to Sammy Jean Conna's duty. So he was the guy stationed in the car. You know, you see these crazy movies. He was the guy stationed in the car outside of Sammy Jean Conna's home. And he just, you know, had, his wife just gave birth to his firstborn son. The guy who's actually telling me this story, this is the guy. And he says, at one point in time, the guard at the gate in Sammy Jean Conna's house comes up, knocks on his car, and he goes like this. And for those of you that are too young to remember, we did have roll down windows. We didn't all have power switches. And so he rolls down the window and this guy's dad looks at the guard and the guard said, hey, Sammy just wants you to know, congratulations on the birth of your son. Yeah, you got that one immediately, didn't you? Now while Sammy Jean Conna is the farthest thing from being a great example of God, you get the point. Paul thought he was totally in charge. He was watching everything, and yet God was calling the shots. Psalm 139, verse seven says, where shall I go from your spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? God was faithfully moving Paul in the right direction. In chapter 26, verse 14, I already told you, Paul fills in the gaps. And actually Jesus said, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It's hard to kick against the goads. Do you know what a goad is? It's a stick with a point on the end of it. And that was a cattle prod. So they would prod the cattle along like an ox. And if the ox kicked it, it got poked and it didn't feel very good. And they kept moving in the right direction. Well, what were the goads moving Paul or Saul in the right direction? What was the truth of God's word? He heard it over and over again. It was courageous followers of Jesus Christ who are living faithfully the life before him. And so what are the goads that God oftentimes uses in our lives? I think there's probably two that emerged from this passage. There might be more, these are two I want you to think about. The prodding of God's truth. He brings it into our life to move us in the direction he wants us to go as we read and reflect upon it, as we know it. It's why I love this verse and the old Testament. It says in Isaiah 55:11, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. God's word does not come back empty. He will accomplish his purpose. We may not totally understand what it is. But in addition to his truth, we have the prodding of an authentic Christian life lived before us. Some of you may identify with the apostle Paul. You're watching online, here at Rockpoint somewhere, and you have had the truth of God spoken to you. You've had a faithful believer at work, whatever it might be, communicate Jesus Christ to you. And up to this point, you've been resistant like the apostle Paul. You may not be as religious as him. You may not be a murderer like him. You're in between, which is where most of us are. But at this point you've not surrendered your life to Jesus. Maybe today's that day when you finally come to the end of yourself and stop wrestling with God, because he's been prodding you, you know the truth. You've seen it in the life of someone else. And now you need to find yourself between verse five and six of Acts, chapter nine, where you finally repent and acknowledge Jesus Christ as the son of God and admit your sin, and in repentance turn and trust him as savior and Lord. It can happen through a prayer, but it doesn't have to. There's no prayer recorded here. But what I will tell you is there's a surrender of your will. There's a surrender of your will that says, I'm turning to you, Jesus, and I'm following you now. You might wrestle with him periodically, but you've surrendered your will. And you've bound to Jesus Christ, and you're committing your life to him. And for those of you that have made that choice but they're still wrestling, 'cause oftentimes the Christian life is like three steps forward, two steps back, and there's wrestling. God may be prodding you along, why? Because your marriage is a disaster right now. But somebody has faithfully lived a godly marriage in front of you. And it's time for you to give it up. And it's time for you to finally in repentance, say, I've been messing it up, and call us and we'll get you a mentor and we will help you. You might be prodding or being prodded by the truth, because you're hung up on a sin issue, and you have no clue what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. We've got that for you too. We'll walk you through one-on-one discipleship. We will teach you what it means to follow Jesus and help others do the same. Let us know. One phone call away from experiencing the victorious Christian life. Some of you, you're wrestling with future, what do I do? Isn't it time finally to surrender and let him take control of that as well? And for all of us, I pray. I pray we never recover from the decision of trust in Christ as savior and Lord. And as we come to the table now, and prepare our minds and hearts to take communion, we come to a point in our service where if you have made the decision to trust Christ as savior and Lord, then communion is for you. And so it is for those that have trusted Jesus. But before we even open this up and take communion together, I want us to stop. And I want us to remember what Christ has done. To take a moment and just briefly, I'll give you a quiet few moments here, and remember your life before you trusted Jesus. And reflect upon the sin, both past, present, and future. And I want you to gaze into the face of Jesus Christ, into the glory of Christ, and remember that he died for you, and he rose from the grave, and he's calling you to willfully submit, to abandon yourself, and to say, God, I'm yours. Use me however you want to use me. And to remember, not receive grace, but to remember the grace that has already been given to you. So just close your eyes, bow your heads, Just a few moments of silence to reflect, and I will give thanks and then we'll take communion together. Lord, we need to stop in the midst of a world that's gone crazy, and remember what you've done personally for us. And Lord Jesus, you're our savior and our Redeemer and our Lord, and you've given us hope and joy, and that's what our world needs now more than anything else. And so father, as we come now to take these elements you've given us, we remember, we remember what you've done. And we give thanks. And the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, he took bread when he had given thanks. He broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you, do this in remembrance of me. And in the same way also, he took a cup after supper, saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. So Lord, we ask that you would change us, that you would transform us into the image of Jesus to be your witnesses, that we might leave and proclaim your death and resurrection until you, Lord Jesus, come again. It's in Jesus we pray, amen.