things in the book of Acts that may seem a little strange because they are in a transition. And it wasn't like just flipping a light switch and all of a sudden everybody would just say, wow, we're in the New Testament today. No, they were still, they were Jews mostly and then the gospel is going to the Gentiles and it's progressing. But it's later in the church epistles that we see how God used the Apostle Paul to give us church doctrine. And so you won't see it exactly the same in Acts because it is transitional. But we're in chapter 21 this morning. The Apostle Paul, we find him having left Ephesus and in chapter 21 he's beginning to sail back to Jerusalem. He has set his mind and his heart on Jerusalem. Paul still loves Jerusalem. He's been taking the gospel to the Gentiles, but he still loves those Jews. And he said his heart's desire was that the Jews would be saved. And so he hadn't forgotten them, and he's going back to Jerusalem one more time. And that's where we pick up. We'll read the first 14 verses of this passage in Acts chapter 21. We're going to call the message today Unflinching Resolve. Unflinching Resolve. We're talking about steadfastness, faithfulness, determination. If Paul was anything, he was a determined individual. So we pick him up in chapter 21. He's going back to Jerusalem. Despite, he's going to see some warnings along the way. He says, Paul, don't go. You don't, man, it's gonna be rough when you get to Jerusalem. Maybe you better not go. But he's determined. He has resigned to do what he believes is the will of God, and he is moving forward, and though it almost breaks his heart that they ask him, don't go because we love you, Paul. We don't want you to be in trouble. We don't want you to be in prison. We don't want you to be killed. We love you. Paul says, well, you're breaking my heart, but if the will of God is that I go to Jerusalem, I must go. And that's the gist of chapter 21. Let's read verse number one. Chapter 21 of Acts, verse number one. And it came to pass that after we were gotten from them, that's from the Ephesians where they had prayed on the seashore earlier in the last chapter. After we were gotten from them and had launched, we came with a straight course unto Koas, and the day following unto Rhodes, and from thence to Patara. And finding a ship sailing over unto Phoenicia, we went aboard and set forth. Now when we had discovered Cyprus, we left it on the left hand and sailed into Syria and landed at Tyre. For there the ship was to unlaid her burden. And finding disciples, we tarried there seven days. who said to Paul through the Spirit that he should not go up to Jerusalem. And when they had accomplished those days, we departed. Luke is writing in the person that includes himself. Now, earlier in the book of Acts, Luke was writing as though he were just an outside historian. Here, he's traveling with them. He says, and when we, had accomplished those days, we departed and went our way. And they all brought us on our way with wives and children till we were out of the city and we kneeled down on the shore and prayed. And when we had taken our leave one of another, we took ship and they returned home again. And when we had finished the course from Tyre, we came to Ptolemaeus and saluted the brethren and abode with them one day. And the next day we that were of Paul's company were departed and came unto Caesarea, and we entered into the house of Philip the evangelist, which was one of the seven, and abode with him. And the same man had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy. And as we tarried there many days, there came down from Judea a certain prophet named Agabus, And when he was coming to us, he took Paul's girdle and bound his own hands and feet and said, thus saith the Holy Ghost, so shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. And when we heard these things, both we and they of that place besought him not to go up to Jerusalem, Then Paul answered, what mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? For I am ready, not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. And when he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, the will of the Lord. Father, I pray that you'd bless this time we have together to circle around the Word of God and learn from it. Lord, I pray that the Holy Spirit of God would have free course in the message and in our hearts as we hear the Word of God. I pray that you'd challenge us about this thing of being faithful, about being determined, about staying the course. Lord, help us to be yielded to your will and that we could say, like Paul and his company, Thy will be done, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. So history is filled with stories of individuals who have risked their lives for the sake of the gospel and still yet they remain steadfast through their life and their purpose was just to please God. Even though it might be through difficulty, they stayed the course. There's been missionaries who have surrendered their life to preach the gospel in foreign lands and had to wave goodbye to their families and friends and churches on the homeland and go abroad so that others could hear the soul-saving gospel of Jesus Christ. William Barclay, an old commentator, says there's two things that stand out in this chapter about Paul. First of all, he could not be persuaded to abandon his determination. What he thought was following the will of God, there was no way that he was going to turn back. Oh, he might have been weakened a little bit when he heard them weep and cry and said, please Paul, don't go. But he said, you're breaking my heart, but I've got to go. And William Barclay says this in the second place, not only was he, he could not be persuaded to abandon his determination, but number two, Wherever he went in his travels, he determined to find an assembly of believers where he could relate. Wherever he went, you find him all through the book of Acts. He's traveling here, he's traveling there, he's going from city to city, he's planting churches, he's winning souls, and he's always going back to check on them, see how they're doing. And he goes back many times and they just love Paul. They know He cares for their soul. Can I tell you that a church or a ministry or a pastor who doesn't care for your soul, he only cares for programs and attendance numbers and offering numbers and things like that, then you don't have a pastor who really loves you like he ought to. You don't have a church that loves you like he ought to. Because the pastor and the church and the ministry who really loves you will tell you that yes, you are a sinner. Yes, you are condemned to hell. Yes, you will leave this life one day and face judgment. And unless you receive the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, there's no hope in this life beyond. The one who loves you is the one who will warn you with the truth. And that's what the word of God was to Paul. It was the truth. And he was unwavering as he pursues God's will to Jerusalem where the danger would certainly lie. So what does this chapter teach us? We're trying to cover chapter by chapter going through this book of Acts and trying to find a major theme in each chapter to focus on. And I think it's clear to see in chapter 21 that determination is the one thing that kept Paul going and on course. What can we learn about it in our own journey of faith? Well, number one, we'll look at the commitment to the journey. Paul was committed. Man, we read about it in these first 14 verses. There were prophetic warnings, and the Bible says that they even, some of these people that were warning him said what they said through the Spirit. And so some say, well, Paul must have disobeyed God and he didn't take the warning seriously. He went to Jerusalem anyway. No, these people were probably, they were probably guided by the spirit to understand that danger lies for Paul at Jerusalem. That's the spirit. But then they, because of their love for Paul, would say, Paul, please don't go. Don't go. But Paul said, the will of God for me. is to go, and I appreciate your concern. I appreciate you loving me, and I don't take it lightly, but I've got to go. You see, the Christian that's sold out to God says, no matter what happens, no matter if it's church, family, government, friends, no matter what it is, I've got to keep going for God. I can't turn back. That's the kind of determination we need in America today. Paul's personal convictions were strong. His convictions were strong. Even when this storm of emotions from his friends came upon him and said, Paul, please don't. We're begging you, don't go. I mean, that had to weaken his heart. But you got to do what's right, Paul. Paul says, I got to go. He had already stated his position in Romans chapter 8, verse 38. He had written Romans from Corinth sometime before this and so he knew where his position lies. And here's what he said in Romans 8, 38 and 39. He said, For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Paul loved Jesus and he knew Jesus loved him. And so he figures if there's danger down at Jerusalem, I'm in the hands of the Lord, everything's going to be okay. When turmoil comes into your life, we have to remember what we just read from Romans, that nothing can separate us from the love of God. That doesn't mean the sailing's always going to be smooth. It doesn't mean our life is always a bed of roses. But when he calls on you to walk through the fiery furnace, he says, I'll be with you. My grace is sufficient for thee. And we face many times like that. Well, Paul was determined and there were emotional farewells. Then he comes In verse 8, to Philip's place in Caesarea, which was a sort of small ministry, I suppose, Philip, that had the four daughters, Philip is the same Philip that preached to the Ethiopian eunuch back in chapter 8 and led that statesman to the Lord. Philip was an evangelist. was the one who was a friend of Stephen when he was stoned to death. And guess who was holding the coats of those who stoned Stephen? The Apostle Paul, before he became an apostle, before he was saved. He was there consenting under the death of Stephen. I wonder if this meeting might have seemed like it might be a little awkward at first. Philip's thinking, I haven't seen you, Paul, in 20 years, but I remember what you did. But now they're both Christians. Paul's a Christian now. Paul was a dedicated Christian. He was a determined Christian. And so it must have been a very sweet experience for Philip to sit down and converse for a week with Paul, the one who had persecuted him and the church before. Now Paul, instead of loathing the church, he loves the church. Now Paul is teaching Philip. Philip had been this great man with maybe some great ambitions. He might have even been as great as the Apostle Paul, but now he's in an obscure place. Philip's in Caesarea. He and his family have been dispersed from Judea to Caesarea, and from being where he was, a well-known preacher at the time, now he's known as the evangelist at Caesarea. Apparently a very small ministry. But Paul spends a lot of time, spends a whole week with him there. I think Paul was impressed with his ministry. You see, ministry is not judged in the eyes of God by how many occupants are sitting in the seats. The value of a ministry and its effectiveness and God's love for it is not always evaluated on the popularity of its programs or the degrees of the ones who lead it. Paul was impressed. Why? Because here's a man who had been disassembled, uprooted, brought to an out-of-the-way place. But Philip, instead of saying, that's it, I tried to serve God down in Jerusalem, and they didn't like me down there, and I got a lot of opposition, I'm done. He didn't say that. You know what he said? He said, I'm going up here to Caesarea. If they won't let me serve God down yonder, I'll serve God up here. And so he anchored himself in Caesarea, and now for 20 years, this man Philip has been there in this small ministry, being a faithful servant to God, being a determined faithful servant to God. And I think that's why he and Paul had such an inroad with each other because they both were determined to serve God. Paul served God by going across the world to different places and countries and planting churches and being a well-known person, an individual that everybody in the known world was familiar with. But here's Philip in an obscure place. He served God. in the way that God led him. Paul served God in the way he led him. I've said often times, you know, when I first began in the ministry, especially after we planted the church here at Searcy, I said, you know, I figure we'll, I figure we'll win at least 50 people to the Lord the first year, and then the next year it'll be 100, and then it'll probably be 300 in three or four years, and then it'll be 500, and then we'll have 1,000, And you can see we've accomplished that goal. There's a thousand here this morning. You know what I've said before? I'm going to keep being determined to serve God where He planted me. If God gave me the opportunity to be the pastor of a thousand member church, I'd probably blow it. He didn't cut me out to be that. He cut me out to be in this kind of ministry. And I'm glad to be. And I'll stay as long as God wants me to. 27 years and still hanging on. And I may be here till the day I die. I don't know. If God told me to leave, I'd leave. But He hadn't told me anything like that yet. So don't get too excited about me going somewhere else. Paul spends his time with the friend of Stephen. Philip the evangelist. Then notice the second thing, the controversy in Jerusalem. Verses 17 through 26, you'll see that accusations are brought against Paul. There's rumors flowing around. And when he first arrives at Jerusalem, he's well received by the church there, warmly accepted. But then there's some Judaizers, some of those who are still trying to cling to the law for salvation, and they begin to float some rumors about Paul that he's trying to get everybody, all the Jews, to give up every tradition that they've learned from their forefathers. Actually, Paul hadn't done that. He did say that you're not going to get saved by the law. But he didn't tell them they had to give up circumcision. Only the Gentiles were not needed to do that. And so there was no truth to their accusations. They're trying to make Paul out to be an enemy of the Jews when he was actually their friend. He loved them and he wanted to see them saved. Leaders today are often misunderstood in their quest to try to find some way to reach people. leaders will change up something. As long as it's not unbiblical, you know, we don't have to keep everything just the same as it's always been. I mean, if we got seats here instead of pews, I don't think the Bible tells us anywhere that we have to have pews rather than chairs, right? And so, if If you're more comfortable sitting on a chair, thank the Lord for it. I mean, I grew up in Isard County, Arkansas, where those hillbillies where I grew up, they went to a brush arbor meeting out in the back of a field by the edge of the woods and had brush arbors cut, leaves, branches off of trees, and had old logs laying there for seats. No backrest, just benches made out of logs. And they were happy to meet together that way and have a place to get out of the sunshine and just sit in the shade and hear the preaching and the singing. But if we can be more comfortable, I'm all for it. There's nothing unbiblical about having shared. There's a lot of things we do. If we decide to start doing services, midweek service on Thursday instead of Wednesday, there's nothing unbiblical about that. I know a lot of independent Baptist churches that have services on Thursday. That way they get to visit around maybe some other churches on Wednesday. And so there's nothing wrong with that. As long as it's not unbiblical, trying to find a way to reach people, trying to find a way to make it more accessible for people to come to church. We're always trying to do that. But Paul got misunderstood. And they said, man, he's trying to destroy our traditions of the Jews. Well, notice the third thing, that there's chaos then breaks out in the temple, verses 27 through 36. Man, they're all over Paul. Those false accusations are flowing. And now they start another rumor because he's got some Gentile friends. He's won some Gentiles to the Lord and they're accompanying him to Jerusalem. And one of them named Trophimus, they saw Paul walking down the street with him, a Gentile. And so now some of the Jews stirred up the other people in the church and said, you know, he's brought a Gentile into the temple. which is against the law, should be killed. Well, he didn't bring Trophimus into the temple. They just happened to be walking together in town and so guilt by association. And so they assumed that he had brought him in and started telling it as the truth. And so now the false accusations are swirling. We're talking about determination. Paul could have thrown up his hands and said, look, I've tried with you With you jerks, I've tried enough times. You're on your own. But he's determined. He's not going to quit his calling that came from God. And through his determination, he stuck. Paul was determined even as a Pharisee before he got saved. He had developed enough character. He'd sat at the feet of Gamaliel, the Jewish teacher. He had been trained. I mean, he'd probably be the equivalent of a PhD today. And yet, he was determined even as a persecutor of the church. He was determined, man. He went everywhere persecuting the church before he got saved. He already developed enough character that he was determined to carry out what he believed the will of God was. Of course, it was wrong when he was a Pharisee. But because he had developed character, which is missing in a lot of America today and around the world. Character. You cannot become faithful and determined to God if your character leads you away from God. And because of our habits as formed as lost people, many times we find it kind of like we're unable to change. Now you can change. I said you can change. The Holy Spirit lives in your heart if you're saved, and you can change. It's just that the habit is hard to break. But Paul was determined as a lost man, but now he's a saved man. Now he's an apostle called to go to the Gentiles, and he's still got character enough that makes him do what he believes is the will of God. You know why a lot of churches across America are deserted this morning? You know why a lot of them, hardly anybody is in the building this morning? Because people don't have enough character many times to do what they ought to do. So something came up. Well, that sounds like it's more fun over there. Let's go do that instead of going to church. That is a lack of character. Character says, do what's right. And that's Paul's determination. He's going to do what's right. So he's torn, these Jews are getting a hold of him, the Jewish Christians, the church at Jerusalem and they're pulling him back and forth and accusing him of all these things and they're about to tear him to pieces and so the Roman soldiers come in and rescue him from being killed and so they take him into their authority and then he's given the permission to speak. Permission to speak to the crowd. Boldness. The boldness of Paul. You know what he talks to them about? He gives them his testimony. He tells them how he got saved. And he does this over and over again, even to the Roman rulers later on. He gives his testimony time and again that I was on the way to Damascus. Man, I was persecuting the church and all of a sudden I saw this bright light. And I found out Jesus was real. I found out that he was from heaven. I found out that he was God in the flesh. He struck me blind and gave me instructions on what to do and I followed him and I've been following him ever since. Wouldn't it be great if everybody got saved, just became determined to follow the Lord no matter what? No matter what, just follow the Lord. If the going's tough, follow the Lord. That's what Paul's doing here. I mean, he's standing there being accused and about to face death, and he said, folks, I'd like to say a few things, and he talked about Jesus and how he got saved. He had the boldness to speak, and yet many times we're too frightened to speak to a neighbor or a friend or a workmate about the Lord because we're afraid they might frown at us. Here he is about to be killed, In his determination, he said, I'll do what the right thing is and the right thing is they need to hear about Jesus. Trust God for the outcome. When it comes to serving God, just make up your mind, I'm going to serve Him. I don't care what they say about it or what they say about it. I don't care about what happens. I'm going to follow the Lord. and trust him for the outcome. Remember when Joseph in the Old Testament got sold into Egypt and lies were spread about him. Potiphar's wife said that he tried to rape her, which was a big, bold lie. He stayed true to God. He went to prison for it, but you know what he didn't do? He didn't quit on God. He stayed faithful to God and he stayed in prison for a pretty good while before he got out. But then God finally elevated him to prime minister of Egypt. I'm just saying that we ought to trust God for the outcome instead of trying to overthink things and say, well, if I do this, you know, it might mean that. If God tells us we ought to do it, we ought to do it. If it's in the word of God, we can follow it and leave the consequences up to him. We need churches that are strong in America and I'm afraid we're not producing as many strong churches as we used to. You know why the average pastor stays at a church for a year and a half to two years? That's about the average. He goes to a church, takes a new church. People are excited about the new pastor and he preaches all of his candy stick sermons. You know, those that are really polished that he's preached dozens of times before. And those sermons are just, they're such fine oratory and everybody's impressed with it. But then he preaches all of his candy stick sermons in a year and a half or two years. And he has to start studying and coming up with new sermons and preaching through the book of Acts. He might not find every chapter of the book of Acts where he can hit a home run for a sermon. He's got to preach the truth that's there instead of making up something. Instead of trying to stir emotions that our faults. And so the preacher preaches all of these candy stick sermons and then the people see, oh man, he's not stirring my heart the way he used to. I'm not lifted up the way I used to be and so he begins, nobody's telling him he's preaching a great sermon anymore. And he says, well, okay, I'll just go, I'll go to another church and he'll pull out those same 100 sermons again and preach them until they're preached through again and then he has to go somewhere else. You know why the average church member doesn't stay in a church for more than five years, usually. And for the younger generations, it's a lot less. Because this church offers programs over here. Man, they've got everything for my kids. They've got everything for my teens. They've got all of these fun activities. Don't preach the word of God much, but man, everything's fun. Got all these programs, big numbers of programs. And so they go over there and they eat up those programs They're disillusioned. Things get dull. And then they hear about a church over here. Man, they've got programs over there. Let's do this. And then about three to five years, they're looking for another church. You know why all of that happens? Why do pastors not stay at the same place? Why do church members not stay at the same place? If the Word of God is being preached and people are being changed by the Word of God, why do they not stay placed? Because a lack of determination. We're not determined. When we set our mind, like the Apostle Paul, to stay the course, we ought not to be shaken off that course by emotions like those people that are begging him to not go to Jerusalem. Always strong, strong influence, but he said, no, I've got to go. When somebody tries to lure you away from living for God, I've seen it a lot in my over 40 plus years of ministry. People that get on fire for God for a little while and then something else is shiny and new over here and they get attracted to that. Maybe it's got nothing to do with the Lord at all. Maybe it's a job. Maybe it's friends. Maybe it's something that's newfangled and they go and chase that. Paul was determined. I'm sure every day when Paul was walking up and down those dusty, rocky roads, I'm sure every day wasn't exciting for Paul. And I'm sure every sermon he preached wasn't a home run. Because even in some of the scriptures that we read that he wrote, he himself says that some of those churches said, man, your letters are weighty, but you're not too hot when it comes to preaching. Paul was probably a little ugly man, unlike your handsome preacher. And evidently he wasn't that great of an orator. But you know what he had? He had the blessed word of God. And that got the job done. He was determined and he produced some people like Timothy and Titus and Philip. He saw some people developed who were steadfast determined. They weren't willing just to say, hey, I'm tired of this. I'm going to do something else that's more fun for a while. Keep serving God. Look, there is a day coming when this life will be over. Either your life will end through natural causes or the Lord is coming back, which may be very soon. when the trumpet sounds and the clouds roll back, and we're going to be caught up together as the believers in the air, and we're going to join Him, be with Him forever. That day is coming, and there's a judgment seat of Christ for the saved, and there's a white throne judgment for the lost. And everything that we do in this life is temporary, folks, unless we're doing it for the Lord. unless we're doing it for the Lord. Everything is temporary. I don't care if your bank account is full of money. I don't care if your house is the biggest one in White County. I don't care if you have the most friends and you're the most popular. I don't care if you've got the most civic organizations who demand that you come and be their speaker. I don't care what you have in this life. It'll all vanish. This earth, this everything, the whole universe is going to melt with fervent heat, the Bible says. and then nothing is going to be left except what you did for Christ. We better be concerned about living for the Lord and not being carried about by every wind of doctrine, everything that looks new and shiny. Be determined. The Apostle Paul, whatever you think about him, he was determined. His journey Took him a long ways. Thousands of miles he traveled. Partly by ship, partly on foot, partly by animal. But being determined. I'm talking about just being determined. Saying I've got a job to do and I'm going to do it. My job is to live for the Lord. That job ought to be above all jobs. I had a superintendent over our school, a little public school where I went as a boy. One of the ways we earned money as teenagers, we'd catch chickens. There were a lot of broiler houses, and it happened in the middle of the night. You'd have to catch chickens and load them on a semi-truck, and you'd be up most of the night. Well, some of the boys decided they were just too tired to go to school the next day, and so they all bunked up at one of them's house, and they were snoozing away about nine o'clock in the morning, and a knock came on the door. And he knocked, and he knocked, and he knocked. When nobody answered, he pushed the door open and went in. It was Howard Lamb, our school superintendent. He said, what are you boys doing in bed anyway? We're sleeping, Mr. Lamb. He said, I know why you're sleeping, too. Some of the boys that didn't stay home came to school today, and they said, you caught chickens last night, and you're laying up sleeping this morning. Get up and get your clothes on. I'm taking you to school right now. And he made every one of them get up and get dressed and go to school. Man, they were sleepy, and their hair was all tousled up, and it was a rough-looking crew. But he was devoted to his job. He would determine, you rascals are not going to lay out of school. He wouldn't get away with that today. He'd be in court, probably. But he was the kind of guy that he was going to make sure you did it. And he was determined he was going to do the right thing. What he felt like was his job. Find a way to do it. Christians quit on God way too often. That's what I'm saying this morning. Christians quit on God way too often. And we take the easy route out. Paul's way wasn't an easy way, but it was the right way. I heard about the guy that he woke up in the morning and found a gorilla on his roof. He looks in the yellow pages for gorilla removers and sure enough, there in the yellow pages, a gorilla remover. So he asked the guy if he could come over and he said, I've got a gorilla on my roof. And he said, yeah, I'll be there in 30 minutes. So he pulls up in his van and he gets out of his van and he's got a ladder and a baseball bat and a shotgun and a mean old pit bull. So the homeowner said, what are you going to do? He said, well, I'm going to take that ladder, lean it up against your roof, and I'm going to climb up that ladder and take this baseball bat. And when I get up there on top of it, he said, I'm going to take that baseball bat and knock the gorilla off. And the homeowner said, well, what's the pit bull for? He said, when that gorilla hits the ground, that pit bull is trained. When anything falls off that roof, he's going to pounce on it, and he's going to mangle it to pieces. And the homeowner said, well, What's the shotgun for? He said, I'm giving it to you. He said, what for? He said, if the gorilla knocks me off of the roof, shoot that dog. There's a way to get things done and we're determined, we can see to it that it'll get done with the Lord's help. Really determined to do what God wants us to do. Determination. Faithfulness, steadfastness, tenacity, just grab a hold. I think it was, what was the Prime Minister of England in World War II? Churchill. Churchill, it was said of him, he had the tenacity of a bulldog. He would just, when he got a hold of something, he wouldn't let go until he got it done. That's the kind of Christians we need today. Christians who have the tenacity of a bulldog. They're just going to say, I'm going to live for God and I don't care who doesn't like it or who does like it or whether it's easy or whether it's hard, whether it's convenient or inconvenient. I'm going to be in church on Sunday. I'm going to be in church on Sunday night. I'm going to be at church in midweek service. I'm going to witness to people. I'm going to read the Bible and pray. I'm going to live for God. I'm going to find out His will and I'm going to do it. is what we need is the kind of character that Paul was. Someone once asked Paul Harvey, you know, remember Paul Harvey used to be on the radio and he'd tell the rest of the story. Somebody asked him, he said, Mr. Harvey, what is your secret to success? He said, when I fall down, I get up. Some people think, well, I've tried to serve the Lord and maybe the church mistreated me or the preacher mistreated me The family didn't agree with me, or this didn't work, or that didn't work, and we give up. The Bible says a just man falls seven times, yet rises up again. So it doesn't matter how many times you've fallen, get up, go again, be appalled. Joshua said in 2415, he said, and if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom you will serve. And then he said, but as for me and my house, We will serve the Lord. I think Joshua was determined, like Paul. Determination. Christianity shouldn't be a religion of convenience. It ought to be one of determination, steadfastness, and faithfulness where we don't give up and we don't quit. We just set our course and keep on going, believing we're going to just stay through the whole thing, this whole life, because we're following God's will. Let's pray together. Father, I pray that you'd bless us as we come to this time in the service. Lord, help us to consider our own lives of whether we're faithful, whether we're steadfast, whether we're determined, whether we're resigned to following you. And Lord, help us to make that commitment today. And for some of us who maybe didn't develop character in our childhood or in our younger years Lord with your help we can overcome it I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me Lord I pray you'd help us to be convinced that we can be faithful to your cause just like the Apostle Paul we may not be called to a big and flamboyant ministry but we're called to be faithful Lord help us to be decided resigned, resolved, determined to stay on course for you, not give up on you, not give up on church, not give up on the Bible, not give up on our prayer life, nor our witnessing. Lord, help us just to be faithful throughout life because, Lord, we truly believe that you will one day say to those who have been faithful, well done, thou good and faithful servant.