Welcome to this podcast from Harvest Community Church of Huntersville, North Carolina, where our vision is to make disciples who make disciples. I'm your host, Liz Stefanini. Last Sunday was not only Halloween, it was Reformation Day. It was the 504th anniversary when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door. And what was all of that about? Well, Martin Luther was a man who did not believe that what the church, the Catholic church of his day was doing was right. They were selling indulgences. So for instance, there was a belief that some people after they die will go to this waiting place called purgatory and have to spend some time there. And so the church was selling, coming along to people who were still living and saying, Oh, if you buy this indulgence, you'll get them out of purgatory more quickly. And that's not biblical, of course. And Martin Luther stood up against that, um, and got in trouble for it, of course. But when he nailed his theses to the door, that was like a public, he was starting a public discussion of it. It would be like posting it on the internet today. And it did create some years of back and forth between him and the church leaders. And a few years later on April 14th, 1521, he found himself on the way to the diet of worms. Now that doesn't sound very good for us English speakers, a diet of worms. But a diet was an assembly of rulers called by the emperor. And Worms was the small city in Germany where it was held. Hence it was called the Diet of Worms or if you were from Germany, the Diet of Worms. And that's where Martin Luther went. At this juncture, The emperor had blacklisted him, forbidden the sale of his books, and in fact, Martin Luther's life was in danger of going to this diet, this gathering of leaders. One of his friends, in fact, messaged him and said, don't go. I'm afraid if you go, the same thing that happened to John Huss, will happen to you. John Huss was a rough for another reformer who earlier who had been burned at the stake. And Luther's response to that was, though Huss was burned, the truth was not burned and Christ still lives. And he told his friend, I shall go on to worms, though there are were as many devils as tiles on the roof. So April 18th, 1521 Luther stands in front of this assembly. And they want him to recant. They want him to take back what he had written. And here's what Luther said. Since then, your majesty and your lordships desire a simple reply. I will answer without horns and without teeth. Unless I am convinced by scripture and plain reason, I do not accept the authority of popes and councils for they have contradicted each other. My conscience is captive to the word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me. Amen. Martin Luther risked his life because of his commitment to the Word of God and the will of God. And he reminds me so much of the Apostle Paul that we're going to be studying today. So I invite your attention to Acts chapter 21. Acts chapter 21, we're teaching through the book of Acts here at Harvest. We come up to chapter 21 today and we're going to learn about the Apostle Paul and the kind of commitment he had to the will of God in his life. Let me set the stage for you. He's on his third missionary journey. In fact, his third missionary journey is his final journey and he's wrapping it up. He's about to conclude his last missionary journey of his life. And last week we studied in Acts chapter 20 that he called as he was making his way back down to Jerusalem, he called for the elders of the church at Ephesus, because he was at a port about 30 miles from them, and he gave them a farewell address. And after he did that, he continued traveling to Jerusalem. And along the way, there were people that were urging him, don't go. You need to change your plans, Paul. And yet, his passion for Christ led him to do otherwise. If you look at the red arrow there, you can see Asia, the continent there in the middle. Ephesus was not the city he was at. He was 30 minutes from there, but the Ephesian elders came. And essentially, this is what he wants to do. The red arrow, he wants to work his way down to Jerusalem. Now Jerusalem was where Christianity started, right? As we started Acts, the setting was Jerusalem. And now we've seen how the gospel has expanded in so many places. And Paul is one of those expanding it out into these other continents. And yet now near the end of his life, he wants to go back to Jerusalem. And this account in Acts 21 is going to show us how he works his way down to Jerusalem. And the first place that is of note in our passage is the little town called Tyre. And as we look at Paul today, there are two pictures of what passion for Christ looks like. And I have, I have a couple of very simple goals today. I want to, first of all, I want to be faithful to the scripture, which is always our goal in preaching. I want to help you see what passion for Christ looked like for Paul. And the second goal is to help you understand and bring some challenge to all of us so that we too will have passion for Christ that expresses itself. Well, verse three, if we pick up in Acts 21, we landed at Tyre where our ship was to unload its cargo. We sought out the disciples there and stayed with them seven days. Through the Spirit, they urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem. Now they stayed there for a week. They were going to load and unload the ship or maybe possibly get a different ship. But Paul, while he's there, it's like, what am I going to do? I'm going to go find some Christians. Paul did not plant the church at Tyre, but he was able to find some Christians that were there. And this was a city up north from Jerusalem. We don't know exactly who planted the church, but a good guess would if we were to go back to Acts chapter 11 after Stephen had been persecuted and stoned, it said the persecution there sent believers out preaching the word and they went, it says, as far as Phoenicia. And that's where Tyre was located. So probably some of those believers evangelized. And now here are believers sitting there. Paul meets them. And the last phrase there in verse four is going to be very important as we work our way through this morning through the spirit. They urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem. Well, let's keep going in the passage. Verse five. When it was time to leave, we left and continued on our way. All of them, including wives and children, accompanied us out of the city. And there on the beach, we knelt to pray. After saying goodbye to each other, we went aboard the ship and they returned home. Kind of an unusual picture. The normal posture for prayer was standing. And yet they knelt to pray. This was very emotional. They did not want Paul to go to Jerusalem because they didn't want Paul to be put in jail. They didn't want Paul to die. And so they were urging him and yet, no, he was going. And so they said goodbye. And then the next few verses are going to show us again, if I can bring the map back up, you'll see Tyre. And then there was another little city. But then they eventually the next city is Caesarea, where there's going to he's going to encounter some other believers. Look at verse seven. We continued our voyage from Tyre and land at Ptolemaeus where we greeted the brothers and sisters and stayed with them for a day. Leaving the next day, we reached Caesarea and stayed at the house of Philip the Evangelist, one of the seven. He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied. After we'd been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. Coming over to us, he took Paul's belt, tied his own hands and feet with it, and said, the Holy Spirit says, in this way The Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and hand him over to the Gentiles. So this prophet named Agabus comes up and does an acted parable. essentially to say, this is what's going to happen to Paul. Corey, would you join me up here? We talked about Corey a few minutes ago. So I want you to get an idea for what this may have been like. So Corey, if you'll just join me up here on this stage right here on this side. Now, just a couple of months ago, we were in the process of inviting Corey, considering him with others, to come on staff as one of our pastors. And so, I see that you've got a fine belt on today. It was given to me by a very good friend. It was given to you, that's good. So here's what happened. So here's Corey. And he's praying about it like, should I go minister there? Should I move to Charlotte and go to Harvest And, and is this God's will for me? And I'm going to serve God there. So Corey comes up and the prophet, he takes his belt and gives it to the prophet. I guess I'll be the prophet and Agabus takes the belt. I don't know. I guess I have to sit down. I don't know how he does. I don't know how you tie your hands and your feet, but he takes Paul's belt. And he ties his hands. I'm sure he didn't have one of those things there. He ties his hands and feet. And he says, this is what the Holy Spirit says. The one who owns this belt. This is what's going to happen to him. He is going to be bound and given over to the Gentiles. Now, Corey, let me ask you a question. If that would have happened to you, would you have accepted this position? If the Lord led me to alright, thank you. This is a prophet. And he is saying to Paul. I'm going to tell you what's going to happen. Why would you go to Jerusalem? After that? Why would you put yourself at the risk of being bound? In fact, verse 12, that's the way the rest of the people there interpreted it too. When we heard this, we, remember Luke is the author of Acts, so he's including himself in this. When we heard this, we and the people pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. Don't go, Paul. We know God is speaking. We know the Holy Spirit is saying, this is what's going to happen to you, and here's what we're gonna say in addition to that. Please don't go. But look what Paul says in verse 13. Then Paul answered. Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. This is a powerful statement. This is what is driving me. This is what my life is all about. It's about Jesus. It's about serving Him. It's about following Him, and I am ready. Yes, I know the Holy Spirit has warned me all along the way that bad things are going to happen to me, but I want to serve God there and believe God has led me to serve Him there, and that's exactly what he does. In fact, in the last chapter, Acts 20, we saw how Paul was describing his life to the Ephesian elders. He said, I know I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardship are facing me. I mean, every city. This wasn't a one time occurrence. The Holy Spirit warned him over and over. I don't think Paul had much appreciation for the health and wealth gospel. You know, just follow Jesus and everything will be good. You'll have all the money and health you need and want, and everything will be wonderful if you follow Jesus. Well, Paul says, however, I consider my life worth nothing to me. My only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me, the task of testifying to the good news of God's grace. So verse 14, when he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, the Lord's will be done. Now there's been discussion through the years about whether Paul should have gone or not. Some people believe Paul was stepping out of the will of God here and that, that the spirit had led these people to say, don't go. But how do we, how do we gauge it? Should he, should he go? Should he not go? Well, if we go back to Acts 20, the verses leading into what I just read to you, and now compelled by the Spirit, I'm going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me. So Paul knew what was coming, but he was compelled by the spirit. On the other side of the equation, people would point to what the one said there at Tyre in verse four, through the spirit, they urged Paul not to go on. And then in 2111, what Agabus just said to him, the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt. But back on this side of the equation in Acts 21, It says they gave up and said the Lord's will be done. Now, let me give you a spoiler alert. Paul did go to Jerusalem. He did choose to go to Jerusalem in spite of this, and some people thought maybe he was Paul blew it here. And the question is, was Paul so committed to his own agenda that he walked outside of God's will? And I don't think that's the case. No doubt. Even people of God can make mistakes. And sometimes God's people can be so firmly committed to their agenda, and they will say this is God's will, that they'll say that and they'll act in that way, and it's not necessarily God's will. I don't think that's what's happening in Acts 21, and let me tell you why. There are a couple considerations, a couple possibilities here. Number one, Agabus prophesied, but he didn't say that God was redirecting. He didn't say, God has told me, Paul, do not go under any circumstances. He was just prophesying that if you go and when you go, this is what is going to happen to you. We need to distinguish between Agabus' prophecy and then the pleas of Paul's friends and coworkers. So they all hear the prophecy, and so naturally, because they care about Paul, They say, oh, please don't go. Please don't go. Probably all of us would have done the same thing, I think. We would have said, oh, yeah, Paul, maybe you should rethink this. Through the spirit, the phrase through the spirit can refer to the words concerning Paul's upcoming bondage while the words spoken to urge Paul not to go were spoken by the humans out of their loving concern for Paul. Do you see that? The distinction between a prediction and a prophecy? It's like the prophecy was divine, their interpretation and their urging was human and normal. Paul was passionate for Christ. Paul was passionate for the will of God. That's all that mattered to him. And so even if it was going to be at a great personal cost, he was willing to do it. And that's what we see in this passage. I think there's some lessons for us. I think we have to be careful not to determine God's guidance based on what is comfortable for us, what is easy for us, or even fulfilling for us. If Paul's, if the way Paul was gonna determine God's will was based on what's comfortable, easy, and fulfilling, he wouldn't have gone on these missionary journeys, right? Once the first opposition came, he would have gone home and said, I'm going to I'm going to do something else. But he kept going and he kept going and he kept going because he knew. What we need to know in our generation, that's serving God sometimes comes with a cost. It's interesting. This month is a month in which Christians all around the world pray for the persecuted church. In fact, a lot of churches are doing it today. We're going to hone in on that next Sunday on November 14th. But there are brothers and sisters in Christ that suffer in massive ways. because they're following Jesus. And Paul saw that. So whether it's a commitment to a challenging marriage, whether it's a ministry situation or a church situation, God's will is not for you necessarily what is most appealing or most easy. Paul recognized that. You know, sometimes well-meaning people care about our safety and our well-being and will say things to us that aren't necessarily God's clear leading. Advice and counsel can be good, and it usually is a very good thing when we're trying to determine God's will, but it's not infallible. I don't think their advice to Paul was infallible here. And we also need to be careful that we realize we cannot always know the will of God for somebody else. We have to be very careful about really speaking definitively to somebody and saying, I know this is God's will for you. Unless, of course, if it's biblical, if it's recorded in scripture, we know that's God's will. But other decisions, we may not be able to speak that. clearly. And also, I think we need to be careful about advising people that are close to us. It's easy for a good-natured heart to want to protect people, and we might not be guiding them in the best way. Let's say somebody's graduating from high school or graduating from college. and their parents want them to be a doctor, want them to be a lawyer. They've always had the idea that they would enter one of those professions, but that person feels and senses a call from God for vocational ministry, for missionary service, and they decide rather than going to law school, rather than going to medical school, they're gonna go to seminary, they're gonna follow this path, and if those parents are afraid that that child may go off to some place in the world that would endanger him and they try to urge him or her not to do that, you see how they could be speaking out of the will of God? So I think there's a lot here. And all these verses, normally, often I'll give you the key principle and then we'll look at the verses, but today I wanted to walk through the verses. What are all of these verses pointing us to? What does passion for Christ look like? Well, here's what it looks like in the first 14 verses. It's determination to serve Christ over everything. Determination to serve Christ over everything that's over our comfort. That's over what's easy. That's over what may be quote best for us or easiest for us, or maybe even sometimes what other people may say or advise. It's I want to serve Christ regardless, regardless of what it costs. Well, let's keep walking through the passage and then we'll see the second picture of what passion for Christ looks like. Verse 15, after this, we started on our way up to Jerusalem. So again, on the map there, now where the arrow is, this is where Paul is going to end up. And they're moving from Caesarea, they're moving up. It looks like down on the map, but they're climbing in elevation. So we, so we move up to Jerusalem and watch what happens. Some of the disciples from Caesarea accompanying us and brought us to the home of Manasseh where we were to stay. He was a man from Cyprus and one of the early disciples. He has an interesting name, doesn't it? That N, I just, it's there. That's not a spelling error. 17, when we arrived at Jerusalem, the brothers and sisters received us warmly. The next day, Paul and the rest of us went to see James and all the elders were present. Paul greeted them and reported in detail what God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. When they heard this, they praised God. I love that Paul had been out and he'd been working among the Gentiles and he brings the report in and he, and he reports not what he had done or his team had done, but he reports what God had done. And when they heard it, they praised God. Evangelism results in praise. Sometimes we think of evangelism as one thing and worship as another, but in God's economy, they are linked. Paul does evangelism and that brings praise to God. He wanted to make disciples of others who weren't disciples. Why? Because they weren't worshiping God. And so that's why we do evangelism. So others will also worship God and worship will be expanded and increased in Romans 15. Paul linked evangelism and worship as he said to the Romans what God had appointed him to do. He gave me the priestly duty that tends to relate to worship, the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God so the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Let's pick back up in verse 20 of Acts 21. Then they said to Paul, You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews have believed and all of them are zealous for the law. They have been informed that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn away from Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or to live according to our customs. What shall we do? They will certainly hear that you have come. So do what we tell you. There are four men with us who have made a vow. Take these men, join in their purification rights, and pay their expenses so that they can have their heads shaved. Then everyone will know there is no truth in these reports about you, but that you yourself are living in obedience to the law. As for the Gentile believers, we have written to them our decision that they should abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. The next day Paul took the men and purified himself along with them. Then he went to the temple to give notice of the date when the days of purification would end and the offering would be made for each one of them. Let me help make sense of this a little bit. This is such an unusual situation. Paul is Jewish And back in Acts 15, there was the Jerusalem council where they debated, what do we do with the law and what should Gentiles be required to follow the law? And the answer was, of course not. But what about the people who are already Jewish and where does the law fit in with them? And that was the discussion here. And Paul had been out ministering among the Gentiles. And when he comes back to tell the church leaders, they say, look, there's thousands of Jews who've been saved, but they've heard that you're speaking against the law. Now Paul wasn't ultimately speaking against the law because Christ was the fulfillment of the law. But what Paul was saying is that there's freedom in Christ and the Mosaic law has to be interpreted and applied through Christ now. So we've got this dilemma. Here's the work of God. These aren't two separate religions. This is one Christianity, kind of two wings. There's a Gentile wing and a Jewish wing. And how are they going to get along? And what is Paul going to do? Because they want Paul to make a public statement that he's not against the law per se. Because remember, he is Jewish. They admitted, they said, The same thing, the Jerusalem council, we just advised Gentiles to do these four things. They weren't requiring Gentiles. to become Jewish in order to be a Christian. That's a lot of what the New Testament's about. A book like Galatians, for instance, people coming along saying, oh, yeah, it's good that you have faith in Christ, but now you need to really go all the rest of the way and follow the Mosaic law and be circumcised and do all these things. They weren't saying that, and Paul wasn't saying that, but what's Paul gonna do? Is Paul just gonna say, no, look, I'm doing the message that God gave me? Paul makes what you might call a compromise here. He does something that is unique and it may be unexpected because Paul was such a determined person. You might expect Paul to say, nope, I'm doing my ministry. God bless you, you do your ministry. But Paul actually says, I will pay for their purification rights. And in that way, he's helping to create some peace between the two different groups. Now, let's don't miss the drama, the situation. Both the Jewish ministry had been fruitful and Paul's Gentile ministry had been fruitful. And now the question is, how do they relate to each other? Some people probably mistakenly thought that Paul and James differed doctrinally, that Paul would teach salvation by grace, but that James would teach salvation by the law. But that wasn't true. So Paul did a couple of things, very important. We don't read about it in this passage, but later we glean from Acts 24, 17. One of the main purposes that Paul was doing and going to Jerusalem, he had been collecting an offering from all these Gentile churches out there because there was famine in Jerusalem. And Jerusalem was the home of the Mother Church. And they were now experiencing famine. They are the ones who had sent out missionaries to these Gentiles. So to symbolize The rich unity in Christ between Jewish and Gentile in Christ. What did Paul do? He collected an offering in these various cities where he was ministering and he brought the offering back. That was a great symbol. It met practical needs, but was also a great symbol of unity. That's the first thing he did. The second thing that Paul did was he responded positively to what they asked him to do about paying the expenses of these four men. In other words, he was basically publicly demonstrating that he still had a respect for the Mosaic Law and for those that were going to follow it. It wasn't about the way of salvation. Paul would never compromise on that. He would never say you have to follow the law to be saved. It wasn't about what Paul taught Gentile converts. He would never teach a Gentile that they had to follow the Mosaic law. It reflects that Judaism and Christianity are one in Christ. It's about mutual Christian forbearance. And I'll tell you what else it's about. It's about what a person is willing to do for the sake of the gospel. What Paul was willing to sacrifice. Remember, he had already said, I'll sacrifice my own life. But now he's saying, I'll sacrifice maybe some of my own preferences. Maybe Paul would have never, if he had just come and it wouldn't have been an issue there, I don't know that Paul would have ever like just paid the vow and joined in with them in that way. But given the circumstances, he's like, you know what, this doesn't violate my conscience, this doesn't violate the scripture, but it will provide some unity here. Let me point to one other passage that Paul wrote to help us understand. First Corinthians chapter nine. Here's what Paul said about what he was willing to do to reach people with the gospel. Though I am free and belong to no one, I've made myself a slave to everyone to win as many as possible. To the Jews, I became like a Jew. to win the Jews. To those under the law, I became like one under the law, though I myself am not under the law, so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law, I became like one not having the law, and then in parentheses, notice, though I'm not free from God's law, but I'm under Christ's law, so as to win those not having the law. To the weak, I became weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do this all for the sake of the gospel that I may share in its blessings." So here's what passion for Christ looks like. Passion for Christ looks like willingness to become all things to all people for the sake of the gospel. Our community group was looking at this passage this week and the question was asked Well, what does this look like today? What's a modern example of this today? And we we were kind of just going around thinking of something and a couple of things we came up with. Well, first of all, we we basically decided there's almost nothing exactly like this because Paul was Jewish already himself. But we did think of a couple of things and maybe it's useful just to help you think. So, for instance, An issue that believers differ a little bit on is the use of alcohol. Some believers will not use any alcohol, and some will believe that you can use alcohol in moderation. And that seems to be, the scripture seems to allow both of those positions, as long as it's in moderation. Suppose you have a friend that's not a Christian, and they're a recovering alcoholic. And you're one of the Christians who believes that you can use alcohol in moderation, becoming all things to that person may. require you to change your thinking and your habits and your actions so as not to offend them for the gospel sake, right? And then another one may be more simple. We just had a couple people, Barb Seidel and Heidi Record go to Nigeria. They don't always wear dresses all the time, but the women in Nigeria do, that they were around. So how did they dress? They dress that way so as not, you see, part of having a passion for Christ is being a critical thinker and being willing to say, you know what? I am going to try to reach different groups and I am going to be willing to sacrifice maybe some of my own views to help people in those other groups. Does that make sense? So when God builds his church, He uses people who are passionate for the name of Christ. He uses people who are passionate for the name of Christ. What does passion for Christ look like? It looks like determination to serve Christ over everything, regardless of the personal cost, and it looks like willingness to become all things to all people for the sake of the gospel. So we've seen this in Paul, we've seen him surrender it. We saw it here, we've seen it here in this church many times, Don and Cy Hill taking early retirement so they could not be comfortable and sit around and drink lemonade, but move to Thailand, Cy's home country, to do evangelism and plant a church. We've seen Peter Fredheim forego a career on Wall Street so he could give his life in Nigeria. We've seen our own Tom Muma sell a successful software company so it could go to seminary, so it could become a missionary. Now why would anyone do this? Why would anyone make those kind of sacrifices? Here's the answer. The name of Jesus. The name of Jesus. He is worth it. We use words like sacrifice, but when it is for Jesus, that big S becomes a really small S, I think. Paul, as he was explaining when they were urging him, don't go, Paul, don't go, don't go. He said, no, I'm willing to go. I'm even willing to die. Why? Read those words that are bold with me there at the end. Let's read it out loud. For the name of the Lord Jesus. He's worth it. He's worth it. You know, today, if you're watching this here in person or online, Jesus is worth it. Some of you might not even be Christians. You might be exploring. I don't want you to take away from this. I'm trying to challenge Christians to be passionate for Christ. Don't think that we're in any way saying, Oh, as long as you're passionate enough, you'll get to heaven. That's not what this is about. This is a response to him. He is our savior. He is our Lord. He is the one who died for you so that you could be saved. And he invites you into relationship with him by faith. And if you are one of those who have said, yes, I will follow you, I want to say to you, he's worth it. He is worth it to follow. What does it look like today? Ask ask some questions. I don't know. I don't I can't say exactly what it looks like for everyone. Do I have passion for the name of Christ? If I take a new job based only on financial considerations. Without thinking about what it means for time with my family or my ministry at church. Do I have passion for the name of Christ if in the area of strained relationships, I stubbornly insist on being right rather than being reconciled? Do I have passion for Christ if my church commitment only lasts as long as my personal preferences are being employed by the church? Do I have passion for Christ if evangelism is more of a concept than a lifestyle for me? I don't know. For some, passion for Christ might mean getting up 30 minutes earlier in the morning so you could spend time with Him before you start your day. It might mean deciding, I'm going to take an intentional step this month with an unbeliever. I'm going to serve them. I'm going to speak to them. It might be like one of our young couples or the husband of one of our young couples testified here last Sunday, wanting more prayer in their life. Hey, we're gonna start coming to church an hour early so we can be a part of praying with God's people. Maybe it looks like that. Maybe it looks like re-evaluating your budget and asking, can we give more to God's work so that the name of Christ can be spread? Maybe it's intentionally blocking out everything that distracts you so that you can focus on Christ. Maybe it's deciding to spend less time with TV and movies and social media and more in the Bible. Or maybe it's saying no to a temptation that is appealing to you so you can say yes to Christ. When God builds his church, He does it with people who are passionate for Christ, and what does it look like for you? So let me tell you in closing about a teenager, 17 years old. He grew up in a Christian family, and he was exposed to Christ early and wanted to follow Christ. Went through ups and downs, but there was a period in his life over a couple of years where God started drawing him to himself more and more, and he he started getting closer to Christ and surrender more to Christ. And he goes in to a church service one evening. And the the person preaching is not talking about. Passion for Christ like this. Not talking about surrendering your whole life to Jesus. But rather the person is preaching. About the cross of Jesus. Just Jesus on the cross. And what he paid. They just kind of detailed and just went. down, down the steps of all that Christ suffered for you and me. And as that 17 year old boy sat there, he was moved. He was moved to surrender his whole life to God. And essentially say, God, I'll be what you want me to be. I'll do what you want me to do. I'll go where you want me to go. How do I know so much about that 17-year-old? That 17-year-old was me, just a few years ago, not many years ago. And God spoke to me when I saw who Christ was and what He had done for me. Harvest, that's a great desire. that you all, all of us together would have a passion for Christ, to follow Him, to love Him, and to serve Him. Thanks again for joining us today from Harvest Community Church. This podcast is also available on our website HarvestCharlotte.com. Please go there if you want to send a question or comment, learn more about our ministries, or find out how you can donate to support the podcast.