Those kids are excited, aren't they? Wouldn't you love to have the energy that they've got? I read the other day where it says about some little kid was saying, when I was a baby, they kept telling me to stand up and walk and talk. Now that I'm older, they're telling me to sit down and shut up. Some people feel that way about the preacher. It's time to sit down and shut up. In Bible college, they told us, watch the amens. Watch the timing of those amens. They taught us in Bible college, stand up, speak up, and shut up. And then sit down. So we'll try to do that, kinda, this morning. We're gonna be in Acts chapter 26. We've been on a series of messages through the book of Acts, trying to take one theme from each chapter of the book of Acts give us sort of a bird's eye view through this book, this exciting book of the Bible. I mean, this is a book that's got energy, revelation in it, excitement, people moving, things happening, people getting saved, people giving their life to the Lord. The power of persuasion. Who has your ear? We're all products of what we learn around us, just like that little kid was talking about. Everybody's trying to get him when he's a baby to stand up and walk and speak and learn how to do the things that we want the baby to do. And they're products of what we teach them. And as we get older, our learning doesn't stop. We may not feel like we're actively learning things all the time, but we are, whether it be good or bad. Some of those things are good that we learn, and we ought to always be on the course of learning more. But things that go into our ears, not all of it passes through the noggin and comes out on the other side. Some of it lodges right in here. and right in here, and we tend to be a product of our surroundings, and whoever's telling us things, whoever we're listening to, whoever we're reading behind, whoever we're watching, they influence us. And there is a great power of persuasion, and we're gonna see it as we'll read a couple verses in our text here in a little bit. We'll read verses 28 and 29 in a short bit, after we read verse one and two, just kinda get the context. Some of you heard this, in years past, especially older people, and I think younger people have too. In October of 1938, Orson Welles and his Mercury Theater on the air broadcasted on the radio in those days, it was radio, and he broadcast an adaptation of H.G. Welles' novel, The War of the Worlds. Have you heard of that, The War of the Worlds? And it was presented as a series of news bulletins. Now, this was fiction, but it was presented like news headlines. And it was about a described Martian invasion. People from the planet of Mars have invaded the Earth. And the way it was presented, it was so convincing, so persuasive that a lot of people believed this was really happening. And they were frightened. They took it to heart. And there was some, if not widespread hysteria, at least some hysteria in those days following. Persuasion is a powerful tool for better or for worse. It can be good or it could be devastating. Depends on who you hear and who you believe. Now let's read our text, starting in Acts chapter 26, verse 1 and 2. Paul's been in prison. He's been in and out of courts among the Jews, and now he's apprehended by the Romans, kept in prison for two years. And in verse number 1, it says, Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Thou art permitted to speak for thyself. Then Paul stretched forth the hand and answered for himself, I thank myself happy, King Agrippa, because I shall answer for myself this day before thee touching all the things whereof I am accused of the Jews. Now look at verse number 28 and 29. Paul gives his testimony. Paul preaches, he preaches a sermon to Festus, the governor, and to Agrippa, the king, and here's what Agrippa says. in verse number 26. Then Agrippa said unto Paul, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. And Paul says, I would to God that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day were both almost and altogether such as I am, except for these bonds. Father, I pray that you bless us as we explore this powerful and persuasive passage of scripture in Acts chapter 26. Lord, speak to us. I pray the Holy Spirit would have the freedom to speak in our hearts this morning as we look into this blessed chapter. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Persuasion is a powerful force in our lives. There have been books written on it from the secular level and business world and in the world of religion. Every day, we're bombarded with messages. The advertisements, if you'll brush with this toothpaste, your teeth will be white and no decay. If you'll gargle with this, your breath will always be sweet and you'll be more intelligent and better looking. If you take this drug, it'll solve all of your problems. We hear the ads, we're bombarded. We hear newscasts. I mean, if you listen to the news, you'll just about go crazy. If you listen to a lot of it, And if you listen to one side, you'll get this perspective. If you listen to the other side, you'll get this perspective. I don't know if there's anybody in the middle that just sticks with the truth or not, but we're bombarded. People are trying to persuade us. You have friends that try to persuade you. You have a preacher standing before you who hopes to persuade you today. You have a Bible that you can read and God attempts to persuade you to believe something. In Acts chapter 26, We'll see three different responses to God's prompting of mankind. The question is, who do you allow to persuade you? You have the control, maybe not of what enters your eardrums, but you have the power to choose whether you're going to be persuaded by what's told you. or not. First we think about in this passage of Scripture in verse number 24, we're going to think about this particular verse about Festus and his skepticism. Acts chapter 26 verse 24, the first governor, he's the one in that's kind of in charge of Paul. He's the one that's got him imprisoned right here. And King Agrippa comes along and says, you know, I'd like to hear about, I've heard a lot about this fellow Paul that you've got in prison. And as the king, I understand he's already been tried and he's already appealed to Caesar to go to Rome, but I'd kind of like to hear what this guy's got to say, man. I've heard a lot about him. He's kind of famous, you know. And so Festus allows Paul to speak. And so does Agrippa. And after Paul makes his sermon, his plea for justice, he's talking about the resurrection. He's talking about Jesus being crucified on the cross for the sins of anybody who will believe. And he's preaching about the resurrection, that Jesus was put in a grave and he came out three days later. And when he talks about the resurrection, just like those Jews did, Governor Festus stops in the middle of it and cuts Paul off and he says, Paul, thou art beside thyself. Much learning doth make thee mad. In other words, Paul, you're nutty as a fruitcake. You're talking about people coming back from the dead. You're a nut. And so Festus speaks from what he believes in his heart. He said what he thought, but was he correct? Who had influenced Festus anyway? Well, Festus represents those in the world who just dismiss spiritual things. Have you ever tried to talk to somebody about the Lord and you tell them that you're saved and you'd like to see them saved too and that Jesus died on the cross and there's nothing you can do except to believe, to trust in the Savior. And if you'll do that, you'll be saved and you've got a home in heaven. And you told them about that, and it sounded like the sweetest story that you could tell. I mean, who wouldn't want to live in heaven forever? And yet they just kind of brush you off. You ever had that happen? And they probably think, I'm not listening to you, you nut. You religious nut. You're a fanatic. That's what they thought about Paul. in the world, just like Festus, just dismiss all the facts, all the evidence that Jesus is real, that there is a heaven, and there's a God in heaven, there's a judgment someday, and they just brush it aside as though they're gonna live on forever, but there is a grave at the end of this life, and who we listen to makes a difference where we go after our body hits that grave. Well, in 1 Corinthians 1.18, now remember here that Festus said, Paul, you've been reading too much, you've been studying too much, you've been thinking too much, you've been learning too much, you learned so much stuff that it's not even real, you're crazy. 1 Corinthians 1.18 says this, for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. We shouldn't be surprised when people brush us aside. But it goes on to say, but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. I mean, it's the power of God. There's no way to be saved except through the power of God. It's not through what we do, it's through what we believe. We trust Him. But yet, Festus said, Paul, you're crazy. He probably leaned over to King Agrippa and said, I told you, I told you what kind of nonsense you'd hear out of this guy. Frederick Niskey was a brilliant philosopher and he was persuaded that God is dead. He mocks Christianity, tried to persuade others, no use believing in God. The idea of God is gone. Forget him. He doesn't exist. If he did, he's dead. Yet his own life, Nitzke's own life, ended in madness. They accused Paul of being mad, but here an atheist, here a God rejecter, he did die in madness. And friend, once our consciousness leaves us and we had a chance to respond to the glorious gospel of Jesus, to the love of the Lord that was presented to us, once we have heard it and rejected it, we're not guaranteed that we'll ever hear it again. And this man went insane. And once he went insane, he had no more choice, no more logic, no more Holy Spirit conviction, no presence of mind to accept Jesus ever again. And he died that way. Sad. But people are a product of what they've heard. They've been persuaded. Nitzke was persuaded by the other philosophers who thought the key to living is just philosophy. It's not in God, not in believing, the Bible. He was influenced by those. When people get convinced of something, it can be as wrong as all get out, but you can't change their mind a lot of times unless they're willing to just humble themselves and say, I'm willing to listen. I'm willing to consider. Mark Twain said, it's easier to fool a man than it is to convince him he's been fooled. Think about that. It's possible that you and I have our minds, our knowledge shaped by the things like traditions, I mean it happens in churches. People, a lot of times preachers will preach traditions when it squarely goes against the Word of God. Now I'm not saying all tradition is bad. I'm just saying that if there's traditions and rituals and things that we do out of habit, ritualistic practices that's not even in the Bible, We may have those traditions embedded into us so deeply that we can't even hear the plain truth when it's presented from the Word of God because it's already shaped, it's molded. That clay was soft when it was molded, when it was shaped, when it was persuaded, but then the heat hardens it and they can't seem to change. Just like Pharaoh hardened his heart and he refused to believe. were shaped, at least to a large extent, by our family, our friends. Your family, you don't have a lot of choice about what family you're born into. And as you get older, you do have a choice of whether or not you want to continue to believe what you learned early. So blaming our parents is not an excuse that will work with God. We come to the age of accountability where we're able to reason and think on our own. And it doesn't matter what grandma said or what grandpa said or what mom said or what mom or dad said. It comes to a place eventually where you've got to decide what does God say? And let Him shape our mind. Let this mind which was in Christ Jesus also be in you. That's what the scripture says. Be you transformed in Romans. It says be you transformed by the renewing of your mind. So there comes a point where we're responsible for what we hear and what we believe and we don't have to be locked into what we heard a long time ago. We can decide what we want to believe and who we want to follow. It could be through your education. I can remember when in the 50s, I know I don't look old enough to have gone to school in the 50s. I really look a lot younger than that, don't I? Nod your head. I started school in 1955. My first grade teacher, Ms. Simpson, she was a devout Christian, went to church, and she used her Christianity. She was a kind, yet firm, teacher. And I learned a lot from her, not just about reading, writing, and arithmetic, but I learned a lot about living. I went into the next grade. The next two grades were spent with Ms. Byler. She taught second and third and I was in there both years. And she was a Christian. She went to a Baptist church and her son turned out to be a Baptist preacher. And she started every morning out in the classroom, she started out with a pledge of allegiance to the flag and with prayer and Bible reading. Boy, that would be hard to get away with these days. but she shaped my life. Now she was tough. Well, you didn't put nothing over on her. You get a little bit out of line. She'd put you back in line. And back then they had a board with holes drilled in it and they didn't hesitate to use it. And it taught me, it warped my mind. It taught me such ridiculous things as respect and being a good citizen and a decent human being. We had teachers like that. I went into Ms. Winkle's room for the fourth grade. Ms. Winkle was a devout Christian, and she went to a Baptist church. In fact, she was a member of the church where I got saved in 1980. Ms. Winkle, she was, again, she was very firm, but she was loving and kind, and she didn't hesitate to teach morality, to let you know that she trusted the Bible, to let you know that she went to church. She was a faithful lady. I knew her for years and years after I got saved, after I spent my years as a heathen and then finally came to the Lord and started going to church and she was in the church where I got saved. Her husband, the day I got saved, I walked down the aisle, I was sitting over in this area here and the preacher gave the invitation. Man, I couldn't wait to get saved. I came down the aisle and after everything was over, he had me to stand up front. such nonsense as making your salvation public, profession of faith. Like, you ought not to be ashamed to be saved. And I didn't know any better than just stand out in front and make it public. And so, as I was standing there, that old song leader, old Sonny James came up to me like a big old, he was a big, burly, hairy guy. I mean, he was huge. And he was an old auctioneer. He ran up, tears coming down his face, and wrapped his arms around me and hugged me. His wife was a teacher in our school also. And he's just boo-hooing like a baby. And I thought, man, I wonder if I hurt his feelings or something. He's just glad I got saved. And the next one came down the aisle was Plez Winkle. Plez was the husband of Mrs. Winkle, who was my fourth grade teacher. And he came down and he hugged me. And he whispered in my ear, he said, Brother Rick, we've been praying for you for a long time. I guess I was such a maniac, it took a lot of prayer to get me close to the Lord. Your education helps shape you. Now true, I did go in the wrong direction. But when I heard the gospel, I accepted it because a lot of these people invested in my life. When I went to sixth grade, Mr. Roberts, he was a Christian, was unashamed of it. And he was the kind of guy that just let you know that he was saved, wasn't embarrassed about it. And he went to a Baptist church. So all of these things helped shape me. It makes a difference who you let persuade you. Now there's a lot of nonsense going on in the world today and a lot of voices coming at us from all directions, but we have to be careful of who we listen to. Would to God that our educational system, thank God for teachers who are saved. Might not be as many as there used to be, but thank God there's still some. Thank God for those who are not ashamed of their testimony. Thank God for those who go to church. Thank God for those who try to guide children in the right way instead of teaching them that it doesn't matter which bathroom you go to. Thank God for those who shape little minds. Well, we're a product of what we hear and who we believe. Education is one of those things. Another thing is media. Do you understand and realize how much our kids are being taught through social media? And as they're old enough to understand a little more through TV, movies, shows, news media, there's voices coming from every direction from the public. Everybody's got an angle. And the time comes, parents, when we have a lot of influence over those little critters when they're little bitty guys. But as they get bigger, guess what they start doing? They start pulling back. Most often they'll pull back from their parents and they begin to believe what their peers teach them. And those friends, I told, this morning we had some family over and I told my son-in-law that I said, you know, when I was younger, we lived in Chicago, and this was long before I got saved. In fact, I was still fairly innocent when we moved to Chicago. I was 10 and 11 years old when we lived there, and my wife said his parents were pretty naive. They let him go out into the city alone to do whatever, and I said, yeah, but they learned better the first time the squad car brought me home and took me into my parents' apartment They'd begin to say, you know, we better keep an eye on this guy. I thought at the time, I was looking for heroes and I didn't have any heroes that was trying to get me to go to church. You know what I had in that apartment building? I had a bunch of young hoodlums at 10 years old who were sniffing glue to get high and thought it was a great thing to have the South Side Dudes gang to come over on our side of town and fight another gang out in the park with bicycle chains and billy clubs and switchblade knives. And those were our heroes. Parents, you better be careful who you let your kids run with. Listen to what they're saying. Quiz them. Find out who they're interacting with. on the internet and on social media. I hear it all the time. These police officers can tell you the same thing, that there's people that will come into the area who's met some young girl online and pretended to be somebody that they could trust, and some old pervert will come along and rape, molest, or kidnap your daughters. Happens way, way too often. Once is too often. Boy, we gotta know who they're talking to. I intercepted a letter one time when one of our daughters was a teenager and she got another boy in a Christian school. She got kind of hooked up with him and they were writing each other back and forth and I intercepted one of the letters. He said, you mean you snooped in your daughter's mail? You better believe it. I read every word of it. And then I took it to her and showed her what I read. I said, this is not appropriate and it's not going to happen anymore. I'm going to see that boy and his dad and I'm going to have a talk with his dad and you're not going to write him anymore and he's not going to write you anymore. And that's exactly what happened. The dad wasn't real happy I came to see him but he needed to know what his son was talking about too. And I'm just saying parents need to be aware because whoever we listen to, whoever persuades us, influences us and it could be a lifetime influence. There could be the difference between eternity in heaven and the eternity in hell. It depends on who we are listening to. Well, there's a lot of different angles where they're coming at us today. We have to be careful. We have to evaluate. And it's hard to do sometimes because our thinking processes have already been invaded It's hard to take somebody who is liberal theologically or even politically, it's hard to change them because they already believe what they know is the truth. You hear what I'm saying? They believe they've got the truth, so whatever you say, they're going to say, like Festus, you're mad, you're crazy, you're nut. I know what's true, but Festus didn't know what was true. Well, we have to have constant surveillance over what's coming in to our ears and into our family's ears. Hey Festus, you loudly proclaim that Paul is mad and yet you're the very one that the scripture says, those who reject the preaching of Christ, they're the ones who are mad. Well, Festus was the crazy one here. Notice the second thing, the persuasion of the flesh. We're talking about around Festus but now Agrippa He's not just dismissive, skeptic like Festus was. He actually listens to what Paul's saying. And it has an effect on him. Agrippa's saying, almost you persuaded me to be a Christian, Paul. So he's thinking about it. He didn't say, you're crazy. He said, you know what you're saying, kind of finding a place for lodge in my heart. The flesh will lead you to be persuaded that your own way is the right way. But excuses won't persuade God. We can make excuses about why we don't do this or why we don't do that or why a lost person is not saved. We can make all kinds of excuses that sound pretty good. Billy Sunday said an excuse is a skin of truth stuffed with a lie. believe that what we're thinking or doing is exactly right, but that might not persuade God because He knows the truth. I read about the sweet apologetic text that a man sent to his ex. They had broken up and he wrote her a text and said, I'm so sorry about the way I talked to you and the way I brushed you off and set you aside. It was a big mistake. I miss you so much. I love you and I can't live without you. I need you back. Let's get together and talk. P.S. Congratulations on winning that big lottery. You know, you might fool somebody. I doubt if she was fooled. I doubt if God will be fooled to persuade him of what we thought was true. I don't think God will buy your apologies later if you refuse Christ now. Agrippa, you better listen now. He was intellectually convinced. Agrippa was intellectually convinced. He heard Paul's testimony. He heard about the cross. He heard about the resurrection. And he said, Paul, you've almost made me want to be a Christian. He understood. Paul's message, and he didn't deny its truth. In fact, he said, I'll hear you another time. He hesitated. He refused to take the final step of faith. We can almost be persuaded and still be as far as the east is from the west. You know, the Bible says in James that even the devils believe. You think they're saved? No. You've got to look at the word believe in its context. To believe in Christ means to place our trust in Him, what He did on the cross and how He rose from the dead. and how he paid for our sins. If we believe in the saving context, that means we've placed our trust in him. Just to believe the intellectual facts that he was a real man, that he died, you might even believe that he came out of the grave. But if you haven't placed your trust in him as savior, that intellectual knowledge did not help. One preacher said the difference between heaven and hell is about 18 inches. between here and here. Believe. Nicodemus was a man who was very religious. I mean, he had a background. He was a ruler of the Jews. And Nicodemus came to Jesus by night. He didn't want to take a chance on anybody else. One of his friends in the Sanhedrin finding out he was talking to this man Jesus. So he goes to Jesus by night and says, tell me more about this. And Jesus just cut straight through the chase. He said, except a man be born again and cannot see the kingdom of God. That's just plain straight, boy. And Jesus is a straight shooter, and he still is. His word is straight shooter. except a man be born again. And then he said in John chapter 3, you know the famous chapter where John 3, 16 is, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. He says in that same chapter of John, Jesus said unto Nicodemus, he said, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. What's being born of the water and the spirit anyway? Let's stop there and talk about it a little bit. Being born of the water. Now there's many, even in our city, there's many that'll teach that you've got to get in that water or you're not going to be saved. Is that what it's talking about? There's some that believe it's talking about the water of the, washing of the water by the word. And I wouldn't have a big quarrel with those. I mean, what they're saying, you have to be saved according to the word of God. And there's those who say that the spirit is compared to water and so forth. I believe it's way simpler than that. When he says, you gotta be born of the water and of the spirit, no need to be confused there, just look at the context of what that passage says. And he says in verse number six, Jesus is explaining this, by the way. He says in verse number six, that which is born of flesh is flesh. That which is born of spirit is spirit. You see, Nicodemus was a Jew, and he thought being born into the Jewish family, he was all right with God, just being born into the family. You don't get born into God's family, the heavenly family, except by the Spirit. It's not through a physical birth. So this water here is the physical birth. That which is flesh is flesh, born of the water. That which is spirit is spirit, born of the Holy Spirit of God. You ever heard them talk about when a baby is born, a woman says, my water broke, or the doctor broke my water. That's the water. The embryo, the baby is suspended in a pool of water all the time of the pregnancy and when the pregnancy is over and the birth happens, that water breaks, it has to come out of that sack of water. And so that's the physical birth. And what Jesus is saying, look, Nicodemus, everybody's been saved physically and you have to be born physically to exist. But that's not good enough to get you into heaven. You've got to be born of the Spirit. In other words, baptized by the water of the Word, baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ. And so born of the Spirit is simple when we look at the context. Well, fleshly reason of Agrippa will not get him into heaven. Hesitating won't get him into heaven. As the Titanic began to sink in those icy, North Atlantic waters. It had tilted just a little bit and they were starting to launch the lifeboats. One man was invited to get on the lifeboat and he almost was persuaded to get in. And he looked back at that magnificent ship and said to him, he said, that is a masterpiece. That is an engineering masterpiece. It can't sink. They told us that God himself couldn't even sink it. And he went back to the deck of the Titanic and the lifeboat left without him. He was almost on board that lifeboat, but he stayed on deck until the ship began to sink more and more and it broke and then went under. And people were panicking as they ran to the end, staying above water. And finally, that man was submerged in the icy waters and perished. Almost saved, but not quite. And to be almost saved is just the same as being totally lost. You can know what the Word of God says. You can know what Jesus did. You can know that He rose from the dead. But without placing your trust in Him, you're almost persuaded like Agrippa was. And Agrippa was totally lost. Almost persuaded is not good enough. Hey Agrippa, you're hesitant, but hesitation will cost you eternal life. Well, Festus dismissed Paul, Agrippa hesitated, but then there's a third aspect of how God and His message is received by people, and that's by Paul himself. The persuasion of the Holy Spirit had a grip on Paul. The persuasion of the Holy Spirit. Paul's conviction was that God's word is real. God is real. Jesus is real. I met him. Paul said, I know him. I met him face to face. He saved me. And no matter what happens in this prison, no matter what happens in this trial, no matter what happens in the future, I'm saved and I'm gonna stand for God as long as I live. And Paul had a conviction. Paul, on the Damascus Road, he had been a persecutor of Christians, a persecutor of the church, but on the Damascus Road, Jesus pulled him over and parked him on the shoulder, and Jesus surrendered that day. Thank goodness. I'll tell you a little story about Joey. He pulled a guy over back when the snow was on. Joey was driving around on one of these longer straight stretches around town, he'd gotten word that there was a car stranded on the shoulder of the road in the deep snow, and so he went to check it out. And so Joey pulled in behind that car and left his lights flashing and went up to tap on the window to see if the guy was okay, and the guy was passed out drunk, sitting behind the wheel, motor still running, but he passed out cold. Joey tapped on the window. He said, hey, wake up. And the guy woke up and looked around, startled. He saw in the rearview mirror those blue lights flashing. So he slipped that thing into drive, and man, he punched the gas down, and they're sitting there spinning around and around and around. The speedometer goes 20, 40, 60, 80, and that man looked out the window, and Joey's standing there beside of him. He's had a sense of humor, so he's running right beside of him, and the car is stuck in the snow. Finally, Joey said, when he got up to 70 miles an hour, Joey said, pull over and park. He came to outrun me. And the guy did. Now that's not true, but it makes a good story. On the road to Damascus, Jesus pulled Paul over. And from that day on, Paul stayed surrendered to the Holy Spirit of God, never doubting that God was his guide. Well, lost person, Maybe you've been talking to somebody online, somebody in this room, you just need to pull over and park and say yes to Jesus, I surrender. Let him take care of you for now, through this life, through eternity. Maybe a Christian who's running from God, maybe you need to just pull over and park and say, Jesus, I've been making a mistake. I'm ready to get back on board with you and do right. Maybe you're a Christian who has already surrendered to the Lord and you just need to be encouraged just to keep on going for the Lord. Just stay surrendered, stay faithful. There is a day when the rewards will be given out for the way we've lived. Rewards won't get you into heaven, but when you're saved and you're working for the Lord, you're serving the Lord, there will be a day. Aaron talked a little bit ago during the tribulation time, there will be something called the judgment seat of Christ, where Christians are judged, not to see if you're going to heaven or hell, that was decided on the cross. When you accept Jesus as Savior, it's done. Jesus said, it is finished. There's nothing more you can do. To be saved, you're already saved when you trust Him. But wait, that's not all there is to the Christian life. The Christian life is something that we need the power of the Holy Spirit and stay surrendered to Him for, so that we keep on serving, not just how peace and joy, although that comes, but there will be a time at that judgment seat of Christ when the Lord is going to have us standing before Him one by one. He says we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. All. And so every Christian will stand before the judgment seat of Christ because you are saved. And then He'll, in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, He says that He has rewards. Some are gold, silver, and precious stones. But he said the one that wasted his life, wasted his Christian life from the day he got saved forward, he wasted his life producing things like wood, hay, and stubble instead of precious things for the Lord Jesus. It'll all be burned up. He said it'll go up in a flash. You ever see an old dead Christmas tree have a match thrown in it? Old dry, dead cedar tree, whoosh, goes up in a flash. Nothing left but ashes. For the Christian who has spent his life just being a spectator and never serving God, he's going to see it all go up. He'll be saved as it says in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, yet so as by the skin of his teeth. But for those who were faithful as Christians and they loved him and served him, they went to church, they read their Bible, they witnessed to people, they did pray, they did walk with Christ, then one day he's going to reward them at that judgment seat have something to show for eternity. And they'll shine as the stars, the brightness of the stars forever and ever. And as they are judged one at a time for their rewards, as they walk away, Jesus will say, well done, thou good and faithful servant. No matter how little or how big you might think you're serving God, if you're serving him with a heart that's surrendered it will result in reward. God never leaves his bills unpaid. Paul was fully persuaded that his calling from God was his highest priority. I see so many Christians in this day who serve God as a token once in a while. They'll do something for the Lord once in a while. They may read the Bible once in a while. They may think about witnessing somebody once in a while. They may go to church once in a while. Once in a while. Paul said in Romans 8, 38, he said, For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers shall be able to separate us from the love of God. When we're saved, what is our priority? It ought to be Him first. Christ deserves the preeminence. He doesn't want to play second fiddle. If we give Him the preeminence, then our family life, our church life, and our secular life, if there was such a thing for the Christian, all falls in place. If you put God first, then your spouse will be treated like he or she should be. The children will be treated as they should be. Your job will be treated as it should be if you put God first. But if you decide what else you're going to do first and then work God in when you're able, you think he's happy about that? Who's persuading us There are those voices out there saying, well, if you're a Christian, it doesn't matter how you live. You can dress any old way you want. You can listen to any old music you want. You can go to church once in a while if you want or never. It doesn't matter. Do what you want to do. You can use a little vulgar language and who cares? You're still saved. That's what they tell us. But I don't think God's the author of that. God wants our best. William Borden was an heir to a fortune, but he gave it all up to be a missionary. And he wrote this at the end of his life. He said, no reserves, no retreats, no regrets. I think that's the way you and I ought to live. The choice of persuasion. I'll tell you one more story and I'll be done. This sermon hasn't been more than 10 minutes long and already has it. I watched a little bit of a movie yesterday, a film, that I've seen at least six or eight times. Sheffy, you ever see it? I've got it memorized. This Sheffy is a circuit riding preacher and he preaches from this church to that church, rides a horse back in the old days, rode a horse from church to church to preach to some little old country church where there wasn't but a handful of people. He'd go to this big camp meeting, I think it was in Virginia, where they'd have this big camp meeting. He and another couple of preachers would schedule this every year. They'd have people coming from those hills, Appalachian Mountains, all around, and they'd have a big camp meeting every year. And Sheffy would preach, and oftentimes while some other preacher was preaching, he'd go off out in the dark, nighttime, while the other preacher was preaching, he'd just get down on his knees and pray. for souls to be saved. He was coming back in one night while one of the other preachers was preaching. He'd already preached, and he was on his way back into that tabernacle, just an old big old woodshed, open walls. Sheffy was on his way back in from praying, and he saw a nicely dressed, rich-looking lady standing behind a tree, kind of peering into the tabernacle all by herself, and she was listening. to what was going on in the tabernacle, but Sheffy came up to her and said, ma'am, is there something I could do for you? She said, no, no, I was just curious. I just wanted to see what those people were doing in there. Not interested. I just wanted to see. He said, well, you could hear a lot better if you went on in there and listened to the preaching. She said, no, I'm not interested. I'm out of here. And as she got on her horse to ride away, she had a red rose. She tossed it on the ground at Sheffy's feet and said, that is a token of my defiance against this God that you preach. And she rode away. They have that camp meeting time after time and she would show up again out in the outer fringes, never going into the tabernacle, but always outside looking in. She was a member of a very rich family and high society. And every time she'd leave, she'd throw down a red rose in defiance against Jesus Christ. Time after time, Sheffi would pray for her. One of the other preachers, Sheffi was telling, he said, I hope she gets saved one of these days. He said, well, Brother Sheffi, she may be one of those that you just can't reach. But if she ever does, surrender to the Lord. Instead of that red rose, she'll have to throw down a white rose of surrender. And they went on their way. Sheffy's life came to an end, and as an old man passed away, and at his funeral, many gathered around the cemetery to say goodbye to Sheffy. When the crowd dispersed, one lady dressed in black, standing alone, After everybody's gone, she walks over to the grave. She peers down into that grave and sees the coffin that says Sheffy on top of it. The grave's still open. She pulls out, and this time not having a red rose, she pulls out a white rose. And it tumbles down on top of that coffin. The white rose of surrender. I've seen that film eight times, I'd say. I'm not an emotional person. I'm just not emotional. I wish I was more emotional, to be honest, but I'm not emotional. But I could watch that film a dozen more times and every time the tears will flood my eyes when I see that woman toss that white rose of surrender on top of Brother Sheffy's coffin. Some of you, maybe some watching online, ought to throw down that white rose of surrender right now. Will you pray with me? Father, we love what you did by allowing Jesus to be our sacrifice on the cross of Calvary. Lord, we're so grateful for preachers like Sheffie and the Apostle Paul and others, missionaries, pastors and preachers all over the world, evangelists who have preached the blessed gospel, the death and the burial of resurrection, the resurrection for our justification. Lord, I pray that today that those who are on the fringe almost persuaded like Agrippa that they would this day be fully persuaded I'm giving my soul to Jesus. He died for me and now I'm trusting him as my Savior. Lord I pray that that would happen for some dear soul this very day. Blessing our invitation time. Our heads are bowed and eyes are closed. As the music plays I want to invite you to stand if you're able and as you stand with heads bowed.