But we're in Acts. Let's see, Acts 26. Acts 26. I'd say we're nearing the end, and I have another book in mind when we get done that I'm excited about, but I'm excited still about this one. Acts 26. Once I can see enough to find, there we go. So we're ready for verse 11, but just a little background again, just to catch us back up. Paul's sort of on trial again. He's not really, he's still in jail. This is more of an entertainment thing, because if you remembered Herod Agrippa and his wife, and his sister, or at least his lover and his sister have come down to visit Festus. And so they're looking for something to do. And plus Festus needs some help trying to pin a charge on Paul. He's like, hey, I've got him in jail. He's been in jail for two years. I really don't have anything to charge him about. And he goes, I'm kind of stuck now because the Jews were trying to get him to me to transport him back to Jerusalem so they could kill him. I was trying to get him to take that bait. He wouldn't do it. Instead, he saw through the plan and said, I appeal unto Caesar. He goes, so I technically, I should have let him go, but now I can't because he's appealed to Caesar, but I don't have anything. I'm gonna look stupid when I send him to Caesar. Like, what's your trial for? I don't know. See if you can find something. So he's asking them for help. And so he's gonna talk to him. And so, like I said, he's speaking here specifically, Paul's addressing Agrippa in verse one and Bernice, like I said, his lover, his sister. And Agrippa tells him that he can speak freely, or you can go ahead and talk for yourself. We don't have to go through this. And Paul's like, good, because I finally have somebody who understands Judaism. I can talk to you. And so Paul starts giving his testimony that he was a Pharisee, that he was a part of this group to try to kill the early Christians and how he was persecuting them. And that, but he also says, the thing I'm on trial for now is because Judaism believes in resurrection. And that's what I'm on trial for because I believe in the resurrection. That's why I'm in prison. And so I'm just trying to defend it. Verse 10, it ended with him talking about how he voted against the Christians. Verse 10 says, Which thing I also did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints that I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests. And when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them." And we talked about how the voice there was a pebble. So the black stone versus the white stone, which makes a lot of people think for his using and how he's able to vote with a rock here. Kind of gives us a clue that a lot of people think that maybe Paul was even a member of the Sanhedrin, because that's how they voted with white or black stones. And if that's the true, if he was part of the Sanhedrin, that means Paul had to have a wife, because to be on the Sanhedrin, you had to have a wife. And so we're assuming that she died at some point, because he never mentioned her, or not much of a husband if he's on trial in prison all the time, or traveling around and never mentions her. But she's not mentioned. We know he has a nephew and he has a sister, but many speculate that he must've had a wife and that he was part of the Sanhedrin. And so that's just a little side comment. But verse 11 says that he, he says, and I punished them oft in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme. and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities. So when he says he compelled them, that means he tortured them. He says, I tortured Christians or compelled them by threats or by force to blaspheme Jesus Christ. And I think this is why Paul, through a lot of his letters, he has this, I'm the chief of all sinners. woe is me, kind of a, no one can be as bad as me. Because he understands who Christ is now, and he understands what he's done, that he's persecuted Christians, the true followers of God, and he feels guilty. And he feels guilty, but God forgives and forgets. And Paul marches forward and he trusts the Lord in that. And so, yeah, he persecuted into strange cities. We see that, that's where he has his encounter, right? And so that's where we pick up here in verse 12. Whereupon, as I went to Damascus with authority and commissions from the chief priest, and so he's got letters to be there, At midday, O King, I saw in the way a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun shining round about me and then which journeyed with me. So he's given us this report. It's brighter than the noonday sun. It is bright when he sees Christ, verse 14. "'And when we were all fallen to the earth, "'I heard a voice speaking unto me, "'and saying in the Hebrew tongue, "'Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? "'It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.'" And so the initial contact here with Jesus Christ, he calls out to him, calls him by his name Saul, he'll change his name to Paul later. But here he says he kicked against the pricks, which your Bible might say goads, you kick against the goads. Goad was like an iron sharp stick. It was used to urge oxen or horses. You can kind of goad them along. We still use that term. It's also kind of, in the definition, it means sting. So it kind of had a sharp end on it. A modern day one would probably have batteries in it, a little electrical charge. You can give them a little encouragement to go that way. Don't play with the one in Rulking. Sometimes they have batteries in them and if you're leaning on the shelf and you shock it on there and it's not good and it scared me to death, I wouldn't touch it. I'm glad nobody else was either as I was playing with this goad. But look at it and yeah, it's dangerous to go into a store like that. Look at Ecclesiastes 12. Ecclesiastes, it's Psalms, Proverbs. The last chapter, this was written by Solomon. And as we're nearing the end here, Ecclesiastes 12 verse eight, vanity of vanities, kind of the theme of Ecclesiastes. Sayeth the preacher, all is vanity, or emptiness, emptiness, nothing matters. Verse nine, and moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge. Yea, he gave good heed and sought out and set in order many proverbs. Verse 10, the preacher sought to find out acceptable words. and that which was written was upright, even words of truth. The words of the wise men are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd. And furthermore, by these, my son, be admonished of making many books. There is no end, and much study is weariness of the flesh. But in verse 11, he talks about the words of the wise are as goads. Again, a goad was to urge an animal along, to guide them, to direct them, to motivate them to move. And Solomon says here, the words of a wise man or the words of the preacher or him as the preacher at the end of his life here, he goes, I'm trying to give you words of advice and wisdom to help you, to steer you, to guide you, to direct you, to motivate you in the right direction. When you read the Proverbs, he's like, he'll tell all these things to try to have wisdom, chase after wisdom and grab her. and catch her. So here he says, you know, that he's trying to admonish them. And he talks about the nails fastened by the masters. I remember years ago when I was reading this definition, trying to figure out what it was talking about, it said that some of them on the back of like a wagon would have a board with nails in it in case the animal was trying to kick. You know, like, hey, quit whipping me or quit doing every kick against me. It would sting them to motivate them to keep going that direction and not pay attention back there. And so here, Solomon even kind of says that, you know, the words are wise as goads, as nails fastened by the master of assemblies. what you're given from the shepherd. And basically he goes, there's someone that's in charge over you, who's trying to help steer you, who's trying to help guide you. That's what Jesus is saying to Paul here back in Acts. He said, I've been trying to steer and guide you through your whole life, through your teacher Gamaliel, and through being a Pharisee. You're zealous for the word, you're zealous for the law, and you're missing the main point. So I have to have this encounter with you. And he says, I'm trying to lead and guide and direct you, and yet you're doing wrong. Why are you kicking against me when I'm trying to guard you? I'm the one who's doing this. I'm trying to reach you and to guide you, verse 15. And the Lord said, or Paul says, and I said, who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. This is who I am. But rise and stand upon thy feet, for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness of both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things which I shall appear unto thee. Jesus appears to him more than once. Here we have this encounter that's written down. And we know later that he appears to Paul again because Paul has all the doctrine down, but he didn't learn it from the disciples. He wasn't taught by then. We saw that earlier in the book of Acts. He makes that claim. And so, like I said, it's a big deal earlier and he goes on this, comes in and finally meets them and they test and examine and see where he is. And they finally say, yeah, your doctor lines up with ours and they give their approval. But if you look at Galatians, to your right just a little bit, Galatians chapter one. Paul gives us one encounter. And I always, I don't know. There's a lot of these passages where you don't get much detail that that's where my brain runs. It's like, and I try to imagine what was that like? How did that flush out? He gives us a little bit of detail here. So Galatians 1 verse 15. But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace. He says, I was chosen, Ephesians one, before the foundation of the world. So God had been working on me a long time before I had that encounter. Verse 16, to reveal his son in me that I might preach him among the heathen. Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood. So once Christ called him, he's like, just trying to make sure it lines with the Bible. Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me, but I went into Arabia and returned again to Damascus. So he goes to Arabia. He didn't go to Jerusalem, he went out by himself. And I guess I'm trapped by the way that I first heard this from either it was my pastor or one of my teachers that said that Paul went to college on the backside of the desert in Arabia. And that's kind of how I always think of this, that he went out in the wilderness and kind of had a solitary experience by himself. And it's pretty fitting, so it seems like a lot of the leaders in the Bible have that. Moses had his 40 years in the wilderness. Elijah had his time out and alone where God encounters with him and talks to him and lets him know you're not alone, but you're my guy, you're my figurehead right now, and you need to stand up and you need to oppose these people. And yeah, you're gonna get all the heat, and it's gonna seem like you're all abandoned, but we need a prophet, we need a mouthpiece who calls these things out, says it to their face, But I'm watching out for you. You're not alone. I'm taking care of you. Israel is a nation. They have their time out in the wilderness where God introduces himself to them, right? That's where he teaches and instructs. And man, there's so many things we can learn from the tabernacle. There's so many things we can learn about the priesthood and how all that worked. And it all points to Christ. It's all going to him. Paul is on the backside of the desert in Arabia having a one-on-one session with Jesus Christ as he's instructing him basically an amplified version of the road to Emmaus where he's like, let me take you from the scriptures and show you where I am. And I'm like, oh, that would be such a Bible study. to be there. And he goes, now I get verified in Jerusalem. Verse 18. Then after three years, I got a three year degree, I guess. I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter and abode with him 15 days. But other apostles I saw none save James, the Lord's brother. So James was the head of the Jerusalem church. This is Jesus' half brother. In verse 20. "'Now the things which I write unto you behold, "'before God I lie not. "'Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, "'and was unknown by face into the churches of Judea, "'which were in Christ, but they had heard only "'that he which persecuted us in these times past "'now preaches the faith which once he destroyed, "'and they glorify God in me.'" That was the testimony, that was the headline. He was this way, now he's this way. He was against them, now he's for them. Your testimony's powerful. Paul is here telling that for his fourth time in the book of Acts. Don't ever think, well, it's just my testimony, as I've mentioned to you when we talked about the third time. Your testimony is powerful. God had an encounter with you. It transforms your life. It makes a difference. People see it. Hey, what's going on? You can now share the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you can't remember John 3.16 of the Roman road and you can't remember what paths to go through, you remember your testimony, right? You lived it. Tell it, share it. Paul says mine was verified. And so, I was in the middle of Christ's charge here in Acts 26, where he said, or Jesus says he was gonna appear to him later, and he does, and we know that he goes and he teaches him and that the doctrines align. Verse 17, he says, delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles unto whom I now send. And so now he's gonna go preach to the Gentiles, we know that. Verse 18, to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. Forgiveness and rewards. I think about heaven a lot. I wonder about rewards a lot. Not that I deserve any. But Christ puts it with all of it, right? Every time he mentions it, he generally says, behold, I'm coming quickly, and my rewards are with me. It's always right there. It's like, ah, I'm gonna save you, and I'm gonna reward you. He's always reminding us that. You gave me forgiveness, and I'm gonna reward you instead of what we deserve. I deserve punishment, I deserve wrath. Christ says, no, I'm gonna save you, I'm gonna reward you. Sometimes just for being obedient, right? Just being obedient. That's just, yeah. When he does reward us, we give it back. We give it back, we cast our crowns at his feet, right? Not why we did this. Yep, exactly. And who was I talking to the other day? They were saying, they said they finally were getting it. They're like, it's not about doing something to be saved, it's because I'm saved, I wanna do something. Now it's just out of gratitude. And I'm like, yeah, that's exactly it. It talks about an inheritance, you know, that we'll get an inheritance among them which are sanctified by the faith that is in me. Ephesians talks about this. And this is a view that I hold to that is not well known or not, I don't know how many hold to it, but I point this out because it's the view that I hold. I'm not a Calvinist, I'm not an Armenian. I hold to what's called the inheritance view. For this reason, it helps me to interpret things in a, with moderation, as a Pauline kind of a view. And the inheritance view has a few main points, that we are adopted. I did not earn this, I did not deserve this, I was adopted into God's family by his grace. He chose me and put me in there. that I get spiritual blessings because I am God's child. I inherit those. Because I'm his child, he says, I now, I have an angel that stands before his face. That God is around me. And then the Psalms, it talks about he's been formed in me and behind me and that he sees me and he watches and he tests all things because it comes into my path. It's a pretty good spiritual blessing, let alone, he says, I'm gonna give you gifts and talents and things. I'll put you in a church where people have gifts and talents, and they're gonna there to benefit and to bless you, and you're there to benefit and bless them. He goes, I'm gonna give you eternal life. I have that instantly through a book of Ephesians. We saw that. He goes, we are right now seated in the heavenlies, whether we, believe it or not, it's as good as done. That's how God sees it. It's not something, oh, one day I'll have eternal life. He goes, you have eternal life. We have it now. We are seated alongside the saints. You are a saint of God. that we have rewards that are imperishable and secure, that will not pass away, where moth nor rust will be able to get it. Matter of fact, the refiner's fire of the trial of 1 Corinthians 3 just makes them purer and better and more glorified to Him. And with all that in mind, this is a shortened version, we have now motivation to live as heirs of God because I'm getting an inheritance. Now I know I'm a descendant of his, I'm adopted to his family. Now I should now live and act like an heir of God. It should change my behavior. It should change the way that I act and address because now I represent not only me, I represent him, my benefactor. I am the ward of his now. And so look at Colossians. I don't often get to go off on this, and so Colossians chapter three. Colossians three, right at the end of the chapter, verse 23. Colossians 3, 23. And whatsoever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord, and not unto men, because I'm an heir. Knowing that the Lord, you shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ. But he that doeth wrong shall receive of the wrong which he hath done. And there's no respecter of persons. And so I have this, what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna do it hardly unto the Lord. I'm not doing it as man-pleasers. I'm trying to do it to please the Lord, the audience of one. knowing that God's going to reward me for what I do, or I'm going to lose reward. This is part of my inheritance that I get, and so that kind of sums it up in a neat little way. And if you put your mind open to it as you're reading your scriptures, and start to notice every time he mentions inheritance, it's mentioned a lot. Ephesians 1 covers a lot of this, how you're chosen before the foundation of the world, and it kind of hits a lot of these points as it goes through. But I just thought I'd put that in there. That's the view I hold, because a lot of people are like, are you Calvinist or are you Armenian? No, I'm not either one. I like to kind of land softly in the middle. I believe in predestination. The Bible teaches it is there, but my focus is to be an heir because I have an inheritance. I'm not worried about what God has chosen and how it goes. I understand that now and I'm gonna preach the gospel because I don't know who's chosen, who's not chosen, and who's been, so I'm an heir. I'm gonna act as an heir. I'm gonna do as his son should and try to act it out that way. A little insight into my beliefs there. And so verse 19, whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision. That's pretty pointed. He knows this guy understands Judaism. He understands the supernatural. He understands that Paul's a Pharisee who understands the supernatural. And he says here, King Agrippa, I was encountered by Jesus Christ. the Messiah of the Bible, the God of the Bible. And he told me to do these things, go forth and to preach this message. To the Jews, I preach it and I use the law to show it. To the Gentiles, I show them without the law. Acts 17, he goes and proves it. He uses the law to them, to those without, he uses logic and reason to be able to cut down to them. And he says, Christ told me to do this. Would you not obey? If you had this vision and God showed up to do, would you not obey? He goes, I was obedient unto the heavenly vision. Yes, I'm supposed to, right? Romans 1 claims that God has manifested himself to all of us. And it says there that we clearly see it and we clearly understand and that we are without excuse, Romans 1.20. Now, do we have a Damascus road experience where it's brighter than the sun and he says, hey, what are you doing, follow after me? No, I think Paul's probably, in the rare category there, the rare category, maybe a one or two. Most of us find ourselves in a more of a universal way where it's God starts the encounter, or as I put it, God plays checkers. He moves first and he's waiting for us. And he'll put something out there in creation or in nature or an animal or a bird or a fish or something, you know, the babies or something makes you all of a sudden think about, that's magnificent. Who made that? Babies get a lot of people, right? You're looking at those little fingers and you're looking at all works and they're all there. And you're like, there must be a God. And God says, I've showed it to everyone, who I wanted as well as sometimes as relative, a sermon, or any kind of different way, that God says, I've made it. The grace of God that brings itself has appeared before all men. You understand there's a God. It's like me standing right there saying, it's me. You know it's me. I told you mine before it was the stars. I look at the stars. Who made all those? He must have made me. It scared me. God had that encounter. He made contact with me. Now I'm responsible to how I behave. And so it's just as real as Paul on this road, just as real for us. We clearly understand it's God. He's telling us, hey, I'm here. You gonna turn towards me or are you gonna run away from me? Some of us run away for a long time, but God doesn't give up. The hounds of heaven are relentless. They'll pursue us unless we become a reprobate, but. We're wise, we stop and we run to Him. We finally quit the chase and we stop and surrender and say, you caught me, I'm yours. So here he says, I'm not gonna be disobedient to this heavenly vision, verse 20. He says, but showed first unto them at Damascus, he said, so that's where I was, and so I started telling them, and at Jerusalem, and throughout the coast of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do the works, meet for repentance. That's the gospel right there in a nutshell, but repent and turn to God, repent and trust in Jesus Christ. Do good works, be baptized. He didn't say that, right? Because that's not how you get saved. Join your church, repent, and trust in Jesus Christ to save you here. Just turn to God, trust Jesus Christ to save you is what he says. And so the prophets and the Gentiles, or the prophets declare this. And he says, so I went and I preached that gospel. Verse 21, for this cause, the Jews caught me in the temple and went about to kill me. That's what puts him in the prison where he is right now. And he says, just because I was doing what the heavenly vision told me to do and I was faithful in preaching that message, verse 23, having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets of Moses did say should come. Verse 23, that Christ should suffer and that he should be first, that should rise from the dead and show light unto the people and to the Gentiles. The prophets say that the Gentiles will be reached. It's in the Old Testament. They can't deny it, they just don't like it. But verse 23, I got to thinking, I was delving down, verse 23, and I was gonna break through all this, and I was gonna spoon feed it to you, and I was gonna give it there for you, and I thought, no, no, no. I don't ever give you guys homework. So I wanted to give you homework. I wanted to give you something to think on. Sometimes it takes an extra challenge to get you to think, right? This is all for extra credit. It's gonna affect your final score. You might get a gold star. So here's my challenge to you. There's three points here, and I want you to please try to do this. Acts 26, verse 23, this is gonna be our outline, and find at least one for each, at least one for each. Now generally, as a general rule, God has... A witness, you know, so a witness is two or three. So it usually has two or three verses that verify a point. I'm just asking you for one, but if you can find two or three, great. And don't say, oh, Brian, you're just being lazy, you ran out of time, you're giving us homework. No, I want you to stretch yourself, because I have some answers for all these. But I thought, there's something about being a teacher. If you've never taught, you learn 100% more. preparing and getting it ready and trying to convey through the muddied up sieve that is my brain, out through my mouth, trying to give it to you and it loses. And I want you to have this experience. I mean, Tim and I have had this conversation, both Tims, and then I think also like my son Joel, he'll be like, oh, just the things I wish I could tell him, but I think I've learned that you lose, I know it. So I'm giving you this opportunity with this homework. So the first one, where in the Old Testament does it say that Christ should suffer? Try to find that, try to find a verse that says that. The second one, try to find in the Old Testament where it says that he would raise from the dead, that Messiah would raise from the dead. And the third one, that the message would go to the Gentiles, that the message would get light, that the message of salvation would come to the Gentiles, how that's in the Old Testament. You can also go for bonus, if you wanna be the class brown nose, we'll come back and poke at it next week. Verse 24, we'll go on. And as he thus spake for himself, Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, thou art beside thyself. Much learning doth make thee mad. Paul doesn't ever hardly get to fulfill, finish a sermon. It usually ends in a riot, or they come in and they arrest him, or someone busts him in the mouth, or something's going on, yelling's going on. So the same way, it's like, you're a mad man. And he's like, I'm not, we can go through and I can go through every point that he's just told us. And we know, because we have the Old Testament, we can say, no, he's verifying all these things. And I think it's getting to Festus too. Some people react that way, right? And so if you're getting close and you're making sense, but it's really upsets their mores or upsets their morals and how they're gonna live and how they're gonna act and everything they fought, it gets them scared and they don't know what they're gonna do. And so they lash out, they become angry and they're gonna be angry at you. And you're not gonna have that conversation again. because I'm sure there's too many here tonight that we haven't had that conversation with somebody at work, and you're like, oh, they were almost there. I'll come back tomorrow. They'll have thought on it, and there'll be ripe fruit to pick for salvation, and you can't get that conversation back around for nothing. They're not gonna talk to you. They're gonna avoid you, and all these different, yeah. It's spiritual warfare. As much learning's made you mad, verse 25, but he said, I am not mad, most noble Festus, but speak forth the words of truth and soberness. Verse 26, for the king knoweth that these things before whom I speak freely, for I am persuaded that none of these things were hidden from him. For this thing was not done in a corner. So he's looking at Agrippa at this point. Agrippa is there in Jerusalem. Agrippa knows the town. Festus is the new guy they just brought in. He doesn't understand Judaism. He doesn't understand resurrection. He doesn't understand their thoughts, their beliefs, the Messiah, the whole other account. He doesn't understand. Agrippa does, and so Paul's like turning to him. You might think me mad, Festus, but I'm talking to King Agrippa right now. This thing was not done in a corner. He knows. that there's a man they put in a tomb and they can't find him. They can't find his bones. There's nothing there. It's not that he's gone. That people's lives are changed. He's heard of the miracles over these last three years. He's also probably heard of the miracles that I've done because of Jesus Christ. And he said, no, this thing was not done in a corner. It was on public display in the Capitol at the temple going on. He was probably there when he heard the earthquake, when the sun went black on that Friday, when there was an earthquake and the veil of the temple was rent from the top to the bottom. And he can't explain it, how the temple doors won't stay closed now, they open up every night, no matter what they tie it with, it pops open, allowing access for anybody to come on in. Agrippa knows. Paul's telling him that. So Paul's bringing the heat. Verse 28, then Agrippa said unto Paul, so basically, King Agrippa's on the edge of his seat, listening to this whole thing. Verse 28, then Agrippa said unto Paul, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. It's one of the saddest verses in the Bible. It's not an outright rejection. It's an almost. Miss eternity by an almost. How many of you are humming the song in your head right now? Almost persuaded. The last line is almost cannot avail. Almost is but to fail. Sad said that bitter whale, almost but lost. That's how the hymn ends, almost persuaded. It's eternity. It's eternity in hell with an almost. It was almost eternity in heaven. But what, because he liked being king? He felt guilty with being with his sister? That he didn't want to give up all these things? For what? He was a prophet of man. Became the whole world, a lousy soul. God doesn't throw the word fool around very often, but he tells the story about the rich farmer, right? Who has a great harvest. He's like, oh, I have to tear down my barns, build bigger barns and I can take a rest. God says, thou fool, tonight my soul is required of thee. You understand resurrection. You take a dead grain, you put it in the ground, and you get something back better, and you never plan for resurrection. You fool, it's been right in front of you. Herod Agrippa, you've been in Jerusalem. You're here, you know all these things, and you say, almost? So sad. Verse 29, and Paul said, I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day were both almost and altogether such as I, except for these bonds. He's standing in handcuffs. I wish that you were all as I am, not almost, but fully persuaded except for this. I wish you were just like me. What's Paul's attitude? It's worth getting whipped in every town. It's worth being arrested. It's worth being stoned. It's worth being shipwrecked. Because it's for him, it's for the king. Verse 30, and when he had thus spoken, the king rose up, and the governor, and Bernice, and they that sat with them, and they were all gone aside, and they talked between themselves, saying, this man doth nothing worthy of death or of bonds, so he's impressed them thoroughly. Then said Agrippa unto Festus, this man might have been set at liberty if he had not appealed unto Caesar. Might have set him free. They didn't say they would. Because they also have the Jews, they got out of peace. And so they probably would have sent him down sometime and left the door open and Paul would have been killed. But Christ has told Paul that he would go to Rome. So God's plan's always working. Chapter 27, we got a little bit here. Yeah, we'll start just a little bit. Verse one, it says, and when it was determined that we should sail to Italy, they delivered Paul and certain other prisoners unto one named Julius and a Saturnian of Augustus band. Anybody notice who else was going with Paul there in that verse? And it was determined that we should sail. So who else was going with Paul? Luke. Luke, Luke stays faithful to the end. Many think that maybe Luke was his physician. Like maybe Paul did have a bunch of physical things and he needed a doctor. But we know from the other letters and everything else that he usually says, but Luke has stayed faithful. Luke does not leave him, does not forsake him. He does not depart. He stays with him until the bitter end. Matter of fact, he writes Luke and the book of Acts, Luke part two, on defense of Paul for the trials that are there. I don't wanna give up the end too much yet here, but yeah. It ends a little bit differently than most of us, I think, commonly think, but I'm gonna save that to the end, because we only got a couple of chapters. Yeah, I'm gonna stop there, because there's cool sailing things, and I kinda wanna get all the sailing things in one, but Luke stays faithful to the end, lets us stay faithful. We'll start out with our homework next week. Some of you, somebody turn in some homework, and then we'll, Cause there's some cool truths there and I'm going to make it, I'm going to make it relative. I'm going to give away too much. But yeah, there's some pretty cool stuff. Just how God works in layers as well. God's cool, it's cool. Word of God's cool and deep, and God shows himself mighty through it all. And so I hope you do that. And so hope you can come on Friday. It's supposed to be 79. It looks like it's supposed to stay dry, and so it should be a good evening. I mean, what's the chances of that? I mean, it looks like it should be. And so it should be a good night. say we're gonna walk, it's gonna be physical. Instead of, we've had some somber events, we've walked the Passion of the Christ, and we've done a few other things that we stop and think, or maybe, and so this is something different, something tangible, something we can touch and feel. I'm hoping when I contact some of the families with the younger kids, we get some thorns that they can handle, you know, kind of see what we, appreciate it, you know, and make it fresh and raw for us. And so hopefully, hopefully it's a good night.