We continue our series in the book of Acts, and we're gonna pick up this morning right in the middle of Acts, beginning with verse 19. So Acts 9, 19. And in the middle of that verse, actually. Let's give our attention to God's inerrant, infallible, and inspired word. Acts chapter 9, 19. For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus. And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogue saying, he is the son of God. And all who heard him were amazed and said, is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for the purpose to bring them bound before the chief priest? But Saul increased all the more in strength and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ. When many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him. But their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him. But his disciples took him by night and led him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket. When he come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples and they were all afraid of him. they did not believe that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord who spoke to him and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus. So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. And he spoke and disputed against the Hellenist but they were seeking to kill him. And when the brothers learned this, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus. So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up and walking in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied. This is the word of the Lord. Amen, let's pray. Heavenly father, we do thank you for your word. Lord, I come to you in weakness and they do too. Lord, we need your help as we've prayed many times in this service already. Lord, but your word needs no help. You are like a roaring lion. Your word is like a knife. It's very sharp. Lord, use it like a scalpel to bring healing as surgeons do. Lord, be the surgeon today in my heart and all of our hearts. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. I'm curious this morning if you've heard any of these expressions about how people never change. You can't teach an old dog new tricks. You know it. I'm a tiger, can't change its stripes. Old habits die hard. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on. See, you know these expressions. for your animal lovers. A leopard can't change its spots. Another one. There's a whole bunch of these, right? And maybe you use these regularly. And now granted, there's a place for these. There's nothing wrong with these expressions. And again, there's also a place. We don't want to be naive. We want to be shrewd, but that's another sermon. That's not the passage we have before us today. Here we have a passage where this evil, wicked man comes to these people and everyone's shocked. Now, maybe they didn't have those expressions. I'm sure they had their own, right? People don't change. And they were just shocked. They just couldn't fathom that Paul Saul could have been such a changed man. And now a little side caveat. You might notice that this passage still uses the name Saul. He's already converted. You might've thought that since we mainly hear the name Saul before he's converted Paul afterwards, that this is like his Christian name. That's not actually true. So scholars say in that day, many people had two names. So Saul had a Jewish Hebrew name of the first king of Israel. Kids, you know that? His name was Saul. So he's named after him. But then he also had a Latin or a Roman name of Paulus, which we shorten to Paul. So this passage still refers to him as Saul, so I'll do so most of the time. But then think about who's the missionary to? Who's Paul the missionary to? Well, the Greek and Roman world, right? And so he goes by his Latin Roman name most of the time, Paul. So there you go. A little side note. Look at page seven. You see our outline. Christ, first, can immediately transform, second, Christ can deliver from danger, and third, Christ can unify enemies. You see, the passage talks about Saul, and I just told you about Christ. Why? Well, because as we know, and we've seen this in the book of Acts, written by Luke, at the beginning, he said, this is the second letter, the last letter I sent you, I told you what Christ began to do, and this is what Christ continues to do. Christ is really the one behind everything we see in this passage. So, so our outline goes. All right, so let's begin with the first. Christ can immediately transform. If you have your paper Bible or you're looking on your phone, look at the beginning of chapter nine, the first two verses. We already talked about this for context. It says, but Saul, still breathing threats and murder, threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord. It's describing him like a vicious animal, right? That's just roaming around attacking people. He went to the high priest and asked them for letters to the synagogues of Damascus, so if he found any belonging to the way, Christians, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Okay, that's what his, he left from Jerusalem in that way, and then he gets there, and obviously we know what already happened, right? So you look at verse, middle of verse 19, for some days he was with the disciples in Damascus. And how long, kids, look at that word, second word in verse 20. How long did it take him to start preaching? Look there. How long? It says immediately. Well, that's odd. Immediately. Right? This is such a change. And one thing for him just to go from like, Hey, I'm persecuting to just, I stopped. That would have been huge, huge miracle. But he went all the way to now he's boldly proclaiming. Look what it says. What he boldly proclaim. that Jesus, that he is the son of God, about Jesus. It's just, it's such a huge 180. And it virtually happened overnight, right? Remember he waited three days and blind, right? And he received his sight. This was very, very fast. Now remember when it says disciples here, it's using the broad usage of it, right? It just means a Christian, right? A follower of Jesus. Okay, it's not talking about the 12 apostles here. So the believers in Damascus, immediately he's proclaiming the gospel, And it's just, it's amazing. If you've been with us recent weeks, I've used the analogy that Saul was very much like the Gestapo. If you're familiar with World War II and the Nazis, the Gestapo had nothing on Saul of Tarsus. He was just this, he went house to house, just dragging people away. Very much like Gestapo did with the Jews in World War II. So, I mean, he's just, and so you can imagine the fear these people had. And so it's just, it's shocking that he has changed so fast. And so I just remind you, as I've reminded you in recent weeks, and when the Holy Spirit is involved, anything is possible. with the Holy Spirit. Now, granted, most of our sanctification, I included, is very, very slow, iterative, overlong, but it doesn't have to be that way. You might know people that overnight, and sometimes there's leaps, right? Where we, God does something in us, does something in our kids, right? We pray, God do something in our kids. He can do it. We apply that to you mothers last week for Mother's Day, and we do for all of us. We all have, we desire things for our children, right? And sometimes it's slow, it's hard work, but God is at work. look at verse 20 and 21. It's interesting. It's not even the believers. It's actually the Jews. So immediately he's proclaiming the synagogues. So this is just the Jewish synagogues. He is the son of God, 21. And all who heard him were amazed and said, is this not the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose to bring them bound before the chief priest? So even the non-Christians are like, This is not the guy we were expecting, right? Like, we know who this guy is, and now he's proclaiming the very thing he tried to destroy. Everyone's in shock. Everyone's in shock. And let me just illustrate this so you get a picture of this. I and my family moved here five and a half years ago. We came here for the sole purpose of planting this church, right? But let's just pretend that I came here, let's say eight or 10 years ago, and when I arrived, I wasn't a Christian, and I actually hated all the Christians and the churches, and I did everything I could to destroy all the churches in Cane Bay. Church of Cane Bay, I just worked to try to destroy that church, got people thrown in prison under false charges, did that for a few years, and then, five and a half years ago, I was converted. Wouldn't that be a different story? Right? The other churches, we all love each other. All the pastors get together. They probably would look at me cross-eyed if I like for some years had been trying to kill them all. Right? And that's exactly what happened. That's not an exaggeration for what happened with Saul. But he was a changed man. He was a changed man. How did he go about this? He's preaching to them. He knew the scriptures better than most anyone in the Old Testament. But his heart was dead. His eyes were closed. He could not understand what he was reading and what he'd memorized. But then when he was changed, the scales had fallen off. We read that in his conversion. And now he's connecting all the dots, right? He's connecting it for him. Now let's keep going in the passage. Look at verse 22. It says, so they're questioning, how could this be? He says, 22, but Saul increased all the more in strength and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by what? Proving, that's a very strong word. Proving that Jesus was the Christ. Christ means Messiah, the long awaited one. He's proving this is the one we were waiting for. All these Old Testament scriptures. We don't have what he said. A good picture might be looking at Stephen. Right? Paul was there. Saul was there. Right? I imagine after he was converted, he took some notes, right? He said, I know how to do this. You just look at the Old Testament. You walk through and you just see how all these stories Jesus did on the road to Emmaus. It all points to Jesus. That's what he's doing. He's growing all the more in strength. Of course, this is not of him. This is not the story of like this inner city kid who's down and out and he just works through dedication, hard work. He makes something of himself. No, no. This is the privileged Saul who has great power, great authority, and he's a mess. And then God just turns him around, right? He can't claim any credit for this. He is growing in strength because God has done this overnight. It is clearly the work of God. Clearly the work of God. A verse I love, you hear it often, but it's worth hearing often. Ephesians 3.20, for God is able to do immeasurably beyond all that we ask or imagine. This certainly would be true here, right? And Paul wrote those words later, right? Yeah, this is what God has done. God was doing something that no one could have imagined. And so my question to you, as I often pose, is do you believe that? Do you believe that God really can change people? Not theoretically, yes, you read this, but like with like real people, the people you know, Does God change people still? Is the Holy Spirit still on the move? Or is this just a thing of thousands of years ago? It's a question worth answering. I want to share with you a story from Mark 9. I like it a lot. A father has a son who's demon-possessed, and he comes to Jesus. And this is the dialogue. This is Mark 9, 22. The dad is saying to Jesus, and it, the demon, cast my son into the fire and into the water to destroy him. That's what he says. He says, but if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us. Okay, that's what the father says to Jesus. Here's what Jesus says back. I love Jesus' words. If I can?" So Jesus said, all things are possible for him who believes. The father says back to him, he cries, he says, I believe, help my unbelief. Do you ever pray that? I pray that often. I believe, and yet my heart is, I only half believe, right? And that should be your prayer, right? We come to God honestly. I do believe that you can change people. Well, halfway. Help my unbelief, Lord. Help my unbelief. Again, parents, this should be your prayer for your children. Right? No matter how old they are, how wayward they are, right? God can change people. I quoted this last week. Parents, did this really applies to you? John did this first time. If you didn't last week, 1 Corinthians 15, 58. It says this, therefore, my beloved brothers or sisters, mothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. Knowing what? Knowing that in the Lord, your labor is not in vain. Your labor is not in vain. God will use it. God is at work. Even if it's slow work, even if it takes a long time. It's just a good application for both last week's passage and this one. And that's not only true for salvation, it's also true for sanctification. You might know someone that you're like, this Christian will never change, right? They just won't grow. They won't change. It's just as true. God can transform them as well. All right, I'm leaning on other passages this morning. This comes from Luke 18, a story I love. It's about the persistent widow. Kids, this is a cool story. All right, so here's how it goes. This widow, her husband's passed. She goes to this judge, it's a wicked judge. Okay, so this wicked judge, he says, she begs him for mercy. He says, I need mercy, I need justice. I need justice, I need justice. And the guy doesn't care, right? The wicked judge is like, I don't care about this lady. What's she to me? Well, she just keeps persistent on and on and on, and finally she wears him down. Finally, all right, all right, I'll give you justice. Get out of my face. And this is the story that Jesus' parable is telling. Here's what it says at the end. This is Luke 18 7. And will not God give justice to his elect who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth? Hope Community Church, will he find faith here? Do we trust God? It's a hard passage, isn't it? It's a helpful passage. Be persistent in your prayers. God is listening. Be like that persistent widow. So we know that God can transform anyone, but what about protection? Our second point, Christ can deliver us from danger. Look at verse 23. When many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him. But their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him. But the disciples took him by night and led him down. And opening in the wall, kids, he was lowered down in a what? A basket, like a bunch of laundry. You know what? Paul will talk about this later. You might think it sounds kind of cool. Yeah, it didn't. He was kind of ashamed of this. This was really humiliating for him. He is basically escaping from some low-level guy, low-level town. 2 Corinthians 11, 32 and 33, he refers to this. I mean, think about it. Everyone feared him. He was powerful, right? And then now he's escaping like a thief in a basket out of a window. A Reformation study Bible has a note. It says, I thought it was well said. Well, it says these verses mentioned Paul's first and rather humiliating experience of being persecuted rather than persecuting others for the sake of the gospel. The apostles made a precarious, the apostle made a precarious escape from a relatively minor civil authority, like a common fugitive. He is not presenting himself as a hero. You know, what do we learn? How can you apply this? Let me just make two applications from that point right there. One is, is becoming a Christian does not make your life easier, right? There's many people that people, many reasons that people join the military. I doubt very many of any of them are joining because they want an easy life. Like, oh, this will be a path to an easy, comfy, cushy life. Probably not, right? Most people have the sense to know that's probably not right. Why do people say, oh, if you become a Christian, that's the way to the cushy life. Not true. Did Paul's life get easier when he, no, it's way more complicated. He's running for his life. He's being dangled out of a window by a basket, right? Boy, becoming a Christian, now granted, if you do zoom out, yeah, it is cushy, right? So after death in heaven, well, it's a lot better than burning in hell, right? Okay, so yes, there is a time for that, but not in this life. This life is hard. We are at war, and basically all the forces of evil, you become a Christian, they turn on you. say, oh, fresh meat, right? And, but that is what the, so I just want to be realistic. If you're considering Christianity, know that it is hard, but hey, after death, that's great. That's the great part. It's definitely a good deal. But seriously, that's one application. Another application is that Christ does protect His children, right? Just like you parents do a great job protecting your children, God does an even better job, right? But it was this kid's, this basket thing, was that miraculous? Was that a miracle? Nope, just a rope and a basket out of a window. So God's deliverance isn't always supernatural. You've heard me often tell the story, I love it, so I tell it often, of the guy who's, there's a flood and he's in his house and a boat floats by his door and says, hey, jump in the boat for safety. No, no, I prayed, God's gonna save me. And then, well, the floodwaters keep going up. He's now on his roof. A helicopter comes by, drops a rope. No, no, I prayed, God's gonna save me. Dies, drowns, foolish guy. Gets to heaven, he's like, hey God, what's the deal? God says, what's the deal? I sent you a helicopter and a boat, right? So God often saves us in very ordinary means. That's exactly what happened here. John Piper makes well the point in one of his books, he talks about, he lists a whole bunch of times how people respond to danger. Some of them run away, others of them stay. And there's just a biblical precedent. This is, which is this. This is running away, right? He went out a window in a basket, right? There's a biblical precedent for running away from danger, right? There's a time and place for that. It can still be God's rescuing. Now there's a time to stay and stand and die, but there's this time to preserve for another day. Okay, so there you see Saul is preserved, delivered by Christ, and now he heads to Jerusalem, and that brings us to our third point. Look at verse 26. Okay, so now he comes to Jerusalem, attempts to join the disciples. They were all afraid of him. One note back at verse 23, let me just throw this in. It says, now when many days had passed, there's some debate among scholars. I'm not gonna solve the problem, I'll just tell you of it. Because of a verse in Galatians 1, 17 and 18, Paul's gonna recount this and say he spent three years in Arabia. Okay, so I don't exactly know exactly the timeline here, but he goes from Damascus to Jerusalem. Just so you know, there's some ambiguity there. But anyway, he gets to Jerusalem, whether it's a month, whether it's three years, but this is his archenemy. Three years isn't long, even if it's that long, right? You can remember it happened three years ago. In Damascus, it was one thing. He hadn't persecuted anyone there. In Jerusalem, think about it. I mean, the Christians there, there were women that had watched Saul drag their husband away to prison. Their husbands had watched their wives drag away to prison. They knew this guy. Three years ago, that's not long. And here he is back. Look at verse 26 now, it says, and when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples and they were afraid. Any surprise there? They were afraid of him. They did not believe he was a disciple. Kids, you know the story of the Trojan horse? They thought he was a Trojan horse, right? They said, the second we let you in here, you're gonna arrest all of us. They didn't believe. They said, this guy, old dogs don't learn new tricks, right? Leopards, you know the expressions. Do you ever trust or do you ever struggle to trust someone who's hurt you? It's hard, isn't it? The Jews there, the Christians there struggled to trust these people, this man who had hurt them so bad. You know, I want to tell you a story just to bring this a little closer to home. This is a little bit graphic story, but kids, you're growing up in a messy world. You're going to study in school about something called the Holocaust. It was one of the worst things that happened in the past few hundred years. Nazi Germany were awful to Jews, killed many of them. This is a story of Corrie ten Boone. She wrote a book called Hiding Place. She was in the Netherlands. Her family were watchmakers. They set a real heart for the Jews. And so they built this secret room and would hide Jews in it. Kids, it was cool, it had this buzzer and they could buzz when the police were coming in and everyone upstairs would run and jump into this room and hide right behind this fake wall. It's an amazing story. Well, an informant turned them in and they got thrown into a concentration camp. And I wanna read to you, this is from Corrie Tinsboon's own words in her book, On the Hiding Place. So this account is in 1947. So she survived, her sister did not, she died, concentration camp. She made it out in 1947. This is hard to fathom. She was back in Germany speaking for Christ. It's crazy. So this is her account. This is Munich, Germany, 1947. I was in a church in Munich. I saw him, a balding, heavyset man in a gray overcoat. A brown felt hat clenched between his hands. People were falling out of the basement room where I had just spoken, moving along the rows of wooden chairs to the door of the rear. There was never questions when I would speak in Germany in 1947. People stood up in silence and silence collected their wraps and silence left the room. And that's when I saw him working his way forward against the others. One moment, I saw the overcoat and the brown hat and the next, a blue uniform and a visored cap with a skull and crossbones. Kids, she was remembering him from an earlier time. They came back with a rush, the huge room, this is her memory, with a harsh overhead lights, the pathetic pile of dresses and shoes in the center of the floor, the shame of walking naked past this man. I could see my sister's frail form ahead of me, ribs sharp beneath the parchment skin. Betsy, it's her sister, how thin you were. The place was Ravensbrück, it was a concentration camp. And the man who was making his way forward was a guard, one of the most cruel guards, now was in front of me. His hand thrust out, a fine message, Freilin, I fumbled in my pocket book rather than take that hand. He could not remember me, of course. How could he remember one prisoner among thousands of women? But I remembered him and the leather crop, kids, it's a whip, swinging from his belt. I was face to face with one of my captors. My blood seemed to freeze. You mentioned Ravenbrook in your talk, he was saying. I was a guard there. No, he didn't remember me. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I want to hear it from you, from your lips as well, Freilin. Freilin, sorry. Again, the hand came out. Will you forgive me? I stood there. I could not forgive. Betsy had died in that place. Could he erase her slow, terrible death simply by asking? It could not have been but a few seconds that his hand was held there, but seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I'd ever had to do, for I had to do what I know I did. But I still stood there with the coldness clenched in my heart. Jesus, help me. I prayed silently. I can lift my hand. I can do that much. You supply the feeling. And so wouldn't leave mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did an incredible thing took place. The current started my shoulder, it raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes. I forgive you, brother. I cried with all my heart. For a long moment, we grasped each other's hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God's love so intensely as I did that day. But even so, I realized it was not my love. I had tried and did not have the power. It was the power of the Holy Spirit as recorded in Romans 5, 5, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which is given unto us. There were many people in Jerusalem who had Corrie Tinsboon exact experience. They were looking face to face with Saul, the cold hearted killer that had done terrible things to their families, their friends, and they had to forgive. Have you ever been in that position? It is impossible. It's humanly impossible. You might hear that and say, that's impossible. You're right. It's impossible for Corrie ten Boone, for the Christians in Damascus and in Jerusalem. This is what it means to be a Christian is that the power of the Holy spirit comes in, not to do the easy things, but do the hard things. I encourage you to pray for that. Ask God to transform your heart, to bring forgiveness. We confess together that prayer, asking for God to give us a heart of forgiveness that he has given to us. I know that Christ wants to answer that prayer. How do I know? Because Jesus prayed for it. I want to read to you from John 17, right before he died. It's called His High Priestly Prayer, John 17, 22. It says, the glory, this is Jesus speaking, the glory that you, Father, have given to me, I have given to them, that they may be one, even as we are one, between Jesus and the Father, the Trinity. I in them, you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so the world may know that you sent me and love them, even as you love me. What is a picture to the world? It's the unity of one's enemies, Saul, and the church, Corrie ten Boone and her captor. Galatians 3.28, by the pen of Paul, Galatians 3.28 says, this is speaking of Christianity now, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there's neither slave nor free, there's neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. the early church in a time when males and females had a very low view of women then, right? There's no more division wall between male and female. So between Jew and Gentile, the segregation between blacks and whites in the first half of the 1900s is nothing compared to the wall between the Jews and Gentiles. Huge, huge separation. And now they're going to be in the same church. Slaves and slave masters in the same church. Those are walls that seem impossible to overcome. And they were, unless God was doing it. This is something only God. So what I want you to see from this is this is something only God can do. This stuff is humanly impossible. The stuff God calls you to do is humanly impossible without His help. Jesus said from the cross, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do, Luke 23. Stephen, as they hurled stones that broke his body, broke his bones, began to bleed, soon to die, Acts 7. He cries out with a loud voice as he falls on his knees, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. Christ is in the business of building or bridging canyons that seem uncrossable. He's in the business of bridging canyons that seem impossible. Notice who sticks up for Saul. Who is it? It's Barnabas. You remember Barnabas? We've talked about him already back in chapter four. Kids, you remember who Barnabas was? Remember he was talking about people selling their fields? Let me read it to you. Thus Joseph, who's also called by the apostles Barnabas, which means son of encouragement, a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field belonging to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet. That's pretty incredibly generous, right? Sold this huge field, gave it all to the church, right? And so now he shows back up in our story and in very much in a parallel way here, he sold his field and sacrificed something belonging to him. Now, what is he sacrificing? What's he selling? Well, his reputation. Right? He's identifying himself with that man. Right? Everyone else is, is shunning him. Kids, a great application. You should stick up for others that are being bullied. Right? If you have, if you, someone else is being picked on, say, Hey, leave him alone. Right? Why don't you do that? Because you don't want to pick on you. Yes. You're putting yourself at risk. Barnabas put himself at risk that he might be rejected. Right? Clear application of that. So Barnabas look at verse 27. Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road that he'd seen the Lord, being Paul, who had spoken to him, how Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of the Lord. Look how they respond. Look at verse 28. So he went in and out. He had freedom among the apostles there in Jerusalem. They listened to Barnabas. It's unbelievable. We read it and we're like, oh, that's fine. But hopefully that Coryton Boone story helps you understand just a little of what this was like. If you were an early Christian, this was really, really hard. It was impossible. You know what? You might listen to someone and say, wow, boy, the Bible asks a lot of me. No, the Bible doesn't ask a lot of you. This is a lot. It asks impossible. These are impossible things it calls you to. The point is this, you can't do it. It is only, right? Our gospel is not one of just try harder. Our gospel is one of, you can't try hard enough. You need Jesus. The Holy Spirit has to come inside of you. And that's what enables you to do this. You cannot forgive people that have really hurt you. Forgiveness is only needed for people that really hurt you. That's when the rubber meets the road. Look at the verse 29 and 30. And he spoke and disputed, this is Paul again, against the Hellenists, the Greek speaking Jews. But they were seeking to kill him, right? They want to kill him there too. And when the brothers learned this, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus. Kids, that's his hometown. He's going back to his hometown now. It's pretty wild. So hopefully you see from this that Christ can and wants to unify enemies. As we wrap up, look at verse 31. I like how this passage ends. It says to the church throughout all Judea, do these places ring a bell to you? I hope they do. The churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were being built up. Hopefully it reminds you of Acts 1.8, right? Remember our table of contents for the whole book? Jesus said, let me read it to you. Acts 1.8, he said, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Now, little did they know if part of it was through their enemy, right? God was going to save Saul. But saying they're enjoying fellowship, this kind of summary statement, the kind of State of the Union address, we saw that several times through the book. And in chapter two, there was one, there's one in chapter five, and then in chapter six as well. The point is this, Luke wants you to get the point. No matter what happens, whether we have internal persecution problems or external, the church just keeps pushing forward, pushing forward, pushing forward. Nothing can stop Christ. Because behind all this is Christ. Christ is the one that unifies enemies. Christ is the one that can immediately transform lives. Christ is doing this. So I've often asked you, how big is your God? I just, I want you to think, I want you to take from this, that God is bigger than, and you need a bigger God than you realize. God is calling you to do things that are impossible to forgive people who you never thought you could forgive. Well, as they say, old dog can't learn new tricks. As they say, a tiger can't change its stripes, but you aren't a tiger and you're not an old dog. You are a human made in the image of God. And you, if you're a believer, have the Holy Spirit inside of you. The same spirit that enabled them, that enabled them to do that, wants to enable us. Have hope, have courage, pray. If you feel like this is, the scriptures ask you to do impossible things, pray that God would help you do it. And he would love to answer that prayer. I close with the words I said earlier, Ephesians 3.20 and 21. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably beyond, that's about as big as you can get, immeasurably beyond all that you could ask or imagine. Kids, when you pray, God can do bigger things than you can imagine. according to his power that's at work within us for his glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Let's pray. Father, may I decrease and may your word increase in their hearts. I pray this would be like a rock in their shoe. Corey Tin Boon. the believers in Jerusalem and Damascus, the courage they had, the forgiveness they had, the unity you brought that seemed impossible. Lord, I pray it would be a rock in their shoe that they could not get out until the Holy Spirit does that work deep in their hearts. Lord, transform us. We can't try hard enough to do what they did and neither could they. It is your work in them. So Lord, we pray, do this work in us. Lord, and if there be people who aren't Christians yet, Lord, I pray that they would realize the Bible can't be accomplished by try-hard strategy. They would fall before you, Christ, and say, I need a savior. I need someone that would do it for me, that would forgive me for my unforgiveness and all the other ways that we've fallen short. Lord, thank you. Thank you, Christ, for all the ways you've forgiven me and all of us. Thank you for the example you gave us on the cross. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Lord, may you do that work in all of us. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Let's stand and sing.