Please open your Bibles to Acts chapter 20. Alright, Acts chapter 20. We're looking at verse 17, the end of the chapter. We looked at a good portion of this to begin with last time. Let me remind you what we got through. So we The beginning of the chapter, there's this traveling from Philippi at the end of the Days of the Unleavened Bread, that's the Passover. Paul's trying to get to Jerusalem by Pentecost. That's the next required assembly in terms of the old covenant administration. So, this is the last time that he will go to Jerusalem. He wants to preach to many Jews, and so he wants to preach to a large crowd. Verses 7 to 12 were about the first day Christian Sabbath, the public assembly. the having of the Lord's Supper. Verses 13 to 16, we had this kind of tour through the Hellenistic world. There was an earlier leaving of Macedon and going through part of Greece, and then there's now this kind of the Greek world, which includes Asia Minor and the islands around there, the Aegean Sea. There is a speech now at Miletus. That's verses 17 to 38, and these are the elders. So we looked at The elders, remember, they're the presbyters, which means elder in Greek. There's the episkopos, which are bishops in Greek. It means overseer. And so elders and bishops are the same thing. They are called to give the message, to preach. They're called to give the doctrine, to teach. They're to take heed to the flock. And there's this There's this idea that the flock is a reference to obviously the church, and they are flock carers. They're caring for the sheep. They're shepherds. They're pastors. That's what the word pastor means. So they're to shepherd or pastor the flock. So they're to care for, they're supposed to Be shepherds for the sheep, right? If you think about the linguistic connection, that's the closest English kind of similarity, being a shepherd for the sheep. That's the kind of linguistic connection there. The pastor's job is to feed. And then we had this idea of the manner of life that Paul is concerned about. So we looked at 2 Timothy 3. We looked at verses 15 to 17. And you remember there we had the four uses of the word. It's profitable for instruction in doctrine, for rebuking falsehood, for giving correction to show the positive. So there's the putting off and the putting on. And then there is this training in righteousness. And the training involves not only the giving of the instruction, and the rebuking and the correcting, the giving, the positive, but then there's the example, there's the living with, there's the being around, so you're showing the example, you are there with them. So it's sort of this, not just a prophetic proclaiming, but also a priestly working it in, trying to have relationship, to live beside, to encourage, exhort. So there's the carrot and the stick. There's encouragement, reward. There's discipline. So that's a part of what's happening there. So that's that fourth part. So there was the instruction, the rebuking, the correcting, and the training. And so those are the things to be done. And we talk about the Word of God and how the Word of God is sufficient to make the man of God complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. And that triple universal is extremely important so that we have a right view of the Word of God. So, Paul is living in a manner of life where he serves with humility, with fortitude. There's this courage as he's facing down the Jews. So he goes through tears and trials and opposition. He is doing what's fitting as an officer. He's not keeping back anything that's profitable. He's teaching in public. He's teaching in private. He teaches the Jews. He teaches the Greeks. And he has repentance toward God that he's trying to teach people and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ that he's trying to teach people. So this idea of putting off unbelief and putting on belief. So, that is what we talked about last time. What I want to do is re-read the speech and help you to, now that you've gone through it, you'll see clearly those things that we just talked through, and then we'll continue through the last. So, verse 17. From Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church. And when they had come to him, he said to them, You know from the first day that I came to Asia in what manner I always lived among you, serving the Lord with all humility, with many tears and trials, which happened to me by the plotting of the Jews, how I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you and taught you publicly and from house to house. testifying to Jews and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And see, now I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem. not knowing the things that will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me. But none of these things move me, nor do I count my life as dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy. And the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. And indeed, now I know that you all among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, will see my face no more. Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men, for I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. Therefore, take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood. For I know this, that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also, from among yourselves, men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore, watch and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears. So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I have coveted no one's silver, gold, or apparel. Yes, you yourselves know that these hands have provided for my necessities and for those who are with me. I have shown you in every way, by laboring like this, that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that he said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. Then they all wept freely and fell on Paul's neck and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for the words which he spoke, that they would see his face no more. And they accompanied him to the ship. On the drive over to church today, I was talking to Logan about a book that he's reading, The Reformed Pastor. And in that, there's a section about talking about the death of people, that if people are sick or as they're dying, this idea of how they can be served by a pastor. And so this idea of going to encourage them, going to help them to be prepared, going and helping to make sure that they have a firm grasp on the gospel, And we talked about also this Puritan idea of a good death, that you want to not only make sure to leave things in good order, but that you also have this desire to make sure to give a good testimony at the end, that you have confidence in the gospel, and that you are seeking to make sure that you have reiterated the importance that the people who remain hold fast a good confession, that they make good use of the time that they have. And so you reemphasize key things. This speech, this sermon by Paul, is a sort of deathbed speech. Not that he is immediately going to die, but he believes it's the last time he's seeing them. And so it's like he is telling them what he would want them to know if he were on his deathbed. And so we can see here many of those same things that you would expect if you were trying to leave a good testimony before dying. And he's expecting to go and to be persecuted and potentially to die. Now, verse 22 through 24 talks about him going bound to Jerusalem to suffer. And he is suffering with joy, counting his life as worth less than the work, the ministry. So he is giving testimony to the greatness of God, to the greatness of the knowledge of God. He is not going into this difficulty, this trial, with his eyes shut. And so counting the suffering as joy It's not about how suffering is good. This is about how he's interpreting the suffering. He views his suffering as the expected cost of living the good life. He views his suffering as the expected cost of living the good life. All those who seek to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. Now, you may recall as Paul was crossing from Asia Minor into Europe. And he spent some time in Troas. I spent some time talking to you about Troy and about the story of the destruction of Troy with Aeneas and him pulling his father out. And we talked about wisdom and piety and fortitude. Paul's coming back. He's passed Troas. We just read about that a couple of days ago, a couple of weeks ago. He's passing by these cities again. as he's heading back to Jerusalem. And so what he's doing here is he's calling these men to be concerned about wisdom and to be concerned about piety, to expect challenge. He's calling them to fortitude so that they can face this challenging with courage and with patience. So I want to do the same here. I want to point this out to you. Remember that wisdom is the knowledge of God, because God is the good. It is also the knowledge of the means to increasingly possess the good, to increasingly possess the knowledge of God. So that's what the law is. Meditating on the law is meditating on the means to grow in the knowledge of God. Wisdom gives Paul a desire to be pious. He desires to increasingly act with integrity in his spheres of responsibility. Now, piety, remember, is a sense of duty to act as a faithful steward of all that has been given to you. All the things that are under your charge. Piety is this burden to lift, to carry your responsibilities to the edges of your territory. Increasing piety results in that picking up of burdens. It results in taking responsibility for the things in your domain. Taking responsibility for these burdens, carrying these burdens, is distinct from not caring, being lethargic, being negligent, putting the burden onto someone else. This eventually results in pushing your care out to the edges of your domain, to the edges of your responsibility. This means that as your boundaries increase, you have more and more to deal with. There is less ability to deal with it all because as your responsibilities increase, even though skill might increase, typically that skill is not going to increase as fast as the responsibility. And so though time remains the same, burdens increase. And so you now need to depend more and more on delegation or on partnership. So micromanagement becomes less and less possible. Delegation to under stewards is appropriate in the household, in business. Partnership with others is correct in public office, in the state or in the church. It becomes more and more important to be able to work with others as your boundaries increase. And one of the things that happens is as you are taking better care of things, you don't have as immediate of a concern. You save, you care, you're a good steward, and your vision moves less and less from just what's the next step to looking up. You raise your head up. Think about when you get better at hiking. Initially, when you're hiking, you're looking down all the time because you can't manage the terrain as well. When you're better, sometimes you can look up a little bit more and look at the trail ahead of you a little bit when you're more nimble afoot and you're more able to deal with things and you remember better the trail that's coming up. You still look down to make sure, especially if you're coming to rough patches, that you don't trip, but you can think about this even with little children and just ordinary walking, right? You walk around, you don't normally just stare at your feet as an adult. You're looking ahead. Whereas little ones, when they're first starting, they are known for having their hands out and looking down, as they are unaccustomed to that movement. And so as you become more skilled at walking in the way of the Lord, you begin to raise your head and look around you, and that's a part of the increasing responsibilities that you have. And as you have increasing responsibilities, you have to look at others that you're caring for. So this sense of duty, this piety, this sense of duty, to act as a faithful steward of all that has been given to you, all the things that are under your charge, results necessarily in a sense of being overwhelmed eventually, which results in the need for delegation and partnership. Now, sometimes you might wonder whether that's the good life, right? I've talked about this many times. There is this temptation to just kind of escape and not say take that responsibility There's a prayer from first Chronicles chapter 4 verses 9 and 10 called the prayer of Jabez There's a book that I have not read that was much criticized as being a health and wealth gospel book. I have no idea I haven't read it but the this this book regardless of what it has to say, the prayer itself is worthy of note. Okay, so the prayer is from 1 Chronicles chapter 4 verses 9 and 10. And so Jabez is named by his mother. The name Jabez means he will cause pain. Apparently there was pain in his being, in the childbearing that occurred, not surprising. But the idea he will cause pain is the name And as I said, the mother said, because I bore him in pain. So there's a prayer that J-Bez gives. And the prayer comes down to four petitions. He asks to be blessed indeed. He asks, sorry, it's actually five. To be blessed indeed, so there's five petitions. Bless me indeed, enlarge my boundaries, cause your hand to be with me, keep me from evil, and keep me from causing pain. And so this is a prayer about the extension of responsibility. And so this is when we pray, give us this day our daily bread, we are praying to have what is sufficient for our current duties. But when we pray that the kingdom of God would come, when we pray that God's name would be hallowed, when we pray that the will of God would be done in earth as it is in heaven, Those are all things where we're praying for people in the church to have more authority, because we're asking that believers would have the ability to do those things, to cause the glory of God to be displayed in the earth more, to cause the church to be built, to be more effective, that there would be sanctification for law keeping. We're asking for those things. And so if we're asking for that good thing for people in the church, it includes for ourselves. And the prayer of Jabez is a prayer for the increase of dominion of oneself. We're commanded to increase dominion, to subdue the earth, to work, to keep. And so this blessing, this prayer, bless me indeed, first is a prayer, that blessing is a prayer for the fact that we want God to help us to get things that are instrumental goods, instrumental virtues. So it's a prayer for money. It's a prayer for food. It's a prayer for land. It's a prayer for tools, for capital. It's a prayer for things that can be used. It's a prayer that we would use them well, because we're praying that God would give us our daily bread and that he would bless its use. We're praying that God would help us to use them for right ends. Okay, so we're asking for these good things. We're asking God to help us to use them well for good ends, for his glory. And lastly, that we would enjoy the gift by enjoying God. Right, so we have these four things. We're asking God to help us to get more of what's good, to use it well, to use it for right ends, and to enjoy it as we enjoy God. not putting them over God, not putting these things over God, but enjoying God by enjoying the blessings he's giving with thankfulness. So that's asking that God would bless us indeed is those things. That's the blessing of God on the ordinances. Now there's the prayer to enlarge the boundaries or borders. You might see it in the New King James as as to enlarge my territory, but it is literally borders or boundaries. Now, you can enlarge borders or boundaries without enlarging space. One of the ways you could do that is by, in fact, selling off some of your land. If you add more boundaries, you can sell off pieces and increase the total amount of perimeter. But that's obviously not what I intended here. Just increasing the perimeter of your territory is not the same thing as the blessing being asked for. It's the asking for the enlarging of the territory, which as a side effect, increases its perimeter. OK? So it's not literally just the perimeter. If you have a piece of paper in front of you, you can imagine making a circle. And then you could make inside of that circle a smaller object that's got squiggly borders. It'll have more border total than the circle would. But that would not be more territory, right? So it's the territory is that we're asking to be increased, though it literally says to enlarge the borders or boundaries. And so just having more perimeter to guard is not in itself a blessing. It's having more territory that is the blessing. So this is increasing the extent of the stewardship, improving the dominion, increasing what you have under dominion. And so increasing that territory is what we're asking for, that increase of dominion. And so this is not a bad thing to ask for. This is a good thing to ask for. It is an approved example in First Chronicles chapter four. And so what your dominion is, right? You as an individual, you have to care for your own mind, your own body, your own goods. And then if you are an individual with offices of any sort, right? If you're a husband or a wife, you have an office of authority in the household. If you are a voting member or a church officer, you have a public authority in the church. If you're a citizen, a voting citizen, and you are a, possibly a magistrate, right, you'd have some sort of a public office. These are all offices. And so extending your government over your mind by gaining more knowledge, improving your body, increasing your goods, and running in your office as well, having the things you govern in your offices, those are the things you're asking to be increased when there's a request to enlarge your territory. Obviously, literally, what's being asked for is an increase of the land, but that is used to reference dominion broadly. So, the request that God's hand would be with me, This text is teaching us that we should seek that God's power and favorable presence acting for us is with us. We ask God, God use your power, so the hand civilizes, use your power and your favorable presence, being with me, to act for me. God's power and favorable presence for me. We're asking that for ourselves, and we're asking it for the church. We ask this for others, and we should ask it for ourselves. We want our own good, we want other people's good. The prayer says, to keep me from evil. Think about the Lord's Prayer, lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. It is keeping from evil. This is a request to help us to overcome unbelief. and the inward power of sin, to overcome the world and the outward power of sin and of other people and their wickedness. This is their request to overcome the devil and the deception of false ideas and false gods. And so that demonic kingdom is being prayed against there. This prayer then says to keep me from causing pain, and that causing of pain, you can ultimately translate it, sometimes people have it as keep me from feeling pain, But they are both appropriate, and I like causing pain because you think about the mother originally giving the name of Jabez as, you know, he will cause pain because I bore him in pain. And so I think it's more appropriate to recognize it as causing pain, is what the prayer says, but it's causing pain to self or to others. And that pain, that suffering, is by neglect or by transgression. Neglect of the law of God or transgression of the law of God. And so we pray for these things. This is a prayer. And that does not preclude suffering for righteousness sake. We need to realize that there is going to be suffering in this life, but we want to avoid causing suffering by sin. And so suffering is caused by doing duty. We can ask God to help to reduce that, to prosper, to reduce the pain, but we need to realize that we want to avoid causing pain by sinning. And when we sin, it brings pain. And so this idea of piety, this is a prayer of piety. You might not think that. You might think this prayer of Jabez seems like a selfish prayer. Well, if you want to get property in order to just pursue pleasure or to pursue power for yourself or to pursue simply having more money because it's providing comfort for yourself and the deceitfulness of riches, that's one thing. But praying for these things in order to use them to manage well and to be able to extend your borders out so that you increase dominion, so that you are seeing the kingdom of God come, that is pious. So this is the element of piety that is overlooked often. So I am emphasizing it because this idea of seeking to gain. So let me remind you, piety is a sense of duty to act as a faithful steward of all that has been given to you, all the things that are under your charge. And Paul has done that. And so we have a danger, though, as stewards, of not seeking to grow, but just seeking to guard. And that's what I think happens, to some extent, in Ephesus after Paul gives this warning. So let's continue. What happens when there's piety? Wisdom leads to piety. And when you have piety up to the edges of your boundaries, when you have piety, when you have a duty to be a good steward, there are challenges that come. And Paul lists those challenges. He talks about wolves from without, and he talks about wolves from within. And so these challenges come. These challenges come in the individual, in the flesh. They come to the church in the world, externally. And then the devil causes members within to be deceived. because they come against you to threaten loss of lesser goods and temporary suffering. And so will we challenge, will we face the challenge? Will we retreat? Will we withdraw? Will we fail to meet the challenge? And we are called to face down these challenges, to exercise dominion. And so that requires fortitude. Remember, fortitude is strength of soul. Fortitude comes from wisdom. It comes from the knowledge of the good and the means to the good. When you have strength of soul because you have this stable knowledge of the good, it allows you to face danger with courage because you have a goal in mind. This fortitude depends upon a hope that what is good will be obtained, will be increased, will be held on to. Fortitude is strength of soul, and it comes from the knowledge of the good. Fortitude faces danger with courage. Fortitude suffers with patience. Courage is the willingness to face danger, to risk suffering or loss for the sake of gaining or preserving what is good. Patience is the willingness to suffer without vent for the sake of what is good. It's the willingness to suffer without complaint for the sake of what is good. So Paul's ministry, his service is to bear witness to the gospel of the grace of God and that he is taking that out to the boundaries of his responsibility. He's trying to fill the earth with the knowledge of God. He is going all throughout Gentile territories and he is going and he is facing opposition. He is suffering trials. He is facing opposition. Now in verses 25 and 26, he gave us an example of how to have a clear conscience, how to put our duty onto others to make them fellow workers who are competent. Remember, we can't do it all ourselves. There's too much to do. And so you need partners and you need under shepherds in the event of it being a household or an estate building exercise, you're delegating authority. And in the event of fellow elders or workers in the gospel, you're looking for partners. And so he's a disciple, he's a disciple maker. He's a disciple-maker who makes disciples. He's a disciple-maker who makes disciple-makers. Now, here's a secret. Everybody's a disciple. What you say and what you do causes other people to be influenced. They consider these things, and your example matters. It may have more or less effect, but it always has an effect. Paul preaches the kingdom of God, and he says that he's innocent of the blood of these people. Because he hasn't shunned to declare the whole counsel of God. Last time we talked about, you're not ashamed of that. Remember from Romans, he's not ashamed of the gospel. He's not ashamed to declare the whole counsel of God. He has not shunned from declaring it. He has not cowered back. He had courage to speak the truth, the whole truth. And that courage is from fortitude, which came from piety, which came from wisdom. And so he talks about the guarding that has to be done about these wolves from within and without. And these men, these elders, took him seriously. He calls them to support the weak, to protect them. But then he goes on and not just protecting, right? Because if Paul were most concerned just about protecting what's already been built, guess what he would have done? He'd have stuck around in Ephesus or Antioch. He leaves them. And so they kneel down and pray. They weep on his neck. They embrace him. They kiss him. There is sorrow. They walk with him before he leaves to go get on the boat. They're trying to steal those last couple of minutes. That right there. This is a sort of death. And so they're left with that. Now his example, they seem to have taken very well everything except for the fact that he left to get more gain. He suffered to get more gain. And so turn with me to Revelation chapter two. Revelation chapter two, to the angel of the church of Ephesus, right? Okay, now, now, the symbolism that came before in chapter one, We have Jesus talking. John worships Jesus. Jesus has the sword, the double-edged sword, which is his word. And he talks about the seven stars and the seven lampstands. The seven stars are supposed to be the seven angels of the seven churches. And angels there, I think, means messengers, which is the word Angelos really means. And so I think we're talking about a preacher of these churches. And so people will try to say sometimes, ah, see, about one preacher per church. And the reality is, I think, it's talking about the moderator of the session. So you've just got a single person who's represented here as sort of a order-based leader. So this doesn't undermine the principle of having multiple elders. But also there is these seven lampstands. And the seven lampstands, you think about the lampstand in the temple and it was united. There were several candles on a single lampstand. And now they've all been divided out. And so that has to do with, as opposed to a centralized local temple with the light that shines forth, you now have the temple filling the earth with light that shines forth. Okay, so that's the symbolism here. So the angel of the church of Ephesus, to the angel of the church of Ephesus write, these things say, he who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the seven preachers, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands. Okay, so Christ walks in the midst of the churches. He dwells with us, right? Here's the letter. I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear with those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars. And you have preserved, sorry, you have persevered, forgive me, And you have persevered, and have patience, and have labored for my name's sake, and have not become weary. Nevertheless, I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember it, therefore, from where you have fallen. Repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly. and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give to eat from the tree of life. which is in the midst of the paradise of God. This is to Ephesus. This is the church that we have been reading about. These are the elders there. Paul instructs them to guard, right? And they listen well to that. That's what Jesus commends them for. It's a church with good doctrine. It's discerning good from evil. But there seems to be a hardening from the suffering that they are undergoing. Hardening under the suffering that comes with challenges. It's a decline in affection for good and a decline in doing the acts of what are called first love. It's an ignoring of the building and a tendency to only keep or to guard. These are men who have been faithful to preserve the deposit that was given to them. But I want to suggest to you there is no such thing as a good man who is not seeking to add. There is a call to increase, to grow. Standing still and seeking to guard what has been is necessarily going to result in decay unless there's also adding. Because the maturing of the church is necessary. as challenges come. Otherwise, challenges increase, and we do not grow in our understanding. We do not increase in our capability to face those challenges. And so what God does is He causes the challenges to increase and increase and increase until we abandon our negligence because the suffering is so great. It's happening in America right now in churches. People are starting to wake up to the reality that You know what, a retreatist, a defeatist, an escapist attitude is insufficient. Things are collapsing. The institutions are collapsing. And so the church is starting to think about fighting, about building more. And as opposed to just evangelizing people to get the minimum necessary information to get them saved, there's more of a concern for discipleship, gathering, and commitment. If that does not continue, we will lose here. If that does continue, we will see the light explode out. So we should be what we want others to be. We should seek to increase our understanding. So here were the things that were said for them, their works, in other words, what they've already done. What you've already done stands in your favor. Your labor, you have ongoing effort. There's an endurance or patience. They're continuing through the suffering, and they're doing it without abandoning the cause, without a complaint of abandonment. They are not able to bear evil people. So there's a concern for holiness, a priestly guarding. They're casting out. And there's a prophetic guarding. They are testing false apostles and finding them liars. They have endurance, they have perseverance, they have patience. and they have labored without becoming weary. That is a list of very honoring things. If somebody said that about you, wouldn't you be honored by that? You work, you labor, you endure. You cannot bear with evil. You test false teachers and find them liars. You are enduring and patient. You have labored without becoming weary. If that is not something that you would be proud to hear said about you, then you don't know what it is to be praised. And then he says this, though. The Lord Jesus Christ says these things. He has this against them. They have left their first love. Left their first love. Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen, repent and do the first works. So leaving the first love is not doing the first works. And if they don't do the first works, what's going to happen is they're going to have the lamp stand removed. In other words, the truth isn't going to keep being taught there, which means it will no longer be a true church. So apostasy at any point leads to apostasy at every point. When you abandon any point of truth in the face of that clear teaching, you abandon the truth in principle and you will invariably ultimately withdraw from the proclamation of the whole truth or you will repent and start declaring the truth in full. So there's this warning. So this call to the acts of first love Our call to not only keep, but to risk, to dare, to strive for triumph. We must build in the face of the enemy, not just guard. We must suffer to gain souls and increase in knowledge, not only protecting what we have been given, not only protecting who we have, but there's a call to conquer, to overcome. I want to go here to Acts chapter 2 and remind you of the Acts of first love. Go back to Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2 verses 41 to 47. Let's start at verse 40 actually. And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, Be saved from this perverse generation. Then those who gladly received his word were baptized. And that day about 3,000 souls were added to them, And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved." These acts of first love are captured, I think, clearly in this text. This is the acts of first love of the church. This is right after Pentecost, and what are they doing? Well, there's evangelism and baptizing, adding people. Evangelism is an act of first love. It is the epitome of the effort to build, because you're seeking to add on people to the church. And you know what? These people are going to be messed up. They're going to be messed up people. If they're not saved, You know, the level of sin in people's lives when they come and they just first start being Christians is very high. And you got to deal with it. There's all sorts of sin habit, hardened sin that comes in. And so it's a mess. And it's painful. And most of the time, after people make profession, they abandon the profession, especially especially abandoning the profession of a disciplined church, because the American church is so casual and uncommitted. And so when you push them to be committed, when you push them to do their duty, to be pious, the abandonment rate is so high. And so the next act, and we have the doctrine, There's the doctrine, and then there's the fellowship or communion of the saints. It's the koinonia. It's the communion of the saints and sharing stuff and sharing work. Sharing things and sharing work. And the sacraments, and then prayer. The having things in common, the sharing things with fellow believers. Hospitality, unity, generosity. And so, this brings more people, there's more evangelism. Hospitality is a place, an opportunity for evangelism and discipleship. So these are the things that are done. You should study this text, and remember evangelism, the commitment to doctrine, to the fellowship, or koinonia, the sacraments and the prayers, the generosity, the having things in common, and hospitality. Okay, and so these things, This is what the acts of first love are. And so the commitment to these things prevents us from simply hardening and dying off. We must not only keep. We must risk. We must risk. We must dare. We must strive for triumph. We must build in the face of the enemy. We must suffer to gain souls and to increase in knowledge. We must also suffer to protect what we have, what we know, and who is already here. And so you look now at how Paul departs in Acts chapter 20. He departs and he reminds them that it's more blessed to give than to receive. He's reminding them of diaconal ministry, but he's also reminding them that they need to work hard to have things in order to give. And you give these things, you lose control over them, you're risking them, and you're hoping to see fruitfulness in other people when you give them things. That's true of time, it's true of wealth, it's true of energy, effort, it's true of suffering for their sake. And we have to continue to risk. Knowing that God is sovereign, that He bears the fruit. He causes the fruit to be born. He causes the fruit to be yielded. And so Paul, he reminds them that it's more blessed to give than to receive. And they kneel down to pray. They weep. They embrace. And they're sorrowful at the loss where Paul is going. And Paul goes through all that pain. to risk to gain all the more. Comments, questions, objections from the voting members? Mr. Cordova? Thank you all for your teaching. I just wanted to state that I saw a tremendous amount of value I just wanted to share that, and I have a lot of good material that I'm going to be sharing with my team this week. So I appreciate walking us through these concepts of piety and fortitude, especially, and then especially applying it to the church. These days, how we ought to seek not only spreading the gospel, but also Thank you, brother, for your encouragement. I appreciate that. Mr. Nye? Thank you for your teaching, Hilarise. There was a couple of points where you read the perceived text instead of the juried text. I just wanted to point those out. In verse 28, the majority text reads, to shepherd the church of the Lord and God. And in verse 34, yes and not in the majority. Thank you. So Mr. Nye just pointed out that I had somehow missed a difference between the majority text and what's in the New King James. So in verse 28, it says, to shepherd the church of the Lord and God. And in verse 34, the yes is not present. So it should just say, you yourselves know that these hands have provided for my necessities. It does not say, yes, you yourselves know. Thank you, Mr. Nye. I also wanted to ask a question. You made the argument that in Christ's letter to the church of Ephesus in Revelation 2, that leading the first love and not doing the first works were essentially not failing to do those things that were described in Acts chapter 2, verses 42 through such. And yet the list of what Christ says for the, like the list, sorry, the list of the compliments that Christ gives to the church in Ephesus, what they're doing right, it seems that a number of those things could not be done unless they were doing some of those things in Acts chapter two. So I guess my question is, from your understanding, if you were making that argument, this might be difficult to ask, how is a church lacking, or what is it failing to do? I know that you said part of your argument was that they're failing to move forward, to press on, to gain. as opposed to soul guarding. Was it mostly maybe mostly evangelism that they're lacking in discipleship? Maybe those two things. I guess I wanted to maybe kind of ask you to flush that out a little. Yeah, thank you. So the question is, it seems as though the compliments that Christ gives in Revelation 2 overlap with some of the material that's commanded or exemplified in Acts chapter 2. And so if I'm trying to suggest that the failures in Ephesus that are revealed in Revelation 2 are somehow displayed in terms of the alternative of what should be done in Acts 2, how does that work? Because there's got to be some overlap. So I absolutely agree there is a lot of overlap. I'm not suggesting that the church at Ephesus failed to do the sacraments or failed to pray or failed to teach the apostles' doctrine. I think that there is a failure to grow in it. There's a preserving but not adding to new inferences, increasing of the understanding there. and that there's a, that even in the face of challenges, they're just kind of showing these people are wrong without having the addition. The evangelism is certainly a part of it, okay? And I'm trying to suggest that generosity and kind of daily hospitality, daily fellowshipping is what's failing. So there's a, there's a hunker down sort of thing, and normally people talk about this as dead orthodoxy, and I hate the phrase. I hate the phrase dead orthodoxy. You could say that there's a dying orthodoxy, that there's a profession of the truth, and it's not being passed along effectively. You could think about if you display, if you If you live a godly life that is courageous, hospitable, generous, if there's evangelism, this kind of zealous, loving orthodoxy. Okay? And so without the loving, it looks ugly. And there's also obviously an error in the doctrine, right? Because you're not properly seeing the good or the means to the good. And if it's not zealous, there's also an error in the orthodoxy because you're thinking something else is more exciting and you're finding God boring. Okay, so it's ultimately a doctrinal error, but your failure to do these first works should cause you to pause and ask yourself, why am I not generous? Why am I not zealous? Why am I not evangelizing? Why am I not being hospitable? Those things should cause you to have pause. And so the temptation is when you do those things, it normally fails. And you feel taken advantage of. And so when you stop, and there's only self-care inside of the body, there's always going to be some imbalance. And so what you can start to see is inside of the body only self-care, no concern to grow. And then you start to see the imbalance result in people feeling bitter about that. So it starts to withdraw internally. And so in order for there to be this shared project of the preserving, building, and glorifying of the church. If we abandon the glorifying and abandon the building and just try to preserve or rescue it, then there's nothing beautiful to inspire rescuing effort. There's no hope to inspire rescue. So I think there's a relationship to the hope of victory and these acts of first love. So the generosity, the evangelism, the hospitality, and this desire, the hunger to grow in the knowledge of God. To find new places to extend out to. And relating this to that piety, this desire to grow out, to lift the burdens and to carry it out and to have challenges at the edges of the borders. I want to relate that. That's the zeal. for that. So has that helped to clarify, Mr. Nye? Yes, I think so. Thank you. I appreciate that. OK. And one last thing as an analogy, or in the language of first love, the idea of a courter, somebody who's courting, who's seeking to pursue a woman, the idea of that beginning piece, that there's this effort to gain, the willingness to risk, to challenge, to risk in order to seek to gain the woman. That's the analogy that's frequently used. I don't think that, I think we should not throw that away, though it's often misused in this context. I think it is a helpful thing, thinking about the zeal of pursuit. So anyways, any last comments, questions, or objections from the voting members? Okay.