Take your Bibles to Acts chapter 18. Acts chapter 18. We are continuing the series we started over a year ago on the book of Acts, and we're progressively, as we have opportunity going through on Sunday nights, we've had so many different special things coming on Sunday night that it's been probably a month or more since we've been in the Book of Acts, but we're getting back in the Book of Acts. We're at chapter 18. There's 28 chapters in the Book of Acts, so we're more than halfway through, but we want to press ahead. The Book of Acts is called the Acts of the Apostles. Some have suggested it could be called the Acts of the Holy Spirit. We see the working of God in the midst of the local New Testament church. We start with the replacing of Judas as an apostle, then we have the day of Pentecost, then we have the great powerful message of the gospel being spread throughout the known world. We'll see first of all the miracles that are wrought by apostles in chapter 3, we see persecution that's brought up in chapter 4, we see Philip reaching Ethiopia and Munich, and then we have the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, then we have Cornelius getting saved, and then we'll see Paul and Silas commissioned and sent forth from the church to be Paul and Barnabas as missionaries sent out. And then we had the first missionary journey take place, and then we had the council at Jerusalem take place in chapter 15, and there they were able to decide once and for all, emphatically, that salvation is by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, plus nothing, minus nothing. It is all of grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that anyone gets saved, Jews and Gentiles and anyone in between. Having settled that, they are about to begin their second missionary journey, and you're going to find that Paul and Barnabas have a little bit of division. On the first missionary journey, John Mark had joined with them, and he had backed out in the middle of the journey and said, I want to go back home. This is too hard for me. And so the second missionary journey starts out and Barnabas shows up with none other than John Mark to begin that journey. And Paul, as gracious and kind and loving as he is, says, Barnabas, that ain't gonna fly. No, we are not going with quitters. That was his attitude. And Barnabas would say, oh, Paul, but let's be gracious. He messed up, but you know, he's repentant of that, and he wants to serve God again, and he wants to live for Christ. And Paul's thinking, well, yeah, but you know, we'll get into the journey, and the first time we get thrown into jail, he'll be crying for Mama again. So no, no, I'm not going with him. And the contention got so sharp that they had to split ways and split company. When they did that, Paul took Silas and Barnabas took John Mark, and they went their several ways. We'll never hear of Barnabas again, but we will hear about John Mark being profitable to the Apostle Paul later in his life in the ministry. And we'll see that in 2 Timothy. Now, we have just gone through the first missionary journey, and now we've got into the second, and Paul and Silas have started preaching. In chapter 17, they went to a great city called Athens. And Athens was the center of the intellectual, it was the intellectual philosophical center of that area. And there the philosophers loved nothing more than to argue about religion. They had these temples of the gods that they worshipped, and they even had the name of one called the Temple to the Unknown God. This image and statue to the unknown God. And the Apostle Paul, being moved of God, went and preached to them about this unknown God that's not made with hands, and preached to them the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we come to chapter 18. And he's not at Athens, he has moved on from Athens to Corinth. And this is an interesting city because Corinth had been destroyed by Julius Caesar in 44 AD and then later rebuilt by Julius Caesar. It was actually built on an island because it had two ports. It was the entrance to Greece. And so people had to come through Corinth with all their wares, because see, just any area could not be a port city. The water has to be deep enough so that the fully loaded ships can make it to the land without hitting the sandbars and running into things. For instance, even like the Columbia River, and rivers like that have to be dredged all the time so that those ocean-going vessels can make it up the river. And that's true about any other river. But for a port city, you've got to have the water deep enough and close to shore so those ships can come and unload their cargo. And so it was in the city of Corinth. It was a wealthy city. But because it was a wealthy city, it was indeed a sinful city. You recall that it's to the church of Corinth that the Apostle Paul will write 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians. And in both instances, he has to deal with problems. In chapter 5 of 1 Corinthians, he'll deal with sin. And he has to tell the church to ask a professing Christian and member to leave. Because he's living in incest. And the Bible says even the Gentiles aren't sinning like this. You can't allow this. The Apostle Paul has to be very stern and very forceful on that. In 2 Corinthians, you're going to find the same man repented of his sins, and Paul says, welcoming him back in. I guess that lets us know that no matter how much you mess up, you can get right with God. You can get right with God. People say, oh, pastor, but I've messed up so much. Yes, I know. That happens. And maybe that's not a plan of a human life, but praise God, if you want to get right with God, you can. And God will open up with open arms and receive you unto Himself. And by the way, and that's the way the church ought to be. Welcoming. We're not critiquing one another, we're loving one another. some having compassion, making a difference. So with that in mind, we're going to look at the first eight verses of chapter 18, and we're going to see Paul and Silas going to Corinth. If you found that passage of Scripture, let's stand as we read together, verses 1 through 8. And the Bible says, after these things, Paul departed from Athens and came to Corinth. and found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla, because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome and came unto them. And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them and wrought, for by their occupation they were tentmakers. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. And when they opposed themselves and blasphemed, he shook his raiment and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads. I am clean from henceforth. I will go until the Gentiles. And he departed thence, and entered into a certain man's house, named Justice, one that worshipped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue. And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house. And many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed and were baptized. In this passage of Scripture, we see Paul's ministry at Corinth begin. And I've entitled this message Compassion at Corinth. Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Father, thank you for a church. And thank you for every body of Bible-believing Christians that are gathering around this world to uphold and uplift the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior. And Lord, for every church that would be meeting on a Sunday night, would you bless them, their dear pastor, their wonderful people. And I pray, as the Word of God is preached, that once again you will speak to the hearts of your children, because we've gathered together to hear from our Heavenly Father through His Word, by His Spirit. So, Heavenly Father, I pray that you'll meet with us. I pray that you'll bless us. Holy Ghost of God, please do a work that only you can do. And Lord Jesus, we love you. And we are so honored to be called your children. And we're so grateful you died for us. And you rose triumphant from the grave. And so we pray that you will meet with us. Let us sense your presence. We pray in Jesus' most holy name, Amen. You may be seated. Compassion at Corinth. He'd just come from that intellectual capital, and now he's in this economic capital of the area because of his port city. Very wealthy city. It's one of those cities that everyone has to go in. For instance, the traffic coming up and down the Columbia would, by obvious, have to go through Astoria. But Astoria might not be the port they're looking for, so they come to Portland. And many different areas like that. In California it might be San Francisco that they would make entrance with their ships. Or it might be down at Long Beach where all the ships would line up and come in. There's only a few up and down the coast of the United States. And that's a large area of territory. So you can imagine, even in the ancient world, there's just a few spots that are ideal for ship travel. And so Corinth was just such a city. It's a new city. It was rebuilt by Julius Caesar. It's probably less than 20 or 30 or 40 years old. And here, it is a growing metropolitan city. But it's a wicked city. It's a city that's full of sin and vice and crime. And quite frankly, many times when you find an economic area, you find people who are on the take. You find that things are not always on the up and up. There's people with their hand out. There's corruption. And so it was in that city. The Bible says that in a city such as this, the spirit of the Apostle Paul was stirred. There's three things I want to share with you out of these eight verses. First of all, I want you to see the companions in ministry. Paul's companions in ministry. And let me just say that if you're ever going to build a work for God, you've got to have a team. You've got to have a team. And I praise God for the great apostle Paul, but you're going to find that wherever he went, he had a team. This morning, in our Sunday school class, we're studying about the churches of Galatians, the book of Galatians. We're going through the six chapters of the book of Galatians. But he had brethren with him. He had his team. You see, it's hard to serve God as a lone ranger. Quite frankly, you can't do it all. I started Grandview Baptist Church, and I met singing, and it was pitiful. And I led singing and I preached, but I couldn't give the offering, so I had to just pick two guys out of the audience to take the offering. I don't know if they just got out of jail or where they came from, but I asked them to take the offering, count the offering. Miss Vicki was holding a baby and teaching the children's church and had 17 back in the storage area. It was rough. We didn't have a lot to start with. But later, we were able to get one or two people who could help us be Sunday school teachers. I mentioned our daughter at the age of 11 was a Sunday school teacher. And so she wasn't in regular classes, she was teaching regular classes of children. And did all until she went to Bible college. I'm just saying everybody had to pitch in. But our church started taking off when we had a team. When we had some laymen that come up and said, Pastor, can I serve? Can I help? Oh, man, that's like saying sickum to a dog. I mean, that's good stuff. And yes, you can. Yes, we can. I didn't bother saying, well, tell me your resume. No, if they were breathing, I was ready to use them. I needed help. I wasn't looking at credentials. I wasn't looking at resumes. I was looking for someone who had a heart to serve. And so it is today. These bus captains running their buses trying to pick up people. They've got to have a team. You can be a bus captain, but not much is going to happen unless you get a team together. Same thing with every ministry. Whether it be the orchestra or the choir or a Sunday school class or whatever else, you have to have a team. And they have to work together. Every church has to have a nucleus of people who are on fire for God and excited about the things of God. By the way, I'm thinking I'm preaching to the crowd who's like that. And I'm thrilled to have you in a crowd like that, excited about serving the Lord, wanting to do something, be something for the cause of Jesus Christ. So many, so many dear people of our church are serving, volunteering in so many different capacities. I go through our church and I see so many different ladies who are just volunteering to help. And then I go through the school and I see so many different people who are just volunteering to help. And I appreciate that and I thank God for that. We could not have a ministry without that. And so it was with the great Apostle Paul. As great a Christian as he was, he had to have a team. He had companions. Ministry. Companions. Notice who they were. First of all, they were common people. Notice verses 2 and 3. The Bible says, It says, And found a certain Jew, named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla, because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome, and came unto them. And because he was of the same craft, and abode with them, and wrought by their occupation, they were tentmakers. They were common people. Now, it's going to list several people. You'll see this in verse 3. It mentions Aquila and Priscilla. And then in verse 5, you're going to have two more that's mentioned. That's Timothy and Silas. And you're going to find that this team of workers came together to help the Apostle Paul. Now, first of all, we have Aquila. The Bible tells us that he recently came from Italy. The Bible tells us he was born in Pontus. This was an area that the Apostle Paul had visited on his first missionary journey. So perhaps that's when they first had their acquaintance. But however it worked, they were reunited. And they found that Aquila was already a believer. He was not a person to which the Apostle Paul had led to Christ. It was a man who was already a believer. Perhaps he had left Jerusalem with the dispersion of chapter 8, and he had found himself all the way to Italy. But the Caesar of that day, Claudius Caesar, had said that the Christians were not allowed in his reign in Italy, in that capital country of Rome. And so they had to flee for their lives and flee persecution. So he comes now to Corinth. Paul and Aquila recognize each other and they start serving God together. The Bible tells us they had the same craft. Both were tent makers. The Apostle Paul, you understand, was an itinerant preacher. In other words, though he had some churches from time to time fund his work, he worked with his own hands, supplying his own needs. He was what you'd call an itinerant pastor. And praise God for the many pastors around this country who have to work a secular job in order to pastor a few godly people and praise God for them. I would never look down on a pastor who has to work for a living. I praise God for a man who's willing to. Many different times in the history of my ministry, I've had to work. I pastored my first church when I was just 21 years of age and was there for 18 months. That was a full-time position. Not a full-time pay, but a full-time position. But they built us a wonderful house, and my wife and I picked everything in it. And it would have been an ideal place to stay, except there were more cows than people. And I wanted to see a lot of people saved. And there just wasn't much opportunity for that. So I resigned that church, thinking God would send me to some metropolitan area. But He sent me to 15 people who wanted to start a church in Conway, Arkansas. And at that time, the city was only about 12,000 people. Today, I'm told that the city is over a hundred thousand people. It's grown so much. Just a boom in the city, north of Little Rock. But you know, it's just a small city in that area. I knocked on every door six times myself while I was there. And, you know, I wanted to do something for the cause of Christ. I wanted to reach people for the Lord Jesus Christ. But they started that, and they had 15 people. They couldn't pay me a full-time salary. At that time, I got $400 a month. Half of that was the rent for the house that we rented. And the house that we rented was a very old house, and so we couldn't make by with that. We had to pay up the difference. But also, I went and got a job. I worked at Sears for a while, at a Sears catalog place, and I worked there for about a year and a half until finally our church grew up big enough that they could pay me a little bit more, and finally we could live off that. You know, I started Grandview Baptist Church 30 years ago with 75 people, and God bless, and it was phenomenal. On our four-year anniversary, we had 395, and we were running 250 strong being only four years old. But at four and a half years of age, we pulled out of a denomination which they didn't care for that much. And they sued us as a church. And those were little rough days to go through and froze all of our accounts and all of our money. And quite frankly, we just voted to give it all away and start all over again with 80 people. Five years later, we start with five more than we started with five years earlier. Now, if you don't think that takes a little wind out of your sail, that can deflate you a little bit. Those were hard times, but I couldn't afford to think about that. I just had to keep thinking, go forward, go forward, go forward, go forward. And slowly and consistently, God started blessing. But there's been three different times in the 30 year history of our church that I've worked a secular job. Not full time, but sometimes I worked at night, sometimes I'd go to work at 11 at night and I'd get off at four in the morning. I'd work five or six hours during the middle of the night and then I'd get up in the late morning and then I'd go around. doing church work and knocking on doors, visiting people, meeting people, then I'd go get some sleep, and then I'd go to work at 11 at night, and then I'd get off at 4 or 5 in the morning sometimes, and start that over and over, and I did that for many years. And by the way, I never thought a thing of that. There's been history, there's been times in the history of our church where either the economy changed or just the income just dropped through the floor and we couldn't pay our bills. And so we're going to pay our bills even if we don't pay our salaries. We're going to pay those bills. And one of the reasons why I get up and sometimes say, well, we're a little low. We need to give. I might have a little selfish motive. I'd rather not go out and try to find another job at age 60. But we do that if we have to. There was a time when six of our men were on staff and they all went out and got another job in addition to all the work that they did here at the church. I'm just saying. Paul did the same thing. That's nothing strange. That's been a part of Christianity forever. And don't think that, oh, I feel so bad for a pastor. Listen, it's times like that that make us who we are. Remember that. It's always those tough times that you never like being a part of that make you who you are. The good times of life rarely add little to your character. The good times add, we all like those good times, but they add little to your character. Those tough times, when your back's up against the wall and you find out how real God is, that's what builds character. And the Apostle Paul faced that over and over and over again. Now Aquila was a faithful servant and a companion in that he had the same occupation of being a tentmaker. The Bible tells us about Priscilla, his wife. Her and her husband became great workers for the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, look at chapter 18 and verses 24 through 26. And the Bible says, And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus. This man was instructed in the way of the Lord, being fervent in the spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John. And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue, who, when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly." You see, this was a layman couple. But a layman couple that was greatly used of God. Great churches. Let me just say this. Great churches are not built by great pastors. Great churches are built by great laymen. Great laymen. Men and women that just give themselves to the work of God. Faithful Sunday school teachers who year after year after year stand in their place. Like the 300 of Gideon, it says, every man stood in their place. That's why the battle was won. Now, I know the preacher gets the spotlight on him and the several spotlights, but he doesn't do the work. He tries to inspire all of us to do the work. I'm one of those who do the work, but I'm just one. All of us have to be actively engaged in this work and this cause of Christ. And all of us have to be aggressively involved. And so let me just challenge you, if you don't think that's you, if you're not aggressively involved in the work of God, I hope that tonight the Spirit of God would so speak to your heart that you'd say, listen, I'm not going to just waste my life. I'm not just going to live my life. I'm going to use my life for the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ. Doesn't mean you can't go on vacations and hunting and fishing and do some of those things. But it does mean that the drive of your life is to serve the risen Savior. Let that be the drive of your life. Oh, praise God for the many faithful laymen, like Aquila and Priscilla. In 1 Corinthians 16, verse 19, the Bible says, the churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla salute you, much in the Lord, with the church that is in their house. Oh, that's interesting. I told you he's not a preacher. They're laymen. But they've opened up their home for a house church. See, back in those days, that's all they had. And so they open up their house for God's people to meet. Godly, dedicated, sold-out laymen. The Bible says in Romans 16, verse 3, greet Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus. My helpers. What a wonderful thought. I think of these last 30 years, all the good helpers God's given me. Don Lyrum was one of those who's in heaven now. But he was one of those good helpers, faithful, loyal as could be. Know that every church could experience a revival of laymen who have given their heart to the cause of Christ to serve in their local New Testament church. Serve Christ through their church. The Bible tells us then also in chapter, verse 5, the first part of verse 5 about Silas and Timotheus, who is called Timothy. Now, Silas is companion on the second and third missionary journey. And Timothy, who was Paul's son in the ministry. You see, it's interesting that Timothy came from Lystra. Now, here's a man who had a Jewish mother who became a Christian, and so his grandmother as well. But his father was an unbelieving Greek. But he came from the city of Lystra, which is important because it was in Lystra where Paul the Apostle was stoned and left for dead. It was there he was persecuted for the testimony of Jesus Christ, for the preaching of God's Word. And he was stoned to death and left dragged outside the city and left for dead. And disciples gathered around him and God gave his life back to him. Even the Apostle Paul said of himself, whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know. Whether he was alive or he was dead, even Paul himself didn't know. But I do know this, the people who were stoning him thought he was dead or they would have kept the rocks coming. And he was dragged out of the city, left as he was dead. But there was a young man of that city who the Apostle Paul no doubt got to preach to before he got stoned. And that young man had to be Timothy because him and his mother and his grandmother were of the same city. That was the first missionary journey. And it's interesting that after he revived, he went to Derby and after he went to Derby, guess what happened? He went right back to Lystra. Well, Paul, that's where they just found you. I know, but I didn't finish my message. I want to get that. I'm in a series. I've got to get those other few points there, you know? And so he goes back and he preaches the rest. And no doubt Timothy saw that and was challenged by that. And his mother Lois and his grandmother Eunice had to be challenged by that. And so this young man is now a helper here in Corinth and comes and helps him as he preaches the Word of God. will be so endeared to the Apostle Paul that he'll write 1st Timothy and 2nd Timothy. And the very last letter that will ever be penned by the Apostle Paul will be 2nd Timothy. That's when he'll say, I ran a good race. I finished my course. Henceforth, there's laid up for me great treasure. You see, he knows that soon he's going to be put to death. And he writes, the son of the ministry he loves the most, young Timothy. What I'm saying is he had companions in the ministry. They were common people. They were dedicated people. They were consecrated people. Aquila and Priscilla and Silas and Timothy. But notice, secondly, his compassion in the ministry. In verse five, the Bible says, And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. He was preaching the word of God. He was pressed in his spirit. Now that, it means he was driven by his desire to share with them the truth. He was a Jew. And there were fellow Jews in Corinth. And Corinth is not a Jewish city. Corinth is a Gentile city. But here in the synagogue is a collection of Jews. And he's so moved by his own people. He's so moved to share the Gospel with them. You're going to find in Romans 9, he said, I could wish myself a curse for my brethren. Literally, it's saying, If it were possible, I would go to hell so the Jews could go to heaven. Oh, think how weighty that is. But that's exactly how he felt about the Jewish people. And yet, time after time, they rejected, they rejected, they rejected. But his heart was for his people. Even though he's the apostle to the Gentiles, he'll always share the gospel to the Jews first, and then the Gentiles. He's moved by his compassion, pressed in the Spirit, motivated, driven to get the message. Now, the Bible tells us he was motivated basically in two ways. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 11, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. But we are made manifest unto God, and I trust also are made manifest in your conscience. Now, he's at Corinth. The letter he will later write is to the Corinthians. This is 1 Corinthians, chapter 5, verse 11. He says, Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. So one of his great motivating factors was hell. See, he didn't want anyone to go to hell. But he didn't want his people to go to hell. He didn't want his people to go to hell. I know when we had the funeral yesterday. I know Kathy and her family were praying for some of their relatives that they know, if not, trust that Christ is their Savior. Now, whether they got saved or not, I do not know. They did not raise their hand indicating that. But our hope is that they heard a clear presentation of the gospel. But you see, when it's your loved ones, you want them to get saved. It's not a matter of, well, I want them to come to our church. It's not a matter of where they place their membership. It's not a matter of where they go to church. It's heaven or hell. We don't want anyone to go to hell. We want to share the gospel. We don't want people to go to hell. My wife's grandfather, well, she had two grandfathers. Both of those were not Christians. Their wives were Christians, their children were Christians, but they were not Christians. Her one grandfather on her father's side was getting up in years and he was starting to get a little senile, but he had not yet trusted Christ as his personal savior. And he was loose at it sometimes. And then and then and then he'd be very, very understanding. And then and then and then he would not know where he was and what was going on. And I remember visiting one day and and Vicki's mother had asked me if I'd be willing to talk to her father-in-law. And I said, of course I would. And so I went back. It was interesting. He had a house. And then in the backyard, he had a little room, but that's where he liked to stay. Ladies, treat your husband so nice, they want to stay in the same house with you. I don't know why he lived back there, so I didn't ask, but it was just different. And so he lived back here in this like one room efficiency apartment. And so I went back there. and talk with him, and he was very clear, and I got to share the gospel with him, and he trusted Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. And he was a good man, he was just lost. Now, she also had a grandfather on her mother's side, and he was not a good man. He never was a good man until he got saved. an alcoholic, he was abusive, he was pretty much any bad thing you could imagine. That was her grandfather. That's why her mother ran away and left house at 16 and married at 16. Had Vicky at 17. It wasn't a fun place to be. But you see, she still wanted her father saved. And she would pray and pray. Shirley would just pray and pray for her dad to be saved. And then her mother got saved later in life. And then she started praying. Her mother, Vicki's grandmother, is still alive. And she is 96 years of age and still in pretty good health. And a very devout Christian. Very devout. God-fearing lady. Wasn't always that way, but is now. But she prayed for her husband over and over and over to get saved. There's times she would beg and plead for him to get saved, and he'd smack her in the face. He's broken some of her teeth out. Very bad situation. But see, she grew up in that generation that you just stayed. And whatever happened, happened. And that's where she was. But as he got a little older, I was visiting there and I was asked, Mike, would you go talk to him? I said, yes, I will. By the way, he didn't like preachers. Didn't like preachers. He thought every preacher was a charlatan. He thought every preacher was a televangelist. Give me, give me, give me, give me. He thought every preacher was a crook. But I went and talked to him and he listened. He liked me. Didn't like preachers, though I was a preacher, but he liked me. And I would talk with him. And I shared the gospel with him. And I asked him, I said, would you consider trusting Jesus Christ as your personal Savior? And then what he said surprised me, he said, I already have. There's not much evidence of it, you know, what do you mean? And I said, when did that happen? He said, last night, I couldn't sleep, got up and I was watching TV and Billy Graham was preaching. And he preached the gospel, and he gave an imitation, and he told me what to pray, and I prayed last night, and asked Jesus to come into my heart. You know, he lived for about a year and a half after that. He got a sickness, he passed away very quickly. But he started going to church with his wife, and he just changed. He stopped drinking, God just turned his life all around. He was a terrible sinner, and he became a saint. And that's the transformation that only Jesus Christ can make. Only Jesus Christ can make. And so we see here the compassion of the Apostle Paul. Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. But he had another motivating factor. In 2 Corinthians 5, verse 14, For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead. He said, I have two great motivating factors in life. It's the wrath of God and the love of God. I don't want people to go to hell. And Christ loved me so much, how can I but not speak up for Him? That's the motivating factor of the love of Christ constraining me. Because He loved me so much, how can I be mute when it comes to sharing the gospel? How can I but speak up a good word for the Lord Jesus Christ? How can I be silent in a world that curses the name of Jesus and I say nothing good for the name of Jesus? How can that be? The love of Christ constraineth me. I don't want anyone to go to hell. But even if they're going to go, I still love Jesus enough to share the good news with them. The love of Christ. Boy, it ought to shake every Christian to the roots. He cared enough to die on Calvary for all of us. We were hellbound. Now we're heavenbound. How can we not? No doubt, Julie, that's what motivated you to go talk to those ladies. And ten of them are heavenbound now. Praise the Lord. Let the love of Christ constrain us. It's not. It is the fact that God loved us so much that He died for us, that it's our desire to do something for the God who gave His all for us. Jesus, You died for us. How can I but speak a good word for You? By the way, we gave those tracts out this morning. I hope this week you're going to pass those out. Speak up a good word for the Savior who died for you. Let the love of Christ constrain you. He was pressed in His Spirit. He testified of the Lord Jesus Christ. His pressing Spirit led to the preaching of God's Word. Let our drive to reach people allow us to speak up a good word for Jesus Christ. And then finally, we see Paul's conviction in ministry. In verses 6-8, He starts preaching in the synagogue. And notice his conviction for soul winning. The Bible tells us in verse 6, And when they opposed themselves in blaspheme, he shook his raiment and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own hands. I am clean from henceforth. I will go unto the Gentiles. Notice his conviction for soul winning. He didn't say, You don't want to hear. I quit. No, sir. He said, you don't want to hear. I'll go somewhere else. Years ago, I was knocking on some doors with some one of my men, and it was in northeast Portland. And it just so happened, it happened to be an area that he grew up. In fact, he said it was the same street he grew up as on a child. No one lived there anymore, but he grew up in one of those houses. And we're knocking on the door. And everyone is, how should I say this, belligerent. You know, there's some people, you knock on their door and they say, oh, thank you very much. They're not interested. But some people want to tell you how non-interested they are. I don't care. No, no, we don't go to church. We don't want to have anything to do with church. So I knocked on the next door. Now, we don't we don't believe in that. No, no, we're not going. No, no, no. Sorry, you came to the wrong place. Go to the next door. I mean, the whole street was like that. I went halfway through the street, we went to about 10 of the houses. It was about, oh, three blocks long and we were going to cross over and come back three blocks. We went a block and a half and not one person was even kind. I said, follow me. I went back and got in my car and we drove 10 blocks over and started knocking doors again. He said, why did we do that? I said, I want to go where somebody's interested. You're going to find this, you know, you've heard that expression, birds of a feather flock together. You will always find this in soul winning when you find an area where people are receptive to the gospel. It's like people around them are receptive to the gospel. And if you go to area where people are hateful of the gospel, you're going to find that everyone around them is hateful to the gospel. Just move, just move next door. Just just just go a few blocks over. And, you know, we got to lead two or three people to Christ that night because we found some people who are receptive. So maybe you're witnessing in your factory and you say, Pastor, I'm trying to speak up for Christ and there's not anybody there interested. Well, then go somewhere else. I don't mean get a job somewhere else, but I mean witness somewhere. Don't just stop. We have his conviction in soul winning. He cared enough to go. He said, I will go to the Gentiles. Notice his continuance in soul winning. And I love this. He says, you Jews, you don't want to hear the gospel. You're causing me all this trouble. I'm going to go to the Gentiles. So he goes next door. He goes right next door. The Bible says this guy's house is hard pressed against the synagogue. See, the Apostle Paul loved the Jews so much, he couldn't go far from them. But he went right next door. And the man got saved. The man lets him in. And he starts preaching the Word of God. And notice what happens. The Bible says the ruler of the synagogue, which is right next door, whose name is Crispin, he gets saved. You see, they wouldn't let him preach in the synagogue. They blaspheme him when he preached in the synagogue. So he goes next door and preaches loud enough so everyone next door can hear him. And all of a sudden, the head of the synagogue starts listening. And Paul's quoting Old Testament scripture. And he said, boy, that makes sense. Oh, yeah, that's right. Oh, yeah, that's the Messiah. Oh, yeah. Oh. Oh, I get it. Jesus is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. He's the Messiah. He's the Son of God. He's the Savior of the world. And he comes to Paul and says, I get it. And he trusts Christ as his Savior. And God gives Paul a fruitful ministry because the Bible says, and many Corinthians trusted Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. Why? He did not give up. He did not give up. Now, I know you'll go to someone and they won't be interested, but don't give up because there's always people interested. There's always people interested. Always is. Always will be. People are interested. Not everyone. Paul said it this way, I've become all things to all men that I might by all means save some. Some. And you'll find at the end of the books of Acts, he says he was preaching the gospel for two years and some believed, some believed. You know, the Bible talks of broad way leads to destruction and narrow way leads to life eternal. And few there be that find it. But those few are some. And we share the gospel. Everyone will not receive it, but some will. Aren't you glad you were one of those some? Aren't you glad somebody shared it with you? And I guarantee you, tonight in a room like this, there are some people, the first time you heard it, you weren't interested in it. But aren't you glad that God gave you a second chance, a third chance, another chance? And He was patient with you? The compassion and the consistency Paul's conviction in ministry. Crispus got saved. The chief ruler of the synagogue. Many Christians received. And some will always receive the message. I just believe when I go soul-wondering that there's going to be some people that want to trust Christ as their Savior. I don't always find them. But I know they're there. Last Thursday, we had a good night. Knocked on the door of a young lady who was probably maybe 25 years of age. She was with her family. And she stood at the door and I shared the gospel. And she gladly received Christ as her Savior. Miss Vicki was my partner. And I was talking to a young man. I knocked on the door and asked him if he knew if he died today, he'd go to heaven. He says, or not so sure. He said, no, I'm not so sure. I said, I bet you'd like to go to heaven, wouldn't you? He said, yes. I said, wonderful. I said, well, Miss Vicki, my wife is going to tell you. And and so she took over and shared the gospel. I went. It was on the upstairs. I went down the steps and I started looking for other people. But about five minutes later, she came down the steps and I said, did the young man get saved? She said, yes. He trusted Jesus Christ as his savior. I thought, praise the Lord. You know, some will always get saved. Some. We can't win a world to Christ, but we can win some. We can't harvest the whole field, but we can all have some sheaves in our hands. We can all go with some fruit. There was an old song that used to be sung. Can I go? Must I go and empty hand it? Must I meet my Savior so? You don't want to stand before God empty-handed. If He saved you, you wanted to at the very least share that gospel with somebody else and see them come to faith in Christ.