Maybe seated. And if you would. Turn to Acts, chapter 19. Acts, chapter 19. If you remember, last week as we started Acts chapter 19, we know that Priscilla and Aquila had gone to Ephesus with Paul. Paul then leaves and continues on his journey. Apollos is there. He's a believer in Jesus Christ, but a follower of John needs to be instructed more fully. And then we find that there are at least 12 disciples that are in Ephesus, followers of John the Baptist, who have not only followers of John and followed in John the Baptist baptism of repentance, but we also find of them that they have not believed in Jesus Christ for salvation. And so the point of the text last week was not that we know in what order baptism versus indwelling versus all of those things happen, although Paul is very concerned about that in other places. He's more concerned that they're believers in Jesus Christ before he is whether they grasp the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. So first become a believer and then we'll instruct you further in the doctrines of the spirit. The doctrines of the spirit are not unimportant. We need to know them as believers. But what's more important to an unbeliever to grasp hypothetically in which way the spirit comes to people? Or is it more important for them to grasp that Jesus Christ, the savior of the world, that they do not believe they will spend eternity in hell? So Paul's first point of business is to see them come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and then to instruct believers later on. Now, today we're going to look at another Great text and it's Acts chapter 19 verses 8 to 20. Ever since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, members of the human race have been in rebellion against God and having, or at least so they think, torn off the chains of God and the fetters which bind them of God. They imagine themselves to be free. But in reality, They've become enslaved to sin and to Satan and their minds have been blinded. And this is exactly where we find the people at Ephesus as Paul begins his ministry. He's now come back from his journey. He's back in Ephesus. Apollos is now gone over to Corinth. And so they've just missed each other. But here in Ephesus, Ephesus is as a notorious center for the occult and for the magic arts. I just praise God that God is greater than the roaring line that seeks to devour us. Praise God that God is greater than any demon or Satan himself. And we'll see this today. So let's start in verse eight and verse eight says this. Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God. And so Paul shows again that the first step to unleashing the power of the word of God through the person of the Holy Spirit of God is to talk it or to preach it or to proclaim it again. If we don't proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, zero people will come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. The word and the proclamation of the word is necessary for salvation. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. If we do not proclaim, people will not believe. And so Paul understands very clearly the first step in unleashing the power of the word of God and unleashing the Holy Spirit upon the people of this world is to proclaim the word of God. But this is not just a public preaching of the word. Remember, Paul enters in the synagogue, not as the preacher or the reader of the scrolls, but rather when Paul enters the synagogue, he enters as a Jewish person who's ready to sit and discuss. He uses question-and-answer format. He dialogues with the people. He does, again, question-and-answers. He responds to their questions and to their challenges about who Jesus Christ is in the Old Testament Scriptures, and he argues persuasively about the Kingdom of God. Now, the Kingdom of God encompasses more than just a literal 1,000-year reign of Jesus Christ on the earth. That's not what Paul is preaching to them, but rather Paul, when he preaches the kingdom of God, is teaching Jesus Christ and his salvation. We find this in Acts chapter 28, verse 31, when it says boldly and without hindrance, he preached the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ. So to teach about the kingdom of God for the apostle Paul is to teach how Jesus Christ came to earth in the flesh. is to teach how to enter into God's salvation rest now and how to live in communion or in unity with God, as we talked about last week, being in union with God. We're sons and daughters of God. We're dead to sin. We're alive to Christ. Paul is teaching them. Here's the kingdom of God living in unity with God and how to submit to Christ. Kingly reign right now as he sits at the right hand of the father ruling over all of his creation. Now, certainly I'm sure that Paul had in his mind a thousand year reign of Christ. However, the kingdom of God encompasses so much more than a one thousand year reign of Jesus Christ. So to talk about the kingdom of God is to talk about salvation. It is to talk about Jesus Christ in the flesh, the historical Jesus, and how to have a relationship with this Jesus who reigns over all of his creation. However, While Paul was able to teach about the kingdom of God in the synagogue of the Jews for three months. the inevitable finally happened. And we find this in verse nine. Some of them became obstinate and refused to believe and publicly maligned the way. Now, the word obstinate or some of you in your translation have the word they hardened themselves is a word that is always, every time used in the New Testament to speak of a heart that is hardened against God. It's never used of just a hardening process, let's say, in a making of bread, or it's never used in a hardening process of any other instrument like iron or steel. It is always used of a heart that is hardened or is obstinate towards God. Let me just give you a few verses where this is used. Romans 9 18. Therefore, God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy and he hardens. whom he wants to harden. That's hardened against God. Hebrews chapter 3 and verses 8, 13 and 15. In Hebrews chapter 3 verse 8 it says, Do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion during the time of testing in the desert. So remember how Israel was rebellious against God in the desert and they didn't want to follow after God. They followed after idols. He says, don't harden your hearts like your forefathers did. In verse 13, it says, But encourage one another daily as long as it's called today so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. There's an aspect in which you harden your own heart. There's an aspect by which sin tricks you into being hardened. And there's an aspect, as we looked at the verse previous, that God hardens you. So all of those things we must hold to be true. We must not emphasize one over another. but rather they're all true. Verse 15. As just has been said, today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion. We've just seen that and we're going to see it again. This is a popular theme throughout Hebrews. Don't act like your forefathers did. Trust Jesus Christ as Messiah and follow him. Don't have hard hearts. Hebrews 4, 7. Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it today. When a long time later, he spoke to David as was said before today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. So we get the picture here, right, that people are being hardened. This isn't just a theological term and this isn't a doctrinal understanding. Hearts are being hardened, some by God, some by sin's deceitfulness, some by our own hardening. But we need to notice something about this word in this passage in particular. The word obstinate or hardening is in the imperfect tense, which means nothing to you if you don't know Greek. And I understand that. But let me kind of explain it to you. This tells us that the hardening of their hearts towards God was a process. OK. In this passage, the hardening of their hearts towards God is a process. So for three months, Paul's been in the synagogue and he's teaching the word of God. And you need to know that each day he's, when it's not synagogue time, when it's not the Sabbath, he's out talking to these same people about the same text, trying to show them and persuade them that Jesus is the Christ. Paul is not content to go to church on Saturday. And then another Saturday, and then another Saturday, hoping that in that small amount of time, he will convince people of what the truth of the word is. Or rather, he's talking to them on a daily basis, saying, this is what the word of God says to you. And he's showing them from the Old Testament. And for three months, some of the people in the synagogue hear the words, and each time they hear the word, or they see him on the street, and they hear him speak, each time they get a little more hard to the gospel. Paul says, Jesus Christ is a savior. And I don't think so. And then he presents it again and he says, this is what the Old Testament means when there will be a suffering servant. And they say, no, absolutely not. And then he shows them again from the Old Testament what's going to happen to Jesus Christ in crucifixion and that he'll be born of a virgin. They say that is not a prophecy of Jesus. And more and more and more, as Paul speaks the word, the harder and harder and harder and harder their hearts get. And that's the idea is that this has been a process for three months. Paul proclaims the word and it falls on deaf ears. They refuse to listen. As a matter of fact, they're not just deaf. They're hard hearted. The very thing that they're commanded not to be is Jewish people. Don't be hardening your hearts towards the God of your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They are becoming progressively more and more and more hard until eventually the gospel is an aroma of death. That's second Corinthians chapter two, verses 15 and 16. We would never desire this to be so, but it is so. Paul says, for we are to God, the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. Isn't that interesting? He could have said, you're the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved because that'd be a sweet smell. They're coming to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and they say, I love you, Jesus. But he says, you're also an aroma among those who are not believing, whose hearts are continually becoming more and more and more hard to the gospel, to the one we are the smell of death. That's to the ones who are perishing because they will not believe the ones whose hearts are getting harder and harder and harder because they continue to reject the word of God. But to believers, we are the fragrance of life. This is why we can teach the word of God and to some they love it and to others they hate it. It's because to one, it is the fragrance of life and to the other, the fragrance of death. We should recognize something else as well. They're refusing to repent of their sin and believe in Jesus Christ for salvation is a sin. Have you ever thought about that? To not believe in Jesus Christ when he is presented to you is a sin. Look back at Romans, excuse me, at Acts chapter 17, verse 30. In the past, God overlooked such ignorance. This is before Jesus Christ is on the scene, before he revealed the glory of the father. But now he commands all people everywhere to repent and believe. What does he command all people to do? Repent and believe. What do we call it when we disobey God? Sin. So here are people dying in their sin. And God is saying, here's the remedy. And they are hardening their hearts towards God, saying, I would rather live in my sin. Hardening their hearts. Their very disbelief of Jesus Christ is the sin that is sending them to hell. But they now reject the gospel inwardly. and continue to become more and more hardened to the gospel, the inward rejection manifested outwardly when they publicly maligned the way. See, it's not enough for them to say, I am not going to believe in Jesus Christ. I will not trust him. I do not believe he's Messiah and you can't make me. Their heart's hard. But their heart and heart works itself out on the outside because they become obstinate to the way and they begin to publicly malign Paul and they begin to publicly malign the proclamation of the gospel. So they begin to speak evil, the way of Jesus Christ, the way of salvation. And they begin this aggressive campaign and and slander of Paul before the multitudes of people in an attempt to destroy his influence on them. So look at Paul's response. Verse nine. So Paul left them. Isn't that interesting? So Paul left and he took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. And this went on for two years so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord. Now this is right back to what we talked about two weeks ago. Although Paul doesn't say he shakes the dust off of them, Paul readily admits that he can't make people believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ. And if they won't believe and they continue to malign him and continue to slander him and continue to say Jesus Christ is not the way, then Paul says, I wish I could stay and I love my people, the Jews, but because you're so hard, your hearts are so calloused. I can't stay here. And he leaves. And he goes over to a public hall in the town, in Ephesus. Paul, realizing that nothing more could be done in the synagogue, and because his teachings are falling on deaf ears, he goes to the hall of Tyrannus. which was a public lecture hall used by the public, but namely by a teacher named Tyranus. Now, we don't know if that was his official name or if that was the name given to him by his students, because usually historians record what people call others. If that's true, then his students called him the tyrant. I find that interesting. Whether that's true or not, whether he is actually the tyrant named by students or whether his parents in a moment of levity decided to name their son the tyrant, I'm not sure. But it is his hall. And this is what FF Bruce tells us. Tyrannus no doubt held his classes in the early morning hours Public activity ceased in the cities of Ionia for several hours at 11 a.m. And he says that more people be asleep at 1 p.m. Than 1 a.m. So there was a siesta time all right between 11 and the midday hours where was incredibly hot and they would take a break Paul ceased from leather working and would start in tent making and he would start teaching during these hot hours in the hall. But Paul, after spending the early hours of the day at his tent making, that's Acts chapter 20 verse 34, he devoted the hours of burden and heat to his more important and more exhausting business and must have infected his hearers with his own energy and zeal so they were willing to sacrifice their siesta for the sake of listening to Paul. So here's Paul in the midday hours when most people are saying, hey, we need to take a Paul says, perfect, while you guys are sleeping your lives away, we're going to be studying the text of the Word of God, and hopefully this will take root in the people of Ephesus, and it will spread throughout all of the world. And by the way, Paul didn't just maintain his schedule of leatherworking and then teaching. By the way, Paul not married, okay? Before you think it's a really good idea to exhaust all of your efforts away from your family, recognize Paul's not married and he sees that this is a benefit to him, not because he doesn't love women and not because they aren't great gifts from God, but he can dedicate himself wholly to the teaching of Scripture so that the Word of God and the glory of God will be sent throughout all of the known world. So here's Paul with a grueling schedule and it says he does it for two years. Leatherwork six seven to eleven in the morning teach the Word of God all afternoon long and don't don't misunderstand me He doesn't check out at four or five Then we find out in Acts chapter 28 that he's going from house to house after he's done teaching the hall Continuing to teach people in their homes. So a grueling schedule in Ephesus for two years for the Apostle Paul and what is the result of Paul's efforts? Efforts, verse 10, all the Jews and Greeks who live in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord. Now, can you see Paul's evangelism strategy here? Yes, Paul's a missionary. And yes, he loves going out to all the people, but he also recognizes that there's benefit in him not doing all the work. He's not called to do all the work. As an elder, he's called to train others to do the work. We have no historical or biblical evidence to say that Paul ever left Ephesus to reach all of the province of Asia. But rather his strategy was teach the word of God in the hall of Tyrannus in a public hall to believers and even unbelievers so that they might come to a believing knowledge of God and then to send them as disciples all over the known world. So Paul can stay in Ephesus, but he can equip all of the world with teachers of the word of God and to prove that this is God's gospel and that God is spreading his gospel were provided with undeniable evidence that the gospel of Jesus Christ was true and that Paul was teaching that because it said God did extraordinary miracles through Paul. So that even handkerchiefs and aprons that he had touched were taken to the sick and their illnesses were cured and evil spirits left them. So literally, the sweatbands that Paul would wear on his head for leatherworking and tent making, because remember the tents are made of leather, the sweatbands that he would use and the apron that he would tie around himself to do all that work so he's not burned by the hot fire that they would stoke there for their leatherworking and for all the tools that he probably held in his front tool belt. I was going to say chest, but it'd be hard to carry around a whole tool chest. In his tool belt there, What was happening was that. The handkerchiefs, the the very headbands that Paul wore and discarded the aprons that he would discard, people would take them and they would run throughout Ephesus. and allow sick people to touch them that were diseased and demon possessed people to touch them. And it says that they were healed of their diseases and the evil spirits left these people. And I want to be very clear before you try to explain away the fact that this happened and that this is a true miracle of God, because these miracles were essential to Paul being validated by Jesus Christ. Remember in Acts chapter 2, how will they know? Joel 2 of Acts 2. How will we know when it is the time of the Spirit? Because your young men will dream dreams and they'll have visions and they'll do miracles, right? And all these things will happen. This is the day of the Spirit. And the men who are having the gospel of Jesus Christ will be able to take this out, empowered as apostles to be able to cast out demons and to be able to heal diseases in faith for the gospel of Jesus Christ. If Paul is not able to do authenticating miracles of the gospel, he is not an apostle of Jesus Christ. This is a legitimate miracle. And it's essential because Ephesus is steeped in the occult. You think that these people can't do magic? You think that they, like Moses in the Old Testament, remember Moses goes into the court of Pharaoh and throws his rod down and becomes a serpent? And what do the magicians in Pharaoh's court do? The exact same miracle, right? And then Moses' snake comes and swallows up theirs. Let's be honest here. We're not saying that demons and Satan doesn't exist. They do! And they give power to people. They do. The greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world. This group of people is steeped in the occult and Paul's message needed to be known that it was from God and not from Satan, and these are things that only God was going to do. And because of these miracles, which authenticated Paul as an apostle and authenticated the message of the gospel, people's hearts were prepared to hear the message of the gospel coming right after the miracle. Isn't that interesting? So all of a sudden these people are getting healed and people around them are going, who did this? It says God did. God did these through Paul. Paul never went around going, hey, look what I can do. God did this through Paul and Paul points to the glory of God and these people hearts are prepared now to believe and trust Jesus Christ. And so the gospel message is traveling through Ephesus quickly and all throughout the province of Asia because God is doing amazing works. But where God works, there are always people ready to capitalize for their own profit and for their own fame to make a name for themselves. This is what verse 13 tells us. Having seen the the power that was in the name of Jesus. And seeing what the name of Jesus could do for them, verse 13, some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon possessed. And they would say in the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you. To come out. This man, his name's John Paul, tells us that ancient magicians were syncretist and would borrow terms from any religion that sounded sufficiently strange to be effective. These. These Jewish exorcists of Ephesus. We're only plying their trade, Paul's spells in Jesus name seem pretty effective for Paul, for him, so they gave it a try, however. God is not a genie. As much as we may desire that he be, he is not a genie that is used for our purposes, but rather we are instruments used for God's purposes. And you may not think that that's a very big distinction for us to make. But it is crucial to us understanding who we are and who God is. God is not a genie. We do not possess our Bibles, take them home, rub them like a lamp, and then out pops God to grant us our three wishes for the day. Although oftentimes that's how we treat him and we are wrong to do so. We need to think differently about what we desire from God. If God is not at our beckoning call, but rather we are at God's beckoning call, then we begin to view things very differently. Let me give you just one illustration of this. Matthew chapter 6, verses 9 and 10. It's when the disciples have asked Jesus, how should we pray? This then is how you should pray, Jesus says. Our Father in heaven hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. If God is not our genie to be requesting three wishes of for our self-satisfaction and our desires. Then we will start asking that God's will would be done and not our will would be done. Some of you will say, then you're saying that we shouldn't ask God for things because of his will is going to be done. It's going to be done and we shouldn't even pray. That is not what the scriptures tell us to erase that and banish that from your minds. Of course, we are to ask God for things. He tells us to ask him for when God receives praise and glory, because we come running to him and say, you're the great giver and we can't supply for ourselves. God gets the glory and God gets the glory when he gives us the help. So God loves to answer our prayers. Yes, we glorify God by asking him. If God is the giver of all good gifts, then when we run to God and ask him to answer our prayers, we're acknowledging that God is the giver and we're in need of his help. And this brings glory to God. But. We also need to pray that God's will be done. This is because we then recognize that we are not all knowing and we do not have a sovereign plan for the rest of the world. We recognize that when we pray, we may be asking God for something that is not in our best interest or in our church's best interest or in our neighbor's best interest. It seemed good to me that I would pray for this and that God would be glorified through it, but God doesn't grant it because it isn't best for me. He withholds it because as his children, he wants what's best for us, not what we think is best for our selves. God is there to do what will bring him the most glory, and as God's people, we want God to receive the most glory. And if we would rather have things for ourselves and remove God from getting glory from the equation, then we have not rightly understood our place and God's place over us. This is something that the sons of Sceva did not consider in their plan to cast out demons. To them, God was very much Aladdin's genie. God very much is a magical charm that we wear or rub. He is the proverbial godly rabbit's foot or the cross that we kiss before we go to the plate to bat. He is a lucky charm. But look at what happens. Verse 14, seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish priest, were doing this. And on one day, the evil spirit answered them, Jesus, I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you? And then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. And he gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding. This is interesting. This demon knew that unbelievers had absolutely no power over him. They didn't matter what name they came in or what they came to do. Unbelievers cannot control demons. By the way, neither can believers. That's God's control. But they came as unbelievers in the name of Jesus Christ, because wasn't that what worked for Paul? and saying that it's the Jesus who Paul proclaims, that seems to one-up it, doesn't it? Like, not just any Jesus, just in case there's a Jesus around that we're unaware of, right? We want to make sure we've got the right Jesus, so it's the one Paul's proclaiming, we're going to cast you out. And he says, Jesus, I know, and I know Paul, but who are you? The demon knew who Jesus Christ was. And he knew that Paul had been given authority by God as an apostle to cast out demons. But who in the world are these seven guys that have entered this house to cast me out? The demon really challenged the authority of the unbelievers to use Jesus name as a lucky charm. The the demon is really challenging to say, he's not your God. I don't have to go anywhere. You are abusing the name of Jesus Christ and I don't have to listen because you don't come in the name of Jesus Christ for God's glory. You come in the name of Jesus, who's not your God for your own fame and. glory. And because these men weren't Jesus and had not been given power by Jesus to cast out demon, verse 16 says that the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them, overpowered them and gave them such a beating they ran out of the house naked and bleeding. So this demon took seven grown men, ripped their clothes off and gave them such a severe beating that they'll never forget it and kicked them out of the house running and screaming and bleeding naked for their lives. God is God, and he will not be mocked. God is God, and every other man is a liar. God is jealous for his own glory, and he will not share his glory with another. He is God. And check out what happened. When people recognized who God is, when people knew the name of Jesus, the God of Paul, When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord was held in high honor. The name of the Lord was glorified when God defeated Satan. Isn't that interesting? Now, think about this. Satan's plan is, hey, act like these guys are casting us out. We'll get a big following. There'll be a big cult, and they'll all follow after these seven guys who are really, really powerful, just like Paul is powerful with the name of Jesus. But God took Satan's plan and turned it on its head. And instead of Satan being glorified, God is glorified, the Lord Jesus is held in high honor. And this is the goal of all that God does, that he would be glorified above all others. And look at the radical response of the people again. They desired to give God all the glory. Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed all their evil deeds. A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. And when they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to 50,000 drachmas. So check this out. The gospel is so powerful. that people who are given over to sorcery and magic spells are being saved. And then they're bringing their spell books. They're bringing their sorcery books and they're throwing them in a fire and they're burning them. They're discarding all of those things in which they used to serve another God because they get that God is all about his own glory. God is to be highly honored, not Satan and not some other small G God, but God himself. And when they recognize they began to confess, I repent that I followed small G God. I confess that I followed God that we're not the living, true God. I admit that I followed after Satan and his demons and the occult practices. And now I want to give God all the glory and the honor and the praise. As a matter of fact, we all do. So we're going to throw our scrolls into the fire to be burned. Fifty thousand drachmas. Now, you may not think that that's significant. A drachma is a day's wage. I recognize that not everybody in the world makes $10 an hour, but it's a nice round number. Alright, so instead of saying $7.75, we went with $10. Alright? It's a day's wage. If you worked for eight hours a day at $10 an hour, you would receive a day's wage would be $80. So a day's wage times 50,000 days wages $4,000,000 in today's currency would be average if you use $10. So can you tell me that the glory of God isn't being highly exalted in Ephesus as these people recognize Satan's not God, but the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Messiah, Jesus Christ is God and we will worship him. And we want him to receive such honor and glory. We'll throw away everything that hinders us. from following after Jesus Christ. We're going to take off the sin that so easily besets us, and we're going to run the race for Jesus Christ, and we're going to get rid of $4 million worth of stuff. This is a very potent way to say, I am no longer a slave to sin. I am a slave to God. Isn't that interesting? These people aren't arguing whether they're free to do what they want. They want to be in slavery to God. They were once slaves to sin and they recognize how terrible it was. And now they say, who will redeem me from this body of death? Praise be to Jesus Christ. Now I'm a slave of God and I follow him and he controls my moves and I desire what his will is. It's another potent way to say, God is not my genie to be used for my purposes, but rather I am God's slave and I want to do what God has purposed. And if God has purposed that I not follow any other gods but him and he has, then I'll get rid of anything that looks like a God to anyone else. I threw it out. And now we've got to face some pretty important questions for ourselves this morning. unbeliever. If you're here this morning, you don't know Jesus Christ, your personal savior. Are you willing to repent of your sin this morning? Are you willing to look at what we did at the communion table, the symbols of Jesus Christ's body broken, his blood poured out And I'll ask you to refrain from saying that God couldn't save you because you've been so bad. Worse than the occult and witchcraft. Serving other gods worse than that. God can save anybody if you will but repent and believe. Don't say you've done too many bad things for God to forgive. We all have. Hence the word grace. Unmerited, unearned, unworked for favor from God. God came to save sick people. God came to save sinners. And can I say something? You may not have viewed yourself as a sinner before this morning. But God says, by your very obstinance, your hard heartedness not to believe in him, you are sinning. Will you repent of that sin this morning? Trust Jesus Christ, your savior. Walk in newness of life with him, no longer a slave to sin, but a slave to God. and believers for us this morning. Do you recognize that God is not our genie? We're all guilty of treating him as such. Do you realize that God is not to be used for our own purposes? Are you willing to begin praying in such a way that God receives all the glory? that you would pray that his will would be done as you request things from him. And you should request things from him. But would you ask that his will would be done so that he might be glorified, not so that you would be glorified, not so that life is easier for us. Are you ready to live in such a way that God receives all the glory, all the attention, all the fame, and not yourself. Are you willing to recognize that God is not at our disposal? But we are at his to be expended for his glory. And oh, if I might be a flame that continually burns for Jesus Christ until I'm all burned Will you yield and surrender yourself this morning that God might take our hands and our eyes and our feet and our money and our houses and our wives and our children and our husbands and our brothers and our sisters? We surrender all of these things to God that he might be glorious. And if the world would come to a saving knowledge of him, let's pray. God, we thank you for your word this morning. I thank you so much that you are not our personal genie. I thank you so much that you are doing what is best for us, because clearly we have no idea what is best for us other than following your word and your desires. Teach us your desires this morning. God, there's someone here that doesn't know. You lavish your grace on them. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. I send you the grace and the knowledge of God. that you might treat God as God and lift him high and glorious. You are dismissed. We're going to meet back in here in