i invite you to turn this morning after months i think to our um study again in the book of acts the book of acts feel like i haven't preached in a long time in this church so i thought i'd give you a 75 verse sermon to get it all back okay but i do um i see no way around uh breaking this up so we're going to consider and i've taken into account the time um we're going to consider this morning verses 8 through chapter of chapter 6 through chapter 7 and the whole narrative and the martyrdom of stephen 1163 in your pew bible this is the word of the lord act 6 verse 8 and stephen full of grace and power was doing great wonders and signs among the people then some of those who belong to the synagogue of the freedmen as it was called and of the Cyrenians and of the Alexandrians and those from Cilicia and Asia rose up and disputed with Stephen. But they could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking. Then they secretly instigated men who said, we have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God. And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council. And they set up false witnesses who said, This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law. For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us. And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel. Now keep in mind as a pause that what just happened there is they had criticized him for speaking against Moses. And now his face is shining like Moses' was. The high priest said, Are these things so? And Stephen said, Brothers and fathers, hear me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he lived in Haran and said to him, Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you. Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And after his father died, God removed him from there into his land in which you are now living. Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot's length, but promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him, though he had no child. And God spoke to this effect, that his offspring would be sojourners in a land belonging to others who would enslave them and inflict them 400 years. But I will judge the nation that they serve, and God, said God, and after that they shall come out and worship me in this place. And he gave them the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. And Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs. And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt. But God was with him and rescued him out of all his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom before pharaoh king of egypt who made him ruler over egypt and over all his household now there came a famine throughout all egypt and canaan and great affliction and our fathers could find no food but when jacob heard that there was grain in egypt he sent our out our fathers on their first visit and on the second visit joseph made himself known to his brothers and joseph's family became known to Pharaoh. And Joseph sent and summoned Jacob, his father, and all his kindred, 75 persons in all. And Jacob went down into Egypt and he died, he and our fathers. And they were carried back to Shechem and laid in a tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor and Shechem. But as the time of the promise drew near, God had granted to Abraham the people increased and multiplied in Egypt until there arose over Egypt another king who did not know Joseph. He dealt shrewdly with our race and forced our fathers to expose their infants so that they would not be kept alive. At this time Moses was born. He was beautiful in God's sight and he was brought up for three months in his father's house and when he was exposed Pharaoh's daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds. When he was 40 years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel, and seeing one of them being wrong, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. He supposed that his brothers would have understood that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand. And on the following day, he appeared to them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying, men, you are brothers. Why do you wrong each other? But the man who was wronging his neighbor thrust him aside, saying, who made you ruler and judge over us? You want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday? At this retort, Moses fled, became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons. Now, when 40 years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai in a flame a fire in a bush. When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight. And as he drew near to look, there came the voice of the Lord. I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and Isaac and of Jacob. And Moses trembled and did not dare to look. Then the Lord said to him, take off the sandals from your feet for the place where you are standing is holy ground. I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt. I've heard their groaning and I've come down to deliver them and now come i will send you to egypt this moses whom they rejected saying who made you a ruler and a judge this man god sent as both ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush this man led them out performing wonders and signs in egypt and at the red sea and in the wilderness for 40 years this is the moses who said to the israelites god will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us. Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt, saying to Aaron, make for us gods who will go before us. And as for this moses who led us out from the land of egypt we do not know what has become of him and they made a calf in those days and offered a sacrifice to the idol and were rejoicing in the works of their hands but god turned away and gave them over to the worship of the host of heaven as it is written in the book of the prophets did you bring me to slain beasts and sacrifices during the 40 years in the wilderness oh house of israel bring to me you took up the tent of moloch and the star of your god rephon the images that you made to worship and i will send you into exile beyond babylon our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness just as he spoke to moses directed him to make it in according to the pattern that he had seen our fathers in turn brought it in with joshua when they dispossessed the nations that god drove out before our fathers so it was until the days of david who found favor in the sight of god and asked to find a dwelling place for the god of jacob but it was solomon who built a house for him yet the most high does not dwell in houses made by hands as the prophet says heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool what kind of house will you build for me says the lord or what is the place of my rest did not my hand make all these things you stiff-necked people uncircumcised in heart and ears you always resist the holy spirit as your fathers did so do you which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute and they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the righteous one whom you have now betrayed and murdered you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it now when they heard these things they were enraged and they ground their teeth at him but he full of the holy spirit gazed into heaven and saw the glory of god and jesus standing at the right hand of god and he said behold i see the heavens opened and the son of man standing at the right hand of god but they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And falling to his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. May the Lord bless this morning hearing of his word i was putting off uh this particular passage for a long time in light of the things that i was facing i just didn't know what to do with it i couldn't figure out why for the longest of time here why this long story the longest story in the book of acts the most prominent uh sermon really at least as luke uh gives so much attention to this did you notice that? How long we sat here and listened to that recording of that message? Why the Spirit thought this was so important for us? That's what I couldn't get for a long time. I wrestled with for a long time. And then it dawned on me, Jesus said something that anticipated this very event and how we were to process this, how we were to think about this. Jesus said in John's gospel, if the world hates you understand that it hated me before it hated you if you were of the world the world would love you as its own however because you are not of the world but i have chosen you out of it which is where stephen goes right now out of it in this passage the world hates you i have told you these things ahead of time to keep you from stumbling that seems to be so important to me he goes on to say they will ban you from the synagogues in fact the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he's offering a service to god is there a better passage to demonstrate that than this they will do these things because they have not known the father or me but i have told you these things so that when their time comes you may remember that i told you this is going to come now as i read that and thought about this the the single great purpose then the the purpose of this story that none of what uh was happening in the world and what is happening in the world today should surprise us it really shouldn't anything that they do to us along the course of the way should not surprise us it should not phase us for jesus just told us that not only would it be like this but that he's chosen us out of the world and they hated him if they hated him they're going to hate us if they don't hate us we're not looking much like him so that's the tie here i think we look at this narrative and we think oh how awful how awful what an awful story how we have to get through this particular one in acts they martyred stephen and i pause and i thought that's not how the narrative is is presented to us the narrative is presented to us and comes to us in a message of victory and a message of judgment but not upon us there's a two-fold message in it stephen gained everything to live is christ and to die is gain jerusalem lost everything in fact you'll see that in the next chapter this was the catalyst for their judgment to come full circle. This was a real loss for Jerusalem. They had killed a prophet. A prophet had been among them. So much so that Hebrews looks at all of these kind of events and says the world was not worthy of these men. The world was not worthy of these men and their message the event sealed the judgment on jerusalem and from this point in acts now it goes out to the ends of the earth so stephen was the catalyst stephen was the figure to accomplish that that's victory we'll see in a minute how that comes to pass but with this in mind the lord desires to say to us something very helpful to the church today in the midst of all the change and all the problems, be faithful in your calling in the witness as a church, no matter what the world is saying and doing to you. Don't let them intimidate you. Now that's a much easier thing to say and a much more difficult thing to live. Don't let the world scare you. Stop it. Did Stephen seem scared at all in this narrative? Don't let the world scare you. No matter how bad it gets, and that's what I want to keep in front of us because I think that's what Jesus is saying. You should expect this. In light of the changing times and the things, what is the witness of Stephen for the church today that speaks to us so powerfully? Let's look at this thing. As you break down this long narrative, there really is a simple breakdown that you have an accusation made against Stephen, the response that he gives in surveying redemptive history and the martyrdom that then follows in the last section you remember there was a introduction of deacons and i want to encourage the deacons the first martyr was a deacon okay that's important the magnificent seven remember that the lord has his eye on these guys in fact the ministry of the apostles is somewhat fading and now we're looking at i realize this is an early form of the office there's some discussion of whether it looks like the diaconate today. It is the early form of the office of servant. But that we have now the focus in Acts on Stephen and Philip for a significant portion of the book. As we continue chapter 6, we see that Stephen had been given a peculiar wisdom and knowledge and understanding by the Spirit of God. He was full of grace and power. I love that. grace. His preaching was full of grace and power as he reasoned and proclaimed, performing great wonders and signs among the people. But it was his message that was causing problems. It was his message. You'll notice that some of the members of the freedmen's synagogue, isn't that an interesting irony that that is put here? The freedmen. These were slaves that had been freed from Roman oppression and now were leading and teachers and involved in the synagogue in this particular synagogue of which Saul was a member so Saul listens to Stephen's sermon this was his synagogue as history tells us a strange irony isn't it slaves that had been set free from Roman oppression and look at the bondage that they're in they made two basic charges against stephen two basic charges the charges were so serious we read that they arrested him and dragged him off for trial at the sanhedrin which if you were to compare the two trials of jesus and stephen it is almost one for one correspondence to things that happen false witnesses all that charges the same they charge him here for blasphemy speaking against god and speaking against moses That's the charge. They said he speaks against the holy place, which in their ears was equivalent to blaspheming God because God's location was associated in the holy place. You see? It was a one-for-one there. That they heard him speak against the temple and said then he speaks against God and blasphemes him. And he speaks against the law of God. He is an antinomian. He hates the law. he's trying to change the law this guy we heard him speak against the law of moses and he wants to change all our traditions this guy he said jesus will destroy this place and change the customs that moses handed to us i want you to notice that this wasn't anymore just the leaders now you ever notice how things move in societies that that it goes from um a ruling elite that pushes views on people and all of a sudden over time it overtakes the whole people that's what's happened here we have now moved in acts to the whole of the people now have been riled up and taken against this new sect which they call christians you have a mob against stephen in Jerusalem all the people are involved in it but the charges are interesting what made them so mad what what in the world made them this mad what was he saying what was Stephen doing well I think we've learned a lot from the book of Acts so far that what the apostles were doing is that they were out showing from the scriptures the things concerning Jesus in all of the scriptures this was their their whole model of ministry the things that jesus taught them concerning himself remember on the road to emmaus when when in the first sermon after the resurrection he started doing from all the scriptures and and the church was booming this way acts has been showing us uh the apostolic ministry and the coming of the spirit at pentecost pentecost as we looked at was all about the preaching of jesus the spirit was given so that people would preach Jesus correctly. Acts has been breaking down. If you follow the whole structure of the book of Acts, it's been showing us sermon after sermon after sermon that's doing this. What did we just read? The truths of the Old Testament as fulfilled by Jesus. And the church boomed this way. It just boomed this way. But it also caused problems this way. What did Jesus say about the temple? Well, you'll remember in John 2, he got in a lot of trouble and heat among all the religious leaders for saying, destroy this temple and I will raise it up in three days. And he was talking about what, boys and girls? His body. What did Jesus say about the law? I didn't come to destroy, but I did come to fulfill it. What did that mean? Now, why did all this matter? Well, what was the tendency? And I think this helps in the way that Jesus talked about what these people would face in moments like this of great pressure. What do we feel when we are pressured in our day with so much opposition to what we do? Change the message. He said, well, we wouldn't do that. Really? Does this speak to us today? can you see what's happening right now when we look at last time we're not ignorant of satan's devices look at look at what's happened in our world for just a moment and look through that lens for a minute and then you can see exactly that stephen was facing something quite similar many people are consumed right now by the state of the world aren't they consumed by it this is why i can't stand social media now it's like we have all these super pastors who are just chomping at the bit to write articles for their names just to solve all the problems of the world. It's all it's become now. All distracted, all distracted. You've seen the vicious push in our society to not just silence any speech that offends, but to silence anything that would assault what they think is a free lifestyle. Synagogue of the freedmen free lifestyle we're in a synagogue of the freedmen but they have their own rules now you don't just disagree with the lifestyle you better celebrate it you better celebrate it where is all of it going well i don't think it's unclear where it's all going any speech that threatens what the culture demands you celebrate is not just hated now it's on the fast track to being incriminated that's where it's going you should be able to see it the wholesale assault on what we call biblical claims of christianity is now with the goal of making that a crime that's where the end goal of this but even more specifically is not just to make the biblical claims of christianity a crime but to make jesus as the answer the crime that's where it's going to make jesus as the answer the crime that's the world the question i started thinking about is what kind of effect does that have as it is pushed on the church we're so worried about the state of the world but but the real concern is what is the church doing with these pressures what has the church been doing with these pressures the greatest pressure to stop the preaching of jesus happened where jerusalem wow the greatest pressure to stop the preaching of jesus happened and started in the holy city have we caved john payne who spoke at westminster uh this week is pca pastor out in charleston and he uh did the dendulk lectures and He said something in one of the lectures that in light of preparing for this and thinking about, I couldn't get out of my head, that most preaching that is done in the church today looks nothing like what the apostles did. What do you think? You agree? The model is a man stands up, everything's focused on the temporary, nothing's heavenly. The model's so predictable now. It's so predictable. Nothing is confrontative. He's there for the chat. Really, it's law-driven, but it's sin-light. Everything's about being uplifted. Everything's about you walking out feeling like you achieved just some happiness for your way and your week. And being all that God desperately wants you to be. It's just so predictable in whatever form that comes. It's just predictable. People are not pressed into the kingdom this way. They're not being pressed into the kingdom this way. The only way people are pressed into the kingdom is to bring to bear the claims of Jesus as being the only way, truth, and life by which people must confess that their lives are out of harmony with God and that they need a Savior. They have to come that route to enjoy real freedom. You see? And we have a message that your own hopes are carnal. Your own dreams, personal aspirations are sinful. That you have to turn from everything that you think is going to make you happy in this life and come to Jesus for life. And He so graciously is willing. He loves. And the Bible has this message everywhere. It's all about Him. It really is all about Him. but when faced with these kind of pressures from the world we want so much to fit in with it we no longer bring a message that anyone can hate we no longer bring a message that anyone can refuse who's going to get mad at a pastor telling us as I saw this week don't put your lives the sermon title on cruise control it's nice and easy and harmless and then we're sucked into the world on their terms. We're sucked into the world on their terms. Well, what happens? Out goes Jesus. You know many mainline churches are done with the cross. Do you know the church in Scotland launched this week? The Church of Scotland launched this week a transgender support guide. Do you know the Western Baptist Convention in cuba this week voted to remove all of the pastors who preach doctrines of grace did you know that now they're being persecuted they're going to lose governmental recognition and could result in the confiscation of their feel the pressure you feel it i think you see the importance of the passage then because this is stephen this is this is stephen this is what jesus told us would happen what do we do in a message that'll never seem like it works. Preach Jesus? Well, I guess some would think it's a time to apologize. Oh, listen, you've misunderstood me. You've misunderstood me. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to speak against the law. I'm not doing that. What does he do? I think Jesus inspires us here when he said, I chose you out of the world and this is the hatred I promised you because they hate me. So what do you do? You preach him. This is what makes a difference. You say, how is this going to make a difference? Watch. There's been a lot of misunderstanding to exactly what Stephen does here in this particular message. And the reason people miss what he's doing is because they think he's giving a defense. This is not a defense. This is an offense. he is going on the offensive in an accusatory manner against them that is his message in complete boldness with a carefully constructed accusation he surveys redemptive history carefully constructed and you'll see it i'm not going through all this but i just want you to see exactly what he's what he's doing here he walks them through four epochs of redemptive history he walks them through abraham joseph moses and david he broke down the whole testament for you to answer their charges but now to go on the counter and bring a one against them remember the charges you speak against the temple which is equivalent to speaking against god you speak against the law and and therefore are disregarding the holy law of god what does he do just feel the flow of it for a minute brothers and fathers he said listen the god of glory appeared to our father abraham when he was in mesopotamia where where did he appear mesopotamia it's already showing you the direction he's going to go here god told him to go up to the land remember go down to the land but guess what he didn't get any inheritance in it not even a foot actually god sent his descendants out of there and you remember how long that was 400 years he is doing a sweeping picture here for them 400 years god said he would deliver them and notice verse 7 after this they will come out and worship me in this place he didn't say the land in the wilderness in this place sinai not the temple they worshiped in the wilderness and then the covenant was made remember the covenant of circumcision then came joseph he was sold as a slave into egypt six time egypt keeps getting mentioned here egypt egypt egypt egypt but guess what god was with him the whole way there there and then god brought out jacob's family out of the land and saved them where in egypt i don't know if you feel starting to feel the offense of this sermon just wait i think it'll come by the way he was raised by pharaoh's daughter and guess what he didn't go to your schools he was instructed in all the wisdom of the egyptians and in all their literature you see how in your face that was you're tying god to a box you stop it god was not bound up that way like you have bound him up you don't know your own history you think He only works this way. As if God could be controlled by a temple and all your schools that you've set up. This would be like saying, listen, he didn't go to Calvin. He didn't go to Dorot. He didn't go to any of our institutions. He came from Escondido High and God was with him there. Feel the offense of that? That's the offense. That's his charge. See what you've done to God. When Moses fled to Midian, there an angel of the Lord appeared to him. And oh, you think worshiping God is only in that temple? God appeared to Moses in a burning bush and guess what? That ground was holy wherever God was. And then there was David. He asked to build God a house, but I didn't even let him do that. Because you know what? I let Solomon do it because God cannot be boxed into a house and wanted no one ever to think that anyone could box Him in that way. Heaven is my throne. Earth is my footstool. What sort of house are you going to build for me? I make all these things. Do you get the first point? Stephen, you're speaking against the temple. And that means you're blaspheming God for that's where God is. you think God's boxed in you don't know your history you haven't listened to your history where God is there the ground is holy and guess what I'm now preaching Jesus is the temple all of it spoke of him where he is there the ground is holy where he is there the temple is he is the temple other charge you speak against the law of moses you really want to go there you really want to call me an antinomian you want to rehearse your history remember what they did to joseph the prophet got rid of him remember what they did to moses the prophet they were unwilling our ancestors to obey him and they pushed him away and their hearts turned back to Egypt and your confidence is in your law and your customs and your tradition? Really? Are you not listening to the history? Do you know what they did in the wilderness? They made another God. They were always... Notice the end of this here before the charge where he says that here at the end of the charge. You who receive the law as delivered by angels, you, you, not now them, You, you did not keep it. Well, that led to the great charge of the sermon. You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears. He just said to the community, you had the covenant of circumcision. You're not circumcised. Not in the heart. See it? You always resist the Holy Spirit. As your ancestors did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not kill, persecute? They killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the righteous one whose betrayers and murderers you've now become. You haven't kept the law at all. See why I ask the question, does any of the preaching today sound at all like that? When people are putting their trust in their own righteousness, are they confronted with these things? you look at this and you say, this sounds so confrontational and how does that uplift anyone? That's our day. But think about here what the issue was. Think about why this was so important that this confrontation happened. You stiff-necked people. There was a history to that term. You're not circumcised. You're opposing the Holy Spirit. You're trusting in all the wrong things. Stephen looked at it and thought the worst thing in the world is happening in all this that's going on. They're not coming to Jesus. If they reject their Messiah, if they refuse Him, what do we have? The temple, the law, the tradition, the judgment's going to be all the worse if they reject what it all pointed to and how it was fulfilled. The most pastoral thing he could do was preach Jesus and let them feel the devastating consequences of what it meant to reject Jesus. I think we're losing that today. The devastating consequences to rejecting what this is really all about. What hope is there without Him? You see? What hope? Then happens one of the most amazing things in the New Testament. When they heard these things, It says they ground their teeth. They were furious at the message. They gnashed their teeth. Their hearts were enraged. And Stephen then, all of a sudden, filled by the Holy Spirit, gazes up into heaven and heaven's scroll is pulled back and he looks up and he says, look what I see. I see him. I see him, the temple, the one who fulfilled the law. And guess where he's seated? right at the right hand of God, the Son of God, Jesus. I see the glory. I see the glory that was in Moses' day. And it's shining on his face right now, by the way, because it's the ministry of Jesus. As soon as they heard that, they screamed at the top of their voices. You see how much hatred is going on against Jesus? That's why I said all of it in the world and the push of the church is aimed at this. How could you get this mad? Because he's the king. And we have a natural tendency to hate God and our neighbor. So mad, they scream at the top of their voices. They cover their ears. They rush at him. They grab him and they pick up big boulders and they start killing him. And as he is getting hit with the boulders, he cries out, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. He kneels down and cries out with a loud voice in the most compassionate, what a moment. Lord, don't hold this against them. This whole thing has repeated the cross. Don't hold this against them. Don't hold their sin against them. And then he dies. The most beautiful thing here is that there's no sense of defeat in this passage. To live is Christ and to die is what? game the new testament always pictures jesus as seated and here's one of these rare occurrences where stephen looks up and jesus is standing standing to do what receive him you know when my grandmother died they say something happened and i still think about it a lot she wasn't at the moment of death not like what i saw with my own father She was a strong believer, a pillar. I remember when she was sick, that one night she got off the phone with my uncle and the nurse said she'd never seen anything like it. She looked up in astonishment and expired. I don't know how much to make of that, but I know this, that Jesus is giving us an encouragement here. If you're called to even go through this for his name, he's going to get up and he's going to take you home. Beautiful. beautiful it was a victory it was their loss the world was not worthy of him and a judgment on Jerusalem happened and that temple what happened to that temple in AD 70 read the report of Josephus they the world got it given to them but I want to close with this thought a surprising figures introduced here the chief instigator the chief ringleader is standing there consenting and throwing the stones did you see it and the witnesses laid their robes synagogue of the freedmen at a young man laid their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul you know this was the catalyst for god to change this man and this man would evangelize the nation and become the nations of gentiles and become one of the greatest gospel preachers the world has ever known this man any reader knows what happened with saul i find that just overwhelming for in the next chapter we'll see him in all of his rage and then the lord in chapter 9 will strike him down and give him a new heart and he will always look back at that event with Stephen and say I was the chief of sinners so that that very humble man would understand and be able to preach with all grace the same message to the ends of the earth. Stephen and Paul were partners in the ministry. That's pretty powerful if you think about it. I close in saying there's no reason really to fear. I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God to save those who believe. Don't look too much at a world in panic right now. Remember the greatest moments of darkness in history. From those moments would spring by God's power some of the greatest displays of light and salvation as the ministry would continue to go on and will continue to go on as the gospel in the light and the face of Jesus Christ shines for all who proclaim Him, all who know Him, all who know His power. And I hope that encourages us today to remember who we are and to not lose heart in this ministry. Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, we are thankful for this survey of history and how they answered the charges by remaining so devoted and so committed to making known the name of Jesus. And we see that necessity for that's the very name the world wants to stamp out. And that's the very name the church right now is being pushed to stamp out of its own preaching. And we realize we are just as susceptible, just as guilty. So we pray today for this church and your church all over the face of the world that we would remain devoted and committed to the message that you gave in the Great Commission to save those who believe and help us never to be ashamed of the gospel for it is indeed your power to save. And we see it here as it saved the greatest rebel named Saul. We praise you, O Lord, that you would use him so that through his ministry we sit here today. What a wonderful thought and we glory in your name. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Thank you.