I told you it's been coming for a while now, and here it is. So, Lord willing, it'll be a blessing to you. We are going to be looking at adventures in Acts. We're going to be looking at some of the things in the book of Acts, kind of an overview. This will be a several-part series. I don't want to just go straight through, and we'd be at it for over a year, kind of like we are in Genesis right now. So, I don't want to do that, but we're going to take at least 10 or 15 weeks and look at this beginning of the book of Acts. And so that's where we're going to be this morning. If you haven't already guessed, you can turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter number 1. And that's where we're going to get our start. We won't go too far into the book of Acts this morning. A little bit of an introductory thing to cover as well. But before we even start, let's open in a word of prayer. Thank you for this day. Thank you for your work. Thank you for the ability we have in this country to study it freely without fear of persecution or arrest. Lord, help us to never take that for granted. Lord, help us to seek to see how your word can change us this morning. Lord, we love you in Jesus name we pray. Amen. The books of the book of acts is essentially a glimpse into the beginnings of the church. The bride of Christ. Thank you for the joke. Um it's a vital book that teaches us many doctrinal and practical truths to live by today by following the examples given in the book of acts. We can clearly see how the church ought to function and how believers ought to live. This book's filled with great wonders and and Great works and wonders brought by the Spirit of God through the men of God contains many miracles, many trials and difficulties, examples of boldness and power, as well as times of great distress and fear. And so it's got a little bit of everything. Through the lives that are recorded in the Book of Acts, we can learn a great deal about what God desires from us, as well as what God is capable of doing through us if we're willing. That's one of the things about the stories in the Bible. They're not they're not there just to show us what God can do. They're there to show us what we can do if we'll do it through God, if he'll, or what God can do through us if we'll let him. So often the battle isn't, so often the battle with people is to get them to feel like they can do anything for God. My wife's giving me some hand signals here. I can't interpret them, so if it's too important, she'll come tell me. Most Bibles give the Book of Acts the title, the Acts of the Apostles. While it's not incorrect, a more fitting title would be the Acts of the Holy Spirit through the Apostles, because we know that God has the power, not the Apostles. A good example of that, I had to turn to Acts chapter 1, but before we even read there, let's turn to Acts chapter 14. It gives a good example of the fact that it's not the men, it's the Savior within the men. Acts chapter fourteen and verse number eight. We'll get to this chapter at some point in the study. Miles says, And there sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother's womb, who never had walked. That's a pretty rough situation to be in. Especially when you consider back then they didn't have the disability and all those different benefits you have today. So this man is in a rough shape. Verse nine, the same heard Paul speak. who steadfastly beholding him and perceiving that he had faith to be healed, said with a loud voice, Stand upright on my feet. And he leaped up and walked. And when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Lyconia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men. And they called Barnabas Jupiter and Paul Mercurius because he was the chief speaker. Then the priest Jupiter The priest of Jupiter, which was before their city, brought oxen and garlands unto the gates, and would have done sacrifice unto the people, which when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of, they rent their clothes and ran in among the people, crying out, and saying, Sirs, why do you these things? We who also are men of light with you and preach unto you that you should turn from these vanities unto the living God which made heaven and earth and the sea and all things that are therein. So, here the apostles themselves say, you know, we are not the cause of these miracles. We are not the ones with the power. It's God that has the power. Don't worship us. Worship God and there's other examples we can use there as well but uh sufficient to to show uh this book is not just look at what the apostles did look at what paul did look what peter did um though that's there we gotta always keep in mind that it's the lord working through them not that they were some amazing person i'm thankful for the honesty in the bible uh the honesty that the bible shows us uh the faults of the people in it and i'm thankful for that and so we know that it's not them, it's the power of God through them. It's believed that the pediment of the Book of Acts was Luke, the beloved physician of Colossians 4.14, though regardless of the pediment, we believe that all scripture is given by inspiration of God and that holy men speak as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. The Book of Acts is God's Word and as such should be taken as absolutely true. That's not something It's not something we take lightly around here. We believe the Bible like we're a part of it, and we don't take apologies for the Bible. We don't try to fix or correct the Bible. We let the Bible fix and correct us. Acts chapter 1 and verse 1. Let's jump right into this thing. We've got a good baby name coming up for anybody that's shopping around for a baby name. The former treasuries have I made O Theophilus. That's a pretty good one, right? Theophilus. Oh, you're shaking your head, Miss Linda. That'd be a wonderful, you could call him Theo or Ophilus, you know, whatever, depending on the mood. Some of these Bible names are just, my wife and I were talking about Rhoda the other day, and Rhoda, you know, it's a wonderful story in the Bible. She was so excited, she couldn't let Peter in the door, ran off so happy about it, and so I don't know, but anyways. O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which he was taken up, after that he, through the Holy Ghost, had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen. Now, I want you to notice a couple of things. First of all, that this book of the New Testament was not written to a particular church, like many of the epistles, but a particular person, this Theophilus. I'm not a scholar. I don't know exactly who Theophilus is or was and that I I don't know that anybody does. Maybe they do but I always keep in mind that second Timothy three sixteen and seventeen which says, all scriptures give my inspiration of god and it's profitable for doctrine, for proof, for correction, for instruction, righteousness, that the man of god may be perfect, truly furnished unto all good works. You're saved. that all of this can apply to you. All of this, all the whole word of god. There's there's something in it out of every passage that we can learn and that we can be benefited by. I understand the context. We take that very seriously but all of it is profitable and so the book of Acts is definitely something that is profitable and necessary and written to and for the church of the lord and that's us. Hopefully, that's you if you're if you're Now, notice in verse two, Christ did not give suggestions to the apostles. He gave commandments. And so often, we tend to view God's word as a list of things that we can do if we feel like being better Christians. I'm good the way I live right now, but if I want to get better, I'll do what the Bible says. But that's not how it is. They're commandments. They're things that are expected of us regardless of what we want. We're supposed to do the commandments. You think about with children. You give your child a list of chores that they're supposed to do on a certain day. And if they say, well, I don't really I don't really care to be a better child than I am. So I'm going to only do half the list. And some of you probably had children like that. But but that's not that doesn't change the fact that it was a commandment. It's expected of them. They're supposed to do it. They're required to do it. And it's not an optional thing in order to please the one who gave the commandment. So let's look at a couple of verses about the commandments of God. Of course, let's turn with Turn to John Chapter 14, just a few pages back in your Bible. And then we'll also be going to Matthew Chapter 7 in just a moment. John Chapter 14 and Matthew Chapter 7. A lot of times you talk to people and you tell them what the Bible says about something and they just... They're just content with their level of Christianity. They're content with wherever they are in their walk with the Lord, and that they don't have any desire to move forward, and they don't realize that it's not really up to us if we're saved. We are not our own. We're brought by Christ. We're supposed to obey these commands of the Lord. John chapter 14 and verse number 15, very simple, very important verse. Christ speaking says, if ye love me, keep my commandments. If you love me, keep my commandments and I've heard people say uh as an excuse for not keeping god's commandments. Well, I just love the lord and that's good enough and and as soon as well, you don't love the lord. If you're if you're saying, I love the lord but you're saying that as an excuse to go on in your sin, then you obviously don't understand what it means to love the lord because he gave us a very clear definition here. What it means to love the And so, I'm glad he loves me even when I mess up. I'm glad that there's grace and mercy and all that. But if I'm going to show my love for Christ, the way that I do that is by obeying his word, doing what he says. Matthew chapter 7 and verse number 24. Good old story here. Whenever there's a Bible song to go with the Bible story, you know it's a good one, a common one. Matthew chapter 7 verse 24, Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him to a wise man, which built his house upon a rock, And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. And everyone that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man which builds his house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it. very simply here. Christ says, there's a difference between people who hear my words and people who hear them and put them into practice in their lives. You you caught that at the beginning there in verse twenty-four, whosoever hear these things things of mine and do with them. And so, we have a category of people that are listening and obeying the words of Christ, and then in verse 26, everyone, they hear these things, and mind to do with them not, so here's another category that's still hearing the words of God, they're just not applying them to their lives. So, I would say both of these categories fit church-going people. They come and they hear, and then they decide whether or not they're going to actually do what was told to them from the Bible. And we're all guilty of it, from the preacher down to the three-year-old in the Sunday school class. We're all guilty of hearing something in the Bible and whether we blame our forgetfulness or our rebelliousness, we just don't do it. We don't put it into practice. And that's why so often we have to preach the same passages and the same topics and the same things. often to keep uh to put ourselves in remembrance of those things, right? Because I think a lot of people, a lot of people are well-meaning Christians who want to be better for the lord but they just forget and they just need to be reminded. Hey, you're not supposed to do that. Hey, you're supposed to do this and and it's not that they don't want to. They're just, you know, some people are newly saved. They don't know any better and they just need to be reminded again and again that we need to be not just listening to the words of the Lord, but doing that. So Acts chapter 1 verse number 2 tells us that Christ, when he spoke to his apostles, were commandments, not just suggestions. Verse number 3, to whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them 40 days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. That word infallible means not liable to fail, certain, not capable of error. And so, he, for 40 days, Christ, after, after his resurrection from the dead, served as, he served as undeniable, perfect proof that his ministry was of God, and that he was who he claimed to be. He was the I am of old. He was God manifested in flesh. Lazarus lived again. The widow of Nain's son lived again. The ruler's daughter rose from the grave. but Christ was not raised from the dead by Peter or James or Andrew or any other person. Christ defeated death and rose victorious by God's power. In fact, the resurrection of Christ was the main topic of the sermons of the apostle Peter in the book of Acts. You see in Acts chapter 2, go ahead and turn there with me, Acts chapter 2 verse 24, the Bible says here, for whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should behold none of it. This is Peter's sermon at Pentecost. It talks about talks about God raising up Christ and losing the pains of death. Chapter 3 in verse number 15, Peter preaching again, and he says in verse 15, well, verse 14, but he denied the Holy One and the just and desired a murderer to be granted unto you and killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead, whereof we are witnesses. Chapter 5 in verse 29. Chapter 5 in verse 29. Then Peter, the other apostles, answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom he slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a savior, for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sin. So again, God raising up Christ. And then Acts chapter 10 and verse number 40. Acts 10 and verse 40. Here again, him God raised up the third day and shewed him openly. Now, I point to these because the resurrection of Christ is clearly very important to the early church, and therefore it should be very important to our churches today. The resurrection of Christ is what separates us from Islam and all the other religions that have dead founders and dead gods and and we have a resurrected risen savior. So, it ought to be a common topic of conversation among Christians but it just doesn't seem to be that way anymore. It just doesn't seem like you hear very many different preachers preaching about the resurrection. and now there's so many theories about trying to explain away the resurrection that he didn't actually rise from. It's just, it's nonsense. If you believe the Bible, if you believe all the preaching of the Apostle Peter, you know, it was very clear, five times I believe it in the book of Acts, four or five times, he preaches about the resurrection of Christ. We're witnesses, eyewitnesses of this event, of this resurrected Christ for 40 days after his passion. I like that wording there. And in turn, we'll be back to Acts chapter 1. We'll move on to verse number 4, Acts chapter 1. We will end up moving faster through the book of Acts. I'm just laying some groundwork here, I guess. Acts chapter 1, verse 4. And being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which I say, if ye have heard of me. For John shall be baptized with water, but he shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. many denominations believe that water baptism is needed for a man to be saved. This false teaching has led millions to believe that they were saved simply because they got wet. That's a very bad thing. Recently, I've talked to several people who just have, they don't really understand why it's important. The differences between beliefs, the differences between denominations, it's important because we don't all preach the same message. And if you're going to the wrong church and hearing the wrong message and you get baptized and the preacher says you're saved now, you have a higher likelihood that that you are going to die and go to hell not knowing the the gospel because when somebody preaches to you and witnesses to you, you say, oh no, I'm already saved. I've heard it over and over again. Yeah. Uh you know what? Can I Okay. Well, can I tell you about Christ? No, no, no. I'm I'm I'm okay. I I took the sacrament. I did this. I did that and and uh even even baptist. Can I tell you about the lord? Oh, I got baptized when I was a kid. Okay. Well, that's nice. You haven't been in church in 40 years. Can I can I tell you about the lord and so it's very important uh to distinguish, you verse five for John truly baptized with water but he shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. The the water baptism and the baptism of the Holy Ghost are two completely different things. We've we've talked about that before when we talk about baptism. We won't do that all tonight but The water baptism today is an identifying of the new believer with Christ. It's buried under the water as Christ was under the earth, risen from the water as Christ was resurrected from the dead. A believer's baptism is an important step of obedience for the Christian, but in no way, in no way affects whether or not someone is saved. And there's so many places we could go to prove that. The baptism of the Holy Ghost and John's water baptism are clearly given here as two separate things. If water baptism was needed for salvation, why did Christ get baptized? better yet, if water baptism was needed for salvation, why did Christ never baptize a single person? Even though he was the way, the truth, and the life. So, it doesn't add up, but I think a lot of people like the idea that baptism is necessary for salvation because it's easy to get dunked under water, it's hard to repent of your sins and trust Christ. It's not hard, but it's sometimes hard for the stubborn hearted. Acts chapter 1 verse 6, When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? I like chapter six, or verse six. I really do. I mean, there's some good, like verse eight is a great commission, wonderful verses, but I like verse six, and I'll tell you why. It's because these men, have been with Christ since the baptism of John over over 3 years, well over 3 years. Uh and they have seen Christ heal the sick and cleanse the leper and raise the dead and teach and preach and in all that time, Christ never claimed to be here on earth to set up a kingdom, right? He he always was looking towards the cross and in fact, look at John chapter six, John He had several opportunities to create a kingdom here on earth and did not take them. John chapter 6 and verse number 13, this is right after the feeding of the 5,000. The Bible says, therefore they gathered them together and filled 12 baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which remained over and above unto them that had eaten. Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, this is of the truth, that prophet that should come into the world. When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone. If he was here to set up a kingdom, why would you walk away from that crowd? It doesn't make any sense. And then Matthew chapter 26, I'll show you another another point of place where we are reminded of the fact that he can do whatever he wants while he's here. In Matthew 26, we're at the Garden of Gethsemane, and Peter has just done what so many of us sometimes do and acted before before thinking what's the Lord's will here and whipped out a sword and chopped off the servant of the high priest here and sometimes that's where you know some of us say all right but verse Uh verse fifty-three, thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my father and he shall presently give you more than twelve legions of Now, you know from the Old Testament what one angel can do to an army of men. You think about 12 legions of angels. He can take over the whole world. Christ doesn't even need an angel to help him. We know that because we know from Revelation, he comes back and with the power of his voice, he wipes out the armies. And so we know he doesn't need it, but we know he's got that power and that ability. At any time, he can set up this kingdom. But look at verse 54. But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled? that thus it must be. He said, if I set up a kingdom, if I come here and get rescued and I just set up a throne and take over, if I do what you all have wanted me to do from the beginning and kick out the Romans and get Israel on top again, if I do that, how can the scripture be fulfilled? What scripture? Well, Isaiah chapter 53. Isaiah 53, which I'm sure many of you already know exactly where we're going with this, but there's some scripture that needed to be fulfilled by Christ that would not have been fulfilled if He had taken the opportunity to make Himself a king here on earth. as a fifty-three-story verse one who hath believed our report and to whom is the arm of the lord revealed for he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of the dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men, a man of man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and we hid as it were our face from him. He was despised. We esteemed him not. Surely, he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows of god and afflicted but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities and chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes, we are healed that that needed to be fulfilled and I'm glad that Christ did not set up a kingdom couple thousand years ago while he's on this earth because that would have done absolutely nothing right for me and you. He had his eyes on the bigger These men, they make the same mistake that we often make, and they dwell on the physical and the present, and not the spiritual and the eternal. he he will someday come and and set up a kingdom but at that time, he was here to do much more than become a king in a kingdom. He was here to become the way, the truth, and the life. That's right. The land of god to take away the sin of the world and so lord lord help us to focus on things that have eternal consequences. It's an election year so everybody is concerned with getting their proper king on the throne of They're all everybody's so concerned about the kingdoms of this world and and it's just it's sometimes I just wanna shake people and say, wake up and remember, none of this matters. Yes, it's going to be important to us for the next so many years who gets elected. Yes, it will greatly affect religious liberties in America, I'm sure. Yes, we have the right and the freedom to vote. We should take part. I'm not saying don't take part. What I'm saying is don't spend 90% of your free time telling people about Republican versus Democrat and none of it telling people about saved versus lost, Jesus versus the world. We need to focus on the main thing first. I've told people before, when you're witnessing stuff, don't bring up anything until you've brought up Christ. Because you don't know that person. You walk up to that person and say, hey, you know, we had a rule at the U of M games. We would take the kids to the U of M games and hand out the tracks. And I told them, you cannot wear team colors for either team play. Because I didn't want any reason for somebody to walk up to them and refuse to track because they're a Michigan fan or Ohio State fan, which would have happened. There's some crazy people out there. But the whole point was, the whole purpose was, we are here for the purpose of getting the gospel out, not the purpose of promoting some football team. And it's the same thing when we're out witnessing to people in the streets and stuff. If you agree about about Trump or if you agree about Obama or if you agree about whoever or whatever politically, that's fine but the first thing you ought to be promoting is Jesus Christ. And so, I know I've said that before and I'll I'll keep saying it because we need to keep being reminded of it. Uh not wrong to have opinions about other things. That's that's not wrong at all but but we ought to make sure that we're the most important thing is the first thing that we talk about. Acts chapter one verse I really like this verse, especially right now. Raise your hand if you have a Facebook page. Alright. Some of you already do, but you're not raising your hand. Maybe you're embarrassed. However, you have probably seen, like I have seen, in the last several months, increased cries that right now is the end times and that this country is God and this country is Magog and this vaccination is the number of the beast and so so much and I can't I can't start into that this morning or I'll just ruin my book for the whole day but But there's so much of that going on right now. I really enjoy Acts 1-7. I'm glad it's in the Bible. And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own house. Now, there is nothing wrong with waking up in the morning and saying, I hope it's today. As a Christian, I hope that's what you do. You wake up and say, Lord, I hope you come back today. but to spend a whole lot more time than that, worrying about every little detail of Revelation throughout your day, there's nothing wrong with studying the Bible. There's nothing wrong with studying Revelation. There's nothing wrong with being able to put together the pieces and connect the dots. There's nothing wrong with any of that. But just like with the political angle, all of that and you having that information doesn't lead anybody to the lord. That's right. You know, salvation is what we need to be talking about. If you can somehow use Gog and Magog and Russia and China to lead somebody to the Lord, then, hey, you know, have at it. I'd love to see that work sometime, but I just, I see so much of this focus on, on all these things, and, and I, I love, I love one of the first, somebody online, but everybody's freaking out about the end times, and here I am, sitting here as a pre-tribulation believer, just like, hey, I really don't care who the antichrist is. I really don't care about the number of the beast. I'm not gonna be affected by it. And so we gotta keep the important things important. If you look at, we won't for time sake this morning, but if you look at Hebrews chapter one, you can see that it's been the end times for a while. We're in the end times, we're in the last days, and I get that. It could happen any moment, and it could have happened any moment in the 70s. and it could happen any moment next year if he hasn't come by then. So, again, you've got to stop getting so caught up in all these other little things and focus on the important things. And if that's what's important to you, I understand that, but the Lord and salvation and eternal destinations of souls, that's what's most important. Right. Acts chapter 1 verse 8. Here's the big one, great commission, but he shall receive power. After that the Holy Ghost has come upon you and he shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and in the uttermost part of the earth. Now, notice here, the disciples asked Christ in verse six, will thou at this time restore again the kingdoms to Israel? They're looking forward to expecting, all right, we're gonna get rid of the Romans. We're gonna enjoy our own world dominance here. That's what's about to happen. Verse seven, his response, you don't need to know of the times and seasons. And then verse eight, by the way, that's not gonna happen. What you need to do is go out and start telling people about me. and then we'll see here in verse 9, Christ, He makes very clear the priority. His priority. It's not the earthly kingdom, it's not the times and the seasons, it's go and tell people about me. Why? Well, verse 9 gives them I never really realized until recently how depressing verse nine must have been for the apostles standing around because they're they're expecting. I mean, he's risen from the dead and he's been with him 40 days and he's been doing these things and teaching these things and and they're probably expecting. Alright, any day now, we're going to wipe out the Romans and we're going to, you know, hammer in the kingdom and then verse nine comes along and when he had spoken these things while they be held, he was taken up and a cloud Well, so much for that plan. There he goes. Now, he's doing exactly what he intended to do, but sometimes people who follow Christ don't really pay attention very well to what he wants. We think about what we want, and then when he does what he wants, and we're like, wait a second, that's not what I wanted to happen. And it's funny, I've seen that happen in my own life, where the Lord does something, I'm like, you know what, that was your plan all along, and I just ignored it, and now I'm reaping what I've sown. But we know already of how the resurrection separates Christianity from all of the religions with dead gods and dead founders. The ascension now indicates to us not only that he is alive, but that he is active, and of course we know from other places in scripture some of the things that he's doing today. We'll replace Acts 1 and turn to Hebrews chapter 7. something that the Lord is doing for us. You know, I'm thankful for the work he did on Calvary. I'm thankful for the work that he continues to do. He's not just up there resting and relaxing. He's earned some rest and relaxation, but he's not taking it yet. Hebrews chapter 7, verse number, well, let's start in verse number 24. But this man, speaking of Christ, because he continueth ever, have an unchangeable priesthood, wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. That's that's his task right now. That's one of the things he is doing right now is making intercession for you and for me. He's able. I love the wording there. He's able to save to the uttermost and there's no part of me that isn't safe, right? I'm thankful for that. I am wholly and completely saved today and I'll be I'm wholly and completely saved tomorrow. I've been saved to the uttermost by one who never fails and never falters and never changes and I'm thankful situation. Christ, you know, He didn't simply defeat death and then grow old and die again. He defeated death and stayed around His disciples and proved His being alive again and taught and did many things, I'm sure, and then He ascends up to be with the father and so now, we as Christians can say, my god is alive. Uh there is no body. There's no tomb of Christ to have worshipers go huddle around with candles and there is none of that. Right. Uh because we have a risen savior. Amen. And then Acts chapter one and verse ten, they do probably what we would do in that situation. Remembering what they were expecting in verse six and what happened in verse nine and while they look The old two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, You men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven. These guys, they're staring at him going up into heaven. and probably either, you know, they might be thinking, what? I thought he was gonna do this. I thought he was gonna do that and there he goes. Or they're thinking, wow. I mean, you know, depending on who you are and your personality or whatever, you might be thinking, wow, look at that. And he's going up into heaven and and as they're watching him ascend, they don't even, they don't even, to the way the wording, it seems like they don't even get to watch him get all the way out of out of sight and they say, hey, what are you doing? Don't waste your time standing staring up into heaven. Get to work. He gave you something to do. I think it's a, you know, you look at that situation and the reaction of those men and and I see a lot of Christians that are in similar situations where they're standing still and maybe they're looking towards heaven and thinking about the lord a lot and all that but they're standing still. They're not witnessing and they're not doing anything and yeah, they they they love the lord and they like the church and but they they just their Christianity is at a standstill. They're not growing. They're not And so, they're saved, yes, that's wonderful, but they're just staring off into heaven, hoping for the Lord, and talking about, you know, it's so bad now, I can't wait to get to heaven. Not wrong with any of that, as long as you're still doing what He wants you to be doing. And so, these men in white garments standing by, they didn't even let him get out of sight, they said, hey, aren't you guys supposed to be somewhere doing something? And so, you know, I hope Christians look up every day and say, you know what, I hope it comes today. I hope we have that, but I hope we don't stand there for an hour staring at the sky, thinking about that when we're supposed to be witnessing and doing our best to serve the Lord. And so we, this entire, it wasn't intended, but I guess this entire first 11 verses has kind of got that theme this morning of just focus on the important thing. and uh and that is the great commission. That is getting out there and telling others about Christ and and who he was and what he did. Now, at at the end of verse eleven, there's kind of a switch. You know, the lord has ascended now as we go from uh we go from focusing on him and and his final commands to uh the church of god from from the rest of this chapter and on through the book of Acts and so that'll be what we look at next week but I just I just wanna say, you know, as we close out this lesson, from all that we've looked at this morning, if you could only get one point, get the point that he if we if we love him, we'll keep his commandments and his commandment is to go. His commandment is to preach and to teach and to reach all nations and the uttermost and your neighbor. Sometimes we we say, well, I I give commissions. Alright, that's good but who's gonna reach your neighbor? Right. Who's gonna reach the person at the grocery store? Uh I'm thankful. Miss Linda had that contact at the grocery store. We were able to get set up there and and many people come through yesterday and and we were able to witness to many many people because of that and that's a blessing. That's that's wonderful. That is the church in action. and I'm so thankful for for you church having that kind of service. Alright, let's let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this day. We thank you for your word. Lord, we pray that please be with the services to follow. Lord, we've been looking forward to these revival meetings and so lord, I'm very pleased to have your will and your way done in them. I pray you please move on in your heart in the way that you see fit. Lord, we love you and thank you for it. Do you see me pray? Amen. Amen. Now, as I give these out, there is a memory verse. Of course, it's Acts one eighth of the great the assignment of these. Obviously, I can't make you do your homework. Uh so, they're just something that's suggested in order. If you want to do that, the assignment is to make a list of ten things you would do if you knew Jesus Christ was coming back tomorrow. Explain why you would do them and then purpose to actually do today.