We're 28 tonight. By the way, Oaks, don't forget that there is a dinner tomorrow night at Sal's. That's at five o'clock tomorrow evening. And also, ladies are reminded about the Ladies' Day out at Tabernacle Baptist Church in Virginia Beach. That's Saturday, March 18th. It'll be here sooner than you think. And the registration forms are available at the member care desk. And if you have any questions about that, you can see my wife, and she can try to answer those questions. In Acts chapter 28 and Paul is now at Rome. We've been looking at his journey to Rome for a number of weeks. He's now there as a prisoner and we noted last week as we started this message on finishing well that Paul His ministry and his life ended much the way his ministry began. Now let me say, remind us tonight, that Paul's ministry and life continues after the Book of Acts, as far as we know, based on things that are said in, particularly in 2 Timothy, but in some of his letters, there are some things that are said that don't fit in with what we see in the Book of Acts, which suggests to us that there was some time that Paul had after this imprisonment before his last imprisonment and his death. So, and we'll look at that. But we're looking at the end of the Book of Acts and what it tells us about this end of Paul's ministry. But we noted last week it began with encouragement or it was encouragement as a part of that. He began his Christian life and his ministry being welcomed at Jerusalem by Barnabas, and the name Barnabas means son of consolation or encouragement, that he was encouraged by Barnabas. He was helped and that was an encouragement to him. And then in his closing days, the Lord encouraged him directly. When he was imprisoned at Caesarea, the Lord spoke to him directly. And then as he made his way to Rome, as they were making their journey up the Appian Way, there were two groups of believers that came to meet him. They first at the Appy Forum and then at Three Taverns. Those that came as far as the Appy Forum had traveled 43 miles and those that came to the Three Taverns had traveled 33 miles and they encouraged him just by their presence. He was encouraged and we noted the fact that the Ministry of Encouragement is a wonderful and a much needed ministry. But one thing I get to thinking about that I didn't mention last Wednesday evening that I think we can draw from this text and what it says about that journey, they traveled 43 miles or 33 miles, that the Ministry of Encouragement will often require sacrifice on our part. They had to be willing to make that journey, and I don't think 33 miles even in that day, probably walking, it wouldn't have been a one-day journey. And so it required some effort on their part But it was important to them to be there for Paul. And sometimes to be an encouragement to people, we'll have to go out of our way. We'll have to make some sacrifices. It might cost us some time. It will cost time and energy and maybe even some finances, resources to be an encouragement to somebody. But it is worth it if God gives us that opportunity to be an encouragement to somebody. And of course, God is our greatest encourager. He was the one that encouraged Paul as well, and even stirred the hearts of those people to be an encouragement to Paul. And he is always there for us and always giving us encouragement when we need it. But there's a second thing that we see that Paul was engaged in, in these closing days of his life and ministry, and that is evangelism, not only encouragement, but evangelism. In Acts chapter 9 and verse 20, we're told that immediately after Paul was converted on the Damascus road and he had received his sight as Ananias came and talked to him, but immediately he began preaching the gospel in the synagogue in Damascus. I mean, as soon as he gets saved, the first thing he does is he begins witnessing for Christ. He goes into the synagogue. And why the synagogue? Because this was Paul's heart, and throughout his ministry, it was always the synagogue first, because Paul was to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. Paul had a great heart, a burden for his own people to be saved, and he would always go to them first, where there was an opportunity to do that, and give them the gospel. And he began that at the very beginning of his Christian life, as he preached the gospel in the synagogue. Of course, they threatened his life. He had to flee, went to Jerusalem and back up in Tarsus. And then later on, after a number of years, he's back in Antioch and began his missionary journeys. But shortly after he comes to Rome, we noted the fact that after he got there, three days after he had gotten there, He invited the chief of the Jews, verse 17 of Acts 28 tells us, he called the chief of the Jews together, and when they were come together, he said unto them, men and brethren, though I have committed nothing against the people or customs of our fathers, yet was I delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans, who when they had examined me would have let me go because there was no cause of death in me, but when the Jews spake against it, I was constrained to appeal unto Caesar, not that I had ought to accuse my nation of, For this cause, therefore, I have called for you to see you and to speak with you, because for the hope of Israel, I am bound with this chain." And they said, we never received letters out of Judea concerning thee, neither any of the brethren that came showed or spake any harm of thee, but we desire to hear thee, what thou thinkest, for as concerning this sect, and they thought of Christianity as a cult in their day, we know that everywhere it is spoken against. And so when they had appointed him a day, there came many to him into his lodging, to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets, from morning till evening. And some believe the things which are spoken, and some believe not. And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed after that Paul had spoken one word. Well spake the Holy Ghost by Isaiah the prophet unto our fathers, saying, go unto this people and say, hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see and not perceive. For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. Be it known therefore unto you that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles and that they will hear it. And when he had said these words, the Jews departed and had great reasoning among themselves. And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hard house and received all that came in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no man forbidding him. I just want to note some things about Paul's evangelism here. There are some lessons to be learned as we look at how even this account of Paul's witnessing that principles that we can think about and apply in our own witness for Christ. First of all, Paul was aggressive. And by that I mean he didn't wait around for an opportunity, he created one. It came to pass after three days, verse 17 again, he called the chief of the Jews together. And then they appointed a day when they would come. And Paul couldn't go to them. I mean, he's under house arrest. He cannot leave the house. But the fact that he's under house arrest was not going to stop him from preaching the gospel, even to the Jews. So he couldn't go to them, so he called them to come to him, and they were willing to do that. But he wasn't just going to sit around and wait for an opportunity to present itself. He was going to take the initiative to create an opportunity. And sometimes Christ would do that. creating opportunities to be a witness. I was listening to a message by a pastor friend of mine some time ago, and he was preaching on the parable of the sower. And his first message, he preached a number of messages. The first one was just, behold, a sower went forth to sow. And he just noted the fact that, you know, the sower went out intentionally to sow. And that sometimes we think about evangelism, witnessing as we just, as opportunities present themselves, as we go about our daily activities, that we should take advantage of those opportunities. And that's true, but he said, you know, the Lord Jesus is talking about the ministry of the word in that parable. And he said, the sower went out with the intention of sowing the seed. He says, sometimes we have to just, we go out intentionally to preach the gospel. In other words, not just that we just are, as we go on our way, we're looking for opportunities, but we're actually making the opportunity or taking the initiative, going out for the purpose of trying to reach others for Christ. You know, I think probably he was, in his own personal witness, he applied that, but there were times when he just would go door to door in their community and try to talk to people about the Lord. He went specifically to go out to sow the seed of the gospel by going from house to house to talk to people about the Lord. But it was an intentional going forth to take the gospel And so, and that's what Paul is doing. He's aggressively, he's creating this opportunity. He is intentional in his witness. We have often thought we invite people to church to hear the gospel. And that's okay if you can get them to come. You know, back when I was a child, and some of you may or maybe it was this way with you, but the Sunday night service was the evangelistic service. in a lot of churches, because a lot of people, the people that were in churches that maybe weren't preaching the gospel or preaching another gospel, a gospel of works, they didn't have enough Sunday night service. So sometimes you get people to come on Sunday night when they wouldn't come on Sunday morning, especially, you know, I'm growing up in the South, okay, everybody goes to church. So Sunday morning, everybody's at church, they're at their church, whether it's a good church or not, everybody went to church. but not always on Sunday night. So sometimes you could get them to come, and back then there was still a willingness among many, even unsaved people, or religious people who maybe thought they were saved but weren't, they'd come to church on Sunday night. So there was often an evangelistic emphasis in the Sunday night service. Now I think it's kind of changed that if we're gonna have an evangelistic emphasis, it's usually in the Sunday morning service because that's maybe when we can most often get somebody to come. But frankly, it is hard to get people into church who are not saved In today's, today in America, it is hard to get unsaved people to come to church to hear the gospel. So what does that mean? That means that we have to go out to them. Like what one writer wrote many years ago, he said, if sinners will not come into our churches, we must go out of our churches after them. The question has been asked, how can we reach the masses with the gospel? But there's only one answer. We must go after them with the gospel. That is the only way to reach them. And when the church is willing and ready to go after them through its members, as well as through its ministers, they will be caught for Christ, not sooner and not otherwise. We have that responsibility, and it's okay to invite people and unsaved people to church, and if they'll come, great. And we try to, almost every message, we try to include at least a simple presentation of the gospel, because you never know, even, I mean, we've known of church members, I had a pastor just make the comment one time, said he gave the invitation one Sunday night, and his daughter walked out to get saved. You never know who might be listening, who might be sitting in the church service, and they're not saved. So we try to include the gospel, even if the focus is not the gospel, we try to include it, because you never know. But, you know, the early church, though Paul is writing to the Corinthian church, talked about unbelievers coming into the church. But really, the church, when they came together, it was for edification of believers. And then they went out to witness to the lost. They weren't trying to bring the lost into the church to get them saved. They were going out into the community where the lost were to get them saved. And so Paul is doing what he can. At this point, he can't go out, but that's not stopping him. He's inviting them to come into him. But either way, there is an intentional effort to reach others with the gospel, and that is a challenge to us that we need to be aggressive. Secondly, Paul was biblical. It tells us in verse 23 that, when they had appointed him a day, there came many to him into his lodging, to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets. He expounded, that word means to declare or set out. In other words, he explained and declared what the Bible said about the Messiah, and that Jesus is the Messiah. He went through the Old Testament scriptures, just like Jesus did with the two on the Emmaus Road, and explained to them, from Moses and the prophets, the things that were said about Messiah, different things, there's, in Moses, he's the, I'm drawing a blank and I'm sorry. But anyway, so let me just move on. But it is in Moses and in the prophets it declares the truth about Messiah. What would be true of Messiah? We've read some in Isaiah. The things that Isaiah prophesied about the ministry of Jesus and they were fulfilled in his ministry. Paul would have gone through, would have explained what the Old Testament Scriptures say about Messiah and then show how Jesus fulfilled those prophecies about Messiah, that Jesus is the Messiah. So he's explaining and declaring what the Bible says about the Messiah and that Jesus is the Messiah. And he's using the entire word of God. There was a Roman's road at this point, but Paul didn't use the Roman's road. He didn't use the New Testament because the New Testament was not complete at this point, but it also wasn't collected at this point. These letters are out there. Paul's letters are out there. The churches have them. They're passing them around, reading them, but he didn't have the New Testament put together like we do today. Paul's not using the New Testament. He's using the Old Testament. The gospel is in the Old Testament. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul wrote this, he said, Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have received, and wherein you stand, by which also you are saved, if you keep and remember what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. And of course, the scriptures he's referring to are the Old Testament scriptures. And he says, they taught that Christ, that Messiah died for our sins, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. All that was in the Old Testament scriptures. The death of Messiah for our sins, his burial, and even his resurrection. The resurrection is Psalm 16. It's the one that Jesus uses, the one that Peter used on the day of Pentecost as he preached about Jesus. Psalm 22 talks about the crucifixion, and even the very words of Jesus are in Psalm 22. So it's all there. Isaiah 53, and on and on we could go. It's there in the Old Testament scriptures, and that's what Paul's using to explain to these Jewish people that Jesus is the Messiah. And when we are talking to somebody about salvation, somebody who's unsaved, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by what? The word of God. So they need to know, they need to hear, they need to see not just what I would say, not just my statements about even the gospel, but what does the Bible say? And giving them the scripture, and you can use the Romans Road or whatever scriptures God would lead you to use, we do need to be able to be somewhat flexible in our use of scripture because, you know, as you talk to people and they may ask you questions, you need to have an ability to go to different portions of scripture besides just the Romans Road, but that's a good place to start. And then to grow as you would be a witness, you can grow in your ability to go beyond that in sharing the gospel with people, but they need to hear the Scriptures. They need to hear Romans 3.23, and Romans 6.23, and Romans 5, all the truths, but sharing with them, and even if the situation is such that you can, get them to read it. Show them the Bible, have them read it, ask them. You know, Romans 3.23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. What does that verse say? What does it mean? All have sinned. Well, does that mean I'm a sinner? Does that mean I'm a sinner? Uh-huh, uh-huh. So, does that mean you're a sinner? All have sin, okay? So, and take them and get them to read the word for themselves, if you can do it that way. And sometimes, you know, the tracts, some of them have the scriptures printed in them, and you can just have them read it. And ask them to tell you what it means. And get them thinking and let them, don't just tell them, but get them involved in talking about that truth. And it will be more meaningful to them if you can do that. Paul was also, not only was he aggressive and biblical, he was thorough. How long did Paul spend with these Jews witnessing to them? Five minutes? All day. All day. Can you imagine witnessing to somebody all day long? Now, granted, this is a group of people, but so what's happening, how is it that Paul can spend from morning till evening you know, witnessing to them. It doesn't take 12 hours to go through the Romans road. But again, Paul's not using that, but he's taking the time to go to those scriptures and, and, and, you know, tell them what the scriptures say. Maybe they have copies of the scriptures there that they can look at for themselves. But then they're asking questions, and Paul is answering their questions. There's a back and forth. This is the way that Paul conducted his ministry. He would preach, but there was also opportunity for questions, and so all day long, they're talking about this. Those Jewish people are interested. They're willing to talk about it, and Paul is willing to talk about it, and he'll take as much time as is necessary. Sometimes all you have is time to give a track or a short gospel presentation, and if that's all you have, that's all you have. But there will be times, and there ought to be times, when you will take time with people, and it may be on one day, it may be that this person, you're gonna talk to them, and you're gonna share the gospel with them, and it's gonna be over and over again over time. You know, maybe today there's a conversation, a 30 minute conversation, maybe you take them to lunch and you talk about the gospel and they ask questions and you answer their questions and, you know, lunch is over so we gotta move on but let's come back and talk about it again and there's another day and sometimes it takes time like that. And so we need to be willing to invest the time that's necessary if you're dealing with someone until they understand and they make a decision either to accept or reject the gospel, but taking that time with them and being thorough. You know, we want to see people accept Christ as Savior. We want to see them profess faith in Christ, but we need to be careful that we don't give them a false hope and they don't make an empty profession because we didn't do our job well in presenting the gospel. Because I think that happens. We sometimes talk about the phrase, there's a phrase, easy-believe-ism. And I appreciate what one pastor said one time. He said, I don't believe in easy-believe-ism. I believe in effort-believe-ism. We just let God save us. And that's true. But just because you pray a prayer doesn't mean you're saved. Because it's what goes on in the heart. And so we need to be thorough. We need to make sure this person really understands the gospel. That may only take five minutes, or 10 minutes, or 15 minutes. But for many people, it takes time. They don't get saved the first time they hear the gospel. It takes time, and they have to think, and they have to work through it, and they have questions that need to be answered. So be willing to be thorough if that's what it takes in presenting the gospel. Paul is also passionate. He testified, it tells us in verse 3, he expounded the things concerning the kingdom of God, but he also testified that word means to bear witness or it can also mean to protest earnestly. Now when we think about the word protest, we think negatively. Somebody's out there picketing against something. And the word is often used that way, but it also has a positive meaning, and that's the way it would be, this word testify. If we were to define it as protest, it means to declare something firmly and emphatically in the face of stated or implied doubt or in response to an accusation. So the point is Paul is, Paul believes what he's preaching. and he is passionate about the truth, so this is not just, it's not a dispassionate presentation of the gospel. You know, in 1 Thessalonians 1 and verse 5, Paul said, Our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. as you know what manner of man we were among you for your sake." Paul said, we presented the truth to you because we were fully persuaded that what we were telling you is indeed truth and is essential. You cannot go to heaven if you don't believe on Christ as your Savior and you need to believe on Him. And passionate doesn't mean necessarily that we get all excited and raise our voice and all like that, but it does mean that there is a communicated conviction about what we're talking about. that I believe this, that this is essential, that this is a matter of life and death. And I'm presenting it in that way, that this is not something that you can take or leave. This is critical. And I have believed on Christ, and I know that my sins are forgiven, and I know that if I died today, I'd go to heaven because of God's promise in his word. And you can have that same thing. There's a confidence there, and Paul has that assurance. He's testifying to what he knows to be true and what he's experienced in his own life. I was reminded of something that Erwin Lutzer wrote in a book entitled Pastor to Pastor, and I may have shared some of this with you before, but in talking about preaching, he said sermons with good content may fall flat for a lot of reasons. The most common reason might be that they're delivered with an absence of feeling. that many preachers have no fire in their bones. One pastor noted that an effective preacher lives and breathes the message. The message hounds him, it drives him, it even explodes within him. So great will be the desire to preach that he'll find it difficult to wait for the time to deliver the message of God. That's where every pastor wants to live when he gets in the pulpit, that he is burning with a message from God. But the same ought to be true for you when you witness to people that your heart burns with the truth of the gospel, and that you're excited for the opportunity to talk to somebody about the Lord. And by the way, let me encourage you this way. You may, when the opportunity is staring you in the face, you may not be, you may be even kind of, hesitant or afraid or nervous or whatever, but if you will work through that and get beyond that, I think you'll find as you begin to share the gospel, especially if that person is interested, that there will be a satisfaction and a joy and a delight in that and you'll have that heart for what you're doing. I've heard many people say, and I was thinking about my own experience, that when they're facing that witnessing opportunity, that there's a nervousness and even a fear at times. There was a period of time when we were in Mississippi, there was one of the men in the church and I, every Thursday afternoon, we went out door knocking for a couple hours. And all Thursday afternoon, I think we went out about 3.30 or 4 o'clock in the afternoon, you know, from about lunchtime on, I'm just, you know, it's like, ah, man, I'm just nervous about this, and I just don't know, and maybe he'll call and say we can't go, and, you know, but then he didn't, and he'd come, and we'd go out, and it's like, you know, once you get out there, and you start knocking on doors, you start talking to people, then all of a sudden, it's like, oh, yeah, this is great. But there's that, you know, you just, there is sometimes that reticence, But sometimes you just have to forge ahead. And when you do, you actually find that it's actually a joy and a delight. And so Paul did that. He is passionate. He's testifying. His heart is in it. And he persuades them. He's persuading them concerning Jesus. He's trying to convince them. He's wanting them to believe the message. on the day of Pentecost, it says about Peter, with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, save yourselves from this untoward generation. Peter preached the gospel on the day of Pentecost, and he's encouraging people, hey, get saved. Doesn't use the exact same terminology, but that's what he's saying. Believe on Christ. This is vital. Believe this. Accept this message. His heart was in it. Peter's heart was in it. Paul's heart was in it. He's presenting the gospel. He wants people to get saved. And then he was effective. In verse 24, we read that some believe the things which were spoken, and some believe not. But Paul wrote to the Corinthian church these words, in 2 Corinthians 2, verses 14 through 16, if you're taking notes, but he said, now thanks be unto God, which always causes us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place. We could stop right there, I'm gonna go on, but let me stop right there for a minute. Paul says we triumph in Christ, making known the knowledge of God in every place we go. Essentially what Paul's saying is, you know, we're victorious simply by proclaiming the truth. And we're a sweet saver to God for simply telling people the gospel. And he said, and we're unto God a sweet saver of Christ in them that are saved and then that perish to the one we're the saver of death unto death to those that don't believe They're going to die in their sins. But the other is saver of life unto life. But either way, whether they believe or don't believe, we are a sweet saver to God because we did our job. We gave the message. And you're called to be a witness. And you are successful. You are effective, if you will, when you have proclaimed the gospel. You're not responsible for how people respond. But I still, I firmly believe, though, that if we will faithfully be a witness for Christ, there's gonna be some people that are gonna respond by receiving Christ as their Savior. Paul was bold when they agreed not among themselves and departed, but they didn't depart before Paul had warned them of the danger of rejecting the message he's quoting from the book of Isaiah. And he's thoroughly, he's gone through the scriptures, he's shown them beyond any doubt that Jesus is Messiah and that they must believe on him if they would be accepted by God. And yet some of them didn't believe. And Paul said, but Isaiah has spoken of you. If you have rejected this message, you're the ones Isaiah is speaking to. And basically the message of Isaiah is God judicially hardens those who willfully, continuously reject his message. But there comes a time, he did this for the nation of Israel, there comes a time where if you continuously reject and reject and reject and reject, there may come a time when God will just, God will harden your heart. You can't get saved if God is not working in your heart. A person gets saved because the spirit of God is convicting them and drawing them, and if he stops doing that, you're not gonna get saved. And you can, you know, at that point, you can hear the gospel over and over and over again, but it's not gonna impact your heart because God is no longer dealing with you. There is a danger in rejecting, and rejecting, and rejecting the gospel. Now, let me add this, though. Say, well, how would I know? I mean, maybe, or how would somebody know, and what if somebody comes to me and says, well, you know, I wanna be saved, but I've rejected the gospel so much, I can't be saved. No, if you wanna be saved, you can be saved. But the point is, when this happens, When that judicial hardening of God happens, you no longer want to be saved. And God doesn't do that unless and until a person has willfully, okay, willfully, continuously rejected and rejected and rejected the message. And only God knows when that happens. And God is just in whatever he does, okay. So our job is to share the gospel. And we don't know what's going on in a person's heart and their relationship with God. We just give them the gospel. But if they're willfully rejecting that, hey, be careful. Because it may come to a point where God just stops bothering you about your need to be saved. And so sometimes you have to warn them. And then lastly, Paul was persistent. They left. And Paul, that was it. Paul was done preaching the gospel. He's there for two years, but he only, that one day he preached the gospel to the Jews and never more, right? How do you know? How do you know? Yep, because in verse 30 and 31, it says, Paul lived, he was there for two years, dwelling in his own iron house, received all that came into him, preaching the kingdom of God. People kept coming. And he kept preaching the gospel. By the way, the whole time, that whole day that Paul was preaching the gospel to those Jews, guess who's right there beside him? You know who's right there beside him, so let me just rephrase that. Who's right beside him? Well, no, not at this point. He's chained to a Roman soldier 24-7. So there's a Roman soldier listening to Paul's presentation of the gospel, the whole thing. Whether he wanted to or not, he can't help it because he's a captive audience. And I know they change them regularly. One thing I read said every six hours he got a new soldier. And probably the same ones over and over again at times, but every six hours he got a new somebody. Every time somebody came to hear the gospel and Paul shared the gospel with them, that soldier's hearing it too. And in the book of Philippians, He indicates that some of them had received Paul said, my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace and all other places, and then he wrote at the end of Philippians that all the saints salute you chiefly they that are of Caesar's household. There are people in Caesar's household that got saved. This is Caesar's royal guard that are guarding Paul. These people are getting saved because they're hearing the gospel from Paul, because he didn't quit preaching the gospel the whole time he was there. As God gave him opportunity, he kept sharing the gospel. Witnessing is a lifetime task. We're to persist in that. And by the way, the Book of Philippians, where Paul talks about the fact that his bonds, his imprisonment, just furthered the gospel. The Book of Philippians, we believe, was the last letter that he wrote during this imprisonment. And he's anticipating getting released, which we believe he did, and had another a couple years of ministry before he was re-arrested and executed. But that's, so in the end of his two years of imprisonment, he's writing about these people that have gotten saved through his ministry. Philemon, that letter is about a slave by the name of Onesimus who came to Rome and encountered Paul and Paul shared the gospel with him and he received Christ as Savior. So Paul is faithfully witnessing the whole time. The fact that he's a prisoner didn't stop him. He continued to be a witness until the day he died. And that's our job, and that's our task, and so we just need to stay at it. There's many examples of witnessing in the Bible, and each one teaches us something about our own responsibility to be a witness for Christ. We're gonna look at Christ himself being a witness on Sunday night. We're gonna look at one of the accounts of Christ's witnessing, Paul's witness in Rome teaches us or reminds us that we need to be aggressive, we need to be biblical, we need to be thorough, we need to be passionate, we need to be effective, we need to be bold, and we need to be persistent as a witness for Christ. Let's stand together and we'll have a word of prayer. Father, help us. We do sometimes shrink back and fear or anxiety or nervousness about telling others about you. Lord, we know the boldness that Paul had was a boldness that you gave. And you can give us that same boldness to be your witness. And Lord, even through our studies of Paul's witness of Christ's witness and As we look at the accounts of witnessing in your word, may it encourage us and equip us to be witnesses for you. Lord, would you give us those opportunities? And then again, give us boldness to take advantage of the opportunities that you would give us. May we share your gospel and Lord, may you use us to bring others to yourself. We ask in Jesus name. Amen.