Let's bow together in prayer, please. Our Father in heaven, again by faith we come to thee. We address thee as our God. We thank thee that we come through our Savior, Jesus Christ. We rejoice in him who came all the way from glory to earth to fulfill that which Adam failed to do. We rejoice in Him who gave complete and perfect obedience to the law of God on our behalf. We thank Thee for the sacrifice of Calvary. We thank Thee for the blood that He shed and the agonies, the sorrows that He endured on our behalf, all the miseries of this life that our Lord and Savior suffered as the man of sorrows. We thank Thee, O God, for the Savior His willingness to die a death like no other, for there on the cross He became the very focal point of the sins of His people. There He bore them, our sins, in His own body on the tree, rejoicing the great sacrifice and the work that was done and the cry that was made, it is finished. We come, Lord, standing on redemption ground, We find our acceptance tonight in him, the altogether lovely one, the one dear God who has represented us and the one dear Father who owns us as his own. We rejoice that we are the children of God. Lord, we are maybe not known far and wide in society, but thank God we're known in heaven. Our names are there, written in the Lamb's book of life. We thank thee, dear God, that heaven is our eternal abode, and soon we'll take our earthly flight, and we'll join the ranks of the redeemed. We pray, Lord, now as we gather around the word of God for a brief period of time, that thou will bless and challenge our hearts. Draw near, we pray. Help, Lord, then in the after meeting too. And may God be glorified. And help us, dear God, to do all things as is declared in thy word decently may all things be done decently and in order bless thy servant as she'll come to conduct that part but we leave now the prayer time with thee and our time around the word oh god come and draw near to us we pray revive the church And grant, dear God, even in coming days, in the movings of thy spirit, we thank thee for what thou hast done, even in recent months. Thank thee, dear God, for that, and we give thee the glory for it. We pray, Lord, that thou wilt multiply it out in the congregation and beyond, and be pleased, dear God, to cause men and women who hear the gospel to respond to it positively, and, dear God, that they'll join the ranks of the redeemed. I enjoin the church of Christ here in Portland. So answer prayer with every heart and soul. Thank you for all the saints who have gathered for the time of prayer. And Lord, we pray that thou will come and may there be a blessing even for every heart we pray. We look to thee, Lord. Oh, come, we ask in these days and grant, dear Father, seasons of refreshing from the presence of our God. For we offer prayer through Jesus precious name. Amen. We're turning tonight to Acts chapter 9. The book of the Acts of the Apostles chapter 9. The verse is the verse number 20. We're beginning our reading. Acts chapter 9 in the verse 20. We welcome you. Thank you for making the effort to be out this evening. And we'll briefly bring a short word and then we'll get down to prayer. So it's Acts chapter 9 in the verse number 20. And it says, and straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God. But all that heard him were amazed and said, is not this he that destroyed them, which called on this name in Jerusalem, and came hither for that intent that he might bring them bound onto the chief priests? But Saul increased the Moor in strength and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ. And after that many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him, but their lane of weight was known of Saul. And they watched the gates day and night to kill him. Then the disciples took him by night, and let him down by the wall in a basket. And when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the disciples. But they were all afraid of him, and believed not that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him, and brought him to the apostles, and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way, and that he had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus and he was with them coming in and going out at Jerusalem. Amen we'll conclude there at the end of the verse number 28 our scripture reading. In 1792 William Carey published a treatise with the following title and was quite lengthy. an inquiry into the obligations of Christians to use means for the conversion of the heathens. The reason for the treaties was that most of Kerry's contemporaries believed that the call to evangelism applied only to the apostles. Kerry challenged that view by arguing that the Great Commission that we find in Matthew 28 verses 18 through to 20 is a binding command on every generation of Christians. In his treaties, Kerry recounted the history of missions, offering a survey of the state of global Christianity during his day, and urged Baptists and others to form societies to send missionaries to foreign lands with zero or minimal gospel presence. Before the end of 1792, Kerry and his friends in the Northamptonshire Baptist Association founded the Baptist Missionary Society, the first organization of its type in the evangelical world. Kerry himself was sent out to India to be a missionary the following year where he served as a missionary until his death in 1834. While many people would have heard of the name William Kerry, fewer would have heard of the name Andrew Fuller. Like Kerry, Fuller was nurtured in a theological context that wasn't sympathetic towards missions. But like Kerry, Fuller came to believe that every Christian was commanded to spread the gospel far and wide. Before leaving for India, Kerry famously told his friend Andrew Fuller, I will go down into the pit if you will hold the ropes. Fuller held the ropes for Kerry by serving as the president of the Baptist Mission Society from its foundation or its founding until his own death in 1814. He traveled all over the British Isles, he would raise funds and he would preach mission related sermons. As a consequence The missionaries were able to concentrate on their ministry in the field because they knew that Fuller was advocating for them back home. While the Great Commission is a command for all Christians, admittedly, not all believers are called to serve as missionaries or as ministers, but some are. And these missionaries and these ministers need Christians to be like Andrew Fuller, who will hold the ropes for them while they preach the gospel among the unreached people groups of the world. Holding the ropes for those who preach the gospel is very much vital in these days and in these closing days of time. It was that well-known story of William Carey and his words to his friend Andrew Fuller that really brought me to consider the literal holding of ropes that took place here in the city of Damascus when Paul realized that his life was under tremendous threat from the Jews. You see, Paul was now and marked man. He who once persecuted the followers of Christ now preached that Jesus of Nazareth was the very Christ, and that infuriated the Judaizers. It infuriated the religious Jews. Such was the Jews' hatred of Paul that verse 23 tells us that they took counsel to kill him. On his reading of the situation and understanding that it was not safe for Paul to stay any longer in the city of Damascus, the Christians in Damascus, they hatched an escape plan for Paul that was to swing into action under the cover of night. If you look there at the verse 25, it says, took him by night and let him down by the wall in a basket, hanging over the wall in Damascus, suspended midair in a basket. Paul's life was reliant on people who were holding the ropes. One slip of the rope would have resulted in Paul's death. The truth that I want to draw your attention just before we get down to prayer, as we think about this fate or this daring fate of the Damascus disciples under the cover of night, is this. What would have become of Paul if the disciples didn't hold the ropes and he hadn't have escaped? If Paul had have been hounded down, and killed by the Jews, things would have been very much different. You wouldn't have as an extensive New Testament as you have tonight. For the writer of 14 of the New Testament books was none other than the apostle Paul. Now Paul's only converted at this point. He wouldn't have had time to write any of his pastoral epistles or church epistles. And thus, if Paul had have died because the rope slipped and someone did not hold the rope, then we wouldn't have had the New Testament as we presently have it. You wouldn't have had as much theology as you have. Because Paul was a tremendous theologian, and you only have to read the book of Romans to understand that. Something else, you wouldn't have had the gospel in Europe. It was Paul who carried the gospel message first, having heard the cry of the Macedonian man to come over and to help us. know the disciples that night I can picture the scene as they held the ropes that night maybe those disciples they're obviously unnamed but as they held the ropes maybe they thought to themselves sure all I can do is hold a rope and yet it was because they held the rope It was because they held the rope that the world was and the world continues to be impacted through the ministry of the Apostle Paul. At that particular moment, the holders of the rope were as important as the one that was being held up by the rope. And maybe you're here as a Christian and all you think, well, all I can do is hold the ropes for God's servant. Can I say that your task, is as important as my task. Holding the ropes in prayer, praying for the work of God is as important as the one who preaches in the pulpit. You and I are to hold the ropes in prayer. And as we do so, God will take his work forward. Certainly holding the ropes for me in prayer to enable the gospel to go forth from this pulpit. I'm convinced that many a minister, many a minister will stand and rise on the day of judgment and thank God for those in their congregations who held the ropes for them in prayer. Oh, let's hold the ropes, brethren and sisters. Someone had to hold the rope in order for Paul to escape. It was vital. It was important. I trust that you see your presence every Wednesday night in this house as being vital, being important. Your ministry and prayer is appreciated. It's an encouragement to us. Continue to hold the ropes. Don't let go. Don't let go. Keep holding the ropes. Let's hold the ropes for our sister, Miss Logan, as she comes to conduct the Bible Club next week with us. And let our prayers be, Lord, make me a rope holder. Make me a holder of the ropes. Let us hold the ropes for all efforts that are made by and through this church. And may God in answer to prayer come. and moved by His Holy Spirit. Someone had to hold the ropes. And may God help us to be that someone. And may God help us to understand that by doing so, we may see to the propagation of the gospel in a far greater and a far better way, even in coming days. May God bless this very simple truth to our hearts tonight for Christ.