Acts 20: Spirit-Led Leadership, Courage, and Paul’s Final Charge

In this episode of The Morning Charge, we walk through Acts chapter 20 and look at Paul’s journey, his deep love for the church, and his final charge to the leaders in Ephesus.

This chapter is a powerful reminder of what real leadership looks like in the kingdom of God. Paul shows us what it means to serve with humility, follow the Holy Spirit even when hardship is ahead, and stay faithful to the assignment God has given. We also see the call to guard the flock, watch for deception, care for the weak, and live with open-handed generosity.

This message is both encouraging and weighty. It calls believers to stop living casually and start walking with greater purpose, discernment, and obedience. If you’ve been asking God for fresh direction, stronger faith, or a deeper understanding of what it means to truly serve Him, this episode will challenge and strengthen you.

For a more interactive experience, watch "The Morning Charge" LIVE every Monday–Friday at 7:00 AM CST on TikTok.

Find more teachings, podcasts, resources, and ministry updates at fireandwaterministries.org.

If you’d like to become a Monthly Partner with Fire & Water Ministries or sow into the mission, click HERE!

- Real Talk. Real Jesus. Real Life. -

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Morning Charge. This is your moment to slow down, breathe, and get your spirit aligned before stepping into the day ahead. Life moves fast, responsibilities pile up, voices compete for your attention. But before the noise of the world takes over, this is where we come back to what actually matters. This is a place for honest conversations about faith, life, purpose, and everyday battles we all face. No pretending, no religious performance, just the truth. Because following Jesus was never meant to be complicated. It was meant to be real. So whether you're driving to work, you're getting the kids ready, or simply taking a quiet moment for yourself, you're in the right place. This is Real Talk, Real Jesus, Real Life. This is the morning charge. All right, y'all, we are going to Acts chapter 20 this morning. Acts chapter 20. We saw some very miraculous things yesterday, boy. We spent a long time on 19, but that was a huge turning point. And today we're going to see Paul. Good morning, by the way, if you've just jumped in. Y'all know me. I just, I can have these squirrel moments. I'm just, I'm here and then I'm over here. Oh my goodness. But uh first off, okay, let's back up for a minute. Welcome into the morning charge. It's real talk, real Jesus, real life. If you're new, well, we're thankful to have you. You guys put new down here. Jessica, you move next week too. You found a nice, cheaper place to not even on purpose. God is so good, man. He's doing a lot of moving and a lot of grooving right now in good ways. Get in the secret place, get the strategies. Y'all can hear me say that for a week or more. It's time to get in the secret place and get the strategies. And I know he's blessing you guys. But you know what? The same God that's blessing Jessica and her family is the same God that can bless any of us, all of us. He wants what's best for his children. Amen. Amen. All right. Well, welcome in. First off, if you're new or if you've just forgotten, go to the link in my BIO. You can find out more about Brandy and myself. You can find out more about Fire and Water Ministries. There's lots of information there, including the workbook I talked about earlier. Men, you want to get your hands on that workbook and start asking yourself some hard questions like I did. There you go. It's available for you right there in the link. All right, Dana, good morning to you. Your mom needs prayers. Well, right now, Dana, we just lift your mom up to the Lord. Father, I just thank you for Dana. I thank you for a mother. Lord, you know the needs. Father, you know the situation. And I pray right now, Lord, that you're just laying your hands upon her mom right now. Lord, mighty comforter, will you just come and comfort her right now? Right where she's at, Lord. Holy Spirit, you come and minister to her in the way that she can hear, the way that she can understand. But I I just I just sense that this morning, Dana. Let the mighty comforter come and comfort your mom today. Right now. And I just thank you, Lord, from the top of her head to the soles of her feet right now. And let peace settle in the name of Jesus. Amen. Pastor B, good morning to you. If you're just jumping in, Jonathan, good morning to you. I see you jumping in the room today. Rocky's new. If y'all see some new folks getting thrown up here or in the chat, y'all make sure to make them feel welcome. Welcome in with us this morning. I'm here every weekday morning around 7 a.m. Central Standard Time to do just this right here on TikTok. So welcome in today. All right, we're going to Acts chapter 20. Acts chapter 20 is where we are. Yesterday, we saw lots of things happen. And uh Ephesus kind of broke out into a riot, if you will. Some things going down there in the city. You know, uh Demetrius really upset about uh Paul coming against their about their idols. You know, he was the one that made these idols to go in these temples. So this was big business for him. And now this guy's coming and tearing down all these false gods and false idols. Well, we can't have nobody affecting my household income. So we need to, we got to stir up some trouble. So there was a big riot. And luckily the mayor steps into town and he's like, you know what, if Demetrius, you guys got some issues, we need to bring this before the council. And we need to bring this into the court. This is not the place. So Yeah, I love my wife passed in 2024. Just need prayer. Well, Father, we just pray a refreshing over Rocky this morning. Lord, I just say right now, Father, Lord, that that that all of the things that he has endured in this seasons past, Lord, first you would come and comfort. You would take him by the hand and you would you would continue to walk him forward. And Father, I pray, Lord, where there's been hurt and where there has been pain, Lord, that you could that you would just turn that into, Lord, a testimony. That he could be others that could comfort those that have that have gone through the same loss and the same pain. Lord, we just ask right now, we stand with Rocky, he's crying out to you, say, God, will you move in my life? Father, we just come in agreement and say, Lord, will you come and move in his life right now? I pray, I pray, Lord, that every dam that has been built up would be burst and that the water would begin to flow again in his life. Lord, that there's going to be a flow in his life again. He's going to feel your presence like he hasn't been, and he's going to feel you so near, starting even now, right now in the name of Jesus, refreshing and renewing for our friend this morning. And if you need that for yourself as well, you take that on for yourself. Mima, welcome in. Good to see you this morning. All right. We're doing a little recap on chapter 19. That's led us to where we are. So that's so the crowds dispersed, and that's where we left Paul yesterday and where we left them there. All right, so let's jump into Acts 20, verse 1. When the uproar finally, you know, came down, Paul gathered the believers and encouraged their hearts. So he's he remember he's he's the apostle. He's he's encouraging them. He's the one that could have been in like some serious hot water at that moment. But now he's encouraging the believers. And he kissed them, he said goodbye, and he left for Macedonia. He knew his time was short there. Okay. Amen. Amen, Renee. Well, I'm glad to be here, my friend. Welcome in, y'all. Thanks for jumping in this morning. At every place he passed through, verse two, he brought words of great comfort and encouragement to the believers. He was not one to stay and camp out. Remember, apostle means sent one. So he's going and he's traveling and he's raising up and he's setting into place and he is encouraging them and he is building them up so that those that are meant to stay are well equipped, full of the Holy Spirit, and they can continue on. He is the mighty encourager. You guys keep going. You guys keep going. And I'm thankful for my apostle, Apostle Kelly. You guys see him in here. Uh he's been a spiritual voice and a spiritual father in my life for well over 20 years, y'all. And I'm so thankful for him. But he's the one he will call and he will encourage. I just want to encourage you guys. I just want to, you know, you guys keep going. He's one that'll pray with you. He'll stop and he talks to you. And it's important to have those voices in your life, okay, that will that will be right there with you. Amen. But every place that Paul passed through, he brought words of comfort, encouragement to the believers, and then he went on to Greece and he stayed there for three months. So he goes and camps out for a bit, and then he leaves. Just as Paul was about to sail for Syria, he learned of a plot against him by the Jews, so he decided to return by going through Macedonia. He's always following the Holy Spirit. See, Paul is one that's extremely sensitive to the Holy Spirit. So when he's hearing this, he asked the Holy Spirit where to go, and then he goes. And he's following the Lord. How important. How many troubles could we have avoided it if avoided it? What in the world? How many troubles could we have avoided if we had really been sensitive to the Holy Spirit and not shoved ourselves into a place where it wasn't a good situation? How many times could we have navigated? Now you see he goes where the Holy Spirit sends him. That doesn't mean that they're always that it's always sunshine and rainbows. Okay. This means that he goes to the places that God sends him because there's a purpose there. He wants to send you to places of purpose, just like he did Paul. But Paul learned about this plot against him, so he's going through Macedonia instead. Verse 4, seven men accompanied him as far as western Turkey. So seven men are going with him. They were so Pater, that's how I've always said his name, y'all. Should be it could be something else. But Sopater, I'm from the southeastern United States. Okay. All right. So Pater, Saucepater is another way that you could say his name. All right, but it's it's mentioned in Romans 16 and 21 as well, as one of Paul's relatives. So this be family that that's that's sticking with him. All right, and his name means his father's savior. So this is a rel so his father's savior is what his name means. But but you had him, the son of Pyrus, uh, that's who Sapater was, Aristocarus, Secundus, and Thessalonica, oh, from Thessalonica, and Gaius from Derby, and then you had Timothy, Tichicus, and Trophimus from Western Turkey. These men all went ahead and were waiting for us at Troas. Alright. Remember, Luke wrote this book, so we have to kind of imagine that Luke was along for the rod because of the way that this was written. These men went ahead and were waiting for us at Troaz. So that means Luke had to be tagging along, but he never actually mentions his name. But when you hear it written like that, you have to know that Luke must have been tagging along, okay? That's what we gather from that when he mentions things like this. Because he wrote the book of Acts, okay? So all of these guys, and we kind of know most of them. All right, verse 6. As soon as all of the Passover celebrations were over, Passover celebrations are over at this point, or the days of the unleavened bread. All right, this holiday, for may not know, this holiday was observed during the week immediately following Passover and was wrapped into the Passover celebration. So it was around that Passover time. Let me see, yep. That they sailed from Philippi, and after five days, we joined the others in Troaz, where we stayed another week. So they're on their journeys right now. This is just this is kind of detailing their journeys where they went. On Sunday, we gathered to take communion and to hear Paul preached. All right. They they breaking pieces of the Unicrist is what they called it. The Unicrist. In other words, they knew it was Christ's body. Communion was not, it wasn't just a little cracker and some juice and it was a ritual thing. No, no, no. This meant something to them. When we take communion, either in our homes, and I encourage you to do that. They broke, but they broke bread and they took communion quite often, I mean, almost daily, to remember what Jesus did. This was a very, very personal thing to them. And we continue that today. It should be a very personal thing to us that when we break the bread, it's like he broke his body for us, and then the blood which was shed for us when we drink that juice. But on Sunday they gathered, they took communion, and to hear Paul preach. Because he was planning to leave the next day, he continued speaking until past midnight. Paul is like, I'm gonna go ahead and we just gonna take all day and all night, and I'm gonna squeeze in every bit that Jesus has for you while we're here, okay? Many flickering lamps burned in the upstairs chamber where we were meeting. Most of you guys know about this story. We're about to get into it. Sitting in an open window listening was a young man named Eudicus. As Paul's sermon dragged on. I love the way the passion puts that. Eudychus became drowsy and fell into a deep slumber. Come on now. Y'all ain't never fell asleep in church before. A pastor up there preaching his heart out, and you like, uh, huh? What happened? What Sherry, good morning, my friend. Good to see you jumping in, jumping in at the right time, as usual. But there's Eudychus, he's in the window. Paul's been going for quite some time now. Great, but Eudychus, he's he's struggling, okay? He fell into a deep slumber. And then sound asleep, he fell out of the window. Three stories to his below. He fell asleep and fell out the window. Now, I ain't never been sitting in a window listening to a sermon. I probably won't after hearing this story. All right, verse 10. Paul goes downstairs. He bent over the boy and embraced him. Taking him in his arms, he said to all the people gathered, Stop your worrying. He's come back to life. So stop your worrying. His soul is in him. So Paul has raised him from that unalived state at this point. After this, Paul, in verse 11, Paul goes back upstairs, served communion, and ate a meal with them. Then he picked right back up where he left off, and he taught until dawn. So they just took a small little break. He's like, I'm not done, but we can go ahead and do communion and eat, and then we're going to jump right back in where God wants us to jump in. All right. Verse 12. Filled with enormous joy, they took the boy home alive, and everyone was encouraged. All right, the Greek says was comforted. Everybody was comforted by this. The Aramaic, though, says everybody was overjoyed. It was like a celebratory thing. All right. So the translation that they used here, it kind of merges both of those. So they were comforted and they were overjoyed by the boy coming back and the miraculous work of the Lord. Once again, God used that situation to show them wow, the power of the Lord is real. The power of the Lord is real. All right, continuing on, Paul's done what he's done, and now he's now he's gone. He's spent his five days here. All right, continuing our journey, we made, and this is verse 13, continuing our journey, we made our way to the ship and we sailed for Assis. Paul had previously arranged to meet us there as he traveled over land by foot. So they're sailing. So we rejoined the team. Well, they were sailing, and he traveled overland by foot. So he's walking, they're sailing. Once again, he's I I he I know he's a man that follows the Holy Spirit. There's a reason for this. We don't know, I don't know if know the full reason of this, but I know he follows the Lord. So we rejoined our team there, and we took him aboard and sailed for Middlene and and and in Middleity. That was a city on the Greek island of Lesbos. Okay. The next day they crossed over into Chios. Alright, that's a Greek island off the coast of Turkey. And the following day we arrived at the island of Samos, which is also another Greek island there right off the coast of Turkey. So now they're hitting up the islands, preaching the gospel. We stayed at Troglim. And on the day after that, we reached Militus. All right, so they've done a lot of, they've done, they've done a lot of traveling, all right, which is an ancient seaport, far western Turkey. So now they're going across all the coast of Turkey and they're hitting western Turkey. So there's a strategic plan here. They're hitting up all the lands around Turkey they can possibly hit up and they can go to. All right, Paul was in a hurry to arrive in Jerusalem, hoping to make it in time for the feast of Pentecost, so he decided to bypass Ephesus and not spend any time in that particular region or waste any time in the province of Asia Minor. So the time is drawing short for him. He knows he knows he's got to go back to Jerusalem, and he wanted to make it for the feast. However, verse 17, from Miletus, Paul has sent a message to the elders of the church in Ephesus and asked them to come and meet with him. So he wants the people in the church of Ephesus now to come and meet with him. So they do, and when they arrived in verse 18, he said to them, All of you know how I've lived and conducted myself while I was with you. Okay, so he couldn't make it to Ephesus, but he knew it was important to speak to them in person. Now he could have wrote, We know we've got all these letters that Paul wrote. Okay, we we've got so he could have written in detail what he needed. Amen. Sparky Wayne, good morning, guys. Welcome in. But he said, Hey, I need to I need to meet with you in person. Just in person. And what he's about to say is it's gonna be really deep, and it leads us into the whole rest of acts, pretty much. So let's listen in at what this is and how important this is. Look, this is our this is the owner of Lost and Found Agency. They got me covered here on TikTok and so many other Christian content creators. We really thank you guys so very much for all that you do, Wayne, Ashley, Chuck. And uh, we just celebrated a year not too long ago of the agency. God is so good. Amen. And he's moving by leaps and bounds. So you want to go live here on TikTok, you need a covering, you want to lift up the name of Jesus, and you will go live at least once a month. Let us know because we would like to talk to you and keep you covered, amen, and guide you as much as we possibly can. All right, there you go. There's my lost and found spiel. Sherry, thanks for that, because my voice needs some love today. We making it, though. It's not as squeaky as when I first started. All right, so Paul has got with the guys in Ephesus by way of letter and said, Come and now it takes a minute, y'all. He got to write it, he got to send it, they gotta read it, they gotta respond, but they didn't waste any time. When they arrived, he said to them, This is important. Let's pick up these words this morning. All of you know how I've lived and conducted myself while I was with you. From the first day I set foot in Western Turkey, I've operated in God's miracle power with great humility, and I have served you with many tears. He said, I have served you with many tears. Some of the manuscripts here, I say I have served you for more than three years, but I have served you with many tears, is how so if you want to know the timeline, I've been serving you guys for about three years now, okay? I've endured numerous ordeals because of the plots of the Jews. And he has. He's gone through a lot. We've seen these accounts. You know how I've taught you in public meetings and in your homes, and that I've not held anything back from you that would help you to grow. I urge both Jews and non-Jews, well, John, send us a message, okay, to remind us, and then uh and we'll uh we'll get with you. You know, get a plan together about going live and let us know. All right, sorry, I just happened to look up and saw that, y'all. He says, You know how I've taught you in public meetings and in your homes, and that I've not held anything back from you that would help you to grow. Verse 21. I urge both Jews and non-Jews, Gentiles, to turn from sin to God and to have faith in our Lord Jesus. And now I am captive to the Holy Spirit. What? You're captive to the Holy Spirit, or shackled by the Holy Spirit is how that could also. In other words, the Holy Spirit has gripped me in such a way to go to Jerusalem. He knows that's where he's got to go, but he knows there's great trouble waiting for him in Jerusalem. Y'all remember the troubles that went down there with him. Without really knowing what will happen to me there. I don't know. I just know I'm gripped by the Holy Spirit to go to this place, and I have no idea what's going to happen to me. Yet I know that the Holy Spirit warns me in town after town saying chains and afflictions are prepared for you. See, this warning from the Holy Spirit could have come through through prophecies, through dreams, through visions, or the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking directly to him. Can I tell you that the Holy Spirit still speaks to us the exact same way today? He still speaks to us the exact same way. Are we listening to his voice? I know the Holy Spirit warns me in town after town. The Holy Spirit will will give you guidance, he will give you direction, he will, he will warn you of things if you'll be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and learn to hear his voice through dreams, through prophecies, through visions, through that voice speaking to you. Hello? Come on. In verse 24, Paul goes on to say, But whether I live or I don't live is not important. For I don't esteem my life as indispensable. In other words, I do not consider my life worth a single word. That's Paul has viewed his life as not worth mentioning. He's like, this is not about Paul. This has everything to do about Jesus and about him leading me where I'm supposed to go. We don't need to see our lives as precious in our own eyes, for they're precious in the eyes of the Lord Jesus, and that has to be enough. That has to be enough. That we are precious in his eyes. We don't have to be. We need to know that Jesus is our the one that leads and guides us. He's the one that leads and guides us. But you're precious in his eyes. That has to be good enough. That must be good enough. Amen. Paul goes on to say, it's more important for me to fulfill my destiny and to finish the ministry my Lord Jesus has assigned to me, which is to faithfully preach the wonderful news of God's grace. That's the mission that's at hand. He said, I gotta fulfill my destiny even at the expense of my own life. I gotta finish my ministry for the Lord, and that's to preach the wonderful good news of God's grace. I've been a part of your lives, verse 25, Acts chapter 20. I've been a part of your lives and shared with you many times the message of God's kingdom realm. But now I leave you and you will not see my face again. This is the part that really upsets them. All right, we'll see that in just a moment. But that's the part that really upsets them when he says that I'm gonna leave you and you will not see my face again. He didn't know what was coming, but he knew it was coming. If any of you should be lost, I will not be blamed. For my conscience is clean. He's like, if any of you guys are still lost, it ain't on me. That's all on you, because my conscience is wiped clean, because I've taught you everything I could about God's eternal plan, and I've held nothing back. I have held nothing back, he says. So guard your hearts, be true shepherds over the flocks, and I want you to feed them well. Be good pastors over your flocks. Remember, it was the Holy Spirit who appointed you to guard and oversee, all right, or be guardians. That's where the word guardians comes from. This is the sacred duty of his leaders in the church to guard them, oversee the churches that belong to Jesus, the anointed one. I think Big C Church has forgotten that statement. I ain't talking about your church personally. Okay. But Big C Church. Sorry, y'all. Paul says, remember, it was the Holy Spirit who appointed you to guard and oversee the churches that belong to Jesus the Anointed One. Every church belongs to Jesus the Anointed One. Every ministry belongs to Jesus the Anointed One. All right, fire and water ministries does not belong to me or Brandy. That's that's bigger than that's bigger than us. It does not belong to me, but the Lord has entrusted us with it. He says, remember, it's the Holy Spirit who appointed you to oversee it. Well, I'm just the overseer. I'm the overseer to make sure the vision is going along with what God has said. It's not something for me to strive and put my hands in the way, and we're gonna build and we're gonna do a whole bunch, and we're gonna. No, we're gonna let the Holy Spirit have his way. We're gonna let the Holy Spirit have his way in everything that's put together and everything that's done ever. Sometimes people are like, You're still in that RV? I'm like, it's only been since October. And I'll be in this thing until I'm not in a rush. I'm not in a hurry because I want to be step for step with the Holy Spirit. Now I ain't gonna lag behind either, but I'm not gonna zoom ahead of what God has. I'm not gonna rush into something because it's like if you're if we're not careful, we make decisions based out of emotions rather than based out of out of mission and vision. We should always make decisions out of mission and vision. All right, speaking to pastors and people this morning. We're all in that. Or business leaders. Don't just rush yourself into a whole lot of debt or a whole lot of, you know, if it ain't going to create some sort of leverage, it's gonna come back to you real quick because you want to look like you got this big business, or you want to look. See, that's the thing. We we're interested in looks. And Paul just said that. He said, This ain't got nothing to do with me. I'm I'm already, I'm, I'm already, you know, I'm already acceptable in the side of the Lord. This ain't about looks for other people. You got this big building and these big things, or you got this big business, man. Y'all must be booming, y'all must be doing it behind the scenes. They have millions of dollars in debt. That's another story. Yeah, business been our business, our cleaning business has been going for three years. We have no debt. Now, if I if I put a little debt in there, we might we might be just a touch ahead of where we're at, maybe. But we have organically got in it blood, sweat, and tears and just begin to let the Holy Spirit increase the revenue as it goes. I ain't into just shoveling a whole bunch of debt into something because now what I got coming in is just all shoveling back out and paying interest to somebody else. That's another financial class. But what I'm saying is allow the Lord to be able to work in your life. Amen. Amanda's got a praise report. God touched me last week and he healed me. Amen, Amanda. Come on. He can do the same for anybody. He can do the same for you. Let this be a faith booster. If someone needs a faith booster this morning, God could touch her and heal her. He could touch you and heal you. He touched me and healed me. Amen. He's touching me and healing me right now. I mean, I would, you know, we can get frustrated and man, I wish my voice was yesterday. Why my voice? No. All right, Lord, I'm gonna have peace. And you know what? When your body, when you when you have peace and you maintain the joy of the Lord, your healing is gonna be faster than frustration and all that. When you have all that going on the inside, you're hanging on to things. Relax and allow the peace of the Lord that surpasses all understanding to fall upon you and then say, Lord, just bring your healing in the midst of your peace. And I promise you, you'll start seeing results that way. Your body responds to how you're responding. Come on. Thank you, Jesus. But we got to stop doing all these things so we look good out here. Let's stick to the mission and the vision no matter what it looks like. As long as you're following the Lord and you're touching lives that the Lord is leading you to touch, just like Paul did. We're good. We're good. All right, Paul's continuing. Let me keep on going. It's the Holy Spirit who appointed you to oversee these churches that belong to Jesus, the anointed one, which he purchased and established with his own blood. That really puts it into perspective. All right, verse 29, Acts chapter 20. I know that after I leave, now this is important. My goodness gracious. Paul says, I know that after I leave, impostors who have no loyalty to the flock. All right, the Greek says they won't spare the flock. But these impostors will come among you like savage wolves. They're gonna look all great and helpful on the outside. But there's oh, there's some darkness on the inside. Discernment, discernment, discernment. Verse 30 even some from among your very own ranks will rise up, twisting the truth or speaking crooked things. They're gonna be twisting the truth to seduce people into following them instead of Jesus. Oh my God. Amanda, welcome in, friend. Good to see you this morning. Paul is warning them hey, there's going to be some people that come in, they ain't gonna be quite right. And there's gonna be some among you even now that's gonna rise up and twist the truth to seduce people into following them instead of Jesus. Boy, we see that all over Big C church all the time. So be alert and discerning. Remember that for three years, night and day, I've never stopped warning each of you, pouring out my heart to you with tears, Paul says. I've always told you the truth no matter what. And now I'm telling you, just be cautious and be careful. We still have to keep our eyes open. We trust and we love and we help people, but there's gonna be Judas's rise up from time to time. We have to expect that. How we respond in those moments and what we do is what matters. Amen. And so now, verse 32, I entrust you into God's hands and the message of his grace, which is all that you need to become strong. That's it. I'm entrusting you into God's hands and the message of his grace. The Arameg says the manifestation of grace, which is all that you need to become strong, to build you up. A Greek word taken from the root, from the word architect, to build you up. God is the great architect of all things. He wants to give you the blueprints for your life, for your ministry. You know, the Lord got a hold of me the other day. Let me just let me just share this with you real quick. The Lord got a hold of me the other day. See if I can find this. And in the middle of writing in this journal, remember I've told you guys to have this, do it digitally, do it odd something about pen and paper, and then I wind up translating certain things on my phone anyway. But the Lord's speaking to me about many different things. And he said, I want you to write a personal mission statement and also write a family mission statement. Just as our ministries and our b our businesses should have mission statements, uh, so do our lives need one. Read them, read them even daily and watch and see what begins to happen. I spent that whole afternoon, Lord. Okay, a mission statement. So I just begin to write out what he said. And can I tell you when I review that every day, it stirs something on the inside of me and it will help root you and ground you. What does a mission statement do for like a business? A mission statement, it keeps you in within the guidelines, the healthy guidelines of the vision for that business. The ministry, the vision of the ministry, the mission statement. And then when situations and things come along, if it does not, all right, if it doesn't line up with your mission statement, you don't touch it. It's a it's an automatic no if it doesn't line up. So you could have boundaries for your life. You should have your own personal mission statement, all right, and you should have a mission statement for your family, all you family people out there. And if it doesn't meet the guidelines of that, it's a no for the family. It's a no for you personally. And I can tell you that begins to help you set those healthy guidelines. Okay. Come on. I this is this is holy, this is what the Holy Spirit spoke to me in my secret place the other day. If you want strategies and blueprints from God, you got to get in the secret place. I mean, listen, I got I got six kids that still live at home under the age of 10. Okay. And I st and we live in 300 square feet, and I still find time to get in the secret place. Okay. I hopefully I just abolished a lot of your thoughts of trying to find time. You just got to find time. Whatever you got to do. I mean, sometimes it may just be sitting in the car, like and having my that might be my quiet time for that day. Sitting up front where I do my lives is usually the place where I can have the most quiet time. All right, because I'm kind of out of sight and out of mind the way we have it. Whatever you got to do, get in the secret place and allow him to give you strategies. Get you a journal and begin to write down what God speaks to you and then live it. Don't just listen and write it down and leave it here. I'll see you tomorrow to write down some more cool things. No, these are to take action upon. That's where we fall most of the time. That's where we fail most of the time. We don't we stop taking action. It's time to take action. Amen. All right, here we go. So now I entrust to you into God's hand and the message of his grace, which is all that you need to become strong. All of God's blessings are imparted through the message of his grace, which he provides as the spiritual inheritance given to all his holy ones. Did y'all hear that? All of God's blessings are imparted through the message of his grace, which he provides as the spiritual inheritance given to all his holy ones. This is our spiritual inheritance. You want your inheritance? It's available. Now, the the God, he is a God of mighty provision, and he has provided us in leaps and bounds and ways like I've never seen ever before. Okay, we usually tie inheritance to funds or money. And it is. He is the God of the supernatural. But guess what? Paul is telling us here, even greater than that, that the message of his grace, which he has provided, is our spiritual inheritance given to all of his holy ones, or all of those that are sanctified. Those who are devoted to holiness. Those, did you hear that? Those that are devoted to holiness. Y'all are being loud. Those that are devoted to holiness. I haven't been after your money or any of your possessions. Verse 33. He hasn't been after anything, he's saying. He said, You all know that I've worked with my hands to meet my own needs and the needs of those who have served with me. He was a tent maker, all right, which went way beyond just making tents, y'all. Anything with animal skins or or putting things together with that. I mean, he could have made different clothes and different things with his trade and his skill. He said, But I've worked with my hands to meet my own needs and working with his hands to meet the needs of those who have served with me. He's taking care of everybody. He's feeding everybody, he's making sure everybody is good. I've left you an example of how you should serve and take care of those who are weak. In other words, I have given you, I've showed you how to minister to the sick. I've showed you how to serve others. Paul is going forth and helping plant things. See, servant leadership is a lot different than just being a leader. Or a manager, sorry. Sorry, I'm working through it. A manager is a guy that's kind of at the top of the corporate ladder, so to speak, and he's barking orders that filter down below. A servant leader. A leader is the foundation. Paul was their foundation, and he began to build things. Not on his foundation, but he began to build things on the foundation of Jesus. He was their support. And he worked aside from doing ministry to supply the needs of all those that were around it. What do we need? What do we got to do? All right, because I'm working here. Let's do this. Here, let's do that. This needs to be set in place. You need to eat. We're a community here. We're here to help one another. He was really big on that. He said, but I've left you the example of how you should serve and how you should take care of those who are who are weak or who are sick. For we must always cherish the words of our Lord Jesus, who taught, giving brings a far greater blessing than receiving. Doesn't matter, give it. Doesn't matter, give it. Just give it. It brings a far greater blessing than receiving. Or the Aramaic. It's kind of an idiom that speaks of extravagant generosity. Blessed are those who try to give more than they have been given. Remember, I've I've talked to you guys about this before in studies way past. It's an idiom here. It literally means you are blessed if you try to give more than you have been given. In other words, you can't outgive God. Somebody needs it, you give it. Somebody needs it, you give it. You'll get it back. You'll get it back. So see who needs what. You're gonna get it back. He's like, I've set the example here how to serve and how to give. Have we picked up how to serve and how to give yet? Or are we still complaining about having to do this and having to do that? And everything we do should be as unto the Lord. Amen. Tasha, thanks this morning, friend. Everything we do is as unto the Lord. And giving brings a far greater blessing than receiving. Verse 36, after Paul had finished speaking, he knelt down and he prayed with them. Then they all cried with great weeping as one another hugged Paul and they kissed him. That was a thing back then, okay. What broke their hearts the most were these words. The words that when he said this, and I I pointed it out earlier, you will not see my face again. He said, This is it. I've showed y'all what to do. Y'all gotta carry this forward now. And then they tearfully accompany Paul back to the ship. And that's kind of where we end today. Now, here starting in 21 on, we're gonna see Paul journey back to Jerusalem, and we're gonna kind of see things unfold with him that aren't very pretty or pleasant. But the thing what the thing is is he is he's faithful to the Holy Spirit. He's sensitive to the Holy Spirit, and he knows what's coming. And even though he knows what's coming, he's gonna go forward and he's gonna do it anyway. And this little snippet right here is kind of the charge to all of us. Every single one of us at this point should know how to serve. We should know how to bless and help take care of others, even in even in our seasons of lack. And your season of lack is when you should give the most. Now, I'm not always a lot of people get turned off, give into, you know, give a while. I shouldn't give it. However, the Holy Spirit is leading you to be generous to your community and to all of those that are around you. So many times we give in the church and we stop there. And God's like, well, there's more out here as well. If somebody needed a coat, would you not go and try to find them a coat if they were cold? Because you try to minister to somebody, they're not gonna listen to you, they're freezing. You take care of the physical need. They're freezing and they're hungry. You put a coat on them and you feed them a meal, they're gonna listen. All right, what you got? You have their full attention. But if you pray for them, Lord, bring them a coat and a meal, and let me tell you about this man named Jesus. Ooh, let's just, why don't we just, why don't we just, why don't we just adopt the lifestyle of Jesus who would go and get what is needed to bring back and to love on those people and let them know there's a better way that you too can live in abundance. You too can live in a way where the Lord will come and meet your needs because it's a promise. Amen. Lord help us, Jesus. And we go through these studies, and we go through these things like we're going through Acts, and we hear the message, and we're like, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then a few days later, it's just like we have we have forgotten what we have talked about. We have forgotten what we have said. When are we going to pick up these truths and truly begin to walk things out? When are we going to pick up these truths and begin to walk them out? That's today's morning charge. Before you move on with your day, take a moment and let what you've heard settle into your heart. Faith isn't just something we talk about, it's something we live out in the ordinary moments of everyday life. Wherever today takes you, remember this. You don't walk into it alone. God is already ahead of you, working in ways you may not even see yet. Stand firm, walk in wisdom, lead with love, and don't forget who you belong to. Until next time, keep your heart anchored, keep your faith strong, and keep living out real talk, real Jesus, real life. We'll see you on the next morning charge.