Acts 26: Paul’s Testimony Before Kings

In this episode of The Morning Charge, Joshua walks through Acts 26, where Paul gives his defense before King Agrippa and shares the story of his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus.

This chapter focuses on Paul’s calling, his transformation, and the way he stayed faithful to the message God gave him. Even while standing before powerful people, Paul kept his attention on Jesus, the resurrection, and the hope found in the gospel.

This episode also highlights the importance of knowing who you are in Christ, responding to God’s calling, and being willing to share your testimony with clarity and conviction.

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- Real Talk. Real Jesus. Real Life. -

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 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. Father, I thank you, Lord, for acts. For I thank you for this book of Acts, Lord. I thank you for the revelation knowledge that you have given us as we have studied this over the past days. Father, I just pray right now, Lord, that our hearts are just so in tune with your word, so in tune with your Holy Spirit. I feel you doing something new in people's hearts today. Will you come and do it in me? Will you come and do it in them?

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Let us glean from your words.

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Holy Spirit, we invite you into this now. In the name of Jesus, amen. Amen and amen. All right. So if you got your sword, you got your word out this morning, we're going to Acts chapter 26, verse 1. Now King Agrippa said to Paul, You may now state your case. Paul motioned with his hand for silence and then began his defense. All right. An alternative reading of that in the Aramaic is the Holy Spirit issued from his mouth. Oh man, I love the way that that puts that. He didn't just begin his defense. The Holy Spirit issued the defense from his mouth. If we'll just open our mouth, he will begin to fill it. Verse 2. King Agrippa, I consider myself highly favored to stand before you today and answer the charges made against me by the Jews. Because you, more than anyone else, are very familiar with the customs and controversies among the Jewish people. I now ask for your patience as I state my case. I now ask for your patience as I state my case. All the Jews know how I have been raised as a young man, living among my own people from the beginning and in Jerusalem. Oh, somebody's awake and they ain't happy. That's how mom will be out of here in a minute. He said, All the Jews know how I've been raised as a young man, living among my own people from the beginning and in Jerusalem. If my accusers are willing to testify, they must admit that they've known me all along as a Pharisee, a member of the most strict and orthodox sect within Judaism. The Aramaic says, I have lived by the elite knowledge of the Pharisees. And now here I am on trial because I believe in the hope of God's promises made to our ancestors, the hope, the good news. He says, I know this is the good news. This is the promise the twelve tribes of our people hope to see fulfilled as they sincerely strive to serve God with prayers night and day. So, Your Highness, it is because of this hope that the Jews are accusing me. And how should you judge this matter? How should you bring judgment upon this? Why is it that any of you think it unbelievable that God raises the unalived person? I used to think that I should do all that was in my power to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And that's exactly what I did in Jerusalem. For I not only imprisoned many of the holy believers by the authority of the chief priest, I also cast my vote against them, sentencing them to that unalive state. I punished them often in every Jewish meeting hall and attempted to force them to blasphemy. I boiled with rage against them, hunting them down in distant foreign countries to persecute them. He's saying, I was not a good man. He said, I'm I'm I'm I was not a good man. I was hunting them down to persecute them. For that purpose I went to Damascus with the authority granted to me by the chief priest, and while traveling on that road at noon, Your Highness, I saw a light brighter than the sun flashing from heaven all around me and those who were with me. We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, saying, Paul, or Saul, Saul. He wasn't Paul yet. Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Excuse me, y'all. You're only hurting yourself when you resist your calling. Or could also be this. Now I've never really noticed that in the footnotes until I just read that. Kicking against the ox, the ox goads. Well, what's an ox goad? Anyone know? Hang on. We gotta look this up. I didn't notice this when I was studying earlier. G-O-A-D-S. G-O-A-D-S. Y'all know I gotta look for something. An ox goad is a long wooden staff about eight to ten feet with an iron spike on one end used by farmers and in antiquity to drive, guide, or prod oxen, pulling plows or carts. Oh, it's kind of like a cattle prod. Okay. Okay, so that could also translate out, or why are you hurting yourself by kicking against the ox goads? That would hurt. Kicking yourself against that. You're hurting yourself. Saul saw, why are you persecuting me? You're the only hurting yourself when you resist your calling. Or why do you keep kicking that thing? It's the same equivalent. He's saying you're hurting yourself when you do not okay. Do we understand that now? You're hurting yourself when you do not walk in your calling. Because I I want it, I want you to understand something. You weren't put here just to merely just breathe and exist. A lot of people feel like, well, I'm just here just because, you know, I don't know. Okay, well, we got to have a starting point. You need to know whose you are and who you are in Christ. Start there. All right, you're a son or a daughter of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. That's where we begin. Now we dive into the deeper purpose. But see, the Lord was getting a hold of Saul. Saul was absolutely not living out his purpose. He was way over on the other side. All right. He grew up with all the Jewish knowledge and all the things. But we see him now getting a hold of the Lord, and the Lord had to blind him with a bright light so that Saul could listen. That was Saul's problem. He had a hard time listening. All right, and he was going based off of what he could see. So God had to take this out temporarily so that his ears would intensify, so he'd have no choice but to listen. God knows how to get a hold of you. He knows how to get a hold of me. And he will. He will find you and he will get a hold of you. Amen. Kings and priests unto God. He said, We all fell to the ground. He's temporarily blind at this point. Saul saw why you're persecuting me. You're only hurting yourself when you resist your calling. That's the part that we got to. You're only hurting yourself when you resist your calling. Is anyone still resisting their calling? Don't resist your calling. Don't resist it. There is freedom in walking in it. Somebody needs to hear this morning. Do not resist your calling any longer. Be like Paul. We see the boldness that's now upon him to go forth. He is our example as we move forward with the message of Jesus. Jesus is our main example. Paul is a major example for us. And I have to search my heart and say, Am I there? Would I be willing to go on trial before kings? And instead of defending myself, I am defending the gospel of Jesus. That's what it all boils down to. You get before the Holy Spirit. Get before him. You got to be in the presence of the Holy Spirit so he can give you downloads. But honestly, you will begin to understand your calling because it's something that's that's already, it's inside of you. And as you continue to get in the secret place before him, he will give you strategies in that place. And then you begin to walk out those strategies. He will show you things through the word. He will drop things in your spirit. It's time to step out of the boat and take the first step towards whatever it is. You may not know fully what it looks like. You may not understand. You may have a heart and a compassion for people. You might be the one that's in the kitchen cooking that meal to take to somebody who's not feeling well or somebody who just had a baby and try to bless a family. Then obviously, you know that you're you're a major part in the in the helps department. You have compassion towards people. That's your calling. Keep loving on people the way that you love on people. So many people feel like calling. That means I got to be at a pulpit and I got to preach the word of the Lord. No, no, no, no, no, no. No. There are some people that are called to the pulpit. There are some people to call who stand on the street corner and they minister to the homeless and people that are passing by. All right. We should all have the heart of an evangelist, by the way. That should all be a part of our calling. We all should have the heart of an evangelist to minister the gospel of Jesus everywhere that we go.

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Everywhere that we go. Amen. Get before the Lord. And God got a hold of Saul.

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He'd been running and running. And I kind of feel like Saul sort of knew what he was doing was wrong. Now, this is not this is not here, okay? I just feel like it. And now the Lord has fully gotten a hold of him. See, see, the Bible tells us that God is looking at my heart. He wants to make sure that I'm in check in here. So there was something in his heart the Lord knew he could get a hold of Saul. So we got a hold of him. And then in verse 15, Saul asked, Who are you, Lord? But I think it's funny that Saul, Paul, in that moment says, Who are you, Lord? That's like saying, Who are you, Josh? You know? And the Lord replied, I am Jesus. The Aramaic says, I am Jesus the victorious. Aha, I'm Jesus the victorious one. The one who you are persecuting. Saul had evil intentions. Obviously, he was on the road to Damascus to go deliver the note that we're going to persecute as many of these people that are following this guy as possible. As many as possible. But he says, I am Jesus, the one you're persecuting. And then the voice of Jesus says, Get up, stand to your feet, for I have appeared to you to reveal your destiny and to commission you as my assistant. Jesus spoke to him in that moment and said, I have a different plan for you. Paul's recapping his story. All right. He's standing in front of some major folks here, and he is going to, he's recounting his story. But Jesus said, Arise, and I'm commissioning you as my assistant. There's a Greek word for this. And it's also used for John Mark as the assistant to Barnabas that we saw in Acts chapter 13 and verse 5. You're going to be my assistant. Thank you, Jesus. You will be a witness to what you have seen and to the things I will reveal whenever I appear to you. That's translated in the Aramaic. And it literally means a witness that you have seen me and are going to see me again. You're going to be a witness that you are one that has seen me and you will continue to see me. You will see me again. And what I think is interesting here is the way that Jesus is speaking here. You'll be a witness to what you have seen and to the things that I will reveal whenever I appear to you. You know, we've got to blind these in order to see Jesus. Now, I'm not saying you can't see God. I see God in things all day long, but there's a lot of situations that people go through where they need to put this on and stop looking at things in the natural. I've done this a lot today. But we've got to do this because the Lord is trying to get us to look from within. He is trying to get us to look from within instead of looking with our natural eyes at our situations and looking at our natural eyes. When we see people, we begin to judge people if we are not careful based on what we see. We've got to stop judging people based on what we see. If I had been alive then and I looked at Saul, I would have judged him based on what I saw. He's not a very good man. He's causing trouble. I don't trust him. God looked from within and saw who Saul really was, but he had to blind him so Saul could see who he was. Is anyone following me on this today? We got to have our blinded moments so we can truly see who we are. Because when you look in the mirror, what do you see? Are you seeing all the flaws and all the things? See, we got to get back to this so we can look on the inside, and I can say, I am a son and an heir to the kingdom. I am more than a conqueror through Jesus Christ, the one who gives me my strength, the one who maintains my joy. I'm looking at situations with all this. We got to get back to looking like this so that we can truly begin to walk things out the way that God intends us to walk things out and see ourselves rightly and see others rightly. I gotta love myself and I gotta love my neighbor. That was a command. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. Well, how you been loving on yourself? Let's go assess that first, and then let's begin to love on some people. Brandy, good morning. Love you, honey. Welcome in. Sorry, I saw you a few moments ago, and then I saw you again. All right. So Jesus is getting a hold of Saul. Saul is recounting the story of when he had that encounter. You'll be a witness to what you have seen and to the things I will reveal whenever I appear to you. I will rescue you. Jesus is still talking. I will rescue you from the persecution of your own people and from the hostility of the other nations that I will send you to. That was a promise from Jesus. I will rescue you. Didn't mean you're not going to get beaten, didn't mean that people aren't going to accuse you. He said, I will rescue you from the persecution. Verse 18, and you will open their eyes to their true condition, so that they may turn from darkness to the light, and from the power of Satan to the power of God. You're going to turn them from the authority or the dominion of Satan over to the power of God. By placing their faith in me, they will receive the total forgiveness of sins, and they will be made holy, taking hold of the inheritance that I give to my children. The forgiveness, the canceling of sins. Amen. Think of all the opportunities that Paul had while Yeah.

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Oh my goodness gracious. Absolutely. Hundred percent.

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I mean, because he was not a nice man. Not nice at all. God will sometimes do the same to us because he loves us that much. He loves us that much. My goodness gracious. That's what I'm saying. Saul was not a nice guy, but look where he's at now. That's why we got to be careful when we look at people. We got to stop the judgment on where people are. And there's a lot of people that are under the other under the influence of demonic forces. That is what we are fighting. That thing that's got a hold of somebody that needs to loose its grip and get on out of here so the true man and the true person can come forth. Calling forth the true man in that person. And allowing the Holy Spirit to infill those places. You know what I mean? Jesus. Taking hold of the inheritance that I give to my children. There's an inheritance for you. There's a promised inheritance of the kingdom for you. Kingdom's at hand. Are you accessing the kingdom? Are you walking in kingdom ways with kingdom principles? With Jesus? Come on. It's a big elephant. Are you taking your bites every day to understand this, to learn this? And not just understand it, learn it, but to walk it out. See, that's that's the thing. We got to walk this out. Amen. We got to walk this thing out. So you see, King Agrippa, I have not been disobedient to what was revealed to me from heaven. This was his this was his defense. I have not been disobedient to what was revealed to me from heaven, for it was in Damascus that I first declared the truth. And then I went to Jerusalem and throughout our nation, all right, or Judea, the nation of Judea, and even to other nations, telling people everywhere that they must repent and turn to God and demonstrate it with a changed life, or with fruits in keeping with repentance. Turn from your old evil wicked ways and follow the way of Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 21:19

Let's follow the way.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

To rise from that unalived state. Or the Aramaic says to inaugurate or be the origin of the resurrection from the unalive state. To release the bright light of truth both to our people and to the non-Jewish nations, to the Gentiles. This was for everybody, not an exclusive thing. In verse 24, Festus interrupts Paul's defense and he blurts out, You're out of your mind. Praise God, I'm out of my mind too. Festus says, You're out of your mind. All this great learning of yours is driving you crazy. He says, All this stuff's just got you all just driving you crazy. Paul comes back though, verse 25, Paul replies, No, your Excellency Festus, I am not crazy. I speak the words of truth and reason. King Agrippa, I know I can speak frankly and freely with you, for you understand these matters well, and none of these things have escaped your notice. After all, it's not like it was a secret. Don't you believe the prophets, King Agrippa? I know that you do. Now he's put he's putting King Agrippa right there on the putting him on the spot. Agrippa responded, In such a short time you are nearly persuading me to become a Christian. In such a short time, you're nearly, you're close to persuading me to become a Christian, he says. Paul replies, I pray to God that both you and those here listening to me would one day become the same as I am, except, of course, without these chains. Why do I find that comical? I don't know. Paul is in, he's in like the worst predicament anybody could be standing in right now. The most pressure could be coming down on anyone. And he says, I hope that one day you guys would be the same as me, except for, of course, of being in these chains. But there was also a serious message behind that. He's like, you guys are what he was telling them in that moment was that you're so bound you can't even see it. But one day I'm hoping those chains fall off and you're standing here in the truth without these chains. There's a greater message in there. These folks were bound up in religion, bound up in the political arena, couldn't see the truth. But God. The king, the governor, Bernice, and all the others got up, verse thirty. And as they were leaving the chamber, they commented to one another, This man has done nothing that deserves on a living or even imprisonment. This man hasn't done anything. King Agrippa says to Festus, if he hadn't appealed to Caesar, he could have been released.

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If he hadn't appealed to Caesar, he could have been released today.

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But I feel like if he hadn't appealed to Caesar, he wouldn't have stood before them. He's just fulfilling what Jesus told him, that you're going to stand before kings. You're going to do exactly what I'm calling you to do. You're going to stand before kings. And you're going to speak forth the truth to them. Most of these people think he's out of his mind. But you know, Paul was one of those. He was like, yeah, I am out of my mind. I don't want to be in my mind. Paul is one that says he's like, I lived in my mind for way too long. I'm now out of my mind. And I am being led by the Holy Spirit that lives on the inside of me. When the Holy Spirit leads you, when the Holy Spirit guides you, it doesn't go based off of this. Holy Spirit make you do some things, you go, what? You want me to say what to who?

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You want me to go where and what? Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:55

So it's time we get to be out of our minds like Paul. When people look at you, yeah, I am out of my mind. Oh, Jesus. All right, real quick. Real quick, real quick recap here. What did we see today? Powerful testimony is what we saw, and yet more pieces of the puzzle that we we keep hearing, we keep hearing your story of Damascus over and over. And every time we hear that story, it needs to get embedded here, and it needs to get embedded here, and it needs to get embedded here over and over again. Bless words, thanks for that. Up to the gallery you go, my friend. Lisa, welcome in. Thanks for the roses, y'all. Welcome in, y'all. Brandy says real transformation produces fruit. That's why the word says, we will know them by their fruit. Those that are transformed produce fruit. You got fruit hanging on your tree. What kind of fruit is your tree producing?

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Is it one of transformed fruit? Or is the fruit bitter? Amen.

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But Paul knew that Agrippa would understand the context of the Messiah and of the resurrection. He knew it would be another tool that would pierce his heart. He's standing out here on trial and he's found, I got another way to be able to continue to pierce his heart. But Paul knew that King Agrippa would understand the context of the Messiah and the resurrection. All right, Paul's speaking to someone who knows the background of the story. And he's going to continue to plant the seeds. Then Paul begins to tell his whole story. He's described his life as a Pharisee, all right, which the Pharisees, of course, as you know, were the strictest religious group in Judaism. Okay. They were known for deep knowledge of the law, intense devotion to tradition, but Paul explains that his persecution of Christians came from zeal. He thought he was defending God. He was a part of that religious sect. He thought he was defending God against this, whatever this is. It's up uprooting everything. This is not our religious system. This is not in our box. This has got to be stopped. So Paul at one point thought he was going to do something good. Paul was very passionate, but he was very wrong. This was Saul back in that time. And you know, there are a lot of people today that are very sincere in their beliefs, but they still haven't quite got the truth of Christ. They're very sincere in the way that they minister. But the truth of Christ, we talked about this in the past days, how the religious systems kind of twisted things. There's like a false truth out there, even within our churches, big C churches. Not talking about your church specifically, hopefully. But a lot of them twist. They have their own agenda. They got their own thing on it. They don't quite have the truth of Jesus. If you're, when you go to find a church, find one that is centered and founded and rooted upon Jesus Christ and who Jesus really was. And they are ones where the fruit is evident that they are walking the way of Jesus. Now you found you found your place. Paul recounts his whole road to Damascus experience, being blinded by the light. And Jesus speaking to him, saying, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

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Jesus identifies himself in this moment with him. You're persecuting the church, you're persecuting me. I'm the very one that you're coming against. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 31:32

That popped up in your head too, dear? Okay. Amen. Which point? Jesus said Jesus instructed him, stop kicking against the goads. You know, remember we we read that earlier. The oxen prod, if you will. When an ox resisted, it would hurt itself when it would get caught by that thing. And what what I kind of sense in that is that Paul had been doing the same thing. It's it's like he he had been resisting conviction for some time. God had already been dealing with his heart before this Damascus encounter. You know, we'll have different the Lord will we'll we'll put people in our path and and and we'll and we'll plant the seeds in our hearts before the moment. If you really think back. A lot of people, you think back to your your testimony and where God brought you from, you can you can you can go back and kind of see the people that were in your path and the the encounters that you had. But some little things were were coming. And I feel like when when we're talking about that with the way the oxen are guided, and that there's kind of that oxen prod, it's like he's like, you you've been you've been hurting yourself because you're not following your calling. Jesus was talking to Paul saying, This is your moment in your time.

SPEAKER_00 33:21

And I felt like the Lord just kind of just was dealing with him before this big moment. So Paul's recounting his story.

SPEAKER_01 33:34

Jesus gives Paul his assignment. Paul is sent to the Gentiles of all people groups. Okay. But God knew Paul would be one that would listen and obey. Amen. So it's like the Lord just continued to bring that, it was rolling around in him. Every night Saul relived the stoning of Stephen. But this verse here, when Paul is talking about Jesus and how Jesus began to give him his assignment in that moment, it kind of summarizes our entire mission of the gospel. The gospel doesn't stop at forgiveness. All right. The gospel of Jesus is to bring transformation, is to bring freedom, and to and to give us to give us the knowledge of there is an inheritance in this. There is a rich inheritance in this. Inheritance goes way beyond money. Okay. There's a rich inheritance in how Jesus walked, how he talked, and what his life was that is yours, if you're willing to pick it up. There's an inheritance here. So Paul knows he's got to come open our eyes. We've got to turn from the darkness to the light. We've got to turn from the power of Satan to the power of God. We've got to receive forgiveness for our sins, and then receive the inheritance among those that are sanctified. That's the mission. Opening our eyes, opening our eyes. See, the eyes was a big thing. We talked about that with Saul, Paul. God had to take this out so he could really open his eyes. How many of us need to start looking from in here again? We got to look in here, and then we got to look from here again.

SPEAKER_00 36:00

Hello?

SPEAKER_01 36:03

Paul explains he was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. He's like, I'm being obedient with what the Lord has spoken to me about. He preached where? First in Damascus, and then Jerusalem, then throughout Judea, and then to the Gentiles. Repent, turn to God, live a life that shows your repentance and your repented life. Jesus suffered. He rose from that unalive state and proclaimed light to both the Jews and the Gentiles through that story. The resurrection always remains the crux of Paul's message of who Jesus was and what he did. It was the message of what Jesus did for us. And then remember, Festus interrupts him saying, you're out of your mind. See, to Roman thinkers, you're out of your mind. To Roman, those their knowledge, the idea of the resurrection sounded completely absurd. When you're gone, you're gone, buddy. So you're telling me he rose and he Festus believed that Paul, Paul, all this all this learning and all these things that he was gathering from from Jesus had made him crazy. He's like, all your knowledge is making you nuts, man. That's good too, Apostle. God used to convict Saul. Every night he kicked against the prods of the Holy Spirit. He kicked against those that we saw. And that's what got him to it. Stop running from your calling, because the more you run from your calling, the more this is going to continue to to disturb you.

SPEAKER_00 38:07

And it disturbed him for good reason.

SPEAKER_01 38:15

Paul responds to Festus, though, and he says he is speaking words of truth and of reason. But this shows us this clash between the between the Greek Roman they were j they were skeptics is who they were, and the Christian message.

SPEAKER_00 38:34

I mean we still see this today. A lot of people are skeptical.

SPEAKER_01 38:44

But you gotta speak forth the truth. We just really sleepy over here in America. God's given us a wake-up call to wake up and speak the truth again. To be true not only to ourselves but to him. We kind of just got a little sleepy showing up on Sundays and kind of half sort of being there.

SPEAKER_00 39:11

Wake us up, Lord.

SPEAKER_01 39:14

Now Paul starts talking to Agrippa, and you ask him if he asked Agrippa, Do you believe the prophets? Is pretty much what he's asking him. Because Paul knows that Agrippa understands the Jewish prophecies. Do you agree with the prophets? Do you believe them? And Agrippa responds with, Do you think you can persuade me to become a Christian so quickly? He's like, You, you, I've known you for a short time, and you, you know, you you've been you've you've been getting me on the brink of becoming a Christian real quickly. Paul replies, I pray that not only you, but all who hear me today might become what I am, except for these chains. You guys are living in bondage. And it's time for the chains to fall. Yeah, Amanda. If the enemy can allow you to sleep, he's got you right where he wants you. Yeah. And in America, things look different for us. He keeps us busy, busy, busy. Busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy. We gotta do this, we gotta do that. We gotta run here, we gotta rather gotta hurry up and do this, hurry up and do that, and we gotta hurry up and go over here, and we gotta hurry up and do this. And then we're too tired to do anything else. He keeps you busy and he makes you tired. Spirit of fatigue, all the way up and all the way out. That's the big one. The spirit of fatigue. Got to let them chains fall. Thank you, Jesus. And then finally, Agrippa and Festus are privately discussing things. They agree that Paul hasn't done an he hasn't done anything to deserve to be unalived or even put back in prison. But Agrippa says something important. He says, This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar. When you appeal to Caesar, that means you can't be released. But Paul's appeal is now sending him to Rome, which is going to fulfill God's plan. See, it's not about our plan. And that I mean, because I mean, Paul already understood. He already understood he hasn't done anything. And he he's heard from them multiple times. He hasn't really done anything to be. But Jesus said, I was going to stand before kings. Paul was not one to just half-heartedly do anything. He's like, if I'm going the way, I'm going all the way.

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So now it's time to make a little trip. Thank you, Lord.

SPEAKER_01 42:07

Your encounter with Jesus is powerful. Your story with Jesus is powerful. We continue to hear Paul's replayed. Have you replayed your story with Jesus lately? That's just a question we gotta ask ourselves. A question I gotta ask myself. Have you replayed your story and your encounter with Jesus to somebody? To somebody's because we want to do this and we want to do that. But are we are are we sharing the good news with somebody? Share the good news with somebody. Share the good news with somebody. Amen. Paul didn't change his message to make it comfortable for him or comfortable for anyone else. He spoke the truth. We got to be ones that'll speak the truth. Your truth is not truth is not determined by popularity. Because I can tell you, truth is not real popular, but it's needed. And the ones that are supposed to glean and gain the message will be, that's that's what it's for. It's it, I mean, it's not for the masses. I'm not on social media just to give a little just to give a little cute little message and you know, and then we're going on trying to gain a whole bunch of followers and a whole bunch of stuff. That's not what this is for. This is for the ones that want to know the truth and they want to know who they are and whose they are and how they can begin to walk in the ways of Christ. The things that we say on here on any of these platforms is the it's supposed to be the truth. But there's a lot of people out there who are just giving a little message. And oh man, that that sounds good. You're meeting people in their mess, and you're making the mess okay, and that's not okay. We're supposed to help bring forth transformation. Discipleship, Amanda, has got to come back to the forefront of any of our mission. If we are not sharing the good news, sharing our testimony, and pointing people towards Christ and helping them in the word, we haven't done much. We haven't done very much. Many will be saved, but even more need to be discipled. Discipleship's been a thing we've let go here in America. Being obedience, being obedient means more than the than than trying to get some sort of an outcome. Especially when it comes to social media. Y'all hear me talk about that all the time. There's a lot of social media prophets and social media, this, that, and the other going on out there. Glean from people who are speaking the truth. Speaking the truth in love, digging into the word. Because there's a lot of crazy out there. There is a lot of people that out of their minds. Oh, thank you, Lord. Father, I thank you, Lord, for your I thank you, Lord, for your message. I thank you, Lord, for your holy word. Lord, let these words get etched upon our heart. Lord, let us kill let us walk out life differently. May we know who we are and whose we are. May we continue to glean from the words that you have written. Father, I pray over anybody in here this morning that's been struggling. They've been struggling in their identity, who they are. May they be pointed back to you today, God. May they be pointed back to you. Father, I pray over anybody on any of these streams this morning. If they do not know you, Jesus, Father, I pray that you would just tug at their hearts, that this would be their defining moment where you meet them in the middle of their mess and that you come into their life and you begin to turn things around right now. Holy Spirit. There's no magic formula to this. He's already found you, but I would, but say this. Just say, Jesus, I believe that you unalived, you know, TikTok language on that cross for my sins, and that you have come and you have washed me clean, you have made me whole, and I accept you as Lord and Savior of my life. Come wash me afresh and wash me new today. Jesus. In the name of Jesus. Amen. 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.