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Well, Providence Family, it is a joy to see you. I hope you've had a good week. If you're a guest here with us, we are honored that you have joined us. And uh next week is Easter and it's the big weekend. We celebrate Jesus every time that we gather, not only his life, his death, his resurrection. Um, and um and as we have, and we're we'll sing a few more songs at the end of our time. Uh, we love Jesus. If you're new here, you're like, who are these people about? I hope you leave and you go, one thing I do know is they're about Jesus, and uh, because he's everything to us. Everything. And next week is Easter, and uh, there's a lot of people who will be here who aren't here right now. And so there's gonna be six services next weekend, two on Saturday, four on Sunday. And uh I need your help. And that is, if you will be here, and I hope that you will, if you would please go to pray.org slash info sometime early this week, and would you just let us know where you plan to be? And what that does is it lets the rest of the church family know where there's seats that are still open, and um, it'll help sort of balance out all those who will want to be here. It'll be a great help to us if you can do that. I also want you to know that there's room for you. And so if you get there online and you see uh there, I think two of the services are already uh filled, uh, but there is room for you, and there's also room for folks that you would want to invite. And so we have available for you invite cards uh that look just like this. Um, and they're out in the lobby, they're free. You can just grab one or two or more, and we invite you uh to invite your friends uh to be here. Um, one of the things that's true about um holidays, of course you know the word holiday comes from holy day, a day that's set apart, it's different than the rest of the days, um, is sometimes uh on the basis of the fact that they come every year, whether we're ready or not, whether we're happy about it or sad about it, or whether our life is uh going well or not when they arrive, is that sometimes it arrives we're not emotionally ready. And perhaps one of the hardest things is when folks come on Easter weekend and they're not emotionally ready and they see people who are, sometimes what happens is there's an expectation that's placed upon the things that happen in the service in order to get your heart ready. And the fact is that the service ends typically before we can get you ready, and for you to feel the wonder and worship all within that hour. And so I want to ask you to do due diligence, and that is to prepare your heart. You will experience more joy and worship if you feel wonder. And your heart will experience more of a sense of wonder if you have thought about it and meditated upon the truths of what we're celebrating. And so, to that end, we have a few tools to help us as a church family to prepare a heart. And one of those is tonight, 6 p.m., a night to come and pray and to worship and to enjoy the Lord's Supper. And uh, and what we'll really focus on tonight is the courage that it took for Jesus to come into Jerusalem, knowing in full well exactly what was going to take place, and yet he still came into the city in order to rescue us from our sin. Throughout the week, what we'll do is read various parts of what he did and said in his last few days before the cross. There's a guide, it's just like this. These are also free, they're in the lobby. We welcome you to pick one up and use it. It'll help you to prepare your heart through the week. Next weekend, we'll also celebrate a lot of people's new life in Christ by watching people get baptized. As they come out of the water, we'll have an opportunity to celebrate with them. And that's always an incredibly important thing for us as a church family. It's also one of the greatest honors that God Almighty has given to mankind to give us the privilege to publicly identify ourselves with Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Savior of the world. And so, if you have put your trust in Christ but have never been baptized, Jesus himself tells his followers, on the basis of what I've done in your life, when we put our faith in Christ, it is his blood that he shed for us that washes us of our sins. But he tells us to show other people what's happened in our life and what he's done for us by being baptized. And so as people go under the water and then they come out, it's a sign of the grave. As Jesus went down and then he came out, suddenly what we find is the symbol with water. You're gonna see people going down and they're gonna come back up, identifying with Christ. And so if you have put your faith in Christ and have never been baptized, it would be our amazing honor and privilege to be able to talk to you this week. But you need to help us to know how to do that. And so if you would go to pray.org slash baptism, and we would love to have or at least start that time with you just to talk about what that really means. It really is going to be a special time, as I pray this one will be as well. So let me pray for us. Father in heaven, we bow before you and ask that you would do miracles not only next weekend, if you allow us to be here next weekend, but also now. I pray, Father, that the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts would be pleasing to you. And that as we open your word, please, God, open our heart. Give us curiosity, give us attention. Help us to see that there's something personally at stake in our own lives on the basis of what is written in Acts. And so we look to you in faith. Please speak through weakness for your glory and our good, I pray. In Christ's name. Amen. If you have a Bible, turn with me to Acts chapter 24. It often feels in our culture like the gospel itself lives in a defendant's chair. What I mean by that is that in every culture, in every generation, Jesus has had to stand trial before skeptics. And these skeptics call to the witness stand his followers to serve as his witnesses to defend his honor. And Acts 24 turns all that on its head. Acts, if you're brand new with us, is the story of the earliest followers of Jesus Christ, how the Holy Spirit filled their heart and they became this unstoppable force to take the gospel to the ends of the world. And one of those individuals was named Paul, an early follower of Jesus Christ who was passionate about the honor of Christ. And so he went on three missionary journeys. And these journeys took him roughly 12 years of his life, 7,000 miles, mostly by foot. It's an enormous sacrifice. And he was so compelled of Jesus' honor to the ends of the earth that he was willing to make any sacrifice in order to help that to become a reality. Well, at the end of his third missionary journey, he comes to Jerusalem, and false reports have been sort of spread all around the city about Paul, about how he has sort of turned against the Jewish people, the temple, and the Old Testament. And so people warned him not to go. He said, I must go. So he goes. And on the sixth day that he's in Jerusalem, sure enough, some Jews were told from Asia they see him, they became so irate that they grab him, seize him, drag him out of the temple, shut the doors, and begin to beat him, it says, with intentions to kill him. They wanted to beat him to death until the Romans rescued him. And these Roman soldiers rescued him. The following day, there's a there's a there's uh not a trial, but a hearing. And at that hearing, it sort of just dissolves into chaos. And so the commander of Rome in Jerusalem sends Paul 75 miles north to Caesarea to stand trial before a man named Felix who was the governor. He sends him up the line. And what's interesting is in Acts chapter 24, what we find is the record of this trial. And it's interesting how it's written in such a way to make everybody who reads it ask the question now who really is on trial in this trial? So let's read it together. After five days, the high priest Ananias came down with some elders and a spokesman, one Tertullus. They laid before the governor their case against Paul, and when he had been summoned, Tertulus began to accuse him, saying, Since through you we enjoy much peace, and since by your foresight, most excellent Felix, reforms are being made for this nation, in every way and everywhere we accept this with all gratitude. But to detain you no further, I beg you, in your kindness, to hear us briefly. For we have found this man a plague, one who stirs up riots among the Jews throughout the world, and is a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. He even tried to profane the temple, but we seized him. By examining him yourself, you will be able to find out from him about everything of which we accuse him. And the Jews also joined in the charge, affirming that all these things were so. And when the governor had nodded to him to speak, Paul replied, Knowing that for many years you have been judge over this nation, I cheerfully make my defense. You can verify that it is not more than twelve days since I went up to worship in Jerusalem. And they did not find me disputing with anyone or stirring up a crowd, either in the temple or in the synagogues, or in the city. Neither can they prove to you what they now bring up against me. But this I confess to you, that according to the way that they call the sect, I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the law and written in the prophets, having a hope in God, which these men themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust. So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man. Now, after several years I came to bring alms to my nation and to present offerings. And while I was doing this, they found me purified in the temple without any crowd or tumult. But some Jews from Asia, they ought to be here before you to make an accusation, should they have anything against me. Or else let these men themselves say what wrongdoing they found when I stood before the council, other than this one thing that I cried out while standing among them, it is with respect to the resurrection of the dead that I'm on trial before you this day. Felix, having a rather accurate knowledge of the way, put them off, saying, When Lysias, the tribune, comes down, I will decide your case. Then he gave orders to the centurion that he should be kept in custody, but have some liberty, that none of his friends should be prevented from attending to his needs. After some days, Felix came with his wife, Drusilla, who was Jewish, and he sent for Paul, heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus. And as he reasoned about righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment, Felix was alarmed and said, Go away for the present. When I get an opportunity, I will summon you. At the same time, he hoped that money would be given him by Paul. So he sent for him often and conversed with him. And when two years had elapsed, Felix was succeeded by Portius Festus. And desiring to do the Jews a favor, Felix left Paul in prison. Now, there's a lot of things, I suppose, that we could find within this passage lots of questions that it answers, but there's one question in particular that I want it to answer, that I'm going to show you that it seeks to answer, I should say. And that is this how does the Holy Spirit leave us as his followers to live and to testify before a skeptical world in such a way that the skeptic's heart and skepticism is tried. You notice there's two things there, of course. There's a calling from God Himself to first of all to put it upon our heart to pursue integrity, but then once there is integrity, he urges us and inspires us to lean on that integrity. The fact is, nobody can lean on what they don't have. And Paul had integrity in spades. We're told that five days after Paul made it to Caesarea, and he was brought there, and he was brought with a letter that was written from that commander in Jerusalem. And in that letter it says, This man's done nothing wrong, certainly nothing that deserves death or imprisonment. But the Jews want him dead, and so I'm running this up. I'm just, I don't want to deal with it, you need to deal with it. You're the governor. Five days after Paul arrived, we're told that the high priests, some of the members from the Sanhedrin, called the elders, and a prosecutor arrives, and suddenly the trial begins. And this prosecutor, he says, Since through you we enjoy much peace, and by your foresight, most excellent Felix, reforms are being made for this nation. In every way and everywhere we accept this with all gratitude. Now, I've had a hard time knowing uh how to talk to this, it is just pure flattery, okay? This is not true. The fact is, is the Jews hated Felix. And Felix knew the Jews hated him. And the reason is because he was so awful. He was so violent toward the Jewish people that this prosecutor, when he begins, we know this is not accuracy, this is just flattery. And flattery is when you speak insincere compliments for the purpose of personal gain. Proverbs chapter 26 says, A flattery a flattering mouth works ruin. It is not a great thing to have a bunch of friends that are flattery. It's only bringing ruin to your life. But you want friends or friends that speak the truth. He then lays out the charges, and they were threefold in verse 5 and 6. In the first charge, sorry, can you go one more? There it is. We found this man a plague, one who stirs up riots among all the Jews throughout the world. What that means is they're accusing him of treason. He's an insurrectionist, that everywhere he goes, he creates a problem. This was a big issue. You see, under the emperor of Rome, you had kings, you had governors and tribunes, and every one of these layers, their responsibility was to protect loyalty to the emperor. In doing so, you're supposed to put down every uprising. And this is why so frequently the threat is there might be an uprising under you. You better be careful. And this is exactly what they do to Felix. They say this man is a threat to Rome. They also accuse him of heresy. They say that he's a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. Jesus grew up in Nazareth, and therefore his followers, one of the titles was that they were the people of the Nazarenes. Sometimes it was the way, because Jesus says, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. These were all names for the followers of Christ. But what the Jewish people were saying was this is that these followers of Jesus, they also claimed that the Bible is their book, and yet they have abandoned the temple. They've abandoned the sacrifices. And the reason is because they believed Jesus is the ultimate temple, and Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice. And they didn't believe that was true, and so what they were saying was that Jesus, that Paul was a threat to truth itself. And finally, sacrilege. So that he even tried to profane the temple. The idea there is what they're saying is that this man named Paul, he everywhere he goes, he tries to desecrate holy things throughout the empire, including our own temple. And so these were the charges that were laid against him. Now, this is what's so beautiful to me. There is a peace and it's a mysterious peace. The Bible calls it a peace that passes understanding. It comes upon the heart of a man or a woman who has nothing to hide. And you see it here in Paul. Felix nods at him as if to say, It's your turn. Paul begins to speak, not with flattery, but with truth. He makes an appeal and he says, Knowing that for many years you have been a judge over this nation. History tells us five to be exact. I cheerfully make my defense. In other words, this wasn't flattery. He's literally appealing to his accrued cultural institutional knowledge. You know Rome, you know the Jewish people, you know us. I'm appealing that you would make a decision on the basis of your accrued knowledge. You're wise enough for this. And then he begins working through the charges. First, treason. He says in verse 11, you can verify that it is not more than 12 days since I went up to worship in Jerusalem, and they didn't find me at all disputing with anyone, stirring up a crowd. 12 days since I've been back in country. Seven of them, I was praying and fasting in the temple. The last five, I've been in your prison here. So I've not had enough time to create an insurrection. I'm not a threat to Rome. And as for heresy, he says, I worship the God of our fathers. I believe everything laid down in the law and written in the prophets. And I have a hope in God, which these guys will accept, that there will be a resurrection, both of the just and unjust. In other words, this is what he says. He goes, Not only do I believe in God, I believe in the entire Bible. And not only that, within that Bible, God Almighty has made a promise that there one day will come a resurrection where everyone who has died, both evil and righteous people, just people, unjust people, kind people, cruel people, they will all rise, stand in judgment, and then be sentenced either to heaven or in hell. And I believe this. And with such certainty do I believe this, he says in verse 16, and therefore I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man. In other words, my life is governed by the certainty that one day I am gonna have to give an account to God. And as for this charge of sacrilege, he says in the verse 18, they found to be not desecrating the temple, but purified according to their own standards in the temple. And he concludes, if you remember, by him saying, and you can ask any of these guys, or you can go and get any witnesses in Jerusalem to refute what I've just told you. It's remarkable. And you see, key to his courage in this moment was his integrity. Let's talk about integrity. What's integrity? It's not math, okay? It's not fractions. However, the root of the word integrity is integer. If you remember back in, I don't remember where it was, second, third, fourth, fifth grade math, I know. Some of you are like, God, I have no idea. I still don't know. Uh an integer is a whole number, it's not a fraction. Okay? One is an integer. It's whole. Integrity is the life of wholeness instead of living in fractions. It's where when we speak, the words they're whole, they're all true. Not half the words are true, or a third of the words are true, or a fourth of the words are true, but all the words are true. And because we have developed in a legacy, a name that's full of integrity, that when we speak, other people go, there's uprightness in this person, and therefore I can believe all those words. All of my days are lived towards the Lord, not a fifth of them, or a third of them. The word is typically within the Bible, the verb form is to live upright as opposed to being crooked, is to live upright. It's straight towards the Lord. It's where what we do in public is the same. What we do in private, what we do on Sunday is what we do on Monday. A person of integrity. And the Holy Spirit led him to pursue a clear conscience through a lifestyle of integrity, and therefore, when it mattered the most, Paul was able to lean on it. Friends, a lot of us, we of course, you know, we live in a culture where a lot of people are skeptical about us and our belief and about Jesus and the gospel. And one of the ways, one of the most important ways, for us to be able to live and testify to a skeptic about. The validity of Jesus Christ and the honor of Jesus Christ is that we have to walk with integrity, and the reason is because they read us more than a Bible. To do good work every day. To be honest every day. To serve people every day. To be people of integrity. So application here is pretty obvious. Let's take pains to have a clear conscience. That's what he says. He goes, Because of this, I can I can stand on trial, and what's governed me this whole way is I have a clear conscience because I've been pursuing integrity. Now here's a great question you need to answer, ask or ask and answer is um what pains you have to take. And maybe a better question is what pains must a person, just like all of us, and that is we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, right? So we all have guilt. We all know what it feels like to have regret or shame. How do people who know guilt and shame from our past ever have a clear conscience? And so I want to give you three. The first pain I would encourage you to take is you have to learn to absorb the gospel. To have a clear conscience, this is so important, you have to learn how to preach to yourself. The doctrine of justification by faith. You see, every single time that we sin or every time we think back upon some of our worst behaviors, and Paul could do this. In fact, he did. Many times he says, Man, before Christ, I was an awful person. And after Christ, he says in Romans 7, why is it the things that I want to do I don't do, and the things I say, I will never do that again. I find myself keep doing those things. How can someone who says that say, I have a clear conscience? It's because he learned how to absorb the gospel. This is why. You see, when you remember your guilt or when you stumble and create new guilt, that guilt starts speaking to you. This is the truest thing about who you are. This is who you are. And that's the moment you have to have somebody in your life who can preach the doctrine of justification to you. And nobody is in your head like you're in your head. And so you need to preach in your head as much as your heart tells you all the things that are nasty about who you are. You see, the gospel says we've all fallen short of the glory of God, but God, in his love for us, he sent Christ to the earth and he came here and he lived without sin, but he went to a cross and he died for our sin. He's buried in the grave on the third day, he rose from the dead, giving to us an invitation that if we would repent of the belief, we can save ourselves and we put our faith in him and we confess in his Lord, he says, I will forgive you of your sin and I will give you, I will impute my own righteousness into your own life. And now all of a sudden, what you see is this is that see, if you don't learn how to deal with your guilt, it will become emotionally debilitating to your life and obeying Christ moving forward. Because it's going to keep speaking to you. That guilt is gonna say, do you really think you should ever be used again? Do you really think you should go on a mission trip? Do you ever think that you should serve? Do you ever think that you and that's when you need to have an advocate within your heart that can stand up and say, Let me preach to me the most important thing and the truest thing about me, it is true that I did that. That is my guilt, but that is not the truest thing about me. The truest thing about me is Jesus took that guilt by dying for it on the cross and he gave me his righteousness. When you absorb, absorb the doctrine of justification by faith, it literally allows you to live with a clear conscience. The second pain you have to take, and so do I, is we have to be people who confess our sin. I want you to think that each and every one of us is carrying a backpack, and over our life, that backpack has the ability to get lighter or heavier. And this is how it's full of rocks. And those rocks, they each represent guilt. Things that we've done, sinful things we've done that have created guilt that we either try to carry or justify or hide, but we don't confess. And all of us have the ability, perhaps, to carry a backpack that has one rock. But we keep living, and therefore more rocks are added. And it gets heavier and heavier and heavier. One rock is doable, but rocks keep adding. See, many of us, our weariness today is not always due to life getting harder. Oftentimes, it's due to our backpack getting heavier. Some of us we don't even know why we're so tired. It's not always because you need a nap. Sometimes you simply need to confess to God or to man, to let it go. You see, what's so interesting is confession is what empties the pack, allowing us to breathe deeply and to walk freely. And do you know what it feels like to live with a clear conscience? It feels like walking freely and breathing deeply. Years ago, I woke up or was woken up by one of my sons. This is when they were about this, this old, um, or this, this, this tall. Eight, nine, ten, something around there. And um about midnight, and says, Um, I need to talk to you. And I said, Okay. So we go in another room, and he said, I feel so guilty because we I did something uh today. And I said, That's okay. I said, What is it? You can tell me. And so he shares. And he says, Um, we went out in a bunch of houses and we rang the doorbell and we ran. Yeah, guilty. That's what that laugh is right there. It's it's personal guilt. And um, of course, I am familiar with that laugh as well. And um, man, I said, son, I'm so proud of you that you would wake me up. Of course, this is not the first time this has happened, and um, meaning the waking up part, and and uh, and I said, Um, and I want you to know that I forgive you. And he goes, Oh, good, I feel so much better. And I said, But I'm so glad you feel good. But I said, But let me tell you something. Um, I know how you can feel even better. And he goes, Really? How? And I said, Well, tomorrow when I get home from work, we're gonna go knock on all those doors and we're gonna apologize. And he he said, You know, Dan, I feel pretty good right now. I I said, No. I said, We're gonna get you and your brother, your partner in crime, and um and so we did, and we started walking around, and it was you know, it's embarrassing. And I ring the doorbell, and I'd start. My name is Brian, I live down the ray, and these are my sons, and they have something that they would like to share with you. And they said, This is what we did. Would you please forgive us? And so we go through the homes, we get to the very last home, and this woman, such a gift that she was last. Um, so we do the whole thing, and she and she she comes out and she shuts the door after they have spoken, and she moves around me to get in front of them. You know, this tall, and she kind of leans down. She goes, I want you to know something. The world needs more men like you. We're walking home, and I said, Let me ask you, I said, How do you feel now? Light. So we have to learn how to confess our sin to God and to one another. And then integrity to pursue it. Our righteousness is in Christ alone, but living with integrity, it leads to a noble life, a lighter backpack, and a clear conscience. The second thing I want you to see is the Spirit inspires us to speak the gospel clearly. So the trial's over. Felix sees they have no witnesses. He knows Paul's innocent, but he knows he can't release him without inciting the anger of the Jewish people. And so verse 22 tells us that having an accurate knowledge of the way, he put them off. He punted. Luke exposes Felix's knowledge in order to show that he was capable of making a decision that was just, but he was a coward, and so he wouldn't. And then it says in verse 24 that after some days Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish, and he sent for Paul and heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus. Now, the historian Tacitus, okay, this is not in the Bible, this is an actual historian from Rome, wrote histories, and he wrote about Felix. And one of the things he said about Felix is that Felix indulged in every barbarity and lust without the threat of impunity. He was an evil man. And one of his sins, one of his many sins, was he seduced Drusilla, who was apparently a very beautiful woman, away from her first husband to become his third wife. And so, what would a man with a clear conscience say to two people whose consciences were not clean? We're already told that he spoke about faith in Christ, but verse 25 says that he reasoned about righteousness and self-control and a coming judgment. And in doing so, he felt alarmed. This is amazing to me. Paul is the one who's on trial, and yet it's the judge who's the one who feels troubled and alarmed. Now, why is that? It is because the truth of the gospel put Felix on trial. Friends, every time people weigh the gospel, the gospel is weighing them. And so he reasoned about righteousness, which is God's standard. It is God's character. It's he is righteous. He created us in his image that we were to live righteous lives. Jesus comes to the earth and he says, Here's the standard. You therefore must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. You need a perfect righteousness, not just some good deeds. You need sinlessness. He reasoned about self-control. What's that? Well, that's the application of the pursuit of that righteousness. I need to, I need to control myself from doing things that would violate that standard. And he reasoned about the coming judgment, the day when we will stand before that standard and give an account of our life. All of this created a sense of unworthiness in Felix, just like it does in me. He was falling short, and I'm falling short, and you're falling short. The truth in Felix's life, it creates a collision. It did. He felt exposed. He felt alarmed. He felt like he was on trial. So my encouragement to us as followers of Christ is let's reason for the truth and point people to Christ. You see, friends, the truth, each of these have to be shared. If you notice in verse 24, it says that he spoke about faith in Christ. And in verse 25, it says he reasoned about righteousness, self-control, and judgment. How do those work? Well, once you start with righteousness, you say this is the standard, and this is self-control of how to pursue that standard, and this is the judgment that comes suddenly. Everyone who hears righteousness, self-control, and judgment, because we're all fallen. What happens? We all feel alarmed. And that's when we get to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. That Christ came, that he was the only one. This is when we get to stand. But don't you understand, friends? Is that there was one and only one who met the standard, who had perfect self-control, who could stand in the judgment. But instead of standing in the judgment, he took the judgment upon himself. Taking our sin, going to the cross, dying there, rising from the dead, giving us an invitation that if we would repent of our sin and believe in him, confess him as Lord, that we would be forgiven and notice, given a perfect record of righteousness. This is the only way to go to heaven. Friends, your friends need to know this. Everyone who's alive today in the world is one step, one day closer than they have ever been to standing before that throne. And many of them don't know the standard. They all know they're guilty. Everyone knows guilt. They all fear the possibility that judgment is coming. Many of them do not know that Christ experienced the judgment for us. They gotta know. If we're gonna live and we're gonna testify in a way that the skepticism of our world is put on trial, literally. We have to walk with integrity, we have to speak the truth. But here's the thing you're gonna have to keep speaking the truth. And that's so hard when it's rejected. And you notice that Felix, he kept saying, No, I'm gonna wait. He kept putting Christ off, he kept putting Paul off, and yet he couldn't put him far enough off. He kept pulling him back up to say, Tell me a little bit more. He sent for him, it says in verse 26, often and conversed with him. Now, what I want you to imagine is how hard this was for Paul. He was the mouse in the cat and mouse game. He's down in prison, he's done nothing wrong. Two years. He's pulled up, he says, Tell me more about Jesus. He unloads his heart, hoping that God is gonna open up his heart, praying that he's gonna respond in faith, only for him to reject it and send it back down to prison. At what point do you say, you know what, I'm done giving my pearls to the pigs? At what point do you, with your friends, say, you know what? No more for you. I'm just not gonna share the gospel with them anymore. There's an endurance that's required here. You see, for the joy that was set before Christ, he endured the cross in its shame. And friends, one of the things that we need to be motivated is the joy of the people in our life or around our life that one day, seeing them in vision now, in hope, one day they're gonna put their faith in Christ. That becomes a motivational force within your heart to continue to live with integrity before them, to continue to walk by their side, to continue to love them, care for them, and share with them. Before I close, I want to talk to people briefly who have never put for you, if you've never put your faith in Christ. I want you to notice that even though Felix kept bringing Paul up to hear the gospel, is you've noticed this, it says that he was only alarmed the first time. And the text very specifically goes out of its way to say that he never felt alarm again. This is important because if we don't respond when we are trembling, we tremble less the lext the next time. This is why Hebrews says today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. Verse 27 says when two years had elapsed, Felix was succeeded by Festus, and desiring to do the Jews a favor, Felix left Paul in prison. This is four layers sad to me. We'll close here. Imagine how discouraging that would be to be totally innocent, in prison for two years, only to find out that you now have a new governor over you who doesn't know you, who is not sympathetic towards you. And that proved to be very painful for Paul. That's sad. Second layer of sadness is when Felix was deposed of his power, which is history tells us that's why there was that transfer. Is that Felix lost access to Paul to call him up whenever he wanted, and as a result, he lost access to the gospel that he desperately needed. The third layer of sadness is represented here is shortly thereafter. History tells us that Felix died. And when he died, he went and he stood before the standard of righteousness as his own judge. And finally, his wife Drusilla, a fourth layer of sadness, who lived a corrupt life just like her husband. She was a Jewish, which meant that she had access to the scriptures that pointed to the Christ. And she traded all that for sensuality and power. Nineteen years later, Drusilla died when Mount Versuvius erupted and flooded Pompeii with lava. And she and her son were killed, as well as many others. And then she too went to stand before the ultimate standard. My encouragement to you today is don't put Christ off any longer. But to trust him today. So let's pray. Father, thank you for your love for us. Thank you for your kindness to us. I pray for those who are here who see the need within their heart. Would you please lead them now, Lord, to call out to you in faith by simply saying, I believe, I confess that I am a sinner. I know I cannot save myself, but I believe in Jesus and confess in this Lord. God, would you forgive them as they call upon you? Would you graft them into your family? Would you, would you bring them into your home? And Lord, for those of us who have put our faith in Christ, Christ, we're so grateful for you. We thank you that you made it a way that one day we're going to see you on your throne. And instead of being devastated, we're going to be exhilarated. We can't wait to see you. We sing about that now. So help us. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.