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0:47Let me just read to you Acts chapter 20, 24. But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus to testify solemnly of the grace, of the gospel of the grace of God. Have you ever sat down and just really thought about your life and what God has given you to do? What specific course does God have in store for you? What has he marked out for you to complete? I know many of you.

1:30Have gotten into Texas AM. Wow, you're something. I mean, getting into a program like Texas AM is a great accomplishment in and of itself. But the greater accomplishment is finishing the coursework that is set before you. It doesn't do any good to get in and be thrown out. But to complete that course of study, to complete that opportunity that is before you. You know, we've been studying the life of Paul, and he was a man who was touched by grace. He experienced God's grace, and then he became an instrument that God wanted to use to touch others with his grace. So how did Paul do that? Well, he mapped out a course for him, he gave him a ministry. We can think of it as a tour of duty, a service opportunity, a commission for service, service to God and service to man.

2:45It was a testifying ministry that we just read. How did Paul go about this testifying ministry? That's what I want to look at this morning. How did Paul proclaim grace? And how do we imitate his example? So, those are the questions that I want to answer this morning. And then I want to answer one more question. Why is Hebrews the next book in this series? The series of being at the feet of Paul started in Galatians. Why in the world would we go to Hebrews next?

3:31Again, I want to reread to you these words in Acts chapter 20, verse 24. But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God. See, one thing we can say about Paul from this text is he was not about making much of himself, and neither should we. Another thing we can say about this text is that Paul was about fulfilling his duty of service, and so should we.

4:17Third thing we can say about Paul from this passage is that he saw his duty of service as testifying to the good news of God's grace. And the same is true for us. That really is the only good news. This is what singers, peace on earth, goodwill to men. This is why we ring the bells. Why we heard the bells on Christmas Day. So his whole course of life was making much about the grace of God. And so it should be with us as well. We are first called to experience God's grace and then become people who will testify to that grace, the things we say, and the things we do.

5:12That's the line of work that God has called you into, regardless of what other disciplines that he's called you into. He has called you, if you are in Christ, to testify to his grace and to go throughout your life. That is the course that he has mapped out for you, is testifying, proclaiming God's grace. Paul saw this as the purpose of his life, being a spokesperson, a herald of God's grace. And he continually testified to everyone God's grace.

5:52And specifically, what he communicated depended upon the circumstances or the need. Of the moment. Sometimes the need was instruction. There is great grace in having good counsel. That's the grace in instruction. Sometimes we need to be exhorted to do what's right. We need to be encouraged, strongly pushed over the edge, and do what's right, get off the fence. And there's grace in exhortation. Sometimes the need was to build somebody up, to strengthen someone who is about to break or collapse.

6:34And so edifying, edifying one another, strengthening one another is also an expression of God's grace. And so Paul did all of that. But much of the time, as we read the story of Paul, much of the time, the need was evangelism. What is evangelism? The good news of God's grace in salvation. Bringing somebody who doesn't know God at all into a right relationship with God through the proclamation of who Jesus is and what he did and what he calls us to do in response. That's the gospel. Bring us in.

7:26And so today, in our time this morning, I want to focus on this. Proclaiming grace in this evangelistic setting because that so characterized much of Paul's life. How did Paul go about evangelizing? Is there a discernible pattern? Did he have a plan? And what can we learn from it? So I want to look this morning at two things by way of overview of looking at Paul, two things that Paul had to do in order to be effective in proclaiming grace.

8:06And it's the same for us. If we're going to be effective in proclaiming grace, we'll have to learn from Paul these two things. So, first of all, proclaiming grace through evangelism. First thing about Paul's ministry of proclaiming grace is he had a method. Paul had a method. Paul had to go where people were with the deliberate intention of telling them about God's grace. Makes sense. Paul had to go where people were. You're going to proclaim God's grace. You need to go to people with a deliberate intention of telling them about God's grace. So we have to be deliberate. Paul had to be deliberate. And he had to deliver. To have a method.

9:05And it was consistent throughout his life. Paul did have a deliberate method, very discernible in the New Testament when he evangelized. And it was consistent throughout his life. From his first missionary journey all the way to his imprisonment in Rome, there is a striking consistency to Paul's method of evangelism. A lot of this will be review from our time from Galatians, but you remember that first missionary journey. He was up in Antioch, Antioch in Syria. And from there, he launched the first missionary journey. And he comes to the island of Cyprus, and then he goes all the way across the island of Cyprus, all the way to Paphos. And let me read to you Acts chapter 13 and verse 4. You may want to have your thumb in Acts because we're going to be looking at this testifying ministry and see this pattern. So if you want to turn there, you can just jot the verses down and listen. But in Acts 13:4, we read these words. So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, so it's the Spirit of God who's behind this whole missionary. Endeavor. Being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia. From there, they sailed to Cyprus. And when they reached Salamis, they began to proclaim the Word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John Mark as their helper. And when they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they found a magician named Bar Jesus. But you see there the movement through this whole island. Where did he go? He went to the synagogues. And then he went to the synagogues very expressly across that island. And what was his subject? The word of God. That's what he was proclaiming. How was he testifying? What was the means of his testifying? By proclamation. That's what he was doing. He was proclaiming the word of God. He proclaimed, he spoke, verbal announcement the things of God's word. Now, as he left there, he goes, makes his way up into the Galatia region and comes all the way to Pisidian Antioch. So there's two Antiochs. There's one in the Galatia region called Pisidia, Pisidian, and then there's, don't confuse that with Syrian Antioch, where the whole missionary journey began.

11:54But there, if you look down at Acts 13, verse 14, we'll pick up the reading, the narrative. But going on from Perga, they arrived at Pisidian Antioch. And on the Sabbath day, they went into the synagogue and sat down. After the reading of the law and the prophets, the synagogue officials sent to them, saying, Brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say it. So again, we can look at, draw a few lessons from this testifying ministry. When did it happen? Sabbath day. Where did he go? The synagogue. What was his subject? A word of exhortation, a word of comfort, encouragement. He was asked to speak that. And by the way, this is the exact phrase that the writer of Hebrew uses to describe the entire book of Hebrews. It's a word of exhortation. And so here in Pisidian Antioch, in Acts chapter 13, they ask him, give us a word of exhortation. And it's only in Acts chapter 13 that we have a lengthy detail from the hand of Luke of what Paul spoke about in those synagogues, or in that synagogue. But his words, the means of testifying to God's grace, was simply speech again. Say it. Say it. If you have a word of exhortation, say it. That was the means of grace that God was using. Well, then, after there was some conflict. There, things happened. He goes over to Iconium. And let me just read to you in chapter 14, verse 1. In Iconium, they entered the synagogue of the Jews together and spoke in such a manner that a large number of people believed both Jews and the Greeks. So, again, where's the location of this testifying ministry? It's in the synagogue. What's the substance? Well, it's the same content that he had been preaching before. And what was the means by this? Well, speech. Again, speech. And it was persuasive speech in such a way that people came to faith.

14:09And that's the same pattern that he did in the other places. And then notice what he did. He returned. He went back to the churches. He didn't go back to the synagogues. He went back to the churches that were started. He went back to those believers that came out of those synagogues and he went back and visited them, establishing leadership, that kind of thing. And then goes back to Antioch. And there is the completion of the first missionary journey. Then we come to Paul's second missionary journey. Paul's second missionary journey. Now he takes off. You can see the Highlighted. It's a much bigger map, so it's a little harder to read. But he takes off from Antioch of Syria and he goes straight over to Derby. And what he does is he moves all the way through, going back. He doesn't come back to the synagogues. He goes to these local communities of faith that have received the message, and he goes all the way up to the edge of Asia. And then we pick this up, and then he crosses over into Philippi. By the way, that's the first time the gospel is going to go to the European continent. And there it is in Acts chapter 16, verse 13. They come to Philippi. And what he's going to do there in the area of Europe or Macedonia, Kaia, he's going to go and make his way all the way down to Corinth. But I just want to pick this up in Acts chapter 16 and verse 13 and just point out some highlights. Acts chapter 16, verse 13. And on the Sabbath day, this is at Philippi, we went outside the gate to a riverside where we were supposing that there would be a place of prayer, and we sat down and began speaking to the women who had assembled. One woman's name was Lydia.

16:23Granddaughter. That's where. But anyway. Where did they go? When? The Sabbath? To a riverside, because there was no synagogue. And what did he do? He began to speak. Look at Acts chapter 17, verse 1, and they come to Thessalonica. Now, when they had traveled through Amphipolis and the Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And according to Paul's custom, he went to them and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead, and saying, This Jesus, whom I am proclaiming to you, is the Christ. So, again, it's testifying ministry, location, the Sabbath. I mean, timing, Sabbath, location, synagogue, and for three continual Sabbaths. That's a lot of material, by the way, to be speaking about. And what is he doing? The subject is Christ's death, Christ's resurrection, and that Jesus is the Christ.

17:31And how does he go about doing it? Notice, he appeals to scriptural authority and he uses rational argumentation. He reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining, he's expositing scripture. And after a great conflict there, he heads down to Berea. Many received the message and some persecuted him. Paul lost. Left. And Acts 17, chapter, verse 10, comes to Berea. Then immediately, speaking of Thessalonica, they sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. And when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. Paul apparently didn't learn his lesson, got beat up, but he goes right back. They wouldn't listen, or some of them wouldn't. And then he goes on to the next. Who would?

18:30This is what is said about those in Berea, verse 11. Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the scriptures to see whether these things, what are these things, the same thing that he'd been speaking about up in Thessalonica, these things, that Christ's death, Christ's resurrection, the Messiah had to die. The scriptures are testifying that Christ had to die, be raised from the dead, and that Jesus is the Christ. Same thing. What was the means of this testifying ministry? Same thing. Scriptural examination, the communication of God's word. Well, then, after a little more persecution, what happens? Paul ends up down in Athens. Look at verse 16 of chapter Acts 17. Now, while he was waiting for them, his ministry team, at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols. So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and with the God-fearing Gentiles and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be present. So much so, you can look down at verse 18 that there were some philosophers that were saying, well, he's just babbling. And then these others were saying he's a proclaimer of strange deities. And why were they thinking this? Because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.

20:02So where's Paul's testifying ministry? Where has it taken him down in Athens? Well, it's taken him again into the synagogues and into the marketplace every day. He's speaking, he's reasoning, he's preaching Jesus and the resurrection and reasoning. Preaching. Then he makes his way over to Corinth, Acts chapter 18, verse 4. Notice, and he was reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath and trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. He had a message that he wanted to get across, and he wanted people to believe the message, come to believe the message, because he knew in his heart it was true.

20:57And then in verse 8 of chapter 1, 18. Look what happened. Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his household, and many of the Corinthians, when they heard, were believing and being baptized. And notice in verse 11 that through God's providence, he was able to settle there for a year and six months, teaching the Word of God among them. So look at that. The synagogue. He was there every Sabbath. Proclaiming the Word of God, reasoning with the intention, reasoning from Scripture.

21:33He was there 18 months. This was a major teaching center for Paul on this second missionary journey. And then he makes his way back to Jerusalem and into Antioch. That's his second missionary journey. Then he sets out on a third missionary journey. Where does he go? He goes right back into Derby, the area of Galatia, and he does what he had been doing, goes back to the churches, comes, you know, and he keeps going through. He's returning to the churches. He doesn't go back to the synagogues. He's going back to the churches.

22:21And this time he's not forbidden to go into Asia, but he makes his way into Asia. And he comes to Ephesus. Look at Acts chapter 19 and verse 8. And he entered the synagogue and continued speaking out boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. That's a lot of material, by the way, to speak for three months, reasoning from the scriptures. He's expounding scriptures over and over again. There is a corpus that he is speaking from.

23:07Again, Acts 19:8, and he entered the synagogue, speaking out boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. But when some were becoming hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the way before the people, he withdrew from them and took away the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus. And this took place for two years, so that all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greek. So then again, where did this testifying ministry take Paul? Well, it took him to where people were. Three months. He was in the synagogue. And then he was speaking in the school of Tyrannus for two years.

24:00What was his subject? The words of the Lord, the kingdom of God. Reasoning, persuading. That's what that testifying grace looked like, testifying to God's grace. It was through reasoning and persuasion. It was, again, it was a long stay. It became a major teaching center for the third journey. And again, Paul goes through, he goes back to the churches. He doesn't go back to the synagogues. He goes back to those churches that he came to on the second missionary journey. And then he makes his way back to Jerusalem, where he's going to be arrested.

24:44And that's going to begin what people refer to as his fourth missionary journey. It's actually an imprisonment, but we can say with certainty that it becomes a missionary journey because it's what the Holy Spirit had in mind. And this trip to Rome, this imprisonment that he ends up in Rome over, turns out to be a very effective missionary journey. And so I read these verses to you earlier, but you can see he makes his way all the way up to Rome.

25:23In Acts chapter 28, I read this a little bit earlier, but turn there. I'll highlight a specific verse. But when he gets there, what does he do? He calls to him. So he's on house arrest. Verse 16, 28:16, when he entered Rome, Paul was allowed to stay by himself with the soldier who was guarding him. So he's under prison arrest. And so he can't go to the synagogue. But notice who he calls. He calls the Jews, the leading people of the Jews.

26:03And what does he do? And then in verse 23, they set a day where Paul can talk to them. He wants to evangelize his people. Verse 23, when they had set a day for Paul, they came to him at his lodging in large numbers, and he was explaining to them by solemnly testifying about the kingdom of God and trying to persuade them concerning Jesus from both the law of Moses and from the prophets from morning to evening.

26:42Some were being persuaded and some would not believe. Look what happens in verse 30. And he stayed two full years in his own rented quarters and was welcoming all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all Openness unhindered. So, again, think about where this testifying, proclaiming God's grace ministry took Paul. Took him all the way to house arrest, calling on large numbers of Jewish leaders from morning to evening. His subject was the kingdom of God, just by this, the Lordship of Jesus Christ. How was he communicating this? How was he testifying this grace? He was explaining. He was testifying, and what was his source material? The law of Moses and the prophets. He was using the law and the prophets to testify about the death, resurrection, and glorification of Christ. And that Jesus Christ is the Lord. He testified to the Lordship of Christ based on the law and the prophets. I mean, he didn't have anything else.

28:00It was a long stay. Two years, a welcoming ministry, a hospitality ministry, bringing people in. He was a hospitable person, preaching the kingdom, teaching. So if you think about Paul and these population centers, where did this testifying ministry take him? It took him where people were. He had a deliverance. Intentional plan. He went to where the conversation was happening. And he set up, he was deliberate. And he set up centers in Antioch of Syria, and then in Galatia, in Antioch, and then in Europe, in Corinth, a very key city, in Asia, Ephesus, and again in Europe, in Rome.

29:05You see, Paul was deliberate about going where people were and continuing with people who would listen. And when they stopped listening, you know what he did? He moved to another. He kept going. That was his pattern. He was to testify to grace, and he kept testifying to grace. And when people wouldn't listen, he would just go on to the next person who would. This is a good pattern for us. Listen, you'll never proclaim God's grace to people unless you go to them.

29:45That's why going to people is the very first command, or certainly implication of the command in the Great Commission. Make disciples. How do you do that? By going. You have to be going. Be intentional. Be deliberate. Paul was. So that was Paul's method. There's a second thing you need to see about Paul's ministry, proclaiming grace. Second, you need to see his message. His message. Paul had to communicate in a specific message about God's grace with authority and clarity.

30:33He's going to be a herald of grace. He's got to have a method of going to people, but then he has to have a message of grace. One that is based on real authority, not just on subjective thoughts, but real authority and real clarity. The same is true for us. Paul's method was constant throughout his life, but so was his message. Again, from his first missionary journey all the way to his imprisonment in Rome, he has a consistent message.

31:14There's no need for me to go back and walk through all of those texts that we just looked at, but I will summarize three points about that material we just covered. First of all, his source of information. If you're going To proclaim grace, and it's truly going to be God's grace, then you have to have an authoritative source for that information. Paul consistently saw the scriptures, and more definitively, the law of Moses and the prophets as the authoritative source for God's grace. Paul didn't make up his own message, or he didn't presume that he knew more than God about what people really need. He let the word of God, who describes the condition of humanity, he let the word of God define the message that humanity really needs to hear. Reconciliation with God and how that happens, how you go from being under the curse of God to under his blessing. That is what you need to hear. That is what humanity needs to hear. We need to hear of the forgiving God. We need to hear the truth about sin, and we need to hear the truth about forgiveness.

32:45So he used the law and the prophets. Second thing about his message, his means to disseminate information didn't change. His means to disseminate. His source didn't change, and neither did the means to disseminate that information. And it's interesting to note: Paul has a very high view of God's sovereignty in missions. He has a high view of God's sovereignty of his grace. And yet, notice how engaged Paul was in taking the message of God's grace into the public forum.

33:31He engaged in preaching, in teaching, in reasoning, in arguing with the intention to persuade. He continually invited people and he continually warned people. And notice, he first, this means didn't change. He first went to the Jewish centers of religious conversation, the synagogue. And then he went into the Gentile marketplaces and the campuses and he established churches. And then he came back and visited the churches. It's like he changed the place. Think about what Paul did there. He changed the location, the physical location of the faithful from the synagogue to the church. It was an epic change. Time. Paul's course changed the ministry of where people talked about where the faithful gathered, called them out of the synagogue into the church.

34:49That was his part of his grace, God's grace in evangelism. The goal was to go to those who would listen and then get them connected to a local church. It was a ministry of grace. You think about what did Christ do? Christ sent Paul. Where did Paul go? To the synagogue. Then what did he do? Establish churches. And then what did he do? He went back to the churches to strengthen them, to exhort them, to encourage them, to edify them, all ministries of grace.

35:26The third thing that we can summarize about Paul's message is the clarity of his message. Not only the source of his information never changed, his means to disseminate that information never changed, and the clarity of his message never changed. He spoke from the word of God. He spoke about the words of God. He spoke about the kingdom of God. He spoke about Christ's death, Christ's resurrection. He spoke, testifying that Jesus is the Christ. He talked about the Lordship of Christ and the Word of the Lord.

36:05He spoke about even right after he got converted there on the road to Damascus, what does he do? He shows up in the synagogue saying, Jesus is the Son of God, testifying ministry. Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. He is Lord. You see, down at my house, I don't know if you've been noticing this, but new billboards are going up. You can tell we're getting into a bigger city when the big towering billboards go up, roadway signs.

36:39Well, Paul saw the Old Testament scriptures as big billboard signs, testifying, announcing to the world the death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, the Lordship of Christ, the sonship of Christ, all of that. He didn't have the New Testament like we have it. He was going in and proclaiming all of these truths and what was revealed in the Old Testament. You see, Paul didn't think he was starting a new religion. He was thinking that he was calling people to the faith in the one that had already been handed down from the faithful from past generations.

37:31That which was articulated in the law and in the prophets. And by the way, the secular authorities saw it the same way. They're like, oh, yeah, this Christian is some kind of Jewish sect. It's some kind of division within the Jewish realm. Well, Paul didn't think he was starting a new religion. He's just saying, look, I'm just being faithful to the faithful who, I'm being faithful to the message that has been passed down to us through the generations.

37:59It was the Jews who had rejected the message, who had perverted scriptural religion. But what did Paul, what did his life do? Well, he basically moved the center of theological conversation away from the synagogues and away from the pagan temples into the church as the subsequent centuries of church history bear out. So, Paul, in his ministry of proclaiming grace, he had to go where people were. He had to have a method, a deliberate, intentional method. Second, he had to have a message with some authority and clarity.

38:58Now, I want to talk to you about. The importance of the book of Hebrews. And I have in my notes here that if it's after 11:30, I'm going to have to cut a whole bunch out. So that's what I'm going to do, and I'll pick up some of this about the author of Hebrews next time. But I do have a lot, I still have a lot to say, so don't tune out. But think about what we've just witnessed. So much of Paul's life was spent in these synagogues, and he was using the scriptures to articulate the truths of God's grace.

39:48Now, wouldn't it be nice if we had a record of what he actually said in those synagogues? Think about how much time he spent there. Wouldn't it be nice to know, and then he went to this text, and then he reasoned thus and thus. Wouldn't it be nice? What specific arguments did he use? What text did he use? The only thing we, in Acts chapter 13, we have a record of what he said in the synagogue at Galatia, but do we have a record? Wouldn't it be nice to have a record of what was spoken in all those other places? I mean, he spent so much of his time there. Wouldn't it be Nice to know.

40:36What do you think the book of Hebrews is about? You see, we have this anonymous letter that comes to us called Hebrews. Who wrote it? Well, its authorship has been debated since the early days of the church, and there still is no convincing answer. We'll come back to that next time. I'll pick that up. But why is Hebrews the next book in this At the Feet of Paul series? Well, I believe Hebrews gives us an inside look at Paul's synagogue ministry. The texts, the arguments, the invitations, and the exhortations are similar to what Paul spent much of his life articulating as he testified to God's great grace. It is definitely Pauline. In other words, it represents the thoughts of Paul. Who actually pinned them down is greatly debated. But there is no debate that certainly Paul's influence is present.

41:50And I would say it is a picture of what. Would take place consistently in those synagogues. Well, Hebrews itself, and the goal of this this morning is: I'm trying to encourage you to join us for our study in Hebrews and invite others. Hebrews itself is both an invitation and an exhortation, and so will this commercial for Hebrews. If you can come, I assure you that it will deepen your understanding of the Old Testament, like hardly any New Testament book will do. It will deepen your understanding of the Levitical priesthood and the sacrifices. It will greatly sharpen your understanding of the specific gospel message from the law and the prophets, and what they should have seen, what people should have been aware of.

43:06It's the very message that transformed Rome. So it will deepen your understanding. But if you love evangelism, second, if you love evangelism, I especially encourage you to join us because an understanding of Hebrews will certainly sharpen your evangelistic focus and the message. And finally, if you want to know, this is my exhortation, if you want to know what life looks like under the grace of God and precisely how God's grace is specifically extended to you, then I exhort you, I encourage you to join us.

43:55You see, we can learn a lot about Paul's evangelizing ministry. First of all, we need to go where people are with the intention of telling them about God's grace. If we want to proclaim, if we want to run this course that God has for us testifying to His grace, then we must go where people are with the intention of telling them about God's grace. Second, we must speak God's message of grace with authority and clarity. We must go and we must speak.

44:40Think for a moment, if you can, imagine what the world would be like without Paul's testifying ministry to grace. Without Paul's ministry to the Gentiles, think about what, think about Rome, the Roman. World would not have come out of its superstitions, its pagan religions, or its immoral vices, or its imperial brutality. Behind all that is Paul's testifying ministry to grace. Imagine what the church would be like today without Paul's testifying ministry. Imagine your New Testament without the Gospel of Luke, without the book of Acts, without any of the appalling letters.

45:32You would have no beautiful words informing us of what love is. You remember 1 Corinthians 3:4, love is patient, love is kind, love never fails. We'd have no instruction about life. Romans 6:23, for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. We would never heard these, would never have been able to hear these words of assurance in Romans 8:1. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And we'd have no grand invitation like we hear in Hebrews 4:16. Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in need. Aren't you glad Paul completed his tour of duty? He testified to grace, and he kept testifying to God's grace. Look, friends, we can. Could easily get caught up in things that are not critical, can't we?

46:37Imagine what your life would be like without all the people whom God used to communicate the truth of His grace to you. I can't imagine what my life would be like without a praying mother, without a brother who encouraged me to follow the Lord, or my grandmother's great hospitality and grace-led ministry, and the many others that spoke grace into my life. Think about where your life would be without such voices. Now, I want you to think for a moment about all the people that God has placed in your life. And no one else is really going to, that are uniquely in your life.

47:18What would their lives be like if you were slack in testifying to God's grace? I can assure you that Paul had no idea of the impact of his testifying ministry. And there were certainly times of discouragement, times of fruitlessness and feelings of fruitlessness, and times in his life where his very life hung in the balance. And yet he was diligent to continue the course of testifying to God's grace. I'm glad many of you at school. School here at AM, I'm glad you have a great program set before you. I encourage you to finish the course.

48:10And hopefully, you're going to school to honor God, to improve the world around you, to make the most of this opportunity, not to make much of yourself, but to make much about the God of grace who has shown His grace to you. You know, that's the same for all of us, isn't it? Let us complete the course, testifying to God's grace that He is set, uniquely set before each one of us. What has God marked out for you? To experience His grace and to testify to His grace, and being deliberate and diligent to carry it out fully. And then just let Him have all the results. Leave the results up to Him.

49:02Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we do bow our hearts before you, thanking you for, again, the truth of your word, the grace that it communicates to our souls, the assurances. Father, and so it's in this truth that we come before you, whatever the need of grace is. Father, I know prayers are going up all around. Here tonight, to today. And I just pray that you would touch us with your grace, however that looks. In Jesus' name, amen.