Standing Fast in the Faith

Welcome to NECF sermons. Each message here is

designed to uplift and strengthen you in your

walk with God. Don't miss out. Stay with us until

the end for a rewarding experience. Let's dive

right in. Heavenly Father. Thank you, Heavenly

Father. Thank you, Heavenly Father. In the mighty

name of Jesus. Jesus speaking to his disciples,

he said, most assuredly, I say to you, most assuredly,

I say to you, most assuredly, I say to you, most

assuredly, I say to you. When someone is speaking,

you listen. When someone says most assuredly,

in their time, that will be truly, truly, that

will be like twice. The word will, I think another

translation, I want you to give us on the King

James. Verily, verily, or truly, truly. The ESV

will say, truly, truly, this is verily, verily.

Verily, verily. It's like someone calling your

name once and calling your name again to get

your attention, to bring you to this consciousness

that this is important. And we'll see that this

is unique to the gospel of John. We'll see about

in 25 verses, you see this exactly as it is.

Moses, surely I say to you, verily, verily I

say to you. You see this happen several times.

And it's a cue for something important. It's

a cue for something worth noting. In the teaching,

I will go further and explain that. But I'm setting

the stage for us to understand that we need to

pay attention, right? We need to pay attention.

And we're in a day and age where people lose

attention. People don't pay attention. People

can be looking at you. A person can be looking

at you, but their minds are far and in a distant

land. And attention is, we most times pursue,

we want to get attention, but we don't want to

give it. We don't want to give it. The world

is revolving around people seeking to be noticed,

people seeking to be known, people seeking clicks,

likes, and follows, or subscribers, people seeking

all of that. One very key thing and one very

important thing that's very foundational to understanding

is giving attention or paying attention. Giving

attention or paying attention. And in this year,

God is demanding that we pay attention to his

word. He's demanding that we pay attention to

the disciplines that will account for our growth.

Pay attention to the things that he's speaking,

the things he has spoken, the things that he's

still speaking. You are paying attention to the

prophecies that you have received, paying attention

to it so that you are able to partner with God

to see its fulfillment. And the whole of Scripture

is littered around with this whole idea or this

concept of having to give attention, to be attentive.

Proverbs 4, 1, 2. Two, it says, hear my children

the instruction of a father and give attention

to no understanding. Give attention to no understanding.

For I give you good doctrine. Don't forsake my

law. Give attention to no understanding. Give

attention to no understanding. If you want to

understand, you have to give attention. You have

to pay attention. You don't understand by being

passive. You don't understand by being casual.

You understand by paying or giving attention.

Praise God. And in Proverbs 2, verse 1 to 5,

Proverbs 2:1–5

it says, My son, if you receive my words and

treasure my commands within you, so that you...

If you receive my words and treasure my commands

within you so that you incline your ear to wisdom

and apply your heart to understanding. Yes, if

you cry out for discernment and lift up your

voice for understanding. If you seek her as silver

and search for her as hidden treasures, then

you understand the fear of the Lord and find

the knowledge of God. There is this inclining

your ear. to the wisdom, applying your heart

to understanding. There's this, every part of

you has to be involved in it. You don't just

give me your ear. You want to give God your ear.

You want to give him your heart. You want to

give him your full attention. Because when someone

has your full attention, they will not miss a

thing. Praise God. You will not miss a thing.

You will not miss a thing. And scripture continues

to communicate this strongly to us that Paying

attention is foundational to understanding. Paying

attention is foundational to growth. Anybody

that wants to grow in fact in a specific area,

you want to give attention to that area for you

to see growth. You can't just be aiming everywhere

and expecting to grow everywhere. Paying attention

means that you are focused. Paying attention

means that you are single -minded. You're not

all over the place. When someone is not paying

attention, the word for it is that they are distracted.

And for many of us, our walk with God is full

of distractions. If I ask you to reflect on 2025,

you will remember all the times you were distracted,

on the things that you had planned to do, you

had prayed, you had prepared, on the day of execution,

you found yourself doing another thing. Or you

find yourself doing something else. And then

when you finish, you say, Lord, I'm sorry. And

then you come back again and then you repeat

the cycle. It's almost like the cycle just comes

back again. But we see in that same Proverbs

4, when you read down, I want us to read down,

I think, from 20, 420. 420, I think. The minister

don't mind. Oh, the song. My son, pay attention

to my words. In fact, that's the song that comes

out when you're reading this Proverbs. Pay attention

to my words. Incline your heart to my sayings.

Do not let them depart from your eyes. Keep them

in the midst of your heart. For they are life

to those who find them. They are health to all

their flesh. Keep your heart. with all diligence,

for out of it springs the issues of life. Put

away from you a deceitful mouth, and put perverse

lips far from you. Let your eyes look straight

ahead. Let your eyelids look right before you.

Ponder the patch of your feet, and let all your

ways be. established. Don't turn to the right

or to the left. Remove your foot from evil. I

would like us to read 1 and 2. That is chapters

Isaiah 1 · chapter mention

1 and 2. Chapters 5 starts off with my son again.

Pay attention to my wisdom. Lend your ear to

my understanding. that you may preserve discretion

and your lips may keep knowledge. We see that

there's a repeated theme in this particular area,

in the passages that we've read, it starts off,

he encourages his son to pay attention, to give

attention. And this is a theme repeated and scattered

through. scriptures, you find it. It says wisdom

actually demands that you deliberately pursue

it. You don't stumble on wisdom. Wisdom doesn't

stumble to you. You look for it. You find it.

You give attention to it. You hold on to it.

You hold fast to it. And then you treasure it.

Some of us receive things and we don't treasure

the things that we have received. We take it

casual. We incline our hearts towards understanding

it. We seek insight and we intensify our desire

for it. We look at it. The way a gold miner mines

for gold, they dig. They investigate. They look

around. They search. They clean the dirt. They

get dirty. They get rough trying to do that.

And once they have found the gold, the search

doesn't stop because there is more gold to find.

Praise God. There is more gold to find. And God's

word is gold and God wants us to treasure it.

God wants us to treasure it. We incline ourselves

to it. We apply our hearts to it. So there's

always something to do. There's always something

to do. There's always something to do. And I

want to just put this in as we're talking about

it. When Pastor, if I was leading us in prayer,

he dropped it in. This is the 18th of January.

This is the 18th of January. I want to ask you,

you know, many people still do this thing of,

okay, this is a new year. I want to do something.

I want to do a new year, new me. I want to do

things differently this year. And then they say,

okay. I'm going to try. Last year, I couldn't

complete my Bible, the canonical. I want to do

better this year. If you want to do better this

year, and we are on the 18th of January, first

and foremost, doing better will mean that you

should be on the plan, the one we are together

as a church. Some people will say, sir, there's

a personal plan I do. Yes, there's a personal

plan you do. How do we... How are you accountable

in that personal plan? How we can know that you're

accountable because you already are used to doing

it. So what you'll just do is that you'll join

us and then we'll be able to hold ourselves accountable

together. That's one. Two, where we've started,

this is the 18. And the question is, are you

playing catch up? Because if you're playing catch

up, you know, some people have been doing catch

up since last year. Now is a new... It's a new

plan. If you're going to do catch up again, it

shouldn't be 18 days. We're now still doing 15

days. Not behind by 15 days. It means that if

you want to start off to do better, it means

that you should be closing in. We can be in day

18 and then it's bad enough that we're doing

like three days missed, four days missed. If

it's 10 days missed, it means that you have not

learned your lesson from the past year. Praise

God. And I'm saying this to say that little things

like this are the micro changes that you make

for the macro changes to occur. Praise God. They

are the micro changes that you make for the macro

changes to occur. I'm saying this and looking

into the eyes of some people. They are the micro

changes you make for the macro changes to occur.

You don't just arrive at here. You move slowly

and you can make mistakes or you can skip, but

let it not be too far apart. Let your recovery

time be shorter this year. Praise God. Let your

recovery time or let the days apart be shorter.

Some people, I was horrified to see that they

had like 100 and something days in last year.

And this year, there is no 100 and something.

There is no catch up this year. Praise God. It

means that if you want to. If you want to do

better, you have to plan. You don't stumble into

it. You want to say, I want to pay attention

to my study of God's Word. I want to see that

there's an improvement from what used to happen

before. Yes, I'm up to date, but how am I internalizing

what I'm receiving? That is the step further.

I think one way, Brother Gabriel was leading

us in prayer one time. He says, yes, there are

nine gifts of the Spirit. If you are doing eight,

there's one more. If you are doing one, there's

eight more. If you are doing five, there's four

more. It means that anywhere you find yourself,

there's more. Meaning that if you have been doing

it successfully, you want to put in a challenge

to it. Say this year, I'm going to add more fasting

to it. I'm going to add more of intense study

to it to challenge myself, to enable myself to

do. Because there's actually a consequence of

not paying. There's a big consequence to not

paying attention. Praise God. There are consequences

to not paying attention. I think I will give

an illustration with, I think, this semester

that just ended. Even in your everyday life,

if you don't pay attention, you pay for it daily.

I'd given announcements to all the students,

stated, okay, this is how you're going to do

it. This is the venue for the exams. And I walked

into an exam hall and I saw a particular student

in the wrong exam, writing the wrong examination.

And this student looks at me and I said, I looked

and I'm able to tell that this student shouldn't

be in this examination. I looked into the student's

eye. I said, you shouldn't be in this exam. She

looks, the student looks at me and tells me,

thank you, Hojam. And then I'm thinking to myself,

I was like. I don't have time. I have like different

rooms to attend to. I can't explain to the student

again that they're in the wrong class after telling

me thank you and not doing anything about it.

And then I'm thinking to myself that if you continue

and finish the entire exam, I hope you know that

the consequences that you have zero because the

courses are not the same. And then you have people

giving or you're doing work, but you're doing

work. in the wrong direction. And for some of

us, last year we were busy. We were very busy.

We were doing a lot of things. But we were not

in church. We were not in the Word. We were not

found in a place of prayer. We were nowhere,

but we were everywhere. Praise God. I want to

challenge you that you want to look And see,

paying attention is not just examining your life

and doing nothing about it. Because most of us

have examined our lives. And we have seen that

there is a problem in this area and this area.

But we are just locked in the habit of living

things the way that they are. This is my challenge

to us. That there is more, right? There is more.

There is more. There is more. And I think in

the passage that was read to us, I think on Wednesday,

when Pastor Victor was teaching us, he read to

us from Hebrew. And in Hebrews 2, he mentioned

something. He says, Hebrews 2 is one. He says,

therefore, we must give more earnest heed. I

like the way he emphasizes more. earnest heed

to the things that we have heard. More earnest

heed to the things that we have heard. Lest we

drift away. Lest we drift away. You're giving

heed to the things you have heard so that you

make progress. In fact, it didn't just say give

heed to the things. It said more earnest heed

to the things that you have heard. And for some

of us, we have been hearing, hearing, hearing.

It's a broken record. We've been hearing and

hearing, but we still have not decided that this

is the time it will end. What I believe God is

going to be doing to us or doing in us in this

season is that he's going to be stirring the

desire. We're going to look at, as we prayed,

we're going to see examples, as we saw in the

passage in 1 Timothy 4. We're going to see examples

that will challenge us. We're going to see people

around us, and God is going to put us in that

place where we'll be challenged to insist on

change. Insist on change. That we will not drift.

Some people drift and drift and drift, and to

come back, it's like a little slow fade, slow

fade, and before you know it, there's nothing.

Jesus Christ speaking in Luke 18. I want us to

go to Luke 8, Luke 8, 18. Luke 8, 18, it says,

Therefore take heed how you hear. Take heed how

you hear. For whoever has, to him more will be

given, and whoever does not have, even that which

he seems to have, will be taken from him. Even

the things you do have, you can lose it if you

don't apply yourself to it. Some of us, we just,

we regress a bit and when we come back, it's

like it's new to us. Because you have regressed

or you have held back a bit. Means that if you

don't consistently pay attention, you're going

to lose already gained grounds. You're going

to lose already gained grounds. If you don't

consistently pay attention, you will miss something

that you will struggle to catch up with. It's

like if you don't pay attention in the whole

of the semester, when you fail, you have to pay

for another semester. It means that it will cost

you. It will cost you. It means that you don't

want to give yourself, you want to really pay

attention to what is happening so that you don't

miss out. You don't miss out. I want us to go

to the first Timothy. First Timothy 4. First

Timothy 4. We'll start from 13. First Timothy

4. We'll start from 13. It says, Till I come,

give attention to reading. Till I come, give

attention to reading, to exaltation, to doctrine.

Give attention to doctrine, that is teaching.

Do not neglect the gift which is in you, which

has been given to you by prophecy by the laying

on of hands of the eldership. 15 now says, meditate

on these things. Give yourself entirely to them.

Notice he says, give yourself entirely to them.

He didn't say partly. He didn't say somehowly.

He says entirely to them that your progress may

be evident to all. It means that what we'll see

as a result is progress, right? What we'll see

as a result is you'll get better. What we'll

see as a result is that you will not struggle

to catch it or to understand when it's being

taught. It means that your progress will be evident

to all. 16 now says take heed to yourself and

to the doctrine, which is teaching. Continue

in them. For in doing this, you will save both

yourself and those who hear you. So it means

that your making progress is not going to be

beneficial to you alone. Even people around you.

In the prayers that we're saying, it's now not

we or you're looking forward to who will encourage

you. It's now you encouraging someone else because

you yourself have been encouraged. Praise God.

You have been encouraged. And time and time again,

the purpose or the plan for God is not for everyone

to be needing, right? Everyone to always, God,

what is it for me today? What do you have for

me today? That kind of work is what we are here

encouraging you not to. Give yourself to praise

God. The work should be such that you will say,

what do you want me to do? That is someone that

is paying attention. Someone that is paying attention

will be like, there is work to be done. I am

availing myself for that work that needs to be

done. But someone that is needing attention will

wake up and say, what do you have for me today?

I want... You know, I have fees that are not

paid. But someone that is paying attention will

see the pattern. The way your fees have been

coming from last year, it has been miraculous.

But it has been coming. So it means that you

don't want to give your attention to that, but

focus your attention on the work that he's instructing

you to do. So we see that it's very... practical

either benefits or consequences to it. There

are practical benefits or consequences to it.

And I want us to pick something from the parable

of the sower, right? And this further exemplifies

or illustrates the matter. Because when people

hear spiritual truths and they don't understand

it or they don't heed it, there is There are

things that can happen. There are things, there

are consequences, or there are things that they

can allow themselves to give heed to that will

distract them from the truth. Because if the

truth that you have received doesn't take root,

you will not see the fruit of it. Praise God.

You will not see the fruit of it. And it's very

important that we don't undermine the things

that God is exposing us to, the things that God

is teaching us, the things that He's helping

us to come into understanding of. I want us to

see it from a sense where I want to see this

from Matthew 13. Matthew 13 from verse 9. It

starts off with, He who has ears to hear, let

him hear. 10 now says, And the disciples came

and said to him, Why? Do you speak to them in

parables? He answered and said to them, Because

it has been given to you to know the mysteries

of the kingdom of heaven. But to them it has

not been given. For whoever has to him more will

be given. have abundance, but whoever does not

have, even that which he has will be taken away

from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables,

because seeing they do not see, and hearing they

do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them

the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says,

Hearing you will not hear, and shall not understand

and see, you will see and not perceive. For the

hands of his people have grown dull, their ears

are hard of hearing, and their eyes have been

closed, lest they should see with their eyes

and hear with their ears, lest they should understand

with their hearts and tongue. So I will... so

I should heal them. 16. But blessed are your

eyes for they see, your ears for they hear. 17

now says, For assuredly I say to you that many

prophets and righteous men desire to see what

you see and they not see it and hear what you

hear and they not hear it. 18 now comes to the

explanation. Therefore, hear the parable of the

sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom

and does not understand it, then the wicked one

comes and snatches away what has been sown in

his heart. This is he who received seed by the

wayside. But he who received the seed on stony

places is the one who hears the word and immediately

perceives and receives it with joy. Yet he has

no root in himself but endures only for a while.

For when tribulations or persecutions arises

because of the word, immediately he stumbles.

Now he who receives seed among the tons is he

who hears the word, and the cares of the world

and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word.

And he becomes unfruitful. 23. But he who receives

seed on the good ground is he who hears the word

and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and

produces a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirteen.

Praise God. So, we want to be people who receive.

the Word with enthusiasm and allow it to take

root in us without letting things choke the Word.

We can read this in the different accounts in

Luke 8, which we had read earlier, the ending

part of it, from 4 to 15, and Mark 4, 1 to 9.

It means that genuine fruitfulness requires not

just you, hearing but there's the vigilance or

there's the consistent engagement what you're

receiving and allowing it to take root that results

in the growth that we are believing to see and

we see that in the proverbs that we read and

remember we read proverbs 4 23 where we see that

the heart has to be diligent right you have to

guard your heart with all diligence right Guard

your heart, keep your heart with all diligence,

for out of it springs the issue of life. Meaning

that if you are not guarding the Word, guarding

it, and I want us to notice that when you are

being taught something, and then you go outside

and heed the opposite or something different

from what it is you've been taught, you're undermining

what you have been taught. Praise God. You have

been taught about... your identity in Christ,

and someone comes and tells you, like, something

else. Know that it's going to undermine what

you have understood. You held on to it, but you

let go of it. And for many of us, there are many

things that are even more detrimental, where

you have heard about this, you believed it, in

fact, you saw the fruits of it. And then you

go, and then you listen to something else, and

you allow that thing to take root. The consequences

are there because you didn't pay attention. You

didn't heed. You didn't even notice. You didn't

understand that this thing you are entertaining

will affect you on the long run. And note that

this, your attention is able to shape your life

in ways, which is what the Proverbs are saying.

It's able to shape your lives in ways that you

can't even imagine. And for some of us, it's

because we're allowing, we don't have filters.

And we are in a world where everybody now just

allows anything to go through. We don't have

guards. We don't have filters. We just allow

whatever it is that is flying around, just come

and sit on us. And once it sits, the fruits,

the same way the word of God takes root in your

life and the fruit is evident, the same way once

the errors or the wrong things flying around,

once it sits, the... manifestations of it will

be very evident. Praise God. It will be very

evident. So paying attention to Scripture is

not just a minor spiritual discipline, right?

It's a gateway through which all the growth that

is needed, all the possible things that is needed

to be manifest in our life is made available.

And it's not something you don't just... Most

of us don't actually... look at the areas that

need immediate care and attention we allow things

to go out of hand and then we now react to it

when it goes out of hand we find ourselves reacting

to the circumstance or reacting to the difficulties

but what should change in this year is we want

to not just assess the situation but walk towards

ensuring that we constantly make it a habit to

continue in the new things or in the things that

God is laying our hearts to because we're going

to be getting instructions. Instructions are

coming. Instructions will continue to come. We

want to be consistent. We want to be regular

because it's in your consistency and your regularity

that you are able to see the areas and heed the

word and get the instructions and make progress.

And in this season, building capacity is, paying

attention is inevitable when you are wanting

to build capacity. Paying attention is one thing

that is inevitable, meaning that you have to

focus steadily towards the area that needs attention.

And for most of us, it's all around information

because it's information that guarantees that

we understand. If you don't have information,

you'll be lacking understanding. And if you lack

understanding, you are very much in a disadvantaged

position and to result in no growth or growth

in the areas that is not important. Praise God.

Because many of us are having a lot of information,

we're growing in areas that are not as important

as the areas that demand our immediate attention.

Praise God. And we want to be like... a detective,

as the Proverbs was talking, how you are investigating,

you are focusing and trying to find clues. Yes,

you know, but you are not allowing what you know

cloud the things that you are taking or you are

receiving. Because in it lies clues or things

that you will learn while you are at it. Praise

God. For some of us, we come to, we pay attention

and we hold on to the things that we know. and

push away the things that we don't agree with

very quickly. And that in itself doesn't allow

us to make room to understand what is being taught.

Because once you are so critical of everything

that you hear, that you miss out on the truths

that is coming to you, there's still not going

to be any progress. Praise God. We want to be

people that you have a filter. But you're open

to allow what exactly it is that you're hearing

pass through that filter. Praise God. Because

if it doesn't pass through the filter, you never

got it. And if you don't understand it, you're

not going to make any progress in and along that

line. So you are looking for clues and you're

hoping and expecting to learn something new.

Praise God. And I want to share a story of someone

that I think a couple of us are familiar with.

Because his wife became a believer. And he's

a journalist. His wife became a believer. And

because of his wife becoming a believer, he decided

to investigate the faith. He, as a journalist,

took on the research of finding out about Christianity,

finding out whether this Jesus Christ actually

existed and finding out whether he actually died.

And note that in his research or in his investigation,

he had to hear both sides. and had to sift through

the information given, and he arrived at a conclusion.

At the end of the day, his journey was from that

of a skeptic to that of a convinced believer.

Praise God. Meaning that he started off as a

skeptic, and he didn't allow what he understood

of it to deny him the privilege of learning something.

And he learned, and the man now is a convinced

believer, and as a result of that, he had written

a book, or several books now, because I checked

up just to confirm, that he has now several books.

And his book now is one of those, is a very powerful

tool in Christian apologetics because of the

research that he has done in ensuring that. there's

a proper like in communicating his findings so

that other people will be able to know what he

had learned that brought him to the faith and

christian apologetics for those of us that probably

are not aware of what or this is the first time

hearing christian apologetics the the word apologetics

i think we know what christian is i shouldn't

be defining what christian is we know what apologetics

is apologetics is derived from the greek word

apologia And it means to give a verbal defense

or a speech in defense or a reasoned statement

or argument. Apologia, I'll spell it if it's

apology. Just instead of apology, you write apologia.

The apologetics is the same spelling, but it

ends with jetics. That's E -P -O -L -O -G -E

-T -I -C -S. Then apologia is the same spelling

with an I -A. A -P -O -L -O -G -I -A. And it

just simply means to give a verbal defense, simply

means to, as a speech in defense or a reason

statement of argument. And when we say argument,

most people would think of argument as violent

argument. You know, some people don't have, the

argument has to be, it almost would look like

it's physical. But this is the argument in. Like

you are defending a stance. I think the people

in the court of law will understand because it's

a courtroom. It's a term, courtroom. And I want

us to see, because we're going to look at defense.

Because if you don't pay attention, you will

not have understanding. And once you don't have

understanding, you cannot give a defense of why

you believe what you believe in. Remember, you...

You didn't stumble. You heard something to come

to the knowledge of the truth. And what you had

heard is what convinced you. The person actually

had presented something to you, made a defense

of why he believes what he believes, and then

you bought into that whole idea, and then you

now became a believer. Praise God. In 1 Peter

3 .15, 1 Peter 3 .15 says, But sanctify the Lord

in your hearts. And always be ready to give a

defense. Always be ready to give a defense to

everyone who asks you for a reason for the hope

that is in you. With meekness and fear. With

meekness and fear. So he says always be ready.

Always be ready. Turn to your neighbor and say

this year. I am always ready. I am always ready

to give a defense for the reason of the hope

that is in me. And I do it with meekness and

fear. Amen. I think the song of a battle ready.

So you want to always be ready. Praise God. You

want to always be ready. You can be a believer.

And because what is going on, it's a warfare,

right? Even right now, in this world and this

day and this age, everything is competing for

attention. So it's really a battlefield. Everyone

is competing. There's a whole lot of money that

goes into this whole idea of wanting to get your

attention, into media. A lot of money goes into

media. The way they design things to take your

attention or to get your attention, it's they

are really paying attention to how you pay attention

to get your attention. That just came here. So

they are really putting a lot of work into it

and you have a responsibility to pay attention

to the things that you pay attention to so that

nothing steals your attention, but rather you

give your attention to the things that demands

your attention. Praise God. There's a lot of

attention in the statement, but I hope we get

the point. Praise God. And we're going to look

at a bit while we close. We're going to look

at a bit, look at Apostle Paul's, the way Apostle

Paul carries out his defense. We're going to

analyze it a bit in closing. In Acts 22 verse

Acts 22:1

1, Acts 22 verse 1, I want us to listen and see.

Acts 22:1

Yeah, he says, brethren and fathers, hear my

defense before you now. Notice, Paul, you remember

we said with meekness and what? Fear. Notice

the way he acknowledges the audience that he's

making a defense. He says, hear my defense before

you. Next verse, we're going to, I think, get

to probably five, six or so. See, and when they...

When they heard that he spoke to them in Hebrew

language, they kept all the more silent than

he said. Praise God. I want you to notice something.

Please, while I'm going through the verses, I'll

be bringing out points for us to note. Note that

in making his defense, he had to communicate

in a language that they would listen. that will

demand the attention. So it means that when you

are making a defense, you want to make that defense

in something that the other person can understand.

You can't be, a Turkish person can't be making

a defense to you in the language if you don't

understand. You will just be looking at them

and not understanding. So know that people will

listen to you or you get the attention of the

other person by communicating in a language that...

So, next verse. He says, I am indeed a Jew, born

in Tarsus of Sicilia, but brought up in this

city at the feet of Gamaliel, taught according

to the strictness of our father's law, and was

zealous towards God as you are all today. Notice

that he also introduces himself. One other thing

that we do when we are trying to, we just meet

the person. Hello, brother. just run to whatever

it is you want to make them understand that,

okay, you're a person, your name is this, you're

this, and that, and that. All of those things

aid the conversation. A person will know that,

they will kind of get to know you before you

say the things that you have to say. And sometimes

it's very important that we do these things because

it goes a long way in ensuring that what your

defense is heard. Praise God. Your defense is

heard. Then in 3 and go down, it says, I persecuted

this way to the death, binding and delivering

into prison both men and women. So he didn't

just, he tells them that he's part of them and

he did work. He also explains to them the training

he had received and his commitment to the cause.

He uses, we see that in the three and the four

that we're looking at, that he had introduced

himself, described his training, and explained

his commitment to the cause. And we see in verse

five, let's look at verse five. He says, as also

the high priest bears me weakness and all the

council of elders, from whom I also received

letters to the brethren and went to Damascus

to bring. in chains, even those who were there

to Jerusalem to be punished. So he also now has

proof. Like he tells you, okay, the things I've

done, these people are weaknesses. They can confirm

the credibility of what my defense, the credibility

of what I'm saying or the credibility of who

I was because he's no longer that anymore. Then

let's go to six. It says, and it happened that

as I journeyed and came near Damascus, At about

noon, suddenly a great light from heaven shone

around me. 7. And I fell to the ground and heard

a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why are you

persecuting me? So I answered, Who are you, Lord?

And he said to me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom

you are persecuting. And I want you to notice

something that sometimes we read this passage

and we probably might not notice is the fact

that Apostle Paul hadn't persecuted Christ, but

rather his people, right? And when we communicate

this, our oneness with God, we don't understand

the extent to it in the sense that he is here

having, and it's Jesus of Nazareth, not Jesus.

He's a physical person that you'd be like, oh,

I should know this person because if he's a Nazarene,

I should have had an encounter. He knows what

is going on. He says, you're persecuting. Why

are you persecuting? Whom are you persecuting?

Then we see in the next verse, it says, and those

who were with me indeed saw the light and were

afraid, but they didn't hear the voice of him

who spoke to me. So it means that they saw light,

they saw all of those things, but they didn't.

There was the light, but they didn't hear who

was speaking. He was the one that was hearing

what was going on. And then we see him go through

what, all of this are the things that happened

in Acts 9. And if you go down to, I think, 20

or so, we see him also makes reference to...

him also being part like him he says and when

the blood of the matthias stephen was shed i

also was standing by consent to the death and

guarding the clothes of those who were killing

him as him as way back as act six seven so we

see that he had done a lot and this is him explaining

the encounter that happened to make a defense

and what he was doing was making a defense of

his case before them. And I want us to see him

make another defense. I'll do this in Acts 26,

Acts 26, 24. Acts 26, 24. It says, now toss and

toss his defense, which is the same. And this

is the verb of the apologia. This is the verb

of apologia. It ends with, it's A -P -O -L -O

-G. E -O -M -A -I. A -P -O -L -O -G -E -O -M

-A -I. And he makes, this is the verb form of

it. So Festus, which is Governor Festus, said

to him in a loud voice, Paul, you are besides

yourself. Much learning is driving you mad. Much

learning is driving you mad. Meaning that what

Festus is trying to do is undermine... The validity,

you know, in the court of law, you know, we see

this all the time. When people want to faint,

they act mad. Because once the person is mad,

what they are saying loses credibility. So we

see him trying to undermine his defense by saying

he is mad. And understand that other translations

will say insane or crazy. Insane or crazy. Note

that Apostle Paul did not take that. from him

he goes ahead he said in 25 he says but he said

i am not mad most noble festers notice the fact

you know when somebody calls you mad some people

will not take it lightly it's can that meekness

part of the passage that we read will be out

of the window But know that in this case, he

says, I'm not mad. Except if, you know, when

you say mad is making a difference, then you

can say, yes, I'm not crazy. I'm not, but I'm

making a difference. That is M -A -D. But know

that he's clearly states, he is clearly stating

that he's not mad because he knows that that

will undermine his defense. And then he says,

but speak the words of truth and reason. Speak

the words of truth and reason. 26. He now says,

for the king before whom I also speak freely

knows these things. That is speaking about King

Agrippa. For I am convinced that none of these

things escapes his attention. Praise God. None

of these things escapes his attention since these

things was not done in a corner. 27. King Agrippa,

do you believe the prophets? I know that you

do. Then Agrippa said to Paul, you almost persuaded

me to become a Christian. You almost persuaded

me to become a Christian. That word persuade,

we'll discuss that on Wednesday. You almost persuaded

me to become a Christian. And Paul said, I would

to God that not only you, but also all who hear

me today. might be, but almost altogether, such

as I am, except for this change, which is very

powerful, that he wants all of them to be such

as he is, except for the change. 13 now says,

and when he said these things, the king stood

up, as well as the governor and Bernice and those

who sat with them. And when they had gone aside,

he... they talked amongst themselves saying,

this man is doing nothing deserving of debt or

change. Then Agrippa said to Festus, this man

might have been set free if he had not appealed

to Caesar. So what I want us to notice very quickly

in closing is that Paul's passion or passionate

defense of his faith came across to the governor

Festus as being like, why is this person here

talking to us about how a light shone, he heard

the voice of somebody that is dead, all of that.

That doesn't sound to him as something that is

saying, that's something that will come from

him. He just feels that it's all superstition.

He didn't understand it, but Apostle Paul did

not allow it to deter him from communicating

the truth that he was communicating. And that

is, the same should apply to us. People should

not make us feel mad. Because of what we believe

in. Because we're the ones that believe what

we believe in. They don't believe. What we're

doing is that we're trying to convince them to

see what we have seen and what we know. See,

don't let anyone explain your faith away with

madness. Don't let anyone explain your faith

away with madness. Because, as I said earlier,

some of us didn't get the joke. It looks like

I saw Sister Fola Kemi laughing. I think she

got... The joke that, except if you're making

a difference in the life of the person, making

a difference in life, if mad means making a difference

in the life of a person, then you can, mad can

work for that. King Agrippa's familiarity with

the Jewish customs basically was what made him

a very, too, in evaluating Apostle Paul's case.

And that's why he mentioned, that's why he...

Apostle Paul could tell that this person is following

through with what I'm saying. And notice that

the fact that he's king, notice he said, you

almost persuaded me. In the sense that if probably

it was a one -on -one, there's a likelihood that

he would have just walking off the conversation.

I'm not inferring anything, but walking off the

conversation that had happened. So the fact that

you speak to someone. and you didn't seem to

have got the response that you require, doesn't

mean that the seed hasn't been sown. Praise God.

The seed of God's word, God's word is powerful.

Meaning that the fact that you had that opportunity

to allow the seed be sown, God is working in

the life of the person. Beyond your conversation

with that person, God is doing something in the

life of that person. And I've seen time and time

again how you meet with someone and you are finishing

a work that someone else has... planted the seed

for praise God and we all and they all agreed

in one thing even though they didn't agree on

that to the face of Apostle Paul that he shouldn't

be in prison or he shouldn't be in prison or

be placed in debt for any reason and I am running

off with this to encourage us in this season

as we've started from last year and getting into

this new year you want to share your faith And

how you stand fast in the faith is by sharing

what you have received. Because holding on to

what you have received is not good enough. How

you solidify or how you allow what you have received

to take root is by sharing it. Praise God. And

you don't have to know too much to share. What

you just have to do is to desire to share. And

once you desire to share, you will see. the promise

of God ring true, that once you open your mouth

to speak, he will put his words in your mouth.

It's not really, yes, you have to know what you're,

but notice that he's the one that does the work

and the life of the other person by the spirit

of God. I want us to open our mouths and just

say, Father, I thank you because in this season,

I'm standing fast in the faith. In this season,

I'm paying attention. In this season, I'm strong.

I am brave. I am brave to go out and share my

faith. I am brave to engage and make a defense

of the things I have received, the things that

I know, the things that you are doing. And in

this season, our hands will heal. In this season,

our ears will hear. We appreciate you being here

today. We hope you carry this word with you throughout

your week. Don't forget to check the show notes

for additional insights. Stay connected with

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with someone you care about. Until next time,

stay blessed.