Lost But Found

If you have your Bibles here today, we'll be reading today in the book of Acts.

If not, it'll be up on the screen, so don't worry about it.

But I don't want to presume that you already have an understanding of what the book of Acts is.

The book of Acts is the first book after the gospel, and the gospel is the good works that Jesus Christ did.

It's all of his ministry, the eyewitness accounts, and Acts directly follows it right up after it.

And the word Acts is actually an abbreviated word for Acts of the Apostles.

It's what they continue to do, the good works they continue to do after the ministry of Christ.

And in um in chapter 9, we're introduced to this man.

His name is Saul.

Many of us in the church today know him as Paul.

Many of us know him as Paul.

We know this man to be a very, um, Paul was a Jewish man with Roman, um, with uh sorry, he was a Jewish man with Roman that followed Roman tradition, I'm sorry, that followed Jewish tradition very tightly.

He followed the law very um down to a T.

And we know him to be a very bold and surrendered man of faith.

That if you even flip your to your Bible anywhere, um in the New Testament and you start in Matthew, the Revelation, you flip through there and you put your finger down, it could probably be an epistle written by Paul.

So that's the that's the man that we know, but that's not where we're gonna spend our time today talking.

We're gonna spend our time today talking.

For those of you who know, before Paul came to be this bold and surrendered man of faith that we know today, he was once something else.

He was once someone who persecuted the church.

He says, if you take on your cross, I'm willing to go to the extension to have you thrown in jail or even killed behind it.

And that's the point that he was in at one point of his life.

So we're gonna dive into that.

And quite frankly, it took a it took a brutal beating for him to get to the point to where he could surrender his life and say, Father, I give my will unto you, and I give up my own way.

I want to follow you.

And so I'm what I'm gonna do today is I'm gonna mix in my own testimony, if as you will, because there's a lot of synonymous factors in my testimony as well.

And I'm gonna be very candid and open and vulnerable and real with you guys.

Can I do that today, church?

I'm gonna be real with you guys today.

And the Bible says in Revelation that we overcome by what the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony.

Come on now, by the word of our testimony.

And so we're gonna be we're gonna be real in the testimonies today, and hopefully that will bring life to a brother and sister that came here today thinking that they were gonna hear a football player speak.

Here we go.

Um, so let's dive right into it.

Chapter 9, verse 1, it says, Meanwhile, Saul was uttering threats with every breath and was eager to kill the Lord's followers.

Same guy that you know, responsible for a vast majority of the New Testament, at one point was eager to kill those who took on the cross and followed it.

And that's what, and what I want to do is, I think the easy thing to do is to write off Paul in this situation and be like, you know what, man, that you you're you're blasphemous, you're wrong.

But I think it's worth mentioning and diving into even deeper, just in the surface level, and taking that face value.

What I want to do today is I want to take it a step deeper.

And I want to look at that's where his where his mindset was.

His mindset was, God, I want to defend you.

There's this man named Jesus.

He came down to earth, he's making deity claims, he's claiming to be God.

And keep in mind, in Paul's in Paul's mind at this point, he serves one God, and there's this man that comes down named Jesus Christ, and he's claiming to be God.

He's saying things, I am the way and the truth and the life, and nobody comes to the Father unless it be through me.

And he's doing all of these works in the Father's name.

He dies, he resurrects, he comes and he shows himself to his people, and he and he ascends, and then now there's these group of people beginning to follow him.

And so Paul's like, wait a minute.

I don't know who this man is, but he ain't God, and I'm gonna and I'm gonna put an end to this.

And so what he does is he takes it into his own account to go and put an end to this.

And as I'm praying and as I'm meditating on this word, um, this profound, if you will, quote I believe came on my heart, and I believe that you guys will be able to resonate with it, and I believe it may puncture the heart of somebody today.

It's that good mindset does not always equal divine alignment.

I'm gonna say that again.

Good mindset does not always equal divine alignment.

Gee, what does that mean?

I think if you look at the mind of Paul, what's Paul's mindset is God, I got your back, step aside.

There's this man being, he's with he blasphemy, right?

God, I got your back, step aside.

But let's look at what I want to take it a step deeper is where our mindset could be for us in modern day.

It could be I want to be successful in my career.

Is there anything wrong with wanting to be successful in my career?

I wouldn't say so.

Is there anything with wanting to be financially stable?

I wouldn't say so.

But the question doesn't stop there.

The question then goes from where's your mindset?

But then even deeper than that is where's your heart behind it?

I think there's one mindset that can be, Father, I want money because I want to glorify your kingdom.

I want I want to be able to provide for my family, and when people see me, they see a minute, they see a true walking testament of God.

And and then there's the other side of it.

There's the other side of it.

There's there's there's a side of it that's Father, I I find my entire worth in this green paper bill.

I find my whole entire identity in this.

And I think it's the same mindset, it's the same thing that we're pursuing, but it's two different hearts behind it.

And I think what Paul's issue is here is that when we get introduced to Paul, that there's no documentation of him looking to the Father and saying, Father, is my heart in alignment with you?

And what am I and what and what am I doing right now?

Me persecuting this man named Jesus, is my heart in alignment with you?

Is this what you want from me?

And so we'll read here in verse 2, it says, He requested letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, asking for the cooperation in the arrest of any followers of the way he found there.

And so the way is what we would call today as Christianity, the act of following Jesus Christ.

And he's saying, he's asking for the cooperation of who?

He's he turning to God and saying, Father, check my heart.

Heart, is my is my is my heart in alignment with what you want me to be doing?

I know I'm defending you, but is my heart in alignment with your will?

And what what he's doing is he said, he he he goes and he writes letters to the churches and to masses.

He's saying, Y'all, come join with me and put these guys out.

And he's not turning to the Father and asking for guidance.

And I wrote down, he said he's he's operating from a place of self-sufficiency rather than complete and utter dependence on the Lord.

And so I have a bit of my own story with that.

Like I said, I'm gonna mix in kind of my testimony as well.

Um, I was born and raised in Seattle, Washington.

Um, I always had this, what I wasn't necessarily raised in the church, and I would call it this third-party relationship.

That's what I tend to call it.

Um, I knew who he was through what everyone else had to say about him.

I didn't necessarily have my true and own um revelation, if you will, of who God was intimately for myself.

Um, and I had two great parents that taught me a lot of the things that I knew growing up, and that one of the things were anything that you want in this life, you're gonna have to put a decent amount of work in to be able to achieve it.

And at 14, 15, 16 years old, I'm trying to figure out how do I apply this into my life, and I'm trying to figure out how does this um how does this work.

And um in eighth grade I came across this game called football.

And little did I know that my life was getting ready to change.

And it's almost initially right away I started to be to receive this early success of football.

I'm able to do really good at it.

Um, not only am I doing good at it, but the people around me are applauding me for my abilities on the field, and it's the first time in my life I'm feeling a sense of identity outside of maybe my household.

I'm feeling a sense of self.

And I don't know what that may be for you, but the first time you're feeling a sense of self, like you start to sniff yourself, like, dang, I'm I'm doing something.

You ever come on, someone's been there before?

Come on now, whoever sniffed themselves.

And so, um, but the issue with that is that it slowly started to shift from what I do to who I am, and it started to fulfill this identity and this sense of self, and I started to find my fulfillment in what people would say about me.

And so in 2018, actually Christmas Day 2018, I made the decision to commit to the Ohio State University.

Amen.

Praise God, praise God.

Um, and I had this, listen how naive I was.

I had this three-year plan, right?

This three-year plan, my first year, I wanted to be a freshman All-American.

My second year, I wanted to win a national championship.

My third year, I wanted to declare it, I wanted to get the heck up out of Columbus.

This was my mindset back then.

I wanted to get up out of here and go to the NFL draft.

This is where I was in my 18-year-old mind.

Here's how it went down.

Freshman year, didn't start, didn't get half the opportunity that I wanted to.

Second year, didn't win a national championship, didn't get half of our goals that we wanted to that year.

And then my third year, instead of declaring for the 2023 NFL draft, I'm here preaching a sermon with you guys.

But in all sincerity, I had my own plan.

I had something like I had my will, but God had his.

God had something else.

He had something bigger and he had something better for me that I didn't quite see at the time.

So, what I want to do is I want to take a step back.

I want to go back to back to Paul.

Let's go back to Paul's story, and we're gonna kind of make these things work together.

Verse 3 in chapter 9, it says, as he was approaching Damascus on this mission, this mission to do what?

Go to go persecute anyone who's following this man named Christ.

I'm putting him out.

A light from heaven suddenly shunned down around him.

He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul saw, why are you persecuting me?

Who are you, Lord?

Saul asked, and the voice replied, I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting.

Now get up, go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.

So here's this man, he has it all figured out, just like me.

I'm I'm I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go and get it.

Like I got, I'm sure of myself.

I my identity's firm, my firm foundation, my firm foundation with the football in my hand.

That's my firm foundation.

And I and I'm sure of myself.

And so, and so read it, verse 8.

He gets knocked down and he's broken.

And what the Bible does is it starts to explain the physical despair that he started to go into because of his plan didn't broke down and didn't go the way he wanted to.

He's knocked down, he's blind.

It says Saul picked himself up off the ground, but when he opened his eyes, he was blind.

So his companions led him by the hand to Damascus.

Here this man is this bold, confident man that's now being led by the hand, blind and can't see, into Damascus.

And it says, He remained there blind for three days and did not eat or drink.

And I'm sitting there thinking, like, why did he not eat or drink?

Was it something that he was not able to afford at the time?

And it is no.

He was in such a place of utter spiritual and emotional despair that he was operating outside of his normal bodily function that he lost his appetite.

Somebody in the room knows what it's like to be in such despair that maybe you even lost your appetite.

Or you're not operating in your normal bodily function that you're really used to.

You're maybe you're acting outside of your function.

And so, what I want to do is I want to go back to my story.

Nothing worked my freshman year.

I have these plans for myself, but like I said, God has something else.

Um, and I came to a point after my freshman year, I had a choice to make.

And I was broken down, I was hurt.

Because keep in mind, remember, this is my identity, this is who I am, and nothing went as planned my first year.

And I had this choice to make.

I could either give up this control that we tend to want to have in our life and give it to something maybe bigger than me, and stop allowing the ebbs and flows of my life to be predicated on my performance and the things when I have a good day, I'm a good person, but when I have a bad day, I'm a bad person.

And so I had a choice to make.

Unfortunately, I made the decision to do the opposite.

Unfortunately.

Um, I completely doubled down on my own self-sufficiency.

I said, you know what?

I'm gonna prove to everybody that this is who I am.

I'm gonna show everybody.

I'm gonna work harder than everyone there is.

I'm gonna prove to y'all that I am who you say I am.

I'm gonna, and all of that kind of that whole mindset, for those of you who remember, that's when I made the transition to tight end.

I'm on my way, I'm gonna do this thing.

So I'm working hard in this, in this, um, these, these, these winter workouts and then to summer workouts, and I'm on my way to go and to achieve the dreams that I believe I'm destined to be on, because I'm this football player, right?

And on July 12, 2021, I'm coming in for a workout to pursue in this dream, and I and I receive a phone call.

I'm upstairs eating breakfast, and I receive a phone call from my grandmother.

And remember, like I said, I'm from Seattle, Washington, so that would make it 3 a.m.

over there, and it's like I knew something wasn't right.

So I got up, I got up from the table, walked away from the table, and when I answer the phone call, my grandmother says that your mother has been in an accident and she's in ICU.

Whoa.

Whoa.

I respond, sure, I'm kind of panicking.

Grandma, what do I do?

I have a workout starting here in a second.

What should I what should I do?

I don't I don't know what to do.

And she says, here's what I want you to do.

I want you to go do your workout.

After your workout, I want you to come back to your phone and we'll talk then.

Everything's gonna be okay, stay in high hopes.

So I'm like, all right, grandma.

So I go and I do my workout.

Um, as soon as I finish my workout, I go taken off back to my phone, and I grab my phone, and when I get to my phone, I have 30 plus missed calls and text messages.

Everybody's calling me and texting me.

Gee, answer the phone, answer the phone.

The first message that I click on is from my younger brother.

And he says, Gee, answer the phone, answer the phone.

And the last message says, Gee, answer the phone.

This is the last time that you will ever see mom.

Oh, and I'm and I'm hurt.

And so I'm really hesitant to make this call back.

I don't know what I'm about to see on the other end of this FaceTime call.

I make this FaceTime call back, and sure enough, in that IC room on July 12th, 2021, was the last time that I'd ever see my mom.

And I'm broken.

Because remember this, there's a remember that the football is who I am, and then I'm obviously a family man, I'm a I'm a child of my kids, and I and I want this all for myself, and now football's broken.

I'm feeling worthless.

Now my I just lost my mom, and I told you guys, I'm gonna be real with you guys today.

Within the same couple months, my aunt, my mom's sister, she passes away as well.

I'm like, what's going on?

My me and my father at a certain time, he he, him and I were bumping heads, so we kind of fall out of a relationship for um a couple years, and so it's like one by one, give me that.

Stripped down.

I'm being stripped down one by one, and I'm feeling this brokenness.

It got so bad to the point, and by the way, my teammates are here, they could testify to it.

It got so bad to a point that one day, instead of coming into my workouts, I got in my car and I put it into my map, Seattle, Washington from Columbus, Ohio, and I just started driving.

Just driving west.

I don't know where I'm gonna go, I don't know how this plan.

I think the trip set over a day or something.

I don't even know what I'm doing.

And as I'm on this way, um I'm driving and I and I kind of get tired on the way, and so I'm in the middle of Indiana.

I stop in Indiana, I pull over at a gas station to take a nap.

And when I take a nap, um I get a knock on my window, and it's a police officer.

Um, I was informed that I guess I looked like I was up to suspicious activity in my vehicle, and I was just taking a nap.

I told him, I said, Hey, everything's okay, man, I'm good.

And he's kind of persistent, he says, You sure you sure you want to tell me everything that's going on?

Are you okay?

And then because he and I'm like, Yeah, man, check me.

I'm good, I'm not doing anything.

I'm literally, I'm just sleeping here.

I have a lot going on, X, Y, and Z.

And he's persistent, he's like, Man, are you sure?

Like, are you sure?

Is anything is there anything you need to tell me, or is there anything going on that they would call me X, Y, and Z?

And I said, You know what?

You want to know what's going on with me?

And I started listening to all the things.

Boom, I thought of this, and I and I'm broken, and I'm this, and I just lost my mom, and I just da da da da da da.

And at the end of me rambling to him for about maybe a minute and a half or two minutes, he said, you know what, come with me.

And so him and I go get in his police officer car, and we go on a ride-along all night.

Him and I in the middle of Indiana, we're driving on this, doing this um this ride-along.

And this was a pivotal moment for me.

It was a turning point back to Columbus, Ohio.

God knows where I would have gone if I would have just kept going.

And as a matter of fact, that police officer, he's actually here today.

Officer Ra Moore, if you can stand up, you can stand up.

Um I'm back at another checkpoint.

I'm back in Columbus.

I'm at another checkpoint.

I get another opportunity to do this thing again.

And I get to try to find this happiness again.

And so at the end of 2021, beginning of 2022, I would love to stand before you guys to say, um, before you guys today and say, I got home, I got on my knees, and I prayed.

And God changed everything.

I would love to say that.

But that's not exactly how I went.

I would that's that day when I came back, it started the quest that I call the quest for happiness, is when I began to try to find it.

And keep in mind, never in high school, growing up, I never smoked, I never drank, because I'm this athlete, right?

And I'm trying to be as successful as I can.

And I look to my peers, I look on social media on this quest to be happy, and I see the activities that they're partaking in, and so I say, like, I want to give that a try, because I need to find I need to find this happiness.

I'm hurting right now.

I'm really hurting.

And so I begin to try to go on this quest and I'm finding it, trying to find it in the wrong areas.

And there will be even a time where maybe the things that I'm doing would actually be fun or it would be almost feel good, but now years later, I look back and I know that I was just feeding my flesh.

It was nothing real.

I was feeding my flesh.

And when I get home at the end of the night and I look in the mirror, I couldn't stand a like who was looking back.

I didn't like it.

So I knew that there was something more, and what I began to do is I started to continue to find this happiness, and although I couldn't find it, I was filled with something else.

I was filled with this hurt.

And I don't know what that hurt may be for you today in this room.

That hurt may be you may have lost a child, you may have lost a family member, you may have got denied the promotion that you anticipated to have.

You might be 30-something years old, and you thought you were gonna be a lot farther along where you are on this walk than you currently are, and you're broken and you're filled with this hurt.

There's a good news for this hurt, though.

Church, we know what that good news is.

There is a free medicine that is not found in the things that the world has to offer.

The world will give you all these get rich, quick schemes.

If you just get a little bit of money, you're gonna be feeling good.

But that all goes away.

He said, What did he tell the woman at the world?

He says, if you drink the waters of this world, what you gonna do?

You're gonna forever thirst again.

He says, if you drink this water of this world that the world has to offer, you will forever continue to thirst.

What happens if you drink of me though?

He says, if you drink of me, you'll never thirst again.

You'll never thirst again.

Come drink of me, and I will give you living water that brews in you.

And so, let's go back, let's go back to Paul.

So, Paul, he's broken down, he's blind, he's in a room, he hasn't ate for three days, he's in this emotional despair.

And so, what does God do?

God raises up a man.

Similarly, that the way that I had a man raised up to send me back to where I was supposed to go.

He had a man raised up, and he and he sent him.

He said, his name was his name was Ananias.

And he said, Go over there.

As a matter of fact, let me stop talking, let me just read what God said.

He says, he says, he says, verse 11, he says, the Lord said, that's what some of us need to say more.

We need to stop talking so much and say what the Lord said.

The Lord said, Go over to Strait Street to the house of Judas.

When you get there, ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul.

He is praying to me right now.

I have shown him a vision of a man named Ananias.

I sorry, I've shown him a vision of a man named Ananias coming in and laying hands on him so he can see again.

Guys, church, you've got to get this part right here.

Verse 13.

But Lord, exclaimed Ananias.

I've heard many people talk about the terrible things this man has done to the believers in Jerusalem.

Right?

What's he saying?

I've I God, him?

This is the man that's persecuting us.

Are you sure about him?

Why am I emphasizing this?

It's because this is what we do to ourselves as a church.

We think that we're unworthy of what God's just trying to give us.

Because we live in a world where you have to earn everything.

Right?

In this football life that we live, we have to earn everything.

And so this idea of it being free and it's a gift for you, free salvation, just repent and believe, that's hard to fathom.

So he's saying, So he's saying, Are you sure?

Guess what God says?

Verse 15.

He says, But the Lord said, anytime you see, but the Lord said, something coming good.

He says, Go.

I want you to fill in the I want you to fill in the blank with your own name here.

Right?

To the one in the room that feels like they're unworthy of this blessing.

Fill in the blank with your own name.

Go.

For Saul is my chosen instrument.

For Zach Harrison is my chosen instrument.

For JT Tuimolau is my chosen instrument.

For Inky Jones is my chosen instrument.

For Ameka Egbuka is my chosen instrument.

We are chosen.

He says, he says, He says, Go, for Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to the kings as well as to the people of Israel.

He said, Go, for I have chosen him.

The world might have written him off, right?

Even for myself.

Even last service.

I had the first service of the day.

I had a coach come through here.

And he came and he came up after.

He was like, Man, good job, good job.

And I'm just gonna be honest, man.

A couple years ago, I never thought I would see this from you.

You know, I stood up to him, I said, me either.

I said, me either.

And so I wrote this down because I thought that it would be profound to share with you guys today.

It says, When God has selected you, there is no worldly circumstance, there is no trial, there is no tribulation that will ever, ever Make you unworthy of your selection.

The world will write you off.

The world will say, Be gone with him.

That he's no longer worthy of his blessing.

That he has stepped outside of his divine alignment.

But what God is saying, go, for I have chosen him to place him back in his divine alignment, that I have a good work for him.

That I have a good work for him.

And so what does Ananias do?

Ananias says, Okay, Father, here I go.

So verse 17, it says, So Ananias went and found Saul.

He laid his hands on him.

And this is what we are called as a church to do.

When God gives us that mission to go, we're called to go.

It says, So when Ananias found went and found Saul, he laid hands on him and said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road, has sent me so that you might regain your sight and be filled with what?

The Holy Spirit.

Remember, I say this part right here.

Remember, I say this.

Instantly, something like scales fell from Saul's eyes and he regained his sight.

Then he got up and was baptized instantly.

He got up right after it.

He didn't wait to receive confirmation.

He didn't wait until he got the declaration or God gave him revelation that it's time.

He got up and instantly got baptized.

We'll get back to that.

But by the Spirit, he was able to see again.

He was able to see again by what God was able to do in his life.

And what I don't want us to do as a church is to hear this message and say, Well, I'm not physically blind.

I can't really relate with this.

But how many of us as a church at one point of our life has been spiritually or emotionally blind?

To where we're fighting in a room that's a dark room, and we can't tell what's up from down, what's left from right, and nothing in my life feels like a blessing.

But I think today, an age that we live in, and I think even more so back then, there's this heavy association between good, good circumstances, right?

Good circumstances and what?

God's favor, right?

Over here.

There's this relationship between bad circumstances and what?

God's wrath.

And so sometimes we think we're either being favored or we're receiving God's wrath predicated on our circumstances.

And what God is saying, don't make your judgment off your circumstance, for I am better than that.

Let me let me read to you something.

Let me read to you something.

Please call me out the day I say something and don't back it with scripture.

It says, 2 Corinthians 4.18 says, This is Paul again writing one of his epistles.

This is obviously later.

He says, verse 18, it says, So we come on now, so we don't look at the troubles we can see now.

Rather, we fix our gaze on the things that cannot be seen.

For the things we can see now will soon be gone, but the things that we cannot see will last forever.

Ain't that right?

All these worldly possessions we try to attain for ourselves, how much can I get?

When it's time to go, that all stays on earth.

That car, that brand new 2024 car that you got, it will be somebody else's one day.

That brand new house, someone else will be living there someday.

But he says, focus on the things that you can't see, for the things that you can't see will always last for an eternity.

So let's let's go back and conclude my story.

So I'm I'm I'm lost, I got turned back around, and I come back to Columbus, Ohio.

I'm trying to find this identity and this happiness, and I can't seem to find it.

I'm feeling this hurt, like I mentioned.

And a year and a half ago, yes, a year and a half ago, I walked through those double back doors and I walk in and I sit down there back there by myself, and I was alone, lost, and confused.

And I was looking for answers.

And I started to come here week after week after week.

I had brothers in Christ kind of in my ears saying, gee, we see that you're going down a dark path.

What I said, what I say that one time, ex, I don't want to go to church no more.

I don't like what they be doing.

Right?

What I say, I said, I don't like what they be doing.

The church, the church's not for me.

Bitter and hardened in my heart, not wanting to hear the good news.

And I was, and so what I began to do is I started to come week after week after week, and I grabbed my Bible and I got a Bible, and I started what I started to do, I said, I'm not gonna be perfect at this, but I'm gonna read this thing one day at a time, and I'm gonna try to give it a chance to see what it's talking about.

And when I came to God, I didn't come to him, and I promise you, this is the truth.

I didn't come to God and say, I'm gonna be this Christian man, and I'm gonna figure I'm gonna give my life to you and be like, you know, a perfect Christian.

What I did is I came to him and I said, Look, this is who I am.

I'm coming as me.

I'm coming as me.

There's so much baggage, there's bad baggage, there's some good baggage, but there's a lot of bad on me, and I'm filthy.

And if you don't want me, I don't know if I don't know if I belong here.

But I've heard it said that you can belong before you believe.

You can belong before you believe.

And I came with all of this, and it was like, just like for Paul, it was like instantly, over time, the scales on my eyes started to come off, and I was able to see again.

For the first time in so long, I'm able to be see, I'm able to see again.

And I and I and I feel something.

I feel something more powerful, this joy and this fulfillment that no touchdown has ever given me.

No paycheck has ever given me, no amount of or monetary gain has ever given me.

And I was filled with something that was bigger than myself, and I received this happiness that was so everlasting.

Oh, and sorry, despite circumstance.

Good deck, good game, bad game.

I know I'm right with, right?

Hey, I know who I'm right with.

Um there was a lot said here today, and I I want to close it with something.

Uh, 1 Timothy verse 15 and 16.

This is Paul again, right?

Same guy, same guy persecuting the church.

He's writing this letter to Timothy, and he said, This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it.

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

Right?

What did he say that?

He said, He said, I didn't come here for the ones that think that they are righteous, right?

You Pharisees that clean the outside of your cup, but the inside you guys are really filthy.

I didn't come here for you that think that you don't need a savior, a savior.

He says, I came here for the sinner who knows that they are in need of a savior.

That's who I'm here for.

He says, He says, Christ Jesus came in the world to save sinners.

And he says, Come on now, and I am the worst of them all.

He's saying, I'm the most undeserving.

He's saying in verse 16, he says, But come on now, but God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst of sinners.

No, is it up there?

This is the most important.

This this is this is this is why.

Then others will realize that they too can believe in him and receive eternal life.

Right?

I had guys on my team, they know me for who I once was, and they said, Man, man, what's what's going on with Jesus?

Something's happening here.

I don't really recognize this guy as who he used to once be.

And something's starting to change in him.

And he says, That's why we do it.

What I say in the beginning, that we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our what?

Testimony.

And how that's how he says, in the context in Revelations, he's saying, that's how we overcome the evil one.

That's how we overcome the enemy, is by the blood of Jesus, what Jesus did on the cross on Calvary, and by the word of our testimony, what we share with each other as brothers and sisters, what they were able to see in me, what the church is able to see in me, what the people of them in America are able to see in us as a church and as a following of Jesus Christ.

Um Amen.

With that being said, with that being said, that was good.

With that being said, um, I would like to pray out.