In 'Why All the Fuss and Fury?', Peter Allison examines Acts 22:22-23 to discuss the intense hatred directed at Paul by a Jewish mob and his subsequent encounter with Roman authorities. The sermon explores the dual dangers of democracy and tyranny, as evidenced by the Jewish mob's injustice and the Roman Kiliarch's resort to torture. It delves into spiritual warfare, highlighting the world's opposition to Christ and His followers, driven by jealousy and enmity, and fueled by Satan's war against the church. Paul's Roman citizenship is pivotal in the narrative, enabling him to avoid scourging and illustrating the importance of using lawful means to protect one's mission. The sermon emphasizes that only the Gospel can transform culture, bringing true liberty and self-governance through Christ's obedience and regeneration by the Holy Spirit. It concludes with a call for believers to boldly proclaim the Gospel and rely on Christ for true freedom and salvation.

Acts chapter 22. Begin reading at the 22nd verse. And they listened to him until this word, and then they raised their voices, and said, Away with such a fellow from the earth, for he is not fit to live. And then as they cried out and tore off their clothes and threw dust into the air, the commander ordered him to be brought into the barracks and said that he should be examined under scourging so that he might know why they shouted so against him. And as they bound him with thongs, Paul said to the centurion who stood by, Is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman and uncondemned?

When the centurion heard that, he went and told the commander, saying, take care what you do, for this man is a Roman. And then the commander came and said to him, tell me, are you a Roman? And he said, yes. The commander answered, with a large sum I obtained this citizenship, and Paul said, but I was born a citizen. Then immediately those who were about to examine him withdrew from him, and the commander was afraid after he found out that he was a Roman, and because he had bound him.

And the next day, because He wanted to know for certain why He was accused by the Jews. He released them from His bonds and commanded the chief priests and all their counsel to appear and brought Paul and set him before them." May the Lord be our teacher that we might not depart from His judgments. Gracious Father in Heaven, seal these words to our hearts today. Sanctify us by Your Word. Sanctify us by your word.

Enflame and inspire our souls that we might be zealous for your kingdom. And preserve my lips from error. Sanctify them, Lord, that through a vessel of clay the riches of your grace might be brought to us today in Jesus Christ, we ask. Amen. Noam Chomsky once pointed out that both Aristotle and James Madison had made similar observations about democracy, but they went in exactly opposite directions in solving it.

Of course, neither went for a biblical solution. But both understood that in democracy, that if the people, and by the people they're referring to free men not slaves not women or those who didn't own property but if the people had the right to vote the poor who were the majority would use their voting power to take the wealth from the rich. And so Aristotle concluded that we should reduce inequality so that there wouldn't be poor anymore and then they wouldn't be taking it from the rich. And so he proposed essentially what we would call a welfare state today. Universal income, meals, and so forth.

And he thought that would reduce the disparity between the poor and the rich effectively eliminating that distinction, which ideally it would and usually does, everyone becomes poor. Of course it doesn't happen that way exactly because although most people become poor, a few are able to seize power and typically become very wealthy in that situation. Madison's decision was really to go the opposite. He wanted to eliminate democracy in favor of a strong centralized government, which is what the current Constitution created. Patrick Henry was a vehement opponent of our Constitution.

He said of that in a speech before the Virginia House as they were debating the passage where they would adopt our Constitution, he said, I conceive our Republic to be in extreme danger. Once has arisen this fearful jeopardy, It arises from this fatal system. It arises from a proposal to change our government. That this is a consolidated government is demonstrably clear. And the danger to such a government is to my mind very striking." At another point in this debate he said, is it necessary for your liberty that you should abandon these great rights by the adoption of this system.

You know, Patrick Henry's fears have been realized to a much greater degree than I think he ever imagined. We've become a tyranny as bad as Rome. Torture is accepted today in our country. It goes by other names, waterboarding, extraordinary rendition, forced drugging, secret tribunals, star chambers called FISA courts, trials in which people are convicted without any presentation of any evidence. Just the word of someone that such evidence exists or might have existed at some point.

No need to present any such evidence to a jury. And so on. Well, this text shows the dangers of both of these forms of government. A democracy, which is capable of the greatest injustices as this Jewish mob illustrates, or the dangers of tyranny, as exemplified by the Roman Kiliarch's quick resort to torture as a means of extracting information, information that no one is obligated to give. So this morning we really want to see these two aspects and the two forms of injustices that are perpetrated by them.

But we want to look behind this mob at why they are so enraged at Paul. And secondly, We will see Paul's response to both of these tyrannies and his understanding of the sovereignty of God. Paul's understanding and application of the doctrine of God's sovereignty. But first, this mob. The Kiliarch is very puzzled why the Jews have such a strong hatred of Paul.

Remember, he comes upon them in the temple trying to kill Paul. And when he tries to investigate in chapter 21, verses 33 and 34, asking some basic questions of who Paul is and what he has done that they would try to be, would be trying to kill him. What he did that would cause such a disturbance, he gets nowhere. And in frustration, he just seizes Paul and takes him out of there. He figures that Paul must be an assassin that had been trying to kill people that was kind of his assumption not knowing anything any other reason why this mob should be so enraged against Paul.

But that turns out to be false when Paul speaks in this flawless high Greek that no assassin would have known. And when he lets Paul address this mob, Paul does so in Hebrew, which causes the mob to get very quiet. I'm sure that was a surprise to him. One minute they're trying to kill him, the next minute They're very quiet listening to him. And then suddenly, after this, Paul has been talking to this mob that has mysteriously gotten very quiet in a language that she probably doesn't know, so he doesn't really understand what Paul is telling them.

This mob suddenly goes berserk again and they start tearing off their clothes and throwing dust in the air. Essentially, these Jews are having a temper tantrum. They want Paul dead. And like a little child who isn't getting his way in the grocery store because his mom is not buying him the cookies that he wants or the candy that he wants, they throw a fit. They start tearing off their clothes and throwing dust in the air.

It's so picturesque of a child throwing themselves down the floor, screaming, rolling around, trying to create a disturbance. This is not any kind of proper response to blasphemy. Godly men have torn their clothes in times of great sin or great tragedy, but they don't take them off and throw dust in the air. Jacob tore his clothes on learning of the presumed death of his son Joseph. Caleb and Joshua tore their clothes at the unbelief in the apostasy of the ten other spies and the defection of the Israelites who wanted to elect another leader, displace Moses, and elect somebody else who would take them back to Egypt.

They tore their clothes at that. Joshua tore his clothes when Israel was defeated at Ai. And David tore his clothes when someone boasted at having killed King Saul. But they didn't tear them off and act like little kids. They tore their clothes in a sign of grief, and they mourned and they fasted.

So none of this is making any sense to the Kiliak, what is going on. He has been unable, unsuccessful, at understanding why this mob happened in the first place. What Paul has done, he assumes that Paul must be guilty of something great. In other words, where there's smoke, there must be fire. And so even if he isn't the assassin that he originally thought he was, he figures from this extreme reaction of the Jews that he must certainly have done something pretty bad.

He just doesn't know what it is. But he figures that he can figure that out with a little torture, with a scourging. Make Paul talk. Now it should be no surprise that the a spiritual reality that he can't comprehend in his natural mind. You know, most non-Christians and far too many Christians vastly underestimate the sinfulness of man.

This is the reason that people who deny God, or even deny total depravity, end up with such violent countries. Because they operate under the assumption that people are basically good and they just need a little more education and they would do the right thing they just need a little more better information better a little better circumstance a little bit better environment and then they would do the right thing. And you see that's not the problem with man. That's not the reason why we have wars and fights and hatred. James tells us that we have these things because of the sinful desires of our heart.

And so this is the first source of this hatred. The Jews hated the Gentiles because of the jealousy of their own heart. They considered themselves superior to the Gentiles. Remember, the disciples were even astonished at Jesus' stopping and talking to a Samaritan and a Samaritan woman at that. Remember, the Jews didn't even go through Samaria.

And those were not even full Gentiles. They were jealous that God would be gracious to the Gentiles. They were like their firstborn son, as it were, and they believed they had an exclusive right to hold the status of children of God. And they would allow Gentile proselytes to come in as long as they became Jews, as long as they did all of the things that were necessary to be a Jew. But even then they were still just a proselyte.

And so they were also displeased that the Gentiles would be able to come to Christ without first becoming Jewish proselytes. That was what the big discussion and debate was in Acts 15. Do all the Gentiles have to become Jews? No. The Council was very clear, no they don't.

That those Old Testament ceremonies have passed away. They are no longer obligatory. But these, remember, are the same Jews. These are the unbelieving Jews. And so they have this hatred of Gentiles, and when Paul says that he was an apostle sent to the Gentiles, all of this fury, all this hatred within their own hearts breaks forth into this berserk temper tantrum.

But see, also the world is opposed to Christ and hates His followers. That's the second aspect of this. James says, "'For do you not know what friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.'" The Jews were the enemies of God. They crucified the Lord of Glory, their Messiah.

So they were at enmity with Christ and His followers. John 17, Jesus said of His disciples, they are not of this world, just as I am not of this world." He said to the disciples, if you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but because I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. The Jews had hated Christ and they are hating His disciples. And so that's also a factor in this eruption that happens in the front of the Roman Kiliarch.

1 John 3, 11, For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. Cain was of the devil, it says. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother's righteous." He was jealous. "'Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you.

We know we have passed from death into life because we love the brethren. He who does not love His brother abides in death. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him." John says, don't be surprised if the world hates you. They will. They do.

And that was what the Kiliarch was seeing. He was seeing the hatred of the world for Christ and His disciples. And he didn't understand it. Couldn't figure it out. But also, Satan makes war against the church.

Satan is driving these people as well. Revelation 12 gives us a picture, just kind of like Job does, gives us a picture into the heaven of what is going on in this conversation between Satan and God. Well, Revelation 12 gives us a picture into Satan's war against the church. It says, when the dragon, verse 13, saw that he had been cast to the earth. He persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child.

But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to a place where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time from the presence of the serpent. So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman. If he couldn't catch her, he was going to try something else. He uses the earth. That might cause her to be carried away by the flood.

But the earth helped the woman. And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. And the dragon was enraged with the woman and went to make war with the rest of her offspring who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." Satan was enraged at the church. And he goes off to make war, John says, with all of her people. And so Satan is driving this mob.

These Jews were Satanists. Jesus' members said of them that they were of their father the devil. And Pastor Kaiser has pointed out in his series on Revelation that Even the temple veil of this second temple that Herod built. Even this temple veil had demonic Babylonian symbolism embroidered right into the veil. When Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord's Prayer, He taught us to pray to be delivered from the evil one.

And this is the Lord's Prayer. This is something that should be a regular part of our prayer because Satan's war against the church is ongoing. He puts thoughts into our minds, thoughts that are not from us. And if we try to resist those in the flesh, we are doomed to fail. He's definitely more powerful than we are.

But we have been given victory over Him. We need to use the means that God has given us to rebuke Him, resist Him. And James says, resist the devil and he will flee. We need to rebuke the evil one when he puts those thoughts into our mind and not accept them as our own. And the Lord does give us the victory when we use His means.

But there is another aspect that should be mentioned as the source of the Jews' extreme hatred for Paul and their desire to see him killed. Another aspect to this. In Romans 9, Paul proclaimed God's sovereignty in salvation, showing mercy to those whom He will and hardening whom He will." I'm sure you're familiar with that chapter. But in that same chapter, he also holds the Jews responsible for their own unbelief. Romans 9.31, Israel pursuing the law of righteousness has not attained to the law of righteousness.

Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone as it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense, and whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame." The Messiah was a stumbling stone. In Romans 10, he goes on to say, but they have not all obeyed the Gospel, for Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our report? The Jews have not obeyed the Gospel.

So then faith comes by hearing, Paul tells the Romans, and hearing by the word of God. But I say, haven't they heard? He's asking these rhetorical questions. Haven't the Jews heard? If faith comes by hearing, haven't these Jews heard?

Yes, they have. Yes, indeed, their sound has gone out to all the earth and their words to the end of the world. But I say, does Israel not know? He answers, 1st Moses said, I will provoke you to jealousy by those who are not a nation. I will move you to anger by a foolish nation, the Gentiles.

But Isaiah is very bold and says, I was found by those who did not seek Me. I was made manifest to those who did not ask for Me, but to Israel. He says all day long I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people." And then Paul goes on and he says, I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin, God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew." Well, what then?

He goes on. What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks, but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded, just as it is written." And listen to this, brothers and sisters. Just as it is written, God has given them a spirit of stupor. Eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear to this very day.

And David says, that their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a recompense to them. That their eyes be darkened so that they do not see and bow down their back always." Where did this spirit of stupor come from? Their inability to see the Gospel. God has given them a spirit of stupor. Of course, they are fully responsible.

Paul also says, for their unbelief. He says, Paul says there in Romans 11, he says to the Romans, I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion. That blindness in part has happened to the Jews until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in. Where did this blindness come from? God had sent the Spirit of Stupid, God in His sovereign, hardening of whom He will and showing mercy to whom He will.

And what is Paul's response? How does he end this extended discourse about what happened to the Jews? He says, for who has known the mind of God? Or who has become His counselor? Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to Him?

Not us. Not us. Not anyone. For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen.

Paul had written this probably a few months earlier when he was in Corinth. Paul understood all this. That didn't stop him from proclaiming the Gospel to these very people, because it was only blindness in part. And as long as there is life, as long as people are living, they need to hear the Gospel. We need to pray for them.

My Aunt Ellen, for 60 years, had people in her family praying for her for 60 years. It wasn't until the end of her life that she gave expression to saving faith. And Paul had this hope when he came to Jerusalem. There is a mob now. That's why this mob was so enraged against Paul.

For all of those reasons. There's no justice in a mob. What happens in a mob is that peer pressure can lead people to do things that they would later regret. They get caught up in the moment and the peer pressure of going along with the people around them sweep many people into things that they wouldn't do if they were in a better environment, in a better example, or even alone. They would never dare to do it alone.

In Exodus 23, 2 reminds us, You shall not follow a crowd to do evil, nor testify in a dispute, so as to turn aside after many to pervert justice.'" Speaking to the power of the mob, the destructive power of the mob, to sway people to do injustice, to do evil. That's the danger of democracy. It's a very wicked form of government. It leads to great injustices as we see here this month of Jews. These are people who pride themselves on being upright, righteous, fasting twice a week, giving tithes of all their mint, cumin, every little herb and leaf that they get.

They're tithing on it. They're praying. And yet, they've fallen to wanting to kill somebody out of their rage. Somebody who's done nothing worthy of death. You see, government is necessary to restrain evil.

Laws are necessary to restrain evil. Laws don't change anybody, but they do define what is good and what is not. And good laws force wickedness, force evil, behind closed doors and underground. And in that, they have a good purpose. So the Kiliarch doesn't understand this anger of the mob.

He can't figure out where it's coming from. He assumes it must be something that Paul has done. And if he can't get it from the mob themselves, If they're not willing to tell him, then he's going to get it one way or the other. And so he's made up his mind to take this troublemaker and scourge him. He's really, I think, a bit pulled by the mob's influence himself.

Because this is a major issue. He's supposed to keep the peace. There's been a mob. The peace has been disturbed. There's been a riot in the city.

Somebody's almost been killed by this mob. And he would be called to account for that. His job is to keep the peace. If he fails at that, then he's failed in his mission. And so he needs to find out what is going on.

Why was the peace disturbed? So he resorts to torture to extract information from Paul. It's what people do in their desperate attempt to be God, to control other people. And that's often the source of anger. All the domestic violence we hear about.

All the violence in society called road rage, it's all coming from people who are unsuccessful at controlling someone else. And in order to get their way, they resort to violence, to torture, to harm. So he orders Paul to be scourged, to be examined by scourging. And interrogation is not a scourging, but torture is one way that even our government uses to try and extract information from people who aren't willing to talk. And there's all kinds of torture.

There's extreme physical torture. There's cruelty, sleep deprivation, keeping the light on in someone's cell, bright lights 24 hours a day, not allowing them to sleep, all these kinds of things, drugs, forced drugging that destroy people's minds. There are citizens that have testified, even in Texas here in our Air Force, Fort Carswell, of forced drugging of people that have inconvenient truths and they don't want to talk to the point where they become vegetables and completely unable to even care for themselves. This scourging so was a was not a caning like Paul had in Philippi. This scourging was a whip usually made of The short wooden stick with leather thongs on it, multiple ones that were embedded, in which were embedded things like bone fragments or bits of metal, so that this would really just flay somebody.

And these scourgings often resulted in permanent maiming, paraplegics, and many times it resulted in death of the person that was scourged. Their only goal was that they would get the information they were looking for before the person succumbed. It's a very cruel punishment. But you know, Jesus was scourged before His crucifixion. Maybe Pilate was hoping that seeing Jesus scourged would calm the Jews' lust for blood.

It didn't. But Isaiah 53 says that he was bruised for our iniquity. He took our scourging in our place. And so Paul is abound, tied up, in preparation for this scourging. And right when that scourge comes out Paul asked the centurion now, he's apparently not said anything, but all of a sudden he asked the centurion, is it lawful to scourge a Roman citizen who is uncondemned?

Of course he knew the answer and so did everyone else. But you see it's a polite way of asking the question. It's an effective way of asking that question. And immediately it stops everything because of course it's not lawful And these people who have bound Paul are liable, even to death, for violating the rights of a Roman citizen. And the centurion immediately runs to the patriarch and says, be careful what you do, this man is a Roman.

And the patriarch is immediately concerned when he finds this out, and he comes to Paul. He comes to Paul. Because this is big. This is his life now at stake. His reputation.

But he's a little bit skeptical. Here's this guy who's been beaten up bloody. He doesn't look like anybody important. Claiming to be a Roman citizen. So he very carefully pulls the string on this a little bit.

On Paul's claim to be a Roman citizen. He tests it by saying, well, yeah, I'm a Roman citizen, but I got it with a lot of money. The unspoken implication is that you don't look like you have a lot of money. How could you get this citizenship? He's wanting to test this a little bit.

Paul could be executed for falsely claiming to be a Roman citizen, once it was found out. But he's testing this a little bit. And Paul says, Yes, but I was born a citizen. Immediately, Trump's this claim, see, he had this. We know later his name is Claudius.

And under Claudius, it became common for bribe through bribery to purchase a citizenship that normally would not have been allowed. So very few people in the Roman Empire were citizens. Those people of Rome that owned property, they were citizens. But it was given to other people of influence. People who had done some great deed for Rome, or people who somehow had influence.

And so when Paul says that he was born a citizen, that's saying his family was a family with connections in high places, an important family with influence, somebody who had been given a citizenship for some great deed, for some connection. He had to buy his with a bride. Paul was born this. And that immediately ends anything to do with this scourging. Now you might ask, why did Paul not use his citizenship to avoid a caning in Philippi?

But he does use it here. And I think there's some very good reasons why. First of all, in Philippi it was a caning, and that's not the same as a scourging. Caning is painful and bruising, but it doesn't permanently maim people or generally result in their death. And here's what could have happened.

If he had claimed that he was a citizen, they were before the lawful authorities in Philippi. People were bringing a case against him. He had deprived somebody of their livelihood. And if he had claimed to be a citizen, that would have stopped the caning at that point, but it would have probably immediately led to a trial. And he probably would have been convicted of depriving this person of their income by casting the demon out, and could have ended up being caned anyways, but more significantly, it would have produced a precedent, a legal precedent Against this church the fledgling church in Philippi and against the preaching of the gospel because that's what Paul done He'd been preaching the gospel and If he Paul had been convicted in this court, that would have given a lot more credibility and a lot more boldness to the authorities to persecute other Christians who are witnessing and converting people, much like it's illegal to witness to Muslims in Muslim countries and to convert them.

It's illegal for them to be converted. And so that would have set up a very unfavorable legal climate in Philippi. But by allowing himself to go through this caning and then bringing it up, he now has the upper hand. It's now the authorities that don't want to have anything to do with this situation. In fact, they want him out of town immediately because what they've done in caning him could get themselves in a lot of trouble.

And so you remember they come down to the jail themselves and they personally escort Paul out and they ask him to leave. They don't want any remembrance of this in the city. And so that wins for the church there a great freedom. Those authorities are going to be much more hesitant to interfere with that church. Because they don't want anything to do with their failure with Paul in caning Paul to ever come to light.

But in this case, none of those considerations are in play. Paul has been told that he would go to Rome. He's actually told that a little bit later by Revelation. But that was His purpose. He's been called by God to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles.

And He's been told that chains and imprisonment would await him in Jerusalem. But Paul does not take a fatalistic approach to this. He doesn't say, well, what God has ordained, God has ordained. He was told by, remember when God was talking to Ananias back in chapter 9. One of the things that God told Ananias is that I will tell Paul what things he must suffer for my sake.

Paul knew that he would suffer. He had already suffered greatly. But he doesn't just sit here and say, well, if it's God's will that I suffer this scourging then, so be it." He doesn't take that approach at all. That would be fatalism and that's wrong. Paul uses every lawful means that he has to accomplish his mission, which is to preach to the Gentiles.

And if he's scourged and dies, then he can't continue that mission anymore. And so he does raise this issue of his citizenship. And he uses it to protect himself and to protect His life and to protect His ministry. He said to the Ephesian elders, none of these concerns about all the dangers that He would face move Him, and He doesn't count His life dear to Himself. But why?

So that He could finish His race with joy and the ministry that was given to him by the Lord Jesus. That was his goal. And so, yes, he is saving himself, but he's saving himself here with a lawful means in resisting this tyranny in order to be able to continue his ministry. So we see that Paul respects the civil magistrate's authority. He uses the courts and laws of his day even though they are corrupt and infallible.

He submits to their authority and uses them, and he Seeks to hold them accountable and and prevent injustice You see Only the Gospel can transform a culture. Only the Gospel can bring liberty of all kinds, because all liberty, all liberty flows from Christ's obedience. How does that work? How does our political liberty flow from the obedience of Christ? Well, it's because of His perfect obedience to the law of God.

Even His death on the cross that we are redeemed from bondage to sin and to Satan. And that His righteousness is imputed to us and His Spirit dwelling in us enables us to walk in His precepts. You see, in political liberty is based on and flows from this liberty that we have in Christ's work. Because political liberty flows from people that are governed, self-governed. People in whom the Spirit dwells, who are able to, by the power of the Spirit in them, restrain sin.

Restrain their sin. And that's why Leviticus 10, which is a Messianic principle, Messianic chapter, is put on our Liberty Bell. Because our political liberty comes from the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Because political liberty requires self-government and self-government requires a heart that's regenerated by the Holy Spirit. It's only when there is a heart regenerated by Christ Spirit and enabled by His grace to bring our actions into conformity with God's law that we have any liberty.

You see, and so liberty comes through obedience. Freedom is the ability to obey the law of God. Tyranny is the inability to obey the law of God. That which helps us to obey God's law brings freedom, and that which hinders our ability to obey God's law brings tyranny and bondage. To govern is to direct or to control the actions of men.

Good government is to do so according to the law of God, bringing freedom. And bad government, evil government, is to do so arbitrarily according to the whims of man, bringing tyranny. May God give us liberty. Liberty through the obedience of Jesus Christ. Father in heaven, We thank you for your word, but most of all we thank you for Christ our Savior, who by His obedience has purchased our freedom, redeeming us from bondage and giving us the liberty of the children of God So that we can walk in Liberty because we seek your precepts We ask, Lord, for Your gospel to go forward.

That You would give to us, Lord, a zeal for Your kingdom as Paul had here. A zeal for your Gospel. We ask for your blessing, the proclamation of the Gospel in all of the places that it has gone this week. And we ask for boldness to without fear of men, speak the Gospel. To do so with wisdom and with winsomeness, but to do so with boldness and fearlessness.

For Lord, that is our only hope. It is in you that we put our trust and our hope of liberty, of freedom, and of salvation. We pray that we would be able to say with Paul that we do not hold our life dear to ourselves so that we may finish our race here with joy and that we may finish the calling that you have called us to. In Jesus' name we ask. Amen.