Brothers and sisters, thank you for coming. I know that, for some of you, it meant making a lot of arrangements and everything. We really do appreciate your coming and your participation.
I remember a couple of years ago, when we were at one of the meetings in Richmond, feeling that there are so many things that go on behind the scenes in order for times like this, when we can get together. We need to learn how to show one another how much we appreciate it.
Sometimes we ignore the graciousness of our Lord—how gracious He is. I feel again this morning that our Lord would want to say thank you to us for setting aside this time, for putting it in our hearts to come here and be before Him, that He might speak to us and minister to us as He desires.
Perhaps we do not think in terms of the Lord ever thanking us. But, being Who He is, He has to. It is just in Him to do that. He is so gracious. He thanks us for the efforts that we put forward, and we trust that the Lord will continue to use what He has been able to do among us in the days to come.
This morning, I would like to read first from Acts 26, beginning with verse 10. This is part of Paul’s defense before King Agrippa.
“This I also did in Jerusalem: and many of the saints I shut up in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them.
And I punished them often in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities.
Whereupon as I journeyed to Damascus with the authority and commission from the chief priests, at midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who journeyed with me.
And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me and saying in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’
So I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And He said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you.
I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.’
Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus and in Jerusalem, and throughout all the region of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent, turn to God, and do works befitting repentance.”
Then in Philippians 3, beginning in verse 7:
“What things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.
But indeed, I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for Whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;
that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for