Acts 21:1-36 - Bair

Well, we had quite a summer, a lot of storms this summer. You remember the winds blowing,! the trees bending and breaking, the sirens blaring. Well, a protective and sensible husband and father! sees his family safely down to the basement. But what does the father do? Well, the only logical thing, he goes outside to see what all the fuss is about. Because the siren doesn't tell you what to do, it tells you what's coming. This morning in our text, the Holy Spirit sounds a siren over the apostle Paul twice in our text. And all Paul's friends urge him, plead with him to turn around.

But he doesn't. And we're left with a difficult question here. What I've wrestled with every time I've come to this passage is Paul ignoring the Holy Spirit. But we've watched this man heed and obey the Holy Spirit. In chapter 16, the Spirit told him not to go to Asia, and Paul went around. The Spirit of Jesus said no to Bithynia, and Jesus turned, or Paul turned.

So we've seen Paul obey. So what's the difference here? Well, the text is going to answer that for us this morning. And I want to let the text do this. We'll have that question hanging in the air as we proceed through our sermon this morning. The one thing I want us to walk away from this morning is the phrase, bound in the Spirit, bound for the name. Bound in the Spirit, bound for the name.

Bound as in headed somewhere, and bound as in tied. The chapter means both. Paul's bound in the Spirit, he's bound for the name, and by the end of the chapter, he will be bound with two chains.

Paul said plainly, Paul obeys the Spirit by walking into what the Spirit warned him about. Because the warnings gave a price, not a prohibition. And the price was for the name. So hear that, a price, not a prohibition. A briefing, not a barricade. A warning, not a wall. That's what the text is about this morning. But what makes this chapter strange is Paul isn't willing to die for his friends. Maybe he's willing to die for his friends, but that's not what this passage is about.

He's not saying he's willing to die for his friends. Not even saying he's willing to die for his enemies. His friends are begging him to stop. The enemies will do the beating. He says he's ready to die for the name of the Lord Jesus. Suffering for a friend, we understand. Greater love has no one than this. Suffering for an enemy is Christ-like for while we were still sinners. Christ died for us.

But suffering for a name, for a word, for an idea, this is strange. And so our whole sermon will lean on that strangeness. In three scenes, we'll see Paul briefed, Paul bent, and Paul bound. Paul briefed, Paul bent, Paul bound. But let's pray before we jump into the text this morning.

Heavenly Father, we come to your word this morning. We pray that your Holy Spirit would make this text come alive to us. That you would teach us what you would have us to learn from your scripture this morning. That your Holy Spirit would apply it to our lives.

that we would bend our knees to your will. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. Well, scene one is briefed. This is verses one through 16. It's not brief. We'll spend a bit of time here. But it starts in verse one, and when we had parted from them. Okay, so this is pointing back to the last, the previous scene that Pastor John ended on in chapter 20. But this word, when we had parted from it, it's kind of reading a little bit too nicely. It's torn away from. When we had torn ourselves away from these people. If you remember the ending of chapter 20, there were many tears as they tore themselves away. They were crying on Paul's shoulder. And so Paul and his crew tears themselves away. We're going to see in this, if you're note takers, we're going to see in this text tearing and tears. So tears and tears. They're spelled the same if you're a note taker. Just as an aside there.

Tears and tears throughout this passage. We'll see the tearing away at Miletus and Tyre and then the tears flowing at Caesarea. And you'll notice as we read Acts, there are points in the text where the details become more alive. There's more specificity. And we see some of that here. And some have suggested that it's in these cases that the author of this book, Luke, is actually on site in those times. And I'm 99.9% sure that's correct. 99.9% sure that's right. And the text here even gives us another clue. He uses the word we. We is an indicator that Luke is on the boat with them. And we see these details. They pass by coasts and they pass by roads and by Petara. We get these locations and time frames. And then notice Cyprus in verse 3 slides by on the left. This is interesting because this is where Paul had his beginnings. But Paul doesn't slow down. He doesn't drag his feet or his anchor, I guess, as the case may be.

He presses on. Similar, we may hear an echo of that in our text we read this morning in our epistle reading, pressing forward for the prize. He's not slowing down.

At Tyre, verse 3, they unload the cargo and so they have a week there to fill. What does Paul do with his week? Well, Paul does what Paul does. He finds the believers. He sought out the disciples and stayed there for seven days. And verse 4, where he seeks out these disciples is also where we find the problem. Because it says that at the end of the verse, and through the Spirit, they were telling Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.

Did you hear that? This isn't like an inclination. It's not that they're worked up about this. It's dia tu pneumatas, through the Spirit. They're telling Paul. The verb is imperfect.

Continually telling Paul, urging him, maybe all week long, don't go. So if we flatten this text to be a command from the Holy Spirit, we have a problem. We have a problem that either Paul disobeyed the Holy Spirit, and in that same case that the Spirit is contradicting himself, or that the Spirit changes his mind. So there has to be something else going on here, and we'll see it, but we don't see it yet, because they just move on from there in verse 5.

When our days there were ended, we departed and went on our journey. The question's still hanging over the water. But look at verse 5 before they go. They all, that's the people here, with wives and children accompanying us until we were outside the city.

And kneeling down on the beach, we prayed. The whole, the children and parents, kids, you are in this text. What are you doing here? You're on your knees praying over a man you met a week ago.

I want to give an aside here. In prayer, posture isn't everything, but it is something. In prayer, posture isn't everything, but it is something. You're laying in bed at night praying, that's good, you should pray in bed. You're driving your car praying, that's good. But you're standing praying, you're sitting praying, you're kneeling praying, you're flat on your face praying before the Lord. Posture isn't everything, but it is something. And here, these people who met Paul a week ago are on their knees praying with him as they leave. And then verse 6, we went on board the ship and they returned home. Luke writes this without comment, but I imagine his eyes are full of tears at the memory of this gathering of believers, of saints. It's interesting when you meet other believers around the world, that instant connection that you have with them, that shared joy and camaraderie we have in Christ, that's what they have. And so then they move on in verse 7, they go to Ptolemius and here they meet brothers again. Paul cannot pass the report without finding believers there, finding a church. And then we only get one verse there and then quickly move on to verse 8. They get to Caesarea and to the house of Philip the evangelist. One of the seven, you remember him? From back in chapter 6, verse 5, the disciples choose these seven and he's one of them. And then in chapter 8, Philip, there's this persecution that rises against the church and Philip is driven out of the city and he goes out preaching and he's led out by a persecution by a young man named Saul.

Saul. Saul. 20 years later, Philip opens his front door and there's Saul. And look what the text says. He has him in verse 10 for many days. Sweet fellowship with the man who drove him out before. That's the gospel. That's the power of the gospel. That's what 20 years of gospel does to memory. We're told Philip has four unmarried daughters who prophesy. We don't get a word about their prophecy, but we do get another prophet. Verse 10, we have an old friend, Agabus. Remember him?

From chapter 11, he came in and told him a famine was coming. But here he comes down from Judea and he says, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea and coming to us, he took Paul's belt.

Now, if any of you came up after service and took my belt, I would be a little bit put off. Okay, it's a little intimate, but this guy comes up and he takes Paul's belt and he takes this belt. Okay, this is not the same belt it would have been. Joanne Fabrics was closed. I had to steal my daughter's jujitsu belt. But he takes this belt. It's usually wrapped around your waist and it has folds in it. You would fold up your money in it. Okay, so Agabus takes this belt and he wraps his hands. This is kind of some Houdini feat. I don't know how you tie your hands. I tried. He ties his hands and feet and he says, this is what they're going to do to the owner of this belt.

This is what the Jews in Jerusalem will do. They will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him to the hands of the Gentiles. Bind and deliver. Two words. Hold on to those two words. We'll meet them again in a moment. But look at what the Spirit does say through Agabus because this is where our question cracks open. Agabus predicts. He does not prohibit. He tells Paul what will happen.

He does not tell Paul what to do. There's no word of don't in this passage, in this prophecy. The don't shows up in verse 12. When we heard this, we, that's Luke and the others, and the people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem. Luke tells this, the same scenario twice. We had it in Tyre and we have it in, we have it here in Caesarea. In Tyre, it's just kind of given more condensed. But here it's, we see the longer story. And so we see this scene that was, was somewhat hidden in Tyre, that the Spirit speaks. The Spirit speaks one thing and the people receive that. And from that, with the implication of what that means, they apply it and tell Paul, well, don't go then. The warning is God's. The pleading is the friend's. The Spirit gives the forecast. Their fear, writes the prohibition. Don't go. But Paul already had orders from the same Spirit. You may remember back in Damascus, Ananias was told that I will show him, that's

Paul, how much he must suffer for my name's sake. But even two weeks ago in Ephesus, Paul was resolved in the Spirit. And last week, the Spirit testified at Miletus, I am going to Jerusalem constrained by the Spirit. Pastor John set this up for me last week because he said, constrained by the Spirit is literally bound by the Spirit. Well, that's our word for this morning, bound by the Spirit, chained to the will of God. Paul says, the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and affliction await me. Every city, the same message. Bound, he was bound before the belt. He was bound before the chains. He was bound before he left the first city. He knew what was coming. And so at Tyre and at Caesarea, the Spirit says the same thing. In Acts 16, when Paul was forbidden, he was given a route. You're not going that way.

Here, he's given a price. And the price is not a prohibition. If we have any doubt left, we can look ahead to chapter 23, verse 11. The Lord's standing by Paul in the barracks and he says, take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome. This is not a rebuke. It's a commendation and a commission. So maybe we're left with the question, why warn him at all? Why warn Paul that this is coming? Because the revelation of his suffering is not in order to run. The Spirit is giving him this to tell him what's coming so he can walk straight into it. And we see throughout Acts that every time the Spirit warns or speaks about Jerusalem, the warning gets clearer and Paul's resolve gets stronger.

Because for everyone else, the siren was a warning. But for Paul, it was a briefing. This is what's coming. So Paul answers in verse 13, what are you doing weeping and breaking my heart? This is a fun word, breaking my heart. It's the word you would use for beating out your dirty laundry on the rocks.

You're breaking my heart. They're beating his heart with their tears and it's working. But he says, I am ready. I hold myself ready not only to be in prison but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. Not only but even. Paul climbs this ladder himself. Peter, you'll remember, Peter said almost the same exact thing the night before the crucifixion. Lord, I'm ready to go with you both to prison and to death. But Peter couldn't carry it. Not yet. He will eventually. But here, Paul says the same thing on the far side of the empty tomb with the Spirit and with 20 years of ministry and scars. And he carries it. But we have this phrase, for the name. For the name. Die for the name.

Now, a leader can stand in front of people. I can stand up here and look at all you beautiful people and say, I would die for any of you. Okay, well, most of you. Some of you. Just be honest. No, but that's not what Paul's saying. He's not saying he would die for these Tyrians or these Caesareans.

No. Not for himself, but for the name. Not for friends, not for enemies, not for his own glory, but for the name. Back in chapter 5, the apostles left the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer for the name. What is this? The name. The name is the gospel in one word.

Jesus is the Christ, crucified, risen, and Lord of everything. Last week, Paul called it the gospel of the grace of the grace of God and counted his own life as worthless next to it. And when Paul says he's willing to die for the name, he means he will die so that the news, Jesus is Lord, gets where it's going. It's worth it. Verse 14 says, since he would not be persuaded, we ceased and said, let the will of the Lord be done. They fall silent. No, I don't think they necessarily agreed with Paul. I don't think they came around, but they stopped arguing and pray. And their prayer is Christ's garden prayer.

Not my will, but yours be done. This is in a sense, Paul's Gethsemane, his own garden the night before. And we remember there that Jesus' friends couldn't pray it with him. They fell asleep. But here it's Paul's friends who are praying it for him. And then they get up, verse 15, and go up to Jerusalem, some 60 miles uphill. Some of the disciples from Caesarea went with us, bringing us to the house of Manasin. It's a good name for a kid, Manasin. They couldn't stop him, so they walked with him as far as they could. The siren sounded. The saints wept. The servant went. He was briefed. He was briefed at Miletus. He was briefed at Tyre. He was briefed at Caesarea. And he was ready because he's bound in the Spirit. He's bound for the name. And that's scene one. We move on to scene two, starting in verse 17 through 26. And here the Jerusalem church greets him warmly. The brothers received us gladly.

Mark that warmth because a week from now, a different crowd in Jerusalem will have their hands on him. And that welcome will have to sustain him.

Verse 18, on the following day, Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present. And Paul related one by one the things God had done among the Gentiles. Look, God is working among the Gentiles. This is amazing. God did it. Paul relates them. And they glorify God. But then in verse 20, we have this but. But hold on, Paul. You see, brother, how many thousands are among the Jews of those who have believed? Yes, yes, you're having a great ministry among the Gentiles, but here we've got a lot of Jews that are believing. Thousands, Paul. They're all zealous for the law. We heard Paul was zealous in our scripture reading this morning. And they've been told about you, that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses. Well, this is a rumor, a rumor with no root.

But this is the accusation. This old Jew-Gentile tug of war is back and stronger than ever. And Paul walks in. Verse 22, what then is to be done? You can kind of hear the worry in the voices of these leaders in Jerusalem. Paul is here, probably carrying a gift from the Gentiles to the Jerusalem church.

So verse 23, he gives the answer. Do therefore what we tell you. We have four men who are under a vow, a Nazarite vow. Remember this from number six. This is a promise to God that ends with a shaved head.

Paul had taken one back in chapter 18. So he says, take these men and purify yourself along with them and pay their expenses. And after you've done all this, everyone will know there's nothing in what they've been told about you. Think about what James is asking Paul to do here. Paul's the one who wrote the book of Galatians. Galatians is the letter where Paul says that a Gentile does not have to keep the Jewish ceremonies to belong to Jesus. And James says, Paul, go into the temple, join the vow, pay the bills and keep the peace.

Verse 25 makes it clear though that Paul's not giving up. But as for the Gentiles who have believed, we have sent a letter with our judgment. You'll remember this from chapter 15, this decision.

The Gentiles stay free. Nothing about this vow touches on the freedom they have in the gospel. Instead, Paul's freedom gets bound. Paul bends to the advice of James. He wrote the book of Galatians, but he goes into the temple.

He preaches freedom, but he pays for the sacrifice. He answers to Christ alone, but he responds and listens to James. He bends his will for the brothers. Verse 26, Then Paul took the men, and the next day he purified himself along with them and went into the temple, giving notice when the days of purification would be fulfilled. No argument. He just does it.

Numbers 30 says a man who vows binds himself. Paul, who's free from every bit of this, binds himself alongside the four brothers so the church doesn't tear down the middle. Last week, Pastor John said, look how utterly free Paul is. But here's what freedom does when nervous brothers need it.

Paul says to the Corinthians, though I'm free from all, I have made myself a servant to all. I do it all for the sake of the gospel. One commentator put it this way, a truly emancipated spirit like Paul's is not in bondage to its own emancipation.

In other words, a free man is not slave to his own freedom. Freedom that cannot bend is a different kind of chain. And Paul's freedom was never for himself. It was for the name and for the people of the name. So they have this plan, but the plan doesn't work. The cleansing ceremony meant to prove Paul put him in the place where they pinch him. We have this here, continue reading in the next section, that Paul will be bound physically. So this is scene three, verses 27 through 36.

And watch how fast it goes. He seized in the sanctuary, verse 27, slandered, verse 28, dragged out of the gate, verse 30, beaten in the courts, 32, bound in two chains, 33, carried up the steps, and shouted out of the city in verse 36. In 10 verses, Paul goes from free man to man in irons. But let's look back up at verse 27. When the seven days were almost completed, one day from done, the Jews from Asia, seeing him in the temple, Asia here means Ephesus.

Pastor Dan's riot from two weeks ago follows him to Jerusalem. And they come up with two charges in verse 28. First, he teaches against the people in the law of this place. And second, he even brought Greeks into the temple. Now, that's not true. Maybe it was an honest mistake. We're told that they had previously seen Trophimus, the Ephesian, with him in the city, and they supposed Paul had brought him into the temple. Fodder for their fuel for their anger. A low wall ringed the inner courts with signs in Greek and Latin that if any foreigner passed these walls, they're responsible for their own death.

And so, the crowd turns murderous. In verse 30, they seized Paul and drag him out of the temple, and at once the gates are shut. It's an interesting detail here because this is the last time we'll be in the temple in the book of Acts. Those slamming gates echo through the rest of the book.

And verse 31, they were seeking to kill him. Paul said he's willing to die. And he stands about a minute away from it until word reaches the Roman commander. He at once took soldiers and centurions and ran down to him. Centurions, plural, that means probably a couple hundred soldiers are there. And the crowd sees this and, okay, backs off. Stop beating Paul in verse 32.

But watch this, verse 33. Then the tribune came up and arrested him and ordered him to be bound with two chains. Every warning fulfilled. Bound, the same word as the belt. It's perhaps fulfilled a little backwards from how we expected. Because technically, the Gentiles rescued Paul from the Jews.

So it's a little bit backwards of how we expected it to be fulfilled. But Paul says it, says it the reverse of that at the end of Acts in 28. He says, I was delivered as a prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans. The Jews caused it. The Rome just held the chains. Verse 34 says, some of the men were shouting one thing, some another. And the commander could not learn of the facts because of the uproar.

Does that remind you of Ephesus from a couple weeks ago? Most of them did not know why they had come together. Same song, different mob. So he, the commander, ordered Paul be brought up to the barracks. Two chains. Back in chapter 12, Peter slept chained between two guards. An angel walked in and the chains fell off. No angel comes for Paul. Peter's chains fell. Paul's chains held. Peter went home to a prayer meeting. Paul goes up to a barracks, to a cell. Same God, same spirit, different grace.

And God is glorified when he breaks the chains. And God is glorified when he gives the grace to wear them. Paul will wear these chains one way or another for two years in Caesarea, then onto a ship, and then into Rome. And God is faithful in both situations. In verse 35, the man who walked 94 miles of Roman road and sandals was, had to be actually carried by the Roman soldier, by the soldiers because of the violence of the crowd. In verse 36, they say, away with him. That's where we end. Away with him.

Two weeks ago, Pastor Dan told us that this mob, the mob of Ephesus was a preview of this one. But 27 years earlier in this same city, a crowd shouted these same words at Paul's Lord. Away with this man. Listen to the parallels in Luke's gospel. Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem.

Jesus was delivered to the Gentiles. Jesus prayed, your will be done. And the crowd said, away with him. Luke is showing us a disciple walking in his master's footsteps. Same steel, same street, same city, same shout. Paul later puts it in words that we read in our reading this morning, our epistle reading, that I may share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. That's Paul's desire. Follow in his Lord's footsteps. Paul knows his chains save nobody. That's not why he's doing this. He's walking this road because he wants to testify about the one who died to save all.

I'm just going to point at verse 37. We'll leave this for Pastor Tad next week. But for verse 37, Paul says, Paul's about to be brought into the barracks and he says to the tribune, may I say something to you? This guy's just been beaten and bound. And the first thing he asked for is a microphone, a pulpit. I want to tell you something. Years later from another cell, he'll write 2 Timothy. And in this he says, I am suffering. 2 Timothy 2.9. Maybe write this down. This is a good one to look up later. I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound.

Not bound. Same verb as the belt and the chains. You can arrest the preacher, but you can't arrest the proclamation. Two weeks ago in Ephesus, the word was, be assured God's word prevails.

Here the same assurance wearing two chains. The word is not bound. He was briefed and he went. He was begged and he went. He was bound and he went. Anyways, up the stairs into the barracks and to Rome.

The word is not bound. Well, before we look at what this means for us, I think it's helpful to look at the one whose name it is. In Matthew 27.2, they were told they bound him, Jesus, and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate the governor. Bound and delivered. The same words that Agabus uses for Paul. The name Paul is bound for was bound first. Long before Paul was bound on the barrack step, his savior, was bound in a garden. Jesus was bound so that our chains could be broken.

Jesus was delivered to the Gentiles so that we could be delivered from death. He walked to Jerusalem to take our place and then he showed us the road to follow. And the shout that in Luke 23 finishes the thought, away with this man, release to us Barabbas. The innocent one is bound, the guilty one is set free. Paul's chains point at that. They had nothing to it. Neither will ours. We've already been bought. We are Christ, bought with his blood. The only question for us is what will we be bound for?

Let's go back to the strangeness of that. Bound for the word? Suffer for the word? 2 Timothy 2, the verse we read earlier, that the word is not bound. After that, Paul says, therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus. That's what it means to be bound for the word. Suffering for the word is suffering so the word gets out to the people. Friends and enemies alike. People who have not yet heard.

Suffering for the word. Suffering for the name. And when you suffer for the name, the name gets the glory. We saw that in Paul's report of all the things God has done. Not all the things I've done. All the things God has done. Suffering for a friend shows honor to that friend. Suffering for an enemy shows a Christ-like attitude. But suffering for the name says to the whole watching world, it's worth it. He's worth it.

I said back in Acts 14 that tribulation is not an interruption of the Christian life. It's the climate the crop was bred for. The climate the crop was bred for. Suffering is part of the Christian life.

If it's not strange, this should be the expectation. To be bound for the word. Well, two questions to end with on both sides of the beach. First, Paul, who was willing to be bound for the sake of the name.

Are we willing to be bound for the sake of the name? Not for suffering's sake. Paul was not, he was not a masochist. He didn't have a martyr complex. We saw him run away. We saw him escape Damascus in a basket.

But are we willing? For most of us, it's not a Roman chain, probably. What is it? Is it a reputation? Is it a commitment?

Is it giving up something for the sake of following Christ? Here's the problem, at least for me. Far too often, my willingness to be bound for the name warps into a willingness to be bound for my own glory.

Look what he's building. Look what he's doing. That's the opposite of Paul. Paul reports the story. Look what God is doing. Take me out of the picture.

What's my name next to his name? What's my glory next to his renown? My name will fade, and anything built for my name will disintegrate.

But anything done for the name will reverberate in praise to that name for all eternity. That's amazing to think about. That's my prayer, that God would get the glory, not me.

We heard last week that it wasn't Paul's disposition, but it was his doctrine that answered this. Not the kind of man he was, but the gospel he believed.

The question has never been, are we the brave type of person? No, the question is, what is this name worth? What is this gospel worth? What's your life worth next to this gospel?

I think it's good to heed wise counsel. But we heard Paul. Not heed wise counsel.

Sometimes the best sounding advice sounds good because it's an invitation to a life of ease. A life of comfort. A life unbound. Christ says to take his yoke because it's light and easy.

But friends, it's still a yoke. It's still something we're to bind ourselves to. Maybe the siren blaring is not a warning. Not a call to stop, but a call to prepare.

Telling you what it will cost. That's one side of the beach. The other side of the beach is the people that are there praying. Praying on their knees for someone. Maybe for someone you met a week ago.

Grab one of our partner ministry folders in the back. Pray for ministries we partner with. Pray for each other. Pray for other missionaries you know. Pray.

But be careful when you pray because a prayer that only prays against suffering may not be praying the will of the Spirit. And then send.

Some of you have heard the story that missionaries to West Africa centuries ago packed their belongings in a coffin on their way because they didn't expect to come home. In December 1828, the Basel mission sent four young men to what is now Ghana.

By August, three of them were dead. In 1832, they sent another group and four months before that group arrived, the fourth member died.

But they stayed. And many of them died as well. And out of their grave came a church of 30,000.

And Ghana's first school system. I would venture that nobody here knows any of those four men's names. But do you know how many millions in Ghana today know the name?

Let our names be forgotten. Let the name be lifted up. They knew the price. They still went. We know the price. We still send.

And when we do it, are we weeping or are we rejoicing? It's okay to do both. That's what they did on the beach. Tears and prayers.

Finally, I do want to be careful not to supply too specific of an application. The friends did that to Paul. They heard the Spirit and they applied it to Paul.

Sometimes when we give application, it's good to give specifics. But sometimes it's good to say, hear the word of the Lord and let the Spirit tell you what He wants you to do, where He wants you to go. Maybe I can say this.

What are you willing to be bound for? What if it costs you your freedom? What if it costs you your life? Is the gospel worth it?

Is the name worth it? Can you pray, let the will of the Lord be done? In my friend's life? In my life?

In my children's life? Well, this past summer, the siren sounded and I went outside. Crazy old man to see the excitement.

For no reason, really. But here may be the siren sounding in your life. And maybe the question is, is it a good reason? Is there a reason the siren's sounding in your life this morning?

And are you willing to be bound for the Spirit? Are you willing to be bound for the name? And as you are, remember that the word of God is not bound.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we desire to submit to your word.

We desire to be vessels used by you for your glory. Yet often we get in our own way. I pray that we would hear the call of the Spirit on our lives.

That we would submit. That we would bend our knees. That we would bind ourselves to Christ and his call. That we would pray faithfully for each other.

For others on the field. For those to go that you've called. That your word would not be bound. That your will would be done. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.