April 9, 2025
#275 - The Gospel vs. Witchcraft: Paul’s Showdown in Cyprus - Acts 13.4-12
In today's Al Pastor podcast, Pastor Brian and Noah continue their journey through Acts 13:4–12. They walk through Paul and Barnabas’ Spirit-led mission to Cyprus, their confrontation with a deceitful sorcerer, and the powerful conversion of a Roman governor. Join us as we explore how God's Word overcomes spiritual deception and still astonishes hungry hearts today.
Episode Overview:
In Acts 13:4–12, Paul and Barnabas are sent out by the Holy Spirit on their first missionary journey. As they arrive in Cyprus, they encounter a sorcerer working closely with a Roman proconsul, Sergius Paulus. A powerful confrontation unfolds, leading to one of the most influential conversions recorded in Acts — showing that the Word of God, not signs or wonders alone, captures and transforms hearts.
Key Highlights:
1. Spirit-Led Mission: Sent Out to Cyprus (Acts 13:4-5)
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Paul and Barnabas are sent by the Holy Spirit, emphasizing Spirit-led action.
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They travel from Antioch to Seleucia (10–13 miles on foot) and then sail roughly 100 miles to Cyprus.
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Practical application: Missions often start where we already have influence (Barnabas’ home island).
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John Mark accompanies them as an assistant — showing that not all roles are "preacher roles," but all service matters in God's mission.
Reflection Question:
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Where has God placed you right now to be a witness for Him?
2. Opposition Arises: Bar-Jesus the Sorcerer (Acts 13:6-8)
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Paul and Barnabas encounter Bar-Jesus (also called Elymas), a Jewish false prophet practicing witchcraft.
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Sergius Paulus, a Roman governor and "an intelligent man," seeks to hear the Word of God.
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Elymas opposes them, illustrating that some opposition is active, deceptive, and spiritually motivated.
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Important Note: Sorcerers (magos) were often political advisors, using astrology, omens, and magic to influence leaders.
Reflection Question:
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How can we discern true spiritual hunger versus spiritual deception?
3. Paul’s Spirit-Fueled Boldness: A Strong Rebuke (Acts 13:9-11)
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Saul (now called Paul for the first time) confronts Elymas, calling him "a son of the devil" and rebuking his deceit.
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Filled with the Holy Spirit, Paul pronounces judgment: Elymas becomes physically blind, mirroring his spiritual blindness.
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This event is full of rich ironies: Paul himself had once been blinded by God as part of his conversion.
Key Application:
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Spirit-filled believers must sometimes boldly confront spiritual deception, not merely "agree to disagree."
4. Astonished by the Word: Sergius Paulus Believes (Acts 13:12)
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Sergius Paulus is not primarily moved by the miracle — but by the teaching of the Lord.
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Luke emphasizes that it’s the Word of God that astonishes and transforms hearts, not just miraculous signs.
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Paul's success is not in performing miracles but faithfully proclaiming the gospel.
Key Verse:
"Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had been done, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord." (Acts 13:12, NKJV)
Reflection Question:
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Do we trust the power of God’s Word to truly astonish and save?
Key Themes:
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Spirit-Led Ministry: True missions begin by the direction of the Holy Spirit.
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Discernment Against Deception: Not everyone opposes the gospel passively; some actively resist it.
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Boldness in Truth: Spirit-filled believers must confront evil boldly and lovingly.
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Power of the Word: It is not miracles but the teaching of the Lord that changes hearts.
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Inclusivity of the Gospel: High-ranking officials and common people alike are equally in need of salvation.
Reflection/Application Questions:
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Am I prepared to boldly confront deception if the Spirit leads me to?
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How am I participating in God's mission, even if I'm not the one "up front"?
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Do I trust that God's Word is powerful enough to transform even the most influential people?
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Where in my daily life is God sending me to bring His Word?
Key Scripture References:
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Acts 13:4–12 (Main passage)
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Acts 1:8 (Missionary movement starting "at home")
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Daniel 2 (Daniel as a wise man)
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Job 19:25 ("I know my Redeemer lives" — longing for vindication)
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Romans 1:16 ("The gospel is the power of God unto salvation")
Closing Encouragement:
God is still sending His people today. Just like Paul, Barnabas, and even John Mark had different roles, the same Holy Spirit who sent them is sending us — to our homes, communities, and even high places where hearts are hungry for the truth. Trust the Word. Speak the Word. Be astonished by what God will do!
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You're listening to Al Pastor, the show that helps you love God, love your neighbor, and eat more
tacos.
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I'm your host, Pastor Brian, welcome to the show.
Hey friends, I want to welcome you to today's podcast.
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We're going to be walking through Acts chapter 13, verses 4 through 12, and we're going to pick up
right where we left off from the previous episode.
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And of course, I have Noah in studio with me.
Noah, how you doing today?
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I'm doing good.
All right, so we went a little bit longer than we expected on those first 3 verses.
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So we're going to try to take it quicker, not for the sake of going quicker, but we're going to go
faster.
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Is that OK with you?
Yeah, that's fine.
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OK, I figured as much.
Now, that doesn't mean there isn't a lot that we can dig in.
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So we'll see how this episode goes.
Just to recap, in those first 3 verses, what we saw Noah is what we would call God's diverse
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patchwork is what we talked about.
Remember that about the quilt and in God's diversity and all of those things really, really
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important that we grasp that and we get that into our hearts that God shows no partiality.
He's no respecter of persons.
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That's the biblical phrase.
And so it doesn't matter where where you're at in society, doesn't matter your class, doesn't matter
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if you're rich or poor, if you're a slave or free, if you're white, you're black.
None of those matter in the eyes of God.
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Very, very important.
And so now we've we continue a transition.
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They've been sent out.
We have a, we see Paul and Barnabas and they are going to set cell to Cyprus.
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Now we're not going to get into all the geography of this in this episode, Noah, but I am looking
forward to Bible study because we will talk about it.
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In fact, I'm going to do an overview of I can do this in Bible study because it'll be visually
driven.
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But we're going to look at where Paul started and where he ended over the course of two years that
cover Acts chapter 13 and 14.
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So we're going to we're going to put ourselves in their shoes.
I mean, because traveling was not easy in the ancient world.
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Is traveling easy today?
You have cars, planes, trains, all that good stuff.
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Well, think about this.
Remember when we went to Mexico?
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Yeah, logistics that went into it.
We, we, we took kind of a long route, didn't we?
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45 minutes everywhere.
Well, no, we're just getting to Mexico.
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We left here.
How many hours did we drive to go down to the border?
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Was it 2 or 4?
It was, it was a it was a solid, solid four, 4 1/2 hours.
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We drove down to the border town of Tijuana.
So remember, we had to park the car.
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We had to lock it.
We had to buy a pass to cross the bridge.
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We went into the airport, we checked in, our flight got delayed.
Then we flew couple hours.
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We landed in Modelia, Mexico.
Then we had to go go get a car.
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We had to get an Uber, remember, And then we had to go to go to actually, we didn't get an Uber.
I'm sorry.
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There was a rental car at the airport and then we had to drive.
How long do we have to drive to get to where we were going?
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About 45 minutes right way on the other side and then get a hotel and then drop.
We drove all over the state.
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So there are some logistics that are involved now you as a kid, no, you didn't realize.
You realized because you were long for the journey.
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But there had to be some planning and some preparation to this I.
Imagine how long in advance you would have like put the car because I I know before the trip you
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were looking at a lot of cars that would be able to be suitable for all of us.
Yeah, we had to make sure that it would hold our luggage because larger cars are not typical in
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foreign countries.
Americans are unique and so I say all that to say this, that what we see here starting in verse 4 is
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they're going to leave Antioch, OK, and I want you to look with me.
It says that they says so being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia and from
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there they sailed to Cyprus.
So just from Antioch to Seleucias 10 to 13 miles depending on the exact road that they took.
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And they were on foot.
So back then they used what was called Chevrolegs.
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You know what that means?
There's a Chevrolet truck, right?
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Chevy Chevrolet.
So back then they used Chevrolegs.
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They walked.
You're supposed to laugh at that joke, dude.
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My comedy isn't isn't up to your standards I guess.
I guess that's what we call a dad joke, right, Chevrolegs?
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So they walked.
They had to walk from from Antioch to Seleucy at 10 to 13.
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Miles And then it's crazy because it had said going down the mountain.
So it was like, I can imagine it was like a interesting walk.
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Yeah, and then they had to sell to Cyprus, so now they had to find a boat.
It's not like they've like, oh, we leave three times a day and we sell to Cyprus.
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They had to, they had to get on a boat.
They sailed about 100 miles or so.
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I'm going to hold that loosely.
I'm going off of memory here.
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OK.
And then they arrived in Solomon's.
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So let's continue reading the rest of verse 5.
And when they arrived in Solomon's, they preach the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews.
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They also had John as their assistant.
Now the question I have for you now is, do you remember where Barnabas is from?
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Cyprus.
Now why might it make sense that they started in Cyprus then?
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Because in Cyprus they would have known the people in the culture and so it would have been easy for
them to get like a little head start.
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Exactly.
Cyprus was Barnabas's home.
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And so here's the principle out of this right?
This is how what we're going to extract sometimes the spirit and I say sometimes I would let me
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change that to oftentimes, oftentimes the Holy Spirit leads us to start right where we have
influence that is on our home turf.
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And so this is actually the the idea behind Acts chapter one, verse 8.
Do you remember that scripture?
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Act 1/8.
Yes, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you to be my witnesses in Jerusalem,
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Judea.
And.
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Samaria, Samaria and the end up to the ends of the earth.
The starting place is right where they're at.
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And so we see this principle at work here.
Now, here's the other thing.
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Sometimes people think in order to quote UN quote, be on mission, like share the word of God, that
you got to go overseas or you got to go on a trip or you've like, like we, we, we say, hey, we, we
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did a mission to in Brazil, right?
Like we went to go preach in Brazil.
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We went to go preach in Mexico.
You don't have to do that to be on mission or to preach the gospel.
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We start with the people that we know best.
And so that is part of the part of the beauty that we see here that they sell to Cyprus.
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Now, I also want you to notice Noah, the end of verse #5 who was their assistant, John?
John Mark.
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OK, so John Mark, so he came along to be their assistant.
Now, he's not the main guy, he's not the main character in the story, but what do you think he is?
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He is like, he's like an assistant to like help them.
He's a helper, exactly.
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He's there to do whatever needs to be done.
And why do you think it's important in here to mention that not everybody who's on a mission is the
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preacher or the leader?
Because because with this, it shows that that doesn't matter what you do, that there isn't like a,
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there isn't like a hierarchy on how you help.
It's just that everybody is included in our working to help the ministry in their own ways.
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Absolutely, absolutely.
We could say like this ministry and the work of the gospel is teamwork, right?
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Like some people will teach, some people need to come along to support and be assistant.
Some people like serving behind the scenes.
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And here's the thing, every role matters.
Every role matters.
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All right, I want you now know to read verses 6:00 and 8:00.
But before we move on, do you have any questions out of four and five?
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No.
OK.
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Let's read verses 6-7 and eight.
OK.
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Now now when they had gone through the island to Papos, they found a church and sorcerer, a false
prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar Jesus, who who was with the pro consul Sergius Paulus, an
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intelligent man.
This man called for Barnabas and soul and sought to hear the word of God.
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But Elmus the the sorcerer for so his name is translated withstood them seeking to turn the
prosecute away from the faith.
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Right.
So tell me, Noah, what is your like?
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Like you've seen reaction videos before, right?
Yeah.
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What is your first?
What's your reaction video?
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When you read about this guy Bar Jesus or LMS the sorcerer, how do you react?
Well, it's, it's it's kind of interesting because we have Jesus of Nazareth, who it's like the Son
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of God and his holy, but then we have like the opposite bar Jesus, who's like witchcraft.
And then, as we see, it's called the son of the devil.
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Hey, you, you just identified A literary parallel, but not everybody might be able to track with you
on this one, Noah, because why would you say you have the Son of God?
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How do you know that?
What's this bar Jesus?
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What does that?
Mean Son of Jesus.
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Yeah, yeah.
So you we actually have the Son of God and someone that says that they're the son of Jesus.
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So there is a little bit of what we call literary twist.
So what else?
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How else do you react from this?
We see Sergius Paulus, who it's, it's interesting how we have these like high Roman officials who
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have been getting converted and he's like the, he's like the highest rank to have been converted in
the New Testament.
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OK, so let's let's kind of sum this up.
Here we have we have this sorcerer, right?
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The Jewish here, here's the irony.
He's a Jewish sorcerer, a Jewish false prophet.
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You know, these two things.
This is a irony here because this is forbidden, right?
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And he works closely with this Roman pro consul and named Sergius Paulus.
Do you know anything about him at all?
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Yeah, I had AI.
He was a Roman official and he was the governor of the island of Cyprus.
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Yes.
And then it it was, it's as the commentary has said, he may have been the same Sergey's palace who
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was who was a high official in Rome under Emperor Claudius.
Interesting.
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OK, well, we'll bring that up a little bit later.
So this guy is not some what we call like, you know, small town City Council member or, you know,
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mayor or something like that, right.
No disrespect if there's any, any small town like Arvin tuning in, no disrespect intended, but we're
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we're we're dealing with something on a whole other level here.
This is the governor.
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This would be this, this is this is big time right here.
And what we see here is he's working closely with Sergius Paulus.
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And this is what we would call a description of spiritual deception in high places that Paul will
later talk about.
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OK, now bar Jesus or Elemis, he didn't just reject the gospel.
He's actually in act.
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He's actively trying to put a stop to the gospel.
He's not just against it like, ah, let's debate.
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He's like, no, we need to stop this.
His whole business is witchcraft and so if everybody turns to the faith, he doesn't have his money
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anymore.
Yeah, that's exactly right.
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And so keep going.
And since since with like it was common for like for like Roman like hire like governors and stuff
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to have the source sorcerers.
If if Paul and Barnabas were able to get him to convert, then it's like now, then what will he do
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all?
Right.
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So I want to sit on that this for a minute because I sometimes we need to be able to identify our
terms.
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You're using the word sorcerer.
And I and, and I get it because that's how the Bible describes it, right?
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But sometimes, to our modern ears, what do we think of when we think of sorcerer?
Like magic and stuff like.
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OK, now what do you what do you think the Bible means when it says sorcerer?
Like a magician or.
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OK, that's part of it, but I want you to know and everybody who's listening at home, there's much
more to it than just like doing magic, like dark arts and witchcraft and that kind of things.
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Those things encompass this term.
However, a sorcerer is a is a title that covers a wide range of topic.
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Now the the word here, Noah is the word, it's called Magos, a magician.
OK, And it's also where we get the word wise men.
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Do you remember the the three wise men that came to see Jesus?
They were called the same term.
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They were wise men.
So often times I don't want us to think like, oh, Sergius Paulus just had a sorcerer that he could
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say, hey, cast a spell on them.
No, these wise men were were employed often by Roman officials and governments to to advise.
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They were in advisory role and they could, they had special abilities that other people didn't.
And let me give you an example.
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Through mathematics, through astronomy, they could look at the stars, They could say, hey, this is
an omen.
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Or they could go and they could say, hey, interpret this event.
There was an earthquake.
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Tell me what happened.
Did we not appease the gods?
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And the wise men would speak right now.
They would do some silly stuff, don't get me wrong.
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But there's there's, there's good and bad.
I'm not talking like Harry Potter stuff here.
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Good sorcerer's, bad white magic, black magic, that kind of stuff.
No, no, no, no.
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Daniel in the Bible is actually a wise man as well.
And his and Joe, what about Joseph in the Bible?
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Joseph was considered a wise man.
If you remember, Joseph was brought up because he interpreted a dream.
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God gave him the wisdom in that moment to be able to do it.
So this though, now when the Bible translated, because you might say, well, then why doesn't it
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translate it wise man?
Well, it depends.
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The context is what determines the word.
So we had sorcerer should evoke to us a negative connotation.
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And that is certainly the sense here because notice that they tack on he's a sorcerer and he's a
false prophet.
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Now he is opposing, as we said earlier, the Gospel, right?
Here's what we can extract out of this.
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Not everybody is neutral to the gospel, just like, and yeah, yeah, whatever.
Some people will oppose it because they don't want to lose their power, their influence, or their
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wealth.
And so we need discernment as believers, followers of Jesus, to be able to spot spiritual deception
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because there's people that are just flat out ignorant.
Just let me live my life, whatever.
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We're not talking about that.
We're talking about a deep rooted spiritual deception.
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And I've got to tell you, it might not concern you a whole lot, Noah, because you're under my roof,
but there's a whole lot of spiritual deception going on in the world today under the guise, under
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the pretense of Christianity.
It's running rampant in the world today.
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Do you have any other thoughts or questions on any on this sorcerer?
Would Cornelius have been high up enough in like the Roman world to have a like someone like Bar
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Jesus?
No, Sergius Paulus is a, if you take Cornelius, remember how much we took the time to really flesh
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out like, who was this man?
His authority and his wealth, Right?
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Yeah, if I was to take Sergius Paulus, he's at a whole other level, much higher.
We're not even in the same stratosphere.
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That gives you the idea this, this guy right here, I might be able to talk about in a Bible study.
If not, we'll talk about it tomorrow.
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He had, it's believed.
We cannot.
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Again, I'm saying I cannot prove this, but I have all the receipts from the different commentaries.
They have been archaeological digs in another Antioch.
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There's another Antioch, Antioch where they were sent from, and then a place called Poseidon
Antioch.
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And there at there are archaeological digs and inscriptions to to this family, Sergius Paulus, that
they owned vast real estate up in the high mountains of Poseidon, Antioch, because that's where
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Paul's going to go next.
And it's believed that after this incident here on the island of Cyprus, that he actually says, Hey,
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I got a place over in Poseidon, Antioch.
Why don't you go?
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Not only that he had real estate, he owned real estate in Rome.
And it's believed that one of the first house churches actually started in one of his homes in Rome,
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Sergius Paulus.
So this guy, he's big time.
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He's big time.
Anything else out of there?
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Oh, no.
All right, go ahead and read for us verses 9 through 11.
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Then Saul, who is also called Paul, filled with filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intensely at him
and said, O full of all deceit and all fraud, ye son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness,
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will you not cease perverting the straight, straight ways of the Lord?
And now indeed the hand, the Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a
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time.
And immediately a dark mist fell on him and he went around seeking someone deleted him by the hand.
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Boy, that'll preach right there.
Right?
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You son of the devil.
Yeah.
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Quit perverting the straight ways of the Lord, man.
All right?
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I'm praising the Lord a little bit, Noah.
You know why?
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Why?
Because from this point on, this is the first time that Saul is called Paul.
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Why do you think that that's significant?
I know it's important, but I don't.
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I don't specifically know why.
OK, well, Saul is his Hebrew name, Paul is his Roman name.
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Now from here on out, Luke is going to refer and call him Paul because the of his mission, his
mission is to go into the Gentile world.
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And so this this right here, whether we realize it or not in verse 9, it marks a major shift also in
leadership.
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Paul now takes center stage, led by the Spirit.
We see Barnabas and Saul, Barnabas and Saul.
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Now it's going to be Paul and Barnabas.
There's a shift in the leadership.
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Paul takes, takes charge.
He's led by the Spirit, and he has a confrontation with the sorcerer, and look how bold he is.
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Here's the thing that we need to get out of this, OK, there is a time, Noah, that we should be
agreeable, that we should be gentle.
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And then there are also times that we need to call out evil.
Paul here, There's no question about it.
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These words are strong.
But the Bible says that he is filled with the Spirit.
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He rebukes the sorcerer and he declares God's judgment.
And what is the judgment?
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It's blindness right?
Now.
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What's the irony here?
The irony is, Paul himself had once been blind, wasn't he?
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Now, maybe this judgement isn't judgement for the sake of judgement, but judgement with a chance for
repentance and reconciliation.
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Perhaps Paul is hoping that what happened to him might happen to this guy.
We also have what we call in here Noah.
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We won't get into it.
There are biblical echoes and illusions of Elisha, the prophet who did the exact same thing.
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And So what do you think it meant when Paul tells him you're perverting the straight ways of the
Lord?
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Well, when he says I can't come up with a reason.
OK, what he's saying, in other words, is you're twisting the truth.
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You're you're you're taking this truth and you're twisting it.
You're manipulating it.
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And Paul didn't hold back here.
He called him what he was, a son of the devil.
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And we don't play games with spiritual deception.
What we are called to do is shine a light on it.
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All right, read #12 this is the last verse.
Then, then the proconsul believed when he had, when he had saw what had been done, being a starter,
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that the teaching of the Lord.
OK, very important here.
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Why do you think Sergius Paulus believed what surprised him?
Because he saw, I think he could tell that Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit and then all of a
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sudden, like his, like his wise men, is just as like blind all of a sudden.
OK, that's part of it, but let's not leave off the second part of the verse.
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What's the end when it when we say he's surprised?
What word does the Bible use in verse 12?
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Verse Wait.
In in verse 12, it says he believed when he saw what had been done.
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But here's what really surprises him.
What is it I?
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Have to teach you the Lord.
One of Luke's favorite words is being employed here, Noah, and this word is astonished.
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It's translated in different ways, amazed.
It's like jaw dropped.
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Now, the idea here is that it wasn't just the miracle.
See, we can think like, oh, wow, you've got some power, Paul.
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You just made him go blind.
But look how Luke takes this and shifts it.
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It wasn't just the miracle.
It was what?
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The judgement.
No.
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What does it say?
He's astonished.
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Oh, the teaching.
Exactly the teaching of the Lord is what astonished him.
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You've got to appreciate this.
This is huge.
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He was amazed by the truth that is presented to him.
And so Paul's not just confronting A sorcerer.
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He is presenting the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And that is what changed the governor's life.
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It wasn't just witnessing the miracle.
This is important because God's Word, when it is preached in the power of the Holy Spirit, it will
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cut through darkness, it'll cut through deception, and it'll cut right through pride.
And it doesn't matter again, if you are rich, poor, Roman, Jewish, the gospel reaches every single
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heart that is willing to listen that has a hunger.
Now I'm going to take it back up to the very first part of the verse.
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Verse #7 what does it say that Sergius Paulus is?
What does it call him An.
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Intelligent man.
It says he's intelligent, like you're a smart guy.
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Why read the rest of the verse?
This man called for Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God.
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Keyword, he sought, he sought, he was seeking after, he was wishing, he was hoping to hear the word
of God and then notice the result.
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He is astonished.
Let's close it up here with the last verse because this is the beauty this narrative Noah is framed.
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He is astonished at the teaching of who?
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The Lord.
The Lord very important.
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You see, he was not impressed by Paul's, Paul's orator skills like oh, you sound good.
You alliterated all your points, you know, because sometimes people will mistake charisma and the
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ability to speak with credibility of the message.
You know, it's, it's that the Bible doesn't work that way.
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This is the teaching not of man, but of the Lord, regardless of of the presentation.
It's not like Paul went in with some Polish sermon, right?
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It was, it was, it was just the Holy Spirit leading him.
Exactly.
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Exactly.
So what do you take from this section of Scripture, Noah?
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That that that the Holy Spirit works in different ways and in terms of leading them and then and
then speaking through them in order to convert Sergius Paulus.
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Absolutely, Absolutely.
Who was it exactly that brought them to the island?
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The Holy Spirit.
It was the Holy Spirit, so we would say this mission was spirit LED.
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The opposition that they received was real and spiritual.
In other words, it was a real person, but there's a spiritual entity behind it.
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But when you prioritize God's Word, the gospel, the teaching of God's Word, right, Which is what
we're doing right now, no.
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And what we do at Bible study and what we do on Sundays, when that is prioritized, the Word of God
is powerful and it is unstoppable.
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And there are still today people who are intelligent, just like Sergius Paulus that seek to hear the
teaching of the Lord.
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And so we also see the kind of put a bow on this, whether you're sent, whether you are serving,
whether you are supporting, like John Mark as the assistant, everybody is part of the mission.
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And the same Holy Spirit that led Paul and Barnabas, he wants to lead us, you and me, right where
we're at right now, right here.
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And so do you have any last thoughts or any questions before we wrap up?
I don't.
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All right, well, that's it for today.
I want to thank you for joining us, friends.
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And Noah and I are going to do a mega episode.
I can see excitement all over your face, Noah.
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We're going to do a mega episode from 13 probably to.
Well, let's look before we close 13 down to. 41. 41 we're going to try to do a mega episode, yes, at
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least down to 41 tomorrow, boy, and then we're going to have to get that this is a big chapter.
This is a big chapter.
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The one after 42 to 42 to 52 won't be that bad.
Yeah, All right.
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Well, from Noah and myself, grace and peace to you.
We will see you next time right here on the ALPA Store podcast.
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Thank you for listening to ALPA Store with Brian Overturf.
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