I know almost nothing about sports. But I do know that, in sports, the phrase “leaving it all on the field” means giving everything, holding nothing back, having zero left when the game ends. Take the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid for example. The U.S. hockey team faced the Soviet Union, a powerhouse that had dominated the sport for decades. This wasn’t just a game; it was played during the height of the Cold War, when tension between the two nations was intense. The Soviets were expected to win easily. But the young American team fought with relentless energy and heart. Every shift, every shot, every block—they gave everything they had. When the final buzzer sounded, the scoreboard read 4–3. The “Miracle on Ice” wasn’t just a victory; it was proof of what happens when a team leaves it all on the field—although in this case they left it all in the rink!

The reason we’ve spent so much time in Acts 26 is that Paul’s testimony, imprisoned for the last two years and now standing in chains before the most powerful and dazzling people in the land, pleading not for his own freedom and safety, but for their liberty and salvation, is one of the best images you’ll ever see of a Christian witness leaving it all on the field for glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and the souls of sinners.

What we want to do today is boil the last few verses of this chapter down into one sentence, made up of six phrases