And I'm assuming I heard a lot of people were gonna be
traveling for
The fourth of July the 248 grace greater than our sin
Grace greater than our sin on the first
Marvelous grace of our
Brace that exceeds our sin and our guilt Yonder on Calvary's mount outpoured
There where the blood of the lamb was spilt
What can avail to wash it?
grace freely bestowed on all who believe all who are longing to
Oh, yeah, that's one right there.
All right, today is July the 2nd.
Tomorrow we have some birthdays coming up,
but on the left we have our service time,
Sunday morning, 10.30 a.m., Sunday evening, 4.30,
and then our Wednesday service is at 5.30.
Our sole winning time is Sunday at 2 p.m.,
and then our memory,
verse for the memory chapter Psalm 23 verse 5, thou preparest the table before me in the
presence of my enemies, thou anointest my head with oil, my cup, runneth over."
That's a good verse.
And year to date, we have 150 souls won.
I don't know if we've updated that on the Canva, but let's make sure we do.
We got two more on Sunday.
I'm going to set a goal to at least make, do that or double.
So we get, and we do that, we'll be at 300.
We double, we'll be at 450.
So maybe 500 should be the goal for the rest of the year.
That'd be great.
And we do have some plans for that.
We're not just going to continue to say what we're doing,
but we're actually going to put out some soul in events
once a month for the rest of the year.
So it's going to be a pretty busy end of the year.
So just a plan on that.
And then July happenings, we have all the birthdays coming up.
The nearest one is Trey Frujet.
His birthday's coming up on the third,
and then Boas will be on the seventh, and so forth.
We have all the rest of the birthdays there.
Remind me, we need to put them in the order,
but oh, that's right, we already fixed it.
And then we have the anniversaries there.
We have three anniversaries, so what a blessing for that.
Also, I did forget to mention,
just keep praying for Cynthia and Joshua
I know that it's going to take a while to see them back in church, but you know, just
if you remember, reach out or if they need anything, let's all just keep them in mind.
And then we had a good fifth Sunday dinner. We actually had a really good turnout. We had a good
time. And then I'm coming up with steadfast. We have the men's retreat August 14th through 16th.
So if any of the men want to join, let me know. Steadfast was gracious enough to invite us.
like sports and entertainment and then preaching some hard men preaching there and then
to
Continue that trend then there's the fire breathing Baptist Fellowship
If that name doesn't indicate
what that is, I don't know what else to do for you.
But if you're interested in that as well, let me know
and we will work that out with you,
whether we need to help you with some accommodations
or driving or whatnot.
Then the prayer request on the back, we will update this,
but I did get a text from Mary Bostic
and she said that, oh yeah.
This was yesterday at 10 a.m.
She said good morning Enrique. Dad has already been moved to Sony assisted living facility off of went road
I don't know if she meant West Road or Went Road. Is there a Went Road in Houston?
Can somebody look that up and just let me know or Sony SON I assisted living facility
And after discussing the health of the doctors they put him as hospice
And then Mary Bostic, sister Bostic will be there on the 7th of July, but it's interesting
that, you know, hospice has changed a lot.
I'm going to just take five minutes on this public service announcement.
When I was growing up, if you were in hospice, you were dying.
Like you weren't even conscious.
But if you read this, it says here that I can call Mary's number because they stole
her number.
Here's here so far. I mean, I'm glad this is the text. I just think it's funny
She's like dad's in hospice, but dad is loving the facility and his nurses are loving taking care of him as well
He's getting the best care there and and that's all that matters and we have time
She said go and stop by they love it there on the second floor in room number 10 room number 10
So we'll get that information out to everybody whoever wants to go visit them
I mean, I'm glad that he's in this, but that's like, that sounds like cool hospice, you know, he's having a fun time and they're taking care of them.
So it's way different than the way we grew up.
I remember whenever we got the news as kids, like, oh, you know, so and so is in hospice.
You were like, oh, they're only a couple of days from basically dying.
So I don't know what's changed, but it's not what we think, right?
Not my generation.
Other than that, if you'll turn your handles over to page 288, 288.
288 and then I'll have more come up with the lead us and the other one because I'm not that good at that one yet
Just yet to 88 like a river glorious. I love this one. You picked all what some of my favorites today to 87 like a river glorious
on the first
like a river
Glorious is God's perfect piece
Over all big tolls
As he promised perfect peace and rest Hidden in the hollow of his blessed hand
Never folk can follow Never traitors stand
the surge of worry, not a shade of care, not a blast of hurry, touch the spirit.
As He promised, perfect peace and rest.
Every joy or testing comes from God above, given to His
Must Him holy, find Him holy, true.
Stay...
we're gonna sing Psalm 150 all right and our white psalm binders
or psalm of binders psalm 150
psalm 150 and your white binders we're gonna sing it out there they're on the first
Thank you
in Dinstrum.
to get to the Bible reading. The chapter we're going to be in is Acts 25.
That is Acts chapter number 25.
We're going to start there in verse 1 where the Bible reads,
Now when Festus was come into the province, after three days he ascended from Caesarea to Jerusalem.
Then the high priest and the chief of the Jews informed him against Paul and besought him,
and desired favor against him that he would send for him to Jerusalem, laying in wait
the way to kill him. But Festus answered that Paul should be kept as Assyria,
and that he himself should depart shortly thither. Let them therefore said he,
which among you are able to go down with me and accuse this man, if there be any wickedness in him,
And when he had tarried among them more than ten days, he went down unto Caesarea, and the
next day, sitting on the judgment seat, commanded Paul to be brought.
And when he was come, the Jews which sat down from Jerusalem stood round about and laid many and grieved his complaints against Paul, which they could not prove.
While he answered for himself, neither against the law of the Jews, neither against the temple, nor yet against Caesar, have I offended anything at all.
But Festus, willing to do the Jews a pleasure, answered Paul and said,
I stand at Caesar's judgment seat, where I ought to be judged.
To the Jews, have I done no wrong, as thou very well knowest.
For if I be an offender, or have committed anything worthy of death, I refuse not to
die.
But if there be none of these things whereof these accuse me, no man may deliver me unto
them.
I appeal unto Caesar.
Then Festus, when he had conferred with the council, answered, Hast thou appealed unto
And after certain days, King of Rippa and Bernice came into Caesarea to salute Festus.
And when they had been there many days, Festus declared Paul's calls unto the king, saying,
There is a certain man left in bonds by Felix, about whom, when I was at Jerusalem, the chief
priest and the elders of the Jews informed me, desiring to have judgment against him.
So whom I answered, it is not the manner of the Romans to deliver any man to die.
before that which he is accused have the, before that he which is accused have the accuser
face to face and have a license to answer for himself according to the crime laid against him.
Therefore, when they were come hither, without any delay on the morrow, I sat at the judgment
seat and commanded the man to be brought forth.
Against whom, when the accuser stood up, they brought an unaccusation of such things as
I suppose, but had certain questions against him of their own superstition.
of one Jesus, which was dead whom Paul affirmed to be alive. And because I doubted of such
manner of questions, I asked him whether he would go to Jerusalem and there be judge of
these matters. But when Paul had appealed to be reserved unto the hearing of Augustus,
I commanded him to be kept till I might send him to Caesar. Then a ripa said unto Festus,
And on the morrow, when a grippa was come, and Bernice was with great pomp, and was entered into the place of hearing, with the chief captains and principal men of the city, at Festus commandment, Paul was brought forth, and Festus said, King of Grippa, and all men which are here present with us,
You see this man about whom all the multitude of the Jews have dealt with me, both at Jerusalem
and also here, crying that he ought not to live any longer.
But when I found that he had committed nothing worthy of death, and that he himself had appealed
to Augustus, I have determined to send him."
of whom I have no certain thing to write unto my Lord,
wherefore I have brought him forth before you,
and especially before thee, O King of Rippah,
that after examination,
had I might have somewhat to write,
for it seemeth to me unreasonable to send a prisoner,
and not with all to signify the crimes laid against him."
Is that the court of prayer?
You're probably God. Thank you for the state. Thank you for bringing us all here to hear your word for each Lord.
I pray that you fill us in with your spirit and help us to receive the message with
with a glad heart Lord. And I pray that you feel Pastor Enrique with your Holy Spirit,
helping to preach a bold and accurate sermon in Jesus' name. I pray amen. Amen. Amen.
All right, we're there in Acts 25. Acts 25.
And today's has been one of those days feels like lately every Wednesday's been one of those Wednesdays
Sometimes you just ebb and flow of business, you know, I've been for a little ebb and flow of life
It may be that we are on the verge of a
major breakthrough
We're there in acts 25 and before we we get deep into acts 25 go back to acts 19
So there's a couple of things that
That I wanted to change up for today's sermon. So even though we're going verse by verse I
Am gonna kind of make it a topical
Sermon the title my sermon today is acts 25
Religious men pleasers religious men pleasers and the reason that I'm switching a little bit
It's not
To get away from going through it verse by verse, which we are going to do but specifically
Because there's a theme that we've been on and of course, I mean there's nothing wrong with being repetitious
But I think I've made that point since acts 19, which is Paul is just being imprisoned
And falsely accused and people are lying and wait
but one of the things that we see also is
That all of these guys are after him that hate the Lord Jesus Christ do two things and we talked about flattery last week
But also we talked about being a man pleaser or a man pleaser and the Bible actually warns us clearly about that
So today we're gonna really focus on that
section or that part of Scripture in Acts 25
where these these guys that are basically
You have two groups of people. You have the Jews, which I touched on the last couple weeks. They hate the Lord Jesus Christ and
They hate anybody that that loves the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus even told us himself in the Bible
That if they hate me if they hate me or they hate you, it's not us
They hate but who the Lord Jesus Christ? That's number one, but the number two you have these individuals who are not necessarily
saved
They're also not reprobate
But that'll teach you something about the world and this is why it's so important to get people saved
First of all, even getting people saved doesn't guarantee this
But at least you have a stand a stronger chance meaning all these dignitaries they're politicians and
they've realized at this point that Paul is
Innocent of all these accusations and they're basically trying to find a way
to free Paul, and they don't have the guts or the gall, or actually even the manhood
to just free him, even though they're the ones in authority.
Why?
Because they want to please the Jews and all the politicians around about, and the people.
You know, one of the things that's really dangerous about our country is that people
have a wrong understanding of our government.
And as such, it's really important because the United States is unique in the sense that
a republic is run by a group of individuals that were elected into office, but the leadership
stands with the elected officials.
But, we are actually running a more like a true democracy, whereas the people rule,
and those that are in leadership don't really have a say, but they're just basically puppets
for the majority.
And let me just tell you something, even in a church environment, the majority will probably
always be wrong.
Because everybody just kind of goes along to get along that's why Jesus was so hated as a matter of fact even at the end
The 12 apostles were scattered when Jesus was taken up to be crucified because the majority
If you're in a majority consensus, usually you're not standing strong on your own
Like it's better to have your own belief
In the Lord Jesus Christ and the things that you're learning then just go along to get along because the minute that you're challenged
You're probably gonna cave and that's why most
churches, most religions, most faiths, have these, I guess,
milli-mouth, watered-down congregations, because the people are just going along to get along,
and the minute that they're challenged on anything doctrinally hard, they're thrown for loop.
Number one, the people aren't going to church not only to be edified, but also to just check the pastor,
make sure that he's actually doing the same study and the same work that they're doing at home.
You know, it used to be you go to church and the congregation was reading their Bible day
and night and they were doing the work and doing so many and the expectation was the
pastor was leading and should do the same thing.
And so you have this like equality of minds.
But now most people are going to church and I'm not talking about our church, I'm just
talking to churches in general.
And if it happens in our church and you're, and this is kind of pricking at you, maybe
you know, satisfy the itching ear, but they're not reading their Bibles, you know, they're getting
some Facebook, email, notification, WhatsApp group, something, you know, you're devotional of the day,
you know, Jesus loves you and loves everybody. Aren't we all children of God and no verses to
He pats you on the back and says, good job, Johnny.
Who cares that you're out living in sin and defilement and all kinds of stuff.
And that's where we get these religious men pleasers because you get people like Ted
Cruz a couple of weeks ago where he's like, well, you know, my entire political career
is based on the fact that in Sunday school was taught that if you bless Israel, you know,
you're going to be blessed.
And if you curse Israel, you're going to be cursed, except the verse that he's referring
Come on Ted, you got to do better than that brother and then when they asked them hey
Can you point us to chapter and verse in the Bible? He's like well, I don't have it off the top of my head
You know just Google it
Wait a minute. What's going on here? I thought we were talking like you you're dogmatic about this thing
I think you would know like if somebody asks me hey, how do you?
Anything and I mean I usually just like you know what I know it
Let me look it up in the Bible
Let me get it back to you if I'm not that verse on it
But if somebody just asked me like for example my salvation, I mean I'm just gonna give you verse after verse, right?
for all have sin and come short of the glory of God, for there's not one righteous, no not one,
you know, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begun son,
you know, we love John 1 12, but as many as receive them to them, gave him power to become
the sons of God, even to them to believe on his name. Like, and I'm not trying to quote this like
to brag, there's people who know way more verse, I'm just saying, I'm confident I can give you
chapter verses to what we believe. I'm not going to just be like, Oh, somebody comes and challenges my
salvation view I'm not going to be like shattered or trembled or shake and be like oh no what do I do
right because I'm reading my Bible I'm getting my doctrine from the Bible
sure I listen to other men of God sure you know I'll bounce ideas off of pastor cob or other church
church members but at the end of the day what I'm looking for is confirmation in the word of God
right and that's what we need to be doing and you know what that allows us to do also is that it
You know I've been accused of a lot of things even being a man-pleaser, but one thing. I'm not is a man-pleaser. I may be too nice
I may be too
Blunt sometimes. I'm a little bit hyperactive. I'm a little bit distracted
Sometimes there's a lot of things, but I'm not a man-pleaser in the sense that when it comes to the Bible
We're gonna do what the Bible says
Period and the story and so let's go there to Acts 19 and I just want to show you something here really interesting
Uh, before we go too deep into it, this is not a very long, uh, uh, sermon, uh, I don't think I say that.
And then we were two hours in, but one of the things that I've seen and I, I've mentioned it lightly, but I haven't given you chapter
in verse and the whole purpose of you coming to church is to get chapter in verse.
And I've been saying for the last couple of weeks that they're basically playing hot potato with Paul.
And if we go back to X 19 and we're there in verse 21,
It says, Incern of the Chief of Asia, which were his friends, sent unto him,
designing that he would not adventure himself into the theater.
And what's going on here is that there's an uproar at Ephesus.
Basically, everywhere that Paul is going, there's either one of two things happening.
There's like an uproar and like a...
like basically a riot or people are planning to kill him or do something to him.
That's why he ends up actually in the hands of the authority.
The authorities are just actually trying to remove Paul because they can't find fault in him,
but the Jews are so set on killing him that they're having to play this this balance game.
And now we don't have time to go through all of it, but basically in Acts 19, he wasn't
physically seized, at least not yet, but the rioters, they stirred up Demetrius, they almost
got violent, the town clerk comes in and he indirectly protects Paul.
Remember that?
Then we would go to Acts 21, just a few chapters over, and we see like seven examples of this.
And if I'm wrong, you guys can correct me.
But we have four times where Paul was rescued, right?
Or protected.
And then three times where he's officially
transferred to a higher authority.
And then seven unique instances of like this handoff,
or rescue, or comalt, or uproar, right?
And X-21, you know, in verses 30 through 36.
He's seized by the Jews and he's basically saved by the Romans, right?
In Acts 21 verse 32, he says he ran down unto them, speaking of Claudius Lysus, and it says,
and when they saw the chief captain of the soldier, they left beating of Paul.
So he's rescued by the Roman military.
mean these guys were like this is not just like some random fit of rage right
some some brawl at a bar where you know two guys got mad at each other for
something stupid because they're drunk these guys man they're plotting and
they're following Paul everywhere he goes and they're getting the word out and
they're like Paul is ruining our religion and we need to kill them all
right you go over to acts 22
And right there versus 24 through 29, like I said, we're not going to go through the verses, but right here
He's about to be scourged and again
The Roman citizenship stops it right in verse 20 S is then straight away. They depart it from him
Which should have
Examined him and let's go there verse 22 because I think I cut cut my verse off here a little bit, but you know we can
we can go here and I'm in verse 29 says in straight away they departed from him which should have
examined him and the chief captain will also was afraid after he knew that he was a Roman
and because he had bound him but why was he bound because basically the Jews are trying
to kill him and they're trying to basically keep keep him away they're trying to cover their their
It says, and when there arose a great dissension, the chief captain fearingless Paul should
have been pulled in pieces of them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him by force
from among them and to bring him into the castle.
And remember why do they threatening him because Paul got a got smart, but he kind of overplayed his hand remember
He's like hey
We believe in the resurrection and you don't and what do they do they started fighting him right those guys that believe in the
Resurrection they're like hey, we're gonna save you and those that didn't they're like no
We're gonna take you and kill you and then they were playing basically tug-of-war with Paul
It's kind of insane. Then you go to Acts 23 verse 12 through 24, but let's just go to verse 24
it says and
And then right here at verse 24, it's at the end
We see that he well verse 23 says and he called unto him two centurions saying make ready
200 soldiers to go to Ciceroa and horsemen three score and ten and spread
200 at the third hour of the night and provide them beasts that they made set Paul on and bring him safe
To unto Felix the governor. So now he's being moved because there was a plot of
40 Jews who said they weren't gonna eat or drink anything. They were gonna fast until they what?
killed Paul
I mean, this is like this is why I said, you know, I've got to make it a little bit topical because it's just the same theme
It's just it's gonna continue right acts 24
Versus 1 through 7, you know, now he's he's being held by 27
Sorry, he's being held by Governor Felix and right there at verse 27
It says but after two years porches festus came into Felix room and Felix willing to show the Jews of pleasure
Left Paul bound. There's that men pleasing, right?
He wanted to let him go, but the Jews were too strong
And so he's like let me not let him go and then we have two more instances Ray
And we're gonna see those here, so I'm gonna go through them quickly because we're gonna review them, but an axe 25
Basically verse 12 we're gonna see that again
Where he's tried again before Festus and then in 20 at the end of Acts they're gonna bring him before who King Agrippa?
Which we'll talk about here shortly, but basically in Acts 21 1921 22
23 and in between
Four times he's protected by the leadership because the Jews are gonna kill him or hurt him or maim him
Three times he's officially moved from higher authority from Jerusalem to see Saria under Felix then Festus
Then he appeals to Caesar, which is where he ends up in Rome
Right, then we have a total major like a total of majority major authority handoffs or rescues is seven unique instances
And then an additional audience but not a transfer
with King Agrippa 25 before he's transferred right so
This is a major theme in the book of Acts, right?
We need to know that people,
we're just gonna be bounced around in our faith.
But what does that look like today?
Well, right now, there's no active persecution
where you're being thrown in jail
and then taken to the local judge
and then from the local to the state judge
to maybe the federal judge
and maybe even before the president.
That's just not happening in the States.
But the way that it happens is it happens
in the groups of friends that you associate with,
the church members that you have,
the social media groups that you're associated with.
I see it all the time.
You know guys that liked one set of pastors or another set of pastors are now like these guys are bad guys
It'd be better for them to step down. It'd be better for them if they weren't preaching the word
They're bad guys. All they care about is soul winning all they care about is the gospel all the you know weird stuff
But there's never any accusation. We're gonna see that actually in 25. I highlighted where do they basically they're like hey
We can't we can't bring a real accusation. So we're just gonna make up
accusations based on our superstitions. You go there to Acts 25 and go to verse 1.
The first point I have for you today is that religious zealots that are not saved, you know,
those that are not saved, they want blood. And the Bible talks a lot about that. If you read the
And that is actually true, and I think people would be wise to take the Bible more literally in that respect in the sense that
When we look out in the world today because it's not like in the times of the Romans where people just take you out and stone you
people don't think that people are
aggressive, but
I'm telling you what if today
President Trump
Set up a nuclear bomb
To the enemies of Israel a lot of Christians would probably rejoice
They want blood and and I mean I'm being extreme, but also if all of a sudden
You know just these religious sellets got got going and they got some power
They would have no problem executing independent fundamental Baptist new independent fundamental bad at people that believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
I mean that's been history 101
I mean, that's why it's called the grade inquisition.
You know, bloody Mary, like, well, who are they going after?
People like you and me.
That's been around. I mean, they want blood. It's a real thing today
There is a group of people out there in the world and it's not as small as we think
They're not as large as we think either but they're out there for blood and if they could have their way
They would destroy those that believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. They get rid of the Bible. They get rid of you know
They get rid of God in their mind. They hate the Lord so much
They just destroy everything.
We see this right there in verse one, it says,
Now, when Festus was coming to the province,
after three days he ascended from Caesarea to Jerusalem,
then the high priest and the chief of the Jews
informed him against Paul and besought.
And here's that men pleasing and desired favor against him
that he would send him,
send for him to Jerusalem, lane wait.
In the way to kill him but Festus answered that Paul should be kept at Caesarea and that he himself would depart shortly thither
Let them there let them therefore said he which among you were are able go down with me and
Accused this man if there be any wickedness in him now Festus is putting his foot down. They are authoritarian. They're just not full authoritarian
Right, you can have that you can have people that are authoritarian, but they're just not willing to go the extra mile
And that's kind of what Festus is here. Festus is that, you know, he's not going to let him go to get killed, but he's also not going to let him go.
Right? You don't have to turn their goal over to Psalm 37, but in Matthew 26 verse 59, the Bible says now the chief priest and the elders and all the council
sought false witness against Jesus to put him to death. I mean, this is, there's no new thing under the sun.
Right and Paul's kind of almost like a you know
We have a lot of foreshadows of Jesus, but we kind of have an aftershadow of Jesus and what I mean by that Paul really
Exemplifies the example that Jesus left behind which is you leave it all on the table for the cause of Christ
Right obviously Jesus left at all by shedding his blood for us, but Paul Paul was willing to lose everything
John 16 verse 2 said they shall put you out of the synagogues, yea, the time cometh that
whatsoever, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God's service.
And I know we've repeated some of these, but it's worth repeating.
I mean, this is a major theme in the Bible.
Look, in the end time, the Bible gives us clear indication that there's going to be a resurgence
of soul winning.
We know this because the Bible says that the gospel was preached throughout the whole world,
and then the end.
But with that will come another type of axe, actually worse, because we've never seen anything
like it, where this persecution is going to be crazy.
Guys, we're not that far.
And I honestly think it's not going to come the way people think.
You know, the cartels have been beheading people for a long time.
I could see the US government using the cartels and cleaning their hands of it.
Think they are constantly doing that. I literally saw not a beheading video
But I saw a video where they're interviewing these two guys that they caught and they're like hey
Give us your names and your rank for the the opposing cartel
And then the video goes on to tell you that shortly after that they basically beheaded those guys and hung them up
This is like a regular occurrence in Mexico. There's mountains where people don't even go to clean up where there's just dead bodies without a head
So beheading is still a popular thing in 2025.
Maybe not in America, but in other places in the world, it's still going on.
Go to Psalm 37. Go to Psalm 37. The Bible says there in verse 30, it says,
That's great. Amen. But what do we see here? The wicked watcheth the righteous and seeketh to slay him.
says the Lord will not leave him in his hand nor condemn him when he is judged wait on the Lord and keep his way
And he shall exalt thee to inherit the land when the wicked are cut off thou shall see it
I have seen the wicked in great power and spreading himself like a green Baytree yet
He passed away and though he was not yeah, I sought him, but he could not be found
Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace
but the transgressor shall be destroyed together. The end of the wicked shall be cut off,
but the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord. He is their strength in the time of trouble,
and the Lord shall help them and deliver them. He shall deliver them from the wicked
and save them because they trust in Him." Look, it's not our duty to worry about that. It's our
duty to just trust the Lord. If you look at Paul, Paul's just like laser focused. He's got blinders.
And they're like, we're gonna kill Paul. We're coming after you. And he's just like, I'm just gonna keep preaching
Let the Lord handle the rest
Paul's not a great doesn't have a great army. Paul is not like some
UFC MMA fighter. He's just a guy preaching the gospel getting beat up just about once a week
You know at this point, he's probably used to it and then just going before dignitaries preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ
Why well that leads me to point number two
Because it was easy to solve and prove that Paul was not being a, there was not a, what
falls, there was not a guilty of the accusations, but what is it?
Politicians love to please people, right?
They don't, they don't ever pursue the truth.
Who's ever been to a political rally?
I've been a plenty.
I can, if nobody wants to raise their hand, I'll raise my hand.
And the one thing that you'll always see is two things.
We're talking about this at lunch is two things.
Number one, they'll tell you how great they are
about everything.
They'll tell you their platform.
And usually the platform is a list of all the things
they know the majority of the people like, right?
So if it's Republicans, they're like, oh, I'm pro-life.
Woo-hoo, you know, I'm pro-this.
You know, everybody's screaming.
And then when they get a tough question,
they'll never answer the question.
You'll get like a hardcore pro-life guy.
When I'm talking about that, it's like, let's say this room was filled with 100 people.
They're all Republicans and they're all pro-life.
But in that 100 people and the pro-lifers, most of them are probably like middle of the
road pro-life, meaning they're okay if you kill the baby in the first trimester.
They're still pro-life, but they're just not sure if the baby's a baby three months in.
Which is stupid right so you'll get that like the one guy a good and new new independent fundamental Baptist gets up there
I mean like hey, but isn't live started at at conception
right and
The politician will most likely answer something like this. He's like, you know, that's a great question
Thank you for that question, you know, it's I'm running on this platform and I just want to tell you that
What I am for is pro-life and you know because I'm pro-life and you vote for me
You know that you have someone who represents you there to pro-life
You know he didn't answer the question. He just basically pleased the entire group, right?
That's what politicians do
You just got to be really careful with them and we see here they love to please people you go to verse 6
It says and when he had tarried among them more than 10 days
He went down onto cesarean and the next day sitting on the judgments
He commanded Paul to be brought and when he was come the juice which came down
from Jerusalem stood round about and laid many grievous complaints against Paul, which they could
not prove. They're like, hey, we can't prove this, but we're just going to say it anyways.
I love verse 8, it says, while he answered it for himself, neither against the law of the Jews,
neither against the temple, nor against Caesar, have I offended anything at all. Hey, just because
someone falls to the accuser, and you know, it doesn't mean you can't defend yourself. He's like,
But Festus willing to do the Jews a pleasure answered Paul and said will thou go up to Jerusalem and there be judged of these things before me
And we see again. We see all this weird stuff go over to Luke 23 because we're gonna be there for just a little bit
These are my main main points the rest of them
We're just gonna cover quickly because we're setting up the stage for chapter 26. This is the meat of acts 25, but
In Proverbs 29, verse 25, the Bible says,
the fear of man bringeth the snare,
but whoso puteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe."
You got that? The fear of man bringeth the snare.
You know, the only ones that are suffering in this entire 19th through 20th
are the politicians because they're setting themselves up for failure.
And you know the failure that they set themselves up for.
You know what's the worst snare that you could fall into,
You know, I'd rather be duped all my life on this earth knowing that I'm going to heaven than to be duped on this earth and
Never know that I'm going to hell and then wake up there one day
The greatest thing that we have going for us is that we're saved by grace
You know what as I was thinking about it today has been just one of the roughest days of 2025 for me
It's just been rough. I mean literally in my business. We've lost thousands of dollars just on stuff that happened
And I mean, I just, I was, I was like really frustrated coming in here and I'm like, I don't even know how I'm going to preach.
You know, I'm just like, I'm angry and I'm frustrated and I'm like, Lord, at every turn, my wife called me, it turns out maybe the car might need to, you know, we might need to change something in the car.
It's just, you know how it just, like sometimes it just comes and waves, right?
And then I thought to myself as I'm reading this, Paul, just pursue, you read the Bible and you're like, you know what God's telling you to do?
Just focus.
Just take care of the things that you need to take care of just preach the word just trust on the Lord
Just forget the fact that anything's going on and right there the fear of man bring at the snare
Look anything that all those things the reason and we start to worry is because I'm like am I gonna have enough money to
Pay this or am I gonna be able to do that, but that's just that really is the fear of man
because you fear the people that might come after you
or they might look at you or you might be embarrassed
or it might hurt your ego.
But what does the Bible say?
But whoso puteth his trust in the Lord shall be saved.
You know why I love coming to church?
Because then it makes me overcome these things.
Even if I don't want to,
just by sheer nature of being here
and engaging the Holy Spirit,
there's no other option but to leave here in better spirits.
As a matter of fact,
everything that happened today, I'm over it.
I'm so excited about the next thing that's going to happen tomorrow.
I'm excited about what's going to come Sunday.
I'm not even exaggerating.
I'm not trying to be this health and wealth,
this prosperity preacher.
Like, I'm truly excited because this is the greatest time in history to preach the Word of God.
I'm excited about the fact that, you know, we're trying to start a Spanish ministry.
Some lady came in here.
She was hoping that we had Spanish services.
There's a lot of Hispanics out there that need the Word of God.
You know, there's people that around here that just are looking for a church.
They don't know how to find us because we're just not big enough.
So let's go out there and do the work and you know, the other thing is that it makes me want to preach harder because you know
Out there today, Springcrest Baptist Church members have real problems just like the ones that I face and you know where they are
They're not here
And then they come and they complain to themselves or to somebody else about life and you wonder why they're they're struggling
It's because you're not here. Yeah, I'm getting on to the congregation
I don't care if you fill up in the pews
But I do care that if you're complaining and you're struggling
Maybe you're missing out on the parts of God that he's told you to do forsake not the assembly of yourselves
You know meditate on the word of God day and night, you know come to the Lord in prayer
Confess your sins and he's faithful and righteous to forgive your sins, right?
All we got to do is just ask the Lord to forgive us
But people aren't doing that.
And then what they'll do though,
is they'll turn around and complain about whatever.
And then you wonder,
well, I haven't seen you in church in weeks.
I haven't seen you in church in months.
I haven't heard about you.
I haven't seen this.
And there's nobody in particular I'm thinking about.
I'm just thinking, that's church in America.
Isn't that?
Forget Springcrest.
If you want to remove the name Springcrest,
church in America is we're full of men pleasers,
but not God pleasers.
You got people and look and what ends up happening is what you're setting up a snare for yourself a trap
That you're not gonna be able to get out of go where did I have you go go to Luke right and we're there in verse one the Bible says
Is it is a hold on it might be Luke?
23 but
Let me just make sure I'm a little 23 this Luke 23 started with and the whole multitude
Okay, I just put the wrong number it says and the whole multitude of them arose and led him on to Pilate and they began
To accuse him saying we found this fellow perverting the nation and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar saying that he himself
Is Christ the king and Pilate asked him saying art thou the king of the Jews and he answered him and said thou sayest
Then said Pilate to the chief priests and to the people I find no fault in this man. So Pilate wasn't dumb
He just was scared, right?
He says, and they were the more fear saying he stirs up the people teaching through all jewelry
Beginning from Galilee to this place when Pilate heard of Galilee
He asked whether the man were a Galilean and as soon as he knew that he belonged on to Herod's jurisdiction
He sent him to Herod who he himself was also also was at Jerusalem at the time
And when he heard and when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceeding glad, for he was
desirous to see him of a long season because he had heard many things of him
and he hoped to have seen some miracle done by him.
Then he questioned him in many words, but he answered him nothing and the chief priests and the scribes too stood and vehemently
Accused him and haired with his men of war
Set him at naught and mocked him and arrayed him in gorgeous in a gorgeous robe and set him again to pilot and pay attention here in the same day
pilot
And Herod were made friends together, for they were at enmity between themselves.
You know where you get that old proverb?
The enemy is my friend from this exact part of Scripture.
Herod and Pilate were enemies, but they were like now we have a common enemy and from that point forward they became friends
They set up a snare for themselves go down to verse 20 says Pilate therefore
willing to release Jesus
Spake again to them. Hey, even though he made friends with Herod his conscious is like searing him to like
Let Jesus go
But they cried saying, crucify him, crucify him.
And he said unto them the third time, why?
What evil had he done?
I have found no cause of death in him.
I will therefore chastise him and let him go."
And they were instant, with loud voices,
requiring that he might be crucified.
And the voices of them and of the chief priests,
what, prevailed, and Pilate gave sentence
that it should be what as they required.
Go to Galatians one, go to Galatians one.
I mean, Pilate was, I mean, Pilate was not convinced.
Pilate knew the truth.
Jesus was of no accusation.
Jesus was perfect, but he couldn't let him go
because he was afraid of the people.
He was too much of a man pleaser.
The problem today is who cares about the politicians
and the governors and business owners?
The church has too many men pleasers.
You've got people behind the pulpit that aren't willing to stand on the Word of God
That aren't willing to tell the truth and they're not willing to say hey, this is wrong
You need to stop doing these things right in Galatians 1 verse 6 the Bible says I marvel
The year so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel
Which is not another
there be some that trouble you who would pervert the gospel of Christ.
But though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you,
then that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
And we said before, so say I now again,
if any man preach any other gospel unto you that ye have received,
let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men or God? Or do I seek to please men?
For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.
But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man,
for I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ."
Hey, we don't preach here just because we think it's cool. We preach because it's what God asks us to do.
As a matter of fact, most of the people, I mean, other than like Pastor Anderson who
said that he wanted to be a preacher to the young kid, I haven't heard of a lot of the
guys preaching that they wanted to preach as they were little.
If you would have asked me at age 15 if I wanted to become a preacher, I know because
I grew up in the Seventh-day Adventist Church and they were always trying to recruit people.
The last thing on my mind was to become a preacher.
As a matter of fact, if you were to ask me, what are you be doing at 45 years old when I was 15?
I'd be like probably flying around in my private jet because that was my goal was to be like some big old
Executive mongol or I mean mongol or no mogul mogul. Sorry got that one wrong, right?
But to be some executive mogul who had a conglomerate of just businesses all over the world
And the worst part is, I wasn't that off, because there's no better time to be a worldwide
executive than now.
Almost anybody who can build a proper business can build a worldwide business, because we're
digital now, right?
I can build a business and I can sell my business software.
Anywhere in the world I can have clients from anywhere in the world and and they'll buy it. So technically I am worldwide
You know, but I'm not like not like I thought what I was gonna be 15, right?
I mean when I was 15, sorry go over to acts 25 and let's go back to verse 10
Like I said, we'll go through these others really quickly, but there's a couple points that I do want to point out is right here
The one thing we see also another thing that we see in these in these chapters 19 through 25, and there's a lot more
Right, it's really hard to go through these verse by verse
In the future we'll come back and we'll preach from these chapters again because there's just so many things but
We see that Paul is really smart, right and Paul knows the laws of the land
Probably his background before he got saved gave him that and so he uses that to his vantage look
the Bible teaches us to be servant, I mean to be wisest serpents and gentle as doves, right?
I just had a conversation earlier with a young man who called me and he asked if I would marry
him and I said, that's not a problem. You know, if you want us to marry you, like that's not a
challenge. I said, but what's going on? Because he's coming to church, but he's not from here.
And he's like, well, the parents of the young lady have given me the blessing.
But they want me to get married through the preacher that's a friend of theirs
And they want us to go through like this eight-week thing
And I just don't agree with the preacher because he's not a hundred percent on salvation on stuff
I said look, I'll marry you. I'm not gonna marry you outside the authority of the parents number one
But number two if they give you the blessing
Run with it and get married. I said but but if you get pushed back
I was like, what's your ultimate goal like to get married or to be right?
Right because and by the way, maybe this is not gonna be a popular thing or people are gonna take the wrong way, but
When you get married now, that's your wife. You leave and cleave
You're gonna be able to lead that family the way you need to right and so the the wife the future wife agrees with the future husband
Then when it makes sense that it you should do it right under the eyes of God follow the parents or authority
And then when you leave then you can decide to join the church that you want to and serve God the way you want to
instead of just going out and just like trying to fight with the parents over something that how many of you can remember
The belief and the doctoral beliefs of the person that married you I guarantee you like 90 if we were to take a poll
It'd be like do you remember the person that married you?
Especially the older foot right now marriage is like this big deal where like it's a
Let me let me preface this marriage biblically is a big deal
but the world makes it a big deal isn't like they want this like
memorial and
They the big party and the mu movie and they want to pick the right preacher to do the ceremony
Right and all that stuff
But honestly most people back in the day like they just were like can we just get a minister and get married and then move on with our lives
They know how marriage was back in the day pastor
Am I wrong? Like, nobody made a big wedding. You were lucky if you had, you know, a little
thing afterwards and all that stuff. I remember my parents were like, oh yeah,
we got married in the courthouse. And then a few months later, we had a small reception.
And most of the friends that my parents grew up with, they were like, yeah,
well, yeah, that's how we got married. But you talk to people in my generation, they're like,
Right, and so I think that's the problem right instead of looking at what the Bible says people are just doing whatever they want
and the Bible says they'll be drinking and
Marrying and given to marriage and then the end right like you know as it was in the days of lot and the days of Noah, but I
Don't know how I got into that
But oh what I was trying to say is you know you got to be why so I told this young man
I said like look you got to be wise like a serpent and gentle as a dove
I was like pick your battles and do it the right way
If you really love this lady, then I would think the goal would be to get married so that you can lead her in Christ.
If she's willing to submit to you and you're willing to serve in the church, then you guys are going to do great things together.
But if your goal is to be right, well then it might not work out because you might not be ready, right?
Look, you can't always be right, but God will always make things right.
I mean, that's a big, and I hope that makes sense.
I didn't do that on purpose,
but I remember when I was gonna get married,
my wife and I, we almost eloped.
We almost did it outside of the purview of their parents.
And I'm so glad we did it
because we knew that that was not the right thing.
And it would have ruined our marriage
because she's always been really close to her family.
And it would have ruined her relationship
with her family to the point
where it probably would have affected our marriage.
but you know right now my family's not here you know where they are they're with my father-in-law
and all nine all other eight siblings and and husbands and wives having a gay old time and
in dallas texas i'm about to get on a bus and arrive at midnight because my family loves me
right my cut my brother-in-laws and my sister-in-laws and my brother-in-laws and sister-in-laws that
married into the family they all love me we have a great time but that's because we did it
as best as we could, right?
I'm not saying I'm 100%, right?
I'm not perfect, but we followed God's law.
We were submissive to the authorities in our life, right?
But we also maneuvered those waters
to the best of our ability.
And because the guy asked me, he's like,
why don't know how to know if my father-in-law,
like, what if he's a little hesitant,
but he gives me the okay.
I said, you know how my father-in-law said yes to me?
My father-in-law.
This is how you know you got to be smart and you got to listen to the godly counsel in your life
My father-in-law was woken up out of his sleep because he falls asleep at 8 o'clock. This is 15 years ago
We sat down on the sofa I'll never forget I mean I can still imagine it right now and I was like Teresa Steve
You know I want to get married with your what you're I mean with your daughter
I don't remember all the details, you know
Everything and my father was like this
You still try to wake up and he goes
He goes well, you're gonna do whatever you want anyways, so I'm going back to sleep
And he got up and he went back to his room and went to sleep and I was like, well, I guess that's a yes
I called my dad and I was like dad
I was asked for for Mary Sarah's hand in marriage and this is what my father-in-law said
He goes proposed tomorrow not next month and that's what I did. I proposed and then the rest is history like
I mean a yes is a yes, and I was telling these young guys like I don't know what kind of yes
You want parents aren't like the most excited to just let their daughters go all the time
I mean, it's a hard thing to let go of your baby, right?
So I just said look you just got to do things
But I at the end of the day I said the most important thing is it doesn't matter
I said it doesn't matter if I marry you doesn't matter
I said you got to do what God has instructed you right because we're all full of opinions, but the opinions don't matter
what matters, and actually that young man is listening, the final piece of advice is it doesn't
matter what I think, it doesn't matter what their parents think, it doesn't matter what your future
wife thinks, it doesn't matter what that preacher thinks that you think is wrong on salvation,
what matters is what God says. So you better take that thing up to God, you better study it out in
Right and isn't that how we need to lead our lives? I mean Paul doesn't rebel against the government
But he does use it to his advantage right there in verse 10
He says then said Paul I stand at Caesar's judgment seat where I ought to be judged to the Jews
Have I done no wrong as thou very well knowest for if I be offender or have committed anything worthy of death
I refuse not to die. He says hey, I'll die. I'll follow the law
But if there be none of these things where these accuse me, no man may deliver me unto them.
I appeal unto Caesar, then fastest, when ye had conferred with the counsel answered,
hast thou appealed unto Caesar, unto Caesar shall thou go."
And basically, you know, what is Paul saying? Hey, I'm not going to break the rules,
but I'm going to make you follow the rules. There's a set order, and if I'm going to be submissive,
I'm going to do my best to make sure you follow those rules.
We're not going to follow God's law, whatever laws are on the books, we're going to follow
them to my advantage.
That's great.
That's why we preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.
That's why when people want to accuse us of Cate's speech, we just go to any of our
sermons.
We're preaching the Bible.
Prove it, because they can't.
You go to Acts 22 verse 25, you don't have to go there for a second time, just stay in Acts 25.
But in Acts 22 it says, and they bound him with thongs, Paul said unto the centurion that stood by,
is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman and uncondemned?
This is his theme, right? In Acts 16 verse 37 it said, but Paul said unto them,
they have beaten us openly, uncondemned, beaten Romans and have cast us into prison.
Right? And it says, and now do they thrust us uprightly?
And I think I cut that verse off again, and sometimes,
but Paul said unto them,
they have beaten us openly,
un-condemned, being Romans,
and have cast us in a prison,
and now do they thrust us out privilege, nay, verily,
but let them come themselves and fetch us out.
Hey, we're not gonna go to them, let them come get us.
Philippians 1 12 says, but I would that you should understand brother the things which have happened unto me have fallen out rather
unto the furtherance of the gospel
Look use it to your advantage, but always do everything for what the furtherance of the gospel
Whether you're gonna get married
Or you're gonna just have to show up to church or you might have to get a different job
or move cities, whatever, do it for the furthest of the gospel.
You know, people move jobs.
I mean, people move cities for jobs.
Our neighborhood, the two neighbors in front have sold
because the people left for jobs.
But you know, it'd be great if people left for the church.
If they were in a city and they're like, you know what?
I need to go to Houston to Springcrest
because that's a good church.
You're one of the biggest cities in the country.
think of all the churches in the new FB the you know the pastors that I
associate with I think of all the churches we actually serve in the
largest region they have a church plan in Indiana which is close to Chicago but
it's not in Chicago we have a Houston zip code we're not like in tomball and
say we're in Houston we're not as sure going and we say we're in Houston we're
in Houston proper
Right? I mean literally we have access to two million people in the inner part of Houston according to the census and about
eight million in the surrounding areas. The harvest is great. We need to go out there and do the work.
Go back to Acts 25 and verse 13 the Bible says, and after certain days King Agrippa and
Bernice came unto Caesarea to salute Festus
And when they had been there many days fast as declared Paul's cause unto the king,
saying there's a certain man left in bonds by Felix.
About whom when I was at Jerusalem the chief priest and the elders of the Jews informed me desiring to have
Judgment against him to whom I answered it is not the manner of the Romans to deliver any man to die
Before that he which is accused have the accusers face-to-face by the way, that's a mouthful Moe when you were reading it
I even wrote a note. That's like it's funny. That's a lot of accusing
And have licensed to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against him
Therefore, when they were come hither, without any delay on the morrow, I sat on the judgment
seat and commanded the man to be brought forth, against whom when the accuser stood
up, they brought none occasion of such things as I supposed.
Hey, I brought them back because I thought they were actually going to bring the accusations
they were talking about.
And guess what?
It's not what I thought.
What is it says?
and of one Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive."
Now, remember, this is a worldly guy talking, so he's not obviously a believer.
And because I doubted of such manner of questions, I asked him whether he would go to Jerusalem
and there be judge of these matters, but when Paul had appealed to be reserved unto the hearing of Augustus,
I commanded to be kept until I might send him unto Caesar.
Then a grippa sent unto Festus, I would also hear the man myself.
Thou shall hear him
And so, you know, we're gonna God's gonna use the powers of this world to set the stage for the furthers of the gospel
Look, we can't be negative. We need to be careful. We can't be negative
Look if Trump was to talk about Jesus and John 3 16 and make a Bible
That's the King James version and just put his name on it be my guest
You know how many people bought a Trump Bible? That's King James. Amen
You say that sounds kind of weird. Maybe it's weird, but a lot of people that didn't have a King James now have a King James, right?
You know, we don't know what God's gonna do with the powers. I'm not saying by the way, I'm not being positive towards Trump
I'm just saying God created everything. He's gonna make things happen no matter what if we go to Isaiah 45
I'll read for you really quick in Proverbs 21 the verse one of us says the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord as
The rivers of water he turneth it with so ever with so ever he will
God controls all the the dignitaries all the powers of the world
He allows the devil to do what he wants, but it's all under God's control
Luke 21 30 says and it shall turn to you for a testimony
No matter what happens, it'll always be for our testimony as long as we're doing it for the furtherance of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
In Isaiah 4, 45 or 6, the Bible says that they may know from the rising of the sun and from the west that there is none beside me.
I am the Lord and there is none else.
I form the light and create darkness.
I make peace and create evil.
I, the Lord, do all these things.
That's why we need not fear man
We need to fear the Lord
And we need to know that as long as we're doing things for the cause of Christ
Even if we're not too sure about the steps we're taking forward
You know who's a lamp unto my feet and the light unto my path the Lord Jesus Christ, right?
Go back to Acts 25 we'll close out here and
You know God can use anybody to open a door and create clarity right and acts 23
We see who's gonna use he says in the morrow when a gripper was come and Bernice the great with great pump
It was entering this place of hearing with the cheap captains and principal men of the city
At Festus' command, Paul was brought forth, and Festus said,
King Agrippa, and all the men which are here present with us,
you see this man about whom all the multitude of the Jews have dealt with me,
both at Jerusalem and also here, crying that he ought to not live any longer.
But when I found that he had committed nothing worthy of death,
and that he himself had appealed to Augustus, I have determined to send him.
of whom I have no certain thing to write unto my Lord,
wherefore I have brought him forth before you,
especially before thee, O king of grippa,
that after examination had, I might have somewhat to write,
for it seemeth to me unreasonable to send a prisoner,
and not with all to signify the crimes laid against him."
He's like, it's a little weird to me, it's a little confusing,
and I'm going to send you this guy,
and I don't really have like an accusation against him.
I mean the Lord, you know why that's happening because the Lord, the one that's moving, he's the one that's making it happen, because obviously we know Paul is probably, arguably, the most dynamic, polarizing.
gospel furtherance gospel news sender excuse for excuse my eloquent like lack
of eloquence but he's literally like the sounding voice of the New Testament
right Jesus dies
Obviously, Jesus is the crown jewel, right?
He's what we all seek for.
But after Jesus, Paul kind of comes into the scene
after the apostles and he like takes this huge beam
and just shines it on the entire world to this day.
70% of the New Testament, it's approximated,
was written by who?
By Paul.
I mean, the guy was just relentless about the gospel of Jesus Christ and at every turn when it looked like it was his demise or his end, the Lord found a path for him.
Actually, not even found a path, that sounds kind of humanistic.
The Lord made a path for him.
That's the more correct term, right?
So let's just close out.
In Acts 26, we're going to see verse 1, it says, Then a grippa sent unto Paul, Voward
permitted to speak for thyself, then Paul stretched forth his hand again and answered
for himself, and we're going to see that next week.
First Corinthians 1, 27 says, But God hath chosen the fullest things of this world to
And let's go to 1 Corinthians 1, 1 Corinthians 1, 27.
It says,
And we go to 1st 2nd Corinthians 4 verse 5 it says for we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord and
Ourself and ourselves your servants for
Jesus's sake. I mean really at the end of the day the thing that we need to focus on is that what we preach not ourselves
Right, it's not my duty to get up here and tell you, you know, all the great things
I know to tell you these wonderful stories, to tell you, you know, to be an eloquent,
great-swelling Word speaker.
My duty is to preach the Word of God.
Now, if some of that comes through, that's great, because it'll just keep you more entertained,
especially since I have a tendency to preach for an hour.
but the goal is not to keep you engaged just for the sake of engagement, the goal is to keep you
engaged so that you glean from the Word of God, right? We go through these verses, chapter by, I
mean chapter by chapter, verse by verse, not because I'm here to bore you like some eloquent,
boring, Catholic,
mass where they just read to you in like song and boringness but we're here to
tell you hey this is what we're seeing this is what the Bible says that you
should do in your life this is how you deal with these situations this is you
have questions about life come to church you're struggling with life come to
church because I'll tell you one thing I don't know much about all the other
Easy.
They have way more money in the coffers.
That's a guarantee.
They have better carpets, probably better food,
probably a nicer coffee shop.
We don't even have one.
I'll just tell you that, right?
But the one thing they don't have is,
you know if you come to our church,
I'm going to preach the Word of God.
As a matter of fact, as a failsafe,
when I don't even know what to preach,
I'm just going to grab scripture and just read it to you.
And we'll glean from it together.
I'm not going to grab some commentary, some devotional, and say, well, you know, this guy said, no, let's just see what the Bible says.
I mean, that's the thing. And what we're talking about, the Bible said in Acts 25, we named it religious mempleesers.
You know what I want to be? I want to be a God pleaser.
At the end of the day, the only reason that I want to get up here and do anything is for God.
And if I'm not doing that anymore, you know, I pray the Lord show it to me and then I would just step down.
And if I can't recognize it, I hope somebody does and tells me, hey, you need to step down.
I'm not even joking about that.
This is a serious office and it should be taken as such.
And today in America, 90% of people that get behind the pulpit, don't take it seriously.
They don't read their Bibles.
You'd be lucky if they read their Bibles once a year.
They don't care about Scripture.
All they care about is the church fathers.
All they care about is some commentary.
They don't care about those things.
Well, let's close in a word of prayer.
Thank you so much for today Lord. Thank you for your blessings Lord more importantly. Thank you that we serve at a church where
the leadership for
Decades has been focused on preaching the word of God. I can't even take the credit. I'm just doing what I was taught
Pastor Cobb did it for 40 plus years and is still doing it
I mean, he's going to preach again in the next couple of weeks, in the next couple of
months, as long as God gives him life, he's going to preach.
And he's doing what he was taught.
And the men that came before him preached the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And he yoked up with men who believed that you stand firm on the rock that is Jesus Christ.
So Lord, help us to be God-pleasers, to please you above anything else.
to seek ye first, the kingdom of God and all your righteousness.
And we just ask for a good day, give me some safe traveling mercies,
both to and fro.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Did we get good audio?
Oh, we have a long last hymn. I'm sorry.
Yes, and we do have one more hymn.
We're getting used to this.
So we have hymn.
What's the hymn number?
304 I can hear it real quick. Let's close out in a hymn
304 sweet hour of prayer sweet hour of prayer
It's a good Wednesday one sweet hour of prayer. Oh, did I turn this off? I did let me turn. Oh, no perfect
on the first
sweet
Sweet
That calls me
In seasons of distress and grief, my soul has often found relief.
And off the scape, the tempter snare, by thy return, sweet hour of prayer.
addition bear to him whose truth and faithfulness
engage the weighty soul to bless and since he bids me seek his
Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, may I thy consolation
share, tell.
to seize the everlasting prize and shout while passing through the air.
Farewell, farewell, sweetheart of prayer.
All right, you may be dismissed.
Thank you, Mo.