Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Welcome to Pure Words Baptist Church.
If you would, go ahead and grab your hymnals.
Turn to 164.
Praise Him, praise Him.
164.
Praise Him, praise Him.
164.
Praise Him, praise Him.
Let's sing.
Praise Him, praise Him.
Amen.
Brother James, would you open us in a word of prayer?
you
Amen all right for the next hymn this evening turn to him number 54. Oh that will be glory
Him number 54
Mm-Hmm
Let's sing on 54 when all of my labors and tires are or
And I am safe on that beautiful shore
Just to be near the dear Lord I adore
Will through the ages be glory for me
Oh
that will be
glory for me
glory
for me
When by his grace I shall look on his face
That will be
glory
be glory
for me
when by the gift of his
infinite grace I
am
accorded in heaven a place
Just to be there and to look on his face
Will through the ages be glory for me
Oh
that will be
glory for me
glory
for me
glory
for me
When by his grace I shall look on his face
that
will be glory
be glory for me
Friends will be there. I am love long ago
joy like a
river
around me will flow
Oh
Yeah, just a smile from my Savior. I know
Well through the ages be glory for me
Oh
that will be
glory for me
glory
for me
glory
for me
When by his grace I shall look on his face
That will be glory
Be glory for me
Amen thank you so much coming up yours Baptist Church if you need a bulletin brother Darnell get you one
Just lift your hand real quick. They'll come by on the front we have
Our BIM reverse or a verse there Romans 8 17
We also have our service times
Sundays and Thursdays also we have our soul winning times, and then we have a stat speed here
I'm gonna get any soul winning numbers to report for the last few days was there anything to report
outside
Or from Monday Tuesday or Wednesday by chance
Hey, we had one in our group today, so praise the Lord for that one and then
Romans chapter 8 1 verse 17 so keep plugging away on this one. It's pretty long chapter, but there's a lot of great verses and
Especially even the last ones the last ones a little bit lower hanging fruit in the sense that you probably heard them a lot of times
and so it might be a little bit easier to remember and
On the right we have a couple ladies that are expecting please keep them in your prayers be a greatly appreciated
Since my wife is it is planning to be due August 7th
I'm not going to be coming here for the
Thursday services just in August so that way I can be spending a little more time with her and helping her but
Nothing's changing as soon as as soon as we get into September
I'm gonna still be coming down here on on Thursdays, but I just want to give you that information
We have a lot of great people coming to preach for us in the next
Coming weeks we have brother Philip Milstead. He's gonna be preaching this Sunday
As well as brother Devon Rogers, he's coming the couple Sundays after that
He lives in
Georgia and he's going to stronghold Baptist Church, and he was highly recommended of Pastor Burson
So we'd add brother John Carter come a couple times out here and so for the Devon Rogers also gonna be coming out
Brother Segura is coming August 8. So that's a huge blessing to have him out here
Also for Thursday, August 19th brother deacon Corbin Russell, so that'll be a great service to attend
He's really good guy and also brother Ben will be coming out here August
I guess though, you know the last will be first or something like that
No kidding, but obviously a lot of great guys coming out here and you don't want to miss any of those services
We also have a conference that will be coming up
October 6th through the 10th and
I'm really hoping that this
Tomorrow either Saturday. I'm gonna put some more videos out there with information a
Couple of prayer requests brother Jeffrey was just asking we would be praying for his mom and just salvation that she would definitely get saved
And then also brother Cameron Hall for just continue to pray for his leg and that you just have wisdom
Concerning that and so we can just say a quick word of prayer for them
As a church family dear Heavenly Father. Thank you so much for this evening
Thank you so much for our church giving us an opportunity to come here and sing praise unto your name
I pray that you'd bless all of our church family. That's not able to make it this evening
They'd be with brother Samson with his surgery that you'd be with brother Cameron Hall with his leg
Do you help him give him healing wisdom that you'd be?
helping Jeffrey's mom just be receptive and to
Definitely hear the gospel clearly and to receive that wholeheartedly
And we just thank you so much for all that you do give us and bless us with
We pray that what we do would be an honor and glory of your son in Jesus name we pray. Amen
That's pretty much all I have for now
So the only thing is I have is a couple people brother Zach watch is getting married
At the end of this month and he had invites for pretty much everybody here
he wasn't sure if there was anybody that would be here that didn't have one, but
If you hadn't got one
Just let me know there's a couple even that are just blank so I can give those to anybody too
That would like one and so make sure if you didn't already get one
That's exciting so let's go to our third song song 323 on 323 brother Cameron
All right 323 more about Jesus
323
323 more about Jesus
Let's sing on the first more about Jesus would I know
more of his grace to
others show
more of his saving fullness see
More of his love who died for me
more more about
Jesus
more more about
Jesus
more of his saving
fullness see
More of his love who died for me
more about
Jesus let me learn
More of his holy will discern
Spirit of God my teacher be
Showing the things of Christ to me
more more about
Jesus
more more about
Jesus
more of his
saving
Fullness see more of his love who died for me
more about
Jesus in his word
holding communion with my Lord
Hearing his voice in
every line
making each faithful
saying mine
More more about Jesus
More of his saving
Fullness see more of his love who died for me
more about
Jesus on his throne
Riches and glory all his own
more of his kingdom sure increase
more of his coming
Prince of Peace
more more about
Jesus
more more about
Jesus
more of his
saving fullness see
more of his love who died for me
Amen good singing this evening while the offering plate is going around turn if you would do acts chapter 16
Acts chapter 16 will read that whole chapter as is our custom
Right expect the 16 the Bible read then came he it's a derby and Lystra
Lystra and behold a certain disciple was there named the Mothius the son of a certain woman, which was the dewist
And believed but his father was a Greek which was well reported by the brethren that were at Lystra in a conium
him who him who would Paul have to go forth with him and took the
Incircumcised him because of the Jews which were in those quarters where they knew all that his father was a Greek and they?
Went through the cities and they delivered them the decrees for to keep that were ordained of the apostles and elders
which were at
Jerusalem and so were the churches established in the faith and increased in number daily now when they had gone through out
Phyrra and the region of Galatia and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word of Asia
After they were come to my side they stayed to go into
Dithymia, but the spirit suffered them not and they passed passing by Mysa game to
Proas and a vision appeared to Paul in the night there stood a man in
Macedonia and prayed him saying come over into Macedonia and keep us and after he had seen the vision immediately
We endeavored to go into Macedonia assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us or to preach the gospel unto them
Therefore losing them from Troas we came with the straight course to them off Rika and the next day to
Neapolis and
from thence to fill up by which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia and a colony and we were in the city
abiding certain days and on the Sabbath we went out on the city by Riverside where prayer was want to be made and we
sat down and spake unto the women which restored thither and a certain woman named Lydia a seller of purple and of the city of
Thyatira which worshiped God heard us those heart and the Lord opened and she
Attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul and when she was baptized in her house
So she besought us saying if if you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord come into my house and abide there
And she constrained us and it came to pass as we went to prayer a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination
Met us and which brought her masters much again by soothing
The same followed Paul and us and cried saying these men are servants of the Most High God
Which show unto us the way of salvation and this did she many days
But Paul being grieved turned and said to the spirit
I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her and he came out the same hour and
when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone and they
Caught Paul and Silas and drew them in the marketplace unto the rulers and brought them to the magistrate
Saying these men being Jews do exceedingly trouble our city and teach customs
Which are not lawful for us to receive neither do observe being Romans and the multitude rose up together
against them and the magistrates ran off their clothes and commanded to beat them and
When they had laid many stripes on them, they cast them out into prison charging the jailer to keep them safely
Who having received such a charge thrust him into the inner prison and made their feet fast in the stock?
and at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God and the prisoners heard them and
suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken and
Immediately all the doors were open and everyone's bands were loose and the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep
Seeing the prison doors open and he drew out his sword and would have killed himself
Supposing that the prisoners had been fled
But Paul cried with a loud voice saying do thyself no harm. We are all for we are all here
Then he cried for a light and sprang in and came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas
And brought them out and said sirs
What must I do to be saved and they said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved in thine house
And they spake unto him the word of the Lord and to them and to all that were in his house
And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes and was baptized
He and all his all his straight way and when he had brought them into the house
He set meat before them and rejoiced believing in God with all his house
And when it was day the magistrates sent the surgeons saying let those men go
And the keeper of the prison told them told this saying Paul the magistrates have sent to let you go
Now therefore depart and go in peace, but Paul said unto them they have beaten us openly
Uncondemned being Romans and having cast us into prison and now do they thrust us out privately nay barely
But let them come themselves and fetch us out
and the servants told these words under the magistrates and they feared and when they heard that they were Romans and
They came and besought them and brought them out and desired them to depart of the city and they went out into prison
And entered in the house of Lydia and when they had seen the brethren they comforted them and departed
Men so we're going through the book of Acts and it's definitely an action-packed
Section of the Bible here where the Apostle Paul is going through all kinds of different areas and different kind of cities and
You know it it's real easy for us to just read this
but I mean it's talking about a lot of events and he's traveling to all kinds of different areas and
Sometimes it just gets a sentence or a phrase or something
It's like I just went to this place in this place in this place
But really when you kind of slow down and think about it
You can see that Paul is really just going through the whole world
I mean he's just traveling incredible amounts of distance especially back then we don't have a car
You know you can't just hop in the car a lot of the things that they're doing are walking or you know
Maybe they're going by ship
And so this is definitely a lot of work and a lot of effort that the Apostle Paul is going through and you know as
Much driving as I do I get to sit and think about you know how some of these
Apostles and some of these prophets and stuff how they did a lot of traveling to didn't they you know the Apostle Paul
I'm sure that he's not looking down from heaven and thinking like oh you guys have it hard and an air-conditioned vehicle
Driving around you know going to these places
I mean the Apostle Paul probably had some rough traveling conditions on a regular basis
And it says here in verse number one it says then came me to Derby and Lystra and behold a certain disciple was there named
Timotheus the son of a certain woman which was a Jewess and
Believed but his father was a Greek which is well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra
and
Iconium now
We have here the first mention of Timothy or as he's referred to here as Timotheus and
Basically this young man
Is described as having kind of a mixed family here where the the woman the the wife?
His mother is a Jew, but his father is a Greek and so it's kind of like an interesting family dynamic that they have here and
Kind of just reading between the lines it seems like as you study the Bible and you look at Timothy Timothy's life
it's kind of a picture of a household where one parent saved and the other parents not or
You could look at it, and that's just kind of my guess. You know we don't know exactly
What's going on here? We know for sure that Timothy Timothy's mother is saved
We know she saved the father he could picture a couple different scenarios
He could be someone who's not saved and just not really in Timothy's life, or maybe he's in his life
But just not spiritually in any way or he could even represent maybe a saved parent
But that's just not necessarily that into the things of God. It's just not really he's not going to church
He's not really serving God. He's not really doing these things
And what I like about the the picture here or what's being emphasized here is the fact that just one parent
Even just the mother can have a huge impact on their child's life and can still raise a godly child
Even if the father isn't necessarily
The spiritual leader of the home that he should be now
I want to show you a few verses here go to keep your finger go to 2nd Timothy
Chapter number one go to 2nd Timothy chapter 1 and we'll find out more information about Timothy specifically
But the fact that it's emphasizing how she's a Jewish and her his father is a Greek is
Really just illustrating a spiritual distinction because we have to understand is that time
You know
Ethnicities played a part in your religion now obviously today
There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek and today
We're all you know we're all always been over one blood
But from from a religious perspective just because you're from a certain area in the world
Doesn't mean you're definitely gonna be any particular religion
We actually find you know a cornucopia of religions and virtually all areas of the world now obviously some religions are more
Prevalent depending on what area you're from but you can go to virtually any country in this world
You'll find Christians you'll find Catholics you'll find Jews you'll find you'll find all kinds of varying religions
And you know you find Islam you'll find Muslims especially in America. We're a pretty big melting pot
You know someone you meet someone from America. There's pretty much no guarantee. What religion they're gonna be or what exact
Version of Christianity or atheist or whatever who whatever nonsense that exists out there today
But at this time if you're described as a Greek, it's because you're just not religious, so that's why I'm drawing that conclusion
That's why I'm kind of leaning you know if you ask me
I believe Timothy fathers is not safe because of his what if his mother's described as a Jewess
That's really more emphasizing her religion than it is an ethnicity at that time obviously a lot of Jews
Were proselytes throughout the Bible and so they don't even have to necessarily be descended of Abraham or any of these things
The fact that she's a Jewess is really emphasizing the fact that she's of the religion of the Jews
More than her physical lineage is per se she could have been a Greek that converted and she's being described as a Jewess
Because that's the religion that she's a part of so when you kind of get that
Understanding it helps you put in perspective the idea of a saved a saved mother
But an unsaved father or a disinterested father when it comes to spiritual matters
But look at 2nd Timothy, and let's get more support for this idea. It says in chapter 1 verse 3
This is Paul talking to Timothy
I thank God whom I serve for my forefathers with pure conscience that without ceasing I have
Remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day
Greatly desiring to see thee being mindful of thy tears that I may be filled with joy
when I called remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois and thy mother Eunice and
I am persuaded that in thee also
so we have here a description of the apostle Paul talking about Timothy and
Apparently Timothy and him have shared a lot of personal information so the apostle Paul has
Either spent a lot of time with Timothy
Maybe even seen his family you know at this time in the Bible when he's going here
He may have met you know Lois and Eunice and perhaps they're going to the church
And they just meet this family, and they see hey, there's this great mother
There's this great grandmother and Timothy's this great guy in the church
And so you kind of have these pictures here and the apostle Paul's talking as if he has direct knowledge
About his family right he's saying when I call remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee which dwelt first in
thy grandmother Lois, how would he really be able to say that from a
Second-hand experience it really feels like it's a first-hand experience. It feels like he knows Lois
It feels like the apostle Paul knows Eunice and so having gone to church or met these people and talked with them and
Experienced with them. He's like man. You know you can see that lineage. You can see how that faith is trickled down and
Honestly if anybody was saved okay, and their father was saved you would probably default
Just saying that the faith is transferring from father to son the father to son or grandpa
but here's the thing if it doesn't exist on the
Father side then you could say okay
It's gone down the the mother side or it's gone down the you know basically grandmother mother to the son stage
Because of you see the same faith that's in them is in this son
So that's another reason why I believe that Timothy's father's probably just not even safe
Probably just and even if he was he just not a very spiritual person
But that does not mean that Timothy can't be a great man of God
His mother plays a huge role is a major influence in his life and is
Allowing him to end up being one of the greatest people mentioned in the Bible
I mean Timothy's a great person to be mentioned in the Bible. There's even two letters written to him specifically
I mean what an honor that you literally have two passages of the Bible
Written to you when it comes to personal letters
I mean, it's the largest personal letters in the Bible. I mean to a person
I mean you have other you have Titus you have by Lehman so these are like personal letters
But where else do you have a personal letter?
That's written to an individual that's larger than first and second Timothy when you combine those two
I mean we're talking about a great spiritual giant here someone that was one of the first pastors
Traveling with the Apostle Paul, you know ordaining people as he's given an instruction in first Timothy
I had to ordain pastors and deacons one of one of the greatest men in the Bible
Literally getting his faith from his mother that tells me that the mother is a very important role in
spiritual matters, you know a carnal saying is the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world and
Spiritually speaking that fits because we really see a lot of great men in the Bible are heavily influenced by their mother
Specifically even if the father is not
necessarily the main person in their life and it makes sense because a mother spends more time with the child than the father by a
Long shot
I mean the mother is the one that births them and feeds them and changes their diapers and sings of them and
Cares when they wake up in the night. I just don't care. I don't know why it is
I just I mean she just she's like she can hear them breathing at night or something
You know and it's still curious about them and it's like I'm just thinking like they're gonna survive the night
Okay
Like it my my worry factor is only if they survive or not
Not really like if they're comfortable or the things are going well
It's basically like an inconvenience to me to get up. So and I'm just saying being honest with you
Okay, go to first Corinthians chapter 7. Hopefully some fathers out there are better than I am
I'm just being honest with you when I when I'm in bed. It's just like it's over, you know
Now if they were like dying or something, I'm sure I would go I try to help them or whatever
Don't hear me wrong, but I'm just saying mothers care so much more mothers are just so much more influential in a child's life
They they have so much more time and and there's so many great mothers in the Bible
We have Proverbs 31 we have the prophecy that Lemuel's mother taught him, you know
And so we have a great mother teaching
Lemuel and and she's basically giving him instruction as if he's gonna be a great person if he's gonna be a king
Or be a great leader and we have to understand about every male leader is they all had a mom
Regardless of who it is every great man has always had a mother every bad man has always had a mother
We all had a mother. Okay, unless you're Adam you had a mom
and so the role of a mother is is should never be discounted or downplayed because they can
Essentially give a young man or a young woman all the tools they need to be successful in the Christian life now
Obviously ideally we would have both parents equally yoked on fire for God
But unfortunately in reality, it's very seldom that you even have this and you see a lot of people where you know
Either the dad only or just the mom only is kind of the spiritual leader of the home
And I want to encourage people to realize that even if you find yourself in a situation that's not ideal
You can still and you can steal and still great values into your child
And you still have that capability of being a great influence on them look at 1st Corinthians 7
verse number 13 the Bible reads and
The woman which hath an husband that believeth not and if he be pleased to dwell with her
Let her not leave him so saying if the woman has a husband that's not safe
Isn't that kind of the scenario that I'm kind of bringing up a woman is a say you say Christian
But the husband is just not saved it says
If the husband still, you know, basically likes his wife and wants to be married to her she should never leave him
You know, even though you might be married to an unsaved person or someone that's not necessarily a spiritual giant
You should still do your best to be the best spouse that you can but then it says in verse 14 for the unbelieving husband is
Sanctified by the wife and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband else were your children unclean
But now are they holy so notice it's saying that that parent the the parent that's saved and this is
Emphasizing the wife. Okay, the wife can still
Sanctify your children and what does it mean to sanctify?
sanctify the Bible uses a lot of words that all mean the same thing to sanctify is the same as to
Make something holy make something holy or to sanctify is the same as setting it apart
Okay, so you're basically setting something apart making holy is to set it apart or to be set apart to sanctify is the process
Of setting it apart making it a distinction and why is God holy?
Because he's set apart from us. He's different than all of us. God is perfect in every single way
So he's different than us. He's set apart from us. He's sanctified from us
That's why we wouldn't want to use his name irreverently because his name is holy because he is holy wouldn't want to talk
Derogatory or talk to God in a common manner because he's not coming. He's set apart. He's special
He's sanctified. He's holy. He's the only one that's holy and us as Christians. We're supposed to go through the process of
Sanctification which is what setting ourselves apart?
You know getting away from what the things of this world
That's what the Bible teaches in 2nd Corinthians chapter number 6 is the importance of separating yourselves from the world
Come out from among them and be separate sayeth the Lord now touch not the unclean thing and so our
admonition from God is to try and
Distinguish ourselves from the world to be different than the world to come out from among the world to be holy
To be perfect to just strive to be like Christ and the Bible is saying even if
Only one parent is saved. They can still sanctify that child
So what does it mean when they're sanctifying their job? They're taking their child and they're separating them from the world
They're taking that child and they're making that child not like the world. They're making it like they are
Sanctified they're making their child holy
They're trying to set their child apart from the world and helping to be a godly Christian
So what the Bible is teaching is even if you are under the influence of an unsaved man
If you were a wife and you were married to unsaved men you and your children could still be holy
You and your children could still be sanctified you and your children could still be godly
Trying to serve the Lord trying to do that which is right and that's what the Bible is kind of emphasizing here to give you
the
Basic hope of realizing you can have a major impact
Regardless of what situation you find yourself in wouldn't it be kind of a downer if it said, excuse me
I'm sorry if it was saying here. Well, if you're married to an unbeliever as a wife it your children are doomed
There's no chance for them to serve God or you know without a without a man in the house
You know, they're just never gonna really serve God or be a great person. That would be kind of a message of hopelessness
But the Bible is giving the opposite saying no matter what
Situation you find yourself in as long as you're doing that which is right and you're loving your children
They can end up being great people for the Lord go back to Acts chapter number 16
Now what I also want to bring up is this
in
2nd Timothy chapter 1 the faith went from Lois to Eunice
So that wasn't even mother to son that was mother to daughter too. So it's not like only sons here
we're talking about any child and
Don't undervalue the importance of a daughter because notice that that faith was transferred to a daughter sure
but then that got transferred into Timothy who ended up being a great man for God and
You know some women get you know, basically upset at the idea
They can't be a preacher according to the Bible or something like that
But why not raise a great preacher then or raise a great woman?
Great daughter who then she could have a great preacher or something like that
And at the end of the day being a pastor a preacher it's no different, you know
The God's not a respecter of persons. We're all just on this earth to just serve him and whatever
Position he puts us in and so we really we just want to raise our children to love the Lord
If your kids are never pastors, that's fine
But you know you would want is your kids to love Jesus
What you want is your kids to be a soul winner
What you want is for your kids to marry a godly person and to serve the Lord and to raise godly children of their own
And to make sure that whatever faith you have you're instilling it into your children or teaching it to your children
You're encouraging your children to have that same kind of faith and who knows?
Maybe you may raise the next Timothy
Or maybe Timothy could be your grandchild wouldn't that be pretty cool?
I mean if you had a grandchild that ended up being a great man
Like Timothy or the next apostle Paul or any of these great people, you know, it's not gonna happen on accident
You will not accidentally raise a godly child
You will not accidentally raise a godly child that ends up raising godly children of their own either
You know, it takes hard work dedication. You have to sanctify yourself
You have to set yourself apart and you know what your children are so important
So there's so much value in them that you need to drag yourself to church for their benefit
You know, I guarantee that
Eunice is not just trying to like
Not serve the Lord and just expecting Timothy to be a great person
I guarantee she's dragging herself into church and
dragging Timothy in a church and reading the Bible to them and trying to instill a
godly Christian faith into them because you know what more important than me going to church is my children going to church and
So it's important to take yourself into the institutions of God and and to show your children that faith
And you know what the Bible says train up a child in the way should go and when he is old he will not depart
If you don't want your kids to depart from church then take them to church
but if you don't take your kids to church if you don't read the Bible to your kids if you don't teach them how to
Get saved if you don't take them out soul-winning don't expect them to ever do that then
Don't believe that by some miracle
They're gonna just randomly choose to serve God when you're not teaching them how to do that
You know
We all are instilled with all kinds of things from our parents and we do certain things because of what our parents did for us
You know the foods that we eat
You know, it's weird to me food because everybody just seems to like the food that they were raised with
Regardless of what it is, you know
And there's some food that some people are raised with I'm thinking like I wouldn't touch that with a 10-foot pole
And but they love it, you know
And then vice-versa because we just basically we get used to the things that our parents taught us our race. I'm here my dad
He loves beans and cornbread. Okay, but he tells us he said I ate it
Six days a week. He said they had beans and cornbread every single day
just Monday Tuesday
Wednesday Thursday
Friday
Saturday and then they had fried chicken on Sunday
He said that was their one that was their one aberration and you know to this day
What my dad's like favorite meal to eat us beans and cornbread
But here's the thing to most normal people they wouldn't be like real excited to eat beans and cornbread
Okay, because it's just not like anything real special or anything. It's not like a high-end meal
it's kind of like a low-end meal and that was the reason why they ate it because they're poor and that's all they had they
could all afford but man if you want to get my dad excited make him beans and cornbread and
Look, my dad is like
79 I believe I think I could be off a year. He's 79. He still loves it
Why because train up a child in the way he should go and when he's old he won't depart from it
My dad will never stop loving beans and cornbread
Why because it was really?
Instilled into his brain into his mind and I'm telling you the things that you're instilling into your children's brains and minds are gonna stick
with them for a lifetime
No, I my family would make fun of me because I always ate
Tuna chips and pickles. Okay, I'll confess my meal
All right
This is what I like and so I'd literally just make a thing of tuna and then I'd have some chips and pickles and they'd
Make fun of me because I would say yeah when I'm older
I'll have all y'all come over and we'll hang out and have a good time like oh you're gonna make us all tuna chips and pickles
And I'm like, it's right
And you know what? My kids love to eat tuna chips and pickles. That's right because we're passing that thing down, you know
But at the end of the day like that's kind of a weird most people would be like that's weird
But you know you grow up eating something or doing something a long time and you just learn to love it
You know my parents while they were never independent from a Baptist. They weren't Baptist at all
They drug me to church every single week of my life. I
Mean in except for my college years where I didn't live with them and I wasn't forced to go to church
Is the only time in my life where I wasn't going every single week and not only would they go just for the
Morning service they would go to every service every event everything is just church was just a non negotiable item for me
And so I believe that that is what's caused me to stay in church my whole life virtually
you know, my question has never been if I'm going to church my question has only been where and
To me that's a good thing to teach your children is it's not if you're going to church
It's where that you're going to go to church, and obviously that's a different sermon all in itself
but I'm just kind of giving you these you know thoughts to think about because often we get very selfish and
The actions that we choose we only really think about ourselves we think about what's convenient for us
Rather than thinking about how is this going to impact my children? I would rather make a lot of in
inconvenient decisions for myself
If it's benefiting my children though if what I'm doing is going to somehow be a blessing under them
Or it's the path that I want them to go down or whatever it is and as opposed to just saying well
It's convenient for me to do this or it's easier for me to do this now
I'd rather make a lot of sacrifices now
to make sure that my children are going down the right path and doing the right thing and
And making sure that every day
I'm instilling in them the right values the right morals teaching and training them because they're more important than my own selfish desires
Who cares about my own selfish desires?
We need to just lay that down as a parent and say it's not about me anymore
It's about my child and and loving them and blessing them
It's not like God is up there thinking about all the things he wants
He's trying to bless us trying to like think about us and encourage us and sacrifice for us
And so that's what we should do as parents is you know sacrifice for our children look at verse 3
And would Paul have to go forth with him and took and circumcised him because of the Jews
Which were in those quarters for they knew all that his father was agreed and as they went through the cities
They delivered them the decrees for to keep that were ordained to the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem now
This is again another
You know evidence in a sense that his father's not safe
Why because the Jews at that time are all circumcised
You know Paul is the first one bringing the gospel to these people so it's like these people that don't have the gospel at all
So if you're a Jew you're circumcised if his father is not circumcised that means he's not a Jew
And if he's not a Jew there's no chance that he saved you know even of the Jews at this time
Virtually no one's even saved okay
There is some people that were probably still saved at this time
But the vast majority of people are just not even saved they need to hear the gospel and obviously everyone needs to hear the gospel
Regardless of the whether they were saved or not, but what the Bible is you know emphasizing
Here is the fact that again his father was just isn't saved isn't in church isn't serving God
Obviously this isn't the same as a New Testament church
I get that but we're just saying kind of the same equivalence here now you would ask this question. Well. Why did Paul?
circumcise Timothy
Well the Bible says because of the Jews now here's the thing is that a good reason to circumcise
Timothy the answer is no and what's really confusing about this is how the whole previous chapter
Literally was dealing with the issue of circumcision to ad nauseum
I mean he took a whole trip down to Jerusalem to find out how you don't have to be circumcised
You know we have later epistles like Galatians that are telling us
Essentially that him and Titus weren't compelled you know to end up getting circumcised
so basically Paul is doing this because he's fearing the Jews or
Maybe just to please the Jews. There's kind of two different ways to look at this
It seems like Paul's kind of a man pleaser
You know and you just kind of get the sense of who he is he just wants to just basically
Appease the Jews he wants to get them off his back. You know he just loves the Jews so much
I mean you get this from the he's like. He's like. I'm never preaching you guys again
And then it's just like the next chapter. He's preaching the Jews again
Yeah, and then he's like everybody's telling him like don't go to Jerusalem whoever goes to Jerusalem's gonna die
Hey, and all this and he's like I'm gonna go to Jerusalem anyways you know and then when he goes to Jerusalem
He's basically taking some kind of a vow and he's like shaving himself, and he's going to the temple so I
It makes sense because based on what I just taught you think about it
How was Paul raised? He was a Pharisee of the Pharisee. I mean this guy is like the most strict
Sect of the Jews, so it's really hard to shake Paul of the Jew you know
It's really hard to shake Paul of his upbringing and his heritage and who he is and his family members
And he really you know he gels with the Jews. You know he has a lot of a camaraderie with the Jews
That's what he's used to he's like. It's where he's from basically
but
Making Timothy get circumcised was just not a biblical decision
And it's really confusing and so you have to be careful sometimes people do things in the Bible, and it's not right
Okay, that doesn't mean that
Just because they did it. It's right
We have to let the the Bible tell us what's right and we need clear statements to tell us
What's right and we need to find other places in the Bible that tell us there's nowhere in the New Testament
That you will find a clear statement that says get circumcised
So if we take that in light of this story, then we just say that was wrong and again
What does it say because of the Jews?
Why would you get someone circumcised because of a false religion?
Because of people that aren't even saved and most of the Jews aren't even receptive to the gospel
So obviously he's doing this to appease them, but it didn't even work
You know it's it's like he's just falling all over himself to get these people saved
And it still doesn't even work it just goes to show that you know the Gospels the only thing that's going to get someone
saved
And I think sometimes people think like well
Maybe if I was nicer about it
Or you know maybe if I had this little tip like trick or tip or you know maybe if I do it a little bit differently
What if we gave cars away for free?
You know or like what if we offered them this kind of a special thing or what it's like. It doesn't matter
It's either they're gonna believe the gospel or not
You know you don't obviously some people
Will be more receptive depending on your attitude
You know if you're just like you're going to hell, buddy you want to hear the gospel or not
You know like that's a that's a little crude. Okay, but I'm just saying like it seems like
No matter what your approach is
It really doesn't matter you just got to give them the gospel. You know there's not really anything special to it
It's not like catering to them works getting circumcised isn't gonna necessarily work
You know putting on their shirt
You know walking around with a houston texans jersey on is it gonna get any more more saved necessarily right or wearing the funny?
Hat when you go to the jewish neighborhood. They're still not gonna want to hear the gospel from you
Okay, you know or it doesn't matter about those things. You just got to give the gospel be who you are
Accept who you are
Don't water it down. Don't be a compromiser
Don't go out there with an NIV cover on your King James. You know it's like
This is a normal bible. You know it's like no if this is a King James Bible right hey
I'm an independent but a little Baptist. You know I'm not hey. We're just from a church
What kind of church just a church?
You know we love everyone. No you don't you know don't don't say things that aren't even true
Don't do things that aren't even true. You know be who you are
Give the gospel the way you're supposed to
Now some good things that we read in this verse or these few verses here though is that they're giving these
basic decrees which you know the decree that they got from
That they got from Jerusalem is that you don't have to be circumcised be safe isn't that interesting
He's like let's get circumcised now. Let's hand him this piece of paper
That's saying like you don't have to get circumcised. He say it's like that's that kind of whatever head there Paul or something
but notice the instructions they're giving and the doctrine they're giving is good and
Also notice this that the church is in these places that they're going
They're not saying well, who are you to try and tell us what to do?
You know I'm an independent Baptist, okay?
But at the same time if a church that planted by another church
Or is kind of in a growing phase or their friends or whatever
I'm not going to be offended if they want to give me doctrine or they want to give me advice or give me
Instruction or anything these things we should you know?
Partner together and be willing to hear from other people and
Obviously you know Jerusalem's kind of the headquarters of where all this information is coming out
Jerusalem isn't necessarily over this church
You know if Jerusalem's selling them hey you have to be circumcised to be saved they can say nuts Jerusalem
They can say no, but if Jerusalem saying like here's the doctrine. Here's what you need to receive then
It's like let's receive it
You know they're gonna sit here and argue and bicker and say like who are you to tell us what to do?
You know or whatever you know there's this power struggle people that are worried about that kind of stuff or insecure about their authority
You know you don't have to be insecure about your authority if someone's giving you good advice or giving you good instruction
And they're going around and they're establishing these churches. What does it mean to establish?
Something it's basically to prove it to make it come to fruition or to be more complete
You know something that would be like establishing as the Bible talks about King Solomon
He became king, but then later or right after becoming king
He takes out all his enemies
He gets rid of Adonijah
And he gets rid of a couple other people that are enemies of his and then he has this
You know debate between two harlots that are claiming for a child and the Bible says after he solves that it says then the
Kingdom was established in his hand meaning what now everybody's kind of accepted it
It's been brought to a full completion
It's basically happened you know sometimes you could be in the process of something happening, but it's not really been
Established per se you know like you're building a house
Right and you're in the process you have maybe part of the foundation you maybe the foundations done
And you've built the framing and you're putting up other parts of the house, so it's in the process
You're building the house, but it's not really established
It's gonna be established
once all of the loan stuff paperwork is you know been signed right and you've moved in and
You put all your stuff everywhere, and you hung up all the decoration and now you're kind of in there now
You're kind of established in your home, and so that's kind of what the picture is here
So it's like hey the church was kind of going
But it wasn't really established in the sense that all of the T's hadn't been crossed all the eyes hadn't been dotted yet
There's still other things that need to be going on
There's other pieces and of the part that that need to be basically established
You know you could look at a church plant
It's not really being established in the sense that maybe it doesn't have its own pastor yet, or doesn't have certain positions yet, or doesn't have
Autonomy yet, or doesn't have enough money yet, or doesn't have a building yet
Or doesn't have you know things that it may need or doesn't have enough members yet
Or doesn't have you know these these type of items
And so it's kind of going through this process of of being built and growing
But it's not really established yet, and Paul's going around and they're establishing these churches
What are they establishing them in the faith so basically you could also have a group of people that are just newly saved
But they don't really believe all the doctrine yet
They don't they can't sit here and tell you what the Trinity is they're not all soul winners yet
They're not all preaching the gospel yet. They're not all understanding every aspect. They're not singing all the hymns right
So basically the established picture in a church could be what now they all believe the same fundamentals
You know now they've heard all the doctrine and they could even expound it now
They're all going out and preaching the gospel to themselves now
They're reaching their own converts now
They're baptizing their own people and so you could say the church is like established because the church could be rocky
You know you have to understand church planning is not always going to be a success
Sometimes you go to an area
And you have a group of people that are interested and you start kind of gathering and you kind of get them there
But then those people just kind of don't pan out those people don't don't stick they don't learn the doctrine
They don't go soul winning and then the church just kind of folds
Or it just doesn't really work out
And then you just really should just move on at that point so a church being established is
Emphasizing the fact that these people are what growing they're learning. They're getting plugged in they're doing the work
Doing all these things and there's no guarantee that any churches be successful
Forever it takes the people to decide they want to actually make the church successful
They want to get plugged in they want to do the work. They want to put in the effort
They want to serve God and the Bible emphasizes the fact that when churches are a group of people
Congregations want to have a church there that God will give them pastors after his own heart. You know he'll bless them
So there's been areas of this in the United States that they don't really have an established church
They don't have like a great area to go or a great place to go and and so they just kind of a common
Congregation of people are grouping of people that are there, and they're kind of wanting a church
What's like well?
You know if you guys are really faithful and steadfast in your heart then I believe God will eventually give you that
But a lot of these people are they're just kind of just it just sounds good to them
You know there's a lot of people that'll say they want something
But then they actually have it, and they don't really want you know there's a lot of people
They're like oh man if there was a church like faithful word in Houston
I'd be there every single week, and then you come plant a church in Houston
And they never even come to the door one time or they show up one time
And then they just leave or whatever and it's like it's really easy to say you'll do something
It's a lot harder to actually do it
Says in verse number six now when they had gone through
Phrygia and the region of Galatia and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia
After they were come to my Asia they assayed to go into by thinnya, but the spirit suffered them not
So they're going through all kinds of different areas, but some of the areas. They just literally can't go in
Bible saying that the Holy Ghost is literally
Forbidding them or it says in verse 7 the spirit suffered them not now
What does that look like I don't know exactly what that means as far as from a practical perspective like what happened?
But
Sometimes you try to do something in ministry
and it just doesn't work at all and like it just seems like everything fails and all the quote-unquote doors have just been shut and
Sometimes we need to just say like okay. Well if all the doors are being shut. I'm just not gonna force it
There's no need to necessarily force something to happen if it's just not gonna happen
Let me show you a verse on this go to Revelation chapter 3 for a moment good revelation chapter number 3
But you know what would be a picture of this well, I believe that in this world there are certain countries
where literally
The door is just like shut on it right now, and there's no point in trying to open that door like there's no point
And me going into North Korea right now trying to preach the gospel openly like that's just a shut door right now
Okay, and there's gonna be certain areas in this world or certain countries where it's just gonna be shut
And so that's why I also believe you should be open and upfront about all your intentions
Because whenever you're deceitful about your intentions a lot of times
You can find yourself in a situation that God didn't want you to even be in in the first place
You know Jesus Christ didn't go around. You know sneak in the gospel to people. I mean it was an open ministry
It was a very public ministry the Apostle Paul's a very public ministry
You know he's going around and so it could just be hey we've heard of Paul
He's not welcome this city if he steps in we're gonna kill him and so he's just like hey
The Holy Ghost is for goodness go in there. You know or whatever. It's like. There's no point
I mean just going into a Muslim country right now
Where they'd literally behead me or just even being a Christian and saying like well
I have to preach the gospel these people right now
It's like no sometimes the you know God's is not wanting you to go to a certain area
You know if you get deported, or you get banned or whatever I mean literally pastor Anderson our my sending pastor
He's been banned from 30-plus countries. He can't even go in
That to me is like a picture of how like they're forbidden to go they can't go and it's like
He doesn't need like sneak onto an airplane and try to go to these countries and preach to God
He should just focus on the areas that he can go there
You know and not get so wrapped up on the idea of like well
I just have to go to this country or I have to go to this place right now like sometimes those things will change
Potentially or maybe you just want someone else to go or he wants someone else to do that work
You know we don't know why God does the things that he does
But we need to be able to respond to the open and closed doors in our life look at Revelation chapter 3 look at verse 7
And at the angel of the church in Philadelphia right these things say he that is holy he that is true
he that at the key of David he that openeth and no man shutteth and
shutteth and no man
Openeth so he's saying there are certain doors that only God can open and only God
can close now one of those is the gates to hell you know only God can open and close those gates and
Jesus Christ went down he got the keys to hell and of death and so when it comes to salvation
It's all of God
You know whether God gives someone the salvation opens the door of salvation to them or closes the door of salvation to them
And look once God has closed the door of salvation on someone
I can't open it you know people get really mad at me for pointing out a segment of our population
Where God is literally closed the door on them
And I'm just saying I'm not interested in trying to unlock that thing and they're just like oh
You're so mean and hateful or whatever, but God already closed the door
What am I gonna do you know who am I to open the door that God is shut closed?
Or you know who am I to try and close the door that God is open in the sense that if someone's receptive to the gospel
Or there's an area or a country that is receptive to the gospel if it's wide open for the taking
Why would I then want to sit there and shut the door on it?
You know it's like if I have this opportunity to go to Mexico and preach to Hispanic people all day long
Why would I then want to just say like well? I'm not going there
I don't like Mexico and like force my way into a country that's not receptive or doesn't want it or doesn't want me there
Yet, this is what modern independent fundamental Baptist missions look like today where they literally will get up
And they'll say no one wants us there the Gospels not welcome there
We have to have these secret churches and whatever and it's like there's whole countries where that's not even the case I
Remember a few years ago. I talked about a missionary. He called me and his name was like I'm forgetting his name
I think it was Jorge
Okay, it was like Jorge, and he wanted to be a missionary to Japan and I'm like do you speak Japanese?
He's like no
And I'm like do you speak Spanish, and he's like yes, and I'm thinking like go to Mexico
You know like he's like, but I just feel called to the pan, and it's like you know
No one in the Bible
You know I I don't see an example really in the New Testament of any of these
Evangelists or any of these apostles or disciples where they're called to just one specific area, and that's it now there are times
Where they're called to an area, but then they don't stay there forever
They then go to another area or they go all and the Apostle Paul is just supposed to give the gospel all the Gentiles
It's not like just these specific Gentile the Japanese Gentile, or you know the Chinese the Moroccans or whatever no to Paul
no, we need to just make sure that we're going with the doors that God's opening in our life and
Responding to the doors that are being closed another way you can look at this sometimes people
Whenever they find out they can't be a pastor or a deacon or evangelist or something they just stop serving God
It's like well
I'm only gonna serve God as long as I can be a pastor once they find out like that that door has been closed
It's like they stopped serving God
And it's like well if that door has been closed by God why not just serve them in the doors that are open then or in
The other ways that you have or encouraging somebody else
I mean it don't if God closes the door you know like on Saul stop being King
Stop being King and just let David come in and do the work or do whatever you know
You don't have to try and open the door that God has sealed shut go back
You would accept her 16 because we're gonna find out Paul is gonna get a lot of people saved in other areas
You know this could have ended quickly
It could have been like you know the whole the spirit suffer them not but Paul went anyways and died
And then all of a sudden we're back to Peter or something you know all of a sudden now. We're back to some other
Missionary or some other evangelists in the Bible
It says though in verse number eight as they passing by Mysia
Came down to Troas so they weren't they went to Mysia
And they were trying to go a savings tried to go into by thinnya
But they couldn't but as they were coming down to Troas and in a vision appeared to Paul in the night
There stood a man of Macedonia and prayed him saying come over into Macedonia and help us so immediately
It's even though there's a door closed immediately God's giving them a whole nother door though
God's opening a whole nother opportunity and giving them another way to get a lot of people saved and
There literally sees a vision of someone
You know asking for him praying for him to come into Macedonia and to help them verse 10 and after he had seen the vision
Immediately we endeavor to go to Macedonia assuredly
Gathering that the Lord had called us or to preach the gospel unto them therefore loosing from Troas
We came with a straight course to Samothracia and the next day to Neapolis and from thence to Philippi
Which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia and a colony and we were in that city
abiding certain days and on the Sabbath
we went out of the city by a riverside where prayer was won't to be made and we sat down and
Spake unto the women which resorted thither and a certain woman named Lydia seller purple of the city of Thyatira
Which worship God heard us whose heart the Lord opened and she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul
Now what's interesting in this story is?
It says where prayer was won't to be made
Meaning when they come in this area, they're trying to seek out the religious
they're trying to seek out those that already fear God or
Love the Lord to some degree and it says very clearly in verse 14, which worshiped God meaning this woman Lydia
Already worshiped God. Okay, and it says that basically she really responded well to the gospel
It says in verse 15 and when she was baptized and her household
She besought us saying if we have if you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord
Come into my house and abide there and she constrained us now
This is what I would like to say about you know soul-winning because these he's doing a lot of soul-winning here
Is that most of the people that you're gonna get saved are already Christian so-called
And don't get nervous about that thinking like all we're doing is getting Christians resaved
No, no, no, no a lot of people that are quote unquote Christian are just not saved
You have to realize that and realize the most of the people that will get saved
Already have shown themselves to have an interest in the things of God interest in the things of Christ fear of God
Having a respect under the Word of God, you know, he's not necessarily getting a lot of people saved
You know in these areas that are like devil worshipers or you know
Like Satan is or children of the devil or look the Jews aren't interested and they're in a wicked false religion
Okay, now obviously there's some idolaters and there's a lot of people that are just kind of don't know anything about God that they get
Saved but when you see a lot of the success stories
It's people that already feared God when Jesus Christ reached a lot of the Gentile population in his ministry
They had a great respect or fear unto God
They're people that are already praying or they have a great faith and the Lord's commending them on their faith
He's commending them on their respect for the things of God
So don't get this idea that when you're going out soul-winning you're just gonna win all these devil worshipers to God
You know take the opportunity to win the Christians to God or the Catholics, you know
A lot of Catholics and Christians get saved because they have a respect for the Bible. They have respect for the things of God
They just never been shown
You know the gospel correctly
They've never been shown the way of the Lord perfectly and so we need to come alongside
Them and and help them get saved and even help them get baptized. I like that this woman gets baptized right away
And and notice she's really even going beyond that
She wants to even minister unto these evangelists and help them and to bless them. Basically now
Keep your finger here. I want to show you verse on this go to Romans chapter 10 go to Romans chapter number 10
What's interesting about people getting saved is a
lot of people that get saved
already
Have all the components necessary to get saved which is kind of an interesting thought
It's not that they don't have them
It's they need some man to guide them because you know
This this foolish idea this foolish doctrine of the idea of someone just reading the Bible and getting saved on their own
Is just a kind of a wicked agenda in my opinion because it's taking out a very necessary
component of having the soul winner or the evangelist come alongside someone and
Make it clear how to be saved, but there's a lot of people that already have all the necessary components
They just need someone to show them how to do it. They need someone to explain it to them
Let me prove this to you. Look at Romans chapter 10 verse 6
But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise
say not in thine heart who shall ascend in heaven that is to bring Christ down from above or who shall descend in the
Deep that is to bring up Christ again from the dead
But what sayeth it the word is nigh thee even in my mouth and in thy heart
That is the word of faith which we preach
So the Apostle Paul saying look what I'm telling you you already know
What I'm telling you, it's already on your lips. What I'm telling you is already in your heart
You need to just put all the puzzle pieces together and actually believe it
Because whenever they were going and they were preaching that when Jesus is preaching the Jews, they already know the scriptures
They already know all the Bible verses that are talking about him
They could even sit there and quote the Bible verses that are talking about him. They understand all these things
It was just they had to actually decide to believe
They actually had to put their faith in that Christ
They actually had to acknowledge Christ and decide to believe in him and a lot of people were still even saved at Christ's ministry
They already believed in the coming Messiah
It was just connecting that coming Messiah with this person in the flesh who's known as Jesus Christ, you know understanding
That's that person that I'm actually believing. Okay, just like if we saw Jesus in the flesh today
Not the glorified but the regular we wouldn't necessarily just automatically know that that was Jesus
You know if he's dressed like us, obviously he's wearing clothes back then you might be kind of like who's this guy?
But you know, we wouldn't just look at him and just be like this is Jesus, right?
So even in those days it took time for people to realize
Oh, that's the guy that I'm actually been believing in this whole time now in the future and the glorified state
We're gonna automatically recognize Jesus
We're gonna know that is Jesus right away, but at the time of his incarnation in the time of his ministry
You know, they would have had to you know
kind of connect the dots there a little bit and realize this is the Son of God, you know, this is the Christ and
so
They have these elements here though that are already believed in their heart
You know the Bible talks about the sower sowing the word and how that word goes into some people's hearts
But they don't believe and so what you have to understand is a lot of Christians. They already have John 3 16 in their heart
They already understand that all it is is faith
It's just no one's really explained it to them to the point where they actually get it and then believe and call upon the name
Of the Lord look what it says in a few verses below
Verse 13 for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved
How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed and how shall they believe in him of whom?
They have not heard and how shall they hear without a preacher?
So it's saying like they can't get all this they can't put all the puzzle pieces together without that preacher
They can't really believe in that Christ
Even though they might already have the words in their mouth and they have them in their heart and they've read them and they they've heard
Them but they just never put them together. I've rented a lot of people they can quote me John 3 16
And I say what does that verse say you happen to be saving like be a good person go to church and it's weird
It's like you have the elements necessary. I mean you quoting for me John 3 16
But I just need to explain to you how you actually believe that I explain how that's about Christ and not about you
It's believing in him right they can quote that but they actually have to decide to believe that they need some man to guide them
The preacher has to show it to them and then they have to call upon the name of the Lord
So go back if you would to acts and we'll we'll try to finish this chapter quick quickly
You got a lot of good stuff in here, but some of this is pretty familiar it says in verse 22
Or verse 16, I'm sorry
And it came to pass as we went to prayer a certain damsel possessed with the spirit of divination met us
Which brought our masters much gained by soos saying the same follow Paul and us and cried saying these men are the servants of the?
Most high God which show unto us the way of salvation
This did she many days
But Paul being grieved turned and said to the spirit I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her
And he came out of
Any came out the same hour and when her master saw that the hope of their gains was gone
They caught Paul and Silas and drew them in the marketplace and the rulers and brought them to the magistrate saying these men being Jews
Do exceedingly trouble our city and teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive neither to observe being Romans now
It's interesting here is they're going around preaching the gospel and basically just because they're being harassed so much
By this woman possessed with the devil they basically cast it out
Now after they've cast out this devil
It has a kind of a trickle-down effect
Where these men were taking advantage of this woman possessed by the devil for financial gain
They're basically making money by you know who knows tarot card reading or you know
They're just basically using this devil for their own profit for their own benefit and look I believe the same thing happens today
You know there's people that are benefiting from devils
Financially you know talk about that one woman Stephanie Myers who wrote the Twilight series
She literally admits that she was like visited by demon or some kind of a spirit
Or you know her books in Twilight. What's the name of the main guy? I'm trying to think
What is it Edward Edward?
She would say like this spirit would meet her Edward or whatever and they would have like a relationship
Or whatever in the night and all and it's like and she's like saying that she would just stay up all night and just write
And she didn't even have like control over her own body or whatever and that she's just getting this whole story and look how much
Money she has from what basically being benefited from these devils or these demons
You know who knows what information these devils or demons have but it seems like most likely they you know existed a lot longer
They've seen a lot more things or perhaps they even you know they can interact in the world differently than us
So maybe they actually can hear things that people say or they go and they hear private
Conversations or do stuff like that and they are able to use that information
To trick people or to basically take advantage of them
maybe they're able to you know basically read emotions differently than we are something or maybe they even enter into a
Person and they gain information from possessing that person that we wouldn't normally have and then when they go to the fortune reader
Or whatever they're able to basically get this kind of information look obviously the devil has some level of power
I mean the magicians in Egypt were performing all kinds of weird miracles and doing all kinds of weird acts
you know even some of these street magicians a
Lot of it's just sleight of hand okay in fact
I would say the vast majority is sleight of hand, but sometimes. It's like maybe they're literally using
sorcery witchcraft or devils to perform some of these acts you know people like
Chris Angel or
What's that one guy? That's David Blaine David Blaine. He does some weird stuff
You know where he's like penetrating his body with like sharp instruments and stuff like that
And it's like freaking people out and a lot of people are able to kind of explain away their tricks
But I've seen a lot of his where people can't even explain like what he's doing so who knows I don't want to know
I'm not interested in all this dark magic and all of this sussing and nonsense, but if someone took that away
Now they don't have the ability to get all that money in the financial game, so they get mad at Paul and Silas
Literally a woman has a devil cast out of her and they're mad at them
Now they take them to the government and what do they say to the government are they saying hey these guys are casting out devils
and helping people
No, what do they say they say in verse 21?
They're teaching customs which are not lawful for us to receive so they're saying hey though
What they believe about the law is not what we believe about the law and so they're throwing them in prison
Hey, this sounds familiar
Where you think that certain laws should be on the books or your laws are based on the word of God?
Your morals your ethics are based on the word of God and they use that against you don't they?
Isn't that what happened to John the Baptist?
Oh, yeah, John the Baptist is saying it's not lawful for him to be married to his brother's wife and
For Herodias sake he beheads him we have here. They're they're basically saying. Oh you you're teaching you know
Certain laws certain customs certain beings that are against the Roman customs
Therefore we should arrest these guys throw them in jail
And so on look the Romans are probably gonna have a lot more permissive laws
Than the Word of God then the morality of the Word of God they may have things
We don't know what this is this could be anything
Perhaps in Roman culture. They are okay with adultery, and you know Paul's getting up and saying adultery is wicked
It's not lawful people shouldn't be committing adultery and that offends them or perhaps
Obviously idolatry would be something that he's bringing up in a Roman culture. I mean they love idolatry
They're worshipping you know all kinds of false gods all kinds of pagan gods
Jupiter they're worshiping Diana of the Ephesians. You know the Bible talks about that's a Greek God
I guess, but it doesn't matter the idol. They're all the same devil
Okay, and at the end of the day we have to realize that Christians are gonna oftentimes be persecuted for not just the
gospel being spelled out
Don't think it's like well
You can only go to jail if you're preaching the gospel and they say it's because he's preaching the gospel
Paul's not getting arrested for preaching the gospel per se
They didn't say Paul's coming in here trying to tell people how to go to heaven. Let's throw him in jail
No, it's for whatever law
He was to be his preacher and in fact we see the real motivation was because he was healing people saving people and doing
A work for God, and I've noticed there's people in my life
Right you know maybe I shouldn't do it
But I'm like explaining how we're getting people saved doing work
And it's like they get more mad or try to attack me even more
And it's like I guess the devil's inside of them are just thinking like ah I see what they're doing
And they just try to attack you
but don't think that the devil and all the demons in this world aren't gonna try and to attack a soul-winning church a
church that's winning people to Christ and getting people saved and doing the Lord's work and preaching good doctrine and
Establishing churches what was Paul doing hey when Paul was going through his ministry. He also went to churches that are already there and
Preaching them just doctrine to establish them because that's important
It's not just preaching the gospel. Hey, it's preaching them all things whatsoever commanded
You know we got to preach the whole Bible the whole counsel of God, and we should be unashamed of believing anything
That's in the Bible
like when it says in verse 22 and
The multitude rose up together against them in the magistrate rent off their clothes and commanded to beat them and when they laid many stripes
Upon them and they cast them in the prison charging the jailer to keep them safely
Who having received such a charge thrust them into the inner prison and made their feet fast in the stocks?
And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and saying praises to God and the prisoners heard them now. I find this really
Incredible because this is some severe persecution. It says they laid many stripes upon them. They're throwing them in prison
they're you know basically in a sense falsely accusing them because
Obviously apostle Paul while he might believe the Roman law is not legitimate. He's not trying to usurp Roman law
He's not trying to go around and overthrow the government or anything like that
They were just using some kind of information and twisting it against Paul and Silas they were doing good
They were they're interested in just getting people saved. They're just going around getting people saved preaching the Bible
You know serving God and they're they're basically
Treating them like they're the worst criminals beating them throwing them in prison
What I like about Paul and Silas is even though they've gone through much worse severe persecution than any of us in the room ever gone
Through what is their attitude?
They're singing praises unto God isn't that incredible you know I think a lot of us
We don't even sing praises when we're not being persecuted
They're sitting in praises after being beaten and thrown in prison, and it would be really easy
To feel bad for yourself to feel sorry for yourself
And we have all this pity and woe is me and my life's hard
And this is terrible and everybody's lying and everybody's against me and and look sometimes. It feels like everyone's against you I get it
Sometimes it feels like no one's on your side sometimes
It feels like your whole family is just turned on you and your friends co-workers
World and you know it can seem like a lonely fight, and I'm sure for Paul this feels pretty lonely because they don't have
Online they don't have the ability to hop online and realize there's a bunch of people that are secretly
Supporting them or on their team or liking their post or you know sharing their article or you know
Calling them and saying hey keep going buddy
They're just out in the middle of just a bunch of Gentiles that they've never been in their life in a random city
Getting beaten and getting thrown in jail, and they're just like let's just sing praises to God
That's pretty incredible when you think about it. Keep your finger here go to Psalms 119 for a moment
Here's the verse that I always think of when I read this
Just because you know they're singing praises, and I'm wondering if this verse popped into their mind
You know or the Holy Ghost fed them this verse, but look what it says in Psalms 119 verse 62 at midnight
I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments
And I just love that song because this is a song you know this is a song
Maybe they were literally singing this they're like you know they're like the clock strikes, and I can just picture
It's like it's midnight, and they're like let's sing at midnight
You know but that there's pops in their mind, and they just able to sing now. I don't know what they were saying
I'm just giving you my this is my personal
No vision of this if I were to draw it up
This is what they would be doing right, but they're singing this song at midnight and look
There's never a bad time to praise the Lord and because of this it says in verse 26 and suddenly there was a great earthquake
So that the foundation of the prison were shaken and immediately all the doors were open and everyone's bands were loose and the keeper of
The prison awaking out of his sleep and seeing the prison doors open he drew out a sword and would have killed himself
Supposing the prisoners had been fled
But Paul cried a loud voice saying do thyself no harm for we are all here
Then he called for light and sprang in and came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas and brought them out and said sirs
What must they do to be saved and they said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved my house
It's that simple
We love this verse and we love reading this and really the connection I want to make here real quickly is
Notice that they sing praises
To God and a kind of a tough situation and then God opened them one of the easiest doors
They've ever had to get someone say one of the coolest stories to ever get someone safe
And so I'll just give you my story. Okay. This is mine's not as cool, but
On Monday morning I was getting a call
From our security because the cops had like come into our building in Dallas cuz someone threw a brick through our window and
basically vandalized our property and so I got that call and I
I basically just immediately left. I didn't even think about taking anything with me
I basically grabbed my phone and my keys and just went straight to the church put some shoes on or something and
As I'm driving there
I'm thinking about this because I had recently preached I preached that Sunday about the importance of singing praises to God and
How there's so many stories in the Bible how the children of Israel get victory by just singing, you know
As they're singing the Lord setting
Ambushments and as they're singing the Lord gives them the victory or I think about Jericho where they just shout and they sing praises and God
God just gives them the victory and I even pictured this story in my sermon where how they're singing and
They just get the victory. So I just I was like, you know what?
I'm just gonna sing some songs on my way to the church
I already knew they'd vandalized and there's problems with and then I get there and they vandalize it. It's fine
It's safe. And before I clean up the door, I'm like, you know what? I'm just gonna sit at the piano
I'm gonna play a psalm and sing it and then I'll clean it up
So then I just I sang a song and I played you know
One of the hymns one of Psalms 148 and then I start cleaning up and as I'm cleaning it up
This guy just shows up randomly
Just I've never met this person my entire life. He just shows up and he says hey
I was just driving by this morning and saw your door
Smash and I called the cops and I just wanted to let you know that and he's like
I decided to just come back and see what happened and I'm like, you know, yeah, that's what happened
Thanks for calling. I said hey, do you go to church? He's like no
And I was like, well more important than church, you know, what about salvation? He's like, I don't know
Be a good person. I guess I don't know and I was like you want to hear he's like, yeah
I want to hear and so I literally just get to share the gospel. I'm standing in the glass still
It's like standing in the glass glass and I'm just sharing the gospel with this random person that just came out of nowhere
They just want to hear the gospel. But that's not an accident that those things happen. Like it's not an accident
They're just singing praises to God
They're giving glory to God and then God just brings people into their life that they can just get the gospel to
not only am I giving the gospel of this is a Hispanic guy he speaks English good and
Basically as I'm giving the gospel these two ladies come by and literally start attacking me verbally
Hardcore and it was four minutes because I have it on video
It was four minutes straight of them literally verbally assaulting me and they're just like there
They heard me preaching the gospel clearly and they're just they're they're contradicting what I'm saying
They're saying that like they're telling this guy don't listen to him. He's a hate preacher
He hates the gays, you know get away from him don't listen to him for like four minutes straight and
They're just yelling at me and I was just being I was trying to be meek about it because I felt like if I was
Like really strong it might scare the guy away even easier and every second
I'm thinking this guy's just gonna walk away because they're just like assaulting me getting in between us
Pointing at me and getting my face and whatever
eventually they walk away and
The guy's still there and I'm just like I was like
Sorry about that. I said they're mad at me for some completely different reason
I'd really like to keep showing you this and he's like no problem. They're just a bunch of Karen's
And he's like, I don't like the gays, you know
like sweet, so I give him the whole gospel he gets saved and
Then I give him you know, I give him the sodomite deception DVD and he's just like I agree with you, you know, it's like
But I'm like, what are the odds that just some random person? I?
Didn't do anything
I'm just cleaning up glass in the front of my church and a random person just shows up wants to talk to me
Wants to hear the gospel endures a bunch of Karen's
You know
Finds out he found out I hate gays before I got to tell him, you know, or whatever and still get saved
I mean that's not just random, you know, I don't believe that for a second
and so, you know don't underestimate the value of praising God a
Singing praises to the Lord of
Giving him the honor and the glory and allowing cool things like this
And look, it's not like I just sing a song and random people are jumping in my car trying to get savoring
Yeah, I'm not trying to give you a weird impression
Well, what I am saying is that when you just serve God and you're praising him and you're seeking him cool things like this
will happen
Cool things can happen in your life. You can meet individuals where it's just like it's a really touching moment
And you know, that's what keeps you going so when it is moments like this, you know
You can go sometimes hours and not getting anybody saved
but then you get one like this or you run into a different person that they finally gets it and that just
Motivates you and keeps you going on just keep trying just cheap truck and just keep being steadfast
Because those people are out there that want to hear the gospel
There are people that want to get saved and you need to be the person to get them saved or they won't get saved
Verse 32 and it says and they spake on him the word of the Lord and to all that were in his house
And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes and was baptized
He in all his straight way, you know, it's cool about this story that we don't even think about
Not only that guy get saved his whole family got saved
There's a lot more people that were impacted by this decision than just him and you know
I tried to really encourage this guy said look you need to get your whole family saved
Watch these videos bring him to church, you know, and I haven't seen him yet
But hopefully his whole family gets saved verse 34 and when he had brought them into his house
He set meat before them rejoice believing in God with all his house
And when it was day the magistrate sent the surgeon saying let those men go now
I'm not gonna finish the rest of the chapter because it doesn't really matter
He just wants them to be taking them out and he converts them
But there's the last point I'm gonna make real quickly is this
We started with a really important truth that the mom had such an important impact on her family, but notice
The impact of a father too because notice that this man he got saved and then what does it say?
It says all his house, too
And so the impact that a man can have on his household and look I believe that there's many
Times where if the man would get saved the whole house would just say, you know
If the if the guy would decide to serve the Lord, you know, Joshua said as for me in my house
We will serve the Lord, you know and you know, obviously
You know, we're not always in that situation but a man has such an impact such authority over his family
He needs to be the spiritual leader. He needs to rise to the occasion and
Lead his family and take them to church and get them saved and do that which is right
Because of the huge impact that the father figure plays in a household, you know
Probably one of the most important aspects to any child's life is a father figure
Whether they're gonna be a derelict or a criminal or a serving God or any of these things and you don't want to continually
Perpetuate a bad stereotype or a bad situation, you know, even if you don't have the best father
you can be a great father under your children and
You can try to fill that role in your children's life and be the best parent that you can possibly be
You'd be the best father you can possibly be and to lead your family spiritually and realizing that
The greatest impact the child has in his life is from his parents
You know parents have such a crucial in a vital role and you know, even if you don't have physical children
You know what?
you can have spiritual children and that impact is still going to be the same and
we need to realize the importance and the impact we can have in people's lives and to humble ourselves and
to put ourselves our own selfish ambitions down and
Try to esteem other better than ourselves and try to value either the children or the relationships or the loss as
More important than our own personal ambitions our own personal satisfactions and just to try and serve the Lord and you know what God
Will end up doing great miracles, you know the Apostle Paul. I don't think that he's doing any of this for self-inhibition
There's not really any benefit
In fact, he has to ask for boldness because he doesn't want no one wants to walk into a town
Where everybody's gonna hate you everyone's gonna reject you people are gonna want to stone you
they're gonna throw you in prison and all you did was try to get them saved and heal them and
Bless them. Isn't that what happened to Jesus didn't Jesus come into the come into his own and his own received not
What did Jesus do that was bad? I mean he told him the truth. He killed every sickness every disease
He gave them free food. I mean, this is a great deal
I mean the best preaching you've ever heard the best meals you've ever had
Completely free. He's healing every sickness and every disease and they kill them
Serving God is going to be a very
Unappreciated job and and I'll say this being a parent is a very underappreciated job and you say how do you know that?
Because I know for a fact that I never appreciated my parents very much
Think about how little you really appreciate all the things you did for your parents did for you
I mean how many times did they change your diaper and clothe you and feed you and help you?
And often it's very easy for us to only think about the negative things our parents did
Whereas when we were children, they did so much we can't and we don't remember you
We don't even know but when you have kids you realize wow
Parents are like there's all this work
There's all this effort and they go through the teenage years and they're really uphill to deal with you know, it is and so as
God's people we need to realize that it's not about us
What can we give to other people?
What can we sacrifice and and and just basically be a vessel to be used by God to bless others. Let's go some prayer
Thank you father so much for your word. Thank you for
Examples like the Apostle Paul and Timothy and
how they really were willing to lay down their lives and invest in other people and how the Apostle Paul while he didn't have
physical children
He took upon him people like Timothy and he invested in him and made him a spiritual son in the faith and took him on
And played an important role in his life not having a strong father figure
He ended up playing a strong father figure for Timothy
Thank you so much for the mothers that raise young men like Timothy and and thank you for the fathers like this jailer who gets
His whole family saved
I pray that the men and women in this room would be motivated by the stories of these men and women
To raise their families for the Lord and to sacrifice and to put their children
His own interests above their own and that we'd realize the importance of serving others just like Jesus did for us and in Jesus name
We pray amen
You
All right for our next hymn this evening the last time this evening turn if you would to
424
424 we're gonna keep with our Christmas in July theme and sing. Oh come all you faithful
424
Let's sing
Warned the king of angels. Oh, come let us adore
Him, oh come let us adore
Him
Sing choirs of angels
Sing an exultation
Oh sing all ye pride
Above
Worry to God all glory in the highest
Oh come let us adore
Him oh come let us adore him. Oh come let us adore
Adore him
Yea Lord we greet thee
Born this happy morning
Jesus to thee be all glory
Give
The
Now in flesh appearing oh come let us
adore
Him, oh come let us adore
Him
Christ the Lord
Amen and with that you are dismissed. Have a good night