All right, folks, welcome to Pure Words Baptist Church.
We're going to go ahead and get started this evening.
If you would, grab your white handout.
Our first song tonight is going to be Psalm 150 in the white handout.
Psalm 150, 1-5-0 in your white handout.
Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet, Praise Him with the sultry hand of the harpsichord,
Praise Him with the tickle and dance, Praise Him with spring instruments and rings,
Praise Him upon the loud cymbals, Praise Him upon the high sounding cymbals,
Praise Him on the high sounding cymbals, Praise Him on the high sounding cymbals,
Praise Him on the high sounding cymbals,
God be merciful unto us and bless us,
and cause His face to shine upon us,
that Thy way may be known upon earth,
Thy saving health among all nations,
Let the people praise Thee, O God,
Let all the people praise Thee,
O let the nations be glad, and seek for joy, for thou shalt judge the people
Righteously and governed the nations upon earth, the nations upon earth see love
Let the people praise thee, O God
Let all the people praise thee, O let the nations be glad, and seek for joy
Then shall the earth yield her in praise
And God, even our own God, shall bless us, God shall bless us in all the ends
Of the earth shall fear him, let the people praise thee, O God
Let all the people praise thee, O let the nations be glad, and seek for joy
We need a bulletin, we have one over the cabinet
On the inside we have our service and soul winning times
As well as regional soul winning times and church stats
Is there any reporting for soul winning for the last few days to report?
I know we had two for salvation tonight, anything outside of that?
Alright, keep up the good work on soul winning
Also on the right we have our list of expecting ladies
Continue to be in prayer for them
As well as we have our upcoming events
Our chili cook-off, October 31st
And make sure you bring a chili if you'd like to enter into a competition
We'll have a good time of fellowship
And we'll keep the beans out of it this time, alright?
No beans, alright?
Hey, you can bring, I'll say this
You can bring bean chili
There's no problem, you just can't win the competition
Now, we're saving you the embarrassment of getting last place anyways
By not allowing you into the competition
But, you of course can bring it and people can eat it
And get their fill
You know, I'm sure all the good chilis will get eaten really quickly
So it'd be nice to have some
You know, basically make the statement of the wedding
The person who's over the wedding, true, in the Bible
Where he says, you know, you first give that what's good
And then bring out that which is worse later
That's kind of what you'd be doing with the chilis
So, also Thanksgiving, instead of having our normal service on Thursday
I'm just moving it to Tuesday that week
We'll have a dessert fellowship
So if you want to bring a dessert
We'll just, dessert of choice
And we'll just have services on Tuesday
So everything will be the exact same
As far as time, we'll still meet at 7pm
And we'll have our normal regular schedule service
And we'll have some dessert afterwards
And so that way you can still fellowship with your family
Or hang out on Thanksgiving, doing whatever you'd like
So, also December 33rd is a Thursday
And we're going to have our Christmas candlelight service then
We're definitely going to be doing Christmas caroling again this year too
I just need to figure out exactly what date
It'll be in December
The good thing about Houston is you can pretty much go anytime in December
And it's not a big deal
So, usually it's pretty good weather here in December
And so it's a lot of fun
And I really encourage you to come and participate
We do have a prayer request
If you'd please pray for brother Edward Gomino's health
Specifically his leg and foot
But brother Samson, give me an update
Said that he'd gotten a little bit of good news
From the doctors that maybe the antibodies
That they were giving him were helping
And so we'll continue to pray for him
And then hope that he'll recover fully
That's pretty much all that we have for announcements
We'll just go ahead and go to our third song, 183
Oh how I love Jesus, 183
I do have a couple guests with me
I have brother Dylan and brother Ben with me
Because we're working on a documentary
On another documentary on the King James Bible
And so we went up to Faithful Word yesterday
And we did some interviews with Pastor Anderson
And the Bible Museum there
And so hopefully we'll get a lot of work done in the next few months
And I'm planning on preaching a sermon here
To add into the film
And we're trying to make, we're trying to work on a documentary
That'll be a pure words publication
Pure words documentary
And so I'm really excited about that
And hopefully we'll get that done sooner than later
If it takes a while you can blame Ben
Okay, so that's the specific person you can blame
But other than that, I'm really excited
Let's sing our third song, 183 Oh how I love Jesus
All right, 183 Oh how I love Jesus
183, we'll sing there starting on the first verse
There is a name I love to hear
I love to sing it's worth
It sounds like music in my ear
The sweetest name on earth
Oh how I love Jesus
Because he first loved me
It tells me of a savior's love
Who died to set me free
It tells me of his precious blood
The sinner's perfect plea
Oh how I love Jesus
Because he first loved me
It tells me what my father had
In store for every day
And though I tread a dark sun path
Healed sunshine all the way
Oh how I love Jesus
Because he first loved me
It tells of one whose loving heart
Can feel my deepest love
Oh how I love Jesus
Because he first loved me
Amen, good singing this song
Because he first loved me
Amen, good singing this evening
If you would, grab your Bibles
Turn to Acts chapter number 20
Acts chapter number 20
We'll have Brother Sam read for us
Follow along if you would
While the offering plates are passed around
Alright, we're here again
Acts chapter number 20
We'll read this chapter together as always
If you would, find your places
Acts chapter number 20
And follow along with me here
The Bible reads in verse 1
After the uproar was ceased
Paul called unto him the disciples
And embraced them
And departed for it to go into Macedonia
And when he had gone over those parts
And had given them much exhortation
He came into grief
They are both three months
And when the Jews laid weight for him
As he was about to sail into Syria
He proposed to return through Macedonia
And there accompanied him into Asia
Asopodar of Virea
And of the Thessalonians
Aristarchus and Secundus
And Gaius of Derbe
And Timotheus
And of Asia
Tychaeus and Trophimus
These going before tarried for us at Troas
And we sailed away from Philippi
After the days of unleavened bread
And came unto them of Troas
In five days
For we abode seven days
And upon the first day of the week
When the disciples came together
To break bread
Paul preached unto them
Ready to part on the morrow
And continued in his speech until midnight
There were many likes in the upper chamber
Where they were gathered together
There set in a window a certain young man
Named Eutychus
Being fallen into a deep sleep
And as Paul was long preaching
He sunk down with sleep
And fell down from the third loft
And was taken up dead
Paul went down and fell on him
And embraced him
Said trouble not yourself
For his life is in him
When he therefore came up again
And had broken bread and eaten
And talked a long while
Even till break of day
So he departed
They brought the young man alive
And were not a little comforted
And we went before him to ship
And sailed unto Asos
There intending to take in Paul
For so he had appointed
Minding himself to go afoot
And when he met with us at Asos
We took him in and came to
Mydalene
And we sailed then
And came the next day
Over against Toa
And the next day
We arrived at Samul
And tarried at Trogillium
And the next day we came to Miletus
For Paul had determined to sail to Ephesus
Because he would not
Spend the time in Asia
For he hated
It was possible for him to be at Jerusalem
For the day of Pentecost
And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus
And called the elders of the church
And when they would come to him
He said unto them
Ye know from the first day that I came
Into Asia
After what manner I have been with you
At all seasons
Serving the Lord with all humility of mine
And with many tears and temptations
Which befell me by the lying weight of the Jews
And how I kept back nothing
That was profitable unto you
But have showed you and have taught you
Publicly and from house to house
Testifying both to the Jews
And also to the Greeks
Repentance towards God
And faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ
And now behold
I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem
Not knowing the things that shall befall me there
Save that the Holy Ghost
Witnesses in every city
Saying that bonds and afflictions abide me
But none of these things move me
These are kind of my life dear unto myself
So that I might finish my course
With joy and the ministry
Which I have received of the Lord Jesus
To testify the gospel
Of the grace of God
And now behold I know that ye all
Among whom I have gone preaching
The kingdom of God shall see my face
No more
Wherefore I take you to record this day
That I am pure
From the blood of all men
For I have not shunned to declare
Unto you all the counsel of God
Take heed therefore unto yourselves
And to all the flock
Over thee which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers
To feed the church of God
Which he hath purchased with his own blood
For I know this
That after my departing shall grievous wolves
Enter in among you
Not sparing the flock
Also of yourselves shall men arise
Speaking perverse things
To draw away disciples after them
Therefore watch and remember
That by the face of three years
I cease not to warn everyone
Night and day with tears
And now brother
I commend you to God
And to the word of his grace
Which is able to build you up
And to give you an inheritance
Among all them which are sanctified
I have coveted no man's silver
Nor gold or apparel
Yea, ye yourselves know
That these hands have ministered
Unto my necessities
And to them that were with me
I have showed you all things
How that so laboring
Ye ought to support the weak
More blessed to give than to receive
And when he had thus spoken
He kneeled down and prayed with them all
And they all wept sore and fell
On Paul's neck and kissed him
Thawing most of all for the words which he spake
That they should see his
Face no more
And they accompanied him unto the ship
By a head for a quick word of prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank you so much tonight
Father, first of all for the salvation
We achieved today and thank you for giving us
Salvation
Amen. Amen.
We're here in Acts chapter number 20 and we're doing a Bible study
Through the book of Acts
And in chapter number 19
There had been a big stir in
Ephesus. You have to remember that there was
A lot of people that were upset
Because they were afraid they were going to lose
Their great goddess
Diana. Great is Diana
Of the Ephesians. You know they were
Screaming and yelling and it
Starts off here in verse number 1
It says, and after the upper were
Ceased. So essentially after everybody
Calm down. But again what's our
Setting? Ephesus. Right?
We're still in Ephesus. That's where Paul has been
In chapter number 19. We're still here in chapter
Number 20. He called unto him the
Disciples and embraced them to depart
For to go into Macedonia
And when he had gone over those parts
And had given them much exhortation
He came into Greece. And so
We have here him talking to the
Disciples in Ephesus
And the Bible describes it in verse number 2
As much exhortation. Now
What is exhortation?
If you just look it up in the dictionary it says
To urge by strong
Often stirring
Argument, admonition
Advice, or appeal.
So according to the dictionary
And I think that's a really good
Way of wording it. It's essentially
Preaching. Exhort
Preaching. Now preaching
Can be all manner of subjects
Topics, emotions, and
Anything. So exhortation is not
Necessarily locked into a particular
Emotion or a particular
Type of preaching. But it's
Essentially doing something with urgency.
A lot of times people describe
Preaching as being bombastic. What is bombastic?
You know bombastic
Little bit of a negative term but
It's basically just saying
It seems like you overemphasize
Or you try to make something more important
Than it really is. But I
Don't love that criticism because here's the thing
I cannot overemphasize
The importance of God's word.
You can't urge the word of God
More than necessary
Because it is very necessary
It is a very urgent
Message. It is a very important
Message. And I don't think you can
Over-dramaticize the importance
Of God's word, His commandments,
The instructions that come from the Bible
And so to me if anybody actually believes
The Bible or is wanting to communicate
The correct message
It's going to be done with a sense of urgency
It's going to be done with much exhortation
Meaning I like preaching
Where the person seems like they actually care
You know I'm not interested in this kind of
You know Ben Stein
Style of preaching where it's
Dry eyes
Let's turn in our Bible to Acts
Chapter 20 now
Anybody care anymore
You know it's like no we should actually
Have a little bit of dynamic
When it comes to our preaching
We should care and really you know some people
Ask like how do I become a dynamic
Creature
Here's the key
Care
Just believe what the Bible actually says
You know if you actually care if you actually have some
Love in your heart towards the word of God
If you actually think it is important
It's going to be dynamic
Because everyone's dynamic
If your kid was drowning in a pool
You'd be screaming and it'd be real dynamic
You know if you were on fire you'd be screaming
It'd be real dynamic
Everybody can be dynamic
It's that they just don't care is the reason why
They're not dynamic
And often people that are fake
They try to seem dynamic
But there's something off about it
It's because it's insincere it's not genuine
And we don't want to force dynamics
We want to yell just to yell
We want to yell because we think it's important to say loudly
You know it's something that we actually believe in
We actually care
And so exhortation is really important
And we want to be a part of a church
We want to be a part of a group that exhorts one another
You know when we go out soul winning
There should be a little bit of exhortation
In your soul winning
You should have a sense of urgency
When you're there at the door
Because this might be this person's last time to hear the gospel
There might not be another time
Where someone's going to knock on their door
And give them an opportunity to go to heaven or hell
You know make sure that they have
Hey this is your window of opportunity buddy
You know believe it now
You know the Bible doesn't say today is the day of salvation
It says now
Because now is the day of salvation
Now is the accepted time
I mean so there's never more important time than now
According to the Bible
Do you think that's urgent
When someone says now
I mean if your boss said hey I want you to get this done
Now!
Does that sound like it's urgent?
It sounds like it's urgent to me
When it comes to the word of God
God uses words like now
Choose you this day
He doesn't say go home
Ask the wife
Get a permission slip
Make sure you can come back and serve God this week
No he says choose you this day whom you're going to serve
The Bible speaks in urgent terms
It says your life is but a vapor
It passes away
Make sure that we're willing to preach with urgency
With exhortation
We should have some care
When we're talking to this person thinking this might be their last time
I might be this person's last hope
You know and with that type of mentality
You're going to put in more effort
You're going to care a little bit more
You're going to compel them to come in
You're not just going to be like
Joy hell buddy
Now obviously
Some people have this cavalier attitude
With someone that's like a known reprobate
But this is a weird attitude to have
You know we shouldn't have this type of attitude
That's just like who cares
You know they didn't like me
They didn't want to be nice to me or whatever
Look if someone's mean to me at the door
But I can get them saved
I want to get them saved
If someone's not that interested
But I can get them saved
I want to get them saved
If someone's a little inconvenienced
By me preaching them the gospel
I want them to get saved
I'm going to put a little bit of pressure on them
It's called confrontational soul winning
We're confronting them with the gospel
We're confronting them with this message
We're exhorting them
And look not just salvation
The exhortation is also done to the disciples
Saying you guys need to serve God
You need to get right with the Lord
You need to take the Christian life seriously
And so when it comes to the Christian life
We need to live our lives like Paul
Where we're giving much exhortation
You know we have a sense of urgency
We have a message that we believe is actually important
And it comes with actually
Having strong faith in the Lord
And believing the things that he said
Look at verse 3
And there are both three months
And when the Jews laid weight for him
As he was about to sail into Syria
He purposed to return through Macedonia
And there accompanied him in Asia
Soapator of Berea
And of the Thessalonians
Aristarchus and Segundus
And Gaius of Derbe
And of Asia
Tychicus and Trophimus
Now this is an interesting list
And I think why God included this
Is because
Notice he picks up a companion
Like he has more companions than he started
Right it's like Paul and Silas
And then later
Paul and Barnabas
And then it's Paul and Silas
So we kind of see Paul kind of shifting
As far as who he's initially going out with
But here he has a lot more companions
He's picking people up along the way
But notice each one of these is from a different place
It's Soapator of Berea
Right
And then it says of the Thessalonians
Aristarchus and Segundus
And then Gaius of Derbe
And Timotheus
And of Asia
Tychicus and Trophimus
This I believe is mentioned here
To help you realize that
You know you may not get
Everyone in that whole area saved
But there might be a really good
Disciple there
Or not everybody might come to church
But there might be a really good disciple in this area
And it's more important to just keep going with your message
And reaching the people that are really interested
And getting them on your team
Than just saying
You know what I'm locked in a derby
Because if you're locked in a derby
You may only have
Gaius
You may never meet
Soapator
You may never meet Timotheus
You never meet
Take a kiss
And I like this
I focus and try to put attention
To the people that care
Rather than the ones that don't
You know
And let's just keep going wherever we can go
And spreading the gospel
And worrying about
You know
Going to new areas
And reaching new people
Because you know what
You can take a horse to water
But you can't force him to drink
And you know
I don't want to waste my life
Forcing horses to drink water
That they're not interested in drinking
I'd rather try and get new horses
That are going to go ahead and drink anyways
I'd rather go and find sheep
That are actually interested in following a shepherd
Rather than trying to get a goat
And herd them into the church house
You know what I mean
And so like our ministry
If you notice
It's not really big on follow up
It's bigger on what?
Soul winning
Now for lots of reasons
First of all soul winning is the first works
It's the most important works
But additionally I'd rather meet
Just get more and more people exposed
To the truth
Like the truth
Because the more people you're exposed to
Whoever's going to actually end up following the truth
You don't have to worry about
They're going to follow the truth
So just keep going to new areas
And new places
And reaching new people
And you'll eventually rack up
Someone from Maria
And someone from Derby
And someone from Beaumont
Right
And someone from Cyprus
And someone from Richardson
And someone from Houston proper
You know
You kind of got all these different areas
Of a church
Rather than just saying
You know what
We're locked into the zip code right here
You know
I want that zip code
But that's what most churches do don't they
Isn't most churches
The majority of the churches
In that zip code
In that area
They don't have a large group of people
I mean I think we probably have more distance
Traveling to this church
Than churches that are running
Two or three times the number of people
If you just add up all the distance
That are going on
Why?
Because it's more important to get quality
Than quantity
It's more important to just reach the world
With the gospel
Than to just focus in on people that are not that interested
And you know what
Paul's ministry
Is a ministry of just trying to get as much
Exposure as possible
And notice that that exposure
Is going to reach good people
And so I believe in our lifetime
We should do the same
You know
Some people would say
Why do you go to Waco
For a small town soul winning
Why do you go to college station
Why do you go to Shreveport
Because we want to get as much exposure
As we possibly can
Yeah we could just do only soul winning
Right around our church couldn't we
I mean there's still plenty of places
Around this church
And churches in Dallas where we're
That we haven't even reached
But I think it's better
To just constantly cast out our net
And try to expose ourselves
To as many new people as we possibly can
And reach new areas
And try to get what
People from Berea
People of the Thessalonians
People of Derby
And get people from all over the world
Fortunately we have the internet
To do that for us
Don't we
I mean the internet's a great tool
You know it's benefited
And profited a lot of fruit
And you get all these people
From all these different areas
Look at what it says in verse five
These going before tarried for us at Troas
And we sailed away from Philippi
After the days of unleavened bread
And came unto them to Troas
In five days
Where he abode seven days
And upon the first day of the week
When the disciples came together
To break bread
Paul preached unto them
Ready to depart on the morrow
And continued his speech
Until midnight
Now in verse seven
It's probably the strongest verse
There's other verses
That we could point to and look at
But it's probably one of the strongest verses
To indicate why church is actually held on Sunday
Now you know you could argue
The stronger point would be the fact
That Jesus rose again on the dead
Or rose again from the dead
On the first day of the week
But as a picture of Christians
Actually meeting on the first day of the week
We have this verse here
Notice it says
And upon the first day of the week
When the disciples came together
To break bread
So it's kind of connecting
The first day of the week
As when the disciples would come together
And what happens
He preaches
Right
Now
I guess if we're going to follow this model though
I'm going to have to preach until midnight
I'm joking
Okay
But
Don't get mad at my long sermons
Because Paul preached until midnight
Alright
So if you want to make really
You know
A big deal about preaching for a long time
I'll start following this model
Alright
But again
I think it's better
To preach longer sermons
And to give more exposure to the word of God
And to help people
To help people actually have a real attention span
If you think back in the old days
Or you study about history
And things like that
Preachers would preach two to three hour sermons
You know
There was a lot
Longer sermons in the past
And you say
Why?
They didn't have TV
They didn't have radio
They weren't going to go to listen
To Alex Jones on the way home
Okay
They weren't going to listen to
Some news radio show
They didn't have the newspaper
They didn't have all these things
So they came to the church
They came here
You know
To learn something
They're interested in the things of God
And you know what
I preach against a lot of things
Some of those would be
TV
Movies
A lot of these things that are worldly today
Because they influence you
They affect you
They cause problems
When you're just constantly soaking in
The world's filth
It warps your mentality
It warps your perspective
It makes you think about things
That you wouldn't normally think about
You get concerned with things
That you wouldn't normally be concerned with
And really ultimately
It affects you
You know
Be not deceived
Evil communications corrupt good manners
Is what the Bible teaches
And so we have to be careful
What we listen to
What we look at
What we pay attention to
And so I'd rather
My children grow up
Where the majority of their entertainment
As it were
Is the word of God being preached
Not Nickelodeon
Not Bugs Bunny
Not
And look
That's probably the mild stuff
I don't even know what it is today
You know
Now all of a sudden
Superman's supposed to be a faggot
Right
What kind of
I don't even know what kind of filth
I know that the TV show Arthur
When we were doing research
On the sodomite deception
Arthur had gay characters in it
You know
A lot of cartoons are introducing these
LGBTQ characters
They're introducing all kinds of adult themes
You know
Most cartoons are introducing the idea
Of boyfriend and girlfriend
And people living together
And all kinds of weird dynamics
And all kinds of weird situations
That kids didn't even think about
Kids aren't even interested in
And I want to plant those ideas
And those thoughts into my child's mind
You know what I like to plant in their mind
The word of God
You know what I like to plant in their mind
Hearing a sermon being preached
And think about this blessing
You know when you go out to a restaurant to eat
You probably sit there for an hour, hour and a half
So don't you want the church service
To be about an hour, hour and a half
So your kids get used to being patient
And still
And behaving themselves
So you can enjoy your children in other settings
In other areas of life
You know
We could just come here
And I could just read you one verse
And we could just go home
You know
I think the goal of coming to church
And hearing the Bible preached
Is to hear the whole Bible preached
And if you're going to hear the whole Bible preached
That takes a long time
It would take a lot of effort
I mean
There's what
1189 chapters I believe
In the Bible
I mean that's a lot
Of verses
And some chapters are long
I mean
Psalms 119
There's no way you're going to preach that in one sermon
There's no way you're going to preach certain chapters of the Bible
In one sitting
In one time setting
And there's a lot of stuff we can constantly dig out of the word of God
And I believe that God wants us to study the entire Bible
I think God wants the church to preach the entire Bible
And if God wants that then we need to have
A setting
We need to have a plan
Where we're going to actually do that
And notice Paul
I mean
They're not afraid
They're not like
Hey will you just stop preaching already
When are we going to eat again
You know
Or like
When are we going to have some fun here
Or whatever
No fun for them is hearing Paul preach
I mean this is the apostle Paul
And when the apostle Paul is preaching
You're just like
I just don't want this sermon to be over
You know
I just keep preaching
You know
And whenever someone is actually preaching a good sermon
I often think like
I don't want the sermon to end
When someone is preaching a bad sermon
I want it to end immediately
You know
So it really depends on the content doesn't it
How about this movies
I remember
I've watched a lot of movies in my past
But there would be movies I'm watching
And I'm like really enjoying it
And I'm kind of like
I hope this movie is long
Like I hope this movie is going to keep going
Or you know
You're kind of disappointed when it's over
Because it's like
It's kind of a bummer
It's kind of a let down after a movie
And that's how
I feel like movies are like candy bars
Or something
Where it's like
It's a high while you're eating it
But as soon as it's over
It's kind of a downer
And it's like
Movies are like that
You like watch the movie
And then you're just kind of like
Oh
I live in real life now
You know
Like
I have to go back to the real world
Biden is still my president
You know
Like
And a lot of movies
They end at a happy ending
And then you're like
Biden is still my president
You know
I'm scared
But at the end of the day
You know
I don't think there's anything wrong with long sermons
In fact
If I had to pick
I would say
But
At the end of the day
The most important thing in a sermon
Is preaching the truth
Having
You know
The content
Be
Accurate
According to
The word of God
Now let's keep going
It says in verse 8
And there were many lights
In the upper chamber
Where they were gathered together
And there sat in a window
A certain young man
Named Eutychus
Being fallen into a deep sleep
And as Paul was long preaching
He sunk down with sleep
And fell down from the third loft
And was taken up dead
Paul went down and fell on him
And embracing him said
Trouble not yourselves
For his life is in him
When he therefore was come up again
And had broken bread and eaten
And talked a long while
Even till break of day
So he departed
Now
He's preaching so long
People are falling asleep
And then dying
Okay
So again
Long sermon
Now
I think there's a little bit of
Symbolism here
Because the Bible often
And I'm not going to turn
To all these different places
Because this is a long chapter
But
If you study a lot of
End times Bible prophecy
The Bible is constantly
Reiterating this one phrase
Watch
Now a watch in the Bible
Is an interesting position
When people would sleep at night
It's dangerous right
And today you have things like
Brinks home security
Or you have a dog
Or something like that
And they still use dogs
And things like that
But they also had a watch
And what a watchman would do
Or what the watch would
Purpose was
Is in the night
While people are sleeping
They're awake
And he's looking for enemies
He's looking for trouble
He's looking for problems
So if there's something that's
Bad
He'll alert everybody
That's sleeping
Wake them up
And they can basically evade
Or be ready to defend themselves
Against some kind of an evil
And so when it comes to the
End times
We're supposed to be watching
We're supposed to be paying
Attention to what's going on
And the symbolism is
If the watchman falls asleep
What happens?
Everyone dies
Because you basically
Are not avoiding any of the evil
That's coming upon you
Some kind of problem's
Going to happen to you
And here's the thing
Paul's preaching for a long time
Remember?
So the longer the preaching goes
What happens?
The sleepier you get
The more tired you get
The more difficult
The more you have to kind of
Endure a little bit
Or you're maybe a little bit
Faint
And so it's kind of a picture
Of how I believe
You know as we're getting
To the end times
You know it might be easy
To be kind of faint
Of the hard work
Of serving God
You know the persecution's
Going to ramp up
Towards the end times
It's going to get more difficult
It's going to be more problematic
But Jesus is saying
Stay awake
Watch
Think about the disciples
That are away with Jesus
There in the time of temptation
There where he's trying to pray
In the garden of Gethsemane
What happens?
All the disciples fall asleep
And he's asking them to watch
A little while with them
Meaning you know when we get
To the intense times
We don't want to fall asleep
We don't want to quit
We want to stay awake
We want to keep watching
Lest we fall asleep
And fall out the window and die
And you know what Christians
That stop paying attention
They stop staying awake
They stop fighting
They often will be destroyed
By falling asleep
By you know basically
Not paying attention
And so it's important
That even though
You have to endure a long time
Even though you have to go
Through some difficulty
We want to stay awake
We want to be sober
We want to be watching
We want to be paying attention
So as we don't fall out the window
So as we don't fall by the wayside
So as we don't slip
And go into you know
A different bad situation
But even if you do
We're still getting resurrected
Right?
So it didn't turn out that bad
For you to guess
It was kind of a cool story
Right?
Hopefully his you know neck
And face still look the same
Afterwards but
I don't know
At least he got back up
Right?
Now it's funny because
As soon as they get back in
And think about this
You just killed somebody
Because you were preaching
So long
When did you think like
Alright now I'm done talking
Right?
But then notice what it says
When they come back in
In verse 11
And when he therefore
Was come up again
And had broken bread and eaten
And talked a long while
Even till the break of day
So he departed
So it's like after the longest
Sermon ever
Someone even died
Then they come back in
And then they fellowship even longer
All the way until the morning basically
Now what this tells me
Is that Christian fellowship
Enjoys hanging out with each other
Doesn't it?
Amen
They stay up in the wee hours
Of the night talking
Because it's just so much fun
To be around brothers and sisters
In Christ
It's so much fun
To be around the men of God
And preachers
And you know what
I notice this is a really common theme
In new IFB churches
That people love to talk
About the Bible
They love to fellowship
They love to hang out
They'll even go into the wee hours
Of the night
Because there's just nothing
Like reviving your spirit
With being around brothers
And sisters in Christ
Nothing like being around people
That are sane
There's nothing like being around people
That are logical
That don't, you know
Haven't fallen for all the goofy weirdness
That's going on in our world today
It's nice to be around some normal
You know
God fearing people today
That are dressed normal
Look normal
Speak normal
They have cognitive thinking
You know
You don't have to explain things to them
Like they're a toddler
Or a child
You know
It's enjoyable
It's enjoyable fellowship
And notice
They're not drinking alcohol
To have a good time
They're not going to the bar
To have a good time
No, you know what
It enthralled them
You know what's so exciting to them
You know what kept them up all night
The word of God
The Bible
Preaching
Being around God's people
You know
I don't need
We don't need all that other junk
All that other junk is not satisfying
It's not fun
You don't leave with a good feeling
You leave empty
Whenever you leave God's fellowship
You feel full
You say
Man that was really good
Man that makes me feel even better
Man that makes me feel capable
To take on the next day
And to go on the next week
You know
To get out there
That's why you can't rival
Christian fellowship
Nothing's better
It says in verse number 12
And they brought the young man alive
And were not a little comforted
I love that
They were not a little comforted
Meaning what
You know
These type of events
These type of scenarios
These type of days
Are going to be memories for a lifetime
And
You're going to have your spirit revived
To a point where you can go and face
Evil
You can face adversity
You just fellowship with the apostle Paul
You just saw Uticus die
And come back up
You know
You just heard some of the greatest preaching
You've ever heard in your entire life
These are going to be
Life changing moments
This encounter
Was a life altering encounter for Uticus
It was a life altering encounter
For the disciples
For these young ministers
For these young Christians
For these young disciples
That have been in the presence of Paul
And that have heard his preaching
And to fellowship with them
It was going to help carry them through
The rest of their lives
They weren't just a little comforted
It wasn't just like
Oh that was kind of nice
No this was a big boost
To their spiritual journey
This was a big boost to their spiritual walk
And you know what
Never underestimate church
Never underestimate being around God's people
Never underestimate soul winning
Never underestimate hearing a sermon on a Friday night
Or on a Saturday
On a special night
On a special service
Because you never know
When that one night is going to happen
Where Uticus falls out the window
You never know
When Paul is going to come into town
You never know
When you're going to have that great night of fellowship
You never know
When that sermon is going to hit you just right
And it's going to have a spark in you
That's going to change the rest of your life
And I've seen people
That I was concerned
About the direction they were headed in their life
But somehow
Through hard preaching
Somehow through the power of the word of God
It's like something changed about them
And I don't know when it was
I don't know what happened
I don't even know if they know what happened
I don't even know at what point
They could really say like
It was that moment
It was that sermon
But I know that it happened
By being around God's people
I know that it happened by being in church
I know that it happened by hearing the word of God being preached
I know that it happened by reading the Bible
I know it happened
It was a spiritual miracle
A seed that was planted into their heart
And we need to never underestimate
The spiritual seeds that are being planted in us
When we come to church
When we hear the Bible being preached
When we have a chance to be
In the fellowship with God's people
And so we need to never underestimate
We need to never underestimate the importance
Of having Christian fellowship
And the Bible talks about in Hebrews chapter number 10
A warning to those that would not fellowship together
Forsaking the assembling of themselves together
As the manner of some is
And so the Bible warns that we're not supposed to do that
The Bible says that we're supposed to do it so much the more
As you see the day approaching
Meaning it's even more important to go to church in 2021
Than it was in 2022
It's even more important to go to church on Thursday night
It's even more important to come to church this Sunday
And then you know what?
After the Sunday morning service
You know what's even more important than that?
Sunday night service
You know what's even more important than that Sunday night service?
The next Thursday service
Every single service is more important than the last one
That's what the Bible teaches
And so it's important to just keep serving God
And keep getting plugged in
And guess what?
You won't be a little comforted
It won't just be a little
It wasn't just a little
You'll be having your spirit revived
Look at verse 13
And we went before the ship
And sailed to Assos
There intending to take in Paul
For so he had appointed
Minding himself to go afoot
And when he met with us at Assos
We took him in and came to Midilene
And we sailed thence
And came the next day over against Chios
And the next day we arrived at Samos
And tarried at Trogillium
And the next day we came to Miletus
For Paul had determined a cell by Ephesus
So he started in Ephesus
But he's kind of just making like one last hurrah real quick
To just kind of like say bye to everybody
And check on everybody
Now he's kind of full circle of Ephesus
But he would not spend time
Spend the time in Asia free-hasted
So he's not like sticking around
He's just kind of like wham bam
Quick trips
I know what that's like
Quick trips
But it says free-hasted for
If it were possible for him to be at Jerusalem
The day of Pentecost
So he really wants to make it back to Jerusalem
On the day of Pentecost
I don't know exact reason
Possibly just because
A lot of people are going to be there
You know that's kind of a typical time
When a lot of Jews are traveling to there
You know he often
Has a soft spot for Jews
Wants them to be saved
He wants to have a lot of exposure
And preach to a lot of people
So maybe that's his purpose
I don't know
But he's decided he really wants to make it back
Before Pentecost
So that's why he's kind of having a hasty journey here
It says in verse 17
And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus
And called the elders of the church
And when they were come to him
He said unto them
Ye know from the first day that I came into Asia
After what manner I have been with you at all seasons
Serving the Lord of all humility of mine
And with many tears and temptations
Which befell me by the laying in wait of the Jews
And I have kept back nothing that was profitable unto you
But have showed you and taught you publicly
And from house to house
Testifying both to the Jews
And also to the Greeks
Repentance toward God
And faith for our Lord Jesus Christ
Now again he doesn't necessarily enter into Ephesus
He's just kind of going near it
He's calling for those that are in Ephesus
To come to him to Miletus
So he's basically saying he's in Miletus
He's like hey I'm nearby
Why don't you guys just come over here and let's talk
And he sends for the elders of the church
Now the elder would be synonymous in our Bible
In this chapter it's with overseer
But other places would be pastor or a bishop
So you kind of have like four different terms in the Bible
That are real similar as far as a title is concerned
An elder, an overseer, a pastor or a bishop
Now all those terms can also be used in other contexts
In other methods
The word elder can mean a couple different things
It could mean someone who's older
If it's used in context with another noun
Or it could simply be a title of a pastor
Or an elder, overseer
Something that we would see mentioned here
Here it's very clearly talking about the pastors
The leaders of the church that are coming
It describes them in a later verse as the overseers
Verse 28
It said over the which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers
Okay so calling the leaders of the church
This makes sense right
He's leading, he's checking on the leaders of the church
Instructing them again
And he's telling them that
He's instructing them to serve the Lord
And he's telling them that he served the Lord with all humility of mind
And I think in verse 19 this is a really interesting thought
It's something that he's bringing up
He says it with many tears
And you know
You have to realize that Paul went through a lot of difficulty
Went through a lot of struggle
And I think he just
He's looking at his like old self in a sense
Like he's looking at himself when he was younger
Cause you know he's gone through the gamut
He's gone and he served the Lord for a long period of time
He's gone through all these churches
He's seen what ugly is like when it comes to you know
The Jews and people that are the enemies of the Lord
And people that are going to attack him and all the evil that happened
So he's kind of looking at them and he's like
You know he's tiered
He's got a lot of tears
And I think it's probably also
From the fact that the apostle Paul's a little hard headed
Through his ministry
He's constantly trying to get the Jews saved
But they're not interested
And then he's like I'm not going to preach to you Jews again
And then like later he does this again
And he's like no I'm not going to preach to you Jews again
And then he has to do it again
And so I think he had to learn a lot of hard lessons
He went through a lot of evil
He went through a lot of persecutions
And so he's trying to warn them and he's just very sincere
He's just saying look guys
This is real
Persecution's real
Bad stuff's going to happen to you
And you know when you're telling someone that something bad's going to happen to them that you care about
It draws a normal emotional response with some tears
You know you look at them and you know
You don't want bad things to happen to your kids
You don't want bad things to happen to your family
You don't want bad things to happen to the people that you're training or teaching
And so to him it's kind of this tearful
You know emotional situation
And he's explaining to them look
There's been many times that I've
You know taught you with tears
Because I just realized
You're going to go through some hard stuff
Like I did
You know it brings an emotional response
It's easier for you to suffer
Than for someone else to suffer that you care about
That's why the Bible illustrates the greatest love of the Father
Sacrificing no son
Because while it would be horrible and awful to have to sacrifice yourself
It's even more tear jerking and more emotional
To have to sacrifice your child
You know sacrifice someone else
And see them go through the evil and go through the pain and the suffering
And so I think the Apostle Paul
Just genuinely cared about people
You know you can really feel that in the scriptures
You can really sense that through his language
Through his actions
Through the things that he's doing
And because of his great love for the disciples
And for these people
He's very teary eyed
At thinking about other people hurting
Other people suffering
Other people not getting the message
Other people being heartbroken
Because he realizes you know what's going to happen
Some of these people are going to get killed
They're going to get stoned
Worse than that
They're going to have people betray them
Backstab them
You know their friends
That they thought they were friends
Are just going to totally just get Judas to them
And beyond that there's going to be innocent
Poor families and widows and children
That just evil wicked people are going to come
And just prey upon
And just rabid
And hurt
And just destroy
I mean probably one of the most evil things
That you can ever watch
Or look at today
Is abortion videos
Or abortion photos today
I mean those things
Any normal person
Seeing that kind of stuff
I mean just instant tears
Or just it's an emotional response
I mean it's so horrifying
And to the Apostle Paul
He's thinking that from a spiritual perspective
Of seeing like spiritual abortion
Where predators come in
And they just destroy little innocent babes
And cry spiritually
And they just tear them apart
And just hurt and harm them
And rip them from the womb
That was protecting them
And you know what
That's the kind of evil
That the Apostle Paul is aware of
He's thinking of
And the reason why I think that
Is because of what he's going to say in a few moments
What he's going to say in the next few chapters
I mean he's like
Look guys this is real
Look you want to be a leader of a church
Realize there's a lot of real stuff that's going to happen
Some dangerous stuff that's going to happen
And what the Apostle Paul is saying
Is reminding them how he taught
He taught them publicly
Beware of the preacher that doesn't preach publicly
That doesn't teach you doctrines publicly
That's afraid of public criticism
That's afraid of people knowing what they believe
Hiding their material
Hiding what they have to say
Hiding dissent
Hiding you know
When the Apostle Paul went into an area
He would contend with the Jews publicly
He wasn't saying like
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I don't care what you have to say
No he would confound the Jews
No he would show them
There's foolishness and there's stupidity
Openly among the people
He wasn't afraid of dissenting opinion
People that are afraid of dissenting opinion are wrong
Because when you're right
You're not afraid of dissenting opinion
Because you know there's nothing they can say against the truth
You know they can't gain say the truth there
Because you've already laid a rock solid foundation
You know the Bible's not afraid of lies
The Bible's not afraid of what criticism people are going to throw at it
Because it's always going to stand the test of time
It's always going to stand up to scrutiny
The truth fears no investigation
Because the truth can't change
It's the truth
You know what's afraid of scrutiny?
Lies
You know it's afraid of scrutiny dishonesty
You know it's afraid of scrutiny cockroaches
And the apostle Paul had a mission from God to preach the truth
Therefore he taught it publicly from house to house
And he testified both to the Jews and also the Greeks
He also didn't shy away from who he preached to
Even knowing that the Jews aren't even that receptive
Even knowing that the Jews aren't even that interested
He taught them
And you know what he made it clear how to get saved
Repentance toward God
Meaning don't believe in anything else
Put all your faith in God
And specifically
Faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ
Right?
If you're going to repent
You've got to turn
And what are you turning towards?
Jesus Christ
Meaning you're putting your faith in Jesus Christ
And when he's going out to preach
No one's believing in Jesus Christ really
I mean the vast majority of everyone's trusting in themselves
Their works
A false religion
Idols
Something else
So those that are believing in idols
The Greeks
They have to reject the idols
Repent
And put their faith in Jesus Christ
The Jews
They're believing in their works
So what do they have to do?
They have to repent
Of their works
Repent from trusting in how good a person they are
Repent from the repenting of their sin
And decide to put all their faith
Towards Jesus Christ and what he did for them
His death barrel
And resurrection
Verse 22 it says
And now behold
I go bound in the spirit of Jerusalem
Not knowing the things that shall befall me there
Say that the Holy Ghost witnesses in every city
Saying that bonds and afflictions abide me
So in verses 22 and 23 he's basically saying
I gotta go to Jerusalem
I really feel compelled to do it
And I don't know what's gonna happen
But I do know that the Holy Ghost told me
No matter where I go
I'm gonna suffer persecution
That's what he's basically saying
He's like I don't know how I'm gonna get persecuted
I don't know how I'm gonna suffer
I don't know what bad thing's gonna happen to me
I just know something bad's gonna happen to me
And he's like
Well how do you know something bad's gonna happen to me?
Well he's like
Well he did say every city
Now that makes me think of verses you know
Yea and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution
So you know what that tells me
No matter what city you go and start a church in
You will be persecuted
You know some people are like
Well I wanna go to the city that loves Jesus
That doesn't exist
Well I wanna plant a church here cause then I won't suffer
Wrong
You know some people will be like
Oh we're in the city that's got the persecution
We're in California
We're on the front lines
Oh okay
And they'll be like Texas is you know where it's safe
It doesn't feel that safe
I'm just being honest
You know when you're being sued by everybody
And you get everybody attacking you
Look I feel like I have more enemies than I can count
In the bible belt you know
In Texas you know
Where it's the land you know it's the promised land or whatever
Look it doesn't matter where you plant a church
It doesn't matter where you try to serve god
Don't think like well I wanna plant a church
Where I won't be persecuted
Not gonna happen
Every city
Yay and all that will have godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution
You know here's the question
Are you godly?
Because it doesn't matter what city you're in
It just matters how godly you are
And you say well why am I not being persecuted
I'm in a really wicked city
It's because you're just not godly
You're not a light
You know the cockroaches aren't gonna turn
The light out when the light's not on
You know when you're like mainly pairing
You just turn the light out
It's like you're not gonna get persecuted
Because there's nothing to persecute
You're just fitting in with the world now
You're just hiding it under a bushel
I don't even think the guy's saved
But I'm just saying even if you were saved
And you hide your light under a bushel
Of course you're not gonna get persecuted
And look we don't need another church
In Houston or in Texas
That's just gonna put a bushel on top of their church
And hide it
No we need churches to take the bushel
Off of the church
And shine the light of the glorious gospel of Christ
To shine the truths of the word of God
To preach upon the housetops
To make it manifest what God has declared
And you know what when you do that
You will be persecuted
That's why they don't do it
They literally will hide what they preach
They'll hide what they teach
Or they won't preach certain parts of the Bible
They won't preach unpopular truths of the day
And you ask them why not
Well I don't want protesters
Well I don't want people to leave my church
Well I don't want someone to call me and be angry
I don't want someone to leave me a bad Google review
Right? I mean literally
They honestly would be worried about that
They'd be upset
You know you might even get fired
If you preach a sermon at some of these churches
And someone left a bad Google review
You know you offend the wrong deacon
You offend the wrong family
You offend the wrong person in some church
You know some big tither or something like that
You know God forbid you'd actually step on someone's toes once in a while
You'd get the wrong Betty upset
You know butch Betty
Who's gonna come down there and she's gonna tell the pastor
Like did he know what he preached?
And it's like yeah
It was about you
You're wrong sit down and shut up
I mean men
We don't have men of God in this world today
That are willing to stand up and preach the Bible
And tell it as it is
But you know what we need more of that
We need more churches to stand up
And say you know what
All I know is I'm gonna be afflicted
I don't know how
But it's gonna happen
And let me say this
I'm not looking for it
I don't want it
I'm not interested in it
And all the problems that I have I never saw coming
I'm not like
Well this is definitely gonna happen
Cause if I knew it was gonna happen
I would've done a lot of things different to prevent the damage
I would've changed some of my courses of action
But I know this
As long as I continue to preach the word of God
As long as we continue to go soul winning
As long as we're baptizing people
As long as I'm preaching through any part of the Bible
Popular or unpopular
Someone's gonna persecute us
Someone's gonna afflict us
Something bad's gonna happen
There's gonna be some kind of evil
You're gonna have to go through adversity
You're gonna have to go through difficulty
It's just a lock step guarantee
And that's why the apostle Paul's warning these guys
Cause he's not thinking like
You guys are good y'all are in Ephesus
No I already know every city
Cause Paul went to every city
He already planted the church in every city
He's already like look guys
You're in trouble
I've been here
I've done that
And in fact he didn't even return to the city
Cause the last time he came
Everybody went into the theater and was screaming
For hours they were so mad
Right?
He already knows they have a big fight
He already knows there's gonna be a big struggle
And look
The devil is real
His tears are real
And when you go to fight
When you go to battle
There is gonna be opposition
Look at what it says in verse 24
But none of these things move me
You know what that sounds like?
Steadfast
You know what that sounds?
Unmovable
Hey always abounding in the work of the Lord
Right?
So the apostle Paul says
You know what?
I know I'm gonna suffer
I know evil's gonna happen
I know it's gonna hurt
But you know what?
I'm gonna do it anyways
It's not gonna stop me
It's not gonna change my course of action
Look at this phrase
Neither count I my life dear unto myself
So that I may finish
So I might finish my course with joy in the ministry
Which I have received of the Lord Jesus
To testify the gospel
To the grace of God
That's a powerful phrase
Neither count I my life dear unto myself
How many people could honestly even say that?
And that's a
And then look
The apostle Paul is under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost
I believe he meant that
He literally had gotten to a point where the thought of dying did not scare him
It was not gonna stop him from doing what was right
It was not gonna stop him from preaching the gospel
It wasn't gonna stop him from trying to give the gospel to someone
It wasn't gonna stop him from doing God's commandments
Following the word of God
He said look I'm gonna finish
I don't care
I don't care if it kills me
He's like that might be how I'm supposed to finish
He just says I'm gonna finish
I'm not gonna move
I know I'm gonna get hurt
I know I'm gonna be afflicted
I know evil's gonna happen to me
But I'm ready for it
And you know that's what we need Christians to say today in their heart
We need Christians to say in their heart
Hey I know I'm gonna go through problems
Hey I know it's gonna hurt
Hey I know evil's gonna happen
But I'm gonna do it
I'm just ready to do it
It makes me think of Marines
You know Marines
No one's gonna join the Marine Corps thinking like it's gonna be fun
Going through training is gonna be fun
They hurt you on purpose
You know brother Segura
We were fellowshiping with him
We were talking with him
And he's telling us about some of the training he went through
And he was saying they pepper spray them on purpose
Just to get them used to being pepper sprayed
And he said it was like the worst thing he's ever gone through
Or one of the worst things he's ever gone through
He said it's like getting handfuls of sand
And like throwing it into your eyes
And he said unless you like wash that thing out with water
I mean you're never gonna really receive any kind of relief anytime soon
He said even after you wash it out
It's still hours of pain and torture and suffering
He said he thought he was gonna die
He said he had to run an obstacle course with pepper spray in their eyes
And as soon as he was done he's like medic medic
And look brother Segura is a tough guy
Like if there's anybody that I'm thinking like this guy's tough
And this guy can handle himself
It's brother Segura
So if he's saying it's bad
I'm thinking like I don't know I don't want to do it
You know I don't want to go through that
But he's already assigned his heart
You know what I'm here I'm gonna be a marine
I'm in the army
I'm gonna go through the training
Whatever it takes I'm not gonna count my life dear unto myself
And you know we need Christians today to take Christianity that seriously
So you know what I'm in it to win it
Whatever it looks like no matter how ugly it gets
No matter how much it hurts
Let's do it
You know who also had that attitude? Jesus
Cause Jesus didn't count his life dear unto himself
He put it on a cross didn't he
And that's the example that we have for ourselves
And what we should be willing to do
Now I want to keep reading
We're supposed to die daily we're supposed to be a living sacrifice
There's a lot of other verses I could go to let's keep reading though
The Bible says in verse number 25
And now behold I know that ye all
Among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God
To see my face no more
Wherefore I take you to record this day
That I am pure from the blood of all men
For I have not shunned to declare unto you
All the counsel of God
You know what possible Paul preached to them?
Leviticus 2013
Deuteronomy 23 17 and 18
You know he preached Romans 1
Obviously he wrote it
He didn't shun to declare all the counsel of God
He preached everything and you know what
What did God preach the whole Bible today?
Not just the fun parts all of it
Every single piece he's not going to shun anything
And what is shunning?
Isn't shunning basically saying that you're embarrassed by someone?
Or it's making them embarrassed
If you're kind of shunning someone you're kind of saying like
You have disdain towards them
Contempt towards them
You look down upon them
You look disfavorably towards them
You think of them as being something not worthy
Of your time, effort, energy
I don't want to look at you
I don't even want to talk about you
You're just shunning them
It's utter contempt
And think what the context is
He's not shunning what? The Bible
But there's preachers today that are shunning the Bible
They look at certain verses with contempt
They look at certain sections of the Bible as it being embarrassing
Like they're embarrassed that certain parts of the Bible exist or something
They think that it's like
I don't like that chapter
I don't want to look at that
But you know what's embarrassing? Them
It's embarrassing when a person
Who claims to be a man of God is embarrassed of the Bible
Who shuns parts of the Bible
Who hides parts of the Word of God
And the doctrine of Jesus Christ
You know we shouldn't be embarrassed of anything in the Bible
We should love the Bible
Great peace have they which love thy law
And nothing shall offend them is what the Bible says
You know what?
We need some men to love the Bible today
And the worst person to get up and shun the Word of God is the pastor
Is the preacher
Is the man of God
Say you know what? I don't like that section
Well you know what? God doesn't like you then
And whatever your problems are
Because if you're ashamed of Christ and his words
He's going to be ashamed of you
You know what?
And we should never be ashamed of anything in our Bible
No matter what the world thinks
No matter what kind of persecution comes to you
Now let's keep reading here
Let's read verse number 28
It says
So they're not supposed to shun the Word of God
They're supposed to feed the flock with the Word of God
Right?
And you know 1 Peter 5
Great passage on the elders
The apostle Peter is telling him he's an elder
He's telling the other elders to feed the Church of God
You know Jesus, that's the commandment he gave to Peter
After the resurrection
Feed my lambs
Feed my sheep
You know lambs, the children
The baby lambs
The baby sheep
And then not just the baby sheep, the sheep
And notice that the pastor preaches to what?
The children and the adults
It's not like children's church
And then the adult church pastor
He's the lambs and of the sheep
He's supposed to feed all of them
And you know what? Pastors should consider that children are in their services
And preach things for the children too
Embrace them and encourage them and exhort them
And you know what? We need to take care
Of the Church of God as pastors and preachers
And if you get an opportunity to preach the Bible
Even if you're not a pastor
Your goal should be to feed the flock
Not to feed your subscribers on YouTube
Not to feed yourself
But to feed them
And to pour unto them
You know it makes me think of something
Keep your finger and go to Proverbs 31 for a moment
Feeding someone else
Is a very selfless action
Feeding yourself
Is a very selfish action
And when it comes to feeding others
The person that I think of immediately
Is a mother
Is a wife
Because one of the roles
One of the job duties of a wife
Is to be a keeper at home
And the Bible has a great passage
On women and wives and mothers
Proverbs 31
You kind of have the proverbial woman
The Proverbs 31 woman
As some people describe her
Look at one of the things that she's described as doing
In verse 15
She rises also while it is yet night
And gives meat to her household
And a portion to her maidens
So you know what? She rises up really early
And what is she really thinking?
I need to feed other people
I need to make food for other people
I need to prepare substance
For other people
And she's concerned with the needs of others
Just as a pastor is supposed to have the same
Earnest care and desire
For his congregants
And you say what's a good way to do that?
Why don't you rise up early
And start preparing the food
That you're going to deliver
Unto your congregation
Unto the people that you want to care for
Rather than feeding yourself
Being a prince who rises up early to feed himself
You're rising up early to feed others
Just like a woman would do for her household
Not only that in verse 20
It says that she stretches out her hand to the poor
Yea, she reaches forth her hands in the needy
So notice she's not only caring for her household
And those close to her
She cares about other people too
Emphasizing the preacher shouldn't just care for his flock
But even stretching his hand out to the poor
Preaching the gospel to the poor
Going out to the needy
Going to the highways and hedges
And compelling them to come in
That his house may be filled
And so we need to realize that the job of a preacher
Is to feed other people
It's about other people
It's not about you
It's not about your own pride and selfish ambition
But what's the problem?
What's the problem?
A lot of people that are preachers today are after one thing
And it's themselves
Go back if you would to Acts chapter 20
And look at this what he says in verse 29 now
He says in verse 29
For I know this
That after my departing
Shall grievous wolves enter in among you
Not sparing the flock
Now
I want to focus on one thing
That I think a lot of people don't really think about
But notice what he says in verse 29
Verse 29
After my departing
When the cat's away
The mice will play
You know I think about this passage
Strong leadership really deterred
A lot of wolves didn't it
Because he's saying hey I know when I leave
That's when a bunch of grievous wolves
Are going to end up showing up
But he's like
I realize that without a really strong
Presence without someone there
You know leading the flock
Really laying down strong doctrine
Grievous wolves are going to enter in
Why? Because he was planning a church and then would leave
And then when he would leave he'd have to write letters back
And say like these guys are bozos
Kick those losers out
And you know you have to realize
In our situation Pure Words Baptist Church
Steadfast Baptist Church we've got church plants
Where you know the pastor
Is honestly divided
In his time
He's divided in his observance
He's divided in his ability to you know
Be everywhere at the same time
What could happen is grievous wolves will enter in
When the pastor doesn't show up
And look I've had churches
Where certain people will only show up
To church when I'm not there
And I'm not joking
Like if they knew I was out of town
They'd show up to church
But if I'm in town they'd never show up to church
And I couldn't get a hold of them
They'll ignore my calls
But they'll be there if I'm gone they'll be there
But if I'm there they're never there
And end up they're a wolf
Ends up they're a complete railer
They're a wicked person they're an evil person
And look it happens
That's why it's important to realize
You know if the strong leader's not there
It's an opportunity
And a lot of times wicked people come out of the woodwork
Evil people try to show up
And they'll try to get plugged in
And they'll try to take over
And they'll try to assert their dominance
Or their position of authority
And you know the apostle Paul is saying look when I'm gone
I know for a fact a lot of these wicked people
Are going to see this as an opportunity
And they're going to enter in
And they will not spare the flock
Meaning what? They have no mercy
They will literally destroy people's lives
They will lie about people hurt people
And have no conscience
That's their whole goal in fact
Why would a wolf join a flock of sheep?
He doesn't want to become a sheep
Look it's not that he's a trans sheepist or something
He's not trying to become a sheep
You know what I think I'm really a sheep in a wolf's body
Bah
I'm going to start becoming a sheep
Bah
He wants to eat the sheep
His whole goal is to destroy sheep
And you say why do people come into churches
Where they hate the pastor
Because they want to destroy somebody in the room
Because they want to destroy the pastor
They want to destroy the church
They want to destroy those ministries
That's the whole point of the wolf
The thief cometh not but for to steal
Kill and destroy
And you know what there's a lot of wicked people today
That are wanting to do this
Now of course where are the wolves going to enter?
Into a flock of sheep
You know where a wolf is not going to enter?
A pack of goats
A pack of wolves
A pack of bears
A pack of lions
A pack of vultures
He's going where the sheep are
So some people act like
A steadfast Baptist church
Why do these churches always have these weirdos
Coming in?
Because there's sheep in the room
Because there's actual genuine
God-fearing, God-loving
Christians, sons and daughters of God
There
So that's why the wolves are attracted to it
They're not attracted to Lakewood
Because there isn't any sheep there
They're not as attracted to the Catholic church
They're not as attracted to all these other places
Because there's not very many sheep there
There are sheep there
But you know what the sheep are? It's just the little children
That haven't been corrupted yet
And so once they've devoured all them
Then they try to find a new place where there's a lot of sheep
They try to find a new location
Where they can come in and creep in
Why do all these rep rates work in the children's ministry?
In the nursery? In these type of areas?
Because they want to destroy sheep
Because they're after sheep
That's their modus operandi
You know when's the last time
You saw one of these queer
Affeminate child ministers say
You know what? I think I'm going to work with the elders
The elderly
I want to have an elderly ministry
You know you never see these child molesting
Pedophile, freak, faggot, infiltrators
They never have like a nursing home ministry
They never work with the elders
Who are they always going to work with?
Children aren't they? Why?
Because they're after lambs
They're after sheep. They want to hurt and destroy
That's their whole intention
That's their whole goal
He says this in verse 30
Also of your own selves
Shall minimize speaking perverse things
To draw away disciples after them
Not only are weirdos and freaks going to come in
He says some of you guys are bozos
Some of you guys are
Perverts
Now what's a pervert?
What is to pervert?
When you look up in the dictionary it says this
To cause the turn away from what is right
Proper or good
Someone's headed towards that which is right
Someone's headed towards that which is good
And someone takes them on
They're on the right course
And they go the wrong way
Someone says hey I think this is the exit
And you end up taking that exit
It's the wrong exit
Brother Dylan told me this evening
He perverted the right way
I was headed the right way
And he's like I think this is the exit
And I was like you know what I'll take that
But you know we have people
Even of our own selves
Speaking perverse things
Drawing away
That's what he did
Now I'm not saying he's this chapter
Here's other definitions of pervert
To corrupt morally
To interpret incorrectly
Misconstrue or distort
You know the dictionary
I think all three of these apply in multiple contexts
I think the word pervert is used in all three of these contexts
But think about the third one
To interpret incorrectly
Someone preaching anything in the Bible
To interpret incorrectly
Is perverting it
Now perversion we often think of
The most extreme version of perversion
But perversion can be any deterioration
Or any you know basically shifting
Or any kind of movement away from that
Which is right
Getting away in any kind of level
And there's going to be a lot of people
That end up perverting
What's the goal?
Drawing away
And not just drawing away
So again we have to think about
All the motives that are attached here
Why would someone pervert the word of God?
To draw someone
After themselves
For pride
To have their own following
To be lifted up
That's the whole goal of someone to pervert something
Now I want to go to a few more verses here
And I promise you
Eutycus isn't going to die this evening
Go to Exodus 23
But that's just because we don't have a Eutycus
The rest of you just don't stand near the window
Alright? No I'm just kidding
Exodus chapter number 23
Let's think about this word pervert
And get some Bible here
Exodus 23 look at verse 8
And thou shalt take no gift
For the gift blinded the wise
And perverted the words of the righteous
So saying even little things
Just a little gift
Can end up perverting someone's judgment
Can end up perverting someone that's going
On the right path
And so we need to realize that perversion
Happens to all degrees
It's not just like
To the worst level
It's sometimes even just little things
Just taking a little bit off course
Just corrupting your judgment just a little bit
Interpreting things a little bit wrong
Just misconstruing things just a tad
Go to Proverbs chapter number 4
Go to Proverbs in the middle of your Bible
And let's look at a few different Proverbs here
And I would say this
Someone perverting the Scriptures
Often times is always going to be
With the same agenda of just simply
They just want to gather a following
They just want to gather some kind of
A group of people that
Cling to them because
You know whenever you pervert the Scriptures
You're kind of the guru
You're the cult leader
You're the only one that can come up with that
Because it didn't come from the Bible
It came from you
So you kind of have this specialness about you
You know you're unique
You know you've got the goods
On how to deliver the Scripture
And the special interpretation
And the special way to serve God
You know what?
No prophecy came by the will of man
Right?
Prophecy came in old time
Not by the will of man
Right?
Holy men of God spake as they're moved by the Holy Ghost
It's not a private interpretation
Meaning that I can sit by myself
And read the Bible
And come to all the same conclusions
As another Christian sitting
And reading the Bible on their own
You cannot come to the same conclusions
That I'm making from the Bible alone
You should not believe it
You should only believe things
That you can say
You know what?
I see why he believes that
Because that's what the Bible's saying
Because that's what the Bible is clearly being interpreted as
Proverbs chapter 4, look at verse 24
Put away from thee a froward mouth
And perverse lips
Put far from thee
So notice it correlates someone that's froward
With someone that's perverse
Someone that's corrupting, misinterpreting things
Is often a froward person
Froward means you're just against things
You're just always kind of contrary
It's always side to be difficult
You're just kind of a difficult person to work with
And you know what?
That's a bad attribute
Go to Proverbs chapter 12
Being a disagreeable person
Just wanting to disagree just to disagree
Wanting to always be on the other side of an issue
That's what a froward person is like
And they are constantly perverting things
And essentially someone has a right judgment about something
And you come to the opposite conclusion
What you're trying to do is you're being froward
Now you're being contrary
By being froward
You're causing people to second guess their original judgment
The righteous judgment
That which is correct
Now you're trying to say like
Well I don't know about that
Well you know
Are you sure that's okay?
Yea hath God said?
You know they're trying to put doubt
Being a froward person
You know Adam and Eve
Stay away from the tree
In the midst of the garden
Did God really say that?
And it's like
Let's go walk over there
Let's go look at it now
It kind of looks good
It's not that bad
I'm sure
The devil has good intentions here
He wants me to be wise
That's what he said
I mean he told me he's looking out for me
He's on my team
He's on my side
He told me I'm a great person
Of course he did
The flattering devil that he is
But what is he doing?
He's perverting what God said
He's twisting what God said
He's misinterpreting what God said
Because God said in the day that you eat thereof
You shall surely die
And the devil's like
You shall not surely die
What is he doing?
Perverting it
Being froward
Being against it
And causing you to pervert your judgment
Pervert your direction
You're supposed to stay away from that person
Someone that has that perverted tongue
Stay away from them
Because they're going to pervert you
Because they're going to cause you to slip
To fall
To second guess
Righteous judgment
Proverbs 12 verse 8
A man shall be commended according to his wisdom
But he that is of a perverse heart
Shall be despised
You should despise someone that has a perverted mouth
That's constantly trying to get you off of that
Which is right
Pervert your judgment
Look at chapter 15 verse number 4
A wholesome tongue is a tree of life
But perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit
You know when someone's just a froward
When someone just says something that's a little off or perverted
It just feels gross
You just kind of
You're just like
Ugh
Why do you say that?
You know people say things or do things that are just not right
It's just like
Ugh
You get this weird feeling
You get that gut feeling
It just feels bad
You just kind of
You're just like gross
Whereas when someone says something that's true
When someone says something that's right in the Bible
It feels good
You know you're sitting in church
And a preacher gets up and reads the word of God
And it's just that verse that you needed
It just
You have this great feeling
You know when someone explains something that you never could put your grasp on
You never could word it right
It just feels good
You know when someone says something's off
You're like
Ugh
You get that weird feeling
So don't
Second guess intuition that God gave you
God gave you the intuition to say like
There's something always off with
Here's my example
Elihu
Every time I'd read Elihu it hurt
I'm just being honest
I would read
I was like
Ow
That just hurt me
It just felt gross
Like there was
I couldn't put a word
I couldn't understand why
I didn't know what was going on
I can't tangibly explain
The feeling I had
All I know is it just felt gross the whole time
And you know sometimes when I hear preachers preach
And I just feel really gross the whole time
Even though I can't put my finger on exactly what happened
You need to be careful
You need to say like
There's something wrong here
Because the right spirit feels good
And the wrong spirit is going to feel bad
Now I'm not trying to say just tuster feelings
Obviously we put all of our trust in the word of God
But God gave you his Holy Spirit
God has the Holy Spirit inside of you
And you know what
When someone's grieving that Holy Spirit inside of you
You need to pay attention to it
You need to say like
Okay there's something wrong here
And once you identify what they're saying is not
Lining up with the Bible
I need to stay away from this perverted tongue
I need to stay away from this froward mouth
But David's not going to suffer a froward mouth
He's not going to be around these type of people
Wicked people
Look at Proverbs chapter 17 verse 20
Proverbs 17 verse 20
He that hath a froward heart findeth no good
And he that hath a perverse tongue falleth in mischief
And these people always have problems
They're always having issues
Go if you would to 1 Timothy chapter number 6
1 Timothy chapter number 6
I want to go through a few more verses here quickly
1 Timothy chapter number 6
And look at verse number 3
The Bible says
If any man teach otherwise
And consent not to wholesome words
Even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ
And the doctrine which is according to godliness
He is proud
Knowing nothing
But doting about questions and strifes of words
Whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings
Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds
And destitute of the truth
Supposing that gain is godliness
From such withdrawal thyself
Now look at the clumping of wording here in verse number 4
Someone who's proud
But they actually don't know anything
They're actually not that knowledgeable
They actually don't have a lot of intelligence
But they love to dote about questions and strifes
They love to be cute in their phrases
In their words
They have these cool little slogans
And everything like that
But they don't actually really mean anything
They don't actually have any really substance to them
And notice what's also attached to this person
Some envy
They envy that person that has what?
Real knowledge
The person that has what?
Wholesome words
And specifically that's what it even means
The words of our Lord Jesus Christ
Meaning Leviticus 2013 is wholesome words
Because of the words of our Lord Jesus Christ
Meaning Romans 1 are wholesome words
So you know what? Someone doesn't like the wholesome words
I'm like, you're proud
You're a prideful person
You don't like Leviticus 2013? You're proud
And you don't know anything
And your little cute sayings
I don't like that
That doesn't mean anything to me
And notice they're just envious
And they cause strife
And they end up railing
And then they have a lot of evil surmising
They end up projecting a lot of evil on people
Because there's evil in their heart
I wonder if you can think of some people
That fit this description
What is it? Perverse disputings
Of men of corrupt minds
They don't understand the truth
And they think that gain is godliness
Someone that's fallen into this trap
Someone that's not hearkening to the Bible
Someone that's forward
Someone that's perverting
You want to stay away from that person
Withdraw yourself from that person
Get away from that person
Go to Jude chapter number 1 obviously
Go to Jude 1 look at verse 16
If you can find another chapter I'll let you read it
Jude look at verse 16
The Bible says
That's a really interesting section of scripture
And you think about it
Who's it really bringing up?
Well in verse 11
It said perish from the gainsaying of Kor
Kor is a perfect example of this
And in Numbers what happens?
He speaks against Moses and Aaron
And they're described as murmuring
Against them
Saying oh you guys take too much upon yourselves
We're all holy
Why don't you give us some of the authority
Why don't you give us some of the power
Why don't you give us some of the subscribers
Why do you hog all the subscribers
Why do you scrub
You have all the attention
You know when you preach a sermon
Everybody listens to your sermon
Why don't you give me some of the subscribers
Why don't you give me some of the people
But what is it?
They're always complaining aren't they?
They're always murmuring
And they're only concerned about themselves
And they speak these great swelling words
These are a flattery language
And they have men's persons in admiration
But only for one reason, advantage
So as soon as they no longer feel like they need
That advantage or they want to take advantage
They stop admiring that person
And it's super weird
When you act like you just love
Somebody and oh man I just love
This guy, I just love
His preaching and he's changed my life
And he's so wonderful and amazing
But as soon as you stop feeling like there's an advantage
You're just like I like this guy's mean jerk
Unsensitive, venomous
Oh this guy's so venomous and unmerciful
And just the worst person
This is what the Bible's saying
That person's a bad person
And notice this verse 19
These be they who separate themselves
You don't even have to kick them out
You don't have to stop being their friend
They'll stop being your friend
They'll say like I don't want anything to do with you guys
I'm walking away
I'm done with you
You know, you just are
You are as holy as I am
Stand by thyself for I am holier than thou art
What do they do? They're separating themselves
They're standing by themselves
Why? They're sensual
And notice this not having the spirit
They don't have the spirit
And having not the spirit is what the Bible clearly says
And look, Korah
Was famous in the congregation
He was of renown
People looked at this guy like I like Korah
Go Korah
But Korah's of the devil
And you say well how?
Well he separated himself
He said he's better
And look, you know what he doesn't like? Aaron
Why do you not like Aaron?
You know what's weird to me?
When people don't like Aaron's
It's weird to me when people don't like Moses
Especially when they've known Moses
When they've known Aaron
They've seen Aaron
They were delivered from Egypt
By Moses and Aaron
And you'll see people that say
I'm out of the Pentecostal church
I got saved by this person
This person led me by the hand
This person gave me all this great doctrine
And it's like why are you taking all this upon yourself?
Oh look at Moses
Then they're against Moses and Aaron?
You're like what's wrong with you?
You know I get that people aren't going to like each other
But when you don't like Aaron
There's something wrong with you
When you don't like Moses there's something wrong with you
When you don't like some of the greatest men
The greatest men of your generation
The greatest men of God
The men that are changing the world for the gospel
People that are changing people's lives
And the ones that you even would attribute
Changing your life
It's bizarre
It's weird my friend
And you say who is this?
This makes me think of ex nui veers
There's so many pastors
Who attach themselves
To great men
Moses and Aaron's
Just because they want to take advantage of these men
They're freeloaders
And they'll even admit I changed all my doctrine
Because of these guys
I loved all their movies
And they truly did
They changed everything
But then all of a sudden they start separating themselves
And they're all sensual
And they're a complainer and they're a murmur
And they have to just go off into the wilderness
By themselves
And it's like
What's the problem?
The problem is Acts chapter 20
That they're speaking perverse things to draw away disciples
After themselves
That they didn't like Moses and Aaron getting the attention
That they were getting
They wanted the attention
They wanted, because they were prideful
For people to follow them
And to be lifted up
And because they wanted to lift themselves up
They ended up getting debased
They ended up going straight down to the pit
Is what happened
They ended up going straight down to the pit
And they ended up going straight down to the pit
You know what, there's a lot of people that want to make us a cult
Why? So then they can be the leader
So then they can be the next person to rise up
And have all this following
Because they're not content with their local flock
Why would you want it to be a denomination?
Why have a denomination?
Because you don't want to just influence your church
You want to influence another church
And when you have a denomination, what happens?
People get risen up
And they have multiple churches, multiple denominations
Looking to that person, following that person
So that's what they want
They want to influence more people
They're not content with whatever flock God's given them
They want to have more
Because they've already destroyed or damaged or harmed whatever they have
And they're just looking for more
New sheep, new lambs to hurt, damage, corrupt, influence and pervert
That was the whole goal
They're saying perverted things to draw away disciples after themselves
It's just a prideful, weird attitude
And they want to draw people away from who?
Paul
Isn't it interesting?
Paul reached all of these people
Yet they want them to turn on Paul
They were reached by Paul
Everyone was reached
They're reached by Paul?
Their converts were reached by Paul
But who do they want to turn them away from?
Paul
You know what it makes me think of?
My sending pastor, Pastor Steven Anderson
Because there will be literally pastors and churches where it's like we were all reached by this person
But now we have to turn away from this person
And it's like, you're an idiot
You're a complete fool
You don't even see what you're doing
And it's funny because they also want to turn away from the doctrine that Paul gave
Because by speaking perverse things they're drawing away from what?
The doctrine
So they have to make perversions of the doctrine
Yet they end up keeping 99% of the doctrine that was delivered to them
Isn't that interesting?
It's funny how these people, they're still like
Well obviously we're King James only
And we're soul winning
And we're family integrated
And we're post-Trib pre-wrath
And we realize that Zionism is a joke
And it's like, hey you brought me 99% of the way here
You know what, I can't be your friend because of the .01%
You know, because I'm different a little bit
I slightly disagree on a particular interpretation or something
And look, let's be honest
My sending pastor and I don't agree 100%
There's some things that we just don't see eye to eye on in the Bible
It's fine
He could be wrong, I could be wrong
It doesn't really bother me
What bothers me is when people put beans and chili
Some of my other friends
We don't agree 100%
I don't know of a pastor that me and him are just like
Yep, 100%
No, I think it's plausible
There's nothing wrong with that if that was true
You know, I think that people in my church and me
Probably agree really similar
You know, once they get the chili doctrine right
But on core doctrines we believe the same
We have fellowship, we have fun
And you know, there's nothing wrong with having a little bit of variation
There's nothing wrong with challenging one another
With the scriptures
There's nothing wrong with having disagreements
But these people aren't just disagreeing to disagree
They're not walking away to walk away
Look, you know it says to have no fellowship with unfruitful works of darkness
That's not Pastor Anderson
That's not Pastor Jimenez
You can't point to those scriptures
A man that isn't heretic
They're not heretics
You're the freak
You're the weirdo
You're the person that's separating themselves
Why? Because you don't have the spirit
Because if you have the spirit you would never separate from Paul
If you had the spirit you wouldn't separate from the doctrine
And when people start doing it to themselves
You have to wonder what's really going on
Paul already told us
They're prideful, they don't really know anything
They're just drawing people away after themselves
And they're going to come to naught
Because when you pervert from the right way
You're going to fall into a ditch
You need to stay on the right path
In the right way
So you don't lead others into the ditch with you either
And so it's important to, you know, pay attention
To the preacher, to the pastor
The direction he's headed, to where he's taking you
Let's finish this chapter real quick, ok?
I don't want to have to preach it again next week
But there's so much good stuff in this
I mean, I can preach till midnight, alright?
But I'm not going to, because I've got to get home
It says this
Verse 31
Therefore watch
Hey, Eutychus, watch, right?
And remember that by the space of three years
I cease not to warn everyone night and day with tears
Now, brethren, I commend you to God
And to the word of His grace
Which is able to build you up
And to give you inheritance among all them which are sanctified
I have coveted no man's silver, gold, or apparel
Yea, ye yourselves know
That these hands have ministered on my necessities
And to them that were with me
I have showed you all things
How that so laboring you ought to support the weak
And remember the words of the Lord Jesus
How He said it's more blessed to give
Than to receive
And when He had thus spoken
He kneeled down and prayed with them all
And they all wept sore
And fell on Paul's neck and kissed him
Sorry most of all for the words which he spake
That they should see his face no more
And they accompanied him into the ship
So I think there's two important aspects that we learn in this chapter
Number one is that we need to be concerned with others more than ourselves
It's more blessed to give than to receive
Don't we see that emphasized with the pastors and the preachers?
Feed the flock
Care about others
You know, think about other people
The Apostle Paul going to all and traveling across the whole world
Not counting his life dear unto himself
What is he doing?
He's giving of himself
He's sacrificing of himself
He's laying himself down
Just like Jesus Christ did
You know, and that's what a true leader
That's what a true pastor's motive should be
Is to give of himself
Not to see what he can take
And secondly
Is that we need to watch
We need to watch those that are feeding us
You know, be careful what you're eating
Right?
Be diligent
To study and pay attention
What someone's putting in front of you that you're consuming
Because everything you consume will affect you
You know, just like food
You can't just eat junk food and it won't affect you
It's going to add weight
It's going to cause problems to you, right?
You are what you eat
Physically and spiritually
That's why it's important to constantly watch
And pay attention to the leaders
And if there's a bad shepherd
If there's a shepherd starting to feed you junk
You need to just say like
I need to stay away from that person
And go find a shepherd that's going to feed me
The word of God
Let's go some prayer
Thank you Heavenly Father for this great chapter
For the example that you set with the Apostle Paul
I pray that we as a congregation would be concerned with other people
That just as a caring wife and mother would feed her family
And look after the household
That we also would look after the spiritual things
That even trusted us with
You know, our families and preaching the gospel
And the church of God
And I pray that we'd all be watchful
That we pay attention to what's going on in our surroundings
And that we would look out for the froward tongue
We'd look out for the perverse tongue
For people that are serving themselves rather than serving others
And that we would stay away from such people
So as to be protected from the grievous wolves
That inevitably want to destroy God's people
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen
Alright, we'll go to our last hymn for the evening
If you would turn in your hymnal to 173
Hymn number 173, 173, Love Lifted Me
Easy to remember, 173, Love Lifted Me
Alright, 173 starting there on the first verse
I was sinking deep in sin
Far from the peaceful shore
Buried deeply, stained within
Seeking to rise no more
But the master of the sea
Heard my despairing cry
From the waters lifted me
Now safe am I
Love lifted me
When nothing else could help
Love lifted me
When nothing else could help
Love lifted me
Alright, so on that technically I think there are
Sometimes people add a formata
Or add a formata which is where you slow down
But it is technically straight
Love lifted me
So we'll sing on the second
I'm used to singing it that way and that's how it's written
So I'm going to continue to do that
But if someone else wants to lead it a different way
They're more than welcome to
Number two, I know some people do
I'm throwing a little bit of shade
Number two, 173 starting on the second
And we'll sing it through without the formata
All my heart to him I give
Ever to him I'll cling
In his blessed presence live
Ever his praises sing
Love so mighty and so true
Merits my soul's best songs
Faithful loving service to him belongs
Love lifted me
When nothing else could help
Love lifted me
When nothing else could help
Love lifted me
Souls in danger look above
Jesus completely saves
He will lift you by his love
Out of the angry waves
He's the master of the sea
Billows his will obey
He your savior wants to be
Be saved today
Love lifted me
When nothing else could help
Love lifted me
When nothing else could help
Love lifted me
Amen, and with that you are dismissed
Good singing this evening
Thank you for watching