Good evening. Thank you so much for coming to Purits Baptist Church. We're going to take
our seats and go to our first song 429 for the evening. In our hymnals 429 Hark the
Herald Angels Sing 429. They're on the first. Hark the Herald Angels Sing. Glory to the
newborn King. Peace on earth and mercy mild. God and sinners reconciled. Joyful all ye
nations rise. Join the triumph of the skies. With angelic hosts proclaim. Christ is born
in Bethlehem. Hark the Herald Angels Sing. Glory to the newborn King. Christ by highest
heaven adored. Christ the everlasting Lord. Late in time behold Him come. Offspring of
a virgin's womb. Veiled in flesh the God at sea. Hail the incarnate deity. Pleased as
men with men to dwell. Jesus our Emmanuel. Hark the Herald Angels Sing. Glory to the
newborn King. Hail the Hamborn Prince of Peace. Hail the Son of Righteousness. Light and life
to all ye brings. Christ with healing in His wings. Mild He lays His glory by. Born that
man no more may die. Born to raise the sons of earth. Born to give them second birth.
Hark the Herald Angels Sing. Glory to the newborn King. Come desire of nations come.
Fix in us thy humble home. Rise the woman's conquering seed. Bruise in us the serpent's
head. Adam's likeness now he face. Stamp thine image in its place. Second Adam from above.
Re-instate us in thy love. Hark the Herald Angels Sing. Glory to the newborn King.
Good singing. Brother Nick would you pray for us this evening please?
Amen. Just flip back to page 425. 425. No room in the inn. 425. No room in the inn there on the
first. No beautiful chamber. No soft cradle bed. No place but a manger. Nowhere for his head. No
praises of gladness. No thought of their sin. No glory but sadness. No room in the inn. No room,
no room for Jesus. Oh give him welcome free. Lest you should hear at heaven's gate. There is no room
for thee. No sweet consecration. No seeking his part. No humiliation. No place in the heart. No
thought of the Savior. No sorrow for sin. No prayer for his favor. No room in the inn. No room,
no room for Jesus. Oh give him welcome free. Lest you should hear at heaven's gate. There is no room
for thee. No one to receive him. No welcome while here. No balm to relieve him. No staff but a
spear. No seeking his treasure. No weeping for sin. No doing his plaster. No room in the inn. No
room, no room for Jesus. Oh give him welcome free. Lest you should hear at heaven's gate. There is no
room for thee. Very good singing. If you need a bulletin I think we still have some on this back
cabinet for the James can get you one. On the front we have Luke 2 verse 11 and on the inside
we have our service and soul winning times as well as our church stats. I'm gonna get account
for any soul winning that needs to be reported for the last few days. Anything from Monday Tuesday or
Wednesday outside okay. I think we had you said you had two that's right all right two for today
so good good work on the soul winning. Keep that up. I've looked and we've already beaten every
yearly record we've had for salvation so far but we want to finish strong all right so continue
to finish strong and it's a really great work. It takes a lot of effort to get that many people
saved. 681 so far year to date and so continue to work on your soul winning. On the right we have
the list of our expecting ladies. Continue to pray for the Darnells. Also we have our guest
preaching brother Chris Segura is going to come out at the beginning of the year next year January 2nd
he'll be preaching for us and then brother Banek he just can't get enough of you he's coming back
down here and then preach on the 9th and then brother Ben Naim is going to be here January 23rd
and so January's packed a lot of good guest preachers and make sure that you're thanking them
and showing up and making sure that they feel warm and welcome here. It's always warm in Houston
right so it's a great thing about being here during Christmas time huh and then also our prayer
request we have brother Edward Guimino and the Ayer family and Hernandez continue to pray for
both of their health. Also we're doing a candlelight service this evening so immediately following the
preaching I'm gonna have a couple guys help me pass out candles to everyone and they look like
this all right so parent parental discretion but all your children are welcome to have one
we are going to light them with real fire okay so just FYI and then after I have a few guys
help me hand those out I'll have you come back up here we'll start the song we'll turn out the
lights actually and I'll light mine I'll light you guys and I'll have you go up and down the aisles
and just get everybody on the edges of the rows and then you on the edges need to be responsible
for the rest of your row so just help the rest of your row light their candles and we'll sing
silent night holy night to finish the service immediately following we also have a cookie
bake-off competition all right and so we've got cookies in there there is a poster I put on the
wall above the coffee station that is going to explain the voting all right so we're going to
be voting on the best tasting the best decorated and the most creative cookies tonight and you're
going to get three beads a green a red and like a clear white one and so you have to follow the
instructions on the poster all right it'll tell you which one to vote but we'll have a cup out
and we'll have you put your name on the cup and then uh we'll go ahead and vote for the best
cookie so before we get started we'll make sure to get all the cups set up and then we'll give
everybody beads and then you can go through the line get some cookies and vote and there'll be
a prize for each one of those winners now here's the thing technically speaking there's nothing
stopping any cookie from winning multiple of the competitions so just fyi someone could win at all
but you know it could be evenly dispersed as well so you just make sure you vote
the right way you know and there's no mail-in voting later or anything like that no no weird
stuff okay it's all going to be done tonight and uh everything like that but um thanks so
much for everybody coming and participating uh in our services and we'll wish you merry christmas
let's go to our next song just click the page one more time to the back 424
oh come all you faithful
oh come all you faithful 424 there on the first oh come all ye faithful
joyful and triumphant oh come ye oh come ye to bev
come and behold him born the king of angels oh come let us adore him oh come let us adore
him oh come let us adore him christ the lord sing choirs of angels sing an exaltation
oh sing all ye bright o's of heaven above glory to god oh glory in the highest oh come let us
adore him oh come let us adore him oh come let us adore him christ the lord
yay lord we greet thee for this happy morning jesus to thee be all glory give
word of the father now in flesh appearing oh come let us adore him oh come let us adore him
oh come let us adore him christ the lord very good singing at this time we'll turn our bibles
acts chapter 26 brother brandon's going to read for us acts 26 we'll read the entire passage
we'll pass the offering plate acts 26 all along as brother brand is going to read the entire chapter
one all right we're there in acts chapter number six and the bible says
then agrippa said unto paul thou art permitted to speak for thyself then paul stretched forth
the hand and answered for himself i think myself happy king agrippa because i shall answer for
myself this day before the touching all the things where of i'm accused of the jews
especially because i know that you could be an expert in all customs and questions and are among
the jews wherefore i beseech thee to be hear me patiently my manner of life from my youth which
was at the first among mine own nation at jerusalem known all the jews which knew me from
the beginning if they would testify that after the most greatest sect of our religion i lived
a pharisee and now i stand and judge for the hope of the promise made of god unto our fathers
unto whom promise of 12 tribes and saintly is serving god day and night hope to come for which
god hopes sake king agrippa i am accused of the jews why should it be though a thing incredible
with incredible with you that god should raise the dead i barely thought but with myself that
i ought to do many things contrary to the name of jesus of nazareth which thing i also did in
jerusalem and many of the saints did i shut up in prison having received authority from the chief
priest and when they were put to death i gave my voice against them and i punished them often every
sin of god and compelled them to blaspheme and being exceedingly mad against them i persecuted
them even unto strange cities whereupon as i went to damascus with authority and commission
from the chief priest at midday oh king i saw in the way a light from heaven above and the
brightness of the sun shining round about me and then went which journeyed with me and we were all
fallen to the earth and i heard a voice speaking unto me saying in the hebrew tongue saw saw why
persecutest thou me it is hard for thee to kick against the prick and i said who art thou lord and
he said i am jesus who thou persecuted but rise and stand up upon thy feet for i have appeared
unto thee for this purpose to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou has
seen and of those things in which i will appear unto thee delivering thee from the people and
from the gentiles unto whom now i send thee to open their eyes and to turn them from the darkness
of light and from the power of satan unto god that they may receive forgiveness of sins and
inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me whereupon oh king of gripper
i was not disobedient to the heavenly vision but showed first unto them damascus at a jerusalem
and throughout all the coasts of judia and the intergentiles they should repent and turn to god
and do works meet for repentance for these cause the jews caught me in the temple and we were about
to kill me having therefore obtained the help of god i continue unto this day witnessing both the
small and great saying none other things and those which the prophets and moses did say should come
the christ should suffer and that he should be the first and should rise from the dead and should
show light unto the people and to the gentiles and as he thus spake for himself festa said with
a loud voice paul thou art beside thyself much learning doth make thee mad but he said i am not
mad most noble festus but speak forth the words of truth and soberness but the king knoweth the
things before whom also i speak freely for i'm persuaded that none of these things are hidden
from him for this thing was not done in a corner king agrippa believeth thou the prophet i know
that thou believeth then agrippa said unto paul almost thou persuadest me to be a christian and
paul said i would god that not only thou but also all you that hear all that hear me this day were
both almost and all together such as i am except these bonds and when he had thus spoken the king
rose up and governed and were nice and they that sat them and when they were gone aside they talked
between themselves saying this man does nothing worthy of death of bonds instead of grip unto
festus this man might have been set at liberty if he had not appealed untruthful
amen so we're here in acts chapter 26 we've been going through the book of acts and we're
kind of getting closer to the end and paul has been enthralled in all kinds of crazy litigation
and just being in bonds and and having gone through a lot of different situations and kind
of give you a quick recap again paul was uh taken into custody by the romans uh to preserve him from
the jews who were trying to kill him uh they tried to figure out what's going on but eventually they
sent him unto uh felix felix ends up not really know what to do with them holds him for about two
years then festus comes into his room uh festus ends up trying to do a jews the service and tries
to get him released back to the jews so they can kill him but paul appeals to caesar and while
festus is there you know in the rule agrippa shows up and agrippa apparently has either more authority
or is this kind of in a higher level he's the king and he comes in he's just they're talking
and he brings up paul and he's like i want to hear what's going on about this guy and so we kind of
are here in the scenario where agrippa is talking with paul specifically about his situation and
paul gets an opportunity to kind of just lay out his case explain why he's in the position he's in
and try to talk to king agrippa and you know one thing that's really interesting about this story
is the fact that god you know is allowing paul to preach the gospel to some of the most powerful
people on the planet at this time i mean king agrippa is a high-ranking officer official in
the roman empire at this time and it's not just agrippa it's all the other men that are with him
you know his guards and deputies and officers just all the people that are basically uh high
ups in the government paul gets this opportunity to preach the whole gospel to these people so we
kind of look at this story as being a negative thing but it's also kind of a great honor to have
the opportunity to preach to these type of people and albeit it's while he's arrested and you know
basically being accused of of crimes and stuff like that nonetheless he still gets the opportunity
to do it and so it starts out here in verse one it says then agrippa said unto paul thou art
permitted to speak for thyself then paul stretched forth the hand and answered for himself i think
myself happy king agrippa because i shall answer for myself this day before thee touching all
things where i am accused of the jews especially because i know thee to be an expert in all customs
and questions which are among the jews wherefore i beseech thee to hear me patiently so the apostle
paul says thank you he's glad that he gets this opportunity to basically explain his situation
defend himself and he's asking agrippa to basically give him a little bit of time here
he's going to lay out the whole scenario he's going to kind of go into a full course of action
here he doesn't want to just get interrupted or anything like that he wants to be able to kind of
preach the full gospel as it were right and explain his whole life circumstances as to why
he's in the situation he's in and in fact he doesn't just start uh you know at a random
point in time he starts at the beginning of his life look what it says in verse number four
my manner of life from my youth which was at the first among my own nation at jerusalem know all
the jews which knew me from the beginning if they would testify that after the most straightest sec
of our religion i lived a pharisee so paul starts out by saying look i grew up a pharisee
i grew up being with the jews i was part of their religion in fact i was part of the straightest
sect now the word straight there means narrow it's a it's a synonym with the word narrow you'd find
this in matthew chapter 7 verse number 14 which says straight is the gate and narrow is the late
is the way is the way which leads into life and few there be that find it the modern versions
change that word narrow to difficult or they flip-flop and they'll say it's difficult to go
to heaven yet the bible makes it clear that it's actually very easy to go to heaven it's just faith
in jesus christ and that's a perversion that's a corruption of the scriptures but the word straight
simply means narrow meaning the the apostle paul is trying to explain of a very religious nation
the jews are known as being very religious okay as being ones that worship god and they're very
zealous for the law and for god and they have the temple and everything like that they're not just
heathen they're not like atheists or agnostic they're a religious group he's saying not only
was i from a religious nation i was in the most narrow the most specific group of the most
religious of the religious i mean he's basically saying like i am someone that really cared about
religion really cared about the law of god really cared about the scriptures you know i was in the
most you know elite group as it were of religious people and he's saying these people know if they
would just open their mouth and not lie about it they could testify i was a pharisee verse 6
and now i stand in them and judged for the hope of the promise made of god unto our fathers
under which promise our 12 tribes instantly serving god day and night hope to come for
which hopes sake king of grippa i am accused of the jews so then he makes it clear i was you know
a pharisee and i'm after the law and i'm after the prophets and the prophets have a continual
message of hope there's this coming messiah there's this coming uh savior and he's like that's what
we're all hoping for that's what we're all looking for and it's like the thing that i've been hoping
for my whole life has happened and that's the reason why i'm standing here before you now and
he also makes mention of a couple things here that are interesting he says unto which promise
our 12 tribes instantly serving god day and night now the word instantly is just meaning like
immediately or constantly in this in this situation now if he's saying that they're constantly or
instantly serving god day and night that tells me that this point in time the sacrifices had not
ceased okay basically the jews were still performing their version of what they think is the
right religion they're still offering the sacrifices they still have the temple so that
somewhat dates this portion of scripture here because we know from secular history that around
70 a.d titus a roman emperor came in and destroyed all of jerusalem and he caused the the sacrifices
and everything to cease and that's kind of what's alluded to uh in lots of places in the gospels
jesus christ said that one stone would not be left upon another and he talked about how jerusalem
was going to be compassed about with armies and that you know essentially it was going to all be
destroyed and there was going to be a desecration of the temple these things would be a punishment
for rejecting the lord jesus christ well it would make no sense number one if a bunch of jews came
from jerusalem where they were in the temple before if it had been destroyed and here that
they're saying that they instantly are serving god meaning this is before 70 a.d so we can kind
of get an idea of some idea of when this is happening we can have some limiter some boundaries
as to when this was happening okay now it says in verse 8 why should it be thought a thing incredible
with you that god should raise the dead now he's bringing up the resurrection and again that's the
hope that they were looking for the difference between a Pharisee and a Sadducee is a lot but
one of the most specific doctrines is the doctrine of the resurrection because the Pharisees believe
in the resurrection and they believe resurrections are possible whereas the Sadducees they deny the
resurrection they don't believe in a resurrection and so he's saying you know you he's kind of
talking to a group he's like you believe in resurrections why because we see that in scripture
even if you go into the old testament we see people risen from the dead coming back to life
we see that was the through the book of hebrews through the lens of hebrews we realized that even
abraham himself believed that because he thought that if he killed his son isaac god would raise
him again from the dead he didn't know exactly how it was going to work but that was the only reason
he was willing to kill his son is because he believed god was going to rise him again he
wasn't just you know some uh crazy lunatic or something he had faith in the lord and he believed
that even if he killed his own son god would raise him back to life as a figure of jesus christ
so that he would have him now again if you knew for a fact that if you killed your son according
to god's commandment god was going to bring him back to life that would make it a lot easier to
do it wouldn't it i mean of course you know sacrificing your own child has just got to be
unimaginable it's probably the most difficult task you could be tasked with but if you had
full confidence and faith the lord is going to bring him back to life then it would be like okay
well you know i'll do it you know it's not fun i don't want to do that but i'll get to have him
back soon or whatever the situation is and you know when you go through the scriptures you can
see the resurrection all throughout you can see prophets like elijah and elijah they're performing
miracles at times they're raising people from the dead signifying what jesus was going to do
so really if you don't believe in the resurrection you just don't believe in the bible
you know and and if he's talking to someone that believes the bible even a little bit
he's like of course you believe in the resurrection i mean is it really crazy
for me to believe in the resurrection if you believe in the resurrection you know so just
be like talking about any miracle of the bible and saying is it really impossible to believe
god could flood the whole earth with you know or flood the whole earth you know of course we
believe that he already did that with noah so of course he could do it again if you wanted
now with the rainbow we believe he wouldn't but we see god performing all kinds of miracles
throughout the old testament so he's just saying look obviously if you believe the old testament
then you got to believe this could happen even today verse 9 i've really thought with myself
that i ought to do many things contrary to the name of jesus of nazareth now he's going to talk
about how he at first didn't really believe in jesus you know he was very against this
doctrine and you know it's kind of crazy is if you think about it you know about the resurrection
itself he's saying how is it hard for god to raise someone from the dead you know and if you think
about it we believe that god created everything out of nothing right and the first man was created
out of dust and he wasn't even alive if you're just trying to think about it logically what do
you think it'd be easier to bring someone to life out of just pure dust or to take someone
that was already alive and intact that's just dead and bring him back like wouldn't that be easier
and you know just kind of a realistic sense or something like that so it's like why is it so
hard to believe god could raise someone from the dead if you believe the whole world exists by the
spoken words of god you know so it's just kind of like let's get some consistent logic here right
if you believe god spoke the whole universe into existence through his word you know and he created
every human being from dust how is it so hard to believe he could raise someone from the dead
you know that would be really obvious really easy but the apostle paul himself did not initially
believe in jesus christ he kind of rejected jesus christ and he did things contrary to the name of
jesus of nazareth verse 10 which thing i also did in jerusalem and many of the saints did i shut up
in prison having received authority from the chief priests and when they were put to death
i gave my voice against them and i punished them off in every synagogue and compelled them to
blaspheme and being exceedingly mad against them i persecuted them even under strange cities
and this is some like pretty serious confession here by impossible and i guess you know one way
you can look at this section of scripture is a little bit that paul's kind of getting he's
reaping what he sows just think about it he was literally persecuting christians under the death
imprisoning them and compelling them to blaspheme now what does that mean like he's literally either
torturing them or threatening them by saying like i'm gonna kill you or put you in prison
unless you blaspheme jesus and you know what what kind of a wicked heart do you have to have to try
and pressure christians into blaspheming their savior through the threat of death violence or
evil and you know what some people probably do some people probably you know through all that
pressure through all that stress or whatever i mean whenever you torture someone they'll
literally say anything that's why a confession under torture should never be accepted as legitimate
because people will confess the things that they've never done that they don't believe in
when they're in pain that's of course why you know evil and wicked governments and police
departments will use that as a way to get people to confess to crimes you know they'll basically
put them in a really pressured situation or try to confuse them or try to hurt them because they'll
just say whatever they'll just say what do you want me to say where do you want me to sign you
know what do you want me to do just make the pain stop and it's a very evil way to get a confession
out of someone um you know it's kind of like say say uncle or say mercy or something you
got someone you got their arm wrapped around or whatever you're pulling them they'll say whatever
you want them to say okay when you got them in the right pressure point that's not a very legitimate
thing and why would you want someone to believe something only when you're threatening them
you know isn't that kind of weird i mean wouldn't it be weird if i said all right guys let's round
up some people and let's put them in headlocks until they confess christ you know let's threaten
them you know let's see how many more people can threaten or whatever isn't it a lot cooler when
you walk up to people and they have complete free will and then they decide to believe in
jesus christ that they grew up a catholic their whole life they grew up believing in works their
whole life and you just show them in 15 minutes how it's just a free gift by faith and they're
like wow i believe that they changed their mind isn't that sure the power of god's word rather
than the threat of you know believe in my religion or we're cutting your head off that's
the muslim way you know muslim gets converts as they threaten people and they try to coerce people
and they try to you know say we're going to kill you if you don't believe in our you know religion
or whatever that's not a legitimate way to spread the true faith of god's word okay and even the
government does this you know they spread their versions of truth through coercion through threat
through violence through all kinds of different things like that you know the truth you don't have
to sell it it sells itself you know and that's why it doesn't make any sense to use these type
of tactics against people but that's what paul was doing you know if paul really has the true
religion in the world if he really has the faith giving you know of the religion that's right he's
on the right track why is he having to kill all these people and put them in prison and compel
them to blaspheme why can't he just get up and teach from the scriptures what he believes in
convince them because he's off because he's wrong and you know what false religion can't just get
up and explain what they believe and get people to come they have to use gimmicks or coercion
tactics or threaten people or scare people or whatever their method is to try and garner
interest in their religion whereas true religion should be free true religion should have no
coercion true religion should have no threat of violence or evil against people but rather people
should accept it from a place of free will in their heart now it says in verse 12 wherefore
whereupon as i went to damascus with authority and commissioned from the chief priests at midday
oh king i saw in the way of light from heaven above the brightness of the sun shining round
about me and then which journeyed with me and when we were all fallen to the earth i heard a voice
speaking unto me and saying in the hebrew tongue saul saul why persecute is thou me it is hard for
thee to kick against the pricks so we have the apostle paul he's on his way to damascus he's
been given authority to bind anybody that calls in the name of jesus christ we've already read this
in previous places in scripture but as he's journeying this light comes out of nowhere and
he says it's brighter than the sun that's bright because the sun is the brightest light you know
there is really i mean you can't even look at the thing it's so bright and this light's even
brighter and they just all fall down they're just like you know immediately falling down in the
presence of jesus you know if if someone comes up to you like i saw jesus and i'm like well did you
fall down and you couldn't see it's like no it's like you didn't see jesus you know it's like it's
not a homeless bum sitting on a on a park bench or whatever you know it's not something that you
dreamed up if you really saw jesus you wouldn't be able to see anymore because paul literally sees
jesus and you know what happened to him he became literally blind physically blind from the
experience of seeing jesus and you know what no one's seen god the father because if you saw god
the father you'd be dead no one has ever seen god the father and told anybody about it okay in fact
no one seen him period okay because the bible says no man has seen god at any time the only
begotten son which is in the bosom of the father he hath declared him if you saw god the father
you would just die melt or whatever i don't know it'd be like indiana jones or something
okay they would just evaporate or be eviscerated by his brightness by his glory
and when the apostle paul sees this jesus speaks unto him we know this is jesus and he calls him
by name and and i like this phrase he says why persecute is thou me you know why i like this
is because jesus takes persecution of his savior of his of his uh brethren personal you know paul
had never met jesus up to this point okay let's make something clear he never talked to jesus in
the flesh he never went around putting a kick me sign on jesus or anything like that you know he
never gave him a noogie or anything no no he had never seen jesus ever you know that we know of
maybe had seen him while he was in his ministry i don't know but they didn't really have a personal
you know relationship or anything like that what was he doing he was persecuting christians and
notice what jesus said that he was persecuting him why because jesus takes it personal when people
are attacking his people okay and i like that about the lord jesus christ that he takes it
personal verse 15 and he said who art thou lord and he said i am jesus whom thou persecuted so
again he's taking it personal saying that you're persecuting me now when you persecute jesus
things are going to go well for you okay notice the phrase he uses he says it is hard for thee
to kick against the pricks now what is a prick besides you know joe biden okay no i'm just
kidding a prick is a long stick that's a sharp point and and the prick uh would often be used
in a lot of different contexts could be like a weapon a lot of times it's used for an animal
though and the goal is you basically just kind of you would kind of prod or you'd poke an animal
with the end of that prick and it would you know in the rear or something like that and it caused
the animal to go so you know maybe you're plowing or maybe it's a chariot or whatever the situation
is you're trying to drive that animal you're trying to get them to go in the direction you want
you kind of prick that animal and that animal is like a goad it's going to kind of get that animal
going in this direction now an animal a lot of times they have a lot thicker fur coat or hide
or whatever so like they're less sensitive to this kind of a prick or whatever but like humans
or whatever you hit them with a prick they probably start bleeding or get cut or something
like that but you know animal hides in their rear i mean they can get hit pretty hard with sharp
things and it doesn't hurt them as much as it would hurt a human but at least gets their butt
in gear you know what i mean it'll really get them going in the direction that you want to get them
going and so he's saying it'd be hard to kick against them imagine someone just had a whole
bunch of sharp sticks with their points pointed right at you and you say i'm going to kick that
that's not going to work very well i mean you're just going to kick your your leg off you're just
going to kick it right into a sharp point and just stab your leg and jesus is saying look it's
pretty hard to kick against the pricks buddy you know it doesn't really make any sense to persecute
me you're really just going against the grain here and you're just going to end up injuring yourself
he says in verse number 16 but rise and stand upon thy feet for i have appeared
unto thee for this purpose make thee a minister and a witness both of the things which thou hast
seen and of those things in the which i will appear unto thee delivering thee from the people
and from the gentiles unto whom now i send thee so jesus says i want you to witness of this encounter
of what you just saw us talking also i'm gonna in the future notice what he said in the end of
verse 16 and of those things in the which i will appear unto thee telling him he's gonna future
revelations future encounters the lord jesus christ and as we go through scripture we find
out that the apostle paul had an abundance of revelations given to him from the lord jesus christ
so the apostle paul learned a lot of things from jesus had a lot of special and close encounters
with jesus christ another reason why probably in second corinthians later in the bible the apostle
paul brings up a man that he knew that went to heaven and he's kind of like talking in a weird
like third person or whatever i believe that's probably him you know it makes a lot of sense
based on the context and everything that he's saying and the reason he's kind of talking in
third person is the whole point of that section of scripture is he's trying not to talk like a
fool he's like kind of he's kind of talking in a weird way about himself about all the things he
did so he's not trying to brag he's kind of talking about in a weird way but it'd be kind
of easy to brag if you've seen jesus multiple times wouldn't it i mean if you literally had
an encounter with jesus christ and he's giving you personal revelations and personal wisdom i mean
it'd be easy to walk around say like i've been to heaven me and jesus we're on you know close terms
have you seen my favorites list he's number one you know just fyi we text we're texting buddies
or whatever you know obviously someone could go around but the apostle paul said he's like
if you do that you're kind of speaking like a fool you know there's not really
uh a reason to do that and the person that even got the abundance of revelations is going to be
persecuted by the devil and have thorns in the flesh you know so hey i get to be with jesus but
then you get messengers of satan to buffet you then you get the thorns in the flesh and a lot
of the persecution that comes with the abundance of revelation so it's a pro and a con to knowing
who jesus is but the apostle paul's been called to be a special witness and minister not only
to the jews but specifically to the gentiles because he said he's delivering them from the
gentiles unto whom now i send thee now that's kind of an interesting thing to bring up because
think about who he's talking to he's talking to king agrippa who is a gentile he's saying hey
jesus came to me he told me to go to the gentiles here we are king agrippa let me tell you all about
you know the lord jesus christ says what what are we doing when we talk to them verse 18 to open
their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of satan unto god that they
may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is
in me now i have a red letter bible so it's really easy to me to understand this but this is jesus
speaking and notice what jesus says jesus says that when you go and you're talking to an unsaved
person the goal is to take them from darkness to light from the power of satan to god now that
tells me something that the devil has power now keep your finger here and let's go to a couple
places in scripture i want to compare this go to ephesians chapter number two ephesians
chapter number two you know our adversary is not a chihuahua the bible says it's a roaring lion
now when you think about a chihuahua you know what i think of all bark and no bite
when i think of a roaring lion i think of all bark and bite yeah i mean this guy's got the
greatest roar and the greatest bite i mean you really don't want to mess with a lion okay
especially if you're unarmed and one of the most terrifying things that can happen is to be out in
the safari out in the wilderness by yourself and there's a roaring lion because number one that
thing can run faster than you that thing weighs a lot more than you it could just tear you into
shreds instantly it could bite you and if you have no weapon i mean you're basically at the mercy of
this lion okay and unfortunately that's what the unsaved are like when it comes to the devil they're
basically out in the wilderness on their own unarmed and you know what the devil is a roaring
lion going about seeking whom he may devour meaning that the devil can devour them at his
will and in fact he does that to the unsaved on a regular basis ephesians chapter 2 even tells us
verse 1 and you have the quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins wherein in time past you
walked according the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air the spirit
that now worketh in the children of disobedience among whom also we all had our conversation in
time past and lust of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by
nature the children of wrath even as others the bible says when we were unsaved we were all under
the influence of the devil's disobedience the spirit that was in us he's working through the
unsaved and the bible says that we all had our conversation in time past meaning that we were
all influenced by the devil in some way we were all sinners we were all disobedient we were all
the children of wrath at some point in time and you know what that's why it's foolish to get a
puffed up or arrogant attitude towards the unsaved as if you're so much better than them or you never
went through the same problems or issues that they did look we were all unsaved at some point in our
lives otherwise you wouldn't even need to get saved in order to need to be saved okay or at
least in order to be saved you've had to had a point where you had to need to be saved right
that's why you have to first explain to people they're sinners deserving of hell because if
someone can't admit that they're a sinner how can they get saved you don't even need to be saved
i mean if you've never sinned why do you need to be saved you don't that's why you have to first
explain to people for all the sin and come short of the glory of god you know if you're not headed
for you know i've asked people well do you think you deserve healthier sins and they'll say no
well then i'm like well then why did jesus come
did jesus need to die for your sins i mean if you're not headed for hell then what's the point
you know the reason why jesus came is because you were headed for hell buddy
because everybody was headed for hell and the only way to go to heaven was through the sacrifice of
jesus christ okay so the devil has power the devil is a major influencer in this world in fact he's
the main influencer in all of the children of this earth of the children of wrath and we have to be
saved and rescued from the devil from the power of the devil from his influence go to second
corinthians chapter number four now the devil he likes to do all of his work in the dark because
he likes to use deceit and trickery and and the bible talks about him being you know a dark
creature working in darkness and there's no light in him there's no truth in him he's just full of
lies the devil's never going to tell anybody the truth because he doesn't have any truth to give
the same way the devil doesn't have any light to give he's full of darkness so the only thing the
devil is going to produce is darkness second corinthians chapter four pretty famous portion
of scripture look at verse three but if our gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost
and whom the god of this world have blinded the minds of them which believe not lest the light of
the glorious gospel of christ who is the image of god should shine unto them now notice a couple
things the bible describes the devil as the god of this world now what does that mean the god of
this world it means ruler okay i'll submit you that the word god is synonymous with the word
ruler okay so who is in charge of this earth the devil you know it's not joe biden okay it's not
his handlers the devil okay it's not justin trudeau it's not kim jong-un or ill or whatever
he is he's ill in the head you know it doesn't matter it's not zhi or whatever he is in china
it's not any of these people i don't know what they are it doesn't matter the one that's really
pulling all the strings of the devil and all these people are just as simple pawns and he's the god
of this world and notice what he's doing he's blinding the minds of them which believe not the
devil is out there trying to blind people he's trying to corrupt people he's using any and all
tactics to just tear people down and destroy people and distract them and ruin them and get
them to never believe in the gospel of jesus christ and you know some of his greatest minions
are going to be false religion because you want to know the hardest people to pull out of that
darkness are the people that are mormons the people that are muslims the people that are jova's
witness the people that are into false religion the devil is just blinding their minds and
blinding their eyes and hardening their hearts lest the light of the glorious gospel should shine
unto them you know we're at literal war with the devil we go out to try and shine the glorious
light of the gospel and to try and pull people from the power of satan you know what's the power
of satan i don't know all the filth on the tv all the music and all the whore mongering and all the
sin and all the drugs and all the alcohol and all of the violence and all just the lies and the
deception and just the evil that's out there that's the power of the devil the devil is
tricking people and lying to people and deceiving people and you know what the only hope that they
have is the light of the glorious gospel of christ nothing else is going to pull them out of that
you know people aren't going to just wake up on their own they're they're powerless
and you know what the devil is a very powerful creature he has a lot of tools at his disposal
he's a lot of minions he has a lot of ponds that he's using right now and you know what we as the
church of god are their only hope we're the light and we don't want to hide our own light otherwise
no one could get saved notice what the bible says in verse three but if our gospel be hid
it is hidden to them that are lost meaning if we hide the gospel everyone's doomed everyone's
damned to hell there's no other option there's no hope they'll never turn the light on by
themselves they need someone to come and bring the gospel to them and when we go and bring the
gospel what are we bringing verse five for we preach not ourselves but christ jesus the lord
and ourselves your servants for jesus sake so notice we don't go out and preach anything about
us we go and preach about him go preach about the lord jesus verse six for god who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of god in the face of jesus christ we have this treasure in earth and vessels the
excellency of the power may be of god and not of us so the bible teaches that we go out and we
preach the gospel that's how people get saved and god is hidden this treasure in you the light of
jesus christ is in your heart and you have the opportunity to share that and the only way that
light can come out is through your mouth not gonna come out through your ears you're not gonna start
glowing okay your eyes aren't gonna glow if your eyes and ears are glowing go to the doctor okay
you know how you get the light to people you have to open your mouth boldly to make known the
mystery of the gospel and that's how that light comes and it shines on people and it can get them
saved and they can come out of that darkness and get saved and that's what the that's what
the whole point is of paul's ministry to go and shine that light go back if you would to acts 26
it says in verse number 19 whereupon oh king of gripper i was not disobedient
unto the heavenly vision it showed first unto them of damascus and at jerusalem
and throughout all the coasts of judaea and then to the gentiles they should repent and turn to
god and do works meet for repentance so the apostle paul says look i saw all this i can't
just walk away i can't just pretend like that never happened i didn't disobey this heavenly
vision that i got from the lord jesus christ i did exactly what he told me to do and so what
did paul do he went out into the gentiles he preached the gospel he's getting people saved
and when he's talking to the gentiles what does he tell him to repent and turn to god now what
are they repenting of what are the gentiles repenting of well here's the thing the gentiles
none of them are christian none of them are saved none of them are serving the lord jesus christ
they're either just some kind of agnostic or the vast majority are kind of pagan they have idols
they basically worship all kinds of unknown gods or whatever false gods the reason why i say agnostic
because in acts chapter number 17 they have an altar to the unknown god so it's like they don't
even know what's going on they know not what they worship they're just confused you know they're
superstitious that's what the apostle paul accuses them of is being superstitious and when he's going
out there and preaching what is he telling them they have to change their mind repent and they
have to turn to god they have to believe on the lord jesus christ in order to be saved and not
only is he teaching them how to get saved but then he's going beyond that and saying you should do
works meet for repentance now i like this phrase and the reason why i like this phrase is because
i believe it helps us understand what repentance is not okay repentance is not works and we can
prove that from this verse alone let's just slow down and think about it repent and turn to god
okay and then he says in the next breath and do something okay if repentance is works
in that first part then he doesn't need to say and do works because it was already implied by
that repentance okay so the repentance then has to be something completely different than the works
also he says do works meet for repentance now what does meat mean i'm thinking like steak and
brisket or whatever but meat here means suitable appropriate fit okay so he's saying do works that
are suitable appropriate or fit or the repentance that you just had so if i just was serving a false
god and a false religion and all of a sudden i believe in jesus wouldn't i then also maybe
change my life on top of that that would be appropriate to the repentance that i just had
if i just claimed to change my entire viewpoint in religion wouldn't it make sense to then have
works in relation to the repentance i just had it's kind of like you go knock on someone's door
and they were catholic when you knocked you get them saved and now they believe in jesus
it's like now you need to go to a baptist church you need to do some works meat for repentance if
you just became a christian if you just believed in jesus now you need to go to a christian church
because you just repented of that catholic wickedness it doesn't make any sense to repent
and then go back to the catholic church and then still not do anything for god or the faith that
you actually believe it you know or if you're a muslim you don't go back to the mosque now you go
to a christian church and you start serving the god of the bible right you don't go and worship
the idols that you had back home you burn them you destroy them and smash them all the graven
images of your false gods and then you start serving god okay so if he's telling them to do
works meet for repentance that tells me their repentance is not the works it's separate isn't
it now you can even prove this further go to jonah chapter three for a moment go to jonah
in the old testament chapter number three
we'll see another place in the bible where it defines turning from sin is works meaning
their repentance here is also not turning from sin because we already proved their
opinions is not works okay well let's prove something that is works and according to the
bible work is turning from sin and you know what anybody that's sinful knows that stopping sinning
is hard you know if you drink it's hard to quit drinking if you smoke it's hard to stop smoking
you know you lie a lot it's hard to stop lying also you know if you whatever sin it is that
you struggle with or you've been involved in or that you have made a pattern of in your life
anybody knows it's hard to quit that it's not easy it's work okay now the bible tells us that
jonah chapter three look at verse 10 and god saw their works that they turn from their evil way
and god repented the evil that he said that he would do under them and he did not so when god
sees someone cleaning up their life giving up sin what does god call that works okay and if that's
works when we go to acts chapter 26 and we see to repent turn to god and do works meet for repentance
that tells me that their repentance is also not turning from sin either
i often think of works in the positive sense like going to church reading the bible helping people
giving money to the poor you know what works is also the flip side of that not lying not stealing
not you know blaspheming not doing any of those sins that you're doing before cleaning up your
life think about what's happening in this chapter when it says uh in verse five so the people of
ninova believed god and proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them even
the least of them says in verse number six for word came into the king of ninova and he rose from
his throne he laid his robe from him and covered him with sackcloth and satin ashes and he caused
to be proclaimed and published throughout ninova by the decree of the king and his noble saying
let neither man nor beast hurt nor flock taste anything let them not feed nor drink water but
let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily unto god yay let them turn every one
from his evil way from the violence that is in their hands so notice he describes their turning
what was their turning changing all their clothes getting in a sackcloth having a fast now anybody
that's dieted knows that it's not easy it's work it hurts okay skipping meals hurts all right i've
done it it's not fun you know i i tried to lose weight at one point in my life and all i could do
when i was not eating was thinking about eating okay and it was work to try and like think about
anything else you know it's hard work you know how about covering an animal in sackcloth that's work
i mean this is you know i used to think about you you go up and down the street and you see little
ladies with their little dog with like an outfit in their purse that wasn't the first time apparently
they're putting their little dog in a you know sackcloth outfit here not eating you know crying
mightily not doing any violence anymore this is not easy this is work they're doing a lot of works
here and god saw that their works that they turn from their evil way okay so if we put the puzzle
pieces together go back to acts chapter number 26 and we look at verse number 20 he says and do
works meet for repentance what does that look like that looks like someone giving up their sin
that looks like someone serving god but notice that the works are separate from repentance it's
just what's appropriate suitable and the right response to their repentance so of course you know
i believe that salvation is a free gift it's all by faith you can't lose it no matter how many
works you do or do not have but when you get saved you should do them we're created under
christ jesus unto good works so we're supposed to do good works we're supposed to do works
you know meet for repentance and it's not appropriate it's not fit for a christian
to not have works it's not fit it's not appropriate it's not suitable
to sin and be wicked when you believe in jesus christ okay so can you do it and go to heaven
yeah is it right no being backslidden is wrong it's wicked god's not pleased with that and when
the apostle paul went out and preached he didn't just preach salvation alone he preached salvation
and do the works and you know follow and good works you know setting up churches obviously when
you're setting up churches and getting people plugged in you're not telling them to do nothing
you're telling them to do a lot of work okay because church is a lot of work you know what
it's suitable and it's appropriate for people who believe you know it's not appropriate for
god's people just forsake church nope we need to do the works we need to have a church and we
need the first works going out and preaching the gospel that's suitable that's appropriate or
being a christian go to verse 21 or these causes the jews caught me in the temple and went about
to kill me so why is it that the apostle paul's being like you know threatened with death because
he believes the bible because he's preaching believe in jesus because he's telling people
to serve god you know theological reasons okay verse 22 the bible says having therefore obtained
help of god i continue unto this day witnessing both to small and great saying none other things
than those which the prophets and moses did say should come the christ should suffer that he
should be first that should rise from the dead and should show light unto the people and to the
gentiles so the apostle paul is saying a couple things here first of all he says in verse 22
witnessing both the small and great now what does he mean by that he's not saying to you know pastor
amenez and pastor thompson okay he's not talking about stature all right he's not talking to miss
terry and brother samson okay he's talking about in in relevance to importance okay
and he's saying i'm talking just you're common you're just poor person out in the ghetto and
i'm talking to king agrippa the great and the apostle paul was given a special opportunity
to preach not only to the small but also to the great to preach to the kings and to the princes
and the nobles and the leaders and whatever also to the just made it handmaidens and the children
and the young men and everybody and you know the apostle paul's not a respecter of persons
he'll preach the gospel anybody will listen and you know what we should not only emphasize one
group of people we should try to preach to both and i'll be honest with you there are people that
will emphasize both groups there's some churches they only want to preach to the great you know
they only want the rich and the well-groomed and the noble they want the mayor and the chief
of police and you know they only want those people to come to to their church and talk to them and
try to give them the gospel then there's the opposite though there's some people they say
well i only want you know the ghetto and the poor and the whatever we should want both you know we
should try to preach the gospel we shouldn't despise the great we shouldn't despise the poor
we should try to give the gospel to both and basically show the both the opportunity to get
the gospel now obviously when we go soul winning we may go first to the poor first to the small
just because they're more receptive but you know we don't want to only go to them
and sometimes we as a church will go to a nicer neighborhood we're not just going to be like oh
this is too nice walk away no no we'll knock on their doors too and you know we'll go through and
we'll give the gospel and you know what no matter what happens as long as you're trying and going
out preaching the gospel you're doing the work of god okay we can only control so much you know
don't get this attitude of like well i didn't do anything because you know i didn't get 18 people
saved in the last five minutes or whatever well are you going and knocking on doors you try and
share the gospel you know and sometimes we don't even have the right idea getting the right person
saved maybe in a middle class or an upper class neighborhood you could maybe get that person
actually come to church and be a soul winner and then they could get people saved and you could
have even a greater impact by having that one person saved then you know a handful of people
that get saved that aren't going to do anything for god so you know sometimes we look at it with
human reasoning or human logic and it's not always the appropriate way to look at it you know the
apostle paul wouldn't that have been a great person to get saved i mean think about all the works he
got i mean ananias got the greatest person saved ever and think about this you know we should
almost have this idea i don't want to be the greatest person ever i want to get the greatest
person ever saved like i want to go and find the person that's going to end up doing the greatest
works for god why not you know wouldn't that be a cool testimony you know and some sometimes people
get mad about the fact that they can't be a preacher or you know ladies shouldn't be the
pastor or whatever but why don't you get someone saved that's going to be a pastor
or going to be a preacher or going to be the next great person or raise a child that's going to be
a pastor you know raise a timothy raise a titus or just be a companion to those people you know
priscilla and akila they weren't necessarily of note worthy you know opinion in the flesh
you know the apostle paul they were someone really special and they laid down their life for him and
they were basically uh you know holding him up and they were basically something he could lean
on and and use and rely on and you know never underestimate your impact of the cause of christ
and the things that you can do for the lord jesus christ and you know what it's our goal to go out
and to preach you know what the bible says in verse 22 he said saying none other things than
those which the prophets and moses did say should come paul didn't preach anything but the bible
did paul try to get people saved outside of the scriptures the answer is no he only preached
the bible and if the bible won't compel them see ya you know they have moses and the prophets
let them hear him you know if you're not going to be convinced by that my dog and pony show
isn't going to do it okay and he says that christ should suffer well keep your finger go to luke
chapter two for a second go to luke chapter two let's tie this into christmas all right
you know jesus he obviously died suffering we we think about that but you know what he just
started suffering just right at the beginning you know we already sang the song no room in the end
think about this you have the the lord jesus christ the word of god that created everything
entering in his own creation and nobody can can give him a room i mean nobody wants him nobody
has a place for the lord jesus christ for god in the flesh a precious little baby being born
of the virgin mary i mean no one wants him just instantly coming into this world just to kind of
illustrate and to show the symbolism of the fact that the world is rejecting the messiah is
rejecting the word of god is rejecting the word is not seeking after the lord the world is in
darkness and they don't want that light luke chapter two look at verse seven and she brought
for their firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger
because there was no room for them in the end
you know i hope the people that were in that end got saved but can you imagine you know how stupid
they would feel later in life they're like yeah we were the ones that rejected jesus you know like
he came and knocked on her door and you're like major bro you know or whatever like that would
that would feel kind of stupid like to be the people that just rejected the messiah the lord
jesus christ but you know while we think about that you know jesus said if you do it on the
least of these my breath and you do it unto me and when the apostle paul was persecuting people
jesus took it personally you know someone really needed your help and it was a born again child of
god do you look at them as if jesus needed that help because that would be a great way to look
at it and maybe you'd be a little bit more willing to help them and and to do good on them and but
you have to realize that the world's not going to accept jesus you know it's us the world thinks
that everything about jesus is stupid they think that it's foolish go back and i want to read a few
more verses here and then we're going to turn to another place go to acts 26 and look at verse 21
for these causes i'm sorry uh i think i want to read verse uh 24 as he thus spake for himself
festus said with a loud voice paul thou art beside thyself much learning does make thee mad
but he said i'm not mad most noble vestus but speak forth the words of truth and soberness now
the word mad we often think of it as being angry right if someone said i'm mad you would be like
why are you so upset but in this context the word mad means crazy okay there's a character
in alice in wonderland called the mad hatter and it's not that he's angry all the time it's the
fact that the guy is crazy okay he's like insane or whatever and and basically what festus is doing
is he's falsely accusing paul of just being crazy or a psycho or weird or something like that
but according to the bible you know what he's preaching is the truth and he's preaching the
truth and he even makes a stand here and he says very clearly but speak forth the words of truth
and soberness so he's saying everything i'm saying makes sense it's exactly what the bible
says and you know what the world is not going to accept the bible go to first corinthians
chapter number two first corinthians chapter number two for a moment and and look what the
bible says in first corinthians chapter number two in verse number one and i brethren when i came to
you came not with excellency of speech or wisdom declaring on you the testimony of god for i
determined not to know anything among you save jesus christ and am crucified so the bible makes
it clear that jesus wasn't going around preaching some special wisdom or knowledge he was just
simply preaching the gospel just preaching that christ died on the cross and you know when we go
to the door and knock on the door and try to get someone saved we're not supposed to go and preach
some uh scientific evidence or some great wisdom or some great you know let me tell you about all
the archaeology that i've discovered you know that proves about jesus let me talk about the
shroud of jesus you know the shroud of whatever you know where they found his face you know and
through this you know we're not going to go through all this scientific discovery and all
this extra information no what we're doing is we're just opening up the scriptures john 3 16
you know the the most famous verse in the bible for god so loved the world that he gave his only
begotten son that whosoever believeth in him did not perish but have everlasting life you know but
the thing is that the world's going to mock that the world's going to make fun of the bible look
what it says on the just flip the page or just look at the latter portion of this chapter he
says in verse 13 which things also we speak not in the words which man's wisdom teaches
but the holy ghost teaches comparing spiritual with spiritual but the natural man receiveth not
the things of the spirit of god for their foolishness unto him neither can he know them
because they are spiritually discerned according to the bible when you preach the word of god
the unsaved are going to think that it's foolish now foolish is a you know a word we don't use as
often what we use is the word idiot or stupid or dumb or something like that the bible is saying
that to an unsaved person that's what the bible is going to seem like that's why it's also kind
of silly to try and preach to someone anything in the bible except for the gospel you know you
try to get them saved first try to get the holy ghost inside of them first because the atheist is
going to mock the bible the atheist is going to scoff at the word of god you know false religion
is going to say oh you believe in resurrection oh you believe that god created the world you know
how do you believe in a trinity how could three persons be one god you know they're just basically
going to mock and scoff at all the things that the word of god teaches very clearly because
they're simply just not even saved and there's a lot of places in scripture that kind of bring
this concept up look at chapter number four verse 10 we are fools for christ's sake but year wise in
christ so the apostle paul when he's talking about himself he said that we're fools in christ so
according to the bible you know is the world going to ever respect christians the answer is no and
they're certainly not going to respect their leaders they're going to look at all the pastors
and the spiritual leaders as being idiots fools not understanding the word of god you know to
the world you know wisdom is thinking that a woman who you know basically cuts off a male body part
and attaches to herself is now a man and i'm like that's stupid you know or they think a dude you
know mutilating his body his private parts is now a woman no that's stupid that's foolish you know
and they're like well you're just uneducated you know you don't understand gender theory no no i
understand that a man's man and woman's woman you know and i understand that uh only women get
pregnant there's not like pregnant people you know no no there's just women women get pregnant men
have never gotten pregnant if you tell me that men can get pregnant i realize that you're stupid
and you know when we get up and we say that only women get pregnant they're like oh you're stupid
and misogynistic you know you you subscribe to the patriarchy you know oh the fact that men are
stronger than women shocked you know oh man i wonder why you know women and men's sports have
been different for centuries it's not like look if there was a woman that was better than men at
sports they would have been competing a long time ago they never do you know what happens if some
stupid faggot goes and tries to get into some woman's sports and he's not even athletic at all
to try and beat up on women when really a man that's abusing women should get beat up
you know that disgusting little queer little sissy boy should be the one that you know is
actually getting pounded in the ground you know these little faggots or whatever they go into like
the ufc and they're like literally crushing women's skulls and like beating up on women and doing
that's stupid that's foolish you know the fact that we have a bunch of women cops running around
here in our society that's stupid you know a big criminal a big man burly man he's not intimidated
by some little girl coming around being like sir will you please follow the law it's like no
why would we ever think that we're gonna the the people that are gonna enforce the law are some
little woman you know driving around you know what they have no ability to enforce the things that
they say except without a gun so it actually makes it more dangerous for every single person for the
woman for the the person that's breaking the law i mean everything that the world does is stupid
the world says that the whole universe is created of nothing how is that science is science false
i saw called my friend so when you get the light when you walk into the light you can see everything
and it's just obvious but the people that are in the dark they're trying to describe things to you
that they've never seen and it just makes no sense but you know what when you describe to someone
something that you've seen that they've never seen it just doesn't make any sense to them
it's foolishness under them you know they can't comprehend it you have to bring them in the light
first to then point out all the things that you're seeing very clearly so you know the goal should be
to get people in the light not to try and describe things in the light while they stay in darkness
it'll never make sense to them they can never understand it it'd be like someone coming from
heaven and describing to us what heaven looks like we just wouldn't be able to figure it out
it wouldn't make sense to us it would seem nonsensical possibly we wouldn't you know be
able to figure these things out and so that's why it's silly to try and explain the bible to
someone that's not saved we preach christ and him crucified that's the whole goal
go back to act chapter 26 we'll kind of finish this real quickly
verse 26 the bible says for the king knoweth of these things before whom also i speak freely
brian persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him this thing was not done in a
corner king agrippa believeth thou the prophets i know that thou believeth then agrippa said
unto paul almost thou persuadest me to be a christian so the apostle paul says look
everything that i've done and everything about me is not something that's kind of hidden
it wasn't done in a corner of the world meaning it was done in the whole world you know and when
the apostle paul's going out and preaching the gospel to different gentile areas they say that
this is the guy that's come that's turning the world upside down you know they're not saying
like who's paul you know what's going on here they're like this is the guy that's literally
flipped society up on his head everything's completely shifted and changed and just
everything's going everybody knows what's going on and here's the thing when you have true
christianity when you're really serving god everyone's going to know who you are people
people are going to figure out who you are and you know what it's crazy when you think about
a church like ours who's who runs you know 40 50 on a on a service time you know we're not a big
church there's literally 8 million people in the houston area right just a small little crowd a
small little group of people just minding your own business yet sometimes you'll preach a sermon and
the whole world freaks out about it and everybody knows who you are and everybody knows where
what you're doing and and you know even our church in the dow's fourth area we're not running that
many people you know 150 200 people something like that but just a small little church i mean
when you think about the size of the churches in this area Joel Osteen's running like 30,000 people
you know some of these churches out here are running all but you know they don't ever seem
to be attacked they don't understand like all these people just coming after them and getting
all mad about every single thing that they say and all this you know animosity and all this heat
and everybody's mad at them you know it's the impossible is just one person why are they so
mad it's just one little person because he's making a big impact for christ and you know what
people that are going to make a big impact for christ are going to be met with much resistance
much evil people are going to know who they are you know it's christianity is not going to be done
in a secret you know in a corner and so sometimes people be like oh everybody knows who you are
everybody says that you're cold everybody says well all right he's like well of course everybody's
going to know you know who the truth is it'd be weird if nobody knows who you are
if nobody is ever hearing about it because think about it if the entire city of of houston just
went completely black out lost all electricity but then some random part of the city just lights
just flooded into the sky nobody knows where nobody pays attention to it though that's not
going to happen everyone's going to pay attention to it and see the christian church is supposed to
be this big beaming light in a world of no lights of course everybody's going to look at it and
follow it and come near it and unfortunately you know what happens when it's really dark and
there's a light on bugs oh yeah you leave the light on cockroaches and mosquitoes and flies
and all kinds of critters and creatures are going to come at that light aren't they
and you know what when you're a church and you're shining bright cockroaches and scorpions and
everything else you can imagine the sun's going to come and be attracted to that light and so
don't be shocked don't be surprised when bugs come and they try to put out your light they're
attracted to that particular light let's finish this chapter then it says in verse number 29 and
paul said i would to god that not only thou but also all that hear me this day were both almost
and altogether such as i am except these bonds so paul says look you almost i almost persuaded
you to be a christian well i wish everybody here was a christian except for being locked up you
know i wish you were exactly like me and notice paul's not mincing words paul's not saying like
well i don't care if you're a christian or not he's saying like no you need to be just like me
it's like oh you have the right religion and everybody else is wrong yes yeah he's not afraid
to be like you need to change your mind you need a christian also this though here's an example
someone that didn't get saved right i mean we don't know if he got saved later in the future
but at this moment in time he's saying he's not saved right he didn't really repent he's
like i almost repented i almost got saved and i believe you know you can learn something from
this paul didn't then say anything else he preached the word of god he preached the gospel
he almost got saved but he didn't so that's all he can do and there's going to be a lot of people
that you preach the gospel it sounds pretty good they're not going to change their mind at that
moment you got to walk away you got to keep going you know our goal is just to share the light is to
preach the gospel give them an opportunity if they're not going to accept it you move on to
the next person you know but paul didn't try to do anything different he's going to just preach the
scriptures preach christ and him crucified and just keep going and you know that's what he did
his whole ministry went into a town preached christ and crucified some people accepted it
some people rejected it move on to the next town move on to the next town just keep going keep
going keep going you know our goal is not to force people to get saved our goal is just to
get as many people to listen that will and some people will mock not everybody's going to accept
it you know but the power is of god it's not of us it's not anything that makes us special
we're just vessels to open up our mouth and to preach the gospel and it says in verse 31 and
when they were gone aside they talked between themselves saying this man do with nothing worthy
of death or of bonds then said a grip on Ephesus this man might have been set at liberty if he had
not appealed unto caesar so you know after hearing his testimony they're not dummies
they go and they're talking they're conferring back in the back room and they're just like
what are we going to do this guy's done nothing wrong we have nothing against him
in fact we should probably even just let him go but he appealed unto caesar so i guess we're
going to have to go and allow him to go be appealing unto caesar and obviously god worked
that out so paul could get a free trip to rome albeit a pretty rocky ship but and we'll learn
that in the next few chapters but he gets a free ticket to rome and god works through
the apostle paul to give the gospel a lot of great people so you know here's my thought in this
chapter you know we just need to go and preach christ and him crucified and not worry worry about
the chips that are going to fall you know and not be afraid that some people may reject us
think about jesus jesus came into this world he came into his own and his own received him not
right he came to be in the world and the world that had no room for him you know these people
in jerusalem didn't want paul okay move on king of grippa and festas they don't want him all right
to rome you know and and not to get discouraged when people reject us or don't like us or don't
agree with the bible but to realize that that's part of you know our sufferings with christ
christ was rejected we too will be rejected when we preach the gospel but you know what we keep
moving on and we keep finding the people that do want to hear so that we can get as many people
saved as possible let's close in prayer thank you heavenly father for our church thank you for this
opportunity to be gathered together i thank you that we get to celebrate christmas in the next
few days i pray that i will be reminded that as we celebrate christmas you know you came into
this world and nobody wanted you you know you were in the main you sent your son and your son
was in the manger you know they weren't interested in the god of the universe but we are interested
in the god of the universe and and we want to think about how we too if we follow in christ's
footsteps are going to be rejected of this world and there's not going to be room for us at the end
but we're going to just keep moving on we're going to keep preaching christ and crucified
and we'll be fools for your sake and in jesus name we pray amen for our last song 431 431
silent night holy night and as i as we turn there i'm going to have a couple guys
help me just pass out we're going to pass these out to everybody real quick
and i'm going to go over real quick again our cookie instructions
also if you brought cookies who brought cookies for the competition i just i want to give everyone
a cup real quick would y'all bring some okay if you brought cookies for the competition
here pass that pen around write your name on the bottom of the cup
and then write the name of your cookie on the side and we're just going to put them out
did y'all have one or two how many three types okay there you go all right
you got two make sure you just put your name on the bottom
did anybody else have bring any cookies or anything
there we go great
you have to take the lid off the other one the end that yeah yeah all right you can pass that
so as soon as we're done go and take your cup there's a pin that they're passing around so
you can write on that cup all right go ahead and put your cup with the cookies and then basically
what we do i'm gonna have beads they're going to be red green and white and there's a poster even
in the hallway that explains which bead goes with which category as far as voting anybody of the age
10 or older gets to vote okay so if you're 10 or older you get to vote and we'll give you beads
and you're going to vote for the best tasting the best decorated the most creative you can follow
that chart or whatever and i'll give everybody like 30 minutes or something like that to taste
and try them and then vote and then we'll collect all of those and then we'll vote here in a minute
so
they want hey brother
there you go all right so we'll go ahead and turn out the lights and then i'll light y'all
are you playing for us
go ahead
do she need some light
so
there on the first silent night holy night all is calm all is bright
round yon virgin mother and child holy infant so tender and mild sleep in heavenly peace
silent night holy night shepherds quake at the sight glory stream from heaven afar
far heavenly hosting hallelujah christ the savior is born christ the savior is born
silent night holy night son of god lost your light radiant beams from thy only face
face with the dawn of redeeming grace jesus lord at thy birth jesus lord at thy birth
silent night holy night wondrous star live my life with the angels let us sing hallelujah to
our king christ the savior is born christ the savior is born merry christmas
bye
you