(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Song number 64. Song number 64. Song number 64. Song number 64. Song number 64. Song number 64. Song number 64. Song number 64. Song number 64. Song number 64. Song number 64. Song number 64. Song number 64. Song number 64. Song number 64. Song number 64. Song number 64. Song number 64. Song number 64. Song number 64. Song number 64. Song number 64. Song number 84. That is shape! You guys have an opportunity to come to church. Please bless us now and fill your launch centers with your spirit and let's do something new tonight in Jesus name we pray, Amen. Ready for the next song, song number 132. Never alone, never alone. Let's go. Song 132. I've seen the mighty flashing, I've heard the roving roar, I've felt it ring the sash, I've heard the storm, I've heard the voice of Jesus, I've felt it ring the storm, He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone, No, never alone, no, never alone, He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone, No, never alone, no, never alone, He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone, No, never alone, no, never alone, I've felt it ring the sash, I've heard the roar, He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone, He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone, No, never alone, no, never alone, He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone, No, never alone, no, never alone, He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone, No, never alone, no, never alone, He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone, No, never alone, not yet the growth of the pair, never to pass me down. And my Savior just brought His promise never to leave me alone. No, never alone, never alone, never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. No, never alone, never alone, never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. He died for me on the mountain, for he lived years beside. For he opened the fountain of friends and friends in time. For he lived in glory, seated upon his throne. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. No, never alone, never alone, never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. No, never alone, never alone, never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. All right, at this time we'll go through our announcements together. If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high. We'll get to you with one. On the inside we have our service time. Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service. Sunday nights at 6. Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study. This week we will be in 2 Chronicles chapter 13, and we have the soul winning times listed there below, as well as salvations and baptisms. Across the page there will be a special lunch that is for all those who participated in the soul winning, either in Greenlee County or on the Hopi Reservation. So if you took part in any of those soul winning events, you may be entitled to compensation in the form of a lunch on June 30th, which is one week from today at 1 o'clock. Please sign up if you're planning on going so that we'll know how much food to prepare for that. And then thank you for all those who prayed about the Nigeria trip. There were only three people that went on this trip. It's kind of a little bit more difficult of a trip. You have to get a visa and jump through some hoops and do some different things. But we had three people from our church down there, and they went to Nigeria and they had a total of 63 people saved. So it's very exciting, and so God bless them for doing that. And below that we've got the notes about the Fiji trip. We had 23 people from our church on this Fiji trip, and they had a total of 750 people saved over the course of a couple weeks. Of course, the whole trip itself had almost like 60 people because there were a lot of people from Australia and elsewhere, and they had literally a couple thousand people saved on that trip. So praise the Lord for all the successful missions trips that have been going on. We've got a trip up to the Navajo Reservation for soul winning coming up this Friday and Saturday. Hopefully you've already signed up if you're planning on going, but the details and the sign up are still here. It's not too late to sign up for that. And you can also get a visit to Grand Canyon National Park Inn. On the back, we've got the list of preachers that are coming for the mega conference. Pastor Jonathan Shelley, Pastor Bruce Mejia, Pastor Aaron Thompson, Pastor Enrique Reyes, Pastor Dave Berzins, Pastor Roger Jimenez, Pastor David Mark, and Brother Dylan Oz. And so I hope that you'll enjoy getting to hear some of these great men of God preach in person. And if you have perfect attendance, there will be a prize for that as well. I will be preaching in South Carolina on July 5th in the evening, so spread the word to anybody who lives in that area. And then down at the bottom, we've got a roller skating night coming up in August on the 15th. It's a ways out, but mark the calendar for that. And that is about it for announcements. Let's go ahead and count up the soul winning from the past several days. So going back to Thursday, do we have anything to report from Thursday? Gotcha. Got it. OK. Got it. OK. All right. And then how about Friday? Anything from Friday? OK. All right. And then how about Saturday? OK. And then what about today? Brother Scott? Six for the main group of Brother Scott. Gotcha. OK. Got it. Got it. All right. Very good. Keep up the great work on soul winning. And with that, let's go ahead and sing our next song. Come lead us. Fifteen. Please raise your hand if you need one. Song 15. Right. Just. His heart. Right. Just. He. Is. I. Is. He. Is. Oh. He. Is. He. Is. He. Is. He. Is. He. Is. He. Is. He. Is. He. Is. He. Is. He. Is. He. Is. He. Is. He. Is. He. Is. He. Is. He. Is. He. Song books into song 231. Sunlight song number 231. Two. Three. Two. One. Two. Three. One. Two. Three. One. Two. Three. One. Two. Three. One. Two. Three. One. Two. Three. One. Two. Three. One. Two. Three. One. Two. Three. One. Two. Three. One. Two. Three. One. Two. Three. One. Two. Three. One. Two. Three. One. Two. Three. One. Two. Three. One. Follow along silently with brother Nick as he reads Acts chapter 20 beginning in verse number 1. Acts chapter 20. And after the uproar was ceased Paul called unto him the disciples and embraced them and when he had gone over those parts and had given them much exhortation he came into Greece and there abode 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 into Asia, Sopater of Biria and of the Thessalonians Aristarchus and Secundus and Gaius of Derbe and Timotheus and of Asia, Tychicus 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 to Troas in five days where 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 depart on the morrow and continued his speech until midnight 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 and 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 and then they brought the young man alive and were not a little comforted and we went before his ship and sailed unto Essos there intending to take in Paul for so had he appointed, minding himself to go afoot and when he met with us at Essos we took him in and came to Myllene and we sailed thence and came the next day over Chios and the next day we arrived at Samos and tarried at Shrogilium and the next day we came to Miletus for Paul had determined to sail by Ephesus because he would not spend the time in Asia for he hasted if it were possible for him to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost 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 with all humility of mind and with many tears and temptations which befell me by the lying and weight of the Jews and how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you but I have showed you and have taught you publicly and from house to house testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks repentance toward 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 neither count I 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 the which the Holy Ghost hath 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 your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years I cease not to warn everyone night and day with tears and 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 an inheritance among all them which are sanctified I have coveted no man's silver or 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 and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus how he said it is 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 sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake that they should see his face no more and they accompanied him under the ship Father in heaven we love you Lord we thank you for the opportunity to hear your word preached we ask that you would fill Pastor Anderson with your spirit and give him great boldness and wisdom and Lord we pray that you would also prepare our hearts now to receive the engrafted word thereby we may grow from it we pray your blessing now and all these things in Jesus' precious name Amen Amen tonight I'm continuing preaching through the third missionary journey of the Apostle Paul if you remember last time we talked about this there was that great uproar in Ephesus Paul had just had a tremendous amount of success in Ephesus multitudes and multitudes of people were getting saved to the point where the pagan idolaters were afraid that their religion was going to be completely destroyed and that the makers of the idols were afraid that people wouldn't even buy them anymore and the word of God had just spread all throughout the Roman province of Asia also known as Asia Minor or the modern day country of Turkey and so the Apostle Paul had had great success but there had also been a lot of opposition both from Jews and Greeks that were persecuting the Apostle Paul and so it says in verse 1 of chapter 20 after the uproar was ceased after that big riot where they were all shouting great is Diana of the Ephesians and so forth it says that Paul called unto him the disciples and embraced them and departed for to go into Macedonia and when he had gone over those parts and had given them much exhortation he came into Greece and there abode three months so just to give you a vague idea of the geography here you could think of it as sort of like a triangle because you've got Ephesus on the west coast of the modern day country of Turkey and then northwest of that would be Macedonia like what would today be northern Greece and then down south would be Greece what the Bible is talking about here as Greece so it's sort of like a triangle of Ephesus, Macedonia and then down into Greece of course everything is backwards because I'm standing up here doing this it's more like the other way but hopefully you get the gist of what I'm saying but it says that he abode there in Greece three months so he goes through Macedonia he's preaching to churches in places that he's already been you know this is like another trip through Macedonia so he's exhorting them, preaching to them, edifying them and then he gets to Greece and it says that when the Jews laid weight for him as he was about to sail into Syria he purposed to return through Macedonia so really returning to Syria just hopping on a ship and just sailing directly to Syria would have essentially ended the third missionary journey I mean that would have been it but we still have another like chapter and a half of this journey because of the fact that he ends up not doing that he does not sail directly back to the home base in Syria rather he ends up backtracking so he goes from Greece back up to Macedonia back to the west coast of Asia Minor and pretty much just going back the same way that he came and so what we can see here is that a lot of wonderful things happen on this trip a lot of great preaching and a lot of great events happen on this trip home and so what the Jews intended for evil, God intended for good I have no doubt that it was God's will that Paul be waylaid and that he not be able to just hop on that ship and go straight back to Syria so even though the Jews are trying to hurt him and they're obviously wicked and ungodly what the evil people of this world, what they mean for ill God often means for good and God often uses for good it's sort of like when Joseph's brethren sold him into slavery they did that out of hatred and spite and wickedness but what they meant for evil, God meant for good it was always God's plan that Joseph go down into Egypt and that he be used to spare the entire family of starvation and so a lot of things in our life that happened even negative things, even people persecuting us or harming us ultimately all things work together for good to those that love God and to them who are the called according to his purpose so whatever happens in our lives we can rest assured that as long as we love God as long as we're serving God ultimately it's all going to work out for the best anyway and so the Jews here want to harm the Apostle Paul God protects him and he just ends up having more of a missionary journey than he had originally planned which was obviously God's will in the first place it says in verse 4 and so he gets to bring all these people with him he's teaching them, these are his apprentices that are going to be the next generation of preachers that can carry the torch after he's gone it says in verse 6 and continued his speech until midnight so the Apostle Paul is preaching for a long time I mean he preaches an evening service we don't know what time the service started but he's preaching the evening service and he ends up preaching until midnight ok, now the Bible doesn't really prescribe how long a typical sermon is supposed to last and of course I'm not going to get up here and say that this is how long sermons need to be this is the right length for a sermon this is the wrong length for a sermon because obviously that's a matter of opinion or preference but I will say this there's an increasing trend in churches today where the sermons are just getting shorter and shorter to the point where it's getting kind of ridiculous where you show up to church and it's funny because the church service still lasts for an hour or maybe even an hour and a half but the sermons are getting to be like 20 minutes long and my impression again I'm not trying to say this dogmatically or to be legalistic about this or something but my impression of a preacher who gets up and preaches for just 20 minutes every single time over and over again it's just these little 15, 20 minute sermonettes is that this guy just doesn't have very much to say this guy just doesn't really care this guy's not really that passionate about anything I mean if the apostle Paul got up and preached for several hours it's because he had several hours of material he had a lot of good stuff to say he had a lot of the word of God burning inside of him that needed to get out and he was trying to preach important things that people needed to hear and so he's redeeming the time he's making use of all the time that he has with people he's working hard he's not just trying to phone in a 20 minute sermon so that he can just knock off early for the day now admittedly I may knock off early tonight because my throat is damaged as you can hear from my voice unless this is your first time here maybe you think that I always sound this way but my throat is damaged and so I'm just barely hanging by a thread up here so this might be one of those short sermons but at least I have an excuse if I preach short not like these guys who just get up and give little 15, 20 minute sermonettes with barely any content without any meat on the bone hey, God's people need to be taught the Bible the Bible's a big book there's a lot to say there are a lot of issues that we're dealing with in 2024 that are important and we need preachers who care about what's going on care about what the Bible says and care about the people enough to want to communicate God's word to them so that they actually learn something that they've got to know I'm not just up here filling time I'm trying to preach the word of God so that people can be edified because they need it it's necessary why do we have three services a week why not just have one because honestly there's just too much information to teach there's just too much doctrine that needs to be taught there's too much edification that we as believers need and so 15 minutes on Sunday morning once a week just isn't going to cut it and when I think about the attention span that people have obviously you don't want to preach too long you're going to lose people as we see in the story here in a moment talk about losing somebody but the point is that obviously you don't want to go beyond people's attention span or beyond what people can digest but stop and think about this if you go to school think about elementary school junior high, high school the classes last about an hour you're in class for 50 minutes or an hour sometimes an hour and 15 minutes sometimes 90 minutes but that's really the range that you're looking at for a school class whether it's at a university whether it's an elementary school junior high, high school you're going to be in the neighborhood of 45 minutes hour, hour and 15 that's usually about what you're looking at and then think about the TV shows people watch and they have no problem locking in and watching a TV show for one hour right, a typical episode or whatever, one hour people have no issue sitting down and watching a feature length film that lasts 90 minutes right, they sit down they watch a movie for 90 minutes they're able to pay attention and the people who craft these films man, they have it down to a science of the 90 minute format and you know this happens around the 20 minute mark and this happens around the 45 minute mark and this happens around the 65 minute mark because they know what people can handle and what their attention span can tolerate, you know, so therefore if you went to a sporting event and it lasted for 15 minutes you'd feel a little disappointed and if you went to a movie and you bought a movie ticket and it lasted for 15 minutes, you'd say what, was that it? right, people don't, people want their entertainment to last for more than 15 minutes well guess what, this is way more important than some stupid entertainment you know, this is the Bible, this is life and death, this is heaven and hell this is the eternal word of God and I understand that we're all human and we only have so much of an attention span and so much that we can absorb but I'm pretty sure it's more than 15 minutes or it's more than 20 minutes that we can handle we need to grow up and sit down and listen to the word of God being preached and learn something and the Apostle Paul had something to say and he preached for a long time and I guarantee you that the people that were there, man, they wanted him to keep preaching because it was kind of like a one night only he's passing through and this is their chance to hear from the Apostle Paul himself, man you want to hear as much as you can in that sermon and he had a lot to say people that care have a lot to say and so the Bible says in verse 8 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 I mean this guy was in the REM sleep phase and as Paul was long preaching he sunk down with sleep and fell down from the third loft and was taken up dead so I mean this guy's on the third floor and he's in the window you know, if you're going to sit in the window stay awake, buddy but the guy just is in deep sleep slumps over, falls over and when the Bible says that he was taken up dead, basically it means that they thought he was dead so they took him up like this guy's dead that's what they're thinking and Paul went down and fell on him and embracing him said, trouble not yourselves for his life is in him so you know, everybody's freaked out but they say hey, you know Paul says relax he's still alive and Paul went down and fell on him and said, trouble not yourselves for his life and in verse 11 when he therefore was come up again he began to eat bread and eating and talked a long while, even till break of day so he departed so the apostle Paul doesn't say, well I guess I'm preaching too long he just says, well this guy didn't die did he? let's keep going nobody died, so the sermon's not over and so he just keeps on preaching and he preaches from midnight all the way until the break of day, he just doesn't he just keeps on preaching, he just doesn't stop now obviously this is a literal event that actually took place, the events in the book of Acts are historical real, true events nothing could be clearer than that when you're reading the book of Acts the author of the book of Acts, Luke even puts in a lot of historical data about who is the governor, who's the Caesar what year things happen because he's making it very clear that he's writing a historical document, not a made up story it's a true story and so in the book of Acts we have obviously a historical event, but there is also of course an allegorical interpretation to pretty much everything in the Bible and there's nothing wrong with taking an allegorical interpretation of the Bible, but we don't want to deny the truth of the actual events when the Bible is clear that they are historical events that took place that really happened, so because we say that something's allegorical, we're not saying it didn't happen, we're not saying it isn't real we're just saying that there's also a symbolic meaning, you know, it's included in the Bible, not just as a fun little anecdote, like haha, this guy fell out the window we thought he was dead, turns out he was alive, cool story but rather, we're supposed to take some kind of a lesson from what's being taught here, and so the idea of the young man that is sitting in the window is that he is half in and half out right, and a lot of people are this way, where they're in church they're saved and especially this could be true of young people, but they're sitting on the edges of church and I'm not talking about literally now, I'm talking spiritually, because they've basically got one foot in the world one foot in church, meaning that they're enamored with what's going on out there, so they're listening to the word of God being preached but they also want to be in a place where they can also have their finger on the pulse of what's going on out there, because they aren't really all the way in they're not really dedicated to the service of God fully rather they're just kind of half in church, they're not really there and they're not necessarily paying attention I mean this guy's just asleep he's zoned out, he's not hearing the sermon, and one moral of the story right away is that if you're half in, half out you end up going out, right and if you're half in, half out, you don't accidentally fall into church you don't accidentally just wake up one morning and all of a sudden you're super zealous for the things of God, and you're you know, I don't know how I got here, but you know, I just find myself constantly reading my Bible and praying and soul winning and things like that, those things take a lot of effort you know, the passive move when you just go limp if you go limp you're going out the window not into the window, okay and so when this guy just kind of goes meh, whatever he ends up inadvertently falling out of church literally falling out but I'm saying spiritually if you're half in, half out if you're not serious about the things of God if you're not paying attention to the preaching if you're not staying awake and listening to what's being said and staying awake and reading your Bible and staying awake and caring about the things of God then, you know, there's a chance that you're just gonna fall out and next thing you know, you'll slowly be fading away and we'll see you less and less until you're just gone now the other thing that I want to point out is that when this guy falls out people assume that he's dead and a lot of times people will make the mistake of assuming that just because someone doesn't go to church that that means that they're not saved or if someone gets out of church oh, well that person must have not been saved and of course this is totally false this is totally wrong lots of people that are saved end up not going to church for whatever the reason okay and here's a powerful proof of that John the Baptist had multitudes of people saved and baptized under his ministry Jesus and the apostles had even more people saved and baptized than John did over the course of three and a half years of Christ and the apostles doing ministry full time day in day out week in week out for years getting thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of people saved and baptized yet when we get to Acts chapter one in the early church, men, women children, everybody together how many people were in that early church 120 so explain that, explain to me how when thousands and thousands and thousands of people have been saved thousands and thousands and thousands of people have been baptized, explain to me how there are only 120 people in the early church in Acts chapter one well you know in Acts chapter two, you know thousands more were added, I'm not talking about Acts chapter two I'm talking about Acts chapter one I'm saying in Acts chapter one you have 120 people who were those 120 people? those were the diehards those were the really zealous, dedicated, sold out people they're going to be there no matter what they're going to be there when the doors are open that's who's there in Acts chapter one 120 people now does that mean that only 120 people were saved you know if you asked a lot of people today a lot of these dead, dried up Calvinist types, that's what they'd tell you oh it's just 120 saved that's baloney okay, they had multitudes saved there's a big difference between getting saved by simply believing on the Lord Jesus Christ and being an actual dedicated zealous servant of God a lot of people wonder if we have so many thousands of people saved you know why is our church only running 300 people or 350 people on a Sunday morning well here's the thing about that is that 300 to 350 people on a Sunday morning is a lot, number one that's a pretty good sized crowd that's bigger than the average church but you say well yeah but you had all these thousands of people saved are we running more than 120? because we didn't do as much as Jesus and the apostles did and they're only running 120 in Acts chapter 1 okay so we're running 300 whatever, what's the point? you know the point is that just because we win somebody to the Lord doesn't necessarily mean they're going to go to a church or even to our church and by the way, the majority of people that we win to Christ are not even in this area so how can they come to church and really the majority of people that we win to the Lord are on the mission field going to places like Fiji Nigeria or small towns across Arizona or the Navajo reservation four or five hours away or people that are using you know video conferencing software and winning people to the Lord all over the world through video calls and so forth the point is that a lot of the people that are getting saved, they're not even in this area who cares? and then people will say well did you plant a church in all these places? you're not going to believe this but there's already a Baptist church in every city in America I mean in fact, most cities in America have tons of Baptist churches and it's not my fault if they suck it's not my fault I'm not going to take responsibility for it some of them are awesome many hundreds and hundreds of Baptist churches across America are awesome, they're great many others suck that's not my problem get mad at the Baptist church it's no good don't demand that I start a church in every town in Hamlet that's not my job that's not what God has called me to do I can't bear the weight of the world on my shoulders and neither can you all we can do is just win people to Christ and just send them to whatever Baptist churches in their area every country in this world virtually every area has Baptist churches and you know, hopefully they're good some are better than others but you know what? all of them are better than nothing and so the bottom line is that we've got to go out and win people to Christ and preach the gospel to the lost that's what God wants us to do and it's up to God to build the church it's not our job to sit and stress why didn't everybody come to church and by the way a lot of people that you win to Christ they end up getting swooped up by some other church you know, I can't even count how many times I've won somebody to the Lord and then their uncle finds out their cousin finds out their aunt finds out their brother finds out and says oh you got saved, well you're coming to church with me now and people are more likely to go to church with family and friends even though those aren't necessarily the people that won them to Christ but we don't care we don't care about the kingdom here or build, you know, just a group here we're just trying to get people saved and let Christ build his church however he sees fit whatever he wants to do and so the point that I'm making here is that people who don't go to church or people who stop going to church are not necessarily unsaved because I could point to a bunch of people that you and I know well that are good, serious, godly Christians and they would tell you that there was a time in their life when they didn't go to church for years on end you know I'm not going to ask for a raise of hands but I'll bet there are people in this room right now that have been saved for a long time that would say you know what I was out of church for a couple years you know I just talked to a good buddy recently he said I was out of church for a year and a half but now I'm back in church now I'm serving God look just because somebody's not in church or gets out of church doesn't mean they're not saved last time I checked the Bible doesn't say thou shalt be saved it says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved you can go to heaven without ever setting foot in church now none of you can because you're already in church so that doesn't work for you but somebody out there who's never been in church could literally never set foot in a church in their entire life and still go to heaven because the church isn't what saves you it's faith in Jesus Christ that saves you and so church is not necessary for salvation it is necessary for obedience it's necessary for Christian growth it's necessary for fellowship but when it comes to getting to heaven it's just believing on the Lord Jesus Christ that saves you and so when somebody falls out of church quits going to church gets backslidden gets away from church people will often assume that this person is unsaved and so that is symbolized by the fact that they think this guy's dead you know he fell out and they're just like this guy is dead they're assuming that but then the apostle Paul says no he actually isn't dead he's actually still alive and that's what I'm here to tell you is that many people who have quit the church are still alive they're still saved they just got backslidden they just got lazy they just quit the church for whatever reason but it doesn't mean that they aren't saved now if someone says oh I don't believe in Jesus anymore I'm not a Christian anymore that person is not saved but guess what they were never saved in the first place because it's impossible to lose your salvation the Bible says they went out from us but they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us and the context of that scripture is talking about false prophets who deviate from right doctrine okay they start teaching heresy you know they leave and become Roman Catholic or Mormon or Buddhist or Hindu or Islamic or whatever you know obviously or East Orthodox these people were never saved to begin with okay that's why they're not believing in Christ that's why they don't believe the gospel of Jesus Christ but what I'm saying is that for people to just get out of church that doesn't make them unsaved when people start saying that they don't even believe the gospel well then yeah you can pretty much take it to the bank that that person's not saved but somebody who just gets out of church there could be other reasons for that laziness tiredness drowsiness not caring apathy that's what this guy's problem was he didn't care he's not paying attention he's not listening he's half in half out he's enamored with the things of this world and he ends up falling out well guess what that could happen to a lot of saved people and that means that you and I need to take heat unto ourselves lest we fall saved people can get out of church saved people can stop serving God and mess up their lives and make stupid decisions and that includes me and that includes you and so we got to be careful that we are paying attention that we're staying awake that we're staying sober that we're listening to the word of God and going to church to learn something and you know what not every sermon is necessarily going to be a banger you know not every sermon is necessarily going to just blow your socks off and be the funnest most exciting most dynamic sermon ever and in fact I'd be willing to bet that the Apostle Paul's probably not preaching a super dynamic sermon because if he were he probably wouldn't be able to go for 8 or 9 hours I mean if you're super dynamic how long can you go you know these dynamic sermons after an hour you know your aerobic engine is starting to slow down and so my guess is that if he's going for 8 or 9 hours some of it might have been a little bit more dry maybe all of it was a little bit more subdued and mellow if he's able to preach for that long let me tell you something we don't come to church to be entertained I strive to be as interesting and entertaining of a speaker as I can be because I know that the spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down but you know what at the end of the day it's not my job to entertain you it is my job to educate you it is my job to motivate you it is my job to exhort you to correct you to instruct you in the word of God not necessarily to be fun all the time I hope that my sermons are fun and interesting most of the time but whether they are or not you know what I'm not sorry because at the end of the day I'm only going to be sorry if I teach you things that are wrong you know we don't want to become people who are just looking for the most wild shocking sermon ever right just the most offensive the most in your face this isn't like a a Howard Stern show of Christianity or something where we can just see how edgy and shocking and radical we can be and you say well you preach some radical stuff pastor actually I haven't actually I haven't preached anything radical actually I'm a very moderate person but the reason that I'm accused of being radical is because the world is so radically weird right now and the world is so radically ungodly that if you just act normal and say some normal things and preach some sane normal things people think you're crazy because they're crazy I'm not I'm not into being radical I'm not into getting up and preaching something now have I said shocking things I I mean if they shocked you then that's you you know I've never said anything that shocked myself I've never scared myself with the things that I said you know it's like I'm not up here like oh here's a shocking thing I can say this will really this will really uh you know get them going crazy on the internet or something and look I've said some things that went crazy on the internet but it wasn't because I'm like hey let's go crazy on the internet it's just because I said stuff and that's what happened but I don't think that we should set out to offend we shouldn't set out to shock we shouldn't set out to just be the wildest craziest you know uh preacher that we could be you know I don't believe in that for one second and I think that there are some people that have a tendency to be like that and it's not good it's a bad it's a bad look you know we should rather just get up and preach the word of God if the word of God is quote unquote radical then let's be radical if the word of God offends then let's offend if the word of God shocks well then prepare to be shocked but it shouldn't just be hey let me get up and really shock ya you know and I'm gonna just show you the the hottest preaching you've ever seen or something you know that's really just pride and vanity at that point and again like I said I try to be interesting in my sermons but at the end of the day you know it's not really my job to keep you awake you really need to slap yourself and stay awake on your own you know what I mean and here's the thing if it's the shock and the wildness of the sermons that you enjoy so much that's not really gonna last for very long because eventually you're just gonna get burned out on that and tired of that you know at the end of the day if you stay for years it's gonna be because you actually care about the content of what's being preached the people are just like oh man I just wanna hear Pastor Anderson rip some face I like to hear him just go crazy up there you know yeah that's fun for a few weeks and then they find the next little entertaining thing at the end of the day we gotta be here for Christ and for the doctrine and for the right reasons we wanna stay here for the long haul even look I've gotten up and screamed and yelled and foamed at the mouth and literally seen someone sleeping literally asleep while I'm up here screaming yelling and foaming at the mouth why? because after a while even that just becomes common place to people you know it's like my sister in law that grew up on the carnival you know and she could sleep through all the noise at the carnival and everything because you know that was just her life you know you just get used to anything right? so I guess kids growing up at Faithful Word can just sleep through a screaming and yelling sermon you know at the end of the day you have to make a decision to actually care about the Bible and what's being preached so that you don't fall asleep so that you don't fall out so that you don't ultimately get out of church and so those are some of the things that we can learn from this story it says in verse 11 when he therefore has come up again and had broken bread and eaten and talked a long while even till break of day so he departed and they brought the young man alive and were not a little comforted they were not a little comforted that means they were comforted a lot and the idea here is that when someone who is backslidden or gets out of church decides to come back we ought to rejoice with that person we should not act like where have you been you got a lot of nerve to come back now or something after you've just been gone without saying anything it's sort of like when you're filling out a job application hey you need to explain these gaps in your resume you better explain this gap in your church attendance where were you at for these five months when somebody shows up back at church after a while I don't go where have you been I would just say to them hey it's great to see you and I want to just pick up with that person right where we left off as if nothing happened you know we should rejoice greatly when people come back to church when people who have gone astray the prodigals when they return we should be glad we should rejoice it says they went before the ship and you say why does it say we because the author Luke is actually with the apostle Paul so now although earlier in the book of Acts you saw a lot of they did this and they did that now you're starting to get into some first person because Luke is literally there and so he says we because he was actually present we went before the ship and sailed into Assos they're intending to take in Paul for so he had appointed mining himself to go afoot now this is really interesting that they are sailing along the coast to go home but the apostle Paul actually chooses to go separately and to go on foot folks this is a man that is in shape I mean the apostle Paul he doesn't need the boat ride he's able to actually go from city to city on foot walking many miles on his own two feet I think that this is a good example for us we see the apostles and Jesus and men like the apostle Paul constantly able to walk to where they need to walk to preach the gospel obviously soul winning involves a lot of walking and I get it obviously some people are injured and people have problems maybe they have knee problems back problems, hip problems of course there are all kinds of injuries and ailments that can make it difficult for us to walk but you know what don't do that to yourself though and what do I mean by that don't become a slob we should at least try to stay physically active as much as we can and stay physically active stay in decent shape I'm not saying to make some kind of a god out of athletics or out of exercise and to put that before all else but at the same time we don't want to neglect our bodies just due to sheer laziness right, or just due to sheer gluttony or something and just kind of just let ourselves go, why? because of the fact that ultimately we're not going to be able to serve God as well if we let ourselves go physically you know, why is the apostle Paul able to preach all night, he obviously had the stamina to preach all night he also has the stamina to walk huge distances between cities on foot, even when he's offered a boat ride he says no, I want to take a walk probably wanted to be by himself maybe he wanted to pray, maybe he wanted to spend some time thinking, meditating maybe he just wanted the exercise but either way, this is a man who is actually able to get around on his own two feet, and again, I'm not down on you, you know I'm not down on you, period especially if it's through no fault of your own because you have some ailment but I would just encourage you and admonish you be in shape to at least go soul winning because some people literally they can't do soul winning because they just can't do the walking they just can't even just ambulate, you know, to get the soul winning done let alone the preaching and everything like that and it's a big challenge for them you know, we don't want to be that guy or gal that's just and you know, I say this it's really for your own benefit as well because of the fact that you know, what's your quality of life like if you can't walk and you know, I'm constantly thanking God for the ability to walk and every once in a while, I've had like, you know, some kind of a problem with my knee or something where I haven't been able to walk very well or haven't been able to walk as much as I wanted to and it drives me nuts I'm always praying like, oh God please allow me to continue having the ability to walk, you know no matter what else happens to me, Lord thank you for the ability to walk please let me keep walking because walking is an enjoyable activity and walking is so important to just do what you need to do just get around, go soul winning get from point A to point B it's great exercise it's a great way to spend time going on a walk going on a walk with loved ones you know, I'm just thankful every day that I can walk and you know, if you can't walk, I'm really sorry but, you know don't just cripple yourself you know, if you're crippled through no fault of your own or if you're crippled due to providential circumstances that's one thing but don't, it's not worth it to just let yourself go to the point where you just can't even walk you know, you're really going to suffer in the long run if you do that and so I encourage you to walk every chance that you get and maybe sometimes when you're offered the boat ride maybe you should decide to walk too you know, and maybe sometimes when you're offered the elevator maybe you should take the stairs and maybe sometimes when you're thinking about driving a quarter mile to the store you know, maybe you should just think about just walking there you know, if you don't have too many things to pick up and just grabbing that gallon of milk on foot why? Because the Apostle Paul did it that's why he walked when he didn't have to he did an extra curricular walk he minded himself to go afoot, the Bible says in verse 13 verse 14 Paul met with us at Assos we took him in and came to Mydalene and we sailed thence and came the next day over against Chios and the next day we arrived at Samos and tarried at Trigillium and the next day we came to Miletus for Paul had determined to sail by Ephesus because he would not spend the time in Asia for he hasted, if it were possible for him to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost and so this is just kind of hilarious to me how he's had the most success and he's had the most victories in Ephesus but he just really wants to just skip Ephesus and just sail by Ephesus because he just really wants to be at Jerusalem at Pentecost which makes absolutely no sense why? Because the Jews are not his receptive audience but he just hasn't grasped this yet he's in denial about this later, finally, he's going to realize I'm done with the Jews I'm going to the Gentiles because of the fact that they're just not receptive I mean, the Jews are the ones that were lying in wait for him earlier in this chapter they're trying to sabotage him everywhere he goes and he just wants to go into the belly of the beast and you know what's going to happen when he gets to Jerusalem? they're all going to scream at him and arrest him and just put him in prison and he's going to spend the next few years in prison, probably remaining in prison until his death seems to indicate he's probably never going to have total freedom again after he goes to Jerusalem but he's just hell-bent on going to Jerusalem you know, he's just got to reach the Jews and you know what? Paul is a human being and we sometimes have these kind of irrational things these monomanias where we just are obsessed with something that doesn't make sense right? Like, we just have to do missions in this certain place or in a certain way you know, when in reality we need to take a step back and say, hey, wait a minute the power of God is really at work over in Ephesus okay, and then what's funny is that he ends up bypassing Ephesus and stopping at another city nearby all the elders from the church in Ephesus they travel to meet him and so he won't go to Ephesus Ephesus literally comes to him and he ends up preaching to the Ephesians anyway I mean, on the one hand you got the Ephesians that are begging you to come and in fact, they're traversing sea and land to get to you, they'll come to you but then it's like, nah man we got to go to the Jews and there are still people today I mean, look you can forgive the Apostle Paul for not getting it because he didn't have a whole copy of the New Testament in front of him explaining to him how things are and the Apostle Paul he grew up Jewish, and he grew up among the Jews so he's got all this nostalgia for the Jews but you know what kind of blows my mind is when some Gentile Baptist is on the same hard-headed program as the Apostle Paul 2,000 years later and they're still just like, hey, we got to go to Jerusalem hey, we got to witness to the Jews it's like, go to Ephesus buddy what are you doing? it makes no sense, okay we need to be preaching the Gospel to every creature, we need to teach all nations and having a ministry to the Jews is not what the Bible teaches us in the New Testament, okay now look, in the process of preaching the Gospel to every creature, we're going to preach the Gospel to Jews when we knock every door in a city, we also knock the Jewish doors but targeting the Jews and saying, hey, let's just go to the most Jewish neighborhood, oh, you think that's fun I've got an even funner idea let's go to the most Mormon area that we can find and beat our heads against the wall there since you're such a masochist since you like to fail so much why don't we just go witness only to Mormons they're even harder to get through to than Jews folks, common sense tells us to go to the people that want to hear the Gospel to go to the people that are receptive and it ain't Jews not only does common sense tell us that but the Bible tells us that the Bible says that if there's a city where they will not receive your words you shake off the dust of your feet and go to a different city let me name you a city like that Jerusalem let me name you a city that doesn't want missionaries, that doesn't want Christianity, that doesn't want a fundamental Baptist soul winner it's called Jerusalem it's called Tel Aviv it's called Joppa these are places that don't want you now let me name some places that do want you Fiji the Bahamas Mexico the Philippines we could go down the list here's some places that want you the Apache Reservation we could go on and on all of the wonderful places Nigeria wants to hear from you okay Kenya wants to hear the Gospel South Africa wants to hear the Gospel okay here's who doesn't want to hear from you Israel and there are just too many and look you say, well they need it too yeah, but you know what there are a disproportionate number of missionaries going there because they get all coo coo per cocoa puffs about the Jews they get all romantic about the Jews they get all they're like, I don't know what the Jewish version of like a weeb is like the weebs get with the Japanese stuff that's how they get with the Jews they're like a jweeb or something they're a jeeb like they just get all you know these people that get really geeked out on all things Japanese these kind of japanophiles these judeophiles they just get all geeked out it's not spiritual it's got nothing to do with spiritual things it's really just, oooh exotic, oooh cool grow up man and you know what, I'm all for you finding some exotic place to win souls where people want to hear the Gospel because the Bible says that if they won't receive you, if they're unreceptive, shake off the dust of your feet and go to the next city go to the next town that's what we see Jesus doing that's what we see the apostles doing that's what the Bible tells us to do go preach the Gospel to those that have an ear to hear and so the Apostle Paul unfortunately has this irrational fixation on preaching to the Jews and going to Jerusalem and as we see as we're gonna see later on the journey men of God are gonna warn him about this the Holy Spirit's gonna warn him about this and say, hey if you go to Jerusalem you're gonna get arrested now look, obviously God's still gonna use the Apostle Paul and God's still gonna work through that situation but ultimately this is not what Christ commanded Christ commanded to preach the Gospel to all nations Jesus already preached the Gospel to the whole nation of Israel in his lifetime Jesus and the apostles, they covered the entire nation and then after Christ's resurrection they were only supposed to wait at Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high then they were supposed to go out and preach to the whole world you know, the Apostle Paul talked about how great it would be to go preach in Spain and how he wanted to take a journey into Spain he said in the book of Romans when so ever I take my journey into Spain you know, I want to stop at Rome on the way but from what we can tell the Apostle Paul never made it to Spain he was too busy you know, wasting time with a bunch of unreceptive Jews, unfortunately you know, maybe Spain would be a more godly place if he would have made it there who knows but the bottom line is we need to follow the good example of the Apostle Paul but we need to also realize that the Apostle Paul is a human being and that everything that the Apostle Paul did in the book of Acts is not necessarily the best thing or right and this is the key thing when we're reading in the Bible we need to be able to rightly divide the word of truth and understand that certain books of the Bible are historical books and that historical books are simply recording what people did and they're not always prescriptive sometimes they're just descriptive right? hey, this guy had two wives that's not telling you to have two wives it's just telling you that that guy had two wives you're supposed to have one wife okay because somebody did something or said something in the book of Acts doesn't necessarily make it right we need to use the rest of scripture to interpret the historical book we need to take clear statements from Jesus and from the narrator of the Bible and use those to interpret the stories that we read in a book like Acts the Apostle Paul is a great man of God but he wasn't perfect he made some mistakes what can we learn from this passage is that we need to be all the way in we don't want to be like Eutychus where we're half in half out we need to care about church care about the preaching care about the word of God whether it's a great sermon or whether it's just an okay sermon at the end of the day take what you can from the Bible as long as the word of God is being preached you can be edified and I hope that my sermons are up to snuff but someday you may be in a church where the sermons are poor you may be at a hopefully it's not a faithful word I'm saying like somewhere else but at the end of the day you ought to show up to church no matter who's preaching whether it's a great preacher or just an okay preacher show up wanting to learn something from the Bible and have your ears opened to what the Holy Spirit is saying and I guarantee you'll get something out of it and you know what? I fell asleep in church one time in my life I fell asleep in church one time in my life I was super sleep deprived and it was the most boring preacher of all time and I was super sleep deprived and in fact, you know what? I take that back, it wasn't really a church service it was a graduation so that should give me a little bit of an excuse it was a sermon preached at a graduation and this is the only time I ever fell asleep in church in my entire life and I said God, I am sorry God I fell asleep now and I said like I was like, this guy is super boring you know what I've been through over the last few days I just can't take it anymore this is the most boring preacher on the planet like, I, forgive me Father for I have sinned and I went to sleep all I have to say is the one time I slept in a service I did it on purpose now I find it hard to believe that when you're falling asleep it's an accident now maybe you're narcoleptic or something God bless you you know, I don't want to pick on the handicapped up here okay, if you're narcoleptic but let me tell you something I've stayed awake during some pretty boring sermons I only gave in to the temptation one time to go to sleep other times I've had to, you know pinch myself and work hard to stay awake you know, I've always been able to stay awake in every sermon and I think you probably can too unless you have some kind of a doctor's note you know, I think you should be staying awake during every sermon Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord and we thank you that even sometimes if the messenger is not the best even if sometimes I don't preach my best sermon or if I'm not on you know, my A game, Lord I'm thankful that it's your word that brings the power and it's the Holy Ghost that speaks to the hearts even if I am not able to do my best Lord God, help us always to come to church ready to learn and ready to listen and help us to stay awake both literally and figuratively and paying attention and caring about what you have to say to us in Jesus' name we pray, Amen Next to song number 110 All the way my Savior leads me Song 110 One, one, zero All the way my Savior leads me But I want to have peace God Can I now understand her mercy Through life God's made my life And with me is the highest thunder Where my faith is yet well Oh, I know I'm here before me Jesus, you may love me as well Oh, I know I'm here before me All the way my Savior leads me Jesus, my Savior is dead If He breaks for every child He's been there I'll make Him pray All my worries have been altered And my soul at first became God's sheep brother God before me God's sheep brother God before me Oh, what a stream of joy I sing All the way my Savior leads me Oh, what bold His love is loud Perfect rest to be His promise In my God is God someone When my spirit victory pours There's my song through endless ages Jesus, turn me all the way There's my song through endless ages Jesus, turn me all the way Jesus, turn me all the way There's my song through endless ages Jesus, turn me all the way There's my song through endless ages Jesus, turn me all the way There's my song through endless ages Thank you for watching!