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