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Yeah But you can do the third and the last okay had it You know glory to his name what about did you think to pray you know that one? I'll just I'll swap with amazing grace you You You You You Thank you so much coming up your words for this evening We'll go ahead and get started with our first song song number 87 and our hymnals just when I need him most song number 87 Just when I need him most In Song 87 just when I need him most than the first just when I need him Jesus is near Just when I falter Just when I fear Ready to help me ready to cheer Just when I need him Most Just when I need him most Just when I need him most Jesus is near to comfort and cheer just when I need him most Just when I need him Jesus is true Never forsaking all the way through Giving for burdens Pleasures are new Just when I need him most Just when I need him most Just when I need him most Jesus is near to comfort and cheer just when I need him most Just when I need him Jesus is strong Bearing my burdens all the day long For all my sorrow giving a song Just when I need him most Just when I need him most Just when I need him most Jesus is near to comfort and cheer just when I need him most Just when I need him he is my all Answering when upon him I call Tenderly watching lest I should fall Just when I need him most Just when I need him most Just when I need him most Jesus is near to comfort and cheer just when I need him most For the camera would you pray for us this evening, please? And So we'll go to our third our second songs 361 361 did you think to pray 361? Did you think to pray On The first air you left your room this morning Did you think to pray In the name of Christ our Savior Did you sue for loving favor As a shield today Oh While praying rest the weary Prayer will change the night today So in sorrow and in gladness Don't forget to pray When you met with great temptation Temptation Did you think to pray By his dying love and merit Did you claim the Holy Spirit As your guidance day oh While praying rest the weary Prayer Will change the night today So in sorrow and in gladness Don't forget to pray When your heart was filled with anger Did you think to pray Did you plead for grace my brother That you might forgive another Who had crossed your way Oh How praying rest the weary Prayer will change the night today So In sorrow and in gladness Don't forget to pray When sore trials came upon you Did you think to pray? When your soul was bowed with sorrow Oh Oh Did you borrow At the gates of day Oh While praying rest the weary Prayer will change the night today So in sorrow and in gladness Don't forget to pray pray Good reminder there If you don't have a bulletin brother Brandon come by and get you a bulletin Just look your hand up real quick and he can get you one We have our Bible memory passage Romans chapter number eight and it's a really long chapter of the Bible But a lot of really good verses. I Really like this verse here verse 26. Likewise the spirit also help with our infirmities We know not what we should pray for as we ought but the spirit itself make an intercession for us with groanings Which cannot be uttered so the Bible just it's a pretty famous verse there verse 26 But helps us understand the Holy Spirit is there to help us when we pray to God Even if we don't even know exactly what we're supposed to say or communicate that he's making intercession there for us on the inside we have our service times or sowing times and Also a regional soul winning time we also have church stats for soul winning I'm gonna get a count I know I got someone turn one in for today, but was there anything for the past few days? Okay, well the same city had one so we got three for the last few days praise the Lord on that also, please be in prayer for mr. Gomez as she's expecting and December that'd be good little Christmas tree there. So and then also we have some upcoming guest preachers September 12th brother Chris Segura is coming. So this Sunday he's coming again and He's always really excited about coming out here. He really likes new guys. And so it's really great to be here Pastor Aaron Thompson is gonna be coming October 3rd. And so definitely want to be here for these services and Thanking these men for coming out here Pastor Thompson is gonna be coming here first and then he's gonna be driving up because we're gonna have our conference That following that week basically and so he's gonna be out here for a while And so it's gonna be great that he's able to make it out here We have a couple other events this Saturday is the Shreveport, Louisiana Marathon who's actually planning on going to this thing anybody I think brother Nick So there's a couple people that are planning on coming. I'll have to double-check on who that is But if we can't make it just pray for us that everything will go smoothly and it's about three hours east of the Dallas Fort Worth area definitely when researching it's one of the poorest cities in the United States and You can kind of tell as you look through housing everything like that. I saw a house for sales five hundred dollars Like man, I know in Detroit, Michigan I think they have houses for like a dollar like that, but Five hundred bucks is pretty cheap. So you might get what you pay for but you know, it's so we're all excited about the sewing Oh, I think it's gonna be a great time fellowship September 25th is gonna be a sewing marathon here and It's also gonna be our third annual false Bible burning. We've definitely been collecting those throughout the year I have a lot even up and steadfast that I'm gonna bring with me and so I'm really excited about that The schedule is going to be basically meeting here at 9 a.m. And Then we'll go out still winning around 10 for a couple hours I'll have lunch back here at the church and they'll go out for another couple hours. We'll be meeting for the False file burning at 5 p.m So basically we'll probably wrap up soaring on 4 4 30 meet back here and we'll have some hot dogs s'mores and everything like that, too So it'll be a different fire because the other one's a strange fire. Sometimes it glows a little green or blue or whatever and we don't know what's being released, you know out from those Bibles, but it probably goes into the swine that's a different and then Also, October 6th to the 10th is the fire-breathing Baptist fellowship We're gonna be having up in hearse and who's planning on coming to this thing. I have an idea Okay, so we got some people coming up. That's great. I'm really excited about this and then we have our chili cook-off Emphasis on Texas style. Okay, October 31st. This means no beans. Okay, and your chili no fillers We want it to be a pure chili. Okay, just like we have a pure Bible King James Bible We want to have a pure chili. We don't want to defile it and some people say oh you hate beans Look, I don't hate beans. Okay, just like I don't add works to my salvation. I don't add beans to my chili Okay, and any of Texas official chili contents you're not allowed to have fillers and beans and this stuff and so You know, it's just pure meat. All right, and you say I'm offended. Well, you know what? You can't be right about everything. Okay, that's why you came to church to learn Okay and to grow and to draw closer to the knowledge of the truth You know the Bible says there's strong meat of the word and so some people can only handle beans but we like the strong meat here, all right, and And then also Thanksgiving service Instead of having a Thursday service. We're just gonna bump it up to Tuesday. So we'll still have a service I'll be down here preaching for you guys and Also, we'll have a candlelight service December. I'm gonna be Traveling down here with my family. God willing the Thursday before September 25th So we'll be here and then I'm gonna be here for the whole Tony marathon and I'm gonna preach both services on that Sunday, so September 26th, I guess I'm not cool enough to make the upcoming guest preacher list, but you know what? I'm okay with that because it's fine, but I'll be here for all those services. God willing as well and Then if you have any other prayer requests throughout the week, you could submit those looks like we had Kevin and Christian's daughter We were praying for her also just we can continue to be in prayer for brother Cameron I know he just got a surgery for his leg And so we'd like to be in prayer for them. And so that's pretty much all I had for announcements We'll go to our third song brother. I was gonna leave for us. We'll do song number two glory to his name All Right turn to your song what's the song number two Song number two glory to his name. We'll start out there on the first Down at the cross where my Savior died Down where for cleansing from sin I cried There to my heart was the blood applied Glory to his name Glory to his name Glory to his name There to my heart was the blood applied Glory to his name I am so wondrously saved from sin Jesus so sweetly abides within There at the cross where he took me in Glory to his name Glory to his name Glory to his name Glory to his name There to my heart was the blood applied Glory to his name All precious fountain that saves from sin I am so glad I have entered in There Jesus saves me and keeps me clean Glory to his name Glory to his name Glory to his name There to my heart was the blood applied Glory to his name Come to this fountain so rich and sweet Cast thy poor soul at the Savior's feet Plunge into day and be made complete Glory to his name Glory to his name Glory to his name There to my heart was the blood applied Glory to his name All right, good singing. If you would turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter 17. Acts chapter 17, Brother Brandon is going to read for us. All right, we're there in Acts chapter 17 and the Bible reads, Now when they had passed through Epipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews. And a Paul, as his manner was, went unto them, and their Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures, opening and alleging that Christ must need have suffered and risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ. And some of them believed and consorted with Paul and Silas of the devout Greeks and great multitudes of the chief women, not a few. But the Jews, which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser store, and gathered a company and set all the city on an uproar, and saluted the house of Jason and sought to bring them out to the people. And when they found them not, they drew Jason and a certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also, whom Jason hath received, that these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is none other king, one Jesus. And they troubled the people and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. And when they had taken security of Jason and of the other, they let them go, and the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea, who come and thither went into the synagogues of the Jews, these were more noble than those in Thessalonica. And they received the word with all readiness of mind and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. Therefore many of them believed also of the honourable women which were Greeks, and of men not effused. But when Jews of Thessalonica had known, had knowledge that the word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither also and stirred up the people, and immediately, then immediately, the brethren sent away Paul to go as it were to the sea, but Silas and Timotheus abode there still. And they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens, and receiving a commandment unto Silas and Timotheus. For to come to him with all speed, they departed now with Paul, waited for them in Athens. The spirit was stirred up in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. Therefore disputed he and the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons in the market daily with them that they met with them, and the certain philosophers in the Epicreans and of the Stoics encountered him, and some said, What will this babbler say? Other some, he seemeth to be a setter forth of the strange gods, because he preacheth unto them Jesus of the resurrection. And they took him and brought him unto Aeropagus, saying, May we know that this new doctrine whereof thou speakest is, or thou bringest to the certain strange things to our ears, we would not therefore that these things mean. For all the Athens and strangers which were there spent their time and nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing. Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For I have passed by and beheld your devotions, and I have found an altar with this inscription to the unknown God, whom therefore ye ignorantly worship. Him declare I unto you, God that made the world and all the things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in the temples made with hands. Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he give it to all life and breath in all things, and hath made of one blood and all nations of men for to dwell on the face of the earth, and hath determined the time before appointed and the bounds of their habitations, that they should seek the Lord, if happily they might feel after him and find him, though be not far from every one of us. For in him we live and move and have our beings, as certain also of your own poets have said. For we are also his offspring, for as much then we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold or silver or stone, graven by art and man's device. In the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to pretend, because he hath appointed the day in which we will judge the world in righteousness by the men whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter. So Paul departed from among them, howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed among which was Deinoeus and the Aropaegate, and women named Damaris and others with them. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day, we thank you for every year, Lord, we thank you for your many blessings, and we pray that you take time to pray. Amen. So it's been a while since we've been going through Acts chapter number 17, I had only gone through the first several verses, and so we're going to be picking up Acts chapter 17 and finishing the chapter here, and it's really great to be here and see you guys in the flesh, and I want to pick up back at verse 14 where the Bible read, And then immediately the brethren sent away Paul, to go as it were to the sea, but Silas and Jamotheus abode there still. And they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens, and receiving of man-men unto Silas and Jamotheus, for to come to him with all speed they departed. Now, just to give you kind of a recap of some of the things that have been happening, in chapter 17 they first go into Thessalonica, and the Apostle Paul is, every time he goes into an area, he's going to the synagogue, he's preaching to the Jews, they're not receptive, then he ends up getting a lot of Gentiles saved, or Greeks saved, and because of him getting a lot of Greeks saved, the Jews are moved with envy, they chase him out of town. And then it's just basically rinse and repeat with the next city, the next city. In this chapter he then goes to Berea, and Berea, they are a lot more receptive, more people get saved, but the Jews from Thessalonica end up following him, they hear about the fact that he went to Berea, and they end up following him to Berea, stir everybody up again, and so they're constantly on a run for their life. I mean the Apostle Paul is literally having to leave these areas under the threat of death, or horrible and severe persecution, and we even see that it's not even safe, apparently, for them to travel together, because they're kind of like split up, you kind of have Paul being conducted by a few guys, and then you have Silas and Timotheus going somewhere else, and then he's trying to say like, let's all go to Athens, but kind of their own way, as it were. And so they're really just kind of diversifying the assets, as it were. It's funny because I remember when I worked for a software company, there was two other developers that I worked with, and it was pretty much just all three of us, there was only three of us, and I was like a junior, I didn't really have that much, but these two guys were the brains of the company, and they had a literal policy where neither of them could fly on the same airplane together, because if they both died, the company would just be in a horrible shape, because they basically ran the company. And so here it's kind of the same, I guess, they didn't want to put all their eggs in one basket, we literally have a separation of these apostles, of these early evangelists going out and preaching the gospel, and so it's a very dangerous time, and it's real easy for us to just read this in the safety of our home, sitting in a chair, drinking a beverage that we enjoy, but for them, this was real life, it was a real threat, people are hunting them down, people are wanting them to die on a regular basis, and primarily for just preaching the gospel. Now, at other times they get upset through other doctrines or other preaching of the Bible, but just even the gospel itself is that offensive, and there are parts of the world today, even, where if you were to preach the gospel, you're going around from city to city to preach the gospel, it would be under the threat of your life. You know, certain Muslim countries, it's not even tolerated, Asian countries, a lot of them, China, these places, if you were to preach the gospel and they were to catch you, they would just literally kill you, or horrible imprisonments or suffering, and so the gospel, you have to understand, is not something that everybody is receptive towards, you know, there's actual real threat here. Let's keep reading, it says in verse 16, Now while Paul waited for them in Athens, his spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews and with the devout persons and in the market daily with them that met with him. So it's interesting because the apostle Paul basically gets to Athens first. Now he's just kind of waiting, but he's not very good at just doing nothing, you know, he's just kind of sitting there, and as the Bible describes it, when he's noticing all the idolatry in the city, it just really eats him up, you know, his spirit is really just kind of stirred within him, and it makes a lot of sense because, you know, idolatry, according to the Bible, is worshiping not just a false god, but literally devils. Keep your finger here, I want you to go to 1 Corinthians, just go to the right in your Bible, just a few pages, 1 Corinthians and look at chapter 10 for a moment, and look at verse number 19. Now it says in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 19, What say I then, that the idol is anything, or that which is offered as sacrifice to idols is anything? But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils and not to God, not that you should have fellowship with devils. Now one thing you have to understand about the apostle Paul is he grew up in, you know, an area where idolatry was abhorred. You know, the Bible even says in Romans chapter number 2 that the Jews taught that, you know, idols was something to abhor, it was something very evil, something very wicked, and in his subset of Pharisee, you know, the sect of Pharisees that he grew up in, he probably didn't even see very much idolatry, he probably wasn't even exposed to it around it. So he's being injected into a culture where they're just worshipping idols, you know, rampantly, it's open, it's got to be very vexing to the apostle Paul, you know, it's not something that he's just very used to, it's probably very egregious to him, his spirit feels really troubled by it, because he also understands that even though it's just a rock, or even though it's just a statue, or even though it's just a wood carved image, and it's technically nothing, that they're actually worshipping devils. And it should really make you upset to watch people mindlessly worship devils, mindlessly be entrapped by false religion today. If you went to Ephesians chapter number 2, Ephesians chapter number 2, as silly as it would be for me to have a little graven image up here and literally think it's a god, people literally worship them, people literally think that they're special. I mean, even today idolatry still exists, and it exists in very extreme forms. Catholics for sure have lots of idolatry. I mean, you go to a Catholic church, it's full of graven images, of carved images, in their homes. They have little places, devotional areas, they'll have like a little window seal, or a carved out place in the wall. There's even restaurants, yes there's restaurants, it's called Buca di Beppo, who's ever eaten at a Buca di Beppo, you know what I mean? It's like a Catholic restaurant, I didn't even know this. My company one time had them cater. And it makes sense now because my CEO was like trying to become Catholic or something, so now I understand why. But I went there, and literally they have like, the restaurant is decorated in only Catholic paraphernalia, and they have like carve outs in the wall. You know how like in a shower they kind of put the little hole to put like the soap dispenser? They have that with like idols in the wall everywhere. And then there was this one table, it literally had a pope head on top of the table. It was like this image of a pope head just sitting on the table. I was like, I had already scheduled the dinner there and everybody showed up, but otherwise I was thinking like if it was just me and my family, I'd probably just laugh. But I was just kind of like, man this is weird, this is bizarre. But you know in India, and other places in the country, they have certain feasts every year, where they literally will prepare all this wonderful food, and they'll lay it before their little false god image, and it's supposed to eat it or whatever. Even though it doesn't, it's just all this food just sits there and rots and just is wasted on completely nothing today. And as silly as that would be to us, as foolish it is to us today, to some people they're sincerely thinking this is a god. And to me it's just a picture of the fact that they're a mental slave to false religion. They're a mental slave to the devil. And the Bible tells us this, go to Ephesians chapter 2, Galatians Ephesians chapter number 2, and look at verse number 1, so it's just a little bit further right in your Bible. Ephesians 2 verse 1, And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past you walked, according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air. The spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. So the Bible describes everybody that's unsaved as being a child of disobedience, and that there's someone working through them, working in them, it's the prince of the power of the air, which is the devil. Meaning that people that are not saved are actually fulfilling the will of the devil, whether they realize it or not. And I would say this, 99.9% of them don't realize that they're doing this. Most people don't think that they're actually serving the devil. In fact, even satanic temples today, there's a lot of them that exist, and there's a lot of Satanists today, but if you ask them, they say they don't even believe the devil exists. It's just a mockery to them. They think that worshiping the devil is cool, or it's fun, or it's a fun way to mock or ridicule Christians or something like this, but they're going to realize that they're still fulfilling the will of the devil. They're still actually worshiping the devil and giving him some kind of respect by calling themselves a satanic temple and everything like that. So the joke's still on them. They think that they're joking, but really they're just making fun of themselves. And the reality is that the world that we live in today, people are taken captive by the devil, and we should not basically just ignore this, but rather it should stir in our spirit to want to get these people saved, to want to actually expose them to the truth, to actually show them the word of God, and not just allow them to constantly go day after day after day worshiping the devil, worshiping a false god, because notice when they're worshiping a rock, Paul said, yeah, I know it's a rock. I know it's just a wood piece of image, but it's actually a devil behind it. There's actually something satanic by nature here, and when you go into an area where they're just worshiping the devil, they're mindlessly just worthless, their life is worthless, you know, that should cause us to feel something inside and want to do something about it. Go to Jeremiah chapter 20. I want to show you another verse here that made me think of this, how his spirit was kind of stirred up. And I really liken this unto Jeremiah because when the apostle Paul came into Athens, if we kind of get the context, it doesn't seem like he was really going there because he just really wanted to go. He's kind of just like running for his life. You know, he's kind of just trying to escape, and he's just waiting to meet up with his buddies. So this is just kind of like a meet-up rendezvous. It wasn't really according to plan. It's not really a place that he wanted to go necessarily. He just finds himself in this situation, and he's probably even a little bit weary of preaching the gospel, because in Ephesians and other places in the Bible, he talks about the fact that he asked them to pray for him that he'd have boldness to open his mouth, to speak boldly as he ought to speak. Why would you say such a thing? Well, every time he walks into town, he opens his mouth. Everyone wants to kill him afterwards. I mean, you've got to think, that's got to get a little bit tiresome. Every once in a while, you're going to feel that pressure of like, you know what, I'm just going to kind of keep my mouth shut for a little while. Or I'm going to wait to go ahead and start talking to people, or explaining the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because at this point, he's gone through enough towns that he realizes it's going to happen everywhere. At first, you're just kind of like, well, that town's kind of weird. And then you go to the next one, and it's like, same thing. You're like, well, maybe that region's kind of weird. Then it's just like town after town. The Jews just are not receptive to the gospel. And they just get really mad about this, and it's going to happen everywhere. He's going to get to a point where he's kind of frustrated with preaching the Bible. And he's not the only preacher like this. Jeremiah goes through a very similar phase, where he's constantly preaching to the Jews, and they're not receptive. They don't want to hear what Jeremiah has to say. They're constantly persecuting Jeremiah. They're calling him a false prophet. They want nothing to do with him. And it gets to a point where Jeremiah's just kind of like frustrated. He doesn't even want to preach anymore. Isn't that kind of sad? The Son of God, the preacher, just gets to a point where he just doesn't even want to preach anymore because people aren't interested in the truth. But we see this with Jeremiah, yet something changes in his heart. Look at verse 7. O Lord, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived. Thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed. I am in derision daily. Everyone mocketh me. Think about that statement. Can you imagine if every single person in your personal life mocked you every day? I'm not just saying like, you know, the world. We're talking about your family, your friends, the people in your church. Just every single person thinks you're a bozo. Everybody thinks that you're gone out to lunch. Everyone's against you. I mean Jeremiah's saying, Lord, it's like I know you told me this, but no one else agrees with me. Everybody thinks that I'm wrong. Everybody thinks that I'm crazy. And you know, there have been times in my life personally where it almost felt like I was in this situation, where everybody was like, you're crazy. Everybody's just like, you're a psycho. And coincidentally, it was about vaccination. You know, it was like I was against vaccination, and I felt like I was in this bubble by myself, you know, against it. It was like every one of my coworkers and friends and family members and everybody's like, I was trying to convince the whole world I felt like. And I'm thinking like, I don't know why, you know, I see the world in one way, and everybody else sees a completely different color here. But you know what? I'm gonna just continue to believe what's right, you know? And eventually, a lot of other people came around. It wasn't like that forever, but you know, these type of situations can be really frustrating. Verse eight, for since I speak, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil, because the word of the Lord has made a reproach unto me at a derision daily. Now, why is he specifically being persecuted for the word of God, for preaching the Bible? People don't like it. It's constantly a reproach unto them. They're making fun of him. Verse nine, then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. That's kind of a sad few statements there. He's saying, you know what? I've been made fun of so much. Nobody wants to hear so much. I'm just done. Imagine if you went door knocking, right? And you're preaching the gospel at every door. They're just like, you're a loser, and slam the door. You know, after the first 10, you're just kind of like, okay, 100, 200, 300, 400. I mean, eventually it gets people. Eventually it'd be like, this isn't fun. I don't enjoy this. Praise the Lord, Houston's still really receptive to the gospel. Praise the Lord that never, but I mean, for Jeremiah, it's just like everywhere he turns, he's just being made fun of and mocked. He gets to a point where he's just like, man, I just don't know, I just want to preach. Look at the next statement. But his word was in my heart as a burning fire, shut up in my bones. And I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay, for I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side. Report, say they, and we will report it. All my familiars watched for my halting, saying, Peradventure, he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him. But the Lord is with me as a mighty, terrible one. Therefore, my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail, they shall be greatly ashamed, for they shall not prosper. Their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten. But, O Lord of hosts, that tryest the righteous and seest the rains in the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them. For unto thee have I opened my cause. Sing unto the Lord, praise you the Lord, for he hath delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of the evil doer. So he says, you know what? I shut up for a while, I didn't want to talk about him for a while, but then just, his word was inside me, it eaten me up, and I just had to open my mouth again and just preach the word of God. And I'm just so sick and tired of people just not being obedient to the word of God, just rebelling against the word of God, his spirit was stirred because the word of God was like a fire inside of him. You know, we have our conference coming up called the Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship, and people are like, oh, you breathe fire? Look, it's not about you, it's the fact that the Bible is fire. And if you read enough of it, it's inside of you. You need men that are bold enough, men that have enough courage to open their mouth and let that fire come out. Let the word of God come out of their mouth, and that's why it's called the Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship, because when you preach the Bible, when you preach the word of God, it's like fire. And you know what? Not everybody's gonna like that, not everybody's gonna appreciate that. You know, when the two witnesses are here, someone tries to hurt them, they're literally gonna breathe fire out of their mouth and consume their enemies, as the Bible says. He's gonna make his word like fire. Go to Jeremiah, just go backwards. I believe it's Jeremiah chapter number five. Look at verse number 14. Jeremiah chapter five, verse 14. Wherefore, thus saith the Lord God of hosts, because you speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people would, and it shall devour them. So notice, he's literally saying, the words are coming in our mouth, I'm gonna make them like fire. And you know what, when you preach against sin, when you preach against the evil of this world, it's a lot of times like fire, and they don't like it because they realize it's gonna devour them. Now, go back, if you would, to Acts chapter number 17. Why do I make that comparison? Why do I make that parallel? Because, you know, when we see people that are being deceived by the devil, they're taken captive at his will, when we see them just worshiping a false god and worshiping a false religion, it's hard for us to say, you know what, that's not right. We need to expose the wickedness of this world and we need to draw people, we need to pull them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. You know, we need a desire to see people saved. We need a desire of people to stop believing in weird, wicked, false religion. You know, it makes me cringe when I see people worshiping Mary's statues, or worshiping a false god. And in fact, going to Joel and Victoria Osteen's church, that burns me up, because they're wicked false prophets, my friend. And you know what? False religion and false doctrine and all of this evil religion out there that exists should cause us to feel something inside and not be so apathetic and not just let them all die and be like fodder to the fire, but rather say, you know what, come out from the fire, you know, don't be consumed, don't be destroyed, and we preach the word of God unto them and you say, oh, when you preach the Bible it's going to hurt their feelings. You know what's going to hurt their feelings more? Hell. The fact that someone didn't warn them, the fact that they wasted their entire life worshiping a devil, the fact that what they're doing is wrong, you know, and if you're going to make some people mad but you're going to save some people, you really just need to realize that it's worth it just to save a few people. And that's what Paul's attitude is. That's why he's just sitting here, you know what, I can't just be quiet. Can you really just watch people just walking off a cliff and not say something? Can you let people be in a burning building and dying and not say something? Paul's just like, I can't do it, you know. I know I'm supposed to just wait here. I know I got in trouble. I know that if I get kicked out of this place they're going to have no idea where I'm at. I mean, think about it. There's a lot of consequences to him opening his mouth because he just got separated from his friends. His friends don't know where he's at. As soon as he opens his mouth he's usually ran out of a place but he's, you know what, I just can't just sit here and be quiet. I got to open my mouth. He goes into the synagogues, bad decision, and he starts reading the Jews again. Within that area other people are there, they hear the word of God, and they're going to desire him. Look at verse 18 to speak to them. Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and the Stoics encountered him and some said, what will this babbler say? Others, some. He seemed to be a setter forth of strange gods because he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him unto Areopagus saying, may we know what this new doctrine whereof thou speakest is? It says in verse number 20, for thou bringest certain strange things to our ears, we would know therefore what these things mean. Now, we have to understand about verse 18 is the group that's saying what will this babbler say is not everyone. It's just saying like it's a group of a bunch of people. Some are just basically like this guy's a bad, nobody wants to hear what this guy is going to say. He's just blabbing on about nonsense or whatever. Other people are just like, he's just blabbing on about nonsense or whatever. Other people are basically saying, this is weird. Who is this Jesus? We don't know. Strange just means something that you're not familiar with. It's not something that you've heard before or anything like that. And then another group is wanting to know, okay, teaches this doctrine. What is it that you have to say? Let's hear what you have to say. And verse 21 says, for all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear. Some new thing. Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill and said, ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things your Jews are prestigious. Now this seems like a pretty good place to go because they just want to hear some new doctrine. He's like, I'll give you some new doctrine. I'll give you something to hear. Now again, the apostle Paul, he's a pretty bold preacher because what you have to understand, he's walking into a group of a bunch of people that are very religious. They know a lot of different things and he walks in and here's his first statement. He says, I mean, he just opens up the gates and he just says, I perceive that in all things you're too superstitious. I mean, that's his first statement. Criticism. His first statement is like, you guys are a bunch of scaredy cats because what does it mean to be superstitious? It means that you're afraid of everything. You just think that everything could harm you. You don't want to make anybody upset. You want to be on the good side of everyone and specifically from a religious perspective, this is you want to be on the good side of every god. This is like, I respect all religions. I love all religions and all gods and all faiths and you just tell me where to sign the check. You just tell me where to bow. You just tell me what crack not to step on so I don't break my mother's back or whatever. It's just like basically just anything and everything out there, they're all in. New age, spiritualism. I'm into this religion. I'm into all religions, every god. And really, Hinduism is pretty similar to this because they just accept every god. Someone comes up and they're like, I got a new god for you and they're like, I'm on his team. It's just like no more said. They're just ready to basically embrace any kind of god. But sin is a transgression of the law and one of the sins according to the Bible is just fear. So superstitions actually would be a sin if you're just afraid of everything or if you're afraid of every religion. And some people say, how can you know that the Bible's right? Have you heard every single religion and every god? No, because I'm not superstitious. Just hey, if I got the real thing, I don't need to know about all the frauds out there. I don't need to know every single thing that could possibly exist and every single false god that possibly exists. If I have the real god and he says there's none other but he, I'm done. I don't have to look anywhere else. I don't have to study every other textbook. Have you read every single religious text that exists out there today? No. Are you going to? I'm not superstitious. I'm not that worried about it. On the surface, you can just read a little bit and realize it's junk and then discard the rest. And when it comes to these false religions today, I don't have to just be so worried and so concerned with every single thing that's out there. But you know what? People today live in constant fear and even though it may not be a false god, maybe you're like, well, I don't worship any false god. You could have this superstitious attitude like they did in other areas. Some people are like this in the medical world. Where they just, they're afraid of every single disease that's ever existed. They're afraid of every bad thing that can happen. Or they constantly are going to WebMD and they type in their symptoms and they think they have every disease. They think they have every illness. They're like, I think I have this chronic arthritis and you're like, how do you know? I just typed it in WebMD. That's what came up. It's like they think they have every single illness, every single evil that could possibly happen and they constantly want to run to the doctor. They want to run to the ER to have everything checked out. This is going to be a hypochondriac. The hypochondriac thinks they have every illness, every disease. And look, it's not much different than this person that's afraid of every god that could exist because they don't want to make them mad and have some kind of a bad repercussion. Or people think, I got to just catch every disease early. If I don't catch it early, I could go blind. Or if I don't catch this early, you know. And they're just constantly out to, check for every single illness and every single disease. And look, I'm not against wellness checks. I'm not against medical advice. But to some degree, it's a little too much for me. Prostate exam, I'm good. When it comes to taking your baby, I mean, when you look at the pediatrician schedule, how often you're supposed to take your baby to a pediatrician, it's a lot. I mean, they're just like six weeks, two months, four months, six months, eight months, a year. And then you're just constantly going to the doctor to have every single thing checked. And it's like, how did people ever exist without these pediatricians? They just didn't live in fear. That's how they existed. That's how they really lived their lives. I don't need to be afraid of every disease, every illness. You know, my kid hiccups, they're okay, you know. My wife says they're just growing, okay. You know, just because of every little bump in the road, you don't have to worry about it. You don't want to pull over. Every time you have a bump in the road, did I get a flat tire? You could be worried about everything the government does. That's easy to do because everything the government does, it sucks. I mean, what does the government do that's well? And I had somebody say, oh, I'm not against the government. I think they do some things good. And I said, name one. And they were like, uh. And I was just like, exactly. And again, we need government. Government needs to exist. But at the end of the day, our government especially doesn't do anything well. Just evil, they're just afraid of every evil that possibly exists or they're afraid of every religion. You know, the Bible says God has not given us the spirit of fear but of power and love in a sound mind. And so as Christians, we're not supposed to go around being so superstitious and being afraid of everything. Really, we just should be afraid of one thing and that's the Lord. The only thing we're supposed to be afraid of, we're supposed to constantly read the word of God and study His commandments and try to walk in the spirit and be afraid of how He feels, what He thinks. And you're gonna worry yourself into an early grave if you worry about everything else. You worry about everybody else's opinion, all the evil that could happen to you. I mean, the Apostle Paul certainly can't live by fear because he should be afraid of everyone because everybody wants to kill him. But yet, he really only fears the Lord. That's why he's gonna open his mouth and preach a pretty bold message to a pretty hostile crowd here, potentially. Let's keep reading verse 23. For as I passed by, I beheld your devotions. I found an altar with this inscription, To the unknown God, whom therefore ye ignorantly worship Him declare I and you. Now, they were so superstitious. You gotta think about how superstitious these people are. Not only do they have an altar to every God that they've ever heard of, they have then an extra altar to the God that they haven't heard of yet that they know exists potentially. Like, well, there's probably another God out there that we don't even know about and we're probably upsetting Him and we're not worshiping Him yet, so we'll just make an altar to an unknown God and then we'll just worship that too. That's how superstitious these people were, okay? Pretty silly. But Paul kind of uses this as a jumping point or starting point to bring and introduce the doctrine of Christ and to bring the real God of the Bible up. He's like, hey, this unknown God, you certainly don't know about Him. Let me tell you all about Him. Verse 24, God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands. Neither is worshiped with men's hands as though He needed anything. Seeing He giveth to all life and breath and all things and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth and hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation. So the Bible's making it clear when He's talking about God, He's differentiating Him from all the other idols that they're worshiping. He's saying, hey, He doesn't need anything, okay? And what He's alluding to here when He's saying He doesn't need anything or though He needed anything, worshiped with men's hands, is idols, they're rocks. They're wood. So they have to, as the Bible says, be born. And that's B-O-R-N-E meaning carried. So whenever you have these false gods, if they want to take them out to Mars Hill, they have to pick them up and they have to carry them to Mars Hill. If they want them to be positioned a certain way, they have to move it. They have to kind of put stuff on it. Even the Hindus, they'll get milk and they'll put it up to the mouth of a statue and they'll literally try to get it to drink or whatever. Why? Because the statue can't do anything. The wood can't do anything. So they need men's hands to worship it. They need men to do things in order for its service and everything to happen. He's saying this God's not like your gods. Your gods need all this stuff. Our God doesn't need anything. He's helping you. He's the one that's feeding you. He's the one that's giving you breath. He's the one that's giving you life. He's the one that's giving all the things that you need. It's not, it's completely backwards here. He's saying what you're doing and what you're worshiping is something with your hands. The God that made the heaven and the earth, he doesn't even dwell in any of these things. You can't even make him a habitation. He's outside of all, he's bigger than every single thing that you have and he can't be worshiped with these stuff because he's the one that gave you life. He's the one that gave you the breath that you have. He's the one that gives everything that even exists and he's made us to dwell on the face of the earth and specifically he made all nations one blood. So what does that mean? He's the God of everyone. That's what he's alluding to. He's saying hey, there's a God that's everybody's God. He made every single thing that you see today and you can't give him anything. He doesn't need anything from you, okay? So we've already learned a lot about God just in these few statements who he's declaring unto them. That he's infinite, that he doesn't need anything. He's all powerful, he has all the power, he has all the control. And essentially everything that we could possibly ever want or need he's able to supply so he's a provider. A lot of great things that we've learned. He made all of us and he's even determined everything. He said he determined the times before appointed. That would allude to his knowledge and the fact that he's probably infinite in knowledge and wisdom. The fact that he's already determined all of these things and even the boundaries in which we live. Everything that we're subject to. Verse 27. That they should seek the Lord if happily they might feel after him and find him. Though he be not far from every one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being as certain also your own poets have said for we are also his offspring. Now he's also alluding this, you've got to think about his context. He's talking about an unknown God and he's saying look you can find him if you just feel after him but he's not far from every one of us. Meaning like it's not like you have to go to some distant area or some distant place to find out who the God of the Bible is. In fact in this city Athens didn't they already have a synagogue? Now if you read other places in the Bible he says that Moses is read in the synagogue every seventh day in every single area. So they have the word of God right there. They didn't even have to go anywhere. They probably even heard the word of God at certain times in their life just because of the fact that it's always been existent. So it's not like this unknown God to them is really far off or it's someone that's really hard to find. He's saying that we even in verse 28 for in him we live and move and have our being. So it's like if you realize that you could you're just like touching him at all times because he's everywhere. He permeates everything. Everything even exists because of him. He gives us all the life and we are his offspring. Now he uses their own poets to basically talk to them about this and what I like about this is the apostle Paul he's kind of trying to reach people where they're at. Think about how he's trying to reach people where they're at. He's trying to reach people where they're at. Think about how he's trying to reach people where he talks to the Jews and other places in the scripture. He just starts with the scripture or he just starts with talking about Moses or Abraham or whatever. That wouldn't really be that effective to this crowd because this crowd's not necessarily Moses. Well who's Moses? Then he has to explain who Moses is. Who's Abraham? What are the covenants? What was Passover? They're not familiar with all these things so he doesn't bring that stuff up. Keep your finger here but go to Romans chapter 12 for a moment. Just flip the page to the right of here. Romans chapter 12 and look at verse number 16. The Bible says be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits. So the Bible says we're supposed to condescend to men of low estate. What could be an example of this or picture this? Well look not everybody grows up or not everybody's been given as much knowledge or information about who God is as you are. Sometimes we have to condescend to where they are and start there and start with okay, here's the word of God. God created the heavens and the earth and just kind of explain things to people and kind of catch them up to speed on certain facts or certain details. Now what I also like is as he's going to preach to them the resurrection he doesn't bring up Moses or Abraham either. So it's not like he has to elaborate on all those details. It's really just a starting point but everything is going to end up leading to Jesus Christ leading to the resurrection. Not only have we learned several things about who God is but he's using logic okay. He's trying to persuade them about how they're superior to an idol okay. In verses number 24 when he's talking about not dwell at the temples made with hands and neither the man's hands though he needed anything. It's like this idol needs stuff that we don't. Like I can supply my own food. I can eat for myself. I can move myself around or whatever and it's like why would you think that the God that created you, the one that gives you life and breath or whatever is somehow so far inferior to you that you have to then feed it and give it life and give its movement. It's like God obviously the creator has to be greater than its creation you know or it has to have the ability to have done the things that you can do to some level. It doesn't make any logical sense to worship a rock when you're infinitely greater than the rock. Worship should be an idyllic sense to something that's greater than you or better than you. You know when it comes to sports we don't really worship the average Joe who can't even shoot a basket or can't even run down the football field they who do they idolize the guy that's the greatest at it right someone that's better than them at that particular sport someone that's achieved some kind of a greatness or you know even in the world people worship people because of how much money or success or whatever but they're not really worshipping someone inferior to them. That's just really counter logical it doesn't make any sense to worship something that's inferior or lesser you know just like if you win you're just like you know usually they congratulate themselves right they're given the ultimate praise the ultimate glory so it's like when it comes to the God of the universe or whoever they're supposed to worship why would you be in worshipping something that's inferior to you a rock or some kind of piece of wood or anything like that what's the point he's just using logic and reason to talk to these people and I think that's great I think it's fine to use logic and reason when talking to somebody because if they have no reason either okay the people that have no reason and no logic are usually not gonna get saved either you gotta have some reason you gotta have some logic if I'm talking to somebody I'm talking about heaven or hell or a sinner you know some people will be like I've never sinned and it's like okay well I've ever lied never lied I'm gonna see you later it's like I mean you can't reason with someone that's unreasonable you know or they'll just say something really off the wall or they just they have they don't want to hear what the they're like the Bible just written by man or they bring up really illogical facts about the Bible this is a person that's probably just not gonna get saved you need to just probably move on from them you know there's certain people that are just not reasonable and there's no time there's no reason wasting time with someone that's unreasonable that can't even believe one plus one equals two that doesn't even think a man's a man you know I mean if you can't even get to that how are you gonna convince them? You know Jesus Christ is saying in John chapter number three when he's talking with Nicodemus he's kind of ridiculing for the fact that if you do not believe the earthly things how shall you believe heavenly things if I tell you he's basically saying like if you can't even understand a carnal truth how could I explain a spiritual truth to you that doesn't even make any sense so if they can't even realize that they're better than a rock good luck explaining them how to believe in Jesus Christ is basically what he's trying to appeal to and it makes a lot of sense so what am I trying to do? Why would I then take what he's showing me here and say you know what we should try to convince atheists that God exists it's like that's bad if I can't even if the person can't even believe that God exists then how am I gonna get that person safe just like the person that thinks that they're not better than a rock how am I gonna then get that person safe it's like they need to have some level of reason logic intelligence in order to get someone safe you know someone tells me they're an atheist at this point I'll say well how about this if I could show you that the Bible is teaching that God exists and that salvation is a free gift if I could show you that would you believe it or would you want to hear and if they're like no then I just move on now there's not really a point in arguing with people that are unreasonable that you can't even convince them that they're better than a rock because you know what atheists will believe that we evolved from rocks I mean literally I mean they say that we're just stardust they just say that an accident we just everything just happened here we are or whatever it's like okay that person's not close to getting saved that person would have to start having some kind of reason some kind of logic and we only have so much time in the day he's not going for the idiot here he's going for the person that realizes he's better than a rock okay and he's using logic he's using reason and he's appealing though to things that they're familiar with hey your poet said that we're his offspring so what is he saying if I'm the offspring of God and I'm not a rock that means that God's not a rock okay that's what he's pointing to that's the point that he's trying to drive in that's what he's trying to illustrate he's saying look you have a brain you're able to move and jump and talk and eat and create and develop this rock is just sitting here doing nothing so even if your own poets the people that you're singing and listening to and praising or saying where is offspring he's not a rock then wake up he's trying to get people to stop thinking like an idiot and realize God's not a rock here God's not a piece of wood we're his offspring that's the point that he's making so you can look at this and say oh it's cool he's referencing their own people yeah but he's using it to kind of point to how stupid they're being he's kind of actually criticizing them and he's saying look guys even your own poets are saying that we're his offspring so if we're his offspring then he either has to be equal to us or greater than us that would have to just be a pure logic okay at this point he hasn't really preached a lot of verses so then he says in verse 29 so he's continuing with this logic train right for as much then as we are the offspring of God we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold or silver or stone graven by art and man's device so you get the conclusion of what he was drawing the point that he was making well if we're the offspring of God then why in the world do you think we're a rock or a statue or some kind of a graven image or some kind of a molten image you know that can't make sense it's just not logical it's not possible just like telling someone look nothing didn't explode and create everything it's just not possible you know and if you think that you're really far off you know the Bible says the fool has said in his heart there is no God you know the person's already too stupid to basically learn anything says in verse 30 at the time to this ignorance God winked at but now commended all men everywhere to repent and understand winking in our culture I think of winking as being like flirting I don't know why but that's just what I think you know a lot of people like you know if like you're in high school or something and a girl winked at you or something you'd kind of think like she's interested you know or if a guy winked at you if a guy winks at me that's a different you know I'm not interested it's like don't wink at me ever again in modern society I don't know who else thought that who else thinks that's kind of like what you would think when someone was winking or something but to wink at in the Bible means to ignore it means that you're just like you're just kind of letting it go you're just tolerating something you're just kind of just whatever you're just allowing it to exist you're just letting something happen and so it's just basically saying God was just kind of a letting the whole world just do their thing and be stupid and not really punishing them severely for their rebellion to God or having them be chastised as much as they probably deserve for their ignorance but something's happened but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent so what does he say no longer is he just going to tolerate idolatry in the world no longer is he going to let people just do whatever they want without severe consequences no now is there's going to be severe punishment if you don't actually believe in Jesus Christ and he says in verse 31 because he had appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained where have you have given assurance unto all men and that he hath raised him from the dead so he says look before you didn't know the God of the world was you didn't understand the God of the universe but now you have no excuse no one has an excuse anymore and you're all going to be judged by a certain man now who's that man Jesus Christ okay he makes it clear that there's going to be a day when the whole world is going to be judged in righteousness by who by that man they could look at this a lot of different ways one would say this Christ was perfect we're not so if we're judged according to his standard we're going to come short for all of sin comes short of the glory of God as the Bible teaches and also Jesus Christ you know says that all judgment has been committed unto the Sun so you can look at it from a perspective that Jesus Christ is going to judge people you're going to be judged by the Word of God you know when it says that that the great white throne judgment the books are open and you're going to be judged according to your works so you're going to literally have the Word of God sit there you know people don't like to hear the Word of God now well you're going to hear it at the great white throne judgment if you're not saved I mean all that mean preacher he's just telling you what God was going to say to you and you know what it's a lot scarier when God's saying it to you than when God's saying it to you and everyone is going to have no excuse the Bible says in Romans chapter number one that they have no excuse you know for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even as eternal power in Godhead so they're without excuse you know if I mean an atheist that's actually what I quote today I say can I give you verse and that's the verse that I give them and I say you know God exists you can see the trees out in the world you can see the birds you see life you see me and you know God exists and you don't have any excuse that's what I tell them and you know it doesn't necessarily always work but at least they realize that's what the Bible is teaching and they know that deep down in their heart they just just like a criminal doesn't want to find a cop they don't really want to find God okay but he preaches them finally what the resurrection of Jesus Christ so while I'm okay with the idea of you condescending the minimal estate of using logic and reason of meeting people where they're at of even bringing in cultural references you got to eventually get to the gospel and if you think about it this sermons pretty quick I mean if we were to just read straight Paul's words I mean it's not very I mean it's like 20 seconds and he's already preaching the resurrection of Jesus Christ so it wasn't like a real long intro as it were but what I can learn from this is the fact that when I go soul winning sometimes the best soul winning is to try and relate to the person and I really believe this I think if you just started out going soul winning you should just kind of stick with whatever presentation you got you know just get really good at whatever it is that you got and use kind of the same questions talk about the same thing but as you get a little bit more experience as you go swimming a little bit more you talk to more people if they're a Catholic I may kind of say things a little bit different to a Catholic or a Church of Christ or a Hindu or an atheist or whoever it is I'm trying to think about where they're at what they believe what they think the doctrines that they hold to and I'll try to craft my gospel presentation in a way or bring up things that they're more familiar with so as to condescend a minimal estate and try to reach them where they're at understanding perhaps what they believe or things that they struggle with or doctrines they're not keen on I think it's important to try to draw that out and think about so you know you ask the person the question do you go to church anywhere listen what they say because sometimes that can be helpful they say I go to St. so-and-so they're Catholic all right I mean if they say St. Thomas Mary Joseph James it doesn't matter Lucifer it's a Catholic Church okay and you know if they say I go to this Church of Christ you know they believe baptism is necessary for salvation you know if they say I go to such-and-such Church of God they're Pentecostal I mean you just know that the Pentecostal if it's a Hispanic lady you know her name is Maria already you don't even have to ask I mean but you can use these things to your advantage and I think that you should you know the Apostle Paul is trying to you know trawl out use their own poets talk to them condescend a minimal estate you know if they're from Texas use Texas lingo they're from a foreign country or a foreign state or something and you know something about that bring it in your gospel presentation I think that that's good to use every skill everything you have but at the end of the day you got to get to the right and it's the resurrection is where it's at and that's what we preach we preach that Jesus is the Son of God and you know that's what gives us even our assurance is what the Bible says now assurance of what well the resurrection gives us the assurance that Jesus really is the Son of God because he preached the gospel he told people that he was going to be delivered to the Romans and that he'd be crucified and that the third day he'd be perfected he said that he'd be raised risen again okay that happened proving and giving his assurance that Jesus testimony was true okay this is the true God in eternal life is what first John chapter 5 tells us it also gives us assurance that we will be resurrected one day you know it'd be kind of more difficult maybe to believe in a resurrection when it's never happened but we have the first we have Jesus Christ having been resurrected and that's the evidence and a token and the assurance to us that we too will be risen again one day instead of searching for physical eternal life we have it through spiritual eternal life and realize we'll get a new body one day that makes me feel great because it's like this one's being tracked okay this one's got lots of problems and you know at the end of the day whatever happens and look I'm all for taking care of your body but even if you're not very good at it you're getting a new one okay so that praise the Lord and even you made mistakes in taking care of your body you're getting a new one no matter what illnesses no matter what diseases no matter what happens I mean look white men can't jump but my spiritual body is gonna jump high okay you know what I'm gonna leap for joy you know it's like whatever it is that you got problems with you're getting a new one praise the Lord on that that gives us assurance you know that makes us feel better now let's read the last few verses and I'll make a couple concluding statements verse 32 and when they had heard of the resurrection of the man some mocked another said we will hear thee again of this matter so Paul departed from them I'll be at certain men clave unto him and believed among the witch was Dionysus the areopagite and a woman named Amarius and others with them now this is a really important thing to think about the response to the gospel is always going to be like this what was the response some mocked right and then others say I'll hear again and then sometimes got saved we have to realize is that not everyone's gonna get saved not everyone's gonna mop you know not everybody's gonna get saved the first time either and really when you go out and you preach the gospel you should expect some people are gonna mock some people like I don't have time maybe talk to me later and then some people get saved and because the response is varied you should realize that you don't want to waste your time with the mockers and if someone's like not interested now plant the seed move on and find the people that are interested because you can waste a lot of effort and energy on the mockers on the people that just don't have they're not interested today you know you have to realize there are people out there right now that want to get safe there are some and we want to try and find those people and we want to try and get them the gospel and and realize that hey you know what I can't save everyone some people get mad at talking about walking away from somebody or they get frustrated with me and like well I'm gonna get every atheist saved pastor Shelley so against getting atheists safe look I'm against getting atheists saved because I only have so much time and the Bible says to redeem the time because the days are evil and you know instead of just beating my head against the wall and trying to reach the most unreceptive people in this country in this city I rather focus on the people that are interested and get as many of them safe because if you say I hate atheists I say I hate the receptive people because if you're gonna waste all your time trying to get the atheist safe you could have put all that time and effort energy and some of that's actually receptive and gotten actually more people saved so who really cares more about souls the one who's beating their head against the wall getting the atheist not saved or the guy that's moving on and just finding the receptive people taking the easy fruit out of the basket as it were so here's my philosophy I preach to people that want to hear I mean that's a very important principle that want to hear I mean that makes sense why would I want to preach someone that's not interested in hearing the gospel and as soon as I realize the person's not interested I move on you know some people it's like they when you go soul winning and doing door knocking they'll be walking up the door the knock on the door and the person kind of opens the door and you're trying to hand them the invite and just upon seeing you they're already starting to close the door okay you know what I do you know hey I'll still hand them the invite but by like some people like shoving their foot the door no hey let me give you the gospel let me tell you this is like look if they're already shutting the door let them shut the door or they'll be like not interested I know you said you're not interested but let me give you a couple verses let me and they're like not interested no let me tell you it's like look if they're not interested move on don't worry about getting every single door saved or if they're not interested don't worry about getting every single door saved worry about finding someone who's receptive you know worry about planting good seeds and putting good taste in people's mouth and you know confrontational soul winning is bringing it to people that weren't asking for it necessarily but at the end of the day when someone's just not interested they're busy they they're just not wanting to hear or they're mocking or they're rude or they're whatever I just move on say have a good day bye see ya you know and just go to the next door and realize you're not gonna get every single person saved the Apostle Paul didn't get every single person saved Jesus didn't get every single person saved if Jesus didn't get people saved I'm not gonna get everybody saved okay and you just got to keep moving on Jesus was going to a town priests everybody go to the next town go to the next town go to the next town you know that's why I even said now is the day of salvation now is the accepted time because some people their opportunity was now and then it's not later there's eight there's like what are 11 billion people on this planet you can't waste all of your time on the people that aren't interested you got to find the people that are and that's why our so many efforts in our inner methods are to try and just go to every door and and try to give everybody at least one opportunity try to find people that are receptive and I think it sometimes grinds people's gears and they just think like oh man you know you didn't want to you didn't want to like break into everybody's house and do a check on everybody's house every single person in the building or something like that I even say this if a house is gated up it's got like barbed wire on it and they've got two pit bulls I'm not saying like I'm going to scale that fence I'm saying they've already shown me that they're not interested I can leave a card at the gate or whatever and I'm just going to the next door because I only got so much time I only got so much energy you know I sufficient of the days the evil thereof you know if you've already said you don't want any of that now if they have a sign on the door that says no soliciting or we found Jesus or I hate religion I'll still knock that door and in fact recently I got someone saved with one of those it says like do not knock on our door we found Jesus we had whatever and I was I said you know what I'm still knocking those doors and most of the time they they're not even mean about it sometimes they are like did you read the sign and I'm like yeah they're like well you have to get a permit to solicit here and I'm like I'm not soliciting and they're like but you need to get a permit and I'm like okay have a good day you know see ya and they just yell at you as you walk away they're like someone's gonna call the cops on you and I'm like it's you you're the one that's gonna do that you know but whatever they call the cops and they show up and they don't care because you're just preaching the gospel or whatever but you know what I also think is interesting think about this what did Paul not preach you notice he never mentioned repenting of your sins and notice he never mentioned baptism notice he never mentioned going to church notice he never mentioned turning it over a new leaf what was the one thing you wanted to get them to do believe in the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ because the only thing you have to do to be saved is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ that's the old episode or the emphasis of the New Testament of the gospel of Jesus Christ is going out and spreading the good news that it's not turning over a new leaf it's not repenting of all your sins it's simply putting your trust in Jesus that saves us it's just a free gift not by works of righteousness which we have done but by his mercy he saved us you know that's another thing that's completely different he's pointing to the resurrection because the resurrection is what saves us not your dead works not your life and you know what these people I guarantee were real sinful I mean they didn't have God they didn't have the law I mean you don't think that they were committing all kinds of fornication and abusing all kinds of substances drinking alcohol on a regular basis I mean you know they're involved in all kinds of stuff why didn't he say turn from your drinking turn from your fornication quickly and in fact other places in Scripture indicate that the Gentiles were definitely into fornication they were definitely in a lot of these sins that we see in the Bible yet we only see the saved Christians getting that advice after they've been saved when he's going into an area where they haven't even gotten the gospel yet it's just the gospel it's just believe on the Lord Jesus Christ here's the resurrection and you know these people that are believing they're getting saved and then they're following Paul around they want to hear more that he has to say and just realize this there's people that want to get saved in every single town and and I'll kind of conclude on this statement you know what's really funny to me is if you go to small towns and you preach the gospel you go anywhere you know you'll find a Catholic Church Church of Christ Methodist Church Pentecostal Church those witnesses Hindus Muslims it's like and then you go to the next town you find a Catholic Church a Methodist it's like the same thing just over and over and over I mean you find them everywhere why because it's like every area just has their group that just box and then you got their group that will hear you again and then you got your group that's gonna get saved and look we're looking for the people that get saved in every town a few the proud the same okay let's go in prayer thank you Heavenly Father for this chapter and the example that was set out by Paul thank you that we don't worship a rock today or some just piece of wood something that we have to you know literally spoon feed here thank you that we worship an Almighty God that created the heavens and the earth I pray that we would just realize the importance of preaching the gospel to the lost and that while not everybody's gonna get saved that it's our duty and it's our job to go out and to reach them and to try and find those that are receptive and try to use the truth of the Word of God and try to use the resurrection of Jesus Christ to win them over and I pray that you would just stir something up in our spirit that when we see the world going to hell in a hand basket and we see all these false churches and false religion in this world today that it would motivate us to try and save people that are trapped by deceit trapped by the lies of the devil and that we would hate the even the garment spotted by the flesh and in Jesus name we pray amen. Go to our final song for the evening 244 amazing grace 244 all right song 244 amazing grace we'll sing it out there on the first amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me I once was lost but now I'm found was blind but now I see was grace that taught my heart to fear and grace my fears relieved how precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed through many dangers toils and snares I have already come his grace have brought me safe thus far and grace will lead me home when we've been there ten thousand years bright shining as the Sun we've no less days to sing God's grace than when we first begun all right good singing you're all dismissed you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you