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Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right, folks, welcome to Pure Words Baptist Church. It is that time, so we're going to go ahead and get started this evening. If you would go ahead and find a seat, grab your hymnals. Our first song this evening is going to be hymn number 66 at Calvary. Hymn number 66. Hymn number 66. Hymn number 66. Hymn number 66. Hymn number 66. Hymn number 66. Hymn number 66. Hymn number 66. Hymn number 66. Hymn number 66. Hymn number 66. Hymn number 66. Hymn number 66. Hymn number 66. Hymn number 66. Hymn number 66. Hymn number 66. Hymn number 66. Hymn number 66. Hymn number 66. Hymn number 66. Hymn number 66. Hymn number 66. Hymn number 66. Hymn number 66. Hymn number 66. Hymn number 66. Hymn number 66. Hymn number 66. Hymn number 66. Hymn number 66. Hymn number 66. Hymn number 66. Amen. Amen. Alright for our next hymn this evening. If you turn in your hymnal to Hymn number 30. Hymn number 30. Nothing but the blood. Hymn number 33-0. Nothing but the blood. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. For my pardon, this I see. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. For my cleansing, this my plea. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Nothing can force an atone. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Not of good that I have done. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my hope and peace. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my righteousness. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Amen. Thanks so much for coming to Pure Words Baptist Church. If you need a bulletin, Brandon can get you one. Just slip your hand real quick. On the inside, we have our service and soul winning times, as well as regional and stats. Was there any salvations to report for the last few days? Did you all have any tonight? Two? Okay, great. All right. And then we had two as well, so four for tonight. You had one this week? Okay, good. We had five? That's great. And then, keep up the great work on our soul winning. We had three baptisms last Thursday, so it was great. I'm expecting four tonight, I'm kidding. But we had a really good time. And also on the right, we have a list of expecting ladies, Miss Sarah. And she's getting close to coming back, so Brother Nick can stop being a bachelor or whatever. And then also coming guest preaching. I'm going to be down here for that Thursday through the Sunday. Near our third year kind of false Bible burning. And so I'll be here preaching both services on that Sunday with my family, God willing. And so if you want to meet Ellie Sue, that's your time, all right? And she'll be here Thursday too, so Thursday and Sunday, the double dip. And then also Pastor Aaron Thompson, he's going to come early to the Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship. And come here first and preach for you guys, take things off. And then he's going to be preaching at the Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship that Wednesday up in Fort Worth. And so it's a great blessing. He's going to come down here and preach for us. And he always asks about Pure Words Baptist Church. He's always thinking about you guys. So you've got to realize there's people out there that care about you. We have our event that Saturday. We're doing Soul Winning Marathon. Show up here at 9 in the morning. We'll have some breakfast and we'll go out for a couple hours. Come back for lunch. And then we're going to kick off the False Bible. We're running around 5. We'll also have some hot dogs and s'mores and stuff like that too. So just make sure that it's a different fire because the False Bibles emit a strange fire. You know, it's green and blue and purple and whatever. And so we want to have a clean fire, all right? And then also the Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship is going to be happening in the Dallas Ward area again this year. And so if you're able to participate, we'd love for you to come up there. There is a kid spelling bee. There's some fellowship activities, a lot of Soul Winning. And I'll give you a quick rundown. Wednesday night, Pastor Aaron Thompson is going to preach. And then we're having ice cream right after the service. Thursday morning, we're having ice skating from 10 to noon. And then from 2 to 4, they're Soul Winning. And then 6 p.m., Pastor Bruce Mejia is going to preach on Thursday. Friday in the morning is going to be a ladies' coffee time. So I can't remember the time off the top of my head. I think it's like 9.30 to 11 or somewhere in that range or whatever. And then we'll have Soul Winning 2 to 4. Then we're going to have preaching again at 6 p.m. It's going to start with Pastor Berzins. Then we're going to have a pizza break in between. And then we're going to have Pastor Roger Jimenez preach for us. So that will be the Friday schedule. Saturday morning at 9 a.m., we're going to start off with our kids spelling bee. And we're just going to go, we have three age groups. So we have like 5 years old to like 8. And then 9 to, I want to say 12. And then 13 to 17. And so we'll pretty much just go in that order with the kids' age groups. And so if you want to participate, you just show up and have your kid ready. We'll give him a number and we'll go through all that. I need to make a video. I need to make one soon. Just kind of going over what that looks like. Because some people haven't even seen a spelling bee. So just so that way people have an idea. We're following pretty much the official spelling bee rules. So kids will be assigned a number. Then they'll go on stage and they'll go in that order. They'll be presented a word. They'll have to say the word, spell it, and then say it to finish. And then if they spell it correctly, they go to the next round. And then basically go until you have two people. Once you have two people, in order to win, you have to spell a word correctly. So if the person before you misspells, you have to spell one correctly. If you both misspell, then it just goes back around. But if you're third, you're just out. So it's just kind of a frustrating thing, but this is how it works. So if you're able to participate, if you go to the Steadfast website, on the Events tab, there is a link that has the spelling bee words that you can study. And all of the words should be right in your King James Bible. So there's no surprises or anything like that. But there's still a lot of hard words in there. So if you want to study, that's how you study. And then you can go to spellingbee.com or something like that if you want to look up rules. There's going to be a singles event for anyone above the age of 18 or older that's either not been married or is like a widow or something. Basically they haven't been divorced and their spouse is dead or whatever. There's a lot of, I guess, hypotheticals. But mostly just people that are able to get married biblically. They are welcome to participate and there will be a special event and kind of a luncheon. We'll have soul winning in the afternoon. And I think that's pretty much it. I'll be preaching both services on Sunday English. We're going to have Pastor Enrique Reyes come and preach our Spanish service. And so it'll be good to have him up there preaching our Spanish service at 4.30. We'll have soul winning like usual. And we'll have a dessert challah after the Sunday night service. So lots of fun stuff, lots of cool things. We've got shirts coming in and even triple XL. I've heard some people like those. We're excited about this year's conference. And so if you're able to participate, I would encourage you to do so. We also have a chili cook off on Halloween again this year. And it is Texas style, meaning no beans. You don't like that heresy creeping down here. We've got to keep it pure. Pure words, pure chili. Also, Thanksgiving service, instead of doing it on Thursday, I'm going to change it to Tuesday. And then our Christmas candlelight service will be on December 31st or the 3rd at Thursday. That's pretty much all I have. If you have any other prayer requests that you'd like us to include in the bulletin, just email it to us and we can put it in there. That's pretty much all I had for now. I meant, I wanted to bring cards, but they delivered them like two hours to my house after I'd left. But I did scrounge up as many as I could find in my truck and my bag. And so there's like enough to maybe last Sunday, okay? Scrounge through, you know, you've got some somewhere at the house in a sock drawer or something, okay? But I should be able to bring them with me next Thursday. I ordered 20,000. So my wife, I was like, you're going to use these cards? And I said, they're going to use these cards, all right? 20,000. And so I'm really excited. I added a new thing to our cards. We have a QR code that just goes straight to the website, too. So you don't even have to type it in. Just QR code, bam. But that's pretty much all I had for announcements. Let's go to our third song, song 50, Peace Perfect Peace. All right, number 50, Peace Perfect Peace. Peace perfect peace in this dark world of sin The blood of Jesus whispers peace within Peace perfect peace with sorrow searching round On Jesus' bosom naught but calm is found Peace perfect peace our future all unknown Jesus we know and he is on the throne Peace perfect peace death shadowing us and ours Jesus has vanquished death and all its powers If is enough her struggles soon shall cease And Jesus calls to him perfect peace Amen. While the offering plate is being passed around this evening, go ahead and turn if you would to Acts chapter number 18. Acts chapter number 18. Brother Brandon will read for us this evening. All right, we're there in Acts chapter 18. The Bible reads, after these things, Paul departed from Athens and came to Corinth. And found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because that Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome. And came unto them, and because he was of the same craft, he abode with them and wrought for by their occupation they were tent makers. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. And when they opposed themselves and blasphemed, he shook his raiment and said unto them, Your blood be upon your head, I am clean. From henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles. And he departed then and entered into the certain man's house, named Justice, one that worshiped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue. And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house. And many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed and were baptized. Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision. Be not afraid, but speak and hold not thy peace. For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee, for I have much people in this city. And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. And when Gallio was the deputy of Achaea, Jews made an insurrection with one accord against Paul and brought him to the judgment seat, saying, This fellow persuadeth men to worship God, contrary to the law. And when Paul was not about to open his mouth, Gallio said unto the Jews, If it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness, O ye Jews, reason would that I should bear with you. But if it be a question of words and names and of your law, look ye to it, for I will be no judge of such matters. And he drained them from the judgment seat. Then all the Greeks took Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat, and Gallio cared for none of those things. And Paul after this tarried there yet a good while, then took his leave of the brethren and sailed thence into Syria, with him Priscilla and Aquila having shorn his head into Syria, for he had a vow. And he came to Ephesus and left them there, but he himself entered in the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. When they desired him to tarry longer with them, he consented not, but bathed them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem, but I will return again unto you. If God will, and he sailed from Ephesus, and when he had landed at Cysteria, he had gone up and saluted the church, and he went down to Antioch. And after he had spent some time there, he departed and went over all the country of Galatia and Phagaea into order in strengthening all the disciples. And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus. And this was an instruction in the way of the Lord, and being fervent in the Spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John. And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue, whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly. And when he was disposed to pass into Achaia, the brethren wrote exhorting the disciples to receive him who he was to come, and helped them much which had believed through grace. For he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly showed by the Scripture that Jesus was Christ. Let's have a quick prayer. Heaven's Father, we thank you for giving your word to the Lord, and our inspiration. We thank you for giving your time to help us in our lives. Amen. We're in Acts chapter number 18, a new chapter, and still a lot of the same kind of things where the Apostle Paul is going through different areas. If you remember in chapter number 17, they had gotten split up at Berea, and the Apostle Paul kind of fled by himself to Athens, where his companions were supposed to kind of meet up with him in Athens. But we notice that he ends up still departing from Athens before he ends up meeting up with his partners. It says in verse 1, after these things, Paul departed from Athens and came to Corinth. So he left Athens, he's gone into Corinth, and it says, In bound a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy with his wife Priscilla. Because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome and came unto them. Now, this is kind of interesting because we're introduced to a couple new people, Aquila and Priscilla, and the reason why they're even in Corinth, they're actually just kind of strangers, they don't actually live in Corinth, they're not really from Corinth, they're kind of like refugees, because they were being persecuted for their religion. And because of their religion, they ended up fleeing, which to me shows that they were already devout persons. You know, whether or not they were right, or they were already saved, or anything like that, it doesn't really matter, but at least they were devout. And what I've noticed is it seems like people, even when they're devout in kind of a wrong version of Christianity, it's still oftentimes better than people that are just apathetic in general. You know, because I've noticed a lot of great people that are serving the Lord, they used to be a devout Pentecostal, or they used to be a devout Church of Christ, or they used to be a devout Catholic, or they used to be a devout some other kind of religion, but even just having been taught the principles of going to church, reading the Bible, having some kind of a routine or a tradition in relation to their religion, ends up translating very well into the right religion. Think about the Apostle Paul himself, he's going to be able to sympathize with them pretty easily, because he was a very zealous Pharisee. You know, he was zealous of the law, he was a very religious person, and when he gets saved, notice he ends up carrying all that zeal with him. Ends up carrying a lot of that same fervor, and a lot of that same excitement, emotion, into the right religion. And what I've noticed is it seems like it's hard to teach zeal. It's hard to, you know, people that are just zealous, seem to just be zealous. You know, and I've heard this, and I don't know exactly how this relates per se, but some people say you have an addictive personality, they might say that about somebody, right? And I've been accused of this before, but you know, at the same time, to me it's like, why not be, you know, really zealous about the things that you care about or you think that are important? You know, if I find something's really important, why not? You know, the Bible teaches that you're supposed to have zeal. You know, whatever thy hand find to do, do it with all thy might. You know, so just saying like, whatever you're going to do, you might as well put in all the effort. You might as well put in all the energy. That's just a good character attribute in any person. Regardless if they're saved or unsaved, just being someone that's just, you know, cares about what they're doing. You know, you show up at the job, be someone that's actually really zealous about doing the job right, and making sure to follow the rules, and being pleasing under your boss. You know, just having character, having a good work ethic, taking the things that you do seriously. I mean, how many people, if they were given the option today, flee to another country and stay Catholic, or just stop being Catholic, would just say, you know what, I didn't really go to church anyway, so I'm just going to stop being Catholic, right? Or Christian or any other religion today. There's a lot of people that just kind of do it because it's just a thing, but they don't really care. To me, it's just mind-boggling how many people just don't care. They just like, you ask them at the door, if you die today, are you 100% sure you go to heaven? I don't know, I don't really care. I'm just thinking like, do you believe everybody's going to die? Yep. You just don't care. Nope, just don't care. And just that laissez-faire attitude, just like, it doesn't matter, I'm sure it'll work out, whatever. This is a weird, foolish attitude in life. And let me tell you what, nothing just automatically works out. You know, a job at your workplace, whenever you're looking at a task that needs to be done, or you're looking at the problems that your company has, it's like, only by diligent hard work and effort is that going to actually be accomplished. It's not just going to magically fix itself, or magically go well. Your house isn't going to magically clean itself. You know, the lawn's not going to magically mow the lawn. You know, anything that is going to be done, it's going to take a lot of effort, it's going to take a lot of energy, it's going to take a lot of focus, it's going to take a lot of zeal, and you should not just expect things to just work out, because nothing works out. Things tend to chaos and disaster and being destroyed, that's how they work out. If you want something to get done, you know, it's like just leaving kids to themselves, oh, I'm sure that things will go well. No, it's always going to go bad. A child left to himself bringing his mother to shame is what the Bible says. And so it's important to realize that having zeal, having some character, is a good thing, and I like the fact that they're willing to travel to a completely distant town, all the way to Corinth, to maintain their religion. Even though, obviously it's not the perfect religion at this time, but they haven't really been exposed to Christianity yet, they haven't been exposed to the New Testament, so being a Jew would be the best that they could at that time. That was the best, you know, religion that they could be associated with, and, you know, they could even have been saved. I don't believe that they were necessarily yet, maybe they were. Verse 3, talking about Paul, And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them and wrought, for by their occupation they were tent makers. So, he ends up running into these people, he finds these Jews, he has instant camaraderie with them, because they just have the same job. And, you know, you should think about this, you're going to connect with some people in a carnal way, and that's okay. You know, and a really good opportunity to make close friends oftentimes is going to be literally just on the job. You might grow really close to people that you work with, you enjoy each other's company, you often form friendships through work anyways. Whatever projects or anything that you do, that's how you really form friendships, and they go beyond surface level, you know, as you actually share things together, you go through experiences together, you know, working for the Lord can do the same thing. You want to make friends? Work with someone on the things of God. You know, whether that be cleaning the church together, going soul winning, making maps for soul winning, organizing stuff, setting up the baptistry, I mean, just any work that you do with another person, it's going to develop a relationship with that person. And because they have a camaraderie, and the fact that they all are tent makers, they kind of get to share that. Now, what's interesting about this is the Bible is telling us that Paul still has like a secular job, which is kind of interesting. I mean, we think about the greatest evangelist in the whole world. He wasn't even a full time evangelist in the sense that that's how he got paid. He got paid by literally working still. Go if you would to 1 Corinthians 9, let me prove this to you a little bit further. Keep your finger and go to 1 Corinthians 9. Now, what's important to understand about the Apostle Paul is he's kind of trying to set an example for everyone. So, he's illustrating how, you know, you got to take the job of being an evangelist really serious, but then he also shows how it's possible that you may even just have complete secular work on the side too. You know, when I started this church, I didn't make a single dollar, you know, coming to this church. In fact, there's more going the other way. But I was, you know, a full time software developer as well as trying to pastor this church. And then only really deciding to take on steadfast was it recommended to me, like, quit your job. I didn't even want to quit my job initially because I was thinking, like, I don't even know if the church can pay, you know. And I was making really good money in the software industry. I mean, it was kind of actually going really well. And so, I was like, I don't know if I want to step away. But to some degree, you're never going to be as good in the ministry if you have to focus on the secular things. You know, you're going to be distracted to some degree. You might get burnt out. You have other priorities. And especially if you have a family, it's just not very realistic. We have this thing about Paul, he doesn't have a family that's traveling with him. He doesn't have a bunch of kids and a wife or whatever. So, all the extra time that he has, he can just devote to work. So, you know, if I didn't have a family, if I didn't have kids or whatever, which I wouldn't be qualified to be pastor at that point. But I'm just saying if that were the case, I don't think it would be a big deal that I spend a bunch of extra time, you know, doing some kind of work or keeping myself busy. So as to not getting in trouble. But here's the thing, when you have a wife and kids, if I was doing all of that, I would just have like no time for them. Just zero, just not really seeing them, not hanging out with them. And that just wouldn't be good either because as a leader, I should maintain a healthy relationship with my family and with my kids as well. So, it's important that you realize there's balance in our lives. And we can't just take the Apostle Paul's example here with having no children, not being a pastor, not having, you know, these other responsibilities. And then say, he's the example to every pastor, no pastor should get paid. Because that's what some people will teach and that's what some people will believe. But look what Paul's attitude is, even though he was oftentimes just literally working to pay all of his bills. He says in verse 3, For it is written the law of Moses, let us not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Does God take care for oxen? Or saith he it all together for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt this is written, that he that ploweth should plow in hope, and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing it was you to reap your carnal things? If others be partakers of this power over you, or not we rather, nevertheless, we have not used this power, but suffer all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ, do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple, and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar, even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel, but I have used none of these things. Now again, this chapter is constantly just hitting the same fact. He's just saying, don't we have the opportunity to take money? But I'm not. But don't I have the right to? But I'm not. But shouldn't we? But I'm not. So he's just kind of like going back and forth and he's just trying to make it clear like, even though I'm not doing it, I have every right to. And even though I'm not going to do it, they should do it. And even though I'm not doing this, it's still great if they do it. I mean he's just trying to kind of go back and forth just to make it abundantly clear like, don't look at what I'm doing as an excuse to accuse someone that is doing it that they're doing something wrong. And he's explaining all these different concepts, parables. He's using the law of God. He's using logic. He's using things that we observe in our normal reality to explain how it would be foolish to say someone that's working full time in the gospel should not be able to reap some benefit from that work, should not be able to reap the fruits of that labor and end up forbear working. Now here's the thing. He's not saying that the pastor's lazy. He's not saying the pastor's doing nothing. The working there is in reference to a secular type job, to a non-ministerial position in which he would be receiving income like being a tip maker. That's what the Apostle Paul is doing. And so he's just trying to make it abundantly clear. Even the law says this. He's like, look, it wouldn't make no sense to have your cow doing all this work and not even let him eat, not even feed him. You expect the cow to go and plow your field and then be like, oh yeah, cow, go get your own food somewhere else. You know, it's like, no, you're going to feed your animal so you can keep plowing your field. And the guy that's planting all these crops and is taking care of all the produce and is basically the farmer, he should be able to eat the produce of which he makes, you know, the things that he's doing. And then he makes it clear, this translates to the New Testament, meaning they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel. So again, that's how God chose it. Ordained means he chose or selected, he appointed, that that's the whole purpose, that's the goal. But he didn't do any of those things because he just didn't want people to get the wrong idea about why he specifically was preaching the gospel. He's kind of the pioneer. He's kind of going out there and starting Christianity. And it may be weird if someone walks into town and says, hey, I've got this new religion, give me all your money. You know, then everybody's kind of like, oh, what's this guy, this guy just wants our money, you know, this guy's just kind of rolling into town, just looking for a quick buck and then move into the next town and then getting their buck and then going to the next town and then getting their buck. So he doesn't want people to get this weird impression of him or the wrong idea. So he's just making sure that they are not hindering the gospel in any way. Just so they couldn't even be accused of that, he's not even taking a penny. He's basically just going to town to town, paying his own way, preaching the gospel freely, making it clear that he's there to be witness of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that he's not there to take a bunch of money. And I believe that's also probably why Paul was selected because he's not married. It's not practical, it's not realistic to drag a family around and have this secular job and be preaching the gospel. At that point, you're just going to be neglecting too much. Either the ministry is going to get neglected and then that's horrible. Or the secular job is going to get neglected so now you can't provide for your family. And the Bible says if any man provide not for his own, especially those of his own house, he hath denied the faith and is worse than infidel. That's bad. And then if he neglects his family, that's really bad because then all of a sudden it's like the people he cares about the most, he's setting a horrible example. You don't want your children to go to the devil to save the world. You want to make sure that you have a good balance. And so that's why it's almost impossible for you to have that trifecta and have it be very effective and be very long running. So as a church begins to grow, as a church gets to a point where it's feasible or reasonable for a pastor to actually take a paycheck, I believe that he should. Now again, you can do a lot of things for a short period of time and obviously I was trying to balance having a job, being the pastor of this church and having a family. And I was planning on that being probably for a really long period of time. Because I'm thinking like at the point that the church could afford a salary anywhere close to what I'm making might be a decade. I was thinking it could be like a decade or something until Pure Words get to a point where I might walk away. I was even saying like I might hire someone else to work for the church before I take a paycheck just because it would be cheaper for me to just hire somebody to just do all the admin stuff. And then I can just keep my job and just keep it flowing and just kind of keep going. It's only because of the weird situation that we found ourselves in that I even walked away. But I didn't even know if it would be sustained at any point. I might have to just go straight back and have to do secular work. And even through that, I still maintain secular positions and done secular work on the side of everything just to help pay for certain bills and do different things that are going on. Mostly just to make sure that I'm not leaving my clients high and dry or something like that. But at the end of the day, there's nothing wrong with a minister having a secular position. And vice versa, there's nothing wrong with a pastor or minister having no secular position whatsoever and only reaping the benefits of the church. And you know, it's silly when people want to accuse their pastor of basically fleecing the flock because he's feeding his family or something. Now, I want to go to 1 Timothy 5 for a moment. I want to go to another place here in the Bible that kind of talks about this. And honestly, from my perspective, our church, Pure Words Baptist Church and Steadfast, we don't have a problem in this area at all. It's been really great. I don't even think I've had... There was like a couple bozos that were just on their way out that said a bunch of stupid stuff. Nobody really cares about this. Everybody's pretty gracious. And I mean, for Pure Words, I've never taken a cent from Pure Words specifically. I only get paid from Steadfast Baptist Church. And that's how I foresee that being taken out. Now, I have taken some money from Pure Words occasionally and given it to Steadfast to help pay for my employee, Dylan, just because bringing him on staff. But I kind of need that because he comes down here to preach for you guys. I need an employee. You know what I mean? So occasionally, I've done that. But at the same time, everything is kind of like communal anyways because it's like sometimes Steadfast buys things for Pure Words. Sometimes Pure Words buys things for Steadfast. When we have conferences, I just sometimes share expenses between the churches. If we come down, we might buy all the material from Steadfast or vice versa or however those things work out. And so to me, that doesn't matter because a church can always bless another church with anything and everything. But when it comes to me specifically, I haven't even taken anything directly, nor do I ever plan to because this church should... I want this church to thrive financially. And this church does thrive financially. And hopefully, one day, it'll grow and it'll have a point where it could even pay for a full-time pastor whenever that's the situation. But when that person is in that position, if you do have a pastor that's taking a paycheck from this church, okay, what is kind of the parameters surrounding that? Well, look at 1 Timothy 5 and look what it says in verse number 17. Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine. For the Scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn, and the laborer is worthy of his reward, against an elder received not an accusation before two or three fitnesses. Now, he's giving a lot of different instructions here in this chapter. But he wants to emphasize the fact that, you know, this chapter is a lot about just money in general. You know, if you were to study, what's the context of 1 Timothy 5? Money. He's just talking about who you should give money to. Should you give it to widows? Not unless they meet really specific requirements, okay? And then he's like, but the pastor or the elders that rule well, you should consider him worthy of double honor. Now, honor in the Bible, we could think of it a couple ways. Typically, you think of it as being respect. But it also can be money, okay? So, in a monetary sense, you know, if you're paying someone double honor, to me, I just, this is my interpretation, I think it makes a lot of sense from the Bible, is that it would be like a double paycheck, okay? So, an honor would just be like a normal paycheck, a double honor would be like a double paycheck. Now, for me personally, this is what I believe. I believe that a pastor should basically consider what's like an average salary, the average pay of the area that he lives in. So, you know, look up in Houston, if someone were to be paid, what is the average salary in Houston? And I have not looked this up beforehand, but I was just going to throw out some numbers out there. I would say it's probably like 65, 70,000 bucks, something like that, okay? And you have to consider that an employee is typically not just, their compensation is not related strictly to their W-2, like what their salary is, it's just whatever their total cost is of an employee. So, you're going to have their FICA, you're going to have their healthcare, you're going to have their dental, you're going to have a lot of other factors. So, if you just gave a total package, like whatever that number is, just your average person in the city, in my opinion, it probably, just throwing out numbers again, you'd have to look it up and do a little more research, but it'd probably be total compensation would probably be about 75, $80,000. You know, that's how much it would cost an employer to hire someone. Their wages would probably be about 65, 70,000, that's their take home pay, okay? So, then in my opinion, a pastor would be worthy to take up double whatever that number is. So, then his total compensation would be maybe $160,000. That does not mean that he should take, that's like, that's the number I take. That's just saying that that's what he's worthy of, you know? And so, anything below that, he's especially worthy of, you know? And if someone were to come and accuse the guy for taking money less than that, he's basically the bozo, he's basically the bad person, and really, why would you not want the pastor to be able to take the things that he's worthy of? You know, I mean, that's kind of a weird attitude. It's kind of a strange attitude when people are attacking them and be like, oh man, you're paying yourself, and how much are you paying yourself, or whatever. You know, and people that get real concerned with this usually are a bad person. I'll just say it, you know? Because at the end of the day, every pastor that I think of, I'm thinking like he probably deserves more than what he's getting paid, or I wish he had more, or I want him to be well taken care of, I don't want him to worry about things. I'm never thinking like, oh man, you seem, you're really living on the hog or something. And it's silly because when you think of the Old Testament precedent, the Old Testament precedent was the priests, okay? And the priests would literally, they're slaughtering cows every single day, and they're eating the choice of the meat. I mean, they're eating the greatest, I mean, they're literally having ribeye every day. I mean, it's ribeye and pancakes every single day for the priest, just on a continual basis. And look, if you were going to say wealth, what is wealth typically, you know, looked at for? It's your clothing, and it's your food, okay? The priests had the greatest clothing. It was the most specialized clothing. It was the, you know, specific garments that they had to wear to meet all this requirement. They had the choice meat. So it's not like the priest was just living like this poor, horrible life. Now, the priest didn't have any inheritance, meaning that, you know, he doesn't have the best meat, the best clothing, and a mansion, and the vineyard, and like a big 401k or whatever. It's just like he's basically just, what he's got is the food and clothing. You know, he's got those things, really high-end stuff, it's the best stuff, but at the end of the day, you know, he's not sitting over here racking up this huge network. If he were to walk away from the position, he would have nothing. He only has that stuff because he's in the position. And, you know, I would imagine basically saying to a pastor that, hey, a pastor, you know, he has good food, you know, he can have good clothing, and whatever. You know, if he walked away, he's not like, wait, I made a couple million being a pastor in the last few years or whatever. Like, that would be weird. You know, that would be bizarre. Unless he had his own side business or, you know, he's making money independently or he's just making some kind of inheritance. You know, as long as the money wasn't coming to the church, okay. But if you're just like, man, I made a couple million last year for church, but that's the goal. And so you look at people like Joe Osteen, and they give pastors a bad rap. Because, you know, there's nothing wrong with a pastor, you know, doing well for himself. You know what, he doesn't say a thousand times honor. He doesn't say a hundred times honor. It says double honor, right? So wouldn't it be bad if the pastor's rolling around and rolls away, and he makes a million bucks a year, something like that, and they're going to lose. Now all of a sudden, now it's coming to you. Now all of a sudden you're asking like, well, what are you trying to do here? You know, what's going on? What's your motive to how much money you're paying yourself? That's when it starts getting weird. That's when you can start asking questions. But if it's like, oh, man, he went and he ate at, you know, Hofbrau, or he ate at Longhound Stark House or whatever, it's like, who cares? I mean, you know, people get all angry at where people eat and what they do. You know why they say that? Because they're envious. Because they're envious of what that person has. And they don't realize the labor and the effort that's going into, you know, the ministry, and that that person's worthy of it. Go back and go to Acts chapter number 18. I just wanted to explain that point as we were kind of talking about the Apostle Paul, because he's working. And people, this is how they attack men of God. They'll be like, well, Paul is a tent maker. And it's like, okay, cool. You know what? Paul wasn't married. Paul wasn't a pastor. Paul isn't, you know, having the exact same job as other people. And you don't even know what Paul was eating, okay? He could have been eating great, you know? Who knows? Who cares? I don't care. Paul deserved way better than he got, I'm sure. You know, it's the Apostle Paul, right? And I'm sure, hey, if he came over to someone's house, feed him the best meal, you know? Make sure he's taken care of. So, you know, when pastors come and visit us, I try to make sure that they're well taken care of. We give them a generous love offering, that, you know, we want them to take them out to a really nice meal. You know, I don't want to sit over and be like, hey, McDonald's around the corner, buddy. Hey, the gas station has a Mexican food restaurant in it over here, okay? Shoes wisely. No, I think you should take them to a nice restaurant and treat them well. And look, I'm doing great, so I don't need anything. I'm just saying for future reference or other people, you know, take care of the ministers of God. Like, it's a weird attitude that you don't want them to be well taken care of, okay? Verse number four, the apostle Paul, and he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed on the Spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. And when they opposed themselves and blasphemed, he shook his raiment and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads. I am clean. From henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles. Now, what I love about this verse is the fact that the apostle Paul was not afraid to walk away from someone. And you know what? Some people, they have this weird attitude like, Well, yeah, but how is that person going to get saved? And it's like, did you give them the gospel? Yeah. Like, that was how. So, if they're not going to get it, you've got to just move on. I mean, there's going to be some people that are just not going to get it. Now, when it comes to family members, because this is typically where people bring it up. They say, I have this family member, whatever. Look, I'm not saying that you shouldn't keep praying for them and other opportunities. Give them the gospel and if you're around them and whatever. But at the end of the day, you know, instead of just being so consumed with someone that's not receptive, even if you're a family member, just go and preach to a stranger. Go to the next town, go to someone else, go to another friend and preach the gospel to someone that is interested. If you've already given a clear gospel presentation to someone and they're not interested, give them some cooling off. You know, move on, go to the next person, and realize that you've done pretty much all that you can do at that point. Now, I'm not saying don't give them the gospel again in the future and don't hope that they, you know, somehow their heart gets softened, but what I am saying is this. Don't be so overly concerned about getting the same person saved over and over. Eventually, you just have to move on. You know, and eventually you have to realize some people are just not worthy of eternal life. The apostle Paul, I mean, to him, his family, quote unquote, is just Jews. He just loves Jews. Like, he just has a really, he has a soft spot for the Jews. He wants them all to be saved. They're really close and dear to his heart. He was a really zealous Pharisee. So, to him, it's kind of like his brother, it's kind of like his mother, it's kind of like his sister. And, you know, to see them not getting saved, it's just, it just breaks his heart. So, that's why he's always constantly coming back to them, coming back to them. But the thing is, if the person's not going to get saved, he's just got to move on. Because there are people that will get saved. And, ultimately, if you just love souls, you'll move on from the unreceptive. You'll say, you know what, your blood be upon your own heads. I'm clean. You know, from now on, I'm just talking to Gentiles. Verse 7, and he departed thence and entered into a certain man's house named Justice, one that worshiped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue. Now, what I think is interesting about this is it almost seems like the apostle Paul is finally kind of moving on from the idea of the synagogue to just churches. And churches at this point, because they're in infancy, are pretty much meeting in people's houses, right? So, this guy, they're kind of meeting in this house, even though this guy is someone that had joined the synagogue, according to the Bible, or was really into the synagogue in time past. It says in verse 8, and Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house, and many of the Corinthians hearing believed and were baptized. So, the main guy of the synagogue, he ends up getting saved. Now, that's bad for the synagogue because, you know, as a whole, the synagogue is of the Jews, and they're not interested in things, God. This also tells us that someone that is really in a high position of authority could still end up getting converted. Now, I want you to be careful about this, though. The chief ruler of the synagogue at this time could have been a good guy. You know, just because he was at the top of this religion, you know, it wasn't really a false religion until they'd been really exposed to Jesus and then rejected it. That's when it really started becoming the synagogue of Satan. Before, it is the house of God. It was the place to go. It was, if you wanted to worship the Lord, if you were saved at that time, according to the Old Testament view of salvation, then you would have been in the synagogue. You would have joined the synagogue, you would have been part of the synagogue. So, it's more about the truth coming in and then having this sharp divide and end up going into the church model and rejecting the synagogue as a whole. So, this guy that's the chief, don't think that, oh, the main priest at the synagogue down here, he could get saved. No, okay, very unreceptive person, okay, very unlikely, I wouldn't even waste time. But, back then, you know, a lot of times some of the chief people or the main rulers were going to end up believing. Verse 9, then spake the Lord of Paul in the night, by a vision, be not afraid, but speak and hold not by peace. For I am with thee and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee. For I have much people in this city. And I like this phrase here where it says, hold not by peace. You know, and that's really what God's view is. God doesn't want you to hold back. You know, spare not. Lift up thy voice like a trumpet and show my people their transgression. You know, according to the Bible, God wants you to preach all of the Bible. God's not ashamed of the Bible. He wrote it. He gave it to us. It's the most popular book in the world. God's not afraid of anything in this book. You know, God's not ashamed of you reading His word. He's ashamed of the people that are ashamed of His word. He doesn't like it when people are embarrassed about the Bible. Now, there could be a time when you hold your peace. When would be the time to hold your peace? You know, when you're around a bunch of people that aren't interested, when you're in a bad situation, sometimes you just hold your peace. You know, even Jesus Christ did this at times, right? He's sitting there and he's being falsely accused by all the Pharisees and they brought him in. He's not sitting there teaching them the reprobate doctrine. And he's like, hey, I want to explain something to you guys. You guys are reprobates, you know. Now, sometimes he does teach the reprobate doctrine to Pharisees, but it was in a public setting where other people could benefit from that teaching. He wasn't just teaching reprobates that they're reprobate just to piss them off, okay. And look, if I was surrounded by a bunch of people that are not interested in things of God, I'm not going to open my mouth and explain them to them. You know, Jesus said, give not that which is holy unto the dogs. Neither cast your pearls before swine, lest they turn again and rend you, you know. So, according to the Bible, there is a time to keep your mouth shut. There's a time to use discretion. If you work at a workplace and everybody there has left this atheist reprobate, this is like, I'm not bringing up the Bible. I remember I worked at a software company, and my boss had this rule that you are not allowed to bring up religion. It was just a rule. He said, what happens is people just get mad at each other, and they waste a bunch of work time. He's like, I just don't want anybody to bring up religion. So, what they would bring up is the big bang theory and evolution and how there's no God. And it was just like, oh, this is no religion, huh. But I would just keep my mouth shut because these people were not interested at all. They believe in all manner of science, falsely so called. They kept trying to convince me that AI was going to get to a point where it literally had free will. And I'm just like, look, you're smart, but a computer cannot have free will. He's like, no, I think they can't. And he's like, they're coming up with technology in Japan. This guy is going to have his entire brain replaced with a computer. I'm just like, no. I'm like, the person that signed up for that experiment already does not have their brain. They've already lost it at this point. And obviously, with modern technology and science, they've come up with some pretty clever stuff. They can replace bones with titanium, with metal. They can do heart transplants and things like that. They're not making brand new synthetic hearts and putting them into your body. And I personally don't believe any of the really necessary organs they'll probably ever be able to synthetically create. But even if they did, you still can't create free will. You can't give free will to these type of things. And you know what? I would say, look, I don't believe that you can give free will to a computer and then I would just kind of leave off. And they were real hypocrites about it because they would just mock the Bible and talk about Big Bang, whatever. And then I'd make a comment, they're like, no religion. And I'm just like, oh, okay. I'm like, sure. But that's a time to kind of keep your peace. And I just try to be friendly, try to be nice, try to use discretion. But in church, that's not the time to hold your peace. This is not the time to just pretend like, oh, I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings. Some people are going to go to heaven, some people are going to go to hell. We don't really know people's hearts. Jesus knows everybody's heart. We'll just pray for people. We don't want to judge anyone for any reason. That's not the time to hold back or to hold your tongue. It's the time to not hold back. It's the time to preach what the Bible says and not to be afraid. Why does he say that? Because people don't like the truth. I don't know if you know this. People don't like the truth. Welcome to the world that we live in. Truth is censored hard. God resource, I lost my entire channel today. I don't even know why. So frustrating. I literally dedicated that channel to having no controversial content. I was just like, I don't want anything weird. I don't want to lose this channel because they had a lot of cool videos on it. They didn't even give me a strike. It was just like, your content, your videos just violate our terms of service, bye. See ya. I'm just like, what in the world? You know? And look, it's going to get North Korea style and China style probably pretty soon in the future. I mean, no one's fighting it. No one really cares. I think this pretty much has been completely gone and nobody's saying anything. Everybody's still going to use YouTube. I mean, even if you created a new platform tomorrow and you called it whatever you wanted and it was completely free, people wouldn't switch. People wouldn't get on board. No companies would promote it. It doesn't matter. Like, I really like the idea of Gab with this guy named Andrew Torba and he's kind of like a free speech speaker. But you know what? He's getting so censored so hard, he's probably never going to have very much traction. And you know what? I'm going to use it. I'll try to use these platforms. I'll try to get out there. I'm going to try and squeak through every crack I possibly can. What I'm telling you is it's hard to get the truth out there and a lot of people don't want to speak the truth. You know why? Because they're afraid. They are afraid. They're afraid? Afraid of what? Losing their job, losing friendships, losing money, getting beaten up. I mean, even Nicki Minaj recently said that she doesn't want to get the vaccine and they're just like canceling her heart. You know? Because they're not going to spare their own. And you know what? They want to set an example with her, I'm sure, so that no other celebrity gets a backbone. So that no other celebrity is willing to actually speak up. They want to make everybody afraid of preaching the truth today. And you know what? They want to make Bible preachers afraid to preach the truth today. You know, isn't it interesting that most Baptists today, you can't find any of their sermons? I mean, you go to most, I mean, just look up any of the other churches in this area. Where is their sermons? And you know, you might could find like the last few. But like where is their last, you know, 10, 20, 30, 40, 100 sermons or whatever? Where is their hot preaching? Where is their hot sermons or whatever? They put them, they hide them. They have like a members only. You have to have the password. You have to have the special code, the special key. They don't want to put that stuff out there. Why? Because they're afraid. Because they're afraid of the persecution. They don't want people to know that they actually believe the word of God. And most of the time, they don't even preach anything to hide anyway. That's what's funny about it. It's like, you know, they don't even have to hide, but they're just hiding because they're just afraid anyways. And you know what? Notice that he didn't say, hey, I know some of the beliefs you have are controversial, so don't tell anybody about it. No. He says, hold not by peace. You know, some people get mad at us and they'll be like, oh, well, the reason why you have facts, protesting you is because you put your sermons online. And it's like, yeah? And it's like, well, you deserve it then. And it's like, why do I deserve it? Why do I deserve persecution or deserve evil or deserve bad? And it's like, you should just not let people know what you have to say. And it's like, you know what? Some people joined our church because of it. Some people hear the truth because of it. And you know what? We're not supposed to be afraid. He said, hey, there's some people here. There's some Christians here that are going to have your back and they're going to fight for you. And so you know what? You're doing it for the elect's sake. You're not doing it for the people that hate you. I'm not trying to see how many people I can piss off because I'm sure I could do a pretty good job of that if that was my main goal. My main goal is to reach people that want to hear the truth. And you're just going to have casualties in the way. What's going to happen? Well, look what it says in verse 11. And he continued there a year and six months teaching the word of God among them. And when Galileo was the deputy of Achaea, the Jews made insurrection with one accord against Paul and brought him to the judgment seat saying, this fellow persuaded men to worship God contrary to the law. Now, it's interesting the Jews commit insurrection. Now, insurrection is basically a violation of the law of the legal code in which they live in. So, you know, they're rebelling against legal code. They're basically just taking the law into their own hands. You know, they're committing this insurrection. They're arresting Paul on their own accord, taking him to the judgment seat. That's not legal. They don't have the authority to do that. They don't have the right to do that. Paul hasn't done anything wrong. So, that's what the Bible is insinuating that they're the ones that are causing the insurrection. And you know what? It's always the Jews causing the insurrection. Okay. But what do they say? They say that he is trying to convince somebody, persuading them to worship God contrary to the law. Now, what law? The law here is in reference to the Bible. Okay. It's reference to Moses' law. So, they're upset that he's teaching them to do things that are different than the law. Now, I will say this. It's a partial truth because, of course, there's always going to be a little bit of truth mixed in with their lie. Is it true that the Apostle Paul is saying some parts of the law don't apply? Yeah. Because you know what? He's teaching salvation by faith. Yeah. He's teaching that Christ fulfilled the law. Yeah. He's teaching New Testament Christianity, which means there was a change of the law. Meaning there was a change of the priesthood. Meaning they don't have to offer sacrifices in the synagogue anymore. They don't have to go and take a lamb down and have it slain for the Passover. Jesus is their Passover. So, they're saying, oh, this guy, he's telling them not to take a Passover lamb. You're right. Because Jesus is the Passover lamb. And you know what? There are things that follow with that. And they don't like that. Because they want to go down and they want to take their Passover lamb. And they want to use this thing of religion to prove that they're righteous, not the faith of Jesus Christ. Why? Because they're prideful. Because they're arrogant. They want to basically have the praise of men. And they take them before the judgment seat. They're always taking it to law. Verse 14. And when Paul was now about to open his mouth, the Leo said unto the Jews, If it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness, oh, you Jews reason would that I should bear with you. But it would be a question of words and names and of your law. Look ye to it, for I will be no judge as it matters. So, again, he knows what he's talking about. What they're talking about, it wasn't a law of Corinth. It wasn't a law of Rome that he's breaking. It's the law of Moses. Now, when it says contrary to the law, I would say this. It's not so much that it's contrary in the fact that he's teaching a new religion or he's against the Old Testament or anything like that. It's just he believes it's been fulfilled. So, the way they're wording it, they're kind of twisting what he's doing. He's not just saying, like, blow off Moses. Who cares what the Old Testament says? He's saying, no, I am doing exactly what that said. I'm believing in the prophet that was supposed to come. I'm actually believing in all the promises of God. I'm actually doing what I should have been doing even though some of the law has changed or been fulfilled. They're kind of twisting it. Notice this secular judge, you know, Galio, he doesn't care at all. And let's be honest, the law and the government just doesn't care about theology. They're just not interested in theology. They don't really care. They don't have a vested interest. They're not that interested. And they're like, look, if this guy murdered or stole or did whatever, I would have to deal with this. But if it's just literally, you know, Jesus and this resurrection thing you're talking about and Moses or whatever, I don't care. He's just saying, like, I'm not interested in this. And he drained them from the judgment seat saying, like, get out of here. Like, I'm not. He dismissed their case. You know, they're trying to sue Paul. And let me tell you what, Christians that serve God, they're going to get sued. Christians that serve God, they're going to be drugged before the judgment seat. They're going to have, and guess who drinks them? False religion. False religion. False religion loves to drag real Christians in front of the judge and try to get them to tell them how they're wrong about the Bible or something. And the judge is going to be like, I don't care about the Bible. I'm not here to interpret the Bible for you guys. Did he break the law or not? Oh, he didn't. Get out of here, you know. And at the end of the day, you know, if you get drugged before the law by false religion, just be like, I'm like Paul. Hey, Paul did. Jesus did. You know, you have a lot of good people that got thrown in jail for what? Serving God. But notice, you know, it's not like he was out soul winning and got arrested while soul winning or whatever. What happened? He's preaching the word of God for a year and six months. And they don't like his preaching. They listen to his YouTube sermon. They got all mad about it or whatever. And then they come and grab him in the night or something and drag him to the judgment seat, right? Verse number 17. Now, this is an interesting verse, okay? And I don't know exactly how to interpret, but I'm going to give you my opinion, okay? Because look back at verse 8 for a second. And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, okay? Look at verse 17 again. Then all the Greeks took Sothonese, the chief ruler of the synagogue. So there's, I guess, two ways to look at this. One, maybe there's multiple chief rulers, but I don't think so because that would be kind of weird because it's like the chief ruler, okay? So in my opinion, they must have replaced Crispus because he believed in Jesus or he walked away or he, you know, he's like, I'm out of here, you know? I'm done being the chief ruler. You also have to pay attention to who we're talking about. Who is it that drugged Paul? It was the Jews, okay? Now, who's doing the dragging here? The Greeks. Now, who got saved? The Greeks, the Christians, right? So the Christians end up taking the chief ruler of the synagogue and they beat him. Why? Well, I think you do have to do a lot of reading between the lines here. But look, they went and grabbed their leader, Paul, and drug him to the court to try and harass him. Well, then that fell through. They got pissed about that. They were mad about that. So they grabbed their ruler and they just beat the crap out of him. And then they did it in front of the judge. And notice what it says. It says in the judge, and Galileo cared for none of those things. He doesn't even care. So it's like what they want to do to Paul ended happening to their leader because you know what? Whenever you mess with God's people, a lot of times the punishment you wanted for them happens to you. Let me show you this. Go to Psalms chapter 7. Go to Psalms chapter number 7. I think when you slow down, you pay attention to all the names and who's talking. It's kind of an interesting story all of a sudden, isn't it? And a lot of stuff happened. We don't even know. We just have to kind of put it together in our minds. I'm just thinking out loud. So you interpret this a little bit different. Go for it. But I'm just saying based on what the verses are actually saying, it kind of is leading to a lot of certain events that must have happened there, right? If you study the Bible, you'll notice that the punishment that wicked people try to put on God's people almost always come back to bite them. Think about Pharaoh. Pharaoh wants to throw all the men children into the river and guess what? How he does. He gets thrown in the river and God kills him. You have Daniel in the lion's den. All these guys want to throw Daniel in the lion's den and then guess what? He gets rescued out. They get thrown in the lion's den. Haman. He creates this, uh, gallo that he wants to hang Mordecai on and then he gets hung on his own gallo. Okay. So you have to think about it. The way that evil people try to kill God's people often ends up killing them and ends up coming against them. And it's funny to me, even like Joe Biden. Okay. They wanted to use the 25th amendment against Trump so hard, but it's like now a lot of people have been kind of hinting at the idea of using the 25th amendment against Joe Biden. And I wouldn't even be surprised if it happens, you know, and I'm not saying that it wasn't orchestrated. Maybe it was, but it's like often when you dream up evil against somebody, a lot of times it's going to come to you. You know, that's why it's important not to be dreaming up evil against people, especially God's people. Psalms chapter seven, look at verse 11. God judges the righteous and God is angry with the wicked every day. I thought God is love. Well, he is love, but you know what? Because he loves the innocent, he's angry with the wicked every day. Because God loves justice, he's angry with the wicked every day. Because God loves holiness and righteousness and purity, he's angry with the wicked every day. He's angry every day. That's just the Bible. Okay. Verse 12. If he turned not, he will wet his sword. He had bent his bow and made it ready. He had also prepared for him the instruments of death. He ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors. Hey, against the persecutors. I like this verse. He's saying, hey, the people that persecute God's people, what is God preparing? He's preparing his sword, his bow, his instruments of death, and his arrows. I mean, this is some serious stuff right here. Verse 14. Behold, he travaileth with iniquity and hath conceived mischief and brought forth falsehood. He hath made a pit and digged it, and has fallen into the ditch which he made. Now, what you have to understand about Psalms is sometimes you change the subject matter of who the person you're talking about, just like that, and you kind of have to, like, pay attention. It was, like, all about God, and then all of a sudden now it's to the evil person. And it was saying, like, the evil person that's travailing with iniquity, he conceived this mischief. You know, he's thinking of something evil he wants to do. And he brought forth this falsehood. He's lying. So let's think about our story, right? They conceive they want Paul to get beaten or in prison or something bad happened to him, and they craft this falsehood about how he's teaching people to worship God contrary to law, and they bring that forth, okay? It then says he made a pit, and he digged it, and has fallen into the ditch which he made. So it's, like, if they dream up this evil they want to happen to you, and then it happens to them. Verse 16. And his mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealings shall come down upon his own pate. So it's just, like, whatever this guy dreamed up, it's just going to happen to him exactly like he dreamed it up. Isn't that kind of cool how God rewards people to the way that they want to punish? You know, and you think about it, the Bible talks about judge not, lest ye should be judged, and with what measure ye meet, I shall be measured unto you again. God just, his sense of humor is, like, how you treat others, he's going to treat you. You know, and your viewpoint towards other people is going to be his viewpoint towards you. And so that's why it's important how you treat other people. You know, the golden rule, treat others as you'd had to be treated, you know. Go, if you would, back to Acts chapter number 18. And really, I mean, it's a true proverb that, you know, the way that God is often going to treat you, judge you, how he's going to deal with you is going to be similar to how you dealt with others. You could think of other parables in the Bible. You have the guy that asks for forgiveness of a great debt, and then he goes and he grabs his fellow servant that has a smaller debt, grabs him by the throat, and he says, you've got to pay all. And as soon as his master finds out about that, he ends up throwing him back in jail. He ends up, you know, being like, what in the world, dude? Like, how could I forgive you this great debt? And then you're such a jerk to your fellow servant. And, you know, that's how God looks at us. It's like, I forgave you of every sin you've ever committed, and then you can't even forgive your brother, you can't even be nice to other people, you can't even do right. Look, no one has ever treated you as badly as we all did Jesus, you know. I mean, he took on so much more, and so it's silly for us to basically treat people like crap when Jesus has been so good unto us. It says in verse number 18, and after Paul, and Paul after this tarried there, he had a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren, and sailed thence into Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila, having shorn his head in Chincharia, for he had a vow. So, again, he even tarried there for a while afterwards. Now, after it's all said and done, do you think Paul is going to, is like, man, I wish I hadn't preached that really spicy sermon that one time. Man, I wish I could take back some of my sermon. No, he's glad he preached everything. But, you know, in the moment that he was grabbed and taken for the judgment seat, there could have been that thought like, man, I shouldn't have preached all that stuff. Why did God tell me to do all that kind of stuff? You know, in the heat of the moment, you can kind of lose faith a little bit, or you can kind of be pressured to feel like, oh, I shouldn't have done that, oh, man, now it's happening exactly like I feared. But it ended up, nothing bad happened, did it? And that's often what happens. God is going to allow you to do work for the Lord. He's going to allow you to thrive and do some work. But then something's going to happen. Persecution's going to arise, fear's going to come, something evil, hypothetical, and God's testing you to see if you're going to just stay faithful. And often, almost every time, He just delivers you out of it anyways. And nothing bad even happens. And then you look back and you're just like, see ya, suckers. You know, like, man, that really sucks for you guys. And so, you know, you've got to realize that this life is a test. Do you believe the Bible or not? Just as much as salvation's a free gift is just as much as God's going to test you. God's going to try and see what you're really like. He's going to bring on the heat and be like, can you handle it? And you know what the apostle Paul, he handled like a champ. Now, he kind of does some weird Jewish stuff here. I don't think he should have, verse 19. And he came to Ephesus and left them there, but he entered in the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. When they desired him to tarry a longer time with them, he consented not, obeyed them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem, but I will return again unto you if God will. And he sailed from Ephesus. So, he's going to different places. He's performing these vows. He's going to, it's like, man, what happened to the apostle Paul that was like, in verse 6, being like, henceforth I will go into the Gentiles. All of a sudden, he's doing a vow and he's got to do the feast again. It's like he just, he just can't stop falling all over himself for the Jews or something. You know, and it ends up costing him a little bit of time in jail or whatever, but that's just the apostle. No one's perfect, okay? You have your problem, people, that you keep going back to, too, all right? He says in verse number 20, when they desired him to tarry a longer time with them, he consented not, obeyed them farewell. Verse 22, then he landed at Caesarea and gone up and slew to the church, and he went down to Antioch. And after he had spent some time there, he departed and went over all the country of Galatia and Phrygia in order, strengthening all the disciples. So, I mean, he gets everybody saved in all these areas. He gets churches planted, then he's going back. So, he's just doing so much work. And he really just cares about people. He just wants to make the church just going well. And you know what, churches need to be strengthened. You know, they need people to come in. They need different leaders. They need different evangelists and teachers and pastors and stuff to come in and to strengthen people. And you know what, you need church so that you can constantly be strengthened. Your faith can grow. You can be renewed. You know, sometimes you kind of can get in a funk. Or, you know, the week just sucks. Or, you know, just life happens. But then you go to church. You're around the brethren. You hear a good message. You hear some of the Bible. You sing a couple songs. And you just feel ready to go back out there. And you just kind of need that recharging of your batteries. And you know what, the Apostle Paul is just coming in there, and he's just injecting them with strength. And you know, just trying to help them feel better. And realize you have an impact. You showing up at church is going to strengthen other people. Encourage other people. Help other people. Verse 24. And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus. This man was instructed in the way of the Lord and being fervent in the Spirit. He spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John. And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue, whom when Achilla and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly. And when he was disposed to pass in Achilla, the brethren wrote exhorting the disciples to receive him, who when he was come helped them much which had belief through grace. For he mightily convinced the Jews in that publicly showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ. And what I'd like to finish on in thinking about this chapter a little bit, is we have the Apostle Paul. He's preaching the word of God. What's the point of him preaching everything to help other people? What's the point of him traveling all these areas to help other people? And we see that his impact is not just him alone, but it's also the people he's reaching, they're reaching people. And you have to realize that while the book of Acts, it really seems like it's kind of a one man show, it's not a one man show. There's so many other people involved, and the Apostle Paul could not have done the things he did without other people coming along his side, doing the work. And you really have this cool couple mentioned in this chapter, it's kind of a power couple of Achilla and Priscilla, where they really came alongside Paul, and they just keep doing the works of God. We found them in Corinth, but notice in the next few chapters, they're in Ephesus. Verse 24 it says, And mighty in the Scriptures came to Ephesus. So there's a Jew in Ephesus, right? And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue, whom went Achilla and Priscilla. So notice Achilla and Priscilla have traveled from Corinth now to Ephesus. They must have either just decided we're going to follow Paul, or maybe they were invited to come along with Paul, or maybe they just thought, you know what? Paul's going there, let's just go follow Paul, or let's just go to these other churches, and let's do the work. What's the purpose of them going? They're strengthening the disciples too, not just Paul, because notice they're taking Apollos unto themselves, and they're teaching him doctrine, and they're showing him other things in the Bible. Now, I think Apollos is an example of someone who was saved in the Old Testament, and then basically comes through the revelations in the New Testament. And just because someone believed in Jesus Christ, doesn't mean that was the day they got saved, because they could have already been saved, never heard of Jesus, they run into Jesus, and of course, because they're saved, they're going to believe in Jesus, and that's also confirming to us as the reader that person's a saved person. But there is a transitionary thing here. There were people that were saved before Jesus even was born, and even during his birth, and his childhood, and everything else, people are still getting saved, people are still trusting the Lord. It's just that if you think about it, in the Old Testament, they're trusting in a coming Messiah, but they don't know who that is. They haven't met him, they don't necessarily know the details, so they're trusting in this, in a sense, kind of an unknown person, someone they've never seen, they've never met, they don't necessarily even know the name of Jesus necessarily yet. So then when someone comes along and says, hey, that person that you're trusted in, his name is Jesus, and he fulfilled all the scripture, and he was born in Bethlehem. They're like, yeah, the guy was coming from Bethlehem. And they're like, and you know what? He was nailed to a cross. And they're like, oh man, you know how the serpent in the wilderness was lifted up on a snake? And they're like, yeah, exactly. And they're saying, and not only did he die, but he rose again. And they're like, this has got to be that Jesus. And they believed in Jesus because they knew the scriptures, and they're being compelled by the scriptures, and the people that are preaching through the gospel are appealing to the scriptures that they already know, they're already familiar with. They're talking to him, Isaiah chapter 53. Just like the guy, the Ethiopian eunuch. But he wasn't saved yet, so he didn't even know what was going on. So he had someone come along and explain it to him. Obviously, when you get outside the walls of Jerusalem, virtually nobody is saved. It's a very small percentage of people that are saved. But I believe that Paul was probably already saved based on the descriptions of who he is. Notice it says he's mighty in the scriptures. We don't have that detail about anybody else. But even the apostle Paul, before he gets saved, it's not saying he's mighty in the scripture. Because these people are kind of blinded. People that are unsaved are kind of blinded. They don't really understand the Bible. They don't understand what's going on. I mean, just to illustrate this point, think about Nicodemus. Nicodemus is a Pharisee. He's considered a master of the law, right? But Jesus is like, you don't understand anything. You, like, are just a complete idiot. If I've told you earthly things and you believe not, how does he believe if I tell you I don't have anything? He's just like, you need to get saved before you can start understanding the Bible, OK? But then also, it says that he was instructed in the way of the Lord. I think that's basically saying he was saved. He was instructed in the way of the Lord, OK? That was what John the Baptist came to do, was to prepare the way of the Lord, right? And what did John the Baptist preach? The baptism of repentance, to believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. Look, if someone believed that message, they were saved. If they heard John the Baptist preaching the way of the Lord to believe on the person that's coming, and they're like, I do, I believe in that person, they were saved, OK? Now, then when the person came and they're like, here he is, this is that person I was telling you about, and then they believe in Jesus, that doesn't mean that was the moment they got saved. That's just basically them recognizing their savior that they had already believed in. Now, many people, that is the moment they got saved, when they heard about Jesus for the first time, they're getting saved and everything like that. But he already had been instructed in the way of the Lord. Notice that being fervent in the Spirit. You know, fervency, or being fervent is zeal. And so, how can you say he's fervent in the Spirit if he's not even saved? You know, he doesn't have the Spirit, OK? He's fervent in the Spirit. The Bible says he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord. But, notice, knowing only the baptism of John. So, he's saved, but he just doesn't have the New Testament yet. He doesn't have all the details of Jesus and the resurrection and all the other great stuff that he could be preaching. And so, Achilles and Priscilla, they bring him and they say, hey, let me tell you some other stuff that happened. Let me tell you all about what Jesus did and all these other. And I'm sure, since he's mighty in the scriptures, I mean, things are just triggering in his brain. He's just like, oh man, now I got all these other verses I can be preaching and all these other examples and all these other, look at all these other verses that Jesus fulfilled. And, you know, hey, the prophet of Joel was fulfilled in the book of Acts. Acts, chapter number two, this is awesome. This is amazing. Hey, he's a light to lighten unto the Gentiles. And a lot of the mysteries of the Old Testament, you know, are just becoming clear to people in the New Testament. Now they're seeing Gentiles getting saved and now they're seeing the gospel go out and they've had Jesus come. And so, it's just like really exciting. It's really exciting all the revelations that are happening. I personally believe we're going to have a similar experience when it comes to the end times and the antichrist because right now we just kind of like are guessing and people are, you know, hypothesizing all the things that are happening. But look, when it's happening, we're going to be like, this is that verse, you know. We're going to be like, this is that guy. This is that, you know, we're not going to wonder what the mark is. It's going to be the mark. And we're going to be like, that's the mark, you know. And it's going to be like, wow. I think it's going to be a cool time. It's going to be an exciting time when people are just, you know, and there's going to be stuff in the Old Testament. There's going to be stuff in Daniel. There's going to be all this kind of stuff. They were like, wow, that verse makes so much more sense now because you're living it, because you're seeing it, because you're experiencing it. So for this guy, you know, there was just a lot of stuff that he just hadn't been exposed to yet. So now he's getting it more perfectly. Perfectly often means complete, you know. So it's now being more complete. He's getting the full gospel. He's getting all the details. And once he gets that, what happens? Well, it says, verse 28, for he mightily convinced the Jews in that publicly shown by the Scriptures that Jesus is Christ. So immediately after figuring out, oh, this is Jesus, now he's got even more ammo. Now he's ready to get in there, and he's not holding back. And notice what he does. He does it publicly. Publicly. You know, the Christian ministry is supposed to be a public ministry. We're not a cult. We don't do things in secret. We don't nuke our own YouTube channels. YouTube nukes our channels, okay. The people that nuke their own channels are a cult. There I said it. Look, if someone's hiding their own sermons and everything else, I mean, you're pretty much a cult at that point. Now, I get, like, sometimes I'd private a sermon because I'm thinking, like, I don't want to lose the YouTube channel yet. But it wasn't because I didn't want people to hear it. If it wasn't any fear of losing the channel or losing, you know, your credibility or your traction or your followers or something like that, it's like, share, share. You know, put it on a T-shirt, you know. SodomiteDeception.com. Make a DVD. You know, hand them out for free. It's like, I'm not trying to hide what I believe here, you know. But the person that's just, like, don't tell anybody what we believe, hide it. Only the secret meeting. Don't let other people hear this. It's a private sermon or whatever. Beware of that person. That person has a weird motive. It's not of God. God wants his ministry to be public. That what you hear in the ear, preach that upon the housetop. And at the end of the day, why? For other people's benefit. Go to Romans chapter 16. I want to show you one more verse, okay? Why get Apollos to learn more about the Bible so that he can get other people saved, so he can be even better at preaching? Why are they following the Apostle Paul? Because they're also partakers of the ministry. They're also helping in the ministry. And you know what? Church is not a one-man show. Ministry is not a one-man show. We need lots and lots of people. And you know what I love about Romans chapter 16? Is it just, like, tons of names. You know, there's so many people that did so many great things we just don't even know about. And at the end of the day, you know, do you really have to have recognition to serve the Lord? I mean, some people, it's like they have to have a lot of people telling them that they're serving the Lord to feel like they're serving the Lord. You know, when you come to a small church like this, it could be easy to think, like, well, is anybody paying attention? And it's like, here's the thing. Well, God is. God's paying attention. And, you know, if it wasn't for chapters like 16, you wouldn't even know. But chapter 16, just all these names, we don't even know what they did. We just have their name. We just, like, here's all these great people or whatever. You don't even know if they had a huge church or a small church or what. It doesn't matter. But frankly, some people, they just have to go to a big movement where their name's in lights or they have all this recognition or people are telling them or whatever so that they feel like they're doing something. And you know what? They're walking by sight. They're not walking by faith. You know what? A lot of these people, when you study them really closely, it's like a kill in Priscilla. They had a church in their house. And look, houses back then were not the size of Texas houses. In fact, just go to any other state, and the houses are not anywhere close to the size of Texas houses. So you're only talking about a couple dozen people at max that you could fit in a house. Most likely, it could have been a dozen. It could have just been a handful of people that are coming to their church. But a kill in Priscilla are mentioned multiple times in the Bible as being great servants of the Lord. You know, you say, like, oh, does what I'm doing really matter? Well, it mattered to Paul. And he's like, oh, he's establishing churches. Sometimes we think, like, oh, the church, he established, you know, Lakewood. It's like, no, it was in a person's house. It wasn't running 30,000. It wasn't running, you know, it wasn't on every television station or whatever. It could have just been a handful of people. But you know what? Those handful of people were precious to the Lord. Look what it says in Romans chapter 16, verse 1. I commend unto you, Phoebe, our sister, which is a servant of the church, which is at Centria. Remember, he was there. Verse 2, that ye receive her in the Lord as become a saint, and that ye assist her in whatever's business she hath need of you. For she hath been a suckerer of many, and of myself also. Greet Priscilla and Akilah, my helpers in Christ Jesus, who have laid my life, or have for my life, laid down their own necks, unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches have been taught. Look how amazing this couple was. He's saying, look, this couple was so great, they literally laid their life on the line for me specifically and for every church. You know, what a great testimony of these two people. We don't know really much about them, but we see that they're influenced. They're willing to do a couple of things. Number one, they're willing to travel for their baby. They're willing to give up what they knew, leave Italy, leave Rome, which look, Rome at this time or Italy is like the Mecca of the world. This is like your New York City of Babylon. You know, I mean, this is the Babylon of Babylon's here. And they're going to, now they're in Podunk Centria. You know, it's like, I don't know. Now they're going to Ephesus. Now they're going to these other places or whatever. But you know what? Their names are written in the eternal book of God, right? The internal word of God. They're really precious to the Apostle Paul. He counts them as someone really special. Phoebe, these other people, he goes through a whole list of all kinds of other people's names. And you know what? And you know what? You don't have to have your name in the Bible for God and everybody else to know who you are. You know, you don't have to have your name on a card somewhere. You don't have to have your name in lights. You don't have to, you know, why do you serve God? Why did they serve God? Where they were like, I hope that we're in Romans Chapter 6 to you. You know, that's the only reason I'm doing this. Or were they just saying, you know what? We just want to help other people. And you know what? The person that's typically going to get recognition is the person that just has the right motive. The person that just says, you know what? If nobody notices, God notices. And at the end of the day, I'm just here to serve God by faith. Not by sight. Not to see what I can get out of it. You know, there's lots of people that have done a lot of great things for me. And they don't really get much recognition for it. And that's fine. They don't need it. I don't need to, you know, praise them. They don't need it, vice versa or whatever. You know what? God knows. And they're going to be greatly rewarded. And you know what? We're not supposed to be here to just see what all recognition we can get on this earth. We're supposed to see what we can get in heaven. If no one even knew who our church was. If YouTube didn't exist. If I could never be online again and nobody could find out about us. And we can't get mega popular or whatever. It's like, who cares? Can't we still go out and get so and so saved? And can't we love on each other? And can't we find an Apollo someday? And teach him the Bible? And can't we find our Phoebe and say, you know what? Let's just help Phoebe. It's like, is Phoebe going to really give you a lot of recognition? Probably not. You know? Who knows who Phoebe is? I don't even know who Phoebe is, right? But at the end of the day, God noticed. The Apostle Paul noticed. You know? And so don't think that your deeds are going to be, you know, have no impact. Because no matter what you do, good or bad, it's going to be judge of the judgment of Christ. And I'd rather have helped even just someone that I felt like could never do anything good for me. No one ever noticed. Those are the people that you really want to have in your repertoire when you stand before Christ. Because he said if you've done the least of these in my breath, then you've done them to me. And you know what? If you get recognition in this life, you may not even get a reward. So, all the ones you're thinking like, I got no recognition. That's like the gold gem you have. You're like, man, I have all these people that I've never, no one knows. And it's best when you just forget. Because you're going to have all these ones like, I didn't even remember I helped that person. I didn't even remember. You know, the Bible says, do not let your left hand know what your right hand doeth. You should be a person that's just constantly investing in your spiritual bank account. You're just helping people and doing good. And you know what? You're just like, no one's paying attention. Great. You should be like, I don't want anybody to know. I don't want anybody to find out. I don't need that. I don't want that. I'm not interested in vainglory. I just want to do good and help people and love people. And it's like, oh, Pastor Shelley doesn't know about all the people I helped. I better go tell him. Bad idea. Oh, no one knows what I did the other day. I'm going to make a YouTube video about it. Oh, nobody knows how I helped this person, you know, with this meal. So I'm going to take a picture of it and post it on Instagram. You know? It's like, just don't do it. Just walk by faith. Just love people and do good and just be a good person. Look, in due time, God will lift you up. You know, God will give you the recognition if he really wants you to have that. If not, who cares? Because at the judgment seat of Christ, he's surely going to reward you. And you're going to be shining bright and glory for all of eternity. And somebody that might have known you in real life been like, man, I never saw you do anything. Why are you shining so bright? It's because you never saw me do anything. That's why. And the people that are showboating and they've got all the chats that they're showing that they gave to charity and all that, we're going to see them at the great white throne judgment. And it's not going to be pretty. You know, the Pharisees are the ones that love to go around in two-thrown horn and talk about how great they are and how wonderful they are. But, you know, God's people should not be like that. We should just help people expecting nothing in return. Let's go to prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for this great chapter of the Bible and examples. Like the Apostle Paul, who's willing to just give the gospel freely when he doesn't have to. Examples of Achille and Priscilla who just, they're willing to sacrifice their own life just for Paul's sake. You know, they just love Paul and the gospel. And they're humble enough to just travel and just make sure that churches are going well, just forsaking their life and that they're devoted Christians. I pray that that would be a motivation to other Christians today that would read these stories and say, you know what, I just want to be willing to sacrifice my life and my goodness just to help other people. And I don't need the recognition or the praise of men, but rather I just want to help people because I love people. And I pray they just help us to have the right heart and the right motivations for the things that we do and that we can walk by faith and not by sight. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Our final song this evening, song 39, How Beautiful Heaven Must Be. Song 39. All right, 39, How Beautiful Heaven Must Be. 39. We read of a place that's called heaven. It's made for the pure and the free. These truths in God's Word He hath given. How beautiful heaven must be. How beautiful heaven must be. Sweet home of the happy and free. Fair haven of rest for the weary. How beautiful heaven must be. In heaven no drooping nor pining. No wishing for elsewhere to be. God's light is forever there shining. How beautiful heaven must be. How beautiful heaven must be. Sweet home of the happy and free. Fair haven of rest for the weary. How beautiful heaven must be. Pure waters of life there are flowing. And all who will drink may be free. Rare jewels of splendor are glowing. How beautiful heaven must be. How beautiful heaven must be. Sweet home of the happy and free. Fair haven of rest for the weary. How beautiful heaven must be. The angels so sweetly are singing. Up there by the beautiful sea. Sweet chords from their gold harps are ringing. How beautiful heaven must be. How beautiful heaven must be. Sweet home of the happy and free. Fair haven of rest for the weary. How beautiful heaven must be. Amen. Good singing this evening and with that you are dismissed. Have a good night. Thank you.