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Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Our first song this evening or first hymn I should say this evening is 439 count your blessings 439 trying to think about songs to be thankful that we can sing out to God and sing praises and how thankful that we are 439 count your blessings 439 439 They're on that first verse let's sing when upon life's billows you are tempest toss When you are discouraged thinking all is lost counter many blessings name them one by one And it will surprise you what the Lord has done How your blessings name them one by one? How your blessings see what God have done How your blessings name them one by one How many blessings see what God have done Are you ever burdened with the load of care? Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear? Count your many blessings every doubt will fly And you will be singing as the days go by How your blessings name them one by one How your blessings see what God have done How your blessings name them one by one? How many blessings see what God have done When you look at others with their lands and gold Think that Christ has promised you his wealth until Count your many blessings money cannot buy You're rewarded heaven or your home on high How your blessings name them one by one? God have done How your blessings name them one by one? Help your many blessings see what God have done So amid the conflict whether great or small Do not be discouraged God is overhaul Count your many blessings angels will attend Help and comfort give you to your journey's end How your blessings name them one by one? How your blessings see what God have done? How sure blessings name them one by one? How sure many blessings see what God have done? Amen brother Omar, would you open us in a word of prayer this evening? You And For the next hymn this evening turn if you would to 441 great is thy faithfulness 441 441 great is thy faithfulness We'll sing they're starting on that first verse let's sing great is thy faithfulness Oh God my father There is no shaft no of turning with me thou changes Thy Compassion's they fail not as the last thou forever will be Great is thy faithfulness Great is thy faithfulness Morning by morning Newmercies I see All I have Did I had that? Provided great is thy faithfulness Lord unto me Summer and Winter and spring time and harvest Sun moon and stars in their courses above Join with all name sure in Manifold witness to thy great faithfulness Mercy and love Great is thy faithfulness Great is thy faithfulness Morning by morning new mercies I see All I have Needed by hand have provided Great is thy faithfulness Lord unto me Pardon for sin and a peace that in your head by all dear presence to cheer and to guide I drink for today and bright hope for tomorrow Blessings all my with 10,000 feet side Great is thy faithfulness Great is thy faithfulness Morning by morning Newmercies I see All I have Needed by hand have provided Great is thy faithfulness Lord unto me Amen Thank you so much for being pure today. Thank you so much for being pure at Baptist Church. If you need a bulletin, we got some back here. But the branding can hand you one just slip of her hand. Roll nice and high. They'll get you one on the front. We have a congratulations to the Gomez family on the birth of baby Silas Gomez. He was born November 20th at twenty twenty one, eight pounds, three ounces, twenty and a fourth inches. So I talked to brother Nick today and he said everybody's doing really good. And Sarah is doing really good. So congratulations to them. That's definitely a great thing. Also, we have Romans eight. We're getting really close to getting this one wrapped up. So anybody that can quote this to a non family member will get a prize. And you know, it's a big passage like this is a big prize. So I'd encourage you to keep working on Romans chapter eight, especially if you've already started. If not, you got a little bit of work, but you know what? Still try. OK, on the inside, we have a service and so many times in our church stats. Is there any soul wanting to report for this for the last few days, Monday, Tuesday? People of the great work on soul winning, and then we have a prayer request continue to pray for brother Edward, his health. If you have any other prayer requests, you can always e-mail us in to pure word. Baptist email dot com. Also, we are going to continue praying for expecting ladies. Miss Corrine, you praying for her. Also, down below, we have a list of some of our upcoming events. Tonight, we're having our special service for Thanksgiving. So thanks so much for everybody showing up. And it's great to see you guys and some people brought dessert. So we'll have some dessert afterwards. So stick around and have some some tasty treats. Also this Sunday, brother Chris Agura is going to be coming and preaching for us again November 28. And also we're going to have our Christmas caroling. In the beginning of December. So I'll be here for that Thursday service. But then that following Friday, we're going to meet here at five thirty. So five thirty. And then we'll go out for about an hour, go Christmas caroling, come back and have a pizza fellowship. So what would be a great time to hang out? Christmas caroling is a really fun activity. Everybody that's always participated is always surprised by how much they enjoy it. And so I encourage you to participate if you can. People love all your kids coming out there and singing to them. So and then the few people that don't are just Scrooges, OK? We don't care about that. We try to find people that have Christmas lights. So they already are excited about it. Brother Duncan Urbaniks is going to be coming down here and preaching December 19th. The 23rd, we're going to have our Christmas candlelight service and we'll have a cookie bake off. So we'll have a lot of fun with that. Someone asked, can you bake more than one type of cookie? You can bring as many as you like. OK, so I'm not going to hold anybody back. You can theoretically win every single competition, even with just one set of cookies, right? I mean, you can theoretically have the best tasting, like the best decorated and the most unique. I just doubt it. But if you can, please do. OK. And also we have Brother Duncan coming back in January, January 9th, and then Brother Ben. He's going to be coming on here January 23rd. So a lot of great guest preachers and a lot of things to look forward to for the new year. That's pretty much all I have for announcements at this time. Let's go and go to our third song. 164 praise and praise him. 164. 164, 164 praise him, praise him. 164 we'll sing there starting on the first. Praise him, praise him, Jesus our blessed Redeemer. Sing, O Earth, his wonderful love proclaim. Hail him, hail him, highest archangels in glory. Strength and honor give to his holy name. Like a shepherd, Jesus will guard his children in his arms. He carries them all day long. Praise him, praise him, tell of his excellent greatness. Praise him, praise him, ever in joyful song. Praise him, praise him, Jesus our blessed Redeemer. For our sins he suffered and bled and died. He our rock, our hope of eternal salvation. Hail him, hail him, Jesus the crucified. Sound his praises, Jesus who bore our sorrows. Love unbounded, wonderful, deep and strong. Praise him, praise him, tell of his excellent greatness. Praise him, praise him, ever in joyful song. Praise him, praise him, Jesus our blessed Redeemer. Heavenly portals loud with hosannas ring. Jesus, Savior, reigneth forever and ever. Crown him, crown him, prophet and priest and king. Christ is coming over the world victorious. Power and glory unto the Lord belong. Praise him, praise him, tell of his excellent greatness. Praise him, praise him, ever in joyful song. Amen. While the offering plates being passed around this evening, turn if you would to Acts chapter 24. Acts 24, Brother Sampson will read that chapter for us. Acts chapter 24, if anyone wants to find their places. We're here again. We're going to read this chapter together as always. Find your place in Acts chapter 24 and follow along with me where the Bible reads, starting here in verse 1. After five days Ananias, the high priest, descended with the elders and with a certain orator named Pertulus, who informed the governor against Paul. And when he was called forth, Pertulus began to accuse him, saying, saying that by thee we enjoy great quietness and that every worthy deeds are done unto this nation by thy providence. We accept it always and in all places, most noble Felix, with all thankfulness. Notwithstanding that I be not further tedious unto thee, I pray thee that thou wouldst hear us of thy clemency a few words. We have found this man a pestilent fellow and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarene, who also has gone about to profane the temple whom we took and would have judged according to our law. For the chief captain, Lycius, came upon us and with great violence took him away out of our hands, commanding his accusers to come unto thee by examining of whom thyself mayest take knowledge of all these things whereof we accuse him. And the Jews also ascended, saying that these things were so. Then Paul, after that the governor had beckoned unto him to speak, answered, for as much as I know that thou has been of many years a judge unto this nation, I do thee more cheerfully answer for thyself, because that thou mayest understand that there are yet but 12 days since I went up to Jerusalem for to worship. And they neither found me in the temple disputing with any man, neither raising up the people, neither in the synagogues nor in the city. Neither can they prove the things whereof they now accuse me, but this I confess unto thee that after the way which they call heresy, they'll worship by the God of my father, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophet. And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there should be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust. And herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men. Now after many years, I came to bring alms to my nation and offering, whereupon certain Jews from Asia found me purified in the temple, neither with multitude, nor with to most, who ought to have been here before thee to object if they had ought against me, or else let these same here say if they have found any evil doing in me while I stood before the council. Except it be for this one voice that I cried standing among them, touching the resurrection of the dead, I am called and questioned by you this day. And when Felix heard these things, having more perfect knowledge of that way, he deferred them and said, when Lysias, the chief captain, shall come down, I will know the uttermost of your matter. And he commanded a centurion to keep Paul and to let him have liberty, and that he should forbid none of his acquaintance to minister or to come unto him. And after certain days, when Felix came with his wife, Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul and heard him concerning the faith in Christ. And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled and answered, go thy way for this time. When I have a convenient season, I will call for thee. He hoped also that money should have been given him of Paul, that he might lose him, whereof he sent for him the oftener and communed with him. But after two years, Pausius Festus came unto Felix's room, and Felix, willing to show the Jew's pleasure, left Paul bound. Bow your heads for a quick word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we come before you again. Thank you so much, Heavenly Father, to all of you, as far as all experience is. We do thank you, Bible, that you're holding our hands, and Acts chapter 1 and 4, praise be to God. Pastor Kelly, with your old spirit, let us keep them old and act in eternity. They keep distracting to the gentleman, and by the listen to learn, and thank you, my Lord, for the praise and praise of the Lord. And then we've been going through the book of Acts, and we're now in chapter 24. And a lot of these chapters are really just compounding upon the same story. So we're just continuing with the same story of the apostle Paul. And earlier in the chapters, he was in Jerusalem. He was taken by the Jews. He was basically going to be killed by the Jews, but the Romans came and seized him. They took him. They kind of rescued him a little bit, but then they kind of brought him back to the Jews. They were questioning him. Then the Romans figured out that they're going to try and kill him. So they send him off, and he's been with Felix. And so now we're kind of moving into where the Jews are coming with other people to basically accuse Paul and to try and basically get him killed in some new way. It says in verse number one, and after five days, Ananias the high priest ascended with the elders. So basically, it's five days after Paul was sent up to Felix and going to a different part of the area. It says in verse number one, and with certain orator named Tertulus who informed the governor against Paul. So Ananias was the high priest that Paul kind of squared off with previously, and he called him a whited wall. And Ananias had caused Paul to be smitten. And so he's brought a bunch of people with him, but they bring a very specific person, a certain orator, Tertulus. And there's no new thing under the sun. This is basically, this is their lawyer, as it were, basically someone that's a good speaker. An orator is someone that gives orations, meaning that they're well-spoken, probably highly educated, someone that studied these type of matters and is gonna basically come in and be able to speak on their behalf and try to do a really good job. And really, these people are just slimy, scummy people who just say anything. And really, that's what we see with Tertulus. That's why lawyers get such a bad rep is because most of them don't really even believe any of the things they're saying. They're just basically a good speaker, and they just get up and they represent their clients. Even if they think their client's guilty, even if they think their client's a bad person, or they don't even agree at all. A lot of classes that they have in the public pool system today are modeled after this, like debate. Debate would be a course or a class that students will take. And in debate, you're not really a skilled debater when you're really good at advocating a position you agree with. What actually makes you a good debater is when you can advocate a position that you don't agree with, that you actually find abhorrent, and that you're still able to convince people or persuade people of your persuasion idea or whatever it is that you're basically arguing, the arguments that you make and bring forth. That would make someone a good orator. So Tertulus would be someone who can convince people or persuade people for a particular cause that may not even be true, that may not even be something he even personally believes. I'm sure he's probably sympathetic with the Jews, but even if he is or is not, what the reason he's being brought is because he is really good at speaking. Now, why I believe he's a scumbag is the things that he actually says. Okay, so when we really dig in here, we're gonna find out that Tertulus is really kind of a bad person here. And the first few verses are gonna give everything away that we need to know about Tertulus. Look at verse two. And when he was called forth, Tertulus began to accuse him. So it's talking about Paul saying, see that by thee we enjoy great quietness and that very worthy deeds are done unto this nation by thy providence. We accept it always and in all places most noble Felix with all thankfulness, notwithstanding that I be further tedious unto thee. I pray thee that thou wouldst hear us of thy clemency a few words. Now, what just happened is Tertulus just flattered beyond measure this Felix. And he made a lot of statements that we know are not true. The Jews don't like the Romans whatsoever. They despise the Romans. They basically are with Barabbas. They just asked for Barabbas who had actually committed insurrection. And they're actually very anti-Roman rule. They don't like the Romans. They're afraid of the Romans, that the Romans would take away their nation or take away their power. And yet we find him here basically just flattering Felix, trying to make it sound like he's such a great guy and they have such respect for him. I mean, think about some of the statements that he's saying. Seeing that by thee we enjoy great quietness. You know, they're literally slaves to the Romans. I mean, isn't that kind of a weird thing? I mean, it's just like, we really love how you slave over us. You know, slave Lord over us. You know, you're a really good slave master. It's obviously not very sincere. He says in that very worthy deeds are done unto this nation by thy providence. Meaning that, oh, you're just doing such great things unto us. Look, the Jews think that the Romans and all these other people are goyim, meaning Gentiles, meaning nation. They think they're less than scum. They basically think that they're not worthy of salvation, that they're super wicked, that they're going to hell, that it's actually not even allowed to eat with them. You're not like supposed to be touching them, talking to them, eating them. But then think about these things. Oh, you're doing such these great things unto us or whatever. This guy's not sincere whatsoever. He says, we accept it always and in all places, most noble Felix with all thankfulness. Everybody loves you, Felix. We all, you're just such a great guy. I mean, this would be to me, you know, someone getting up and being like, Biden, everybody loves you. And you're just so great Biden. And we all just love every law you've passed and every single decision you make. I mean, you're just such a great president. Everybody just loves you. I mean, that person will be obviously lying and obviously flattering and it'd be super clear. That's kind of the essence that we get when we start out here. And you have to pay attention to this because notice how the Bible says he began to accuse him. How did he start? Even talk about Paul. All he did was flatter Felix to try and garner the affection, to garner the favor of Felix. And this is what evil and wicked people often do is they begin flattering you before they actually get to the point. Now, keep your finger and go to Proverbs 26. Let's look at a few verses on flattery for a moment. But look, flattery is always coming from a wicked person. We can all at times exaggerate a little bit or we could make a statement that, you know, we're just trying to be at peace with people. But flattery is just a very wicked sin. It's coming from people that have bad intentions when someone is flattering someone. Now let's understand what flattery is. Flattery is not complimenting someone. Flattery is complimenting someone when it's insincere. Okay, so there's nothing wrong with complimenting someone. There's nothing wrong with saying, hey, it's glad to see you or hey, I really like you or I appreciate these things you're doing for me or, you know, saying something that you actually appreciate about someone you like about someone, something that's positive. And that's typically a good way to approach the situation is to start off on a good hand, addressing things that are positive about someone or things you appreciate them being thankful. But if you don't really mean it, you shouldn't say it. That would mean what flattery is where you're giving a compliment to someone that you don't actually believe that so as to trick them, beguile them, take advantage of them, use them in some kind of way. The Bible describes this in Proverbs 26, look at verse 22. The words of a tale bearer as wounds, they go down in the innermost parts of the belly. Burning lips and a wicked heart are like a potsherd covered with silver dross. He that hateth dissembleth with his lips and layeth up deceit within him. When he speaketh fair, believe him not, for there are seven abominations in his heart. So the Bible's talking about how people use words to hurt people. You know, they're a tale bearer or burning lips is like a gossip. And then it goes into another list here in verse 24. He that hateth dissembleth with his lips. Dissembleth is not necessarily a word we use very regularly, but it really just means deceit or to defraud or to trick or to beguile or basically take advantage of someone. You're not being honest with them. Dissembling is that you're not being sincere. So if I hate someone and I say, man, I just love you, that would be dissembling because I don't actually really care about them. I'm just saying that to try and get their favor or to trick them or beguile them or take advantage of them. And in fact, many wicked people will do this. They'll go up to people that they absolutely whore and hate and they'll pretend like they like them. They pretend like they're their buddy. I remember, I've used this example before, but I worked at a company where we had like seven or eight software developers. We all go out to lunch and our boss was really hard on us and he was really strict and not a very nice person. And so a lot of the coworkers would talk really negatively about him, especially when he's not around. And I remember this one guy just saying like, man, I hate our boss and he's such a terrible boss and he's lazy and just, he's a jerk. And just like, he just went on this like rant where he would just kind of like, whoa, tell us how you really feel, right? I kid you not, the same day, only hours separated from this rant, our boss walks in, he's like, hey, we're gonna start this new program. We're gonna do this, implement this new tool. And he's like, man, I just love that. You're such a great boss. And I just really like what you have. And I'm just sitting there thinking like, you're just such a wicked person. You just went on this rant about how much you hate our boss and how stupid he is and everything. And then he gets up and he's just like, I just wanna publicly make him known that I think our boss is great and he's such a good guy and I was just like, wow. You realize that you just told us how much you dislike this guy. You realize we all realize you're a fraud and a fake and a phony when you do something like that. But wicked people will do these type of things where they'll just say one thing in private and then say the complete opposite in public or around that person. That person's a flatterer and you should be aware of that person. Notice it says in verse 25, when he speaketh fair, believe him not, for there are seven abominations of his heart. So let's say that same guy who I just noticed talk all kinds of evil of our boss and then flatter him in public. What if he then comes up to me and is like, hey, I just wanna let you know I really like you and I really like your work, whatever. What should I think? What is the Bible saying? Believe him not. So when you notice someone to be a flatterer, to be making very insincere compliments, not being consistent in private and in public, then you should be careful what they're saying about you. Putting any kind of trust or any kind of giving this person information. You know, they might use that information against you. You know, you need to pay attention to this in the workplace. There could be people at your work that try to get close to you or try to be your buddy in an insincere way. They actually just wanna like stab you in the back or they just wanna take advantage of you or hurt you or harm you or do something evil. So be careful when people are complimenting you in a very insincere manner. One would be obvious when you notice them being inconsistent with others. Here's another way you can catch flattery. You have to have a little bit of self-awareness but you have to think about the compliment that they're giving you and deciding if it's true or not. You know, if someone comes up to you and gives you a compliment and you can kind of think about it and you're like, you know, that's not really true about me. You know, like Pastor Shelley, you're the tallest guy I've ever seen. It's just like, I don't think that's true, you know? Or I've had some people like they came up to me after a sermon and they're like, man, that was the greatest sermon I've ever heard. And I kind of like, I think that's flattery but you know, maybe it was. Maybe for this person, they just really liked that sermon or whatever and I'm just like, okay, I'll just give them the minute of that. But I'm kind of like thinking like, this person might be a bad person. Well, then it's like the next sermon, oh, that was the greatest sermon I ever heard and I'm like, I don't think so. And then they come, it's like another sermon. It's like, that's the greatest. And the next sermon, I was like, the last one was way worse than the last two. And I'm thinking like, there's no way that was the greatest sermon ever. And then it turns out down the line, they end up exposing themselves to be a super wicked person, evil person, lying and slandering me, spaying evil about all kinds of people. You gotta be careful when people are giving you a compliment that you don't get this big head and think like, oh yeah, that was the greatest sermon. People think that I preach the greatest sermons ever every time I preach. It's like, that's just not true. They were lying to you. And people that are real naive, simple-minded, or narcissists will just believe all the lies and all the flattery. And they'll surround themselves with flatterers because they just like to hear about how great they are, not doing kind of some self-assessment, not realizing and having some self-awareness of like, yeah, I don't know if that's really true about me. The same thing happens with men and women. The Bible warns about flattery from women, especially in Proverbs 5, 6, and 7, where the woman in the tire of a harlot will come and flatter a young man, tell him, oh, you're just, you're a hunk and you're the guy that I've been looking for my whole life and I've been waiting for you and all this. She doesn't believe any of that. And most of you young guys, let me just be honest, if some woman comes up you've never met and she's like, I've been waiting for you my whole life, she's lying to you, okay? I've seen you guys, all right? It's not, you aren't the guy that's just waiting her whole life. You're gonna have to get charming or something. You're gonna have to buy her some roses or something, okay? You know, you need to think about the scenario that you're in and what people are saying because people take advantage of you through flattery. And it's no different here. If you're too, this is trying to take advantage of Felix and to try and accuse Paul through flattery. Let's read a few more verses. It says in verse 26, whose hatred is covered by deceit. His wickedness shall be showed before the whole congregation. So again, that deceit helps you understand that the symbol is word there a little bit. And notice that you're never gonna get away with it forever. Eventually you'll get exposed. Eventually you'll be proven to be the liar that you are. Verse 27, who so dig at the pitch shall fall therein and he that rolleth the stone and will return upon him. A lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it and a flattering mouth worketh ruin. So notice when someone's flattering, it's gonna come with a destructive motive. And all it does is just destroy things, harm things and usually gonna be themselves. Because notice if you roll the stone, what does the Bible say? It will return upon him. So when you're flattering people that try and hurt and harm them, eventually that stone's gonna come back to bite you. That's why you never wanna be a flatterer. Go back to Acts 24, Acts 24. But even beyond that, you wanna protect yourself from flatterers. And it's hard to always discern if someone's flattering. It's not an easy thing. It takes skill, it takes time, you have to pay attention, you have to really think about people's motives and it comes just with experience. I myself have been a victim of flattery a lot of times where people, it was pretty clear they were being flattering but I just was naive or I just didn't wanna see it or I wasn't really paying attention to it. And it's cost me dearly. I've had people flatter me and it's cost me tons of money, tons of time, tons of effort, heartaches, headaches, everything you could imagine from flatterers. And so don't take this lightly. I mean, this is some serious stuff that the Bible is describing here. Acts 24, look at verse five. "'For we have found this man,' Tertulus is still speaking, "'for we have found this man a pestilent fellow "'and a mover of sedition among all the Jews "'throughout the world, "'and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes, "'who also have gone about to profane the temple, "'whom we took and would have judged according to our law. "'But the chief captain Lysias came upon us "'and with great violence took him away out of our hands, "'commanding his accusers to come unto thee "'by examining of whom thyself mayest take knowledge "'of all these things whereof we accuse him. "'And the Jews also assented, saying, "'that these things were so.'" Now, in verse four, he had ended his flattery and he'd said, you know, I'm not gonna keep flattering you, even though, you know, he was flattering. He didn't use that word, but he's like, you would hear us of thy clemency, a few words. Clemency is a word that is used in legalese. It's kind of like mercy would be a similar word to clemency. A pardon would be kind of similar to clemency. So granting someone clemency of their charges or something would be a pardon. He's just saying, hey, give us a little bit of mercy, a little bit of long-suffering grace here to make these accusations. But then he just lays in some serious false accusations against Paul. Notice in verse five, he describes him as a pestilent fellow. Now, pestilent is, you know, you kind of think of like pestilence, right? That's what I think of a pestilence. What would be like a pestilence? To me, it's like mosquitoes or like hornets or some kind of a bug, cockroaches, right? Some pestilence. If you look up in a dictionary, pestilence even stronger than that, because its synonyms are things like deadly and dangerous. Now, do you think, is the Apostle Paul a deadly, dangerous, you know, varmint that's just going around, just hurting? I mean, what kind of a slanderous railing accusation is that? But of course, they need to use these type of languages and accusations to try and get the judge on their side. And so they're just gonna lay out all kinds of evil, use coded language, try to use hyperbole and exaggeration and really just false statements to try and win people over their side. But the reason why they're saying things like this is because they have nothing to actually accuse them of. They just have to hurl accusations without any real claim. Same as with Jesus. You know, they're like, why are you bringing me this man? He's like, if he were not a malefactor, we would not have brought him under thee. And it's like, what's a malefactor? Just someone that's committed crimes, someone that's bad, right? But it's like, what did he do? He's a malefactor. Obviously, look at him. You know, it's like, what did Paul, oh, he's just a pestilent fellow. He's just a bad guy. And this is what you can typically tell who's telling the truth or not, is one's just using ad hominem attacks or just basically making accusations that are baseless versus the person's pointing to evidence, things that actually happened. I mean, if someone is truly dangerous, deadly, causing problems, you would just point to that. You would just say, this guy's bringing in a knife into the temple. This guy's, you know, shooting guns at people. This guy's beating people up. This guy, you'd point to the thing that he actually did rather than just making a vague accusation of this pestilent fellow. You know, this guy who's just real dangerous. How about the second thing he says? A mover of sedition. Now we're getting a little bit more specific, but again, we don't have an event. We don't have like something that's mentioned here. What is sedition? Sedition would be an insurrection. Mutiny would be a synonym. Resistance. Basically someone that's causing sedition, they're trying to resist the law, resist law enforcement, resisting the police, trying to overthrow the government in some way. So sedition is basically when you rebel against your authority and it's really specific in this context to the law at hand. So basically saying like, you know, we're done with the Romans. We're gonna institute our own law. We're gonna overthrow the government. You know, basically the accusation they make against Donald Trump for January 6th, causing this insurrection. He's a mover of sedition, you know. Whereas, you know, Donald Trump didn't do anything. I wish that he had. You know, it's like, I mean, he did absolutely, he just let our country just be taken over by communists in a fake election or whatever. And it's like, it's not that I'm really a big pro-Trump supporter or anything like that, but at the end of the day, if Trump truly believed that our elections were fraudulent, right? I mean, let's just put, you're the president. All right, let's just press a button. You're the president all of a sudden. You believe that there was a fraudulent election and that there's like foreign governments that are trying to invade our country through a fraudulent election system and you know that's true and then you do nothing about it. Doesn't that make you like a really crappy person, like a really crappy president and ruler? Like, I mean, to me, it'd be similar to like, you're at home and you're the dad, you're the father, you're the good man of the house. You know someone broke into your house and is stealing your goods and you're just like, I'm going back to bed. You know, it's like, what? I mean, you had to be like, this guy's a coward. This guy's a weakling, you know, this guy's a fraud or whatever. So either Trump doesn't even believe that or he's just a coward, that's how I view it. Makes me dislike the guy even more than I already did, you know? And at the end of the day, you know, when it comes to Paul being a seditionist, he's very law abiding. When is Paul breaking Roman law? When is Paul going out and trying to overthrow the Roman government? When is Paul trying to make a big deal with police or, you know, with the Roman soldiers? He's a very law abiding citizen. He hasn't done anything wrong. They're just making, again, another false accusation against him that's based in no reality. Let's look at the next accusation. Ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. You know, there's truly no new thing under the sun. What is this? He's a cult leader. What is a ringleader? You know, the guy that's in charge and what's a sect? It's a synonym for a cult. So just like they accuse all of the men of God of a cult in the past, they call him a cult in the future. But let me ask you this, is Paul a cult? No, there is no cult of Paul. In fact, whenever there's even an opportunity for people to try and make a cult out of a church, he rebukes that church sharply. 1 Corinthians literally has a little bit of a group that's trying to make Paul into a cult. And this will happen. Anytime you have a charismatic leader, there'll be people that try to turn it into a cult. But then Paul rebukes it sharply saying like, who is Paul and who is a Paulist? You know, we're supposed to be of Christ here. And you know, you guys are carnal trying to make it all about Paul or a Paulist or some guy or whatever. We're here to follow Christ. You know, we're here to serve the Lord. And you should only follow me as I follow Christ. Meaning if I step outside of the Bible, if I'm not doing something the Bible teaches, you in your house should submit to the word of God over man. Man is fallible. Man's not perfect. And we even see Paul making mistakes in the New Testament. Paul's not a perfect Christian. He might be one of the best that ever lived, but even the best that ever lived still makes mistakes. Even the man after God's own heart, David, makes some severe mistakes in the Bible. You know, there's very few Bible characters that it's hard to point to mistakes that they made. You know, we kind of have people like maybe Daniel or Job or something, but you know, outside of those two guys, it gets real hairy real quick. You're looking at people like Moses. Oh yeah, murder. Abraham, adultery. You know, you look at Noah, drunkenness. You know, look at all the, I mean, you look at many of the eyes of the Bible, they commit some serious sins and they have some serious issues, problems. Solomon, I mean, that guy's got some serious issues. About a thousand, you know, serious issues going on with that guy. So, you know, mankind, while God has appointed us to be leaders and to be ministers of the word of God, none of us are perfect. And what happens, though, is when you have a really strong leader, when you have someone that's actually really serving the Lord and doing a lot for the God, an accusation that'll come against him is, oh, he's a cult leader. You know, he's this ringleader of this cult or whatever, and it's just a vague accusation that they just hurl out there to try and put shade on the work of God. And I've noticed this. A lot of people will throw this accusation at a church like ours or one of our friends, and this is what I call it. It's just an argument ender, is all it is. Basically, they're losing the argument and they have nothing to say, so they just say cult because it just ends the argument. It's hard to prove or disprove a cult, right? There's really no way to say, well, let me show you in the Bible how it's not a cult, or let me show you, you know, it'd be really difficult to just argue that or talk about. All they're doing is they don't wanna talk about anymore, so they just throw that accusation out there, or they throw some kind of accusation that's very difficult to prove or disprove so as to just kind of end all arguments. Because typically what'll happen in the church like ours especially, if one of your family members, friends, or whatever doesn't like our church, this is what you'll say. Why? And then they'll say, oh, well, I don't know if I think the King James Bible is the perfect word of God, and this is what you'll do. Well, let me show you in Psalms 12, let me show you, and then you'll prove them wrong. And they'll be like, well, I don't like so many. Okay, well, let me show you Mark 16, verses 15, you know? Go, you know the world and preach the gospel, every creature, like, well, I don't know if it's, you know, post-trib, it's probably pre-trib. Oh, yeah, immediately after the tribulation. So you know what they don't like? Getting proven wrong from the Bible over and over and over again. So this is what they say, cult. Because then you're like, no, it's not. But you don't have a Bible verse, you know? You don't have anything that you can really just like go right to, because it's just this vague, random accusation, and what I call it's an argument-ender. They're just tired of being proven wrong, they don't want you to expound to them why they're wrong, so they just throw this out there. So whenever someone throws it out there, you gotta just realize they're just done talking about it. You just kinda wanna leave them alone. And sometimes you need to give people grace anyways. You know, give them a little bit of space. If they're not interested, they're not interested at the end of the day. And don't get so offended by it. It's like, it's not a cult, let me prove you. It's just like, they just don't wanna get shown to be wrong anymore. They're just tired of it and just say, well, it's not, I don't wanna argue with you. Tell me how it's a cult. It's a stupid false accusation that people will make. But it's gonna happen. You know, if you're gonna serve God, I mean, if you were a part of Paul's group here, you're a part of his cult, right? Oh, you're in one of Paul's cults, aren't you? And it's like, no, I'm serving Christ. No, he's just a really good preacher. No, he's a really good evangelist or whatever, but Paul doesn't rule my life. You know, Paul's not telling me to drink the Kool-Aid, you know, or anything like that. I can leave at any time, you know. It's funny how in the word of God, when Paul's talking to the church at Corinth and he's rebuking the cult, in chapter five, he's kicking people out. You know, I've noticed about cults, they don't kick people out, they try to keep you in. They're trying to lock you in and then trap you. Paul's like, get out, you know, get these people out of here. And it's funny how our churches are the same way. Well, we're trying to get people out that are bad and then they call us a cult. But I finally realized why really bad people, the ones that are obsessed with us, will label us a cult. It's because they can't leave. Even after we kick them out, they watch every sermon and every video and they just have to follow everything because they're trapped in the cult of their own mind. And they're like, oh, man, it's a cult. And it's like, why the cult? Well, because they can't leave. Even though normal people, if they don't like a church, they could just go to the church down the street, you know, or just do anything else with their life. But these people, they're attracted to the truth because the truth is attractive. Why do people follow Jesus around? Because he was the truth. Never man spake like this man spake. You know, it was attractive to be around him. Why do people follow Paul around? Because they know he's doing the most damage to their false religion and so they have to get this guy, they have to kill this guy and because he's such a great man of God. So, you know, you should take it as a compliment when people have no legitimate accusations against you. When all they can do is cult, ringleader, pestilent fellow, seditionist, you know, and none of it's true. You know, you should be worried when people are making accusations against you that are true. Things that they're saying and you're like, oh, wow, that actually is kind of true or that actually has some relevance. Look what he keeps saying in verse six. He says that he profaned the temple. When did he profane the temple? How did he do that? Again, another false accusation. Then he also says, well, we would have taken him and judged him according to our law. Wait a minute, were they gonna do that? Where in the Old Testament law did Paul do anything worthy of death and they were gonna kill him? So again, every single thing this guy's saying is a complete lie. He just flatter, flatter, flatter, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie. Now, let's keep reading in this passage. All the other Jews agreed because they're a bunch of liars too. Verse 10, then Paul, after that the governor had beckoned unto him to speak, answered. For as much as I know that thou has been many years a judge unto this nation, I do the more cheerfully answer for myself because that thou mayest understand that there are yet but 12 days since I went up to Jerusalem for to worship. So here we get a little bit of context. From the day that he went into Jerusalem to now, it's only been 12 days. So it's not been a very long period of time. Five of those days we were waiting for the Jews to follow him to this place and to basically falsely accuse him. And what I like about Paul's attitude here is in verse 10, he says, I do the more cheerfully answer for myself. So he's actually very thankful that he's been given this opportunity to defend himself. And I think we all instinctively when we're falsely accused or someone's lying about us, we wanna defend ourselves. We wanna like set the record straight. We wanna say why what they said about us isn't true. And in this context, from a legal battle, it's pretty important that Paul gets an opportunity to defend himself against these accusations because they're all false, they're all vague, they're all crazy. And I mean, saying that he's a seditionist is a serious accusation because he would be put to death or potentially liable for some serious criminal penalty if he is an insurrectionist, if he is causing the Roman government to be overthrown or anything like that. So he's very cheerful that he gets an opportunity to speak for himself. And not everybody is afforded that. Some countries in this world, whenever they're arrested or people are making accusations against them, instead of being innocent until proven guilty, they're actually like guilty until proven innocent. Or depending on who they are, as far as if they're male, if they're female, what class system they are. Because we live in America, but other countries, cultures, and areas, they have different systems of classification where you're not necessarily a high-ranking citizen or you could be of a lower caste system. They have different ways that they classify certain people. Some people don't even have rights to defend themselves. And so in America, you should be thankful that if you ever are drugged before a judge or in some kind of a legal battle or anything like that, many times you're gonna have the opportunity to defend yourself, which is a blessing in and of itself, that it's not a situation where you don't get to give a defense, you aren't able to speak for yourself, you don't have any kind of rights. We should be thankful that we have opportunities to defend ourselves and we should be thankful for the things that God gives us. Couldn't the judge just be like, you know I've heard enough, kill the guy. But he says, you know what, hey, tell me what's going on. You speak now. They said all their little spiel or whatever, why don't you talk and give a little bit of defense for yourself, and he was cheerful for that. Now, keep your fingers when you come back. Let's go to Ephesians chapter number five. Now kind of spawning off of that and thinking about this week that we have before us, being what's considered Thanksgiving week, to me, I look at this passage and see Paul being thankful in a really bad situation. He's thankful that he gets to speak for himself. And I think that we need to have this attitude of Paul and being thankful for everything that we have despite the circumstance, the scenario, or the situation we find ourselves in. Acts 24 is not a highlight of Paul's life. This isn't, in fact, I've admitted to several people, like reading the book of Acts, like the end section is really kind of like, never really enjoyed that much. Like it's not a really like fun section of scripture to read because it's just like, there's all these legal battles, you know, and all this like arguing and just all, and then like, and here's the thing, no one wins in these lawsuits and legal battles. The only people that win are Teutulis, the guy, the lawyers making all the money. The only person that wins in a lawsuit is a lawyer because they get paid whether they win or lose. I don't know if you realize this, but lawyers, I mean, they can represent a client poorly and get paid. It's like, what in the world? I mean, they win the case, they lose the case, they get paid, right? Now, obviously by winning and stuff, you can get paid more, you get referred better clients theoretically and everything like that. But at the end of the day, these lawyers are just all in it for the money. A lot of them are, not every single one. I don't want to say every lawyer is bad, but a majority of them are just really crappy people. And Paul's going through a really rough part of his life. He just went to Jerusalem. He wants to get all these people saved and these people want to kill him. He's kind of going through a scenario that's really similar to Jesus himself. Going under his own, his own received him not, they're falsely accusing him, they want to kill him. It's a very eerily similar scenario that Jesus had to go through. Kind of a dark time in his life. But notice he said he was cheerful, right? Meaning he's happy, he's pleased, he's thankful to this Felix governor that's going to give him an opportunity to speak. And in our lives, there's going to be ups and downs. There's going to be moments in our life that are better than others. And arguably 2020 and 2021 may not be the highlight of your life. Maybe it is, I hope it is, I don't know. But for some people it's been a rough year, it's been the rough couple years. Or maybe you've gone through some rough patches or maybe right now is a darker time in your life or there's a lot of negativity potentially. But we can always still find things to be thankful for. Like no matter what our scenario, I mean if Paul's in prison and being falsely accused and had been beaten up by the Jews to some degree, he's not really having a good day. He could be like, woe is me. Poor me, why did I do this? Everybody's against me and whatever. But he says, hey I'm cheerful. He's actually thankful for the opportunity he has here to speak for himself. And in the Bible, we have to find a way to be thankful no matter what situation we're in. Think about Acts chapter 16. The apostle Paul's thrown in prison for preaching the gospel and healing a woman that was caught with a spirit of divination or had been possessed with a spirit of divination. And while they're in prison at midnight, they're singing praises to God. So Paul's already shown himself to be very happy and joyful and having peace with the Lord in bad situations. And we need to take this example and look through some of those other epistles to learn that we should also be thankful in all the circumstances we find ourselves. Look at Ephesians chapter five verse 19. Speaking yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Notice that verse, giving thanks always for all things. That's a pretty strong command, isn't it? I mean, he's saying, you know what? You should always be thankful to the Lord for everything that he's giving you, all the opportunities. And one of the ways you get yourself in that spirit, you get yourself in that mentality is singing the word of God. By singing the word of God, it gives you this cheerful, happy, thankful attitude because you're reminded of what Christ has done for you. You're reminded of who you are in Christ. You're reminded of the mercies and the graces of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it helps us have the right mentality and the right perspective and to be cheerful and thankful no matter what situation we really find ourselves in. Go to Philippians, just turn the page chapter four and look at verse number six, Philippians chapter four, verse six, be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. So notice the Bible tells us when we pray to God, when we're asking for something, we're supposed to ask with thankfulness, thanking God for the things that he's given us, thankful for what he's blessed us with, basically appreciating things that he's done in our lives. Our father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Just blessing the Lord just right off the bat. That was the Lord's prayer. He's teaching us how to pray. Just starting out with just thanking the Lord for what he has. How about Job? The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord. He's just thankful for the things that he has. Jacob, who's crossing the river, and he's trying to come back to the promised land. He's just thankful that he went across empty and he's come back full. We need to be thankful for the scenarios that we find ourselves in and the things that we have, no matter what just happened or was this year the best year or the worst year, it doesn't really matter. The Bible says when we pray to God, we need to be thankful for the things that we do have. Because when we came into this world, we had nothing. And you can't go less than nothing when it comes to possessions, all right? That's your bottom. So your bottom, you already started at the bottom. So if you're above the bottom, then you have something to be thankful for. And if you're bare naked with no possessions, well, you're still about the same, you still have life, so then you can be thankful for that. So no matter what, you can be thankful for something. And look, all of your clothes today, so you at least have that to be thankful for. You know, the Bible says with food and clothing, you're supposed to be content, and we're having fellowship after this, so you have to be content, you know? You have food available for you, and none of you look like you're about to die of starvation, okay, some more than others. But I'm just saying, you know, looks like you have the ability to be content, and we have something to be thankful for. First Thessalonians, chapter number five, go back, or forward, I'm sorry, go forward. First Thessalonians, chapter number five. Want to show you a few more verses here. Now, when it comes to the celebration of Thanksgiving, I don't really care if you like that holiday or not. I personally do like it, our family does celebrate it, but if someone doesn't, that's their own prerogative, it doesn't really bother me. I'm not really celebrating it because of Indians or, you know, white people coming over here, none of that really matters to me. What I like about it is that it's a biblical concept to just be thankful for God, you know? And I like some of the traditions, I like Turkey, you know, and I like my wife's rolls, that's what I really like. And so, you know, I'm really thankful that my wife's gonna make some rolls, you know? And so, it doesn't really matter to me why someone celebrates a particular day, you know, or doesn't, no matter what you do on Thanksgiving Day, you should still be thankful to God. You know, and I like and appreciate an idea or a holiday that's being thankful for the things that you have on this earth and things that, you know, God has blessed us with. Now, obviously, I don't celebrate every holiday, you know, ones that worship the devil, like Halloween, I'm not gonna do that, worship death or something. That does no merit in the Bible, you know? Trick or treat, you know, there's nothing good about tricking people or being deceitful or dressing up like the devil or worshiping death. You know, people that are celebrating family and being thankful for the things that God has blessed them with, I say amen. I don't see why that would be a bad thing. And, you know, when in Rome, do as the Romans do, right? When you're in America, why not celebrate Thanksgiving and kind of celebrate and some of their customs, as long as they're not sinful or against the word of God. First Thessalonians chapter five, look at verse 18. In everything, give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. I feel like every time we see this thankfulness, it has this statement, this broad statement of just everything, always and everything and all things and everything give thanks. And notice it says this, for this is the will of God concerning you, meaning that God's will is for us to be thankful. You know, we as a society, we as a group of people should be the most thankful people on the planet. I mean, we're saved. I mean, we're the children of God. We have everything, we're gonna possess everything. The meek shall inherit the earth. I mean, we're more than conquerors. We know we can't even, we've been passed from death on the life. We have the Holy Spirit inside of us. We have a King James Bible this evening and that's all the words of God that we could open up and hear from God whenever we want. I mean, we have so many great things to be thankful for and no matter what, even if we didn't have those, even if we were in a poor country or we didn't have the Bible on hand or we'd never, we could still be thankful in all things because that's the will of God in Christ Jesus. That's what the Bible says concerning you. He wants us to be thankful in everything. Go to First Timothy chapter four. I'd like to be something real specific to be thankful for. The Bible says in everything, but let's get specific because the Bible gets specific. First Timothy chapter number four. Look at verse number three. Now, I think I want to go to verse two just because it'll give us more clarity. Speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with hot iron. So there's people that are preaching doctrines of devils. They're lying. What are their lies? Verse three, forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats which God has created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. So notice according to the Bible, meat is supposed to be received with thanksgiving for those of us that know and believe the truth because it's not just enough to know the truth. You actually have to believe it, okay? You actually have to put your faith in Christ. You have to trust Christ to get saved and when it comes to meat, hey, all things on the table are good. Look at verse four. For every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving for it is sanctified by the word of God in prayer. That means bacon can be on the table. Praise the Lord. I'm thankful. I'm, you know, the only thing that is a little disappointing, I ordered bacon with a sandwich today and they didn't put it on it. I'm so thankful I got to eat the sandwich. It just would have been, I would have been a little bit more thankful if it had the bacon I had ordered, okay? Because it was not supposed to be refused. It was supposed to be received with thanksgiving and I was ready to receive that so I'll just have to receive that at a later date, at a later time but there's nothing wrong with that. You know, bring on the turkey, everything. You know, bring on all the meats and meat. I'm not interested in eating crickets or bugs or whatever, okay? If you are, be thankful for it, all right? Go to Psalms 50, Psalms 50. I guess, you know, it's easier for us to say that than John the Baptist out there eating wild, locusts and wild honey. Choking that down. I don't know how, that's probably why he had the honey, right, he had to coat it in honey just to choke down the locusts or whatever. I don't know, that's weird. But he's eating good now, I'm sure. Psalms 50, look at verse 14. Offer unto God thanksgiving and pay thy vows unto the most high. So that's another command of the Bible, offer unto God thanksgiving and whether you celebrate a particular day that's called thanksgiving or not, every day we should be offering thanksgiving to God. Every single day we should offer him the thanks for our life. Go to Psalms 95, I wanna show you one more verse here. And I just bring this up because none of us, you know, I would venture that no one in this room is suffering the way Paul was suffering in our chapter, Acts 24. You know, he's probably in a worse state, in a worse position, a worse quality of life than all of us, yet he's finding himself to be thankful and cheerful for the opportunity to just even defend himself against a bunch of accusations. Then we should have the right attitude of being a cheerful person, a happy person, a joyful person. And if you're struggling with joy, you know, a great way to gain joy is by singing psalms, you know, singing the word of God, singing praises unto the Lord. You know, it's hard to be really disappointed and mad and depressed when you're having, you're forced to sing about joyful things and the word of God and about the Lord and the things he's done. It can really change your attitude. Psalm 95, look at verse two. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. Now this is the point that I wanna make here. Obviously it's clear that we're supposed to, you know, bring thanksgiving. But notice it's a commandment to make a joyful noise. Notice it's not a suggestion. Notice it's not an option. It's a commandment to make a joyful noise. Well, if that's a commandment, then there must be a way to just be joyful. That must be something that, you know, some people say it's okay for me to have any emotion that I want. And I say, no, that's not true. Now every emotion has its place, right? There's a time to weep, there's a time to laugh, time to mourn. You know, there's a time to have all manner of emotions. There's a time to love, there's a time to hate. There's all manner of emotions that are a reality, and we should experience all range of emotions. And I'm not against any emotion per se. What I am saying is that you should be able to on demand be joyful in the Lord because of what he's done for us. And notice it's a commandment to make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. Meaning when you get to church, you should force yourself to be joyful in the Lord, to be thankful for the Lord, to get in the right attitude and get the right emotional state. And I'll tell you, one of the ways to do this is to literally sing. But if you just sit there during the sing time and you're just kind of like, I don't want to be here, I don't like church. You know, that's wrong. You should make a joyful noise unto the Lord. You know, it's a commandment, it's an instruction. We should be singing out. And when you start singing, you'll notice sometimes it'll change that attitude, that grumpy or depressed or sad or whatever situation. Obviously, you know, you go to a funeral, or you go to a situation where it's supposed to be sad, that's one thing, right? When you come to church, you know, you should force yourself, you should make yourself, make a joyful noise unto the Lord. You have something to be joyful about because one day you'll be in heaven with the Lord. Go back to Acts 24, go back to Acts chapter 24. You know, some people have a grumpy face and they'll say, that's just the way I look. And it's like, well, no, you're supposed to get a smile. Get a smile on that grumpy face. You know, make a joyful noise. You know, whenever Cain had a grumpy face, had a bad looking face, God called him out on it. He's like, why is thy countenance fallen? Oh, that's just how you made me. No, it's not. No, you're being, you're doing something wrong. That's what's going on. Like you can't hide from God. And God made us to be a happy people, ones that are joyful and smiling and having a good attitude. And that's what we should do. Look at Acts chapter 24, verse 14 now. The Bible says, well, I didn't read a few verses. I want to make sure we read these few verses. He said in verse 12, and they neither found me in the temple, disputing with any man, neither raising up the people, neither in the synagogues nor in the city, neither can they prove the things whereof they now, accuse me. So he just real quickly kind of goes down the list and he's like, that's not true. That's not true. And they have no proof. Verse 14, but this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I, the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets and have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust. And herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men. Now, after many years, I came to bring alms to my nation and offerings, whereupon certain Jews from Asia found me purified in the temple, neither with multitude nor with tumult, who ought to have been here before thee and object, if they had ought against me, or else let these same here say, if they have found any evil doing in me while I stood before the council, except it be for this one voice that I cried standing among them, touching the resurrection of the dead, I am called and questioned by you this day. So Paul does a few things. Number one, he expresses gratitude and thankfulness. He says he's careful that he gets to defend himself. Second thing he does is he gives a general denial of all the claims against him. He says, this isn't true, this isn't true, this isn't true. If we notice the statements that he makes in verse number 12, they didn't find me in the temple disputing. So, you know, he's not pestilent, he's not dangerous, he's not causing problems with any person, neither raising up the people, meaning there was no insurrection, which is the acclaim that they had made, neither in the synagogues nor in the city, saying nowhere in the temple, in the city, nowhere at any place did they find me raising up people, gathering a multitude, trying to get an insurrection, trying to overthrow the government, never happened. But then he also explains why he's there. Because if someone's like, you stole it, and he's like, no I didn't, and then it's like, well then why did you bring the guy? You know, obviously they didn't just grab a random person and do all this, there must be some kind of logical reason why this is happening. So then Paul's gonna put forth the reason why they're doing the things that they're doing, and he makes it clear. Here's the reason, Governor Phoenix, it's because they think I'm a heretic, but I believe that I'm following my religion correctly. It's a religious dispute. And this is a very important thing to bring up, because governors, you know, law makers, they don't care about religious disputes. So if you can bring up, it's like, look, this is a religious dispute. Then they're like, I don't care. Like, you know, you guys figure that out. Like, this isn't for me to decide religious disputes, or Bible interpretations, or whatever. They're not interested in that, and it'll help the governor realize what's really going on here. But also notice this. Because of a religious dispute, that the Jews can't win, the Jews are incapable of actually defending their position from a religious perspective, what do they do? They have to invoke the law to try and shut you down. So they have to make up lies and slander against you, and bring you before the law to try and get you shut down. And look, it's no new thing under the sun. Whenever your opponents can't disprove anything you're saying from the Bible, they can't disprove it with logic, they can't disprove it with a better argument, what they'll end up doing is they'll lie about you, they'll bring you before the government, they'll bring you before the law, they'll sue you, or they'll do whatever they can to try and shut you down, because they don't have any legitimate thing against you. And it's just, there's no new thing under the sun. And they're gonna try and shut down Christians. And look, in the world that we live in today, Christians are gonna try, the devil is gonna try and shut down Christians through false accusations and bringing them before the law. It's gonna happen, it does happen, it has happened, it's gonna continue to happen. And that's why we also wanna make sure that we reserve judgment for someone that's being brought before the law, that we just don't instantly think that they're a bad person or guilty. Because in America, if someone's arrested, this is the mentality of every person. Well, you must have done something wrong. I mean, you know, or if you're a juror, a lot of times jurors, whenever the cops are there and they're like, we arrested this person, they think, well, he must have done something wrong, because why would they be bringing this guy? There's, why is there criminal charges brought against him? There must be something, you know, bad happening here. You know, when Paul was brought forth at first, and they didn't know he was a Roman soldier, they said they were gonna figure it out first by scourging. Doesn't that kind of imply they already think he's a bad guy? Well, let's just beat it out of them. You know, like, let's just figure out why this guy's such a bad guy. But we shouldn't just assume that someone's a bad person just because they've been arrested, just because they've gone to law, just because they've had a lawsuit against them or something like that. It could be totally that they were in the right. That they're just being taken advantage of. I mean, if we were gonna condemn everybody that went to jail, we'd have to throw out half of the characters of the Bible. We'd have to say, Joseph's bad, right? I mean, we just have to start throwing everybody, as a bad person. I mean, Daniel is a captive of the Babylonians, even though he's not in jail per se, he's a slave, right? I mean, we have Jeremiah thrown in jail. We have Jesus arrested. We have pretty much all of Peter and John and Paul. I mean, John in the book of Revelation, he's been exiled. Wouldn't you think that sounds like a bad guy? This guy's been deported. He's been banned from this country or whatever. That doesn't make him a bad guy necessarily. Why did he say that he was exiled? For the testimony of the Lord, for preaching the gospel, for preaching the word of God. And it's gonna happen where we're gonna have more and more Christians who they're gonna try and throw mud at, sling mud at, try and make them look bad and say, oh, look at this guy. He had this bad thing happen with law, he got arrested. For what, soul winning? Well, that's not a bad thing. Or this guy got arrested for what? Preaching the word of God. In some countries in America, depending on what chapter of the Bible you open up to and read it out loud, you could be arrested for hate speech. I'm sure if there was actual hate speech laws, I'd already be arrested. Because the Bible is hate to those that hate the Bible. They hate the truth. And at the end of the day, if our country gets so wicked and so evil where they pass hate speech laws, we could have people arrested for hate speech laws. Or they'll just invent things that never even happen and just lay that against you. Like he's starting an insurrection, he's a seditionist. He's trying to go outside the law. He's trying to take the law into his own hands. I wonder if that accusation ever would be made against a Christian. Yeah, it does happen. I don't know if any of any real specific examples I can think of right at the moment, but it does happen. Look at verse, let's keep reading here. Look at verse 22 now. And when Felix heard these things, having more perfect knowledge of that way, he deferred them and said, when Lysias, the chief captain, shall come down, I will know the uttermost of their matter. And commanded a centurion to keep Paul and to let him have liberty. And that he should forbid none of his acquaintance to minister or come unto him. So we have here, interestingly enough, after Paul gives his speech, I would, reading between the lines, I'm sure that Felix realizes what's going on. He's probably like, wow, this is just kind of a silly religious thing. But Felix is kind of a compromiser. He's kind of a, he fears man a little bit. So he's trying to kind of have it both ways a little bit. He realizes that there's nothing really legitimate, but he doesn't want to just release Paul and just make a ruling real quick, because he doesn't want the Jews to get mad at him. He doesn't want to lose his job. He doesn't want anything bad. So he's just kind of like, well, we'll just keep him locked up, but we'll give him freedom. So obviously he also shows a little bit of sympathy, little bit of compassion towards Paul, but I think it's really him just covering for himself. And a lot of times judges or these lawmakers, they don't want to actually man up and make a ruling because they don't want the consequences of the angry mob. So they'll pass it off. You know, this happens a lot in the last two years where a lot of lawsuits, a lot of litigation has been presented before judges and they'll dismiss cases based on standing or on certain other preliminary factors of a hearing just because they don't actually want to have to rule on that particular litigation because they know it'll be unpopular with certain people. They can lose their job. They can lose their funding. They can have somebody threaten their life even, literally. And so they're just too afraid to make some kind of ruling. So they just kind of pass the buck or they just try to get it to a higher court or they try to get it to somebody else. And we see the exact same thing here with Felix. Felix is like, well, you know, when let's see as the chief captain comes, then we'll figure it out. You know, let's get some more witnesses. Let's just wait, let's get some more evidence or whatever. Then we'll figure out what's going on. But he lets Paul have a little bit of liberty here. Verse 24, and after certain days, when Felix came with his wife, Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul and heard him concerning the faith in Christ. And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance and judgment to come, Felix trembled and answered, go thy way for this time. When I have a convenient season, I will call for thee. So his wife comes who's a Jewess. So she's a little bit more familiar with obviously the customs of the Jews. He has him come and basically preach him his viewpoint of religion. And he's really terrified of it. You know why? Because it's the truth. And the truth has power and it obviously affects him. So I would say that Felix has some fear of God, but unfortunately he didn't have enough to get saved doesn't seem like. We don't see him really getting converted here, getting saved. And he certainly doesn't have enough to side with Paul because in the next few verses, it says this. He hoped also that money should have been given him of Paul that he might lose him. Wherefore he sent for him the oftener and communed with him. But after two years, so curious Festus came into Felix's room and Felix, willing to show the Jews a pleasure, left Paul bound. So Felix is just a guy that's just looking out for himself. You know, he's just kind of a normal guy. And he just wants to make a quick buck. You know, he was willing to kind of appease the Jews. But if Paul was going to give him some money, he was like, all right, we'll just let him go. Notice this guy doesn't care about what's right or wrong in any of these scenarios. Which of these scenarios have we seen justice at all? Has we seen Festus say like Paul's innocent or guilty? No. If the Jews want to bound up, bound him. But if Paul's willing to pay me off, well then let's let him go. And you know what? That's pretty similar to American justice today. They don't really care about who's right and wrong. They're just looking to see what public opinion has to say or how they can get paid off. And how they get paid off a lot of times in America is not always just a direct payment. It's more about getting appointed to the next higher court or getting the next appointee job or getting some new position or getting assigned some new kind of a case or whatever. Some cases they probably are literally paid off. But in this situation, you know, we see that judges are really not righteous in this system. And it's always been the case. Where the world's judges are not really just. They're not really in it for justice. They don't really care about defending people's rights. That's why the Bible makes it clear that you should avoid these type of scenarios as much as humanly possible. I'm going to go to a couple of places. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter number 6. 1 Corinthians chapter number 6. It makes me think of a few different places in scripture that talk about legal battles, law issues, and these kind of scenarios. But Jesus even brought this up. He said in Matthew chapter number 5, he said, therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there are members that thy brother hath ought against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar and go thy way. First be reconciled thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. Agree with thine adversary quickly, whilst thou art in the way with them, lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, thou shalt by no means come out thence to thus pay the uttermost farthing. So Jesus even brought it up in Matthew chapter number 5, the idea of if you have someone that has something against you, you want to go and try and reconcile that and avoid going to law at all costs. This would be like settling out of court in our modern vernacular, where you can make some kind of agreement. And I believe when you study Matthew chapter number 5, it's very clear that the context is you've done something wrong. It's not that you're in the right. Because essentially it's implying that the judge is going to find you guilty and throw you in prison. And then God's saying on top of that, you're going to pay until you get out. Why would God do that to someone that was innocent? Now God's basically implying, if you screw up, if you do something wrong, try to fix that speedily. Try to fix that quickly and come to some kind of resolution. Don't let this just fester and blow up. And then he has to drag you through court and drag you through all this process. Because then he says God is going to make sure that you get punished thoroughly, meaning that God likes justice. God doesn't like people ripping other people off, taking advantage of them, doing wrong to them. And so if you've done wrong to somebody, you should make it right quickly, especially when they're not saved. Because an unsaved person is going to have no problem taking you to court, taking you and suing you, taking to the cops, taking whatever, and getting you punished to the fullest extent of the law. So when you do something wrong, you need to make sure you get it right. We'll be an example of this. I don't know, a car accident. Maybe you hurt somebody accidentally, or you have an agreement with someone over some kind of a contract, and you did something wrong. Maybe you didn't fulfill your end of the contract. You broke something. You need to go ahead and reconcile that right away so as to not bring further ramifications upon yourself. Now, the Bible describes this in a different context, though. What if the person that you've wronged is a brother in Christ? Is it someone that's saved, for sure? Well, Matthew chapter 18, it talks about disputes between brothers, that you'd go to them privately. If they won't resolve it, you bring two or three witnesses. If they won't hear them, then you bring them for the church. What if they don't even go to your church? Well, that makes it even more difficult, right? But according to the Bible, you should never sue your brother or take them to the law. You should only try to dissolve matters within the church. And if someone screws you over or takes advantage of you, that you would simply just let yourself be defrauded. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 1. Dare any of you having a matter against another go to law before the unjust and not before the saints? Do you not know that the saints shall judge the world? And if the world should be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? No, you're not. We should judge angels. How much more things that pertain to this life? If then you have judgments to things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church. I speak to your shame. Is it so that there is not a wise man among you? No, not one that should be able to judge between his brethren. But brother, go to law with brother and that before the unbelievers. Now, therefore, there is utterly a fault among you, because you go to law one with another. Why do you not rather take wrong? Why do you not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? Nay, you do wrong and defraud and that your brethren. So Paul brings up a scenario. Let's say two guys in our church have a dispute. Let's say it's over $1,000 or something. Somebody loans somebody $1,000. The other guy won't pay or something goes wrong with it or whatever. Well, according to the Bible, you're not supposed to take that person to law before the unbelievers. Your remedy is within the church of God or you get defrauded. Now, if there's a dispute and the guy is just not hearing the church, won't do it, he could be thrown out of church. He could be church disciplined. But even after being church disciplined, you still wouldn't take him to law before the court. You would just suffer yourself to be defrauded at that point. And you'd have to just say, you know what? I should have realized that don't loan money that I'm not willing to lose. That's a good rule of thumb. Don't give people something, someone that you're not willing to just lose. Don't let them borrow things. Don't let them use things. Don't let them do anything or have anything that you wouldn't want destroyed. Things like your children. Not something you loan to people that are not your spouse, basically, or not someone that you're not willing to trust with their life in very rare circumstances or something like that, or people that you trust highly. I'm not just going to hand over my kids to a Joe church member that comes every once in a while and be like, hey, watch my kids. Not everybody that even comes to church is a good person. Sometimes there's bad people that sneak into churches, and they would love an opportunity to watch some kids or whatever. That's why you have to be very careful with things that are precious to you. Now, my truck, I mean, it's like, here's the keys. It's like, good luck, whatever. But at the end of the day, it's like, that's not something that is that scary for me to lose. In some cases, you're kind of like, I hope you don't bring it back, force me to buy a new truck. It's like, here's the key. It's not as big a deal for you to lose it. But what if it's like your life savings? You don't want to necessarily just hand over some of your life savings if you're not willing to kiss that goodbye. So you want to be careful with the things that you loan out. And you should really look at the Bible and say, you know what, it's wrong to sue my brother or take my brother to law for any reason, because the only person that wins, again, is the lawyers. You're not going to win. They're not going to win. It's just a bad scenario. And we need to have a culture that's not willing to take brother to law to try and do these type of things. Now, I'll say this. If someone does take you to law, I do believe you have every right to defend yourself, though. Notice Paul is drug into the court system. And when he gets the opportunity to speak, he doesn't just say, I'm against all lawsuits. I am against all criminal charges. I'm not allowed to speak for myself or whatever. No, he didn't defend himself. So I believe if someone sends and takes you to court, even if it was your brother in Christ, you have every right to defend yourself. It's just you that instigated the matter and took them to law, that's where the screw up is. Because unfortunately, the world that we live in, sometimes people put you in a scenario where you have to go to law. That's your only remedy, to right the situation or to rectify a particular situation. And it's not that you're dragging them to the law. They're forcing you into some kind of a litigation or some kind of a resolution to a scenario or a situation where that's the only way to rectify your household or what's going on with your goods. And look, I believe in cooperating with law enforcement, too. This is not saying that if your brother shoots and kills someone, you're not allowed to call the cops. If you commit a felony and you tell me, I will tell law enforcement that you committed a felony. Because it's illegal for a pastor to hold crimes a secret. This is not saying like, you robbed a bank and you're like, hey pastor, I got the money in my bag. Don't tell anybody. I'm going to be like, I'm on the phone with the cops right now. This is not a place to hide criminal activity. I'm not going to hide any kind of evil or anything like that. This is talking about civil disputes, minor disputes between brethren. They should try to resolve. And in fact, it goes to such an extremity to say the absolute worst church member in here. And I'm not going to point to anybody. Whoever is just the worst church member is better than the best judge that's unsafe. The worst church member in our church is better than all the Supreme Court justices. The highest judge, the highest. So you would be better off if you had a dispute asking the person that comes once every Easter to church how to resolve your dispute rather than an unsafe person. I mean, that's what the Bible is literally saying. And this also proves that it's OK to judge. We're supposed to judge righteous judgment. We're not supposed to judge according to appearance. If you did have an opportunity to judge a dispute between church members, you wouldn't want to automatically side with the guy that's dressed nice and looks nice and has the gay clothing over the guy that's in vile raiment or poor or destitute. You want to make a righteous judgment. You want to justify the righteous and condemn the wicked. And you want to make a righteous judgment. But you're going to have a better opportunity when it's in the house of God than outside. Outside is going to make wicked, evil judgments. They're looking for a payoff. That would be an extortion basically or some kind of a blackmail or some kind of evil. Look, you go to someone and say, hey, I have this matter with so-and-so. And they're like, I'll ruin your favor for $50. It's like, you tell me because that person's wicked too. Obviously, we're not supposed to exact money from our brothers or sisters in Christ or take these bribes or take these payoffs or whatever. We need to have a place where you can actually go and hear the truth and have judgment along with each other. And at the end of the day, even if you did get defrauded, someone did rip you off. That would be bad. But you could still be thankful for things that you have. Paul's in a bad situation. He's been betrayed by his brethren. He's been taken before the law. He's happened to defend himself against this liar to Tulis. You know what, he's still cheerful that he gets to defend himself. He's still thankful for the things that he has. And he's still going to bless the Lord. And we need to find ourselves in a cheerful mood, in a joyful mood, no matter what happens, no matter what evil befall us or no matter what situation we find ourselves in. Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for this opportunity to come and hear the word of God preached. I thank you for all of our members that are here this evening, that you would just bless them, that you'd keep them safe as they travel home, that they could have a good Thanksgiving week, and that you would help remind all of us of all the things that you've done, that we would actually count our blessings, that we would be reminded of all the goodness that you've done unto us, and that we would return with thankfulness to you, that we would sing praises under your name, that we would pray and ask for supplications with thanksgiving, and that the meals that we have, that we would be thankful for them. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Go to our last song for the evening, 147, Leaning on the Everlasting Arms, 147. All right, number 147, 147, Leaning on the Everlasting Arms. 147, we're gonna sing there starting on that first verse. Let's sing. What a fellowship, what a joy divine, leaning on the everlasting arms. What a blessedness, what a peace is mine, leaning on the everlasting arms. Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms. Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms. Oh, how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way, leaning on the everlasting arms. Oh, how bright the path grows from day to day, leaning on the everlasting arms. Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms. Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms. What have I to dread, what have I to fear, leaning on the everlasting arms. I have blessed peace with my Lord so near, leaning on the everlasting arms. Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms. Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms. Amen, and with that you are dismissed, but tonight is the dessert fellowship. So don't run off without having some kind of dessert and or fellowship. With that, have a good night. Thank you.