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

Oh, that's where it starts? Yeah. Oh, we're here next Thursday. Yeah, yeah. That's it. Oh, no. I don't think... Yeah? Oh, yeah. Oh, is it from 5.30 till... Till... 8. Oh, I thought it is, don't you? Until it starts. So, probably a little bit before the thing. Pretty much. Oh, okay. Okay. All right. Oh, you do? Yeah. What are we going over there to? Oh, yeah, yeah. Nice. Nice. Okay. Okay. Okay. Thank you all for coming. If you want to turn your hymnals, we'll get started this evening. We'll go to our first song, 410. Faith is the Victory. Song 410. There in the verse. Faith is the victory. Oh, glorious victory that overcomes the world. His banner over us, his love, our sword, the word of God. We tread the road the saints above with shouts of triumph trod. By faith they like a whirlwind's breath sweep on o'er every field. The faith by which they conquered death is still our shining shield. Faith is the victory. Faith is the victory. Oh, glorious victory that overcomes the world. On every hand the foe we find drawn up in dread array. Let tents of ease be left behind and onward to the fray. Salvation's helmet on each head with truth o'er about. The earth shall tremble neath our tread and echo with our shout. Faith is the victory. Faith is the victory. Oh, glorious victory that overcomes the world. To him that overcomes the foe, white raiment shall be give. Before the angels he shall know his name confessed and have. The onward from the hills of light our arts will love a flame. We'll vanquish all the hosts of night. In Jesus' conquering name. Faith is the victory. Faith is the victory. Oh, glorious victory that overcomes the world. Brother Mo, would you lead us in prayer this evening, please? Dear Father God, thank you for giving everybody your safety, Lord. I pray that you help us to be attentive tonight. I pray that you fill in with the Spirit. I pray that you can preach a bold and accurate sermon in your name. I pray. Amen. Amen. Let's go right here on the same page. 411. Sing our second song of the evening. Hold the fort. Song 411. There on the first. Oh, my comrades, see the signal waving in the sky. Reinforcements now appearing. Victory is nigh. Hold the fort, for I am coming. Jesus, signal still. Wave the answer back to heaven. By thy grace we will. See the mighty host advancing. Satan leading on. Mighty men around us falling. Courage almost gone. Hold the fort, for I am coming. Jesus, signal still. Wave the answer back to heaven. By thy grace we will. See the glorious banner waving. Hear the trumpet blow. In our leader's name we'll triumph over every foe. Hold the fort, for I am coming. Jesus, signal still. Wave the answer back to heaven. By thy grace we will. Fierce and long the battle rages, but our help is near. Onward comes our great command. Onward comes our great commander. Cheer, my comrades, cheer. Hold the fort, for I am coming. Jesus, signal still. Wave the answer back to heaven. By thy grace we will. Very good singing. If you need a bulletin, they are in that back cabinet for you. On the inside we have our service times as well as our soul winning times. And then we have our totals down below. As well as we also have our Bible memory passage. Romans chapter number 8. We're on verse number 2. So we've started a new Bible memory chapter. Chapter 8, really good chapter. A lot of verses in this one. So definitely try to get started and start working on it. And you can get through that. On the right we have our expecting prayers. If you'd please keep all of them in your prayers. We have several listed there. And that's very exciting. Also we had brother John Carter come for us this last Sunday and that was really great. He was able to make it out here. I wanted to look up. I know that we have other scheduled preaching. I need to get that put in the bullets in. But this Sunday we're going to have brother Duncan. Brother Duncan Urbana is going to be coming back down here. He's going to be preaching for you guys. And then the following April 11th, brother Jesse Michael. He's going to be coming back out here and preaching for you guys. And then the 25th of April brother Nick Keneery. He's preached for you guys one other time. He's visited here a few different times. He lives in the Austin area. He's going to be coming out here and preaching for you guys again. And so lots of good preaching. Really excited about that. Also we have our upcoming event. So in preparation of Easter we want to have the Texas Oklahoma Easter marathon. And I made a video about it and put it out on the steadfast channel. But I put it on our website purewordsbaptist.com. If you just do slash Easter. Or if you just go to our site and click the schedule or the events. You can go and you can look and it will have the events listed. And one of them is the Texas Oklahoma Easter marathon. And right there it has another link that will take you to the Easter page that then has a whole layout of all the different times and the meeting places for everyone going soul winning. And so it should be pretty easy to find. There's videos online. There's a Facebook event. There's the YouTube. There's also like I said if you go to our website. And for this time I don't know if I haven't remembered off the top of my head. Let me go there. And I'll just read for you that way. But if you go out to Pure Words Baptist and then you go to the events. You can click on the event that we have and then scroll down to Houston. And so Thursday the 1st April 1st instead of having our regular scheduled church service we're just going to have extended soul winning. And so they're going to meet here at the church at 5.30. Brother Jeffrey is going to have some maps for everyone and then head out until about 8 p.m. And so the goal is just to do extra soul winning. And you know if you are interested I preached a sermon a while back about the timing of the Passover. And I believe that Thursday is actually supposed to be Good Thursday. They call it Good Friday but it's really Good Thursday when Christ would have died. And so the goal is just to have soul winning pretty much the whole time that Christ would have been in the grave for the most part. Obviously we're not going in the night. But I'm just saying generally speaking while he was there during the day we can go out and try and do as much soul winning as possible. And so you know try to show up and be with Brother Jeffrey and support him and do some extra soul winning in support of Easter. You know a lot of people are thinking about Christ and those things during this time. And so it's a great time to invite people to church. Also Friday Brother Travis Howell is going to have a soul winning time that evening from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. And it's not meeting at the church it's meeting at a different location but it's in Houston. It's 6000 Chimney Rock Road Houston Texas. So the address is just listed very specifically. So if you want to join him for some Friday soul winning that would be excellent. And then Saturday Brother Mo Mohaney he's leading a time here at the church building their meeting from 10 to 12 and then from 2 to 4. And so please show up for these soul winning times and you know you can always go soul winning in other areas. I think there was another time with Brother Mo Hitt and I don't know why I don't have it on there. I need to I need to add that online but he had another time. I'll try to get that updated right away with Brother Mo Hitt's time but he had submitted one I wonder if I have it if I can find it in my email real quick. I think that I he sent that in to us for sure. I'll look it up and I'll put it back out there just that way we have it because I know Brother Mo Hitt was going to lead another soul winning time in his areas too. So I want to put that on the website. So just check the website and check out the information that we have online and we'll get that updated. And I'm really excited about our Easter service. Easter is going to be and I'm really excited about our Easter service. Easter Sunday we're going to have the Lord's Supper immediately following the evening service. So the conclusion of the evening service we'll have the Lord's Supper. Brother Nick Goman is going to lead that for us and so I'd encourage you to participate in that. Also if you have any prayer requests that you would like to send in you can always send those in via our website or I'm sorry email address and we'll put those either in the bulletin or at least make an announcement in the midweek service. And so that's pretty much all I have for announcements at this time. Let's just go back a page to song 409. 409. The fight is on. Song 409 the fight is on. The fight is on the trumpet sound is ringing out the cry to arms is heard far and near the Lord of hosts is marching on to victory the triumph of the Christ will soon appear. The fight is on oh Christian soldier and face to face in stern array with armor gleaming and colors streaming the right and wrong engage today the fight is on but be not weary be strong and in his might hold fast if God be for us his banner or us will sing the victor song at last the fight is on a rousey soldiers brave and true Jehovah leads and victory will assure go buck along the armor God has given you in his strength for forever will endure the fight is on oh Christian soldier and face to face in stern array with armor gleaming and colors streaming the right and wrong engage today the fight is on but be not weary be strong and in his might hold fast if God be for us his banner or us will sing the victor song at last the fight is leading on to certain victory the bow of promise spans the eastern sky his glorious name in every land shall honored be the morn will break the dawn of peace is nigh the fight is on oh Christian soldier and face to face in stern array with armor gleaming and colors streaming the right and wrong engage today the fight is on but be not weary be strong and in his might hold fast if God be for us his banner or us will sing the victor song at last very good singing at this time we'll pass our offering plate and turn our Bibles to Acts chapter number seven or eight I'm sorry Acts chapter number eight Acts chapter number eight we'll read the entire chapter before this sermon Acts chapter number eight we'll read the entire chapter before this sermon verse one the Bible reads and Saul was consenting unto his death and at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles and devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him as for Saul he made havoc of the church entering in every house and hailing men and women committed them to prison therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them and the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake hearing and seeing the miracles which he did for unclean spirits crying with a loud voice came out of many that were possessed with them and many taken with palsies and that were lame were healed and there was great joy in that city but there was a certain man called Simon which before time in the same city used sorcery and bewitched the people of Samaria giving out that himself was some great one to whom they all gave heed from the least to the greatest saying this man is the great power of God and to him they had regard because that of a long time he had bewitched them with sorceries but when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom before him and the name of Jesus Christ they were baptized both men and women then Simon himself believed also and when he was baptized he continued with Philip and wondered beholding the miracles and signs which were done now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God they sent unto them Peter and John who when they were come down prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost for as yet he was fallen upon none of them only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus and they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost and when Simon saw that through laying on the apostles hands the Holy Ghost was given he offered them money saying give me also this power that in whomsoever I lay hands he may receive the Holy Ghost but Peter said unto them thy money perish with thee because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter for thy heart is not right in the sight of God repent therefore of this thy wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee for I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity then answered Simon and said pray ye to the Lord for me that none of these things which ye have spoken come upon me and they when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord returned to Jerusalem and preached the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans and the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip saying arise and go toward the south under the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza which is desert and he rose and went and behold a man of Ethiopia a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians who had the charge of all her treasure and had come to Jerusalem for to worship was returning and sitting in his chariot read Isaiah the prophet then the spirit said unto Philip go near and join thyself to this chariot and Philip ran thither to him and heard him read the prophet Isaiah and said understandest thou what thou readest and he said how can I except some man should guide me and desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him the face of the scripture which he read was this he was led as a sheep to the slaughter and like a lamb dumb before his shearer so opened he not his mouth and his humiliation his judgment was taken away and who shall declare his generation for his life is taken from the earth and the eunuch answered Philip and said I pray thee of whom speak of the prophet this of himself or of some other man then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus and as they went on their way they came unto a certain water and the eunuch said see here is water what doth hinder me to be baptized and Philip said if thou believeth with all thine art thou mayest and he answered and said I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God and he commanded the chariot to stand still and they went down both into the water both Philip and the eunuch and he baptized him and when they were come up out of the water the spirit of the Lord caught away Philip that the eunuch saw him no more and he went on his way rejoicing but Philip was found at Azotus and passing through he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea let's begin with a word of prayer thank you Heavenly Father for this evening thank you for this church I pray that you would bless the preaching this evening that you would help everyone to be attentive unto the words that are preached and that your words could stir up our hearts to love you and serve you better in Jesus name we pray Amen. We've been doing a Bible study through the book of Acts and Acts chapter number 8 is a really great chapter we just left off with the death of Stephen and Stephen was one of the men that was ordained to serve in the local church to minister unto widows but he did a lot more according to the word of God he preached the word of God he did miracles and a lot of people were added to the church because of Stephen's preaching because of his ministry and the work he was doing yet he was so effective that they ended up taking him to the rulers of the synagogues and he preaches this great sermon he rebukes them and they end up dragging him out and stoning him and killing him and the Bible told us in Acts chapter number 7 look what it says let's go back up a few verses and look at verse 58 it says and cast him out of the city and stoned him and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet whose name was Saul so that's the first time we're introduced to the character Saul the Bible describes him as being a young man now it also tells us here in verse number one of Acts chapter number 8 it says and Saul was consenting unto his death so that same Saul that was mentioned in Acts chapter number 7 where they laid the garments of the men that stoned Stephen at his feet he was complicit in the death of Stephen he was fine with the fact that they were killing Stephen he's probably just there holding their garments protecting their garments making sure no one grabs them he's a young guy he's letting the older men be the ones that actually hurled the stones and killed Stephen but it's not because Saul himself wouldn't have killed Stephen he's just not part of that group he's just there but if he was part of the group he would have thrown the stones that's what the Bible is basically telling us Saul would have killed Stephen and he was complicit in his death you know in modern vernacular this would be like an accomplice to murder an accomplice is someone who did not necessarily kill someone but they assisted the killer they assisted the person that actually performed the murder and it's a very serious crime it's not as serious as the person that commits the murder yet it is a very serious crime yet it is a very serious crime we see that Saul was literally complicit in the death of God's people as how the Bible starts it says in verse 1 again though and at that time there was great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles now it's interesting as you read the story of Acts and we're kind of going through this dialogue we see in Acts chapter number 2 they're given this great power to preach the gospel in other tongues and other languages and they get a lot of people saved and then the Bible says that Peter preaches this great sermon and there's thousands added under the church then you have Peter and John they are preaching and doing mighty miracles and they're being persecuted but they're still adding under the church and the church is growing then they have to add this I'm sorry like a deacon essentially they didn't call them deacons but they're like deacons they add these seven other men to the church because the church is growing and expanding and multiplying and getting so big well the devil is using the Jews and using people like Saul to fulfill his will to destroy the church but here's the thing it's actually God's will to end up bringing this persecution onto the church at Jerusalem and the persecution notice this it's so extreme that it says they were all scattered abroad throughout the region except the apostles the apostles are not a huge group I mean that's a small faction of the church I mean basically everyone in the church leaves but the leadership you know the pastors and the teachers and everybody else I mean we're talking about thousands and thousands of people are literally driven away from this church which is in Jerusalem and in fact you know later in the Bible we'll find out where Paul wants to bring an offering to the poor saints which are at Jerusalem now this is kind of crazy because we have to think about is a church running thousands is probably not going to be a poor church right but the church that just literally went from thousands to like twelve or thousands to like fifty or something overnight that might have a lot of problems you know it's okay for a church to grow but a church to have that kind of a decrease is going to be really tough you know and any time a church expands it always seems like it's exciting it always seems like it's great it always seems like it's really positive and when it decreases it always seems negative but we shouldn't look at church attendance like that because frankly speaking sometimes churches grow because the leadership is becoming watered down because the leadership is not preaching the Bible and they're just bringing in like wicked people or bringing in heretics or bringing in a bad faction or anything like that you know and I've had to deal with this you know going to steadfast when I took over steadfast our church was not growing at first our church was weeding people out it was getting rid of people in fact I've literally had to put on a list of people thrown out of our church and steadfast over a hundred people from the Jacksonville from the Fort Worth from the Oklahoma City over a hundred people okay now it started out that way because the Jacksonville church just had like forty-five people just immediately like just get thrown out and leave and create this rebellious faction with Adam Fannin so that was about half of it but then even since then just you know five here ten here another five here just keep adding up and what's crazy about it I've never had to officially kick anybody out of Pure Words Baptist Church you know now it may happen and it's not that I won't I think I've already proven the fact that I will throw people out of church the reality is though just because a church might be abounding with people doesn't mean it's good you know and obviously I'm not against growing I love the idea of growing and you know steadfast over the few years that I've had it we've almost seemingly doubled in lots of ways I mean we have like you know maybe about a fifty percent to seventy-five percent increase in total attendance since the beginning but at times it was kind of going down and it's kind of going back up and it's just got this little bit of an effect and you know that's the reality of church you know there is no promise of church having a big attendance or a little attendance or any of these type of things and notice God's using persecution to literally alter the course of this church dramatically I mean we're talking about thousands of people being in this church to no longer being in this church but the question you have to ask yourself is this going to have a net positive effect on the cause of Christ and the answer is yes okay because notice when they're scattered something happens when they're scattered abroad throughout the regions let's read a few more verses and we'll get into it it says in verse two preaching the word so what happened by him bringing all this horrible devastation on the church would actually cause the gospel to go out even further now before we read verse number four though you would say all of this is horrifying I mean think about it one of your greatest preachers one of your greatest leaders in the church has literally just been murdered has just literally been killed has been executed by the Jews not only that some of the greatest people in the church some of the men and women I mean they're literally coming into your house breaking down your door and grabbing you and just taking you to prison I mean this is some severe persecution notice how the Bible words it Saul's making havoc of the church you know what is havoc it's like chaos I mean just destruction just turmoil just he's just making this church just he's just causing all kinds of problems for this church and I think in the moment you know just imagine if all of a sudden you know they just take one of our you take Dylan and they just kill him out in the street right in front of us okay and then they just start grabbing some of the men and women in this church and they just start dragging them off to prison in the moment we'd be thinking like wow this is really bad for I mean we'd be thinking like what's happening you know especially if we had been having all this success and all this great stuff but what I like about this is no matter people still go out and preach the word of God they just saw one of their leaders get killed they just saw people being held to prison but they didn't stop preaching the gospel why because these people have already got in their heart I'm going to preach the gospel for the rest of my life I'm going to preach the gospel whether it rains whether it's sunny whether prison is a threat whether my life is a threat no I'm just going to preach the word of God okay and God is using this great persecution these events to come upon this church so that the word of God can increase and so any time we see a church or an individual or something like that or an individual or something happening to someone that's negative for them but it's a net positive for Christ we should rejoice you know even when persecution comes to us we should rejoice you know they didn't stop preaching the gospel and you know what this is truly the idea of being steadfast keep your finger and go to 1 Corinthians chapter 15 1 Corinthians chapter number 15 and you know a good name for a church a steadfast Baptist church because why it's a biblical term found in the Bible look at 1 Corinthians 15 chapter 15 verse 58 therefore my beloved brethren be ye steadfast unmovable you say well they moved yeah but wait a minute this is what it means always abounding in the work of the Lord so being steadfast does that mean that you would never change your physical location no being unmovable is that talking about your you know I'm just so steadfast no it's not talking about being physically still what it's talking about is always abounding in the work of the Lord meaning hey you put me in prison I'll preach to the prisoners hey I go to this this city preach to that city hey I go to this town go to that it doesn't matter where you're at physically what matters is the fact that you're steadfast you're never going to stop preaching the gospel you're never going to stop preaching the word of God it doesn't matter what they do it doesn't matter what they say you know the only way to shut you up is to do what they did to Stephen that's the only way you're going to stop preaching the word but you know what Stephen through his sacrifice through his great martyrdom is going to influence a lot of people to still continue preaching I mean if Stephen can preach unto death why can't you preach while you're on the run why can't you preach when things are happening to you that are not as bad they can't kill everyone in the church they can't kill all thousands of these people you know and really what they try to do is they try to kill one person to scare everybody else they're not going to kill everybody typically they'll just take one person to make an example out of them so if you're not that example you don't have to worry about it and you know what there's strength in numbers there's strength in numbers that you go out and you keep preaching the word of God and the Lord is going to be with you now what I like about this story is it goes straight it's just like horrible horrible horrible but immediately the Bible just with no hesitation just immediately goes into the good doesn't it I mean it's just like they're going to jail I mean you know there's everybody sad Stephen was dead but verse four but they're preaching the word of God but we see there's good right out of this bad go to Acts chapter number 20 go to Acts chapter number 20 I'll show you another verse here about the apostle Paul and it's interesting I think that the Lord it's almost like he has a sense of humor for Paul because Paul brings some of the worst persecution on the church he ends up getting to be one of the people that experiences some of the greatest persecution you know it's kind of like you reap what you sow there Saul and you know but the reality is that suffering or being persecuted is actually not a bad thing I'm going to get to that but I want to show you this verse look at Acts chapter 20 verse 22 the Bible says and now behold I go bound in the spirit in Jerusalem not knowing the things that shall befall me there save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city saying that bonds and afflictions abide me but none of these things move me neither count on my life dear unto myself so that I might finish my course I like this with joy and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel the grace of God notice he says the same wording I'm not moved by these things and what is it saying in the verse before it's saying the Holy Ghost is saying no matter what city you go into Paul bonds and afflictions are waiting you there saying that he's never going to get to go and preach the gospel to any city where there isn't some form of persecution just every city if he goes there he's either going to prison or he's going to be afflicted in some way and when we read through his ministry that's what his ministry is like I mean his ministry is one of the most tumultuous ministries constantly on the flee constantly on the run constantly stoned and beaten and shipwrecked and in prison and in perils of robbers and perils of my own countrymen it's just all over the place for the apostle Paul but he's not moved he says you know what I'm still going to preach the gospel I'm still no matter what I'm just going to preach the gospel he's already settled it in his heart that he's going to preach the word of God he's going to preach the gospel and I think that you kind of have to have this done in your heart before the persecution comes so when the persecution comes it's not a question of what's going to happen it's not going to move me hey I already am aware of those things that are going to happen hey bonds you can't scare me with bonds hey afflictions you can't scare me with afflictions none of these things move me he says hey I'm going to preach the gospel well what if they murder Stephen in front of you well he's going to keep going these people keep going Govewood let's stay on this thought for a moment go to Mark chapter number 4 go to Mark chapter number 4 you say well then why would someone quit you know like why do people they start preaching the gospel or they start serving God and then they quit okay well the Bible tells us the Bible gives us the answer to every single question you could think of Mark chapter 4 look at verse 16 and these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground who when they have heard the word immediately receive it with gladness and have no root in themselves and so endure but for a time afterward when affliction or persecution arises for the word's sake immediately they are offended now in other verses they say by and by because by and by means immediately but what is the Bible teaching the Bible's teaching there's plenty of people they love hearing the gospel they love free salvation they love church when it's easy they love the church that has no persecution they love the church where there's nothing going wrong they love the church where Saul's not going to come in and threaten them they love the church where Stephen's not going to be drug out and stoned to death but as soon as it happens notice what it says as soon as there's persecution as soon as there's affliction immediately they're gone just hey there's any kind of problem see ya buddy and look I've seen it I've seen people they're excited about church they're zealous they're going soul winning they're not even like they're an active participant in church they're going to church they're going soul winning but then some layer of persecution hits the church you know a fag protest or something or you know some negative thing online or their family member they're mad about them going they found out about our church or something you know or whatever just anything and they're just gone never see them you know their work finds out or something you know most workplaces don't care okay I'm just saying like they're so afraid of their own shadow that just anything just a little damsel just saying do you know Christ and they're just like tucked tail between their legs and I don't know the man you know I don't know what you're saying and the reality is why is that person do that because they have no root in themselves they haven't already decided deep down in their heart I'm going to preach the gospel they don't have a relationship with the Bible they're not art that's not their lifestyle look if your lifestyle is reading the Bible getting up and reading in the morning and praying and depending on the Lord for every one of your circumstances you depend upon the Lord financially you depend upon the Lord spiritually you depend upon the Lord emotionally you depend on the Lord for every area of your life well when you're not like that when you don't have these roots deep down what do a root what do roots do let's think about it because God uses carnal examples to expound what is a root a root goes down into the soil and then what the purpose of a root to get nutrients from the soil and to get water from the soil okay so if you don't have any roots what happens well back up to verse four let's look at the carnal example verse number four and it came to pass as he sowed some fell by the wayside and the thousandth year came and devoured it up and some fell on stony ground where it had not much earth and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth but when the sun was up it was scorched and because it had no root it withered away so what's the carnal example well the carnal example is this some kind of a grass or herb or whatever it is plant comes up well what's affliction to a plant a hot sun okay what is a hot sun going to do to a plant well that plant is going to need extra nutrients or extra water or it's just going to die it's going to wither away that sun's going to scorch it and it's going to be destroyed so what's going to protect this plant from dying from a hot sun or from a little bit of heat you know a little bit of pressure being put on it right it's going to have deep roots that are near some kind of a water source or near and getting extra nutrients okay so if I'm not getting any nutrients or any water I can easily be destroyed I can easily be withered away or scorched or burned up so when it comes to the Christian life if I'm not being fed by the word of God if I'm not getting those essential spiritual waterings and essential spiritual nutrients from the word of God you know I never read the Bible and I don't pray and I'm not trusting in the Lord in any area of my life then as soon as I get a little heat well forsake the church thing you know what when my daily life when my daily walk is constantly trusting in the Lord and constantly reading the Bible and constantly in prayer and doing these things well when the heat comes guess what my routine is oh going back to the Bible and going back to praying and you know when you're constantly reading the Bible and praying and seeking the Lord you know you're going to inevitably do preach the gospel to people that's just part of your habit you're going to just keep doing it that's your life it's not about well there's a hot sun it's like okay preach the gospel there's a cool sun you know you know it's the overcast or whatever you're still going to preach the gospel so how do these people step so when I learn about these people they're getting persecuted but they're still preaching the word of God what does that tell me they had roots in themselves they had root in themselves they weren't just you know ready to be offended because look persecution will come go through the Romans chapter 8 go to Romans chapter 8 the Bible says gain all that will I'm sorry gain all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution the Bible makes it clear if you want to try and live godly there will be opposition to that and let me make it clear what that means I'm not saying that it's only related to soul winning okay gain all that will meaning they want to live godly shall suffer persecution what is living godly doing anything the Bible says okay not lying you will be persecuted not stealing you will be persecuted not drinking alcohol you will be persecuted going to church you will be persecuted having a godly family you know using the rod of correction that God gave us on your children you can suffer persecution for following any of God's not committing fornication you can be persecuted for it not wanting to be an adulterer you can be persecuted for it not wanting to look upon the opposite gender with lust you can be persecuted for hey not wanting to go drink and smoke and do drugs and not being lazy on the job and not wanting to do evil you can be persecuted for and look if you want to serve God if you want to follow God's commandments there will be opposition to that people will persecute you it's every area of your life and of course you know soul winning is one of the greatest works we can do it's the first works so of course if you do that you're going to face opposition you're going to face some level of persecution the devil is not just defenseless in the sense that he's just thinking like I don't know what to do these guys are going soul winning no he's going to bring every single demon out he's going to get everyone to attack you he's going to bring your family members and your friends and he's going to get the cops and he's going to get the government and he's just going to pressure you and he's going to try and beat you down he's going to try to wither you down he's going to try to destroy you and you know what he wants to distract you even sometimes he can't get an enemy to destroy you so he'll just distract you how will he distract me well he'll just bring a bunch of problems into your life I don't know like covid that seems like a lot of problems you know it's annoying right people are just so worn down from the last year and a half I mean I'll admit it like it feels like you're just fighting these uphill battles that are just stupid you know people are worried about their employment they're worried about their food they're worried about going into the store they're worried about dealing with psychos everyone looks like they want to rob me because they're wearing masks all the time you know just the just the emotional turmoil of being around all these psychos and these people that are so brain dead and brainwashed today it's just annoying and you know what the devil just thinks well if I can just beat you up every single day every single moment then you finally are just like well I'm just so tired I don't want to go to church now I'm just so tired I can't even serve God I'm just so tired I can't read my bible I'm always worried I'm always thinking I mean what's going to happen next and what are the democrats going to do next and and what are the republicans going to do next and what are you know what's going to happen in the government what's happening online and what are they going to censor next and which Dr. Seuss book do I need to get now and you know I don't even know where to go and just people just get so freaked out. Why? To stop you from serving God to get distracted from serving the Lord you know the devil is just using anything and everything that he can to stop you from doing that which is right what's one of those tactics? Persecution. Persecution shall come. Persecution has come and it will come and look it's not going to get easier. And what it says in verse 35 who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword. You know the bible says very clearly that nothing is going to separate you from the love of Christ. Let's keep reading. As is written for thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. All these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us for I am persuaded that neither death nor light nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things that come nor height nor death nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Notice he says hey you know what all those things are going to come we're like sheep led to the slaughter in this world. I mean the bible says the whole world lies in wickedness and we shine as bright lights. And you know what happens when you're in a dark room and someone is shining a bright light they're like turn that light off. Someone get that light. Someone break that light. Someone flick that light switch off. You know they don't like the light the light is an approach unto them so they want to turn it off and the brighter you shine the more there's going to be angst against your light. They're going to try and shut your light down. But I got good news for you no matter what they do nothing will stop Christ from loving you. And you know who's in charge of everything? Christ. Hey he can do whatever he wants. And so you should not fear you should not worry about what the world can do unto you. You need to worry about just being pleasing unto God and serving the Lord and being steadfast in your heart and not being one that has a stony heart but rather you need to take those stones and break them up in your heart and start making good places for the roots of God's word to creep in. You want the word of God to get real deep into your heart so that when the turmoil and the tribulation and the difficult things come you can withstand them. And what could be better than knowing that God's on your side? If God be for us who can be against us? Go to 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 go to 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. These early Christians they're really mature in lots of ways. I mean when you think about it I mean these guys are able to withstand great persecution and they're still going out and preaching the word. They're still being steadfast. They're still saying nothing's going to move us. They're still going out. I mean what after you've been tossed out of your church and tossed out of your city and you're on the run I mean what else you got to lose? But yet they're going to still keep preaching the word of God. They're going to still be steadfast. 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 3. We are bound to thank God always for you brethren as it is meet because that your faith growth exceedingly and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth so that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith and all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure. Notice Paul's talking with his church and saying you guys got all kinds of persecutions. You guys got all kinds of tribulations. Verse 5 which a manifest manifest token of the judgment of God that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God for which he also suffered. Now let me explain something to you. And I think for some people they just really don't get it. But if you're persecuted for doing that which is right if you're experiencing some kind of tribulation or some kind of affliction for doing that which is right God has looked at you and deemed you worthy of such persecution. Being persecuted is an honor. Being persecuted is a great reward for being a godly person. If you're never persecuted if you're never afflicted you know what that tells me? You're not godly. Not only are you not godly you're not even trying to be godly. Because the Bible says ye in all that will live godly. You know that verse isn't saying like you've already arrived it's just saying you're just trying. Like even just attempting to be godly you're going to face opposition. So you say man I have no opposition. That means that you're just not godly in any way. The fact that you're experiencing opposition, the fact that you're going through persecution is a manifest, it's an obvious token of the fact that you've been deemed worthy in God's sight to suffer for his sake. To suffer like he did. We shouldn't look at persecution in a way of oh man this is terrible. The Bible doesn't paint that picture. The Bible says that persecution should bring joy. It should bring rejoicing. The Bible says be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven. I mean it's kind of like whenever you're in grade school and the grade teacher is going to basically mark your report card and they're like A++ that's what persecution is like. And whenever you're like everything is going great and there's no opposition that's like an F. That's like you failing. Now who would be excited to go home and show mom I got an F. You're not doing good then. Now here's the reality. As much as you should actually want persecution you shouldn't try to obtain it. That's not what I'm teaching. Obviously I could walk into a mosque and start screaming Muhammad's a pedophile and there's going to be some persecution. There's going to be some affliction. But that's casting my pearls before swine. That's not using discretion. That's not really being biblical. What you should do is you should be trying to live peaceably with all men and just serving God quietly and just allow the persecution to come. Because this is what I'll promise you. You try to serve God. You try to live godly. You try to do that which is right. Persecution will just find you. It'll identify you. Just like a dark room someone turns on the light. It's not going to be questionable where the light is. But if you're hiding your light no one's going to know where you're at. You're not going to experience any kind of persecution or tribulation. What you will suffer is the consequences for your sin. God will be mad at you. God will punish you. And I don't want to suffer punishment. I'd rather suffer persecution. So here's the thing. When my life is going badly but it's because I'm going to church or serving God or trying to do that which is right it's actually great. But you know what? When my life's going badly and I think about it and I'm like wow I was kind of stupid or I didn't do that right or I'm making bad decisions that's not a good place to be in. I've been in both. I've been in both in my life where I'm looking back and my life is a train wreck right now. And I'm thinking like well I shouldn't have done this and this is a bad decision and I can't believe I did that. That's not a good place to be in. But when you look at your life and you're like wow my life's a train wreck but I wouldn't do anything differently. I'm doing that which is right. I'm doing that which is honest. I'm serving God. I'm good standing with the Lord. That's a great place to be in. You should actually be rejoicing. That's what the Bible teaches. Go to Acts chapter 5. We already read this but I want to drill it in. Go to Acts chapter number 5 and let me prove this to you from the Bible. Acts chapter 5 look at verse 41. And they departed from the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. What does the Bible say? Hey Peter and John they were literally like yeah woo. We went to jail. We got beat for the cause of Christ. That means Christ found us worthy to suffer for him. They didn't suffer for any wrongdoing. Peter and John didn't do anything wrong. They healed a man. Think about it. You're going to church to pray and on your way you heal a man who's been lame from his birth and that's why they got beat. That's why they went to jail. Are you going to really tell me that's punishment? That was obvious persecution. So when they leave that situation they can say yes. Yeah! Woo! We got to suffer for the cause of Christ. And you say that's a weird emotion. That's the right emotion. The wrong emotion would be like oh man I healed this guy and nobody likes me now and I got all this persecution. I got beat. Look at my back. This hurts. This is terrible. They're like sweet did you see this one? This one's a really big scar. That one's going to scar horribly. That's awesome! Why they have the right attitude. They're rejoicing about it. Go to Luke chapter 21. Go to Luke chapter 21. Not only that but when God doles out punishments He actually is going to save the righteous, those that are doing right, more than He's going to save the backslidden. Obviously we understand righteous can just refer to the saved but can also refer to your current status in the sense of are you doing right? Are you a righteous person in your daily life too? Are you following God's commandments? Are you a godly person? It's a very famous scripture talking about the coming of Christ and the end times and all the evil that was going to happen. I'm just going to jump into the passage here but look at verse 34. ...worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass and to stand before the Son of Man. If you're living godly you can be considered worthy to suffer persecution but you can also be counted worthy to escape God's wrath and God's judgment and God's tribulation and horrible things that would come upon people. So it's a double win because whenever you suffer that persecution in many cases, not all but almost all, you're going to be delivered anyways. Go to 2 Timothy 3. In Stephen's case obviously he's an exception but there's going to be some people that suffer a martyr's death. We have to understand that. We have to accept that. But the majority of the Bible, when you study the Bible and you study the men of God that take hard stands, that do that which is right, that are living the righteous life, they're the guys that are spared. Think of Noah and his family, they're spared. Think about Daniel in the lion's den, he's spared. Think about constantly throughout the Old Testament the guy that's standing through, Jeremiah. I mean everyone's killed but Jeremiah. Everyone's just destroyed and decimated and just horrible things are happening. Just famine, death by famine, death by the sword. Women are killing their own children and eating them. I mean just the most horrific things are happening. Jeremiah makes it through. But he suffered persecution the whole time. He's in the dunk pit so he's worthy to suffer the persecution but then he was also worthy to what? Survive through all of God's wrath, survive through all of God's judgment and the tribulation that he's bringing upon them. Well the Apostle Paul is the same type of person. Look at 2 Timothy 3, look at verse 10. It says But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra. What persecutions I endured, but notice this, but out of them all the Lord delivered me. But out of them all the Lord delivered me. And then you get the famous verse that I already quoted. Yea, and all that will of God then Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. So here's the thing, Paul was able to be delivered out of all of it though and he was able to be rescued out of all of it. And there's going to be lots of people that suffer great persecution but the Lord is going to deliver them. And Paul had great confidence in the Lord. Go to chapter 4 and look at verse 16. At my first answer no man stood with me but all men forsook me. I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. Notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me and strengthened me that by me the preaching might be fully known and that all the Gentiles might hear and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work and will preserve me into his heavenly kingdom to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Now that's confidence. The Apostle Paul is saying hey the Lord is going to deliver me. Hey I'm going to be delivered, the Lord is going to preserve me. The Lord is going to keep me on this path. And that's really the goal and the life of most Christians. 99% of us if you follow God's will perfectly he's going to deliver you and he's going to take you through. And even if you have to be a Stephen you know what? I guarantee he's got great rewards in heaven. Stephen's not up in heaven and just like God why did you let me get killed? That was a bad idea. That was a bad idea. No, you know what? Stephen motivated the Apostle Paul and notice what happens to the church. They all get driven out. Now would this church have sent that many people out organically? No. Go back to Acts, if you would go back to Acts 8. And I know I spent a little time on that point but I think it's important to really think about this. Would that church have sent all these people out? Would all those people have gone out preaching the word? Probably not. Most likely no. But through Stephen's sacrifice God is going to use that horrible event to end up getting the gospel out of people. So this is what I believe. I believe that if you're following God's commandments and you're doing that which is right in the Lord's sight the only reason God would ever let you just be decimated by the enemy or destroyed by the enemy is because it's going to bring a major impact to the cause of Christ. It's going to have some radical effect on the cause of Christ that's according to His will. So that would be the only exception. And in either way, why wouldn't then great! You know if I'm thinking, okay well if I die even more stuff's going to happen positively for the cause of Christ than if I live then go for it. Otherwise you know the Apostle Paul was very convinced he was not going to die because he says it's more needful for you that I abide in the flesh. And for most of us it's more needful for other people like your children, your family, or our church or whatever for you to abide in the flesh. And you know I feel confident a lot of times the Lord is going to preserve me just because I feel like our church is right now it's needful that I abide in the flesh. But if God decides well you know what Pastor Shelley dead is better than alive then you know that's just going to be my calling. You know that's going to be what happens. But right now I don't feel like that's the case and I feel like as long as I'm serving the Lord He is going to deliver me and He is going to preserve me and He's going to protect me. You know what? Though He slay me yet will I trust Him. Think about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego when faced with the fiery furnace. They said the Lord is going to deliver them. And they said but even if He doesn't we're still not going to worship the false God. We're still not going to bow down. They had confidence that the Lord was going to deliver them. Why? Because it didn't make sense for them to die in that situation and guess what? The Lord did deliver them didn't He? Look at verse number 5. And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. So Philip's doing miracles here and Philip was also one of the seven. So it was Stephen and Philip were in that same group. Philip he is not being killed he's doing great miracles. He's going out and following in the footsteps of Stephen. Verse number 8 and there was great joy in that city. But there was a certain man named Simon which before time in the same city used sorcery into which the people of Samaria had given out that himself was some great one. To whom they all gave heed from the least of the greatest saying this man is the great man they had regard because that of a long time he had bewitched them. He believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God in the name of men and women. Then Simon himself believed also and continued with Philip and wondered beholding the miracles and signs which were done. So we see it's very easy to trick people apparently. You know Simon this guy is a sorcerer and he's using you know like false signs or whatever sorcery or magic or something to basically trick people or deceive them. But by a miracle not only do all these people get saved even Simon himself is like yeah I'm a fake you know it's not real. He realizes that Christ is the Lord and they all get saved. A lot of people are getting saved here. And it says in verse number 14 now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God they sent unto them Peter and John. Now remember they had to send to these guys the ones that stayed the apostles. And the apostles are the ones with all the power. The apostles are the ones with the gift. And so they're sending unto all these people that are getting saved they're hearing about it and they're like oh wow. Verse 15 who when they were come down prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost. For as yet he was fallen upon none of them only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost. So Peter and John come and notice Philip who's ordained Philip who's doing miracles he still is not able to lay hands in them to receive the Holy Ghost. That's a special thing that's done by the apostles. Yet you know you look at a lot of Charismaniacs and Pinacrazies today and they all want to just go around and everybody's speaking in tongues or whatever they call it you know it's really just gibberish speaking. Rolling around on the floor not with the Bible's teaching. And the Bible's showing us that the apostles are the ones that were giving out this gift to the Holy Ghost. It wasn't just anybody and everywhere and these people had already been saved. They had already been baptized and they still didn't have the Holy Ghost. Because some Pentecostal churches teach and they have in the past that you have to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost of speaking in tongues to even be saved. They say that that's the evidence of salvation. Whereas these people are clearly saved and they haven't even gotten the gift yet. But when they get this gift they get it because of the apostles and Simon he likes this. He's the first Pentecostal in the Bible. He's the first guy that's like I want this power. I want to shake la la la la. I want to just knock some people over or something. I can't wait to get this thing. And it says in verse 18 when Simon saw that through laying on the apostles hands the Holy Ghost was given he offered them money. This guy he was in charge. You've got to think about this. This guy was like their leader. He was like Joel Osteen's ministry. He's the Joel Osteen of his area. And everybody likes him and he's just so great and wonderful. And he's their leader and he's their pastor. But he's not even saved. The whole town gets saved and he can't be content just being part of the church. He's got to be in charge. So he's trying to buy his way into the ministry. He's trying to purchase his way into the ministry. And look there's no new thing under the sun. There's a lot of people that want to be in the ministry but they're not willing to just go serve and be a local church member. So what do they do? They buy their way in the ministry. You say how do you buy your way in the ministry? You can buy your ordination. You can go to Bible college. Look you can even just buy an ordination certificate. I mean you can just find there's these seminaries and these colleges where you can just buy it. You know there's all these people that become an ordained minister to perform weddings. They just pay fifty bucks or whatever. They just pay a hundred bucks and they're just they'll be like they'll come up to me and they'll be like I'm an ordained minister. We were going out soul winning in Dallas. This guy walks up and he's like I'm an ordained minister. And he looked like he was high on meth. And I'm thinking like okay. And he's like let me quote you some Bible. And I'm just thinking like I want you to just walk away. You know Simon the sorcerer. You can't buy the spiritual gifts of God. They're not for sale. It's a special gift that's given to those that are found faithful. It says in verse 19 saying give me also this power. But Peter said to them thy money perish with thee. Because now it's thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. Thou hast neither lot that is not a part nor lot in this matter for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. Now that's not a kind you know rebuttal. That's a sharp rebuke. Why? Because people that want to be in the ministry because they can be the leader or be in charge are wicked people. It's a wicked thought. It's a wicked idea. Look the person that's in ministry should have a heart to serve and to love other people and being found faithful. Not trying to figure out how to weasel his way in there. Not trying to figure out how to buy it. Not trying to figure out how to steal it. Not trying to figure out how to just take it. But rather receive it. Look you either receive the ministry or it's not for you. It's not given to you. God's not giving the ministry to people that are trying to steal it, take it, weasel their way in. And look when I find people or I know about people that are trying to weasel their way in the ministry I expose them. You say ah you're mean. Well I'm trying to be like Peter. So if I'm mean then Peter's mean. And that's fine. Call me mean. I don't see where he's nice to this guy. He's not being nice to this guy. He's saying thy money perish with thee. He says therefore of this thy wickedness. He says you have to repent of your wickedness. He's rebuking this guy. He's wanting this guy to figure out. And notice how he words it. Because I like the way that Peter words this. And some people might not like this. But look what he says. Thou hast neither part nor a lot in this matter. He says you're never going to have. This is not for you. You already have exposed the fact that you're not the right person to be in this position. You have exposed yourself as being a self-willed person. As a person that doesn't have the right heart. That doesn't have the right desires. You know what? You're not going to have this. You're never going to have this. And he was telling him he still needs to repent of his wickedness just to get right in the sight of God. But at the end of the day you know when someone exposed themselves to this super self-willed selfish you know all about themselves prideful person. That's like the last person you want to put in ministry. You know that's like the worst attributes that someone can show if they want to be in the ministries. They just have to be in charge. Or they're trying to take it or trying to purchase it. You know that person needs to get their heart right with the Lord. Just so that he doesn't smite them or something. And at least Simon you know figures out that what he did was wrong. Look at verse 24. Then answered Simon and said pray to the Lord for me that none of these things which you have spoken come upon me. Now maybe he was just a little bit confused or naive to the situation. But it was a very evil sin. I mean the apostle Peter is saying you're in the gall of bitterness and then the bond of iniquity. Why? Because he already had it in his heart of very wicked sin. I mean do you think God looks down on people with a lot of kindness that are using sorcery to trick people into following them. And they're giving him this praise of being the great power of God when it's not even of God. I mean this blast is a false teacher. Now he ends up getting saved. He ends up you know sword. But he still in his heart wants to just have this power and this preeminence that's not from the Lord. Okay. And really he's just envious. And there's a lot of people that are just envious of ministers. They're envious of the Lord's servants. They're envious of the gifts of God. And they're not willing to earn it legitimately. And so they try to fake it. They try to feign it. They go around. There's people calling themselves apostles today. You can go to all kinds of churches today. It's apostle so and so. And it's like you're not an apostle. You know. It's just a fake thing. They're just Simon the sorcerer again. They're just trying to trick people and convince people on these things. And what I like about showing the Holy Ghost being given to them is this is different than what the Pentecostals are teaching. And you say why? Well keep your finger and go to Mark chapter 16. Go to Mark chapter 16. They want to make it a sign about salvation. But it's not really a sign about salvation. It's a sign that's confirming the apostles themselves. It's confirming the Lord's ministers is what it's actually doing. And it says in Mark chapter 16, look at verse 20, And they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs. What's a confirmation of the apostles' word? The Holy Ghost falling and them preaching with these tongues. And look. This is a different Holy Ghost than what you get at salvation. And I'm not saying there's multiple Holy Ghosts. I'm just saying it's a different experience. Obviously there's one Holy Ghost. There's one Spirit. But the moment you believe you're sealed with the Spirit, that's different than what's happening here when the Holy Ghost is coming upon them. They're being filled with the Holy Ghost. They're having the fullness of the Holy Ghost coming upon them. They're having the power of the Holy Ghost come upon them. And they're able to speak a whole language that they never learned before. They're able to do all kinds of other miracles and powers and wonders and things like that. And this is just to confirm the apostles and confirm the word that they have. But here's the thing. The apostles have the right gospel. The apostles have the right message. You know what the Pentecrazies don't have? The right gospel. Why would God give these crazy lunatics any kind of power to confirm their word when their word is a false gospel? The Pentecostals teach you can lose your salvation. The Pentecostals teach that it's a repent of your sins gospel. The Pentecostals don't preach any of the Bible correctly. They're a bunch of false prophets and false teachers. There's nothing to confirm. Why would God give them anything? Everything they have is satanic. Everything they have is wrong. There's nothing legitimate about it. It's just the same sorceries that Simons was using to get people to follow him today. But you know what? The gift that was given here in Acts is different. It's confirming the real gospel. So you say, well, how do you know the Pentecostal speaking in tongues is fake? Because they have the wrong gospel. Nothing about their ministry is going to be right. If you have the wrong gospel, everything's wrong. But at least they're righteous. They're not righteous in any way. Well, at least they're doing this. No. It's just wrong. It's all wrong. God's not having his power upon them. I'm not afraid of calling them out. They have a different spirit. It's the wrong spirit. Look at verse number 24. Let's keep reading. Verse 25, So they're going out and they're preaching the word of God to everyone. A lot of these Samaritans and they're getting saved. Verse 26, And Eunuch, of great authority, under Canas the queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure and had come to Jerusalem for her worship, was returning and sitting in his chariot, read, Isaias the prophet. Then the spirit said to Philip, Go near and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran thither to him and heard him read the prophet Isaias and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. And the place of the scripture which he read was this. He was led as a sheep to the slaughter and like a lamb done before a shearer. So opened he not his mouth and in humiliation his judgment was taken away. And who should declare his generation for his life is taken from the earth? Now keep your finger and go to Isaiah 53. Go to Isaiah 53. And this is where he was actually at in the Bible. And what's interesting is this. You know when they went soul winning they didn't have Romans. They didn't have Acts. They're in the middle of living Acts. It's not been written down yet. They don't even have Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John as far as the written version. They obviously experienced it physically and they could recall certain things that the Lord had said to them on a one-on-one basis. But if they're going to appeal to scripture, the only scripture they can appeal to is the Old Testament. But you know what? Even from the Old Testament it's the same Gospel. It's the same message that they're reading. And look, they're reading Isaiah 53. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before his shearers is dumb so he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment and who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people was he stricken. Now who's Isaiah 53 about? It's about the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's one of the clearest passages about him. He was what? Jesus was oppressed. Jesus was afflicted. Yet even though he's afflicted, he didn't open his mouth before Herod. He didn't say anything before the... He wasn't trying to say, hey, you know who I am. You can't do this to me. He just was silent. He was silent before. He's like a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before his shearers is dumb. Dumb in this vernacular is not meaning stupid, it's meaning quiet, like unable to talk or not talking. And it says, so he opened not his mouth. That's where you get that interpretation. Verse 8, and he was taken from prison from judgment and who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living. So it's saying, who's going to preach about him? Who's going to preach the gospel? Who's going to preach these things? Because he's killed. Cut off means to be put to death. Being killed out of the land of the living for the first time. Notice this, why? For the transgression of my people. It was for what? The sins of his people. It was for the sins of the whole world that he died. And so this is clearly about the Lord Jesus Christ. Go back. That's what they read. And look at verse 34. This is a question the eunuch has. And the eunuch answered Philip and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? Of himself or of some other man? So that's a great question. He doesn't know. He says, is this Isaiah or is he talking about somebody else? Verse 35, then Philip opened his mouth and began to the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus. So just like I was explaining to you, he sat there and explained to this eunuch, he says, this is all about Jesus. And he just died. He was, you know, here in Jerusalem. That's why we're here. And he's preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ on him. What? His death, his burial, and his resurrection. He's declaring his generation. And as they went on their way, they came in a certain water, and the eunuch said, see, here's water, what does hinder me to be baptized? So he's preaching him the gospel. He's preaching him about all these different things, preaching about baptism. And this guy's like thinking like, well, what's stopping me from getting baptized? Because in his mind, he's believing it. He's believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's trusting the Lord. Now, here's the question. If I can't look in someone's heart and do a surgical, you know, operation to see if Christ is in there, I can't like open, is there some Holy Ghost in there? Let me check. Okay. What would be the absolute best way to determine is someone saved? Well, let's see what he does. And Philip said, if thou believeth with all thine heart, thou mayest. So he's asking him, hey, if you believe, if you're trusting in Christ, then I can't stop believing you. Now, what do you think is the best way for him to prove to him that he believes it? And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Now, you know what that sounds like to me? Soul winning. What do we do? We go and we ask people what they believe and then based on what they tell us, we determine if what? They're saved or unsaved. Now, what if this guy said, I don't believe? Or if he said, well, I'm going to heaven because I'm a good person. Do you think Philip would have baptized him? No. And then people get all mad. They're like, you go out there and decide if people are saved or not? Yeah. Yeah, I ask them what they believe and based on what they tell me. The Bible says out of the abundance of the heart, the mouse speaketh. And sorry, you know what determines if someone gets baptized or not? If they believe. If they actually trust in the Lord. You're deciding if they're saved or not if you're going to baptize them? Yes. Just like Philip did. Just like everybody does. Well, who made you the judge if people go to heaven or hell? No one. I'm not. You know what? I am the judge if you get baptized or not. And you want to know if you get baptized or not? You've got to confess that you believe in Jesus Christ. And notice, you know, the Catholics don't like this verse, so they just rip it out. The NIV doesn't like this verse, so rip it out. All the modern versions virtually take this verse out. Only a few probably keep it and they just put like a big footnote there and you look at the bottom and it's like, this doesn't exist in the originals or this isn't found in the reliable manuscripts or this isn't found in some of the more ancient manuscripts. They put some kind of a shade on this verse like the devil. Yehoth, God said. But what a great verse. It helps us understand why you would baptize, who's getting baptized. Verse 38, and he commanded the chariot to stand still, and he went down both in the water, both Philip and Eunuch, and he baptized them. And then when they were come up out of the water, that's because you have to go down into the water, and you know, baptisms by immersion, okay. The Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the Eunuch saw him no more, and he went on his way rejoicing. But Philip was found in a zotus, and passing through he preached in all the cities until he came to Caesarea. I just love this story. Because, you know, also another criticism people give you is they're like, oh, so you get people saved and then they don't come to your church? Well, what church did this guy go to? In fact, as soon as he gets saved and baptized, God takes him away. God doesn't even let him do any kind of follow up. God's not even worried about what's happening. Look, some people, they're not going to come to your church. Some people, they're going this way, and you're going that way. But you know what? If your paths cross, you have a special moment in time where something had happened. You could open your mouth boldly and make known the mystery of the gospel and get them saved. And you know what? It's probably not this Eunuch's life, you know, destiny to go to the church in Jerusalem, or to go hang out with Philip. He's this person under the charge of Candace the Queen. And you know what's even better? If he gets saved and goes back home to what? Ethiopia, and he can preach to other people in Ethiopia the gospel. And the word can spread and go on. And you know what? It also tells me this. This guy, he went to church earlier because he found him going to Jerusalem to worship, is what the Bible says. Now when he went to worship, let me ask this question. Was he saved? No. There's people that are seeking to worship the Lord, but they're not even saved. In John chapter number 4, when Jesus is speaking to the woman at the well, he says, you know not what you worship. Because there's lots of people trying to worship the Lord. Look, there's churches everywhere. And there's people that are sincerely trying to worship the Lord. They're trying to seek after the Lord. And the Bible says, seek me and you shall find me. But you also need to seek the Lord while he may be found. And the reality is, there's a lot of people out there. They want to be saved. They're seeking the Lord. They're trying to understand the Bible. But here's the question that rings throughout eternity in my mind. How can I accept some man should guide me? If our gospel be head, it's head to them that are lost. And there's so many people that are out there. They're seeking the Lord. And you know what? You are the answer to their prayers. You are. You walking up in the door. You know, I walk up to some stranger's door and I preach them the gospel and they never come to my church. I still, I still could be the answer to their prayers. What church? He doesn't even have a church to invite them to. Their church has been made a havoc of. Their church has been destroyed. Look, a local testament church has been decimated. It's been wiped out virtually. But isn't this a great chapter of the Bible? Didn't a lot of people get saved? Didn't great things happen? And you know, we shouldn't look at a church and be like, whoa, I just hope our church grows to trillions or billions. Why don't we just hope that lots of people get saved? And you know what? If our church grows to thousands, praise the Lord. If our church grows to thousands, then it shrinks down to 20 again. But the cause of Christ is increased and praise the Lord. You know, we should just make spiritual decisions in our life and just care that the gospel is being preached. And at the end of the day, no matter what problem you have, your problem is not being hellbound. Hey, if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you know, your problems don't really matter in comparison to 99% of this world or 95% of this world that's hellbound. The only problem they've got that's serious is the fact that they're on their way to hell. And they need someone to guide them. They need someone to preach them the gospel. And you know what? It doesn't matter who Philip is. It doesn't matter who it was that was going out and preaching. It doesn't matter man, woman, boy, child. You know, you say, well, I'm nobody. You know, I don't make any money. I'm a nobody in this world. You know what? You're not a nobody in Christ. You're an ambassador for Christ. And you could be literally the answer to someone's prayers when you go out and you preach the gospel. And you know what? We're going to celebrate Easter. And some people, you know what they're really hoping for for Easter? That they have a big attendance at church. I'm just telling you, ministers, pastors, they live for Easter because that's when a lot of people show up for church because Easter is like notorious as like the day everybody goes to church or whatever. But you know what I really want? I really want our church to go out and preach the gospel on April 1st and on April 2nd and on April 3rd and to go out and be the answer to someone's prayer. And you know what? I hope we get tons of people safe and you say, what if they never come to your church? Well at least they're going to heaven. Hey, I don't care if the Lord whisk you away to the next door and then you go preach to these other people and you say, well how dare you limit church services on Thursday for soul winning? Isn't that what God did in this story? Didn't God wreck havoc on the church and cause people to go out so that people could get saved? You know, what's the point of having church if we don't even preach the gospel? It doesn't even make sense. We need to be a group of people that are zealous for the Lord and we understand that this whole world is hell bound and you know what? More important than educating them about how stupid it is to wear two masks and how stupid Biden is and how horrible our country is turning into a communist hell hole. You know what? It's educating about the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's getting them saved. And you know what? There's people out there that are seeking but no one's there to show them. This guy was seeking. This guy wanted to know. There's so many people that want to get saved. But if our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost. You need to realize your value. You need to realize your importance because at some point everything that you see is going to be destroyed. It's going to be wiped out the face of the map and the only thing that's going to survive is your soul and the souls that you were able to take with you. But why do people get offended? All of the cares of this world. I've already read that. They don't have any root in their heart. You know what? The best thing you can do, the best decision you can make in your heart is to say I'm going to be a soul winner for the rest of my life. No matter what happens. No matter who I lose. No matter what persecution happens to me. No matter how many times I'm thrown to jail. No matter how many times I'm beaten. It doesn't matter. Hey, I'm not going to be separated from the love of Christ. And you know what? The worst thing you can do is stop preaching the gospel. I mean if you win the lottery and just everything is going great for you and you get the house of your dreams and you get the boat of your dreams and you get everything you ever wanted and you win the Super Bowl ten times in a row but you stop preaching the gospel, woe unto you. But if you lose everything but you keep preaching the gospel, blessed are you. Let's go to some prayer. Thank you Father so much for your word. Thank you for this great church that you've given us and these people. I pray that we never lose focus of the purpose of us being on this earth. And the goal of our lives to go out and preach the gospel and that no matter what happens to us, it's for your honor and for your glory and that if we even suffer any kind of persecution it's really just that we're kind of worthy in our sight. And I pray that we'd have the right attitude, that we'd be excited when we're persecuted for righteousness sake. That we would see the importance of preaching the gospel and that we would be motivated by the love of people to open our mouths boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let's go to our last song. We'll do our little handout. Psalm 67. Let's do Psalm 67. You can even follow along in your Bible if you want. But the sheet music is a little bit easier to sing along with. There on the first. And sing for joy For thou so judge the people Righteously and govern The nations up on earth The nations up on earth see love Let the people praise thee, O God Let all the people Praise thee, O let the nations Be glad and sing For joy, then shall the earth Yield her increase and God Even our own God shall bless us God shall bless us and all the ends Of the earth shall fear him Let the people praise thee, O God Let all the people praise thee O let the nations be glad And sing for joy God bless you guys. You are dismissed. Thank you. Thank you.