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Good evening, sorry for being a few minutes late. Let's go in our hymnals to song 162. Let's go to song number 162, To God Be the Glory, there in the first. To God be the glory, great things he hath done, So loved he the world, that he gave us his Son, Who yielded his life and atonement for sin, And opened the life gate that all may go in. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the earth hear his voice, Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the people rejoice, O come to the Father through Jesus the Son, And give him the glory, great things he hath done, O perfect redemption, the purchase of blood, To every believer the promise of God, The vilest offender who truly believes, That moment from Jesus, aboard and receives. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the earth hear his voice, Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the people rejoice, O come to the Father through Jesus the Son, And give him the glory, great things he hath done, Great things he hath taught us, great things he hath done, And great are rejoicing through Jesus the Son, But purer and higher and greater will be, Our wonder, our transport when Jesus we see. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the earth hear his voice, Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the people rejoice, O come to the Father through Jesus the Son, And give him the glory, great things he hath done. Very good singing. Brother, sorry, will you go ahead and pray for us? I'm losing my breath. Amen. Let's go ahead and go to our next song, song 227. Song 227. Saved by the Blood. Song 227, there on the first. Saved by the blood of the crucified one, Now ransom from sin and a new work begun, Sing praise to the Father and praise to the Son, Saved by the blood of the crucified one, Glory I'm saved, glory I'm saved, My sins are all pardon, my guilt is all gone, Glory I'm saved, glory I'm saved, I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one, Saved by the blood of the crucified one, The angels rejoicing because it is done, A child of the Father joiner with the Son, Saved by the blood of the crucified one, Glory I'm saved, glory I'm saved, My sins are all pardon, my guilt is all gone, Glory I'm saved, glory I'm saved, I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one, Saved by the blood of the crucified one, The Father he spake and his will it was done, Great Price of my pardon, his own precious Son, Saved by the blood of the crucified one, Glory I'm saved, glory I'm saved, My sins are all pardon, my guilt is all gone, Glory I'm saved, glory I'm saved, I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one, Saved by the blood of the crucified one, All hail to the Father, all hail to the Son, All hail to the Spirit, the Great Three and One, Saved by the blood of the crucified one, Glory I'm saved, glory I'm saved, My sins are all pardon, my guilt is all gone, Glory I'm saved, glory I'm saved, I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one. Very good singing. If you need a bulletin, Brother Darnell has one back there. He can get it to you. On the inside we have our service and soul winning times as well as totals down below. Was there anything to report for the last few days on soul winning by chance? Anything extra? We had two this evening so praise the Lord on that. Looks like y'all have had lots on Sundays and been doing really well so keep up the great work on soul winning. Also we're on our Bible memory passage Romans chapter 8. We're on verse number 4 and so keep working on that. Also we have a baby shower April 11th for Miss Jubilee Balen if you'd please and our baby girl and they're registered on Amazon and Walmart if you'd like to participate. It's April 11th at 2 p.m. and also please also keep all the other expecting mothers in your prayers. We have several ladies that are expecting and if you have any prayer requests throughout the week you can always submit those in to the church and we'll try to get those either mentioned on the midweek service put them in the bulletin or whatever we can. That's pretty much all that I have. Oh there is a sign-up sheet on the back cabinet for the men's conference so if you are planning on participating please put your name, email and the dates that you're going to be attending. We're going to be there the 20, 21st and 22nd which is a Thursday, Friday, Saturday and so the itinerary is going to be pretty similar to what we had last year where we're kind of going to show up that Thursday morning and then we'll be there all day Friday and then Saturday morning we'll probably do something similar where we have breakfast, let some of the men preach and then we'll kind of head out after Saturday kind of mid-morning or so. So if you just want to have an idea of just kind of the general timeline if for whatever reason you can't make it on Thursday you're still welcome to come on Friday or something like that. I know Pastor Anderson is going to be preaching that Friday and so that's going to be definitely a special treat and so I'd really encourage you to come out for that. If you have any questions you can always ask me as we get a little bit closer we know who's coming I'll send out very specific information to all the men that are participating as far as like what you should be bringing at least this year have a little bit better idea of some of the things you should be bringing. Last year I didn't even know and it was like it was kind of a prison camp okay this time it'll be a little bit elevated from that all right and so we're gonna have lots of fun and I'm really looking forward to it. Also we have other events and things that are going to be scheduled for the future but that's all I have at this time. Let's go to song 314 more love to thee song 314 more love to thee there on the verse more love to thee oh christ more love to thee hear thou the prayer i make on bended knee this is my earnest plea more love oh christ to thee more love to thee more love to thee one's earthly joy i crave sought peace and rest now the alone i seek give what is best this all my prayer shall be more love oh christ to thee more love to thee more love to thee to thee let sorrow do its work sin grief and pain sweet are thy messengers sweet very frame when they can sing with me more love oh christ to thee more love to thee more love to thee then shall my latest breath whisper thy praise this be the parting cry my heart shall raise this still its prayer shall be more love oh christ to thee more love to thee more love to thee at this time we will turn our bibles to act chapter nine brother brandon can you read for us and we'll pass the offering plate all right well we're there in acts chapter nine and the bible says and saw yet breathing out of threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the lord went into the high priest and desired of him letters to damascus to the synagogues that if he found any of this way whether they were men or women he might bring them bound unto jerusalem and as he journeyed he came near damascus and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven and he fell to the earth and he heard a voice saying unto him saw saw why persecutest thou me and he said who art thou lord and the lord said i am jesus whom thou persecute it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks and he trembling in astonishment said lord what wilt thou have me do to do and lord said unto him arise and go into the city and it shall be told thee what thou must do and the man which sojourned with him stood speechless hearing a voice but seeing no man and saw arose from the earth and when his eyes were opened he saw no man but they led him by the hand and brought him into damascus and he was three days without sight and neither did eat nor drink and there was a certain disciple at damascus named ananias and into him said lord in a vision ananias and he said behold i am here lord and the lord said unto him arise and go into the street which is called straight and inquire in the house of judas for one called saul of tarsus for behold he prayeth and he has seen in a vision a man named ananias coming into coming in and putting his hand on him that he might receive his sight then ananias answered lord i have heard by many of this man how which evil he have done to thy saints and jerusalem and there he hath authority from the chief priest to bind all that call on on thy name but the lord said unto him go thy way for he is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the gentiles and kings and the children of israel for i will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake and ananias went his way and entered into the house and putting his hands on him said brother saul the lord even jesus that appeared unto thee in the way as thou comest hath have sent me that thou mightest receive thy sight and be filled with the holy ghost and immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales and he received sight for with and rose and was baptized and when he had received meat he was strengthened then it was saul certain days with the disciples which were at damascus and straightway he preached in christ in the synagogues that he his the son of god but all that heard him were amazed and he said is not this he that destroyed them which called out of his name in jerusalem and came hither for the intent that he might bring them abound unto the chief priest but saul increased the more in strength and confounded the jews which dwelt in damascus proving that his that this is very christ and after the many days were fulfilled the jews took counsel to kill him but their laying with weight was known as known of saul and they watched the gates that gates day and night to kill him then the disciples took him by night and let him down by the wall in a basket and when saul was come to jerusalem he as made a say to join himself to the disciples but they were all afraid of him and believe not that he was a disciple but barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared unto them how he had seen the lord and the way and that he had spoken to him and how he had preached boldly at damascus in the name of jesus and he was with them coming in and going out at jerusalem and he spake boldly in the name of the lord jesus and disputed against the gretians but they went about to slay him which when the brethren knew they brought him down to ciceria and sent him to tarsus and then the churches rest throughout all judea and gallely and samaria and were edified and walked in the fear of the lord and the comfort of the holy ghost were multiplied and it came to pass as peter passed throughout all the quarters and came down also to the saints with dwelt and lydia and there he found a certain man named enos which he kept he had kept in his bed eight years and was of the palsy and peter said unto him enos jesus christ may the hole and rise and make thy bed and he rose immediately and all that dwelt lydia and sauron saw him and turned to the lord and these was the and there now there was a japa a certain disciple named tabitha which was which by interpretation is called dorkus and the woman was of good works and all on these which he did which he did and it came to pass in those days that she was sick and died whom they had washed they laid her in the upper chamber and for as much lydia was nigh to japa and his disciples had heard that peter was there and then he sent unto the men desiring them him that he would not delay to come to them then peter arose and went with them and when he was come they brought him into the upper chambers and all the wid widows stood by him weeping and showing the coats and garments which dorkus made while she was with them but peter put them all forth and kneeled down and prayed and turning him to the bod body said tabitha arise and open she opened her eyes and when she saw peter she sat up and she gave her hand gave her his hand and lifted her up and when he had called the saints and widows presented her alive and it was known throughout all japa and many believed in the lord and it came to pass that he tarried many days in japa with one simon and tanner but jeff would you like to pray for us yes um so we've been going through the book of acts and acts chapter 9 is really an action-packed chapter and it has a lot of great information and we've been kind of being introduced to a person named saul he was mentioned in chapter 7 as being consenting of the death of stephen and then in chapter number eight it mentions saul again and we see sauls is kind of being brought up and and all of a sudden we kind of focus in on saul here in chapter number nine and it says in verse number one in saul yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the lord went unto the high priest and desired of him letters to damascus to the synagogues that if he found any of this way whether they were men or women he might bring them bound unto jerusalem and we know that stephen he was killed for the cause of christ and the apostle paul you know who's saul at this point in the bible who he's referred to as but the same person he was consenting to his death but in verse number one it says that he was breathing out notice this threatenings and slaughter so this guy is is very willing to kill the disciples of jesus christ he's very willing to kill and murder people who believe on the lord jesus christ those who are saved and he's desiring to get permission to basically do this and what you have to understand is this isn't an intense amount of persecution that is coming on god's people where they literally have people that are going out hailing them to prison on a regular basis searching for them finding them threatening them with death and with horrible types of persecution and the person that's really you know kind of spearheading this movement is saul himself saul is one of the main people here that's you know trying to hunt christians down and is going around he's kind of a basically the the the biggest persecutor as it were for them and and we have to understand is there's often throughout the bible seasons or times in which great persecution happens where there's a particular individual or maybe even a cluster of individuals that are seeking intense persecution against god's people we could think of pharaoh you know pharaoh wanting to kill and murder all of the baby children we could think of harry wanting to kill all the baby children and all throughout the old testament there's stories when there's intense levels of persecution but it's never permanent you know it's never like this permanent status it's never just always happening it's usually just a season it's a moment of time and what we have to understand is that we may very well go through a period like that in our lifetimes you know you know god god willing we wouldn't you know one of the prayers you know is that the lord would deliver us from evil and evil means harm you know we should pray that we don't have to go through intense persecution that we don't have to suffer these type of evils that could happen to us but they may happen and if they do happen i think some people have this doom and gloom attitude of well if that is happening you know let's just go on hiding and quit and you know it's over and and whatever but we have to realize is that just like in the bible these intense seasons of persecutions come and go they too also could come and go in our lives where even if we go through a really intense level of persecution for a period of time it could completely change you know the way america is set up you know we may have presidents coming and going that change the political or spiritual culture of our society to where a particular president could come into power and cause really intense persecution against god's people but then the next president comes along or somebody else and then it changes again and so we don't want to have this attitude of like a doom and gloom or it's always going to be a certain way because things can change things can evolve and if we go through an intense period of persecution that we should try to be steadfast even through it and hoping for the lord to get us through that type of persecution you know we don't want to just quit just because of saul exists in the world right and what you have to understand about this is at that time you know it's kind of similar to the catholic church how the jewish structure exists because we have to think about is he's going to get permission right from the high priest the high priest is like this person who's kind of over everything and it's kind of similar to the structure of a catholic church where they kind of have the pope and the pope kind of has this universal authority over all other catholic churches and so he's kind of seeking that from this high priest to where essentially the high priest is getting him power and authority that he can go and and basically do whatever he wants in other synagogues and go around having this potential authority this is not a political authority though okay this is not necessarily uh something that's being asked of the romans this is being asked of the churches and the churches have some realm of political and spiritual authority but it's mostly in the spiritual realm and we have to realize is the enemies of christians is typically you know not going to be just a political agenda it's a spiritual agenda and the enemies here are spiritual enemies in the sense that they are trying to promulgate their false religion and judaism onto people and even willing to death and we have to understand is that there's a synagogue like everywhere and it's kind of an interesting concept go to acts chapter 15 go to acts chapter 15 now the word synagogue is not a word that we're very familiar with you know it's not a word that we pretty much use in a regular basis we typically associate it with jews but synagogue just is very synonymous with the word gathering so it would be very similar to the word church in the sense what church is like a congregation congregation is an assembly or a gathering and a synagogue is also a gathering or assembly but i like that the bible uses these two different words because our assembling is the church of god their assembling is the synagogue of satan okay so there's a difference there they're both gathering and it's both religious but it's completely different type of gathering as far as what religion that they're practicing now look at acts chapter 15 and look at verse 21 the bible says for moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him being read in the synagogues every sabbath day so some people would associate the religion of judaism is like it's only in jerusalem or it's only in israel it's only concentrated in this one area but we have to understand is that the jewish religion was actually wild worldwide wide it was it was spread over the face of the earth where there was pockets of jews everywhere and you know this happens through lots of different means he's pointing to the fact that even by moses they had the scriptures in every single city but even if you look at the despora whenever they in the time of babylon's captivity they were literally spread jews were spread they scattered throughout the entire area through the all regions all countries they had jews everywhere at the time of esther the bible makes it clear that there's jews in every nation in every area and so these jews obviously had their assemblies they had their congregation they had where they would assemble and that's kind of referred to as a synagogue yet we see a authority structure still existing where the high priest can give people authority over all the synagogues and all the synagogues are basically reporting to the high priest in some capacity in some way that's the similar to catholics catholics have the pope who essentially has some kind of level of authority existing over all these churches now that's not something that we practice here you know we don't have a church or a leader that is just over all you know baptist churches or all churches that we have or anything like that and we we believe that churches should be independent now there are cases in which a church could be dependent but why would a church be dependent because it just doesn't have a full-time leader that's separate or distinct from another church so obviously pure words baptist church is a completely independent church i'm the pastor there is no other person above me as far as humanly speaking we obviously have the lord jesus christ above every pastor and he's the one that's the bishop of the church and the pastor underneath him is just an under shepherd but as far as an organization or authority type structure there's no one that could come in here and say hey so-and-so said to do x y and z and it would matter except for me you know it doesn't matter if some other pastor shows up or some other person comes in well this other pastor came and told me this is what you guys need to be doing it's like well that doesn't matter there's no authority there we have a flat line structure now with steadfast baptist church since i'm pastoring there they actually have a satellite they have a satellite in oklahoma city where they don't have another pastor there's not another pastor and so it's a church plant it's basically we're just trying to evangelize there and try to build a church a little bit and at the point that they have uh at the point that we have somebody that could take on that church and be a full-time pastor then we would want to see that church go on its own and be its own independent front of a baptist church now as far as steadfast and pure words it's not ideal to have one pastor over both churches you know that's not the best possible scenario it's not the most idyllic situation and so my goal is to find somebody or eventually have someone that could pastor you know here or at least you know in in a capacity and then to split and basically i would be pastoring one church and that person would be pastoring one of the other churches and so you know that's the ideal structure and we we see that there's a problem here with having one eye priest because we have a concentrated amount of power to where all you need is the high priest to go bad or the high priest to make a bad decision and all the other underlying churches could be affected couldn't they and that's the same with the catholic church and that's why it's better that i believe in the new testament that we have churches with independent uh basically leaders that are all following the same book the same instructions but it makes it more difficult to corrupt multiple churches at the same time it makes it more difficult for everybody to make the wrong decision because they're all supposed to be submitted to this and we have independent leaders and so that's a better structure and i think that makes a lot of sense now as we kind of go through here look at verse number three the bible says and as he journeyed he came near damascus and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven and he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying in him saul saul why persecutest thou me and he said who art thou lord and the lord said i am jesus whom thou persecutest it is hard for thee to kick against the prick so saul is trying to persecute the christian church very heavily and he has an encounter with the lord jesus christ literally the lord jesus christ appears unto saul on the way to damascus persecuting christians and he's saying why are you persecuting me now that's a profound statement you know what that means that means when anybody persecutes you jesus takes it personally isn't that kind of incredible to think about that jesus literally takes you being persecuted personally just like if your child was being injured harmed or threatened by someone you would take that personally that's the same way with jesus christ with us he looks at us as a as family and anybody that's going to persecute us or the church jesus christ is taking that personally and don't think that he is not going to defend us in fact the way he describes this and i like this is he says in verse five i am jesus whom thou persecuted it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks now what is a prick a prick not just like a jerk okay that's something else but basically a prick is a long stick that has a sharp point or be similar to a goad okay so you could use this in warfare or or you might have this as some kind of a defense where you have certain long sticks that are sticking out with a sharp point so someone could not approach or come close to a structure and it's saying you wouldn't want to kick the prick because all you're doing is just injuring yourself you know you wouldn't if there was a bunch of sharp pointed sticks at you you wouldn't want to kick it you're just going to stab your leg or injure your body in some way and so basically jesus is saying man it's hard to do that isn't it and basically what jesus is saying is when i defend my people it's going to hurt you so notice that jesus defense is actually offensive in a sense where it's going to hurt the person that's persecuting his people and god's people and you have to understand jesus christ will defend us now whenever he's saying this to the apostle paul it's a very personal message even though he's traveling in a company it's personal to him says in verse number six and he trembling in his thought and said lord what will thou have me to do and lord said in him arise and go into the city and it shall be told thee what thou must do and the men which journeyed with him stood speeches hearing a voice but seeing no man so notice when he's talking to paul he's saying the he's making it personal about paul or saul and also it's saying that the other men that were with him they were frightened there was a light and they heard someone speaking to saul but they couldn't understand what was being communicated okay and they didn't end up seeing jesus now why is that important well first of all saul is eventually going to become an apostle okay we know him as the apostle paul saul of tarsus is who paul is and in order to be an apostle you have to have witnessed the resurrection of jesus christ it's a mandatory requirement because being an apostle means you're a witness of the resurrection so it's inherently necessary it's you can't be an apostle if you didn't witness the resurrection because that's the whole point of being a witness okay and so for paul to have this encounter is necessary for him to end up becoming an apostle and who he is but the other men they're with them they're not going to be apostles so they didn't get to see the lord jesus christ they didn't have they didn't notice him they couldn't perceive him and the Bible makes this clear go to acts chapter 22 for a moment and i want to prove this to you that they didn't see him but in acts chapter 22 he recounts this story he he actually tells you what happened in the story later and he says in verse number seven and i fell under the ground and heard a voice saying and he saw saul why persecute is thou me now isn't that what we read and he answered and who art thou lord and he said to me i am jesus of nazars whom thou persecute is and they that were with me saw indeed the light and were afraid but they heard not the voice of him that spoke to me now atheists and people that hate the Bible they would point to this verse in the prior verse in acts chapter 9 they would say oh there's a contradiction because in verse 7 of chapter 9 it said hearing a voice and chapter 22 it said hearing not the voice well how can we understand these two things well let me explain it's very easy they heard someone talking but they didn't understand what they were saying okay this happens all the time there's it's for me okay i don't know about for you but my wife will will talk to me and i'm like looking at my phone i'm reading i'm doing something else and then she'll say did you hear me and i'll say no right but what i mean by that i'm not meaning i didn't hear noise i obviously heard you know but i didn't hear what she was actually communicating right or if someone if you hear someone talking and then someone says do you know what they said and you said no i didn't hear them right that would be what you didn't hear the words that they were communicating it's not saying you didn't hear you could you could hear the noise so they heard someone talking to the apostle paul someone you know but it may have been a thunder might have been you know just like and they're just like someone's talking to them i don't know what they said though so they didn't hear the voice they didn't know what he said they didn't understand it they didn't comprehend it but they did obviously hear someone speaking to to the apostle paul okay and so that's how we'd understand those two things and so again it's a very personal message to the apostle paul now what ends up happening because of this in verse number nine and it says and he was three days without sight and neither did eat or drink so he ends up becoming physically blinded from this experience of jesus christ appearing under him he sees the bright light and he can no longer see and this is the picture something spiritual okay what what's the picture of this it's the picture of saul's spiritual condition saul is unsaved saul is not saved he has not been saved yet okay he doesn't he just encountered jesus for the first time in the flesh he's not like as far as like you know seeing him after the resurrection maybe he witnessed him through his earthly minister i can't commentate on that necessarily but this is his first encounter with the lord jesus christ and he certainly didn't believe him he's killing those that are claiming to believe in him he's slaughtering those that believe so at this point he's not saved so jesus christ is blinding him to illustrate saul's current condition of being unsaved he's not saved yet okay and that's very clear so they end up leading him by the hand is what the bible says and taking him into damascus because that's where they were headed but they end up leading him by the hand and they bring him there it says in verse number 10 and there was a certain disciple at damascus named ananias and him said the lord in a vision ananias and he said behold i am here lord and lord said unto him arise and go into the street which is called straight and inquire in the house of judas for one called saul of tarsus for behold he prayeth and has seen in the vision a man named ananias coming in and putting his hand on him that he might receive his sight now again this is also interesting because what we have to understand is the apostle paul at this point is an unsaved man and he's blind but he's praying and he's he's witnessed lord and the lord is going to answer paul's prayer and so when you seek the lord you may be found of you and even an unsaved person seeking salvation god can hear that prayer and i can show you other examples of this in the bible we have cornelius we have other people that are seeking salvation and they're trying to find the lord and look unsaved people pray all the time because whenever i go out and knock on doors and i talk to people and i know they're unsaved they'll tell me they're like man i pray every single day and i'm sure they're lying to some extent they probably don't pray every day but i'm sure they have prayed many times and i've even had people tell me you know what i was recently praying about finding the lord or figuring out how to get saved or i was even thinking about these things and i believe that the lord is literally answering these prayers on a regular basis that he's hearing people that seeking salvation wanting to be saved and we can literally be that person's answer to prayer now for us it's very easy because we go out and we seek people that are generally receptive but i really commend the faith of ananias because ananias here is being asked a very hard task look at verse 13 then ananias answered the lord i have heard by many of this man how much evil he had done to thy saints at jerusalem and here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name so ananias is confused he's saying look lord i know you want me to get people saved this is like the worst person to get saved the guy that's literally killing christians and seeking them out he's trying to arrest me he's basically trying to find me and kill me and arrest me and you're saying go look for him like that's you would think it's the last person that you would go look for the the worst person to try and preach the gospel to and he says in verse 15 but the lord said on him go thy way for he's a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the gentiles and kings and the children of israel for i will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake now this is very interesting because in order for ananias to do this it can only be by faith and you say what is faith faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of god if the lord tells you to do something you just do it even though to the natural it makes no sense and i want to really illustrate this there is literally no reason in the human mind or naturally speaking to ever go seek for saul and to preach him the gospel from a from a humanistic perspective it would be the worst person to look for to get saved like you would say what's the worst person to go find it's him so the only way ananias can do this is because he just believes the lord is is telling him to do it because the lord is saying hey you need to go preach to this guy and he's like this is like no like i don't know and we have other men in the bible that have this story don't we i can show you other examples of this how about jonah isn't jonah told to go preach on aninova and he's thinking like that bloody city like why would i go preach there he doesn't want to preach to the ninny bites he doesn't want to go to those people and you know jonah has other you know things in mind when it comes to the ninny bites he's he's kind of just not even wanting them to get saved but at the end of the day there could be a lot of reasons why we don't want to follow god's commandments from a natural reasoning but the bible's clear and you say well how could someone decide to follow god's commandments when they don't understand it or they don't they think it's contrary to what they believe it's called faith we walk by faith not by sight by sight you would flee from saul you would have nothing to do with saul no one wants to go talk to saul but by faith he's going to go talk to saul now we have hindsight okay we have foreknowledge so this is easy for us but do you think this was a good convert like of the people that you got saved wouldn't you kind of want to be like hey i got this guy saved he just happened to be the best evangelist ever right he just happened to start multiple churches and get multitude saved and right half of the new testament by himself i mean isn't that a pretty good you know basically trophy on or notch on your belt there it's like hey i got paul saved right you know that would be a pretty good one but you know what it took an intense amount of faith to get that guy saved and you know what the greater the faith i believe the greater reward spiritually and you know ananias took a big step of faith here you know you have to really commend ananias's faith here in the lord to trust what the lord is telling him because no one would want to go see saul in fact the disciples the apostles themselves later in this chapter will find out didn't want to even have anything to do with saul paul you know they won't have any they don't want to touch this guy and so ananias has a great faith another thing to mention here though is that the lord is saying well look i've chosen this guy he's special and what makes paul special well look at verse 16 again for i will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake you know it makes him special he's going to suffer greatly now wouldn't you hope it'd be something different like this guy's going to be special he's going to have super strength like samson you're like sweet you know or this guy's going to be special he's going to walk on water this guy's going to be special he's going to do a you know hey what's special lord what do i get to do what's the great thing i get to do you get to suffer greater than anybody else oh is there is there another option is there another door i can pick you know it's like you know imagine if you got to talk to paul and he gets to read forward in the bible because he didn't have the bible yet he doesn't know and he's reading his own literature he's reading his own writings it's like i'm going to be shipwrecked for 24 hour for a day and night i'm going to be beaten with rods thrice i'm going to uh basically be stoned multiple times uh no thanks you know like i don't know if i want to do that but see here's the thing it's actually an honor to do that and that's what's weird it's contrary to again natural thinking to want to go through something like that but it's actually a great honor to suffer for christ go to first peter chapter number four go to first peter chapter number four great things must he suffer you know some people they they dread the idea of suffering they think that suffering is the worst thing and they want to serve god as long as there's no suffering whereas the apostle paul his calling into ministry is to greatly suffer that's what he's chosen to do that's what god wants for him is to suffer greatly and i think some people they they they think like why would god ever want me to go through anything hard and it's like have you read the bible you know the prophets have to suffer greatly and you know what if you want to do something big for god you should prepare yourself to suffer greatly in your heart and in your mind now you i don't look for trouble and paul never looked for trouble in my mind except for obviously he kind of he went to the jews a little too often and you know you could argue he was kind of asking for it a little bit but he wasn't hoping that they would punish him hurt him harm him or do evil unto him he wasn't looking forward to being whipped or beaten or basically stoned to death or shipwrecked he was he didn't want any of those things and in fact he constantly prayed and asked for people to pray for him that he'd have boldness to preach the gospel because he knew as soon as he opens his mouth it's over you know as soon as he starts preaching they're going to hate him they're going to get very mad at him angry at him kill him or try to kill him and the bible says in verse peter chapter four look at verse 12 beloved thinking not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing happened to you you know i talk to people and it's like they get this when everything's good it's like we're people in here they're not even being persecuted they're not suffering right now it's fine they're like oh yeah we're gonna suffer okay then they start suffering for righteousness sake and they come to me like why would god want me to suffer this is so weird it's so strange why would anything bad ever happen pastor shelly someone's lying about me and i'm thinking like yeah but but they're lying they're saying that what i'm doing and serving god is wrong and they're lying about it they're falsely accusing me you're like yeah it's not strange you know he's why would he have this verse because people are going to think it's weird people are going to think like oh why is this happening what's happening to me you know why would something evil happen to me look you shouldn't think it's strange what are you what should you do what it should be the honestly the legitimate reaction verse 13 but rejoice and as much as your partakers of christ sufferings you know you should go light through life and get excited when you're suffering for righteousness sake which is so weird and i'm not it doesn't make sense naturally it only makes sense spiritually it's like literally going to your work and your boss walks in and says you know what i just figured i'm going to give you a bonus today ten thousand dollar bonus now would you be like that's terrible why no i don't want that tear up the check you know or would you be like thanks you know sweet and then when you go home you're all like yes i got a bonus today that's great that's what persecution should be like you should be going to your normal day just doing your job serving god and then you know what someone lies about you and you're just like yeah you know someone you know gets mad at you for doing something that's right you're like yes why because that is what it's like to be like christ to be a partaker of his sufferings you know you don't want to go your whole life and be like man nobody got mad at me for doing anything nobody ever found any fault with me for serving god or doing that which is right i've never had a bad look you know i have five-star google reviews i mean just everybody thinks i'm the best everybody loves me you know i'm wonderful you're not serving god then you know you're not serving the lord and you say why would people be mad at you know you serving god have you ever heard the story of jesus they crucified him and he never did anything bad not one time zero in fact he's healing everybody can you imagine someone walks into houston heals every single person they're completely healed he's walking on water he's feeding everybody just by miracles and everything he says is the per is perfect truth and he's expounding the word of god like you've never heard in your life and then it's like everybody just is like let's kill this guy you'd be like what in the world you know what's happening that's how the world responds to truth that's how the world responds to a righteous person they hate the righteous person they want to kill the righteous person they don't like the fact that the righteous person is breathing air kane and able kane hated his brother able because he was righteous he didn't hate him because able you know flipped the bird to him or you know called him a dirty name or you know beat him up one day or put a noogie on him or you know whatever he didn't like him because he was better than him because he was a righteous person and so what i'm telling you is when you have someone lie about you don't be upset about it get excited about it you know what you if you're like the apostle paul where life is constantly suffering for doing right you're going to have great reward in heaven if you go your whole life and you never suffered your rewards are going to be really small you're going to have you're not going to have anything to show for it you want to be suffering constantly for righteous sake now what would be worse than going your whole life not suffering for righteousness sake is going your whole life suffering for your faults okay that's obviously the worst okay you don't want to do that and the bible makes it clear it says in verse number uh 15 but let none of you suffer as a murderer or as a thief or as an evil doer or as a busy body in other men's matter so he's saying hey don't get excited when that happens don't get excited when the cops knock on your door to arrest you because you killed someone get excited that the cops knock on your door to rescue because you preached the gospel to someone got someone saved you know i recently preached to some uh young individual preached them the gospel made it very clear how to get saved and they didn't respond very well to the message they were a mormon or something and their uh their father didn't like that message they went home and told their father so their father came down to the church and got in my face and was trying to threaten like he was going to you know kill me or something and you know i'm thinking inside like this is great and i was like this guy's about to punch me like i'm not joking like i was i think i was about this close from the guy just starting to try and beat me physically okay because he and again he didn't care about covet for sure because he was getting like this close to me you know i'm just like you know excuse me now if i had sent anything like you know sarcastic or kind of like dug at him a little bit or been a little offensive i think he would have started punching me okay i personally believe that i can't prove that i'm just saying my personal opinion but i'm not going to do that my goal is not for someone to punch me in the face okay but let me tell you what i would have been more excited if he had punched me in the face than if he hadn't because i would have been suffering for righteousness sake but not because i did anything wrong if i had you know i'd been like you know what back off loser why don't you go to hell and then he punched me i wouldn't feel very good about it but if i had been loving and meek and kind to the person and then he started you know punched me in the face or getting mad at me then i would have been like great why because i'm suffering for righteousness sake when we should want to suffer for righteousness sake and i'm not looking for a fight i'm not looking to get hit i'm not looking for something bad to happen to me but what i am telling you is when something bad happens to you for doing right you should have a good reaction you should be excited about it you should praise the lord about it and say hey i get to i'm you know counted worthy to suffer look what it says in verse 16 yet if any man suffers a christian let him not be ashamed but let him glorify god on this behalf the bible is clear i can show you hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of verses about this but see i want to make it clear now because you'll be like okay great and then someone would be like oh this bad thing happened to me because i did something right and i'm just thinking like rejoice it's hard to rejoice but if you get the right mindset you can go back to acts chapter nine go back to acts chapter number nine and this is kind of a theme in this chapter a little bit that's why i'm giving these verses you know the bible says wherefore let him that suffer according the will of god keep or i'm sorry according to the will of god commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing as unto a faithful creator you know what if if god wants me to get punched in the face for preaching the gospel then so be it that's what he wants me to do then i'll do it you know and i'm going to commit myself unto him and say you know what if that's what god thinks i need then i'll do it if god believes that something evil needs to happen to me for whatever reason i should just be willing to accept it and embrace it and rejoice and and go through that and just trust that he's not going to put me through something he doesn't want me to go through at least when i'm doing right god is not looking god god is not saying you know what i know if you tell the truth they're going to punch you in the face so you should just lie just don't say it you know i know they want i know i saw it i want you to go soul winning but you know you could get in trouble someone could be mad at you just don't just don't do it this week you know just take it easy why don't you just kick back eat some grapes you know take a nap or whatever no he's not going to tell you to do something that he doesn't want you to do everything he's telling you to do he wants to do even ananias ananias could literally be walking into his own death a death trap with saul right he doesn't know but he's just going to do what the lord wants him to do and is it going to work out oh yeah it's going to work out it's not a bad it's not a problem look what it says in verse number 17 ananias went his way and entered into the house and putting his hands on him said brother saul the lord even jesus that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest has sent me that thou mightest receive thy sight and be filled with the holy ghost so has paul been filled with the holy ghost no he's not saved he's still blinded but he's going to get a sight verse 18 and immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales and he received sight for with and arose and was baptized now how did he receive that sight well in act chapter 9 it's just giving you like just quick verses it's not saying everything that he said and every event that happened you have to use other verses go to back to acts chapter 22 and we'll find out more of what ananias actually said to the apostle paul in this exchange because this is important to realize that god gets paul or saul saved by another man acts chapter 22 verse 12 and one ananias a devout man according to the law having good report of all the jews which dwelt there came unto me and stood and said unto me brother saul receive thy sight and the same hour i looked up upon him and he said the god of our fathers has chosen thee that thou shouldest know his will and see that just one and should hear the voice of his mouth for thou shalt be his witness in all men of what thou hast seen and heard and now why terriest thou arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins calling on the name of the lord so he wants them to do a lot of stuff okay first of all he wants them to stand up physically all right now does anybody have to stand up physically to be saved in fact you have to stand up physically to do anything spiritual no okay he's just telling him things hey you should get up and we need to get baptized what does he need to do in order to get baptized believe on the lord jesus christ right what doth hindereth me to be baptized if thou believeth all thine heart thou mayest right so what does he need to do he needs to wash away thy sins calling on the name of the lord how does someone get saved for whosoever shall call upon the name of the lord shall be saved so what is he trying to get paul to do pray and get saved so he can baptize him and then he can be filled with the holy ghost and then he can be a great witness to go out and preach the gospel so the lord jesus christ literally visited paul but who got him saved ananias and you know what jesus could literally show up to every single person on this planet if he wanted to but you know what he's ordained it that we are chosen vessels to go out and to preach the gospel and to seek and to save that which is lost and to get them saved we are the ones that get them saved and i'm not saying us by ourselves it's obviously the holy ghost inside of us it's obviously the word of god that we preach it's obviously the gospel that we're getting them to believe but you know what we're a part of that puzzle we're a piece that's a necessary component in order to get someone saved what's other fruit well look how can you say he's saved if he hasn't washed away his sins yet let me prove this go to revelation chapter one and the picture of him being blind and then receiving sight is a picture of spiritual salvation okay that's why god is using that illustration and someone who's blinded is not saved someone who has sight is saved okay and i'm going to show that to another place but let me show you also being washed is a picture of being saved revelation chapter one verse four john to the seven churches which are in asia grace be unto you and peace from him which is and which was and which is to come and from the seven spirits which are before his throne and from jesus christ who is the faithful witness and the first begotten of the dead and the prince of the kings of the earth unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us kings and priests into god and his father to him be glory and dominion forever and ever amen now he says something what does he say in verse five washed is that past present and future past so he's talking to churches and he's looking at a group of christians and what is he saying about them they're washed their sins have been washed in the blood of jesus christ meaning what they're saved so someone has not washed away their sins what is that picture not saved okay let me show you this again go to first corinthians chapter number six go to first corinthians chapter number six see why is this important well we want to make sure we understand salvation how it happens who's necessary the components that it's not just jesus christ just showing up in your living room and you get saved i've heard people tell me this you know especially when you go to the homeless shelters all right i've been to the homeless and addiction recovery centers and they're like oh i know i'm saved and i say how jesus came to me in the night you know and then i saw him and i got saved and i'm like no you didn't like first of all you didn't see jesus number one it's like what did he look like you know he's like he's got this long hair and he's wearing you know it's like he's wearing a dress and it's like that's not jesus that's a different person all right i'm not gonna that's like elton john's dream or something okay that's not the lord jesus christ but you have another group look at verse number nine know you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of god be not deceived neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor feminine nor abusers of themselves with mankind nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of god and look at this and such were some of you but ye are notice this word washed but you're sanctified but you're justified in the name of the lord jesus and by the spirit of our god so a picture of needing to wash away your sins is a picture of the fact that you're not saved okay what having been washed is a picture of the fact that you are saved now i'm not saying that after you get saved there isn't still verses that talk about cleaning your hands you know clean your hands you sinners and purify your hearts and obviously you know we should strive to purge ourselves of sin and clean ourselves up on a regular basis but that's not what's happening in this passage what's happening in this passage is that paul is being told saul is being told to get saved to wash away his sins in the blood of jesus christ to call upon the name of the lord and to get saved and in being blinded also helps us understand this go to john chapter number nine john chapter number nine this is what jesus was preaching to the pharisees and he uses parables to explain spiritual pictures he uses carnal truths to expound spiritual truths and in john chapter 9 looking verse 39 and jesus said for judgment i am coming to this world that they which see not notice this might see and that they would see might be made blind and some of the pharisees which were with him heard these words and said in them are we blind also jesus said unto them if you were blind you should have no sin but now you say we see therefore your sin remaineth now what is he basically teaching and this is cool i like comparing this with paul because doesn't he say that he's going to take those that can see and make them blind and what happened couldn't paul or saul see and then jesus ended up making him blind and what's the picture here the picture is helping someone realize they're a sinner jesus came not to call the righteous but sinners unto repentance and in order for someone to get saved they have to realize they need to be saved right if you don't think you need to be saved why would you ask for salvation why would the jews ask for jesus to save them if they believe they're already on their way to heaven and you know what it's no different today we have to help people become blind today before they can get saved because of most people that i knock on their doors in america you know what i say when i ask them are you a hundred percent sure if you died today you'd go to heaven they say yes they think they see they believe that they see the problem is is when i ask them what they're trusting and to get them there and they say oh be a good person go to church confess to the priest get baptized they're blind they don't even realize it yet though i had to first help them realize they're blind say actually the bible says something different what does that mean they're blinded i need to help blind you for a moment i need to help you realize you you have a problem and then i can help you receive that sight then i can help give you that sight and you know what the pharisees were unwilling to be blinded they were unwilling to accept the fact that they needed a savior that they needed salvation they weren't willing to humble themselves they're willing to justify themselves you know i thank the lord that i'm not as this publican i'm not like other sinners you know i do all this good stuff but the man that came and said lord be merciful me a sinner he was rather justified wasn't he go back to uh acts chapter number nine and so we see the picture of saw getting humbled before the lord him being blinded and then what receiving his sight says in verse number 19 and when he had received meat he was strengthened then was all certain days with the disciples which were at damascus and straightway he preached christ in the sonagogues that he is the son of god now this is awesome you know this is what you would hope for all of your converts right you get them saved and they're just immediately preaching the gospel to other people right and obviously that's representative of the fact of why paul was picked why do you think paul is picked as a chosen vessel because he's immediately preaching christ isn't he he's immediately on fire for god he's immediately serving the lord verse 21 but all that heard him were amazed and said it's not this he that destroyed them which called on this name in jerusalem and came hither for that intent that he might bring them bound under the chief reese notice how they describe what he does to people destroyed them he was doing some intense evil unto the church of god and he's done a complete 180 right verse 22 but saw increased the more in strength and confounded the jews which dwell the damascus proving that this is very christ now this is also interesting because he's immediately going in and he's the best convert he's the he's the guy that was going to kill everyone and now he's completely convinced completely changed completely unidentified wow i was wrong so he's coming in saying hey guys i was wrong let me show you all the verses in the bible i'm he's filled with the holy ghost so he knows all the scripture he has the holy ghost guiding him he can prove that jesus is the son of god from the old testament i mean he's just he's just isaiah 53 and he's going to genesis chapter 3 that seed and he's going to genesis chapter number 12 and he's like hey that seed is jesus christ and he's going to all the verse in the bible he's like hey remember jonah he's like hey whereas jonah's was three days and three nights in the well's belly so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in in the heart of the earth and he's like that was jesus and he's like he rose again the third day and he's like hey that picture of you know in in zechariah of someone being sold for 30 shekels that was judas selling out jesus for 30 shekels and he's saying hey you know how that serpent was on the stick and all they had to do was look and live that was jesus becoming sin for us and he's preaching him the gospel and he's preaching the word of god and the whole testament's coming together like never before and it says that they were confounded what is confound they can't say anything it's like he just basically gave you all the answers he's like hey you had your math sheet your homework from school and someone just wrote all the answers in you're just looking at it and you're just like this is right but here's the problem they don't want the answer they don't like the answer wouldn't you assume when someone just illuminates the word of god to you comes and preaches the best truth you've ever heard wouldn't you just want to accept that wouldn't you want to embrace that wouldn't that be great but you know there's a lot of people that won't accept the truth even though it's been clearly demonstrated for them and confounded means they have no answer someone says what's one plus one someone says two it's like there's no other option it's like what about three nope you know there's no option it's it's two it's already been proven we've already it's already settled there's nothing else they can even say we just have all the evidence you know it's like a murder case and then someone just plays the video and it's just like it's you and then it's like was that really me and then on the video it's like you're saying like i am jonathan chelly and then and then you're like they're watching the video and then they kill them and then they're like hey i just killed this person and then you're like and then never basically the defendant is sitting there just like there's nothing else to say you know it's just the case closed it's just it's been proven it's just over he's already proven it there's nothing else to prove there's nothing else to say jesus is the son of god it's just a proven fact and he just went in there and he just proved it to everybody and what do they do well says in verse 23 and after that many days were fulfilled the jews took counsel to kill him well that's the truth what are we going to do about it are we going to accept the truth no there's nothing they can say they don't have another argument they're not interested in the truth they're not going to accept the truth they're just going to reject it this is cancel culture at its finest when you can't uh defeat the truth you have to kill the truth speaker and you know what cancel culture existed always it's always existed you know it's not a new thing with us you know we oh this cancel culture it's so it's so toxic it's like cancel culture has always existed it's never not existed and in fact many countries have had a hardcore cancel culture called islam it's called china hey in china you try to preach the gospel of jesus christ you're going to jail or dying or being tortured in fact they're constantly raiding these secret house churches in china right now where there's christians and they're just torturing them destroying them i mean they have like a constant saw in their lives in china right now and you know that's got to be horrible that's got to be horrific but you know what they're kind of worth this upper shame for christ and god has chosen the foolishness of the things of this world that confound the wise and you know he took paul in there and you know the truth of god will confound the wise today because the the the foolish truth of god's word is smarter than the smartest thing that this world can come up with they can't come up with anything verse 24 but they're laying away it was known as saul and they watched the gates day and night to kill him then the disciples took him by night and led him down by the wall in a basket it's sad you know they're trying to kill him every single day that's all they that's all they live for at this point someone gives them the truth and their life is now dedicated to killing the one person that gave them the truth their whole life has been dedicated to reading moses and studying moses and he just gave imagine i gave you it's like your life goal is to solve one plus one and you're just sitting there just like you can't figure someone writes two and it's like let's kill that guy and keep solving trying to solve the problem let's keep studying the problem let's try to figure out because it can't be two you know let's reject the two they're not interested in the answer they were never interested in the answer verse 26 and when saul was come to jerusalem he assayed to join himself the disciples but they were all afraid of him and believe not that he was a disciple now the word assayed just means tried so he's trying he's trying to be friends with disciples but they don't want to be his friend they're like i don't believe this guy he's probably he's probably faking it you know he's probably going around like hey i'm a disciple guys hey come with me but he really was a disciple now it took someone by faith to reach out to him verse 27 but barnas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared on him how he had seen the lord in the way and that he had spoken to him and now he'd preached boldly at damascus in the name of jesus and he was with them coming in and going out of jerusalem and he spake bold in the name of the lord jesus and disputed against the grecians but they went about to slay him which when the brethren knew they brought him down to caesarea and sent him forth to tarsus then had the churches rest throughout all judaea and galley and samaria and were edified and walking in the fear of the lord and in the comfort of the holy ghost were multiplied now this actually is kind of a good ending isn't it not not necessarily for paul going back to those areas but think about it all the immediate areas of jerusalem samaria and damascus these areas were heavy persecution go back to chapter 8 look at verse 1 and saul was consenting under his death and at that time there was great persecution against the church which is at Jerusalem right so at that time it was great persecution but then when saul's been converted notice they had great rest and so it was a moment of intense persecution but then it subsided and they have rest again and they have the ability to basically have comfort edify one another the church is growing and doing great things and so you have to think you know if god brings persecution in your life or something intense it may just be for a season and you just need to get through that and and now they're better for it now they don't even have paul going and attacking them they have paul to be their shield because guess what they're gonna all everybody wants to kill paul now you know peter and john can kind of be like whoo you know we were kind of like the targets here but this paul guy they really hate him you know they really want to kill him and you know for me personally i just i'm so glad that pastor stephen anderson exists because so many people hate him so much more than me and they want to kill and murder him they're like he is like the target and you know what praise the lord for him you know he's going to be greatly rewarded for being persecuted for righteousness sake but you know what the fact that he just exists as a person benefits me a lot and it benefits other churches because he's like a shield onto other christians and it brings us peace it brings us comfort and that's the importance of having numbers and that's the importance of having more christians and more people because it's easy to shut a guy down it's easy to shut a couple people down it's hard to shut thousands down it's hard to shut down big groups of people and that's why it's important to have a steadfast group of people that love the lord that aren't going anywhere because it will intimidate the enemy and we can actually have rest verse 32 and it came to pass as peter passed through all quarters he came down also to the saints which dwelled at lydda and there he found a certain man named anneas which had kept his bed eight years and was sick of the palsy and peter said in him anneas jesus christ make it the whole arise and make thy bed and he rose immediately and all that dwelt at lydda and saron saw him and turned to the lord so peter's going about doing evangelism and you know i think that peter is obviously being pushed out of his comfort zone because of things that happen you have the persecution then you hear about the apostle paul you have in act chapter number uh eight where peter and them were sent and they heard about uh essentially philip going out and preaching the gospel so they're realizing like we can we should be going out we should be going further than our little circle because of the persecution it caused peter to go out of his comfort zone because the other disciples are going out and getting people saved and they needed the apostles to come give them the holy ghost because he saw that and was going into samaria and getting people saved now he's traveling to other places now he's going to lydda now he's going to another area and i guarantee anneas likes that didn't anneas greatly benefit from peter coming i mean he healed this guy this guy's not only getting saved he's getting physically healed of the palsy right the bible says that he had the palsy and he was in bed for eight years that's that's a horrible suffering so through the persecution through paul's conversion anneas receives this you think he was grateful for that you think that he appreciated that look how lord the lord orchestrated all these events so that anneas could benefit from it couldn't he and that peter could go out and do the work of an evangelist you know some people say peter's the first pope he's not a pope but he's an elder he's a pastor and notice that even though he's at the church at jerusalem he's still going out and doing evangelism isn't he because even a pastor is supposed to go out into evangelism and reach new areas and to get people saved because it's the work of the lord that's important it's not just your little area it's not just your little bubble and some people get so focused like i want that zip code i want that zip code but you know what almost no does anybody even live in 77035 that's where our church is what if i said you know what i'm only going to minister to those that live in 7735 i wouldn't none of you would even be here right we're reaching other people other areas you know and we shouldn't have this weird dialed in view of church is like you know what the only thing that matters is just the people that are within my close proximity no the gospel is supposed to go to the whole world and when we make decisions we need to make spiritual decisions that affect all of god's people not just the ones that are the closest to us physically and you know that's one of the reasons why i decided to help with steadfast baptist church not because it would benefit this local church it wouldn't me taking steadfast baptist church especially carnally speaking it's not going to benefit this church but what would it do it'd benefit children of god it'd benefit the kingdom of god it would it would be a a help to other people and you know that's what i love about pure words baptist church is they're so humble to still come to a church that can make such a great sacrifice for other people and that other people can benefit ananias gets to benefit from other people's hard work labor sacrifice and humility and the things that they go through and you know what this church has blessed a lot of people that they don't even realize when you serve the lord when you make spiritual decisions you are going to make a big impact oftentimes much bigger than you even realize because philip goes out back because of persecution and preaching the gospel causes peter and john to go out because peter and john are going out and the gospel is being spread and then saul gets saved and then barnabas receives him and then they hear about this peter's not going to lytta and peter's not going to doing other things and then ananias is getting saved and guess what there's another person in this story look at verse 23 who when he came and had seen the grace of god and was glad and exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the lord for he was a good man and full of the holy ghost and of faith and much people was added to the lord much people was saved not just that guy got physically saved and spiritually saved and many people got spiritually verse 20.5 then departed barnabas dishearses for to seek saul and when he had found him he brought him unto and i'm sorry i'm like in chapter 11 that's why it's so confusing look at verse number 36 now there was at japa so they were in lytta now he's in japa this is peter a certain disciple named tabitha which was which by interpretation is called dorkus this woman was full of good works and alms deeds which she did and it came to pass in those days that she was sick and died whom when they had washed uh they laid her in an upper chamber for as much as little was not a japa and the disciples had heard that peter was there they sent unto him two men desiring him that he would not delay to come to them then peter rose and went with them when he was come they brought him into the upper chamber and all the widows stood by weeping and showing the coats and garments which dorkus made while she was with him but peter put them all forth and kneeled down and prayed and turning him to the body said tabitha arise she opened her eyes and when she saw peter she sat up and he gave her his hand and lifted her up and when he had called the saints and widows presented her alive and it was known throughout all japa and many believed in the lord and it came to pass that he tarried many days in japa with one simon a tanner so not only did uh this anneas benefit from that not only did uh other people turn to the lord but even in jopa now here's the thing if peter had not been in lidda at that exact time dorkus would have been toast it was a very time sensitive matter that peter just happens to be in lidda japa just happens to be real close by they happen to know he's there they happen to get him he brings this woman back from the dead and and what a great blessing this woman was we see that all things work together for good to them that love god to them that are called according to his purpose and i tell you what you keep serving god and something great is going to happen you may not know how you may not know when you may not even know who you're going to affect in this world and in fact a lot of people contributed to anneas and to dorkus that are not peter philip did and he may never know that he may know it now because it's in the bible and he's in heaven and he's there and you can see dorkus but you know what there's a cumulative effect everybody's serving the lord and doing that which is right and so we have to understand that no matter what evils may come upon us no matter what persecution may happen you know what god may be bringing that for a certain reason and we need to go out and we need to continue just doing good work and preaching the gospel and just commit ourselves to the keeping the keeping of our souls unto a faithful creator realizing that all things truly are going to work together for good and if i suffer for righteousness sake then i know i'm on the right path let's close in prayer thank you father so much for your word thank you for this great chapter of the bible and the examples that you gave us and thank you for caring for for every single person so much that if there's persecution you take it personally and not only do you take that personally you take every single person personally you hear the prayers of the unsaved you orchestrate and carry out divine plans and divine pathways for us to be used by you and i pray that we would never look at a situation with only carnal eyes or look at a situation and just the physical realm but we could have the faith of ananias we could have the faith of peter we could have the faith of the of saul and barnabas and of these men who against a physical reality see what the bible says and just continue in your commandments and continue to be faithful and continue to be steadfast and continue to seek you and that you can use us to perform great wonders and miracles that give glory unto you and in jesus name we pray amen let's go to our final song for the evening we'll turn in our hymnals 397 397 little is much when god is in it there on the first in the harvest field now ripened there's a word for all to do hark the voice of god is calling to the harvest calling you little is much when god is in it labor not for wealth or fame there's a crown and you can win it if you'll go in jesus name does the place you're called to labor seem so small and little known it is great if god is in it and he'll not forget his own little is much when god is in it labor not for wealth or fame there's a crown and you can win it if you'll go in jesus name are you laid aside from service body worn from toil and care you can still be in the battle in the sacred place of prayer little is much when god is in it labor not for wealth or fame there's a crown and you can win it if you'll go in jesus name when the conflict here is ended and our race on earth is run he will say to all the faithful welcome all my child well done little is much when god is in it labor not for wealth or fame there's a crowd and you can win it if you'll go in jesus name good singing y'all are dismissed have a blessed night