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

All right, we're in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, and I preached a sermon a couple Thursdays ago where I just brought up that I believe that the Antichrist is going to be from the land of Israel, that he'll be an Israelite or just a Jew in the flesh or by religion. I just wanted to finish off 1 Thessalonians and not drag it out any further, but I did skip preaching about the day of the Lord because when I went through the book of Malachi, I preached about that at length. I didn't want to skip out on it, but I just recently preached that sermon, so I just didn't want to have to basically re-preach almost the same exact sermon. The title of the sermon, though, is Drive-By Preaching. The type of drive-by I'm talking about is like the 30s gangster style drive-by, not the L.A. where they're going like this, but if I was a pastor in Mahias church, it might be a little bit different. I'm preaching about drive-by preaching, and you're like, well, what are you talking about, Pastor Thompson? Well, if you notice at the end of the chapter how it gives these just blasting little lists of things, and Paul's really famous for doing that, and he'll preach really doctrinal things in his epistles. The theme of the book of 1 Thessalonians is, of course, the end times, the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and about persecution. Those themes are brought up in every chapter, but sometimes Paul at the end of his epistles or even during the middle of his epistles, he'll just fire off these lists. Why I call it drive-by preaching is because when someone does a drive-by shooting in real life, sometimes people get hit that aren't meant to get hit, isn't that true? But then there's also, what else is true about a drive-by? Well, lots of bullets are flying, so I kind of like in the way that Paul puts these lists together kind of as like a drive-by where he's just like, you know, he's just like hitting everybody. So, like, if I pull out my Tommy gun here, then you kind of get more of the picture. I'm not going to point it at you guys, so don't worry. Like I thought, well, how is this going to work if I'm just shooting, fake shooting my own congregation? But I'll fire it over your heads. So in the drive-by, I've got to get my 1930s gangster hat on here. All right, here we go. Now it's better. Drive-by preaching. So I have the Tommy gun of God's word here, and I want to just preach some drive-by preaching and I'm just going to hit on some topics. I do have points in my sermon, but I might, if I have time, just mention some of the lists, some of the famous lists that Paul has. Actually, you know what? I know I'm not going to have time to get to them, so I'll just kind of let you know some of the lists I was just looking up last night before we get into the sermon. But is there any men out there? Can you think of a famous list that Paul puts together where he's just kind of blasting everybody with it? Anybody? Any lists that you can think of and what chapter? Well, yeah, but that's in this chapter. I'm talking about other chapters. It's okay. Huh? Yes. Galatians 5 was on my list. It's where Paul says, Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these—adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envies, murders, drunkenness, revelings. I mean, he's pretty much blasting a bunch of people at the same time, so maybe you're not into adultery or fornication, but what he's saying here is that these are all works of the flesh, and if you read this in the Bible, you're going to be like, well, hey, if I'm doing one of these, God's not happy about that because it's a work of the flesh. And this chapter is kind of explaining how to walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Does anybody else have one that they can think of? Okay, and that's, of course, the qualifications of the bishop, right? Romans 1? Yeah, Romans 1, at the end of Romans 1, that's the one I had. And of course that's explaining how vile a reprobate can get that they're capable of doing anything. And basically people will say, well, anybody can do these things. Nobody can do some of these things, but a person that's just a regular, unsaved person is not a hater of God. Christians are not haters of God, so that's not something that we can do as Christians. But he does do a drive-by on the reprobates, and Paul wrote this chapter by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And he says that they don't like to retain God their knowledge, and so God gave them over to the reprobate mind to do the things which are not convenient, and they're being filled with all unrighteousness. The first part of the list is just him saying they're capable of all unrighteousness. So any sin you can think of, that's what a reprobate's capable of doing. Not saying that they do every sin here, but they have the capacity to do those things. And of course, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful. What's another one that you can think of? Romans 12, and what else? First Corinthians 6, I do have that one. Sorry, brother. I just, at the end of the night, I was just like up writing the sermon really late, and I was just trying to go through all the Pauline epistles and all the chapters, and it's like I can't cover all of it. First Corinthians 6, 9 says, Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. I mean, he's just nailing it. But here's the thing about this list. This is talking about people who will go to hell, but also it says, And such were some of you, but you were washed. So you don't necessarily have to go to hell because the caveat is if you're saved and you've done those sins, you're still going to be able to go to heaven. And then, of course, you have the famous list in First Corinthians 5, 11 that tells you who doesn't belong in church. And those people would be fornicators, covetous, idolaters, railers, drunkards, or an extortioner. And we're supposed to put away from ourselves that wicked person. Of course, you have the charity chapter, First Corinthians chapter number 13, and it basically kind of goes into you can have all these things that would seem spiritual, but if you don't have charity, if you don't have love in your heart, then you're nothing. So the reason why we do things is important and the fact that we should love. And so why do I call these drive-bys? Because he kind of just will go into these lists anywhere at any time, but they're on purpose. The Apostle Paul is trying to just, he's like, he gives this deep, doctrinal discussion because some of the things that Paul said are hard to be understood. But these things are not. When he makes a list, they're not generally something that's hard to be understood. And Paul's not the only preacher, of course, that does this, but Paul does it a lot, and he wrote half the New Testament. So at the end of First Thessalonians chapter 5, he just kind of does this drive-by where he just nails a whole bunch of points. So that's my goal for this topic, is just to kind of do a drive-by on you. And I like doing this at other people's churches, too, because the nice thing about having a guest preacher here is that I just tell guest preachers to preach whatever God puts on your heart. But you might think that I set the preacher up to nail somebody in the church, and that's just not true. I don't do that. But if I did do that, I'd be well within my rights to do that, but I don't do that. But you notice that sometimes the preachers will come, and they'll nail you on something, and they don't realize they're doing it. So the nice thing about preaching out of town is that sometimes people will come up to me and say, hey, that really hit home. Or even the pastor will say, well, there's some people in here that needed to hear that. And so that's what the purpose of drive-by preaching is, I think. And when Paul makes these lists, you can't really escape the list. You're probably doing something, or you've done something like this, and it helps you remember that we shouldn't walk in sin. It helps you to remember that we should do right and always do good. My first point this morning is that we see the beseechment on how to treat spiritual leaders. Let's look at verse number 12 this morning, and that word beseech means to ask someone urgently and fervently to do something, implore, and treat. So it's not just asking somebody. It's asking somebody in an urgent manner or fervently. Look at verse 12. It says, and we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you. So that word admonish means to warn or reprimand someone firmly. So it's kind of in the same style as rebuking somebody, because it says to warn or reprimand someone firmly. So it could be reproof, it could be rebuke, but notice that the job of someone that's over you in the Lord, which is generally a pastor, an evangelist, or a deacon, or a church leader, that their job is to admonish you. Their job is to warn you. Their job is to reprimand you if you're not doing something right. And the thing about the word of God is that it hits you at some point. If you're paying attention, if you're involved in the sermon, or if you're reading your Bible, you're going to get something that God is going to correct you and admonish you in the Lord. And He's trying to get your attention on certain subjects. So how are we supposed to treat people that admonish you, that are laboring over you in the Lord? Well, look at 2 Timothy, well, let's go over to 2 Timothy 4 real quick, and the Bible says though in verse 13, as you're turning there, it says, and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake and be at peace among yourselves. So if you're esteeming the leadership highly and you're respecting them, that's what God wants. And hey, maybe that pastor or that preacher is not your cup of tea. Maybe you're disagreeing with some of the things that they're saying in the sermon. But can you esteem them highly for their work's sake? Because spiritual leaders, they have taken on a big work and a good work, and it's not something that's usually for their own good, necessarily. Sometimes it's to their own hurt. Paul talks about in one of his other lists how that they are the offscouring of the world. And so usually the focus of wrath is on the person who's saying the message. And even though that's God's message, it's saying those things for, you know, it's saying those things, so it's God's message that's going forth, and their ire and their hatred is going forth towards that man. I mean, I get harassed constantly because of things I preach. My friends get harassed constantly because of things they preach, and it's like, it's because you're mean. It's because of the way you say it. You know, people say, well, this is an accusation I've heard a few times lately, is that all the preachers in the New IFB try to copy Pastor Anderson's style. Now I'm flattered that someone would say that I am like Pastor Anderson in the way I preach, but I don't believe that I am at all. I mean, we have the same Spirit, the same Holy Spirit, the same Spirit of God that tells us to admonish people firmly. How do you do that? Well, you've got to raise your voice. The Bible says to raise your voice. The Bible says to clap your hands and stomp your feet. It doesn't say, that's how Anderson preaches. I mean, what a weird accusation. And then the cult accusation, of course, always comes out. And it's funny that people will reference the sermon that Pastor Amanda has preached and say, see how they try to say they're not a cult? Well, if they actually listen to the sermon, they'll see that we're the antithesis of a cult, which is the opposite of what a cult is. We're different than a cult because we're nothing like them. You're in the cult. The BLM is a cult, a cult of weirdness, a cult of sodomy, a cult of lying and just making themselves millionaires so they can buy mansions in California or whatever. And it's just this whole racism against white people thing is going on now. There's just so much weird things going on. We get accused of a lot of stuff, but it's the message that we preach. It's the Jesus Christ that we preach and his words and his apostles and his prophets and the law of Moses, they don't like that. Why don't they like Leviticus 20, 13? I thought they liked Moses. I thought the Jews liked Moses, but they don't like that verse, do they? Because if they did like that verse, then they wouldn't have Tel Aviv, the most sodomite city in the whole world in their own country. They wouldn't tolerate it for a second. But you say you follow Moses. We get these accusations against us and it's like we preach how the Spirit of God leads us. I don't go up in the mirror at my house. As a matter of fact, I never practice any of my sermons ever. I don't sit there in front of a mirror and try to imitate all the ways that Pastor Anderson moves or all the ways that Pastor Shelley moves. These are the accusations. It's just weird. But anyway, it says in 2 Timothy 4 where I had you turn, it says, I charged you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. Preach the Word. What's the charge from Paul? Preach the Word. Be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. So the charge of the preacher, the charge of the pastor or the man of God is to get up and preach the Word. And whether that's popular or not, in season, hey, it's popular, preach it. If it's not popular at the time, preach it anyway. It's like your clothing goes out, you know, they have styles that come in. You'll go shopping and they already got the winter clothes out in summer or the fall clothes out. The Han Solo outfits are all ready to go on the shelves and all that stuff for the ladies. But yeah, there's stuff that's in season. It'd be weird to be wearing winter clothing in the summertime. Now, if people come to Arizona, from Arizona, they might wear winter clothing when they get here because it's not as hot, they just get used to the heat there. But my point is, is that when we preach, whether it's popular or not, whether the culture is okay with it or not, like when it comes to feminism and preaching against feminism, just because feminism exists in this world, it doesn't mean that we have to accept that. We don't have to accept it. We won't accept it. We're not going to let women get up here and preach in our church because the Bible says it's not right to do. And it doesn't matter what culture says, we're going to do what the Bible says regardless. It's my job to be honest with the text. It's my job to be honest with the Word of God and not to just, you know, go with the dictates of what culture says. Hebrews chapter 13, turn to Hebrews chapter 13. So what are we supposed to do? We're supposed to esteem spiritual leaders very highly in love for their work's sake. So whether you like my personality or not, esteem me highly for the work's sake. And I think that that's, you know, the Bible says that. People say, well, you're not supposed to lift up. I'm not saying lift me up. I'm just saying that any spiritual leader, we should show them respect. Look at what it says in Hebrews 13, 17, it says obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves for they watch for your souls as they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you. And in 1 Thessalonians 5, 13, it says be at peace among yourselves. Hey, when you're doing what the Bible says, when you're treating God's men as the way you're supposed to be, it's going to be profitable for you. You're going to be at peace among yourselves. But if you're always whining about everything, you're upset about how long the sermons are, you're upset about all these different things, or you're upset because finally the pastor got onto your sin. See, it's okay, you know, people love hard preaching until the preaching comes and hits them right between the eyes. And people get mad sometimes, they don't know how to respond. Like I know if I've been preached at before, I mean sometimes pastors will go after certain people or they'll go after things that they know they're doing, and that feeling to me is like my face melting like it is right now from this heat. Somebody turn that heat down please. But the feeling when you're being preached against is that your face turns flush and it gets hot and then you feel like everybody's looking at you because everybody knows it's you that's being preached against. Have you ever felt that feeling before? I didn't do it on purpose, but it happens. But sometimes preachers do do it on purpose. But what should you do instead of getting upset over the admonishment that you're getting from the Word of God, then you should take that in, you should turn that feeling that you have that's upsetting you and turn it into something positive and say, hey, the pastor's right, I need to change this. Don't go, the pastor's just picking on me, why doesn't he pick on someone else? It's hard preaching and fire breathing preaching isn't fire breathing until someone gets burnt by it, right? And you're going to get burnt every once in a while, and if you're not, please come tell me and I'll preach a sermon just about you or your sins so that you don't feel left out. But I think when we preach the whole counsel of God, then that helps people because it's just going to be like drive-by preaching, like somebody's going to get hit with what's being said when you're preaching the whole counsel of God. Number two this morning, exhortation on how to treat people. Exhortation on how to treat people. To exhort means to strongly encourage or urge someone to do something. To strongly encourage or urge someone to do something. Look at verse 14 in our text there, it says, now we exhort you, brethren, we encourage you, brethren, we strongly encourage you or urge you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak, and be patient toward all men. So this is really, he's just kind of hitting you with a little, you know, he's covering just a few different topics, but they're different. But what is it ultimately this portion he's trying to help us understand is how we're supposed to treat people. Now the Bible in the Old Testament talks a lot about how you're not supposed to put a stumbling block for the blind. Why does God say that? I mean have you ever put something in front of a blind person to make them fall down? Basically the first application of that is to literally not do that. Why would God have to say that? Because people have done that. And you're basically taking someone that can't see and you're trying to make them fall over something so they can either get hurt or look really stupid so people can laugh at them. And in school, people do this kind of stuff a lot to people that maybe are overweight or ugly in their eyes or don't have the right clothing or they have some kind of disability of some sort. And we ought to be different as God's people and we ought to support the weak. We ought to comfort the feeble-minded. And what does it mean by feeble-minded? Well how about people that just don't have the mental capacity that other people do? Some people are born with less mental abilities than other people. And it's not right to treat them worse because sometimes, let's just be honest, sometimes people that have disabilities in our minds can be hard to deal with sometimes. Like someone that's deaf, I went to a school called Sunnyside Elementary, it's over in Portland, and there was underneath, on the bottom level of the school, there was a deaf school there. And people would make fun of the deaf people and do the, you know, because when deaf people try to talk, they sound different, don't they? They sound funny to us. And people would just make fun of them or they would learn how to do enough sign language to communicate with them so they could do stuff to make them upset. Like you know, I'm not going to do this. There's one symbol that we all know will tell people off, but you know, that's a different kind of sign language. But people will, and I'm just saying this because I saw people do this kind of stuff. I've never liked people that bully other people. I've always not liked it. I've always wanted to beat people up that are bullies, but like as Christians, instead of being upset about that, or maybe you have someone that's born into your family that has some problems, well don't be annoyed with that child. God put that child in your family so that you can raise them and support them and have a Christian parent in their life that's going to understand, that's going to take these principles from the Bible and they're going to implement them in their life. Now just because you have someone that has, that's been born into your family that might have some disabilities, you need to love that person, you need to comfort that person, you need to support that person. And look, our church family should do the same thing. We don't have a lot of people with disabilities in our church, but there are some. So we've got to make sure that we're exhorting, Paul's exhorting us to treat people right, and that includes people with disabilities, that includes people that are mentally handicapped, that includes people that maybe are weak in their flesh and not able to do certain things. And it says be patient toward all men. And sometimes we'll have people that come into our church that don't know a lot about how church functions. Maybe they've never been to a Baptist church, maybe they've never been to an independent Baptist church, but maybe they've never been to a new independent Baptist church either. And sometimes we'll jump all over people and go, well that person's kind of weird. And sometimes it's true, but not everybody that does something weird is bad, okay? And so we need to understand that we need to be patient toward all men, and obviously if they push past the bounds of decency, they need to be corrected. But we should let people have some room to grow. They're not going to come in and just be plug and play every single time. We're going to reach people from the outside that we're going to be able to disciple and things, but if we're just jumping on them about things already when they first walk, the first service that they come to, we ought not to be like that. We need to have patience for it. And so sometimes ladies will come in with pants on here or whatever, and it's just like, we shouldn't have that attitude where we're like, how dare she wear pants to the house of the Lord. It's like, they don't know. They don't understand. That should be the obvious truth. We should help them to understand those things, but look, it's not our job to just straighten people out on everything they're wrong about the first time they come to our church. So we need to have patience towards all men, and it says, see that none render evil for evil unto any man, but ever follow that which is good both among yourselves and to all men. So our job as Christians is also to not render evil for evil. If somebody does something evil to us, someone gives you a dirty look at church, someone says something to you that you don't like, someone corrects you on something, then you know, you don't have to do evil back to them. You don't have to be their permanent enemy at church. I don't like that person or whatever. Give somebody a chance to get things right. And sometimes people are having a bad day, but we should be able to suffer ourselves to be defrauded in such cases. We don't have to answer. It's like Samson. Every time the Philistines did something to him, he would do it back to them, and then they would do it back to him, and that's not how God wants us to live. That's not how we're supposed to live. Let's go to Matthew chapter 7, and then Matthew chapter 7, and I forgot my water. Brother Jesse, will you grab my water bottle right there, straight back on that chair? Thank you. Matthew 7, 12, and this is what's known as the golden rule. This is how Christ would have us to behave, and so sometimes the flesh is winning, and we want to just strike back on people and hit back, and we want to right the wrongs that have been done to us. But what does Christ say? He says, therefore, all things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them, for this is the law and the prophets. And I won't have you turn there, but in Matthew chapter 22, verse 39, it says, and the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. So the first commandment is to love God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength, but the second is like unto it. So we're supposed to love our neighbor as ourselves, and so how we want people to treat us, that's how we should treat other people. And we're supposed to overcome evil with good, as it says in Romans chapter 12. So we're supposed to overcome evil with good. We're not supposed to hit back on things. We're supposed to, what, treat them how we want to be treated. And sometimes people don't reciprocate that. Sometimes even at work, you think, well, I'm going to try to do this, I'm going to put this in practice, and then they don't respond immediately to how you want to be treated. And then you're just like, well, I give up then, this guy's, I'm going to hit back. It's just like, no, why don't you give it a chance, why don't you just treat that person, sometimes taking someone out to lunch, buying them a pop or something. I've done this before at work where I just took somebody out to lunch that I didn't particularly like, but I kind of wanted to be at peace with them. And sometimes a little bit of food will go a long way to winning them. They say that a way to a man's heart is through his stomach, right? And that's an old saying, but it is kind of true. Nothing says I do like, hey, they cooked me a five-course dinner or something. But anyway, so number three, infinite in our responsibility. We need to be infinite, excuse me, in our spirituality, infinite in our spirituality. And you're like, well, nobody's always doing the right thing, Pastor Thompson. But look at verse number 16 in our text. It says, rejoice, what's it say there? Evermore, evermore, how long is that? Isn't that forever? Isn't that everlasting? And we have a lot of things to rejoice about. We have a lot of things to be happy about. It's like being extremely joyful. It could be just in how you feel in general, but it also can be outwardly in how you are. Are you positive? Because positivity kind of goes along with rejoicing. If you're always happy and excited about how things are, then it's better than always just being blackpilled or just you're just always upset about how the world's going. And we can fall into that trap. I fall into that trap. But really, the Bible says we should rejoice evermore. So what things do we have to rejoice about? How about being saved forevermore? That's a good thing to rejoice over, that we're saved. How about the fact we can't lose our salvation no matter how dark our life gets? It's a thing. How about being married? How about having children? There's people that want to have children, and there's people that have a lot of children that are upset that they have a lot of children. It's like, we gotta learn to be happy and to rejoice evermore. And these few verses here, like in verse 17, it says pray without ceasing. Isn't that like never stopping? In verse 18 it says, in everything give thanks. So you see how Paul's just like, he's making an infinite something we can do, a spiritual that's infinite, that's never-ending, that's never ceasing. That's everything. So you're like, well, I don't know if I could do that, Pastor Thompson. Well, can't never did anything. I like that saying, can't never did anything. When you say, I can't do that, well then you're automatically just putting failure in your life. I can't do that. I can't show up to church three times a week. I can't read the Bible every day. I can't pray every day. Well, can't never did anything. And when we have the mindset that we're going to try to be as positive as we possibly can, which is rejoicing evermore, then we have a great mindset. We wake up in the morning like, hey, today's going to be a great day. Or do you wake up and go, oh, it's raining again. And it's just begun, folks. It's nice outside today, but it's cold. But that's kind of how our winters are here. But don't let the weather depress you. Be positive. Try to find something you can be positive about. Because if it didn't rain, it wouldn't be so beautiful here all year long, or at least in the spring, summer, and fall. It's beautiful here. People like living here because it's beautiful, because we have evergreen trees. Everything doesn't die. It's not dirty and dusty necessarily here. But it is rainy. And without rain, there's no rainbows. You wouldn't get to see the rainbow if we never saw rain. So we wouldn't have the great things we have. Obviously, every place has its detriments. But if you're always focusing in that area on the detriments of the area, you know what people in Phoenix probably say? I hate the heat in the summertime. I like Phoenix in the wintertime. That's what my favorite time to go there is. Or now, in November or whatever, when it stops being 120 degrees, where the paint is literally dripping off the street signs because it's so hot there. Like somebody got the wrong, somebody shouldn't have got that contract. They should have used the different paints or something. But when you look at this street, you know what I'm talking about? When you look at like, you pull up to a stoplight, and on the top you can see what road it is, and they're like weeping paint from off of it. That's how hot it is there. How would you like going somewhere into that? And people do it. But people do it in the rain too. I'm just saying we have a lot of reasons to be thankful for the things we have. If you have good health, be thankful for that. But even in the bad health, we should still be thankful for the fact that God has saved us. That's the ultimate blessing that God has put in our life, and our lives are what we make out of it. And if you're always negative, if you're never positive, you have a negative outlook. Look at Philippians chapter four, verse 11. Philippians chapter four, verse number 11. Paul had a good attitude, even though he was getting beaten and shipwrecked, and beaten with rods, and stoned and left for dead outside of cities, and all of his friends betrayed him. Nobody stood with him. Everybody deserted him. He still kept a positive attitude. You notice Paul doesn't just get all upset. There are some times when Paul's upset, obviously, in some of his epistles. But for the most part, Paul is a very positive person, and I think that's why we like him. That's why I like him. I like that he's positive. I like that he teaches us doctrine, but then he also reminds us that we're supposed to enjoy our life in Christ. We're supposed to enjoy the life we have. It shouldn't be miserable. Like, oh, the Christians don't have any fun. I do. I hope you do. And if you're not having fun in the Christian life, then you need to change something. Says in Philippians 4-11, it says, not that I speak in respect of want, for I have learned. So it's something Paul learned. In whatsoever state I am, therewith to be, what's it say there? Content. That means whatever's going on in his life, he's content. And people say, well, you're just content with too much stuff going on, whatever. You should be. That's what Paul said, right? Not that I speak in respect of want, he doesn't care about those things. He doesn't care about the material world. He doesn't care about all the problems that he has being the apostle Paul, the off scouring of the world, the one that people hate, the one that people try to kill when he comes to town. But he's content. How's that possible? I mean, if you know what Paul went through, people would be like, oh, I wouldn't be content with that. Well, then your attitude isn't right. And it's like, well, how could you be content with that, Pastor Thompson? Is it fun going through that? No, it's not fun going through stuff. It's not. But our attitude goes a long way, and our positive mindset goes a long way to enjoying the Christian life because there's always gonna be a valley that we're in. There's always gonna be a storm we're going into or a storm we're coming out of. Enjoy the times when there isn't a storm. Enjoy those times. Because, look, we live in a fallen world and things go wrong. Things go wrong a lot more than they seem to go right. But we have to understand that this is just a moment of our time in history. This is the time we can do stuff. This is the time we can be effective. This is the time that our positive attitude can affect other people in a great way. I love it when people don't have guile in everything that they say. I like it when people are positive about the things, hey, I know this is going wrong, but I'm trying to stay positive. That's what Paul is saying here. Hey, I know that I've learned that whatsoever state I am there with to be content. It says, I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I'm instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Don't say you can't do something. What's the Bible say? I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Don't sit there and say you can't do something. What's the Bible say? It says you can do all things through Christ, doesn't it? So can you do something? Yes, you can. Don't have the can't attitude. Look at verse 17. Pray without ceasing. Now some people would take this verse and they'd say, does that mean I'm supposed to be praying 24-7-3-6-5? I don't think that that's what it's saying. Because you would never get anything else done. You have to work, you have to do certain things in your life, you can't just only be in prayer. What is this talking about? Well I believe it's talking about not stopping your prayer life. And this is something that's easy to go by the wayside especially if your schedule's off. Say your schedule's flipped or something. Well then, I don't know about you but me, I like to have a routine, especially the older I get, the more I like a routine. And if my routine is thrown off, it throws off everything else in my life. So we have to learn to not let that happen with our prayer life. If you have to set alarms three times a day for you to pray, even if you're not just jumping on your knees and doing it like Daniel did, hey, at least stop what you're doing, pray, and then move on with your day. Because sometimes you're not in the, like if you're in the car and your prayer alarm goes off, I mean, if you close your eyes and get on your knees, you're gonna kill somebody, okay? You're gonna kill yourself. But can we pray with our eyes open? Can we pray? Yeah, we can. Obviously the most, the best way to pray is on your hands and knees with your hands spread out towards the Lord. That's what you see when someone is in prayer. That's the best thing you do. Because what you're doing, you're humbling yourself. Isn't it humbling when you have to get on your knees? It is, it's uncomfortable. So, and I'm not saying you have to do it on a concrete floor, you know? I mean, you can have some kind of pillow or something. So, but I would just say sometimes you should be on your knees. You know, when's the last time you got on your knees and prayed before the Lord? So, I would just say this. If you're having a hard time keeping a prayer schedule, set some alarms. Set some alarms. I mean, because we're forgetful people. We're people that are not perfect and we also have schedules that sometimes don't allow us to keep up on this kind of stuff. But, you know, we still should be praying. Don't stop your prayer life. Don't get out of that because God wants to hear from you. He wants you to think upon his name. The first part of your prayer should be to acknowledge who God is, you know? And then you should confess your sins before him. And, you know, then you should, you know, ask for things for others. Then you should ask for yourself. You know, the things that you need. And so if you kind of have that kind of order when you pray, then, you know, you're not gonna forget what to pray about. You understand? So, and even if you don't have time to pray for your full prayer list, at least you can pray for some things. And the acknowledgement of God, he wants us to think about him. He wants us to bless his name. He wants us to think on his name. Do you go through your day and do you think about the Lord? Do you meditate on his words? Do you pray to him? It says in everything, verse 18, give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Of course, we have Thanksgiving coming up. That's a day of the year that everybody waits for their ads to come in so that they can, you know, skip out on their family and go shopping early. That's what Thanksgiving has turned into in America. Instead of being thankful, it's become covetous day giving or taking, you know? People are just worried about what deals they can get for Christmas. You know what? Who cares about that stuff? Why don't you just enjoy the day with your family? Enjoy the day with your family and maybe think of some things that you can be thankful about because Thanksgiving is not about all the things, all the Chinese, you know, new big screen TVs that you can get and all the junk coming from other countries that you don't really need. You don't need another set of earbuds. You don't need, I mean, there's only so many earbuds you can have, folks, and I know the Apple ones are uncomfortable. I don't know about you guys, but I think they just like, they jab into my ears or something. I don't like them. But anyway, I don't know where that came from. I just, I see why people, I'm just saying I see why people buy different sets because some of them are uncomfortable. But look, that's not what thanks is all about. And what's it say? In everything give thanks. Well, would that be the negative things in our life, too? Does it say everything? You know, obviously, if really tragic things happen in your life, there probably is something that you can be thankful for in this situation. Because God is merciful to us, and death is just a fact of life. It's gonna happen. And there's never gonna be something, obviously death is something that we all wanna avoid. We want to avoid it for our family members, but everybody in our family's gonna die. Your grandparents are gonna die. Your wife's gonna die. Your husband's gonna die. Your kids are gonna die. And I'm not saying be thankful for those things, necessarily, that they die, but there are things that we can be thankful for, not just the positive things. We can be thankful that maybe God gave them mercy in their death, or that they didn't suffer very much. Like if someone dies in the middle of the night in peace, like that's the way I wanna go. You know, I just don't wake up. That's a good way to go, isn't it? I mean, you just die in your sleep. That's like the ultimate way anybody'd probably wanna die, really. It's not by shark attack. It's not by a terrible auto accident. But obviously those things happen. But God can give us mercy, and He does. And He gives us grace to get through the hard times too. And we oughta be thankful for that grace. So even persecution. Persecution could be something that you could be thankful for. You're like, well really? Turn to Acts chapter five. So when we're being persecuted, we don't generally think to just be happy and thankful about that. When things are going wrong in our lives, we don't necessarily stop and think to be thankful about those things. But Job blessed the Lord after the worst day possible. And then he blessed the Lord. He worshiped the Lord in the end of that day. Did not charge God foolishly. He just understood that the Lord is the one that gives everything that we have, and the Lord is the one that takes away. But even so, blessed is the name of the Lord, right? Blessed be the name of the Lord. And so we get rewards for being persecuted, so that's something to be thankful for. And when we get chastised, also that's something to be thankful for. Look at Acts 5.40 though first. It says, and to him they agreed, and when they had called the apostles and beaten them, they commanded they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. So they caught a beating. And I'm sure it wasn't just like, you know, how you would spank your kids like three times with a stick or something. You know, it's, we're talking about a real beating. It says, and they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. And daily and in the temple and in every house they cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. So the fact that they were thankful and they were rejoicing in the fact that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Christ, they were excited about that. They were thankful about that. And that seems like a, you know, after you get beat up, that's probably not what most people feel like. But that's how the apostles felt. Again, we should be different. We should think on a different level when we walk in the Spirit and we walk in the new man and our lives are spiritual. Those, that's the way we should think about things. The way God thinks about things is the way we should think about things. Look at Matthew chapter five. Matthew chapter five verse 10. What does Jesus say about being persecuted? He says, blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. That's something to be thankful for, isn't it? Hey, you're blessed when you're persecuted. You know, if you're not persecuted, then that means you're not living godly in Christ Jesus. So when you're persecuted, that's a blessing. And guess what? Ours is the kingdom of God. These thugs and these freaks, they don't get to inherit the kingdom of God. We get to inherit it. That's why we should be thankful. That's why we should be rejoicing evermore. So look at Hebrews chapter, sorry, I'm not finished yet. So look at verse 11. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, that means they hate your guts, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. For whose sake? For Jesus' sake. They say all manner of evil against you. And this is hard to deal with when people just straight up lie about you and your character and who you are and what you do. It's hard. But what's the Bible say, what's Jesus say? Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven. So we should rejoice and be exceeding glad over being persecuted because our reward is great. Ours is the kingdom of heaven. Our reward is great. It says, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. So we're in good company. If you're being persecuted, if you're being afflicted by people that hate God or that hate you because you love the Lord, that you're in good company because they persecuted the prophets, and you know what, they nailed Jesus, our Lord, to a cross. They spit in his face. They ripped out his beard. They punched him when he wasn't looking. And did all manner of evil, they whipped him. And they nailed him to the cross. They reviled him. They railed against him. They bore false witness against him. They gave him apple cider vinegar to drink on the cross. No, it was just vinegar. But it could have been apple cider vinegar. And guess what, it didn't heal him, by the way. Anyway, sorry I gotta take that little crunchy shot at you. But it doesn't cure everything, folks. It melts your teeth off. But anyway, Hebrews chapter 12, you gotta dilute it, all right? Hebrews chapter 12. I don't know, I just had to sneak that in there. Hebrews chapter 12, it says, And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children. My son despiseth not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth some of the sons whom he receiveth. Is that what it says? No, it says, every son whom he receiveth. So, we're all in the same company there, too. We're gonna get, we're gonna get chastened sometimes. We're gonna get beaten sometimes. But remember, it says, in everything give thanks. It's like, well, how can you be thankful about God beating you, about God chastising you, about God clouding up and raining on you? It says, but if thou be without chastisement whereof all are partakers, all, so yes, people still do sin and they get chastened for it, then are ye bastards and not sons. So be thankful you're a son. If you're getting beaten, be thankful for that because you know you're a son or a daughter of God when you endure chastening for the sins that you commit. Furthermore, we've had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence. And kids, you should give your parents reverence and they're spanking you most of the time for a good reason. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the father of spirits and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our profit. So God spanks us, he chastens us for our own profit. And you're like, well, it doesn't feel good. I know, but there's a reason why God does it, that we might be partakers of his holiness. He wants us to be better. A lot of times you correct people for doing wrong, but you're also trying to help them to get better. And you know what, we don't learn from our mistakes without having, when we have failures in our life and when it comes to sin or just not doing right, we're not gonna get better without failure. If you try something and you fail, you're still learning something from that. So you are still learning something even though you did something wrong. That's the point of chastening, to teach you that God's not gonna put up with it, that it's wrong and there's consequences for it, but also, it also tells you that you're one of God's children. It says for Verily, excuse me, look at verse 11, it says, Now no chastening for the present seemed it to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them that are exercised thereby. So we don't like chastening, it hurts. We don't wanna go through it. It's not joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness. It's like when you spank your kids and you give them a hug and their attitude just changes. It's so weird, but it's not really weird. It's just we should understand that that's what's gonna happen because that's what the Bible says. So when our children get spanked, when they're driving you crazy and you're like, I'm gonna give you another chance, one more chance, it's like all you're doing is torturing yourself. Just spank them and be done with it and quit just waiting to chase in them. Because you're gonna feel better, you're not gonna feel as upset over what their bad behavior, and then you just spank them and get over with it, tell them you love them, give them a hug, and then all of a sudden they're good again. It's like, okay, well that's because God's program is always right. The world's program is don't spank your kids. And then we see the little monsters in the malls and wherever else you go, and then they have to carry their kids around with a leash or something because they just can't control them. Or they're just screaming, I want this, and parents are just going, oh honey, it's okay. Just spank that kid, take him right to the bathroom, knock whatever's in their hands out of their hand, take him to the bathroom, and give him some exercise. So when you're exercised thereby, then it changes your attitude, doesn't it? So it says, wherefore lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees. See, we're feeble in our flesh a lot of times, but God's allowing us by the chase scene for us to have something to be thankful for. That we're not bastards, that we're children, and that whatever he's correcting us by, we're gonna learn from those mistakes and hopefully do better and not do it again. But sometimes we do do it again. But guess what, the rod's gonna come back out again until you learn that lesson. So don't restrict your spirituality, you should embrace it. You should be thankful for it, and you should let it be an infinite spirituality. That's what Paul's saying. So obviously it might not be possible for that all the time, but don't say you can't do it, because you can do all things through Christ. If we really applied ourselves, we could do a lot better than we're doing right now. Number four, there's warnings against worldliness and sin. We see the warnings against worldliness and sin. Look at verse 19, the Bible says, quench not the Spirit. So that really kind of goes in the other category of the last three verses, because if you don't quench it, that means the Spirit is always, you're always filled with it. The Spirit is always there. But it says quench not the Spirit. So is it possible to quench the Spirit in your life? It is. Is it possible to be filled with the Spirit? It is. So the Bible's warning us against not quenching the Spirit. And how would we do that? Well, sin, and not doing that which is right, can quench the Spirit in our life. I think about in the Old Testament, there was a lamp that was made, and it was part of the furniture of the main sanctuary area. And it was that lamp that had the seven branches coming out of it, which obviously in the New Testament represents the church. And inside that lamp was oil. And so that lamp was supposed to be lit. How long was that lamp supposed to go for? All the time, right? It was not supposed to go out. But then if you're reading through the Kings and the Chronicles, you see times where they let the lamp go out. And that represents the fact that the Spirit was quenched. When everybody's turned against God, and they're all worshiping Baal, and they're all doing all this wickedness, and there's just a small remnant left, they're quenching what the Spirit can do in their lives. And we can do the same thing. We don't wanna quench that Spirit. We don't want to let that oil go out. Don't let it run out. Well, you're like, well, the Holy Spirit promised that he'd stay with us. I know that. It doesn't say don't let the Holy Spirit leave you because that's never gonna happen. But you can quench the Spirit in your life to the point where you're not being effective as a Christian, and it grieves God. I mean, sin grieves God, doesn't it? And so if you're quenching the Spirit in your life, then you're probably upsetting God. And let me just let you know a little secret. The Holy Spirit is not the force. It's not Star Wars. It's not what the Jehovah's Witnesses think. The Holy Spirit is God. So we have a down payment of the Holy Spirit in us, and we are sealed unto the day of redemption. And so we don't want to quench the Spirit in our life through what? Worldliness, sin, because God wants us to be set apart. Look at Ephesians 5, 18, Ephesians 5, 18. The Bible says, and be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. So we don't want to have the wrong kind of products in us. Alcohol, what's it say? Don't be drunk with wine, wherein is excess. Because isn't being drunk having too much alcohol? Yes, it is. And so the opposite of that is being filled with the Spirit. See, they call it wines and spirits for a reason. Because when you drink alcohol, it brings another spirit forth from you. But we want to have the Spirit of God. It's a command to be filled with the Spirit, isn't it? Be filled with the Spirit. Isn't that telling us something to do? Yes. Look at verse 19, making to yourselves, excuse me, speaking to yourselves in psalms, in hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. So when it's time to sing the songs, hey, we're not singing them so that our neighbor can see how well we sing. We don't have canned music up here where people get up and it has the nice little music and people are just singing and trying to get, it's self-adoration. These churches that do that, I mean, obviously I've been blessed by special music before, but I think that it becomes more of a show and a karaoke bar than it does something that's spiritual. Because things can look spiritual. Satan appears as an angel of light, doesn't he? So just because somebody's singing about Jesus doesn't mean that necessarily their motive is correct. So we're supposed to make melody in our heart, not to ourselves, not to the congregation, but to the Lord. Isn't that what it says? Making melody in your heart to the Lord. So when you're singing, just have that mindset. Hey, I'm singing to the Lord. I'm not singing so that everybody thinks I'm a great singer. That's why we don't do that. Because I don't want our church to turn into a choir. I don't want our church to turn into special music. I want our church to be blessed when everybody sings together in the congregation. So look at verse 20. It says, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. So giving thanks always. Isn't that what the Apostle Paul said in First Thessalonians chapter number five? Yeah, so giving thanks always. And then, so how do we get in the Spirit? Well, sing hymns, songs, spiritual songs, give thanks always in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to the Father, and then it says what? Submitting yourselves one to another. And that is what? Loving your neighbor as yourself and in the fear of God. So you put all those things together, and it's kind of almost exactly like what it's talking about in First Thessalonians in our text. But you know, if you say, oh, I just don't feel filled with the Holy Spirit. Well, you know what? You can ask God to fill you with the Spirit, and guess what? He will. He will fill you with the Spirit, and you don't just have to be a man up here preaching. Yeah, we ask to be filled with the Spirit. People pray before I get up here and preach that I'll be filled with the Spirit, and other people do that. You know, I'll pray that God will fill our church with the Holy Spirit, but again, it's not just for people that get up and preach. It's for men, women, and children. Hey, if you're saved today, you can be filled with the Spirit. Now, the Baptist church that I grew up, or not grew up in, but I first started going to, the pastor there preached that you get all the Holy Spirit you're ever gonna get when you get saved. You'll never get more Holy Spirit. But is that what the Bible teaches? It doesn't teach that. It says you can quench the Spirit, and you can also be filled with the Spirit. And so God wants us to be filled with the Spirit, and in the fear of the Lord, we can ask to be filled. You don't have to have somebody specially do it for it. You can just ask yourself. And we got kids that are soul wanting in our church. We got women that are soul wanting in our church, and maybe you're not up here preaching behind the pulpit, but you can still be filled with the Spirit when we go out soul wanting. Men can be filled with the Spirit, and our church should be filled with the Spirit when we come together to worship the Lord. I mean, isn't that the first thing he said? Why do we sing songs? Is it just so we can waste space in the service times? No, we sing songs so that we can sing them to the Lord because God loves to have us worship him in spirit and in truth. And singing to him in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs is what he asked for us, and it says to be filled with the Spirit, that's the first thing, that's the first step. Giving thanks. You know, when we ask, when we pray in the services or when we open in prayer, that's not just to fill space. It's because we want God to bless us, and we want to mention his name and think upon his name and give thanks to him for the things that he blesses us with. As a church, in our lives, in our families, in our individual lives, and that's what God wants. So, and it says in verse 20, despise not prophesies. So, I'll just put that in modern terms. Don't hate preaching. Despise not prophesies. Right now you're like, I'm hungry, pastor. When are you gonna be done? Despise not prophesies. Who cares about that stuff? You'll eat when you eat. You know, you need to get your spiritual food first and then go eat. It says despise not prophesying. Don't hate on the preaching. Get something out of it. Don't complain about it being too long. You know what, we need preaching. Because the world is not offering preaching. You can't just go to every church in this city and hear preaching. Or, you know, you might hear what they call preaching, what passes for preaching in some places. But you know what, they're not getting preaching. They might be right on the gospel. They might be soul winning. But a lot of these churches, even independent Baptist churches, are not preaching. It's a perpetual Bible study. They never raise their voice. They never challenge people on things. And it's just weak. And I don't know if it's just a Northwest thing, or if it's just the way the old Baptists are now. But it's weak. Like if you tune into most, you know, an independent Baptist finally learned how to get on YouTube after YouTube wasn't really a thing anymore. After they'd already silenced the real preachers on there, and throttled down, and made it to where, you know, they nuked Pastor Anderson's YouTube channel, which was over 100 and something thousand. They've nuked Pastor Mehe is. They've nuked Pastor Menes' channels. But these Johnny-come-latelys come in, and they're not getting nuked. You know why they're not getting nuked? Because they're not preaching hard. Because if they're preaching hard, look, I had my Mother's Day sermon from two years ago nuked off of YouTube. And I know that was a hard sermon. Because somebody came up to me and was like, wow, that was a hard sermon or whatever. And I was just like, oops. I meant it to be positive. You can take the positive out of the negative. But anyway, let's look at Acts chapter 20, verse nine. Acts chapter 20, verse nine. So, despise not prophesying. Don't hate preaching. Get something out of it. Don't complain about it. Look at Acts 20, verse nine. You're like, well, where does it say you're supposed to preach long sermons? Well, there's no verse that says you have to preach long sermons. But I really like the apostle Paul, and maybe this is one of the reasons why. Look at Acts 20, verse nine. Don't whine about my long sermons until you've fallen out a window and died, okay? It says, and there sat in the window a certain young man named Eutychus. And the joke goes, if you would have heard that long of a sermon, you would have cussed too. But anyway, being fallen into a deep sleep, and as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep and fell down from the third loft and was taken up dead. So, obviously Paul brought him back to life. He had mercy on the sleeper. But he preached a long sermon is the point. He's preaching till late into the night. I think it's, doesn't it say he's preached till midnight or something like that? I've never preached a sermon that long. And I'm not trying to, okay? But don't be upset with long preaching because it is a thing in the Bible. It's something that Paul did. I mean, people stood and listened to the law of Moses being read for hours. I mean, that would be hard. Like, we have it easy, you're in a cushy chair, and yeah, once the cushion wears out, just get up and let the cushion get up and then sit back down or something. But you should be used to it now after all these years. But don't be upset, don't hate and bristle when you're admonished to go sowing. Don't despise your sins being preached against. Don't say you obey God and do the opposite of what the Bible says. You know what the Bible says to do, but yet you say, I'm gonna do the opposite of that. Jeremiah was told that he spoke falsely because when people were begging him for his message in Jeremiah chapter 43, they're like, whatever you say, we'll do. We just wanna hear what the message is from the Lord. And he's like, don't go to Egypt, you're gonna die. And he says, stay here, God's gonna protect you. And then he gets done saying that after he already said, I don't really wanna say anything because I know you're not gonna do what I say. And then they say, thou speakest falsely. It's like, you're just saying that because you don't wanna do what the word of God says. Don't have that attitude, don't despise prophesying. Proverbs, go ahead, Acts 17, I'm gonna read Proverbs 28 verse nine. Proverbs 28 verse nine says, he that turneth away his ear from the hearing of the law, even his prayer shall be an abomination. So guess what, if you wanna just turn your ear away from what God has to say to you, and then you're like, I'm just gonna pray to God today, your prayer's an abomination. Why would he wanna listen to anything you have to say when you won't listen to what he has to say? That doesn't even make sense. It's like, your kid, you're just like, you're telling your kid what to do and how to clean the room and da da da da da da, and they don't listen, they do the exact opposite of what you say, and then you're like, Mommy, can I have a sucker? No, your asking is an abomination. You're gonna get a scorpion. Anyway, but I mean, think about that. You do the opposite of what God says to do. You hear the preaching, you know what you're supposed to do and you're like, no, I'm not doing that. And you can say, well, I just don't believe that your interpretation's correct. How do you interpret that verse? How do you interpret that verse? I mean, if it's just read plainly, you should know what the verse, the interpretation of the verse is if you have the Holy Spirit. So instead of hating preaching or despising certain subjects, why not just be like the Bereans here in Acts chapter 17? It says, and the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea, who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more noble than those of Thessalonica, and that they received the word with all readiness of mind. See, this is the attitude that God's people should have when you come to the preaching services, that you receive the word with all readiness of mind. When you're there, you sing, you try to get in the Spirit, you ask to be filled with the Spirit, and then listen to what God has for you, receive the word of God with readiness of mind. Hey, I'm ready to listen, and I'm ready to implement what God has to say in my life. So don't be like the people that just don't care. Care, care what the Bible says, be ready. It says, and search the scriptures daily whether those things were so. So at the end of the night, maybe I said something and you're like, I don't really know if I agree with that. Well, listen, you have a personal responsibility to make sure that what you're believing is right according to the Bible. I'm not perfect, maybe I didn't miss something, maybe I said something wrong, and maybe I just, because that happens. When you get up and you preach thousands of words all the time, you're gonna say something wrong, you're gonna say something that didn't sound right, but your job as the listener is to receive God's word, don't despise prophesying, be ready to listen, be ready to hear the preaching, be ready to implement it in your life, and search the scriptures whether those things are so. First Thessalonians 5, 21 says, prove all things, hold fast to that which is good. What does proving mean? Well, it means to, well, proving means a lot of different things, there's a lot of definitions, but I feel like this one fits the best. Subject, so you prove a subject, a gun, or some other item to a testing process. So like when David was given Saul's armor to fight Goliath, what did he say? I have not proved them, right? So it's not that Saul's armor was bad, it's just that he hadn't fought with any armor on before, it probably didn't fit him because Saul was my size, David was not my size, so he's got this big, you can just picture him with this big hunk of armor on that doesn't fit him and a chain mail that goes down to his feet or something, it's just, it's not gonna work. So he proved it, or he said he hadn't proved it, so he's not gonna do it. And so we gotta prove all things also in a testing process. So whether it's a family tradition, a holiday, a cultural practice within our culture, a doctrine that you might hold to, some people hold really stupid doctrines, like the Nephilim and Flat Earth and things like that. We gotta prove all things and hold fast to that which is good. Today there's like this call to go back to the original culture of the faith of our ancestors and things like that. That's why you have all these people believing in the pantheon again. So-called believing in the pantheon. You have the Norse gods rising back up and all this other stuff. And the problem is, is that when people were heathens before they got rid of, or that's the good thing is they got rid of all that garbage and stopped doing that and people act like that's colonization. It's good colonization now. It got rid of the heathen cultures and there's nothing wrong with keeping the culture as long as it's not wicked. So you would prove all things. Hey, is this good in my culture? No, get rid of it. Is it okay? Is it good? Yeah, keep it. And there's many, like the Chuukese. If you think about the Chuukese people, when you see them, what do you always notice about the ladies? They're wearing a flowery dress every time. I've never seen a Chuukese lady in pants before. And I speak that to some people's shame. But it's a cultural thing also. It might not necessarily be, but it is a cultural thing. It is proof that in culture some people still have the right modes of dressing. But what I'm saying is that in our society today, there's a call to go back to the native culture and to go back to their old ways. Well, let me tell you something. The Peyote religion didn't start until 100 years ago or so. So whatever they believed before, I'm sure they did have heathen beliefs before. But all of them disagree with each other. They have their creation stories, how they came out of the grasslands and they just formed out of the grass or whatever. And maybe it's akin to something far in the distance of what God taught. We are formed of the dust of the earth or whatever. But like in Yakima, that's kind of their belief. All these heathen cultures, they have wrong beliefs about things. So why would they go back to some heathen gods, some totem pole where there's demon faces on it and different animals? I mean, idolatry, it actually talks about the downward spiral of people in a society or in a culture or in the heart where idols and animals are kind of the downfall of their society, worshiping animals. Now look, you can't have Jesus and the totem pole, folks. You have to discard the totem pole. It's either Jesus or nothing. You can't have all this other weird stuff involved. And people try to mix Christianity with other things, like the natives will mix it, but their culture is a culture of drug use. They let their children take peyote, which is mescaline, which doesn't really even grow in the United States except for southern Texas and in Mexico, and they take that and they do these sweat lodges where people are being introduced to demonic forces basically because they're putting down the walls, they're tearing down the walls and allowing these demons to come into them and to influence their lives. We don't need, the proof is in the pudding, folks. Prove all things. You want to prove all things? Well, get rid of the totem poles. Get rid of the demonic stuff. Get rid of the drug use. That is not good. But there is native culture that's fine, like peaceful basket weaving. That's fine, isn't it? Is there anything wrong with weaving a basket or mashing some stuff up with a rock or something? There's nothing wrong with that. But there is something wrong with long hair on men. So we have a guy at our church that had long hair in Yakima that started coming there, and all he had to do is hear a couple people just mention it in a sermon. You know what he did? He got rid of this heathen culture and cut his ponytail off, and now he has short hair. We need to get rid of that. There's this movement towards going back to the old things and those things are wicked. And it's just like Halloween, it's a huge thing. But we need to prove all things. Hey, if people are dressing up like demons and witches and things like that, don't you think that's something we should not participate in? It's not something we should participate our family in, doing these different things. So there's certain holidays that are fine. There's certain holidays, if you don't want to celebrate holidays at all, don't. But there are certain holidays that you should abstain from. It says in verse 22, abstain from all appearance of evil. Wouldn't that be? Think about this. So, and I can't remember what the high priest's name is, but Joash was saved, Athaliah, killed all the royal seed, and she was the queen of Judah for like six years. And she was a Baal worshiper. Now, imagine this, you're not a Baal worshiper, but you decided to come to Baal's church that day for service, and you stepped into that door, and what did the high priest say? He said, lock all the doors, make sure nobody escapes. And you're with them, but you don't really worship Baal, you're just there. It's like if we went to a Catholic church. I mean, do you think God's gonna hold you, he's not gonna hold you guiltless for doing that. For going to a Catholic church service, knowing what you believe, knowing what they are, you're still being with them. You might not be worshiping the devil yourself. Obviously, nobody in this church, if you participate in Halloween, you're not gonna be out worshiping the devil, but you are with them. And the Bible says we're supposed to be separate from them, we're supposed to be separate from the unbelievers, and we ought not to be counted in their mix. You never know when something really bad's gonna happen, but if it's gonna happen, and you're with those people because you're following a crowd, because you just wanna have fun, look, there's all kinds of fun things you can do, and it doesn't involve walking with devil worshipers. And you're like, well, those kids aren't necessarily devil worshipers, they just want candy. I know, but see, we know what God wants, we know what God expects, and we should understand that God's not okay with that. And so don't try to make it okay in your mind. It's not okay. It's not okay to take your kids trick-or-treating. Don't walk with the children of Baal. Don't walk with the unbelievers of this world. There's plenty of other things. Give your kids candy at home or something. Like, does it really have to be where you're knocking on people's doors, and you know, trick-or-treat! And then all these scary things that they have to see in people's yards, people intentionally trying to scare them. Why would you want your kid to be scared? Like, I don't get that. We're supposed to fear the Lord, and if your child's fearing some kind of freakish creature or something that they see out trick-or-treating because you just wanted to live out your life through your kid or something, that's wrong. Don't let them participate in that kind of stuff. You're celebrating death, you're celebrating drunkenness, you're celebrating witchcraft. I think we should just go to celebrate Guy Fawkes Day instead. At least Guy Fawkes, you know, he was killed for trying to kill the king. He was a Catholic. He was a Jesuit. It was a Jesuit plot, a real Jesuit plot. And, you know, he got drawn and quartered. Yeah, that's pretty gross, but I mean, sometimes wicked people die. I mean, to me, that's a good holiday. It's like probably the best holiday besides like Christmas and Easter to me. I mean, the King James Bible still made it through. God's providence showed through in the fact that he stopped that plot from happening. And, you know, that's a better, that's a better holiday. Hey, let's dress up him in his own mask and then burn him in effigy. I mean, let's light some fireworks off. I mean, that's a better holiday. So anyway, I know I gotta be done. So, but the last is just, you know, just making sure that we understand we have rewards. I'm not gonna go through it because I gotta be done. But it says sanctify your, you know, God wants us to be sanctified and preserve, blame us under the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. So really, the book ends with the theme of the fact that the Lord is coming, we have to be prepared for it, and we should live our lives accordingly. And Paul really had some good drive-bys there. I mean, he really knows how to do it. Told so much where I ran out of time and went over time. So anyway, let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for drive-by preaching. We thank you so much for the list in the book, the books of the Bible that help us to live our lives right and help us to get right. Lord, those lists can help us to correct things that are not right in our lives. And Lord, help us to do better in areas that we can do better. It's not all negative. And thank you for all the positive things that are in these lists, Lord, also, and the way that we could be admonished and edified, Lord, to do your work and your will. We thank you, Lord, for this congregation. We thank you for a beautiful day outside. And we thank you for our salvation. We thank you for this church. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.