Quickly, three, zero, five. I must tell Jesus on the first. It is five, thirty.
Lucy, can you please help her get a juice?
I must tell Jesus all of my trials. I cannot bear these burdens alone.
In my distress, He kindly will help me. He ever loves and cares for His own.
I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus, to bear my burdens alone.
I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus, Jesus can help me. Jesus alone.
I must tell Jesus, all of my troubles, he is a kind, compassionate friend.
I must ask him, he will deliver, make up my troubles clearly in hand.
I must tell Jesus, I cannot bear my burdens alone.
I must tell Jesus.
Jesus can tell me.
Jesus alone.
Tempted and tried, I need a great savior.
One who can help my burdens to bear.
I must tell Jesus.
I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus
I can't bear, my bird is alone
Jesus, health can help me, Jesus alone
Oh, how the world to evil allures me
Oh, how my heart is tempted to sin
I must tell Jesus, and He will help me
In the world of victory to win
I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus
I cannot bear my burdens alone
I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus
Jesus can help me, Jesus alone
All right, you'll turn your bulletins today is the 21st.
Yeah, today's the 21st.
All our contact information is right there
on the top left hand corner.
And we have both my personal cell phone and the church's number, which we do receive phone calls and texts we can communicate back and forth.
Sunday morning services are 10.30 a.m.
Soul winning time is Sunday at 2 p.m.
And then Sunday evening services are 4.30 and then we have Wednesday service times at 5.30.
Pray for our expecting mother Cynthia. Just keep praying for her. I know she's due here in a couple months.
Then right down there we had 28 souls one last year all of last year and now this year alone
We're at 144 souls one. So that's a pretty big number. We'll do the math later
Then we have the verse of the week right there and then the prayer request are in the back
I have not added because I wasn't here, but we will be adding those people that were requested
before Shelley and
Some Carlos. Yeah, Carla Levy and then
In addition sad you want to thank everybody for showing up and we finally just bit the bullet
On Sunday, we just couldn't get the audio individuals work. I checked in with Mo
I thought Mo was just dropping the ball and I was like gonna come back and beat him up for it
But it turns out that the machine we had just finally decided to cease to exist
So, we ended up getting a little computer, thank God they're not expensive anymore and
now we have a whole set up back there and we're back on Facebook officially.
For some reason the other system had kicked us out.
So we are now on Facebook, we have two YouTube channels, we have a backup channel and we're
actually on Rumble.
So I'm actually really pleased and I just want to say thank you to Mo for working with
me all day.
So we're excited about that and then just we've got other plans now that we've removed that burden.
There's other things that we want to do. We want to plan us a couple of invites.
So I did talk to a couple of pastors when we were out there at the KJB conference this past weekend.
And so we'll be having a couple of them come down for some preaching and some fun and fellowship
and we'll have some other events. So we're looking forward to it. It was a fun time. I'll tell you all
I guess over the next couple of days, but thank you for just backing me and doing that.
And if nothing else, we will turn our hymnals over to page 482, 482.
And we will sing 482, I didn't write the name of the hymn, so I apologize.
4-A-2, blah-blah, towards the end of the hymnal.
Four hundred and eighty-two.
There's a land that is fairer than day
And by faith 4-A-2, it afar
to prepare us a 12th place there in the sweet by and by we shall meet on that
beautiful shore in the sweet by and by we shall meet on that beautiful shore 482 482
we shall sing on that beautiful shore the melodious songs of the blessed and our
spirit shall sorrow no more not aside for the blessings of rest in the sweet
We shall meet on that beautiful shore, in the sweet by and by.
We shall meet on that beautiful shore, to our bountiful Father above.
gift of his love and his blessings that hallow our days. In the sweet pie pie, we shall meet on that beautiful show. In the sweet pie pie, we shall meet on that beautiful show.
I did forget to say pray for sister Liberty.
I don't know if you noticed, but Moe's back there,
but Liberty and her three children or younger children
are not here.
That's because they went to Brazil.
To be with her husband her husband is not from the United States. He's getting his paperwork to move here
But in the meantime, you know, obviously they spent some time apart and then she gets a visa and then they go
She goes over there. So they just arrived today
From what was I was told on text. So just pray for them because Brazil is completely different
I mean, they don't even speak Spanish.
I don't know, Portuguese, I don't know what that is, but just pray for them.
And you know, Brazil's just, it's not like even Mexico, it's a little bit more far gone.
There's a big Catholic influence, but there's a lot of debauchery and just, there's not
a lot of conservative values over there.
So just, just be with them.
I mean, he is, and he's obviously safe by, by grace through faith.
He's a Christian and all that stuff, but just that they would be careful.
like a sore thumb. Now they will be with someone local, so that helps. But just any time you're a
foreigner in a different nation, you know how that goes. So just pray that for safety and that
everything would work out. But let's turn our handles over to page 465. 465. We do miss them
because they, they, they fill up, you know, the, the Wednesday service and our kids love their kids.
But we also want Liberty to be with her husband. It's the way God intended it. So 465, be thou my
Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart.
Not be all else to me, save that Thou art, though my best thought.
be thy presence my life be thou my wisdom and thou my true
Yeah
This is why I have someone else because I messed up but let's just learn it. Let's go through it on the third
Yeah
So, now we'll have Brother Mo read for us Acts 19, Acts 19 and then we'll be in Acts 19 and chapter 19 of the book of Acts.
Alright, Acts chapter 19. We're going to start there in verse 1 where the Bible reads.
And it came to pass that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the
upper coast, came to Ephesus and finding certain disciples.
He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?
And they said unto them, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.
And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized?
Then, said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the
people that they should believe on him which had come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.
When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them, and they spake
And he went into the synagogue and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God.
But when divers were hardened and believe not, the spake evil of that...
Way before the multitude he departed from them and separated the disciples disputing daily in the school of one
tyrannous and when
And this continued by the space of two years so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word which the Lord
Heard the word of the Lord Jesus both Jews and Greeks and God brought special miracles by the hands of Paul
So that from his body were brought unto the sick hand handkerchiefs or aprons and the
Diseases departed from them and the evil spirits went from them and certain of the vagabond Jews
Exorcists took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits by the name of the Lord Jesus saying we adjure you by Jesus when Paul preacheth
And there were seven sons of one Siva, a Jew and chief of the priests which did so.
And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are ye?
And the men in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them and overcame them and prevailed against them so that they fled out of that house, naked and wounded.
And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus, and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.
And many that believed came and confessed and showed their deeds.
Many of them also, which used curious arts, brought their books together and burned them
before all men, and they counted the price of them and found it 50,000 pieces of silver.
So, mightily, grew the word of God and prevailed. After these things were ended,
Paul purposed in the Spirit when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia to go to Jerusalem,
So he went he sent into Macedonia two of them that ministered unto him
Timothyus and Erastus and he himself stayed in Asia for a season and
The same time there arose no small stirrer about that way for a certain man named Demetrius a silversmith
Who had made silver shrines for Diana brought no small gain
Unto the craftsman whom he called together with a workman
like occupation and said sirs you know that by this craft we have our wealth
moreover you see in here that not that not alone at Ephesus but almost throughout
all Asia this Paul have persuaded and turned away much people saying they be
no gods which are made with hands so that not only by this our craft is in
danger to be said at naught but also that the temple of the great goddess
should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshipeth." And when they heard these
sayings they were full of wrath and cried out saying, great is Diana of the Ephesians,
and the whole city was filled with confusion, and having caught Gaius and her starkest men of
Macedonia, Paul's companions in travel, they rushed with one accord unto the theater.
And when Paul would have entered in unto the people, the disciples suffered him not.
certain of the chief of Asia, which were his friends sent unto him,
desiring him that he would not adventure himself into the theater. Some
therefore cried one thing and some another, for the assembly was confused
and the more part knew not wherefore they were come together. And they drew
Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward, and Alexander beckoned
with his hand,
would have made his defense of the people. But when they knew that he was a Jew,
all with one voice about the space of two hours cried out, great is Diana the
Ephesians. And when the town clerk had appeased the people he said ye men of
Ephesus what man is there that knoweth not how not how that the city of the
Ephesians is a worshiper of the great goddess Diana and of the image which
fell down upon Jupiter.
Seeing, then, that these things cannot be spoken against, ye ought to be quiet and do nothing rashly.
For ye have wrought hither these men which are neither robbers of churches, nor yet blasphemers of your goddess,
wherefore, if Demetrius and the craftsmen which are with them have a matter against any man, the law is open, and there are deputies.
Let them implede one another. But if ye inquire anything concerning other matters,
it shall be determined in a lawful assembly.
For we are in danger to be called in question
for this day's uproar, there being no cause
whereby we may give an account of this concourse."
And when he had thus spoken, he dismissed the assembly.
Let's have a quick word of prayer.
Your Father God, thank you for the King James Bible
that you've given us so that we can hear your voice
and learn about you and the love that you have for us, Lord.
just how to live a Christian life,
how to live a life that is pleasing to you, Lord.
I pray that you feel pastor Enrique with your spirit,
helping to preach a bold and accurate sermon
so that we can all be edified,
fill us with spirit so that we can receive your word
into our hearts and that we can gain something from it
and perfect our walk in Christ, Lord.
And I just pray that we all get home safely tonight
in Jesus' name, I pray, amen.
Amen.
All right, we're there in it if he I mean Ephesians we are talking about the church
We're there in the book of Acts verse 19 and just really quick. It's interesting these these next few chapters
they
They're kind of it they kind of it's hard to cut them off
It'd be it almost be better to preach them all together just because they continue
So but obviously that would be too long of a chapter
But if you go there to Acts 18, we see that it just kind of carries over from
what they were doing in
like verse 26 it says, and then he began to speak boldly in the synagogue
Who went to kill him? Priscilla had heard them
They took unto them and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly speaking of Apollos
And when he was disposed to pass into Acacia
Akhaya, the brother-in-road exhorting the disciples to receive him, whom when he was
come, helped much which had believed through grace, for he mightily convinced the Jews,
and that publicly showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ.
The reason I wanted to start there is because we're going to talk about Apollos now again.
And we're also going to see something really interesting here in chapter 19 about Apollo's he knew of something and even Paul
but the main focus of the the chapter is
Just just the continuance of what we've already been seeing as a matter of fact
One of the hardest things to do when you're reading through like the middle of the book of Acts is to not it's to catch yourself
Am I even in the right chapter because it feels like you're reading the same story again?
You know in one accord or different things like that
But the main the main thing we want to focus on right here is you know that there's power right from the Holy Ghost
Obviously we see that
throughout almost every chapter in the book of Acts. We're seeing this continual spiritual warfare
that's coming. Also we see that now they're not only leading people to Christ and they've been,
when it starts out in the book of Acts, they're still dealing with a lot of like the Pharisees
and the Sadducees, the scribes or the Jews, but now they're going into the world and they're dealing
with also false religions, you know, where people have idols and false gods and things of that nature.
And we see that the main theme will always remain the same,
which is just a belief on Jesus,
which leads me to my first point,
which is the point that we always talk about,
but it's worth discussing at all times.
I just got back.
from the King James conference that was held at Sher Foundation with Pastor Thompson and you know the theme obviously is to discuss
Why we believe in the King James?
But the main thing is you know one of the things I really took is is the fact that we see in the book of John and we see in other places that
You know my sheep hear my voice, right?
We can recognize what the word of God is even if we didn't have all the the
apologetic arguments, right?
And one of the points, I think it was Pastor Anderson was making was he's like,
when you read things like in the Septuagint, or you read things in like the Apocrypha,
it just reads so stupid, it doesn't sound like the Word of God, right? And as God's children,
where we recognize the Word of God, and one of the things that we're always going to recognize
is not only that, but we're always very keen to recognize where someone will maybe argue that
If it preaches salvation by works, we know it's not, you know, I mean, there's other
religions that don't even push, maybe necessarily an argument for the King James or against
the King James, but they have their own books, you know, like the Book of Mormons or, you
know, Ellen G. White wrote a bunch of books called, you know, and she has a great book,
like not a great book, but she called it the Great Controversy.
And she has all these books, but we recognize as Christians that none of those books lead
us to salvation and none of those books are the Word of God.
And the first point I have for you today is that just salvation is simply what, believing
in Jesus Christ alone.
If we're looking there in Acts 1, we see this carryover.
What did Apostles believe?
Remember Achille and Priscilla?
Apostles is preaching and what is he preaching?
The baptism of John.
right if we were to go back and what do we see here in Acts 1 19 verse 1 it says and it came to pass that while
Apollos was at Corinth so Paul leaves him at in Corinth Paul having passed through the upper coast came to Ephesus and
Fighting finding certain disciples. He said up to them. Have you received the Holy Ghost as you believed and they said unto him
We have knows not so much as heard whether they'd be in Holy Ghost. So look
religion
If it's not preached properly,
we'll then kind of take a life of its own
where people will think that they're holy
or they're preaching Christianity
when they're not even preaching the right gospel.
Right and notice how Paul addresses this. He just preaches the truth
And one of the things that truth will always do is it'll find people that are sincere
You know there's people that are sincere today in the world in the Catholic religion in the Mormon religion and the Adventist religion
That they're just preaching what they've been taught. They think that they're serving God faithfully not knowing the truth of
Salvation I remember, you know, it was a loyal seventh day at Venice
I would fast every Saturday. You know, I wouldn't do anything because I thought that was the best way to serve God
Actually, I wasn't preaching a false religion. I just didn't know that I was in a false religion
Now there are people that know like the Pope
Knows that he's sending people to hell and he's happy to do that every day
He'll never tell you that directly, but that's literally his goal is to just condemn as many people to hell as possible
That's not what we're talking about here because we see here. They say hey, we've not
We've not so much as heard whether there'd be a Holy Ghost and he said unto them unto what then were you baptized?
Then they said unto John's baptism. I love that Paul already knows that this is occurring, right?
Obviously with Apollos and with certain people I said then said Paul John barely baptized with the baptism of repentance
Saying unto the people that they should believe on him. We should come after him. That is on Christ Jesus
So he clears this up. He's like, it's not John's baptism
It's Christ baptism is Jesus Christ who you're being baptized to after you believe in them, right?
And when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
And then, and when Paul had laid hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them, and they
spake with tongues and prophesied, and all the men were about twelve.
And so we see that there's a major change.
These zealous people, but they were zealous not unto godliness, now they're zealous unto
what?
Unto the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's been cleared up.
Titus 3 I'll read for you really quick in Romans 8 the Bible says but ye are not in the flesh
But in the spirit if so be that the spirit of God dwell in you now if any man have not the spirit of Christ
He is none of his
And that's how we know that we have not only Christ
But you know just to stay on the theme that we I just got back on and obviously I'm not gonna preach on that
But we can see some verses here. We know that this is God's word because it's Jesus Christ. It's his spirit
As a matter of fact, it's kind of funny that people would argue, it's hard to find people
that actually read the King James, that would preach a false gospel, because the King James
is just so clear, it's just so clear this salvation by grace, right?
In John 3, verse 5, the Bible says, you don't have to turn there, you're in Titus 3, but
in John 3, verse 5, the Bible says, Jesus answered, barely, barely, I sin to thee, except
of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh, his flesh,
and that which is born of the Spirit, his spirit, marvel not that I sent unto thee, ye must be born
again. And, you know, it likens it to what? To being born in the flesh, because we understand as
laymen, you know, as people who are carnal, maybe we don't have the Spirit of Christ. When we're
lost, anybody can understand that you cannot be born again from your mother's womb.
Except for Nicodemus because apparently Nicodemus gonna get he's like can I be born of my mother?
Can I go back into my mother's womb and Jesus is kind of annoyed with him, right?
I mean, this is that story but right there, but he says but that which is born of the spirit is born of what of the spirit
That's why we go out soul winning. That's why we teach people salvation by grace to faith
That's why we have to nobody just gets saved automatically just like nobody's born on their own
It's not like I just was I just came out of my own womb
That'd be weird. First of all, I don't have a womb. Second of all, how would I do that? Right?
It sounds preposterous, but it's just as preposterous to think that you could get saved without Jesus Christ.
You know, he is the life giver, the eternal life giver.
We need to know that it's by faith alone.
In Titus 3, verse 5, Brother Mike uses this out so many all the time.
When he starts out, you know, people come into the door and they're always, you know,
it's always the same story, just told a little bit different.
It's always like, hey, you know, I believe that you can go to heaven because you're a
good person and you follow the commandments and you treat others right.
And Mike always uses that example.
by works of righteousness which we have done but according to His mercy He saved us by
the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost which He shed on us abundantly
through Jesus Christ our Savior that being justified by His grace we should be made
heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
But I mean honestly we could just stop at not by works of righteousness which we have
It's not by work, so but it we can't do anything to get to heaven
Thank God, I mean honestly thank God that we can't
Because I would be so frustrated no matter how hard I try and you know, I've gotten better over the years
But no matter how hard I try I just can't have a perfect day
I mean I I called Mo on Saturday and I said Mo
Here's how you use the mics and oh, this is how we do everything and I'm not picking on more
And I'm just saying we I try to be as perfect as possible in preparation for me being away
And you know what we did?
We failed miserably but had nothing to do with us because the person who made the the machine only made it last so long
And even if he would have made a perfect machine, you know what just time and atrophy and the fact that we live on this earth
Nothing lasts forever, right? Who's ever had a who has who's still using the first cell phone. They ever bought nobody
Cause it wouldn't last, right?
Who's using the original TV that they bought?
Nobody because it's not going to last.
Just like our bodies, you know, who's still, you know, running laps around, you know, the
youth, like they were when they were 20 years old.
Nobody is right?
Cause when you're 45, you can't keep up with a 20 year old no matter how hard you try it.
When you're 88, you can't keep up with a 45 year old, right?
Pastor?
It's just the nature of life.
So, the very, very first point is, the very first point is that salvation is belief on
Christ alone, and we're right here in the book of Acts, Acts 19, but salvation is belief
on Christ alone.
Point number two, you're there in Acts 19 and we're going to verse 8, and it is that
Right the very first thing we always got to realize is we got to get saved, but salvation is not enough
For this life salvation is enough to go to heaven
Let me just people clip that out and take it out of context
But salvation is not enough if we want to have the rewards of God if we want to have the blessings of God in our life
You know why do why do we do you know for example? Why would I make such a big sacrifice and be away from my family and make a
trip all the way out to
Washington to be with other brothers and sisters in Christ because we need to be edified we need to learn and we need to do that but also
Even if I didn't have that, you know what I do have?
I have the Word of God.
That should be sufficient enough to get a good head start on life.
Right?
Apollo was preaching, and he was eloquent, and he was good, but he didn't have the Word
of God.
It wasn't until Priscilla and Achilles said, hey, let us expound this thing more perfectly
for you.
Let us make this thing better for you.
The thing that we need to do is we need to continue daily in the Word of God.
We're there in verse 8 of Acts 19, and it says, and we, and he went into the synagogue
disputing and persuading those things concerning the kingdom of God. What is he doing daily?
The Word of God. But when divers were hardened, and believe not, but spake evil of that way
before the multitude, he departed from them and separated the disciples, disputing daily
in the school of one tyrannous. And this continued by the space of two years,
so that all they which dwelled in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.
Every day, we're just preaching and preaching and preaching, right?
And we have to, if you notice, how do we, I can't just get up here and preach a sermon.
Maybe every once in a while, you know, I could phone it in, but the reality is the only reason
that I can continue to do this three times a week is I have to read the Word of God.
And then we have to get to chronicles.
Who's read first chronicles?
You know, all the genealogies.
We've got to go through all that and then we can get to the good parts, too, right?
All of it is good, but obviously reading the genealogy might not be as edifying
initially as like reading through the book of Psalms or the book of Proverbs or maybe, you know,
Galatians or Ephesians or Philippians, but turn over to Joshua 1,
Joshua 1, right after the first five books of the Bible and we have these famous verses there,
but I think it's worth repeating, right?
If we're going to be in the spiritual battle, if we want to be like the book of Acts, we
need to do some things daily, and just like we brush our teeth daily, I hope you brush
your teeth daily, and if you don't, you need to brush your teeth daily.
I'm looking at my children, because sometimes we let them get away with it, but children,
you brush your teeth daily.
No, we make them brush their teeth daily, right?
But in the book of Joshua 1 and verse 8, the Bible says, this book of the law shall not
But thou shalt meditate there in day and night that thou mayst observe to do according to all that is written
They're in you don't just read it
But you meditate and then you observe for then thou shall make thy way prosperous
And then thou shall have good success
It's funny.
Well, let's read verse nine says, have I not commanded thee?
This is when he's giving Joshua instructions as, be strong and of good courage.
Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee, with or so
ever thou goest.
And it's interesting is that it's sandwiched, if we were to read verse seven and for the
second time I'm not, but he's talking about being strong and of good courage and what's
sandwiched in between courage and strong and just being ready for the battle.
Meditated on the word of God, you know, when I was in the financial industry, the business
people that I was with were Christian, obviously they're not our brand of Christianity, but
they're Christian.
And this is one of the verses they would use because in the King James, the only time you
find the word success is in Joshua 1.8.
And you know, it's interesting, we would emphasize, how do we get success?
We get it in the word of God.
Right?
It says, for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous and then thou shalt have good success.
But look, you can't apply something that you have not read.
You can't meditate on something until you read it.
And if you don't know how to do it, don't worry about it.
The more you do it, the more your brain is going to activate and meditate and start taking
action.
You know, it's like when your mom kept hounding you as a child with certain phrases or certain
pieces of advice, it got annoying, right?
Oh, here goes mom again, or here goes dad again.
But you know, when you were out in the real world and you ran into that situation, who
would you hear?
Your mom and your dad.
As a matter of fact, I'm 45 years old and every once in a while I'll run into some situation
and you know whose voice I hear?
My mom and my dad, right?
But what we want to do is we want to run into this situation.
The word of the Lord is a lamp unto my feet and the light unto my path, right?
Lead me not into temptation, Lord. And if now if I am in temptation, there is no temptation taking me,
but such as this common man. We want to just have that stuff just ready to roll because the devil, he's gonna attack.
You don't have to turn there for the sake of time, but in Acts 5 verse 40
Or you can turn there if you want because we're in the same book
But you know we see this as it says and and to him they agreed and when they had called the Apostles and beaten them
They commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go and they departed from the presence of the council
Rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name and daily in the temple and in every house
They cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. Hey, look somebody was reading the Word of God
has no other option but to then spew that stuff out, right?
Just talk about it all the time.
You know, one of my goals is just that, you know,
my day would be filled with just conversations of what?
Jesus Christ.
I mean, I already talk about it a lot,
but I would just want to surround myself.
You know why I go to these events?
So I can surround myself with people that are like-minded,
that are only talking about godly things.
Not so I can be so hoity-toity, so, you know, turn my nose up at people, just because, you
know, I want to talk about things that edify.
If I go out into the world right now, we went to like a sports bar, let's say.
You know what people be talking about?
The NBA playoffs or baseball, I mean, literally, you can turn on the TV, like, who's gone
to the airport lately, or if you turn on like a hotel room TV, all it is is just sports.
And the guy always has like the sports channel and you know, I'm old enough to remember when
ESPN was launched back in the mid 90s and all it was was just like highlights and reels.
Now literally you got people in like the nicest suits in the nicest studios and all they're
talking to you about is, you know, who made what trade and who's an idiot about what and
they're talking about it and if we turned it on right now, 24 seven sports trivia.
Where's the ESPN of the Bible?
You know, where can we turn on the TV and be like,
hey, you know what?
In the book of Acts, they're talking about this.
And in the book of Jeremiah, there is none.
But you know, that's why we show up to church.
And you want to go to church
that has a regular church services
that's talking about the word of God,
that's actually preaching the word of God.
Because you know, the other challenge
with Baptist churches today is that they'll get up,
they'll read you one verse,
and then tell you a bunch of stories,
and then they close out in a word of prayer.
And you're like, what about the other verses?
You know, one of the reasons I became a preacher,
I tell this all the time is I remember sitting
where you guys are sitting and listening to the preacher
get to like a really good part of a story.
And he was just about to get a little offensive.
You know, just, he was just gonna,
he was just gonna make you a little bit uncomfortable,
but that was the best part of the story.
And then he wouldn't finish it.
And I'd be like, oh man,
he just missed the best part of the whole thing.
You know, they talk about Elijah with the false prophets and how God gave him power, but he never talked about how he just chopped them all up
Man, that's pretty, you know, your kids need to hear that or how about the fact that Samuel comes to Saul and he's like
Hey, what's this bleeding? I hear of sheep and who is this king that you got your holding hostage and so I was like, oh
I mean, I obeyed the Lord
and Saul's like, and Samuel's like,
bring me that king.
And what did the king say?
He's like, oh, I think I'm spared
because they didn't kill me right away.
And then what does the Bible say?
It says that he chopped them up.
Samuel took his sword and chopped this guy up.
You know, we need that part of the story
just as much as we need.
I can do all things through Christ with strength in me.
And you know, be strong and of good courage.
We need all of it.
In Psalm one two, the Bible says,
blessed is the man that walketh not.
In the council, I may not, sorry, Psalm 1 verse 1,
that walk is not in the council of the ungodly,
nor standeth in the way of sinners,
nor sitteth, sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord.
And in his law, doth he meditate day and night.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water
that bringeth forth his fruit in his season.
His leave also shall not wither,
and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
So, how do we prosper? We meditate on the Word of God day and night, right? We meditate.
We delight in His law. We don't just meditate, we delight. We need to find joy even in the
things we don't like in the Bible. Because as humans, we're just not always going to
like instruction, right? And correction. How many of you just were like happy-go-lucky
You know, you'd be lying, right?
But the Bible, that's what the Bible does, right?
It reproves, it rebukes, it edifies, it admonishes, it corrects.
We need it all.
Go back to Acts 19.
Let's go to, you know, the third point.
But first thing that we talked about in Acts 19 is that
salvation is believed on Jesus Christ along.
That's important.
I love that the book of Acts clears that up because
obviously there's some weird doctrines.
Maybe not necessarily false doctrine in the sense that they're not preaching. They're not preaching a false doctrine to lead you to hell
They're just confused about the gospel
There's a ton of people out there that are serving the Lord today. They just don't know what salvation by grace is
That's why you know, we as Christians need to be a little bit loving
We need to preach hard against the enemies of Christ. We need to preach hard against the false prophets, but you know what?
I don't hate Catholics. I
Don't hate the Jews
But I do hate the leadership that promotes the false religion of the Jews and the false
religions of the Catholics and the Adventists and whatever else is going around because
those are the people that are screwing things up for everybody else.
Go back to Acts 19 and verse 11 it says, and God brought special miracles by the hands
of Paul.
And let me give you the point.
Sorry.
And the third point is that when we see all this, we continue in the daily, in the daily
in the Word of God.
And then we realize that the power of God is stronger than any occult opposition.
Occult meaning satanic.
I guess I could have been more simple.
Any satanic opposition, right?
And we see here in Acts that they're going to run into some of this.
So that from his body were brought unto the sick unto the sick hankerchiefs or aprons and the diseases
Departed from them and the evil spirits went out of them
Then certain of the bagavan Jews, you know, these guys just don't like they don't have a job
They're just running around causing all kinds of trouble
exorcists
By the way, who does this remind you of? You know who who does exorcisms to this day?
the Catholics
Vagabond right took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus saying we adjure you
By Jesus whom Paul preaches so you know the devils
Even recognize or the false prophets even recognize that there's power in the name of Jesus. They're just using it incorrectly
You know I mean oh
What's his name? I just saw it today. I just saw a clip
The guy that looks like a devil the false prophet. He's real rich. He's got the beady little eyes
Copeland Kenneth Copeland. I just doesn't need preach Jesus. He just preaches a false Jesus, right?
Yeah, I mean doesn't he use the name of Jesus?
This is what it makes me think of when I'm reading the story of that those beady little eyes
It says oh we adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches like is that how he talks
But it says there and then and there were seven sons of one
a Jew, and a chief of the priests, which did so, and the evil spirit answered and said,
Jesus, I know, and Paul, I know, but who are ye?
Look, you want to be a...
This is how you know Christianity is important to the enemy.
You want to be known not only by God, but you want to be known by the enemy.
The enemy's like, hey, we know Jesus, and we know Paul, we don't know who you are.
So much so it says and the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them and
Overcame them and prevailed against them. So they fled out of that house naked and wounded
I mean it literally drove these guys crazy and this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus
And I love this because of this false action
But they're also preachy Jesus what to say and fear fell on them all and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified
You know people argue that sometimes when you're being a little bit too strong or doing things that God's name is not gonna be magnified
They're like oh, you're you're just bringing a bad name to the cause of Christ
Who's ever heard that? I mean, I've heard that like people say well
You shouldn't preach hard or you shouldn't call out
Religious people or you shouldn't call out false prophets because you're bringing Paul's doing that all the way through acts 19
I mean literally Paul's going around and just being stoned to death or they thought he they left them for dead
He's calling out the Pharisees and the Jews and and the evil spirits know what Jesus and they know Paul
They jump on and because of this fear fell on all
And the name of Lord Jesus was magnified and many that believed came.
and confessed and showed their deeds.
Many of them also, which use curious arts,
brought their books together and burned them before all.
And pay attention here.
This is the fear of the Lord.
This is what we need to cause.
This is why I love the Book of Acts.
This is our goal.
This is, you know, just cause we're halfway through,
almost halfway through 2025.
Doesn't mean we're just gonna quit.
We're gonna get stronger.
We're gonna push harder.
We're gonna preach harder.
We're gonna do more works for the Lord.
Cause it says here,
and they counted the price of them and found it.
50,000 pieces of silver, so mightily grew the word of God and prevailed. You know what they did?
They took all those false versions of the Bible and they burned them. It says they took all those
false books and all those, you know, devotionals that said that, you know, it's a pre-trip rapture
and dispensationalism and they burned them all to the tune of 50,000 pieces of silver.
That's quite, I mean, I don't know what silver was back then, but silver is about $30 an ounce right now
And I guarantee you it's not an ounce. I don't know what a piece of silver was there
But let's just go with with with the
With modern day money
know because you know I used to follow that so every once in a while I'll check
like there's a website called kidco and you can get like price on silver and
platinum and and gold and all the precious metals but silver is about
$30 an ounce this is more than an ounce but let's just say it was 30 it was 50
thousand ounces that's literally like 1.5 million dollars in other words they
to burn for the cause of Christ. They were like, oh, this is trash, burn it. This is
trash, burn it. When I was cleaning out the church, obviously, let me make a disclaimer.
There's maybe been some false Bibles in here for study purposes, but we don't need that
many, right? And so whenever I found extras, you know what I did? I just threw them in
You know, a lot of church members from Pure Words, which was a church that used to be
here before came over, and they had a tradition of burning Bibles on the anniversary.
You know what?
It might be about time to just bring back that tradition, because it's a biblical tradition.
Literally, these guys got saved, and then they got their doctrine cleared up, and they're
like, we don't want these books.
We want to destroy them.
You know and these things could have sentimental value
I mean I've been with people who are like I get them saved and I'm like hey
I'll trade you your Bible even because it's a false Bible
Sometimes it works, but sometimes they're like oh, you know, I know it's a bad Bible, but this was given to me
It has sentimental value
Right here these individuals, you know books have way more sentimental value back in Paul's time than it does now
As a matter of fact, I don't know that the books have the value they used to have because everything's on your phone
You know, I mean I still value I still prefer to read a book like this
I'm just maybe a little old school. You know, I was born in 1980. I'm a book. I'm a child of the 80s
I want paper. I want to pick it up
Remember do you remember that pastor like you'd go to you go to the library. You'd be like oh, they smell so good, right?
Mo's laughing over here. He doesn't understand the reference
You know we we love to smell a good book like you know you get that nice paper and it just brings back memories
But now everybody's just on their phone like you can get any book you want any time any place anywhere
You can just get on your phone
But you're there in Acts 19. I'll just read for you really quick a couple of verses to make this point
But in James 2 19 the Bible says thou believe is that there is one God thou do us well
The devils also believe and tremble and by the way that word believe
Can also have different meanings so we need to apply correctly because people will fight this the devils do not believe that Jesus
Christ is Lord
They just know that Jesus Christ is God, but they don't think of him as Lord of their life
Right, that's why they tremble because they know that hell has been reserved for Satan and the devils
As a matter of fact, they rejected Jesus Christ. They they hurt Satan's
I don't know political speech and they were like oh we like what this guy's selling
And then when, when the Lord kicks him out, he's kicking them all out.
In first John four, verse four of the Bible says, year of God, little children, turn over
to Luke 10 and we'll be there in Luke 10, but it says year of God, little children have
overcome them because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.
By the way, this is a great verse.
Every once in a while, still get this, this question like, you know, can a safe person
be possessed?
No.
They are of the world, therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.
We are of God, he that knoweth God, heareth us.
He that is not of God, heareth not us.
Hereby we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
But you know what?
We need to spend time in the Word of God so we know the spirit of truth and the spirit
of error.
Right?
In verse 17, the Bible says, and the 70, this is of them when they're going out into
the highways and the heads is Lord Jesus Christ, so when it says in the 70, returned
again with joy saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.
Look, nothing's changed.
Obviously, it would just be a little bit different.
We're not gonna exercise anybody,
but the devil can't hurt us
if we have a heads of protection about us.
The Lord's promise to neither leave us nor forsake us.
It is not just like in a financial matter
or in times of trouble.
It's also when the devil's attacking.
Says, behold, I give unto you power
to tread on serpents and scorpions
and over all the power of the enemy
and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
Not withstanding in this rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather rejoice and I love this
Because your names are written in heaven. Look God says Jesus literally told them they came and they're like hey Lord
We can cast out these devils like they're subject to us through your name and what does Jesus say?
Not withstanding in this rejoice. Hey, don't be joyful because you have power over the enemy
Don't be joyful because I'm protecting you. Don't be joyful because you can do these great things
He says but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven
Look, God doesn't want us to have this power like hungry attitude
He just needs to have us have that the attitude that he has all the power and all we need to do is be hungry for his
Word and his power in our life
Because there is a difference, right?
I know that because I'm saved, I have power.
The Bible says that I preach with all power and authority.
Literally, I have authority, not over you.
I just have authority in the Word of God.
When I preach, God's given me the Spirit to say certain things and affect your life.
But God's like, don't be so impressed with that because that's my word.
You're just preaching it.
What you need to be impressed with, what you need to be joyful about is that when you die,
your name is written in the book of life.
In other words, don't get so high and mighty that you think that, you know, things are
done by you.
Isn't that what the false preachers do?
Isn't that what Kenneth Copeland does?
He's telling you that he can fix your life because he's Kenneth Copeland, which is false.
But I don't know his name if you know his name you can blur it out. He's the white guy. He looks like
You know Elmer Fudd. That's what I think of he's that white guy. He's always like oh the Lord told me to buy this jet
He's like, you know, blah blah blah blah blah
And you know, I bought this jet with your money and somebody told me that I shouldn't be spending money
But the Lord promised me all that money. Yeah, I have a big mansion. It's because of the Lord
You know, you've never heard that guy. Anyways, he's hilarious
All I think about is Elmer Fudd when I see that again, but go back to Acts 19
Go back to act 19 verse 21. So we see that salvation
Is believe on Jesus Christ alone
We also see in the book of Acts that we need to continue daily in the Word of God and
You know, sometimes we're gonna mess up one of the things that I encourage people
Especially when you're first starting to read the Bible, you know, it can be overwhelming or it could just feel like maybe
You're not that interested in the subject
Start wherever you can but if you ever get off that wagon where maybe you just didn't
Man that water went down the wrong tube. So I'm gonna cough for a little bit here. It'll go away
It just it hit the back of the esophagus or the trachea and now I'm struggling here a little bit. Give me a second
All right, but the other thing you want to do is that when you if you stop reading the
Word of God or you stop memorizing scripture, you don't give up.
Don't get discouraged.
Just start again wherever you were at too often.
What'll happen is people will let's say you're reading through the book.
You start in the book of Genesis and for some reason you get through the first five books
What will happen is the tendency is you'll want to start from the beginning again
When in reality what you need to do
Is pick up where you left off and actually finish the job
Most people don't finish their Bibles because they're like oh, I'm gonna start again
And what they'll do is they go back to Genesis
or they go back to Matthew
and then they start reading there.
No, just pick up where you left off.
Like if you've left off in Joshua,
pick up and read through Joshua.
Look, the very first, I didn't know,
by the way, the technique I'm giving you,
I didn't know that I was applying it then,
but that's how I applied it.
The first time I read my Bible all the way through,
I was, I started when I was like 18
and I didn't finish till I was 20.
You know, it's just like it was so daunting and overwhelming and and actually I didn't even read in the spirit because I didn't get saved
I was 25, but I just remember that I was just determined to finish the Bible
I was like, I'm gonna read this, you know back back then I just wanted to have bragging rights that I had read at once
Now I just read on a regular basis. I don't know how many I haven't counted
I probably should count from this point forward, but I've read it over 10 15 times probably 20 in my lifetime
But you want to just continuously read your Bible the other reason I don't know how many times I've read my Bible
It's because number one you're reading through your Bible
But then when you become a preacher you're reading certain parts of scripture three or four or five times as your root
So who knows how many times I've read certain chapters of the Bible and certain sections of the Bible
but
It doesn't matter. And by the way, I'm not bragging because I know people that have read their Bible hundreds of times.
I mean, there's literally been preachers who spent their entire life and they've gone through it two, three, four, five times in a year.
I mean, getting through the Bible once is great. You know, if you get through the Bible one time in your life
or one time in a year, you're already in like the 95th or 96 percentile.
Literally 97, 98, 99% of people won't even read their Bible once in their life.
And I'm not just talking common laymen.
I'm talking even preachers won't go through the Word of God.
So we need to read the Word of God daily.
And then number three, we have the power.
We know that the power of God is stronger than any satanic opposition, but we don't glory
in the fact that we have power against the opposition.
We glory in the fact that we're saved.
fights back
when you hit
What matters to the most which is what money?
Why does most religion fight against?
Bible-believing Baptist because we're always gonna take their money
Not us, personally, but because people are going to leave their congregations and come
to us.
And it's funny, you know, it's funny, somebody that goes to like a false religion will send
money regularly, you know, because you get those false preachers.
I had my grandma on my dad's side.
She sent hundreds, probably thousands of dollars to Paulino Rubio.
You don't know who he is, but he's this famous like false preacher down in the Rio Grande
Valley from like the 80s and 90s.
and he was literally, he was always, his whole preaching was like,
if you want God's blessing in your life, if you send a hundred dollars,
he's going to bless you, but if you send a thousand dollars,
he's really going to bless you. And I know that you might be poor,
and that you might be on your last penny, but remember the lady that gave the two
mites, give it all. If you send $10,000, then the blessings will be, you know,
But the same people like my grandma if she would have gotten saved, you know, unfortunately
I don't think she got saved
But if someone like that gets saved then they go to a Bible-believing church and they'll tie but they won't tie to the same rate
And I don't care because it's it God's gonna always supply our needs
But it's a more balanced approach and actually it should be like that
You know, I don't want you to give church the church money
If if you're not right with God or if you don't have the right like you need to do the things in the orderly fashion
God wants you to tie the first fruits
Then he wants offerings, but you know what he does though, but he also doesn't want you to like not feed your family
Like if you need to put food on it, you need to be able to manage your money properly
I don't know how I got off on that
But just so you know because I rarely preach on tithing and even when I do is to put you in the right place with your family
Like, the church will always have money because God's going to supply our needs, but you need
to do things based on God's order.
Like, don't just, you know, there's people that are overdo it thinking that God's just
going to like pay attention to that.
Actually, he'll probably punish you for that.
Like, if you do it just to get God's attention, you just need to do it in the right spirit.
Right, you know, my mom taught me to tithe even before I got saved we've tied faithfully all my life
I just do it because I don't want to steal from God. That's literally all I ever think about
You know, the voice in your head my mom read that in
It's either in Malachi or in my it's in Malachi, right where he says, you know
That it's basically you've robbed me of my tithe and offering
My mom would just drill that into me and so I just I always tied because I just don't want to feel like a thief
But the reality is, you need to do it in the right spirit and in the right context, like
God wants things to be done in order, and if you tithe incorrectly, you know, you won't
be blessed properly either.
And I'm not talking like tithing too little.
You can overdo it, and God won't be impressed if you just think you're bragging about it.
God just wants...
Think about Moses.
Remember when Moses was gathering all the silver and the gold and everything for the
Tabernacle?
What did he do?
We don't need anymore.
He's the only person in the Bible that actually has that story where he's like,
It's too much. We don't need anymore.
God's already supplied all our need.
So there is a balance.
You guys need to be balanced about it.
But let's go back to Acts 19.
There in verse 21, the Bible says,
After these things were ended,
Paul purposed in the spirit when he had passed through Macedonia and Akai to go to Jerusalem saying after I've been there
I must also see Rome so he sent it to Macedonia two of them that ministered unto him to Matthias and Arrestus
But he himself stayed in Asia for a season and at the same time there arose no small stir about that way
For a certain man named Demetrius a silversmith which made silver shrines for Diana
Brought no small gain
Unto the craftsman in other words this guy's making money
Whom he called together with the workmen of like occupation and said sirs
You know that by this craft we have our wealth notice. He didn't say we have our
Money like to just supply our daily needs. No, they have they're rich
Right
And by the way old King James wealth it means that they're really rich like they're making some serious dough, right?
You know who who this reminds me of Joe Olstein?
You know Joe Olstein lives in literally the nicest part of town. He's got like some ridiculously huge house
When I and when we preach against them and we pull people out he gets bad because some tithes left them
Not because the congregation left, right? It says moreover you see in here that not alone at Ephesus
But also throughout all Asia this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people saying that they be no gods
Which are made with hands so that not only this our craft is in danger to be
Said at naught, but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised
and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshiped."
And when they heard these sayings, they were full of wrath and cried out saying,
great is Diana of the Ephesians. And the whole city was filled with confusion and having caught Gaius
Cuss men of Macedonia Paul's companion and travel they rushed with one accord
Into the theater and I've dropped the ball on the accord word
But if you last week we saw a chord and this week we saw a chord in a negative fashion
You know being in one accord can be a both a positive and a negative here. They're rushing with one accord
Into the theater they couldn't find Paul and again just like in previous chapters. They just take whoever they can
Right, the enemy always wants the money. Why why do politicians like not being called out on the truth because it messes up their finances?
Right, why do false religion not like being called out on the truth because it messes up their finances I
Mean that's really the truth of it all Kenneth Copeland was confronted by a
A reporter and I mean and he literally looked like the devil like he looked like he wanted to kill that lady because she caught him at his
Private plane and who's seen that clip where he's really angry. I mean he lost it, right?
Like he literally looks like he's possessed and ready to kill that lady
Why does the Catholic Church get angry because the Catholic Church likes doing two things
abusing the weak and taking their money
I've been to
the St. Peter's Basilica, right?
Obviously he's the same by salvation,
but not by the Catholic Church.
And the only thing that I took away,
and I was not saying, but I just,
I remember to this day,
it is one of the most impressive displays of wealth
I have ever seen in my life.
The amount of gold,
And precious rubies and jewels and just stuff that's in that Catholic church is just beyond like I don't know that you could quantify it
It's amazing. I
Mean from a worldly perspective, it's amazing. I mean our church is barely standing, right?
But it's got God's wealth, but these guys I mean this thing is like top notch
And this was built many many many years ago right long before all this modern stuff, but turn over to Matthew 6
Let's let's see what the Bible has to say
Matthew six and you know, we'll start to wrap this thing up right here, but Matthew six
I'll read the other ones really quickly for you
But I really do want to at least emphasize this one in Matthew six verse 24
The Bible says no man can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else
He will hold the one to the one and despise the other you cannot serve God and mammon
Therefore I say unto you take no thought for your life
What ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on
is not the life more than the meat and the body than raiment.
Behold, the fowls of the air, they sow not, neither do they reap nor they gather in the
barns.
And this is, you know, if we apply this spiritually, they're not sowing or reaping what?
Souls.
Yet, your heavenly Father feedeth them, are ye not much better than they?
Which of you taking by taking the thought can add one qubit onto the stature?
This is my verse because I'm five foot five and a half just
And it's a great verse for me, remind me, I can't get any taller.
And why take ye thought for arraignment, consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they
toil not, neither do they spin, and yet I sense ye that even Solomon in all his glory
was not arrayed like one of these.
Wherefore, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is
cast into the oven, shall he not much more cloth you, O ye of little faith."
Therefore, take no thought saying, what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal
shall we be clothed, for all these things do the Gentiles seek.
For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things, but seek ye first.
the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.
Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things
of itself sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."
This is an important set of scripture.
I know we know it, but this is a great reminder because we all struggle with this, some more
than others, but worrying about things that we have no control does nothing for us.
You know
First Timothy six-tenths that you know, we know it for the love of money is the root of all evil
Which while some have coveted after they have aired from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows
I'll just give you a quick story and I'll give you the last point go back to x-19
But you know on my way over there. I had a
This I had the worst trip I ever had in my life. I'm not gonna go through it all right now
I'll tell it again later detail, but I don't want to over you know
I want to wrap up and respect your time, but
You know, I left early basically it was a 24 hour. I was awake for 24 hours
Like this thing just never ended and then you know, just to top it all off
I got to the rental car section and they're like, oh, you didn't even rent the car at the airport
You rented it somewhere else because I used the website and it didn't take the the right place
So it was like by the time I figured out should I go get the rental car or not?
I was like, you know what the Lord's trying to tell me something
He's probably telling me just just enjoy the conference because that's why you're here
Forget about saving a couple hundred bucks and just rent another car and I ended up renting another car because it was just too much
But you know what the Lord takes care of it all right?
We we but we tend to worry about stuff like that
I almost like made my entire next day just as difficult as the first day because I would have to drive out to wherever
It was like an hour drive to go get the rental car and then an hour to drive back and miss out on some of the activities and then you know
Figure out when to get the car. It would have just been a disaster. It was so much easier to just get the car
Then let's move on and let's go do the work of the Lord. Let's be focused on the thing
You know, what is it? What was it? Seek ye first the kingdom of God?
I went to listen to the word of God not to save a couple, you know, a hundred dollars
It's what it basically I would have saved just to go get a car and then miss out on preaching and soul winning and all the
Things that I was gonna do there anyways
the fellowship with the brothers and sisters of Christ. But let's close out the last one after you.
It's there in Acts 19 is when God's in it, you don't need to defend it, right? Salvation is simply
believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. We saw that in the beginning of Acts. It's not the baptism of
John. It's the baptism of Jesus Christ. We continue the word daily. Paul's like literally
disputing everywhere. But why is he doing that? Because he's got the word of God in his heart
and he's just going to fight with everybody about it.
The power of God is stronger than all satanic opposition because while he's doing this he's also making all the false religions angry
I mean people are possessed with the devil and they jump from one devil to the next
False religion will always fight back. We're always gonna have adversaries especially when we start to hit
their pockets
And the only way we hit their pockets is just we preach Christ and people leave and come and listen to the Word of God
Stop giving them their tithes, but also don't worry about it because when God's in it
You don't have to defend it right in verse 35 it says and when the town clerk had appeased the people
Because remember now there's like a whole basically everybody's confused and they're causing a ruckus. He said ye men of Ephesus
What man is there that know it's not?
How that the city of the Ephesians is Ephesians is a worshipper of the great goddess Diana and the image which fell down from Jupiter
You know, what man is there to know with not how the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper?
He's like, you're overthinking it.
But you know what it is?
It's because it's greed.
In other words, this guy's actually being smart because think about it.
There's one, like what is it, one billion Catholics?
Even if we took a hundred thousand Catholics, you know, it barely dent the surface.
Now we want them all.
But you know the Catholics would get mad if they lost 100,000 Catholics in a matter of months
You know why because of the money not because of the soul
This guy's calling him out. He says seeing then that these things cannot be spoken against you ought to be quiet
And to do nothing rashly for you have brought hither these men which are neither robbers of the churches
Nor yet blasphemers of your goddess
Wherefore if Demetrius and the craftsmen switch with or within have a matter against any man the law is open
And there are deputies, let them impede one another, but if you inquire anything concerning
other matters, it shall be determined in a lawful assembly.
And I like this guy.
You know what I'm saying?
We need to follow God and God's rules.
We, you know, here's a really good lesson because there's Baptists out there who are
a little bit anti-civil government.
Hey, we need to follow the laws and God's gonna make sure that those laws will protect us until they don't which is
The only time those laws are not gonna protect us is when those laws are directly against Jesus Christ
but to this day
90% of the laws are you know, even if they're corrupt are there to try to make your life better
Now I'm not saying that I agree with them a hundred percent
I'm just saying that they're there for that reason and you know what one of the laws that we have is freedom of speech
So if some idiot comes over here and tells us that we can't preach against the queers and the fags
and against fornication and against adultery, I don't have to worry about it because I'd be like,
call the cops! Be my guest! Because you know what the cop will come do? Just like this guy would be like,
you guys are wasting my time. If this is a lawful matter, take it up against the judges and sue them
Verse 44, if we are in danger to be called in question for this day's uproar, there
be no cost whereby we may give an account of this concourse.
And we had thus spoken, he dismissed the assembly.
You know, for years, some of these churches that are friends of ours have had protestors.
You know why they have the protestors, because that's all they can do is protest.
Because they can't throw them in jail.
They would throw them in jail if they could.
They would kill them if they could.
They would, you know, do horrible things than they could, but they can't because there's
still laws in this country, right?
We need to trust the laws in this country.
We need to know that we're not going to avenge ourselves.
The Bible says dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath
for it has ridden, avenges his mind.
I would say, you know, at the end of the day, though, it doesn't really matter.
God's word is still gonna abound and it's gonna do the job that he needs it to do.
We need to preach the word of God in spite of the consequences.
Right? Because the only consequence that comes from preaching God's word entirely
is that we're gonna be blessed in heaven.
That's the only constant. What did he say? Don't be joyous because the devil submits to you.
That's not that impressive because I'm God. Everybody submits to me.
Be impressed because your name is written in heaven
That's what you need. You know, you need to get up every morning and be like, thank you Lord that I'm saved
And I'm not even exaggerated. Thank you every day. You should be thanking the Lord that you're saved
Every night you should be thanking the Lord you're saved
You know, but oh today was just rough. I don't know if I'm gonna pay my bills. I don't know how much you're saved
You know one day you're not gonna have to worry about bills
One day you're not gonna have to worry about anything. You're just gonna die
And everything you did on this earth didn't matter it was hey
Wouldn't stubble but you know all those souls that you won and all the reading that you did and all the praying that you
Did and all the things that you when you obey the Lord when nobody thought you should obey the Lord
Those are the blessings you're gonna get in heaven because we were talking it's funny. We were talking about it. I
Was we were like, you know, what are you gonna carry with you like?
because let's say I'm not gonna, I don't feasibly think I'll memorize the entire Bible by the time
that I die. My goal is to memorize as much of the Bible, but I just started later in life. Let's just
be realistic. So I mean, I don't think that I'll just have the entire Bible memorized in heaven
because the Bible says that some will be captains over hundreds and fifties, but you know what,
I'll have an eternity to memorize the rest of it, right? But I want to have a good head start.
I just want to know that I'm beating somebody. I don't like being in a losing position.
You know, I also, you know, I'd rather be in the middle of the pack
Than second place because you know what second place is the first loser. I'm
But I'm competitive I want to do things for the Lord Jesus Christ though
What we need to do is compete for the things of heaven not the things on this earth
The the bottom line acts 19 is the one thing that you can see throughout the entire book of Acts
Especially once Paul comes into the picture is you know, you would think about it Barnabas fates into the limelight
He's no longer mentioned, but Paul's like, I'm just going to keep fighting and I'm going to just keep
lighting this torch and I'm just going to keep picking fights and I'm just going to keep preaching
the word. I'm just going to keep soul winning and I'm just going to keep laying my hands on people
and I'm just going to keep doing the work of the Lord.
You know, when we, when we want to give up, we just keep telling ourselves, you know what?
There's more work to be done.
It's so funny.
This is, I really will close with this.
Mo helped me.
I don't know if you guys see all the computers back there.
We finally have a better system for, for, for going live.
And then I turned to Mo and I said, we finally solve this.
I've been trying to solve this for years.
And I was like, now I don't know what to do.
I was like, now I got to find another goal for the church so we can get even better because
now this is off my hands.
Let's go focus on, you know, maybe an event or inviting someone or maybe adding a soul
waiting time or a reading time.
Let's do something else for the Lord that will do those things.
Right?
So let's go ahead and close it a word of prayer.
Thank you so much for today. Thank you for your blessings. Lord. Thank you for just
Being able to show up on a Wednesday night and preach the word and listen to the word Lord
Thank you that we're still free in this country Lord where we can come and freely
Congregate and freely assemble ourselves and preach the word of God Lord
Don't let us take that for granted Lord one day. We know these things will change and we need to prepare now
So when things get tough we will need it so much
We'll miss it so much that regardless of the consequences. We'll keep doing it. Thank you for what you do in our life Lord
Thank you for all those here in attendance be with them Lord bless them edify them
Admonish them be with those traveling and thank you for all that you do Lord Jesus and we pray amen