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Learn what they need to learn from the teaching this morning in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Now before we get into the message let me just explain the story to you. In Acts 28 we jump into a story of the Apostle Paul. He's been arrested of course for preaching the gospel, for preaching the truth and he was constrained to appeal unto Caesar because of the Jews lying in wait for him. See he was going through the legal process and he was not going to be convicted. There was no crime that he committed against the law but because he knew that the Jews were trying to kill him and that they would take him by force and destroy him he was constrained to appeal unto Caesar and so that's what he did and he was taken on a ship toward Rome where Caesar abode obviously and he's on that ship on the way to Rome and suddenly there's a great storm and this storm is so bad and it ended up putting them in a position where they were stuck out on the ship for weeks and weeks on end. They didn't know which way was which, they couldn't see the stars they were throwing overboard all the merchandise they were going several days without food and water and it came to pass finally that they crashed into a little island called Melita. They saw an island, they kept dropping down the instruments to see how deep it was and they finally found some rocks and they could tell that there was an island there and they decided to just ram the ship into the island at full speed. They rammed the ship, the ship crashed into the rocks and they all jumped out of the ship, swam to the shore they floated to the shore on pieces of wood and tried to help one another and these hundreds of men that were on the ship including the prisoner, the apostle Paul were shipwrecked onto this little island. Well on the island as we saw in verse number one it says when they were escaped then they knew that the island was called Melita, they figured out where it was they had crashed into and the barbarous people showed us no little kindness for they kindled a fire and received us everyone because of the present rain and because of the cold. So the people that lived on this island were barbarians, they were natives if you will, they were not civilized people and so there they are hundreds of them, I believe it was three or four hundred men, they're shipwrecked on this island and the barbarous people were kind to them, they kindled a fire for them because it was cold and because it was raining and they took them in and were hospitable to them and as they're building this bonfire Paul of course he's helping out, he's not just sitting around and lazy but he gets up and he's going to help them build the fire and so this fire is raging and he reaches into a pile of wood and he grabs that wood and he throws it into the fire. Well what was happening was one of those logs of wood that he threw in the fire had a snake living in it you know sometimes wood can have a hollow portion and so inside this log is a viper living inside that wood, well he throws it into the fire all of a sudden this viper who's sleeping in this nice cozy log all of a sudden his house starts to get really warm and so he jumps out, well when the viper jumps out he's mad, so you got to picture this, Paul throws the log into the fire and a snake jumps out of the log and fastens on his hand, I mean it latched onto his hand and he began to pump its venom into his hand and it's a very extremely poisonous snake, as you can see these natives here were very familiar with it, they live on a little island they probably know about the animals on the island and they expected if you look down at verse number 6 it says how be it they looked when he should have swollen or fallen down dead suddenly, I mean it's a very deadly animal that would kill you suddenly I was just at the San Diego Zoo a couple weeks ago and we were looking at all these poisonous snakes and boy they had everything, they had vipers and they had king cobras and all kinds of animals and I walked around very slowly and read about each one of them and some of them will kill you in just a matter of minutes you'll be dead or a matter of seconds, they're so deadly and so this animal fastened onto his hand, let's read in verse 3 and when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire there came a viper out of the heat and fastened on his hand and when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on him, venomous means poisonous, hang on his hand, they said among themselves no doubt this man's a murderer whom though he had escaped the sea yet vengeance suffereth not to live, but look at this in verse 5 he shook off the beast into the fire and felt no harm, he took care of that snake didn't he threw it into the fire and roasted it up and it says how be it they looked when he should have swollen or fallen down dead suddenly they had looked a great while and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a god, so first he's a murderer, now he's a god, you know these people are so fickle with how they feel about Paul because they're very superstitious being these natives now the title of my sermon, just so that you understand the story, but the title of my sermon is shake off the beast shake off the beast, it's taken from verse 5 where it says and he shook off the beast into the fire and felt no harm, now we know that of course everything in the Bible has, I mean it's not just a fun story, you know like oh this is a really cool story, obviously God's trying to teach us something here through these stories, there's a meaning behind the story and there are several things that I want to tell you this morning that you just need to shake off in your life, but look if you would to Colossians, go forward in your Bible toward the end of your Bible to Colossians chapter number 3 and we'll see the first beast that you need to shake off in your life these venomous beasts will try to fasten on to you and as Paul shook off the beast, there's some things that we need to shake off in our lives, but look at Colossians chapter 3 verse 5, number 1 you need to shake off your sinful past shake it off, look if you would at verse number 5 of Colossians chapter 3, the Bible reads mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth fornication, uncleanness inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, what is that talking about all four of those words are dealing with physical immorality we're talking about men and women that are not married, having relations and so forth it says fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence and covetousness, covetousness is the desire for money, always wanting what somebody else has, lust and greed for money, the love of money is the root of all evil the Bible teaches which is idolatry, he says money can even become a god saving other people's things can become your god in life, he says fornication covetousness is idolatry, verse 6 for which things sake the wrath of god cometh on the children of disobedience talking about unsaved people, the children of disobedience in the which he also walked sometime when ye lived in them he's saying that's the way you used to be, the people that he's talking to that is in Colossae, he's saying some of you used to be a fornicator, some of you covetous, you used to be an idolater, but he says in verse 8 but now ye also put off all these, put them off shake them off, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy filthy communication out of your mouth, telling a filthy story, telling a dirty joke, blasphemy, blaspheming god using god as a cuss word, oh my god, or saying Jesus Christ in a blasphemous tone, taking the Lord's name in vain the third commandment of the ten commandments, he says put them off and then in verse 9, lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds now what's he saying? We all have sins in our past to different degrees, maybe we're not all like these people in Colossae that had some very wicked sins in their past like fornication, covetousness, idolatry, blasphemy, filthy communication but hey, we've all had wrath, we all are angry without a cause as the Bible says, of course anger is not a sin in of itself but the Bible says it is a sin to be angry with your brother without a cause and so we as these in Colossae need to put off our sinful past, we all can look back at things that we used to do we all can look back at things that maybe we did even way after we were saved and continue to do even after we were saved, but now that we're right with God or trying to be right with God or in church or love God, it's time to shake off that sinful past and move on for the glory of God. Now people use their sinful past many times as an excuse. Now think about the apostle Paul case in point in the story here where he shook off the beast into the fire of a snake didn't he have a sinful past? Now his sinful past wasn't one of fornication or covetousness or idolatry, but you know his sinful past was that he was part of a false religion and he actually persecuted and killed Christians. I mean we're talking about a man that actually had people put to death for preaching the gospel. That's a pretty wicked sin isn't it? Murder? That's terrible. And not only that but to murder a gospel preaching Christian, a Bible believing Christian to be murdered at the hands of this man, that's a very wicked sinner that's what the apostle Paul was. But the apostle Paul as he literally in Acts 28 shook this viper off and he shook that snake he was also able to shake off his sinful past in his life Don't let your sinful past be an excuse for why you're living in sin right now. Just because you used to drink, just because you used to smoke, just because you used to take drugs just because you used to commit fornication, just because you used to live a wicked life, there's no excuse for not shaking that off and putting off the old man and his deeds and putting on the new man and living a good Christian godly life now. The Bible says this is the day that the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it Today is a brand new day. Why are you still hanging on to the past? You say, well that's just the way I am you know, so as you try to point out to somebody something that they can improve, you know and I'm not one that, I never go to any church member and tell them to change anything, I just preach the Bible from the pulpit. But sometimes someone will be corrected by an authority figure like their parents or their boss or whatever and this is the kind of attitude they'll have, well that's just the way I am, you know you've heard that before like, hey you need to stop doing this, you need to change and it's well nope, that's just the way I am Why are you, you know, you need to quit drinking, it's destroying your life The Bible says about alcohol in Proverbs 23, thine eyes shall behold strange women and thine mouth shall utter perverse things You need to quit drinking and they say, well you don't understand I've just drank for so many years You know, alcohol is a kind of a viper that will fast into your hand won't it and take hold of you and control your life in many cases, that's the way sin always is, you see remember the devil is pictured by a snake, a serpent in the garden of Eden, well here's a serpent fastening on to the hand of Paul, see sin has a way of trying to get its grip on you and to control you, that's why sin is so addictive, whether it be alcohol smoking, gambling, drugs, it's very addictive it's very hard to get up, watching the filth that's on television can be addictive, it's something that you just can't not push that power button on the TV, you just can't help but just push that button or pick up that magazine, why? Because it's fastened on to you but I'm going to tell you something, it's just as possible for you to shake whatever the sin as it was for Paul, to shake off this venomous beast that he did in Acts 28, you can shake off the beast if you want to you can shake it off like Paul did, I guarantee you that that snake had just as much of a grip on his hand as the sin has on your life, why don't you shake it off like Paul shook it off, don't let your sinful past be an excuse, Paul the same man preaching in Colossians 3, 5 through 9 is telling them, I don't care if you used to fornicate, I don't care that you used to be blasphemous and talk with filthy language and filthy communication, I don't care that you used to be filled with wrath and malice and revenge and you used to lie to each other and you used to be the turn of disobedience, that doesn't matter to me, what are you doing now? Why don't you put that off now? Don't let your sinful past be an excuse for you to continue living that way for the rest of your life you have the same decision that Pastor Steven L. Anderson does this morning when you wake up and I wake up, we're both saved if you're safe here this morning, if you are safe, we both have the Holy Ghost living inside of us we both have the old sinful flesh nature that tries to drag us back into sin, but just like you, I can wake up this morning and decide if I'm going to walk in the flesh or walk in the spirit, that's the same choice you're going to make oh, but my past is so much worse than yours, shake it off oh, but you don't understand what I've been through, then shake it off I've shaken off the things that have been in my life some things are bigger than others, some things are worse than others, I understand that but all of us must shake off the beast in our life, but number two not only that, not only do we need to shake off our sinful past by the way, you know, the whole modern psychology and really our churches have really bought into this modern psychobabble and they have the counseling sessions, you know, come counsel with the pastor Pastor Anderson will not counsel with you I will counsel with you Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night, sit here and listen to the Bible preach and be a doer of the word and not a hearer only, and your life will be blessed you don't need some counseling session, there's no couch I don't have an office with a couch in it for you to lay on I didn't even have a couch until, you know, a couple months ago, because we're holding church in my living room and so now I finally have a couch, but it's not for you to lay on, it's for me to lay on and so don't come to my house and lay on the couch sit in the chair, and don't lay on the chairs either, you know, sit up straight and listen but, you know, oh, my dad was so mean to me when I was three years old, and that's why I'm such a failure in life you know, or, oh, when I was little, my mom always bought me shoes that were one size too small, and I got an ingrown toenail, and she would never listen and that's why, that's why my whole life is messed up, that's why I don't come to church that's why I don't go soul wedding, that's why I don't love anybody, hey, shake that off would you? It's been 40 years ago, can you get over it? you know, oh, my dad was mean to me 50 years ago, shake it off get over it, that's, this psycho babbles nonsense, it just wants to blame everybody's parents for what's wrong with them and then, you know, they could probably blame their parents, and then they could blame their parents, and you go all the way back to Adam, the first man, wherefore is by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned, so yeah, it all goes back to dad, it's all Adam's fault he took the fruit in the garden of Eden, but maybe it's time for us to get over that like 6,000 years later, and put off these sins and try to live right, none of us is perfect, we're constantly having to shake things off but, you know, these things that are from the past, it's time to shake off your sinful past, and don't use that as an excuse why you can't be serving God now, today I don't, it doesn't matter what you did yesterday, Pastor Anderson, let me tell you about the sins I did yesterday, I don't want to hear, I'm not a priest, I don't want to hear some confessional booth and, you know, it doesn't matter what you did yesterday, what are you doing today? Get right with God today, don't get hung up at it, which leads me to my second point, number two not only number one, you know, shake off your sinful past, but number two shake off the guilt in your life and quit living in the past, you know, shake off the guilt from things that you've done in the past, look if you would at Hebrews chapter number 10 and while you're turning there, I'll read you another scripture, look at Hebrews right toward the end of the New Testament, Hebrews chapter 10, I'll read you this scripture Philippians 3, 12, not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect but I follow after, if that I may apprehend, that for which also I am apprehended in Christ Jesus, listen carefully, brethren I count not myself to have apprehended but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, Paul said I'm forgetting the things of the past and I'm pressing forward and he said, I'm not pressing toward some kind of a low mark because of my sinful past, I mean come on, I used to persecute the church of God, I used to be a wicked man, you can't expect me to be as good of a Christian as this guy who grew up in a Christian home I'm just going to come in down here, he said no I'm forgetting the past, I'm pressing toward the highest mark you see, the greatest Christian of the New Testament did not grow up in a Christian home he didn't get saved until later in life, it's probably the apostle Paul, one of the greatest Christians in the New Testament, he pressed for the high mark because he forgot the past and let it go, let me illustrate it for you in Hebrews chapter 10 look at verse number 1, for the law having a shadow of good things to come and not the very image of the things can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect for then would they not have ceased to be offered? Now watch this because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins, do you see that? Now let's analyze this, he's saying that the Old Testament sacrifices look down at verse 4, it says for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins now were people ever saved in the Old Testament because they offered an animal sacrifice? No, the blood of an animal cannot atone for the blood of a human being, the sins of a human being is made in the image of God they were just a shadow of things to come it says there in verse 1 because they were just a picture of one day the Lamb of God Jesus Christ would come and die on the cross for our sins, now the Bible says that if those Old Testament animal sacrifices would have purged their sins then they would only have had to have been offered one time but they had to keep going back because it was just a picture, I mean it wasn't something that was actually cleansing them from their sin, see you only get saved one time, you believe on Jesus Christ and God gives you eternal life and you're saved forever child of God and all your sins are forgiven, well the Bible says that if you have been purged in verse number 2 if you've been purged, if you've been forgiven of your sins if you've been saved and washed in the blood of Jesus, the Bible says you should have no conscience of sins because if the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins now what does he mean by that? You're just supposed to have no conscience? I just do whatever I want with no conscience, is that what he's saying? No, what he's saying is the word conscience of sins means cognizance of sins, you're like oh that makes it easier to understand but conscience comes from two words if you break it down con, like in Spanish con means with, science means knowledge, conscience, it means that you're continually remembering things from your past that are bothering you, you're feeling guilty about something in the past is what it's saying, this conscience of sin year by year you're being reminded of your sins have you ever heard this statement, I've heard people say this I've heard people say well, whatever you did before you were saved, that's under the blood like that's under the blood, don't worry about it well, let's think about this, isn't everything I did after I'm saved out of the blood too? because when Jesus saved me, didn't he save me from all my sins, past present and future? You see, Jesus Christ died for my sins before I was even born, 2000 years ago, and so if Jesus Christ died for my sins 2000 years ago, I haven't even done any of my sins yet okay, I wasn't even a gleam in my parents eye, you know, 2000 years ago, and so what happened is, Jesus looked all the way in the future, and all the way in the past, and he died for the sins of the whole world he died for my sins in advance, so let me ask you this, if he died for the sins I did last week, 2000 years ago, didn't he die for the sins I'm going to do like two weeks from now? Didn't he already pay for them? He already died for them, okay, and so that's why all our sins, if we're saved, if we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Bible says, thou shall be saved, if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ then all of our sins are forgiven, past, present and future and so why should we beat ourselves up about something that we did in our past, when it's already been forgiven? You see, the Bible says that if we confess and forsake our sins, we'll find mercy with God. See, we've already been saved, and being saved has nothing to do with forsaking your sins You know, I got attacked majorly this week people were attacking me, people that I know, and people were sending me hate mail, like you wouldn't believe, like 40 pieces of mail and hateful mail, telling me that I'm wrong, because I believe that salvation is by grace through faith alone believe on the Lord. Whosoever believeth the name shall not perish, but have eternal life For I'm not saying to the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also the Greek, to everyone that believeth. It's faith. By grace alone through faith alone, to God alone be the glory. But no I got attacked, because I put a quote on my website that said, a quote from a man named Lester Roloff a famous Baptist preacher that I'm supposed to bow down and worship, who died years and years ago, because he said that repentance is when you forsake your sins, and in order to go to heaven you must forsake your sins, and you don't want to live like that anymore. That's work salvation I still haven't forsaken all my sins, I don't know about you, you must be perfect right, you must be Jesus Christ, because I haven't forsaken almighty, I'm not perfect there's none righteous, no not one. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, Romans 3.24 And so, you know, we don't forsake our sins but God does say as Christians, we should be continually confessing our sins to God. You know, they've already been forgiven but we should still bring them to God and confess them. This isn't something that you do to be saved You see, people can't differentiate sometimes between what you have to do to be saved and what you should do. The Bible says what must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved but then the Bible says that we should also walk in newness of life We should go to church, we should read the Bible but must we read the Bible daily to go to heaven? Must we go to church every week to go to heaven? No. We should go to church, we should read the Bible, we should obey the commandments. Do we have to keep the commandments to go to heaven? No, Jesus said if you love me keep my commandments. But you see, we need to go through a continual process in our life where we confess our sins to God and we forsake those sins, which is what repentance is. Is repentance of your sin necessary for salvation? No. The only thing that you might have to repent of when you're getting saved is if you're a Catholic and you believe you're working your way to heaven, you have to repent of that, otherwise you can't believe on Jesus or if you're worshipping Allah you probably need to repent of that and start to worship God like the Bible talks about turning from idol worship to worshipping the true and living God. But do you have to repent of drinking to be saved? No. Do you have to repent of your sins in general to be saved? No. Do you have to repent of fornication to be saved? No. You must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Quit adding to the gospel as I say to these phonies that are trying to add to works faith plus works. Somebody wrote to me and said, is following Jesus works? Yes it is. How hard is that to yes, following Jesus is works. That's a lot of work. Try it sometime. And so we see that once you're saved if you have sin that's been in your past, just confess it to God and forsake it and you should never even think about it again and remember it again. I mean honestly, I mean that. Listen very carefully to what I'm saying right now. If you have some sin that you've done in the past what you ought to do is today just get on your knees and just say, God, years ago when I did this or yesterday when I did this, I'm sorry I did that, I was wrong. God just wants, you know, he likes to hear you admit that you're wrong. That's what confession means. Just say to God, don't confess it to me just confess it to God and just say, God, I was wrong, I'm sorry I'm not going to do it again. Please help me not to do it again. And you know what, you should never even remember it again. Honestly. You shouldn't sit there and beat yourself up. Oh, I can't believe that five years ago I did this. Oh, I can't believe that I you know, people that are divorced. Divorce is a sin by the way. I don't care whether you like that or not. But you know what, you don't need to beat yourself up about that for the rest of your life. Just confess it and just say, God, I'm sorry that I got divorced please forgive me. You know, and be done with it. People that, you know, some people have done very wicked things in their life they've hurt other people. And by the way, whenever you sin you're always hurting someone else. But they've hurt other people. You know, instead of just feeling bad about it for the rest of your life, just confess it, forsake it, and find mercy with God. And don't have a conscience of it. Don't you know what you need to do? Because sometimes guilt in your life will fasten on to you. And it will hinder you. The devil will try to tell you you could never be a good Christian because of your past. You could never win souls. You could never live for God. Look what you've done in the past. And you know what, people people will somehow try to bring up things about your past and try to remind you about your past to try to make you feel like you can't serve God. To try to bring you down a notch. And you know what, if you go to somebody and bring up some sin from their past, you're being just like the devil. Because that's what the devil does. He's the accuser of the brethren. You know, they want to bring up some sin. Oh, what about ten years ago when you did this? Get over it. God has forgiven and forgotten our sins. As far as the east is from the west, God has separated us from our sins. Can you forgive one another? Can you forgive the people who have wronged you? And most importantly, can you forgive yourself? Let it go. God's forgiven you. Just be done with it and then move on and just accept God's forgiveness. But, I'll tell you why people struggle with guilt sometimes and they can't get over it. I'm talking about born again Christians. I'll tell you why you struggle with guilt. Because when you won't admit you're wrong you'll struggle with guilt. The way to get over the guilt is to say, God I'm sorry. Just confess it to God. You know, God I'm sorry. I was wrong. Help me to not do that again. Then you should never even think about it. I mean, there are things that I've done years ago that I thought were wrong. You know, nothing maybe that the world would consider major, but every sin is bad. Do I sit around and kick myself about stuff I did as a teenager? It doesn't even enter my mind. It's so irrelevant. Because it's been forgiven by Jesus Christ and I don't sit around thinking about letting that drag me down. Oh, I can't serve God because look what a fool I've been. You need to shake that off. And you need to shake off the beast. You need to shake off the devil who will try to remind you of bad things that you've done in your past to tell you that you can't serve God now. Just because you sinned years ago, are you just never going to be used by God again? Now it's true there are some sins that you can commit that will disqualify you from say, pastoring a church. Like the Bible says the pastor must be the husband of one wife. You know, there's certain things like that. But did you know there's a lot of other ways to serve God besides pastoring a church? You could win souls, huh? You could be in church. You could love people. You could win people to Christ. You could do more for God than even a pastor by being a soul winner, by loving God, by loving people, by helping people. You could be used by God no matter what your past is. Shake off the past. Shake off the guilt. Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth under those pages which are before. Press toward the mark for the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let it go. Shake it off. But not only that, number three, shake off some of the bad friends that will try to fasten themselves onto you. Turn to 2 Timothy chapter 2. So number one we've seen you've got to shake off that sinful past. These habits that you still have from before you got saved or habits that you have maybe from when you were backslidden after you were saved and bad habits, sins that are just fastened onto you. It's time to shake those off. Number two, shake off the guilt in your life. You ought to be able to go to bed at night with a clear conscience. I mean that. I mean you, no matter who you are in this room, should be able to go to bed at night and lay on your pillow and have a totally clear conscience. You say, well how am I going to do that? All you've got to do is every sin that you're committing right now and every sin you're planning to commit, just confess them to God. They've already been forgiven if you're saved. I mean years ago when you got saved. But you ought to confess them to God and just say, God I'm sorry. My fault. I'm sorry. And God help me to do better tomorrow. You can go to bed with a perfectly clear conscience. You don't have to be perfect, but if you confess your sins, you can go to bed with a clear conscience. And the guilt will plague you if you don't. But number three, look at 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 19. And sometimes bad friends you know maybe from your past, maybe from your present, sometimes people try to latch onto you. Okay? And some people just need to be shaken off. Let me show you what I mean. Look at 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 19. The Bible says, nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his, and let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. Now what we see here is a command from God that everyone who is a Christian who names the name of Christ should depart from iniquity. Now is everyone who is saved going to depart from iniquity? No. I mean there are many Christians who live in sin, unfortunately. He's saying we should depart. Let us you know, please do so he's saying. Let's depart from iniquity, but look at the next verse. But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth and some to honor and some to dishonor. He's saying some Christians bring honor to Jesus Christ, some bring dishonor to Jesus Christ. I mean for example, if I as a pastor went out and committed adultery I would bring great dishonor to the name of Jesus Christ if I committed such a wicked sin. Isn't that right? Well, God is saying there are Christians who do bring dishonor to the name of Christ. There are some that bring him honor. There are some Christians that are gold and silver in their works, but others are wood and of earth. Look at verse 21. If a man therefore purge himself from these, purge himself from what? The vessels of dishonor. The vessels of wood and of earth. The Christians who are living in sin. The Christians who bring dishonor to Jesus Christ. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor. Sanctified and meet for the master's use and prepared unto every good one. You see there are some people that you just need to shake off. Some people are a terrible influence on you. Did you know that? And you go ahead and hang around with your wicked friends and you say, oh well I'm going to straighten them out. I'm going to change them. They're going to change you. They're going to straighten you out. Because I've illustrated before, it's a lot harder to lift somebody up to your level than it is to let them drag you down. Why? It's called gravity. Gravity is always pulling you down. And so to pull somebody down, you just give them a little tug and they come crashing down. But to lift somebody up, you've got to lift all that way. That's a lot of work. And so hanging around with the wrong friends will drag you down. Shake them off. Oh, we've been friends since I was six. And she's cheating on her husband and calls me and tells me about it. Hey, you need to shake her off. Yes, you do. Oh yeah, but you don't understand. We were friends in elementary school. Time to shake her off. Time to shake him off. You know, ladies, be careful who you talk to on the phone. If you have friends, I don't care what you think, if you have a friend that calls you up and tells you about cheating on her husband, tells you how she is hiding stuff from her husband, doing stuff behind his back, or how she rebels against her husband, how she hates her husband, what a jerk her husband is. Oh, let me just whine to you about what a jerk my husband is. It's time for you to shake her off. Because pretty soon you're going to start whining about your husband. You're going to start cheating on your husband. You're going to start disobeying your husband. Because friends that are bad friends will destroy you and you'll be shaken off. Same thing with men. You have that male friend. You're a man and you have another buddy. He's always telling you about sleazy things. He's always trying to get you to go to some bar somewhere. He's always trying to get you to hang around with the wrong people. He's always telling you about sleeping around. Hey, shake him off. I don't care whether you've been friends since 1906. I don't care who they are. I don't care what it is. Hey, we have a family that's God's family. I'm not going to mess with somebody who brings dishonor and drags the name of Jesus Christ in the mud. I'm not going to do it. Especially, you say, well, they're saved. That's even worse. I mean, if they were unsaved, at least there's an excuse for it. This is talking about people that are saved. This isn't even talking about people that are unsaved. This is talking about people who dishonor Jesus Christ. You see, if an unsaved person commits adultery, boy, they're in wicked sin. But if a saved person commits adultery, now they're also dragging Jesus' name in the mud. Now what do you think is worse? What do you think is worse, an unsaved person committing adultery or a saved person? Saved? Shake off worldly Christians who are ungodly who live in sin. Shake them off. Shake off that beast in your life. Shake off your past. Shake off your guilt. And shake off friends that are dragging you down spiritually. I try to seek out people that are good Christians because the Bible says iron sharpeneth iron. So does a man sharpen the countenance of his fellow. And so I'm trying to seek people that are going my same direction. We build each other up. You know, we encourage each other. That's why church is important. Come here and make some good friends and people that are going to build you up and be going the same direction as you are. But not only that, number four. Look at Matthew chapter 10, if you would. Actually, I'm sorry. Turn to Acts 18. Acts 18. I'll read you Matthew 10. The Bible says in Matthew 10 verse 14, And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words. This is talking to people out soul winning two by two and he talks about that. They're out preaching the gospel. And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when you depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. So God's saying, okay, you're out soul winning. You know, he sent his disciples out two by two preaching the gospel. You're out soul winning and somebody's rude to you. If you go soul winning in Tempe, this happened to you five times the last time you went. Soul winning in Phoenix is great. I mean, everybody's friendly and usually you don't really run into a lot of problems. If you go soul winning in Tempe, it's a jungle out there, okay? If you go, especially the closer to downtown Tempe you get. I mean, people are rude to us. They slam the door. They yell at us. I mean, it can get ugly, you know? And sometimes, I mean, you just walk up and they hate you. You haven't even said anything. You just walk up and it's just like, get out of here. What are you doing? Get away from me. Honey, what's the matter? Oh, it's so weird, somebody yelled at me. He was pierced in 20 different places. He had blue hair sticking out of her. You know, like when you're in downtown Tempe. So what? You know what God said? Why don't you just shake it off and go to the next door? That's what he said. He said, if somebody is rude to you, if somebody yells at you, if somebody tells you off, he just says, shake off the dust to your feet as a testimony against them. Just shake that off. Just don't even let it cling to you. Or, you know, don't be all mad. I mean, usually Brother Dave can testify to this. When we go soul winning, or Brother Gabriel, you know, when we go soul winning, is somebody rude to me? What am I easily doing? Laughing about it, like when we're done. I'll just laugh and say, can you believe that? Why? Because I just shook it off that fast. Okay, don't sit there and get all mad. Can't believe these people, you know. Hey, they're not saved. They don't know any better. Some of them aren't even bad people. How do you know if they haven't been abused by some church somewhere? And so now they're just mad about that. You know, somebody might have hurt them in the past. You don't know what's going on. Don't get all mad about it. And don't get all whining and sad. Grow up. Be a man. You know, or if you're a lady, don't be a little kid. You know? Shake that off. If people are rude to you, people persecute you on the job, just shake that off. Just shake off the beast, as Paul did. But look down. I think I have you in Acts 18. Is that right? Acts 18. Look at verse number 5. The Bible says, and when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the Spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. So he's preaching the Gospel to them. And when they opposed themselves and blasphemed, he shook his reign in it and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads. I'm clean. From henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles. What are you saying? It's no skin off my back. You want to blaspheme God? You want to blaspheme Jesus Christ and curse God and not receive the Gospel? You're not hurting me. I'm saved. I love God. You do what you want. I'm free from the blood of these people. I've given them the Gospel. I've done what I was supposed to do. And what did he do? He shook it off. He shook the dust off his feet, so to speak. Same thing. Acts 13. Look back at Acts 13 and verse 49. See, don't get discouraged because somebody's rude to you. I've literally known people. I've seen somebody, I'm talking about years back in another church, where somebody's rude to them out so many times and then it's just like, that's it. I'm not going soloing anymore. That person needs to shake it off. Look at verse number 49 of Acts 13. The word of the Lord was published throughout all the region, but the Jews stirred up the devout and honorable women. Boy, isn't that threatening. Isn't that scary? Oh no, these angry women are coming after me. But the Jews stirred up the devout and honorable women and the chief men of the city and raised persecution against Paul and Barabas and expelled them out of their coasts. What'd they do? They quit, right? No. It says, but they shook off the dust of their feet against them and came unto Iconium and what was their attitude? Well, verse 52 says, and the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost. See, they didn't let it get them down. Somebody criticizes you at work, makes fun of you because you bring your Bible to work like you ought to or you bring your Bible to school like you ought to. Somebody makes fun of you. Hey, shake it off and be filled with joy. Don't let it get you down when people blaspheme you and criticize you and hate you without a cause and say all manner of evil against you. For Jesus Christ said, rejoice and be exceeding glad. For great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you is what Jesus said. Shake it off. Don't let it get you down. Paul was beaten, he was stoned, he was shipwrecked, he was attacked, he was blasphemed and he said, none of these things move me. None of these things move me. Nothing will stop me. I'm going to finish my course with joy, he said. I'm going to preach the gospel to every creature. Don't let these things pass on to you but let me conclude with this. Turn, you're already in Acts. Look at chapter 28 where we started. We'll finish where we started. Acts 28. So quick review, number one, you've got to shake off that sinful past, these sinful habits that you've had for years and years. They may go all the way back to your childhood, addictions that may go back years and years. It's time for you today to just shake it off. Number two, shake off the guilt. Don't live another day kicking yourself, feeling bad, guilty about the past. Now if you're living in sin right now, shame on you. You ought to feel guilty about that. But you know what you ought to do, any sin that's in your life, any sin you've committed in the past, you ought to just right now confess it to God. You know, when you get home or in your heart and get home and just say, God, I'm sorry. Thank you for forgiving me. Thank you for dying on the cross and paying for all my sins. Glory to God. And honestly, it should never even enter your mind. You ought not to live with guilt. It's not right. The Bible says you should not have conscience of your sins after you've been purged. You ought to be done with it. Number three, shake off those bad friends. Yes, the friend that you're thinking about right now, your little buddy, you need to shake them off. And you know, have you ever noticed that some friends will latch onto you? Have you ever had a friend that was hard to shake? I remember this guy in Indiana that like, couldn't shake this guy. And I didn't want anything to do with this guy because I knew this was the wrong kind of a guy, you know, he's bad news. And I remember, you know, I'd be walking down the halls at school and I'd see him coming, man, I'd take a different hallway. Seriously, I was trying to shake this guy. He was trying to always invite us places and give us things. And you know, this is how sometimes people will do it. They'll try to give you stuff to try to get their foot in the door. You know, they'll give you stuff and whatever. It's usually junk anyway. They try to give you a bunch of junk. And then, so you feel like you owe them something, you know, and they'll try to latch onto you. I'm talking about bad people. And this guy was a bad guy. Finally, I just, I mean, one day I just tore into this guy. I mean, I just told him, I just said, look, I said, you're ungodly. I mean, this was a guy who was studying to be a preacher, okay. Otherwise, I wouldn't have talked to him this way. But this guy's supposedly a man of God, you know. But this guy was a bad guy. I mean, he was really, really sinful. A lot of bad things about this guy. I just said to him, I said, I said, listen to me, I think you're a worthless piece of trash. Get away from me. You say, why did you say that to him? I said that to him, number one, because he studied to be a preacher, a man of God, and he's living in sin. He's preaching false doctrine. He's an evil person, according to the Bible. I said, get away from me. I'm not your friend. I've never been your friend. I don't want to be your friend. Let me just shake you off into the fire right now. Okay. Do you see, there are evil people out there that you just have to shake off. And then there are some people that are not necessarily evil, like this guy that wasn't even saved. Okay. Now, some people that are saved, but they're bad news, you could shake them off a little more delicately, but shake them off nonetheless. You have to not hang around with people that are dragging you down. Have you ever noticed when you get around certain people you'll do things that are sinful that you normally don't do? That's the kind of people that you shouldn't be hanging around. You know what I'm talking about. You kind of, well, for example, I'm thinking of a person right now. This guy never drinks, but when he gets around certain people, he drinks. That's the only time he drinks. I'm saying he's a Christian. But if he gets around certain people, he starts to drink. What do you think that that guy should do? Don't hang around those people. Okay. And you have people like that probably, you know, or hopefully you don't, but if you think about it, you get around certain people and all of a sudden you're not acting very spiritual, you're not acting very godly, you're around the wrong people. And then have you noticed that when you get around other people, you seem to be acting better than you act around other people? You say, oh, that's hypocrisy. No, you ought to just get around those people all the time. That's not as you can. And then you'll find yourself living right all the time. And then pretty soon that will just become who you are. You see, you are right now where you soon shall be what your friends are. If I can look at who you're hanging around with, I can tell where you're going. You're hanging around with a bunch of people that are much worse than you, you're going that direction. You're hanging around with people that are more godly, more righteous, more spiritual than you, I can tell that that's the way you're heading the right way. That's why church is important. And so shake off bad friends. Number four, shake off the persecution or people attacking you, criticizing you, ripping on you, rude to you. Don't hold a grudge. Put off the anger and malice, as God said. Don't let the sun go down on your wrath. Don't carry anger with you from day to day. Let it go. Shake it off. But in conclusion, let me show you this. Look at verse five and it says, And he shook off the beast into the fire and felt no harm. Acts 28 5. Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen or fallen down dead suddenly, but after they looked a great while and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a god. Now, what do we see here? When you shake off the beast then comes God's part where it says in verse number five, shook off the beast into the fire and felt no harm. Now, wasn't that a supernatural event? I mean, that his hand could have been pumped full of venom, fastened onto his hand, and he was able to shake it off and feel no harm? Don't you think that was a miracle? Of course it was. God performed a miracle. Well, what's God teaching us but that if you'll shake off, if you'll shake off the sin in your life, if you'll shake off those bad friends, if you'll shake off the guilt, you shake it off when people blaspheme you. God will step in and help you to feel no harm. That's what he's saying. You see, there are scars and damage from things in your past that probably have the potential to ruin your life. But God is saying here, if you'll shake those off, he's saying I'll help you get to victory. I'll help you succeed. I'll help you feel no harm in your life. You know, I'll help you live the right life now and be used of God now. Because it's going to take God's power to do that. And so just as Paul shook off the beast, that's when God stepped in and did a miracle. Okay? When he shook off the sin, when he shook off his past, you say, with my past it will be a miracle if I ever do anything for God. Or you can look, maybe you look at a teenager or a child or even a young adult and say goodnight with their past, if they turn out right, it'll be a miracle. Yes, it will be a miracle, but God can do it because with God all things are possible. I've seen people in my life that I thought, goodnight, if anybody's not going to turn out right, it's this person. Look at their past. Look at what they've been exposed to. And yet, with God, all things are possible. And they can take sometimes the most unlikely person that nobody would expect, a person that doesn't maybe have the talent, the person who has the sinful past, like an apostle Paul, a person who does have the past that they've struggled with, a person who does have sin in their life and he'll take them and if they're willing to shake off the beast, he'll let them feel no harm and he'll let them move on and do something with their life and glorify God with their life. So basically you just shake off the beast in your life and let God do the rest. You just worry about shaking off the beast. Don't worry about what that venom is going to do to you that's already in your body. Just shake off the beast and just trust God with the rest. But let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, I thank you so much for salvation, dear God, and for the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. Father, I pray that everybody that's here, you know, I'm sure that different issues that we've all dealt with in the past, we don't need a psychologist. We don't need a psychiatrist telling us whose fault it is. What we need to do is just shake it off. And so God help everyone who's here to shake off the things in their past, the sins that they're committing right now and guilt and shame and shake it off and say I'm going to shake off the beast and be used by God.