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Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music We're going to be doing Whosoever Will, our new song again. You guys did great this morning. I'm sure you'll do great today as well. Also just keep a green hymnal next to you because we're going to be doing one song out of that after the favorites. And we will be doing favorites after this song. So if you have a favorite in the blue hymnal, you can pick one. But for now we're doing song 354, Whosoever Will. Song 354 in your blue hymn book so sing it together on the first. Whosoever hear it shout shout the sound the blessed tidings all the world around tell the joyful news wherever man is found whosoever will may come whosoever will whosoever will send the proclamation over vale and hill tis a loving father calls the wanderer home whosoever will may come whosoever cometh need not delay now the door is open enter while you may jesus is the truth the only living way whosoever will may come whosoever will whosoever will send the proclamation over vale and hill tis a loving father calls the wanderer home whosoever will may come whosoever will the promise is secure whosoever will forever must endure whosoever will tis life forevermore whosoever will may come whosoever will whosoever will send the proclamation over vale and hill tis a loving father calls the wanderer home whosoever will may come Amen. Good singing. Brother Bill, could you open us up for a prayer? Amen. We got favorites. Which one of you Harrington's did I pick first last time? I don't remember. No. It's a lifetime ban. No. Gabe. 601? You liked it so much you want to do it again, huh? 601 Battle Hymn of the Republic? We're about to do all the songs for this morning. 601 Battle Hymn of the Republic on the fourth, Brother Gabe? Is that what you said? The fourth? Let's do it on the fourth. In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea with the glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me as he died to make men holy. Let us die to make men free while God is marching on. Glory glory hallelujah. Glory glory hallelujah. Glory glory hallelujah. His truth is marching on. Brother Tyler. The birthday boy. 457. Surely goodness and mercy. 457. Song 457. Let's sing that together on the first. Some was I and a wandering In the cold night of sin I did roam When Jesus the kind shepherd found me and now I am on my way home Surely goodness and mercy Shall follow me All the days, all the days of my life Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days, all the days of my life And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever and I shall feast At the table spread for me Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days, all the days of my life All the days, all the days of my life Miss Amy 336 Till the storm passes by Song 336 on the first In the dark of the midnight Have I oft hid my face Till the storm howls above me And there's no hiding place Mid the crash of the thunder Precious Lord, hear my cry Keep me safe till the storm passes by Till the storm passes over Till the clouds roll forever from the sky Hold me fast, let me stand In the hollow of thy hand Keep me safe till the storm passes by Brother Chris 492. Can't do that one either. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just... Song 492, Dwelling in Beulah Land Can you say it on the first, Brother Chris? Let's sing it on the first. Far away the noise of strife upon my ear is falling Then I know the sins of earth be set on every hand Doubt and fear and things of earth in vain to me are calling None of these shall move me from Beulah Land I'm living on the mountain Underneath the cloudless sky Oh God, I'm drinking at the fountain That never shall run dry Oh yes, I'm feasting on the manna From a bountiful supply For I am dwelling in Beulah Land Very good singing. Miss Chantel, number 8. The Windows of Heaven Song number 8. We've only got one verse. Let's sing it out on it. The windows of heaven are open The blessings are falling tonight There's joy, joy, joy in my heart Since Jesus made everything right I gave him my old tattered garment He gave me a robe of pure wine I'm feasting on manna from heaven And that's why I'm happy tonight Miss Julene, 214? 214? 214. Jesus loves me. It's Julene's favorite song 214 on the first. Jesus loves me, this I know For the Bible tells me so Little ones to him They are strong They are weak, but he is strong Yes, Jesus loves me Yes, Jesus loves me Yes, Jesus loves me The Bible tells me so That is my personal favorite, I do believe. Crown Him with Many Crowns Song 39 on the first Crown him with many crowns The lamb upon his throne Hark how the heavenly anthem drowns All music but its own Awake my soul and sing Of him who died for thee And hail him as Thy matchless king through all eternity. Kylie 199 The B-I-B-L-E We're doing all the kids' songs too. Let's do it. Song 199 The B-I-B-L-E I hope you all know it. The B-I-B-L-E Yes, that's the book for me I stand alone on the word of God The B-I-B-L-E Bible! Okay, you guys didn't go to Junior's Church. We gotta restart it. We'll bring it back. Let's try it again. The B-I-B-L-E Yes, that's the book for me I stand alone on the word of God The B-I-B-L-E Bible! Amen, that's good. How many do we got? I don't even know. I'm not keeping track. It's been fun. Oh, little Timothy. Timothy? You look too similar. What do you got, Timothy? 223 The Love of God Song 223 The love of God is greater far Than tongue or pen can ever tell On the highest star and reaches To the lowest hell The guilty pair bowed down with care God gave his son to His erring child he reconciled And pardoned from his sin Oh, love of God, how rich And pure, how measureless And strong, it shall forever More endure the saints and angels Song Maybe two more. What do we got here? This one. Not Bebe. What's your name? Sophie. 94 on the third. 94 on the third. We really are doing the songs from this morning. Song 94 on the third and can it be that I should gain? Let's see it on the third. Long my imprisoned Spirit lay Fast bound in sin And nature's night Thine eye defused A quickening ray I woke the dungeon Flamed with light My chains fell off My heart was free I rose when forth And followed the Amazing love How can it be That thou, my God Shouldst die for me The last. Who do we got? Alejandro. 49. Oh man. You're gonna mess me up now. Song 49. How great they are. We were practicing it a little bit faster. Are we gonna go with the faster? Is that what you want? I'm the song leader I guess. Maybe I should make that decision. Song 49 Try to follow me as I try to follow Christ I guess. On the first. Oh Lord my God When I in awesome wonder Consider all the Worlds thy hands have made I see the stars I hear the rolling Thunder thy power throughout The universe displayed Then sings my soul my Savior God to thee How great thou art. How great thou are. Then sings my soul my Savior God to thee How great thou art. How great thou are. I think I like the slow version better. With that we're done with that. Good afternoon. Good afternoon everybody. Welcome back to Sherrif Foundation Baptist Church. Some of us have never left. And on our front cover we have our verse of the week. Oh if you need a bulletin would you lift up your hand? And one of the ushers will bring you a bulletin alright. God bless you. I see that hand. Anybody else? Alright. On our front cover we have our verse of the week. It says my flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Psalm chapter 73 verse 26. Great verse there. And again reader glasses required. That's my note that I was given by the usher. On our inside left hand page there we have just a short message from me about if anybody needs to talk to me about spiritual matters I just make myself available. Feel free to come talk to me. And then also the little asterisk there says if you want to know how to be saved or need to be baptized please see an usher myself. And the water was running all night last night so I'm sure that it probably still is warm if you dip your hand in there. So if anybody needs to be baptized you're more than welcome to get baptized tonight. Maybe just help us with our numbers. Re-baptize you. No I'm just kidding. Anyway our service times are located below there. It says our Sunday morning service, our preaching service is at 10.30 am and our Sunday evening service is 3.30 pm. Thursday Bibles today 6.30 pm will be in Hebrews chapter number 3 this week. And our soul winning times are listed below. We did have soul winning today and we had a first time a person get their, brother Chris, I can't get my pen out here. Brother Chris where'd he go? Is he embarrassed? He left. This is what everybody always does to me. Every time. He was just there. Anyway brother Chris got his first person saved today so let's give him a hand. He can probably hear from the bathroom or wherever he's at. Great job brother Chris. And then Julene got one today too and it's probably been a little while since she's had one huh? So anyway good job brother, Ms. Julene. Alright. Anybody else get anybody? Was there another salvation anybody else get? Praise God we got two saved out there. There's a lot of good conversations out there. Me and Pastor Berzins ran into about two possibly three people that were already saved. We weren't sure about one but the other two like one guy just gave a really good testimony about being saved. So he was very clear. Which is what I like. I don't like to have to guess like the third lady. But anyway so praise God we had two salvations. We're doing really good in January. Usually these are our slow months where it's rainy and cold and nobody gets saved or whatever but we're doing really well so we're past the mark. Hopefully we can just keep this rolling in through the new year. So we also have soul meeting on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at those times and then our praise report you can see the salvation baptisms attended souls from last week and January 1st of course we began our New Testament challenge so we continue to do that. I'm going to go through these faster than I normally would. Once again we have Pastor Dave Berzins here from Stronghold Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia and he's going to be preaching for us again tonight. He preached a great sermon this morning very edifying, very encouraging, stay in the faith and don't follow too far away. We want to get as close to Jesus as possible. When people say they're going to follow me someplace and Brother Sean you know he said this one time and he was way back but I always say this when I say I said you need to follow me like you're going to follow Jesus. Close. But nobody ever does. I was going 55 and I'm like where is this guy? We're on a freeway for crying out loud. But anyway I'm just kidding. But yeah so Pastor Berzins it's been a great having you here Pastor and Abigail and so he's probably going to leave not too long after the service is over so get a chance to say goodbye to him and if you haven't got a chance to meet him yet go shake his hand and thank you for being here. Also what else we got going on? The sewing class is Tuesday 4pm. Any questions ask Mrs. Harrington. January 24th is the home school activity. Miss Jessica's birthday and my birthday. And then there's a home school activity at Furstenberg Center and that's at 9.15 for two hours. So we have a two hour time limit so try to be there on time and it's best suited for ages three and up. So there will be a gym, there will be activities and things like that. And then January 28th is the film premiere of the Preserve Bible. We get to see it first. Even Pastor Shelley's church doesn't get to see it before we do. So we're special. So I just requested that we do it on Saturday because we have so many people to travel from so far I'd like to be able to actually do it when everybody can be here. So he said yes and so we get to preview it. I'd like to do some interviews afterwards with people just saying how you like the movie because you better like it. But if you don't like it then I'm not going to interview you. It's all positive. But I'm sure it's going to be great. It's supposed to be two hours long. If you don't know where it's at and what time then just see me after service or look at the WhatsApp group posting. And then I do need to make sure, there's only 119 spots so the theater only holds 119. They wouldn't move Avatar for us so we're up against Avatar here so anyway, so it's going to be a great time and there is a discounted concession stand. I'm not going to say what time it is but anyway, or where it is. But if you need any details just don't hesitate to ask me if you're on the internet and you're like, I want to go. Well email me at sheriffoundationbaptist.com or text our phone number 360-718-3834 and just tell me you want to go and I'll add you to the list. January 29th we'll have the pot blessing meal and after the morning service and then we'll have a men's preaching night for the evening service. February 11th is the married couple sweetheart banquet at 5pm with the Italian theme. February 12th is Pastor Mejia preaching from FWBCLA. March 5th through 9th we're going to take a trip down to Sacramento for the Next Generation Youth Rally. That is in Sacramento, California. The actual days of the conference are the 7th and 8th. Pastor Anderson and Pastor Jimenez will be preaching. And then April 13th through 17th is the Detroit Soul Waning Part 2. That's coming up on the way distance on May 25th through 28th is the King James Conference. That will be Pastor Shelley, Pastor Anderson, Pastor Jimenez, Pastor Jones preaching and all the other stuff. I don't think we have any first time guests so I'm going to skip this part so we can get the sermon rolling. But once again don't forget to say congratulations to brother Richie for the birth of his son and Miss Nikki. Brother Evan and Miss Nikki on the birth of Nathan Lasugas Richie. So 1-13-20-23 was the birthday and he was 7 pounds 8 ounces. A good sized kid. So that's all I have for announcements. Yes sir. Oh the camp trip are you inviting? Ok. Alright. That's your baby. So the camp trip is the first week of May right? So Pastor Berson puts on an excellent camp trip every year around the first of May or the end of April or whatever. But this year is the first week of May. So what if you can get there, you can stay there and it's no cost to you right? That's kind of the rule. You have to feed yourself? No it's not. Do you really? Oh ok. Oh ok. Well I'm definitely there. So that is the first week of May and obviously whatever dates you can make I'm sure maybe if you can't make it through the whole thing but it is Monday through Saturday is that correct? Monday through Saturday and whatever the first through the sixth yeah. So I had a great time the last time I was there. I wasn't able to go last year but I really had a good time. They have some pretty sweet spots there. It's in Georgia yeah. What's the area called? Oh you don't want to say. We can't say. Undisclosed location. You have to have a secret handshake in order to find out. We will teach it. Somewhere in the backwoods of Georgia. Where there's a Baptist church on every corner literally. Not always good ones though. Anyway it's a really cool place and there's like lots of things you know you can see the destroyed Georgia Guidestones is kind of near it like maybe a little like it could be an hour and a half could be farther. No I'm just kidding. I don't know how far it is but I went there last time so I'm glad I got to see it and then I'm glad it got destroyed so anyway one more thing and I know you get tired of me ragging about this but if you could when service is over can you please make sure you clean up your areas and if you left stuff upstairs don't just throw serving spoons into the sink thinking that someone else is going to clean it for you. Clean it yourself alright. That's the only complaint I had last week is like if it's already clean I'm not saying it's clean I don't know if anybody cleaned it today but just when you go to a into a spot and it's the end of church and you can tell it's like shining nothing is out of place that means it's been cleaned. So that means don't make another mess in there after someone's already cleaned it because it is a lot of it is a lot of work this is 6,000 square feet of building and it's a lot harder to clean than our old building so if you could do that for me I'd really appreciate it make sure you take your stuff home I don't have a problem with you eating here at all but please just pack it in pack it out that's the camping rule right it's the church rule too so we're without the camp no I'm just kidding anyway that's all I got for announcements let's sing another song alright if you guys want to get your green hymn books and turn to page 136 we got a green exclusive only song Master the Tempest is Raging song number 136 Master the Tempest is Raging song number 136 Master the Tempest is Raging let's sing it together on the first Master the Tempest is Raging the billows are tossing high the sky is or shadowed with blackness no shelter or help is nigh carest thou not that we perish how canst thou lie asleep when each moment so madly is threatening a grave in the angry deep the winds and the waves shall obey my will peace be still whether the wrath of the storm toss sea or demons or men or whatever it be no water can swallow the ship where lies the master of ocean and earth and skies they all shall sweetly obey my will peace be still peace be still they all shall sweetly obey my will peace peace be still Master with anguish of spirit I bow in my grief today the depths of my sad heart are troubled awaken and save I pray torrents of sin and of anguish sweep o'er my sinking soul and I perish I perish dear Master oh hasten and take control the winds and the waves shall obey my will peace be still whether the wrath of the storm toss sea or demons or men or whatever it be no water can swallow the ship where lies the master of ocean and earth and skies they all shall sweetly obey my will peace be still peace be still they all shall sweetly obey my will peace peace be still Master the terror is over the elements sweetly rest her son in the calm lake is mirrored and heaven within my breast linger oh blessed redeemer leave me alone no more and with joy I shall make that blessed harbor and rest on that blissful shore the winds and the waves shall obey my will peace be still whether the wrath of the storm toss sea or demons or men or whatever it be no water can swallow the ship where lies the master of ocean and earth and skies they all shall sweetly obey my will peace be still peace be still they all shall sweetly obey my will peace peace be still Amen good seeing brother Sean Harrington could you bless the offering for us thank you so much thank you so much so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so alright open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 10 Matthew chapter number 10 if you don't have a Bible raise your hand and one of the ushers will bring you one Matthew 10 Matthew 10 Matthew 10 Matthew 10 the Bible reads and when he had called unto him his 12 disciples he gave them power against unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease now the names of the 12 apostles are these the first Simon who is called Peter and Andrew his brother James the son of Debedee and John his brother Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the publican James the son of Alphaeus and Lebaeus whose surname was Thadeus Simon the Canaanite and Judas the chariot who also betrayed him these 12 Jesus sent forth and commanded them saying go not into the way of the Gentiles and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and as ye go preach saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils freely ye have received freely give provide neither gold nor silver nor brass in your purses nor strips for your journey neither shoe coats nor shoes nor yet stays for the workman is worthy of his needs and in the whatsoever city or town you shall enter inquire who in it is worthy and there abide till ye go think and when ye come into an house salute it and if the house be worthy let your peace come upon it but if it be not worthy let your peace return to you and whosoever shall not receive you nor hear your words you need to part out of that house or city shake off the dust of your feet fairly 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 behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves be therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves but beware of men for they will deliver you up to the council and they will scourge you in their synagogues and you shall be brought before governors and kings from my state for a testimony against them and the Gentiles but when they deliver you up take no thought how or what ye shall speak for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak for it is not ye that speak but the spirit of your father would speak within you and the brother shall deliver up the brother to death and the father the child and the children shall rise up against their parents and cause them to be put to death and ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake but he that endureth to the end shall be saved but when they persecute you in this city lead into another for verily I say unto you ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till the son of man become the disciples not above his master nor the servant above his lord it is enough for the disciple that he be as his master and the servant as his lord if they have called the master of the house Beelzebub how much more shall they call them of his household fear them not therefore for there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed and hid that shall not be known what I tell you in darkness that speak ye in light and what ye hear in the ear that preach ye upon the housetops and fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell are not two sparrows sold for a farthing and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your father but the very hairs of your head are all numbered fear ye not therefore you are of more value than many sparrows whosoever therefore shall confess me before men him will I confess also before my father which is in heaven but whosoever shall deny me before men him will I also deny before my father which is in heaven think not that I come to send peace on earth I came not to send peace but a sword for I am come to set a man at variance against his father and the daughter against her mother and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law and a man's foe shall be they of his own household he that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me and he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me he that findeth his life shall lose it and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it he that receiveth you receiveth me and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me he that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward and whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple verily I say unto you he shall in no wise lose his reward. Brother Robert will you pray for us? Alright it's great to be back here again for another service at Sure Foundation Baptist Church. Thank you all again so much for having me here. It's unfortunate I have to do kind of a turnaround trip but it is great to be here and I'm really happy to get a chance to meet at least some of you if not all of you. It's always feeling like it's another home. You go to these churches where you're filled with born again zealous believers who want to serve the Lord and it's a pleasure being here and I really appreciate you having me here. This evening I want to cover a different topic. The title of my sermon this evening is called Wise as Serpents and we get that from this passage here in Matthew chapter 10 where Jesus is sending forth his disciples. He says there in verse number 16 behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves and I'm hoping to be able to give you some wisdom from the Bible tonight. I know you're no stranger to the spiritual battle that's going on but it's important one to remind ourselves that it is a spiritual battle. This isn't a physical battle. We're not calling to arms our battle according to the Bible, according to Jesus Christ himself is one that is fought spiritually. It's something that we are wrestling against principalities and powers and against spiritual wickedness in high places. We don't wrestle against flesh and blood. We're not out there trying to just go out and wreak havoc and have all these physical fights. That's not what it's about. It's about getting the truth out there and of course yes absolutely we're going to defend the truth. We're not going to back down and we just need to be able to know where to draw the line when you're going to stand up boldly. You're going to preach the word of God. You're not going to let anyone push you around. You're not going to be silenced and let people just run all over you. We are going to be meek and humble but we're also not going to give an inch to people who are wicked and want to push an agenda. At the same time we also understand that our goal is not to get in a physical conflict at all. The whole point is to be able to try to avoid that as much as possible in order to continue to preach our message and preach the truth from the Bible. What Jesus is instructing here is you need to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. He says because you're like sheep that are going to be sent out in the midst of wolves. A sheep is not a very aggressive animal. It's something that's going around trying to attack other animals but wolves do. We are to be as the sheep. We're harmless. Jesus was as a sheep led to the slaughter. When he came forth that's how he was and we need to do it in a similar way. We're not going out to do these battles but it is a spiritual battle so we're going to be harmless as doves. We're not out to cause harm to anyone but be of the understanding absolutely that we are as sheep in the midst of wolves. That there are plenty of people out there that are going to want to destroy you both physically and your message. So they're going to be after you both ways. They're going to try to destroy you, destroy you as a person, destroy you as a family, destroy your means of income, destroy you maybe even physically. That that threat is out there. Nonetheless though Jesus is still saying hey I'm still sending you forth. He's not saying don't go. He's saying look I'm still sending you. It's an important job. You need to go but understand because of that you need to be wise as serpents. We're going to look at a lot of wisdom that we see from the scripture on how to accomplish this task knowing that it could be dangerous, knowing that it could make people upset. In this very chapter he's saying look you think I came to send peace? I didn't come to send peace but a sword and division. There's going to be people divided over this and you're going to go and like he said here in turn if you would to verse number 27. Look down at verse number 27 there in chapter 10. The Bible says when I tell you in darkness that's speaking in light and what you hear in the ear that preachy upon the housetops. He's like this is not something that he wants hush hush underground churches and you just when you find someone that you think is going to be okay with hearing the truth then you can talk about it. No. He says what you hear in the ear is like preach that on the housetops. I mean broadcast this message. Broadcast the truth. Make sure everybody can hear it but just understand you got to be wise because there's a lot of wolves out there that are not going to like to hear this message and are going to try to go on the attack. So going back to verse 16 there or verse 17 where he gives them instruction. Hey your sheep in the midst of wolves be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. Verse 17 says but beware of men. Why? Because the men they will deliver you up to the councils and they will scourge you in their synagogues. Scourge means whip. They're going to physically try to beat you by doing this. By delivering the message you need to be aware that people might try to do that. Or will try to do that. And even in this country they're not going to draw you in a synagogue but they might try to just beat you in the street. If they can if they think they can get away with it they'll do it. There's a lot of people that you know the heathen rages there's a lot of people that hate God and do not I'm preaching in the choir here. You know all too well the Romans 1 attributes of people that hate God. And it's true it's a fact. And these people are out there and they're going to hate the message. And like I said you know this but I'm hoping especially as you engage in this battle that we can have wisdom. That you can use great wisdom and discernment on dealing with sometimes very precarious situations and situations where people might try to be trapping you and set traps to just cause you to fall. Whether that be goading you into some kind of physical confrontation or goading you into saying something that's going to get you in trouble also. Okay we've got to be aware of that and not to let your emotions take over and you start end up saying things that's going to cause you to get into trouble because you're not being wise you're not actually thinking about some of the things that you ought to be thinking about very carefully when you're even just defending the word of God. And I'm going to make this very clear too because I am not at all going to condone any type of lying or being unclear or talking in guile. Right? Not being deceptive. We're not deceptive. We're treating the word of God truthfully but there's still a wisdom to be had in going about how you preach the truth and what you should be saying and what you should not be saying just in general and we're going to see this wisdom in scripture. So he gives this warning here. We'll keep reading a little bit more. We already read the whole chapter but verse 18 says and you shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. So he's saying this is going to go all the way up of the people in power. Right? You'll be brought under charges under the law and you know so far we've been relatively just in our situation a country that hasn't quite happened yet but I mean we're practically there. You can see it coming where you know the hate speech or whatever they want to call it will end up causing you to be brought before governors or kings. And look it ought to be for my sake where Jesus is for his sake. Right? It's not because of anything wrong that you do but it's because you're just preaching the word of God. It says verse 19 but then when they deliver you up take no thought how or what you shall speak for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. And this is good just to know that God's going to be with you anyways. You know you get in these situations you're fighting for the cause of God you know prayerfully just be in communion with the Lord so that you know hey I'm going to expect God to lead me and have the Holy Spirit guide me when you're able to speak so that you get through those situations with wisdom and the Bible says there jump down to verse number 21 and the brother shall deliver up the brother to death and the father of the child and the children shall rise up against their parents and cause them to be put to death and you shall be hated of all men for my name's sake but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. And we know that this type of situation is going to be going on in the end times also that there's going to be you know parents, children delivering up their parents and you know having this whole communist ratting on people type of garbage going on and the government's going to be involved with that, the anti-Christ's going to be involved in that and there's going to be a lot more division even than just the word of God causes today from people who hate the truth versus those that love it. You know the Bible says in 2 Timothy 3 this know also that in the last days perilous times shall come. So we know there's perilous times coming ahead, they are already perilous it's just going to continue to get worse. But let's look at some of these things that they're doing. Turn to Mark chapter 12 I'm just going to read from Luke 11 for you while you're turning to Mark 12 Luke 11 53 the Bible says and as he said these things unto them the scribes and the Pharisees began to urge him vehemently and to provoke him to speak of many things. This is talking about Jesus Christ so the scribes, the Pharisees, they don't like what they're saying, what he's saying and they start to urge him, it says they start to urge him vehemently. So they're like rabid and they're really upset with what they're hearing out of Jesus Christ's mouth and you can go back and read this in context later to see exactly what he was saying but the point is these people get so mad at what he's saying what they try to do is they try to provoke him to speak of many things so they're out there just trying to get him to talk and just talk about all kinds of different things. Why? Verse 54 says laying weight for him and seeking to catch something out of his mouth that they might accuse him. So what they're trying to do is just get him to slip up get him to say something that you know whether he means to say it or not doesn't matter they're just trying to get him to talk about as many things as possible trying to bring up controversial trying to bring up all these various things just to try to set a trap for him in order to get him in trouble. The Bible says this in Proverbs 10 19 in the multitude of words there wanteth not sin but he that refraineth his lips is wise and one of the ways of wisdom and one of the being wise as serpents is going to help you out is when you run into people especially people that hate God and they're trying to get you to speak all these things is just don't say anything. You don't have to give an answer to every question that ever comes up to you especially when people are vehemently against you and against what you're trying to do. Look you don't have to say anything to those people because often times what they're going to be doing is they're going to be trying to trap you they're going to try to get you to slip up and just say something wrong or incorrect because obviously look if you're going to say exactly what the Bible says you can say that all day long. You can quote the Bible as a word of God but as human beings sometimes we misspeak sometimes we'll say something wrong and boom all of a sudden now they're going to get you for that. So while we are very transparent in what we believe you know I'm transparent in our church make sure hey there's no doubt about what we're believing what we're preaching obviously we're broadcasting live streaming you to whoever is going to allow our content to be up on their service we're going to try to push that out there and let the world know we're trying to preach from the housetops we're trying to do this message but when you're confronted with the people that hate you and hate your message and hate God you don't have to just continue to go on and get involved in arguments with them and let them suck you in because they're not interested in learning they're not interested in knowing what the truth is they just want to fight against you and attack you and lay a trap for you and try to get you one way or another we've got to be wise in understanding who it is you're even dealing with and when you start to see people here it's a vehemently urging and provoking you to speak on many things best advice don't say anything just let them be talk to the hand look at mark chapter 12 because we're going to look at the wisdom that Jesus used first of all then we're going to look at the apostle Paul lots of wisdom that Jesus used when he's confronted with people who are trying to get him to fall into a trap but we see Jesus wisely answering and wisely saying things where even in some cases you know you think well he could have been more clear but he's not on purpose because of who he's dealing with and what they're trying to do to him look at verse number 12 the Bible reads in mark 12 12 and they sought to lay hold on him but feared the people for they knew that he had spoken the parable against them and they left him and went their way and this is of course Jesus Christ is always preaching these parables and stuff against the Jews against the Pharisees and you know these parables about the husband men and all this other stuff where they're killing the servants and God's going to miserably destroy those people and then they're like wait a minute I think he's talking about me so it gets them real angry because he's just totally calling them out and calling them hypocrites and liars and everything else so what they do here look what they say in verse 13 so they left him they get really angry at what he's preaching they leave then verse 13 says and they send unto him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians to catch him in his words so they let that stop right there but then they make a plan they're literally plotting and say okay here's the plan we're going to send just a few of you guys in but here's what you need to do you need to catch him in his words and this is what the enemy is going to do this is what they try to do they're always going to be trying to catch you in your words and here's the thing especially with our society in our day and age you know everything's gone digital so you have even more concern about what you say and what you put into print and what you put out there in the world because you're going to have people trying to catch you in your words people that hate God are going to try to trip you up and try to get you in a problem so we need to be wise we need to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves but it's not you know I'm not trying to have any chilling effect here so don't get me wrong I mean hey preach from the house tops the word of God but be wise in what you say right preach all of the counsel of God but be wise in just your words okay so they're coming to try to catch him in his words verse 14 says and when they were come they say unto him master we know that thou art true and carest for no man so notice they're trying to butter him up right already and anytime you see you get flattery from someone that's a red flag that they're trying to lay a trap for you so just watch out for that they're trying to butter up Jesus here going oh yeah we know we know that you're a master you're a rabbit you you're true you care for no man for thou regardless not the person of men but teach us the way of God and truth now those things are true about Jesus but they don't think that they're deceitfully saying that because they don't believe that Jesus is a good guy so then they ask this question though is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not that's a question is it lawful to get to pay our tax to Caesar because what tribute is is a tax so how are they trying to trap him here well they're trying to trap him or if he were to say that you know no you don't have to do that well obviously Caesar's going to have a problem with that not to pay your taxes and then they'll have a reason to have him thrown in jail but then he could answer well if you you know give to Caesar or something you know that they're going to they're going to find a way to hold that against him versus the law of Moses or putting someone before God or something to that effect and they try to put him in a no win situation is what they're always trying to paint him into a corner to not answer it right now you know in our society you know supposedly our income tax is supposed to be voluntary but you know if you don't pay you're going to go to jail well first they'll they'll harass you and add fines and you know everything else but then ultimately if they want to make an example of you they're going to put you in prison but it's voluntary okay yeah whatever but first of all you know our fight isn't about that we never see Jesus preaching about money he's never preaching about taxes but see this is what they try to get into him to to talk about to try to get him in trouble with the government and this is this is one of the reasons why I always come out and say it you know like like the Ken Hovind didn't need to get himself into the mess he got himself into even if everything and I don't know all the details of everything that he taught and all that you know all that stuff I know a little bit about it but but here's the thing you could have easily just avoided all that even if he's completely right just 100% in you know he's right about what he said and everything else and the government's wrong yeah but like now you went to prison for what? It wasn't for the cause of Christ it had to do with his disbursement of money and how he's handling money with his employees and whether or not it's for profit and all this other stuff like that's what he's being going after and you could say yeah but they're wicked and they're really coming after him because he's a man of God and everything else but look we shouldn't be giving them a reason to even have anything against us anyways. Everything needs to be above board we need to be you know playing by the rules which is why Jesus even said to Peter when they're like when the tax man came to Peter he's like hey doth not your master pay taxes? and he's like uh yeah right he kind of caught him off guard he's like yeah so then he goes in and Jesus just stops him right away like hey who do children of the who pays taxes is it the foreigners or the people of the land? Well the foreigners do the strangers right and he's like yeah then are the children free we don't need to be paying taxes right that's what's right because you know what just here we're going to pay him anyways that we don't offend him unless we should offend him here go ahead cast a hook the first fish that you get check his mouth there's going to be a piece of money there and give that for the and me just go just go pay him whatever that's not what we're about we don't want that distracting us from this cause this the spiritual warfare we don't want to be distracted with the carnal things and look the mammon the money is carnal it's carnal so we're not going to get in these stupid fights about this but here's how Jesus is wise and how he answers this verse 15 the bible says shall we you know they say shall we give or shall we not give but he knowing their hypocrisy said unto them why tempt you me bring me a penny that I may see it and they brought it and he saith unto them whose is this image in superscriptions like what what is that that image there what does it say on that coin and they say unto them Caesars and Jesus answering said unto them render to Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are Gods and you know what that's a wise answer cause now you're not going to get in trouble either way with people who are trying to catch you in your words it's true there's nothing untrue about what Jesus is saying and anything when they're trying to catch him in his words he's never deceitful he's never speaking in guile he's never lying about what he's saying but he's wise in how he answers them and not giving them an opportunity to even twist his words to use against him cause some of these things could require kind of a lot of explanation behind answering questions on what you would believe and this is a real quick answer that's very wise and some of these areas where it might take you a while to answer like just don't bother with that and we need to be you know try to understand who you're dealing with there's no reason to go and confront all the protesters and get into these arguments and answer all these questions it's like look you know you're giving over to reprobate mine just whatever you know Turn to John chapter 8 we see another example where the Pharisees are trying to catch Jesus in his words He is this great example of using wisdom cause he had a lot of people out to get him This isn't just some one off it's not just one passage or one verse or whatever that this even comes up in the Bible this happens in multiple situations cause there is a lot of danger to serve in Christ in general with people who hate the word of God Verse number 3 in John chapter 8 the Bible reads and the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery when they had set her in the midst they say unto him master this woman was taken in adultery in the very act Look what they say here. Now Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned. Okay then why didn't you do it? Why didn't you do it? If you claim to follow Moses then why didn't you do it? They say but what sayest thou? So what do you have to say about this? But there's a reason why they didn't do it. You know why they didn't do it? Because it wasn't lawful for them to do it. And you learn this and you don't have to go to a history book to learn this you just go to the Bible because when they were trying to get Jesus crucified when they're trying to get him put to death and Pilate's like you take care of this you deal with it. They're like well look it's unlawful for us to put anyone to death. So they explain that during that time while yes they did have some type of their own governance in the Roman Empire they were not able to put people to death. That was something they didn't have the authority to convict people of something that's worthy of death. That would have to go through the Roman government the Roman courts. So they and they definitely didn't have anything on the books for what they're trying to convict Jesus of as anything that would be worthy of death. So they didn't want to go that way. Yeah they're trying to convict him of blasphemy or something. It's like the Roman government doesn't care about that. They're just going to set him free. But they want him put to death so they say look well we can't do that. So that's why they're going to Jesus because they want Jesus to just have contempt for the law of the Roman government to where if he says oh she ought to be put to death then they're going to be like hey look this guy's trying to set up his own laws and his own you know like he's disobeying Caesar and he's despising Caesar's laws and everything else so they can get him thrown in jail. Right that's how they're trying to trap him. And you know when people turn to this passage you got to understand that anyways. The people take this and they want to run with this story all day long trying to say there should be no death penalty and trying to say all manner of stupid things. You can't judge anyone on anything you know like whatever. Jesus being wise in his answer to people who try and set a trap for him. Because then what would be the other answer be if he says they're trying to get him into this yes or no type of a thing where it's just going to get him into a wrong answer either way. Because then if he says well she shouldn't be put to death they're going to say well that's what Moses law said. She should be. Right which he's not going to say that. And he wouldn't say that. And it says in verse 6 there this they said tempting him that they might have to accuse him. They're trying to make an accusation. And here's his first response. The wisdom of Jesus. But Jesus stooped down and with his finger on the ground as though he heard him not. So Jesus said they come in oh man we've caught this woman an adultery Jesus Moses said we should put her to death. What do you think? And he's just like. They're doing his own thing. Writing on the ground doing whatever he's doing and just completely ignores him. Let's ignore him. That's a great tactic. People come to you with stupid questions and they're trying to go to you into something and trying to catch you in your words. Ignore him. Verse 7 says so when they continued asking him he lifted up himself and said unto them he is without sin among you let him first cast a stone at her. Now notice though so he finally gives them an answer because they're just not leaving him alone. He did not respond all charged and fired up and emotional because you guarantee when they bring in this woman they're going to be all fired up. And what they're going to try to do is get you fired up. And they're going to be saying all these things and making all these accusations already that you could read into. Well hey the Bible says you know you should indeed shellfish so what. Whatever right these stupid these stupid arguments. And they'll try to catch you with this stuff and you say something but here he says well hey he is without sin among you let him first cast a stone. What a great answer. What a wise answer because first of all he's not saying not to kill her not to put her to death. He actually is saying to put her to death. But it's just how you do it. Okay well you're without sin and you cast a first stone. And again this isn't about like well now no one can judge anything anyone for anything and no one should ever be put to death because we're all sinners. Like that's not that's not what the Bible is teaching here. It's a way for him to not get in trouble with the Roman government and still give an answer that is completely in line with the Bible. And it's true and all about this is true. And again he stooped down and rode on the ground and dropped the mic and was like boom. Right. There you go. And they which heard it being convicted by their own conscience went out one by one beginning at the eldest even unto the last and Jesus was left alone. And the woman saying in the midst when Jesus had lifted up himself and saw none but the woman he said unto her woman where are those thine accusers hath no man condemned thee. She said no man Lord and Jesus said unto her neither do I condemn thee go and sin no more. And even still consistent with the Old Testament if there's no one there to condemn her and there's no witnesses that are bearing forth this witness of this then you can't just have one witness against a person or whatever and everyone left. So he's going to say okay well no one's condemned me well I'm not going to condemn you either. Go and sin no more. That in conjunction with you know Jesus Christ was sent to seek and to save that which was lost. He didn't come to judge he didn't come to rule with a rod of iron that's coming. And you better believe in this situation in the millennium reign of Christ it's going to turn a little different but in this ministry in this cause in this purpose of Jesus Christ he did not come to fulfill that role he came to fulfill the role of the sacrifice and be the lamb of God. Turn to Matthew chapter 27. But notice how when he's forced to give an answer his first response is not to talk at all but then when he's forced to give an answer he still gives a wise answer that's not going to get him in trouble with anyone. And I want you to understand this too. Don't get caught up especially men in like a macho thing and saying oh well you know you're just scared or whatever. Do you think Jesus was scared when he was answering them? No he wasn't scared. It wasn't out of fear that he gave that answer it was out of wisdom. It was one he knew his time's not going to come and it's not going to go that way either. And he's able to get out of a situation that they're trying to set a trap for him and he's avoiding a trap. So when we're being wise with our words you know look out for traps. And don't get caught up in a pride thing. In a pride thing where someone's going to get you to try to speak oh man I'm so hard and bad I'm going to I'll say anything to anyone and I don't even care. Well you know what you're going to end up getting yourself in trouble is what's going to happen. And for no reason. When people are trying to set a trap for you then you're just going to be a fool and fall into it if you have the wrong attitude on being able to spot these things and you don't have the right spirit of understanding and knowing you know what I need to be wise in order to continue this ministry in order to continue this battle and continue this fight and be able to know when it's appropriate to speak when it's not appropriate to speak and what are the right words I should be using and how should I deal with each situation. And all of it again in sincerity in truth and in honesty you answer nothing that we see here is dishonest. Nothing is in guile. Nothing is being said that's false. But it is wise because in both of those situations Jesus is out of the attack and he could continue on his business. And the people who are going to receive his word are going to end up getting more information of the truth on those subjects than the people who hate him and are trying to catch every word that he says and try to set a trap for him. And that's you know he's speaking parables to the masses most of the time but then he's expounding to his disciples saying you know what for them it's not even given to them to know all this stuff but for you it is given. So you're going to get all the teaching behind this and all the extra information and really get a fleshed out understanding of the truth. They're just going to get these little nuggets and parables and that's what they're going to get. And that's Jesus. I mean that's how he operated. Matthew 27 we're going to see this again more examples from Jesus not everyone deserves an answer at all as he was already trying to do with those that brought the woman taken in adultery. Look at verse 11 the Bible says and Jesus stood before the governor and the governor asked him saying art thou the king of the Jews? And Jesus said unto him thou sayest. Now is Jesus the king of the Jews? Yeah. Yeah he is. Does Jesus have to just say yes? He doesn't have to. And that's why you have to understand that too. Okay. Just because someone asks you something even a pointed question it doesn't mean you just have to say yep you don't have to say it. Especially if it's in a context in an area where you know it's going to get you into trouble. You don't have to say it. I mean it could be do you think every sodomite should be put to death? I mean that's the hot button thing. That's the popper thing and that's going to be something that might get you into trouble someday. Right? You don't have to tell someone who's trying to set a trap for you yes. You don't have to say that. Jesus didn't have to say that he was the king of the Jews and he didn't. He said you said that. I think that's a pretty good answer. Yeah you said it. You think every sodomite you said that. And what you're also going to see is well we'll see this more with the Apostle Paul but being able to turn things around too. See where they come at you a certain way and being able to manipulate the situation and turn it back on the attackers and on the accusers. So here we're going to see Jesus. He ends up just not answering them. He's saying hey Arthur King of the Jews you said thou sayest. And when he was accused of the chief priests and elders he answered nothing. He answered nothing. You know that's where the concept of our fifth amendment comes from that you don't have to say anything when people are accusing you of something. You don't have to testify against yourself. You don't have to say anything. And that's a very wise thing to do in most cases. When people are coming at you with accusations don't say anything. Because the burden of proof is going to be on them to prove whatever intent and all kinds of other stuff and they get you speaking and get you talking about stuff and get you fired up about something you might end up saying things that aren't exactly the way you would have wanted to say it or articulate it properly and then all of a sudden now they've got you now saying that and that's what you said and you got yourself into trouble. And you can say yeah but for the right reason yeah we know that. I mean we know that. I'm with you. I mean I hear preaching sometimes and I'm thinking ooh I don't think that was worded quite right but I know what they're trying to say and I get it and I agree with what they're saying just sometimes things aren't worded perfectly when you're preaching or whatever and you kind of see it like ooh but we know and when you get the whole context you can make that clear but see when people are trying to set a trap for you they don't care about the context. They care about the sound bite and we don't want to give that to them. We don't want to. Why do you want to give them something that's going to be some ammunition against you? You don't want to do that. We want to teach the truth. We want to preach from the housetops what the word of God says. Absolutely. But we're not going to intentionally just step into a trap that someone is trying to lay for us and just give them what they want. That's not wise. So Jesus doesn't answer. Look at verse 13. Then said Pilate unto him hearest thou not how many things they witness against thee? And he answered him to never a word in so much that the governor marveled. I mean Pilate's just like I mean he's like mind blown like how could you not even say anything? Like these people are saying all this and you're not saying a word? That's the example that he gave. Just didn't say anything. Turn if you would to Acts chapter 22. I'll read this for you just a little bit further from the book of John. Your turn to Acts 22. John 19 verse 8 the Bible reads when Pilate therefore heard that saying he was the more afraid talking about the Jesus being the son of God. And he went and went again into the judgment hall and saith unto Jesus whens art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer. Then saith Pilate unto him speakest thou not unto me knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee and have power to release thee? Of course Jesus answers like you wouldn't have any power at all except it was given unto you from above. But he even in this circumstance even from someone in authority right oh Jesus is violating Romans 13. No he's not. No he's not. He doesn't have to answer and testify against himself. He's done talking. He's done talking. And you don't have to give an answer to every person who demands an answer of you on anything. And know when to hold your peace. Here in Acts 22 you know what also is wise because we're being sent among wolves. Jesus was in the wolves den when he was arrested and he's got all these people bringing accusations against him he chose not to speak. That was a wise choice. He was wise as a serpent there and harmless as a dove. Acts 22 verse 24 we're going to see another example here how it's wise to even be able to use the law of man to protect you when applicable. Use our laws. Use the laws of the land. Use the laws of the government to be able to protect you. Use the fifth amendment not to speak. Use what we have. Use anything as long as it's not contradicting God's law. I mean protecting yourself from evil people is a good thing. You don't need to just go into something people are going to bring enough persecution your way you don't need to just give them more and be like yeah bring more on me. No let's try to avoid it. It's going to come and we'll deal with it but no reason to just add to that. Look at verse 24 the Bible says the chief captain commanded him to be brought into the castle in bed that he should be examined by scourging that he might know wherefore they cried so against him. There's this huge mob against the apostle Paul and this guy shows up this cop shows up and he's like what in the world is going on? He's like I know how I'm going to figure this out here. Give me Paul set him up we're just going to beat him until he tells us what's going on. Yeah that sounds like a good tactic right? Examine by scourging. We're in a water boredom until he tells us the truth. Why are all these people mad at you? How about you just let me talk? Try that? Verse 25 says and as they bound him with thongs Paul said unto the centurion and said bye is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman and uncondemned? So he's using his status his position as a citizen there as a Roman citizen. Hey look wait a minute hold on a second are you sure you want to do this? I'm a Roman citizen and look we have rights in this country and in this land that you ought to invoke and use those rights when you can just be like hey look are you sure you want to do this? Are you sure you want to discriminate against my religion? Use it. Don't be afraid to do it. And look do we have a wicked government? Yeah we do. But every government's wicked the Roman government was wicked and you still see the apostle Paul using what he had to be like hey look why take a beating if you don't have to? It's not because he's not willing to serve the Lord and be beaten for it he already has been. But if I can get out of it I'm going to get out of it. Right? I mean look even Jesus Christ himself in the garden said hey if it be possible Lord let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless not my will be done by dying. He's saying look if there's any other way to do this I would prefer to do this another way. And there's nothing wrong or or you know makes you less of a Christian to not want to get a beating or go through an excruciating painful death. Okay? It's not it doesn't make you less holy. If you could use the government to do that great. Be wise but you know what be wise about this stuff and bring it up. When a centurion heard that he went and told the chief captain saying take heed what thou doest for this man is a Roman. Then the chief captain came and said unto him tell me art thou a Roman? He said yay. And the chief captain answered with a great sum obtained by this freedom and Paul said but I was free born. That's kind of a side note. We actually do have a lot of authority by God to go and preach the word of God. And I'll just say this because he's saying here look I was and obviously in this context it's a little bit different. So the centurion saying look I had to purchase my right to be this Roman citizen. Like I went through a lot to get this. Which is also though why he valued it. So this guy is valuing the right to be called a Roman citizen. Which is why then he didn't beat him and then he's like we'll read this in a little bit. He's sending him away and he's guarding him with all these troops and stuff because he actually cares about what it means to be this citizen that he had to pay a great price for. And Paul is saying yeah you paid a great price for this but I was born free. I was born into this. And he uses that but on my other point here just real quickly. If anyone and this is my favorite answer first of all listen to your pastor whatever he teaches you to do. But here's what I do when I'm out soul winning. If someone says you're in an apartment complex or an HOA or somewhere where they don't really want you doing what we do. And they'll say hey do you have permission to be here? You can always in good conscience say yes I do. Yes I do. In fact I was instructed to be here. You don't even have to say that but you say like I mean it's still true. I'm just saying because that might sound a little odd. You say look yes I do have the permission to be here. The people with the right authority gave me permission to be here. Because you know who gave you permission to go out and preach the gospel every creature? Jesus himself. He gave you permission to go to that gated community or that apartment complex and speak to the people there. You are not doing anything wrong in God's eyes by going and knocking on those doors. Now like I said your church has its own policy here and I don't want to contradict that one little bit. But I don't even know what it is. I'm just saying I don't want to get people in trouble with the pastor. That would be a scary thought. Don't get in trouble with this guy. God gives us the right and the authority to do things and he gives us the right and authority to preach the word of God. Everything you say. If the government tries to make laws against things that you can and can't say hey we ought to obey God rather than men. In the opening passage Jesus said fear not what man can do unto you. Don't fear what man can put you to death or man can cause you to be in prison or what man can do. He says fear him that can cast both soul and body into hell. That's who you fear. Fear God. Fear the creator. Let's keep reading here. Verse 29. Then straightway they departed from him which should have examined him and the chief captain also was afraid after he knew that he was a Roman and because he had bound him. So now they are even afraid that they even bound him. They were about to whip him and now they're like oh man what did we do? We actually put him in bonds. We put the cups on him. They're already kind of thinking what's going to happen now because this guy is a free man and we put cups on him. The police now could have that mindset of hey you're a free person like an individual and you can't just be pushed around and manhandled and whatever just for no reason whatsoever and no probable cause of anything going on and just because you've got a bunch of angry God haters saying whatever they're saying they have no right to lay hands on you. In any case not that I want to go to the Roman government either. We had more guys that was more I don't know. This guy is not that great either. He just happened to have respect for a Roman citizen but he was willing to beat him if he wasn't. Ha ha ha. Verse 30, on tomorrow because he would have known the certainty wherefore he was accused of the Jews he loosed him from his bands and commanded the chief priests and all their council to appear and brought Paul down and set him before them. You know you probably should have done that regardless of the Roman citizenry. You know like why don't you just figure out what's going on without beating somebody. Verse 1 on chapter 23 let's keep reading here. And Paul earnestly beholding the council said men and brethren I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day and the high priest Ananias commanded them that stood by him to smite him on the mouth. Then said Paul unto him God shall smite thee thou whited wall for sittest thou to judge me after the law and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the law. So you know when people do wrong and evil to you you can still stand up against that and speak against that. You don't just have to take it quietly. Now you may take it he's not going and going oh you hit me you know and you're getting involved in physical altercation but he's also you know not just being quiet either. There's a time to be quiet and there's a time we don't have to be quiet and he's saying look I mean you're going to judge me according to the law and you just had me hit which is outside of the law. You hypocrite you whited wall and they that stood by said revile us thou God's high priest then said Paul I wish not brethren that he was a high priest for as written thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people. But when Paul perceived and this is where we're going to see great wisdom in Apostle Paul. When Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees he cried out in the council men and brethren I am a Pharisee the son of a Pharisee of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question. And when he had so said there arose a dissension between the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the multitude was divided. So he knows who his audience is he knows who the crowd is they both hate him the Pharisees and the Sadducees hate the Apostle Paul they want him you know put to death they want him thrown in prison so they're able to come together for this common cause against the Apostle Paul but you know what he knows is he's like ha ha ha well you know why I'm really getting in trouble here and then he brings up something that the Pharisees agree with that the Sadducees don't and now he's got them fighting back and forth with each other and now the focus is off of Paul and it's back on their own doctrines and everything else it's like you've got the Calvinists right and the Armenians and they all hate Pastor Thompson ha ha ha and then they get him right he's just like well you know it's because of the eternal life right eternal security right that's why I'm in question you can't lose your salvation the Calvinists are going to be like yeah that's right he didn't do anything wrong and then you get him off on some other thing this is what this is what he's doing here so you know I can't think of a better you know another example not that I think there's going to be a bunch of Calvinists and Armenians trying to get you you know beaten or something but to put it in modern perspective for us if something might happen but knowing you know who the crowds are if you've got different people and I'm sure you probably have had different people coming together to protest the church you know some wisdom could be understanding well who are these people and you find something like that the one side is totally for and these other people are totally against throw that out there you know throw out the you know especially with these pedos about the age that you know like whoever is trying to yoke up with them you know throw something out there about the pedophilia and trying to support that type of nonsense or whatever like you could split them and have the multitude divided you know over something like that which it ought to be I mean good night or whatever other reason see this is the wisdom of the apostle Paul when he's being persecuted when he has these things going on how can you turn it then back against them and at no point does he back down for anything he said at no point is he backing out of being there for the word of God and preaching faithfully and truly but he's in a situation he's got to deal with it and you want to do so wisely almost done here let's turn to the book of Luke turn to Luke chapter 12 those were the examples that we saw of people in scripture that were using this wisdom to get themselves out of of trouble out of the the wolves claws right just a little bit more wisdom when it comes to adversaries when it comes to people trying to get you in trouble Luke 12 verse 58 the bible says this when thou goest with thine adversary to the magistrate as thou art in the way give diligence that thou mayest be delivered from him lest he hail thee to the judge and the judge deliver thee to the officer and the officer cast thee into prison so basically what this is saying is you're going with your adversary someone who is against you to the magistrate to a judge to someone who's going to settle things you're going to court over something where someone's bringing allegations or some lawsuit against you that's going to get you in trouble he's saying give diligence try diligently to be delivered from this person before it even gets to court because once it gets to court then the judge can just say oh you're guilty and now you're going to jail and now you're just going to have to pay for that up front he said try to get these matters settled before you get into that situation with someone that's against you with some adversary bringing some cause against you to try to just deal with that as peaceably as possible he says lest he hail thee to the judge judge deliver thee to the officer and the officer cast thee into prison I tell thee thou shalt not depart then till thou hast paid the very last mite so a wise thing to do is try to settle these disputes try to settle these lawsuits if you can to not have to deal with then going to prison right and getting cast into prison for something and it's not saying here whether you're innocent or guilty he's just saying try to settle this try to get it dealt with and then lastly turn to Luke 16 last little bit of wisdom it's wise to have friends in this world that will be able to help you in time of need even outside of the church even outside of the church we ought to be found approved of all men as much as possible in the sight of God first and foremost and also in the sight of men and your way of life your character what you do how you work everything ought to be upright as much as possible doing things righteously rightly in the sight of all men a good Christian should be known for being honest for having integrity for being a hard worker for someone who's going to be reliable and faithful and dependable and someone who's not doing wrong by people and someone who knows good judgment and understands justice and is able to do things right and equitable in that way when you live that way people could get to know you and understand and even if they disagree with what you believe can still be there for you and be willing to help you because they see who you are and what you're truly representing there are people that I have in my life that I know 100% do not agree with what the Bible teaches on many things but they also know how I am and who I am and what I do and I know that I have people that have my back even that are not but now look I know that my brothers and sisters in Christ have my back and we've got a church family and that's great right but let's get this also this little piece of wisdom we're going to read about this unjust steward but look at what the Bible teaches about him what Jesus teaches about him look at verse number 1 in Luke 16 the Bible says he said also unto his disciples there was a certain rich man which had a steward and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods and he called him and said unto him how is it that I hear this of thee give an account of thy stewardship for thou mayest be no longer steward then the steward said within himself what shall I do for my lord taketh away from me the stewardship I cannot dig to beg I am ashamed I am resolved what to do that when I am put out of the stewardship they may receive me into their houses so he called every one of his lords debtors unto him and said unto the first how much owest thou unto my lord and he said in hundred measures of oil and he said unto him take thy bill sit down quickly and write fifty then said he to another how much owest thou and he said in hundred measures of wheat and he said unto him take that bill and write four score and the lord commended the unjust steward because he had done wisely for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light now before we go on to the next verse understand this is not teaching you to be an unjust steward he's not saying yeah go ahead and defraud people and settle debts for way less than what they're worth and everything else he's not telling you to be unjust but what he's doing is he's securing himself for the future and he's using that wisdom of making sure hey at least people will receive me now when I fall in hard times they're going to remember what I did for them and then they're going to help me out he's doing this unjustly okay it's just a story he's trying to show them how this guy did this so that way when he's put out when he loses his job these guys will remember that hey I helped you out remember that you helped me out now and give me a place to stay or help me out with some food or something like that whatever it may be they're going to remember that and help him out verse nine says and I say unto you make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations so he's literally saying look you know we don't serve mammon we don't serve money you cannot serve two masters you're not going to serve God and money but you can make friends with people out in the world and that people are going to know you know that have the money that will be able to help you out when you fail and there's nothing wrong with that it's actually wise to have something set up as a safety net when you're out to have someone to help you out and again this isn't by doing anything unjust it's not by any other means it's not even you know becoming like yoking up with people who are unbelievers but when you do right by people and you're able to make friends out in the world just people who you know can respect you and maybe you've just done good for someone else and you've done something to help other people out that can come back and benefit you later and people will be willing to help you out and that's a wise thing to have that and to know that you could have other people you could have a neighbor that's close that's better than a brother who's far right I mean this is this is wisdom from scripture we're taught to be wise as serpents we need we need wisdom look I mean that's gonna that is gonna ultimately guide us that's why in the book of Proverbs you know it talks about wisdom being the principal thing and there's all this knowledge being given to avoid traps and pitfalls why because there are so many traps and pitfalls in this world and because wicked people are gonna try to stop the work that's being done let's not give them ammunition let's not give them anything more they're gonna come and attack no matter what don't feed them don't feed the trolls right it's always best to ignore the trolls I'm telling you just they'll go away stop feeding them don't get caught up in their in their their nonsense and in their battles you know ants are not a fool according to this folly and and just leave them be and and show that wisdom people trying to set a trap for you talk to the people that want to hear expound the truth unto them give them that knowledge you know the people who especially those who who God's already hardened their heart what do you have to say to them anyways nothing there's nothing to say that's about right is our word of prayer dear heavenly father lord we thank you so much for your words of wisdom please shine our our path before us and and help us to to have the knowledge understanding from your word that's going to keep us from falling dear lord and I pray that you would please help us all to be wise as serpents but harmless as doves as we go about to do the work that you've set before us and lord itis I pray for an extra special blessing here upon your foundation baptist church and that you would please just protect them from evil pray to please help every everyone here and everyone every member of this church to be able to exhibit wisdom in their dealings especially when when people come and try to attack and want to set traps dear lord that you would guide them and help them and lord help all of us that are trying to serve you to to be able to do so in wisdom lord and that we wouldn't bring anything any unnecessary persecution upon ourselves um and that you would also just give us the strength and boldness to continue to preach your word from the house tops as it were dear lord we love you in jesus name we pray amen all right our last movie song number 399 in your blue hymn books again my faith has found a resting place song number 399 my faith has found a resting place in your blue hymn books song 399 let's sing it out together on the first my faith has found a resting place not in device nor greed i trust the ever living one his wounds for me shall plead i need no other argument i need no other plea it is enough that jesus died and that he died for me enough for me that jesus says this ends my fear and doubt a sinful soul i come to him he'll never cast me out i need no other argument i need no other plea it is enough that jesus died and that he died for me my heart is leaning on the word the written word of god salvation by my savior's name salvation through his blood i need no other argument i need no other plea it is enough that jesus died and that he died for me my great physician heals the sick the lost he came to save for me his precious blood he shed for me his life he gave i need no other argument i need no other plea it is enough that jesus died and that he died for me amen good scene brother alex close the water prayer you