(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.) All right, amen. So this morning the title of the sermon is called Answering Anomalies. Answering Anomalies. Now an anomaly is something that deviates from what is standard, what is normal, and what is expected. Here's an example. We're gonna look at two examples today. Well let's say you get baptized in some non-denominational church, okay, and then you realize, wait a second, salvation is a free gift. I don't have to work for it. You're saved. Should I get re-baptized? You know, well there's no clear verse in the Bible that says you have to be baptized by somebody who's saved. Now that's the standard, right, because we have the examples in the Bible. That's what's normal. I mean it should go without saying, right? You should be saved if you're, you know, you should be baptized by somebody who's saved. It's obvious, Acts chapter 8, you know, and that's what's expected, and if that's clear from the Bible. But the question is, do you have to? Is it sin if you don't, right? You're in this, you're sort of in between a rock and a hard place, if you will. You're in an anomaly. Here's another situation. Somebody says, hey, your ordination is invalid because your pastor's pastor turns out isn't saved, right? What do we do? Just quit? Am I just supposed to disband the church and go and, you know, train under somebody who I can verify their lineage all the way back to, you know, the time of the Apostles? You know, does that make sense? What does the Bible say? We're gonna take a look at that, right? There's all kinds of anomalies. Now, when I, you know, real quick, look at, look down at verse number 10. I gotta get this out of the way here. Ephesians 5, 10. This is the verse that's on the bulletin. It says, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And that, you know, that's what we're gonna be talking about this morning, you know, because your anomaly, whatever situation that you find yourself in that maybe you're just not quite sure which way to go, we have the responsibility to prove our decision and how we're gonna handle that thing and make sure that that's acceptable unto the Lord, right? So just because your situation may not quite, you know, be crystal clear in the Bible, the answer is still going to be found there, okay? Now, just to kind of show you what this looks like, when I worked for the Navy, as a civilian, to get my nuclear qualification and to keep up with it, they would have us go through a practical exam. We have you take a long written exam, like three and a half hours, and then they do a practical, usually on a separate day. And basically how that would start is you would show up and they would give you some paperwork, and it would be a very detailed outline of your job for the day. And if you don't know when you do nuclear work, you work as it is written. So if I'm reading this paperwork and there's a word that's off or not spelled correctly or something's not clear, you stop work right there, you turn in some paperwork to the engineer and say, hey, this needs to be corrected before I can continue to work. So you receive your paperwork, you go up to the little monitor there, and you basically brief him. You tell him everything that you're going to do, you know, how much radiation you expect to pick up, and then so on and so forth, right? And you go through these procedures, you put on this little, it's called a TLD, a thermal loosened dosimeter. It basically just measures the amount of radiation that you're exposed to, right? So then you go through this mock-up, right? They have a mock reactor. And what they do while you're supposed to be doing the job that they've assigned you is they set up anomalies. They set up things that aren't quite against what's written, but not quite breaking the rules to see if you can catch them. Because see, nuclear work is very, very detailed. It's like being a disciple of Christ, right? We have to follow the Bible as it is written. These words are very important. These are what we live by, right? This is our authority. This is how, this is what governs us. It's the same thing in the nuclear world. It's the same thing in the military. You work to instructions and processes things that are written. And so they'll set up these certain situations. Like, for example, you may walk by a little hatch here, and they'll say, okay, you see those two bodies down there? And they're just like grappling dummies, right? Just laying down there. And then they'll have somebody come up to you and say, hey, we should go down there and check on them. Looks like they're sleeping, right? Well, you may not know this, but you don't want to do that. You don't ever want to go into a confined space where people are laying on the ground because chances are you're not coming back up, okay? Chances are one person, you know, possibly passed out because of a lack of oxygen. Another person went down to help them. You go down and the bodies are just gonna compound until somebody with some brains figures out, wait a minute, maybe we shouldn't go down there, right? That's just one example. Another one is you walk, you'd be walking around, all of a sudden you see some lead plates on the ground, and then you have to tell the guy what you would do. Well, in that world, you can never move lead plates. That is something you have to have written authorization for, and so they're gonna say, okay, what do you do, right? Well, that's not in your instructions. You have to do something because it's not right. You see what I mean? So basically what they're doing is they're teaching you how to think subjectively, right, versus objectively. Now here's what that looks like. So you tell a kid that's eight years old, hey, don't go breaking windows, okay? It's wrong to break windows. Kids walking down the street, right, and sees a car on fire or sees a house on fire and people inside, you know, and it's like, well, if I break the window to maybe rescue, you know, the people that are inside or the dog or something like that, I'm gonna get in trouble, so I'm just gonna leave, you know, and then you go to the kid like, hey, you know, you should have maybe broke the window and help the person out. I know this is kind of extreme, but that's somebody who thinks objectively. They're like, well, you said that we can't break windows. It's wrong, right? That's somebody who thinks objectively. Now somebody who thinks subjectively who says, you know, human life or, you know, that animal is worth more than the window. We could get the window fixed later, right? Let's pick, let's pick that situation. They'll break the window and pull the person out and then figure out the window situation later. It's kind of the same thing in the nuclear world, right? You know, the person's life, a person who's laying on the ground or a person who's in the corner bleeding inside of a reactor, you know, it's important, it's more important that you deal with that, get him out and violate all the little protocols that they have written so that you can keep a human life safe, okay? And that's kind of how I got introduced to the world of anomalies like that. And basically it's important. This is important because everybody in here goes through anomalies, whether you're a single person, right? What does the Bible say? That you should stay at home with your parents and you should leave in Cleveland to your spouse, right? But that's not always possible. I mean, that's ideal, right? But because, you know, we go through different stages of life, maybe you got saved later on, maybe you learned this truth later on, and now it's not possible for you maybe to move home, or it is possible, but now there's a sodomite in the house. Maybe a sibling has gone completely full sod and, you know, you've got a problem. You want to honor God and you want to move back home, your parents said it's okay, but there's, you know, drugs in the house, there's sodomites, there's something else going on and you're like, okay, what do I do? How do I handle this? Well, the Bible has the answer. It's better in that situation for you to stay away from that, obviously, right? But not everybody knows that, right? How do I come to these conclusions? How do we come to these conclusions and the answer is found in the Bible by learning how to prove what is acceptable unto the Lord, right? This is next step Christianity here. This causes people grief all over Christendom, right? Maybe your mother, you're in an unequally yoked relationship and, you know, dad wants vaccines, mom doesn't. What do you do? You're stuck in between a rock and a hard place. You're in an anomaly. You want to honor God, but you're also told to honor your husband. What do you do? The answer to all of these problems can be found in the Bible, okay? Now, leave your place there and go to Galatians chapter number six. You know, another one, you know, people get saved, they get on fire, they come to a church like this and they see, well, there's a lot of moms at homeschool that stay home and guide the house, right? But maybe you haven't lived your life in a way to where that's possible for you yet. Do you just throw caution to the wind and risk, you know, being homeless and, you know, just so you can obey the... No, you know, there's steps that you need to take to get yourself to that place, right? This is why we don't harp on people that come in here that maybe haven't been raised as Baptists or live the Baptist life, the Christian life, if you will, you know, because a lot of things they just haven't figured out yet. You know, not everybody can just come in here and be the perfect family, right? We, as human beings, if you didn't know this, are in an anomaly every single day. Because think about it, Genesis chapter 1 teaches you this doctrine, right? On the sixth day, God saw that everything was good, right? What happens in Genesis chapter 3? You know, he's explaining to them, hey, man, hey, guess what, Adam, by the sweat of your face, by the sweat of thy face, now that's how you're gonna earn your bread. You know, guess what, wife? Guess what, Eve? Now your desire is gonna be unto your husband, you know, and then all of a sudden he starts to explain to them the results and the consequences for their actions. That is a situation, the fall of man, if you think about it, is really a deviation from what was standard, what was normal, and what is expected, right? This is very, very important to understand for all of us. There's thousands, maybe even millions, of different anomalies. Every single person in here is gonna find, you will find yourself in an anomaly wondering, okay, what's the best thing to do, right? Because we should all have the same goal and that's to please God. Well, you're gonna find that the answer actually comes from a word called autonomy, which is self-governance. Galatians chapter 6, look at verse number 4, it says this, But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone and not in another. I was talking about this yesterday with Jessica, you know, what is it a lot of times that makes people who come in here and they seem to be like on fire for God and then you never see them again. It's because they have rejoicing in someone else. They have rejoicing in another. They've never learned how to prove their own work. Think about that. What does the Bible say? This is a promise right here in this verse. But let every man prove his own work and then what? And then he shall have what? Rejoicing in himself, right? When you find yourself stuck between a rock and a hard place and you learn the method that I'm gonna teach you this morning from the Word of God, from the Bible, guess what? Then you're gonna have rejoicing in yourself about your situation because here's the thing with an anomaly. Whatever decision you decide to make, let's go back to the example of baptism, right? It's really your choice. You got baptized by somebody who wasn't saved. I'll tell you right now, it's your choice. What is your, you know, if you feel better, we'll baptize you. As soon as we get our baptistery hooked up, okay? Give us some time. It's been a bad year, okay? You know, we'll baptize you. It's no problem. It's not simple. Let's say, you know, I'm just content, whatever. Fine. We're not saved by ritual baptism. You're not saved by water baptism. It's not like some supernatural power comes over you, okay? But here's the thing. Whatever decision you make, there could be people that react differently towards you and say, well, you know, I don't like that, blah, blah, blah. But if you've done Galatians 6-4 and you proved your own work and you understand how these things work, how to handle anomalies, then guess what? You're gonna have rejoicing in yourself as opposed to another. And then you're gonna remain rock-solid and right where you should be. This is key. This is very important. And so I'm just gonna give you the bottom line right now, which is this. The answer to our anomalies is through our God-given autonomy. You say, well, what is autonomy? Autonomy is self-governance, right? It's the ability of a person to make his or her own decisions. And you, as a Bible-believing Christian, as a non-Calvinist, you have that right from the Word of God in certain situations, right? There are some things in the Bible that are obligatory. Like, for example, being born again. You must be born again. That's not an anomaly. That's the way it is. You have to be saved. There's no other way around it. And guess what? Baptism, water baptism, is by immersion. That's not an anomaly. That is truth. That is a fact. It must be by immersion. We've proved that several times in this church. There are a lot of must-be's in the Bible. Remember a few months ago where I preached that sermon? Obligatory. Which means must be things that are, like, crystal clear. Hey, you must do this, right? Acts chapter 16. What must I do to be saved? Tell me everything in the world that I have to do so I don't go to hell. That's what that means. What did Paul say? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. That's crystal clear. But not every topic, not every situation, is in the Bible. And you read Ephesians 5-10, right? What does it say? Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. Guess what? That is autonomy. That is self-governance. That is a right and a responsibility that every single Christian has, right? Because not every single situation is in the Bible. And so we have to learn, as God's people, how to do that, okay? Turn to Titus chapter number 2. Titus chapter number 2. So the answer to anomalies, which are things that deviate from what is standard, what is normal, and what is expected, are found through our God-given autonomy. God has given us a mind, right? Let this mind be in you, which was in Christ Jesus, the Bible says. He's given us His mind. He's given us His Word. We can figure it out, but here's the thing. It's hard work, and a lot of times we just want people to tell us the answer, right? Ain't that the truth? Study is a weariness of the flesh. It's so true. Whether you're studying to preach a sermon, you guys know that's a weariness of the flesh. Or whether you're in school, you're studying for a history exam, or you know, maybe to take a test for your job, that is a weariness. That will bog you down. But you know what? We should be above that. We shouldn't be afraid to work. We need to be a people that are willing to study and show ourselves approved unto God, a workman that needeth not be ashamed, right? Because that is the answer to your happiness, to your joy, to your rejoicing, because I'm telling you right now, you will find yourself in an anomaly. And no matter which way you decide to go, no matter what answer you decide or decision you decide to make, guess what? People will not respect it. Think about that. This is what makes leaders. This is what makes leaders. A leader is somebody who could say, you know what? I'm gonna make this decision and whatever people say, I don't care. It is what it is. I know my guidelines. I know my standard. I know it's expected, right? As long as I don't violate the Word of God, then guess what? I can prove what is acceptable unto God in my situation. So Titus chapter 2, look at verse number 1. So basically, I don't have points for you today. The bottom line, the key thought is your point. I'm just gonna basically prove that until we're done, okay? So Titus chapter 2, look at verse number 1. It says this, But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine. But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine. Now think about this. What in the world does that mean? Speak things which become sound doctrine? Because the last time that I checked, the word become means begin to be. Oh, now we have a problem. Did you know that there are doctrines, if we're still around a hundred years from now, that will have to become to be? Because like I said, not every topic is in the Bible. You know, if you could go back and talk to the Apostle Paul or Peter and say, hey Paul, tell me what I should do, you know? So, you know, my job, they want me to take this new coronavirus vaccine. You know, what do you think? He's gonna be like, what's the vaccine? What are you talking about? They didn't know, right? It didn't, you know, till what, a hundred years ago when the first vaccines were coming out? What, 19 something? Right? It was in, well, at some point in history, I should have looked into this a little more, but you get the idea. At some point in history, after this was written, the concept of vaccines came out. Somebody somewhere along the line decided, you know what, I'm gonna cook up a potion here and put it in a syringe and we'll inject it into some people and it's gonna make you better, right? And so there were Christians during that time that were like, hmm, you know, something's kind of telling me maybe this ain't quite right. I can't find it in the Bible, you know, the pastor's doing it, the other congregants are doing it, but I don't know what's going on here. Well, now you're in an anomaly. Now we have to prove what is acceptable unto God. Do we take that thing or what? And then somebody along the way said, well, what's inside of it? What is inside those vaccines? And they figured it, oh, it's something unclean. Well, guess what? We can go to job and then bam. Now we can speak those things which become or begin to be sound doctrine and say, You know what? You shouldn't take vaccines because it's not healthy. It's damaging to the temple of God, right? You know, 200, 300, 400, 500 years ago, 1000 years ago, 2000 years ago, they didn't know that. So that's why God has put that in the Bible. That's called autonomy. We have the right. We have the God given responsibility and right to speak the things which become sound, solid doctrine, right? Hollywood. If you were to go up to Paul and say, Hey, you know, don't you think it's okay if I just watch like Disney? Come on, Paul. He's gonna say, What's Disney? What are you talking about? You know, I mean, think about you go back to the thirties where Walt Disney was popular or popular. Not everybody knew, you know, all the occultic stuff that was going on. Some did, right? Some did, but not very many. You know, it took somebody with a good understanding of what the standards really are. What is clear in the Bible and then to look at that and say, Wait a second. Wait a second. That's actually very clever witchcraft, right? And they had to speak the things which became sound doctrine. That's why today now today it's obvious. You know, you see a Disney commercial. I got that sorcery. Yeah, okay. There's a couple dudes, you know, a couple queers. Yeah, let's we're done here, right? And then, of course, you got drugs. You got, you know, Bible college. Paul, what do you think about Bible college? Like, do I need to slap you? You need to get back at it and not read about the school of Tyrannosaurus, you know? But that's something that's heavily pushed today on some people, and they just don't know. They just have no idea. But in our day and age, we have to prove what is acceptable. Do we go to Bible college and go in debt and then not learn anything? Yeah, seriously, not learn anything, you know? Or do we look at it and examine it? What's the fruits of that? What are the Bible verses? Because there's no Bible verse that says necessarily that it's sin, but we can prove based off what's the standard, right? What did the Apostles do? They started churches. Churches beget churches, okay? And we can look at those examples, and we can prove what's acceptable unto God. This is autonomy. This is how we solve the answers, or I'm sorry, this is how we solve the problems that we find ourselves in regarding anomalies, okay? So here's the reason why we do what's spoken in verse number one. Look at verse number two. So he says, why, speak the things which become sound doctrine. Verse number two, that the aged men be sober, grave, temperate. Now look at this, sound in faith, in charity, in patience. You say, I want to reach that level. I want all of those in verse two. How do you get it? Well, you learn how to prove what's acceptable unto God. You learn how to speak the things which become begin to be sound doctrine, right? Because guess what? Cultures change. Situations change. Things change. Laws change. And we have a job as God's children to be wise, right? We need to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves, and part of that formula is proving what is acceptable unto God, okay? And obviously, turn to Romans 12, but obviously being okay with our decisions, which we learned in Galatians 6, 4, comes from what? Proving our own work. If you make a decision, you should be able to prove that very clearly from the Bible. Just because something's not crystal clear doesn't mean that you can't prove it. Doesn't mean that you can't speak, you know, things which become sound doctrine. The word vaccine is not in the Bible. But we can make a crystal clear 100% case for not taking them. And look, I've been vaccinated probably more than anybody in here. Just from being in the military, you know, does that mean I need to step down? I'm no longer qualified like the guy who called me this week said? Oh no, we're gonna deal with that later. Romans 12, look at verse number one. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. This is Paul's plea to the Romans. He says, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. We talk about this all the time. These are very familiar verses because they're so powerful. This is our responsibility to prove what is acceptable unto God. Which sacrifices that we submit are gonna be acceptable, right? Some people think, well, you know, go to church on Christmas and Easter. That's a spiritual sacrifice that's acceptable unto God. He's got to be happy, right? I'm serious. There are people who come, you know, to church around Christmas time and they'll be like, that like fills my meter up. Like a video game, right? It's like getting the heart or whatever, you know, getting the power cubes and then like your spiritual meter just all of a sudden goes up and you're good till Easter, right? And you just, you know, it goes down and goes down and you go back. I mean, that's how some people live, but that's not acceptable unto God. You say, how do you prove it? Well, read Hebrews, you know, not forsaking the gathering of the saints. There's all sorts of ways to prove that that's foolish, but the point is we need to be able to prove these things. Look at verse number two. And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Now don't miss this. That ye may what? Prove what is that good and acceptable, perfect will of God. Now obviously the first application here is that we need to make sure that we can prove salvation, right? Because what's the will of God according to John chapter 6, what, verse 40, right? That they would believe and be saved. We need to make sure that we're able to prove that first, but we also need to prove a lot of other things from the Bible, right? We need to contend for the faith, which was once delivered unto the saints. Meaning one time and no more. We talked about that the other day as well, right? This is our job. It just doesn't stop there. We're not just supposed to be able to only prove salvation, and if that's where you're at, praise God, thank God for that. That's step one, but there's a whole lot of other things that we need to prove. Because if you didn't know, you know, the media makes fun of churches like ours. And they'll say, oh, their women are in bondage. They have to cement them in, and they all wear pants. Look, I don't lord over God's heritage. You do whatever you want. My job is to study to show myself approved unto God. I come up here and try to preach the Word of God. You do whatever you want. That's on you. I'm off the hook because I said what God said, right? But the world doesn't see it that way. The world says, you know what? You're in a cult. You're mean. You're judgmental. So automatically, right there, you're in an anomaly. Because the world standard, and what's world, you know, what their standard is, and what's normal to them, and what's expected from them, we deviate from that every day. Our whole lives deviate from that. But here's the thing. Can you prove it? Can you prove it? Go to Acts chapter number eight. Acts chapter number eight. And so you say, well, why stay all this stuff? Because here's the answer. This is the application. We need to make sure that we are being less and less and less conformed to the world and making sure that we're renewing our minds every day, right? That is the key to you learning how to prove what is acceptable unto God. See, what's up with all these other pastors and these Baptist pastors seem to be teaching this weird, crazy doctrine. You know, what's going on? I don't know. Maybe it's not a renewing of the mind. Like Michael Johnson. Michael Johnson is a piece of crap. He wants to get online and attack Pastor Jimenez. Well, that's attacking me, and that's attacking my friends, and I don't like that. I'm about to go off on a serious rabbit trail, so I better just stop right there. I gotta save that one, all right? So anyways, 1 Thessalonians 5 tells us that we are to prove all things and to hold fast that which is good. How do we do that? When we do that, well, one way to do that is to come to church. Iron sharpened with iron. Reading your Bible. Asking questions. Being humble. Taking correction, right? But here's the thing. Having a heart that says, you know, I really don't want to be conformed to this world. And look, the way to avoid the shame of the world is, again, I can't say this enough, Galatians 6.4. You need to be able to prove what is acceptable unto God. This is the key to your rejoicing in the decision that you made in regards to your anomaly, okay? Understand that. And you know what? 1 Thessalonians 5 says to prove all things. Well, guess what? Anomalies are things, right? So we are required and we are commanded by God's Word to be able to prove those things. Again, are you in Acts chapter 8? Yeah. All right. Acts chapter 8. So what we're gonna do now is we're gonna start with our two examples. First one being water baptism. Now, the spiritual baptism, right, that's a must-be. That's not an anomaly, right? You have, look, you have to be born again. You have to be saved. And it's a free gift. There ain't no getting out of that one, okay? But water baptism can get tricky. Let me show you here. Acts chapter 8. Look at verse 36. We just recently went over these verses, but it's important for what we're talking about. So example number one. What if the person who baptized me is not saved? What do I do? Acts chapter 8 verse 36. Here's an example of water baptism. Verse 36. And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water. And the eunuch said, See, here is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? So you know the verses that precede this, right? What's going on here? The Ethiopian eunuch is reading out of Isaiah. The Spirit tells Philip, Hey, go join thyself unto this chariot. Philip runs down there, and he begins where the Ethiopian eunuch is reading in the Bible and preaches unto him Jesus Christ. It doesn't give us the, you know, every word breakdown of what Philip said. But obviously at some point in that discussion, he mentioned water baptism, okay? But obviously if you look at Philip's attitude here, he's not really pushing it like he was pushing salvation, right? Because guess what? Back then, you couldn't just roll up anywhere and be like, Oh, here's a baptistry. Here's a hotel with a pool like we used to do, which we can't do right now because of the whole coronavirus thing, but you get what I'm saying, right? So he obviously mentioned water baptism, and then what happens? They happen to walk by a body of water in verse 37. And Philip said here, I'm sorry, Philip said, If thou believeth with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Very crystal clear. You have to be saved if you want to be baptized in water. You have to be born again. It is a requirement. There's no way out of that. That's not an anomaly. That's crystal clear. Now, obviously, we know that Philip was saved. We know that we can prove that because the Spirit's using him, carrying him away, doing all sorts of good stuff with him, and obviously he's preaching gospel, and we can prove that, you know, a person has to be saved to get other people saved and, you know, so on and so forth. But guess what? Guess what you don't find? You don't find a statement that says, Okay, you have to find somebody who's saved to baptize you. Obviously, when we read about water baptism in the Bible, that's the standard, right? That's the standard that we see through all the examples. That's what's normal, and that's what's expected. But now all of a sudden, maybe you find yourself in a deviation from that, and you learn, Wait a minute, the person who baptized me is not saved. What do I do? Now guess what? You have to prove what is acceptable unto God. And you can argue this stuff all day long, but there's no crystal clear verse that says that. Why is it? I mean, don't you, I mean, it's something, it's so simple. It's like, Wait a minute, why isn't that statement in the Bible, right? Why isn't there, like, a breakdown? Like, you must have some, you've got to check to make sure that guy is saved and the dude to baptize him is saved, and follow that chain of custody. Why isn't that in there? Probably for situations like that. I mean, think about it. Obviously you should be baptized by somebody who's saved, but the reason why it's not in there is probably because it's not for the person doing the baptism. What did Philip say to the Ethiopian eunuch? Think about this. If you believe with all your heart, that's what he says. If you believe the gospel, Philip's saying, Hey, if you're saved, thou mayest. That baptism's for the dude that gets baptized, or the gal that gets baptized. It's, you know, it should be that the guy saved who's doing it, but if not, that doesn't mean you're gonna lose rewards in heaven. Prove that to me from the Bible right now. Prove it. Let's go. Who's got something? Raise your hand. You got nothing. So if you decide, you know what? I believed that when I got baptized. It was by immersion. You know, they said the right things. It's not your fault, okay? That's what I'm trying to say. It's not your fault. You don't have to get re-baptized. Let's say you want to. We'll do it. We'll do it. No problem. Guess what? You're not in sin. You're not losing rewards. It's okay, but just make sure that you can prove what is acceptable unto the Lord, because that is key to you rejoicing and the decisions that you make. Everybody understand that? All right. Next one here. Go to Acts chapter number 14. This one's gonna take a little bit. Pretty crystal clear. So, the other day, I get sent a video. Whatever. Watch it. Kind of, it pisses me off, okay? Well, these things typically go, and by the way, I've had this sermon almost, I'd say, halfway written for like a month now. You can ask Mauser, because it was on the computer back there a while back. What was it? It was Friday? I think it might have been Friday. Somebody calls from Massachusetts, right? It's like, hey, your nation's invalid. I saw a video, man. Oh yeah? So you're saying I'm not qualified to be a pastor. Is that what you're saying? Yes. How did you come to that conclusion? Well, pastor, no, no, no. Don't say what pastor Shelley said. How did you come to that conclusion? Well, I saw this. No. Bible verse right now. Show me. Well, the person who sent you out, his pastor wasn't saved. Prove it, okay? So show me a clear, show me a crystal clear verse in the Bible that says that my ascending pastor has to be sent out by somebody who's saved. In fact, I'll do you one up. Prove, show me a Bible verse that says that the person that sends me out has to be saved. Right now, show me. I just so happened to have finished a job. I'm actually reading the Bible right now because I read it in between jobs. I need you to show me the verse right now. Let's go. Show me. But, but, but, but, but, click. I'm done with you. He can't prove it. He couldn't show me. And before I did that, I said, so you mean to tell me you called me. You called me. You demand that I step down. You demand that. And you cannot prove it from the Bible. How foolish, how stupid do you have to be? Show me the verse right now that says that. Show me. Go type in the word ordain in your Bible software right now and you show me where it says that. Is that the standard? Yes. Is that what is normal? Yes. Is that what's expected? Yes. But you know what? Sometimes you might find yourself in an anomaly. Sometimes you might learn, yeah, people slip through the cracks and there's imposters and things like that. Those things happen. What do we do? Well, I have to prove what's acceptable unto God. Do you think that it's acceptable that we just disband the church and we stop getting souls saved around here? We stop growing people. Is that what God wants? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. And you know what? This is a whole sermon in and of itself. The local church is meant to be autonomous and I can prove that to you beyond any shadow of a doubt. And you know the reason why we were supposed to be independent is so that the mothership, if they go corrupt, we don't go corrupt. Right? You know what? It's the same thing with the office of a bishop. Let's say, and this would never happen, let's say my pastor who sent me, let's say he starts changing things, which he never would, but let's just say for argument's sake that he did or that he does, right? He's like, you know what? I'm going completely liberal. He's probably gonna call me and make fun of me, you know. You guys know he was your pastor. You know it's not gonna happen. But let's just say you find yourself in that situation. Doesn't affect us. Doesn't affect me. Let's put yourself in his shoes with what he has to deal with and where he came from. They changed their doctrine. That guy went rogue, whatever, had his issues, okay? It doesn't change anything. You know why? Because he met the qualifications. You know why I don't have to step down? Because I met the qualifications. I put in the work. And these keyboard jockeys and these keyboard warriors, they don't want to put in the work. Like Michael Johnson, he don't want to put it in the work. He wants to steal other people's followers. He wants to use and abuse other preachers who have influence because he's lazy. He's the commie. He wants to make fun of Pastor Mendez and say that he's a commie. You know what? He's the commie. He's a spiritual commie. He's the one that can't prove anything from the Bible. All that's needed here is a thorough reading of Matthew chapter 7. I'll bet you can't even find Matthew chapter 7, boy. Acts 14, look at verse 22. So I don't consider myself in any kind of anomaly because I can prove my decision. I can prove why I'm standing here today, beyond any shadow of a doubt. But talking about ordinations, what does the Bible say? You know, hopefully the person to send you out is saved. Look, I'm not saying we need to just go out there and put an ad in Craigslist and say, hey, you know, we want to get a body of just like six people together and basically we're gonna have you go around and find people to meet these qualifications and ordain them and appoint them. That's ridiculous, right? But nonetheless, let's just say for argument's sake and, you know, let's say that the person who sent Pastor Mendez out isn't saved. You know, I haven't looked that far into it. Let's just say that for proving the point this morning. Let's just say that that's the case. What does that change? What has to happen? Well, let's take a look here. Acts chapter 14, look at verse number 22. It says this, confirming the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. Verse 23, and when they had ordained them elders in every church and had prayed with fasting, they commanded them to the Lord on whom they believed. And so here you see an example in Acts of Paul and Barnabas basically ordaining elders in churches. So turn to 1 Timothy 3 and let's just take a look at this ordination thing. This is gonna require its own sermon as well, but for argument's sake what are we doing right now? We are proving an anomaly because let's say, you know, all of a sudden now I'm viewed as being in an anomaly, right? Apparently my ordination has deviated from what is standard, what is normal, and what is expected. Well I've already told you I have self-governance. You have self-governance. We have the right and responsibility to prove what is acceptable unto God and when we can do that we have joy based off of that formula, okay? So we see an example here in Acts 14 that they ordained elders in every church. That's the goal. That's the standard. That's the expectation. That is what should happen. Obviously Paul saved. We can prove that easily, you know. Obviously all these guys at this point, you know, these apostles, they're saved, they're running around, they're starting churches, they're doing great works for God. Nobody wants to just, nobody's gonna dispute that, okay? But the question that I have for you and for the bozo that wants to say, you know, you need to step down. Show me in the verse where it says must be. Show me the obligatory statement, the commandment that says you have to be sent out by somebody who is saved. Now it should be pretty obvious, right? But it's not there. Just like the baptism thing. Why? Why isn't it there? Well, one, because it's obvious, and two, you're gonna see here in a moment. 1 Timothy chapter 3, look at verse number 1. What does Paul tell Timothy? Hey, this is a true saying. If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. So who is supposed to have the desire here? The bishop. The person who wants to be a pastor, who wants to be a deacon, who wants to serve God in the ministry. Paul saying, hey, you desire a good thing. This is a good thing to desire. Nothing wrong with this at all. Verse number 2, a bishop then, here is the obligatory statement, must be. Pay attention to this. Pay attention to this. A bishop then must be blameless. This does not mean sinless. I sin every single day. Every human being who is alive sins every single day. Again, we'll have to deal with that another day. A bishop then must be blameless. The husband of one wife. There goes Joyce Meyer. There goes Juanita Bynum. There goes Paula White. There goes all female pastors right out the window. That's not an anomaly. That's disobedience. A female pastor is direct disobedience to the Word of God because it says they must be. This is non-negotiable. Husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach. You could make the argument there that the vigilant would disqualify Michael Johnson. Verse number 3, not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous. Those things are crystal clear, aren't they? Let me just stop you right here. Did I skip over the part that says he must find somebody who is saved and be able to prove that his pastor is saved and then his pastor is saved and then his pastor is saved? Why? Because we have God-given autonomy. Once a person has been appointed to this office, guess what? That umbilical cord is severed. God wants it that way. We are now independent. There's no pastor in the world that can come here and say, hey, you need to step down. I mean, they could say that, but they cannot force me to do it because we are independent. We are autonomous. We are self-governing according to the Word of God. Okay, does everybody follow me? Verse number 4, one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity. You starting to get the picture here? This is why I moved to Verity Baptist Church a few years ago so that I could be watched, so that I could put myself under subjection to see if I can hack it, to see if I could make it, to see if I measure up, to see if my family measures up. Who's doing the work in this situation? Me and my kids and my wife. Now obviously Pastor Menes does tons of work, right? But in regards to the actual ordination, the appointment, right? Think about that. Does it say that once you get ordained, once you get appointed, like all of a sudden like you get like this supernatural, super duper power, right? And so that's why you got to follow the chain of command, right? The chain of custody, right? Like God's gifts have a chain of custody attached to them, kind of like medicines do and things like that, you know, things that are of high value going through the mail system, right? And you got to be able to prove, well, okay, you got to write down this form here. You got to fill out who your mom was, who your dad was, maiden name, tax ID number, all these different things. All right, we need to look at your pastor. A bishop then must be able to prove lineage. Why isn't that in the Bible? Can somebody please help me out right now? I need to know. Why isn't that in there? What are we gonna do? Verse 5, for if a man not know how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the Church of God? Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil, right? Crystal clear. No, no, there's no way to misunderstand that. Verse 7, moreover, so in addition to this, all these things, moreover, he must have a good report of them that, of them which are without, lest he fall into reproach in the snare of the devil. Okay, turn to Titus chapter number one. Titus chapter number one. So you can see how that, you know, we're gonna talk about the next few verses here in a moment about the deacon and so on, but in any of those verses that I read which say, must be, did anybody see where it says you must be sent out by somebody who saved? But should you? Of course. I feel stupid for even having to break that up. Okay, of course you should, but why doesn't it say must be? A bishop then must be blameless, be able to prove that his pastor was saved, that his pastor's pastor was saved, that now obviously why would I go to a church where the pastor's not saved and want to be sent out unless I had a pride issue? Titus chapter one, look at verse number five. Here's another statement about ordination. This all makes sense here in a moment. He says this to Titus now, for this cause left I thee in Crete that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting. So in Crete at this time there is a missing gap, there's things that are wanting meaning they need elders, they need leadership, okay? He says this, and ordained elders in every city as I had appointed thee. What does the word ordain mean? Well he tells you in Titus 1 5, to appoint someone. Well guess what? When they appointed these elders and it was a done deal, that's it. You say prove it. Read the book of Corinthians. Go read 1st and 2nd Corinthians. Did you know that the Corinthian church, that they, I mean they were rejoicing into some wicked sin about a guy being in some serious sin, okay? We've talked about this. You understand what I'm talking about? Who doesn't understand what I'm talking about here? I mean Corinthians isn't exactly a letter of like, hey let's follow this church here, right? I mean it's problem after problem, doctrine after doctrine, pride, all these things are popping up, right? People are like, hey I got baptized by Paul. Well I got baptized by Apollos. Well hey this guy's sleeping with his dad's, you know, wife over here. Well that's great, you know, get people rejoicing in these sick things. Why doesn't Paul say, hey I'm gonna cut your leadership off. I'm coming down there to take over. That would have been easy. I'm sure he wanted to do that. Why not? Why didn't he do that? Why? Why? Why? Why? Because there's no commandment that says he has that right. Once that appointment has been made, it's a done deal, right? The elder, the bishop, is supposed to meet these qualifications. That's on him. Those qualifications are for him. And the reason why that statement's not in there is because, you know what, for situations like this. If that's the case, let's say that these these super trolls here, they go back, you know, to 1890 and they're like, wow, we've traced Pastor Mennonite and Pastor Mendez's lineage all the way back to 1890 and we found two more people that weren't saved. Well my first question is gonna be, how do you really know that? Do you have solid, 100% proof that they're sodomites? You don't have that. I mean that's really one of the main ways we can tell, or unless they confess with the mouth, hey I was lying, I don't believe any of this junk, and you get what I'm saying? Other than that, I mean, now what's the case? Now are you judging people by their works? Because obviously works are what get you to heaven, according to these people, if you really study what they say. Follow me? Think about Saul. Think about Samson in the sense that they were involved in. These same trolls would say, well they're not saved. But we can prove that they were. Go read 1 Samuel chapter 28, which we'll do in several weeks from now. Go back to 1 Timothy chapter number 3. So ordain elders in every city as I had appointed thee. We are a independent, fundamental, King James only, soul winning Baptist Church. No one tells us what to preach. No one tells us what to do, except for God and the Bible. I have people that contact me all the time, hey you need to preach this, because this is what's going on in the new IP. No I don't. I do what I want. I do what I feel is needed here for you. I'm a servant. I look around, what do we need? What could we use? What could make us stronger? And if it goes against the grain over there, you know what? I'm not going to alter my preaching schedule for that. I'm sorry. We have a responsibility to ourselves and to this community to get people saved and to make sure that we have rejoicing in the decisions that we make. Now sometimes I will alter, you know, like you start attacking Pastor Mendez and guess what? It's on. Because we have respect for Verity Baptist Church here. If it wasn't for him and the work that he did, this church wouldn't be here. And I have a right to defend my friends and I will do it. 1 Timothy 3, look at verse number 8, qualification for deacons. Right, so he goes on to say this in verse number 8. It says this, Likewise must the deacons, so in the same way, in the same manner deacons, right, likewise must the deacons be grave, not double tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre. I heard a guy one time say, well see, he says not given to much wine. So the deacons can have, you know, like two cups of wine or two beers. And he was serious. Not greedy of filthy lucre, holding the mystery of the faith and a pure conscience. Verse number 10. Look at this. And let these also first be proved. Oh, who are these? The people who desire this office. The people who want to be elders, who want to be deacons, who want to serve in ministry. What is Paul telling Timothy? Hey, let them be proved. Make sure that they meet these qualifications. You know what? I went to the Wayback Machine and I started looking around at Pastor Mendez's old Baptist Church that he went to and you know what? It's easy to prove that he lived what he said. That his bus ministry that he ran at the time, obviously we don't do that today, but he did it with all of his might. He served God in that church with all of his might. He met every qualification that we've gone over. Blameless. The husband of one wife. Vigilant. Sober. Not, you know, guilty of filthy lucre and all of these things we're reading about. He met all of those. All he needs now is just the appointment from the guy who was appointed to be in his position, which he was appointed by somebody who was saved, by the way. Now we have another anomaly. Now we have another problem because my pastor's pastor's pastor was saved. Uh-oh. Now what do you do, troll? Now what you gonna do, huh? You what? You think that God's gift can't go from, you know, pastor to pastor to pastor? You don't think that God can't use unsaved people to get a job done? Did not Jesus Christ appoint Judas? And I'm not saying he got more people saved than the other guys, right? But I mean, he did appoint them. He knew what he was doing and he did use them for the ministry. Verse 9, holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience, verse 10, and let these first, let these also first be proved, then let them use, let them use, let them use the office of a deacon being found blameless. Who is this office for? It's for the person that met these qualifications. And that's it. Now the word ordained appears several times in the Bible, but here's what you're not going to find. You're not going to find when you type in bishop, pastor, overseer, elder, deacon, leader. You're not going to find a clear, obligatory statement that says, must be able to prove saved lineage all the way back. Why? Because we are not a denomination. That is not God's intention. Obviously the standard is that you get sent on by somebody who's saved. Obviously that's normal, Acts chapter 14. Obviously that's what's expected from God. But what if you find yourself in a deviated situation? Well, now you're in an anomaly and you have to prove it. Guess what? I could prove it because there's no statement that says the person has to be saved. I agree it's the standard. I agree it's normal. I agree it's what's expected. But you know what? We can prove that it's acceptable unto God that we're independent. I could prove to you, and Pastor Mendez has proved it to you, that I met these qualifications. I can prove to you and he can prove to you that he met these qualifications. And there was a time where his pastor met these qualifications. And his pastor met these qualifications. But what do you think about that? My pastor's pastor's pastor was saved. So if you want to say that my pastor's pastor wasn't saved, well, what are you going to do? Well, they'll say, they'll probably say, well, you know, in, you know, in, what about the gift of laying on hands of the presbytery? It stops because your pastor's pastor wasn't saved. How do you know that? God uses unsaved people in the Bible all the time to do things. Did he not use Balaam? Did he not prophesy through Balaam? I mean, there's several examples in the Bible that we could point you to where God uses unsaved people. By the way, you know what else we didn't see? You know what else you're not going to find when you study the subject out of ordination? That you have to have a ceremony. You know what? Rituals aren't that important to God if you haven't noticed. Baptism is a ritual. Water baptism is a ritual. Something I think we should do. I think you could clearly prove that. It's, you know, I feel like if somebody's like, well, I don't need to do that. The heck with that. You know, that's disobedience. That attitude is not right, right? But here's the thing. Let's say somebody's like, oh, man, I just want to come to church once in a while. I don't really want to, you know, whatever. They got bigger problems than water baptism, okay? Or somebody who's like, you know what, I just, I'm good with my immersion baptism in my old IFP church. The passage is kind of rocky on salvation, whatever. I'm just, I'm good with that. We ought to leave those people alone, because maybe they've proved that that's acceptable, and it is, and they can prove that. So go back to Ephesians chapter number five. So again, what's the bottom line? The answer to our anomalies are found in our God-given autonomy. God has given us the ability to prove things that are acceptable. You're not going to find a clear statement in the Bible that says I have to trace saved lineage of each pastor all the way back to Paul, right? That's something you'd be taught in a Catholic church. That might even be something you're taught in a denomination. Denominations are not biblical. The Catholic church is not biblical, okay? God doesn't want a chain of command in the body of Christ for the sole reason of protecting the local church so that we don't go back. I mean, think about it. We've seen a lot of these big Bible colleges, right? What's that one that Paul chapels West Coast, right? West Coast Baptist College or whatever. Why is it that they're sending out like these trendy, super soft, liberal type people? Because there's a problem in that church. Like one of the guys that got up there was named John Gotch or Getcher, I forgot what his name was, right? Preach you after repenting your sins. He's preaching a false gospel. His preaching works. And you know what? That trickles down to all these other people. That disobedience. So even people that are saved that have submitted themselves to that leadership in that college, they're going to be affected by that false gospel. You see? That disobedience and that attitude in a way that we may not even fully understand, it transfers down to all of those people. And then you have people like Pastor Polkadot who start churches and just, oh, I just love everybody so much. I'll hug and kiss anybody in the world. Just come in here. Oh wow, man, I'll wash your shoes. I'll do anything for you. I don't care. Oh, you rape kids? No problem, man. Come on in here. I'll hug you all day long. We'll put you to flight. And we can prove that. Ephesians 5 10. Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. These trolls that want to call my ordination into question and my pastors, they have absolutely, positively nothing. They've got nothing. Because we're independent. I met these qualifications. Pastor Menes is independent. He met these qualifications. And the ordination, all that is, is an appointment. That's it. And it doesn't take a lot, honestly, to just appoint somebody. You know, Pastor Menes could have just said, hey, just come to my office. I'm just gonna pray for you and I'm gonna send your family out. And we didn't have to have the ceremony that we had. Right? That's just a tradition. That's just the way they decided to do it. Right? And the day that I got ordained, Pastor Menes got up, and Sunday morning he preached a sermon, you know, basically letting everybody know that I, you know, I met these qualifications and what that means and how that applies to other people, you know, that these aren't just something that, you know, bishops should do, but everybody should live by these things. And then Pastor Thompson in the evening got up and, you know, basically verbally jumped me into the ministry, making fun of me and telling my stories and blunders from, you know, the times we've been friends. Right? And so that's kind of cool, you know, kind of like the Crips and the Bloods. You get jumped in, right? I feel like I got jumped in that day. Right? But what if none of that happened? It doesn't invalidate my ordination whatsoever. These fools are even going on there saying, well, all the marriages and everything they've ever done. It's just like, you can not prove that. And how sorry of a human being is Michael Johnson to get on these trolls website and be like, you know what? That's true. I wonder if they're gonna attack Pastor Menes now. Like, they attacked me. No, we're not going to attack him like they attacked you because he doesn't go around making false YouTube accounts and harassing other people. Pastor Menes doesn't use Pastor Anderson to try to rob believers and listeners and gain support. He's perfectly content and fine with building his own influence, through his own preaching, through his own hard work, through his own study, just like we do. That's the answer. I could prove my decision. And so if anybody else wants to call me, go to hell. Seriously. We've got no time for people like that. And for False Nimrod, and if you don't know who False Nimrod is, I'll explain them to you after the service. Some of you know who he is. Don't be friends with that guy. That guy is like a super coward. I'm about to start preaching another sermon here, so I gotta stop. Okay, so we need to wrap this thing up. I need to get you guys some lunch. I need to get some juice. Calm down. But you get the idea here. This is an easy, clear-cut, one-point sermon. We're all gonna find ourselves in anomalies, right? And the answer is always in our God-given autonomy. We have the right to prove what's acceptable unto God. But you know what? It's hard work, right? It's hard work. Because you have to study. You have to commit to having your mind renewed constantly. You need to let this mind, which was in Christ Jesus, be in you. And you have to study to show yourself approved unto God. You shouldn't be studying to show yourself approved unto another person, or unto a Bible college panel, but unto God. Because he's the one, according to Galatians 6-4, who's gonna give you the joy, and you the peace, in your decision. Because you can prove that from the Bible. I can prove to you. I don't need to step down for nothing. Think about diatrophes. Have you ever read 3 John? You think these trolls have ever read 3 John? What was diatrophes doing? He loved to have the what? The preeminence. He wanted to be the man. He wanted to be the dude, right? The guy in charge. Does John say, you know what? When I go down there, I'm removing him from office. It's clear. It's crystal clear the diatrophes didn't meet the qualifications at that given point. That he had fallen, right? He's not being vigilant. He's not being hospitable. He's not being sober. He's not being grave. He's not being temperate. He's not being any of those things. Why doesn't John, the Apostle John, remove him from his office? Because he was smart. He was studied. He could prove what it was acceptable unto God, and realized, you know what? There was a time when diatrophes met those qualifications, and he was appointed unto that position. But John had no right to go down there and snatch him from that church. He just said, when I go down there, I'm gonna remember what he did, and we have no idea what that really, really means, but it probably means, you know, I'm still gonna teach these people the truth. I'm still gonna be a blessing to them. I'm still gonna help them out, whether you want me to or not. But he didn't go down there and just completely removed. Step down right now. How wicked of a heart do you have to have to call somebody with no Bible verses? No Bible verses. And say, you know what? You have to step down. Because you saw a video by a couple of clowns? Are you serious? And by the way, you know, he said, well Pastor Shelley said he completely twisted Pastor Shelley's words. Completely twisted them. He missed the whole bolt here. Obviously it's standard. Obviously it's normal. Obviously it's expected to be sent out by somebody who said, show me where it's a requirement. Show me the obligatory statement right now. He couldn't do it. He could not do it. Game over. I got you. I won. He won't be calling again. He won't be calling again. Trust me. So here's the thing. We need to make sure, I mean, think about what, think about this. Think about what it's gonna be like when we all get this. And I think you do. And we start applying this to our lives. We realize, you know what? We can prove the hard stuff. We can prove these anomalies. We can do it through the Word of God. You know what? These trolls are gonna start dropping like flies. That's what's gonna happen. Watch. It will happen. But you have to commit to study. I mean, I'm serious. You have to commit study because these answers, like, you have to compare Scripture with Scripture. You have to be able to rightly divide the Word of Truth. If you're gonna prove, you know, if you're gonna be able to prove your anomaly, you're gonna prove the decision that you made with your God-given autonomy. It comes from study. It comes from absolutely hard work. But look, when you do that, when you study, you have that renewing, you know what? You're gonna have peace. I'm not losing any sleep over this whatsoever. In fact, I almost forgot what I was preaching about on my way over here today. I'm just kidding. But you get what I'm saying. Not losing any sleep. Kind of had a feeling the phone calls would come. Little stupid YouTube comments. A little Facebook jabs. A little text messages to the phone. It's all good. I've got peace. And you're gonna have peace. Whatever your anomaly is. And you will find them. You will have them. You can prove those things from the Bible. There's enough information. There's enough examples. There's enough things. There's enough teachings in here to get us through any circumstance. That's how deep the Word of God is. And when we understand that, you know what? We're untouchable. Absolutely untouchable. No one will stop us. It's like when Jesus told Paul, hey, it's hard for thee to kick against the pricks. Right? And that's why they will not be successful in their attempts to destroy us. Because look, there'll be other videos. Oh, you know, they'll make stuff up. Oh, your pastor did this back in the day. I've already been proved. Everybody in here has a past. Everybody. Where's the statement that says you must be perfect, sinless, from day one. Right? From the day that you're born. You have to prove that you've never sinned, that you've never done anything bad. Look, I used to beat people up. It worked. I did. And I'm not supposed to be a brawler or a striker. But you know what? I quit doing that a long time ago. I quit shoving people around and just being a jerk because I learned it's just not good. But you know what? That doesn't disqualify me. I have a past. So do you. We all do. But you know what? I can have peace of mind about these things because I put them behind me. I don't live in the past anymore. I've done the study. I've done the, you know, I've done the renewing of the mind. I consistently work at that so I could be a good disciple to Christ. And you'll do the same thing and you'll have the same peace of mind as well. We're not gonna let anybody bully us around no matter what. So let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, again, once again, for just bringing us together and providing this this great truth to us. I just pray you'd help us to remember this formula, Lord, that's found in your word that we need to prove things that are acceptable unto you. We do that through deep study of your word. We thank you and pray you bless the fellowship, the soul-learning, and bring us back safely tonight. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.