Acts Chapter 19 vs 19 - (2009)

Sins, as we have confidence and the atonement of the saving grace of the blood of Jesus Christ, thank God it washes away sins that are past.

But there's a nature.

There is a nature in man that has to be eradicated.

And see, Jesus just didn't come.

If he could have just died for our sins, he could have done that in the manger.

There was no need to live 33 and one half years.

He could have done it at five, or six, or twelve, or even eight, or ten.

But there was something else he had to do.

He actually came to destroy, destroy the works of the devil.

What is the works of the devil?

The works of the devil, the things that you and I see in this world.

This is actually the works of the devil.

I think John put it this way.

He said, Love not the world.

That's the worldly activities, the worldly ways.

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.

For all that is in the world.

This is inclusive, isn't it?

He said, For all that is in the world, it's the lust of the eye, and the lusts of the flesh, and the pride of life.

This is all that is in the world.

And he said, This is of the this is of the world, it's not of the Father.

And if any man have the love of the world, he said, The love of the Father is not what?

Is not in him.

So there's a transformation.

There is a transformation when I've been my sins been blotted out to learn how to love the Lord.

And I say, well, we all love the Lord.

Well, we love him as much as we can perceive of him.

That's how much I love him.

My false perception of God, I can't love God that way if that's not him.

If I think God is Santa Claus and then I find out he's not, that element that I had for the love of God that I thought was Santa Claus was a false love.

You can only love him as much as you know of him.

And so Jesus put it this way.

And no man actually seen the Father.

The Bible said no man has seen the Father.

Jesus really reiterates that.

No man has seen the Father.

No man.

And so what happened?

God the Father was manifested.

That is, he exhibited all of his attributes through his son Jesus Christ.

And so he told Philip, When you've seen me, you've seen the Father.

You've seen the attributes, you've seen the spirit, you've seen the desire, you've seen the love, you've seen the compassion, you've seen the concern that is the Father has for his people.

And so in Christ was manifested the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

And so he manifested, he revealed, the word manifest means to make revealed.

He revealed to us who the Father was.

And so any attribute of Christ that man rejected, that was the attribute of God that they was rejected.

You know that God actually showed through Christ Christ was very meek and lowly.

You know God is not a puffed up.

He's not puffed up.

And see, you can tell when a person is puffed up, when you offend me, I can't forgive you.

Because how dare you offend me.

My elevation of myself is so high that when you offend me, I can't get past that.

I think so highly of myself.

Every time I see you, I think about what you've done to me.

But God is not like that.

He's full of mercy.

He's ever ready to forgive.

He's ever, Brother Michael, ever ready to pardon our sins.

If we'll just say, Lord, have mercy upon you.

What a wonderful God.

What a wonderful God.

And so Jesus Christ Himself showed that attribute.

He showed the attribute of the Father of being a forgiving Lord.

Do you remember when that woman was taken in the eighth chapter, the very act of adultery?

Do you notice how Jesus actually came to her defense?

Wasn't offending the sin, but he was defending that person.

And you know who he rebuked?

He rebuked the adversaries, the accuser.

That's such a hypocrisy.

And they used the Bible.

They used the Bible to justify what was in their heart.

That was partiality.

And they couldn't see they had a greater sin than what she had.

And of course, what she did was wrong.

She was taken in the act of adultery, but what they showed was partiality.

How do you know it's partiality?

The law of Moses put it this way if a man and a woman is taken in the act of adultery, then you should bring them both to the elders of the city and stone them.

Well, where was the man?

They only brought the woman.

Where was Brother Goldstein?

Huh?

Where was Mr.

Einstein?

He must have been a Pharisee.

He must have been a Sadducee.

He must have been in a good old boy's network.

They brought the woman, but they didn't bring the man.

And they say, Lord, this woman was singing the very act of adultery.

The law of Moses, they cite the Bible.

The law of Moses says stone her.

What do you say?

They're trying to catch him in his words.

Well, I'm sure Jesus Christ, he had enough wisdom to say, turn her loose, then they'll say, Well, you're a lawbreaker, let's stone her.

So you know what he did?

He kneeled down.

I can almost imagine what he was writing on the dirt.

Goldstein.

Einstein.

The Bible says, brother, they all began, and he uttered these words, he that's without sin, let him do what?

And when they left on that dirt and they saw their names, no doubt, they began to, the heart began to prick them and say, Well, you know, I'm full of hypocrisy.

I'm full of partiality.

They dropped the songs.

Aren't you glad we have one that can get us away from our accusers?

We all have shortcomings, but I'm glad for the great God of mercy.

How do you not love a God like this?

My God, I'm so glad, though he himself cannot be tempted.

I'm glad that he's created his son.

He actually created his son, and then he put her in the womb of a woman and allowed him to be tempted in all points.

Not a lot of them, not most of, but tempted in all points as we are.

Here's the difference, yet without sin.

And so all we have to do, this wonderful commandment he gave us, uh, that is in the 12th chapter of Matthews, he said, Take my yoke upon you, take my yoke upon you and learn of me.

For my yoke is easy, my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Thank God, I'm so glad that he's able to help me carry this burden.

What's the burden?

It's the old and the new testament.

I can't fulfill it, I can't walk in it by myself, and I don't have to.

He gave me the one that would lead and guide me into all truth.

He gave me one, brother Michael, that would bring all things back to my remembrance, whatever I've read out of his holy writ.

It's all that we may be made uh conformable to the very image of Christ, whom the Bible said was the express.

It's like this word, the express image of his father.

The express image.

And that's why we don't put pictures on the wall and say that's Jesus, because that is not the express image of the Father.

When you sing of Jesus, you don't want to think of a physical feature.

You don't want to think of a paint job on his skin or texture of his hair or the shade of his eyes.

You want to think about his attributes.

You want to think about him being long-suffering, merciful, full of love, without partiality, without hypocrisy.

That's the one I want to think about.

And to do that, you have to actually worship him in the spirit.

Not in some physical feature, not in some molding image, or not in some model.

But brother, you have to take this flesh and shut it down.

The Bible said the Lord is in his holy temple.

Let what?

Let all the earth keep silence.

Let this flesh remain silent.

When it gets time to worship, this flesh has no part in that.

It has no part in that.

This is all spiritual, nothing carnal, nothing earthly.

And so I'm glad the Lord cripples.

He handicapped this old man when it gets time to worship.

That's why we're not allowed to use images of tools of iron.

I think he says in Deuteronomy, when you make my altar, Brother Mike said you should make it of what?

Whole stones.

That's the people of God.

He said, Don't put a tool of iron upon them.

Don't shape somebody.

Don't you mold somebody.

Don't send them to a seminary.

Don't tell someone to think and act this way and that way.

But you use whole stones.

Ones that's been tried, one the Lord has shaped.

And when you build my altar.

Then he said, Don't make it with steps on it.

Don't approach me with steps.

You know, you go to beginner's class, newcomers class, uh, deacon class.

You step up.

He said, Lest he see your nakedness.

But thank God, brother, we get on a grade and we just elevate ourselves.

The Lord will raise us up.

He elevates us up.

How did Lord raise us up?

By getting low.

The way up in God is down.

How much are you willing to give of yourself for the benefit of your brother and your sister?

What am I willing to do to help build the body of Jesus Christ?

That's how you get up.

Jesus said, brother, he that is the greatest among you, let him become your, thank you, Brother Michael.

Let him become your what?

Let him become your servant.

Let him become your servant.

So the way up in God is down.

Jesus Christ Himself made that declaration, didn't he?

Uh in the 12th chapter of John.

He actually took a towel, a basin of water, and began to actually wash those disciples' feet.

And he said, You call me Lord and Master, and you say, Well, so I am.

And if I then, being your Lord and your master, if I have washed your feet, if I have served you, so ought you to serve one another.

And so that's the pattern.

That is the pattern.

Jesus Christ said, the Son of Man, he didn't come to be minister to.

The word minister means serve.

He didn't come to be minister to, but he came to minister and to actually give his life, to give his life a ransom for many.

And so here we are.

We're endeavoring to be Christians.

We're endeavoring to be disciples.

Let me use this term, disciplined followers.

That's what a disciple is.

Disciplined followers of Christ.

And see, Jesus Christ, he had one uh he had one thing that always rung in his ears.

He had one cliche that always proceeded out of his lips.

And it's very simple.

He said, I came not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me.

I came not to do my own will, but the will of my father.

I do always those things which please my father.

And so it's not about me and I and mine, but it's about him and his, isn't it?

That's God the Father and his love for his great people.

And so, no greater love than this have any man that a man would actually lay down his life for his friends.

And Jesus Christ said, You are my friends, but it is conditional.

If I said that, Brother Michael, everybody wants to be my friend.

But Jesus put a condition on being his friend.

He said, You are my friends if you do whatsoever I command you.

Now, if I told somebody that, they'll say, Well, friendship over.

But Jesus Christ put that stipulation on being his friend.

I'm trying to be his friend.

I'm trying to do always those things.

That please, I'm trying to obey his very commandment.

Not in just the letter.

The letter killeth, but it's the spirit that giveth life.

Why did the Lord do what he did?

Why'd he take those 12 men and had those men soliterally?

They left their wives, they left their boats, they left their occupations, and actually followed him for three and a half years.

I'm sure Sister Peter had something to say about that.

I'm sure, and we know Peter had a wife, and I know we have some former Catholics here, but we know he had a wife because the Bible said Jesus healed his wife's mother.

You can't have a wife's mother without having a wife.

Pope.

But uh nevertheless, nevertheless, I'm sure she had something to say.

Why are you leaving me to follow this man?

But that wasn't just any man.

It was not, and I'm sure, I'm so glad, I'm sure the Lord is not the type of master that would uh cause Peter to forsake his obligation as being a husband.

The Bible says, if any man provide not for his own, he's worse than an infidel and has denied the faith.

I'm sure some of the revenue that was given to them, I'm sure he dispersed that back to those families to make sure their needs was met.

He's that kind of God.

Do you know that?

And Jesus Christ is just that kind of follower of his father.

Uh, I don't think you will ever see a Christian not endeavoring to fulfill their responsibilities.

We don't do that.

We're not that kind of people.

Uh Jesus Christ is not that kind of savior, and God the Father is not that kind of creator.

We endeavor to fulfill our responsibilities as much as lie within us.

Sometimes things befall us that we're not able to, but as much as lies within us, we try to live peacefully with what?

With all men.

With those things being said, I don't want that time get away from us.

I was hoping uh brother Elton would run them to the podium.

Uh brother Jeff would come up and begin to spare us uh share the spoils with them from this meeting.

Uh probably when there's more folks.

Pray for brother Jeff.

And and he's a good brother.

He's a good brother, but I have a scripture for you, Brother Jeff.

I have a scripture literally.

Do we remember when that was this great prophet named Elisha?

Elisha.

And that Elisha was, was down in the land of Israel.

And uh that was the king of Syria, had came down and raided some of the villages of Israel, and had taken this little maiden, this little lady, uh, taken her as a slave, and took her back to uh Samarita.

And she was actually a slave, and they uh and Naaman, a man named Naaman, he was the captain of the Syrian army and his house.

And but he had leprosy.

And his little maid looked at him, she was a she was a slave, but she didn't have any bad feelings.

She looked at this man named Naaman who was a leopard, and she told Naaman's wife, she said, Oh, if my if my master, if he was just down in Israel, that the man of God could actually heal him of that leprosy.

And brother, she went back and told the king, say, listen, there's a man down in Israel who can heal Naaman of this leprosy.

Well, the king loved Naaman.

So he sent Naaman down with a great army, with gold and silver and changes of apparels and all the things that a man would desire, and sent them down to the king of Israel and say, heal him.

He said, Well, man, what's wrong with this man?

Am I God to heal somebody of leprosy?

But do you know Elijah knew what the book was transpiring?

He said, Send Naaman down to mean that I can heal him.

And Naaman went down to Elijah and said, Listen, Naaman is outside.

Elijah never went out.

He never left his door.

He sent a message by his servant Gehazi and said, Go tell him to dip into Jordan what?

Seven times.

When Naaman heard this and said, Why would I go dip an old muddy, nasty Jordan River that flows down in men's backyard and cow maneuver and everything else is in it?

It's not the the water in the mask, it's clear and pretty, and we got nice rivers, and he went away angry.

And one of his servants said, Oh, oh, Naaman, he said, if the man of God had asked you to do some great thing, if he had came out and clapped his hands and told you to do dust and so, would you not have done it?

He said, Yes.

He said, How much more is nothing so simple?

And he thought about that, so Naaman went down to the Jordan River and he actually dipped.

I'm sure when he got up, he still had leprosy.

He dipped a second time.

Leprosy was still there.

But he dipped a fourth and a fifth and a sixth.

But after he dipped seven times, he came up and the Bible said his game was like a newborn babe.

We got to dip, Brother Jeff.

Tomorrow.

We got to keep dipping it.

But nevertheless, it's good to see everybody.

Love the people of God.

Let's, where do we stop at?

Let's get into this wonderful book of Acts.

Before we do so, then make sure the Bible says he put this, make this statement in the fifth chapter of the book of Hebrews.

He said, it's by reason of use we have our senses exercised to discern good and evil.

And so what are you making reference to?

Let's make sure we use these books of the Bible, lest you forget.

Evil means natural corner.

Good is that which is spiritual and right in the eyes of God.

So let's go through these wonderful books of the Bible and we're gonna do it.

Watch this big word.

I didn't go to Nicholas, I went, I just didn't finish.

We're gonna do it expeditiously.

Well, y'all like that.

Don't ask me to spell it, we'll be all right.

All right, okay.

New Testament history.

Gotta say it like you know it.

Old Testament history.

Beautiful.

Gospel.

Major prophets.

New Testament prophecy.

Good, wonderful.

General epistles.

All right, and Pauline epistles.

And how many stones is in the left hand?

How many, Brother Michael?

And how many stones is in the right hand?

How many?

Twenty-seven.

Uh, did we get them all?

That makes a total of how many?

Six to six.

Six to six.

All right, did we get them all?

Wonderful.

How many dispensations?

And they are.

Ah, I don't hear everybody.

What are they?

Ah, what's the third one?

And what's yet to come?

Millennium.

What does millennium mean?

One thousand.

That's a one thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ with his bride on this earth.

And that is to do a clean up job.

That his feet may actually dwell on this earth again.

And the habitation of God will actually be with men.

Amen.

With those things being said, we won't go any further.

Whether we stop in the book of Acts.

19 and what?

1920.

Let's go to the wonderful book of Acts.

Who wrote the book of Acts?

Luke.

Luke.

Was Luke one of those apostles?

Where did Luke get his gospel from?

Oh his account.

He wrote a gospel, Matthew, Mark, and what?

Luke and John.

So where did he get it from?

But was Paul one of the original twelve apostles?

The book of Acts, 19th chapter.

And what does Acts mean?

The actions of the apostles.

Jesus Christ Himself, contrary to popular belief, contrary to the theology of man, Jesus Christ Himself did not orchestrate, he did not originate the gospel being preached to the New Testament church.

He did not even, he did not even erect it directly.

But just as David, which preaches Christ, gathered all the materials for the things to be made out of gold, the gold, the things to be made out of civil, the civil, and put all those things for his son Absalom to put together.

Jesus Christ himself, he gathered the stones.

He gathered the 12 apostles.

That was the foundation, and he gathered 120.

Brother, that was going to be the weight bearers.

That was going to be the standard bearers.

That was going to be the aged men and the aged women in the New Testament church.

Those people was not, I know we say it was 120, but let me clarify that.

That was 120 sticks of dynamite.

That was 120 people that had actually, I think Isaiah calls it, taken the precious from the what?

From the vile.

Jesus Christ himself preached to thousands of people.

We know that because he he actually fed 5,000 one time.

He fed 4,000 another time.

But out of all of those thousands and thousands of people that he actually taught, and the Bible said even after his resurrection, he was seen of over 500 brothers, 1 Corinthians 15 at one time.

But after all the thousand that he taught, and the 500 he showed himself at one time, there was one hundred and twenty that had their eyes so illuminated, that had their heart so circumcised until they actually went.

To Jerusalem and they actually tear it.

They wouldn't leave until they received the promise that he had made of them of the Father.

120 out of 5,000 men, not counting the women and children that he fed.

120 out of 4,000, not counting the hundred women and children that he fed, only had a hundred and twenty.

Out of five thousand brethrons that he showed himself to after his resurrection, yet there was only 120.

You would have thought that he ended a miserable failure.

With all the miracles he did, raising the dead, opening blind eyes, unstopping deaf ears, making the lame to walk and the blind to see, healing leprosy.

You would have thought after all the great miracles he did and the thousand and thousand that thorned him and followed him, that he only had 120, you would have said he missed it.

He absolutely did not miss it.

Brother, he was gathered in building materials.

He was selecting the right type of material to build that New Testament church.

He wanted everyone to be saved, but everything wasn't building materials.

He wouldn't allow everything to follow him.

When he went into the coast of Gazareth, the Bible says that was a man sit there who was bound with chains and feathers.

And brother, he uh brother, he would gash himself and cut himself, and they would bind him, he'd just keep breaking them.

He would break them.

And when Jesus came, brother, there was a legion, a legion, the word legion means 2,000.

There was a legion of demons in that man.

Jesus Christ cast those demons out, and they went into a herd of swine, that is, hall, ran violing down a cliff and drowned himself, and that man was so happy, he said, Master, let me follow you.

Jesus Christ looked at him.

I'm sure he had compassion on him.

But he said, Go show yourself to the priest.

And you offer for a sacrifice the things that's commanded you in the law of Moses.

In other words, I can't build with you.

I can help you, I can deliver you, but I can't build with you.

You're not building materials.

And of course, he had a place, he had a chance to be saved.

But Jesus Christ was gathering materials that he could actually build that New Testament church.

And that material had to all be tried.

It had to be proven.

He rebuked those men, he corrected those men, he instructed those men, he tested those men, he gave those men authority under his authority to cast out demons, to raise the sick.

I'm sorry, to raise the dead, to heal the sick.

They did those things.

But when it came back to him, all their power went back to him and they were just like other men.

But brother, he was checking the spirit, trying to see who was proud, trying to see who wouldn't take this bar of soap.

The Bible calls the word of God a full of soap.

Who wouldn't take this soap and wash themselves and cleanse themselves?

And brother, even after 12, he said, all of you clean except for one.

Somebody didn't take the bar of soap and clean themselves.

He said, Not all of you, one of you wasn't clean.

And that was Judas Iscariot.

You know what Judas did?

He did the same thing the other 12 did.

Eleven did.

He raised the dead.

He cast out devils.

He actually healed the sick.

But here's the difference.

Those other 11, they took the word of God and they put it in their heart.

And what uh Judas Iscaria did, it never left his head.

The things he heard, he kept criticizing, he kept scrutinizing, he found fault with this, he found fault with that.

He wasn't looking for a revelation, he was looking for what he didn't agree with.

And we have that documented.

John told on him.

You know, John was, he called himself the beloved disciple.

He spoke, he's about the roughest speaking of all the apostles.

He said, if any man said he loved God, whom he has not seen, and I love his brother who seemed every day, he's a liar.

Nobody else talks like that.

John talks like that.

And uh he gives a report on Judas Iscariot, and I want you to follow this.

Uh uh here it is, Mary, Magdalene, and she brought this anabox box of art of ointment.

Remember that?

And she breaks it and she began to wash his feet.

Judas Iscariot said, Why is it great waste made of this precious ointment?

He could have sold that and gave it to the poor.

That sounds pretty noble.

That's what Judas Iscariot said.

But read in the parenthesis.

John said, This he said, because he's a thief.

And he carried the money back.

He put that in the gospel.

John told on him.

Nobody else would have done that.

But the point is, this man, his heart wasn't right.

His heart wasn't right.

And so somebody had to betray Jesus.

It was already written in the scripture, Psalm 55, in different places, Psalm 6 to 9.

He said, Brother, he that ate up my bread, he kicked up his heels against me.

He said, if it had been an adversary, then I could have hid myself.

But it was thou, my equal, a man of my acquaintance.

We went to the house of the Lord together.

He was the one that betrayed me.

So one of those twelve had to fulfill that scripture.

And guess who qualified?

Judas Ascara.

He met the qualifications by not washing himself with the word of God, not weighing his spirit.

Peter, James, and John, uh, Andrew, Bethodomy, those men then find occasions to charge and try to see what was wrong and what they didn't like and what they didn't agree with.

Brother, those men just sit down at Jesus' feet to hear the good word of God.

God, give us all that kind of heart.

Help us to have that kind of heart.

And so you can see the Lord, He doesn't make mistakes.

Jesus Christ does not make mistakes.

He can see the end from the beginning.

He can perceive.

He can discern.

Paul put it this way in the fourth chapter of Hebrews, I think it's a 16 verse, it says, we're all naked and open with him with whom we have to do.

All of us, he sees straight through us.

He's not interested in our physical features and our physique.

He's not interested in our status and life, brother.

But the Lord puts a crossbeam on our heart.

And he actually looks and discern our heart.

And to do that, my God, my God, the Bible said the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

Who can know it?

So the Lord has to discern our heart.

We can't hide it from him.

The best thing to do is say, Lord, just listen, just cover yourself.

Lord, I'm messed up.

I got problems.

I got a bear spirit, a lion spirit, a possum spirit.

I got a giraffe spirit, a nosy, looking in somebody else's backyard.

I have all these faults, Lord.

But you bought me.

You knew that when you're saved, man, so cleanse me up, Lord.

But if you hide your sin, if you hide your sin, the Bible said that which is in dark shall be made what?

Shall be made manifest.

But if you confess your sins and forsake your sins, the Bible said he's faithful to forgive you your sins and cleanse you from what?

All unrighteousness.

And if any man, here John go again.

He liked the word liar, doesn't he?

He said, if any man said that he sinned not, he's a what?

He's a lie, and the truth is not in him.

Now, if I said that, y'all be saying, Brother Brown, you're too mean.

But John talks just like that.

But since I'm not John, let's read the book of Acts.

Where do we stop?

I'm sorry.

The 19th chapter and the 20th verse.

Do you remember the backgrounds?

We go up to these things.

Here Paul was in the great city of Ephesus.

It's one of the two churches that Paul actually pastored.

He pastored the church.

He established all these.

By the way, when we say Pauline epistles, that's letters that Paul wrote to these churches.

When you read the book of Colossians, Colossians is the people.

The city was Colossae.

And Paul was writing this letter to that church to address issues and to encourage and admonish those people and the things of God.

That's one of the things of being a father.

A father can see afar off.

You look at little Jacobi.

Jacob doesn't have the experience.

He doesn't have the life experience of his father.

He doesn't have the wisdom of his father.

He doesn't have the discernment of his father.

Not that his father came down from third heaven.

He's just privileged because he's lived longer.

He understands things.

You know Jesus Christ?

Do you know he was here from the beginning, the foundation of the world?

Do you know he's seen Adam when he fell?

He said, I beheld Satan falling as what?

As lightning.

I watched him.

I watched what happened.

I watched his submission.

That is to woman, to his wife, getting out of order.

I saw those things.

I beheld those things.

And so Jesus Christ has the advantage of seeing all that had ever transpired.

He knows the end from the beginning.

And if I told you, I say, listen, if you get on that highway or right up here, it called Future Interstate 49, and if you drove left, if you keep driving and you don't get off of that, you're going to end up in Morgan City.

Someone who never went to Morgan City wouldn't understand that.

And they kept driving, they'll say, man, that guy, that guy's a great prophet.

He told me if I kept driving, I'm going to come to Morgan City.

No, I just know that.

And the same, listen, some things isn't so much discernment, it's just understanding.

And so when a father give his son instructions, those things doesn't mean that he's endowed with some great power.

It's just experience of life.

That's just the experience of life.

And so I'm glad that we can submit ourselves to someone who've already experienced it.

I don't have to go through some things.

Every commandment of God is not for my benefit, or for God's benefit, it's for my benefit.

When he says thou shalt not steal, as I often mention, you're not going to put your hands in his bank account, he doesn't have one.

When thou shalt not commit adultery, you're not going to flirt with his wife, he doesn't have one.

Those things are written for our benefit.

Not to steal keeps me out of jail.

Not to commit adultery, keeps me living.

And so all the commandments of God is for our benefit.

He doesn't tell you why.

He gives you a commandment, and if you keep it, then it'll preserve your life, naturally and spiritually.

And so here this church is in Ephesus.

Paul has actually birthed this church, and this book of Ephesus, we're not reading that.

He writes back to the church in Ephesus.

That's why it's called the book of Ephesians or the Epistle.

That's an old English word for letter.

The epistle or the letter to the church that's in Ephesus, the Ephesians.

Now, uh here's Paul as he actually goes to this coast and now he's traveling.

He's traveling, he left this.

Where do we stop at?

What verse?

Verse 20.

And after all these people who used their seminary books and their religious uh curious arts in verse 19, they took those things and burnt them up because they heard the word of God.

Verse 20, it says, So mightily grew the word of God and prevail.

Now in verse 21, he established this, he's moving on now, verse 21.

After these things was ended, Paul.

Paul is the same one we use the word Pauline epistles.

He is the apostles of the Gentiles.

Everyone that's not as a Jew, you're a Gentile.

It makes no difference.

And so Paul is the apostle, and the book of Acts, when you begin to read from the 9th chapter on, primarily it deals with Paul.

Do you know why?

Because the Patan has moved from the Jewish people unto the Gentiles.

Why?

Why?

Because God doesn't love the Jews?

Absolutely not.

It's because, listen to what the Bible said, their table was made a snare and a stumbling block.

They stumbled over that great rock of offense, Jesus Christ.

They stumbled over him.

Why?

Because he didn't come as the Messiah, the way they envisioned him.

They thought the Messiah would come in on a white horse, a white stallion.

He would overthrow Rome, and they would be back restored to some great position in the world community, like there was in the days of David.

That was their envision of the Messiah.

But Jesus Christ came to liberate our soul.

If he actually liberated us from physical oppression and we can't do anything with this nature, brother, we're just we're just twice dead and plucked up by the roots.

He came to redeem the soul.

He came to give man what he didn't have, that was the power over the devil.

He came to actually give us a chance to mortify the deeds of this body so the soul might live.

And so here, uh Paul, he's actually now, uh the Spirit of God is dealing with him.

Verse 21, after these things was ended, Paul purposed in the spirit.

He purposed in the spirit when he had passed through Macedonia and Acacia to go to Jerusalem, saying, After I have been there, I must also see Rome.

That's an interesting statement.

Do you know why he made that statement?

Because that was a church, and I like to keep washing our minds.

I know some of the people have been here for a moment.

There's a concept, and it's hard to get out of because it'll pound your ears so often.

Do you know why he wanted to go to Rome?

Because there was a church in Rome.

Not Peter, not James, and not John, not one apostle had been to Rome, but there was a church already in Rome.

And it was in Paul's heart that church in Rome was a Gentile church.

Just like the church in Ephesus, the church in Antioch was a Gentile church.

Paul was an apostle to the Gentiles.

He wanted to go to Rome to import to those people some spiritual gift.

And it was already a church.

And it was in his heart.

If I've gone to all these countries and all these cities preaching the gospel, I want to go to Rome.

Rome was the central headquarters of the whole known world at that time.

You know, Rome naturally ruled this world or the known world at that time for 600 long years.

When Jesus Christ came, he came under the dominion of the Roman Empire.

Six hundred years they rule supreme.

That's a long time.

That's a very long time.

But, a matter of fact, let me give you a verse.

Go to the next book of the Bible, which is Rome, Romans.

Here's Paul writing to that people.

He wrote to this church before he was even, he had never been to Rome.

He had not been in prison yet.

And so he writes to this church.

Listen to this.

Those people.

Verse chapter, are you there?

The letter of Paul, or the epistle of Paul to the Romans, is what you're reading.

Brother Michael, help me out.

Just a few verses here.

Verse uh the first three verses first.

Chapter one.

I'm so sorry.

Romans chapter one.

Romans one and three.

He said, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ.

I like that word.

I was talking to Sister Turner some days ago.

And I don't like to I don't like to complicate things, but when we read that word servant, we're thinking about somebody who maybe is a dishwasher, somebody who's a maid.

That's not what that word is.

That word is translated, I was telling Sister Charles, that word is translated from the Greek word, I know you love to read Greek, slave.

Slave.

The difference between a servant, a servant can quit.

A hired servant can quit anytime he desire to.

But Paul wasn't saying I was a servant.

They translated that because it sounded better.

But he said, I'm a slave.

Well, how was he a slave?

He made himself a slave.

A slave is a servant that doesn't have a will.

A slave is someone who does what he uh is commanded to do by his master.

Jesus Christ literally was Paul's Lord.

The word Lord means master.

He subject himself to Christ in every area, made himself a slave to the Lord Jesus Christ.

He even makes a statement.

He said, For me to live is Christ.

And to do what?

To die is gain.

That's a profound statement.

He makes another one.

He said, I am crucified with Christ.

Nevertheless, I what?

Yet it's not I, he said, but is the Christ that liveth in me.

And the life that I now live in this flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

What a profound statement.

And so when you read it, he's saying, Paul, a slave or a servant without a will, a slave of Christ, a servant of Jesus Christ.

Listen, and then he was called not just to be saved, but he was called to help save others.

He said, called to be in what?

An apostle.

Separated.

I'm separated unto the gospel of God.

Separated from what?

Separated from this world's desires, from the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life.

I'm separated from that.

The Lord separated me from that.

He said, which he had promised, which he had, that's the gospel, is what he had promised, aforetime by his prophets, that's in the Old Testament and the Holy Scriptures.

Remember, you got two covenants, a two testament, the Old Testament, which is all the things that transpire before the birth, life, death, resurrection of Jesus Christ.

That's the old covenant of the Old Testament.

Anytime you read in the New Testament, when it said the scriptures, he's making reference to the what?

Old Testament.

And so these prophets, what's the Old Testament prophecy?

Look what these prophecies were.

Verse 3.

Concerning his Son.

And see, I don't know how we can't understand this.

It's two.

That's not God and Jesus is not the same.

I'm going to keep pounding our ears with that.

And it's not God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost.

You don't see that.

As a matter of fact, when you read this, you only see God the Father and His Son.

He doesn't even mention the Holy Ghost because the Holy Ghost is not a person.

I'm going to say it again.

I know that's offensive.

It is not a person.

It's not.

I have a spirit.

But my spirit is my attribute.

It's not a person.

I'm the person.

That's just my attribute.

A wounded spirit, a happy spirit, a forgiving spirit, or a mean spirit, that's not the person.

That's just an attribute of that person.

God the Father is a holy God, and so his spirit is a what?

It's a Holy Spirit.

It's a clean spirit.

And it does his will.

But it's not a God the Father, neither is his son.

When you look in verse 1, he said, unto the gospel of God.

Now verse 3, he said, concerning what?

His son.

Whose son?

God's son.

Is Jesus Christ his own father?

No.

Is God his own son?

No.

There's God the Father, and then there's his son.

Okay, concerning his son, Jesus Christ, that's all right, Sister Betty.

Am I speaking the truth now?

Okay, thank you.

So Betty told Brother Arnell, he's a horny boo.

He preaching false doctrine.

But I'm glad it's it's cleaned up now, sister Betty.

Okay.

God bless you.

Concerning his son, that's years ago.

I don't love the teaser, but uh, concerning his son Jesus Christ, our Lord, which was made of the seed that's the lintage of David according to the flesh.

He got his flesh from his mother Mary down through the lintacy of David.

Now, listen to this.

Declare to beget this, declared to be the Son of God with what?

According to the Spirit, according to the Spirit of what?

And if Jesus Christ had manifested any other spirit, he would have not been his son.

He would have been begotten, but he wouldn't have had his attribute.

Now, and then he said about a resurrection of the dead.

Go down to verse 7 for the sake of time.

Now here's who he's writing to.

To all that be in what?

That's not everybody, so he clarifies that word all, which is a hypergamy.

It's inclusive, but it's it doesn't mean what it says.

He tells you what all that is.

To all that be in Rome, who are what?

Beloved of God, called to be what?

That's who he's writing to.

So he's not writing to the emperor.

He's not writing to the cynic that's in Rome.

He's not writing to the ungodly, but those that are called to be saints, those that are beloved of God.

Then he goes on, listen to this.

Listen to this.

I love the way he put this.

Verse 11.

Oh, look at verse 10.

Making requests, if by any means now at length.

And this, when Paul writes this, this is 26 years of traveling.

26 years of going out, establishing church, he still hadn't been to Rome.

Making requests, if by means, by any means now at length, after 26 long years, I might have a what?

Prosperous journey by the will of God to come to you.

He's going to have a prosperous journey, but it is not going to be the way he envisioned.

He's going to go to Rome in chains as a prisoner of Rome.

He didn't know that when he wrote this, but it was a desire to get there.

God's going to bring him there, but not the way he thinks.

He said, Listen, uh, verse 11.

I love this.

This is what I want you to read.

For I what?

I long to see you.

He heard about this people in Rome.

He heard about the Christians there.

He heard about the church there, about the love the people had for God and their desire to go on.

He said, For I love to see you that I may import unto you somewhat.

Well, what was the spiritual gift he was going to import?

To give of an apostle.

I want to add to you.

And so they were already there.

They just hadn't been taught the gospel of Jesus Christ the way Paul understood it.

He wanted to import that gift.

He wanted to see the work of an apostle, not to be puffed up, but the people could be added to, that they could get keys of understanding and begin to understand the things that they had embraced.

And uh let me say this that Peter did not go to Rome.

They said he was the first Pope of Rome.

You can't find a scripture in the Bible substantiate that.

Paul was trying to get to Rome after 26 years to import that spiritual gift.

Peter was an apostle to the Jews.

Well, he said the apostle to the circumcision.

And Paul was the apostle to the uncircumcised.

Peter wouldn't have had a purpose to go to wrong.

Just wanted to cast out that myth.

For I long to see you that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift to what?

To the end that you may be what?

That is in the gospel.

I want you knelt down.

I want you secured.

That is, that you're not, your Christianity is not based upon some emotions.

When the Lord is smiling on me and everything is well, I love the Lord.

But when I'm going through a valley and things is not so well, then I start hitting and I missing, I dip and I dab and I stop and I start.

Well, that's an infancy.

I think he says this in Proverbs 10.

He says, in the day of adversity, if you faint, then what?

Your strength is small.

The Lord tests our strength by allowing adversities to come your way.

How do you handle it?

If you want to find out where a person's confidence is, if you really want to find out where a person's confidence is, watch them when they're afflicted.

Watch them.

Brother, when a saint gets wounded, brother, we run to the house of the Lord.

When I have strength in myself when I'm wounded, I go all by myself and try to figure things out.

No, my strength is right here with the dear people of God.

Everything that I have that's of any value, I got in the house of God.

And uh, it's like a deer.

I think he says, brother, I can't get the Psalms up just now.

But brother, he said, as the harp panted after the water brook, he says, so does my heart panted after you.

Do you know when a deer is wounded?

Brother Elton, you used to hunt, didn't you?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Not deer?

No, I you know, I didn't like to hunt deers either.

You shoot us after trees.

Somebody thought you were a deer.

No, you never seen a deer climb a tree.

That's kind of dangerous hunting, brother.

But uh, when an animal gets wounded, not just a deer, the first thing that animal does is head to the water.

It does, brother.

A squirrel.

I've wounded a lot of squirrels.

But if you can find a brook of water, that's where he's going.

I hunt coons.

If you wound that coon and don't kill him, he's gonna get to the water.

What is he going to the water for?

Instincts tell him.

Instincts tell him, if he can just get in that water, brother is going to wash his wound, get the bacteria, and start the healing process.

And uh just by instincts, those animals know they head to the water.

And that's why David said, he said, as the heart, that's just a deer, as he panted after the water brook, so my heart panted after thee.

When I'm wounded, when I'm wounded, what am I gonna do?

I'm not trying to go to some natural place.

Here is the water of God for me.

It's the people of God.

I have to get around God's people.

It starts the healing process.

Begin to put my mind on the Lord, begin to worship God and begin to pant after the Lord, that He can pull in the healing bomb of Gilead.

And so that's that's what we do.

And so here, brother, he said to the end, you may be established.

You may be established.

Let me read a little bit further, then we're gonna get back to Acts.

I want you to kind of see this.

He said, listen, that is, that is, that I may be comforted together with you.

Why?

Because that church in Rome was going through the same heat and persecution all the churches was going through.

As a matter of fact, it was in Rome where they actually uh took Christians and burned them on the stakes.

It was in Rome where they actually took Christians and put them in those Colosseums and turned wild animals loose on them.

That happened in the city of Rome.

But Paul said, I want to be comforted with you.

I want to encourage you.

I want to encourage you.

Keep reading.

Watch.

Together with you by the mutual faith, both of you and me.

Now here's, listen, don't think I didn't come to you because I didn't love you.

Verse 13.

He said, Now I would not have you what?

Well, Paul loves that word, doesn't he?

I would not have you uninformed, misinformed.

No, I don't want you to be ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purpose to come unto you, but I was led hitherto.

I was restrained.

Why did I want to come to you?

That I might have some fruit among you, what?

Even as among other Gentiles, showing you, brother, he had never been there.

And watch these next two verses.

For I am debtor.

I'm a debtor.

When the Lord gives you something, it's not to consume it upon your own lust, it's for the people of God.

Whatever gift God gives a person, brother, that gift will not benefit you a thing unless you minister to God's people with it.

If you're a teacher and if you're not teaching God's people, it won't help you.

If you're a preacher, if you're not exhorting God's people, it won't help you.

If you're a pastor and you're not shepherding God's people, it won't help you.

The gifts is for other people.

For you to be a recipient of whatever gift God has given you, you have to give it to others.

And when you're refreshing others, you yourself is refreshed also.

And I've seen great men take the gift and put it on the bushel.

I've seen great men take their gift and not fulfill it, and it profits them nothing.

With all of the knowledge and understanding and the ability God has given you, it would profit you nothing.

It's for the people of God.

If you want to use a benefit from whatever God has given you, you give it to others.

I remember I was thinking about this, I was I woke out of my nap and I just flashed back to my mind.

I'll share it with you.

A thought that I remember thinking some 25 years ago.

It's interesting I started thinking it.

I was under this female pastor, Brother Michael, 25 years ago.

And she wanted to go to Trinidad.

Remember that, Grace?

And as a little small congregation, only about 11 people show.

And we didn't have the money.

The church was always destituted.

It was only about 11 or 12 people, adults.

And uh she was heartbroken.

But I didn't have any money.

I didn't have any.

I was saying in a in a what you call those homes, the rural development homes.

My house there wasn't about$120 something a month.

I was struggling to pay that.

But uh I remember I was so heartbroken, I took a credit card, American Express, and I charged the tickets on it.

Her airline tickets, a hotel.

I didn't know how I was gonna pay it.

But I didn't want to see her heartbroken.

And I remember praying this prayer, Lord, if you bless me, I'll bless your people.

If you give me means, I'll be a blessing to your people.

And all and but she didn't give me nothing.

God didn't give me, so I took my credit card.

I used that.

I didn't know how I was gonna pay it off.

God blessed me to pay it off, but I learned something in that.

When you bless God's people, he'll bless you.

I never forget that lesson.

I'll never forget that.

I was thinking about it today as I woke up.

How wonderful it is to be a blessing to the people of God.

It's nothing like it.

It's nothing like it.

The Bible says, He that he that gave it to the poor, lend it to the Lord, and the Lord will repay.

If anybody wants indebted to me, it ain't you, it's God.

And to get God to be indebted to me for anything is to be a blessing to your people.

When you give them whatever you have, your time, your energy, your resources, the Lord He's looking and he's booking.

He'll reward you for that.

Absolutely so.

And Paul had that revelation.

He said, For I am debtor.

God gave him something.

He was called to be an apostle.

He said, I am debtor both to the Greeks.

The word Greek here is not just talking about the nation of Greek, it's talking about the intellects.

The Greeks love wisdom.

I am debtor both to the Greeks, that's the wise people and to the what?

That's the ignorant, uh, rambocious and bodacious and unseasoned people.

He said, and he clarifies both to the what?

To the wise and to the what?

Unwise.

So as much as in, as much as in me is, as much as God has given me uh whatever understanding and revelation I have, which the Bible said I've not declared, he said, I've not shone to declare unto you all the counsel.

He had it all.

He said, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at what?

Also.

My God.

So we know the Lord had a church there long before Paul ever got there.

Long before an apostle ever stepped foot there, Brother Arnell, God had a church there.

He had a people.

And so here's Paul now.

Go back to uh to Acts.

I kind of took that a little bit far, but I hope you wanted to nail that down since we were reading it.

So he desired to go to Jerusalem.

Why?

Because he loved his people.

Jerusalem was the capital of the nation of Israel.

He wanted to go back and see his own people.

That was just a natural desire he had.

But then he wanted to fulfill the burden of reaching out to God's people and Rome.

But this is where his trouble is going to begin to start.

Pick it up in verse 22 for me, Brother Michael.

We've got to finish this chapter.

I'm going slow tonight.

So he sent into Macedonia.

I heard that over there.

Verse 22.

So he sent into Macedonia two of them that ministered unto him, Timotheus and Erastus.

Now, when you read that without understanding, you would think they preached to him.

That word minister unto him means what?

What does it mean, Brother LJ?

They served him.

And you say, Well, I'm going to serve God.

You serve God by serving the people who God put on you.

You assist them.

They helped Paul.

They assisted Paul.

They served Paul.

Elisha served Elijah.

Joshua served Moses.

The apostles served, you find that throughout your Bible.

That is the order of God.

And so they assisted Moses, I'm sorry, Paul by serving him or helping him.

Then he calls the name.

Go ahead, Brother Michael.

He said, but he himself stayed in Asia for a season.

And at the same time there arose no small stir about that weight.

Brother, everywhere Paul went.

Here he goes.

He said, For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana.

He was an idol maker.

And the gospel Paul was preaching was not to worship idols, Gentiles.

Well, guess what?

He was hitting them in the pocketbook, Sister Janita.

And so they got angry.

You know, I have adversaries, and we all will, all that live godly in Christ Jesus, shall suffer persecution.

A lot of people, I was talking to a sister, not a sister young lady, I was testifying to her today.

She said, You that Leo Brown, I heard about.

I say, What did you hear about me?

I heard, I ain't gonna tell you the first part, but then that you lost your mind behind the Bible.

I say, that's me.

The first part is that you're trying to take over home or you're trying to buy everything.

And that you lost your mind, the Bible done that to you.

I say, that's me.

You got me right.

Um, we all gonna lose our mind.

That we may have the mind of Christ.

Been beheaded for the gospel's sake.

Do I look like I'm insane to you?

I wanted.

My Lord.

Look at me in the eye and told me that.

Made me preach to us some more.

I'm sorry, go ahead, Brother Michael.

For certain name was Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana, brought no small gain unto the craftsman, whom he called together with the workmen of like occupations.

That's other uh silversmiths, that's other uh idol makers.

And said, Sirs, ye know by this craft we have made we have our wealth.

Moreover, you see in here that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away much people, saying that they be no gods which are made with hands.

Well, praise the Lord.

To a person who's been sanctified, that's good news.

But to somebody who's making those idols, that's bad news.

When people find out, brother, we don't embrace putting temples, uh pencils on churches.

We don't embrace putting pictures on the walls of somebody saying this is Jesus.

Well, people take that and go out and tell others and they and they say, well, man, you must be a cult.

You don't have a picture of Jesus on your walls.

You don't believe in hanging crosses, you don't believe in putting steeples.

No, we believe the Bible.

Show me a steeple in the Bible and we'll put one.

Show it to them in the Bible, you don't have any problem with us.

Show it to us in the Bible and we'll consider it.

But if you look at the origins of it, you might want to take it down.

But you know, that's offensive to many people in churches, even in this body of people.

It's offensive.

Yeah.

Go ahead.

Verse 27.

He says, so that not only this our craft is in danger to be set at naught, but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana, which is not a God, should be despised.

As she should be.

And her magnificence should be destroyed.

Well, praise the Lord.

Whom all Asia and the world worship.

Which Paul came to deliver you from it.

And the concept that people have of a Jesus Christ, brother, we're trying to tear that image down.

We're trying to destroy that growth that is not him.

The concept we have of God the Father is not biblical, but we got out of religion.

If it's not Bible, it's just not God.

I hate to say it like that.

I'm not trying to be exclusive, but if it's not Bible, it's not right.

It's just the witty inventions of men.

There is no purgatory.

Little angels not flapping on, little babies not flapping around in heaven with little wings.

Brother Michael.

I'm not gonna go see my uncle and my great-grandmother and my grandmother in heaven.

When I overcome, and if we obtain to the resurrection, that won't be my mom and my daddy, that won't be my son and my daughter, that's gonna be another overcomer, that's gonna be another saint.

I'm not going to see my mama, my daddy.

I hope they all make it, but those are earthly relationships.

If the motivation for my going to heaven and living forever is so I can see my son again or my daughter again or my mama again, then something is wrong with me.

I pray God give everybody the grace to overcome, but these are earthly relationships and they won't be forever.

It's gonna stay on the earth.

And I know Sister Grace, this is bad news for her.

She wants Brother Brown to be her husband forever, and I don't blame you.

But it's just as long as we on the earth, it's not forever.

You got to give me up.

Can we get that in our mind?

God is not trying to have a natural family reunion in heaven for us.

Ain't nothing but devils, brother.

But this is about our soul being salvaged.

Love your mother, love your father, love your brothers and your sisters, but realize when they depart, that relationship, as you know it, has ended forever.

That's a false concept we have of God.

Do you remember how those Sadducees came to Jesus?

I know I'm gonna run out of time, I'll speak fast.

Remember how those Sadducees came to Jesus who didn't even believe in the resurrection?

They said, they said, Jesus.

That was the law of Moses said that if a man marry a wife and he died and he doesn't have a son, an issue, talking about a son, then his brother should marry his wife and raise up a seed that is a son unto him.

That was a certain man.

He took a wife.

He died and he had no issue, no son.

So he had seven brothers.

And his brother took her.

He died and didn't have a son.

And then the second took her and he died and had no son until all seven of them had her to wife.

Say, now who in heaven they go to heaven and eternal life, whose wife she's gonna be?

They say, We got enough.

He can't answer that.

Jesus looked at him and said, You greatly error, knowing not the scriptures, nor the power of God.

He that is counted worthy to obtain that world and eternal life, they're neither married nor what?

Given in marriage.

Neither one of them won't, that she won't be nobody's wife.

There would be some confusion.

I done married somebody and my wife done died, so I married somebody else, and she died, and I married a third person.

Now when I go to heaven, what am I gonna do with all these wives?

Oh, he minds.

I was married to him for seven years, yeah, but you was the third wife.

I had him the first 14.

It's not like that.

We won't be anybody husband and wives and sons and daughters and mothers and fathers.

That's a false concept of God.

Do you understand me?

God is not the author of confusion.

And fleshly relationships just cause confusion.

It's temporary, brother Elton.

It's temporary.

That's why I learn to love God's people's soul.

If I love your personality, and I can appreciate that, but if I love your personality, if I love your ways, I'm loving your natural part of you.

If I can, and God give us grace to love your soul, love your soul enough to want to see you saved, but that's the eternal part of you.

Personalities change.

Our characteristics change.

But to love your soul, to love you enough to want to see your soul saved.

Okay, let's finish this up now.

Verse 28.

He said, and when they heard these sayings, they were full of wrath and cried out, saying, Great is Diana of F of the Ephesians.

See, they were concerned about the pockets, and they started a great confusion.

Watch.

He said, and the whole city was filled with confusion, and having caught Gaius and Aristotle, men of Macedonia.

Those were preachers.

He said, Paul's companions in travel, they rushed with one accord into the theater.

They took these men, they bumped them to the theater, they was about to do these men some violent harm.

Paul was not, uh, he didn't have rabid blood.

When he saw them take his companions or his fellow preachers, brother, he was going to suffer with them.

Verse 30 says, When Paul would have entered in unto the people, the disciples, they wouldn't let him go.

Say, Paul, you know, you have the reason.

Listen, if these men lose their life, your dye is not going to help the cause.

They separate, wouldn't let him go.

Keep reading, brother Michael.

I'm sorry.

He said, and when Paul would enter in into unto the people, the disciples suffered him not.

And certain of the chief of Asia, which were his friends, sent unto him, desiring him that he would not adventure himself into the theater.

Brother, they were concerned about Paul because listen, here's the love that any man, the first criteria that any person has in the kingdom of God to be over anybody in God's kingdom, is you have to love his people.

Paul loved the people of God.

That's manifested with his very life.

And he didn't think it's strange to put his life on the line.

He didn't think it's strange to suffer the people of God.

When you love somebody, you ever see a mother when a child has a contagious disease?

That mother's not concerned about am I going to get this disease?

If this child is sick, whether it's a flu, I don't care if it's a swine flu, doesn't matter what it is.

That mother's not concerned about her own health.

She's concerned about that child.

And if a man loves the people of God, you're not concerned about, you know, I've been in situations that could definitely look compromising.

But man, I don't have time to be worried about somebody might think evil about this, or somebody's gonna use this to my uh to my hurt, or say some bad thing.

Man, you got to say what you want.

This person needs help.

And so you you put yourself sometime in harm's way.

I know not to do that, but how can I not do it?

If somebody needs help, you help them.

I don't practice that, but uh, you know, I personally I try not to ever be caught along just me and the sister.

I that's I I was taught that.

Sometime I think I thought about it, I think I was talking with you, Sarah, the sister Cheryl, for about three or four hours.

And some lady was trying to find a church, and she came here and just brother brother Rom was here, but he had left.

I think he had left.

He evidently had left, but he had left.

Yeah, because the lady came in.

And uh so sheriff went to the door, and I didn't hit me and I said, Man, nobody but me is this a sheriff.

They're gonna say, Brother Brown, go on with Sister Sheriff.

Well, that's how stuff started.

But what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna say, oh no, I can't talk to you.

You know, nobody else is here, brother.

Brother Rom done left, so you got to go.

Well, if I was worrying about protecting myself, I would do that.

But this isn't this is the time that was convenient that we met, and Brother Rom, if he left, he left, man.

I'm gonna finish what I'm doing.

If somebody's gonna speak evil, then let them speak evil.

You think that's gonna bother me?

I wish it wouldn't happen, but you think I'm gonna not do what I know is right because I'm worrying about concern about what somebody might say?

Absolutely not.

Like I told this young lady, I would worry about what people say if they'll start paying me.

But I won't nobody pay me.

Nobody is paying me, so why am I worrying about what you're saying?

Accuse me of violating the word of God, and you got my attention.

Show me in the scripture where I'm wrong, and you got my attention.

But if it be a matter of your interpretation or your religious concept, you're pouring water on a duck's back.

Absolutely so.

Hold on, brother Mike.

I'm sorry.

But Paul wasn't, the point is he wasn't concerned about himself.

He thought about his companions, he thought about those preachers.

Brother, he and he realized he, and which he did, he had the ability to communicate.

He felt he could speak for those men better than they could speak for themselves.