So the guy's got one. That's something. You're on the board. Let's turn to Acts chapter 5. Acts chapter 5. That was definitely necessary this morning. Everybody seemed a little bit tired. Myself included. We all seemed a little tired, a little groggy this morning. So let's take this time to wake up a little bit. Acts chapter 5. We're not going to go real far in our study. today as far as we're going and and some of the other ones in Acts but there's some amazing things we're going to look at. The very first verse that we're going to look at is is quite a blessing. Acts chapter five and verse number thirty-two. Bible says that we are his witnesses of these things and so is also the Holy Ghost whom God hath given to them that obey him. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this day. Thank you for your word. Thank you for another opportunity to preach and to retain everything that you give us from your word today. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. So, if you remember from our from our study so far in Acts from from going through this that the Peter and these other disciples, they've been preaching and they get arrested and then they get released by the angel and then they're preaching and they get arrested and they're just going back and forth from the preaching to the prison house and here they're giving their explanation to the council and you remember last time we talked about their three-fold response that had the gospel in it when when verse twenty-nine, Peter and the other apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men. So, God is bigger than you. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom he slew and hanged on a tree. God is bigger than you and you are guilty of sin. Verse thirty-one, him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a savior for to give repentance to Israel, forgiveness of sin. So, God is bigger than you. You're guilty before God and God will forgive you. That's essentially the gospel message contained in their response there but then you get to Uh, this next verse, verse 32, and we are his witnesses of these things, what things of the life of Christ and the death of Christ, resurrection of Christ, their witnesses. But the blessing I think is, is in the next part of the verse. And so is also the Holy ghost. whom God hath given to them that obey him. Now, I am a witness of Jesus Christ because I've seen Christ do something in my life. I've been saved by the grace of God. I can read his word and I can testify and I can witness to who Jesus Christ is, what he has done, and what he wants to do for you. Whether you be saved or lost, Christ wants to do something in your life. So I'm a witness in that regard, but me by myself, is a pretty uphill battle. If I'm trying to talk to someone who maybe doesn't believe in God, or maybe believes in a different God, or a different version of God, it's going to be very difficult for me to convince someone, especially in today's day and age, people don't even let you talk half the time, so it's going to be difficult. But the Bible says that the Holy Ghost is a witness with us of these things, So it's not just me witnessing to someone necessarily, the Holy Ghost can be working on their hearts as well. And so that's a blessing to me that the Holy Spirit, you know, when we pray, we ask for prayer about somebody to get saved, we're hoping and praying that God will convict their hearts while we also try to reach them through their minds and through what they hear of us explaining the gospel to them, and we work together with the Holy Spirit to try and get them to the point of salvation. Now, it's still their choice. It's still that free will. They can still say no to not only us, but also the Holy Spirit of God. But isn't it a blessing to know it's not just me trying to get this person to accept Christ. The Holy Spirit has a say in it, too. And the Holy Spirit is a witness of the same things I am. If I'm witnessing about Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit is going to help me in that and is going to work on a person's heart as well. Now, obviously there are those that are very far gone and the Holy Spirit has a hard time getting through to them at all. They're very hardened hearts, but I'm glad I'm not alone in my effort to reach my neighbor, to reach my family member, to reach my coworker. The Holy Spirit is there working with us. Hold your place in Acts chapter 5 and turn to 2 Corinthians chapter number 13. There's a couple books over in your Bible. 2 Corinthians chapter number 13. Baptists tend to not talk a whole lot about the Holy Spirit because other people make way too much of some things, but the Holy Spirit of God is a blessing. At 2 Corinthians 13, this is Paul speaking here, he says, Now, I come here to show you this idea, this concept of words being established by the mouth of two or three witnesses. If you have one person, come to you and give you a report about something, whether it be how good a product is or where you should go on vacation or what job you should have, whatever it may be, they give you some kind of a witness or a testimony about something. Depending on how you feel about that one person, you may accept or decline to listen to that. I've had people recommend things to me, whether it be something simple like what restaurant to eat at, or something more important like what school to go to. There's been people that have recommended things, and you always kind of, with some people you take it with a grain of salt, with some people you take it as gospel truth, but the thing that really helps is when there's multiple people giving you the same recommendation. When I go to the gas station and I give the gas station attendant a track, that is a witnessing about Jesus Christ to that gas station attendant. When Brother Ken also goes and gives that same person a track, and Brother Pete also goes and gives that same person a track, now multiple people are witnessing and testifying of the same thing, and that carries a lot more weight with it than just one witness or testimony. It also helps to prove that something is true. The more people can back it up and attest that, yes, I witnessed that, yes, I saw that with my own eyes, that is true. One witness should be enough in most cases if there's a crime or something, but it's always helpful to have more than one witness. As long as the witnesses agree together, it's always helpful to have multiple witnesses of an event. That's why you have four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They're all written from the different perspectives of those witnesses of those events. And so the Lord has this concept in that phrase, even, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall things be established. That's said multiple times throughout the New Testament. Christ Himself speaks that. And so that concept is there and it is true. So, the blessing is even if it's just us and we're the only person witnessing to that person, there's still more than one witness there because the Holy Ghost is helping as well. So, yes, sir. I'm just going to add to that exactly an example of what happened this week. Yeah. Yeah, we were down to Brown's restaurant down on Porterville there and at the end of the meal, I left the And a girl collected money and I gave her the tract and I said, have you had anything like this given to you before? And she said, you know, she said, I've just been thinking a lot and praying a lot, doubled my prayer life. She said, and I don't know if she saved or not. And she said, this is just a confirmation that God's trying to tell me something. And I'm going to read this. and she said, I appreciate you giving it to me. Amen. Yeah, you never know. You might be the fourth or fifth person in line to witness to somebody and you might be the one to bear the fruit. You might be the one to be able to lead that person. And another example of that would be myself. When I took a job at a local bank up in Michigan, there were a couple of people, there was one in particular that had worked there for several years and she went to our church, she was a faithful witness on the job. When I got there, now there were two witnesses, two people from the same church, and we kind of worked together, our people, and then around that time was when my ordination came up. And because that gave me a good inroads to invite every single person in the bank, and we had several people from the bank come to my ordination, and from that, there are two or three different couples that still go to that church because of coming to to the ordination. Some of them have been there every service since and and it was just like, man, praise the lord and and I told the lady that was working there before me. I said, this is your fruit. You know, this isn't me. The second guy to come in line, but you've been working on these people for years and you've been a testimony to these people for years And because of that good testimony then, you know, I came in and nudged it a little further and there we go We got some proof and so, you know, you never you never know How how it's all going to go and she was you know, she was faithful on that job witnessing for several years before I ever showed up and And if she hadn't been there, witnessing for that much time, then me getting there probably wouldn't have done anything. So you never know when you might be that third, fourth, or fifth witness, the final one that's necessary. So it's all that more important to make sure that you are being that witness. So the Holy Spirit will work on people's hearts, but that's just one witness. If we add in our witness to the Holy Spirit's witness, now there's two. And so, so we need to make sure we're doing this thing and not just letting everybody else do it. So, I think that's a blessing in Acts chapter 5 verse 32. We see the Holy Spirit works together with us, witnessing, testifying of those things. Verse 33, when they heard that, they were cut to the heart and took counsel to slay them. Now, if you remember in Acts chapter 2 on Pentecost, when those people were convicted, they said, what do we do? And our brother, what do we do? That's the right response. When the Holy Spirit works on your heart and you realize that you're a sinner and you need salvation, the right response is, alright, what do I need to do? Go to the Word of God, go to somebody you trust that knows the Bible, what do I need to do to be saved? Not, I'm going to kill you. But that's the reaction we have here and several times throughout Scripture we have the reaction of people getting cut to the heart, which the Bible specifically says, the word of god is is a two-edged sword that pierces it to the dividing the center of the bones and marrow and the joints and it cuts right in there. It gets to you and so so you respond to that either in. Alright, what do I need to do with this information or I really don't like this information. I'm going to stop you from spreading it. We we had several times in the over the years of public ministry where people have tried to stop us from even just handing out tracts. And not that they don't want one, they don't want one, but not just that, they don't want us to give one to anybody. And so, it's one of those things, it's reminiscent of these people where it's not just, I don't agree with your message, it's I'm never going to let you spread this message to anybody ever again, I'm going to take you out. So, glad we haven't had any of those people show up to our outreach events or anything like that, but these men, they take counsel how they can slay them, how they can take them out. That Holy Spirit conviction is a real deal. You can tell sometimes when people are under conviction and whether or not they're going to respond very well to it. It's always a matter of pray, or please help him to respond. I was listening to a preacher one time, I believe it was Ralph Sexton Jr., was preaching and he was telling a story about how he was at a place for a revival meeting, and like two or three nights in a row, this guy in the back would get up, close his Bible, and walk out when he got to a certain point in the message. and and on the last night, the guy got up, closed his Bible and he expected to walk out. Instead, he walked up to the altar and and uh I believe it was he got saved or I don't remember exactly all the details but it was one of the things where there was that improper response, improper response, improper response, and then eventually, finally, uh that conviction got through and and did his job and the guy accepted it and uh we know, when when I do ask for people to raise their hand to whether they're not saved or anything, you know, you'd be amazed all the times that people will say, I don't know that I'm saved and then not find out anything about it and just turn around and walk out the door and and week after week after week, month after month after month and and sometimes never asking a question or coming forward and so, it's it's always amazing to me. It's like you realize you have a problem. You know that it's a problem that could cost you the question about it in the most uh in the I guess the safest place you could be to ask the question. It's always amazed me uh but that conviction is a blessing even when people read poorly to it. It's kind of a reminder that hey, Holy Spirit is working on them because just me II can't make someone that mad with what I just did. It's the Holy Spirit's working on it. Acts chapter five and verse Then stood there one in the council of Pharisee named Gamaliel, the doctor of the law, had a reputation among all the people, and commanded to put the apostles forth for a little space, and said unto them, Ye men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what ye intend to do as touching these men. For before these days rose up Theodos, boasting himself to be somebody, to whom a number of men, about four hundred, joined themselves, who was slain. And all as many as obeyed him were scattered and brought to naught. After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing, and drew away much people after him, he also perished, and all, even as many as obeyed him, were dispersed. And now I say unto you, refrain from these men, and let them alone, for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to naught. But if it be of God, ye cannot overgrow it, lest haply ye be found even to fight against God." So he's got it. He's got a good point here. He's got a good message. It doesn't always ring true. We know there's lots of, you can call them denominations, I call them cults, like Seventh-day Adventist, Mormon, Jehovah's Witness, where you can look at this man founded this and he died, and people are still following it. So you can see where that's not always the case, where if it's not of God, it'll come to naught. There's a lot of false religions in this world that are obviously not of God, like Islam and Hinduism and all that, that they're not of God, but yet they have followers. So it doesn't always ring true, but it's a good concept that I think a lot of people in church today should take the advice of Gamaliel, and especially preachers. because I I see a problem happening especially in our denomination where we waste so much time trying to fix and correct every error and every falsehood of every other church and every other ministry and and we don't really enjoy our own uh especially preachers. I I had to. So, when I was looking for a pastor, I I put, I joined into a Facebook group that was all, you know, for it was King James only churches looking for pastors and I had to leave the group a few months ago because I couldn't stand it anymore. All the fighting and bickering and I mean, it was just I released, you know, preachers. Anybody can call themselves a preacher today and anybody can go online and get an ordination. But yeah, it was nasty. And so, all these people worried about everybody else and it's like, man, one of the guys was so, so uh negative and and crazy and mean towards everyone and and he had been divorced multiple times and and was talking about getting another divorce and I'm like, what are you, what are you doing? Trying to correct every church when you're a a preacher who's in disobedience to the word of god every single day and so it's it's just a it was just a mess. I had to get out of to warn of wolves, especially pastors. We're supposed to point out falsehoods. 2 Corinthians 6, 17 is supposed to be separate. Acts 20, 29-31, we're supposed to watch out for those grievous wolves that are entering among us and not spare the flock. We're supposed to be paying attention. We're supposed to be watching out. And don't misunderstand, I will point out error. You know I will, because I've done it here before. I'll warn of false teachers, and when needed, I'll name names. And I know that's not popular, but it's biblical. several times throughout the Bible, names are named in order to protect the rest of the flock. They say, this is a bad sheep, stay away from it. This just popped in my head because of one of the words I just said, but I actually had a teacher in Catholic school when I was there for about a year before School Choice Day did, that told all the students that I was a bad sheep, and stay away from me and I don't know if it was because I was Baptist or just because I was bad because both were true but but I thought that was yeah, that was funny. Anyways, so, I will I'll warn everybody but but that's the thing is Christians, whether they're preachers or deacons or leaders in the church or whether they're laymen, we tend to we tend to focus so much on the negative and other people that we we hyper-focus and we miss everything else. In violent crimes, there's something called weapon focus. And what that is, is where the victim of a crime zeroes in on the weapon. If you're getting robbed, you know everything about the gun, but you can't say whether the guy was black, white, or brown because you were just focused on the gun. It's called weapon focus, and it happens sometimes in violent crimes. And it's kind of the same concept of us As Christians, we see a wolf, and we're just like, look, there's a wolf. It's way over there. It's not, you know, it's not a threat to us right here, right now, and we've got other things to worry about, but there's a wolf way out there, and I'm gonna stare at that wolf, and four more wolves are gonna walk up right next to me, and I'm not gonna notice, because I'm so focused on that one. And so, we gotta be careful. If we look too long at the Joel Olsteins, and the Joyce Myers, and the Kenneth Copelands of the world, we're either going to begin to agree with them, or believe that every single person is wrong but us. And both of those are dangerous attitudes to develop. I saw a person online the other day that was saying that only Baptists baptized in the Baptist church were going to heaven. And I get the idea that a lot of people, a lot of religions have falsehood and a lot of denominations don't preach the Bible, but to say that only Baptists are going to heaven is a pretty broad, pretty bold, pretty incorrect statement. because there's a there's a lot of people out there that don't even know what a Baptist is, but they have the King James Bible and they know what salvation is in the name of Jesus Christ is and so so people get people get ridiculous about this stuff. Yeah, there's a lot of false in the world. There's a lot of wrong in the world. But you keep focusing on that and you're gonna trip yourself up. That's why the Lord gave pastors and deacons and things like that so that we can watch out for the bad stuff and let you know when there's something bad coming in and you can worry about focusing on all the good stuff. I would have teenagers that would ask me about, you know, hey, can you teach on Colts or can you teach on this or that? I'll do a lesson in a year or whatever on something like that. I'll tell them, you know, you can spend your whole life studying false, but if you just study what's true, then you won't need to know everything about what's false because you just recognize it as false. I said it before, I worked at the bank, they never taught us what a counterfeit bill looks like because they're all different. They just had us handle the real thing so much that when a conflict came across, we knew. You could feel it was different. You could see it was different. Sometimes it would smell different. I mean, you just knew because you handled the real thing so much. And that's what I try to tell people. They get too focused on all the negative out there. I say, just focus on the word of God and you'll know what the bad stuff is because you'll have such a good idea of what the good stuff is. So, the response of the apostles. This is some of my favorite verses in the whole Bible. and verse number uh forty. Galileo gives us advice. Um and verse forty and to him, they agreed and when they had called the apostles and beaten that, it's like, yeah, we agree with you but we're still going to get our licks in. That's an interesting port. They commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. And daily in the temple and in every house they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ." That's a good passage. So the response of the apostles is rejoicing. And you know this is in obedience to Christ. If you hold your place there and turn to Luke chapter 6, We find the only place in the entire Word of God that the phrase, leak for joy, is used. Luke chapter 6 and verse number 22, the Bible says, Blessed are ye when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil for the son of man's sake. There's a qualifier there, not just because you're a jerk. but for the Son of Man's sake. For your Christian testimony, they do these things to you. Verse 23, rejoice in rejoicing in that day and leap for joy. For behold, your reward is great in heaven, for in the like manner did their fathers come to the prophets. So Christ says, when this happens to you, when you're hated for my name and you're cast out as evil for not my name's sake, which is exactly what's happening to these apostles, he says rejoice and leap for joy. you're going to have great rewards in heaven and they did the same thing to the prophets that were before you. So, rejoice and so, they're rejoicing in Acts chapter five is actually obedience to to Jesus Christ. They're supposed to rejoice and it's good that they did. It's a good reminder for us. They were rejoicing and having joy and triumph for the deliverance but in suffering, in persecution, a great verse to would be Romans 8.18. Sorry, yeah, Romans 8.18. Go ahead and turn there with me. I don't want to quote it for you. I want everybody to see it. And if you do underline and all that, I'm gonna give you the chance to do that. Romans chapter eight and verse number 18, one of those southern verses. You'll see what I mean in a moment. Romans 8.18. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. You start your day with that verse, and what could happen all day long? What could happen to make you lose your joy? I mean, as bad a day as you could have, you could just think about that verse. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time, no matter what they may be, are not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us. verse to memorize and to hold on to because there are some bad days that come around. I don't know if you've noticed that or not, but on those bad days, you think about that verse where it's like, it's not even worth comparing to what's going to be revealed in us on that day. It'll just kind of help your mood a little bit, help you to do better and help you to respond better to that bad day. So they were rejoicing, they were rejecting, they immediately rejected the cease and desist order, and they immediately disobeyed that they didn't appeal the decision or write a letter to the government or get together with the Council of Apostles and decide how they were going to respond. They said, this is wrong, we're going to just go and ignore it. Kind of like churches are doing now, which is good when it comes to some of their local officials trying to shut them down. You can't sing in church. You can't meet in church. Some of them, you can't even have church in the parking lot. That's too close together. It's crazy. Crazy. So, when you know something is against the Word of God, there doesn't need to be a bunch of meetings about it. You just need to reject it and follow God. Third thing, they were resounding. Resounding. They took the message of the cross everywhere. Continually. Proclaiming Christ. What an example. for us on how to respond to persecution should it ever come our way. Uh I would give you another good verse here. Romans one fifteen. Romans one fifteen. You're you're just a few pages back in your Bible. This is Paul. The Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul saying in Romans one fifteen. So, as much as envy is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at So, with every fiber of my being, with this as much as in me is and with everything I've got, I'm ready to preach. That's the right attitude to have. Uh Jeremiah chapter twenty, we won't go there this morning for time sake but Jeremiah twenty verses eight and nine, Jeremiah says, you know, I I decided I I wasn't going to preach anymore but it was like fire. His words were like fire in my bones. I I couldn't stop. I couldn't stay. I couldn't keep from preaching his word. That's the right So, we come to Acts chapter 6 now. We wrap up chapter 5 with those two great verses and then in Acts chapter 6 and verse 1 through 7, we go from having this victory after victory and people being saved and it's wonderful. We get to Acts chapter 6 verse 1 and it's still good and in those days when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. Things are going great. People are preaching. People are getting saved. People are being healed. It's just all good. But my widows are being neglected. There's always something. As long as we are human people living in bodies of sinful flesh, there's always going to be something to get upset about. Now, widows being neglected, that's not a good thing. Do they have a right to get upset? but it just shows there's always going to be a problem somewhere. There's always going to be an issue that arises somewhere, no matter how good things are going. There's times, Miss Linda recently messaged me and said, you know, that just good things are coming because so many things were going wrong. It was just like the devil's after us. Something good must be around the corner. And I remember way back last spring, I said, you know, hold on tight because things have been really good and then we had six funerals related to our church and then in the summer and it's just one of those things where you you can't you can't base your Christianity or your faithfulness to god off of what's happening right now because that's going to change. It always changes whether you're saved or whether you're lost. There's going to be good days and bad days and there's going to be Uh that grave's gonna solve those problems for for those who are saved. So, there's always something. Verse number two, how they deal with it. Then the twelve called the multitude of the of the disciples unto them and said, it is not reason that we should leave the word of god and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the holy ghost, and of and wisdom whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to and the same pleased the whole multitude, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch, whom they set before the apostles, and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them. And the word of God increased, and the number of the disciples multiplied Jerusalem greatly, and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith. That's a nice little tidbit at the end there. Even the priests, even the Jewish leaders of their religion, even then, a lot of them believed on Christ. So that's a blessing. But we see here in Acts chapter 6 verse 1 through 7, this is considered the creation of the deacon position. This is widely regarded as that passage, and I agree with that, I understand that. So, I would say, before we really get into the deacons, I would say, if you make a note by that, that there's always problems, there's always issues, it's always work to get along. Philippians two, verses one through five takes care of that. If we just obey Philippians two, one through five, and have the mind of Christ, and then see mothers better than ourselves, then we'll take care of a lot of those problems. But, problems do arise. And so, the deacons are created. The purpose of them, at least at this point, is pretty simple. To free up the preacher to be able to study the Word of God and pray. I mean, that's it. You can get a lot further in depth to all the different things, especially nowadays, that is done by deacons versus pastors or pastors versus deacons, but the original reason was very clearly and simply laid out here. The preachers need to focus on the Bible and the praying, and other people can deal with all these other little things that go on. That's not to say that that job isn't important. It's vital. Because if somebody's not dealing with these widows getting neglected, then all those Grecians are going to be gone. They're not going to stand for that. Somebody's got to take care of the problem, and it's got to be somebody, as the Bible says, of honest report and faithful to God. and so that the preacher can say, okay, you deal with this little mess over here so that I can be ready for the next message I'm preaching. It's a pretty symbiotic, pretty simple relationship. Today, I've heard some horror stories on both sides. I've heard horror stories about preachers and I've heard horror stories about deacon boards and it's just one thing that amazes me. I read this passage There's thousands of people in Jerusalem who have believed at this point. 3,000 in one place, 4,000 in another. Multitudes, several times mentioned. There's several, probably tens of thousands of believers at this point. And how many deacons do they appoint? The number's right in there. Seven. I know churches that have less than 70 people and they have seven deacons. Why? I don't know if there's anything necessarily wrong with that, but I've seen it breed problems. I'd have a hard time finding some biblically qualified men, sadly, in America today. It's hard to find biblically qualified men to be pastors or to be deacons. But I've heard these stories where this one, the preacher bought, the preacher used the church's money to buy attires for missionary and the deacons voted him out of the church. Preacher went on vacation, came back and he had been voted out of the church, all the stuff was on the curb. Then there's the opposite, where the deacons rose up against the preacher because he was preaching false doctrine, the preacher went and started spreading rumors and lies about the deacons and tried to mess them up. It goes both ways, it's a mess. it becomes a war in some churches between the deacons and the pastor and and in reality, it's supposed to be an allyship. That's like an unbreakable bond of unity and two groups of men that are working together to be the leadership of the church and instead, a lot of churches, it's just and it doesn't doesn't end well. It doesn't work well. Sadly, II don't church right now that that just went went so far south and and the church is just about gone because of a a deacon Now, it should not be that way. I'm thankful that Brother Ken and I have a good relationship. Well, as far as I know, Brother Ken and I have a good relationship. I might, you know, I'll come back from Michigan next time I visit, and they're like, oh, you're gone. No, I'm not worried about that at all. And so, I'm thankful, Brother Ken, for our relationship. Thank you, Brother Ed, as a deacon as well, that we have that good relationship here, and it's not the case everywhere. I think it reveals that that number seven for the tens of thousands reveals two things. One, the preacher shouldn't be lazy because you know those apostles still had quite a bit of work to do. They had tens of thousands of believers and only seven deacons. But also that a lot of churches today just have way more deacons than they need. I saw a church a while back. I was there for a wedding or something and they had a plaque and it had all their deacons and all their deaconesses. Alright. So, we've got further to go but we're out of time. We're going to talk about Stephen in our next uh quite quite a blessing. Um he is a great example of a deacon and uh sadly have very short tenure uh because uh he would lose his life to become a martyr but but he has got some there's some great lessons we can learn from him and lord willing, we'll do that uh next week. Let's pray lord. Thank you for this day. Thank you for your work. to follow. And Lord, if there's anybody here today that does not know you as your Savior, I pray you please help today to be the day of salvation. And Lord, we're going to be talking about a lot of issues today that are not culturally or politically correct, but Lord, they are biblically correct, so I pray, please, Lord, help me to speak boldly and with compassion, but also help everybody to be able to understand and adhere to the Word of God this morning. Lord, we love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.