 Amen. So we're in Acts chapter 21. We're going to start off where Paul gets finally to Jerusalem. If we remember looking at the trip to Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost was warning Paul through Agabas and others that he was in danger there and that he was going to be persecuted in Jerusalem. And Paul again and again says in Acts chapter 20 and Acts chapter 21 says, I just don't care about my life. So he goes anyway. We're going to start out at verse number 15 and see exactly what happens to Paul. And basically Agabas's prophecy in verse number 11 comes exactly true in the rest of the chapter itself. But let's look out at verse number 15 when Paul heads over to Jerusalem. And I'm just going to make several points throughout the story and then kind of wrap it up at the end here. It's kind of a strange ending to a chapter. Paul begins to speak and then it's a new chapter. But I'm going to make a kind of a larger point at the end. But I just want to go through what happens and make several points that we can apply to ourselves and to our church tonight in Acts chapter 21 with Paul's arrival in Jerusalem and what he deals with there. Look at verse 15 because we're going to start tonight. And after those days we took up our carriages and went up to Jerusalem. So here they go. Paul's going. He's going. He knows he's in danger but he's going anyway. He doesn't care about his life. So verse 16 it says, Then there went also certain disciples of Caesarea and brought with them one Mason of Cyprus, an old disciple with whom we should lodge. When we were come to Jerusalem the brethren received us gladly. Now right away the first thing that I thought about when I read through these three verses is they come to Jerusalem. So here they are, they're evangelists and they're traveling all over. Paul's third missionary journey is just a mess of travels. It's hard to even map it because he's going to so many different places. But he comes to Jerusalem and he comes to this church, the very first established church in Jerusalem. And right away it says the brethren received us gladly. Now this for us is something that you'll see in your life too. You'll see this as you go and travel and this is becoming more of a popular thing that I'm seeing in the next, you know in the last year is that people are going around and they're kind of traveling to different churches. They kind of know different people. And the one thing that you'll notice, you know as we have conferences coming up in March and we have conferences coming up this summer and there's always reasons to travel, especially, you know in California we have our own little travel circuit. You know we're kind of in the center of that travel circuit. We have Verity to the North and then we have of course First Works who we're friends with to the south. And I always want to say LA but it's Anaheim. It's all LA to me. It's like one huge conglomeration of a Metroplex, right? But anyway, that's the nice thing. I mean the nice thing is we will experience exactly what Paul and the disciples were experiencing here because one thing that you'll find and maybe you say well I haven't traveled to that many different churches, I definitely encourage you to go to some of these things, some of these activities, get to know some people. One thing you'll notice is, you know a lot of the pastors, you know pastors of course have different personalities. You know some pastors have different styles. You know some pastors just you know pastors are different. You know and a church to a degree is going to be you know culturally different to a degree but the funny thing is all the people is always going to be you know is like they're just going to receive you gladly at all these churches that are you know based in the same Bible and based in the same beliefs as us and you will experience this you know as you walk in to a verity or first works or wherever else you would go, sure foundation, faithful word. You know people love visitors. Look I love visitors from other churches. We're on the receiving end of this many times. When people come you know traveling through here I know many of you have met people from different churches and many times we're just one stop on the way you know they're just stopping visiting different churches. It's really cool to see you know families kind of making like a road trip vacation of you know just going and visiting three or four churches. My wife and and I and our family we've done that before as well. It's a really it's a really cool opportunity and a really awesome thing to do but just one thing to remember is you know looking at verse number 17 is whenever people do come whether you know from other churches whether we know them or not we should receive them gladly. You know remember that. You know remember that you know as Proverbs 18 24 says you know that a man that has friends must show himself friendly just remember you know we need to keep the culture of the church friendly and that takes it's not that we're not friendly we are a friendly church but I just want to always be reminding everybody of that you know because look being friendly takes effort you know being friendly takes us showing ourselves friendly. We want to make sure that when people come here whether we know them or whether there's visitors off the street you know that we're you know we're gladly receiving people just like these people gladly received Paul and the disciples and look you know the thing is like that takes effort that's always going to take effort to see somebody that's new you have to remember I mean we're all comfortable here and and we all have known each other for a long time but you have to remember how intimidating it is coming into a group of people that you don't know you know it's a it's it can be a really intimidating thing I remember you know going into Verity for the first time it was just kind of like whoa you know I mean all these people it's really important that we go out and we reach out to people that come and visit us and you will also be on the receiving of that end of that if you go and visit other churches as well so the point is that everybody plays a part in this so don't ever forget this look it's nice to be received gladly so let's receive people gladly look back at Acts chapter 21 look at verse number 18 and the day following Paul went into us with James now remember James from Acts chapter 15 James is the is the pastor he's the he's the leader of the church in Jerusalem we kind of got that from Acts chapter 15 we'll look at that I mean just a couple minutes but so they go in into James and all the elders were present and when he had saluted them he declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry so Paul goes in to James and he goes into the leaders of the church and he gives a missionary update he goes and he tells them on you know because where's Paul been he's been in Asia he's been in Macedonia you know he's been in Greece he's been all over to the Gentiles you know preaching to them I mean the Jews of course are chasing him anywhere he goes but he's largely going to the Gentiles look at verse number 20 when they heard it they glorified the Lord so they're very happy they're like you know praise God that the Gentiles are getting saved and said unto him thou seeest brother how many thousands of Jews there are which believe and they are all zealous of the law it's like oh man here we go right here we go again and they are informed of thee that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses basically what they're saying is this is what this is what the Jews are saying that that you're teaching everybody saying that they ought not to circumcise their children neither to walk after the customs now look this is this first of all this is what the Jews are saying is this what Paul's teaching is Paul teaching hey you should not follow the law at all you should just do whatever you want in your life you know Paul is simply going and he is preaching the gospel which he's preaching Jesus Christ he's preaching salvation and the Gentiles don't know the customs don't know the law and he is not preaching that because it has nothing to do with salvation Paul is preaching the gospel and the Jews are super offended by that I mean it's just it's more of the same it's more of the same thing that we're seeing that we saw back in Acts chapter 15 as a matter of fact go back and turn there I'll read a couple more verses in Acts chapter 21 and we'll look at that in just a minute so they're basically saying look the Jews are all still they're still bent out of shape about this even the Jews that believe they're bent out of shape that all these Gentiles are getting saved look we have this big cultural clash here is what they're saying it's still happening look at verse 22 of Acts 21 you're adding to Acts 15 they say what is it there for the multitude must needs come together for they will hear that thou art come do therefore this what we say to the we have four men which have a vow on them take them and purify thyself with them and be at charges with them that they may shave their heads and may know all those things whereof they were informed concerning the are nothing but the thou thyself also walk us orderly and keep us the law as tucked in the Gentiles which believe we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing save only that they keep themselves from things offered idols from blood from strangled and from fornication so this is the same exact issue they came up in acts chapter 15 and the same conclusion is repeated right here in verse number 25 which a little with a little addition but look at the acts 15 in verse number 19 if you remember this was acts chapter 15 was the big discussion it's like okay all the I mean this is the first time okay the Gentiles are getting saved nobody doubted that but they're like what do we do what do we tell them to do now because to the Jews the Gentiles were a bunch of godless heathen barbarians and here now they're getting saved it has nothing to do with works it has nothing to do with being circumcised or any other work or any other custom so what do they decide to do so they didn't change the gospel but they're like okay we got all these saved people how are we gonna like how are we going to like the multitude look at verse 22 they're like the multitude must needs come together we somehow have to be you know a group a church here you know for they will hear that our come so what do we do so in acts 15 this was when James passed sentence he says where for this is James speaking where for my sentence is that we trouble them not which from among the Gentiles are turned to God meaning the Gentiles that get saved we're not gonna have them get circumcised basically what he's saying he's like but we write under them that they abstain from pollutions of idols and from fornication and from things strangled and from blood so it's exactly the same thing that we see in verse number 25 of Acts chapter 21 so point for us to take away here is that this is just something that just keeps coming up again and again and again why because it's part of it's part of the culture that they're dealing with here it's part of these these Gentile culture and the Jewish cultures so you know I guess the application for us is don't ever feel like when you're in church don't ever feel like oh man I've heard this preach before you know don't ever feel like oh you know pastor has he said this you know two years ago you know he said the same doctrine because look there are several doctrines there are several doctrines and for good reason I'll explain that it's exactly the same reason as this one by the way but there are several doctrines that I actually have listed out that I like I make sure I preach every year several doctrine you say well I mean they actually need to be preached every year you say well why well to maintain the biblical culture of the church that that's why right so don't ever feel like oh man I heard you know he brings this up you know of course I don't want to preach the same thing over and over again nobody wants to be a boring preacher but the point is a lot of it's on purpose you know because things like this just like just five chapters ago six chapters ago we were just talking about this in the same church in Jerusalem but this problem what there's always people coming in there's always people coming in and guess what every single person that comes into the church has they have with them the teachings of the culture of this world is what they have so every I mean every single person that needs that comes into our church that's new that's it maybe at a different stage of Christian growth maybe they just got saved last week we have to you know we have to dehollywood them they need to start from zero and learn you know all these doctrines so that's why every single year I have a just a whole list of basic doctrines that I make sure that I touch on because look we need to maintain the biblical core of the this church otherwise you end up with with a group of a group of people that everybody believes something different that's not what we want that's not what we want so look many things and look and what here's what's really funny because this is just as Solomon said I mean it's not really funny but just as Solomon said you know that there's no new thing under the sun it's funny because one of the main things that needs to be preached again and again today is exactly one of these things that needed to be preached again and again to these people and that is fornication it's interesting that just like one of the things that I make sure I'm I have to preach on fornication like I make sure I preach on fornication maybe I don't do a full sermon on it you know every three months but I make sure I bring up fornication many many times in the year and throughout the preaching you say why because it is in is it in it's ingrained in our culture today that's why so I know that anybody that comes in new to the church that maybe hasn't been you know in a Bible believing church or a Bible preaching church before I know that they've been part of this culture where fornication is just universally accepted so it's something that just needs to be preached again and again and again because look it's it's it was it was one of the four things that James told the Gentiles and they need to stop doing it and it's one of the things that Paul brings up in 1st Corinthians 5 that is not to be allowed in the church look fornication that specific sin right there the Bible says it's a sin against yourself it has much danger for the individual first of all it has a lot of danger for the individual it has a lot of danger for the individual physically it has a lot of danger for the individual spiritually fornication can can fornication from years and years and years and years ago can knock somebody out of the Christian life years down the road fornication is an extremely serious sin and look just for the individual it's very dangerous in many different aspects I mean I'm not preaching a sermon on fornication tonight but I just find it interesting that one of the things that I will bring up again and again and that James is having to bring up again and again and Paul is the same thing because you know there's no new thing under the sun and of course fornication is also a very big thing in the church as well you know the Bible is very clear that fornication you know cannot pervade the church it cannot be in the church and look it's it's not about you know beating people up and it's not about you know having somebody that comes in as a new Christian we're not going to guide them and things like this but the Bible says that these things look I can't stand up here and preach against these things and preach what the Bible says if everybody's just doing whatever they want and it's it will just show everybody especially the young people in the church that what is preached is not really what is practiced and what is believed okay so anyway all that to say this there's going to be doctrines that you're going to see that will just get repeated again and again and again every single year because our culture is pushing things that are against the Bible so as as the preacher of the Word of God I must push back against those things as people keep coming into the church go back to Acts chapter 21 so look it's just what they're dealing with here it's just more Jews are coming in more Gentiles are getting saved and the Jews that are believing they're having the same issue that the Jews before had all right so look they kind of have they kind of have a little bit of a solution a little bit of an olive branch so to speak that they have an idea they're like hey Paul since you're this evangelist that goes out turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 9 they say since you've been going out and you've been preaching to the Gentiles and everybody thinks you're just telling them to throw the law off and you know the law doesn't mean anything and all these Jews that have grown up with the customs and grown up with the law you know they're all offended about this they're like we got some guys that are going through there at the end of their Nazarite vow I'm not going to preach to the Nazarite vow again but they're at the end of their Nazarite vow they're going to go through their purification process where they shave their head and they go you know they're just like hey could you go just do that with them so that'll kind of throw a bone or an olive branch to the people that that are saying that you just like you just despise the law all right and Paul's like hey no problem right so Paul's going to do this verse 26 you're going to 1 Corinthians chapter 9 then Paul took the men and the next day purifying himself with them entered into the temple to signify the accomplishment of the days of purification until that an offering should be offered for every one of them so he goes and he participates in this Jewish custom at the end of this Nazarite vow just to show them hey I don't I don't hate the law I don't despise you know the law it's just not the gospel is what Paul is saying so look at 1st Corinthians chapter 9 this is exactly what Paul is doing here in 1st Corinthians chapter 9 which is going to lead me to another point that we see today as well but look what Paul says so we see Paul putting in action what he says in 1st Corinthians chapter 9 here so we got some Jews are all offended that the Gentiles are getting saved they're coming in and they just don't they don't like what they eat they don't like what they do they don't like what that they don't know anything about the law don't practice the law and under the Jews look Paul says this under the Jews I became as a Jew that I might gain the Jews to them that are under the law as under the law that I might gain them that are under the law so Paul saying here look when I'm out that I might he's talking about gaining them in Christ he's talking about being able to preach the gospel to them which is going to lead me to the last point that I have this evening but now look at verse 21 so in verse number 20 is what we see Paul doing in Acts chapter 21 to them that are without the law as without the law now this is super important here because this is basically like the the liberal Christian right here can just twist this one out of context but you got to look at the parentheses okay so he says as to those as to them that are without the law as without the law so if you just took that you could be like oh man Paul just goes out and just does whatever he wants just to fit in with everybody but look at the parentheses it says being not without law to God but under the law to Christ that I might gain them that are without the law what he's saying here is that when he's amongst the Gentiles he's not going out pushing all these customs on them he's not putting all these carnal ordinances on them from circumcision to look Peter got in trouble for this too for you know what you should eat that's unclean and what you should eat that's clean and just kind of being like this this prima donna you know with the Gentiles he's not talking about you know going to the bar with them he's not talking about going and getting into a bunch of sin because he says I'm not without the law to God so this is a problem today look it's not a sin to get circumcised it's not a sin to take a vow it's just or to take a Nazarite vow and to do this purification it just doesn't have anything to do with salvation you know it's not a sin to follow you know this law it's only bad if you add it to the gospel that's that's the problem so Paul is just saying like look I'm not going out and and and getting into fornication and going to the bar with all these people or getting into sin with these people but see this is where like lifestyle evangelism today leads there's two problems that that it just this reminded me of of lifestyle evangelism today and the first one is lifestyle evangelism to people to people that you know don't really go out preaching the gospel lifestyle evangelism really just becomes a lifestyle it just really just becomes like okay I'm like I'm like I go along with all the sinners but I'm just not as bad as them or something like that I don't know or they justify you know being along in sinful situations and look basically not being separate which is the Bible what the Bible tells us to be that come out from among them and be separate say at the Lord they justify they justify lifestyle evangelism they use they use first Corinthians chapter 9 to say oh yeah you know I just need to be amongst them this is this is the the the Christians the Christian denominations which are all corrupt by the way the Christian denominations that say yeah you shouldn't take your kids out of public school because your kids should go into public school because they'll be an example to the other children in the school because they'll go and know they'll be a they'll be a witness to them through their lifestyle evangelism because that's what we know with kids right we know that the best kids always influence the you know the the the worst right no it works the opposite okay so the first thing is it ends up just being a sinful lifestyle is what it ends up being for people and the second thing is there's no evangelism so this is the life lifestyle evangelism to you know the liberal Christian today means I mean we just heard it today somebody told us at the door like you know well what do you need to do to go to heaven well you need to spread the word what word what word have you ever been out you know doing what they've never been out doing what we're doing they're just saying they're just saying things they're just saying things that people repeated they don't know what they're talking about there is no evangelism this is the problem this is how you get a church full of people there's no evangelism what's let's pretend they have the right gospel there's no evangelism they all look like the world they all hang out with the world there's no separation and there's nothing that's that's lifestyle evangelism today basically it's a cop-out it is what it is and that is exactly what Paul is not doing so Paul says look when it when it Paul's talking about being a good soul winner in 1st Corinthians chapter 9 he's saying hey when I'm amongst the Jews I'm not gonna offend them with with silly little things that have nothing to do with the gospel and he's basically saying the same thing amongst the Gentiles he's like I'm just gonna go amongst the Gentiles I'm not going into sin I'm not gonna push a bunch of stuff on them that has nothing to do with salvation all right so look lifestyle evangelism today is exactly the opposite of what Paul's talking about in 1st Corinthians chapter 9 everything that Paul does is it has an end to it and I'm gonna show you what that end is in a few minutes let's keep reading go back to Acts chapter 21 now we're gonna see Agabus's prophecy come true here look at Acts chapter 21 look at verse number 27 and when the seven days were almost ended the Jews which were of Asia here they come again when they saw him in the temple stirred up all the people these are the just remember these are the Jews of Asia where Paul has been doing a lot of his missionary journeys Asia meaning you know modern-day Turkey where he was it at the 1st and the 2nd missionary journeys he was pretty much he was in Asia a good percentage of the time in those journeys that that's where the entire 1st missionary journey was spent in Asia they're still after him these are the people that stoned him you know thought he was dead you know there's still coming for him when they saw him in the temple they stirred up all the people and laid hands on him crying out men of Israel help this is the man that teaches all men everywhere against the people and the law and this place and further brought Greeks also into the temple and have polluted this holy place I mean talk about racist you know I don't believe in you know even the term you know I'm using a worldly term here okay but I mean talk about just like totally they're not of us you know they're you know they you've polluted this place by bringing that that nationality of person in here that's really the biblical term is the nationality but look at verse 29 for they had seen before with him the city trophomus and Ephesians Ephesus of course is in Asia whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple and the city all the city was moved and the people ran together they took Paul drew him out of the temple and forthwith the doors were shut so now they have Paul all right I want you to just just you should picture these things when you're reading this stuff right so they they got him they seized him all right and as they were about to kill him tidings came under the chief captain of the band that all Jerusalem was in an uproar who immediately took soldiers and centurions and ran down under them and when they saw the chief captain the soldiers they left beating of Paul so here's the timeline of events here so they grabbed Paul out of the temple and begin beating him to kill him they begin trying to beat him to death okay and it takes they're beating him to death and tell word can get to the I mean they don't have like you know text messages and you know Instagram or whatever else you know it's not like it's not like the chief captain of the band is getting paged like we got a problem here it's like somebody went over to the chief captain of the at the Roman garrison wherever that was you know told him hey we got a problem in the in the temple you know outside the temple like the whole time they're beating Paul trying to beat him to death okay and you know finally you know he gets he gets the soldiers together he ran down under them they saw the chief captain soldiers they left beating of Paul so I guess the only point of trying to make in verse number you know 20 21 and 30 31 and 32 is that you know probably Paul is probably in pretty bad shape at this point you know probably he took a little bit of a beating here it's not like they just shook him up a little bit and then this guy was suddenly right there all right the word had to get to him he had to get his people together get over there and stop this all right so look the Gentiles this is exactly what Agaba said in verse number 11 right that he would be brought into he would be given into the hands of the Gentiles Gentiles being who the Romans all right that's what we're talking about here look at verse 33 then the chief captain came near and took him and commanded him to be bound with two chains and demanded who he was and what he done he's like hey what's going on here it's like choose are causing trouble again this is this is getting you got to understand the situation in Jerusalem to this is very close to when like the temple I mean we're talking like within 10 years of the Romans just being like we're done with this and they're just going to kick all the Jews out of Jerusalem there's this big war and that's when the temple is destroyed in 70 AD all right so like they're getting you know they're already irritated with the situation so he's asking what's going on what have you done you know what what is this guy done and they all scream out some cried one thing some another it's this huge mob and when he could not know the certainty for the tumult he commanded him to be carried into the castle when he came upon the stairs so it was that he was born of the soldiers for the violence of the people so he was like literally like had to be carried up the stairs at this point because he had been beaten so bad all right so he was basically carried up the stairs and the people are still trying to get at him for the multitude of people followed after crying away with him and as Paul was to be led into the castle he said under the chief captain so now I gotta just remember who's talking here Paul says to the chief captain may I speak unto thee who said now the captain speaking okay who said can't thou speak Greek and then the captain is still speaking in verse number 38 all right that can be a little confusing says art thou not that art not thou that Egyptian which before these days made us an uproar and led us out into the wilderness 4,000 men that were murderers so this chief captain thinks that he's this guy that basically led this this violent insurrection or whatever right he he he assumes that he's this leader of in verse number 38 this is the chief captain now in verse 39 we see Paul replies and says but Paul said now Paul starts to tell him like who he is Paul said I am a man which is a Jew of Tarsus a city in Solicia you know this is an interesting statement here he says a citizen of no mean city so what he's saying there is is I have to assume that this captain knows what he's talking about no mean city means I am a citizen of no ordinary city or no and so the captain is immediately going to know that Paul is saying I am a Roman citizen here okay so Paul is basically telling the captain like I'm a Jew okay I'm a Jew and I'm from a city in Sicily but the most important thing is where he's a citizen of all right he's a citizen of Rome and I beseech thee suffer me to speak unto the people so he kind of pulls his I mean because Paul is a Roman citizen and he we find that out you know in a much more direct way later but Paul's a Roman citizen and Paul has been beaten probably nearly to death and he pulls out this card like I just want to talk to you he's like I just want to oh no he says I want to speak unto the people and you know why because he's saying because I'm a Roman citizen let me speak to the people all right look at verse number 40 and when he had given him license so it worked I mean he basically said to the chief captain let me speak to the people I'm a Roman citizen I'm a Jew and a Roman citizen let me speak to the people and the captain allows it and when he given him license Paul stood on the stairs and beckon with the hand out of the people and he said and when there was made a great silence he spoke unto them in the Hebrew song saying and I'm not going to go into the speech that Paul gives but here's the point I want to make right here's the point I want to make at the end of this sermon there's major trouble here again Paul is protected by God he is he is just as verse 11 said Agba said Paul would be taken by the Gentiles that happened that was fulfilled Paul uses the fact that he's a Roman citizen to give him permission to speak to this mob okay now he's up there he's beaten half the death and he has the opportunity to speak to this mob to do what to explain himself to to calm them down to to get so they don't want to hurt him anymore no Paul gets up there and he uses all his methods and means with this chief captain to get opportunity to speak to the people to preach the gospel Paul was in constant soul winning mode I mean think about it he is beaten half the death this whole time you have to carry him up the stairs Lord knows what he looks like at this point and what he feels like and what he can do but he's he's just like he just constantly just I mean isn't this what Paul said in Acts chapter 20 in Acts chapter 21 I don't care about my life like apparently he was not just saying words apparently he meant it he cared nothing about his life all he was looking for was just another way to be able to preach the gospel to this group of people that had just tried to kill him so I guess the takeaway here I have two points I have two points tonight with with what Paul just went through and look he gets up and he preaches the gospel and we'll look at that in chapter 22 next week but the point is we need to be confrontational with the gospel you say what do you mean here's the problem nobody wants to confront anyone today Paul was in constant soul winning mode and he was constantly were were these people confrontational were these people upset with what he was saying yes they were and he was still confronting them with the gospel look we're not when we go out that's why we do that's why it's actually you actually call it confrontational soul winning when we go out soul winning but the point is we're not out there trying to be jerks don't get me wrong you know we're not out there trying to be jerks to people but hey at the end of the day if you're gonna do this whole lifestyle evangelism where I'm gonna be I'm gonna try to get to be best friends with somebody and I'm gonna become a missionary that has to go somewhere I don't speak the language and I'm going to learn every custom and every every piece of the language for three years before I even bring up word Jesus to somebody I mean the point is you know if it's not going to work anyway because there's not going to be that perfect moment where you can preach the gospel to somebody and they won't be offended it's a complete waste of time and that that is what you see today is just this nobody wants to confront anyone today we can't we can't I mean look Christians are buying into this Christians are buying into this we don't want to we just don't want to offend some other belief or some other doctrine or whatever but the point is folks that in the second point is you need to get to that moment of confrontation in order to get somebody saved you need to be there well you say why because people need to realize that they are wrong people need to realize that their belief that they have is incorrect because that is how you are saved by repenting from that false belief whatever it may be whatever kind of whatever version of works soup that is repenting from that and changing your mind and believing and trusting only on Jesus look people have to get to that point and you know what that takes it takes confrontation of that belief that's what it takes this is what repent actually means they have to know the difference between believing that you can lose your salvation and believing that you can't in eternal security that difference must be made clear to people otherwise it's the difference between salvation and not and now you know what people that are great soul winners people that are great soul winners I mean like just really great soul winners they're very likeable and they they can many times do this confrontation in a way that shows that they are doing it because they care not because they're trying to win a debate or win an argument or prove that they're right or whatever these are the great soul winners are the people that can go and really make personal connections with people or somebody and I mean and to make a personal connection with somebody you just met you know look you're not going to learn that in one day you're not going to learn that in one week that takes years and years and years of going out and just presenting people with the gospel confronting people with the gospel but here's the thing folks whether you're good at it or not as good at it if you don't have a humble person sitting in front of you it's it's not going to make any difference the best soul winner could go up to a a person that's prideful and that is that is stuck in their beliefs and the best soul winner is not is not going to be able to break down that pride while that person has a heart problem there's nothing we can do there no matter how great of a soul winner that you are but look door to door another thing door to door soul winning is just the beginning it's just the beginning you think about paul here how he was just constantly you know he's being dragged up these stairs he's constantly thinking how can i get permission to speak to these people why so i can preach the gospel how can i how can i find another opportunity to preach the gospel here that's what he's thinking and he uses his he uses the fact that where he's from he is the fact that what he's a citizen of he's throwing all kinds of cards out there why not to get himself out of chains but to be able to speak the gospel more not to you know not to win an argument but the point is we have to be you know not afraid of confrontation because paul these people were upset why were they upset in the first place they were upset because he was preaching the gospel so he gets all this permission to go and just like confront them again with the gospel look folks we're not trying to win arguments here you know we're not trying to win debates here but you think you have to understand is like hell is on the line you know i mean you look at you know people will say oh you know why do you have to why do you have to be so hard on the Catholics you know why do you have to be you know so hard on the Mormons why do you have to be so difficult pastor jared on pentecostals all the time it's because we love them that's why it's because we actually care about them i don't love the people that are teaching them those things i mean even the we met a baptist today who told us he's at his church he says i go to a baptist church and we're discussing all the time how to get to heaven and we just don't know and i told the the people we were sowning with i was like you know that kind of pastor that's meeting a church just to say he's a leader of a church has no idea what the gospel is isn't saved and is leading people astray like that that guy's going to be next to hitler in hell i don't care what his denomination is or whatever because look folks hell is real and you're you are going to have to be willing to offend in order to you know get people to the truth but look this is what you're seeing today it's just we want to just be lighter we want to just be lighter with people just lighter lighter oh no no no i'm not gonna i'm not gonna preach i don't want to preach about hell from the pulpit anymore i just want to be lighter i just want to be lighter i want to bring up hell you don't hear about hell today in christian churches today you're not going to hear you know some fire breathing sermon about how the unsaved people are going to go to hell so you don't so you just take hell out we'll just take hell out of the out of the preaching i know it's in the bible but we'll just take it out because people don't like to hear that people don't like to hear because you know what all these people in my church that aren't separated that that are that are going to you know family events all the time with all their their catholic and pentecostal and protestants and and jovis witness and Mormon you know family members and whatever they don't like to think about the fact that they might be going to hell that it's even a possibility so let's just take it out the problem is it's not true about this let's not talk about sin anymore it's not about it's just you know everything's okay everything's okay somebody told me uh somebody told me the other day and i finally found the verse this is so funny that this happened like three weeks ago you know somebody that we were out preaching i think this person ended up getting saved but they're like yeah you know come as you are that's what the bible says and i'm just like man i was just thinking like garret and i were just batting this one around a little bit like wonder what verse they think that that's coming from you know what it is i saw a plaque in a store like three days later john six thirty seven the plaque it literally it was a cross go ahead and turn there go ahead and turn there well let's turn there together john six thirty seven the plaque and you know one of these little gift shops you buy all these cute little bible sayings that you hang on your refrigerator and and it said john six thirty seven here's what it said come as you are quote unquote john six thirty seven look at this and i'm like oh man i like i'm just apparently so i we turn you know turn there john six thirty seven all that the father giveeth me shall come to me and him that come up to me i will in no wise cast out that means come as you are like every single wicked murdering pervert whatever just come on in that's what that means it's just like what in the world you know i mean but that's what it said come as you are john six thirty seven and i wouldn't even have guessed that verse to mean that but the point is that's what happens when you have you know just this lighter and lighter and lighter attitude and oh we don't want to talk about fronication we don't want to talk about sin we don't want to talk about you know how we should be separate or how we should look different or act different or any of these things you know because the bible just it's not part of the gospel but we don't want to talk about these things in the bible but that's where this leads because it's all because nobody wants to offend anyone today but here's the problem folks you know that all these churches that don't teach hell they don't teach first of all they all most of them have false gospels but these churches that don't teach these things that would offend people turn to john fifteen and verse number eighteen john fifteen and verse number eighteen the thing they have to understand the thing that you have to understand is that jesus told us in john fifteen eighteen he says if the world hate you you know that it hated me before it hated you the thing that you have to understand is it's not the preaching on sin it's not hell it's not and yes we are going to talk to people about hell yes we're going to go to the door i can't believe you go to somebody's door and tell them they're going to go to hell you bet we do because that's what the bible says and and look if if i lie to people do i love them if we go and we lie to people that's why that preacher that stands up and he lies to his congregation that false prophet that lies to his congregation has nobody you know just getting up there just for his own filthy lucruous sake getting up there telling people good news good news good news sending everybody to hell he's going to be he's going to be as lower lower than anybody else in hell but yeah you're we get up there we tell hey you're a sinner yeah yeah this is what you're facing right now i remember feeling that after i got saved and then i knew people that i knew that were saved and i saw them years later and i was like why in the world didn't you tell me i was mad at them this one specific guy i was like i asked him first i said i got to see him a couple years later i said you knew i wasn't saved didn't you and he said yeah i did i was like thanks jerkface you know i was you know then we laugh but i mean i'm serious thanks a lot but no no no we don't want to offend anybody please offend me hey if i'm walking towards like a woodchipper and i'm going to fall off a cliff and you know die please let me know but this is this is what's happening today because we don't want to offend anybody that's why we confront people that's why we're confrontational look i want to be as good at it as i possibly can be but the end of the day it's the gospel that offends that's the problem so don't be like oh man i i just i i'm nervous to bring up the hell verses because because no it's the gospel that offends folks it's the gospel that offends all you can do is sincerely have a heart that cares and hope you're talking to somebody that has a humble heart and if you're talking to somebody that has a humble heart they will accept it because none of the other stuff makes any sense at all so look this is what we see with paul here this is what we see with paul here and you know what um you'll see this you go on mission trips you'll see this you'll see this you'll see people that are just like you know i mean we go on mission trips and there'll be soul winning times from this time to this time and this time to this time then you'll see certain people that are just like they're just like in soul winning mode for like the whole week and they're just getting like double the salvation's like triple the salvation's everybody else because like they're going out to dinner getting people saved they're just like constantly just looking for that you know way to just work the conversation into somebody else, you know, from that place that we're at or whatever. And that was Paul. Paul was just in constant soul-warning mode and he was not afraid to confront people with the gospel. So look, don't think like, oh man, you know, a bunch of people got offended today when I went out and preached the gospel. Jesus offends people. Jesus said, I came here to divide. This is a fake Christianity. This fake Christianity that Jesus wants to bring everyone together. No, Jesus said, I divide people. He said, I divide households. If you go out and you preach the gospel like you're supposed to preach, he's like, even fathers and mothers and daughters and sons will be divided over it. And look, because it's confrontational, the gospel offends people. So don't feel like, oh man, you know, I'm gonna go out and that's, I mean, that's the way it is. I tell you this so you're not offended. You know, so when you go out and you preach the gospel to people and this happens, you know you're doing it right. You know you're doing it correctly because that's exactly what happened to Paul and that's exactly who he was his whole life. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.