 Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to Unfiltered. Pastor David, welcome. Thank you. You know, Pastor, in Mark chapter 5 we read of a demoniac that tells us in verses 1 through 6, the life without Jesus. And eventually he has an encounter with Christ and Christ delivers him from all these demons. And what made the people afraid later is, we know the story, is that when they seen the one who had been demon-possessed, he was sitting in his right mind, fully clothed, sitting at the feet of Jesus. And he wanted to go with Jesus to travel with him. And I like what it says here, Jesus did not permit him, but said to him, go home to your friends and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you and how he has compassion on you. Why then, with Jesus doing such amazing things in the people, the life of those in the church, why is it so hard to stand up? And why has the church become weak in some areas when we really understand what Jesus has done for us? I don't know if people really understand what Jesus has done. I think the simple answer to that is there's a shallowness that is associated with many people's professed faith in Christ. It's just an honest statement. There really aren't that many people, when it comes down to regular church, even regular church attendees, John, who really remember or perhaps are fully experienced with the salvation of Christ really is. It's not to say, and I'm certainly not judging people in terms of their true salvation. Salvation is not by works, it's received by grace through faith. And yet I really believe that there are quite a number of people who've gotten caught up with just the daily affairs or perhaps never really understood the depth of their own sin and the judgment that they'd been saved from. Now, this demonic had, he knew what it was like to be in constant pain and he is cutting himself with stones and he was violent and nobody could control him. This is a man who understood the pain of demonic possession and the evil that he had within him through the demons and all. And so, I just think that people just fail to understand the amazing grace of God and sometimes unfortunately take it for granted. I honestly believe that the emphasis of grace as we understand it is misunderstood many times by those who've been saved by it and so that they will use it as an excuse to continue in sin believing that because God is gracious, he therefore is tolerant of their evil. So, I don't know that they're going to churches that are encouraging them to actually read. Sometimes they are going to churches that encourage them to read the Word of God, but maybe they're not, maybe they're just speed reading the Bible. Maybe the only time they ever hear anything is when they sit in a pew and the pastor says open your Bible, if he even does that at all, because there are quite a number of churches that don't even require a Bible. You know, they don't require a Bible of you and so very often they're not even being taught or exhorted or encouraged and maybe they've just forgotten. Maybe their life has become so busy with other things that they don't spend time seated at the feet of Jesus and therefore aren't really wanting to tell people how great he is. There are quite a number of people, I think, who may very well be surprised on the day of judgment, John, and I say that honestly because Jesus himself said it because they said to him, you know, we cast out demons in your name, etc., and he says, I never knew you. There will be quite a number of people who will be, and Jesus illustrated it, we didn't. It was he and Matthew 7 who made that statement. There are going to be many who had a false profession and a false understanding and one last thing will be going on Sunday, going through this passage where the apostles had been forbidden to speak in the name of Jesus, but they continued doing so. They were arrested once again, they're taken before the council, and this time they're beaten. And again, don't be speaking in this man's name, and what is their response? Their response is that they rejoiced that they were found worthy to suffer for Jesus Christ. That is very convicting to me. Would I be rejoicing that I was found worthy to suffer for Jesus Christ? You know, most people including myself would feel that God somehow had taken his hand off of us, but they knew because Jesus prepared them, and they didn't expect to be everybody's best friend. And so I think that today, many Christians have not understood the full council. Well, thank you, Pastor. I just wanted to clarify that because Jesus instructs them to go and share, and what a testimony that we have of God's grace. We do want to share with you, Church Family, that tomorrow evening our service is at 7 p.m., taking us through the book of Romans, and we'll be celebrating communion as a Church Family. So we look forward to having you come out and join us. Pastor David, thank you so much. Thank you guys for tuning in, and God bless you.