 Alright, so keep your place in Acts chapter 26 and turn to Colossians chapter 4, Colossians chapter 4. So we're finishing up Colossians chapter 4 this evening and we're going to go back to Acts chapter 26, but we've been spending several weeks in Colossians chapter 4. So we're going to finish it up this evening. Tonight we're going to talk about foundations, we're going to talk about Paul's foundations, we're going to talk about our foundations, how Paul's foundations apply to our foundations. So before we get into that closing message that Paul has at the end of Colossians 4, let's finish up looking at a couple of the people that Paul is calling out here. So Paul, we've been looking kind of at Team Paul here. We've been exploring some of the names that he's been bringing up at the end of the book of Colossians. Look down at Colossians chapter 4 in verse number 11. He names a couple other people here and we'll look at detail especially at one of them, but look at verse number 11. He says in Jesus, which is called Justice, who are of the circumcision, these are only my fellow workers unto the kingdom of God, which have been a comfort unto me. So he names out this man called Jesus, or another name for that is Justice. This is not Jesus Christ. This is just another disciple who's helping out Paul. So Justice, there's not a lot about Justice. We actually don't even really know which Justice this is. If you remember after Judas Iscariot killed himself after he betrayed Christ, they chose two men, Matthias and the other one had a surname named Justice in Acts chapter 1 in verse number 23. That could have been this man. Also in Acts 18, Paul runs across a man called Justice who was a believer as well. That could have been the Justice that we're talking about here. It just isn't much else talked about in the Bible about this man. In verse 12, the Bible says, "'…who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluted you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the word of God. For I bear him record that he hath a great zeal for you and to them that are in Laodicea and them in Heropolis.'" So this is another one of Paul's trusted messengers, Epaphras. Go back to Colossians chapter 1. He's also mentioned in Colossians chapter 1 where it says in verse number 7, "'…as you learned of Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ, who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit.'" So this is another man that Paul was using to tell the churches about his situation and then he would also bring Paul a report back of how those churches were doing. Just another one of Paul's trusted team, his trusted members that were going out to, you know, deliver his message and bring information back to Paul. All right, because look, I mean, Paul needed information to know what to write in these letters to these churches. If you look at 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, that's a great example of that. So these men wore Paul's eyes and ears. Because where was Paul when he was writing this letter? You know, Paul was in in bonds. We'll talk about that later. But now look at verse number 14 of Colossians chapter 4. And then he says in Luke chapter, in Colossians chapter 4 verse 14, he says, "'…Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you.'" So here he mentions Luke, who is the physician. And Luke is actually the author of the Gospel of Luke. Go figure, right? But a lot of people don't know that Luke also wrote the Book of Acts, which is why we read a certain chapter from the Book of Acts. So the point I want to make when talking about Luke this evening is we see that Paul had a team here that he would send people out. Paul was many times bound. He couldn't go places. It's not that he didn't want to visit it everywhere, but he couldn't be everywhere at one time. And many times he was actually in prison. So he used people to go out. But God also used people like Luke to do a lot of the writing of the New Testament. Now Luke was a very special person. Go to Acts chapter 27. Luke was a very experienced person. Obviously the Bible says here he was a physician. But my favorite chapter in the Book of Acts is actually Acts chapter 27. And I want to show you tonight that I believe that Luke had a lot of life experience. I believe Luke was actually, he was either a sailor or he had much experience as a mariner. Because if you read Acts chapter 27, what we see in Acts chapter 27, we read Acts chapter 26 before the sermon. Acts chapter 26 is when Paul is in Caesarea. Paul is in Caesarea, which is right on the coast of Judea, it's northwest of Jerusalem, but it's not across the Mediterranean Sea and where did Paul want to go? Paul wanted to go to Rome and he actually got to Rome. He got to Rome in Acts chapter 28. But to get to Rome from Caesarea is about a thousand mile trip across the Mediterranean Sea. That is a long voyage across a body of water. And if you read the details of Acts chapter 27, you can see that Luke was a very special writer. He was a very special writer. Luke writes like a detailed novelist. When you read Acts chapter 27, it's like you're there. It's like you can see yourself in, writers that were like this that remind me of this are like Charles Dickens writes like this. If you ever read a Charles Dickens book, you can't read a Charles Dickens book like super fast because he's just, he's so detailed explaining when you read a Charles Dickens book, you can see the people in the room. You can almost know what they look like. You can hear what they sound like. You can almost like get a feel for the scenes in a book like this. This is how Luke writes. And Luke 27 is a perfect example of this. So he traveled, he traveled with Paul on Paul's second and third missionary journey. So he has a very good grasp of the book of Acts that he wrote. Now look at the detail in Acts chapter 27. Acts chapter 27, just look at the detail. So here we see in Acts 27, we're getting a story of this voyage that they took across the Mediterranean Sea trying to get to Rome. And if you look at the detail of Acts chapter 27, look down at verse number nine. It said now, when much time was spent when the sailing was now dangerous because the fast was now already passed, Paul admonished them. What Luke is saying here is that, the season for sailing in this direction is over. And this is just a truth. Across the sea, it's known that in the fall towards the winter, the seas get rougher. It's not a time to be out on large bodies of water. Then look at what he says in verse 13. He says, and when the south wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained their purpose, loosing thence, they sailed close to Crete. So what happened was, see sailing back in this time, you had to have a wind behind you. You had to have a wind that was either, that was coming behind you in some way. There was no way to sail into the wind until like the sixth century when they invented the keel and that's a whole another thing. But the point is they had to wait for the wind to be right. And Paul here is, or I'm sorry, Luke is explaining that the time for that wind had passed but then they got a south wind and they're like, yay, we can make it. And Paul's warning them against it. But Luke is saying a south wind meaning a wind from the south because they have to travel, they have to travel upwards to Italy. It's not just straight west. It's northwest is where they have to go. So a south wind is a wind that is blowing north. So he's very detailed with his description of what happened here. Look down at verse number 15. The Bible says in Acts 27, 15, and when the ship was caught it could not bear up into the wind, we let her drive. What he's saying here, see this is the sailor in Luke talking. He's saying the ship was caught, the wind changed and we couldn't sail, we couldn't sail because the wind was against us. And he's saying we let the ship drive meaning we were being pushed by the wind is what he's saying. And we're being pushed in the wrong direction. Look down at verse number 17. Now he gets into some real detail here that shows you that Luke, he's either done this before or he knows what's happening which when they had taken up they used helps undergirding the ship and fearing less they should fall into the quicksands, straight sail and so were driven. So they got into a contrary wind to the way they wanted to go and what they did was they straight the sails. I mean, modern sailors would call this reefing the sails. What they did was they bring the sails down to a minimal surface area and that's how you sail in a storm. So you're not just have no sails and just being pushed any way you want. They're still sailing to a degree but they've taken the sails down to a minimum so they're not pushed over by the wind. So Luke knows what he's talking about. He's a very detailed writer here when it comes to this, this maritime event that they're going through and then look what he says in verse number 17 he says that they should fall into the quicksands. What he's talking about here is the danger of being pushed onto a shoal. So what's happening is they're being, they wanted to go from Caesarea up to Rome and instead they're being pushed below if you look at a map after the sermon, they're being pushed below these islands of Crete, these islands of Malta and they're being pushed closer to North Africa really is what it is and there's shallows there. There's, if you look this up there's many shallows and shoals in that area. Now what's dangerous for a ship you would think in high seas, you know in bad seas you wanna get close to shore but actually that's not what you want. In bad weather, in bad seas the shore especially getting beached on a shoal is extremely dangerous and it will break apart the ship which is why he's saying they undergirded the ship here. What they did was they literally took ropes and they went underneath the ship and they tied the ship together. In case they would get caught up on one of these shoals and the waves would beat the ship to pieces. They were trying to hold the ship together and then if you read the rest of the chapter they're throwing things out of the ship. They're throwing things out of the ship so the draft of the ship will be less and they can ride higher in the water and they won't get caught up on one of these shoals. Luke knows what he's talking about here. Luke is a very educated man, a very experienced man and he was very in tune to this story and he was also there but he knew what was happening when this was going on. I remember Garrett and I when Garrett was about six years old we were on a kayak trip on the Missouri River and it was really, it was really, now the Missouri River in North Dakota is different than the rivers that you have in California. Rivers you have in California are, they're fast moving, they're smaller. The Missouri River at places is over a half mile wide so it's almost like being on a large body of water that's moving at six or seven miles an hour because of the current. Well what happened was we actually got in kind of a rainstorm and we were okay. We had our rain gear on and everything and everything was covered but we got caught up on a sandbar in this storm and that's when the trouble really set in. We got caught up on a sandbar out in the middle of a half mile wide river and everything's fine. You're going with the waves, everything's good. We got caught up on a shoal and the waves just beat, they beat our gear off of the kayak. It was, I mean, it was a, you know, a fairly scary situation, you know? So once we got off the shoal everything was fine but this is what they're trying to avoid right here is getting hung up and then the boat gets beat to pieces. So they're undergirding the ship, they're offloading. I mean they got to the point where they were literally throwing the tackle. They were literally throwing the blocks and the pulleys and the gear that they used to sail off of the ship to stop this disaster from happening. He talks about sounding. He talks about sounding for depth, how they could see, you know, how close they were getting to shore. If you look down at verse number 28, he says, and we sounded and sounded and found it 20 fathoms. A fathom is six feet. The only person that talks in fathoms, by the way, is a sailor, okay? You don't talk in fathoms as a normal person and when they had gone a little further they sounded again and found it 15 fathoms. What they're doing is they're dropping a weight on a rope and they're seeing how deep the water is. They're seeing how, are we going towards shore? Are we going away from shore? So they're saying we're 120 feet deep. Then we're 100, you know, what is it, 90 feet deep? So they're seeing that they're closer to shore and then they start throwing out the anchors. So Luke is a very educated man. He's a very experienced person and he just writes a great narrative in the Bible for us here. So we see that men were used by Paul. Men were used by God to help Paul, not only as a messenger, but also as writers. You know, a lot of times we give Paul credit for, you know, he wrote much of the New Testament but Luke is also a great writer, a great experienced person. You can see in Acts 27, especially, why God used him to write Acts and to write the Gospel of Luke. Go back to Colossians. Go back to Colossians. He gives great detail of that endeavor. I love writing like that. It almost puts you there when you're reading things like that. Look at Colossians chapter one, I'm sorry, Colossians chapter four and look at verse number 15. Colossians chapter four, moving through. Look at verse number 15. Salute the brethren, which are in Laodicea, and Nymphus and the church which is in his house. And when this epistle is read among you, cause it to be read also in the church of the Laodiceans and that he likewise read the epistle from Laodicea. So look, this is proving, turn to 2 Timothy chapter three. This right here, this is a great little verse because this proves that all scripture is profitable for us. You know, he's saying, hey, take this letter that I'm writing to you, the Colossians, and share it with the other church. Share it with them and then I wrote them a letter, share that with you. He's saying, all scripture is profitable for you. Look at 2 Timothy chapter three, look at verse 16. The Bible says all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. So this is just total proof right here that the Bible's greatest miracle is that it's the only book that's ever been written that applies to everybody that's ever lived at all times. There's no other book that you could say that about. Now what people will do, what people will do when they're trying to either push a false doctrine or what many churches today, many liberal churches that they don't wanna take the Bible, they don't wanna like, there's a lot of things in the Bible that just kinda make people today be like, eh, you know there's a lot of things in the Bible like you know Romans one, you know like homosexuality and perversion and all these people they've been rejected by God. People don't wanna hear that today, so what people will do, how about this one? How about how a proper family is supposed to be structured, that a man is supposed to lead his home, that a woman is supposed to submit to her husband. Look these are things that just, they're not real popular today. And what people will do in liberal churches, churches that don't wanna preach the whole counsel of God, is they will just say well you know, those things, that was the culture back then. You know that doesn't really apply to us cause that's just kinda the culture that they had, look what they do is, what they do is they remove the Bible's greatest miracle. They remove the power of the Bible. They're just coming up with reasons to not literally believe the word of God is what they're doing. They're undoing the power of the word of God is what people are doing. Paul here is saying hey, this is profitable for everybody. This is profitable for the other churches. The letters I wrote them, they're profitable for you. He's like all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine. That's the greatest miracle of God's word is that it applies to everyone. Look down at Colossians chapter four in verse number 17. Look the Bible should be taken literally unless it's completely obvious that it's not to be literal. You know like I am the bread of life. Jesus is talking, he's talking as a metaphor there. He's talking figuratively in that sense and everyone's like what? Jesus is a loaf of bread. You know the Catholics still think Jesus is a loaf of bread. The Bible says all kinds of things many times we talked about in verse Peter three where it says you know the like figure on two. You know in those cases God is using you know metaphors. He's using analogies. He's using things that aren't to be taken literally but otherwise this is a literal book. This book is to be taken literally by us. Look at Colossians chapter four in verse 17. The Bible says and now we see somebody else and say to Archbis take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord that thou fulfill it. So we've heard of this guy before. Remember Philemon, you can go back to Philemon where I can just read it for you. He says that Archbis is this guy that is in Philemon's house and to our beloved Afiya and Archbis our fellow soldier into the church in thy house. This is more evidence in verse 17 that the church in Philemon's house is the church at Colossi. That they're the same thing. So there's basically two verses that prove that to us. This is the second one that we see is that this Archbis, he's speaking to him as he writes the letter to the Colossians church and Archbis is in the church in Philemon's house. So that shows you that Philemon, the church at Colossi, probably the same things. All right, but look, what is he telling this guy? What is he telling this guy? He's telling this guy. So we don't know a lot about this guy either but we know that he wants to go into the ministry. It says, take heed to the ministry which thou hast received or he has some ministry in front of him. So he's just saying, take heed to the ministry to fulfill it. This is a man that's heading into some kind of ministry. He's either training for the ministry, wants to be a pastor, whatever it is. But he's saying, take heed. He's like, pay attention to that. He's like, keep focused on that. He's telling Archbis, keep focused on the ministry that you want to go into. He's like, don't get distracted. Why? So you can fulfill it. He's like, so you can actually do it. Did you know that we need more ministers of the gospel? You know, this is no different than it is today. This also applies to us. We need more ministers of the gospel. The world needs more pastors that are preaching the true word of God, that are preaching the whole counsel of God. He's just saying, look, look man. He's like, keep your eye on the prize so you can fulfill this ministry that's in front of you and watch yourself. Take heed, he's saying. Look at verse number 18, Colossus chapter four and verse number 18. Now Paul ends and he says, the salutation by the hand of me, Paul. He's saying goodbye to them. He says, remember my bonds, grace be with you, amen. So he says the salutation of me, Paul. And then he puts in this phrase, he sandwiches this phrase, right in his final sentence to this church. He's just given one of the greatest epistles on the person and work of Jesus Christ. Chapter three and chapter four talks about our relations with each other, our relations with our employers, our relations with everybody around us. Colossians, these four chapters and Colossians are a very complete message to the Christian and how you should prosecute this life. And then look at what he says. He says, remember my bonds. He says, remember I'm in prison. What does he mean? He leaves them with these words. What is he saying? Like break me out? Like get a posse together and come get me? I mean, what is he saying? What is he saying? Well, I mean, he's probably saying pray for me. You know, you could probably assume that but turn to Philippians chapter one. He's saying much more than that by this. And we can tell by things that he's written elsewhere. Look at Philippians chapter one in verse number 14. He says, remember my bonds. He says, remember that I'm in prison is the final thing that he leaves them with. Look at verse 14 of Philippians chapter one. Paul says, and many of the brethren in the Lord waxing confident by my bonds are much more bold to speak the word without fear. This is what he's saying. He's not saying they're confident because they're in prison. He's saying, the brethren in the Lord, they are waxing confident because I'm in prison is what Paul is saying. He's saying, be strong through my prison. Be strong through my suffering is what Paul is saying. Turn to second Timothy chapter two. He, look what he's saying. He's saying, he's like, look if I can do it. Look at second Timothy chapter two. Second Timothy chapter two. You have to remember this about Paul. You know, what would your Christian life look like if you were thrown in prison for your Christian life? If it suddenly became a law in the United States, if you go to hold fast Baptist church, you will be arrested. And then you were arrested because you came here. What would your life look like the next day as you sat in jail? As you sat in prison, what would you do? Look at second Timothy chapter two in verse number nine. Look what Paul says here. He's in prison again. You guys in prison a lot. Where I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even on the bonds. He's like, I'm in prison. But guess what? But the word of God is not bound. He's still preaching. That's why we read Acts chapter 26. Go back there. Go back to Acts chapter 26. Paul preached to King Agrippa while he was in bonds, while he was in prison. Look, he wasn't just writing in prison. He was preaching in prison. Is that what you would be doing? Would you be sitting in prison for going to church for preaching the word of God, for going out soul winning? Would you be preaching the next day? That's what Paul was doing. He's still preaching. Look at verse number one of Acts 26. He says, then King Agrippa said unto Paul, thou art permitted to speak for thyself, then Paul stretched forth the hand and answered for himself. I think myself happy, King Agrippa, because I shall answer for myself this day before the touching all the things where I am accused of the Jews. Especially, and you'll notice, the reason that he gives the message like that he gives to King Agrippa is because of verse number three. You say, this sounds like a different soul winning message than the one that we go through. But look at verse number three. He knew that King Agrippa was a Jew and he knew that King Agrippa knew the prophecies of the coming Messiah and he knew all this. That's why he asked King Agrippa at the end. He's like, believe thou the prophets? He's like, do you believe the prophets? Because the Christ that I just preached to you has come. Look at verse three. Especially because I know thee to be an expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews, wherefore I beseech thee to hear me patiently. He's like, hear me out. I know you know everything about the Jewish religion. You know what the Bible says about this. Then he preaches Jesus to him in bonds, in prison. Look at verse 27. For sake of time, we skip down to verse number 27. He says, King Agrippa, what is he saying? He's like, believe us thou the prophets? He just gave this powerful witness on how Jesus literally knocked him off his horse. He was persecuting the Christians and it was Jesus. If you have a red letter Bible, the words in Acts chapter 26, they're red because that's what Jesus said to Paul. Those are Jesus' exact words to Paul. Look at verse 27. King Agrippa, believe thou the prophets? I know that thou believe us. He's saying, do you believe the prophecies that the Bible says about the coming Messiah? He says, I know you believe them. The only question is whether or not he believes Jesus is that Messiah. Now look at verse 28. Then King Agrippa said unto Paul, almost thou persuadeest me to be a Christian. So at that point he's thinking about it. He's like, you've almost persuaded me. But look, the point is Paul is still preaching in prison. Turn to Ephesians chapter six. Paul's in bonds, he is still preaching to actual people to their face. Look at Ephesians chapter six. Look at verse number 20. Ephesians chapter six, look at verse number 20. Ephesians chapter six, verse number 20. Look what Paul says. He says, for which I am an ambassador in bonds? That therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. He's like, I am a messenger of Christ in prison. This is what Paul is saying, remember my bonds. This, look, being in prison didn't stop Paul. He could have been like, man, you got me, you got me. Somebody else is gonna have to carry this football. Somebody else is gonna have to do all this work. But being in prison did not stop Paul. He just kept writing. He just kept sending people. He just kept receiving people. He just kept sending more people. Writing more, receiving more. Writing, writing, writing. Writing and sending, writing and sending. Preaching to people. Nothing would knock this guy off his horse. And ultimately that's what made him so great in the Bible right there. Is that he just, he couldn't be stopped. He couldn't be stopped. He wouldn't be stopped until his life was ended. The Bible doesn't give us that narrative. But I believe his life was ended eventually. So what profit can we take from this tonight? On a Wednesday night, looking at the Bible, what profit can we take from remembering Paul's bonds? What can stop you? This is what he means by remember my bonds. He's preaching to them through letters. The guy in Colossae, as he says, remember my bonds. The guy in Colossae who's quitting the Christian life to please his family or friends or whatever it is, he must feel pretty stupid when he reads that. Remember my bonds. The guy in Laodicea who's thinking about going into the ministry that drops out, not wanting to go, because you would just have an easier life if he didn't go into the ministry. He must feel pretty stupid when he reads remember my bonds from Paul. This is why Paul said that. People like that wouldn't really like hearing those words. So the application that I want to just present to you this evening is that especially in this day and age, especially in this country, we are simply too comfortable in this life. We are without trouble in this life. And what that does, unfortunately, is it produces Christians. It produces Christians that are like, you know what, I'll do this as long as it's convenient. I'll do this as long as it's fun. Look, we like to do fun things here. We like to do activities here. We're gonna go, we're gonna blast off rockets, and we're gonna build rockets, and there's always gonna be fun Christian activities here. But look, you know, if that's why you're doing this Christian life, you're not gonna last long. You're not gonna last long. So how did he do it? How did he do it without all this stuff? How did Paul keep going into Christian life without Rocket Day? How did Paul keep going into Christian life without pizza on Sunday night? Or without, you know, fishing trips? Or without, you know, fellowship? Or without all the, how did he keep going? How did he stay encouraged? He was in prison. I'm gonna give you two ways he kept going tonight for you to think about. Two ways that Paul kept going, even though he was in bonds. The first one is this, and this is why I went through team Paul. This is why we spent so many weeks talking about all the people that were helping Paul. First of all, he wasn't alone. He wasn't alone. We've studied for the last several weeks all the people that Paul sent out and that came to Paul. Look, he couldn't do things so he sent people to do them. He sent people to communicate for them. You think about Onissimus, Aristarchus, Marcus, Justice, Apaphras, Luke, all these people that helped carry the message, carry God's word with Paul. But still, even with all these people beside him and helping him, he could have stopped. He could have stopped. He could have just relied on these people to just handle it from there. The main reason and point number two is what I wanna spend some time on this evening is this. Paul had his comfort sourced from the right place. Paul had his comfort sourced from the right place. I found a study on Americans that came out. It was like two years old. But it was this study and it's called Where Americans Get Comfort. Now this is these psychological studies and all these social studies. I don't agree with the conclusions that they always come to. They always come to the wrong conclusions. But they do show some interesting statistics about the country that we live in. The article says this or the study, the summary of the article says this. It says Americans are getting more comfortable, but less happy. How's that possible? Americans are getting more comfortable, but less happy. This is like over 25, 30 years, this study. It says, are we trading our happiness for modern comforts? As society is getting richer, people are getting unhappier. It's the conclusion that this study came from. It's a paradox, they said. It's a paradox. A paradox is something that seems, it doesn't make sense. You say, as we get more comfortable, I should be more happy, right? Isn't that why we go out and we buy stuff? Isn't that why we go out, we buy all these gadgets, we buy all these electronics and we buy all this, these fancy whatever's coffee machines that can drive you to work or whatever it is? Isn't that why we do this stuff? Because that is gonna make me happy. If I just had the Ninja coffee machine, you know, it doesn't even make a very good cup of coffee. I don't know what to tell you. But the point is, isn't that what we're looking for when we go out and we buy all this stuff? We're on Amazon looking for this stuff. But it's making Americans unhappier. Let me give you a couple of stats from this study. It says, new American homes in 2016 were 1,000 square feet larger than in 1973 as far as living space per person. On average, living space per person has nearly doubled since 1973. I mean, we're living in bigger houses. Isn't that what everybody wants? A bigger, nicer house. I mean, isn't that, like, isn't that everything? I mean, if I just had a bigger, nicer house, I would be happy. Isn't that the whole thing? Or maybe it's just if I had a bigger, nicer house, I could show my buddy that I work with that, you know, I'm better than him. Maybe that's it. I don't know, but I digress. Here's some more stats. The number of Americans who use the internet increased from 50 to 90% from 2000 to 2019. The percentage you use social media grew from 5% to 72% from 2015 to 2019. Don't get me started on that one. But amid these advances in quality of life across the income scale, this is advances of quality of life across the whole scale. It's not just like the middle class and the upper middle class and the upper class. It's like everybody is using the internet more. Everybody's on social media more. Everybody has a nicer toaster. Everybody's getting a nicer coffee maker. All these things. Yet we're getting unhappier. It's a steady decline in unhappiness since 1972. Isn't that crazy? Since 1972, the unhappiness is just going down and down and down. Why is this? The standard of living. This is what I'm talking about. Standard of living, right? How expensive your car is. How big your house is. How many gadgets do you have? This is standard of living. Yet our unhappiness is dropping. Consistently across income scales. Why is this? Then the article goes on to draw all kinds of stupid conclusions on how capitalism is bad and we all need to be communists, right? But I mean, forget that. The point is the statistics are correct. They're taking polls of people that say these things don't make you happy. But look, Paul had the answer for this. Look, the three things that this study said that people rely on in this country, it's super interesting. First of all, the first thing was people. You rely on people. You rely on friends. You rely on family for your happiness. But you're like, okay, but here's the thing. Can I base my Christian life on a person? Look, people make me happy. I like my family. I like my brothers and sisters. Christ, look, that makes me happy. But can I base my Christian life on a person? This is what Paul had right. Did Paul? Did Paul have somebody in his life that said, you know what, if he quits, I quit? Paul didn't have anybody like that in his life. You know, basing your Christian life on a person, it may work for a little while. But here's the thing, people let you down. That's the problem with people. Turn to 2nd Timothy, chapter four. Look, you know what? People let Paul down. People let Paul down. Look at 2nd Timothy, chapter four. Look at verse number 10. So this is the, you know, the subject is people. People are where, you know, people base their comfort. It's people. They base their comfort in their friends, in their family, in people in their lives. Look at verse 10 of 2nd Timothy, chapter four. He says, for Demis have forsaken me, having loved this present world and has departed unto Thessalonica. So here's a guy that just, he abandoned Paul. But look, you know, I'm sure that didn't make Paul happy. I'm sure Paul was upset about that. I'm sure, you know, that was not a great day in Paul's life. But look, that did not knock Paul off his horse. The second thing that this article points out that people are looking for to make them happy, that doesn't seem to be working, are things. And that's interesting because in 2nd Timothy, chapter four, in verse number 10, it says, Demis forsake them, for what? For stuff. For things in this world. For like, you know what, Paul? You know, this is rough, man. Everybody wants to put us in jail. A lot of people want to kill us. He's like, you know what, I just want to go chill out and, you know, have a nice life. So Demis forsook him for that. It's just not going to work at all. But look at Philippians chapter three and verse number eight. Paul did not have an issue with this at all. Paul was completely past things. Look at Philippians chapter three and verse number eight. So people rely on people. They rely on things to keep them happy. And it's not working. It's not working just as happiness goes in people's lives. But look at Paul in Philippians chapter three and verse number eight. Here's where Paul was with stuff. He says, I caught all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord. And look, he's saying, he's like, I caught, it's not like Paul is sitting here saying, like he's saying, I caught all the things that I own. I count them as like they could just be gone tomorrow. That's what he says in this first part. But then he says in the second part, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. He's like, look, I counted all things but lost. And he's like, and then they all were lost. And do count them but dung than I may win Christ. He's like, you know that Ninja coffee maker, that's manure. He's like, you know, all these fancy things. He's like, you know, he's like all this stuff that we have. And look, we all have stuff. And that's not the problem. The problem is if it all goes away, are you still preaching in prison? Is the question. But Paul was well past this. He had nothing. The third one was politicians. I won't even get into that. Turn to second Corinthians chapter one. So the point is this secular study says that a life of more comfort equals an America that's less happy. Look, I, you know, that's all statistical. That's all just polls by people. That's actually true. Look, I see that. You can see that people are less happy and they have more stuff. But Paul's answer, this is how he did it. Look at second Corinthians chapter one. And look at verse number three. Second Corinthians chapter one verse number three. He says, blessed be God, even the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies and the God of what? The God of all comfort. He doesn't say the God of some comfort, the God of a lot of my comfort. He says, God is my comfort is what he is saying here. God is all of my comfort. Turn to Psalm chapter 18. I'll read for you Matthew chapter 11 and verse 28. He says, come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Paul, he had help, he had people to rely on, but his comfort was all in the Lord. And that's how he did it. That's how he did it, folks. Look at Psalm 18 in verse two. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my strength and whom I will trust, my buckler. It means he's your defender and the horn of my salvation and my high tower. Look, God is your comfort, but God will also defend you. God will be there and he will fight for you. And this, look, all hope and trust in the Lord is the answer. In what? In his word. In his word. If it says it, believe it and do it. In his plan. I don't see his plan. Follow his word. You don't have to see it, even when you don't understand. Even when you don't understand. Even when you can't see his plan as we talked about last week. His rules, even when you don't understand them. I don't know about all these standards. I don't know about all these things the Bible talks about. And nobody else is doing that. Follow it. Put your hope in the word of God even when you don't understand it. And then he will be your buckler. He will be your defender. This is how Paul did it. This is how Paul did it when he was in prison. This is how Paul didn't quit the Christian life when he had nothing. All the way to the point of death. This is how Paul finished. Even through a difficult life filled with tribulation. Turn to Matthew chapter 7, or 27. Matthew chapter 27. Matthew chapter 27. Go to Matthew chapters. You know, look, here's the thing. All the comforts, they become our problem. All the comforts they become our problem. It's Matthew 7, I'm sorry. Matthew 7 in verse number 24. Matthew 7 in verse number 24. All the comforts actually that we're looking for to all the people, all the things, all the ideas or politics or whatever we think is going to make us happy. Man, if this guy could just get elected, I'll be happy. No. That is all false hope. And that's why nobody's happy. That's why happiness is going down. Paul's comfort was in the Lord. Look at Matthew chapter 7 in verse 24. The Bible says this. It says, Whoever here at these sayings of mine, you know what that is? That's a word of God. Whoever here at these sayings of mine and do with them, I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock. And then look at verse 25. And when the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house, it fell not. For it was founded upon a rock. But look at verse 26. It says, Everyone that here at these sayings of mine and do with them not but relies on the people, the things, the politics, the whatever and do with them not shall be likened unto a foolish man which built his house upon the sand. But look at verse 27 again. And the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell. And great was the fall of it. Notice here how in verse 25 and verse 27 the rains come. The rains come. It doesn't matter what you built your house on. The rain's coming. The flood's coming. It doesn't matter what you've built your Christian life on because the flood is coming to your Christian life. The flood, the rains, the rains came for both houses. The floods are coming to your life personally. The floods are coming to your family. The floods are coming to the church. The floods are coming in your life. And guess what? It will expose your foundations. The flood is inevitable. It happens to everybody in this story and the foundation will be exposed. I mean this is why, this is right here, this is why some people make it and some don't. It's all about the foundation. This is why Paul made it. So yeah, Paul had support. But what he really had was a foundation in the Lord and he literally cared about nothing else than that foundation. That's what he meant by remember my bonds. He says remember my bonds. He's like see my foundation is what he's saying. Check your foundation. Remember in this comfortable life that we're living, make sure that we have our foundation in the Lord. Look, it's tough. It's tough. There's a lot of distractions. There's a lot of thorns. There's a lot of things like demons. There's a lot of things in the world. There's a lot of pretty glittery things to chase after but your foundation must be solid because the flood is coming. It will come. Many floods will come throughout your Christian life and if your foundation is not in the Lord your house will fall.