 Let's keep your place there in John chapter 9. So last week we started looking at the story of Jesus in John chapter 9 curing the blind man. This evening we're going to continue with this story in verse number 13 and see what else we can come up with from this story where Jesus does this miraculous miracle with a miraculous miracle. He does this miracle that the Bible says that no one had ever seen anything in the world like this before. So it's a pretty amazing scenario but some certain things happen here and I want to point out this evening, look down to verse number 13 and let's get started this evening. The Bible says they brought to the Pharisees him that a foretold was blind. So this man has been healed. He was blind from birth. We looked at that last week, looked at the reasons that children could possibly be born with disabilities. We looked at that in detail last week. This week we're looking at the aftermath of the miracles. So the Pharisees now bring this man that was known to be blind his entire life. It was a testimony to everyone around him that this was clearly a blind man. He was born blind. Everybody knew it and now he can see. So the Pharisees are trying to interview him. They're trying to figure out what happened. Look at verse 14. It was the Sabbath day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. Jesus is just messing with them at this point. He's just healing people on the Sabbath day just to frustrate the Pharisees. That's what I think anyway. But anyway, we've already talked about that in previous chapters in John. Look at verse 15. Then again the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. He said unto them, he put clay upon my eyes and I washed and do see. So this guy is honest. This guy is just telling the Pharisees exactly what happened. Look at verse 16. Therefore said some of the Pharisees, this man is not of God because he keepeth not the Sabbath day. So now they're putting something in this man's, in front of this man. They're giving him an opinion. They're telling him what to think and they're saying he's not of God. He did this on the Sabbath day. They're obsessed with the Sabbath day. And others said, how can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? And there was division among them. So even amongst the Pharisees there was this dichotomy. The majority of them were like, he's bad. He's not of God. They're just trying to figure out a way to get rid of Jesus. But some of the people that see these things are like, how could this be a bad thing? He literally did this miracle. He cured this man. It's clearly a good thing. Now look at verse number 17. They say to the blind man again, which is ironic because he's not blind anymore, what sayeth thou of him that he hath opened thine eyes? And he said, so now we get the blind man's opinion. The blind man, first of all, just tells him straight up what happened and how it happened. It's like he made clay, he put it on my eyes and he healed me. I see now. But then he says, so they already told him up in verse number 15 or up in verse number 16, sorry, that this man is not of God. They already gave them, gave the blind man or the man that was healed. They already gave him the opinion that he's supposed to have. And look what he says in verse number 17. He says, he said, he is a prophet. Now he doesn't know about the Christ and all this kind of stuff. He just, he just saying, no, he's a good man. He is of God is what the blind man is saying. Look at verse number 18. So he literally kind of disagrees with the Pharisees' assessment right there. He basically says, he is of God. They said he's not of God. He said, no, he is of God is what the blind man here was saying. Look at verse number 18. But the Jews did not believe concerning him that he had been blind and received his sight until they called the parents of him that received his sight. So then they go, they're like, all right, he's lying and they don't want to believe, they can't believe we know that. They call his parents and they're going to interview the parents. Now this interview goes quite different. Look at verse number 19. And they asked them saying, is this your son whom ye say was born blind? How then doth he now see? His parents answered them and said, we know that this is our son and that he was born blind. So they give that part right up front. Now it all goes wrong in verse number 21. They say, but by what now, let me ask you a question. The Pharisees are talking to this man that was healed. They have had the time to hear this story, to find this man, to call this man to them. What are the odds that this man has not talked to his parents? He has clearly talked to his parents and told his parents exactly what happened, exactly what he told the Pharisees. So these parents know what happened. They know who healed their son. They know how he did it by making the clay, by the story that he just, the blind man or the healed man, I should say, just told the Pharisees. But look at verse 20. It says, is this your son who you say was born blind? How then doth he now see? His parents in verse 20, his parents answered them and said, we know that this is our son and that he was born blind. Look at verse 21 now. It all goes south here. But by what means he now seeeth? We know not. Or who hath opened his eyes? We know not. He is of age. Ask him. He shall speak for himself. Now the Bible actually, we don't even have to infer why they did this, because the Bible actually just tells us why they did this. Look at verse 22. These words spake his parents. Why? So they did know the truth. They did know who healed him. They did know how he was healed. These words spake his parents because they feared the Jews. For the Jews had all agreed already that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue. Therefore said his parents, he is of age. Ask him. So the title of the sermon and the whole subject of the sermon this evening is going to be these five verses in verse number 18 through verse number 23. And the title of the sermon this evening is leverage. Is leverage. Is leverage that will be used. The problem statement here is that these parents were manipulated successfully. These parents were manipulated with this threat of the temple. There was something that was being held over their head that was used against them to get them to do something specific, to get them to say something specific. And guess what? It worked. It worked in this case. They passed off. They literally denied Christ in these few verses. These people were manipulated and they were manipulated successfully because the Jews that they feared, the reason they feared the Jews is because they had leverage over them. So tonight I'm going to give you three points, three steps to not allow yourself to be leveraged in your Christian life just like these parents were leveraged in their Christian life. Turn to Romans. Actually you don't have to turn there. But I'm going to give you three steps tonight because look, this is real. This is going to happen. This is going to happen to you. Definitely. I'm going to explain to you why it's going to happen to you. But I want you to just follow these three steps that I'm going to give you tonight to make it because here's the truth, folks. No one really has leverage over you. No one. But leverage works and leverage works on Christians all the time. And if there is a place in your life that you can be leveraged, you will be leveraged in that area. So I'm going to give you three steps tonight on stopping that and recognizing it and stopping it. The first one is this. Recognize authority in your life. Recognize authority in your life. Some people just can't do this. Look, authority is real. Authority is biblical. Romans 13 talks about obeying the higher powers. There's powers in your life. There is supposed to be authority in your life. It's real. It's biblical. It's from God. You say, oh, just God? No. There is earthly authority in your life. Government is an earthly authority that God wants to be over a nation. Look, there's certain things that they're supposed to do and they're not supposed to do. But, I mean, another one is parents. Parents are an authority to their children. They're an authority that God puts in place. God puts the man as the authority over the household. Parents have authority over the children. Pastors, the pastor has authority over the church. I mean, teachers, the Bible says, you know, God gives you pastors and teachers. Somebody that's teaching you something has authority over you in that scenario. It wouldn't work out for a kid to go or anyone to go to a class and be taught something and have no respect for the authority of the teacher in whatever the environment is. God puts authorities in place. You need to recognize authorities. Even government laws and, you know, police and all these different things. I mean, they are there. They are authorities. And as long as, you know, the laws and the authority put in place does not violate the higher power, which is God does not violate the Bible, which we're going to talk about tonight. You know, that authority is there and it is biblical is what the Bible says. I mean, work. You have authority. You have a boss. You have people that are over you at your job, your place of employment, men. I mean, turn to Colossians chapter three. Turn to Colossians chapter number three. Employers have authority. They have authority over their employees. Look at Colossians chapter three in verse number twenty-two. The Bible says in Colossians three twenty-two it says, Servants obey in all things your masters according to the flesh. This is talking about secular masters according to the flesh. Somebody that tells you go dig a hole over there. You work for someone and they tell you to do something according to the flesh. It doesn't say according to the Bible, according to the spirit. It's just talking about an earthly master that tells you to do something. You should do it. You should obey those people that have authority over you. Not with eye service. Don't just make it look like, oh, okay, I'll do it. And then when they turn their back, you don't do it. It's saying actually obey those authorities as with men pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. And whatsoever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men. So this is how you work for a bad boss right here. Because really, you're just doing things as the Lord is your boss. You just pretend like, you know, I don't really like my boss and I think that he's mean or whatever. I mean, probably everybody thinks that these days. I don't know. But I mean, just pretend like it's Jesus that told you to go dig the hole. That's what the Bible is saying. Of course, if it's something that is, you know, against your biblical standards, that's what we're going to be talking about tonight. But as just unto men in the world, you are to obey the authorities that are put in front of you. Look at verse 24, knowing that of the Lord, he shall receive the reward of the inheritance. For he served the Lord Christ. But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he had done and there is no respect of persons. So look, the first point is this, recognize the authority in your life. Like there are people out there that just can't recognize authority. And I've said this before, I'll say it again, it's a life killer. It's a life killer. If there's nobody that can be in authority over you in your life, you will have success at nothing. You will not have success in the workplace. You will definitely not have success in the Christian life. There are authorities that God has put in place for you in your life. So that's the first thing, recognize authority. The second one is this, go back to John chapter 9. Go back to John chapter 9, just keep your place there. I should have told you to keep your place there. But you've now recognized the authority in your life. I mean, you should all be able to sit there and take an accounting of the authority in your life. Look, I have authorities in my life. Everybody has authorities in their life. That's one thing I've learned like in the secular workplace is there's never a point where you're just not going to have any authorities. There is always, even somebody that owns their own business, they have customers. Those customers have authority over them. Yeah, okay, be a business owner and just think you're king of the world and you don't care what anybody thinks and just go and just pretend like everybody works for you and let me know how that works out. Everybody has authority in their life. So you've identified the authorities in your life. You realize, you accept that, you realize it's a God-given structure. Anarchy is not biblical at all. God wants government. Look, I get that the government is not doing anything that God wants them to do, but the structure of a government is biblical. And we will find out how to actually run that structure when Jesus comes back and does it himself. But until then, we just realize, hey, as long as it's not against the Bible, as long as it's not against what God says, as long as it's not against that highest power that we have in our lives, it's there and it's put there for our protection. Look at verse number 22 of John chapter 9. So we recognize the authority. That's step one. Step number two, we're talking about how to avoid being leveraged in your Christian life. Look at verse number 22. It says, these words fake as parents because they feared the Jews. For the Jews had agreed already that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue. The Jews had power here. They were in authority here. And they knew that people, this is why even Pharisees that were getting saved, Nicodemus went by night. He was scared. Why? For this reason, they had this leverage. The people that were in authority had this leverage of, if you believe Jesus, we're just going to put you out of the club. And it was leverage that worked. Look, these parents feared the Jews because of this leverage. So the second point in avoiding your Christian life being leveraged by this abuse of authority is to identify the potential leverage in your life. Look, I hate to break it to you tonight, but authority figures abuse power. Not all of them, but authority figures, you're going to, I mean, look, you see it all the time. You see it all the time. I mean, it always amazes me when you see these stories of these rich, powerful people, and then they're accused of these terrible things, and then everyone's just shocked. And I'm just like, why are you shocked? You have these men with just all this power, and what do they do? They just abuse it. They abuse it. They use it to do what? They use it to leverage people. They use it to leverage people, and they use it to get what they want. They use it, I mean, people do terrible things by leveraging their power. It happens all the time, and it's going to happen until the world's over. It's going to happen until God ends this. And you just think about all the Hollywood stuff that comes up. Back many, many years ago, 20-some years ago, I used to really like watching talent shows, especially up-close magic, like the guys that would do the slight of hand stuff. I was fascinated by that, because it just took so much talent to do that, and I was just kind of fascinated by that. But you would see people in those situations where they would have little kids going into these talent shows or these singing competitions or whatever, and you'd see these people just so much talent. And you just have to, I mean, even back then, before I was even saved, you would sit there and think, like, who in the world would want their children going into that type of environment? I mean, think of all the stories of all the children, the kids that grew up in Hollywood and all this. They're all just, like, abused and just by all these terrible wicked people. All the women that have been abused, even in the last few years that have come out, they've been abused. Why? Why? Because authority figures with power leveraged that power. That's why. And people, I mean, I'll put children off to the side, because they have no defense. But adults allowed that leverage to work. What did they use? They used the potential of fame to leverage people. They used the potential of money to leverage people. They used the potential of, you know, in the workplace it could be the potential of power or the potential of, you know, money as well, but maybe a potential of career advancement or whatever it is, you know, to what? To leverage people. So you must identify points where you could be leveraged. Turn to 2 Samuel, chapter number 11. When I was studying through this concept, you know what character in the Bible came to mind? A man called Joab in the Bible. Turn to 2 Samuel, chapter number 11. Joab in the Bible is really a fascinating character in the Bible because Joab is not the king. Joab is not the king. He is the king's commander of the army. He's David's commander of David's army. And David's no slouch. David was no slouch. David was a great warrior. Yet Joab, if you read the life of Joab, that is, it sprinkled through the story of David, Joab is always there all the way up until Solomon, you know, finally solves the problem. But Joab, he's not the king yet he goes and he does whatever he wants. He goes out and he wants to kill somebody. He just kills them. He's like, there's this guy, Abner, and David made peace with him and tried to bring these two kingdoms together that were threatening to split apart. You know, kind of the old house of Saul had this general and this general came and made peace with David. And David's like, hey, Abner's with us now. David Joab didn't agree because he killed his brother, so he just killed him. Just murders him. I mean, straight up just murders him. Joab then later on in the story literally kills David's own son. I mean, yeah, Absalom was, he was no, he was no gem, but David literally said, don't kill Absalom when they went to war to bring, you know, David back into the kingdom and who kills him? Joab. Why? Because he thought he should be killed. I just don't agree with that. Joab didn't, he recognized David's authority when it suited him. He kills a Mesa. Why? I just don't agree that he should be back in the club. Just kills him. He does what he wants to do whenever he wants to do it. You know what? Under David's reign, he got away with everything. He said, why in the world is that? Turn down to second, look at second Samuel chapter 11. David, David at the beginning of his kingdom or towards the beginning, he commits adultery against Uriah with Bathsheba and then on top of that, he can't get Uriah. Uriah is such a good man. He invites him back from the battle and finds out that Bathsheba is with his child and so what does he do? He tries to bring Uriah back and tries to get Uriah to go back down to his house so everyone will think it's Uriah's child. But Uriah won't go. He won't go because he's too good of a man. He's like, I'm not going down to my house and visiting my wife when all my men are out in the field sleeping in the mud. Uriah is such a good man. He's one of the mighty men in the Bible. So David feels like he's just left with no other choice. We just got to kill him. Who does he use to kill Uriah? Look down to 2 Samuel chapter 11. Look at verse number 14. It says, it came to pass in the morning that David wrote a letter to who? To Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. That's kind of a sad story right there. Uriah literally delivered his own death sentence and he handed it to the man that was going to kill him and he wrote in the letter saying, set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle and retiree from him that he may be smitten and die. He literally tells Joab to put Uriah up in the front of the battle and then to back away and leave him by himself so he's certainly killed. And it came to pass when Joab observed the city that he assigned Uriah. Joab didn't even question it. That he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew that the valiant men were, meaning he knew that this was a hot part of the battle. And when the men of the city went out and fought with Joab, there fell some of the people of the servants of David and Uriah the Hittite died also. So David's little plan didn't just kill Uriah by the way. It killed all these other men that went with Uriah. So he killed, David not only murdered Uriah but he murdered all these men in this scheme to cover up his sin and kill this man. But the point is, is that the letter went to Joab. And I believe, the Bible doesn't specifically say this, but I believe that the reason that Joab just operated with freedom around David is because he knew what was in this letter. He knew that he had leverage over David. And David knew that Joab had leverage over him. Look, David got right. David got right but what David should have done is he should have stood up to the people and said exactly what he did here and he would have erased that leverage from Joab. Just take the heat. Just take the heat. Look, he was punished. Nathan came to him and God knew everything. But the point is, he had leverage against him and it cost him through his life. So you need to find out potential points of leverage in your life. You need to find out places where people could pry on you and then you need to do this. You need to do in number three. Once you have identified those points of leverage that could be used against you in your Christian life, you need to mitigate that leverage. You say, what does that, what do you mean? I'm going to give you two ways to mitigate leverage. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 7. And I hope you got to kind of follow me on this because I'm hoping this isn't a thought that just only makes sense to me. It's one of those. It's one of those sermons. All right? So look at 1 Corinthians chapter number seven. The first step in mitigating leverage is making sure that you are the most careful for the Lord. When I say careful, I'm using the King James word careful, meaning I care the most for the Lord. The Bible gives us an extreme case of this in 1 Corinthians chapter number seven. And look, I believe there's a reason that this extreme case is used. But the first step in removing leverage against you in your Christian life is making sure that there is nothing that you care more about or nothing that you are more careful about than the Lord, than your Christian life, than your spiritual life. Because the moment there is something that you are more careful about than the Lord, it will be used as leverage against you. Guarantee, and I'll show you, I'll prove that to you tonight. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter seven. Paul gives us an extreme case here. Look at verse number 32. But I would have you without carefulness. What does he mean by that? He means, I don't want, this is what Paul means by that, I don't want you to care about anything but the things of the Lord. That's what he means in that sense. Look at verse, the next part of the verse. He that has unmarried care for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord. Now, you have to understand that Paul is coming from a perspective of being not married. But he's speaking, I am sure he is speaking from experience here. And he gives us some truth about marriage here as well. But he's saying he that is unmarried care for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord. He's saying somebody that is unmarried, he basically Paul is saying, from my experience, people that are unmarried, they're more focused on the Lord. That's what he's saying. And Paul is saying, I would have you without carefulness. I don't want, he's talking about, I don't want you caring about worldly things. And from my experience, the people that care the least about worldly things are the single people. The people that are not married. You say, why in the world, what are you talking about? Look at verse 33. But he that has married care for the things that are of the world, what? How he may please his wife. So the Bible here says, now, let me beat up, let me beat up on the wives real quick, and then I'll beat up on the husbands in just the next verse. But he gives both sides of the coin. But he's saying here, he that has married care for what? The things that are of the world, how he may please his wife. So if you want to be a good wife, don't be pleased by the things of the world. That's the answer for the wives right there. Don't be a wife that is pleased and satisfied with worldly things. Because then you're going to create a husband who's just obsessed over worldly things so he can please his wife. That's what Paul is saying. Paul is saying this is what I see. This is what I see out there. There's a difference also between a wife and a virgin, meaning an unmarried woman because you have to understand that not all unmarried women were in fornication as they are today. So he's saying there's also it now he's going to go after the other side of the coin. He says there's a difference also between a wife and a virgin, meaning a wife and an unmarried girl or young lady. The unmarried woman care for the things of the Lord. So he says exactly the same thing just from the perspective of the woman that she may be holy both in body and spirit. But she that has married care for the things of the world, how she may please her husband. So again, don't be a husband that just cares about the things in the world. Because then you will create a wife that only cares about things in the world so she can please her husband. This is great advice. I mean just a side note, this is great advice for married couples here. I mean the Bible here is saying that the wife is going to be care, she's going to just want to please her family, please her husband, worry about her children, just worry about her household and worry about worldly things where the husband could just get carried away with going out, supporting, getting in that daily battle, you know, it's easy to get caught up in it. But the answer is that Paul is giving is he's saying be a husband and be a wife that is satisfied with spiritual things. Be a husband that is like no matter what happens, we're going to church. No matter what happens, our spiritual life, no one can take that from us. No matter what happens as a wife just be like no matter what happens, my children are going to learn the Bible today. No matter what happens, my children are going to have a spiritual life. No matter what happens with my husband's job, no matter if it's a year when we have more money, it's a year we have less money, maybe he lost his job, whatever it is, just care about the spiritual things. But Paul is saying that's generally not what I see. But it's great marital advice. So that's the answer for the marriage. But the point is this, the overall point bringing it back to leverage and the first point in mitigating leverage is make sure that the battle doesn't become the prize. Make sure that, see, because you have to go out and you have to support your family. You have to go out and you have to just like man, I can't support my family, I got to get better at some things, I got to, I got to grow, I got to get some skills, I got to do some things. But as soon as the career becomes the prize, then leverage enters in. And get this, as soon as even the family, Paul says, the wife or the husband takes the place of the Lord, even that will be used as leverage against you. Remember, folks, from Sunday night, there's somebody else in this fight. There's somebody else influencing these situations. There's somebody else that's working against you. And whenever there is something that pops up that takes the place of the Lord in your life, that is when it has the ability to knock you out of the Christian life. And that's when it will. See, it's the blessings. It's the blessings, it's the good times, it's the good job, it's the good things, is when the potential for trouble comes in. When those things get so good, when those things get so, you get so focused on those things, that is when trouble can enter in. You need to keep everything in its place. You need to keep the Lord on the pedestal. Now let me show you an interesting Bible contradiction that kind of demonstrates the mechanics of how leverage is used against you. Here's a common Bible contradiction that people often bring up. Turn to 1 Chronicles chapter 21. Just stick with me for just a minute here. People will point these two verses out and they will say, see, the Bible contradicts itself, but it just shows you that they have no understanding of how God works and how Satan works. Look at 1 Chronicles chapter 21. Look at verse number one. 1 Chronicles chapter 21, verse number one. The Bible says, And Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel. Now turn, keep your place there, because I want you to look at both verses and turn to 2 Samuel chapter 24. So everyone will say that these two verses differ slightly, and they're like, oh, they must have translated the Bible wrong. Look at 2 Samuel chapter 24. And look at verse number one. Of course, a parallel, it's the same time talking about the same event, talking about David going out and taking a census. And yes, God does not want that to happen. Look at 2 Samuel chapter 24. Look at verse number one. The Bible says, And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, go number Israel and Judah. So again, up in 1 Chronicles 21, in verse number one, it says, And Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel. See, in 1 Chronicles chapter 21, verse number one, Satan knew this was wrong for David to do this. And you can see it in the statement. But in 2 Samuel 24, verse one, it says that God took action. And everyone's like, See, the Bible contradicts itself. No, read 2 Samuel chapter 24 one more time. It doesn't say the exact same thing as 1 Chronicles chapter 21. It says, And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. Who was God mad at? Was God mad at David? Possibly, but he was mad at the entire nation. He was mad at the nation. And how did he punish them? He punished them by allowing Satan to buffet them, as the Bible would say, with a stupid leader. Stupid leaders are judgment. You're like, Oh, man, sorry. Stupid leaders are judgment against a nation. Satan was just a tool. It's just like 1 Corinthians five in verse number five, where it says, where it's talking about somebody being put out of the church, where it says to deliver such and one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. Satan is just a tool. Satan is literally a tool that God uses at times because all God has to do is remove his protection. And Satan just has a one track mind to just destroy. And as soon as God removes his protection, it's just in the case of something you see what I'm trying to say is in the case of something having power over your Christian life, Satan wants it to have that power. So he can happily let it destroy you. And God, on the other hand, wants it exposed and brought out where you may even if it means a hard lesson for you. So while God was upset at the nation, he allowed David to be tempted by Satan to do something stupid that would cost the nation dearly. Satan is predictable if nothing else, because all he wants to do is destroy. As soon as he has unleashed, he will just destroy. That's why like Satan worshipers are so foolish. Like these people are like, Oh, I'm a devil worship or whatever. And they get to walk around wearing the devil symbols and you know, all that. It's like, it's like falling a friend around like begging someone to be your friend that hates you. That's what those people are. Because all he wants to do it's not like Satan is this person that's like, Oh, if you follow me, I'll be nice to you. No, if you follow Satan, he's going to destroy you as fast as he possibly can, because every single man is created in the image of God and Satan hates God. So he wants to destroy all of man. So to be some Satan follower or something like that, I mean, obviously, you know, there's eternal consequences for that. But it's just a foolish thing on its face. Satan hates everybody. Satan hates all of God's creation. He's trying to do he's trying to burn the whole house down. So in the case of leverage, God wants that thing off the pedestal. And Satan wants to use that thing to destroy you. The interest could seem the same. But God wants you to get right, you know, so that's why somebody is delivered unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh. He's leaving the protection of God. And hopefully, when he goes out and Satan starts destroying him, he will get right and get back. That's what God wants. So the first thing is recognize that leverage, mitigate that leverage in your life. And look, you got to make sure that things do not take the place of God. Because as soon as they do, this is the first point. As soon as they do, that leverage will be used because Satan as soon as he finds something that he can use to leverage against you, he will use it. He will use it. Here's the second one. Turn to 2nd Corinthians chapter six. Here's the second way to mitigate leverage in your life. Look at 2nd Corinthians chapter six, look at verse number 14. I'm going to apply this verse. We've read this verse many times before, but I'm going to apply it a little bit different here. But it still fits. Look at 2nd Corinthians 6 14. The Bible says, be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? Look, this is a unique application of this verse. But look, it is not wise as a Christian to allow a secular organization or secular people to have complete control over you as a Christian. You know what that would be called? That would be called being unequally yoked. If you just allow people in the secular world to just have complete control over you. This is why the Bible speaks that debt could do this to you. A bunch of debt could do this to you where you're just like, you're in so much debt and you owe so much money that you just have to go and just work for a wicked person or just you have to go and do all these things that you shouldn't be doing or whatever. Debt can drive you into that. Debt can cause you to be leveraged. I mean, that's one of the statements of being in too much debt is you're overleveraged. If people have leverage, they can use against you. And that could be more important to you. Look, it should still not be more important to you than your Christian life, but it is something that can definitely be used as leverage against you. Just think of secular authority. Secular authority is real. I just read that to you in Colossians chapter three, but secular authority should never have complete control over your Christian life. It just shouldn't. You shouldn't, you know, how do I mitigate that pastor? Well, you know, one thing that I saw, one thing that I saw in the last couple of years is I saw a bunch of people where their secular authorities in their life was trying to leverage them talking about vaccine mandates and things like this at work. And I saw people that felt like if I lose this job, there is no other way I can find any other job that will pay me anywhere near the money that I make at this job. That is not a good position to be in. You should never stop turn to Proverbs chapter 22. You should never stop developing yourself. You should never stop learning. You should never stop building skills in your life. You should never get too comfortable in whatever area you are. You should be continuously growing and growing and growing. You should be diligent about your business, as the Bible would say. And in verse number 29 of Proverbs 22, it says, CS thou a man diligent in his business, he shall stand before kings. You know what that means? People are going to seek him out. I knew some people, and I actually said this during the vaccine mandates. I'm like, this is, this is crazy. We're going to have a bunch of people out there in the workforce who are great leaders, who are great at their jobs, who are thinking people, who are, you know, they understand risk management. You're going to have like the top tier of people that are out there searching. I mean, I'm like, people are going to be able to pick these people up. Because normally those types of people are not looking for jobs yet they were forced out into the workplace. I was like, wow, there's going to be a lot of companies that benefit here. And I saw that happen. I saw at my previous job, I saw one of the best leaders that I worked with. I saw him go to another job because of something like that. And I'm just like, we just lost our, you know, we just lost one of our best guys on this project. But I knew what would happen. Because he was smart, he was a thinking person. All the logical thinking leaders are going to be available in the workplace. I'm like, this can be a great thing for a lot of companies, probably not people that lose them. But the point is the bio, you should just never, you should never, if you are in a position where you feel like, you know, look, if you're in a position where there's only one person, the person that currently pays you that would pay you that kind of money, you know, you're overpaid. Like, sooner or later, they're going to figure it out. Sooner or later, they're going to figure out that you should be able to, you know, at least be able to go and make similar types of, you know, look, Proverbs 22, 29 is saying, if you're diligent in your business, you're constantly developing yourself, you're constantly growing, you go and you work hard and you kill it every single day, kings are going to be looking for you. People are going to be after you. And you know what that does? That makes you not unequally yoked with people. That takes away people's leverage. When you're like, hey, you know, if you're going to fire me, I'll just go make more money somewhere else. That's where you want to be. When the kings are seeking you out, you don't have to worry about that type of thing. Never stop learning. Never stop growing. Push yourself. Be someone sought out by kings. I saw this. I saw this happen in the last couple of years. Here's the fourth one, or here's the last point on how to not be leveraged in your life. Once you've identified the leverage in your life, once you've identified the authorities, you've identified the potential leverage and you've done whatever you can to mitigate that leverage, don't compromise. Set your standards in your Christian life. Because look, this is what we're talking about. You know, that's the example that I use that the vaccine and all that. Look, if people didn't get, if people got the vaccine, I could care less. It's a standard. It's a standard. I could care less. You know what, what bothered me was, what bothered me was people telling me what I had to do. That's what bothered me. But it's a standard. If people didn't have that standard, fine. But set your standards in your Christian life and then pour concrete on them. I had a conversation with one guy at work with all that crazy stuff was going on and, you know, a lot of people were worried and they're just like worried like, oh man, what are we going to do and all this, you know, and I'm just like, I don't know, like, what are we going to do? Like, you're either going to do it or you're not going to do it. And then just like whatever. He's like, he's like under no circumstances. Would you do it? And he's like, what if I put a gun to your head and I'm just like pull the trigger. I'm still not doing it. Pour concrete on your standards. If it's a standard for you, I don't care what it is. If it's a standard for you, pour concrete on it. That's it. It's easy. Life becomes really easy as a Christian when you look at it that way. We just look at it from the, I mean, from all the perspective of the mandates and all this stuff. I mean, standards are standards and like I said, I don't have anything against the people that didn't have that standard. I had people, you know, people telling me what my standard should be, I got a problem there. If it's a standard, see, look, if it's a standard, folks, it'll bother your conscience. If it's a standard, you'll know that somebody is pushing your standards. If it starts to bother your conscience, if it starts to bother the spirit within you. That's how you'll know that it's a standard that you have. Turn to Psalm 75. I mean, look, folks, there's just, there's just things I don't do. There's just things that I do do. There's places I go and there's places I don't go. And they don't change for people. They don't change for what year it is. They don't change for circumstances. That, that's just it. And look at Psalm 75 and verse number seven. You know what that does? That takes away leverage. That takes away leverage that people have over you. Because really, folks, when it comes down to it, look at Psalm 75 and verse number seven, God is the judge. He put it down one and set up, set it up another. Really, any leverage that you allow to have on your life, it's because you are allowing it. Nobody in the United States, here's a bold blanket statement for you, nobody in the United States was forced to get a vaccine. Nobody. Nobody had that gun held to their head and say get the vaccine. And look, and if it wasn't their standard and they got the vaccine, whatever. But if it was somebody's standard and they were leveraged into it, that's not a good thing. That is not, you know, what the Bible says. You need to hold your standards for the Lord. Set your standards and then hold them for the Lord. Because at the end of the day, he's the only one that matters. He sets up and he put it down. You don't think God, I mean, you don't think God, if somebody tries to leverage you and tell you, you know what, you can't be a Christian. You don't think God can figure that out for you. It's a lack of faith. It's like, no, I mean, I do what I do and that's it. You know, what are we going to do if this happens next week? The same thing we did this week. What are you talking about? What are we going to do if, you know, everybody goes crazy and all of a sudden, like, everybody hates Christians. What are we going to do next Sunday? I don't know, go to church like we always do. That's what we're going to do. And what, make sure, another comment on standards, make sure your standards are biblically based. Don't be one of these people that's like holier than thou and just make up all these ultra-religious standards just so you can, like, look at how religious I am. But if your standards are biblically based, just write them down. Write them down. We go here. We don't go there. We do this. We don't do that. We, you know, I mean, write your standards down for your family. And now, like I said, just cast them in stone. These parents in this story are a great example of what not to do. They literally allowed leverage from evil people to get them to deny Jesus Christ. Identify the authorities. Identify the potential leverage that those people could use. Mitigate where you can. The unbeliever's power over you is it's only in your mind. I mean, it's like, I mean, just take the most extreme example that I gave you, put a gun in my head, pull the trigger. What power still do you have over me? Oh no, now I'm in heaven. I mean, think about it only any leverage that you feel like people have over you is all imagined in your own mind. Yet people will allow it to control their Christian life to stop their Christian life. Set your standards, pour concrete on them. Hey, let God sort it out. You know, ultimately, if it's if it's your time, it's your time. Let's bow our heads and have a