 That's good. Dr. Pepper. Rice Krispies. Hostess. Yeah, put these over here. The host, Lord of Hostess. Okay. Out here in the D. D. D. D. D. D. D. I said I'm out here in the D. D. D. D. Woo. D. Y'all help me say, say I'm out here in the D. Whoa. D. D. Whoa. Is this a sin? The important thing is, and this is the choice, this is the choice that I would love to see you make tonight. While you're- I might be old, but I live, bro. You change the grace. Is that a sin? Well, what about this? The answer may surprise you. On YouTube, because the internet becomes social media, we can see what happens in a lot of different churches, not just our own church. By the way, you should be going to church, but you get to see what happens at other churches. And when you look, you see at big churches, medium churches, small churches, some of the same thing happening. Some of the things that we're seeing happening, you would only normally see in the past happening at larger churches because they have the budget to do so, such as a pastor coming in on a zipline. Jesus Christ is on his way back. And Jesus Christ comes again, and every eye will see him when he come again. Or a pastor driving a luxury car on to the stage. Fail to look behind the wheel. If you are driving your role. Or who could forget what has happened recently at the church with their Easter program? So I said, we're going to go to the edge on this. And they said, pastor, how far on the edge are we going to go? I said, we're going to do everything short of sin. Oh, y'all, I felt the religious people. They booties got tight right there. We see some of these theatrics happening, even when people are singing songs, when they're preaching, there's no shortage of people trying to do something, maybe with good intentions to gain and to keep the attention span of the people that they are trying to reach. But the question is, is that a bad thing? Is it a good thing? Is it a sin? Or is it maybe just not a sin, but maybe not necessarily wise? Well, the answer may surprise some of you. Truth be told, it's not an actual sin. There is no passage to go to and say, well, using this, using that, using this, these lights, using this prop right here, that that's a sin. No, that's not, that's not in the Bible. And so in and of itself, it's not a sin. But the question might arise, is it wise? I want something to make me feel comfortable. Well, a lot of y'all got a bunch of pillows. So again, we see this happening not just at large churches, but we see it at small churches. And we see it at medium-sized churches. As a matter of fact, this particular clip, pretty outrageous, pretty funny, and it happens at a smaller church and it's entertaining, if nothing else. So how do we judge whether this is a good thing or a bad thing? Well, the Bible tells us that an evil and adulterous generation, this is Jesus speaking about the Jews, but this also applies to us. An evil and adulterous generation, they seek after signs. I want to show you what this word sign means, this word, Simeon, in the Greek. Now it can refer to something miraculous, but it could also, as you see, it's a marker. What it can refer to is just anything visible, something that can be seen. And so if you are a pastor, if you recognize that the people in your audience are there to be entertained, to see something, well then it would not only be unwise, but then it would be playing into the sinfulness of the people. The job of the person on stage is to teach them. The Bible says that the qualification of a pastor is to be able to teach. And so that doesn't mean to entertain. Can the teaching be entertaining? Can it be one where it keeps and captivates and holds the attention span of people? Sure. So there's nothing wrong with that. You should be able to tell the story, to tell the gospel, to preach the word in a fashion to where it's meaningful, not just to the speaker, but to the hearers as well. But you have to remember that it can also be a sin or you can be playing into the immaturity of the people. Recall in Acts 8, there was a man by the name of Simon who was a sorcerer who at the time of the gospel being preached in Acts 8, who was practicing magic in the city and astonishing the people of Samaria. So they were captivated, they were taken back by what they were seeing, claiming to be someone great. And the claiming to be someone great is not them claiming that he was great, it's him claiming to be someone great. And so sometimes it might be out of pride, a desire to be someone special, where you might see the pastor or the preacher, those on stage, trying to be someone great, trying to be someone special, trying to look good in the eyes of the people. Don't let pride be the reason why you do some of these things, because you want to kind of keep up with the Joneses. You want to captivate them. Because whatever you do this week, you've got to match that or beat it the following week. And there's just no way that you can be that consistent. However, if you are preaching the word, well then there, you can kind of keep up. All you're doing is giving them the word. And so nothing beats the word anyway. And so you don't have to try to outdo yourself the following week. Remember Paul says to preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, which is all the time, reprove, rebuke and exhort with all long suffering. I'm sorry, or with complete patience and teaching as some verses may say, and this one does. For the time will come. And here it is when people will not endure sound, doctrine of sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into mess. So our job is to, if you're going to preach the word, teach the word, then do so and do with great patience. There are some that don't want to hear the word. Well, that's not your audience. That's not who God has called you to speak to. That is not where God has said, hey, compromise the word and bring this in just for a second. Now, if you think that, if you can give the word in a sound fashion and you add extra lightings, fine. But again, you need to check the motives of your heart as well as the people that are listening and be careful that you are not tapping into the sinful desires of the people. James says in chapter one, verse 14, he says, But each one is tempted to let away when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. And when that lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. The problem is that there are people who are wanting to stay in the world and to compromise the gospel. So when you help them in doing so, then that sin, that desire, that temptation, it just stays in them. So when they leave the world and they come into the church and they see the same thing, it just adds, it fuels to where they already are. And then that lust that's already in their heart, it's just built up and they get let away even more so. And how sad is it that the church would be the agent to help them or to catapult them or to keep them in a state of worldliness? So when you see these shenanigans, when you see these things, yes, it becomes a problem. When you see the person wanting to show out and so forth, that's an issue. And I don't think anyone should really deny that. And I understand that people might want to show some emotion, may want to dance and do some things, but sometimes it goes a bit too far. By the way, Spider-Man is still one of my all-time favorite clips of shenanigans. But remember this, guys, make sure that what you do, you do it to the glory of God. If what you're doing is to glorify God, for the name of it. But if what you're doing is to glorify yourself, to let folks know that we put on the best show in town, well, that's a problem. Again, we're not the circus. We're not looking to entertain people. We are not a stage full of clowns. We are presenting the gospel and we should treat it with such reverence. Amen.