Philippians 3 in our Bibles and verses 1-3 is where we're going to be there. And I do have one more praise this evening to share with you. We've done a lot of door knocking this week. And we have some of these college age students who feel called to the ministry. Three young men who feel called to preach who are back for the summer who've been helping out around the church quite a bit. And they're a couple of weeks that they've been home. A few of us have been going over into East Beckley every day and knocking doors and inviting kids to come for the VBS and witnessing when given the opportunity. And the other day, Landon and myself and Micah and Sydney, the four of us went out together in the afternoon. And we had a crew that went out in the morning. And then Micah came in the afternoon in Sydney and went out with us. And we went out again. And when we were out knocking doors, Micah and Sydney started talking to a young lady. and they talked to her, felt like 30 minutes, it was probably over 20 minutes at least, 18 years old. And she accepted Jesus Christ as her Savior right there on the porch. And Micah was able to lead her to the Lord. And because she was 18, she didn't come to VBS this week. It's technically only supposed to go up through sixth grade. Now, we have kids older than sixth grade. But we didn't have her come as an 18-year-old. But she said that she'd be willing to ride the bus this Sunday. So we're going to go back on Saturday and visit her again and talk to her and try to get her into church this Sunday. But that was an encouragement. to see one get saved during our visitation time. That's a specific answer to prayer, by the way, that I've been praying about frequently, is that we would see people saved when we go out during our visitation times. We've had phenomenal visits so far this summer. Almost every single week that we go out, people who have been very open and receptive, but this is the first one in the last few weeks who's accepted Christ as their Savior at their door, and we're thankful for that. Philippians chapter three, we're gonna read verses one through three. Probably not the most familiar verses in Philippians or even in this chapter, but they set the tone for the remaining portion of the chapter that we'll get to next week, Lord willing. Verse 1 says, Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed, is not grievous, but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. For we are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." We just finished chapter 2 after many weeks studying chapter 2. In chapter 2, Paul was trying to express to the church at Philippi that joy is not only possible in the Christian life, but it should be a part of the Christian life. It should be commonplace in the Christian life. And this whole book of Philippians, we know that the theme is rejoice or having joy in the Lord. And so he's been speaking to them about joy. And it's interesting because he uses Jesus Christ as the example. Christ who went to the cross and died for the sins of the whole world. who was beaten and mocked and scorned, was rejected by those that he came to save, and yet, Christ had joy. And then Paul uses himself as an example in the suffering and the persecution that he had gone through in the ministry, and yet he was able to have joy in the midst of suffering and tribulation and persecution. And then after that, he starts talking about Epaphroditus, and he starts talking about Timothy, and so he says it's not only possible to have joy, and not only is there a future joy for every believer, because one day we'll be in heaven with God where there's no sickness, no pain, no sorrow, no sin, no fear. All of that will be true in heaven, and so there is a future joy for every believer. but there should be a very present joy in the Christian's life as well. And then he moves on to this. It's not only possible to have joy in the Christian life, but it is possible to have unity amongst the brethren as well. If you think back to Philippians 2, in the first few verses, he talks to them about being like-minded. being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves." And so, he's talking about this idea of unity, and he's going to address it again in chapter 4, because there's a problem between two ladies in the church there at Philippi who aren't getting along, and he's trying to explain to them, unity is possible in the body of Christ. Unity is possible in the family of God. And so He expresses to them, you can have unity, but there's only one way to have unity. And that is for every believer in the body to be striving to have the mind of Christ. As each one of us strives to have the humility of Christ, and have a servant's heart like Jesus did, we will find ourselves being less selfish and rather being more selfless like our Savior was. And so he says you can have unity. And by the way, if you don't have unity, it's an evidence of pride. The Proverbs says, only by pride cometh contention. And so he says when you have the humility of Christ, when you're striving to have the mind of Christ, when you're submitted to the will of the Father, like Jesus was, when you're selfless in your thinking, like Jesus was, when you're a servant in your heart, like Jesus was, when you're willing to sacrifice for the good of others, like Jesus was, there can be unity in the body. And then he uses himself Epaphroditus and Timothy is that example. How he, Epaphroditus, and Timothy were all like-minded. They were of the same mind. They were of the same accord. They were unified in their service for the gospel. Now we come to chapter 3. And he starts talking about our common joy. You say, well you just talked about joy in the last chapter. I told you it was the theme of the book. So it's going to get talked about in every chapter throughout the book of Philippians. And here he addresses it again and he talks about our common joy. Paul had already used the word rejoice seven times in the first two chapters. And he uses a form of the word rejoice 12 times in the book of Philippians, and he uses the word joy at least 6 times in this little book as well. But this time he adds something to the idea of rejoice. Look with me again at verse 1 if you would. Finally, my brethren, rejoice... What's the next three words there? In the Lord. So he's been telling them that it's not just possible to have joy as a Christian, but it should be commonplace for the Christian. And it's not just a future joy that we can look forward to, there's a present joy in serving Jesus. And so he's talking about this joy that comes through having a submissive spirit, this joy that comes through sacrificing for others. And so he's talking about this joy, and now he comes to it and he says, you need to rejoice, but this time he adds these three little words, in the Lord. Now, I'm not going to belabor this at this point because he brings it up again later on in this passage, but for a Christian, we have two reasons to rejoice that are given to us here in verse 1. Number 1, we rejoice in the person of Jesus Christ. Have you ever been let down by somebody in this world? Have you ever been mistreated? Has anybody ever criticized you or spoken unkindly about you or been talking about you behind your back? Has anybody ever personally attacked you? I don't mean physical attack, but verbally attacked you. The truth of the matter is, if you live on earth and you deal with people, you will be disappointed from time to time. because people aren't perfect. And the sad thing is, I think everyone of us could attest to the fact that even personally, there are people that we love immensely that we would never want to hurt. But unfortunately, maybe in a moment of impatience or frustration, Or maybe it's just been a miscommunication. But I would say that there's probably been times in all of our lives where maybe we've even hurt somebody that we say, I would never want to hurt that person. And we have to ask for forgiveness and say, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say that. Or I shouldn't have said it that way. Or I shouldn't have said it with that tone. Or I shouldn't have responded that way. The truth of the matter is, people will disappoint you. There's no question about that. I grew up a Chicago Cubs fan. In fact, if you are a Chicago fan at all, it's just a world of disappointment. In my lifetime, the Chicago Bears have won one Super Bowl. They're the oldest franchise, or one of the oldest franchises in the NFL. The problem is they never win. The Chicago Cubs won a World Series in 1908. Do you know the next time they won a World Series? 2016. For those of you who aren't very good at math, that's 108 years. Their nickname was the lovable losers. And no matter how close they got, you know what they were going to do at the end of the year? They were going to let you down. They were going to disappoint you. If you got your hopes up, your hopes were going to be dashed. Now, I count myself privileged to have watched a Cubs World Series game. I count myself privileged to have watched the Cubs win a World Series. Because you realize, there were some people who were born who could have lived to be 107 years old and never seen the Cubs win the World Series once. They're professionals at letting you down, at disappointing. Life will throw you disappointments, but if Jesus is the object of our joy, Jesus never disappoints. Life changes, but Jesus never changes. People are moody, you ever notice that before? People are moody, but God never changes. And so we have joy, we rejoice in the person of Jesus Christ. The second thing we can rejoice in is the truth. Rejoice in the truth. Look at verse number one. Now that's a little bit confusing and a little wordy in the way that Paul says that. But when he says, for you it is safe, that word, it is safe, is one word in the Greek. And it means firm, that which can be relied on, certain or true. And so it's the word as phallus, and what it means is the opposite of fail. So it's the opposite of fail, meaning it never fails, it's always reliable, it's always certain. We can rejoice in the truth of this Word because it's always infallible, it's always inerrant, it's always certain, it doesn't change, and we can stand on it just as much today, thousands of years after it was written, as they could the day it was written. Because it's not man's Word, it's God's Word. Let me ask you this question. Have you found it in recent years? harder and harder to be able to discern or understand what is actually true when a news person or a media person or a politician speaks. I'm telling you this, it doesn't matter which network you watch. You could be on the side that says, well, I watch CNN, so I know it's right. Or you could be on the side that says, well, I watch Fox News, so I know it's right. Or you can go a step further than that and say, well, I watch Newsmax, so I know it's right. But the bottom line is this. Quite frankly, at the end of the day, when they talk, at the end of the day, when I shut off the news, I sometimes say to myself, I think I know which side I'm on, but the truth of the matter is, I think they're all lying at this point. I don't know that any of them are telling the truth. It's a confusing world that we live in. And you realize this world wants to claim to be a place where there is no absolute truth. That your truth is as good as my truth. Your opinion is as good as my opinion. There is no absolute truth. It's fine for you to have your opinion. It's fine for me to have my opinion. Just don't force your opinion on me. Because in this world's mentality, the worst thing you can do is actually proclaim truth. And actually say that there is absolute truth. But God's children need to be firm in saying, I know it's not popular. And I know it may not even be acceptable to our culture. And I know sometimes the Bible might be considered to be antiquated or out of date. But the truth of the matter is, I know it's God's Word, and even if nobody else agrees with it, I can rejoice that I know this is true. And if I'm living based on this, it doesn't matter what anybody else thinks. Because God, the one I answer to, is the one who told me what's true. God wants us to be people of truth. John 8, 31 and 32 says, then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, if ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. John 17, 17, Jesus said, sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth. So we see here a common joy for the Christian. We can rejoice in the person of Jesus Christ. We can rejoice in the truth. The next thing we see here in this passage in verse 2 is Paul's concern for the church. Look at verse 2. Beware of dogs. Beware of evil workers. Beware of the concision. Now, when I see beware of dogs, what I actually think about right now, especially this week, is door knocking. because half the houses that I go up to have no trespassing beware of dogs." In other words, it's saying, don't bother me, okay? That's what it says. But that's not what he's talking about. He's not talking about beware of Fido. He's talking about beware of religious leaders or false teachers is what he was warning the church at Philippi about. And he uses very strong language here. He calls them dogs. He calls them evil workers. He's not really pulling punches. It's interesting that he calls them dogs here. We'll get to that here in just a moment. The word beware is in the present imperative tense. And what that means is he is saying to them, you need to constantly be on the watch for false teachers. You can't afford to let your guard down. You constantly need to be looking. And so he says, beware, and then he calls them dogs. This is not a compliment. I love dogs. How many of you in here are dog people? Good, we got a lot of saved people here tonight. How many of you are cat people? We'll keep praying for you, OK? But I had a dog. He was wonderful. His name was Wrigley. He was named after Wrigley Field, where the Chicago Cubs play. I figured if the Cubs couldn't bring me any joy, I could name my dog after him. Maybe he'd bring me some joy. He was a wonderful dog. He had a nub. He didn't have the full tail. He was a boxer. And so instead of wagging his tail, he wagged his whole body. Sometimes he would walk. He was so excited when we got home. He'd walk to us in the shape of a C. His front legs and back legs were coming towards us at the same time, his face and his tail at the same time. And he was just a happy dog. And I so loved my dog. So enjoyed my time with him. And I have memories of dogs when I was a kid at my grandparents' house. They always owned two Rottweilers. When one would pass away, they'd get a second Rottweiler. The best dog I ever knew in my whole life wasn't even Wrigley. I'm sorry, Wrigley. But the best dog I ever knew, his name was Dozer. And I would go to visit my grandparents, and my grandma would say in the morning, I could hear out in the dining room, she'd say to Dozer, she'd say, hey, go wake Kevin up. And Dozer would walk by to my bedroom, knock the door open with his head, and he'd start to nudge the bed. And if I didn't wake up, he'd start nudging me more. And then I'd roll over and put my head on and start petting him. He'd lick me, and then I'd go walk out. He was a smart dog. He was a great dog. And I love dogs. Dogs are wonderful. In our day and age, when you think of a dog, you think of a pet. In fact, some people spend a ridiculous amount of money on their dogs. Some people accessorize their dogs. They buy them like little sweater vests to wear around. They get their hair done. They get their nails clipped. I had a dog, but I was too cheap to pay for somebody else to clip his nails. I bought a little clipper myself and did it myself. You pay for all the medicine the dog needs. You pay to take him to the vet. I mean, people pay to board their dog if they go away. And some people even pay for little doggy retreats. They send them on little doggy retreats. Can you believe that? I mean, some people treat their dogs better than they treat their kids. They just love their dogs. In our day and age, when you think of a dog, you think of a pet. That's not what it was like in Bible times. Think of wild mangy packs of dogs that roamed the streets as scavengers and ate trash and ate the bones of corpses that were left behind of animals, the parts that nobody else would eat. They were disgusting. And they roamed around just eating whatever they could get inside their belly and attacking anybody who came near them. And what does Paul call these false teachers? He calls them dogs. I was on a mission trip one time in Juarez, Mexico. And the missionary gave us some good advice. We were going to go out and we were going to run a kids program and there was going to be puppets and different things for the children. And then the gospel was going to be given, very similar to VBS. And we'd hold a tent up because it was over 100 degrees outside and the sun was scorching hot. And so the guys in the group, the teenage boys, would literally hold the tents. a makeshift tent, and they would hold the structure together until it was over, and then we'd take it down, fold it back up, and everything. And so we were going out, and we were inviting kids to be a part of this program. They had a van, and they had a loudspeaker on top of the van, and the puppets were singing out the window, and they were inviting everybody to come to this gospel rally in the square. But we were going door to door and inviting people as well, and they said to us, they said, now listen, if you see a dog, you are not in the United States of America. This is not your dog from home. Do not try to pet the dog. If the dog starts walking towards you, the best thing you can do is put your hand down and scoop up some rocks. He said the second you do that, the dogs will take off running. And so he said, it's dangerous. You don't want to be near the dogs. If you see the dogs wandering the streets, you grab a rock. They'll take off. They'll leave you alone. But you don't want them coming near you. It's dangerous for you. And so I was in a group. I walked up to, there weren't a lot of apartments or anything like that. In fact, in Juarez, Mexico, there's portions where people literally live in cardboard or live in a van or live in a bus that they've taken the seats out and it's 114 degrees out and they're living inside a bus with no air conditioning, no plumbing or anything like that. But where we were that day, there was actually an apartment complex. And I was walking towards the door of an apartment complex, and there was an electric box outside of it. And when we got close to the door to go inside the door, a dog came out from behind the box that we didn't know was there. And he was literally only five or six feet away. And he was not happy to see us. He was showing us his teeth. He was making noises to say, I don't like you. I looked around. Most of the time when you walk down the street in Mexico, you're walking down dirt streets. There's rocks everywhere. This was the one place where we were on grass and sidewalks. I looked down. There was not a rock within 50 yards of me. And the dog is five feet away. And all of a sudden, these teenage girls that are in my group, they start getting behind me. So I'm going to be the chew toy while they can run away. And so you know what I did? I looked around, not a rock in sight. And when he took one more step closer to me, I went like this. And he went back behind the electric thing. He wasn't too bright. I knew there was no rock there. He didn't know that. He left. And my point is this. They told us that day, they gave us great advice. They said, everywhere you go, keep your eyes out. Because you'll walk past a little fence and not know there's a dog right there. You'll walk past an electric box and not know there's a dog right there. You'll walk past a car and not know there's a dog underneath there. And if that dog comes out, he's not your friend. He's looking to attack you. He might hurt you. That's exactly what the Apostle Paul is saying here in this passage. He said, you better be careful who you take the Bible from. You better be careful who you're listening to when they're teaching you doctrine. You better be careful which books you read and who's writing those books that are telling you about Jesus. Because there's people out there that are going to mislead you. They're dangerous to your Christian faith. He uses an interesting word choice here because what did the Jews call Gentiles? Dogs. What they call even half-Jews, half-breed Jews, Samaritans who were part-Jew and part-Gentile, they called them dogs as well, didn't they? And now we know it's not a compliment, is it? And what does Paul turn around and say to them? He said, those religious zealots, those Judaizers who want to keep you enslaved in the law, you know what they are? They're no better than dogs that are trying to attack and destroy you. Vance Havner, the early Christian, said this, he said, the early Christians condemned false doctrine in a way that sounds almost unchristian today. In other words, we feel like, well, you can't name names and say that that person's teaching bad stuff. That's not very Christ-like. Apostle Paul didn't have that opinion, did he? He called out people, didn't he? He said, stay away from demons. Stay away from Simon the Sorcerer. Stay away from those guys who aren't really with us. They might say they're with us, but they ain't with us. He said, you better watch out. He wasn't afraid to call names. Now some of you are really interested, because you're sitting here wondering, like, he going to start naming names? He going to start throwing out TV evangelists and stuff? Like, who's he going to call out? My point is this. You know what the Apostle Paul was doing? He was trying to protect some Christians from being led down the wrong direction. Being taught some false doctrine. He goes on to say this, not only beware of dogs, he says beware of evil workers. So dogs is not a compliment, but when you flat out just come out and say it, they're evil. Their purposes are not good. Their direction is not right. Now, here's the interesting thing. What was it that these false teachers were doing? Were they completely wrong in everything they were saying? No, the truth of the matter is they believed that Jesus was the Messiah, but what they wanted to do was mix Judaism with Christianity. They wanted you to have to convert to Judaism first and follow the rituals of the law before you could be under grace and be a Christian. In fact, a council would take place about this, and the council would decide, no, that's not the way Christianity works. But that's what they were doing. They were trying to add works to salvation. Religious rituals to forgiveness. These religious leaders, they prided themselves on being workers of righteousness. Yet Paul described their works as evil because any attempt to please God by our own efforts and draw away attention from Christ's accomplished redemption is in fact wicked. Some are purposely trying to lead others astray, but you realize some don't even know that they're leading others astray. In other words, is it possible to be completely wrong doctrinally and think you're being sincere? The answer is yes. The question is not the motive here. The question is, is it true or not? Is it biblical or not? Is it doctrinal or not? They were trying to add to Christian doctrine. They were trying to add to what had been accomplished by Jesus Christ already. What are some false teachings of our day? Well, some people would say that Jesus only died for some. But that's not what John 3.16 teaches me. For God so loved the world, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Some would teach the prosperity gospel. Jesus wants everybody to be healthy and wealthy. If you're right with God, you're not going to have a lot of problems in your life. If you're right with God, man, you're not going to have any financial problems. If you're right with God, you're not going to have health issues. If you're right with God, Jesus, He'll take care of all of that in your life. Tell the Apostle Paul that. Tell Peter that. Tell Stephen, the first martyr in the book of Acts, that. Let me ask you this question. Did anybody live a more perfect or sinless life than Jesus Christ? How wealthy was he here on this earth? Didn't even have a place to lay his head, did he? Did he get to avoid persecution and problems? Did everybody treat him in a happy, nice way? This idea that if you're a Christian, everything in your life should be perfect and you really shouldn't have any problems. And all you have to do is name it and claim it. You just pray it and God has to give it to you. First of all, God's not Santa Claus. And he's not the Easter bunny. He's not a little rabbit's foot that we rub for good luck and he has to give us what we say. That's not how God works. So this idea of this prosperity gospel and this name it and claim it, it would be 100% foreign to the first century of church. People who were losing their businesses, being imprisoned, being beaten, losing their lives, all because they made a choice to follow Jesus Christ with their life. Even the church at Philippi was suffering some persecution. Why? Because they had turned to Jesus. Jesus Himself said that we would suffer persecution. But you realize there's some guys who like to get up on TV and basically say, listen, as long as you give money to my church, and as long as you love God, and as long as you pray every single day, then God's going to give you everything you want. You realize there's people who say that, right? And you realize there's well many people who watch that stuff and don't even realize they're being deceived sometimes? You know, if you listen to some people, they make it sound like God is saving us from poverty and poor health, not from our sins. Or God is saving us from unhappiness and failure in life rather than sin. Do you know that there are some who are very famous for preaching the word and writing books, but they refuse to even say that Jesus is the only way to heaven? They will not come out and say, I believe that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by him. I would not follow a man who's not willing to say that Jesus is the only way to heaven. I wouldn't. It is the foundation for what we believe. It's just that simple. Do you realize that there are some, when they're interviewed, they say, there are certain topics I will never touch on from my pulpit. I will never speak about abortion. I will never speak about gender. I will never speak about marriage. I won't speak about certain things. Why? Why won't they preach the whole counsel of God? Because it's unpopular and they might lose part of their following. Let me ask you this question. Was it unpopular when Jesus called out the Pharisees of His day for their hypocrisy? It wasn't popular. Was it unpopular when Paul stood up and said Jesus is the only way to heaven? Well, let me ask you this question. Where did it end Paul in the end? It ended him outside of Rome with his head chopped off. You know where it ended Peter? It ended up him being crucified upside down. It ended Stephen down inside a pit with big stones being hurled at him to kill him. Their message was unpopular too. But they cared more about pleasing God than they did about being popular. And I fear that in our generation, There are some who claim the name of Christ, but they've bought into this idea, well, we can't say things that would be offensive to other people. Do you realize the Gospel in its nature is offensive to other people? And what are we told to do with the Gospel? Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel. Jesus said, I know people are gonna be offended by it, but it's what they need. Now listen, if I was standing next to a cliff, a road had gone out, it had washed out, there was a sinkhole, something happened, a bridge went out, whatever you wanna use there, and I know what's up ahead, and cars are just barreling down this mountain, they're just going as fast as they can, they're like going down Sandstone Mountain, I mean, they're just flying. And a bridge is out up ahead, and they don't know it. And I'm sitting there screaming and waving my hands and jumping out in front of their car to try to stop them. Some of them might think I'm an idiot, and some might be offended by my message. But I'll tell you what, those of them that stop, they'll be thankful they did. And those of them who don't, they'll regret it. We have the message. It's the message that the world needs more than any other message. Quite frankly, you realize the message of salvation is a more needed message than stopping somebody from driving off a physical cliff. Because that has death for a moment, and this one leads to eternal consequences, eternal damnation, if they don't accept Christ as their Savior. Big whoop if somebody drives off a cliff, if they're saved and they're gonna be in heaven. Now I'm not saying that life isn't important, we wanna stop them, we don't want them to go off the cliff, but I'll tell you what, I'd much rather go off the cliff as a saved person than be a person over here that nobody told me about Jesus Christ and now I'm on my way to hell. Because this one lasts forever. And so we have this message that is vitally important. But our world has determined, It has determined for us or tried to determine for us that the worst sin, and by the way, just about the only sin that a person can commit today is to tell somebody else that they're wrong and you're right. Do you realize there are people in our country today that do not want to prosecute violence? Don't even want to prosecute murder. They can't even agree that that was all that wrong or that it needs to be dealt with. But if you tell somebody, no, the Bible says this, this is right, you're wrong, you are the worst sort of person in our culture. Our world has determined the worst thing that you can do. is to tell somebody else that there's only one way to think, there's only one way to heaven, there's only one truth, and it's what God's word says. Our world has determined that's the worst thing you can do as a person. And my fear is that at some point we have allowed the world to wear us down a little bit. To the point now where we're like, well, I don't really want to say that because that might be offensive. But we shouldn't be looking to go out and offend people. Don't hear me saying that, please. But I'll tell you this, if it offended my son when he was growing up to tell him that he was a sinner and that he needed Jesus to save him, I was willing. I was willing to offend him. Because the alternative is not acceptable. Letting him just go to hell without knowing that Jesus died for him? It's not acceptable. We wouldn't do that with our own kids, would we? We would do everything we could to make sure that they were saved. What if we had that same mindset with everybody else's kids? It's not acceptable to let them go to hell without telling them, I got to tell that person. Well, they might get offended. I'll tell you what, it's worth it. I'm not trying to offend anybody. In fact, if you know my personality, I'm the exact opposite end of the spectrum. Get me outside this pulpit, I'm not a confrontational person. It's actually easier to stand before a pulpit and rail on sin than it is to have a one-on-one conversation with somebody about it, just to be honest with you. I don't like confrontation. I try not to be pushy. I try not to pressure. I try not to guilt people into doing things. I don't know that I always succeed at that, but that's a goal of mine. I try not to be, I don't like confrontation. But you know what that does sometimes? That hinders me from doing what God's called me to do. I can't let a desire to be liked and accepted and a fear of confrontation to keep me from doing what God's called me to do and allow people to go to hell that I was supposed to reach with the gospel of Jesus Christ and tell about Jesus. It's my job to tell them. And it's not just my job to tell them because I'm the preacher, it's my job to tell them because I'm a Christian and all Christians are called to tell others about Jesus Christ. Now we didn't even get to the third point of the message, And without an offertory and without hymns, somebody, I don't know who took up all of our time in here, but I think my father-in-law's up there like fast-forwarding the clock is what's going on there. Because that clock can't be right. I took a lot of time, I understand that, and I appreciate your patience, and I appreciate your attention. And it's funny, because beforehand, I'd said to somebody who's not normally in here for Bible study, they're usually downstairs, and I said, I said, well, sometimes I have a lot of illustrations, and sometimes I get really preachy during Bible study. I said, but this one really doesn't lend itself that way. This is going to be a lot more of a Bible study, just studying scripture. And then all of a sudden, I got preachy again. The truth of the matter is, our world needs us to not be afraid to give the truth. And if we buy into this idea it's not acceptable, then quite frankly, we're not pleasing the Lord. We're allowing the devil to have his way, and not standing as a pillar and ground of truth that God wants us to be, not being the salt and light that God wants us to be. May the Lord help us.