start just for a few moments this morning. I'm going to, I want to begin in Acts chapter 26. I'm going to start reading it verse 19 and I'm going to read down to the end of the chapter, but I really need to back up and read several chapters. Y'all want to do that this morning? Would that be fun? And we'll stay at about three o'clock in the afternoon. It would do us some good. Amen. But I know for sake of time, and some of y'all have some other plans and things, and I'm glad you're even here. And sometimes the mind cannot absorb what the seat cannot endure. Y'all can get that in a minute, but anyway. But honestly, for this message this morning, it would be good to go back and read the whole book. Go back and see Paul's conversion in Acts chapter nine. And here's this man, the apostle Paul, and I want to give you a setting and we'll tell you a story and we're going to talk about the significance. That's what every sermon ought to do. And this man, the apostle Paul gets saved and the Lord starts using him and obviously in a mighty way. And we talked about the Lord Jesus as our, as our evangelist preached this morning on the Lord, or this week on the Lord Jesus. And the apostle Paul takes that serious. He hears the Lord speaks to him on that famous scene in the book of Acts, and then he starts just spreading the gospel, the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. And he got voted in as the king and mayor, and they got to give him a big old mansion on a hilltop. That is not what happened, is it? In fact, if you read the Bible, you'll see that this man, Paul, had become an enemy because he told him the truth. In fact, he says it later in one of the epistles, he says, am I become your enemy because I tell you the truth? And he starts preaching the truth of the gospel. He starts preaching about Christ and Christ crucified, who himself was a persecutor of and a hater of Christians. God took enemy number one and totally transformed his life and ministry and focus. And it sets the religious world on its upside down. It also sets the political world upside down because we know the nation of Israel and that part of the world even today is just in a political hotspot. And the apostle Paul was right in the middle of that because he was a unique individual. And I'm not going to get into all about him, even though for these next several weeks, I may preach a series on the exploits of the great apostle. But he, because of what he preached and taught was he got in trouble with the law. Now we as Christians are law-abiding people. In fact, we teach and preach all the time to render undeceased without which they're deceased. We are law abiding. We believe in the rule of law. Most of God's people are the people like, yes, we want, you know, I don't know how many times I've told policemen and state policemen and law enforcement, if you want to take your lunch, you park here. We want you around. We love that. I'm for that. But he got in trouble with the higher ups. He got in trouble with the authority because he was preaching and teaching the gospel. So here in this account, here in these chapters, they are bringing the apostle Paul before different ones. If you've seen these, if you've ever read your Bible, you'll see names like Felix, names like Festus. You'll see someone Agrippa. And you'll see these Herod lines, which by the way, they were descendants and their grandparents were the one, King Herod was one that you probably heard of in Luke chapter two about our savior. So there's a lot going on, but I want to pick up reading here in Acts chapter 26. And by the way, the more you read, this is a deep dive. There's a lot to this. This is not just some simple statement, even I'm gonna draw out a simple statement and apply it to our situations today. But in Acts chapter 26, we see that at the very beginning, it says, then Agrippa said unto Paul, thou art permitted to speak for thyself. Mistake. You don't want a preacher. You don't want somebody with genius intellect and God's power upon him to speak. So Paul, then Paul stretched forth. You ever hear preachers stretching forth their hand? That's from the Bible. It says Paul stretched forth his hand and answered for himself. He said, I thank myself happy King Agrippa. And then he lets it go. And you can read that account. And it is powerful and it is precious. And he talks about the Lord and what God did in his life and who he once was, who he was, what God did and who he is. And that's the testimony that you have this morning. And then starting at verse 19, I'm gonna read right here because he's talking about how Jesus meets him and gives him a new message. And the Bible says in verse 19, whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision, Now, even to this day, people challenge the teaching of the apostle Paul. Right now on the internet, there's big debates about the Pauline epistles, and man, they try to discount him. He is hated to this day. The Bible says in verse 20, and he's kind of telling himself, he's giving a defense of himself. He said, but showed first of them of Damascus and at Jerusalem and throughout all the coast of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God and do works meet for repentance. For these causes, the Jews caught me in the temple and went about to kill me. They wanted to kill him. There's a verse in a few chapters before this where they said they got up that day and they said it was their whole goal of the day to kill the apostle Paul. We gotta get rid of him. He was hated. The Bible says, verse 22, having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both the small and great. Takes the politics out of it. Saying none of the things and those which the prophets and Moses did say should come. And he alludes back to the promise of a Redeemer. That Christ and any witnesses again, look at verse 23, that Christ should suffer and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead. That's the gospel. It should show light unto the people and to the Gentiles. The Jews did not like that message. The Bible says in verse 24, and as he thus spake for himself, now he's been invited to do this and he's standing before these because Paul was also a Roman and he's going to appeal to Caesar and Paul is going to be shipped to Rome. They didn't know what to do with him. Because he was a Jew and he had a unique position. And the Bible says, and as he thus spoke for himself, Festus said with a loud voice, and I always take it in the Bible, it says loud voice, and I'm not gonna scream on this microphone, because some of y'all got a good nap going, so I don't want to interrupt you. But he screams with a loud voice. And he said, y'all probably heard this before, Paul, thou art beside thyself. Much learning doth make thee mad. By the way, did you know God's people have been known to be educated people and reading people and studying people? In fact, God's people are usually the people that promote and push education and reading. And the apostle Paul is here getting criticized by these political leaders. He said, man, you are crazy. You've lost your mind. You were such a good, upstanding young man, and you've done become a weirdo. That's what the world thinks of us, by the way, this morning. They hate this. They hate the message. The Bible says in verse 25, and he said, I am not mad. And here's what, here's a great answer. Now, if somebody called you crazy and mad and screamed and hollered at you, as we say here in Southern West Virginia, how many of y'all know when I say holler, what I'm talking about? I go someplace, I say holler, and they look at me like, what are you talking about? I love being around mountain people, they know what holler means. He didn't answer, he didn't scream back at him. Look what he says in verse 25, but he said, I am not mad, most noble Festus. Compliments him. But speak forth the words of truth and soberness. I'm as serious as serious can be. I've not I've not got some, you know, mountain chalet and become some monk. I've not become some religious quack. He said, I am. I am telling you the truth. And I'm as I'm as sober as sober can be. For the king knoweth of these things, before whom also I speak freely. Brian persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him. And then one of my favorite statements that the apostle Paul ever makes, because I think it's profound, he says, for this thing was not done in a corner. These kings knew, these rulers knew, this line of these Herod, these Tetrarchs, these governors, these people were in charge. Rome had put them there. They studied, it was their job to know exactly what was going on in this part of the world. They knew. This thing wasn't done in a corner, that this man who claimed to be the Messiah died, and then he rose again, and now all of a sudden you got these Christians popping up everywhere, and they're thrown off the shackles of Rome, and they're thrown off the shackles of religion, and they're thrown off the shackles of their own prejudices, and they are coming to know this Savior that's turning their life around, and they're becoming God-fearing, God-obeying, God-loving citizens that's really changing their whole community. Hey, the governments and the people of the world hated that. And by the way, they still hate that. This whole thing in America, having a free thinker, having a, a rugged individualism that we hold so dear that I've been taught since I was knee high to thank for yourself and to not listen to the guy and to read and to think and to talk all these things that we hold so dear as Americans, that is a Christian teaching and belief. And it comes right back to here. And here we see King Agrippa, believe us, verse 27, believe us now, the prophets, I know that thou believest. I know King Agrippa, I know you know what I'm talking about. Then Agrippa said unto Paul, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. Now, there's a famous hymn, almost persuaded. But I'm gonna be honest with you here, in this passage of scripture, in the original Greek, it's an interesting way, it's hard to really word it. Now, I've been doing a deep dive on this now for several days. But we would almost say it like this in our English today. We would say something to the effect of, do you think you've got time now to show me how to be saved? Now we can interpret it as almost I'm persuaded. And overall, the scripture talks about folks that are coming close to the kingdom, but don't get in. But he is not really saying I'm almost saved here. He is saying, you don't really have time. This is not the place. This, and it goes on, it says in verse 29, Paul said, I would to God that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, we're not, we're both almost and altogether such as I am, except these bonds. He said, I wish you were, I wish you were just like me and ready to go to heaven, but I don't want you to be put in bonds and stocks. And then when he had thus spoken, the king arose. Now watch this, this is what I want you to notice, church. And when he had thus spoken, the king arose up. and the governor. We got, we got several people here. You have to back up and see all the characters and, uh, Bernice and David sat with him. I want you to notice verse 31. This got me as a pastor this morning, this week, or when Lord put it on my heart. He says, and when they were gone aside, Now I notice things that maybe some other people sometimes don't notice. But when I read this passage, I love the whole passage. I love the Apostle Paul's really, John the Baptist, Apostle Paul, my heroes. I love the Apostle Paul. I mean, the Lord's used this word to change my life. The Bible says, and when they were gone aside, They talk between themselves saying, this man doth nothing worthy of death or of bonds. Then said Agrippa unto Festus, this man might have been set at liberty if he had not appealed unto Caesar. Now Paul, back in Acts 25, appealed to Caesar. He said, hey, I'm gonna appeal to Caesar. Before these Jews kill me, I'm a Roman citizen. And he appeals to Caesar and they have to send him there. So there's a lot going on. But I want you to notice, church, just for sake of a message this morning. The Bible says that when they were gone aside, Now this passage is interesting, and I'm gonna give you just some thoughts about this, but it just, it bum-fuzzled me. It struck me as I was reading this, it just jumped off the page at me when I read this, and I've read this, of course, many times, and I love this account, and there's so much going on, and there is so much to study, and there's so much, and I encourage you, go home today, give yourself some homework, and go back and read this, and I promise you, I'm scratching, hey, I'm scratching the surface of this. I'm not doing a deep dive here in this message this morning. You can study this and we've been studying this since it was written. But I want you to notice that statement, they were gone aside and I just pictured this crowd and I pictured this great preacher that's standing up. And I mean, he is absolutely nailing it. He is preaching the gospel. He's defending himself in a supernatural way. God has blessed him. God's freed him from the, I mean, there's so much going on. And yet with all of this going on, Here's these political leaders and here's this man that is standing up who is a learned and educated and he knows both sides and he knows what's going on. They didn't know what to do with him. And so the Bible says here, and they were gone aside. And I just started thinking about that. Now I want you to understand this more. We think of this setting, we think of what's going on. We gotta understand who this is. And I'm gonna just give you some thoughts here in just a moment. Don't you see the name here, Bernice? You'll see if you study this whole passage, there's Festus, there is Drusilla, which is his wife, Bernice, which is Agrippa's wife. But let me say this, this was not some godly group that got together and said, hey, let's talk about Christianity and see if we really want to accept it. These were wicked political people here. In fact, Bernice, it is believed according to history that she was married to her uncle. Her uncle died and she moved in with her brother. That's her brother. They are in an insetuous relationship. And here's this preacher of the gospel telling them that there's a savior in heaven that can turn their life around. It is very similar, church, this morning to when John the Baptist stood up and preached the truth, that it's not right to have another man's wife. And you remember what happened. They took his head off. And by the way, Paul is digging himself a hole when it comes to this whole world. But let me say something to you. He's not when it comes to what God wants. And it says here they were gone aside. And I started thinking how many times in my life that I've seen people that hear the gospel, maybe go to church, maybe read the word of God, but then they'll have them a little group and they'll go to the side. They'll always go to the side and they'll have some whispering time and they'll get together. Now here in this passage, the Bible says that they say, hey, he hasn't done anything. If he hadn't already appealed to Caesar, we'd just let him go. We don't think he's worthy of anything. They were trying to, and we see this in scripture, wash their hands. They're trying to say, wait a minute, man, this guy here, this is having a tiger by the tail. When do you let this go? But they went to the side. And I want to preach to you this morning on when they were gone aside. You know, I remember in grade school, I got a certain age and I'd see, you know, and I've always been the person that seemed like everybody was whispering and I never was included. I don't know if y'all remember that or not. They'd be a group of girls and they'd get together and they'd be over in the corner and they'd be whispering and one of them would look back at you and then they'd start whispering again. That just started messing, it always has messed with my mind. I've walked into rooms, people whispering all of a sudden, hey, how you doing? And I get a complex about it. There's always somebody going aside. There's always some group. I always say this all the time. There's always some clique and I'm never in it. I've tried to get in them. Can I get in that clique? Can I get in that little group? Y'all are whispering? And let me say to you this morning, we see this in scripture that they were gone aside. Hear this preaching. They should have been, hey, listen to me before you go to sleep this morning. They should have got on their knees right on the spot and said, God, be merciful to us sinners that we're standing in the presence of this extraordinary preacher that God's got his hand upon. They should have been right there. They should, oh God, have mercy on us. But no, they didn't do that. I said, let's have us a little meeting. Let's go to the side. I want to say to you this morning, I believe this with all of my heart. Satan loves to bring people to the side. Here we hear, you can read the account. He's talking about meeting Jesus on the road to Damascus. He's given them his testimony. We're talking about someone who was by the Jews, given the permission to go and make havoc of the church. God changes his life and turns him around. And these Christians are popping up everywhere. And there's churches starting to spread all over the known Roman world. And we see this in the word of God. By the way, this is not new with me. And in the midst of all this, here's these political leaders. And man, they had a chance. They had a chance to say, oh, Lord, thank you. You've sent us maybe one of the top preachers that's ever lived right here at our feet, right here in front of us. They said, wait a minute, let's go to the side. Almost you persuade us. You're mad. You're crazy. I mean, it had all kinds of reactions. You know, this day, church this morning, I see a lot of folks that The preacher goes, I've been here many years, and I'll go knock on doors or invite somebody out, or I'll try to meet with someone. I mean, I sit here in the parking lots. I met somebody yesterday and had conversations about the things of God. Man, they always have something that pulls them to the side. There's some folks that ought to be in church this morning, but because of whatever it is that's going on, they've been pulled to the side. There's some folks that ought to be getting right with God and getting close with God that should have been revival. That should be here this morning. Hey, if we really believe what we say, we believe this place would be packed to the gills. We'd have to be building on if we were really honest and really true about it. But too often we're brought to the side. Let me say this. I'm not going to say this in an arrogant way because I've been to the side. I've let some foolish things bring me to the side. I've let some things in my life get me sidetracked. I've let some conversations and some thoughts and some preconceived notions. And by the way, us Hibblers, we have some preconceived notions. And some grudge holding and some bitterness and some hurt and what somebody said or what some situation that I went through that I thought nobody else went through. And no doubt, if I talked to these people right then, they'd say, well, you don't know what we went through. because they have a unique, I mean, this is politics, there's intermarriage, there's incest it looks like. I mean, this is not a good godly bunch, but they went to the side. Okay, I'm gonna give you four thoughts this morning about when they went to the side, and I'm gonna give you some things that maybe you and I can take. Number one, they missed out. They missed out, that's real deep, isn't it? You ever went somewhere and maybe you just missed what was going on? Maybe you got there a little bit late and said, man, I missed out. Several years ago, Danielle and I were, my Danielle, my daughter, Danielle, who lives in Jacksonville, I'm still bitter over it, so y'all pray for me. But we were, somehow we ended on the campus of Duke University. Have y'all ever heard of Duke University? And I don't know how this happened, so, you know, I said, let's do a little self tour. Nobody was around so we ended up and I went to the gym. I'd never been I'd watch it on TV I'd never been I said, let's see if there's any most gyms have a door open somewhere So sure enough, man I went I checked every door me and my little Daniel the preacher and his daughter snuck in we got into the gym at Duke University I couldn't believe this Come to find out, they were giving away like free uniforms and jerseys to the public. We had no idea. I walked in this other gym, a practice gym. I mean, I have no idea where I'm at. If I had to go back, I couldn't tell you. They were handing out these famous jerseys and uniforms and football jerseys. And we went in there, I was like, and somebody, and I said, man, there's not much left. They said, oh, you missed out. I thought, wait a minute, I could have got maybe a famous jersey, somebody famous. I missed out. I missed out. I could tell you story after story. If I went around this room and said, oh preacher, I was up there and I missed out. They were handing out free, you know, what is it? Black Friday. I've seen some people at Black Friday, man, they'll have these deals. Get a 50 inch TV for 299 or 199 or 27 cents. And they got like two of them. You're going to miss out. I remember several years ago, I went up there in Princeton up on 460. The traffic was backed all the way up. I said, because they were giving away a TV or something at the Walmart. And I said, man, I've already missed it. And I got there early, I thought. If I went around this room, we'd say, man, we missed out. I want you to think about here's this preacher of the gospel. Here's this great apostle Paul, and here they have this presented to them. And by the way, I'm not reading it all for sake of time, but it's sad to not read it all because when you read, when he says, I thank myself happy, King Agrippa, just hearing the apostle Paul said, oh, I thank myself happy. That's a King James verse. Oh, I'll be glad to talk to you about the Lord. Can you imagine if somebody calls me and they says, preacher, could you come over and talk to me about Jesus? Honey, I about knocked the door down. I mean, I couldn't get out of the driveway faster. Hey, don't wait, let's talk to him right now on the phone. Hey, listen, very, very quickly, we're gonna get there. We're gonna get there. And let me think of this. Let me think of it. I want you to think about this this morning, church, how they missed out. How they missed out. How they had this opportunity. And the Bible says here that they went aside. I can't, I can't imagine. I don't know how the building was. I don't know how the throne or the room or the whatever it was, the courtroom. I don't know. We're not really told exactly all the dimensions or anything like that. Can you imagine he's preaching the gospel to them and he's, he's telling me he's got his hand and we're talking about somebody who was eloquent, somebody who could speak, somebody who had, they were not messing with somebody who didn't know what they were talking about. He had experience with Christ. He had the supernatural power of the Lord on him. He had everything, everything. It reminds us this morning, no matter how great the preacher, no matter how great the sermon, no matter how much power God bestows, they'll still gonna decide. And I just see him say, well, hold on, hold on. And they walk over here and they're doing that thing like looking back at it. And what they say is not necessarily wicked or evil, despite that they are wicked and evil, but they missed out. Number two, they messed up. They're gonna stand before the Lord someday. Can you imagine? Can you imagine somebody hearing the Lord Jesus Christ speak? I don't want it. Can you imagine John the Baptist preach? I don't want it. Can you imagine standing before the Lord someday? And somebody said, well, Lord, why are you putting me in hell? Why? At the great white throne judgment, they're like, wait a minute, wait a minute. This ain't right. You had the Apostle Paul. You had the Apostle Paul. You imagine, even people in our community, the church goes by, they leave a track, they beg for you to come, they hear the gospel at the funeral, they hear it again and again and again their whole life. Hey, let me tell you something, they messed up here. They thought they were messing him up. They thought, well, we'll just send him off, we'll get rid of him. They thought they were in control. But the whole time, like, wait a minute, y'all got this backwards. God is in charge and God is in control. And let me say this to you, church, this morning, when people go to the side, When they go aside, now that's just a word picture this morning. Because they literally physically went over to the side, had a little group. But the mental picture there is so many that are going aside. They're going to suffer a lot of different things. I could, I could probably give you 20 different reasons. Somebody will go to the psych and be financial. It can be a schedule. We don't have time. It can be distractions. I mean, it can be, I love sports. I enjoy that. But man, we live in a nation that's sports crazy. Never even think about their soul and think about some sport. And I love those things. I love fishing and hunting and all that. I love all those things, man. Hey, I wouldn't bother me to get into some things this week and have a great time. I enjoy those things. Man, we can't go to the side from the Lord over those things, whatever those things might be. So they missed out, they messed up. How about this? I wrote this down. They also misled their own selves. They misled their own selves. I don't know if you're like me, I sometimes see people doing things like, what do you think you're, what do you think you're doing? What do you think is going to happen if we keep doing that? If you keep going to, you know, there's videos, I've seen some of these where it's like OSHA violations, you know, somebody's up on a, somebody's up on a roof and they've got a ladder hooked to a chair that's hooked to a, I mean, just, they're funny because you look at them, what are they thinking? I saw one where a guy was on a rope and he had the rope nailed down into the board. It was just nailed. He was hanging there, just painting away. And he said, wait, what do you think is going to happen? I want to look and say, who are you going to go to, King Agrippa? You're going to go to the Jew? Are you going to go to the other religions? Rome's crumbling. Rome's going to get, are you going to go to these other belief systems? You're going to go to the Muslim? Look what's going on in Europe today with Islam. It's getting overran. Some of our founding countries that we've come from are becoming caliphates. I don't think the average American understands how bad that is. We have little precious children in this Christian school. We're getting ready to have graduations in K-4 and K-5 and our seniors. And they are the apples of our eyes. Amen. And we love them. We don't want anything to happen to them. Let me say something to you. If we become a caliphate, I don't think people understand how bad that's going to be. I don't want them little girls to be educated. They don't want their little boys to be educated. Not really. We forget that we think we enjoy America and the freedoms of Christianity. They would not want that. I want to look at this group right here and say, where are you going to go? We live in a nation this morning that wants to mock and make fun and attack. Where are you going to go? And right now, you know, in this world, they just buried the pontiff and everybody's looking at Catholicism. Where are you going to go? Are you going to go to the one who holds the keys there at St. Peter's Basilica? They got the statue of Peter holding the keys. Let me say something to you this morning. Let me get a little Baptist on you. Let me get a little Protestant on you. He can have the keys. I know the door. Amen. I know the door. I won't even get started this morning because I've made some folks aggravated, but anyway. But they misled their own selves. They opposed their own selves. The Bible talks about that. They wanted to be misled. Here's what I've learned. You probably learned this too. I learned this as a pastor. Some folks don't want to hear the truth. Not really. Do we really want to hear the truth? I mean, it's human nature. Well, sometimes we don't like looking in that mirror. I'm getting older and fatter. I'm like, oh, wait a minute. I'll see pictures of myself. What happened to my jet black hair? What happened? It left pretty quickly. We don't like looking. We don't like hearing. We don't want to see that doctor's call up on the phone. We don't like to hear the truth. We don't like going to the funeral service of a family member or a loved one, even somebody close to us, because we are reminded of the brevity of our own life. I don't like that. I don't like that either sometimes. I'll be honest with you. See, sometimes we mislead our own selves. We say, well, I don't really need to buy. I don't really need to be faithful to church. I don't really need to do these things. And okay, what's the answer? What's the answer? At Duke University, right across the way there, there's a hospital where they're doing life saving surgery. What is the answer? Ball is fun and all that, but it's not the answer to the family. It's in that, in that place, begging God to heal their loved one and may not heal them. And they're going to stand before the Lord. See, the answer has to be more than what this world has. They misled their own selves. Let me say this. Number four, we'll close. And I'm gonna give you some thoughts as we close. It is a mistake of eternal consequences. See, if it was just political and, you know, they got voted in and they just, you know, retired from politics and lived on a farm out in Montana for the rest of their days, and they said, oh, that's just kind of a glorious existence. That's what the world would have us say. Well, now they got them a home on Nantucket and they're doing well. They're fishing and just retiring and enjoying the American way. We benefit so much from the blessings of our Christian heritage. We forget it. That's not what I see here. In fact, I never see, this is almost out persuadance to me, I never see any of them ever getting saved again. I never see, now we get to heaven and we may find something out that the scripture don't tell us, but according to scripture, which is what we have to go on, I don't see them coming back. In fact, this is one of the few places we even see the name Bernice even mentioned in scripture. I don't see Festus and Agrippa coming back. In fact, I never see them. They almost become obscure. I see the apostle Paul loud and clear. It was a mistake when they went to the side of eternal consequences. I don't want to downplay that church. I cannot downplay it because I think as a pastor this morning, And I was thinking this week of folks that have come to this church over the years and been in this ministry. And sometimes, you know, I go through the motions and I'm busy. I'm like, well, you know what is happening? Hey, listen, some folks will come to this service. I remember several years ago, a young man was coming from Concord University. He sat in the back. I watched him hold on to the pews and that I know of, he never came again. I pray he got saved. He didn't get saved then. I wasn't going to make him get saved, right? But I remember thinking, Lord, how serious it is every time we preach or teach, how serious it is every time we have church. And we can play games and go through the motions, but this is eternal consequences when we say no to God. It is of eternal consequences when we go to the side. It's of eternal consequences. Even we as grandparents or great-grandparents, our parents, our children, wherever we're at in life, when we go to the side, well, I know what that Bible says, and I know what you're preaching, and I know what the church believes, but I'm gonna go over here to the side. Whatever that side may be, the mistake of eternal. Could it be that Bernice and him were in an incestuous relationship? What hope do they have? You think they're gonna reform themselves? You think they're just gonna naturally, hey, we might oughta quit doing this. Why? They don't believe anything, why? What hope do they have in the simpleness and wickedness of their political institutions that were oppressing other people? How are they gonna get out of that? There's only one way to get out of that, and that's to be changed on the inside. And the very one that was telling them about Christ is the only way they can get saved on the inside. But instead of all that, they said, oh, I'll go over here to the side. I know that, but I got something else. We gotta have some meeting. Now I'm gonna give you some thoughts as we go home. Here's the question, what is pulling you aside? I've been there. I've been, I mean, I did that whole thing. You know, somebody hurt my feelings when I was a kid and somebody said something mean to me at church. And so I got mad at church and mad at everything about church. That's why I just won't go back. You know how many times I hear that as a pastor? All the time. Back in 1982, I'm like, honey, I was 14. What are you talking about? It's my fault. But we hold on to those things and Satan does everything he can. That's right. Go to the side. That's right, I know that happened to you. By the way, I'm not making light of what happened, because those things do happen. Those are some things that were really going on here. What is pulling us to the side? What is it that Satan is using to distract and pull us to the side from what God wants? Number two, let me just say this real quickly. Don't get sidetracked. Man, it is so easy. I was talking to someone this week, and they said, you know, I wasted years. I wasted years. It's easy to get your tire off the road and get off the road. It's easy. Don't take much. One little move. Y'all drive some, you know this. One little move and you'll be off the road, in the ditch, all the way down. You never know. Missy and I were driving down the road the other day in some car and it rained a little bit. They were out in the middle of this big gully. She said, how did that car get there? I was like, man, I don't even know. I don't want to know. But your car can end up in a gully that quickly. We know that. Number three, as we get ready to close here, I want to say this, this needs to be said about these, maybe not you personally, but don't overestimate your importance. I want to look at Bernice and Agrippa, and I just want to say this, just to heal a little bit, who do you think you are? You're talking about the apostle Paul, you're talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, and you're going to have a meeting? Who do you think you are? In England, they're having people stop people from praying at abortion centers because they're praying in their head. They're not even praying out loud. My Americanism, my 1776ism also says, who do you think you are telling me I can't pray in my head? You see, what happened right here, they had this politic thing going on. And guess what? Can I say this, church? We need to not overestimate, well, the Lord, he'll be doing good if I show up. Now we need to get on our knees and cry out to God. We need to say, God, be merciful. Who am I? And by the way, who do I think I am? I'm nothing better. So we'll appreciate. No, no, don't do that. Don't put any pastor. Don't put any family. Hey, don't put anybody in a pedestal. Turn your eyes up on Jesus. Who do I think I am? I would say, well, this one's done this. And by the way, I had some points. I had some valid things. I could write a doctoral dissertation, how hypocrites have turned me against the church and against the things of God. And guess what? You would read it and say, that's pretty good. And if I read yours, I might look at yours and say, well, that's pretty good. But then when I look at the word of God and I look at the gospel and I look at the teaching and the preaching that were right here in front of us, I'd say, who in the world do we think we are? But by God's grace and mercy, I want to say this real quickly as we close. When I first wrote this, I wrote this out and then I went back and studied it some more. And I put this down on my notes. They were not mean, they just missed it. And my point was going to be that not everybody that misses heaven and misses the gospel and misses church is necessarily mean. Cause I know a lot of people that they don't hate, they don't hate authority. They don't hate the police. They don't hate the church. They'll say something like this, you know, preacher, we love y'all and everything. We didn't want to go to church and we're not going to tithe or give, and we're going to criticize every five seconds, but we're not really going to be mean to you. We're not going to throw a rock at you. We're not going to chase your bus down. We're not going to do some of those things. We're not going to do some of these radical off the wall. But as I read the passage though, I was like, wait a minute, I think I'm wrong. I think they are mean. I think they are radical. I think Bernice and Agrippa and Festus, I was screaming at the preacher. They met to the side, because I thought, let's just get this. They didn't meet to the side, because they said, well, you know, he's a pretty good fella and everything. And we can give him a piece of chicken, let him run. We can give him a couple of gift cards. Maybe give him a little raise, he'll be all right. Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no. They voted Jonathan Edwards out of his church after he preached to sinners in the hands of an angry God. I don't know those people's names, but they weren't kind. You see, too often I have a thing, I wanna look at everything good in everybody. And I think it's biblical, I think it's what God wants me to do. However, there are times in scripture, hey, they were mean. How mean is it? How arrogant is it? How prideful is it to hear the gospel preached from a man of God and say, we're gonna go to the side? In fact, I'm gonna say this to you, it might be as mean as anything you could do. Could it be, church, could it be that somebody like Stalin or Hitler or Jeffrey Dahmer, whose grandmother, I think, went to a Methodist church, a great serial killer? Could it be that these men heard the gospel before they become world famous and atrocious by some hideous public sin? And we all agree that those were. We tend to be more on Hitler than we are Stalin because communism doesn't get as bad a rap in the West, but killed millions of people. But could it be that they heard the gospel and they were in a little Sunday school class and somebody was showing them the gospel? I said, yeah, but me and my friends at school, could it be that they were witnessed to? Could it be that they were shown the gospel, but yet Before you ever saw this public, I don't know now, I don't know who's witnessed to, I don't know, that's for the name of the Lord. But I think sometimes they, well, they're just inherently evil. I'm gonna tell you who's inherently evil. Everybody outside of the gospel is inherently evil. And it's only the gospel that saves. When I wrote down that they were not mean, just missed it, I wrote down wrong. As I pray, as I studied this and studied this, the Lord, it's like the Lord said, you need to change that point. And I'm changing it right now. But then let me close with this. I want to say this, because you look at this. Here's the great thing. The book of Acts doesn't stop right there. You hear me? The book of Acts, you say, well, poor old Paul. I'm telling you. They went to the side, and that put a stop to it. He didn't get across to them, so therefore it stopped. Can I say this to you here? He's political. And by the way, at that time, you and I would have looked at, they'd have been in the news. I mean, they'd have had blogs. They'd have been, they had their own websites. They'd have been well-known and rich. And they would have been a lot of people that would have looked to them and hated Paul. And it looks like right here, if we stop at Acts chapter 26, he's done. But the Bible says, and when it was determined that we should sell into Italy, They delivered Paul and certain other prisoners into one named Julius, a centurion of Augustus' band. And you go on and read and guess what? They shipwreck at Myleta. God does some powerful things. Hey, can I say this to you? This group that went to the side was a speed bump in the road on the apostle Paul's life. It was a speed bump. In fact, it almost seems like it was a catalyst to even greater things. He said, preacher, what do you mean? I wrote this down as we close. The mission went on. If I get attacked this week and hated and despised, you vote me out. Gospel's gonna go on. If this world comes in, we're gonna close down that school and close down that church. Hey, we're gonna stamp that out. Hey, the mission will go on. It happens all the time. It's happened throughout history. Do you think when the apostle Paul died that that was the end of the ministry? No. Timothy, he handed it to Timothy. Timothy handed it to others. We're here this morning because it kept getting spread and spread. And our ancestors heard this gospel message that turned the world upside down. Hey, the mission went on despite those that went to the side. You know, as a pastor, I've seen people go to the side many, many times. I thought, Lord, and I get discouraged. Like, well, man, I hate that man. I tried to reach him. And I had some, I saw some here recently and they won't speak. And they're mad about something that happened 40 years ago. And they're still mad. I didn't have anything to do with it. They're still mad. And they think because they went to the side and whoever it may be, but when you go aside, the mission still want to go on. There'll be people that hear the gospel and hear this message. I want to encourage it. Maybe you have family members or loved ones and you've witnessed to them and you've tried to invite them and you've talked to them and you love them and you're praying for them. And then you almost feel like you're dejected or you've been, you feel personally, let me say this to you. When they go to the side, the mission will go on. We love them. We pray for them. We do what we can, but they're the ones missing out. They're the ones that are messing up. And when somebody says no to the Lord, now, let me say this. I know I'm talking to the Sunday morning crowd and many of you know the Lord. I wanna encourage you this morning, hey, don't go to the side. Many of you say, preacher, I'm not, I'm trusting him. I wanna encourage you to keep trusting him. Because despite what it looks like in this moment, when we read on, hey, and we hear the, they put him in prison, guess what? He writes Colossians and Ephesians and Philippians. They put him in jail, he becomes even more prolific. He is still hated to this day because even though they tried to go to the side, God blessed in a mighty way. Let's all stand, never head down, everybody up close. Heavenly Father, we sure thank you today. I sure thank you for this opportunity.