We're gonna have a message this morning. It's gonna be a mixed on faith. And of course, and also in our day that we having, of course, we're celebrating Memorial Day weekend. If you open to the book of Acts chapter five, Acts chapter five. Folks, believe me, it is really good to be back Good to be back in the pulpit and proclaim God's word. You know, God told me this time I was awake. I made you a preacher. Go and preach my word. What a statement that God put in my heart. You know what? I will proclaim his gospel as long as he allows me to. So anyway, let's look at verse 16. It says, and there came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and then which were, and then which were, were, uh, vaxxed with unclean spirits, or possessed by spirits, and they were healed, everyone. Now a high priest rose up, and all they, they, they that were with him, which is the sect of the Sadducees, and were filled with indignation. Those guys were angry. and lay their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison. But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors and brought them forth and said, Go stand and speak in the temple of the people all the words of this life. And when they heard that, they entered the temple early in the morning and thought. And the high priest came, and they had with him, and called the council together, and all the senate of all the children of Israel was sent to the prison to have them brought. And when the officers came and found them not in the prison, they returned and told, saying, Verse 25, 23, "...the prison truly found we shot with all safety, and the keeper standing without before the door. But when he had opened, we found no man within." Now, when the high priest, the captain of the temple, and the chief priest heard these sayings, they doubted. Of them, when two they would grow. So they came and one and told them, say, behold, the men whom he put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people. and when the captain with the offers and uh and brought them without violence for the fear of people at least they should have been stoned and when they had brought them they set uh them before the council and the i'm sorry in the high priest and and asked them saying did not we uh straightly commend you that you should not teach in this name and behold he had uh uh Fill Jerusalem, amen, praise the Lord, with your doctrine and intend it to bring this man's blood upon us. And Peter and the other apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men. Heavenly Father, thank you, Lord, for those strong words. We ought to obey God rather than men. Help us do that in this day and age that we live in, Lord. We live in a strange, strange age. We live in an age, Lord, where what is wrong is right and what is right is wrong. And Lord, if we stand up for what is right, we are viewed as hateful people, as people of closed minds. Lord, help us to stand up for what is true, the Word of God. I just pray, Lord, for someone here that never received Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. May today, Lord, open the door of their hearts and invite you in. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. So it's good to be with you this morning. Thank you. Thank you. You know, here's the thing when you get married and you share everything and like my wife, she'll call with me. I was like, I was so glad all week long, you know, I was, you know, like I'm not getting anything and BING! I get to the airport and there I have it. So anyway, but anyway, it is wonderful to see this passage of scripture here, but you know, I was in Florida and it really uh, grab my heart, like, you know, what happened in Texas? What's that story there? We're living in an age on which I really don't know much of the details of what went on, uh, but to, uh, uh, kill innocent people, that is so sad. Evil is real, folks. Uh, folks, and let me tell you this. Okay, let me put this, and so you can get it. I don't own any guns. Never bought one, don't have one. But guns don't kill people, people kill people. Alright, that's the reality, that's the truth. Okay? Whatever was the reason, whatever it is, it saddens your heart to see, you know, the innocent lives that died, and you know, they went to school that day, they didn't know that was their last moments. And the same thing with all of us, we don't know what's gonna happen by the time the day ends. We don't know. But one thing, I know their moms and dads crying because their little bundles of joy have departed. So this morning we're going to look at what the subject of, of course, our theme is refocus. And today, this morning, we're going to look at faithfulness make a difference. Faithfulness makes a difference. Listen, in the day and age that we live in, or I can put it this way, someone said that the amount of you of our faith is measured in times of intense difficulty. It is in times of intense pressure that our faith is demonstrated. It's when we are alone and nobody recognizes us that our faith is demonstrated. I'll give an example. You have Daniel, prisoner of war. Did he waver? No. You have those three kids, the three friends. They put them in a furnace. Did they waver? No. You had Joseph sold as a slave by his own brothers. Went to jail, was falsely accused. Did he waver? No. Folks, those were kids. They were teenagers, young teenagers. They were not adults, they were young teenagers. You know why? They stood up in great adversity. You see, faith, it's demonstrated when life is hard. When we don't know the way out, when we don't know where the next step goes, that's when our faith is to say, Lord, I don't know where I'm going, I don't know where I'm going to turn, but I'm going to step out in faith and I'm going to trust you. That is faith. And that's what all of us need this morning, is that type of faith. You know? So I tell you what, every soldier that went into the military, they never thought in their mind they were going to come in a body bag. They all had their dreams, they were going to serve and come home to their family, but many did not. But by faith, they served their country. And we have the liberties that we have today. So, big question this morning. Are you a person of faith? If you are a person of faith, has your faith ever been tested? Like, like to the core. Like tested to the core on which to say right. When my mind believes, is it right or is it wrong? Do I believe this to be true? I'll tell you why. I have a pastor friend of mine and Pastor Malazi. Malazi, right? Malazi? Yeah. He, his wife passed away and he came to our church to preach one day. And he was there, he was broken, he was broken in his heart, he was struggling. And he was saying in the end of the message, he said, you know what? I have to come to a point in my life, is this, did I serve God because of my wife, or did I serve God because I love him? He said, it is a great time of testing that I'm going through. And it's true, I mean, if you know the guy, you would say some people know him here. But you know what? I can see from the way he lives and continues to live that he's a man of faith. He believes in what he proclaims and what he preaches. So, this morning we're going to take a look at some Christians who found themselves with faith under pressure. Surprisingly, not everyone was pleased with the first century Christians' efforts to make a difference. Many sick folks had been healed. Those who were possessed by demons were then set free. Thousands of lost people got saved. So there was a time of changing it. You know, the Sanhedrin, they didn't like those people. So they're gonna put them in prison. They're gonna do everything they can to stop the work of the Lord. And let me put it this way, folks. When God is in it, nobody can stop it. When God is in it, nobody can stop it. God, when he's in something, God's going to accomplish what God wants. And if he's not going to use you, he's going to use somebody else. But he gets his work accomplished. So, when opposition and persecution came, the believers respond with Christ honoring steadfastness that serves an example for all of us today. Faithfulness does indeed make a difference even in our day. I tell you what, when I sit in that airplane, and that little young kid, I thought he was 18, he was 31, sitting next to me. When I start talking to him, I could see the boldness of Christianity coming out of his mouth. He didn't know me. I didn't know him. He live in Idaho somewhere. I live in Rhode Island. And this guy is just sharing all the things about Christ boldly to me. Like, you know, I could see this kid was kid. He had faith and he believed in what he was living. He was by himself. He could just not say anything to me. But let me tell you, it makes a difference when we live by faith. You say, oh, I'm going to be the most miserable person on earth if I live by faith. Well, not. No, you will not. Look at me. Look at me. I love serving Jesus. Am I perfect? No. Anyway, none of us are. So, get this faithfulness is one of the greatest characteristics of our God. God is faithful, isn't He? By the way, the Lord is searching for faithful people to serve Him. And he is in need of some faithful soldiers. Look what it says in Proverbs 20 verse 6. It tells us this way. For most men will proclaim everyone his own goodness, but a faithful man you can find. Faithfulness is a quality that God requires from all of us. Actually, that is the way the Christian life is to work. Without faith, listen to this, it's impossible to please God. It's impossible. It's got to be a life of faith. 1st Corinthians 4-2 says, Moab is required as required in stewards that a man be found faithful. So, if Jesus comes today, he gonna find us faithfully serving him. Listen, there's all types of service. There's all types of service. You can serve Jesus by emptying the garbage cans. You can serve Jesus by vacuuming the carpets. You can serve Jesus by greeting somebody walking in. You can serve Jesus by giving a tract to somebody. There's many ways we can serve Jesus. I'll tell you what. We had a activity one time. We got a lot of points. We had an activity one time. It was the Kola Wars. Many years ago. and uh our church it was first baptist church used to do that used to divide the the northeast from the from no the yeah northeast from the new england area so it was the yeah that's yeah north and south that's what it was i'm sorry yeah there you go to divide the states anyway we had about eight or nine hundred maybe over a thousand teenagers there you know teenagers together you know that so You know, but anyway, I said, you know, I was excited. I'm like, maybe you give me something. You know what he put me? In a bathroom. My job was to make sure no paper will fall on the floor. Pick up so the bathroom was always spotless. And the pastor came to me and said, brother, we got to keep a good testimony here. I tell you what, I didn't feel like, I didn't feel like, well why me? Why don't you give that to somebody else? You know what? I rejoiced in the Lord, I witnessed kids in the bathrooms, and I cleaned the bathrooms. You know when the bag was full, I emptied the bag, put it in the dumpster, put the bag in. I did my stuff, I believe I served the Lord in the bathroom. And you know what? And I use the, because the bathroom is always full, always people, you know what? You can preach there. So anyway, so special blessings are reserved for the faithful. Look what it says in Proverbs 28 20. A faithful man shall abound with blessings. See, God blesses faithfulness. Jesus said be thou faithful to that and I will give the crown of life revelation chapter 2 verse 10. If you want to make a difference and go to go to distance you should examine Acts chapter 5 closely here. There are three points I'm going to share with you this morning. Let's look at point number one. I know man our time is flying on us this morning. So the circumstances they endure right here. The faithfulness always require endurance to difficult circumstances. Like I said in the beginning, it is during difficult times that the amount of our faith comes to the surface. Folks, even nowadays we still need faith to go on in our journey of life. Let's put it this way, I'll put it this way, okay? Alright, so I am in college, Bible college. I wanted to start a church, I wanted to graduate. I mean I was on fire, I wanted to keep on going, I wanted to finish as fast as I could. Actually, Mrs. McIver, which is the director at the school, and she said, they never had a student, I'm not trying to boast here, okay? I said, they never had a student that finished school so fast. I mean, I took Christmas modules, I took some of them, I just wanted to finish. I was pumped up. And when I was about to graduate, guess what happened? Cancer. Well, folks, I'll tell you why. Cancer is wonderful when you're here in the lives of others. or not wonderful. I mean, you feel bad. But when it happens to you, it's a little different. Because now you're in the game. Now you don't want to say, oh, I'm going to die. What's going to happen to me? Or this cancer is in me. You question yourself. Your mind plays tricks on you. You know what? Where's your faith? You can't say to God, God, you know what? I'm doing all this for you, and you give me this? Or, you can trust the Lord. I'll tell you what, the sweetest times I had with God, privately, it was during those times. When I could feel his presence, when he was real, he's that real to me, he's still real to me. But in that time, because I believe, believe me, I thought I wouldn't leave more than, wouldn't live more than two, three months. That was my own thought. But I'm still here, by the grace of God. So they didn't do circumstances here. We have our circumstances too, don't we? They didn't do an unfair arrest. Look what it says in verse 17 and 18. They were arrested, you know why? Because they were telling people about Jesus. Can you imagine? They were telling people about Jesus and they put him in prison because of that. Can you imagine? I hope that doesn't come a day in America in which we are seeing that stuff happening. So they were reluctant, it says in verse 17, it says, actually verse 18 says, and laid their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison. So the apostles committed no crime except preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, yet they put them in prison. Go and let it be. They endure unfound accusations. Look at verse 27. When they had brought them, they sat them before the council and the high priest and asked them, saying, Did not we straightly commend you that we should not teach in the name and in this name and behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intended to bring this man's blood upon us. You see, folks, Even with difficulty, even with the problems, look at what they did. These people opened their mouth and told people about Jesus. Where are we doing? Where are we doing? We, you and I, were born for such a time as this. This is our time. What are we doing? Playing Christianity or we are living faithfully and telling people about Jesus. There's two things I know about when you open your mouth telling people about Jesus. You know what two things they do? They either reject it and get mad at you, Or they say thank you and they listen to you. And 99.9% of the time they will listen to you. Ask me, because I, that's my experience. So these men right here, they not only went over, they said they filled Jerusalem, listen, they went everywhere. Can you imagine the excitement? Listen, don't tell people about Jesus like Jesus is in a morgue. You follow that? We tell people about Jesus like he is alive. He lives. When we sing, even though we don't sing right or don't sing that good, sing it out like he lives. Because that's what we do. We serve a living savior. Good night. You ever see people in the morgue? Everybody doesn't. You know why? Because they're sad. You're not going to a morgue and have people playing all kinds of happy musics there. Maybe some places are. I don't know. But anyway, let us see they endure unfortunate abuse. Look at the title of verse 4, and to him they agreed, and when they had called the apostles and beaten them, they commended that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. Look, listen, these guys are beaten up for telling people about Jesus. Can you imagine? Folks, this is going on in our world today. There are brothers and sisters who are suffering this stuff. They open their mouth, You know, there are people, if you notice that, from the Middle East, they're asking me for friend requests. Their profile is private. You can't even see it. And sometimes I just wonder, I don't know if it's all true, if they don't want really people to see who they are. So don't go after them. See, there's a lot of danger in our world. I tell you what, we praise the Lord for America and the liberty that we have. Because this is my cum one day on which you have to hide somewhere even to worship God and you have to shut your mouth because if you open your mouth somebody's gonna say something or falsely accuse you. So then unfortunately they got beaten up for talking about Jesus. Can you imagine that? So, may those of us living in the 21st century respond properly to the freedoms we enjoy. First, may we be thankful for our freedom. You see a soldier, tell him you're thankful for the freedom we have. I'll tell you why, I was blessed beyond measure. I was sitting there, and these young kids, 18, 19 years old, matching them, marching them, whatever they were doing in the airport, and people applauding them. Praise the Lord! They're the ones who go on the front lines. They're the ones you're going to die if it's necessary for my freedoms. Secondly, we have laws that protect us to practice our beliefs without being physically abused by anyone. But we can be exposed to different types of persecution, don't we? One can be persecuted in the workplace, persecuted by family members for what you believe, accused of being a cult, accused of being a hate monger, a cloth miner, a dangerous person. We hear this even in our news medias. Don't be surprised if that happens to you. Keep in mind that our faith in the Lord can sustain us and give us strength to go on. With faith, we can continue our journey, trusting the Lord in every situation of life. Faith is the key of the Christian life. Faith is the most important ingredient of the Christian life. So we see, number one, we see the circumstances they endure. Number two, we see the companionship they experience. Look, it says, but the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors and brought them forth and said, Go stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life. Isn't it interesting? The angel came and the angel said, run for your life so you don't die. He didn't say that. He go, go back there and speak again for Jesus. Isn't that a man of blessing? He said, go back there and speak. What do we got beaten in there? It doesn't matter. Go back there and do it again. Isn't that what Paul did? And that's what you need to do. The companionship, it was an angel that came in their rescue. So the apostles' faith in the Lord led them to a prison cell. Can you imagine that? We must be thinking, what's the use? I'm trying to do right, and look right, and live right, and look the way I am. Those men had something that was real in them. They believed in God, they had faith in God, and they live out their faith. One time a Christian man said to me, oh, you cannot try to live what the Bible says, not in this day and age. Folks, I was a young Christian. I look at him, I live in disbelief. I was so excited. You know, I was sucking the joy out of your heart. I look at him, I'm like, what do you mean? I'm trying to learn the Bible. He told me I can't do it? Good thing I went to see my pastor on that one. I said, Pastor, can we, I didn't mention his name or anything, I just said, Pastor, can we live these things we learn in the Bible? He looked at me and said, you're learning it, right? I said, yeah. I said, then go live it. Also, praise the Lord, I needed to hear that. So those men believed that that's something that was real to them. It was not a story. It was not a make-believe. It was a life-changing transformation. You see, folks, some people think we play church. I hope you're not playing church. Listen, before I got saved, this was my life. Me, myself, and I. I didn't care about anybody but myself. It is amazing what God has in store for all of us if we faithfully live for him and obey him. I would never imagine in my wildest dreams that I'll be in front of people preaching to them. But God did, and God knew. So they knew what they believe and they spoke up about it. Letter A, have an intervention to give them liberty. Just as for one man in Scripture, Daniel, Peter, Paul and others, God physically sent His angel to deliver His servants. So we don't know if those men were in prison discouraged or even doubtful. We don't know if they were about to give up. We don't know. The one thing we know is that God went to their rescue. God sent one of His angels to free them from prison. Not only free them but also with a message for them. Two things about these folks. I believe that God knows exactly where you are today, and what you're going through today, and how you are. If you have faith enough in Him, He will get you through where you are. Because we're through the same God. I believe that God protects his children. I believe that God has a mission for each one of his children. You may be thinking, but we don't have, you may be thinking like, we don't have any angels to come to our rescue today. Really? Go to Hebrews chapter 13. I want you to see it. He said, there's no such thing as angels today that come to our rescue. Let me tell you what, the Bible teaches that it is so. Go to Hebrews chapter 13 verse 2. Can God send angels? Yes he can. Can God come and help you? Yes he can. Look what it says. Be not forgetful. Are you there in Hebrews 13 too? Be not forgetful to entertain strangers for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. I wonder why when that person came and helped you, when that person came to you that you have no idea where it came from. I wonder. One day in heaven we will see that many times that God came in our rescue and we didn't see it. Believe me. I was coming from work at 1.30 in the morning. I was working two jobs. I fell asleep at the wheel. I went down the ditch and hit a tree. And as soon as I hit the tree, I was still sleeping. I had no idea what was going on. And this truck, right there, I mean not even to say, it was right there. He comes to me and said, are you okay? I said, I'm okay. I think I hit my car. I don't think my car's okay. He said, where you live? He took me home. I told my wife about it. He came back with me. We call a rescue, took the car out of the ditch. They put the car in my house. The man said goodbye. I never see that man to this day. He did everything. He was like, well, that's a coincidence. Well, I don't know who he was. But heaven would tell us one day if we really entertained angels on the weirs. But they didn't have any wings and looked like those beautiful girls. Angels are not girls in the Bible, folks. They're all men. So don't be deceived by what you see in parades. Okay? So, be not forgetful, the Bible says, to entertain strangers. For thereby some have entertained angels unaware. So for this, don't just say, oh, the angels helped those folks back then. They're not going to help us today. Yes, they will. If God says so, they'll come and you rescue. So, let it be. Heaven instructions give them responsibility. Luke 17 verse 20, Go and stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life. So God didn't free the apostles from prison so they could run and hide. He freed them so they could resume their ministry. They could resume what God told them to do. What God told them to do? Go and stand. Now folks, I'm thinking about this. God says to them, go and stand where? At the temple. Go tell them those words of life. What does God tell you and me to do today? Go. Matthew 28. He tells us to go throughout the world and what? Preach the gospel to every creature. See, we have a God-given responsibility, and believe me, not just for pastors, for all of us, because according to 1 Peter, we are all priests in the sight of the Lord. And you know what? We are to all go and tell. That's our given responsibility. So the people that you know around you, God gave you that responsibility to let them know that you are a Christian, and let them know that you pray for them, and you use the opportunity to tell them about the great Savior. Because you know people that I don't know, I know people that you don't know. We have a God-given responsibility to tell the world that Jesus saves! Folks, it cuts my heart sometimes, every time sometimes, when there's somebody that passes from this life, and I'm not sure if they're saved. Because if you're a Christian, and you know the Bible says about hell, You don't even want your worst enemy to go there. Right? You pray for them. Because you know it's a horrible place to go. So, you free them so they could resume their ministry when Jesus saves you from your sins. He didn't save you so that you can just go living the way you live. Paul said this way, God forbid, We're not going to live the way we lived before. We've been changed. We've been transformed by the power of God. We're not slaves to sin anymore. Now we serve a king, not a master. I told kids this morning at Sunday school, when the young man signs his life for the military, some of them don't know what they're doing, but when they sign, they give their rights out. They don't belong to themselves anymore, they belong to the country. No matter who president is, when president says something, I don't care what political party it is, you are to go. They say, you go to Germany, you go to... You are to go. Because you don't have rights on your own anymore. Now, if you are Christians, and Jesus became our king, and we are his soldiers, we have no rights to our own anymore, we belong to him. And we got the menu right here to follow. It's not like we're blind, we don't know what direction to take. We know exactly the road map is right here. The road for living, the road to obey, the road to act, the road to speak. Everything is here. That is our God. I'll tell you what, God is good and it pays to be faithful. Number three, we're almost done. The character they exhibit. Consider the faithful nature of the apostles in the first century Christian. We observe three specific ways they exhibit their faithfulness. Number one, letter A, they resist being silent. We see this in verse 27 to verse 29. They resist being silent. They will not shut up. Look what it says there. It says, verse 29, And Peter and the apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than man. Now folks, should we obey the laws of the land? Yes! We should be good citizens, obey the laws of the land. But it comes a point sometimes we have to stand up for God rather than man. Listen, they were not being disobedient to the law there. They were just preaching Jesus. They did nothing wrong. So they refused to be silent. Let me tell you something we should do is refuse to be silent. You say, what are people going to think of me? Listen, it doesn't matter what you say or don't say. They're going to think of you anywhere. Right? People look at you and they want to look hard like you, or hard like you, or hard like you. It doesn't matter what you say. People already have a conceived notion about what they think of you. You can come to them with a good plate of food and smell it and give it to them and they don't like it. It don't matter what you do, so it doesn't matter, so speak up. So there wouldn't be silence. They give an example for all Christians to follow. Why stay quiet when God gave us a mouth to speak? Why stay quiet when we have a mouth to speak the words of life? Some don't speak because they feel intimidated. Some don't speak because they feel uncomfortable. Some don't speak because they don't want to speak. Get this, when disciples were told not to speak in Jesus' name, they refused to stay silent. They what? In my job, they asked me to say a prayer, I believe it was Memorial Day, it was Labor Day, whatever, it was some special day. And I said, if they could, I know I'm a pastor, so they asked me if I could pray, it's like, sure. It turned me off immediately when they said, well, you gotta write your prayer down, and secondly, you gotta say amen. I said, okay. I said, I usually say in Jesus' name. In the end of my prayer. Oh, we can't say that, so we're gonna find somebody else to pray. Because I, I'm a Christian, and I say in Jesus' name. Because these days, people are praying out there, reading prayers and stuff, or pre-written, so they can sound good. You know, you, I mean, I remember one time it was Mrs. Obama's wife, I'm nothing against them, but I went there because I wanted to meet her, I wanted to see her. She's on TV all the time, so we went to see her, it was a christening, I went on our boat, I went to see her, and this guy said, oh no, so-and-so is gonna pray. So we bow our heads and pray, and I have to look up because it was so nice. It was so intellectually done. I look up, this guy was there, his eyes wide open, he was reading! I said, what a wonderful prayer you're praying. So I'm looking at him too. I was like, you know, anyway. So again, it's when the disciples were told not to speak up in Jesus name and they refused to do so. They refused to obey the word of intimidation of men and by faith they trusted God. Now, should we go on disobeying authorities? No, we should not. Actually, the Bible teaches us to obey authorities. Actually Romans 13 says, let every soul be subjected to the higher power, for there is no power but of God. The powers that be ordained of God in presidents and all these people, they put in those because God allows them to be there. We've got to obey them to a point. So Peter encouraged Christians to submit to government authorities, however ungodly they may be. And in some people, not everybody that is our president is saved or is a Christian. And you can agree and disagree with their policies. So never let it be they rejoice in suffering. They're rejoicing suffering. Listen, here's the thing about American Christianity today. I am not going on visitation anymore. That lady was so rude to me. That's the end of that one. I'm not knocking in that door anymore. Do you see those eyes? They're about to kill me. You know, any little thing is an excuse that we weren't going anymore. These guys were beaten up. I wonder how much beating they got. In those days, they were ruthless people. They'd throw stones at you. You know? So I guess they got a really good beat. But you know what? They didn't say, that's it, we're done. God, fight somebody else. They went at it again. I love the Apostle Paul. He got beaten, almost dead, before you know it, he's back in the same place. I remember the guy scratched the ass. Didn't we just almost kill you? What are you doing here? That's commitment, folks. That is commitment to the core. Faithfulness is a commitment to God. I'll put it like this. I'll give you an illustration. We're almost done. There was a man named Polycarton in 70 to 155 AD, was Bishop of Church Smyrna. He was a godly man. He had, when he was urged by the Roman Council renounced Christ. Polly Carton says, this is a true story, folks. I say, eighty and six years I served him and he never did me an injury. How then can I blaspheme my king and my savior? I have, I have respects for your age, said the official. Simply say, away with the atheists and we will set you free. The aged Polly Carton pointed to the pagan crowd and said, away with the atheists. and he was burned at the stake, and give joyful testimony of his faith in Jesus. He will not renounce Jesus' name. Let us see, they refuse to stop. My last point, they refuse to stop. And daily, the Bible says, verse 32, in the temple, in every house, they cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. They cease not to reveal the faithful character of those Christians. Folks, that's what we need, faithfulness, commitment to the Lord. Folks, let me put it this way. We don't know when Jesus is calling us home. We just don't know. It might be today, it might be tomorrow. You know what He wants for me and you? Go and tell. Go and tell that Jesus saves. There's a world dying out there that need Jesus. They might think that they don't, but they do. I thought the same way. Before I met Jesus, I didn't need Jesus. I was pretty happy with my sin, with all the things that I was doing. Until reality knocked on my head. And you know what? When I understood, I began to serve Jesus till this day. But let me tell you this, it took somebody to take time out of their life to go and knock at my door to tell me about Jesus. Listen folks, it takes effort from all of us. We're all busy people. You're looking at one right here. We're all busy people. See, how can I find time? We make time. And when we make time with joy and gratitude of heart, We do it with a smile on our faces. And that's what God wants. Faithful men. Men who are faithful. Faithful ladies as well. So I conclude. We do not remain faithful. If we do not remain faithful, our efforts to make a difference will be undone. Faithfulness makes a difference. Faithfulness is what we need to be faithful. Faithful, just stand up for what is right, is what we need to do. In this day and age in which it's getting more ungodly and ungodly, and we see the wickedness that goes on all the time, We need to be faithful, because I think if something is going to change the heart of man, it's the gospel of Jesus Christ. You don't care what government you put on, I don't care what the Republicans, Democrats, whatever they are, you put it up there, it's not going to change a bit. What's going to change the heart of man, it is the gospel of Jesus Christ. It changed you, it changed me, it will continue to change people. You know how we do? We do reach one at a time. Don't get overwhelmed, it's one at a time. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you Lord for freedom, for liberty. Thank you Lord for...