Chapter 4. Acts chapter 4. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts. And it's not spelled A-X-E. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts. Chapter 4. Are we all there? Acts chapter 4. Alright, let's pray. Father, we come to this morning, this wonderful day that you've given us. Lord, we thank you for what we've heard already. Thank you for what we've been able to sing. All the elements of worship, we thank you for that. But Father, right now we pray that you'd minister to us through thy word. Lord, you know what kind of world we live in. And Lord, we need help every day. And so Father, I pray this morning you would minister to your people and that you would help us. And all you've got to work with up here is a piece of dirt. Without you can do nothing, and you know as well as I do how true that is. And I pray you'd take this piece of dirt and fill it with your spirit, your power, your passion, your words, your wisdom. but watch by its mouth, guard by its lips, but give it grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. And speak this morning through it to your people. And Holy Spirit of God, I pray you would stand behind this pulpit because I need you. Please sit with us in our seats and minister to us. I pray, Lord, if anybody here has never trusted Christ as their Savior yet, that maybe today will be the day you can draw them to Calvary. Lord, please minister to us. Bless your people. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Acts chapter 4, starting at verse 32. It says, and the multitude of them that believed were one heart and one soul, of one heart and one soul. Neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things common. And with great power gave the apostles witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Great grace was upon them all. Neither was there any among them that lacked. For as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles' feet, and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need. And Joseph, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, which is, being interpreted, the son of consolation, a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus, having lands, sold it. and brought the money and laid it at the apostle's feet. That's a rather odd text, I guess, to start out with this morning. But we'll get back to that, and I'm gonna show you why I started out with that. But this is Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday, amen? I've always said that I think Christmas is more of a woman's holiday because of all the decorating and the trinkets and all that stuff. And Thanksgiving is more of a man's holiday. It's eat turkey, watch football. I mean that's really for a lot of us that's what it may boil down to. And I remember the Thanksgiving story as we heard it, as we were taught in school. The pilgrims came to this country for religious freedom, which is true. They did come to this country for religious freedom. They were persecuted terribly, along with other things. They left England to go to Holland. They tried living in Holland for a while, but the world was so bad it was affecting their children. And they said, we can't have this. And so eventually they got on the Mayflower and made it over here. And that first year, there was much suffering. At least half of them died. Records vary from 45 to 51 of them died the first year. We heard about Squanto, who came to save the day, if you will. Squanto was the one who was a Native American who was captured previously by a ship. I forget the captain's name. And he invited some Native Americans on board to make a deal with him. and ended up capturing them and taking them back to England and they were going to make slaves out of them and the Franciscans, the Franciscan fathers got word of that and actually rescued some of them, Squanto being one of them and he was trained in Christianity and we know what he would have been trained in would have been Catholicism but he still got some training there, learned the English language and eventually made it back. And when he came back, he was a great help to the pilgrims. He could be an interpreter. He could teach them how to plant, what kind of seeds to plant, and how to plant it, and how to fish, and how to hunt, and all that stuff. So he was a great help. And of course, we hear about turkey, turkey, turkey. And the fact of the matter is, they probably didn't eat turkey. They ate venison. They caught a lot of fish. Some accounts say even the lobsters in that area. Although Bradford did say he sent a group of men fouling, in other words to get some kind of fowl, and which most of it would have been a geese and duck, which would be fine with me. I love geese and duck. It's dark meat. fine with me they may have gotten a turkey I don't know but that's what we think about the holiday that's what you were taught in school and you saw the funny kind of clothes that they wore and and all that stuff and that's what we think of when we think of Thanksgiving and the fact the matter is there is a relevance for that holiday for today And it's more than just being thankful. There is a specific relevance for that holiday today. And I'm going to go through that with you a little bit this morning. And don't get bored with that. And we will get into the Bible. But I want you to understand this because of everything that's happening in our country today. Things you would have ever imagined happening 10 years ago that are happening in our country today. Let's go through the story. This is what you were probably never taught and why it's important for us today. Here's how it began. We have the Plymouth Plantation, but it was originally known as the Plymouth Company because they had to obtain a land patent from the Virginia Company of London. Have you ever stopped and figured things out? You know, the older I get, the more I think this way. You see something happening and they're doing this, and my first thought is, who's paying for that? Who's paying for this stuff? You know, you hear about some guy that travels in Europe for six months, studying the various cultures of various countries, and I'm thinking, who's paying for that? Somebody's gotta pay for that. And who paid for the pilgrims coming over here? Well, it came from investors in this Virginia company of London, and the investors, by the way, were called adventurers. So to this day we have adventure capitalists. Well these weren't capitalists but they were ventures and so they supported this trip and they expected to be paid back with profit because that's how it works. If you ever watch Shark Tank you understand that's how it works. They invest money and they expect a certain percentage back. Common sense. So the bylaws set up a communal system. Think about that. It set up a communal system. And for the first seven years in which all capital and profits remained in ye common stock. See where we're going here? And the adventurers and planters do agree that every person that goeth age 16 years or upward be accounted a single share. And it goes on to say this, the persons transported and the adventurers shall continue their joint stock and partnership together, ye space of seven years. During which time, all profits and benefits that ye got by trade, traffic, trucking, working, fishing, or any other means of any person or persons remain still in ye common stock. So whatever you made, you bring your paycheck and put it in the common stock. Whatever you're doing, however you're making your money, whatever you're doing to survive, it goes into the common stock. This, that all such persons as are of this colony are to have their meat, drink, apparel, and all provisions out of ye common stock. So everybody puts into the common stock, and then whatever you need, you go there and you get what you need. Sounds great, doesn't it? The pilgrims, when they left, wanted to erect a new Jerusalem, if you will, in the new world. A new Jerusalem that would not only be religiously devout, but would be built, listen now, be built on a new foundation of communal sharing and social altruism. Altruism is doing things for other people at the sacrifice of yourself. The ideal was the, and here's the word, communism found in Plato's Republic. Plato was a Greek philosopher back in the third and fourth century BC who thought he figured out how people should live he thought he figured out how a society should work and he had a lot of ideas he was one of the big three I mean there was him Socrates and Aristotle but Plato thought he knew how a society should be set up and run so he tries to define three aspects of the soul which he has no idea He was a deist, meaning he believed that there was a God that existed but had no dealing with humanity, but at the same time he was a polytheist. And he worshipped reason, calling it the social mind. We would call that international socialism. So here's this guy who thinks, I got this all figured out. his Republic is still read today by people involved in politics they think this guy had some good ideas and the fact that matters he didn't and Plato's Republic is more not Einstein but more JK Rowling if you will who wrote the Harry Potter books it was more of an imagination Plato's got this great imagination what a society should be like, how it should run and so on and so forth. He believed that people should be required by state law to worship at the temple and face capital punishment if they didn't. So you've got a one world religious system there. He didn't believe in heaven, he didn't believe in hell, judgment after death or a physical resurrection. And yet he's gonna advise us about the soul and he's gonna tell us how humanity should govern itself. And he gets all of his information and his source of great knowledge is his own gray matter between his two ears. John Gill, who was a Puritan and a commentator, he wrote on philosophers, and I'll paraphrase, when the unregenerate man espouses philosophy, he makes a god of his own mind. No philosopher is a genuine atheist, for he has to worship his own brains as the final authority in all matters. That in philosophy, the mind of man, as its own measure, guide and rule, and sense, the mind of man is what God says it is, and God talks about the wicked imaginations of man's heart. He talks about the lust of the flesh and of the mind. It exalts imaginations of its own. And that was the influence on Europe in the day. Europe is coming out of the dark ages. There's a renaissance going on, and they're being infiltrated with all this stuff coming from the eastern part of the empire, and they're learning about this Greek philosophy and all that, and they're buying it, they're buying into it. And so the Virginia Company had bought into that. And so they said to the pilgrims, look, we'll pay for this, but here's what you're gonna have to do. You're gonna have to set up this communal system And it's going to have to last seven years, and then the profit that you make off of that a certain percentage has to come back to us. They didn't have a problem with that. They didn't have a problem with that. And so the Pilgrims will make it to Plymouth. They will set up their first government. And the members of the Plymouth colony had arrived to the New World with the plan of, again, collective property ownership. Nobody owned their own property. Collective property ownership. And again, it reflected the current opinion of the aristocratic class of the 1620s, and so they called the farmland to be worked communally and for the harvest to be shared. So far, everything looks wonderful. The Pilgrims attempted collective farming. The whole community decided when and how much to plant, when to harvest, and who would do the work. William Bradford wrote in his diary that he thought that taking away property and bringing in a commonwealth would make the pilgrims ready for this, happy and flourishing. Happy and flourishing. Boy, doesn't that sound good. We want a country that's happy and flourishing. New York City wants to be happy and flourishing. Well, we'll see how that worked. So in the diary of the colony's first governor, Bradford, We read about the initial arrangement. Land was held in common. Crops were brought to a common storehouse and distributed equally. And for two years, every person had to work for everybody else, not for themselves as individuals or families. What could possibly go wrong? Well, here's what happened. This would come to be known as the tragedy of the commons. which Bradford himself called, again, communism, okay? Communism isn't new. Didn't begin with Marx, didn't begin with Lenin. It began all the way back with Plato and the same ideas that have drifted through history, that have been tried and failed and tried and failed and tried and failed and here we go again. They're gonna try this and it's gonna fail miserably. In Bradford's own words, quote, for the young men that were able and fit for labor and service did repine, meaning complain, that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men's wives and children without recompense, without getting paid for it. I understand that. How would you like to be a young man and they want you to do all the work? The strong are men of parts, he said, which means abilities, had no more division of food, clothes, et cetera, than he that was weak and not able to do a quarter that the other could. This was thought injustice. I agree. The aged and graver men, to be ranked and equalized in labor and food and clothes, et cetera, with the meaner, the unskilled of the younger sort, thought it some indignant and disrespect for them. The elderly people thought they were being disrespected because the younger people were saying, why should I do all this work and here you sit and you can't do anything? And the elders should have been respected. I'm not saying they shouldn't have. But you understand what's going on here. for men's wives to be commanded to do service for other men as dressing their meat washing their clothes not stop right there washing their clothes I mean it's bad enough that our wives have to wash our filthy stinking socks and our dirty underwear and all that stuff they have to wash it why should they be required to wash some other guys stinking socks and underwear they they did not agree with that at all their husbands it said couldn't tolerate that I wouldn't tolerate it either look if I married a woman I'd expected me cooking for me I'd expected to be washing my clothes and I would love the opportunity to provide for her but in this communal socialism communism it doesn't work that way so the women felt like they were slaves the men were upset and the common property approach killed about half the settlers so it was disease and all that it was this approach to life where some of them were not getting enough food some of them were not getting enough care Bradford recorded in his diary that everybody was happy to claim their equal share of production I mean when they went to the common stock to get stuff oh they always wanted equal stuff there when I came to producing to put stuff in there that was a different story production only shrank when it came to doing that slackers showed up late for work in the fields and the hard workers resented it wouldn't you I mean think about it you get up at six o'clock in the morning you're out in the field you're working and working about eight o'clock or nine o'clock here come some other people well glad you showed up now that half the works done I see the resentment there It's called human nature. And I've told you over and over again, in society when you don't have the proper understanding of the human nature, boy are you gonna do stupid stuff. I can't wait for New York City to get rid of the police and have the social workers go in there. There'll be more bloodshed than Pol Pot when he took over Cambodia. Can you imagine? I saw a cartoon the other day, it was great. It's some crazy guy and he's got a woman around the neck like this and he's got a knife like that. And then there's a social worker standing over here saying, I think you need a hug. I said, yeah, that's it, that's it right there, that's perfect. The disincentives of socialistic scheme bread impoverishment conflict until facing starvation and extinction Bradford said maybe we should try something different by the spring he wrote in his diary our food stores were used up nothing about that you harvested in the fall by the spring Our food stores were used up, the people grew weak and thin, some swelled with hunger, so they began to think how they might not still this languish in misery." In other words, how can we change this? Dennis Prager, who was the founder of PragerU, And Prager puts out a lot of these little five-minute video clips where he addresses these various topics. And you've got to listen to it because it's not so much him. He has very smart people taking five-minute segments. Professors at whatever law university and this professor, these guys are conservative. They're good men. They know what they're talking about. He had a couple clips from a young lady that left Venezuela, got out of Venezuela, and she's telling her story about what happened when Venezuela was taken over, first by Chavez and then by Maduro. the mess that it caused. She talked about being a child and watching her mother get up in the morning just to stand in the bread line, just to get a loaf of bread. That's how bad Venezuela had become, of people going through the garbage to find food. She left there and she came to the United States and she said, I've got to tell you people what's going on there so you don't make the same stupid mistake. And so she's got some good stuff out there. But Prager said this, the pilgrims did experiment with socialism and communalism and they realized it didn't work. against human nature again human nature is depraved human nature is corrupt it's that way from birth the new birth fixes your soul and spirit but that stinking flesh you live in is still alive and still wants to do what it wants to do that's the Christians battle right there and the moment he says you tell people that the community will take care of you they work less it undermines character And if you're on welfare, well, I'm gonna work a little bit. I'm not worried about it. I got my food, you don't get food stamps. EBT card, got my EBT card, my welfare and all that, so I'm not really worried. That's the problem. That's the problem. So, here we are. Miserable condition among the pilgrims. Miserable thing. And what do we do? Well, he said, preacher, what about Squanto? I mean, Squanto was there. Yeah, Squanto was there. And Squanto was essential to the pilgrim's survival in the first years, providing crucial knowledge about farming, fishing, diplomacy with the other natives, while the shift from communal to capitalism was taking place. Squanto was short-term help. They were messing up with their stupid idea about government, but Squanto said, look, this is still how you plant corn, and this is how you catch fish, and this is how you deal with deer, and so on and so forth. So he was short-term help, but the shift from communalism to capitalism was the long-term fix that gave them long-term sustainability. So Squanto's immediate aid combined with the latter implementation of private property led to the colony's success. So Bradford is looking at the situation, and Ford Motor Company had not even come into existence yet, but he said, you know what, I've got a better idea. I remember an old preacher in Upper Sandusky said, Brother Jim, he said, Ford's got a better idea. I said, what is it? He said, buy a Chevy. But Bradford said, I've got a better idea. So he said, and they had a meeting, the elders of the area and what have you, and he said, I answer seeing that all men have this failing in them, that God in his wisdom saw that another plan of life was fitter for them. At length, after much debate, the governor, with the advice of the chief among them, allowed each man to plant corn for his own household. And so every family was assigned a parcel of land according to the proportion of their number. So Bradford said, let's do this. Let's forget this communal farming thing. Let's give each person a parcel of land and the size based on the size of their family. Give them a parcel of land and say, there you go. If you don't wanna work it, don't tell us you're starving to death. But if you want to have corn and you want to have food, we've got the seed. You go out there and plant it, and you'll get a great harvest from it. And you know what that did? That changed incentive just like that. Bradford recorded, and so assigned to every family a parcel of land according to the proportion of the number for that end. This had a very good success. where it made all hands very industrious. So as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been by any means the governor or other could use and saved him a great deal of trouble and gave far better content. The women now went willingly into their own fields and took their little ones and planted corn, which before would allege weakness or inability, whom to have compelled would have been thought great tyranny and oppression." That's human nature, isn't it? If you compel someone to do it, I'm not going to do it. But if you give them the incentive, say, you know, if you plant that, you're going to have a lot of corn. There they go. There they go. And by this time, again from Bradford, by this time harvest was come and instead of famine, God gave them plenty. And the face of things was changed to the rejoicing of the hearts of many for which they blessed God. And the effect of their planting was well seen for all had one way or other. pretty well to bring the year about and some of the abler sort and more industrious had to spare and sell to others so as any general want or famine have not been amongst them since to this day that fixed it in one year going from the communal stuff to the capital capitalism fixed the community for good you were taught this in school right Men worked hard, even though before they had constantly pleaded illness. You see, when the community is providing, I don't feel like going to work today, I just feel sick. But when it's your business and it's you making the money, you figure out how to work when you're sick. There's a curative thing about that, I guess. God gave them plenty, the face of things were changed and rejoiced in the hearts of many for which they blessed God and the effect of their planting was well seen for all had, one way or other, pretty well to bring the year about and some of the abler sorts, some of the industrious had to spare. Men worked hard even though before they had constantly pleaded illness. Fields were not only tilled and planted but also diligently harvested. Colonists traded with the surrounding Native Americans, the Patuxet tribe, primarily the Wampanoag, and learned to plant maize or corn, squash, pumpkin, To rotate their crops from year to year, the harvest was bountiful, the new colonists immigrated to the thriving settlement. And he said this, that the taking away of property might make men happy and flourishing, that's what they thought. And then he makes this statement, you ready for this? As if they were wiser than God. As if they were wiser than God. You know what our problem in America today is? We have a bunch of people that think they're smarter than God. And when you have a nation where you got people, leaders, thinking they're smarter than God, you're in trouble. We're in trouble. He went on to say, God in His wisdom saw another course fitted for them. And the exact quotation of that is, let none object this man's corruption and nothing to the curse itself I answer seeing all men have this corruption in them that's human nature God and his wisdom saw another course fitter for them so Leo Martin said this he said it's a great thing that the pilgrims abandoned socialism when they did because it helped them become productive and prosperous and then he knows this Did you know that today 10% of the population of the United States are from the Mayflower descendants? That's 30 million people from 51. 30 million people from 51 people who had they not changed would have all been dead. But because God was able to break through their thick skulls and say, as Sam Gipp would say, hey stupid, maybe you should try something different. And they did. Now I said all that to say this, you weren't taught that in school. Nobody was taught that in school that I know of. And yet here we are in America with a communist socialist as the mayor-elect in New York City, a communist socialist mayor-elect in Seattle, and communist socialism rampant in Minnesota, and on our college campuses, and young people, who think, oh, that's great. It sounds like we'll be happy and flourishing. That's what the problem is in America. And if that would have been taught over the decades, no young person would, and no professor would get away with teaching that, oh, there's a better way. Because the student body would say, we tried that and it didn't work. But for some reason, Americans cannot seem to learn the lesson about socialism. On Thursday night, a few weeks ago, I talked to you about New Harmony, Indiana. Remember New Harmony? A settlement of German Lutherans, small settlement of German Lutherans in Indiana, and a millionaire by the name of Robert Owen purchased the city. 1825, purchased the city. And you know what he said? Let's not have private property, and let's all work for a common store, and we'll bring all of our labor into the common store, and we'll get all we need out of the common store, and we'll be happy and flourishing. And you remember how long that lasted? One year. And the people said, this is nuts. And the sad thing is, Owen never admitted it was a failure. And they never will. Like I said, I'm very interested in seeing what's gonna happen in New York City in two years. Josh and I were talking a while back, and he said, what do you think about that? And I said, it's a gift for the Republicans. Seattle is a gift for the Republicans, New York City is a gift for the Republicans, because what the world is gonna get to see is how stupid their ideas are, and how they come crashing down, and the Republicans will be there to say, told you so. Socialism is being repackaged, as one writer says, and recycled by today's left-leaning politicians. Good old Bernie Sanders. Feel the Bern? You will if you elect him. And AOC being taken seriously by young and gullible generation, many who weren't even alive when the historic events of the 1980s and the 1990s occurred. I saw Reagan, say Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall. I saw the video of that. I saw the video of the Berlin Wall being torn down. I saw the breakup of the Soviet Union. I watched the burial boats coming from Cuba to Miami to escape from Fidel Castro. I saw that stuff. And listen, my first thought was not, boy, it must be working over there. But the lessons from history about the defects, deficiencies, and failures of socialism are very clear. It's never worked anywhere. As we'll learn from countless examples throughout history, including now Venezuela, and the main difference, never forget, the main difference between capitalism and socialism is this. Here's the main difference. Capitalism works. That's the main difference. Socialism has never worked. And Bernie Sanders is still touting this idea that, well, in Scandinavia it worked. They tried it in Scandinavia, it didn't work, and they got away from it. It's never worked anywhere. And unfortunately, we're all learning that lesson again. Why is that? Now, go back to Acts chapter 4. I'll show you why I brought it in Acts chapter 4. What we read in Acts chapter 4 starting at verse 32 is what is used by people to try to justify socialism from the Bible. It's amazing what people try to justify using the Bible and they have no idea what it means. Acts chapter 4 Let's read, starting at verse 32 again. He said, And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and one soul. Neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things common. He says, there it is preacher, they had all things common. Well, hang on a second. Verse 33, and with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. Neither was there any among them that lacked, for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things which were sold, and laid them down at the apostles' feet, and distribution was made unto every man according to as he had need. And Joses, who by the apostles, maybe it's hoses, was that a Mexican thing? Maybe it was hoses. And Joseph, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, which is being interpreted the son of consolation, a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus, having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet. Let me tell you what the difference is here. Number one, everybody in that group, and there were over 3,000, everybody in that group were born again. Now that was never true of Mao's China, of Lenin, never true of Pol Pot, never true of Maduro, never true of any of those people, Castro. They just assumed they took over the nation. These people here are born again Christians, including the pilgrims. The pilgrims were Puritan. They followed John Calvin. Calvin taught regeneration in a weird way, but we'll make the assumption that the pilgrims were born again, okay? Communists are not born again. All were in the church or the body of Christ, although they weren't aware of that yet because Paul had not received that revelation explaining all that, but they were in the church, in the body of Christ. So you've got a bunch of born-again believers in the body of Christ who are together, who are selling their stuff off, bringing it to the church and say, let's make sure everybody's taken care of. Nothing wrong with that. And the important thing to understand is this, they did it voluntarily. There wasn't a state decree, there wasn't a state police force that came out and made sure all that happened. They did it voluntarily. And the leadership of the church, the apostles, were not against the ownership of private property. So how do you know that? Because in the next chapter, there's a couple. that are coming to the church and they've been watching what's going on there see they're seeing people bring in all this money and testify I sold this and I'd sold that and the church said all praise the Lord for you you're great and these people got a great reputation and so this couple Ananias and Sapphira thought we could get a good reputation too and they had land to sell they made one big mistake they sold the land came to the apostles and said we sold it here's everything we got for the land and they're lying through their teeth they might have sold it for a hundred thousand but they're giving the church 80 hypothetically they're keeping back but they're making everybody think oh they gave everything to the church aren't they great that was the problem there but I want you to notice when Peter gets a hold of Ananias in Acts chapter 5 and verse 4 he says to him he said I know what you've done I know what you're doing but he said this walls it remained well what remained the land your possession while it remained was it not thine own absolutely yes he didn't say that wasn't your land it's part of the communal system he said it was yours the land that you had was yours and after it was sold was it not in thine own power to do whatever you wanted to do with the money We never said you have to give it all. It's your choice. The problem Ananias is you're lying about it. You're making the people think you gave this and you only gave that trying to make a name for yourself and God struck him dead. Just like that. And his wife came in later and he hit her with the same thing. But the fact of the matter is they never said you can't have private property. They never said you couldn't do what you wanted to do with your own land. Never advocated that. And I want you to understand something else too. that this group of people I mean this is Acts chapter 4 many of them were converts from Acts chapter 2 these are Jewish people these are Jewish people waiting for the kingdom to come and they think it's coming any day if you read carefully Peter's message in Acts chapter 2 he goes right to Joel and he quotes a verse out of Joel that's end times I mean it's right at the end the sun will be turned to darkness the moon to turn black stars all that stuff that's right at the end Peter did not know that there was a 2,000 year church age coming in here. They thought that they're there. And so for them to live in a communal kind of a system and have everything in common and take care of each other was basically he's coming any day now. It's not a big deal. I mean, I give up my land and house because he's coming right away. And let me say something else. This was never advocated anywhere else. Anywhere else. And it is interesting, in verse 33 it says that they have great power, and it talked about great grace. Well where did that come from? That power and that grace came from God. So this is God looking down upon these people, and seeing what they're doing, and they're loving each other. These are new Christians, they love each other, they're so glad they're born again. And they think the Lord is coming back at any time, so if you need my car go ahead and take it. you need my use my high there it is it's yours what we'll celebrate all the money and we'll take care of each other it says in verse 34 neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own he voluntarily said you can have whatever I got their choice and none among them lap lap goody Galatians chapter 6 I'm going to show you the biblical principle here And if you can find a communist government that matches everything I just said there about Acts chapter four, I'd love to see it. So if some communist or some socialist will say, well, it's in the Bible, say, you're nuts. And I'm sorry you can't read. Must've went to the same public school that didn't teach you about the pilgrims. Here's the principle. I'm gonna give you some principles this morning. Galatians chapter six, look at verse two. bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ we should be a people willing to bear the burdens of other people however look down at verse 5 for every man shall bear his own burden that's not a contradiction the idea is this you bear your own burden you bear your own burden as long as you can and as far as you can and when you come to the end of yourself and you can't bear it any longer we'll help you but we're not going to bear your burden if you don't want to help yourself see how that works go to Romans chapter 15 Romans chapter 15 I remember we worked on the housing projects in Toledo years ago. I remember doing visitation in these apartments. And here these people were, they got their housing from the government, they got their food from the government, they got everything from the government. And you think, well, it's helping them. They're trying to bear their own burden and the government's, oh no. We would go inside of these apartments and there's a 72-inch screen TV over here. There's a computer over here. Here's some kid running around with a, not a bowl of ice cream, a carton of ice cream. And the mother is, and I'm trying to be polite, three times the weight she should be. Let me put it to you that way. And most of the women in the housing projects, I could say that about. We might have known one or two of the ladies there were skinny. But most of the women in the housing projects were rather obese. they never thanked me one time for working and paying my taxes so they could get that Romans chapter 15 verse 1 we then that are strong out of bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves that's a good that's a good principle If we have the strength, we ought to bear the infirmities of the weak. And we will help the weak. And we have helped people here at this church that can't get something done. I remember Johnny and Micah replacing the hot water heater for somebody in here. And I mean, Johnny's sweating blood for Johnny. But we will help each other. They that are strong help the weak. Go to 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. very important section 2nd Thessalonians chapter 3 this is how the church should do it no need the government to step in and tell us how to do it we know how to do it 2nd Thessalonians chapter 3 look of you will at verse 7 Paul speaking to the Thessalonians he says for yourselves know how you ought to follow us for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you neither did we eat any man's bread for nothing for naught but wrought with labor and travail day and night that we might not be chargeable to any of you so they preached at night and they worked during the day Paul was a tent maker he probably taught whoever's with him how to make tents so they worked during the day they preached at night so they wouldn't be chargeable to the church of Thessaloniki verse 9 not because you have not power I mean you could have given us stuff but to make ourselves an example unto you to follow us for even when we were with you this we commanded you that if any man would not work neither should he eat well write that one down if any man's not going to work neither should eat not if I mean if any man is not going to work he should go down to welfare and get no if many man doesn't work he shouldn't eat Look at verse 11, for we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies, getting themselves in trouble, hanging around at the local carry-out, hanging around at the beer dock, or what have you. And when you have guys hanging around, you're asking for trouble. Verse 12, now, them which are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work and eat their own bread. Or as the saying is, get a job. But that's the biblical principle. The biblical principle is everybody's to work, everybody's to bear their own burden. If they're weak, somebody will help you. If you cannot bear your own burden anymore, but you're trying, we will bear your burden for you. And we'll care for you. Because we are tied together in the love of Christ. So, another Thanksgiving is here. and all the nonsense that comes with it. And let me refresh your memory. No, the pilgrims didn't come to steal anyone's land. The pilgrims purchased the land from the Wampanoags and the other Patuxet tribes, and we still have in Plymouth, Massachusetts today the land deeds from those purchases. Anybody says, oh, they stole the land. We have the land deeds. We have the amount that was paid for it. America was not built on stolen land. What about Manhattan? Peter Stuyvesant, you know, he cheated those Indians and only gave them like $24 worth of trinkets. I told you the story behind that. Stuyvesant got on Manhattan Island and said, oh, this is great. And there were Native Americans on that island. And he said, I want to buy this land from you. And they looked at each other and smiled and said, sure. And so are they given $24 worth of training? It's not realizing the Native Americans on the land were there because they were doing 100 or 200 mile hunting trip to get there. They were there to hunt. But when these white, stupid white guys said, we want to buy your land, they looked at you and said, sure, yeah. Yeah, you can buy the land. You can have every bit of it. And then they headed back home. We didn't steal Manhattan. And we didn't steal the Louisiana Purchase. cost us 15 million bucks so well I think you've stolen let me let me let me help you understand you know why the Louisiana purchase is called the Louisiana purchase because we purchased this yeah And Alaska, we didn't steal Alaska from the Russians. We paid 7.2 million bucks for that. And it was called Seward's Icebox, and they said, boy, this was such a stupid move, until they discovered gold. And decades later, we discovered oil, and now there's rare minerals, rare earth minerals up there. I think it was a good purchase. But we bought it, we didn't steal it. And listen, this desert Southwest, Texas and New Mexico and Arizona and Colorado, Nevada and California, this is not Mexico. We fought a war with Mexico and we won the war and our troops went as far as Mexico City. And the leadership of Mexico says, we need to have a talk. And so when everything was said and done, we moved our line back to the Rio Grande River. Anything north of the Rio Grande was ours. Anything south of the Rio Grande was theirs. And we gave them 15 million bucks. Don't tell me we stole this property, that this should be Mexico. I don't think so. And the pilgrims did not come to commit genocide. 50 years of unbroken peace is the record of the pilgrims in the Wampanoag tribe. 50 years of unbroken peace. And the pilgrims were fair and equitable with these men, with these Native Americans. You know why? They're trying to win them to Christ. they're trying to evangelize these, you wouldn't treat somebody badly if you're trying to lead them to Christ and they had a great relationship with Chief Massasoit and they treated each tribe as a distinct nation and the appropriate protocols and non-christian historians, non-christian historians have conceded that the pilgrims were fair in their dealings with the Indians, just and equitable and peaceful So please don't give me all that nonsense about Thanksgiving. Let me tell you, and I'm done. Let me tell you what Thanksgiving is all about. You ready? Here's what Thanksgiving is all about. Thanksgiving. And it's thanksgiving to God. That's what this holiday is all about. And if you can get to that place in your life where you, at some point, and I think you ought to thank the Lord every day, I've got a, is it a cup we have at home or some little thing at home that says, end every day by telling God thanks. That's a good idea. And for us as Christians, we really don't have to emphasize Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving Day, because we do that just about every day. But that's what Thanksgiving is all about. We're gonna give thanks to our God for what our God has given us. And we look at the country and we look at the problems in this country and some of the messes here and there, it's still the greatest country on the face of the earth. And thank God we live here. Talk about people, we visited Royal last week and they talked about the procedure that was done on his C2 and C3, C1, 2, and 3 in his neck, much like Peggy had, and told about the procedure that they did. And I'm thinking, you know, if you lived in another country, you'd be dead. I mean, I had a big cancer tumor in my nasopharyngeal area. If I lived in another country, I'd be dead. Thank God for the country that you have. Support the country that you have. And do everything you can to shut the mouths of these idiots that run around saying that this is not a good country, that we need socialism, and yada, yada, yada. You have my permission to tell them shut up. We have a great country. I'm thankful for it. Father, we thank you. We thank you for what you've given us here in America. It's a shame we can't learn from our mistakes. It's a shame we have people in this country that think they know more than you. But we're thankful that you really do know how to do things. And we're thankful, Father, for where we are. Not sure where this country's headed, but we're thankful for where we are right now. Thankful for all that has gone on to secure that. And thank you for Jesus, who came to this world 2,000 years ago. Not for political freedom, but for spiritual freedom. And that your death on the cross and the blood shed from Calvary is the only element that washes away sin. you rose again from the dead thank you so much for that and that's what our hearts thank you the most about very thankful people here father with heads bowed