All right, what questions do you have? We already had somebody raise their hand. Too late. What you got? How do you transition from youth to adulthood? Amen. That's your question, right? How do you transition from youth to adulthood? Or some advice. What's that? And follow the Lord. Yes. Yes, amen. So here's the... Turn over to Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes chapter 12. So you have to kind of identify youth or younger versus adult and so on. I will say this. For some of you that have advanced in age a little bit, you will be very glad to know that youth does not end at the age of 18. You'll also be glad to know that youth does not end probably in your 20s either. And for those of you in your late teenage years or your mid teenage years, you may say, well, wait a minute, man, I'm ready to be an adult now. There's not, there's a difference between being an adult and no longer being a youth, okay? I'm 40 years old and I was, what'd you say? It starts in the knees. Well, I know some of us can say amen to that, but. So he said it starts in the knees. So and some would argue, you know where, but here's the thing, like I said, I'm 40 and I was sitting this morning eating breakfast and just talking to the Lord. And you know, when I was 38, when I was 38, I felt really old. I did. And I thought, man, if this is where it's headed, my, oh my, man. But now at 40, I've gotten back into the healthy, into some healthy habits. I pay attention to the stuff I put in my face. I exercise every day. Make sure I'm drinking plenty of water. I don't feel as old as I felt two years ago. I really don't. I know I feel pretty good, actually. So that being said. Ecclesiastes. Chapter 12. Ecclesiastes chapter 12. Now, y'all have to get this, youngins. That's all of you. Well, most of you, anyhow. All right. Remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth. while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them." And we can go on to see what it's going to be like when you get older. He goes on to tell you about some things that are going to happen when you get older, but we're not going to do that today because the question was advice for those moving from what would be considered child to adult or young adult to adult. still young adult I Somebody told me one time that you're not that a man is not a man until he's 35 years old. I said that is Insane because I was only 17 at the time and there was a long way to 35 and But now having been 35 I realized that there's there is some truth to that there are some aspects of my life that I was not a man or an adult man until I was 35, you know physically, you know, you're an adult sometime in your teenage years and but then you don't really I Don't know. I know some people maybe in their 50s that still haven't grown up but But Amen that yeah, he did he sure did but was that an amen like a confessional amen or was it not? You don't you don't have to grow up in some ways ever okay, I know I know some of you want to be Toys R Us kids Even though they went out of business so to answer your question The advice I would give is Do not forget the Lord. Remember that it is the Lord that gives you the breath to breathe, to live. Remember that it is the Lord that has given you another day on His earth. Remember that it is the Lord that's given you the life that you have. He's given you the last 19 years, and He's going to give you the next however many you get. Right? Hopefully 105 or so more. Well, you know, that'd be 124. Yeah. Yeah. You might be the next longest living at the moment, you know, kind of person. So and just remember that man reminds me yesterday I was at Sam's and I was watching somebody walk real slow. And I was like, man, he's I think he's only in his 60s or 70s. And he's like, I said, Lord, help me to be spry as I am right now in my hundreds and and mentally yes yes and we need to keep that thing going I need exercises for my head but here's the thing so you you don't want to forget who you're going to be with forever I'm not talking about your future spouse. I'm talking about the Lord. Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth. You see, there will come a time when you will not be able to do what you can do now. I have submitted to the fact that I can no longer, at least not right now, maybe I'll get back there. I can currently no longer run across the field over here and do a backflip. I can run across the field. I could probably tumble a little bit. Maybe I could do a round off or something. I probably could still do that. I know that I can do a somersault. I know I can do a cartwheel still. I can carry a hundred-pound dog up a hill. I know that I can still do those things, but I weighed a little bit less than I do now. The last time I did a backflip, no, actually, last year I did a backflip on a trampoline, but trampoline's different, man. You just, it's not the same. It's not the same. What's that? Yeah, so. So. Ah, you know. I've been doing backflips since I was like nine. So, you know, anyhow. Maybe I'll get back in good enough shape to where I can carry all this. But here's the thing. We've got to realize that limitations are coming. And we often waste what God's given us before we realize we don't have it anymore. whether it be a sharp mind, whether it be the ability to earn income, or whether it be the ability to go out and do things. Cold weather sometimes affects you differently as you get older. And I'm saying this, you're talking about in your 20s, not in your 80s, right? So what do you do in your 20s? Well, what you do in your 20s is you take the energy that God's given you as a young man, and you focus it on the most important things in life. And the most important things in life are the things that are going to matter when you're not on this planet anymore. Because if you focus on the things that are going to matter 20 or 30 or 50 years from now, but you don't focus on the things that are going to matter when you're not here anymore, What good did you do for the next generation? What good did you do for eternity's sake? And so, that goes for any age. But when you're moving from youth to adult, and when you are in your teenage years, for those of you younger, don't waste that mind and that strength and your physical abilities on things that don't matter. Don't waste them on things that don't matter. Now I know, we went yesterday and we, man, we did some hiking. It was good. I feel sore today, but it's a good sore. You know, it's that kind of sore that you're like, I did something. I feel good, yeah. It's not a sore like, I got out of bed. You know, sometimes you get out of bed and it's sore and you're like, oh man, oh. I got out of bed and I was like, ooh, man, that was... I'm going to do some stretches while I'm talking to you. But use what God's given you right now. for the future, right? As Colossians chapter one or chapter three says, if you be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above and not things on the earth, right? As in our Sunday school, where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. We're not, when you say where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. We're not just talking about the treasure that's in your bank account. We're talking about the things that you treasure, what you love, where your heart is, and it ought to be in heaven. Yes, David. Exercised. Yeah here's the thing as far as mature maturity in the Bible some some of like the this second row of of youth here. Some of them know more and understand more about the Bible than some of you because they've been around it all all their lives. And so they may be able to eat strong meat as a young person. When I was the youth guy over McGregor road. Our Sunday school class was not for the faint. We we were doing Bible college stuff. for teenagers. We had folks as young as seventh grade who could answer for you why we believe what we believe. These same people are now, one of them's a youth pastor over there at McGregor Road now. One of them's, I think, doing music ministry and different things. I think teenagers can handle those things. If Josiah could lead a country at eight, he became king at eight, yeah. He actually started leading, though, at 16. But good story there. Good historical account there you can look at. But does that answer your question, brother? Advice on what? Yeah, be consistently faithful. The thing is, what you give your time and attention to is what you really care about. And so, I will say this, that there is a common tendency that as people grow up, that the things that got them where they are become less important. And that's not good. it's not good. Because here's the thing. If you were to become extremely successful from the world's perspective, and you had all the things that people in this life would expect you to have, you know, you got your, your house, your car, your family, all those things, you've got a good retirement plan, you've got good health care, all that. And then you die. And you say, man, You look back before you die, you look back and you're like, well, I had good retirement. I didn't run out of money. I wasn't living paycheck to paycheck. I had my family. I raised my family, and they're out on doing their thing, and had a good marriage, had good place to live, and all the little things that were great in life. But then you realize that all of that is over, and there's something else that would have mattered a whole lot more, that did matter a whole lot more. that you're about to step into. And you're going to stand face to face with God. And then all of eternity is gauged off of what you did. off of that, which was more important. And we get our sights set on these temporary things. I tell you, the temptations you're going to come up to here in the coming years are going to be related to providing for a family, family time. You know, whenever you decide who you're going to marry, that's going to be a major factor on what you're going to do for the rest of your life. In fact, my wife was saying the other day to one of our kids, the most important decision you're going to make in your life is getting saved. The next most important decision you're going to make in your life is who you're going to marry. And that's because it's going to affect everything you're going to do or not do for the rest of your life. Or the marriage will end. What's that? Yeah. Uh, so make sure that whoever you decide, that's, that's another good point of advice. Make sure whoever you decide to marry is going to be right by your side and what God would have you to do for your life. So those things stay faithful to God and his things that that's what matters in life really. And then of course be faithful. I mean, Don't misunderstand that. That does not mean go to church every day of your life, don't work, don't make money, don't do life stuff. You have a responsibility to care for yourself and your family and all of that. That is a responsibility, but don't make life about that. Right? And then pick the right person to marry. Probably I could have just said that. Pick the right person to marry and stay faithful to God. There you go. Um, hey, man, Travis. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. but also 1 Timothy chapter 4, that whole chapter is about a description of God's living, but 1 Timothy 12, it says, let no man despise thy youth, but live thou an example of the believers, in word, and in conversation, and in charity, and in spirit, and in faith, and in purity, until thy time is good attendance to reading and interpretation of the doctrine. And so it's just that he's living for the doctrine, and it starts in the youth, but the leader and example is of the believers. Yes, sir. It's good. Yes, sir. And any promises you made to the Lord? Make sure you keep with them. Better to vow, vow than to vow, vow and break it. And there are some serious consequences when you when you tell the Lord you're going to do something, then you don't do it. Not good. Oh, yeah. Yep. Now, that's not to say don't make promises, make promises, but keep them. Do what you say you're going to do. Let your yea be yea and your nay be nay. Amen. Alright. Other questions? We have another question here. Brother Bella? This is something very personal, but I'd like to ask you a question in support of it. My mom and dad got divorced a few years ago, and my mom is getting remarried now, and she's getting remarried soon, so we need to think about it. So how does the Bible tell me to handle the cross I was on? What should I do? So. Your. Are you being asked your opinion on whether? What they're doing is right or wrong? Or or are you? Are you asking? What you do in response to what they're going to do? So. Here's the thing, their basis of truth is extremely flawed because it's not a biblical basis of truth. If it was, they wouldn't be making the decision they're making. The most important thing that they really need to consider is salvation. Now, should they forsake the relationship that they're trying to have? Yeah. That's just a symptom of the underlying problem. And I don't think your question though is trying to figure out what they should do or what you should tell them to do because I don't think they're coming to you for advice. The question is what do you do? My answer would be first of all, another question, what can you do? What can you do? You can pray for them. You can also show them the victory that Christ has over sin. You can show them with your life the testimony that they ought to see so that when you do have an opportunity to tell them something, your life is backing up what you're telling them. I don't believe they seem to be interested in what the Bible has to say about their decision. I could give you advice on how to try to tell them what the Bible says about their decision, but I don't think that's going to be fruitful. I think the most fruitful thing would be that you make sure that you're living the way you ought to live. so that you can point to say, because, and you said it was personal, I'm gonna get personal, all right? If you're living in defeat, there's nothing you can say to them that's gonna be authoritative whatsoever. If you're living a life that disgusts them, how do you have a platform on which to tell them what they oughta be doing? And so, your life and how you live it and what you do and what your attitudes are and what you tell them and say to them is going to matter when it comes to those things. Your testimony is important. A lot of times I'll have people ask me, I've got a family member that's deciding to do this terribly sinful thing, what should I do? Well, are you in a position to be able to say anything at all to them? If the answer is no, then you need to deal with you. You need to work on your own repentance and faith. I'm not saying salvation if you're saved, if you're already saved. After you're saved, you still need to be working on your repentance and faith. You're walking in the truth and walking in the Word of God and growing in grace. And that's not to say that you need to become perfect before you can say something to somebody, but you really, I mean, Matthew chapter 7, if you want to help someone, you need to take the beam out of your own eye. You've got to get yourself in a position where you are able and qualified to help them. And so, not to say that You have to be sinless, again. When they look at you, they say, you know what? I've seen something change in your life. They've known you all of your life, or at least one of them has known you all of your life. And they've got to see the power of God in your life before they'll listen to anything that you want to tell them about their life. I mean, we could go into the biblical reasoning and what the Bible has to say about their sin. But again, it won't help you any to have yourself armed with Scripture on why what they're going to do is wrong. First, you've got to deal with you so that you have a platform on which you can... Anything that you're going to do to try to help them needs to come from perspective of the fact that you love them for real that you that you love them in the sense that it's more than just a You know, I love you. And so I'm gonna tell you no, it's it's you have a biblical love for them that cares about their eternity and that cares about their their life now too, you know. And that's something that a lot of times people will miss. They'll feel like they have a platform upon which to speak. But as they're speaking, the other person is thinking a hundred reasons why. they have no right to say what they're saying to them. Does that make sense? So, my answer, what do you do with them right now? Love them. And love them enough to make sure that your life gives you the authority to tell them that they're wrong later. Does that make sense? I mean, I could real easy just pound the pulpit on why sodomy is wrong, but that's not going to help you. Because at the end of the day, most of the time they're looking for you to tell them they're wrong so that they can be mad at you about it. And that's not effective. I mean, I have people call me all the time. Pastor, Pastor, my family, I've decided that I'm going to be homosexual, my family's disowned me, what do I do? I say, you know what? They say, is it wrong for me to do this? I say, well, there's a lot of things you're doing in life that are wrong that you need to get right. Do you want to be completely 100% defined by this one thing? I mean, what other things are there in your life that you that that you really need to focus on and deal with? What's your relationship with God like? Do you have a relationship with God? And I circle it back around to the gospel. Now, does that mean I avoid their sin? No. But that sin. Is again a symptom. Of a of a deeper problem. That they reject God. in their lives. They reject His authority and what He says about their lives and what they ought to be doing with their lives. They reject Him as their Savior, as their Lord, as their God. And they've got to get that right before they can get the other stuff right. You can't fix everything else if you don't fix the root problem. So you've got to deal with the root problem. It's like going up to an apple tree and trying to remove it from your yard by taking all the apples off of it. You can't just focus on the fruit. You have to deal with the root. And I'm telling you, there's a whole movement of Christianity today that it's all about the fruit. What's your fruit saying? What's your fruit saying? What's your fruit saying? Well, I mean, you know, it doesn't matter what your fruit's saying if the root's already down in the wrong ground. The fruit doesn't matter. You know, when Jesus dealt with later in Matthew chapter number 7, when Jesus dealt with the fact, he said, Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. Many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Have we not prophesied in Thy name? Have we not cast out devils in thy name, and in thy name done many wonderful works? I mean, what's their fruit? Same chapter, it says, beware false prophets. You shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather figs of thorns or grapes of thistles? Every good tree brings forth good fruit. Every evil tree brings forth evil fruit. You shall know them by their fruits. The same chapter, you go down further, what was the perceived fruit of those people's lives, prophesying, casting out devils, and doing many wonderful works. The problem with them was not the fruit, the problem with them was the root. They were basing everything only on their fruit. Because anybody can put a suit on and look good and work through the actions of morality and good things and all of that. But until you remove the root from the ground of self-righteousness, it doesn't matter what your fruit looks like. You've got to get the root in the right soil. And so, just like the Lord says in Jeremiah, I believe, might be Ezekiel, I think about it, to take out the hard heart and put in, or take out that stony hard heart and put in a heart of flesh. You know, that's, the heart of the problem needs to be dealt with before the symptoms of the problem, right? Sin's wrong, sin's bad, and it points to the root problem. But the root problem needs to be dealt with. The root problem, you know, repentance and faith. Thanks for being with us today. So that's what has to be, you know, and you can't deal with their root problem until you make sure that you have a platform on which to deal with it. Make sense? I just made, like, reference to three to four places in Matthew chapter seven, so that's good to maybe look at. What's that? It is. It's a good chapter. Yeah. All right. What other questions do we have? Yes, sir. In Revelation 19, when John is talking to the angels, I just. Uh huh. Oh man. Didn't. It just interests me because it's like So isn't that interesting? Melissa. She was listening to her Bible this morning and that passage came up and I was like, There goes John again. The person you're but you're not looking at. You're not looking at what John did. You're looking at who who was this person so. Yeah, so when you when you back pedal back into the passage there. You have to go, I believe, back into. chapter eighteen actually further back so let's see yeah so Yeah. Oh, you mean of 19? Of 18? Yeah. Yeah. So, um, I believe that It's chapter 17 verse one that tells you who it is. And it may seem crazy, but that's, this is, when you follow, there's a lot that happens here between 17 verse one and 19 verse 10. But in 17 verse one it says, and there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials and talked with me saying, come hither and I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters. And then he gives that judgment. Verse 7, the angel said unto me, wherefore didst thou marvel? And then it continues on. It's the same angel all the way down. And then he sees another angel come down out of heaven. But this other angel is making announcements and pronouncements about this same thing. but it doesn't seem like the angel that came to him changed or went away, right? After these things, I heard a great voice. He's still seeing the things that are happening. There's no mention that that angel goes away. You just see it shift back to, and He saith unto me, Write, blessed are they which are called. under the marriage supper of the Lamb. And He saith unto me, These things are the true sayings of God. And I fell at His feet to worship Him." Now, we know that it's not Jesus. We know that it may be, the word angel is used in a in a generic sense sometimes in the book of Revelation, where we're talking about not an angelic being, but a messenger, right? In this case, though, in chapter 17, it says that it was one of the seven angels which had the seven files. The question is, Would these seven angels which had the seven vials, is it possible that they could have been men? But they were called angels in the sense that they were the messengers with the seven vials. Right. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, he. He saw quite a lot of stuff, and it does refer to an angel there as well, because in Chapter 21, it says after he saw, you know, the new heaven, the new earth and everything. This he said on he. Let's see here. He said unto me, it is done. I'm Alpha and Omega. This is the Lord Jesus at this point. But then in verse number nine, it says, And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues and talked with me, saying, Come hither and I'll show thee the bride, the lamb's wife. And then you have that angel showing him all these things. And then he falls down at the feet probably one of the other angels. Maybe not the same one, but one of the other of the seven. Yeah, I mean, they say that they're fellow servants. And Brethren and fellow servants. Yeah. So that have the testimony of Jesus says worship God for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy that. So having the testimony of Jesus does not necessarily mean that they have a personal testimony of salvation. Testimony of Jesus is the testimony or his testament or what is to be spoken about him. And so. The fact that they have something to be able to say about what he's done does not necessarily mean that they were human people. But. He says in verse nine, he says. I am my fellow servant, verse nine, 22 says, I am my fellow servant and of thy brethren, the prophets. and of them which keep the sayings of this book. Worship God. Things like that make me think that maybe the seven angels that had the seven vials were men, not angelic beings. They were angels in the sense that they were messengers from God. Just like the angels of the seven churches were men, they were the pastors or the messengers of those seven churches. Not to say that the word angels is the wrong word to use. I believe that's correct. But angel isn't always what we, that's the thing about, we try to take words and make them mean the same thing all the time. And they don't always mean the same thing. Angel sometimes just means messenger. And so, now some people will take that concept and they'll go further with it and they'll say, well yeah, it was an angel but used to be a man. Yeah, well they, you get the whole, thought process like the it's-a-wonderful-life thing where you die and you go to heaven and someday you become an angel. I don't believe that's what's going on here. What's that? You become God. But this seems to maybe point to the possibility. Notice how all those outs I left there. This seems to, there's an out, maybe, there's an out, point to the possibility, there's another out, that the seven angels that had the seven vials might have been, there's another out, men. I think that it is still also possible, and that wasn't a Hollywood thing, it's something I said. I think it's still possible. It might have been John seeing his future self, but I don't think it's necessarily the case. I just think that's an interesting thing to consider the possibility of, but I don't, I mean, I don't, I don't think necessarily that it would be the case, but it's my wife was saying maybe maybe Moses or Elijah or whatever, but they had other parts during that time too. So probably not them. These are the servants of God. Who they are seems to be unimportant as far as the name. But it seems as though this person that. These two guys that John bows down to try to worship, they evidently, if they were men, they had received glorified bodies, and so they seemed to be higher than men, to the point that John thought that maybe he was talking to Jesus. And there's a whole message, possible message in that. I'm not saying that it's right for people to worship men, or that it's right for to have idolatry or whatever, but we're talking about John the Apostle who was the beloved apostle of Jesus Christ that laid his head on His bosom. What's that? Knew Christ physically. Like he actually knew Jesus. And this same John gets confused about who he's talking to. And that could be a good question. You're a messenger as a believer, as a Christian. You're a messenger of God. How often do people mistake you for Jesus? There's an application in that. Now, not to say that you ought to be looking for people to bow down and try to worship you. Absolutely not. But the thing is though, John the Apostle was confused about who he was talking to. earlier on when the guy approached him, it was one of the angels that had the vials, the last plagues, right? He knew who it was when he started talking to him, and then he shows him all these great things, and then all of a sudden he's like, Are you Jesus? I'm going to go ahead and bow down just in case. He's like, no, no, no, I'm not, get up. I'm not saying he asked, but he obviously got confused about who was talking to him. And he had to be reminded that, hey, I'm just your bro, bro. Yeah, I mean, so, you know, and that was this morning. This morning, it was last night's devotions for me, but everybody, our church devotions today included, I think, both of those passages, right? I can't remember now. 19 was yesterday. It would have been yesterday or this. It would have been yesterday or today yesterday. OK, so it was just 2021-22 today, but yeah, so. This morning I was like. I was getting my tie out of the closet, and she was listening to the Bible there in the bedroom. And there was that, and I said, there John goes again. Every time I read that, I'm like, John! What is wrong with you? Yeah. So. We don't we're over on time, but we can we can do another. All right. All right. Go ahead. Go ahead. Uh huh. but then my question is that Lazarus lay in his grave before the day, before Jesus Christ came from the dead, where was he sold at during that time? Because he had to turn the body of the president of the Lord. Man, I wanted to deal with what was in that verse. But at that time, he was actually covered in grave clothes and he was buried, you know what I mean? I don't think that he was just like, nowhere. So, we're looking at John chapter 3. Oh, but you read verse 13. Right. So, up to that point, Lazarus hadn't died. But, now, a man ascending to heaven. Now somebody might point out, I think somebody over here said, what about Enoch? Somebody could say, what about Elijah? That died and he was brought back to life. What about the guy that died that they were getting ready to bury? and they dropped him in Elisha's grave. He touched the bones of the dead prophet and he came back to life. You could look at all these different examples. Now, that's not... I believe that what we're looking at here in John chapter 3 is Jesus talking about a man ascending. Now, the two that I would say could be questioned would be Enoch and Elijah because they literally ascended up into heaven. That's correct. But the other people that we're talking about did not physically go to heaven. If they died and their soul went to heaven, they still did not go up to heaven. They, as a man, did not ascend up to heaven. They just died. Now, their soul might have been in heaven at that point. I don't know how that works. The Bible doesn't give us a direct... It does say, it's appointed unto man once to die, and after this, the judgment. We assume that that means, after this, the judgment. We know that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Right? and the rich man lift up his eyes and he was in hell, right? And the angels carried Lazarus into Abraham's bosom, right? Now, we also know that at this point in the Bible, at this point in the timeline of human history, heaven, paradise, the eternal home, well, the temporary eternal home, that's funny to say, But the home of the dead in Christ, the dead in God, the saints, the home of the saints, in John chapter 3, is in the center of the earth. So, Lazarus would have been in the center of the earth. Lazarus, the poor man that died, and Lazarus, his friend that died. both would have been in the center of the earth, in paradise. Until Jesus died and was buried and led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men, He took them from there to the third heaven. So now, the question, I think my wife asked the question, which heaven are we talking about here when he says, no man hath ascended up to heaven. There are three heavens. There's the first heaven, which is the heaven that we see by day. That is the heaven that we saw, or we didn't see, but that's the heaven that we, the instructive we, saw Elijah ascend up into in a fiery chariot, right? In the whirlwind. But we don't know where he went exactly. We don't have that information. We don't know if he went into the third heaven. The second heaven is space, right? It's where the stars and stuff are. The third heaven is where the throne of God is. We don't see anybody talking about going up there until Paul, when he's speaking to the Corinthians, he says that there was a man he knew, whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell, right? He says he ascended up to the third heaven. It's all things which were not lawful for man to utter. And so, this ascending up to heaven, at this point, you have to think about what he's talking about also. He says to Nicodemus, he says, I have told you earthly things, and you've not believed me, right? How shall you believe if I tell you heavenly things? And he had just told him about being born again. That was that whole born again conversation. And he says, how can these things be? And he asked him, you know, you you don't. Why don't you understand your your teacher, your master of Israel? No, it's not these things. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, we speak that we do know and testify that we have seen and ye receive not our witness. If I've told you earthly things and you believe not, how shall you believe if I tell you heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the son of man which is in heaven, which is an amazing statement because he's saying no man ascended up into heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man, who's talking to him, which is in heaven also, while he's talking to him, which is amazing, and, you know, which probably had his head spinning even further, because he's like, how could these things be? And now you just tell me something, whoa, wait a minute, you're, I'm, you're, you're Him, but you're Him, but you're Him. And then he goes on, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. You know, that's the point that he's getting at here is that the one who came down from heaven is telling you the things about heaven. And you don't even get the things that he's telling you about earth. And, you know, you're a teacher. What's your problem? That's what he's dealing with here. So he's not saying that no one ever will ascend up into heaven. But when you ask the question, you ask the question, where was Lazarus? Where was Lazarus when his body was in the tomb? Where was he? I would say he was in Abraham's bosom. He was in paradise. Well, it's the Lord's prerogative if He wants to cancel death for somebody. I agree. I mean, He's God. And by the way, it was traditional Jewish belief that the soul stayed near the body for three days. For up to three days. And that's why he waited four days. They figured that it was permanent after three days. By the way, that's why there's a three-day wake in Judaism. What's that? It's a wake. They call it a wake because they're waiting to see if the person wakes up. Because people can be clinically dead for a day or two and then wake up and not be dead anymore. They're just clinically dead. They're not actually dead. Yeah. Yeah, it'd be terrible, you know? So, I mean, that's, you know, you have people that have these near-death experiences and things like that. I can't really speak on all that, but what I can say is that it is possible to be clinically dead but not actually dead. He was in a cave. He's in a tomb. Yeah. He's just wrapped in grave clothes and put in a tomb. They laid him in a tomb. No, the typical seasonings. Yes, they marinated him. Well, they they put they put incense oils like frankincense and myrrh frankincense and myrrh and other it's it's burial dressings like you said it's grave clothes they don't remove organs they don't do embalming or anything like that that's that that was newer yeah and Egyptians did embalming and stuff and they removed organs and things like that but like They, for Israel, they would just, they would wrap them in grave clothes and the wrappings would have, we just talked about this at Sunday school, the wrappings would have that scent, like myrrh, it would be anointed with oil and they would use that wrapping to cover the smell while they're decaying, yeah. And so, and it would last approximately three days and that's why His sister was like, Lord, it's been four days. He stinketh, you know? I mean, besides that, a human body without showering for four days smells bad, let alone being dead and decaying. So that's, you know, again, though, there's, for Lazarus, to answer your question directly, Lazarus was, his body was in the grave. His soul was probably in Abraham's bosom, I believe. It was in the grave, or Sheol, or the, not the hell part, but the paradise part. So, that changed after Jesus rose again. So, now, heaven is up. So, amen. Well, yeah, relatively speaking, up. What other questions do you have? Yeah? The flesh and blood that we have now will not go to heaven. It has to be fixed. And so that's when you have the resurrection, the rapture, the body changes. Yeah, I don't they probably their body probably got changed on the way up. I get a volunteer refill my water since we're going to keep going. In the the water fountain please. Yeah, not not in the toilet. All right, what else you got. I'd like to know more about Pilate being saved or not. In Matthew 27, of course, he's the one that ultimately condemned him. He said that I have power to release thee, and I have power to condemn thee. And he ultimately had him crucified. But then, verse 35, they crucified him, and part of his garments cast him out, that it might be fulfilled that he had spoken of the prophet, that they were part of a garment among them. I'm looking for where Pilate was going back and forth with them. He was going back and forth with them about whether or not, or what was going to happen as far as the name that was going to be on his plaque or whatever. He said, put it, Jesus King of the Jews. He's not our king. He's like, I said what I said. That's what's going to be on there. And of course, he ultimately condemned Jesus and there's no pretendence, but I think that that could be labeled as far as like confessing with our mouth the Lord Jesus Christ. No, no. I'll give you the reason behind it. And I think it's in John is where he says, what I have written, I've written. But what's that? She had something to say. She was dreaming dreams and stuff. But, so... What? John 19? Alright. I'm in Luke. That's why I'm like, what in the world? Yeah, verse 22. Yep. What I've written, I've written. So, a couple things about this whole situation. Consider the political climate. Consider the political climate. So, here's the thing. Y'all have heard this statement, two birds with one stone, right? Kind of thing. So, here's what's going on. No, no, the two birds with one stone concept. I don't want to... Killing two birds with one stone, okay? That's what people use that phrase, right? So, what Pilots got going on is a few things. First of all, There was a recent insurrection within the last 30 years or so, 20, maybe 15 years actually, where there was an attempt to try to overthrow the Roman rule on the region. There was a regular concern that Rome was going to take away the place of the leadership of an area and replace it. And you'll find that if you look for it throughout the New Testament. You'll find governors, you'll find priests even, worried that Rome's going to remove them from office. And this is a pretty regular thing. So there was a concern with Herod, worried about a king that was going to come. The king of the Jews, right? Early on. Right. The three are not the three wise men, but the wise men. Right. They come to Herod and they say, we've come to worship the king of the Jews. And he's like, that's me. But they're they're like now, you know, the one who's the the one who was born king of the Jews, they're like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on, let me, I'll be right back. And he goes back and he talks to his cronies there, those who he's allowed to be in leadership that know the Bible. And they said, where's this King of the Jews supposed to be born? And they said, well, it's in Bethlehem. And so they sent them to Bethlehem. after they didn't come back because he says I want to worship him to come back and tell me where you found him and they Lord said don't do that get get out of there so they took off and he says oh okay well we're just gonna kill all the kids And so he did that. Now, here's the thing, though. That's what he was planning. He wasn't planning to go worship him. He was planning to take him out because it was going to threaten his political position, his political stance. Well, so at this point in the regional local history or the local Political environment you have do you have the scribes and the Pharisees bickering between each other, but you have? Pilot and and You you have the leadership the Roman leadership of the day decides you know what we've got a two-party solution for this and We're gonna make one of you the high priest, and then we're going to have a split between, for the Sanhedrin, we're gonna have a split, or the leadership there, we're gonna have a split between scribes and Pharisees, I'm sorry, not scribes and Pharisees, Pharisees and Sadducees is what it was. So they were two majorly different opposing views. Then you have the Essenes who were kind of like the ones off in the wilderness that they were weird. But they were ultra-spiritualists. And then you had the Zealots who wanted Rome thrown off of them and they wanted to be free from Rome. And then you have the Romans. who are all this is all going on here. Well, so from Rome's perspective, not Rome all the way in the capital. But from the Roman Empire, the local Roman Empire leadership's perspective, you have an uprising among the Jews that's happened over the last three years. You have this man who's got quite a following. This man, Jesus, who has quite a following. And so, you're looking at, from the perspective of Pilate, You're looking at the possibility of having the scribe or the scribes were Pharisees. The Pharisees and the Sadducees. You have the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and maybe this new Nazarene movement that's coming up. And they're concerned that now, with all of these different factions, that they may come together and decide that they want to overthrow Rome, or overthrow the Roman occupation. And so there's that aspect, this political aspect. So a political faction is called, well just a week before, right? Jesus comes in. I'm sure Pilate was not completely ignorant of the fact that Jesus came in on a donkey and the whole town was laying down palm leaves, and they were crying, Hosanna, blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna to the Son of David, the King of Israel, these kinds of things. And, uh-oh, the King of the Jews is in town and now he's getting the opportunity to deal with this issue face-to-face seven days later roughly and so they've got this they've got this going on and there's this upheaval And when he has him crucified, he puts the title on him that fits real well with the political environment. King of the Jews. And so anybody that passes by or anybody that reads it in the local tablet-oid, anybody that hears from the Herald that someone was crucified, these following people were crucified this month or whatever, this season. We had the thief number one and thief number two, and we had Jesus, the King of the Jews. Well, as that's blazed abroad, what are we hearing? What are we getting from that? Well, first of all, Pilate and Herod become friends over the whole matter, a political alliance. Yeah, no, he was taken to him. He's taken to him. But I think, yeah, he was looking to see if he would do a miracle or something. But so you have you have this this political alliance between two not so friendly. Colleagues, and then they become they become friendly. then you have this alliance against the Jews which by the way that I mean it was coming just what 27 years later they sacked Jerusalem and removed all the Jews from the area. It was 27 years later. And so, and that's the thing, for like a few generations, like since Rome took occupation of Judea in somewhere just before Christ, like Rome became an empire around 63 BC. And so, I mean, you just have like a couple generations there from Rome becoming an empire. And from Jewish history perspective, you have the Seleucids and the Antiochians. who are fighting over that land. And so some years you have the Seleucids that are in charge, and some years you have the Antiochians. By the way, these are the followers of the four generals that Alexander the Great had. So that region had an overlap right where Judea was. It was regularly, it was taken over by the Southern King for a while, or Southern, rule for a while, and then from the Northwestern rule for a while, you have Antioch, right? Antioch comes from Antiochus, which was the Antiochans. Antiochus was one of the four generals of Alexander the Great. And so finally, when Rome throws both of them off, Israel's like, woo, celebrate, right? And then Rome works with the leadership of Israel to put together. to put everything back together, right? You have Herod's temple, you have the Sanhedrin set back up, everything's back in place, you know? And so this is good, they think. But you still have this animosity toward Rome because of the occupation, because of the taxes, all of these things that are happening. And so when Herod put that on there, He wasn't saying that He agreed that Jesus Christ was Lord or that He was the Savior. He was saying, I killed the King of the Jews. He was saying, I'm the one that authorized this crucifixion. Now, maybe He's not saying I'm the one that did it, but what He's saying is the King's dead. Yeah. Yeah, because there wasn't. He was innocent. There was nothing that they could actually get him for. They're usually if they brought somebody to pilot. They were guilty. That's why they asked him. That's why they said, we wouldn't have brought him to you if he wasn't guilty. Right, but then two things with him. We have a law that is by our law, he ought to die because he has made himself a son of God. And in 1 Corinthians 8, when Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more afraid. Yeah. I mean, how many people know that Pilate that he was afraid to crucify, you know what I mean? Yeah. Well, I mean, and then you have the whole thing with his wife. Yeah. I mean, he's God. I mean, he's the Lord. There's obviously going to be... I don't think Pilate fully understood, but Pilate had a feeling that something wasn't right here. And he knew that they brought him to him because of envy. And so there was that factor as well. So I guess what I'm saying, just to real straight up answer the title thing, he didn't put the title on there because he believed. He put the title on there because it was politically expedient. He let them crucify him because it was politically expedient. Because if he didn't, there would have been a full on revolt. Now, at the same time, he had, as a leader, he had a responsibility to make sure that when someone was put to death for a crime, they were put to death for a crime properly. That's why they brought the woman who was caught in adultery to Jesus, to have her stoned, for a couple of reasons. One, if he said stone her, he would have been going against Roman law because Roman law required that if anyone was going to be put to death, it had to go through the Romans for approval. And so if he said, put her to death, then he would have been breaking Roman law. But if he said, let her go, then he would have been siding with Rome in their opinion and breaking Jewish law. And so that's why he said, he that is without sin cast the first stone. He wasn't saying that you don't put somebody to death for a death penalty sin. He was saying he was basically getting out of their trick. That's what he was doing. Was she guilty? Yes. Was she deserving of death? Yes. Biblically, yes, she was. But here's the other factor that was missed. Where was the dude? If she was caught in the very act, where was he? And why didn't they bring him? And my answer for that is, he was probably one of them. And that's why he said, he that is without sin cast the first stone. So anyhow, there you go. So, which by the way, I mean, the law said, that both of them were to be put to death. And they just brought the woman. So that's why I said, Where was he? And no, no, he was probably one of them or more than one of them. Yeah. So anyhow. Yes, sir. Truthfully, I apologize. You're convinced by state. Kinda sorta, yeah. Kinda sorta, but no, I don't believe Pilot got saved. I don't believe he did. And if you follow, what's that? If you follow the history of Pilot, you'll see that he committed suicide is how he died. Yeah. Yeah. Betraying. Yeah. Oh, yeah, and Herod. Herod got worms. He must have been the early bird. Sorry. All right. We better call this quits here. We'll save those other ones for March 31st. That's our next Q&A day. So unless I just decide randomly we're going to have a Q&A day, we'll see. So all right. March 31st is the next fifth Sunday, I believe. Yeah, it was January.