And I'll begin reading in 2 Timothy chapter 3, starting in verse number 1. This know also that in the last days perilous time shall come, for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, Lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof, from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as John Knees and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth. Men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith, but they shall proceed no further. For their folly shall be manifest unto all men as theirs," Jannes and Jambres, as theirs also was. So we're talking about what to stand against. You can kind of see that. where it says in verse 5, "...having a former godliness, but denying the power thereof, from such turn away." In other words, this is what things we're opposing, we're against. Now, by way of review, this should be now old hat to you. In fact, we could have a pop quiz and you should get a hundred. We've covered this quite a bit, but we've said the last days began at the ascension of Christ and they end at the return of Christ. So what we call the Church Age, we call End Times, we call the Last Times, also known as the Last Days. The Last Days are the last prophetic period until the return of Christ and the establishing of His Kingdom, what we call the Millennial Kingdom. Because of that, the entire church age is within the last days. That means every New Testament church starting from the ascension of Christ going forward, which would include the very first church, that church in Jerusalem, every New Testament church has existed in the last days. Now this is important to understand because every church, every believer during this church age has had to deal with perilous times. I emphasize that because there are those, I think unintentionally, I think what happens is we hear things, we don't really try to figure it out, we just say, okay, I heard this, read this, and we just start repeating, like Polly Parrott, and we start parroting things that aren't necessarily biblically true. And so some people say, well, you know, we're now in the last days. Well, you're right, we are now in the last days, but we were in the last days for the last 2,000 years. Nothing has, it's not like, well now that, no it's not now that. We are in the last days, it's been the last days the entire church age. Or they'll think, well now it's perilous times. You're right, now is perilous times, but it's always been perilous times. Now, it's important to understand, because if not, then we look at different times of the church age differently, and we think, well, you know, here they did this, and here we do that. No, all the church ages are the same. It's always about getting the gospel out, always about getting churches going forward, always about discipling converts. The process has always been the same. Now, at times it's easier, at times it's harder, at times we do better, at times we do worse. There are conditions and there are results that change, but the perilous times don't change and the responsibility doesn't change. So all the last days are described as perilous times. And we said the word perilous is the same word they use for the maniac of Gader, the demoniac. And so basically, if you want to say, what is perilous times? It means crazy times. We live in, man, the world's crazy. It's been crazy for a while, and it's especially crazy in the last days. Now, I read this, and I'm just telling you, I'm not trying to say this is established biblical doctrine. I'm just telling you, I read this, and it kind of resonated, kind of always think about this. A guy I respect said this, that if you look This is just an observation, okay? This is not something I'm going to plant my flag on and, you know, this is what I believe no matter what, okay? This is just an observation. So this guy said, if you look from Genesis going forward, the most prevalent time of demonic activity seems to be during the life of Christ. I'm not saying it's the only time, but it's very prevalent. I mean, they just kind of going around, it's like demons everywhere. You know, every time you turn, there's some guy filled with some evil spirit. And it continued through the early part of Acts, but as Acts continues in the beginning of the epistles, it seems to wane. And then as you look at the church age historically, it seems to wane. And this guy, this is the observation the guy said. He said, it seems like when Jesus showed up, Satan did everything he could. And we get closer to the return of Christ, it seems like Satan would, again, do the same thing. So, not that we're now in perilous times, we've always been in perilous times the entire church age, but if Satan is really going to turn it up, it seems like he would turn it up the closer we get, the last of the last days, as we culminate the perilous times. And so I wouldn't argue it. I think it's a good observation. I can't tell you it's a biblical doctrine, but it is, I thought, was a good observation. So we do live in crazy times. The Bible says Satan is the prince of the power of the air, the god of this world. Now we agree, we don't doubt, in fact we would very much agree, that there's an ebb and flow of the effects of the perilous times. But that's really based on believers. When we do our job, perilous times seems to kind of ebbs away. But then we get lackadaisical and we start going along with the world, you know, bring your Bible and beer night, those type of things, and then the flow of perilous times begin overtaking us. That's why you gotta have revival. Talk about the great awakenings, okay? It's not like they didn't have perilous times during times of revival, but times of revival kind of pushed the perilous times back against it. So there's been an ebb and flow of the effects of these perilous times. Nevertheless, perilous times describes all the last days. identifies what we've always supposed to stand against, what we oppose, what we're trying to turn away from. So we're looking at some more behavior now from 2 Timothy 3, things we're standing against. And we've kind of mentioned this last week, I think, because it's a sub-series within a series, sometimes how they all connect sometimes in my head isn't always as clear as they should be. But I believe we talked about this already. As we look at these, we're really focusing on, when I say behaviors, really the characteristics and the nature of God. These are things that are opposed to character. These are ungodly things. They oppose who God is. And so it's not just an issue. Even though there are issues we need to stand against. But the best way to know what issues we're against is to understand the nature and the characteristics of God. Anything that opposes God, we should oppose. That's how we understand these things. Also, the other thing that you'll notice as we go through these, is it also deals with our are the way we approach things. So it's not just positionally, it's also dispositionally. I think sometimes we forget that. It is good to be positionally right, but it's equally good to be dispositionally right. Sometimes we think, well, as long as I'm right on the right side of the position. But Jesus was not just on the right side of the position, but notice how he had compassion, and showed grace, and showed kindness, even in the times when he was positionally right. And so it's good to understand what the Lord is talking about, because we're going to have a little bit of redundancy from last week. It's not the same thing. It's kind of a different part of it, but it'll seem a little bit redundant, because the Lord is dealing not just a position, but our disposition about things. Which brings us now to the first thing we're going to look at, which is now in verse 3. So we've been in verses 1 and 2. Now we get down to verse number 3, and these know what to stand against. And we'll start with the first in verse number three. It says, without natural affection. Now again, I will confess my shortcoming. I'm going to assume that a lot of people do this. Maybe I'm the only one who's guilty of this. But sometimes I will read, and I'll just come to my mind, well, this is what it means, and I just keep reading. I don't always stop and try to figure out exactly what it means. And what happens typically when we do that, we get a general idea, but we really don't dig down into really what the Lord is talking about. So if I were to look at this and said, without natural affection, I would probably classify it in the idea of homosexuality, something like that. It is inclusive in that, but that's just a very small part of what the Lord is talking about here. And really it's maybe more of an example. So what is this without natural affection? Well, I'm going to surprise you probably when I tell you what I think the Lord is trying to get across. And again, this is not a new thing. It's a problem we've had for 2,000 years. So here is where we start. Number one, we are to stand against the destruction of family attachment. Now it's interesting, in verse 2 we saw this idea of disobedient to parents. That was more about the idea of showing respect and appreciation for what our parents have done for us. Now we're talking about family attachment generally, not just of a parent-child or child-parent, but sibling-to-sibling, and you could have expanded beyond that, but it's specifically the nuclear family, the mom, the dad, and the siblings within that family. So there's always been an attack on the family. That always has been part of Satan's plan. All these things we see, the transgender nonsense and all these other goofy things that happens, the single parent... I remember the big thing at one time was, you know, when Murphy Brown was a TV show and it was basically promoting the idea of a single parent and there was nothing wrong with it. Well, if that's the way you end up because of tragedy or someone failing in their responsibility, I'm glad there's at least one parent doing what they should do. But it's not God's intention. God's intention for there to be a mom, a dad, and every family. That's what works best. Now, thank God for the moms who do their best when the dads are losers, and sometimes it's Not as much, but sometimes it's the other way. The dad is doing his best and the mom's a loser. I'm not condemning the one who's doing their best, but I'm saying the best way the Lord has set it up is a mom and a dad. And so the Lord has a reason that there's a family the way it is, and Satan has always been attacking the family. From the very beginning he attacks the family. And so what we're standing against is the destruction of the family attachment, the attachment that this family has towards each other. There's always been an attack, and we're standing against that attack. Now, this is also taught in Romans 1, which we've said it kind of, this, this, this, and that, this kind of coincide in some way. So let's look at that. Let's go to Romans 1, if you will. And it's interesting that there is that overlap between these two. So Romans 1, look with me at verse 26, and we'll go down to verse 31. Just to give you the whole idea, because I do think it includes the idea of homosexuality, but it's not just limited to that. Homosexuality is just another attack. The idea that you can have a family with a man and a man, or a woman and a woman. No, you can't. Supposedly two parents, one male, one female. That's the way God set it up. So Romans 1 verse 26, for this cause God gave them up to vile affections for even their women to change the natural use into that which is against nature. And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burning their lusts one toward another. So this is men lusting after men, women lusting after women. Okay, that's obviously homosexuality is what they're talking about. Men with men working that which is unseemly and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was me. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient. Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventor of evil things, disobedient to parents, which is what we saw the previous lesson, how it was tied, verse 31, without understanding, covenant breakers, now watch, without natural affection, teaching the same thing, implacable, and we'll look at that word here in a moment as well, unmerciful. So you see, without natural affection, And you'll see the same thing basically in verse number three, without natural affection. So this is not just the sin of homosexuality, even though it's in that list, but it's really the attack against the family attachment itself. So it's a part of without natural affection, but it's much more broad than that. So, a couple things to write. So God is teaching against the breakdown of attachment between family members. Not only is God wanting the family unit to be taken care of, but he expects there to be an attachment within that family unit. It's the unit of society, the unit really of the church. The stronger the family, the stronger the church. Stronger the family, stronger society. Stronger the family, stronger the nation. So God is teaching against this breakdown of attachment between family members. Not just that they exist within the same framework of a house, but there's an attachment that they have towards each other. Those within a family are to be naturally, because notice what it says, without natural affection. So those within that family are to be naturally attached and affectionate to each other. And we see this in different ways. Part of the more severe, and again, I say this, it's not shock value. I'm not just saying to be shocking or just unnecessarily offensive, but this is what we see. This would be as severe as a mother willing to abort her child. That's without natural affection. God gave you—you have a child in your womb, and you're willing to abort it. So that would be without natural affection. But it's to that extent, but it also would include a child being willing to disassociate with the parents, or a parent wanting to disassociate with the child, wanting to cut them off. When a parent says, that's it, you're no more my child. That's a wrong behavior to have. Or a child says, that's it, I'm not going to claim you as my parent anymore. That's still the wrong behavior. Or a brother or sister cutting each other off. It's wrong. Now, my oldest sister, I passed away a few years ago, but because of an issue that her and I had concerning my mom, I was in support of my mom, and she was trying to take advantage of my mom. My sister got mad, and she said, you're no more my brother. I'm never going to talk to you ever again, which is what happened. She never talked to me for a few years, and then she died. That's a sad thing. I was not for that. I'm like, I'm not cutting you off. You cut me off, but I'm not cutting you off. There should be a family attachment. We don't just cut off family members without any thinking we don't have any attachment. We are a family. We ought to have an attachment and affection towards each other. Now, unfortunately, because we live in a sin-curse world, we have to understand this. There may be reasons why a family relationship would need certain guardrails or limitations. But only our relationship with the Lord is more important than our relationship with our family. Now often we'll preach and we'll say, your relationship with God is more important than your relationship with your family. True statement. But that's the only relationship that's more important. Our relationship with the Lord is superior priority over all things, but right underneath that is your relationship within that family, with your mom, your dad, your son, your daughter, your brother, your sister, whatever relationships you have. Now you can extend it aunts, uncles, cousins, but the primary one should be mom, dad, and siblings, whether it's brother, sister, brother, brother, sister, sister, whatever it is. Now, again, I understand there has to be guardrails and limitations. Unfortunately, we live in a sinful world, and not everyone, even our family, can be trusted. But not trusting someone is different than cutting them off. I'll give you a personal example. I have an older brother. I don't really talk about him much. There are six of us. There's three boys and three girls. So me, there's an older brother and younger brother. Typically, I talk about my younger brother. Him and I are pretty close. But I have an older brother who's eight years older than me. Now, my wife would remember this. I don't know if Holly or Bethany would remember this, but I had a policy when all my kids were little, and I told my wife this. If, and I mentioned my brother's name, if he shows up, you do not let him inside the house until I come home. Now, I didn't say kick him off the property. I didn't say to call the police on him. I didn't say shoot him. All those things sometimes pop into my head, but I didn't say any of those. He stays outside. You and the kids stay inside until I come home. And when I'm there, then we can interact with him, but not unless I'm there. Now, there was a reason I had that policy. I don't need to go into it, but there's a reason for that policy. But I never said, I never told my older brother, you better never show up on my property. I don't ever want to see you. He's my brother. There should be a natural affection and attachment. Again, I understand guardrails. I understand limitations. I understand there are certain things you may have to do to protect other family members. Okay. Those things aren't being understood. We don't just cut off people just because they're not, what we want them to be. This idea of writing off a family member is not a new thing. I think it's more obvious because of social media, because everyone who has some issue with some family member can get on social media and crown each other's shoulders, and take their little bit of hurt, expand it to this huge story, and make everyone feel sorry for them, because everyone supports the underdog. Social media gives people more volume more bigger audience, but it's always been a problem because that's what we've done as we live in perilous times. We just want to cut off people. So we ought to stand against this destruction of family attachment. We believe that a family should love each other, be attached to each other, should have affection towards each other. Again, I understand because of sin, sometimes there's got to be certain rules in place But it should not be believers who are cutting off each other. So I don't know where you stand with your family, but I would very much caution you not to be the one who talks to another family member and just said, that's it, I'm never going to talk to you again. Again, there are policies and guardrails in place, those things I understand. But there's always an open door. I always want to have a relationship. As long as we can, in the right way, always want to have a relationship. So we are to stand against the destruction of family attachment. That's number one. We're opposed to those things. We're standing against it. Now a lot of issues come up. like family values, that's what usually we talk about, family values, and we're for and against, but the reason we're for and against these family value issues is because we believe what the Bible says. This is perilous times. In perilous times, people have, they're without natural affection. We don't want to be that way, so we stand against those things. Big number two. Go back now to verse number three. It says, without natural affection, then it says, truce breakers. Now, I don't know, again, you, but when I read this, and I'm reading all these bad things, and I read things that don't seem that bad, truth breakers, I mean, really, is that really bad? Well, it is really bad. If you understand, again, what the Lord is talking about. And so here is big number two, and then we'll explain it. We understand against an unyielding and unforgiving spirit. This is, first of all, it's detriment to the family, it's detriment to a church, it's detriment to a society. You can't, not everything, not everything is life or death. You can't make everything that someone doesn't agree with you as the end all. So we're to stand against an unyielding and unforgiving spirit. And the Bible uses the word truce breakers. Now let me show you another place it's used. We just saw it, but we'll look at it again. Romans 1 verse 31. I told you we'd come back to that word, and we'll look at it again in case you forgot what the word was. Romans 1 verse 31. It says, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable. implacable I think it's short a implacable it is now implacable okay that word implacable is the same thing so when it says trucebreakers a trucebreaker is implacable someone who's implacable is a trucebreaker they seem to be opposite of you and know what both words mean but they refer to the same thing It refers to those, these implacable people, these truce breakers. It refers to those, now watch, who do not want any treaty or truce. They don't want treaty. They want truce with other people, other people they perceive have done them wrong. They don't want to have a treaty between them. They don't want to come to terms and come to an understanding. Maybe on the surface, but not really, they harbor things. They never really have a truce. That's why, in a moment we'll talk about this, why they're called truce breakers. Because even when it looks like there's a truce, there's not. They're just waiting for the time to spring into action. So what do we mean by this unyielding, forgiving spirit? These people who are truce breakers, implacable. Well, a couple things. One is this. This would include a spirit of bitterness that refuses any attempts for reconciliation. Have you ever been done wrong? Are you going to wait your entire life for everyone to make everything right to you? Well, when they make everything right, then we can get back together. Why be that way? You've got to find sometimes common ground with people. Because they may never agree with everything you think they did wrong. And you may never agree with how they try to make things right. But sometimes you just got to say, you know what, why keep holding on to this? Again, you have your stories, I have mine. But in the ministry, there's a lot of times when people do things seemingly purposely to hurt you and your family. And then life goes on and your paths cross again. Then what do you do? I remember. Now, I do not want to be a person who has to carry around an Excel spreadsheet to keep up with everyone who's ever done me wrong. Wait a minute, let me see. Oh yeah, that's what you did. I don't want to be that. It's a spirit of bitterness that refuses any attempts at reconciliation. Those are people who are truth-breakers, implacable. This would also include, this is kind of, the first, the spirit of bitterness is the implacable side of it, this is the trucebreaker side, this is why they go together. This would also include a spirit of vengeance that is waiting for the opportunity to get even. It looks like you're okay, but you haven't forgotten, and their time is coming. That's a truce breaker. It looks like there's a truce, but there isn't. You're just waiting. And that is a wrong heart to have. It's hard for us to do the work of God when we're not doing the work of God. We're really doing our own thing. We're just trying to get even with people. Appears to be a truce. but you're just waiting for the perfect time to act. Now when I think of that statement, when I think of everything I just said, this illustration comes to my mind immediately. And almost any time I go down this path, this illustration, because it was very much true of my life. I was a little kid, I was about four years old. We lived in Warren, Ohio, Woodrow Wilson Avenue. and in Champion actually, but it's called Warren. It's where the Lighthouse Baptist Church was, the one we started there. And we say Warren, but it's a little town, little community called Champion. And so my mom had a little black poodle. Now I was four and the poodle was small, so it was a pretty small dog. Did I ever tell you I hate poodles? I especially hate black poodles because of this story. I have a lot of reasons to hate poodles because they're poodles, but this story really helps me to hate them. This poodle was the most vengeful dog you'd ever find. I'm walking to the house, it was just a little house we had, like it had a garage that he turned into a bedroom, it was just a little house, just a small little thing. And so I'm walking to this, I'm four years old, and it had a huge yard though, it had a huge yard. And so if you come out the front door and went out, and went a little bit to the side, there's a swing set over there. So I'm going out, I'm walking to the house, I'm gonna go out the front door, and the dog is over here. And I step on the dog's paw. And the dog got mad at me. And I mean, he sprung to action. So I took off running as fast as I could for that swing set. Now, I think that dog, I'm only four. I was thinking that dog could outrun me, but he did not outrun me. He just stayed right behind me, just barking and, I'm just, I'm running, I don't want to get bit. And I get that swing set and I climb like I'm a monkey or something. I'm just climbing up that thing and I'm on the top of that pole that goes across. I'm there and I'm looking down at that dog and he's just barking, barking, barking. And I go, you didn't get me. That dog took off, you can almost see the dog. He goes walking around like he's going back inside. So I'm on the swing set, I see the side of the house, I can't really see the front of the house, I just see him go around the front. I wait and I wait and I'm thinking, I don't trust this dog. I wait, now I'm four years old, so I'm waiting seemingly 30 or 40 years on that swing set. It's probably about five minutes. So I figure, you know. The dog's over it. I get down off the swing set, I walk, I kid you not, I walk right around the side of the house, and as soon as I turn the corner, guess who's right there? He ran over, he bit me in the ankle and took off running. Can I tell you, we're like that little black poodle. We're just waiting to get even. He's a truce breaker. I thought we were a truce. The dog walked away, everything's fine and dandy. He was waiting. Sometimes we're exactly the same way. We're just waiting for the right time to bite them. Now that's what the Bible says we're standing against. We're not trying to hold all these accounts and just waiting the time to act. One thing that's supposed to set believers apart from unbelievers in these perilous times is how we live during these last days. If we are vindictive and bitter like the rest of the world, then we are a part of increasing this perilous times, this demonic effect that is going on in the world we live. But if we're loving and forgiving as the Lord would have us to be, then we are decreasing the demonic effect of these perilous times. So here is what we ask ourselves. Here's the question. The question isn't what gives us the advantage over people. but what gives us the greater impact for Christ. Well, and I thought about this too, just because I think it's a guy thing. I thought about this. Well, it just seems like, it just seems like I'm only gonna take advantage of, and I don't like getting take advantage of. Can I tell you someone who got taken advantage of? How about Jesus Christ? He got taken advantage of. Now, I understand, again, there are some lines and there are some other principles that apply and some wisdom that's needed, but as a general rule, we shouldn't be the people who are always looking to vindicate ourselves, to make things even. That's not how we're supposed to live. That's how the world lives. That's why it's perilous times. That's why it's crazy. They're always looking to even the odds. That's not how we're supposed to live. We're different, so we stand against that. We're opposed to that. Sometimes you just tell people, you know what, just get over it. The world moves on. The world turns again. The sun comes up another day. Don't live in the past. Don't keep harboring all these grudges. You know, I went to a funeral. Here's a second story, I think, I just thought of. I went to a funeral. I've told you this. This is a funeral. Weddings are odd. Funerals are really odd. Funerals are some of the oddest things you go to. I went to a funeral. And the funeral parlor had two big rooms. And there's people in both rooms. So I'm in the first room, I'm meeting some of the family, and I asked one of the family members, who's in the other room? They said, that's some other family members. And I said, can you introduce me? And they said, no. We don't talk to them. You have to go introduce yourself to them. That's how the world is. That's not how we're supposed to be. Sometimes churches are that way. People over here are never going to talk to those people, and those people are never going to talk to those people. They will come to the same church, but don't expect them to talk to each other. And then we're like, where is the Lord God of Elijah? He's not in that mess, I'll tell you that, because that's not how He is. Number three. Let's move on. So we're against this idea of the destruction of the affection and the attachment in a family. We want family unit to be preserved. We're against truce breakers, those who are just waiting to get even, or those who are keeping all these score and trying to, you know, and won't give up and harbor these things. What else are we against? Then we see this phrase here, false accusers. Now there's two words in the English, but it comes from one Greek word. That one Greek word is the same word they use for the word devil. False accusers, devils. That's exactly what Satan does, he's a false accuser. So number three, we are to stand against Satan's attacks on God's people. Satan is against the family, but also Satan is against God's people. So the word for false accusers occurs 40 times, that one word occurs 40 times in the New Testament. 35 times of the 40, it's translated as devil. Now Satan hates and attacks all of mankind, because we are made in the image of God. But he especially hates and attacks God's people. Now this is true when you think about the Jewish people, you think of the story of Esther and Haman, remember how he made the gallows and how he wanted to kill all the Jews? What is looked at as anti-semitism really has been for a very long time because there's an attack against the Jewish people. Satan hates the covenant people of the Jews. So it's true in the attacks on the Jews, it's also true on his attacks against Christians. Now, Think about this idea of false accusers. One of Satan's main attacks is to accuse them, them being God's people. That's the main thrust we're making in this point. One of Satan's main attacks is to accuse them of their wrongdoings so as to negate their value or usefulness to God. Now again, think of this phrase, false accusers. Satan is the accuser of the brethren. If Satan goes to God and says this about Kathy Stein, God, you know what Kathy Stein does. You know why she goes to that college. She's the biggest heroin seller in that college. You think, well, I'm assuming that's not true. Do you think God would believe the lie that Satan tells him? You think God would go like, really? I didn't know that. No, God knows all things. You can't lie to God. Oh, you can, but you can't convince him of the lie. Satan doesn't go to God and convince God of things that aren't true. You can't do that. So when he's a false accuser, it's not simply he's telling him things that are false. Now he may, again, Satan may say things that are false, But God isn't going to believe the false, because God knows all things. But here is really the false part of the accusation. It's not that you've done something you didn't do. Okay? I refuse to have an unyielding and unforgiving spirit about it. So here is the thing. It's the accusation, okay, when he says, this is what you've done, and he tells the truth about you, But then he makes this accusation. You see, you ought to give up on them. They're worthless. All he has to do is tell the truth about you and tell God, why do you even put up with them? And that's the false part. The false part is, is that you're no longer of any value or worth. And that is what we do when we attack people the same way. We're like the devil. What we say about them is true, maybe, But then we put the false part, which is now we take away any value they have or any importance of God. Yeah, they're worthless! Really? I think if Jesus died for you, that gives you some value. There's some worth to you if Jesus died for you. Again, because again we live in a sin-cursed world, there are other principles and limits and things we have to understand about dealing with people in general, but we've got to be careful about just looking at people and negating their value or negating their importance or their usefulness to the Lord. So it isn't the accusation of the act that is false, but the accusation of the response to the act that is false. Satan wants to twist it so that he removes the value you have or the worth you have. When we look at people and just start crossing off people. So let me give it to you again and then maybe dive slightly deeper. God is at work in every true believer's life. So we would be a false accuser if we imply they have no value or importance to God's work. Now again, we're not talking about covering up sin, we're not talking about brushing things under the rug, we're not talking about that kind of stuff. Sin needs to be dealt with. But it's the idea when we just take people Whether you're talking about ministry or life in general, both is true. Ministry just maybe is a microcosm of life. When you're interacting with people, you're going to get to a point where you get frustrated and sometimes want to just cross off people. Why even try? They're of no value. All they are is a drain. No, they're someone Jesus died for. They're a living soul and they have value. And that's where we become a false accuser when we take away the value they have. It's very similar when Jesus said about calling people, saying to people, thou fool. It's a very similar thing. You say, you know, Pastor White, you use the word fool. Well, I use the word fool in the idea, you know, when God, you know, like the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. There are things that are foolish, but that's not what Jesus is. Jesus is not talking about foolishness like the Bible is talking about foolishness in that concept. He's talking about those who say, thou fool, in a way where you have no importance, you have no worth, you have no value, or you ought to be just done away with. You know, they look down at you and just, you know, you ought to just go back under the—go back to the gutter where you came from. That type of attitude. That is the attitude we stand against. Everyone has value. Everyone's worth. Now, we talk a lot, and rightfully so, at this church about the bus ministry. partly because I was a bus kid, partly because my wife was a bus kid, partly because we met on the bus route, partly because we've worked bus routes, but mostly because everyone who rides a bus is as valuable as everyone who rides in a Cadillac. They're a soul, a value to the Lord. And we've got to be careful. Sometimes we can drive down some of those areas and look at where they live and just say, why do we keep coming back here? They can't even pick up the trash out of their yard! But they are a value to the Lord. They are a living soul. And we look at people that way. We're not a false accuser. We don't simply cross them off and say they have no value, no worth. That's what Satan tries to do. That's the false accusation. Taking away their value, their worth to the Lord. So I'll just say this, and I think we're going to look at this in another point, in another lesson, if my memory serves me. But as far as I'm concerned, because we're talking about, we're to stand against Satan's attacks on God's people. Now we looked at it in a broader sense, all people have value. But if we narrow it down to the idea of God's people, because there is a concerted attack by Satan on God's people. And that's the big false accusation, you know, that, you know, why even come to church? Why, you know, we ought to just give up the whole thing. Look at those people. They're a bunch of hypocrites. They are. Ah, they're sinners like everyone else. Yeah, they are. But I'll tell you this, as far as I'm concerned, again, we're not talking about covering up sin and brushing things under the rug. We're not talking about that kind of nonsense. But as far as where I want to stand, for me personally, I want to align myself with God's people. because that's where God aligns himself. That's why I plant my flag. Pastor White, you ever get fed up going to church just like everyone else? Well, you have to come because you're the pastor. Well, yeah, duh, I guess I do. But I don't have to pastor. I've got free will like anyone else. I think, and I'm not trying to sound weird, but I think, now maybe at 60 this may not be as true as it always was, but I think that if I had done a different career, I think I would have been able to feed my family, I think I would have been able to pay my bills. I have a certain work ethic. I may not have succeeded as much as I wanted to. And if I was walking outside of God's will, I would face the judgment of God, and that would have been a difficult thing. God's merciful and gracious, and I think I would have survived. I'm not here just because this is the only thing I can do. I'm here because I want to align myself with God's people. I don't want to be a false accuser. I don't want to just start writing off people and just, I'm done! I'm done with organized religion! No, your problem is between you and the Lord. Every time I find myself with issues in church, I always realize my issue is really not with you, my issue is with Him. And this is why I need to make sure it's right. If this is right, I can handle you. Because I just say, Lord take care of them, because they're getting on my nerves. So where do we conclude at then? So let's give you a couple of thoughts, because this sub-series doesn't really end until we've got a few more verses to cover. So let's kind of say a few things to kind of lead us in now into the next lesson. Some believers struggle with fighting the good fight of faith, because they're only observant of the more glaring issues around them. They take their marching orders from cable network news instead of the Word of God. Therefore, They run into a fight, but not with the right spirit or virtue. It may be a good fight, it may be something we should stand against, but they don't have the right virtue, the right spirit about it. They're more issue than understanding the character of God. Well, it's an issue we should oppose, but we oppose it because we understand the character and nature of God, so that gives us the right spirit, the right virtue. Unfortunately, and you can put in your own person's name here, I'll just use what jumps in my mind, Unfortunately, we try to be more like John Wayne than Jesus Christ. We're just going to get on our horse and ride in and start, bam, bam, bam, start, we're going to just tear this town apart. And we'll get done, you know, everyone's, ah, ah, ah, and the whole city's burning down, we're walking away, whew, whew, yep, I did my part. But that's not how Jesus always did things. Now, there were times when he treated things that way, as Sodom and Gomorrah. He wiped them out pretty well. But we have to be careful that not every city was wiped out like Sodom and Gomorrah. So we have to be careful how we do these things. Now, the problem is when we fight the issue, but not with the right spirit and the right virtue, we're really unable to push against the perilous times. That's why the perilous times begin to taking us over, because we, well, we're fighting the issue, but we're not being like Christ. We're not pushing back, so now the flow is coming against us, and we can't ebb it away. So, this again, to lead us into the next lesson. Some believers, well, hang on, It happens if I go forward, not backwards. To finish strong is to finish in the fight, because that's what we want to do, in a way that supports the cause of Christ, and actually fights against the perilous times that we are in. I'd hate to think I get to the end of this thing and realize I haven't done anything. I've just ran around like a chicken with my head cut off yelling about everything. No, I want to fight, I want to stay strong, I want to finish strong, and I want to do it in a way that supports the cause of Christ and pushes it back against the perilous times that we're in. And that'll lead us into the next lesson. All right, we do have a meeting that follows in that room, so as soon as we pray, if you can head that way, that way we don't belabor the schedule.