Shane Idleman addresses the misconception that Jesus does not care about anyone, emphasizing that He indeed cares deeply for us but does not conform to human opinions or fears. He illustrates how Jesus skillfully navigated attempts by the Pharisees and Herodians to entangle Him in their words, demonstrating the importance of being well-versed in apologetics to defend one's faith. Idleman encourages believers to embrace the truth of Scripture, which liberates and transforms, while also highlighting the need for boldness in sharing that truth without fear of man. Ultimately, he reminds the congregation that Jesus is the embodiment of truth and life, urging them to reflect His light in a world where truth often falters.

Matthew chapter 22, verse 15. Matthew 22, verse 15. And, I don't know if you caught the title of the message yet, but Jesus, you don't care about anyone. And actually He does, it's a play on words, but that's what these people said to Him. And I want to talk about that tonight as one aspect of the message. So Matthew 22, verse 15. Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk, meaning Jesus. And they sent to Him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God in truth. Nor do you care about anyone, for you do not regard the person of men. Tell us, therefore, what do you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? But Jesus perceived their wickedness and said, Why do you test me, you hypocrites? Show me the tax money. So they brought Him a denarius. And He said to them, Whose image and inscription is on it? They said to Him, Caesar's. And He said to them, Then render, therefore, to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. And when they had heard these words, they marveled, and they left Him, and they went their way. So let's stop there for a minute. Let's back up to the beginning. Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in their talk. Did you know that nothing has changed? People try to entangle Christians in their talk to make us appear foolish or stupid. Or to, you know, look at those narrow-minded. They don't know what they're entangling. And kind of not know what you're talking about. Is the earth really a million years, a billion years old? And did really in this happen a fish swallowed a man? They try to entangle, especially young adults. As they go off to school and to universities, this is where they get tripped up in their faith quite often. In the entanglement. And being twisted. Well, I'm not sure I think so. I mean, that's what my mom and dad believe. Well, doesn't the Bible say it? Yeah, but you know, wasn't the Bible written by men? And you can't really trust that. Didn't you know it's been proven so many times that it's false? It's not true. Didn't you know that? And they're like, no, I didn't. And they feel stupid. They feel entangled. And actually, if anybody ever tells you that, can you say, well, show me once where it's been disproven? And you'll start to tangle them in their words. And this is an interesting concept here. Not a concept, but an interesting thought on apologetics. That's one reason why it's important for the church and for you to be well-versed in apologetics. What apologetics is, is you're giving people a reason for the hope that is within you. You can counteract with the truth the argument that people are giving. So if people say, you know, for example, the Bible's not true. Well, how do you know? Well, there's so many inconsistencies. Well, show me one. Well, doesn't it say that, and they'll make up something. So, well, can you show me where that's at? You know, it's written over 1,500 years, three different continents, 40 different authors, all saying the same thing about God, his nature, his character. Didn't you know that? Well, yeah, but isn't the earth, you know, billions and billions of years old? Well, who says that? Well, carbon dating. Well, can I show you where carbon dating has been in error many, many, many other times? And if God creates something like that, might it look a little old? I mean, when God created Adam in one second from the dust of the earth, did he look one second old, like a little tiny baby? Or did he look like a 30-year-old man? And that's what apologetics is. It's a study, really, of God's nature and how to respond. Well, God, you know, God didn't, how do you know there's a God? How do you know there's not a God? Well, but you can't see him or taste him or touch him or none of the five senses, Shane. Well, you know what? I also can't see, taste, touch, or hear or feel oxygen. But I know it's there. Just stop breathing. Close your mouth for a little bit. They'll get a reality check on the existence of oxygen. What about poisonous gas that are inside confined space areas where people work? I mean, so when you know apologetics, you can rightly defend the Bible. And that's what I, we need to encourage our kids. We need to get them well-grounded in the truth. And when they tease people about an ark and, well, did you know an ark in this size and this dimensions could actually fit the animals? Well, no, not every single animal, no, but every species of animal. And you can just defend the faith. So that's the need for apologetics, is being able to, because it's one thing to say, well, I have faith. The Bible told me so, and so did my mom. And that's good. I think it's wonderful. And sometimes that's all you need, Christ's childlike faith. But other times you need to be able to give people, I mean, that's what Jesus did. He often just didn't say, well, that's what God's word says, or that's what I believe. And he would show them parable, analogy, hyperbole, pulling truth from the Old Testament. He gave them. What about Paul? To say that Paul's not apologetic would be a very bad, very bad quotation, or a very bad misrepresentation of him. Look at Romans, the theological masterpiece, starting in Romans 1, talking about the fall of man and then the nature of man and these two things warring inside of us and the evil wanting to. And then Paul breaks it down on the Jews and the election and different things. And he gives a wonderful discourse on apologetics from a Jewish perspective. So never doubt the need for apologetics. And actually what I would just recommend is, there are wonderful books out there by, say, Wayne Grudem, or Case for Christ, or Case for Creation, Lee Strobel, or, gosh, there's so many. If you just Google it or ask me, I'll tell you later. But you need to be, in addition to your daily devotional reading of the Bible or good books on prayer or, I love my Psalm or Proverbs, you also should have good books on apologetics and read them throughout the course of the month. And you're like, I mean, every week you can get something new. I mean, I just, this guy, I think, oh, Hugh Ross. He's one of those guys I have to read the page over three times. I think he's, I don't even know what he is, but he's something like a molecular biologist, scientist, Ph.D. in this. And all that, I mean, the study of the universe, I mean, just my mind wants to explode on how they can exceed expanding and the black holes and everything is just wonderful how this all comes together. So when you're talking with someone about the universe and the delicate balance of nitrogen and hydrogen and everything supports death out there except this little planet and everything's just rotating just perfectly. I mean, if one planet got out of orbit, it could just destroy the whole Milky Way galaxy with hitting different things. So there's an order there. Who keeps that order? Nothing's just floating around. There's an order. There's a consistency. There's the mathematics on some things, the equation to the hundredth level and the power of, I don't even know how they figured this stuff out. And the telescopes now, they can see millions of galaxies. I mean, it's just how big our universe is. And that'll not only equip you to give the right answer, but when I read that, my faith is supercharged. It's like a Hemi motor with nitrous oxide. And the faith is just, the guys will know what that means, the women you can ask later. But it's just welling up. Look at this. I'm unbelievable about how even secular scientists are saying this about the universe, that here we can see where the starting point was. It could be as small as a grain of sand, and we see it expanding. And I'd say, well, that was a big boom. And I'd say, yeah, God said, boom, let there be light. I create, and there it goes. I mean, everything lines up with Scripture. So that's the need for apologetics. I would encourage you to get some type of book, even something systematic theology. They're real big books, and you just take it one little step at a time. You learn about the character of God, the nature of God, the attributes of God, the work of the Holy Spirit, pneumatology, the work of the Holy Spirit, soterology, which is salvation. You learn about baptism and the ordinance and why they're important. And you just start learning about that. I mean, we've got time for Facebook. We've got time for all those home improvement shows. I mean, we'll sit there a half hour, an hour, an hour and a half has gone by, and now we know how to replace the sink. And every time I look at those, I'm like, I try. It doesn't even turn out even close to what, you know, fix it or flip it. And those different shows where the house looks a total disaster, and now it's beautiful, looks like a mansion. We couldn't even try to do that. So a lot of times it's advertisement too, but I do like, if you're going to watch something, those are pretty clean and healthy. So I would encourage that. But I'm trying to show you that prioritizing our time, we do have time to read about the nature of God. Okay, with that said, that's entanglement and the need for us to be able to entangle others. Not on purpose, but you can, I talk to atheists a lot in agnostics, and the more you just, the more you can give them truth, the more they talk themselves into a circle, and they just get mad and they'll hit the table and say, well, I don't know, I just can't believe this, I'm God. And they'll get entangled. And then also that he said the Herodians, Herodians, these were enemies of the Pharisees. But now the Pharisees and the Herodians, isn't it interesting how enemies come together to fight God? You're going to see that in the last days, in the Middle East and different things, enemies come together to fight God. And the Herodians, what I believe this group was, I didn't do a lot of research on it, but they were loyal to King Herod. And they were okay with his political reign. They would actually be a political party. Democrat, okay? What? You guys, no, get me started. And then the Pharisees would be Republicans, right? They believed in returning the power to the lineage of David. So they saw the spiritual power there. So I better switch sides, right? Well, you know, in my opinion, we're just getting so corrupt on both sides that, you know, it's, yeah, let's not go there. I mean, if anybody has listened to any of my sermons, you know what probably my persuasion is. I mean, that's a no-brainer to get back to God and His truth, and whoever can do that. Stop boarding babies, stop killing children in the womb, stop agreeing with same-sex marriage, and stop doing all these things and get back to truth. That's what we need, a strong leader who'll say, I don't care about opinion, like Jesus. He didn't care. That's why they said, that's the message. You don't care about anyone. He doesn't care about their opinions. He says, I don't care what anybody says about me. I'm not looking for favor among men. Woe be to you when all men speak well of you. I'm not only concerned with their favor, I'm not fearful of any man. Even Pontius Pilate, his executioner who was going to kill him, he said, don't you respect me, Jesus? Don't you listen to me? Don't you want to answer me? And Jesus turned to his executioner and said, you would have no power over me unless it was given to you from above. He did not care about the opinion. Nobody else would say that. They would be on their face, crying to their mother, and crying, oh, please release me, please release me. And he said, you'd have no power over me unless it was given to you from above, from my father. And that's what the Herodians were. They were loyal to King Herod, and they even joined forces with the Pharisees. And that's why they said, teacher, we know that you are true. Here's the interesting thing. The Pharisees, the religious leaders, couldn't get away from this fact. Jesus was the embodiment of truth. So when he comes on the scene and says, I am the way, the truth, the life, nobody comes to the Father except through me, he was proclaiming truth. When he says God's word is truth, it's the truth. When he says, I tell you, everything that came, can you imagine everything that comes out of his mouth is truth? The Bible says there was no gall, no deceit in him, nothing. He was the embodiment. They see all his miracles, they see these words of wisdom, they see, clearly, this is a man of truth. Clearly, this is a man of truth. Why did they kill him? Because they didn't like the truth. The truth hurts. How do we know, and I want to ask this question, how do we know if something is true? Because I would, the majority of people I talk to all week long, this is the problem. This is the problem. How do we know, not the 4 o'clock service, right? I told you guys that. It's a 5.30. This will really apply. But it's, how does somebody know? Well, it's very easy. What we've talked about many times before, it has to line up with the word of God. And it has to line up with the character of God. It's very, when you take the word of God and the character of God, they line up. So when somebody has to make a right decision, like, oh, how do I know what to do? Well, look at truth. Well, the problem is we're not spending time in the truth, so we don't know what the truth says. I mean, I've seen Christians make financial mistakes. I mean, it was so obvious, and I could take them to three or four verses in Proverbs. But they still went against the truth. Or couples that I've talked about before that are living together, not married yet, right? And is this God's will for our lives, Shane? How can we discern God's will in this? Well, I'll tell you where to start. Start by moving out and being pure and seeking God with a right heart. Well, we can't do that. We can't afford it. Oh, okay, well, yeah, God understands that. I mean, see, nobody wants the truth. They don't want to listen to the truth. And also, I've talked to people that Christians love the Lord and say, Shane, meet my new boyfriend or girlfriend, whatever it is, and hi, and whatever. Well, they're not a believer yet. But someday, I think, I've got a verse for you in 1 Corinthians if you want my opinion. No, no, no, I think God's put me to get well then. So God doesn't want us to be unequally yoked moving forward. What do you do with that? Well, yeah, that was true when it can happen, but I believe that God has called me to do this, and I think usually what's calling them is what the kids call eye candy. I like how this person looks and makes me feel, and I'm going to move in this direction regardless of what Scripture says. So we have the truth. What about right decisions on marriage? So many marriage counseling issues are right here. And when you take people back to here, what do they say? No, I know that, but. See, anytime you say, I know that, but you're going the wrong direction. Now, let me just act like I'm sitting in the audience for a minute. This is much easier to say than do. So I'm not up here, how could you guys? It's all right here. I know, I know what's here, but my heart actually wants to do something else. I can tell you a funny story. My wife's not here today. I think she'd give approval. She'll be here later. But we had baseball today, and she was all frazzled because my son's shirt is a large. It's really big. It looks like it's a dress on him, right? And I'm on the text. I'm like, why did you not check that when we got it through? And I'm thinking, okay, that's not good. Delete it. Forget about it. She knows it was a bad decision, but I want to remind her that was a bad decision. Why didn't you check the shirt when we got it three days ago? Now we're stuck with it. And I want to text, right? My flesh is wanting to text, so I had to obey the truth and not throw fuel on the fire, throw water. No clap, because trust me, it can go the other way. More often, I don't need any claps on that. That's just a good example that happened. But normally, what happens? Text. But instead, I said, okay, we can work it out. I'll text the family because I'm also managing the team, so I just felt like having a part-time job, so that's why I took that on. And we've got to clean the Little League field tomorrow. Don, will you be there? You're going to help clean? Okay, good. We've got to clean the Little League field tomorrow morning, but it's worth it for the kids. I mean, that's what Little League is all about. But back to that question, but instead of that, I just said, okay, let me text the parents, see if there's a shirt that's too small for one of their kids, and we can try to get it. And it worked out, so we were able to switch shirts. But my immediate impulse was, how could you? Golly, that's like Jersey 101. You try it on right when you get it, so we know. But so this wisdom, we know, how do we make the right decision? How do we say the right things? It's all in here. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church. Would he sit there and mock and make fun of? No. Now, that can go the other way. Women, respect your husbands. Build them up. Encourage them. You're doing a good job. You read one Bible verse this week. Let's shoot for two. And you encourage and you encourage and you encourage. That's a whole other sermon on how women are really the ones who come to the prayer meetings, and the women are reading the Word of God more in their homes, and the women are leading their families more than the men are. Now, the reason is, again, let me sit in the audience, is because the enemy comes in after that area. That's what he'll make, laziness or whatever you want to call it, busyness, whatever you want to call it. The enemy knows if he can get the spiritual leader of the home distracted, he can start to distract and work against the family in the marriage. So the husband has to fight against that. And devotional is with the family. It's praying with the family. It's a continual battle. It's a continual fight. So I want to remind you that that's how you know something is true, because I think this is one of the top questions we receive, or I get asked, what is God's will for this area? Shane, what should I do in this situation? Even moving or getting another job, but Shane, it pays better. Okay, well, you're going to be away from your wife three nights a week. You're not going to find a good church home. You're not going to have time for this. Yeah, but it pays five more dollars an hour. Okay, well, that's not wise necessarily. Look at the Word of God. And here's the interesting thing. It's not just a scripture and verse. As you're spending time in God's Word, as you're praying, something amazing comes upon you called peace. The peace of God. I think it was Charles Swindoll who said, don't ever make a decision if you don't have peace about it. Now, of course, that doesn't apply to everything. When I make an appointment to go see the dentist, I never have peace about it. But you have to go. I mean, I'm not talking about those kind of things. But there should be peace. And as you're spending time in God's Word, you know about a certain decision there's peace. Because I've talked to people and said, well, how do you feel? Because I don't feel good about it, but I'll make more money. Well, don't ignore that. Don't ignore that conviction of the Holy Spirit. So back to this point again. You don't care about anyone. Jesus, for you do not regard the person of men. And boy, that was a lesson for me. Thinking about this, Jesus will not change his teaching because of favor or fear. He would just walk into villages, walk into crowds. Can you imagine? I mean, because most of us are insecure to some degree. I mean, let's be honest. Nobody just perfectly has it down. I mean, sometimes I'm concerned with what are they going to think? And they're going to this. And I'm going to talk to this person. Maybe the timing is not right. But he just would walk into towns, walk into villages, walk into a crowd. And he would just call it as it is. And as we get to the next chapter is when he just let it happen. Let them have it. The Pharisees. Woe to you, you Pharisees, you whitewashed tombs. You look great on the outside, but inside you're dead men's bones. Woe to you, Pharisees and scribes. You travel land and sea to win one convert. And when you've won him, you make him twice the son of hell as you. Woe to you, scribes. And he just goes on and on and on. I mean, there comes a point when you say enough is enough. Enough is enough. I'm pulling out both barrels, and I'm letting them have it in the name of God, right? In the name of love. And he just shoots them. Woe be to you. Woe be to you. Woe be to you, calling them out. What was the point? To confront and to convict them and to challenge them and to tell the people, do as they say, but don't do as they do. For they'll weigh you down with things and burdens they don't even want to carry. So he would just come up, and that was encouraging to me, to go in and tell people the truth, regardless of favor, and don't let fear influence you. Because a lot of times we don't want to tell people the truth, as it might hurt us financially. I might lose this customer. I might lose this person. I might lose this staff member. And we kind of walk in this little eggshell bubble, right? And we don't say things sometimes. Now, there's nothing wrong with using discernment and wisdom and caution, but this is different. What this is, is when you know it's time to speak the truth, and you don't. And he didn't care about favor or fear. And really, that's where our culture is going. Everything from Boy Scouts to the military, if you have a scripture on your computer, you're in trouble. It's this fear factor. This fear of standing up for God. Who's this boxer that now Nike got rid of his contract? I can't pronounce his name, but you know. Hispanic guy? Manny, okay, Manny. Nike withdrew their contract with him because he said marriage is between a man and a woman. God forbid. So Nike, politically correct Nike, pulls their contract. Fear, but he said, I'm glad people know the truth. See, that's what it is. It's knowing that the truth comes before opinions of people are going to have about me. The truth comes before fearing man. I have to tell people the truth. It's something I realized. I've told this story, I think, two or three years ago. When I worked in construction, I was with the water district, a heavy equipment operator. And I would talk to this guy about his faith. He was about 25. Not doing good, but would go to church. And this guy was like 45, was saved at a Billy Graham crusade. And I talked to him, but he wasn't real open too much. You could tell he was just not really into God right then. He was just trying to corporate ladder, make money. In a nutshell, I could tell both of them were not really walking with the Lord. So one day, we all three worked on the same job. And of course, me, right? I bring up Christian, go to church. And keep in mind, these two guys have been working together 40 hours a week for three months. And I brought up something about, you know, church and God. And this one goes, yeah, and this one. And they both go, you're a Christian, you're a Christian too. And I just stepped back, you work together 40 hours a week, and you've been working together for three months. And they just now? I mean, I left there baffled. How can you? I mean, you don't talk about God every hour. It's less than construction. It's a hard job, and it's not the time to be all God-y. You're working hard, and, man, you're breaking busted water lines. You're directing traffic. But these guys, they go, you're a Christian, you're a Christian too. I didn't know that. They didn't know it. They didn't know it. How many hours is that? 40 a week times, you know, there's 160 times three months, 300, 480 hours. And they didn't even know that they were each Christians. But that's why. They weren't living it. So if you're not living it, you're not going to talk about it. And that's, Jesus says, woe be to you when all men speak well of you. That's why. Because people go around trying to, I want to please you, and I want to please you, and I'll tell you what you want to hear so all men speak well of me. And that's what he's warning. He's saying, woe be to you when all men speak well of you because you're a chameleon. But how do you balance it with this Scripture and Proverbs? A good name is to be chosen over great riches. See, that's different. Woe be to you when all men speak well of you, you're being a hypocrite. You're trying to please everybody. A good name is to be chosen over good riches means you're supposed to have a good character. The people in the church, out the church, know, you know, I might not agree with him, but he's a person, she's a person of character. What they say they mean, and what they stand for, they're true by that. They're a person of character. You can trust them on it. I might not agree with their theology. So that's, it's wonderful to have good character because the world's watching. The world's watching what we do. Do we give the right change back? You don't think your accountant or your tax preparer that is not a Christian, they know you are, you don't think they're watching how you word things? You only had 10,000 miles? Couldn't you say 15,000 miles? We can get you back a little bit more. Yeah, I think I can find 5,000 miles somewhere. Okay, what about these expenditures? Didn't you kind of, you know, didn't you buy some office supplies? I don't even have an office. Well, I mean, technically you have an office, right? I mean, well, yeah, I guess I could say I have an office. And they want, you know, it's just this, nobody's laughing at that one. This is scary because this could be applying to a lot of people. But it is tax season, right? It is hard. It's difficult because you cannot be accurate in some areas. And that's where God looks at our heart often. And it's interesting. With Jesus, I noted, and you've seen this before all throughout the New Testament, the boldness for truth, not arrogance, but boldness for truth is a sign of someone filled with God's Spirit. The reason is truth just bubbles over. Boldness just bubbles over. Because when someone is filled with God's Spirit, and they come in and they say, you know, and somebody says, well, gay marriage isn't wrong, abortions are like, oh, yeah, you're right, I don't want to argue. You know, I'm just passive and leave me alone. No, it's boldness that flows over and says, no, it's not. No, that's not true. That's not true. God's Word is crystal clear on this. And I'm not going to back down from this. So boldness is a natural byproduct of somebody filled with the Spirit. But you have to be careful because some people that are very arrogant can't think that they're bold. And they're not. They're arrogant. Because as I reminded you before, it'll fit here too, the truth will offend people. There's nothing you can do about that. But your attitude shouldn't offend them. Our attitude shouldn't offend, but the truth should. And it's a hard balance to find. Here's how you find that balance. When you're bold but not arrogant, you are meek. Not domineering. I don't know if you've figured this out or not, but I can dominate a conversation if I need to. Right? Like, you know, with an atheist or unbeliever, somebody, yeah, well, this or this. Oh, yeah, well, this or this. And you can dominate that conversation. But somebody, boldness filled with the Spirit of God is just meek. And I understand. I hear you. Well, have you thought about this? And they're strategic. They're gentle. Not harsh. See, people who are dominating and harsh, and they don't want to listen, they're not filled with the Spirit of God. They're filled with pride. Because knowledge puffs up. So when I have the knowledge, I want to throw it at people. And it cracks me up, the e-mails we get sometimes. You know, the people just, you can tell all they want to do is argue. And I want to e-mail them back, you know, you can attract a lot more bees with honey. And say, have you thought about this? But they're just like, you know, all this just, you know, the big capital letters and the exclamation point e-mails, like this long, like you're going to sit and read it. I mean, I can tell in the first sentence, oh, bold and arrogant. I mean, I'm sorry. Arrogant and domineering and harsh, they're not filled with the Spirit of God. God's not speaking through them because of their attitude. Now, granted, even Billy Graham said that we can learn a lot from our critics, which is true. But we have to be careful in this area, too. So just keep that in mind. Are you meek or do you try to dominate the conversation and push the Scripture on people? Are you gentle and not harsh? And do you seek to listen? I mean, that's somebody truly filled with the Spirit of God, is they will seek to listen. Because if you're already preparing your rebuttal as they're talking, that's not listening. Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about. This happens in marriage all the time. Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh, yep, yep. As soon as you're over, I'm about ready to let you have it. And we just, you know, it comes out. So listening and trying to understand what they're trying to say. And so that was the part before taxes. Now let's get into a favorite topic. Is it lawful to pay taxes? Well, Jesus says, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. Basically, that word render means give. Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. And we as Christians pull a lot of this from Romans 13. It says, let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God. And the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore, whoever resists authority resists the ordinance of God. And those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a tear to good works but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Then do what is good. And you'll have praise from the same. For he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid. For he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is God's minister and avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. That's a mouthful. Now that's the God-ordained institution of government. That's supposed to be the function. The function of government is to protect those who obey the law from those who break it. To administer justice and to be a tear to those who do evil. And this is the point. I'm not going to get in a big rant here because I know I could upset some people. But this is the part that cracks me up. You know with the police scandals. The police are this and the police are that. You might not want to carry a 9mm in your back pocket and be high on marijuana. And breaking into something. Well the police are, well what are you doing? Are you just sitting at home watching TV eating popcorn and they break into your house? No, often, often the people are not doing things that are good. Now is there abuse? There's abuse in everything. From firemen to policemen to pastors. So of course. But what I'm seeing at least a lot is people a lot of times are up to no good. I call it mischief. And they get caught in their mischief and now they're mad at the police because they caught them. But that's what the government is called to do. In the truest sense. And am I happy with taxes? Of course not. Do we want to just keep increasing those? Of course not. But we have to remember that service has a cost. Service has a cost. Have you ever thought about who pays the firemen? Or the policemen? Or those roads you drive on, they're nice and smooth? Take a four hour drive to Mexico. Cross the border and take a drive for a while. And you see, we'll see service has a cost. And we live in such a blessed country. And I'm not, I'm not, I mean the tax bracket's high, but we are also considered millionaires in this country compared to the rest of the world. So I think we should take a lot of our complaining and turn it into thankfulness. In my opinion. Because we are blessed, we have so many things that God has blessed us with. Yes, put people in office who want to, I'm a big fan too of streamlining the expenditures. I mean there's no reason we should be this much in debt. Trillions of dollars in debt. And you just, you can streamline. The reason is the nation has rejected and walked away from God. And they, well let's increase taxes, let's increase taxes. No, you need to get back and look at what you're funding. I mean I can cut a lot of money really quick if you get rid of something called Planned Parenthood. I mean they'll spend like $55 million studying quail in Alaska. Or $100 million for a sea otter study. I mean, what are we doing? So you see that's the problem. It's spending, not trying to increase taxes. But I want to say that to say this. Yes, I think it's biblical to pay for services rendered. And to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. And to render to God the things that are God's. Absolutely, Jesus is clear on here. However, here's the tipping point. We are subject to the authorities until they want us to stop obeying God. And 50 years ago we wouldn't even need to talk about this. Now you've got people baking cakes and cupcakes that are being sued for $100,000. And you've got the government saying, the lady, I don't remember what state she's in. You've got to issue marriage license to gay couples. Well I don't feel, I can't do that. I'm not going to put my signature on something. So you're going to see a lot more of this kind of stuff coming down. If they tell pastors, okay Shane, you're going to have to marry Steve and Bill. No, I'm not going to marry Steve and Bill. Well, you're going to have to. I'm not going to marry Steve and Bill. I'd rather just resign. Well, then you're going to lose your tax exempt status. Okay, well, let's budget and prepare for that. That's what's going to happen when you start coming against what the law is. Because normally the law of a God honoring nation, the law reflects God's law. And that's what I've talked to you about before. When the nation was founded, when the pilgrims came over, 1620, and the colonies, Great Britain, they had something called William Blackstone's Commentaries of the Laws of England. And every law that was there for rape was mentioned in the Bible. For incest, mentioned in the Bible. Sodomy, mentioned in the Bible. And they had laws according to scripture. So when you obeyed the laws, you were obeying scripture. But then as secular society came in, atheism, agnostic Darwinism, and all these things, they started to draw away and get back to, do we really know what's right? Do we really know what's right? Come on, we don't. And they would start to, I mean, when a judge can slap a pedophile in the hand and give him community service, we've got a problem. I mean, this might be the ouch sermon, but we need to pull out the ouch sermons again, because that's what truth needs to be spoken. And we need to, and Christians do need to be loving and compassionate, but at the same time, the law given by God is to protect those who obey the law from those who break it. And that's interesting, too, on a whole topic that you've heard before, the separation of church and state. They should be separate in their duties and functions, but they should be interwoven in what they believe. Technically, the state, if you look back at the mosaic form of government, the state would govern according to God's law, and the church would be the conscience of the nation, the conscience of the people, the conscience of the state. And when they heard these words, they marveled, and they left him and went their way. They were astonished. They were in wonder. And I don't know who gave this quote. It's either St. Augustine, and then Spurgeon quoted him. But they said this, the word of God is like a lion. You don't have to defend a lion. All you have to do is let the lion loose, and the lion will defend itself. That's beautiful. And people might say, well, Shane, I thought you said we're not supposed to defend it. No, you can defend it. Basically, you present it, but it defends itself. You defend a lion, you just let it out of its cage, and it will defend itself. That's the same thing with the word of God. You present it, and it defends itself, because there is no higher authority than truth. There is no higher authority than God. So all you're doing is you present that authority, you present that truth, and it will defend itself. And then verse 23. Now, here's the part about the Sadducees. And the question in the Bible is, what about the resurrection? It's the Sadducees. I know it's complicated, but you've got Herodians. They were loyal to Herod. You've got the Pharisees, which were the religious teachers. You've got the scribes, which would write down the law. They were more of the secretarial things. And then you have the Sadducees. It was a different sect of religious leaders. And it's not hard to remember. Forget this, because Greg Laurie said this, and everybody that I know said this. But the Sadducees don't believe in a resurrection. That's why they're sad, you see. So it's good to remember. If you want to remember, they don't believe in the resurrection. And the reason is, they only accepted the first five books. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. That's all they saw that were inspired. So when you would see words in there like breath and spirit, in the Hebrew language, those words are together. So they thought when a person breathed his last breath, that their spirit departed, and they didn't cease, and there was no resurrection. So that's why they're always divided against the Pharisees. So it said this, the same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus and asked him, Teacher, Moses said if a man dies having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother. That was their form of passing on the heritage. Now, they didn't stop there, though. They said, now, there were seven brothers. The first died after he had married and had no offspring and left his wife to his brother. And likewise, the second also, and the third, all the way to the seventh. The last of all the woman died also. Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had her. Now, it's an interesting question, because they don't even believe in a resurrection. So they're trying to trick him into, okay, who's she going to be then? Figure that one out for us. And what does Jesus do? He goes right back to the truth. You are mistaken. Not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. And I thought that would be a wonderful sermon in and of itself. When you don't know the Scriptures, you don't have the power of God. And I'm convinced in that. I've seen people, they don't know the Scriptures. They say whatever and think whatever. There's no power of God in them. Because the power of God comes from internalizing the Scriptures and then applying it to your life. That's where the power comes in the truth. See, the power isn't just in preaching. The power is in preaching the truth. That's where it imparts wisdom and changes our lives. So he said, in the resurrection, they neither marry, nor are they given in marriage, but are like the angels of God in heaven. But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying that I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. And when the multitudes heard this, they were astonished at his teaching. Now, there's two things here. Number one, he's saying you don't know the Scriptures or the power of God. And because you don't know them, let me tell you, there is no marriage in heaven. We'll be like the angels. And some people, you know, it's kind of sad. You know, it is if you think, you know, it's like, wow. But trust me, heaven will be much better than the marriage, and we'll probably know each other in some special way. I'm assuming kids, hopefully. I mean, who knows? We should do a whole series on heaven someday. But it'll be better. Don't worry. That's all I have to say. You're not going to be in heaven moping because you're not married. And it might just be the union because you don't need to procrastinate with word sex. We don't have to have children in heaven. It's just there's a relationship there. You don't have to be married to the marriage covenant because you're in heaven. So Jesus said there's no marriage in heaven. But then he also kills their argument about the resurrection. Because throughout Jewish history, they would say God is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. They would even be proud of that. They would swear on that. Our God, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, will be with us. So Jesus is saying, how is he the God of the dead, not the living? If there's no resurrection, those three men don't exist. You're the God of nobody and nobody and nobody. They don't exist. But he's still the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob because they do still exist in the resurrection. So he just twists it back. They're utterly confused and baffled. They have nothing to say. Other parts of the Bible say that they were so astonished that they stopped asking him questions after that. So he answered both questions there. But I thought this was interesting. How are they mistaken? They knew the Bible. They are mistaken because the letter kills, the spirit gives life. When you embrace the Bible, you have to embrace all of it. From Genesis to Revelation, all of God's inspired word. Look at his entire character. Because what happens if you don't... Take, for example, Mormonism. They teach that you are married in heaven. So how do you get that from this? You're married in heaven. And actually, you're married to your wife and you have... I won't get too graphic. But let's just say you have spirit children. And you rule planets. And it just keeps... So you get off one end of theology and it just starts growing. In other words, we're married in heaven. No, you're not. The Bible says this. No, we're married in heaven. And then... Now you're just down the slippery slope. Not only are we married in heaven, now we're having celestial sex. And we're having spirit children. And we're ruling kingdoms. And we're gods, just like God. And God was once like us. And now we'll be like God. And you just keep falling down this slope if you get off on these areas. And this is interesting. Mormons don't want this out. But if you look back at their past writings of presidents. Brigham Young and the Covenants manual. Different things. It's crystal clear that this is what they believed. One quote from 1975 from the Doctrine and Covenants Institute. Student manual says this. Brethren, 225,000 of you are here tonight. That was a good night. Big conference, I guess. I suppose 225,000 of you may become gods. There seems to be plenty of space out there in the universe. And Brigham Young is quoted. And Joseph Smith is quoted. In saying that there is no salvation outside of the Mormon church. They are quoted in saying that God. Oh, my. I don't even want to say this. That God was once like us. And that we will eventually become like God. That's blasphemy. As big as you can write the word blasphemy. That God was once like me? Oh, goodness. Are you kidding me? Please, no. I don't want that, God. But see, that's how you bring people in. And the scripture Jesus says, or he quotes, I think Isaiah where it says, You will be gods. That's where they pull it from. And that word gods is a small g. It means magistrates, kings, rulers over certain things. But they take it to mean God was once like us. And we're going to be like God. And spirit children and marriage. And so it's just bad theology. Bad theology. And when I talk about this, we actually have family members that are Mormon. And friends. And I'll get people outside Utah or Idaho, wherever, and they'll email me and say, Why do you have to put down another brother? Why do you have to say those things? Well, Jesus says, You are mistaken. Why can't we? Have you ever thought about that? Jesus said, Hold on, religious leaders. You are mistaken not knowing the word of God. Here's what it says. So we can't, from the pulpit, say, Listen, you're mistaken in this area. Here's what the word of God says. What's the difference? If it's done with the right heart, there's no difference. There's nothing. You think I hate these people and arrogant like, Ha, ha, ha. We've got the truth. You don't. No, I'm broken for them. Guys, you're misled. You're going down a wrong, wrong road. Very wrong road. Because if you're believing in the church of Mormon to save you. And Joseph Smith to be your prophet. And all these prophets to tell you things that aren't true. And you're not believing the God of the Bible. You are on the broad road to destruction. You will end up in hell if you reject Jesus Christ in repentance. And I've told Mormon missionaries that. And they don't stay around long. Because they get tangled. What do you mean? Because they believe if you follow certain moral codes. And you're good enough in the church and all these things. And why can't we say, Guys, I love you. You're mistaken. You're mistaken. We tried that. I tried that with a family member that lives about 30 minutes from here. And I said, Hey, if you ever want to just sit down and talk about the differences. And maybe you can share with me where I'm wrong. You know. I thought they'd take me up on it. What? No, no, no. Just leave us alone in this area. We don't want to talk about it. If you're right and I'm on the broad road to destruction. Wouldn't you please share the truth with me? No, no. We don't want to get in debates and stuff. And that's why I often say truth. Truth will invite scrutiny. But error runs from it. Think about that. Truth. Okay, let's sit down. Let's talk about this for the next hour. You got two hours? Let's sit down. But error says, Nope. I'm running from the truth. Truth will run to you. Error just runs. It doesn't want to debate. It doesn't want to sit down and talk about it. Jesus says, You are mistaken. Why can't we? And we can. When you don't know the scriptures, you really don't know God. They testify of the truth. That's why I often say that truth is not flexible. This can't bend. Truth liberates. Truth rebuilds. Truth restores. Truth heals. Truth transforms. Truth prevails. You don't change truth. Truth changes you. And I want to remind people that truth liberates. What is liberation? Sets you free. Didn't somebody say you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free? So people that are bound, give them the truth. Truth rebuilds. Marriage is falling apart. Lives are falling apart. People hooked on this and weeping and saying, I've ruined my whole life. No, guess what? Truth rebuilds. But not knowing it, applying it. That's the difference. Truth restores. Truth heals. Truth transforms. And truth will prevail. And then the closing sentence there. I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. And they're talking about the resurrection, right? And I want to cross reference John 11, 25. Jesus said to Martha. Remember when Martha's brother died? Lazarus. Oh, Jesus, if you had only been here. And Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? That's the most important question we can answer. Do you believe? Because it all boils down to that. Do you believe? So back to the title of the message. Jesus doesn't care about anyone. He doesn't care about opinions or offending people with the truth, but he does care about you. I want to encourage people there. Jesus does care about us. He doesn't care about opinions. He doesn't care about fear. He doesn't care about favor, but he cares about us. And it's interesting. When he told Martha, I don't know if you've thought about this before, but I am the resurrection and the life. Isn't that repetitive? Well, why would you say both? Well, commentators this, but in my personal opinion, when he's saying I am the resurrection, if you think in that time of history, there's so much Greek mythology, that everybody was raising from the dead, and the Greeks believed this, and the Sylphoenicians believed this, and all these people, so many things. This God raised up, and this God raised up, and this man raised up. Being raised from the dead was not new to people. It was taught throughout the Greek area there, and in Rome, and different things. Mythology, and this God had wings, and different things. So when Jesus comes to Martha, he says, I am the resurrection. I am the only true resurrection. All other resurrections are fables, but I am the resurrection, and because of that, I am also the life. I bring abundant life. I bring life overwhelming. I conquered hell, death, and the grave in the resurrection, and then now because of that, I bring the abundant life. Just believe in me as the scriptures say, and out of your belly will flow these rivers of living water. That's what he meant there. I believe I am the resurrection. I am the life. In case there's any doubt in your mind, I am the totality of everything. I am the embodiment of truth. I will die and raise again, be raised again on the third day, and that's the most important question. I know most of you probably are believers already, but I want to throw that out there, and let you know that if you have never answered this question, when Jesus says, I am the resurrection, I am the life, whoever believes in me, though he may die, he shall live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die, do you believe that? Do you believe that? I think that should increase our worship. That should increase our praise. That should increase our just everything about what we do at the end of the service, and it's funny. I was studying for Monday. I was going to give a brief exhortation on Monday at the worship night, and God put a lot of this on my heart, and I wanted to share just a brief section of it that will lead us into worship, but it's Isaiah 61. Isaiah 61. Just two words. Arise and shine. Arise and shine. Now, it's interesting, though, the context of Isaiah 60 is Isaiah 59, where it says everything we've just been talking about, truth has fallen in the street. Truth has failed. There's injustice everywhere. Truth is gone, so God says because of that, I will raise up a remnant. I will raise up a standard. I will bring salvation to myself and to my people. I will do it even though truth has failed, and then you know that famous verse that comes next about when the enemy comes in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord will raise up a standard against it. You will be filled with the spirit of God. Therefore, arise and shine. He's saying even in the midst of adversity, get up and reflect the goodness of God. At some point, folks, we've got to get up, arise, and shine. I don't feel like it. I don't want to, but God commands it because truth has fallen, but I have put those things behind me, and I'm commanding you to rise up and shine, rise up and worship. You've got to fight the flesh. The flesh never wants to get out of that seat and worship. The flesh wants to go to In-N-Out Burger. So you've got to crucify that flesh and say, I'm going to worship you. I'm going to worship God tonight. I'm going to rise. I'm going to shine. It's interesting. Arise is getting up and shining. Actually, the word shine, if you look up in the Hebrew, there's a three-letter word. It means to reflect the light of something. I thought, are we reflecting God's light? Are we truly? Are we grumbling and complaining, gossiping, backbiting? We should reflect that light. Arise and shine. That should be our motto for worship.