In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of sharing the message of Jesus Christ with others. He highlights the disciples' firsthand experiences of seeing Jesus after His resurrection, witnessing miracles, and hearing His teachings. The speaker compares the disciples' excitement to that of grandparents showing off pictures of their grandchildren, emphasizing the natural urge to share something amazing. He concludes with a prayer for love, unity, and encouragement among believers, acknowledging God's mercy and patience with His followers. The sermon references the story of Paul being protected by the Roman commander and sent to Governor Felix in Caesarea, highlighting the need to take action to ensure Paul's safety.

We're going through the book of Acts together. Paul has completed his third missionary journey, and Luke, the author of this, the only Gentile writer in the New Testament, he has told the story of the beginning of the Christian church, and now the gospel is spreading. And a former persecutor of the church has been converted. Saul of Tarsus is now from persecutor to Paul the apostle. Brave, courageous, bold. This guy is something else. Fearless. So he has now got back to Jerusalem. He almost got killed in the environs of the temple, but a commander of the Roman legion there, the army that was there, I should say, he saves him, and he gives him a chance to speak to the crowd. Another riot ensues. He protects Paul by putting him in the slammer, and then Paul has a chance to address the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council. That doesn't work out well either, and it ends up just a lot of commotion. But then the commander learns through Paul's nephew, we learned last week, that more than 40 men have said, we're not going to eat again until we kill this guy. We won't eat or drink until we kill him. The commander doesn't want that on him, so he gets a contingent of soldiers, a large one, over 400 people, and he moves them northwest to Caesarea, where governor Felix is. That's the governor representing the Roman empire ruling over the Jewish people who are living in Israel. So let's see what we can learn from this story now as it picks up. Let's look. Then the commander called two of his officers and said, get 200 soldiers ready to go to Caesarea together with 70 horsemen and 200 spearmen, and be ready to leave by nine o'clock tonight. Provide some horses for Paul to ride and get him safely through to governor Felix. Then the commander wrote a letter that went like this. Claudius Lysaeus, to his excellency, governor Felix, greetings. The Jews seize this man, and we're about to kill him. I learned that he is a Roman citizen, so I went with my soldiers, and I rescued him. I wanted to know what they were accusing him of, so I took him down to their council. I found out that he had not done a thing for which he deserved to die or be put in prison. The accusation against him had to do with questions about their own law. And when I was informed that there was a plot against him at once, I decided to send him to you. I have told his accusers to make their charges against him before you. The soldiers carried out their orders. They got Paul and took him that night as far as Antipatris. The next day, the foot soldiers returned to the fort, feeling he was safe now, and left the horsemen to go on with them. They took him to Caesarea, delivered the letter to the governor, and turned Paul over to him. The governor read the letter and asked Paul what province he was from. When he found out that he was from Cilicia, he said, I'll hear you when your accusers arrive. Then he gave orders for Paul to be kept under guard in the governor's headquarters, but not in a prison chained up. Five days later, the high priest Ananias went to Caesarea with some elders and a lawyer named Tertullus. They appeared before governor Felix and made their charges against Paul. Then Paul was called in, and Tertullus began to make his accusation as follows. Your Excellency, he's buttering them up now, your wise leadership has brought us a long period of peace, etc., and many necessary reforms are being made for the good of our country. We welcome this everywhere and at all times, and we are deeply grateful to you. Meanwhile, Felix was a very terrible governor, persecuted the Jews, but it served this guy well to try to get on his good side. I do not want to take up too much of your time, however, so I beg you to be kind and listen to our brief account. We found this man to be a dangerous nuisance. He starts riots among Jews all over the world, and as a leader of the party of the Nazarenes, it's the first time followers of Jesus are called the Nazarenes. He also tried to defile the temple. None of this is true, and we arrested him. We plan to judge him according to our own law, but the commander, Lysias, Lysias came and with great violence took him from us. Then Lysias gave orders that his accusers should come before you. If you question this man, you yourself will be able to learn from him all the things that we are accusing him of. The Jews joined in the accusation and said that all this was true. So here we have a picture of Paul being surrounded by accusers and accusations, people who made charges against him, said negative things about him, and he's in the soup. As we'll find out next week, his posture and his calm are amazing because his life's hanging in the balance. He could die just by the guy saying, kill him, or if the religious establishment could get their hands on him, he'd be a goner, but he's cool. He's poised, and you notice that word over and over again, accusers bringing accusations, more accusations. We'll wait until your accusers come and then listen to our accusations, Governor Felix. You know what an accusation is. It's a statement. It's a hard word to define accusation because you want to say an accusation is like an accusation, but it's a charge made against someone, detrimental. It's negative. It's a charge made against someone. The word in the legal sense, and it's saying to someone, either to them or behind their back, you're wrong, you're bad, you did something wrong, you deserve to be punished, you're not of good character, et cetera, et cetera. Now, if you study the history of accusations in the Bible, it's an interesting thought. Moses, when God made him leader of the people of Israel, almost immediately, the minute things went bad, the people started accusing him. Why did you bring us out of Egypt? We ate garlics, and leeks, and onions, and roti, and other things that we were eating there, but now we're out here, and we're going to starve, and we're not going to have any to drain. They made accusations, and it happens repeatedly. They vented their impatience and frustration by accusing Moses of being a bad leader. David is the champion of Israel, but Saul gets jealous of him, and then other people around him start accusing David to him, David's disloyal, David's out for your crown, David wants to be king, and liars, and liars, and liars circulate around him, and making accusations. David talks about it in the Psalms. They're like snapping dogs. They're always coming around, making accusations that are untrue to Saul about me. Later on in the prophetic books, you find out that when God raised up a prophet, you know what a prophet is. A prophet was a spokesperson for God, delivering God's message to the people, that when they did that, accusations were made, usually false, against the prophet. They're not loyal. This guy, Jeremiah, he can't be trusted. He's always got a negative message. They did it against Ezekiel. Accusations against them. Accusations. Not leave them alone. Accusations. Go after him with accusations. Of course, we know that when Jesus began his ministry, there were accusations always about him and against him. In fact, the Bible tells us in five or six places that they were watching him so they could make an accusation. They were hoping he would heal somebody on the Sabbath, because then they could say, he's violated the Sabbath, he's doing work. They'd rather have somebody stay blind or be a leper than violate the Sabbath, but they were asking him questions and watching him, always waiting to make an accusation, over and over again in the Bible. In fact, when he hung on the cross, the same word is used. This was the final accusation. They put it above him. He is, claims to be the king of the Jews. Jesus. King of the Jews. Not claim. The Jews wanted him to say claim, but Pilate put it up there, king of the Jews. That was the accusation. And they were saying, by saying he's the king, he can't be loyal to Caesar. See? He's a bad citizen. And this was the accusation against early Christians all the time. In fact, people who want to make trouble for the Christians would do this. They'd try to stir up a fury about bowing down to either a statue of the emperor or something like that, and kneel and say, Caesar, whichever Caesar it was, Caesar is Lord. Because starting with Augustus, who was the Caesar, the ruler of the Roman Empire, when Jesus was born, they were deified and called God. So bow and say, Caesar is Lord. We don't care how many other gods you have. You could have a hundred. You could have a thousand. But you will bow and say, Caesar is Lord. Christians would not. And that would be grounds for accusations. See? They're disloyal. They're not good citizens. Because they won't bow like everybody else and say, Caesar is Lord. That's the history of the Christian church, even to this day. Why was Paul being so accused? Why were these accusers all around him? Why did this dry guy draw trouble like bees to honey? What was it about him? I mean, even when he was worshiping peacefully, they were looking for him. And every city he went in, you never knew what would happen. Well, one of the reasons is that these accusations and trouble came against them is also the reason why a lot of us don't have accusations and trouble against us. Look at Acts 4, verse 20. Look at this verse. But Peter and John answered them, the jury that was, or I should say the council that was trying them and trying to intimidate them. You yourselves judge whether it's right in God's sight to obey you or obey God. For we cannot stop speaking of what we ourselves have seen and heard. Say verse 20 with me. For we cannot stop speaking of what we ourselves. Say it together louder. For we cannot stop speaking of what we ourselves have seen. And that's what got them in trouble. And that's what got Paul in trouble. Because the early Christians had such an encounter with the living Christ. They couldn't stop talking about their experience with Jesus. They couldn't stop talking. And the moment you start talking, being vocal, not in the closet, not quiet, not I'm quietly praying for them. I just don't say anything. God will have to convict him. None of that stuff. The minute you open your mouth and start talking about what you've seen and heard and know about Jesus, accusations will come against you, even like they came against Jesus. Jesus said, if they hated me, they will also hate you. So to try to fit into society as a Christian is ridiculous. We should be gentle. We should be kind and loving. But if you open your mouth and start sharing Jesus, you're going to get aggravation. You're going to get accusations. That's why a lot of Christians are quiet. We're like that arctic river that's frozen at the mouth. We're frozen at the mouth. We can't. We'll talk about food we ate. We'll talk about the island we were born in. We'll talk about everything. But Jesus, we know exactly why we better be quiet. Because accusation will come. What do you think you're better than everyone? What are you, a religious fanatic? What are you, a holy roller? What are you, judgmental? You know what's sin. No one else knows what's sin. What are you, the only right religion? And that's why all kinds of Christians around the world are intimidated, because they know that when you open your mouth and start speaking like the early disciples had to, they had to. You know, it's like you go to a restaurant and the food is phenomenal. You know, you talk about it for a week to people. Oh, this meal was okay, but you should have seen where I went this other week. And these early disciples, when you squeeze them, Jesus came out. They were always talking about Jesus. They said, we can't stop it. Don't tell us you're going to persecute us. We cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard. We saw him. We saw him when he rose from the dead, after he rose from the dead. We saw him. We saw the nail prints. We saw the spear mark in the side. We saw in his feet, the nail prints. He talked to us. We saw him raise the dead. We saw him walk on the water. And you're trying to tell us not to tell others about that? No, we got to tell people about it. Come on, let's say amen. We got to tell people, just natural. You know, it's like grandfathers taking out pictures of their grandchildren. They have to do it. I was at a table the other day and, you know, I showed a picture of some of my grandkids and then someone, they brought out, it looked like a film roll from an epic movie. And why? They have to. No one tells them they should. They have to. Why? They're excited about their grandchildren. Oh, he's so cute. He's really not. When they're born, they're not really cute, but he's so cute. Why? Because you're just like that. These people were so taken up with Jesus, they had to. They had to talk. And that's what got them in the soup. So what's the lesson along the way here? Let's be excited about Jesus. Let's ask the Holy Spirit to stir us up and not be so mute. Silent Christians, that's horrible. You know, this man who prayed for us, he had to leave for very, very real dangerous reasons where he was living. Why? Not because of the way he dressed or the food he ate. It's because he started talking about Jesus. You start talking about Jesus in most places, you're going to get accusations, false, real, whatever. It happened to Jesus. It happened to Paul. It happened to the apostles. That's it. You can't go with the flow. You got to follow Jesus. How many want to follow him no matter where it leads, no matter what happened? And this is why many people turned back from following. Remember the parable about the seed and the shallow people who got the seed in shallow ground? Something sprung up, but then it said this, when the sun beat down, then the flower died. And the disciples said, what's that about? And Jesus said, no, these are the people who hear it with joy. Ah, but when persecution arises because of the word, they're shallow, they turn back. That's why we like to sing that song. I have decided to what? Follow Jesus. No, no turning back. So he opened, he kept opening his mouth everywhere he went, Paul. And that's why he had the accusations. They would have just killed him, but they had to go through first the process of accusations and accusers. So there's all kinds of accusations. These charges, we use that in our speech. We bring charges against people, not just in a court, but in conversation, we use accusations. Some accusations are to your face. Other accusations against you are done behind your back. I mean, we have teenagers committing suicide, preteens ending their life because of accusations against them or mocking them or whatever done on the internet. Is that not correct? So accusations are very powerful, slander, accusations, talking negative about people, whether it's true or not, they're very powerful. There's accusations that come because people are jealous. A lot of people accuse other people of negative things or berate them because they're jealous of them. And they want to bring them down and cut them down in size because they're intimidated by that person because of their own complexes and things that they have in their life. There are accusations that come out of hate and out of racial prejudice, just accusing races, accusing people, accusing white people, black people, Caribbeans, whatever, Jamaicans, Polish people, whatever, Hispanics, Asians. They're accusations. They're hurled all around us and the world we live. You just read the newspaper, you watch any show on television, the talking heads, all these people, accusations are just flying around left and right. Now, accusations are very, very painful. There's an old story about a Roman empire where a guy, one of the generals invented a new kind of dart which had poison on it and they said, is it lethal? And he said, yeah, it's almost as strong as slander. It's almost strong as a word that you say against somebody behind their back. Then we compound it by acting nice to their face. So there's all kinds of accusations in the Bible just taking that word and we know that Christians have to endure accusations. That's what we need to encourage each other because you get accusations from your family. Oh, you think you're better than us because now you're a Christian. So accusations are thrown about and they do a lot of damage. Some are done right in court, like where Samar comes from. They will forget. Yeah, they can bring you to court. He has spent time in jail. He was in jail because of accusations against him. He knew as he writes in this chapter in my new book that's coming out in the fall, which he tells his incredible testimony. He knew that the accusations were false, but it was their way of just trying to punish him and before they could really get their hooks into him. So to say negative things and berate someone and depreciate somebody and their value and their worth is what got Paul in this mess. Now accusations sometimes are true and then there are accusations that are false. You can have true accusations. You can say, you know, you get ahold of my friend David Berkowitz, the son of Sam. You go up to that person and you could tell them, you know what you did back there in the seventies? You did that. That was horrible what you did. And that's a true accusation. Might not be kind to him, but it's true. But then there's false accusations. The Bible says that never to receive an accusation against an elder, anybody who's a leader in the church without two or three witnesses. Why? Because anybody can make up any accusation. Anybody can say anything. And now because of the internet and the communication techniques we have and texting and all of that, anybody can say anything about anyone. And they're not even, there's no way to even protect yourself from what anyone is saying. I mean, they're working in the office, like two websites, two Facebook pages in my name that I have nothing to do with raising money, saying weird things. And someone wrote me and said, I've always appreciated you and heard I just can't believe that you're saying that in your Facebook page. Of course I didn't say it. I have nothing to do with it, but you can't stop it. You don't know who's doing it. We live in a day of accusations and false representation, slander. Do we not? If you agree with me, just lift your hand. And you have to learn never to receive not only accusation against an elder, against that stuff that's in the Bible, but you never believe anything about anyone that you hear. I want to give you that good suggestion. I've been duped so many times. I tell people who counsel, who I try to train to counsel. And I tell the pastors repeatedly, I said, listen, no matter what, anyone comes in your office and says, listen to them, be polite, but you do not know that it's true. But she was crying. You still don't know it's true. Oh, many years ago in the other facility that we had, a woman came into me. She was like a new to the church. And she said she was only a Christian for six or seven months. And she came in one day, made an appointment. I could see her sitting there talking to me. And she's saying, Pastor, I don't know what I should do. I need counsel. I said, what's the problem? It's my husband. My husband, he verbally abuses me. He makes fun of me. He curses me out sometimes. I said, is he a Christian or what? No, no, he's not a Christian. And I think he might have another girlfriend and this and that. But the way he just talks to me, when he comes home, he berates me. And she just told me she totally won me over, totally won me over. I said, I want to see your husband. Would he come in and see me? She said, I don't think so. I said, no, I want you to ask him to come in. The worst he can say is no. So she said, all right, ask him now. She said, he's a big guy. So you got to be careful how you talk to him. So this is true. My secretary then, Madi, buzzes me and says, the lady's here. This is like a week later, the lady's here with her husband. And he's like six, seven, six, eight. In fact, the guys, security guys came in when they saw his size and they waited outside the door like this, like outside my door. Like if we hear screams or noise, we'll get in there. That's the truth. So a burly looking guy. So he walks in and we sit together and, you know, I took, kind of took it all in first, his size and everything. But I got all inspired and all bold and I'm going to defend this poor lady because I'm a pastor and you're supposed to do that. You know, he's the defender of the weak. So I say to the guy, well, listen, nice to meet you. Whatever. His name is Charlie. So Charlie, listen here, here's the deal. She's new here in our church. She says she's a Christian and, and, uh, she's just sitting there quiet. I'm feeling so bad for her. And she, I go, Charlie, you're not a Christian. No, I'm not a Christian, but I don't mind. She goes to church. She can go wherever she wants. I said, oh, I said, well, you know, you talk about her and you don't, this is not conducive to good relationship. You abuse her, use profanity and, and all of this. And he's just listening and I'm getting really inspired now. I'm getting bolder. I know the guys are outside the door there in case things go down. And he goes, well, did she ever tell you what our house is like? And I went, no, she never mentioned that. He said, well, she doesn't clean even once a month. I said, what? He said, yeah, ask her. She wouldn't pick up a broom or a rag or clean anything. I have to do it, but I work like 10, 11 hours a day. You think she cooks? She didn't cook either. No, I come home. There's never any food. The house is a mess. And she's still in her, her, in her bathrobe. She's still, she hadn't even gotten dressed for the day. I went, what? I turned her and I said, sister, is that true? She said, well, sometimes I spend a lot of time in the word. I really love the word. You know, the word starts to work in me. That's the truth. She totally boondoggled me. And I believed her. I didn't have any confirmation. Didn't know the whole story. So always remember when you hear accusations and stuff, one, one says one thing, and another says the other thing. And then sometimes the truth is in the middle. How many say amen? The Bible also tells us this. One comes forward and convinces you until another steps forward. And then you go, yo, what is up with that? I didn't know that side. Oh, by the way, but the story, as I went to talk, he became my friend and she turned on me. And if the security people had to protect me, it would have been from her, not from him. We were like pounding and high-fiving at the end. And she was, I thought you loved me. I thought you would. I told her, ma'am, how in the world can't you cook for your husband? You don't work your home all day. Put the Bible down and cook something, woman. Put the Bible down, cook something. She's home all day. He's killing himself. And did you know what? When he saw that I was caught in my foolishness and that I addressed it and apologized to him for listening to her, I should have taken it in with one ear. You only listen with one ear when people talk to you about another person. You never listen with both ears because you don't know if it's true. Come on. Hasn't anyone here ever believed a lie about it? Oh, and you were sure. So I made a new friend. I lost a sister in Christ during that time, but I tried to work with her. And then eventually she came around and I said, no, just because you come to church, he doesn't, I'm not going to agree with that. You don't care for him and don't take care of the house. He's working. You're not. I could see if you were both working. A lot of things are different in each situation, but my goodness. So whenever we hear accusations or things said about us or said about another person, first of all, you're very leery whenever you hear an accusation, because the question always comes to my mind is why would you be telling me something about a person who's not present? So in most cases, I say, did you tell Barbara about this? Since you're talking about Barbara to me, how would Barbara be my business? Well, you're the pastor and I felt you should know. Okay. Well, why don't you obey what the Bible says that if you have ought against your sister or brother, go to them. Don't go to another party because Barbara is not here to defend herself. How would Barbara defend herself? And now I want to give you a word. I know this is all from the book of acts, but it opens up a great subject. Doesn't it? Jesus said in the day of judgment, everybody's words will be revealed and you will be justified by your words, or you will be condemned by your word. Just think of that. Every word we speak is being recorded. I grew up around all kinds of people who were spiritual, but their mouth was full of poison and they spoke in tongues and talk about the Holy ghost and all of that. And then they would tear people apart. That religion, according to the Bible is totally in vain, totally in vain for us. I speak with the tongue of men and angels and have faith to move mountains and understand all mysteries and have not love. I am a zero. James talks about it in his epistle that if anybody says they're religious, but can't bridle their tongue, their religion is in vain. Don't even go to church. Don't even open your Bible. What's the sense. Now, when it comes to accusations, I want to close with one other teaching about accusations. There's one person who specializes in accusations and his name is Satan. Look up at the Bible. Revelation chapter 10, 12 verse 10. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, now God's salvation has come. Now God has shown his power as King. Now his Messiah has shown his authority for the one who stood before our God and accused believers day and night has been thrown out of heaven. What did the devil do day and night? Who do you accuse? He accused all of us to who took God. So now brothers and sisters, listen to this. Whenever you've hear accusations against yourself and you are a Christian, you got to remember that what Carol said is true. We overcome by the blood of the lamb. That's Satan accusing you. That's his business. He specializes in that. He's always accusing us to God, us to ourselves, us to other people. He causes division that way. He's accusing. So he gives us this thought. They don't like you. They're not listening to you. They think they're better. That's spiritual warfare 101. This is his whole, this is his whole gig. His gig is to accuse. You want to go to church? And he suggests after the mess up you did this week, the way you talk to your wife, you're going to go to church. You got to get a few good days and acting like Jesus before you get to church, because then he'll know you'll never go to church. Accusing, accusing, accusing. You step out in God. You try to do something new for God. You start a Bible Christian club in your high school and you do it and you don't do it as well as you can. The devil comes to accuse. You're a mess up. You didn't do that, right? You go into the ministry like I did. You preach sermons that were so bad, people were converting to other religions under my sermons. And you go home discouraged. And the devil comes. You'll never do this. You'll never do this. Accusing, accusing. You're not worthy to preach. Accusing, accusing. And you know who he impersonates? The Holy Spirit. He didn't tell you it's the devil. He impersonated, he's God. This is God dealing with you. It's no God dealing with you. It's the devil dealing with you. Because God isn't an accuser. Jesus didn't come to condemn the world. He came that the world might be saved. He convicts us, but quickly shows us his love. So if you're here today and that's how just now God's helped you, hasn't he? I hope through his word help all of us. Accusations, accusations, accusations. The accuser of the brethren. And imagine the chutzpah he has to accuse us to God, who's our father. Imagine that. And he accuses us to ourselves. And he accuses me to Karen. And Karen gets this negative thought in her mind about me. Where did it come from? The Holy Spirit? No. Love? No. The Bible? No. Where'd that negative thought about me come that's presented in Karen's mind? It's the devil. It's the devil. One other thought that would sober all of us. When you and I accuse other people, whether to their face or behind their back, you're in sync with Satan. Think of that. It'd make you not want to talk for about 30 days, right? Come on. Do I get a witness here? When we're accusing and condemning and judging, and because we know and we have insight, guess who's cheering us on? That's right. Not Jesus. The devil. We're on his turf. This is why people who judge and condemn and slander are so open to Satan's attacks. They're perpetually weak. They can't grow very much because they're inviting Satan at the same time they're inviting God. So let your speech be gentle and kind and loving. And we're all guilty of it. That's why it's so quiet. Am I right or wrong? We're all being guilty of it, right? Because worse than that, we were talking about this last night with my sister-in-law, Jackie, who's here with her husband, Lou. Really love them. Carol and I and my, Carol's niece, we were talking about this. Some people call that spirituality. Now there's a trip. They're acting like the devil and they're claiming they're spiritual because they can see what's wrong in everybody. You talk about ultimate spiritual deception. That's the ultimate. If you want to see someone who has a lot of mistakes, either look at me or go to a mirror. How many have so many mistakes in your own life that you really have no time? I just heard something so good. Listen, someone said, when we get upset and we want to vent, we say to people, I'm going to give you a piece of my mind. And this person said, most of us don't have enough mind to be given pieces away. We want to hold on to what we have. That's good, isn't it? You didn't think that was funny? I thought it was funny. Anyway, I'm going to give them a piece of my mind. I don't want to give anybody a piece of my mind. I don't have enough mind to go around. How many can say that in your life, one of the overriding characteristics of God, one of the traits he has shown so much is mercy and patience with you? Lift your hand. Let me see your hand up high. Mercy and patience. This is why the angels must be scratching their head. They're not surprised that the Sanhedrin and Tertullus and Caiaphas are accusing Paul. The angels understand that. But how people who have been forgiven and redeemed would want to bring accusations against anybody? If someone's hurt you today, go to them and work it out. But don't be accusing them left and right. Go to that person. If I hurt you, come to me. Better not be a long line here at the end of this service. No, but go to the person and say, listen, you hurt me. You might have not meant it, but you hurt me. Then the person can say, I'm sorry. But to go behind their back and talk trash, not good. Satan, the accuser of the brethren, but praise God, they overcame him by the blood of the lamb. So look, when Satan accuses you, don't argue. Don't say you didn't do it. Don't say you're misinterpreting. Don't talk to him. Just say, the blood of Jesus is against you, Satan. Christ died for my sins. Everything you say might be true, but what does it matter? It's been washed away into the sea of forgetfulness. God not only has forgiven us, he's forgotten we ever did it. Right sitting where you are, join hands with the person sitting next to you. Let me just say a prayer before we close. Lord, so much has happened in this service. Keep us in your presence. Keep us filled with love and keep our mouths shut and help us to lift up one another, not tear down. Help us to encourage because while you were here on earth and you were with your disciples and they were just bumbling, fumbling, bragging, so deceived in so many ways, you didn't scream at them. You bore long with them. The reason I'm here today, truth be told, is you are extremely great in mercy and patience. And I think I'm not the only one who's here because of that. I think all of us here. Keep us in your presence now, sweet, kind. And now may the love of God and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with God's people all day today. Control our thoughts, guard our words, let all our speech be seasoned with salt so we can bless those that hear us. We pray this all in Jesus' name and everyone said. Everyone stand up and hug about four or five people. Come on, ladies with ladies, men with men. Let's start hugging. Say something good. Choir members, say something good to each other.